reporter

Crawford, with 41 wins and 31 knockouts, won his first world title in 2014 at lightweight against Scotsman Ricky Burns. He went on to unify the light-welterweight and welterweight divisions before moving up again.

“This fight is going to be stamped in the history books,” he said, promising to “shock the world.”

Saturday’s bout will be broadcast globally on Netflix, reaching a potential audience of more than 300 million subscribers.

It is the first major boxing event promoted by White alongside Saudi’s Turki Alalshikh, signalling a new, if uncertain, era for the sport.

As organisers hyped up the new partnership as the saviour of the sport and suggested boxing has been suffering for years, one of its biggest stars – and highest earners with a reported $150m purse to collect on Saturday – Alvarez, chimed in.

“Hey, boxing was always bigger, bigger and big. Don’t say boxing is not big enough. You know how big is boxing,” he said.

Alvarez pushed Crawford as tempers flared at in New York in June, but the two shared a nod and handshake to end on a respectful note.

Lamar Jackson will not be disciplined by the NFL for shoving a Buffalo Bills fan who slapped the helmets of the Baltimore Ravens quarterback and teammate DeAndre Hopkins during a game Sunday night in Orchard Park, N.Y.

“The matter has been addressed by the club and there is no further action from the league,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in a statement emailed to The Times on Thursday.

A Ravens spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Times on Thursday that the situation had been handled internally.

“Our players’ safety is of the utmost importance,” the team spokesperson said. “We have spoken to Lamar, who understands the impact of the situation, about the incident.

“While we will keep internal matters private, we have implemented additional security protocols — both at home and on the road — to better protect our players and handle negative fan interactions moving forward.”

Jackson and Hopkins were celebrating with teammates after they hooked up for a 29-yard touchdown reception late in the third quarter to give the Ravens a 34-19 lead. The players exited the back of the end zone and ended up near stands, where a male fan reached out and slapped Hopkins and Jackson on their helmets.

Jackson gave the fan a hard shove with both hands. While the fan was ejected from the game, and later indefinitely banned from all NFL stadiums, Jackson was not disciplined during the game.

The two-time league MVP later expressed regret for his actions.

“I seen him slap D-Hop … and he slapped me and he talking, so you know I just forgot where I was for a little bit,” Jackson told reporters after the Ravens’ 41-40 loss to the Bills. “But you got to think in those situations. You have security out there. Let security handle it. But I just let my emotions get the best of me. Hopefully, it don’t happen again. I learned from that.”

Addressing reporters the next day, Ravens coach John Harbaugh expressed support for his quarterback.

“Lamar’s down there celebrating a touchdown with his teammates just like you’re supposed to do,” Harbaugh said. “You talk about celebration and we want our guys to celebrate with one another. That’s the whole idea. I guess I didn’t know you’re not allowed to go close to the stands to do that without being attacked by a fan. …

“It’s unfortunate that you should even be in that situation. I don’t know how any of us would respond in that moment. I think it would be something where we probably would be thinking about protecting ourselves. I do think that. We have to understand that. You can always say, ‘Hey, I’d like to handle that a little better.’ But that’s a surprise when that happens in that moment, I think, for anybody.”

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt joined two Republican senators on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to bring attention to a newly launched congressional investigation into the response to the Palisades fire in Los Angeles.

“I feel like this is going to be so powerful for all of the United States because there shouldn’t be disasters that are preventable,” Pratt, who lost his home during the fire, told reporters.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said the main goal of the investigation is to figure out why the fire happened, why the state and local governments were unable to prevent it and how officials are helping the victims recover.

“We are going to get answers,” Scott said. “We are going to do everything we can to help the victim and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The congressional investigation, which launched on Monday, is focused only on the Palisades fire, but Scott said the probe could expand to other destructive fires that have taken place in Los Angeles County.

“We are going to start with this,” Scott said. “We’ll just let the facts take us where they are.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has welcomed the congressional investigation. At the news conference, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin warned that if officials fail to cooperate, the panel is ready to issue subpoenas to compel them to do so.

“We don’t want to use it and we hope we don’t have to,” Johnson said. “It is a good sign Gov. Newsom is willing to do so, and that’s the best way of doing it. But if they don’t, you’ve always got that backstop of compelling testimony, compelling documents, and that’s what we’ll do if we have to.”

“But I don’t think we will have to, quite honestly,” he added.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson expressed regret Sunday night for shoving a Buffalo Bills fan in the stands after the fan had slapped the helmets of Jackson and teammate DeAndre Hopkins as they celebrated a touchdown next to the stands at Highmark Stadium in upstate New York.

“I seen him slap D-Hop … and he slapped me and he talking, so you know I just forgot where I was for a little bit,” Jackson told reporters following the Ravens’ surprising 41-40 loss to the Bills on “Sunday Night Football”.

“But you got to think in those situations. You have security out there. Let security handle it. But I just let my emotions get the best of me. Hopefully, it don’t happen again. I learned from that.”

In a matchup between the two most recent NFL MVPs — Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen in 2024 and Jackson in 2023 — Hopkins made a spectacular one-handed touchdown catch late in the third quarter to give the Ravens a 34-19 lead. Hopkins and Jackson were among a number of Baltimore players who exited the back of the end zone to celebrate the score.

As several of those players walked past the stands, a fan reached out and slapped Hopkins on the helmet, then did the same to Jackson. The four-time Pro Bowl player, who also won the league’s MVP award in 2019, responded by shoving the fan hard with both hands, which knocked the fan backward.

The Bills reported that the fan was ejected from the game. Jackson was not disciplined during the game. The Times reached out to the NFL and the Ravens about whether Jackson might face any discipline for his role in the incident and did not receive immediate responses.

While he regrets his actions in this instance, Jackson told reporters he doesn’t see the need to stop celebrating so close to opposing fans.

“I’ve never seen our fans do that, so I’ll probably do it again [when] we score a touchdown,” Jackson said. “But it’s nothing against the fans, you know? I’m just celebrating my teammate scoring a touchdown.”

There wasn’t any celebrating to be had by the Ravens at the end of the game, however, after they squandered a 40-25 lead in the final four minutes. Allen capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keon Coleman to pull the Bills to within eight.

Two plays later, Baltimore running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns, fumbled the ball away to give Buffalo possession on the Ravens’ 30. The Bills scored on a 1-yard Allen run but missed on the two-point conversion to trail 40-38 with 1:58 remaining.

The Ravens went three and out on the next possession, and the Bills drove 66 yards in nine plays to set up a 32-yard, game-winning field goal by Matt Prater as time expired.

Williard (Bill) Christine Jr., a multiple award-winning journalist who spent 23 years covering horse racing for the Los Angeles Times, died on Monday (Aug. 25) after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia three years ago. He died at his home in Hermosa Beach, with family by his side. He was 87.

While Christine was known in Southern California as the Times’ voice of horse racing, it was really just the end of a storied career that saw him at seven different newspapers over 42 years that also contained a stopover in racing pubic relations.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine.

(Christine family)

He was the author of three books, one on Roberto Clemente, another on jockey Bill Hartack and one on a pair of songwriters. After leaving newspapers, he liked to investigate and write about true crime, especially in his hometown of East St. Louis.

Christine won Eclipse Awards for outstanding writing about horse racing, in 1984 and 2004. In 2000, he was given Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing. He won the David F. Woods Memorial Award in 1991 and 1992 for his coverage of the Preakness Stakes.

He was also president of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, a group that also includes public relations people, from 1990 to 1992.

“Bill was an old school journalist,” said Mike Willman the former longtime media relations executive at Santa Anita. “He kept copious notes and was a contrarian by nature. He was fair and extremely knowledgeable.

“He really enjoyed being around the people in racing. You could take issue with something he wrote and then debate it and there was never any animus. I really respected him for that.”

Even after he retired, Christine would write emails to friends and colleagues recounting people and events from his career in racing and baseball.

Born in Illinois, he attended Southern Illinois Carbondale where he graduated in 1963 and wrote for the college newspaper. His first job out of college was at the East St. Louis Journal, where he covered baseball among other sports. After two years he moved to the Baltimore News American, followed by the Louisville Times, Pittsburgh Press, Chicago Daily News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he was briefly the sports editor.

It was then that he switched to public relations taking the top media job at Commodore Downs in Pennsylvania, followed by four years as the assistant to the executive vice president at the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.

The Times rarely hires people from the public relations side, but then sports editor Bill Dwyre decided to take a chance.

“Bill Christine was my first hire as sports editor of The Times, and being the first, it was a big deal not only for me, but for people watching me and trying to figure out what I was thinking and how I would cover each sport,” said Dwyre, who later went on to cover horse racing for The Times.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine receives an Eclipse Award honoring his horse racing reporting.

(Christine family)

“It was 1981. I interviewed some of the best national turf writers, including Maryjean Wall, Jennie Rees and Jack Mann, as well as Christine. I knew Bill better than the others because I had been his roommate at API (American Press Institute). … I liked that Bill was a great story-teller and that his newspaper experience went beyond just turf writing — he had covered lots of baseball on deadline and had also been the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“When he came to The Times, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and Del Mar were booming and he worked tirelessly to give the sport the coverage it deserved.”

Bob Mieszerski, who has reported and handicapped horse racing in Southern California for many years and worked alongside Christine after Mieszerski came to the Times and added a full page of racing daily, echoed Dwyre’s sentiment about his abilities and presence.

“He was very welcoming to me when I joined the Times and I always appreciated that,” Mieszerski said. “He was a great storyteller and I Ioved hearing him recall anecdotes about different people — both in and out of racing — that he encountered.”

Dan Smith, the retired marketing and media head at Del Mar, remembers Christine for his very distinctive laugh.

“It was like ghee, ghee, ghee,” Smith said struggling to duplicate the sound. “It was very distinctive and very unique.

“He was also a big movie buff. He and his wife went to a lot of movies. And we loved to discuss movies. He followed all of that very closely.”

Christine was known for his strong opinions, which sometimes put him at odds with the people he covered.

Christine’s most notable feud was with Wayne Lukas, who didn’t speak to the reporter for several years after something Christine wrote.

“He wasn’t reluctant to discuss his opinions, which a lot of people didn’t agree with, but that was OK,” Smith said.

Dwyre, who would often change beats every year, once offered Christine the Dodgers job, arguably the best job in the department, because Christine had been complaining about needing something new. But in the end, Christine decided he would rather cover racing.

“He really knew his baseball and had a Hall of Fame ballot,” Willman remembers. “You might have your own opinion and if it disagreed with Bill’s, he had all the ammunition to show you why he was right.”

Even if Christine’s daily coverage was often buried on a page deep in the section, surrounded by handicapping and small-type results, Christine would rise to the occasion and give you a well crafted non-obvious story.

“I remember often doing critiques for my staff, especially those who had put out the previous morning’s paper,” Dwyre said. “I would hold up the sports section and ask which story that was in the section should have been on the front page and wasn’t. Invariably, it was a Christine horse racing story.”

The press box at Del Mar, named in honor of Dan Smith, has a wall where the pictures of deceased turf writers go.

“I guess his picture will go on the wall soon,” Smith said. “We’ve still got a few spots left and hope we don’t fill them anytime soon.”

Christine is survived by his wife of 43 years, Pat, and two twin daughters, Laura and Leslie, his first wife, Dianne, and stepson Chris.

Christine asked that his body be donated to USC for medical research. After the cremains are returned, there will be a small celebration of life.

Nothing says “awards season” like a fall film festival. The Times’ reporters, critics, videographers and photographers are on the ground at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, bringing you all the news from TIFF’s 50th edition. Our coverage includes our TIFF Daily newsletter, along with photo and video highlights from the Los Angeles Times Studio.

Bookmark this site and revisit all weekend to see new actors, directors, documentarians and international icons who couldn’t wait to say hi to us. And be sure to check out our complete coverage of TIFF 2025 throughout the festival.

Elle Fanning from the film “Sentimental Value.”

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

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1. Back row left to right, Nadia Latif and Willem Dafoe. Front row left to right, Anna Diop and Corey Hawkins from the film “The Man in My Basement.” 2. Anna Diop.

Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst and Derek Cianfrance from the film “Roofman.”

Back row left to right, Anita Afonu and Ben Proudfoot. Front row left to right, Nana Adwoa Frimpong and Ghanaian Brandon Somerhalder from the film “The Eye of Ghana.”

Pete Ohs from the film “Erupcja.”

Left to right, Lisa Barros D’sa, Glenn Leyburn and Eanna Hardwicke from the film “Saipan.”

Director Oliver Laxe from the film “Sirât.”

Kirsten Dunst from the film “Roofman.”

Stephen Amell, left, and Sean Astin from the film “Little Lorraine.”

Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgard from the film “Sentimental Value.”

than Hawke from the film “The Lowdown.”

Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia from the film “Hamlet.”

Left to right, Thomas DeGrezia, Director Eif Rivera, Brad Feinstein and Christina Weiss Lurie and Diego Boneta from the film “Killing Castro.”

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1. Jay McCarrol. 2. Matt Johnson from the film “Nirvana: The Band – The Show – The Movie.”

Connor O’Malley, Vanessa Bayer, Kate Berlant, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill and John Early from the film “Maddie’s Secret.”

Channing Tatum from the film “Roofman.”

Left to right, Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, seated, and Adam Carter Rehmeier from the film “Carolina Carolina.”

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1. Samara Weaving from the film “Carolina Carolina.”

Left to right, Idan Weiss and Agnieszka Holland from the film “Franz.”

Left to righy, Chris Candy, Jennifer Candy and Colin Hanks from the film “John Candy: I Like Me.”

Potsy Ponciroli from the film “Motor City.”

Back row, co-Director Tom Dean and Emilia Jones. Front row, co-Director Mac Eldridge and Nick Robinson from the film “Charlie Harper,”

Left to right, Megan Lawless, Cooper Tomlinson, Curry Barker, Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette from the film “Obsession.”

Back row, Chandler Levack and Juliette Gariepy. Middle row, Stanley Simons and Barbie Ferreira. Front row, Devon Bostick from the film “Mile End Kicks.”

The Chargers gave up the fewest points in the NFL last season (301) and will need that kind of stout performance again to get a firm foothold in the AFC West.

They will be tested right away, as they open in Brazil against the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs — a team the Chargers haven’t beaten since 2021 — then face Las Vegas and Denver in the following two weeks. All three division opponents in a row.

Coach Jim Harbaugh was especially pleased with his defense after it notched a strip sack and made a goal-line stand in a preseason victory over New Orleans.

“They just played with a lot of want-to and I’m thrilled with that,” Harbaugh told reporters. “I love guys that play like they want to be on this team. They want to show that they belong. That’s the way they practice and that’s the way they go out and play in the game. That warms the cockles of the heart.”

The defense is transitioning from a familiar fixture. Although his production had tailed off the past few years, Joey Bosa was a stalwart for this team since 2016, predating the club’s move to Los Angeles. The five-time Pro Bowl defensive end signed a one-year deal with Buffalo in March. The Chargers have moved on.

The leader up front is Khalil Mack, who is entering his 12th season and pointed to Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz in explaining why he decided to re-sign with the franchise this offseason.

“Why not here?” Mack asked reporters. “Got tremendous leadership here. … Knowing what Coach Harbaugh is building and what Joe is building, that was a no-brainer.”

It might be an outlier, as he’s typically in single digits for the season, but Mack had 17 sacks in 2023.

Chargers linebacker Khalil Mack will once again be at the forefront of the team’s pass-rushing effort.

(Peter Aiken / Associated Press)

A promising disruptor off the edge is former USC standout Tuli Tuipulotu, who had 8½ sacks last season.

“My standard is to play Khalil,” he told reporters of entering his third season. “He is the standard, that’s what I’m chasing.”

Another seasoned veteran in the rotation is Bud Dupree, who played in all 18 games last season and was tied for second with six sacks. The 11-year veteran re-signed with the team this summer.

A youth infusion could come from outside linebackers Caleb Murphy, in his second season, and rookie Kyle Kennard, who was SEC Defensive Player of the Year at South Carolina last season.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh congratulates defensive tackle Teair Tart after a win over the Raiders in September 2024.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Moving to the interior of the defensive line, the Chargers leaned on Teair Tart and Otito Ogbonnia last season, and in an effort to get deeper and similarly athletic at the position, signed veterans Naquan Jones and Da’Shawn Hand.

Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has praised Ogbonnia’s improved footwork and counter moves in camp.

Jones played with Tennessee and Arizona over the past four seasons and adds depth to the rotation along with Hand, who played with Detroit, Tennessee and Miami during the past six years.

A player to watch is 340-pound rookie Jamaree Caldwell, who is coming off a strong showing at camp.

Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley could be primed for a breakout season.

(Denis Poroy / Associated Press)

Backing up that defensive front in the middle is Denzel Perryman, the veteran of the linebacker group. He’s in his second stint with the Chargers after brief stays with the Las Vegas Raiders and Houston Texans. He was arrested on a felony weapons charge during training camp, although no criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Among the defenders to watch is Daiyan Henley, a third-year linebacker who had 147 tackles last season, 10½ of those behind the line of scrimmage.

Harbaugh called him “a shining star… ascending to be a superstar.”

Rookie Marlowe Wax was spectacular in the preseason finale against San Francisco, making key tackles all over the place, so it will be worth watching whether he can continue that production when it counts.

The Chargers didn’t break the bank in free agency, but they did open their wallet wide for cornerback Donte Jackson, who had five interceptions for Pittsburgh last season after spending six years with Carolina.

Second-year corners Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still were pressed into duty last season and join Jackson as starters, with Still on the third receiver. There’s going to be a lot of passing in the AFC West with opposing quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Bo Nix and Geno Smith lurking.

The Chargers had 15 interceptions last season, almost one per game, putting them in the top quarter of the league.

Minter said during camp that he considers corner Benjamin St-Juste a “fourth starter.”

A young corner to watch is Nikko Reed, who had a pick-six in the Hall of Fame Game and consistently made big plays throughout camp.

“Derwin James told me Reed is a baller,” Harbaugh said. “I’m now agreeing with that statement.”

As for James, he rivals quarterback Justin Herbert as the best player on the roster.

Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. will once again be the biggest force in the secondary this season.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I know when Derwin’s there, he’s going to be a wrecker,” Still told reporters. “It’s kind of like, he’s on the side of me and I got to know how he’s going to fit the run, what is he going to do in pass, if I can help him or how I can protect him, how he can protect me.”

Put bluntly by Jackson, intending this as a compliment: “I think DJ’s brain is a football. Literally, you open his head there’s probably a football in there.”

The Chargers line up James all over the defense.

Penciled in to start at free safety is Alohi Gilman, who is entering the final year of his contract. Elijah Molden and rookie R.J. Mickens figure to make significant contributions.

The afternoon sun glimmered off the ocean as I drove down MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach to fulfill a promise.

This September marks five years since I debuted as a columnist for The Times. My first dispatch was from the mausoleum niche at Pacific View Memorial Park that holds the cremains of one of my predecessors, Ruben Salazar.

Exactly 55 years ago, Salazar was killed in an East Los Angeles bar by a tear gas canister launched by an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy that tore through his head. He was one of three people who died that day during the Chicano Moratorium, a rally against the Vietnam War that out-of-control cops turned into a melee.

Salazar was only eight months into his columnist gig. He was a well-respected Times veteran who had done stints covering immigration, as a foreign correspondent and Metro reporter for the paper. Once he got a Friday slot on the op-ed page at the start of 1970, the journalist became a must-read chronicler of the Chicano experience.

In death, Salazar became immortal. Murals of him sprang up around the Southwest. Wearing a suit jacket and tie, with a full head of hair and a confident look on his face, he symbolized the potential and peril of being a Mexican American in the United States. Even as the decades passed, and his clips were relegated to archives and the memories of those who had read him in real time, Salazar has thankfully yet to fade from L.A.’s physical and spiritual landscape.

A high school is named after him in Pico Rivera, as are Salazar Park in East L.A. and Salazar Hall at Cal State L.A. The U.S. Postal Service sells stamps with his likeness.

United Teachers Los Angeles gives out a scholarship in his name, just like the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists. The nonprofit CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California honors reporters who cover Latinos with the annual Ruben Salazar Awards, handing out medallions bearing his image.

When I visited Salazar’s final resting place in 2020, I brought a bottle of Manzanilla to toast the hard-charging bon vivant’s memory and ask for his blessing in my new role. I promised to visit and offer an update about my career every year near the anniversary of his death … but, well, the job got in the way.

A historic pandemic. The storming of the U.S. Capitol. A racist audio leak scandal that upended L.A. City Hall. Corrupt politicians. Increasing poverty. The rise, fall and return of Donald Trump. Horrible fires. A cruel deportation deluge. I’ve barely had time to spend with friends and family, let alone an afternoon driving to a far-off cemetery for a few minutes with a long-gone man I had never met.

For 2025, there would be no excuses. Because in a year that seems to get worse by the day, we need to remember Salazar more than ever.

A painting of former Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar and a copy of his last column, published on Aug. 28, 1970, the day before he died, are on display inside Ruben Salazar Hall on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Every time my Times colleagues report from a protest, I invoke Salazar’s name in my prayers to God that He watch over them. Our profession faces existential threats — and I’m not just talking finances.

The Trump administration has pursued scorched-earth campaigns against news organizations it doesn’t like with lawsuits and funding cuts, while limiting access to mainstream reporters in favor of sycophantic press coverage. Journalists have suffered injuries at the hands of LAPD officers while covering this summer’s anti-migra protests, from being struck with less-lethal projectiles to getting smacked with batons.

The climate against my profession is so ugly that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion this month requiring the Sheriff’s Department to send them a report about what training, if any, deputies receive on allowing reporters to do their jobs during protests. Supervisor Hilda Solis, who authored the motion, cited Salazar as an impetus, calling his killing “one of the most painful chapters in Los Angeles County history.”

She also described him as “a crucial voice for the Latino community, dedicated to covering stories that mainstream outlets often ignored” — a legacy that all Latino reporters at The Times must try and live up to. So every time I open my laptop to start my next columna, I ask myself:

What would Ruben write?

That Salazar died in the course of doing his job has sadly eclipsed what he actually wrote, so I always encourage people to read his columns. The Times republished them online for the 50th anniversary of his death, so there’s no excuse not to familiarize yourself with his work. It would have seamlessly fit into this hell year — the 1970 in his columnas reads eerily similar to what we’re going through right now.

Immigration raids were terrorizing Los Angeles. Democrats were still lost after suffering a historic beatdown from a once-defeated Republican presidential candidate. Young progressives were disgusted with their moderate Democratic elders and tiring of the party altogether. Latinos were pushing for more political power. A redistricting battle in California was about to explode. The rise of computers was upending life. Politicians were going after nonprofits they accused of fomenting wokosos.

And there was Salazar, covering every development and hero and villain with crisp columns that got better with every month. All of this at just 42, four years younger than I am today.

I think he would have been thrilled to see regular people filming the cruelties of la migra as a counternarrative to the lies of the Trump administration. He would have urged young reporters who believe in so-called movement journalism — unapologetically leftist, with talking to the other side considered unnecessary and even immoral — to not let their biases get in the way of a good story.

I know he wouldn’t have been lionized the way he is today. In a June 19, 1970 columna, he antagonized the left by describing the pachucos of a previous generation as “anarchistic.” In the same column, he angered the right, arguing that because of programs such as Head Start and Chicano studies, gang members were “experiencing a social revolution and so is learning and liking political power.”

And that’s what makes Salazar more important today than ever.

He wanted Chicanos to better themselves, so he wasn’t afraid to call out their failures. He was skeptical of our legal system but wanted it to succeed — “A Beautiful Sight: the System Working the Way It Should” was the title of a July 24, 1970, column about the federal grand jury indictment of seven Los Angeles Police Department officers in the deaths of two unarmed Mexican immigrants.

As an immigrant himself, he loved a United States he had no problem criticizing. For his sole Fourth of July column, he urged people to tone down their pomp and circumstance and to relate to their fellow Americans rather than “to fixed ideas that apparently are not working.”

To paraphrase a 2014 PBS documentary about his life, Salazar was a man in the middle. His business was truth-telling for the greater cause of a just society. He literally lost his life for it. The least we can do is follow his example.

A bronze marker hangs outside the niche that holds the cremains of former L.A. Times columnist Ruben Salazar, who was killed in East L.A. on Aug. 29, 1970, while reporting on the Chicano Moratorium, a protest against the involvement of Chicanos in the Vietnam War.

(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angles Times)

No one was around when I finally got to Salazar’s niche, in a section of the cemetery called the Alcove of Time. A simple bronze plaque included the accent over the “e” in “Rubén,” which his Times byline never had. Instead of Spanish wine, I brought a flask of mezcal — I don’t think he would have minded the stiffer drink in this 2025.

I thanked Salazar again for his work — I learn more from it every time I read it. I told him about some of the columnas I’ve published and those I want to do. I shared how there are far more Latino reporters at The Times and beyond, but still not nearly enough. I apologized for not visiting more often and swore to never stop talking about him and his words.

“To you, Ruben,” I quietly said. I hoisted my flask in the air, took a small swig and splashed some in front of where he rested.

I made the sign of the cross, offered a short prayer, then drove back home. Another columna loomed. I’m sure Salazar would have understood and hopefully would have been proud.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez pleaded guilty Wednesday to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker.

Vázquez, an attorney, became the U.S. territory’s first former governor to plead guilty to a crime, specifically accepting a donation from a foreigner for her 2020 political campaign. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 15.

As she left the courthouse, Vázquez told reporters that she had confided “in people around her … who didn’t do their job” and accepted a donation pledge on behalf of the banker.

“They forgot to ask him for his green card,” she said, without identifying who exactly was responsible. “These are situations that happen.”

Vázquez noted that a pledge was made but no donation received. “There was no bribery here,” she said. “I didn’t take a single cent.”

She was arrested in August 2022 and initially accused of participating in a bribery scheme between December 2019 and June 2020 while governor.

The U. S. Department of Justice said Vázquez agreed to dismiss the head of Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions in exchange for financial support toward her 2020 campaign for governor. During that time, the office was investigating a bank owned by Venezuelan Julio Herrera Velutini after suspicious transactions, according to authorities.

Justice officials allege that Herrera Velutini and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who provided consulting services to him, paid more than $300,000 to political consultants to support Vázquez’s campaign after she demanded the commissioner’s resignation and appointed a former consultant from Herrera Velutini’s bank to that position.

In August 2020, Vázquez lost in the primary of the New Progressive Party to Pedro Pierluisi, who was later elected as governor.

Federal authorities initially charged Vázquez and the other two suspects with conspiracy, federal programs bribery and honest services wire fraud. If found guilty, they could have faced up to 20 years in prison.

The charges were reduced this year to a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which calls for up to a year in prison.

Herrera Velutini and Rossini also pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charge.

As she prepared to enter the federal courthouse in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, Vázquez told reporters that the last three years have been “terrible,” adding that the accusations against her were untrue.

She was accompanied by her attorney, Ignacio Fernández, who said Vázquez “feels vindicated” with the new charge.

The guilty plea entered Wednesday avoided a trial scheduled to start in late August.

Judge Silvia L. Carreño Coll previously criticized the deal, describing the new charge as a slap on the hand compared with the original charges.

Two other suspects have already pleaded guilty in the case.

Carlos Alcaraz arrived at the U.S. Open on Monday with a new hairdo.

Actually, he arrived at Flushing Meadows with no hairdo — as in no hair at all, aside from some teeny, tiny specks on his head that come to a widow’s peak.

The world’s No. 2-ranked player was asked about his shocking new look following his 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Opelka. Alcaraz told reporters that he had simply wanted a haircut before the tournament, but one of his brothers “misunderstood” how to use the clippers.

The resulting mess, he said, left him with no choice but to start over with a clean pate.

“The only way to fix it is just shave it off,” a casual Alcaraz said.

Alcaraz isn’t bothered by the situation. As he reminded the reporters, hair grows back.

“I’m not really into, you know, the hair at all,” Alcaraz said. “So I’m the guy who thinks like, OK, the hair grows, you know? And then [in] a few days it’s gonna be already OK, I guess.”

Alcaraz apparently is not kidding about the speed at which his hair grows. He mentioned it to reporters during the Australian Open, after arriving in toasty Melbourne with shorter locks than usual.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz serves during a practice session ahead of the Australian Open on Jan. 9 in Melbourne.

(Mark Baker / Associated Press)

“I discussed with my barber that when I get a haircut… three days later it’s grown out,” Alcaraz said in Melbourne. “So I have to go more often.”

Alcaraz unintentionally provided a demonstration during the French Open, where he first sported a rather bushy look during his first-round win over Giulio Zeppieri on May 26.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after winning a point during his first-round French Open match against Italy’s Giulio Zeppieri on May 26 in Paris.

(Thibault Camus / Associated Press)

Two days later, however, Alcaraz returned to the court for his second-round match against Nuno Borges with a ‘do possibly (but probably not) inspired by Moe Howard from the “Three Stooges.” Alcaraz told befuddled reporters after the match that he “had to do something” about his hair and beard, so he flew in his personal barber.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz returns the ball to Portugal’s Nuno Borges during their second-round match of the French Open on May 28 in Paris.

(Christophe Ena / Associated Press)

A mere 11 days later, when Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner in the final match for his fifth major championship, he was back to looking like this:

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after defeating Italy’s Jannik Sinner in the French Open final June 8 in Paris.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

So if Alcaraz happens to win the U.S. Open championship, like he did in 2022, he might have a lengthy mane while hoisting the trophy at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

In the meantime, though, some people might continue to respond to his haircut the way U.S. player Frances Tiafoe did when asked about it by a reporter following his first-round victory over Yoshihito Nishioka.

“It’s definitely terrible,” Tiafoe said with a laugh. “He’s my guy, though. It’s funny. I looked at him and I was like, ‘I guess you’re aerodynamic’ … I don’t know who told him to do that, but it’s terrible. From a guy who gets haircuts week in, week out and prides myself on good haircuts, it’s horrendous.”

Alcaraz also laughed when he was asked about Tiafoe’s comment.

“I know he’s lying,” Alcaraz said. “He likes the haircut. He likes it, he told me.”

Others might react like Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, who expressed his full support for the radical change atop Alcaraz’s head while meeting with the Spaniard earlier Monday.

“I like it,” McIlroy told him. “It’s good. It’s a good look.”

Overall, Alcaraz told reporters, reactions have been mixed — and he really doesn’t care either way.

“Some people like it. Some people don’t like it,” he said. “To be honest, I’m just laughing about the reaction of the people. It is what it is. So I can’t do anything else right now, so I’m just laughing about everything that they are talking about my haircut.”

We’ve read quite a bit about President Trump’s “hot mic” comment, during a meeting with European leaders about the Russian war against Ukraine, that Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal for me, as crazy as it sounds.”

Pundits debated whether this was an embarrassment for Trump; they wondered why he would say such an important thing in a whisper to French President Emmanuel Macron — as if Trump’s verbal goulash were something new. Headlines were full of the word “deal” for a while, including three days later, when they were reporting that Trump said Putin might not want “to make a deal.” And, of course, there is no deal.

The press coverage of the meeting in Alaska said there were lots of “constructive” conversations. Putin spoke about “neighborly” talks and the “constructive atmosphere of mutual respect” in his conversations with Trump. There were reports about agreements “in principle” on various things under discussion, although there were no details about what they might be.

I covered more than a few superpower summits, first as a reporter for the Associated Press and later for the New York Times. Although that was more than 30 years ago, the smoke and mirrors nonsense usually produced by meetings like these has not changed. Verbal gas is abundant and facts almost nonexistent. Trump’s comments were worth about as much as anything else he has said on the subject, which is almost nothing. And yet, they were reported and parsed endlessly as if they had the same meaning as other presidents’ words had in the past.

I had a powerful sense of deja vu from a five-day trip to Afghanistan in January 1987. The Kremlin had finally agreed to let a group of Western journalists visit Kabul and Jalalabad to witness the “cease-fire” that had been announced a few days before we arrived. The visit was billed as an Afghan government tour, which nobody — especially the Afghan government — believed.

We saw no fighting, although we could see artillery fire in the hills at night. Some of the “specials,” as we wire service correspondents called the major media then, reported that we were fired on. We were not.

Mostly, we shopped for rugs and drank cold Heinekens, which were unavailable in Moscow but mysteriously well stocked at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. We were ushered to various peace and unity events between the Afghan and Russian peoples and toured the huge Soviet military camps just outside Kabul with a U.S. official (allegedly a diplomat from the Embassy, but we knew from experience that this person was from the Central Intelligence Agency).

On Jan. 19, we were taken (each reporter in an individual government car with a minder) to a news conference by Mohammad Najib, the Afghan leader whose name had been Najibullah until he changed it to make it sound less religious for his Bolshevik friends. Najib said that Afghanistan and the Soviet Union had agreed “in principle” on a “timetable for withdrawal” of Soviet occupation forces.

At that point, the Reuters correspondent, who was fairly new to Moscow still, bolted from the room and raced back to our hotel, where there was one Telex machine for us all to send our stories back to Moscow. He filed a bulletin on the announcement. When the rest of us made our leisurely return, we were greeted with messages from our home offices demanding to know about the big deal to end the war in Afghanistan.

We wrote our stories, which were about a business-as-usual press conference that yielded no real news. We each appended a message to explain why the Reuters report was just plain wrong. Talk of Soviet withdrawal was common, and always wrong. The very idea that the puppet government in Kabul had something to say about it or was a party to any serious discussions about ending the war was absurd. The most pithy comment came from the Agence France-Presse reporter, who told her editors that the Reuters story was “merde.” The Soviet military did not withdraw until February 1989, more than two years later, following its own schedule.

Much of the recent coverage about Russia and Ukraine reminds me of that Afghan news flash in 1987. The Kremlin has never been, was not then and is not now interested in negotiation or compromise. Under Soviet communism and under Putin, diplomacy is a zero-sum game whose only goal is to restore Russian hegemony over Eastern Europe. And yet, for some reason, the American media and the country’s diplomats seem as oblivious today as they always were. After the summit, they announced breathlessly that there was no peace deal out of the summit, although they all knew going in that there was no deal on the table and there never was going to be one.

But of course Putin wants a “deal” on Ukraine. It’s the same deal he has wanted since he violated international law (not for the first time) and invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. He wants to redraw the boundaries of Ukraine to give him even more territory than he has already seized, and he wants to be sure Ukraine remains out of NATO and under Moscow’s military thumb as he has done with other former Soviet regions, like Georgia, which he invaded in 2008 as soon as the country dared to suggest it might be interested in NATO membership. His latest nonsense was to demand that Russia be part of any postwar security arrangements. He wants the NATO allies to stop treating him like the war criminal that he is and to be seen as an equal actor on the international stage with NATO and especially the United States.

That he got, in abundance, from Trump in Alaska, starting with the location. Trump invited Putin to the United States during a period of travel bans to and from Russia, immediately giving the Russian dictator a huge PR win. It also, conveniently, put him in the only NATO country where he is not wanted on charges of crimes against humanity.

As for peace talks, check the headlines from Ukraine before, during and after the Alaska summit: The Russians have stepped up their killing and destruction in Ukraine with new ferocity and have been grabbing as much land in eastern Ukraine as they can. Every square inch of that land — and more the Kremlin has not yet occupied — will be part of any “deal” that Putin will accept. Trump himself has been talking about “land swaps” (as he has from the start of the war, by the way) — a nonsensical idea when you consider the land Ukraine holds is its sovereign territory and the land Russian holds was stolen.

The brilliant M. Gessen, perhaps the leading authority on dictatorship, published an essay in the New York Review, “Autocracy: Rules for Survival,” shortly after the 2016 election. “Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality,” they wrote.

A U.S. president and a Russian leader sitting down to talk and emerging with bluster about progress seems normal enough, perhaps encouraging when American-Russian relations have been at a historic low. Just remember that coming from these two men, the comments signify nothing — or, worse, make us wonder what Trump has given away to Putin with his talk of land swaps.

Andrew Rosenthal, a former reporter, editor and columnist, was Moscow bureau chief for the Associated Press and Washington editor and later editorial page editor for the New York Times.

Daniil Medvedev reacts next to chair umpire Greg Allensworth after a photographer ran onto the court Sunday in New York.

(Adam Hunger / Associated Press)

The rematch initially appeared as if it was going to be a quicker upset than the first time around. Bonzi won the first two sets and was up 5-4 and serving for match point in the third … when all hell broke loose.

Bonzi missed on his first serve and was preparing for his second when he was interrupted. A photographer who apparently thought the match was over had stepped onto the court and was immediately reprimanded over the loudspeaker by chair umpire Greg Allensworth.

Allensworth then announced that Bonzi would be given another chance at his first serve “because of the delay caused by an outside interference.”

The decision appears to be based on a USTA tournament regulation which states that if there is a delay between the first and second serves, “the server gets two serves if the delay was caused by the receiver or if there was outside interference.”

The announcement drew a negative response from the crowd, which Medvedev encouraged by using arm gestures. He then started berating Allensworth, seeming to ask him, “Are you a man?” more than once before leaning into the microphone behind the chair to address the crowd.

“He wants to go home, guys,” Medvedev said. “He doesn’t like to be here. He gets paid by the match, not by the hour.”

He also yelled, “What did Reilly Opelka say?” at least three times, in reference to the U.S. player who was fined by the ATP Tour earlier this year after referring to Allensworth as the “worst ump on tour. ”

Medvedev later told reporters that he was upset with Allensworth’s ruling because he didn’t think the photographer had caused enough of a delay to warrant a repeat first serve.

As he returned to the court, Medvedev continued to motion for the crowd to voice its displeasure. Many of the fans complied, with TV footage showing a lot of them appearing to be more amused than enraged by the situation.

After about two minutes, Allensworth asked for order so Bonzi could serve. When that didn’t work, Medvedev started motioning for the spectators to quiet down. They didn’t, and Medvedev appeared to enjoy the lengthy disruption, at one point blowing kisses toward the stands.

“I just expressed my emotions, my unhappiness with the decision,” Medvedev said later. “And then the crowd did what they did without me, without me asking them too much. And it was fun to witness.”

Bonzi appeared to be on the verge of serving several times before stopping because of the noise.

“Every time I went on the line to serve and every time I did that, everyone was booing. I felt I didn’t do anything bad in the match to, like, receive this treatment, and I didn’t want to serve in those conditions,” Bonzi said. “So I was waiting.”

After a delay of roughly six minutes, Bonzi finally served — and missed again, much to the audible delight of the crowd. He got the second serve over the net but lost the point after a lengthy volley.

ANCHORAGE — Vladimir Putin is lavishing praise on President Trump ahead of their high-stakes summit in Alaska on Friday, thanking his host for “energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting” in Ukraine over three years since the Russian leader attempted to conquer the country.

Trump, at the White House, also expressed optimism ahead of the talks, telling reporters he believes Putin “would like to see a deal” after suffering more than a million Russian casualties on the battlefield.

Yet Russian Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday that Putin’s war aims remain “unchanged.” And an aggressive Russian advance along the front lines this week provided evidence to military analysts that Moscow has no plans to implement a ceasefire.

It was a day of diplomatic maneuvering ahead of an extraordinary visit from a Russian president to the U.S. homeland, and the first audience Putin has received with a Western leader since the war began.

“It’s going to be very interesting — we’re going to find out where everybody stands,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the very near future.”

Putin’s positioning ahead of the summit, and Trump’s eagerness for a deal, continue to fuel worries across Europe and in Ukraine that the Alaska negotiations could result in a bilateral agreement designed by Moscow and endorsed by Washington that sidelines Kyiv.

In London, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, offering support for Trump’s effort while placing the onus on Putin to “prove he is serious about peace.”

“They agreed there had been a powerful sense of unity and a strong resolve to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” 10 Downing Street said in a statement.

Trump said the Alaska summit, to be held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, is meant to “set the table” for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky that could include himself and European leaders.

Journalists stand outside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on Thursday ahead of Friday’s summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

But addressing reporters, Trump suggested that denying Putin dominion over all of Ukraine — and allowing him to hold on to the territories he has seized militarily — would be concession enough from Moscow. The president had said in recent days that land “swapping” would be part of an ultimate peace settlement, a statement rejected by Kyiv.

“I think President Putin would like to see a deal,” Trump said. “I think if I weren’t president, he would take over all of Ukraine.”

“I am president, and he’s not going to mess around with me,” he added.

Russian state media reported Thursday that Putin had gathered his advisors to inform them of “how the negotiation process on the Ukrainian crisis is going.”

Trump, “in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said.

But U.S. efforts to get Russia to halt the fighting have proved futile for months, with Moscow pressing forward in an offensive that has secured incremental gains on the battlefield.

“Putin thinks that he is winning this war militarily,” said Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project, which collaborates with the Institute for the Study of War to produce daily battlefield assessments on the conflict. “He’s also confident that Western support for Ukraine, and particularly U.S. support, will break, and that when it does, Ukraine will collapse, and he’ll be able to take control of the whole thing.”

“It’s been his theory of victory for a long time,” Kagan said, “and it’s a huge part of the problem, because he’s not going to make any concessions so long as he’s confident that he’s winning.”

Russian incursions along a strategic portion of the front line, near a crucial Ukrainian logistics hub, spooked Ukraine’s supporters earlier this week. While serious, Kagan said that Russia does not hold the territory, and said that the conditions for offensive Russian operations had been set over the course of months.

“The Russians continue to have the initiative, and they continue to make gains,” he added. “The first step in changing Putin’s calculation about the war is to urgently help the Ukrainians stop the gains.”

Zelensky, after meeting with Starmer in London, said that he and the British leader had “discussed expectations for the meeting in Alaska and possible prospects.”

“We also discussed in considerable detail the security guarantees that can make peace truly durable,” Zelensky said, “if the United States succeeds in pressing Russia to stop the killings and engage in genuine, substantive diplomacy.”

Trump and Putin plan on arriving of the U.S. airbase within moments of one another, and are expected to meet on the tarmac before retreating into a private meeting.

Afterward, Trump and Putin will take questions from the press, the White House said.

WASHINGTON — Diplomacy may be soft power, but in President Trump’s administration, it’s also lately a soft landing.

National security adviser Mike Waltz was nominated as United Nations ambassador after he mistakenly added a journalist to a Signal chat discussing military plans. Trump tapped IRS Commissioner Billy Long to be his ambassador to Iceland after Long contradicted the administration’s messaging in his less than two months in the job.

And Trump last weekend named State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as deputy representative to the U.N. after she struggled to gel with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s close-knit team.

The new appointments can be viewed as consolation prizes for leaving a high-profile post in the Trump administration following rocky tenures. But they also reflect the degree to which Trump is trying to keep his loyalists close, even if their earlier placements in the administration were ill-fitting. Breaking with the reality TV show that helped make Trump a household name, the Republican president is not telling his top appointees “You’re fired!” but instead offering them another way to stay in his administration.

“It’s not like ‘The Apprentice,’” said John Bolton, another former Trump national security adviser, who has since become a Trump critic.

Trump’s first term featured more firings

During his first White House tenure, Trump was new to politics, made many staffing picks based on others’ recommendations and saw heavy staff turnover. Trump has stocked his second administration with proven boosters, which has meant fewer high-profile departures.

Still, those leaving often are the subject of effusive praise and kept in Trump’s political orbit, potentially preventing them from becoming critics who can criticize him on TV — something that didn’t happen to a long list of former first-term officials.

Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, and Trump can nominate anyone he likes, though many ultimately require Senate confirmation. Typically, top ambassadorships are rewards for large donors.

“It is a tremendous honor to represent the United States as an ambassador — which is why these positions are highly coveted and reserved for the president’s most loyal supporters,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. “Mike Waltz, Billy Long and Tammy Bruce are great patriots who believe strongly in the America First agenda, and the President trusts them fully to advance his foreign policy goals.”

From ‘glitch’ to a new job

Waltz’s days appeared numbered after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March that Waltz had added him to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Trump initially expressed support for Waltz, downplaying the incident as “a glitch.” Roughly five weeks later, the president announced Waltz would be leaving — but not for good. He portrayed the job change as a cause for celebration.

“From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump posted in announcing Waltz’s move on May 1. “I know he will do the same in his new role.”

Vice President JD Vance also pushed back on insinuations that Waltz had been ousted.

“The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people,” Vance said in an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News Channel. “He doesn’t give them Senate-confirmed appointments afterwards.”

Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush before becoming Trump’s national security adviser in 2018, called it “a promotion to go in the other direction” — but not the way Waltz went.

“The lesson is, sometimes you do more good for yourself looking nice,” Bolton said of Trump’s reassignments.

Bruce also picked for a U.N. post

Ironically, Bruce learned of Waltz’s ouster from a reporter’s question while she was conducting a press briefing.

A former Fox News Channel contributor, Bruce is friendly with Trump and was a forceful advocate for his foreign policy. Over the course of her roughly six months as spokesperson, she reduced the frequency of State Department briefings with reporters from four or five days a week to two.

But Bruce had also begun to frequently decline to respond to queries on the effectiveness, substantiveness or consistency of the administration’s approaches to the Middle East, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other global hotspots. She told reporters that special envoy Steve Witkoff “is heading to the region now — to the Gaza area” but then had to concede that she’d not been told exactly where in the Middle East he was going.

Trump nonetheless posted Saturday that Bruce did a “fantastic job” at the State Department and would “represent our Country brilliantly at the United Nations.”

Former U.S. deputy U.N. ambassador Robert Wood, who served as deputy State Department spokesman during President George W. Bush’s term and as acting spokesman during President Obama’s term, voiced skepticism that Bruce’s new position was a move up. Wood later became the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament through the rest of the Obama’s tenure and all of the first Trump administration.

“Given the disdain in MAGA world for anything U.N., it’s hard to imagine Tammy Bruce’s nomination as U.S. Deputy Representative to the U.N. being seen as a promotion,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

During her final State Department briefing on Tuesday, Bruce said Trump’s announcing that he wanted her in a new role “was a surprise,” but called the decision “especially moving as it allows me to continue serving the State Department, to which I’m now quite attached.”

‘Exciting times ahead!’

Then there’s Long, a former Republican Missouri congressman, who was the shortest-tenured IRS commissioner confirmed by the Senate since the position was created in 1862. He contradicted administration messaging on several occasions.

Long said last month that the IRS’ Direct File program would be eliminated. An IRS spokesperson later indicated that it wouldn’t be, noting requirements in the tax and spending law Trump has championed. The Washington Post also reported that Long’s IRS disagreed with the White House about sharing taxpayer data with immigration officials to help locate people in the U.S. illegally.

After learning that Trump wanted him in Reykjavik, Long posted, “Exciting times ahead!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to say Tuesday why Long was removed as IRS chief and being deployed to Iceland. “The president loves Billy Long, and he thinks he can serve the administration well in this position,” she said.

‘These things usually don’t work out’

The soft landings aren’t always heralded by Trump.

Former television commentator Morgan Ortagus, who was a State Department spokesperson during Trump’s first term, is now a special adviser to the United Nations after serving as deputy envoy to the Middle East under Witkoff.

Trump foresaw that Ortagus might not be a good fit. He posted in January, while announcing her as Witkoff’s deputy, that “Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson.”

“These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them,” Trump added. “Let’s see what happens.”

Ortagus lasted less than six months in the role.

Weissert and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writers Matthew Lee and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.

Hundreds of Palestinians risked their lives to reach aid trucks as they arrived in northern Gaza. Amid volleys of gunfire, crowds of people climbed onto moving trucks to grab whatever food they could to feed their starving families. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili was there.

Mookie Betts offered a new perspective Tuesday afternoon on his season-long slump, which is that it wasn’t a season-long slump.

In his view, it actually extended back to last season.

“I really haven’t been right since I came back from my hand last year,” Betts said.

Betts fractured his left hand in mid-June last season when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball. He was sidelined for almost two months.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts stares down at his batting gloves after flying out in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium on July 22.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“Think about it,” Betts said. “Go and look at it. I haven’t been right since.”

Betts was a MVP candidate when he went down, hitting .304 at the time. He batted .263 after his return, including .185 over the final 17 games of the regular season.

The troubles from last year have carried into this year, in which he’s batting a career-worst .236.

Betts wanted to clarify the point he was trying to make.

“I wasn’t blaming it on my hand or anything,” he said. “I was just saying since coming back, I haven’t done anything. It’s not just this season.”

Betts even went out of his way to downplay the severity of the injury or how it has affected him since.

“It wasn’t like I obliterated my hand,” he said. “It was a fracture.”

Betts pointed to how his grip strength was measured in spring training. The readings showed his grip was stronger than he was the previous year.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts makes a play during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 4.

(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)

“There’s no correlation to anything,” he said. “I wish I could blame it on something, but nah.”

My visit to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday was prompted by what Betts told reporters after a weekend series in Tampa. The remarks in question were made when Betts was hitless in his last four games; the streak extended to a career-high five after another hitless game on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I’ve done everything I can possibly do,” Betts told reporters. “It’s up to God at this point.”

In print, at least, he sounded defeated. His quotes, I told him, were depressing.

“I don’t know if you’re watching what’s going on, but it is depressing,” Betts said with a smile.

So he still had a sense of humor.

Which isn’t to say he’s not baffled or frustrated by his lack of production.

“It’s unexplainable,” Betts said. “I don’t know. It sucks. You know how in Space Jam, they take your superpowers away? Kind of what it feels like. I’ve never been there, never done that, so to have that happen, I don’t know how to get out of it.”

Without any specific answers, he’s doubled down on the general philosophy that made him one of baseball’s greatest players.

He’s worked.

“That’s the only thing I can do,” he said. “The only thing I can control is my effort and my attitude.”

When Betts says he’s done everything he could do to recapture his old magic, what he’s really saying is that he’s doing everything he can.

“I hit for three or four hours a day,” he said. “At some point, your body breaks down, but I’d rather break down than not give the effort.”

Betts showed up at Dodger Stadium before 1:30 p.m. on Monday for the series opener against the Cardinals, which started at 7:10. He hit in the batting cages, worked on his defense on the field, and participated in batting practice. He returned to the batting cages at around 4:30 and stayed there until 6:15.

“Just trying to relearn, going to the basics, relearning myself,” he said. “I had to go back and think about what I used to do in the minor leagues, [those] types of things.”

Betts might not have yet figured out the adjustments required from him to break out of his slump, but he’s also not out of ideas. He acknowledged he’s purposely sounded more clueless than he actually is in order to avoid discussing changes he’s trying to implement.

“There’s a bunch of stuff that I’m working on,” he said. “That’s stuff that, no offense to you guys, but you guys wouldn’t understand.”

The former right fielder didn’t think the workload at shortstop was the source of his problems, and he didn’t think his batspeed had declined in the last couple of years, as data from baseball’s tracking system had indicated.

“I haven’t hit the ball solid,” Betts said. “Naturally, you slow down because you try to hit the ball solid.”

While the experiment of deploying Betts as a leadoff hitter ended after only two weeks, manager Dave Roberts said he was committed to batting him near the top of the lineup.

“If that’s not confidence from a manager to a player,” Roberts said, “I don’t know what is.”

Betts rewarded Roberts’ faith on Tuesday in a 12-6 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday, as he was three for four with a double, a walk and three runs. The three-hit game was his first in almost two months.

Betts refused to read too much into the performance.

“It’s good to get the results, but it’s one game,” he said. “Every time we talk about [a good game], I go 0 for 20 after. So we’ll see about tomorrow.”

He departed the stadium uncertain of what the results would be the next day, but he knew what the process would be. He would continue to work and continue to search for answers.

The city of Los Angeles has tentatively agreed to pay $500,000 to two Knock LA journalists who claim their constitutional rights were violated when police arrested them while covering a protest four years ago in Echo Park.

Without admitting wrongdoing, the city agreed Monday to settle a lawsuit brought by the reporters, averting a federal civil trial just before jury selection was set to begin. The payout, which still needs approval from the City Council, would cover damages and attorney fees.

Kate McFarlane, an attorney who argued the lawsuit on the pair’s behalf, said the outcome felt somewhat hollow. The Los Angeles Police Department’s treatment of journalists covering recent protests against the Trump administration shows that the department’s culture has not changed despite the litigation, she said.

“We’ve been seeing journalists in the last few weeks being attacked by LAPD, either by less-lethal weapons or other weapons that LAPD uses to suppress their First Amendment rights to report,” McFarlane said.

An LAPD spokesperson declined to comment. The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office did not respond to questions.

Another recent lawsuit filed by several news media advocacy groups after dozens were injured by police actions during protests in June led to a court order that bars officers from targeting reporters with hard foam projectiles and other crowd-control munitions.

The Knock LA case stems from the evening of March 25, 2021. Jonathan Peltz and Kathleen Gallagher, both working for the online news nonprofit organization, were reporting on the removal of a homeless encampment from the banks of Echo Park Lake.

Despite “clearly identifying” themselves as reporters and being among other journalists “engaged in similar conduct,” Peltz or Gallagher said in their lawsuit that they were arrested and booked after the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly. Under state law, journalists are generally allowed to cover police activity even after members of the public have been ordered to disperse.

Among those detained were Times reporter James Queally, Spectrum News reporter Kate Cagle and L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray. Unlike the two Knock LA journalists, they were were all released at the scene.

Police, however, bound Peltz and Gallagher by the wrists with plastic zip ties. They also searched the pair and their phones, and confiscated their other belongings before placing them on buses with dozens of other arrested protesters. Both remained in custody for more than four hours.

Peltz, the lawsuit claims, was later taken to the hospital, where medical staff said swelling in his arms and hands was the result of a pinched nerve from being held in the zip ties for so long.

None of the more than 180 people arrested that night were charged.

Attorneys for the two journalists argued that their arrests fit a pattern of LAPD officers “obstructing, targeting, and retaliating against” journalists reporting on their actions — particularly those from smaller, nontraditional media outlets —dating to the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

In a text thread disclosed during the litigation, then-LAPD Chief Michel Moore messaged some of his senior staff members on the night of the Echo Park protest, asking about Queally’s detainment. Moore said he had been texted by another Times reporter asking for an explanation.

The thread included former assistant Chiefs Daniel Randolph and Beatrice Girmala as well as deputy Chief Donald Graham, the incident commander that night.

Moore wrote: “Queally posted that he is being arrested. I’ve asked [the public information officer] to support and assist in any way possible. If Queally is in custody it will garner significant attention due to his status with the LAT.”

Graham responded that he would send a spokesperson to the scene to “to identify Queally.”

Moore responded that he “[w]ould recommend you hold transports until figured out.”

The LAPD later released an after-action report that acknowledged some missteps in dealing with members of the news media, but also defended the police response that night, arguing that officers felt threatened and arrests became necessary.

The department said it stepped up its outreach to local media organizations and provided additional training for new sergeants and detectives for identifying journalists at mass demonstrations.

McFarlane, the attorney for the Knock LA reporters, said their case was less about who the LAPD sees as a member of the media and more as a reflection of the department’s ongoing efforts to thwart scrutiny.

“The broader theme is that it’s clear that the LAPD is trying to hide their actions, especially when we know their actions are unlawful,” she said.

José Caballero was a member of the Tampa Bay Rays at the start of Thursday’s game against the New York Yankees.

He was a member of the Rays when he turned a double play to end the fifth inning.

He was a member of the Rays when he popped out to second base to start the sixth inning.

He was a member of the winning team when he spoke to reporters after the game.

That team was not the Rays. In a bizarre scenario that played out as the MLB trade deadline came and went, Caballero was dealt to the opposing team during a game in which he was playing.

“I was winning today regardless,” Caballero said following the Yankees’ 7-4 victory. “We won the game, I guess. That’s what I feel right now.”

As part of the deal, the Rays received triple-A outfielder Everson Pereira and a player to be named or cash.

Caballero is tied for the MLB lead with 34 stolen bases this season. He has played in 86 games at six positions (shortstop, second base, third base and all three outfield spots) and has a batting average of .226 with two home runs and 27 RBIs.

After entering Thursday’s game in the bottom of the fifth inning, Caballero could be seen in the Tampa Bay dugout during the top of the seventh, giving hugs and saying his goodbyes. Shortstop Taylor Walls looked particularly stunned by the development.

Caballero, who was acquired by the Rays in a trade with the Seattle Mariners before the 2024 season, bid his final farewell Friday on his Instagram Stories.

“Grateful for every moment, every game, every memory, every person,” he wrote. “Y’all made it special. Forever part of my journey. Thank you Rays!!”

Caballero also had a message for his new team.

“Honored to join such a legendary organization,” he wrote. “Thank you, Yankees, for the warm welcome. Let’s get to work! #NewChapter”

The Panama native is now a member of the team he grew up rooting for (Derek Jeter was his favorite player, Caballero told reporters). He is also now teammates with Gerrit Cole, the Yankees pitcher who famously wagged his finger in annoyance at then-Seattle Mariners rookie Caballero during a June 2023 game.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters he spoke briefly with Caballero after the trade.

“I said, `We’ve had some battles but I like your game,’” Boone said. “So I think he brings a lot to the table and I think he’s going to be a very useful player for us, just a lot of different things he can do on a diamond and provide a lot of position flexibility.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LAS VEGAS — Wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a light blue suit with a UCLA lapel pin and tan wingtips, Nico Iamaleava settled into his seat on an elevated platform in front of about 30 reporters.

“How’s everybody doing?” the new Bruins quarterback asked casually inside the convention center hall late Thursday afternoon, giving no hint that this was the most pressure he had faced since an attacking Ohio State defense sacked him four times in the opening round of the College Football Playoff.

These reporters were almost as relentless. For more than 25 minutes during the final Big Ten media day, they peppered Iamaleava with questions about his decision to leave Tennessee on the eve of its spring game for a program with a lesser pedigree, prompting UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar to take Iamaleava’s spot in what essentially amounted to a college football trade.

What was Iamaleava’s motivation in making his move? Was his dissatisfaction with Tennessee’s name, image and likeness package a factor? Did he have to take a pay cut to come to UCLA? What was it like dealing with the fallout from jilted Tennessee fans?

While failing to offer many specifics, Iamaleava patiently engaged every question, the Southern California native saying he was driven by a desire to play for a top program closer to his family in Long Beach.

“Ultimately,” the 6-foot-6 quarterback had told a small group of Los Angeles-based reporters earlier in the afternoon, “it came down to me wanting to be back home, you know, be back home next to my family while still competing at the highest level.”

Iamaleava pinned the timing of his departure from Tennessee on “false reports” about financial demands that “made me not feel comfortable in the position I was in. But, you know, in the back of my head, I always wanted to come back home and be closer to my mom, be closer to my dad.” Tennessee was reportedly set to pay Iamaleava more than $2 million to play for the Volunteers this season.

Declining to discuss his new NIL deal at UCLA, Iamaleava said he was focused on football and academics while trying to revive a program that has not won a conference championship since 1998.

“The realistic expectation for us,” Iamaleava said, “is to bring championships back to Westwood, and, you know, the first day I stepped into the locker room, I felt that from every guy in there, that they’ve got a chip on their shoulder and that they want to go out there and prove people wrong.”

Iamaleava will have to do it wearing a new number after attempts to get his preferred No. 8 — retired in honor of Troy Aikman — failed, leaving him with No. 9. He said he’ll proudly wear the number to represent his seven siblings and two parents whom he credited for his humble nature.

One of those siblings is now a teammate. Freshman quarterback Madden Iamaleava, who verbally committed to UCLA before signing with Arkansas, flipped his allegiance back to the Bruins in the spring after his older brother decided to come home. Depending on how he fares in training camp, Madden could become Nico’s top backup.

“I think he’s ready, man,” Nico said of his sibling. “My little brother was a bonus from me, you know, for him to come home with me. And just being a helping hand to him in anything he needs, I think, was the biggest thing for me.”

If everything goes as planned, Nico acknowledged, his stay at UCLA will be a short one. Should the Bruins win a lot of games and Iamaleava further establish himself as a top NFL prospect, the redshirt sophomore will move on after this final college season.

“This is a year where, you know, I’m really trying to get out after,” Iamaleava said. “So, you know, I’m going to give my all to UCLA, and, you know, if I have the year I want, you know, I want to get out.”

Everything about Iamaleava’s stay might have an accelerated feel. He said he received the offensive playbook after signing in April and has participated in player-run practices since arriving on campus in June, quickly impressing his new teammates with not just his talent but also his savvy.

“He’s good at looking off people,” linebacker JonJon Vaughns said of Iamaleava’s ability to deceive a defense, “and his arm is big, it’s powerful.”

There will be no easing into a training camp that starts next Wednesday in Costa Mesa given that UCLA opens the season exactly one month later against Utah on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl. The strength staff has already provided Iamaleava an indication of the high expectations he’ll face on the field.

“I’ve never been pushed like this by a staff before,” Iamaleava said, “so I’m excited to go to work for these guys.”

Calling it “a fun challenge,” Iamaleava said he was trying to quickly absorb a pro-style offense that he described as “a little more condensed formations” than what he ran at Tennessee. The chance to play for offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, who has a history of immediate success with new quarterbacks, has invigorated Iamaleava.

“He’s a high-energy guy,” Iamaleava said of Sunseri, “and I wanted to go play for him the first day I met him.”

Praising his entire wide receiving corps, Iamaleava said he had already developed good chemistry with Kwazi Gilmer, Mikey Matthews, Ezavier Staples and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala. He’s gotten to know the offensive linemen through a bowling outing that also included the quarterbacks.

“He’s a great person,” right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said. “He’s got a good heart, and he really cares.”

Not always. Iamaleava said he tuned out social media during his departure from Tennessee, shielding himself from the vitriol. He found solace in video games such as NBA 2K25 and UFC.

“I was playing a lot of video games with my friends and my cousins, man, and, you know, really paid no mind to it,” he said. “Sometimes I had no idea [what was happening]; my cousins would come and tell me about stuff they would see and I was like, ‘I don’t care.’ So, you know, I think a lot of that just comes with, you know, protecting your peace.”

Later, as he rose from the platform and thanked reporters, Iamaleava appeared fully zen. After all the speculation about his future, he’ll have the final say on the field.

WASHINGTON — President Trump publicly scorned Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday for the cost of an extensive building renovation as the two officials toured the unfinished project.

Trump said the project cost $3.1 billion, much higher than the Fed’s $2.5-billion figure, while Powell, standing next to him, silently shook his head.

“This came from us?” Powell said, then figuring out that Trump was including the renovation of the Martin Building that was finished five years ago.

“Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?” Trump asked.

“Don’t expect them,” Powell said.

Trump said in his career as a real estate developer he would fire someone for cost overruns. The president joked that he would back off Powell if he lowered interest rates.

The Federal Reserve is known for its tight lips, structured formality and extraordinary power to shape the global economy.

Trump and his allies say the renovation of the Fed headquarters and a neighboring building reflects an institution run amok. The Fed allowed reporters to tour the building before the visit by Trump, who, in his real estate career, has bragged about his lavish spending on architectural accoutrements that gave a Versailles-like golden flair to his buildings.

The visit was an attempt to further ratchet up pressure on Powell, whom the Republican president has relentlessly attacked for not cutting borrowing costs. Trump’s criticisms have put the Fed, a historically independent institution, under a harsh spotlight. Undermining its independence could reduce the Fed’s ability to calm financial markets and stabilize the U.S. economy.

“This stubborn guy at the Fed just doesn’t get it — Never did, and never will,” Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social. “The Board should act, but they don’t have the Courage to do so!”

Journalists get rare tour of Fed renovation

On Thursday, reporters wound through cement mixers, front loaders and plastic pipes as they got a close-up view of the active construction site that encompasses the Fed’s historic headquarters, known as the Marriner S. Eccles building, and a second building across 20th Street in Washington.

Fed staff, who declined to be identified, said that greater security requirements, rising materials costs and tariffs, and the need to comply with historic preservation measures drove up the cost of the project, which was budgeted in 2022 at $1.9 billion.

The staff pointed out new blast-resistant windows and seismic walls that were needed to comply with modern building codes and security standards set out by the Department of Homeland Security. The Fed has to build with the highest level of security in mind, Fed staff said, including something called “progressive collapse,” in which only parts of the building would fall if hit with explosives.

Powell, Trump and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) during Thursday’s tour of the Federal Reserve.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

Sensitivity to the president’s pending visit among Fed staff was high during the tour. Reporters were ushered into a small room outside the Fed’s boardroom, where 19 officials meet eight times a year to decide whether to change short-term interest rates. The room, which will have a security booth, is oval-shaped, and someone had written “oval office” on plywood walls.

The Fed staff downplayed the inscription as a joke. When reporters returned to the room later, it had been painted over.

During the tour, Fed staff also showed the elevator shaft that congressional critics have said is for “VIPs” only. Powell has since said it will be open to all Fed staff. The renovation includes an 18-inch extension so the elevator reaches a slightly elevated area that is now accessible only by steps or a ramp. A planning document that said the elevator will only be for the Fed’s seven governors was erroneous and later amended, staff said.

Renovations have been in the works for a while

Plans for the renovation were first approved by the Fed’s governing board in 2017. The project then wended its way through several local commissions for approval, at least one of which, the Commission for Fine Arts, included several Trump appointees. The commission pushed for more marble in the second of the two buildings the Fed is renovating, known as 1951 Constitution Avenue, specifically in a mostly glass extension that some of Trump’s appointees derided as a “glass box.”

Fed staff also said tariffs and inflationary increases in building material prices drove up costs. Trump in 2018 imposed a 25% duty on steel and 10% on aluminum. He increased them this year to 50%. Steel prices are up about 60% since the plans were approved, while construction materials costs overall are up about 50%, according to government data.

Fed staff also pointed to the complication of historic renovations — both buildings have significant preservation needs. Constructing a new building on an empty site would have been cheaper, they said.

As one example, the staff pointed reporters to where they had excavated beneath the Eccles building to add a floor of mechanical rooms, storage space and some offices. The Fed staff acknowledged such structural additions underground are expensive, but said it was done to avoid adding HVAC equipment and other mechanics on the roof, which is historic.

The Fed has previously attributed much of the project’s cost to underground construction. It is also adding three underground levels of parking for its second building. Initially the central bank proposed building more above ground, but ran into Washington, D.C., height restrictions, forcing more underground construction.

Renovation project could be impetus to push out Powell

Trump wants Powell to dramatically slash the Fed’s benchmark interest rate under the belief that inflation is not a problem, but Powell wants to see how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy before making any rate cuts that could potentially cause inflation to accelerate.

The renovation project has emerged as a possible justification by Trump to take the extraordinary step of firing Powell for cause, an act that some administration officials have played down given that the Fed chair’s term ends in May 2026. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought suggested in a July 10 letter to Powell that changes to the renovations in order to save money might have violated the National Capital Planning Act.

Fed staff said there were just two changes to the plans they had submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, and neither were significant enough to warrant a resubmission of the plans. They removed a seating area on the roof of the Eccles building, because it was an amenity, and two water features in front of the second building, which they said saved money.

More recently, Trump has said he has no plans to oust Powell, which could be illegal based on a note in a Supreme Court ruling in May. The Supreme Court found that Trump had the power to remove board members of other independent agencies but indicated that a Fed chair could only be removed for cause.

Pushing Powell out also would almost certainly jilt global markets, potentially having the opposite effect that Trump wants as he pushes for lower borrowing costs.

Not everyone in Trump’s administration agrees with the president’s contention that Powell needs to resign.

“There’s nothing that tells me that he should step down right now,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whom Trump has floated as a potential replacement for Powell, in a recent interview with Fox Business. “He’s been a good public servant.”

Rugaber, Boak and Megerian write for the Associated Press.