A GROUP of office workers were left shocked when they learned their colleague is a former child star, and had a role in an iconic festive film.
The actor now keeps a low profile working as a Logistics Manager for the upcoming 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Glasgow. But do you recognise him?
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Office workers had the highlight of their week when they realised their colleague is a former child starCredit: tiktok@commonwealthsportJoe Lane was left mortified when his co-workers realised he was in the Nativity! movie back in 2009Credit: tiktok@commonwealthsportJoe portrayed Edward, one of the key characters in the hit film NativityCredit: Lionsgate
He portrayed schoolboy Edward in the film, which is centred around a heartbroken primary school teacher’s journey to make his class’s nativity play reach Hollywood, and win his ex-girlfriend back in the process.
In a TikTok shared by Joe’s colleagues, the former actor was left red-faced when they figured out his famous past.
The clip showed Joe, dressed in a Christmas jumper and a festive headband, as he is shaken by his colleagues.
It then cuts to clips of him in the movie, before his colleagues recreate a hilarious moment by his character Edward.
Joe’s starring moment in the film saw him take to the microphone during the final Nativity performance and impersonate fart sounds with his armpit.
The former child star had his head in his hands when his co-workers cornered him at his desk and re-enacted the funny moment in the TikTok video.
“When you find out your colleague was in the nativity films,” read the video, with the caption adding: “The most exciting office development this week”.
The film was cast by producers holding open calls for local kids in Coventry, with the aim to use non-professional actors for an authentic feel.
After appearing in the first movie, Joe appears to have steered away from continuing an acting career.
He went on to become a semi-professional rugby player, before moving into logistics for sporting events.
Coventry-born Joe is now living in Glasgow after spending time in Australia and London.
It appears he has been keen to keep his famous past under wraps in the workplace.
One TikTok user commented on the video to reveal that they had previously worked with Joe, and had no clue of the connection.
“I worked with Joe at Coventry Rfc and unless I was out of the loop he kept this very well hidden!” they said.
Another commenter joked “So he didn’t become shrek??”, referencing the scene in Nativity! where character Mr. Poppy told Edward, “You could be Shrek”.
Joe as Edward, centre, in the Christmas smashCredit: LionsgateJoe was less than impressed when his colleagues reenacted his famous screen momentCredit: tiktok@commonwealthsport
Cadi Mullane, who played Crystal – one of the main children in the film – previously detailed what filming was like in a TikTok video.
She said: “I was part of an agency called Stagecoach, they were looking for kids who were really chatty, who could dance a little bit and sing a little bit. Apparently that was me.
“There was about seven auditions. But I’m from Wales so I had to keep travelling up to London which was a bit annoying, but it was OK because I really wanted to be in a film.
“They looked at how well we could sing and how well we got on with the other kids, cause that was important, obviously.”
Cadi went on to recall how the movie filmed throughout the summer, with no scripts for the children.
She said: “It was filmed in Coventry but obviously I’m not from Coventry so we all stayed in a hotel together. It was like The Suite Life Of Zach and Cody, honestly.
“There was no scripts. Everything was improvised, except from some bits. We basically just spoke loads of rubbish, and then we were asked to say it again on camera.”
The film is centred around a Coventry school’s nativity show and their feat to take it to HollywoodCredit: AlamyThe film was fronted by award winning actor Martin FreemanCredit: AlamyA number of local children took part in the film, with producers hiring non-professionals for an “authentic feel”Credit: Alamy
From walking around in -32 degrees, eating Reindeer pizza, to having just a few hours of daylight – here’s what it’s really like to work in Lapland over Christmas
Saul Vendrig Castillo works in Lapland, describing it as a ‘real-life snow globe’(Image: Saul Vendrig Castillo/TUI)
Lapland is one of the most enchanting and Christmassy places in the world during this time of year, with its snow-dusted forests and roaming reindeer. Yet, imagine if the Arctic wilderness was the backdrop to your working day? And we’re not talking about being Santa Claus.
Saul Vendrig Castillo compares his office to a ‘real-life snow globe’ as he spends the most wonderful time of the year in Lapland, Finland, as a TUI representative. His job is to help create unforgettable moments for families who visit the magical winter wonderland, and it certainly comes with its perks.
“Every day I’m surrounded by snow, excitement and pure joy. Kids step off the plane with their mouths open in amazement, and you can feel the Christmas magic in the air. It’s like working inside a real-life snow globe!”, Saul said.
“Lapland is one of the only places on earth you can experience the magic of gliding through snowy forests, wrapped up warm, with a majestic reindeer leading the way. It’s peaceful, magical and gives you time to soak up the Lapland winter wonderland.”
Yet, it can come with its challenges as he revealed: “In December, we get just over two hours of daylight, which means at 4pm, it can feel like bedtime.” However, that hasn’t stopped Saul from making the most of the local delicacies, including one that some might frown upon.
“Reindeer pizza is amazing, and much better than I expected! I can also highly recommend a liquorice cake with blueberry ice cream that I ordered a few days in a row, as it was so good,” said Saul.
His job in Lapland can range from greeting families at the airport, helping them with their snowsuits and boots, to organising thrilling outdoor excursions such as husky sleigh rides, reindeer safaris or snowmobiling.
“The children get to ride in sledges pulled by a team of energetic huskies. The sound of their paws on the snow and the speed of the sledge make it an unforgettable adventure. Everyone leaves smiling and talking about it for days,” he explained.
But he confessed that the most rewarding part of his job is seeing the smiles on the children’s faces when they meet Santa. “When families visit Santa, it’s really special,” he shared.
“The children get to meet him in his cosy, twinkling cabin, tell him what they’ve been wishing for, and even receive a little gift to take home. The excitement in their eyes is priceless, and it’s magical for the parents to see too.”
Saul added: “When a child sees their first reindeer or throws their first snowball, that’s the moment you realise how special this job is. Then you take them to meet the Big Man, and their faces light up in a way you never forget. Parents often tell me this is the Christmas they always dreamed of giving their kids, so it’s really special to be a part of that experience.”
Currently in Lapland for his second season with TUI, Saul has picked up a few handy tips for those looking to visit the enchanting destination. He advised: “Make sure you bring lots of loose layers to wear under your snow suit as they trap the heat, whereas tight clothes can make you colder fast. And once you feel the chill, it’s hard to get rid of it, some days it can get to –32 degrees.”
He added that because Lapland only gets just over two hours of daylight in December, it’s best to “plan your activities with this in mind to really maximise those daylight hours”.
Additionally, Saul suggested: “For many people visiting Lapland, their bucket list goal is to see the Northern Lights, and my one piece of advice is to always be patient with them. They can be unpredictable, but they really are a sight to behold when they appear in the evening.”
During the summer season, Saul works as a TUI rep in various countries, including Greece, the Costa del Sol, and Mallorca. Yet, there’s something about Lapland, “The snow, the lights, the magic, the excited families always pull you back. There’s nowhere else like it,” he said.
If you’re interested in soaking up the festive merriment or planning a winter getaway for next year, TUI offers various packages to Lapland, departing from regional airports across the UK. The packages typically include flights, snowsuits, activities and transfers, and of course, the chance to meet Santa and witness the Northern Lights.
Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
Argentina’s nuclear plan will roll out in stages. The first phase involves building small modular reactors, or SMRs, at the Atucha Nuclear Power Plant site, already underway, to ensure nationwide energy supply and reduce power outages. Photo by CNEA/EPA
BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 19 (UPI) — Argentina has formally created the Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs, a significant structural shift in the country’s national energy strategy under President Javier Milei, aimed at positioning Argentina as a global energy leader and attracting large-scale investment.
In announcing the move, the government highlighted the country’s strengths for developing a nuclear plan, including its pool of highly trained human capital and vast, low-temperature lands in Patagonia seen as suitable for hosting artificial intelligence data centers. These advantages, officials said, allow for a combination of clean nuclear energy and cutting-edge technology.
The plan will roll out in stages. The first phase involves building small modular reactors, or SMRs, at the Atucha Nuclear Power Plant site, already underway, to ensure nationwide energy supply and reduce power outages.
SMRs produce stable and low-cost electricity, making them well-suited to power AI data centers, and would position Argentina as a regional hub for digital innovation and nuclear energy exports.
In the second phase, the government plans to develop uranium reserves to meet domestic demand and turn Argentina into an exporter of high-value nuclear fuels.
The Economy Ministry summed up the strategy in a recent statement, saying the government aims to “turn Argentina into the ‘Saudi Arabia of uranium.'”
This ambitious goal is based on the country’s uranium reserves, estimated at 36,483 tons identified and concentrated in provinces such as Mendoza, San Juan and Chubut, according to a report by the National Mining Secretariat.
Those reserves could generate significant export volumes and position Argentina as a key supplier in a growing global market driven by the energy transition.
However, physicist Alberto Baruj urged caution.
“Argentina has enough uranium for its reactors for decades. It does not have the extraordinary reserves found in other countries. Talking about being the Saudi Arabia of uranium is an exaggeration that I cannot support from a technical standpoint,” Baruj told UPI.
Baruj said Argentina could export uranium, thanks to its processing capacity. However, “it makes no sense to do so with raw ore. It would be far more convenient to process it for use in domestic reactors, including small modular reactors such as the domestically designed CAREM.”
The new nuclear institutional framework will also be tasked with leading policy on the exploitation of rare earth elements, minerals critical for batteries, cellphones and green technology, as well as nuclear minerals, in coordination with other government agencies.
It will promote collaboration among mining companies, provincial governments and private actors to increase production of these resources and drive investment, working alongside the Mining Secretariat to advance nuclear mining projects, material processing and technological applications.
“The Secretariat of Nuclear Affairs is taking on roles that previously belonged to the National Atomic Energy Commission, which blurs the agency’s place within the institutional structure,” a respected nuclear sector source who requested anonymity told UPI.
In their view, amid a budget crisis at the commission, the creation of a new body “further endangers what has historically been the center of Argentina’s nuclear activity. The inclusion of rare earth exploitation comes as a surprise within a nuclear affairs secretariat.”
Baruj also questioned the need for the new agency, saying its stated purpose, coordinating the nuclear sector, already falls by law under the National Atomic Energy Commission.
“It is possible that with the creation of the Secretariat, the government is seeking greater political control over the sector,” Baruj said. But, he added, creating a new secretariat is unnecessary if each institution fulfilled its assigned role.
“The massive loss of technical personnel with extraordinary capabilities must be reversed. But above all, the salary issue must be resolved, because the commission pays the lowest wages in the entire science and technology sector,” he said.
Baruj said the priority should be to ensure continuity of key projects such as completion of the RA-10 multipurpose reactor, its associated neutron beam laboratory, the CEARP Proton Therapy Center and the heavy water industrial plant.
“Argentina’s nuclear sector has sufficient capacity and depth to take on and carry out these projects. What is lacking, precisely, is political will,” he said.Based o
After steadily gaining power and influence for more than a decade, the watchdogs that provide civilian oversight of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department face an uncertain future.
A recent leadership exodus has left behind gaps in experience and knowledge, and a succession of legal challenges and funding cuts by the county have left some concerned that long-fought gains in transparency are slipping away.
“It is beginning to look like the idea of effective oversight of the Sheriff’s Department is a pipe dream,” said Robert Bonner, former chairman of the Civilian Oversight Commission, who announced in June that he was being pushed into “involuntarily leaving” before he completed pending work.
Current and former oversight officials have argued that the office of county counsel, the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Department have repeatedly undermined efforts to rein in law enforcement misconduct.
The cumulative effect, some advocates worry, is that the public will know less about law enforcement activity, and that there will be fewer independent investigations into deputies and department leaders alike.
“The Sheriff is committed to transparency in law enforcement,” the department said via email. “As we move forward it is essential to strengthen collaboration with the [Civilian Oversight Commission] while ensuring that the rights and safety of our personnel are protected.”
In recent years, oversight bodies have uncovered information about so-called deputy gangs, published reports on inhumane jail conditions and issued subpoenas for records related to on-duty use of force incidents.
Inspector General Max Huntsman’s sudden announcement last week that he was retiring from the position he’s held since its creation more than a decade ago completed a trifecta of departures of top law enforcement oversight officials this year.
In addition to Bonner’s departure, former Civilian Oversight Commission chairman Sean Kennedy stepped down from the body in February in response to what he described as improper county interference in the commission’s activities.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, right, talks with Sean Kennedy during an event on April 5 in Baker. Kennedy left his position on the Civilian Oversight Commission earlier this year.
(William Liang / For The Times)
Kennedy and others have said the Sheriff’s Department has refused to comply with multiple subpoenas by the commission for personnel files and records related to deputy misconduct.
“The attack on integrity and on oversight capacity is threatening all of us in Los Angeles County,” Hans Johnson, who took over as chairman of the Civilian Oversight Commission following Bonner’s departure, said at a recent public meeting. “We look forward to making sure that oversight is preserved and protected and not muzzled and not unplugged or sabotaged.”
The Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors said in a statement that it maintains a “long-standing commitment to strong oversight.”
The Sheriff’s Department said only one request it has received from oversight officials this year remains pending.
“The Department remains committed to working cooperatively to provide all requested information as required by law,” the statement said.
On the state level, reform advocates recently scored what they described as a victory for transparency.
In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill known as AB 847, which granted civilian oversight bodies across California the ability to view confidential law enforcement records in private sessions. L.A. County officials had previously balked at sharing certain sensitive files on sheriff’s deputies, and some reformers worry the new law may not go far enough.
Dara Williams, chief deputy of the Office of the Inspector General, said at a July public meeting that the Sheriff’s Department has a history of being “painfully slow” to respond to requests for records related to homicides by deputies. In one instance, she said, Huntsman’s office served the department with a subpoena in October 2024 “and we are still waiting for documents and answers.”
The Sheriff’s Department said it has hired an outside attorney who is “conducting an independent review” of its records to determine if “those materials actually exist and can be found.”
The department’s statement said it will abide by the law and that protecting confidential information “remains of the utmost importance.”
Some involved in oversight have also become the subject of probes themselves.
In June, the Office of the County Counsel said it was investigating Kennedy for alleged retaliation against a sergeant who had worked for a unit that had been accused of pursuing cases for political reasons during Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s tenure.
Kennedy has denied the allegations, telling The Times in June, “I was just doing my job as an oversight official.”
Budget cuts — some already instituted, others threatened — are also a concern.
Huntsman said earlier this year that the Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors was reassigning or eliminating a third of his staff.
Former L.A. County Inspector General Max Huntsman listens during a hearing at Loyola Law School’s Advocacy Center on Jan. 12, 2024.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
He too left amid acrimony with county officials.
“The County has made it very clear over the past couple of years that they are not going to enforce the state oversight laws,” Huntsman told The Times. “Instead the county supports the sheriff limiting the flow of information so as to restrict meaningful oversight.”
The Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors said the changes implemented this year have had a “minimal” impact that “neither limits OIG’s responsibility nor their capacity.”
The possibility of eliminating the Sybil Brand Commission, which monitors L.A. County jails, was discussed in an August report to the Board of Supervisors. County officials said it would save about $40,000 annually.
Sybil Brand commissioner Eric Miller told The Times in September that he believes “the county is attempting to limit oversight of the Sheriff’s Department … to avoid lawsuits.” The department, he said, “is a powerful constituency within the county.”
In September, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta launched a state lawsuit over what he described as a “humanitarian crisis” inside L.A. County jails.
There are even concerns that the Sheriff’s Department is seeking greater control over local groups that facilitate conversations between deputies and members of the public — often some of the only opportunities for community concerns to be heard.
In the Antelope Valley, the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station Community Advisory Committee has been roiled by allegations that a local Sheriff’s Department captain appointed a new member without other members’ approval.
The chair of the committee, Georgia Halliman, resigned in October and committee member Sylvia Williams has alleged that the Sheriff’s Department captain tried to force her out.
“I was going to leave, but they need someone who’s real in there,” Williams told The Times. “You have to have an overseer.”
The department said it is reviewing the situation.
Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, said the county is at a crossroads.
“The main question right now is what is the county going to do?” she said. “Is this going to be a moment when the Board of Supervisors decides to actually invest in oversight?”
When bidding farewell to the nation in January, President Obama urged perseverance in the face of political change.
“If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself,” he said.
Dozens of people who worked in his administration or on his presidential bids have taken that call to action to heart, with several top political aides, policy staff and ambitious millennials from the Obama era mounting campaigns of their own right here in California. All are Democrats, and some of their races could be tipping points in the 2018 midterms as the party attempts to win back control in Washington.
Among the former government officials is Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is seeking to oust Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego County.
Born in the U.S. to a Mexican mother and a Palestinian father, Campa-Najjar recalls questioning if his fellow Americans would ever truly accept him in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He brooded and struggled, but his faith was renewed when another biracial man with a unique name and an absent father, Barack Obama, won the presidency of the United States.
“In 2008, the country said, ‘Yes, we can,’ and elected this skinny brown kid with a funny name. It really kind of inspired me,” said Campa-Najjar, 28.
In the short term, that resulted in Campa-Najjar interning at the White House, where he was assigned the task of reading the letters Americans sent the president about their heartbreak and their victories, and helping select the 10 that were sent to Obama for him to read himself daily. He later worked in the Department of Labor and on Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Today, he is among the youngest congressional candidates in the nation. And he is one of several former Obama campaign and administration officials who are running for office across the nation at all levels of government.
It’s not unusual for political staffers to seek elected office, but the number of Obama alumni who have entered the field for the 2018 election is notable. In California alone, there are at least four congressional candidates who worked for Obama, as well as several others seeking legislative and statewide posts.
President Obama in his farewell address urged listeners unhappy with their representatives to “run for office yourself.” (Zbigniew Bzdak / TNS)
(Zbigniew Bzdak / TNS)
Ammar Campa-Najjar is trying to oust Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in San Diego County. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)
(Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune file)
Their campaigns are driven by the election of President Trump, fewer opportunities in Washington, D.C., with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress, and the desire to protect and build upon the former president’s legacy.
“Coming out of the Obama administration, people are particularly motivated by what Donald Trump has been trying to do to this country,” said Bill Burton, who served as a spokesman for Obama during the 2008 campaign and his first term in office and is now a Democratic operative in Southern California.
He added that early Obama supporters who signed on at a time when Hillary Clinton was perceived as the unstoppable nominee have already shown a natural willingness to take on long odds, a quality that can help them achieve their own political goals.
“When I started working for [Obama], the only person in America who thought he was going to win the Iowa caucuses was him,” Burton said.
The congressional candidates in California are all running in districts historically dominated by the GOP.
Sam Jammal is trying to defeat Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who has represented Orange County in Congress for nearly 25 years. Jammal said his experience growing up in the district as the child of immigrants, attending law school and then working on Obama’s 2008 campaign and in the Department of Commerce proved to him that anything is possible.
Sam Jammal, a former staffer in President Obama’s Commerce Department, is now a congressional candidate in Orange County.
(Sam Jammal)
“Our story is the embodiment of that,” said Jammal, whose parents are from Jordan and Colombia. “The same day my dad landed here, he was working at a gas station …. For me, his youngest son, I was able to work for the president of the United States. My proudest moment in the administration was taking my parents to a White House naturalization ceremony where they were able to meet President Obama. It’s full circle.”
Others, including Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, said they expected Clinton to win the November 2016 election, giving them the opportunity to work for the first woman president. The experiences the Sacramento-area native had as Obama’s ambassador to Hungary cemented her desire to continue working in public life once he left office.
“It took me a few months after the election to recalculate how I could best serve,” said Kounalakis, who is one of two Obama alumni running for lieutenant governor. “It [became] clear: It was more important than ever that California lead the way on our values, whether it’s fighting for the climate or supporting and celebrating our immigrant community and our LGBT community.”
Trump’s actions since taking office, including trying to institute a travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, quickened the Obama alums’ resolve. But nearly all said Trump’s recent statements placing neo-Nazis and white supremacists who violently protested in Charlottesville on the same moral plane as those who protested against them exemplified why they decided to run.
“What has happened … with this presidency and what Donald Trump stands for and believes in is in such stark contrast to everything we worked on for eight years,” said Buffy Wicks, a grass-roots organizer who worked on Obama’s campaigns and as the White House deputy director of public engagement. She is now running for the California Assembly.
But an impressive political résumé is no guarantee of success.
Ultimately, the races will come down to how voters connect with the politicians and their policies, said Massachusetts state Sen. Eric Lesser, who went from shepherding luggage during the 2008 campaign to working steps from the Oval Office as the top aide to one of Obama’s must trusted advisors, David Axelrod.
“Show, don’t tell. You have to be elected on your own merits and your own vision, and ideas for your community,” he said.
While Lesser speaks reverently about his time working for Obama and Axelrod and the counsel he received from them during his 2014 campaign, he noted that voters want to hear how a candidate is going to address their needs, not about his time in Washington.
“Expecting people to suddenly be impressed or suddenly open doors because of a previous fancy job is not going to happen,” he said.
Expecting people to suddenly be impressed or suddenly open doors because of a previous fancy job is not going to happen.
— Eric Lesser, former Obama White House aide elected to the Massachusetts state Senate in 2014
Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, then the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, waves rainbow flags at a gay pride march in Budapest in 2012. She’s now running for lieutenant governor in California.
(Peter Kollanyi / Associated Press)
Lesser recalled that when he mounted his 2014 run, the best advice he received was from Obama, who told him to outhustle his rivals and connect with the people who would become his constituents.
“He asked, ‘How many people are in the district? How many households? How many doors?” Lesser said. “When I ran the numbers, he goes, ‘You can meet all those people.’ I haven’t quite met everyone, but I took his advice to heart.”
Reed Galen, who worked for President George W. Bush, said that while some administration posts could be particularly relevant to a race — one Obama administration official who worked on the auto industry bailout is now running for Congress in Michigan, for example — most candidates with such experience probably worked in a vast bureaucracy that few voters know or care about.
“My guess is most of these folks, the best thing they have going for them is a picture of them and the president [that shows] Barack Obama reasonably knows who I am,” said Galen, a former California GOP operative who worked on both of Bush’s campaigns and in his administration.
The greater advantages, he said, are the relationships forged with donors, leaders, strategists and the alumni network that remains tightly knit after their tenure ends.
Wicks’ fundraisingreport illustrates the political value of the connections that come from working for Obama. Axelrod, elected officials including former Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, and scores of people from Washington, D.C., have donated to her campaign, names unlikely to appear on the donor list for most other California legislative candidates.
Buffy Wicks, center, who worked in the Obama White House and for the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns, is running for the state Assembly.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Wicks’ campaign also follows a grass-roots blueprint she helped craft for Obama when he was unknown, introducing himself to voters in diners and coffee shops and talking about their concerns.
“I’m doing house parties all over the district, really spending a lot of time in living rooms, 20 to 30 people at a time and having a really thoughtful conversation about what kind of community do we want to live in,” she said. “It’s a way to build relationships with voters, investing on the front end of that relationship and not just plying you with direct mail pieces and television ads.”
And for those who lack Wicks’ campaign experience, the connections to some of the top Democrats in the nation is invaluable.
“When you haven’t been an elected official before, you have a lot of questions .… You understand the policies, you know what your positions are, but the actual architecture of running a campaign is something that’s inherently new,” said Brian Forde, who worked on technology in the Obama administration and is now trying to topple Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange County.
“What’s most helpful is being able to pick up the phone or send a text message to a friend who was a speechwriter for the president or the first lady, or someone who did work on communications who does understand all of these things because they worked on the campaign,” Forde said.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a new state-run website Tuesday that tracks what his office calls the “criminal cronies” around President Trump — just the latest trolling tactic by the California governor that directly mirrors Trump’s own use of public resources for political score settling.
Newsom pegged the website’s rollout to recent crime statistics, which were released in early November showing falling rates of homicide and assault in California. The governor’s website catalogs what it calls the top 10 criminal convictions that were followed by pardons offered thus far by Trump — from Jan. 6 rioters to former politicians and business figures convicted of fraud, drug trafficking and financial crimes. The website calls Trump the “criminal in chief.”
The website features AI-generated portraits of such figues as Rod Blagojevich, the only Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office; former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of drug trafficking; and Ross Ulbricht, the founder of a dark-web drug marketplace who had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The images show the men standing in a lineup with the word “felon” stamped in red ink.
“With crime dropping — again — California is proving what real public safety leadership looks like,” read a statement from Newsom. “Meanwhile in D.C., Trump is a felon who surrounds himself with scammers and drug traffickers. We’re providing the public with a resource putting the facts in one place so Californians, and all Americans, can see who he elevates and who he protects.”
The launch is the latest escalation in Newsom’s increasingly aggressive digital campaign against Trump.
In recent months, the governor and his press office have turned social media into a near-daily forum for mocking and trolling the president by firing off all-caps posts, meme-style graphics and sharply worded rebukes aimed at Trump’s brash rhetoric, criminal record, policy proposals and political allies.
The crime data , which was released Nov. 3 by the Major Cities Chiefs Assn., found homicides across California’s major cities fell 18% year over year, robberies dropped 18% and aggravated assaults declined 9%. The association also found that violent crime decreased in every California city reporting data, with the steepest declines in Oakland, where violent crime fell 25%, and San Francisco, where it fell 21%.
Newsom’s new website highlights Trump’s sweeping use of presidential pardons to grant clemency to roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The governor’s office said some of those individuals had prior criminal records and that others went on to be convicted of new crimes after receiving pardons.
The move mirrors tactics Trump and his administration have embraced. Most recently, Trump unveiled a website of “media offenders,” naming journalists and outlets he accuses of bias. Separately, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem has maintained a website highlighting what it calls the “worst of the worst” criminal immigrants arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, framing the page as evidence that the administration is carrying out Trump’s promise of mass deportations.
The state’s website launch comes as Newsom seeks to cast California as a national leader in responsible governance of artificial intelligence.
Earlier Tuesday, the governor announced a slate of initiatives aimed at promoting ethical AI use in state government, including a new advisory council, partnerships with academic and nonprofit groups, and a generative AI assistant for state employees. Among the priorities outlined are strengthening safeguards for children online, countering image-based abuse and improving government operations.
“California is at the forefront of AI technology — and is home to some of the most successful and innovative companies and academic leaders in the world,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not going to sit on the sidelines and let others define the future for us. But we’re going to do it responsibly — making sure we capture the benefits, mitigate the harms, and continue to lead with the values that define this state.”
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced a new California-led public health initiative, tapping former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials who publicly clashed with the Trump administration, including the former agency chief who warned that the nation’s public health system was headed to “a very dangerous place.”
Newsom said the initiative will be led by Dr. Susan Monarez, the former CDC director, and Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer. The pair will lead the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange, or PHNIX, which the governor’s office said will “modernize public health infrastructure and maintain trust in science-driven decision-making.”
The initiative was created to improve the systems that detect and investigate public health trends and build a modern public-health backbone that connects data, technology and funding across states.
“The Public Health Network Innovation Exchange is expected to bring together the best science, the best tools, and the best minds to advance public health,” Newsom said in a statement Monday. “By bringing on expert scientific leaders to partner in this launch, we’re strengthening collaboration and laying the groundwork for a modern public health infrastructure that will offer trust and stability in scientific data not just across California, but nationally and globally.”
Monarez will serve as strategic health technology and funding advisor for the initiative, helping advance private sector partnerships to better integrate healthcare data systems and enable faster disease surveillance.
“I am deeply excited to bring my experience in health technology and innovation to support PHNIX,” Monarez said in a statement shared by Newsom’s office. “California has an extraordinary concentration of talent, technology, and investment, and this effort is about putting those strengths to work for the public good — modernizing how public health operates, accelerating innovation, and building a healthier, more resilient future for all Californians.”
Houry was named senior regional and global public health medical advisor for PHNIX. Newsom’s office also announced it will work with Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, founder and chief executive of Your Local Epidemiologist. Jetelina will advise the California Department of Public Health on building trust in public health.
Monarez and Houry both described extraordinary turmoil inside the nation’s health agencies during congressional hearings, telling senators in September that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and political advisors rebuffed data supporting the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Monarez was fired after just 29 days on the job. She said Kennedy told her to resign if she did not sign off on new unsupported vaccine recommendations. Kennedy has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney.
“Dramatic and unfounded changes in federal policy, funding, and scientific practice have created uncertainty and instability in public health and health care,” Dr. Erica Pan, CDPH director and state public health officer, said in a statement. “I am thrilled to work with these advisors to catalyze our efforts to lead a sustainable future for public health. California is stepping up to coordinate and build the scaffolding we need to navigate this moment.”
The salaries of the new positions were not immediately known.
Newsom’s office said the California initiative would build on previously announced public health partnerships, such as the West Coast Health Alliance.
Police first responders speak to members of the public at the scene of a mass shooting at Bondi Beach
The Government has issued a travel warning for UK citizens after the terror attack in Australia. At least 12 people have been killed and 29 injured in a terrorist attack targeting a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Two individuals armed with guns opened fire on a crowd in the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach at 6.47pm local time on Sunday, New South Wales Police said. The attack has been declared a terrorist incident targeting a Hanukkah celebration at a park next to the beach on the first day of the Jewish festival of lights, the force confirmed.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told a press conference: “At approximately 6.47 this evening, two individuals began firing on crowded a group of families on Bondi Beach at Archer Park. I very sadly need to report that, as of now, there are at least 12 individuals that have been killed.
“This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah, what should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters, has been shattered by this horrifying evil attack.”
Police in the UK are stepping up patrols in Jewish communities. A Met Police spokesman said: “While there is no information to suggest any link between the attack in Sydney and the threat level in London, this morning we are stepping up our police presence, carrying out additional community patrols and engaging with the Jewish community to understand what more we can do in the coming hours and days.
“We always encourage the public to be vigilant at events and in public places. If you see anything suspicious, trust your instincts and tell us.”
Hanukkah, also known as Chanukah, is an eight-day festival of light usually observed in December.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has told any British people caught up in the Bondi Beach shooting to contact the consulate for support.
In a post on X, she said: “The scenes from Bondi Beach are deeply shocking and distressing. My thoughts are with everyone affected and Australia’s emergency services.
“British nationals should follow local police and authorities’ advice and can contact the British Consulate General Sydney for support.”
The UK Foreign Office site reads: “Terrorists are likely to try to carry out attacks in Australia.” It adds: ” There is a high threat of terrorist attack globally affecting UK interests and British nationals, including from groups and individuals who view the UK and British nationals as targets. Stay aware of your surroundings at all times.”
The Foreign Office said: ” Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreign nationals. You should be vigilant, keep up to date with local media reports and follow the advice of local authorities.”
California and a coalition of other states are suing the Trump administration over a policy charging employers $100,000 for each new H-1B visa they request for foreign employees to work in the U.S. — calling it a threat not only to major industry but also to public education and healthcare services.
“As the world’s fourth largest economy, California knows that when skilled talent from around the world joins our workforce, it drives our state forward,” said California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who announced the litigation Friday.
President Trump imposed the fee through a Sept. 19 proclamation, in which he said the H-1B visa program — designed to provide U.S. employers with skilled workers in science, technology, engineering, math and other advanced fields — has been “deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
Trump said the program also created a “national security threat by discouraging Americans from pursuing careers in science and technology, risking American leadership in these fields.”
Bonta said such claims are baseless, and that the imposition of such fees is unlawful because it runs counter to the intent of Congress in creating the program and exceeds the president’s authority. He said Congress has included significant safeguards to prevent abuses, and that the new fee structure undermines the program’s purpose.
“President Trump’s illegal $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary — and illegal — financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services, exacerbating labor shortages in key sectors,” Bonta said in a statement. “The Trump Administration thinks it can raise costs on a whim, but the law says otherwise.”
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said Friday that the fee was “a necessary, initial, incremental step towards necessary reforms” that were lawful and in line with the president’s promise to “put American workers first.”
Attorneys for the administration previously defended the fee in response to a separate lawsuit brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Assn. of American Universities, arguing earlier this month that the president has “extraordinarily broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens whenever he finds their admission ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States,’” or to adopt “reasonable rules, regulations, and orders” related to their entry.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that this authority is ‘sweeping,’ subject only to the requirement that the President identify a class of aliens and articulate a facially legitimate reason for their exclusion,” the administration’s attorneys wrote.
They alleged that the H-1B program has been “ruthlessly and shamelessly exploited by bad actors,” and wrote that the plaintiffs were asking the court “to disregard the President’s inherent authority to restrict the entry of aliens into the country and override his judgment,” which they said it cannot legally do.
Trump’s announcement of the new fee alarmed many existing visa holders and badly rattled industries that are heavily reliant on such visas, including tech companies trying to compete for the world’s best talent in the global race to ramp up their AI capabilities. Thousands of companies in California have applied for H-1B visas this year, and tens of thousands have been granted to them.
Trump’s adoption of the fees is seen as part of his much broader effort to restrict immigration into the U.S. in nearly all its forms. However, he is far from alone in criticizing the H-1B program as a problematic pipeline.
Critics of the program have for years documented examples of employers using it to replace American workers with cheaper foreign workers, as Trump has suggested, and questioned whether the country truly has a shortage of certain types of workers — including tech workers.
There have also been allegations of employers, who control the visas, abusing workers and using the threat of deportation to deter complaints — among the reasons some on the political left have also been critical of the program.
“Not only is this program disastrous for American workers, it can be very harmful to guest workers as well, who are often locked into lower-paying jobs and can have their visas taken away from them by their corporate bosses if they complain about dangerous, unfair or illegal working conditions,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a Fox News opinion column in January.
In the Chamber of Commerce case, attorneys for the administration wrote that companies in the U.S. “have at times laid off thousands of American workers while simultaneously hiring thousands of H-1B workers,” sometimes even forcing the American workers “to train their H-1B replacements” before they leave.
They have done so, the attorneys wrote, even as unemployment among recent U.S. college graduates in STEM fields has increased.
“Employing H-1B workers in entry-level positions at discounted rates undercuts American worker wages and opportunities, and is antithetical to the purpose of the H-1B program, which is ‘to fill jobs for which highly skilled and educated American workers are unavailable,’” the administration’s attorneys wrote.
By contrast, the states’ lawsuit stresses the shortfalls in the American workforce in key industries, and defends the program by citing its existing limits. The legal action notes that employers must certify to the government that their hiring of visa workers will not negatively affect American wages or working conditions. Congress also has set a cap on the number of visa holders that any individual employer may hire.
Bonta’s office said educators account for the third-largest occupation group in the program, with nearly 30,000 educators with H-1B visas helping thousands of institutions fill a national teacher shortage that saw nearly three-quarters of U.S. school districts report difficulty filling positions in the 2024-2025 school year.
Schools, universities and colleges — largely public or nonprofit — cannot afford to pay $100,000 per visa, Bonta’s office said.
In addition, some 17,000 healthcare workers with H-1B visas — half of them physicians and surgeons — are helping to backfill a massive shortfall in trained medical staff in the U.S., including by working as doctors and nurses in low-income and rural neighborhoods, Bonta’s office said.
“In California, access to specialists and primary care providers in rural areas is already extremely limited and is projected to worsen as physicians retire and these communities struggle to attract new doctors,” it said. “As a result of the fee, these institutions will be forced to operate with inadequate staffing or divert funding away from other important programs to cover expenses.”
Bonta’s office said that prior to the imposition of the new fee, employers could expect to pay between $960 and $7,595 in “regulatory and statutory fees” per H-1B visa, based on the actual cost to the government of processing the request and document, as intended by Congress.
The Trump administration, Bonta’s office said, issued the new fee without going through legally required processes for collecting outside input first, and “without considering the full range of impacts — especially on the provision of the critical services by government and nonprofit entities.”
The arguments echo findings by a judge in a separate case years ago, after Trump tried to restrict many such visas in his first term. A judge in that case — brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Assn. of Manufacturers and others — found that Congress, not the president, had the authority to change the terms of the visas, and that the Trump administration had not evaluated the potential impacts of such a change before implementing it, as required by law.
Joining in the lawsuit — California’s 49th against the Trump administration in the last year alone — are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
A former Los Angeles Police Department commander who authorities said tipped off CBS to a rape allegation against the network’s top executive will not face criminal charges, with two LAPD detectives claiming department leaders undermined the investigation, according to documents obtained by The Times.
The L.A. County district attorney’s office decided in April it would not prosecute Cory Palka for warning CBS executives in 2017 that a woman had walked into the LAPD’s Hollywood station and accused then-Chief Executive Les Moonves of sexual assault, according to a document provided to The Times in response to a public records request.
Although heavily redacted, the declination memo includes details and a timeline that match up with the findings of a 2022 New York state attorney general’s office investigation that first revealed Palka’s relationship with Moonves. The TV executive’s career ended in disgrace after dozens of women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment and abuse in 2018.
Palka has not disputed that he improperly disclosed information to CBS, but denied any improper benefit from his relationship with Moonves when reached for comment by The Times this week.
The former LAPD chief who led the department during the investigation, Michel Moore, called allegations the matter was not properly handled “absolutely false.”
Representatives for CBS and Moonves declined to comment.
The Moonves affair drew significant attention at the height of the #MeToo movement, but the fate of Palka has remained a question mark in the years since. The newly uncovered documents shed light on both the outcome of the investigation and tensions within the police department over scrutinizing one of its own.
Palka, a former station captain who retired as a commander in 2021, was often referred to as “Capt. Hollywood” and known for mingling with stars, scoring a bit part in the TV series “Bosch.”
In 2022, the New York state attorney general’s office released a report that revealed Palka left a voicemail for a CBS executive in November 2017, shortly after an 81-year-old woman walked into his station and accused Moonves of sexually assaulting her on two occasions in the late 1980s.
“Somebody walked in the station about a couple hours ago and made allegations against your boss regarding a sexual assault,” he said in a voicemail message left for Ian Metrose, who was then CBS’ senior vice president for talent relations, according to reports made public by prosecutors. “It’s confidential, as you know, but call me.”
For months, Palka gave Moonves and other CBS leaders inside information about the rape investigation and slipped the network a copy of the accuser’s report, according to the New York attorney general’s office. At one point, Palka and Moonves met in person and the executive told the captain he “wanted the LAPD investigation closed.”
Ultimately, prosecutors could not bring a rape case because the statute of limitations had long expired. The accuser, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, was a television development executive who previously told The Times that Moonves assaulted her in 1986 and 1988. Those dates match an alleged victim described in the L.A. County district attorney’s office’s memo on Palka. Golden-Gottlieb died in 2022.
Former television executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb talks about alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Les Moonves in the law offices of Gloria Allred in L.A. on Sept. 11, 2018. Golden-Gottlieb, who died in 2022, worked with Moonves in the 1980s.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
After hearing from Palka, top CBS executives “began investigating the victim’s personal circumstances and that of her family,” according to the New York attorney general’s report, which was produced as part of an investigation into the TV network’s leaders for selling stock and allegedly misleading investors while not disclosing the allegations against Moonves.
The district attorney’s office said in the memo obtained by The Times that it declined to bring charges, in part, because the statute of limitations on one of the potential charges against Palka had run out.
The LAPD claimed it didn’t learn of Palka’s alleged misconduct until 2022, but a whistleblower complaint filed in late 2023 by Det. Jason Turner alleges Moore knew of the issue much earlier and ignored it, allowing Palka to escape accountability.
Turner also alleged he found evidence that Palka told at least two other LAPD employees about his relationship with Moonves, but said he was barred from interviewing them, according to the complaint, which was filed with the LAPD’s Office of the Inspector General in November 2023.
“Chief Moore’s failure to initiate a complaint circa 2018-2021 against Palka compromised the investigation and allowed Palka to avoid criminal charges,” Turner wrote in the complaint obtained by The Times.
The LAPD declined to comment. Moore unequivocally denied Turner’s allegations, but did not elaborate further in response to questions about the handling of the investigation. Moore announced his retirement from the LAPD in January 2024.
“It is absolutely baseless,” Moore said of Turner’s claim, adding that the Office of the Inspector General had determined the complaint was unfounded.
A spokesperson for the inspector general’s office said they could not discuss the status of Turner’s complaint.
Michel Moore announces his retirement as LAPD chief at a press conference with Mayor Karen Bass at L.A. City Hall on Jan. 12, 2024.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
The ex-chief described the whistleblower complaint as a “distraction” from Palka’s “terrible actions.”
“It was a disservice. It lacked integrity. It tarnished the badge. It was wrong,” Moore said of Palka.
Turner declined a request to comment through his lawyer Thursday. .
In September 2023 — 10 months after the allegations against Palka became public — a different LAPD internal affairs detective presented a case for L.A. County prosecutors to consider against Palka, according to a memo explaining the decision to decline charges. Prosecutors weighed charges of bribery, obstruction and disclosing information from a criminal investigation for financial gain.
LAPD detectives “suspected Palka had possibly engaged in bribery,” according to the document. While there was no evidence Palka was paid directly for leaking the information about Moonves, he received $500 annually to be part of Moonves’ security detail at the Grammy Awards, according to the New York attorney general’s report.
After leaving the LAPD, Palka was hired as chief of security to billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Milken, according to public records and testimony given by Moonves in a deposition for a civil lawsuit reviewed by The Times. Palka is still employed by Milken today, the records show.
Moonves said in the deposition that he recommended Palka for the job.
A separate complaint to the inspector general’s office obtained by The Times shows another internal affairs detective made allegations that echoed Turner’s. In that complaint, the second detective said LAPD supervisors blocked attempts to interview Moonves, Milken and Metrose, the CBS vice president that Palka purportedly first tipped off about the rape case.
“It is my belief that the refusal by our supervisors to permit us to interview these key individuals jeopardized the integrity of the investigation and was done for improper motives,” wrote the detective, who requested anonymity, fearing professional repercussions.
The April memo from L.A. County prosecutors said there was substantial evidence Palka had improperly disclosed information from a criminal case, but they lacked proof that “Palka gained financially,” so charges of bribery and disclosure of confidential information for financial gain could not be filed.
Asked whether Moonves helping Palka land a high-level security job would be considered financial gain, a district attorney’s office spokesman said prosecutors “could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Palka disclosed confidential information in return for financial gain, which is an essential element of the crime of bribery.”
In an email to The Times, Palka did not address questions about the alleged bribery or the district attorney’s charging decision, but challenged the idea that there was any link between Moonves’ recommendation for his current job and the leak of information to CBS.
“My post retirement employment was not considered until I completed my career and fully separated from the LAPD,” Palka said.
Les Moonves, former chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation, poses at the premiere of the new television series “Star Trek: Discovery” in Los Angeles on Sept. 19, 2017.
(Chris Pizzello / AP)
Caleb Mason, a partner at Brown White & Osborn LLP in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor, said charges related to Palka’s post-LAPD work would be challenging to prove in court.
“I think a lot of prosecutors would get anxious about filing a case where the theory was simply he had this relationship and after he retired the relationship would get him a job,” Mason said.
In his complaint to the inspector general, Turner said department executives knew of the Hollywood captain’s links to CBS much earlier than has been publicly reported.
CBS attorneys questioned Palka about his relationship with Moonves in 2018, while performing an audit connected to the rape allegations, according to the detective’s complaint. At that time, Palka demanded that the LAPD Command Officers Assn., the union that represents officers above the rank of captain, provide him an attorney, according to the complaint.
“Chief Moore was the Chief at the time and had to have been aware that one [of] his Captains was being interviewed in his official capacity by CBS attorneys for misconduct,” the complaint read. “However, Chief Moore did not initiate a complaint/internal investigation into Cory Palka.”
Muna Busilah, the attorney who Turner claimed represented Palka, declined to say whether or not she was involved in the case. She confirmed she did work with the Command Officers Assn. in 2018, and said there was no requirement to formally notify Moore if a member of the command staff sought legal counsel through the union.
Turner’s complaint accused Moore and LAPD Det. Jason De La Cova, an internal affairs division supervisor, of obstructing justice and dissuading an investigation. De La Cova was the detective who presented a case to the district attorney’s office, according to the declination memo.
“The Chief doesn’t want heads to roll,” De La Cova said to Turner when blocking one of his requests to interview another member of the LAPD, according to the whistleblower complaint.
When reached on Wednesday, De La Cova declined to comment.
A district attorney’s office spokesperson would not say if prosecutors were aware of the misconduct allegations levied against Moore and De La Cova while reviewing Palka’s case. The allegations of obstruction made against the ex-chief and De La Cova in Turner’s complaint have never been presented for consideration of criminal charges, the spokesman said.
De La Cova was previously named in another complaint filed by Tuner.
In 2023, Turner and another detective alleged they were ordered to launch an investigation into Mayor Karen Bass’ receipt of a scholarship from the University of Southern California at Moore’s behest. When both refused, the case was taken over by De La Cova.
Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations. Moore was later cleared of wrongdoing by the department’s inspector general, which concluded in June 2024 after a months-long probe that the detective’s claims were “unfounded.”
Los Angeles County’s inspector general is retiring as chief watchdog for the Sheriff’s Department, stepping down from the post he has held since it was first created a dozen years ago.
Max Huntsman, 60, announced his plans in a letter Tuesday.
“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave, and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.
Huntsman, a former L.A. County prosecutor, also included comments that were critical of how the county has responded to efforts at civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s Department.
Time and again, he wrote, efforts by his office “were ignored” by county leaders.
“The county is putting all its efforts into convincing the public and the courts that it is following the law and has no room to honestly evaluate itself and make the changes it would need to really follow those laws,” Huntsman told The Times in a message early Tuesday. “That’s not compatible with my oath of office.”
In stacks of detailed reports, the inspector general’s office has described a wide range of abuses and failures by the Sheriff’s Department, the L.A. County Probation Department and county leaders. Huntsman’s office has documented poor conditions in L.A. County’s jails, called out the Sheriff’s Department’s for noncompliance with portions of of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and criticized the inability or unwillingness of sheriff’s department officials to rein in so-called deputy gangs, whose tattooed members have repeatedly been accused of misconduct.
The Inspector General’s Office has independently probed hundreds of on-duty shootings by deputies, along with other use of force incidents. Under Huntsman’s direction, the office also scrutinized deficiencies in the county’s skilled nursing facilities during the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic.
In 1991, Huntsman graduated from Yale Law school and immediately joined the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office. A father of two, he served as a deputy district attorney for 22 years, prosecuting political corruption, police misconduct and fraud cases before leaving the courtroom for the helm of the new Office of Inspector General.
One of the main reasons the Sheriff’s Department is still plagued by many of the problems Huntsman confronted when he first became inspector general, he wrote in the Tuesday letter, has been the county’s reluctance to swiftly implement many of his office’s recommendations.
“In my twelve years at this work, I have longed for the day that the county would address the conditions in our reports without a court fight,” he wrote. “Some things never change.”
The Inspector General’s Office is now expected to undergo a sea change with the retirement of the only leader it has ever had.
Huntsman is the latest in a recent string of oversight officials to abruptly depart from their posts. In June, L.A. County Civilian Oversight Commission Chair Robert Bonner told the public that county officials were terminating him from the position. Earlier this year, Sean Kennedy, a member of the commission and its former chair, resigned over what he described as undue county interference in the commission’s activities.
The oversight bodies themselves also have faced cuts. In August, a county office proposed eliminating the Sybil Brand Commission, which conducts civilian oversight of the largest county jail system in the U.S. The county also announced that it would be reassigning or eliminating about a third of Huntsman’s staff.
Yet Huntsman and other county oversight officials continued to advocate for change. For instance, in October, state lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 847. The law will allow oversight commissions across the state, including L.A. County’s Civilian Oversight Commission, to view confidential documents in closed session.
“When government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,” Huntsman wrote at the end of his Tuesday letter. “What you do about it is up to you.”
British backpackers have been warned that a popular border crossing is off-limits after fighting between Thailand and Cambodia resumed following the failure of a Donald Trump ceasefire deal
Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas News Reporter
17:34, 09 Dec 2025Updated 19:47, 09 Dec 2025
Renewed fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has closed the land border(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
British tourists heading along a popular backpacking route have been warned by the Foreign Office after deadly fighting erupted between two neighbouring countries.
Locals in parts of Thailand and Cambodia took shelter last night as the two countries fired a salvo of rockets across the border. Each side has accused the other of breaking a Trump-brokered ceasefire that ended a heated five-day conflict earlier this year.
It came as Cambodia’s senate president Hun Sen pledged a fierce fight against Thailand. And in a sign that neither side was willing to back down, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Cambodia had not yet contacted Thailand about possible negotiations – and that fighting would continue
The Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel within 31 miles of the Thailand-Cambodia border(Image: UK GOV)
Around one million UK nationals visit Thailand every year. And in recent times, it has become a common practice among some travellers to make short trips across the land border to Cambodia by boarding a coach in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
But the border has been closed for much of this year amid the outbreaks of violence, with current UK Foreign Office advice as of this week stating that British nationals should avoid “all but essential travel” to within 31 miles of Thailand’s border with Cambodia. This includes Koh Chang, Koh Kood and other islands in between them.
The advice reads: “Land borders and crossings between Thailand and Cambodia continue to be suspended. Some tourist destinations in border areas such as the Khao Phra Wihan/Preah Vihear temple, the Ta Kwai/Ta Krabey temple and the Ta Muen Thom/Tamone Thom temple are closed. There are also unexploded landmines in the border area. We advise against all but essential travel to the affected border areas.”
Displaced residents along the border have been forced to take shelter(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
While going to an area designated ‘essential travel only’ by the Foreign Office is not illegal, by doing so your travel insurance is likely to be void – even if it works in other parts of the same country that are deemed safe. This means you will personally liable for costs like medical emergencies, cancellations, or repatriation, and it will be generally be much more difficult to get assistance from the British Embassy if anything goes wrong.
Meanwhile, Cambodian senate president Hun Sen said in a statement posted to Facebook and Telegram that his country had refrained from retaliating on Monday but began to fire back at Thai forces overnight. He said: “Cambodia wants peace, but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory.”
And the Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that military action was necessary to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty and ensure public safety. He said: “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.” He added: “The government will support all kinds of military operations as planned earlier.
Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen said his country wants peace but is forced to fight to defend its territory(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said military action was necessary to safeguard national sovereignty(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting and what was Donald Trump’s role?
The current conflict between Thailand and Cambodia marks an escalation between the two countries over a border dispute dating back several decades, which had up until this year largely resulted in only sporadic clashes.
In May, a Cambodian soldier was killed in one of these clashes – triggering an escalation of tensions that resulted in five days of full-blown conflict in July. At least 48 people were killed and 300,000 displaced as a result.
A peace deal brokered by Donald Trump was signed by the Thai and Cambodian governments in Malaysia in October, with US President having threatened not to make trade deals with either country if they refused the agreemeent. But this week, fighting resumed after the ceasefire was broken – and each side blames the other for shooting first.
Thailand’s military said Cambodia attacked Thai positions with artillery and rocket and drone attacks on Tuesday, having accused it of previous attacks on Sunday and Monday. Cambodia meanwhile claims that Thai forces attacked first, in the Preah Vihear province.
Cambodia’s military announced today that the new round of fighting had killed seven civilians and wounded 20. A Thai military spokesperson said that three soldiers have been killed.
