SACRAMENTO–A housing advocacy group, casting embattled state Sen. Ronald S. Calderon (D-Montebello) as a symbol of the influence special interests have on lawmakers, called for tighter bans on lobbyist gifts at a Thursday rally at the Capitol.
Around 50 members of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) convened at the Capitol’s south steps, many clad in matching yellow T-shirts. Members focused on Calderon’s notable accumulation of gifts, which they said indicated close ties to industries–sometimes, they charged, at the expense of his constituents.
Peggy Mears, an organizer from the Inland Empire, said her group had no specific knowledge of wrongdoing or cause for the FBI raid on his offices Tuesday.
“We’re not here to say the charges against him are false or true,” Mears said. “What we’re saying is that there’s an epidemic in the elected officialdom of accepting gifts. And we want this to stop.”
Calderon’s office did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
Mears called for a ban on all gifts from lobbyists and lobbyists’ employers. Lobbyists currently cannot give more than $10 per month to an elected official. But Mears said those limits can be skirted by giving through employers or nonprofit foundations. She also criticized lawmakers like Calderon for holding out-of-state fundraisers.
“The constituents of this state pay you enough money. You can buy your own gifts,” said Abdullah Muhammad, who lives in Calderon’s district. “You don’t need Christmas year-round. You don’t need your birthday year-round.”
The group has clashed with Calderon before, particularly in their advocacy for the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, a foreclosure protection measure. ACCE members said the Senate banking committee, of which Calderon is a member, often posed an obstacle.
Calderon voted for the bill and lauded its passage last summer.
“Although we got the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights passed, it was a hard-fought battle,” Mears said. “We had to fight lobbyists. We were like David and they were Goliath.”
So what to make of a day which delivered history for Scottish women’s sport, as well as a 12-try demolition?
It is true, England are not the benchmark for Scotland.
Victory away to Wales last week was a solid start, and now it is all about the response in Italy next week and trying to beat Ireland in the final game, either side of a home game against France.
But all performances are crucial to building momentum and keeping the fans coming back, as Malcolm herself said.
Just ask the Scotland women’s football team, who have seen crowds shrink back at Hampden amid a struggle to qualify for major finals.
The Scotland captain, as ever, got the tone spot on when summing up a strange day.
“Today was about so much more than just the game,” Malcolm said. “For those of us that have been around 10 years plus – we’ve come from back pitches with a couple of people in stands.
“To even arrive today and get the reception we got was phenomenal. It’s a result of the work we’ve done as players on the pitch to put in performances that make people want to come back.
“Today wasn’t one of them. But that doesn’t take away from what we’ve created over the last 10 years to make this happen.
“We’re at the beginning of a new journey. We’re going to keep pushing to get back to that point to put in a performance in that stadium that fans can be proud of.”
Trump’s military operation to remove Maduro, who is currently detained in the US facing drug trafficking charges, is “something we Venezuelans will never forget”, she was quoted by AFP news agency as saying at a conference in Madrid on Saturday.
“There is a leader in the world, a head of state in the world, who risked the lives of his country’s citizens for Venezuela’s freedom,” she said.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which honoured Machado for her tireless campaign to restore democratic rights in Venezuela and her struggle to achieve a peaceful transition from authoritarian rule, made clear after the handover that the prize is nontransferable and cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others.
Machado, who had been living in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her prize in Oslo, said she was coordinating her return to the country with Washington.
US key to ‘democratic transition’
“I am speaking with the US government, and we are working in coordination, with mutual respect and understanding,” she said, adding that she believed Washington was “key to advancing a democratic transition” in Venezuela.
Trump has, however, publicly questioned Machado’s standing, calling her a “very nice woman” but saying she lacks “respect” within Venezuela. He has instead backed Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as the country’s interim leader.
Venezuela’s opposition last week called for presidential elections. Machado, who was banned from running in the disputed 2024 vote that returned Maduro to power, has not yet said whether she would stand in a future poll.
While in Spain, Machado declined a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, citing his hosting of a progressive leaders’ summit in Barcelona as proof the meeting was “not advisable”. Sanchez had said he was willing to meet her at any time.
This snub comes in contrast to her frequent encounters with Sanchez’s right-wing opponents.
All this comes as the U.S. and Iran appear closer to reaching a deal to end the war, which we will discuss in greater detail later in this story. The temporary ceasefire between the two countries ends April 21.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organization of the Islamic Rep. of Iran,” Sayyed Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, stated on X Friday morning.
In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran.
That route is a narrow five-mile stretch between the islands of Qeshem and Larak, roughly 15 miles from the Iranian shoreline.
In a post on his Truth Social site, U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the decision but said it did not change the ongoing blockade.
“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” Trump stated. “THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED.”
Trump:
The Strait of Hormuz is completely open and ready for business and full passage, but the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran only, until our transaction with Iran is 100% complete! pic.twitter.com/YMGS5BUGjD
The president added that “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!” However, there was no immediate response from Tehran.
Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World! President DONALD J. TRUMP
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 17, 2026
Regarding any peace deals, Trump said on his Truth Social network that the “U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers – No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.”
This was a reference to the Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last year. Iran is believed to have about 440.9 kg of uranium enriched up to 60% of the explosive uranium isotope, U-235 stored at these locations.
“This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer,” Trump added.
“The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear “Dust,” created by our great B2 Bombers – No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.” pic.twitter.com/vkRVe30AzT
It remains to be seen how this will play out. Iran’s state TV, citing a senior military official, highlighted that “only civilian vessels will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz via designated routes and with permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.”
“The passage of military vessels through the strait remains prohibited,” it said.
Iran’s state TV, citing a senior military official, said “only civilian vessels will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz via designated routes and with permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.”
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 17, 2026
Despite the closure, ships have still transited the strategic body of water through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas exports pass. Ship traffic through the Strait actually “increased from last month’s unusually low levels, with crossings rising and activity extending across a broader mix of vessel types and cargoes,” according to the global trade intelligence firm Kpler.
Traffic gradually returns to Hormuz
Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has increased from last month’s unusually low levels, with crossings rising and activity extending across a broader mix of vessel types and cargoes. Movements are becoming more balanced in both… pic.twitter.com/FPjw0s3N9k
There is also still the issue of mines in the section of the Strait outside the Qeshem-Larak passage. Demining is one of the issues being discussed today in an international meeting being held in Paris, a French official told us. We’ll discuss this meeting in a little more detail later in this story.
Trump, however, claimed that “Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed or is removing all sea mines!”
The Strait of Hormuz and Qeshem and Larak islands. (Google Earth)
We have reached out to shippers and maritime analysis and security firms to get a clearer picture of what this decision means from their perspectives.
“This is good news,” a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd told us. “There are still some open questions on our end, but they might be resolved within the next 24 hours. Top priority for the passage is safety and security for the seafarers, the vessel and the cargo of our customers. If all open issues are cleared (i.e. insurance coverage, clear orders of Iranian government/military about the exact sea corridor to be used and the sequence of ships leaving) we would prefer to pass the strait as soon as possible. Our crisis committee is in session and will try to resolve all open items with the relevant parties within the next 24-36 hours.”
The reopening of the Strait “marks a turn for global shipping, as it allows over 750 vessels previously trapped in the Middle East Gulf to begin clearing approximately $17 billion in stranded energy and dry bulk cargoes,” Kpler told us. “As of April 17, 2026, there are 862 vessels currently operating within the Mideast Gulf. The core of the backlog is composed of approximately 187 laden tankers carrying roughly 172 million barrels of crude and refined products, along with a specialized cluster of 15 LNG vessels that remain almost entirely stalled following the collapse of recent ceasefire talks.”
The Strait reopening and a looming new round of peace talks appears to have provided a boost to the world economy.
“Oil prices are falling by more than 10%, and Wall Street is rallying toward another record after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, which would allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf again and carry crude to customers worldwide,” The Associated Press reported. “The S&P 500 rallied 0.7% as U.S. stocks sprinted toward the finish of a third straight week of big gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%, and the Nasdaq composite added 1%.”
Stocks “have rallied more than 11% since late March on hopes that the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy,” the wire service added.
BREAKING: President Trump and Iran’s foreign minister say the Strait of Hormuz is now fully open. Crude oil prices tumble 10% after the announcements. https://t.co/d44au7X8UP
He insisted that doing so will not involve U.S. ground troops. But when asked who would retrieve it, he would only say “our people.”
“No. No troops,” he told the network. “We’ll go down and get it with them, and then we’ll take it. We’ll be getting it together because by that time, we’ll have an agreement and there’s no need for fighting when there’s an agreement. Nice right? That’s better. We would have done it the other way if we had to.”
The president said the material would then be brought to the U.S.
“Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States,” he said.
NEWS President Trump tells me:
-No ground troops will be required to remove enriched uranium from Iran
-Iran has agreed to stop backing all proxy groups like Hezbollah and Hamas
-I asked if Iran has agreed to stop enriching uranium *forever.” He said, “They’ve agreed to…
Speaking to the White House press corps, Trump addressed questions about the peace process.
“We’ll see how it all turns out, but it should be good, some very good discussions, and hopefully that subject that you like to talk about will be very good,” he said. “And we’ve done a good job, but we’ll see … the talks are going on and going over the weekend, and a lot of good things are happening that includes Lebanon.”
Asked about differences with Iran on how all this is developing, Trump said: “If there are, I’m going to straighten it out. .. don’t think there’s too many significant differences.”
As for the blockade: “When the agreement is signed, the blockade ends,” he proclaimed.
Earlier on Friday, Iranian officials said they would close the Strait again if the blockade is not lifted.
“We’ve had some very good discussions… Talks are going on. It’ll go on over the weekend — and a lot of good things are happening,” says @POTUS in Arizona.
Trump told Axios that U.S. and Iranian negotiators will probably meet this weekend, and he expects them to hammer out a final deal to end the war. The deal should come “in a day or two,” Axios reporter Barak Ravid added on X.
UPDATE: 1:28 PM EDT –
Trump told Reuters on Friday that the U.S. will work with Iran to recover its enriched uranium and bring it back to the United States.
“We’re going to get it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and start excavating with big machinery… We’ll bring it back to the United States,” Trump said during a phone interview.
The United States will work with Tehran to recover its enriched uranium and bring it back to the United States, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Friday.
“We’re going to get it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and… pic.twitter.com/ZfwJTFrIbr
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 17, 2026
UPDATE: 1:17 PM EDT –
Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s president, pushed back on Trump’s claim that Iran promised never to close the Strait again.
“The Twitter rhetoric and baseless statements of the enemy are aimed at stripping the Iranian nation of their sense of pride for the great victories they have achieved through their resolute defense,” he stated on X. “The conditional and limited reopening of a portion of the Strait of Hormuz is solely an Iranian initiative, one that creates responsibility and serves to test the firm commitments of the opposing side. If they renege on their promises, they will face dire consequences.”
لفاظیهای توئیتری و اظهارات بیپایه دشمن، در جهت سلب احساس افتخار ملت ایران برای پیروزیهای بزرگی است که در دفاع مقتدرانه کسب کردهاند. بازگشایی مشروط و محدود بخشی از تنگه هرمز ، صرفا ابتکاری ایرانی، مسئولیتآفرین و برای آزمون تعهدات قطعی طرف مقابل است. بدعهدی کنند، بد میبینند.
Iran considers the continuation of the U.S. blockade on its ports a ceasefire violation and would close the Strait of Hormuz again if the blockade is not lifted, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported citing an informed source close to the Supreme National Security Council.
We’ve reached out to the White House for comment.
Iranian official to Fars:
If the maritime blockade continues, it will be considered a violation of the ceasefire, and the Strait of Hormuz transit route will be closed.
With new talks potentially set to be held in Pakistan over the weekend, the U.S. and Iran are negotiating over a three-page plan to end the war, Axios reported Friday morning. One of the key elements under discussion is “that the U.S. would release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium,” the outlet noted, citing two U.S. officials and two additional sources briefed on the talks.
The Memo of Understanding (MoU) also states the two sides are negotiating over a “voluntary” moratorium on nuclear enrichment by Iran. It also deals with the Strait of Hormuz, “though the sources said there are still significant gaps on that issue,” Axios posited.
It’s unclear if the MOU refers to Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for regional proxies.
🚨 SCOOP: The U.S. and Iran are negotiating over a three-page plan to end the war, with one element under discussion being that the U.S. would release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium. https://t.co/w84Yd8JHgp
“Trump is directly talking to the Iranians,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News.
“He is negotiating himself,” Graham proffered. “He was on the phone with the Iranians a couple of days ago, and it got rather sporty—to the point that Trump loudly told Iran what would happen if they keep playing games. He actually lost his voice. I’d hate to be the Iranian on the receiving end of that.”
Senator Graham:
Trump is directly talking to the Iranians. He is negotiating himself.
He was on the phone with the Iranians a couple of days ago, and it got rather sporty—to the point that Trump loudly told Iran what would happen if they keep playing games.
Despite rising hopes that the war in Iran could soon end, the country’s deputy foreign minister on Friday rejected any call for a temporary ceasefire. Instead, Tehran is seeking a comprehensive end to conflict across the Middle East, Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters today. That includes fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, currently paused on the first full day of a shaky 10-day ceasefire.
“We are not accepting any temporary ceasefire,” Khatibzadeh said on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum hosted by Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. Any end to the fighting must include all conflict zones “from Lebanon to the Red Sea,” he added, describing it as a “red line” for Iran.
The cycle of violence “should end here once and for all,” Khatibzadeh continued, according to Al Jazeera.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) said it is ready to resume fighting if needed.
The Army and the IRGC have their “finger on the trigger” and are “prepared to deliver a powerful, destructive, and regret-inducing response to any aggressive or criminal action by the US-Israeli enemy and their allies against the Iranian nation,” the IRGC said Friday.
As we noted earlier in this story, the leaders of nearly three dozen nations met – mostly virtually – at a conference in Paris today to discuss the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
Co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the conference on the Initiative for Maritime Navigation in the Strait of Hormuz looked at ways of protecting shipping after the fighting ends.
Starmer said the U.K. and France will lead a multinational mission to “protect freedom of navigation” in the Strait as soon as conditions permit. He added that the mission would be “strictly peaceful and defensive,” with the aim of reassuring commercial shipping and supporting mine clearance efforts.
Starmer invited other countries to join, saying that roughly a dozen countries had committed to contributing assets.
Kaja Kallas, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, said leaders also discussed ensuring that Iran imposes no tolls on passage through the Strait.
“Any pay-for-passage scheme will set a dangerous precedent for global maritime routes,” she stated on X. “Iran has to abandon any plan to levy transit fees. Europe will play its part in restoring the free flow of energy and trade, once a ceasefire takes hold.”
Kallas added that the EU’s Aspides naval mission is already operating in the Red Sea “and can be quickly strengthened to protect shipping across the region. This could be the fastest way to provide support.”
Yesterday, a spokesman for Aspides told us that there were no changes in its mission.
Under international law, transit through waterways like the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and free of charge. This is what leaders made clear in their call on reopening the Strait today.
Any pay-for-passage scheme will set a dangerous precedent for global maritime routes.… pic.twitter.com/Jeufv4hQou
This article from the Occasional Digest outlines the historical progression of Zimbabwe from its initial colonization by the British South Africa Company in the late 19th century to its official independence in 1980. The text details the transition from a private company holding to a British colony, the eventual rise of the white-minority government under Ian Smith, and the subsequent guerilla warfare that led to multiracial elections. It highlights April 18th as the significant date when Robert Mugabe took office and the nation achieved international recognition. Additionally, the source provides current global data such as currency exchange rates and weather updates for April 1 …
KATIE Price’s son Harvey has called her new husband Lee Andrews “daddy” after appearing to confirm Lee’s travel ban.
The self-proclaimed businessman, 43, took to his Instagram stories today to share a picture that Harvey had drawn for him.
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Katie Price’s son Harvey has called her new husband Lee Andrews “daddy”Credit: Paul EdwardsLee shared a drawing that Harvey made for himCredit: Instagram/wesleeeandrews
In the picture, two frogs are seen sitting next to each other with a love heart saying “I love you” in between them.
He addressed the drawing to “Mummy Bullfrog and Daddy Lee Bullfrog,” and said: “I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day and a happy holiday, love from Harvey.”
Lee wrote under it: “Harvey Price. You are just the best human,” as Katie reshared his story on her own profile.
It comes after The Sun revealed Lee’s devotion to Harvey with an apparent tattoo on the side of his left hand.
She said: “Of course I’m going back to Dubai and Lee will come here when he needs to.
“People have to remember he’s lived in Dubai for 21 years, that’s where he lives and where he does his work. There’ll be a time when he does come to England and he’ll be with me.”
Sophie replied: “I thought he had a travel ban?”
Katie and Lee tied the knot back in JanuaryCredit: wesleeeandrews/instagram
While not confirming whether or not Lee is unable to leave the city, Katie said: “Do you know what? Everyone has said to me you can get a travel ban over anything in Dubai.
“A parking ticket or if you owe a bill for electricity or something… you can get a travel ban for absolutely anything.”
Sophie asked: “Do they do anything like that over here?”
The I’m A Celebrity star joked: “No. If they did, I’d be banned for life! But yeah, you can get one for even breathing the wrong way in Dubai. It’s so strict.”
A clip from the podcast was posted on social media, with Katie writing: “Lee’s travel ban… it’s so strict!!!!”
Not since 2010 has California felt itself politically so out of step with the times. That year the state resisted the nationwide wave of anti-incumbent, anti-regulation and anti-big government voting to elect Jerry Brown as governor, ease the passage of big-money state budgets and turn away a challenge to its pioneering greenhouse gas regulations.
This election day, California voters tightened gun control, extended taxes on the rich, hiked cigarette taxes, legalized marijuana, boosted multilingual education — and of course provided Hillary Clinton with all of her winning margin of 2 million popular votes, and then some, in her losing campaign for president.
It’s impossible to look at the Trump campaign and not see a direct threat to the civil liberties and dignity of California citizens.
— Billionaire activist Tom Steyer
No wonder the election has inspired talk of California’s seceding from the United States. The nascent campaign, organized under the banner of the Yes California Independence Campaign and heralded by the Twitter hashtag #Calexit, has been energized by remarks by Brown, and others, that a Trump election would necessitate “building a wall around California” to preserve its forward-looking policies against a reactionary federal regime. And why not, the argument goes. After all, with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion, the state’s economy ranks sixth in the world, sandwiched between Britain and France.
Secession talk is more valuable as a pointer to all the ways that California and federal policies are likely to come into conflict during the next few years than as a formula for practical politics.
“It’s impossible to look at the Trump campaign and not see a direct threat to the civil liberties and dignity of California citizens,” says Tom Steyer, the progressive billionaire who in recent years has focused his energy on combating climate change via his organization NextGen Climate.
To dispense with the prospect of California’s seceding from the union: On the gonna-happen scale, it’s a Not. “We’d either have to win the ensuing civil war or have Congress kiss us goodbye,” says Joel D. Aberbach, director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA. “There isn’t a procedure for seceding” in the Constitution. The very notion of the U.S. as a divisible entity was settled by the Civil War.
A constitutional amendment is the longest of long shots. It must be approved by a two-thirds majority in each house of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 of the 50).
But the conflicts between state and federal policy will be serious. Here’s a look at what may be some of the most important.
Climate change: California has been among the national leaders in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and as recently as September strengthened its policies with a law mandating the reduction of climatologically harmful emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Its auto emission rules traditionally have set a benchmark for the auto industry and federal regulators.
During his campaign, Trump dismissed climate change as a Chinese hoax and pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which already has been ratified by 113 of the 197 signatory countries. The U.S. ratified the agreement by presidential order on Sept. 3.
“The single biggest achievement of the Obama administration in energy and climate was to get those countries to agree,” Steyer said. “It was an example of the best kind of American leadership — moral, technical, financial.”
Since the election, Trump has backed off his assertions about climate change and his promise to withdraw from the Paris pact. If he makes good on his threat, however, American leadership on climate change will pass to the states. Brown has pledged to keep California in the forefront of that movement, and earlier this month sent a state delegation to a U.N. climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco.
That just continues the sort of state-level leadership that has emerged in recent years. “Over the past decade, Congress has not passed a single bill that takes direct aim at climate change,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg observed in a recent speech. “Yet at the same time, the U.S. has led the world in reducing emissions.”
Trump could stifle federal funding for crucial research on climate change. One of his science advisors says he plans to eliminate NASA spending on earth science, calling it “politically correct environmental monitoring” and refocusing the agency exclusively on space research. That mirrors congressional Republicans’ approach to NASA, whose role in climate monitoring they disdain even though it has made crucial contributions to understanding of global warming.
Immigration: Trump campaigned on a pledge to cut off federal funding to “sanctuary cities” as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration. His chief of staff-designate, Reince Priebus, reiterated the policy in an interview after the election.
These are cities whose police departments aren’t required to check the immigration status of people they stop or arrest or to notify U.S. immigration officials of the status of undocumented persons they release from custody. The roster of sanctuary cities includes Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland; an estimated 1 million of the nation’s 11 million immigrants without legal status, many of whom Trump has threatened to deport, live in L.A. County.
Leaders of those cities have pledged to keep protecting immigrants and fight Trump’s proposed cuts in federal funding cuts, which would require congressional action. The stakes are high: Los Angeles receives about $500 million a year in federal funding for such municipal services as port security and homeless shelters. But there are practical as well as moral reasons for cities to steer clear of immigration enforcement. Complicity with immigration agents shatters trust in police in immigrant-rich communities, complicating street-level patrolling. And with undocumented immigrants part of the fabric of diverse communities, rigorous enforcement can have bad economic consequences.
Trump’s anti-immigrant stance has spurred calls to action to protect potential deportees. The Los Angeles Unified School District says it will rebuff any federal request for students’ immigration status. Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White, whose system includes as many as 10,000 students without legal documentation, has said that campus police won’t honor federal requests for deportation holds. Last week University of California President Janet Napolitano stated that UC campus police departments would not involve themselves in investigations of the immigration status of individuals on campus and ruled out “joint efforts” on immigration with federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies. She said the university aimed to “vigorously protect the privacy and civil rights of the undocumented members of the UC community.”
An estimated one in three of the 742,000 “Dreamers” — young people who were brought to this country by their parents without documentation and granted protection from deportation under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA — lives in California. Trump has pledged to shut down the program.
Healthcare: Few states gave the Affordable Care Act, which Trump and congressional Republicans pledge to repeal, support as full-throated as California. The state has enrolled about 1.4 million people in Obamacare health plans via its statewide individual insurance exchange, Covered California, and added about 3 million low-income residents to Medicaid rolls via the law’s Medicaid expansion, the cost of which has been 100% paid by the federal government.
It’s doubtful that this record could be maintained if Trump and congressional Republicans repeal the ACA. Repeal would eliminate the federal tax credits that reduce premiums on Covered California plans and other costs for about 90% of enrollees. That would drive many of them off coverage. The state would surely be unable to make up those subsidies. California would also suffer from the loss of the ACA’s consumer protection elements, including a ban on exclusions for preexisting conditions and on annual or lifetime benefit limits. A study published last June by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forecast that without the ACA, the ranks of the uninsured in California would soar by 2021 to 7.5 million, compared with only 3.4 million if the ACA remains in place.
Among the dangers in the GOP plans is uncertainty. The party has promised to “replace” the ACA with something that works better, yet has never coalesced around an alternative in more than six years of trying. But doubts that Covered California and other ACA marketplaces will eventually stabilize could drive more big insurers out of the market and force prices higher.
The prospects of disastrous tampering with healthcare were heightened Monday with Trump’s nomination of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as secretary of Health and Human Services. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, is a sworn enemy of the Affordable Care Act. He’s the author of an alternative law that could throw older and sicker patients out of the insurance pool and make insurance all but unaffordable for women of child-bearing age. The Price plan would repeal Obamacare and replace it with something resembling the pre-2010 individual insurance market, when overpriced, low-benefit plans were the norm for anyone except young, healthy males.
Republican proposals to convert Medicaid to a block-granted program—almost certainly a prelude to cutting the federal share of its budget—could pose a particular problem for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield. In his district, which largely spans Kern and Tulare counties, roughly half of all residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. Efforts to trim the program would have a direct effect on them.
Gun control and marijuana: Voters on election day flouted federal policy in both areas. Proposition 63 mandates background checks for ammunition sales and outlaws high-capacity ammo magazines. Proposition 64 legalizes marijuana.
Trump established himself as an ally of the National Rifle Assn. during the campaign, but White House policy may not be the biggest problem for the state’s firearms policy: the courts would be. In rulings in 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court extended the reach of the 2nd Amendment’s protection of the right to bear arms. Within a day of the election, the NRA was talking about challenging Proposition 63 and related state laws before the courts.
Trump hasn’t expressed strong objections to the legalization of marijuana, but as the biggest state to legalize pot, California could find itself in the crosshairs of revived anti-marijuana enforcement by his administration. Obama’s Justice Department took an indulgent approach to the wave of state legalizations of the drug, declaring in 2013 that although it was still illegal under federal law, its prosecutors would focus chiefly on preventing sales to minors and to keeping profits out of the hands of criminal gangs.
But Trump’s attorney general-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), stated in April that “marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it’s in fact a very real danger.” One anti-pot activist described him to the Washington Post as “by far the single most outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization in the U.S. Senate.” How he plans to enforce federal law in a legalization state as big as California is still a mystery.
In just five starts, José Soriano’s season with the Angels has gone from good to great — to historic.
Soriano pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning of the Angels’ 8-0 victory over the Padres on Friday night, ending San Diego’s eight-game winning streak with yet another dominant outing by the Angels’ right-handed Dominican ace.
Soriano (5-0) has an ERA of 0.28 after allowing just one run in his first 32 2/3 innings this season. He leads the majors with 39 strikeouts while allowing only 11 hits, and he’s tied with Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby for the lead with five wins.
Except for occasional control problems, Soriano has been overwhelming every lineup he faces — and Drake Baldwin’s first-inning homer for Atlanta on April 6 is still the only run he has allowed all season. His 17-inning scoreless streak is the second-longest in the majors this season, and opponents are batting .104 against his 0.73 WHIP — both the best in baseball.
Angels ace José Soriano delivers to the plate during the fifth inning of a win over the San Diego Padres at Angel Stadium on Friday.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)
“It’s like a hot knife through butter,” Angels slugger Jo Adell said. “It’s pretty crazy. It’s really special, and he’s a special talent. He’s always had the stuff to compete at this level, and he’s doing what an ace does. Whatever he’s done, just keep doing it.”
And after five straight dominant starts, Soriano has reached rare company.
The most recent pitcher to allow one earned run or fewer in each of his first five starts in a season with at least 15 total innings pitched was the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela in 1981, when he won the NL Cy Young award in his groundbreaking rookie season. Walter Johnson also did it in 1913 — and nobody else.
Soriano is also the only pitcher in major league history to go at least five innings while yielding one or fewer earned runs and three or fewer hits in each of his first five starts to a season.
“I just feel confident to keep pitching like that,” Soriano said. “I believe in my catcher, and we’re on the same page. I think that’s a big part of the results we’re having.”
While Soriano dazzled his previous two opponents with back-to-back, 10-strikeout outings over 15 combined innings to win the AL Player of the Week award, he actually didn’t overwhelm the Padres’ veteran lineup.
San Diego drew four walks and forced Soriano to throw 99 pitches. The Padres loaded the bases in the third before Soriano got Jackson Merrill to ground out, but San Diego eventually chased him with a single and a walk with two outs in the sixth.
“The thing that impressed was that to us, he had to grind a little bit tonight,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I think that’s the maturity showing up, where he’s learning how to pitch — and I say this lightly — without his best stuff. He learned how to navigate a great lineup over there without his best stuff … and it was pretty incredible. You can’t say enough.”
Soriano has a 99-mph fastball and a sinker that ranks among the best in baseball, but he’s also mixing in a curve that has flummoxed his opponents. The combination has been too much for any opponent through his first five starts.
“Knowing him from the past, you always thought of the high-90s sinker, and then he comes in breaking out the curveball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “That pitch was very impressive from the dugout. Gave our guys trouble at the beginning. It’s really hard to lay off that pitch, and it complements his sinker. He did a great job tonight mixing his pitches. … He’s just a really good pitcher.”
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has described the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as “Lords of War.” He called on them to stop acting like “emperors” and waging war on poorer countries.
The EU’s special representative for the Gulf said Saturday that any lasting solution for the Middle East must be led by countries in the region rather than imposed from outside, Anadolu reports.
Speaking at a panel during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Turkiye, Luigi Di Maio said the current crisis in the Gulf is another sign of the “further erosion of international law.”
“If we want to try to find a solution for avoiding again another crisis, like the ongoing crisis or a wider crisis, a farther spillover, we need to work all together,” he said.
Di Maio said the EU remains committed to multilateralism and international law, while stressing that Europe does not want to be “part of this war.”
At the same time, he said European countries are supporting Gulf partners in self-defense, including intercepting drones and missiles from Iran under bilateral agreements.
He also warned that instability in the Gulf affects the wider world, not only because of oil and gas, but also due to trade in fertilizer, helium for semiconductors and other goods moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Di Maio said the collapse of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal showed the importance of involving regional countries in negotiations.
“Every solution for the Middle East has to be a region-led process,” he said.
He said stronger connectivity and defense cooperation can make the region more resilient to future crises, adding that “autonomy does not mean isolation.”
He praised mediation efforts by Turkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, saying they had helped secure a ceasefire and could contribute to a broader agreement.
This year’s festival will take place Saturday and Sunday at the USC campus, and it’s packed with a mind-boggling array of great participants and exhibitors. You can peruse the complete schedule, download the book festival app, and book your parking and panel reservations here.
I have warm fuzzy feelings about the festival, attending as a budding writer in the early aughts. As someone who aspired to “go long” but had no clue how to go about doing it, the event was an inspiration: all these hot-shot authors talking about their craft, and free admission no less.
Of course the event wasn’t the sprawling, magnificent behemoth it is now, with cooking demonstrations from the world’s greatest chefs, and bestselling children’s authors reading to tiny budding bibliophiles. The first festival in 1996 drew 75,000 book fans; last year, more than twice as many people showed up.
As the festival grew, so did the excitement. In 2007, I waited in line along with hundreds of other fans for the privilege of hearing Gore Vidal talk about his craft in UCLA’s Royce Hall. Gay Talese, one of my journalism heroes and a veteran of some of the very first festivals in the late ’90s, was always a pleasure. His stories about breaking into the New York Times conjured up a lost world that seems positively antediluvian now. “If you show up in a three-piece suit and a hat, and you look like you might have taken a bath recently, they don’t kick you out as fast,” Talese told a packed crowd in 2008.
By that time, much to my astonishment, I knew Talese personally. In 2004, I was working on a book about the New Journalism movement that he spearheaded. That year, he asked me to join him at the book festival as a guest. It was my first time in the “green room,” the backstage area where authors socialize over food and drinks. After ogling all the A-list talent in the room, I was asked by Talese to join him for lunch at a table along with novelists Jane Smiley and John Kaye, historian Doug Brinkley and social critic Naomi Wolf, all of whom were appearing at the festival. Reader, my mind was suitably blown. I just kept my mouth shut and listened.
I will be moderating a panel Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Ray Stark Family Theatre (plug) and I can’t wait. There is nothing like this festival; it is The Times’ annual gift to the Southland, and we should all be grateful we get to enjoy it.
Here are some of this weekend‘s festival highlights. All panels are an hour in duration.
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Graphic novelists Henry Barajas, Eagle Valiant Brosi, Anders Brekhus Nilsen, Mimi Pond and Angie Wang discuss their latest graphic novels, each of which is based on true events or popular myths.
Where: Albert and Dana Broccoli Theatre When: 10:30 a.m.
Acclaimed author Amy Tan is the recipient of the 2025 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which recognizes a writer with a substantial connection to the American West. Tan’s expansive body of work, including essays, memoirs and bestselling novels “The Joy Luck Club,” “The Kitchen God’s Wife” and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter,” is widely celebrated for its profound exploration of the immigrant experience, family bonds and the quest for individual identity. Join us for a conversation with Amy Tan and award-winning former Los Angeles Times writer Thomas Curwen.
Novelists Jade Chang, Kevin Wilson and Sarah Levin discuss their new novels, which are fresh examinations of family in contemporary life: the ones we’re born with, the ones we make, and the ways we reach out for connection in an increasingly isolated, chaotic, and lonely world.
Lana Lin, Melissa Febos, Susan Orlean and Amanda Uhle have produced literary and artistic work that has shaped conversations, influenced culture and established them as leaders in their fields. Now, they turn the pen inward and become the story. Exploring their careers, relationships, sexuality and more, these writers offer a rare and intimate look at the vulnerability, creativity and humanity behind their work
Join California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, Steven J. Ross, Omer Aziz, Erwin Chemerinsky and Los Angeles Times reporter Seema Mehta for a conversation about the state of our freedoms today and what our current political atmosphere could mean for the future of our democracy.
Where: Hancock Foundation, Newman Recital Hall When: 1:30 p.m.
How do we raise children in an age of rapid technological change, political polarization and global uncertainty? Drawing from their new books and their experience as parents, Reza Aslan and Jessica Jackley will explore how to have honest, age-appropriate conversations with kids about complex and challenging topics, while psychologist Darby Saxbe shares groundbreaking research on the science of fatherhood.
Join Austin Channing Brown, Tre Johnson, Tamika D. Mallory and Carvell Wallace as they reflect on the moments that shaped their lives, work and perspectives. Through individual stories of resilience, love, purpose and self-discovery, their experiences weave together like a mosaic to form a deeper collective portrait of Black life and identity in America today.
Where: Hancock Foundation, Newman Recital Hall When: 10:30 a.m.
Panelists Matthew Cuban Hernandez, Karla Cordero, Sonia Guiñansaca and Yesika Salgado will dive into what it means to be autonomous, to be your own supreme authority, to belong to yourself, the land(s) and people you choose.
Christine Bollow, Karen Tei Yamashita and Naomi Hirahara dive deep into the myriad Asian American experiences at turning points in American history, shedding light on untold stories and essential characters in our shared history.
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from David Zahniser, Sandra McDonald and Alene Tchekmedyian, giving you the latest on city and county government.
Mayor Karen Bass is planning to give her second State of the City address of the year on Monday, with a digital twist from years past.
Traditionally the speech is given — in person — before City Council members and other machers at City Hall or another location. This year’s speech will be delivered by video.
Of course, Bass already did one State of the City speech this year, holding forth on the Olympics, the World Cup and Palisades fire rebuilding in a February address at Exposition Park.
The video State of the City will probably be more about the city budget, which also will be released Monday. The city is facing a budget gap of a few hundred million, according to Matt Szabo, the city administrative officer.
“Mayor Bass will update L.A. on the State of our City through a video that anyone can watch, anytime, anywhere,” said Paige Sterling, a spokesperson for Bass. “From Day One through today, Mayor Bass’ focus is changing the direction of L.A. by reversing long-standing [and long ignored] trends on homelessness, housing, public safety and infrastructure.”
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Parisian payback
The city controller released information this week that showed how much L.A. paid for flights to Paris for L.A.’s delegation to the 2024 Summer Olympics.
One purchase stuck out: $22,000 for a first-class ticket for Bass to fly to Paris and back. It was purchased March 6, the same day Bass boarded the flight to the City of Light, according to the city, which released the information in response to a public records act request.
One reason for the high cost was the last-minute purchase, the mayor’s office said, which it said was the consequence of a packed mayoral schedule that makes advance planning difficult.
Secondly, the city was transferring over its travel booking platform to a company called Concur, and the only flights available for the mayor to purchase to arrive in Paris in time on the platform were first-class seats.
The mayor then reimbursed the city for $12,270, with half coming from her personal bank account, while the other half came from her Karen Bass For Mayor 2022 account, according to checks. That left the city on the hook for $10,000.
“Mayor Bass voluntarily paid for the majority of the ticket herself. City rules didn’t require her to, but she did it anyways. This was the only flight that would get her there on time, and this was the only ticket available,” said Kolby Lee, a spokesperson for the mayor.
Bass and a council delegation, including Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, were in Paris that March to “see behind the curtain” about how a city prepares to host the Games, Bass said at the time.
Yaroslavsky’s round trip cost the city $1,600.
Raman out of council leadership
Sometimes the drama at City Hall comes in the fine print. Last Friday, the City Council released its agenda for its April 14 meeting. Casual observers would be forgiven for missing a small change on the first page.
Under Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s name, and under the name of President Pro Tempore Bob Blumenfield, there was a third name: Assistant President Pro Tempore John S. Lee.
That makes Lee No. 3 in council leadership, appointed to the position by Harris-Dawson. For all intents and purposes, the largely ceremonial position means he gets to sit on the dais and preside over council if Harris-Dawson and Blumenfield can’t make it.
But on the fourth floor of City Hall, where council offices are, the move had staffers chattering.
Lee replaces Councilmember Nithya Raman, who threw her hat in the ring to run for mayor against Bass — an ally of Harris-Dawson.
Some thought Harris-Dawson was punishing Raman for her surprise bid against Bass, but Raman said that wasn’t the case.
“When I first announced my candidacy for Mayor, I told the Council President that I would step back from all of my appointed roles. One change has now been made. I remain focused on serving my district and the City of Los Angeles,” Raman said in a statement.
Harris-Dawson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
There’s a long tradition of council members stepping down from leadership positions or getting the ax when they run for higher office.
In 2021, then Councilmember Joe Buscaino was voted out as president pro tempore after making disparaging remarks about numerous council members (including Raman) while he was running for mayor.
In 2011, then-Councilmember Eric Garcetti stepped down from his role as council president during his run for mayor.
Spotlight on Soto
Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, who is seeking reelection in the June 2 primary, is taking heat from challenger Marissa Roy for her appearance last weekend at the Hope Fest LA rally at the L.A. Coliseum.
The event was put on by Hope California, which is led by evangelical pastor Ché Ahn, a supporter of President Trump and a write-in candidate for California governor. Ahn spoke at a Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., the day before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol, and has repeated the unfounded claim that Joe Biden stole the election from Trump. (“I don’t have facts. I don’t have proof. That’s just my own personal opinion,” Ahn, who also opposes abortion, told The Times.)
Feldstein Soto is pro-choice and anti-Trump, and the speakers immediately preceding her expressed anti-gay and anti-trans views.
Roy said the positions expressed at the rally were wildly out of step with those of Los Angeles voters, and criticized the city attorney’s appearance at the rally as “disturbing.”
“Los Angeles is overdue for a City Attorney who fights for the people,” Roy said in a statement.
At the rally, Feldstein Soto spoke about the scourge of human sex trafficking, including of children along the Figueroa corridor in Los Angeles. She had been invited to the event by a human trafficking survivor to speak about their shared commitment to the issue, spokesperson Naomi Goldman said.
“The primary purpose of the City Attorney’s attendance was to shine a light on the exploitation of women and girls, and to stand in solidarity with those affected. She stayed at the event briefly to deliver her remarks and then departed,” Goldman said.
State of play
— THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: A strike that would have shut down schools for nearly 400,000 students was averted at the eleventh hour early Tuesday after the Los Angeles Unified School District reached a tentative agreement with the union that represents workers including custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Mayor Bass stepped into negotiations at the last minute to help avert a disruptive work stoppage.
— LA USD$: The price of the union deal will be nearly $1.2 billion in annual contract costs, and questions remain about whether the district can afford it.
— ONE AND DONE?: Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt went on the Joe Rogan Experience this week and told the podcaster that Angelenos are fed up with their leadership. He explained the rules of the city’s June 2 primary to Rogan, saying that there would be no runoff — as most analysts expect — if a candidate wins 51% of the vote. “I think I become mayor June 2 and it won’t even go to November,” Pratt said.
— COUNTY BUDGET: The county unveiled its nearly $50-billion budget plan Monday, proposing $2.7 million invested to beef up the team of people investigating fraud within a deluge of recent sex abuse lawsuits, suggesting a broadening probe at the district attorney’s office. The supervisors must now review, then vote on the budget.
— HAHN AND OFF: L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn was booed by her neighbors in San Pedro at a Tuesday night town hall meeting after she spoke in support of a proposed substance abuse rehabilitation center in the South Shores neighborhood. “There will be a difference of opinion on this project, but let’s not tear each other apart,” Hahn urged residents, who picketed last weekend at the site of the proposed project.
— E-HIKE: A Los Angeles City Council panel is pushing to ban electric bikes from most city recreational trails, saying the machines pose a threat to hikers and equestrians. The council’s Arts, Parks, Libraries, and Community Enrichment Committee voted 3 to 0 in favor of the measure, which now goes to the council’s Transportation Committee before potentially advancing to the full City Council, which would have to approve the ban before it takes effect.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program moved more than 25 people off the street and inside in Koreatown this week.
On the docket next week: The mayor will release her budget on Monday, along with her second State of the City. She is planning to hold a news conference on the budget Monday.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
The Clippers’ season has come to an end but better than anyone expected. No consolation but a great job by head coach Tyronn Lue for guiding the Clippers from a disastrous 6-21 start and finishing with more than 40 wins.
Coach Lue led the team, overcoming major obstacles throughout the season with a player investigation, injuries, internal strife and major roster changes at the trade deadline. As usual for Clipper fans, wait till next year.
Wayne Muramatsu Cerritos
The Clippers are the NBA’s version of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.” Yes, they have had 15 straight seasons of playing .500 or better, and owner Steve Ballmer has brought them respectability, but for their entire 56-year existence — which has contained many clowns and jokers — they still have never [attained] their goal of winning (or even reaching) the NBA Finals.
On March 25, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United Nations General Assembly passed a landmark resolution. Proposed by Ghana, it recognised the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations. A total of 123 countries supported the resolution; three opposed it, including the United States and Israel, while 52 abstained, Britain among them, and several European Union countries.
The UN’s slavery resolution is a historic moment, but what comes next is even more important. Leading up to the resolution, the African Union urged its 55 member states to pursue slavery reparations through formal apologies, the return of stolen artefacts, financial compensation, and guarantees of non-repetition.
This raises a question the resolution does not directly ask: reparations from whom, and to whom? If the answer is simply from European governments to African governments, then the reparations movement risks ignoring the long history of European engagement with Africa, and in doing so delivering justice to the wrong people.
What the reparations debate misses
The contemporary framing of the reparations debate is seductive in its simplicity: Europeans arrived in Africa, Africans were enslaved, Europeans grew rich, and Africans became impoverished. Therefore, Europe owes Africa. This narrative carries moral force, but it risks flattening the complex history of European engagement with the continent.
While European actors undeniably drove the demand for enslaved labour, African political and economic elites were not passive victims. They played a significant role in capturing, transporting and selling enslaved people to European traders.
In some cases, African states, seeking to expand their treasuries and consolidate territorial power, preyed on neighbouring communities, condemning them to enslavement for profit. The Oyo Empire, a powerful Yoruba state in what is now south-western Nigeria, expanded significantly in the eighteenth century through its participation in this commerce. Across the region, African elites who had the means sustained the system by exchanging enslaved people for European goods such as alcohol, textiles and other manufactured commodities.
None of this diminishes European culpability in the slave trade. The demand was European. The ships were European. The plantation system was European. The racialised ideology constructed to justify slavery was European. But it does complicate the story.
The transatlantic slave trade was not solely a narrative of African victimhood and European perpetration. It is a story of elite collaboration, which did not end when the slave ships stopped sailing.
The historical argument: three phases, one logic
European encounter with African societies can be understood in three broad phases, each distinct in form but similar in the underlying logic of collaborative extraction.
The first phase was slavery. Europeans extracted human labour from Africa, often with the active participation of African political rulers. Britain emerged as the world’s leading slave-trading country, transporting roughly 3.4 million Africans across the Atlantic between 1640 and 1807. The abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 marked the formal end of this phase. But abolition did not disrupt the underlying logic of the elite collaboration. It reshaped it.
The second phase was colonialism. A less understood aspect of European domination in Africa is how seamlessly some African rulers transitioned from collaborators during the slave trade to intermediaries in the colonial period.
In Nigeria, for example, regional African rulers became intermediaries for British administrators. As Nigerian historian, Moses Ochonu, demonstrates in Emirs in London, a study of Northern Nigerian Muslim aristocrats who travelled to Britain between 1920 and independence in 1960, these African figures were far from passive subjects of British rule. They actively leveraged their relationship with British authorities to reinforce their own authority at home. Such sponsored travel to the imperial centre helped solidify personal ties between Nigerian elites and British administrators, reinforcing the system of indirect rule.
The third and current phase is the postcolonial era. While formal empire has ended, the structure of elite alignment endures. In countries such as Nigeria, the majority of citizens remain largely excluded from political and economic power. The institutional successors of intermediaries and collaborators during the eras of slavery and colonial rule are now running the African postcolonial states.
Rather than dismantling extractive systems, many have repurposed them. Similar patterns of exclusion and extraction that defined earlier periods have been reproduced, leaving the majority of Africans short-changed by a system that continues to serve elite interests.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom last month – complete with royal ceremony, photo opportunities and symbolic gestures – reflected this relationship whose origins lie in the very history the UN resolution condemns. While the majority of Nigerians face difficult socio-economic conditions, the British government announced that Nigerian companies would create hundreds of new jobs in the UK.
This is not an anomaly but a continuation of the extractive logic that shaped the slave trade and colonialism. It endures, now recast in the language of diplomacy and partnership.
Reparations are just, and Britain’s debt is undeniable. But direction matters. If compensation flows from one set of elites to another, the oppressed majority of Africans will once again be excluded. True justice must run in two directions: from European states to formerly colonised societies, and from African elites to the citizens they continue to exploit.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
UN Children’s Fund calls on Israeli authorities to investigate and ‘ensure full accountability’.
Published On 18 Apr 202618 Apr 2026
The United Nations Children’s Fund says it is “outraged” after Israel killed two drivers it had contracted to deliver clean water to families in Gaza.
UNICEF said in a statement the incident occurred during routine water trucking on Friday morning at the Mansoura water filling point in northern Gaza, which supplies Gaza City. Two other people were wounded in the attack.
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The agency said it had suspended activities at the site and called on Israeli authorities to investigate and “ensure full accountability”.
“Humanitarian workers, essential service providers, and civilian infrastructure, including critical water facilities, must never be targeted,” it said.
It said that “the protection of civilians and those delivering life-saving assistance is an obligation under international humanitarian law”.
More than 750 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the US- and Qatar-brokered “ceasefire” in Gaza took effect last October, according to Palestinian health authorities.
More than 72,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023, following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Khirbet Salama, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Muhammad Ahmad Suwaiti, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene, WAFA said.
Israel’s military said a person carrying a knife in the illegal settlement of Negohot was killed. It did not say who was responsible.
Using the biblical term for the West Bank, the Israeli military said in a statement that “a terrorist who infiltrated the community of Negohot in Judea and Samaria was identified and eliminated in a rapid response”.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,060 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
With its sunsoaked Californian desert setting, A-list celeb guests and top music acts, hip US festival Coachella might look like the dream destination when scrolling through the Instagram feed of one of the myriad of Love Island stars in attendance.
But while influencers are given the VIP experience, thanks to the brands who pay big bucks to take them there for free, the reality for normal punters can be a whole different story.
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Love Island stars were out in force getting the VIP treatment during Coachella’s opening weekend last weekCredit: Shutterstock EditorialBut TikTok was awash with videos showing the less glamorous side of the festivalCredit: TikTokSome have described camping at the music fest as an ‘endurance test’Credit: TikTok
As the cult festival kicks off its second consecutive weekend in Palm Springs, social media has been awash with complaints from regular folk exposing the ‘truth’ about what it’s like to go there as a non VIP – and it makes for some pretty grim reading.
From nightmarish queues for cold showers, to hefty £3,000 price tags for three days at the event, various TikTok testimonials may make you think twice before booking for next year’s gig.
As someone who went as a normal person and not as an influencer, it was one of the worst concert experiences I’ve ever had,” TikTok user @lottiestars ranted in a recent social media video.
“Firstly, there’s no place for you to be dropped off. The festival is, like, really disorganised. So I remember we asked 20 different people: ‘Where do we go?’ and they they were like: ‘Oh, we don’t know’. And they actually worked for the event! So you’ll end up sitting in traffic for most of the time before you can find a spot and get dropped off.”
She added that when she then finally arrived, the event proved a nightmare for her pal who was disabled.
“You have another what feels like an hour long walk to actually get into the festival, you have to do is on this super dusty, bumpy, unpaved road, which was really hard for my friend because they were in a wheelchair… they kept getting knocked over and falling out of their wheelchair, so it was not like wheelchair accessible.”
Once inside the venue, Lottie alleged that the atmosphere was not enjoyable thanks to a myriad of influencers creating a stressful environment.
“Everyone’s vibe is really, really bad. A lot of people were pretty mean. They’re like, ‘No, you’re not coming this way and stuff, you can’t go through’ so it’s harder to work your way through the crowd or to reconnect through your friends.
“It’s not as easy to take cute pictures as you think. Literally, everyone’s taking pictures. It’s like a field of cow, but instead of cows, it’s people.”
To top it all, Lottie wrapped up her video by claiming she got sick from the notorious desert winds.
Tiktokker Lottie Stars described her experience as “terrible”Punters cover their noses to escape the dusty windsCredit: TikTok
She said: “I was so sick because during the daytime, it’s burning hot, and then at nighttime, it’s freezing cold, and the dust is really, really intense. Like, you’ll blow your nose, and they’ll be black dirt coming out of your nose.
“The third night, I couldn’t even enjoy the festival, and I probably was only there for like 30 minutes and I had to leave.”
And it seems this is far from a one-off negative review.
The Strokes fan @emilyjadebispo says her experience watching her favourite band was ruined by influencers who were only there to watch Justin Bieber and had no idea about ‘festival etiquette’.
She claimed: “The people around me who were there for Justin Bieber were f***ing insufferable. Oh, my God. It’s like they have never been to a festival before. They have no idea what it’s like that other genres exist.
“They are just completely unaware of any sort of concert etiquette at all. The people to my left, during one of my favourite bands sets, were talking the entire time saying: ‘I don’t even know who this is. What even is this? This is really honestly killing my vibe for Bieber.’”
For those who camp and aren’t holed up in pricey villas like the influencer crowd, some describe the experience as “endurance training.”
The likes of Kendall and Kylie Jenner pose in front of brands as they plug the festival on social mediaCredit: InstagramThe festival has become criticised in recent years as moving away from its rootsCredit: Getty
@huioyg3 said in one TikTok video: “Basic shower access has turned into a survival challenge, people are waiting in line for hours just to get a quick rinse, often with freezing cold water.
“To avoid this nightmare, some festival goers are spending hundreds of dollars on portable shower setups, building their own tents just to maintain a sense of hygiene.
“Another issue is making things worse, extreme heat. Phones are overheating, energy levels are dropping, and what’s supposed to be a fun four day experience is starting to feel more like endurance training.”
Of course, the biggest issue for many is how the festival impacted their wallet.
General admission tickets cost around $799 [£590] for three days, while VIP – which allows you to get closer to the stage and gives you a shuttle pass into the venue – will mean you shell out even more, clocking in around $1299 [£959].
“Coachella started as a low price event to protest against high cost events,” one music fan vented online.
“How are people affording this?” fumed another.
Some, however, claimed it was worth the price of VIP.
“It was 100% worth it We do get closer viewing to some of the stages. And honestly, when the big performers do come out, it gets super packed,” said tiktok user @noesilva
If you shun camping though, hotels can be extortionate due to high demand, as Noa explains.
“Next thing I spent money on was a hotel, which was the most expensive part. It was $2,300 [£1698] for three nights, and I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for me personally, I was not going to go camping.
And finally, you got to think of all the extra expenses that are probably gonna be happening during the trip, which is food, drinks, merch, like all the extra stuff that you’re going to be paying for, and realistically, that’s going to cost me around $500 [£370]. So in total, this trip is costing me around $4,000 [£2950].”
Another furious former Coachella fan, Nick Holiday, summed it up in a top-rated TikTok video.
“They’re charging $100 [£74]for one bite of caviar, four chicken nuggets and seven french fries. That’s honestly a crime against humanity.”
Samie Elishi and Sophie Piper were both on the VIP list this yearCredit: InstagramThe crowds were packed in to watch acts like Justin Bieber and Sabrina CarpenterCredit: EPA
Save stress and time if your holiday is due to start in the early hours of the morning
It’s one less thing you have to stress about when getting to the airport at 4am(Image: Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
People can start their holiday quicker than others when flying with Jet2 and taking advantage of a little-known service that lets families skip the queues. Planning this ahead of time can make early morning flights feel “a whole lot easier”.
On its website, Jet2 claims the Twilight Check-in service can be used by any passengers booked to fly on a service due to leave the airport before midday. Later flights in the afternoon or evening cannot benefit from this perk.
A spokesperson said: “Your morning flight is about to get a whole lot easier. With our free Twilight Check-in service, you can drop your bags off at your UK departure airport between 4.30pm and 9pm the evening before your morning flight.
“Thanks to Twilight Check-in, when you arrive at departures the next day, your luggage is already sorted. If you live near the airport or are staying at a nearby hotel, it’ll make your morning a little easier.”
Flights leaving before midday are extremely common at UK airports. People tend to opt for these early departures to make the most of their holiday time rather than leaving the UK later.
The following UK airports offer the free Jet2 Twilight Service:
Birmingham
Bristol
East Midlands
Edinburgh
Glasgow International
Leeds Bradford
Liverpool
London Gatwick
London Luton
London Stansted
Manchester
Newcastle
The process of pre-checking luggage the night before can save time and hassle on the morning of the trip. Jet2 claims that people don’t need to book this service specifically in advance, but people do need to check in online “no later than 24 hours before their flight”.
Some UK airports offer discounted or free limited-time parking to customers who use Twilight Check-in. The Jet2 website lists 10 that offer this for customers, but stresses that travellers should check for themselves using the Airport Information page on its website.
People who want to use this service will need to remember to bring their boarding passes and passports along with bags (excluding hand luggage). After completing everything, get some rest and, on the day of the flight, Jet2 claims people can simply “bypass check-in and head to security”.
It only takes one person from your group to check in and drop off bags for up to six people travelling on the same booking reference. For full details of how the free service works, click here.
Unmoved by postseason pressure, superstar LeBron James said he doesn’t plan to change his preparation ahead of the Lakers’ playoff opener against the Houston Rockets on Saturday. Approaching his record-tying 19th postseason appearance, James has reason to believe in his well-established routine.
“Nothing changes for me from the regular season to the postseason,” James said, “besides just making even more heightened focus.”
The consistent approach that guided him through 23 regular seasons puts James in position to star in another high-stakes game as the Lakers (53-29) chase the franchise’s 18th NBA championship. James will command almost the entire spotlight with guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves still sidelined.
The 41-year-old, 22-time All-Star has never had a problem with being a leading man.
“I think a lot of the great players, the best players, what they’re addicted to is being the showman,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, referencing Stephen Curry’s fourth-quarter heroics that pushed the Golden State Warriors over the Clippers in a thrilling play-in game Wednesday night. “And being on the stage and giving a performance. …
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Lakers playoff schedule
First round All times Pacific
Saturday: Houston at Lakers, 5:30 p.m, ABC Tuesday: Houston at Lakers, 7:30 p.m., NBC Friday, April 24: Lakers at Houston, 5:30 p.m., Amazon Prime Video Sunday, April 26: Lakers at Houston, 6:30 p.m., NBC *Wed., April 29: Houston at Lakers, TBD *Friday, May 1: Lakers at Houston, TBD *Sunday, May 3: Houston at Lakers, TBD
*-if necessary
Mike Trout homers again
Mike Trout hit his fifth homer of the series and the Angels overcame a homer by Aaron Judge in their 11-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday afternoon for a four-game split.
Trout, who recently made a mechanical adjustment, went six for 16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. Trout hit his latest homer with one out in the seventh inning when he sent a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left field bleachers for a 7-4 lead.
Trout homered in his fifth straight game at Yankee Stadium and became the fourth to hit five homers in a series against the Yankees. The others were Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990), according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
From Marisa Ingemi: A surprisingly shaky semifinal evening for UCLA gymnastics has the Bruins leaving Fort Worth early after finishing in third place in the NCAA national semifinals.
An early fall from Jordan Chiles followed by some wobbly vaults in the final rotations were too much to overcome as No. 13 seed Minnesota stunned in their final rotation on bars and national favorite Oklahoma was steady throughout. The top two teams advanced to the championship on Saturday.
The No. 4 seed Bruins scored a 197.2750, 0.1875 behind Oklahoma and Minnesota and just ahead of No. 9 seed Arkansas, which was also eliminated. UCLA was the only top-four seed that didn’t advance.
Chiles took the individual floor title with a 9.9750 score, her second NCAA floor championship.
Matthew Stafford shows off the Rams’ new white uniforms.
(Brevin Townsell / Rams)
From Gary Klein: The Rams’ bone-colored uniforms have been sent to the graveyard.
In a release on Thursday, the team unveiled updated Royal Blue and white uniforms and announced subtle changes to logos as part of what the Rams described as “a refined brand and uniform refresh.”
Later this year, according to the release, the Rams will announce two alternate uniforms to go along with the revamped Royal Blue and white ensembles and the black “Midnite Mode” rivalry uniform they debuted last season in a game against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.
But the team “removed the ‘Bone’ uniform from the rotation,” the release said.
The Rams also made other subtle changes. The “LA” monogram no longer includes gradient coloring. The Rams head logo has been “enhanced to appear bolder and tougher for a fiercer expression, and the horn features a sharper, more defined point,” the release said.
Led by Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles, the Bruins’ gymnastics squad is having its best season since 2018 and will compete in Fort Worth in an NCAA national semifinal on Thursday for a spot in Saturday’s championship meet.
The Bruins haven’t won an NCAA gymnastics championship in eight years, a long gap for the seven-time champions known for developing Olympic talent.
UCLA will compete in a semifinal against Oklahoma, Arkansas and Minnesota. The Bruins will start on the bars, then go to the beam, floor and vault.
Arsenii Sergeev made 27 saves in his first NHL start, Zayne Parekh broke a third-period tie and the Calgary Flames beat the playoff-bound Kings 3-1 on Thursday night to end the season.
The Kings learned during the game that they’d be the second wild-card in the Western Conference and face NHL regular-season champion Colorado in the first round — with Game 1 on Sunday in Denver.
The Kings finished 35-27-20. Earlier Thursday, Edmonton took second place in the Pacific Division with a 6-1 home victory over Vancouver, and the Ducks won 5-4 at Nashville to finish third.
Sunday: Kings at Colorado, noon, TNT, truTV, HBO Max Tuesday: Kings at Colorado, 7 p.m., ESPN Thursday: Colorado at Kings, 7 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max Sunday, April 26: Colorado at Kings, 1:30 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max *Wed., April 29: Kings at Colorado, TBD *Friday, May 1: Colorado at Kings, TBD *Sunday, May 3: Kings at Colorado, TBD
*- If necessary
Ducks defeat the Predators
Troy Terry scored on a power play with 2:54 left, and the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 5-4 Thursday night putting them close to clinching the third seed in the Pacific Division for the postseason.
The Ducks came into the regular-season finale third in the Pacific with five different scenarios still possible to lock down the final playoff slots. This win, combined with Edmonton needing only a point against visiting Vancouver, means the Ducks likely start the first round Monday at Edmonton.
The Ducks also took the season series against Nashville 2-1, though the Ducks go into the postseason 2-6-2 over their final 10.
Monday: Ducks at Edmonton, 7 p.m., ESPN2 Wednesday: Ducks at Edmonton, 7 p.m., TBS, HBO Max Friday: Edmonton at Ducks, 7 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max) Sunday: Edmonton at Ducks, 6:30 p.m., ESPN *Tuesday, April 28: Ducks at Edmonton, TBD *Thursday, April 30: Edmonton at Ducks, TBD *Saturday, May 2: Ducks at Edmonton, TBD
*-if necessary
This day in sports history
1939 — Joe Louis knocks out Jack Roper at 2:20 of the first round in Los Angeles to retain the world heavyweight title.
1967 — Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti beats American Emile Griffith in a 15-round points decision to win world middleweight crown.
1976 — Australian tennis star Evonne Goolagong Cawley wins her second WTA Tour Championship at the Los Angeles Sports Arena; beats Chris Evert.
1982 — The Denver Nuggets’ Alex English, Dan Issel and Kiki Vandeweghe each average 20 points a game, the first front court to do so since Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan and Clyde Lovellette of St. Louis in 1961.
1987 — Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers becomes the third player to score 30,000 points in his pro career. Erving scores 38 points to join Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
1994 — Carl Lewis and his Santa Monica Track Club teammates rewrite their world record in the 800-meter relay at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Lewis, Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell and Floyd Heard are timed at 1:18.68, breaking the record of 1:19.11 they had set on April 25, 1992.
1995 — Wayne Gretzky reaches 2,500 career points when he sets up a power-play goal by Rob Blake in the Kings’ 5-2 loss to Calgary.
1997 — The New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur becomes the second NHL goalie to score in the playoffs. Brodeur’s empty net goal caps a three-goal third period that gives the Devils a 5-2 win and a 1-0 lead in a first-round series against Montreal.
1999 — Quarterbacks go 1-2-3 in the NFL Draft as Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith go to Cleveland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati — the first quarterback trifecta since 1971.
2006 — Sidney Crosby, scores three assists in Pittsburgh’s 6-1 win over the New York Islanders to become the youngest player in NHL history to score 100 points in a season. The 18-year-old becomes the seventh NHL rookie to reach the 100-point mark.
2011 — Jimmie Johnson wins the Aaron’s 499, edging Clint Bowyer by about a foot. The official margin of 0.002 seconds, ties for the closest finish in NASCAR Sprint Cup history.
2018 — Brayden McNabb scores against his former team in the second period, lifting Vegas to a 1-0 victory over the Kings that makes the Golden Knights the first expansion team in NHL history to sweep its first playoff series. Marc-Andre Fleury turns in another stellar performance, stopping 31 shots as the Knights finish off their fourth one-goal victory of the series.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1932 — New York first baseman Bill Terry tied an NL record with 21 putouts as the Giants beat Boston 5-0 behind Hal Schumacher’s two-hitter.
1951 — In his first major league game, Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4 in the New York Yankees’ 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
1953 — Mickey Mantle cleared the bleachers at Griffith Stadium with a 565-foot home run off Chuck Stobbs. The shot came in the fifth inning of a 7-3 win over the Senators.
1964 — The New York Mets lost their first game at Shea Stadium, falling 4-3 to the Pirates. Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell hit the first homer at Shea.
1969 — Bill Stoneman of Montreal pitched a 7-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 10th game of the Expos’ existence.
1976 — Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four consecutive home runs and a single in an 18-16, 10-inning victory over the Cubs in Wrigley Field. Hitting .167 going into the game, he connected twice off Rick Reuschel, once off Rick’s brother, Paul, and once off Darold Knowles. He drove in eight runs.
1983 — Nolan Ryan strikes out seven Expos in a 6-3 Houston victory to become only the second pitcher in major league history to record 3,500 career strikeouts.
2000 — Major League Baseball owners vote to approve the $96 million sale of the Kansas City Royals to team chairman David Glass.
2001 — Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer to hit 500 home runs. Bonds’ two-run, eighth-inning drive off Terry Adams went into San Francisco Bay to lead the Giants over the Dodgers 3-2.
2008 — Troy Tulowitzki’s RBI double with two outs in the 22nd inning scored Willy Taveras and the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 2-1 in the longest game in the majors in nearly 15 years, a 6-hour, 16-minute marathon.
2008 — Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit consecutive home runs in a span of 12 pitches in the fifth inning off Florida’s Ricky Nolasco in Atlanta’s 8-0 win.
2009 — Jason Kubel completed the ninth cycle in Twins history with a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning that helped Minnesota to an 11-9 victory over the Angels.
2010 — Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the first no-hitter in the Colorado Rockies’ 18-year history, dominating the Atlanta Braves in a 4-0 victory. Jimenez (3-0) walked six — all in the first five innings. He was helped by Dexter Fowler’s diving backhanded catch in left-center field in the seventh inning.
2010 — Jose Reyes hit a sacrifice fly in the 20th inning and the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 in the longest game in the majors in two years. Jeff Francoeur also had a sacrifice fly for New York in the 19th inning, snapping a scoreless tie, but Yadier Molina singled in Albert Pujols with two out in the bottom half. St. Louis left the bases loaded in the 10th, 12th and 14th and stranded 22 runners, including 14 in extra innings.
2012 — Jamie Moyer, 49, became the oldest pitcher to win a major league game. He threw seven masterful innings and Dexter Fowler hit a two-run homer, helping the Colorado Rockies hold on for a 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres. Moyer’s 268th win tied him with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer for 34th on the career list.
2014 — Major League Baseball suspended Seattle Mariners first baseman Ji-Man Choi 50 games following a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
April 17 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday blocked a lawsuit against the state of Hawaii that the federal government filed to prevent it from suing oil companies.
The Department of Justice last year sued Hawaii to stop a suit against fossil fuel companies for the impact of climate change on the state, but Senior Judge Helen Gillmor of the U.S. District Court in Hawaii said they it has no standing, The Hill and The New York Times reported.
In the ruling, Gillmor said that an “abstract, theoretical future harm” is not a valid basis for a lawsuit because stating an intention to file suit — which the state’s governor declared on television that he planned to do — does not amount to “concrete harm” that would allow an entity to sue.
Gillmor blocked the lawsuit because the DOJ’s theory of harm would require predicting claims brought against unknown companies; predicting that the lawsuit would be successful; “guessing” that oil companies would react in specific way; and then hypothesizing that the reaction would somehow harm the United States’ commerce and future energy policy, she wrote in the 30-page decision.
The DOJ’s suit, which was filed by now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleged that Hawaii’s action was a “burdensome and ideologically motivated” lawsuit that could cause “crippling damages” with the energy and climate policies the state allegedly is pursuing.
“We disagree with the Hawaii District Court’s ruling, which ignored Supreme Court precedent regarding the United States’ interest in the supremacy of federal law,” the DOJ’s principal deputy assistant attorney general Adam Gustafson said in a statement. “We are exploring all options.”
