In Megha Majumdar’s new novel “A Guardian and a Thief,” a cataclysmic climate event in the Bengali city of Kolkata has wiped out shelter and food supplies, leaving its citizens desperate and scrambling for survival. Among the families beset by the tragedy are Ma, her young daughter Mishti and Ma’s father Dadu. They are some of the fortunate ones, with approved passports to travel to the U.S., where Ma’s husband awaits them in Ann Arbor, Mich. But a brazen theft threatens their very existence.
“A Guardian and a Thief” is Majumdar’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed bestselling debut “A Burning.” We chatted with the author about white lies, the pleasures of anthropology and teaching as a form of learning.
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✍️ Author Chat
“A Guardian and a Thief” by Megha Majumdar
(Knopf)
Your novel takes place in Kolkata, which is your hometown. Why?
It’s one of the cities in the world which is most severely affected by climate change. I was reading about all of these grim predictions. Kolkata has grown significantly hotter and is predicted to endure more storms in the coming decades. Reading all of that was really sad, and it was really alarming. The book really grew out of these predictions about the future of the city.
Your character Boomba makes life very difficult for your family, yet he is really a victim of circumstance, right? Calamities can make good people do bad things.
This is the kind of question that got me into this book, which is, are there good people and monsters or do we contain elements of both in us? And is this revealed in a circumstance of scarcity and crisis? That’s the kind of question that I was very interested in. Boomba came to me initially as the thief of the title, but as I started writing more about him, I realized that it wouldn’t be truthful or interesting to simply make him the thief. He was more complex and I needed to write him with all of his complicated motivations and wishes and worries and regrets.
Everyone in the novel lies to some extent, whether it’s for self-preservation, or to protect their loved ones from being hurt.
I think it’s coming from love, actually, the loving function of lies and falsehoods. Anybody who has lived far away from home might find that this resonates with them: This feeling that when you are really far away from your loved ones, you need to assure them that you are OK, that things are all right. It’s a kind of love that you can offer them, because they cannot do anything to help you from so far away. So offering them falsehoods about how your circumstances are fine and they have nothing to worry about is an expression of love for them.
You studied anthropology in college. How did you move into fiction?
Anthropology is about the effort to understand [other people] while acknowledging that you can never fully know, that there are limits to how much any of us can understand another person’s life. That training, in listening for complexity in somebody else’s life story, and honoring the contradictions and intricacies of their life, and maintaining the humility to acknowledge that there are things about other people which will always remain mysterious to us — that space is so rich for a fiction writer.
You teach writing in the MFA program at Hunter College in New York. How does that feed into your work?
It’s what I loved about working as a book editor. Teaching feels beautifully related to editorial work, because, once again, I am close to other writers. I’m close to their text, I am thinking with them through the questions of what this text is accomplishing. And I love having the opportunity to think through failures of prose with other incredibly smart and creative and ambitious writers. When I say failure, there’s nothing bad or stressful about it. I fail in my writing all the time. Failure is part of the process. Being able to look at those failures and ask, what is happening here is very useful.
📰 The Week(s) in Books
Twenty-five years after “Almost Famous” put his origin story on movie screens, Cameron Crowe (left, with Robert Plant) reflects on his roots as a teenage music journalist.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Valorie Castellanos Clark writes that “The Radical Fund,” John Fabian Witt’s book about a Jazz Age millionaire who gave his money away is a “meticulous” story of “the ways a modest fund endowed by a reluctant heir managed to reshape American civil rights in less than 20 years.”
Leigh Haber is entranced with Gish Jen’s new novel “Bad Bad Girl,” about a fraught mother-daughter relationship, calling the book “suffused with love and a desire to finally understand.”
Vroman’s Bookstore is on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Nine months after the Eaton fire, Vroman’s Bookstore continues to be a cherished haven for local residents. The store still vibrates with bookish energy as it continues its ambitious fundraising outreach campaigns for fire victims. We chatted with the store’s chief executive, Julia Cowlishaw, about how things are going at the beloved Pasadena institution.
Nine months after the fire, how is business?
Business has been steady this year and we’re pleased with that, given all the variables in the world.
What books are selling right now?
The new releases this fall are fabulous, and we are seeing a broad range of interests. In nonfiction there’s a lot of interest in trying to understand current events from historical perspectives and Jill Lepore’s “We the People” is one example on our bestseller list. Since it is fall, the list of cookbooks is amazing and Samin Nosrat’s new cookbook “Good Things” along with her older book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” make great gifts. In fiction, Ian McEwan, Kiran Desai, Thomas Pynchon and Lily King’s new novels are popular, so literary fiction is alive and well.
How important has the store been for the community in such a challenging year?
Bookstores, including Vroman’s, have long been recognized as a third place in their communities. A third place gives people a space to come together with friends and family over a shared interest and a fine sense of community. That sense of community became even more important after the fires, and it was so important for us to be more than a bookstore and give back to our community in every way we could. Our community really responded by helping us raise money for several community foundations, and collect books and supplies for people impacted by the fires.
The proposal, which forms part of the ‘European Drone Defence Initiative’, is one of several flagship EU projects to prepare the bloc for a potential attack from Moscow.
Published On 16 Oct 202516 Oct 2025
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The European Commission is in discussions to adopt a new counter-drone initiative to protect European Union airspace from Russian violations, as it seeks to strengthen border security with its own advanced drone technology after a string of drone incursions were reported in a host of EU and NATO member countries over the past month.
The proposal, which was included in a defence policy “roadmap” presented on Thursday, will aim for the new anti-drone capabilities to reach initial capacity by the end of next year and become fully operational by the end of 2027, according to a draft of the document.
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It will then be presented to EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, European Commission Executive Vice President for Security Henna Virkkunen, and European Commissioner for Defence Andrius Kubilius.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month that it was time for Europe to build a “drone wall” to protect its eastern flank, hours after some 20 Russian drones reportedly entered the airspace of EU and NATO member Poland.
The concept has since morphed into a broader “European Drone Defence Initiative” including a continent-wide web of anti-drone systems in an effort to win support from EU capitals.
The drone initiative is one of several flagship EU projects aiming to prepare the bloc for a potential attack from Russia as its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine grinds on.
In the meantime, as a counterpoint, Russia’s federal security chief said on Thursday that Moscow has no doubt about NATO’s security services’ involvement in incidents with alleged Russian drones over EU territory, Russian news agency RIA Novosti cited him as saying.
Following the drone incursion into Poland, other incidents were reported at airports and military installations in several other countries further west, including Denmark, Estonia and Germany, although there has not been confirmation that the drones were sent by the Kremlin.
For its part, NATO has launched a new mission and beefed up forces on its eastern border, but it is playing catch-up as it tries to tap Ukraine’s experience and get to grips with the drone threat from Moscow.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that NATO was now “testing integrated systems that will help us detect, track and neutralise aerial threats” for use on the bloc’s eastern flank.
Ukrainian officials say Russia’s incursions into other countries’ airspace are deliberate.
“Putin just keeps escalating, expanding his war, and testing the West,” Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said last month after the drones were spotted in Poland.
Other NATO allies have also claimed the incursions were deliberate.
However, experts in drone warfare say it is still possible that the incursions were not deliberate.
Russia has denied deliberately attacking any of the European countries, instead accusing them of making false allegations to cause tensions.
While Brussels wants to have the drone project fully up and running by the end of 2027, there is scepticism from some EU countries and fears that the bloc is treading on NATO’s toes.
“We are not doubling the work that NATO is doing; actually, we are complementing each other,” said Kallas.
If all things had been equal, it’s likely that Roberts would have turned to Sasaki to start the inning. In just two weeks since returning from a shoulder injury and being moved to the bullpen, the converted rookie starter has become the club’s most dominant relief option.
But, for as much of a revelation as the 23-year-old right-hander had been in that time — posting four scoreless outings with a 100-mph fastball and unhittable splitter — the team remained conscientious about managing Sasaki’s workload, which included one appearance in Game 2 of the wild card series, then another in Game 1 of the NLDS just days prior.
Thus, with Roberts feeling confident enough in Treinen (the veteran right-hander coming off a career-worst season but also some recently improved outings) to protect a three-run cushion that felt relatively comfortable, he left Sasaki sitting in the bullpen despite the save situation.
Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Dodgers 5, at Philadelphia 3 (box score) Dodgers 4, at Philadelphia 3 (box score) Wednesday at Dodgers, 6 p.m., TBS *Thursday at Dodgers, 3 p.m., TBS *Saturday at Philadelphia, 5 p.m., TBS
Chicago vs. Milwaukee at Milwaukee 9, Chicago 3 (box score) at Milwaukee 7, Chicago 3 (box score) Wednesday at Chicago, 2 p.m., TBS *Thursday at Chicago, 6 p.m., TBS *Saturday at Milwaukee, 1:30 p.m., TBS
AL Division Series
Detroit vs. Seattle Detroit 3, at Seattle 2 (11) (box score) at Seattle 3, Detroit 2 (box score) Seattle 8, at Detroit 4 (box score) Wednesday at Detroit, noon, FS1 *Friday at Seattle, 1:40 p.m., FS1
New York vs. Toronto at Toronto 10, New York 1 (box score) at Toronto 13, New York 7 (box score) at New York 9, Toronto 6 (box score) Wednesday at New York, 4 p.m., FS1 *Friday at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox
Smart has been dealing with Achilles tendinopathy most of training camp and has been limited in practice. But coach JJ Redick said after practice Tuesday that Smart “did most of practice, including some live play.”
Redick said LeBron James and Luka Doncic — along with Maxi Kleber (quad) and Gabe Vincent — did “modified, mostly individual work.”
From Sam Farmer: The Chargers struck a deal Tuesday to acquire Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Odafe Oweh in exchange for safety Alohi Gilman.
The Chargers, who play at Miami on Sunday and are looking to stop a two-game slide, are getting a pass rusher who had a career-high 10 sacks last season but had yet to collect one in Baltimore’s 1-4 start this season. Oweh was a first-round pick in 2021.
The Ravens, who host the Rams on Sunday, are in need of secondary help with safety Kyle Hamilton recovering from a groin injury that sidelined him last Sunday against Houston. It’s unclear if he will be ready to play against the Rams.
That’s why after they fielded the congratulatory phone calls and text messages, made a celebratory champagne toast and smiled while rewatching game footage for the first time this season, UCLA players and coaches eagerly resumed the pursuit of something more.
“We don’t want to be one-hit wonders,” interim coach Tim Skipper said Monday, “that’s the whole key to this thing — do not be a one-hit wonder, get back to work.”
While beating Michigan State on Saturday at Spartan Stadium wouldn’t generate the same recognition that came with the previously winless Bruins’ recent victory over then-No. 7 Penn State, it would erase any lingering doubts that things just fell into place one wonderful weekend.
From Kevin Baxter: For Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, Tuesday’s NHL season-opener was the beginning of the end while for Ken Holland, the team’s first-year general manager, it was the end of the beginning.
For both it was also a night to forget, with the Colorado Avalanche skating through, over and around the Kings in a dominant 4-1 victory built on second-period goals from Martin Necas, Sam Malinski, Artturi Lehkonen and a second Necas score midway through the third.
Kevin Fiala got the Kings only score on the team’s third power play of the final period, though the goal, coming with less than five minutes to play, was little more than a murmur of protest. Kopitar picked up his 839th career assist on the play, padding his franchise record and extending his point streak on opening day to eight games.
“That’s a pretty good team,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said afterward. “They did a good job. They out-checked us, they caught us, they disrupted plays, they didn’t let us forecheck.
1933 — Cliff Battles of the Boston Redskins becomes the first NFL player to gain more than 200 yards rushing with 215 yards in a 21-20 win over the New York Giants.
1949 — Walt Pastuszak has five of Brown’s 11 interceptions in a 46-0 rout of Rhode Island.
1950 — Bill Grimes of the Green Bay Packers gains 167 yards on 10 carries in a 44-31 loss to the New York Yankees.
1966 — Jerry DePoyster of Wyoming becomes the first player in college football to make three field goals of 50 yards or more in a game. DePoyster connects on two 54-yard tries and a 52-yarder in the Cowboys’ 40-7 rout of Utah.
1961 — Paul Hornung scores 33 points, with four touchdowns, six extra points and a field goal, to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 45-7 romp over the Baltimore Colts.
1977 — No. 7 Alabama beats No. 1 USC 21-20 in Los Angeles. USC fullback Lynn Cain scores with 38 seconds remaining but the 2-point attempt fails.
1992 — Doug Smail scores two goals and the expansion Ottawa Senators rock the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 — the first regular-season NHL game by an Ottawa franchise in 58 years.
1993 — The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, before 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond, lose 7-2 to the Detroit Red Wings in their first NHL game.
1995 — Dan Marino breaks Fran Tarkenton’s NFL career completions record.
1997 — Adam Oates reaches 1,000 points with three goals and two assists as the Washington Capitals post a 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders.
2005 — Baylor wins a Big 12 road game for the first time in the league’s 10-year history, beating Iowa State 23-13. The Bears had been 0-37 on the road in the Big 12 Conference.
2006 — Randy Moss’ 22-yard TD catch between two defenders 51 seconds before halftime is the Oakland receiver’s 100th touchdown reception. He’s becomes the seventh receiver in NFL history with 100 TD catches.
2011 — Howard scores all its points in the fourth quarter, including 16 in the final 1:27 to beat 29-28 Florida A&M. Parker Munoz caps the improbable comeback by hitting a 21-yard field goal with 4 seconds left following FAMU’s Damien Fleming fumble on the 28-yard line.
2015 — Tampa Bay’s Jason Garrison scores his second goal of the game at 2:17 of the extra period to lead the Lightning past the Philadelphia Flyers in the first 3-on-3 overtime game in NHL history.
2016 — Will Worth and Navy stuns No. 6 Houston, romping to a 46-40 victory. Worth runs for 115 yards and throws two scoring passes for the Midshipmen. Navy hadn’t beaten a top 10 team since 1984, when it topped then-No. 2 South Carolina in Annapolis.
2017 — Aaron Rodgers throws a 12-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams with 11 seconds remaining, lifting Green Bay over the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 in another thriller nine months after the Packers’ divisional playoff victory on the same field.
2018 — Drew Brees’ 62-yard touchdown pass to rookie Tre’Quan Smith makes him the NFL’s all-time leader in yards passing and sends the New Orleans Saints well on their way to a 43-19 victory over the Washington Redskins. Brees enters the game needing 201 yards to eclipse Peyton Manning’s previous mark of 71,940 yards. He finishes 26 of 29 for 363 yards and three touchdowns.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1956 — Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitches the only perfect game in World Series history, a 2-0 triumph over Brooklyn.
2018 — Red Sox utility player Brock Holt becomes the first MLB player to hit for the cycle in a postseason game.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Emerald Fennell on Wuthering Heights: “It’s so sexy. It’s so horrible. It’s so devastating.”
The director of a much-anticipated new film version of Wuthering Heights has said she wants it to convey the “primal” feeling she had when she first read the book as a teenager.
Emerald Fennell spoke about her adaptation for the first time on Friday in author Emily Brontë’s home town of Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Her film will star Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, and the release of an erotically charged trailer this month fuelled the fevered debate surrounding the film, months before its release.
Fennell said: “I wanted to make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it, which means that it’s an emotional response to something. It’s, like, primal, sexual.”
Warner Bros
Margot Robbie plays Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi plays Heathcliff
The writer and director won an Oscar for Promising Young Woman in 2021, but is best known for last year’s psychological thriller Saltburn, which gained cult status for a succession of provocative and confrontational scenes.
Her uncompromising and unsettling tastes are on show again in the Wuthering Heights trailer. It gives a glimpse of the film’s heightened and highly stylised gothic approach, and is full of pent-up tension, shots of bread being suggestively kneaded, and a finger being put into a fish’s mouth.
Fennell told the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival on Friday that she felt a “profound connection” with the book when she first read it at the age of 14. “It cracked me open,” she said.
Emily Brontë’s story of turbulent and tragic romance, written in 1847, is “difficult, it’s complicated, it’s just not like anything else”, she said.
“It’s completely singular. It’s so sexy. It’s so horrible. It’s so devastating.”
‘Driven mad by this book’
When it came to making the film, Fennell, 39, said: “I wanted to make something that was the book that I experienced when I was 14.”
She suggested that some of her risqué additions are things she thought she had remembered from reading the book as a teenager – but weren’t actually in there when she returned to it.
“It’s where I filled in the gaps aged 14,” she said with a smile, adding that the film had allowed her to “see what it would feel like fulfil my 14-year-old wish, which is both good and bad”.
Fennell had always wanted to adapt the novel throughout her career, she told the audience in Haworth, and was “extremely lucky” that after Saltburn she had the freedom to choose what she did next.
Wuthering Heights was the thing she wanted to do “most desperately”, the writer and director said.
“I’ve been obsessed. I’ve been driven mad by this book,” she said. “And of course now I’m even madder than I was before because I’ve thought of little else now for two years.”
Getty Images
Margot Robbie is known for starring in films like Barbie, I Tonya and Suicide Squad
Adapting it is “a terror as well, of course, because it’s a huge responsibility”, she added. “Because I know that if somebody else made it, I’d be furious. It’s very personal material for everyone. It’s very illicit. The way we relate to the characters is very private, I think.”
It has also felt like “an act of extreme masochism to try and make a film of something that means this much to you”, she explained. “I’ve actually found it quite harrowing, in a really interesting way.
“There’s an enormous amount of sado-masochism in this book. There’s a reason people were deeply shocked by it [when it was published].
“But it’s been a kind of masochistic exercise working on it because I love it so much, and it can’t love me back, and I have to live with that. So it’s been troubling, but I think in a really useful way.”
Margot Robbie ‘could get away with anything’
The choice of casting raised eyebrows because Robbie, at 35, is older than Catherine Earnshaw, who is a teenager in the book; while Heathcliff is described by Brontë as being “dark-skinned”.
Speaking about Australian actor Elordi, Fennell said that she asked him to play Heathcliff after seeing him on the set of Saltburn and he “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read”.
“And it was so awful because I so wanted to scream. Not the professional thing to do, obviously.
“I had been thinking about making it and, it seemed to me he had the thing… he’s a very surprising actor.”
Robbie, meanwhile, is “not like anyone I’ve ever met – ever – and I think that’s what I felt like with Cathy”.
The Barbie actress, also from Australia, is “so beautiful and interesting and surprising, and she is the type of person who, like Cathy, could get away with anything”, Fennell said.
“I think honestly she could commit a killing spree and nobody would mind, and that is who Cathy is to me. Cathy is somebody who just pushes to see how far she can go.
“So it needed somebody like Margot, who’s a star, not just an incredible actress – which she is – but somebody who has a power, an otherworldly power, a Godlike power, that means people lose their minds.”
Despite taking some liberties, Fennell said she had retained much of Brontë’s original dialogue.
“I was really determined to preserve as much of her dialogue [as possible] because her dialogue is the best dialogue ever,” she said. “I couldn’t better it, and who could?”
Fennell’s Wuthering Heights will be released in cinemas on 14 February – Valentine’s Day – next year.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Doesn’t it feel like Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes were released last season? No, that was this season.
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Ask Jaime Jarrín
We received many questions for Jaime Jarrín, who was kind enough to take time out of his day to answer some of those questions. Deputy sports editor Ed Guzman conducted the interview by phone. Because Jarrín was the longtime Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers, it seemed appropriate for a couple of the questions and answers to be in Spanish. In the case of multiple people asking the same questions, the person who asked the question first gets credit for the question. Questions without a name were asked by Guzman.
From Virgilio Del Rio: How did you prepare to become a sports broadcaster?
Jarrín: Well, before becoming a sports broadcaster, I was a newsman. I used to write news, I edited news, that was my experience. Sportscasting, I learned that when I came to this country. But back home, for four years, I was a newsman writing news, editorials and things like that.
(Follow-up question from Guzman): Once you were a broadcaster here in the States, did you ever want to broadcast games in English or were you always just focused on doing it in Spanish?
Jarrín: I always wanted to do it only in Spanish. I never really wanted to go into English-language because I thought that it was my duty to do this in Spanish. So I’m very proud to have done it all in Spanish.
From Jerry Smith of Los Angeles: You called the “Thrilla in Manila” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. What was that like?
Jarrín: It is my greatest experience doing sports because the atmosphere in Manila was unbelievable. I was there for I think it was two days before the fight and it was like a carnival there. Muhammad Ali was walking the streets around the arena, you know, promoting the fight and signing many things. And he was a great, great promoter. So it was unbelievable. And the day of the fight, it was so hot, so rainy, and the fight was held at 10 o’clock in the morning (to accommodate the international viewing audience). It was really a great, great experience.
From Alex Andrade of Paramount: How difficult or easy is it to switch from calling boxing versus calling a baseball game?
Jarrín: Well, it’s totally different. In boxing, I was the blow-by-blow announcer. So I didn’t have time to do commentary. Besides, I had a commentator with me, Mr. Cuco Conde, who was a very famous boxing promoter in Cuba.
So in my case, I just narrate the fight. In boxing, you have to follow the action through the blows that are thrown by the fighters. In baseball, you have time to describe what’s going on, you have time for anecdotes, important dates and things like that.
From Mark Layne: Do you have a favorite story about Vin Scully?
Jarrín: I was very fortunate. It was a privilege to spend so much time with him because on the road we were always together, having lunch together, then dinner at the ballpark. Same thing here in Los Angeles. We always had dinner together before the games. And to see how nice he was with everybody; he never refused to shake hands with anybody; he never refused to take a picture with anybody. He was very, very special. As a baseball announcer, as a sports announcer, he was the best of the best of all time. But as a human being, he was exceptionally beautiful.
Something very special I have to mention is the fact that when my wife passed away six years ago, he was the first one to call me and he talked to me for about 20 minutes. It was the most beautiful call I ever received.
The way that he talked about my wife, about our friendship, the way that he handled the language, his intonation, his delivery on the phone. It was really, really something very, very unique that I will never, never forget. Very touching.
Very touching.
From Paul Aist of Ventura: In your opinion, did Tommy Lasorda shorten Fernando Valenzuela’s career by overusing him?
Jarrín: In a way, probably, but it was because Fernando wanted to stay in the games. He used to tell me, “Jaime, when I start something, I like to finish that. And when I start a game, I want to finish that.” So I’m sure that Lasorda wanted to take him out earlier in many games, but he insisted on staying on.
The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony is later this month for the newest class. What do you remember about your induction into the Hall of Fame in 1998?
Jarrín: I remember very well the phone call that I received from the head of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Around 8 o’clock in the morning, I got a telephone call. They told me, ‘Please, Jaime, be around a telephone because probably you are going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.’ And the telephone rang at around 9:30 in the morning. And it was the head of Cooperstown. And he said, ‘Jaime, it’s my pleasure to let you know that you have been selected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year along with Don Sutton and Larry Doby.’ You can imagine how excited I was.
My wife, Blanca, was standing there next to me near the phone. And she saw my face, my reaction, and she started crying. And that was really something very, very special, something that is in my heart for the rest of my life. It was very emotional. It was very, very incredible.
And then the ceremony in Cooperstown is something very unique, very special. I would say that before the ceremony, they put you with all the Hall of Famers in a room. And there were about, I would say, 25, 28-30 Hall of Famers. And to be there among them, it was, to me, like being in heaven. I couldn’t believe that I would be there next to Henry Aaron, next to Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax and Tom Seaver and all those Hall of Famers. It was something special, and that changed my life. Because before that, I was one of the many, many announcers doing baseball. But after the Hall of Fame, owners of the different ballclubs, GMs and people like that, they would look for me to take a picture, to shake my hand, to introduce themselves. So really, it was a turning point. Fantastic.
How much do you watch this year’s team?
Well, I follow every single game on TV. When I go to the ballpark, I go to the field, I go to the clubhouse, I say hello to the ballplayers. Then I go to the press box because I like to see the writers because they were so nice with me, English or Spanish. They wrote beautiful things about me, about my career. I like to see the employees at the press box. Then I stay for three, four or five innings and come home. So it’s perfect. The perfect combination. But I follow the team through TV when I am not at the ballpark, yes.
¿Qué opina usted sobre el pitcheo del equipo de esta temporada?
El pitcheo deja mucho que desear debido a las lesiones. Los Dodgers durante el invierno fueron en busca de verdaderos ases del montículo y lograron contratar a varios de ellos. Pero dos de ellos han estado lesionados todo el tiempo y eso ha desbalanceado completamente el desempeño del equipo de lanzadores.
Debido a las lesiones, también hemos tenido prácticamente cada juego en que los abridores únicamente lanzan tres o cuatro innings, máximo. Y eso ha minado mucho la fortaleza del bullpen. Y el bullpen se ha visto dismal en verdad, en lo que a potencia se debe debido al uso cotidiano prácticamente de todos los días.
Espero que en este descanso los Dodgers logren consolidar el excelente elenco de lanzadores que necesitan para poder llegar y ganar la Serie Mundial.
Hemos escuchado el cuadrangular de Kirk Gibson en la Serie Mundial en la transmisión de Vin Scully, y también en el relato de Jack Buck. Pero uno no puede encontrar el relato de ese jonrón de usted o de René Cárdenas. ¿Por qué no hay modo de escuchar ese relato?
La simple respuesta: porque en aquel entonces, lamentablemente, la estación de radio y los mismos Dodgers no se preocuparon en guardar las transmisiones. No tenemos ninguna, ninguna grabación de ninguno de los juegos de los Dodgers hasta hace pocos años. Es un misterio, en verdad. KWKW y KTNQ, las dos emisoras que estuvieron con los Dodgers en esos años, no se preocuparon en mantener grabaciones de eso. Y por eso es que no existe absolutamente nada en lo que respecta a nuestras transmisiones. Es una lástima, en verdad, pero es la realidad.
From Bruce Campbell of Los Angeles: Your wife, Blanca, died in 2019. What would you want people to know about her?
Well, you know, it was such a heavy blow to myself and my family, my two sons, Jorge and Mauricio. What can I tell you? She was such a beautiful person. She was so supportive of me. All the accolades that I have gained is thanks to her because she was behind me all the time. She never complained about my being absent because I used to travel with the Dodgers and sometimes, road trips took 16 days, 19 days. And she was so generous with people and everything.
The Jaime and Blanca Jarrin Foundation has expressed a desire to uplift underserved students by awarding scholarships to those pursuing careers specifically in law and journalism. Why those two areas?
Jaime: Jorge can answer that because he is on top of everything. He can express very well the goals of the foundation. I was very pleased when Jorge and Mauricio, along with my three grandsons, joined forces to create a foundation in order to preserve the image and the name of my wife, Blanca, who was a very generous person. So I was delighted when they told me about the project. And now, I just try to help my family as much as possible. Jorge and the rest of the family work very hard in trying to create the funds that we need for the scholarships.
Jorge Jarrín, Jaime’s son, who sat in on the interview: That’s easy, actually. You know, when we started this foundation in honor of my mom, in the back of my mind, I also knew the importance, as my father was nearing the twilight of his career, looking for a way to maintain and uphold the legacy that he has created as an immigrant coming to this country. You know, he knows the trepidation and the fear that comes naturally to an immigrant coming to a nation where he doesn’t necessarily really speak the language, doesn’t really know a lot of people, is looking to establish roots so that he can, in turn, he or she, in turn, can bring their family so that they can create a better life. So, that’s that legacy.
And when my mom passed away, I thought, this is the way to do that. Speaking selfishly for a moment, this is a way to accomplish two things. To honor the memory of my mom who created such an environment for us growing up that we never felt neglected. We never felt that we missed out on anything because my father was gone all the time. And there was no guilt. There was nothing negative along that line.
And so, knowing that my father, at this point, had been speaking to Latino homes for 60-plus years, I know how people react when they see my father for the first time, when they talk to him, when they have a chance to meet him in person. Because he represents, for many, their childhood growing up, their relationships with their parents, their grandparents, aunts and uncles. He gave them that commonality of which they can talk about together.
So, knowing that impact that he has on people, we thought it’s one thing to give scholarships. But for a lot of Latinos, to get a scholarship from Jaime Jarrin is even more special. We call them the Jarrín Scholars.
And the reason we did journalism, to get back to your original question, journalism and law, two reasons: The journalism honoring the career that my father chose to create, the path that he took. And the law, because we have been fortunate in addition to the Los Angeles Dodgers to have a long and steady career as a spokesperson for Los Defensores. Los Defensores is an organization, it is a cooperative legal marketing firm that represents a network of Spanish-speaking attorneys who are there to help people, Latinos, who don’t know the language well, who are intimidated, who may be undocumented.
But there are certain rights that they’re entitled to under the law, under the Constitution. And we try to empower Latinos to speak up for themselves, to not be afraid, to not be intimidated. So my father has had a 40-year career of being the voice of Los Defensores, too. So it only made sense that because of our association with Los Defensores that we also single out law because overall, we’re seeking to help those who are eventually going to be making decisions that affect us as a community and as a society. We want to empower them, we want to help them to be the best that they can be. Unfortunately, you look at for example the state of California, 49% of which are Latinos, and yet less than 3% Latinos pass the bar examination to become attorneys.
Less than 6% of the attorneys in the United States are Latinos. Yet it doesn’t reflect the numbers of our community in terms of its makeup of demographics, so there’s something not right here. And we’re trying to get those in a four-year college the help that they need, not only financially but because I’ve had students say to me: you saw me, you recognized me, and you’re willing to invest in my future. Because that’s what it is, it’s an investment and it’s a validation that we see them, we recognize them, we want to support them. That’s it in a nutshell.
—Thank you to Jaime Jarrín for taking time from their day to answer reader questions. The Jaime and Blanca Jarrín Foundation are having “Wine Night at the Ravine,” at the centerfield plaza in Dodger Stadium on Aug. 19. For more information and tickets, click here.
Next time
We’ll talk about Mookie Betts and the Dodgers continuing to scuffle (if they still are). Betts was benched Saturday to get a mental reset, then was moved to the leadoff spot Sunday, with Shohei Ohtani moving to the two spot. It has been a tough stretch. They score six runs, the opponent scores seven. But if they hold the opponent to two runs, the Dodgers score just once. When they hit well they don’t pitch, when they pitch well they don’t hit. And they don’t field well most of the time. Freddie Freeman was hit on the wrist by a pitch Sunday and had to leave the game. X-rays were negative, according to the Dodgers, but a wrist injury isn’t good for hitters.
Luckily for them, the Giants are playing worse, and the Padres are playing just OK.
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
England defender Esme Morgan discusses making her Euro 2025 debut in the victory over Sweden – and reveals what went through her head when the Lionesses were 2-0 down.
1 of 3 | After meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at the Capitol on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) said the Middle East has seen “remarkable change” following U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Photo by Greg Nash/UPI | License Photo
July 8 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded “opportunities for peace” with Iran and in Gaza after meeting with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday.
Netanyahu and Vance met earlier Tuesday at Blair House, and the prime minister afterward met with Johnson, who is a Republican from Louisiana.
The prime minister was accompanied by Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanagbi, Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman.
Johnson said he and Netanyahu discussed the United States’ support for Israel’s security, its war with Iran and a proposed cease-fire agreement in Gaza.
“America and Israel’s strong stand in the 12-day war dealt a devastating blow to the greatest enemy of peace in the region, leaving the Iranian regime weaker than at any point in decades,” Johnson said afterward in a statement.
“We are hopeful that this marks the dawn of a new chapter of peace in the Middle East,” Johnson added.
Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump on Monday night and has another meeting scheduled on Tuesday.
After meeting with Johnson, the prime minister said the U.S. aerial strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities “has made a remarkable change in the Middle East.”
“There are opportunities for peace that we intend to realize,” Netanyahu said, adding that work still needs to be done to end the war in Gaza.
He is scheduled to meet with Senate members on Wednesday.
Like a quarterback who completed offseason workouts, spring practices and fall training camp, Martin Jarmond had been preparing for this moment for nearly a year.
On Saturday came the big unveiling.
The UCLA athletic director discussed with The Times the plans for his department’s operations in the new college sports world created by the House settlement agreement with the NCAA that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time starting July 1.
The big takeaways: UCLA will distribute $20.5 million in revenue sharing — the maximum allowed under the settlement — while keeping its Olympic sports programs and athletic department staff intact. The school will also preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player.
“This is a pivotal moment in collegiate athletics, and we have to continue to invest in our athletics program to compete at the highest level,” Jarmond said. “That’s why student-athletes come to UCLA, to get the best education and compete at the highest level, and we must invest in our student-athletes to provide that championship-level experience.”
While Jarmond would not divulge the specifics of his revenue-sharing arrangement, it’s expected that UCLA will follow other Power Four conference schools in using U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken’s back-payment formula as a model for current athletes. Under this formula, which will distribute $2.8 billion to athletes who competed from 2016 to 2024 to compensate them for lost name, image and likeness opportunities, roughly 75% of the money will be shared with football players, 15% with men’s basketball players, 5% with women’s basketball players and 5% with all remaining athletes.
“We’ve worked really hard to look at the House settlement, along with other factors,” Jarmond said, “to determine how we were going to split up the revenue share.”
Jarmond told The Times last year that he anticipated a bigger share of revenue going to football and men’s basketball players because they were “responsible for more of the revenue based on the House settlement and the back pay for NIL and all those things.” Payments will rise each year as part of the 10-year settlement agreement.
Even though roster limits could eventually rise to 105 for football and 15 for men’s basketball as part of the settlement, keeping scholarship limits at their current levels — 85 for football, 13 for men’s basketball — will allow UCLA to provide each player on scholarship a bigger share of revenue. As part of the settlement agreement, any money used for scholarships (which have an estimated value of $65,000 per athlete at UCLA) comes out of the revenue sharing pot. Jarmond said his department would reevaluate this arrangement in a year to ensure it was best serving the school’s athletes.
UCLA is also committed to preserving its Olympic sports that have provided the lion’s share of NCAA championships in an athletic department widely regarded as one of the best in the nation. Jarmond said there would be no staffing cuts, but some personnel might be reassigned to better serve the athletic department.
“We are looking at reallocating staff,” Jarmond said, “to positions that better meet our needs in a changing landscape.”
The ability to pay players directly could help UCLA in ways that go beyond compensating its athletes. Revenue sharing arrangements could help narrow the resource gap between the Bruins and other Big Ten Conference schools that had more deep-pocketed NIL collectives engaging in pay-for-play practices.
Now, all new NIL deals exceeding $600 must be approved by NIL Go, a clearinghouse created by the College Sports Commission to analyze deals to ensure they serve a valid business purpose and provide fair market value.
It’s expected that all existing college NIL collectives — including UCLA’s Men of Westwood (which serves men’s basketball), Bruins for Life (football) and Champion of Westwood (women’s basketball, Olympic sports) — will essentially become marketing agencies that try to find endorsement deals for athletes.
Jarmond said UCLA was seeking a third-party partner to help secure so-called true NIL opportunities. Being based in Los Angeles should provide Bruins athletes with a clear advantage in securing marketing deals, Jarmond said.
Other challenges remain. Having traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal NIL legislation, Jarmond said he believed it was necessary to eliminate the imbalance that exists with more than 30 states having their own NIL laws.
While distributing $20.5 million in revenue will be another financial blow to an athletic department that has run $219.5 million in the red over the last six fiscal years — though the entire debt has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero — Jarmond said he has long championed athletes being paid and believes the move is long overdue. As part of the settlement involving back pay to athletes, UCLA’s share of NCAA revenue will be reduced by more than $1 million annually for the next 10 years.
UCLA’s finances could soon improve under a College Football Playoff revenue sharing agreement that is expected to provide Big Ten schools an additional $8 million to $12 million annually beginning in 2026. That’s on top of media rights deals tilted heavily in favor of Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools, giving the Bruins another infusion of much-needed cash.
The athletic department has a new ally in Chancellor Julio Frenk, who signaled his intention to be closely involved with the school’s sports programs during a recent interview with The Times.
“Chancellor Frenk has been extremely supportive of athletics and the impact that it has on our community,” Jarmond said. “He has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way. He hit the ground running during a pivotal time not just for athletics but the university, and he has demonstrated support at a high level and I’m grateful for his leadership at such a pivotal time for athletics.”
While acknowledging that UCLA athletics needed to be more creative with revenue generation as part of what he called “a huge moment” that would forever change the trajectory of college sports, Jarmond said the school’s commitment to sports was unwavering.
“We have to be bold and innovative in this new world,” Jarmond said. “UCLA has always been on the forefront and been a leader and that’s not going to change. We will embrace this new era and we will continue to support our student-athletes at a championship level.”
In the midst of the inaction, one mom — Angeli Rose Gomez — pleaded with officers to take action or let her go in to get her two children and nephew. She was apprehended and handcuffed, but ultimately talked her way out of arrest before she sprinted inside the school to grab the kids.
Videos on social media captured the moments that Gomez brought her sons and nephew out of the school. The Texas field worker and mother of two was quickly dubbed a hero in national and local publications for her courage.
The new documentary film “Uvalde Mom” follows Gomez after becoming nationally recognized — while examining the forces at play in the Uvalde community which allowed for the shooting to take place, as well as the aftermath of such a tragedy.
“All I wanted that day was my kids to come out of the school alive, and that’s what I got,” Gomez says in one pivotal moment in the film. “I don’t want to be called a hero. I don’t want to be looked at as the hero because the only job that I did that day was being a mom.”
The feature’s director Anayansi Prado was “moved” and “horrified” by what had happened and felt motivated to make a film about the event after seeing members of the affected families on TV.
“I saw that there were Latinos, they were Mexican American, that it was a border town, that it was an agricultural farming town, and that really resonated with me and with communities I’ve done film work with before,” Prado told The Times.
Prado began reaching out to people in Uvalde shortly after the shooting, but didn’t hear back from anyone for over two months due to the inundation of media requests everyone in the city was receiving. The only person to reply to her was Gomez.
Ahead of the film’s screening Saturday at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, Prado spoke with The Times about the process and the challenges of making her documentary.
This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.
Was the idea always for this project to be a feature-length film? Or were there talks of making it a short or a series?
I’ve always thought about it as a feature because I really wanted to dive in and understand Uvalde as a character. I wanted to understand the history of the criminal justice system, the educational system. I knew I wanted to make something that was going to be of a longer form rather than just a piece that was about Angeli or something. And a few people told me this would make a great short, but as I uncovered more about Uvalde, I was like, “No, Uvalde itself has its own history, just like a person.”
When it came to choosing Angeli, was she the first and only person who responded to your outreach?
I think the people in town were oversaturated with media coverage, and Angeli was the one that got back to me. What was really interesting is that I learned on that first trip [to Uvalde] about her backstory and I learned about how the criminal justice system had failed her. I saw a parallel there of how the system failed the community the day of the shooting and how it was failing this woman also individually. I wanted to play with those two stories, the macro and the personal. Once I learned who she was, beyond the mom who ran into the school, I was like, “I have to tell this woman’s story.”
How did you go about balancing her personal stuff and the failures that happened on a larger scale?
So much of the way the film is structured is reflective of my own experience as a filmmaker. It was a sort of surreal world, these two worlds were going on: what was happening to Angeli and then what was going on outside with the lack of accountability and the cover-up. So that informed the way that I wanted to structure the film.
In terms of the personal, it was a journey to gain Angeli’s trust. At some point at the beginning, she wasn’t sure she wanted to participate in the film, and so I told her, “You don’t owe me anything. I’m a stranger, but all I ask is that you give me a chance to earn your trust.” And she was like, “OK.” From there on, she opened up and, pretty quickly, we became close and she trusted me. I was very cognizant [of] her legal past and even the way she’s perceived by some folks. I also didn’t want Angeli to come off as a victim and people to feel sorry for her, but I still wanted to tell her story in a way where you get mad at the system for failing her.
What kind of struggles did you have trying to get in communication with some of the officials of the city?
We used a lot of news [archives] to represent that part of the story. The [authorities] weren’t giving any interviews, they were just holding press conferences. So access was limited, but also the majority of the time that we were filming, we were very low-key about the production — because Angeli was on probation and there was retaliation for her speaking to the media. We tried to keep it under wraps that we were filming, so not a lot of people knew about it [besides] her family. Obviously other folks in town [were] part of the film, like her friend Tina and family members. Outside of that, it was too risky to let other people in town know what was going on.
Ultimately I wanted to make [“Uvalde Mome”] a personal portrait. I was just very selective on the people that we absolutely needed to interview. I’m happy with Tina, who’s an activist in town, and Arnie, a survivor of the shooting and a school teacher, [plus] Angeli’s legal team. I felt like those were people we needed to tell a fuller story. But we just couldn’t be out in the open making a film about her and let people know.
What kind of reception have you gotten from people of Uvalde that have seen the film?
We had our premiere at South by Southwest, which was great. A lot of folks came from Uvalde and spoke about how, almost three years later, a lot of this stuff is still going on. Every time Gov. Greg Abbott came on-screen, people would scream, “Loser!” It was really moving to have those screenings.
As was expected from the folks who are not fans of Angeli, there was some backlash. It’s the same narrative you see in the film of, “She’s a criminal, don’t believe her.” It’s a town that is an open wound. I just try to have compassion for people. Ultimately, Angeli’s story is the story of one person in Uvalde of many that need to continue to be told. And I hope that other filmmakers, journalists and other storytellers continue to tell the story there, especially with the lack of closure and accountability. I’m happy that the film is putting Uvalde back into the headlines in some way; that way we don’t forget about it.
Had you ever spent an extended amount of time in Texas before?
I had been to Texas, but I hadn’t done a project in Texas. Because I’m an outsider, it was very important for me to hire a 100% local Texas crew for this film. My crew was entirely Texas-based, from our PAs to our sound to our DPs. I also wanted to have a majority Texas-born Mexican American crew so that they could guide me. We began production in September of 2022 and the atmosphere was very tense.
This is a story that is deeply rooted in the Latino community and the tension about the law enforcement in Uvalde. What was it like dealing with that tension and how did you personally feel that when you went into the town?
When I got to Uvalde, I saw that the majority of the Latino community had been there for several generations. You would think a town with that kind of Mexican American history, and them being the majority, that they’d be pretty cemented and represented, right? It was really eye-opening to see [how] these folks are still considered second-class citizens. A lot of them are being repressed. And then you have folks that get in positions of power, but they’re whitewashed in line with the white conservative agenda. So even those that are able to get into positions of power don’t lean towards the community. They turn their back on it.
I heard from folks that the history of neglect was what led to the response that day at Robb Elementary. And they’re like, “Yeah, that’s what happens on that side of town. You call the cops, they don’t come. Our schools are run-down.” You really see the disparity. This was a Mexican American community that had been there for a long time. It’s fascinating how the conservative white community, even if they’re the smaller part of the population, they can still hold the power.
