appoints

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has hired Mitch Kamin, a lawyer who has fought the Trump administration and provided legal services for underserved communities, to be her next chief of staff.

Kamin, who, like the mayor, is a graduate of Alexander Hamilton High School, will be Bass’ third chief of staff in her nearly three years leading the city — a much more rapid turnover than in previous administrations.

Announcing the appointment in a press release Friday, Bass called Kamin a “seasoned leader and status quo disrupter.”

The Harvard-educated lawyer has decades of experience as an executive at nonprofits and legal services organizations and has served on several city commissions.

Most recently, he was general counsel and chief strategy officer for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a project of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas that is set to open next year.

Before that, Kamin was a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, where he helped the firm recruit for its first L.A. office and was co-chair of the global commercial litigation practice group and the entertainment and media industry group. He previously was president of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services.

“Mitch is a passionate, committed and compelling leader,” former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who was a partner with Kamin at Covington, said in a statement.

Kamin, 58, is taking charge of Bass’ office as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown in Los Angeles and across the country. During Trump’s first term, he represented the city in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice that prevented the federal government from requiring cooperation with immigration enforcement as a condition of receiving grant money.

Kamin replaces Carolyn Webb de Macias, who has led the mayor’s office since November 2023. She had been retired and was only supposed to serve in the role for a year but stayed on longer following the January wildfires, the mayor’s office said.

The mayor’s first chief of staff was Chris Thompson, who led the transition team after her election.

Chiefs of staff in recent mayoral administrations often served longer. Ana Guerrero headed the mayor’s office for eight years under Mayor Eric Garcetti, while Robin Kramer served under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for about four.

Guerrero lost her post in 2021 after revelations that she disparaged elected officials, city employees and others in a private Facebook group. She stayed on with the mayor in a diminished role.

Kamin was appointed by Garcetti in 2016 to serve on the commission that oversees the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. He also served as president of the board of commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles starting in 2011.

Kamin was on the board when the agency fired its CEO, Rudolf Montiel. The board drew criticism for providing Montiel with a $1.2 million severance package.

“The basic thing was to eliminate any legal liability … close this chapter and move forward,” Kamin told The Times in 2011.

Kamin will start his new job on Sept. 22, Bass told her staff in an office-wide email.

“Mitch has my full support and mandate to lead this team and to maximize our effectiveness and performance,” she wrote.

Sceptics wonder whether ‘Diella’, depicted as a woman in traditional folk costume, will herself be ‘corrupted’.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has put an artificial intelligence-generated “minister” in charge of tackling corruption in his new cabinet.

Diella, which means “sun” in Albanian, was appointed on Thursday, with the leader introducing her as a “member of the cabinet who is not present physically” who will ensure that “public tenders will be 100 percent free of corruption”.

The awarding of tenders has long been a source of corruption in the Balkan country of 2.8 million people, which aspires to join the European Union.

Corruption is a key factor in Albania’s bid to join the bloc.

Rama’s Socialist Party, which recently secured a fourth term in office, has said it can deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, with negotiations concluding by 2027.

Lawmakers will soon vote on Rama’s new cabinet, but it was unclear whether he would ask for a vote on Diella’s virtual post.

Legal experts say more work may be needed to establish the official status of Diella, who is depicted on screen as a woman in a traditional Albanian folk costume.

Gazmend Bardhi, parliamentary group leader of the Democrats, said he considered Diella’s ministerial status unconstitutional.

“[The] Prime Minister’s buffoonery cannot be turned into legal acts of the Albanian state,” Bardhi posted on Facebook.

The prime minister did not provide details of what human oversight there might be for Diella, or address risks that someone could manipulate the artificial intelligence bot.

Launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the e-Albania public service platform, Diella helped users navigate the site and get access to about one million digital documents.

So far, she has helped issue 36,600 digital documents and provided nearly 1,000 services through the platform, according to official figures.

Not everyone is convinced.

One Facebook user said, “Even Diella will be corrupted in Albania.”

Another said, “Stealing will continue and Diella will be blamed.”

President Donald Trump creates LA28 task force to prepare for the first Olympics in the US since the 2002 Winter Games.

United States President Donald Trump established a task force on the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles that he said would ensure the event is “safe, seamless and historically successful”.

The 2028 games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the US since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“The LA Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. It’s going to be incredible. It’s so exciting,” Trump said on Tuesday as he signed an executive order at the White House establishing the task force.

The White House did not immediately release the text of the order or details about the task force’s work.

At the event, Trump praised Gene Sykes, chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) board of directors, for the USOPC’s move to effectively bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics,” Trump said.

He questioned why he did not hear applause from the room when he praised Sykes for this, and then received some claps from some people in the room.

Trump “considers it a great honour to oversee this global sporting spectacle”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, calling sport one of the president’s “greatest passions”.

LA28 president and chair Casey Wasserman said the task force “marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028.”

During a briefing Tuesday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the task force would “coordinate across federal, state and local agencies to ensure streamlined visa processes, robust security and efficient transportation”.

Members of the task force include Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among others, Trump announced Tuesday.

Along with the 2028 games, Trump has said that the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, is among the events he is most looking forward to in his second term.

In preparation for next year’s competition, the governments of all three countries on Tuesday said they had held the first meeting of a trilateral coordinating council of government officials, industry leaders and security professionals discussing a variety of issues, including preparedness for any security threats ahead of the World Cup.

Incoming Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko says she will focus on weapons production and the economy in her new role.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister and other key leaders in the largest government reshuffle since Russia invaded three years ago.

Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, took over as prime minister from Denys Shmyhal, who had held the post since 2020, following her confirmation on Thursday by Ukraine’s parliament.

Svyrydenko previously served as first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, roles that brought her in close contact with the administration of United States President Donald Trump. She was credited with negotiating a critical mineral deal between Washington and Kyiv earlier this year that helped thaw an initially frosty relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Svyrydenko said on social media that she intends to focus on expanding Ukraine’s domestic weapons production and the strength of its armed forces, and supporting the economy.

“Our Government sets its course toward a Ukraine that stands firm on its own foundations — military, economic, and social,” she said. “My key goal is real, positive results that every Ukrainian will feel in daily life. War leaves no room for delay. We must act swiftly and decisively,” she said.

It is a great honor for me to lead the Government of Ukraine today.

Our Government sets its course toward a Ukraine that stands firm on its own foundations — military, economic, and social. My key goal is real, positive results that every Ukrainian will feel in daily life.

War… pic.twitter.com/oytWMCp1S3

— Yulia Svyrydenko (@Svyrydenko_Y) July 17, 2025

Outgoing Prime Minister Shmyhal, 49, will step in as defence minister, taking over a ministry that has struggled with a series of corruption scandals.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, 50, will stay in place, but Zelenskyy has named outgoing Justice Minister Olga Stefanishyna, 39, as his next ambassador to the US, pending US approval. Stefanishyna has experience working with the European Union and NATO and also played a role in negotiating the recent mineral deal with the Trump administration.

Stefanishyna will replace outgoing envoy Oksana Markarova, who earned the ire of Trump due to her positive working relationship with the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Reports last week indicated that Zelenskyy was planning to choose Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as his next US envoy, but he was allegedly not approved by Washington, according to opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Other reshuffles will see deputies Oleksiy Sobolev and Taras Kachka take over as the minister of economy, environment and agriculture and deputy prime minister for European integration.

Despite the shake-up in positions, critics say the new faces in Zelenskyy’s cabinet remain largely the same. They have also accused the Ukrainian leader of consolidating power by stacking key government posts with his “loyalists”.

The country has had three leaders in as many days, following a court’s decision to suspend Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

Thailand has ushered in the appointment of its second interim prime minister this week, following the Constitutional Court’s suspension of the country’s leader, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, fuelled by a phone call scandal with a key Cambodian political figure.

Interior Minister Phumtham Wechayachai assumed caretaker responsibilities on Thursday, two days after Paetongtarn was banned from duties, a government statement on Thursday confirmed.

In a post on social media, the Thai government said that Phumtham’s role as acting prime minister had been agreed at the first meeting of a new cabinet, which took place shortly after ministers were sworn in by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The 71-year-old replaces Suriya Jungrungreangkit, who only carried out the role for one day ahead of the reshuffle.

The interim appointments occurred after Paetongtarn was temporarily barred from office earlier this week over allegations that she breached ministerial ethics in a leaked phone conversation with Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen.

The call took place in mid-June with the aim of defusing recent border tensions between the two countries following an eruption of violence that killed a Cambodian soldier.

Critics in Thailand expressed anger at Paetongtarn’s decision to call Hun Sen “Uncle” and to criticise a Thai army commander.

The Constitutional Court accepted a petition from 36 senators, which claimed that the 38-year-old had violated the constitution in her conversation with Hun Sen.

It said there was “sufficient cause to suspect” Paetongtarn had breached ministerial ethics, with an investigation now under way into the incident.

Before her suspension began, Paetongtarn appointed herself as culture minister in the new cabinet. She was sworn in to the position at the Grand Palace on Thursday.

Paetongtarn’s government had struggled to revive a flagging economy, with an opinion poll in late June suggesting that her popularity had dropped to 9.2 percent from 30.9 percent in March.

Thailand’s political dynasty has been facing legal peril on two fronts, as a separate court hears a royal defamation suit against her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin has denied the charges against him and repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.

Thaksin dodged jail and spent six months in hospital detention on medical grounds before being released on parole in February last year. The Supreme Court will this month scrutinise that hospital stay and could potentially send him back to jail.

Dagalo, who leads the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, also announces a government as war ravages Sudan.

Sudan’s army chief and de facto head of state, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has appointed former United Nations official Kamil Idris as prime minister as part of changes to his sovereign council as the nation’s civil war grinds on into its third year.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, critical infrastructure has been destroyed and more than 12 million people have been displaced as a result of the war, which shows no signs of stopping as vying leaders seek to consolidate their power.

“The chairman of the sovereignty council issued a constitutional decree appointing Kamil El-Tayeb Idris Abdelhafiz as prime minister,” a statement from Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council read on Monday.

Idris, a career diplomat, spent decades at the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation and was its director general from 1997 to 2008.

He also held various roles in Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and used to serve in the country’s permanent mission to the UN.

Idris, whose higher education was in international law and international affairs, also ran as an independent candidate in Sudan’s presidential election in 2010 against longtime military ruler Omar al-Bashir, who was later ousted in a 2019 coup.

The new prime minister replaces veteran diplomat Dafallah al-Haj Ali, who was appointed by al-Burhan less than a month ago as acting premier.

On Monday, al-Burhan also added two women to the council.

The military leader reappointed Salma Abdel Jabbar Almubarak and named Nowara Abo Mohamed Mohamed Tahir to the governing body.

The al-Burhan-led military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have been at war for more than two years after the two generals failed to agree on a plan to integrate their forces.

As al-Burhan tried to form an army-led government, Dagalo also announced the formation of a rival administration last month, shortly after signing a charter with allies in Kenya’s Nairobi.

The army, which holds areas in the central, eastern and northern parts of Sudan, has managed to claim some military victories in recent months, including taking control of the capital, Khartoum.

The RSF, which holds most of the western region of Darfur and some areas in the south with its allied militias, has been striking Port Sudan repeatedly this month to devastating effect.

Meanwhile, a worsening humanitarian crisis continues to engulf Sudan.

International organisations and some countries have warned of the risks of further escalating the conflict, including in cities like el-Fasher in Darfur that have served as humanitarian aid hubs.