The promoter said: “Tyson Fury is a big tease, every day I open up Instagram like today and he’s got his wraps on saying he’s done 12 rounds.
“He looks super fit, Tyson Fury, he looks like he’s ready to go now! Which is encouraging, but obviously probably the delay that AJ’s got is a blessing, to be honest with you.
“One, you’ve got Usyk against Dubois coming up so that gives you a little bit of time.
“And number two, you’ve got Tyson Fury who could potentially come back to the ring so it’s gonna be interesting to see what plays out.”
Turki Alalshikh’s introduction to boxing and his deep Saudi pockets have helped bridge the gap between Hearn and long-time rival Frank Warren.
Hearn admitted: “I’d be lying if I said we haven’t discussed it socially, because obviously everyone’s desperate to make it happen.
“But, no one said, ‘Oh, I think it’s coming, I think he’s coming back.’ But at the same time, he’s training.
Tyson Fury is a big tease, every day I open up Instagram like today and he’s got his wraps on saying he’s done 12 rounds. He looks super fit, Tyson Fury, he looks like he’s ready to go now! Which is encouraging
Eddie Hearn
“And I feel like with Tyson Fury over the years, you’ve seen him not training and balloon out of shape and then it takes him a long time to come back.
“Now it looks like he’s either ready to fight or he’s ready to begin camp, which is hugely encouraging. But I just don’t think he’ll be able to leave it alone, if I’m honest with you.
“Because, the money’s one thing, but just the occasion and the challenge, and he’s a competitor, he’s a winner. And I just can’t believe he’s gonna let it slide.”
Hearn is adamant AJ will fight before the year ends – with or without Fury.
He warned: “Next couple of months, if there’s no movement, we fight.
“I mean there’s no way AJ’s not fighting this year. So who that will be? I can’t tell you.
“I mean, that’s the million dollar question at all times, but I think more importantly is, do we get any news from Fury in the next four, six, eight weeks?
“If we do, we’ll fight him this year. If not, we’ll fight and then maybe he comes back next year, who knows?
“But I’d be lying if I said we weren’t desperate to see him return. But, at the same time we can’t just wait around and see what happens.”
4
Hearn teased talks with Frank Warren for AJ to fight FuryCredit: Reuters
Pretoria says the visit is to ‘reset’ ties with Washington, after the US welcomed dozens of white Afrikaners as refugees.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet United States President Donald Trump at the White House next week in an attempt to “reset” ties between the two countries, Pretoria has said.
The reported visit comes after the US welcomed dozens of white Afrikaners as refugees this week, following widely discredited allegations made by Trump that “genocide” is being committed against white farmers in the majority-Black country.
“President Ramaphosa will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest,” South Africa’s presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The president’s visit to the US provides a platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries,” it added, saying the trip will take place from Monday to Thursday and the two leaders will meet on Wednesday.
The White House had no immediate comment on the meeting, which would be Trump’s first with the leader of an African nation since he returned to office in January.
Relations between Pretoria and Washington have soured significantly since Trump returned to the White House.
Trump has criticised Ramaphosa’s government on multiple fronts. In February, he issued an executive order cutting all US funding to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land reform policy and its genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against US ally Israel.
‘Wrong end of the stick’
Trump’s order also offered to take in and resettle people from the minority Afrikaner community, whom he alleges are being persecuted and killed because of their race – claims that have been disproven by experts and South Africa’s government.
Afrikaners are descendants of mainly Dutch colonisers who led the apartheid regime for nearly five decades.
Pretoria maintains there is no evidence of persecution of white people in the country and Ramaphosa has said the US government “has got the wrong end of the stick”, as South Africa suffers overall with the problem of violent crime, regardless of race.
The US’s criticism also appears to focus on South Africa’s affirmative action laws that advance opportunities for the majority-Black population, who were oppressed and disenfranchised under apartheid.
A new land expropriation law gives the government power to take land in the public interest without compensation in exceptional circumstances. Although Pretoria says the law is not a confiscation tool and refers to unused land that can be redistributed for the public good, some Afrikaner groups say it could allow their land to be redistributed to some of the country’s Black majority.
According to data, white people, who make up about 7 percent of South Africa’s population, own more than 70 percent of the land and occupy most top management positions in the country.
Ramaphosa has spoken repeatedly of his desire to engage with Trump diplomatically and improve the relationship between the two countries.
The US is South Africa’s second-largest bilateral trading partner after China.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives returns to screens for a second season this week, taking viewers right back into the world of #MomTok
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The scandalous Secret Lives of Mormon Wives returns in 10 new episodes this week
One of last year’s most viral reality series is back this week as The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives returns for a brand-new season. The hit reality series plunges viewers into the world of #MomTok, following a group of mum influencers in Utah’s Mormon community.
During season one, their ‘scandalous’ world imploded when they were caught in the midst of a sex scandal that made international headlines. The eight-part series broke viewership records when it premiered in September, becoming the most-watched unscripted season premiere on Disney+ in its first four days on the platform.
Now it’s back for season two with 10 new episodes available to stream exclusively on Disney+ on Thursday, May 15. The series follows the lives of influencers Taylor Frankie Paul, Demi Engemann, Jen Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Taylor, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Matthews and Whitney Leavitt.
A lot’s happened since we last saw the group, with Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley and Jen Affleck all announcing their pregnancies. Elsewhere, Taylor took to social media to confirm she is no longer dating Dakota. Season two will see new cast member Miranda McWhorter re-joining the group.
Disney+ now costs as little as £4.99 a month, but members can get 12 months for the price of 10 by paying for a year upfront on the ad-free Standard or Premium plans.
Disney+ is the only place to stream hit shows like Rivals, The Bear and Shōgun, plus blockbuster franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.
The official synopsis reads: “The scandalous world of Mormon #MomTok is back and bigger than ever. When an original swinger from their infamous sex scandal makes a surprise return, friendships threaten to unravel as secrets, lies, and allegations explode.
“In a battle for the soul of #MomTok, will betrayal shatter the sisterhood, or will the truth set them free?”
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives centres around a group of influencers in Utah
Following the success of season one, Disney+ confirmed The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives will return for 20 new episodes, suggesting a third season is already in the works. The latest instalment follows the return of Molly-Mae: Behind it All, the Love Island star’s hit docuseries that returned to Prime Videoearlier this month.
Disney+ dropped the final trailer for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives in April, with fans flooding the comments in anticipation. One fan said: “I’m so ready for this wild new season.” Another said: “Finally, I just watched the entire first season and it was fire. I’m so excited for the new season.”
A third said: “I need this yesterday. ”Not everyone will be tuning in though, as other YouTube comments said ‘Why do people watch this’ and ‘None of the stuff seen in the show is real’. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season two will be available exclusively on Disney+ from May 15.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani and her fiance, Alireza Doroudi, had just spent an evening celebrating the Persian new year at the University of Alabama when seven armed immigration officers came to their apartment before dawn and arrested Doroudi.
In a moment, the young couple’s life was upended.
“I was living a normal life until that night. After that nothing is just normal,” Bajgani said.
Details about Doroudi’s detention spread through the small Iranian community in Tuscaloosa, where Bajgani and Doroudi are doctoral students. Other Iranian students say they have been informally advised by faculty to “lay low” and “be invisible” — instilling fear among a once vibrant cohort.
Doroudi is among students across the U.S. who have been detained in recent weeks as part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Bajgani said the couple does not know why Doroudi — who has no criminal record or public political views — faces deportation, adding that Trump’s recent visit to the school made her feel like the university was “ignorant of our crisis.”
One Iranian civil engineering student and close friend to Doroudi said he has lost more than 10 pounds due to stress and depression in the six weeks since Doroudi was detained.
“It’s like all of us are waiting for our turn. It could be every knock, every email could be deportation,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about losing his legal status.
He now avoids unnecessary trips outside. When he was in a car crash last month, he begged the other driver not to call the police, even though he wasn’t at fault, because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.
‘I stayed with their permission’
Bajgani said Doroudi, 32, is an ambitious mechanical engineering student from Shiraz, Iran.
He entered the United States legally in January 2023 on a student visa. Bajgani said he often worked 60-hour weeks while still making time to run errands for loved ones.
“If someone like him doesn’t get to the place he deserves, there is nothing called the American dream,” she said.
Doroudi’s visa was revoked in June 2023, but the embassy didn’t provide a reason and ignored his inquiries, Bajgani said. The university told him he could stay as long as he remained a student but that he would not be allowed to reenter the U.S. if he left, she said.
He was operating under that guidance when immigration officers came to the couple’s door in March.
The University of Alabama didn’t comment on Doroudi’s case, but said it offers resources to help immigrants on campus comply with federal law. It also offers guidance to students whose visas are revoked.
“Our international students are valued members of our campus community,” university spokesperson Monica Watts said in a statement.
Doroudi told Bajgani he spent three days in a county jail, sleeping on a tile floor and feeling panicked.
He is now in a Louisiana immigration detention facility more than 300 miles from Tuscaloosa while he awaits a deportation hearing scheduled for next week. At least one other high-profile international student is there.
“I didn’t deserve this. If they had just sent me a letter asking me to appear in court, I would’ve come, because I didn’t do anything illegal. I stayed with their permission,” Doroudi said in a letter he dictated to Bajgani over the phone to provide his perspective to others. “What was the reason for throwing me in jail?”
Trump’s immigration crackdown
More than 1,000 international students across the U.S. have had their visas or legal status revoked since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials. They included some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has since reversed those revocations, including those of four University of Alabama students.
“University staff closely monitors changes that could affect them and has communicated updates related to new protocols and procedures,” Watts said.
A Louisiana judge who denied Doroudi bond in mid-April said he didn’t sufficiently prove that he wasn’t a national security threat, Doroudi’s lawyer, David Rozas said. Rozas said he was “flabbergasted” because the government hasn’t presented evidence that Doroudi is a threat, though that is what the Department of Homeland Security has alleged.
A familiar sense of fear
International students make up more than 13% of the statewide University of Alabama graduate program, according to the school’s website. More than 100 Iranian students attend the university, according to an estimate from the Iranian Student Assn.
Every year, many gather for a picnic to celebrate Sizdah Bedar, the 13th day of the Persian new year, which begins with spring.
This year, the typically festive holiday “felt like a funeral service,” one Iranian doctoral student said. At one point, silence fell over the group as a police car passed.
“It’s becoming too hard to be living here, to be yourself and thrive,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she fears retaliation.
She has criticized the Iranian regime since arriving in the United States more than five years ago, so she suspects she is no longer safe in her home country. Now, she has those same doubts in Alabama.
“All of a sudden it feels like we’re returning back to Iran again,” she said.
I was unreasonably elated to discover that the Pasadena Playhouse is test-driving a program that offers Saturday childcare during the May 24 matinee of “A Dolls House, Part 2,” starring Jason Butler Harner and Elizabeth Reaser.
The program is open to kids 5 to 12 and offers theater-based activities inspired by the play and led by Playhouse teaching artists. The cost is $20 per child — far less than what a parent would pay for a sitter for the afternoon — and the group fun takes place on site while parents watch the show.
Here’s hoping more theaters develop similar programs. For so many parents, childcare is the No. 1 barrier to attending live shows and cultural events. A good sitter will set you back $15 to $25 per hour, plus tip. Add the cost of tickets, parking and even a modest dinner out, and a night on the town easily soars past $300.
Pasadena Playhouse is suited to hold such a program since it already runs youth theater classes and has a wonderful group of artists who regularly teach children. (Full disclosure: My daughter attends these classes.) But I can imagine a world in which other theaters, classical music groups and dance troupes begin offering similar programs. They would pay dividends in ticket sales and patron loyalty. There is no more grateful a human than a parent given a much-needed break.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt. I came for the childcare and stayed for the show. Here’s this week’s roundup of arts news.
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‘Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me’
(Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Times)
With opening-weekend crowds behind us, now is an excellent time to experience Jeffrey Gibson’s show at the Broad museum, which Times contributor David Pagel noted in his recent profile has the Gibson artworks that wowed visitors at the 2024 Venice Biennale: “a giant, stylized bird, festooned with thousands of glistening beads; a laser-sharp painting, composed of up to 290 supersaturated colors; an array of lavishly patterned flags, from places no one has ever visited; or an evocative phrase, lifted from a novel, a pop song, a poem or a document, such as the U.S. Constitution.” Note that the museum, usually free, is staging this as a special exhibition with admission of $15.
Through Sept. 28, closed Mondays. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org
‘Cooley High’
Writer Susan King started a 2019 L.A. Times article with this great lede:
Robert Townsend, the acclaimed director of such films as 1987’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and 1991’s “The Five Heartbeats,” got his start in the biz as a teenager with a one-line role in the 1975 African American teen dramedy “Cooley High.”
“The movie changed my life,” recalled Townsend in a recent interview. “I remember after I made the movie and it finally premiered in the theater in downtown Chicago, I started to cry. It was like this is my life. … [Director] Michael Schultz really changed the landscape of cinema for people of color. He was the first one to paint with that brush of truly being human. We had never seen a movie where there was a young Black man talking about that he wanted to be a writer.”
On Monday, you’ll have the chance to see “Cooley High” on the big screen. The event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood includes a Q&A with Schultz and actors Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, moderated by Townsend.
The nonprofit Printed Matter returns with the eighth installment of its fair, which has drawn tens of thousands of fans with booths selling limited-edition prints, handcrafted artist books and obscure titles by small presses. (For a visual sampler, check out Carolina A. Miranda’s amusing photo tour from years ago.) The celebration, formerly held at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary, this year moves to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Although the location is different, much of the programming will be the same, including live music performances and the discussion series “The Classroom.”
6-9 p.m. Thursday, 1-7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday (first two hours Sunday is a mask-required period). ArtCenter South Campus, 870 and 950 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. laabf2025.printedmatterartbookfairs.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Remnants of the old Japanese American fishing village on Terminal Island that may be demolished to make way for Port of Los Angeles expansion projects.
(Al Seib / For The Times)
America’s most endangered historic places
The only two surviving buildings from Terminal Island’s days as a thriving Japanese American fishing village in the early 1900s have been placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2025 list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. The buildings are in danger of being razed by the Port of Los Angeles, and the hope is that the visibility afforded by the list will help preservation efforts. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Terminal Island was the first place from which Japanese Americans were uprooted and sent to government camps such as Manzanar in the Owens Valley.
NEA grants canceled
The Trumpadministration is attempting to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts in its latest budget proposal, and the NEA recently sent a wave of letters to arts organizations across the country canceling grants. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, South Coast Repertory, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Industry and L.A. Theatre Works are just some of SoCal nonprofits that got the bad news last week. The loss of this longstanding funding has left many organizations scrambling.
Participatory theater
Features columnist Todd Martens participated in the fourth Immersive Invitational, an interactive theater experience that gives participating companies 48 hours to create a 10-minute production and perform it multiple times on the event’s final day. “With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action,” writes Martens of the fast-paced and joyful proceedings.
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Terracotta tiles in Jackie Castillo’s installation evoke the used building materials tossed from a roof, their value and history destined for a dumpster.
(Jeff McLane / ICA LA)
The latest show at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is from an artist who has long been compelled by the visible and invisible labor of immigrant communities. Times contributor Tara Anne Dalbow notes how Castillo’s work draws attention to the workers responsible for building construction, maintenance and repair. “Beneath the facade of every home, school, business and community center lie layers of material meaning and memory that bear forth records of the minds and hands that envisioned and assembled them,” Dalbow writes.
Wednesdays-Sundays through Aug. 31. ICA LA, 1717 E. 7th St., L.A. theicala.org
South Coast Rep’s upcoming season
South Coast Repertory announced a 2025-26 season lineup that includes Edward Albee‘s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and Yasmina’s Reza‘s “God of Carnage,” running from late January to March in rotating repertory.
The season opens this September with the jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. That’s followed by the Lloyd Suh play “The Heart Sellers,” about the chance connection between two immigrant women, one Filipino and one Korean, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. Also on the schedule: SCR’s “A Christmas Carol” tradition, carried on for the 45th year; the Karen Zacarias musical “Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale,” part of the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families programming; two world premieres opening in April, “Fremont Ave.” by Reggie D. White and a second title to be announced later; and “Hershey Felder, Beethoven,” in June 2026, and the one-night-only “Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along,” on June 14, 2026. More details and production dates are at scr.org.
A few more news bits
Los Angeles Youth Orchestrais holding auditions for new members on Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 4963 Balboa Blvd., Encino. Applicants must have had at least two years of private instruction on their instrument. LAYO has more than 100 student musicians from more 50 schools in the region.
The National Children’s Chorus under Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer has partnered with Compton Unified School District in establishing scholarship-funded vocal training classes at Compton High School. The classes, which began this semester, take place three times per week and include ensemble singing, vocal technique, music theory, sight-singing and performance practice.
Leave it to Baltimore to stage the absurdly funKinetic SculptureRace, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum. This year’s 25th anniversary event featured a massive pink dog sculpture, “Fifi,” that was part of a group of wild creations to be pushed, biked and otherwise maneuvered on a 15-mile long race track.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
The president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago is taking time off while the museum investigates a news report that he began stripping off his clothes on a flight from Chicago to Munich after drinking alcohol and taking prescription meds.
The worst thing “Saturday Night Live” could have done on an episode featuring rising character actor Walton Goggins, who was hosting for the first time, was play it safe.
Though many new fans may know him from his recent turn on Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” Goggins has spent a career playing misfits, weirdos and southern charmers including on shows like “Justified” and “The Righteous Gemstones,” which recently wrapped its fourth and final season.
Smartly, this week’s “SNL” was calibrated to both sides of Goggins; he’s an excellent dramatic actor even when he’s doing comedy, and he’s good at playing ridiculous characters such as Uncle Baby Billy on “Gemstones.”
Goggins was consistently funny and solid throughout, even if he stumbled on a few lines early in the show. His commitment to the bits was strong and it was a good appearance overall; he’ll likely be back. And maybe he’ll bring his “White Lotus” co-star Sam Rockwell with him again — he appeared briefly in the tiny feet video.
Speaking of oddball energy, musical guests Arcade Fire performed “Pink Elephant” and “Year of the Snake.” On the latter, lead singer Win Butler tried unsuccessfully to smash his guitar, then held it up for the audience to see the words “The Machine is Broken” on it. He broke a guitar on “SNL” back in 2007.
In this week’s cold open, it looked like the show would continue its tradition of Mother’s Day openings featuring cast members’ real moms. But that conceit was punctured quickly with yet another monologue by James Austin Johnson as Trump. This week’s riff touched on Pope Leo from Chicago (“Like Da Bears, but Da Prayers”) and Christianity in general. Trump praised the Popemobile as his favorite mobile next to Weiner and Bat, but revealed his disdain for holy water. “Why’s that stuff burn so bad when it hits your skin?” he asked. The cold open took off when Cecily Strong showed up as Pirro, armed with a wine holder she called a “Cozy for my Merlotzy.” Pirro was pleased to join an administration full of “Russian assets, booze hounds and people famous for the little baby animals they’ve killed.” Colin Jost appeared as embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who kept getting red wine spit on him by Pirro. Before the third time, he handed her a pint of his preferred liquor and opened his mouth to get some of the alcohol he says he doesn’t drink.
Some “SNL” hosts use the monologue to show off their singing skills. Goggins used it to address what it’s like to be a sex symbol at 53 (“It feels fantastic!”) but pointed to unflattering headlines that have accompanied all the attention, including Cosmopolitan’s, “Are We All Horny for Walton Goggins’s Receding Hairline?” Goggins shifted gears to talk about being raised by a single mom, aunts and a grandmother in Atlanta. He invited his mom, who was in the audience, up on stage to dance with him. When a slow Al Green tune turned into a more fast-paced and impressive dance number , it became a moment of pure joy.
Best sketch of the night: Be careful asking about the ‘bottomless’ mimosas
The Goggins gift for playing characters who are both sleazy and incredibly alluring was on full display in this Mother’s Day sketch about a brunch that gets very, very dirty. Sherman and Heidi Gardner are moms dining out with their sons (Mikey Day and Andrew Dismukes). Goggins, with many shirt buttons undone, is a libidinous waiter who takes his flirting with the mothers to extremes. “Just cuz your momma baked you don’t mean other men don’t wanna see the oven,” he says as he admonishes the sons when they protest his behavior. Goggins has a lot of fun in this one and delivers some very funny lines.
Also good: This trip to the zoo even has a Sam Rockwell cameo
For those who are suckers for clever and original songs, it’s been fun this season to watch new cast member Jane Wickline make her mark, mostly in “Weekend Update” appearances. This time, she takes the spotlight in a music video about a tiny baby shoe found in the Central Park Zoo. It turns out the shoe belongs not to a cute baby, but to a full-grown man with little feet (Goggins). The song takes a turn when the man insists they date. Wickline’s not having it. That’s when Rockwell appears as himself to mansplain the Cinderella conceit and to make balloon animals. Oh, and he’s got tiny feet as well. It’s a strange sketch, but the song is good and Wickline continues demonstrating that she brings something unique to the show.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Hate spiders? You will relate
This week’s “Update” featured three guests: Marcello Hernández, who brought back his Movie Guy character to discuss “Sinners” and other movies he hasn’t seen; Gardner played a woman visiting New York who only knows what’s she’s read on Facebook about the city; and Mikey Day was a guy who just walked into a spiderweb but is there to talk about tariffs. Of the three, Day’s was perhaps the most impressive since these kinds of “Update” appearance are usually wordy monologues. Instead, Day got on his feet, began freaking out as he took off his shirt and fell over multiple times. It was a committed and funny piece of physical comedy, especially for the arachnophobic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for “direct talks” with Ukraine, saying they should “start without delay, as early as 15 May”.
“We seek serious talks… to remove the root causes of the conflict and start moving towards a lasting, strong peace”, he said on Saturday, in a rare televised late-night address from the Kremlin.
It comes hours after European leaders – including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron – visited Ukraine and urged Russia to agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said Moscow would “have to think this through” – but warned that “trying to pressure us is quite useless”.
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Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass laid out an ambitious and expensive goal for her first city budget: restore the size of the Los Angeles Police Department to 9,500 officers.
At the time, the LAPD was struggling with recruitment, and Bass — just four months into her job — openly worried the department would soon fall below 9,000.
Now, the mayor’s hiring goal looks even more out of reach. With the city battered by a budget crisis and homicides falling by double digits, some are wondering: just how low can, or should, LAPD staffing go?
On Thursday, the City Council’s budget committee provided a short-term answer, moving forward with a plan to cut the LAPD by another 300 officers — not through layoffs, but simply by slowing down recruitment. Such a move would leave the department with 8,400 officers by June 2026, down from about 8,700 this year and 10,000 five years ago.
The slowdown, if approved by the City Council later this month, would free up $9.5 million, helping the city save some of the civilian workers at the LAPD whose jobs are among the 1,600 targeted for elimination in the mayor’s proposed budget.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Faced with a nearly $1-billion shortfall and several years of financial turmoil ahead, the five-member committee obtained an analysis from the city’s policy experts showing how much could be saved if the LAPD ramps down hiring even more, and for a longer period of time.
The answer? $385 million over five years, if the LAPD cuts the mayor’s police hiring plan for 2025-26 by 75%. Under that scenario, the department would bring on just 120 recruits per year — far fewer than the number who resign or retire — leaving slightly more than 6,600 police officers by 2030.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, an outspoken opponent of police spending who sits on the budget committee, requested the analysis. She was one of three council members who voted against Bass’ budget last year, arguing that too much money went to the LAPD and not enough to departments that provide other critical city services.
The four-page analysis handed Hernandez and her allies, who have long called on the city to shift funds away from police, a road map for driving down police spending over the long term.
Hernandez, in an interview, called the committee’s decision to cut police hiring in half over the coming year — taking Bass’ proposal for 480 recruits down to 240 — a good start. She sounded intrigued by the numbers laid out in the analysis, saying it “lays out a very clear pathway” for future budget deliberations.
“This budget crisis is not going to be solved in one budget cycle,” said Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside. “So I’m hoping we take this into consideration as we try to move this city out of this crisis.”
Others were more critical of the committee’s deliberations.
Sylvia Robledo, a former City Council aide who plans to run against Hernandez next year, warned that scaling back police hiring would increase attrition, result in officer burnout and force the LAPD to spend even more on overtime.
Real estate developer Rick Caruso, now mulling a second run for mayor, also blasted the committee’s approach, calling it “just more of the mismanagement we’ve come to expect from this City Hall.”
“Whether it’s a disastrous budget that will cut services while raising costs on working families, a downgraded bond rating, or fewer cops, Los Angeles is on the wrong track, and this budget will only make it worse,” Caruso, who called in 2022 for the LAPD to have 11,000 officers, said in a statement.
Bass spokesperson Clara Karger said in an email that her boss “has not abandoned her goal to grow the Los Angeles Police Department.” Karger argued that progress is still being made, with the LAPD receiving a record number of applicants and a larger number of officers staying in their jobs.
“Now, with new leadership in the Personnel Department and LAPD, we will eliminate barriers preventing applicants from becoming officers,” she said.
Karger would not say whether Bass would veto a budget that cuts the number of LAPD recruits in half, noting that the council is still “in the middle of the process” of reviewing the spending plan for 2025-26.
In recent years, a majority of council members have been willing to give Bass the money she needs to preserve sworn hiring at the LAPD, even as its ranks continued to shrink. But that equation changed once Bass proposed layoffs for more than 400 civilians working at the Police Department.
Budget committee members coalesced around the idea of slowing down police hiring on the condition that it save the jobs of some of the 133 specialists who carry out critical tasks at the LAPD, such as handling DNA rape kits or conducting fingerprinting analysis.
The committee didn’t bite on another Hernandez idea: halting the acquisition of new police helicopters. Hernandez, who pushed unsuccessfully for that idea last year, will almost certainly raise it again in coming weeks.
“I’m going to keep doing my best to try to move forward with fiscally responsible suggestions and decisions,” she said.
State of play
— CUTTING BACK: The council’s budget committee didn’t just go after police hiring. During its marathon 11-hour meeting on Thursday, the panel also took steps to zap Bass’ proposal for creating a new 67-person homelessness unit within the Los Angeles Fire Department and endorsed a reduction of up to $10 million for Inside Safe, the mayor’s initiative to move homeless Angelenos into interim and permanent housing. The committee is set to finalize its recommendations next week.
— OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Bass went to the 10th Select LA investment summit this week to offer foreign investors a clear message: L.A. remains very much open for business. “At a time of global uncertainty, Los Angeles stands out as a reliable, stable partner for international business and trade,” she said during her welcome remarks, while also releasing her office’s investors guide to L.A.
— WAGE WORRIES: Meanwhile, a coalition of business groups has been pleading with city leaders to delay passage of an ordinance requiring hotel owners and businesses at Los Angeles International Airport to pay a $30 per hour minimum wage, plus $8.35 per hour for healthcare. Those groups say the proposal will deal a potentially fatal blow to L.A.’s tourism industry. “L.A. has destroyed housing production. Now they’re coming for tourism,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.
— SO LONG, NATE: Former L.A. City Councilmember Nate Holden, who served in the state Legislature and later spent 16 years on the council, died this week at 95. “He was a lion in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council,” said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.
— SOIL SAMPLES: New soil testing by the L.A. County Department of Public Health has found high levels of lead and other toxic metals at homes destroyed by January’s catastrophic wildfires and cleared by federal cleanup crews.
— MORE FIRE FALLOUT? Bass joined L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Annenberg Foundation Executive Director Cinny Kennard and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel for a wildfire recovery panel moderated by Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
The mayor was bullish on the city’s recovery and defended the performance of DWP head Janisse Quiñones. But she also hinted that more city officials might lose their jobs over the fires.
“I think that there are a number of people that should be held accountable, and we’re in the process of doing that,” she said, without providing specifics. Bass ousted her previous fire chief, Kristin Crowley, in February.
— JEERING FROM THE SIDELINES: One figure was notably absent from the Milken stage: Caruso, the former mayoral candidate and frequent Bass antagonist. Caruso, who recently published an op-ed criticizing the mayor’s leadership, was slated to participate in the recovery panel but dropped out after Bass joined the lineup.
“I’m not going to be part of a campaign stop,” he told a reporter shortly after the panel, while holding court in the bustling Beverly Hilton lobby bar. Caruso has been flirting with the idea of another mayoral run but said he won’t “focus on a decision until the end of summer.”
— SHOW YOUR RECEIPTS: Three top officers of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 were suspended from their posts Monday after an investigation by the union’s parent organization found $800,000 in credit card purchases that were not properly documented. The International Assn. of Fire Fighters, which oversees UFLAC, suspended President Freddy Escobar and the others over financial improprieties, including “serious problems” with missing receipts. Escobar, who is now locked out of UFLAC’s office, said Friday that he has paperwork that would clear his name.
— BAD FOR BARNSDALL: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, located in East Hollywood’s Barnsdall Art Park, could close to the public if the mayor’s budget is approved. The reductions also threaten the site’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
— HIRING A CHIEF: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the hiring of a new police chief: Bill Scott, an LAPD veteran who most recently was chief of the San Francisco Police Department. Scott will be responsible for building Metro’s new police force, a concept approved by the board last year.
— D IS FOR DORMANT: Speaking of transportation, the Metro D line, also known as the Purple Line, will soon be closed for 70 days as construction continues on a $3.7-billion extension of the subway west to La Cienega Boulevard. The extension is scheduled to open by the end of 2025.
— TRANSITIONS: Former Board of Public Works president Vahid Khorsand has moved across the 3rd floor to the mayor’s office, taking a new job last week as deputy mayor of community engagement. Steve Kang, a former member of the Central Area Planning Commission, is taking over as public works president. Khorsand, a super fan of The Killers, managed to work in lyrics from the band into his all-staff goodbye email and his final board remarks.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to two parts of Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s Westside district: Wilshire Boulevard at San Diego Way and Robertson Boulevard at Burton Way. Inside Safe workers also went to Warner Center in Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s west San Fernando Valley district and made return visits to Chinatown and South L.A., per the mayor’s team.
On the docket for next week: The City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the plan for hiking the minimum wage of hotel workers and employees of private companies doing business at Los Angeles International Airport.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
On a scorching Friday afternoon at L.A. Valley College, Loyola and Harvard-Westlake High tennis players gathered for a moment of silence wearing T-shirts that read “Live Like Braun,” in honor of Loyola captain Braun Levi, who was killed last weekend in Manhattan Beach while walking on a street.
Loyola and Harvard-Westlake tennis players and coach Brian Held honor the memory of Braun Levi, killed last weekend in a tragic accident, before playoff match on Friday. pic.twitter.com/Ggc7yMmDRF
Loyola players decided after much reflection and mourning to play Friday’s Southern Section Open Division playoff match against Harvard-Westlake.
“We want to play for Braun,” coach Brian Held said.
A moment of silence was held. Levi’s mother, Jennifer, was there receiving hugs and support.
All week at Loyola, students have been supporting each other trying to heal. A celebration of Levi’s life will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at Loyola.
In an email, Sylvia Almanzan, the grandmother of a Loyola student, wrote, “The Loyola faculty has been amazing during this time of providing counselors and support not only to the students but families as well. I just wanted to state how this remarkable young man touched so many lives especially my grandson’s in such a positive way.”
Levi’s doubles partner, Cooper Schwartz, was originally not going to play on Friday as a way to not tarnish his memory winning the Mission League title with Levi. He changed his mind and played with a new partner. They won their matches 7-5, 7-6 and 6-4 and on match points, Schwartz used Levi’s racket.
Harvard-Westlake won the match 14-4 to advance.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Here’s Looking at You’s Lien Ta talks about the death of chef Jonathan Whitener, chef Jonathan Gil talks about running a restaurant with Stage IV cancer, and the chef trying to get as many Angelenos as possible to try Sri Lankan food. Also, our nominees for the James Beard Media Awards. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.
‘Too pretty to be a chef’?
“Top Chef” host Kristen Kish.
(Stephanie Diani / Bravo)
Nearly every female chef I’ve met hates to talk about being a female chef. Just, chef, please.
It’s a stance that Dominique Crenn asserted when she won the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ award for “world’s best female chef” in 2016. “She famously called it ‘stupid,’” Heather Plattwrote last year in this paper of Crenn’s feelings about her award. “‘A chef is a chef.’”
Even with the stories of yelling, groping and much worse behavior emerging since the #MeToo reckoning, the knowledge that the stresses of the industry also take a toll on men has conditioned some of us to believe that while women may not have an easy time in the business, they can still advance in the industry if they are tough enough.
Here in Los Angeles, after all, it’s not hard to name female chefs who lead their own restaurants, including Socalo‘s Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, n/naka‘s Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama, A.O.C.‘s Suzanne Goin, Mozza‘s Nancy Silverton, Playa Provision‘s Brooke Williamson, Jar‘s Suzanne Tract, Kismet‘s Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson, Highly Likely‘s Kat Turner and many, many more than the handful of veterans who were making their way to the top during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
Indeed, some of the war stories we’ve frequently heard about women in restaurant kitchens have a quaint quality. In 1983, Ruth Reichlwrote a feature story for California magazine that began with the story of Milliken’s first attempt (ultimately successful) to work at Chicago’s Le Perroquet. “Jovan Trboyevic, the owner, said he would never hire a pretty girl like me — it would cause chaos in the kitchen,” Milliken told Reichl. “He offered me a job as a hat check girl instead.”
By the time current “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish was establishing herself in Chicago and Boston restaurants, “hat check girl” was a job associated with black-and-white movies, not actual restaurant work.
So I took notice when Kish, in her new memoir “Accidentally On Purpose,” devoted the better part of a chapter to the disrespect she received in a male-dominated kitchen after she won Season 10 of “Top Chef” in 2013. It was so bad that less than a year after attaining what she’d thought of as her dream job — chef de cuisine at a fine-dining destination restaurant, Boston’s now-closed Menton — she quit.
We’re talking about a chef who proved to be the epitome of calm and unflappability in the midst of reality TV drama during her season as a “Top Chef” contestant and the ultimate team player when she declined to blame a fellow contestant for the dish that led to Kish being eliminated from the competition. (Kish worked her way back into the game she ultimately won thanks to her cooking on “Last Chance Kitchen.”) She’s also rappelled down a waterfall to harvest watercress in Panama for the National Geographic series “Restaurants at the End of the World.”
The irony is that Menton, Boston’s first Relais & Châteaux restaurant, was a woman-owned restaurant. It was one of several businesses overseen by the hospitality company founded by Barbara Lynch, who was forced to close all of her restaurants last year because of a number of factors, including the fallout from a 2023 investigation of workplace abuse by New York Times reporter Julia Moskin.
In her book, Kish does not question any of the accounts of employees who shared their stories with Moskin and others in the press about their boss (the incidents detailed appear to have happened after Kish left the company in 2014). Still, she views Lynch as a supportive mentor who gave her credit for dishes she created and was the one to suggest her as a contestant to “Top Chef’s” producers. Instead, Kish blames her issues in Menton’s kitchen on the ungenerous attitudes of her male colleagues (while emphasizing that she has “worked with many wonderful men over the years”) and on a corporate decision to give her the top job at Menton without the power to make menu changes and subjecting her to a “training period.”
“Barbara, along with the company’s director of operations and its wine director — both of whom were women — were pulling for me to have the job” after “Top Chef,” she wrote in the book. “But there were also two men in the upper echelon of the organization who were not in agreement and didn’t buy that I was ready for it.”
The experience was the opposite of what Kish had experienced at another of Lynch’s restaurants, the 10-seat Stir, where the menu changed nightly with the seasons and the chefs cooked as they talked and joked with customers across the counter — great training for her “Top Chef” run.
Yet at Menton, without the full support of the company, “the team, mostly men,” Kish writes, felt free to be “recalcitrant at best and more often perniciously undermining. … Sometimes I was disregarded or ignored. … Later, on my rare days off or when I was traveling … they were changing dishes without my knowledge. … It was a sort of psychological warfare for which I wasn’t prepared. Not a single cell in my body wanted to engage in this kind of … conflict.”
Among the untrue rumors she heard about herself was that the only reason she had the Menton job was because she was having an affair with Lynch.
“I don’t know if one of the male chefs from the company would have walked back into something like that,” Kish told me onstage when I interviewed her and “Top Chef” head judge Tom Colicchio at last month’s L.A. Times Festival of Books. “They probably would have been praised and celebrated. There were people who wanted my position and my job. And I don’t think [many] at the top echelon of the restaurant actually thought I was going to do well.”
Then there was the time she and Lynch went to a gathering in London for Relais & Châteaux restaurants and encountered a male chef who bluntly told Kish, “You’re too pretty to be a chef.”
Suddenly, the gulf between Kish and Milliken decades earlier wasn’t so vast.
Kish writes that Lynch instantly scolded the male chef for his insult: “She told him in no uncertain terms to get … out of there and leave us alone. And while I felt protected, it also made me sad. It was very clear that this was something Barbara had probably been dealing with her whole career. There was almost a rote reaction that many women in many fields would likely recognize — one they needed to cultivate in order to survive and succeed. Always playing defense, working harder, stirring up responses to pull out when some entitled overbearing dude shows up, seeming to think he matters more.”
Of course, Kish’s story has a happy ending. Leaving Menton could have ended her career as a chef since she was getting so many offers to appear on television (“Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend,” “Fast Foodies” and “Restaurants at the End of the World”), something she is very good at. But she now oversees the restaurant Arlo Grey by Kristen Kish in Austin, while balancing life with her wife, Bianca Dusic, and hosting duties on Bravo’s “Top Chef.”
I’ll have more to share from my conversation with Kish and Colicchio in next week’s newsletter. Meanwhile, here’s what else has been happening …
‘His food lifted my soul’
Lien Ta, left, and the late chef Jonathan Whitener in 2022 outside Here’s Looking at You, the Koreatown restaurant they founded in 2016.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
During a wide-ranging interview with Food’s Stephanie Breijo, restaurateur Lien Ta, the founder of Here’s Looking at You, shared how mentally exhausting the restaurant business can be after revealing this week that she is closing her Koreatown restaurant on June 13. Of course, the slow pandemic recovery and erratic business after the recent fires factored into her decision, but it was the sudden death last year of her co-founder, the chef Jonathan Whitener, that weighed most on Ta.
“Eating his food,” Ta told Breijo, “lifted my soul. … The truth is that I created this restaurant with Jonathan, and he’s eternally my collaborator. The remaining team are all in agreement that we want this to remain Jonathan’s restaurant. We are missing our leader. Signing on for another five-year lease doesn’t make sense when your leader is gone.”
Ta also talked about the “horrible dread” she felt at times “wondering if anyone was going to book a reservation or come in at all, and who we were going to cut [from service].”
“I was definitely buried in a lot of grief,” she added. “Sometimes I wasn’t really sure what to focus on this last year, to be honest … a lot of restaurant owners are sort of programmed to always find solutions, to get through the day or the week or whatever your metric is. I’ve been doing that for a long time.”
‘I’m Mexican. I don’t know how to give up’
Chef Joshua Gil, pictured in 2023, recently opened Three Flames in Westchester and is known for his pioneering pop-up Supper Liberation Front and several Los Angeles restaurants, including now-closed Tacos Punta Cabras and Miramé.
(Jenn Laskey / Courtesy Joshua Gil)
Breijo also had an intense conversation with chefJoshua Gil, who has Stage IV cancer and is in a contract dispute with his his former Mírame and Mírate business partner, but still recently was able to transform a strip-mall Mongolian barbecue restaurant into a Baja-style seafood spot called Three Flames with “tacos, burgers, loaded fries and some of the city’s most creative new tostadas and specials” while keeping the Mongolian barbecue.
“I’m a very stubborn a—,” Gil told Breijo. “I like telling people, ‘I’m Mexican. I don’t know how to give up.’”
One concession to his illness is that he is leaning hard on Anthony Rodriguez, who worked with Gil at Mírame and Mírate.
“These days he sees Rodriguez as the chef,” Breijo wrote, “and himself as a cook who sometimes creates recipes.”
“I’ve been sitting with our identities: who we are, our images of who we are,” Gil said. “I haven’t donned the [chef’s] whites in a long time, and yet I’m still referred to as ‘chef.’ We never lose that. It doesn’t matter how away from the kitchen you are. You’re constantly being called ‘chef’ by those that know you as such, and it’s [hard] holding on to that livelihood, that lifestyle.”
James Beard recognition
Karla Vasquez in the L.A. Times test kitchen.
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
Nominations for the James Beard Media Awards,covering books, broadcast media and journalism, were announced on Wednesday. Among the many excellent cookbooks and broadcast, video and audio shows nominated is “The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes and the Women Who Preserve Them” by L.A.’s Karla Tatiana Vasquez. As former Food reporter Cindy Carcamowrote in her profile of Vasquez last year, “SalviSoul” is “the first-ever Salvadoran cookbook to appear on a Big Five imprint.” Food editor Daniel Hernandez talked with Vasquez after news of the nomination came out for our Cooking newsletter, which will publish tomorrow. (Subscribe for free here.)
We also received the happy news that three of our own Food journalists are nominated for Beard awards.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on June 14.
Also …
An array of dishes at Kurrypinch, including coconut roti, kola kanda risotto, coconut chickpea curry, lamprais, chicken biriyani and pan-seared salmon with curry pumpkin puree plus mango lassi.
(Yasara Gunawardena / For The Times)
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Less than a week ago, President Trump called for 100% tariffs on movies made outside the U.S., a move meant to bring productions home that most people in the industry believe would have devastating consequences for the entertainment business.
Then industry trade publication Deadline published the “Make Hollywood Great” proposal from actor Jon Voight, one of Trump’s so-called Hollywood ambassadors, that he recently presented to the president.
It has all led to confusion and disagreement from those in the industry about how to make the most of the current spotlight on a crucial issue — maintaining production and jobs in the U.S. — but in a way that will actually benefit the entertainment business.
“Any financial help we can give to filmmakers is going to keep filmmakers at home,” said George Huang, professor of screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. “Ideally, legislators will try to be creative and try to support what I think is one of our most highly sought-after industries here in the United States.”
On Friday, the Motion Picture Assn. trade group convened a meeting with movie studio chiefs to discuss how to respond to the Trump administration’s plan and how to advocate for measures they think would actually help boost domestic filming.
As other Hollywood unions and organization put out statements about the federal issues, the MPA was conspicuously silent publicly.
Representatives from the MPA and the studios declined to comment Friday.
The MPA — the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization for the major studios — has historically faced a difficult task getting its members to agree to anything, and that has only increased since the group expanded to include streaming services Netflix and Amazon, according to people familiar with the organization. The companies all have different priorities and, in some cases, completely different business models.
Some studio executives are hoping Voight’s list of ideas to rebuild Hollywood becomes a rough blueprint for a more realistic alternative to tariffs.
Studio chiefs say it’s often too expensive to make movies and TV shows in the U.S., even with the generous incentives offered by various states. Movies are a low-margin business, and shooting abroad can offset production costs by as much as 30%.
On Wednesday, studio executives from Sony, HBO and Amazon discussed the issue at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. They highlighted the limits of incentives — even if the U.S. offered tax credits, sometimes projects have to be shot overseas because of the story.
“We’re going overseas because we have a show set in London,” said “The Diplomat” creator Debora Cahn. “We want castles and palaces, and we don’t have enough of them here.”
What’s clear is that most of Hollywood — as well as current and former civic leaders — do not favor the use of tariffs to bring production back to the U.S.
“It’s going to kill us,” former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told The Times. “That’s not going to help us. It’s going to hurt us.”
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), too, was skeptical of Trump’s tariff announcement.
“This is the absolute worst way to go about supporting an industry so critical to not just L.A. and the state but the country,” she said. “Filmed entertainment is one of the best products we are able to produce.”
It’s why Voight’s plan is being looked at with interest.
The centerpiece is a “new federal American Production incentive,” which would allow a 20% tax credit — or an added 10% on top of a state’s film incentive.
Projects that qualify would have to meet a minimum threshold American “cultural test,” similar to what Britain requires for film incentives. The incentive would apply to traditional broadcasters and streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and digital platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.
The plan also calls for Section 181 of the federal tax code to be renewed for another five years. It recommends raising the caps on film production to $20 million (or $40 million if the project was shot in a rural area). The proposal recognizes film budgets have increased since 2004.
The group also suggested extending Section 181 to cover movie theater owners for facility improvements and equipment updates to their movie houses.
“Families going to the movies is one of the great American past times that must be preserved,” the draft plan noted.
The plan did raise the specter of tariffs, saying that if a U.S.-based production “could have been produced in the U.S.” but moved to a foreign country to take advantage of a tax incentive, then “a tariff will be placed on that production equal to 120% of the value of the foreign incentive received.”
“This is not meant as a penalty, but a necessary step to ‘level the playing field,’ while not creating a never-ending cycle of chasing the highest incentive,” according to the draft.
After publication, Voight’s manager, Steven Paul, one of the authors, said the document was “crafted solely for the purpose of discussion.”
A group of Hollywood unions and industry trade groups — including the Motion Picture Assn. and guilds representing screenwriters, directors and actors, as well as the Producers United coalition — recently backed the idea of a domestic production incentive.
“We are really advocating right now to make sure that, yes, we bring back American jobs, but we do it in a way that is actually going to provide the lifeblood into this system that will actually sustain it,” said Jonathan Wang, a producer on the Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and a member of Producers United. “So we are asking that we are in the room when these decisions are being made, and that we can provide our voice.”
For Producers United, a federal tax incentive would make the U.S. more competitive with other countries, though the group does not support the “cultural test” suggested in Voight’s plan, which they worry could essentially become a form of censorship.
“It’s important that we work hard to not get put into a position where we finally are tempted with the carrot of an incentive and then faced with censorship,” said Cathy Schulman, a producer on the best picture Oscar winner “Crash” and the Amazon Anne Hathaway drama “The Idea of You,” who is part of the Producers United group. “It’s really important that the two conversations go hand-in-hand that we need this financial support for uncensored art.”
Times staff writers Wendy Lee, Meg James, Ryan Faughnder and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
PAKISTAN says it has launched a military operation against India with 25 missiles strikes.
It is the latest esclation in tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals after a week of clashes on the border and in Kashmir.
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Indian paramilitary soldier patrols along the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar
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Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir, third standing on tank, delivers his speechCredit: AP
Pakistan’s military said it used medium-range Fateh missiles to strike more than 25 military sites.
They claimed to have attacked airbasess and weapons depots in the Indian states of Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan, as well as locations in India-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan dubbed the attack “Operation Bunyan ul Marsoos”.
India military officials called Pakistani’s strikes a “blatant escalation” and said they had come under attack by drones and “other munitions”.
Islamabad blamed New Dehli for “continuous provocation” – with the attack coming after Indian missiles hit targets in late on Tuesday.
India claimed it had been hitting back over the deaths of 26 tourists in a terror attack in Kashmir.
New Dehli blames Islamabad for the attack – and has repeatedly accused Pakistan of being a haven for terrorists.
The US has already called on both sides to step back from the edge of a potentially devastating war.
Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington would help starting “constructive talks in order to avoid future conflicts” .
India strikes Pakistan airbase with ‘ballistic missile’ as nations on brink of war
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
Thesun.co.uk is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.
Freddy Escobar stood on the sidewalk outside his former workplace waving a green thumb drive and a stack of papers that he said would clear his name.
The suspended president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City said he couldn’t get into the office where he’s worked since 2018. He said the union’s parent organization had changed the locks to the building and the gate code to the parking garage.
He rang the doorbell to deliver his evidence, including photos of receipts, to counter allegations that he hadn’t documented many of his credit card purchases. But there was no answer.
“Wow,” he said. As he turned to face news cameras, Escobar closed his eyes for a moment. “An organization that I would have died for is not giving me an opportunity now to present to them what they’ve been looking for.”
The dramatic scene unfolded Friday morning outside the union’s office in Historic Filipinotown, four days after the International Assn. of Fire Fighters suspended Escobar and two other union officers over financial improprieties, including “serious problems” with missing receipts.
The IAFF also placed UFLAC under conservatorship, a first for any of the local firefighter unions overseen by the Washington, D.C.-based organization, a spokesperson said. The unprecedented move followed Times reports about the IAFF’s financial audit as well as massive overtime payments to Escobar and other union officials.
IAFF General President Edward Kelly disclosed the audit’s findings in a letter to UFLAC members Monday.
From July 2018 through November 2024, Escobar initiated 1,957 transactions on his UFLAC credit card, totaling $311,498, the letter said. More than 70% of those transactions — amounting to $230,466 — had no supporting documentation.
“The auditors could not ascertain the purpose of these transactions,” Kelly wrote in the letter. He added that an additional 157 transactions — amounting to $35,397 — were only partially supported by required documentation.
“This means there is no way to determine whether $265,862.34 in dues money spent by President Escobar without documentation was for legitimate union expenditures,” the letter said.
The audit found that two other UFLAC officials — former Secretary Adam Walker and former Treasurer Domingo Albarran Jr. — together had more than $530,000 in credit card transactions with no receipts or partial documentation. Walker did not respond to a request for comment, and Albarran declined to comment.
In all, about $800,000 in credit card purchases were not properly documented, the letter said.
Vice Presidents Chuong Ho and Doug Coates were suspended and accused of breaching their fiduciary duties in “failing to enforce UFLAC policy.” Neither responded to a request for comment.
Escobar arrived at the union office Friday morning to speak to reporters at a press conference he had called to refute the allegations. He said he was unaware he was being audited and was never asked to provide his receipts.
Under UFLAC policy, receipts are required for all credit card expenditures, along with an explanation of the expense, including the names of those present and the business reason for the expenditure.
Escobar said the records he was holding included everything the IAFF said was missing. But he also said he did not tally up the totals and did not know how much money he was accounting for. All the receipts he was providing, he said, had already been uploaded into the union’s expense system.
“Whatever they say I don’t have, I have,” he said.
He said he compiled years of documentation, including more than 1,500 receipts, meeting minutes and explanations for his expenses, which included transactions for gas, food, hotels and Uber rides. He said none were personal expenses.
Asked why he expensed Uber rides when he had a take-home car provided by the union, he said the rides were for members doing union business.
Accounting problems had been flagged earlier by auditors for UFLAC, who in March 2024 highlighted “significant deficiencies” because officers were failing to properly document their expenditures.
Despite that warning, Escobar made 339 transactions in 2024 using his UFLAC credit card — for a total of $71,671 — without submitting a single receipt, Kelly wrote.
Escobar said the auditors never spoke to him.
“What’s a warning? It was an audit that said that we could always do better and that always occurs — we could always do better,” he said.
Asked what could have been improved, since he said he had all his receipts, he replied: “Probably more detail. … Explanations, fine tuning.”
He called on the IAFF “do the right thing” and reinstate him as president. In the meantime, he said he will go back to work as an LAFD captain at a fire station in Boyle Heights.
In a statement Friday, IAFF spokesperson Ryan Heffernan said that since March 2024 and as recently as last month, Escobar was “repeatedly urged — in written communication and face-to-face meetings — to fulfill his fiduciary duties to the members of Local 112 and submit proper documentation for all expenditures.”
“Despite this, the forensic audit, issued in May 2025, confirmed serious deficiencies in Mr. Escobar’s expense reconciliation and record-keeping practices between 2018-2024,” the statement said.
Last month, a Times investigation found that Escobar and other top union officers have for years been padding their paychecks with overtime while also collecting five- to six-figure union stipends.
Escobar made about $540,000 in 2022, the most recent year for which records of both his city and union earnings are available. He more than doubled his base salary of $184,034 with overtime payouts that year, earning more than $424,500 from the city in pay and benefits, payroll data show.
He collected an additional $115,962 stipend from the union, according to its most recent federal tax filing. He reported working 48 hours a week on union and related duties, while records provided by the city for that year show he picked up an average of roughly 30 hours of overtime a week on firefighting shifts — a total of about 78 hours of work each week.
On Friday, he disputed his total earnings, saying “it’s a lot less than that,” though he did not provide evidence.
May 9 (UPI) — A judge on Friday set Erik and Lyle Menendez’s resentencing hearing for next week after an evaluation considering the potential danger of their release showed a “moderate risk” of committing violence.
Jesic is weighing whether they should receive less prison time than life in prison without parole on July 2, 1996. They have already been 35 years behind bars.
Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, could be eligible for parole immediately after being convicted on March 26, 1996, of their parents’ deaths. Jose and Kitty Menendez, were killed on Aug. 20, 1989, and their children were arrested seven months later in 1990. There was mistrial on Jan. 13, 1994, because a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision.
The brothers said they killed their parents in self-defense after Lyle Menendez confronted their father about sexually abusing his younger brother.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman gave the results of “comprehensive risk assessments.”
Psychologists conducted the assessments, which rank inmate risk levels as low, moderate or high.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the assessments earlier this year.
Psychologists found that Lyle minimizes rule-breaking, and displays narcissistic and antisocial characteristics, Hochman said in court. Erik is still vulnerable to the influence of others and is not willing or able to self-monitor, Hochman said.
As part of the assessment, Hochman noted that Erik was found with a smuggled cellphone in January, and Lyle was found with a smuggled device in November. Also according to the assessment, Erik allegedly bought and traded drugs and allegedly helped inmates commit tax fraud.
These violations occurred after Hochman’s predecessor, George Gascon, said they were exceptional inmates and they should get a new sentence. Gascon noted they were furthering their education and programs to help other inmates.
But Hochman, who was elected in November, doesn’t want a new sentencing, saying there are 16 “unacknowledged lies” the brothers have told about the killings. That includes they did it in self-defense.
The judge denied the recommendation for no new trial.
“If someone is willing to risk a rule violation while involved in resentencing, what does that say about conforming to standards of law outside a structured environment?” Hochman told reporters.
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ lawyer, said the cellphone violations do not constitute a “super strike” – a serious felony crime. He said that should not “undercut what is 35 years of remarkable work by both brothers” in prison.
Geragos said he will have seven witnesses, including two experts, at the hearing.
More than 20 family members also want the brothers to be freed.
Gascon recommended last year that the Menendez brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life.
PHOENIX — The skill Michael Conforto has been best at this season is probably the last one he ever hoped to master.
“To be good at dealing with a slump,” the 32-year-old veteran outfielder said, “is not something that you necessarily want.”
Then again, when you’re batting .135 on the season, have a lone single in your last 40 at-bats, and have gone a month with as many as hits as double-play grounders (seven each), there’s little else for Conforto to do right now than grit his teeth, hold up his head and believe that — some day, some how — things will finally turn around.
“This game will kick you down. It will kick you when you’re down. It can be cruel,” Conforto said. “So sometimes, you just have to lean on what you know you are as a player, and all the support you have around you … and keep going straight ahead, keep working.”
Conforto was first kicked down a month ago.
After starting his season with a six-game hitting streak, and batting .308 with six extra-base knocks (including two home runs) over his first eight games, the man manager Dave Roberts deemed as his “pick to click” in the preseason instead started firing blanks.
Beginning April 6, Conforto went on a nine-game strikeout binge, fanning 13 total times in a three-for-27 stretch that erased any confidence he had built with his hot start.
Ever since, the game has kept giving him a stiff boot every time he’s tried to get his numbers back up again.
Conforto recorded three hits over six games in mid-April, only to immediately endure an 0-for-31 stretch (including 15 strikeouts) that ranked as one of the 10 longest hitless streaks in the Dodgers’ history in Los Angeles — a rut that even a few games using a torpedo bat to couldn’t snap him out of.
He rolled a single through the infield last Monday in Miami, looking to the heavens with a sigh of relief after his first hit in 10 games. But it didn’t prove to be a spark. Despite feeling better about the competitiveness of his at-bats and the quality of his contact this week, he entered Friday on another 0-for-nine skid, the cruelty of his season reaching new lows in the Dodgers’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.
In his first at-bat, Conforto hit a changeup on the screws, rocketing a 101 mph fly ball to deep center. The drive traveled 397 feet, the second-farthest he has hit a ball this season. But it found the deepest part of Chase Field’s ocean of an outfield, tracked down by center fielder Alek Thomas just in front of the 407-foot marker in straightaway center. He frustratedly gnawed on a piece of gum as he trotted back to the dugout.
His next time up, Conforto smoked the ball again, clobbering a 110.9 mph line drive that represented his hardest exit velocity of the season. Before he was even out of the batter’s box, however, he watched All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte climb the ladder and rob him with an athletic leaping snag, turning a ball with an expected batting average of .860 into yet another out.
After a leadoff walk in the seventh, Conforto got one more chance in the eighth. The Dodgers had a rally going, scoring twice to trim a five-run deficit to three. When he stepped in, he represented the tying run with runners on the corners and one out.
Though he fell behind 0-and-2, he got a good pitch to hit, finding the barrel on an inside fastball for a 95 mph grounder. But once again, Marte was there, fielding and throwing the ball in one turning motion to start a double-play that ended the inning.
It was three well-struck balls, for three slump-extending outs.
“I’m definitely frustrated,” Conforto said from his locker postgame. “Happy with a couple hard-hit balls today. Frustrated to be in position to keep a rally going and not being able to beat that ball out. It’s frustrating. It makes me sick.”
Conforto’s overall numbers this season have had the same ill-inducing effect.
The Dodgers’ Michael Conforto entered Friday with a .135 batting average, the second-lowest among qualified MLB hitters.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
His .135 batting average entering Friday is the second-lowest among qualified MLB hitters, one point above Washington’s Josh Bell and 35 points worse than anyone else. His .225 slugging percentage is also next-to-last in the big leagues. His .503 OPS and negative-0.6 mark in wins above replacement rank bottom five. His whiff and strikeout rates are well below league-average.
“If I could tell you exactly why these things happen, it would be a lot easier to come out of them,” Conforto said, somewhat unsure himself of how his numbers have remained so bad for so long. “They signed me because I have good zone [discipline] and an ability to get on base and have some power and spray the ball all over the field. It’s more about just being me and not chasing results.”
Perhaps most frustrating is that Conforto has actually felt more like himself lately.
With Thursday’s performance, he has now recorded a hard-hit ball (one with an exit velocity greater than 95 mph) 14 of the last 21 times he has made contact. He has struck out only twice in his last four games, and continues to draw walks at one of the league’s best rates, his 20 free passes trailing only Shohei Ohtani for the Dodgers’ team lead.
Given the $17 million investment the Dodgers made in him this offseason, and a 10-year career track record of productive (albeit injury-plagued and often inconsistent) offense, he hasn’t been demoted to the bench yet.
Internally, the Dodgers remain hopeful he is on the verge of a rebound.
“He’s obviously way better than he’s been,” co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said this week. “He’s a quality hitter. Long history of being really good. I think he’s gonna be just fine.”
Still, until the hits start falling, the mental toll of it all will only continue to mount.
“I think we’re right on the edge of getting things back,” Conforto said. “There’s just been a few of them where, you hit it [well], you look up and there’s somebody there. It just seems to happen more when you’re not going right.”
The biggest compliment Dodgers coaches have paid Conforto recently is how he’s handled this unthinkably bad start.
Van Scoyoc described Conforto, a one-time All-Star with the New York Mets whose career has tailed off since missing all of 2022 with a shoulder injury, as a “pro” who is “ready for every at-bat” and “never throws a fit” about his lack of results.
Roberts said it’s still “easy to bet on him because the head is still there, the work is still there.”
“He’s just got to keep taking good at-bats, and they’ll fall,” Roberts said. “A guy that’s been around for so long, I think he can handle this five weeks of adversity.”
If it goes on much longer, of course, it could lead to more pressing roster questions.
With both Conforto and third baseman Max Muncy struggling, the Dodgers have lacked much consistent left-handed-hitting depth beyond Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. If neither of them can get going over the next couple of months, it might force the club to evaluate other options as the trade deadline nears.
That’s why the coming weeks seem critical to Conforto. He’s finally hitting balls harder again. He has eliminated some of the indecision at the plate that contributed to his 14 looking strikeouts this season, 12th-most in the majors. He feels like a breakthrough is close, even as his numbers remain at all-time lows.
“Putting together better at-bats, hitting the ball hard, I’ve just got to keep going out there, keep focusing on that,” he said. “Hopefully, [I will] find a couple holes and get it rolling.”
If it doesn’t happen soon, however, it’s fair to wonder if it ever will.
It’s all about the magic of puppets in the play “Life of Pi,” which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre — part of the inaugural North American tour after opening on Broadway in 2023 and later winning three Tony Awards. Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling 2001 novel follows a shipwrecked Indian boy who survives at sea in the company of animals including a Bengal tiger.
It’s that tiger, a 450-pound beast named Richard Parker, that captivates the audience alongside an orangutan named Orange Juice plus a hyena and a zebra. The creatures were designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, with movement direction by Caldwell, whose work is among the best in the business. It takes three puppeteers to fully animate the astonishing Richard Parker.
This isn’t a children’s play, mind you, and it’s recommended for ages 10 and older. The story has crushingly tragic elements and contemplates the big mysteries of life and death through a spiritual lens. I thought my 9-year-old daughter could handle the intense moments, and she did sit slack-jawed throughout. The puppets imbued the play with a poetry of motion and an otherworldly sense of wonder. The puppeteers were fully visible as they rendered the taut, muscular menace of the tiger and the kinetic leaping of the orangutan, making the creatures appear to be the stuff of fantasy.
Lead actor Taha Mandviwala, who plays Pi, is equally lithe and surefooted as he leaped across the stage in communion with his animal castmates in choreography that felt very much like dance.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt looking forward to a weekend of being shipwrecked on my couch. Here’s your regular dose of arts news.
Best bets: On our radar this week
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‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’
From one tiger we jump to another: Twelve years before Ang Lee directed the movie adaptation of “Life of Pi,” the filmmaker dazzled audiences with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” With a cast that included Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat, the 2000 movie went on to win four Oscars — and arguably could have won best picture had the academy voting body been as globally diverse then as it is now. The film will screen in 35mm, and filmmaker Ang Lee and actor Zhang Ziyi in conversation with Academy of Motion Pictures President Janet Yang. Advance tickets are already sold out, but standby seats will be available on first-come basis. 7:30 p.m. Friday. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. L.A. www.academymuseum.org
Milka Djordjevich: ‘Bob’
Choreographer and performer Djordjevich says her upcoming Warehouse at the Geffen Contemporary show “eroticizes the labor of the dancing body.” Bob is an alter-ego and, according to the Museum of Contemporary Art’s description of the program, that alter-ego is “on a rampage with and against self-consciousness in order to bask in reverie, delusion, desire and rage. Show no mercy!” Um, OK! 7:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, 4-5 p.m. Saturday. Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo. www.moca.org
Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia
Touted as an exhibition of 180 masterpieces of Buddhist art, this show at LACMA follows Buddhism’s origins in India as it spread across Asia — Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. Paintings, sculptures and ritual artifacts have been culled from the museum’s permanent collection or borrowed from private owners. Sunday-July 12. Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. www.lacma.org
The week ahead: A curated calendar
Friday
Evergreen Review Author Pat Thomas signs his new book, “Evergreen Review Magazine: Dispatches from the Literary Underground: Covers & Essays 1957-1973,” and discusses the counterculture magazine with writer Jessica Hundley and illustrator Jess Rotter. 7 p.m. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. booksoup.com
The Homecoming Frédérique Michel directs this production of Harold Pinter’s classic enigmatic domestic drama. 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday, through June 15. City Garage 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica citygarage.org
Max Richter The innovative composer performs work from his albums “The Blue Notebooks” (2004) and “In A Landscape” (2024) with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. 8 p.m. Friday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Venice Family Clinic Art Walk + Auction The annual fundraiser showcases the work of established, mid-career and emerging artists, with a spotlight on this year’s joint Signature Artists, Lita and Isabelle Albuquerque. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. through May 18. Venice Art Walk Gallery, 910 Abbot Kinney Blvd. venicefamilyclinic.org
Saturday
Just Like Heaven The millennial indie compendium gets a long-awaited Rilo Kiley reunion and sets from Vampire Weekend, Bloc Party and TV on the Radio. Noon. Brookside at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena. justlikeheavenfest.com
Wicked Elphaba and Galinda’s adventures in Oz get the outdoor treatment with food trucks, live music and more, plus a Q&A with choreographer Christopher Scott before the screening. 8 p.m. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. streetfoodcinema.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Michael Tilson Thomas
(Brigitte Lacombe / L.A. Phil)
Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who has performed for years after a brain cancer diagnosis, made his last public appearance at a San Francisco Symphony gala and a tribute to him. Times classical music critic Mark Swed attended the festive affair, noting, “For six decades, beginning with his undergraduate years at USC — where he attracted the attention of Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky and the odd rock ‘n’ roll musician about town — Tilson Thomas has been a joy-making key figure in American music.”
Times art critic Christopher Knight dives into the photographic history of child labor as seen through the lens of sociologist Lewis W. Hine, who photographed kids at work during the first decades of the 20th century. These striking and unsettling images played a key role in galvanizing Americans to push for comprehensive child labor laws. “Legislatures in 16 states, Florida prominent among them, have been deliberating rolling back child labor laws. In some cases, major steps have already been taken to loosen restrictions on work by kids as young as 14. The erasures, almost exclusively promoted by Republicans, target legal prohibitions against child exploitation that have been in place for nearly a century,” writes Knight.
Center Theatre Group has revealed its 2025-26 season lineup, which includes the Imelda Marcos bio-musical “Here Lies Love,” featuring music by David Byrne of the art-rock band Talking Heads; the Jocelyn Bioh play “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”; Eboni Booth’s new Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Primary Trust”; a stage riff on the “Paranormal Activity” movies; the musical “& Juliet”; and a 25th anniversary revival of “Mamma Mia!” Read all about the upcoming offerings, here.
Adam Lambert
(Christina House, For The Times / UnionTribune)
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Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Adam Lambert will play Judas opposite Cythia Erivo’s Jesus in the Hollywood Bowl’s August production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced this week. Lambert is no stranger to musical theater, having appeared in a Tony Award-winning production of “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,” as well as in the first national tour and L.A. company of “Wicked.” Single tickets for Bowl shows also went on sale this week.
Topanga’s Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum has announced the two Shakespeare comedies that will kick off its “2025 Season of Resilience” (so-named after the Palisades fire came perilously close to the venue) in its lovely outdoor amphitheater: “Much Ado About Nothing” on June 7 and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on June 8.
The Academy Museum has announced that writer-director Judd Apatow will be its first guest curator for a new comedy film exhibition set to open in April 2027. The news was revealed during a 20th anniversary screening of Apatow’s 2005 directorial debut, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” starring Steve Carell.
COPS have discovered a body during a search for a missing woman, 21, who vanished over a week ago.
June was last seen inBournemouth, Dorset at around 8.35pm on Wednesday, April 30.
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June was last seen wearing a blue hoodie and red and white skirtCredit: Dorset Police
A desperate hunt was launched for the young woman after the alarm was raised.
But cops have now tragically revealed they found a woman’s body at around 11pm on Wednesday in the area of Turbary Common.
While the body has not yet been formally identified, it is believed to be June and her family has been informed, Dorset Police said.
The death is not being treated as suspicious and HM Coroner has been notified.
Chief Inspector Darren Moores, of Dorset Police, said: “Our thoughts are very much with the family and loved ones of June at this extremely difficult time.
“I would like to thank all those involved in the search efforts to locate her, including volunteers from Dorset Search and Rescue (DorSAR).
“There will still be an increased police presence in the area as police activities continue.”
Police previously described June as 5ft 2in, slim, and she was last spotted wearing a blue hooded jumper and a red and white skirt.
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June, 21, vanished from Bournemouth over a week agoCredit: Dorset Police
SACRAMENTO — Democratic divides over the ongoing bloody conflict in the Middle East were on display this week as gubernatorial candidates made their pitches to politically active Jewish Californians.
Five of the candidates running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run in 2026 because of term limits, overwhelmingly agreed about the horror of the Hamas attack on Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, while also lamenting the ensuing deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, notably women and children.
But there were differences in their views of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the terrorist attack, which the Jewish state’s authorities said caused the deaths of about 1,200 people, and 251 people being taken hostage, including some American citizens. The Israeli efforts have resulted in the deaths of more than 52,000 Gazans, according to the region’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised the terrorist attack on Israel most directly when he spoke to the Jewish Public Affairs Committee gathering in the state’s capital on Tuesday.
“For me, Oct. 7 was a day that will live in me and a day that will be seared in my memory,” he told hundreds of attendees. “To see women and children brutalized, older people, people without weapons, killed in front of their family.”
He said in an interview afterward that although he is not a Netanyahu supporter, he doesn’t believe the Israel response has gone too far.
“Look, I’m well aware of what Hamas does. Hamas puts their ammunition in hospitals. They put their rockets under apartment buildings. They built infrastructure in places, daring the Israelis to hit them back,” Villaraigosa said. “Nobody enjoys seeing the number of innocents who have been killed. But I put that mostly on Hamas.”
At the conference, former Rep. Katie Porter spoke about the rising antisemitism in the nation.
“So we have to be honest and just say that it is scary right now to be a Jewish person. It is scary to be American in many instances, because we are seeing rising hate, and that hate has been targeted in particular at the Jewish people and at Jewish institutions,” Porter said on Monday, pointing to the recent arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home.
Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, added that although she prioritizes protecting free speech, “there is a line above which you cannot go,” when speech places people in danger.
Though governors do not craft foreign policy, California’s voice is influential because of the large number of Jewish and Muslim residents who live here — the second-most of any state in the nation for both religious groups.
Additionally, the conflict and the United States’ support of Israel has roiled Democratic politics in the state and across the nation, not only among members of the two religious groups, but also with young and liberal voters.
The administration’s response led to some Democrats turning against the party in the 2024 presidential election. Nearly 70% of voters in Dearborn, Mich., traditionally a Democratic stronghold that is home to the largest concentration of Muslims in the country, voted for President Trump or Green Party candidate Jill Stein last year.
The divide could reemerge at the state Democratic Party convention in Anaheim later this month.
This week’s appearance by five gubernatorial candidates points to the importance of Jewish voters, who tend to vote at higher rates than average Americans, according to Brandeis University. Each spoke about their ties with the Jewish community.
Former state Controller Betty Yee, whose husband is a rabbi, said she believes that the governor of California can help build bridges between the diverse communities in this state.
“I’ll just speak as someone who cares about our common humanity; as a humanitarian, I can’t stomach what’s happened,” she said in an interview, adding that Netayahu has overstepped.
Her husband’s experiences leading interfaith dialogues grew more challenging in the aftermath of the attack.
“Oct. 7 really put a lot of strain on those relationships, and it’s just now finally kind of starting to come around … to move forward together, and to understand who’s the enemy,” she said. “Well, the enemy is anybody who’s just going to be for senseless killings.”
State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Turmond, whose family converted to Hebrew Pentecostalism when he was a child, said his agency has had to intervene in some K-12 districts about discussions of the conflict and its effect on students.
“Teachers and educators at the end of the day have to refrain from imparting their personal view to students and telling them how they should feel, and that has happened in a few cases, and that has gotten those districts in trouble,” he said in an interview.
Current events ought to be teachable moments, he said.
“We have a history of social science framework that says we should use world life events as an opportunity to teach,” Thurmond said. “But the moment that anyone starts imparting their personal view for any side, then it’s gone too far. And what it has led to has been experiences where Jewish students have felt targeted and isolated, and ultimately, some have left those districts.”
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra held the Jewish community up as a paragon for what the state ought to strive for in challenging times.
“When I visit communities across the state, I hear a very familiar worry that our politics are too broken, our systems too slow, our future too uncertain. But I don’t believe in giving in,” he said Tuesday morning. “We don’t get to choose the challenges of our times, but we do get to choose how we respond to them. The Jewish community in California has answered that question time and time again, with action, with advocacy, with hearts.”
Villaraigosa discussed his childhood in Boyle Heights, growing up alongside Latinos, Jews and Asian Americans, as well as the strong support he received from Jewish Angelenos during his campaigns. Porter touched upon her relationship with the Jewish community in Orange County, including holding her first town hall at a synagogue there.
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was scheduled to appear at the conference but had a scheduling conflict because of a family matter.
