Arizona

Last month, in a special election, voters in southern Arizona chose Adelita Grijalva to succeed her late father in Congress.

The outcome in the solidly Democratic district was never in doubt. The final tally wasn’t remotely close.

Grijalva, a Tucson native and former Pima County supervisor, crushed her Republican opponent, 69% to 29%.

The people spoke, loudly and emphatically, and normally that would have been that. Grijalva would have assumed office by now, allowing her to serve her orphaned constituents by filling a House seat that’s been vacant since her father died in March, after representing portions of Arizona for more than 20 years.

But these are not normal times. These are times when everything, including the time of day and state of the weather, has become politically charged.

And so Grijalva is residing in limbo. Or, rather, at her campaign headquarters in Tucson, since she’s been locked out of her congressional office on Capitol Hill — the one her father used, which now has her name on a plaque outside. She’s been denied entry by Speaker Mike Johnson.

“It’s pretty horrible,” Grijalva said in an interview, “because regardless of whether I have an official office or not, constituents elected me and people are reaching out to me through every social media outlet.

“‘I have a question,’” they tell Grijalva, or “‘I’m afraid I’m going to get fired’ or ‘We need some sort of assistance.’”

All she can do is refer them to Arizona’s two U.S. senators.

House members are scattered across the country during the partial government shutdown and Johnson said he can’t possibly administer the oath of office to Grijalva during a pro forma session, a time when normal business — legislative debate, roll call votes — is not being conducted. “We have to have everybody here,” Johnson said, “and we’ll swear her in.”

But, lo, dear reader, are you sitting down?

It turns out there were two Republican lawmakers elected this year in special elections, each, as it happens from Florida. Both were sworn in the very next day … during pro forma sessions!

Shocked? Don’t be. In the Trump era, rules and standards are applied in flagrantly different ways, depending on which political party is involved.

But partisanship aside, what possible reason would Johnson have to stall Grijalva’s swearing-in? Here’s a clue: It involves a convicted sex trafficker and former buddy of President Trump, whose foul odor trails him like the reeking carcass of a beached whale.

Yes, it’s the late Jeffrey Epstein!

“On my very first day in Congress, I’ll sign the bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files,” Grijalva said on the eve of her landslide election. “This is as much about fulfilling Congress’ duty as a constitutional check on this administration as it is about demanding justice for survivors.”

Jeffrey Epstein. Gone but very much unforgotten.

For years, his perversions have been an obsession among those, mainly on the right, who believe a “deep state” cover-up has protected the rich and powerful who partnered with women procured by Epstein. After Trump’s marionette attorney general, Pam Bondi, suggested a client list was sitting on her desk, awaiting release, the Justice Department abruptly reversed course.

There was no such list, it announced, and Epstein definitely committed suicide and wasn’t, as the conspiracy-minded suggest, murdered by those wishing to silence him.

Trump, who palled around with Epstein, urged everyone to move along. Naturally, Johnson fell into immediate lockstep. (Bondi, for her part, tap-danced through a contentious Senate hearing last week, repeatedly sidestepping questions about the Epstein-Trump relationship, including whether photos exist of the president alongside “half-naked young women.”)

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a GOP lawmaker and persistent Trump irritant, and Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna have led the bipartisan effort to force the Justice Department to cough up the government’s unclassified records related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend and fellow sex trafficker.

The discharge petition, overriding the objections of Trump and Johnson and forcing the House to vote on release of the files, needs at least 218 signatures, which constitutes a majority of the 435 members. The petition has been stalled for weeks, just one signature shy of ratification.

Enter Grijalva.

Or not.

Johnson, who may be simply delaying an inevitable House vote to curry Trump’s favor, insists the Epstein matter has “nothing to do with” his refusal to seat Grivalja.

Righto.

And planets don’t revolve around the sun, hot air doesn’t rise and gravity doesn’t bring falling leaves to Earth.

More than 200 Democratic House members have affixed their signatures to the petition, along with four Republicans — Massie and Reps. Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The latter three are all MAGA stalwarts who have bravely broken ranks with Trump to stand up for truth and the victims of Epstein’s ravages.

“Aren’t we all against convicted pedophiles and anyone who enables them?” Greene asked in an interview with Axios.

Most are, one would assume. But apparently not everybody.

Sept. 30 (UPI) — Republican Rep. David Schweikert on Tuesday announced his candidacy to become Arizona’s next governor after serving in the House of Representatives since 2010.

Schweikert, 63, will challenge Rep. Andy Biggs and attorney Karrin Taylor Robson for the GOP nomination ahead of Arizona’s Nov. 3, 2026, gubernatorial election.

“We’re going to try to actually demonstrate to voters what a conservative agenda looks like,” Schweikert told an interviewer as reported by The New York Times.

“I don’t believe there’s anyone in the Southwest in the last 25 years who’s run as many competitive races as I have and yet not given an inch on their conservatism,” he added.

Schweikert announced his candidacy in a series of local interviews, during which he cited dysfunction in Washington, including an inability to pass a Fiscal Year 2026 budget bill, according to NBC News.

He said Arizona is poised to become more prosperous and could see at least a decade of wage growth for its working-class residents.

During his tenure in the House of Representatives, Schweikert fended off a strong challenge from former Rep. Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, following redistricting in Arizona for 2012.

He also withstood a 2019 ethics complaint that accused him of illegally using office funds and accepting unlawful campaign contributions but lacked evidence.

Schweikert said the complaint repeated old accusations that were baseless.

Schweikert’s House district includes Scottsdale and suburban areas near Phoenix, and vacating the seat creates an opportunity for the Democratic Party to secure an additional House seat.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is a Democrat and has said she intends to seek re-election.

There are times when you want a vacation that challenges you. But there are other times when you crave a familiar scene, a traveler’s version of comfort food.

What is it that brings people back to the same destination again and again?

Charlotte Russell, a Manchester-based clinical psychologist and founder/editor of the Travel Psychologist blog, didn’t see value in visiting the same place twice when she was in her 20s, but as she got older, her opinion changed.

Now one of her most frequent destinations is Seville, a short, direct flight from her home airport. However, her travel cadence is strategic. “I don’t want to spoil the connection I have to the place by visiting too frequently,” she says. “For me, once every few years seems to be about ‘right.’” Once there, she savors “the beautiful buildings, the orange trees, the smells and flavors of the food,” enjoying the chance to get to know the culture more deeply than a one-time visitor might.

Then again, Russell acknowledges, maybe we can never truly visit the same place twice.

So says psychology professor Andrew Stevenson in his 2023 book “The Psychology of Travel.” In his view, “places change all the time, and so do we. Yes, we can visit the same location again, but are likely to experience it in a completely different way when visiting again, as the place becomes more meaningful, more full of memories, more vital, each new time we arrive.”

We asked Southern California readers to tell us about their most prized repeat destinations. The answers took us all over — Hawaii, Utah, Arizona, England and Hermosa Beach, for instance — for all sorts of reasons they share with us below.

Jason Myers kicked a 52-yard field goal with the final play of the game as the Seattle Seahawks sealed a dramatic 23-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

The Cardinals had rallied from 14 points down to tie the game with 28 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, with quarterback Kyler Murray throwing for two touchdowns.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold then put his team into field goal territory before Myers slotted the winning kick.

It marked the second time in a week that Arizona lost with the last kick of the game, after a 16-15 defeat by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Myers, 34, kicked three field goals in the away victory at State Farm Stadium, but missed one from 53 yards just minutes before.

“I’ve seen this guy play golf – he’s a stud,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. “He’s got ice in his veins. We knew he was going to make that kick.”

Myers added: “I didn’t try to change anything – just stay true to my routine.”

Seattle move to a 3-1 win record, while Arizona are 2-2.

CHARLIE Kirk’s grieving widow has said she forgives the man who allegedly assassinated her husband in a heart-wrenching speech.

A distraught Erika Kirk broke down in tears as she took to the stage at her husband Charlie Kirk’s memorial in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday.

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Erika was visibly emotional as she addressed 100,000 people who packed the stadium – including President Donald Trump.

She stunned mourners during her emotional speech saying she forgave her late husband’s killer.

“I forgive him,” she told the crowd, breaking down in tears.

“I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And is what Charlie would do.

“The answer to hate is not hate, the answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.

“After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence, we didn’t see rioting, we didn’t see revolution.

“Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival [of Christian faith].”

Dressed in a white blazer and matching trousers, Erika thanked attendees for travelling from across the globe to celebrate her late husband.

She told mourners she was living through a “heartache I never knew existed” as she delivered her moving tribute.

Remembering the tragic day of her husband’s assassination, Erika said: “On the afternoon of September 10th, I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable: To look directly at my husband’s murdered body.

“I saw the wound that ended his life.”

Erika added: “I will miss him so much.”

The heartbroken widow would end her emotional speech by speaking directly to her late husband in a touching moment.

She said: “I love you Charlie, baby. I will make you so proud.”

President Donald Trump, his Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk were also at the huge memorial service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — home of the Arizona Cardinals American football team.

Musk told reporters: “Charlie was someone who believed in dialogue and open debate. He was a man of ideas. He spoke eloquently and basically never raised his voice. He was a man of peace and now he has been murdered in cold blood.

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“He was killed because his voice made a difference.

“He was showing people the Light and he was killed by the Dark.”

Vice President JD Vance described Kirk as having built a movement that has “changed the course of American history”.

He told Mr Kirk’s sea of supporters: “They tried to silence my friend Charlie Kirk but we are spreading his message loudly.”

Mr Vance, whose Catholicism has been central to his own political rise and mission, added: “We must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America — and he is a martyr for the Christian faith.”

He noted that the Trump administration was at the memorial not just because of their relationship with Kirk, but because “we wouldn’t be here without him”.

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Kirk was buried on Saturday at a private funeral in Arizona attended by friends and family.

Tearful fans queued up for 12 hours for the first-come, first-admitted service organised by Turning Point USA, the high school organisation set up by Kirk to help spread conservative politics on campuses.

Some wore black, others attended in flag-emblazoned T-shirts and Make America Great Again hats.

Sporting a Trump T-shirt, Aaron Knight, 28, from Houston, Texas, reckoned: “Charlie Kirk was a godly Christian man.

“He provided a sacrifice for this country and the fight for free speech. We are here in mourning but also celebration for the incredible man he was.”

Ashley January, 35, brought her seven-month-old baby Theodore from Kansas to “witness history”. She said she and husband Skylar “fell in love with Charlie after seeing him in Kansas.”

She added: “We want to raise our son to have the same morals as him. It’s going to be something Theo will read in his history books and he can say he was there.”

A man said he had camped out from 8pm the night before.
One woman even brought a buggy full of puppies with her.

The nearby Desert Diamond Arena served as overflow for an additional 19,000 people who watched the event on TV screens.

Kirk, 31, was shot dead while giving a speech at Utah Valley University earlier this month.

Tyler Robinson, 22, is charged with aggravated murder.
He is in custody and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Yesterday Mrs Kirk told the New York Times she could not say if he deserved to die as well.

She said: “I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger.

“When I get to heaven, and Jesus is like, ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’.

“And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”

Before the service started, photos of Kirk were projected on big screens accompanied by a playlist of praise and worship songs.

Among those paying respects and giving speeches were President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr, right-wing political commentator Tucker Carlson and homeland security adviser and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Kirk founded Turning Point USA — whose headquarters are in Phoenix — in 2012, at the age of 18.

Mrs Kirk has been unanimously elected to succeed her late husband as CEO of the organisation.

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WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Trump’s administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country, the latest step in a court struggle over one of the most sensitive issues in Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly comes after the Republican administration’s Labor Day weekend attempt to remove Guatemalan migrant children who were living in government shelters and foster care.

There was already a temporary order in place preventing the removal of Guatemalan children. But that was set to expire Tuesday.

Kelly, who was appointed by Trump, granted a preliminary injunction extends that temporary protection indefinitely, although the government can appeal.

There are also temporary restraining orders in separate cases in Arizona and Illinois, but those cases are much more narrow in the scope of children they cover.

THIS is the moment a man is dragged to the ground by enraged onlookers after he appears to destroy a Charlie Kirk memorial.

Footage caught the individual stamping on flowers, balloons and US flags before he was pulled away and pinned up against a wall by cops.

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Police in Phoenix arrested the young man and charged him with criminal damage and disorderly conduct.

He was later identified as 19-year-old Ryder Corral.

Hundreds of Kirk’s fans had helped put together a memorial for the late conservative heavyweight outside the Turning Point headquarters in Arizona.

Kirk, a father-of-two who had been raising his family in the state, was the co-founder of Turning Point USA.

The shocking footage shows a man dressed in a black t-shirt and blue jeans walking across the vast memorial site.

He managed to make it about 15 yards across the rows of touching tributes laid in honour of Kirk before an onlooker stepped in to stop him.

An older man in a white cap, light blue top and shorts ran across to Corral as the pair appeared to exchange some words.

Seconds later, the clearly enraged gentleman grabs Corral with both hands close to his neck and throws him to the ground.

Corral is sent tumbling over as several other people step in.

Both men and women surround the downed protester and lead him over to waiting police officers who had been on hand to watch over the memorial site.

Cops take Corral over to a wall behind the now dozens of watching bystanders and place him in handcuffs.

He was then taken to the local station and booked.

It was later reported that he was wearing the same top as Kirk’s suspected assassin at the time of the murder.

Kirk was tragically shot in the neck as he launched his “American Comeback” campus tour in Utah.

The 31-year-old was rushed to hospital but died shortly after as a hunt for his killer ensued.

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old main suspect has since been arrested but is now refusing to cooperate with cops.

The FBI had shared images taken minutes after Kirk’s death which showed the gunman walking away from the university campus.

He was wearing a National Disabled Veterans Foundation T-shirt emblazoned with an eagle soaring in front of the Stars and Stripes.

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Chilling details around Robinson’s life have been released by cops in recent days as they continue to question him over Kirk’s murder.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox revealed the latest details on the investigation on Sunday.

He confirmed that Robinson has a transgender partner who has been helping the FBI.

The boyfriend is currently transitioning from male to female and had been living with Robinson.

The Sun revealed on Saturday that Robinson had been seen kissing his transgender partner two weeks before the shooting.

His family are also helping cops build their case against him after Robinson’s dad turned him in, bringing an end to the desperate manhunt.

He had confessed to his dad that he carried out the shooting, who then told a family friend, who called law enforcement to the scene on Thursday night, Cox previously said.

Charges are set to be formally filed against Robinson on Tuesday.

A motive for the assassination has not yet been uncovered, though Cox previously said the suspect, who’s parents are registered Republicans, was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology”.

These claims were made by Robinson’s family and close acquaintances, Cox said, but added that the charging documents will detail much more information.

The Governor has also confirmed reports that Robinson had spoken with others on Discord following the shooting, claiming he was the gunman.

“All we can confirm is that those conversations definitely were happening, and they did not believe it was actually him,” Cox said.

“It was all joking until, until he, you know, until he admitted that it actually was him.”

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He had reportedly joked that a “doppelganger” was trying to get him in trouble, in reference to the initial suspect pictures released by the FBI.

Meanwhile, Robinson is said to be under “special watch” after he allegedly told his dad “he’d rather die than hand himself in”.

He is being housed in the Utah County jail’s Special Housing Unit – where he is monitored around the clock to ensure he doesn’t harm himself or others, according to TMZ.

Utah County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Raymond Ormond said Robinson is under evaluation by mental health professionals to determine whether he is suicidal.

On Saturday, Kirk’s wife Erika spoke for the first time since his murder, vowing to continue his legacy, turning her “widow’s tears into a battle cry”.

She was pictured weeping over his coffin and revealed that she told their three-year-old daughter, “Daddy is on a work trip with Jesus” after she returned home to their two young children without Kirk.

His funeral will take place on September 21 and will be attended by the President.

TUCSON — A federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the Trump administration from removing dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children living in shelters or foster care after coming to the U.S. alone, according to a decision Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez in Tucson extended until at least Sept. 26 a temporary restraining issued over the Labor Day weekend. Márquez raised concern over whether the government had arranged for any of the children’s parents or legal guardians in Guatemala to take custody of them.

Laura Belous, attorney for the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, which represents the children, said in court that the minors had expressed no desire to be repatriated to their native Guatemala and Honduras amid concerns they could face neglect, possible child trafficking or hardships associated with individual medical conditions.

Lawyers for the children said that their clients have said they fear going home, and that the government is not following laws designed to protect migrant children.

A legal aid group filed a lawsuit in Arizona on behalf of 57 Guatemalan children and 12 from Honduras between the ages of 3 and 17.

Denise Ann Faulk, an assistant U.S. attorney under the Trump administration, emphasized that the child repatriations were negotiated at high diplomatic levels and would avoid lengthy prohibitions on returning to the U.S.

Nearly all the children were in the custody of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and living at shelters in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. Similar lawsuits filed in Illinois and Washington seek to stop the government from removing the children.

The Arizona lawsuit demands that the government grant the children their right to present their cases to an immigration judge, to have access to legal counsel and to be placed in the least restrictive setting that is in their best interest.

The Trump administration has argued it is acting in the best interest of the children by trying to reunite them with their families at the behest of the Guatemalan government. After Guatemalan officials toured U.S. detention facilities, the government said that it was “very concerned” and that it would take children who wanted to return voluntarily.

Children began crossing the border alone in large numbers in 2014, peaking at 152,060 in the 2022 fiscal year. July’s arrest tally translates to an annual clip of 5,712 arrests, reflecting how illegal crossings have dropped to their lowest levels in six decades.

Guatemalans accounted for 32% of residents at government-run holding facilities last year, followed by Hondurans, Mexicans and Salvadorans. A 2008 law requires children to appear before an immigration judge with an opportunity to pursue asylum, unless they are from Canada and Mexico. The vast majority are released from shelters to parents, legal guardians or immediate family while their cases wind through court.

The Arizona lawsuit was amended to include 12 children from Honduras who have expressed to an Arizona legal aid group that they do not want to return to Honduras, as well as four additional children from Guatemala who have come into government custody in Arizona since the lawsuit was initially filed Aug. 30.

Judge Márquez said she found it “frightening” that U.S. officials may not have coordinated with the children’s parents. She also expressed concern that the government was denying the children access to review by an experienced immigration judge, and noted that legal representatives for the children were notified of preparations for child departures with little notice, late at night.

“On a practical matter, it just seems that a lot of these things that [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] has taken upon themselves to do — such as screening and making judicial determinations that should be made by an immigration judge with expertise and time to meet with a lawyer and meet with a child — is just surpassed by saying ‘we’re reuniting them’” with parents, Márquez said in court as she pressed Faulk for more information.

Billeaud and Lee write for the Associated Press.

Sunday was gut-check time for the Dodgers.

A day where, as a clearly frustrated Dave Roberts put it before the game, the team needed to “not get embarrassed” in the face of a potential three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and play with a level of “pride” that had been missing the previous two nights.

“Whatever it is, we’ve got to do it right now,” the manager said. “We’ve got to win today. We’ve got to play better baseball. … There’s more in there. There just is.”

Whatever Roberts was looking for, the Dodgers provided just enough Sunday.

Despite blowing a three-run lead that tied the game going into the ninth, the Dodgers prevailed on Will Smith’s pinch-hit, walk-off home run, beating the Diamondbacks 5-4 to move two games up in the National League West standings after the San Diego Padres’ rubber-match loss to the Minnesota Twins earlier in the day.

The win should have been simpler.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a seven-inning, one-run gem, tying his career-high with 10 strikeouts while also not allowing a walk. The Dodgers lineup, meanwhile, wore down Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt, scoring twice in the first and again in the fourth and fifth to chase him from the game early.

Tanner Scott almost wasted those efforts. In the eighth, he gave up a pair of two-out singles before Corbin Carroll took him deep for a tying three-run blast. Scott was booed off the mound, his earned-run average rising to 4.44 in a disastrous debut season in Los Angeles.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the fourth inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Smith, however, saved the day, coming off the bench and hitting the second pitch he saw into the left-field pavilion to ensure the Dodgers didn’t come out of this weekend empty-handed.

Of course, any feeling of progress from the Dodgers will remain tempered for now.

Friday and Saturday, after all, produced the kind of maddening performances from the club that have dogged them throughout the second half of the season.

The team looked lifeless at the plate both nights, scoring one run off Arizona’s beleaguered pitching staff in 18 total innings. They committed fundamental miscues on the bases and on defense, lapses Roberts boiled down to a simple lack of focus. And, as has become a recurring theme during their 22-27 rut since the Fourth of July, they once again played down to a level their $400-million roster simply shouldn’t.

“There has to be a point where that has to be sharpened,” Roberts said. “And that’s where, I feel, the time is now.”

Given the roller-coaster nature of the season, it’s impossible to know if — and when — the next drop is coming.

The Dodgers (78-59) have shown flashes of improvement at times in the last two months — like when they swept the Reds to start this homestand, or swept the Padres at the end of the previous one — only to quickly revert to a lesser version of themselves again.

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1. Dodgers catcher Will Smith celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning Sunday. 2. Freddie Freeman, left, and Alex Call, center, and other Dodgers players celebrate with Will Smith, right, as he crosses home plate. 3. Will Smith, left, celebrates with Alex Call, right, and his Dodgers teammates. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Asked why that has been the case pregame, Roberts struggled to find an answer.

He alluded to a potential World Series hangover, noting that “when you’re playing a long season, you’re defending champions, people are coming after you — which we know and understand — it’s just hard to keep that dialed-in focus every single night. That’s just reality.”

He highlighted the lack of consistent production from veteran players — coinciding with his decision Sunday to leave Teoscar Hernández on the bench, in favor of Alex Call in right field, amid a recent three-for-27 slump that has been compounded by persistently shaky defense.

“He’s an everyday guy,” Roberts said of Hernández, whom the team hopes will benefit from a “two-day reset” between Sunday’s day off and Monday’s travel day. “But I do think that where we’re at, you’ve got to perform too, to warrant being out there every single day.”

Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott pitches in the eighth inning Sunday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Roberts said that mindset applies to the rest of the roster as a whole, from left field (where Michael Conforto has been better of late, but is still batting under .200) to other superstars at the top of the lineup.

“No one is going to be exempt,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to ramp it up and we’ve got to be better. If some other guys deserve more opportunities, then they’re going to get them. That’s just the way it should be.”

It all reflected what Roberts hopes will be a switch-flipping moment from his club; that disaster-averting wins like Sunday outnumber the kind of clunkers they had on Friday and Saturday.

“I do think that a flip can be switched,” Roberts said. “Each day should be equally important. Every little play, pitch, should be equally important. ‘How you do anything is how you do everything,’ that kind of adage, I believe in that. When you’re playing a long season, it’s hard to be that locked in every single pitch. But I’m not going to not try to ask our guys to do that, though.”

President Trump this week threw his full support behind a massive project to turn a sacred Apache site outside Phoenix into one of the world’s largest copper mines, meeting with mining executives at the White House and ridiculing a recent court decision that temporarily halted the transfer of federal lands to their companies.

Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met in the White House on Tuesday with several executives from Rio Tinto and BHP, the two multinational mining companies behind the planned Resolution Copper mine. As proposed, the mine would turn Oak Flat — a long-preserved site of rocky outcroppings and desert waterways on the edge of the Tonto National Forest — into a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep industrial crater.

Trump also posted about the project on his Truth Social site, calling the three-judge U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that blocked the transfer a “Radical Left Court” and saying it was “sad” that “Radical Left Activists” could stall such a project.

“3,800 Jobs are affected, and our Country, quite simply, needs Copper — AND NOW!” Trump wrote.

He also wrote, without evidence, that those fighting the mine are “Anti-American” and working on behalf of “other Copper competitive Countries.”

The San Carlos Apache Tribe, which is among the plaintiffs suing to block the mine, called the court’s decision a “last minute victory” in its ongoing battle to save the land.

“The Apache people will never stop fighting for Chí’chil Biłdagoteel,” tribe Chairman Terry Rambler said in a statement, using the traditional Apache name for Oak Flat. “We thank the court for stopping this horrific land exchange and allowing us to argue the merits of our pending lawsuit in court.”

Trump’s decision to directly weigh in further elevates the already large profile of a monumental legal battle. It has aligned environmental activists and religious liberty proponents, and has major implications for the nation’s ability to meet its rapidly growing demand for copper, which is an essential element in telecommunications networks, electric vehicles and other growing technologies.

Oak Flat was federally protected land for decades. Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe describe it as sacred land home to spiritual guardians akin to angels, and say it has been used for coming-of-age and other tribal ceremonies for generations.

In 2004, prospectors discovered that one of the world’s largest copper ore deposits, estimated to hold enough copper to supply up to a quarter of U.S. demand, sat somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 feet below the surface.

The battle to extract the deposit has raged ever since, but particularly since 2014, when former Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake inserted language mandating the land transfer into a last-minute defense appropriations bill.

A lawsuit brought by the group Apache Stronghold and led by Apache elder Wendsler Nosie Sr. resulted in a split 9th Circuit ruling against the Apache and in favor of the mining companies in March 2024.

In May, the Supreme Court declined to hear an Apache appeal of that decision, clearing the way for the U.S. Forest Service to issue a final environmental impact report and hear a last round of public comment before handing the land over to Resolution Copper.

The decision marked a major loss to the mine opponents, but it did not end other lawsuits filed to stop it — including one filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and another by a group called the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition.

On Aug. 15, a district court judge in Arizona issued an order clearing the way for the land transfer to move forward on Tuesday.

The groups appealed, and the three-judge 9th Circuit panel put the district court decision on hold Monday, pending its own hearing of arguments over the transfer — one of which is that the federal government bypassed a required step in the environmental review process.

The panel — composed of two Clinton appointees and one Trump appointee — said it was not taking a position on the merits of those arguments, and would “expedite” the case, with all briefs due by Oct. 14.

The court’s reprieve, if only temporary, was cheered by Apache groups and other organizations whose members use the Oak Flat land for rock climbing and other recreation. Some also spoke out against Trump’s remarks, calling them anti-American.

Rambler, the San Carlos tribe chairman, said the mine’s opponents “are working to save the U.S. from making a disastrous decision that would give up American resources to foreign interests,” and that Trump had been “misinformed” to think otherwise by the mine’s supporters.

Rambler said BHP and Rio Tinto are foreign companies with ties to Chinese state-owned companies, and will be exporting the copper taken from Oak Flat — “likely to China.”

Rambler said he looks forward “to sitting down with the administration and providing factual information to protect American assets.”

Nosie, in a statement provided to the The Times, also accused Trump of siding with foreign interests over those of indigenous Americans.

“Our nation cannot survive if we sacrifice what is sacred in pursuit of temporary profits,” he said.

Wendsler Nosie Sr., a longtime opponent of the proposed Resolution Copper mine, gathers with other opponents to the mine at Oak Flat in 2023.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

He said the Apache people are grateful for all of the support they have received from people of all political stripes and religious backgrounds, who he said have recognized the fight for what it is — a “moral one.”

“If we destroy our sacred land and poison our environment, we are betraying our children and grandchildren and hurting ourselves,” he said. “The future of the entire human race is at stake.”

A Resolution Copper spokesperson said they are confident the 9th Circuit will “ultimately affirm” the district court’s “well-reasoned” ruling in favor of the land transfer.

“Over the past 11 years, the Resolution Copper project has undergone a rigorous, independent review under the National Environmental Policy Act, led by the U.S. Forest Service. This review has included extensive consultation with numerous Native American Tribes with ancestral ties to this land, local communities, civil society organizations, and a dozen federal, state, and county agencies,” the spokesperson said. “The collaborative process has directly led to major changes to the mining plan to preserve and reduce potential impacts on Tribal, social, environmental, and cultural interests.”

The spokesperson said the project has other local support and “the potential to become one of America’s biggest copper mines, contributing $1 billion annually to Arizona’s economy and creating thousands of local jobs in a region where mining has played an important role for more than a century.”

Tuesday’s meeting at the White House included Trump and Burgum, as well as current Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm, incoming Rio Tinto chief executive Simon Trott and BHP chief executive Mike Henry, as well as other White House officials.

The Resolution Copper spokesperson said the discussion centered on “the mining industry’s capacity to deliver long-term domestic supplies of copper and other critical minerals” from the Oak Flat deposit.

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration authorities are attempting to quickly deport an Arizona woman who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, in what her lawyers are calling the first test of a federal law holding that longtime immigrants cannot be removed until they’ve had a chance to plead their case before a judge.

Lawyers for Mirta Amarilis Co Tupul filed a lawsuit Saturday night in U.S. district court in Arizona and are seeking an emergency stop to Co Tupul’s imminent deportation to Guatemala while the case plays out in court.

“Only this administration would go this far,” said Co Tupul’s lead attorney, Chris Godshall-Bennet, “because at the core of it is an underlying complete disrespect for the rule of law.”

Godshall-Bennet said the government’s move against Co Tupul is just the latest of many illegal actions being attempted by the Trump administration in its effort to remove as many immigrants as possible. If Co Tupul’s deportation is allowed to proceed, her defenders said, it could have wide implications for millions of other immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years and are at risk of deportation.

The lawsuit was filed against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Phoenix ICE Field Office Director John Cantu. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal law since 1996 allows the government to place immigrants in expedited removal proceedings if they have lived in the U.S. for under two years. The Trump administration appears to be using that law beyond its limits.

“They are going to start going around, grabbing people who have been here for decades and throwing them out without immigration court hearings,” said Eric Lee, another of Co Tupul’s attorneys.

Co Tupul’s lawyers don’t deny that she lacks legal status. At issue, they say, is how much due process she should receive.

Co Tupul, 38, entered the U.S. around 1996. She is a single mother of three U.S. citizens, ages 8, 16 and 18, and lives in Phoenix.

She was driving to work at a laundromat on July 22 when an officer wearing a green uniform — believed to be a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent — pulled her over and quickly asked about her immigration status. When Co Tupul declined to answer, the agent held her while he called ICE, who transported her to the Eloy Detention Center about 65 miles southeast of Phoenix.

Three days later, her attorney Mindy Butler-Christensen called Co Tupul’s deportation officer, who explained that her client had been placed in expedited removal proceedings and would be removed within one to three weeks.

“I asked the Deportation Officer to share with me why she would be placed in Expedited Removal,” Butler-Christensen wrote in a sworn declaration. “He told me that this was a ‘new policy’ that ICE would be implementing with immigrants who have just had ‘their first contact with ICE.’”

He refused to provide documentation of the policy, she said.

Under regular deportation proceedings, immigrants are entitled to plead their case before an immigration judge, with rights to appeal. Because of significant court backlogs, that process can be drawn out for years.

Under expedited removal, the immigration court process is bypassed and immigrants cannot appeal, though they are entitled to an asylum screening.

Initially, the faster process was only applied to immigrants who arrived at ports of entry, such as airports. By the mid-2000s, it had expanded to those who entered illegally by sea or land and were caught by border agents within two weeks of arrival.

Use of expedited removal was expanded again in June 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to those present in the U.S. for under two years.

In January, the Trump administration announced that the government would now seek expedited deportation for those arrested not just within 100 miles of the border, but to those arrested anywhere in the U.S. The policy still applied only to those in the U.S. for under two years.

In the Federal Register notice announcing the change, then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman wrote that it “restores the scope of expedited removal to the fullest extent authorized by Congress.”

“First they expanded the geographical area, and now they seem to be challenging the two years,” said Godshall-Bennet.

Co Tupul’s brother assembled a large collection of documents, including 16 signed affidavits of close friends and family and vaccine records dating back to July 1996, proving that she has lived in the U.S. for decades, that she has no criminal history and that she is an upstanding member of her community.

According to emails reviewed by The Times, Butler-Christensen sent the evidence to Eloy Detention Center staff and to Cantu, the ICE regional field office director, saying that Co Tupul should be placed in regular deportation proceedings immediately.

The response came July 29 in an email from a deportation officer who said “the case was reviewed and she will remain in Expedited Removal proceedings.”

On a call the next day, a supervisory detention and deportation officer asked Butler-Christensen why she was so insistent that Co Tupul be placed in regular proceedings, telling her, “What is the difference?” according to her declaration.

“He told me that during the arrest, she refused to disclose to the officers how long she had lived here,” Butler-Christensen wrote.

She added: “I responded that according to the law, she doesn’t have to share that information, and that I, as her lawyer, had supplied plenty of evidence to [ICE] regarding how long she had resided in Arizona.”

The officer didn’t budge.

Another ICE official confirmed what that officer had suggested — that Co Tupul was being placed in expedited removal proceedings because she had declined to share her immigration status with the officer who arrested her.

“Upon the administrative arrest of your client, she invoked her right to not make a statement,” the official wrote in an email to Butler-Christensen. “Based on this, officers processed her as an Expedited Removal.”

Co Tupul’s eldest son, Ricardo Ruiz, said his mother had prepared him for the possibility of her being detained. She frequently watched the news and was afraid the reported ICE raids would eventually reach her doorstep.

In short calls from the detention center, Ruiz said she told him to look out for his brothers and to stay focused on his own school work as a freshman in college.

Ruiz works at Walmart and split the bills with his mother. Without her help, he said he’s quickly feeling the pressure to keep their family afloat. Ruiz described Co Tupul as a dedicated and hardworking woman who raised her kids to be good citizens who respect the law.

He said it’s unfair that immigration officials aren’t respecting the law themselves.

“I just don’t think she deserves this,” he said. “No one does.”

On Monday, Co Tupul’s youngest sons started their first day of the new school year. For the first time, it was Ruiz dropping them off instead of their mother.

July 24 (UPI) — Arizona resident Christina Chapman must serve 102 months in prison for her role in a $17 million scheme to help North Koreans obtain remote positions with U.S. tech firms.

U.S District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss on Thursday sentenced Chapman, 50, after she entered a guilty plea in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments on behalf of the government of North Korea.

Chapman participated in a “fraudulent scheme that assisted North Korean workers — posing as U.S. citizens and residents — in obtaining and working in remote [Internet technology] positions at more than 300 U.S.companies,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti announced in a news release.

“North Korea is not just a threat to the homeland from afar,” Pirro said. “It is perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies and American banks.”

She said it’s important for U.S. corporations and businesses to verify the identities of remote workers to thwart such fraud.

“If this happened to these big banks, to these Fortune 500, brand-name, quintessential American companies, it can or is happening to your company,” Pirro added.

In addition to the prison term, Moss also ordered Chapman to forfeit $284,555.92 that was intended for North Koreans and to pay a $176,850 fine.

She also must serve three years of supervised release after completing her prison term.

Chapman was part of what the Justice Department says is one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes.

It involved the theft of identities from 68 U.S. citizens and residents and affected 309 U.S. businesses and two international businesses.

Chapman is a U.S. citizen and participated in the scheme from October 2020 to October 2023 by using stolen and purchased identities of U.S. nationals to help North Korean operatives to obtain remote work as U.S. firms, including many Fortune 500 companies.

The DOJ says Chapman operated a “laptop farm” at her home, where she received and operated at least 90 laptops to fool U.S. employers into thinking the North Korean operatives were located in the United States.

She also shipped 49 laptops and other devices that U.S. employers provided and that she shipped overseas.

Chapman sent several to a city in China that is located along the border with North Korea.

The companies affected include a top-five television network, a Silicon Valley tech company, an aerospace manufacturer, a U.S. carmaker, a luxury retail store and a U.S. media and entertainment company.

The North Korean operatives also tried to gain remote employment with two U.S. government agencies.

Court documents indicate North Korea has deployed thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world to use false, stolen or borrowed identities of people in the United States and elsewhere to obtain remote positions.

The scheme relies on the assistance of U.S. citizens and legal residents when tried in the United States and enables North Korea to defraud respective employers of millions of dollars, the DOJ says.

The illicit funds often are used to help fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

The Department of State in July sanctioned North Korean hacker Song Kum Hyok for similar alleged criminal activities

The DOJ in August also accused Matthew Isaac Knoot, 39, of Nashville, of allegedly operating a laptop farm to benefit North Korea’s nuclear arms program.

Jose Herrera hit a two-run double in a four-run fourth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks avoided a three-game sweep with a 5-1 victory over the Angels on Sunday.

Blaze Alexander had two hits as the bottom of the Diamondbacks’ order was productive in a positive result just before the All-Star break. Alexander was batting eighth and Herrera ninth for Arizona, which won for just the fourth time in its past 12 games.

Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly (8-5) overcame early control trouble to give up one run and one hit over five innings. He had six strikeouts, with two of his four walks to the first three Angels batters of the game.

Mike Trout drove in a run for the Angels, who fell short in their bid to earn a third home series sweep since the start of June.

Angels right-hander José Soriano (6-7) gave up five runs, but just one was earned over five innings, with three walks.

The Angels led 1-0 after Trout’s RBI single in the third inning.

The Diamondbacks moved in front 4-1 in the fourth inning on a game-tying grounder from Eugenio Suarez, an RBI double from Alexander and Herrera’s two-run double. Suarez added an RBI double in the fifth.

Key moment: With runners at first and second and nobody out for the Diamondbacks in the fourth, Angels third baseman Yoan Moncada misplayed Suarez’s grounder to his left, opening the door for the four-run inning. Moncada, who has been bothered with knee soreness, was replaced on defense in the sixth inning by Kevin Newman.

Key stat: Kelly is 5-1 with a 2.67 ERA in his 11 starts that have come immediately after an Arizona loss, with opponents batting under .200 in those games.

Up next: Both teams return to action Friday after the All-Star break: Arizona is home to the St, Louis Cardinals; The Angels are at Philadelphia.

Mike Trout homered and had a two-run single to close in on two milestones and Yusei Kikuchi overcame Eugenio Suárez‘s two home runs as the Angels beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-5 on Saturday night.

After the Angels took a 4-2 lead in the fourth, Trout followed Nolan Schanuel‘s leadoff single in the fifth against Zac Gallen (7-10) with his 17th homer. Trout capped a four-run eighth with the two-run single. He has 395 career homers and 994 RBIs.

Suárez hit his 30th and 31st homers, the first a 434-footer in the second into the rocks in center and the second to right center in the fourth to top his total from last season. He reached 30 homers for the sixth time.

Kikuchi (4-6) gave up three runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He took a blow to his pitching shoulder in the sixth on Josh Naylor’s liner. The Japanese left-hander stayed in, but was done two pitches later when Randal Grichuk singled to make it 6-3.

Arizona scored twice in the eighth after loading the bases with one out against José Fermin. Zach Neto and Schanuel had RBI singles in the bottom of the inning against Juan Morillo before Trout’s single.

After Suárez’s homer in fourth, the Angels rallied with three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-2 lead. Taylor Ward, Jo Adell and Travis d’Arnaud doubled in the inning.

Gallen gave up eight hits and six runs in five innings.

Arizona’s Andrew Saalfrank pitched two scoreless innings in his return from a one-year suspension for betting on MLB games. He was reinstated June 5 and was called up from triple-A Reno on Wednesday.

The Angels moved within a game of .500 at 47-48. The Angels beat the Diamondbacks 6-5 on Friday night.

Key moment: After Arizona pulled within a run in the eighth, Neto, Schanuel and Trout had their consecutive run-scoring singles to break it open in the bottom of the inning.

Key stat: Arizona has lost three straight and 12 of 17 to fall to 46-50.

Up next: Diamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly (7-5, 3.41) was set to start Sunday opposite RHP José Soriano (6-6, 4.00).

Travis d’Arnaud hit a pinch-hit RBI single down the left-field line in the ninth inning to give the Angels a 6-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

Logan O’Hoppe was hit by a pitch with one out against left-hander Kyle Backhus (0-1) before Luis Rengifo singled and d’Arnaud delivered in place of Gustavo Campero.

Zach Neto and Yoan Moncada each hit home runs in the first inning for the Angels, while Nolan Schanuel and Rengifo each had three hits as the Angels improved to 7-3 against National League West teams.

Randal Grichuk hit a pair of home runs and drove in three runs as the Diamondbacks dropped to 3-7 since July 2.

Arizona right-hander Ryne Nelson gave up four runs on seven hits with four walks over four innings, while Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson gave up four runs on eight hits with two walks over five innings.

Neto and Moncada powered a four-run first inning for the Angels, while the Diamondbacks followed with a four-run second that included Grichuk’s home run and a two-run double from Alek Thomas.

After Rengifo gave the Angels a 5-4 lead with a double in the fifth inning, Grichuk tied it with another home run in the eighth.

Kenley Jansen (3-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Angels.

Neto has seven leadoff home runs, all this season, and tied the franchise record previously held by Brian Downing (1987).

July 11 (UPI) — One man is dead after fire inside a hyperbaric chamber in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

It’s the second such fatality in the United States this year.

The 43-year-old died after the “flash fire” earlier this week, officials confirmed in a statement on the city’s website.

The man was later identified as Walter Foxcroft, a physical therapist and founder of Havasu Health and Hyperbarics.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Officials said it wasn’t immediately clear why Foxcroft was in the chamber, which can be used to treat a variety of conditions.

Fire crews initially responded to a 911 call of a fire at the facility.

Eventually, five engines from the Lake Havasu Fire Department responded.

“The first arriving crews identified smoke throughout the building and an intact hyperbaric chamber that appeared to have had a flash fire in the chamber with one patient inside. The patient was pronounced deceased upon arrival of emergency crews,” the city said in the statement.

In late January, a 5-year-old boy died following an explosion in a hyperbaric chamber at a medical facility in Detroit. The child was being treated in the chamber at the time of the explosion at the Oxford Recovery Center in Troy, Mich.

Hyperbaric chambers contain 100% oxygen, which is up to three times the amount in a normal room, making them susceptible to fires.

Under threat of elimination, UC Irvine‘s bats emerged once again.

Bringing the power for a second straight game, the Anteaters connected for five home runs Sunday, eliminating Arizona State 11-6 in the Los Angeles Regional of the NCAA baseball tournament.

Needing to win four straight games to advance to the super regionals after losing to Arizona State on Friday, UC Irvine is halfway to its goal.

Alonso Reyes — who had just one home run in 2025 entering Sunday’s game — ripped a two-run home run off of Sun Devils starter Derek Schaefer in the fourth inning. Later in the inning, after Arizona State coach Willie Bloomquist went with Lucas Kelly out of the bullpen, Chase Call cleared the batter’s eye in dead center field for a two-run home run to give the Anteaters a 6-1 lead.

UC Irvine took a 7-2 lead in the sixth when Call launched a changeup over the heart of the plate from Sun Devils closer Cole Carlon beyond the left-field wall and into the neighborhood behind Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Call’s two home runs weren’t the only examples of the Anteaters’ power at the plate.

UC Irvine star center fielder Jacob McCombs connected for a no-doubt home run (423 feet, 106.5 mph) for the second straight day in the third inning, lifting the ball over The Jack and Rhodine Gifford Training Facility in right field. McCombs, an All-Big-West First Team honoree, leaned back in the batter’s box after his home run, taking time to admire his go-ahead blast.

Even when the Sun Devils threatened — scoring three in the sixth to make it a two-run game — James Castagnola replenished the lead with a two-run home run in the seventh. UC Irvine forced Carlon — who entered the game with a 2.73 earned-run average — from the game. He conceded a season-high five runs (four earned) across 1⅓ innings.

Plenty is still up for grabs for the Anteaters, but it will now require more of the same offense — and taking down UCLA twice (once Sunday night and on Monday) to extend their season. Luckily for coach Ben Orloff, he preserved most of his pitching staff thanks to redshirt sophomore left-hander Ryder Brooks’ start.

The brother of former UCLA Friday night starting pitcher Jake Brooks made himself at home at Jackie Robinson Stadium, tossing 5⅓ innings of five-run ball, giving up six hits, walking four and striking out three with low-slot delivery. It was Brooks’ longest start since a complete-game shutout of Hawaii on April 19.

Orloff dipped into his bullpen for just two relief pitchers. Ricky Ojeda, the Big West Pitcher of the Year, tossed 1 ⅓ innings on 34 pitches. Over the last three days, Ojeda has thrown 74 pitches — and would be on just a few hours rest if he pitches Sunday night against UCLA. The Anteaters split their midweek season series against the Bruins earlier this year.

UCLA’s Ian May came out of the bullpen and induced Kien Vu to ground into a double play in the fourth to cut short a potential big inning and the Bruins never looked back during an 11-5 victory over Arizona State at the Los Angeles Regional.

The top-seeded Bruins (43-16) advance to the regional final at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

May entered the game in the fourth inning and protected UCLA’s lead, giving up three runs in five innings.

“His line doesn’t completely tell you the story with his two earned runs at the end of the game, but I don’t think we’d be where we were tonight without Ian,” UCLA coach John Savage said.

May said he was pleased with the result.

“It felt pretty good tonight, just happy to get the team a win,” he said.

AJ Salgado scored the opening run for UCLA, followed by Payton Brennan to make it 2-0. Cleanup hitter Roman Martin then broke the game open with a grand slam in the second, driving in Mulivai Levu, Roch Cholowsky, and Dean West to extend UCLA’s commanding lead to 7-0.

Arizona State scored a run in the bottom of the second and again in the fourth to cut into the deficit, but UCLA’s offense kept the pressure on. The Sun Devils added two more runs in the ninth but could not close the gap.

The Bruins will face the winner of the Arizona State-UC Irvine game at 7 p.m. Sunday for a spot in the super regionals.

Tuesday didn’t start as a game the Dodgers necessarily had to win.

But, by the time extra innings arrived on a nervy night at Dodger Stadium, the team was in a situation where they simply couldn’t afford to lose.

Not after entering the day with four consecutive losses, a season-long skid caused primarily by a banged-up pitching staff. Not after Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like an ace, a stopper and a Cy Young candidate all wrapped in one, spinning seven scoreless innings in a nine-strikeout gem. And certainly not with his brilliance in danger of being wasted after closer Tanner Scott blew a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before yielding a two-run blast in the top of the 10th.

“I don’t know if it was a must-win,” manager Dave Roberts said, sidestepping such superlatives with the season still only two months old. “But certainly given Yoshi’s outing, you don’t wanna waste that … You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws [that well].”

Somehow, in a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t; flipping the script, changing the narrative and snapping their losing streak with the most dramatic of endings.

Down by two runs entering the bottom of the 10th, the Dodgers immediately cut the deficit in half with a leadoff RBI double from Tommy Edman. Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked, Mookie Betts advanced Edman with a fly ball, Ohtani stole second, and Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked with first base open. With the bases loaded, Will Smith got plunked by former Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller to force home the tying score. And then, finally, Max Muncy walked it off with a sacrifice fly to deep center, easily scoring Ohtani from third for a victory that felt both hard-earned and hardly deserved.

“I think it showed a lot out of us,” Muncy said afterward, standing in a celebratory clubhouse after what could prove to be a pivotal point in the season.

“We got punched in the mouth, and for us to punch right back, I think that was really big out of the group, out of the guys,” Muncy added. “Everyone not giving up, not hanging their head — we still had a chance to win the game. And guys went out there and did it.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts after striking out Arizona’s Pavin Smith to retire end the seventh inning.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Winning, of course, should have been a much simpler task for the Dodgers (30-19) on Tuesday night.

Yamamoto was spectacular, giving up no hits through his first six innings, stranding runners on the corners to complete his night in the seventh, and providing the Dodgers with the kind of outing that has been missing from their rotation amid a wave of crippling injuries over the last several weeks.

“Yoshi was fantastic,” Roberts said. “We needed every bit of it.”

An equally banged-up bullpen avoided disaster in the eighth, when Alex Vesia and Ben Casparius combined to work through a bases-loaded jam that preserved a narrow 1-0 lead.

“We just kept fighting,” Smith said. “That [was a] big shutdown inning.”

But all along, the Dodgers failed to open any cushion to fall back on late. Their only early scoring was courtesy of back-to-back two-out doubles from Freeman and Smith in the bottom of the fourth. In the seventh and eighth, they squandered opportunities for insurance, stranding a leadoff single from Muncy and a one-out double from Ohtani.

That meant, when Scott caught too much plate with an up-and-in fastball to Gabriel Moreno in the ninth, all it took was one swing to change the game, Moreno skying a solo blast that carried just far enough down the left field line.

“Just left it too much on the plate,” said Scott, who blew his third save in 12 opportunities.

Freddie Freeman scores on a double by Will Smith in the fourth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

After the Dodgers came up empty again in the ninth — Kiké Hernández struck out in what started as a 3-and-0 count with two runners aboard — Scott made the same mistake to Corbin Carroll in the 10th, serving up a belt-high fastball the undersized slugger whacked the other way for a two-run blast.

“You sit there in the [10th] inning, you’re down two runs, and your bullpen is completely taxed,” Roberts said, “those [kind of losses] really sting.”

Instead, the Dodgers rallied, with Anthony Banda limiting any further damage in the top of the 10th before the lineup rallied in the bottom half.

“It’s a big swing,” Roberts said. “To get a win tonight, I’m gonna sleep a lot better.”

Without Yamamoto, none of it would have been possible.

After giving up eight runs over 11 combined innings in his previous two starts, every part of the 26-year-old right-hander’s stuff played up on Tuesday night. His fastball averaged 96 mph. His curveball induced one helpless swing from the Diamondbacks (26-23) after another. And until Ketel Marte singled on a line drive off the wall to lead off the seventh, it was starting to seem like an elevated pitch count (Yamamoto began that inning with 90 pitches, and finished his outing with an MLB career high of 110) might be the only thing standing between him and a pursuit of a nine-inning no-no.

“I thought he was going to go the distance tonight,” Muncy said of Yamamoto, who dropped his ERA to 1.86 with his third career MLB start of seven scoreless frames. “I thought he had the stuff to get the no-hitter.”

That’s why, when the game started to spiral out of control later, and their losing streak seemed primed to continue in the most painful way possible, the Dodgers entered the 10th inning knowing they needed to respond, and wary of the repercussions that would have accompanied such a crushing, wasteful loss.

“They [tied it] and then flipped the game, but we came back,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter afterward, his no-decision not feeling so bad after what transpired in the bottom of the 10th.

“A win like this is great,” he added.

Echoed Roberts: “We just put some at-bats together, man. And it was much needed.”