struggle

PHOENIX — It’s no secret that the Dodgers haven’t played their best baseball over the last nine days. But during their 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, they exacerbated the trend.

Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski remained in a rut, giving up four runs (three earned) in 3⅓ innings. The two-run homer he surrendered to Diamondbacks switch hitter Ketel Marte in the first inning was the ninth home run he has given up in three starts.

Before his recent struggles, Wrobleski hadn’t surrendered more than three homers in a three-game span this season.

He left a fastball belt-high to Marte, who entered Sunday with a .913 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Marte lined it into the Diamondbacks’ bullpen in the left-field corner.

After Wrobleski’s last start, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers (70-48) would look into whether the left-hander might be tipping pitches, but he said before the game Sunday that those suspicions seemed “unfounded.”

“I’m just not good enough right now,” Wrobleski said. “It’s kind of what it comes down to. It’s really frustrating. Execution just hasn’t been as good. I feel like [Sunday] just wasn’t good enough. And, again, I’ve got to be better. … I’m not the type to give up. So I’m ready to bear down. This is kind of where you can go two ways, and I’m excited to keep working, and I’m excited for my next one.”

While Wrobleski clearly wasn’t at his best, giving up six hits and three walks, mistakes on defense didn’t help his cause.

Wrobleski could have gotten out of the first before giving up a home run, but baserunner Geraldo Perdomo successfully broke up a potential double play, crossing in front of shortstop Mookie Betts’ sight line as he tried to throw around him.

Kiké Hernández reacts after striking out in the first inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks.

(Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)

“Very weird play, but it’s not obstruction,” Roberts said. “But next time, I think we’ve just got to throw through because it wasn’t impeding, but it sort of was intentional.”

The next inning, Wrobleski fielded a sacrifice bunt from Ryan Waldschmidt, but his throw to first was high and wide, allowing a run to score and putting Waldschmidt into scoring position.

“That’s a play that he’s got to make,” Roberts said.

Later in the inning, though the run would have likely scored anyway, the usually strong relay combination of center fielder Andy Pages and Betts ended with Betts throwing over catcher Ben Rortvedt.

The Dodgers’ offense, in the meantime, went down in order in the first two innings. Betts made the best contact, but his opposite-field fly to the warning track found leather.

The rest of the way, the Dodgers tightened up their defense, and their bullpen shut down the Diamondbacks (63-56). The Dodgers’ lineup strung together hits to score on Pages’ third-inning double and Kyle Tucker‘s sixth-inning triple. But they still lost for the eighth time in nine games.

“This series it was very clear that we weren’t hitting the fastball and we were exposing ourselves to the changeup with the secondary, specifically,” Roberts said before the Dodgers left for L.A., where they’ll open a seven-game homestand against the Kansas City Royals. “Are the Royals going to exploit the fastball that we’re not hitting and the changeup below? I don’t know. But we have to make adjustments. I think for me that’s sort of what I see as a group — we’re just not making adjustments.”

Here are three other takeaways from the Dodgers’ 1-5 road trip:

Hitting into double plays

The Dodgers have grounded into an MLB-leading 99 double plays, including one in the eighth inning Sunday.

Part of that has to do with how often the Dodgers get on base. Entering Sunday, they led the majors in on-base percentage (.339). But hitting into double plays has been a major culprit behind the Dodgers’ recent offensive struggles.

“It’s not age,” Roberts said. “It’s not about putting guys in motion, because you start doing things just to do things. And when a guy swings and misses and gets thrown out by 10 feet, that’s a bad process.

“You have to layer it on who the hitter is, the contact ability; who the pitcher is, the swing-and-miss rate; who the runner is. So there’s a lot of people that can look at the rate that we hit into double plays and have thoughts, but they’re not thought through.”

Roberts pointed instead to the batter’s approach at the plate.

“My thought is our guys need to do a better job at understanding what the pitcher is trying to do,” Roberts said.

Back end of the bullpen

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz delivers in the ninth inning against the Diamondbacks on Saturday.

(Mike Christy / Getty Images)

Setup man Tanner Scott and closer Edwin Díaz were not available out of the bullpen after pitching Friday and Saturday.

Scott’s velocity has fluctuated over the past week, but Roberts said the Dodgers haven’t yet found an explanation for the trend.

Díaz recorded blown saves in each game. Still, Roberts noted his intensity Saturday, after Díaz gave up the lead with back-to-back triples.

“I don’t know if it’s just, you want to be perfect, you’re trying to get your feet under you, you’ve been in rehab mode a lot,” Roberts said. “But this is something I think can be a springboard for outings to come.”

For the Dodgers’ bullpen to function effectively, they need Díaz to turn around his injury-disrupted season (10.80 ERA in 12 appearances).

Home sweet home

Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal delivers against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 4.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

For the first time, the Dodgers are set to roll out their new one-two punch of two-time Cy Young winners. Tarik Skubal is scheduled to make his home debut at Dodger Stadium on Monday against the Royals, followed by Blake Snell’s return from the injured list Tuesday.

“On one side of it, you feel it as the home team because you feel the confidence of who you’re running out there,” Roberts said. “But on the other side, it seems daunting when you look at the probables and you see these Cy Young guys back to back. It’s a lot to take in as an offense. So it feels really good to have those two guys on our side.”

Along with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto at the top of the rotation, the trio has the potential to be even more impactful in the postseason.

“I think you have to win with starting pitching,” Roberts said of the playoffs. “You really do. I know in ‘24 we did it a different way, but starting pitching is kind of your backbone.”

OLA and James Jordan described marriage as a “constant job” and opened up about sex life struggles years before their shock split. 

The former Strictly Come Dancing professionals confirmed they’d gone their separate ways after 23 years of marriage this week. 

Ola, 43, and James, 48, share daughter Ella, six, and previously spoke out about what it takes to make a relationship work. 

Speaking to HELLO!, he  said: “We’ve got a beautiful daughter and as my dad always used to say, and it’s true, ‘Marriage can be like a job sometimes, you’ve got to work at it’. 

“I feel sometimes people are quick to give up on something and think the grass is always greener on the other side.”

James also joked that “marriage and wives” are some of the most stressful things to deal with in life. 

RING THE ALARM

All the signs Strictly’s Ola & James had split up after after 23 years

IT’S ALL OLA

Strictly stars Ola & James Jordan split after 22 years of marriage

And Ola confessed that when they’re working together on dance routines they “argue the most”. 

She said: “James has his idea and I’ve got another idea and we clash more than we do any other time.” 

In recent years Ola and James lost a combined seven stone and admitted that when they were bigger their sex life suffered.

Speaking to The Sun in 2022 ahead of their weight loss journeys, Ola said: “The sex life is definitely different, if not worse, because we are so fat and don’t want to move after a bag of crisps and a Chinese.

“The bellies get in the way of us when it comes to sex. And I’m a bit heavy now. It’s not as exciting.”

James added: “Sex is definitely not better with the mum and dad bods. I can’t throw her about any more like I am used to doing.

“So we realise we need to switch up our eating habits to get back in shape.”

SACRAMENTO — Last week, news broke that an artificial intelligence thingamajig broke free from the constraints of its maker, OpenAI, and committed what could be considered a string of white-collar felonies if it were human.

Because the AI thingamajig is in fact not human, the incident raised a big kerfuffle but is largely being treated as a giant oopsie we can learn from, without needing the pesky intervention of new rules or laws to stop it from happening again.

Such is the state of AI regulation in America right now.

California Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake) would like to change that. Last week, he introduced the bipartisan Frontier Act with Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.). While the bill might not make either safety advocates or big tech companies entirely happy, it offers up the most comprehensive and strongest regulations of this dangerous industry that we’ve yet seen at the federal level.

Roman Yampolskiy, an AI expert and professor at University of Louisville, called the Frontier Act a “positive step because it acknowledges that frontier AI presents risks requiring dedicated oversight.”

Now, the challenge becomes passing it, and passing it in a meaningful, not-watered-down form — no easy task in a dysfunctional Congress driven by money and Donald Trump, and paralyzed by its own sycophancy to both.

If anyone has a shot, though, it’s Obernolte, who is that rarest of birds, a legislator who understands science, and his colleagues.

Obernolte represents Inland Empire areas around San Bernardino, but grew up in Fresno back in the era when the movie “War Games” was just hitting theaters.

Those of a certain age will remember how far-fetched it seemed when Matthew Broderick’s high school genius character accidentally breaks into a military AI system to play chess, but “Joshua,” the computer, takes it too far and tries to blow up the world. Now, of course, that just sounds like a regular Tuesday.

By the time he was in high school himself, Obernolte was giving that Broderick character a run for his money. An apparent computer savant, Obernolte was competing in artificial intelligence contests as a teenager, back when most of us were still playing Pong on Atari. Then he headed off to Caltech and then UCLA for advanced AI degrees. He said AI was his “first calling,” sparked when his father bought him an Apple II computer when he was 8.

He ended up dropping out of UCLA after getting his master’s because his side hustle making video games, including “NFL ’95,” turned out to be more lucrative than being a starving student. He ended up founding his own video game company, FarSight Studios, and building up a personal net worth close to $100 million.

Not bad for a kid from Fresno. In Congress, he has stuck close to the MAGA power base and was one of seven California legislators to vote against certifying the 2020 election results, a vote he took in his first days in office. He has been endorsed by Trump multiple times, and now sits on a bunch of committees and subcommittees of relevance.

For the past few years, he has pushed hard, if unsuccessfully, to create a framework for regulating AI, combining his deep understanding of the technology with his equal understanding of MAGA distaste for intervening in business.

Now, though, we’re in a moment, thanks to more than one big oopsie by technology companies. Just a few months ago, Anthropic and the Pentagon had their own tense encounter after Anthropic questioned how its AI was being used by the military. Huffy Pete Hegseth is still huffing over that one.

The public is increasingly skeptical of allowing the AI industry to govern itself, which is pushing legislators to rethink their hands-off approach, even as AI money pours like Niagara Falls into elections. Even Trump seems more inclined to consider it, signing an executive order recently that largely called for voluntary restraints on AI companies.

The introduction of the Frontier Act “shows how far the Overton window has shifted just in the past few months,” wrote Charlie Bullock, a senior research fellow with the nonpartisan Institute for Law & AI. “Not too long ago, a bipartisan bill this good and serious would have been a pipe dream. But things change quickly.”

Obernolte said the bill has been “a long time in the making,” but he hopes to package it with other legislation and is “cautiously optimistic” he can get something passed and signed by the end of the year.

As written now, the bill would allow the federal government to set minimum safety requirements and set up a framework for licensed, independent auditors to monitor compliance. That third party verification has been a key push by safety experts.

The bill would also give the government emergency powers to pause an AI model if it has a “present or impending catastrophic risk.”

It also borrows from state laws including California’s Proposition 53 that require some (not enough) transparency on the part of AI companies when things do go wrong.

To the consternation of some, the bill still contains curbs on what states can regulate on their own — basically carving out AI regulation as federal turf. This has been a huge sticking point in the fight over AI regulation because AI companies hate state laws and want them squashed. Their argument is that a patchwork of rules across states is too complicated.

“You don’t want to have 50 different state requirements for every single product that gets sold on a market, and that is particularly true of AI,” Obernolte told me.

To some extent that’s reasonable — but the problem so far has been that states such as California and New York have been the only level of government willing to try at regulation. California in particular has created some of the most comprehensive AI regulations to date and has about 30 pending bills on this issue this legislative season. The Frontier Act threads the needle on this by creating lanes where states can still pass their own laws — such as around consumer safety that would protect children or stop pornography.

But preventing catastrophic risk would largely be dependent on the federal oversight, which is great when the federal government is up to the task. Currently, we can’t even keep measles in check. So that’s a bit worrisome.

And Obernolte’s bill isn’t the only one vying for attention. Another Californian, Rep. Ted Lieu, introduced a bipartisan measure of his own with Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas). Dubbed the AI Kill Switch Act, it would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to shut down problematic models.

Yampolskiy, the Louisville professor, said that bill had promise as well, because it’s important for companies to have a way to “rapidly disable or contain systems that exhibit dangerous or unexpected behavior.”

But, he warns, that’s just one part of the “complete solution” we need. Regulation is going to require more than one law.

For Obernolte’s part, he’s shown a willingness to work on a practical solution, not just a political one. That alone is worthy of notice. The Frontier Act is a genuine attempt to govern a nascent industry that is too powerful and unpredictable to be left to its own devices.

“I’m hoping that this is we’ve landed somewhere that everyone can understand and be happy with,” Obernolte said. “AI is not something that needs to be a partisan issue, and I don’t think it should be.”

What else you should be reading

The must-read: How Jimothy the raccoon became the internet’s latest animal obsession
The California angle: Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
The L.A. Times Special: Mayor’s press team uses disappearing WhatsApp messages, avoiding scrutiny
Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

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Tarik Skubal pitched seven dominant innings, Spencer Torkelson homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Detroit Tigers cruised to a 7-0 win over the Angels on Saturday night.

Skubal, winner of the past two AL Cy Young Awards, gave up five hits and struck out nine without issuing a walk. He induced 19 swinging strikes for the third straight start. Of his 87 pitches, 60 were strikes.

The Angels (38-61) advanced only one runner to second base against the left-hander when Logan O’Hoppe and Mike Trout singled with one out in the sixth, but Skubal (6-5) got Vaughn Grissom to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers (46-52) have won 11 of 14 games and are 24-14 since June 1 to move within 5½ games of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 3½ games of Boston for the third AL wild card. Detroit was 22-38 and 11½ games back in the division on May 31.

It took only five batters for the Tigers to build a 4-0 lead. Kevin McGonigle opened the game with a double, Dillon Dingler was hit by a pitch, Colt Keith hit an RBI single and Torkelson crushed a three-run homer to left-center with one out.

Detroit tacked on two runs in the second after loading the bases with no outs on singles by James Outman and McGonigle and another Dingler hit by pitch, his third in two games. Keith and Riley Greene followed with sacrifice flies for a 6-0 lead.

Torkelson led the fifth with 18th homer, a 420-foot shot to center off left-hander Brent Suter for a 7-0 lead. That gave the Tigers first baseman his first multihomer game since Sept. 7, 2023, at Yankee Stadium.

Grayson Rodriguez (3-3) lasted only four innings, giving up six runs and seven hits in a shaky start that sent the last-place Angels to their fourth straight loss and 12th in 14 games.

Up next: Tigers RHP Casey Mize (4-6, 2.79 ERA) opposes RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.75) in Sunday’s series finale.

Research shows language barriers on holiday are among the biggest obstacles when falling ill abroad — but a new service aims to help Brits in need.

Just one in three holidaymakers feel confident they could adequately describe a medical problem to a doctor while overseas. A survey of 2,000 adults revealed that language remains one of the most significant obstacles when falling ill on holiday.

A mere 28% are confident they could comprehend medical advice given to them, and 13% have delayed seeking help for a medical issue while abroad because of issues with the language, or a lack of knowledge on how to get help in a different country.

Two thirds of travellers couldn’t request a new prescription if they urgently needed one, and wouldn’t know how to communicate that they were suffering an allergic reaction or had been bitten or stung.

Despite most holidaymakers being perfectly capable of ordering a drink or locating the nearest loo, a mere 5% bother to learn essential medical phrases before jetting off.

The research was commissioned by the Staysure, to launch its free 24/7 Travel Doctor service.

The service will enable travellers to speak to an English-speaking doctor or dentist in many worldwide locations via video call, arrange prescriptions, or make an in-person appointment at a clinic or at their hotel when they need medical assistance abroad.

Spokesperson Simon McCulloch said: “I’m not surprised to see, in true British style, most of us would be able to order a beer in another language when we’re on holiday.

“But while we hope we never need to deal with a health issue while we’re away, the research shows a third of people have had to seek medical advice and come up against language barriers.

“While it’s good to be able to order a drink or ask for the bill in other languages, it’s arguably more important that travellers feel confident they can get the right medical assistance quickly if they’re ill or injured.

“We can’t be prepared for every single eventuality but knowing a few key phrases can help especially if you require fast care, have a medical condition or take medication.

“But the thought of speaking with a pharmacist or doctor abroad can be a worrying and daunting experience especially with language barriers.

“In fact, we’ve already seen 50% of those who use the service opt for a video consultation with an English-speaking doctor taking that stress away.”

Can you tell the difference between ordering a coffee and a cry for medical help? Take the quiz now to find out.

The study found when it comes to communicating abroad, 59% assume they’ll be able to get by in English when travelling to a non-English speaking country. While 37% simply rely on translation tools, and 12% would ask AI to understand.

Others admit they would turn to alternative ways to communicate, including using hand signals or gestures (70%), speaking English slowly (10%) or asking someone else to translate (nine%). With 39% even admitting to putting on a foreign accent to try and communicate better.

But these tactics don’t always pay off, with 39% ending up in an embarrassing or difficult situation due to language mix-ups.

Simon McCulloch, from Staysure, added: “When we travel, we don’t ever imagine we are going to end up needing medical help, but there are many occasions where we do.

“That’s why we launched the free 24/7 service, providing travellers with that extra layer of confidence. Our research also found that 79% of respondents said they would be inclined to use the service”.

Jobar, Syria – Ahmad, a Syrian man in his mid-30s, walks down an unpaved road in Jobar, in East Damascus, and points to a small home. It was damaged sometime during Syria’s 13-year war and is now dilapidated after years of neglect.

“That was my grandfather’s house,” Ahmad, who asked to use just his first name due to his sensitive position, told Al Jazeera. Nearby is his mother’s home and a small shop where she sold clothes.

Before Syria’s war broke out in 2011, following the violent suppression of anti-government protests, Jobar was a neighbourhood brimming with life. It was home to a historic mosque and synagogue but today stands as a ghost town after years of shelling, air strikes and chemical gas attacks.

Between 2012 and 2018, when much of Jobar was held by rebels, it became one of the frontlines of Syria’s war. It was repeatedly bombed and shelled by government forces, resulting in around 95 percent of buildings being destroyed. When the government recaptured the Damascus suburbs from the rebels in 2018, Jobar was emptied of most of its citizens.

Today, it stands as a major post-war problem for both Syria’s new government and its citizens, as they try to navigate reconstruction and the return of its former residents.

The Bermuda Triangle

Opposition groups built a labyrinth of tunnels to avoid attacks by the regime and its allies, with daily air raids and shelling.

Locals said the tunnel network meant the area gained the nickname ‘the Bermuda Triangle’, because of how people would get lost there.

In 2018, the regime cut a deal with opposition groups – fighters, their families and other locals could leave the area. Most left for rebel-held Idlib and the regime banned any civilians from entering the area. Shortly after the rebels took Damascus in December 2024 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia, some of Jobar’s residents returned to visit their homes for the first time in eight years.

One former resident, Salem Sawan, 59, a former medic, also known as Abu Yehya, rents an apartment in a nearby suburb. He wants to return to his home but, like other locals, said residents have been blocked from rebuilding.

On a walk around a part of Jobar, Ahmad points to a large tunnel opening that was recently filled with dirt and rubble. “The government must have closed this recently,” he said.

Ahmad said some people had possibly got lost in the complex tunnel network. There have also been reports of buildings collapsing due to the hollowed-out ground below them. Between the tunnels, the lack of infrastructure and an ongoing mine clearance operation in the area, Jobar is a prime example of the struggle Syria faces in rebuilding.

Rebuilding challenges

One of the major issues for reconstruction has been finding financing. Assad left the country in ruins, materially but also economically, along with crippling international sanctions, which the new government has successfully worked to remove.

The World Bank estimated that the total cost of reconstruction in Syria is around $216bn, while almost 90 percent of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line.

“The need for reconstruction is really big and if a specific neighbourhood has no infrastructure at all [the question is] how to channel money into reconstruction,” Cao Yue, the author of a recent report on Syria’s reconstruction for ODI Global, a UK-based thinktank, told Al Jazeera. “We know the government has a limited public budget, so they have targeted international capital, and especially international private capital, and that’s why [there’s been an effort] to cut agreements with international investors, especially from neighbouring countries.”

On a tour of Jobar, Ahmad, the former fighter, points to a building with a missing facade. It was once a few storeys high, but the floors are missing because the iron rods that ran through them were stolen, he said.

A little over a decade earlier, Mohammad Hamsho, the former business partner of Bashar’s younger brother, Maher al-Assad, had come under US and EU sanctions for war profiteering and connections to the former regime. One of his companies has repeatedly been accused of extracting iron from destroyed areas for steel production. In January 2026, Hamsho allegedly came to a financial settlement with the new Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Locals like Ahmad and Abu Yehya told Al Jazeera that officials told them they couldn’t rebuild their homes, even on their own initiative. When asked why, they were told there was a plan for the area, but they were not provided with any other information.

There are now reports that the government and private developers are looking to invest in areas like Jobar, and its geographic proximity to central Damascus means that land there is highly valuable.

Media reports say that local officials have proposed that a foreign-backed project for the area could finance a $21bn project that could create up to 200,000 jobs. But the project has a downside. It states that locals in the area will receive only 50 percent of their former homes and 30 percent of areas classified as “agricultural”. When that plan was presented to local councils and activists, it was met with anger.

This struggle between the government and locals is at the core of the struggle over Syria’s future.

“People need housing, but also need basic services like education, sanitation, water, electricity and governance,” Mauricio Vazquez, Head of Policy at ODI’s Global Risks and Resilience programme, and another of the report’s authors, told Al Jazeera. Vazquez added that the struggle is not only a “block of brick and mortar” but about finding ways to build back societies that are “better for Syria”.

As for people such as Abu Yehya, he said he is ready to start figuring out how to rebuild his home. During the war, he regularly had to pick up wounded people or bodies whilst fighting raged around him. He now has back problems, two slipped discs and can barely lift a kilo, let alone a body. “If a body is 70 kg (154 pounds) alive, it’s 140 (308) dead.”

That means he now can’t work.

“Anyone who doesn’t have a child outside [Syria] will die,” he said, sitting across from the local cemetery, filled with the bodies of his former neighbours and friends. Still, he wants to find a way to rebuild his home in Jobar.

Standing nearby was Mahmoud al-Ajouz, a 60-something-year-old gravedigger, who never left the area, even when his children were killed here and when the regime and its allies ordered all civilians out.

When asked about reconstruction, he was adamant that Jobar will thrive again. “We will rebuild with our own hands,” he said, “us and the state together”.

SACRAMENTO — Recent news about literacy, education and general smarts in California and across the country has been somewhat distressing.

Along with claims that Americans are becoming illiterate, here in the Golden State there are worries that even the highest-achieving students aren’t prepared for our universities, and a study shows backsliding in civil rights protections in the vacuum created by federal changes under the Trump administration.

Despite being close to terming out of office, and also otherwise occupied with his ever-emerging presidential run, Gov. Gavin Newsom last week found time to announce a consequential, if controversial, move that has the potential to vastly improve educational outcomes for California kids: switching out an independent, voter-chosen leader for a hired gun.

In legislation signed last week, Newsom basically eviscerated the role of the elected superintendent of public instruction and instead shifted oversight of our K-12 schools to a newly created education commissioner — to be appointed by the governor.

The change, set to happen early next year, has been described as a “power grab” by some, and on its surface could be seen that way. The conservative candidate for state superintendent — Sonja Shaw, who says she is running to stop “political ideologies being shoved down everybody’s throats” — quickly claimed Newsom’s move was all about stopping her.

In reality, power grab or not, it’s the kind of reform we should all support — a long-overdue push to create accountability in a hot-mess system where there are too many people almost-sorta in charge of too many conflicting priorities.

‘A’ for accountability

It’s to Newsom’s credit that he’s setting up his successor to helm a system that at least has a chance at coherence, even if it raises the stakes for the next governor to deliver.

For years — decades, really — streamlining the governing structure of schools “has been proposed by Republicans and Democrats and bipartisan and nonpartisan commissions,” Linda Darling-Hammond told me. She’s a professor emeritus at Stanford University, an advisor to the governor and, by any measure, one of the preeminent education policy experts in the country.

“It’s not at all political. It is really about making the system run well,” she said. “The world is changing, the economy is changing. There’s just a need to be very efficient and effective in making policy and then implementing that policy.”

“Run well” is the key there. California operates the biggest and most diverse school system in the country. We’ve got roughly 10,000 regular schools (depending on how you count), including about 1,200 charter schools, around 1,00 school districts and 58 counties, each with their own slice of local control over those schools, according to the Department of Education.

That’s about 5.7 million students, nearly 300,000 teachers and $150 billion in costs (counting the new funding in the next budget).

To be kind, this system does not always run well. That’s in no small part because oversight and control are fragmented, overlapping and confusing. Currently, the State Board of Education sets policies, but the elected superintendent implements them through the Department of Education. Then control runs downhill to individual school districts, filtering through local school boards and even principals.

The board can’t control how the superintendent does their job, and vice versa. In fact, they don’t always agree, despite (or because of) the shotgun wedding nature of their relationship. At times, it can feel like they are working against each other. Never mind the complexities of local control.

This has been especially true in recent years as Newsom and the Legislature have pushed through big changes, such as the new prekindergarten grade, that have required massive coordination and effort. At the local level, administrators often complain there is little clarity on what is expected of them and, too often, outright conflict.

“The idea of having policy in one place and implementation in the other is really crazy,” Michael Kirst told me. He’s professor emeritus of education at Stanford and the longest-serving president of California’s State Board of Education, serving under both of Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial stints.

Newsom’s proposed system promises “much clearer, cleaner accountability,” Kirst said.

Expertise counts

It also has the benefit of putting an actual education expert in charge of schools. Because the superintendent role is elected, it has too often been coveted by career politicians looking for a landing spot. Its incumbent, Tony Thurmond, had a background in social work before running for various offices, but that kind of experience isn’t always the case. Neither is experience running a major organization with thousands of employees.

While Newsom’s plan leaves many, if not most, of the details to be ironed out later (a frustrating strategy he’s used more than once to keep the ball rolling on policy without having the drag of actual detail), it does promise to put in someone with the kind of high-level educational policy experience that should be required when managing this vast and important endeavor.

Kirst points out that this will be a “powerful position” charged with making sure our schools are indeed run well, and at the end of the day, it gives us one person to blame if they don’t: the governor.

So if schools don’t improve and our kids don’t learn, voters will know exactly who failed.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Trump ousts members of bipartisan election commission ahead of midterms
The California edge: The Work of Helping A.I. Destroy Work
The L.A. Times Special: In bed 23 at Adelanto ICE detention center, a terrified teenager missed his mom

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

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JESY Nelson has broken fans’ hearts as she confessed she’s been “crying all day” with mum guilt.

The mum-of-two has opened up on how her baby girls are struggling amid the high temperatures.

Taking to social media, she told her 10million followers that she is utterly heartbroken over having to put the twins into thick spinal jackets and splints in this heat.

Pop star Jesy shared a glimpse of the girls laying down in their rockers wearing their supports.

She penned over the clip: “I’ve cried all day. Imagine having to wear a spinal jacket and splints in this heat.

“I cannot even begin to tell you how much this breaks my heart into a million pieces. But, if I don’t put them on every day, their spines and feet will only deteriorate and get worse.”

PROUD MUM

Jesy Nelson shares her daughter’s milestone moment amid heartbreaking SMA battle

in the mix

Jesy Nelson shows off rock hard abs in a bikini as she wails ‘take me back’

“These will never correct their spine or feet, it will only prevent it from getting any worse,” continued Jesy.

“Once again no future SMA babies need to suffer like this if they are given the heel prick test and treatment from birth!”

Despite the temperatures soaring above 30 degrees this week, the girls looked content waving their little hands around and taking in their living room.

Dani Dyer wrote in the comments: “Oh Jesy. You are doing amazing,” followed by two red heart emojis.

Billie Shepherd said: “Sending you all so much love. Super mumma, you are amazing.”

“They will still face every obstacle with the biggest smile. They have the best mummy ever and that’s all they need,” one fan penned.

The former Little Mix star’s baby girls – Story Monroe and Ocean Jade – are both battling Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 1 – the most severe form of a rare disease affecting muscle strength and movement.

Both Jesy and her ex-fiancé Zion Foster were told their twins were unlikely to ever walk, and may face serious breathing and swallowing difficulties.

Despite the slim odds, she shared a sweet picture of one of their daughters sitting up in a chair all by herself.

Since Jesy’s babies were diagnosed with SMA she has been tirelessly campaigning to make it mandatory for all newborns to receive a heel-prick to determine whether or not they have the disease.

If SMA is caught early the condition is usually treatable but when left undiagnosed it can be life-threatening and cause death within two years.

A fan told Jesy of her work in her comments: “Want to thank you – just had a baby in Scotland and got the SMA heel prick test as standard. Midwives personally named you and the work you’ve done as to why it’s now offered.”

The Dodgers suffered a deflating 9-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium on Friday to start their final series before the All-Star break.

But if there was a silver lining to the Dodgers rough performance, it was that superstar Shohei Ohtani looked fine at designated hitter after being scratched from his scheduled start because of irritation in his left knee.

Ohtani, will not participate in next week’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia, hit a leadoff home run off Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez.

“I found out yesterday morning,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s injury. “So if there’s a chance that we could kind of be proactive and get it drained and do whatever we need to do to try to manage it, along with the rest for the All-Star break, we were gonna do that.

“But obviously the way he’s swinging the bat hasn’t really affected performance,” Roberts added. “We have certainly curtailed the stealing bases. But he feels good, obviously, and he’s gonna be DH’ing the next three games.”

The Diamondbacks took advantage of the Dodgers’ bullpen game — and three defensive errors.

Right-handed pitcher Kyle Hurt opened and surrendered two runs on three hits through 1⅔ innings.

Arizona’s Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo opened the game with base hits. Corbin Carroll grounded into a force out at second, moving Marte to third, before Gabriel Moreno singled on a liner to right that scored Marte. Carroll then scored on an errant throw to third from Kyle Tucker that went into the Dodgers’ dugout.

After Ohtani hit his 21st homer of the season, Andy Pages hit a tying 419-foot blast to left-center for his 17th homer.

But that was all the Dodgers (61-34) would score against Rodriguez, who gave up seven hits and struck out five over six innings to improve to 8-3.

Dalton Rushing walks back to the dugout after grounding out to end the game in the Dodgers’ 9-3 loss to Arizona on Friday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Arizona’s bullpen then held the Dodgers to just two hits — both coming in the ninth inning off Drey Jameson.

Will Klein (3-4) took the loss after surrendering one run through 1⅔ innings.

After Brock Stewart gave up a two-run home run to Tim Tawa in the fourth, Arizona (47-47) tacked on two more runs in the fifth after the Dodgers’ second error.

Stewart walked Perdomo to start the frame. Then, Carroll grounded into a fielder’s choice in front of the plate and reached first safely, with an errant throw by Rushing allowing Perdomo to reach third. Moreno grounded out to third to drive in Perdomo. A balk by Edgardo Henriquez followed by a wild pitch allowed Carroll to score.

Arizona extended its lead in the sixth after Tawa hit an RBI single to left and Perdomo drove in a run on a groundout to first. Tawa ended his four RBI performance with a run-scoring single in the eighth.

Reliever Alex Vesia threw a scoreless ninth inning for his fifth consecutive scoreless outing to cap a night the Dodgers probably would like to forget.

Dine-in movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is launching a new initiative to show unreleased independent films that had successful festival runs, a move that comes as specialty films have struggled to gain distribution.

The Alamo Exclusives program, announced Wednesday, will give limited theatrical runs to films that showed at festivals including Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Festival and South by Southwest festival, as well as Alamo’s own Fantastic Fest.

The idea is to help showcase films that received critical acclaim, but did not secure distribution or acquisition deals. The chain will not acquire these films, but instead will enter into agreements with filmmakers to exhibit their films on Alamo Drafthouse screens. By showing these films to audiences on the big screen, these films could get the momentum they need for further opportunities.

The program’s first film will be the documentary “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt,” which debuted last year at South by Southwest and chronicles the history of the punk rock band.

The film will be shown in Alamo Drafthouse theaters for a limited time later this summer.

The Austin-based chain, which is owned by Sony Pictures, has a long history of curating indie films for its audiences, giving Alamo Drafthouse confidence that its viewers want to see these kinds of movies, company chief executive Michael Kustermann said in a statement.

“Time and again, they’ve shown they’ll come out to support bold, original films when given the opportunity,” he said. The new Alamo Exclusives “gives us another way to champion filmmaker-driven films that deserve to be discovered and connect them with the wider Alamo Drafthouse audience.”

The initiative comes at a difficult time for indie films. Since the pandemic upended the movie business, traditional studios and distributors have had less appetite for risk, including betting on smaller indie films out of festivals.

And as the 2023 dual writers’ and actors’ strikes thinned out theatrical lineups, that aversion to uncertainty became a push for reliable and profitable hits.

“Too many incredible films premiere at festivals and then never receive the theatrical life they deserve,” Lisa Dreyer, director of Fantastic Fest and film innovation at Alamo, said in a statement. “We are actively searching for films across all genres, from horror to comedy, to everything in-between, to champion in this new, exciting way.”

TOM Parker’s pregnant widow Kelsey has revealed her emotional struggle ahead of the first anniversary of her stillborn baby’s death.

Kelsey, 36, tragically lost her son Phoenix in June 2025 after he was born sleeping.

Kelsey has two children with The Wanted singer Tom, who died in 2022 aged 33, – Aurelia, six, and Bodhi, four – but had been expecting her third child with new partner Will Lindsay.

In May, she announced she is pregnant with her rainbow baby but she explained she is now set to tackle a bittersweet weekend.

Amid her pregnancy joy, it will be the one-year anniversary of Phoenix’s passing and in a candid Instagram upload, she admitted she “deeply misses my little boy and wish things had been different”.

Kelsey uploaded a selfie showing her in the sunshine, wearing a white vest top and sunglasses with a gold chain.

bump’s day out

Kelsey Parker shows off growing baby bump in first public appearance

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In a frank message posted alongside it she put: “I’ve been really quiet on here the last couple of days.

“Truthfully, I’ve been working a lot, trying to keep busy and just processing the fact that Sunday is a big day.

“It’s Phoenix’s first anniversary and it’s Father’s Day too.

“Grief is a strange thing. Some days you can keep going and stay busy, and other days it all catches up with you.

“I’m learning that both things can exist at once. I can feel excited about this next chapter of life, be grateful for everything I have, and still deeply miss my little boy and wish things had been different”.

Giving advice to her followers, Kelsey added: “If you’re navigating grief, anniversaries or simply carrying something heavy right now, please know you’re not alone.

“As always… stop waiting, start living. But also, give yourself permission to feel it all”.

Recently, the brave mum appeared on ITV daytime series Good Morning Britain to reveal her home was “treated like a crime scene” after Phoenix arrived into the world.

Kelsey’s spouse Tom died in 2022, aged 33, following a brain tumour battle.

She previously admitted that that grieving Phoenix was “harder than grieving Tom” as she spoke on the Mum’s The Word podcast.

She shared: “It was so hard. I think with Phoenix, it was harder than it was with Tom.

“I think because they [her kids] were so much younger, it’s like I could just be like, ‘daddy wasn’t coming back.’ 

“And you know, when I said about the angels taking daddy, ‘we won’t see daddy again’, it was like they accepted that and we sort of moved on. 

“And now as time’s gone on, they asked me more questions about their dad and stuff, but that initial I suppose with Bod as well. He was 18 months old. It wasn’t a question that he even thought.”

At the time of Tom’s death, Aurelia was around three, and Kelsey’s co-host Georgia pointed out: “They were almost ages where they didn’t understand. 

“So you almost didn’t have to explain it too much. You obviously have to explain it, but it’s very different to having a child that completely understands, knows what death is”.

Animal lovers in Gaza are resorting to desperate measures to keep their pets alive and healthy. Only two pet clinics are still operating, and critical veterinary supplies and animal food are running low. Vets are warning animal deaths will rise unless supplies arrive soon.

HOLLY Hagan says she has been left in ‘excruciating pain’ while attempting to breastfeed her newborn daughter.

The Geordie Shore star, who gave birth last weekend, told fans that part of her nipple had ‘fallen off’ after spending 12 hours feeding the newborn.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Holly opened up about struggling to breastfeed, admitting there was something stopping her from being able to feed comfortably.

Sharing how it currently feels like ‘glass’ going through her breasts, the reality star said she had been through a night from hell with daughter Madison-Darci.

The mum-of-two, who also shares son Alpha-Jax with her husband Jacob Blyth, wrote to the platform “Apologies for the lack of update but we had a BADDD night.

“Little missy awake for like 5 hours 3-8, nothing would settle her, she’d just fall asleep and wake up again.

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“My nipples honestly feel like they have glass running through them. I worked out I fed her 18 times for an average of 40 minutes that’s 12 hours of my day sat feeding! I have zero time to think about eating which is WILD for me I think about food 24/7.

“My bum hurts so much from constantly sitting down, my body hurts so much from being so tense when she feeds through the excruciating pain.”

Holly continued that Madison-Darci – who is sweetly named after her late sister – has been checked by doctors, who have confirmed there is no issue with her.

“Yes she’s been checked twice for a tongue tie. It’s not her latch that’s actually so strong, it’s my anatomy.

“It’s still excruciating with a nipple shield, still can’t get any more of my nipple in her mouth after expressing a bit off. Thank god I’d caught quite a bit of milk and stored it in the fridge so Jacob could take her this morning.

“But wow hats off to anyone who breast feeds it is more than a full time job!”

Despite the agonising pain, Holly, who didn’t breastfeed the first time around, said she is going to keep trying in the hopes it will get easier.

She ended the story: “I thought I wouldn’t care about adding formula especially since I only did formula with AJ but I REALLY want to breast feed this time!

“Not going to give up just yet, trying some bigger shields and seeing if my nipples toughen up.. a physical piece of my nipple fell off today LOL”.

A cross section of a 250-year-old Pasadena oak tree that was uprooted in a 1993 windstorm is among the first things visitors will see upon entering the Huntington’s new exhibit, “This Land Is…” Jagged cracks in the trunk, which was once rooted in the Huntington’s lawn, are feebly held together by wooden joints.

It’s a fitting emblem of what’s to come in a long-planned show curated to coincide with the country’s upcoming semiquincentennial, and crafted to pose land itself as central to the country’s complex past. After taking in the exhibit, attendees can draw their own conclusions about the land’s role as a “geographical and metaphorical space of promise, struggle, and belonging.”

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On a recent late afternoon, the Pasadena sun drilled down on the facade of the Huntington’s MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, where the show’s organizers waited beside four chiseled columns with their hands tucked behind their backs, swaying in anticipation.

“It’s the first time anyone is seeing it,” said Linde B. Lehtinen, the museum’s senior curator of photography.

Joining her are Josh Garrett-Davis, curator of Western American history, and Armando Pulido, assistant curator for special projects. All three smile with excitement.

For the better part of the last two and a half years, Lehtinen and Garrett-Davis have spearheaded the curation of “This Land Is…,” which opens Sunday and runs through early next year.

For them the fallen oak tree represents hope amid disturbance: Another once-towering elder on the museum’s North Vista was uprooted during a windstorm in 2025 — one of its acorns has since sprouted and now stands more than 6-feet tall.

Still, it only brushes the surface of an exhibition that seamlessly draws upon a plethora of works crafted across U.S. history. Want to plan a visit? Here are five things you shouldn’t miss seeing.

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“This machine kills fascists,” etched on the back of Woody Guthrie’s guitar on display at The Huntington.  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

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A closer view of the “This Machine Kills Facists” etching.  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Woody Guthrie’s guitar, inscribed with ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’

In 1940, Woody Guthrie sat in a Midtown Manhattan hotel, toiling over lyrics for what would become “This Land Is Your Land.” Today, it’s been adopted as a quasi-anthem for the U.S. and the epitome of American progressivism.

For this exhibition, the museum acquired Guthrie’s C.F. Martin and Co. guitar, a seamless blend of spruce, mahogany, celluloid, ebony and mother-of-pearl. On its back, a carved inscription reads, “This Machine Kills Fascists.”

“The idea for ‘This Land Is…’ emerged … because the scope and breadth of his voice in terms of his activism and how prolific he was … and thinking about how he reflected on and experienced American land,” Lehtinen said.

Alongside the guitar is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, annotated by John McKesson, secretary of New York’s Fourth Provincial Congress, in the days following July 4, 1776. According to Lehtinen, the two objects were paired as instruments of protest and change.

“We talked to [Guthrie’s] granddaughter Anna Canoni, and she said to us at one point that he used guitars like pens or tools, and that was so appropriate to how we were thinking about its relationship to this document,” she added.

A map of the Butte Community, Gila River Relocation Center drawn by an internee.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Japanese flower farmers photographed before, during and after internment

Not far from the Guthrie guitar is a panoramic portrait of the Kuromi family, posing amid a flower farm that stood where Los Feliz Boulevard is now. To its right is a watercolor painting of the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona, where many members of the family were forcibly transported to and imprisoned during World War II.

“I was looking at a historic preservation report, and the name was the same as my mechanic in Los Feliz,” Garrett-Davis said. “The next time I went to get my oil changed, I took a printout of that panorama and was going to show it to them and ask, ‘Do you know anything about this? Is this related?’

“I walked into their office, and a copy of that photo had been on their wall for years. In 10 years, I had never noticed it,” he said with a laugh.

After their internment, the Kuromi family returned to their farm in 1945 to find their equipment stolen. The process of regaining access to their land was slow, but they eventually settled back in, and operated the farm until losing their lease in 1961.

‘A Harvest of Death’ and mail from home on the Civil War front

One of the most grotesque displays on view is an albumen print of an 1863 photo titled “A Harvest of Death,” taken by Timothy H. O’Sullivan after the Battle of Gettysburg. Within its frame lies the bodies of fallen soldiers, sprawled out and lifeless on the grass.

“That evocative title signals some of the other things that we have been thinking about, whether it’s looking at gardens or loss … in this case, these are bodies that have been left, and they’re decomposing,” Lehtinen said.

Paired with the print is a letter from a young woman named Harriet Bailey to her uncle on the front lines of the Civil War, containing seeds delicately etched with drawings of a ship, facesand a dog. The two pieces represent a stark contrast in experiences during the same conflict, once again touching upon the theme of hope amid disturbance.

“This is a remnant of home that he’s actually being sent while on the battlefield,” she continued. “So, the joy and lightness to what is an incredibly somber moment in American history.”

“Archiving the Watershed” is a collection of artifacts from the Colorado River assembled by Otis R. “Dock” Marston on display.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The Colorado River, mapped out through an adventurer’s eyes

This display is described as a “tiny slice” of the Huntington’s archive on Otis Reed “Dock” Marston, a historian and river runner who made it his life’s goal to collect information on the Colorado River. According to Garrett-Davis, Marston had around 185 binders full of photographs, often placed on a cut-out map of where they were taken and organized mile-by-mile, from below the U.S.-Mexico border all the way into Utah.

This taps into a focal point of the exhibition: adapting it to a West Coast perspective. In this way, the idea of independence is viewed expansively as it unfolds across time and place.

“The Huntington has a wonderful collection of presidential papers and documents relating to the Colonial era, but we also have materials on California … from the lens of the West,” said Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence.

“We can show the West’s visual culture at the same time that we can show the original copies of the Declaration of Independence … we have a breadth that’s quite rare.”

Artist Noni Olabiisi’s, “Troubled Island” mural on canvas, depicting the struggling of the Haitian revolution.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

‘Troubled Island’ and a mirrored struggle

The Haitian Revolution may seem out of place in an exhibition celebrating the U.S., but Haiti was the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere. Its independence from the French was proclaimed in 1804, just two decades after the American colonies signed the Treaty of Paris.

In the mural “Troubled Island,” Noni Olabisi chronicles the Haitian struggle for independence, including how suffering under French colonists led to the 1791 slave rebellion. The piece was first painted for the William Grant Still Arts Center in West Adams in 2003, referencing an opera of the same name.

The opera was composed by Still with a libretto from the Missouri-born poet, playwright, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes, who connected Haiti’s struggle for freedom to his home country’s.

“We wanted to focus on parts that might seem peripheral but are actually quite central to American history,” Garrett-Davis said.

Three years later, Olabasi would render the same powerful mural on canvas.

“Being so close to a childhood dream of mine, to play in a World Cup, and now it has been taken away from me with an injury. It’s been a tough one to get my head around.

“Your support and kind messages over the last few days mean the world to me and haven’t gone unnoticed, so thank you so much.

“I’ll see you all back doing what I love again soon, but until then, let’s get behind the team and cheer them on. Come on Scotland!”

Scotland have qualified for their first World Cup finals since 1998.

Head coach Steve Clarke and his squad left Glasgow for the United States on Sunday and face Bolivia in their final warm-up friendly on Saturday in New Jersey.

Scotland start their Group C campaign against Haiti on Sunday, 14 June before playing Morocco and Brazil.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Shane McClanahan pitched one-run ball for five innings, Jonathan Aranda homered and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Angels 5-2 on Sunday.

McClanahan (6-2) allowed four hits, struck out three and didn’t issue a walk. Bryan Baker pitched a scoreless ninth for his career-high 16th save this season in 19 chances.

Aranda hit a solo homer in the first inning before Jose Siri singled with two out in the second, advanced to third when Logan O’Hoppe doubled and scored on a wild pitch by McClanahan to make it 1-1.

Aranda and Richie Palacios drew consecutive walks leading off the third inning and Junior Camerino followed with a single to load the bases. Victor Mesa Jr. hit an RBI single and Cedric Mullins walked to drive in a run, giving the Rays a 3-1 lead.

O’Hoppe hit a solo homer in the seventh that pulled the Angels (23-37) within a run.

Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson singled to drive in a run in the bottom of the inning and stole second base. Taylor Walls walked to load the bases and Yandy Díaz drew an eight-pitch walk that scored Chandler Simpson and made it 5-2.

Camerino and Walls had two hits apiece for the Rays (36-20).

Jack Kochanowicz (2-4) allowed three runs and five hits and walked four in 2⅓ innings.

Up next for the Angels: RHP José Soriano (6-4, 2.65 ERA) is scheduled to pitch at home Monday against Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (1-6, 8.08) in the opener of a three-game series.