A curse befell Jacob Elordi when he was a child. It happened in the aisle of a Blockbuster Video. The culprit for the incantation was the image of the now emblematic Pale Man from “Pan’s Labyrinth,” flaunting eyes on his palms on the back cover of the DVD.
“My mother remembers this,” an energetic Elordi tells me in a Hollywood conference room. “I came running through the corridor and I was like, ‘I need this DVD.’ And she was like, ‘That’s so much blood and gore. You can’t watch it.’”
“She told you, ‘I’ll get it if you promise never to work with that director,’” Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning dark fantasy, chimes in, sitting next to Elordi.
His wish granted, Elordi watched “Pan’s Labyrinth” at a young age. The fable set against the Spanish Civil War forever changed him. “From that moment, because of the way that Guillermo wills magic into the world and into his life, I feel like there was some kind of curse set upon me,” the actor says. “I do genuinely believe that, as out there as it sounds.”
Now, Elordi, 28, has become one of the Mexican director’s monsters in his long-gestating adaptation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (in theaters Friday, then on Netflix Nov. 7). Under intricate prosthetics and makeup, Elordi plays the Creature that arrogant scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) breathes life into — an assemblage of dead limbs and organs imbued with a new consciousness.
Elordi with writer-director Guillermo del Toro on the set of “Frankenstein.”
(Ken Woroner / Netflix)
Receptive to tenderness but prone to violence, the nameless Creature now has, in Elordi, a performer suited for all its unruly emotions. “It was the innocence in Jacob’s portrayal that kept getting me,” says makeup artist and prosthetics designer Mike Hill. “The Creature could snap on a dime like an animal.”
Capable of complex thought, Del Toro’s version of the monster ponders the punishment of existence and the cruelty of its maker. “They’re almost like John Milton questions to the creator,” the director says of the Creature’s dialogue. “You have to give it a physicality that is heartbreakingly uncanny but also hypnotically human.”
The imposingly lanky, gracefully handsome Elordi, born in Australia, has risen in profile over the last few years, thanks to roles in the hit series “Euphoria” and the psychosexual class-climbing thriller “Saltburn.”
“It came from some other place,” Elordi says about the pull to the role of the Creature. “It felt like a growth, like a cancer in my stomach that told me that I had to play this thing.”
(Bexx Francois / For The Times)
“Frankenstein,” however, seems to have been calling his name for a long time.
“Early in my career, I had been reading what folks on the internet would say about me and someone had written after my first film, ‘The only thing this plank of wood could play is Frankenstein’s Creature. Get him off my screen!’” Elordi recalls. “I went, ‘That’s an absolutely fantastic idea.’”
The thought reentered Elordi’s mind while making Sofia Coppola’s 2023 “Priscilla,” in which he played a moody, internal Elvis Presley to Cailee Spaeny’s title character. Long before he was offered the part, the hair and makeup team on “Priscilla” shared with him their next job was, in fact, Del Toro’s “Frankenstein.”
“I looked at [hair designer] Cliona [Furey] and I said, ‘I’m supposed to be in that movie.’ And she said, ‘Did you audition?’ And I was like, ‘No, but I’m meant to be in that movie.’”
“It came from some other place,” Elordi further explains. “It felt like a growth, like a cancer in my stomach that told me that I had to play this thing. I’ve heard stories about this from actors, and when you hear them, you kind of go, ‘Sure, you were meant to play this thing.’ But I really feel like I was.”
Due to scheduling conflicts, Andrew Garfield, originally cast as the Creature, dropped out in late 2023. With production set to start in early 2024, Del Toro had limited time to find a new actor. When Elordi finally heard he was being considered, he had to read the screenplay within hours of receiving it, and be willing to dive into the darkness.
“I had a few weeks to prepare, but I was lucky to have also had my whole life — and I mean that sincerely,” he says, a grin crossing his face. “Playing this was an exploration into a cave of the self, into every experience with my father, with my mother, my experience with cinema, my scraped knees when I was 7.”
Del Toro says he knew Elordi would make the perfect Creature from speaking with him over Zoom. He remembers immediately messaging Isaac, his Victor, convinced that Elordi could play both “Adam and Jesus,” which are the two facets that the creature represents for the director.
Jacob Elordi as the Creature in the movie “Frankenstein.”
(Ken Woroner / Netflix)
“I don’t think I’ve experienced miracles many times in my life,” Del Toro says. “And when somebody comes to your life in any capacity that transforms it, that happened here. This man is a miracle for this film.”
As he typically does for all the actors in his films, Del Toro sent Elordi several books ahead of working together. Elordi’s deep-dive reading list included the bedrock Taoist guide “Tao Te Ching,” Stephen Mitchell’s well-regarded translation of the Book of Job and a text on the developmental stages of a baby.
The most complex element of the performance, Del Toro believes, is playing “nothing,” meaning the blank, pure state of mind of a living being in infancy. “A baby is everything at once,” Elordi says. “It’s deep pain, deep joy, curiosity. And you don’t have chambers for your thoughts yet.”
Right before “Frankenstein,” Elordi had been shooting Prime’s World War II miniseries “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” in Australia, an experience he describes as “grueling,” one that involved losing substantial weight. He repurposed his body’s subsequent fragility as a dramatic tool.
“My brain was kind of all over the place,” he remembers. “I had these moments of great anguish at around 3 a.m. in the morning. I’d wake and my body was in such pain. And I just realized that it was a blessing with ‘Frankenstein’ coming up, because I could articulate these feelings, this suffering.”
Aside from being an outlet for his exhaustion, the transformation also helped Elordi to recalibrate. “Frankenstein” arrived at a time where he found himself wrestling with a crisis of purpose.
“At that time in my life I really wanted to hide,” Elordi says. “I really wanted to go away for a while. I was desperate to find some kind of normalcy and rebuild the way that I acted and how I approached making movies,” Elordi says. “And when the film came along, I remember being like, ‘Ugh, I really wanted to go away right now.’ And I realized immediately the Creature was where I was supposed to go away to. I was supposed to go into that mask of freedom.”
Was he trying to escape the pressures of dawning fame? Elordi says it was much more philosophical than that.
“Who do I think I am? Who do I present myself as? What do I like? What don’t I like? Do I love? Can I love? What is love? Every single thing of being alive,” he says with a radiant smile. “The unbearable weight of being.”
“At that time in my life I really wanted to hide,” Elordi says of the moment just before taking on Del Toro’s version of the classic. “I really wanted to go away for a while. I was desperate to find some kind of normalcy and rebuild the way that I acted and how I approached making movies.”
(Bexx Francois / For The Times)
The part entailed physically burying himself in another body. It allowed Elordi to renounce any hang-ups, surrendering to a fugue state of mind. Every moment felt like a discovery.
“I was liberated in this makeup,” he adds. “I didn’t have to be this version of myself anymore. In those six months, I completely rebuilt myself. And I came out of this film with a whole new skin.”
Elordi sat for 10 hours in the makeup chair on days that required full body makeup — only four if they were only shooting the Creature’s face. “Jacob wanted to wear the makeup and he knew it would be grueling,” Hill says.
“It was nothing short of a religious experience,” Elordi says. “The excitement I had even just getting my body cast — I was buzzing.”
Hill believes that the decision to make the Creature bald for the scenes where he is a “baby” is what makes Del Toro’s take unique within the “Frankenstein” mythos.
“Instead of what happens in cloning where a baby grows, Victor literally did make a baby, just a big one,” says Hill. “The Creature learns quickly because its brain and its bodies have already lived once. God knows what this Creature knew before he forgot and needed to be reminded.”
As for the skin, Del Toro envisioned a marble-statue look that he had been pursuing in earlier movies like “Cronos,” “Blade II” and “The Devil’s Backbone.”
“Mike took it and made it incredibly subtle: flesh with the violets and the purples and the pearlescence,” Del Toro says. “He bested every concept I’ve ever imagined by making it look like parts of exsanguine bodies. That was so brilliant.”
“It was the innocence in Jacob’s portrayal that kept getting me,” says makeup artist and creature designer Mike Hill, here seen working on a model for “Frankenstein.”
(John P. Johnson / Netflix)
A Frankenstein’s monster with rainbow-colored flesh, Hill says, could only exist in the context of a Del Toro picture.
“He had to look beautiful, like a phrenology head or an anatomical manual,” Del Toro adds. “We agreed — no scars. No sutures. No vulgarity.”
Del Toro’s casting of Elordi was fully validated when the actor walked on set for the first time in full makeup. “The whole process was anticipation,” Elordi says. “And then I opened my eyes and he was looking back at me, and it was exactly what I thought it would be when I first read the screenplay.”
For Hill, it was watching Elordi doing an interview, where his limbs seemed loose and relaxed, that convinced him he was the right actor to sculpt the Creature on. “I was like, ‘Look at those wrists.’ And then he turns, and he has these lashes,” Hill says. “Big eyes are beautiful for makeup. And structurally, Jacob has an unassuming nose, so you can build on that.”
“And he has a big chin,” Hill continues amid Del Toro’s boisterous laughter. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to glue one on.’”
Amused at his anatomy being dissected in front of him, Elordi claps back, mock-defensively: “He was grotesque to look at, but he was somewhat gifted. A deformed skinny freak.”
By the time Elordi got out of the makeup chair, he says, the electricity in his body had shifted. He stepped on set physically depleted but in the ideal headspace to embody the creature as it navigates an inhospitable reality.
“He’ll forever be fused into my chemistry,” Elordi says. “He was always there and now I have a little place for him. But I can’t rationalize him.”
Whether by curse or by miracle, Elordi’s Creature lives. And the actor feels reborn.
Miami Dolphins star receiver Tyreek Hill suffered a potentially season-ending injury after making a sideline catch during his team’s 27-21 win over the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the game that Hill had dislocated his left knee and would remain hospitalized overnight for further testing.
Multiple media outlets are reporting that Hill tore multiple ligaments in the knee, including his ACL, and will undergo reconstructive surgery Tuesday.
Hill suffered the injury early in the third quarter when he caught a 10-yard pass from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa going out of bounds and was tackled by Jets rookie Malachi Moore. Hill’s knee was badly twisted and an air cast was placed over his leg.
The eight-time Pro Bowl selection remained upbeat in the immediate aftermath of the injury, joking around with teammates and smiling and gesturing to the Miami crowd as he was carted off the field.
“He was probably in the best spirits of any player that I’ve ever seen [have] such a terrible experience,” McDaniel said. “He immediately had wide eyes and was talking, ‘I’m good, just make sure the guys get this win.’ He was focused on the team.”
In an interview from the hospital Monday night, agent Drew Rosenhaus told WSVN-TV in Miami that his client’s spirits remained high as he waited to undergo an MRI exam and CT scan to help determine the extent of the injury.
“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with his mental toughness, with his uplifting attitude,” Rosenhaus said. “He’s keeping a smile on his face, telling myself and his parents who are with me that he’s blessed to be in the position that he’s in. He was watching the game. He was cheering for his teammates. He was rooting the team on. He’s handling a very tough situation the very best that you can.”
Dolphins offensive lineman Terron Armstead had a similar update about the speedy receiver nicknamed “Cheetah” on Monday night.
“I just got a FaceTime call from my brother @cheetah,” Armstead wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “First thing he said ‘man I’m just happy we got that win’!! He’s in good spirits and said he was laughing through the pain, to avoid passing out!! crazy! Praying for best news possible and speedy recovery!”
Hill spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs, winning Super Bowl LIV with them after the 2019 season. After being traded to the Dolphins during the 2022 offseason, Hill finished second in the NFL with 1,710 receiving yards that season, then led the league with 1,799 receiving yards and 13 touchdown catches in 2023.
“Prayers up man…..,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wrote on X shortly after Hill’s injury.
EVERTON host Nuno Espirito Santo’s West Ham United at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in tonight’s Premier League showdown.
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Grammy winner Lil Nas X is seeking treatment out of state after his naked run-in with law enforcement last month, according to multiple reports.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shellie Samuels said during a hearing on Monday that the 26-year-old “Dreamboy” and “Industry Baby” artist “is allowed to remain out of state as long as he remains in treatment,” Rolling Stone reported. The outlet said Samuels modified the terms of the singer’s release to account for the ongoing treatment.
A legal representative for Lil Nas X (born Montero Lamar Hill) did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for confirmation on Monday.
The judge also did not disclose additional details about the singer’s treatment, adding that “it’s private, nobody needs to know where he is, but he is in treatment,” Billboard reported.
Hill, who broke out with his hit “Old Town Road,” was arrested last month in Studio City on suspicion of charging at a police officer. He was also hospitalized for a possible overdose. At the time, officers responded to reports of a “nude man walking in the street.”
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged Lil Nas X with four felony counts stemming from the incident: three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer. Hill allegedly assaulted officers who were trying to take him into custody. At least three were injured, the L.A. County district attorney’s office said.
The musician pleaded not guilty on all counts and was released from a Van Nuys jail after posting $75,000 bail. He faces up to five years in state prison if convicted on all charges.
Shortly after his arraignment, Lil Nas X reassured fans that he’s “gonna be all right” and said the ordeal with law enforcement made for a “terrifying four days.”
Hill’s attorney Drew Findling spoke to Rolling Stone after Monday’s hearing about the judge’s mention of “treatment.” “We’re doing what is best for Montero in a personal standpoint and a professional standpoint, but most importantly for his well-being,” Findling says in video shared on X by reporter Nancy Dillon.
“He is surrounded by an amazing family and amazing team of people that care about him and love him and we’re just addressing those issues,” Findling added. “It’s really as simple as that. He’s had a great life, he’ll continue to have a great life and this is a bump he’s gonna get over.”
The event quickly spiraled after a request to pray for Kirk from Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado led to objections from Democrats and a partisan shouting match.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a close friend of Kirk’s, told Democrats on the floor that they “caused this” — a comment she later said she stood by, arguing that “their hateful rhetoric” against Republicans contributed to Kirk’s killing.
Johnson banged on the gavel, demanding order as the commotion continued.
“The House will be in order!” he yelled to no avail.
The incident underscored the deep-seated partisan tensions on Capitol Hill as the assassination of Kirk revives the debate over gun violence and acts of political violence in a divided nation. As Congress reacted to the news, lawmakers of both parties publicly denounced the assassination of Kirk and called it an unacceptable act of violence.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was “deeply disturbed about the threat of violence that has entered our political life.”
“I pray that we will remember that every person, no matter how vehement our disagreement with them, is a human being and a fellow American deserving of respect and protection,” Thune said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), whose husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer three years ago, also denounced the fatal shooting.
A few hours after the commotion on the House floor, the White House released a four-minute video of President Trump in which he said Kirk’s assassination marked a “dark moment for America.” He also blamed the violent act on the “radical left.”
“My administration will find each and every one of those that contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said as he grieved the loss of his close ally.
“I feel like this is going to be so powerful for all of the United States because there shouldn’t be disasters that are preventable,” Pratt, who lost his home during the fire, told reporters.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said the main goal of the investigation is to figure out why the fire happened, why the state and local governments were unable to prevent it and how officials are helping the victims recover.
“We are going to get answers,” Scott said. “We are going to do everything we can to help the victim and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The congressional investigation, which launched on Monday, is focused only on the Palisades fire, but Scott said the probe could expand to other destructive fires that have taken place in Los Angeles County.
“We are going to start with this,” Scott said. “We’ll just let the facts take us where they are.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has welcomed the congressional investigation. At the news conference, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin warned that if officials fail to cooperate, the panel is ready to issue subpoenas to compel them to do so.
“We don’t want to use it and we hope we don’t have to,” Johnson said. “It is a good sign Gov. Newsom is willing to do so, and that’s the best way of doing it. But if they don’t, you’ve always got that backstop of compelling testimony, compelling documents, and that’s what we’ll do if we have to.”
“But I don’t think we will have to, quite honestly,” he added.
Notting Hill carnival takes over the West London streets again this weekend, but with major tube closures and road blocks in place – here’s everything you need to know before commuting
Everything you need to know before carnival(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Notting Hill Carnival returns this weekend, bringing a burst of Caribbean culture to the streets of West London – and as always, millions are expected to turn up to enjoying the soca music and food.
But with road closures, station shutdowns and crowds packing out the area, it’s important to plan ahead. Whether you’re jumping on the tube, bus or walking in from nearby, here’s everything you need to know about the Notting Hill Carnival route and which transport options are still running.
There’s also a Notting Hill Carnival map available to help you visualise the road closures and walking routes – you can find this on the official carnival or TfL website.
There’s plenty of maps for people to follow(Image: TFL)
Latimer Road – Closes at 11.30pm, but may shut temporarily to manage crowds.
Notting Hill Gate – No entry from 11am to 6pm. District and Circle lines won’t stop, and no interchange with Central line all day. Expect temporary closures throughout.
Westbourne Park – No entry from 11am. Expect serious crowding during peak times.
Holland Park – No entry from 11am to 3pm. Fully shuts at 3pm.
Royal Oak – No entry from 11am to 6pm. Fully shuts at 6pm.
Shepherd’s Bush – Expect it to be extremely busy from the afternoon onwards.
Kensal Green – A queueing system will be in place when heading home.
With the large crowd its best to plan ahead(Image: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Bus
Due to road closures, daytime and night buses will be diverted. Services will start from the Prince of Wales pub on Harrow Road (north) and Notting Hill Gate (south).
148X to Victoria – Runs between Shepherd’s Bush and Victoria (10am–5.30pm), then Notting Hill Gate to Victoria (until 10pm).
Stops: Shepherd’s Bush, Notting Hill Gate, Marble Arch, Victoria.
7X to Paddington – Runs between East Acton and Paddington (12pm–9.30pm).
Stops: East Acton to Wood Lane, then Shepherd’s Bush, Notting Hill Gate, Lancaster Gate, Paddington.
Expect something exciting from TFL(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Beyond the travel time table, TfL has partnered with Metroline and local community group Phoenix Rising to unveil a specially-wrapped Carnival bus. The bus will feature in the parade, with Metroline staff, TfL employees and live steel pan performances onboard.
“For many years Notting Hill Carnival has represented London’s diverse culture and strong Caribbean links – a community which is an integral part of TfL’s history,” said Emma Strain, TfL’s Customer Director.
“That’s why we’re excited to partner with Phoenix Rising to showcase Caribbean-inspired steel pan music on one of our iconic buses,” she added, “Stations around the Carnival are likely to get extremely busy, so please plan journeys in advance using the free TfL Go app or our dedicated travel advice page.”
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In 2020, inside the clang-and-clatter of Neshoba Central High’s powerlifting gym, Jarquez Hunter’s coach laid down a dare: squat 645 pounds on three counts.
With a nod and quick coat of chalk, Hunter went to work. Challenges don’t faze him.
At a Mississippi water company three years prior, Hunter’s co-workers coaxed him into a pickup basketball game. Still in his button-down shirt and cowboy boots, the 5-foot-9 Hunter went airborne. And dunked.
In those same boots, the Rams’ rookie running back completed more delicate tests: He patiently broke and nurtured a horse that he eventually rode across Auburn’s campus.
“Stay true to the thing you’re doing,” Hunter said.
On Saturday at SoFi Stadium, Hunter made his NFL debut in a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, Lining up behind quarterback Stetson Bennett, he took a handoff on a third-and-six play and mimicked a sprinter stealing a head start — his shoulders low and knees churning. Hunter knifed through the defense and broke for an 11-yard gain.
“That was a great run,” said Rams coach Sean McVay. “He’s knocking guys back and finishing forward where what might be a four-yard run ends up being an eight-yard or seven-yard run.”
That bruising style helped Hunter rush for 3,371 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns in four seasons at Auburn. The Rams selected Hunter in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL draft, adding him to a running back corps that features starter Kyren Williams and second-year pro Blake Corum.
“He’s definitely laser-focused on what you’re saying,” Rams running backs coach Ron Gould said during training camp.
Or, as McVay illustrated it: “He can stare a hole through you.”
Gould dubbed Hunter’s speed as his “super power,” a gift confirmed by a 4.44-second 40-yard dash. But Hunter’s ability to twist defenders out of position mid-chase is his calling card. Proof? He amassed 278 yards in 23 carries last October against Kentucky.
“Since I was in middle school growing up, I did a lot of squatting,” Hunter said. “I do a lot of leg workouts. I run hills and pull sleds. That’s really how I get the power in my legs.”
Rams linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr., a fellow rookie, played against Hunter three times at Arkansas before Paul transferred to Mississippi. Every matchup against Hunter’s Tigers, Paul said, was the same headache.
Rams running back Jarquez Hunter is tackled by the Dallas Cowboys defense during a preseason game Saturday at SoFi Stadium.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“We knew he ran hard,” the Rams linebacker said. “We knew he was hard to bring down. We knew he had speed. Very good in pass [protection]. … Man, he’s very dangerous.”
But that danger vanishes once the pads come off. They’re replaced by the patience of a country boy.
Hunter, who also stashes party tricks like leaping out of a swimming pool, grew up in the rolling greens of central Mississippi. And back home, Hunter’s most loyal running mate doesn’t wear pads. Danger, a chestnut quarter horse with a white blaze down his face and a deep copper coat, was born the same summer Hunter first wore an Auburn jersey.
The colt was born while Hunter was driving home for a short break before fall camp, its spindly legs still wobbly in the pasture.
The patience to break a horse, the stubbornness to work one until it trusts you, the dawn-to-dusk commitment of tending to something that can’t speak back — Hunter said he swears it all bleeds into his game.
“When you’re out there working with animals, you gotta stay true,” Hunter said, “you gotta go with the training. You still gotta work with them.”
That same discipline shows when Hunter rides his ATV up a steep hill, hauls in catfish by hand, or waits patiently for a buck in the woods — and it’s the same grit he’ll lean on as he pushes for a place in the Rams’ running back rotation.
For now, Hunter will line up again Saturday against the Chargers, with a chance to outpace the 41 yards he logged in 11 carries in his debut.
“Pretty decent,” Hunter said, “but it’s things I got to fix.”
Because for Hunter, the fixes are the fun part of challenges — whether it’s mending a missed block, pumping out another squat or winning the trust of a restless colt.
Staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this report.
The Little League team from Honolulu has a chance to become a three-time world champion.
Winners of the Little League World Series in 2018 and 2022, the team from Hawaii earned a spot in this year’s World Series on Thursday night with a 4-1 win over Fullerton Golden Hill in San Bernardino. They will travel to Williamsport, Pa., where the World Series begins on Wednesday.
Golden Hill’s only two losses came from Honolulu, including a 1-0 loss to start the tournament. It was the first time in the league’s 69-year history that a team had advanced to the West Region final.
Pitcher Bronson Fermahin took advantage of his team scoring three runs in the first two innings by throwing lots of strikes. He had eight strikeouts through the first four innings and finished with 11 in 5 ⅔ innings before Golden Hill pushed across a run with two outs in the sixth.
Fullerton Golden Hill pitcher Lincoln Ploog struck out 10 in a loss.
(Craig Weston)
Lincoln Ploog of Golden Hill was brought in to pitch with two outs in the first inning. He hit three batters but finished with 10 strikeouts in 4 ⅓ innings.
Honolulu scored two runs in the first on an RBI single from Evan Crawford and a bases-loaded hit batter. An RBI double in the second by Kuana Payanal provided a 3-0 lead. Mason Mitani hit a home run in the fifth. Golden Hill scored a run in the sixth. Fermahin had to leave because of pitch count with two outs in the sixth. Mitani came in to get the final out, catching a broken-bat line drive.
Golden Hill showed off two future standouts in Ploog and infielder Gavin Janicke, who came in with four hits in eight at-bats. Janicke struck out 14 in a win on Wednesday and wasn’t eligible to pitch Thursday.
I will say this: I should be watching more cartoons. It has been harder to indulge this passion for some of the best, most pleasurable work television has to offer with so many ordinary series fighting for my professional time and attention, but here and now I make a more or less midyear resolution to get back to them. Please hold me to it.
Two great animated series are posting new seasons after long hiatuses (neither on the original platform, both on Hulu). “King of the Hill,” which ran on Fox from 1997 to 2009, lives anew with 10 fresh episodes streaming Monday; “The Amazing World of Gumball” (2011-2019), one of the greatest products of a great age of Cartoon Network, is back as “The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball,” in a 20-episode season now available. (Earlier seasons of both shows are available on the platform.) Each is under the protection of their original creators; both are their easily recognizable, extremely different old selves.
Visually, there is little to no difference between one multi-camera sitcom and the next, one single-camera mockumentary sitcom and the next, one single-camera non-mockumentary and the next, one CBS police procedural and the next. But every cartoon creates its individual grammar, its dynamic, its world, its synergy between the image and the actors, its level of awkwardness of slickness. (The voice actors, I mean — animators are also actors.) There are trends, of course, in shapes and line and ways to render a mouth or an eyeball, and much drawing is drawn from the history of the medium, because art influences artists. But the spectrum is wide, and novelty counts for a lot.
“The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball”
(Hulu)
Created by Ben Bocquelet, “Gumball” doesn’t settle for a single style — that is to say, not settling is its style. The characters comprise a hodgepodge, nay, an encyclopedia of visual references, dimensions, materials and degrees of resolution, and include traditional 2-D animation, puppet animation, photo collage and live-action, usually set against a photographic background and knit into a world whose infinite variety seems nothing short of inevitable. (Netflix’s late “The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants” is the only other cartoon with such a range of modes.
Like many modern cartoons (excepting anime, which I would argue is a different, if widely influential, art), its main characters are children. Gumball, currently voiced by Alkaio Thiele, is a blue cat, the son of a cat mother and a rabbit father; he has a pink rabbit little sister, Anais (Kinza Syed Khan), and an adoptive brother, Darwin (Hero Hunter in the new season), a pet goldfish who grew legs and gets around quite easily in the air. Their middle-school classmates include a ghost, a cloud, a banana, an ice cream cone, a daisy, a balloon, a cactus, a T. Rex and a flying eyeball. Gumball’s girlfriend, Penny (Teresa Gallagher) is a shape-shifting yellow fairy. Each is rendered in a different style, and that is just the tip of the animated iceberg.
Like the best cartoons ostensibly made for kids, it doesn’t underestimate its audience, what it might understand or can handle. Many “Gumball” episodes devolve into a sort of authentically disturbing horror movie, including the last episode of the original series, which saw the characters frighteningly transformed into realistic animated children and a void opening just before the closing credits. It also demonstrates an adult skepticism about the world that might profitably infect young minds. There are critiques of capitalism, consumerism and online culture: In the first episode of the new season, an evil talking hamburger controls the corporate universe; in another, mother Nicole (Gallagher again) is seduced into virtual reality by a lonely, jealous chatbot.
The decade and a half since “King of the Hill” went off the air — surreptitiously, if obviously, referenced in a remark about “that cooking show that Fox stupidly canceled 15 years ago” — is not exactly represented in the new season, but time has passed. (The characters did not age 13 years over the original series — but they grew a little.) Hank, voiced by co-creator Mike Judge, and Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy), returning to Arlen, Texas, from Saudi Arabia, where Hank had been exercising his expertise in all things propane, are drawn older by the addition of a few wrinkles but are substantially unchanged. As a character, Hank, of course, distrusts change, though possibly not as much as the friends who gather, as before, in the alley behind his house; indeed, he worries that the love of soccer he acquired while away will reduce his standing in their eyes. Peggy, on the other hand, was enlarged by her time away; she likes to demonstrate a few words of Arabic. Both Hills are dealing uncomfortably with retirement; he looks for odd jobs, takes a stab at making beer (not that fruit-flavored stuff); she exercises.
In the revived “King of the Hill,” Bobby and Hank compete against each other in a home brew competition, to Peggy’s dismay (but eventual delight).
(Mike Judge/Disney)
The show is set in an awkwardly drawn but highly evocative, extremely ordinary environment that perfectly serves its stories; it feels like an accurate outsider-art rendition of its middle-class Texas suburb. There is little in it that couldn’t be handled as live-action situation comedy; indeed, for long stretches you can close your eyes and let it play in your head like an old-time radio show — “Ozzie and Harriet,” or “Vic and Sade” for the deep cut — which testifies to the quality of the writing and the performances. (Judge’s voice has an unschooled quality that perfectly matches the drawing. I was once almost certain that Hank’s voice was that of my friend Will Ray, a country-music guitar slinger — which would have made sense, given Judge’s interest in the music and his occasional moonlighting as a bass player. That is neither here or there, but I am happy to have found a place to mention it.)
Their son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), is now an adult; little dots on his chin indicate either that he can grow a beard but neglects to shave or that he can’t quite grow a beard; it doesn’t seem exactly like a choice. A formerly established talent for cooking — the final episode of the original run concerned his ability to judge the quality of a cut of meat — has blossomed into his becoming a restaurateur, offering a fusion of Japanese and Texas cuisine; he is evidently good at this, though for whatever reason — more work to draw them? — his restaurant is devoid of customers. The torch he carries for sometime girlfriend Connie Souphanousinphone (Lauren Tom) occupies the other half of his storyline here.
There are light topical references — a sidelong joke about the names billionaires give their children, for example — but the show happily lives in its world of day-to-day annoyances and victories. Hank is excited by a trip to the George W. Bush presidential library, but one can’t imagine him with any affection for the current Oval Office occupant; he’s too common-sense for that. Extreme views and conspiracy theories are loaded into Hank’s pest exterminator friend Dale Gribble. The late Johnny Hardwick, who voiced him for the first six episodes of the new season, was replaced by Toby Huss. (Jonathan Joss, who played the character John Redcorn, died in a shooting this June.) Cartoons have a way of dealing with death — they don’t have to — and time means no more there than the animators want it to. It’s a comfortable state of being.
Lindsay and Daniel Sheron dreamed of buying a home of their own. But in Los Angeles, where housing is expensive and in short supply — the median home price is roughly $1 million, according to Zillow — purchasing a home can be difficult for first-time homebuyers with limited equity.
So after many years of renting various homes, including a Craftsman house in Portland and, most recently, a small bungalow in Eagle Rock, the Sherons, who are both 36, reached a tipping point while searching for a house in northeast Los Angeles. They quickly realized that they couldn’t afford to live in their neighborhood.
“We weathered the pandemic in a 900-square-foot bungalow in Eagle Rock,” Lindsay, who is an architect, recalls of the house, which their landlords had listed for $900,000 before they decided to rent it out. “I thought, ‘If that’s what $900,000 gets you in Los Angeles, why don’t we look at land and see about designing and building our own house?” she adds. “Maybe we can gain more value that way.” (The bungalow sold for $1.3 million after they moved out.)
Daniel and Lindsay Sheron in the living room of their home. “We would have never been able to afford an 1,800-square-foot house,” says Lindsay.
Using Zillow, the couple scouted several hillside lots and eventually purchased a 4,300-square-foot hillside property in 2021 for $212,000. Located at the top of a small ridge at the end of a cul-de-sac in Mount Washington, the north-facing lot was on a buildable slope with lovely views of the San Gabriel Mountains. More importantly, the vacant lot had access to utilities such as electricity, gas and water, including a sewer manhole at the bottom of the property. There are many lots for sale, Lindsay notes, but many of them don’t have access or utilities.
With their entire savings invested in the land, the Sherons took a cost-saving, hands-on approach to the next step: construction. In addition to Lindsay’s design services as an architect, they decided to serve as general contractors and subcontract the major trades, including the concrete foundation, tile, framing, exterior siding and hardwood floors.
Although the architect was thrilled at the prospect of designing her own home, she had never built one before — or bought one, for that matter — which perhaps is why she could ponder the formidable tasks of securing a construction loan, deciphering Urban Forestry and municipal building codes in a neighborhood with strict development regulations, permitting the house (which took seven months with the help of an expediter) and deciphering new development fees linked to affordable housing. “Every step of approval is not straightforward,” Lindsay says. “We were on our own for all of the inspections.”
“I wanted the house to be warm,” Lindsay Sheron says of the Western hemlock paneling and House of Leon dining room table that serves as the hub of the house.
“It only worked because Lindsay knew how to do it,” says Daniel, who is a musician and, by his admission, had never used a nail gun before tackling their 1800-square-foot home project. “Because she has a background in construction administration on huge commercial projects, she had the answers when a concrete contractor had questions about what PSI [pounds per square inch] concrete to pour.”
From the outset, nature was a priority for the architect, who, like Norman Jaffe and Joseph Esherick and William Turnbull, Jr. of Sea Ranch fame, was concerned with the relationship between architecture and landscape.
Mindful of her neighbors, Lindsay devised a plan for a modern three-bedroom house that did not overwhelm the cul-de-sac: a two-story house that steps down the hill and is complemented by a pitched roof that soars parallel to the natural slope of the hillside.
Lindsay Sheron was initially nervous about designing a single-wall kitchen, but so far “there have been no issues,” she says.
“I designed the house to descend into the hill rather than being perched on top of the street,” she says. “That would have felt invasive. I wanted to bring nature in and blend into the hill as much as possible, even in an urban setting.”
The effect, Daniel says, is a sense of wonder: “It feels like you’re living inside the hill.”
Working together, the couple completed a significant portion of the work themselves, including the interior trim, and Lindsay even built a bench that doubles as the HVAC register. They also undertook extensive waterproofing on the exterior of the house and around all of the doors and windows, dug a trench for their water line and spent most weekends filling in the gaps where labor was lacking. When Tropical Storm Hilary marched through Southern California in August 2023, they crawled on top the house and frantically covered the framing with 100-foot-long tarps.
“That was stressful,” Lindsay says with a sigh. “If we had a crew, we could have asked them to help.”
Daniel Sheron waterproofs the exterior of the house above the living room.
(Lindsay Sheron)
Daniel Sheron and a friend install interior Hemlock paneling, above. Lindsay Sheron waterproofs windows in 2023, below. (Photos from Lindsay Sheron)
There were other unexpected fees. When all was said and done, the couple paid the city more than $80,000, with some fees meant to stymie new home development , even as there were discounts for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. If they had added an ADU, the calculation for one fee would have been $1.08 per square foot rather than $8.30 per square foot, they later learned. “If I had known the difference would have been $2,000 versus $23,000, I might had added an ADU,” Lindsay says now of the attached studio they installed at the front of the house alongside the carport.
Similarly, when they went to obtain their Certificate of Occupancy last December, they learned they owed a parks and recreation mitigation fee — a payment that would go toward “improving park and recreational facilities for new residents,” according to the city website. “We were tapped out at that point,” Daniel says. “We had to pay $8,000 or they wouldn’t issue us the certificate.” They put it on a credit card.
Three years and more than a few hassles later, the couple has a finished home that is a testament to their perseverance. Walk past the carport, which was influenced by Buff, Straub & Hensman’s historic Poppy Peak neighborhood in Pasadena, and a path gently curves around the side of the house to the front door, which opens to a central stairway with breathtaking views that connects the upper and lower levels. Two bedrooms are located on the top floor, while the stairway descends to the living room, dining area and kitchen, all of which are designed to be loftlike, creating an open floor plan bathed with natural light.
The primary bedroom on the ground floor.
“We say this is a house with no hallways,” Lindsay says of her efficient space planning. “You circulate in a connected space. The stairs are connected to the space; the hallway to the bedrooms is connected.”
The larger living areas are neutral, with warm oak floors and exposed Douglas fir beams that are accented with bold moments. The kitchen is a standout, featuring bright green custom kitchen cabinets painted “Raw Tomatillo” by Farrow & Ball, which add vitality to the single-wall layout. A custom metal hood by Practice Fabrication, powder-coated the color of a Pixie tangerine, adds a sense of fun.
“I wanted our house to feel really warm and bring nature inside,” says Lindsay, referring to the Western hemlock tongue and groove planks that she and Daniel installed on the walls and ceilings. “Wood does the heavy lifting in accomplishing that.”
Lindsay Sheron wanted the main rooms to be warm and neutral with bold moments of color throughout the house, including the bathrooms and kitchen.
The exterior of the house, which is clad in shou sugi bancharred wood siding from Nakamoto Forestry, was a priority for the architect but a mystery for the subcontractors. “Everyone presumed we were going to add stucco,” she says, “because that’s what everyone else does.”
She created a small mock-up to illustrate the rainscreen infrastructure system, which offers both fireproofing and insulation benefits. “It’s like putting a down jacket on your house,” Lindsay explains. “It’s a sustainable way to build out your exterior, providing more thermal insulation and allowing your siding to dry. It’s not attached to sheeting so it can breathe thanks to an air gap behind it.”
Toward the end of construction, when they could no longer afford their rent, the couple stayed in a friend’s spare room for four months. Then last April, once floors and drywall were installed, they moved into the house and showered at the gym. “We were squatting in our own house,” adds Daniel, who says he listened to island exotica music while working on carpentry projects late at night to help combat the stress. “I’d fill the house with the dulcet tones of Les Baxter,” he says, smiling.
Lindsay Sheron designed the house to step down the hill.
(Dylan Corr)
The home’s exterior before siding in the early months of 2024.
(Lindsay Sheron)
Looking back, the couple says the most challenging part of the process was that everything started and stopped with them. “We did not have a third person where we could say, ‘Hey, can you go do this?’” Lindsay says. “So many times I wished we could make a to-do list and give it to someone.”
“There was no one to fill in besides us,” adds Daniel, who is now working as a project manager for a residential contractor in the Pacific Palisades. “When the city wouldn’t approve the permit for their driveway, he drove to Norwalk and consulted property records on microfilm to try to determine the history of the shared driveway.
“We could have written a show about the experience,” Lindsay says, to which her husband responded, “It would be a comedy of errors.”
It also taught them a new level of collaboration.
Lindsay Sheron designed a stylish bench for the entryway that hides the HVAC system.
“We had never collaborated on anything to that extent,” says Lindsay. “I’m an architect. He’s a musician. We’re very different, but I relied on him a lot. He was freelance and could be at the house a lot more while I worked full time, so he would call me with questions or he would send me a picture and I would sketch on top of the photo.”
“I gained a deeper appreciation for Lindsay’s iterative approach,” Daniel says.
Longtime friend Nicolas Sohl, who attended Middlebury College with Daniel, remembers walking the boundary lines with the couple after they first purchased the land.
“Their love for each other is evident in the attention to detail in the home they chose to build together,” he says. “They saw it as an opportunity not only to advance their careers but create lasting friendships in their neighborhood.”
Inspired by rustic homes that connect to the landscape, such as Sea Ranch along the coast of Sonoma County, Lindsay Sheron used shou sugi ban charred wood siding from Nakamoto Forestry.
Though their goal was to build the home for under $1 million, in the end, they borrowed a little over that amount. Even so, they estimate they built their house for approximately 45% less than what a similar home would cost. They have seen three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom homes on comparable lots in their neighborhood sell for around $2 million.
On New Year’s Eve, the couple put aside their power tools and opened their home to 30 of their friends. Celebratory champagne flowed freely and thanks to the home’s open floor plan, dancing spilled into the kitchen.
Such joyful moments are especially meaningful after three years spent working as general contractors.
“Our friends say we seem way more at ease now,” Lindsay says.
Since finishing their home, the Sherons have opened their door to celebrate with friends.
The Essence Festival has taken responsibility for a Lauryn Hill performance that saw the hip-hop legend take the stage at 2:30 in the morning.
“Let’s be very clear — WE don’t play about Ms. Lauryn Hill. Not for clicks. Not for headlines,” organizers wrote Sunday on Instagram. “She arrived on schedule, stepped on that stage, and delivered the kind of performance only a legend can.”
The 31st annual New Orleans-based event, which ran Friday to Sunday, was peppered with issues from the beginning. According to the news site NOLA, Hill was quietly added to the already inflated lineup just two days before opening night.
“Does Lauryn know about this?” one fan quipped in comments on an Instagram post announcing the addition. Others riffed on her well-known history of tardiness.
The festival was reportedly already running behind when contemporary R&B trio Psyrin opened the first day. At the halfway point, GloRilla finished 45 minutes after the next act was supposed to start, NOLA said. So it was little surprise that headliner Hill didn’t get onstage until 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She performed to a nearly empty Caesars Superdome — hundreds of people were left instead of tens of thousands — closing with “Fu-Gee-La” more than an hour later.
Though Hill is notorious for starting her shows late, even telling a 2023 audience “Y’all lucky I make it,” Essence Festival organizers quickly took the blame for this one.
“Family is family and around here we protect our own no matter what the PEOPLE have to say,” the organizers said.
“The delay? Not hers. We will take that. The moment? One for the books. The legacy? Still unmatched. Put some respect on her name. Keep the takes, but keep her out of them. All love and deep profound admiration for Ms. Lauryn Hill,” they added.
Comments celebrated Essence’s “accountability.” The social media post even received love from Saturday headliner and legend Erykah Badu, who contributed some applause emojis.
However, not everyone was over the moon. In an open letter to the Essence Festival on Tuesday, Grammy-winning artist Stephanie Mills voiced her grievances about the event’s “overall level of professionalism.”
“While I remain grateful for the opportunity to have participated, my overall experience was unfortunately marred by significant production issues that negatively impacted both my performance and the artist experience as a whole,” wrote Mills, who performed Sunday.
“The schedule and time management were severely lacking, creating a chaotic and stressful environment backstage … the technical difficulties, specifically concerning the sound system, proved deeply problematic,” she continued.
She closed out the letter by calling for a “vastly improved experience” for artists and fans of the festival in future installments.
Bubbly presenter Katy Hill hosted many popular TV shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s and even had her own Capital FM radio show – these days she works in an entirely different profession and looks very different
Danni King, Hayley Anderson, Beth Hardie and Hayley Anderson
07:30, 05 Jul 2025
Blue Peter legend Katy Hill is now working in a totally different career and has set up her own business after rising to fame in the late 90s on some of the biggest TV and radio shows there were.
She hosted the much-loved kids’ show CBBC from 1995 to 2000, before moving to BBC One’s Live and Kicking until 2001. During her time on Blue Peter she was known for taking on daring stunts and even became the first civilian to fly with the Red Arrows. After her success on the show and thanks to her popularity she went on to host Top of the Pops, Football Fever, BBC’s Holiday and her own weekend show on Capital FM.
Katy helps others through 1:1 coaching and online programmes(Image: Getty)
Katy, who is now 54, also regularly contributed to glossy mags like Cosmopolitan Hair and Beauty, Hello! and Closer, and it was in 2004 that she bagged second place on Channel 4’s The Games. Later in her career, she hosted radio shows for Heart Radio, penned weekly blogs and stepped in as a relief presenter on ITV’s Daybreak, reports OK!.
Katy with Blue Peter stars Konnie Huq and Simon Thomas(Image: BBC)
However, these days, Katy is less of a fixture on our telly boxes. as she’s now a life coach, having launched her own business. Describing herself as an ‘Internationally Certified Success and Confidence Coach’, she frequently posts motivational content on social media. Katy also runs her own newsletter, The Limitless List, which offers inspiring quotes and messages.
In addition to her TV career, she also offers programmes, live groups and one-on-one coaching to support her members. Katy’s Instagram bio states: “The shy kid who refused to play small and spent 30 years on TV! Now empowering women like YOU to UNLOCK your CONFIDENCE and CLAIM the SUCCESS you deserve!”
The TV star is now a life coach(Image: Instagram )
Katy is happily married to Trey Farley, her former co-host on Live and Kicking. The pair have been happily married for more than two decades and are parents to two children, Kaya and Akira. In July 2023, Katy and Trey marked their 20th wedding anniversary, with the former TV presenter posting a heartfelt tribute to her spouse on social media.
She uploaded pictures from their wedding day and wrote: “20 Years of US! 20 Years of Mr and Mrs Farley! What a ride we’re on @rocaflix … nobody else I’d rather be doing LIFE with! Happy 20 babe! Let’s make more amazing memories! X (Ours was the Hans Zimmer version – obvs! )”.
Before tying the knot with Trey, Katy was previously married to her childhood love, Andrew Frampton. They got hitched in 1999 but parted ways in 2001.
Notting Hill Carnival is Europe’s biggest street festival
The future of the Notting Hill Carnival could be in doubt without “urgent funding” from the government, its organisers said in a letter leaked to the BBC.
Carnival chair Ian Comfort has written to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to request the funding, which he said was “essential to safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event”.
It follows a review of the festival, which attracts about two million people over the August Bank Holiday weekend, that identified “critical public safety concerns” that needed additional funding to address, the letter said.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for a response.
The independent safety review was commissioned by the carnival’s organisers and paid for at a cost of £100,000 by the Greater London Authority (GLA), Kensington and Chelsea Council and Westminster Council.
In the leaked letter, Mr Comfort said: “The April 2025 London Assembly report highlights the increasing strain placed on the Metropolitan Police during large-scale public events.
“Limited resourcing has restricted the police service’s ability to respond to growing operational pressures.”
The carnival chair said that increased investment in stewarding and crowd management was “now essential to allow the police to focus on their primary role of crime prevention and public protection”.
Mr Comfort added that a failure to secure “immediate” additional funding “risks compromising public safety and jeopardising the future of the carnival”.
He did not put a number on the level of funding needed.
The safety review’s full findings and recommendations have not been made public.
Reuters
The safety review raised concerns over crowd management
Mr Comfort said that while the GLA and the two councils had provided “substantial support” for stewarding during past festivals, they could no longer “meet the growing operational requirements identified in the review”.
The government has supported Carnival through bodies such as Arts Council England.
However, it is understood that if the organisers’ request is granted, it would mark the first time direct government funding has been provided.
Mr Comfort added: “A co-ordinated, well-resourced safety approach is essential to protect attendees and meet the operational demands of this major national event.”
As part of its policing operation for the 2024 carnival, the Met had about 7,000 officers on duty, drawn from local policing teams as well as specialist units, with a total of around 14,000 officer shifts across the whole event.
Giving evidence to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee in September, Mr Twist said: “While we acknowledge that crime often gets the headlines, the thing that worries me most is the crowd density and the potential for a mass casualty event.”
The committee’s report – separate to the safety review commissioned by Carnival organisers – found that while the force was being put under increasing strain by Carnival, “this has not been matched with an increase in funding from the government”.
Speaking in April at the report’s publication, committee chair Susan Hall said: “It is absolutely essential that the Met is on hand to carry out its duties, and not fill in for a lack of stewarding from the organisers.”
U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles thinks he’s the fastest man in the world.
Tyreek Hill, the Miami Dolphins receiver with the nickname “Cheetah,” thinks he could beat Lyles in a race.
The two men announced earlier this year that they would settle this most pressing of matters on the track, without offering many other details.
Now, however, it seems the world may never know which of them is truly its fastest runner.
Speaking to reporters Monday at the Stagwell Global Sport Beach event in Cannes, France, the 27-year-old Lyles revealed that his race against Hill, 31, actually had been slated to take place “this weekend” in Times Square but had been called off at some point because of unspecified “complications” and “personal reasons.”
“We were very deep into creating the event. In fact, it was supposed to happen this weekend,” Lyles said. “Unfortunately, there were some things — complications, personal reasons — [and] it just didn’t come to pass.
“But, I mean, we were all in. We were going to have a big event. We were going to shut down New York Times Square and everything. We were gonna have all the billboards for the event. It was going to be a lot of fun.”
Lyles was the world champion in the 200 meters in 2019, 2022 and 2023 and in the 100 in 2023. At last year’s Paris Olympics, he won gold in the 100 and bronze in the 200, later saying he had COVID-19 during those Games.
Following his 2023 world title, Lyles drew attention by telling reporters that teams that win the championship of a league based primarily or entirely in the United Statesare not technically world champions, despite what those athletes might claim.
“World champion of what?” Lyles asked. “The United States?”
During 2024 training camp, podcast host Kay Adams mentioned Lyles’ comments to Hill and asked the speedy receiver if he’d like to race Lyles.
“I would beat Noah Lyles,” replied Hill, a former high school track star who won the 100 and 200 at the 2012 Georgia 5A state meet and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.29 at his 2015 pro day. “I’m not going to beat him by a lot, but I would beat Noah Lyles.”
Lyles’ personal bests are 9.79 seconds in the 100 and 19.31 seconds in the 200. He told Bleacher Report in May that he thought his time in the 40 would be “somewhere between a 4.1 and a 4.2.”
In February, immediately after winning the 60 at the Indoor Grand Prix, Lyles held a scrap of paper in front of his face that read, “Tyreek Could Never.” Last week, after running a personal-best time of 10.15 in a 100-meter preliminary at a Last Chance Sprint Series event at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Hill held up a sign that read “Noah Could Never.”
While the two men apparently had been slated to settle their feud on the track, now it looks like that’s not going to happen. Hill took to X on Tuesday to post a version of a popular meme featuring Homer Simpson fading into the bushes, with Lyles’ face super-imposed over that of the cartoon character.
“@LylesNoah after seeing me run the 100m last weekend,” Hill wrote.
HOPLAND, Calif. — On a sun-kissed hillside in remote Northern California, I watched in awe as a crackling fire I’d helped ignite engulfed a hillside covered in tall, golden grass. Then the wind shifted slightly, and the dense gray smoke that had been billowing harmlessly up the slope turned and engulfed me.
Within seconds, I was blind and coughing. The most intense heat I’d ever felt seemed like it would sear the only exposed skin on my body: my face. As the flames inched closer, to within a few feet, I backed up until I was trapped against a tall fence with nowhere left to go.
Alone in that situation, I would have panicked. But I was with Len Nielson, chief of prescribed burns for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, who stayed as cool as the other side of the pillow.
Like a pilot calmly instructing passengers to fasten their seat belts, Nielson suggested I wrap the fire-resistant “shroud” hanging from my bright yellow helmet around my face. Then he told me to take a few steps to the left.
And, just like that, we were out of the choking smoke and into the gentle morning sunlight. The temperature seemed to have dropped a few hundred degrees.
“It became uncomfortable, but it was tolerable, right?” Nielson asked with a reassuring grin. “Prescribed fires are a lot about trust.”
Dripping gasoline onto dry grass and deliberately setting it ablaze in the California countryside felt wildly reckless, especially for someone whose job involves interviewing survivors of the state’s all too frequent, catastrophic wildfires. But “good fire,” as Nielson called it, is essential for reducing the fuel available for bad fire, the kind that makes the headlines. The principle is as ancient as it is simple.
Before European settlers arrived in California and insisted on suppressing fire at every turn, the landscape burned regularly. Sometimes lightning ignited the flames; sometimes it was Indigenous people using fire as an obvious, and remarkably effective, tool to clear unwanted vegetation from their fields. Whatever the cause, it was common for much of the land in California to burn about once a decade.
“So it was relatively calm,” Nielson said, as the flames we’d set danced and swirled just a few feet behind him. “There wasn’t this big fuel load, so there wasn’t a chance of it becoming really intense.”
With that in mind, the state set an ambitious goal in the early 2020s to deliberately burn at least 400,000 acres of wilderness each year. The majority of that would have to be managed by the federal government, since agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service own nearly half of the state’s total land. And they own more than half of the state’s forests.
Cal Fire crew members set a prescribed burn near Hopland in Mendocino County.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
But California officials worry their ambitious goals are likely to be thwarted by deep cuts to those federal agencies by Elon Musk’s budget-whacking White House advisory team, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In recent months, the Forest Service has lost about 10% of its workforce to mass layoffs and firings. While firefighters were exempt from the DOGE-ordered staffing cuts, employees who handle the logistics and clear the myriad regulatory hurdles to secure permission for prescribed burns were not.
“To me, it’s an objective fact that these cuts mean California will be less safe from wildfire,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary of natural resources. He recalled how President Trump, in his first term, erroneously blamed the state’s wildfires on state officials who, Trump said, had failed to adequately “rake” the forests.
“Fifty-seven percent of our forests are owned and managed by the federal government,” Crowfoot said. If anybody failed, it was the president, he argued.
Larry Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said the job cuts won’t affect the agency’s fire prevention efforts.
The Forest Service “continues to ensure it has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world,” Moore wrote in an email. The agency’s leaders are “committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.”
Cal Fire crew members plot out the direction and scope of a prescribed burn in Mendocino County.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
Nevertheless, last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom added $72 million to the state’s forest management budget to bridge some of the gap expected to be left by federal agencies. But wildfire experts say that’s just a drop in the bucket. Doing prescribed burns safely takes a lot of boots on the ground and behind-the-scenes cajoling to make sure local residents, and regulators, are on board.
Because people get pretty testy when you accidentally smoke out an elementary school or old folks home, burn plans have to clear substantial hurdles presented by the California Environmental Quality Act and air quality regulators.
It took three years to get all the required permissions for the 50-acre Hopland burn in Mendocino County, where vineyard owners worried their world-class grapes might get a little too “smoky” for most wine lovers. When the big day finally arrived in early June, more than 60 firefighters showed up with multiple fire engines, at least one bulldozer and a firefighting helicopter on standby in case anything went wrong.
But this was no school project. A fire that began in the surrounding hills a couple of years ago threatened to trap people in the center, so the area being burned was along the only two roads that could be used to escape.
“We’re trying to create a buffer to get out, if we need to,” said John Bailey, the center’s director. “But we’re also trying to create a buffer to prevent wildfire from coming into the center.”
Smoke emanates from a prescribed burn in Mendocino County.(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
As the firefighters pulled on their protective yellow jackets and pants, and filled their drip torches with a mixture of diesel and gasoline, Nielson bent down and grabbed a fistful of the yellow grass. Running it through his fingers, he showed it to his deputies and they all shook their heads in disappointment — too moist.
Thick marine-layer clouds filled the sky at 7 a.m, keeping the relative humidity too high for a good scorching. In many years of covering wildfires, it was the first time I had seen firefighters looking bored and disappointed because nothing would burn.
By 8:45 a.m., the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and the grass in Nielson’s fist began to crinkle and snap. It was time to go to work.
The fire that would fill the sky and drift north that afternoon, blanketing the town of Ukiah with the familiar orange haze of fire season, began with a single firefighter walking along the edge of a cleared dirt path. As he moved, he made little dots of flame with his drip torch, drawing a line like a kid working the edges of a picture in a coloring book.
Additional firefighters worked the other edges of the field until it was encircled by strips of burned black grass. That way, no matter which direction the fire went when they set the center of the field alight, the flames would not — in most circumstances — escape the relatively small test patch.
On the uphill edge of the patch, along the top of a ridge, firefighters in full protective gear leaned against a wooden fence with their backs to the smoke and flames climbing the hill behind them. They’d all done this before, and they trusted those black strips of pre-burned grass to stop the fire before it got to them.
Their job was to keep their eyes on the downward slope on the other side of the ridge, which wasn’t supposed to burn. If they saw any embers drift past them into the “green” zone, they would immediately move to extinguish those flames.
Nielson and I were standing along the fence, too. In addition to the circle of pre-burned grass protecting us, we were on a dirt path about four feet wide. For someone with experience, that was an enormous buffer. I was the only one who even flinched when the smoke and flames came our way.
Afterward, when I confessed how panicked I had felt, Nielson said it happens to a lot of people the first time they are engulfed in smoke. It’s particularly dangerous in grass fires, because they move so fast. People can get completely disoriented, run the wrong way and “get cooked,” he said.
Grass fires are particularly dangerous, because they move so fast, says Cal Fire Staff Chief Len Nielson. People can get disoriented in the smoke, run the wrong way and “get cooked.”
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
But that test patch was just the warmup act. Nielson and his crew were checking to make sure the fire would behave the way they expected — pushed in the right direction by the gentle breeze and following the slope uphill.
“If you’re wondering where fire will go and how fast it will move, think of water,” he said. Water barely moves on flat ground, but it picks up speed when it goes downhill. If it gets into a steep section, where the walls close in like a funnel, it becomes a waterfall.
“Fire does the same thing, but it’s a gas, so it goes the opposite direction,” Nielson said.
With that and a few other pointers — we watched as three guys drew a line of fire around the base of a big, beautiful oak tree in the middle of the hillside to shield it from what was about to happen — Nielson led me to the bottom of the hill and handed me a drip torch.
Once everybody was in position, and all of the safety measures had been put in place, he wanted me to help set the “head fire,” a 6-foot wall of flame that would roar up the hill and consume dozens of acres in a matter of minutes.
“It’s gonna get a little warm right here,” Nielson said, “but it’s gonna get warm for only a second.”
As I leaned in with the torch and set the grass ablaze, the heat was overwhelming. While everyone else working the fire seemed nonchalant, I was tentative and terrified. My right hand stretched forward to make the dots and dashes where Nielson instructed, but my butt was sticking as far back into the road as it could get.
I asked Nielson how hot he thought the flames in front of us were. “I used to know that,” he said with a shrug. “I want to say it’s probably between 800 and 1,200 degrees.”
With the hillside still burning, I peeled off all of the protective gear, hopped in a car and followed the smoke north along the 101 Freeway. By lunchtime, Ukiah, a town of 16,000 that bills itself as the gateway to the redwoods, was shrouded in haze.
Everybody smelled the smoke, but prescribed burns are becoming so common in the region, nobody seemed alarmed.
“Do it!” said Judy Hyler, as she and two friends walked out of Stan’s Maple Cafe. A veteran of the rampant destruction of wildfires from years past, she didn’t hesitate when asked how she felt about the effort. “I would rather it be prescribed, controlled and managed than what we’ve seen before.”
June 10 (UPI) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparred with Democrats on Capitol Hill on Tuesday over the decision to send 5,000 Marines and National Guard troops into Los Angeles as some protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids turned violent.
Hegseth, a former National Guardsman, testified before the House Appropriations subcommittee, where he defended the decision to deploy troops and the role of ICE.
“We ought to be able to enforce immigration law in this country,” Hegseth testified. “I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland.”
“In Los Angeles, we believed ICE had the right to safely conduct operations,” Hegseth added. “We deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., asked Hegseth why he was sending “war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?”
“ICE agents need to be able to do their job,” Hegseth responded. “They are being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. The governor of California has failed to protect his people, along with the mayor of Los Angeles. And so President Trump has said he will protect our agents and our Guard and Marines.”
Aguilar fired back against Hegseth’s answer and said, “The law also says Mr. Secretary that the orders for these purposes shall be issued through governors of the states.”
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota also sparred with Hegseth about the cost of deploying the National Guard and Marines, and whether their absence would impact trainings in other parts of the country.
The two talked over each other repeatedly as Hegseth referenced the George Floyd murder protests and accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “abandoning a police precinct” in 2020.
“We’re both from Minnesota. I was in the Twin Cities during the riots that followed the murder of George Floyd. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets for days,” said McCollum. “At no point did we need Marines to be deployed. This is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in. Their service should be honored. It should not be exploited.”
“You are right,” Hegseth testified. “We are both originally from Minnesota. Which is why I recall 2020 quite well, when Gov. Walz abandoned a police precinct and allowed it to be burned to the ground — and also allowed five days of chaos to occur inside the streets of Minneapolis.”
“We believe that ICE has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country,” Hegseth continued. “Especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration. ICE should be able to do their job.”
“Chairman, I have limited time,” McCollum declared. “I asked a budget question.”
After repeated questioning about the budget by several committee members, Hegseth finally gave an answer.
“We have a 13% increase in our defense budget and we will have the capability to cover contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marines plan for. So we have the funding to cover contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city,” Hegseth testified.
During the hearing, Hegseth was also questioned about spending cuts to foreign aid programs, including USAID, and staffing cuts at the Defense Department, to which he argued the administration is reducing any program considered “wasteful and duplicitous.”
Already slated to be the first venue in the world to host events from three different Olympic Summer Games, the Coliseum will help break new ground for the Paralympics in 2028.
The iconic stadium is at the center of the first Paralympic Games in L.A. as it hosts the para track and field competition, LA28 announced Tuesday in an updated venue plan that placed 23 sports into their future Paralympic homes.
“This is a momentous occasion for the city of Los Angeles,” para swimmer and Inglewood native Jamal Hill said in an interview with The Times. “Being a native Los Angeleno, you always hear about this melting pot of Los Angeles and many times, that melting pot, the default is to really thinking like, ethnic or racial or even cultural based. … I think it’s really, really beautiful and inclusive now that that melting pot is really starting to cover ability.”
The venue plan approved by the International Paralympic Committee places the majority of the Paralympic events in L.A., with additional sites in Long Beach, Carson and Arcadia. With all competition venues within a 35-mile radius, competitors have the opportunity to be housed in one Paralympic village for the first time since Rio in 2016.
The unified Paralympic village on UCLA’s campus differs from Paris, which had a decentralized plan with Paralympians staying at satellite villages. The 2024 Games, which were the first post-pandemic Olympics and Paralympics, marked the first true Games experience for Hill, who won a bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle in Tokyo.
An artist’s rendering of the swimming venue in Long Beach for the 2028 Paralympic Games.
(LA28)
After dozens of friends and family made the trip to Europe last year, Hill, who finished fifth in Paris, will be saving more seats for his hometown Games in 2028.
“We had 30 people that I know who are going to fly [to Paris],” Hill said. “There’s going to be like 300 people that I know at that swim venue.”
Para swimming will take place in the Long Beach Convention Center lot alongside para climbing, which will make its Paralympic debut in 2028. Long Beach will also host shooting para sport in the convention center, sitting volleyball in the Long Beach Arena and para canoe sprint and para rowing at Marine Stadium.
An artist’s rendering of the Galen Center hosting badminton during the 2028 Paralympic Games.
(LA28)
Long Beach, which also is hosting 11 Olympic sports, will use the Olympic beach volleyball venue at Alamitos Beach to stage blind football in the Paralympics in a dual-use venue that mirrors the setup in Paris under the Eiffel Tower.
The Coliseum, which will also host the Paralympic closing ceremony, anchors an Exposition Park sports zone that includes wheelchair rugby and para badminton at USC’s Galen Center.
In downtown L.A., the Convention Center will host boccia, para judo, para table tennis, para taekwondo and wheelchair fencing. Across the street, wheelchair basketball will take place in Crypto.com Arena while goalball will be in the Peacock Theater.
Venice Beach will have the starting lines for the para triathlon and para marathon.
An artist’s rendering of the Los Angeles Convention Center playing host to boccia competition at the 2028 Paralympic Games.
(LA28)
Carson will host para archery at the fields at Dignity Health Sports Park, wheelchair tennis at the tennis center and para cycling track in the Velodrome. Para equestrian will take place at Santa Anita Park.
“The Paralympic Games showcases the highest level of athleticism, skill and endurance and it is important for LA28 to deliver a plan that not only elevates Paralympic sport, but brings it to the next level,” LA28 Chief Executive officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement.
Venues for para weightlifting, para cycling road and the course and finish line of the para marathon have yet to be announced. The 2028 Paralympics will run from Aug. 15-27, opening at SoFi Stadium. They follow the 2028 Olympics, which will run from July 14-30.
While the Olympics will be in L.A. for a third time, 2028 will mark the city’s first Paralympic Games. The international sporting event for athletes with physical disabilities is coming off record viewership numbers in Paris, where the overall live audience grew by 40% compared to Tokyo and by 117% compared to Rio, according to a Nielsen Sports study conducted on behalf of the IPC.
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1.An artist’s rendering of the Paralympic wheelchair tennis venue next to Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.2.An artist’s rendering of wheelchair rugby at the Galen Center.3.An artist’s rendering of the wheelchair basketball at Crypto.com Arena.4.An artist’s rendering of the judo competition at the Los Angeles Convention Center.(LA28)
NBC reported a record 15.4 million total viewers across its TV and streaming platforms for the Paralympic Games, which followed a similar boost in interest to the Olympics last summer.
“The Olympics and the Paralympics are truly becoming this concurrent and congruent movement which reflects the times that we’re in,” Hill said. “People aren’t afraid anymore. They’re not ashamed of who they are. They’re not ashamed of their disability. They’re not afraid to speak out and be seen as different because it’s more accepted than ever for us to say, you know what, we’re all different.”
