People should check their specific airport before travelling this summer
Different UK airports might have different rules in place this summer (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)
Airports in the UK have slightly different rules that could catch some travellers out this summer if they do not check them before packing. Certain airports have been upgraded to help relax a major security rule, while others have yet to make any changes.
The 100ml liquid-limit security rule means passengers can only bring liquids in containers of 100ml or less in hand luggage. The rule was put in place back in 2006 when police foiled a major terrorist plot, which prevented a group that planned to smuggle liquid explosives on board a flight leaving London that was bound for North America.
At the time, standard airport security X-ray machines were designed to detect metal weapons (such as guns and knives) and solid explosives, with no way to distinguish between a simple bottle of water and volatile liquids. For years, the rule has remained in place for the vast majority of airports.
But in 2022, the Government confirmed plans to relax the rules. As technology has advanced, some airports are relaxing the rules in 2026.
Certain UK airports featuring new 3D security scanners now allow passengers to carry liquids, gels, and aerosols in individual containers that can hold up to two litres (2000ml). These airports allow you to leave liquids in your hand luggage without needing clear plastic bags.
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As of July 15, 2026, the following airports have fully upgraded their systems to include new scanners that officially allow passengers to carry liquids in containers up to two litres in their hand luggage:
London Heathrow (All Terminals)
London Gatwick
Birmingham
Bristol
Edinburgh
Belfast International
Belfast City
Teesside International
Even at these hubs, reusable metal, insulated, or double-walled vacuum bottles must be empty when passing through security. You can refill them once you are inside the departure lounge.
Every other UK airport has yet to follow suit with the change, and still follows the commonly known limit of 100ml. But even with the same cap on liquids, certain airports have different ways of letting items through security.
For example. certain airports remain the same as last summer, where passengers need to use 100ml containers and place them in a clear, resealable plastic bag for scanning. These airports include:
London Stansted
London Luton
Glasgow International
East Midlands
Liverpool John Lennon
Cardiff
But, certain airports have relaxed the rules slightly. Although the strict limit on the amount of liquids is still in place, passengers can keep their liquids and electronics inside their bags for processing at these airports:
London City
Manchester
Newcastle
Leeds Bradford
Aberdeen
Southend
Why aren’t all airports changing at once?
The UK Government’s original goal was a blanket lifting of the 100ml rule, but issues arose, meaning the change had to be implemented gradually. To prevent massive security bottlenecks during the peak summer rush, the Department of Transport has largely frozen rule changes at airports that haven’t yet reached 100% compliance.
Major remaining hubs, such as Stansted, Luton, and Manchester, are continually updating their lanes behind the scenes. Gradual transitions to the “in-bag” rules are expected to resume late autumn/winter 2026 as travel volume drops.
People have been reminded to think before they start maxxing out their luggage limit, as their return journey could be what catches them out. Even if you fly out of a 2L-friendly airport like Heathrow, most international destinations still enforce the strict 100ml rule, so if you buy full-sized toiletries in the UK, you may have to check them into hold luggage on the way back or throw any leftovers away before coming home.
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“Writers are always selling somebody out,” Joan Didion once wrote. She was talking about journalists, but it can be just as true of novelists. Whether the genre is romantasy or autofiction, making up stories often demands making up stories about real people — exploiting them — to serve a narrative purpose.
Cali Adeline’s debut novel, “People Watching in the Desert,” gives this thorny ethical business an impressively complex treatment for a book that comes on like a beach read. Sonny, its hero, has checked into Sanctuary, a spendy Phoenix-area resort, for an extended stay. She’s 25 and unemployed, and it’s unclear at first how she acquired the funds to splurge on an on-site cottage with a pool, 90-minute massages, and various forced-fun adventures. It’s also unclear why she chose a five-star resort for the splurging, given her discomfort with everything from the menu on down. Sitting down for dinner alone, she “discreetly googled some of the words on her phone under the table: cotija, calabacitas, tabbouleh, bisque.”
Adeline lays out a breadcrumb trail that eventually reveals that Sonny has lugged some especially heavy personal baggage to Sanctuary. Her neglectful, addict mom died when she was a child, only to be replaced with a repressive, overprotective grandmother who stomped on her every ambition. Early adulthood has been defined by failed relationships and uninspiring work. People are to be feared: She’d sooner indulge in croquettes at the resort’s cocktail party than make small talk with other vacationers, and when she braves the world outside her cottage it’s usually with a notebook in her hand.
The early pages of “People Watching” weave Sonny’s perspective with brief sketches of her fellow resort-goers, which usually open with godlike authority: “Allana was ten feet tall and beautiful.” “Chloe and Mark had been married for seven blissful years.” “Dale was invisible. He had that way about him.” The odd bluntness of these statements, combined with their touches of surreality (“ten feet tall”?), makes clear that these mini-bios are scribblings from Sonny’s notebook. Terrified of the world, but determined to better understand what she’s been excluded from for so long, she’s determined to imagine her way into reality.
Sonny’s Walter Mitty-like imaginings do some valuable double duty in the novel. For one thing, they offer some necessary conflict in a setting that’s all about relieving tension. Resorts are, almost by definition, boring, but as Sonny hangs out poolside or does yoga or endures a singing bowl, her mind (and the novel) is reeling with imagined infidelities, deaths, gambling debts and other domestic dramas. Second, her sketches serve as character-defining examples of projection on Sonny’s part, as her observations of others reveal her own concerns about love, sex, money and rejection.
And, of course, she’s deflecting, too — better to make up drama about others than confront her own. The memories Sonny eventually surfaces are more potent than anything she makes up. But they’re also crueler, and you can understand why she’ll think and write about anything but. She recalls a time as a child when she was neglected for days on end and braved a trip to a neighbor for help. “The woman asked Sonny when the last time she took a bath or changed her clothes was and Sonny didn’t know the answer. Her only response was, ‘I’m four,’ as she proudly held up five fingers,” Adeline writes. “She was three.”
Remember the words “beach read” up there? It’s not difficult to predict how Sonny’s arc will curve: It’s a Walter Mitty story, but also an Ugly Duckling story. That notebook full of mini-dramas becomes a source of drama in itself. Say, that bartender is pretty cute, isn’t he? And Sonny eventually integrates with a few of her fellow resort-goers, and learns there’s more to them in reality than her imaginings. As one character gently chastises her, “People can surprise you, Sonny, but you have to let them.”
The pat-ness of Sonny’s Sanctuary journey makes her yet another entry in an evolving genre you might call “Is This Character Concussed?” In these novels, the main character has been so absurdly addled by a (late-revealed) trauma that everyday human interactions are wildly aglow with (at first) terror or (later) manic-pixie wonder. Prime examples include Gail Honeyman’s “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine,” Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman,” and multiple characters in the oeuvre of Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh. (Women are the most common character in these books, but guys can play too: See Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove.”) Socially awkward characters offer an opportunity for dry humor and deadpan prose. Because these stories have to dramatize a search for normalcy, its leads tend to be awkward in ways that strain credulity.
But you don’t have to wholly buy into the idea of a character like Sonny to find something intriguing about what Adeline is saying about storytelling throughout “People Watching.” In Sonny’s notebook, every observation is a moral choice, a mini-essay about what proper conduct is, what failure is, how you might get past it, and what our responsibilities to others might be. A notebook is a place of wish fulfilment, and a place for vengeance. Sonny explains at one point that she only started to get free of her grandmother’s clutches once she was capable of imagining her violently erased:
“I wrote a story. About her. And how one day while I was at work the house caught fire. Which wasn’t that far-fetched because the whole place really was a fire hazard. And … and … well, she was asleep inside the house, in the story, and didn’t make it out. I didn’t mean it. I was angry. And it was a story.”
Adeline stresses the word “story” three times in one brief passage. Sonny wants to reassure everybody that she was just making it up. But no writer is, not entirely.
I was in New York City with my family on the day Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tied the knot at Madison Square Garden. Although our hotel was a few short blocks from the venue, which was surrounded by swooning fans, we managed to steer clear. Instead, we headed for the Nederlander Theatre on 41st Street to catch “Schmigadoon.”
The show, which took the Tony Award for best musical last month, was at the top of my must-see list, along with two other recent Tony winners — “Death of a Salesman” and “Giant,” — which I wasn’t sure would be as appealing to my 10-year-old.
There is a certain magic to Broadway despite the crush of commercial horrors a person must wade through in Times Square to get to a show, and “Schmigadoon” did not disappoint. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard during a live show. The jokes about a modern couple trapped in a magical town stuck more than 200 years in the past hit the mark with just the right amount of bawdy fun.
SNL alumn Ana Gasteyer is pitch perfect as the town’s vengeful moral crusader Mildred Layton, but the real hero of the show is McKenzie Kurtz, who plays Betsy, a love-hungry young farm girl desperate to catch a man and get married. Kurtz’s comic delivery is so over-the-top that laughter is the only option — and once you start laughing with her you can’t stop.
Like most Broadway musicals , “Schmigadoon” features an ensemble cast that represents the very best of the best when it comes to dancing and singing. It’s clear these actors like one another and know that they have a good thing. There is joy on the stage that transfers effortlessly to the audience. It’s one of those only-in-New-York experiences to be treasured. The show is scheduled to run through Jan. 3.
When we stepped out into the night after the show, we found it had rained. The temperature that day had reached 99 degrees and the city had wilted, but the downpour caused the mercury to plummet a good 10 degrees. The lights of Broadway sparkled in puddles as we made our way down the slick sidewalk, singing the show’s most catchy tune, “It’s not a metaphor, oh no it’s something more, it’s a literal bridge.”
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt wishing you a summer vacation that is also a journey. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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Arts anywhere
FRIDAY
John Travolta listens for evidence which he hopes will trap a killer in Brian De Palma’s 1981 suspense drama, “Blow Out.”
(Filmways Pictures)
Blow Out The Academy Museum’s Summer Thrills series features a 35mm screening of Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller about a movie sound tech who unwittingly uncovers a political assassination. John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow and Dennis Franz star. 7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
SATURDAY
Defiantly Joni The artist collective Muse/ique, in partnership with Center Theatre Group, presents a celebration of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, featuring Chris Pierce, Effie Passero, the DC6 Singers Collective and the Muse/ique Orchestra led by artistic and music director Rachael Worby. 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 16 and July 17; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. July 18; and 2:30 p.m. July 19. Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. muse-ique.com
Installation view of Alex Hubbard Abstract or Regular? at Regen Projects, Los Angeles July 11–August 15, 2026
(Evan Bedford, courtesy the artist and Regen Projects)
Alex Hubbard The exhibition “Abstract or Regular?” features video animations projected on wood cutouts by the Los Angeles-based artist, as well as a painting that demonstrates experimentation with the boundary between representational form and abstraction. Opening, 5-7 p.m. Saturday; exhibition continues through Aug. 15. Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. regenprojects.com
The Shoebox Museum: A Private Immersive Experience A “narrative video game” is brought to life by theatrical and sensory vignettes that enhance the interactive audience’s examination of artifacts and memories of a past relationship. Shows begin every 30-45 minutes, 1-10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through July 26. Afterhours Theater, 5628 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood. eventbrite.com
Earnestine Phillips, from left, Cynthia Kania, Susan Angelo and Ellen Geer rehearse “Waiting in the Wings.”
(Ian Flanders)
Waiting in the Wings Noël Coward’s 1960 play about a feud between two female residents in a retirement home for actors joins “Romeo & Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Treasure Island” in the Theatricum Botanicum’s repertory season. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, through Oct. 3 (check schedule for specific days and times). Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. theatricum.com
SUNDAY
Journey Through Cahuenga: Indigenous Storytelling and Dance Generations of Native narratives are expressed through music, poetry and dance. Scheduled participants include Dennis Garcia (Fernandeño-Tataviam, Chumash, and Tongva), Chad Hamill/ čnaq’ymi (Spokane), Eric Hernandez (Lumbee), and Carolyn M. Dunn, Ph.D. (Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Cajun, French Creole, and Tunica-Biloxi). Hosted by Tonantzín Carmelo (Tongva). An LA Soundscapes Family Concert featuring a pre-show activity and participatory artmaking. Doors open at 10 a.m. 11:30 a.m. The Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., L.A. theford.com
Mahjong Social With Mahjong Mistress A full afternoon begins with a screening of the late Taiwanese American filmmaker Edward Yang’s 1996 film “Mahjong” followed by an open mahjong session for all experience levels led by Mahjong Mistress, a collective of four friends united by their love of the game and its use in fostering cultural connection and conversation. 1:30 p.m. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu
MONDAY
Hudson Hawk A 35th-anniversary 35mm screening of the 1991 Bruce Willis heist satire with director Michael Lehmann and co-screenwriter Daniel Waters; introduced by Larry Karaszewski. 7:30 p.m. Brain Dead Studios, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. studios.wearebraindead.com
TUESDAY
“Apparition, ” circa 1880–1890 by Odilon Redon. Charcoal, powdered charcoal, black chalk, and black and yellow pastel with stumping on brown paper. 20 11/16 × 14 11/16 in.
(Getty Museum)
Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions The exhibition includes charcoal drawings, lithographs and pastels by the French artist from the Getty’s collection, revealing the inspirations and imagination that helped create them. Through Oct. 18. Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction On what would have been the actor’s 100th birthday, Vidiots welcomes the 2013 documentary’s director Sophie Huber for a screening hosted by Cherry Jones and a conversation with Logan Sparks, writer-producer of Stanton’s final film, “Lucky.” 7:30 p.m. Eagle Theatre, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org
National Museum of the Aftermath screening series The final screening in the series pairs Reginald Alan Hudlin’s 1994 sci-fi short “Space Traders: Cosmic Slop” with William Greaves’ 1968 meta-documentary hybrid “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One.” 8 p.m. Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. oxyarts.oxy.edu
Tchaikovsky & Beethoven Cristian Măcelaru conducts the L.A. Phil for Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35” (with soloist Leonidas Kavakos on violin) and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92.” 8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
THURSDAY
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in Concert The Pacific Symphony, soprano Kaitlyn Lusk, voices/LA and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus unite under conductor Ludwig Wicki for the 25th anniversary of Howard Shore’s Academy Award-winning score, performing live as director Peter Jackson’s epic film is projected on a 60-foot screen. 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1 and 7 p.m. Saturday. Peacock Theater, 777 Chick Hearn Court, downtown L.A. peacocktheater.com
Mozart & Brahms Spanish conductor Roberto González-Monjas leads the L.A. Phil on Korngold’s “Straussiana,” Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459” (with pianist Mao Fujita), and Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98.” 8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
— Kevin Crust
Dispatch: Remembering a master actor
Trisha Miller, from left, Josey Montana McCoy, Peter Van Norden and Dan Lin in “Misalliance” at A Noise Within.
(Craig Schwartz)
Peter Van Norden, one of Los Angeles’ most accomplished stage actors, died Wednesday at age 75. A graduate of Colgate University, he worked steadily in film and television, wracking up notable credits (“The Accused,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Murder, She Wrote”) over four decades.
But it was in the classical theater where he distinguished himself with his command of language and depth of human understanding.
He didn’t need to be cast as the star to elevate a production. His textual fluency and incisive, unfussy intelligence set a standard for his fellow company members, who might not be able to match him but couldn’t help gaining inspiration from his veteran example.
What might his Prospero be like, I wondered longingly? Later that year, he got the chance to show me in a rackety Antaeus Theatre Company revival that unfortunately failed to make the most of his poetic gifts.
He was better served by the graceful 2024 production of “Misalliance” at A Noise Within, where he played the wealthy underwear industrialist John Tarleton in a voluble comedy of ideas that proved Van Norden was as adept in crisp, rational, talky idiom of George Bernard Shaw as he was in the more supple iambic pentameter of Shakespeare.
He was slated to appear as Capt. Shotover in Antaeus’ upcoming production of “Heartbreak House,” Shaw’s masterpiece. It was a role he had long wanted to play, and I can’t imagine the part being better cast.
For his heroic service to Los Angeles theater, Van Norden received the 2024 Michael McCarty Recognition Award, honoring Los Angeles–based Actors’ Equity members who have built their lives in the theater. I remember cheering from my desk the moment the announcement landed in my email inbox. Sometimes the award gods get things right.
Van Norden, who is survived by his wife, Wendy, and his son, Robert, a film producer, inspired that kind of hearty, spontaneous, grateful applause. Whenever I saw his name in a theater program, I breathed more easily, knowing that whatever else might happen that evening I would at the very least have the pleasure and the privilege of another Van Norden master class.
— Charles McNulty
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Nael Nacer, from left, Andrea Martin and Susan Pourfar in “Meet the Cartozians” by Talene Monahon at Second Stage Theater.
(Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Times theater critic Charles McNulty knows a good show when he sees one — but also when he reads one. And this past week he helpfully compiled a list of eight works that he’s read for award consideration — or seen outside of L.A. — that he believes deserve local productions. I’m not going to spoil it for you by listing them here, so you’ll just have to read the story.
Are you a budding artist, or even a seasoned one looking to step up your game? Times contributor Sarah Fensom put together a handy list of seven L.A. figure drawing events and classes that feature unique concepts including high fashion and nude muscle men. Find your perfect match, here.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is set to open on Sept. 22, but it announced some exciting news this week: It is giving free annual passes to its South L.A. neighbors in the 90037 ZIP code. The LM37 passes entitle holders to reserve tickets for themselves along with a guest. Tickets for non-pass holders go on sale July 21 and cost $25 for adults and $21 for seniors. Kids 17 and under are free.
On the heels of its 60th season, East West Players, the largest and longest-running Asian American theater in the country, announced its 2026-27 slate. “This season is the first chapter of East West Players’ next sixty years, a bold invitation to imagine what Asian American theater can become,” said artistic director Lily Tung Crystal in a statement. “By centering new voices, we’re not just honoring our legacy, but shaping the canon for generations to come.” The mainstage season will include the Southern California premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus’ comedy “Wives,” the Los Angeles premiere of the eponymously titled work “Kristina Wong, #Foodbankinfluencer” by the Pulitzer Prize finalist and East West Players’ New Works Festival. The group is also enticing theatergoers with new ticketing options: Pay-What-You-Will for every show and the Emerging Artist Membership, a free program for theatergoers ages 18 to 35, which guarantees $20 orchestra seats for them and a guest.
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The Smithsonian Museum of American History on the National Mall in Washington.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)
A new White House report calls leadership of the Smithsonian Institution radical activists who “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story honestly and in a way that is inspiring, unifying, and worthy of our great republic.” The report specifically singles out the National Museum of American History, and culture watchers fear it’s paving the way for Trump to install his own team of leaders as he did at the Kennedy Center.
Speaking of the Kennedy Center, Trump appealed a court decision to remove his name from the building’s facade, but this week an appeals court denied his request.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
We can all stop taking our kids to live-action remakes of Disney classics. Seriously. Times film critic Amy Nicholson breaks down why in this crushing review of the new live-action “Moana.”
We threw in an education in United States history, geography, and the economics of the $20 baseball cap.
They expected an athletic tournament.
We staged a county fair, featuring nine exhibits stretched across 3,000 miles, with people and surroundings as varied as our twangs.
Visitors to the Boston venue will remember the success of the Soccer Train, a commuter rail and site of opposing pep rallies on the 50-minute trip to Foxboro Stadium.
Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive
Imagine that, longtime Bostonians said. A culture clash where nobody gets hurt.
Visitors to the Dallas venue will remember our failures: the blight around the aging Cotton Bowl, the empty seats inside, the construction-hampered traffic flow that turned game days into nightmares.
For nearly a month, in nine locations, the world has applauded our wonders, cringed at our bruises, and, in some places, even felt our embrace.
So how did we do?
Sometimes, we shined. Other times, we stumbled.
Sometimes we yelled too much, pushed too much. When the rest of the world was rushing joyfully out of a subway or dancing through an alley, often we put up our dukes and played the frightened bullies.
But we also smiled a lot, and listened a lot, and sometimes accepted that which we did not understand.
Like those hourlong postgame fan celebrations that forced stadium police to work overtime. We eventually realized something could not be so bad if it made so many people so happy.
We hollered and hugged, we were impatient and helpful. In other words, we were ourselves.
Sometimes we thrilled. But other times, we disappointed.
Visitors to the New York venue will remember what Dublin sales representative Gerry Taylor remembers.
Nothing.
Taylor learned on the first weekend that despite slick World Cup advertisements, New York was not New York.
Just as Boston was not Boston, but Foxboro. And Detroit was not Detroit, but Pontiac. And Los Angeles was Pasadena.
And New York was actually a smelly, industrial area in northern New Jersey.
Taylor left his Manhattan room early one Saturday morning, four hours before the opener between Italy and Ireland.
He wrapped himself in an Irish flag and planned on a making a pregame stop in a pub next door to Giants Stadium.
“Do this all the time in Dublin,” he said. “Pop a few Guinness at the pub, talk to other fans, get ready for the game.”
But upon arriving in East Rutherford, N.J., he realized the only thing he could drink next door to the stadium was toxic waste.
There wasn’t a pub in sight. Or a store. Or a house. Or even a street that wasn’t an expressway.
He spent the next three hours sitting with two friends on a curb, cursing his introduction to sports in America.
“Are all stadiums like this, away from cities, in the middle of nothing?” he asked. “Seems to me it must be hard to have good sports in places like this, isn’t it? We are let down.”
The only thing we can assure him, and others as disillusioned as Taylor, is it wasn’t because we didn’t try.
Rating the 1994 World Cup venues, best and worst of show:
Chicago
BEST: We knew this would be a great spot from the moment we first bit into something called “the Belly Buster,” sold at a hot dog stand near Soldier Field.
Ingredients: Polish beef dog, relish, ketchup, mustard, onions and jalapeno peppers. It lived up to its billing. Trust us.
And so did everything else.
Soldier Field is the perfect location for an international event, being just a short cab ride from one of America’s great downtowns.
Michigan Avenue has been buzzing for a month, what with German tourists in Bermuda shorts buying black patent leather shoes to accompany their white socks. At night, horse-drawn carriages fought with taxis for street space in some of the best action since Ben Hur.
Bolivian Marco Etcheverry tackles German captain Lothar Matthaeus from behind in Chicago, Ill. (AP Photo/Santiago Lyon)
(Santiago Lyon / Ap)
WORST: The only people who didn’t enjoy themselves here were the Greeks, both the national soccer players and the large Chicago-area community that gathered to watch them one Sunday morning against Bulgaria.
Greece lost that game, 4-0. In the process, the teams drove Greek fans so crazy they started seeing things.
At one point during the game, a Greek tossed a smoke bomb on the field, later claiming it was tradition to do so after his team scored.
His team is back in Athens, and it still hasn’t scored.
IMPRESSIONS: The World Cup’s kind of town, Chicago is. Not only were the streets brimming with international flavor, the shuttle system to Soldier Field was so efficient that cabbies complained about not getting enough chances to rip people off.
Now that’s a venue.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: During a bachelor party held on the 36th floor of a prominent local hotel, somebody poured beer down the elevator shaft. By morning, the ale had dripped to ground floor and short-circuited the electrical system.
Many hotel guests–some checking out with reams of World Cup-related luggage–were forced to carry everything down 20 flights of stairs.
Once at the bottom, they had to tip valet-parking drivers for walking 10 steps to pick up their cars.
Boston
BEST: We marveled not at a city’s effect upon a World Cup, but vice versa.
“What has happened to a town divided along ethnic lines has been remarkable,” said E.J. Kahn of the Boston Host Committee.
By order of Mayor Tom Menino, the historic City Hall area was turned over to foreigners of every imaginable color and tongue.
Old-timers who never thought they would see an African soccer team playing at the home of the New England Patriots also never thought they would see people dancing on their cobblestone streets in tribal costumes.
Police were particularly worried the night after Argentina had defeated Greece in a first-round game. While the Greeks partied in front of City Hall, the Argentines celebrated eight blocks away in Copley Square.
The fiestas drew closer and closer until five Argentine fans wearing blue-and-white uniform shorts stood directly behind a dozen Greeks dancing in a circle.
Just as security guards prepared to move in, the circle slowly opened, and the Greeks motioned for the Argentines to join them. The Argentines did.
The hardened city sighed.
WORST: Many fans apparently didn’t realize that the game would be played about 45 minutes south of Boston in the desolate suburb of Foxboro.
And nobody knew that once they arrived at the stadium, in a forested area where parking availability seemed unlimited, parking spaces would cost $20 each.
Visitors got even with the World Cup Organizing Committee, though, by leaving their hotels in Boston and staying closer to the stadium in places such as Providence, R.I.
Our smallest state as a World Cup host? Not quite what organizers had in mind.
IMPRESSIONS: The Northeast may have tried harder than any other area, and it showed.
The normally reserved Bostonians, ranked 28th out of 36 U.S. city residents in a recent survey rating kindness to strangers, discovered warmth and tolerance.
When dozens of Irish tourists were swindled out of tickets, Bostonians found them more. When foreigners didn’t understand those distinct accents, Bostonians spoke more slowly.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: For an hour after Argentina’s victory over Greece, more than a hundred Argentine fans remained at Foxboro Stadium, dancing and singing.
Police politely asked them to leave their seats, but the group only moved as far as the lower concourse. Thirty minutes later, police finally escorted them down the concourse and out the front gates, where they continued to party.
Was the game that exciting? Well, yes and no. With this stadium being 20 miles from the nearest decent-sized city, they had nowhere else to go.
Dallas
BEST: From the World Cup volunteers to city cab drivers, we appreciated the people. Amid bleak surroundings and uncomfortable temperatures, they provided the venue with some badly needed touches of humanity.
One hero was Laura Addington, a schoolteacher from Louisiana. She served as an interpreter for everyone. Well, at least everyone who spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German or Arabic.
Other stars were the African taxi drivers. They knew the roads, and they knew soccer, which is the only reason we were able to find Maradona during rush hour.
WORST: Some nights were almost cool enough to hold a sporting event. Yet most of the games were held in the blazing afternoon or early evening sun to accommodate European television.
Those brave enough to attend games suffered through stifling heat. Don’t buy those happy expressions you saw on ESPN. It was torture.
IMPRESSIONS: Dallas is a Cowboy town. And not the Germans, Argentines or any of the soccer fanatics who came through here changed that.
With poor attendance and a distinct lack of any electricity other than that generated by the Cowboys’ new set of uniforms, this proves there are about a thousand better places in this country to hold an international event.
Not that Dallas is a bad place–it’s merely the wrong place.
We have learned that events such as the World Cup require diversity of thought and appreciation of differences. Dallas is just too danged American for any of that.
What Dallas’ failure here portends for the 1996 Olympics in another southern town called Atlanta, well, that’s for another story.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: By some estimates, the World Cup games here were outdrawn even by the demolition of the Cotton Exchange building downtown one Saturday morning. But at least at the soccer games, nobody was treated for smoke inhalation.
New York-New Jersey
BEST: With the melting pot of New York City nearby, this was the only truly international venue.
The stadium rocked with the sounds, colors and even smells of those countries competing.
Except for its location in New Jersey, Giants Stadium was also the perfect World Cup facility, with a beautiful field and gleaming facilities that had foreigners gawking.
WORST: The only Cup fever to hit New York City involved the Stanley Cup.
Maybe it was because of the Rangers. Or Knicks. Or Gay Games. It certainly wasn’t the Yankees, whose attendance was routinely tripled by the World Cup games.
Maybe it was because every day in New York City feels like an international festival. Or maybe it was because New York City simply didn’t have the time.
Whatever, the city that doesn’t sleep also didn’t care. It was interesting to drive to the stadium listening to New York City sports-talk radio hosts rip soccer, then arrive to discover mile-long lines at the front gates.
New Jersey license plates, all of them.
IMPRESSIONS: Organizers could save tourists and taxi fare by dropping all pretenses that the game is being played in New York City.
The success of this venue proves it is time to start celebrating the ethnic charms and splendid facilities of northern New Jersey . . . and leave New York to worry about the Mets.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: The location for the World Cup host committee in this country’s largest city? New Brunswick, N.J., 90 minutes from Manhattan.
The location of these New Jersey-played games as listed on commemorative postal stamps? New York.
Detroit
BEST: Do not underestimate the accomplishment of organizers who ran the Detroit venue by avoiding all traces of Detroit.
Games were staged an hour’s drive north in the suburb of Pontiac, a bedroom community dominated by large front lawns and strip malls. If Detroit street gangs possess missiles that can fly that far, we didn’t see them.
The venue MVP (Most Valuable Professor) was Trey Rogers, the god of sod. The assistant prof of turf-grass science at Michigan State actually made grass grow inside the Silverdome.
After three years of experiments, at a cost of $2.4 million, the indoor stuff held up admirably and was hailed by all but the most serious allergy sufferers.
The crowd cheers at the Pontiac, Mich., Silverdome as the United States and Switzerland play. (AP Photo/Bill Waugh)
(Bill Waugh/AP)
WORST: Much like East Rutherford and Foxboro, there was no there there. The venue lacked big-city energy and a pulse.
The streets emptied at 10 p.m. After night games, if you hadn’t paid someone to hold a spot in line at Herschel’s Deli, the happening spot was a Taco Bell drive-through.
Of course, after a game in the non-air-conditioned Silverdome, all anybody wanted to do was lie down in a nice comfortable meat locker.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: After the June 24 game between Brazil and Sweden, a thunderstorm passed directly over the media tent as hundreds of journalists were filing their stories. The thunder was deafening and the tent shook as if it were going to break.
Lightning threatened to knock out the power. The lights flickered, World Cup officials implored reporters to save their files or risk losing them.
This scene was repeated at media and hospitality tents in most of the venues. But aside from the Mexican team, nothing in the tournament has collapsed.
Washington
BEST: We never thought we’d say this, but we liked the subways.
The blue line, which stopped three blocks from RFK stadium, was a shoulder-to-shoulder mass of international passion.
The Dutch fans made their mark by pounding on the ceilings. The Swiss, by chanting through the underground terminals.
The Mexicans demonstrated their presence with songs, singing loud even though they could barely breathe while crushed in overloaded cars during the final 10 minutes of the trip.
It was all underground, but it was true democracy, rare even for our nation’s capital.
WORST: Everything was wonderful until you actually walked inside RFK.
The stadium is falling apart. The Mexican fans literally caused it to rock with their constant bouncing during Mexico’s emotional tie with Italy.
The stadium security officials were surly and overbearing. Maybe it was those horrible purple berets that made them so mad.
The stadium media-tent volunteers, mostly of college age, were the worst. This would be of no interest to the public, except many worldwide impressions of this country are created by foreign journalists.
And those foreign journalists were treated horribly. Little attempt was made to understand or deal with them.
Tickets were refused with no explanation given. Attempts to talk with media coordinators were denied. Questions about the facility were greeted with shrugs.
Translators working player interviews refused to even offer translated quotes until they had been typed and apparently approved by supervisors, which often took two or three hours.
When one Middle Eastern journalist complained about discrimination, one college girl working as a volunteer laughed in his face and replied, “I don’t think so.”
IMPRESSIONS: Sports organizers beware. Any further events staged here should not involve any local volunteers or officials from this World Cup.
This is a wonderful city, and as our capital, it should be the one of the first places promoters go for big events. But now we wonder if haughty attitudes and low-rent facilities haven’t kept the big games away.
The pre-game show at RFK Stadium prior to the Norway v Mexico group stage match of 1994 FIFA World Cup. (Photo by David Caban/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
(David Caban/David Caban)
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: A local activist hung a “Save Bosnia” sign in the stands during the opening game here between Mexico and Norway. It was taken down by local officials. He sued for the right to display it. He won.
Not that the guy wanted to rub it in, but visible the next game were two “Save Bosnia” signs.
San Fransisco-Palo Alto
BEST: We love Los Gatos. This mountain town of 28,000 near San Jose has adopted–and been adopted by–the Brazilians.
After Brazil’s games at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Los Gatos became Little Rio, complete with samba music, incessant drumbeats and conga lines through Town Plaza Park.
“This is very exciting,” local resident Judy VanKampen said. “It is totally different than what you normally see in Los Gatos, which is people walking down the street with dogs and strollers.”
Even though crowds were lively, they were orderly. Some of the women might have strained the city’s public decency codes with their skimpy bikinis, but city officials, to their credit, looked the other way.
Sure they did.
Brazilian forward Romario beats United States defender Alexi Lalas at Stanford Stadium, July 4, 1994 in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)
(Thomas Kienzle / Associated Press)
WORST: The whining of Palo Alto politicians because World Cup organizers identified the venue as San Francisco.
But unless we are missing something, nobody has written a song called, “I Left My Heart in Palo Alto.”
IMPRESSIONS: Of all the venues, Stanford University was the worst in creating obstacles for World Cup organizers.
University officials were in position to drive a hard bargain because FIFA, soccer’s organizing body, wanted a presence in San Francisco but did not want to use Candlestick Park because of its smaller size.
Thus, Stanford Stadium is by far the least modern of the venues. Even though some improvements were made, World Cup organizers did not get all of their demands met.
Yet those academics learned that the World Cup is just the type of event that educational institutions should be encouraging.
The excellent soccer is the least of its legacies. Teams from four continents played here, and the visitors who followed those teams to Palo Alto left something of themselves behind.
Unfortunately for the merchants, it was not money. They were disappointed in their take.
But the visitors contributed something more valuable, their cultures. Los Gatos, one feels, will never be the same.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: A Brazilian woman walked into an ice cream store in Los Gatos one hot day and ordered a beer.
Los Angeles-Pasadena
BEST: My, but the old lady still can sing. Our Rose Bowl looked wonderful with its face lift and colorful frills.
When the air is clear and the heat isn’t oppressive, there is no better view in this World Cup than that of the San Gabriel mountains looming behind the Rose Bowl scoreboard.
Well, OK, the view of that scoreboard after the United States played Columbia was pretty nice too.
Soccer fans inside the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, Calif., prior to World Cup Final match between Brazil and Italy, Sunday July 17, 1994. (AP Photo/Lois Bernstein)
(Lois Bernstein / Associated Press)
WORST: That World Cup chief Alan Rothenberg would allow his hometown facility to rip off hungry and thirsty soccer fans–many of them his neighbors–with inflated prices is inexcusable. Two dollars and fifty cents for a Sno-cone? Fish and chips for $7.50?
IMPRESSIONS: The scene reminds us of the 1984 Olympics, causing emotions we never thought we would feel again. Traffic flowing smoothly, the city clean and pressed, citizens talking about something fun.
Surveys say that many people here couldn’t care less about the event, but the ones who do have made it memorable.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: With so many men ignoring the “Women” signs on the portable toilets outside the Rose Bowl, officials placed “Out of Order” signs on several working potties and secretly passed around the word that women should use those.
Orlando
BEST: Quick, somebody get this town an NFL team. There was no better stadium-area atmosphere than here, where fans congregated less than a mile from the Florida Citrus Bowl at a trendy shopping and dining area called Church Street Station.
One night the Dutch fans were having so much fun, they started stealing baseball caps from policemen. Another night, the Mexicans were having so much fun they lay down on the railroad tracks upon hearing an oncoming train.
OK, so maybe we don’t all have the same kinds of fun.
Expensive restaurants became rollicking pubs. Thousands of foreigners became wailing, wandering messes.
Did we mention that the Irish were also in town?
WORST: This was soccer in a sauna. Every team that played under the unforgiving midday sun recorded a triumph of spirit.
For fans, merely getting to the games was a similar triumph. Ten dollars to ride a parking lot shuttle? Fifteen dollars to park at a local school, with the money being handed to a member of the PTA?
This was central Florida hucksterism at its worst. But then, they learned from the experts down the street, those guys wearing the ears.
IMPRESSIONS: With the Dutch and Belgians in town, this was supposed to be the site of hooliganism. Police from around the state were summoned for 12-hour shifts. But nothing happened. The most serious crime involved people refusing to leave bars at closing time.
Already our vacation capital, Orlando proved that it deserves to become a sports capital as well. It knows how to turn a game into an event without anybody getting hurt.
After existing for so long in the shadow of fantasyland, it acts as if it loves this real stuff.
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: In the downtown area on July 4, fans from everywhere joined to sing “Happy Birthday.”
To whom? To the United States, of course. Considering how we came of age in yet another international sporting scene this summer, it was a happy birthday indeed.
Times staff writers Elliott Almond, Julie Cart, Lisa Dillman, Chris Dufresne, Helene Elliott, Randy Harvey, Mike Penner and Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre contributed to this story.
Planned Parenthood and two smaller regional abortion providers are resuming billing Medicaid for services other than abortion after being cut off for most of a year.
The defunding, which was mandated in President Trump’s big tax and policy law last year, has been blamed in the closure of multiple clinics as well as a reduction in the number of Planned Parenthood patients being screened for breast cancer or tested for sexually transmitted infections.
The Medicaid billing was allowed to resume last weekend.
The restored funding does not mean the battle over federal abortion policy has ended, and not all services that were cut will return.
Here’s what to know about the situation.
Planned Parenthood closed clinics and saw fewer patients
Many abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, have struggled financially since the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed state abortion bans to be enforced. Clinics have closed in states with abortion bans and restrictions as well as those without.
Planned Parenthood says its affiliates have closed nearly 30 of its roughly 600 clinics over the past year, citing the funding change as a key reason.
Over that period, affiliates dispensed about 25% fewer packs of birth control pills and conducted about 20% fewer breast cancer exams than the previous year.
Many patients — especially in places where healthcare can be hard to access — may not have had care at all because of the defunding, the organization said.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund spokesperson Angela Vasquez-Giroux said the cuts have also led to limited abortion access in some places.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin halted abortions for about a month, then dropped its status as an “essential community provider” so it could resume seeking reimbursement. The Arizona affiliate paused offering many of its services to patients covered by Medicaid.
Two smaller providers were also impacted
The defunding provision also affected two other healthcare providers that met the criteria in the law because the were nonprofit family planning organizations that provided abortion and received more than $800,000 yearly in Medicaid reimbursements.
Their experiences were very different.
Maine Family Planning closed three primary care clinics that served about 1,000 patients in the largely rural state.
Evelyn Kieltyka, a senior vice president of program services, said that even with help, their former patients had to wait an average of four to six months to be established with new providers.
Meanwhile, the number of abortions the group provided held steady, she said. Maine is one of several states where state-funded Medicaid covers abortion.
Patients at Health Imperatives in Massachusetts may not have noticed the change, as no services were dropped.
The state government funded Medicaid reimbursements that the federal government stopped — something that Planned Parenthood says happened in some form in 14 states. On top of that, the clinic system received a grant from Melinda Gates’s foundation.
Some services are returning but others may not
Planned Parenthood’s Arizona affiliate has already announced expanded hours and more telehealth options linked to the ability to bill Medicaid again.
Some other services are not likely to be restored.
Kieltyka said Maine Family Planning isn’t planning to bring back its primary care practices again.
“When you close something down and you lose positions,” she said, “it’s very difficult to bring that back and build it back up again.”
And Michelle Quesada, vice president of communications, brand and marketing for the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Florida, said a closed clinic in Lakeland isn’t expected to reopen, partly out of concern that Congress or the Trump administration could cut Medicaid reimbursements for the organization again.
“There’s no telling with this uncertainty,” she said. “It’s like a yo-yo effect.”
Abortion opponents want to stop the Medicaid reimbursements again
The political battle isn’t over.
Abortion opponents are pushing Congress to adopt another defunding policy.
“They’ve defunded Big Abortion before,” Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said Monday, “and they should do everything in their power to do it again.”
Planned Parenthood contends that most general election voters don’t want the organization to be defunded. Pritchard said that the Republican base does.
If you want a quiet and peaceful summer break, this island needs to be on your list.
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This island is a must-see(Image: Getty)
The summer holidays are approaching, and if you’re planning a holiday, then you know it can be tricky to decide where to go. Living in the UK means we’re lucky enough to have Europe on our doorstep.
With so many dream locations to choose from, it can be difficult to decide where to go. If you value peace and quiet, it’s a good idea to look for places that are a little off the beaten path while still providing a relaxing, sunny getaway.
That’s why travel experts at Solmar Villashave researched data from more than 160 places to reveal which are the best for a crowd-free holiday.
Where to visit for a peaceful holiday
Coming in first place was Alonissos, Greece. This stunning island is located in the northern Sporades and is famous for its laid-back charm and unspoiled beauty.
It’s the smallest of the inhabited islands in the Sporades archipelago and offers a totally relaxed holiday.
It’s home to the largest marine protected area in Europe which offers birds, reptiles and mammals a safe breeding ground.
You can visit the park and perhaps catch a glimpse of the rare Mediterranean Monk Seal as you dive beneath the crystal clear water.
There’s no shortage of gorgeous beaches to spend a day at, and the Old Town is well worth a visit too.
The Old Town sits above the island on a hill 200 metres above sea level. There’s narrow winding alley ways, colourfully painted doors and plenty of charming cages and tavernas to stop in for a bite to eat or a drink.
You can enjoy awe-inspiring views out over the island and the sea that surrounds it while sitting in the shade of the island’s greenery.
How to get there
There is no airport on the island, so the best way to get there is to get a ferry from the neighbouring island of Skiathos. The ferry takes around two hours to the largest town on the island – Patitiri.
From Patitiri you can explore the rest of the island, whether you want to lounge on the beach, explore the marine reserve or soak up the rich history of the city – all without the crowds that flock to other Greek islands like Mykonos and Santorini.
Sharon Bradbury, travel expert at Solmar Villas said: “Many families don’t have the option of travelling outside the school holidays, so choosing the right destination becomes even more important.
For families looking to make the most of their summer break, it can be worth looking beyond the usual hotspots. A quieter destination often means a more relaxed experience from the moment you arrive. “
The 20 quietest places to visit on school holidays
Until I went to Oslo recently, the best cinnamon roll I’d ever eaten was in Chicago — at the venerable Swedish-American diner Ann Sather, where a milky sugar glaze used to be drizzled onto the still-warm, pillowy pastry right at the table. (These days the rolls are glazed in the kitchen after they’re baked.)
Los Angeles, of course, also has show-stopping cinnamon rolls. This spring, Food senior editor Danielle Dorsey, with help from Stephanie Breijo, Jenn Harris and Angela Osorio, put together a guide to 11 of L.A.’s most intriguing cinnamon rolls, including the hip-hop-inspired over-the-top creations at All About the Cinnamon, the sweet-savory buns with honey and sesame seeds at Modu and the tallboy “cinnamon goo”-filled rolls topped with caramel-toffee sauce from SweetBoy. Harris also recommends the especially decadent cinnamon roll served during brunch at Baltaire in Brentwood, where the cake-size roll is wheeled out on a cart and “slathered with frosting at the table.”
In Oslo, however, I discovered a cinnamon bun that stripped away the excess and let the essence of the spiced dough reveal itself.
Daegens, a tiny cafe and bakery hidden away in Oslo’s pretty Lilleborg neighborhood, is run by Anta Stinnerbom, a young entrepreneur who spent several months sharpening his coffee knowledge and barista skills at the acclaimed roastery Tim Wendelboe and is now deep into his explorations of sourdough baking. It’s the sourdough, in fact, that gives the Daegens cinnamon bun its character.
Baker and barista Anta Stinnerbom at his Daegens cafe in Oslo.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Even more than Stinnerbom’s cardamom bun — which some praise as the best in Oslo — the more elemental cinnamon notes, enhanced with lemon zest and juice, allow the sourdough’s multifaceted dimensions to come through. Not just tang, but the taste of time.
When you can’t decide between Anta Stinnerbom’s cardamom bun, front, or cinnamon bun at Daegens in Oslo … get both.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Daegens’ BMO (bolle med ost), which the Oslo bakery makes with a good seeded sourdough roll topped with fresh butter and cheese.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
The discovery of a great sourdough cinnamon bun is just one of the reasons I love to travel.
Lately, I’ve been absorbed in the world of Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, both for his most recent novel, “The School of Night,” which features a grand-scale narcissist captured in a Faustian downfall, and for “So Much Longing in So Little Space,” which documents the author’s search for the meaning of art through his encounters with the work of Edvard Munch. At Oslo’s boldly vertical, 13-story Munch museum and Bergen’s more contemplative Munch collection at the Kode museum’s Rasmus Meyer galleries, I was able to see for myself the wild stylistic leaps taken by the artist before and after “The Scream,” including the paintings he did for the women’s cafeteria at Oslo’s Freia chocolate factory.
But it was only after the first of many good meals in Oslo that I started to get a feel for the city. As I wrote in the introduction to our new collection of summer vacation dining guides, traveling with an eater’s mindset gives us a deeper understanding of places we’ve read about in cookbooks and novels or seen in movies and paintings. Wandering markets, eating at food stalls, sitting among locals and fellow travelers at the restaurants that embody a city or its surrounding countryside … these are the ways we absorb the rhythm of a place. Its flavors and ways of living are revealed to us over dinner or even a simple morning coffee accompanied by a beautifully baked cinnamon bun.
If you go …
(Giacomo Bagnara / For The Times)
For those of us lucky enough to write about food for a living, each vacation is a chance to add one more spot on our individualized maps of the world’s great places to eat. And this year, we’re sharing our personal maps and notes on places we’ve loved during our wanderings with readers.
Given that these suggestions are not meant to be definitive — they are our personal favorites — we know that there are many other worthy places to explore. We’d love to hear from you if you have your own personal picks. We’ve built a form for entering your favorites from around the world and will publish the results in the coming weeks.
We’ve also introduced a new way to save your favorite recommendations and build your own custom guides. Times senior product manager Jeff Poirier explains the new feature, which includes maps and is as simple to use as hitting the “save” button on any individual entry.
Introducing …
Los Angeles Times cooking editor Cody Reiss
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times )
We are thrilled to introduce our new cooking editor Cody Reiss, who learned most of what he knows about cooking professionally at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley and did time behind the counter at Murray’s Cheese in New York. He also had a part in Eva Victor‘s “Sorry, Baby” and played himself in the very funny “narrative cooking short” “Breakfast for Liz.” Read more about Cody in his hello to readers, which describes the teaching approach he’s aiming for in the food videos he’ll be doing. And check out the videos he released this week on why you should throw away your salt shaker and how to cut a tomato. Finally, with Cody taking over our Cooking Newsletter — which is moving from Sundays to Fridays so that you can have more time to plan your weekend cooking — now is an excellent time to sign up for the free weekly dispatch if you’re not already a subscriber. This week, he provides two crucial lessons on salt and why you might be using it wrong.
Chilaquiles heaven
Chilaquiles, molletes and salsas at Taquearte in Pico Rivera.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Restaurant critic Jenn Harris’ latest review is about Pico Rivera’s Taquearte, which happens to be one of my favorite places to get chilaquiles and a loaded Mexico City-style taco campechano, which made our 101 Best L.A. Tacos list. I first heard about Taquearte from my mom and her friend Pablo. (She went to high school in Pico Rivera and lives in nearby Whittier.) Harris bookmarked the place when Eater’s Bill Esparza wrote about the chilaquiles as L.A.’s best. Harris wholeheartedly agrees and loved how “the chips … were noticeably thin, delicate but sturdy enough to retain their crunch. They hovered in a magical state of limbo between wet and dry, crisp and wilted.”
Gil, who is credited with helping the late Joe Miller‘s now-closed Joe’s Restaurant in Venice gain a Michelin star, and went on to co-found the much-missed Tacos Punta Cabras and Hamburguesas Punta Cabras, as well as the pop-up Supper Liberation Front, established the Alta California restaurants Mírame in Beverly Hills, which closed in 2023, and the still-running Mírate in Los Feliz, which Gil left after a legal dispute. He also established the rooftop raw bar Mother of Pearl, which is closed at the moment, and the teppanyaki restaurant Maison Kasai, both at the downtown L.A. dining collection Level 8.
Chef Katsuya Uechi in 2016 at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Brentwood location of Katsuya.
(Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Katsuya)
Late last week, we also got word that Katsuya Uechi, the sushi master whose name has become synonymous with the global Katsuya brand, has died at the age of 67.
“The Okinawa-born chef altered the DNA of the L.A. sushi scene with his innovative, genre-bending creations,” writes Melody Xu of the chef who first came to prominence for many L.A. diners at Sushi Katsu-ya in Studio City, which he opened in 1997. “Spicy tuna crispy rice, which he debuted in the early 2000s, has since become a modern staple in sushi restaurants across the U.S.”
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Also …
Amid the puestas of Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.
(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)
Many were hoping that the World Cup would provide an incentive for downtown Los Angeles’ city leaders and other stakeholders to invest in the area’s infrastructure. But it’s sobering to read reporter Angela Osorio’s look at the sad state of downtown’s once-bustling Olvera Street — with even taquito mecca Cielito Lindo facing a precarious financial situation that has left it shuttered … we hope only temporarily.
Melody Xu talked with the owners of some of L.A.’s prominent Venezuelan restaurants about how they are connecting people and fundraising for survivors of the twin earthquakes. At publication time, the parents of Full Arepas’ Kelly Montano, writes Xu, “who were on vacation in La Guaira when the quakes happened, [were] among the more than 40,600 people still unaccounted for.”
“For the first time in its history,” writes Stephanie Breijo, the Michelin Guide awarded a Mexican restaurant three stars.” That honor went to Val Cantú‘s Californios in San Francisco. Breijo has all of the news from the announcement of Michelin’s California guide, including the new two-star designation for Los Angeles’ Kato.
And Hailey Branson-Potts has the story of the beer queen of Mendocino County, Lost Coast Brewery’s Barbara Groom, one of the country’s first female microbrew owners, who turns 80 this year.
Eat your way across L.A.
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A new study has named one place as the most expensive seaside destination in the UK, with a day trip costing £38.20 – meaning £100 lasts just over two days
Beachgoers soaking up the sunshine on Brighton beach (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
From parking fees to the price of fish and chips or an ice cream — a classic day trip or a longer stay at a UK coastal destination could leave a serious dent in your wallet.
New research has looked at some of Britain’s most popular summer hotspots, calculating the cost of deckchair hire, a ’99’ ice cream, and a fish and chips meal — and one city has come out on top as the priciest of the lot.
The study revealed that £100 in this particular seaside spot will ‘only last just over 2 days’, according to figures drawn from the new UK Seaside Affordability Index. The data has laid bare significant differences around the British coastline in terms of how far your hard-earned cash will actually go.
When taking into account everything you’d need for a perfect day at the beach, all the must-have essentials add up to £38.20 per day in this particular city.
Brand new research from NoDepositRewards.org breaks down the cost of a traditional beach day out at locations across the UK, reports the Express.
The study looked at all-day parking charges (based on current local council rates), the average price of a ’99’ ice cream, a large fish and chips meal (using local chippy prices) and full-day deckchair hire.
The research was carried out with the aim of establishing how long £100 would last on a seaside outing.
Brighton was named the most expensive coastal destination in the country, according to the findings. All-day parking came in at £18, while the classic ice cream was priced at £2.70.
By comparison, in the most affordable spot, Swansea, parking for the day costs just £3 and an ice cream is £1.65. A fish and chip supper in Brighton will set you back £11.50, though it’s not the priciest location for the classic British takeaway — in Bamburgh, Northumberland, the same meal will cost you £14.88.
Renting a deckchair in Brighton will generally cost around £6 for the day — meaning the total ‘seaside basket’ for a day at this popular coastal destination comes to a whopping £38.20 per day for all the essential sunny day basics.
Coming in second was the Cornish town of St Ives, labelled the ‘second priciest seaside destination in the UK’. St Ives was ranked as the second most expensive spot, with visitors forking out an average of £25.30 per day.
In St Ives, holidaymakers can expect to pay around £10 for all-day parking, £12.50 for a large fish and chips, and just over £2.50 for an ice cream.
Swansea was named as the most budget-friendly seaside destination, with the same selection of items totalling approximately £16.71 per day.
Mason Jones, data expert at NoDepositRewards.org, said: “Families are budgeting harder than ever for summer 2025.
“Our Seaside Index shows you can triple the number of beach days simply by choosing a different stretch of coast.
“With parking now topping local cost charts, the North and Wales clearly win on value.”
Living here has certainly been good for his acting career. Though he broke into the business as a member of NYC-turned-MTV sketch comedy group the State in 1994, he moved to L.A. in the fall of 1997 when he landed a role in the second season of “Men Behaving Badly,” an NBC sitcom. Marino shot just 13 episodes before the show was canceled. Still, he stayed in L.A., landing roles in much-loved shows like “Veronica Mars,” “Party Down,” “The Residence” and “Running Point.” He’s also co-written a few things, including “Role Models” and “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” out July 10, which was filmed in and around Los Angeles.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
“Working around L.A. and running around to jobs is how I got to understand L.A.,” Marino says. “It’s just a very comfortable city to live in. I just think it’s fun to be able to bounce around and do anything you feel like doing.”
Here’s how Marino would spend his perfect, carefree Sunday in Los Angeles.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
6 a.m.: Dog walking, coffee and flowers
We have two dogs. They need to go outside in the morning and eat, and they are very vocal about it. For a while, every morning at 5:58 my one dog, Dot, would start whining and moving around until I’d go “yeah, OK, let’s feed you.”
In our family, I’m the one who feeds the dogs and takes them out, because I’m a morning person. I enjoy it when it’s not fully light out, maybe making myself a coffee or taking a walk to this place called Project Bloom Coffee. It’s a little mom and pop kind of place and they have terrific coffee and breakfast sandwiches. They’re also a florist. Sometimes they even use this cool paper holder with a handle where, on one side you put the coffee and then on the other side you put your beautiful flower display. So then you get to walk home with your coffee and your flowers together and it’s something I’ve never seen anywhere else.
7:30 a.m.: Online chess
After I go get my coffee and walk the dogs, I’ll still be the only person up so I’ll get on my computer and get a couple of games of chess in. I play people from around the world online on Chess.com, and I usually either get frustrated or feel like I’m the best chess player in the world. Anyway, I’m getting my rating up on the app and I’m very excited about it. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of chess tutorials on TikTok and YouTube that teach me how to play better.
9 a.m.: More coffee and “911”
If I go to Project Bloom, I’ll bring my wife a coffee and some flowers but if not, we have a little espresso and cappuccino maker so I’ll use that to make her a cappuccino, which I’ll bring to her in bed. She’s always very happy about that and then I’ll go try to wake my [16-year-old] daughter up, which usually takes about two or three tries until I take her phone, set the timer for five minutes, and then put it on the other side of her room so she has to get out of her bed to turn it off when it sounds.
She and I have been religiously watching “911” recently. We started with Season 1 and now we’re about six or seven seasons in so I’ll make her breakfast — maybe a Nutella crepe with some little cherry tomatoes on the side, which is weird but she likes it or maybe some oatmeal — and then we’ll watch “911” and talk about our favorite characters, like Buck, Chimney and Bobby.
Noon: Lunch on the Westside
We have a little apartment in Marina Del Rey that’s right by the beach so sometimes I’ll go out there with the dogs, just to sit for a while and enjoy. I usually walk between the Venice pier and Washington Street, but sometimes I’ll go further north and walk along Venice Beach if I want to hang out with some freaky deakies.
When I’m over on that side of town, there’s a couple of places that I might go for food, like this Italian restaurant called Ospi that’s in Venice. They’re incredible. They make their own homemade pasta and it’s delicious. There’s also this chain called Guisados, and I love their tacos so sometimes I’ll do that too. Venice Ramen is good too, and they do these things called jumbo gyoza that are absolutely delicious. They’re like 2.5 times bigger than a normal gyoza, like palm-sized, and I really like them.
2 p.m.: Play practice and a pint
My daughter is in two plays right now at this place called the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica, so it’s my responsibility to take her over there and drop her off for practice. When I do that, if it’s a Sunday, I might want to grab a Guinness somewhere and watch basketball. There’s a bar called Weary Livers down the street that has a lot of board games and it feels like you’re in somebody’s basement, which is good. It’s also right next to the Brixton, which is another nice bar that I’ll go to from time to time if I’m waiting for my daughter to finish rehearsal because it’s a lot of driving otherwise.
Right now, David [Wain] and I are trying to figure out different promotional things we can do for our movie, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” so maybe we’d do some more of that. It’s a really funny movie and we sold it at Sundance.
Anyway, two Sundays ago we walked around with our friend Frank Barrera, who is also one of the camera operators on “Gail Daughtry.” We went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and we shot promos for the movie where we were talking to different people and pretending that the Gail Daughtry cinematic universe is vast and has been around for decades, like we were asking people what their favorite Gail Daughtry movie is. It confused a lot of them, but every once in a while somebody would say something so we’re using those for promo spots.
I also spent some time just running up and down the street being very overly enthusiastic and screaming “the new Gail Daughtry movie is coming out!” and then we shot people’s reactions, which were typically “confusion” and “not caring.” Like, “Stop yelling at me, weirdo.”
7:30 p.m.: Thai takeout
On weekends, my wife and I like to order from a specific Thai place that’s won many awards. It’s called Luv 2 Eat Thai Bistro and it’s absolutely fantastic. The crab curry is so delicious and they do these street food sausages that we crave. They come with ginger and peanuts and garlic, plus a big slab of raw cabbage and some hot peppers and we’ll eat them like popcorn, just throwing them in our mouths while we catch up on “Survivor.” The flavor is just insane, and we think about how good they are all the time.
9:30 p.m.: Checkmate
After we watch “Survivor,” usually what happens next is that we’ll end up going, “Should we watch a movie?” Then we’ll look around for a movie for a while and then my daughter will be like, “Hey, Mom! Come in here and watch this YouTube show with me” so my wife will get pulled away, and I’ll immediately pick up my computer and start playing chess again. I like to bookend my day with a quiet chess game in the morning and another quiet game at night. It’s a nice way to wind down.
I’ll typically play a minimum of about three games before my eyes start to close because they’re trying to fall asleep. That’s when I’ll quit because I’ll be making stupid moves and it affects my rating, like “Oh, I just lost that game because I fell asleep while my computer was on,” so that’s how I know when I’m done.
Belgium fans celebrate a dramatic 3-2 victory over Senegal in extra time after the Red Devils fought back from two goals down. Supporters describe the match as an emotional rollercoaster from despair to elation.
John Mozeliak is in Anaheim for one clear-cut reason: to set the foundation for the Angels to get back on track.
At his introductory news conference at Angel Stadium on Saturday, the team’s new baseball operations consultant and interim general manager laid out his vision for success — while acknowledging recent woes — alongside Molly Jolly, one day after the first-year Angels president relieved general manager Perry Minasian of his duties amid his sixth straight losing season.
“Obviously, [the Angels] lacked consistency in terms of when you think about winning, right? Because that’s the proxy,” Mozeliak said. “There’s a lot of things we can use to determine if the organization is healthy or not. … Where Molly and I are connecting on this is like, we understand wins and losses matter, but how do you get to a place where that becomes consistent?
“Look at the best clubs in baseball [and] what you admire; whether they’re large-market or small-market, they have a philosophy, they have direction, and they stick to it, right? … That’s ultimately what we need to do here, and that’s hopefully something I can help bring to them.”
Mozeliak spent 18 seasons (2008-25) as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, a tenure consisting of 10 playoff appearances and a World Series victory in 2011.
The 57-year-old intends to “audit” the Angels in this new role alongside Jolly, with plans to hire a general manager by the time Mozeliak’s contract is up “sometime in December.”
“I brought on board John Mozeliak to assist me in preparing a baseball operation strategy as well as guide me in the search for a new general manager,” Jolly said, mentioning that her decision to fire Minasian and bring in Mozeliak had brewed for weeks.
“I did this because John has a proven track record of building and maintaining winning baseball cultures, and my goal is to bring that here to the Angels.”
Mozeliak didn’t rule himself out as the long-term answer at general manager and was emphatic about not speaking in absolutes. However, the longtime executive said he’d rather help Jolly “bridge the gap” during the Angels’ transformative period before anything else.
The Angels have plenty of gaps entering Saturday’s matchup with the Athletics. The Angels are tied for last in the American League with a 34-49 record while on the road to a 12th consecutive finish out of the playoffs.
And all of that is before mentioning the “sell the team” chants that flood the right-field upper deck at Angel Stadium at each home game oas ex-Angel Shohei Ohtani thrives with the Dodgers.
Mozeliak understands that the Angels have lacked direction in recent seasons. He asked for patience in rebuilding the team alongside Jolly.
“I knew coming in, this isn’t going to be something where Molly and I had a light switch and everything just starts working perfectly,” Mozeliak said. “It’s not going to work that way. … I would ask for some patience. We need a little time to sort of work through this … when we come out on the other end of this tunnel, we hope to be in a very successful place.”
Jolly said of Angels fans’ discontent, “I know what’s happening. I see it, I hear it. Fans have a right to have their voices be heard. Didn’t influence the decision that I wanted to make, but we all want to win. Our owner wants to win. I do. The fans deserve that, and that’s what we’re going to work toward.”
Mozeliak acknowledged he’d already forgotten some names of Angels personnel he was introduced to Saturday. But he also said that first-year manager Kurt Suzuki and the rest of the coaching staff’s jobs are secure through the season.
“I met with most of them this morning, and I told them they’re all fine for this year,” Mozeliak said. “There’s nothing they have to worry about. We’re not making any coaching changes right now. I really just need to get to know them, right?”
Mozeliak spoke to Suzuki on Saturday and said that he and his staff are “very impressive.”
Across the board, Mozeliak — who hasn’t yet met owner Arte Moreno since moving into this role — is focused on knowing who the Angels are at this point, with an “aggressive timeline” looming in the background.
With that said, Mozeliak shared that he isn’t “overly concerned” with the Aug. 3 trade deadline, nor is he worried about the MLB Draft, which starts July 11.
“My philosophy on the draft is to let the scouting director and his team do their jobs,” Mozeliak said. “The only real input I’m going to have is … understanding their process … and then if there are some financial decisions that are being banked into who we pick and why.”
Jolly brought in Mozeliak to help the Angels hire their fourth full-time general manager since 2012.
And while many might believe not much will change as long as Moreno remains the owner, Jolly said she has “autonomy” to assess the Angels’ baseball operations and is “confident in my authority and scope within the organization.”
Those invested in the Angels will believe it when they see it.
“When I think about the Angels right now, I just look at it as a very opportunistic time here,” Mozeliak said. “New leadership on the business side; we’re going to put a great team on the baseball side.
“But it’s going to be a place that I hope, in a couple years, we’re all proud of.”
We’ve all got used to packing tiny shampoos and shower gels into our hand luggage when we fly, but new technology means some major airports are scrapping the 100ml rule making going through security so much easier
Many airports have upgraded their security systems(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
It’s hard to believe that the airline liquid rules have been in place for nearly two decades. Since a terror plot was foiled in 2006, air passengers in the UK have been limited to taking containers of under 100ml on planes, and made to keep them in a clear, resealable 20cm x 20cm plastic bag.
Over the years, technology has improved, meaning restrictions have slowly been eased. In many airports, you no longer need to use a clear plastic bag for your liquids and can simply leave them in your hand luggage. However, in the majority of airports, the 100ml rule still stands all these years later.
A small number of airports have now scrapped the 100ml rule – allowing Brits to fly out with liquids in containers of up to two litres in volume. This means most standard-sized bottles of water, creams, gels, sprays, and aerosols can be taken through as hand luggage.
Whatever the allowed liquid size at your departure airport, holidaymakers should make sure they avoid using metal or double-walled bottles, such as a Thermos flask, when they carry liquids on board, as the scanners cannot penetrate the insulated layers.
Another thing travellers should keep in mind is that the rules at their return airport might be different. The vast majority of European airports still enforce the 100ml rule. So while you may be able to take a big bottle of suncream in your hand luggage going out, you may need to put it in your checked luggage coming back.
The GOV.UK website has a list of items considered liquids. Many travellers still get caught out by the 100ml rule as they don’t realise items such as semi-liquid foods such as soup, jam, honey, or syrups need to be within the restricted size.
Nut butters and soft cheeses also come under the category of liquids. In the USA, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) use a rule that: if you can spill it, spread it, spray it, pump it, or pour it, it counts as a liquid. While this isn’t an official rule in the UK, it’s a good way to determine whether an item you’re taking onboard is going to need to follow liquid size rules.
Liquid rules at airports can be updated with little notice, so always check your departure airport’s official website before you fly.
Full list of airports still enforcing the 100ml rule
Manchester Airport (MAN)
London Stansted (STN)
London Luton (LTN)
Glasgow Airport (GLA)
Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK)
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)
Newcastle International Airport (NCL)
Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)
East Midlands Airport (EMA)
London City Airport (LCY)
Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ)
Jersey Airport (JER)
Cardiff International Airport (CWL)
Southampton Airport (SOU)
Inverness Airport (INV)
Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY)
Full list of airports that have scrapped 100ml rule
London Heathrow (LHR)
London Gatwick (LGW)
Edinburgh Airport (EDI)
Birmingham Airport (BHX)
Bristol Airport (BRS)
Belfast International Airport (BFS)
George Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)
Bournemouth Airport (BOH)
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Thursday to crack down on inflated profits stemming from car crash lawsuits, blessing a hard-fought compromise between Uber and the state’s trial attorneys that averts a November showdown between two of California’s most powerful and moneyed lobbying forces.
The deal, the fruit of months of negotiations, takes aim at the lucrative way doctors can charge for procedures on patients referred to them by personal injury lawyers.
If a law firm has a client who was hurt in a car accident, the lawyer will often send them to a doctor who will perform surgery on a “lien” basis, meaning the doctor will be paid from money that comes from a lawsuit settlement rather than through insurance.
Uber contends this arrangement has created an incentive for doctors and attorneys to collude to dramatically inflate medical bills. The more expensive the bill, they say, the bigger the resulting payout.
The law, SB 623, caps how much these doctors can charge when their patient is involved in a lawsuit against a ride-share company, which are frequent targets of litigation due to their top-of-the-line insurance policies. The new law will also require Uber to ramp up background checks of its drivers.
“We’re going to have a much safer state both for medical patients and passengers in Ubers,” said Nicholas Rowley, a prominent Texas attorney who helped bankroll the fight and took a leading role in the negotiations.
The law only applies to cases that involve ride-share accidents that take place after Jan. 1, 2027.
“This legislation puts meaningful guardrails in place to better protect accident victims, increase transparency and accountability in the medical lien system and strengthen safety,” said Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy for the Western U.S., in a statement.
For months, Uber and lawyers from across the state poured tens of millions into dueling ballot measures that threatened to devastate the profits of whichever side lost.
Uber fired the first shot with a ballot measure that sought to cap how much attorneys can earn in lawsuits involving auto accidents. The company argued attorneys were swindling their own clients, inflating medical bills of car crash victims to increase the value of the settlement and then pocketing a hefty chunk of the payouts.
The state’s trial attorneys countered that the fee cap would make small or difficult cases a money-losing endeavor and block scores of accident victims from the courts. They shot back with their own ballot measure that would increase legal liability for ride-share companies if a passenger or driver is sexually assaulted while on a ride, seizing on investigative reporting that highlighted assaults in Ubers.
“They were waiting for us to blink and we didn’t,” said Douglas Saeltzer, the head of the Consumer Attorneys of California, the lawyer trade group that pushed for the measure against Uber. “Their starting place, I don’t believe, was in the interest of protecting victims — it was in the interest of protecting Uber.”
With the passage of Thursday’s law, both sides have agreed to pull their respective measures from the November ballot, halting campaigns that had both parties amassing tens of millions in funding and blanketing the airwaves with ads.
“Now we can stop seeing all the commercials,” said Assemblymember Blanca Pancheo (D-Downey) at a Tuesday hearing.
The law, put forward by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) and Sen. Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana), also caps the amount that can be earned by third-party investors who buy out a doctor’s lien in a personal injury case. These companies will purchase a doctor’s stake in the case at a reduced rate, then pocket a share of the payout if the case settles.
“Private equity and hedge funds buy them at a steep discount, then turn around and collect the full inflated amount,” Saeltzer said at a Tuesday hearing on the bill. “That’s money flowing to Wall Street investors, not patients.”
The law will require annual background checks for ride-share drivers and expand the list of offenses that disqualify someone from the job.
In addition to the ballot battle, has Uber sued two of LA’s most well-known personal injury firms — the Law Offices of Jacob Emrani and Downtown L.A. Law Group — accusing them of inflating medical bills and forcing clients to undergo needless and expensive surgeries to inflate the value of the claim. The firms asked the judge to dismiss the case Wednesday, arguing Uber had failed to prove fraud. Both firms have vehemently denied wrongdoing.
The lawsuit, filed last year, has put the plaintiff lawyers in the unusual position of playing defense. Listening in the audience at Wednesday’s hearings were the partners of Downtown L.A. Law Group and Jacob Emrani.
“Let’s be clear about what this Uber case really is,” said John Hueston, outside counsel for Emrani. “It’s brought by a $150 billion dollar company … to intimidate the plaintiff’s bar, exhaust its resources and chill the suits that hold Uber accountable.”
Michael Huston, one of the lawyers who represents Uber, countered that the case is “not an attack on the plaintiff’s bar.”
“We have brought suit against the two in this state … that are engaged in naked fraud,” he said.
Reporting from Sacramento — Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced he will place his ownership interest in the collection of wineries, hotels, restaurants and other investments that made him a millionaire into a blind trust, a step he said “goes beyond anything required by law.”
Since his election in November, Newsom has been weighing how to handle his array of assets in the hospitality business, collectively known as the PlumpJack Group, a multimillion-dollar business enterprise that grew from a wine shop he opened in San Francisco in 1992. Those holdings have the potential to create ethical conflicts between Newsom’s job as California’s chief executive and his business interests.
“Governor-elect Gavin Newsom is announcing today that he will be the first governor in the history of California to release his tax returns every year, just as he has done as a candidate,” Newsom’s spokesman Nathan Click said in a statement. “Newsom will also disclose his personal and business holdings each year on his statement of economic interest and separate himself from the PlumpJack Group wine and hospitality businesses that he has built.’’
Bob Stern, coauthor of California’s 1974 Political Reform Act that dictates the state’s conflict-of-interest laws, praised Newsom’s decision.
“That’s as much as anybody could ask him to do, except for selling all the properties, which I wouldn’t recommend him doing,” Stern said Thursday.
Stern added, however, that placing those assets in a blind trust does not remove the potential that Newsom could face a possible conflict of interest as governor. Under the law, Newsom is required to disclose all assets in the blind trust until those assets are sold, Stern said.
Newsom is in the process of transferring title to and control of the businesses into the blind trust, Click said. Newsom selected family friend Shyla Hendrickson, an attorney and certified public accountant with more than two decades of experience in the investment management business, as trustee, he said.
Under the terms of the blind trust, Hendrickson will have total authority over the assets, Click said, including the power to sell off Newsom’s business ownership without consulting him. She also is barred from discussing those decisions with Newsom.
Picking a family friend to serve as trustee is allowable under state law, Stern said, adding that the fact that Newsom’s sister, Hilary Newsom Callan, serves as president of the PlumpJack Group is “not a problem” under the law.
State law does not require Newsom to divest from PlumpJack Group or release the names of his business associates. And Newsom can legally sign bills or take executive action beneficial to his companies if those decisions affect all Californians or a significant segment of the population in the same way they affect him.
Newsom has yet to announce any details about the financial interests of his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, whose foundation could also raise questions for the incoming governor.
Siebel Newsom’s foundation, the Representation Project, which helps fund her documentaries along with education programs and community outreach “to challenge limiting gender stereotypes and shift norms,” has in the past received financial support from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and AT&T. PG&E and its foundation reported donating $100,000 to the Representation Project in 2017, $85,000 in 2016 and $10,000 in 2015, according to federal tax records and a list of PG&E’s charitable donations on the utility’s website.
As president of the foundation, Siebel Newsom received a salary of $150,000 in 2016, according to the most recent publicly available disclosures filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The foundation also reported paying Girls Club Entertainment, Siebel Newsom’s production company, $150,000 that same year. Newsom’s spokesman said the board of directors of the Representation Project is in the process of determining her future role with the foundation.
In 2018, PG&E also donated $58,400 to Gavin Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign and $150,000 to Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018, an independent expenditure committee that backed his candidacy.
Next year, the California Legislature is likely to consider a bill to provide financial relief for any utility whose equipment was involved in a wildfire in 2018. PG&E could face billions in potential liability costs for the deadly Camp fire near Chico, which killed at least 86 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
If approved by lawmakers, the bill would land on Newsom’s desk.
This isn’t the first time Newsom has had to address the intersection of his political and business lives. After he was elected mayor of San Francisco in 2003, Newsom sold his interests in the PlumpJack Group businesses in San Francisco to his longtime friend and business partner, oil heir Gordon Getty, for $1.7 million, according to a financial disclosure filed with the city. But Newsom held on to his investments outside the city limits, including in Napa Valley wineries and a hotel and gift shop at the Squaw Valley ski resort near Lake Tahoe.
“The mayor chose to take this unprecedented action because he feels it is in the best interest of San Francisco for its chief executive not to own businesses that operate in the city,” Newsom’s then-press secretary, Peter Ragone, told the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2004.
As governor, Newsom could face an array of potential ethical dilemmas as long as his assets in the PlumpJack Group remain in the trust.
For example, a corporation could conceivably try to curry favor with the new governor by renting out a bank of rooms at the PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn or by throwing lavish parties at the Forgery bar in San Francisco, both among Newsom’s holdings. In those scenarios, the spending would likely not have to be disclosed.
Newsom has held campaign events at his restaurants and other businesses for years. His gubernatorial campaign spent more than $83,000 at his businesses from 2015 through election day, campaign finance records show.
In 2014, the California Democratic Party held a fundraiser at Newsom’s CADE Estate Winery in Napa Valley, paying the business $4,229. Just after Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco in 2003, two Bay Area labor groups spent more than $1,000 at PlumpJack Wines, Newsom’s wine store.
Newsom has vowed to issue an executive order prohibiting state executive branch agencies from doing business with PlumpJack entities. He will also divest from all common stock that he owns in publicly traded companies. According to his latest financial disclosure, Newsom held stock in Intel Corp. and Merck & Co. worth $4,000 to $20,000 in total.
Napa Valley wineries have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in income for Newsom annually, according to financial disclosure records and business filings with the secretary of state’s office. Three wineries in the PlumpJack Group founded by Newsom and Getty generated nearly $800,000 in just one year for Newsom, according to his 2015 federal tax returns. Newsom and Getty — who are connected through Getty’s friendship with Newsom’s late father, who once managed Getty’s family trust — share multiple business interests.
Under state law, Newsom will not have to declare a conflict of interest when making a decision — whether to sign legislation or approve an administrative action — unless it “explicitly” affects one of his companies or investments, according to state Fair Political Practices Commission regulations.
For example, Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is sponsoring a bill that would allow bars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and seven other cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. The legislation passed this year but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. If the bill passes again in the new legislative session, Newsom’s restaurants and bars would benefit financially if he signs it. But he still would be able to so without declaring a conflict of interest because the rules would apply to all restaurants and bars in those cities, not just his.
“He’s certainly allowed to sign bills dealing with wineries or dealing with restaurants,” Stern said.
In this 2004 photo, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, left, Gordon Getty and then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown enjoy a pre-dinner glass of wine during an event at Newsom’s PlumpJack Winery in Oakville.
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Although Newsom might be one of the wealthiest governors ever to serve in California, the issues posed by his assets aren’t new to the office, Stern said.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sold off stock and many other investments, placing the proceeds in a blind trust, although he had also disclosed investments outside the trust, including his Hollywood entertainment firm, Oak Productions.
While in office, Schwarzenegger was criticized for accepting a consulting job for a publisher of health and bodybuilding magazines — Muscle & Fitness and Flex — because a significant portion of the publications’ revenue came from advertising by makers of nutritional supplements. Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have created a list of banned substances for interscholastic sports and barred supplement manufacturers from sponsoring school events.
Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist and former communications director for Schwarzenegger, said it was difficult to wall off some of Schwarzenegger’s business interests because they were tied to the “personal brand” of the Hollywood action star and former champion bodybuilder.
The best option in those cases is asking full disclosure from public officials, he said.
“I don’t think [Schwarzenegger’s situation] is unique. I think it’s just a matter of scrutiny and watching it,” Stutzman said.
“In Newsom’s case, if he can’t sell PlumpJack or other things he owns, he’s not going to be blind,” said retired attorney Colleen McAndrews, a former member of the state Fair Political Practices Commission who advised Schwarzenegger on setting up a blind trust when be became governor.
Local government politicians are most affected by the state’s conflict-of-interest law because cities and counties approve regulations, permits, land use restrictions and other items that could affect a single business or part of town. It would be rare to see a conflict arise under state law for the governor, however, because most of the action taken by the state’s chief executive affects all Californians equally, McAndrews said.
“You don’t have to recuse if a decision affects the public the same way it affects you,” she said.
Rick Scott, the wealthiest governor in Florida history who in November was elected to the U.S. Senate, came under intense scrutiny after he placed his assets in a blind trust. Multiple Florida news outlets reported that Scott’s blind trust made identical investments in a separate, private account for his wife, raising questions about just how “blind” the governor was to the trust.
GateHouse newspapers reported this year that the couple’s financial holdings in the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, which makes drugs to combat hepatitis C, had grown substantially. Florida’s Medicaid program has spent millions on those drugs, the report found.
Jamie Court, president of the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog, said that regardless of what the incoming governor decides to do regarding his assets, Newsom should provide full disclosure of all his financial interests.
“I think the governor has to be very open about his business relations, even beyond what the law calls for,” Court said. “If he hides anything, believe me, we will find out later and it won’t be good.”
Times staff writer Maloy Moore contributed to this report.
Time to break out the “Paper Rings”: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s trip down the aisle is just around the corner.
Since Swift and Kelce’s engagement in August 2025, fans have been wondering when, where and how they’ll tie the knot — and looking for clues anywhere they can.
All of the signs indicate that wedding bells should be ringing any day now. Here’s everything we know so far.
The reception may take place at Madison Square Garden
Leave it to Taylor “Eras Tour” Swift to hold her wedding at the most iconic arena in the U.S. In early June, TMZ reported that the Swift-Kelce wedding would take place at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, with over 1,000 attendees.
Fans immediately jumped on board with the theory, since Taylor has played the venue eight times and famously loves the Big Apple. There’s also notably a “Blank Space” on the MSG calendar between June 28 and July 7. According to TMZ, Swift even secretly had a “massive stage” built offsite to use at the venue, which can hold up to 22,000 people.
The tabloid also broke the news that MSG was not the couple’s first choice wedding venue. Allegedly, they were hoping to tie the knot in Rhode Island, where Swift has an oceanside property, on June 13, but that plan fell through after it was leaked to the press.
Importantly, sources also said that while the celebratory reception is set for MSG, the ceremony will take place beforehand “somewhere more intimate.” Could Rhode Island still be on the table?
It could happen any day now (or maybe it already has?)
Though Swift and Kelce have kept their official wedding date under wraps, signs point to the upcoming Fourth of July weekend. Back in April, Page Six reported that the date was set for July 3, and last Monday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani helped legitimize the rumor at a press conference, addressing the city’s preparedness for a holiday weekend with a World Cup matchup at MetLife Stadium along with other high-profile events.
“We are the biggest city in the country,” he said. “We are used to big events, and we are incredibly excited for this one. We know it coincides with July 4, America 250, Taylor Swift’s wedding all happening at the same time.”
However, given TMZ’s report that the nuptials will take place before the massive reception, some outlets are speculating that vows may have already been exchanged.
The bachelor and bachelorette parties may have already gone down
Sightings of Swift and Kelce gathering separately in single-sex groups have prompted major speculation about the stars’ respective bachelor and bachelorette parties.
On Wednesday night, photographers captured Kelce meeting up with pals, including his brother and podcast co-host Jason Kelce, former Kansas City Chiefs teammate Ross Travis and comedian Druski at the members-only Bird Streets Club in West Hollywood.
Across the country, paparazzi captured images of an all-female group — that appears to include Swift and her childhood friend Abigail Anderson Berard — gathering at Swift’s Rhode Island estate. Armed security guards were also spotted on the property.
Rumors of guest list drama are swirling
Unsurprisingly, Swift and Kelce have been tight-lipped about wedding details, but keeping an event this huge under wraps is an uphill battle. Page Six linked the duo to discreet wedding planner Mark Seed, and multiple outlets report that the couple required guests to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement before receiving any revealing information.
Even with the secrecy, rumors of drama have emerged. Swift’s ex-BFF Blake Lively (and her husband Ryan Reynolds) were reportedly not invited to the celebration, and Star reported that a number of guests complained about being invited without a plus one. These kinds of issues might sound familiar to anyone who’s ever planned a wedding — and most people don’t have to add security concerns into the equation.
When the gates opened at St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino on Good Friday, the music coming from inside wasn’t that of angel-faced choristers or pipe organs; it was the collective scream of electric guitars.
As the sky darkened over the white stucco church framed in palm trees and the dry peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains, fringed teenagers made their way inside, shaking their limbs and chattering in excitement. Fluorescent lights shone overhead in a room that, by day, hosted Bible studies and food pantries — that night, it would be the site of Spinkick Dance Hall, a regular underground music series where noses are bound to bleed and limbs to flail along to ear-splitting riffs.
It’s just one of many shows taking place from Pomona to Palm Desert, heralding a Latino-led youth revival where the freewheeling movement of mosh pits meets the raw power of punk rock: Inland Empire hardcore.
Teenagers congregate in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino before the start of the night’s hardcore shows on April 3, 2026.
(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
As the fast-paced and anti-establishment genre known as punk went mainstream in the ’80s, a harder and more unhinged variant emerged in the States; bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Black Flag pushed the limits of vocalization and instrumentation into dissonant new sounds that would make up the subgenre known as hardcore punk.
“As a teenager pre-social media, the music scene was the release for teen angst,” said music photojournalist Zach Cordner. “It was a convergence of nationwide bands that would come to play at [the now shuttered Riverside venue] Showcase Theater, and through word of mouth people got inspired to make cassettes and zines.”
Cordner and his friend Ken Crawford grew up in Riverside in the ’80s and ’90s, photographing the initial wave of hardcore punk taking shape in the Inland Empire. They turned these photographs into a sprawling exhibition held at the Riverside Art Museum earlier this year, “60 Miles East.”
“The scene looks a lot different today than it did in the ’90s,” Crawford said. “It’s browner, it’s queer, and that’s a good thing, to see how it’s become way more diverse.”
Inside the church, the frontman of all-Latino hardcore band Barrio Slam emitted rough growls as the crowd broke into a bustling mosh pit. Teenagers did pinwheel kicks, wrapped Mexican flags over their shoulders and filled the air with chants of “F— ICE.”
Lead vocalist Victor Campos’ family moved from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Pomona, where he says he discovered hardcore through friends. Then, at age 14, Campos attended his first rock show.
“That was the first time that I saw hardcore and metal and the heavier side of music for what it was, and the violence and culture of the shows just sucked me in and I’ve been in it ever since,” Campos said. “It felt like freedom.”
Angela, 19, was in the mosh pit during Load Tha Nine’s performance when she was accidentally struck in the nose by another concertgoer on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino. Hardcore shows are characterized by intense music and rough dancing where bloody accidents are not an uncommon sight.
(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
Jose Ruelas and his Barrio Slam bandmates headbang as they perform on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino.
(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
Campos credits local Latino-led bands like Xibalba and Harsh Reality as inspirations to dive into making music and embrace his identity in the genre.
“In the I.E., it’s really the norm. We’re singing in Spanish, we’re proud. But when we tour, we see it’s not like that everywhere,” Campos said. “Some people still consider punk ‘not for us.’ My own family members will say, ‘You’re listening to white people music.’”
The show at St. John’s is just the tip of the Inland Empire’s DIY venue iceberg. Living rooms, restaurant dining rooms, tattoo shops and record stores have transformed into hardcore venues across the region as established locales closed down.
San Bernardino four-piece “beatdown” group Big Ass Truck is one band that found success beyond the I.E. scene. They signed to Nuclear Blast Records, and at the time of our interview, they had just returned from a tour of Europe.
“With the I.E. especially, we lose a venue like every week. If we have a venue, it’s not staying around for long. I’ve personally seen like three or four venues [in the last few years] just call it,” said Big Ass Truck vocalist Abel Abarca. “So we do get scrappy, and I think that’s what sets the I.E. apart from places like L.A. and O.C.”
San Bernardino hardcore band Big Ass Truck performs a surprise concert at Creator Fest on May 2, 2026, at Creator Tattoo in Pomona.
(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
Izzy Leyva, 17, describes being met with an immediate “sense of welcoming” at her first DIY hardcore show.
“It’s nice finding people my age to talk about life with. You can start conversations so easily,” Leyva said. “Especially after moshing with someone in the crowd. If you’re struggling to make friends in school, you’ll be able to find someone here.”
She enters the mosh pit fearlessly, dodging flailing arms to two-step — a synchronized dance move that requires punching and running in place — unleashing her energy in the punk sanctum.
“I never feel like an outsider here,” Leyva added.
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1.Mauricio Rivera performs with his band Barrio Slam on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino. (Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)2.Toni Feliz shows her “IE” tattoo, a nod to her hometown, at Creator Fest on May 2, 2026, at Creator Tattoo in Pomona. (Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)3.Izzy Levya, 17, two-steps during Marked for Death’s performance on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino. (Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)4.Fans dance and “two-step” during Barrio Slam’s performance on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino.(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)5.Andres Rodriguez, 18, moshes during Marked for Death’s performance on April 3, 2026, in St. John’s Episcopal Church in San Bernardino. (Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
As 25-year-old Guatemalan American vocalist Jorge Cruz entered the show, he embraced his friends and bandmates. Cruz, who fronts the voracious hardcore band KnuckleSandwich, says he sees TikTok as a major platform for hardcore fans to find one another.
“I saw shows online and was hooked … I used to be so nervous to be in the mosh pit, I’d throw up outside. But when I got in there for the first time, I feel like it changed me into someone who was more comfortable in myself,” Cruz said. “It was like a baptism.”
His music, ranging from songs like “Melting ICE” and corrido-hardcore fusion “El Corrido del Maton,” is inspired by his immigrant household upbringing and interest in Chicano studies.
“Especially with this growing anti-intellectualism going on, and conservatives in our government, writing about Chicano identity and the issues in America feels important,” Cruz said. “There’s no one out there to speak up for us than us.”
A day after attending the show, Garrett Boyer and Kenny Sylvia, longtime friends with nearly matching tattoo sleeves and baseball caps, stood talking in Creator Tattoo Parlor in Pomona.
The pair helps to run Division One, a local booking company that books anywhere from Corona storefront DBZ Books N’ Records to their very own tattoo parlor.
A few weeks prior, Boyer got a call from his sister: His niece was diagnosed with an aggressive childhood cancer called neuroblastoma that had spread through her body, causing his sister to tackle insurance and medical costs. Boyer said he reached out to the hardcore community for help and was “overwhelmed” by the response.
“The community really, really, really came together. A lot of people reached out and really quickly we threw this benefit show that raised thousands of dollars,” Boyer said. “That’s the core of what hardcore music should be and is. It’s community.”
A few months before that, they had united with local bands to throw a benefit show, raising money for immigrant coalition groups after increased ICE raids.
“We thought, ‘How could we not help?’ I’m second generation from El Paso. So many of my neighbors and even my partner’s family were directly affected,” Boyer said. “So many shows are not just about music but they can [impact] people’s lives.”
Brett Rock, bassist of San Bernardino hardcore band Big Ass Truck, performs during Creator Fest on May 2, 2026, at Creator Tattoo in Pomona.
(Katerina Portela / Los Angeles Times)
In Creator’s graffitied back lot area on May 2, bands Load Tha Nine, ’92 and Auditory Anguish opened up a DIY festival called Creator Fest, where 22-year-old Cynthia Garcia came out to “let off steam.”
Garcia, who fronts local band Exutoire, said discovering the local alternative scene “changed everything.”
“In high school, it was very much like nothing was happening. We’re all bored. We’re all depressed. We’re writing, and finally, we get to put the writing to use,” Garcia said. “We meet people that are like-minded and trying to get out of that boredom, and then [the music scene] just exploded.”
At Garcia’s shows, she says she constantly meets concertgoers from L.A., or even from San Diego, who drive hours into the I.E. to be part of its blossoming scene.
At Creator Fest, Abarca commanded the stage, building up the energy of the crowd until hair whipped in frenzies. Abarca says he sees I.E. hardcore continuing to evolve, fusing new genres and making the Inland Empire a place to watch as alternative music booms in the “scrappy” venues of San Bernardino, Corona, Pomona and Riverside.
“Latinos in the Inland Empire have always been hardcore,” Abarca said. “People just know it now because we make them hear us.”
A New Zealand expat and his Spanish wife, who share travel guides about Spain on YouTube, have named one city as their top destination
The Spanish city is more than 3,000-years-old(Image: F.J. Jimenez via Getty Images)
Perched on a narrow strip of land encircled by the Atlantic Ocean lies Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, which one expat living in Spain is urging visitors to make time for. The capital of the Province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, the city is over 3,000-years-old and dotted with remarkable ancient buildings gazing out over the breathtaking blue waters that surround it.
New Zealand expat James and his Spanish wife Yoly, who both reside in Spain, have made it their mission to help others experience Spain on a deeper level through the travel guides they share on their YouTube channel @spainrevealed. They spotlighted the magnificent city of Cádiz as their “number one place to visit” on any trip to Spain, reports the Express.
“You see this city deep in the southwest of Spain on this impossibly small spit of land is the most magical city in Spain according to me,” said James.
Indeed, the expat fell so deeply in love with the region that he has long dreamed of living there for a period. He even goes as far as suggesting it would be a “crime to visit Spain without seeing Cádiz”, a sentiment his wife Yoly wholeheartedly echoes, describing such an omission as “unforgivable”.
James places the city’s rich history at the very top of his list of favourite things about Cádiz, with traces of its remarkable past visible at virtually every corner.
“There’s almost a sense that Cádiz has so much history that it can’t keep up it can’t keep it in check and all of these historic buildings are being beaten by the weather that comes off the Atlantic so it’s a challenge to keep these buildings in a state of good repair,” he said.
“And for better or worse what that does mean is that these historic parts of Cádiz have this gritty authenticity to them.”
Centuries-old buildings and cobbled streets are dotted throughout the city’s various districts, known in Spain as barrios, including El Pópulo, La Viña, and Santa María. El Pópulo is the city’s most ancient quarter, situated at the gateway to the historical centre, nestled between the Town Hall and the Cathedral.
It is widely regarded as the true medieval heart of the city, with roots stretching back to the 13th century.
The promenade is another unmissable attraction, where visitors can stroll along and take in the city’s breathtaking scenery, including the shimmering golden dome of the cathedral.
The Cathedral itself ranks amongst the most iconic landmarks in Cádiz, blending baroque and neoclassical architectural styles. Visitors can even embark on tours to oft-overlooked sections of the cathedral, including its crypts.
Plaza de las Flores is a charming square flanked by an array of cafés serving up local delicacies such as churros and fried fish, while Mercado Central buzzes with stalls brimming with locally-sourced produce.
While the millennia-old heritage forms a significant part of the fabric of Cádiz, the city has also welcomed modernity, as evidenced by the contemporary Parador de Cádiz.
The hotel first opened its doors in 2013 and boasts a stunning outdoor swimming pool with Atlantic views as its backdrop.
Flights from London to Cádiz take around two hours and 45 minutes with the nearest airport to the city is Jerez. From there it takes 45 minutes to drive with flights starting from £67.
England’s batting sparkled again as the hosts closed on a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals with an 38-run victory over Scotland at Headingley.
Sophia Dunkley ensured injured captain Nat Sciver-Brunt was not missed by capitalising on three dropped catches in making 57 on her return to the side.
Alice Capsey stroked 40 and Heather Knight 25 but most impressive was a barnstorming unbroken partnership of 61 from just 21 balls from Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson.
Together they took England from 141-5 after 17 overs to 200-5 after 20 – with Kemp hitting an unbeaten 39 from 16 balls and Gibson an 11-ball 30 not out.
After an edgy chase over Ireland in their second match, this was more reminiscent of England’s performance on the opening night of the tournament when they piled up 219-1 against Sri Lanka.
The Kemp-Gibson pyrotechnics pushed the target beyond Scotland and, despite an admirable effort, they finished on 162-7 – their highest score batting second in T20 internationals.
A win in either of England’s last two matches, against West Indies on Wednesday or New Zealand next Saturday, will likely be enough to secure a top-two finish.
Scotland, who have a win and two defeats, play New Zealand on Tuesday.
Research has named the best place in the UK to raise a child, thanks to a number of factors from the variety of countryside spaces to lower than average house prices
16:39, 19 Jun 2026Updated 16:41, 19 Jun 2026
The city was praised for its large outdoor green spaces(Image: Katy Blackwood/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)
Raising a child in the modern world is a demanding task, and there are lots of big decisions parents-to-be need to make to give their offspring the best chance in life.
One of the most important factors is where to live, and parents will be seeking somewhere with a balance between safety, education quality, childcare costs, plus outdoor spaces to raise free-range kids.
To give parents a hand when making this life-changing choice, Outdoor Toys has created an index of the best places to raise a child in the UK for 2026, and its research looked at a huge number of factors. These included the number of child-friendly attractions, crime rates, and the percentage of schools with a good or outstanding OFSTED rating. This gave each town and city a child raise-ability score out of ten, and the overall winner scored an impressive 7.32.
Sheffield in South Yorkshire took the top spot thanks to offering double the average amount of green space per person . It also has relatively affordable childcare costs of £918.33 per month, which is below the UK average of £1,128 per child without government support.
Housing is also a major factor for growing families, and according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the average house price in Sheffield stands at £222,000. This is below the UK wide average of £270,080, and far below areas such as the south east at £379,000.
Green spaces that can be enjoyed around the city include the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, which includes colourful flowers and plants from around the world, some of them kept in huge Victorian greenhouses. Outside, kids can wander the endless trails, spotting statues, fountains, and other pretty features.
Graves Park is another spot that’s much-loved by families. It has two playgrounds, woodlands, lakes, and much more to explore, while Kelham Island Museum is a fun day out where kids can learn all about the area’s industrial heritage in an interactive environment.
Second place in the rankings was Milton Keynes, its score boosted by the fact it offered the widest range of child-friendly attractions. MK residents enjoy 31 kid-friendly attractions per 100,000 people, 11 more than the study’s average, meaning families who live in the city certainly won’t get bored.
While Milton Keynes lost some ground due to its costly childcare – an average of £1,416 per month – it offered large amounts of green space per person as well as a high percentage of schools OFSTED graded as good or outstanding.
Swindon came in third place, in part due to having the lowest crime rate in the study at 68 per 1,000 people. It also offered average childcare costs of £900, below the UK average, while two-thirds of its schools had good or higher OFSTED ratings.
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Patton Oswalt is an avid reader. When he thinks about his ideal Sunday in the Valley, where he has lived for more than a decade, bookstores come up more than a few times, particularly ones like the neighborhood staple the Iliad, which encourages patrons to sit and read for hours.
Currently, the 57-year-old comedian says he is rereading Mo Daviau’s 2016 time-travel/rock-nerd novel “Every Anxious Wave,” the plot to which he “truly can’t describe,” adding: “It’s about, especially for me, how does Gen X grow old? And how do they try to dodge growing old? It’s pretty f— brilliant. Imagine a day just killing two or three hours in the Iliad just reading it. Oh, it’s the best.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Not that Oswalt always has time to sprawl out with a novel. Like any touring comedian of his caliber, he admits that his schedule is constantly in flux. Not only did he spend last summer and fall promoting his 10th stand-up hour, “Black Coffee and Ice Water” (out now on Audible), but he is constantly at work on new material. On June 9, he’s launching “Tea & Scotch” on YouTube, which delves into more observational comedy subjects such as ghost-seeing cats, AI paranoia and parenting a teenager. (Oswalt tells The Times that his daughter usually does her own thing on weekends, but sometimes they’ll journey to Burbank and hit the vintage shops on Magnolia, followed by poke for lunch.)
When he’s not earmarking time in his perfect Sunday for reading, Oswalt also delights in frequenting Valley small businesses that fully embrace the indie and oddball. “I like where the Valley’s going. I like how its residents are aging,” says Oswalt. “Because they’re aging into weirdness rather than safety, which is what I will always go for. Instead of just, ‘I want the nice, reliable chain restaurant, the nice, big book chain,’ I prefer smaller shops that take risks. They’re more quirky, an actual person works here, and the imperfections are what makes it amazing.”
Below, Oswalt shares his ideal Sunday in L.A., which sometimes begins later than he’d like it to.
7 a.m.: Enjoy a quiet breakfast at home
I try to be an early riser. Today I got up at 8:30, but a great day for me is getting up at 7, because I have that hour of quiet to have my breakfast, sip some tea, do some reading, and then start my day.
But it’s hard to have a lot of those mornings in a row, because unfortunately, I also have those nights where I’m just, like, lying awake thinking. I have those crash-out days where I’m like, “Sleep until noon today! Need it! Gotta catch up.” Anyone who says that they consistently wake up at 7 a.m., for the most part, they’re probably lying.
9 a.m.: Morning coffee with a side of people watching
What’s critical about the Valley, especially Studio City, is a lot of hipsters who have aged out of Los Feliz and Silver Lake have all moved here, and they brought the good sushi, the good bookstores and the good coffee with them. So, my perfect Sunday starts at the Studio City Farmers Market. You do this kind of roaming breakfast. Where they do the farmers market, there’s an amazing tamale stand that does these chicken and green chile tamales. You get one of those, and then you go over to Joan’s on Third, and you get yourself a really strong cup of coffee, because Joan’s is right there, part of the farmers market.
It’s almost like Joan’s is the motor on a sailboat. If you can’t find the food that you like roaming around the farmers market, you can hop into Joan’s and grab something, but that’s where the good coffee is. Then you get a thing of berries from one of the sellers, and you sit. There are musicians everywhere, and it is a really good opportunity to not start your day looking at a screen and instead actually look at beautiful and flawed and imperfect and awesome people moving around and interacting. For a comedian or writer, that is gold.
11 a.m.: Worm into a book
From there, I would go up to the Last Bookstore, which just opened a location on Lankershim Boulevard in NoHo. It’s a work in progress; you can see the beginnings of the cool building that they’re doing on the interior. It’s almost like when you watch the Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” and you see them assemble the stage as the concert goes on. It’s kind of amazing. So I always drop by there and spend way too much money on a book.
1 p.m.: Catch a matinee (and a matcha)
One of my favorite things is to see a movie in the afternoon. The Laemmle NoHo 7 on Lankershim is my little ’90s throwback Sunset 5, but in the Valley. They show very cool first-run indie movies, and then they will just randomly throw in [a classic], “Oh yeah, we’re showing ‘Jules and Jim.’” I just check my Fandango, to see what they’re showing in the afternoon, then I go see a movie.
I don’t really eat lunch these days, but across the street from the NoHo 7 is a place called Horror Vibes Coffee. It’s all based around horror movies. It’s weirdly popular. All these goth kids go in there, and they make really good matchas. So I’ll go in there, I’ll get a matcha, and then take that into the movie theater, see a flick. The Laemmle NoHo 7 does make really good chicken nuggets, and they do make a really, really bad for you — but delicious — bagel dog. Listen, a bagel dog with a recent indie movie? That’s mwah. [Gestures a chef’s kiss.]
4 p.m.: Head back to the bookstore
When I’m done at the movies, I will take whatever book I’ve gotten and go back down to the Last Bookstore and just sit and read. Or if you really want to go goblin-mode reading, you go to the Iliad Bookshop on Cahuenga. They encourage you just to go in there, sit, read. There are store cats everywhere that are hanging around, and the store kitties are very friendly. The Iliad has these big, overstuffed couches and chairs with blown springs. You are encouraged to sit and lounge and read. They have no problem with you doing that. A big thing for me now is having two to three uninterrupted hours of just reading. No phone, no nothing. Don’t gotta go anywhere. Don’t do anything. [Editor’s note: The Iliad is closed Sundays.]
6 p.m.: Sit down for some sushi
I’m very spoiled living in the Valley, because I live near amazing sushi. If I really want to splurge out and have what I think is the best sushi in the Valley, then I visit Sushi Tomoki, which is on Cahuenga. I just cannot rave about this place enough. They have a black cod sushi, and the black cod is slightly seared. It’s not cold, but it’s not totally cooked. There is something about cold rice and then this slightly seared, slightly burned black cod. The flavor is so perfect, I love it.
Right now, in the Valley, I’m kind of spoiled for good restaurants. There’s OyBar on Moorpark that I could go to. I go there right at 5. Otherwise there’s a line. I go right when they open. And then there’s a place called Wood & Water, further up Ventura, kind of closer to Sherman Oaks. That place is just solid, good. Everything on the menu is great, great wine list, you know. But the word is out — it’s getting crowded. Not to be a snot rag, but I go to Wood & Water so much that they kind of know me there, and they can usually get me a table. Not that I’m a big celeb, it’s just I go there a lot because their food is so good.
Once you’re my age, when I hear, “You gotta wait in line”… like, that’s why I’ve never been to Sqirl. Because I know I can’t do that, man. If I’m gonna stand in line, I’m gonna go to All Time, but I’ll just get there when they open. I can’t do lines anymore. You can do it when you’re 20, but I just want my g— breakfast.
8 p.m.: Take an outdoor stroll, then return to your book
After dinner, if it’s summertime in the Valley, I just walk through my neighborhood. There’s really good hills and stuff to go for, like, a nice nighttime walk after dinner. Or, because I’m such a freaking bookworm, I go home and sit on my big, comfy couch and just read some more until I fall asleep. There’s nothing wrong with double-dipping — you don’t have to read just once during the day. You can go back and forth.
The UK has an incredible range of places to camp, from national parks to unspoilt coastline, so where should you pitch your tent or drive your motorhome this summer? Research has shown the ultimate spot to enjoy the great outdoors
10:04, 19 Jun 2026Updated 10:04, 19 Jun 2026
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The county has several stunning camping locations(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A ‘Summer on a Shoestring Index’ has been created to show the best-value money places to camp in the upcoming months, and the winning destination has some of the country’s best beaches as well as inexpensive spots to pitch up.
Devon beat competition from Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands, and many other beautiful UK regions to be named the UK’s best-value destination for a campervan staycation this summer.
The index, put together by Camplify UK, took into account factors including the price per day for a caravan pitch, tourist board ratings, nearby activities, and the proximity of inexpensive places to eat. Devon also topped the list thanks to its number of National Trust Properties, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and National Parks, all of which offer inexpensive days out for families.
Camping pitches in Devon can be found for as little as £14 a night, and according to Camplify 85% of campsites in the county offer stays for under £20 a night while still maintaining a rating of at least 8.5. For rural escapes, Dartmoor National Park is an incredible choice, offering untamed open moorland and deep river valleys where wild ponies roam.
Devon destinations include the beach towns of Woolacombe and Croyde, and National Trust sites such as Baggy Point and Lydford Gorge make for inexpensive days out. There’s also the North Devon National Landscape to explore, an area of outstanding natural beauty that includes rocky coves, waterfalls, and soft sand dunes.
A recent ranking of the Best Beaches in Europe for 2026 included three in Devon. These included Woolacombe Beach at number 8, which beat beaches in the Canaries and Portugal to get a top ten ranking. Trebarwith Beach came in at number 17, while Bigbury Beach in South Devon ranked at 23.
Coming second on Camplify’s list was neighbouring county Cornwall, which also has lots of free and inexpensive days out for families. Like Devon, its also known for its spectacular beaches, with some compared to the Caribbean. Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula, as its turquoise waters and white sands could easily be found on a far-flung island.
For outdoorsy breaks, Cornwall is famous for surfing, especially towns such as Newquay whose beaches are considered some of the best in the UK in which to catch a wave.
Rounding off the top three was the Scottish Highlands, the perfect spot for camping among wild scenery, and waking up to views of mountains and glacial valleys. You’ll find plenty of well-equipped campsites in the region, although unlike England, wild camping is legal in Scotland if you’re in a small tent and ensure you leave no trace when you pack up the next day.
Those camping in motorhomes or bringing caravans still need to ensure they book a pitch at a campsite or other designated area. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) offer a stay the night scheme, where self-contained campers can park cheaply overnight in their car parks, with spaces on a first come, first served basis..
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Lee Andrews shared wild new claims about his gunpoint arrestCredit: Instagram/@wesleeeandrewsKatie Price’s husband said it was the ‘most horrific place’ he’s ever seenCredit: wesleeeandrews/instagram
Lee was released from Dubai’s notorious Al Awir prison on Friday and he has now shared a new account of what happened on social media.
The self-proclaimed businessman claimed: “I will say it one more time, the national guard who took me in the beginning, they had guns and they don’t register you as being arrested.
“They can just take you and hold you, which is what happened.
“Anywhere in the world you go to an airport, they have guns patrolling the boarder and they took me and not in the best way either.
Lee claimed wife Katie saved his lifeCredit: wesleeandrews/InstagramLee called for Susanna Reid to be sacked after she mocked him on Good Morning BritainCredit: ITV
“It wasn’t the best experience and from there they held me in state security, so I was transfered to a jail, which was the worst f***ing horrendous place I’ve ever seen and then into a mainstream.”
Earlier today, Leehit out at Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid for mocking him on yesterday’s show.
Calling for her to be sacked after she “rolled her eyes” at him live on air, Lee has even vowed to sit down with the host on live TV.
Taking to Instagram, Lee hit back as he said: “What is Susanna Reid rolling her eyes at?
“I’m not gonna comment on that, because obviously I’ll get onto the sofa with Katie at some point and we’ll thrash it out.
“And she can be as forthcoming as she likes.”
He then claimed Susanna is “prejudging” him unfairly.
“But to actually judge me without any evidence, calling me a conman, she should lose her job for that,” he fumed, calling for her axe from the breakfast programme.
Lee continued to say that she had “no solid evidence other than an ex coming forward”.
