Revenue was up more than 90 percent from the same period a year ago, beating analyst expectations.

SpaceX reported a loss of more than half a billion dollars in its first quarterly statement as a public company, but the loss was less than Wall Street expected and revenue soared.

On Tuesday, the company run by Elon Musk reported a loss of $541m, or 9 cents per share, in the three months through June, less than half what financial analysts had expected.

Revenue jumped to $7.8bn, up more than 90 percent from the year-earlier period, beating analyst expectations. LSEG had forecast revenue growth of more than $6.9bn, and Bloomberg analysts had forecast $6.8bn.

The Starbase, Texas-based giant ended the second quarter with $100bn in cash, according to United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

The company touted several achievements in the quarter, including $6bn in new US government contracts for Starshield, its national security-centric satellite system, and two successful launches of its Starship V3 in the last 90 days.

Starlink and SpaceX’s broader connectivity operations remain the company’s primary financial engine, underpinning Musk’s push to build an AI-first business that extends beyond renting compute capacity to developing frontier models, consumer and enterprise software, and, eventually, data centres in space.

The company’s satellite-internet unit has continued to expand its global subscriber base, aided by launches of additional satellites and a growing range of consumer, enterprise, aviation, maritime and government services.

Investors are watching whether SpaceX can maintain growth while improving the economics of its network, particularly as it spends heavily to expand coverage, increase capacity and develop direct-to-device mobile services.

The company said it spent $18.37bn on Starlink and Starship expansion efforts, in addition to building out its AI infrastructure. Musk said the company expects its “Starmind” AI satellites to be launched next year.

In its AI business, the tech giant had an operating loss of $1.2bn, as the company also released its most powerful Grok model yet. This comes as the company faces lawsuits around the globe for Grok being used to generate sexualised images of people without their consent.

Separately, SpaceX said it had partnered with Nvidia to use its chips in the Starmind AI1 orbital compute satellites.

When SpaceX debuted on public markets earlier this year, it was the largest stock market debut in history, cementing Musk as the world’s first trillionaire. However, it was a short-lived title because of a sell-off in the broader AI sector and on investor worries that Musk had oversold them on the company’s future prospects for space travel and colonisation, among other issues.

The company’s stock has tumbled 8 percent since its IPO.

SpaceX surged on Tuesday trading. It finished the day up 9.4 percent, but has since tumbled in after-hours trading and was down 7.2 percent since the market close.

More than 72 migrants died trying to reach Ceuta, but within hours the tragedy had become a political flashpoint.

Al Jazeera’s Ava Warriner examines the biggest claims about the crossings, what we know, and why analysts say the fallout could extend far beyond Spain.

“I would choose to be Latina in every lifetime,” Kali Uchis said from her Saturday night closing set at L.A.’s EDM music festival Hard Summer. “Where are my Latinos at?”

The crowd responded with a resounding roar.

Throughout the day, fans crossed the grounds in bright Latin American soccer jerseys, the eye-catching complementary greens and reds of Mexico and the rich blue of El Salvador dotting the crowd. They held up flags, piñatas and tall signs pasted with images of Dr. Simi and “Dragonball Z” hero Goku — used to mark one’s place in the sea of people.

“Electronic music is for the beach and for Latinos,” said Dominican dembow artist and Hard Summer act Tokischa. “It’s for us. We love to dance, to feel sexy. And electronic music does that.”

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Hard Summer attendees, like Jason, wore Mexican flags as accessories in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Latino Hard Summer ravers added a spin to festivalwear with vibrant jerseys, flags, and accessories in Inglewood on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Chris Mondaca couldn’t contain his excitement as he danced to Miguelle and Tons’ set at Hard Summer on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

Hard Summer first launched in downtown L.A. in 2007 — yet no Latin artists received top billing. Between Justice, Peaches and hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, the festival became a summit for English-language acts in the electronic and hip-hop genres. Yet last year’s lineup included Colombian reggaeton artist Feid as headliner, along with DJs Deorro, Funk Tribu and Sara Landry, who boosted the Latino community’s presence at the event.

This year at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Colombian American crooner Kali Uchis headlined the main stage after a day of memorable sets by Argentine singer Six Sex, Mexican producer duo R∅z and Mexican American DJ Bolo.

“The underground DJ scene [in Southern California] is beautiful, but I will say: a few years ago, there was not a lot of Latino representation in the big festival lineups,” said Edgar Avalos, known as Bolo. “I feel like there are more opportunities for Latinos in these lineups. And I want to create an environment for Latino ravers to feel like they’re welcome in this space.”

Saray Zamora, Dafne Carbajal, Ailynn Sanchez , Cecilia Garrido and Celest Garrido decided to go to Hard Summer themed in their family’s home country flags in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.

(Katerina Portela / De Los)

The Mexican American DJ and L.A. native Deorro was an inspiration to Avalos, who describes him as “one of the first to break through on major lineups.” Following Deorro’s example, Avalos felt inspired to start his own record label Vibraza for Latino artists and to advocate for their inclusion in festivals — which includes not just onstage visibility, but career opportunities offstage too.

“I feel like there’s a huge bubble, a lot of dope emerging acts within the Latino dance community,” Avalos said. “It’s a blessing to be a part of the crew that’s putting [Latino DJs] on the map.”

According to Luminate’s 2026 data report, electronic dance music dominated the first half of 2026 as the largest growing genre in the U.S. Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 10 streams in the U.S. were songs in Spanish — and casual monthly listenership of Latin music in the States climbed to a peak of 54% of streams in the first quarter of this year.

“[Latino electronic] music makes you feel like … when you’re in the streets, you’re dancing, you feel proud, you let go of certain things or norms,” said Francisca Cuello, known as Six Sex. “Something about being Latino represents a cultural release and an understanding of fun that fits so well with electronic music at night.”

Cuello performed her new album, “Ultra,” as her pouting femme-bot persona who waxes poetic about eroticism over thumping techno beats. She said she was shocked by the number of people who sang the music back to her, despite the album having only been released earlier this summer.

“I never set out to make electronic music, but it’s what called to me,” Cuello said. “To be so far from my country and to connect with people in a country so different from mine, like the U.S., it’s such an honor.”

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Hilary Joy fans herself and jumps at one of the last Hard Summer DJ sets of the night in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Many of the Latina festivalgoers at Hard Summer wore colors of their home country’s flags or ribbons in their hair, as Alejandra Tadeo chose to do in maximalist braids on the way to Roz’s set in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Saiah Landaverde said they were most convinced to go to their first Hard Summer for the Latino artists, like Six Sex, on the lineup. They danced with their friend Josh Roque at Roz’s set in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

Festival attendee Azareal Hernandez-Moreno said she was most excited for the Hard Summer lineup this year because “it’s for us.”

“I feel like it’s a big moment for these artists to perform at such a big festival,” said Hernandez-Moreno. “[They] get to represent where they’re from. It means something to us as Latinos, as fans.”

Atop the Beatbox Art Car — a Hard Summer stage for emerging acts, which is approximately 20 feet tall and built to resemble a rainbow boombox — DJ Spiñorita mixed house, Latin dance and original funk for her audience. Donning a slicked-back hairstyle, Virgen de Guadalupe top and thick golden hoop earrings that reflected the penetrating rays of the sun, Spiñorita nodded and lifted her arms as ravers mouthed lyrics of “El Sonidito” back to her.

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Hard Summer attendee Angel Rosario dances along to a DJ set by VTSS in an El Salvador jersey in Inglewood on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Heidy Menendez dressed up in blues and whites to represent El Salvador as she held up a Spanish meme totem that reads, ‘If you know this is how I get, why do you invite me?’ at Roz’s Hard Summer set in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Latino Hard Summer ravers added a spin to festivalwear with vibrant jerseys, flags, and accessories in Inglewood on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

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Miami-based Ecuadorean Peruvian DJ Milushka in the media hub of Hard Summer on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026.  (Katerina Portela / De Los)

Spiñorita, who is Angela Ramirez by day, said that the L.A. rave scene is one of support and community among Latina artists, who run events for themselves year-round.

“We’re out here and brown and proud of it,” Ramirez said. “We’re putting in the work to make fundraisers for social issues and giving back to our community. Raving and DJing helps to heal trauma and helps us to open up.”

Earlier that day, R∅z sparked crowds of fans to run to their stage as they brought out música mexicana star Peso Pluma. The artist reached out to the crowd as he rapped in Spanish, fans jumping and raising their phones to take pictures and document the moment.

“Viva Mexico!” said R∅z’s Hugo Lara, as cheers rang and flags waved before him.

“I think that because the demographic here is very Latino, we’re all supporting each other,” said Frida Mitre, a Hard Summer attendee. “It was very heartwarming when [Kali Uchis] asked if we were out here, especially because we’ve been going through a lot.

Mitre said one of the sets she was most excited for was Tokischa — “for being so herself.”

Dominican-born rapper and musician Tokischa in her green room at Hard Summer in Inglewood on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.

(Katerina Portela / De Los)

“I was born and raised — lived my entire life — in the Dominican Republic,” said Tokischa, just after her high-octane performance. “Where my music plays, it reaches Dominicans there. In the crowd, I saw some Dominican flags. I raise that really high. I just want to see my community having fun.”

As the sun lowered on Sunday, and most Latino artists had finished for the day, local DJ Bianca Oblivion began spinning records jubilantly in her Mexican flag corset, grinning in the afterglow of a landmark weekend.

“It’s a really cool moment to be a Latino DJ,” she said. “Whatever people’s idea of what Latino music is … is not limited. We’re constantly crossing genres and cultures. We’re on the rise.”

Luka Doncic‘s former fiancée, Anamaria Goltes, requested Monday that the petition for child support she filed in March in Los Angeles Superior Court be dismissed, according to court documents obtained by The Times.

“I am withdrawing my Petition for Child Support with the specific intention of resolving this matter amicably and by a mutual agreement which is in the best interests of our children,” Goltes wrote in the filing.

The Lakers superstar proposed to Goltes, a fashion and fitness model, three years ago. They met as children in their native Slovenia and started dating as teenagers in 2016. Their daughters — Gabriela, 2, and Olivia, seven months — live with Goltes in Slovenia.

Doncic has spent the offseason in Slovenia and will host a four-day minicamp for the entire Lakers team later this month in his hometown of Ljubljana, which will include workouts, golf and sightseeing ahead of training camp. The guard — who led the NBA in scoring with an average of 33.5 points a game last season — even offered to pay the team’s travel costs.

Goltes, 28, sought child support and attorney fees from Doncic, 27, following an incident that occurred shortly after Olivia was born at Kranj Maternity Hospital on Dec. 6, 2025, in Slovenia. Doncic missed games against the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics to be present at the birth.

Goltes objected to Doncic’s desire to bring Gabriela back to the United States with him when he joined the Lakers in Philadelphia to play the 76ers on Dec. 7. Goltes called the police, but officers “did not detect any elements of a criminal offense or misdemeanor,” according to a report viewed by ESPN.

The couple broke off their engagement shortly thereafter. Goltes deleted photos of her and Doncic from her Instagram account and Doncic acknowledged that they had separated. He filed an injunction with a Slovenian court in February seeking immediate contact with his daughters, ESPN reported.

“I love my daughters more than anything, and I’ve been doing everything I can for them to be with me in the U.S. during the season, but that hasn’t been possible, so I recently made the tough decision to end my engagement,” Doncic said in March. “Everything I do is for my daughters’ happiness, and I will always fight to be with them and give them the best life I can.”

Doncic posted a photo on social media of Olivia wearing a pink sweater with a heart emoji covering her face. In his first game back, he inscribed a G and O with a heart on his shoes.

“I got to see my daughter again, my newborn,” he said upon his return. “Coming back, it was kind of hard to leave them behind. But it’s a job, so I got to do it.”

Aug. 4 (UPI) — Hundreds gathered Tuesday in Gaza City to mourn more than 100 people killed in 2023 in one of the deadliest Israeli military strikes of the war.

The 112 coffins, each covered with a Palestinian flag, contained mostly the remains of those from a single extended family group — the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan. About 40 were children.

“O nation, why are children getting killed in Gaza?” said Mahmoud Basal, spokesman of Gaza’s Civil Defense, at the funeral. “Why are women getting killed in Gaza? Why are massacres committed against innocents in Gaza?”

Mourners scattered flower petals over the bodies and prayed for the dead before they carried the coffins to their burial site.

CBS News reported that Israel’s military said in a statement that it “does not deliberately target the civilian population and takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.” It passed the blame to Hamas,saying that it “systemically operates from within, beneath and in close proximity to densely populated areas and civilian infrastructure, exploiting the civilian population to shield its military activities.”

It took nearly three years to recover the bodies because of ongoing attacks by Israel. The original attack in November 2023 struck a residential block in Gaza City. At the time, people could only recover about 40b odies with the tools available, but more than 300 were presumed killed.

More recently, civil defense recovery teams were able to dig through the rubble and exhume the remains of the 112 people memorialized Tuesday. In addition, about 150 people are still missing.

In June, a United Nations commission found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that security forces “deliberately targeted and killed” Palestinian children. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

Israeli officials deny this and say Hamas attempted genocide in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in that attack, while five Israeli soldiers have died since the October 2025 cease-fire.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 73,000 people in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. That included more than 1,250 people since the cease-fire.

A US federal appeals court says EPA likely acted unlawfully in trying to cancel Biden-era clean energy grants.

A United States federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration likely broke the law when it tried to cancel a multibillion-dollar clean energy programme, dealing a blow to the president’s broader push to dismantle Biden-era climate policies.

The full US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot freeze roughly $20bn in grants awarded to nonprofit groups for clean energy projects, reversing an earlier decision by the same court.

But the money will not be released immediately. The ruling has been temporarily put on hold to give the EPA time to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene.

At the centre of the dispute is the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a programme created by Congress through former US President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

The programme, often referred to as a “green bank”, was designed to give federal money to nonprofit organisations that would give out loans and invest in small energy projects, energy-efficient buildings and clean-energy infrastructure.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been trying to dismantle the programme, saying it doesn’t align with his agency’s priorities and accusing its recipients of fraud, waste and mismanagement.

In a video posted on social media last February, Zeldin described the fund as an example of government waste.

“Shockingly, roughly $20bn of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA,” he said. “This pot of $20bn was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion.”

“The days of irresponsibly shovelling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” he added.

The following month, the EPA froze billions of dollars that were being held at Citibank to be distributed as grants.

The organisations, which included the Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and three others, denied any wrongdoing and sued, arguing the administration was illegally withholding money already approved by Congress and attempting to kill the programme because it opposed its climate goals, not because of evidence of fraud.

Tuesday’s decision overturns a ruling by a three-judge panel of the same appeals court last September that sided with the administration. The full appeals court agreed to revisit that decision, a rare move reserved for significant cases.

The majority of judges said the EPA’s attempt to terminate the grants and claw back the money “based solely on a policy disagreement” likely violated the Inflation Reduction Act. It also said the agency hadn’t provided assurance that it would leave the funds untouched if the injunction were lifted.

The ruling restores an order issued last year by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who found the EPA had failed to justify cancelling the grants and warned the administration was encroaching on Congress’s power to decide how federal money is spent.

The case is one of several legal challenges to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse Biden’s climate agenda. Since returning to office, Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, expanded support for fossil fuel production and sought to unwind clean energy initiatives, arguing they impose unnecessary costs on businesses and consumers.

Patti Scialfa’s cancer battle has taken a turn for the better. Take it from the Boss himself.

Bruce Springsteen announced the improvement in his wife and longtime E Street Band member’s health over the weekend in a video message for the Pan-Mass Challenge, a bike-a-thon fundraiser that benefits cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In the video, shared Tuesday on Facebook by Pan-Mass Challenge, the 76-year-old rocker praised the organization’s ongoing commitment to advancing cancer research and spoke about Scialfa’s battle with blood cancer.

“As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years but now thankfully she is in remission,” he said in his video message, which played during the PMC 2026 opening ceremony in Worcester. “Like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns: Hope has a face.”

Scialfa’s cancer battle became public in 2024 when she shared the health revelation in the world tour documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.” Scialfa, now 73, said in the film that she was diagnosed in 2018 with multiple myeloma, a condition that occurs when cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In the film, Scialfa said touring with her husband and the E Street band was difficult because of her disease and she has had “to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.” She has been part of the E Street Band since 1984 and is its only woman member.

Scialfa, who provides backing vocals and plays tambourine and guitar, married Springsteen in 1991.

Scialfa was absent from the video message, but Springsteen said her health journey offers a lesson he hopes “every American can understand.” “Medical research isn’t an idea. It isn’t politics,” he said, “it isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason why families find hope when hope seems hardest to find.”

Times staff writer Mark Olsen and former staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

Charity warns that shrinking humanitarian support could threaten efforts to support communities trying to rebuild lives after 1,200 days of conflict.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has called for greater international support for Sudan, saying humanitarian needs are escalating while funding falls far short.

“Sudan is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, yet it is also one of its most overlooked” IFRC Special Envoy for Sudan, Derk Segaar, told reporters in Geneva after returning from the Sudan.

Sudan plunged into all-out war in April 2023 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military, leading to the deaths of at least 59,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a conflict monitoring group.

Aid groups say the figure is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

Segaar said while some aid is trickling into Kordofan and Darfur regions, the whole of Sudan has been devastated by the war, including Khartoum, where millions lack reliable electricity, clean water and healthcare, as cholera, malnutrition and floods pose additional risks.

He said 35 million people require humanitarian assistance, more than 9 million are internally displaced, and fighting has driven 4.5 million people out of Sudan.

Fighting

Speaking before a gathering of soldiers, Sudanese Army Lieutenant-General Yasser al-Atta on Monday said the military is advancing on all fronts with the aim of eliminating the RSF before the end of the year.

The location of the gathering was not specified.

“We are implementing the theory of advancing in all directions, with all fronts moving simultaneously, as happened during the recapture of Khartoum state,” al-Atta said.

“Before the end of this year, there will not be a single Janjaweed fighter,” he said, using a term to refer to the RSF, “or a foreign fighter, and we are determined to achieve that”.

Al-Atta’s remarks came days after the army and allied forces carried out a rapid operation in which they seized Bara, Jabra al-Sheikh, Um Sayala and other positions along a key road connecting Omdurman with el-Obeid in North Kordofan.

Sudan’s three Kordofan states – North, West and South – have witnessed continued fighting between the army and the RSF since October 2025.

Diplomacy

Meanwhile, the United Nations is ramping up efforts to get the stalled political process on track.

The UN says representatives from five international organisations, including the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the European Union and the League of Arab States held talks with Sudanese political parties on Monday.

“Building on exploratory consultations held in Addis Ababa in June, the Quintet engaged Sudanese civilian political leaders in recent days. Discussions continued on proposals and perspectives for advancing the political process, including through the establishment of confidence-building measures,” said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

The UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, is also talking with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to discuss reducing escalation.

Guatemala’s Fuego volcano began erupting on Monday, prompting a nationwide orange alert and the evacuation of two nearby villages, with residents moved to temporary shelters. The highly active volcano’s deadly 2018 eruption has prompted renewed preventative measures.

After just six days in theaters, Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has now raked in more than $1 billion in global box office revenue.

The movie is the second-fastest film ever to reach the 10-figure milestone, bested only by Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios’ 2019 hit “Avengers: Endgame.”

“Brand New Day” has now earned $407 million in the U.S. and Canada, with an additional $645.8 million in international box office receipts for a global total of $1.05 billion, according to studio estimates. Its $360 million domestic opening last weekend now ranks as the highest ever.

The movie was produced by Sony-owned Columbia Pictures, as well as Marvel Studios and Pascal Pictures. The film’s production budget was about $225 million.

The filmmakers, as well as box office analysts, have credited the movie’s emotional storyline and focus on the web slinger’s internal conflict for connecting with audiences and giving a fresh take on a familiar franchise and genre. It also doesn’t hurt that its stars, Tom Holland and Zendaya, are two of the most popular actors in the business, both of whom are also fresh off appearances in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”

Together, “Brand New Day” and Universal Pictures’ “The Odyssey” powered last weekend’s three-day domestic box office total to a new best with $436.5 million, according to data from Rentrak. The summer so far stands at $3.6 billion, up 16.7% compared to last year’s middling season and running just 0.7% behind the pre-pandemic summer of 2019, according to Rentrak.

The so far has given analysts hope that the domestic box office could finally reach $10 billion by the end of the year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Tuesday that his office has protected more than $200 billion in federal funding for the state, defended core civil rights and removed military forces from Los Angeles streets by suing the Trump administration about once a week.

“Since President Trump returned to office, California has been under attack — and has led the way in fighting back,” Bonta said.

Bonta said his office has filed 82 lawsuits against the administration since Trump’s inauguration last year, in addition to 122 amicus briefs supporting lawsuits against the administration by other parties and 112 comment letters in response to federal actions.

That work has saved the state an estimated $207.1 billion, Bonta said, including $168 billion — equal to a third of the state’s annual budget — that was threatened when the Trump administration tried to freeze trillions of dollars in federal funding to the states last year. Billions in threatened cuts to transportation, emergency preparedness, education and family assistance funding were also prevented, Bonta said.

The work has also protected birthright citizenship for the U.S.- born children of immigrants, ensured that National Guard troops are not deployed in major California cities against the wishes of local leaders, lifted multiple sets of tariffs driving up costs for American consumers and repeatedly blocked administration efforts to interfere in California’s elections, Bonta said.

“We’ve protected funding that keeps our communities safe, feeds hungry families, and ensures our kids get the education they deserve. We’ve gone all the way to the Supreme Court to defend constitutional rights — and won. We’ve protected our elections and stopped the militarization of our cities. We’ve defended our right to prioritize public safety over assisting with the President’s inhumane immigration agenda,” Bonta said.

As it has done in the past, the White House on Tuesday derided Bonta’s lawsuits as misguided.

“Instead of bragging about filing frivolous lawsuits against the Trump Administration, the California AG should focus on addressing problems in his own state — like the countless criminal illegal aliens the Newscum Administration allows to roam free and terrorize communities,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement to The Times.

The White House has previously said Trump is “trying to restore American Greatness” and that Californians would be “infinitely better off” if Bonta got out of the president’s way.

Bonta’s office is required to report annually to the state Legislature on its work fighting the Trump administration as part of a 2025 special session measure delivering it an extra $25 million to fund such litigation. His office published its latest report to lawmakers Tuesday.

The report said the office had received $19.2 million of the special session funding through July 30, which had “contributed to — but in no way has been sufficient to cover — the costs of the litigation.”

Bonta’s office has also received regular appropriations to fund such litigation in each of the state’s last two budgets, of $14.2 million last fiscal year and $23.9 million this fiscal year. The office’s overall budget is about $1.4 billion.

At a morning news conference with other state leaders, Bonta said his office has spent close to $30 million on its “federal accountability work” overall since Trump took office, and argued that investment has been “paying off in droves” given the billions saved.

Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón (D-Goleta) and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), standing with Bonta, agreed.

Limón said she was proud to have worked with Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom to form a “collective backstop” against the Trump administration, while Rivas said the funding provided to Bonta’s office “may be one of the smartest investments that this legislature has ever made.”

Of the 82 lawsuits, 66 remain active, according to the report. Despite that, Bonta said his office has won 45 orders providing some early relief from the Trump administration’s actions, and 21 final orders in its favor. In eight cases, he said, the administration “backed down” in advance of a trial.

Bonta’s office has lost arguments made against the Trump administration, including on behalf of other litigants, particularly on issues related to transgender rights and the scope of Trump’s executive power to reshape government and federal immigration policy.

However, Bonta claimed his office has won in 83% of the court orders issued in cases brought by the state and praised his team for having “worked around the clock on behalf of Californians, pulling countless all-nighters along the way” to make it possible.

Bonta, who is up for reelection in November, is campaigning in part on his willingness to stand up to Trump — which polling and voting has suggested many Californians want their elected officials to do.

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor, is running on a similar message. Before he was the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, Becerra had Bonta’s job and sued the first Trump administration more than 120 times, often successfully.

Bonta said he expects Becerra will be an “incredible partner” in the fight moving forward.

Republicans Michael Gates, who is running against Bonta, and Steve Hilton, who is running against Becerra and is endorsed by Trump, have said they would work collaboratively with the Trump administration to ensure the needs of Californians are met, rather than fighting it at every turn.

“I would be wanting to work with the administration to help Californians,” Hilton has said. Gates has called Bonta’s campaign against Trump “out of touch.”

Many of the lawsuits Bonta’s office has brought against the administration have been filed as part of a multistate coalition of Democratic attorneys general. As presidents of both parties have flexed more executive power in recent decades, state attorneys general have become more collaborative and litigious in fighting back — and that has been especially true under Trump.

Bonta said Trump will be remembered in part for his “repeated attacks on California, on Californians, on our Constitution, and on our democracy,” but California will be remembered for fighting back.

“Are these trying times? 100%. Absolutely, yes,” Bonta said. “But we shouldn’t be helpless, because we’re not helpless.”

Like most good stories, this one requires planning. Organizers with the L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission spent nearly nine years preparing to bring the FIFA World Cup to L.A. The most popular sporting event in the world was just the start of a mega-event trilogy that turns the page to Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium and will culminate with the largest Olympics ever in 2028.

“We are on the international stage for three years,” said Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive officer of L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission, or LASEC, said. “What story are we telling and how are we doing that?”

The World Cup was a riveting first chapter. The 39-day tournament brought more than 560,000 fans to SoFi Stadium for eight matches, 250,000 fans to 10 official fan zones and a projected $892 million in economic impact across L.A. County, according to LASEC.

The expanded World Cup, with 48 teams and 104 matches over 16 venues in three countries, is only a logistical qualifying match compared to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The first Olympics in L.A. in 44 years will welcome 11,198 athletes across 51 sports from more than 200 countries competing over 20 days. The 2028 Paralympics will come to L.A. for the first time with a 23-para sport schedule that will begin competition before the opening ceremony for the first time.

Despite the difference in scale, John Harper, chief operating officer of LA28, called the successful World Cup’s local matches “an immense learning opportunity for us in a lot of ways.”

Attending World Cup matches as a fan and behind-the-scenes observer, Harper was impressed by the transportation services provided by L.A. Metro. The agency said it provided more than 212,000 rides directly to and from SoFi Stadium and 15 parking and transit hubs in L.A. and Orange counties through an enhanced service. Harper was encouraged by the interagency work between different public partners that helped the eight matches go off without a major hitch.

But the biggest lesson was in the spirit of the fans who packed watch parties, streets and bars.

“It really demonstrated the power of sport,” Harper said. “Not only the energy in the stadium, but the energy in the city and L.A. being such a diverse city, you really saw the world come to life on the streets of L.A.”

The World Cup exceeded expectations, Schloessman said, delivering economic effects, local supplier opportunity and community engagement. LASEC hosted fan areas at 10 different locations, highlighted by the tournament-opening festival at the Coliseum. The City of L.A. hosted seven free “Kick It In the Park” watch parties. Sports bars and restaurants overflowed with customers who drank beer taps dry.

“It was just this six-week interlude of time when people liked each other and people were having fun together,” Schloessman said.

LA28 hopes to create a similar, harmonious energy during the Games with sports parks at major sports zones. Areas where multiple venues are clustered together, such as L.A. Live, Exposition Park, Long Beach, Inglewood and Carson, will have dedicated areas for pin trading, sport trials, entertainment zones and sponsorship activations.

Fans cheer during a watch party at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes during a World Cup match between Mexico and Ecuador on June 30.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

While LA28 will be responsible for hosting official live sites for the Games, local communities can organize their own Games-time activities. LASEC worked with local organizations and businesses leading up to the World Cup to promote opportunities, including watch parties, meetups or themed decorations while still adhering to strict rules regarding FIFA broadcasts and logos. LA28 will provide similar guidance leading up to the Olympic and Paralympics Games.

“It is our responsibility, with the organizers, with the authorities, to create an Olympic experience for as many people as possible,” said Pierre Ducrey, International Olympic Committee sports director, who was impressed by the atmosphere of a FIFA fan event in Kansas City where he attended a match featuring his native Switzerland facing off against Argentina. “Whether they have a ticket to be in the stadium or they don’t, we want to create special moments for them that they can remember.”

LA28 sold more than 4 million tickets in its first ticket drop, and after last week’s presale, the second drop will resume Aug. 10. With 14 million tickets available, the 2028 Games could break the sales record set by Paris 2024, which sold 12 million tickets between the Olympics and Paralympics.

The biggest World Cup ever also boasted the highest attendance, but some of the tournament’s best parties came outside of stadiums.

Santa Monica put screens on every block of the Third Street Promenade for World Cup watch parties where patrons were allowed to carry alcoholic beverages within a specific area of the open-air mall. More than 40,000 people walked through a fan hub on the Santa Monica Pier. The city closed down more than a mile of downtown Santa Monica during the World Cup final for a block party that attracted 20,000 people.

And, Santa Monica Mayor Caroline Torosis proudly emphasized, it was free.

“I think major global events have an extractive history,” Torosis said. “We are trying to change that. We are also trying to use it as an opportunity to showcase the city itself. So how do we benefit our local community but also reintroduce Santa Monica to the region?”

Santa Monica balked at the chance to host competitions for the 2028 Games. Talks to host beach volleyball near the iconic pier broke down in 2025, six months after a study indicated that being a venue city could result in a net loss of $1.45 million, while not hosting the competition could still generate $10.65 million in profit because of the city’s status as a popular tourist destination.

Santa Monica already has deals in place to host hospitality houses for several countries in 2028, including France and Switzerland. Broadcast partners will set up studios on the city’s iconic pier. With plans for watch parties and other accessible celebrations for fans, Torosis envisions Santa Monica being “the place to be” during the Games.

“We are prepared for the influx of people that are going to be in the city,” Torosis said. “I think that FIFA was a great dry run.”

Inglewood was at the center of the World Cup with eight matches at SoFi Stadium. The city got an economic boost from an estimated 625,000 fans, including thousands who traveled to support their national teams without a match ticket, Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. said.

Fans from all over the world, sporting their country’s colors, flooded Market Street for the city-hosted Wood Cup festival to begin the tournament. Packed prematch marches stunned organizers who were unfamiliar with the tradition. While SoFi Stadium’s name was changed to “Los Angeles Stadium” per FIFA’s sponsorship rules, broadcasters still emphasized they were in Inglewood.

“It really gave a boost to community pride that Inglewood is now an international city,” Butts said.

Inglewood will remain the setting for the mega-event story. SoFi Stadium, in addition to hosting a second Super Bowl in five years, is the scene for the 2028 Olympic opening ceremony — which will be shared with the Coliseum — as well as Olympic swimming and the Paralympic opening ceremony. Neighboring Intuit Dome will host the Olympic basketball tournament.

The consistent stream of global events doesn’t faze Butts. In a city that will have hosted an NBA All-Star Game, eight World Cup matches and another Super Bowl in less than a calendar year, the Olympic chapter is already written.

“We do it time and time again,” Butts said. “This is what we do.”

Aug. 4 (UPI) — The U.S. labor market saw an increase in the number of hires in June despite a drop in the number of job openings, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday.

Some of the highest decreases were seen in the number of jobs in education and health services, which lost some 133,000 jobs, or 8% since May.

But overall, hiring increased in June by 96,000, according to the most recently available data from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

“Put together, the labor market is finding steadier footing,” Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told CNN.

Experts had expected the number of available jobs to drop in June, CNN reported.

“Hires ticking up even as postings slow is the kind of detail that keeps this from reading as a market losing steam,” Bachaud added to the outlet. “Whether that holds through the summer will depend a lot on whether prices and consumer spending stabilize or keeps sliding.”

But Dan North, a senior economist with Allianz Trade, said the numbers are not strong enough to suggest a dramatic shift in the jobs market.

“The wheels are not coming off the bus — there’s certainly not negative job growth at the moment,” North told CNN.

“It’s stable, somewhat solid, but there are signs of decay and shakiness underneath,” he added.

While FBI poll monitoring is not new, US lawmakers raise alarm amid Trump’s years-long, evidenceless claims of election fraud.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced it has sent federal monitors to polls in four Democratic-leaning cities in Michigan, amid warnings that the administration of United States President Donald Trump could use such monitors for partisan aims.

The DOJ announced the monitors would be present during Michigan’s primary vote on Tuesday as part of an effort to “ensure free and fair elections nationwide”, according to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

“The Department of Justice is devoting extensive resources to ensure uniform and nondiscriminatory monitoring,” it said.

While the department has for decades overseen an election monitoring programme to ensure compliance with federal civil rights laws, lawmakers and advocates have raised concerns over how such a programme could be used under the current administration.

Trump has for years alleged, without evidence, that US elections have been marred by widespread fraud. He has never acknowledged his 2020 loss to US President Joe Biden.

Michigan has played a major role in those claims.

In a primetime speech delivered in mid-July, Trump re-upped a previously concluded probe into alleged voter fraud in the city of Muskegon as he called on the FBI to reinvestigate the case. Local officials had already determined that several voter registration forms had been fraudulently filled out in the city by employees of a consulting firm attempting to falsely reach their quotas.

No fraudulent ballots were cast in connection with the fake voter registration forms. State officials have highlighted the situation as proof of the efficacy of their election security practices.

The announcement on Tuesday came weeks after the Department of Justice said it planned to monitor 15 jurisdictions across six states: Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia. The DOJ has said it will expand the use of monitors leading into November.

The department did not give a reason for why the four Michigan cities –  Detroit, Hamtramck, Lansing, and East Lansing – were selected.

Detroit, Lansing and East Lansing are all heavily Democratic leaning. Hamtramck, considered the first Muslim-majority city in the US, has historically leaned Democratic, but has shifted increasingly Republican in recent years.

Residents of the state on Tuesday were casting ballots to determine party nominees in local, state and US Congressional races for the midterm election in November.

Key races include a fierce Democratic Senate race, with progressive Abdul El-Sayed hoping to defeat US Representative Haley Stevens, widely viewed as a weathervane for the party’s future.

Voters will also decide the candidates for the gubernatorial race, with Trump-backed US Representative John James facing off with former presidential candidate Perry Johnson on the Republican side, as Democrat Jocelyn Benson, the current Michigan state secretary, is expected to sail to victory in her party’s primary.

Democrats ask for assurances

In a letter to the Department of Justice dated Monday, 10 Democratic senators asked for assurances that FBI monitors deployed across the country will not “target jurisdictions in a partisan manner; discourage voter participation or interfere with the voting process; or pressure, harass, or interfere with state and local election officials as they do their jobs”.

They noted the wider context in which the monitors are being deployed, including efforts by the Trump administration to obtain state voter rolls. On Tuesday, a judge ruled the administration could not access Colorado’s voter data, the latest in a string of similar rulings.

Trump has also called for Republicans to “nationalise” elections. Under the US Constitution, state governments administer elections, in a system of decentralisation that advocates have long argued protects against wholesale interference.

The senators said that the DOJ has characterised the monitors as “routine” and “non-partisan”.

“However, it would be remiss not to acknowledge concerns that monitors are being deployed disproportionately to jurisdictions in states governed by Democratic leaders or with Democratic chief election officials,” they wrote.

“Moreover, election monitors are being deployed in the context of President Trump’s ongoing threats to nationalise, militarise, and otherwise interfere with the conduct of free and fair elections.”

Four years ago, Knott’s Berry Farm was faced with a decision.

Its 1978 ride Montezooma’s Revenge was the first-ever coaster built with a flywheel launch system — a large, highly visible, circular drum-like mechanism with a cable attached to it — and an important piece of the theme park’s history.

But the coaster was in need of refurbishment and they don’t make things like they used to. The flywheel design, once an advanced piece of machinery that allowed Montezooma’s to go from zero to 55 mph in less than five seconds, was no longer in vogue. Replacement parts weren’t going to be easy to come by, if possible at all.

So would they attempt to reimagine Montezooma’s Revenge, or use its footprint for another attraction?

“Nobody else really attempted a full-speed, ground-level launch until later in the ‘90s,” says Jeremy Thompson, who writes coaster analysis on his website Roller Coaster Philosophy and worked for a decade at theme park design firm Thinkwell. “It was way ahead of its time.”

It would have been a shame, roller coaster historians argue, to lose Montezooma’s Revenge. Thankfully, Knott’s Berry Farm agreed, and after four years and a $20-million investment, Montezooma’s, now rebranded as Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress, is set to soft open in the coming days. A grand opening media event, postponed from last month, is slated for Aug. 14.

The entrance to the newly remodeled Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress.

(Jess Boyer / Knott’s Berry Farm)

“We thought quite a bit about, ‘If we take this out, what would we put in there?’” says Knott’s Berry Farm Park President Raffi Kaprelyan. “But the answer we always came back to was, ‘Why would you do that?’ This is a perfectly unique ride.”

He adds: “An iconic ride like this, you want to maintain as long as possible.”

The coaster was planned to be named Loco Motion, but it was rebranded as Montezooma’s Revenge after a popular band with the same name that would regularly perform at the park, says Nicholas Laschkewitsch, a coaster historian and documentary producer with nonprofit American Coaster Enthusiasts. At the time of its opening, it was the tallest roller coaster in the world, thanks to 148-foot spikes. It’s also the oldest looping shuttle coaster in its original location, a shuttle coaster being a ride without a complete circuit, meaning here guests are propelled out of the launch station in a linear path through a loop and then backward through the whole course.

The loop on Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress.

(Jess Boyer / Knott’s Berry Farm)

”A shuttle coaster is certainly not as novel as it once was,” says Laschkewitsch, who also works as a designer at experiential art firm Meow Wolf. “But I think it’s very much a part of the DNA of Knott’s Berry Farm. It’s most people’s first looping coaster who grew up in Southern California. They deserve a lot of credit for investing in [a type of] ride a lot of other parks have thrown out.”

Designed by coaster mastermind Anton Schwarzkopf, Laschkewitsch says there’s only one remaining Schwarzkopf-created flywheel coaster using its original launch system in existence, and it’s in Japan at Nagashima Spa Land. Schwarzkopf was also behind the Great American Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which opened in 1976 as the world’s first modern vertical looping roller coaster.

“He was a genius as far as how to bank track, and how to physically manufacture track,” Laschkewitsch says. “His rides were as smooth as glass. The fact that he was able to do this without computer technology is incredible.”

The Knott family rides Montezooma’s Revenge on its opening day in 1978.

(Knott’s Berry Farm)

So what’s changed in the refurbishment? Montezooma’s has been remade with new cars, enhanced thematic touches lightly inspired by Maya designs, and boasts both a brand new track as well as a refreshed launch system. It now blasts out of the station with electromagnetic propulsion, technology, says Thompson, that is found on virtually all modern launch coasters (see Disney California Adventure’s IncrediCoaster, which also jolts from zero to 55 mph in five seconds).

That means there will be a difference in “feel” at the launch. Thompson compares it to riding in a modern electric vehicle versus, say, a 1970s hot rod. “You’re losing something there,” he says.

Namely the instantaneous tension, says Laschkewitsch, which will now be smoothed out. “There’s just something special about how that flywheel launch really kicked you in the face,” he says.

A look at the reimaged Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress.

(Jess Boyer / Knott’s Berry Farm)

The coaster in its initial form lasted just 38 seconds. That won’t necessarily change with Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress, but Kaprelyan says the new ride system will allow the park to offer different ride profiles. The electromagnetic track, for instance, can jolt guests forward, and then tease them by reversing course, lending a linear coaster a sense of surprise.

Those changes are coming down the road, but probably not until the ride has been open for about a year. “The ride will maybe take you up to the front a little bit, and then shoot you back up the hill, and then shoot you forward again,” Kaprelyan says. “There will be different sequences.”

And overall just a different tone. When all is working properly, the coaster will launch through a haze of fog effects. And it’s blessedly no longer associated with an unsavory name that potentially had some negative cultural implications. Understandable, and the right call says Thompson, but “it kind of loses that zany ‘70s humor.” Prepare to hear fewer potty jokes at Knott’s Berry Farm.

This week in SoCal theme parks

A dementor puppet moves through the train in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.”

(David Fouts / For The Times )

• ‘Fast & Furious’ coaster watch, 2026. The big theme park story last week was the unexpected soft launch of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. The ride is operating in “technical rehearsals,” meaning it doesn’t yet have a formal opening date. Think of it as a final testing phase. Wait times have often stretched beyond two and a half hours, with some reporting lines closer to four hours. Heads-up, though, if you’re thinking of heading to the park this week, as according to notices given to park neighbors in Toluca Lake, the coaster is not expected to be welcoming guests Tuesday through Friday.
• Take a magical train ride. The Southern California Railway Museum in Riverside County is now allowing guests to experience history with a bit of mysticism, as it has temporarily turned into Platform 9 3⁄4 to host “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” A one-hour theatrical experience, expect wands, house sorting and, instead of a drink cart, a larger-than-life demonic puppet. Like all things Potter in 2026, the event has attracted some detractors due to J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric and political funding. The Times’ Emily Tarinelli has the details.
• Changes afoot at Knott’s Soak City. The Orange County water park is welcoming two brand new attractions next year that will be replacing the current Shore Break slide complex. Look out for Coral Craze, a saucer-like attraction that boasts five riders per slide and is designed to mimic a ski course. Joining it will be Kelp Kraze, also a five-person experience, but this one more of a raft-like slide.
• The ‘Prince of Darkness,’ resurrected. Universal Studios Hollywood has rounded out its haunted house lineup for Halloween Horror Nights with a maze dedicated to the late Ozzy Osbourne. Dubbed Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness, the haunt will focus on bringing to life imagery from Osbourne’s solo career. The park has previously created a house inspired by the work of Osbourne’s Black Sabbath. Halloween Horror Nights begins Sept. 3.
• ‘It,’ reimagined. Inglewood’s Cosm is embracing horror for its next all-encompassing, wrap-around production. The venue, which boasts a high-definition spherical screen that stretches above, below and ever-so-slightly behind viewers, will on Aug. 28 begin showing 2017’s “It,” the Andrés Muschietti film based on the novel by Stephen King. Like past Cosm screenings, the venue will create CGI imagery to complement the core film.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

P.S.

My least favorite theme park topic to cover is price increases, as parks are already an investment to visit. Yet the Disneyland Resort keeps making affordability a story. Even more food price hikes have hit the resort, after an earlier round just a couple weeks ago. I’m sad to say they’re increasingly egregious, including, as Disney Food Blog noticed, a $3 increase to $31 on a so-so cheeseburger at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. Sigh.

There’s head-scratching high prices throughout the resort, including a bump on a relatively small square of churro toffee, which now sells for nearly $10. It’s tasty, but I’m here to tell you it’s not worth it. I stopped buying the delectable when it topped $8, as it was no longer a respectable value at that price point. Instead, support a local bakery.

Maurice Jones-Drew will forever be etched into the memories of the Bruin faithful.

Whether it was his 322 rushing yard and five-touchdown performance against Washington in 2004.

Or his electrifying punt returns — boasting a career average of 23.2 yards per return which ranks second in NCAA history.

Or his unanimous All-American selection as an all-purpose back and returner in 2005.

The tailback captured the hearts and eyes of everyone who watched.

And while the current generation of Bruins never saw the three-time Pro Bowler play in the blue and gold, they will see the same surname stitched on the back of a UCLA jersey in 2027 with three-star recruit Duece Jones-Drew, who committed to his father’s alma mater on May 3.

Despite Maurice’s affinity for the place he once called home, he hoped that his son would not follow his footsteps to Southern California.

“I wanted to push him away from UCLA as much as possible because I wanted him to go there because he wanted to go there,” Maurice said. “I wasn’t really involved in the recruitment as much because I wanted him to enjoy and go through this process like I did. I wanted him to go to a school that he wanted to go to because it’s his football career. It’s his life. It’s going to be his journey, and I wanted him to feel comfortable wherever he went.”

So the 2017 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inductee stuck to his word.

Duece talked to all the coaches. The 5-foot-8 De La Salle running back visited other schools without his father to eliminate any bias or influence. He even drove down by himself from the Bay Area to Los Angeles for UCLA’s Junior Day.

And initially, it looked like Duece was going to stay away from his father’s alma mater after the firing of head coach DeShaun Foster and the potential exit of running backs coach AJ Steward.

But new head coach Bob Chesney retained Steward and the running backs coach encouraged Duece to attend Junior Day.

And shortly after Duece visited UCLA, he knew where he wanted to play — so much so that his parents had to stop him from committing too early.

“Coach Chesney came in and he really changed my mind on what UCLA was, and coach Steward really was on me about getting to campus and experiencing what the new coaching staff was like,” Duece said. “I went there for the Junior Day in January and I fell in love. I love what they believe in and how they compete every day to be the best version of themselves.”

Despite the urge to commit on the spot, the three-star prospect heeded his parents’ advice and took his final visits to the other schools on his list, which included California, Arizona and Utah.

And after juxtaposing his experiences on all his other visits to his experience in Westwood, he had a clear decision.

“My parents always taught me to be myself, and I knew that UCLA was the best school for me, education-wise, and having my dad be there and be such a great player there as well,” Duece said. “I wanted to commit when I went down there in January, but I listened and waited, and I feel like that was the best decision for me. To go visit other schools and see where UCLA stood on my board, and they stood leaps and bounds above Cal and Arizona.”

Throughout the recruitment process, Maurice worried that it would be easy for people to assume that his son only got offered by UCLA because of his legacy there or that he pushed him to commit to the Bruins.

But despite all of the encouragement he gave his son to not hastily pick UCLA, when Duece made his commitment official, there was no one more ecstatic.

“When he picked UCLA, I was excited. I don’t know what the word would be. It’s probably more than that,” Maurice said. “But I was happy that he felt comfortable going somewhere because these next three, four years are where you’re going to make the most leaps and bounds going from a young man to a man, and to be able to pick a school and feel the same way that I felt when I picked UCLA, it was everything I thought it would be.”

Maurice also noted that his son has the same opportunity he had when he committed to former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell in 2002 — to turn around a struggling program and create a long-lasting legacy.

But that would only be possible with the right people at the top.

And for Maurice, it felt right with Chesney.

“We preach certain things in our household, and coach Chesney preaches and practices those things,” Maurice said. “Hearing coach Chesney talk, hearing all the coaches talk, their strength staff, their training staff — everybody’s on the same page. It’s constant communication. They have a plan of how they operate, how they raise young men on and off the field. It’s a great opportunity to go to a place that needs to be put back where it needs to be.”

Above all, Maurice is looking forward to being a fan.

“I know he’s a terrific player, he’s a great student and I’m excited to see what he can do,” Maurice said of his son. “I don’t know if I still have any records, but if I do, I’m sure they’ll be broken by the time he’s out of there. I can’t wait to watch him and cheer for him and love him up and hug him and do all the stuff that dads get to do when they watch their boys.”

Time for the Bruins to go camping

UCLA preseason camp kicks off on Thursday on the UCLA campus. Chesney and his staff will lead the Bruins through workouts at Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine from Aug. 10-14. Many coaches opt to spend at least a few days away from campus during preseason workouts to promote more team bonding. UCLA will kick off Chesney’s debut season at Cal on Sept. 5.

Betts wins prestigious Honda Cup

UCLA center Lauren Betts shoots over Duke’s Toby Fournier during an Elite Eight game in Sacramento on March 29.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Former UCLA All-American Lauren Betts earned one more award to cap her successful run as a Bruin.

Betts was named 2026 Honda Cup winner at the Collegiate Women Sports awards last week, becoming the seventh Bruin and 20th basketball player to win the top award in college women’s sports. Honda awards are presented to top performers in 12 NCAA sports and they compete for the top overall prize — the Honda Cup.

Betts helped UCLA win its first women’s basketball NCAA national championship, earning the tournament’s most outstanding player award. She led UCLA in scoring (17.1) and rebounding (8.8) while averaging 27.7 minutes per game.

In case you missed it

Bob Chesney, UCLA top players share their belief Bruins will win at Big Ten media days

Plaschke: Bob Chesney is going to do the impossible at UCLA — win

Big Ten commissioner pushes back on talk of breaking away from NCAA with SEC

Teen obtained UCLA jersey worn by Kareem in trade for his radio. Decades later, he’s set to make a fortune

UCLA Unlocked: Are you ready to make room on the Bob Chesney bandwagon?

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

As Israel gears up to hold elections in October, a dramatic surge in settlement activity has heightened concerns that the settler movement is stepping up efforts to cement its grip on the occupied West Bank, in stark defiance of international law.

Last week, the United Nations warned that attacks by Israeli settlers – often carried out alongside Israeli forces – and the creation of illegal settlements and outposts had hit “an all-time high”.

The uptick comes as members of Israel’s hard right seek to ratchet up the political temperature ahead of the crucial polls. It also follows a parliamentary term during which Israel moved to entrench control over the West Bank deeper within the machinery of the state, shifting authority from military administration to civilian institutions, accelerating settlement planning and expanding infrastructure.

However, the Religious Zionist Party of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – the man widely credited as pushing the settler project to the forefront of Israeli political debate – is suggested by numerous opinion polls to be far from certain to even meet the electoral threshold for the post-election Knesset.

This has prompted what analysts describe as a desperate scramble to promote the settlement mission while consolidating the support of the settler minority that Smotrich grew up within.

Speaking at a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party in late July, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz boasted that, under the governing coalition and Smotrich’s supervision, Israel had approved the establishment of 104 illegal settlements and some 160 settlement farms in the West Bank since coming to power in 2022, according to Israeli media.

In August of last year, Smotrich announced the creation of the E1 settlement project, linking occupied East Jerusalem with the existing settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east – a proposal which, Smotrich bragged, “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The race to settle

Smotrich, who made increased administrative control over the West Bank a condition for supporting Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition in 2022, has undertaken a series of measures to expand the influence of settlers within policymaking.

In 2023, he established his influential Settlements Administration agency within the Ministry of Defence – which oversees the West Bank’s occupation. And last month, he legally embedded the agency within the ministry, making it harder to reverse any of the decisions taken under its watch.

Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said it is “hard to imagine” that Netanyahu “won’t come up with some kind of imaginative ploy to keep him and the far right on the ticket”, referring to Smotrich.

“He has very strong support within the settlements and the ideological far-right,” Flaschenberg added, “but that might not be enough in and of itself to get him securely past the threshold. He’s being squeezed between the populism of [far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and what many people in the lower middle class see as the security of Netanyahu.”

Keeping the hard right

Allied to Smotrich is a prime minister who observers describe as facing not simply an electoral battle, but an existential battle for both his freedom – as a consequence of his long-running corruption trial – and legacy, should the independent inquiry into his failings ahead of the Hamas-led attack of 2023 go ahead.

Given the stakes, some analysts have suggested the incumbent was far from ready to gamble on losing the support of Israel’s hard right and settler movement by condemning the increasing levels of violence in the West Bank.

“We saw him come out on US TV and concede that there may have been a few incidents in the West Bank, but nothing serious,” Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg said of Netanyahu’s response to the widespread violence that has swept the West Bank in recent weeks.

“He needs the hard right and settlers’ support, if not for him individually, then at least for his bloc.”

While Netanyahu may feel he has room to manoeuvre over the hugely controversial issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, no such margin existed within the hard right and settlers. Ultra-Orthodox parties, a key component in the 2022 coalition government, have made the exemption of their constituents from the draft – which almost all Israeli adults are eligible for – a pillar of their political campaigning in recent years.

“Netanyahu knows that the ultra-Orthodox will likely stay with him,” added Mekelberg. “The settlers are more binary. You’re either for them or against,” he said.

Cresting the wave

Irrespective of electoral tactics, the consequences for people living in the occupied West Bank have been catastrophic. In July alone, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, there were 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their property: 1,458 by the Israeli army and 798 by settlers.

After Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democrats party, offered a rare criticism of the settler “extremism” which triggered the latest round of violence, Katz accused him of spreading a “blood libel”.

According to leaks of the same meeting in Hebrew-language media, other ministers present called for a harsher response to any resistance from Palestinians, and for the military to be given even greater freedom to shoot at them.

“As the election gets closer, we’re seeing an even greater increase in the violence that’s been escalating ever since October 2023,” said Yair Dvir, of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“It’s important to add this isn’t just the scale of the violence, but also its brutality and the participation of the Israeli state – both the soldiers and the political support they’re receiving.”

Iran and Oman are reportedly closing in on a deal that would give the Islamic Republic full control over ships entering the Strait of Hormuz. This comes as a tenuous pause in fighting between the U.S. and Iran enters a sixth day and a day after U.S. President Donald Trump insisted that Iran would fully open the vital chokepoint today or face new and more intense attacks that would include powerplants, other civilian infrastructure and even strikes on leadership. Iran largely closed the Strait after it was hit by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. The American leader is pushing a rekindled effort to find a diplomatic off-ramp to a conflict that has killed 18 American troops, wounded hundreds more, drained U.S. weapons stocks and roiled international relations and global financial markets.

Highlighting the precarious nature of vessel transits through this narrow passage between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), another ship was struck by Iran overnight as it was leaving the Strait, a maritime security official told TWZ.

The Gulf of Oman, which is the eastern approach to the Strait and the Persian Gulf, is largely controlled by Iran to the north and Oman to the south. Under the emerging agreement between those countries, “vessels heading into the Persian Gulf will transit a channel controlled by Iran, and close to its coast. Ships leaving the Gulf will travel on a channel near Oman,” The New York Times reported.

Both Iran and the U.S. are already following this general traffic pattern, with the U.S. Navy recommending transits close to the Omani coastline and Iran pushing shipping toward its shores. The middle of the Strait has been deemed too hazardous because of the threat primarily from mines. The new plan being pushed by Iran and Oman would expand the use of these traffic patterns. Unless there is some special cutout made in the deal, it could require the U.S. Navy to seek permission to enter the Persian Gulf and then have to make the transit deep in Iranian waters, giving American warships degraded defensive options and putting them in the heart of Iran’s weapons engagement envelope.

While Iranian officials say that they won’t impose tolls, the accord does include a charge for service fees to cover the environmental impact of the shipping, security for the cargo ships and tankers, and staffing, the publication added. Revenues would be divided equally between Iran and Oman, two Iranian officials told the Times.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that “Tehran ​is unlikely to change its position,” because it has already shown flexibility by moving from its initial position of seeking full control over ​traffic in both directions in the strait.

But a U.S. official familiar with the negotiations told the Times on Monday that the Iranian account was “not accurate,” and said that any “temporary” routes established through the strait would not involve approvals or permissions by Iran, and would involve no tolls.

In the spirit of Zeus’ law to be generous toward guests, I’m honored to welcome classics professor Emily Wilson to the land of film criticism. As she’s recently learned, it’s an adventure that sails smack into islands of musky internet trolls and clashes with cinematic and literary titans like Christopher Nolan and Joyce Carol Oates.

Nolan credits the opening line of Wilson’s 2017 translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” — “Tell me about a complicated man” — as partly inspiring his adaptation of the ancient epic, which, nearly a month into its release, is soldiering toward a billion-dollar box office gross. Symbiotically, Wilson’s edition is now the No. 2 bestselling book in the country. That Wilson’s incendiary essay in the London Review of Books revealed she doesn’t think much of Nolan’s blockbuster struck some as hubris, including Oates, who took to social media to decry the scholar’s “tone of dismissal” and “haughty superiority.”

If you haven’t been following the controversy, Wilson felt that Nolan had flattened the saga by mostly erasing the Greek gods and Odysseus’ wit, lust and thorny contradictions. Oates likened the tone of Wilson’s critique to the “crude language of MAGA folks.” In short: Wilson snuck a 2,700-year-old poem through the gates of mainstream taste — and after that victory, her arrogance left her marooned.

Sounds familiar if you’ve read Homer. Less so if you’ve only seen the film. Wilson is right that Nolan’s movie lacks Odysseus’ egomaniacal brilliance.

I’m here to play peacemaker. Wilson adores Odysseus so much that she has his bow tattooed on her right leg. Frankly, Nolan doesn’t seem to like the wily, libidinous and violent trickster-veteran of the poem — half Rhett Butler, half Rambo in “First Blood” — as much as Wilson or I do. Because if he did, that Odysseus would be onscreen.

But having seen his movie twice, it’s obvious that Nolan is less interested in Wilson’s first line than her fifth: “Tell the old story for our modern times.” That, he’s done. His take on Homer is, as I wrote in my original review, “a moralistic ‘Oppenheimer’ prequel.” For the record, I like it anyway.

Film critics and translators start work in the same place. Step one: What is the artist’s intent? Wilson considered the entirety of Homer’s tale and decided the right word for polytropos was “complicated.” I weighed what Nolan chose to protect, tweak and abandon in his own version and concluded that he wanted to make an action-tragedy about societal decline.

Movies must be measured against their own ambitions. A stoner comedy can’t be graded like a Shakespearean drama (and vice versa). Here’s where Wilson runs aground. She wants to allow Nolan creative freedom, knowing that the Greek playwrights rebooted figures like Odysseus and Medea just like Marvel treats Spider-Man. There’s even a spinoff of the original poem in which Odysseus has kids with Circe.

Yet, storytellers have to protect the core of their characters. Medea must be angry, Spider-Man must be helpful and Odysseus, dang it, must have swagger. Damon doesn’t.

This is why Wilson deserves empathy even if she can’t bring herself to grant Nolan the same grace. As a professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania, she’ll be on the front line of academics condemned to unteach Nolan’s heavily altered screenplay to students who will arrive quoting it chapter and verse. For decades to come, high school kids — probably even a few high school teachers — are just going to pop in his Blu-ray and call it a day.

Nolan does hit his target, eventually. Yet his script wobbles. He’s made a movie about Odysseus’ remorse for inventing the Trojan horse without a crucial scene: the moment he invents it. We see Odysseus silently stroll the beach outside Troy, but not the pride he must have felt running back to base to pitch an idea that will finish the war and let his allies go home. The emotional arc Nolan wants to trace should start there. The beat’s absence is confounding since Odysseus also needs to appear clever (and never does).

This is what it means to measure a film against its ambitions. Only after we accept that Nolan is solely interested in human mistakes can we gauge his disregard for the Greek gods. I dig that choice — it’s bold — yet still think he flubs it by not replacing the magical powers of Charlize Theron’s Calypso and Zendaya’s Athena with, say, a personality. What a waste of two terrific actors. It’s no wonder Oates stuck up for him. Her novel “Blonde” also stripped the agency from love goddess Marilyn Monroe and its own 2022 movie adaptation launched a thousand hot takes.

There will never be a faithful modern film version of “The Odyssey.” No, not even whatever AI slop Elon Musk claims he’s green-lighted, a project I’m sure will come to fruition as fast as his any-year-now claim that he’s landing on Mars.

The issue isn’t just the poem’s length. It’s that today’s audiences have zero stomach for happy endings about horrible wrongs. We can barely rationalize the slaughter of the suitors. No one wants to watch Homer’s gory scene after that, when Telemachus cruelly orders a dozen enslaved girls to clean up the mess and then executes them too.

Only a seven-and-a-half hour Italian miniseries produced by Dino de Laurentiis in 1968 dares mention that second bloodbath and even in that, the women are hung offscreen after we’ve been assured (fictitiously) that the maids tried to kill them first. (Side note: Dino’s Penelope, played by the mighty Irene Papas, is my favorite.)

Previous movie adaptations of “The Odyssey” soft-pedal or ignore the hero’s postwar PTSD. You catch a glimpse of it in the two-part NBC special from 1997 in which Armand Assante’s Odysseus rescues a Trojan toddler. But mainly, he spends more time hot-tubbing with Vanessa Williams’ Calypso.

That’s not a knock. The ’90s “Odyssey” is as tacky as Caesars Palace but Assante’s smooth-talking horndog is closer to my ideal Odysseus than Damon’s neutered mope. He sleeps with both Calypso and Circe and still earns his tender reunion with Penelope by choosing her beloved wrinkles over those gods’ immortal perfection. (For what it’s worth, Oates is a fan of it too. Wilson has yet to comment.)

Only the two most recent versions — Nolan’s and Uberto Pasolini’s 2024 “The Return,” starring a sinewy Ralph Fiennes — center on Odysseus’ culpability for the carnage of the Trojan War. Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another. I’m tempted to diagnose the current gloom as the result of our own post-9/11 forever wars.

The 21st century has seen enough genocide for Homer to compose a hundred sequels. Only those stubbornly ignorant to the human cost of actual combat would be psyched to bring on more of it. (Just ask the veterans in my family how they feel things are going in Iran.) At the end of “The Return,” when Fiennes stands entrail-smeared before his beloved Penelope, she recoils from the horror of the battlefield brought right into their home.

That interpretation has its flaws too. The middle stretch has a concocted outdoor chase sequence that feels like a clumsy campground slasher. Wilson applauded its “stylish sparseness.” Fair enough. I’d still love to invite her and Nolan and even Oates to a banquet of wine and roasted fowl and have a blast agreeing to disagree. No weapons allowed.