President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky meets with U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink and others on October 10, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Russia’s large-scale missile attacks at the time. File Photo by Ukrainian President Press Office | License Photo
June 18 (UPI) — Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wants to unseat incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., during the 2026 mid-term election.
Brink, 55, announced her candidacy on Wednesday after serving as a career diplomat under Democrat and Republican presidents, the Detroit Free Press reported.
A video announcement of Brink’s candidacy largely focuses on the Ukraine War, but she also mentions “unaccountable, unelected billionaires trying to slash and burn our government and our democracy.”
Brink is a native Michigander who lives in the state’s capital and said Trump administration policies are raising the cost of living for U.S. taxpayers.
“Extremists in Washington [D.C.] are sticking up with reckless tariffs that are raising the cost of living for working families, cutting critical services, including funding for our schools, veterans’ care and healthcare and taking away our freedoms [by] restricting reproductive rights and women’s healthcare,” Brink says.
Brink began her career in the State Department in 1996 and was the U.S. ambassador to Slovakia from 2019 to 2022 and ambassador to Ukraine from 2022 until resigning earlier this year.
In an op-ed published in May by the Detroit Free Press, Brink said she resigned her ambassadorship due to President Donald Trump‘s policy toward Ukraine.
“The policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than the aggressor, Russia,” Brink said.
“As such, I could no longer in good faith carry out the administration’s policy and felt it was my duty to step down,” she wrote.
“I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded and children killed with impunity.”
She called the Trump administration’s policy “appeasement” that “leads to more war and suffering.”
Brink is the first Democrat to announce her candidacy for the House seat that formerly was held by current Democratic Party Senator Elise Slotnik.
Other potential Democratic Party candidates include former Michigan House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski and retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, the Michigan Advance reported.
Eric Bauman, a gruff and tireless political operative who led two of California’s most powerful Democratic organizations before resigning amid misconduct allegations, died Monday.
His family said in a statement that Bauman died at UCLA West Valley Medical Center after a long illness. He was 66.
Born in the Bronx to an Army doctor and a registered nurse, Bauman went to military school and moved to Hollywood just before he turned 18. He became a nurse and met his husband, also a nurse, in a hospital cafeteria during an overnight shift in the early 1980s.
Motivated in part by the AIDS crisis, Bauman became active in the Stonewall Democratic Club Los Angeles, a progressive political group, and was elected president of the organization in 1994.
Bauman grew L.A. County Democratic Party into a political force as chairman from 2000 to 2017 and expanded the number of Democrats winning elections at every level of government, from water boards to the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I turned the L.A. Democratic Party from a $50,000-a-year organization into a $1.5 million-a-year organization,” he told a reporter in 2011.
With a Bronx affect and a gold signet ring on his pinkie finger that he twisted when he was under pressure, Bauman built a reputation as an old-school party boss who would give you the bad news straight. Democrats compared him to Ray Liotta, and some called him the “Godfather of Democratic politics.”
“People come up to me on the street all the time and think I’m Joe Pesci,” he told the Times in 2017. “I try to work with that.”
Bauman ran for state Democratic Party chair in 2017. After a bruising election that exposed the fractures between the progressive and establishment wings of the party, Bauman was elected by a mere 62 votes.
He was the first openly gay and first Jewish person to chair the party.
“I don’t wear a button that says, ‘Look at me, I’m gay,’” Bauman said in a 2009 interview with the UCLA Film and Television Archive. But, he said, “I never fail to recognize my partner from any podium. It is in my bio. It is a part of who I am.”
The high point of his tenure was the 2018 midterm elections, when California Democrats flipped seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and won back a veto-proof supermajority in the state Legislature.
Bauman said he wanted to overturn California’s voter-approved “jungle primary” system, which allows the top two vote-getters to advance to the general election, regardless of party. Bauman argued that Democrats should pick their own nominees, rather than spending millions of dollars fighting in the primaries.
In late 2018, The Times reported that Bauman had made crude sexual comments and had engaged in unwanted touching or physical intimidation in professional settings, citing 10 party staff members and political activists.
Bauman resigned, saying he planned to seek treatment for health issues and alcohol use. The state Democratic Party fired top staffers in the wake of the allegations and eventually paid more than $380,000 to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit brought by three of his accusers. A party spokeswoman did not respond to requests for a statement on Bauman’s death Tuesday.
After his resignation, Bauman disappeared from public life for several years. More recently, he began hosting a radio show called “The UnCommon Sense Democrat” on the Inland Empire’s KCAA-AM 1050.
In the mid-2000s, when Republicans still represented many outlying areas of Los Angeles County, Bauman set up a “red zone program” at the L.A. County Democratic Party that funneled money and volunteers to Democrats running for seats in GOP strongholds.
The investments were a gamble, but they built relationships and better candidates — and sometimes, a long shot candidate actually won, said former state lawmaker Miguel Santiago, who first got involved with the party in the early 2000s.
“He was really hungry for Democratic wins,” Santiago said. “There was no seat that that guy left on the table, whether it was a community college seat, a school board race, a water board race.”
Bauman also worked to strengthen ties with organized labor, now the California Democratic Party’s most powerful ally, and build voter registration and turnout.
State Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez, who chaired the county party after Bauman, said he spent countless hours as a young volunteer entering information about newly registered voters into the party database.
The data came from a booth that the Democratic Party set up outside citizenship ceremonies where newly eligible voters could register to vote as Democrats, he said. Bauman sent a signed card to each person, congratulating them and welcoming them to the party.
“That touched people, and it showed them that they matter,” Gonzalez said.
Bauman also worked for Gov. Gray Davis and insurance commissioner John Garamendi and as a consultant to several Assembly speakers, including Anthony Rendon of Los Angeles and Toni Atkins of San Diego.
He is survived by his husband and partner of 42 years, Michael Andraychak, and his father and sister, Richard and Roya Bauman.
Vishwashkumar Ramesh meets Indian interior minister Amit Shah in hospital
A British man has walked away from the wreckage of the Air India crash that killed 241 people in an extraordinary tale of survival.
Vishwashkumar Ramesh was in seat 11A on the London-bound Boeing 787-8 flight when it crashed shortly after take off in Ahmedabad, western India.
Mr Ramesh’s brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, told BBC News Vishwashkumar “has no idea how he survived”and escaped the plane as the only survivor.
Air India said all other passengers and crew were killed – including 169 Indian nationals and 52 other Britons.
Watch: British passenger survives India plane crash, reports say
Nayan told the BBC “it feels great seeing him [Vishwashkumar] doing well” but he was worried about his other brother Ajay, who was also onboard.
“We were all in shock as soon as we heard what happened, just utter shock. Speechless,” he said.
“He [Vishwashkumar] himself has no idea how he survived, how he got out the plane.
“When he called us he was just more worried about my other brother, like ‘Find Ajay, find Ajay.’ That’s all he cares about at the moment.”
A relative called Jay told the PA news agency: “He’s got some injuries on his face. He was painted in blood. He’s doing well I think. It’s a big shock.”
Video shared on social media showed Mr Ramesh walking towards an ambulance, with smoke billowing in the background.
He was later seen in a hospital bed meeting Indian interior minister Amit Shah.
Indian media said Mr Ramesh shared his boarding pass, which showed his name and seat number.
He has a wife and child. The BBC understands he was born in India, but has lived in the UK for many years.
Cousin of Air India crash survivor speaks to the BBC
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik confirmed to Indian news agency ANI that one man survived the crash.
He said: “The police found one survivor in seat 11A.
“One survivor has been found in the hospital and is under treatment.”
Three Britons thought to have died on the flight have been named by Gloucester Muslim Society as Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their daughter Sara.
Couple Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, who run a spiritual wellness centre in London, are also thought to have been on the flight.
They laughed and joked in an Instagram video as they told of their “10-hour flight back to England”.
Their firm the Wellness Foundry has been approached for comment.
The granddaughter of a couple, from Blackburn, who were onboard the flight said she is in shock and disbelief.
Adam Taju, 72, and his wife Hasina, 70, were flying back from Ahmedabad’s International Airport with their 51-year-old son-in-law, Altafhusen Patel who lives in London with his wife.
Ammaarah Taju says they are “clinging onto hope” that they are still alive.
The plane crashed into accommodation used by doctors less than a minute after take-off. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Verified video shows Air India plane descending moments before crash
In a statement from the King, he said he and his wife were “desperately shocked by the terrible events in Ahmedabad this morning”.
“Our special prayers and deepest possible sympathy are with the families and friends of all those affected by this appallingly tragic incident across so many nations, as they await news of their loved ones,” the statement added.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he could not confirm reports a British national had survived the crash and the government was still establishing facts.
He said his thoughts were with the families who were going to be “absolutely devastated by this awful news”, while his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi said it was “heart-breaking beyond words”.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has arranged crisis teams in India and the UK.
London Gatwick Airport confirmed that a reception centre for relatives of passengers was being set up where information would be provided, and that it was liaising closely with Air India.
It said on X: “British nationals who require consular assistance or have concerns about friends or family should call 0207 008 5000.”
Air India flight AI171 left Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 13:39 local time (08:09 GMT), Air India said.
It was scheduled to land at London Gatwick at 18:25 BST.
One video verified by the BBC shows the plane descending before a large explosion as it hits the ground.
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Moment drunk Scots passenger dragged off Ryanair flight after ‘BOMB THREAT’ forcing diversion
“Very sturdy, great quality bag. Amazing price. Perfect for Ryanair‘s ridiculously stringent sizing policy. Managed to ram more into it than I envisaged,” advised a fifth.
AllRyanairpassengers can bring a small personal bag on board but this must fit under the seat in front of you.
All over-sized cabin bags will be refused at the boarding gate, or where available put in the hold for a fee.
Anyone wanting to bring another bag, you’ll need to upgrade and pay extra for priority and two cabin bags or checked baggage.
Many angry passengers have been caught out by Ryanair’s strict baggage allowance for flights.
However, the Robert Dyas lightweight bag has a 20L capacity with dimensions H:25 x W:40 x D:5 cm and fits perfectly under the seat.
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Ryanair has angered passengers by charging them for oversized baggageCredit: The Sun
Advice for flying with Ryanair
All Ryanair passengers can bring a small personal bag on board but this must fit under the seat in front of you, but it must be no bigger than 40cm x 20cm x 25cm
Any over-sized cabin bags will be refused at the boarding gate and put in the hold for a fee
Ryanair also charges passengers up to £55 check-in at the airport
A woman has shared her anger after being confronted by a tall man who told her she should give up her extra legroom seat because it’s ‘not her fault he is tall’
The woman wasn’t impressed by her fellow passenger’s behaviour [stock image] (Image: Getty Images)
A woman who booked a premium seat for a 12-hour flight took to Reddit to share her experience after she was asked to swap seats mid-flight. The passenger, who had reserved her plane seats ‘months in advance’, recounted: “At the time of booking I paid extra to choose my seats.
“The seat I chose was $55 extra and right at the front of the plane (trying to arrive somewhere on time upon landing). The seat also happened to be an extra legroom seat and I am a 4’11 female.” Initially, everything went smoothly as she checked in, boarded, and settled into her seat, but things took a turn when “the seatbelt sign was switched off” and a man approached her requesting to “change seats”.
Although initially open to the idea, she quickly declined upon realising his seat “was way in the back of the plane”. She firmly “told him no sorry” and justified her refusal by stating that she’d paid extra to “sit up front”.
The situation escalated as the man grew increasingly agitated and refused to leave, arguing that “there’s no reason someone of my height needs extra legroom (I told him I paid to be upfront).
“I suggested that he ask the other people in those seats if they could swap but he refused saying that he wouldn’t want to bother other men or split up couples.”
The woman recounted how the man turned “rude and angry”, prompting her to summon a flight attendant who instructed him to take his seat. She said: “For the rest of the flight he would walk past for no reason slamming into me (I was sitting aisle).”
She finished her tale by seeking opinions from fellow Reddit users on whether she was at fault and if she should have conceded her seat to him.
Reddit users didn’t hesitate to weigh in on her story, with a number of commenters affirming that she had done nothing wrong and was entitled to stay in her pre-paid seat.
One commenter explained: “So my brother is 6’6″. You know what he does when he has to fly? He makes sure to get an emergency exit row or whatever row has the extra leg room.”
He usually has to pay for it. Any tall person with an ounce of common sense knows they have to do this for flights.
“This tall guy knows he needs more leg room but tried to dodge the extra fee by asking someone to switch. OP was completely justified in refusing ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY PAID EXTRA and the tall person has no right to be a nuisance about it.”
A second chimed in, saying: “Tall person here. If I want more leg room, I can pay for it like everyone else. I don’t pay for the cheapest seat possible and then try to get someone shorter to give me the more expensive seat that they purchased for free.”
And a third added their thoughts: “He is tall, he’s been tall all of his life. He knew flying was a hardship on him and he didn’t wanna spend the extra money and he became an abusive bully to a single female when he didn’t get his way.
“You should’ve reported him and he should’ve been removed from the flight or you should’ve been compensated for your seat. A grown man felt he was entitled for you to give him what he wanted. You were an easy target because you were alone and he didn’t get his way and he harassed you the entire flight.”
When the world calls you “Little Al,” you’re going to do what it takes to be seen.
That’s what I thought after spending an hour last week at the Porsche Experience Center in Carson with the city’s former mayor, Albert Robles.
He’s not the Albert Robles who was found guilty 19 years ago of fleecing South Gate out of $20 million as treasurer — that’s Big Al Robles. Little Al is the one who has tried to be a political somebody in L.A. County for over 30 years, only to almost always fall short, his career careening from one controversy to another.
In 2006, he represented three men who moved to Vernon in an attempt to take over the City Council; they all lost. That same year, Little Al represented Big Al — no, they’re not actually related — at the latter’s sentencing and argued that his client deserved leniency since what he did was common in California politics. The presiding judge replied, “What you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard.”
Then-Carson Mayor Al Robles during a Carson City Council meeting at City Hall in 2015.
(Los Angeles Times)
The year after he was elected Carson’s mayor in 2015, the Fair Political Practices Commission fined Robles $12,000 to resolve allegations of campaign finance law violations. Two years after that, Robles’ 24-year tenure on the board of directors for Water Replenishment District of Southern California — an obscure agency that provides water for 44 cities in L.A. County — ended after a Superior Court judge ruled he couldn’t hold that seat at the same time that he was serving as mayor.
He lost the mayoral seat in the 2020 general election after striking out in his bid for county supervisor in the primary election earlier that year. Robles has been unsuccessful in two other races since — for an L.A. County Superior Court seat in 2022, and a state Senate primary last year where he garnered just 8.5% of the vote.
“I keep thinking I’m done and then I’m not done,” the 56-year-old joked at one point in our conversation as Caymans and Carreras roared through the test track as we lounged in a nearby patio. “It’s kind of like they dragged me back in.”
“Whether or not she lives in [Huntington Park], whether or not she’s an angel, whether or not she’s Charles Manson, that doesn’t matter: She was denied the process that all of us are entitled to,” Robles said.
Um, Manson?
He’s also representing another former Huntington Park council member, Valentin Amezquita, in another lawsuit against the city. That one demands the city hold a special election for Castillo’s former seat, which Amezquita unsuccessfully applied for.
Wait, aren’t the lawsuits contradicting each other?
A judge told him the same thing, Robles admitted. He told me he filed them to expose what he described as Huntington Park’s “hypocrisy” for supposedly following the city charter over the Castillo matter, but ignoring it when choosing her replacement.
“It’s just like what’s happening at the federal level, as far as I see it,” Robles grumbled. Earlier, he compared the lack of due process Castillo allegedly faced to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national illegally deported by the Trump administration to his home country. “It’s frustrating.”
The more he talked, the more it became evident Robles wants to be seen as the crusader he’s always imagined himself to be and is annoyed that he’s not.
Carson Mayor Albert Robles speaks during a hearing about a proposed $480-million desalination plant in El Segundo in 2019 at the Carson Event Center.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
His grievances are many.
He continues to hold a grudge against former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, whom he described as “corrupt … and I’ll call him that to his face.” Cooley, for his part, told The Times in 2013 that when Robles unsuccessfully ran against him in 2008, he was “probably the most unqualified candidate ever” because of his political past.
Robles bragged that he torpedoed Cooley’s career.
“It’s an exaggeration — over-embellishment — on my part, but I actually take credit for” Cooley losing his 2010 bid to become California attorney general. “Because when I ran against him, I caused him to spend money — money that he otherwise would have had for the AG race. And if [Cooley] had that additional half a million dollars that he had to spend for the DA race, he may have won.”
He thinks Latino politicians need to close ranks like he feels other ethnicities do.
Case in point: Operation Dirty Pond, an L.A. County district attorney probe into a long-delayed Huntington Park aquatic park. In February, investigators raided City Hall and the homes of seven individuals, including two former council members and two current ones. Robles said the probe doesn’t “make sense” and is further proof that Latino politicians are held to a higher standard than other politicians.
“If Esmeralda were Black or Asian, or hell — dare I say — even white, I think it would be reported differently. I honestly believe that. Because those communities are willing to set aside their differences for the better good, because they know that, hey, if one person is being mistreated, we all are.”
Once he realized I wanted to discuss his own political travails as much as of his clients, Robles said the better setting for our chat would’ve been the Albert Robles Center, a water treatment center in Pico Rivera that opened in 2019.
“That structure, you know, everyone loves it now. Everyone celebrates that it’s there. But surprise, surprise: not one environmental group, not one came out and supported our effort to build it up. … Nobody fought more for that building, for that project, than me.”
This set off more grievances.
Robles was bitter that L.A.’s “Latino power elite” hadn’t listened to him and invested more time and effort in the South Bay, where Latinos make up a majority of the population in many cities but have little political representation.
“They just see us as differently and the resources to organize and build up that political power base never materialized,” he said. “I don’t know if they see it as ‘Oh, those are more affluent communities, they don’t need our help.’ I don’t know.”
He was also “disheartened” by Black residents that opposed district elections in Carson that would have probably brought more Latinos onto the council. They were introduced in 2020 after a lawsuit alleged Latino voters were disenfranchised in the city. Since then, there hasn’t been a Latino elected to the City Council.
“We would have members of the African American community come up and say, ‘Well, we have a Latino mayor. We don’t need districts. Latinos should vote — stop speaking Spanish, and learn to vote.’ And then I would say, ‘You know, everything you’re saying is what whites said about Blacks in the South. And they’re like, ‘That’s not true.’ So, like, some forgot their history and now we seem to have fallen into the politics of, ‘If it’s not us, it can’t be them.’”
We climbed upstairs to the Porsche Experience Center’s viewing deck so Robles could pose for photos. Workers at the venue’s restaurant greeted him, drawing the first genuine smile Robles had flashed all afternoon.
He then mentioned that somewhere in the building was his name. I thought it would be on a plaque commemorating the debut of the Porsche Experience Center in 2016, when Robles was mayor. But it turned out to be his John Hancock alongside a bunch of others on a whiteboard in a room facing the parking lot.
The room was locked.
Robles wondered out loud if he should ask the staff to open it so we could take a better look. Instead, we peered through a window.
“It’s right there,” he told me, trying to describe where exactly it was among all the other signatures. “Well, you’re not familiar with it so you probably can’t see it.”
