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The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has laid off 15 full-time employees, many from the organization’s education and public programming team.

The layoffs amount to 14% of the full-time staff, the museum said Tuesday. An additional seven part-time, on-call employees also had their roles eliminated, the museum said.

Two people familiar with museum operations who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation described the scene as shocking and chaotic on Thursday morning, when employees were summoned into morning meetings with human resources, informed that their jobs had been terminated and given until 2 p.m. to vacate the premises. Personal belongings were being sent to their homes by courier, the sources said.

The museum’s curator of film programs, Bernardo Rondeau, was among those laid off. He was informed while he was at the Cannes film festival, and he posted on LinkedIn: “As of today, my role as Curator, Film Programs at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been made redundant, effective immediately. I’m deeply grateful for the time I’ve spent there and for the many talented people I’ve had the privilege to work with.”

Rondeau, who previously served as the founding director of film programs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.

A representative for the museum told The Times that the layoffs were made “due to a necessary shift of the institution’s focus to ensure we open on time next year.”

“It is a tremendously difficult decision to reorganize roles and to eliminate staff, but the restructure will allow the museum’s teams to work more efficiently to bring the museum to life for the public,” the museum said in a statement.

The Lucas Museum was founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, who searched for a location in San Francisco and Chicago before choosing Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The $1-billion museum broke ground adjacent to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in 2018. The project experienced its first substantial delay in 2022, as pandemic-related supply-chain issues forced the opening originally scheduled for 2023 to be pushed back to 2025. Earlier this year its opening was again pushed back, to 2026.

In February the museum’s director and chief executive, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, stepped down after five years in charge. The museum said her role was being split into two positions, with Lucas overseeing “content direction” and former 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures chairman and chief executive Jim Gianopulos taking over as interim chief executive. Jackson-Dumont left on April 1.

Jackson-Dumont has not spoken publicly about her departure and did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

Sources said Lucas has been involved in curatorial decisions but did not seem engaged in the education and public programming that Jackson-Dumont had championed.

Prior to her arrival in L.A., Jackson-Dumont served as the chairwoman of education and public programs at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The San Francisco native also held education and public programming roles at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Seattle Art Museum, where she worked with Regan Pro, the Lucas Museum deputy director of public programs and social impact who was among those laid off last week, according to sources. Pro did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.

“Education remains a central pillar of the Lucas Museum,” the museum said in a statement Tuesday morning. “One of the main reasons Los Angeles’s Exposition Park was chosen as the location for the museum was its proximity to other museums, USC, and more than 400 schools in a five-mile radius. The importance of education for the museum can be seen by the educational spaces baked into the museum’s design from the beginning, including 10 large classroom spaces, a vast library, and two state-of-the-art theaters. Educational program plans are still in development, and we look forward to sharing more closer to opening.”

Public spending cuts across six African countries have resulted in the incomes of health and education workers falling by up to 50 percent in five years, leaving them struggling to make ends meet, according to international NGO ActionAid.

The Human Cost of Public Sector Cuts in Africa report published on Tuesday found that 97 percent of the healthcare workers it surveyed in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria could not cover their basic needs like food and rent with their wages.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to blame for these countries’ failing public systems, the report said, as the agency advises governments to significantly cut public spending to pay back foreign debt. As the debt crisis rapidly worsens across the Global South, more than three-quarters of all low-income countries in the world are spending more on debt servicing than healthcare.

“The debt crisis and the IMF’s insistence on cuts to public services in favour of foreign debt repayments have severely hindered investments in healthcare and education across Africa. For example, in 2024, Nigeria allocated only 4% of its national revenue to health, while a staggering 20.1% went toward repaying foreign debt,” said ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director Andrew Mamedu.

The report highlighted how insufficient budgets in the healthcare system had resulted in chronic shortages and a decline in the quality of service.

Women also appear to be disproportionally affected.

“In the past month, I have witnessed four women giving birth at home due to unaffordable hospital fees. The community is forced to seek vaccines and immunisation in private hospitals since they are not available in public hospitals. Our [local] health services are limited in terms of catering for pregnant and lactating women,” said a healthcare worker from Kenya, who  ActionAid identified only as Maria.

Medicines for malaria – which remains a leading cause of death across the African continent, especially in young children and pregnant women – are now 10 times more expensive at private facilities, the NGO said. Millions don’t have access to lifesaving healthcare due to long travel distances, rising fees and a medical workforce shortage.

“Malaria is an epidemic in our area [because medication is now beyond the reach of many]. Five years ago, we could buy [antimalarial medication] for 50 birrs ($0.4), but now it costs more than 500 birr ($4) in private health centres,” a community member from Muyakela Kebele in Ethiopia, identified only as Marym, told ActionAid.

‘Delivering quality education is nearly impossible’

The situation is equally dire in education, as budget cuts have led to failing public education systems crippled by rising costs, a shortage of learning materials and overcrowded classrooms.

Teachers report being overwhelmed by overcrowded classrooms, with some having to manage more than 200 students. In addition, about 87 percent of teachers said they lacked basic classroom materials, with 73 percent saying they paid for the materials themselves.

Meanwhile, teachers’ wages have been gradually falling, with 84 percent reporting a 10-15 percent drop in their income over the past five years.

“I often struggle to put enough food on the table,” said a teacher from Liberia, identified as Kasor.

Four of the six countries included in the report are spending less than the recommended one-fifth of their national budget on education, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

“I now believe teaching is the least valued profession. With over 200 students in my class and inadequate teaching and learning materials, delivering quality education is nearly impossible,” said a primary school teacher in Malawi’s Rumphi District, identified as Maluwa.

Action Aid said its report shows that the consequences of IMF-endorsed policies are far-reaching. Healthcare workers and educators are severely limited in the work they can do, which has direct consequences on the quality of services they can provide, it said.

“The debt crisis and drive for austerity is amplified for countries in the Global South and low-income countries, especially due to an unfair global economic system held in place by outdated institutions, such as the IMF,” said Roos Saalbrink, the global economic justice lead at ActionAid International. “This means the burden of debt falls on those most marginalised – once again. This must end.”

LOVE Island fans have been sent into a spin after convincing themselves one star from the show is set to announce her engagement.

Eagle-eyed fans have spotted that the villa alumni is wearing a ring on her wedding finger after recently going public with her boyfriend.

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Sharon Gaffka only unveiled her romance with Matthew Torbitt in March, having previously kept quiet about her private life since her Love Island days.

But now, alongside a series of telling new photos, the 29-year-old is already talking about having a baby with her fella.

Sharon now works as a VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) activist and is an ambassador for domestic violence charity Refuge.

Matthew, meanwhile, is a Homelessness & Prison Reform Advocate.

Together, they have addressed the Oxford Union after being invited there to tell Oxford University students about their work.

Sharon has since shared several black and white photos that were taken backstage at the talk, which show her in a stunning long-sleeved dress and Matthew in a tux.

But after the law graduate posted the pictures on Instagram, fans couldn’t help but spot the ring on Sharon’s left hand.

Sharon told her followers: “I can’t wait to tell our future child that mum and dad were once guest speakers at the union they’ll one day be members of 👀.”

Replying, one follower wrote: “It’s giving engagement announcement pics tbh.”

Much to everyone’s delight, Sharon and Matthew both confirmed that an engagement is very much on the cards.

“It’s coming,” Sharon replied.

Matthew added: “Trust me, it’s coming.”

Sharon even went one stage further in response to a follower who had written: “This is so gorgeous. I’m seeing the not too distant future here.”

The former reality star replied: “Everyone get ready for the wedding content 😂.”

Sharon Gaffka’s love life

What we know about Sharon’s private life since she left Love Island…

Sharon appeared on Love Island in 2021 because she had grown tired of “being the only single one” in her group of friends.

The former beauty queen and law graduate said she was on the look out for someone intelligent.

Sharon was paired with Hugo Hammond on the show but later accused him of ‘touching her inappropriately’ outside of the villa. Hugo flatly denied her allegations.

Although it appeared Sharon was heterosexual, she also accused Love Island bosses of editing out a bisexual confession.

Sharon went off the radar in terms of her private life following her villa stint.

But in 2023, she made a rare admission about her love life – revealing she had enjoyed a celebrity romance.

Sharon confessed: “I have only ever dated one person in the public eye in the past two years, it lasted for the best part of five minutes, so it’s no even known about outside my inner circle.

“I’d want a relationship that was known of, not known about.”

In the same year, Sharon also opened up about suffering a tragic miscarriage.

Sharon, who did not reveal who the baby’s father was, cried as she told fans about her emotional and heartbreaking experience in a video.

In March 2025, Sharon revealed she had found her happy-ever-after with fellow activist Matthew Torbitt.

The pair declared their love for each other on Instagram alongside a series of photos taken during a trip to Spain.

Sharon had hoped to find a boyfriend in the seventh series of Love Island in 2021.

She was was briefly coupled up with Hugo Hammond during her time in the villa, but later accused him of “inappropriately touching” her – which he denied.

She alleged her friendship with Hugo ended because of his behaviour following Love Island, however he described her claims as “completely false” on social media.

Sharon has since remained tight-lipped about romantic liaisons but revealed two years ago that she had suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage.

Opening up as she marked what would have been her baby’s first birthday, the women’s rights campaigner said: “Grief is not a linear process.

“I’m tired of being told that time is healer and this truth is especially evident in the aftermath of miscarriage for those who never planned to have children. Feelings of loss, confusion, guilt, and even relief can surface unexpectedly, and these emotions are all valid.”

Sharon told her fans she wasn’t sharing her story for sympathy, but as part of her healing process.

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When Los Angeles City Council members took up a plan to hike the wages of tourism workers this week, they received some carefully worded advice from city lawyers: Don’t vote on this yet.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Michael J. Dundas advised them on Wednesday — deep into their meeting — that his office had not yet conducted a final legal review of the flurry of last-minute changes they requested earlier in the day.

Dundas recommended that the council delay its vote for two days to comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

“We advise that the posted agenda for today’s meeting provides insufficient notice under the Brown Act for first consideration and adoption of an ordinance to increase the wages and health benefits for hotel and airport workers,” Dundas wrote.

The council pressed ahead anyway, voting 12-3 to increase the minimum wage of those workers to $30 per hour by 2028, despite objections from business groups, hotel owners and airport businesses.

Then, on Friday, the council conducted a do-over vote, taking up the rewritten wage measure at a special noon meeting — one called only the day before. The result was the same, with the measure passing again, 12-3.

Some in the hotel industry questioned why Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who runs the meetings, insisted on moving forward Wednesday, even after the lawyers’ warning.

Jackie Filla, president and chief executive of the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles, said the decision to proceed Wednesday gave a political boost to Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers. The union had already scheduled an election for Thursday for its members to vote on whether to increase their dues.

By approving the $30 per hour minimum wage on Wednesday, the council gave the union a potent selling point for the proposed dues increase, Filla said.

“It looks like it was in Unite Here’s financial interest to have that timing,” she said.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who opposed the wage increases, was more blunt.

“It was clear that Marqueece intended to be as helpful as possible” to Unite Here Local 11, “even if it meant violating the Brown Act,” she said.

Harris-Dawson spokesperson Rhonda Mitchell declined to say why her boss pushed for a wage vote on Wednesday after receiving the legal advice about the Brown Act. That law requires local governments to take additional public comment if a legislative proposal has changed substantially during a meeting.

Mitchell, in a text message, said Harris-Dawson scheduled the new wage vote for Friday because of a mistake by city lawyers.

“The item was re-agendized because of a clerical error on the City Attorney’s part — and this is the correction,” she said.

Mitchell did not provide details on the error. However, the wording on the two meeting agendas is indeed different.

Wednesday’s agenda called for the council to ask city lawyers to “prepare and present” amendments to the wage laws. Friday’s agenda called for the council to “present and adopt” the proposed changes.

Maria Hernandez, a spokesperson for Unite Here Local 11, said in an email that her union does not control the City Council’s schedule. The union’s vote on higher dues involved not just its L.A. members but also thousands of workers in Orange County and Arizona, Hernandez said.

“The timing of LA City Council votes is not up to us (sadly!) — in fact we were expecting a vote more than a year ago — nor would the precise timing be salient to our members,” she said.

Hernandez said Unite Here Local 11 members voted “overwhelmingly” on Thursday to increase their dues, allowing the union to double the size of its strike fund and pay for “an army of organizers” for the next round of labor talks. She did not disclose the size of the dues increase.

Dundas’ memo, written on behalf of City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, was submitted late in Wednesday’s deliberations, after council members requested a number of changes to the minimum wage ordinance. At one point, they took a recess so their lawyers could work on the changes.

By the time the lawyers emerged with the new language, Dundas’ memo was pinned to the public bulletin board in the council chamber, where spectators quickly snapped screenshots.

May 15 (UPI) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday banning fluoride in public water, making it the second state to do so.

DeSantis signed SB 700, known as the Farm Bill, during a press conference. The law, which is to go into effect July 1, prohibits local governments from adding fluoride and other “water quality” additives from the water supply.

DeSantis equated the use of fluoride in water — which is heralded as a trusted and tested public health preventative medicine strategy — as “basically forced medication on people.”

“People want to use it on their teeth, great. But it’s readily available now,” he said.

“We have the ability to deliver fluoride through toothpaste and … all these others things. You don’t got to force it and take way people’s choices.”

DeSantis framed the issue as one of “informed consent,” stating “forcing this in the water supply is trying to take that away from people who may want a different decision rather than to have this in water.”

The bill reached DeSantis after having been overwhelming approved by the state’s House in a 88 to 27 vote late last month and the state’s Senate on April 16 in a 27 to 9 vote.

Florida’s ban comes after Utah in late March became the first state to prohibit fluoride in its public water and as the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health and Human Services review potential health risks associated with the long-held medical practices.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed that fluoride is associated with an assortment of diseases, including cancer, and he called it “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer IQ loss, neurodevelopment disorders and thyroid disease.”

On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its intention to remove fluoride supplements from the market staring October.

U.S. cities have fluoridated their drinking water for decades in a effort to fight tooth decay, with Grand Rapids, Mich., becoming the first to do so in 1945.

The American Dental Association has been a vocal supported of fluoridated tap water amid the controversy and on Thursday published slides to its Facebook account showing that the practice reduces cavities by 25% in both adults and children, and is safe.

Its president, Brett Kessler, said in a statement issued following Utah’s ban that children will be the ones to suffer.

“Community water fluoridation programs save states money, save the federal government money and save people money,” he said. “I urge every dentist and community member to make their voices heard if there are proposals in your area that threaten the oral health of our communities.”

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay a $329,794 fine to settle an ethics board’s complaint that he misspent public funds on his security detail during his brief, failed run for U.S. president.

The deal, announced Wednesday by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, is the costliest repayment order in the ethics board’s history. But it allows de Blasio to avoid an even steeper penalty of $475,000 that was previously imposed, a reduction the board said came in light of the former mayor’s “financial situation.”

In exchange, de Blasio agreed to drop his appeal of the board’s finding. And for the first time, he admitted that he received written warning that his out-of-state security expenses could not legally be covered by city taxpayers.

“In contradiction of the written guidance I received from the Board, I did not reimburse the City for these expenses,” de Blasio wrote in the settlement, adding: “I made a mistake and I deeply regret it.”

The payments concern the $319,794.20 in travel-related expenses — including airfare, lodging, meals — that de Blasio’s security detail incurred while accompanying him on trips across the country during his presidential campaign in 2019. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.

The campaign elicited a mix of mockery and grousing by city residents, who accused the Democrat of abandoning his duties as second-term mayor for the national spotlight. It was suspended within four months.

Under the agreement, de Blasio must pay $100,000 immediately, followed by quarterly installments of nearly $15,000 for the next four years. If he misses a payment, he will be deemed in default and ordered to pay the full $475,000.

The funds will eventually make their way back into the city treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Conflicts of Interest Board.

An attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment on the settlement.

De Blasio had previously argued that forcing him to cover the cost of his security detail’s travel violated his 1st Amendment rights by creating an “unequal burden” between wealthy candidates and career public servants.

Since leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a lecturer at multiple universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and delivered paid speeches in Italy.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.