change

A huge, waning moon glimmered over Los Angeles on election night, a metaphor for a trend that emerged in early returns.

The city’s political establishment seemed to be on the retreat in favor of populist insurgents from both the left and the right.

Mayor Karen Bass held a cushy lead in her bid for a second term, and the Associated Press declared that she had made it into the November runoff election. But the underwhelming amount of support she got thus far showed that many voters in a super-blue city didn’t have enough confidence in a Democratic stalwart to return her to office. Instead, many chose self-proclaimed upstarts from opposite ends of the political spectrum: Republican reality TV star Spencer Pratt and democratic socialist City Councilmember Nithya Raman.

Raman launched her campaign at the last moment, just weeks after endorsing her longtime ally Bass, figuring that enough Angelenos were tired of the incumbent and would join her message of change from inside City Hall.

Raman’s instincts were half right. Voters did want change. But they didn’t view her as a challenge to the status quo — to many, she is the status quo.

The mayoral hopeful didn’t articulate a platform that radically departed from Bass’, and voter antipathy to her muddled messaging showed: she ended the night in third place. If the current results hold, Bass would face Pratt in the runoff.

At Raman’s election-night party at Boomtown Brewery on the outskirts of Little Tokyo, I saw why her chances of becoming L.A.’s next mayor were slim from the start. The gathering felt like happy hour at a Silver Lake bar: far whiter than the city overall, with few Latinos. Her address to a packed house was a grab bag of platitudes mixed with a broadside against MAGA, which is a political nothing in L.A. politics. It was an uninspiring cri de coeur and reflective of a campaign that wasn’t apocalyptic enough for those, such as Pratt’s people, who want radical change, while offering nothing new for Bass supporters.

Yet Raman still insisted she had unlocked something transformative.

“Together, we built something extraordinary,” she said to cheers. “And it gives me so much inspiration to be a part of it, a movement powered not by cynicism or political insiders, but by ordinary people who still believe Los Angeles is worth fighting for.”

Raman then went on the dance floor to greet well-wishers, pumping her fist while a DJ blasted Daft Punk’s “Lose Yourself to Dance.”

A billboard for L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt near MacArthur Park on June 2, 2026.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Across town in West Los Angeles, Pratt reveled in his second-place position, enjoying a Mexican dinner with friends and family. It was a peaceful conclusion to a spring of fulminations against Bass (“Karen Basura”), nonprofits, homeless people (“zombies”) and anything that reeked of Democratic pieties, even as the Republican swore he was campaigning for all ideologies in a nonpartisan race.

Long dismissed as a has-been joke, Pratt correctly judged that Angelenos are angry and don’t want to be polite about it anymore. He and his supporters will take his unlikely rise as a mandate to double down against liberal L.A.

But if Pratt, who lost his house in the Palisades fire, does move on to the general election and is serious about winning, he needs to learn from the political revolution successfully pursued by his polar opposites, the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Six years ago this spring, L.A.’s political establishment wrote off DSA-LA as wokoso upstarts in their long-shot quest to get a political novice named Nithya Raman elected to the city council. Even as Raman and three other DSA members joined the council, skeptics dismissed them and their progressive policies as anomalies that didn’t reflect how Angelenos actually wanted the city to work.

Tuesday night, four of the six DSA-endorsed candidates in L.A. city elections were in first place by large margins and another was comfortably in second, reflecting DSA’s multicultural, citywide reach. In a telling sign of its newfound king-making status, the local chapter declined to endorse Raman or any other mayoral candidate. Without that powerful backing, their trailblazer, along with DSA member Rae Huang, withered on their L.A. revolutionary vine.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez and L.A. Unified school board member Rocío Rivas looked to be coasting to outright victories. Marissa Roy was on her way to a runoff that would exclude the incumbent city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, who was a distant third in the early returns. In District 9, where Curren Price is terming out, Estuardo Mazariegos stood comfortably in second place and looked to headed to a runoff against a fellow Latino candidate in a race that will see South Los Angeles elect its first non-Black council member in 63 years.

The most surprising outcome involved Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who became a punching bag, along with Bass, for people who thought L.A. had transformed into a hellhole. So-called dark money groups, which don’t have to reveal where their funding comes from, poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into negative mailers. Opponents vying for her seat cast federal raids against drug dealers and gangs in the MacArthur Park area as an indictment of her leadership, berating her during debates and on social media.

Even Hernandez’s supporters were fretting about what might happen on election night. But by the time I arrived at her raucous soirée in Highland Park, early returns showed her way ahead of the field and perhaps avoiding a runoff.

“It’s reassuring to see [DSA’s success],” she said as jubilant supporters lined up beside her to get tattoos — real ink, not temporary — of hummingbirds, her campaign’s logo. “That means people see us. That means people want more.”

Hernandez pointed to her fellow DSA member, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“What happened with DSA over there didn’t happen overnight,” she said. “In L.A., we’re getting there.”

A table filled with campaign buttons for Council Memer Hugo Soto-Martinez, who ran for reelection this year and is expected to win outright.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

L.A. hasn’t suddenly become a land of Trumpers and closet commies, of course. Two incumbent council members who are centrist Democrats are also on their way to easy victories, while Councilmember Monica Rodriguez walked into a third term because no one ran against her. Centrists Timothy Gaspar and Barri Worth Girvan have a huge lead over their rivals for the San Fernando Valley council seat that Bob Blumenfield is leaving due to term limits.

But anyone who wants to win in Los Angeles needs to realize that antiestablishment sentiment is in the air.

At the same time, I would remind the victorious populists to look up in the sky and remember their Shakespeare.

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon / That monthly changes in her circle orb / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable,” Juliet warned Romeo.

Politics, like la luna, waxes and wanes whether we like it or not, and anyone who bets on a permanent transformation at City Hall will probably lose.

Angelenos have declared that they want dramatic change. But how will they feel in November?

Ryanair recently changed one of its rules

A Ryanair rule change could see some holidaymakers charged around £55 extra at the airport. The budget airline is well known for its no-frills approach, regularly slapping on extra fees for things like luggage and choosing your seat in advance.

Currently, passengers travelling on standard tickets are only allowed one small personal item as hand luggage without incurring any additional costs. Should that item be larger than the permitted dimensions, it will need to go into the aircraft hold, at an extra charge.

While plenty of travellers are well aware of this policy, there is another Ryanair requirement that could leave you out of pocket. Anyone flying with Ryanair must check in online. Passengers can then store their boarding pass on a mobile phone or tablet.

In November 2025, Ryanair has moved to “100% digital boarding passes via its app, eliminating paper passes to reduce costs, improve service, streamline rebooking, and save 300 tonnes of paper annually”. Online check-in opens 60 days before departure for those who have bought allocated seats, or 24 hours beforehand for passengers happy to accept a free seat assignment.

Regardless of seating preferences, the online check-in window shuts two hours before the scheduled departure time. Once online check-in has been completed, boarding passes are issued, and passengers are required to save a digital copy. Failing to check in online will land you with an airport check-in fee of £55, or the euro equivalent.

To sidestep this charge, make sure you have a valid boarding pass in hand before setting off for the airport, reports Chronicle Live. For those travelling without a smartphone or tablet, Ryanair will issue a free boarding pass, so long as online check-in has been completed before arriving at the airport.

Ryanair said it will send passengers a reminder to check in online shortly before their scheduled departure.

NEW ORLEANS — A sharply divided Louisiana Supreme Court on Monday signed off on abolishing an elected office won by a New Orleans exoneree who had spent nearly 30 years in prison for murder before his conviction was vacated.

The 4-3 decision leaves Calvin Duncan with little path forward to try assuming the role of Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court, a job he won in a landmark election last year before Republican lawmakers raced to eliminate the office this spring.

In a blistering dissent, the court’s Democratic justices said the ruling opened the door to allowing Louisiana lawmakers to subvert the will of voters. The court’s conservative majority disagreed, writing that “this change was entirely within the authority of the Legislature.”

The court also rejected the New Orleans City Council’s attempt to hold a special election, which would have given Duncan the option to run again.

“At a time when our voting rights are under unprecedented attack, this decision clarifies that if we want to live in a democracy, we have to fight for it with every tool our system of government provides,” Duncan said in a statement.

Signed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, the bill eliminating the New Orleans clerk’s office was championed by GOP lawmakers as a necessary step toward government efficiency. Supporters denied that it had anything to do with Duncan or his past.

Democrats blasted the change as overreach from a largely white, conservative Legislature that they accused of seeking to thwart the will of a predominantly Black city. Those tensions surfaced again last month when Landry signed a new congressional map that eliminated one of the state’s two majority-Black House districts.

Duncan was convicted of a 1981 murder and was released from prison in 2011. In 2021, an Orleans Parish district judge vacated Duncan’s sentence, finding he had been unjustly convicted and the charges against him were dropped. Duncan is listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.

Brook writes for the Associated Press.

May 29 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday said President Donald Trump‘s name must be removed from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in a ruling that also blocked plans to shutter the facility for two years for renovations.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper for the District of Columbia handed down the decisions halting Trump’s plans to impose sweeping changes at the historic venue.

The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted in December to add Trump’s name to the building. The decision came less than a year after Trump dismissed the entire board and named new board members, who in turn elected him chairman.

“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, sued in response to the name change. Meanwhile, a coalition launched a separate lawsuit in March asking the court to stop the administration from shuttering the facility for two years and carrying out its quarter-billion-dollar reconstruction project.

Trump said the decision to close the facility came after a yearlong review in consultation with contractors, musical experts, arts institutions, and advisers and consultants. He had initially considered a partial project that would permit shows to continue, but decided the best option for the venue was a temporary closure.

Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio member of the board who sued to have access about the details of renovations, said she believes Trump wants to shutter the Kennedy Center in response to dozens of individuals and cultural organizations who have canceled appearances there in response to Trump trying to rename the center after himself. Beatty said the documents she received about the renovations were “inadequate.”

She said “the documents prove that there is absolutely no basis to shutter this precious living memorial and beloved institution,” she said in a statement. “It certainly looks like President Trump is shutting down the center because he is embarrassed that ticket sales are down and artists are fleeing since his illegal renaming.”

Beatty’s lawyers said she was concerned Trump might use his hand-selected board to push through wholesale changes at the Kennedy Center to design a facility more to his liking. In October, Trump had the East Wing of the White House demolished to make room for a $250 million ballroom.

In a post on Truth Social in March, Trump shared renderings of what he expected the center to look like after the renovations. He said he’s not planning to rip out the facade.

A Washington Post analysis of the renderings show very few changes to the exterior of the building, including altered cornices, updated roof and some windows, painted columns, new signage and landscaping changes.

Harare, Zimbabwe – Precious Mvundura woke up with joint pain, a high fever and a pounding headache on a chilly autumn morning in eastern Zimbabwe.

The 37-year-old initially thought it was just the flu. But when the headache persisted for three days, she became worried.

Her five-year-old son had also fallen ill and was sweating heavily.

In early May, the pair sought help from a village health worker in Chishakwe, a rural farming community outside Zimbabwe’s third-largest city, Mutare. Both tested positive for malaria.

“I felt relieved,” Mvundura told Al Jazeera.

“From the moment I took that medication, I started getting better.”

Her son has also recovered and is back in school.

Their ordeal comes as malaria cases and deaths surge across Zimbabwe after US funding cuts disrupted key malaria control programmes.

Shortly after returning to office for a second term in 2025, US President Donald Trump slashed foreign aid funding, including programmes backed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In Zimbabwe, the cuts disrupted tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria research, prevention and treatment programmes.

Among the affected initiatives were the Zimbabwe Entomological Support Programme in Malaria (ZENTO) at Africa University in Mutare, which provided scientific research to support the country’s National Malaria Control Programme, and the Zimbabwe Assistance Programme in Malaria II (ZAPIM II), which helped strengthen malaria diagnosis, treatment and prevention in high-burden districts.

USAID had disbursed $270m for health and agriculture programmes in Zimbabwe in 2024.

Malaria cases jumped to 65,399 between January and April 2026, up from 36,000 recorded during the same period in 2025 and 17,000 in 2024, according to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health National Malaria Control Programme weekly surveillance report.

Deaths have also risen sharply, reaching 174 between January and April 2026, compared with 85 during the same period last year and 34 in 2024.

Mvundura and her son survived because they sought treatment early. In many other cases, the disease has been fatal.

Shortages of mosquito nets, test kits

Thomas Chuchu, the health programme lead at Save the Children Zimbabwe, said several malaria elimination activities previously supported by ZAPIM II had been disrupted.

“In practice, elimination has continued through government and other partners, but with weaker operational capacity and slower implementation,” Chuchu told Al Jazeera.

The ZAPIM II programme ran through Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health system in 11 districts across the provinces of Central and East Mashonaland and the province of Matabeleland North.

Before falling ill, Mvundura said she had not been using mosquito nets or repellents.

“I only started using a mosquito net a friend shared when I fell sick,” she said.

In December 2025, Caroline Mawombedzi was diagnosed with malaria while living in Burma Valley, a farming community about an hour’s drive from Mutare.

She had last contracted the disease in the late 2000s while still a child.

In mid-May, her five-year-old daughter was also diagnosed with malaria by a village health worker in Chishakwe after suffering severe headaches and stomach problems.

Although her daughter received treatment, Mawombedzi said she could not afford preventive measures such as mosquito nets.

“I am unemployed. I cannot afford to buy a mosquito net. We have not been sleeping under a mosquito net for years,” she said.

Virginia Chakandinakira, a village health worker serving Chishakwe, said malaria diagnostic kits and drugs are now in short supply.

“I used to get plenty of malaria test kits and drugs. But in 2025, they did not give me. I referred everyone showing malaria to a nearby Chitakatira clinic,” she said. Chitakatira is a rural settlement about an hour’s drive from Chishakwe.

“I only received test kits and drugs in February. However, the supplies are limited. The authorities told us they were only distributing them to hotspot communities.”

Research programmes crippled

Professor Sungano Mharakurwa, the director of Africa University’s Malaria Institute, said the abrupt withdrawal of US support had worsened the malaria outbreak by affecting the programme.

ZENTO was contributing data from the surveillance of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which guided strategies employed by the National Malaria Control Programme to control malaria transmission, he said.

The Trump administration’s funding cuts have also effectively put a stop to the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), launched in 2005 by former President George W Bush to control and eliminate malaria worldwide. Mharakurwa said the PMI had played a major role in funding malaria medications, and communities had been left exposed without it.

He said the Malaria Institute later secured funding from the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministry, but it fell far short of previous US assistance.

Zimbabwe’s dependence on donor funding for essential medicines, diagnostic kits and mosquito-control supplies has left the country vulnerable.

Itai Rusike, the director of Zimbabwe’s Community Working Group on Health, said the government needed to strengthen domestic health financing to reduce dependence on foreign donors.

“It is risky for a country to depend substantially on external partners, as donors can withdraw financial support anytime should their interests shift,” he said.

Climate change fuels spread

Experts say climate change is also driving the spread of malaria and other vector-borne diseases across Africa.

Rising temperatures are allowing malaria to spread into higher-altitude areas, which were once less vulnerable to outbreaks.

Zimbabwe experienced El Niño between 2023 and 2024, a climate phenomenon marked by unusually warm temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, which typically disrupts rainfall patterns across Southern Africa.

Heavy rainfall followed in 2025 and 2026, creating ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.

Chuchu, from Save the Children Zimbabwe, said that the current spike in malaria cases was closely linked to the heavy rains during the 2025–2026 season.

“The rains created favourable breeding conditions for mosquitoes, particularly in already endemic provinces such as Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West,” he said.

“The effect of heavy rains is likely being amplified by weakened prevention systems, including reduced mosquito-net coverage, delayed vector-control activities, reduced community surveillance, and challenges with timely testing and treatment following the discontinuation of ZAPIM,” he added.

Professor Mharakurwa, meanwhile, said that above-normal rainfall required equally strong preparation and resources to contain malaria transmission.

Government efforts

Zimbabwe aims to eliminate malaria by 2030, in line with the target set by the African Union.

Over the years, the government, working with international donors and aid organisations, has relied on indoor residual spraying, mosquito-net distribution, mass testing and public awareness campaigns to contain outbreaks, particularly in rural communities.

Health workers continue to carry out indoor spraying campaigns in malaria-prone areas, while village health educators use community meetings and radio programmes to encourage early testing and treatment. Authorities have also expanded surveillance and rapid-response systems in high-risk districts.

But some of these efforts have weakened following the disruption of donor-funded programmes. Key malaria elimination activities previously supported by ZAPIM II included active case tracking, targeted distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets and district rapid-response systems.

For years, the government and aid organisations distributed mosquito nets annually to vulnerable communities, such as Chishakwe. But since the US funding cuts, shortages have become increasingly common.

Village health workers say malaria diagnostic kits and treatment drugs are also running low in some rural areas, forcing suspected malaria patients to travel long distances to clinics for testing and treatment.

Health experts warn that unless funding gaps are urgently addressed, Zimbabwe risks losing years of progress made in reducing malaria infections and deaths.

For Mvundura and her son, surviving malaria still feels like escaping death.

“We cheated death,” she said. “It was so bad.”

World Cup cohosts United States have warned the Democratic Republic of the Congo team to isolate due to Ebola fears.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo ‌(DRC) have no plans to change their preparations for the 2026 World Cup, despite ⁠a warning from the ⁠United States that the team must isolate for 21 days before arriving in the country, a team official has said.

Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the ⁠White House Task Force for the World Cup, confirmed on Friday that the Congolese delegation needed to maintain a bubble where they are training in Belgium and isolate ⁠for 21 days or risk being denied entry after a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in the central African country.

The Congolese team are to be based in Houston at the tournament and will play an opening Group K fixture against Portugal on June 17, followed by matches against ‌Colombia on June 23 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and against Uzbekistan on June 27 in Atlanta.

“We’ve been very clear to Congo that they should maintain the integrity of their bubble for 21 days before they can then come to Houston on June 11,” Giuliani told ESPN on Saturday.

“We’ve made it very clear to the Congo government as well that they need to maintain that bubble, or they risk not being able to travel to the United ⁠States. We cannot be any clearer.”

But a team spokesperson said that at ⁠this stage there was no change to their schedule, which includes a friendly against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on June 3 and another against Chile in Cadiz, Spain, six days later.

“We have kept our training programme. No ⁠player in the squad has come from DR Congo,” the official said.

The entire squad of players are based outside the DRC, mostly ⁠in Europe, including coach Sebastien Desabre. A few team officials ⁠arrived at the training camp in Belgium from the DRC earlier this week.

The team had planned a three-day trip to Kinshasa next week as a celebratory send-off before they head to their first World Cup in 52 years, but ‌that trip has been cancelled.

The World Health Organization on Friday raised to “very high” the risk of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola turning into a national outbreak in the DRC ‌and ‌has declared the outbreak there and in neighbouring Uganda an emergency of international concern.

Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded following the outbreak in DRC.

President Trump on Thursday announced that grocery stories and air conditioning companies will be allowed to keep using high-polluting refrigerants for longer than they would have under a law he signed during his first administration.

“This was a tremendous burden, a tremendous cost,” said Trump, surrounded in the Oval Office by executives from supermarket chains including Kroger, Fairway, Neimann Foods and Piggly Wiggly. “It was making the equipment unaffordable, and the actual benefit was nothing.”

The move loosens rules meant to restrict hydroflourocarbons, a class of climate-damaging chemicals used in cooling equipment. HFCs are known as “super pollutants” because their impact on climate change can be tens of thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide during their shorter lifespans.

In the move Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency extends the deadline for companies to comply with a 2023 rule transitioning refrigerators and air conditioners off HFCs and onto new cooling technologies. Reducing these chemicals and moving to cleaner refrigerants has long been a bipartisan issue.

Trump is also proposing exemptions from a rule requiring leak repairs on large-scale refrigeration systems.

The administration framed the changes as part of its effort to bring down high grocery costs. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions will save $2.4 billion for Americans and safeguard 350,000 jobs.

“Americans who wanted to be able to fix their equipment were instead being required to buy far more costly new equipment and that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Zeldin.

David Doniger, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the move will not only harm the climate, but U.S. competitiveness in global refrigerant markets as well.

“The EPA is catering to a small group of straggling companies by derailing the shift away from these climate super-pollutants,” he said. “The industry at large supports the HFC phasedown and has already invested in making new refrigerants and equipment, currently installed in thousands of stores.”

Danielle Wright, executive director of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council, an environmental nonprofit, said any perceived near-term savings from the rollbacks will be outweighed by the future costs.

“Business owners are far more worried about the escalating cost of keeping aging, high‑global-warming-potential equipment running than they are about the cost of installing new, compliant systems,” she said.

Trump dismissed the climate concerns, saying his changes “are not going to have any impact on the environment.”

He said he wants to get rid of the technology transition rule entirely in the future.

California and a coalition of other Democratic-led states are suing the Trump administration over new limits on federal borrowing by aspiring nurses, physician’s assistants, therapists, social workers, mental health practitioners and other healthcare workers, arguing the changes will further reduce a struggling but vital workforce.

“This case is about protecting access to education, protecting our healthcare workforce, and protecting patients who rely on these providers every single day,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said during a virtual news conference Tuesday. “The Trump administration is going out of its way to make it harder and more expensive for students to pursue the advanced degrees necessary to serve their communities and pursue meaningful careers that allow them to support themselves and their families.”

Bonta said the new limits on loans sought by nursing and other healthcare students — which the U.S. Department of Education initiated in response to Republicans passing broader student loan caps as part of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — was an illegal overreach by the agency that was “deeply shortsighted” and went beyond the scope of the legislation.

“Congress can act,” he said. “But what the Department of Education can’t do is — contrary to law and in an arbitrary and capricious way and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act — redefine what a professional student is.”

In response to the litigation, Trump administration officials defended the new rules, saying they will help student borrowers in the long run by driving down schooling costs at universities nationwide and preventing them from taking on too much debt.

“After decades of unchecked student loan borrowing that gave schools no reason to control costs, these commonsense loan caps — created by Congress — are already incentivizing colleges and universities to lower tuition,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement to The Times.

Kent said Bonta and his fellow Democratic litigants “are more concerned about institutions’ bottom-line [than] American students and families’ ability to access affordable postsecondary education.” As one example of institutions responding to loan caps by lowering costs, Kent pointed to UC Irvine reducing the costs of its master’s in business programs by up to 38% to keep them below a federal loan cap for such programs.

The One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by Congress in July 2025, placed new limits on student loans, which could previously be sought for the full cost of such degrees. Starting this July, applicants categorized as “graduate students” will be capped at borrowing $20,500 per year and $100,000 in total, while applicants categorized as “professional students” will be allowed to borrow up to $50,000 annually and $200,000 in total.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Education issued a new rule defining the “professional student” category as including those pursuing degrees to become doctors, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, various medical specialists, pastors and other religious academics, and excluding those pursuing nursing and other advanced healthcare degrees.

In announcing the change, Kent said it would “simplify our complex student loan repayment system and better align higher education with workforce needs,” “drive a sea change in higher education by holding universities accountable for outcomes and putting significant downward pressure on the cost of tuition,” and “benefit borrowers who will no longer be pushed into insurmountable debt to finance degrees that do not pay off.”

Others fiercely disagreed, including healthcare industry leaders who also had objected to the rule change during a public comment period. Some said the changes would simply increase student reliance on less favorable, private-sector loans.

The American Assn. of Colleges of Nursing, in a statement, said it and its members were “angered by the Department of Education’s failure to support the nursing profession as the demand for patient care services rises.”

Nearly 150 members of Congress — including more than a dozen Republicans — wrote a letter the day after the rule was promulgated expressing “disappointment” over the exclusion of post-baccalaureate nursing degrees.

“At a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care, now is not the time to cut off the student pipeline to these programs,” the lawmakers argued.

Rachel Zaentz, a spokesperson for the University of California, which is not party to the lawsuit but operates a vast network of public health programs, said in a statement Tuesday that UC “strongly opposed” the administration’s new caps on federal loans for nurses and other health professionals, which she said “will be felt most strongly by lower-income graduate students.”

“UC will continue to do all we can to ensure that cost is not a barrier for anyone who wants to pursue higher education, and we will continue to advocate with our federal partners for the programs and policies that make this possible,” Zaentz said.

Bonta rejected the administration’s argument that the new caps would help students pursuing a dream of a medical career avoid taking on too much debt — calling it “tone deaf.” He said those students are already “struggling with all costs right now” thanks to the Trump administration’s tariffs, war in Iran and lax approach to regulating monopolies and other big business.

He also rejected the idea that the new loan caps would force institutions to reduce costs for students, calling that “wishful thinking.”

The lawsuit is the 68th filed by Bonta’s office against the second Trump administration. Joining Bonta in the lawsuit — which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Maryland — were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.

The woman whose harrowing story is the basis for ITV’s John Worboys drama Believe Me has said the show should be shown to the police so that they will treat women better – but it shouldn’t take TV for change to happen

Anyone who wants to know what many women’s worst nightmare looks like should watch ITV’s latest true crime drama Believe Me. It follows the true story of three women who were raped by a London taxi driver and how many people, including the police, refused to believe them. Ahead of the show’s final episode, one of those women has said she thinks all police should be shown the TV show so that they can learn from it. It’s a brilliant idea that could lead to real change, but it poses a question – why can a TV show change everything, whilst the very real, very harrowing story behind it changes nothing?

There are certain things women are told to do to avoid being the victims of sexual assault and rape. Don’t go out late at night and if you are out late, get a cab home – it’s safer. Except in 2009, it very much wasn’t. John Worboys has been convicted of attacking 16 women who got into his taxi and is thought to have committed more than 100 rapes and sexual assault. They got into his cab thinking that they would be safe there and learnt in the worst way possible that ‘safe’ doesn’t really exist.

READ MORE: ITV confirms Believe Me replacement as Rivals legends’ new showREAD MORE: John Worboys ‘cowering in fear’ of prison attack after ITV’s Believe Me drama

And what do you do when you’re entire sense of safety has been ripped away from you? You turn to the police. Those whose job it is to make wrongs right, to investigate reports of crime and bring the perpetrator to justice. The three women at the heart of this story – ‘Sarah’, ‘Laila’ and Carrie Symonds (the only one whose real name was used) – do just that. Only they don’t get justice. They get belittled. They get interrogated. They learn that their red nail polish is enough to make those who are supposed to listen to them decide they are promiscuous and ‘asking for it’. Red nail polish. The same colour I painted my nails when I was 12 and Kate Middleton wears to church at Easter.

When I watched the show, I was caught, as I so often am, between rage and resignation. I was shaking with fury at how the police refused to listen and in the same moment, utterly exhausted. Exhausted by being angry, exhausted by being scared, exhausted by knowing that less than 3% of reported rape cases result in charges and the constant realisation that this hasn’t changed much before and isn’t likely to change in the future.

And yet, even before the final episode of Believe was released on 18 May, I was seeing a call for the police to do better all over social media. The woman who was in the inspiration behind Sarah went on Good Morning Britain to tell Susanna Reid about why the show should be shown to police officers. She argued that if they had the effects of police ineptitude laid before them – in this case, the many, many women Worboys raped in the months between Sarah’s report and his arrest – they might be better going forward.

We know from past TV shows that well told dramas that capture the public attention can lead to change. Just look at Mr Bates vs the Post Office. After that show, a petition to have Paula Vennells CBE stripped was signed by more than 1.2million people and the whole case became such a huge news story that the then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced new legislation to exonerate the convicted subpostmasters. A TV show led to a change in the law.

Similarly, though it was not based on a true story, Adolescence was immediately met with calls from the now Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, for it to be screened in schools so that young boys can learn about the dangers of the manosphere.

There is a trend here where real life stories about traditionally marginalised groups – such as women and the working class – being treated badly by those more powerful than them are given little attention until TV shines a light on them. The systemic problems that are highlighted by these true stories are swept under the rug until television sweeps them back out again.

Here’s the message that sends: if you are from a marginalised group and something awful happens to you, don’t expect anything to change unless millions get to watch it happen to a fictional version of you on the country’s biggest TV networks. If you can’t get a BAFTA winning show out of your experiences, then, I’m sorry, but those with the power to change things aren’t listening.

It’s very Black Mirror, isn’t it? We’ve come to a place where people don’t matter unless there’s an element of entertainment thrown in. That being said, how many avenues for change do we really have?

Protests haven’t yet worked for ending violence against women. The protests after Sarah Everard was murdered sparked an inquiry, which in turn led to to James Cleverly announcing vaguely that police officers charged with “certain offences” would be automatically suspended from duty. Many women I know felt at the time that this was the equivalent to a pat on the shoulder and a ‘there, there, it’ll be alright’. Similarly, politicians are being hindered by internal party conflicts. Jess Philips, one of the biggest advocates for ending violence against women, resigned from her post in the cabinet amid calls for Keir Starmer to step down.

The people who are supposed to fight for us can’t. The routes we’re supposed to take to fight for ourselves don’t work. At least ITV dramas get our stories out there and into the spotlight. At least, when there are cameras, lights and someone calling action, somebody finally hears what we’ve been screaming all along.

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The Palestinian group Fatah concluded its eighth General Conference late Saturday but the results of the elections of the group’s leadership bodies, the Central Committee and Revolutionary Council, were not announced until Monday afternoon. The delay compelled Wael Lafi, the head of the elections committee in the General Conference, who is also the legal advisor of the Palestinian President, to defend the process and delay.

Even before convening, questions about membership, funding, and the general political direction of the group – which dominates the Palestinian Authority – overshadowed preparations for the General Conference.

Sixty candidates competed for 18 seats in the Central Committee, Fatah’s highest leadership body.

Mahmoud Abbas, the 91-year-old Palestinian President, was unanimously voted as chair ahead of the vote, foreshadowing the results of the elections and Abbas’s tightening grip on power.

Dr Nasser al-Qudwa, who was the only member of the Central Committee to boycott the General Conference, told Al Jazeera, “Mahmoud Abbas engineered this meeting to produce the outcome he wants and he succeeded”. Many Fatah members agree with that assessment.

The election results of Fatah’s top body saw the replacement of half of the incumbent old guard. Those included all but one of Gaza’s representatives in the Central Committee, with Ahmed Hilles, a close ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the only one remaining.

Abbas’s close ally and intelligence chief, Majed Faraj, also won a seat on the Central Committee. Faraj is seen by many in Fatah as a competitor to Hussein al-Sheikh, who Abbas appointed as vice president a year ago.

Another signal of Abbas’s grip on the Congress was the nomination and victory of his son, Yasser, to the Central Committee. That was despite the fact that Yasser Abbas has never held a leadership position at any level in Fatah, and the development has overshadowed Fatah’s argument that the Congress was a sign of democratic vitality and inclusion.

Palestinian detainees secured three seats in Fatah’s top leadership body, with Marwan Barghouti – imprisoned by Israel for more than 20 years – earning the highest number of votes among all competitors.

Another winner is Zakariya al-Zubaidi, a prominent Fatah figure who has been imprisoned repeatedly by Israel over the years. Al-Zubaidi notoriously escaped with five other Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa prison in 2021 only to be recaptured and then freed again in one of the prisoner exchange deals struck between Israel and Hamas during the Gaza genocide.

Fatah and Hamas make up the two main Palestinian political factions, with Hamas dominant in Gaza, and Fatah in the occupied West Bank.

Victory for Abbas?

There were 450 members competing for the 80 seats of the Revolutionary Council, which serves as Fatah’s legislator and in theory has strong sway over Fatah policy choices.

However, the winners appear to be dominated by the party’s insiders.

Absent from the Central Committee for the first time is a representative of Fatah outside Palestine, which is seen by many as a worrying precedent for a movement that has followers across the widespread Palestinian diaspora.

But the new Central Committee has an abundance of technocrats and senior officials working in the Palestinian Authority (PA), like the popular Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam or the head of the PA’s General Personnel Council Musa Abu Zaid.

“These are not leaders. They are employees. They will do as ordered,” one Fatah official, who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said.

Dr al-Qudwa views the results as a victory for the Palestinian president, not Fatah.

“President Abbas is the biggest winner,” al-Qudwa said. “He succeeded in completely subduing Fatah to his will.”

A significant proportion of the winners are also current or former PA employees, especially in the security sector.

Most of the old guard were replaced by younger members, but many of that new cohort themselves rose through the ranks of Fatah’s youth movement. Several sons and daughters of former Fatah leaders were also elected despite having no history of involvement or membership in the group, like the daughter of the late chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, Dalal.

Facing crises

Kifah Harb, a prominent Fatah figure who ran unsuccessfully for the Central Committee, confirmed to Al Jazeera that many members had concerns and misgivings about the organisational committee of the Congress.

But she struck a conciliatory tone about the process as a whole.

“As members of the Congress, we are leading members of Fatah and regardless the outcome of the elections, we must stand by it and help Fatah march forward in leading the Palestinian national movement,” Harb said. “There are no alternatives.”

Fatah’s Congress was closely followed by world governments and the Palestinian public, who saw the competition within the group play out in advertisements and posts on social media platforms.

Governments around the world see Fatah leaders as their Palestinian counterparts when it comes to bilateral relations, but Western governments are also demanding reforms in return for increased support to the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah leaders say the Congress is proof of their commitment to reform, pointing to the change of some names and a younger demographic emerging, even if the balance of power ultimately remained firmly in Abbas’s hands.

Whether that placates the international community is one matter, but Fatah will have a tough time getting the Palestinian public on side.

Fatah’s new leaders are faced with the task of resolving several chronic crises, including the PA’s inability to pay civil servants and Israel’s hostile policies – including the unlawful withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, unprecedented land grabs, settler attacks, and the Israeli-made humanitarian disaster becoming entrenched in Gaza.

On Monday, after the announcement of the election results, Fatah offered general policy lines in a statement, but provided no answers on the way forward.

And now it has to content with that future, and a public demand for presidential and legislative elections that will likely become more pressing – one of the many tests that awaits Fatah’s reformulated leadership.

Former Emmerdale star Anthony Quinlan played Pete Barton for seven years and has opened up about how he adapted his accent to secure the role

A former Emmerdale star has revealed the surprising adjustment he had to make before landing his role on the ITV soap.

Anthony Quinlan is best known for portraying Pete Barton in the beloved drama for seven years between 2013 and 2020, before his character departed the Dales for a fresh start in Liverpool.

The fan-favourite was at the heart of numerous dramatic storylines, and Anthony has now shared insights into his audition experience and what it was like working alongside his on-screen relatives.

Chatting on behalf of Freebets.com, the home of the best slot sites, the Manchester-born actor explained: “A friend of mine was actually auditioning for the character of Pete at the time and I wasn’t even aware the audition process was happening.

“I later had an audition in London, then a second round in Yorkshire and then a screen test. I think there were five of us left for the first screen test and I got a call later that afternoon and they said ‘we really like you but we need to tone down the ‘Mancness’, you’re far too ‘Manc’ for a Yorkshire TV show.”, reports the Daily Star.

“They called me back to audition again over the weekend with another actor so I had the weekend to work on being a bit less ‘Manc’, which I think I managed, although it did creep back in once I was on screen and I auditioned again on the Monday and a couple of days later I heard I’d got the role. I was over the moon. What a great show to be a part of.” Anthony recalled his debut on set, expressing how “so privileged” he feels to belong to one of Emmerdale’s most legendary families across the soap’s 50-year run.

He explained: “We were actually on location on the first day. Kate Oates was the producer at the time and she was absolutely outstanding. Her ideas were so original and she really brought authenticity to the show, using real locations.

“So on the first day it was myself and Joe Gill [who played Finn Barton], working on the farm with Bill Ward [who played our dad James Barton] and a director called Duncan Foster, who was brilliant at easing us in.

“Then Natalie Robb arrived as Moira. I’d watched Bill Ward on Coronation Street for years and what a lovely man and an outstanding actor. Joe, I think that was his first job, what a great talent he is and Natalie Robb is part of the furniture at Emmerdale. It was great to watch how she operates on set and take some mental notes from that.

“We were so privileged. There was so much drama surrounding that family and the audience invested in us, which prompted the writers to invest in us more too. The whole Debbie [Dingle, played by Charley Webb] and Ross [Barton, played by Michael Parr] storyline early on, where Pete marries Debbie and Ross has been sleeping with her behind his back and the whole fight kicking off, that whole drama was unbelievable.

“Over the years I was really fortunate. We did some beautiful stuff with Zoe Henry [who plays Rhona Goskirk], that was a real standout moment and then the whole storyline about their mum Emma Barton [played by Gillian Kearney], coming into the show.

“There were stunts too and I remember Mike Parr hanging me upside down off a viaduct in Harrogate, about 120 feet in the air, which was absolutely terrifying. I did the stunt myself and I remember chasing Kelvin Fletcher [who played Andy Sugden] around Tholthorpe racetrack on a motorbike. Lots of high octane stuff as well as high drama. No day was the same. What a great experience.”

Pete was mentioned in an Emmerdale storyline last year, though Anthony has made it clear a comeback isn’t imminent. He said: “Never say never. but i’s not on the cards at present and nothing has formally been approached.

“A return to Emmerdale is definitely something worth seriously considering if it was ever properly presented but right now I want to keep building on the momentum of the last year or so as things are picking up and in the right direction.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 at 8pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX

BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Alan Titchmarsh has opened up about the “drastic change” of swapping his Hampshire home for a new property in Surrey with wife Alison

Alan Titchmarsh has opened up about a “drastic change” in his life, revealing he’s gradually “getting over it”. The 77-year-old gardening guru and his wife Alison have recently traded their stunning Grade II-listed Hampshire abode for fresh digs in Surrey.

For Alan, this marks just the fourth house move in half a century of married life. The decision to “downsize” came naturally as their daughters have now flown the nest.

Penning his thoughts in Gardeners’ World, Alan ranked moving house among the “three most traumatic events” one can face, alongside death and divorce. “I’m getting over it,” the presenter confessed.

The gardening legend has also been mulling over the “planting scheme” for his new outdoor space, which currently boasts a Mediterranean vibe. Alan acknowledges that when tackling a new garden, it’s tempting to opt for minor “tweaks” rather than bold transformations.

Yet the horticultural expert concedes that occasionally it’s “good for us all” to recognise when your plot demands more substantial intervention.

He elaborated: “It’s all too easy, as a gardener schooled in the vital attributes of patience, to value the slowly developing scene in front of one and to resist dramatic changes preferring, instead to do a little tweak here, and adjustment to the planting scheme there. But every now and then it does us good to make a more dramatic change.”

Alan quipped that he wasn’t telling readers to up sticks and relocate, but rather to tackle those neglected corners of their gardens that, “in their heart of hearts” they know they “turn a blind eye to”.

While these spots may no longer “give you joy,” Alan acknowledges it’s tempting to “turn a blind eye” and put things off, reports the Express.

The former Gardeners’ World host has previously likened his plot to a “classic English cottage garden” brimming with “nooks and crannies and beds and borders”. Though he described the woodland encircling the property as being “like a jungle”.

In a past issue of BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, Alan wrote: “Having just taken on an acre of woodland on acid soil, I have the daunting task of rejuvenating a plantation that was established some 50 years ago and which, for perhaps the last 10 years, has ‘got away’.

“Lovely express that: the implication that the plants have yielded to no one in their ability to romp ever upwards to the light, elbowing weaker specimens out of the way. The result? An impenetrable thicket.”

Alan nevertheless confessed he was “excited” to tackle the “once-attractive woodland garden”. Beyond the trees, it boasts an artificial stream bed and a pond “half-filled with water, leaves and that rampant coloniser of damp earth”.

The beloved TV presenter is back on our screens from 9.30am today on ITV One with Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend. Joining him will be actor Neil Stuke and actress-singer Marisha Wallace, while florist Jonathan Moseley will be celebrating the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The holiday destination is hugely popular with UK tourists, and it’s brilliant – but one significant difference is hard not to notice

There’s nothing quite as exciting as discovering somewhere new on holiday. Trying out new restaurants, exploring the attractions and wandering for hours makes for the ideal short break, especially when the weather’s lovely and warm.

I love to travel and aim to visit a new city or country at least once a year. That said, I’m also a bit of a creature of habit, and there’s one destination I’ve returned to repeatedly that never loses its appeal. I first went to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote aged just nine, and it’s since become my family’s ultimate go-to retreat.

If you’ve visited before, you’ll know it feels very much like a second home. British and Irish tourists are everywhere, numerous seafront bars screen football while serving pints and full English breakfasts, and the streets are lined with familiar shops including Spar, Mango, Aldi and Lidl.

But the glorious sunshine, stunning beaches, distinctive landscape and lovely villas make it exceptional, so it’s hardly surprising that my family and I always look forward to our visits there.

We’ve been so often that all the typical tourist attractions have been crossed off our list. Timanfaya volcano, the cactus gardens and Mirador del Rio – a spectacular viewpoint nearly 500 metres above sea level – are all worthwhile visits, but nowadays when we go it’s purely for unwinding.

However, after our return earlier this month, I spotted a major difference, and unfortunately not a positive one.

Like most holidaymakers, there’s only one thing occupying my thoughts when I travel — and that’s the food. Playa Blanca has an abundance of outstanding restaurants catering to every possible taste, from traditional Spanish tapas and paella to sushi, curries, pasta and countless other options.

There are certain places we return to without fail, as well as exciting newcomers constantly appearing on the scene. It’s really unusual to have a disappointing meal anywhere across Playa Blanca.

However, this year many of the restaurants we went to were noticeably quieter than usual. The island itself appeared no less busy than normal, but even during peak periods, the dining spots we passed or visited had noticeably fewer customers.

Asia Playa Blanca, a personal favourite, was practically empty when we dropped in for lunch one afternoon. One family arrived, took their seats and promptly left — a disheartening sight, especially given the exceptional standard and presentation of the Japanese cuisine.

La Bodegon, a superb tapas spot along the waterfront, also seemed to be serving considerably fewer customers than I’ve seen before. While Lanzarote has pleasant weather throughout the year, visitor numbers typically drop during winter — but this was May, and the streets were as packed as ever.

The slump in restaurant footfall could be down to the construction of several large, all-inclusive hotels near the resort over the past few years.

For families in particular, opting for half-board at one of these properties is likely far more cost-effective and convenient than hunting down a different restaurant each evening.

If Playa Blanca is on your travel radar this year, a wander through the old town and a visit to a couple of local restaurants is highly recommended. Top picks would include Imagine India, La Casa Roja and Primari for curries, paella and Aperol Spritz respectively.

The staff are wonderfully friendly and attentive — you’ll often be treated to a complimentary Limoncello or honey rum at the end of your meal — and you might just stumble upon your new favourite dining destination.

It’s not merely trendy psychologizing to salute the qualities of a sturdy tree: a humbling reminder of time’s immensity, but also a living embodiment of shelter, change and growth. Leave it, then, to a massive gingko on the grounds of a medieval German town’s college to cosmically center the three-pronged, multi-generational character study “Silent Friend” from Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi.

Enyedi, from her mesmeric, calling-card period lark “My Twentieth Century” to the eccentric love story “On Body and Soul,” has always been preoccupied with that realm in which the everyday meets the all-seeing and possibility is awakened. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that she’d give a starring role to a 200-year-old tree, which just may inspire the needed answers. And why not? Our living, “breathing,” sky-reaching neighbors have considerable communication skills with each other.

Our entryway is a modern day neuroscientist played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai (and called Tony), who arrives at the University of Marburg as a visiting professor ready to further his groundbreaking research into the mysteries of infant brain development. The gig becomes a lonely endeavor, however, when the pandemic hits and he’s confined to a depopulated campus, sent unwillingly into a kind of monkhood.

It’s as if the nearby natural world, photographed by Gergely Pálos and edited by Károly Szalai, was just waiting for such a solitary moment to draw Tony’s undivided attention into the prospect of green intelligence.

In tandem, Enyedi transports us to 1908 to meet aspiring botanist Grete (Luna Wedler), the university’s first female student, subjected to cruelly patronizing treatment by smug male elders, yet driven to see plants anew when introduced to the light-capturing rigor of photography. The movie’s third woven-in protagonist is a wide-eyed, resourceful farm boy, Hannes (Enzo Brumm), in 1972. While his fellow students spark to the winds of political change and sexual freedom, he becomes fixated on what a lone geranium, imaginatively monitored on its windowsill, might have to convey if given the chance.

The fluid, idiosyncratic charm of “Silent Friend” — which never feels like two and a half hours — is in Enyedi’s heartfelt belief that curiosity is simply a garden that grows progress. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that this veteran dreamweaver’s key cast are entrancing, inviting specimens themselves, led by an inner glow of compassion in Leung that feels like its own natural energy source. When his character contacts Léa Seydoux’s French plant expert, it becomes almost too much rapturously intelligent star wattage for one quietly poetic movie, even if these god-tier actors are just zooming and talking shop.

Hardly anything is overdone here and, in one essential way, Enyedi is also making the case for movies themselves as phenomena to protect and treasure: ecosystems of light, texture, wonder and nourishment. Visually, the film toggles between intimate 35mm black-and-white, grainy 16mm color and multi-purpose digital cameras that visually represent distinct eras. Needless to say, that gingko tree is sublime and majestic in all of them.

SAN FRANCISCO — As Californians cast ballots in the most unsettled governor’s race in recent history, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat surging in the polls, once again took most of the heat during a contentious debate among the top candidates for California governor.

Becerra’s rapid rise as the top Democrat in the race was greeted on stage by a fusillade of political attacks from rival Democrats and Republicans, notably regarding his former campaign manager’s guilty plea to federal corruption charges hours before the clash.

Then came accusations that he wavered on support for single-payer healthcare, and failed to stem healthcare and unemployment fraud while serving as California’s attorney general.

“This is what happens when you take the lead in the polls and you’re ahead of everyone else. They all come at you,” Becerra said. “I get it. So they have to try to beat you down. This is a great Trump tactic that’s used. I didn’t expect it to come from fellow Democrats.”

“With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Becerra later said.

The face-off took place at a critical moment before the June 2 primary. Republican voters appear to be consolidating behind Hilton, who was endorsed by President Trump, while Becerra and billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer are favored most by Democrats.

From left, Katie Porter, Chad Bianco, Antonio Villaraigosa and Xavier Becerra at Thursday’s debate.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Pool via Associated Press)

Up for grabs

As ballots land in mailboxes, California voters are finally tuning in to the race to lead the nation’s most populous state and fourth-largest economy in the world. Thursday’s 90-minute CBS debate may have been the final opportunity for candidates to directly address large numbers of voters.

Until now, scandal drew the most attention to the contest, as former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), once an establishment favorite and nominal front-runner, dropped out in April amid allegations of sexual assault and misconduct

Five Democrats — Becerra, Steyer, San José Mayor Matt Mahan, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — and two Republicans — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former conservative commentator Steve Hilton — clashed about affordability, housing, public safety, climate, education and healthcare. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a Democrat, failed to reach the polling threshold to qualify for the debate.

CBS News Bay Area reporter Ryan Yamamoto, CBS News Los Angeles reporter Tom Wait, and San Francisco Examiner Editor-in-Chief Schuyler Hudak Prionas moderated the face-off in front of nearly 200 people at the historic Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco’s Financial District, with sweeping views of the city.

The opulent Beaux-Arts venue contrasted with the tense confrontations among the candidates that underscored Becerra’s swift rise among Democrats in the field after Swalwell dropped out of the race. Even before the face-off, his Democratic rivals began ramping up their focus on Becerra.

Becerra under attack

The candidate faced a barrage of attacks over a string of unfavorable publicity this week, including a widely circulated exchange with a KTLA reporter in which the Democratic candidate asked, “This is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?”

Earlier Thursday, his former campaign manager Dana Williamson, who also spent time as Newsom’s chief of staff, pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges alleging she and Becerra’s former top advisor were among those who illegally siphoned $225,000 from Becerra’s campaign accounts.

Although Becerra has not been accused of wrongdoing, that did not temper criticism from his political rivals during Thursday’s debate. They questioned his judgment and said Becerra should have noticed where his money was going.

Hilton said Becerra should be preparing his own criminal defense, rather than running for governor. Porter warned that damning evidence against Becerra could come out later — which, if he finishes as the top Democrat in the primary election, could undercut his campaign and lead to a Republican being elected California’s next governor.

Becerra defended himself, pointing out that federal prosecutors never accused him of being involved and stated that none of the candidates for governor were implicated in scandal.

Democrats also painted Becerra as a leader who allowed fraud and mismanagement to fester under his watch.

“He wasn’t minding the shop” as state attorney general, Mahan said, pointing to fraudulent unemployment and hospice claims early in the COVID-19 pandemic. “I mean, the Biden administration had to sideline him during COVID. This is not good leadership.”

Matt Mahan, left, is polling in the single digits and made a last-ditch effort to leave an imprint during Thursday’s debate.

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Godofredo A. Vásquez/pool Ap Via Ap)

Major focus on kitchen table issues, a critical concern among voters

Affordability was a major theme in the debate, which included an introductory video of a single mother struggling to fill her gas tank and buy groceries.

Steyer said he would reduce costs by taking on special interests and bringing about structural change and breaking up monopolies.

“I am the person who will tax the billionaires like me, and the big corporations so we can afford to make the changes” to pay for healthcare and great education, he said.

Mahan said the answer was to “put more money in people’s pockets by bringing down costs,” and that that would not occur under either Steyer or Hilton.

“Tom Steyer’s structural change sounds to me more like socialism. His plans literally would double the size of state government,” Mahan said. “That’s not going to drive affordability. Steve Hilton is touting his Donald Trump endorsements. You’ve got tariffs and wars driving up costs.”

Hilton returned fire: “I love the way Matt talks about how he’s going to lower costs when his city was recently rated the most expensive, the least affordable for housing, in the world.”

Daylight between Republicans about climate change

The Republican candidates avoided attacking each other during the debates, offering compliments instead. But the two split when asked about whether climate change was having a real-world impact.

Bianco said California is destroying itself with its environmental policies.

“Of course we can say that temperatures are increasing,” he said, but he also said he was not “naive” enough to think that humans can affect or control the climate, which has been changing since he was a child, and that California has to stop all the environmental regulations that are “activist related” and destroying the state’s economy.

Tom Steyer spoke Thursday of affordability, a hot-button issue: “I am the person who will tax the billionaires like me.”

(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Pool via Associated Press)

Hilton said he believes in climate change but that California needs to have “common sense” on the issue rather than ideological responses. He said it is “of course” right to want clean water and air but that policies in California are not working — as has been made clear by the recent “mega-fires” in the state.

The Democrats on stage were closely aligned on the need to respond to the climate crisis and ensure that environmental protections are not dismantled by the Trump administration.

Last-ditch efforts by struggling candidates

Candidates in the crowded field who have struggled to break through — centrist Democrats Mahan and Villaraigosa, who have languished in the single digits in the polls — made a last-ditch effort to leave an imprint during Thursday’s gathering.

Mahan went after nearly every candidate on the stage in the opening moments of the debate.

“The change we need is rooted in accountability for results,” Mahan said. “It’s not the change billionaire Tom Steyer’s offering, which is higher taxes and bigger government. It’s not the change Fox News talking head Steve Hilton’s offering — fear, division and more Donald Trump. And let’s be honest, Xavier Becerra is not offering change; he’s the embodiment of the status quo.”

Villaraigosa leaned heavily into his experiences leading Los Angeles and in the state Assembly to argue that he was most qualified to lead the state while castigating his fellow Democrats’ policies.

“This is a state with big challenges, the challenge of affordability, the challenge of healthcare, homelessness, and dirty streets and crime-filled streets,” Villaraigosa said. “The fact is, I’m the only candidate on this stage who, in addition to hitting Donald Trump, which I do, have challenged us, challenged this party, and said, ‘Hold it, a lot of the problems that we face have come from Sacramento policies.’ We need someone with the courage to take on Donald Trump, but also take on our friends when they’re wrong. I’ve had a record of doing that.”

Mehta reported from Los Angeles and Nixon from San Francisco.

LEE Andrews has made a change to his social media platforms after leaving his wife Katie Price furious by failing to come over to the UK.

The self-proclaimed millionaire has said he will be flying over any day now but has not kept his word.

Now Lee has turned off all the comments sections on his recent social media posts so he can’t receive messages from fans.

Lee failed to arrive in the UK in time to accompany Katie on Good Morning Britain, but praised her online for doing such a “fantastic” job on her own.

Katie then reposted the video online, insisting to fans that her man was indeed still on the way.

However, the former model and TV personality now seems to be questioning herself and whether what Lee has been saying is true.

EX’S WARNING

Lee Andrews’ ex shares post hinting at downfall & sends message to Katie Price

CAUTIOUS KATE

Katie Price FINALLY reveals doubts over hubby saying ‘something’s not right’

Speaking on her podcast The Katie Price show, she said: “I’ve said to him, he needs to make it to the UK, because if he doesn’t, then it’s obviously something not right going on.”

She then admitted to confronting Lee over the situation, and said: “It’s the fact you keep saying you’re coming and then don’t come.

“Of course, everyone is going to flag up. Even I’ve flagged it up to him.

“Big time I’ve flagged it up now. I said, ‘Don’t do that to me again. Me having to go on live TV without you and make me look stupid and a d***.

“No wonder everyone’s saying, ‘You’re this, you’re that’, because they’ve got a reason to say it. I agree with everyone.”

Lee’s ex Alana Percival has also claimed that he made up excuses for “missing” his flights while they were dating.

They were in a relationship for nine months until late last year, with Lee even proposing to her in a identical proposal to the one he did for Katie.

Taking to her Instagram stories, she expressed: “Another time he ‘pretended’ to be coming to the UK to come and see me.

“Wearing his cap so facial recognition doesn’t get him hahaha lies lies and more lies… delusional is a understatement.

“This excuse was one of soooooo many but a ‘flight risk’ if this one. He went all the way to the airport to lie when he cannot travel lol.”

WASHINGTON — The head of U.S. Border Patrol, the agency tasked with securing the nation’s frontiers and increasingly tapped by the Trump administration for immigration operations in American cities, announced his resignation Thursday.

Michael Banks’ decision, announced in a Fox News interview and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, is the latest leadership shake-up of officials implementing President Trump’s immigration crackdown and comes as the Republican administration appears to be recalibrating its approach.

“It’s just time,” Banks was quoted as saying in a report on the Fox News website. “I feel like I got the ship back on course from the least secure disastrous chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen,” he said.

In a statement, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Rodney Scott, thanked Banks for his service “during one of the most challenging periods for border security.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear who will replace Banks. He led an agency at the forefront of Trump’s high-profile immigration enforcement efforts but kept a lower profile than some other officials such as Gregory Bovino, a now-retired commander who became a public face of the city operations.

CBP is one of the federal agencies that participated since last year in a series of immigration enforcement operations, carried out primarily in cities governed by Democrats —an effort that triggered a spike in arrests and led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Banks’ resignation takes place two months after Markwayne Mullin, a former Republican senator from Oklahoma, became homeland security secretary. DHS oversees CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

Banks is stepping down at the same time that ICE is also going through a leadership transition. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, is leaving later this month and will be replaced by David Venturella, who worked for years for private contractors before returning to government service.

CBP was established in 2003 and handles customs, immigration, and agricultural regulations to secure U.S. borders.

Banks returned to the Border Patrol last year after a long agency career that had never landed him in its senior ranks. His star had risen as border czar to Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, during a period when illegal crossings reached record highs and the state launched a multibillion-dollar enforcement surge that led to turf battles with the Biden administration.

Banks kept a relatively low public profile as arrests for illegal crossings that have plunged to their lowest levels since the mid-1960s, a trend that began toward the end of that Democratic administration.

Banks did not appear publicly at the Border Security Expo this month in Phoenix, an annual conference at which government officials update contractors on the state of the border. Scott, who was Banks’ supervisor, is a close ally of Trump border czar Tom Homan and has acted more as the agency’s public face.

In the interview with Fox News, Banks said that after 37 years, “it’s time to enjoy the family and life.”

A Jet2 survey has shown a shift in how people are booking their holidays amid concerns over jet fuel supplies

Jet2 has revealed that passengers are making a major change to how they book holidays amid concern over major jet fuel problems this year due to teh Middle East Crisis. As the Middle East crisis deepens, mounting concerns suggest Britain could face a jet fuel shortage that may disrupt holiday flights.

Goldman Sachs has cautioned that Britain is the country “most exposed” to jet fuel shortages triggered by the Iran conflict, stoking fears of further flight cancellations and ruined summer getaways. Analysts at one of the world’s largest investment banks warned that the UK is heavily dependent on imports routed through the closed Strait of Hormuz, with “critically low levels” of supplies and inadequate refining capabilities.

And personal finance expert Martin Lewis has spoken out about the issue – highlighting people who book their flights and hotels separately might not get compensation if flights are cancelled. Jet2 said package holidays are now the top choice for travellers, with 51% opting for this booking method – a 5% rise since February. During the same timeframe, those preferring to book through separate providers has fallen by six percentage points to 20%, while ‘accommodation only’ bookings have plummeted to just 2%.

Jet2 said the results showed main attractions of package holidays have remained consistent, with value (36%) and convenience (36%) leading the way. However, the appeal of ‘added security with one provider, ATOL/ABTA protection’ has climbed by four percentage points since February to reach 26%, according to the survey.

This protection ensures customers are safeguarded against any alterations to their bookings, including the possibility of refunds should travel plans be scrapped, while guaranteeing holidays meet the highest standards for customer service, booking amendments, and health and safety.

READ MORE: Jet2, easyJet, Jet2, TUI passengers with flights booked warned of ’14 day rule’ changeREAD MORE: TV travel expert Simon Calder gives Spain, Portugal, Italy summer rule update

Jet2 has pledged not to impose surcharges on any confirmed flights or holidays to offset rising costs, such as jet fuel, giving customers peace of mind that the price they book is the final price they’ll pay.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, commented: “Consumers want assurance during times of uncertainty and package holidays provide that assurance. On top of all the protection that our package holidays guarantee, Jet2 is well known as being a consumer champion that goes above and beyond to look after customers. Ahead of a busy summer season, this means new and existing customers know that their well-deserved holidays are in the very best hands with us, and we are very excited about welcoming everyone onboard and taking them on their breaks.”

As millions of Jet2 customers gear up for a bustling summer season, the firm has confirmed it intends to run its scheduled services as planned.

Martin Lewis gave a warning for anyone who has already booked their holiday for this summer. In an update the personal finance guru gave an alert to people who have already paid for breaks from the main holiday firms and airlines like TUI, Jet2, Ryanair, Wizz, easyJet and British Airways.

During his Money Show Live on ITV, the financial expert responded to an audience member who asked: ‘If my flight’s cancelled due to no jet fuel will you definitely receive all your money back even for your hotel booking as well.’

Mr Lewis made clear that travellers would lose their hotel booking costs if they had arranged accommodation independently from flights booked with airlines such as Jet2, TUI, Wizz, Ryanair or easyJet – as they would not be protected under consumer regulations.

He stated: “No. And I think this is what people need to be very aware of. If you booked a package holiday where you booked everything in one, then under the package holiday regulations and rules and protections generally if your flight went you would get everything back.”

He went on to say: “And so actually at the moment package holidays give you a certain level of extra security that you wouldn’t get if you did a DIY booking where you bought your hotel and flight separately.” The reason behind this, he explained, is that the hotel booking itself remains valid: “Because the point is if you lose your flight and you’ve DIY booked, there’s nothing wrong with your hotel.

“The issue is you can’t get there. Your hotel is still there. It’s not faulty. It’s not cancelling. So, you don’t have those consumer rights.” If the hotel hasn’t done anything wrong, then guests might look at how they’ve made their booking – but that route offers no solution either.

He said: “So, you would then say, ‘What about using a credit card or debit card protection?’ It won’t work because there’s nothing faulty. And that’s just giving you the same replica rights that you would have with the retailer.”

Meanwhile, holiday giant TUI has issued a direct message to those with May bookings. TUI Managing Director Neil Swanson in a message on Facebook, pledged that May half-term flights would proceed as scheduled: “We know you may be feeling a little uneasy after recent headlines, and we want to reassure anyone travelling over May half term that they can look forward to their holiday with confidence with TUI. We have good visibility on fuel supplies and are operating our holiday programme as planned, with no flights being cancelled due to fuel shortages.

“Our careful planning across fuel, flying and hotel capacity means we’re able to continue offering great value and stable prices – with no fuel surcharges added by TUI. The price you see is the price you pay, and all TUI package holidays are ABTA & ATOL protected, giving peace of mind from booking right through to returning home.”

On TUI’s Facebook page, holidaymakers reported seeing significant price hikes. Marie said: “We booked our August holiday nearly 18 months ago and paid 5.2K. Just checked it to book now and it’s 6.7K. Glad we booked so far in advance. Already booked August 2027 holiday for same price as we paid this year.”

Lynn replied: “Marie Tomes we’re the exact same. Been going to the same hotel for 7yrs. They renegotiated the contract last year. For us to book for next year its going to be nearly 1k each more for our 2weeks. We’re going to make the most of this year as our last visit.”

One concerned traveller, Rno, raised worries about upcoming summer trips: “What about those who have already booked a hotel and flight for the entire month of August? I have a booking for my family and I’m worried Note that the plane is a TUI and the flight is to Egypt.”

TUI responded: “Hi there. We’re monitoring the situation closely. Right now, we don’t expect any disruption to flights or holidays, but we’ll keep this under review and contact customers directly if anything changes that affects their booking. “

Meanwhile, Jet2 revealed it too is witnessing a notable shift in booking behaviour amongst travellers. Experts such as Martin Lewis have urged travellers to book holidays as a package deal, warning that purchasing flights and accommodation separately could leave them without full compensation should anything go awry.

Over his two spells in charge this season, 74-year-old O’Neill has averaged more Premiership points per game than any of his peers.

He has been more successful than Celtic could have hoped for when they brought him out of retirement after Brendan Rodgers’ acrimonious departure, and again following Wilfried Nancy’s ill-fated eight-game spell.

There is at least an arguable case that had he been in charge since Rodgers left, Celtic would be strong favourites to win the league by now.

On that basis, has O’Neill done enough to return as manager next season? Is his future contingent on winning the Premiership? Should Celtic look to the future? Does O’Neill want to keep managing in such a harsh environment at 74?

Right now these are unanswered questions, at least outside the walls of Celtic Park.

“I feel a sense of renaissance, coming back and working with young people, it’s really, really terrific,” O’Neill told talkSPORT on Tuesday when asked about the future.

“We’ll have to see see how we stand at the end of the season, and that’s nearly upon us now. “

While grateful to O’Neill, who was already a legendary figure, some Celtic supporters feel a fresh face in the dugout is needed.

Paul John Dykes, from A Celtic State of Mind podcast, believes O’Neill “should go and chill out and just enjoy retirement” at the end of the season.

“Martin O’Neill has been dreadfully let down by the Celtic board,” Dykes told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.

“There’s no way he came to Celtic in January, one week into a January transfer window, on the promise of four loanees and an out-of-contract player to win the double. No chance.

“So regardless of what happens, Martin O’Neill’s legacy is intact.”

Tom Steyer is trying to sell himself to voters as an agent of change.

He has vowed to take on entrenched political and economic forces to create affordable housing, make the wealthy pay more in taxes, lower energy bills and protect the environment.

But perhaps the biggest change he is selling is his own.

The hedge-fund billionaire turned climate activist has faced criticism throughout his campaign for past investments in coal plants and private prisons, to name a few, that helped build his fortune and gave him the means to spend more than $150 million of his own money in his quest for the governor’s mansion.

Steyer’s prolific spending has blanketed the airwaves with television ads and helped propel him near the top of an unsettled gubernatorial field in the polls.

The 68-year-old San Franciscan has helped put many Democratic candidates in office as one of the party’s biggest political donors in the past two decades, but has never held public office himself.

He spent more than $340 million in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but dropped out after placing third in the primary in South Carolina, where he had invested heavily.

There is a long tradition of wealthy, self-funding candidates, and the results are mixed at best. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent more than $260 million to win three terms as New York City mayor. But he spent more than $1 billion on a 2020 presidential bid and lasted only four days longer in the race than Steyer. Two years later, real estate developer Rick Caruso spent more than $100 million in an effort to become Los Angeles mayor but lost handily to Karen Bass.

Hoping for a better result in his current race, Steyer has staked out a position as the most progressive candidate in the field — touting an endorsement from the Bernie Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution. He’s picked up other key endorsements, too, from the California Teachers Assn., California Nurses Assn. and numerous environmental groups.

But he faces the challenge of convincing enough liberal voters to support a billionaire with controversial past investments the same year a tax on billionaires, currently enjoying strong support, is poised to be on the November ballot.

“This election is about who you can trust to fight for you,” former Rep. Katie Porter said during an April 22 gubernatorial debate in San Francisco. “One candidate is a billionaire who got rich off polluters and ICE prisons and is now using that money to fund his election.”

Steyer said he understands the broad concerns about his wealth and is willing to vote for the billionaires’ tax in November.

“I know that people are skeptical of billionaires, and I’m skeptical of billionaires,” Steyer said Tuesday in an interview with The Times. “But if you look at this race, I’m the only progressive in the race. I’m the person who’s taking on the corporate special interests.”

He pointed to the millions spent by a super PAC supported by the real estate industry and Pacific Gas & Electric — which Steyer has pledged to break up to bring down utility costs — as evidence that he is the candidate most feared by moneyed interests in the state.

“The companies that are running up the costs are fighting like hell, because that’s how they make their money,” he said. “But somebody’s got to stand up to them.”

The departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell from the race last month after sexual assault allegations doesn’t appear to have resulted in a major surge of support for Steyer. Rather, it is Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary, who seems to have gained momentum.

But veteran California pollster Mark Baldassare said that he hasn’t counted out Steyer yet.

Tom Steyer, in 2013, as he was campaigning against the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

(David Paul Morris / Bloomberg)

“It would be easy to say that he’s reached his peak, except for the fact that there are so many undecideds and Steyer has so many resources at his disposal,” said Baldassare, the statewide survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California.

Steyer has poured at least $875 million into federal and state political committees since 2010, according to an analysis conducted for The Times by OpenSecrets, and federal and state campaign finance records. That total includes the nearly half a billion dollars he has spent on his two races.

In 2013, Steyer left his investment firm and launched NextGen Climate, a progressive political action group geared toward addressing climate change. He has given nearly $270 million to a super PAC affiliated with the group, which was later renamed NextGen America.

The committee has spent tens of millions of dollars on campaigns opposing fossil fuel interests and supporting progressive candidates, though Steyer’s financial support for the group has decreased as he has run for office.

The billionaire also established his climate bona fides by opposing the Keystone XL pipeline during the Obama administration, which became a national proxy fight over climate policy, and by backing environmental ballot measures in California.

Among them was a $5-million investment in 2010’s “No on Prop. 23” campaign, which defeated a conservative effort to overturn California’s greenhouse gas emission reduction law.

Two years later, Steyer invested about $29.5 million in Proposition 39, a winning measure to recoup money from corporate tax breaks to help pay for clean energy projects.

Privileged upbringing and a ‘desire to compete’

Steyer’s unconventional path to politics began with a privileged upbringing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He studied at the elite Buckley School and Philips Exeter Academy before attending college at Yale University, where he captained the men’s soccer team and graduated in 1979.

After a brief stint on Wall Street, he got a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford University, where he met his future wife, Kat Taylor. They wed on the Stanford campus in 1986.

Steyer worked hard — very hard — at making money.

He was one of several “Wall Street Prodigies” featured in a Wall Street Journal profile from the same year he was married.

Steyer’s work began at 5 a.m. in the office and he seldom took days off — he fretted he wouldn’t have time for a honeymoon.

He eschewed the trappings of wealth — driving an eight-year-old Honda — motivated instead by a “desire to compete, excel and keep struggling to do better.”

Steyer began cutting political checks soon after, but his real emergence as a major political donor came during the 2004 presidential campaign, when he pledged to raise more than $100,000 for John Kerry’s campaign and was talked about as a potential political appointee at the U.S. Treasury Department in a Kerry administration.

Steyer hired Kerry to join his sustainable investment company Galvanize in 2024. Steyer stepped down from the company before entering the governor’s race.

The year 2004 was pivotal for another reason.

A group of students at his two alma maters, Yale and Stanford, along with those at a handful of other elite universities, began a campaign to pressure the endowments at their institutions to stop investing with Steyer’s hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management.

They cited concerns about some of the firm’s investments, including a coal burning plant in Indonesia and a joint venture between Farallon and Yale to pump out water from an aquifer in Colorado adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

“Stated simply, we do not want our universities to profit from investments that harm other communities,” the students wrote in an open letter to Steyer. “We are concerned about the impact some of Farallon’s recent investments have had.”

Steyer told the students he appreciated “the importance of the issues that you raise,” but defended his firm’s work, saying that it acted “responsibly and ethically.”

Looking back on that time now, Steyer said it was a turning point.

“I think that experience really was a wake-up call to me,” he said. “It’s when I started to very seriously consider leaving Farallon. I really felt like if I was going to be the person with my values, I was going to have to leave and be independent and do what was right.”

Three years later, Steyer and his wife began their initial pivot to public service, opening a bank in Oakland that would cater to low-income customers

Tom Steyer, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, greets people at an event in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2019.

(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

But this initial venture highlighted the inevitable collision course between Steyer’s burgeoning activism and his firm’s investments.

At an event that year with then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Steyer and Taylor pledged $1 million in loans to support vulnerable people in Oakland facing foreclosure in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Left unsaid was the fact that Steyer’s firm had extensive financial ties to San Diego’s Accredited Home Lenders, one of the biggest subprime mortgage lenders in the country.

The transformation to climate activist

Steyer and his wife began writing bigger philanthropic checks and in 2010 took the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half of their wealth before they died.

In 2009, they gave $40 million to endow the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy at Stanford, the first of several multimillion-dollar gifts to Stanford and Yale to support climate-focused ventures. They pledged $7 million to create the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, also at Stanford, in 2010. It closed last year after its endowment came to an end.

And in 2011, the couple donated $25 million to Yale to help establish an Energy Sciences Institute focused on developing sustainable energy solutions.

But even as Steyer undertook his public transformation from investor to climate activist, his firm continued to make decisions out of step with his newfound commitment.

In 2011, for example, the firm purchased 1.8 million shares of BP, a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which a BP-operated project dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Steyer resigned from the firm at the end of 2012, though he still has millions of dollars invested in the firm .

Environmentalists have largely been willing to forgive Steyer’s past investments.

“There’s no question he’d be the most knowledgeable and committed climate advocate that’s ever held really high office in America,” climate activist and author Bill McKibben recently told Politico.

While the nonprofit California Environmental Voters has endorsed both Katie Porter and Tom Steyer in the race, Steyer, in particular, has “taken on Big Oil dollar for dollar, toe to toe, and beaten them,” said Mary Creasman, the group’s chief executive.

“He has made this his career and his investment and his passion, so it’s authentic, and voters see that,” she said.

Leah Stokes, an associate professor of environmental politics at UC Santa Barbara, said she’s impressed by Steyer’s climate track record and progressive campaign platform, noting that he’s been an active presence in California’s climate movement for more than 15 years.

That includes not only his work on ballot initiatives and clean energy technology, but also his focus on biodiversity loss and carbon sequestration at his 1,800-acre TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, where researchers are studying regenerative agriculture.

But Steyer has also played a role in elevating climate into a national political issue — including in the early 2010s when it wasn’t a “politically hot topic,” Stokes said.

“He has been willing to spend an enormous amount of his personal money on elections on climate — whether it’s propositions, whether it’s himself running for president on basically a climate platform, whether it’s the Next Gen giant voter turnout campaign,” she said. “I think he has recognized … that politics is where we have to invest our time if we want to make a difference on the climate crisis.”

Despite concerns raised about Steyer’s early investments into fossil fuels through Farallon, Stokes said she’s more apt to criticize candidates who are taking money from oil companies today, such as Becerra, who accepted a $39,200 donation from Chevron for his gubernatorial campaign.

She was also heartened by the fact that Pacific Gas & Electric has funded a $10-million PAC opposing Steyer, because she said it indicates that he aims to hold utility companies accountable for skyrocketing electricity prices amid soaring profits.

“We could actually have a shot here at having somebody who cares about climate change, who wants to hold utilities accountable, who wants to hold big polluters accountable,” Stokes said. “That would just be transformative.”

Energy costs weigh heavily on voters

Steyer’s focus on climate issues and energy affordability could also be a strategic boon in the governor’s race.

Sixty percent of voters in the state see climate change as a major threat to the country and believe that the government is not doing enough to address it, according to polling from the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Californians connect the dots between what’s going on with extreme climate and wildfires and climate,” said Baldassare, the institute’s survey director.

Recent polling has also shown that voters are very concerned about energy affordability and rising utility costs, with 13% of Americans naming it as the most important financial problem facing their family — a 10-point increase from last year, according to an April Gallup poll.

Overall, energy costs tied housing costs as the second-biggest concern following the high cost of living, the poll found.

In November, Democrats who campaigned heavily around energy affordability swept the field in key races in New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia. Residential electric prices increased nearly 11% between January 2025 and this February, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“Voters are supporting candidates who are leaning into these issues,” Creasman said.

Wieder reported from Washington and Smith from Los Angeles.

The Department for Transport has announced it is consulting on major changes for holidays

Concerns have been raised about potential changes which will mean the end of a ‘14-day rule’ this summer with flights being changed or cancelled at the last minute. The Department for Transport has announced it is consulting on major changes to holidays amid uncertainties about jet fuel supplies as the Middle East crisis continues with no end in sight.

With intense pressure on jet fuel widely tipped to cause travel problems this summer, the government announced over the weekend that airlines will be allowed to group passengers from different flights onto fewer planes. This means that at the last minute, people could be switched to a different flight.

The DfT says it will help cut the likelihood of last-minute flight cancellations this summer in the event of significant disruption due to ongoing global uncertainty caused by the Middle East conflict. It lets carriers such as Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2, British Airways, Wizz Air UK, and TUI, consolidate flights on routes where there are multiple trips to the same destination on the same day.

However, consumer experts said that currently, passengers are protected by a 14-day rule, and it’s ‘not fair’ for people to be shifted at the last minute to suit airlines without compensation. Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel said: “Millions of Britons will have already booked their flights for this summer, often paying over the odds for flights at peak times.

“Existing rules already allow airlines to move customers to new flights so long as they give them more than 14 days’ notice and offer the choice between a new flight or a refund. It’s only for cancellations within 14 days that compensation is payable, rightly.

READ MORE: Ryanair, EasyJet, Jet2 and Wizz Air update on summer flightsREAD MORE: Martin Lewis’ urgent warning for TUI, Jet2 and Ryanair bookers ‘do it now’

“It’s not fair for the rules to now be bent in favour of airlines and potentially leave passengers holding the bill. Many passengers will understand that disruptions can occur and may be happy to travel a few hours or a day later, but for those on short trips or connecting flights it could mean the trip is no longer worthwhile.

“Before any changes are made, passengers need cast-iron assurances that their rights will not be weakened and that airlines cannot use reform as cover to shift the cost of disruption onto travellers.”

Conservatives say it could see passengers “herded on to a different plane, at a time of the airline’s choosing”. The DfT says, however, that the measure is designed to give passengers “greater confidence” by helping airlines to lock in their schedules earlier.

Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, adds: “There are no immediate supply issues, but we’re preparing now to give families long-term certainty and avoid unnecessary disruption at the departure gate this summer.

“This legislation will give airlines the tools to adjust flights in good time if they need to, which helps protect passengers and businesses.”

The Department for Transport said the measures would:

• help move passengers onto similar services much earlier, helping avoid stressful delays at the airport
• prevent running flights which have not sold a significant proportion of tickets
• reduce wasted fuel from flying near-empty planes

Current rules

If your flight is cancelled by the airline, you have a legal right to a choice between being re-routed or a refund. If a flight is subject to a significant delay – at least 2 hours for short-haul, 3 hours for medium-haul and 4 hours for long-haul – passengers are entitled to care and assistance, including food, drink and overnight accommodation where necessary.

Rob Bishton, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “Passengers in the UK are well protected by some of the strongest rights in the world, offering reassurance if disruption does occur.

“Airlines have a duty to look after their passengers when they face disruption, and should offer a choice between a refund or alternative travel arrangements, including with another airline, if a flight is cancelled.

“Relaxing the rules around slots at airports will allow airlines more flexibility and so we expect them to give passengers as much notice as possible of cancellations during this period.”

If notified of changes to their flights by airlines, passengers are advised to speak to their airline, travel agent or tour operator in the first instance.