WASHINGTON — When President Trump ordered immigration raids in Los Angeles last June, only a handful of those arrested were violent criminals. The sweeps split families, cost businesses millions of dollars and drove many undocumented residents into hiding.

Activists protested the Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, prompting the president to deploy thousands of federal troops in what he called a security operation. A federal judge called it unlawful and said the deployment caused “greater harm” to the city.

Now, Trump wants a redo.

At a Cabinet meeting Thursday, he called on the mayors and governors of several blue cities and states to allow troops to “come in and stop the crime,” pointing to purported successes in Washington, Memphis and New Orleans.

“Crime is down 75% in a short period of time,” Trump told his top advisors. “We could do that for L.A. and we could do that for, frankly, San Francisco.”

The president framed the deployments as both a crime-fighting and immigration enforcement tool, saying that federal authorities can remove people from cities in ways local officials cannot.

“We can do it much more effectively, because [local leaders] can’t do what we do,” Trump said. “All the time, people come up to me … and they say ‘thank you so much.’ I know immediately what they’re talking about. They’re able to walk to work.”

Trump also said this week that he would consider deploying the National Guard at airports to assist with mounting security delays amid a 40-day partial government shutdown.

The renewed call comes after a series of controversial federal interventions in cities across the country. In Washington, Trump has repeatedly touted a visible security presence near federal buildings, crediting it with improving public safety, though local officials and analysts have debated how much of any decline in crime can be attributed to his order.

U.S. Marines stationed outside the federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles in June.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In January, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to Minneapolis during the civil unrest that followed the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent. The Pentagon prepared active-duty troops for a possible deployment, but they were ordered to stand down following the shooting of a second Minneapolis civilian, Alex Pretti, the same month.

Immigration sweeps in Los Angeles targeted workplaces, neighborhoods and churches, stirring widespread panic and forcing many undocumented residents — including those with long-term residency and native-born children — into hiding. As a result, businesses reported sharp declines in revenue and customer traffic. A county analysis found that 82% of surveyed businesses experienced negative impacts, with some losing more than half their income amid workforce shortages and traffic reductions.

During the fallout, Mayor Karen Bass condemned Trump’s deployment of some 4,000 California National Guardsmen and 700 U.S. Marines.

“Deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids is a chaotic escalation,” she said. “The fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real — it’s felt in our communities and within our families, and it puts our neighborhoods at risk. This is the last thing that our city needs.”

The president called the occupation off after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that control of the California National Guard should be returned to the governor, rejecting the federal government’s authority to maintain control indefinitely. A similar Supreme Court ruling effectively ended federalized deployments throughout the country.

“The judges are really hurting this country,” Trump said Thursday. “Frankly, the justices — the Supreme Court — has really hurt our country, too.”

At the meeting, Trump also narrowed his comments on San Francisco and its mayor, Daniel Lurie.

“San Francisco was a great city, could quickly become a great city again,” Trump said. “But we can do it much more effectively.”

Last year, Trump considered carrying out similar federal law enforcement operations in the city. He backed off after a somewhat conciliatory phone call with Lurie, in which Trump said the mayor asked him “very nicely” to call off the deployment. Afterward, he agreed to give the newly elected mayor “a chance” to address crime in the city.

“In San Francisco, crime is down 30%, encampments are at record lows, and our city is on the rise,” Lurie said in a statement Thursday. “Public safety is my number one priority, and we are going to stay laser focused on keeping our streets safe and clean.”

A spokesperson for Lurie’s office said the two have not spoken since that October conversation, indicating Trump’s latest remarks do not reflect any new request or ongoing negotiations. Even so, the president struck a measured tone toward the San Francisco mayor on Thursday. He said Lurie is “trying very hard” but insisted federal intervention would get the job done faster.

Whether any Democrat-led city will take Trump up on that offer remains to be seen. City leaders have previously resisted federal deployments, arguing they undermine local control and risk inflaming already tense situations.

The White House did not respond to questions about whether any current plans exist to redeploy federalized troops to California cities.

Times staff writer Melissa Gomez in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

March 26 (UPI) — Argentina’s government on Thursday formally designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, as a terrorist organization and ordered its inclusion in the country’s public registry of individuals and entities linked to terrorism and its financing.

In an official statement, Argentina’s presidential office said the decision is based on reports documenting the group’s transnational criminal activities and links to other terrorist entities.

The move aligns Argentina with U.S. security policy, which designated the cartel as a terrorist organization in 2025.

Inclusion in the registry enables the government to impose “financial sanctions and operational restrictions aimed at limiting the capacity of these criminal organizations and their members,” according to the statement from President Javier Milei’s administration.

It also “protects Argentina’s financial system from being used for illicit purposes” and strengthens international cooperation in security and justice matters “in close coordination with countries that have already designated the Jalisco Cartel as a terrorist organization.”

The government said CJNG has become one of the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations over the past decade, with a presence in Mexico, operations in the United States and expansion into at least 40 countries, including Argentina.

The statement also highlighted the measure’s impact on international cooperation, saying it reinforces security and judicial coordination with countries that have already classified the cartel as a terrorist group.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel emerged in Mexico in the early 2010s amid the fragmentation of major drug cartels. Its leader and founder, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” died in February during an operation in Mexico supported by U.S. intelligence. The United States had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Milei’s government has previously designated as terrorist organizations groups already classified as such by the United States, including branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran’s Quds Force.

She was also charged with publishing or distributing written material, and using words that were threatening, abusive or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up, in breach of the Public Order Act 1986.

GO to Dungeon Lane today and it’s strange to think it occupies a special place in Paul McCartney’s heart.

Yet it will go down in pop history alongside other street names associated with him, joining Penny Lane and Abbey Road.

Situated in the Speke neighbourhood of Liverpool, the L24 postal district, a faded road sign sets the tone for its desolate air.

It is bordered on one side by a solar farm business and, on the other, by a fenced-off area of scrubland which separates it from the city’s John Lennon Airport.

Before you get very far, a bright yellow “emergency access gate” bars further exploration.

But, as a child, Dungeon Lane was McCartney’s gateway to a stunning rural idyll where he could escape the hustle and bustle of urban life.

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In the Fifties, the lane took him past a daffodil farm to the Oglet Shore on the widest stretch of the River Mersey.

I wonder if young Paul, a keen birdwatcher, ventured into this wilderness clutching his trusty The Observer’s Book Of Birds.

There, he may have spotted any number of waders — curlew, snipe, dunlin, black-tailed godwits.

What we do know is that his lifelong love of our feathered friends began in those days.

This helps explain the compositions dotted through his career such as Blackbird with The Beatles, Single Pigeon with Wings, Two Magpies with The Fireman and solo efforts Jenny Wren and Long Tailed Winter Bird.

To McCartney, his early rambles into the countryside represent humbler, simpler times before The Fab Four exploded on to the scene, before his storied life in the dazzling glare of publicity.

Sir Paul, 83, has called his 19th solo album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane . . . which is, as he suggests, a trip down memory lane.

He got the title from the lyrics of its first single, Days We Left Behind, released yesterday, a nostalgia-filled acceptance that he has a far longer past than future.

Intimate, beautifully sung with Macca playing acoustic guitar, bass, piano and harmonium himself (how does he do that!?), it is the first taste of a project that has been five years in the making.

“This is very much a memory song for me,” he says. “I was thinking about just that . . . the days I left behind.

“And I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past — but then I think, how can you write about anything else?”

For McCartney, the song conjures up “a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about John [Lennon] and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there.”

Paul was born on June 18, 1942, to his midwife mother Mary and salesman father Jim, and they moved with younger brother Mike to 20, Forthlin Road, Allerton, in the mid-Fifties from Speke, where they had lived since 1947.

We also know that Paul first bumped into John on July 6, 1957, at roughly 4pm, at a garden fete behind St Peter’s Church, Woolton.

In Days We Left Behind, he sings of the bond he formed with the lanky lad 20 months older than him: “We met at Forthlin Road/And wrote a secret code/To never be spoken.”

Continuing his reflection on the song, he says: “I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class.

“We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”

As already mentioned, birdwatching was a hobby, one that required little cash and gave him a lot of pleasure “in the nearby woods and fields”.

A recent entry in Macca’s Spotify playlists, under the banner Sticking Out Of My Back Pocket, came accompanied by these musings . . .

“My mum had the midwife’s house on the edge of Liverpool, where we lived,” he says.

“It was where Liverpool just stopped and became deep countryside, so that was when I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of birdwatching.”

He particularly cherishes the moment he saw a “skylark rising into the sky, singing its sweet song”.

That unforgettable sight has found its way into Days We Left Behind, with its lines, “In the skies the skylarks rise/Above the sounds of war/Since that day I knew they’d stay/With me for evermore.”

All these decades later, he reflects: “And now because I live part-time on a farm [in Sussex], I’m able to see a lot of birds and I don’t need The Observer’s Book Of Birds quite so much as I did back then.”

McCartney’s new album promises to be one of the most personal, most autobiographical song cycles he’s ever recorded, while also finding room for up-to-date love songs dedicated to third wife Nancy.

Yesterday’s announcement states that it finds him in a “candid, vulnerable and deeply reflective mood, writing with rare openness about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon”.

I’m guessing here but songs yet to be heard, Momma Gets By and Salesman Saint, appear to be affectionate remembrances of mum Mary, who died when Paul was just 14, and dad Jim.

This is not the first time Macca has delved into his early years for songwriting inspiration.

I talked to him about the playful On My Way To Work, which appeared on his 2013 album, New.

He called it a “collection of memories all morphed together”, providing a fascinating glimpse into his life before Beatlemania.

“It’s about me going to my first job, before The Beatles took off, which was working on a lorry for a delivery company called Speedy Prompt Deliveries — SPD.”

McCartney described going to work on the council-run green and cream buses which led to him looking at risqué magazines like Parade.

“I’d go on the bus at some unearthly hour of the morning,” he said. “I might buy a magazine and look at the nudies. I was too young to be interested in the news!”

He remembered how hard-up kids like him ripped the fronts off cigarette packets and traded duplicates with their mates, instead of collecting “football cards or, like in America, baseball cards”.

“It was like, ‘I’ll swap you two Craven A for a Woodbine’. Then there were the posh brands because this bus route went from the centre of Liverpool to the outskirts.

“Posh people would be smoking Passing Clouds or Sobranies and packets of those were very prized.”

Another song, Queenie Eye, referenced a childhood street game from “1940s Britain”.

“It’s what we used to get up to before video games and that whole home entertainment thing,” he said.

“Someone would be elected to be ‘the one’ or the ‘queenie eye’. We’d all stand behind that person and he would throw a ball over his head and one of us would catch it and hide.

“Then we would all chant, ‘Queenie eye, queenie eye, who’s got the ball? I haven’t got it. It isn’t in my pocket!’ It was simple entertainment for simple minds but great fun.”

Now it is time to return to the 2020s and the creation of The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, the follow-up to his captivating lockdown album, McCartney III.

This time, we’re told we can expect “Wings-style rock, Beatles- style harmonies and McCartney-style grooves”.

The process began around five years ago when Macca met American live-wire producer Andrew Watt, known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga, Post Malone and The Beatles’ greatest Sixties chart rivals, the Rolling Stones.

Watt, I gather, “pulled a guitar” on his latest rock icon, who instantly happened upon a chord he didn’t recognise.

As the story goes, the ever- experimental McCartney changed one note, then another, until he had a three-chord sequence.

That led to his new record’s opening track, As You Lie There, which in turn set the ball rolling for the other 13 songs.

It’s remarkable that, as with McCartney III, he is credited with playing all the instruments himself across the whole thing.

It brings to mind how at ease this enduring music obsessive seemed as he suggested specific drum beats and fills to Ringo Starr in The Beatles’ Get Back documentary.

With Macca still touring and playing momentous shows like his 2022 Glastonbury epic, Days We Left Behind has been honed over half a decade when time permitted.

During that period, he even managed to introduce the Stones to producer Watt, who helmed their 2023 comeback album, Hackney Diamonds.

When McCartney was in Los Angeles working with Watt, he was brought in to play bass on Mick Jagger and Co’s punk blast, Bite My Head Off.

Upon its release, I spoke to Keith Richards who was made up over their special guest.

“Yeah, Macca just strolled in with his bass,” the guitar legend drawled. “I think the song reminded him of those times [in the Sixties]. Beatlemania was equally as bizarre as Stones mania.”

There’s a moment towards the end of Bite My Head Off where you can hear someone saying, “Come on Paul, play something”.

“That might have been me,” smiled Richards.

But this is all about Britain’s greatest living songwriter, Paul McCartney, and his new album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane.

Time is precious but when it comes to music and life, he’s still facing forward at 83 — even if he’s remembering a youth long ago when “in the skies, the skylarks rise”.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit from Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor to President Trump who pleaded guilty during the Republican’s first term to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.

Court papers filed Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose nonpublic information, confirmed the total as about $1.2 million.

The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit in which Flynn sought at least $50 million and asserted that the criminal case against him amounted to a malicious prosecution. It also represents a stark turnabout in position for a Justice Department that during the Biden administration had pressed a judge to dismiss Flynn’s complaint. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, a former personal lawyer for the president, has openly criticized the Russia investigation in which Flynn was charged and the Justice Department in the last year has opened investigations into former officials who participated in that inquiry.

The Justice Department cast the settlement as an “important step in redressing” what it says was a “historic injustice” of the Russia investigation that shadowed Trump for much of his first term.

“This Department of Justice will continue to pursue accountability at all levels for this wrongdoing. Such weaponization of the federal government must never be allowed to happen again,” a spokesperson said.

In a separate statement, Flynn said: “Nothing can fully compensate for the hell that my family and I have endured over these many years — the relentless attacks, the destruction of reputations, the financial ruin, and the profound personal toll inflicted upon us all. No amount of money or formal resolution can erase the pain caused by a prosecution that should never have been brought.”

The settlement is the latest turn in the long-running legal saga involving Flynn, one of six Trump associates charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. That investigation found Russia interfered in the election on Trump’s behalf and that the Trump campaign eagerly welcomed the help, but it ultimately found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who vigorously campaigned at Trump’s side, served for weeks as his first national security advisor before being pushed out of his position. He remained a Trump ally even after agreeing to cooperate with Mueller’s team. He was pardoned in the final weeks of the president’s first term.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI when he said he had not discussed with the Russian envoy, Sergey Kislyak, sanctions that the outgoing Obama administration had just imposed on Russia for election interference. During that conversation, Flynn advised that Russia be “even-keeled” in response to the punitive measures, and assured him “we can have a better conversation” about relations between the countries after Trump became president.

The conversation alarmed the FBI, which at the time was investigating whether the Trump campaign and Russia had coordinated to sway the election. In addition, White House officials were stating publicly that Flynn and Kislyak had not discussed sanctions, which the FBI knew was untrue.

Flynn was ousted from his position in February 2017 after news broke that Obama administration officials had warned the White House that Flynn had indeed discussed sanctions with Kislyak and was vulnerable to blackmail. He pleaded guilty months later to a false statement charge.

But Flynn later sought to withdraw his guilty plea, saying federal prosecutors had acted in “bad faith” and broken their end of the bargain when they sought prison time for him.

The Justice Department in 2020 moved to dismiss the case, asserting that the FBI had no basis to interview Flynn about Kislyak and that any statements he made during the interview were not material to the FBI’s broader counterintelligence probe.

Flynn was pardoned by Trump in November 2020, ending the court case and the legal wrangling.

In his lawsuit, Flynn maintained his innocence and said he was targeted by the “virulently anti-Trump leadership” of the FBI’s Russia investigation. He contended that investigators pursued him despite knowing there was no evidence of a crime and coerced his guilty plea.

“He was falsely branded as a traitor to his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars of business opportunities and future lifetime earning potential, was maliciously prosecuted and spent substantial monies in his own defense,” says the lawsuit, adding that Flynn will continue to suffer “mental and emotional pain.”

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press.

Christmas is still quite some way away, but one attraction is already putting tickets on sale for its magical experiences, and if previous years are anything to go by it could sell out quickly

It doesn’t feel that long since the Christmas decorations were packed away, but one festive attraction is already putting its tickets on sale today (March 27) for the Christmas 2026 season.

Tickets for LaplandUK, which has locations in Ascot and Cheshire, will go on sale tomorrow at 10AM with over a million people expected to join the queue. The experience is often likened to booking Glastonbury tickets, as hopeful parents will need to wait in a virtual queue and have ten minutes to complete their order once they reach the front.

Ticket prices for 2026 have been confirmed, starting at £60 for midweek dates in November, up to £155 per person for peak weekends in December. Both venues will also host a ‘Superstar Day’ on November 25 which is “adapted for families and guests with access requirements to create a quieter, more relaxed and accessible environment.”

While the tickets are costly, the cost does include a range of experiences that set it apart from the average Santa’s grotto. Families receive a special gift boxed invitation ahead of their day out to build the excitement, and this message from Father Christmas personally invites little ones to visit LaplandUK to help the elves with toy-making.

On arrival, visitors step into a magical world, walking through several different interactive experiences from the Elven Bazaar, where guests have to work out how to enter the door to Lapland, to the Lapland Bakery where kids can help make some Christmas treats before enjoying storytime with Mother Christmas.

The experience lasts around four-and-a-half hours, according to the LaplandUK website, and also includes ice skating, a soft toy for every child, a small toy to give to kids on Christmas Day, and of course, a special visit with the man in red himself, deep in a snowy forest.

Husband-and-wife founders of LaplandUK, Mike and Alison Battle, took to Facebook to update fans of the attraction about changes that are being made for 2026. Alison said: “Every year, we challenge ourselves to make the experience more special, more magical, more believable. And this year, we’ve got some very exciting things in store for you.”

The pair announced that invites would be sent earlier this year, towards the end of the summer, to build anticipation of the event. They added that the return experience will be upgraded, so that “coming home will be just as magical”, and that visitors to Little Rudy’s Stables will now be able to make reindeer food to take home with them.

One of the major changes will be in the Elven Village, which the pair said has expanded over the years to be more immersive and include more characters. Guests will now get more time in the village to listen to stories at Fable’s Library, skate on the ice rink, and meet characters along the way.

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Those hoping to grab tickets for LaplandUK can either register on the official site to get a ticket booking link ahead of the sale, or visit the website from 9am to join the queue.

LaplandUK’s Facebook page confirmed that both sites will have their own booking queues accessed through a unique link. It said: “Upon entering a queue, you will be randomly assigned a place before bookings open. When the queue begins moving at 10 AM, you’ll gradually make your way forward.

“Once you reach the front, you will have 10 minutes to complete your booking for your chosen location.. We truly cannot wait to welcome you to Lapland to make treasured memories together this Christmas.”

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Prem clubs have agreed to introduce a ‘salary floor’ – a minimum amount each team must spend on players’ wages – from next season in an attempt to keep the top flight as closely fought as possible.

Each club will be obliged to spend £5.4m a season on talent.

The salary cap – a £6.4m limit on squad spending, albeit with ‘credits’ on offer for home-grown talent and other factors which stretch the restriction to £7.8m – will remain the same.

Failure to spend up to the salary floor will be punished by a fine equivalent to the difference between a club’s squad spend and the lower limit, incentivising clubs to invest in their squads.

Several clubs are likely to need to pay more to meet the new lower figure.

Last season, Bristol boss Pat Lam estimated that eventual champions and the Bears’ semi-final conquerors Bath spent “close to £3m more than we have on our squad”., external

While bottom side Newcastle have brought in a raft of new players since energy drink giant Red Bull took over in August, they are still thought to be well short of a £5.4m wage bill.

While such prescriptions over squad spending are rare in UK sport, they are more common overseas.

The NRL, Australia’s elite rugby league competition, requires its clubs to spend at least 95% of its salary cap figure. In American Football’s NFL, it is set at 90%.

Prem Rugby hopes that, with relegation to be formally scrapped next season, greater payroll parity will improve the competitive balance of the top flight.

A divide has opened up in the table this season with four teams – Newcastle Red Bulls, Harlequins, Gloucester and Sale – cut adrift of the play-off race with seven rounds of the season to go.

Sixth-placed Saracens, who are eight points off the top four, could have their hopes of extending their campaign all but ended this weekend if they lose to leaders Northampton.

Introducing a salary floor is reflective of renewed confidence in the league’s future, with billionaire industrialist James Dyson having become co-owner of Bath this month and further investment in Prem clubs believed to be in the pipeline.

The league intends to add two teams to its current 10 in the 2029-30 season if a wrangle with the second-tier Champ can be smoothed out.

While it has been agreed that any new entrants to the Prem must complete a campaign in the Champ first, it is yet to be agreed how high a team would have to finish to demonstrate their on-field credentials, with Prem Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor believing a top-six finish and qualification for the Champ play-offs “would be the natural thing”.

Massie-Taylor is keen to build on this weekend’s ‘big game’ concept, with Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium earmarked as a possible host for neutral-venue Prem semi-finals from 2029.

Saracens are staging Saturday’s match against Saints at the 63,000-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while Gloucester are hosting Leicester at Villa Park and Bristol will take their match against Harlequins to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on the same day.

Harlequins put on two of their regular-season fixtures at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, which also hosts June’s Prem final.

A United States judge has said that he will not dismiss the drug-trafficking and weapons possession charges brought against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

But in a Thursday court hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein questioned whether the US government has the right to bar Venezuela from funding Maduro’s legal expenses.

The hearing was the first for Maduro and his wife since a brief January arraignment, where they pleaded not guilty.

Maduro and Flores have sought to have the charges against them thrown out. Hellerstein declined to do so, but he pressed the prosecution on some of the issues Maduro’s legal team raised in its petition to dismiss the case.

Among them was a decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to prevent the Venezuelan government from financing Maduro’s defence.

Federal prosecutors argued that national security reasons prevented the US from allowing such payments. They also pointed to ongoing sanctions against the Venezuelan government.

But Hellerstein pushed back against that argument, noting that Trump had eased sanctions against Venezuela since Maduro’s abduction on January 3. He also questioned how Maduro might pose a security threat while imprisoned in New York.

“The defendant is here. Flores is here. They present no further national security threat,” said Hellerstein. “I see no abiding interest of national security on the right to defend themselves.”

Hellerstein emphasised that, in the US, all criminal defendants have the right to a vigorous defence, as part of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment.

“The right that’s implicated, paramount over other rights, is the right to constitutional counsel,” he said.

Maduro, who led Venezuela from 2013 to 2026, has been charged with four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, the possession of machine guns and the conspiracy to possess machine guns and other destructive devices.

He and his wife were taken into US custody on January 3, after Trump launched an attack on Venezuela.

The Trump administration has framed the military operation as a “law enforcement function”, but experts say it was widely considered illegal under international law, which protects local sovereignty.

Maduro has cited his status as the leader of a foreign country as part of his push to see the case dismissed.

When he last appeared in court, on January 5, he told the judge, “I’m still the president of my country.”

In a February hearing, his defence team sought to dismiss the charges on the basis that preventing Venezuela from paying his legal fees was “interfering with Mr Maduro’s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice”.

In an interview with the news agency AFP on Thursday, Maduro’s son, Venezuelan lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, said that he trusts the US legal system but believes that his father’s trial has been mishandled.

“This trial has vestiges of illegitimacy from the start, because of the capture, the kidnapping, of an elected president in a military operation,” Maduro Guerra said in Caracas.

Protests and counter-protests took place in front of the New York City courthouse on Thursday, with some condemning the US’s actions and others holding signs in support of the trial with slogans like, “Maduro rot in prison.”

Trump himself weighed in on the proceedings during a Thursday cabinet meeting, hinting that further charges could be brought against Maduro.

“He emptied his prisons in Venezuela, emptied his prisons into our country,” Trump said of Maduro, reiterating an unsubstantiated claim.

“And I hope that charge will be brought at some point. Because that was a big charge that hasn’t been brought yet. It should be brought.”

Trump has had an adversarial relationship with Maduro since his first term in office, when he issued a bounty for the Venezuelan leader’s arrest. He has frequently repeated baseless claims that Maduro intentionally sent immigrants and drugs to the US in a bid to destabilise the country.

Those claims have served as a pretext for Trump claiming emergency powers in realms such as immigration and national security. On Thursday, Trump emphasised that, while he expected a “fair trial”, he expected more legal action to be taken against Maduro.

“I would imagine there are other trials coming because they’ve really sued him just at a fraction of the kind of things that he’s done,” Trump said. “Other cases are going to be brought, as you probably know.”

Court dismissed xAI claim that measures were taken after plaintiff produced video of nude person shortly before hearing.

A Dutch court has ordered Elon Musk’s xAI to stop generating and distributing nude images of people without their consent in the Netherlands, warning it would impose fines of 100,000 euros ($115,350) per day for noncompliance.

The Amsterdam District Court ruled Thursday that xAI’s Grok artificial intelligence tool and the X platform that hosts it were barred from “generating and/or distributing sexual imagery” featuring people “partially or wholly stripped naked without having given their explicit permission”.

The decision in a civil suit was one of the first times a judge has weighed in on xAI’s responsibility for creating tools that can be used to create sexualised images, amid a flood of complaints and investigations over Grok in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Grok was launched by Musk in 2023 and distributed through his social media platform X, which is now part of his rocket and space exploration company SpaceX.

Offlimits, a Dutch centre monitoring online violence, took legal action in cooperation with the non-profit Victims Support Fund over a Grok feature allowing users to ask it to create hyper-realistic deepfake montages of naked women and children using real photos.

At a hearing this month, xAI lawyers had argued it was impossible to guarantee that abuse on its platform could be prevented, and the company should not be punished for the actions of malicious users.

They said the company had taken measures in January to prevent Grok from editing images of real people in revealing clothing, including restricting its image creation features to paid subscribers.

The court website said the judge had decided that Offlimits had shown there was reasonable doubt over the effectiveness of the measures taken to date. “For example, Offlimits managed to produce a video of a nude person using Grok shortly before the hearing,” it stated.

Offlimits director Robbert Hoving said the “burden is on the company” to make sure its tools are not used to create and distribute nonconsensual sexual images, including of children.

Earlier on Thursday, the European Parliament approved a ban on artificial intelligence systems generating sexualised deepfakes, after global outrage over non-consensual Grok-produced nudes.

The Slaters have finally seen the video that proves Jasmine killed Anthony in self-defence, but Kat isn’t so convinced that the teen is innocent, despite what Zoe says

Finally, Jasmine Fisher‘s video evidence that killing her biological father Anthony Trueman was an act of self-defence has come to light. After watching the video during Thursday’s episode of EastEnders (26 March), Zoe Slater rejoiced that her daughter would soon be free. But Kat was less sure of Jasmine’s innocence, even after she saw what really happened.

Jasmine (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) was arrested for murder earlier this year and insisted that she only killed her father because he was going to kill her. She even had a video to prove it, in which Anthony (Nicholas Bailey) could be seen charging at her, but her phone mysteriously went missing as she was cuffed.

READ MORE: Jacqueline Jossa and Dan Osbourne ‘split’ as EastEnders actress ‘pushed too far’READ MORE: EastEnders fans ‘rumble’ Bea’s real target in sick twist – and it’s not Honey

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Max Branning (Jake Wood) had stolen it, and Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) stole it from him. Without the phone, many, including Jasmine’s boyfriend Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier) and her grandfather Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker), believed her to be a cold-blooded murderer who was lying to save herself from prison. But this week, Cindy brought the phone back to the Slaters, who then watched the video.

While Zoe immediately jumped into action to make sure the video could be used for Jasmine’s defence, and Oscar went to visit Jasmine and apologise for not believing her, Kat (Jessie Wallace) confided in Alfie (Shane Richie) about her doubts. She asked Alfie if Jasmine really had to hit him so hard, and implied she wasn’t sure Jasmine’s response was proportional to how scared she was.

Jasmine later revealed to Oscar that her lawyer was having similar thoughts. She had been told that she would still need to stand trial to prove it was reasonable force.

Some fans weren’t sure why Kat was being so suspicious about her granddaughter. One wrote: “Why is Kat so against Jasmine- like you’ve seen video evidence now honey?”

Another agreed emphatically: “Right, like, what did she expect her to do with a crazy man charging at her but protect herself by any means?” A third asked: “Does Kat not like Jasmine still even after seeing the evidence?”

Elsewhere in the episode, Jasmine’s brother Josh Goodwin (Joshua Vaughn) learned that his new beau was in fact his twin’s ex. After Oscar went to see Jasmine, the two decided to give their relationship another go, which he later told Josh.

Josh, it seems, had already developed feelings for Oscar, but kept that secret and instead teared up as Oscar told him what Jasmine was like. Fans are split on who they want Oscar to end up with, with some saying he has more “chemistry” with Josh, and others saying he and Jasmine are “fun”.

How much the fans are split has led some to wonder if EastEnders will ask the public to choose who Oscar’s eventual partner is. The show previously held a vote like this so that the public could decide if Denise Fox (Diane Parish) would end up with Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) or Jack Branning (Scott Maslen). Ultimately, the public chose Jack.

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Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give the signal for a wrecking ball to drop onto a vehicle.

The audience went wild, and Schwarzenegger went on to become governor and deliver on his promise to roll back a car tax increase, thereby blowing a $4-billion hole in the state budget.

I think it’s fair to say that in the current gubernatorial campaign season, the excitement level is several decibels below what we experienced in 2003. But once again, it’s fair to say we’ve not seen anything quite like this year’s derby.

“There’s no historical precedent in modern California history for a governor’s race with such a large field or such an amorphous field of candidates,” said longtime political observer Dan Schnur. “Unless you’re paying very close attention, it feels like a big multi-headed political blob.”

To break that down, eight Democrats and two Republicans are running in the primary, and here’s the craziest thing about that:

The two Republicans could be the top two vote-getters because the Democrats have arranged themselves into a circular firing squad. While the Dems scramble for votes in the June 2 primary, the two Republicans lead in the polls because they’re splitting the GOP vote, and under the rules of the top-two primary, they could face off in the November election.

That means that California, which is one of the bluest states in the country and has nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans, could end up with a Republican governor, which would be like having a Dodgers manager who wears a Yankees jersey in the dugout.

And by the way, if it happens, the Republican would be able to shuffle regulatory boards, attempt to squeeze budgets and create a bit of chaos, but still not get much accomplished because of Democratic super-majorities in the Senate and Assembly.

And he would be targeted for recall even before he takes office. (More on that in a minute.)

There is a way for the Democrats to avoid this humiliation, but they can’t seem to agree on anything at the moment. Party leaders have all but asked the candidates at the bottom of the polls to bow out, but understandably the response has been, “Why me? I’m no worse than the others.”

USC decided to host a debate night, a simple enough proposition, but then flubbed the deal by leaving four candidates off the invitation list — four candidates of color. A kerfuffle followed, and the debate was dumped, and an attempt to let everyone into the party fell apart.

So now what?

It’s possible the Dems will huddle around one or two candidates who then move up in the polls and remove the threat of the unthinkable — two Republicans head-to-head. That would be Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco going against former Fox TV host Steve Hilton.

It’s also possible the Dems will play dirty and either spend money to promote one of the two Republican candidates or torpedo one of them. All they want, at the moment, is for a Democrat to make it past the primary, because that would all but ensure victory in November, given voter registration advantages.

And then, if that doesn’t work, there’s the recall scenario.

“You could shut it down probably within five or six months,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime California GOP political consultant.

“It would surely happen,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist who helped Schwarzenegger knock Gov. Gray Davis out of office, and take his job, in the 2003 recall.

A wealthy Democratic donor could bankroll the recall campaign, Stutzman said. Or public employee unions might put up the money, given that a Republican winner is likely to create a state version of Elon Musk’s ham-handed attempt to fire nearly everyone on the federal payroll.

“The pitch,” Stutzman said of the recall strategy in an email, would be that “Trump still looms and CA must resist, and a GOP gov is a fluke of weird election law. Difficult to imagine it wouldn’t succeed.”

I thought of one more approach the Democrats could use to make sure at least one of them is on the ballot in November. Tom Steyer, a leader for many years on one of the most critical issues in California and the world, climate change, has already spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads that run about every two minutes, promoting him as the best candidate for governor.

They’re so repetitious, you can’t help but tune them out.

But everyone would pay close attention if Steyer instead ran ads offering incentives for either Bianco or Hilton to leave the state. Steyer could offer $10 million cash for Bianco to move to Hawaii, and maybe throw in a beach house. He could buy a private jet for Hilton to take him back to his native Britain. Every day, there could be new ads upping the ante until one of them leaves the Golden State.

Wouldn’t that be a better use of Steyer’s money? It might even get him elected.

To be honest, having some honest pushback against Democratic authority in California wouldn’t be a terrible thing. It’s not as if Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats are winning the battle against homelessness, housing shortages, affordability and other big challenges, and voters understandably want more — way more — for their tax dollars.

An experienced, no-nonsense, sensible, fiscally conservative GOP candidate would do the state good.

The problem is that the two Republicans in the running, Bianco and Hilton, are Trump toadies.

In an embarrassingly amateurish political stunt, Bianco blew the president a kiss and all but begged for an endorsement by seizing 650,000 ballots from last November’s election to determine whether they were fraudulently counted.

Hilton recently said in an interview with ABC’s Eyewitness News 7 that he believes “everybody supports” Trump’s immigration policies.

Hilton might have missed the news that U.S.-born residents are carrying their passports in case they’re targeted by skin color. That Californians by the thousands have joined the resistance. That despite claims, most deportees don’t have criminal records. And that even some of the state’s GOP lawmakers have begged Trump to stop raiding industries that rely on immigrant help (and are often owned by Republicans).

And by the way, is this a smart time for a GOP candidate in California to be doing his best Trump impression?

The president’s popularity is down, consumer prices are up, he’s shamelessly pardoned drug lords and Jan. 6 barbarians, he thinks the presidency is a game of Battleship after promising to keep us out of wars, gas prices are sky high, he just said he was glad that Vietnam War hero and former FBI Director Robert Mueller had died, and he’s playing golf all day as if everything’s hunky dory.

Like I said, there’s not a big-name character like Schwarzenegger in the race, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good options. If you like Bianco or Hilton, so be it. Otherwise I suggest you read up on the other eight:

Steyer, Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former L.A. Mayor and legislative leader Antonio Villaraigosa, former Rep. Katie Porter, former state attorney general and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former State Controller Betty Yee, San José Mayor Matt Mahan, and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell.

And you better act fast.

The primary is less than 10 weeks away.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Jannik Sinner claimed his 29th and 30th consecutive sets at ATP Masters 1,000 events as he cruised past American Frances Tiafoe into the semi-finals of the Miami Open.

The Italian world number two, who broke Novak Djokovic’s 10-year record of 24 on Monday, never looked back after breaking Tiafoe in the opening game – going on to win 6-2 6-2 in 71 minutes.

The world number 20 simply had no response to a dominant dislay from Sinner, who dropped only nine points on serve across the two sets.

Sinner, who has won four Grand Slam titles, will face either Germany’s world number four Alexander Zverev or Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in the last four.

“I felt like I was serving quite well in the important moments,” said Sinner said on Sky Sports.

“I thought he might be a bit tired because he has had tough matches here a couple of three set matches so I tried to make it physical in the beginning and that helped for sure.”

The other semi-final will pit France’s Arthur Fils against Czech Jiri Lehecka.

Sinner is aiming to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2017 to complete the coveted ‘Sunshine Double’ of winning Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the same year.

The 24-year-old has now reached the semi-finals in four of his five appearance in the Miami Open and triumphed in the tournament in 2024.

A HISTORIC Hampshire pier is set to reopen to the public for the first time since its closure in 2024 after undergoing months of work.

Hythe Pier will reopen on Thursday, April 2 following major electrical improvements and a subtle revamp.

Under the management of Hythe Pier Companies, it will cost visitors £1 to walk along the pier, but children under five will be allowed on for free.

A spokesperson for the Hythe Pier, Train and Ferry Group said: “Every £1 you spend goes back into the pier, supporting its future as we begin our transition into a charity.

“Come and walk the full length of the pier (700 yards / 640 meters) take in the views, and be part of this next chapter.”

The attraction is the UK’s seventh-longest pier but has been shut for more than a year and has kept essential ferry services closed, disrupting life for locals.

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A crucial stopping point for the Hythe Ferry, which ran regular services to Southampton before the closure, the pier has been essential to the community.

The pier is also home to a historic ferry train which having opened in 1922 makes it the world’s oldest, a feat recognised by Guinness World Records.

Although the reopening is good news for tourists, the essential ferry and train services that once connected the village to Southampton are not yet back on track.

Local councillor Malcolm Wade explained that the pontoon, owned by ferry operator Red Funnel, has been broken for almost two years, leaving commuters, football fans and day trippers cut off.

“We’re waiting for Red Funnel to decide what they’re going to do, because they’ve already written to us to say they’re not interested in running the ferry anymore and we want our ferry back”, he said.

Hythe Pier, Train and Ferry Group said: “We could see how incredibly important it was that we bring our much-loved pier back to the community.

“This is hopefully the first step towards restoring the service.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a gun after the two countries signed a friendship treaty during the Belarusian’s first official state visit.

The Army’s Rhode Island-sized test range in Utah’s high desert has long carefully policed access and entry privileges. But as the service takes notes from industry on how to innovate faster and move more efficiently, access to Dugway Proving Ground, and other Army test ranges, are becoming an easier ticket.

“We want you on our ranges,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Gaydon, commanding general of Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), told a military and industry audience Wednesday at the Association of the United States Army’s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.

“Ranges are national treasures, and we need industry to iterate in our program offices, to be able to iterate and learn how, on these ranges, to do things you can’t do elsewhere.”

For years, Gaydon said, the Army evaluated range access requests with a priority structure of one to five, in which industry was five – the lowest priority. This effectively “blocked industry off the ranges,” he said, as did a permissions process that required him to personally approve visits.

“I looked at that for my first couple months in command, but about a year ago, we completely changed that,” he said. “Approval authority is at the tester or commander level – as long as you have a nexus to defense. If you have a car company wanting to use a track out there that has nothing to do with defense, I’ll still [have to] approve that.”

In December, ATEC announced another change it billed as an effort to “combine speed with rigor” to get new tools into the hands of soldiers faster. An overhauled safety release process waived an array of paperwork red tape for troops testing out “non-type-classified systems,” or commercial and prototype gear, on Army ranges. Particularly as the service accelerates drone and anti-drone weapons testing, emphasizing low-cost and commercial solutions, this has become a headache.

During three large Army experimentation events in Germany, Hawaii and Texas, ATEC officials had to issue nearly three dozen safety release forms for unmanned aerial systems, UAS payloads, and counter-UAS weapons, officials said in a release.

The new process allows for group safety releases for systems already on the military’s cleared UAS “blue list,” as well as higher-echelon release authority to extend permissions beyond individual requesting units. It also extends some safety release expiration dates and waives evaluation for systems previously deemed low-risk.

Col. Joseph Alexander, commander of the Army’s Redstone Test Center in Huntsville, highlighted recent efforts to build a UAS test range as an extension of the “UAS test operations campus,” or UTOC, that opened there years before. 

Test personnel, he said, “came to use and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got more space. We need to go faster, because that’s the accelerated testing, to be able to deliver capability.”

The range, he said, aims to bring UAS testing needs “within 48 hours” for “some of those smaller, maybe time-sensitive missions.”

As the service announced in February, Redstone will also be home to a Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) test facility ahead of the fielding of the Army’s MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft, set to begin as soon as next year. This will include a $59 million radio frequency test space and a nearly 13,000-square-foot anechoic, or echoless, chamber for precision instrumentation assessment.

“You should be able to put weapons systems purpose-built for FLRAA [in there],” Alexander said.

While leaders are reducing barriers to range testing, the Army is pinning greater and greater hopes on its live-virtual-constructive evaluation environments. Gaydon said ATEC’s “bumper sticker” is a strategy to reduce live testing by 30% as they front-load digital engineering and model-based testing and development.

“Yesterday, I was in a FLRAA virtual prototype,” he said of the two Alabama-based MV-75 simulators manufacturer Bell-Textron delivered to the Army last year. “We can’t quite use that to test. We can use it to prepare test pilots to fly FLRAA. But that’s another example … that will certainly drive down the amount of live testing if we get it right with digital engineering.”

Contact the editor: Tyler@twz.com

Scrubs fans have been wondering if any more original cast members will return.

Fans are wondering if one of the most beloved characters from the original series of Scrubs will appear in the revival.

*Warning – this article contains minor spoilers for the revival series of Scrubs*

A few weeks into the new season, we have already been reacquainted with JD, Turk and Elliott played by Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke respectively. Early episodes have also featured brief appearances by John C McGinley’s Dr Cox and Judy Reyes’ Carla.

Unfortunately they are not series regulars for the new iteration. Although the Todd has been a more regular occurrence.

The Janitor was an instant favourite in the original series. He appeared during the original eight season run and was played by Neil Flynn.

Most dedicated viewers will know that the writers first considered the role would actually be a part of the main character’s imagination but they soon abandoned that idea part way through the first season.

He did not appear in the ninth season, having apparently quit as soon as he found out his adversary JD no longer worked at the hospital. Behind the scenes, Flynn’s commitment to starring in the sitcom The Middle at the same time prevented him from appearing.

But will the Janitor appear in the new series? Here’s what we know so far.

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Is the Janitor in the new series of Scrubs?

Yes, the Janitor is due to make an appearance in the series. A video shared to the show’s official Facebook page back in February confirmed it by sharing a short video. It was captioned: “Oh, he is SO back. Neil Flynn is scrubbing back in to Scrubs.”

However, the actor was not in his character’s usual attire. Instead of his maintenance overalls, he is seen wearing a suit. The person behind the camera drops a disposable coffee cup before Flynn enters the shot and says: “I’m not cleaning that.”

This clip sparked more than a 1,000 comments of fans sharing their excitement to the news. One person simply stated: “Best. News. Ever!” Another replied: “Shut the front door!?!!! I cannot waaaait!! I was getting so worried because I hadn’t seen him in any of the sneak peeks.”

However, six episodes have been released so far and Flynn is still to appear. The show seems in no rush to offer up more cameos as it spends time introducing fans to the new characters. This week, in the sixth instalment, only just saw the reintroduction of another beloved role – the stuffed dog Rowdy, who was revealed to now be living in JD’s office.

There only three episodes left of the revival series according to its Wikipedia page, so it should not be long before Flynn appears. We still don’t know for sure which one it will be though. It could be that the makers of the show are saving something special for the finale.

Scrubs is streaming on Disney+.

North America’s small- and mid-cap industrial sector is entering a new phase of recalibration, as investors weigh resilient demand against uneven near-term upside, according to a March 26 report from J.P. Morgan.

In a sweeping review of 26 companies across

THERE’s a pretty hotel hidden in amongst the Buckinghamshire countryside which is perfect for a staycation.

Read on to find out more about Burnham Beeches Hotel and the nearby known for its royal connections that’s just a 15-minute drive away.

Where is the Burnham Beeches Hotel?

Tucked down narrow and windy roads in Buckinghamshire is this beautiful countryside escape.

The huge mansion was once a private Georgian home – and, quite frankly, I’d even go as far as to call it one of the county’s best-kept secrets.

You would never realise it’s there until you turn into the driveway and it opens up to the sprawling hotel with manicured gardens and a tennis court.

Burnham Beeches Hotel is a short drive away from Windsor, Slough and Maidenhead, but its location completely out of the way means you won’t hear any traffic.

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In fact, I couldn’t hear much aside from gentle cooing of pigeons, and the hoot of an owl after nightfall.

What is the hotel like?

The main building at the Burnham Beeches Hotel is grand, kept in the style of a manor home.

Inside, there’s a huge contrast in room design, each varying from deep blues with thick orange velvet curtains in the Arden dining room, to light and airy spaces like the pretty Evergreen Tea Room.

On the more modern side of the building, the first thing you’ll notice is the calming scent, which makes sense as it’s where you’ll find the main spa area.

The reception has modern check-in tablets that are very easy to use – but there is always staff around if you need any help.

What is there to do there?

Thanks to its location, the hotel is a great base for those wanting to see more of Windsor which is a 15-minute drive away.

Here, you can see the castle and take a stroll down The Long Walk. The pretty village of Burnham is just down the road as is Ascot Racecourse and Legoland.

Guests can also make the most of the facilities in the hotel too. Use of the Temple Spa is included with an overnight stay, and guests get complimentary robes, towels and slippers.

The spa has a gym, small pool, steam room, sauna and jacuzzi.

Spa treatments are available too from 30-minute relaxing massages to hour-long facials, manicures and pedicures. 

You can also hire out equipment to have a go in the tennis and pickleball court.

Or borrow one of the bikes free of charge, to explore the grounds and surrounding countryside.

What is there to eat and drink there?

When it comes to dining, eat in the plush Arden Room. Here, I tried the sharing Gambas al Ajillo, which is Spanish-style prawns, followed by a crispy duck salad.

The king prawn and chorizo linguine (which has a slight chilli kick) and smooth coconut and lime panna cotta was also delicious.

Whether you’re a pre-dinner drinker, or fancy a post-dining tipple, the sleek Verdure Lounge Bar is where you want to be.

There’s a huge range of drinks from cocktails to wine and a refreshing pint of Mahou on draught.

In the morning, find your way to the Brasserie where there’s a generous breakfast buffet waiting for you.

It has everything you could want, from continental options like yogurt and fruit, along with classic English breakfast offerings.

At each table was a Tiptree jam stand, and I’d recommend enjoying a pot with a thick slice of sourdough. You can refill your juice, tea, and coffee as often as you’d like, too.

A traditional afternoon tea is popular here, where guests can sample a selection of sandwiches, cakes, and scones alongside a cup of tea, or upgrade for a glass of Prosecco or champagne.

What are the rooms like?

There are 79 rooms and suites at the hotel all varying in size and design. Each comes with free Wi-Fi, heating, a hair dryer, television, tea & coffee making facilities and an ensuite.

I was lucky enough to stay in one of the beautifully designed Oak Character Rooms, which had nature-inspired wallpapers with an enormous dark blue velvet headboard with green cushions and a burnt orange throw.

Its two large windows looked out onto the gardens and let in lots of natural light.

The modern ensuite had a large shower with White Company toiletries.

For those who are bringing fluffy members of the family, you can book for your dog to come along too, from £35 (max weight of 15kg per room).

Is Burnham Beeches Hotel family-friendly?

Yes. The Hive Family Rooms can sleep two adults and either two children under 10 years, or two adults and one child over 10. You get all the normal amenities, as well as 24-hour room service.

Children are allowed in the swimming pool but must be accompanied by an adult if under 16.

Is there access for guests with disabilities?

The hotel offers accessible ground floor rooms, and while the spa facilities are not currently wheelchair accessible, a selection of treatments can be brought directly to the room.

To book an accessible room, call the hotel in advance.

Room rates start from £149 B&B based on two sharing. 

See here for more.

The U.S. can continue to detain immigrants without bond, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday, handing a victory to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

The opinion from a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a lower court ruling that required that a native of Mexico arrested for lacking legal documents be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge.

It’s the second appeals court to rule in favor of the administration on this issue. The 5th Circuit in New Orleans ruled last month that the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country was consistent with the Constitution and federal immigration law.

Both appeals court opinions counter recent lower court decisions across the country that argued the practice is illegal.

In November, a district court decision in California granted detained immigrants with no criminal history the opportunity to request a bond hearing and had implications for noncitizens held in detention nationwide.

Under past administrations, most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border had an opportunity to request a bond hearing while their cases wound through immigration court. Historically, bond was often granted to those without criminal convictions who were not flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to recent border crossers.

In the case before the 8th Circuit, Joaquin Herrera Avila of Mexico was apprehended in Minneapolis in August 2025 for lacking legal documents authorizing his admission into the United States. The Department of Homeland Security detained Avila without bond and began deportation proceedings.

He filed a petition seeking immediate release or a bond hearing. A federal judge in Minnesota granted the petition, saying the law authorized detention without bond when a person seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to being admitted. The judge found this was not the case for Avila because he had lived in the country for years without seeking naturalization, asylum or refugee status and thus wasn’t “seeking admission.”

Circuit Court Judge Bobby E. Shepherd wrote for the majority in a 2-1 opinion that the law was “clear that an ‘applicant for admission’ is also an alien who is ‘seeking admission,’” and so Avila couldn’t petition on these grounds.

Circuit Court Judge Ralph R. Erickson dissented, saying that Avila would have been entitled to a bond hearing during his deportation hearings if he had been arrested during the past 29 years. Now, he wrote, the Circuit Court has ruled that Avila and millions of others would be subject to mandatory detention under a novel interpretation of “alien seeking admission” that hasn’t been used by the courts or five previous presidential administrations.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Avila, didn’t immediately return an email message seeking comment.

Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi hailed the ruling, writing in a social media post: “MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump’s law and order agenda!”

At question is the issue of whether the government is required to ask a neutral judge to to determine whether it is legal to imprison someone.

It’s based on the habeas corpus, which is a Latin legal term referring to the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government.

Immigrants have filed more than 30,000 habeas corpus petitions in federal court alleging illegal detention since Trump took office, according to a tally by the Associated Press. Many have succeeded.

McAvoy writes for the Associated Press.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. The long journey to the postseason begins today.

As we embark on the 12th season of this newsletter, there are certain things, like death and taxes, that are guaranteed. Here they are.

—The Dodgers will charge way too much to park in their poorly designed, poorly lit parking lot.

—Shohei Ohtani will have a game where he strikes out 10 and hits multiple home runs. No one will be able to explain how he does this until we learn he was actually sent here by the aliens from “Project Hail Mary.”

—Ohtani will go hitless for three-to-four games in a row and have a bad pitching outing during the same time, leading to some to say he is overpaid.

—Will Smith will catch at least 130 games and be in the conversation for NL MVP.

—The Padres will be better than most are saying and their fans will approach the games with the Dodgers as if it is their World Series.

—The Rockies will be terrible again.

—Teoscar Hernández will continue to struggle as a fielder, but people won’t care as much as his bat will be rejuvenated.

—A pitcher no one has heard of will be signed by the Dodgers off the waiver wire. He will appear in a game and pitch great, maybe even getting the win. The following week, he will be designated for assignment.

—Mookie Betts will win the Gold Glove at short, and while he won’t reach his previous heights at the plate, he will hit better than last season.

—Andy Pages will slump at some point and fans will demand that Ryan Ward, who is hitting .350 with about a million homers in the minors, get a chance. He won’t get a chance and Pages will recover.

—Fans will complain that Joe Davis takes too many games off and isn’t a true Dodger like Vin Scully was, even though Vin took just as many games off for national duties.

—The music at Dodger Stadium will continue to be so loud that even the aliens from “A Quiet Place” will complain. (Editor’s note: Two outer space aliens references in one newsletter. What is wrong with this guy?)

—The most worn former Dodger jersey worn by fans at the stadium will continue to be… Fernando Valenzuela‘s. And it will be for many years to come.

—Max Muncy will look like the worst hitter in baseball for an extended period, then he will hit like Babe Ruth.

—Dalton Rushing will be a decent backup for Smith and will hit well enough that he can spell Freddie Freeman at first base on occasion.

—Freeman will hit .300 again in what will be his last great season at the plate.

—The Dodgers will continue to “give away” games during the season in order to be ready for the postseason. For example, they will allow a reliever to take a beating in a game at the start of long road trip in order to preserve the rest of the bullpen. Some fans will be irate at this, thinking the Dodgers should try to win every game at all costs.

—The Cool-A-Coo will not return to Dodger Stadium and will continue to be missed.

—The Dodgers will continue to call the hot dog they sell a Dodger Dog, even though it tastes nothing like a Farmer John Dodger Dog.

—Only three pitchers will pitch more than 100 innings, but the quality of the staff from top to bottom will be more consistent throughout the season, allowing them to use fewer than 40 pitchers this season.

—Either Blake Treinen or Tanner Scott will continue to pitch poorly, but the Dodgers, again with their eye on the postseason and on how much money they are paying these guys, will continue to trot them out there in hopes they will rebound.

—Some fans will complain about the abhorrent price of going to a Dodger game. They will still go though, and the Dodgers will draw four million, giving them no reason to lower prices.

—Justin Turner will sign a one-day contract with the team and then retire.

—Edwin Díaz will save 30 games and give the bullpen some much-needed stability.

—Kyle Tucker won’t hit as well as hoped, but will be a significant upgrade over Michael Conforto.

—Hyeseong Kim will come up at some point, wow fans with his blazing speed, hit close to .300, and then be sent back down.

—Dave Roberts will have a bad game or two where he makes a decision that seems nonsensical. Some will demand he be fired because “Anyone could manage this team.” Those people will be wrong.

—You will continue to need to subscribe to about a dozen streaming channels to watch all the Dodger games on TV. No one will.

—Yoshinobu Yamamoto will lead the team in victories.

—Organist Dieter Ruehle will continue to find the perfect song for any situation.

—Tyler Glasnow will look unbeatable one start, then get thrown off his next start by a hangnail and pitch like Dave Goltz.

—There will be thrilling victories, agonizing defeats and some boring games. But it will all be worth it as we look around and see all the different types of Dodger fans out there, reminding us that baseball unites us.

—The Dodgers will finish the season 98-64 and cruise to the NL West title. They will not have to play in the wild-card game.

—And that means they will be in the postseason where … anything can happen.

—So, don’t get so worried about the destination that you forget to enjoy the ride.

How many games will the Dodgers win?

We asked, How many games will the Dodgers win this season? After 10,566 responses:

They will win 96-100 games, 46.3%
They will win 101-110 games, 35.5%
They will win 91-95 games, 13.2%
They will set the record by winning more than 116 games, 2.3%
They will win 111-115 games, 1.6%
They will win 86-90 games, 0.9%
They will finish under .500, 0.2%
They will win 81-85 games, one vote

We asked, Will the Dodgers win the World Series this season? After 10,538 responses:

Yes, 79.1%
No, 20.9%

A walking path to Dodger Stadium?

Did you know there is a walking path to Dodger Stadium? There is a one-mile walking path from the Chinatown Metro station to Dodger Stadium. There’s one problem though, to quote Bill Shaikin‘s column on the path: “To go a very short distance safely with a feeling that you’re not going to die is very difficult.”

Read more about this here.

Up next

Thursday: Arizona (Zac Gallen) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto), 5:30 p.m., NBC, Peacock, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Friday: Arizona (Ryne Nelson) at Dodgers (Emmet Sheehan), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Arizona (*-Eduardo Rodriguez) at Dodgers (Tyler Glasnow), 6:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Dodgers sign right-hander Jake Cousins to one-year deal on eve of opening day

Shaikin: Dodger Walk: A great city needs a walking path to blue heaven. Do it, Frank McCourt

How Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani can put himself in the 2026 NL Cy Young conversation

And finally

Our opening day tradition: Danny Kaye sings the Dodgers song. Watch and listen here.

Until next time….

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Iranian missiles have caused widespread damage across Israel in the latest wave of attacks, as President Donald Trump says US-Israeli strikes have destroyed the majority of Iran’s missile launchers.