person

NEW YORK — More than half of the WNBA ‘s 180 players didn’t submit their ballots for All-Star starters ahead of this month’s game in Chicago, a person familiar with the balloting told the Associated Press on Friday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the voting. It’s unclear why so many players didn’t cast their votes. However, the Sparks were one of the teams that didn’t have all of its players vote due to some operational errors.

“Players were sent ballots via email,” the Sparks said in a statement. “Some players indicated that they didn’t receive the email or weren’t aware of it until after the voting period had closed. That’s something we take responsibility for as an organization, and we’ll have a more robust process going forward.”

Fan vote accounts for 50% of the overall vote while players and a media panel each are 25%. It’s been that way since 2017.

New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said her team has never had an issue getting players to submit their ballots.

“We always vote. But I do think especially if they’re weighed as much as they are, like teams should be making sure that their players are voting like it is important. There should never just be a team that like, doesn’t get the ballot. …That’s something that every player should be getting the opportunity. And if the player doesn’t want to vote, then that’s on them.”

The league announced the All-Star starters on Thursday.

ESPN was the first to report the lack of ballots.

Like the media, each player is given a link to a voting site as well as an individual username and password. Those are supplied by the league to the teams who distribute them to the players.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum was lower in the player balloting than she was from the media and fans. She is second in the WNBA in scoring, but has only played in a dozen games because of injuries. She was 12th among players votes after ranking sixth by the fans and fifth by media.

She finished seventh in the voting overall for the guards. Even if the Sparks had all voted, it wouldn’t have been a guarantee that Plum moved up to the top four spots. In the past, players have said that they have either voted for their entire team on the ballot or for friends or college teammates, which has led to some skewed results. Some do take it seriously and pick who they think are the best players.

Fever star Caitlin Clark finished 11th in player balloting. She was named an All-Star starter because she placed second in the fan vote and third in the media rankings.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.

Corona High baseball coach Andy Wise has pulled off the most intriguing acquisition of the summer season.

Former Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly, a Corona graduate, is joining the program as an assistant coach to help guide pitchers.

Known for his quirky personality and ability to thrive under pressure, Kelly has followed the program in recent years after retiring as a player and jumped at the chance to help the pitchers, Wise said.

“My conversations with him over the years have been incredible,” Wise said. “What an asset for the pitching staff and the whole program. He’s got the time and he’s got a lot of kids. He’s not going to be here six days a week. He’s excited.”

The plan came together after Wise went up to Northern California to speak with a group of players with Kelly.

“No stress, no pressure, anything you might help us with would be awesome,” Wise said he told him.

Wise said Kelly has been following the team in person and on GameChanger and offering ideas.

Just having around a 13-year former MLB pitcher should be inspiring to players next season.

“Joe is Joe and I expect him to be Joe,” Wise said.

The Boston Celtics are trading 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and a slew of draft capital in yet another blockbuster offseason move, a person with knowledge of the terms said Wednesday.

Boston also gets two first-round picks and two second-round picks, according to the person who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet received league approvals.

It brings Brown’s tenure in Boston to an end after five All-Star appearances in a 10-season run that saw him play in more wins — counting regular-season and playoff games — than any other player in the league.

And it is another huge move being made via trade this summer, after Giannis Antetokounmpo went from Milwaukee to Miami, Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram headlined a swap between the Toronto Raptors and the Clippers, and Ja Morant got traded to Portland by Memphis.

The trade breaks up what has been one of the league’s most successful 1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum, who helped carry the Celtics to the 2024 NBA title. Tatum missed most of last season while recovering from an Achilles tear that happened during the 2025 playoffs.

The 76ers also agreed to a $39-million, four-year deal with veteran forward Dean Wade.

Powell agrees to deal with the Bulls

Norman Powell has agreed to a two-year deal that could be worth up to $45 million with the Chicago Bulls, a person with knowledge of the talks said. Powell also received some interest from the Detroit Pistons, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract can’t be finalized until July 6.

The Bulls hold a team option for 2027-28. Powell spent this past season in Miami, where he became an All-Star for the first time and averaged 21.7 points in 58 games.

Vucevic agrees to rejoin the Magic

Nikola Vucevic is headed back to the Orlando Magic, agreeing on a one-year deal for just under $4 million, a person with knowledge of those talks confirmed.

Vucevic is second all-time on the Magic list in rebounds, third in points and fourth in games played. The 35-year-old center now joins a young core led by Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Orlando lost Moritz Wagner, Franz’s brother, in free agency to Brooklyn on a two-year deal.

Celtics to add Conley, Robinson

Mitchell Robinson just won a title with New York, and now the center will chase another in Boston.

The Celtics agreed to a $47.4-million, three-year deal with Robinson, a person with knowledge of that agreement said. And veteran guard Mike Conley Jr. also is headed to the Celtics on a one-year deal, a second person with knowledge of that agreement said.

Etc.

Forward John Collins agreed to a three-year contract with the Detroit Pistons, a person with knowledge of those negotiations told the AP. ESPN reported the deal is worth $51 million. He started his career in Atlanta, spent two seasons in Utah and played for the Clippers last season. … The San Antonio Spurs added forward Tobias Harris on a two-year deal worth about $31 million. … The Indiana Pacers have agreed to terms with Kelly Oubre Jr. on a two-year deal worth about $17 million.

Eddie Huang has never felt lighter. Last month, after his debut novel, “Come Undone,” finally released, something shifted.

“I have a family. I feel healed,” he said over coffee and short ribs in Santa Monica hours ahead of a live talk with Ottessa Moshfegh, the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Huang’s favorite book, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.”

“People always write me off as a personality or a multi-hyphenate,” he said. “It’s a nice way of saying I’m not really good at anything. But I didn’t have any of that this time.” He leaned forward, serious. “I have to be honest. I do think the Knicks are a big, big part of it.”

His beloved Knicks winning the championship, he said, kept him from spiraling over the book. In person, Huang subdues his ironic braggadocio with polite eye contact and rolling belly laughs at his own jokes. For years, audiences have watched Huang resist whatever box you put him in. His particular brand of cultural fluency — a rapid-fire mix of food, fashion, basketball, politics and pop culture — is what made the “Gua Bao Bad Boy” impossible to categorize.

For most of his career, Huang has seemed constitutionally incapable of standing still. Chef. Memoirist. TV host. Filmmaker. Lawyer. Comic. Podcaster. His first book, “Fresh Off the Boat,” became the longest-running network sitcom centered on an Asian American family, even as Huang publicly distanced himself from the show. Since leaving post-fires L.A. for New York, he’s reopened Baohaus — returning to the kitchen that built his career. Waiting for him at home after the book tour is his wife, Natashia Perrotti, and their 2-year-old son.

Now there’s “Come Undone,” fiction that Huang called his most honest — and vulnerable — work to date.

“It’s sort of this next-gen auto fiction type thing that is creating its own rules,” Moshfegh said ahead of their Q-and-A. “It made me think about my own appreciation for the experience of male heterosexuality and how much it’s been commodified.”

The book follows Hubie, a globe-trotting food-show host drifting through Chateau Marmont, Madeo, Nobu and other “dirtbag L.A” (as Huang coins) spots. He meets Janine, his equal in appetite and id, sending him into a tailspin of yearning and loops of Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” on sadboi walks. The “two walking red flags” decide to try to make it work.

Huang called the novel an “autofictional riddle.” The puzzle isn’t especially difficult if you’ve followed his relationship with Perrotti, who co-hosts their podcast, “Canal Street Dreams.” Marrying a writer, she’s learned, often means finding out what he feels by reading it. “We’ll get into a fight,” she said, “and I’ll wake up to a Substack article about it.”

It’s also part of the private life she’s since conceded. “It’s annoying,” she added. “But now I can read it, and maybe understand him a little bit better. He’s trying to communicate through the writing, like sending somebody a song and saying, ‘I want you to listen to these lyrics.’”

The novel goes further, drawing from experiences the couple has never discussed publicly. In the novel, Hubie and Janine’s relationship pivots after an ectopic pregnancy ends in loss. Perrotti said the scene is fictionalized but mirrors a similar experience they had early in their own relationship.

“It brought us closer together,” she said. “It was the catalyst for us realizing we were serious.”

Before Huang could finish the book, the life he was writing about had to fall apart. “This book was very much about breaking up with your family to start your own,” he said. “There was a lot of anger in the book that had not been resolved.”

By the end of 2024, Huang had stopped speaking to his mother. The break followed what he described as a blowup at a Cheesecake Factory. It also unlocked the ending he’d been chasing.

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Looking back, Huang thinks the earlier versions failed because he was still arguing with her. He’s still trying, in some way, to communicate with her through his writing. “If there’s one person I wish would read the book,” he said, “it would be my mom.”

There were other chapters he had to close the book on, mainly Hollywood. His foray into fiction coincided with the writers’ strike, drying up all his income and future projects. That same year, he became a father. “I had to accept and realize that my value was not in making money,” he said. “Because for three years, I couldn’t.”

He recalled a particular low point researching life insurance policies. “I had to rebuild my whole self. Really love myself despite not being able to offer anybody anything.”

That new certainty didn’t make Huang any less willing to pick fights. Last year, as his documentary “Vice Is Broke” — an autopsy of the media company behind “Huang’s World” and its eventual bankruptcy — awaited release, Huang said distributor Mubi shelved the film after he boycotted the company over Sequoia Capital’s investment in an Israeli defense technology startup. (Mubi denied this and said it still planned to distribute the film.)

The ghost of Vice still lingers in today’s media ecosystem in what he called our “era of cartel journalism:” creators navigating a world of blurred incentives and corporate interests. He traced this instinct to challenge those systems back to Socrates’ “gadfly” — the person whose job was to annoy power. “As a writer, you should be challenging people,” he said. “If your memoir can be turned into a sitcom, it probably wasn’t challenging.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

After the 2025 L.A. fires drove his new family back to New York, Huang went back to cooking. He worked pop-ups, reopened Baohaus and found himself alongside line cooks half his age. In March 2025, he rewrote the novel in five days. That same month “was the first month I didn’t overdraft my credit card,” he said, with the majority of his income today coming from the restaurant. It’s allowed him to make films, write books and walk away from deals he doesn’t believe in. “Being a chef is the anchor that allows me to maintain my artistic integrity.”

For years, comparisons to Anthony Bourdain followed Huang everywhere. The two eventually became friends.

“He was one of the few people who was as advertised,” Huang said. “Nicer and more generous in person. And wounded.”

Bourdain is the only real person who appears in “Come Undone” under his own name.

When Huang mentions him, he stops talking. He covers his face. Tears come.

“I don’t believe in God,” he said, “but I asked the universe why for many, many years.”

Bourdain’s suicide, he said, was one of the reasons he walked away from “Huang’s World” in 2018. At the time, few people understood why. “It was Tony. It was family. It was everything.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Now, looking back, Huang thinks he was writing “Come Undone” toward a different ending than the one he’d imagined.

“This book is a guy saying, ‘I don’t want to be like my biological father,’” he said. “And, in the most respectful, loving way, I don’t want to go out like Tony.”

He paused. “I needed to name the sadness in me. I needed to allow myself to be loved.”

Huang is already writing another memoir about getting back into the kitchen. Still, he said, these days, he’d rather write fiction.

Rudi, an L.A. native, is a freelance art and culture writer. She’s at work on her debut novel about a stuttering student journalist.

Country singer Tyler Farr is recovering after he missed his weekend show.

The “Rednecks Like Me” singer was slated to perform at the Goshen Stampede in Goshen, Conn., on Saturday, but the festival announced just hours before gates opened that Farr had an accident on his Chapel Hill farm, about 45 minutes outside of Nashville.

“Due to a motor vehicle incident on his farm, Tyler Farr was taken to a local hospital and diagnosed with a severe concussion,” read the Instagram post. “Tyler Farr will no longer be able to perform at the Goshen Stampede on June 13, 2026. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and will share additional event information as it becomes available. We wish Tyler a speedy recovery.”

David Foster and the All Stars took Farr’s place in the lineup. The event featured two rodeos with bull riding and steer wrestling, monster trucks, carnival rides and country music. Farr shared Goshen Stampede’s post to his since-expired Instagram stories but hasn’t shared any further updates.

Representatives for the country musician did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

This isn’t the country music star’s first rodeo. Farr, who released “Quit Bein’ Country” last fall, stopped by Taste of Country’s podcast to promote his new EP and told the outlet that he got into a car wreck on the way there and said his truck was too high.

“There’s a big lift on it, and if it had been a normal vehicle, it’d probably been something you could have just buffed out, but the reinforced-steel, ultra off-road bumper I have broke a taillight and knocked the bumper off [the other vehicle],” he said, adding that his truck didn’t have a scratch. “Luckily the person was cool, cop was cool.”

Apparently the last time he was in an accident (before the one in December), his 2013 hit “Redneck Crazy” went to No. 1 on the charts.

The singer has also been candid about his love for country living and turkey hunting.

“When I moved to Nashville, it wasn’t to be in the Hall of Fame,” he told Land.com last year. “That wasn’t a goal … I’m a pretty simple person. My goal was literally to be on the Opry, have a hit song, little country house in the woods, some land, a tractor.”

The class size tends to be small (my class included five people), but that allows more time to improvise per person. The class is mostly regulars, so there is already a good rapport between Fahey and the students. That means he can give more specific feedback. After completing other beginner courses, this one felt the scariest, but I leaned in. After a few reps, I felt more confident in my ability to improvise and develop tactics to work with my scene partner. By implementing his feedback, I was able to fine-tune my improv skills.

This class is perfect for those who want more practice. The type of reps can differ each class, but the week I went centered on UCB auditions (it was that time of year). Since the class is small, you get a more catered experience.

Best for: Back-to-back practice on intermediate or advanced drills
Cost: $20
Time commitment: Two hours
Parking: Street parking
Pro tip: Bring water because you will be talking a lot, and something caffeinated to beat the late-night crash for this evening class that requires your full attention.

Rams offensive lineman Alaric Jackson was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence Monday night in Los Angeles, according to a person with knowledge of the incident not authorized to speak publicly.

Jackson was arrested shortly before 11 p.m. after police responded to a call at a home in West Hills. Upon arrival, police determined that the woman involved in the incident had recorded the interaction and noticed scratch marks on her arms. Jackson was arrested and later booked into jail on a $50,000 bond, according to jail records.

The specific charge Jackson was arrested for is for a person who “willfully inflicts physical or corporal injury resulting in a ‘traumatic condition’ [such as a bruise, scratch, swelling, or internal injury] on an intimate partner.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case for potential charges.

“We are aware of the incident regarding Alaric Jackson, and we take these matters very seriously,” the Rams said in a statement. “Due to this being an ongoing legal situation, we cannot comment further at this time.”

Jackson, 27, entering his sixth season with the Rams as one of their anchors on the offensive line, was suspended by the NFL in 2024 for violating its personal conduct policy.

In November, a woman filed a lawsuit against Jackson alleging he recorded her without her consent during sex. The woman alleged that Jackson repeatedly refused to delete the video and then taunted her with it. The woman reported the incident to the NFL, but the civil case was dismissed.

Jackson, who joined the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2021, signed a three-year deal with the team in February 2025 that included $35 million in guarantees.

Times staff writers Richard Winton and Gary Klein contributed to this report.

Peter Laviolette will be the next head coach of the Kings, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told the Associated Press on Monday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Kings hadn’t yet announced the results of their lengthy search for a permanent replacement for interim coach D.J. Smith, who replaced Jim Hiller in March.

The 61-year-old Laviolette is expected to get a three-year contract to take over his seventh NHL team. The Kings have made the playoffs in five consecutive seasons, but they’ve also endured five straight first-round exits under three head coaches and two general managers.

Laviolette is returning to the NHL after being fired by the New York Rangers in April 2025. He has also led the New York Islanders, Carolina, Philadelphia, Nashville and Washington during a 23-year head coaching career highlighted by a Stanley Cup championship with the Hurricanes in 2006.

Laviolette’s teams have reached the postseason in 11 of the past 14 seasons he finished behind a bench, and he also led the Flyers (2010) and the Predators (2017) to the Stanley Cup Final. His 1,594 career games coached are the ninth most in NHL history.

In his first West Coast NHL job, Laviolette is taking over a good team that is stuck in a profound rut, unable to become a Stanley Cup contender.

General manager Ken Holland fired Hiller shortly after the Olympic break in the coach’s second full season in charge, and the Kings went 11-6-6 after Smith stepped up from his assistant’s role. Smith, who was a candidate for the permanent job, got the Kings into the final Western Conference playoff spot — but Los Angeles was swept out of the first round by the Colorado Avalanche.

The Kings’ four previous first-round exits were all at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, leading to the departure of general manager Rob Blake a year ago.

The Kings still haven’t won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, but the roster has a solid core of talent despite the retirement of longtime captain Anze Kopitar.

Holland acquired high-scoring forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers last winter, and high-scoring forwards Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala are all returning.

The intense Laviolette became known for creating aggressive offensive attacks and making quick franchise turnarounds in his previous stops. He could be part of an organizational shift for the Kings, who have spent two decades as a philosophically defense-first team — to the regular detriment of their offense.

The Kings finished 29th in the NHL in scoring last season with just 220 goals, easily the fewest among playoff teams. They are in the bottom half of the NHL in scoring over the past five seasons despite making the playoffs every year.

Holland publicly wondered whether the Kings are too defensive-minded after they scored just five goals in their four-game sweep at the hands of the Avalanche, but he didn’t commit to a change in team philosophy.

Beacham writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Former Trump administration national security advisor John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison time, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The deal would resolve a criminal case filed in October that charged Bolton with 18 counts of either retaining or disseminating classified information, including diary-like notes from his time in government that officials say he shared with his family members as he was preparing a memoir about his time in office.

Under the agreement, Bolton would also face a $2.25-million fine, said the person, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a deal that had not been made public. Any prison sentence would be capped at five years, but the agreement allows for him to avoid time behind bars, though the punishment will ultimately be up to a judge.

The case against Bolton, filed weeks after prosecutors secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, unfolded against the backdrop of concerns that the Justice Department was using its law enforcement powers to pursue perceived adversaries of President Trump. The investigation burst into public view last August when FBI agents served search warrants at his Maryland home and Washington office, but it had been well underway by the time Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

Bolton is a longtime fixture in Republican foreign policy circles who became known for his hawkish views on U.S. power. He served for more than a year in Trump’s first administration before being fired in 2019 and publishing a critical book that portrayed the Republican president as deeply misinformed, an unflattering portrait of his leadership and decision-making.

Trump’s administration fought unsuccessfully to block the publication of “The Room Where it Happened” on the grounds that the book risked disclosing classified information. The plea deal that Bolton will enter covers the notes he shared with relatives as opposed to information published in the tell-all book.

A rearraignment, which typically signals a plea agreement, is scheduled for June 26 in federal court in Greenbelt, Md.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The indictment’s 18 counts carried a threat of a substantial prison sentence in the event of conviction.

Court documents alleged that he shared with two family members “diary-like” entries with information classified as high as top secret that he had learned from meetings with other U.S. government officials, from intelligence briefings or talks with foreign leaders. After sending one document, Bolton wrote in a message to his relatives, “None of which we talk about!!!” In response, one of his relatives wrote, “Shhhhh,” prosecutors said.

The indictment said that among the material shared was information about foreign adversaries that in some cases revealed details about sources and methods used by the U.S. government to collect intelligence. One document related to a foreign adversary’s plans for a missile launch, while another detailed U.S. government plans for covert action and included intelligence blaming an adversary for an attack, court papers say.

In a statement released after his indictment, Bolton described the charges as part of an “intensive effort” by Trump to intimidate his opponents, to ensure that he alone determines what is said about his conduct.”

Bolton also served in the Department of Justice during President Reagan’s administration and was a State Department point person on arms control during George W. Bush’s presidency.

Bolton was nominated by Bush to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the strong supporter of the Iraq war was unable to win Senate confirmation. He resigned after serving 17 months through a recess appointment that allowed him to hold the job on a temporary basis without Senate approval.

In 2018, Bolton was appointed to serve as Trump’s third national security advisor. His brief tenure was characterized by disputes with the president over North Korea, Iran and Ukraine.

Those rifts ultimately led to Bolton’s departure, with Trump announcing on social media in September 2019 that he had accepted Bolton’s resignation.

Bolton subsequently criticized Trump’s approach to foreign policy and government in his book, alleging that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to that country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Joe Biden, who was soon to be Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2020 presidential election, and members of the Biden family.

Trump responded by slamming Bolton as a “washed-up guy” and a “crazy” warmonger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”

Tucker writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — A prediction market reported former U.S. Rep. George Santos to federal prosecutors after he boasted he’d be going to President Trump’s State of the Union address, then bet against his own attendance, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Kalshi, the online prediction marketplace, referred Santos to the Department of Justice after detecting suspicious trades made by him ahead of Trump’s Feb. 24 speech, the person said. The person spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Kalshi also reported the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulatory body that has vowed to crack down on insider trading in prediction marketplaces.

The Justice Department and the CFTC didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to inquiries from the AP.

Santos also did not respond to text messages or phone calls.

The referral was first reported by NPR. Santos told NPR that he wasn’t aware of the investigation. He declined to say whether he had a Kalshi account.

“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” Santos told NPR.

The convicted ex-congressman had repeatedly discussed his intention to attend the State of the Union, which came just four months after he was granted clemency by Trump in a fraud case that led to his expulsion from the U.S. House.

On the eve of Trump’s speech, Kalshi put the odds of Santos attending at close to 75%.

Then, minutes into the speech, Santos posted on X that he had been waylaid at the airport. Immediately, several social media users accused him of running another scheme.

“Santos talking to his accountant and telling him to open his Kalshi account and bet all his money on No,” one user wrote, alongside a meme of Al Pacino counting money in the movie Scarface.

In March, Santos addressed the complaints on his podcast.

“I guess people lost money,” he said. “Some people made unexpected money. That’s to show you how fragile these markets are.”

Santos, who won office as a Republican after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft in 2024.

After serving just 84 days, he was ordered released by Trump, who called Santos a “rogue” but said he didn’t deserve a harsh sentence and should get credit for voting Republican.

Prediction markets, including Kalshi and its chief rival Polymarket, have drawn scrutiny as their businesses have expanded — with some lawmakers urging the platforms to do more to guard against insider trading.

Both companies have said they are reporting suspicious trades to federal regulators. Some investigations have led to criminal charges. In April a soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using classified information to win more than $400,000 predicting the date of his capture on Polymarket.

In April, the Senate approved a bipartisan resolution to prevent its own members from using prediction markets.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday.

The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that President Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.

The administration appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys for six transgender people who are active-duty service members and two others seeking to join the military. The appeal court’s majority decided that the injunction should be narrowed to the plaintiffs currently serving in the military but not those seeking to join.

The ruling won’t immediately go into effect, allowing the administration time to ask the full appeals court to hear the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the transgender military ban to go into effect last year, as litigation continues to play out. Another lawsuit challenging the ban was filed in Washington state and led to a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the policy in that case.

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.

In response to the order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.

The policy “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender,” Judge Robert Wilkins wrote for the majority. Wilkins was nominated to the court by Democratic President Obama.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Justin Walker said judges lack the power to second-guess the decision to exclude transgender troops.

“We have neither the expertise nor the authority to decide whether the military can exclude the plaintiffs from its ranks. The Constitution assigns that authority to Congress and the Commander in Chief,” wrote Walker, who was nominated by Trump, a Republican.

Judge Judith Rogers, who was nominated by Democratic President Clinton, joined Wilkins’ opinion but also partially dissented.

Kunzelman and Whitehurst write for the Associated Press.

LEE Andrews’ lies, mistruths and mystery disappearance have captivated the nation following his flash wedding to Katie Price in January.

Accusations of fraud, gaslighting and emotional abuse have been levelled at him by ex-partners in recent months, all of who fell under his smooth-talking spell and promises of a happy future and financial riches.

Back in March, I became the first newspaper journalist to interview Lee following his emergence as Katie’s new man.

I held out little hope of it taking place when my initial request via WhatsApp was met with weeks of silence.

But then, out of the blue, Lee replied that he was keen to chat and to quash the ‘lies’ that had been spread about him.

I believe he was either that confident in his powers of persuasion that he could brazenly talk himself out of the numerous question marks around his lavish lifestyle and career, or that he viewed me as a useful idiot who could be hoodwinked into washing his tarnished reputation — perhaps a combination of the two.

GONE IN AN INSTA

The REAL reason Katie Price’s Instagram account was removed revealed

LEE’S LIES

I’ve spoken to the Lee Andrews survivors club – they could finally take him down

We set a date to talk the following week, but when the time came Lee revealed he was struggling with illness and would need to reschedule.

The interview was then postponed twice more with Lee still under the weather and, at this stage, it felt like I was being strung along, destined for the same fate as the Good Morning Britain producers who tried to land him for a TV interview months later.

To my surprise, he eventually made it onto the Zoom call on Friday, March 26, speaking from inside a Dubai branch of Caffé Nero.

Tanned and with salt and pepper stubble, he wore a baseball cap and T-shirt and sounded like someone coping with the last remnants of a cold.

I found him to be amiable, relaxed and open to being grilled on subjects that I thought would make him uneasy.

Off the bat I asked if he was a fantasist and compulsive liar, which he dismissed with a chuckle, telling me the claims were “comical and spin”.

For over an hour we went through everything from his dodgy CV, which he claimed was the result of errors from an unnamed personal assistant, his desire to start a family with Katie and plans for a lavish second wedding, his ability to speak multiple languages (with some muddling examples) as well as serious allegations from his ex-partners, which Lee likened to “barking dogs”.

There was also lots of business talk, full of wordy jargon that I can only assume was designed to impress and baffle someone not au fait with the workings of a cutting edge tech firm.

At the end of it all, we thanked each other and said our goodbyes.

The following day, the story ran in the paper with the humorous tag line: “I don’t really like liars myself. I do everything with honesty (just don’t look too closely at his CV).”

It was perfectly befitting of the ridiculousness of the story at the time, before even more ludicrous claims came to light including Lee’s attempt to buy Chelsea Football Club and boasts about being an international arms dealer.

But I expected Lee might not see it the same way I did and the next day I was proved right when he messaged me to say: “I don’t appreciate the pictures your edit team have used or the way the article has been written.”

I politely explained that we had a duty to examine the various claims against him, that a light touch of light humour was to be expected and that there was no malice in the framing.

His follow up surprised me.

Rather than pushing back, or at least further pleading his innocence on the accusations about his wealth and past relationships, Lee reiterated that his biggest issue was with his looks.

He simply said: “I don’t like the photo at all.”

The photos in question were a selection of unedited grabs from the Zoom call, a fair reflection on Lee through the course of the interview.

What struck me at the time, and even more so now in light of his disappearance and ghosting of wife Katie, is how his visual portrayal seemingly mattered more than any harm caused to others by his actions.

It’s no secret, Lee is fixated on his appearance; his numerous photoshopped pics have gone viral time and again.

The pictures we used took that editing power away from him and the reality appeared to hurt.

In other videos on social media he can be heard referencing his looks, from his hair to his chiselled body, and commenting about filters — or the lack thereof — to ‘prove’ he’s not fake.

He also took great pains to portray himself as a wealthy businessman with links to Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, years after his sustainable vehicle company was quietly dissolved, which he continues to insist isn’t the case.

Further interactions between us saw him insist others simply couldn’t understand the workings of his complex world.

Optics are king with Lee and it seems he’s willing to let real feelings fall by the wayside as long as he is presented as the handsome, wealthy success story he’s so desperate to be — a mindset that could have heartbreaking consequences for Katie.

Yes, voting centers will be open across Los Angeles this week. And no, you don’t have to cast your ballot by mail.

With days left before the June 2 primary, President Trump made a round of misleading claims about the electoral process, this time falsely suggesting that the city was holding elections only by mail.

Trump’s comments came Saturday during an appearance on Fox News when he was asked by host Lara Trump — the president’s daughter-in-law — about his predictions for the upcoming primary.

“You know, they don’t have voting booths; everything’s by mail,” Trump responded. “I don’t think a Republican can win in California unless you pass the Save America Act — then they’re gonna have to show proof of citizenship, they’re going to have to get rid of mail-in voting.”

The L.A. County registrar-recorder moved to set the record straight in a tweet posted Sunday morning that read “MISINFORMATION ALERT.”

Noting that in-person voting was in fact allowed, the agency announced that it had 646 vote centers across the county — each with multiple voting booths. The centers will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, the agency said in the posting, while tagging Fox News and the White House.

A map of polling locations featured on the agency’s website shows that there are dozens of voter centers available countywide. Mobile vote centers also were made available at various sites in the county. Mobile voting runs for the 10 days before election day and will not be available on June 2, according to the county registrar-recorder.

As of Friday morning, 333,000 mail-in votes had been cast in the June 2 primary for Los Angeles mayor, city attorney, city controller and eight of the 15 City Council seats. This was up from 321,000 at the same time in 2022, according to registrar-recorder.

Registered voters already should have received a ballot in the mail. Those who choose to vote in person can take their mail-in ballot to a vote center and ask to vote in person instead. Residents who haven’t yet registered to vote can still do so by requesting a conditional voter registration application at any voter center and filling out their ballot as they normally would.

Recent polling suggests that, ahead of Tuesday’s primary, incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has what pollsters deem a statistically insignificant lead in her bid for reelection as the city’s top executive. Bass is locked in a tight race with councilmember and former ally Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt.

Trump has signaled his support for Pratt but hasn’t formally endorsed the former reality TV star and registered Republican. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said the president hadn’t done so out of the fear it would hurt Pratt’s chances in Democrat-dominant Los Angeles.

In 2020, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom took the unprecedented step of issuing a statewide order for voting by mail for that year’s election in what he described as a necessary step to limit the virus’ spread.

A handful of rural counties had no in-person voting locations that March.

In 1979, the state eliminated the need for an excuse to receive an absentee ballot, and an option to choose permanent absentee voting was created in 2002. In the decades since, Californians have embraced the flexibility that voting away from a polling place offers. In nearly every statewide election since 2008, the majority of votes have not been cast at a traditional polling place.

Fourteen more counties — including Orange, Sacramento and Santa Clara — have adopted the state Voter’s Choice Act, an optional state law that requires them to mail every voter a ballot and to replace traditional neighborhood polling places with multipurpose vote centers. Those in-person locations offer multiple election services for up to 10 days before election day.

Los Angeles, the 15th county to adopt the new state law, was initially given special permission by the Legislature to implement it without mailing every voter a ballot.

Trump has for years repeated baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that undocumented immigrants were swaying elections by voting illegally.

In light of these claims, Trump and some Republicans have pushed for new restrictions on voters. A federal proposal known as the Save America Act — which would require Americans to prove they are U.S. citizens before they register to vote and to show identification at the polls, among other things — cleared the U.S. House but stalled out in the Senate.

In November, California voters will weigh in on a similarly contentious ballot measure pushed by Republicans that would require all voters in future elections to show identification every time they vote in person or provide a special PIN when submitting mail-in ballots.

Under current state law, Californians are required to provide identification when registering to vote and must swear under penalty of perjury, a felony, that they are eligible to vote and are U.S. citizens. They are not required to show or provide identification when casting a ballot in person or by mail.

If passed, the California ballot measure would require voters to present government-issued identification, such as a state driver’s license, every time they vote. Voters mailing ballots would be required to write a four-digit number, essentially a PIN, on their ballot envelopes matching the one generated when they registered to vote.

Critics of California’s voter ID initiative, including many legal scholars, say the ballot measure addresses a problem that does not exist.

In May, a federal judge handed Trump a victory by declining to halt the president’s executive order creating a federal list of eligible voters and then directed the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to those on the list. Observers say the decision opens the door for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal immigration officer wanted for shooting a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s Minnesota crackdown was arrested Friday in Texas, authorities said.

Christian Castro, of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, was taken into custody 11 days after Minneapolis prosecutors charged him with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

Hennepin County, Minnesota prosecutors said the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located Castro, 52, in Texas and worked with agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s Office and the Texas Rangers to arrest him.

“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Castro and it wasn’t immediately clear if he has one. Messages seeking comment were left with ICE, the Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office and the Texas Rangers.

Castro is the second federal agent to be charged over their conduct during the Minnesota crackdown, which was known as Operation Metro Surge. He is one of two agents that ICE Director Todd Lyons said lied about the circumstances of the incident.

Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty holds up a document containing charges against ICE agent Christian Castro during a news conference at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, on Monday, May 18, 2026.

(Renée Jones Schneider/Minnesota Star Tribune Via Associated Press)

According to prosecutors, Castro fired through a home’s front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S., Moriarty said.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. A federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether officers lied about what happened.

In a statement after the charges were announced, ICE said the U.S. attorney’s office was investigating statements made by officers, who could face disciplinary action including being fired and prosecuted. ICE called the Hennepin County attorney’s action “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.” DHS’s Inspector General’s Office, which Moriarty credited with assisting in the arrest, is separate from ICE and is meant to serve as a watchdog for DHS agencies, including ICE.

Minneapolis last month released video showing the moments before Sosa-Celis’s shooting, captured from a distance by a city-owned security camera.

The video appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up, and keeps heading toward the house.

The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn’t clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.

The Trump administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of President Trump’s national deportation campaign and considered Operation Metro Surge a success.

But tensions mounted during the weekslong campaign, and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers sparked mass unrest and raised questions about officers’ conduct.

Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have clashed over who has the authority to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct.

Moriarty’s office last month charged immigration agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car on a highway. He turned himself in last week and his lawyer disputes the charges.

The county is also investigating Good’s and Pretti’s killings and sued the Trump administration in March to gain access to evidence in those cases and the Sosa-Celis shooting.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago, lied during the course of civil litigation against the Republican president, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person who confirmed the existence of the investigation was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing inquiry and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The perjury investigation is being led by the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago, and acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche has had no involvement because of his prior work as Trump’s personal attorney, the person said.

Lawyers for Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press on Thursday.

It’s the latest in a series of investigations the Trump administration Justice Department has opened into perceived adversaries of the president. The actions, including securing an indictment last month against former FBI Director James Comey, have raised alarm from Democrats and former officials that an institution meant to make prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House is being weaponized.

Carroll has said a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan ended violently. She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her. Trump has called the allegations a “made-up scam,” and he has attacked her motivations, saying they were politically driven or arose from a desire to promote her memoir.

A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, awarding her $5 million. The following year, another jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case related to Trump’s social media attacks on her.

The Justice Department is scrutinizing a statement Carroll made in the course of the civil litigation that no one else was paying her legal fees. It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped fund Carroll’s case. Trump’s lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of concealing that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated.

A court entry earlier this month said Trump won’t have to pay the award until the U.S. Supreme Court gets a chance to review the case or reject an appeal. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a request by one of Trump’s lawyers that it let the president delay the payment to Carroll, though it required that he post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll’s attorney had made.

The Carroll investigation was first reported by CNN.

Richer and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

MSC Cruises has announced its commitment this summer and offers for UK passengers

MSC Cruises has issued an update today, Thursday, May 28, with bosses announcing a commitment to UK passengers this summer. The cruise line offers various voyages spanning the globe and currently operates a fleet of 23 cruise ships, with plans for further expansion in the coming years.

On Thursday, MSC Cruises said it is inviting guests to experience the ‘best holiday ever’ over the coming months, with the “peace of mind” of no added fuel surcharge for summer 2026 and low deposits until the end of June. Antonio Paradiso, Vice President of International Sales at MSC Cruises, said: “MSC Cruises ‘Best Holiday Ever’ commitment reinforces our position as the leading choice for UK and Irish holidaymakers seeking an effortless, all-in-one travel experience.

“Backed by dedicated support every step of the way, guests can book with confidence and peace of mind in today’s changing travel environment and relax knowing that their holiday is taken care of. With our low deposit of just £50, no-fly cruises from Southampton, Fly and Cruise packages with the reassurance of no added fuel surcharge for 2026, and the option to change your cruise date or destination if required, we are making it easier than ever for guests to secure their next holiday.”

Guests can book a trip with MSC Cruises with a low deposit of £50 per person, extended until the end of June. This applies to all cruises (excluding World Cruise and MSC Yacht Club cabins).

Passengers have a wide variety of amenities on board. There is full-board dining across the main restaurants and buffets, evening shows, multiple swimming pools with aquaparks, fitness facilities and family entertainment programmes.

There are many cabin types to choose from, including comfortable and economic inside cabins and connecting cabins for larger groups, which combine inside and balcony cabins together. Ocean View cabins offer sunset views, or for that sea breeze, opt for a balcony cabin.

A spokesperson added: “An MSC Cruise offers so much in one transparent price and, despite recent increases in global fuel prices, the cruise line will not be introducing a fuel surcharge this summer, giving guests extra confidence there are no unexpected added costs. The price guests see at the time of booking is the price they will pay, part of the best holiday ever commitment, just peace of mind and a seamless holiday experience this summer.”

MSC Cruises offers a range of Fly and Cruise packages that combine flights, transfers, and a cruise into one holiday. Designed to ‘simplify the journey from start to finish’, the cruise line says these packages are built in partnership with some of the world’s most renowned airlines.

Flights align with cruise schedules, with transfers between the airport and the ship included. Guests can select their preferred cruise itinerary, choose the Fly and Cruise fare, and confirm flights during the booking process. Fly and Cruise holidays in 2026 depart from:

• Belfast to Palma and Tenerife
• Dublin to Barcelona, Rome, Venice and Tenerife
• Edinburgh to Rome, Naples and Tenerife
• Glasgow to Tenerife
• Newcastle to Tenerife
• Manchester to Rome and Tenerife
• Birmingham to Tenerife
• London Heathrow to Seattle and Barbados

MSC Cruises also offers a selection of no‑fly cruises from Southampton year-round. Some standout destinations include the Norwegian Fjords, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. And on selected dates, well-known TV stars and sports legends are on board, giving guests complimentary classes and talks:

• June 6, 2026 – Southampton to Iceland and the Norwegian Fjords (14 nights), with TV personality Anthea Turner onboard.
• August 8, 2026 – Southampton to the Canary Islands (12 nights), with Rugby Legends Ben Cohen, Neil Back and Ben Kayplus dance star Kristina Rhianoff onboard.
• October 19, 2026 – Southampton to the Netherlands, Belgium and France (5 nights), with Football Legend Gianfranco Zola on board.

When actors from TV’s top comedy series recently gathered for The Envelope’s Emmy Comedy Roundtable, any lessons they’d learned over the years about how not to break quickly went out the window — this year’s guests made each other laugh early and often.

Contributing to the hilarity were Danielle Deadwyler, whose English professor in HBO’s “Rooster” has her life disrupted by a bestselling writer; Donald Faison, who reprises the role of Christopher Turk, now chief of surgery, in the revival of ABC’s medical sitcom “Scrubs”; Sabrina Impacciatore, who embodies the vain managing editor of a failing regional newspaper on Peacock’s “The Paper”; Justine Lupe, who plays Morgan, a flighty but loyal sister and podcast co-host in Netflix’s rom-com “Nobody Wants This”; Lamorne Morris, who portrays New York City journalist Robbie Robertson in Prime Video’s Depression-set “Spider-Noir”; and Chris Perfetti, who features on “Abbott Elementary” as awkward but well-intentioned social studies teacher Jacob Hill.

In the course of our conversation, participants discussed surviving bad reviews, what fans misunderstand about comedy and, yes, how they keep a straight face during funny scenes (if not on The Envelope roundtable). Read excerpts from the conversation below.

What is the last thing that made you laugh out loud, whether it was meant to be funny or not?

Lupe: I have a one-and-a-half year-old. She’s just starting to talk. She doesn’t really say a lot of words at once, but she started doing this thing where, when she’s going poop, she just goes, “Oh, wow. Oh, wow.” And every time it’s just so cute.

Perfetti: I also do that when I poop, so please tell her it’s normal… I don’t know, guys. It’s scary times. I don’t find myself laughing out loud very much anymore. I guess to that end, I watch Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue every night and I think that it’s pretty drop-dead gorgeous. It’s so funny, and he’s using that platform in such a gorgeous way.

Faison: My daughter was playing a volleyball game against a very formidable opponent. I’m just going to put it out there: LeBron James’ daughter. She was serving and pushed everybody back with her serve. Boom! Everybody backs up. Now she’s got everybody out of bounds, then she taps it real soft and it falls in front of them. I laughed out loud. I was just so impressed, and my daughter looked at me like, “You mother—. Don’t you enjoy that!”

Impacciatore: A couple of days ago I was fighting with my boyfriend and it was a very bad fight and I really wanted him to understand my reasons. I was trying to put on my trousers and unfortunately I put two legs in one [side]. He started to laugh so loud and I was so upset. And then I started to laugh loud too. But it’s horrible when it happens, because I’m a very serious person when I fight.

Donald, the last season of “Scrubs” concluded in 2010. Now Dr. Turk is back working at the hospital with his buddy J.D. (Zach Braff) and a lot of the original cast. What was it like stepping back into that world?

Faison: When the pandemic happened, Zach and I did a rewatch podcast of “Scrubs,” and that’s where all of this started to formulate again. In doing the rewatch podcast, we researched what the fans liked, what we liked, and what we thought was funny. And we were very honest about it. If it sucked, we said it sucked. Then the T-Mobile [ad campaign with Faison and Braff] happened. So for the past five or six years, I’ve been playing Turk to Zach Braff’s J.D. When the revival came around, it was easy to slip back in because we had been doing this banter for so long. The only thing that’s different is that he’s older, but maturity has not set in with him yet. He’s a 50-year-old kid who’s really good at cutting people open and training younger people, but for the most part, he’s still silly.

Chris, “Abbott Elementary,” which follows several teachers at an underfunded public school in Philly, is heading into its sixth season. That means you’ve been playing Jacob for quite some time. Do you ever find the line between your personalities blurring?

Perfetti: The line between Chris and Jacob is definitely blurring. When we first started, I was shocked that [creator] Quinta [Brunson] saw me as this person. We weren’t alike at all, but I trusted that she saw something [in me] she wanted to exploit. Now, I would be so lucky to steal some of what he’s got going on. He’s unbelievably loyal and ambitious and really comfortable in his own skin. He leads from that place. And I need to shut the hell up and stop telling the writers things about my own life because now they’re showing up in the show. So truly the line between Chris and Jacob is getting weirder.

Danielle, “Rooster” takes place at a fictitious college. You actually have several degrees, including multiple master’s. Did you draw on your own experience in academia for “Rooster”?

Deadwyler: I was a student, and that’s a very different dynamic than being an administrator or a professor. But I dig education. I dig the intention of the environment, the debate, the ongoing pushing of the self and weaving that into your personal life. It’s all super connected. So I just brought that to the show.

You’re renowned for your work in intense films like “Till” and “The Piano Lesson.” Do you use a different muscle for comedy?

Deadwyler: I was always saying to the [“Rooster”] team, ‘Hey, guys, I feel good. I can breathe. I have energy to do things. Is that normal for people?’ So yes, it’s a completely different muscle. But [co-star] Steve [Carell] says this beautiful thing that characters don’t know whether they’re in a comedy or a drama. And that’s about as true as it gets. You bring full rigor and development and discipline to the making of a role, regardless of what genre.

Justine, how much do you relate to your character Morgan in the interfaith romantic comedy “Nobody Wants This”? Or is it more like you want to fix her?

Lupe: I don’t know if I want to fix her because that’s what’s compelling about her. I have so much fun playing the mess of Morgan. I relate to her. I started off where she was kind of a semiautobiographical story of [show creator] Erin Foster’s relationship with her sister, Sara. Then immediately the ship left the dock when I took the character. Justine has now taken over this idea of who this person is, and it’s a lot more sloppy and unbridled. The mess of her is actually me, because I’m a little bit sloppy as a person.

The show really captures the relationship between siblings, and sisters in particular.

Lupe: I identify with the idea of being someone who’s evolved past their original home life, and then going back into circumstances with your family, and regressing immediately. I wanted to play with that dynamic. Morgan might think that she’s evolved past certain things and then the minute she’s codependent with her sister, they devolve back into the bratty kid-like versions of themselves that are like picking on each other. I know the feeling, when you go back home and you’re like, “Wow, have I grown up at all?”

Lamorne, “Spider-Noir” is based on a Marvel comic and is set in an exaggerated version of 1930s New York. Audiences have the choice to watch the series in black and white or in color. How does the tone change between the two styles?

Morris: I watched both and they both have their own unique qualities. I would say the way folks should watch it is the way we traditionally watched TV as a people. You start in black-and-white and then when color was introduced, you would go back and watch those same films when they added color to it. While we’re filming it, [I was thinking] “How are they gonna make this visual effect look cool in black-and-white?” And then you watch it in black-and-white and you go, “What the f—?!” And I go back and watch it in color and go, “Holy — it looks great in color, too.” Everything down to the wardrobe [and] the set design, you watch it in black-and-white and it looks bold and as vivid as if it were in color. But then when you watch it in color and you go, “Holy crap, that house is blue, that suit is orange.” So just go watch it in both versions.

Sabrina, your character in “The Paper” wants to be the managing editor of the Toledo Truth Teller, but she’s really all about the clickbait. How much did you know about that conflict in modern journalism?

Impacciatore: I made sure not to know anything about it because Esmeralda doesn’t have a clue. Esmeralda is not a real journalist. Esmeralda is there for some mysterious reasons that I’m trying to figure out. She’s the queen of bull—, so I made sure not to know anything about journalists. And because I had played Valentina in “White Lotus,” I wanted to make sure that this character is going to be completely different from her. She must be out loud, she must be big. So I made some choices about her, for example, the nails. I still have these nails because I’m still shooting, but usually I don’t have long nails. But these nails started to make me think in a different way, to move my hands in a different way. Like these are guns, weapons to manipulate people. [Touches Morris with her nails.]

Morris: Consider myself manipulated.

Impacciatore: I’m the opposite. I have no filters in life. I am my own worst enemy. I’m too transparent. I don’t know how to hide feelings. So I thought, “What does she do?” Because it’s a documentary, she thinks one day she will be a star. So I have her have hair like Rita Hayworth the first day I arrived on set. They were looking at me like, “What is she doing?” They didn’t get it, so I had to explain that she wants to be a star. Once you start to play a manipulative person, you see manipulation everywhere. It’s like now I’m losing a bit of innocence, because I don’t trust anybody anymore. Now randomly I say, “Are you trying to manipulate me?”

“The Paper” and “Abbott Elementary” are mockumentaries. Does it make a difference in how you’re performing when it’s shot in that style?

Perfetti: On our best day, we’re trying to dupe people into believing that it’s real life. But similarly, I think Jacob thinks that he will be the star of this documentary whenever it comes out. He’ll be an executive producer on it. So there’s very much an element of having one foot in the audience’s experience. His outrage is heightened because he knows it’s being captured on film. I grew up doing plays and so it’s an easy dynamic to borrow from. When you’re on stage, even on your best days, you always have even a pinkie in the audience’s experience. You have to be able to be in conversation with them. The mockumentary format really allows for that and I think it informs the show in a really beautiful way.

Impacciatore: The first time that I watched “The Office,” I thought, “This project is incredible, but the light is so horrible. I will look so ugly.” I was trying not to be chosen for this project because I was so scared to be so ugly. So when I arrived on set as the character, I brought my own ring light and I said, “Guys, Esmeralda, because she knows she’s in a documentary, she needs her own lighting.” I got away with it. To me, comedy is a very serious thing.

What do audiences underestimate or misunderstand about what it takes to make a comedy?

Deadwyler: The assumption is that you’re being funny, and it’s not that at all. When you [Chris] just talked about doing plays, I was thinking theater is the thing that enabled me to really lean into the joy and transition into working on “Rooster.” There’s a rhythm and a quality of engagement that I learned completely in the theater world that applied to the gelling and the cohesion of “Rooster” in all of the scenes. So leaning into drama enables you to lean into the hilarity or the quirkiness or awkwardness of humor.

Morris: If the script is funny, it’s going to be funny if you’re an actor playing it real. And obviously you have throughout history those characters who know how to add to that, who can ham it up in such a way. Chris Farley and those guys. The Belushis, the Will Ferrells. They can take something really funny and just say, “I’m gonna add my stamp to it so when you see this type of humor, you know it was from me.” Then you have your Judd Apatows of this world who can create a funny environment and all the actors are basically playing it real and playing it straight.

Faison: People think you’re actually that funny or you’re that quick and you can come up with those jokes that fast. But really you’re saying somebody else’s words and you’re being somebody else. Somehow I got labeled as a stand-up comic. I’ve never done stand-up in my life, but I’ve been in so many comedies that people think, “He must be funny in real life.” I imagine Jack Black must hate going outside because everybody’s, “Do that skandosh, sliggidy, diggity thing that you do!”

Deadwyler: They want you to do that you do for drama, too.

Morris: “Make me cry”?

Deadwyler: They want you to give them the feeling that they know you for, because that’s all they’ve witnessed of you. They want me to ride a horse. They want me to cry. And it’s like, “I’m just trying to get these chicken wings and go home.”

And trying to break out of that, whatever that is, and move on to the next thing that you want to do.

Faison: For a long time it was very difficult as an actor to do anything else other than comedy, because you could get typecast. That’s something that happens right away. You could be the best friend for the rest of your life if you’re not careful.

Morris: I came up in traditional comedy. Second City, Chicago. When I was a kid, I didn’t care about anything else other than like making people laugh. So in plays and things, I was always cast as the comic relief, back in my ham-it-up days. Up until the beginning of my TV career with “New Girl.” I didn’t know who I wanted to be on that show. I didn’t know who I was and I’m thankful to the staff for just allowing me to grow into that character. But what I grew into was a f— clown. I just was like, “Oh man, I get to do this for seven years.” I loved every minute of it.

When you get recognized out in public or somebody knows they know you from something, who have you been misidentified as? Or do they simply call you by your character’s name?

Faison: I was at sushi once and it was actually another famous person that came up to me, I’m not gonna say their name. And he looks at me and goes, “Alfonso?” I said, “Nope.” And he hightailed it out so quick. I was like, “I gotta call Alfonso Ribeiro and tell him that somebody thought that I was him at a restaurant.” I’m glad to be recognized, but I am not Alfonso Ribeiro.

Morris: People think I’m everybody, but there’s one guy I get. Malcolm Barrett. This has been going on for 15 years. A good friend from theater school, we did every play together, he called me when I moved to L.A. and was like, “Dude, congratulations on your AT&T commercial!” I was like, “What AT&T commercial?” And he’s like, “The one where you’re playing Pop-a-Shot basketball.” And I’m like, “That’s not me.” Years later, everyone, people would come up to Malcolm all the time and say, “Congrats on ‘New Girl.’”

Perfetti: I cannot go to Philadelphia because I suddenly now have 5 million new family members. I don’t get mistaken for an actual person, but I do love the moment where you pass them on the sidewalk or on the subway and you see the wheels churning in their mind.

Lupe: I have a yoga teacher that still calls me Willa [her character from “Succession”]. I’ve been going to her for like a year and she’ll be like, “And Willa, you want to move into down dog.”

Justine, you’ve been referred to as a scene-stealer more than once for your work in “Succession” and “Nobody Wants This.” What do you make of that?

Lupe: That was the thing about “Succession.” I started when I was 26 and I felt like I got to be a fly on the wall in so many incredible scenes with all-star actors. To even be even seen among that kind of company, it makes me so happy. I feel the same way about “Nobody Wants This.” I look around and I’m like, “Wow, these are just incredible people that I’m working with.” So it’s nice to know that people are even registering my existence.

Perfetti: Willa is responsible for what I think may be one of the funniest TV moments ever. I can’t remember which season where you read your reviews and throw the iPad overboard, but it lives in my mind rent-free. The sound you make, the way that you just kind of stare off into the distance afterward, it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.

Do you read reviews of your work?

Morris: I did a movie called “Sandy Wexler” with Adam Sandler and he said to me, “Hey buddy, when a film comes out, don’t read the reviews.” He’s like, “Who cares? We got our own thing going.” … It allowed him to stay true to who he is for his fan base, which is larger than life. If you start caring so much about what people think about your art, it’s going to change what got you there in the first place. That’s what Jamie Foxx talked about after winning an award, you don’t want to switch it up all of a sudden because everybody looks at you like you’re this great actor, you won this thing, and you start doing things differently.

Impacciatore: On set, if someone gives me a feedback about something that he liked, I don’t want to hear that because it feels like a trap. And I don’t want to know what worked and what didn’t work because I want to be free. I want to explore things. Reading a review … it’s something rational that is describing something irrational. Like to me, acting is an irrational act. It’s wild when it happens. It’s going somewhere else and not even knowing what you did.

Faison: I tend to not look at reviews. This was the first time ever in my life … when “Scrubs” came out this time around. It’s because we made it for the fans. It was strictly for the fans. So when we put it out and the critics were very nice this time around, that was cool. And then you get to Reddit and Instagram and you’re waiting for them to be like, “You guys suck!” “How dare you?!” And that didn’t show up. It was like, well, I’m gonna read the reviews then.

Lupe: I once had a critic call me a “bargain-basement Gwyneth Paltrow.”

Morris: You’re like, “Gwyneth Paltrow, you say?”

Lupe: As long as the word Gwyneth is in there, I’m OK.

Morris: If someone calls me “a bootleg Eddie Murphy,” I’m retiring.

Faison: “He kind of reminds me of a poor man’s Richard Pryor.” Why, thank you.

Lupe: There was like a part of me where I was like, “Well, if I can make it through that, then whatever. Who cares? It’s just fun to hear people’s perceptions of what you’re putting out there. How people interpret it. Because sometimes you can’t see the forest through the trees. If you have enough perspective, it’s interesting to hear the dialogue about the things that you’re working on.

Deadwyler: If it’s productive, I find that critical analysis is useful. But if it’s critical stabbing, that’s useless to me.

Faison: I have a question for all of you guys. When it comes to acting on set, do you prefer to see what you just did or do you prefer to trust what the director says? When it comes to comedy, I wanna see what the f— we are doing just to make sure we’re in the rhythm.

Lupe: I don’t watch it in the moment. I’ve gotten easier on myself watching things after they’re released. When I first watched my work, I just wanted to like, in all honesty, tear my face off. It was really a tough experience.

Morris: If I trust the director, I never look at the monitor. No knock on, like first-time directors, because I work with a lot of first-time directors that I trust, but there are some from time to time that just go, “It’s great,” every take. And so sometimes I have to go, “Just give me a second, let me see.” … A couple of times [they’d tell me], “Everything you did was brilliant.” And I know for a fact it wasn’t. So now I don’t trust s— you say.

The Envelope’s 2026 Emmy Comedy Roundtable: Lamorne Morris, from left, Justine Lupe, Chris Perfetti, Danielle Deadwyler, Donald Faison and Sabrina Impacciatore.

Chris, the cast on “Abbott” are so good at bouncing lines off one another. How are you not breaking all the time, or are you?

Perfetti: It’s certainly gotten harder as we’ve gotten closer. We’re all trying to make each other break now. But we’re pretty good. The show is sort of made on the fly and we’re constantly throwing jokes away or trying to see how far we can push something. I think a lot of what we find funny on “Abbott” is people trying to avoid pain. Even when it’s ridiculous, it doesn’t feel too hard to keep our feet on the ground. We’re also so blessed with the mockumentary [format]. The story is very much told by the camera. So I’m always on, and something that comes up in that take might make it into the final cut because there’s three cameras going at all times. But Quinta probably breaks the most because … she genuinely forgets about some of the jokes that she writes. And so when she hears it again, it takes her by surprise.

Lupe: There is something to that energy of people enjoying being in that kind of space with each other, like on the verge of laughing. Riding the line of being just about to break, it’s so much fun. The chemistry between them is so palpable. When you see a break like that, you’re like, “Wow, they’re really enjoying each other.”

Morris: [It’s hard when] I’m literally loopy, it’s late and I know this actor I’m working with is a f— killer. I start laughing before we roll, and I’m like, “This is gonna be so difficult.”

Lupe: And then it’s like that thing when you’re like a little kid, where someone’s like, “Stop laughing” and it makes it worse because you are trying so hard not to laugh.

Impacciatore: If there is that moment where we can break, there is a real abandonment and there is a real freedom … It’s the most beautiful feeling about being an actor. It’s about feeling less lonely.

Faison: Danielle, you’re working with Steve. First of all, he’s gonna break everybody. I’m pretty clear that everybody on set’s gonna laugh because he’s just got that. But has anybody made him break yet? And who is that person? I know if I made Steve Carell break in the middle of a scene, I’m dancing for a while. I’m gonna be calling my mom like, “Yo, he f— laughed at my joke!”

Deadwyler: I know that they wilded out the day the bed broke [during a fight scene with co-star Phil Dunster]. But I have not seen him break in that way. He is so rigorous. He’s about building the character, building a dynamic, trying to tell a full story.

Lupe: He also must have so much practice from “The Office.”

Deadwyler: He’s strong.

Faison: I laugh harder at “Saturday Night Live” when they break than when they keep it together.

The 21-year-old man shot and killed after opening fire on U.S. Secret Service agents near the White House was a Maryland resident, according to online records.

Following Saturday’s shootout, the Associated Press identified the suspect as Nasire Best. According to virtual records, Best lived in the Prince George’s County suburb of Glenarden with his family.

The shooting occurred near a White House security checkpoint shortly after 6 p.m., according to a social media post from the Secret Service, which alleged that Best “pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing.”

Secret Service Uniformed Division officers returned fire, striking Best, who was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later, the post said. The Secret Service said no officers were injured, but a bystander was struck by gunfire and remained in serious but stable condition Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

The Secret Service said the bystander, who has not been identified, suffered a gunshot wound described as not life-threatening, the AP reported. It was not clear how the person was shot.

The Secret Service post also noted that President Trump was in the White House during the incident and was not harmed.

A person listed as having the same name as Best has three failure-to-pay rent cases for a dwelling in the Foundry by the Park Apartments in Dundalk, Md., from as recent as November. The Baltimore Sun could not confirm whether the cases are linked to the person killed Saturday.

The AP reported that Best was identified as the suspect by a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to discuss the investigation.

The AP noted that court documents indicated that Best was arrested in July 2025 after he attempted to enter a White House checkpoint without authorization. It wrote that the court records said Best did not heed officers’ commands to stop, “claimed he was Jesus Christ” and told officers he wanted to be arrested.

The court issued Best a “pretrial stay away order,” which typically requires defendants not to go near a person or area before a trail, the AP reported. In August, a bench warrant was issued against Best after a notice of “noncompliance.” He did not appear for a subsequent hearing, the AP reported.

The shooting remains under investigation, and additional information will be release as it becomes available, according to the Secret Service.

Saturday’s shooting was the third time in the last month that shots were fired near the president, including at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in late April and near the Washington Monument earlier this month.

Hubbard writes for the Baltimore Sun. This story was distributed by the Associated Press via Tribune News Service.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service shot a person near the White House on Saturday, and a bystander also was shot, a law enforcement official said.

Both individuals were said to be in critical condition, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Journalists working at the White House on Saturday reported hearing a series of gunshots and were told to seek shelter inside the press briefing room.

On X, the Secret Service said it was “aware of reports of shots fired near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW” — one block from the White House — and was “working to corroborate the information with personnel on the ground.”

In a social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel said officers were responding to shots fired and said he would “update the public as we’re able.”

President Trump was inside the White House at the time.

Evidence of the shooting was visible on a sidewalk just outside the White House complex, where yellow crime scene tape snaked across the pavement and Secret Service officers placed dozens of orange evidence markers on the ground. Medical material, including what appeared to be purple surgical gloves and kits typically used by emergency medical personnel, were also seen.

In a post shared on X, Selina Wang, the senior White House correspondent for ABC News, shared video of the moment she said she heard what “sounded like dozens of gunshots” and ducked for cover. Writing that she had been performing an ordinary task that reporters at the White House do every day — filming themselves on a cellphone, for a social media post — Wang’s video shows her speaking for a few seconds about Trump’s statements earlier Saturday about a potential Iran deal.

As the sounds of gunfire are heard in the background, Wang’s eyes grow wider, and she ducks down in the media tent, which is among those situated in a line along the White House driveway where broadcasters film their reports. On X, Wang’s video had been shared thousands of times as of Saturday evening, and viewed at least 3 million times.

The Metropolitan Police Department said on its X account that the Secret Service was working the scene and cautioned people to avoid the area. The scene is near where a gunman ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard in November.

U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds. Andrew Wolfe, then 24, was critically wounded. Rahmanullah Lakanwal has been charged in that incident.

The gunfire Saturday comes nearly a month after what law enforcement authorities said was an attempted assassination of the president on April 25 as he attended the annual White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner at a Washington hotel. Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance recently pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to kill Trump and remains in federal custody.

Following that scare, Secret Service officers shot a suspect they said had fired at officers near the Washington Monument, also near the White House. Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was charged in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in connection with the May 4 shooting. A teenage bystander was wounded in that incident.

Superville and Durkin Richer write for the Associated Press. AP photojournalists Jose Luis Magana and Alex Brandon and writers Gary Fields, Meg Kinnard and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged all countries to monitor passengers who were on the MV Hondius cruise ship.

The World Health Organization has urged countries to continue monitoring passengers for hantavirus after a case was detected among a Dutch crew member of the ship at the centre of the outbreak.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, told a news conference in Geneva on Friday that he urges all countries to monitor the passengers who were on board the MV Hondius cruise ship and “move carefully for the remainder of the quarantine period”.

Tedros said a Dutch crew member had tested positive and was now in isolation, taking the total positive cases to 12.

So far, three people have died due to the virus.

Tedros reiterated that no deaths have been reported since May 2, when the outbreak was first reported to the WHO.

“More than 600 contacts continue to be followed in 30 countries, and a small number of high-risk contacts are still being located,” he added.

Dutch authorities also confirmed that the infected crew member had been taken to hospital.

“The Andes virus has been detected in one person who was in quarantine in the Netherlands. The patient has since been admitted to the hospital as a precaution and is in isolation,” said the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

“The RIVM understands that this news may raise questions or concerns. However, the chance of further spread in the Netherlands remains very small,” the statement said.

According to the RIVM, everyone who had evacuated from the Dutch-flagged ship to the Netherlands is tested every week, and two separate laboratories confirmed the positive test.

It added that the person who had tested positive had been isolating at home.

The initial cruise ship had departed on April 1 from Ushuaia, Argentina, before heading to Cape Verde and then Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

While the WHO is investigating how the virus got on board the ship, it is believed that the first person to contract it could have been exposed to rodents during a bird-watching expedition.

While rodents spread hantavirus, the Andes strain is the only known strain capable of spreading from human to human.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, the reigning NFL most valuable player, is now under contract with the Rams through the 2027 season.

Stafford signed a contract extension Thursday, the team announced. Terms of the deal were not released but it is a one-year extension worth $55 million, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The person requested anonymity because the contract has not been posted.

Stafford, 38, is scheduled to carry a salary-cap number of $48.3 million this season, according to Overthecap.com.

With Stafford, receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and a defense featuring edge rusher Jared Verse and recently acquired All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, the Rams are regarded as a favorite to play in Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.

Whether Stafford, a 17-year veteran, plays in 2027 remains to be seen.

Last month, the Rams selected former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th pick in the draft. Fourth-year pro Stetson Bennett also is on the roster.

The Rams and Stafford had been working on the framework of an extension ever since Stafford announced during NFL Honors in February that he would return this season to play for a team that advanced to the NFC championship game before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.

The team and the quarterback have been conducting contract talks on a year-to-year basis since 2024, after Stafford delayed his arrival to training camp because of a contract impasse. Last year, Stafford and the team came to an agreement on March 1.

In 2025, Stafford passed for 46 touchdowns, with eight interceptions. He was voted All-Pro and won his first MVP award.

Stafford has been participating in voluntary offseason workouts. The team begins more comprehensive organized-team activities next week.

Training camp opens in July in preparation for the Sept. 10 season opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.

As plenty of Californians remain undecided about the gubernatorial primary’s unsettled Democratic field, some are waiting to cast their ballots, creating the potential for a slower vote count or a longer wait to find out the winners.

Though the landscape could change quickly if Democrats coalesce around a single candidate within the next several days — signs of which were emerging this week — for now, many Democratic-leaning voters appear to be waiting for new developments before making their final decisions, political analysts say.

“This has been a roller coaster of a race, and I think voters are waiting to see when the ride is going to end and cast a vote at that time,” said Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist.

A larger-than-usual number of people casting mail ballots on or close to election day could extend the ballot-counting process, said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. County election officials said they were prepared for that possibility. Early returns so far haven’t made it clear whether most voters will wait longer than usual to cast ballots.

Mike Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County registrar, said the county was “fully prepared” for the possibility of receiving “a significant number” of ballots returned close to or on election day, June 2.

“It is not uncommon in primary elections, particularly those with a large number of contests and candidates, for some voters to take additional time to review their ballots and hold onto them longer before returning them,” he said.

Californians who want to vote on or close to election day can vote in person or use a mail-ballot return option that doesn’t rely on the U.S. Postal Service to help speed the process and avoid the risk of a mail ballot arriving late, election officials said.

Hesitation by Democratic-leaning voters reflects the toll of a historically uncertain primary race for governor. The contest has been marked by the unusual lack of a clear Democratic front-runner and the party’s failure to line up behind a single candidate after former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out in April.

Early concerns within the party that a split Democratic electorate could put two Republicans on the November ballot under the state’s top-two primary system also heightened the sense of stakes among left-leaning voters.

Those factors, combined with a large slate of candidates, voter confusion about how candidates’ platforms differ and a desire to choose the person “most likely to win” have made Democratic-leaning voters uncertain, said Christian Grose, director of the USC Democracy and Fair Elections Lab.

“There’s a little bit of, whoever’s in the lead some Democrats are choosing to vote for … but people don’t know who that person is,” Grose said, noting that “some of that [could start] to go away” as the race tightens.

An indication that Democrats are starting to consolidate around Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, came Tuesday in a new survey released by the California Democratic Party. It showed Becerra with support from 21% of respondents, followed by billionaire Tom Steyer with 15%.

Republican-leaning voters appear to favor Steve Hilton, who had support from 22% of survey respondents. Republican Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, had 10%. Under California’s primary system, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.

Tallies from a handful of counties showed varying early turnout so far.

In San Francisco, a relatively small number of ballots have been returned, indicating that voters may be waiting, Michelle Parker, president of the city’s elections commission, said Tuesday. If people vote by mail close to election day — rather than voting in person or using a drop box — it could affect the speed of vote-counting, a possibility the city’s election staff is prepared for, she said.

“We’ll see how quickly they come in, but knowing what the news has been like and watching what the dynamic has been like across the state, I’m not surprised people are waiting,” Parker said, referring to the governor’s race.

In San Bernardino County, 5.6% of mail ballots had been returned as of Tuesday, a rate comparable with previous elections, Registrar of Voters Joani Finwall said. Election officials “strongly encourage” voters to cast ballots early using drop boxes or early voting locations, Finwall said.

In Orange County, by contrast, data so far indicate that voters are not waiting, the Registrar of Voters office said. More than 129,000 vote-by-mail ballots had been returned by the end of the day Monday, more than had been returned by the same time in the 2024 and 2022 primaries. Of those, a slightly higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats had voted.

If a large number of voters were to wait until June 2 to cast a mail ballot, the county would be able to efficiently process them, said Registrar of Voters Bob Page, noting that 90% of the county’s early vote-by-mail ballots were included in election night results in the 2024 presidential primary.

Voters should be prepared for the possibility that the gubernatorial results aren’t determined on election night, Grose said. One candidate could appear to be in the lead on election night and another could overtake them once all ballots are counted.

State election officials warned this month that some social media posts urging Democrats to vote “late” could be misinformation. Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office said it would look into such posts, one of which falsely attributed the message to historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Mail ballots must be postmarked on or before election day and arrive within seven days after the election; otherwise, they are considered late and not counted.

Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, acknowledged chatter around people holding onto their ballots but said the survey released Tuesday indicated voters are “beginning to move towards specific candidates.”

Even as Becerra and, to a lesser extent, Steyer rose in popularity, other Democrats saw support in the single digits in the poll, including former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, San José Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“This race isn’t over; we’ve certainly seen a lot of twists and turns to this point, but you do see some clear consolidation taking place for both Democrats and Republicans,” Hicks said on a call with reporters. “I’m not concerned about California Democrats having their voices heard.”

Still, the race’s surprises have taken a toll on voters, Grose said: Swalwell’s exit under a cloud of sexual assault allegations, along with a guilty plea to federal corruption charges by Becerra’s former longtime advisor, two videos that raised questions about the temperament of Porter and a lack of disclosure by influencers being paid to promote Steyer.

“There is some uncertainty among Democrats about, ‘Is there one more shoe to drop for someone?” Grose said. “That’s one reason people are holding onto their ballots.”

Voters who want to cast ballots later than May 26 should return their mail ballots at a voting site, county election office or drop box, rather than via the Postal Service, by 8 p.m. on June 2 or should vote in person, recommended Alexander, of the California Voter Foundation.

Because mail ballots require election officials to conduct signature verification, they take longer to count than in-person ballots. In addition, recent changes at the U.S. Postal Service have slowed mail service, creating a higher potential for mailed ballots to arrive late.

Alexander also urged voters to take advantage of Saturday in-person voting, available at county election offices statewide the weekend before election day, and other early voting options.

“I am very sympathetic with voters who want to take their time to make their decision in this very fluid election,” she said. “The important thing is to have a plan.”