Month: June 2026

A bowl of lemons sits on a table in the conference room Mauricio Pochettino has turned into an office at the U.S. men’s soccer team’s beachfront resort in south Orange County. The citrus fruit, the coach believes, has the spiritual ability to absorb negative energy. On the corner of another table, the flame from a candle flickers.

“I like candles,” says Pochettino, who believes they release therapeutic fragrances and create a calming environment.

But it is the massive, blood-red mural covering the entire south side of the room that truly reveals what Pochettino believes. In the center of the wall, just behind the coach’s desk, white block letters spell out “Why Not” above a script “U.S.,” which, despite the periods, is meant to be read as “us.”

Pochettino has turned the question in a mantra for a World Cup team that has answered it with two wins in as many games and has a chance to win a third match in the tournament for the first time when it meets Turkey at SoFi Stadium on Thursday.

The idea came to him during a team meeting last November when he sensed his players had doubts about their upcoming World Cup run. So Pochettino turned those doubts into a question. If South Korea could come from nowhere and make the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup, and if Morocco could do the same four years ago in Qatar, why not the U.S.?

Why not us?

“Hey, come on, guys, are you listening to me?” Pochettino said he asked the group. “We need to believe.”

Before he could convince his players, however, he had to convince himself. And that might have been the hardest part.

The 54-year-old Pochettino is a benevolent Svengali with a whistle; Ted Lasso with an Argentine accent. Belief isn’t so much a concept for him as it is a way of life. But when he and his coaching staff took over the U.S. team in the fall of 2024, following its disastrous performance in the Copa América, he said he inherited a demoralized, dispirited group.

“We received a big bang,” Pochettino said, mimicking a punch to the face. “We were knock[ed] out for a while.”

“We were so naive,” he continued. “The situation was way worse than we really believed.”

Pochettino refused to change the system that has brought him success at European clubs Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. So he set out to change the players instead. That would take time, something he had very little of since he took over with the World Cup just 20 months away.

“It’s difficult to analyze the process, you know,” Pochettino said during an informal, 40-minute discussion at his team’s Dana Point hotel, the sun setting over the ocean through the open patio doors of his office.

“When you put the seed on the soil, [the] first seed, you don’t see nothing. Then you start to grow the tree. It was difficult to explain the plant because it’s not easy.”

The seed Pochettino planted with the national team took time to sprout. He lost five of his first 10 games, including a disastrous four-game stretch that included Nations League losses to Panama and Canada in the spring of 2025. The team’s supporters revolted, but Pochettino rejoiced.

“What happened, that was [a] good crash,” he said. “When we detect all the problems, we go for the solution. And we knew that the solution will arrive. The object is to challenge people.”

U.S. men’s soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino during the second half of his team’s World Cup match vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

So he stayed the course.

“That was the process. Now is not a coincidence,” he said of the team’s success.

Pochettino has long believed that building a roster isn’t about picking the best players, but picking the right players. Players who fit his tactical approach, players who get along with one another, players who contribute to the team chemistry.

For him, the human connection, human respect is as important — if not more important — than the ability to dribble through tight spaces. And those traits are particularly important in a World Cup since the team will spend every day together for six weeks or more.

Although Pochettino’s team includes 13 holdovers from the 2022 World Cup roster, it also includes five players who made their national team debuts in the last 18 months.

Sometimes, he concluded, it is easier to simply change the player than it is to change what the player thinks or believes. And the newbies have totally bought in.

“We’re all in total belief. We’re all totally supportive and have faith in the process that he’s been outlining,” said goalkeeper Matt Freese, who made his first appearance for the national team more than 12 months ago and now is starting in a World Cup. “Our task was to keep believing, keep working hard and keep trusting. And we did that. We fully bought into the process.”

That process has made Pochettino the first U.S. coach to win a group stage in 16 years while his two victories in as many games match Bruce Arena, the most successful World Cup coach in U.S. history, who managed eight games over two tournaments.

The lemons and candles Pochettino keeps in his office are manifestations of energia universal or universal energy, a foundational concept common to many Eastern philosophies that believe a fundamental life force connects all things. Pochettino said he has long felt this connection and it has been a foundational part of his coaching.

But it doesn’t stop with the candles and citrus fruit. Pochettino also has filled the mural behind his desk with inspirational sayings.

“The talent has brought us here, but it is heart, effort and unity that will make us unforgettable,” one reads.

“If I dream of touching the moon, maybe I can get close to it. If I only dream of getting close, I’ll stay on Earth,” another says.

Each ends with the coach’s initials, similar to the way a painter signs his portraits.

Pochettino’s faith in the power of fruit and candles and his penchant for penning aphorisms hasn’t taken away from the ferociousness of his approach to soccer. Many players say the training sessions under Pochettino — which are intricate, focused and highly physical — are frequently more intense than the games. But most also are punctuated with laughter.

“Training is still very competitive, it’s very intense,” said midfielder Max Arfsten, who made his national team debut under Pochettino last year. “That’s the culture that the coaches created. Everyone’s still trying to prove something.”

Although Pochettino has spent his life in Argentina and Europe and still splits his time between houses in Barcelona and London, flying to the U.S. for matches and training camps, he’s been a quick study in this country’s culture and quirks.

“One of the things that we really like, and we learn from you, is in the way that you approach life. It’s more casual than formal,” said the coach, whose English is still a work in progress. “People are very approachable and make you feel comfortable. That, for me, was a massive surprise. You always want to welcome people.

“Even the music, even the food. People say ‘no, Americans have crazy food.’ Yes, you have crazy food. But also you have Whole Foods. In Europe, you don’t have a Whole Foods.”

And Pochettino has adopted it all. He’s become a big fan of country artist Lainey Wilson, went to hear Teddy Swims, a uniquely American genre-blending singer, last winter in New York, and is learning the words to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” the unofficial victory anthem of the World Cup team.

Perhaps more important, at times he’s taken his lemons and his candles and pushed them aside, replacing them with another distinctly American trait: the in-your-face confidence to will yourself to victory from the most hopeless situations.

It’s how Americans won at Valley Forge even before they were Americans and how they won on the beaches of Normandy when the concept of America was threatened. It’s how Americans went to the moon and invented the internet.

And it’s how Pochettino’s team has remained perfect two games into the World Cup.

“We’re American. We don’t take s—,” midfielder Sebastian Berhalter said Pochettino told the team during one meeting. “Even though he’s Argentinian, he has that mindset of, ‘Look, this is what we do. This is who we are. This is what America’s about.’ Even from an outside perspective, he showed us Americans what we’re about.

“He really drills that into us.”

For decades Americans have measured World Cup success in advancing beyond the group stage. Pochettino entered this summer’s tournament predicting a run to the semifinals, runs like South Korea and Morocco made.

“When people believe in each other, impossible dreams become possible,” reads another message the coach has scratched onto the wall of his office.

Why not us?

June 25 (UPI) — Korea Zinc said Thursday that Chairman Yun B. Choi visited Australia this week to meet with the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss ways to strengthen collaboration on critical minerals.

During the bilateral meeting in Canberra on Wednesday, Albanese described U.S. Project Crucible as a valuable model, which the Australian government could benchmark, according to Korea Zinc.

The $7.4 billion initiative involves the construction of an integrated smelter in Clarksville, Tenn. Groundbreaking is scheduled for next year, with commercial production expected to begin in 2029. Toward that end, Korea Zinc cooperates with the U.S. government.

Once operational, the facility will produce base metals such as zinc and lead, along with strategic minerals including germanium and gallium, which are crucial for the semiconductor, defense, and other high-tech industries.

The prime minister also said that Korea Zinc’s business model closely aligns with the Australian government’s resource and energy policy objectives, particularly its efforts to beef up critical industries.

In response, Choi stated that Korea Zinc will keep trying to build a win-win partnership with the Australian government. The world’s largest non-ferrous metals manufacturer operates an Australian affiliate, Sun Metals Corporation.

“Over the past 30 years, we have been a partner that has contributed to Australia’s industries and local communities while expanding beyond smelting into renewable energy and green hydrogen,” he said.

“The synergy between Australia’s abundant resources and our technological prowess and diverse business portfolio will continue to bear fruit in the future,” he added.

The share price of Korea Zinc rose 1.09% on the Seoul bourse on Thursday, while the benchmark KOSPI gained 5.42%.

The plane is being specially modified so it can fly the impressive route

A new flight is set to become the longest non-stop journey in the world from next year. The title of the longest nonstop flight is currently held by Singapore Airlines and takes 19 hours to travel from Singapore to New York.

However, it won’t hold the record for long, as Qantas is set to launch a new non-stop route in 2027. It is planning a nonstop flight from Sydney, Australia, to London.

Thanks to a 20,000-litre fuel tank, the plane wouldn’t need to stop to refuel. It will travel 10,573 miles and has been labelled “the final frontier of long-haul travel” by Qantas.

Travel expert Simon Calder has revealed more details of the flight after visiting the home of Airbus, which is making the plane.

He said of the plane: “This is a specially modified Airbus A350 Twin Jet that is being built for Qantas so they can, in October 2027, fly you nonstop from London Heathrow 10, 573 miles to Sydney.

“It is going to take a long time, over 20 hours in the air. But, achieving something no airline has done before.”

Typically, passengers flying to Australia have a stopover in the Middle East, yet there is demand for a long-haul direct flight.

Simon said Qantas believes there is a “premium customer base” that is prepared to pay a 20% surcharge on the one-stop flight to get to Sydney directly.

He added: “On top of that, there’s lots of passengers that do not want the faff of changing planes in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai or Abu Dhabi along the way. They just want to get there, and Qantas believes they will be able to sell those seats.”

Simon explained on his Travel Expert podcast that he asked Qantas if the rise in fuel prices would affect the flight.

But the airline says it has seen increased demand for direct flights to Australia, so it doesn’t need to stop in the Middle East along the way.

Due to the flight’s length, Qantas is making changes to the plane to make it more comfortable for passengers.

There will be a reduced passenger count to 238, which Simon said is almost 100 fewer than British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have on identical flights.

The first record-breaking flight almost took a different route, as it was scheduled to depart from New York rather than London. New York will get its own direct flight, and the route will take slightly less time to fly.

When the first three people fell sick on Thursday, June 11, residents of Doron Baga were unsure what was happening. The symptoms – vomiting, diarrhoea, and weakness – were familiar enough in a rural community where access to healthcare is limited, and illnesses are often treated at home or by local patent medicine vendors. However, as more people began showing the same signs, and deaths followed within days, concern spread across the community.

Ahmadu Haruna watched the disease move rapidly through his household. He is the community leader of Randa, an area within Doron Baga, a fishing and farming community on the shores of Lake Chad, less than three kilometres from Baga town in Kukawa Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. 

He lives in a large compound that houses nearly 150 people, including his four brothers, their wives, children, and grandchildren. Within seven days, he said, at least 20 people living in his compound became ill. Seven died. “It started with three people,” Ahmadu recalled. “One of my brother’s children and another brother’s wife were the first to be infected.”

As cases multiplied, residents began drawing connections to reports they had been hearing from Maiduguri, the state capital, where a cholera outbreak had already overwhelmed health facilities and infected thousands. “We knew it was cholera because the symptoms matched what we heard on [the radio] about the outbreak in Maiduguri,” said Bashir Suleiman, a resident. “The people there were vomiting and having diarrhoea, and that was exactly what we were seeing here.”

The outbreak has unsettled Doron Baga, a community that has spent the last six years rebuilding after it was displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. Residents were officially resettled in September 2020 by the state government. Many residents say that returning home symbolised the beginning of recovery. Families rebuilt their houses, fishermen returned to the lake, and farmers reclaimed their fields. Gradually, life appeared to be returning to normal. The cholera outbreak, however, has revealed how incomplete that recovery remains. 

Cholera, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is “an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae”.WHO), is “an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae”.

The disease is not new to communities along the Lake Chad shoreline. In 2018, the Borno State Ministry of Health recorded 502 cases and one death across Baga, Doro, and Kukawa wards. Doro accounted for the highest burden, with 254 reported cases. Response efforts at the time involved the Ministry of Health, WHO, and the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA). Six years later, residents of Doron Baga say many of the conditions that enable cholera transmission remain unresolved.

Access to healthcare remains limited, many households depend on self-built water sources, and sanitation challenges persist in parts of the community.

Unlike many urban households, Ahmadu’s home is a large family compound that functions almost like a small settlement. At its centre is a manually operated hand pump, and near the entrance sits an open well. Built by the family years ago, the two sources continue to supply most of the household’s water needs. “Our main source of drinking water is the hand pump and the open well,” Ahmadu told HumAngle.

The compound also relies on pit latrines. Each household maintains its own facility, while another serves as a communal latrine for residents and visitors. 

The source of the infection has not been established. But in a compound where dozens of people share water sources and common spaces, many residents may have been exposed to the same source of contamination. The outbreak also comes during the rainy season, a period when cholera cases often increase as flooding and runoff can contaminate drinking-water sources.

From Maiduguri to Lake Chad

The outbreak that has now reached Doron Baga began hundreds of kilometres away in Maiduguri, where it was first detected in early May. Health authorities had reported more than 2,700 suspected cases and 39 deaths across eight LGAs by mid-May, with Maiduguri Metropolitan Council recording the highest burden.

The spread, according to the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), overwhelmed treatment facilities, prompting an emergency response from the state government and humanitarian organisations. 

As the days went by, the numbers continued to climb. By June 7, Borno had recorded 7,850 suspected cases and 74 deaths across 14 local government areas, according to figures cited by MSF and state health authorities. MSF alone said it had treated 7,439 patients between May 1 and June 7. 

To contain the outbreak, the Borno State Ministry of Health and Human Services said it is implementing emergency health measures, improving sanitation, and increasing public awareness. In addition, humanitarian organisations such as MSF and Save the Children have activated emergency responses that include cholera treatment centres, oral rehydration points, surveillance, hygiene promotion campaigns, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions. MSF expanded treatment capacity in Maiduguri and opened additional cholera treatment units as admissions surged. 

At the height of the outbreak, between June 5 and 7, MSF reported treating as many as 500 patients in a single day. Another organisation, Save the Children, said it was responding to more than 7,000 suspected cases reported across the state. The Nigerian Red Cross also supported awareness campaigns, case management, community sensitisation, and emergency response activities. 

For weeks, the outbreak appeared largely concentrated in and around Maiduguri and other major population centres. Then it reached Doron Baga.

The unfinished work of recovery

As cases spread through Doron Baga, residents and health workers say longstanding challenges in healthcare, water access, sanitation, and public infrastructure have complicated efforts to contain it. 

Many residents did not consider the local health facility a realistic option. When HumAngle asked why his family did not immediately seek treatment at the hospital, Ahmadu laughed. “Hospital?” he asked. “Do you expect us to take our sick relatives to a hospital without doctors and drugs?”

Residents say the Doron Baga Primary Healthcare Centre suffers from chronic shortages of personnel and medicines. “There are no staff, too,” Bashir said. “Those coming from Baga don’t spend more than an hour.” As a result, many families depend on patent medicine stores as their first source of treatment.

The nearest alternative is Baga town, but the cost of transportation, combined with the expense of purchasing prescribed medicines, often places formal healthcare beyond the reach of many households. “We usually take sick relatives to Baga,” Ahmadu said. “However, we did not take these ones there because it is expensive.”

Residents’ complaints come despite years of government investments aimed at improving healthcare services in the area. During a visit to Baga in July 2023, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum ordered the rehabilitation of the Baga General Hospital and Doro Primary Healthcare Centre. Residents confirmed that the rehabilitation was carried out.

More recently, in May, Kukawa Local Government Chairperson, Mustapha Kukawa, distributed drugs to healthcare facilities across the LGA and warned against the diversion or mismanagement of medical supplies. At the state level, the Executive Secretary of the Borno State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (BOSCHMA), Saleh Abba, said on June 4 that the agency had disbursed more than ₦400 million to 171 primary healthcare centres and nine secondary health facilities providing free treatment to vulnerable persons across Borno.

Yet residents of Doron Baga say shortages of staff and medicines persist, raising questions about the extent to which investments in infrastructure, medical supplies, and healthcare financing are translating into accessible services in some resettled communities.

Their concerns reflect a broader pattern documented across conflict-affected communities in Borno. In 2023, HumAngle reported that residents of Kirawa, a resettled border town in Gwoza LGA, frequently crossed into neighbouring Cameroon to access healthcare services. In 2024, residents of Baga and Dalori, another resettled community in the Konduga LGA, similarly complained about inadequate drug supplies and limited healthcare services. That same year, a Premium Times investigation found that despite significant investments in rehabilitating primary healthcare facilities across rural Borno, many communities continued to struggle with staffing shortages and inadequate medicines.

Together, these accounts suggest that while reconstruction has improved physical infrastructure in many communities, ensuring consistent access to healthcare workers, medicines, and essential services remains a challenge in parts of the state.

Faced with these realities, many residents turn to informal healthcare providers. One of them is Kasim Muhammad Auwal, a patent medicine vendor and community health worker who has operated in Doron Baga since the community was resettled.  

“I have recorded 40 cases so far,” Kasim said. “Most have recovered. Four have died.”

Kasim holds a diploma in community health from the College of Health Technology in Maiduguri and believes that sanitation may also be contributing to the outbreak. “One major thing I have observed is increasing open defecation in the community,” he said. “This, I suspect, is the leading cause.”

According to him, the practice is particularly common among children, residents living on the outskirts of the settlement, and visiting fishermen from neighbouring communities.

Public health research supports concerns about the relationship between water, sanitation, and cholera transmission. The WHO identifies contaminated drinking water and inadequate sanitation as major drivers of cholera outbreaks, while studies have linked unprotected wells and poor sanitation practices to increased infection risks. 

Like Ahmadu’s household, many residents rely on self-built infrastructure, including open wells and manually operated pumps, to meet their daily water needs. Although these sources may serve communities for years, they can become significant public health risks during disease outbreaks. Studies consistently show that communities dependent on untreated water and limited sanitation infrastructure face a higher risk of waterborne diseases.

As cases spread through the community, humanitarian organisations also began carrying out preventive measures. Residents said volunteers from the Nigerian Red Cross and other organisations had conducted sensitisation campaigns, educating households about cholera symptoms, hygiene practices, and ways to reduce transmission.

A Red Cross volunteer in Kukawa confirmed that awareness activities were ongoing in the community but declined to comment officially, saying he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the organisation.

As of June 23, residents said new suspected cases were still being recorded in the community and that additional deaths had occurred in recent days, indicating that the outbreak had not yet been fully contained. They also said at least 11 patients were receiving treatment at the Doro Primary Healthcare Centre. HumAngle could not independently verify a community-wide death toll.

For many residents, the persistence of new cases points to challenges that extend beyond emergency response efforts. Community leaders like Ahmadu say the conditions facing Doron Baga are rooted in a longer history of conflict, displacement, and uneven recovery.

The community was among several settlements around Lake Chad that were emptied by years of insurgency before residents gradually returned under the state’s resettlement programme. Yet rebuilding communities after conflict involves more than restoring security. Across Borno State, reconstruction projects have frequently been disrupted by insecurity, while healthcare, water, and sanitation infrastructure have not recovered at the same pace as population returns.

Studies of recurrent cholera outbreaks in northeastern Nigeria have identified weak water infrastructure, sanitation gaps, poverty, displacement, and fragile health systems as recurring risk factors. Researchers argue that outbreaks often reveal deficiencies that remain hidden until disease transmission occurs.

In Doron Baga, the current outbreak has done exactly that.

An ITV show starring GK Barry and Reverend Richard Coles has reportedly been dropped by the network after the duo filmed the pilot episode for the series

GK Barry and Reverend Richard Coles’ I’m A Celeb spin-off has reportedly been axed. The unlikely duo who became close friends when they appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2024, were expected to explore topics around life and death.

During their time in the Australian jungle, GK, who found fame online, and Church of England vicar Richard instantly struck up a bond and became inseparable, and a fan-favourite duo.

Last year, GK confirmed that the project was in the works and revealed that the pilot episode had already been filmed. But ITV has decided not to go ahead with the full series.

“There were high hopes for the project because producers were excited by the dynamic between GK and Richard, not least because it seemed to amuse viewers,” a source said.

They added to The Sun: “They enjoyed the idea of the wise older man interacting with the streetwise millennial as they explored some pretty deep subjects.

“But after provisional filming took place, it was decided not to proceed with it as a series, much to the disappointment of everyone involved.”

Speaking last year, GK hinted that she would even rope her footballer girlfriend, Ella Rutherford, into the show. She told Attitude Magazine : “We are exploring walks of life from two different generations — one from a gay godly man and a gay ungodly woman.

“There are some depressing bits in there, but one thing about me is that I will make a joke about it.” She went on to add: “We’ve filmed the pilot, so if we film the full series, then I will force this girl into it.”

Richard went on to say: “Me and GK struck up the best of friendships and I’m happy to say we’ve taken that with us out of the jungle into the wider world.” But he later joked that viewers could see something “surprising with coffins.”

And GK even said on social media that it had been “a dream” working with Reverend Richard on the show. On Instagram, the influencer said: “Working with you has opened my eyes to worlds I’d never heard of or dreamt of before.

“Some of them have been nightmares, but some of them have been dreams — and today has been a dream.” Sadly, it remains unclear why ITV bosses decided to pull the show after shooting the pilot episode.

During her stint in the jungle, GK opened up about her experience and said that she hadn’t expected to become close with Richard before they became friends. Speaking in the Bush Telegraph, she said: “I came into this jungle maybe not knowing who I would gel with or who I would be close with in here, and never in a million years if you told me that I would be getting on best with a reverend would I have believed you.

“But, he is honestly… I think he might be my favourite person in here.” Meanwhile, Richard said of their bond: “We got on so well and it was such an unlikely friendship and people seemed to enjoy it.

“I like visiting her world and trying to figure out what’s going on and I think she quite likes visiting my world, so maybe a little trip together would be fun to do. I love the TV reality format because you always have a ‘bromance’, but I’ve never had a bromance with a 25-year-old lesbian before, and that’s great.”

The Mirror has approached ITV for comment.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

For years, Kitty Felde was a familiar voice on public radio in Southern California. Reporting from Capitol Hill, it was her job, she felt, to explain government to the grown-ups living thousands of miles away.

It could be frustrating, given how little many listeners seemed to know or understand about even the basics of Washington and how the place works. (Or, at least, how it’s supposed to work.)

“They don’t remember this stuff from fifth grade,” Felde said.

Worse, a lot of people didn’t seem to care.

So Felde wondered: What if her insights and expertise were aimed at a younger audience?

With her career in radio winding down, Felde set off in a new direction, writing a novel for young adults that combined sleuthing with civics; a blend of “Nancy Drew” and “The West Wing,” as Felde’s website described the result.

Set in Washington, the book’s main character was Fina Mendoza, a 10-year-old girl modeled after someone whom Felde, a Southern California native, mentored years ago while living and reporting in Los Angeles.

“She was fierce, smart, quiet, driven, even persuading her non-English-speaking mother to help her transfer to a better high school where she graduated with honors,” Felde told an interviewer when the book was published in 2019. In creating Fina Mendoza, “I imagined what [Felde’s mentee] must have been like when she was younger.”

For Mendoza’s father, or “Papa,” Felde envisioned someone she had gotten to know over the years covering California’s congressional delegation. Someone genial and soft-spoken who, lately, has been in the news quite a bit.

Xavier Becerra.

“He’s a widower,” Felde said of the fictional Arturo Mendoza, a Democratic congressman representing Los Angeles, as Becerra did for nearly a quarter of a century. “Xavier, obviously, is not. But I met his daughters, I met his wife. And so that image … I could see him being the father.”

She did not, Felde confessed, see Becerra as a California governor-in-waiting.

When she conceived Arturo Mendoza, Felde said, “nobody knew who [Becerra] was” — which is only a slight exaggeration. Even now, many Californians are just becoming familiar with the Democrat, who is heavily favored to beat Republican Steve Hilton in November, given the state’s strong Democratic tilt.

A five-part series

That first novel about Fina and her exploits on Capitol Hill has expanded into a multi-volume series, published in English and Spanish, featuring the young detective and her roman à clef Papa. The fourth installment comes out next month. Felde is currently working on the fifth and, she expects, final volume.

Collectively, the works do not purport to offer “The Xavier Becerra Story.” Rather, each centers on a mystery — a bird that poops on the president during his State of the Union speech; a culprit placing snakes in the gym bags of lawmakers; a series of break-ins, fires and vandalism in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Fina is home for the summer. The protagonist unravels each knot and, along the way, delivers readers a goodly dose of Government 101.

Felde has written four books in the Fina Mendoza Mystery Series and is working on the fifth and, she believes, final volume.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Unlike Becerra, Papa continues serving in the House. His real-life model left Congress in January 2017 after Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him California attorney general, replacing Kamala Harris upon her departure for the U.S. Senate. Becerra was elected to the job the following year, served in the Biden administration as Health and Human Services secretary and finished atop the field in California’s crowded June 2 gubernatorial primary.

Speaking via Zoom from her home office in Baldwin Hills, Felde ventured a few thoughts on how Becerra would do as governor. (Which, of course, is also a mystery; at this point one can only guess.)

“We’re a big state with a lot of problems,” Felde said with a small shake of her head. “I think he’ll have a good time fighting the current administration. And I think, because he does have contacts both in Sacramento and in Washington … that can help because that’s where money’s coming from.”

The great divide

Returning to Fina Mendoza, Felde said part of her intent in writing the series was closing the yawning physical and psychic gaps that exists between California and Washington.

“We think we are the center of the universe because we are isolated in a lot of ways from the rest of the country,” Felde said of her fellow Californians. In Washington, “they think the same thing, but they’re the ones with the money and the power…. There is a dependency there.”

For that reason alone, she suggested, people should pay closer attention to what’s happening back East, notwithstanding the distance and the sometimes confounding, oftentimes arcane ways and means of the nation’s capital.

“It’s our government,” she said. “If you want to change the world, it’s not just City Hall. It’s not just whoever is making the HOA rules. It’s on Capitol Hill. It’s the White House. It’s the Supreme Court.”

Apart from the Fina Mendoza novels, Felde has written several other books and plays related to government and history, set in and around Washington. She also hosts several podcasts, including a book club for kids.

What does Becerra think of his artistic rendering?

Felde’s husband caught up with the gubernatorial hopeful a few months ago outside a candidates forum in Santa Monica. He presented Becerra with a copy of the first book in the series, “Welcome to Washington Fina Mendoza.” Becerra’s eyes brightened at the mention of Felde and he sent his warm regards.

Otherwise, she has yet to hear back.

What else you should be reading:

The must-read: Politician behind ‘top two’ primary has second thoughts
The deep dive: ‘I got crushed’: AI giants are funding ad wars in races across the country
The L.A. Times Special: Federal probe of Newsom creates lots of smoke. Is there any fire?

Until next time,
-mzb
—
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

World Cup: Mexico defeat Czechia

From Eduard Cauich: Mexico’s national team overcame a lackluster first half to rout Czechia thanks to a dream second half that allowed it to finish the group stage undefeated on a night that will be remembered as one of the greatest in Mexican World Cup history.

The celebration of Mexico’s 3-0 win Wednesday at Azteca Stadium turned into a tribute to legendary goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who entered the game in the final minutes to receive a standing ovation unlike any other for a Mexican player in the history of the tournament.

Czechia was eliminated after failing to earn more than one point in the tournament. In the other group match, South Africa defeated South Korea 1-0 in Monterrey and advanced in second place. South Korea will have to wait to find out whether it advances as one of the eight best third-place teams.

Czechia put up a strong performance during the first 45 minutes, while Mexico showed little offensive clarity, mainly because of a lack of control in midfield.

Everything changed in a matter of six minutes during the second half, when El Tri figured out Czechia and secured its best victory in the group stage.

Continue reading here

World Cup recap: South Africa beats South Korea, advances to play at SoFi Stadum

Click here for complete TV schedule, groups and players to watch

Full World Cup coverage

Wednesday’s World Cup results

Group A
Mexcio 3, Czechia 0
South Africa 1, South Korea 0

Group B
Bosnia-Herzegovina 3, Qatar 2
Switzerland 2, Canada 2

Group C
Morocco 4, Haiti 2
Brazil 3, Scotland 0

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

All times Pacific
1 p.m., Curacao vs. Ivory Coast, FS1, Telemundo
1 p.m., Ecuador vs. Germany, Fox, Telemundo
4 p.m., Japan vs. Sweden, FS1, Telemundo
4 p.m., Tunisia vs. Netherlands, Fox, Telemundo
7 p.m., Paraguay vs. Australia, FS1, Universo
7 p.m., Turkiye vs. U.S., Fox, Telemundo

World Cup Group standings

Group A
Country, W-D-L, Goal Differential, Points
x-Mexico, 3-0-0, +6, 9
x-South Africa, 1-1-1, -1, 4
South Korea, 1-0-2, -1, 3
y-Czechia, 0-1-2, -4, 1

Group B
x-Switzerland, 2-1-0, +4, 7
x-Canada, 1-1-1, +5, 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1-1-1, -1, 4
y-Qatar, 0-1-2, -8, 1

Group C
x-Brazil, 2-1-0, +6, 7
x-Morocco, 2-1-0, +3, 7
Scotland, 1-0-2, -3, 3
y-Haiti, 0-0-3, -6, 0

Group D
x-United States, 2-0-0, +5, 6
Australia, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Paraguay, 1-0-1, -2, 3
y-Turkiye, 0-0-2, -3, 0

Group E
x-Germany, 2-0-0, +7, 6
Ivory Coast, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Ecuador, 0-1-1, -1, 1
Curacao, 0-1-1, -6, 1

Group F
Netherlands, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Japan, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Sweden, 1-0-1, 0, 3
y-Tunisia, 0-0-2, -8, 0

Group G
Egypt, 1-1-0, +2, 4
Iran, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Belgium, 0-2-0, 0, 2
New Zealand, 0-1-1, -2, 1

Group H
Spain, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Uruguay, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Cape Verde, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Saudi Arabia, 0-1-1, -4, 1

Group I
x-France, 2-0-0, +5, 6
x-Norway, 2-0-0, +4, 6
Senegal, 0-0-2, -3, 0
Iraq, 0-0-2, -6, 0

Group J
x-Argentina, 2-0-0, +5, 6
Austria, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Algeria, 1-0-1, -2, 3
y-Jordan, 0-0-2, -3, 0

Group K
x-Colombia, 2-0-0, +3, 6
Portugal, 1-1-0, +5, 4
Congo DR, 0-1-1, -1, 1
Uzbekistan, 0-0-2, -7, 0

Group L
England, 1-0-1, +2, 4
Ghana, 1-0-1, +1, 4
Croatia, 1-0-1, -1, 3
y-Panama, 0-0-2, -2, 0

x-clinched round of 32; y-eliminated

The top two teams in each group plus the next eight best third-place teams advance to the next round.

Note: The U.S. is locked into a July 1 knockout stage game against the third-place team from either Group B, E, F, I or J at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Dodgers edge the Twins

From Maddie Lee: Shohei Ohtani was done trying to make the back-and-forth work.

He and catcher Dalton Rushing had struggled to get in sync for the first two innings Wednesday — from pitch-calling, to ABS challenges, to a crossup that cost the Dodgers a run. So, Ohtani took matters into his own hands.

“There’s really a couple ways of communicating,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after the Dodgers’ 4-3 win against the Minnesota Twins. “One is by words, but the other way to be able to communicate is by example, and just taking the charge and showing Rush what kind of pitching style I’m capable of.”

After a three-run (two earned) second inning, Ohtani supplied his own run support with an RBI single that spurred the Dodgers’ game-winning rally, and then took over pitch-calling duties on the mound.

Ohtani didn’t allow another run, through the sixth.

“I didn’t do a great job from start to finish,” said Rushing, who returned to the lineup Wednesday after being removed from Monday’s game to rule out a concussion. “Pretty embarrassing. Thankfully he’s as good as he is and he can take control of the game.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers fulfill $1-million pledge in response to ICE raids, owners divest from prison group

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels defeat the Orioles

Nolan Schanuel reached third on an error and Logan O’Hoppe drove him in on a check-swing tapper in the 10th inning as the Angels rallied to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7-6 on Wednesday.

It was the 12th come-from-behind victory for the Angels (34-48) and sixth walk-off win.

Pinch-hitter Vaughn Grissom started the rally with an RBI single in the eighth, and Wade Meckler tied the game with a two-run single.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Austin Reaves now has to prove he’s worth it

From Bill Plaschke: He’s no longer a cute little kid.

He’s a $185-million man.

He’s no longer a quintessential underdog routinely pardoned for his bad defense, his questionable durability and his tendency to tighten up in the playoffs.

He’s a big dog who needs to own it.

Austin Reaves, the most beloved Laker, became the most scrutinized Laker on Wednesday with the news that he agreed to a maximum four-year, $185-million contract to remain with the team.

Kudos to him for becoming the highest-paid undrafted player in league history.

Congrats to the Lakers for turning a homegrown talent into a budding superstar.

His everyman story resonates with the masses.

Except that story is finished. That book has been closed. A new volume has begun.

It’s called, “Is Austin Reaves Worth It?”

Thus far, the answer has been no.

Continue reading here

Lakers’ Austin Reaves opts out of contract, plans to re-sign for four years

Big second round of draft for Clippers

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: They started their pro careers in Spain and now two Real Madrid prospects are taking on L.A. Baba Miller doesn’t have to look far for inspiration with Luka Doncic playing in the same city.

After admiring Doncic’s path from Real Madrid to the top of the NBA, Miller, the Clippers’ latest addition, hopes to carve his own path in L.A. after the Clippers drafted the late-blooming Cincinnati forward 36th overall in the NBA draft on Wednesday.

The versatile big man was just 6-2 when he was 14. Now a mature, 6-foot-11 22-year-old, Miller called that kid “chubby.” But once he started growing rapidly, Miller slimmed down. When he struggled to hold up against more physical players, his youth coach started playing him at the wing. The positional move, along with his developing body, set the stage for his creative style of play.

As a senior at Cincinnati, 208-pound Miller averaged 13 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. Miller was just one of three players nationally to average at least 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists this season. He was the first Bearcat to lead the team in points, rebounds and assists since Oscar Robertson in 1959-60.

Continue reading here

NBA draft 2026: Second-round pick-by-pick recap

‘Super blessed’: Karim López makes NBA history as first Mexican-born first-round draft pick

Kelsey Plum is out at least four weeks

From Marisa Ingemi: The Sparks are going to have to get through another stretch without Kelsey Plum.

Plum, who missed three games with a right ankle sprain earlier this season, is out with a lower left leg injury and will be reevaluated in four weeks, the team announced Wednesday morning. That means she will miss at least the next 10 games, taking the Sparks to the WNBA All-Star break.

It had seemed like Plum was out of the woods after she came back from her ankle injury. Plum scored 43 points in a game against the Phoenix Mercury on June 14 and didn’t miss a beat in her return. She is second in the WNBA in scoring with 23.9 points per game and sixth in the league with 6.4 assists per contest.

Continue reading here

Katelyn Ohashi returns to gymnastics

From Chuck Schilken: Katelyn Ohashi has gone viral for her gymnastics routines.

She has won two ESPY Awards.

She’s a former national champion and All-American who earned 11 perfect scores of 10 during her time at UCLA.

She once took first place in the all-around at an elite national competition, with the now-legendary Simone Biles finishing as runner-up.

But Ohashi apparently has some unfinished business in the sport, as the 29-year-old athlete announced her return to elite gymnastics Tuesday on Instagram.

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

1921 — Jock Hutchinson is the first American to win the British Open, a nine-stroke victory over Roger Wethered in a playoff.

1926 — Bobby Jones becomes the first amateur in 29 years to win the British Open. Jones finishes with a 291 total for a two-stroke victory over Al Watrous at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes, England.

1932 — Gene Sarazen wins the U.S. Open by shooting a 286, the lowest in 20 years.

1935 — Future world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis moves to 20-0 with 6th round KO of former champion Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium.

1948 — Joe Louis knocks out Jersey Joe Walcott in the 11th round in New York to defend his world heavyweight title. Louis announces his retirement after the fight.

1952 — Jim Turnesa wins the PGA Championship with a 1-up victory over Chick Harbert in the final round.

1966 — Buckpasser sets a world record in the 1-mile Arlington Classic in 1:32 3-5 and becomes the first 3-year-old to win more than $1 million.

1969 — Pancho Gonzalez, 41, wins the longest tennis match in Wimbledon history by beating Charles Pasarell in a 112-game match, 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9. The match is played over two days and lasts 5 hours, 12 minutes.

1978 — In Buenos Aires, Argentina wins the World Cup beating Netherlands 3-1 after extra time.

1981 — Sugar Ray Leonard wins the WBA junior middleweight title with a ninth-round knockout of Ayub Kalule in Houston.

1988 — UEFA European Championship Final, Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany: Ruud Gullet & Marco van Basten score as the Netherlands beats Soviet Union, 2-0.

1991 — Nine-time champion Martina Navratilova survives a first-round scare from Elna Reinach to win her record 100th singles match at Wimbledon.

1994 — FIFA World Cup: 1,500th goal in Cup history scored by Caceres of Argentina.

1997 — NBA Draft: Wake Forest power forward Tim Duncan first pick by San Antonio Spurs.

1997 — NHL approves franchises in Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, and Minneapolis-St Paul.

1999 — San Antonio wins its first NBA championship, defeating the New York Knicks 78-77 in Game 5 of the Finals. The Spurs, keyed by finals MVP Tim Duncan’s 31 points, becomes the first former ABA team to win the championship.

2006 — Asafa Powell matches Wallace Spearmon’s world best in the 200 meters, winning the Jamaican national championships in 19.90 seconds.

2006 — Bernard Lagat becomes the first runner in the history of the U.S. track and field championships to sweep the 1,500 and 5,000 meters, after winning the shorter race.

2008 — NBA Draft: Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin first pick by Clippers.

2015 — NBA Draft: Kentucky center Karl-Anthony Towns first pick by Minnesota Timberwolves.

2017 — Jordan Spieth needs an extra hole and an amazing final shot to finish off a wire-to-wire victory in the Travelers Championship. The two-time major champion holes out from 60 feet for birdie from a greenside bunker on the first hole of a playoff with Daniel Berger at TPC River Highlands.

2019 — NHL Draft: Barrie Colts (OHL) defenseman Aaron Ekblad first pick by Florida Panthers.

2020 — Liverpool FC clinches first EPL soccer title in 30 years with 7 games to spare as Chelsea beats second-placed Manchester City, 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1934 — Pitcher John Broaca tied a major league record by striking out five consecutive times but pitched the Yankees to an 11-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Lou Gehrig had better luck at the plate, hitting for the cycle.

1937 — Augie Galan of Chicago became the first National League switch-hitter to homer from both sides of the plate in the Cubs’ 11-2 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1950 — Chicago’s Hank Sauer hit two home runs and two doubles to send the Cubs past the Philadelphia Phillies 11-8.

1961 — Baltimore and the Angels used a major league record 16 pitchers, eight by each side, as the Orioles edged the Angels 9-8 on Ron Hansen’s 14th-inning homer.

1968 — Bobby Bonds, in his first major league game, hit a grand slam off John Purdin to help San Francisco to a 9-0 win over the Dodgers.

1988 — Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 1,000th consecutive game.

1998 — Sammy Sosa broke the major league record for homers in a month, hitting his 19th of June leading off the seventh inning of the Cubs’ 6-4 loss to Detroit. Sosa passed the mark set by Detroit’s Rudy York in August 1937.

1999 — Jose Jimenez, a rookie right-hander, threw St. Louis’ first no-hitter in 16 seasons, outdueling Randy Johnson in a 1-0 victory over Arizona.

2002 — Luis Pujols of the Detroit Tigers and Tony Pena of the Kansas City Royals became the first Dominican-born managers to oppose each other in a major league game.

2007 — A fan charged at Bob Howry during the Cubs’ 10-9 win over Colorado after the reliever helped blow an 8-3 lead in the ninth inning. Howry gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe and a three-run homer to Troy Tulowitzki. The fan then jumped onto the field from the roof of the Rockies’ dugout and made it a few feet from the mound before security guards tackled him. Howry earned the victory when Alfonso Soriano hit a game-ending two-run single in the bottom of the inning.

2010 — Arizona’s Edwin Jackson pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field.

2010 — The Cubs suspend pitcher Carlos Zambrano indefinitely after he throws a tantrum in the dugout after giving up four runs in the first inning of a 6-0 loss to the White Sox. “Big Z” blames first baseman Derrek Lee for letting a Juan Pierre ground ball past him for a double that starts the rally, although the hard-hit ball was hardly catchable. Tom Gorzelanny replaces Zambrano who is removed from the game by manager Lou Piniella.

2011 — Cleveland’s Tony Sipp balked home the only run with the bases loaded in the seventh inning of a 1-0 loss to San Francisco. Sipp slightly flinched his left arm before throwing a pitch to Emmanuel Burriss, allowing Miguel Tejada to score and sending San Francisco to its fourth straight win. There also were two errors in the inning by second baseman Cord Phelps that spoiled a strong start by Justin Masterson.

2013 — Eric Filia drove in a career-high five runs, Nick Vander Tuig limited Mississippi State to five hits in eight innings, and UCLA won 8-0 for its first national baseball championship.

2014 — Tim Lincecum pitched his second no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in less than a year, allowing only one runner and leading the San Francisco Giants to a 4-0 win.

2015 — The San Francisco Giants hit four triples in a game for the first time in 55 years, including a pair by Brandon Belt in a 13-8 win over the San Diego Padres. Brandon Crawford and Matt Duffy also tripled for San Francisco, which had not tripled four times in a game since Sept. 15, 1960, when Willie Mays hit three and Eddie Bressoud one at Philadelphia.

2018 — The St. Louis Cardinals record the 10,000th win in team history with a 4-0 defeat of the Cleveland Indians. They are the sixth major league team to do so.

2019 — The New York Yankees set a new major league record by homering in their 28th consecutive game.

2021 — Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola ties Tom Seaver’s 51-Year old MLB record of ten consecutive strikeouts in a 2-1 loss to the Mew York Mets.

2022 — Three Astros pitchers combine to no-hit the Yankees, 3-0.

2023 — George Springer leads off the bottom of the 1st for the Blue Jays against the Athletics with a homer off Luis Medina. The 55th leadoff home run of his career gives him sole possession of second place on the all-time list, behind only Rickey Henderson. The Blue Jays win handily, 12-1.

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.

SEOUL, June 25 (UPI) — South Korea’s industrial valve maker Komoto said Thursday that it is seeking to expand into the Kazakh market after wrapping up a field demonstration project in the Central Asian country.

The company said that it completed the installation and operational tests of its solar-powered smart flow control and SCADA system at a demonstration site in Kazakhstan.

Short for supervisory control and data acquisition, SCADA is an industrial automation system that enables operators to monitor, control, and collect real-time data from infrastructure remotely.

Following the successful trial, the system received final field performance certification from Kazvodkhoz, Kazakhstan’s state-owned water resources agency, according to Komoto.

The firm noted that the project confirmed the applicability of its technology to remote agricultural waterways and irrigation facilities not only in Kazakhstan but also across Central Asia.

Komoto CEO Ryan MK Ko said that the company plans to expand its presence in overseas water industry markets, particularly in Central Asia.

“Our biggest competitive edge is that our system allows for the stable operation of water management facilities even in remote areas with limited access to commercial power and communication infrastructure, while significantly reducing costs compared with conventional options,” Ko said in a statement.

“Based on the technology and operational data accumulated through pilot projects both at home and abroad, we will further advance our automated control and intelligent water management features,” he added.

Komoto is not publicly listed. It was founded in 1988 with technology and capital support from Motoyama, one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of industrial equipment, including valves.

Problems with after-death care came to light after the parents of Harriet Hawkins, who was stillborn at NUH in 2016, discovered her body had been allowed to decompose so badly that it had to be triple-bagged for her funeral.

A subsequent investigation found 17 areas of concern and prompted an examination by the independent maternity review into the after-death care provided to 16 other babies and one mother.

They found that one early gestation baby had been disposed of as clinical waste, the wrong baby had been passed to funeral directors and a mother who died had deteriorated so badly that her family were advised not to see her prior to her funeral.

“The Review found evidence of recurring examples of failure to protect the dignity of the deceased… including inadequate arrangements for undertaking paediatric post-mortems,” Ockenden said in her report.

The problems prompted the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), which regulates mortuary care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to examine the trust’s services.

In an unannounced inspection, external, which was carried out in March 2026 but only published this week, it found three critical, six major and one minor shortfalls against its standards at the two hospitals run by the trust, the QMC and City Hospital.

The HTA found lack of freezer space at both Nottingham hospitals meant some bodies had been put in a refrigerated area instead.

Eight of the bodies were showing “advanced deterioration” because they had not been transferred to a freezer in time.

Instead of being conducted in a post-mortem suite, some baby post-mortem examinations were carried out in a lab that was inadequately ventilated, with support staff who had not been trained in mortuary care, the HTA found.

An accompanying audit found just more than half of the 145 recorded incidents that should have been escalated to the regulator were not.

As the destructive Bobcat fire sent plumes of smoke billowing from the Angeles National Forest in 2020, Ryan Huling recalled that at the time news reports claimed the blaze caused “no injuries” and that no homes had been destroyed.

That irked the Sierra Madre writer, who watched from his cabin as flames incinerated the home of bears, coyotes, pumas and squirrels. He believes countless critters were killed or maimed by flames, and points to accounts of mountain lions emerging with singed paws and bears scrambling into communities.

“Anonymity has done them no favors, in the sense that people don’t know where they live, they don’t know what landmarks are important to them, they don’t know what areas carry special significance to bears and other animals,” Huling said.

Yet through his research he discovered that rapidly advancing technology — including artificial intelligence, GPS tracking and crowdsourcing — is revealing more about animal “societies” than ever before. The revelation launched him on a worldwide tour of non-human communities, culminating in his debut book, “The Hidden Nations of Animals.”

The cover of Ryan Huling’s first book, published in June.

(Penguin Random House)

Published this month, the book’s first chapter takes readers to North America’s “beaver belt,” roughly 1,100 miles in northern Canada that are jam-packed with beaver dams. According to Huling, the sheer density of those dams only became apparent thanks to technology that allows researchers to analyze high-resolution satellite imagery and identify them from space. One analysis found 2,700 dams surrounding a town of only about 1,000 people.

Another stop took him to Zambia, where African mole-rats dig complex tunnel systems that include designated nurseries, pantries and bathrooms. Just before Huling arrived, a researcher had used radio trackers to determine that the subterranean animals operate on a biological clock that has them alternate between a few hours of activity and a few hours of napping — not a bad work schedule!

Some of Huling’s other adventures include exploring a tornado of Mexican free-tailed bats outside of San Antonio and red-crowned cranes that have found refuge in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

But uncovering these hidden worlds isn’t just left to the experts anymore. While the expense or difficulty of tracking wild animals has resulted in knowledge voids in the past, crowdsourcing is helping to fill in the gaps.

Today, any smartphone-toting nature lover can snap a photo of a great horned owl or a ground squirrel and upload it to a citizen science app such as iNaturalist. Some platforms are specialized, for example Merlin for birds and Happywhale for marine mammals. All that data is a rich playground for scientists. According to an article published last year in BioScience, iNaturalist data in peer-reviewed research grew tenfold in the previous five years.

Now, AI is making it so humans don’t have to necessarily look at the raw material. Instead, AI can mine images, videos or sound clips for the appearance of an animal of interest — or even catalogue individual critters. Happywhale has an AI feature that identifies particular humpbacks by unique patterns and shapes on their tails.

Technology is advancing so fast that Huling said it was hard to stay current. In his prologue, he mentions a researcher showing him a prototype of a teeny solar-powered radio tag for monarch butterflies. By the time the book hit the shelves, the concept was already live — harnessed, in one instance, to study how the brilliant orange insects use overwintering groves along the California coast. Just this week on Instagram, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife highlighted a study in which rare bumblebees are tagged with minute QR codes that can be read by remote cameras.

After about a half-year of travel, Huling returned home with a heightened awareness of what he calls “inconspicuous abundance” — that the world is teeming with more life than meets the eye. He puts this new lens to the test by venturing to the storm-battered shores of San Miguel Island off the coast of Santa Barbara. Considered “uninhabited” in the traditional sense, he finds that the rarely visited corner of Channel Islands National Park is a haven for lumpy seals, glimmering fish and squawking seabirds. Sharks lurk beneath the waves.

“For them, as now for me, this distinctive island remains anything but deserted,” he writes.

On San Miguel Island, Huling saw and heard hundreds of sunbathing seals and sea lions.

(Oliver Uberti / Penguin Random House)

In other animal news

• Earlier this month, in Big Bear Lake, a memorial service was held for Sandy Steers, the late conservationist who was best known for turning two bald eagles into an international phenomenon by livestreaming their nest. It was a touching gathering, where Steers’ friends and colleagues got personal about a woman who they said was willing to go to the mat for her beloved raptors.

An illustration for “Hidden Nations” depicts author Huling at home, surrounded by the natural environment — including a black bear.

(Oliver Uberti / Penguin Random House)

• For decades, Steers battled a planned development near the nest of famed eagle couple Jackie and Shadow, and helped to negotiate an agreement in which a land trust could buy the site for $10 million. The nonprofit she led is now racing to raise the money by July 31 so it can be bought and conserved.
• In the desperately needed good-news department, endangered steelhead trout that scientists feared had perished in last year’s Palisades fire unexpectedly survived — and even had babies. It’s a big deal: they represent the last known population of steelhead in the Santa Monica Mountains.
• A civil grand jury has found that the L.A. Zoo needs new leadership, citing deterioration of its facilities and rapidly declining membership. In less than a year, membership dropped 23% and exhibits for lions, bears, sea lions and pelicans have closed because they need major renovations.
• Last summer, researchers made an astonishing discovery off the Sonoma County coast — 18 sunflower sea stars, a species decimated by disease and all but gone from California waters. SF Gate writes that the finding was only just announced, with scientists now racing to learn all they can about the survivors. As previously reported, the stars with up to 24 arms could hold the key to restoring the state’s ravaged kelp forests.

And news about the environment

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more wildlife and outdoors news, follow Lila Seidman at @lila_seidman on X and @lilaseidman.bsky.social on Bluesky.

A LOW-COST airline with cheap long-haul flights is returning to the UK after more than a decade.

AirAsia X, a Malaysian airline, used to operate budget long-haul flights from Kuala Lumpur to London but the service stopped in 2012.

However, the airline has confirmed it will relaunch flights from London Gatwick to Kuala Lumpur via Bahrain.

Flights will be on an Airbus A330-300, which with AirAsia X holds between 285 and 377 passengers.

The stopover in Bahrain helps to keep costs low, as does flying from London Gatwick as opposed to London Heathrow.

Travelling from Kuala Lumpur, flights will leave late at night before stopping in Bahrain for two hours and then arriving into London Gatwick at around 7:30am the next morning.

Read more on travel inspo

GO ON

All the little-known websites for cheap or FREE tickets to gigs, theatre & festivals

STAYCAY

Our travel experts’ best-kept-secret UK holiday spots for summer – from £37 a night

The route was due to launch tomorrow, however that date has been postponed by two months due to the conflict in the Middle East.

Flights will now launch on August 27, operating four times a week until November 2, where flights will then take place daily, according to Air Traveler Club.

The airline has also confirmed that tickets will be getting cheaper as fuel costs ease.

Pierre-Hugues Schmit, Chief Executive, London Gatwick previously said: “The arrival of AirAsia X and flights to Kuala Lumpur is fantastic news for London Gatwick passengers.

“The new daily service will provide excellent opportunities to visit the city or onward connectivity across the region – ideal for holidaymakers, businesses and the many British‑Malaysian families who will now have even better options for visiting friends and relatives.”

Bo Lingam, Group Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia X added: “Our return to London marks a significant milestone for AirAsia X and we’re excited to commence our operations at London Gatwick this June.”

Published on
25/06/2026 – 11:59 GMT+2

Ferrari has announced that Enrico Galliera, its chief marketing and commercial officer of more than 16 years, will step down, handing one of the most sensitive jobs in the luxury car world to an outsider.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

His successor, Massimiliano Di Silvestre, the former head of BMW’s Italian business, takes over on 1 July and will report directly to CEO Benedetto Vigna.

Galliera’s exit comes barely a month after Ferrari pulled the covers off the Luce, its first fully electric model, which received a reception few at the company were happy about.

The car, whose edgeless styling was developed with LoveFrom, the design studio founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, broke sharply from Ferrari’s traditional look and drew swift ridicule from enthusiasts and investors alike.

The backlash was unusually public for a brand accustomed to adoration.

Ferrari’s shares fell more than 8% in a single session after the reveal, a sharp market verdict on one of the industry’s most valuable names.

Critics lined up to attack the design, among them the company’s own former chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who warned that the brand was risking the destruction of a legend and went so far as to suggest the famous badge be removed from the car.

Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, joined in, questioning the four-door model’s price, which starts at €550,000.

However, Ferrari has firmly rejected any link between the criticism and Galliera’s departure.

According to the company, he had decided to move on some time ago and agreed to remain in place through the Luce launch before pursuing what it described as a new chapter in his career.

Vigna praised his contribution and framed the change as part of the brand’s evolution rather than a reaction to it.

An outsider for an uncertain road

Whatever the motivation, the choice of replacement is telling.

Di Silvestre brings more than two decades of experience in the premium car market, having steered BMW Italy since 2019, and represents a rare move by Ferrari to recruit its commercial chief from a rival rather than promote from within.

He inherits the task of selling an electric Ferrari to a clientele that pays a heavy premium for exclusivity, at a moment when demand for high-performance EVs has cooled.

Ferrari maintains that interest in the Luce remains strong, though investors will not get a clearer picture until the company reports its second-quarter results on 30 July.

WASHINGTON — Jennifer Siebel Newsom has spent more than a decade cultivating an identity distinct from her husband, Gov. Gavin Newsom, as an active documentary filmmaker and gender equity activist with her own organizations, staff and salary.

The 51-year-old calls herself California’s “first partner,” a title she coined herself to signal an equal footing with the governor and gender inclusivity.

Her independent streak has generated her a steady income. She earns money from a set of organizations she founded or controls. They include the Representation Project, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equity through film and education programs; Girls Club Entertainment, a for-profit production company she owns that holds the copyrights to her documentaries; and the California Partners Project, a second nonprofit that works closely with her government office and receives donations solicited by the governor.

Since its creation in 2020, the California Partners Project has received nearly $5.1 million from so-called “behested payments,” raising alarms over the years about the influence large companies have amassed in Sacramento.

California law allows officials to solicit donations to specific charitable or governmental causes when the payments are reported within 30 days. The public donation system, however, came under scrutiny in 2020 when payments made at Newsom’s behest — to a variety of organizations, not just the California Partners Project — ballooned to an unprecedented $226 million to help fund the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With no limit on how much money can be donated by organizations or individuals at the behest of the governor, millions of dollars flowed in to prop up public services during the pandemic and fund Newsom’s favored programs, including an effort to address homelessness and a public safety campaign promoting the importance of wearing masks. The top donor of Newsom-behested payments in 2020 was tech giant Facebook, which gave $27 million for gift cards that went to front-line healthcare workers and for public health ads.

“It’s not illegal, but it certainly pushes the bounds of campaign finance law, and the first couple has been doing this for some time,” said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University. “In this battle between Newsom and [President] Trump this makes their [the first couple’s] actions, these payments and the operation of the nonprofits a rich target for scrutiny.”

The Newsoms’ financial arrangements are now the subject of renewed scrutiny. The governor has accused the Trump administration — specifically, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service — of questioning their friends and former employees about him and his wife. The governor said the probes are politically motivated, a personal vendetta because he’s considering a run for president in 2028.

Newsom said he and his wife have nothing to hide, and promised to release all of his recent tax returns — though he has not announced when.

In turn, the governor has demanded that the Department of Justice release all records pertaining to the probe.

“The American people deserve to know who ordered this abuse of power and how far it goes,” the governor wrote on social media last week.

“These are dark days in our nation’s history when the leader of the free world spews animus openly and without shame — aiming to silence and destroy not only his political opponents, but their friends, colleagues, and families,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement to The Times. ”My husband and I will continue to push back on this vindictive attack — and I certainly will not let this distract me from the important work ahead to protect the health, wealth, and safety of women and children and give California kids the best start in life. Together, we can set an example of strong leadership that protects people rather than preys on them.”

To better understand the finances, here is a breakdown of how Siebel Newsom’s company and nonprofits are working.

The Representation Project

Alongside the release of her first documentary, “Miss Representation,” in 2011, Siebel Newsom created her nonprofit, which originally shared the same name as her film. The organization licenses her films and reimburses costs to her production company.

The nonprofit earns some revenue from licensing the first partner’s documentaries for use in classrooms, college campuses and workplaces. Licensing for film screenings at schools starts at $49, while corporate licensing for her films starts at $995; purchase of screening rights also comes with curricula to facilitate discussions.

The Representation Project has earned more than $5.2 million in revenue from film screenings, licensing and speaking fees since 2011, according to a review of its tax filings.

The Representation Project is not required to disclose its donors but has received at least $2.6 million since 2014 from various charitable foundations that disclosed the gifts in their own tax filings. Several corporations that have had business before the state have donated to Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit, including Pacific Gas & Electric Co., AT&T and Kaiser Permanente.

Its past donors also include entrepreneur and progressive donor Susie Thompkins Buell, who is credited as a producer on several of Siebel Newsom’s documentaries, as well as the Marin Community Foundation and Onward Together, the political action organization founded by Hillary Clinton.

Four months after Newsom took office in 2019, the state Department of Education recommended that high schools screen two of his wife’s films, “Miss Representation” and “The Mask You Live In,” a move that has garnered criticism from conservative media outlets. The state said the films “can help facilitate a discussion about the impact of mass media and gender socialization on self-image and relationships with others.”

Though it does not specify where its films have been licensed, the nonprofit boasts in annual impact reports that its films and curricula have “reached over 2 million students” and “are being used in over 5,000 schools in fifty U.S. states.”

Since founding the Representation Project in 2011, Siebel Newsom has received more than $1.9 million in compensation from the nonprofit organization, according to a review of federal tax records. Her separately owned film production company, Girls Club Entertainment, has collected about $2.2 million in independent contracts from the nonprofit, records show.

Combined, the two streams of money total about $4.1 million flowing from the charity to Siebel Newsom personally or to entities she controls over the span of a little over a decade.

Her current annual salary is $161,250 for a 40-hour workweek, records show. Siebel Newsom earns income from both her production company and her nonprofit, according to state financial disclosures.

Jeff Tenenbaum, a nonprofit attorney with 30 years of experience advising nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations, declined to comment on Siebel Newsom’s specific case. But generally, he explained the legal framework that would apply to an arrangement like the one described in the filings.

Under federal tax-exempt organization law, he said, the “private benefit doctrine” governs whether a nonprofit’s overall activities unduly benefit any single individual — including through indirect payments to entities they own. The tax law asks whether too much benefit flows to one person or entity.

This is separate and distinct from the “private inurement” doctrine, which prohibits nonprofits from paying greater-than-fair market value compensation to insiders, including founders, and which requires that such compensation arrangements be approved by individuals with no conflicts of interest.

“Theoretically, a situation like this could raise some private benefit concerns,” Tenenbaum said, when the structure of the arrangement was described to him.

The doctrine does not prohibit all private benefit, he said, only what the federal tax code calls “impermissible” private benefit.

“There has to be too much benefit compared to the benefit to the public,” he said. Whether that threshold is crossed here, he said, would require a fuller review of the organization’s finances, contracts, and other considerations, including copyright ownership issues relating to the films produced.

Girls Club Entertainment

An actress and documentary filmmaker, Siebel Newsom founded her production company to develop independent films with a focus on combating gender stereotypes and empowering girls and women. She serves as the company’s chief creative officer.

She has written, produced and directed five films exploring themes of inequality and traditional gender roles. Siebel Newsom is best known for her 2011 documentary “Miss Representation,” which focused on the few and narrow representations of girls and women in American media.

Tax records show that the production company owns the rights to “Miss Representation” and has licensed the film to the Representation Project for a minimum of seven years for the purpose of distributing and screening the film in public. Costs associated with film production — including the writer, director and producer fees — have been reimbursed by the Representation Project, tax filings show.

Her latest documentary, “Miss Representation: Rise Up,” examines “the rising backlash against women’s progress and the hostile landscape of technology designed to harass and, ultimately, silence women.” The film premiered this month at the Tribeca Film Festival.

California Partners Project

In 2020, Siebel Newsom founded the California Partners Project, a nonprofit focused on improving gender equity in the workplace and the safety and well-being of children in online spaces. She does not collect compensation from the nonprofit or serve on its board.

It hosts an annual “gender equity summit” and provides resources for parents on issues such as social media safety and child mental health.

In the fall of 2024, Siebel Newsom and the California Partners Project hosted representatives from TikTok, Meta, Pinterest and other social media platforms for an event about children’s online safety. A day before the panel, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta took a more forceful tack to go after the tech industry by joining with 13 other states in a lawsuit against TikTok that accused the platform of exploiting young app users with its addictive features.

In September of 2024, the governor signed a bill to prohibit internet services and applications from providing “addictive feeds,” defined as media curated based on information gathered on or provided by the user, to minors without parental consent.

The California Partners Project also does not publicly disclose its donors in its tax filings, but much of the nonprofit’s funding appears to come from behested payments. Siebel Newsom does not receive a salary from the organization.

Since its founding, the Newsoms have steered more than $5 million to the nonprofit via behested payments, according to a review of the disclosures. While many donations to the California Partners Project come from charitable foundations, it also received hundreds of thousands from companies including Silicon Valley Bank, Pinterest and the charitable arm of Blue Shield of California.

Its biggest funder is the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a Sonoma County tribe that operates a casino in Rohnert Park and spends heavily in state and federal elections. The tribe has given $2.3 million to the nonprofit since 2022. In June 2023, Newsom appointed tribal Chairman Greg Sarris to the University of California Board of Regents. Newsom has also supported efforts by the tribe to block a smaller tribe from building a casino in nearby Vallejo.

Blue Shield, which has reported giving $100,000 to Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit, also has a cozy relationship with her husband. The nonprofit health insurer was an early donor to Newsom’s 2018 campaign for governor and later received a $15-million no-bid contract to distribute COVID vaccines. State regulators in 2024 also signed off on the nonprofit’s request to restructure and establish a new parent corporation out of state, a move that raised alarm among healthcare advocates.

The California Partners Project did not respond to questions about its donors and spending.

BIG news for families who travel on Ryanair flights.

The airline has announced that it has changed its policy so that families can sit together free of charge.

In a statement made today, Ryanair said that there will be free parent and child seats available together in the rear of its planes for families.

For adults travelling with children who choose this new seating option, they will be told of their seat allocation after they have checked in for their flight.

This is the case with most other airlines in Europe.

Families who opt for this are likely to be seated towards the back of the plane.

TOP SEA-CRET

Locals’ guide to UK’s top seaside counties… best beaches & pubs and £15 stays

CHEAP DATE

Our fave cheap European destinations with flights under £20 & hotels from £24pp

It’s still an option for families to choose their seats in advance, but this does require a seat reservation fee.

Previously, Ryanair’s Ts&Cs required at least one parent to sit with their children aged 2-11 when they fly.

This was done through what Ryanair calls a “mandatory family seat”, which the parent must pay for in order to secure a seat next to them for their child.

For all other passengers, reserving a seat is optional.

This fee applies to both outbound and return flights and typically costs around £8 each way.

Ryanair’s website refers to “Free reserved seats for kids under 12”, but the parents and guardians had to pay a booking fee to access these seats.

Typically, other airlines offer to seat children with a parent or guardian without the need for a paid-for adult seat reservation, or allocate seats together automatically during booking for free.

The new policy comes in on new bookings made from today.

The airline is facing investigation by the CMA to determine whether the practice is “in line with consumer law”.

On the policy change, a CMA spokesperson said: “Ryanair claims its seating policy now complies with the law, and we’ll test that thoroughly. If true, it’s a win for families – who will no longer have to pay to sit with their children – and it shows the impact our new powers are having.

“But it doesn’t change the fact families have been paying for ‘mandatory family seats’. Our investigation remains ongoing.”

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary commented on the changes…

Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, said: “Turning a blind eye to the high fares charged by airlines on routes with no Ryanair competition, the CMA has now targeted our family seating policy which has been universally embraced by consumers as the most progressive and transparent in Europe.

“Instead of promoting competitiveness and lower fares for consumers, the CMA is on a mission to force Ryanair to adopt the less transparent and less consumer-friendly family seating policy applied by most other airlines – just because it’s the industry standard.”

He said that the airline will “reluctantly adjust” to the industry standard.

Michael explained that “families may have to wait until after they have checked in to find out their seat allocation”.

And that these seats are likely to be at the “rear of the cabin”

Hearts are moving closer to appointing Belgian football’s manager of the year, Wouter Vrancken, as the club’s new head coach.

The 47-year-old left hometown club Sint-Truiden this summer after leading them to third place in the Belgian Pro League – their highest finish in 60 years – in his first full season in post.

Derek McInnes departed Hearts for Rangers last week after taking the club to second place last season, missing out on a first title since 1960 on the final day to Celtic.

Hearts are now close to confirming his replacement. Vrancken is set to take charge of a first club outside his homeland after impressive spells at Sint-Truiden and Genk, whom he took to the brink of the Belgian title in 2023.

Having started his coaching career in Belgium’s lower leagues, his return to the top flight was as assistant at another of his former clubs, Kortrijk.

He took over as boss of Mechelen in 2018 and led them to promotion and the Belgian Cup in the same season before three top-eight finishes in the top flight.

The price of Brent crude has reached its lowest since February 27, before the war started.

Oil prices have extended their decline to levels last seen before the start of the Iran war, as expectations of rising supply from the Middle East outweighed demand concerns.

Prompt-month Brent crude futures for August delivery fell $1.06 (1.44 percent) to $72.68 a barrel by 06:39 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 76 cents (1.08 percent) to $69.58 a barrel.

Both contracts hit their lowest since February 27.

August Brent was trading lower than September, which was priced at $73.59, signalling ample short-term supply.

Brent had fallen by more than $3 on Wednesday as supply concerns eased, while WTI settled down nearly $3.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a forum that flows through the Strait of Hormuz were close to those before the start of the Iran war, with at least 20 million barrels having exited the strait in the past 24 hours.

A return to complete normality would take a few weeks, however, because the strait needs to be cleared of mines, he added.

Rising Middle East supply, together with Iran set to boost sales after a temporary reprieve from US sanctions, drove down prices of physical crude oil cargoes around the world.

New routes

An initial accord last week to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on February 28, has allowed the resumption of traffic through the strait.

The accord set up a 60-day period of negotiations to tackle tougher issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

Wright said oil would continue to flow through the strait even if the deal did not hold, and that Iran would not be able to close it again.

Tehran has said it plans to impose what it calls maritime service fees, as opposed to tolls, while the United States argues it is an international waterway and therefore should not be charged.

Oman opened temporary routes on Wednesday to ease tanker departures from the strait, with the International Maritime Organization and Omani authorities coordinating movements.

On Thursday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation, saying vessels not complying “will be dealt with” and condemning the new routes.

This beautiful seaside town has become a popular staycation destination in recent years

The French Riviera is an enormously sought-after holiday destination, renowned for its breathtaking coastal scenery and magnificent cities. But you don’t necessarily have to travel abroad to find turquoise waters and sandy beaches, as one charming town right here in the UK has been likened to France’s most glamorous stretch of coastline.

Salcombe in Devon has been hailed as a spectacular alternative to heading off to France by one lucky visitor. Taking to Instagram, UK travel content creator Hannah, who shares guides and reviews under @postcardsbyhannah, posted a video of the gorgeous seaside spot.

Questioning why Brits are always quick to moan about living in the UK when “it’s home to places like this,” she drew comparisons between the town and the stunning vistas of the French Riviera region, which takes in Nice, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Antibes and Monaco.

She wrote: “Welcome to South Devon… Salcombe to be exact! Once a quiet fishing village, it’s now one of England’s most sought-after seaside escapes, where pastel-coloured cottages sprawl down the hillside towards bobbing sailboats on turquoise waters.”

Hannah went on to say that Salcombe boasts a relaxed and understated sense of luxury that feels almost effortless, with family-run boutiques, art galleries, ice cream parlours, and waterside pubs dishing up oysters freshly harvested straight from the estuary.

She continued: “Salcombe’s estuary is stunning, surrounded by rolling green hills and sandy coves reached only by foot or boat. Have a wander round town and visit Cranch’s Sweet Shop, one of the most iconic establishments in the town, selling sweets since the 1800s.”

Salcombe boasts numerous breathtaking beaches, including Salcombe North Sands, with its rockpools and panoramic views of the ruins of the nearby Salcombe Castle, and Salcombe South Sands Beach, regarded by many as one of the most pristine beaches in South Devon.

Another well-loved beach in the vicinity is Hope Cove Bay, where watersports enthusiasts can hire kayaks and paddleboards to venture out onto the water.

One visitor to Salcombe North Sands expressed their affection for the beach on TripAdvisor, writing: “Love this little place.

“Tide was in when we arrived but after a stroll around town and lunch at The Winking Prawn, it had started to go out revealing a beautiful sandy bay with low shallow water for paddling in. Dog friendly too!”

Meanwhile, another visitor to South Sands penned: “A lovely day to spend the day as a couple or with the family. Beautiful beach, especially when the tide goes out. Spectacular scenery from the beach.

“A small kiosk sells sandwiches and salads along with wine and tin beer and of course tea and coffees and soft drinks. You need to bring your own chairs (no deck chairs) A great place to visit!”

Once you’ve soaked up the stunning beaches, why not pay a visit to Overbecks Garden — a Grade II registered garden dating back to the Edwardian Era, brimming with tender and exotic sub-tropical plants that are well worth exploring at a leisurely pace.

One visitor wrote: “Stunning gardens with absolutely fabulous views. Couldn’t believe the size of the tropical plants! Nice route around the garden.”

Oman and the U.N. International Maritime Organization (IMO) are sharpening up their plan to evacuate hundreds of ships still stuck in the Persian Gulf since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. The move comes as shipping traffic in this strategic chokepoint is increasing amid tense ongoing peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. However, there is still a very long way to go and many challenges, including the possible presence of mines, to overcome before transits reach pre-war levels.

“The Sultanate of Oman based on its responsibilities toward the Strait of Hormuz, and its importance to the global economy, and in accordance to its continued commitment to the international law and the law of the sea to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait without imposing any tolls, in line with the outcomes and efforts reached by the United States and Islamic Republic of Iran…has worked in coordination with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to provide vessels with the option of a temporary maritime corridor defined by the coordinates announced by IMO and Omani authorities. Ships willing to transit must coordinate with IMO,” Oman’s Maritime Security Center stated Wednesday on X.

“This large-scale operation will be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal States in the region, the United States and the maritime industry,” according to the IMO.

IMO on Wednesday issued additional guidance to what it is calling an “evacuation” plan and noted that there are two routes for ships transiting the Strait. The northern route, close to the Iranian shoreline, is controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran while the southern route, along the Oman coastline, is coordinated with U.S. authorities.

The southern route is clear of mines and is the preferred route, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.

Regardless of which route ships prefer, IMO is cautioning them to “remain in their current position and await further instructions.”

Vessels have to wait to “allow safe sequencing, avoid congestion, and mitigate risks related to mines and degraded navigation conditions,” IMO added. “Movements will only begin once vessels are contacted through the coordinated mechanism involving IMO, UKMTO, and MICA Center, followed by coastal State coordination.”

As for current mine clearance operations, CENTCOM would not offer details about how they are being carried out.

“I won’t go into specifics for operational security reasons,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM’s spokesman, told us Wednesday morning. “We’ve been at this for a number of weeks and we’re making progress, as demonstrated by the safe passage currently available to commercial vessels and enabling traffic flow to pick up.”

All this comes after tensions surrounding the Strait erupted again last week, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying it was being closed again after Israeli attacks on Lebanon and CENTCOM maintaining it was open.

Trump on Wednesday took to Truth Social to dispel what he claims are inaccurate media accounts about the Strait.

“Iran has informed the U.S. that, despite troublemaking Fake News reporting to the contrary, there are ‘NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND BEING SOUGHT OR RECEIVED BY IRAN ON SHIPS TRAVELING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ,’” Trump proclaimed. “If this is false information, negotiations would end, immediately!”

Trump: Iran has informed the U.S. that, despite troublemaking Fake News reporting to the contrary, there are “NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND BEING SOUGHT OR RECEIVED BY IRAN ON SHIPS TRAVELING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ.” If this is false information,… pic.twitter.com/3bYur1t71o

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) June 24, 2026

TWZ cannot independently confirm any of these statements; however, ship tracking organizations on Wednesday say commercial vessels have been transiting the Strait at increasing rates, though far from what they were before the war.

“Vessel activity through the Strait of Hormuz has rebounded sharply across two consecutive weekends, pointing to a clear shift in traffic patterns through one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints,” the MarineTraffic website stated on X Wednesday. “According to #MarineTraffic data and Kpler data, confirmed crossings rose from 32 vessels between 12–14 June to 93 vessels between 19–21 June, an increase of 61 crossings week-on-week.”

The biggest change came on Saturday, MarineTraffic noted, “when crossings jumped from 3 to 42 compared with the previous weekend. The recovery has been supported by recent diplomatic developments and a temporary OFAC general license, which has helped ease immediate compliance uncertainty around approved Hormuz transits until 21 August.”

When it comes to oil, at least 20 tankers carrying 35 million barrels have exited the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran agreed to open the sea lane, according to data provided by Kpler.

Strait of Hormuz traffic remains active, but recovery stays cautious

Confirmed vessel activity through the Strait of Hormuz remained steady on 23 June, with 31 verified crossings recorded across commercial and energy-linked vessels. According to #MarineTraffic data, west-to-east… pic.twitter.com/dz3o9OWRJx

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) June 24, 2026

Still, two major shipping companies we spoke with remain cautious about transiting the Strait.

Maersk referred us to a statement they gave TWZ last week saying that the announcement about the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding “is a welcome and positive development, but publicly available details are still limited, and it is too early to assess how it will impact logistics and maritime operations in the Middle East. At this stage, there are no changes to our operations in the region.”

On Wednesday, a company spokesman told us Maersk still has five ships stuck in the Persian Gulf.

Hapag-Lloyd is also taking a wait-and-see attitude.

“Our vessels are ready for a transit, but we will only sail through the Strait of Hormuz when it is safe to do so,” a company spokesperson told us, declining to say how many ships it still has in the Gulf.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy’s RFA Lyme Bay and two German warships have transited the Red Sea in case they are needed to help remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz. The Lyme Bay, “now configured as an Afloat Forward Support Base for mine countermeasures, transited the Suez Canal on 19th June and then passed south through the Red Sea,” the Royal Navy (RN) noted. 

The ship carries uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) with towed sonar arrays and AI automatic target recognition that can “filter and refine vast amounts of data allowing operators to speed up the process of classifying and neutralizing mines,” according to the RN.

Lyme Bay also has “Video Ray Defender-Viper portable mine disposal submersibles, capable of locating, identifying and destroying mines.”

There are also mine warfare, diving and explosive ordnance disposal specialists on board to assist the mine clearance mission.

Lyme Bay was accompanied by the German command and support ship FGS Mosel and minehunter FGS Fulda.

However, those vessels “detached from the task group on 23 June to head for Djibouti for resupply and further preparation,” according to Navy Lookout, an independent publication focusing on the Royal Navy. “They currently operate under the European Union mission Operation Aspides, which has the sole aim of defending merchant shipping against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”

We have reached out to the German Bundeswehr and Aspides for additional insights.

Amid the renewed flow of traffic through the Strait, oil prices have plummeted in recent days. As of Wednesday morning, Brent Crude was trading at just under $74 a barrel, according to OilPrice.com. That’s down from a high of more than $114 per barrel at the height of U.S.-Iran tensions in early May.

U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 6.1 million barrels last week, pushing stockpiles to 412.1 million barrels—7% below the five-year average. Despite the bullish draw, oil prices fell sharply as traders focused on easing Middle East supply risks. #Oil #CrudeOil #EIA…

— OilPrice.com (@OilandEnergy) June 24, 2026

How long oil prices continue to fall is an open question as the U.S. and Iran continue to express disagreements over the terms of a final Iran-U.S. peace deal following the MoU signed last week.

In addition to the aforementioned confusion over the status of the Strait, there is ongoing discord over whether Iran has agreed to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. Trump and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) both say Iran has agreed to let inspectors in while the Iranians say that isn’t the case.

President Trump said Iran agreed that it will “never have a nuclear weapon” during his visit to a Pennsylvania’s Mack Truck facility on Tuesday. He also said “19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz” on Monday, which he said is “the most oil in the history of… pic.twitter.com/ycsILtZRpq

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 23, 2026

Meanwhile, both sides have issued bellicose threats against the other as the often acrimonious negotiations for what is essentially an extension of the ceasefire continue. 

As we have noted in the past, there is tremendous global and domestic pressure on Trump not to resume the war. The world economy is only beginning to recover from rising oil prices while Trump’s Republican party faces a midterm election in November made challenging by the unpopularity of this conflict. In addition, forces have now been deployed for many months and will have to be rotated out in the coming weeks.

Regardless, while getting vessels finally out of the Persian Gulf is still a priority, when robust two-way transits will return is still unclear, which will be critical to stabilizing the situation economically and geopolitically.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Diego Cano-Lasso had been looking for an architectural project when he found two hillside lots with spectacular views for sale in Mt. Washington. With work scarce in 2012, the SCI-Arc graduate persuaded his family to invest in the property, and together they bought the two plots for $95,000.

“We are not developers,” he says, “but sometimes you have to jump.”

He didn’t realize the Mt. Washington project would take 12 years to complete, including a shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, or that he, his family and friends would end up doing much of the work themselves.

Diego Cano-Lasso stands in front of the hillside lots in 2012. (Hassan Ismail) The lots today. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

As a fan of Los Angeles’ Midcentury Modern architecture, he imagined designing and building a post-and-beam dream home next-door to a similar home by his aunt Lucia Cano and her husband, José Selgas, of the Madrid architecture firm SelgasCano, stretching over the hillside and connecting to the city below.

Growing up in Madrid, the 41-year-old Cano-Lasso first discovered modernist architecture as a child while visiting his grandfather Julio Cano Lasso’s architecture office. There, he saw architectural photographer Julius Shulman’s famous photo of Pierre Koenig’s glass and steel Case Study House No. 22 in West Hollywood, one of L.A.’s most iconic homes and a lasting symbol of midcentury L.A.

“It’s why I moved here,” Cano-Lasso says. “Midcentury design was like a dream to me, because it’s not just an architectural style; it’s a lifestyle.”

But his dream quickly hit a snag when the geotechnical engineer arrived in Mt. Washington to assess the site.

“He said the plots were unbuildable,” Cano-Lasso recalls. “He told me, ‘It is impossible. We cannot even do the soils report, because a big machine can’t fit up here on these narrow streets.’”

Eventually, Cano-Lasso found someone who visited the site and said, “No problem.”

La Canaria House by José Selgas and Lucia Cano features canary yellow aluminum tubes.

Cano-Lasso and his wife, Belén Rodero, in the open kitchen and living area of La Canaria House.

Then the city told him that he didn’t have the right to build on the property. To get permission, Cano-Lasso and his family would need to widen the narrow street, put in a sewer system and add a power pole.

Permits were just as difficult. According to Cano-Lasso, neighbors complained about the project, and the city bureaucracy dragged out the process for three years.

Eventually, he and his crew began digging into the hillside and moved more than 120 truckloads of soil through the steep, narrow streets of Mt. Washington. Without a general contractor, they managed construction themselves and hired different crews for each job.

When COVID-19 hit, construction on the project stopped, and Cano-Lasso returned to Spain. Construction did not restart until 2022, by which time the construction industry had changed and the project felt even more challenging to complete.

“Everything cost more, and there weren’t enough skilled workers,” Cano-Lasso says. As a result, Juan de Santiago, the master builder Cano-Lasso hired and calls “paramount to the project,” was too busy to finish the houses, which had windows and drywall but still needed finishing.

“The only way we could do it was by doing most of the work ourselves and with friends,” Cano-Lasso says.

With help from his brother Alejandro Cano, who is also known as Cato, and his wife, Belén Rodero, they handled everything from carpentry and metal work to lighting, wall finishes, flooring, painting, furniture, custom garage doors and landscaping.

“What I didn’t realize at the time — not even when hundreds of boxes of Moroccan tiles showed up at our door in Madrid — was that I was signing up for both a crash course and a career in tiling,” Cato says of designing murals for three of the Cano Home’s four walls. “I wasn’t expecting to lay a single tile, let alone take on the filing, sanding, rearrangement and all the care and attention required when most tiles come in odd sizes.”

Seven years and plenty of mishaps later, including the time a truck got stuck on the narrow, winding streets of Mt. Washington hauling 42-foot wooden beams, Cano-Lasso finally has a finished home that feels peaceful and warm.

With eye-catching details everywhere, the 2,250-square-foot homes feel relaxed and reflect the style of a Spanish designer inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler. (Cano-Lasso once lived in Schindler’s Sachs apartment in Silver Lake.) The open floor plan, designed by his father, Spanish architect Diego Cano Pintos, features warm oak floors, inexpensive radiata pine walls and ribbed wood ceilings.

“I am enjoying witnessing the house being lived in,” Cano-Lasso says of renting his house to music producer Jennifer Jimenez and interior designer Hanna Li, pictured right.

The rooms of the Cano House are filled with colorful art, accessories and custom furniture by Andrew Riiska and Cato. “Although we were working toward a deadline on a project that had already been under construction for several years, most pieces of furniture were designed and fabricated on site, with the conviction that we were building something special,” Cato says of setting up a furniture workshop in the garage.

Ceramic rain gutters from Ceramiques Est in Spain have been repurposed as wall-mounted light fixtures for indoor use. Door handles are made from stones found on the beach, and glass light fixtures by Luz Mixtura in Spain echo Robert Irwin’s disc installations. Large boulders from the excavation were brought inside to serve as furniture. Built-ins were made in Spain and shipped to Los Angeles in three containers. Outside, the house is covered in shou sugi ban charred-wood siding, which they installed themselves.

Both homes have similar structures and layouts with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, but La Canaria House features canary yellow powder-coated aluminum tubes inspired by California sunsets, while the Cano House is minimal and warm. “The homes are all about the beams,” Cano-Lasso says, which makes them look like they are floating above the city.

The neutral rooms feel warm and simple, with striking pops of yellow that reflect Southern California’s sunshine and decks that allow a smooth flow from indoors to outdoors.

Li, left, and Jimenez in their music room. The custom DJ workstation, designed by Li, is clad in ceramic tiles designed to look like plywood.

Behind the Cano House, Cano-Lasso created a narrow outdoor space with built-in banquette seating, a raised-bed herb garden and a water fountain. Now the house opens up to the outdoors, making it easy to entertain. “The garden is the coolest feature,” he says. “It really makes the house feel special.”

In some ways, the modern design has revived the midcentury ideal by using post-and-beam construction, an open floor plan, simple materials and easy indoor-outdoor access, all with Cano Lasso’s artistic touch.

But finishing the project also left Cano-Lasso with the large debt he took on — he estimates the project cost about $1 million, although he saved around 40% by acting as his own contractor.

Cano-Lasso and his wife divide their time between La Canaria House and a project in Venice, so he is renting out his dream house to interior designer Hannah Li and music producer Jennifer Jimenez, who grew up together in Pasadena.

Li descends the spiral staircase to the music room on the first floor.

Renting such a personal project might seem overwhelming for the tenants, since the rental included some of Cano-Lasso’s custom furnishings, but the two have made the house their own. They added a striking listening room on the first floor, with a turntable lined with ceramic tiles designed by Li to resemble plywood.

“We’re all artists in this house,” Jimenez says. “We’re always creating here, and other music producers often come over to make music and jam with us. It’s such an inspiring, creative space.”

“It’s a very comfortable house,” adds Li, who enjoys practicing archery on the terrace deck.

The friends’ rental is filled with treasures from their travels, along with pieces Li designed specifically for the home. Li turned one of the first-floor bedrooms into a cozy study by paneling the walls with wood and adding textiles she collected on her trips.

Recently, they hosted a birthday party with art-making stations, candle-making and even goats and they invited their landlord. “Mt. Washington has so many artists, so it’s wonderful to bring everyone together,” Li says.

Cano-Lasso, greets Jimenez, center, and Li on their side-by-side terraces.

When asked if he might consider tackling another hillside project, Cano-Lasso laughs.

“When I finished, I said, ‘I will never do that again,’” he says. “Now I’m starting to think there’s a plot of land for sale nearby. We installed a sewer line, so why not take advantage of it?”

Despite his debt, he isn’t planning to sell the house. “In a way, the project doesn’t finish with construction; I am enjoying witnessing the house being lived in,” he says. Even if he’s not the one living in it.

THERE’S enough going on this summer with EES checks and extreme heat – and your passport could cause problems as well.

Affecting millions, we’ve explained the two things you need to check before your next holiday.

Expiry Dates

You might think that expiry dates have been spoken about enough – but it is still catching people out.

Old rules let passports have more than 10 years on them, but these rules have since been scrapped.

To find the true expiry date, you need to check the start date rather than the expiry listed in the passport.

If your passport was issued in April 2016, but has an expiry of December 2026, your passport is out of date as it’s over 10 years old. The REAL expiry date is actually April 2026.

TOP SEA-CRET

Locals’ guide to UK’s top seaside counties… best beaches & pubs and £15 stays

CHEAP DATE

Our fave cheap European destinations with flights under £20 & hotels from £24pp

These rules especially affect those still with burgundy passports with the last of these expiring in 2030.

Figures have shown that up to 100,000 holidaymakers a year face being turned away at airports if their passport is more than 10 years old.

Make sure to check the rules of the country you’re travelling to as well.

Some places like Dubai and Thailand require at least six months left on your passport to enter..

Dual National Passport Holders

The change in new rules for dual national passport holders is thought to affect as many as 1.2million people.

Since February 25, those with dual nationality can no longer use their foreign passport to enter the UK.

Travellers must enter with a valid UK passport or a certificate of entitlement, which costs £589.

This affects anyone trying to enter the country by plane, ferry or train, and anyone without these is likely to be refused boarding.

There have been multiple cases where people have been caught out by the change in rule.

One British woman was stopped from boarding a flight from Copenhagen to Manchester with her two children because she didn’t have the right documents.

Colette Bjorn-Alderson has lived in the UK for 28 years, but was trying to return to the UK with her two young children – both of which only had Danish passports.

She told The Times that she felt “unwelcome in my own country” after being turned away from the flight.

She added that her only two options were getting a new UK passport from Denmark – which can take three months – or the certificates, which can take up to eight weeks.

He’s no longer a cute little kid.

He’s a $185-million man.

He’s no longer a quintessential underdog routinely pardoned for his bad defense, his questionable durability and his tendency to tighten up in the playoffs.

He’s a big dog who needs to own it.

Austin Reaves, the most beloved Laker, became the most scrutinized Laker on Wednesday with the news that he agreed to a maximum four-year, $185-million contract to remain with the team.

Kudos to him for becoming the highest-paid undrafted player in league history.

Props to him for declining a rich extension offer last summer to play out the season and bet on himself.

Congrats to the Lakers for turning a homegrown talent into a budding superstar.

Seriously, it makes you just want to hug that unkempt, headband-wearing dude and let him know how his everyman story resonates with the masses.

Except that story is finished. That book has been closed. A new volume has begun.

It’s called, “Is Austin Reaves Worth It?”

Thus far, the answer has been no.

Flash back to May, the opener of the Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a week after he had returned to the court following a monthlong absence with an oblique injury.

Lakers guard Austin Reaves chases after a loose ball ahead of Rockets guard Amen Thompson during Game 5 of their playoff series in May.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Lakers needed Reaves to set the tone. He instead laid an egg, shooting three for 16 from the field and zero for five from beyond the arc, his body knocked clear to Tulsa by a physical Thunder defense.

Two games later, same thing, he shoots five for 13 and one for five from deep, allowing the Thunder to pound him to a pulp.

With Luka Doncic out and LeBron James exhausted, the Lakers desperately needed Reaves to pick up the slack. He dropped it, again and again, and the Lakers were swept.

It was the same thing in the spring of 2025, when Reaves crumbled in the first-round series-clinching loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, shooting five for 14 and two for 10 in a performance that was, as usual, generally overlooked because he tried so hard and accepted his shortcomings so honestly.

That’s not going to work anymore. That’s not going to be enough anymore.

With this new deal, Reaves becomes the Lakers’ second cornerstone along with Doncic. They are now officially a one-two punch. They are now a twin-engine scoring machine that can rival any similar duo in the NBA.

Guards Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic are the new one-two punch of the near future for the Lakers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Doncic has lived up to his end of the bargain. Will Reaves?

And what about defense? For $185 million, you’d think you could get some defense. Doncic needs his running mate to compensate for his questionable defensive skills, and Reaves has yet to do that.

Simply by earning his way onto the Lakers roster five years ago, Reaves has been a great role model for everyone who has ever been ignored or shunned or marginalized. But did the Lakers fall in love with his legend and ignore his frailties?

Yes, he averaged 23 points per game last season. But he only played in a career-low 51 games because of calf and oblique injuries, and will he add the muscle required to fend off such problems in the future?

Yes, he has been a great interview while admirably and publicly holding himself and his teammates accountable. But he’s always been able to lead from the shadows. How will he react when 185 million microphones are pointed at him?

In a postgame interview after the Lakers’ final loss against Oklahoma City this spring, Reaves was at his aw-shucks best.

“I take life day by day and I’m just blessed to have an opportunity to play for this organization, play a kid’s game,” he said, “I make good money. But like I said, I don’t think about what I’m really going to do in the future, just day by day.”

Lakers guard Austin Reaves consults with coach JJ Redick during a break in the action during Game 3 of the series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in May.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That tone has to change. He now has to think about the future because he is the future, of this team, of this organization, of the hopes of this city.

With all of Reaves’ shortcomings, one can almost see the unsentimental Dodgers officials looking at Wednesday’s news and saying, “Wait, they did what?”

But in the end, the Lakers didn’t really have a choice. There wasn’t a free agent available who could match Reaves’ prolific shooting, and nobody who could match the Laker-centric story of his personal journey.

Renowned softie Rob Pelinka, who should count Reaves as one of his greatest successes, was so moved by the opportunity to bring him back that he mentioned the Lakers colors when answering a question about him.

“He started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker,” Pelinka said during exit interviews this spring. “We want his odyssey to continue to unfold in the purple and gold.”

And so it will, for at least several more years, Reaves now occupying a Lakers leading sidekick role made famous during their championship years by the likes of Anthony Davis and Pau Gasol.

How sweet. How scary.