The Sports Report: Dodgers lose game and Roki Sasaki
Dodgers lose Roki Sasaki
From Maddie Lee: The gathering on the Truist Park mound kept growing. At first, Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki was visited by pitching coach Mark Prior and catcher Hunter Feduccia, with the help of interpreter Will Ireton. Then, Prior summoned head athletic trainer Thomas Albert. Then, they called out manager Dave Roberts, who eventually made the pitching change.
The group had been examining the middle finger on Sasaki’s right hand. Sasaki exited the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss to the Braves in the fourth inning with a blister on that finger, which will land him on the 15-day injured list, Roberts said after the game.
“There’s just no way we can avoid it given the severity of the blister,” Roberts said. “So we’ll give him some time. But we can cover it up actually to keep his arm moving.”
Still, it’s unclear how long it will sideline him. In the meantime, Roberts said, left-hander Eric Lauer will return to the rotation, and the Dodgers will add a reliever as the corresponding move.
“It’s more disappointing with Roki because he has been so consistently good,” Roberts said. “And I don’t think he’s dealt with any blister issues. So for it to kind of come out of nowhere was a surprise to all of us. He was on a good run. So now unfortunately, it’s going to be minimum two weeks.”
Mark Walter’s company TWG Global defends Dodgers financing and Lakers sale
Angels swept by Guardians
Steven Kwan hit a tying double in the ninth inning, Travis Bazzana followed with a sacrifice fly and the Cleveland Guardians rallied past the Angels 4-3 on Wednesday for their seventh straight victory.
Hunter Gaddis (2-3) retired the final two batters in the eighth to earn the win. Erik Sabrowski worked a scoreless ninth for his second major league save and first since 2024.
With a runner on second, Sabrowski struck out pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud and got pinch-hitter Oswald Peraza to pop up to second as Cleveland completed a three-game sweep.
Jeanie Buss takes siblings to court again
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Jeanie Buss is taking her siblings to court. Again.
Attorneys representing the Lakers’ controlling governor filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday to block her five siblings from trying to sell the family’s remaining 17.82% of the NBA franchise the Buss family has owned since 1979.
Jeanie contends that her siblings should abide by a 2017 court order that mandated the family’s co-trustees to “take all actions reasonably available to ensure that Jeanie is appointed and remains as the NBA controlling owner of the Lakers.” The 2017 legal battle installed Jeanie’s younger siblings, Janie and Joey, as her fellow co-trustees, two roles that were previously held by her older brothers Jim and Johnny, who were ousted after a failed attempt to wrestle control away from Jeanie.
The 97-page petition accuses Janie, Joey and the other siblings Jim, Johnny and Jesse of “devious behavior” for not including Jeanie in discussions to sell the family’s last stakes in the team earlier this month. While the other siblings elected to sell soon after Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to a record-breaking transaction with Mark Walter and released a statement attributed to the Buss family, Jeanie “never agreed to any sale, was never consulted and was never even informed,” the petition states.
What to watch for in Rams preseason game against Chargers
From Gary Klein: Under coach Sean McVay, the Rams’ final preseason games routinely are showcases for players vying for spots on the practice squad, not the roster.
But Thursday night’s game against the Chargers at SoFi Stadium will offer another look at perhaps one of the most important players for the Rams’ future:
Rookie quarterback Ty Simpson.
Simpson, the 13th pick in the NFL draft, has been competing with fourth-year pro Stetson Bennett to back up Matthew Stafford, though Bennett took the vast majority of second-team reps during training camp and preseason workouts.
Other things to watch Thursday:
Jim Harbaugh wants to see improvement from Chargers
From Joaquin Ruiz: It’s decision-making time.
With a 53-man roster needing to be finalized by Sunday, the Chargers wrap up the preseason against the Rams at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night.
The Chargers looked sloppy in their 41-17 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers last week, following an inspiring 27-7 road win over the Houston Texans, and now aim for a better on-field product in their final tuneup.
“Just want it to be crisp [and] clean,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Want to see improvement. … Everybody doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Angel City loses to North Carolina
Ashley Sanchez scored twice to break the single-season goals record for the North Carolina Courage in a 2-0 victory over Angel City on Wednesday night.
The former All-American at UCLA leads the National Women’s Soccer League in scoring this season with 15 goals.
Sanchez scored her 14th goal in the 41st minute, tying Lynn Biyendolo’s record for the North Carolina set in 2019. Evelyn Ijeh’s backheel flick found a charging Sanchez, who blasted it into the far corner.
This day in sports history
1884 — Richard Sears beats Howard Taylor 6-0, 1-6, 6-0, 6-2 to win his fourth straight U.S. national tennis championship.
1903 — Britain’s Hugh Doherty is the first non-American to win the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships with a 6-0, 6-3, 10-8 victory over the William Larned.
1909 — William Larned wins his fifth U.S. singles tennis title with a five-set victory over William Clothier in Newport, R.I.
1928 — Helen Wills beats Helen Hull Jacobs to take the fifth women’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships. Wills needs only 33 minutes, defeating Jacobs 6-2, 6-1.
1957 — Hickory Smoke, driven by John Simpson, Jr., wins the Hambletonian Stakes after capturing the fifth and deciding heat.
1969 — Lindy’s Pride, driven by Howard Beissinger, wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats.
1975 — Onny Parun of New Zealand defeats Stan Smith 6-4, 6-2 in the first night match at the U.S. Open before a crowd of 4,949 at the West Side Tennis Club.
1976 — Transsexual Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, is barred from competing at the U.S. Open tennis championships after refusing to submit to a chromosome qualification test.
1978 — The Cosmos defeat the Tampa Bay Rowdies 3-1 to win the NASL Championship.
1985 — Mary Joe Fernandez, 14, becomes the youngest player to win a match at the U.S. Open. Fernandez beats Sara Gomer 6-1, 6-4.
1996 — Stefan Edberg stuns Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek at the U.S. Open, winning 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in his record 54th straight and final Grand Slam event.
1999 — Maurice Greene and Inger Miller win at 200 meters at the world championships, giving the U.S. a sprint sweep. Greene is the first to win the 100 and 200 at a major global meet since Carl Lewis at the 1984 Olympics.
2006 — Marco Andretti, 19, becomes the youngest winner of a major open-wheel event, beating Dario Franchitti by 0.66 seconds to take the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
2015 — Usain Bolt wins his fourth straight 200-meter title at the world championships, finishing in 19.55 seconds in Beijing.
2018 — Simona Halep becomes the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open in the half-century of the pro era. Halep is overwhelmed by 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-4.
2023 — Gymnast Simone Biles (26) wins her record eighth U.S. championship.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1897 — Roger Bresnahan, later a Hall of Fame catcher, made his major-league debut as a pitcher for the Washington Senators by shutting out the St. Louis Browns 3-0.
1911 — Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox. Walsh struck out eight and walked one.
1937 — Brooklyn’s Fred Frankhouse pitched a rain-shortened no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. The game was stopped with two out in the eighth inning with the Dodgers leading 5-0.
1977 — Toby Harrah and Bump Wills of the Texas Rangers hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs on consecutive pitches in the seventh inning in an 8-2 victory over New York at Yankee Stadium.
1978 — Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds hit his 200th home run to become the first player in major league history to have 200 homers and 500 stolen bases.
1982 — Rickey Henderson of Oakland broke Lou Brock’s 1974 record of 118 stolen bases in a season and stole three more bases in the Athletics’ 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. It gave Henderson 122 thefts in 127 games.
1999 — Vladimir Guerrero’s hitting streak was halted at 31 games by Cincinnati’s Ron Villone in the Reds’ 4-1 win over Montreal. Guerrero went 0-for-2 with an intentional walk against Villone, ending the majors’ longest hitting streak since 1987.
2005 — Jeff Kent became the first player to hit 300 home runs as a second baseman in the Dodgers’ 8-3 win over Houston. The homer was the 325th of his career.
2010 — Florida led off a game with back-to-back homers for the first time in franchise history in a 7-1 victory over Atlanta. Cameron Maybin hit the first pitch of the game into the left-field seats. Logan Morrison then connected off Tommy Hanson for his first major league home run.
2011 — Justin Verlander became the majors’ first 20-game winner, grinding through six innings in the Detroit Tigers’ 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Verlander (20-5) became the first pitcher to win 20 games before the end of August since Arizona’s Curt Schilling in 2002.
2017 — Giancarlo Stanton hit his 50th home run to break an eighth-inning tie, helping the Miami Marlins sweep the San Diego Padres with a 6-2 victory. Stanton became the first NL player to reach 50 homers since Prince Fielder hit 50 for Milwaukee in 2007.
2017 — Rookie Rhys Hoskins homered for the fifth straight game and made a diving catch to start a game-changing triple play in the fifth inning, leading Philadelphia to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Hoskins led off the eighth with a drive to left-center to give him 11 home runs in his first 18 games, becoming the fastest in major league history to reach 11 homers. Hoskins was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Aug. 10.
2018 — Kendrys Morales’ home run streak was ended at seven games by the Baltimore Orioles, who halted an eight-game skid by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0. Morales went 0 for 3 with a walk and did not hit the ball out of the infield.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
OpenAI releases final report on AI hacking incident, calling it ‘a warning shot’
OpenAI has released a final report on a July incident in which artificial intelligence agents hacked into another company’s system of their own accord. File photo by Wu Hao/EPA-EFE
Aug. 26 (UPI) — OpenAI released a final report Wednesday on a July incident in which its artificial intelligence agents hacked into another company’s systems, saying it considers the episode “a warning shot” for the company and the world.
The incident is “evidence that, without proper safeguards, highly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels and take dangerous actions that no human directed,” the report said.
The episode in question happened when some of the company’s AI bots hacked into the systems of Hugging Face, a company working with OpenAI. The bots did this of their own accord to get data they decided they needed to solve a problem during model testing, despite restrictions meant to keep them from the internet.
“With the benefit of hindsight, some early signals identified in this report could have triggered an earlier response,” the report said.
The company shared some new details in the report, including how the AI agents left messages for each other hidden in software infrastructure and coordinated to hack the other company, Wired reported.
Two independent research groups, METR and Redwood Research, also released an independent report on the incident Wednesday. These groups found that more than 700 AI agents were part of the breach.
Buck Shlegeris, CEO of Redwood Research, said in an interview with Wired that preventing the incident “wouldn’t have been that hard” if someone had decided to make sure of it.
“The issue is just that OpenAI is doing a lot of things at once, and it’s very hard for them to track all of the things that are going on and all the problems that could be occurring,” Shlegeris said. “The company has already said they’re changing their monitoring process in ways that probably would have caught this.”
The Washington Post noted in a story on the OpenAI report that the company acknowledged in the report that its AI agents repeatedly cheat to find shortcuts to accomplish tasks during training.
“Agents attempting to cheat on their tasks by looking up solutions online was a primary driver of the Hugging Face incident,” the OpenAI report said.
The Sports Report: Tyler Glasnow is back, but Dodgers lose to Braves
Dodgers lose to Braves
From Maddie Lee: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could see the kind of inning right-hander Tyler Glasnow had to begin his start Tuesday, plagued by soft contact and bad luck, derailing a younger version of him.
“That’s an outing that a couple years ago I think might have gotten away,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss to the Braves, ending a six-game winning streak. “And I don’t think he would’ve been as efficient getting through the fifth like he did. But there’s just a lot of growth with Glas. Just can’t wait to see more. Like I told him after the start, it’s just really good to have him back.”
Glasnow’s return was a major step for the Dodgers as they assemble their postseason pitching staff. The next will be two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching — which could happen as soon as this weekend.
Ohtani is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Thursday or Friday, pitching coach Mark Prior said. Then Ohtani and the Dodgers will finalize next steps. But Roberts didn’t rule out the possibility of Ohtani making a short start Sunday in Detroit.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
How two decades of friendship have shaped Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward
José Ramírez drove in five runs with three doubles, Steven Kwan had five singles and the streaking Cleveland Guardians overcame an early five-run deficit to beat the Angels 8-6 in 10 innings Tuesday night.
Kwan capped his second career five-hit game with a leadoff single in the 10th against reliever Blake Weiman (0-1), advancing automatic runner Brayan Rocchio from second base to third. Travis Bazzana popped out, but Ramírez laced a two-run double to left-center to give the Guardians an 8-6 lead.
Cleveland reliever Erik Sabrowski (5-2) struck out the side in the ninth. Cade Smith fanned Denzer Guzman and Adam Frazier with runners on second and third in the 10th for his 35th save, sealing the Guardians’ sixth straight win.
Did Iger and Kushner overpay for the Lakers?
From Steve Henson: Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger, successful businessmen by any measure, paid $12.5 billion for the Lakers, easily the highest price ever for a sports franchise.
It was a rare chance to acquire an celebrated sports brand, and by all accounts, timing was everything.
The enormous sale price has implications for the rest of the NBA and raises a basic question: Did Kushner and Iger get a great deal or did they overpay?
USC’s Jahkeem Stewart to miss season opener
From Ryan Kartje: USC sophomore defensive lineman Jahkeem Stewart, who was spotted over the weekend sporting crutches and a boot on his injured right foot, is expected to miss the Trojans’ season opener against San Jose State, coach Lincoln Riley said.
Losing Stewart for longer than that would be a bitter pill for USC to swallow at the start of a highly anticipated season. But while reports have suggested that Stewart is likely to miss USC’s entire nonconference slate with the injury, Riley suggested Tuesday that he could debut as soon as the following Friday, when USC takes on Fresno State in its second game of the season.
“What he’s dealing with right now is minor,” Riley said. “The plan is to probably hold him and I think he’ll be able from that point forward. But it’s certainly not long term. A little precautionary right now.”
UCLA could still get key player
UCLA is proceeding as though it landed a massive gift this week, with 2025 Sun Belt player of the year Trent Hendrick joining the Bruins for practices Monday and Tuesday.
Hendrick is among 16 players who sought a Louisiana temporary restraining order allowing them to return to college after entering the NFL draft pool, arguing they would not have left had they know NCAA rules would change granting them an extra year of eligibility.
The temporary restraining order was granted last week, but the Big Ten voted on Tuesday to pass a new rule that prohibited football players who have signed a pro contract, were on a pro roster at any point or declared for the NFL draft as an underclassman without withdrawing, from maintaining eligibility for athletic competition.
Angel City coaching carousel can be frustrating
From Kevin Baxter: When Mark Parsons joined Angel City as sporting director 19 months ago, the first order of business was to find a head coach. The club had fired its first two managers and was about to open training camp without one.
But for Parsons, finding the right person was more important than finding a person right now.
“Time in getting it done is not the priority,” he said then. “Getting the right person is.”
So Parsons conducted an extensive global search before settling on Alexander Straus, who had won three straight Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich. Straus lasted just a year in the NWSL, losing more than twice as many games as he won.
Now, 2½ months after firing Straus, Parsons is deep into another coaching search. And once again, he won’t be rushed.
“I don’t want to put a date on this,” he said. “Finding that person’s the priority. But getting to the right answer is the most important.”
This day in sports history
1933 — Helen Hull Jacobs captures the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association singles title when Helen Wills Moody defaults in the third set because of back and hip pain.
1950 — Australia wins its third straight Davis Cup by beating the U.S. 4-1.
1961 — The International Hockey Hall of Fame opens in Toronto.
1972 — The New York Cosmos win the NASL championship by defeating the St. Louis Stars 2-1.
1995 — Greg Norman sinks a 66-foot chip on the first playoff hole, to capture the World Series of Golf and become the leading money winner in PGA Tour history. Norman wins $360,000 in his third tour victory this year to raise lifetime earnings to $9.49 million and overtake Tom Kite.
1997 — Carl Lewis finishes his track-and-field career anchoring star-studded team to victory in the 400-meter relay to cap the ISTAF Grand Prix meet in Berlin. The team of Olympic 100-meter champion Donovan Bailey, former world record-holder Leroy Burrell and Namibian sprint champion Frankie Fredericks, win in 38.24 seconds.
1999 — Michael Johnson shatters another world record at the world championships — this time, breaking the 400-meter mark with a time of 43.18. He cuts 0.11 seconds off the record of 43.29 set by Butch Reynolds in 1988 and ties Carl Lewis for the most gold medals at the championships with eight.
2004 — Lindsay Tarpley and Abby Wambach score as the U.S. beats Brazil 2-1, maintaining an undefeated record to win the women’s football gold medal at the Athens Olympics.
2011 — The Tulsa Shock snap the longest losing streak in WNBA history with a 77-75 win over the Sparks. The Shock (2-25) had 20 straight losses before Sheryl Swoopes hit a jumper with 2.9 seconds left.
2011 — Kyle Busch records his record-breaking 50th NASCAR Busch Series victory, edging teammate Joey Logano in the Food City 250 at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch breaks a tie with Mark Martin for the record in NASCAR’s second-tier series.
2012 — Lydia Ko wins the Canadian Women’s Open to become the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history and only the fifth amateur champion. The 15-year-old South Korean-born New Zealander closes with a 5-under 67 for a three-stroke victory over Inbee Park.
2016 — San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick kneels in protest during the U.S. national anthem at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium while playing against the San Diego Chargers, objecting to racial injustice and police brutality in the U.S.
2016 — Dan Raudabaugh throws six touchdown passes and the Philadelphia Soul win their second ArenaBowl title, beating the Arizona Rattlers 56-42.
2017 — Kyle Snyder scores a late takedown of Olympic gold medalist Abdusalim Sadulaev in the deciding match, and the U.S. wins the world freestyle wrestling title for the first time in 22 years.
2017 — Floyd Mayweather Jr. stops UFC champion Conor McGregor on his feet in the 10th round in Las Vegas. The much-hyped 154-pound fight is more competitive than many expected when an unbeaten, five-division world champion boxer takes on a mixed martial artist making his pro boxing debut.
2020 — Milwaukee Bucks forfeit their NBA playoff game after the shooting of Jacob Blake, leading to the NBA postponing more games.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1916 — Philadelphia’s Joe Bush pitched a no-hitter, to beat Cleveland 5-0.
1939 — The first major league baseball game was televised as WXBS brought their cameras to Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field for a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Dodgers.
1947 — Brooklyn’s Dan Bankhead became the first Black pitcher in the majors. He homered in his first major-league plate appearance, but didn’t fare well on the mound. In 3 1-3 innings of relief, he gave up 10 hits and six earned runs to the Pirates. Pittsburgh won 16-3.
1962 — Minnesota’s Jack Kralick pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the Kansas City Athletics at Metropolitan Stadium. Lenny Green drove in the Twins’ run with a sacrifice fly off Bill Fischer in the seventh inning.
1987 — Milwaukee’s Paul Molitor went 0-for-4, ending his 39-game hitting streak, and the Brewers beat the Cleveland Indians 1-0 in 10 innings on pinch-hitter Rick Manning’s RBI single. With Molitor waiting in the on-deck circle for a possible fifth at-bat, Manning singled in the game-winner.
1989 — Chris Drury pitches a five-hitter and Trumbull, Conn., becomes the first American team since 1983 to capture the Little League World Series, defeating Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 5-2.
1991 — Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen pitched a no-hitter to lead the Royals to a 7-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
1993 — Sean Burroughs, the son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs, pitches his second no-hitter of the Little League World Series and hits two home runs, sending defending champion Long Beach past Bedford, N.H., 11-0 in the final of the U.S. bracket.
1999 — Randy Johnson reached 300 strikeouts in record time, notching nine in seven innings to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 12-2. Johnson achieved the milestone in his 29th start.
2004 — Ichiro Suzuki homered in the ninth inning for his 200th hit of the season, but Seattle fell to Kansas City 7-3. Suzuki became the first player to reach 200 hits in each of his first four major league seasons.
2007 — Dalton Carriker’s home run in the bottom of the eighth gave Warner Robins, Georgia, a thrilling 3-2 victory over Tokyo to win the Little League World Series title.
2007 — Boston defeated the Chicago White Sox 11-1 to complete a four-game sweep. For the series, the Red Sox outscored Chicago 46-7. Boston scored at least 10 runs in every game of the series, which is only the fourth time that has happened in a four-game series since 1900 and the first time in the American League in 85 years.
2008 — Major League Baseball announced umpires will be allowed to check video on home run calls starting Aug. 27. Video will be used only on so-called “boundary calls,” such as determining whether fly balls went over the fence, whether potential home runs were fair or foul and whether there was fan interference on potential home runs.
2010 — Albert Pujols of St. Louis hits the 400th homer of his career, off Jordan Zimmermann of the Nationals in the fourth inning. Pujols becomes the 47th major leaguer to hit that many and is the third-youngest to do so after Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr.
2018 — Mana Lau Kong homered to center field on the first pitch his team saw and Ka’olu Holt pitched a complete game to lead Hawaii to a 3-0 victory over South Korea in the Little League World Series championship.
2018 — Toronto’s Kendrys Morales became the seventh player in major league history to homer in at least seven consecutive games, going deep in the third inning of the Blue Jays’ 8-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
2018 — Matt Carpenter tied a St. Louis record with four doubles, pitcher Austin Gomber had a two-run infield single in a six-run first inning, and the Cardinals routed Colorado 12-3.
2024 — Danny Jansen becomes the first player to appear for both teams in the same game. He had started the June 26th game between the Blue Jays and Red Sox at Fenway Park as Toronto’s catcher and was at bat with an 0-1 count when the game was suspended by rain in the 2nd inning. When the game resumes today, he has since been traded to Boston, and takes over behind the plate for Reese McGuire, who has been released.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Ukraine Situation Report: Russia To Seize Commercial Infrastructure Left Unprotected From Drones
Ukrainian drone attacks on targets deep inside Russia have spurred President Vladimir Putin to allow the government to temporarily seize what it deems commercial critical infrastructure that is not sufficiently protection against such strikes. This follows Russia’s move earlier this year to allow private companies to purchase their own air defense systems to protect their own facilities. Beyond calling for increased defenses, the decree signed by Putin also warns that the government will take over facilities that don’t make needed repairs quickly enough once they have been hit.
These actions come as Russia’s economy is reeling after repeated Ukrainian drone hits on its oil refineries and other energy facilities. A more recent Ukrainian campaign against Russian Amazon-like e-commerce distribution centers has added to the financial woes and growing public frustration.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “often business owners do not pay enough attention to taking measures to ensure safety, anti-drone safety.”
Given the threat to vital economic infrastructure, “we must take measures, we must ensure our own safety,” he added.
Putin’s decree does not specify what actions these facilities are required to take to provide better protection against Ukrainian drone attacks. As we have written about frequently, due to the demands of the battlefield and repeated Ukrainian attacks across a growing portion of Russia, the Russian military already has a shortage of air defense systems. So it’s not clear how much equipment, and of what capabilities, is even available for private firms to purchase. However, the civilian counter-drone industry in Russia is flourishing. Back in May, Russian authorities authorized private companies “to purchase heavy weaponry to defend industrial facilities against drone attacks,” the RBC news website reported at the time, citing sources linked to the Defense Ministry.
“The new system will allow companies to procure anti-aircraft artillery systems, turrets, radar equipment, specialized vehicles and electronic warfare systems,” the outlet added. “In order to promptly provide newly formed mobile fire groups with everything they need, the relevant decisions were recently adopted at the state level.”
In addition, some refineries have already built metal cages around their facilities to help protect against drone attacks.
Russia Puts Cope Cages on Oil Storage Tanks
The Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s oil refineries and Black Sea ports are having a dramatic effect on the Russian economy.
“In the four weeks through Aug. 23, overseas crude flows fell to 3.46 million barrels a day,” Bloomberg news reported, citing tanker-movements data it compiled. “Shipments had previously risen as the strikes on Russia’s refineries left more crude available for export, but that increase is now unwinding, after drone hits on oil tankers cut shipments from the Black Sea.”
“Meanwhile, strikes on Russian oil and gas processing plants continue to be an almost nightly occurrence, sending crude processing rates tumbling and creating domestic gasoline supply issues,” Bloomberg explained. “Falling Russian crude shipments come on top of Kremlin-imposed bans on overseas shipments of key refined products, including most gasoline, diesel and jet fuel supplies, which are further reducing inflows to Moscow’s war chest.”
Ukraine, as we noted earlier, has also targeted Russian logistics infrastructure belonging to major online retailers, such as Amazon-style retail giant Wildberries, to increase the financial pain on other sectors of the Russian economy.
“Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online retailer, is now next in Ukraine’s crosshairs,” CNBC reported. “Shares of the company plunged nearly 30% on the Moscow Exchange on Monday after it reported drone strikes in southern Russia, which brought the number of facilities targeted in the last three days to six.”
Overnight on Monday, Ukraine continued striking inside Russia, attacking the Afipsky Refinery and Gas Separation Units at the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff. The extent of the damage is still being clarified.
“Afipsky Refinery is one of the large oil refining facilities in the Krasnodar region,” the general staff noted. “The project capacity is 6.25 million tons of oil per year. The plant produces, among other things, diesel, gasoline components, and is involved in supplying the Russian occupation army.”
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, acknowledged the attack.
“Debris from a drone fell on the territory of the Afipskaya railway station,” he stated on Telegram. “Sadly, two people were killed. I express my deepest condolences to the families. Two more people were injured, and I wish them a speedy recovery. In addition, at least 10 private homes were damaged in the village of Afipsky. A fire broke out in one of them. A fire also occurred on the territory of a refinery. Firefighters and emergency services are currently working at the scene.”
Russia isn’t alone in worrying about Ukrainian drone strikes. Financial Times reporter Christopher Miller noted on X that the Trump administration asked Kyiv not to strike Moscow, St. Petersburg or northern regions of Russia Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, “when the U.S. would send a plane carrying a senior-level official to the Russian capital.”
On Tuesday, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifter arrived in Moscow, reportedly ferrying CIA Director John Ratcliffe. You can read more about that in our initial story here.
Ratcliffe was visiting as the U.S. struggles to end Russia’s full-on invasion of Ukraine and the Iran war, though “the reason for the visit wasn’t immediately clear,” The Wall Street Journal noted. “The U.S. has collected intelligence showing Russia’s early preparations for a possible military mobilization in Ukraine and plans for testing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s resolve.”
Analysts said Ratcliffe could meet with Putin to deliver a warning, the newspaper noted.
“It could be to say, ‘We know what you are thinking about doing, and you better not,’” Beth Sanner, a former U.S. deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, told the Journal. “It could also be about the Iran ceasefire and putting someone else in the discussion,” she said, adding Ratcliffe might also touch upon the Kremlin’s support for Iran following a new U.S. sanctions campaign against the regime.
The Latest
Ukraine is making some small advances in the southern section of the front while Russia continues to put heavy pressure on the Donetsk region in the east. Here are some key takeaways from the latest Institute for the Study of War assessment.
- Sumy: Russian forces continued offensive operations in northern Sumy Oblast on August 23 and 24 but did not make confirmed advances.
- Kharkiv: Russian forces continued offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast, near Borova, Kupiansk and in the Velykyi Burluk direction on August 23 and 24 but did not advance as Ukrainian forces counterattacked.
- Donetsk: Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Slovyansk direction. Russian forces continued attempts to isolate Ukrainian forces in Mykolaivka (east of Slovyansk), and attacked in the Dobropillya tactical area, the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area, Pokrovsk, Novopavlivka, and Oleksandrivka on August 23 and 24 but did not advance.
- Zaporizhia: Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Hulyaipole direction and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
- Kherson: Neither Russian nor Ukrainian forces reported ground activity in the Kherson direction on August 24.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered some positive news Tuesday about badly needed air defense systems and interceptors.
“We received confirmation regarding several Crotale air defense systems and missiles for them. And AIM missiles, which we use to shoot down enemy missiles. And a little more Patriot missiles have arrived,” Zelensky told reporters. He did not offer specific figures.
Zelensky added that Ukraine had received confirmation from the United Kingdom regarding the production of SCALP long-range missiles.
He added that “French President Emmanuel Macron had confirmed the unblocking of SCALP missiles and the necessary licenses,” the Kyiv Post reported. You can read more about that effort in our story here.
“We will act. I believe this is a strong positive and a strong decision,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky also said Ukraine expects to receive a schedule for the Freya domestic air defense interceptor initiative within seven to 10 days, including information on meetings and areas where cooperation with defense companies is currently blocked.
Earlier this month, we told you about two drone-related incidents at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany that represented the most serious threats yet in the wave of small drone incursions that have plagued Europe for the past few years. German police said an explosive-laden drone was located on the ground near a Ukrainian Antonov An-124 Condor cargo jet and that there was a midair collision between an object and another cargo aircraft.
More news about that situation emerged today.
German investigators uncovered a third drone and suspected military explosives thought to be connected to the attempted attack on Leipzig airport, the Guardian reported, citing local media.
“The drone was discovered in Kabelsketal, just to the west of the airport, along with about 50g (1.8oz) of a suspected military explosive on 14 August, 10 days after the unsuccessful sabotage,” the publication stated. The office of the prosecutor general, which is leading the investigation, declined to comment on Tuesday. But the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the government would soon provide information about who it believed was behind the drone attacks.
“They will pay for this,” Merz said, stopping short of naming a suspect, before a cabinet meeting in Brandenburg. He added that the government was “working intensively on this together with the security authorities and we will present our findings and comment on them shortly.”
“Intelligence sources cited by the broadcasters NDR and WDR and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said they suspected the involvement of Russian intelligence in the attempted attack,” the Guardian added. Moscow has denied involvement.
Leipzig airport is a cargo and military logistics hub used by NATO and Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines for transporting military supplies. As we noted in our initial piece, the Condor, in particular, represents an unsurprising target for Russia. Ukraine’s An-124s are a source of national pride and a big flying symbol of the country’s defiance and survival. They also provide much-needed revenue to Ukraine and strategic airlift to support the conflict. Ukraine’s An-124s have long provided charter cargo services for western militaries, companies and NGOs. Since the war began, Antonov Airlines An-124s have been used to deliver war materiel bound for Ukraine.
Britain has signed a partnership with Ukraine to jointly develop artificial intelligence tools for defense and security, ”giving British researchers access to a Ukrainian battlefield data platform used to train military AI systems,” Reuters reported.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Zelensky signed the agreement in Kyiv, making Britain the first international partner to access Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs, a government statement said.
Avengers Labs “was built around an annotated dataset of 5 million battlefield images, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said earlier in August, largely drawn from the military’s DELTA combat system – a domestically developed battlefield management and situational-awareness system,” the outlet added. “The platform uses data collected from cameras and sensors across Ukraine’s battlefield, including information on tanks, artillery systems, drones and other military targets.”
The Ukrainian ministry said “AI models trained on the data were already being used in an automated target-detection system that analyses more than 100,000 drone video feeds each month and can identify about 70% of enemy targets in real time,” Reuters noted.
In early 2023, donated tanks began arriving in Ukraine with great fanfare and hopes that additional armor would help turn the tide against Russia.
Fast forward to today and many of those tanks that survived combat “now mostly sit idle, hidden in forests and collecting cobwebs,” according to a New York Times report. “The $10 million machines, procured with great fanfare, proved no match for cheap drones that now dominate the battlefield. Yet Ukraine still maintains them and trains soldiers to use them, while trying to imagine new ways to deploy them.”
“We’re making virtually no use of armored vehicles,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, who until last month was Ukraine’s top general, said recently, the newspaper noted. “This raises the question: How can we neutralize this advantage enjoyed by drones and give our armor a new lease on life?”
The situation has changed so drastically that tanks are being used largely as tractors to tow damaged equipment, the Times proffered. Some of the troops are now more involved with drones than tanks. Newer recruits to a unit that was among the first to receive donated armor “have never even touched a tank. Among them was Korzhyk, 33, who joined the brigade in 2025 and spends his days repairing ground drones in a dark workshop,” the publication added.
Video emerged on social media of a Ukrainian MiG-29MU1 Fulcrum fighter dropping U.S.-made GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) toward enemy drone operators inside Russia’s Belgorod region.
Ukraine’s mid-range drone attacks against Russian logistics have proven quite successful; however, the following picture shows not every that not every strike resulted in complete destruction. As you can see, a Hornet one-way attack drone got stuck in the windshield of a truck in occupied Crimea.
That’s it for now.
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
The Sports Report: 50 years and still chugging along
Fifty years and still going strong
From Bill Plaschke: Fifty years in the shadows, gently nudging Southland kids into the light.
“It’s not my story,” said Eric Sondheimer. “It’s their story.”
Fifty years of covering more than 700 high schools like they were the only school, writing about thousands of athletes as if they stood alone.
“Los Angeles is so big, I try to treat it like a small town,” Sondheimer said. “And I love writing about that town.”
Fifty years on messy sidelines, in crowded bleachers, facing angry coaches, locked in ancient stadiums, juggling impossible deadlines, all for the sake of writing deeply buried stories that might be read by only family and friends.
“But when a parent comes up to me and thanks me for writing about their child, it’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Sondheimer said.
Fifty years of childhood tales about countless young athletes, stories about future Hall of Famers, he was their first interview, stories about anonymous benchwarmers, he was their only interview, stories filling dusty scrapbooks and crooked picture frames in parents’ houses all over the Southland, stories about teenage John Elway and whiz kid Tiger Woods and some anonymous sprinter from Taft.
And, now, finally, a story about him.
50 memorable moments from 50 years covering high school sports in Southern California
Dodgers sweep the Pirates
From Sam Farmer: On a steamy Sunday when everyone in the Dodger Stadium seats was using programs to fan themselves, Blake Snell was fanning Pittsburgh Pirates — six strikeouts in six innings of work — and the bottom of the order played like the top of the lineup, providing ample offensive spark for a 4-0 victory that stretched the Dodgers’ winning streak to six games.
What a weekend for Dodger pitchers — Yoshinobu Yamamoto followed by Tarik Skubal followed by Snell, with Tyler Glasnow on deck and Shohei Ohtani getting healthier by the day and scheduled to throw a bullpen session during the upcoming series in Atlanta.
“It’s daunting,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, barely suppressing a smile. “As an offense — an opposing offense — to look at the probables you see Glasnow, Yamamoto, Snell, [Roki] Sasaki, and then potentially Shohei. It gets daunting.”
The team is coming off back-to-back sweeps of the Colorado Rockies and Pirates (63-69), who mustered two hits Sunday after a combined 14 in the first two games of the series.
For his part, Snell was happy but not thrilled about his performance, which included three walks and one hit batter.
“There were a couple innings there where, you know, get two quick outs and then full-count walk, full-count walk,” he said. “It’s not acceptable. Especially with, I feel good, I know I can command the ball. Honestly, it’s lazy. It’s me trying to get strikeouts instead of, you know, trying to go seven, eight, nine. So I definitely got to clean that up. But I know I’m going to do that, and just continue to get better, and learn, and grow.”
‘I haven’t done my job.’ Edwin Díaz accepts low-leverage role with Dodgers — for now
Angels lose to the Rangers
Ezequiel Durán and Elias Díaz hit solo homers, Cal Quantrill worked six scoreless innings and the Texas Rangers beat the Angels 5-3 on Sunday.
With the win, the Rangers moved into a tie with the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West with records of 65-66.
Durán put Texas on the board early, launching his 14th home run of the year into the left-center seats for a 1-0 lead. Cody Freeman added an RBI triple — his first of the season — before Díaz extended the lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning with a solo homer, his sixth of the season.
Yusei Kikuchi (0-4) gave up five runs on seven hits. He struck out four in five innings.
Angel City draws with Gotham
Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson saved a penalty kick from Guro Reiten to preserve a scoreless draw against Gotham FC at BMO Stadium on Sunday.
Initially ruled a clean block in the 82nd minute, video review reversed the call and a handball was called on Angel City defender Sarah Gorden. On the ensuing penalty kick attempt, Anderson denied Reiten.
Anderson made four saves for her sixth shutout for Angel City (7-7-5).
How Boobie Feaster, 17, became a player to watch at USC
From Ryan Kartje: Long before he arrived at USC, a couple days shy of his 17th birthday, Ethan “Boobie” Feaster had always been in a hurry to grow up.
He was the baby of the Feaster family, seven years younger than his next youngest sibling. But nothing about his behavior, even as a kid, suggested as much. He was always quiet, calm, determined, seemingly from birth, according to his father, Lee. When Lee Feaster encouraged Boobie at age 8 to write down his goals, and “make ‘em plain,” Boobie took the advice literally. He went straight to his bathroom mirror and copied them down. They’re still written on the bathroom mirror, to this day.
When he was 9, Boobie asked his father to buy him a football poster. Lee came in later to find it attached to the ceiling, above his bed. He asked Boobie why.
“I need it to be the first thing I see when I wake up,” Lee recalled him saying, “and the last thing I see when I go to bed.”
This, needless to say, was not exactly normal behavior for a 9-year-old. But nothing about Boobie Feaster has ever been normal. Least of all the relentless drive that would one day have everyone at USC raving and others around the nation whispering about one of the most anticipated freshman in college football.
Court ruling helps James Madison star come to UCLA
From Connor Dullinger: Former James Madison linebacker Trent Hendrick — who went undrafted in the 2026 NFL draft and participated in rookie minicamps with the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs but never signed with a team — committed to UCLA football Sunday, reuniting with coach Bob Chesney and defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler in Westwood.
Recruiting website On3.com was the first to report his move.
The former JMU linebacker exhausted his eligibility after the conclusion of the 2025 season, but Hendrick, along with 15 other football players, was granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday by a Louisiana judge to play a fifth season of college football and enter the transfer portal.
Hendrick had 106 tackles, seven tackles for a loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles last season at James Madison under Chensey’s direction. His play earned him Sun Belt Conference defensive player of the year honors.
The restraining order follows a Colorado court ruling on July 31 that granted athletes who began their collegiate careers in the 2022-23 season a fifth year of eligibility for the upcoming season. Although the Colorado ruling stated players would not be allowed to enter the transfer portal, a federal appeal court granted the NCAA a temporary stay on the Colorado court order Friday, pausing the nationwide injunction.
This day in sports history
1904 — Holcombe Ward wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. singles title.
1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Bill Squires in the 13th round at Sydney, Australia to retain the world heavyweight title.
1925 — Helen Wills, 19, wins her third straight U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. singles title with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Kathleen McKane. An hour later, Wills teams up with Mary K. Browne to win the doubles title.
1929 — Helen Wills wins her sixth U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. singles title by defeating Phoebe Holcroft Watson, 6-4, 6-2.
1963 — Don Schollander becomes the first swimmer to break the two-minute barrier in the 200-meter freestyle with a 1:58.4 time in a meet at Osaka, Japan.
1963 — John Pennel breaks the 17-foot barrier in the pole vault with a 17-0¾ vault in a meet at Miami.
1988 — Minnesota North Stars forward Dino Ciccarelli is sentenced to one day in jail and fined $1,000 for hitting another player with his stick. Ciccarelli, who was given a match penalty and 10-game suspension by the league for the Jan. 6, 1988 attack on Toronto’s Luke Richardson, is believed to be the first NHL player to receive a jail term for an on-ice attack of another player.
2003 — Jockey Julie Krone becomes the first female rider to win a million-dollar race taking the Pacific Classic at Del Mar aboard Candy Ride.
2004 — Four-time world 1,500 champion Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, a heartbreak loser at the last two Olympics, holds off Bernard Lagat down the stretch to win in 3 minutes, 34.18 seconds. El Guerrouj edges Lagat by .12 seconds for the gold medal. El Guerrouj had lost four races in the last eight years, but two of those defeats came at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
2006 — After signing a one-day contract with the San Francisco 49ers, Jerry Rice officially retires from the NFL.
2007 — The NFL indefinitely suspends Michael Vick without pay just hours after he acknowledged in court papers that he did, indeed, bankroll gambling on dogfighting and helped kill some dogs not worthy of the pit.
2008 — On the final day of the Beijing Games, the United States beats Spain 118-107 and win the gold medal in men’s basketball for the first time since 2000. China has one of the most dominating and diverse performances at an Olympics ever, winning a games-leading 51 golds and an even 100 overall. The United States finishes with 110 medals and trails well behind the Chinese in golds with 36, the first time since 1992 it doesn’t lead the category.
2008 — Danny Lee becomes the U.S. Amateur’s youngest champion, supplanting Tiger Woods by holding off Drew Kittleson 5 and 4. The 18-year, 1-month-old Lee is six months and 29 days younger than Woods when he won the first of his three Amateurs in 1994.
2018 — French Open Tennis bans Serena Williams′ black Nike catsuit from future tournaments citing ‘respect for the game and the place.’
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1905 — The Chicago Cubs beat the Phillies at Philadelphia 2-1 in 20 innings behind the complete game pitching of Ed Reulbach.
1940 — Outfielder Ted Williams pitched the last two innings for the Boston Red Sox against Detroit at Fenway Park. He gave up one run on three hits, but struck out Rudy York on three pitches. The Tigers, behind Tommy Bridges, won 12-1.
1951 — St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck gave over 1,000 fans behind his dugout YES and NO placards, allowing them to have a part in the strategy of the game. The fans flashed the cards when asked by the coaches what the Browns should do and it worked as St. Louis beat the Philadelphia Athletics 5-3.
1963 — The Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. is covered by ABC’s Wide World of Sports for the first time.
1971 — Ernie Banks hit the 512th and final home run of his career as the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Banks’ shot came off Jim McGlothin in the first inning.
1975 — Ed Halicki of San Francisco pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against the New York Mets to lead the Giants to a sweep of a doubleheader.
1989 — After six months of denial, defense and delay, Cincinnati manager Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti for gambling. Rose, baseball’s all-time hit leader and holder of 19 major-league records, signed a five-page agreement with Giamatti in which he agreed to a lifetime penalty but did not admit to gambling on baseball.
1996 — Hsieh Chin-hsiung sets a Little League World Series record with his seventh home run as Taiwan wins the title for the 17th time with a 13-3 victory over Cranston, R.I.
2001 — Colorado starting pitcher Jason Jennings went 3-for-5 in his major league debut, including a homer and an RBI single, while giving up five hits and striking out eight in a complete game shut out over the Mets, 10-0. The right-hander became the first pitcher in modern history to throw a shutout and hit a homer in his first game.
2003 — Ramon Hernandez and Miguel Tejada hit grand slams as Oakland routed Toronto 17-2.
2008 — Hawaii’s mini-mashers get a little help from Mexico’s miscues to win a fourth straight Little League World Series title for the United States. Tanner Tokunaga smacks two homers and Iolana Akau adds a solo blast as the boys from Waipahu, Hawaii, defeat Matamoros, Mexico, 12-3.
2008 — Francisco Rodriguez earned his 50th save, striking out two in a scoreless ninth inning to secure the Angels’ 5-3 victory over Minnesota.
2012 — Adrian Beltre of Texas hit for the cycle in an 8-0 win over Minnesota.
2013 — Adam Eaton hit a go-ahead double in the 18th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks outlasted the Philadelphia Phillies 12-7 in a record-setting, marathon game for both clubs. The teams combined to use 20 pitchers in a contest that ended at 2:12 a.m. and took 7 hours, 6 minutes — setting a mark for length of game for both teams.
2013 — Detroit’s Max Scherzer outpitched Matt Harvey, striking out 11 and hitting a stunning RBI double that sent the Tigers to a 3-0 victory over the New York Mets. Scherzer (19-1) joined Rube Marquard in 1912 and Roger Clemens in 2001 as the only major league pitchers to win 19 of their first 20 decisions in a season.
2016 — David Ortiz became the oldest player ever to hit 30 homers in a season, but the Tampa Bay Rays came back from a three-run deficit to beat Boston 4-3 in 11 innings. The 40-year-old designated hitter connected for a two-run home run off starting pitcher Matt Andriese during the first inning.
2022 — George Kirby of the Mariners starts today’s game against the Nationals by throwing 24 consecutive strikes — a record since 1988, when all pitches were tracked for the first time. In the 8th inning. Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez hits his 20th homer to become only the fourth rookie to have a season of 20 homers and 20 steals. But while Mariners players grab the headlines, Washington scores twice in the top of the 9th to win the game, 3-1.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
India used pellets, grenades on Gen Z protests: What Amnesty report reveals | Explainer
New Delhi, India – An investigation by human rights group Amnesty International has confirmed that Indian government forces used lethal weapons, including pellet-firing shotguns, grenades, batons and electric shock devices against demonstrators in Gen Z protests that rocked the national capital last month.
On July 20, thousands of protesters had all but shut down New Delhi, blocking off Parliament Street, demanding the resignation of then-Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following a string of examination scandals involving the leaking of national exam papers and other irregularities.
More than 100 students were injured in the crackdown by police and paramilitary forces that day. Indian newspapers obtained hospital records that showed that doctors had treated pellet wounds in several cases.
India’s opposition, led by Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, has since called on Home Minister Amit Shah, seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s confidant, to answer questions about the alleged police brutality and has joined protesters in calling for his resignation.
But despite mounting evidence and growing political criticism, the Modi government repeatedly insisted that security forces had been measured in their response to the protests and denied using excessive force.
Now, an Amnesty investigation has found the use of tactics that Indian law enforcement rulebooks themselves warn against using in all but exceptional circumstances.
What happened on July 20 in New Delhi?
In July, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a satirical, youth-led movement which gathered momentum in response to the national examinations scandal, called on its supporters to march on the Indian Parliament after a monthlong sit-in failed to oust the education minister.
Two days before the march, the police forcibly removed renowned activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been taking part in a hunger strike. That move galvanised public anger, bringing out more protesters in New Delhi.
On the morning of the march day, the police used tear gas as protesters swelled, then attacked them with electric shock batons, as well as shooting at them with pellet guns, Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab has verified from video and photographic evidence alongside witness testimony.
Amnesty also found that government forces had put up barricades and enforced a communications blackout.
“The weapons were deployed in a manner that breached international law and standards and domestic policing guidelines,” Amnesty said in a statement on Monday.
The rights group’s report also noted that the Delhi Police had publicly denied any disproportionate use of force, specifically pellet guns. The police also repeated this before India’s top court during a hearing about the alleged use of excessive force.
Amnesty says the evidence it has gathered “directly contradicts [the police’s] account”.
Four days after the July 20 march, as protests spread across the country, police in Bihar state’s Siwan town opened fire on protesters, injuring at least three youths.
Did government forces fire pellets at protesters?
Following the July 20 protest, several videos and photos emerged of protesters with injuries consistent with pellet wounds, which were reflected in their medical records as well.
The Evidence Lab verified two videos showing a paramilitary Rapid Action Force officer firing a shotgun into the crowd at the intersection of Connaught Place and Parliament Street in New Delhi, where protesters had gathered.
At least two protesters had wounds consistent with those caused by birdshot, a hunting round that fires a large number of small metal pellets, the group noted.
“The doctors confirmed that they were pellet injuries. Thankfully, my bones have been saved, but my body has been scarred badly,” one protester told Amnesty.
Amnesty said birdshot ammunition has not been developed for law enforcement purposes due to the widespread dispersion of the metal pellets, which “is inherently inaccurate and presents a high risk of serious injuries to the targeted person and even bystanders”.
Amnesty also said the police did not issue a public warning before firing pellet guns, as recommended by the Indian government’s Bureau for Police Research and Development.
Police and security forces have used metal pellets for more than a decade in Indian-administered Kashmir, leading to the first mass blinding during a 2016 civilian uprising.
Posting on X, Delhi Police called the reports of pellet injuries during the latest protests “fake news”, “completely false and misleading” and warned that “appropriate legal action” would be taken against anyone “spreading rumours”.
A subsequent internal inquiry by India’s paramilitary forces, however, reportedly found that personnel had fired at least seven rounds of ammunition containing metal pellets.
“Instead of facilitating the right to protest, Indian authorities suppressed it first with a communication blackout, barricades and transport disruption. They then attempted to crush it with unnecessary or excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, including children,” said Aakar Patel, chair of the board, Amnesty International India.
“This heavy-handed response was state-sanctioned violence masked as crowd control. The continued impunity after a month is a testament to that,” Patel said.
Did police use tear gas grenades and batons?
Government forces did use tear gas grenades to disperse the crowd at several places in New Delhi, as seen by Al Jazeera and verified by Amnesty, not just on July 20 to prevent CHP supporters’ march to Parliament.
“Tear gas grenades releasing an excessive amount of explosive energy are extremely dangerous and should be prohibited for use in public assemblies,” Amnesty said, referring to videos of tear gas shells exploding near students.
The group also noted that witnesses observed that “tear gas grenades were launched directly at protesters instead of at an angled trajectory above the head of protesters, at odds with UN Guidance on the use of Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement”.
Amnesty has also verified claims that the police used lathis, the Indian version of batons, to beat protesters.
The UN special rapporteur on torture considers lathis to be inherently cruel, inhuman or degrading as “they deliver a greater level [of] kinetic force than conventional batons, causing excessive pain and increasing the risk of serious injury” and has called for them to be prohibited, a position that Amnesty supports.
The group also found men in civilian clothing beating protesters “while uniformed officers, who escorted them toward the crowd, stand beside them and make no attempt to intervene”, as visible in videos seen by Al Jazeera. Several officials were not wearing their name tags or badge numbers, as required.
What has been the reaction to the use of excessive force?
A day after the crackdown in New Delhi, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke told the crowd, “Every police person who attacked you would be identified and dragged to the courts”.
The group also launched a platform for protesters to upload videos and photos from the crackdown.
The opposition, led by the Congress’s Gandhi, pushed the home minister for a discussion on the issue in Parliament, an issue that plagued the monsoon session with Shah missing.
Gandhi argued that either Shah ordered the usage of lethal weapons, in which case “he is guilty”, or he was unaware of the situation, which makes him “incompetent” for the job.
Sahil Lochab, a 19-year-old who lost vision in one eye due to pellet injuries, said the police had been refusing to register his complaint. In response, Gandhi staged a seven-hour sit-in outside the office of the Delhi Police chief, insisting that a case be registered over the use of pellet guns on protesters, alongside Lochab.
After Gandhi’s pressure, the police relented. A student at the University of Delhi, Lochab received multiple pellet injuries on his chest, back, arms and face. Several pellets could not be taken out, he said in his complaint.
“My medical documents show that there are over 200 pellets in my body. Doctors have told me that the possibility of my eyesight coming back is less than 1 percent,” Lochab wrote in his complaint.
Venezuela hits roadblock in exporting more oil, as ports can’t keep up with demand – report
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News
Venezuela’s aging oil port terminals are essentially imposing export caps on the country’s resurgent crude production, with tankers having to wait up to 30 days to load because of infrastructure in disrepair, power outages, and quality issues, Reuters reported this week, citing shipping data, sources, and documents.
Ukraine Situation Report: Kyiv Is Turning Soviet-Era Armor Into Robotic Combat Vehicles
In another effort to advance robotic warfare, Ukraine is working to turn Soviet-era BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles into remotely controlled systems. The move comes as uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) are playing an increasing role on both sides of the conflict as movement along the front lines has been highly contested by the ubiquity of aerial drones.
This is one of the latest efforts by the Central Innovation Activities Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to help provide weaponry that will keep troops out of harm’s way, the head of that unit told the Ukrainian Ukrinform news outlet on Friday. Ukraine is using UGVs mainly for logistics and casualty evacuation, but they are also increasingly engaging in ground combat as well air defense.
Col. Vladyslav Voloshyn said work is currently underway “to enable remote control of the vehicle from a distance of up to 1,000 km. In addition, the BRDM-2 is planned to be fitted with a powerful foreign-made diesel engine, with General Motors and Mercedes engines among those being considered, replacing the Soviet-made GAZ gasoline engine. An automatic transmission is also planned.”
“The platform will have expanded capabilities for integrating a remotely controlled combat module equipped with an automatic weapon of at least 12.7 mm caliber,” Voloshyn explained. “This is expected to enhance the capabilities of Ukrainian units and their effectiveness in carrying out combat missions while helping preserve the lives of service members.”
The directorate is also installing additional mine protection for the vehicle’s hull bottom, tubeless high-mobility tires, a backup remote-control system inside the hull, and anti-fragmentation protection, the colonel added. Equipped this way, the vehicles would likely be used to assault front line Russian positions where troops can’t go on foot or as a remote option to provide fire control and support Ukraine’s often porous front line defenses. Uncrewed ground vehicles have also been used heavily in medical evacuations and general logistics to the front lines.
Unlike having to build a totally new vehicle, this project aims to take advantage of the large supply of BRDM-2s Ukraine has in storage, Voloshyn added.
Ukrainian BRDM-2 Armored Vehicle Conducts Indirect Fire #warinukraine
The vehicles will be equipped with day/night cameras to assist with guidance and will be remotely controlled from beyond line-of-sight. A vehicle this size would be able to more easily accommodate robust satellite links for that kind of operation. Beyond these features, the colonel provided few details about how the vehicles would be operated.
The head of Ukraine’s Brave1 defense technology hub previously provided some insights about how this works for purpose-built UGVs.
“I can tell you that combat UGVs without artificial intelligence do not work at appropriate effectiveness,” Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk told us in May in a discussion about Ukraine’s burgeoning UGV industry. “All combat turrets that we are using have elements of artificial intelligence, and it allows them to be as effective as they are.”
The UGVs use machine vision for “object recognition, identification, classification, tracking and providing recommendations for the operator on what to do,” he added.
These systems communicate through Ukraine’s Delta command and control system, the Brave1 CEO noted.
Without the Delta system, “all these advanced technologies on the battlefield will not be working,” Hrytseniuk suggested. “The Delta command and control system, which is number one in the world, is absolutely crucial. And this is for all our drones, multi-domain operations, everything.”
War in Ukraine: An advanced digital map. The Delta system #shorts #warinukraine #united24media
The Ukrainian company ArmSpetsTekhnolohiya unveiled the BRDM-2M in June during the Defense Builder Accelerator Demo Day. Now the directorate is preparing this system for deployment to the front lines, Voloshyn stated without providing timelines. If it does turn out to be a viable option, it will join tens of thousands of other Ukrainian UGVs on the battlefield.
The Latest
On the battlefield, both sides are making small advances, however, the front lines are largely static. Here are some key takeaways from the latest Institute for the Study of War analysis.
- Sumy: Russian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast.
- Kharkiv: Russian forces continued offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast on August 19 and 20 but did not advance as Ukrainian forces counterattacked. However, Russian forces are reportedly intensifying strikes in the Kupyansk direction, likely in preparation for future ground attacks.
- Donetsk: Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area on August 19 and 20 but did not make confirmed advances. Ukrainian forces recently advanced south of Dobropillya while Russian forces recently advanced southwest of Pokrovsk.
- Zaporizhzhia: Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Hulyaipole direction and western Zaporizhzhia Oblast on August 19 and 20 but did not advance.
- Kherson: Neither Russian nor Ukrainian sources reported ground activity in the Kherson direction on August 20.
In an update to a story we reported earlier this month, North Korea is reportedly sending KN-30 missiles, also known as the Hwasong-11C, to Russia.
“Ukraine’s Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) confirmed on August 20 that North Korea transferred around 50 KN-23, KN-24, and KN-30 (Hwasong-11C) ballistic missiles to Russia as of July 2026,” the Institute for the Study of War reported on Thursday, citing Ukrainian media.
The KN-30 is an enlarged derivative of the original Hwasong-11 and designed to carry larger warheads. North Korea has previously said it has tested subvariants of the Da/C type with 2.5-ton and 4.5-ton conventional high-explosive warheads, and that it can also be fitted with a nuclear warhead.
North Korea has also sent a new wave of about 8,500 North Korean troops to Russia, CNN reported. This includes “a drone unit that could attack targets inside Ukraine,” the network stated, citing Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR).
Thousands of North Korean engineers and bomb disposal experts are mostly dispersed across Kursk Oblast, Skibitskyi stated. The North Korean forces deployed in Russia also include 400 drone operators. Many gained previous experience fighting against Ukraine. Their drones are likely to be used both for reconnaissance and attacks on Ukraine, CNN noted.
Around 25,000 North Koreans have so far either been part of the forces deployed in Russia or passed through the Russian armed forces, the GUR leader added. He said that Russia could request up to 50,000 more troops during a meeting between Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in September.
Ukrainian officials have made it clear that they cannot defend against Russian ballistic missiles because they are out of Patriot missile interceptors. In the latest bid to offset that and hit missiles before they can be launched, Ukraine is seeking help from Elon Musk, the Financial Times reported.
“Ukraine is seeking approval to use Starlink-equipped drones against ballistic missile launchers up to 200km inside Russia,” the publication reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Such a move, if approved, would provide Ukrainian drones with beyond line-of-sight connectivity and resistance to jamming, increasing their ability to strike deeper into Russia against dynamic targets, giving them the ability to hunt for missiles deep inside Russia and strike them when they are found. This use of Starlink helped Ukraine with its mid-range strikes against Russian logistics.
The introduction of Starlink to the battlefield in Ukraine has revolutionized how war is waged, giving users high bandwidth, relatively secure communications basically anywhere, all in a small, off-the-shelf package. This has impacted everything from high-level command and control, to basic communications and data exchange between troops across the entire battlespace. The antennas have also been reduced in size enough so that they can now fit onto relatively small one way-attack drones.
There is a major catch, however, in any bid to use Starlink in offensive weapons beyond how it is currently employed. While he wouldn’t sign off on similar requests in the past, Musk is now allowing Ukraine to use Starlink to hit targets deep behind enemy lines and, apparently, ships in the the Sea of Azov as well, though we don’t know for sure.
Musk would need to sign off on the kinds of strikes deep into Russia that Ukraine is currently seeking. While his Starlink service is helping Ukraine now, he also shut it off earlier in the war during Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, fearing there could be a nuclear response from Moscow.
Complicating matters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently fired defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was Ukraine’s most direct connection to Musk.
TWZ cannot independently confirm FT’s reporting. We’ve reached out to SpaceX, Musk’s company providing Starlink service, for clarification.
Russia attacked a shopping mall in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih. The attack killed at least 14 and wounded more than 100 others, the Ukrainian president stated on X.
“The attack drones struck in two waves – half an hour after the first hit and the fire, there was a second strike targeting the emergency responders,” Zelensky stated on earlier on X. “Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts. And the world must respond to them accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to be possible, Russia must face real accountability.”
Russia also struck the Tabaky crossing at the Ukraine-Moldova border.
“The attack damaged buildings and structures at the crossing, and fires broke out at the site,” according to Ukrainian border guards. “Traffic through the Tabaky crossing is currently suspended. Vehicles are being redirected to other border crossing points.”
For its part, Ukraine is continuing its long-range strike campaign against Russian energy and military targets. This campaign has severely crippled Russia’s oil infrastructure in particular, causing widespread domestic gasoline shortages and a drastic reduction in oil exports.
“Last night, our deep strikes hit an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600 kilometers from the border, and the Marinovka military air base in the Volgograd region,” Zelensky claimed. “There are also results in the Black Sea.”
“We also have confirmed results from previous strikes: a Russian Su-34 aircraft was damaged at the Akhtubinsk air base, about 600 kilometers from the front line,” the Ukrainian leader added. “And in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, nearly 180 kilometers away, a facility used for storing, preparing, and launching attack drones that the Russians use to strike our people was hit.”
TWZ cannot independently verify these claims.
Ukraine’s campaign against Russian air defenses continues as well.
A Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile system (SAM) was located and destroyed, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (MoD) claimed on X.
Video emerged on social media showing a Ukrainian MiG-29 chasing a Russian Shahed drone, which eventually crashed apparently without being fired on. Based on the quality of the video and the distance from which it was shot, it is hard to say exactly what caused the drone to crash.
Russia has introduced a new method of attack. It involves using a drone that lies in wait until a microphone picks up the sound of a passing vehicle and activates the weapon.
Ukraine’s mid-range strike drone campaign against Russian logistics, especially fuel trucks, has relied heavily on AI for terminal guidance and target recognition. Now Russia is supposedly testing a new method of trying to defend against those strikes.
Russian forces have reportedly fitted a UAZ-452 “Bukhanka” vehicle with mirrored panels as a potential countermeasure against drones using optical or AI-assisted guidance.
The improvised modification, which makes the van look like a rolling disco, appears intended to interfere with the drone’s ability to visually identify and track the vehicle by altering its appearance and creating reflections. However, whether this works is not known.
Earlier in this piece, we touched on Ukraine’s Delta battle management system. It turns out the country’s SBU state security service arrested a commander of a National Guard special purpose group for giving Russia access to his Delta account in return for $1,000 in cryptocurrency, a serious security breach.
That’s it for now. We’ll update this again at a later date.
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
The Sports Report: UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava reflects on a tumultuous career so far
Nico Iamaleava discusses career
From Connor Dullinger: Nico Iamaleava became a household name among college football fans.
Not because of his five-star, blue-chip status, leaving Warren High as the second-ranked prospect in the 2023 class and top-ranked recruit out of California.
Not for leading Tennessee to its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance and a 10-3 record — tying for the Volunteers’ second-best finish since 2001.
Instead, Iamaleava is remembered for his tumultuous exit from Knoxville, a parting characterized by head coach Josh Heupel that the program would move on without its starting signal-caller, leading the Long Beach product to UCLA.
More than one year removed after his departure, Iamaleava reflected at preseason media day on his time with the Volunteers, the effect last season had on his mental health and his mindset heading into 2026.
“In Tennessee, I was in a rough mental state as far as being far from home, but that’s what came with me growing and maturing,” Iamaleava said Wednesday. “So coming back home has been a great transition, and I can’t wait to play this year.”
Can Mark Walter keep the Dodgers?
When the news broke last week that Mark Walter was selling the Lakers just one year after buying the storied basketball franchise, executives working for another crown jewel in his sports empire — the Dodgers — were quick to say the billionaire had no plans to sell the team.
The Dodgers have won three of the last six World Series and 12 division titles since an ownership group led by Walter bought the then-bankrupt team in 2012, and the Dodgers now are considered the most successful — and lucrative — franchise in Major League Baseball.
Yet, amid Walter’s financial difficulties, including a federal inquiry into his insurance empire regarding $16 billion to $21 billion in undisclosed loans to his own companies, questions remain over whether the blowback will hit the Dodgers.
Walter has denied wrongdoing, and sports business experts say it’s far too soon to know whether the Dodgers will be in play. No charges have been filed against Walter or anyone associated with his businesses.
“If you’re judging on that — winning and revenue created — he’s been at the helm of all of that. … He does truly look like a white knight as it relates to his ownership of the Dodgers,” said Patrick Rishe, executive director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Still, “we don’t know what the issues are, and we don’t know the severity and the magnitude.”
Cox customers can finally watch the Dodgers on SportsNet LA
Rams hope for some Aaron Donald answers soon
From Gary Klein: The Aaron Donald watch continues.
On Thursday, coach Sean McVay was asked if Donald, a three-tine NFL defensive player of the year, would do more workouts before deciding whether or not he will come out of retirement to join the Super Bowl-favorite Rams.
Donald worked out at Loyola Marymount when the Rams were in training camp, and last week at the Rams facility in Woodland Hills.
“We’ll see,” McVay said. “I would love to be able to have all this stuff figured out but … I know he’s feeling good, and I think he will continue to work out, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have some answers on that sooner than later.”
Angels rout the Astros
Zach Neto was five for six with his 21st homer and a career-high seven RBIs and the Angels scored their most runs in three years to rout the Houston Astros 18-3 on Thursday night.
The Angels (51-77) had a season-high 18 hits and scored their most runs since a 25-1 victory over Colorado on June 24, 2023.
Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez (4-5) gave up just two unearned runs across seven innings while striking out six.
Takeaways from Chargers’ preseason loss to 49ers
From Sam Farmer: Jake Slaughter could be the first Chargers player to touch the ball on every offensive snap. He has never done so in an NFL game that counts.
Slaughter, the rookie second-round pick from the University of Florida, is the leading candidate to start at center after Tyler Biadasz went down with a knee injury at practice this week. There is no timetable for the return of Biadasz, who signed a three-year, $30-million contract in March.
Although Slaughter played some guard in college, center is his natural position. He played just nine snaps Thursday in a 41-17 preseason loss to the San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium.
It’s understandable that the Chargers (1-1) only wanted light duty from him, considering they slogged through a brutal 2025 season when they lost their two outstanding tackles and endured a revolving door along the offensive line throughout the season.
As is common throughout the NFL, lots of Chargers starters were merely spectators for the second of three preseason games.
Here are some more observations from the Chargers’ preseason loss to the 49ers:
Sparks are eliminated from playoff contention
From Jordan Puente: After 15 years in the WNBA, the Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike is content with her decision to call this her final season.
“I think that ended up being a blessing in disguise,” Ogwumike said of returning to the Sparks during the offseason. “Once training camp hit, I realized, you know what? I think what I have left is one more season, and I was OK with that.”
The Sparks opened a three-game homestand and the first since Ogwumike’s retirement announcement with a crushing 124-88 loss to the Atlanta Dream.
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said before tipoff she wanted her team to get off to a better start, but the team could not deliver Thursday and extended its losing streak to six games. The defeat officially eliminated the spiraling Sparks (12-24) from playoff contention.
This day in sports history
1901 — William Larned wins the first of seven men’s singles titles in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championship.
1914 — Walter Hagen captures the U.S. Open golf title by edging Chick Evans.
1920 — Jock Hutchinson wins the PGA golf tournament with a 1-up victory over J. Douglass Edgar.
1932 — Helen Hull Jacobs beats Carolyn Babcock to win the women’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn.
1982 — Mystic Park becomes the first 3-year-old trotter to win the American Trotting Championship.
1985 — Mary Decker sets the world record in the mile run with a time of 4:16.71 in Zurich.
2003 — Paul Hamm puts together a near-perfect routine on the high bar to become the first American man to win the all-around gold medal at World Gymnastics Championships. Needing a 9.712 or better to beat China’s Yang Wei, Hamm strings together four straight release moves during his 60-second routine — one of the toughest feats in gymnastics — for a 9.975 and the gold.
2004 — American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins his sixth gold medal of the Athens Olympics even though he doesn’t swim the final of men’s 4 x 100m medley relay; US wins in world record 3:30.68.
2008 — At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Yukiko Ueno pitches 28 innings in two days, including seven to shut down the U.S. softball team, 3-1, and give Japan the gold medal. It was the first loss for the Americans since Sept. 21, 2000 — 22 straight games. LaShawn Merritt upsets defending champion Jeremy Wariner to lead a U.S. sweep of the 400 meters track event. David Neville gets the bronze. The U.S. men and women both drop the baton in the Olympic 400-meter relays and fail to advance out of the first round. Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown easily wins the 200 meters to cap the first sweep of all four men’s and women’s Olympic sprints in 20 years.
2010 — Kyle Busch makes NASCAR history with an unprecedented sweep of three national races in one week, completing the trifecta with a victory in the Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch, winner of the Nationwide race a day earlier and the Trucks race on Aug. 18, becomes the first driver to complete the sweep since NASCAR expanded to three national series in 1995.
2011 — The Sparks run off 16 straight points to overcome a 15-point, second-half deficit and hand the Tulsa Shock their WNBA-record 18th consecutive loss with a 73-67 victory. The Atlanta Dream lost 17 in a row in their inaugural season of 2008.
2016 — Kevin Durant scores 30 points and helps the Americans rout Serbia 96-66 for their third straight gold medal. That caps an Olympics in which the U.S. dominated the medal tables, both the gold (46) and overall totals (121). The 51-total-medal margin over second-place China is the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in nearly a century.
2018 — Liu Xiang of China sets a world record time of 26.98 seconds to win the women’s 50-meter backstroke gold medal at the Asian Games. Liu becomes the first woman to swim under 27 seconds in the event, breaking the mark of 27.06 set by fellow Chinese swimmer Zhao Jing at the 2009 world championships in Rome.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1926 — Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The 6-0 victory was achieved in 1 hour, 7 minutes.
1930 — Chick Hafey of the St. Louis Cardinals hit for the cycle and drove in five runs in a 16-6 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies.
1931 — Babe Ruth hit his 600th home run as the Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns 11-7.
1947 — The first Little League World Series was at Williamsport, Pa.
1972 — Steve Carlton of Philadelphia had his 15-game winning streak snapped when Phil Niekro and the Atlanta Braves beat the Phillies 2-1 in 11 innings.
1975 — Pitching brothers Rick and Paul Reuschel of the Chicago Cubs combined to throw a 7-0 shutout against the Dodgers. Rick went 6 1-3 innings and Paul finished the shutout for the first ever by two brothers.
1982 — Milwaukee pitcher Rollie Fingers became the first player to achieve 300 saves as the Brewers beat the Seattle Mariners 3-2.
1986 — Spike Owen had four hits and became the first major league player in 40 years to score six runs in a game as the Boston Red Sox routed the Cleveland Indians 24-5 with a 24-hit attack.
2007 — Garret Anderson of the Angels drove in a team-record 10 runs in an 18-9 rout of the New York Yankees. Anderson hit a grand slam, a three-run homer, a two-run double and an RBI double to become the 12th player in major league history to have 10 RBIs in a game.
2007 — Arizona’s Mark Reynolds tied the major league record for consecutive strikeouts by a non-pitcher when he fanned in his ninth straight plate appearance in a 7-4 loss to Milwaukee. Reynolds struck out in his first two at-bats against Dave Bush to match the record. Bush hit Reynolds with a pitch in the sixth, ending the streak.
2011 — Johnny Damon lost a grand slam to a video review in the seventh inning, then hit a game-ending home run in the ninth that lifted the Tampa Bay Rays over the Seattle Mariners 8-7. Damon connected for a leadoff shot in the ninth on the first pitch from Dan Cortes. The Rays trailed 5-4 in the seventh when Damon launched a drive to right-center field. First ruled a home run, the umpires changed the call to a three-run double after a video review.
2015 — Mike Fiers pitched the second no-hitter in the major leagues in nine days, leading the Houston Astros to a 3-0 victory over the Dodgers. Having never thrown a complete game in his five-year career, Fiers was dominant. He struck out 10 and walked three, retiring the final 21 batters. Fiers struck out Justin Turner on his 134th pitch to end it.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Key takeaways from investigation into Edison’s role in Eaton fire
Recently revealed evidence from government investigators and court filings renewed questions about Southern California Edison’s claim that it operated its electrical grid safely before last year’s deadly Eaton fire.
Most records surrounding the fire’s cause have been sealed at the request of Edison and plaintiff attorneys. Yet new details revealed in court show that critical fire prevention equipment needed repair before the blaze and that vegetation under the tower where it ignited hadn’t been trimmed for years.
Los Angeles County and state fire investigators cited eight violations, including three of California’s criminal code, in their report released on Aug. 4. The details were blacked out as the district attorney continues an investigation into the devastating fire.
“We don’t believe there is a basis for criminal liability and we will cooperate with any review,” said Kathleen Dunleavy, an Edison spokeswoman.
The investigators said in the report that the Jan. 7, 2025 inferno, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes and other structures, was caused by electrical arcing on an out-of-service transmission line in Eaton Canyon, which caused hot metal fragments to fall into the dried vegetation below.
Here are key takeaways from the investigative report and recent court filings by lawyers representing fire victims:
Edison didn’t turn off power on its Eaton Canyon transmission lines, despite emergency conditions.
Before the fire, the National Weather Service predicted a “life-threatening” windstorm, investigators wrote in their report released Aug. 4. Santa Ana wind gusts were forecast to reach speeds of 60 to 80 miles per hour, with peak gusts of 90 miles per hour in the mountains.
Earlier that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency because of an out-of-control fire that was burning homes in Pacific Palisades.
Despite those conditions, Edison kept power flowing through its high-voltage transmission lines built in the mountains above Altadena. Investigators noted that wind gusts at a weather station about a half-mile from the Edison tower where the fire started recorded gusts up to 68 miles per hour just before the first flames at 6:11 p.m. By 7, gusts were up to 85 miles per hour.
Dunleavy said the conditions did not meet the company’s internal standards for shutting off the lines.
“SCE was actively monitoring the transmission lines in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7 and none of these lines met our de-energization criteria,” Dunleavy said.
Safety equipment on the out-of-service line was damaged before the fire but not fixed.
Edison had installed safety equipment at both ends of the out-of-service, unconnected transmission line in Eaton Canyon, including at the pylon known as Tower 208 where the fire ignited. But on the night of the fire, the equipment was broken, according to a June court filing.
The equipment was designed to send any unexpected power on the out-of-service line safely into the earth. The grounding equipment was necessary because the idle Mesa-Sylmar line ran parallel to 12 energized high-voltage lines, creating the danger of induction.
Induction happens when electromagnetic fields cause power on energized lines to jump to nearby idle equipment.
At Tower 208, a component known as a compression paddle was not securely bonded to the pylon, allowing debris to form and creating a dangerous air pocket, the filing said. The paddle was meant to be secured with four bolts, but only one bolt was used.
Government fire investigators also found broken equipment at one of the Mesa-Sylmar towers during a tour of the site with Edison after the fire. According to their report, investigators observed “the center conductor dangling free from the bridge section of the tower; it appeared that the remaining two conductors were not bored down to the tower bridge.”
The investigators said they discussed the equipment “abnormalities” with an Edison lineman and lawyer on the tour. “The Lineman said that they were not new and were like this last year; he was also unsure why they were not corrected when it was inspected,” the investigators wrote.
Asked why the equipment was not fixed, Dunleavy said, “We’re looking into that.”
She said the company strives to have a strong maintenance and inspection program and still was performing post-fire examinations and testing.
Edison kept the century-old, out-of-service Mesa-Sylmar line in place for decades, despite knowing idle lines could reenergize and spark fires.
Utilities have known for decades that unused lines can become energized from nearby electrified equipment through the induction process.
To teach employees about the danger, Edison created a training video featuring a 2007 incident in which a line known as the Kramer-Coolwater circuit was de-energized to allow work by a crew. The line became reenergerized while laying on the ground and started several fires, according to a retelling of the video in a July court filing by lawyers representing victims. Later that day, the crew’s foreman was injured when he touched the line.
Eleven years later, the Kramer-Coolwater circuit was unconnected from the grid, similar to the line in Eaton Canyon. Yet the line was electrified by induction from adjacent lines again in 2018, electrocuting a lineman who touched the conductor, the court filing said.
The company has said it kept the line in place even though it hadn’t carried power since 1971 because executives believed it could be used in the future.
Dunleavy said the induction event in the training video was different from what appears to have happened on Jan. 7 with the Eaton Canyon transmission lines.
“We had never seen an idle, de-energized transmission line cause an ignition,” she said.
Edison failed to clear vegetation below the tower where the fire ignited.
The investigators’ report said the fire ignited when electrical arcing on the idle line caused hot metal particles to fall into “the receptive fuel beds consisting of dry vegetation” below the tower.
The June court filing includes details from Google Earth images showing that the vegetation under Tower 208 had not been trimmed since at least 2021. Leaving the brush to grow violated Edison’s safety standard for “structure brushing,” the filing said.
Edison explained structure brushing in an article last year, describing how it cleared all vegetation around certain equipment, creating a 10-foot barrier to reduce the fire risk.
Asked why Edison let brush grow below the idle line, Dunleavy said, “We inspect and maintain all our equipment according to existing regulations and laws.”
Edison has sued L.A. County and other public entities, saying that their failures, including not clearing brush and delayed evacuation warnings, increased the fire’s destruction.
A fight over accountability
The first jury trial looking at whether Edison acted negligently in igniting the fire is scheduled to begin Jan. 25.
Later, state regulators will evaluate whether the company acted “prudently” in its actions related to the fire’s start.
Under a 2019 law brought by Newsom to protect utilities from bankruptcy, the companies automatically are deemed to have acted prudently if regulators sign off on their wildfire prevention plan.
Newsom’s safety regulators approved Edison’s plan just before the Eaton fire. That means Edison will be fully reimbursed for the billions of dollars in Eaton fire damages by a state fund that Newsom’s legislation created unless outside parties can prove Edison acted imprudently, negligently or worse.
“We continue to believe we will make a good faith showing of prudency,” Dunleavy said.
Newsom is working behind closed doors on legislation to further protect Edison and the state’s two other big for-profit electric utilities from the cost of wildfires caused by their equipment, the Times reported this year.
The three companies’ equipment ignited at least seven of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires, according to CalFire. The Eaton fire was the state’s second-most destructive fire after the 2018 Camp fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise. That fire, according to investigators, was ignited by an old transmission line owned by Pacific Gas & Electric.
The survivors of Eaton and other fires are fighting Newsom’s plan, saying it would leave California more vulnerable to utility-sparked fires.
“The real danger is what will happen to Californians if we further strip away these corporations’ financial incentives to prevent catastrophic fires,” Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, wrote in an analysis sent to state lawmakers this week.
“These are not innocent companies overtaken by climate change, nor is this an abstract problem of ‘wildfire liability,’” she wrote. “It is a continuing pattern of catastrophic corporate failure.”
The Sports Report: A history of the Buss family drama
History of the Buss family drama
Jerry Buss put together what was then thought to be a wild business deal to purchase the Lakers and related assets for $67.5 million in 1979.
Buss had a degree in chemistry, but his money came from real estate holdings and loans that moved between third parties to help him obtain the Lakers, Kings and the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke, who was going through a costly divorce.
Buss’ vision was to infuse Hollywood glamour into an NBA team few in Los Angeles seemed to care about, win championships and share that glory with his family.
Buss realized his Hollywood dream in more ways than he ever could have imagined, with his death in 2013 from complications from cancer touching off battles among his six children over control of the Lakers.
At least two siblings have tried to oust another from a leadership role. One sibling reportedly said two others never should have been born. And one sibling managed to fire the five others from jobs with the team.
The rifts mirror the HBO hit show “Succession.” Buss’ tenure and the family drama has been direct inspiration for two television shows and was chronicled in a docuseries the Lakers produced.
The latest daggers were delivered this week, with attorneys representing Buss’ daughter, Jeanie, admonishing her five siblings — Janie, Johnny, Jim, Joey and Jesse — for announcing the Buss Family Trust was selling its 17.8% ownership of the Lakers to new buyers Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner.
Dodgers sweep the Rockies
From Maddie Lee: As Teoscar Hernández popped up from his slide across home plate, Mookie Betts retreated to first applauding.
While the long ball had been the key to the Dodgers’ earlier offensive success Wednesday, keeping it simple unlocked their 10th-inning push. And in the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory Wednesday, it was Betts’ third hit of the night, a low line drive through the middle of the infield, that widened the Dodgers’ lead to two runs.
“It was huge,” Betts said of completing the three-game sweep in Colorado. “Winning every ball game is important, especially now with the playoff race. Every game is important.”
The trip to hitter-friendly Mile High City, and a matchup against the last-place team in the NL West, came at the perfect time for the Dodgers, ending a collective slump. They’d just dropped three of four to the Brewers at Dodger Stadium, in what had already been a rough start to August.
“Obviously, we haven’t played our best baseball lately,” utility player Kiké Hernández said. “And as a good team, as a team that’s leading the division, … the teams at the bottom of the standings, you need to beat those guys.”
Angels lose to Astros
Ethan Pecko struck out four in his major-league debut, five Houston relievers pitched shutout ball for five-plus innings and Christian Vázquez homered as the Astros beat the Angels 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Pecko, a 2023 sixth-round selection by Houston, was ranked ninth in the Astros’ system by MLB Pipeline. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, two runs and two walks in 3 2/3 innings. He was the 17th starter used by the Astros this season, tying a franchise record set in 1965.
Vázquez’s solo homer, his seventh of the year, put the Astros ahead in the third inning.
Denzer Guzman put the Angels ahead in the fourth with what initially appeared to be a three-run homer. But, the call was changed to a two-run double due to fan interference.
Walbert Ureña (8-9) worked five innings for the Angels, giving up three runs and three hits with seven strikeouts.
Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike to retire
From Marisa Ingemi: Nneka Ogwumike’s return to the Sparks this season, it turned out, was a goodbye tour.
The 15-year WNBA veteran announced on Wednesday morning that this would be her last WNBA season.
She made the announcement in an interview with Taylor Rooks at Boardroom Talks.
“I feel very fulfilled with the 15 years that I’ve been able to play and compete at such a high level and I am proud to say that I’m retiring from the WNBA,” Ogwumike said.
Drafted first overall in 2012, Ogwumike was the WNBA rookie of the year and went on to have one of the best careers in. league history. She was the league’s MVP in 2016, when she led the Sparks to their most recent WNBA title. She is also a four-time first-team All-Defensive player.
Chargers-49ers: Five things to watch for
From Joaquin Ruiz: The Chargers had a pleasant start to preseason play with a 27-7 road win over the Houston Texans last week.
Now, after a physical joint practice with the 49ers on Tuesday in El Segundo, the Chargers will host San Francisco on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium.
Here are five things to watch for during the Chargers’ second preseason game.
Galaxy defeat the Earthquake
Joseph Paintsil scored a short-handed goal in the 79th minute to lead the Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday night.
Paintsil used assists from rookie defender Harbor Miller and Marco Reus to find the net for the fifth time this season. Miller’s helper was his second, while Reus collected his seventh.
The Galaxy (6-8-7) were forced to play a man down from the 45th minute on after midfielder Lucas Sanabria was tagged with a pair of yellow cards in the final nine minutes of the first half.
LAFC falls to Colorado
Nico Hansen finished with one save and had his third consecutive shutout to help the Colorado Rapids beat LAFC 1-0 Wednesday night.
The Rapids (9-10-1) have won three consecutive games, all by shutout, and four of five since the World Cup break.
LAFC (10-7-4) is winless in three straight for the first time this season.
The Rapids took a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute on an own goal by Jeremy Ebobisse. Youssef Maziz played a free kick from the right side into the area that was redirected by Ebobisse off the back post and into the net.
This day in sports history
1921 — Molla Bjurstedt Mallory beats Mary Browne, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to win the U.S. women’s national tennis title at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia.
1931 — Helen Wills Moody beats Eileen Bennett Whitingstall 6-4, 6-1 to capture the women’s title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championship.
1944 — Robert Hamilton upsets Byron Nelson in the final round 1-up to win the PGA Championship.
1960 — Holland’s Hairos II, driven by Willem Geersen, wins the second International Trot at Roosevelt Raceway before a record crowd of 54,861.
1995 — Monica Seles completes a remarkable first week back in tournament tennis, routing Amanda Coetzer 6-0, 6-1 to capture the Canadian Open. Her 74 games sets a tournament record for the fewest played by a champion.
1999 — Seventh Athletics World Championships open at Seville, Spain.
2000 — Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship in a playoff over Bob May, becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year. He’s the first player to repeat as PGA champion since Denny Shute in 1937.
2003 — The U.S. wins the women’s overall team gold medal at the gymnastics world championships. It is the first gold for the Americans — men or women — at the biggest international event outside the Olympics.
2004 — Michael Phelps matches Mark Spitz’s record of four individual gold medals in Olympic swimming by winning the 100-meter butterfly. He edges teammate Ian Crocker to win his fifth gold medal. Shortly after winning his seventh medal of these Olympics, Phelps gives up his spot in the medley relay to Crocker.
2006 — Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship for a five-shot victory over Shaun Micheel and his 12th career major. He becomes the first player to win the PGA twice on the same course, having done so at Medinah in 1999.
2008 — Usain Bolt of Jamaica breaks the 200-meter world record, winning in 19.30 seconds at the Beijing Games. He is the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to sweep the 100 and 200 at an Olympics.
2012 — Augusta National invites former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first female members since the club was founded in 1932.
2016 — Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt anchor the 4×400 relay teams, and the U.S. exits the final night of action at Olympic Stadium with 31 medals — its most in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1956. The U.S. women’s basketball team beats Spain 101-72 for a sixth straight title.
2018 — Alabama becomes the second team to be ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll for three straight seasons. The preseason AP poll started in 1950 and since then only Oklahoma from 1985-87 had started No. 1 in three straight years.
2023 — FIFA Women’s World Cup Final, Stadium Australia, Sydney: Spanish captain Olga Carmona scores the only goal of the game as La Furia Roja score a 1-0 win over England.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1912 — Walter Johnson won his American League-record 15th straight game, downing Cleveland 4-2 in the opener of a doubleheader. Washington’s Carl Cashion pitched a six-inning no-hitter to give the Senators a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the second game, which was called to allow Cleveland to catch a train to Boston.
1938 — New York’s Lou Gehrig hit his 23rd and the final grand slam of his career and drove in six runs to lead the Yankees to an 11-3 win over the Philadelphia Athletics.
1945 — Tommy Brown, 17 years, 8 months, 14 days, of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the youngest major league player to hit a home run when he connected in Ebbets Field against Preacher Roe of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1957 — Bob Keegan of the Chicago White Sox pitched a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Washington Senators in the second game of a doubleheader.
1958 — Detroit’s Jim Bunning pitched a no-hitter to lead the Tigers to a 3-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in the opening game of a doubleheader at Fenway Park.
1961 — The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves 7-4 in the second game of a doubleheader to end a 23-game losing streak, a modern record.
1965 — Milwaukee’s Eddie Mathews hit his 28th home run, and the Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3. With the homer, the duo of Mathews and Hank Aaron passed the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig total of 772 home runs to become the top home-run tandem in major league history.
1974 — Nolan Ryan of the Angels struck out 19 Tigers in a 1-0, 11-inning loss to Detroit. It was the third time this season that Ryan struck out 19 batters in a game.
1980 — Pittsburgh’s Omar Moreno stole his 70th base of the season in a 5-1 loss to Houston, to become the first player this century with three consecutive 70-steal seasons. The fleet outfielder swiped 71 in 1978, 77 in 1979.
1989 — New York’s Howard Johnson hit his 30th home run of the season in the Mets’ 5-4 loss to the Dodgers and joined Bobby Bonds and Willie Mays as the only players to achieve 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in two different seasons.
1995 — Jose Mesa of the Cleveland Indians picked up his 37th save in 37 opportunities to set a major league record, and the Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers 8-5.
2005 — The Kansas City Royals ended baseball’s longest losing streak in 17 years, defeating the Oakland Athletics 2-1 to end a club-record 19-game skid.
2014 — The San Francisco Giants became the first team since 1986 to win a protest. Rain caused a delay during an Aug. 19 game after the grounds crew couldn’t put the tarp down quickly, and the umpires deemed the field unplayable. The Cubs were declared the winners by a 2-0 score after 4 1/2 innings. MLB ruled to resume the rain-shortened game with the Cubs batting in the bottom of the fifth.
2019 — By defeating the Blue Jays, 16-3, Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers notches win No. 166 to pass Sandy Koufax for most by a left-hander in franchise history.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
World Cup 2026: Racism suffered by England players on X amplified by algorithms – new report
Hope Not Hate said current attempts to tackle online abuse often focused too heavily on what happens after a racist post had already been seen.
Players can block users, report messages and platforms can suspend accounts, but Hermansson says those measures do not address the way abusive content is amplified.
“X doesn’t take racism seriously enough,” he added. “We’ve seen it for a number of years now. There is no change or improvement.”
He said social media companies already had the tools to alter how their algorithms recommended content, particularly during periods when abuse is surging.
“It’s actually a relatively small number of accounts and originating tweets that then get tons of replies,” he said.
“I think it’s entirely feasible to stop this, or a vast amount of it.”
Hope Not Hate said one option would be to downrank posts attracting large volumes of abuse, meaning they were recommended to fewer people.
Before the new Premier League season the group called on UK’s media regulator Ofcom to use its existing powers under the Online Safety Act more effectively and address predictable spikes in hate.
They want Ofcom to outlaw the algorithms fulling abuse and also to designate major sporting events as “high risk”.
This would require platforms to deploy strict safety-by-design rules, remove abuse proactively and downrank rapidly escalating viral hate through algorithmic adjustments.
In a statement to BBC Sport, Ofcom said: “We’re pushing tech firms hard to make their services safer, and we’ll be holding them to account if they don’t.”
Ofcom also cited a new partnership with police and footballing bodies before the World Cup to tackle online abuse.
LA County warns that Paramount-Warner merger could erase thousands jobs
Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery could result in 4,500 jobs eliminated in Los Angeles over a three-year period, according to a new report.
Los Angeles County supervisors earlier this year wanted to explore the potential economic impact of David Ellison’s proposed union of two historic Hollywood studios. The report, completed this week by CVL Economics, paints a sobering picture of the potential aftermath of the debt-laden deal, including the prospect of an estimated $1.26 billion in lost wages.
“Los Angeles County’s film and television economy is already undergoing a significant structural contraction,” the report said. “The proposed merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance introduces an additional source of risk into that already changing market.”
California Atty. General Rob Bonta is leading a coalition of 12 states attempting to block the merger on antitrust grounds. A trial has been set for March. Paramount and other groups, including cinema chain owners and some Hollywood unions, have agitated for a settlement to curtail months of uncertainty over whether the deal will go through.
The proposed merger has been controversial in Hollywood due to fears of widespread layoffs. The Writers Guild of America has brought its own lawsuit to thwart the deal.
The goal of the county’s report was to provide “a comprehensive assessment of the merger’s production workforce implications,” amid the ongoing decline of L.A. based film and television production work. Los Angeles has witnessed the elimination of more than 50,000 entertainment jobs since 2022.
The 120-page report, from the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity and Film Office and requested by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, found that more than 15,000 corporate roles would be at risk, including an estimated 2,495 jobs based in Los Angeles County.
The two companies would have an overlapping workforce within its linear cable channel divisions, film and television studios, streaming operations and corporate functions, including marketing, technology and advertising sales.
“Effects on crews, crafts, post-production personnel, vendors, and production-serving small businesses,” could also be substantial, the report said.
Paramount, in a statement, said the report highlighted the industry’s troubles and made a case for the merger.
“LA County’s own economic report underscores what we have been saying all along: our industry is in decline, production is down and jobs are being lost — and lost for good if we don’t act,” Paramount said. “Our plan to invest $30 billion annually in production and release at least 30 films a year.”
That commitment, Paramount said, would lead to “more jobs over time, and ultimately, a stronger, more durable entertainment industry for generations to come.”
Paramount has received clearances from the U.S. Justice Department and 65 other regulators around the globe to complete the merger.
For now, Bonta’s lawsuit is standing in the way.
Paramount has promised investors the deal would lead to at least $6 billion in cost savings through the consolidation of operations. The company has said the merger would ultimately be good for consumers and workers because a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. would have greater resources to compete with tech giants that are investing heavily in entertainment.
But the report pointed to the high level of debt that Paramount would have to take on — nearly $82 billion — to buy the stock of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to finalize the takeover.
“If revenues underperform or planned savings prove more difficult to achieve, pressure to identify additional cost reductions could increase,” the report said.
The two companies already are carrying substantial interest costs due to their existing debt structures. “In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, the two companies reported a combined $712 million in operating income and $737 million in net interest expense,” the report said, meaning that the companies were producing less profit than what was needed to support their debt obligations.
Despite Paramount predicting cost savings and reduction in debt over time, “those savings will take several years to fully realize,” the report said.
David Ellison was hoping to wrap up his $111-billion merger with Warner Bros. by September.
(PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Television production in Los Angeles could be especially vulnerable, in large part, because Paramount and Warner Bros. already have moved most of their feature film projects outside of L.A. High levels of TV production continues at Warner Bros. complex in Burbank and Paramount’s and CBS’ soundstages in Hollywood and Santa Clarita.
“The economic impact extends well beyond employment,” with an expected elimination of $547 million in tax revenue, including $78.6 million in local taxes, the report said.
It noted that Warner Bros. and Paramount films were “particularly employment-intensive.”
“Their theatrical releases carry 2.74 times as many screen credits as the average theatrical release, while their streaming films carry twice as many,” the report found.
The document also highlighted a pre-existing pull-back in production at the two studios in recent years — something that Ellison plans to correct.
Paramount was struggling to remain solvent prior to the Ellison family’s purchase of the media company last year. Warner Bros. had scaled back offerings following Discovery’s $43-billion takeover of WarnerMedia in 2022 as it struggled to contain the debt from that deal.
“Between 2019 and 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount accounted for a net reduction of approximately 195 major U.S. releases,” the report said. At the same time, other major distributors combined “added about 67 projects.”
Ellison is looking to finalize his massive Hollywood deal — folding CNN, HBO, TBS, Food Network and the Warner Bros. film and television studios under Paramount — as quickly as possible. He must hold together Paramount’s coalition of financiers and manage rising expenses, primarily legal fees and escalating obligations to Warner shareholders.
The state attorneys general, including from Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, Washington and New York have argued that the blockbuster merger — the largest in Hollywood in decades — would violate the century-old Clayton Antitrust Act.
Paramount hoped the trial over Bonta’s lawsuit would begin in November but U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín set the trial for March 2.
If the deal goes forward, just four studios — a post-merger Paramount-Warner, Disney, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures — would control 86% of movies that are widely released (in more than 3,000 movie theaters), according to the attorneys general lawsuit. Paramount has argued that projects from Amazon MGM, Netflix and Apple should be included because they compete with the traditional companies for talent and audiences.
Paramount-Warner Bros. would also own more than 50 cable channels, including HGTV, Animal Planet, BET, MTV and Comedy Central.
The Sports Report: A wacky day in Lakers land
A wacky day in Lakers land
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: For more than four decades, the Lakers were a family-run business. The sibling rivalries still remain.
Jeanie Buss is fighting back after her siblings reportedly voted to sell the family’s remaining stake in the Lakers on Monday. The team’s governor, Buss sent a letter through her attorney to her brothers’ attorneys stating any votes to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake in the team to new majority owners Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner are void because the sale cannot be completed without approval of the other trustees: Jeanie and her younger siblings, Janie and Joey.
ESPN reported Monday that the six Buss family siblings, who took over team ownership after their father, Jerry Buss, died in 2013, are selling their shares of the Lakers to Iger and Kushner following a family vote. Iger, the longtime Disney chief executive, and Kushner, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, agreed last week to buy Mark Walter’s controlling stake of the Lakers for a record valuation of $12.5 billion.
The transactions still need to be approved by the NBA board of governors. Jeanie Buss, who was to remain the Lakers governor for at least five years after Walter’s purchase of the team was approved last October, no longer would be eligible to serve on the board if the Buss family sells its shares. Governors are required to own at least a 15% stake.
“The co-trustees are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain controlling owner,” the letter from Buss’ attorney reads, citing a 2017 court ruling outlining Jeanie Buss’ role. “Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”
Ohtani homers twice, Dodgers win
From Maddie Lee: Shohei Ohtani paused to admire the flight of his no-doubt home run as it sailed to right-center field.
Clearly on a home-run trajectory, it was headed toward the visitor’s bullpen. From among the trees, Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt’s glove shot up and secured the ball.
As Ohtani circled the bases, the bullpen turned into a mosh pit around Hurt.
In what has been a brutal August for the Dodgers, the vibes were undeniably high.
Maybe all the Dodgers needed was a trip to the Mile High City.
En route to an 11-5 win over the Rockies, Ohtani’s two-run blast in the sixth inning — his second homer of the game — widened the Dodgers’ lead to eight runs, a comfortable lead even at hitter-friendly Coors Field.
‘Rare accomplishment’: How Max Muncy went from being cast off to longest-tenured Dodger
Update on NBA probe into Clippers
From Steve Henson: The NBA investigation into whether payments from Clippers team sponsors to star player Kawhi Leonard were a prohibited attempt to circumvent the salary cap has moved to a contentious discussion phase between the team and the league, people with knowledge of the case not authorized to discuss it publicly confirmed to The Times on Monday.
ESPN reported that the probe conducted on behalf of the NBA by high-powered New York law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz has found no evidence establishing that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through Aspiration Partners, Daktronics or other team sponsors to pay Leonard millions of dollars in excess of his player contract.
However, the NBA issued a statement that read: “ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”
MLB approves sale of Padres
Major League Baseball’s team owners unanimously have approved the sale of the San Diego Padres to an investor group led by private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife and business partner, Kwanza Jones.
The league announced the approval Monday after a vote. Feliciano and Jones reached an agreement in May to buy the Padres from the family of late owner Peter Seidler at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion. The deal is still contingent on the official closing of the transaction in the coming weeks.
“José and Kwanza understand the unique place the Padres hold in San Diego and the powerful bond between the club and its fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to their leadership of the Padres and to working with them to build on the club’s strong foundation in a market that is so important to Major League Baseball.”
This day in sports history
1923 — Helen Mills, 17, ends Molla Bjurstedt Mallory’s domination of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships and starts her own with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
1958 — Floyd Patterson knocks out Roy Harris in the 13th round at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles to retain his world heavyweight title.
1964 — The International Olympic Committee bans South Africa from competing in the Summer Olympics because of its apartheid policies.
1994 — South Africa is introduced for the first time in 36 years during the opening ceremonies of the 15th Commonwealth Games held in Victoria, British Columbia. South Africa had been banned from the Games since 1958 because of its apartheid policies.
1995 — Thirteen-year-old Dominique Moceanu becomes the youngest to win the National Gymnastics Championships senior women’s all-around title in New Orleans.
2004 — Paul Hamm wins the men’s gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event. Controversy follows after it was discovered a scoring error that may have cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the men’s all-around title. Yang, who finished with a bronze, is wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his second-to-last routine, the parallel bars. He finishes third, 0.049 points behind Hamm, who becomes the first American man to win gymnastics’ biggest prize.
2008 — A day after winning an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, Rafael Nadal officially unseats Roger Federer to become the world’s No. 1 tennis player when the ATP rankings are released. Federer had been atop the rankings for 235 weeks.
2013 — For the first time in Solheim Cup history, the Europeans leaves America with the trophy. Caroline Hedwall becomes the first player in the 23-year history of the event to win all five matches. She finishes with a 1-up victory over Michelle Wie and gives Europe the 14 points it needed to retain the cup.
2013 — Usain Bolt is perfect again with three gold medals. The Jamaican great becomes the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the world championships. The 4×100-meter relay gold erases the memories of the 100 title he missed out on in South Korea two years ago because of a false start. Bolt, who already won the 100 and 200 meters, gets his second such sprint triple at the world championships, matching the two he achieved at the Olympics.
2016 — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt completes an unprecedented third consecutive sweep of the 100 and 200-meter sprints, elevating his status as the most decorated male sprinter in Olympic history. He wins the 200-meter race with a time of 19.78 seconds to defeat Andre de Grasse of Canada. American Ashton Eaton defends his Olympic decathlon title, equaling the games record with a surge on the last lap of the 1,500 meters — the last event in the two-day competition. Helen Maroulis defeats Japan’s Saori Yoshida 4-1 in the 53-kilogram freestyle final to win the first-ever gold medal for a United States women’s wrestler.
2018 — Accelerate cruises to a record 12 1/2-length victory in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar, becoming just the third horse to sweep all three of Southern California’s major races for older horses in the same year.
Compiled by the Associated Press
This day in baseball history
1915 — Boston opened Braves Field with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
1931 — New York’s Lou Gehrig played in his 1,000th consecutive game. Gehrig went hitless in the 5-4 loss to Detroit.
1948 — Brooklyn’s Rex Barney pitched a one-hitter for a 1-0 win over Robin Roberts and the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park.
1956 — The Cincinnati Reds hit eight home runs and the Milwaukee Braves added two to set a National League record for home runs by two clubs in a nine-inning night game. Bob Thurman’s three homers and double led the Reds in the 13-4 rout.
1960 — Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves pitched a no-hitter, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0. Burdette faced the minimum 27 batters.
1965 — Hank Aaron of Milwaukee hit Curt Simmons’ pitch on top of the pavilion roof at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis for an apparent home run. However, umpire Chris Pelekoudas called him out for being out of the batter’s box when he connected. Nevertheless, the Braves won the game 5-3.
1967 — Jack Hamilton of the Angels hit Tony Conigliaro on his left cheekbone with a fastball in the fourth inning of a 3-2 loss to Boston. Conigliaro was carried unconscious from the field and missed the remainder of the 1967 season and the entire 1968 season. The 22-year-old already had more than 100 home runs in his career.
1977 — Don Sutton of the Dodgers pitched his fifth one-hitter to tie the National League record. Sutton gave up a two-out single in the eighth inning to San Francisco’s Marc Hill. The Dodgers won 7-0.
1995 — Tom Henke became the seventh pitcher to reach 300 saves, surviving a rally by the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning of the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4-3 victory.
2000 — Darin Erstad of the Angels made a spectacular, game-saving catch in the 10th inning and followed it with a homer in the 11th as the Angels defeated the New York Yankees 9-8.
2006 — Alfonso Soriano became the third player in major league history to have at least four seasons of 30 homers and 30 stolen bases, and the Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-4.
2007 — Micah Owings went 4-for-5, including a pair of mammoth homers, drove in six runs and scored four times while pitching three-hit ball through seven innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves 12-6.
2011 — Mike Jacobs became the first player suspended by Major League Baseball for a positive HGH test under the sport’s minor league drug testing procedures. The 30-year-old minor league first baseman, who was in the big leagues from 2005-10, received a 50-game suspension for taking the banned performance-enhancing substance and was subsequently released by the Colorado Rockies.
2017 — Manny Machado capped a three-homer night with a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Baltimore Orioles rallied past the Angels 9-7 in a game that featured 10 home runs.
2018 — New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom pitched his first complete game of the season and lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.71 with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
2019 — Zack Grenke records the 200th win of his career as the Astros defeat the Athletics 4-1.
2021 — Shohei Ohtani continues to do it all by himself on the field. Today, he becomes the first hitter in the majors to reach 40 homers this season, and also improves his record on the mound to 8-1 as he pitches eight innings for the first time of his career. The Angels defeat the Tigers, 3-1.
2021 — Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle for the second time in his career as they beat the Miami Marlins 11-9.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, report shows
Wealth, perhaps second only to loyalty, has been a prized attribute for Donald Trump during his second presidency.
The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents, according to a report from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
It’s the numbers for the Trump administration, in the context of previous administrations, that stand out in Public Citizen’s report, published on Monday. In all, 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and the remaining 40 in senior posts across the executive branch.
Look no further than Trump’s Cabinet. Eight of its 23 members fit the category, notably Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, both billionaires.
The president, himself a billionaire, has described his inclination toward appointing the ultrawealthy as deference to financial success. And yet, Trump, who owes his White House comeback to support from middle-income, working Americans drawn to his pledge to lower everyday costs, now faces a midterm election electorate decidedly less keen on his handling of the economy.
Presidents have long sought counsel from the nation’s wealthiest people and tapped some for high-profile administrative leadership roles. Likewise, presidents routinely reward wealthy and influential supporters with ambassadorships.
Among the most notable examples is Andrew Mellon, the aluminum, oil and banking tycoon who was among the handful of the nation’s wealthiest people in the 1920s and served as treasury secretary for three presidents.
The Trump officials worth at least $100 million include Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who are also billionaires, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and special envoy Steve Witkoff, both worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
By comparison, Republican George W. Bush’s administration and Democrat Joe Biden’s each included five members worth $100 million or more. Democrat Barack Obama’s included three, the report states.
A government populated by so many of the economic elite presents potential problems, the report’s authors said.
“When the people holding the reins of government are drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of the ultra-rich, it leads to misplaced incentives and corruption, and begs the question, ‘Whose interests they are truly serving?” said Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen’s co-president.
The list does not include Trump, whose net worth Forbes estimates at more than $6 billion. Nor does it include space and social media giant Elon Musk, who advised Trump last year on an effort to reduce the federal government’s size, scope and workforce and is the world’s wealthiest person, with a net worth Forbes estimates at about $860 billion.
Trump’s views are well established: Financial success is evidence of executive mastery and negotiating strength.
“They have great competence, those people. Incredible competence. Some of the smartest business leaders,” Trump said last year in explaining why he put considerable weight on advice from business executives.
He has also pointed to investments by wealthy people as a signal of future economic growth. To encourage billionaires to deliver, Trump, in his first year back in the White House, pursued policies on artificial intelligence and financial regulation that could benefit wealthy people, along with tax cuts and reduced regulatory burdens for large-scale investments.
Still, last month, only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, down from 40% at the beginning of his second term and as his Republican Party faces headwinds in its attempt to hold both majorities in Congress in November.
Beaumont writes for the Associated Press.
Report: Hamas leaders meet Kushner in Egypt for talks on Gaza roadmap – Middle East Monitor
Senior Hamas officials, including the movement’s political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with US envoy Jared Kushner in Egypt to discuss disarmament and the future administration of the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas sources cited by Asharq on Sunday.
The sources said the meeting took place in El Alamein with the participation of senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, which have been involved in mediation efforts over Gaza.
According to the report, the Hamas delegation discussed its position on a proposed roadmap for Gaza and expressed its commitment to provisions concerning the inventory and storage of weapons and the transfer of governing authority in the Strip.
The sources also said Hamas expressed readiness to participate in Palestinian elections and operate as a political party within the Palestinian political system.
READ: Kushner accuses Netanyahu of obstructing US Gaza plan
Kushner reportedly stressed that eliminating security threats originating from Gaza and ensuring that the territory is free of weapons were fundamental requirements for advancing the proposed political process.
Hamas, in turn, sought guarantees regarding implementation of the agreement, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a comprehensive ceasefire, and assurances that the implementation process would not be delayed or obstructed.
The Hamas delegation also called for the rapid transfer of administrative responsibilities in Gaza to a Palestinian national committee or technocratic government, alongside the start of recovery and reconstruction efforts.
According to the report, mediators had informed Hamas beforehand that Kushner wanted to meet the movement’s leadership before traveling to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas reportedly viewed the meeting as an opportunity to present its position directly and address outstanding disagreements over implementation of the proposed Gaza roadmap.
READ: El Sisi stresses need to resolve regional crises to preserve stability in meeting with Kushner
US draft letter warns allies against joining China's AI framework: report
US draft letter warns allies against joining China's AI framework: report
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Alibaba to sell Lingxi Games for over $1.5B to Trustar as AI focus grows: report (BABA:NYSE)
Trevor Williams
- Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) is reportedly selling its gaming arm in a deal worth at least $1.5B that will boost the Chinese e-commerce leader’s pivot to AI.
- Asian private equity firm Trustar Capital has reached an agreement to acquire