opposing

MILWAUKEE — First things first: The fans in an outdoor stadium in Philadelphia are louder than the fans in an indoor stadium in Milwaukee. No contest.

They are respectful and truly nice here. They booed Shohei Ohtani, but half-heartedly, almost out of obligation. In Philadelphia, they booed Ohtani relentlessly, and with hostility.

Here’s the thing, though: It didn’t matter, because the Dodgers have silenced the enemy crowd wherever they go this October. The Dodgers are undefeated on the road in this postseason: 2-0 in Philadelphia, and now 2-0 in Milwaukee.

The Dodgers have deployed four silencers. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani.

“It’s amazing,” Tyler Glasnow said. “It’s like a show every time you’re out there.”

The Dodgers won the World Series last year with home runs and bullpen games and New York Yankees foibles, but not with starting pitching. In 16 games last October, the Dodgers had more bullpen games (four) than quality starts (two), and the starters posted a 5.25 earned-run average.

In eight games this October, the Dodgers have seven quality starts, and not coincidentally they are 7-1. The starters have posted a 1.54 ERA, the lowest of any team in National League history to play at least eight postseason games.

“Our starting pitching this entire postseason has been incredible,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. “We knew it would be a strength, but this is beyond what we could have reasonably expected.

“There are a lot of different ways to win in the postseason, but this is certainly a better-quality-of-life way to do it.”

The elders of the sport say that momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. In a sport in which most teams struggle to identify even one ace, the Dodgers boast four.

In the past three games — the clincher against the Phillies and the two here against the Brewers — the Dodgers have not even trailed for a full inning.

In the division series clincher, the Phillies scored one run in the top of an inning, but the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning.

On Monday, the Brewers never led. On Tuesday, the Brewers had a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first, but the Dodgers scored twice in the top of the second.

On Monday, as Blake Snell spun eight shutout innings, the Brewers went 0 for 1 with men in scoring position — and that at-bat was the last out of the game. On Tuesday, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a complete game, the Brewers did not get a runner into scoring position.

That is momentum. That is also how you shut up an opposing crowd: limit the momentum for their team.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers against the Brewers in the fifth inning Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I do think, with what we’ve done in Philly and in coming here, it doesn’t seem like there is much momentum,” Glasnow said.

Of the four aces, Glasnow and Ohtani were not available to pitch last fall as they rehabilitated injuries, and Snell was pitching for the San Francisco Giants.

In the 2021 NLCS, the Dodgers started Walker Buehler twice and Julio Urías, Max Scherzer and openers Joe Kelly and Corey Knebel once each. Scherzer could not make his second scheduled start because of injury.

Said infielder-outfielder Kiké Hernández: “We’ve had some really good starting pitchers in the past, but at some point we’ve hit a roadblock through the postseason. To be this consistent for seven, eight games now, it’s been pretty impressive. In a way, it’s made things a little easier on the lineup.”

In the wild-card round, the Dodgers scored 18 runs in two games against the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, they have 20 runs in six games.

“We said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “And so far, it’s been exactly that.”

The starters started their roll in the final weeks of the regular season — their ERA is 1.49 over the past 30 games — not that Hernández much cared about that now.

“Regular season doesn’t matter,” he said. “We can win 300 games in the regular season.

“If we don’t win the World Series, it doesn’t matter.”

The Dodgers are two wins from a return trip to the World Series. If they can get those two wins within the next three games, they won’t have to return to Milwaukee, the land of the great sausage race, and of the polka dancers atop the dugout.

There may not be another game here this season. They are kind and spirited fans, even if they are not nearly as loud as the Philly Phanatics.

“That,” Glasnow said, “is the loudest place I’ve ever been.”

Aug. 16 (UPI) — Police in Britain have arrested a man from Liverpool who is accused of shouting racist comments at a player during a Premier League soccer game this week.

The 47-year-old man was identified and removed from stands at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool after yelling racist chants at visiting Bournemouth player Antoine Semenyo, police confirmed in a media release.

Semenyo, who is Black, first reported the incident to the game’s referee who then notified officials.

The game was briefly paused in the 29th minute while the fan was removed.

The game – a 4-2 Liverpool victory – was the first of the season for both teams.

“Merseyside Police will not tolerate hate crime of any form.We take incidents like this very seriously, and in cases like this we will be proactively seeking football banning orders, with the club, against those responsible,” Chief Inspector Kev Chatterton said in the police statement.

“There is no place for racism and it is vital that anyone who witnesses such an offence reports it to stewards, or the police immediately, so we can take the necessary action like we did this evening.”

The Premier League said it would also launch its own investigation.

“Liverpool Football Club is aware of an allegation of racist abuse made during our Premier League game against Bournemouth. We condemn racism and discrimination in all forms, it has no place in society, or football,” the home team said in a statement issued through police.

Semenyo on Saturday addressed the issue on social media.

“Last night at Anfield will stay with me forever – not because of one person’s words, but because of how the entire football family stood together,” Semenyo, who is from Chelsea but represents Ghana internationally, wrote on Instagram.

“To my Bournemouth team-mates who supported me in that moment, to the Liverpool players and fans who showed their true character, to the Premier League officials who handled it professionally – thank you. Football showed its best side when it mattered most.”

WASHINGTON — Two-term Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Sunday that he will not seek reelection next year, an abrupt announcement that came one day after he staked out his opposition to President Trump’s tax and spending package because of its reductions to healthcare programs.

His decision creates a political opportunity for Democrats seeking to bolster their numbers in the 2026 midterm elections, creating a wide-open Senate race in a state that has long been a contested battleground. It could also make Tillis a wild card in a party where few lawmakers are willing to risk Trump’s retribution by opposing his agenda or actions. Trump had already been threatening him with a primary challenge.

“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said in a lengthy statement Sunday.

Tillis, who would have been up for a third term in 2026, said he was proud of his career in public service but acknowledged the difficult political environment for those who buck their party and go it alone.

“I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability,” Tillis said in a statement.

Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate.

Trump, in social media posts, had berated Tillis for being one of two Republican senators who voted Saturday night against advancing the massive bill.

The Republican president accused Tillis of seeking publicity with his “no” vote and threatened to campaign against him next year. Trump also accused Tillis of doing nothing to help his constituents after last year’s devastating floods.

“Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER,” Trump wrote.

The North Carolina Republican Party chairman, Jason Simmons, said the party wishes Tillis well and “will hold this seat for Republicans in 2026.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, did not mention Tillis in a statement but said the party’s winning streak in North Carolina will continue. Scott noted that Trump won the state three times.

Democrats expressed confidence about their prospects.

Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, who announced his candidacy for the Senate seat in April, said he was ready for any Republican challenger.

“I’ve flipped a tough seat before and we’re going to do it again,” Nickel said in a statement.

Some said Tillis’ decision is another sign of the dramatic transformation of the Republican Party under Trump, with few lawmakers critical of the president or his agenda remaining in office.

It “proves there is no space within the Republican Party to dissent over taking healthcare away from 11.8 million people,” said Lauren French, spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber’s Democratic members.

Tillis rose to prominence in North Carolina when, as a second-term state House member, he quit his IBM consultant job and led the GOP’s recruitment and fundraising efforts in the chamber for the 2010 elections. Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 140 years.

Tillis was later elected as state House speaker and helped enact conservative policies on taxes, gun rights, regulations and abortion while serving in the role for four years. He also helped push a state constitutional referendum to ban same-sex marriage, which was approved by voters in 2012 but was ultimately struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

In 2014, Tillis helped flip control of the U.S. Senate to the GOP after narrowly defeating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. During his more than a decade in office, he championed issues such as mental health and substance abuse recovery, Medicaid expansion and support for veterans.

As a more moderate Republican, Tillis became known for his willingness to work across the aisle on some issues. That got him into trouble with his party at times, notably in 2023 when North Carolina Republicans voted to censure him over several matters, including his challenges to certain immigration policies and his gun policy record.

“Sometimes those bipartisan initiatives got me into trouble with my own party,” Tillis said in his statement Sunday, “but I wouldn’t have changed a single one.”

Swenson writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

Assemblyman Jack Scott lost a son when a host accidentally shot him in the head during a dinner party. Ken LaCorte lost a sister when a robber shot her and her boyfriend.

Senseless tragedies by any measure, but what sets Scott and LaCorte apart are the roles the killings have played in each man’s life.

For Scott the Democrat, the 1993 slaying of his son Adam, a 27-year-old attorney, has transformed him into one of the Legislature’s most ardent gun-control 0advocates. For LaCorte the Republican, the murder of his sister Cathy in 1973 and his fight to keep her killer behind bars has led him to campaign publicly to abolish parole and probation for violent offenders.

Each impassioned by tragedy, Scott and LaCorte are now vying for the 44th Assembly District seat, which stretches from the northeast San Fernando Valley to La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena.

A key Republican strategist said his party is in the process of evaluating whether to target the race, noting that results from recent GOP polls show it shaping up to be more competitive than predicted.

“It’s Jack Scott 35% and Ken LaCorte 27%, which for a perceived popular incumbent is nowhere near where it should be,” the strategist said. “I don’t think this is going to be a cakewalk for Jack Scott.”

Scott said his own polls show him leading by 21 points. Scott said he is confident that if the Republicans decide to dump money into LaCorte’s campaign, the Democrats will be there to help him out as well.

“You can count on me to run hard until election day,” Scott said. “I always run hard. I don’t let up.”

Though traditionally a Republican seat, the 44th Assembly District was claimed by Democrats when Scott wrested it away in 1996 from incumbent Bill Hoge. Recent voter records show that Democrats outnumber Republicans 45% to 39%.

As a result, Dick Rosengarten, publisher of the political newsletter Calpeek, predicts Scott will win the seat, not only because Democrats have an edge, but because of the prominent role Scott has played in the fight to impose stricter controls on guns.

“The Republicans are going to have to wait for Scott to get termed out,” Rosengarten said. “The one caveat is if Democrats don’t turn out on election day.”

Republicans are hoping the presidential scandal will keep Democratic voters home.

Getting Republican voters out in the area is also important for freshman Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a key player in the impeachment debate, who is waging a tough campaign for reelection.

“It benefits the Republicans to get involved in one of the Assembly races out there,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant and publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book. “They need a strong Assembly race to get out the Republican vote. To not get involved could hurt Jim Rogan.”

LaCorte and Scott are running on platforms that differ on education reform, guns and abortion. Scott is an abortion rights advocate, while LaCorte opposes abortion except in cases of incest, rape or threat to the life of the mother.

Scott was disappointed by Gov. Pete Wilson’s decision last month to veto legislation aimed at strengthening California’s ban on military-style assault weapons.

LaCorte, who says he favors outlawing all forms of automatic weapons, said he believed the legislation went too far and supported Wilson’s veto. LaCorte said he supports reasonable restrictions on guns and a crackdown on felons with handguns. He is a member of the National Rifle Assn., which has taken out newspaper ads against Scott.

“I keep a firearm to protect my children . . . locked in a steel box under my bed,” LaCorte said. “A lot of legislation is aimed at people like me.”

Scott has sponsored legislation aimed at tightening security at plants that manufacture the inexpensive Saturday night specials, many of which are concentrated in Southern California.

“More people die from gunfire in California than automobile crashes,” Scott said. “We can’t eliminate [gun-related deaths], but we can reduce them.”

Besides contrasting stands on key issues, the two men also possess distinct personal styles. LaCorte is a 33-year-old father of two young sons; Scott is a 65-year-old grandfather of eight.

A former Pasadena City College president, Scott has gained a reputation in the Legislature for being lucid, organized and having a flair for oratory colored by his Southern accent. In his first term, Scott pushed through 25 pieces of legislation, including increasing highway patrols in the Sunland/Tujunga area and upgrading the Altadena sheriff’s substation.

As chair of the committee that handles education funding, Scott is quick to point out his support for measures to reduce class sizes and lengthen the school year. He also sponsored a bill making it easier to fire community college teachers by changing the standard for dismissal from “incompetence” to “unsatisfactory performance.”

If reelected, Scott, who has raised slightly more than $317,000, said he will continue to push for school funding and to devise ways to hold low-performing schools accountable.

LaCorte has proposed that report cards be issued on individual schools, covering classroom sizes, teachers’ pay, standard test scores and how much money is spent in classrooms. If elected, he said he will work to reduce taxes on small businesses and expand to nonsexual offenders Megan’s Law, which allows police to alert neighbors to molesters in their midst.

A medical supply dealer who has previously worked for a political consulting firm, LaCorte has raised nearly $126,000 and lists the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Assn. and Susan Carpenter McMillan, a television commentator and spokeswoman for the Woman’s Coalition, as endorsements.

LaCorte made headlines earlier this year for posting the names of dozens of Los Angeles County’s most dangerous sex offenders, a list he culled from the Megan’s Law CD-ROM and posted on the Internet. Last month he also began distributing a booklet listing the names of hundreds of registered sex offenders in the San Gabriel Valley and parts of the northeast San Fernando Valley.

LaCorte, who has described Scott as an extreme liberal, alleged in a campaign brochure that his opponent’s voting record has been soft on crime and anti-business. Scott brushes such charges aside.

“If he’s trying to paint me as soft on crime, he’s going to have a hard time doing it,” said Scott, who has received endorsements from every major law enforcement agency in the state.

United States President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles to quell protests that have erupted against the arrests of 44 people on Friday for violating immigration laws.

Trump on Monday also doubled the strength of National Guard forces that his administration has deployed in the country’s second largest city to 4,000 soldiers.

His administration has justified the deployments by arguing, in part, that local authorities were failing to ensure the safety of law enforcement officials and federal property.

But the deployment of the Marines – coming on the back of the move to send the National Guard to Los Angeles – has sparked criticism, not just from Trump’s political opponents like California Governor Gavin Newsom but also from the Los Angeles police.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has said the deployment of Marines will make its job harder. Here’s what the dispute is about, and why the LAPD argues that the deployment of military forces could complicate its work:

What are the US Marines?

The Marines are a branch of the US armed forces and are a component of the Navy. The Marine Corps was first established in 1775.

Its soldiers are trained for land and sea operations and have a particular focus on amphibious warfare, which refers to attacks launched from ships onto shore.

US citizens or legal residents who have a high school diploma and are aged 17 to 28 are eligible to enlist for the Marines. They have to undergo an initial strength test to be recruited. Recruits undergo about 13 weeks of initial training to become a part of the Marine Corps. Once a year, each Marine undergoes a battle-readiness test with a focus on physical readiness and stamina.

There are 172,577 active duty Marine personnel in the US as well as 33,036 reserve personnel as of 2023, the latest data released by the US Department of Defense.

What is the Marine deployment?

The US military’s Northern Command released a statement on Monday saying it had activated a Marine infantry battalion in Los Angeles that was on alert over the weekend. About 700 Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines and 1st Marine Division will “seamlessly integrate” with National Guard troops deployed in the city, it said.

Initially, the LAPD was involved in quelling civil unrest due to the protests, starting on Friday. On Saturday, Trump deployed about 2,000 National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles County, defying objections by Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

After the Marine deployment announcement, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said an “additional” 2,000 National Guard soldiers would also be mobilised in addition to the 2,000 who had been sent to the city over the weekend.

What did the LAPD say about the Marine deployment?

On Monday, Police Chief Jim McDonnell released a statement saying the LAPD had not received a formal notification that the Marines would be coming to LA.

“The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles absent clear coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” he said.

McDonnell added that the LAPD and its partners “have decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively”.

The LAPD boss urged open and continuous communication between all law enforcement agencies involved to avoid confusion and escalation.

What does the LAPD mean by this?

History indicates that a lack of communication, coupled with differences in approach based on different agencies’ training, can inflame already tense situations that law enforcement officials confront.

While the US routinely sends its Marines on overseas missions, it is rare for the US president to deploy Marines to quell a domestic crisis.

The last time this happened was in 1992 in Los Angeles during protests against the acquittal of four policemen who had been filmed beating Rodney King, a Black man. Six days of riots broke out, and 2,000 National Guard soldiers and 1,500 Marines were deployed in the city. The riots in 1992 resulted in the deaths of 63 people and widespread looting, assaults and arson, unlike the ongoing protests, which have been largely peaceful.

On one occasion in 1992, LAPD officers and Marines were called to respond to a domestic disturbance at a local home.

When they arrived, a shotgun was fired out the front door. A police officer yelled, “Cover me,” which to the police means to prepare to shoot if necessary but to hold one’s fire. For Marines trained for combat, “cover me” means to use firepower. The Marines shot more than 200 bullets instantly as a response to the officer. Three children were inside the home at the time. While no one was killed, federal soldiers were withdrawn from Los Angeles shortly after this.

While the deployment of US Marines to Los Angeles in 1992 was carried out in coordination with state and local authorities, they are now being sent against the wishes of the state government, Bass and the LAPD.

That compounds the risks that could follow, experts said.

“If the administration escalates to active duty troops, especially without coordination with state leaders, it would amount to a militarization of civilian protest, not a restoration of order,” attorney Robert Patillo said in a written statement to Al Jazeera. “That move could violate the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters and would likely inflame tensions on the ground, not resolve them.” 

The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and assembly.

Is the Marine deployment necessary?

Reports from LA suggest that the National Guard troops who have been activated are barely being used in the city, raising questions about whether the deployment of Marines or additional National Guard soldiers is really necessary.

Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from LA, said Monday’s protests organised by unions in the city centre were peaceful.

“[The National Guard] didn’t engage with the protesters. They didn’t do much of anything other than stand there in their military uniforms,” Reynolds said.

On his personal X account, Newsom posted that the initial 2,000 National Guard soldiers were not given food or water. Of them, only 300 were deployed while the rest were sitting in federal buildings without orders, he said. Al Jazeera could not independently verify this.

I was just informed Trump is deploying another 2,000 Guard troops to L.A.

The first 2,000? Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed — the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders.

This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous…

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025

In another post, Newsom wrote that “the Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying [the Marines] onto American streets.”

U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country — defending democracy. They are not political pawns.

The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.

It’s a blatant abuse of power.…

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025

On Monday, Newsom announced that he had filed a lawsuit against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “to end the illegal takeover” of the National Guard. Trump’s federalisation of the National Guard on Saturday marked the first time in 60 years that a US president has activated the guard in defiance of a state governor’s wishes.

“For Trump to deploy regular armed forces, such as the marines, would require him to clear another legal hurdle. He would have to invoke the Insurrection Act, which is very rare and would escalate the situation to a constitutional crisis,” Gregory Magarian, professor of law at Washington University’s School of Law in St Louis, Missouri, told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

So far, it is unclear whether Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy the Marines. To activate the National Guard, he did not invoke the Insurrection Act but a similar federal law, Title 10 of the United States Code.

“While the Insurrection Act technically gives the president the authority to deploy active-duty military forces under extreme conditions, we are nowhere near the legal threshold that would justify sending in the marines,” Patillo said.

What is the Trump administration saying?

Hegseth wrote in an X post that Marines had been deployed “due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings”.

“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth wrote.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post on Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been leading the immigration arrests, will “continue to enforce the law” despite the protests.

What is the latest update on the LA immigration protests?

Over the weekend, the LAPD arrested 50 protesters: 29 on Saturday and 21 on Sunday.

Local news outlets have reported protests against the arrests have also begun in at least nine other US cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Washington played men’s Sunday League football before joining a women’s team in 2017, external. She was one of 28 trans women registered to play amateur football in England.

She told BBC Sport: “It is a shock.

“This means for me personally, and for many people playing football, that we are no longer able to do this stuff that we were able to do last week and that we’ve been able to do for decades.

“I stopped playing in the men’s game 10-12 years ago, I didn’t feel it was a safe place to transition and I feel like i’m not really able to compete in that anymore.

“The effect that hormones have had means when I do play an occasional five-a-side kickabout with men, I don’t feel like I can compete with men my sort of age and with similar physical characteristics.

“The reality is there are not enough transgender people in society for us to run our own sports, run our own spaces – there just aren’t the numbers to make that viable.

“This is a lot of attention on a very small number of people who aren’t causing a problem, and are just going about their lives.

“It is a de facto ban for transgender women from football more generally, realistically, particularly people who have been playing in women’s football for decades.

“It’s going to be very mentally challenging and actually potentially physically dangerous for those people to go back and play in the men’s game – if they ever even did play in the men’s game.

“So really this is pushing those people out of football altogether.”

BBC Sport has seen a letter sent by the FA to transgender players facing an immediate ban.

As well as the offer of “free, fully confidential online talking therapy” the FA said it hopes to have mixed gender football available from the 2026-27 season and even suggested players move into other areas of the game.