May 5 (UPI) — An explosion at a fireworks factory in China’s Hunan Province has killed 26 people and injured dozens more, state media reported Tuesday, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to call for those responsible to be held accountable.

The blast occurred Monday afternoon at the Huasheng Fireworks Manufacturing and Display plant in the southern city of Liuyang, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Authorities said 26 people were killed and 61 injured at a press conference Tuesday.

Five rescue teams totaling nearly 500 personnel were dispatched to the scene, while an area with a radius of nearly two miles was evacuated due to the risk of further explosions.

Rescuers set up firebreaks and sprayed water over the site to “prevent secondary accidents during the rescue,” Xinhua said.

Mayor Chen Bozhang of provincial capital Changsha told reporters Tuesday that search and rescue operations were largely complete, adding that real-time air and water monitoring showed no signs of environmental contamination.

The person in charge of the fireworks company has been taken into custody, Chen said.

Aerial footage from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed widespread damage, with smoldering factory buildings leveled across a wide area.

Xi on Tuesday ordered a prompt investigation into the accident and said “those responsible must be held accountable,” state media reported. He also called for stronger risk screening and hazard controls in key sectors, along with enhanced public safety management.

The blast follows other deadly fireworks-related accidents in China in recent years. Ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in February, an explosion and fire at a fireworks store in Jiangsu Province killed eight, prompting officials to call for increased safety checks on pyrotechnics.

In 2019, another fireworks factory explosion in Liuyang killed 13 people. The city is the hub of China’s fireworks manufacturing industry, accounting for about 60% of the domestic market and roughly 70% of exports, according to state media.

Fans of documentaries packed with twists and turns are being urged to give this one a go

Documentary fans are being urged to watch a “stranger than fiction” film that is often ignored.

Three Identical Strangers was one of the top suggestions offered after a Redditor asked for “blow your socks off” documentaries to watch that were not widely known about.

The BAFTA-nominated film, which has a run time of just over an hour and a half, tells the story of triplets – Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland and David Kellman – who were separated at birth. They were not told that they were triplets and so knew nothing about each other.

In an incredible twist of fate, the trio find themselves crossing paths with each other as young adults in the eighties, purely coincidentally. The amazing story catapults them to celebrity status and they live together, make movie cameos and start their own business, but as they dig deeper into their past, they discover a horrifying truth that changes their lives forever.

“I’m looking for documentaries and I love all types except for murder mystery because they’re typically all the same,” the original Reddit post began. “Could you guys suggest a few documentaries that completely caught you by surprise and you always recommend it to people because of that?”

Under the suggestion of Three Identical Strangers, one person remarked: “I remember this documentary. It made me so angry. But, producers did a great job telling the story.”

“Yess this is one I would typically scroll past but wow it was definitely one of the best,” admitted one viewer who gave it a shot. A third fan added that the story told in the film “felt impossible.”

While it is no longer available on Netflix, the film – described by many as ‘dark’ – can currently be viewed on YouTube, Apple TV and Prime Video for a small fee. Boasting a 96 per cent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 88 per cent from audiences, the viewer consensus seems to be that it is a worthwhile watch for any documentary fan.

“Starting as a fascinating curiosity, the movie takes a dramatic and breath-taking turn to expose a much more unsettling story. Really great documentary,” another viewer said, rating it five stars.

“Classic case of reality being far stranger than fiction. Watch this and you’ll be rewarded (if that’s the proper way of putting it) with a story so wild you’d think it’s made up. Yet this is a documentary,” said yet another bowled over viewer.

Three Identical Strangers is currently available to watch on YouTube, Apple TV and Prime Video for an additional fee.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court often resembles a feuding family where the same heated arguments go on for years.

The justices disagree over race, religion, abortion, guns and the environment, and more recently, presidential power and LGBTQ+ rights. And while they try to maintain a cordial working relationship, they don’t claim to be good friends.

“We are stuck with one another whether we like it or not,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote last year in her book, “Listening to the Law.”

And like it or not, the testy exchanges and simmering anger have been increasing, driven by the sharp ideological divide.

The three liberals had known since October the conservative majority was preparing to elevate partisan power over racial fairness.

By retreating from part of the Voting Rights Act, the court’s opinion last week by Justice Samuel A. Alito will allow Republicans across the South to dismantle voting districts that favor Black Democrats.

Justice Elena Kagan, who first came to the court as a law clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, denounced the “demolition” of a historic civil rights law.

In dissent, she quoted Marshall’s warning that if all the voting districts in the South have white majorities, Black citizens will be left with a “right to cast meaningless ballots.”

But Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the court 20 years ago believing the government may not make decisions based on race.

Their first major ruling was a 5-4 decision that struck down voluntary school integration policies in Seattle and Louisville. It was illegal to encourage some students to transfer based on their race, Roberts said.

When faced with a redistricting case from Texas, Roberts described it as the “sordid business … [of] divvying us up by race.”

With President Trump’s three appointees on the court, the conservatives had a solid majority to change the law on race. Three years ago, they struck down college affirmative action policies.

Watching closely were states such as Alabama and Louisiana.

They had been sued by voting rights advocates, and both had been required to draw a second congressional district with a Black majority.

Their state attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing these race-based districts were unconstitutional.

In a decision that surprised both sides, Alabama lost by a 5-4 vote in 2023.

Roberts said the Voting Rights Act as interpreted by past decisions suggests Alabama must draw a second congressional district that may well elect a Black candidate. The three liberals agreed entirely and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh cast a tentative fifth vote.

Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas filed strong dissents, joined by Barrett and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.

Last year, the justices agreed to decide a nearly identical appeal from Louisiana, and this time Roberts joined the conservative majority and assigned the opinion to Alito.

He argued the Voting Rights Act gave “minority voters” an equal right to vote but not a right to “elect a preferred candidate.”

The decision dealt a double blow to Black Democrats because an earlier 5-4 opinion by Roberts freed state lawmakers to draw voting districts for partisan advantage.

That ruling, combined with Wednesday’s decision, will bolster Republicans trying to maintain their narrow hold on Congress.

As if to highlight that point, the court’s six Republican appointees were guests of President Trump at Tuesday’s White House dinner for King Charles.

Just a few days before, Trump had slammed the court in another social media post.

“The Radical Left Democrats don’t need to ‘Pack the Court’. It’s already Packed,” he wrote. “Certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad.” They had struck down his sweeping tariffs, he said, “they probably will … rule against our Country on Birthright Citizenship.”

That didn’t stop him from inviting them to the White House, nor did the partisan appearances dissuade them from attending.

Alito is enjoying his moment of acclaim as the voice of the conservative legal movement.

In March, the Federalist Society held a day-long conference in Philadelphia to celebrate the “Jurisprudence of Justice Alito.”

He is the subject of two new books. One, by journalist Mollie Hemingway, calls him “the justice who reshaped the Supreme Court and restored the Constitution.”

The other, by author Peter S. Canellos, is “Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement.”

Alito attended Princeton during the Vietnam War and was put off “by very privileged people behaving irresponsibly,” as he later described his classmates.

He then went to the Yale Law School and, like Thomas, left with a lasting disdain for the left-leaning faculty and students.

Alito has a book of his own scheduled to be released in October. It is called “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country.”

Last month, rumors and speculation had it that Alito and perhaps Thomas planned to retire this year so Trump and the Senate Republicans could quickly fill their seats.

At age 76, Alito is at the peak of his influence and has no interest in stepping down, and he and Thomas confirmed to news organizations they had no plans to retire this year.

For 20 years, Alito has cast reliably conservative votes at the Supreme Court and regularly argued for moving the law farther to the right.

Most famously, he wrote the court’s 5-4 opinion in the Dobbs case that overturned Roe vs. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion.

Roberts issued a partial dissent, arguing the court should uphold Mississippi’s 16-week limit on abortions and stop there.

Alito has called religion a “disfavored right,” and there too a change is underway.

In the decades before his arrival, the court had handed down steady rulings barring taxpayer funds for religious schools or religious ceremonies or symbols in public schools or city parks.

Then, the court viewed these official “endorsements” of religion as violations of the 1st Amendment’s ban on an “establishment” of religion or the principle of church-state separation.

Those decisions have faded into the background, however.

Instead, Alito, Roberts and the four other conservatives see today’s threat as one of discrimination against religion, not official favoritism for religion.

They ruled church schools and their students may not be denied state aid because of religion. Similarly, Catholic charities and other religious groups may not be excluded from publicly funded programs because they refuse to accept same-sex parents, the justices said.

They upheld a football coach’s right to pray on the field. And they ruled for a wedding cake maker in Colorado and other business owners who refused to serve same-sex couples in violation of a state civil rights law.

Religious liberty has now replaced separation of church and state as the winning formula at the Supreme Court.

The next test on that front may come from Louisiana, which calls for the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classes.

In the past, the court had ruled such religious displays violated the 1st Amendment, but it is not clear that the current majority will agree.

The court’s oral arguments for this term ended last week. Many of them were dominated by questions from liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

A statistical tally by Adam Feldman for Scotusblog found that Jackson, the newest justice, had spoken twice as many words as the most talkative of the conservative justices.

Her arrival shifted the “center of verbal energy” to the liberal side, Feldman wrote. While Jackson “sits in a class of her own,” Sotomayor also presses the argument on the liberal side.

The court now has about eight weeks to hand down the decisions in 35 remaining cases. Usually, May and June can be a trying time because of intense disagreements over the opinions in close cases.

But for the liberal justices, it also may be a time mostly for writing dissents.

The ninth in an occasional series of profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers.

When the Dodgers drafted David Lesch in January 1980, they had visions of his fastball lighting up radar guns at Dodger Stadium.

He never made it that far.

Lesch never climbed above the lowest rung on the minor league ladder, where he pitched just 10 innings and gave up more runs, hits and walks than he got outs. Less than 18 months after he was drafted, Lesch, wracked by a rotator cuff injury, was released, his major league dream over before he was old enough to legally buy a beer.

“I went to Disney World after that,” he said.

But that wasn’t the only decision the Dodgers made that changed Lesch’s life. When he was drafted, the team gave him just a small bonus, but sweetened the deal by offering to pay for college if he ever went back to school. For the team, it seemed a safe bet.

“They probably have this algorithm saying ‘this is the No. 1 draft pick. If he doesn’t make it, he’s not going back to college. He’ll be assistant baseball coach of his high school or something,’” Lesch said.

Oops.

Lesch not only went back to college, but he also wound up getting three degrees, including a master’s and a PhD from Harvard. It was arguably the most important investment in humanity the Dodgers made since signing Jackie Robinson, because Lesch went on to become one of the world’s top experts on the Middle East, writing 18 books and more than 140 other publications while advising four presidents and a cadre of United Nations diplomats.

David Lesch interacts with students in his history class at Trinity University in San Antonio.

(Lucero Salinas / Trinity University)

“That was the best deal,” Lesch, 65, said by phone from San Antonio, where he is the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History at Trinity University.

“Without that I probably could not have said yes to Harvard because of the price. The Dodgers committed to paying.”

And by doing so, the Dodgers may have altered history just a bit.

Lesch’s regular meetings with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, which ended with Lesch facilitating an important if temporary breakthrough in U.S.-Syrian relations? The diplomatic and conflict-resolution work in Syria and the wider U.N. initiatives on regional issues throughout the Middle East? The thousands of students Lesch inspired to go on to perform important diplomatic and public-service roles of their own?

None of that happens if Lesch’s shoulder had held on or if the Dodgers had reneged on their deal.

“It was very fortunate that he hurt his rotator cuff. Baseball’s loss is academia’s gain,” said Robert Freedman, a scholar and expert on Russian and Middle Eastern politics who taught Lesch at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

“I’ve been teaching for, I guess, 60 years now and I can tell when a student can see a complex problem and can penetrate right to the heart of the problem very quickly. He was one of those students.”

Still, it took a slightly offhand comment from Freedman, who now teaches at Johns Hopkins, to launch Lesch on his post-baseball career.

“We were having lunch and he was looking for a project and I mentioned to him ‘you know, there hasn’t been a good American scholar doing work on Syria for many, many years,’” he said.

“That struck his interest.”

Playing a child’s game and managing life-and-death Middle East politics share very little in common. But Lesch made the transition seamlessly.

“It is like he’s several different people, or has been,” said journalist and author Catherine Nixon Cooke, whose book “Dodgers to Damascus: David Lesch’s Journey from Baseball to the Middle East” traces those parallel lives.

“I’m wondering if, in a sense, it all worked out the way it was supposed to,” Cooke continued. “Even though his dream was to be a major leaguer, David certainly has reinvented himself to this really remarkable man following a completely different path.

“It was the Dodgers who paid for him to go to Harvard and so it’s kind of a weird thing. Baseball took away his dream because he got hurt, but baseball also gave him his backup plan.”

Lesch was still a teenager when, 20 minutes into his first spring training camp in Vero Beach, Fla., Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda plucked him off a minor league practice field to pitch batting practice in the main stadium.

Waiting for him were Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes and Reggie Smith, the heart of a lineup that would win a World Series a season later.

It was the first time — and nearly the last — that Lesch faced big-league hitters. And it didn’t start well.

Batting practice pitchers throw from behind an L-shaped screen that protects them from comebackers and Lesch had never used one. That, combined with his understandable nervousness, caused him to short-arm his first fastball, which sailed at Cey’s head, sending him sprawling into the dirt.

“He got up and gave me this mean look,” Lesch said. “I remember it so vividly right now. I really thought I was going to be released that day.”

Instead, he gathered himself and finished the session, earning pats on the back from both Garvey and Lasorda. The incident, he said, has colored the rest of his life.

“I’ve met with presidents, prime ministers, been in war zones, all sorts of things,” Lesch said. “Anytime I say ‘well, you know, this should make me nervous,’ I think about that episode and the fact that I made it through and did OK.”

In high school, Lesch had focused on basketball and baseball. Academics? Not so much. So after spending his freshman year of college at Western Maryland College, he transferred to Central Arizona, a junior college, so he would be eligible for the January 1980 draft, allowing him to trade his books in for a baseball.

The so-called secondary draft, which was discontinued six years later, was specifically targeted toward winter high school graduates, junior college players, college dropouts and amateurs who had been previously drafted but did not sign. As a result, the bonuses teams offered winter draft picks were just a fraction of what players taken in the June draft received.

Lesch’s was so low, he can’t even remember what it was.

“I want to say $10,000 to $15,000,” he said. “No more than $20,000.”

When it became clear the Dodgers weren’t going to budge on the money, Lesch’s father, Warren, a family physician in suburban Baltimore, pulled out the Harford County phone book and looked up the number for Baltimore Orioles coach Cal Ripken Sr. Lesch played high school ball against Ripken’s son Cal Jr., who had been a second-round draft pick of the Orioles two years earlier. So his father thought the Ripkens might have some advice on what to ask of the Dodgers.

David Lesch, a former Dodgers draft pick, stands on the baseball diamond at Trinity University in San Antonio.

(Lucero Salinas / Trinity University)

“Ripken goes ‘does your son like school and is he smart?’” Lesch’s older brother Bob remembers. “So Ripken suggested if they offer you XYZ bonus money, take less and say ‘I’ll take this amount, but you have to cover education if he doesn’t make it.’”

Neither side thought that clause would ever be triggered; Lesch, a big, intimidating right-hander who threw bullets from behind Coke-bottle eyeglasses, wasn’t headed to a classroom, he was going to Dodger Stadium.

Until he wasn’t.

Lesch missed a couple of weeks with a back injury. By overcompensating for the sore back, he developed paralysis in the ulnar nerve in his right arm, limiting him to five appearances in his first minor league season.

He arrived healthy for his second spring in Vero Beach and threw three no-hit innings in his first outing against double-A and triple-A players, creating such a buzz that Ron Perranoski, the Dodgers’ major league pitching coach, showed up to watch his second game. By then the shoulder and back stiffness that shortened his first season had returned, and Lesch was rocked. Perranoski left early and unimpressed.

Lesch’s delivery had one major flaw: He threw directly overhand, as opposed to three-quarters or even sidearm, which can increase velocity but also places additional strain on the shoulder and elbow. As a result, his fastball could top out in the mid-90s one day, but when the stiffness and pain returned, it left him throwing in the low 80s.

The inconsistency continued to plague Lesch, and eventually the Dodgers decided they’d seen enough and released him. When he got back to Maryland, Lesch’s father sent him to see an orthopedic surgeon, who found the problem wasn’t in his back or elbow but rather the rotator cuff.

“We didn’t live in the era of pitch counts. So he just pitched,” said David Souter, a high school and college teammate who went on to develop big-league pitchers.

“He had the ability if he was developed and stayed healthy. I think he probably overthrew and tore his rotator cuff and nobody knew it.”

If Lesch had come along 10 years later, when rotator cuff surgeries were common, he might have returned to the mound. But in 1981, a rotator cuff injury was a death sentence for a pitcher.

“It’s just a crapshoot based on physiology,” Lesch said. “I probably was destined. Something would have happened.”

If he could do it over again, Lesch said he would change one thing.

“I’d throw sidearm,” he said. “It’s much less stress.”

He threw to big league hitters just one more time. Following the strike that interrupted the 1981 season, Ripken Sr. phoned Lesch back and asked him to throw batting practice at Memorial Stadium to help the Orioles prepare for the resumption of play. As a reward, the Orioles let Lesch hit — he never had batted in the minors — and he drove a pitch over the left-field wall, then dropped the bat and walked away.

He never stepped on a major league field again.

The Dodgers’ investment in Lesch’s education appeared manageable when he enrolled at a satellite campus of the University of Maryland, in part because his brother Bob was the school’s sports information director.

But it was 1981 and the Middle East was at the forefront of geopolitics. Lesch became convinced the Middle East would be central to world affairs for decades to come. Inspired and encouraged by Freedman and another professor, Lou Cantori, he applied to graduate school at Harvard, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago, knowing he couldn’t afford any of those schools on his own.

“I probably could not have said yes to Harvard when they accepted me because of the price,” Lesch said. “The Dodgers had committed to paying and whatever it was, it was a lot more collectively — my undergraduate MA and PhD — than I had gotten in the bonus.”

That wasn’t the only time his baseball background worked in his favor. Years after starting at Harvard, Lesch stumbled upon written evaluations of his application and learned that his grade-point average and other factors were similar to those of other applicants, but it was his athletic career that had swung enough votes in his favor to get him accepted.

“Failure is at the core of sports. And so you have to have this resiliency,” Lesch said. “What a lot of the top colleges have found is that these young kids out of high school who somehow get a 4.6 GPA, they come in — and I’ve seen this as a professor — they get their first C and they’re distraught.

“Athletes stick with it. They say ‘how can I turn this around? How can I get better?’ Admissions departments across the board have looked at athletes much differently.”

The struggles Lesch experienced on the diamond did not follow him into academia. Yet becoming an expert on the Middle East definitely was a backup plan.

“His first passion was clearly baseball and basketball,” said Souter, the former teammate. “Every kid dreamed … that.”

If the shoulder injury wasn’t a strong enough sign that that dream was over, the fire that destroyed Lesch’s childhood home a few years later was. The flames, which severely burned both his parents, also erased his baseball career, consuming all the photos and memorabilia he had collected, save for the championship ring from his one minor league season, which he found buried in the embers. It was the only thing to survive the blaze intact.

David Lesch’s championship ring from his one minor league season, the only surviving keepsake of his professional career after a his family’s home was destroyed in a fire.

(Courtesy of David Lesch)

A post-graduate trip to Syria, the first of more than 30 visits he has made to the country, sealed the deal a few years later. The love he once had for baseball he now felt for a strange and mysterious place that was as old as history itself yet as secretive as the classical ciphers.

Soon Lesch was helping arrange high-level meetings between Syrian president Hafez al-Assad and President George H.W. Bush, a baseball fan who seemed as interested in Lesch’s Dodgers days as his Middle Eastern expertise. But his big break came during the first presidential term of Bush’s son George W. Bush, when Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father as Syria’s president, welcomed Lesch for the first of many interviews that informed his book, “The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Assad and Modern Syria.”

“His forte is listening,” Cooke, the biographer, said of Lesch, whose polite, unassuming manner reflects an adult life spent mostly in San Antonio. “When he goes in to try to mediate something, he is a big listener. There is a side of David that doesn’t talk much. But he’s listening.”

The book humanized al-Assad and opened, for a time, the possibility of normalized relations between Syria and the West, with Lesch serving as an unofficial liaison between Damascus and Washington, as well as other Western capitals.

“He’s absolutely a critical player in what we would call two-track diplomacy,” Freedman said. “If the government wants to reach out but doesn’t want to take the political consequences, they send somebody to sound out the situation.

“It’s absolutely critical that we have people like that who can speak the language and understand the overall context, which sadly is lacking in the current administration.”

David Lesch teaches students in his history class at Trinity University in San Antonio.

(Lucero Salinas / Trinity University)

But that opening closed as quickly as it opened. Lesch’s close contacts with al-Assad raised suspicions among some in Syria, and Lesch was poisoned twice. His relationship with al-Assad was severed completely shortly afterward when he criticized al-Assad for failing to implement promised reforms and becoming a “bloodthirsty tyrant.” The Syrian civil war took nearly 700,000 lives and displace another 6.7 million people before al-Assad and his family fled into exile in Russia in 2024.

“Many governments think that they can reduce war to a calculation,” Lesch said. “What we cannot measure accurately or fully appreciate is the human element. We cannot assess a people’s sense of grievance, passion, revenge, ideological commitment and historical circumstances that shaped the nature of their response and staying power.

“This is where academics can make a contribution to policy, giving it the depth and insight gleaned from years of study and learning the culture and the people.”

Baseball’s loss wasn’t just academia’s gain. It may prove to be humanity’s as well.

“I don’t really have any regrets,” Lesch said. “My career turned out great. I could not think of doing anything else at this point and, in fact, in a way I’m glad [baseball] didn’t work out.”

Sometimes, beauty is a burden.

Such is the case with Burney Falls, a Northern California waterfall whose loveliness became such a siren song to costume-wearing Instagram mermaids, selfie-taking TikTok tour guides and off-the-beaten-track road trippers that crowds grew and grew, until the natural wonder just couldn’t handle it any more.

Crowds in recent years have damaged trails, trampled plants and clogged rural roads.

Now, as part of a pilot program to reduce overcrowding, the California Department of Parks and Recreation will require advance reservations to visit the Shasta County waterfall on many days this summer.

“Burney Falls is a crown jewel of the California State Park System, and we want all visitors to have an enjoyable and memorable experience when visiting this one-of-a-kind destination,” State Parks Director Armando Quintero said in a statement. “By allowing visitors to make a reservation in advance, we can help keep crowds manageable and not push the park’s resources past the breaking point.”

The reservations, which can be purchased online, will be required to visit the falls Fridays through Sundays and on holidays during peak visitation season, from May 15 through Sept. 27.

On those days, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park will offer 103 parking passes for 8 a.m. to noon, an additional 103 passes for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 35 passes for the entire day.

The day use passes will cost $11 per vehicle, according to State Parks, with discounts for seniors and people with disabilities.

California State Parks annual pass holders will pay no additional charge but must make reservations. Visitors with overnight campground or cabin reservations will not need additional passes for day use.

The 129-foot waterfall — a wide curtain of white water cascading from a basalt cliff face — generates its own rainbow and once was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Visitors often endure long lines to get a selfie at Burney Falls. Here, Rachel Brussbau poses with her 1-year-old daughter, Sage, and Crysten Michol in July 2023.

(Paul Kuroda / For The Times)

But for much of its history, it “experienced limited visitation due to its rural location … and lack of publicity,” the State Parks department said in a statement.

“For generations of visitors, it had the reputation of a small, family-oriented park and one of California’s best-kept secrets,” the department said. “However, over the past decade, and especially with the growth of social media, that secret is now world-famous.”

Crowds swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, when indoor public spaces closed.

A State Parks spokesperson told The Times in an email Monday that in 2015, Burney Falls had 121,495 visitors. Numbers “have steadily risen since that time, peaking at 322,192 visitors in 2020 during the pandemic,” the spokesperson said.

Since then, about 220,000 people have visited the park each year.

The spokesperson said the numbers account only for people who come in through the official entrance and not those who park illegally on the side of the road and enter off-trail.

Because so many people have veered off established trails, the park in recent years has experienced increased erosion and damage to sensitive vegetation and sacred tribal land, according to the State Parks department. Heavy traffic and illegal parking also have created unsafe conditions along State Highway 89, one of the heavily forested county’s main thoroughfares and a critical fire evacuation route.

“Campers with reservations are hesitant to leave the park, knowing that it may take up to two hours to re-enter on busy days,” the department statement read.

Because of limited parking, the gates often close for several hours each day.

“If lucky enough to gain entry, visitors inside the park are met with extreme overcrowding, long restroom lines, and overflowing trash cans instead of a peaceful, rejuvenating experience at one of the nation’s most awe-inspiring natural landmarks,” State Parks said.

In the summer of 2024, State Parks closed all access to the waterfall for the season to repair trails and slopes damaged by heavy crowds and storm erosion.

The department said it will evaluate the day use reservation system at the end of the summer and make adjustments if necessary for future peak visitation periods.

State Sen. Megan Dahle (R-Bieber), whose district includes Shasta County, said the pilot program “is likely to disrupt some trips” until word spreads.

“Unfortunately, for several years it has been clear something needs to change at Burney Falls,” Dahle said. “I hope this is an interim measure on the way to longer-term fixes to accommodate visitors.”

The defense ministry said Tuesday it has dismissed three Army officers from military service and removed another from service over their involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law declaration.

The decision came after the ministry convened a disciplinary committee meeting last month to review the cases of the four Army officers accused of involvement in the Dec. 3, 2024, martial law bid.

Brig. Gen. Kim Jeong-geun; Col. An Mu-seong, who had been awaiting promotion to brigadier general; and Col. Kim Se-un were dismissed from military service, the highest level of disciplinary punishment, according to sources. The punishment carries a 50 percent cut in military retirement benefits.

Brig. Gen. Kim and An are accused of deploying troops to the National Assembly on the night martial law was declared, while Col. Kim is accused of transporting the troops to the National Assembly building.

Col. Kim Sang-yong, former deputy chief of the Defense Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Command, was removed from military service, the second-highest level of disciplinary punishment, over his alleged role in helping form a team to arrest key politicians and other major figures. The punishment does not affect military retirement benefits.

The latest move came as the ministry has launched an internal probe into about 860 general-grade and field-grade officers and identified some 180 military personnel as having been involved in the martial law bid in late 2024.

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U.S. Central Command said its new plan to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz kicked off Monday with the safe passage of two U.S.-flagged merchant ships. Dubbed Project Freedom, the operation is designed to “restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping” through this strategically vital body of water, the command stated on X. Iran closed the Strait after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. Meanwhile, Iran says this move will threaten the fragile ceasefire and that it will attack any ships transiting the Strait without permission.

“U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers are currently operating in the Arabian Gulf after transiting the Strait of Hormuz in support of Project Freedom,” CENTCOM stated in a message posted on X Monday morning. “American forces are actively assisting efforts to restore transit for commercial shipping. As a first step, 2 U.S.-flagged merchant vessels have successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz and are safely headed on their journey.”

CENTCOM didn’t say which ships transited the Strait and it is unclear if the Navy destroyers escorted them. We have reached out to CENTCOM for more details.

Project Freedom involves “guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members,” CENTCOM said in a post on X Sunday.

“The mission, directed by the President, will support merchant vessels seeking to freely transit through the essential international trade corridor,” CENTCOM added. “A quarter of the world’s oil trade at sea and significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer products are transported through the strait.”

“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander.

President Trump on Sunday framed Project Freedom as an effort to gets ships and crews out of the Strait. It is unclear if this operation will also protect ships trying to enter as well. It’s possible this could occur once CENTCOM evaluates the realities in the waterway as ships are evacuated. We will update this story with any additional details we learn.

As part of Project Freedom, vessels “choosing to transit the Strait of Hormuz should consider routing via Oman territorial waters south of the Traffic Separation Scheme,” U.S. Navy Central (NAVCENT) cautioned Monday morning. The Traffic Separation Scheme refers to new traffic patterns Iran set up for ships transiting the Strait through its territorial waters.

“Due to anticipated traffic volume, coordination with Oman authorities via VHF channel 16 is advised to maintain safety of navigation,” according to NAVCENT. “Transit via or in close proximity to the Traffic Separation Scheme should be considered extremely hazardous due the presence of mines that have not been fully surveyed and mitigated.”

Iran has placed an undetermined number of mines in the Strait since the war broke out, a U.S. official told us.

As we noted last week, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) group says strait transits have fallen by more than 90%, leaving 850 merchant ships and around 20,000 sailors trapped inside the Gulf and unable to leave. 

In reaction to Project Freedom and the new NAVCENT transit guidance, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday warned that “maritime movements of vessels, contrary to the regulations declared by the Iranian Navy, would face serious risks, and that they would be stopped by force.”

The IRGC added that it maintains control over the Strait and that ships adhering to its rules will be safe. In addition, it called Project Freedom, as well as the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, acts of “piracy.” IRGC also said that Project Freedom is in violation of the April 8 ceasefire agreed to by the U.S. and Iran.

In addition to the IRGC warning, Iranian media claimed that “two missiles struck a U.S. Navy patrol boat. This patrol boat, which today moved near Jask violating security and navigation rules intending to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, was targeted by a missile attack after ignoring the warning from the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy.”

The official Iranian FARS news agency added that the “patrol boat was unable to continue its route due to the hits and was forced to retreat and flee the area.”

Iranian media offered no proof of the attack. In a post on X, CENTCOM denied that claim.

“No U.S. Navy ships have been struck,” the command stated. “U.S. forces are supporting Project Freedom and enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports.”

🚫 CLAIM: Iranian state media claims that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit a U.S. warship with two missiles.

✅ TRUTH: No U.S. Navy ships have been struck. U.S. forces are supporting Project Freedom and enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports. pic.twitter.com/VFxovxLU6G

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 4, 2026

However, the United Arab Emirates on Monday said that one of its oil tankers was attacked by two Iranian drones as it sailed through the Strait.

“The UAE condemns in the strongest terms the targeting of a national tanker affiliated with [Abu Dhabi National Oil Company] ADNOC while passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” the UAE Foreign Ministry stated on X, adding that there were no injuries in the attack.

The ministry did not say which ship was attacked or when. However, the United ​Kingdom ⁠Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it received a report of an incident on May 3 “78NM north of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. A tanker has reported being hit by unknown projectiles. All crew reported safe. No environmental impact reported.”

Project Freedom and the new NAVCENT transit guidance were launched following a message U.S. President Donald Trump posted Sunday on his social media.

“Countries from all over the World, almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern dispute going on so visibly, and violently, for all to see, have asked the United States if we could help free up their Ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz, on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with — They are merely neutral and innocent bystanders!” Trump proclaimed on Truth Social. “For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States, we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”

The president added that Project Freedom is a humanitarian effort, conducted as the U.S. and Iran are working on ways to end the conflict.

“I am fully aware that my Representatives are having very positive discussions with the Country of Iran, and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all,” Trump avowed. “The Ship movement is merely meant to free up people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance. This is a Humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran.”

Still, if Iran does not comply, Trump issued a warning to Tehran. 

“I think it would go a long way in showing Goodwill on behalf of all of those who have been fighting so strenuously over the last number of months,” the American leader posited. “If, in any way, this Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully.” 

Trump on Truth Social announces that “Project Freedom” will begin in the morning to get ships out of the Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/a7ygbWUEFQ

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 3, 2026

As Project Freedom kicks off, shipping companies are taking a wait-and-see attitude about its effectiveness.

“We of course welcome initiatives aimed at improving the security situation in principle,” a spokesperson for German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd told us Monday morning. “However, we currently have too little information on how such an escort service could be safely implemented in practice, so we are maintaining our risk assessment. We have taken note of the latest announcement. We are currently reviewing the information available and are in close contact with relevant authorities and our security partners.”

“At this stage, our risk assessment remains unchanged and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for Hapag-Lloyd transits until further notice,” the company added.

While CENTCOM says Project Freedom had a successful first encounter, there are still many questions to be answered about this operation. Despite Iranian bluster, it is unknown so far if its threats are just posturing for domestic consumption or if they will really fire on U.S. warships. Such a move would guarantee a ferocious U.S. response and an end, at least temporarily, to the ongoing moves to stop the now-paused war.

Update: 2:15 PM EDT –

Earlier today, U.S. Army AH-64 Apache and U.S. Navy MH-60 Seahawk helicopters destroyed six small Iranian boats that were threatening commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, according to Cooper. You can read more about that here.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

SABRINA Carpenter rocked an old Hollywood look at the Met Gala on Monday, rocking a tight-fitting frock with a racy thigh-high slit.

The 26-year-old singing sensation wore a gorgeous dress made out of real old Hollywood film reels as she attended the star-studded event in New York.

The film reels on the dress were of the Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn movie, which is titled Sabrina.

She flashed her toned pins as she strutted her stuff in front of onlookers, smiling and beaming as she made her way up the iconic steps.

Fans were left completely enamoured by her sizzling ensemble.

“The hair is so pretty, the dress is stunning, everything is amazing,” penned one person.

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“This b**ch wrapped herself in Kodak film,” added a second, complete with a laughing emoji.

“That is a cool dress and idea,” said a third.

“She DEFINITELY understood the assignment,” added a fourth.

While a fifth wrote: “Sabrina Carpenter’s dress is one of the most creative I’ve seen tonight. I love that.”

But not everyone was complimentary of her outfit, with some quick to share their critique.

“It’s classy but she could have done a whole lot better,” said one person.

“Boring as usual,” slammed a second.

While a third penned: “the dress itself is beautifully constructed but the choice of the film strips is lost on me and its connection to the theme/dress code?”

This comes off the back of Sabrina’s sensational headline concerts at Coachella last month.

The singer delivered a set dubbed “Sabrinawood” with a Hollywood-themed set across two weekends on April 10 and 17.

Her shows featured some very iconic cameos from the likes of Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, and Sam Elliott.

The setlist highlighted her most recent album Man’s Best Friend, but also included some of her biggest hits like Espresso and Feather.

Munetaka Murakami hit his 14th homer and Miguel Vargas also went deep as the Chicago White Sox beat the Angels 6-0 Monday night.

Murakami’s two-run blast in the fourth inning kept the Japanese rookie tied with New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge for the major league lead in home runs. Murakami also hit his first double of the season in the sixth, singled and scored in the eighth, finishing three for four with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Davis Martin gave up five hits in seven shutout innings, with 10 strikeouts and no walks. He improved to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.64. The right-hander escaped his only jam in the seventh, getting Josh Lowe to fly to deep center with runners on first and third.

Andrew Benintendi added four hits — all singles — and an RBI for the White Sox, who have won six of their last seven games.

Nolan Schanuel and Travis d’Arnaud had two hits apiece for the Angels, who have lost 13 of 15 and have the worst record in the majors at 13-23.

Angels starter José Soriano looked nothing like the ace who went 5-1 with an 0.84 ERA in his first seven starts and became the first Angel to win AL pitcher-of-the-month honors since Matt Shoemaker in August 2014.

Soriano, slowed by neck stiffness in his previous start, gave up a season-high five runs and eight hits in four innings, striking out five, walking three and needing 88 pitches to record 12 outs. The right-hander looked out of whack mechanically in the first, throwing nine of his first 11 pitches for balls and walking two. Run-scoring singles by Chase Meidroth and Benintendi gave Chicago a 2-0 lead.

Soriano escaped two-on, two-out jams in the second and third innings before being tagged for three runs in the fourth. Murakami followed Sam Antonacci’s single by clubbing an up-and-away 98-mph fastball an estimated 429 feet to center for a two-run homer. Vargas followed with a solo shot to right-center to make it 5-0.

Up next: RHP Erick Fedde (0-3, 3.24 ERA) will start for the White Sox on Tuesday night. LHP Sam Aldegheri (1-0, 5.40 ERA) is expected to start for the Angels.

The presidential office said Tuesday it will likely take several days to determine the cause of an explosion and fire aboard a Panama-flagged bulk carrier operated by South Korea’s HMM Co. in the Strait of Hormuz.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung made the remarks in a written briefing after senior presidential officials, including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik, held a meeting to discuss the response to the fire.

“It is expected to take several days to analyze the cause,” the spokesperson said. “The government will brief the public transparently after swiftly and accurately determining the cause of the incident.”

The spokesperson said the vessel will be towed to a nearby port using a tugboat for investigation, with investigators from the Korea Maritime Safety Tribunal and the National Fire Agency to be dispatched.

The explosion occurred at about 8:40 p.m. Monday (Korean time), while the HMM Namu was anchored in waters off the United Arab Emirates (UAE), HMM said. The fire began in the engine room, and crew members used carbon dioxide to fight the blaze for about four hours. No injuries were reported, the company said Tuesday.

HMM said security camera footage showed the fire had been put out and said it would later inspect the engine room to assess the damage.

The freighter had 24 crew members on board — six South Koreans and 18 foreign nationals.

The cause of the explosion and fire, as well as the extent of the damage, is currently under investigation.

“It remains unclear whether the incident was caused by an external attack or an internal malfunction,” an HMM official said.

HMM said it plans to tow the freighter to Dubai, a process expected to take several days.

The spokesperson said South Korea is sharing relevant information with the United States, Iran and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

She said the oceans ministry and the Cheonghae naval unit operating in the Gulf of Aden are in communication with the HMM Namu, adding the government is in daily contact with the 26 South Korean ships anchored in the strait.

In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran has taken shots at a South Korean cargo ship and other targets as he called on Seoul to participate in a mission to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The presidential office separately said it is reviewing Trump’s proposal by considering the readiness posture on the Korean Peninsula and domestic legal procedures.

“(We) are actively taking part in multiple international efforts for the swift stabilization, recovery and normalization of the global maritime logistics network.” it said. “In this context, (we) are paying attention to President Trump’s remarks.”

Industry officials said South Korean-operated ships in waters off the UAE were moving toward Qatar in line with government measures to steer clear of the Strait of Hormuz for safety.

The incident came after the U.S. launched an operation, called Project Freedom, this week to guide commercial vessels stranded by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran out of the waterway.

HMM operates five vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, including one container ship and two oil tankers.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

TWO more countries in Europe are set to ignore the new entry rules that have caused chaos at airports.

The new Entry/Exit System (EES) now requires all non-EU citizens to undergo biometric checks at the border.

Including Brits, this has resulted in queues as long as four hours and people even missing their flights.

However, Italy is expected to scrap the requirements by the May holidays in a bid to avoid the chaos, continuing to stamp passports instead.

And Portugal, while not scrapping entirely, has temporarily paused the EES rules if queues are too long.

Both Faro and Lisbon Airport have been some of the worst affected by massive waits.

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Yet passengers have said they are being waved through to ignore the biometric machines when there are huge crowds.

It comes after Greece also scrapped the rules ahead of summer.

The Greek embassy confirmed last month: “In the framework of the implementation of the Entry/Exit System, as of 10 April 2026, British passport holders are exempt from biometric registration at Greek border crossing points.”

Eleni Skarveli, the director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, added: “The Greek National Tourism Organisation remains committed to ensuring a seamless and welcoming journey for all visitors from the UK.”

Airlines such as Ryanair are calling on other countries to pause the rules too, with fears of more problems during the busy summer holidays.

Countries including Spain and France are yet to confirm if they will follow suit.

Here’s everything you need to know about the EES system.

And our Deputy Travel Editor revealed how to avoid the huge EES queues this summer.

Beanie Feldstein and Bonnie-Chance Roberts are expecting a baby, the “Booksmart” actor and her wife announced Monday on social media.

“Limited Edition Scouse Beanie Baby coming soon!!” the couple said in a joint Instagram post, captioning a carousel of pictures showing Feldstein with and without her wife, both dressed in shades of pink and white, plus a white-frosted cake ringed with the pink inscription “B+B are having a baby.”

Anyone want to place a bet on whether it’s a girl?

The “Beanie” in the baby caption is self-explanatory, while “Scouse” is a reference to the accent in Roberts’ Liverpool home town.

Feldstein and film producer Roberts, who met in 2018 during preproduction on the 2019 movie “How to Build a Girl,” made their red-carpet debut at the movie’s premiere and then got married in June 2023. The wedding festivities spanned two days in New York’s Hudson Valley and incorporated a summer camp theme.

Feldstein told Vogue at the time that the ceremony’s outdoor and rustic nature was inspired by “our happy place together.” The “Lady Bird” actor grew up going to summer camp and said her family has a history of finding love in those childhood spaces.

“To get married at a camp was a truly beautiful emotional homecoming,” she said.

Friends including Whitney Cummings, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben Platt, Olivia Wilde, Uzo Aduba, Joey King and Monica Lewinsky chimed in with glee in comments on the joint post.

“Luckiest baby,” wrote Wilde, who directed “Booksmart.” “And I’m finally a grandma!!!!”

Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, citing concerns about his privacy and a lack of passion for political combat, on Wednesday proclaimed that he would not run for President in 1996.

For the first time, Powell declared that he was a Republican. And he seemed clearly to leave open the possibility of seeking political office in the future. But he categorically ruled out accepting the vice presidential nomination next year.

In a dramatic afternoon press conference in suburban Washington, Powell, 58, said that entering the political arena “requires a calling that I do not yet hear. And for me to pretend otherwise would not be honest to myself, it would not be honest to the American people.”

“And therefore I cannot go forward,” he said. “I will not be a candidate for President or for any other elective office in 1996.”

Powell’s wife, Alma, stood at his side as he ended months of suspense about his political intentions and disappointed millions of potential supporters. His adult children, Michael, Linda and Annemarie, looked on in the packed hotel ballroom where Powell delivered his fateful verdict.

“I have spent long hours talking with my wife and children, the most important people in my life, about the impact an entry into political life would have on us,” Powell said. “It would require sacrifices and changes in our lives that would be difficult for us to make at this time.”

With the September publication of his best-selling memoirs, “My American Journey,” Powell had become a four-star American icon, the repository of the hopes of millions who dreamed that he could bind up the nation’s racial and political wounds.

But in the end, that task proved too great even for the charismatic general, who braved unfriendly fire in Vietnam and survived the ordeals of bureaucratic combat in four presidential administrations.

Powell said Wednesday he hoped he could help restore civility to American political dialogue and a “sense of shame in our society.” He also said he hoped to bring blacks back into the party by broadening the GOP’s appeal and humanizing its attempts to reform social welfare programs.

“While we’re sending out block grants, while we’re dismantling programs that have not completely satisfied everything we hoped of them, we have to concern ourselves about those who may be cut loose, and we have to be prepared to help them,” Powell said. Over the past months, “I didn’t sense there was enough consideration of that.”

“I will continue to speak out forcefully in the future on the issues of the day, as I have been doing in recent weeks,” Powell said. “I believe I can help the party of Lincoln move once again close to the spirit of Lincoln.”

But–for now–he said he would do so from outside the realm of electoral politics.

Powell largely came to his decision over the weekend and formalized it in a meeting Monday night with two of his closest friends, former Pentagon official Richard L. Armitage and former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein. With a third aide, retired Col. Bill Smullen, joining in by phone, the three men sat in Powell’s formal office on the ground floor of his McLean, Va., mansion, a room dominated by his Medal of Freedom and three framed photographs of the presidents he has served–Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Alma Powell joined the group about halfway through the 2 1/2-hour meeting, Armitage said in an interview Wednesday.

“By then, the decision was primarily made,” Armitage said. “Over these past weeks, he was up and down, he agonized. He’d go out and meet with crowds and they’d fire him up. Then he’d get back home and wonder, ‘Do I have the necessary fire in the stomach to be worthy of support of these people?’ And he found he did not,” Armitage said.

As it became clear that Powell would not run, the meeting moved quickly to a discussion of the logistics of the announcement. The four discussed various drafts of a statement, then decided that Powell should speak solely in his own words. On Wednesday afternoon, he did just that, speaking largely without reference to the note cards he had carried with him.

He had looked “deep into my own soul” before deciding not to run, Powell said, and had found that he could not summon up the “commitment and passion” he felt every day in his 35 years as a soldier.

Powell also pointedly refused to endorse any of the Republican candidates, or even the party’s eventual nominee. He answered a curt “yes” to the question of whether there were candidates in the current crop of GOP hopefuls who were unacceptable to him.

A close friend said later that Powell was referring specifically to Patrick J. Buchanan, who has harshly criticized Powell’s stands on social issues.

Powell’s decision reopens a presidential contest that had been largely frozen for the last two months as he flirted with running.

Within an hour of Powell’s announcement, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that the former general’s withdrawal made it more likely that he would enter the race. Gingrich said he would think about it over the next several weeks and make a decision after the current federal budget deliberations are finished but before the Dec. 15 deadline for entering New Hampshire’s primary.

Powell’s withdrawal was particularly welcome news at the White House and at the headquarters of GOP presidential front-runner Sen. Bob Dole. In a statement, Dole praised Powell’s “outstanding character and leadership” and expressed pleasure that he had joined the Republican Party.

At the White House, aides showed unusual discipline in not admitting that they felt a huge sense of relief at not having to face Clinton’s worst nightmare–a black, centrist, Republican military hero–in the general election next year.

“Everyone wants some hook to say there was a sigh of relief at the White House–but you’ll have to do it on your own,” said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry.

He added that Clinton “understands the decision to run for President of the United States is one of the most difficult decisions any human can make. He respects the general and respects the general’s right to make that decision.”

Powell met with the press for 40 minutes at the Ramada Plaza hotel in Alexandria, Va., a few miles down the George Washington Parkway from the Pentagon, where Powell made history by becoming the first African American and youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

His appearance was marked by the good humor, military carriage and unshakable poise he displayed in private meetings with presidents, kings and prime ministers and in public briefings on the American military operations he directed.

He expressed gratitude to the thousands of citizens who urged him to run. “It says more about America than it says about me. In one generation, we have moved from denying a black man service at a lunch counter to elevating one to the highest military office in the nation and to being a serious contender for the presidency,” he said.

Powell drew laughs when asked whether his wife shared his enthusiasm for the Republican Party. “Next!” he boomed. He also fended off a question about whether he had been bothered by published reports that his wife was under treatment for depression.

“It is not a family secret,” he said. “It is very easily controlled with proper medication, just as my blood pressure is sometimes under control with proper medication.”

For her part, Alma Powell made clear her concerns about her husband’s safety should he become a candidate. She and the general denied that fears of assassination were a factor in his decision not to run, but the final call was not made until Monday night, the day slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was buried in Jerusalem.

Had he been elected, Powell said, his priorities in office would have been: “Show leadership. Be a conciliator. Move the government forward toward less government. . . . Try to inspire people. And try to restore a sense of family, restore a sense of shame in our society, help bring more civility into our society.”

Powell said he regretted the disappointment he caused those who enthusiastically promoted his candidacy.

“I am deeply, deeply appreciative of that support, I’m deeply appreciative of the time and talent and energy you put into it. I’m sorry I disappointed you, but I hope you will see that in the next phase of my life I will continue to serve the country in a way that will justify the kind of inspiration and enthusiasm and support you sent my way this time around,” Powell said, addressing the several dozen supporters who attended the press conference and millions more watching on television.

He said he understood the “down and dirty” of American politics and said they were a proper test of a potential leader. He said he was not afraid of that “test of fire,” but that he was not yet ready to face it.

Among those watching on television were about half a dozen disheartened volunteers at the draft-Powell headquarters in the Crenshaw district in Los Angeles. The group, which had just opened the office last week, vowed to launch an effort to change Powell’s mind. Through letters, phone calls and other means, they hope to persuade the retired general “to report for duty as a candidate for the presidency,” said Powell backer Ron Weekly.

Times staff writers Sam Fulwood III in Washington and Erin Texeira in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

* LOCAL REACTION: General’s Orange County kin pleased with his decision. A17

CITY SECTION

Monday’s Results

FIRST ROUND

DIVISION I

Taft d. LA Roosevelt, 25-17, 25-17, 25-17

East Valley d. Harbor Teacher, 17-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-19

VAAS d. El Camino Real, 25-19, 25-17, 25-19

North Hollywood d. Van Nuys, 28-30, 25-18, 25-23, 26-24

Vaughn d. Sun Valley Poly, 3-0

Larchmont d. Verdugo Hills, 25-17, 25-17, 25-12

Sylmar d. South Gate, 25-23, 25-18, 25-21

DIVISION II

Huntington Park d. Los Angeles, 25-13, 25-17, 25-27, 25-21

LA Hamilton d. Orthopaedic, 3-1

Bernstein d. Elizabeth, 25-22, 25-15, 25-12

Marquez d. San Pedro, 25-15, 25-16, 25-18

Diego Rivera d. Dorsey, 3-2

Narbonne d. Downtown Magnets, 3-0

Panorama d. LA Wilson, 3-1

SOCES at LA University

DIVISION III

San Fernando d. Bravo, 3-0

Birmingham d. Magnolia Science, 25-17, 25-15, 25-23

Fairfax d. Burton, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, 28-26

Granada Hills Kennedy d. Middle College, 25-17, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20

DIVISION IV

Canoga Park d. Bell, 25-12, 25-18, 31-33, 25-20

Chavez d. Neuwirth Learning Center d. Chavez, 25-21, 25-21, 25-18

West Adams d. USC Hybrid, 25-22, 25-20, 25-15

Community Charter d. Washington Prep, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 25-17

DIVISION V

Garfield d. Dymally, 3-1

Rancho Dominguez d. Valley Oaks CES, 26-28, 25-14, 25-15, 25-23

LA Jordan d. Stern, 3-1

Animo De La Hoya d. Port of Los Angeles, 25-11, 25-22, 25-9

Sotomayor d. Triumph Charter, 25-18, 25-22, 30-28

SOUTHERN SECTION

Monday’s Results

SECOND ROUND

DIVISION 9

YULA d. Indian Springs, 3-1

Avalon d. Bethel Baptist, 3-0

Downey Calvary Chapel d. Southlands Christian, 3-1

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Matches at 6 p.m. unless noted)

QUARTERFINALS

DIVISION 1

Tesoro at Mira Costa

Corona del Mar at Huntington Beach, 6:30 p.m.

Newport Harbor at Loyola

Santa Margarita at Redondo Union

DIVISION 2

Fountain Valley at Orange Lutheran

San Clemente at St. Margaret’s

Camarillo at Yorba Linda

Edison at Arcadia

Note: Quarterfinals Divisions 3-9 May 6; Semifinals All Divisions May 9; Finals All Divisions May 15-16.

THE UK is home to over 2,500 train stations and there is nothing better than your journey leading you to one that is super pretty and has special experiences.

From free cocktails to unique-looking Greggs stores, there are many UK train stations that offer more than just commuting options. Here are our top 10 train stations across the UK:

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

Glasgow, Scotland

I’ve never seen a train station in the UK as pretty as Glasgow Central in Scotland and if it wasn’t for a day trip outside of the city, I would have completely missed this gem.

Sadly, part of the station recently burnt down but it is still pretty inside with several shops all with the same signage and colour palette, making them look more like museum exhibits than shops.

There’s even a Greggs that stands on its own, with a rounded brown front and cream signage, ditching the usually bright blue and yellow.

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And there’s the voco Grand Central Glasgow by IHG hotel which has a Champagne Bar overlooking the dreamy concourse.

– Cyann Fielding, Travel Reporter

Norwich, Norfolk

Norwich railway station looks more like a grand French palace than the modern commuter’s railway station.

It opened back in 1844, and despite its renovations since, this historic station still retains its charm today.

This grand, Grade II-listed building was designed in French Renaissance style, with striking red bricks, stone trimmings, and a large ornate dome and traditional clock face. Inside you’ll find a tall,  ballroom-like ceiling.

The grand entrance served as a carriage porch, designed to keep Victorian passengers dry as they hopped from their horse-drawn carriages.

This station serves the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, as well as secondary lines to seaside towns such as Sheringham and Great Yarmouth.

Once you step outside, the calm canal of this cathedral city is just a stone’s throw away – as are its popular waterside pubs.

– Jenna Stevens, Travel Reporter

Bristol Temple Meads

Bristol Temple Meads, which opened in 1840, was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The Grade I listed building has a mock-Tudor design using local stone.

On the concourse you’ll see tall stone and brick arches and then in the main train station there’s a vaulted glass ceiling.

The station has a number of shops too including an M&S, Starbucks and even a florist.

St Pancras, London

London St Pancras first opened in 1868 and later became an international rail hub in 2007, with trains to Europe.

It has a red exterior and then inside, glass features throughout the station and platforms.

Inside, you can also visit The Booking Office 1869 Bar and Restaurant, which features a long bar.

Visit at 5:05pm and you can get a free cocktail and history lesson…

And of course there’s Searcy’s, a cool champagne bar with yes, a champagne button, found in the train carriage-like booths and Europe’s longest champagne bar, stretching 98 metres.

There’s often live music in the station as well, thanks to pianos scattered around for the public to play.

– Kara Godfrey, Deputy Travel Editor

York

York Railway Station opened in 1877 and is a great example of Victorian architecture and rich history.

When inside, visitors will be able to see the ‘Great Curve’, which is 244-metre curved platform that was designed to curve around the city walls.

Make sure to look up too, as the ceiling is glass with huge iron arches and is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Keep an eye out for other original details across the station as well, such as the Yorkshire rose and the restored two-faced clock on the main concourse.

Wemyss Bay, Scotland

You could happily take a trip to Wemyss Bay Railway Station in Inverclyde, even if you had no train to catch.

This award-winning station was one of only ten to earn five stars in Simon Jenkins’ Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations, and it’s often considered one of the UK’s most beautiful.

This Category A-listed station has a giant Edwardian curved-glass ceiling, which makes this railway station feel more like a beautiful botanical garden – especially since the station is also decorated with flowers and plants.

The magnificent iron and glass structure curves around the entire station, giving you plenty of space to wander around and admire.

For some more sightseeing, this station also contains the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry terminal, which connects onward to the Isle of Bute.

– Jenna Stevens, Travel Reporter

Birmingham New Street

Birmingham New Street is less historic than the other destinations on this list and more futuristic.

Redesigned around 10 years ago, the train station boasts a reflective stainless-steel facade and then as you head inside, you’ll see a giant, light-filled atrium that feels more like a spaceship.

Look out for ‘The Eye’, which is a 30 metre-wide screen in the station that is often used as a meeting point.

In the centre of the station look out for Ozzy the Bull, whose eyes light up and head even moves.

Edinburgh Waverley, Scotland

In the Scottish capital, you’ll find the second largest train station in Britain – Edinburgh Waverley – and it sits lower than the two sides of Edinburgh towering above it, with the Old Town on one side and New Town on the other.

The pretty Category A listed station was named after Sir Walter Scott’s novels and has a 13 acre (yes, really) glass roof.

You aren’t short of shops either with an M&S, Cafe Nero and WHSmith, or if you fancy a tipple, there is even a Brew Dog pub and The Booking Office Wetherspoons.

Even the film industry thinks it is special, with scenes shot on Platform 2 for Marvel‘s Avengers: Infinity War.

– Cyann Fielding, Travel Reporter

Cardiff Central, Wales

Cardiff Central train station is the largest and busiest rail hub in Wales.

Built back in 1850, it features eight platforms and an Art Deco style inside that emerged slightly later, between 1931 and 1934.

The Booking Hall is the main highlight, with a vaulted ceiling and Art Deco lamps.

Keep an eye out for original interwar design features as well, such as wall tiles with hands on pointing to different platforms.

London Bridge, London

As a regular commuter into London Bridge, I’ve come to appreciate just how great the station is compared to some of the others in the UK.

It has restaurants, coffee shops, and for retail therapy there’s the likes of Boots, M&S Food, and Pret.

There are also designer shops under the arches like Reiss and All Saints which might not be affordable, but it’s nice to window shop.

When you’re stuck in the station waiting for a train home, the Wi-Fi is easy to join and as you might not expect, actually reliable.

For quirky touches, it has a Meet by the Heart mural, a museum of artefacts, and even a pipe organ known as Henry – which you’re free to try out.

– Alice Penwill, Travel Reporter

May 4 (Asia Today) — A rift among Samsung Electronics labor unions is widening after a union representing many workers in the company’s device business withdrew from a joint wage negotiation front.

Industry officials said Monday that Samsung Electronics Union Donghaeng, led mainly by workers in the Device eXperience division, sent an official letter to two other unions announcing its withdrawal from the 2026 joint wage bargaining group.

The unions had formed a joint bargaining team in November for wage and collective agreement talks. After negotiations with management stalled, they reorganized the group as a joint struggle headquarters.

The Donghaeng union said it decided to break away because of failed communication and damaged trust among the unions.

“Even when we proposed agenda items for the rights and interests of all union members rather than a specific department, the two unions showed no response or willingness to discuss them,” the union said in the letter.

The union also said it had repeatedly been disparaged and labeled a “company-friendly union,” making it impossible to maintain a cooperative bargaining relationship.

The Donghaeng union has about 2,300 members, with about 70% from the Device eXperience division, which oversees Samsung’s TV, home appliance and smartphone businesses. The union plans to notify management Wednesday of its withdrawal and request separate negotiations.

It also plans to pursue independent activities, including sending letters to executives and staging one-person protests.

The split is expected to deepen tensions among Samsung Electronics unions. Internal criticism has grown that the Samsung Electronics branch of the Super-Enterprise Labor Union, which recently became the company’s majority union, has focused too heavily on performance bonus demands for the Device Solutions division, Samsung’s semiconductor business.

Membership in the Super-Enterprise Labor Union branch has fallen from more than 76,000 to the 74,000 range, and some employees have called for a new union representing only Device eXperience workers.

The joint struggle headquarters, now without the Donghaeng union, still plans to begin procedures for a full strike May 21. Participation by Donghaeng union members is expected to be decided individually.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260504010000424

BAD Bunny looked unrecognizable as an old man at the Met Gala on Monday night.

The 32-year-old star arrived at the event with gray hair, a gray beard and a walking stick – leaving fans completely baffled.

The Puerto Rican rapper, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, even hobbled up the steps as he posed for photos, leaning into his elderly alter-ego even more.

His skin looked aged, his hands looked older, and the way he walked and moved was that of an 80-year-old.

Fans were entirely divided by the singer’s look, with many flocking to social media to share their thoughts.

“Sorry but no I don’t like it,” said one.

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“Dad bunny,” joked another.

“Why is he an old man?” asked a third.

While a fourth joked: “More like Señor bad bunny lol.”

“Superbowl aged him 60 years lol,” said a fifth.

“Turns out, Bad Bunny was Will Ferrell all along. Well played, Will,” joked a seventh.

But some fans were more complimentary.

“Aging is art,” said one person.

“For me, it was a critique showing that aging can also be beautiful,” added another.

While a third said: “He always brings it!”

And a fourth wrote: “He and Heidi Klum are so good at costumes and entertaining! Love them both!”

Heidi arrived at the event in New York as a living statue in a very bizarre costume, which some fans dubbed as “creepy”.

Heidi transformed herself into a literal sculpture and looked as though she was crafted entirely from marble.

The costume looked like a naked body draped in a fabric, but in sculpture form.

One took to X to say: “She looks a bit scary but this is gorgeous idc.”

“This isn’t Halloween honey,” slammed another.

“This looks more creepy than creative,” penned a third.

But there was much praise too, with one person writing: “Finally someone who understood the assignment Heidi didn’t just wear the theme she became the art. Living marble statue is insane commitment.”

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Thursday shut down an inquiry by Democrats into whether the Bush administration acted illegally or inappropriately last year when it withheld from Congress its estimates of the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill.

At issue are allegations that then-Medicare Administrator Thomas A. Scully threatened to fire his top actuary if he gave lawmakers his analyses showing the costs would be much higher than administration officials were saying publicly.

Thursday’s conclusion of a Ways and Means Committee hearing all but ensured that two individuals central to the controversy — Scully and White House aide Doug Badger — would not testify before Congress.

Separately, the Health and Human Services Department is conducting an internal investigation into the matter, and Democratic lawmakers have requested civil and criminal inquiries.

Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee had asked Scully and Badger to answer questions about when President Bush and top-ranking officials were told that internal estimates of the Medicare bill’s cost were more than one-third higher than the $400 billion Bush had set aside, and why those analyses had not been shared with lawmakers.

But White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, in a letter to committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), cited “long-standing White House policy” against having White House staff members testify before Congress as the reason Badger would not appear.

And Scully, now a private consultant, said in a letter to Thomas that he was unable to appear before the committee because “unfortunately, for the past ten days I have been traveling.”

Committee Democrats rejected both explanations. In the case of Badger, they said at least 45 high-ranking Clinton administration officials had testified before Congress; in the case of Scully, they offered to let him appear at a later time. But Republicans quashed the Democrats’ attempts to subpoena the men.

Republican committee members accused the Democrats of trying to capitalize on the controversy, which erupted last month when Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster told reporters that Scully had threatened to fire him if he responded to Democratic requests for analyses of the pending legislation.

Thomas, the committee chairman, said that although he was willing to use “whatever tools are necessary to get to the bottom of a violation of law,” he was not willing to issue subpoenas to Badger and Scully “to satisfy someone’s whim or curiosity.”

As for preliminary estimates by Foster indicating that the Medicare bill could cost as much as $551 billion over 10 years, Thomas said the information “probably would not have enlightened Congress as much as confused Congress.” Thomas chaired the House-Senate conference committee that completed the legislation.

In January, the Bush administration revised the estimated cost of the Medicare overhaul to $534 billion.

Democrats, who noted the original Medicare bill passed the House in June by one vote, charged that a broader constitutional issue was at stake: How far can the executive branch go in withholding information from Congress that could affect the outcome of a vote?

In November, a narrowly divided Congress passed the Medicare bill, which created a new prescription drug benefit and gave private insurers and drug companies billions of dollars to lure seniors and the disabled into managed care plans.

Several conservative Republicans, who were concerned about the bill’s projected $400-billion cost, voted for the legislation only after high-pressure lobbying by Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

“The main issue is who knew about the actuarial figure, and why wasn’t it disclosed in a timely fashion?” said Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.). “There was a cover-up of this information and we want to know how high the cover-up went.”

Procedural maneuvering and partisan wrangling dominated much of Thursday’s hearing, which was more than half over before its two witnesses began their testimony.

Jeff Flick, regional administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in San Francisco, confirmed that while serving as Scully’s special assistant he composed an e-mail to Foster that reiterated Scully’s insistence that Foster withhold information requested by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Hayward).

“The administrator emphasized that if Rick does not adhere to these instructions, it is outright insubordination and insubordination carries serious consequences,” Flick said, adding that Scully’s “actual language may have been more colorful.”

Scully, who has denied threatening to fire Foster, acknowledged in his letter to Thomas that “there is no question whatsoever that I made it very clear to Mr. Foster, both directly and indirectly, that I, as his supervisor, would decide when he would communicate with Congress.”

Leslie M. Norwalk, acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told committee members that she had advised an anguished Foster that although his office was not legally required to share information with Congress, the office was subject to Scully’s authority.