NASA’s Artemis II astronauts were seen being helped across the deck of a US navy recovery ship, after splashing down on Earth from their mission around the moon.
Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026
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The rise is largely symbolic as some key members are unable to raise production amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
Published On 5 Apr 20265 Apr 2026
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to increase oil output quotas by 206,000 barrels per day for May, a rise that is largely symbolic as some of its key members are unable to raise production due to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The war has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz – the world’s most important oil route – since the end of February and cut exports from OPEC+ members Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iraq.
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In a statement on Sunday, eight members of OPEC+, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman, agreed to increase May quotas during a virtual meeting.
“The countries will continue to closely monitor and assess market conditions, and in their continuous efforts to support market stability,” the statement read.
“The eight countries also expressed concern regarding attacks on energy infrastructure, noting that restoring damaged energy assets to full capacity is both costly and takes a long time, thereby affecting overall supply availability,” it added.
While the quota increase represents less than two percent of the supply disrupted by the closure of the strait, OPEC+ sources told the Reuters news agency that the pledge had signalled readiness to raise output once the waterway reopens.
Crude prices have surged to a four-year high amid the war, close to $120 a barrel, leading to higher prices for transport fuels.
On Thursday, JPMorgan said oil prices could spike above $150, an all-time high, if oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain disrupted into mid-May.
May’s increase is the same as the eight members had agreed on for April at their last meeting on March 1. But amid the war, oil supply disruption on record is estimated to have removed as much as 12 to 15 million bpd or up to 15 percent of global supply.
With the strait still closed, Iran has allowed some countries in the region to use the waterway.
Iran has said Iraq was exempt from any transit restrictions through the strait, with shipping data on Sunday showing a tanker loaded with Iraqi crude passing through the waterway.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that deputy foreign minister-level talks were being held with Iran to discuss options to ensure the smooth transit of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump threatened to escalate attacks and target Iranian civilian infrastructure, including bridges and power plants, if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by Monday.
British singer-songwriter Lola Young is opening up about the “breaking point” that steered her toward recovery.
The “Messy” hitmaker told Rolling Stone in a recent interview that she was grateful that she fainted onstage late last year, and framed the scary ordeal as a wake-up call. “What do you call that? Like, a breaking point which allowed me to then be able to be here today, allowed me to be better for my fans, better for the future, and better for myself,” she told the outlet.
In September, the Grammy winner collapsed onstage during a performance at the All Things Go Music Festival in New York City. Following the health scare — which drew speculation and worry from fans who’d watched the viral video of Young stumbling and dropping her microphone before falling backward — Young canceled the remainder of her tour, which included a 21-stop North American run.
The tour, in support of her third album, “I’m Only F— Myself,” was expected to conclude with two dates at the Hollywood Palladium in December. Instead, she spent two months seeking holistic addiction treatment in a facility that prioritizes psychotherapy. She’s now attending 12-step meetings and working with a sponsor.
When announcing that she would have to nix forthcoming performances to prioritize her health, Young told fans on social media that she was “going away for a while” and apologized, writing, “I love this job and I never take my commitments and audience for granted so I’m sorry to those who will be disappointed by this. … I really hope you’ll give me a second chance … once I’ve had some time to work on myself and come back stronger.”
Young told Rolling Stone that, naturally, some folks were really angry that she’d canceled her tour. “[I]t was a decision that I had to make, and it was sad that I had to do that. What else was I going to do, die? That was the reality of where my addiction was heading.”
This wasn’t the first health incident for Young, who is known for her chart-topping breakout hit, “Messy.” The budding megastar performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2025, and during her Weekend 1 performance, she struggled to get through. The heat lingered around 100 degrees, and while Young danced and sang, she began to visibly gag and retch before running off the stage and asking for a bucket.
The acclaimed artist has been candid about her struggles with cocaine and alcohol addiction and often explores those struggles in her lyrics. In the song “d£aler,” a bouncy goodbye letter to her drug dealer, she sings about spending the day trying to be sober but feeling miserable nonetheless: “I wanna get away, far from here / Pack my bags, my drugs, and disappear.” … “Pack my bags and tell my dealer I’ll miss him.”
Young also sat down with the Times UK and said that she didn’t want to say too much but confirmed that she was in recovery for drug addiction. “But what I would say is that recovery is an ongoing process. I’m not the finished article, but I’m doing a hell of a lot better.”
Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from this week’s Miami Open as she continues her recovery from a recent illness.
The British number one became unwell while playing in the Middle East last month, and is still suffering with post-viral symptoms.
Raducanu decided to play last week’s event in Indian Wells, and reached the third round before losing in just 52 minutes to the world number six Amanda Anisimova.
The 23-year-old has 215 ranking points to defend from reaching the quarter-finals in Miami last year, but has decided it would be best to take a break to recover fully.
Raducanu beat both Anisimova and the then top 10 player Emma Navarro before losing to Jessica Pegula in three sets in last year’s quarter-finals.
This year she had a first-round bye, and could have played British childhood rival Sonay Kartal in the second round.
Raducanu had already decided not to play in Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup tie in Melbourne next month, but is currently scheduled to return to the tour in three weeks’ time.
She has entered the WTA event in Linz, which would be her first clay-court tournament of the season.
Wood has been plagued by injuries during his career – including multiple knee and elbow operations – which have robbed England for periods of one of their finest strike bowlers.
He spent seven months rehabilitating his knee in order to be fit for the Ashes and lamented not being able to play some games for his county before heading to Australia for the series.
“I tried to get back at certain points but my knee wasn’t quite ready,” he said.
“It’s easy in hindsight, even if I was at 80% then at least the game would have given us an indicator of where I was.”
He was thought to have been close to a return in the home summer, but ultimately did not take the field until England’s only Ashes warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill in November.
He bowled eight overs but was only cleared to play in the first Test following a hamstring scan.
For now, although focused on his recovery, Wood said he has been thinking about life after cricket: “I’ve started thinking about other things, doing podcasts, doing my coaching badges.
“I’ve now started to try and think for the first time about what I should do if this doesn’t go well.”
Wood – regarded as one of the fastest bowlers to play for England – has taken 119 wickets in 38 Tests since making his debut in 2015.
He was part of the 2015 Ashes-winning side, lifted the 2019 50-over World Cup and won the T20 World Cup in 2022.
I couldn’t stop looking at the thick bunches of California brittlebush, their bright yellow daisy-like flowers bursting alongside the sandy trail at Eaton Canyon.
I’d last walked the path a week after the Eaton fire, when I observed that “charred limbs of manzanita and other small trees and shrubs jerked out of the earth like seared skeletal remains. Heaps of leathery brown prickly pear pads sagged into the dirt and ash. Even the rocks were burned.”
Last Saturday, almost 14 months later, I marveled at how healthy Eaton Canyon looked as I attended L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation’s launch of its Landscape Recovery Center. This is in large part thanks to volunteers who’ve dedicated hundreds of hours to restoring the canyon. I’m excited to tell you how you can be a part of those efforts.
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The Department of Parks and Rec’s effort is a major step in repairing the damage wreaked by the Eaton fire that started Jan. 7 of last year.
The center includes a nursery full of native plants that will be used not only in Eaton Canyon but also in six other parks damaged by fire, including five in Altadena, and Castaic Lake State Recreation Area. Workers will also reestablish vital tree canopy lost in the fire, planting coast live oak, Engelmann oak and Western sycamores.
Native plants at the nursery at the Landscape Recovery Center at Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
L.A. County is partnering with the Theodore Payne Foundation and the Altadena Seed Library to achieve two key goals: 1) Grow the plants in the recovery center’s nursery from locally sourced seeds. 2) Build decentralized seed banks by procuring seeds from L.A. County nature centers.
The latter involves the “process of conserving plant genetics by dehydrating and securely storing seeds for future potential restoration or research projects,” said ecologist Nina Raj, founder of Altadena Seed Library, who is working with the county to develop the seed bank project.
“By carving out space at existing nature centers for a bit of tabletop equipment and storage space, the seeds from their adjacent natural areas [will] be conserved alongside backup populations from partnering nature centers — like an insurance policy in case of, or rather, in preparation for the next natural disaster,” Raj said.
A path near the parking lot of Eaton Canyon Natural Area, as seen on Jan. 14, 2025, and on Saturday.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
In the coming months, officials estimate that more than 100,000 seeds sourced from Eaton Canyon will be propagated to aid recovery efforts. The county has also purchased more than 1,000 native shrubs and understory plants, chosen not only for their ecological value but also their cultural significance to the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians Gabrieleno/Tongva, whose leaders have been advising the county on its canyon restoration efforts.
The county also bought 200 native trees whose seeds came from “mother” trees grown in soil “extremely compatible with the organic matter here at Eaton Canyon,” said Norma Edith García-González, director of L.A. County Parks and Recreation.
All of this intentional sowing and planting is a 180-degree turn from previous recovery efforts. After the Kinneloa fire burned through Eaton Canyon in 1993, officials rushed to stabilize the hillsides. An expert team recommended grass seed be dropped from helicopters all over the hillsides, which present-day experts say may have introduced nonnative grasses to the region.
The nursery at L.A. County’s Landscape Recovery Center at Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
“The Landscape Recovery Center represents a best-practice model for restoring nature, rebuilding habitat diversity and supporting disaster recovery,” García-González said. “[We are] rebuilding with intention, using climate-resilient native species informed by both ecological science and cultural knowledge.”
Most of Eaton Canyon, including its beloved nature center, burned in the 2025 fire. The recovery center’s modular building and the land around it are among the first built improvements, and the area now has electricity, water access, irrigation systems and restrooms. (The recovery center’s footprint is south of the burned nature center, and no announcement was made Saturday regarding when it might be rebuilt.)
These improvements will allow the Landscape Recovery Center, which will have five full-time and four part-time staff members, to host volunteers interested in caring for habitat, supporting the plant nursery or working in local outreach or on community science.
Volunteer events, including hands-on nursery work, will be scheduled Tuesday through Saturday, with times varying depending on the program. Those age 14 and older can sign up by calling or texting (626) 662-5091. (A quick note: Eaton Canyon remains closed to the public, outside of volunteer opportunities.)
A cultural sign welcomes visitors to Eaton Canyon.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Many volunteers have already been hard at work. Organized by the Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates, volunteers have donated hundreds of hours to clear out short-pod mustard, castor bean, tree tobacco and fountain grass, which choke out native plants and serve as flashy fuel for wildfires.
All of this work must be done before hikers and other outdoors lovers can return to Eaton Canyon.
Jeremy Munns, a trails planner for L.A. County Parks and Recreation, said rebuilding the Eaton Canyon Trail and other county trails in the Eaton Canyon Natural Area will be part of a future phase.
The fire and subsequent flooding washed out the trail and caused hillsides to collapse into and around the canyon. Contractors, county staff and conservation corps crews will need to install retaining walls, repair drainages and add rock walls (called rock armoring) to stabilize the canyon and protect it from further erosion, Munns said.
A path near the Landscape Recovery Center.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Munns said there isn’t currently a plan to include volunteers in that work because of safety concerns.
“In the future, there will be opportunities for volunteers to help with the maintenance of these trails, but the timing of that has not yet been determined,” he said.
As I walked through the nursery during Saturday’s event, I found myself feeling hopeful. Several rows of California sagebrush, California buckwheat, chaparral beard tongue, sticky monkey flower and more sat in their pots, awaiting their new homes in the nearby ground.
It’s easy to imagine a future in which the entire canyon is healthy once again.
Workers tend to plants growing at the Santa Monica Mountains Fund seed farm.
(Jacsen Donohue / Santa Monica Mountains Fund)
1. Nurture yourself and nature in Newbury Park
The Santa Monica Mountains Fund and Second Nature Collective will host a yoga and volunteer day from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in Newbury Park. Participants will first be led through a 45-minute mindful and meditative yoga session before placing hundreds of native plants in the ground. Register at eventbrite.com.
2. Nosh on nonnative plants in Studio City
Urban forager Nick Mann will lead a 3-mile foraging walk from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday through Fryman Canyon. He will teach participants how to identify edible nonnative plants commonly found along local trails. Donations requested but not required. Register at eventbrite.com.
3. Ride the river near Azusa
Active SGV will host a 12.4-mile bike ride from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday along the West Fork National Scenic Bikeway north of Azusa. Carpooling is encouraged, as the parking lot at the trailhead fills up. Register at eventbrite.com.
Condor A1 (a.k.a. Hlow Hoo-let) soars across the sky in far Northern California.
(Matt Mais / Yurok Tribe)
In a potentially historic win for condor conservation, Yurok wildlife officials say there might be a condor pair tending to an egg in the tribe’s Northern California homeland — where condors haven’t nested for more than a century. Times staff writer Lila Seidman wrote that condors vanished from the state’s North Coast because of violence carried out by European settlers. “The pair believed to be nesting in Yurok country were captive born and released in 2022, as part of the first group reintroduced in that region,” Seidman wrote. “The pair, formally known as A1 and A0, are the oldest birds from their release cohort at nearly 7 years old — and the only ones old enough to reproduce.”
Happy adventuring,
It’s officially baby season at the San Dimas Raptor Rescue. The L.A. County facility, which rehabilitates birds of prey, took in its first great horned owlet in early February. The center anticipates taking in dozens of great horned owlets who are found starving and need to be nursed back to health before being released. Generally, the center tries to release a bird back to the area where it was found. In this little baby’s case, that would be Venice Beach. The center is run, in part, by volunteers who are trained by the county before working with the birds. If you ever find a raptor that you perceive is in need, you can call the center at (626) 559-5732 before interacting with the animal. A great service to our local wildlife!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.