safe

THE world’s most powerful storm this year is due to hit Jamaica today, with winds up to 175mph.

Hurricane Melissa, which has been upgraded to category five (the highest strength level), is heading to a Caribbean destination, with three people confirmed dead so far.

As a result of the hurricane, Jamaica is experiencing flash flooding, with landslides and a rapid four metre increase in the sea level also expected.

All airports on the island have been closed and thousands of residents have been left without power.

So here is everything you need to know if you have plans to travel to the island.

Is it safe to travel to Jamaica?

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) currently has a warning about Hurricane Melissa on its website, stating that it is expecting to make landfall today.

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However, it has not warned against non-essential travel.

It adds that the Jamaican government has already closed its international airports until further notice and that travellers should monitor updates from local authorities.

The FCDO states: “Please continue to monitor local and international weather updates, including from the Meteorological Service for Jamaica and the US National Hurricane Centre, and follow the guidance of local authorities, especially in the event of any evacuation orders.

“The Jamaican Government has published a list of available hurricane shelters in advance of anticipated landfall.”

The FCDO also has two helplines that British nationals stuck in Jamaica can use to get consular assistance – +1 (876) 936 0700 (option two) and +44 (0)20 7008 5000.

According to Travel Gossip, a spokesperson for Sandals, which has multiple Sandals and Beaches resorts in Jamaica, said: “With more than four decades of experience operating in Jamaica and across the Caribbean, the resorts are well prepared for weather-related events.

“Each property follows detailed, time-tested protocols led by trained teams who are equipped to respond calmly and effectively as conditions evolve.

“Guests can be assured that every measure is being taken to ensure their safety and comfort, and that the resort’s dedicated team members – many of whom call Jamaica home – remain committed to providing care, communication and the warm hospitality for which Sandals and Beaches Resorts are known.”

Have flights to Jamaica been affected?

As all international airports have been closed on the island, all flights have currently been cancelled.

Kingston Airport said: “Passengers, contact your airline for rebooking.

“DO NOT go to the airport.”

Sangster International Airport has then said: “When we reopen, confirm flight status with your airline BEFORE travelling.”

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled today’s flight between London Heathrow and Montego Bay flight and the return journey too.

A spokesperson from the airline said: “Due to adverse weather conditions expected to be caused by Hurricane Melissa, some of our Jamaican flights are subject to cancellations and delays.

“The safety and welfare of our customers and crew is our top priority, and we are contacting any Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Atlantic Holiday customers who may be impacted by the hurricane to discuss their options.”

British Airways has also postponed the London Gatwick to Kingston flight, which was due to depart today.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We are closely monitoring the situation in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa moves across the Caribbean.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues is always our top priority.

“Our teams are working around the clock to support everyone impacted and we are in direct contact with all customers whose travel plans may be affected.

“We understand this is an unsettling time and ask that customers currently in Jamaica continue to follow the advice of local authorities and their resort teams.”

Can I cancel my holiday?

Currently, the FCDO has not issued advice against non-essential travel to Jamaica.

This means if your holiday has been cancelled by your holiday provider or your airline, then you are legally entitled to a full refund.

Your provider should contact you directly if they are cancelling your trip, but you can also call them to confirm.

However, if you cancel your holiday or flight, companies have no obligation to refund you and you also will not be able to make a claim on your travel insurance, unless the government advice changes.

If you do have travel insurance, check your policy as it may include natural disaster cover.

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Flight compensation rules

A look at your rights if a flight is delayed or cancelled, when your entitled to compensation and if your travel insurance can cover the costs.

What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?

Under UK law, airlines have to provide compensation if your flight arrives at its destination more than three hours late.

If you’re flying to or from the UK, your airline must let you choose a refund or an alternative flight.

You will be able to get your money back for the part of your ticket that you haven’t used yet.

So if you booked a return flight and the outbound leg is cancelled, you can get the full cost of the return ticket refunded.

But if travelling is essential, then your airline has to find you an alternative flight. This could even be with another airline.

When am I not entitled to compensation?

The airline doesn’t have to give you a refund if the flight was cancelled due to reasons beyond their control, such as extreme weather.

Disruptions caused by things like extreme weather, airport or air traffic control employee strikes or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are not eligible for compensation.

Some airlines may stretch the definition of “extraordinary circumstances” but you can challenge them through the aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Will my insurance cover me if my flight is cancelled?

If you can’t claim compensation directly through the airline, your travel insurance may refund you.

Policies vary so you should check the small print, but a delay of eight to 12 hours will normally mean you qualify for some money from your insurer.

Remember to get written confirmation of your delay from the airport as your insurer will need proof.

If your flight is cancelled entirely, you’re unlikely to be covered by your insurance.

In other travel news, a UK airline with 1.3million passengers on brink of administration and axes ALL flights.

Plus, a major UK airport is getting a £30million upgrade – but could mean your late flight is cancelled.

Brian O’Connor thinks part of his success is due to California voter approval of Proposition 13, the landmark property tax reduction proposal that catalyzed the taxpayer revolt more than a decade ago.

He is the general manager of the Bel-Air Patrol, which operates Los Angeles’ oldest private residential security patrol service. Since Proposition 13, the company has greatly expanded its territory and number of clients, he said.

Business is good and getting better for a growing number of such companies that deploy armed and unarmed guards to watch over Southern California neighborhoods. In fact, such businesses are growing all over the nation.

Residential guard services are a fast-growing segment of the security guard business, says Robert McCrie, editor of Security Letter, a trade publication. He estimated that residential guard services account for 10% to 15% of the nation’s $6.5-billion annual security guard bill. “The growth has been quite unmistakable since World War II. One reason is that people simply feel afraid,” said McCrie, who is also a professor of security management at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

More Seek Permits

The public’s perception that government services have declined in California since the passage of Proposition 13 adds to the fear, O’Connor said. People feel that their local police departments are stretched too thin, he said. “The police obviously have to prioritize where they concentrate their effort,” he said.

People also want more control of their personal safety, he said. The average homeowner can’t control the police, but he can hire and fire private security firms at will, he said.

Within the city of Los Angeles, about 50 firms have Los Angeles Police Department permits to offer residential patrol service. Many more operate in the county, and “there may be some operating illegally (in Los Angeles),” said Det. Richard Rudell, chief of the permit section of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

Rudell said he has noted a steady increase in the number of firms applying for permits in recent years, although “some have subsequently gone out of business.” Every year, a number don’t renew their permits, he says.

Security guards do not have police powers. For example, guards patrolling a neighborhood may not detain someone believed to be acting suspiciously, said Lt. Fred Nixon, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

Like anyone, they may make a citizen’s arrest of a person caught committing a crime. Guard companies claim that their presence deters crime, but independent statistical studies aren’t available to verify that claim.

“The police department believes that a highly visible patrol tends to deter crime,” Nixon said. “That is not a vote for or against private patrols. (The patrol) is only part of the equation.”

Private companies offer different levels of services. The larger security alarm companies provide armed guards to respond to an alarm. Other services simply drive through a neighborhood, or by an individual residence, or stop and inspect the exterior of properties. Still others provide mail and newspaper pickups for clients who are out of town and an escort service for clients fearful of entering an empty house after being away for a period.

Added Problems

Although the concept of security patrols seem simple, it’s not that easy for small operators–who are the vast majority of patrol businesses–to make a patrol service a success, said Robert Rockwell, a Walnut Creek, Calif., security management consultant.

Patrol services have all the challenges of hiring and supervising personnel as other guard companies, he said, with the additional burden of purchasing and maintaining vehicles that are driven constantly, he said. They also have the complication of getting a sufficient client base and calculating patrol routes under a price structure that will produce a profit, he said.

Because of the complications, many of the nation’s largest providers of security guards have shied away from that segment, he said, although many will provide a stationary guard for an apartment building, or gated community. (The largest segment of the security guard business is providing on-site guards for businesses and factories.)

Many larger companies that offer residential patrols are essentially in the business of selling security alarms.

Rockwell is also vice president of California Contract Security Guard Service, a trade group of 125 companies. “Very few of our members are involved,” he said.

Most residential patrols are small, perhaps operating with two or three people, he said. “One guy starts a patrol business where he does the patrols himself. Then he hires somebody else to take (another) shift,” Rockwell said.

Thomas Walthen acquired residential patrols in 30 cities across the country, including one in Los Angeles, when his Van Nuys-based California Plant Protection bought the venerable Pinkerton Security Service in 1987, creating a tie between CPP/Pinkerton and Borg-Warner’s security business as the nation’s largest provider of security guards.

High Accident Rate

(Borg-Warner includes Burns International Security Services, Wells Fargo Guard Services and Baker Industries, the parent of the Bel-Air Patrol). The acquisition put Walthen in a business segment that he abandoned 20 years ago. Unlike many services in the old days, Pinkerton has developed a “substantially sophisticated patrol service,” Walthen said.

Nevertheless, he added, “We’re still in the process of evaluating the operation. It looks like a profitable arm,” he said. But there are some problems. “The ratio of accidents to miles driven seem to be terribly out of line,” he said, and nobody seems to know why.

Although relatively big companies are in the minority among those offering residential patrols, they are among the best known in Southern California. A familiar sight throughout affluent neighborhoods are lawns and gardens sprouting signs for Bel-Air, MacGuard Security Services and Westec Security, a unit of Japan’s SECOM Co. All three sell alarm systems and offer armed response to alarms as well as neighborhood patrols.

“We’re not a security guard company. We sell a concept of security,” said Westec President Michael Kaye, explaining how the company’s alarm systems interact with a staff of almost 800 people. About 200 are guards on patrol. The company views itself as playing an “observe and report” role for the police. However, he said, the company plays a crucial prevention role.

“We’ve found time and time again that if a patrol is in a neighborhood, there is less crime. Burglars are basically lazy and will take the path of least resistance,” he said. Westec cites the experience of three Westside communities where it has tracked crime statistics before and after patrols.

Incidents Drop

One area with 400 homes had several burglaries a month before Westec began patrols seven years ago. Since patrols started, there have been no more than three burglaries a year and only one in 1988. Another neighborhood with 500 homes reported seven to 10 robberies a month before the patrols, the company said, but in the nine years of patrols, there have been less than six a year. Thus far in 1988, there have been three incidents.

A community of 250 homes reported several burglaries a month before the Westec patrols began seven years ago, the company said, but has had no more than two per year since. There haven’t been any incidents reported in 1988, the company said.

“We’re in the public relations and protection business,” said O’Connor, the retired British policeman who runs Bel-Air Patrol. “We’re never in conflict with law enforcement because we aren’t in that business,” he added.

MEXICO CITY — The small Central American nation of Belize has signed a “safe third country” agreement with the United States, the two sides said on Monday, as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up deportations and dissuade migration north.

What the agreement entails wasn’t immediately clear, but it comes as President Trump has increasingly pressured countries in Latin America and Africa to help him carry out his immigration agenda.

The deal appears to be similar to one with Paraguay announced by the U.S. State Department in August that included a “safe third country” agreement in which asylum seekers currently in the U.S. could pursue protections in the South American nation.

In Trump’s first term, the U.S. signed several such agreements that would instead have asylum seekers request protections in other nations, like Guatemala, before proceeding north. The policy was criticized as a roundabout way to make it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the U.S. and was later rolled back by the Biden administration.

Earlier this year, Panama and Costa Rica also accepted U.S. flights of hundreds of deportees from Asian countries – without calling the deals “safe third country” agreements – and thrusting the migrants into a sort of international limbo. The U.S. has also signed agreements, such as deportation agreements, with war-torn South Sudan, Eswatini and Rwanda.

The Belize government said in a statement on Monday that it “retains an absolute veto over transfers, with restrictions on nationalities, a cap on transferees, and comprehensive security screenings.”

The government of the largely rural nation wedged between Mexico and Guatemala reiterated its “commitment to international law and humanitarian principles while ensuring strong national safeguards.” No one deemed to be a public safety threat would be allowed to enter the country, it said.

On Monday, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs thanked Belize in a post on X, calling the agreement “an important milestone in ending illegal immigration, shutting down abuse of our nation’s asylum system, and reinforcing our shared commitment to tackling challenges in our hemisphere together.”

The decision prompted fierce criticism from politicians in Belize, who railed against the agreement, calling it a “decision of profound national consequence” announced with little government transparency. The agreement must be ratified by Belize’s Senate to take effect.

“This agreement, by its very nature, could reshape Belize’s immigration and asylum systems, impose new financial burdens on taxpayers, and raise serious questions about national sovereignty and security,” Tracy Taegar Panton, an opposition leader in Belize’s parliament, wrote on social media.

She noted fierce criticisms of human rights violations resulting from similar policies carried out by both the U.S. and Europe.

“Belize is a compassionate and law-abiding nation. We believe in humanitarian principles. But compassion must never be confused with compliance at any cost. Belize cannot and must not be used as a dumping ground for individuals other countries refuse to accept,” she wrote.

Janetsky writes for the Associated Press.

Andry Rajoelina’s announcement on Monday followed reports that he had been evacuated by a French aircraft on Sunday.

President Andry Rajoelina has fled Madagascar to protect his life amid nationwide protests, which began late last month.

Rajoelina confirmed in a live Facebook address on Monday that he had travelled to a safe location following reports and rumours that he had been flown out of the country on Sunday.

The 51-year-old did not disclose his whereabouts.

Rajoelina had been due to give a television address on Monday afternoon, but the speech was delayed after “a group of armed forces threatened to take control of the state-owned media”, Rajoelina’s office said on Facebook.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern over the situation in his country’s former colony, where the United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

Speaking from a summit in Egypt, Macron refused to comment on whether Rajoelina had been evacuated by France.

“I will not confirm anything today,” he said. “I just wish to express our great concern.”

A military source told the Reuters news agency that Rajoelina left Madagascar on Sunday on board a French Army Casa aircraft, after being brought to the Sainte Marie Airport by helicopter.

The president’s reported departure came after army units defected on Saturday, with Rajoelina condemning the move as “an attempt to seize power illegally and by force”.

Hours after his comments, the army’s elite CAPSAT unit, which played an important role in first bringing Rajoelina to power in a 2009 coup, said it had taken control of the country’s military. Earlier, it had announced that it would “refuse orders to shoot” demonstrators.

Protests in Madagascar began on September 25 over water and power outages, but they soon gave rise to wider grievances over the cost of living, poverty and alleged government corruption, with many demanding Rajoelina’s resignation.

On Monday, hundreds of protesters – joined by soldiers and security forces – gathered outside the city hall in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, waving flags and chanting slogans.

One of the protesters, 24-year-old Finaritra Manitra Andrianamelasoa, told the AFP news agency that he hopes the president “will apologise and genuinely announce his resignation”.

“Afterwards, we can consider organising elections and determine who will be suitable to take the leadership role,” Andrianamelasoa added.

The demonstrations in Madagascar follow a global trend of Gen Z protest movements, including in Nepal, which led to the removal of Nepalese President KP Sharma Oli in early September.

Talks aim at ending nearly two years of war in Gaza, with Israel’s leader expressing hope that the captives still being held there would be released in a matter of days.

After making a cameo during Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s 2020 halftime show in Miami, Bad Bunny will return to the Super Bowl stage next year — this time, as the headlining act.

The 2026 Super Bowl LX will take place Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The Puerto Rican hitmaker’s performance is expected to be the first fully Spanish-language performance on the stage, and he’s the first Latino man to headline.

The announcement came after Bad Bunny, full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, said he would not tour his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” to the continental U.S. due to the ongoing threat of ICE arresting his concertgoers. “There was the issue of — like, f— ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D magazine.

Instead, the Grammy-winning artist’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency — which took place at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan — brought an estimated $733 million to Puerto Rico as 600,000-plus tourists came to the island for his concert.

As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico still has an ICE presence. In June 2025, Benito posted footage on his Instagram stories of an ICE raid in progress in Carolina, showcasing agents arresting alleged undocumented immigrants.

Yet since announcing his Super Bowl halftime show, the singer hasn’t voiced concerns about ICE. His post on X, which strays from his previous remarks on avoiding the States as a stance against ICE, reads: “I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.”

As Santa Clara County is a sanctuary jurisdiction, Lina Baroudi, an immigration attorney in San Jose, believes local law enforcement is unlikely to cooperate with ICE. “Federal agents can operate independently. Sanctuary laws don’t prevent them from entering public spaces or executing federal warrants,” she says.

Between January and July in the Bay Area, ICE made 2,640 arrests— a 123% increase compared with 2024. “By June 2025, around 60% of ICE daily arrests in California were of people without criminal charges or convictions,” Baroudi says. The agency has historically had an increased presence in cities hosting the Super Bowl. ICE will likely be prohibited from operating inside the stadium, but ICE can operate in public spaces such as the parking lot, where fans may gather to hear the performance.

Amid an uptick in violent ICE arrests, mass deportations, people dying in ICE custody and the Supreme Court’s approval of profiling people for speaking Spanish, it’s of deep cultural significance that Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl. Still, some fans are speculating that his firm stance against performing in the U.S. due to ICE was performative, now that he has accepted the Super Bowl gig.

And yet, given the Trump administration’s hostility toward immigrants and Spanish speakers in the U.S., it feels especially poignant that the country’s biggest sporting event of the year will showcase a performance sung entirely in Spanish.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown… this is for my people, my culture and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

It’s worth noting that Bad Bunny’s appearance at the Super Bowl poses a massive commercial advantage for the NFL. Second to the United States, the largest resale of Super Bowl tickets on StubHub were purchased by fans in Mexico. There are 39 million Latine fans of the league in the U.S., making them the most rapidly growing fan base. Latine viewership of the Super Bowl rose 51% from 2021 to 2024.

The NFL has made a concerted effort over the years to globalize American football, with a special focus on building a fan base in Latin America; it recently enlisted Colombian pop star Karol G to perform at a halftime show in Brazil. Given that the Latine buying power in the U.S. is estimated at $3.6 trillion, tapping Bad Bunny as the headliner is a strategic move toward the league’s international expansion.

The global superstar’s performance will likely boost ratings as well. Bad Bunny broke Amazon Music’s livestream record last week with the most-watched single artist performance on the platform. Upon its release in January, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” topped the Billboard 200 and maintained Bad Bunny’s place as one of Spotify’s most-streamed artists in three of the past five years.

Year after year, since 2022, artists have broken the record for the highest viewership during a Super Bowl halftime show. During the 2025 Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar drew the largest audience ever, with 133.5 million people tuning in for his performance, surpassing the actual game’s viewership.

While the Bad Bunny halftime show has the potential to break viewership records, bring in new audiences and educate viewers on the Puerto Rico he loves — it also poses a potential security risk for his Latine fans in attendance, who deserve solidarity and increased institutional support.

At least 91 Palestinian people were killed on Saturday in relentless Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, including at least 45 in Gaza City, as the military intensified its widely criticised ground invasion.

Gaza’s Government Media Office slammed Israel for misleading the Palestinian people with threats to evacuate to the central and southern governorates by portraying them as “safe humanitarian zones”, while continuing to strike those same areas.

According to a statement issued on Saturday, 1,903 people have been killed in 133 attacks on central and southern Gaza since the forced displacement from Gaza City began on August 11, some 46 percent of all reported deaths across the enclave during that period.

The office said that this shows civilians are being directly targeted, despite being told to move south, and called on the international community to intervene, warning that continued global inaction amounts to a “green light” for further massacres.

Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that since the early hours of Saturday, Israeli attacks have increased in Gaza City and more casualties have been arriving at al-Shifa Hospital.

“Just in the past few minutes, we had confirmation of a family evacuating on a road inside a vehicle when it was struck by a drone missile. Four people were reported killed on the spot,” he said.

“Hundreds of others have been on the move as Israeli drones and fighter jets chase them from one place to another,” he added.

Hospitals attacked

Some hospitals in Gaza City have shut down as Israeli attacks escalate, with plans to seize the city and displace more people each day.

Earlier on Saturday, people in one of the city’s main hospitals, the Jordan Field Hospital, were forced to evacuate all 107 patients and their entire staff after facing heavy bombardment.

Hospitals in Gaza have long been on the brink of collapse amid relentless Israeli strikes. Most are operating in horrific conditions, unable to provide even basic medical supplies, such as anaesthesia and antibiotics, while the doctors, who are going hungry themselves, struggle to treat starving patients.

The few hospitals still partially functioning in central Gaza have become overwhelmed with wounded and sick people fleeing bombardment in the north. Many arrive in need of urgent medical care that cannot be provided.

“Displacement has worsened the situation inside hospitals in the south,” a displaced Palestinian told Al Jazeera. “Now you can see that instead of one patient in one bed, medical staff tried to fit two patients in one bed.”

Dr Khalil Digran, who works at Al-Aqsa Hospital, said that Israeli forces deliberately attacked al-Rantisi Paediatric Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s only specialised medical facility for children.

“Gaza City and the north are left with just two health facilities that are barely functioning: al-Shifa and al-Ahli Hospital,” Digran told Al Jazeera.

“As for the remaining health facilities in central and southern Gaza, Israeli actions are already adding more pressure on these facilities and threatening to bring their service to a total halt.”

Mohammad Khoudary, a displaced Palestinian, told Al Jazeera: “Ever since we became displaced, my father has been impacted and has become very sad.

“This has affected his health; he has become dehydrated. I am hoping they will be able to transfer him to Al-Aqsa Hospital.”

Hamas says has not seen ceasefire plan

Meanwhile, on the global stage, protests calling for a ceasefire took place Saturday in Berlin, Germany, Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Hamas has said that it has not received United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, even as Trump this week repeatedly expressed optimism that a deal is close.

In comments to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza.” He offered no details and gave no timetable. Israel has not yet made any public response to Trump’s comments.

A Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said the Palestinian group “has not been presented with any plan”.

Trump is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, whose hard-right governing coalition is opposed to ending the Gaza war until Hamas is destroyed.

British tourists on the two holiday islands of Ibiza and Mallorca have been issued the alert for breaks between now and the end of October, with lifeguards who look after some of the most popular beaches in the Balearics going on strike

Holidaymakers in Mallorca and Ibiza have been warned that “beaches are unsafe” as lifeguards go on strike.

British tourists on the two holiday islands have been issued the alert for breaks between now and the end of October. The warning comes from lifeguards who look after some of the most popular beaches in the Balearics.

They have called a strike over pay and conditions, saying salaries are so low that some of them have to sleep on the beach as they cannot afford to rent. And they have accused local councils of putting lives at risk by failing to come to an agreement which would have avoided walk-outs.

“Safety on the beaches is not guaranteed,” a spokesperson for the lifeguards warned. A last-ditch attempt was made today to reach an agreement, but without success.

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The lifeguards from the Balearic Islands have therefore called for a strike on Sunday, September 25.

They are telling the public that the “security on the beaches is not guaranteed”, despite the imposition of minimum services of 100% of the workforce, which the group considers “a violation of the workers’ right to strike.”

The strike will affect all the beaches of the municipalities of Palm and Calvià on Mallorca, as well as the sandy beaches of Ibiza, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Sant Joan de Labritja, SantJosep de sa Talaia and Santa Eulària des Riu. It will start at 8.30am on the beach of Can Pere Antoni, in Palma, with an assembly of workers.

The strike will then be repeated with Sunday strikes until the end of the season, which ends on October 31, in the sandbanks of Palma.

Cristian Ezequiel Melogno, spokesperson for the Balearic Islands Rescue Union, said the strike is over staffing, infrastructure and also wages.

“The lifeguard service is the first to intervene in an emergency on the beaches but the staffing is minimal,” he said. “The concessionaire companies receive the municipal award because they present the cheapest offer.”

“A lifeguard receives a monthly salary of 1,410 euros gross, insufficient to live in the Balearic Islands in a dignified way, with a contract marked by temporality, because we do not work every month,” say the lifeguarsa. “The situation is so undignified that in Ibiza there are colleagues who are forced to live on the beach because they cannot access housing.”

Although the strike occurs at the end of the summer, the beaches continue to receive visitors and the lack of surveillance could put the safety of bathers at risk, the lifeguards have warned.

The lifeguards are demanding improvements in their working conditions, job stability, strict compliance with regulations and greater public investment in beach safety. They point out that reducing surveillance on beaches is comparable to closing a hospital, as the safety of citizens must be a priority.

This summer, concerns were heightened after four drownings on Palma’s beaches in just 45 days. The deaths, all in bathing areas without active lifeguard coverage at the time, triggered renewed debate over beach safety during peak tourist season.

The incidents occurred between late June and August at Playa de Palma, Ciudad Jardín and El Molinar. The victims, aged between 65 and 84, suffered collapses or drownings at times when no lifeguards were on duty, before shifts began, after they ended, or in areas without surveillance. In all four cases, the emergency response came too late and resuscitation attempts failed.

Lifeguard professionals warn that regional regulations in place since 2015 are being poorly enforced. The Balearics are estimated to be short of more than 300 lifeguards, while current shift patterns fail to cover peak bathing hours. In many coastal areas, there is no standby staff outside standard service times, leaving long stretches of beach effectively unprotected.

Carrick Rangers forward Paul Heatley said he hopes his injury against Bangor on Saturday will highlight the urgent need to release funding to clubs to upgrade stadium facilities across Northern Ireland.

The 38-year-old collided with the wall surrounding the pitch at Taylors Avenue eight minutes into the second half of his side’s Irish Premiership game.

He received treatment at the side of the pitch and was taken to hospital after being placed into the ambulance on a stretcher, before being discharged on Sunday.

The decision was then made to abandon the fixture by referee Christopher Morrison as there was no ambulance in place after Heatley was transported from the ground.

Carrick were one of 20 clubs who progressed to the next stage in a bid to secure a slice of the Northern Ireland Football Fund.

They applied for £5.8m for improvements to Taylors Avenue, but will have to go through another stage of assessment before any funding is handed out with no timeline in place for the next steps.

Posting on social media on Monday, Heatley called for “immediate funding” to be released to Irish League clubs to ensure “nothing like this ever happens to any player in the future”.

“Thank you to everyone for all the messages of support from my own club and team-mates to the wider footballing community it has been truly incredible,” he said.

“To the coaches, physios and doctors of both Carrick Rangers FC and Bangor FC I am forever grateful, along with the amazing care given to me from the ambulance service.

“A very special shoutout to the stewards and the girls in the club shop for looking after my children whilst I received treatment, no child should witness such a scene at a football match and you kept them distracted and entertained throughout, thank you all. A few restless nights lay ahead but will take that, knowing it could have ended much worse.

“I hope this incident highlights the need for immediate funding to be released for Irish League clubs to provide a proper, safe environment for players, staff and supporters, to ensure nothing like this ever happens to any player in the future.

“With power comes responsibility, so for those in power and authority around the Irish league, welfare and funding, the responsibility lies with you.

“Thanks again to everyone.”

A HIGHER ‘golden dose’ of Wegovy than is currently approved is safe and could be more effective – helping patients lose nearly a fifth of their body weight.

The once-weekly injection containing the semaglutide – also the active ingredient in diabetes jab Ozempic – is prescribed on the NHS at a maximum dose of 2.4mg.

1

Now, two major studies show that tripling doses to 7.2mg can trigger significant weight loss, without bringing on more side effects or risking patient safety.

The findings, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal, suggest a higher dose of semaglutide could be an option for people with obesity – as well as type 2 diabetes – who haven’t lost enough weight on standard doses.

“Once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg is approved for weight management in people with obesity and related complications,” researchers said.

“However, some individuals do not reach their therapeutic goals with this dose.

“We aimed to test the efficacy and safety of a higher dose of semaglutide in people with obesity.”

Researchers investigated whether 7.2mg semaglutide injections could provide patients with “further benefits” and boost fat loss for people whose weight had plateaued “without jeopardising safety or significantly increasing the risk of adverse events”.

The two trials involved more than 2,000 adults with obesity, some of whom also had diabetes.

They were conducted across 95 hospitals, specialist clinics, and medical centres in 11 countries, including Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway and the US.

Researchers randomly assigned participants the 7.2mg dose, the 2.4mg dose, or placebo injections.

All participants received advice on improving diet and increasing exercise.

After 72 weeks, people without diabetes given the higher dose lost an average of 18.7 per cent of their body weight.

Those on the standard dose 15.6 per cent of their weight and those on placebo injections lost just 3.9 per cent.

Almost half of those on the higher dose lost at least 20 per cent of their body weight, while nearly a third shed 25 per cent or more.

This rivals the average weight lost with competitor jab Mounjaro, known as the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss injections.

Participants on the higher dose also saw their waists shrink and reported improvements in their blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels – all key factors in reducing obesity-related health risks.

As for obese adults with type 2 diabetes, the 7.2mg dose caused them to lose 13 per cent of their weight.

Those on 2.4mg lost 10 per cent of their body weight on average, while placebo-users lost 4 per cent.

Both trials showed the higher semaglutide dose to be safe and generally well tolerated, though people taking 7.2mg did report more side effects.

“Serious adverse events” were reported by 68 of 1004 participants receiving the 7.2mg dose of semaglutide – about 7 per cent – researchers said.

Meanwhile, 22 of 201 taking 2.4mg reported side effects – about 11 per cent – and 11 of 201 receiving placebo injections, researchers said.

Nausea and diarrhoea, and some sensory symptoms like tingling, were the most common.

However, most side effects were manageable and resolved over time, researchers said.

One in 20 patients taking the higher dose stopped treatment because of side effects, similar to the standard jab.

Study authors concluded: “Semaglutide 7.2 mg was superior to placebo and semaglutide 2.4 mg in reducing bodyweight, including reaching reductions of 20 per cent or greater and 25 per cent or greater over 72 weeks.

The higher dose was “well tolerated and provided additional clinically meaningful weight loss compared with 2.4 mg, suggesting that higher doses could help patients who do not achieve sufficient weight loss with the currently approved dose”, they added.

But Professor Alex Miras, an obesity expert at Imperial College London, was more hesitant in touting the benefits of the 7.2mg dose.

He told the Daily Mail: “Tripling the dose only gives a marginal extra benefit, but the dose increase is massive.

“Going from 2.4mg to 7.2mg is a very big jump. I’m concerned many patients won’t tolerate such a high dose.

“In clinical practice people already struggle at 2.4mg.

“Even if 7.2mg is approved, I suspect uptake will be low because of cost and side-effects – the top dose is already expensive.”

It comes as many Brits taking weight loss jabs privately are priced out of paying for Mounjaro – after manufacturer Eli Lilly hiked up prices.

The highest dose was set to rise from £122 to £330 a month – an increase of 170 per cent – from September 1.

It was later reported that some pharmacies would be able to offer the jabs at a discount, saving patients £83 on the cost of the maximum dose.

But the price rise has still made Mounjaro unaffordable for many – leading Brits to switch to cheaper Wegovy or give up the jabs altogether.

In the UK, fewer than 200,000 people are thought to be accessing weight-loss jabs through the NHS, but over 1.4 million are estimated to be using them privately, according to the health think-tank the King’s Fund.

Meanwhile, jabs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have been connected to 24 deaths in the 21 weeks since January, The Sun revealed.

A MUM bought Apple AirTags to keep her children safe at Disneyland – only for it to ‘ironically’ leave her daughter in hospital after swallowing the battery.

Lisa Marie says she purchased four of the tracking devices to ‘keep her children safe’ during a family trip to the theme park, but they ended up causing more harm than good.

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After realising the AirTags were broken during the holiday to the popular resort in Anaheim, California, US, in April, Lisa had stored them away in the glovebox of her car while she waited to get them repaired.

But the mum-of-four was left ‘terrified’ when her daughter Lily Grace made a ‘gulping sound’ from the back of the car on May 23 – and she realised that she’d swallowed one of the batteries.

The four-year-old was rushed to hospital where an x-ray scan revealed that the coin-sized battery had already reached her bowel.

The family faced an agonising four-day weight for Lily to pass the battery in her bowel movements – with her three siblings left ‘fearing she was going to die’.

Button batteries can cause significant damage to the lining of the child’s oesophagus or bowel – in some cases it may have burned through the lining completely to form a hole.

In 2020, two-year-old Johnathan Huff tragically died in Greensboro, North Carolina, after swallowing batteries from a remote control, which burned through his internal organs.

Thankfully Lily was left with no lasting side effects and was able to pass the battery naturally.

Lisa says she had repeatedly warned her children of the dangers of button batteries over the years, with the latest warning issued just two weeks prior to the incident.

In a social media post, Lily says her greatest fear had been a child swallowing a button battery so had repeatedly warned her children of the dangers of them over the years.

She goes on to admit the ‘irony’ of the batteries coming from Airtags she had bought to try to keep the kids safe.

The stay-at-home mum is now urging other parents to ‘throw away’ items containing button batteries.

Lisa said: “I bought the Apple Airtags to keep my kids safe. Disneyland is scary so I bought them to track my kids.

“The things that I thought would keep my kids safe are actually what caused harm.

“The AirTags weren’t working so I put them into our glove box so that we could take them to the Apple Store.

“I never ended up finding one so we came back home and I forgot they were there. I thought I’d eventually get them fixed.

“I didn’t think that my daughter would go into the glove box, let alone open up the Airtags and find a button battery and swallow it.

“She was sat in the back of the car and she made a big gulp sound and told me she’d swallowed a quarter.

“Me and my husband were like what do you mean? Why would you swallow a quarter?

“It was crazy to us that anyone would do that but when she started making sounds, all I thought it my head was that it was a button battery.”

Lisa and her husband Markus, 48, originally from the US but now living in Vancouver Island, Canada, rushed Lily to hospital where an x-ray scan revealed there was a button battery in her bowel.

She didn’t require surgery but the family faced an agonising four-day wait for the button battery to pass through in her bowel movements.

Lisa said: “As a mum, when we figured out it was a button battery I was like okay, her whole insides are burned out. I was on the bathroom floor of the hospital crying.

“It was very emotional and my husband had to dress up in surgery scrubs to see if they could scope it out.

“They couldn’t because it had gone to her bowels already – it was good that it was moving.”

They were then sent home and told to wait four days for things to progress.

“I was giving her laxatives and all kinds of things to try and get this thing out of her.

“I had her on trampolines, on a vibration plate, eating prunes, everything,” she said.

Finally, it did come out, but the emotional toll was a lot for the family.

“I didn’t sleep. It was awful. It was really hard, the other kids were like ‘I hope Lily doesn’t die’.

“I wouldn’t want that to happen to anybody else. It was very scary.”

Lisa is now urging other parents to throw out toys containing button batteries.

Lisa said: “If you have any toys that have button batteries in them then throw them out, get rid of them.

“The hard thing I’ve had is people buy gifts for the kids [which contain button batteries] so they keep showing up in my house.

“It’s like a nightmare that won’t go away. Really educate your kids. Just know that you’re never safe – be over cautious.”

The al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza where Israel has told displaced people to go is among places targeted this morning.

President Donald Trump creates LA28 task force to prepare for the first Olympics in the US since the 2002 Winter Games.

United States President Donald Trump established a task force on the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles that he said would ensure the event is “safe, seamless and historically successful”.

The 2028 games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the US since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“The LA Olympics is shaping up to be a wonderful moment for America. It’s going to be incredible. It’s so exciting,” Trump said on Tuesday as he signed an executive order at the White House establishing the task force.

The White House did not immediately release the text of the order or details about the task force’s work.

At the event, Trump praised Gene Sykes, chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) board of directors, for the USOPC’s move to effectively bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics,” Trump said.

He questioned why he did not hear applause from the room when he praised Sykes for this, and then received some claps from some people in the room.

Trump “considers it a great honour to oversee this global sporting spectacle”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, calling sport one of the president’s “greatest passions”.

LA28 president and chair Casey Wasserman said the task force “marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028.”

During a briefing Tuesday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the task force would “coordinate across federal, state and local agencies to ensure streamlined visa processes, robust security and efficient transportation”.

Members of the task force include Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among others, Trump announced Tuesday.

Along with the 2028 games, Trump has said that the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, is among the events he is most looking forward to in his second term.

In preparation for next year’s competition, the governments of all three countries on Tuesday said they had held the first meeting of a trilateral coordinating council of government officials, industry leaders and security professionals discussing a variety of issues, including preparedness for any security threats ahead of the World Cup.

Greece is among the countries in southern Europe battling wildfires this summer as firefighters continue to tackle blazes on both the mainland and on several of its islands

Greece is currently grappling with wildfires, as blazes rage across both the mainland and several of its islands. Over the weekend, areas near Athens were evacuated due to more than 50 wildfires breaking out, with residents in the suburb of Kryoneri being advised to leave their homes.

Firefighters are also tackling fires on the islands of Crete, Kythira and Euboea, while numerous smaller fires have erupted locally. These fires have been fuelled by scorching temperatures and dry conditions across southern Europe, with neighbouring countries Turkey and Montenegro also dealing with wildfires this summer.

READ MORE: Foreign Office’s summer 2025 rules for Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Portugal

A heatwave in Greece, which saw temperatures soar to 44C in Athens last week, has increased the country’s fire risk. These wildfires coincide with the peak travel period, causing concern for many British holidaymakers heading to Greece for the school holidays.

If you’re wondering whether it’s safe to visit Greece, here’s what you need to know. It’s worth noting that large parts of Greece remain unaffected by the wildfires.

What the UK Foreign Office says

The UK Foreign Office, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, hasn’t issued any further guidance on specific wildfires since its last update on July 4, which remains current on July 28.

It advises there is a high risk of wildfires during the summer season from April to October. It recommends reading the wildfires section on its Safety and security page which states that travellers “Ensure that your mobile phone is registered to receive emergency alerts to be warned of wildfires near your location.”

The advice page for Greece state the following

“There is a high risk of wildfires during the summer season from April to October. Ensure that your mobile phone is registered to receive emergency alerts to be warned of wildfires near your location.

“Wildfires are highly dangerous and unpredictable. The situation can change quickly. To avoid starting wildfires:

• leave no litter, especially not glass which is known to start fires.
• make sure cigarettes are properly extinguished.
• do not light barbecues.

“Causing a wildfire or a forest fire is a criminal offence in Greece – even if unintentional. If you see a fire, call the emergency services on 112. Be cautious if you are in or near an area affected by wildfires:

• follow @112Greece for official updates.
• follow the guidance of the emergency services.
• call the Greek emergency services on 112 if you are in immediate danger.
• contact your airline or travel operator who can assist you with return travel to the UK.
• Always check the Foreign Office page for the latest advice before you travel.

Refunds for cancelled flights and travel insurance

Whether you’re covered for wildfires by your insurance hinges on the specifics of your policy and the breadth of your coverage; wildfires typically fall under “unforeseen circumstances”. This implies that you might be covered for medical evacuations, cancellations, or delays brought about by severe weather conditions, as per Travel and Tour World.

When it comes to flights and hotel reservations, most airlines or travel insurance providers won’t offer a refund or compensation if you decide to cancel your journey due to worries about wildfires – unless there’s an official travel advisory in place.

It’s crucial to touch base with your holiday provider for the most recent information before you set off.

Memo to Mark Walter:

Check your swing.

Now that you’re the majority owner of the Lakers, everyone is expecting you to whack their two most prominent leaders in hopes of transforming the basketball team into your baseball team, but you should instead initially act in terms your Dodgers would understand.

Take a pitch.

Keep Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick in their jobs … for now.

Agreed, this might be a tough call, and certainly there could be temptation to immediately can the two Lakers employees who most epitomize the incestuous decisions that have dragged the once-shining championship organization into dull mediocrity.

Pelinka, the president of basketball operations and general manager, was hired eight years ago because he was the agent and confidant of Kobe Bryant.

Redick, the head coach, was hired last summer because he was LeBron James’ podcast bro.

Neither man came to their current positions with strong qualifications. Both men were beneficiaries of a post-Jerry Buss culture in which daughter Jeanie would surround herself with friends and family.

It is a culture that led to outsized decision-making roles for the likes of Linda and Kurt Rambis. It is a culture that is diametrically opposed to the meritocracy that has made this town’s other glamour team so great.

Now that the Dodgers have basically swallowed the Lakers whole, it might be a foregone conclusion that Pelinka and Redick would be among the first to disappear.

Memo to Mark Walter:

Mark Walter, the controlling owner of the Dodgers, recently became a majority stakeholder in the Lakers.

(Emma McIntyre / Getty Images)

Hold up rounding third.

Both Pelinka and Redick have earned a chance to show their strengths in a new system in which there will certainly be increased scouting, advanced analytics and a new professionalism for an infrastructure that had been difficult for any official to succeed.

Ned Colletti was the Dodgers’ general manager when Walter’s group bought the team in the spring of 2012. He lasted two more seasons, Guggenheim Partners pouring money into the team and giving him every chance to succeed before firing him.

Pelinka deserves at least half that chance.

Don Mattingly was the manager when Walter bought the team. He lasted four more seasons, finally parting ways after the 2015 season.

Redick deserves at least a portion of that leash.

Although both men have been viewed as overmatched both in this space and by NBA insiders across the landscape, each has done well enough to not be summarily beheaded the minute Walter walks through the door.

Start with Pelinka. You do know he has an NBA championship on his resume, right? While Alex Caruso dismissed the 2020 title as phony last week after he won another ring with Oklahoma City, that first one still counts, and Pelinka still deserves credit for overseeing it.

Yes, Pelinka is the villain who ruined everything by letting Caruso walk while gutting the title team to acquire Russell Westbrook. But he’s also perhaps the only executive in NBA history to acquire three players the likes of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis.

He had lots of help there — Magic Johnson recruited James, and James recruited Davis, and Nico Harrison handed him Doncic — but still, he was the final cog in making it happen.

Pelinka also engineered the splendid undrafted free agent signing that was Austin Reaves, which led to the Lakers finishing this season as the third seed in the West.

You don’t fire a decision-maker the same year his rebuilt team finishes third in basketball’s most competitive neighborhood. You don’t fire a decision-maker two years after his team reached the Western Conference finals. And you certainly don’t fire a decision-maker until you know what’s happening with his best employee.

It seems clear that James is going to opt in to his $52.6 million contract this week and remain with the team — and son Bronny — for at least one more season. If that’s the case, then Pelinka should get the chance to add the rim protector he’s been seeking to maximize Doncic and give James one more opportunity at a ring.

However, if James unexpectedly turns down the money to seek better title opportunities elsewhere — not a bad decision for the Lakers, honestly — then the ensuing roster chaos will not be the right time to make a change at the top.

Either way, the situation is fluid enough that Pelinka should be allowed to see it through.

The same goes for Redick, who did an admirable job in his first regular season before melting down in the playoffs.

Granted, some would consider his first-round series game management against the Minnesota Timberwolves a fireable offense, particularly in Game 4 when he used the same five players for an entire second half. He didn’t do himself any favors when he later reacted to criticism of that decision by bristling at a reporter’s question before stalking away from a pregame news conference.

During the most important moments of the season, Redick was in over his head. But as he admitted, he’ll learn, he’ll grow, he’ll get better, and he did well enough during the regular season to believe him.

Redick coached one team before the arrival of Doncic and the departure of Davis. He coached another team afterward. He deftly handled both of those teams while smartly disarming the potentially divisive distraction that was Bronny. Redick also empowered Reaves to become a legitimate third threat before Reaves joined his coach in a playoff disappearing act.

All of which brings this surprisingly sugary piece to this upcoming week, the start of the NBA’s summer madness, and the pressure is on.

Like it or not, Pelinka and Redick are a pair now, a tandem joined by the appearance of a new owner with new expectations.

Pelinka needs to find a big man who can help carry them deep into the playoffs. No matter who Pelinka acquires, Redick has to scheme around Doncic and make it all work.

They won’t get many chances under a new Dodger regime that demands sustained success, but they deserve at least one chance to take advantage of the massive changes that this new ownership group will surely create in returning basketball’s greatest franchise to new glories.

Memo to Mark Walter:

Keep Pelinka‘s and Redick’s names in the lineup card.

In pencil.

I was concerned when I arrived Tuesday to the Bridge to Nowhere trailhead about the conditions I’d find in the canyon.

Last September, the Bridge fire broke out near the trailhead and burned 56,030 acres, destroying 81 structures, flattening campgrounds and scorching many miles of beloved trails.

The area, which sits a short drive northeast of Azusa, had been closed since the fire started Sept. 8 and was expected to remain so through at least May 22, 2026, per the closure order that officials renewed just three weeks ago.

Then, last Friday, officials terminated that closure order “to once again allow the public to access and enjoy their public lands.”

“We understand how important these areas are for recreation, connection, and well-being,” Angeles National Forest spokeswoman Keila Vizcarra told me in an emailed statement.

That means every trail in the Bridge fire burn scar has reopened to the public, including the Bridge to Nowhere hike and, one of my personal favorites, the Mt. Baden-Powell hike. (You can see a full list here.)

Poking around with my trekking poles last week, I tried to understand this shift in mindset by officials. I asked and have yet to receive an answer regarding their reasoning.

So I was left to ponder a couple of things. First, a closure order usually stays in place for months, if not years, to allow the land to heal and because post-fire hazards need to be remediated before the public returns, a point forest service officials have stressed many times.

Although the trees and foliage are growing near the East Fork of the San Gabriel River, the mountains around the canyon leading to the Bridge to Nowhere trail are varying levels of bare.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

After the Bobcat fire in 2020, the popular Big Santa Anita Canyon area remained closed for four years, reopening after volunteer trail crews spent hundreds of hours repairing the damage to trails from the fire and subsequent flooding. And the Eaton fire closure order is expected to remain in place at least through 2026, maybe even 2027.

Second, I asked Justin Seastrand, forest recreation manager at Angeles National Forest, at a May 22 news conference about the status of the Bridge fire closure order. Many in the hiking community were angry that the order had closed the trails leading to Mt. Baldy, and I wanted to know whether hope was on the horizon.

Seastrand told me that two of the three trails to the top of Mt. Baldy would reopen soon (which they did), but Bear Canyon (sometimes called Old Mt. Baldy Trail) would remain closed. “Most of the remaining trails that were in that original closure are going to stay closed another year,” Seastrand said, adding that doing closures on a year-to-year basis was “standard practice.”

Also, I asked him to clarify whether he had any specific updates on the the East Fork of the San Gabriel River area, including the Bridge to Nowhere trail. Before the Bridge fire, it was one of the most popular swimming areas in the region, visited (and trashed) by thousands.

“That’s going to stay closed again for another year, and possibly longer, because that entire watershed is burned,” Seastrand told me at the May 22 news conference. “That trail is one of the primary dangers I mentioned of being in a canyon bottom subject to flooding and possible debris flows.”

The East Fork of the San Gabriel River northeast of Azusa.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Seastrand said the forest service has several science partners that help the agency monitor watershed response, and “sometimes it recovers quicker than others, but that watershed was severely, severely burned.”

So what gives?

I’m not the only one with questions. A concerned reader emailed me Friday (thank you!) about the sudden termination of the order. Also, on Reddit, the online hiking community quickly spun, somewhat understandably given the lack of clarity from local officials, into conspiracy theories regarding the termination.

“This has the smell of politics attached to it and may be connected to this discussion of selling off public lands. Probably more details will be coming out over the next couple of months,” one Reddit user wrote. (For context on the proposed public land sale, see our Must Read below.)

“Trying to be a bit more optimistic… Maybe they don’t have the staff to enforce these closures? I know I’m reaching here… but like I said, I’m trying to be positive,” another user replied, referencing the Trump administration’s firing of thousands of U.S. Forest Service workers, including in our local Southern California forests.

Western fence lizards and other reptiles are easy to spot as you hike alongside the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

When I learned the Bridge fire closure order was terminated, my first concern was about trail safety. A wildfire can, and often does, destroy chaparral that grows along steep hillsides. The roots of the manzanita and other trees and shrubs provide stability to steep canyon walls. Given the flooding following the Bridge fire, what types of conditions would hikers face when taking the Bridge to Nowhere trail?

I asked Vizcarra in my email request about whether crews completed any repairs on the 9.5-mile trek to the iconic bridge or any of the other trails in the Bridge fire closure area before the area reopened.

“No restoration work has been completed on the San Gabriel River Trail leading into the Sheep Mountain Wilderness,” Vizcarra said in an email. “Trail maintenance in the Angeles National Forest is largely dependent on dedicated volunteers, and given the vast number of trail miles, not all can be regularly maintained. It may take considerable time for some trails to be fully restored. That said, the Forest Service does not close trails solely due to lack of maintenance, as such closures often lead to off-trail hiking and increased safety risks. Visitors should always exercise caution and be prepared for rugged conditions when exploring public lands.”

The path to the Bridge to Nowhere trail is lush and healthy near the river.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

During my visit Tuesday, I was relieved as I drove along East Fork Road to see several dumpsters and trash cans that hopefully visitors will use when they come to swim and play in the river. In recent years, volunteer groups have repeatedly removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the East Fork area after visitors on busy weekends left it polluted.

Right before the trailhead, I paused at a stoplight, which controls traffic while workers perform construction in the area. Plan accordingly. A sign cautions visitors to expect delays.

I arrived and had been parked two minutes before someone pulled up next to me, asked whether this was the Bridge to Nowhere trailhead and told me they’d gotten lost and hiked in the wrong area (but had fun, nonetheless).

Starting out, I quickly noticed the first of many landslides. They’re not terribly challenging to navigate, at least for now. I spoke to several hikers who made it the 4.75 miles to the bridge, and although they had a great time, they noted the trail looked a lot different because of all the landslides.

The trail to the Bridge to Nowhere includes taking narrow, sandy paths with steep drop-offs.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

This made me wonder: Although the trail is passable now, what will those landslides — which have blasted away parts of the trail — look like after thousands of people clomp over them on their way to the bridge? How will those landslides and surrounding trail fare after the next winter rains wash away more dirt and dead plants?

Just over half a mile in, I arrived at a restroom that a location scout for a horror film would have been delighted to discover. Its floor was caked in mud, and graffiti surrounded an accidentally ironic sign that read, “Please keep restroom clean.”

Soon, I arrived at wooden railroad ties that previously served as steps down the path. I am petitioning we rename them the Stairs to Somewhere, because they currently lead down into a ditch where you shouldn’t go. Instead, the trail now jags around them.

On your way to the Bridge to Nowhere, avoid these stairs to somewhere. The trail goes around them, as they lead into a steep drop-off.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Continuing forward, I observed a healthy-looking canyon surrounded by hillsides and mountains that were varying levels of bare. There were leafy green pines and walnut trees near the river and blackened (possibly dead) manzanita and other chaparral up on the mountains.

Overall, I found the trail itself fairly easy to follow as long as I looked at the map I downloaded on my hiking app, comparing the route that it recommended with the official East Fork Trail. I missed a turn a few times, but I faced the same problem the first time I hiked to the Bridge to Nowhere in 2020.

Also, on that trek, I didn’t feel particularly safe in a few spots. I remember navigating a narrow, sandy path high above the canyon floor that felt unstable as I rushed over it. It was one reason — the biggest being the crowds — that I avoided the area, hiking at less crowded parts of the river.

Every hike carries risk. Whenever you enter the backcountry, which includes the Bridge to Nowhere hike, it’s good to remember the hiking adage YOYO, or you’re on your own.

This dam, created using rocks and sticks, is a harmful practice that visitors should refrain from when visiting the San Gabriel River. Damming the river inhibits trout and other animals from moving about their home.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

That said, the Bridge to Nowhere hike carries with it some specific risks that I plan to consider when visiting. If your hiking app or map suggests you do something that doesn’t feel safe, reconsider. If your friend thinks you should ford the river, pause and think about it. People have drowned here.

Also, I wouldn’t hike here if the forecast called for rain, as the bare hillsides could be unstable and cause debris flows. And unless a local trail crew adopts this hike and maintains it, it’s important to remember that new hazards could pop up after a wind or rainstorm.

When I mentally put my concerns aside, I did have a fabulous time hiking this trail, and although I remain worried about the long-term effects of thousands of people visiting a trail with several landslides, I found it to be a beautiful and peaceful place as I hiked past pine and walnut trees and small bursts of wildflowers and buckwheat.

On my way out, I texted my friend, excited to return, but I will do so with some caution.

3 things to do

Cyclists peddle through Culver City during a previous Pride ride.

(Karim Sahli)

1. Bike, skate or scoot to Pride in Culver City
Culver City Pride will host a 5(ish)-mile bike ride at 4 p.m. from Syd Kronenthal Park in Culver City to the annual Pride festival. Cyclists, skaters and anyone else traveling on wheels can participate and are encouraged to wear rainbow colors. Don’t have a bike? Metro Bike Share will host a 1.4-mile, one-way bike ride to the park, and participants can rent wheels from the agency’s program. Culver City Pride requires helmets for all participants. Riders should also bring sunscreen and a refillable water bottle. Register for the ride at eventbrite.com.

2. Learn about local ecology at Elephant Hill
Coyotl + Macehualli and a group of scientists will host a guided ecological walk from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday through Elephant Hill in El Sereno. The event is the launch for long-term, community-led research focused on how to be good stewards of the land and what data are needed to do so. Participants will learn about local birds, insects and plants from scientists, along with field methods in gathering data. Guests should wear sturdy shoes and bring walking sticks, as the group will traverse uneven land. Learn more and register at eventbrite.com.

3. Celebrate the last of Pride season with L.A. County Parks
L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation will host the final week of its Pride Outside events Thursday through Sunday at public spaces across the region. Each event is about two hours and features entertainment, giveaways and information from local nonprofit groups. San Gabriel River Park will host its event from 9 a.m. to noon. Guests can take nature walks and make buttons, among other activities. Vasquez Rocks will have its Pride event from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday and offer s’mores and more. Learn more at the department’s Instagram page.

The must-read

Snow-covered peaks and sagebrush frame a view of Mono Lake in Lee Vining, Calif., in 2021.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Last week, news broke that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had proposed selling up to 3.3 million acres in public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, aiming to allow the land to be developed for affordable housing. Environmental and outdoors advocates were skeptical, fearing it could open public land to a litany of harmful uses. Proponents said the U.S. is protecting way too much land, and the concept would help rural communities. But the proposal was put on ice on Monday after the “Senate parliamentarian — who advises the government body on interpreting procedural rules — determined the proposal didn’t pass muster under the the Byrd Rule, which prevents the inclusion of provisions that are extraneous to the budget in a reconciliation bill,” wrote Times staff writer Lila Seidman. Whether the proposal will be brought back in a different iteration remains to be seen.

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

Facing a significant budget cut, the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation is scaling back operations and hours at multiple locations. The county parks department will close six of its regional parks — Castaic Lake, Frank G. Bonelli (already temporarily closed because of a high-voltage transformer failure on May 5), Kenneth Hahn, Peter F. Schabarum, Santa Fe Dam and Whittier Narrows — on Mondays and Tuesdays. It also will shorten the summer pool season and end much of the popular Parks After Dark programming. If you’d like to help the parks in this challenging time, you can volunteer at your favorite park or donate to the parks foundation. You can learn more here.

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

It seems like just yesterday that United States President Donald Trump was pushing a “diplomatic resolution” to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Now, the US has joined Israel’s illegal assault on Iran, striking three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday in what Trump has boasted was a “very successful attack”.

As CNN dramatically put it, “a midsummer night in June 2025 could come to be remembered as the moment the Middle East changed forever; when the fear of nuclear annihilation was lifted from Israel; when Iran’s power was neutered and America’s soared”.

Of course, a “fear of nuclear annihilation” has nothing to do with Israel’s current strikes on Iran, which have been dutifully portrayed in the US media as targeting military and nuclear facilities but have somehow managed to slaughter hundreds of civilians. The victims include 23-year-old poet Parnia Abbasi, killed along with her family as they slept in their Tehran apartment building.

As is clear as day to anyone not in the business of defending Israeli depredations, the attacks on Iran are simply a war of convenience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is killing all sorts of birds with one stone in his campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities.

In addition to distracting the world from Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, where starving Palestinians continue to be massacred on a daily basis as they seek food and other aid, Netanyahu has also managed to divert attention from his own embroilment in numerous corruption charges at home.

Plus, the war on Iran is wildly popular among Israelis, which translates into big points for a prime minister who has faced significant domestic opposition.

Trump’s initial insistence on diplomacy with Iran naturally got Netanyahu’s panties into a giant bunch – but the situation has now been rectified by the midsummer night’s bombing, which, according to the president, has “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites.

To be sure, Iran has long occupied US crosshairs, with many an establishment figure salivating at the prospect of bombing the country to smithereens. Some have salivated more openly than others, as in the case of John Bolton – a former US ambassador to the United Nations and briefly the national security adviser in the first Trump administration – who in 2015 took to the opinion pages of The New York Times with the following advice: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”

That the editors of the US newspaper of record did not bat an eye in publishing such a blatant call for the violation of international law is indicative of the extent to which Iran has been thoroughly demonised in US society and media. Recall that in 2002, then-US President George W Bush appointed the nation to his infamous “axis of evil” along with Iraq and North Korea.

And yet, aside from being a persistent thorn in the side of US imperialism, Iran’s behaviour has been rather less apparently, um, “evil” than certain other international actors – like the US itself. For instance, Iran is not the one currently funding a straight-up genocide to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Nor is Iran the one that has spent the past several decades bombing and otherwise antagonising folks in every corner of the world – from backing right-wing state terror in Latin America to conducting mass slaughter in Vietnam.

Furthermore, the sole clandestine nuclear weapons power in the Middle East is not Iran but Israel, which has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has never allowed UN safeguards on its facilities.

Those who applaud the strikes on Iran citing the “oppressive” nature of the Iranian government would, meanwhile, do well to revisit the US track record of fuelling oppression in the country. In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup d’etat against Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, which paved the way for the extended reign of the torture-happy shah.

Historian Ervand Abrahamian notes in his book A History of Modern Iran: “Arms dealers joked that the shah devoured their manuals in much the same way as other men read Playboy.” Indeed, the shah’s obsessive acquisition of US weaponry did much to enable his rule by terror, which was put to an end by the Iranian Revolution of 1979. And the Iranian nuclear programme that Trump has now bombed? It was started by that very same shah.

Now, arms dealers are presumably not too upset over the midsummer night’s events and the general escalation of the crisis in the Middle East. For his part, Netanyahu has gone out of his way to thank Trump for his “bold decision” to go after Iran “with the awesome and righteous might of the United States”.

In Netanyahu’s words, Trump’s action will “change history” – as though making the world safe for more war is anything new. And as the US media scramble to justify illegal attacks on a sovereign nation, the sinister hypocrisy of two heavily nuclear-armed nations undertaking to police nuclear “threats” cannot be overstated.

It is anyone’s guess what Trump, who prides himself on spontaneous and manic behaviour, will do next. But rest assured that, whatever happens, the arms industry won’t be going hungry any time soon.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Los Angeles school police will set up a safety perimeter around campuses and school events — including graduations — to keep federal immigration agents away from students, employees and families, school officials said Monday.

The announcement by Supt. Alberto Carvalho comes amid widespread immigration raids in Los Angeles — including one on Monday at a Home Depot adjacent to Huntington Park High School — after a weekend of isolated but intense downtown clashes between police and protesters, some of whom set self-driving Waymo cars on fire and threw rocks and fireworks.

The move is among the most notable actions taken by the nation’s second-largest school district, whose leaders said at a news conference Monday that they will deploy their own police force to protect students and their families so they can enjoy in peace the many graduation ceremonies that will unfold this week as the school year concludes Tuesday.

“We stand strongly on the right side of law,” Carvalho said. “Every student in our community, every student across the country, has a constitutional right to a free public education of high quality, without threat. Every one of our students, independently of their immigration status, has a right to a free meal in our schools. Every one of our children, no questions asked, has a right to counseling, social emotional support, mental support.”

President Trump reversed a Biden administration policy that largely exempted schools and other potentially sensitive areas such as churches from immigration enforcement. In recent days, federal agents also have not targeted local schools. But in April federal agents were turned away by staff at two elementary schools.

Carvalho did not rule out the potential for a standoff involving school police if federal officers attempted to enter a school or an off-campus school event — such as a graduation ceremony — without a judicial warrant.

“I think that would be a preposterous condition,” Carvalho said. “But then again, we have seen preposterous actions taken recently by this administration. We are prepared for everything,” Carvalho said, adding that he’s in consultation on contingency plans with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

“I have a professional, moral responsibility to protect our kids, protect our workforce, ensure the sanctity, the protection of our buildings and their extension,” Carvalho said. “That means the school buses, the transportation of kids to school and graduation ceremonies. Nothing should interfere with that, and I will put my job on the line to protect a 5-year-old, an 11-year-old, an 11th grader or a soon-to-be graduate.”

But there are limits. Officials acknowledged that they are not legally allowed to interfere if officers arrive with a judicial warrant, which are relatively rare. All school staff — not just the school police — have received training in how to interact with immigration agents, especially to limit their access to campus and children.

Defenders of Trump’s goals counter that public employees should assist in supporting immigration laws against those who are not legally authorized to live in the United States.

For the school system, the immigration furor put a chill on a normally celebratory time — graduation season. The federal actions prompted a detailed, concerned and sometimes furious response from school district leadership.

“As I looked out at the horizon from my office this morning, I saw gray clouds over Los Angeles,” Carvalho said as he opened his remarks. “Those gray clouds could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I interpreted them as clouds of injustice, clouds of fear, intimidation — clouds that seek to scare the best of us into dark corners.”

About 100 high school graduations and end-of-year culminations were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, with graduation events continuing through June 16.

L.A. school police lack the manpower to encircle every campus and school-event venue, but when officials learn of potential immigration enforcement activity, the plan is to put one patrol car in front of a campus and another in motion around the site.

At graduation ceremonies outdoor lines to enter venues are to be minimized. And families can remain inside for as long as necessary should agents initiate a raid outside or in the neighborhood.

Where possible, a virtual option would be provided for families to watch a graduation ceremony online.

Said Carvalho: “I’ve spoken with parents who’ve told me that their daughter would be the first in their family to graduate high school, and they’re not going to be there to witness it, because they have a fear of the place of graduation being targeted. What nation are we becoming?”

Carvalho said there is confirmation so far of six or seven school district families that have been affected by raids and arrests. In one case, a student was detained with his father and transported from L.A. to Texas. The district has not identified the student or school out of privacy concerns.

A fourth-grader who attends Torrance Elementary — in a neighboring school district — and his 50-year-old father were taken into custody on May 29 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and will soon be deported, a federal official said.

The father and son entered the U.S. illegally in 2021, according to the federal government.

The superintendent also noted talk of student walkouts. He said that students’ right to protest would be respected but he asked families to urge their children to remain on campus for safety reasons.

Carvalho also advised families to update their contact and emergency information with their school. And families also should prepare backup plans should caregivers be taken into custody.

Summer school starts on June 17 and runs through July 16. Carvalho said more campuses would be opened for classes to minimize travel from home to school and more school-funded transportation would be provided.

District leaders have frequently been circumspect in their words about the Trump administration — critical, to be sure, but somewhat careful. But there was little caution Monday.

School board member Nick Melvoin demanded the removal of the National Guard and compared Trump’s heavy-handed response in Los Angeles to his delay in halting rioters who sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.

Board member Rocio Rivas said there had been raids in the last few days in Boyle Heights, MacArthur Park, Lincoln Heights, Pico Union, Cypress Park, “just to name a few.”

“Our families are now forced to live in fear, looking over their shoulders on the way to school or their child’s graduation. This is just simply wrong. It is also very, very cruel,” Rivas said.

Said board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin: “This isn’t about keeping our community safe. This is about a backwards belief about who belongs and who should be pushed out, locked up and shut up.”

School board President Scott Schmerelson reached for a wider perspective.

“This is supposed to be the happiest time for our kids and their parents, and it’s a very sad time, but we have to remember too our kids have accomplished a lot,” Schmerelson said. “They are graduating and are trying to keep a positive attitude.”