SEATTLE — Gabriel Pec had a goal and an assist to back goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski and the Galaxy beat Seattle 2-0 on Saturday night, ending the Sounders’ 22-match unbeaten streak at home as well as a nine-match unbeaten run this season.

Greg Vanney led Los Angeles to its first victory in Seattle since July 9, 2016 — Bruce Arena’s final season as the Galaxy’s coach.

Pec used assists from Marco Reus and defender Miki Yamane in the 23rd minute to score his fifth goal of the season, giving the Galaxy a 1-0 lead that stood through halftime. It was his fourth goal in the last three matches and his 27th in 75 career appearances.

Reus’ assist was his fifth this season, while Yamane collected his first.

Pec and Edwin Cerrillo set up Matheus Nascimento’s first goal this season two minutes into stoppage time to clinch the victory. Cerrillo entered in the 89th minute before snagging his first assist and Pec’s helper was his fourth.

Marcinkowski stopped six shots for the Galaxy (5-5-4). It was his first clean sheet in his 10th start this season.

Andrew Thomas finished without a save for Seattle (7-2-3), whose only other loss came in its road opener at Real Salt Lake on Feb. 28.

The Galaxy extended the league’s longest current streak with at least one goal scored to 23.

Seattle was the last team to shut out the Galaxy, doing so with a 4-0 road win on Aug. 10 last season.

The Sounders were coming off a 3-2 victory over Arena’s San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday, while the Galaxy lost to Sporting Kansas City — whose only other victory to that point came against the Galaxy on the road.

The Galaxy lead the all-time series with the Sounders 16-11-15, including a 5-8-8 record in Seattle.

The Sounders fall to 4-1-1 at home and the Galaxy improve to 3-3-2 on the road.

Up next

Galaxy: Host the Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

Seattle: Visits LAFC on May 24.

The warning comes as millions of Brits prepare for peak holiday season

British families arranging summer holidays are being advised to double-check this before travelling or face last-minute disruptions that could jeopardise their plans.

HM Passport Office has issued a new alert to households submitting passport applications together, warning that a straightforward error when posting documents could delay the procedure. In guidance published online, the body stated families and couples should submit all supporting paperwork in one envelope when making multiple applications. Authorities emphasised this is especially vital where identical documentation – such as birth or marriage certificates – is required for more than one person.

The department said: “Linking the right documents for multiple applications can help avoid delays.”

Straightforward measure that could prevent weeks of waiting

According to the official guidance, applicants should place all paperwork in a sturdy envelope and clearly mark each application reference number on the front, above the address.

Families are also informed they can post their documents to any of the addresses supplied, even if individual applicants received different submission instructions.

However, there is one critical condition: if anyone in the group requires their identity verified, documents must not be dispatched until this stage is completed. Applicants will receive an email confirming when the Passport Office is prepared to accept paperwork.

Why this is important right now

The alert comes as millions of Britons gear up for the peak holiday season, when demand for passports typically rockets.

Official government guidance states that standard UK passport applications usually take up to three weeks, though this can take longer if documents are missing or incorrectly submitted.

The UK Government advises travellers to apply well in advance of any planned trips and to check passport validity rules for their destination, particularly for travel to the EU, where stricter expiry and issue-date requirements apply post-Brexit.

The risk of expensive travel chaos

Failing to follow the correct procedure could mean applications are separated or delayed while officials attempt to match documents to the right person.

This, in turn, risks passports failing to arrive on time, potentially resulting in missed flights, cancelled holidays and hefty rebooking charges.

With overseas travel continuing to bounce back strongly, officials are urging families not to leave anything to chance.

The Passport Office said planning ahead and following the correct steps allows travellers to “plan ahead with confidence” – and avoid unnecessary stress just weeks before departure. Further details can be found here.

Fans celebrated across Algiers after USM Alger beat Zamalek 8-7 on penalties in Cairo, claiming their second CAF Confederation Cup after a 1-1 aggregate draw. The Algerian club first won the trophy in 2023.

Authorities have confirmed ‘Timmy’ the whale, whose rescue drew global attention, has been found dead off the coast of Denmark. The news comes two weeks after his complicated rescue off Germany’s Baltic coast and release into the North Sea.

REALITY star Maura Higgins has asked former Strictly Come Dancing pro Karen Hauer to help her train for the US version of the show.

The Love Islander will start filming for Dancing with the Stars in America in July.

But she has already begun training in London with Karen, 44, who was axed from the BBC1 show this year.

An insider said: “Maura is a complete novice when it comes to dancing so Karen has kindly offered to show her the ropes and teach her the basics.

“Maura is determined not to be the first voted off so is giving it her all.

“She has her sights set on becoming a huge star in America.”

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Earlier this year Maura, 35, lost out in the final of the US version of The Traitors.

We revealed this week how Maura  is walking away from Love Island USA.

She revealed that she’s ready for a fresh start after three years.

Speaking to Vulture about whether fans would see her back on screens this summer, she said: “You won’t. I’ve done it for three years, and they’ll always be family to me, but I think it’s time to try something different.

“I’ve got amazing opportunities coming in the door.

“I think it’s time to say good-bye. But you know what? I won’t say forever.”

It took three months of hard work to change Amorim’s mind.

On 6 March 2025, he started the first leg of the Europa League last-16 draw with Real Sociedad. He kept his place for the league game against Arsenal and, from that point, has started every major game United have played.

“Football changes. Life changes,” Casemiro said in his recent interview with former United captain Ferdinand.

“For me, [with] the best players in the world, it’s about the mentality. I might not play good – I’m not a robot and I know. But the next [game], I give everything on the pitch. The mentality is next, next, next.”

It is a mentality that has brought Casemiro back into the Brazil squad – he is expected to be Carlo Ancelotti’s captain at this summer’s tournament.

This season, the 34-year-old’s influence has noticeably increased.

Of all the players in Michael Carrick’s squad, it is widely accepted if Casemiro had been injured in February, after the transfer deadline had closed, his absence would have been the hardest to cover in the ultimately successful quest for Champions League qualification.

“He has been an absolute pleasure to work with,” Carrick says in his programme notes for the Forest game.

“He will always have a special connection with Manchester United.”

Carrick has felt the early clarity around Casemiro’s exit – announced on 22 January, days after the manager’s own return as Amorim’s temporary replacement – has been beneficial for player and club.

Aside from the mentality aspect, the player’s influence at Old Trafford should extend far longer than his physical presence.

When Casemiro arrived from Real Madrid in 2022 in a deal worth up to £70m, Kobbie Mainoo, then aged 17, felt he would learn huge amounts from one of the most decorated players in the game.

Amid the Brazilian’s collapse in form, Mainoo ended up battling for a start with Casemiro, which wasn’t a situation he envisaged.

The clear by-product of Amorim’s exit has been the partnership between the pair, who have played alongside each other in 13 of Carrick’s 15 matches in charge – a one-match absence for both players because of minor injuries the only reason it was not 15 out of 15.

“Kobbie is my friend,” Casemiro explained earlier this month in a separate interview with the respected United We Stand fanzine.

“I have an excellent relationship with him. We are always joking – in English because he doesn’t speak Portuguese.

“He is a complete player, the present and the future of Manchester.

“Why? Because he has already taught us that he can play to a high level for his club and country. The one thing he needs to improve is to play more with the ball, to touch the ball more, because he has so much quality.

“Then it’s the decision-making which comes with experience. That improves with age.”

May 15 (UPI) — Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes finalized the official vote count Friday after 33 days of scrutiny and legal challenges, confirming that right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez will compete in a presidential runoff June 7.

The final tally of the mid-April voting placed Fujimori first with 17.18% of valid votes.

The main battle centered on second place, where Sánchez secured 12.03% and narrowly overtook conservative candidate Rafael López Aliaga, who finished third with 11.90%, trailing by just 21,210 votes.

“The race for the runoff produced a scenario similar to 2021, with a contest between the left and the right,” electoral law expert José Tello told RPP Noticias.

The dispute over second place shifted dramatically as vote counting progressed in Peru’s remote regions. Early results favored López Aliaga, whose strongest support came from Lima, the capital and largest urban voting bloc.

However, after more than 90% of ballots had been processed, returns from rural and highland regions in southern Peru boosted Sánchez’s candidacy, repeating voting patterns seen in the 2021 election, when then-little-known rural teacher Pedro Castillo advanced to the runoff and later won the presidency.

The final outcome depended on Peru’s Special Electoral Juries, which reviewed 653 disputed and challenged voting records before electoral authorities could release the definitive results.

After the official figures were announced, López Aliaga led a protest outside the headquarters of Peru’s National Jury of Elections, rejecting the outcome, alleging fraud and demanding an international audit, according to Diario Gestión.

With the official count completed, Peru’s National Jury of Elections is expected to formally certify the runoff candidates Sunday ahead of the second-round vote that will determine who governs the country for the 2026-2031 constitutional term.

Rousey won the fight with her signature armbar lock, forcing Carano into submission just 17 seconds into the bout.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) star Ronda Rousey has re-retired after demolishing fellow combat sports trailblazer Gina Carano in their long-awaited non-title comeback bout in Los Angeles, defeating her rival by armbar after just 17 seconds.

After a hype-filled build-up, the bout on Saturday was a jarring anti-climax, with Rousey flooring Carano almost immediately before wrestling her into an armbar to end the fight.

American stars Rousey, 39, and Carano, 44, are widely regarded as two of the most important female fighters in the history of MMA, helping to take the sport into the mainstream during their fighting heydays more than a decade ago.

Carano had parlayed her success into a Hollywood career, appearing in several action movie roles, but had not fought since 2009 before her appearance in Saturday’s featherweight bout.

Rousey, a 2008 Olympics judo bronze medallist who subsequently found huge success in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), retired from the sport in 2016 after suffering back-to-back defeats against Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm.

The fighters were lured back into the cage for Saturday’s card at the Intuit Dome with the promise of a bumper payday that will reportedly see each fighter earn several million dollars from the streaming giant.

Rousey (13-2-0 MMA) secured her 10th submission win, returning to the cage following an exit from MMA in December 2016.

She insisted afterwards her return to the ring was a one-off and ruled out the possibility of fighting again after paying tribute to Carano.

“Gina is the only person who could have brought me back into MMA – she’s my hero,” Rousey said. “She changed my world, and we changed the world, and I’ll never ever forget that or be able to pay that back enough.

“I’m so glad we finally got to share this moment.”

Asked about possibly extending her comeback, Rousey added: “There’s no way I could have ended it better than this. I want to have some more babies, got to get cooking.”

Carano (7-2-0 MMA) ⁠⁠had been inactive in the sport since August 2009, returning to MMA after a conversation last year at Rousey’s encouragement. She admitted the fight was too fast for her, regretting what ⁠⁠more she could have done in a short timeframe.

“I feel great,” Carano said after the loss. “I wanted to fight, ⁠⁠and I didn’t get that. But she trained. She ⁠⁠had her game plan. I have so much love and respect for her, and this was a victory in my life. She changed it. I woke up at 3am every morning thinking about ‌‌her. I fell back in love with mixed martial arts. There’s ‌‌so ‌‌many things to think about here. It’s just [that] the fight didn’t go my way.

“I wanted that to last longer – I felt like I was so ready, I felt so good,” she said. “But I haven’t been here for 17 years. I wanted to hit her.”

Carano, 44, is unsure whether she’ll return to MMA, choosing to keep the door open.

Carano said the mere fact of getting in shape for her return – she revealed before the bout she had shed more than 100 pounds (45kg) in the two years leading up to the contest – was a victory.

“Right now, just getting in the cage was a victory, getting here after 17 years is a victory. Fighting a legend was a victory. I feel great, I just wanted to fight, and I didn’t get to do that.”

LOVE Island stars Whitney Adebayo and Yamen Sanders have split after five months.

The pair found love in the ITV All Stars villa in South Africa in January – finishing in fifth place.

However, rumours have swirled of their break-up after the couple were navigating a long-distance relationship.

Whitney was based in the UK while American footballer Yamen was in the US.

A source told me: “Whitney and Yamen did try and put everything into their relationship.

“But it has inevitably been tough to keep up their romance long-distance.

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“Whitney has been spending more time with her girls and has been leaning on them while navigating her break-up.”

Earlier this week, Whitney was spotted on TikTok with fellow Love Island star Millie Court having a girly night in.

The pair were seen in their pyjamas clinking glasses of red wine together with the audio ‘so we’re going to heal’ playing.

Sounds like Whitney has a hot girl summer pending.

CONCORD, N.H. — A growing effort to raise suspicion about the security of voting systems has kindled a back-to-the-future moment among conservatives in some parts of the U.S.

Republican lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation that would require all election ballots to be counted by hand instead of electronic tabulators. Similar proposals have been floated within some local governments, including about a dozen New Hampshire towns and Washoe County in the presidential battleground state of Nevada.

The push for hand-counting ballots comes amid mistrust of elections stoked by many Republicans who advance the false narrative that widespread fraud cost former President Trump reelection in the 2020 contest.

Despite no evidence of widespread fraud or major irregularities, conspiracy theories have proliferated among his allies that voting systems were somehow manipulated to favor Democrat Joe Biden. That has prompted calls to ban electronic tabulators used to scan ballots, record votes and compile race tallies.

“It’s our responsibility, and it should be our desire, to count every vote and to imbue confidence in our citizenry that our elections are fair and free, and that their vote is being counted,” said New Hampshire state Rep. Mark Alliegro, sponsor of a hand-counting bill that is similar to ones proposed in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Washington and West Virginia.

Alliegro said he was motivated by his analysis of recounts in nearly 50 New Hampshire state legislative races, not by the 2020 presidential election.

But some of the bill’s supporters reference the 2020 election to explain why they argue his hand-count legislation is needed. They cite a belief — despite evidence disproving it — that Trump actually won a landslide victory and that cheating is the only way to explain how New Hampshire voters elected a Republican governor and GOP majorities in the Legislature, but then backed Democrats for federal office.

Critics of the proposals to ditch electronic ballot tabulators and return to hand-counting are blunt about what they see as the motivation.

“It’s coming from conspiracy theories and lies,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that advocates for expanded voter access. “It’s attempting to lower people’s confidence in elections.”

Albert and others said it’s unrealistic to think election officials can count millions of ballots by hand and report results quickly, given that ballots often include dozens of races. The partisan review last summer of the 2 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, Ariz., which included a hand count, took several months and hundreds of people to complete.

“If you have a jurisdiction with 500 voters, you might be OK. But if you have a jurisdiction with thousands of voters, tens of thousands of voters, hundreds of thousands of voters, it’s just not going to work,” said Jennifer Morrell, a former elections clerk in Colorado and Utah who now advises state and local election officials.

Even in New Hampshire’s small towns, hand-counting is a complicated, lengthy process when a typical ballot might include 50 questions, said Milford Town Clerk Joan Dargie, who spoke against the proposed legislation on behalf of the New Hampshire City and Town Clerks Assn. She estimates her town would have to boost election workers from 200 to 350, and said many of her fellow clerks have said they will quit if they have to tabulate every ballot by hand. “People who are asking to get rid of machines obviously haven’t worked in an election,” she said.

As one example, Cobb County, Ga., performed a hand tally ordered by the state after the 2020 election. It took hundreds of people five days to count just the votes for president on roughly 397,000 ballots, said Janine Eveler, elections director for the county in metro Atlanta. She estimates it would have taken 100 days to count every race on each ballot using the same procedures.

Counting by machine isn’t just faster. Multiple studies have shown it’s also more accurate, said Charles Stewart, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The first research on the topic was done almost two decades ago, comparing recounts of New Hampshire races that were originally tabulated by hand with those tabulated by machines. In that study and subsequent research, the machines won, he said.

“Counting votes is very tedious. Human beings are bad doing tedious things, and computers are very good at doing tedious things,” Stewart said.

Most states also conduct postelection audits that are designed to identify any irregularities with ballot scanning and counting. But with many Republicans believing Biden was not legitimately elected, election machines have become a popular target.

In Nevada, a Republican county commissioner is pushing a proposal that would require hand-counting of all ballots, along with a return to primarily in-person voting and beefing up uniformed security at polling places.

“I’m 82 years old, and I’ve been through a lot of elections,” said Washoe County Commissioner Jeanne Herman. “I know that something is not right.”

The proposal has drawn opposition from other commissioners, the biggest labor union in the state and a rare front-page editorial in the largest newspaper in northern Nevada, which said the measure could cost taxpayers “millions of dollars to chase down Facebook rumors of illusory election fraud.”

In West Virginia, a bill to repeal the state law governing tabulation machines died in committee earlier this month. In Missouri, lawmakers have not yet acted on a proposal that would ban electronic voting machines and tabulation equipment and require hand-counting to be livestreamed and recorded.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Mitch Boggs Jr., said he has no proof elections have been manipulated but is responding to constituent concerns.

“You file what the constituents are asking for,” Boggs said. “But at the end of the day, what they’re really wanting is just the transparency. They want to know that our elections are secure.”

Republican state Rep. Petty McGaugh said the legislation would delay election results and likely undermine their accuracy. When she became clerk of rural Carroll County in 1995, election staff were still hand-counting ballots by marking tallies in blocks of five on paper. She noticed multiple errors and eventually switched the county to an electronic tabulation system.

“I don’t really think that in this day and age we need to go back to hand-counting where it’s so susceptible to human error,” she said. “We’ve got to start trusting electronics and computers.”

In New Hampshire, that message seems to have gotten through. Last week, a state House committee unanimously recommended killing the hand-counting legislation and voters in nine towns where the question was on the ballot in local elections rejected it.

All the Dodgers had to do was stay patient.

In a 15-2 win Saturday against the Angels in Anaheim, the Dodgers offense wasn’t able to gain much of a lead until the sixth inning. Then six consecutive free passes spurred an offensive explosion that put the game away.

In fact, Will Smith’s first-inning sacrifice fly scored the only run for either team through the first five innings, as the starting pitchers — Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski and Angels right-hander José Soriano — dueled.

Though the Dodgers scored first, Soriano avoided traffic on the bases more effectively than Wrobleski. That is, until Soriano lost command in the sixth.

Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski throws to the plate during a win over the Angels Saturday at Angel Stadium.

(Mark J. Terrill / Ap Photo/mark J. Terrill)

With one out in the sixth inning, Mookie Betts got the Dodgers’ rally started by drawing a five-pitch walk. Freddie Freeman followed suit and Smith wore a curveball to load the bases.

Soriano, who had only allowed one hit, didn’t regain his footing. He walked in two runs before being lifted. And then his replacement, Angels reliever Chase Silseth, hit Teoscar Hernández to bring in a third run for the Dodgers before they logged a hit in the inning.

Alex Call, the eighth Dodgers hitter to step up to the plate in the sixth, finally delivered the only knock of the rally, a two-run single on a ground ball through the left side of the infield.

The strong Dodgers fan presence at a sold-out Angel Stadium made itself known in the eighth inning when Shohei Ohtani drove a two-run triple into the right-field corner, raced to third as it bounced up and off the netting and then scored on a throwing error.

“MVP” chants broke out from the fans clad in blue.

They let out a roar shortly after, when Betts launched a solo homer to left.

The Dodgers continued the barrage in the ninth, scoring on pitcher Alek Manoah’s errant throw that past second base, Hernández’ sharp single up the third-base line and Ohtani’s bases-clearing double into the right-field corner.

That earned more “MVP” chants.

The Dodgers, one day removed from scratching left-hander Blake Snell and pivoting to a bullpen game on Friday, needed Wrobleski to give their relievers a breather.

The Dodgers’ bats ultimately helped take pressure off all the team’s pitchers.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been tense since the Taliban took power in 2021.

On Monday, Pakistan summoned a senior Afghan diplomat after an attack claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TPP. The group said it carried out two more attacks since, mostly against security forces.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of backing the fighters, which it denies.

The latest violence started with a major border skirmish in February. Mediation efforts by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkiye and China led to a pause in the fighting.

But the two sides have continued to target each other. This includes a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation centre that killed more than 250 people.

Will these breaches lead to a resumption of hostilities? And is lasting peace possible between the neighbours?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Masood Khan – Former permanent representative of Pakistan, United Nations

Michael Kugelman – Senior fellow, Atlantic Council

Obaidullah Baheer – Adjunct lecturer, American University of Afghanistan

TRAINS will run through the night to one of the UK’s busiest airports from today.

Commuters will be able to catch eight new timetabled services that offer more reliable journeys.

All-night rail services between Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport will run from today, in a major new boost to the city’s nighttime economy.

TransPennine Express has scheduled trains to run hourly through the night, every day of the week, with eight new overnight services included.

Greater Manchester residents have shared their excitement, with one saying it is “good to see these services reinstated after all these years,” and others calling it “unbelievable.”

The new schedule hopes to improve airport access, as well as offering better commuting services for hospitality workers and passengers travelling in the early hours of the morning.

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Trains from Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Airport are generally faster than driving, with the journey taking between 15 and 20 minutes, and a drive taking up to 30 minutes.

This schedule adds to the already simplified train travel system in Manchester, which only sells anytime or off-peak tickets, making services more affordable.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “We’re proud of our thriving night-time economy, and we’re looking to back it with transport that matches how people live and work.

“These all-night trains will help people get to where they need to be – whether that’s catching an early flight, getting home after a late shift, or travelling into town to enjoy everything our night-time economy has to offer.

Nicola Buckley, people director at TransPennine Express, echoed Burnham:  “These all‑night services are about supporting the people and businesses that keep Greater Manchester going 24 hours a day.

“By improving overnight connections to Manchester Airport, we’re making rail a more practical option for workers and passengers alike, while helping to strengthen the region’s night‑time economy.”

Iran to reveal its plan for Strait of Hormuz soon as Israel attacks Lebanon and Gaza, killing and wounding dozens.

The singer, whose real name is Darina Yotova, said at a press conference after her win: “I want to thank my husband, because he was the one to push me to come to Eurovision.

Because in the beginning I was not sure if I want to come or not, because I had anxiety and doubt with myself, and he was the one that he just pushed me, and he was like, ‘you need to go right now to Eurovision, right now, pick up your phone tell them you’re going’.”

The plane was forced to be diverted and ended up at its target destination several hours behind schedule after refuelling in Tahiti

A Qantas flight bound for Dallas was forced to make an emergency diversion to Tahiti after a passenger allegedly bit a cabin crew member mid-flight.

The dramatic incident unfolded aboard QF21, which had departed Melbourne for the gruelling 18-hour journey to the US.

Crew members and passengers reportedly stepped in to assist the flight attendant after the alleged attack took place in the air.

The aircraft was diverted to Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, where local police boarded the plane and removed the passenger.

Qantas confirmed the man has since been banned from flying with the airline.

A spokesperson for the carrier said: “We have zero tolerance for disruptive or threatening behaviour on our flights.”

After refuelling in Tahiti, the aircraft resumed its journey to Dallas but arrived several hours behind schedule.

It is not yet known what sparked the alleged altercation onboard.

It comes after a weekend of flight chaos.

Airports in Japan, China, India, the UAE, Singapore and Thailand have all been impacted, with airlines cancelling 366 flights and delaying a further 2,949 services, according to aviation tracking data reported by Travel and Tour World.

Major airlines affected include China Eastern Airlines, IndiGo, AirAsia and Etihad Airways, with disruption concentrated around major transit hubs including Tokyo Haneda Airport, Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, Kempegowda International Airport, Singapore Changi Airport and Zayed International Airport.

Industry analysts say the disruption is being driven by a combination of heavy storms across parts of Asia, congestion at key airports and the continuing impact of Middle East airspace restrictions, which have forced airlines to reroute aircraft and absorb significantly higher fuel costs.

The wider aviation sector is also dealing with fallout from geopolitical tensions linked to the conflict involving Iran, which has led to airspace closures and longer flight times on major Europe-Asia routes.

It has been reported this week that several carriers have already begun scaling back international schedules because of soaring operating costs.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican who has occasionally asserted his independence from President Trump, failed to advance in Saturday’s GOP primary runoff in Louisiana, as a Trump-backed foe and another candidate finished in the top two spots.

U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow won the most votes, capitalizing on the power of Trump’s endorsement in his latest attempt to purge his party of people he views as disloyal. State Treasurer John Fleming came in second to join her in the next round of voting.

Trump supported Letlow over Cassidy, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict him during his second impeachment trial over the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cassidy, a doctor, has also clashed with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy, even though he provided crucial support to help Kennedy get confirmed.

By receiving less than 50% of the vote, Letlow and Fleming, a former U.S. House member and Trump administration official, were unable to avoid the runoff, which will take place June 27. The winner will almost certainly take the November general election because of the state’s Republican leanings.

The Louisiana primary comes in the middle of a month of campaigns by Trump to exact retribution on politicians he views as having crossed him. On May 5 he helped dislodge five of seven Indiana state senators who rejected his partisan gerrymander plan.

Next Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky will face a Trump-backed challenger, Ed Gallrein, in another Republican primary. Massie angered Trump by opposing his signature tax legislation over concerns about the national debt, pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing his decision to go to war with Iran.

The president leveled insults at Cassidy on Saturday morning, calling him “a disloyal disaster” and “a terrible guy” on social media. In the evening he followed up with: “Congratulations to Congresswoman Julia Letlow on a fantastic race, beating an Incumbent Senator by Record Setting Numbers.”

Jeanelle Chachere, a 66-year-old nurse, said she considers Cassidy “a phony” and voted for Letlow solely because Trump endorsed her.

“I’m going by what he says, because I like what he does,” she said.

Election changes stir concern

The election was scrambled by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision focused on Louisiana gutting a part of the Voting Rights Act that affects how congressional maps are drawn. Although the Senate primary is moving forward, Louisiana leaders decided to delay House primaries until a future date to allow them to redo district lines ahead of time, a shift that threatened to cause confusion for voters Saturday.

Mary-Patricia Wray, who has consulted for Republican and Democratic candidates in Louisiana, said before the vote that the change could weigh against Cassidy by dampening turnout among voters who are less fervently pro-Trump.

“Suspending the congressional primaries hurts Cassidy,” she said. “Some people believe the Senate primary is canceled.”

Cassidy also complained that a new primary system enacted last year confused voters by requiring them to ask for a partisan ballot instead of the all-party primary previously in place. He said some called his office to say they had been unable to vote for him.

“The process that was set up was destined to be confusing,” Cassidy told reporters Friday.

Dadrius Lanus, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said his team fielded hundreds of calls from voters statewide who said the changes undermined their ability vote as they planned.

“A lot of the information should have gotten to voters well in advance,” Lanus said. “It’s literally been a whirlwind of confusion.”

A costly primary

Cassidy waged an aggressive campaign to convince voters he should not be counted out. Wray was among the political consultants who, as election day neared, gave the senator a chance of pulling off an upset.

The senator’s campaign was expected to have spent roughly $9.6 million on advertising through May 16, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. And Louisiana Freedom Fund, a super PAC supporting him, was on track to spend $12.3 million.

By comparison, Letlow’s campaign, which launched Jan. 20, spent roughly $3.9 million, while a super PAC backing her, the Accountability Project, spent about $6 million.

Fleming’s campaign spent about $1.5 million.

Cassidy and Louisiana Freedom Fund ran ads attacking Letlow within days of her entering the race for supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which Trump has tried to root out of the federal government.

Letlow, a college administrator before her election to the House, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the position of president of University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2020.

The ads, an attempt to characterize Letlow as a progressive trying to pass as a conservative, were one way Cassidy tried to flip the script in a race where he was on the outs with Trump.

Trump’s campaign

The senator’s vote in favor of convicting Trump after his 2021 impeachment has shadowed Cassidy throughout his second Senate term.

John Martin, a 68-year-old retired engineer in south Louisiana, said he would vote for Letlow because he was still upset by Cassidy’s decision. He waved a flier from Letlow’s campaign showing her standing alongside the president.

“I know a lot more about Cassidy than I do about her,” Martin said. “But if she’s endorsed by Trump, I’m going to believe that.”

Cassidy steered clear of Trump’s ire last year, supporting Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services despite his public reservations about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views.

Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired infectious disease physician in the New Orleans suburbs, said he backs Fleming. Had Cassidy “stood up and blocked RFK,” Workman said, he would have supported the senator for taking a strong and courageous stance.

“He had the ability to stop him,” Workman said, “and he was too weak to do that.”

As chair of the Senate Health Committee, Cassidy has been more publicly critical of Kennedy, including over funding cuts for vaccine development.

Trump blamed Cassidy for the failed nomination of his second choice for surgeon general, Casey Means, who raised doubts about vaccinating newborns for hepatitis B, a practice Cassidy supports. Trump withdrew the Means nomination and decried Cassidy.

Challenger waited for Trump’s backing

Letlow considered running last year but only entered the race after Trump announced his endorsement in January.

By that time Fleming, who was elected state treasurer in 2023, was already in the race as a Trump devotee. But Landry was looking for a better-known challenger, and he suggested Letlow to the president.

Letlow had an unconventional and tragic entry into politics.

In 2020, while she was a college administrator, her husband, Luke, was elected to the U.S. House but died of COVID-19 before he could be sworn in. Letlow ran for and won the seat in a March 2021 special election and was reelected in 2022 and 2024.

Beaumont and Brook write for the Associated Press and reported from Des Moines and Baton Rouge, respectively

It’s now official. You can call Chatsworth a 12-time City Section volleyball champion after the Chancellors won the Open Division championship on Saturday night, knocking off West Valley League rival Granada Hills 24-26, 25-21, 25-14, 25-18.

Noa Beauregard led Chatsworth with 14 kills and Grant Chang had 13.

Coach Sina Aghassy got his team to settle down and dominate the Highlanders after their first-set defeat. The two teams had split their league matches.

Both schools will move on to the state tournament next week, with pairings announced on Sunday.

Baseball

Sylmar 4, Chatsworth 3: The No. 1-seeded Spartans survived a three-run seventh inning by Chatsworth to advance to the City Section Division I semifinals against Verdugo Hills on Wednesday at Stengel Field. Tim Sepulveda had two hits.

Verdugo Hills 8, Sun Valley Poly 2: Jered Smith hit a grand slam in the sixth inning to help the Dons reach the City Division I semifinals.

Taft 11, Cleveland 0: The Toreadors advanced to the Division I semifinal behind Sebastian Gamez, who threw the shutout. Nate Swinson had two hits and two RBIs.

Venice 7, Palisades 6: The Gondoliers earned a match against Taft in the Division I semifinals. Darius Basco’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh won it. Miguel Medina threw three scoreless innings of relief.

Softball

La Habra 6, Murrieta Mesa 4: Rylee Gruener hit a grand slam during a five-run inning to enable La Habra to eliminate top-seeded Murrieta Mesa in the Division I playoffs. Alyssa Hernandez added three hits.

Orange Lutheran 17, Chino Hills 14: In a wild Division 1 playoff game, Sierra Nichols and Madelyn Armendariz each had four hits for Orange Lutheran, with Armendariz getting three doubles. Nichols, Rylee Silva and Eliza Johnson hit home runs. Brett Lambrecht had five RBIs for Chino Hills.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 8, Oaks Christian 5: The Mission League champions advanced behind freshman pitcher Ainsley Jenkins, who came in and provided three innings of three-hit relief pitching. Nadia Ledon, Keira Luderer and Ellayne Tellez-Perez hit home runs.

Norco 8, Riverside Poly 2: The No. 2-seeded Cougars were led by Savannah Gonzalez, who had three hits, including a home run. Coral Williams struck out 13. Camryn May and Sadie Burroughs also had three hits.

Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all withdrew in protest against Israel’s participation in the midst of its war on Gaza.

As the Eurovision Song Contest took to the stage for the Saturday night final in Vienna, thousands protested outside against Israel’s inclusion, and five countries boycotted the event over the genocidal war on Gaza.

Protesters marched through the Austrian capital to highlight what critics described as a double standard. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) organisers refused to exclude Israel, despite banning Russia following its invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

Eurovision, which attracted 166 million viewers last year, is seeing the largest boycott in its 70-year history.

Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all withdrew because of Israel’s inclusion, with some of their national broadcasters refusing to air the show.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has emerged as one of Israel’s strongest critics in Europe, said on Friday that the decision puts Spain on “the right side of history”.

Last month, more than 1,000 artists called on fans to boycott Eurovision in an open letter against Israel’s participation. Among the artists were outspoken critics of Israel, Macklemore and Paloma Faith. Macklemore has released songs protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Double standards

On Monday, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard denounced the EBU for allowing Israel to participate.

“The failure of the European Broadcasting Union to suspend Israel from Eurovision, as it did with Russia, is an act of cowardice and an illustration of blatant double standards when it comes to Israel,” she said.

Reporting from Vienna, Al Jazeera’s Charlie Angela said 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the city earlier on Saturday to protest against Israel’s participation.

Angela reported that protesters accused the competition of normalising Israel’s actions in Gaza, adding that Eurovision was “bending over backwards” to justify including Israel while excluding Russia.

Russia has faced a widespread cultural boycott following the Ukraine invasion. It is banned from international football tournaments, and FIFA and UEFA have excluded Russian domestic teams from all competitions, including the Champions League.

The winner of Eurovision will be selected by both a professional jury and TV viewers voting for their favourite act.

Austria won the competition last year, with Israel second.

The Israeli government was later accused of unfairly influencing voting. New rules have since been introduced.

Iraq’s new prime minister Ali al‑Zaidi has formally taken office in Baghdad, pledging sweeping economic and financial reforms. Al-Zaidi only has a partial cabinet as parliament is yet to approve key ministers, including interior and defence.

The UK has received no points from the public vote for the fourth year in a row with the song Eins, Zwei, Drei.

The UK was humiliated at the Eurovision Song Contest coming dead last with just one point. The UK has received no points from the public vote for the fourth year in a row at the 2026 final of the Eurovision Song Contest, leaving it in last place.

Look Mum No Computer, whose real name Sam Battle, picked up one point from the jury votes and zero from the public tonight with the song Eins, Zwei, Drei. Three previous UK acts – Remember Monday, Olly Alexander and Mae Muller – also received zero points from the public vote.

Some viewers were fuming with one saying: “SURELY it’s time for the BBC Eurovision team to be overhauled. Enough is enough. Why do we partake just to get 0 televotes every year. Viewers expect UK to be last or thereabouts every time because of the poor reputation the BBC has built up over the years.”

READ MORE: Bulgaria wins Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with BangarangaREAD MORE: Eurovision 2026 LIVE: Bulgaria crowned winner but UK humiliated with just 1 point

Another wrote: “The UK is home to some of history’s greatest songwriters… Queen, The Beatles, Adele, David Bowie, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, Phil Collins, George Michael, countless others. So why can we never do that heritage proud at Eurovision?”

The UK gave its 12 points to France in the jury vote of the Eurovision 2026 grand final. The result, presented by Strictly Come Dancing star La Voix, also saw Bulgaria awarded 10 points, Czechia awarded eight and Ukraine given seven.

Bulgaria’s Dara won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Bangaranga, finishing with 516 points, ahead of Israel’s Noam Bettan, with the song Michelle, on 343 points. Romania’s Alexandra Capitanescu, with the song Choke Me, finished third.

Dara said after winning: “I still don’t know what is going on, I want to thank all of the juries who gave us those points, we tried to give our best and I know every artist in this room is special and I got inspired by everybody… y’all amazing.”

UK act Look Mum No Computer appeared to have been ready for a low score, insisting before the competition that he was not worried. The YouTuber, 37, whose real name is Sam Battle, performed the song Eins, Zwei, Drei.

Asked if he has a fear of scoring nothing, he said: “No, in fact, there’s a T-shirt that I’m dreaming of saying, ‘Look Mum, No Points’ There’s an outcome where there’s still fun to be had, even if there is nul points.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra isn’t worried that he has less money and fewer endorsements than other candidates running for mayor of Los Angeles. He isn’t worried because the lessons he has gleaned from his 11 years in public office are that Things Work Out. Opportunities Arise. The Underdog Surprises People.

If you lived a life shaped by luck and discipline and powerful patrons, a life that propelled you, after one term as a state assemblyman, to become a respected member of Congress, you might feel the same way.

At age 43, driven less by a determined vision than by a strict work ethic and influential allies, Becerra has accumulated a fair share of political success, particularly considering he had no ambition for public office until about a decade ago.

As chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, he forged strong relationships with Capitol Hill leaders and President Clinton. He won a plum assignment on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the first Latino so named. Colleagues from both parties regard him as sharp and fair-minded.

This time around, however, happenstance and hard work may not be enough. The mayor’s race is testing Becerra’s political acumen and his sunny string of luck. The candidate once perceived as the “favorite son” among up-and-coming Latino leaders is jousting for recognition in a crowded field. Even former allies such as County Supervisor Gloria Molina say they are puzzled that he is running.

Becerra has been slow to develop a compelling message for his candidacy. He has infuriated some Latino leaders who fear that he will split community support with fellow candidate and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, preventing either one from winning. He has come under fire for his role in President Clinton’s controversial commutation of a drug trafficker’s sentence.

Becerra’s involvement in the commutation flap was a jarring contrast to the most persistent image of the congressman–that of a clean-cut, above-the-board legislator, a man some colleagues admire as the “Boy Scout” of politics.

Becerra’s mother, Maria Teresa, has a favorite story about her son. One Sunday morning when he was about 8 years old, he tired of waiting as she readied his three sisters for Mass at their south Sacramento church.

“Vamos, Mama,” he said. “Mass starts in 10 minutes.”

“Si, hijo,” she responded. “Paciencia.”

But Becerra couldn’t wait. Not willing to risk being late, he walked out the door and down the seven blocks to church by himself.

The entire truth about that Sunday may be a little less saccharine.

“I probably didn’t want to go to a later Mass and miss football,” Becerra said recently, laughing.

Hard Work and Good Grades

The only son among four children, Becerra always got good grades. He broke up fights in high school. He helped his father do construction work as a teenager, quick to handle the heavy labor.

Even then, he succeeded with a combination of chance and by-the-books meticulousness.

Take golf.

It was not the obvious sport for the son of a construction worker growing up in a one-bedroom house. But an elementary school friend’s father was an avid player, and gave his son a set of golf clubs. The two boys putted around in the friend’s backyard after class. When they grew older, they played at a small public course nearby, sharing a single set of clubs.

Finally, Becerra’s father scraped together enough money to buy him a cheap set of Kmart clubs. But he didn’t have enough to pay for lessons. So Becerra mastered golf much as he would tackle politics: by cramming.

He went to the library and checked out golf books. He cut the weekly golf tips column out of the Sacramento Bee. Finally, by his senior year at C.K. McClatchy High School, he made the varsity golf team.

During high school, Becerra also mastered a very different hobby: poker. He became so good that years later, during a trip to Las Vegas with his parents, a casino offered him a job as a dealer.

While he gained command of some subjects with focus and diligence, chance also set him on his course to college.

One day in high school chemistry class, a friend who had botched an exam tossed aside his application to Stanford University. Becerra picked it up and, on a whim, filled it out. He didn’t know where the campus was until he and his mother drove there to enroll him in the fall of 1976.

The son of Mexican immigrants–his mother grew up in Guadalajara and his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento but raised in Tijuana–Becerra would become the first in his family to graduate from college.

Close friend Arturo Vargas, who met Becerra at Stanford, said he “always had a clean-boy image, almost to a fault.”

“On campus, people tended to drink beer and be rowdy,” said Vargas, now the executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, based in Los Angeles. “The time I knew him, he was more likely to drink milk.”

Another college acquaintance said he was “the straightest Chicano I knew. It looked like his short-sleeved shirts were ironed.” (They were.)

When his girlfriend–now wife–Carolina Reyes was downstairs in the lounge of the Casa Zapata dorm leading meetings of the Chicano activist organization MEChA, Becerra was more likely to be upstairs studying. Friends encouraged him to take a greater leadership role on campus, but Becerra was intent on getting into law school. (He did, graduating from Stanford Law in 1984.)

“I was the grandiose one who wanted to conquer the world, and he did too, but he wanted to do it step by step,” said Reyes, now an obstetrician.

After working for Legal Aid in Massachusetts while his wife attended Harvard Medical School, Becerra came back to Sacramento to work for state Sen. Art Torres, who had been his boss during a post-college fellowship. He moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to run Torres’ district office.

Soon, he met Eastside political operative Henry Lozano, chief of staff for the venerable Rep. Edward Roybal, the dean of local Latino politics. One day on the golf course, Lozano asked Becerra, so when are you going to run?

He wasn’t.

“I’m a policy guy,” Becerra told Lozano.

A few years later, Lozano and other Eastside community leaders invited Becerra–by then a deputy attorney general–to meet. They posed the question again, more specifically: Will you run for the open state Assembly seat in the San Gabriel Valley?

“I guess we were considered kingmakers,” said Frank Villalobos, a longtime Eastside activist who was at the meeting. “When we asked someone, it was pretty much considered giving them el dedazo.”

El dedazo, literally the fingering from a powerful person: It’s your turn.

New Generation of Latino Leaders

Becerra looked stunned. He thought they were kidding, until he realized no one was laughing. He’d have to talk to his wife, he said.

“My vision was I was going to be the right-hand person that an elected official counts on to do the memos, to advise,” he said. “You know, the one you always see in the movies whispering in the ear of the official, and then all of a sudden the eloquent question comes out.”

But once planted, the idea took root.

A group known as the “macho dogs”–Lozano, Villalobos, future city Councilman Mike Hernandez, future Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Molina’s husband, Ron Martinez–put together his campaign.

Torres, Becerra’s old boss, loaned staff and helped Becerra raise money. They challenged the candidates being backed by two other powerful Latinos. (Later, Molina, then an assemblywoman, endorsed Becerra and brought on her political team.)

The fresh-faced, Stanford-educated Becerra fit the image voters were seeking, weary as they were of scandal in the wake of state Sen. Joseph Montoya’s political corruption conviction.

Becerra’s victory kicked off a new era in Latino politics, a rise in young, polished college graduates who offered a different mold of leadership than many of their roughhewn elders.

Two years later, Roybal decided to retire from Congress after 16 terms.

The power brokers, including Molina, approached Becerra again. This time, he had the support of both the powerful county supervisor and Roybal.

Becerra moved into the district, sleeping on his friend Villaraigosa’s couch for a few nights before he found an apartment. Fending off criticism that he was a carpetbagger, he won a tough primary against school board member Leticia Quezada and handily beat his Republican opponent that November.

Last fall, he won reelection with 83% of the vote.

Becerra’s relationship with Villaraigosa–and their competition on the ballot–has served as a tense undercurrent to the mayor’s race. Becerra resisted efforts last year by Molina and Henry Cisneros, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to broker a compromise so that only one Latino would be in the race.

Becerra has repeatedly told supporters that he refused to cut a deal with Villaraigosa because he doesn’t believe in el dedazo.

But isn’t that exactly how he got into office?

He laughed at the question.

“Those were tiny dedos,” he said. “What they offered wasn’t enough to push me over the finish line.”

Others disagreed.

“He’d be nowhere if Gloria Molina hadn’t put him in office,” said one Latino leader and longtime associate who did not want to be identified.

When pressed, Becerra acknowledged he got help.

“I am where I am because of others,” he said. “What I’m saying is I’ve never been part of the establishment.”

‘Not the Best at Playing the Game’

Whatever the origins of his success, Becerra thrived in Congress. His diligent attention to detail earned praise from members of both parties. A fluent Spanish speaker, he has spent much of his time pressing issues affecting his Latino constituency, such as restoring benefits to legal immigrants and defending bilingual education.

“He’s sort of one of the few young dynamic Latino leaders in the House,” said Amy Walter, a congressional analyst for the Cook Political Report. “He’s very intelligent and well-respected, even by Republicans I talk to.”

Although he has succeeded in climbing the Washington ladder, Becerra has also, on occasion, dramatically demonstrated his political naivete.

“I understand the politics,” Becerra said. “I’m not the best at playing the game.”

In 1993, the freshman legislator took on Dan Rostenkowski, then the powerful chairman of the Ways and Means Committee–which Becerra was trying to join.

Rostenkowski wanted to cut welfare benefits to legal immigrants, to fund an extension of unemployment benefits. Becerra and other Hispanic Caucus members objected. They negotiated with House leaders to preserve the payments to blind, elderly and disabled legal immigrants.

An amended bill was drafted with Rostenkowski’s reluctant approval. But before it went to the floor for a vote, Becerra made a fatal mistake. During a weekly Democratic whip meeting, he rose to thank the leadership for supporting the bill. Rostenkowski, still frustrated at the change, growled at him.

Becerra could have stopped talking at that point. But he didn’t.

Breaching House protocol, the young congressman took on the veteran chairman, arguing that legal immigrants had every right to be in the country.

What ensued was an almost unheard of shouting match, as Becerra continued to raise his voice over the chairman’s bellows. Later, on the floor, Rostenkowski lambasted the amended bill as damaging to jobless Americans. The compromise failed. The next day, the original plan passed and was signed into law.

“I learned a lot from that,” an unrepentant Becerra said recently. “There were people who said to me afterward, ‘Xavier, if you just kept your mouth shut, you had it. You had won.’ I said, ‘Why do we have to win that way?’ ”

Becerra’s actions also backfired in late 1996, when he took a four-day educational trip to Cuba just as he was bidding to become chairman of the Hispanic Caucus.

Predictably, his trip set off a firestorm of criticism in the Cuban exile community. The three Cuban American legislators were furious he had visited the island and not denounced Fidel Castro’s regime.

Becerra was eventually elected chairman of the caucus, but its two Cuban American Republicans resigned from the group, ending its bipartisan clout.

Over time, Becerra did develop some political prowess: Under his guidance, the caucus successfully lobbied to win back some of the benefits for legal immigrants cut in 1994, and pushed Clinton to include more Latinos in his administration.

But questions about his political judgment persist, most recently centering on the case of convicted drug dealer Carlos Vignali. Becerra, who has received nearly $14,000 in political donations from Vignali’s father, Horacio, wrote a letter to Clinton in November asking for a review of Vignali’s conviction. He also called a White House counsel–on Clinton’s last night in office–to inquire about the status of the case. Vignali’s sentence was commuted the next day.

His involvement, along with that of other Los Angeles leaders, contributed to the firestorm of controversy that flared over the pardons and commutations granted by Clinton.

Surprised by the criticism, Becerra said that it did not occur to him that he might be seen as using his political leverage on behalf of a donor. He was merely trying to get information, he said. He insists that he never asked Clinton outright to give Vignali clemency–merely to see if his 15-year sentence was too harsh.

Becerra entered the Los Angeles mayor’s race with a few advantages, some shrewdly obtained. He has won convincingly in a district that ranges from Boyle Heights west to Hollywood. Facing minimal competition in his last reelection campaign, he spent almost $860,000–including almost $400,000 on television ads–to boost his name recognition citywide just as the mayoral election approached. It may have paid off: A recent Los Angeles Times poll put Becerra in the thick of a many-candidate tussle for second place behind the front-runner, City Atty. James K. Hahn.

But Becerra’s campaign has suffered from a central disadvantage. Having been fingered by fate for so long, Becerra has found it difficult to answer the most basic of questions: Why is he running?

As recently as December, almost a year after he entered the race, he told Times reporters that he had not yet come up with a message for his candidacy. “I have to figure that out,” he said.

More recently, he said his interest in becoming mayor grew after he battled with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Los Angeles Unified School District over their federal funding.

“It was real frustrating and I thought, we have to do better than this,” he said. “The more it became clear that no one was stepping forward who I felt inspired by, the more I started thinking about it. It’s worth a shot.”

(Friends also confirm that his wife, an obstetrician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, wanted him to return to Los Angeles so he could spend more time with their three young daughters.)

Not the Only Golden Boy

After casting about for a campaign theme, Becerra eventually sought to tie his disparate proposals together under the rubric of “neighborhoods first.” But his specific ideas tend to resemble mom-and-apple-pie bromides.

He talks about getting every child a library card, about making the Los Angeles Zoo the best in the nation, about making sure everyone has a good school, grocery store, fire station and place to worship near home.

During mayoral forums, while the other candidates draw specific rationales for their candidacies, Becerra repeats his neighborhoods theme religiously, often redundantly.

“We have to do the little things right,” he tells audiences. “Some people say, that’s small thinking. But there’s no way I can think about these big things until we start to get the little things right.”

Some wonder aloud why Becerra is running. He has raised the least money of the top six candidates in the April 10 primary election, and had only about $600,000 on hand at the end of February, compared to Hahn’s $2.2 million. Villaraigosa’s presence on the ballot further complicates Becerra’s chances.

“At one time, he was the golden boy of Hispanic politics in Los Angeles, and now he’s finding out there’s others who have a claim to that title,” said Sergio Bendixen, a Miami-based political analyst and pollster who has experience in California campaigns.

While some say his political path has been made easier by influential champions, Becerra insists that his lack of sheer ambition means he is not overly enticed by the power that accompanies elected office.

“I don’t covet it,” he said. “I fear people who must have it, whatever it takes.”

He brushes aside criticism that he is ill-positioned for victory. People had the same doubts about his prospects when he first ran for office, he said.

His sunny analysis of the toughest race of his career: “We have nowhere to go but up.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Xavier Becerra

* Born: Jan. 26, 1958, in Sacramento.

* Education: Stanford University, bachelor’s degree in economics (1980); Stanford University Law School (1984).

* Personal: Married to Carolina Reyes, obstetrician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Three daughters: Clarisa, 7, Olivia, 5, and Natalia, 3.

* Party: Democrat

* Career: Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993-present; state assemblyman, 1990-1992; deputy attorney general, 1987-1990.

* Strategy: Becerra is counting on the support of nearly 78,000 people who voted for him in his congressional bid in November. His campaign hopes to win more votes by pushing his “Neighborhoods First” theme in small community meetings. He is also working to shore up Latino support with frequent appearances in Spanish-language media.

*

Times researcher Maloy Moore contributed to this story.

About This Series

The Times today presents the first of six profiles of the major candidates for mayor of Los Angeles. The articles will appear in the order in which the candidates will appear on the ballot.