downplays

At 5:37 p.m. Wednesday, Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good” blared from the Dodger Stadium speakers.

Shohei Ohtani came strolling to the plate with a bat in his hands.

There was no one in the stands, of course. Nor an opposing pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers, on this workout day after returning from Milwaukee, were still some 22 hours away from resuming their National League Championship Series against the Brewers. For any other player, it would have been a routine affair.

Ohtani, however, is not just any player.

And among the many things that make him unique, his habit of almost never taking batting practice on the field is one of the small but notable ones.

Which made his decision to do so Wednesday a telling development.

Over the last two weeks, Ohtani has been in a slump. Since the start of the NL Division Series, he is just two-for-25 with a whopping 12 strikeouts. He has been smothered by left-handed pitching. He has made poor swing decisions and failed to slug the ball.

Last week, manager Dave Roberts went so far as to say the Dodgers were “not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance” from their $700-million slugger.

Thus, out Ohtani came for batting practice on Wednesday in the most visible sign yet of his urgency for a turnaround.

“The other way to say it is that, if I hit, we will win,” Ohtani said in Japanese when asked about Roberts’ World Series quote earlier Wednesday afternoon. “I think he thinks that if I hit, we will win. I’d like to do my best to do that.”

In Roberts’ view, Ohtani has already started improving from his woeful NLDS, when he struck out nine times in 18 trips to the plate against a left-handed-heavy Philadelphia Phillies staff that, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman emphatically put it, had “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”

In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Brewers, Ohtani was 0-for-two but walked three times; twice intentionally but another on a more disciplined five-pitch at-bat to lead off the game against left-handed opener Aaron Ashby.

The following night, he went only one-for-five with three more strikeouts, giving him 15 this postseason, second-most in the playoffs. But he did have an RBI single, marking his first run driven in since Game 2 of the NLDS. He followed that with a steal, swiping his first bag of the playoffs. And earlier in the game, he scorched a lineout to right at 115.2 mph, the hardest he’d hit a ball since taking Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene deep in the team’s postseason opener.

“The first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats have been fantastic,” Roberts said Wednesday, before heading out to the field and watching Ohtani’s impromptu BP session.

“That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on,” he added, while noting the careful approach the Brewers have also taken with the soon-to-be four-time MVP. “You can only take what they give you. So for me, I think he’s in a good spot right now.”

Shohei Ohtani puts the ball in play in the third inning during Game 4 of the NLDS.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Ohtani’s overall numbers, of course, continue to suggest otherwise. His .147 postseason batting average is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Andy Pages. His seven-game drought without an extra-base hit is longer than any he endured in the regular season.

“The first thing I have to do is increase the level of my at-bats,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “Swing at strikes and not swing at balls.”

On Wednesday, Ohtani’s slump also led to questions about his role as a two-way player, and whether his return to pitching this season (and, this October, doing it for the first time in the playoffs) has contributed to his sudden struggles at the plate.

After all, on days Ohtani pitched this season, he hit .222 with four home runs but 21 strikeouts. On the days immediately following an outing, he batted .147 with two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

His current slump began with a hitless, four-strikeout dud in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he also made a six-inning, three-run start on the mound.

And in days since, Roberts has acknowledged some likely correlation between Ohtani’s two roles.

“[His offense] hasn’t been good when he’s pitched,” Roberts said following the NLDS. “We’ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.”

Ohtani, on the other hand, pushed back somewhat on that narrative during Wednesday’s workout, in which he also threw a bullpen session in preparation for his next start in Game 4 of the NLCS on Friday.

While it is “more physically strenuous” to handle both roles, he conceded, he countered that “I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation.”

“Physically,” he added, “I don’t feel like there’s a connection.”

Instead, Ohtani on Wednesday went about fixing his swing the way any other normal hitter would. He went out on the field for his rare session of batting practice. Of his 32 swings, he sent 14 over the fence, including one that clanked off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Roberts said of how he’s seen Ohtani handle his uncharacteristic lack of performance.

But, he added, “that’s expected. I don’t mind it. I like the edge.”

“He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him,” Roberts continued. “He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And there’s still a lot of baseball left.”

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Survivors of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, flanked by lawmakers and lawyers, spoke out at a press conference on Capital Hill Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called the fight for the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called on Republicans in the House to support the survivors by signing his discharge petition to force a vote to release all the files. But House GOP leaders are pushing members to avoid the petition and support the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is working for disclosures from the Department of Justice, The Hill reported.

In a closed-door meeting in the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called on GOP lawmakers to instead support the efforts of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., which is seeking more disclosures on the Epstein case from the DOJ, the Epstein estate, and former law enforcement officials who worked on the case.

Massie said of Comer’s committee, “They’re allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them.”

“I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference,” Massie said. “Hopefully today we’ll get two more signatures on the discharge petition, that’s all we need.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she and the others would fight for the victims.

“Today, we are coming forward and we are going to fight like hell for these women, because we have to fight like hell for those that are enduring sexual abuse and are living in a prison of shame,” Greene said.

Trump said in a meeting Wednesday with the president of Poland to a reporter, “So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation [assassination], we gave them everything. Over and over again. More and more and more. And nobody’s ever satisfied.”

He said Democrats are trying to distract from his successes as president.

“I know that no matter what you do, it’s going to keep going,” the president said of the focus on the Epstein files.

“I think we’re probably having, according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we’re having the most successful eight months of any president ever,” he said. “And that’s what I want to talk about. That’s what we should be talking about. Not the Epstein hoax.”

Brad Edwards, who represents some of the victims, responded, urging Trump to join the survivors.

“Back in 2009 and several times after that, [Trump] didn’t think that it was a hoax then. In fact, he helped me. He got on the phone, he told me things that were helping our investigation. Our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then,” Edwards said. “So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is, ‘I want transparency.'”

One of Epstein’s survivors, Chauntae Davies, said Epstein was very proud of his friendship with Trump.

“His biggest brag, forever, was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump. He had an 8-by-10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them,” Davies said.

Several victims expressed their pain and frustration with the lack of transparency and support at the event.

“Why was he so protected? And why didn’t anyone ever care to stop him?” survivor Haley Robson asked.

She urged lawmakers to “lift the curtain on these files and be transparent.”

Marina Lacerda said she was “one of dozens of girls that I personally know who was forced into Jeffrey mansion … when we were just kids,” CBS News reported.

Lacerda said she was 14 when she met Epstein, after being told she could earn $300 “to give an older guy a massage.”

“It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare,” Lacerda said.

She said she had “no way out … until he finally told me that I was too old.”

Lacerda questioned why Epstein was able to “go on with the abuse,” saying she could have testified earlier on to “help stop him.”

“Our government could have saved so many women, but Jeffrey Epstein was too important and those women didn’t matter,” Lacerda said. “Why? Well we matter now. We are here today, and we are speaking, and we are not going to stop speaking.”

A lawyer for some of the victims, Brittany Henderson, said the women want transparency and protection.

“The women here represent hundreds of other women who we have spoken to, many of whom were trafficked from other countries — from eastern European countries — where women don’t have the rights that we have here, women don’t have the protections that we have here. And those women are terrified that their names will be released in those files.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who is working with Massie on the discharge petition, said, “A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence, is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core.”

Khanna said there are “corrupt, special-interest forces” blocking the release of the full files, saying “There is something that is rotten in Washington.”

Survivor Jena-Lisa Jones said, “Together, we can finally make a change.”

“Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this does not matter,” Jones said. “This is not about sides.”

One survivor, Teresa Helm, spoke out against the interview that Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Her voice was elevated way before our voices were elevated here today. And that same calm, manipulative voice that she had, so polite there that day with Todd Blanche, was the same, polite, coercive, manipulative voice that I heard as she was grooming me to then send me off to the home of Jeffrey Epstein, where he would assault me.”

She criticized Blanche’s failure to counter what Maxwell said.

“Does he even have the facts to be able to push back on her? We could sit there and push back. Why didn’t we get to attend that? Why weren’t we there that day? Or why wasn’t even one of us consulted prior to that day in that meeting?” she asked.

“We all work very hard on healing and [Maxwell’s voice] still gets to us after two decades,” she said.

Annie Farmer, a survivor who testified at Maxwell’s trial, said that there are two Americas.

“At a time with record high levels of distrust in our institutions, and a perception that there are two Americas — one for those with power and privilege and one for everyone else, passing this Epstein transparency bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side with sexual perpetrators,” Farmer said.

Anouska De Georgiou, another survivor, said the issue is secrecy.

She called the discharge petition “so essential,” saying it’s “about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root.”

“The only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing,” she said.

Massie voiced the same concern.

“What’s clear is they’re not redacting just to protect victims; they are redacting to protect reputations,” Massie said. “Some of those people are probably innocent, but some of them are most certainly guilty.”

US President Donald Trump talked down the need for a ceasefire to end the Ukraine war as he greeted Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Trump also hinted at a 3-way telephone call with Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy after Monday’s meetings.

Russia has played down expectations of any breakthrough in upcoming talks with Ukraine in Turkiye, as Ukrainian officials said one child was killed and more than 20 people were wounded in overnight Russian attacks.

“We don’t have any reason to hope for some miraculous breakthroughs,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, saying this was “hardly possible in the current situation”.

“We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfil the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s announcement late on Monday that talks would take place generated some hope that negotiators would deliver progress on ending the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. United States President Donald Trump has been putting more pressure on Russia to hold talks, which have stalled as Russian President Vladimir Putin stood his ground on his demands.

The third round of talks in recent months is expected to be held in Istanbul on Wednesday. Previous negotiations led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers, but produced no breakthrough on a ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy announced on social media that Rustem Umerov, the former defence minister and current secretary of the security council, will head Ukraine’s delegation.

He also said Ukraine was ready to “secure the release of our people from captivity and return of abducted children, to stop the killings, and to prepare a leaders’ meeting”, outlining potential topics for discussion.

Russia has not yet announced the composition of its team for the talks. Its delegation at the previous round was led by a hawkish historian and the current head of the Russian Union of Writers, Vladimir Medinsky, whom Ukraine described as not a real decision-maker.

Asked on Tuesday if he could give a sense of how the Kremlin saw the potential timeframe of a possible peace agreement, Peskov said he could give no guidance on timing.

“There is a lot of work to be done before we can talk about the possibility of some top-level meetings,” Peskov added, a day after Zelenskyy renewed a call for a meeting with Putin.

Despite the upcoming talks, Russia’s offensive continues, with its forces driving hard to break through at eastern and northeastern points on the 1,000km (620-mile) front line.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 426 drones and 24 missiles overnight, making it one of Russia’s largest aerial assaults in months. It said it had downed or jammed at least 224 Russian drones and missiles, while 203 drones disappeared from radars.

In one of the attacks, a 10-year-old boy was killed and five people were wounded when guided glide bombs hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to Mayor Alexander Goncharenko.

Kramatorsk is part of a metropolitan area in Donetsk that remains under Ukrainian control three years after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A barrage of Russian strikes was also reported in the capital, Kyiv, sparking several fires and damaging an underground air raid shelter where civilians had taken refuge. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region came under multiple waves of attacks, according to regional authorities. A drone hit a petrol station in the town of Putyvl, wounding four people, including a five-year-old boy, the regional military administration reported. A second drone hit the same location less than two hours later, wounding seven people.

Separately, two powerful Russian glide bombs were dropped on Sumy city, wounding at least 13 people, including a six-year-old boy, and damaging five apartment buildings, two private homes and a shopping centre in the attack. The blasts shattered windows and destroyed balconies in residential buildings, acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said.

A few weeks ago, Putin announced his intention to create a “buffer zone” in the Sumy region, effectively by occupying the Ukrainian border areas.

In the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, there were initial reports of drone attacks in which at least one person was wounded. Fires broke out in several places in the city, according to regional media.

Ukraine also launched attacks, with Russia’s Ministry of Defence saying its air power had downed 35 Ukrainian long-range drones over several regions overnight, including three over the Moscow area.

July 15 (UPI) — U.N. ambassador nominee Mike Waltz denied any sensitive information was shared during a controversial mobile app chat in March while undergoing a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday.

The hearing was the first Congressional appearance by Waltz since his controversial participation in a Signal app chat that inadvertently included a journalist while discussing a pending military operation in March against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Waltz was the Trump administration’s national security adviser when the chat occurred, but no mention of the Signal chat occurred until past the hearing’s first hour.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., raised using the Signal app to discuss classified matters, which since has been dubbed “Signalgate.”

Waltz said no classified information was shared during the discussion that accidentally included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

“That engagement was driven by and recommended by the CyberSecurity Infrastructure Security Agency [and] by the Biden administration,” Waltz said, as reported by ABC News.

Waltz said Signal is an encrypted app that was authorized by the CSISA and recommended by the Biden administration.

“We followed the recommendation,” Waltz said. “But there was not classified information shared.”

Coons responded by saying he had hoped Waltz would express “some sense of regret” over the matter that he said included “very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app.”

Waltz told Coons they have a “fundamental disagreement” because no classified information was shared during the Signal chat.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the Defense Department’s inspector general and the Air Force have separate investigations ongoing in the matter and have not drawn any conclusions.

“There are two investigations going on at the Pentagon precisely to determine in an objective and independent way whether classified information was shared,” Kaine said.

Waltz declined to comment because the investigations are ongoing.

The U.N. ambassadorship is the last vacancy to be filled by the Trump administration, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called Waltz one of the nation’s “most well-qualified” U.N. ambassador nominees when introducing him to the committee members, CBS News reported.

Lee said Waltz is skilled at negotiations and has a lot of policy experience to guide him while dealing with the United Nations and representatives of its member nations.

“With Waltz at the helm, the U.N. will have what I regard as what could and should be its last chance to demonstrate its actual value to the United States,” Lee told the committee.