fires

“Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton’s longtime tenure on the popular game show is officially over.

A spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television, which produces “Wheel of Fortune,” confirmed in a statement shared with The Times on Friday that Thornton’s “employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately,” following an investigation. Sony suspended Thornton on Tuesday amid an ongoing probe into then-unspecified allegations.

A legal representative for Thornton, 61, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.

A day before TMZ first reported on the announcer‘s firing, the outlet published numerous photos that show Thornton on his laptop aboard a flight visiting a website that describes itself as a support chat for “people who are attracted to children.” In photos taken by a neighboring passenger, Thornton’s computer screen appears to show messages of one user saying they “saw a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl” at a restaurant they referred to as an “All-you-can-eat Boyfett” and a second user referring to “CP,” commonly shorthand for child pornography. The photos published by TMZ also show Thornton, who is wearing a black jacket embroidered with the “Wheel of Fortune” logo on his sleeve, appearing to type into the chat room.

Thornton’s attorney Allison Hart told TMZ that he became a suicide-prevention advocate after a loved one took their life two years ago and he has since spent time visiting crisis chat rooms to offer “support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation.” According to TMZ, Thornton claimed an acquaintance from a suicide prevention group sent him a link to an unrelated, non-crisis chat room — the one seen in the photos. Thornton also reportedly said he quickly left the disturbing chat room “once he found out what it was.” Time stamps seen in the photos show Thornton remained in the chat room for nearly an hour.

The passenger complained about Thornton to a flight attendant and shared the photos with the crew, according to TMZ. American Airlines informed the outlet that a passenger was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on May 14, although the airline did not identify the individual.

Thornton’s attorney also told TMZ earlier this week that he “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”

“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” his attorney said.

Thornton’s “Wheel of Fortune” tenure traces back to 2011 following the death of his predecessor, Charlie O’Donnell. His game show credits include “The Price Is Right,” “The Soup,” “Jeopardy!” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” He has performed voice work for the movie “Monsters, Inc.,” and video games including “Wall-E” and “Mafia II.”

Times staff writer Andrea Flores contributed to this report.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Trump administration Tuesday to “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough,” as he pushed back against a fresh wave of attacks from Washington.

Carney said U.S.-Canada trade talks could resume if Washington became serious about negotiations, but he also accused the United States of pursuing terms that he said could leave Canadian industries “gradually wound down in Canada and wiped out.”

“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions,” Carney said. “It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy.”

His comments came after a new barrage from Washington since trade talks collapsed Aug. 21, including Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” and social media posts taunting Canada. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said Canada could not go “tit for tat” with a U.S. economy 13 times larger, while U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mocked female Canadian cadets online.

Hegseth on Monday posted an image from a cadet training center in British Columbia showing two young women in uniform, adding “this is real” alongside a Canadian flag. Carney called the post “beneath their office.”

The Pentagon stood by it Tuesday, with deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss saying, “The X post speaks for itself.”

Carney said the U.S. approach in the talks would have left Canadian industries effectively as subsidiaries of American companies or imposed terms under which they would be “gradually wound down in Canada and wiped out.”

“We’re not going to — of course, we’re not going to accept those terms,” Carney said.

Carney said Washington sought an “uncompetitive” deal for key industries, including autos, while pushing changes affecting French-language and cultural protections. He said any of those issues was enough to block an agreement.

Carney said Washington also sought limits on Canada’s future trade deals. “Canada is a sovereign state. We will strike free trade deals with the countries we wish to strike free trade deals,” he said.

Carney was also buoyed by Monday’s Liberal sweep of three special elections, including a decisive win in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, Quebec, where the Conservatives fell to third place.

The victories brought the Liberals to 173 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons and reinforced Carney’s position as he confronts Trump over trade and Canadian sovereignty.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said Trump’s annexation threats carry particular weight in Quebec. “Quebecers have the most to lose in an apocalyptic scenario where the U.S. absorbs Canada, and the status of the French language disappears,” he said.

U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed after the two sides failed to reach a deal, and Trump imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods. Canada responded with plans for tariffs on U.S. products.

Trump has repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st state.

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

UCLA fires Martin Jarmond

UCLA has fired athletic director Martin Jarmond and appointed longtime Lakers executive Tim Harris to replace him as chief executive and director of athletics.

UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk announced the change on Monday, ending Jarmond’s run of more than six years that included a stunning move to the Big Ten Conference, a string of conference championships outside of football and a significant financial deficit.

“UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit, and its current path is not sustainable,” Frenk wrote. “Now is the moment to build a model for Athletics that protects the breadth of our program, creates new opportunities for student-athletes and coaches, and supports itself through the revenue it generates. I believe UCLA should help lead the transformation of intercollegiate athletics: our future must be shaped by purpose — not by pressure.”

Frenk cited the rapidly evolving college landscape, including the soaring costs associated with the name, image and likeness athlete compensation era, while announcing the need to shift to Harris’ leadership. Harris is a UCLA alum who spent more than 35 years helping run the Lakers’ business operations. Frenk announced Harris is accepting the job on “pro bono basis.”

“Tim will develop a new strategy to grow revenue through partnerships, licensing and other ventures, while ensuring that our student-athletes and coaches have the required support to compete at the highest level,” Frenk wrote in a letter to UCLA fans while outlining a new direction for the athletics program.

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Angels interim GM discusses his plan

From Bill Shaikin: In two months as the Angels’ interim general manager, John Mozeliak has reoriented the team’s draft selection priority from “closest to the majors” to “best available,” traded one-third of the major league roster to seed a barren minor league system, fired three coaches and completed a restructuring of the front office.

On Monday, he has scheduled the first meeting of the new leadership group in baseball operations.

We’ll get to that restructuring, but none of the decisions so far resolve two of the most compelling questions in Anaheim: Who is going to be running the Angels next year? And, with this year’s Angels flirting with the first 100-loss season in franchise history, are the Angels going to be much better next year?

To the latter question: Probably not.

“With the starting pitching we have, if we have the ability to be more consistent with our offense, you can definitely squint and see a better club out there,” Mozeliak told me. “But it’s going to take a few pieces to do that.”

Uh oh. That sounds discouragingly like the Angels of the last decade: We’re undermanned, but we want to be competitive, so we’ll sign a few lower-tier free agents and hope we can sneak into the playoffs with an 83-win season. In the real world, the Angels clinched their 11th consecutive losing season before the calendar turned to September.

Mozeliak has said he did not believe that the Angels need to rebuild, that the resources available to a team in the second-largest market in the majors should preclude outright tanking. In theory, that should mean that Mozeliak could trade José Soriano for shortstop Arjun Nimmala, 20, now the Angels’ top prospect, comfortable that owner Arte Moreno could buy a quality free agent to replace Soriano in the starting rotation.

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Angels end losing streak

Vaughn Grissom drove in four runs, rookie Walbert Ureña pitched seven strong innings and the Angels ended a seven-game losing streak with a 10-1 victory over the sloppy New York Yankees on Monday night.

Mike Trout had a two-run single and Christian Moore drove in a pair of runs as the Angels won at home for the first time since Aug. 15. Ureña (9-9) gave up five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

Elmer Rodríguez (0-3) failed to make it out of the fourth for the Yankees (78-60), giving up four runs and four hits with three walks over 3⅔ innings. It was the shortest of his six career starts since making his major league debut in April.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Angel City defeats Boston

Prisca Chilufya scored a pair of goals as Angel City snapped a six-game winless streak with a 5-2 win over the Boston Legacy at Gillette Stadium on Monday night.

The match featured four goals in the first 18 minutes. Ally Sentnor scored for Angel City (8-8-5) in the fifth minute with a hard strike from just outside the box.

Some three minutes later, Sammy Smith added her own long strike for the Legacy that bounced to the far post out of reach of goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.

Angel City regained the lead with Chilufya’s first goal that got a slight deflection before getting past goalkeeper Laurel Ivory in the 14th minute.

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Angel City summary

NWSL standings

This day in sports history

1923 — The United States wins its fourth consecutive Davis Cup by beating Australia four matches to one.

1946 — Patty Berg wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf title by beating Betty Jameson in the final round.

1971 — John Newcombe becomes the first top-seeded man to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open when he loses to Jan Kodes, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3.

1972 — American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer beats Russian champion Boris Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik, Iceland; most publicized world title match ever played; Fischer 1st American to win title.

1973 — George Foreman knocks out Jose Roman at 2:00 of the first round in Tokyo to retain the heavyweight title.

1977 — Renee Richards, the 43-year-old transsexual who fought for more than a year for the right to play in the women’s singles of a major tennis championship, is beaten in the first round by Virginia Wade, 6-1, 6-4. Tracy Austin, at the age of 14 years, eight months, 20 days, becomes the youngest player to play in the U.S. Open, defeating Heidi Eisterlehner, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round. Austin’s mark is broken in 1979 by 14-year-old Kathy Horvath.

1984 — Willie Totten of Mississippi Valley State passes for a Division I-AA record 536 yards and nine touchdowns in a 86-0 rout of Kentucky State. Jerry Rice catches 17 passes for 294 yards and five touchdowns and breaks his own Division I-AA record for receiving yards.

1987 — Fifteen-year-old Michael Chang beats Paul McNamee, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, to become the youngest man to win a match at the U.S. Open.

1989 — Chris Evert becomes the first 100-match winner in 108 years of U.S. tennis championships. Evert, playing her final U.S. Open, beat Patricia Tarabini 6-2, 6-4.

1993 — Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor play the longest tie-break in the history of the U.S. Open (38 points). Ivanisevic wins the first-round match 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (18).

2007 — Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32. Julian Rauch’s 24-yard field goal with 26 seconds left puts the Mountaineers ahead of the Wolverines and Corey Lynch blocks a field goal in the final seconds to seal one of college football’s biggest upsets.

2012 — Eureka (Ill.) College quarterback Sam Durley passes for 736 yards in a 62-55 victory over Knox to break the NCAA single-game passing record. Durley completes 34 of 52 passes and throws for five touchdowns, including two in the final two minutes as the Red Devils close the Division III game with 17 unanswered points.

2014 — Kei Nishikori outlasts Milos Raonic in a five-set marathon that ends at 2:26 a.m., tying the latest finish in U.S. Open history.

2015 — Indiana’s Tamika Catchings scores 13 points, and the Fever beat the Connecticut Sun 81-51 to reach the playoffs for a WNBA-record 11th straight season.

2021 — Cristiano Ronaldo breaks the world record for goals scores in men’s international football with his 110th and 111th goals for Portugal in a 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over the Republic of Ireland.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1906 — The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 in 24 innings. Jack Coombs of the Athletics and Joe Harris of the Red Sox pitched all 24 innings. Coombs fanned 18.

1930 — Wes Ferrell of Cleveland beat the St. Louis Browns 9-5 for his 13th straight victory.

1931 — Lou Gehrig hit his third grand slam in four days as the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-1.

1945 — The Philadelphia Phillies, behind Vince DiMaggio’s grand slam, beat the Braves 8-3 in Boston. It was the fourth grand slam of the year for DiMaggio to tie a major league mark.

1958 — Vinegar Bend Mizell of the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League record by walking nine batters and tossing a shutout. Mizell beat Cincinnati 1-0 in the first game of a doubleheader.

1963 — Curt Simmons of the St. Louis Cardinals allowed six hits, drove in two runs with a triple and stole home plate in a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Simmons’ steal of home is the last by a pitcher.

1967 — Cincinnati’s Bob Lee walked Dick Groat with the bases loaded in the 21st inning to give the San Francisco Giants a 1-0 victory at Crosley Field.

1975 — Tom Seaver struck out Manny Sanguillen in the seventh inning to become the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in eight consecutive seasons. Seaver recorded 10 strikeouts in the Mets’ 3-0 triumph over Pittsburgh.

1986 — Oddibe McDowell and Darrell Porter of Texas hit back-to-back pinch hit homers in the ninth inning off Boston reliever Steve Crawford, but the Rangers fall to the Red Sox 6-4.

1998 — Mark McGwire broke Hack Wilson’s 68-year-old National League record for home runs in a season, hitting his 56th and 57th in the St. Louis Cardinals’ victory over the Florida Marlins.

1999 — Twenty-two of baseball 68 permanent umpires found themselves jobless, the fallout from their union’s failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract. Under the deal mediated by U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner, the union agreed the 22 “will provide no further services.”

2002 — Miguel Tejada hit a game-ending three-run homer to power Oakland to a 7-5 win, Oakland’s 18th straight victory, over Minnesota.

2007 — Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second major league start, just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox. Buchholz struck out nine, walked three and hit one batter to give the Red Sox a 10-0 victory over Baltimore.

2008 — Arizona’s Stephen Drew and Seattle’s Adrian Beltre became the first players to hit for the cycle on the same day since Bobby Veach of the Detroit Tigers and George Burns of the New York Giants did it on Sept. 17, 1920.

2014 — Cole Hamels and three Philadelphia Phillies relievers combined to pitch a no-hitter, beating the Atlanta Braves 7-0. Hamels pulled after six innings. Relievers Jake Diekman, Ken Giles and closer Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a hitless inning to finish off the fourth no-hitter in the majors this season.

2018 — South Korea wins its third straight baseball Gold in the Asian games as they beat Japan 3-0.

2019 — Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros strikes out 14 batters as he throws his third career no-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

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 houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Smoke from forest and peatland fires burning across Indonesia has pushed air quality in parts of Malaysian Borneo to hazardous levels, triggering a surge in respiratory illness and forcing the cancellation of outdoor Independence Day celebrations.

The smoke – drifting from fires in Kalimantan in the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo – has settled over the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the same island, for much of August. It has also reached peninsular Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

It is the region’s worst haze episode since 2015, when fires in Indonesia exposed tens of millions of people to toxic smoke and caused more than 500,000 people to suffer respiratory ailments.

On Tuesday, six areas in Sarawak recorded hazardous air quality, with readings above 300 on Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index. Anything above 100 is considered unhealthy. In Kuching, the state capital, the index hit 407, while in Serian, a town close to the Kalimantan border, it hit 408.

Mia Emylia Hassan, 33, a mother of two in Kuching, said the smell of smoke was inescapable.

“The air here is very thick,” she said. “It smells like smoke, and it’s just white all over.” Visibility from her house, she said, had dropped to about a kilometre, or roughly half a mile. “We have not seen blue sky for over a month,” she said.

The haze arrived in early August, shortly after her 10-month-old daughter came home from the hospital after a lung infection. “She’s not healing properly because her lungs are still developing,” Hassan said. “She’s been on medication this whole month, and she has been coughing and vomiting.”

Twice, the family has had to rush the infant back to the emergency room because she could not breathe.

“It’s a mini heart attack for us every time,” Hassan said.

Asthma cases surge

Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has reported a sharp rise in illness nationwide. During the week of August 23 to 29, asthma cases climbed to 1,811, up from 219 the previous week, the ministry said on Saturday, while conjunctivitis cases also rose to 720, from 146.

In peninsular Malaysia, Karen-Michaela Tan, an asthma patient who lives near the capital, Kuala Lumpur, said that a week after the haze thickened, she was “wheezing audibly” and “breathless when climbing stairs”. The 52-year-old said she needed two nebuliser treatments back to back to stop the wheezing, along with a heavy dose of steroids.

“Doctors are erring on the side of caution when it comes to asthma patients, choosing to up dosages rather than risk a patient being hospitalised for shortness of breath,” she said.

Her house is sealed, and two purifiers run continuously. Still, “I battle throat scratchiness and nasal dryness even with these measures”, she said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional bloc, has activated a Level 3 transboundary haze alert – its highest – for the southern part of the region. The alert signals a high risk of severe cross-border haze. ASEAN cited an increase in fire hotspots and prolonged dry weather, fuelled by an intensifying El Nino weather pattern.

The toxic smoke has forced Sarawak to cancel its outdoor Independence Day celebrations on Monday, and officials warned that worse restrictions could follow. Any area where readings cross 500 will be placed under a local emergency, and all public and private offices will be closed, the deputy premier, Douglas Uggah Embas, told reporters. “Only essential services will be allowed to operate,” he added.

In Kuala Lumpur, where skies were grey for most of the month, the haze thinned enough to reveal blue sky for the first time in a week, just as the Independence Day parade got under way early in the morning.

Schools, too, have been hit hard. Under Ministry of Education rules, outdoor activities are suspended when the index reaches 100, and schools must close at 200. On August 20 and 21, nearly 600 schools in and around Kuching shut, affecting some 200,000 primary and secondary students. And on August 28, 30 more schools in Sarawak closed, keeping more than 4,000 children at home.

This week, schools are closed for the Independence Day holiday.

Youth sport has been affected, too. Yap Kai Jinn, 31, a coach at Square One Football, a Kuala Lumpur academy, said the club had cancelled all training sessions and matches since last week.

“Along with our parents, we decided that it is not healthy; it is not safe for our players to play under these conditions,” he said. “For now, we are looking for an enclosed area to do sessions, and for outdoor, we have to wait and hope that the weather gets better.”

Fires surge in West Kalimantan

The toll of the haze has been far heavier in Indonesia.

The country’s deputy health minister, Dante Saksono Harbuwono, told reporters on Monday that some 13,500 people were treated for respiratory infections in July and August, while about 5.5 million people on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra have been directly exposed to smoke.

Borneo is the world’s third-largest island and is divided between Indonesia, which controls the southern two-thirds as Kalimantan; Malaysia, whose states of Sarawak and Sabah run along the north; as well as the sultanate of Brunei.

According to the Indonesian government, fires between January and July burned more than 200,000 hectares (about 494,000 acres), an area three times the size of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, across Borneo and Sumatra. Nearly 95,000 hectares (about 235,000 acres) burned in July alone.

And despite efforts to control the blazes, the fires continue to surge in parts of Indonesian Borneo.

Hotspots in West Kalimantan nearly doubled on Monday, rising by 3,553 to 7,377, while the number of active fires rose by 88 to 104, and visibility fell below a kilometre, said Berton Panjaitan, an official at Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency. In Central Kalimantan, hotspots declined by 147 to 5,244, while fire spots increased by 16 to 72, he said.

Cities in Kalimantan have recorded hazardous air, too.

Readings in Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan reached 780 on Monday on the air quality index used by IQAir, a Swiss company that monitors pollution data. Pontianak in West Kalimantan reached 593.

The fires are largely set on purpose, analysts say, with plantation companies and smallholders alike burning rainforest and carbon-rich peatland to clear ground for palm oil, farming, and pulp and paper production. The practice is illegal, and Indonesian police said last week that they had arrested 72 people suspected of setting recent fires.

Super El Nino

Researchers warned people in Southeast Asia to brace for a long fire season.

El Nino – the naturally occurring pattern that shifts winds, air pressure and rainfall worldwide – appears headed for “super” strength, said Helena Varkkey, a specialist on transboundary haze at Universiti Malaya.

In Southeast Asia, she said, “the intensifying El Nino means hotter and drier conditions”, so “any fires that happen will have a bigger and longer regional impact”.

Jayaprakash Muralitharan, a Malaysian atmospheric scientist, said the worst was still ahead.

Haze conditions are “going to be severe and longer, because the hot weather started much earlier last year”, he said. “El Nino came in and made conditions drier. Now you have the extreme drying of the peatland.”

And peat can make fires stubborn, he said. What looks extinguished on the surface can smoulder underground for weeks and flare up again, and nothing short of sustained rain will soak the soil enough to put it out.

Until the rains arrive, Muralitharan said, there is little to be done.

“Human intervention now is only a temporary solution. It would go on until end of September or October when the rain comes in. I hope that rain comes in by then.”

UCLA has fired athletic director Martin Jarmond and appointed longtime Lakers executive Tim Harris to replace him as CEO and director of athletics.

UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk announced the change on Monday, ending Jarmond’s run of more than six years that included a stunning move to the Big Ten Conference, a string of conference championships outside of football and a significant financial deficit.

“UCLA Athletics currently carries a significant financial deficit, and its current path is not sustainable,” Frenk wrote. “Now is the moment to build a model for Athletics that protects the breadth of our program, creates new opportunities for student-athletes and coaches, and supports itself through the revenue it generates. I believe UCLA should help lead the transformation of intercollegiate athletics: our future must be shaped by purpose — not by pressure.”

Frenk cited the rapidly evolving college landscape, including the soaring costs associated with the name, image and likeness athlete compensation era, while announcing the need to shift to Harris’ leadership. Harris is a UCLA alum who spent more than 35 years helping run the Lakers’ business operations.

“Tim will develop a new strategy to grow revenue through partnerships, licensing and other ventures, while ensuring that our student-athletes and coaches have the required support to compete at the highest level,” Frenk wrote in a letter to UCLA fans while outlining a new direction for the athletics program.

It’s not clear whether Jarmond will receive all or part of the $5.9 million remaining on a recent contract extension that runs through June 30, 2029.

While UCLA enjoyed success in many sports and led the Big Ten in championships during its first season in the league, Jarmond struggled to get the football program on track until he collaborated with a committee on the hire of current coach Bob Chesney.

Fans called for coach Chip Kelly to be fired after bad home losses to Arizona State and California near the end of the 2023 season, but Jarmond said he preferred continuity with the Bruins poised to join the Big Ten. It seemed Kelly’s contract combined with the an athletic department deficit gave the athletic director little room to make a change.

Two months later, after reportedly interviewing for several coaching vacancies, Kelly took the offensive coordinator job at Ohio State.

Self-imposing a 96-hour deadline to find a successor, Jarmond pivoted to Deshaun Foster, a reticent running backs coach who was beloved by players but short on experience. After posting a 5-10 record and going 0-3 to start the 2025 season, Foster was fired. His contract presented fewer hurdles making a quick change when Foster struggled with the demands of the job.

The football program won one bowl game — the L.A. Bowl — during Jarmond’s tenure and set record lows for attendance in multiple seasons.

Jarmond, however, also presided over teams that won nine NCAA championships, including the women’s basketball national title last season.

At the end of the 2024 fiscal year, UCLA athletics carried $51.8 million in debt that required a university bailout. Big Ten revenue has dented the deficit, but the expense of fielding competitive teams in all sports is soaring.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — The Pentagon has fired the publisher, editor-in-chief and Middle East reporter of the venerable military newspaper Stars and Stripes, the publication reported Friday.

Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer Jr. and civilian reporter Lara Korte, who covers the Middle East, have all received termination notices, a Pentagon source confirmed to the newspaper.

Despite being part of the Department of Defense, Stars and Stripes has long maintained editorial independence from the top leaders but it has faced pressure under the administration of President Donald Trump, whose defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly clashed with media covering the Pentagon.

Slavin said he was fired for insubordination after telling CBS News last month that he would regard any attempt by the Pentagon to interfere with Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence as a “red line.”

Asked in an interview if he had any “red lines” in his mind when it came to censorship, Slavin answered, “Yes, I do,” and gave as an example, “Well, don’t run a perfectly accurate story. Run this instead. Here it is.”

On Friday, Slavin issued a statement to the newspaper saying, “I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies.”

During the same interview, Korte said, “I’m working for Stars and Stripes, not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policy maker. I’m here to cover the military community.”

Korte said Friday she was informed that she, too, had been fired for insubordination due to her remarks in the interview.

“I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories. It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press,” she said.

Lederer, who announced his retirement on Tuesday, was fired after more than 30 years of working for the paper.

Capt. William Urban, the military deputy to Lederer, didn’t directly address the terminations in an “open letter to stakeholders” published in Stars and Stripes on Friday, but rather spoke of increasing its readership through digital strategies.

“We may never be able to have the same impact for our service members digitally that our paper had during World War II in a vastly different media environment, but I also believe that we can do better — that we must do better for our most important constituency, the men and women who make up the U.S. Armed Forces,” he wrote.

“My vision for the future of Stars and Stripes is simple: More eyeballs on our content and more impact on our service members while maintaining the highest standard of professional journalism with the credibility that comes with editorial independence.”

Stars and Stripes’ independence first appeared to come into the administration’s crosshairs in January when Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman and a senior advisor to Hegseth, said the department was aiming to bring it “into the 21st century.

“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

The firing of its leadership elicited alarm from journalists.

National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. called the moves “another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military and should be immediately reversed.”

He cited the April firing of the the newspaper’s ombudsman, a role “established and charged by Congress to provide independent oversight and protect the paper’s editorial integrity,” and a March memo that imposed content restrictions and tightened the Pentagon’s oversight of the newsroom.

“Firing a newspaper editor after he publicly defended his newsroom’s editorial independence is deeply troubling, and it should concern every journalist and every member of the U.S. military who depends on independent reporting,” Schoeff added.

“This is an assault on the fundamental principle that journalists must be free to report the news without fear of retaliation from the government officials they cover,” he said. “The Pentagon must reaffirm that principle and make clear that Stars and Stripes journalists will not be punished for doing their jobs.”

A fundraiser created by Dudley Council to help residents “rebuild their lives” has surpassed £25,000.

Another by the Heart of England Community Foundation to help families impacted by fires across the West Midlands has hit £50,000.

Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles urged anyone who needed additional support to reach out for help.

“I’m on hand to support however I can, the Town Hall remains open for food, clothes, pet supplies, phone chargers, general inquiries,” she said.

“Counselling is available and being offered by several local professionals free of charge for adults and children.”

The Stourbridge and District branch of the RSPCA has also shared posters, external about several cats who have gone missing from the area since the fire.

In Stoke-on-Trent, four homes were completely destroyed by a fire that started in a park in Sandyford and 13 other homes suffered structural, roof and window damage.

Marie Leese told how her treasured garden went up in flames after fire ripped through properties in Maureen Avenue.

When she was allowed to return home, she discovered she had also lost the summer house her husband built before he died three years ago.

Police have arrested a man and woman on suspicion of arson in connection with the Stoke-on-Trent fire.

Investigators are still working on what caused the blaze in Stourbridge.

Qatar says negotiations between Oman and Iran over the future of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are making major progress.

EMERGENCY crews are battling wildfires across the popular Greek island of Kefalonia, forcing tourists and locals to evacuate homes and holiday accommodation.

Heatwave conditions and gale-force winds have fuelled blazes across the Ionian island, sending thick smoke over holiday regions and putting British travellers on alert.

Here is your guide to where the blazes are located, how they started, and what the latest official advice says for holidaymakers heading to Greece.

Where are the fires in Kefalonia?

Wildfires initially erupted in the dense pine forests and scrubland near Pastra, in the south-east of the island of Kefalonia.

The Greek Fire Service and local municipal authorities issued urgent precautionary evacuation orders via the national emergency alert system after flames threatened nearby homes and tourist lodgings.

Evacuations were triggered for several inland villages as flames moved close to residential zones.

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Is it safe to travel to Greece? Latest holiday advice amid wildfires evacuations

While precautionary evacuations were ordered, local authorities and ground crews largely brought the fire near Pastra under control.

Though firefighters – supported by specialised water-dropping aircraft and helicopters – still remain on high alert for flare-ups.

While main coastal resorts remain open, drifting smoke plumes and shifting winds have affected air quality and visibility across nearby districts.

How did the fires start?

The outbreak of wildfires on Kefalonia comes amid an intense summer heatwave gripping Greece and wider southern Europe.

While official investigations into the exact ignition points remain ongoing, authorities point to a combination of extreme environmental factors.

Prolonged periods of temperatures exceeding 40C have left vegetation bone-dry, creating conditions where a single spark can instantly trigger a wall of fire.

Strong, unpredictable gusts have also whipped embers across containment lines and made aerial firefighting exceptionally dangerous.

In coastal areas, high sea winds briefly prevented water-scooping aircraft from operating safely.

Greece has suffered dozens of wildfire outbreaks in recent days, including severe blazes in Attica, Halkidiki, and Crete, putting emergency services under heavy strain.

Is it safe to travel to Kefalonia?

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its safety guidance for Britons visiting Greece, but has not advised against travel.

While it has not placed a blanket travel ban on visiting Greece, officials advise all travellers to exercise caution, stay informed, and follow local emergency instructions.

Holidaymaker checklist:

• Monitor Emergency Alerts: Ensure your mobile phone can receive emergency broadcast messages from @112Greece. If an evacuation alert is issued, follow instructions from local authorities immediately.
• Contact Your Travel Provider: Major operators (such as TUI, Jet2 and EasyJet) are monitoring the situation closely. If your accommodation or flight is impacted, contact your provider before travelling.
• Check Travel Insurance: Verify that your travel insurance policy covers natural disasters, trip interruptions, or emergency relocations.
• Emergency Numbers: If you are in immediate danger in Greece, call 112 for emergency services. British nationals requiring urgent consular assistance can contact the Foreign Office on +44 (0)20 7008 5000.

Travellers heading to unaffected resorts on the island can generally proceed with their plans.

But checking live traffic and local authority updates before set-off is strongly recommended.

A cluster of fast-moving wildfires has devastated the outskirts of Spokane, Washington state, with 65,000 people told to leave their homes. More than 700 buildings have been destroyed as the fires spread from surrounding vegetation into residential neighbourhoods, posing an unprecedented threat to lives and property.

The blazes have become the top firefighting priority in the US because of their scale and the danger they pose to communities. While no deaths have been confirmed, authorities say it will take time to assess the full extent of the damage as search teams begin entering the hardest-hit areas.

The evacuation orders expanded from about 4,000 people on Sunday to 65,000 by Monday, highlighting the speed at which the fires spread into populated communities.

Here is what to know:

What is happening in Spokane, Washington?

Spokane, Washington’s second-largest city, is at the centre of one of the state’s most destructive wildfire emergencies in recent history after three fast-moving wildfires erupted on its northern outskirts over the weekend. Fanned by strong winds and fueled by exceptionally dry vegetation, the fires have burned more than 8,000 acres (3237 hectares) and spread from surrounding forests and grasslands into residential neighbourhoods, forcing approximately 65,000 people to evacuate, according to the Spokane Valley Fire Department.

Hundreds of buildings, most of them homes, have already been destroyed, with aerial surveys suggesting many more may have been damaged. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to charred rubble, with some properties left standing only as brick chimneys.

The scale of the disaster has overwhelmed local resources, prompting one of the largest firefighting operations in the state, with more than 1,000 firefighters deployed from across the region.

Despite the massive response, the fires remain uncontained, and officials say it could take days to fully assess the destruction. While no deaths have been confirmed, authorities initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people after the evacuations, though that number has since fallen significantly as families have been reunited. Emergency shelters have been opened across Spokane, and officials are urging residents not to return to evacuated areas or fly drones, which can disrupt critical aerial firefighting operations.

Firefighters are taking advantage of a brief period of cooler temperatures and lighter winds, but forecasters warn that hotter, drier and windier weather is expected to return later this week, raising fears that the fires could spread even further.

Washington is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in more than three decades, with about 450,000 acres (182,000 hectares) burned so far this summer. More than 250,000 acres have burned in recent major fires alone.

What caused the fires?

Local news outlets have reported that the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday evening that a 37-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the fire.

However, experts say the conditions that allowed the fires to spread so rapidly were already in place.

Washington has been experiencing severe drought and an unusually low winter snowpack, leaving vegetation exceptionally dry and highly flammable. Those conditions have been compounded by periods of extreme heat, low humidity and strong winds, creating an environment in which even a small ignition can quickly grow into a fast-moving wildfire.

Scientists have also linked increasingly severe wildfire seasons across the western US to human-caused climate change, which has contributed to hotter temperatures, longer droughts and drier landscapes. While climate change does not directly ignite wildfires, it makes them more likely to spread rapidly and become more destructive once they start.

Why are the Washington wildfires so severe?

The Washington wildfires have become particularly severe because several factors have converged, allowing the blazes to spread rapidly.

• Multiple large fires burning simultaneously: Spokane is dealing with three major wildfires at once, while dozens of other significant fires are burning across the western US. Managing multiple large incidents simultaneously has made it harder to concentrate resources on a single fire.
• The fires advanced rapidly into populated communities: Driven by strong winds, the flames jumped roads and rivers, allowing them to move from forests and grasslands into residential neighbourhoods. More than 700 buildings have been destroyed, making the fires far more difficult to contain as they threaten homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.
• Firefighting resources are stretched: More than 100 new wildfires have been reported across 15 US states over a single weekend, placing extraordinary pressure on national firefighting resources. Although more than 1,000 firefighters have been deployed to Spokane, emergency officials say aircraft, equipment and personnel are being shared across multiple emergencies.
• An ongoing threat despite improved weather: Firefighters have benefitted from a brief period of cooler temperatures and lighter winds, but officials warn that hotter, drier and windier conditions are expected to return. With the fires still not contained, there is a significant risk that they could grow further or ignite new areas.

What role are drought, heat and climate change playing?

Scientists say drought, extreme heat and climate change are making wildfire seasons longer, more frequent and more destructive across the western US.

Drought dries out vegetation, turning forests and grasslands into fuel that can ignite and burn more intensely.

Heat and low humidity accelerate fire spread by drying vegetation even further and creating conditions in which flames can move rapidly across the landscape.

Climate change amplifies these conditions, as rising global temperatures are increasing the likelihood of prolonged droughts, more frequent heatwaves and longer fire seasons, making large, destructive wildfires more likely once they ignite.

What is the weather forecast for midweek?

The weather is expected to worsen again by midweek.

While Monday and Tuesday offered a brief, helpful window of cooler temperatures and calmer winds, the midweek forecast calls for a return of:

• Extremely high temperatures, particularly on Thursday, with highs forecasted up to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit). On Monday, it was at 22C (72F).
• Low humidity (very dry conditions).
• Gusty winds with speeds up to 26 km/h.

Because the fires remain completely uncontained, authorities are keeping evacuations in place. They warn that the worst outcome would be letting residents return to their homes, only to have to evacuate them again 24 to 48 hours later when the hot, windy weather returns.

Washington’s entire congressional delegation is awaiting a response from President Donald Trump regarding their request for an expedited emergency declaration to deliver immediate federal relief to displaced families.

Are other states also fighting wildfires?

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, most of the fire activity in the US remains concentrated across the country’s northwest.

Right now, the major fires are mostly grassland burns in Idaho, Oregon and Utah, as well as fires in Florida’s Everglades National Park, in addition to new fires reported in Left Creek in Wyoming, Antelope Creek Fire in Nevada and the Sand Creek and Middle Coulee fires in Montana.

A lightning-caused fire that has burned more than 530 square miles (about 1,370 sq km) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon continued to grow on Monday. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

In central Utah, a blaze quadrupled in size more than the weekend to nearly 109 square miles (282 sq km) by Monday afternoon. More than 100 cattle have died, according to law enforcement.

A total of 1,000sq km (386sq miles) has burned across Washington state, and some of the fires have not been contained.

Wildfires in eastern Washington state have forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area and destroyed at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said on Sunday.

The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, burned about 21 square kilometres (8sq miles) over the weekend and were among dozens of wildfires across the Western United States that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them.

Roughly 1,000sq km (386sq miles) have burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained.

Fire and law enforcement officials said there had been no reports of injuries or people unaccounted for, but they stressed it was early in the response effort.

Videos from the Spokane area showed buildings on fire, black smoke billowing up near neighbourhoods, and the smoking ruins of homes, with only chimneys still standing. Several officials expressed concern that the area appears set to continue having dry weather in the coming days.

“We are not out of danger,” Senator Maria Cantwell said during a news conference with federal, state and local officials in Spokane. “The next couple of days will be challenging.”

Investigators have not determined how the blazes began.

Spokane was not the only region struggling to contain fires.

Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a tenth day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 1,360sq km (525sq miles) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, with authorities saying the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend, jumping from about 41sq km (16sq miles) to 145sq km (56sq miles) by Sunday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.

THOUSANDS of locals and British holidaymakers have been evacuated from Crete after deadly wildfires swept through the popular Greek hotspot.

At least three emergency responders have lost their lives during the crisis across Greece, including two firefighters who became trapped in their vehicle near the mountain village of Krya Vrysi in Crete.

Flames fanned by gale-force winds have spread across a 15-kilometre front on the island at the peak of the summer holiday season.

Around 8,000 people were ordered to move to safety as flames closed in on southern resort villages, destroying homes, farms, and livestock in their path.

The crisis comes as severe heatwaves spark wildfires across Southern Europe and parts of the UK, with firefighters battling blazes from Spain and Turkey to Suffolk.

Where are the wildfires in Crete?

The primary fire zone in Crete is located along the island’s southern coast in the Rethymno region, specifically within the Agios Vasileios municipality.

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Villages and coastal areas hit by emergency evacuation alerts include:

• Krya Vrysi, Melambes, and Sachtouria
• Agios Pavlos, Triopetra, and Agia Paraskevi
• Orne and Ligres

More than 200 firefighters, supported by 53 fire engines, have been tackling the south-coast blazes.

Nearby resort areas such as Agia Galini were evacuated as a precaution before conditions stabilised enough for some tourists to return.

Is it safe to travel to Crete?

It remains safe to travel to the vast majority of Crete.

The island’s main transport hubs – including Heraklion Airport and Chania Airport – remain open and operating normally, outside the fire zone.

Popular northern holiday destinations, including Rethymno’s historic Old Town, Chania, Heraklion, Elounda, and Agios Nikolaos, currently remain unaffected and open for business.

If you are due to travel, tour operators advise checking the exact location of your accommodation.

Anyone staying near the active southern fire zone should contact their hotel or package provider before travelling, follow official 112 emergency text alerts, and ensure travel insurance covers natural disaster disruptions.

Holidaymakers on the island are urged to download emergency alert apps, keep mobile devices charged, and strictly observe local fire bans.

How did the fires start?

Specialist arson investigation teams from the Greek Fire Service have launched formal inquiries into the exact ignition points of the Rethymno fires.

While investigations are ongoing, extreme heat and weather conditions created the perfect storm for rapid ignition.

A prolonged summer heatwave pushed temperatures above 40C, thoroughly drying out low vegetation, pine forests, and olive groves across the island.

Strong gusting winds reaching up to 102 km/h (7 on the Beaufort scale) whipped minor ignitions into runaway blazes within minutes.

Authorities across southern Europe have repeatedly warned that even minor human carelessness – like discarded glass, outdoor barbecues, or unextinguished cigarettes – can instantly trigger a major blaze in these dry conditions.

What is the forecast for Crete?

The weather outlook for Crete remains challenging, with forecasters predicting high temperatures to persist near or above 40C across the Aegean region.

But the primary hurdle for emergency crews has been unpredictable wind.

Violent, changing gusts have forced water-dropping planes and heavy helicopters to temporarily ground operations due to turbulence.

Fire crews are reliant on wind speeds dropping in the coming days.

Lower winds wills allow aerial firefighting squadrons to safely scoop seawater and drop targeted payloads on hot spots in Crete’s steep mountain terrain.

While ground teams continue to build containment lines, civil protection authorities maintain a high wildfire alert across Crete and wider Greece.

Climate change has helped southern Europe’s likelihood of wildfires double since 1981, say researchers.

Southern Europe is “becoming more flammable,” with the number of summer days featuring conditions likely to produce fires having more than doubled since 1981, according to a new report.

The study, published on Thursday in the Scientific Reports journal, said that this “major intensification” of fire-prone weather is driven by climate change. It noted that these effects are especially pronounced in France and Spain, which have been battling some of their largest blazes since records began in recent weeks.

The steep increase in the frequency of fire weather – characterised by searing temperatures, low humidity, dryness, and strong winds – “can only be attributed to global warming,” said study co-author Raul Cordero.

European countries are enduring an above-average season for wildfires, and have already overtaken 2025, which was a record-breaking year for destructive blazes.

Cooling weather and rain helped to calm the worst of the fires in France and Spain on Thursday.

France told 84,000 evacuees in the southwest of the country that it was now safe to go home, as France’s largest wildfire since 1949 pulled back.

Spain ended its state of national emergency as wildfires threatening areas near Madrid – the largest Spain has experienced since records began in 1961 – began to come under control.

However, as high temperatures moved eastwards, fires were being fought in Greece, Turkiye, and the United Kingdom.

In Greece, two firefighters died on the island of Crete on Wednesday, the fire department said, as several fires started around the country, fanned by gale-force winds. Another died in a separate fire in the Peloponnese region as the blazes continued into Thursday.

“We have difficult days ahead of us,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

Firefighters in Turkiye have been battling at least 115 fires across the country, although at least 110 were under control, according to the country’s agriculture minister.

An enormous wildfire has forced evacuations and prompted road closures in eastern England. The fire at Dunwich Heath, a significant biodiversity site, is one of the largest the region has seen.

Evidence has emerged indicating that China’s YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile is now also being fielded aboard the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) Type 052D class destroyers. These warships are far more numerous than the Type 055 ‘super destroyers,’ from which the missile was previously seen being fired, as we reported at the time. The new development suggests that the PLAN intends to distribute the weapon across a much broader portion of its surface fleet rather than reserving it exclusively for its largest combatants.

A new video apparently originating from the PLAN shows the launch of a YJ-20 from the cold-launch vertical launch system (VLS) on the foredeck of an unidentified Type 052D destroyer, known in the West as the Luyang III class. After being ejected from the launcher, the missile’s solid rocket motor ignites before it accelerates rapidly away. No target engagement is shown.

Typically, the Type 052D’s VLS would be loaded with variants of the HHQ-9 surface-to-air missile, YJ-18 subsonic anti-ship cruise missile, CJ-10 land-attack cruise missile, and CY-5 anti-submarine missile.

The 7,500-ton Type 052D has 64 VLS cells, 32 forward and 32 aft. It’s unclear whether each of these is able to accommodate the big YJ-20 missile.

This compares to the Type 055’s 112-cell VLS system, which makes it the PLAN’s premier surface strike platform. However, only 10 of these ships are currently in operational service, with additional vessels still under construction. By contrast, approximately 35 Type 052D destroyers have entered PLAN service, with production continuing.

Putting the YJ-20 on the Type 052Ds would significantly expand the number of Chinese warships capable of launching hypersonic anti-ship strikes, further strengthening Beijing’s growing anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) posture across the western Pacific. On the other hand, it remains possible — although less likely — that the launch depicted is some kind of trial or experimental effort that might not lead to large-scale fielding on these hulls.

The new video follows the release of official Chinese military footage showing what the PLAN described as a “finalization test” of the YJ-20 launched from the Type 055 destroyer Wuxi, late last year. That video appeared to confirm the missile’s integration with China’s largest surface combatant, a warship design that you can read more about here.

That test from the Wuxi provided the first official acknowledgement of the ship-launched YJ-20. The missile itself had previously been unveiled publicly during China’s military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II, although speculation surrounding the weapon stretches back several years before that.

A missile first observed during what appeared to be a Type 055 launch in 2022 was widely referred to as the YJ-21. Subsequent official Chinese designations now strongly suggest that weapon was actually the YJ-20, or an earlier developmental version of it.

The YJ-20 is understood to be a hypersonic anti-ship weapon employing either an aero-ballistic flight profile or potentially a boost-glide vehicle: different Chinese sources have described both concepts at various times. In either case, the missile is optimized for extremely high terminal speed combined with unpredictable maneuvering designed to defeat modern naval air defenses.

Unlike a traditional ballistic missile that follows a predictable parabolic arc, an aero-ballistic missile can execute quasi-ballistic maneuvers — including skip-glide or ‘porpoising’ trajectories — as it descends toward its target. These abrupt changes in altitude and direction make interception significantly more challenging.

Chinese state media have also described the missile as employing a conical boost-glide vehicle, which would use a rocket booster to accelerate to high altitude before gliding toward its target while conducting sustained maneuvering throughout the terminal phase.

Although many details remain murky, it is generally considered that the missile achieves speeds well above Mach 6 during cruise and may approach Mach 9 during its terminal attack. Estimated range is generally assessed at more than 620 miles.

Guidance is believed to combine satellite navigation and mid-course updates before transitioning to an active radar and/or infrared seeker during the final approach.

Weapons with these characteristics are particularly well suited to engaging high-value naval targets including aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, cruisers, and other major surface combatants. The missile likely also possesses a secondary land-attack capability against fixed targets.

With their combination of extreme speed and maneuverability, hypersonic weapons can dramatically compress an opponent’s decision-making timeline while reducing opportunities for interception, making them especially valuable against time-sensitive targets. They also require very high-end interceptors, if they can be intercepted at all.

The apparent expansion of the missile to the Type 052D is arguably an even more significant milestone than the Type 055 test itself.

For China, fielding the YJ-20 aboard both the Type 055 and the much more numerous Type 052D dramatically increases the number of PLAN hulls capable of conducting long-range hypersonic anti-ship attacks. Such a move represents another step in expanding the reach of its layered A2/AD strategy. Rather than concentrating hypersonic capability in a small number of flagship destroyers, the PLAN appears to be distributing it across a much larger force capable of operating throughout the First Island Chain and increasingly beyond it.

Clearly, a larger force of PLAN destroyers armed with hypersonic anti-ship missiles would complicate U.S. and allied naval operations across the western Pacific by increasing the number of launch platforms capable of threatening high-value warships from long stand-off ranges.

At the same time, it is unclear if the YJ-20 has formally entered full operational service. However, official test footage, public appearances during military parades, and, above all, launches from two separate destroyer classes all point toward the missile transitioning from a developmental program to a broader capability.

The development underscores two major issues for the U.S. military as it gears up to face the prospect of a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific. On the one hand, the PLAN is growing at an alarming rate, and Chinese shipyards are churning out increasingly capable warship designs, not to mention submarines and other naval weapons.

The latest annual Pentagon report to Congress on China’s military, released at the end of 2025, stated that “China has the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal and continued to advance the development of conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies during the past year.”

With that in mind, the case study of the YJ-20 further underscores the fact that China is investing heavily in the development of hypersonic missiles and is now apparently scaling that capability across a larger proportion of its surface fleet, something that will have a significant effect on the regional naval balance.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Moment a projectile struck a border area between Kuwait and Iraq, sparking a fire and sending thick smoke into the sky. The scenes emerged after Kuwait said it intercepted 32 hostile drones since dawn as Iran announced strikes targeting US assets in the country.

SEATTLE — President Trump fired the new top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions.

Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran state and federal prosecutor, was sworn in as U.S. attorney before 8 a.m. at the U.S. courthouse in downtown Seattle. In a phone interview, he said he then went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and asked to meet with Charles Neil Floyd, whose 120-day interim term in the position ended in February.

As he waited in a lobby, Rogoff said, he received an email from the Trump administration informing him he’d been removed. He is consulting with other lawyers about suing over his firing, he said.

Presidents normally appoint U.S. attorneys, the top federal prosecutor in each judicial district. The positions require Senate confirmation, except in temporary appointments. When temporary appointments expire before a nominee is confirmed, the judges in a judicial district can name a U.S. attorney.

But under Trump, the Justice Department has sought to leave unconfirmed prosecutors in their positions indefinitely, often through novel personnel maneuvers.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said in a social media post Wednesday. He added that the judges who appointed Rogoff “abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration.”

Trump named Floyd, who previously served as an immigration judge, interim U.S. attorney last October but never forwarded his nomination to the Senate. When Floyd’s time as interim U.S. attorney expired, Trump simply shifted his title, a tactic the administration has also tried in other federal judicial districts: It named him first assistant U.S. attorney, while leaving the top post empty.

In May, a U.S. appeals court panel expressed skepticism that the maneuver was legal. The federal judges in the city decided to take applications for the position, and it appointed a bipartisan panel to review the applications.

On Wednesday morning the court — comprising 17 active and senior judges appointed by five presidents — issued its unanimous order naming Rogoff the U.S. attorney for western Washington.

Democratic Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who had opposed Floyd for the U.S. attorney job, blasted Rogoff’s quick firing.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington,” the senator said in a written statement. “This administration doesn’t want to deal with advice and consent—they just want to install cronies to carry out a corrupt political agenda.”

In December, Alina Habbaresigned as the top federal prosecutor for New Jersey after an appeals court said she had been serving in the post unlawfully.

Lindsey Halligan, who pursued indictments against a pair of Trump’s adversaries, left her position as an acting U.S. attorney in Virginia after a judge concluded her appointment was unlawful and that indictments she brought against James and former FBI Director James Comey must be dismissed.

The judges there named James Hundley, who had handled criminal and civil cases for more than 30 years, but the administration fired him. It also fired a court-appointed U.S. attorney in northern New York.

Rogoff, who spent 20 years as a state prosecutor and six as a federal prosecutor before becoming a state judge, said he knew the administration might fire him immediately. But he said he had no qualms about the potential conflict he was walking into. Being U.S. attorney is “the best job there is” for a prosecutor, he said.

“I’m really proud of my career,” Rogoff said. “The fact that the judges of this district — most of whom I’ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with — believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing.”

Johnson writes for the Associated Press.

Last week, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of the Interior expanded the situations in which their firefighters are allowed to wear N95 masks.

Starting in September, the federal government began allowing firefighters to wear the masks, but not when they were working on the fire line, only at times such as in camp and sitting in vehicles. Now they’ll be allowed to wear them during some work battling wildfires, including patrolling for areas where the blaze has jumped past fire lines and putting out smoldering remains after a fire is contained.

Masks are still prohibited during firefighters’ most grueling tasks — digging lines to stop fires and directly attacking flames. And the masks they’re using, N95s, do not protect against all of the toxic substances in wildfire smoke.

Nonetheless, health experts applauded the move as a step in the right direction.

Here’s why it took so long to get here:

Research has linked wildfire smoke to a range of long-term health issues, including respiratory problems, cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

“The fire service knows that,” said Rachael Jones, professor and chair of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health. “They all have stories” of lung damage or cancer, either their own or their coworkers’.

But this wasn’t always common knowledge.

“The verbiage was that wildland smoke was benign,” one firefighter told Jones’ colleagues for a recent study on firefighters’ thoughts on mask use. “It was like sitting around a campfire.”

Even as scientists and fire officials came to terms with the very real long-term health risks, some firefighters still had concerns that masks could muffle communication, make it hard to breathe and interfere with other equipment. That slowed adoption.

Missing crucial orders because a voice is muffled, or struggling to pull out an emergency fire shelter because a mask is in the way, could be the difference between life and death.

“These are not trivial things when the fact is that they reflect life safety outcome,” Jones said.

Deciding on the right type of mask or respirator has slowed adoption too. There are no commercially available respirators that protect against all of the dangerous pollutants in wildfire smoke.

Scientists have not even fully determined which pollutants pose the greatest risks to firefighters, further complicating a choice.

N95s filter for solid particles in the air but not dangerous gases. Heavy smoke or sweat can cause them to clog.

Half-face respirators — often gray rubber with pink canisters — offer different filters for different gases, but none can filter all of the concerning gases in wildfire smoke. The masks and backup canisters are also much bulkier to carry around than N95s.

Respirators that can filter out all of the “literally hundreds” of concerning compounds in smoke “just simply don’t exist,” said Matt Rahn, research director for the Wildfire Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting firefighters.

The result: “In our pursuit for perfection in finding the best respiratory devices for firefighters, we’ve basically fallen into a decision paralysis of doing nothing,” Rahn said. “It’s been that way for years.”

The federal government acknowledges the limitations of N95s in its educational material for firefighters. In a statement to The Times, the Forest Service said it will begin studying different respirators in a small pilot program to “determine if their use will be suitable for the wildland fire environment.”

The Forest Service said that N95s are already “readily available” to its firefighters and that it has more than 30,000 of them.

More recent wildfire news

Many in the western United States will have to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday with fewer fireworks due to heightened wildfire risk. Utah’s governor restricted fireworks statewide through July 5 as multiple wildfires raged in the state and the National Weather Service issued a rare “Particularly Dangerous Situation” warning, Kathy McCormack reports for the Associated Press. California officials, meanwhile, warned of zero tolerance for illegal fireworks, with some local governments recently increasing fines, Kassia Bonesteel reports for CBS News.

Three federal wildland firefighters were killed and two were injured by the fast-moving Knowles fire in Colorado on Saturday. As a ground crew began some of the first attacks on the fire, an order came over the radio to “get out of there now,” CNN reported. Within minutes, the crew was forced to deploy their emergency shelters, a desperate last line of defense when escape is impossible. Firefighters lined the streets of Grand Junction, Colo., on Sunday in a procession for their fallen colleagues.

Much of the western U.S. is facing above normal fire potential after one of the hottest and driest winters in recent years. Coastal Southern California, conversely, is facing average wildfire potential, fire weather analysts say, thanks to monsoon breezes bringing damp air from the tropics.

A few last things in climate news

A pair of hazardous chemical crises in Greater Los Angeles — at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove and a warehouse in Boyle Heights — have left Californians questioning why environmental and public health agencies such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health failed to address known risks, a team from CalMatters and the LA Local reports.

The Boyle Heights warehouse fire coincided with a spike in emergency room visits for smoke inhalation and throat pain, my colleague Hayley Smith found. Meanwhile, the water used to fight the toxic blaze ended up in the Los Angeles River, The Times’ Mack Baysinger reports. Local organizers collected water samples for testing as L.A. County public works deployed floating barriers to contain the runoff.

The headwaters of the Colorado River, a vital source of water for 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland, is drier than anyone can remember, my colleague Ian James reports. As seven U.S. states and Mexico remain gridlocked in complex debates over use of the river, it’s a stark reminder that the climate of the 21st century will leave less for everyone.

Europe is facing its second major heat wave of the year, with France recording its hottest day ever, Lauren Dalban reports for Inside Climate News. As residents struggled to handle the extreme heat, worsened by climate change, so did climate infrastructure championed to combat it. Trains were halted as the heat risked buckling tracks and nuclear reactors were slowed or powered off as the cooling water they discharged became too hot, the New York Times’ Chico Harlan reported.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

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Travelers Championship second round

-16 S Scheffler (US); -14 V Hovland (Nor); -12 E Cole (US), A Bhatia (US); -10 M Fitzpatrick (Eng), B Griffin (US), B Cauley (US)

Selected others: -9 J Rose (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng); -8 R MacIntyre (Sco), W Clark (US); -7 A Rai (Eng), S Lowry (Ire)

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Scottie Scheffler fired a 10-under-par 60 to hold the lead after the second round of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship.

The world number one made 11 birdies and a lone bogey on Friday to move to 16 under at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

That put him two shots clear of Norway’s Viktor Hovland, who also threatened a rare round of 59 as he fired a bogey-free 61 which included seven birdies and an eagle.

Jim Furyk holds the tour-record lowest round at 58, but Scheffler is one of 14 players to have made a 59, which for him came during the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

The 30-year-old American had the chance to repeat the feat with a birdie at the 18th hole but missed from just outside 26 feet.

“It was a little tricky,” Scheffler said. “It actually went right to start, and there was a tonne of break right to left at the end.

“It was a tough read, but overall it was a really solid day. I was pretty happy with my execution.”

On his plans for the weekend, the four-time major winner added: “Hard to keep up that pace, but continue to execute, continue to give myself looks.”

Compatriot Akshay Bhatia sat four shots off the lead in a share of third place having matched his career-low round with a bogey-free 62, with fellow American Eric Cole alongside him after a 65.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick lurked two strokes back on 10 under, having had to settle for a four-under 66 after two bogeys on his final three holes, with Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood a single shot further behind and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at eight under.

Salah may have been a superstar at Liverpool. He is on an even higher plane in Egypt.

With every touch comes loud cheers from his country’s fans, with huge pressure on his shoulders on every appearance.

Sunday’s goal was his 68th for his country in 118 appearances, leaving him just one shy of manager Hassan’s all-time goal scoring record, and some will say it’s his most important yet as Egypt finally ended a 92-year wait for a World Cup win.

No player has been involved in more shots during a game at this World Cup than Salah was against New Zealand – having five shots himself and creating five more for others.

Former Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, told ITV: “If there was any doubt about Mo’s impact on this team, you can still see it.

“It will give them enormous belief. They had to deal with adversity and their big player stood up and that will give them big confidence. You need your big players to perform to progress.”

Former Jamaica winger Jobi McAnuff added: “Just when he was needed, Mo Salah stood up for his country.”

Salah has played for the senior national team for 14 years and his importance to Egypt is such that high-ranking government officials have been known to get involved when he has been injured.

“I even had calls from Egypt’s Minister of Health,” recalls Dr Mohamed Aboud, the national team’s medic, about the time Salah sustained a serious shoulder injury in Liverpool’s defeat by Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final, leading to speculation he could miss the World Cup in Russia a few weeks later.

But, despite helping Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2019-20 and 2024-25, the player has yet to lift a trophy for his country.

The generation before Salah won three Africa Cup of Nations titles in a row between 2006 and 2010. Since then, there have been two defeats in finals, against Cameroon in 2017 and Senegal in the 2021 edition, which took place in early 2022.

This World Cup win at least banishes one of Egypt’s ghosts.

June 16 (UPI) — A Russian warship, the Admiral Grigorovich, allegedly fired warning shots toward a British pleasure yacht Tuesday morning in the English Channel.

The shots came within about 500 yards of the yacht, BBC News reported. The incident took place in international waters between the Isle of Wight, a British island, and Normandy, part of France. Those on the yacht have not reported any damage or injuries.

“We are investigating reports of an incident in the channel,” a U.K. Ministry of Defense spokesperson said.

BBC News said the yacht apparently drifted toward the Russian frigate in foggy conditions. The bigger ship sounded an audible warning — with no immediate response from the yacht — before it fired the shots.

This incident comes after U.K. forces seized a Russian-linked tanker, the Smyrtos, on Sunday in the same area. The tanker was carrying sanctioned oil. However, British authorities said Tuesday’s incident is not linked to that seizure.

It’s not unusual for Russian ships to pass through the channel while being monitored by Royal Navy ships. The Admiral Grigorovich was shadowed Tuesday by the HMS Mersey, BBC News said.

The Russian frigate has regularly escorted shadow fleet vessels — the ships Russia uses to avoid sanctions on oil imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.

James MacClearly, Liberal Democrat defense spokesman, said in The Guardian that reports of a Russian ship firing shots in the English Channel are “deeply concerning.”

“Russian is quite literally on our doorstep,” he said. “Aggression and intimidation in our waters must not be tolerated.”

After the seizure of the Smyrtos on Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was “yet another blow to Russian and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide.”