Thomas Kaminski has shared how he felt during an emotional end to last seasonCredit: Getty
4
The stopper lost his father amid Luton Town’s second straight relegationCredit: Rex
The double relegation from the Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons was put firmly into context by the sad passing of his dad Jacek, aged 65.
He died of a heart attack while out on a scooter back home in Belgium.
It came just days before the Hatters’ penultimate game last term against Coventry at Kenilworth Road.
After dashing back home to be with his family he still returned to play in the final two matches.
They beat the Sky Blues before losing 5-3 at West Brom, which saw Luton go down on goal difference.
Kaminski told SunSport: “It was a big disappointment to be relegated — but I had different things on my mind this summer because of my dad. He was the main man in my career and life so it was a tough time.
“I didn’t have time to process the relegation.
“When you reflect, yes, it’s disappointing — but it’s also only football.” Kaminski is proud to have played in the Prem with the Hatters, which his dad was able to witness.
The Belgian played all of the Hatters’ 38 games in the top flight and said: “It was a good experience. It was always my dream to play in the Premier League.
“You come up against these players that can make the difference in any game. It was different to the Championship, it was less physical but quick.
Devastated Luton boss Rob Edwards left in TEARS as West Ham loss leaves club all but relegated from Premier League
4
Kaminski received the players’ Player of the Year award for his Premier League campaignCredit: Getty
“It was all in and around the box — more cutbacks rather than crosses. It was quick and intense.
“And you know that you’re going to need to make at least a couple of good saves every game.
“I became a better keeper for the experience.”
That season in the Prem has given Kaminski a desire to get back there.
And he joined Charlton this summer believing the promoted side are on the up under manager Nathan Jones.
He said: “This is most definitely a team going places. We’ve some good players, young ones, and talented boys coming through the academy.
“And the manager is very intense. He’s demanding on every aspect. And that’s how I work the best.”
Kaminski also looked forward to the Addicks’ match on Saturday, reassuring QPR No 1 Joe Walsh that he knows exactly how he feels after letting in SEVEN at Coventry last weekend.
The Belgian conceded just as many in a 7-0 thumping while playing for Blackburn against Fulham at Ewood Park almost four years ago.
But Kaminski insists the south-east Londoners should not treat their visit to Loftus Road as a lunchtime stroll in the park because the R’s and Walsh will be a wounded animal following that 7-1 loss.
4
Charlton have taken a win, a loss and a draw from their opening three games of the seasonCredit: Alamy
He said: “I’ve been exactly where Joe has been but we beat Sheffield United 3-1 in the next game.
“So I am certain that they’re going to be right up for this one — in front of their own fans in a London derby. So we’ll have to be at our best.
“I always have sympathy for other keepers. I hope Joe has a good game but we take the three points.
“From my own experience of coming off the pitch letting in seven, everything that could go wrong did.
“We had a man sent off but were only 2-0 down at half-time. We said in the dressing room, ‘Let’s not concede any more goals’.
“But Harry Wilson, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Rodrigo Muniz were on fire and we were well beaten. Against Sheffield United we went behind again after about 90 seconds so there was that feeling, ‘Oh no, not again’.
“But you learn from big defeats like that one to turn it into a positive.
“What I took from it was you have to move on quickly and learn from the goals you’ve conceded. It’s never nice to let in seven but it’s part of football.”
European leaders have welcomed plans by United States President Donald Trump to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on ending the war in Ukraine, but called for continued support for Kyiv and pressure on Moscow to achieve a just and lasting peace.
The statement by France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission late on Saturday came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that Kyiv will not surrender land to Russia to buy peace.
Trump, who has promised to end the three-year war, plans to meet Putin in Alaska on Friday, saying the parties were close to a deal that could resolve the conflict.
Details of a potential agreement have not been announced, but Trump said it would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both”. It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory, an outcome Zelenskyy and his European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression.
The European leaders, in their joint statement, stressed their belief that the only approach to end the war successfully required active diplomacy, support for Ukraine, as well as pressure on Russia.
They also said any diplomatic solution to the war must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s security interests.
“We agree that these vital interests include the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” they said, adding that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
The leaders said they were ready to help diplomatically and promised to maintain their “substantial military and financial support for Ukraine”.
“We underline our unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” they said, adding: “We continue to stand firmly alongside Ukraine.”
Chevening talks
The statement came after US Vice President JD Vance met British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and representatives of Ukraine and European allies on Saturday at Chevening House, a country mansion southeast of London, to discuss Trump’s push for peace.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who took part in the talks with European leaders and US officials, said Ukraine was grateful for their constructive approach.
“A ceasefire is necessary – but the front line is not a border,” Yermak said on X, reiterating Kyiv’s position that it will reject any territorial concessions to Russia.
Yermak also thanked Vance for “respecting all points of view” and his efforts towards a “reliable peace”.
The Reuters news agency, quoting a European official, said European representatives had put forward a counterproposal, while the Wall Street Journal said the document included demands that a ceasefire must take place before any other steps are taken. According to the Journal, the document also stated that any territorial exchange must be reciprocal, with firm security guarantees.
“You can’t start a process by ceding territory in the middle of fighting,” the newspaper quoted a European negotiator as saying.
There was no immediate comment from the White House on the European counterproposal.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke earlier in the day and promised to find a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, pledging “unwavering support” for Zelenskyy while welcoming Trump’s efforts to end the fighting, according to a spokesperson for Downing Street.
Macron separately stressed the need for Ukraine to play a role in any negotiations.
“Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now,” he wrote on X after what he said were calls with Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Starmer.
“Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake,” he added.
Trilateral meeting?
Meanwhile, Reuters and the NBC News broadcaster, quoting US officials, reported that Trump is open to a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy. But, for now, the White House is planning a bilateral meeting as requested by the Russian leader, they said.
The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the US in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Nine months after that meeting, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan, during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, but the US president has failed to broker peace in Ukraine as he promised he could.
Ukraine and the EU have meanwhile pushed back on peace proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia justifies the war on the grounds of what it calls threats to its security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
Moscow has claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions, and Russia has demanded that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts that it still controls.
Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia’s Kursk region, a year after they crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations.
Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April.
Fierce fighting meanwhile continues to rage along the more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold about a fifth of the country’s territory.
Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine’s east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say.
Ukrainians remain defiant.
“Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories,” Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.
Sign up to make sense of the often unexplained world of L.A. politics.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
When tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado ran for Los Angeles City Council last year, she positioned herself as a potential fourth vote against Mayor Karen Bass’ plan to hire more police officers.
While she was waging her campaign, the council’s three-member super progressive bloc — Eunisses Hernandez, Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto–Martínez — voted against the mayor’s budget, decrying the amount of money allocated for the Los Angeles Police Department. Jurado, who went on to unseat Councilmember Kevin de León, said she would have joined them, turning the 12-3 budget vote into an 11-4.
Turns out it none of that was necessary.
On Thursday, the council approved a $14-billion annual budget that would cut police hiring in half, while sparing hundreds of other city workers from layoffs. Jurado, now on the council, praised the spending plan, then voted for it.
And this time around, the council members on the losing end of a 12-3 vote were those who occupy the body’s more moderate wing: Monica Rodriguez, Traci Park and John Lee.
The shift in budget votes from last year to now offers perhaps the strongest evidence of the political pendulum swing under way at City Hall. When other recent votes are added to the equation, the council chamber might even be undergoing a permanent realignment.
The council also voted 12-3 last week to hike the city’s minimum wage for hotel employees and private-sector tourism workers, boosting it to $30 per hour by 2028. Park, Rodriguez and Lee were in the minority on that issue as well, arguing that hotel and airport wages were rising too much and too quickly, jeopardizing the financial health of L.A.’s tourism industry.
The three ultra moderates also voiced alarm at their colleagues’ decision to scale back the mayor’s plan for increasing hiring at the fire department. Rodriguez, who gave a long and passionate speech against the budget, said in an interview she thinks “there’s clearly a shift in the politics of the council.”
“We have different ideology with respect to how we need to be making sure that the city is safe,” she said.
Soto-Martínez, who represents an Echo Park-to-Hollywood district, wouldn’t pin the political shift on any one vote, arguing instead that “the realignment has been happening for quite some years now.” The move to the left at City Hall, he said, has been driven by the election of candidates — including himself — who have sworn off contributions from corporations and real estate interests.
Because this year’s financial situation was so dire, and the list of proposed cuts so large, the council had no sacred cows when preparing the 2025-26 spending plan, he said. That paved the way for the council to scale back the recruitment of new police officers, he said.
“For many years, including the first two years that I was here, that issue was untouchable. No one would touch it or go near it,” said Soto-Martínez, who was elected in 2022. “And this year, we were realistic about police hiring.”
The realignment is in part of the product of years of campaigning and grassroots advocacy from the hotel workers’ union, LA Forward, Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles and many other organizations. But it also reflects the choices of Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is still in his first year in his leadership role.
Harris-Dawson reshuffled the council’s committee assignments last year, offering plum spots to the newest arrivals. Hernandez, who promised during her 2022 campaign not to hire any additional police officers, landed a coveted spot on the budget committee. She then forged a strong working relationship with Councilmember Heather Hutt, another new appointee to the budget committee, who broke into tears on Thursday as she described Hernandez’ contributions to their deliberations.
Over the course of the budget committee’s nine meetings, Hernandez worked with her colleagues to restore funding for programs that help day laborers, an LGBTQ+ liaison in the city’s civil rights department and $1 million for the legal defense of immigrants facing deportation. She also fought for core services, such as street light repairs, graffiti removal and crews that address illegal dumping.
By contrast, Rodriguez, Park and Lee made clear they felt excluded from key decisions, particularly the budget committee’s vote to shift management over certain homelessness initiatives out of the office of City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo and into the Los Angeles Housing Department.
After a lengthy debate, the three moderates picked up two votes in their effort to delay those changes, not enough to win the day. Instead, their biggest victory — one that took multiple tries — was securing the votes to restore $376,961 at the fire department, which will allow the city to send 45 firefighters to paramedic training.
Park, whose district includes the fire-scarred Pacific Palisades, sounded furious by the time the entire budget came up for a vote.
“I don’t think we should agree to spend another penny on homelessness until we as a full council — not just the few of you who get invited into the conversation — have the chance to chime in,” she said, adding: “But instead of fixing that mess, what did we decide to go after? The increase [Bass requested for] our fire department, after all we literally just witnessed in January.”
One day after the budget vote, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield acknowledged that the pendulum had swung left at City Hall, pointing to the results of several recent elections. Still, he cautioned against reading too much into a single budget, saying a pendulum can swing in opposing directions.
Blumenfield, who represents part of the west San Fernando Valley, said he voted to slow down police hiring as part of a compromise to protect civilian jobs at the LAPD and elsewhere. “I hate seeing the lower number of police recruitment,” he said.
Blumenfield, who occupies the terrain between super progressive and ultra moderate, said he’s still hoping the council will find additional funds later in the budget year to allow the LAPD to hire more officers beyond the 240 that received funding from the council.
“I don’t like to look at the council as a spectrum. I don’t see myself on that spectrum,” he said. “On different issues, I feel like I’m on different parts of it.”
State of play
— SEEKING A VETO: Business groups pressed Mayor Karen Bass to veto the measure hiking the minimum wage of tourism workers, saying hotels and other businesses cannot afford to wage hikes of 50% between now and 2028. Bass, appearing Tuesday at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, sounded sympathetic to their complaints but stopped short of stating her opposition.
“I’m concerned about the hit to tourism and just the hit in general, especially with downtown, but citywide, because downtown was already suffering,” she told the audience. She also raised doubts that she would intervene, calling the initial wage vote “veto proof.”
— BAD CALL: Former deputy Mayor Brian Williams struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, admitting he called in a fake bomb threat to City Hall late last year that was blamed on anti-Israel sentiment. Williams, who handled public safety issues for Bass, falsely stated that he had just received a call on his city-issued cellphone from an unknown male caller who made a bomb threat against City Hall, according to his plea agreement.
— HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: L.A.’s mayor promised to reduce barriers to filming in Los Angeles this week, signing an executive directive aimed at streamlining city permit processes and increasing access to legendary L.A. locations, such as Griffith Observatory and the Central Library. “We’ve taken the industry for granted,” Bass said. “We know that the industry is a part of our DNA here. And sometimes, if you think it’s a part of your DNA, you can think it’s always going to be here.”
— ZOO STORY: The elephants Billy and Tina were whisked out of the Los Angeles Zoo this week, relocated to a zoo in Tulsa over the fierce objections of animal advocates. The late night relocation drew complaints from Blumenfield and an array of activists, who argued that the pachyderms needed a much larger expanse of land for their health and well being.
— PUBLIC PAYOUTS: Two fired employees who received a combined $800,000 in legal settlements from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority had accused the agency’s chief executive, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, of hiring cronies for top jobs, attempting to destroy records and being “extremely inebriated” at an out-of-state conference, according to two settlement demand letters released this week. LAHSA “strenuously” denied the allegations, saying the agency “made a business decision” to pay the fired workers and resolve the employee dispute.
— PUSHBACK OVER PCH: Officials from city and state government tussled this week over plans for reopening an 11-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway. Nancy Ward, who leads the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, complained that her office had been kept “in the dark” about the city’s security plan for the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades area. A Bass spokesperson pushed back on that claim, saying the city would deploy 112 officers to staff 16 checkpoints 24 hours a day in the Palisades. Either way, traffic was flowing Friday afternoon.
— COUNTY CRIME: A veteran emergency management official with Los Angeles County has been arrested on charges of murdering his mother. Robert Barreras, 42, was suspended without pay, and had been on leave when the crime took place, a county official said.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness carried out operations in two locations: the area around Lankershim Boulevard and Strathern Street in Councilmember Imelda Padilla’s San Fernando Valley district and the area around Vermont Avenue and 73rd Street in Harris-Dawson’s South L.A. district. Outreach workers also returned to other parts of South L.A. and Hollywood, according to the mayor’s team.
On the docket for next week: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up appointees to its new governance reform task force, which will help oversee the implementation of Measure G, last year’s voter-approved measure to overhaul county government.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
LIKE a beloved old pet dog, DOOM: The Ages is impossible to put down.
It’s a demonic drug, a hit of horrifying annihilation that makes you want more and more. Because it slays more than Taylor Swift in a glitter hat factory.
10
Hell hath no fury… like a Doom Slayer with loads of gunsCredit: Bethesda Softworks
Care must always be taken when trying to improve a cult classic – and the original Doom rightfully belongs among the icons of gaming history.
So it’s a huge relief to see that idSoftware has not only been respectful in making this DOOM, they’ve also been really smart. But is The Dark Ages the best game since the original release?
Hell yeah!
10
There’s an impressive array of weaponry to dispatch demons withCredit: Bethesda Softworks
First off, there’s a more involved plot than previous follow-ups like DOOM (2016) and 2020’s DOOM: Eternal.
You play the heavy-footed Doom Slayer called upon by the Night Sentinels of Argent D’Nur and the mysterious Maykrs in their battle against the dark forces of Hell. Your job? To save humanity.
The Maykrs have a strange hold over the Slayer who gradually starts to think, and fight, on his own terms.
Previous follow-ups to this mega franchise were decent nods to the original but they weren’t truly great games. They lacked what makes a DOOM game utterly brilliant – an intense, mind-blowing run-and-gun experience which takes your breath away. Literally.
The Dark Ages, however, achieves this in bundles.
10
The 22 chapters are bold and intenseCredit: Bethesda Softworks
Because you become so engrossed in dispatching the multitude of enemies spawning all around you that you forget to breathe.
I lost count of the times where I finished a chapter (there are 22 to smash through), let out an exhausting breath… and noticed that I was two feet away from my gaming chair.
Such is the intensity of The Dark Ages.
10
Jumping into a giant mech suit feels like Power Rangers but, you know, betterCredit: Bethesda Softworks
It’s not just a blast and dash game either. This time round you have to be more tactically astute in your demon-slaying ways.
The sheer number of enemies that bear down on you during battle is daunting, but this just increases the adrenaline rush you get when your planned destruction works.
This immersive action results in hours lost wiping the floor with growling Pinky Riders and horrible Hell Knights.
10
Plan your battles wisely as you’ll need to be smart as well as sharpCredit: Bethesda Softworks
The arsenal is as kick-ass as it is clever. And each new weapon brings slightly different whoops of joy as you learn more about what can be achieved when you pull the trigger.
For example, the Impaler is brilliant for headshots and once you get your upgrades to a certain point, it can then slow down time to get the perfect hit.
10
Enemies vary in difficulty and there are some cool close-up melee optionsCredit: Bethesda Softworks
The Shredder can dispatch hordes of Imp Stalkers all at once and again, use your upgrades wisely, and it can auto-charge to a more destructive ammo when following a melee attack.
10
Saving humanity has never been so exhaustively exhilaratingCredit: Bethesda Softworks
But id Software’s addition of a shield is a masterstroke – this can rip through multiple foes or deflect attacks. It’s upgradable too and becomes an essential tool at your side. That is until you get the ball and chain – talk about an epic flail!
Each chapter is gorgeous in its detail and impressive in scope. The map is easy to read and offers a clear pathway to cute collectables, gold chests and secret areas you won’t want to miss in your 20+ hours of the game.
10
A banging soundtrack helps immerse you in the depths of HellCredit: Bethesda Softworks
Even the soundtrack is gloriously DOOM-esque. A head-banging barrage of heavy metal which delights the senses when blasted through decent headsets – I couldn’t help but ramp up my Turtle Beach Stealth 700s to complete the experience.
It all makes for an epic romp in Hell – you won’t just dip your toes in the Lake of Fire, you’ll want to go skinny-dipping and plunge in head-first.
10
A deep plot gives DOOM: The Dark Ages an extra edge over predecessorsCredit: Bethesda Softworks
The Dark Ages is intense – a cacophony of chaos that impales itself firmly as a Game of the Year contender.
10
A dragon! Yes, you can ride a dragonCredit: Bethesda Softworks
