Sunday

“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a heartbreaking retelling of the efforts to save a 6-year-old Palestinian girl amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza, will be honored at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday — without one of its star players.

Actor Motaz Malhees, who stars in the film as Red Crescent dispatcher Omar, confirmed Thursday that he will be absent from the festivities because of President Trump’s travel ban against Palestinians. “I had the honor of playing one of the lead roles in a story the world needed to hear,” Malhees said on Instagram, “but I will not be there.”

“I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship,” he added.

Trump announced his widened travel ban in December, noting his decision to “fully restrict and limit the entry of individuals using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority,” along with people from countries including South Sudan and Syria. The president issued the order months after he presented his 20-point peace plan for the Gaza strip — efforts that some Palestinians feel have been now brushed aside amid U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran.

Malhees said in his post that the restriction “hurts” but offered his followers and supporters a kernel of truth: “You can block a passport. You cannot block a voice.”

“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, is nominated in the international feature category. The film is set in a Red Crescent call center in Ramallah and centers the 70-minute phone recording of Hind’s pleas for help as she waits with her family in a trapped car for emergency responders. She and two medics dispatched to her location were killed in February 2024 in Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The film earned the grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Though unable to celebrate the film at the Oscars on Sunday, Malhees said he stands “with pride and dignity” and that his “spirit will be with the Voice of Hind Rajab that night.”

“Our story is bigger than any barrier, and it will be heard,” he said.

A representative for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As Malhees publicized his absence, fellow stars including Oscar winner Riz Ahmed and Emmy-nominated “Succession” star Arian Moayed rallied in support.

“Your work in the film and the film itself are both incredible and will live on forever,” Ahmed commented.

“You are brilliant, azizam,” Moayed replied to Malhees. “And this is heartbreaking and unjust.”

OTTAWA — Linus Ullmark made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season and the Ottawa Senators blanked the Ducks 2-0 on Saturday.

Michael Amadio and Thomas Chabot scored for Ottawa. Shane Pinto had two assists. It was the 14th shutout of Ullmark’s career. The Senators have won four of five.

Ville Husso stopped 27 shots for the Ducks.

Nick Cousins won a battle along the boards, which sprung Pinto down the ice. Pinto fed Amadio on a 2-on-1 and he made no mistake, beating Husso short-side 3:54 into the second period.

At the 9:21 mark of the second period, the Senators capitalized on a turnover. Pinto intercepted a pass and found Chabot in the high slot for his seventh goal of the season and second career short-handed score.

Anaheim challenged for goaltender interference but was unsuccessful.

Warren Foegele had a couple of chances from close range in the opening period, but just couldn’t settle a bouncing puck.

Husso then stopped Amadio on a short-handed 2-on-1 breakaway.

Amadio later drew a penalty, but Husso made a big glove save on Tim Stutzle on the Senators’ power play.

Up next: Ducks: at Montreal on Sunday; Senators: host San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

Phil Rosenthal likes to sit at the counter of Max & Helen’s, the diner he recently opened with acclaimed chef Nancy Silverton, and chat with people while they eat.

“I sometimes feel like the mayor of Larchmont,” Rosenthal says over the phone as he greets diners who notice him at the counter. “When people come in and realize I’m involved, they’re always surprised to see me. It’s a bit like being at Disneyland and running into Goofy.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Rosenthal is probably best known for creating the popular TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond” and hosting Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil,” which is moving to YouTube in 2027, but he is more than just a famous foodie. He’s now touring the country for his live show, “An Evening With Phil Rosenthal,” and he recently published his second children’s book, “Just Try It! Someplace New!,” which he wrote with his daughter Lily. (They’ll sign books at Barnes & Noble at the Grove on March 14.)

“The book series started when my daughter called and said, ‘Kids love your show. Why don’t you do a kids’ book?’ “ he says, before adding with a laugh: “I told her, ‘Yes, if you’ll do it with me.’ That’s a dad trick to get more time with your daughter.”

Rosenthal believes stories about kids feeling nervous or afraid to try new things connect with both children and adults. “When you write a kids’ book, you realize that it is not just a kids’ book,” he says. “It’s really a book for everyone.”

Although he travels a lot, Rosenthal likes to spend Sundays close to home. He enjoys walking his dog Murray to Larchmont Village and hosting movie night with friends at his place in Hancock Park.

Here’s what his perfect Sunday in L.A. looks like, with lots of good food along the way, of course.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

7:45 a.m.: Coffee with Murray and neighborhood friends

Every Sunday morning, I walk my dog Murray to Larchmont Village and stop at Go Get Em Tiger. It’s our daily ritual. Over time, we’ve built a great community there, and I always invite others to join us. We sit outside, talk and have become close friends. I usually post a photo of Murray on Instagram each day. He’s a rescue mutt, and I like to joke he’s part Pyrenees, part psychopath.

9 a.m.: Shop for produce at the Larchmont Village Farmers’ Market

After about an hour, I head across the street to the Larchmont Village Farmers’ Market, which is held on Wednesdays and Sundays. I usually pick up some fruit for the house. It’s a great community spot.

9:30 a.m.: Breakfast at Max and Helen’s

Next I walk down the street to Max and Helen’s, the diner my family opened. I’m about to order the L.E.O., which is Gingrass Smoked salmon lox, three eggs and onions. So if I sound like my mouth is full, you’ll know why.

One of my favorite things on the menu is the sourdough waffle Nancy [Silverton] created, topped with butter mixed with maple syrup. I also love the hot chocolate, and the tuna melt is a special, more romanticized version of the classic. If you eat there every day, it’s smart to pick something healthy, like I’m having today — high protein and no carbs.

11 am: Browse titles at a neighborhood bookstore

I love visiting Chevalier’s Books, the oldest independent bookstore in Los Angeles. I’ve been going there since I moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1989. It’s just two doors down from the diner and feels like our community bookstore.

Noon: Hit the gym

Afterwards, I walk home and fit in a workout. I have to exercise every day because I eat a lot. If I didn’t walk everywhere, I’d probably weigh 300 pounds. My gym is simple — just some weights and a bench — but it works for me. Since I travel often, I stick to a routine I can do anywhere.

1 p.m.: Enjoy a surprising meal at a Michelin-noted restaurant

If I weren’t hosting movie night, I’d love to stop by République. It’s an amazing place, maybe the best restaurant in L.A. Every menu is great. I usually eat just about anything there, and sometimes I ask them to surprise me. It’s an all-day restaurant and I’ve gone for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their egg dishes are excellent, the burger is top-notch and the roasted chicken, which is cooked over an open fire in the kitchen, is superb. I often let the chef decide what to bring me, especially when I’m with a group. It’s fun to be surprised and try shareable dishes.

I also really enjoy Connie and Ted’s in West Hollywood, Michael Cimarusti’s casual spot. The seafood is just as good as it is at Providence, his fine dining place. Their fresh Maine lobster roll is excellent, and they have the best oysters in L.A. It’s pretty awesome. Check before you head over there, though, as I’ve heard it’s for lease.

3 p.m.: Go for a hike

I used to hike more before I started traveling so much, but I still enjoy it. After all, this is L.A. While other places deal with bad weather, we get to be outside. I love hiking in Runyon Canyon and Griffith Park. It’s great to make the most of the outdoors here.

6 p.m.: Movie night and Pizzeria Mozza at home

On Sundays, we host movie nights at home. We have a dedicated screening room, a wood-burning pizza oven in the kitchen and a chef from Pizzeria Mozza, who comes over to make pizza. The best part is that someone connected to the film often joins us. Sometimes we watch new movies, other times old favorites. Aaron Sorkin came for “The Social Network,” and when we screened “Tootsie,” Elaine May, Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray joined us. We usually have about 25 to 30 people.

I really love my neighborhood and the people in it. One of the best things about traveling so much is that it makes you appreciate home even more.

Lakers center Jaxson Hayes, left, dives for a loose ball next to Knicks forward OG Anunoby in the first half Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Hayes crawled across the floor for loose balls. Marcus Smart stepped in front of driving opponents. Jarred Vanderbilt leaped into the laps of front-row fans.

With energy and focus from every player, the Lakers delivered one of their best defensive efforts of the season despite circumstances that could have made Sunday’s game a snoozer.

The Lakers were playing their third game in four days. Losing an hour of sleep because of daylight saving time had Rui Hachimura sleepwalking into the arena Sunday morning for a 12:30 p.m. tip. Hoping to wake himself up, the Lakers forward said he got into the hot tub when he arrived.

Players tried to hype themselves up in the locker room by blasting music. Instead of listing three defensive keys before the game, coaches whittled the game plan to one focus: multiple efforts.

“It wasn’t gonna be an offensive game,” coach JJ Redick said. “This was gonna be a gritty, tough game that we had to win with effort. And we did that.”

Smart led that effort with a game-high plus-27 in 29 minutes and 17 seconds. He drew two charges. His signature moment didn’t even show up in the game play-by-play. After Luka Doncic turned the ball over with 2.2 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Smart hustled back to force Jordan Clarkson to pass the ball at the buzzer, keeping the Knicks from getting a last-second layup attempt. Smart walked to the bench with his arms extended like a defensive back who had just broken up a touchdown pass.

The Knicks were held to less than 100 points for only the seventh time and had their fourth-worst three-point shooting performance of the season, going eight for 34. The Lakers went nearly five minutes without scoring in the fourth quarter, but held on by forcing eight turnovers.

“It was not a perfect game,” said Doncic, who led the Lakers with 35 points on 11-for-25 shooting. “But we fight at the defensive end. I think we did a great job. It says a lot about the team, bringing this much energy in a game like this.”

The Chargers bolstered their efforts to protect quarterback Justin Herbert all while diversifying their offense by agreeing to terms with veteran fullback Alec Ingold on Sunday, according to multiple reports.

Ingold’s deal with the Chargers reportedly is for two years and $7.5 million.

Ingold will be no stranger to the Chargers’ plans on offense. He played the last four seasons in Miami under coach Mike McDaniel, the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator. Last year he caught eight passes for 52 yards and ran the ball twice in 17 games.

Ingold caught 47 passes for 372 yards and rushed for 34 yards in 20 carries in four seasons with the Dolphins. He also had two rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown.

Before his time in Miami, Ingold played three seasons with the Raiders.

The deal comes two days after the Chargers signed veteran center Tyler Biadasz to take over over for the retiring Bradley Bozeman. They agreed to terms on a one-year deal with edge rusher Khalil Mack on Saturday.

With the free agency negotiation period set to begin Monday at 9 a.m. PDT, the Chargers remain in strong position to be significant players in the free-agent market. They rank among the top-five teams in salary cap space, per Overthecap.com.

WASHINGTON — The war between the United States and Iran entered its ninth day Sunday with no clear path toward deescalation, as President Trump said deploying American ground troops to the Middle East remains under consideration and Iran’s foreign minister rejected calls for a ceasefire.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, Trump declined to rule out the possibility of sending U.S. forces inside Iran, saying it could “possibly happen” as the conflict intensifies.

“There would have to be a very good reason,” Trump said. “I would say if we ever did that they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level.”

As Trump weighs sending ground troops into the widening conflict, Iran has signaled it is not prepared to halt fighting and said it would be ready to fight American soldiers if they descend into the country.

“We have very brave soldiers, who are waiting for any enemy who enters into our soil to fight with them, and to kill them and destroy them,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Araghchi added that Iran is not considering a ceasefire at this time. He said the United States and Israel would first need to explain “why they started this aggression and then guarantee there would be a permanent end of the war.”

“Unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security,” he said.

Araghchi also pushed back on Trump’s demand last week that he be involved in determining Iran’s future leadership as part of condition to end the conflict.

“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs. This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,” Araghchi said. “It’s only the business of the Iranian people, and nobody else’s business.”

As of Sunday, it remained unclear who would succeed Iran’s former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, who was killed by American and Israeli strikes on the first day of the war. But the clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader appeared to be close to reaching a majority consensus on its pick, according to several news reports.

Trump said last week that Mojtaba Khamenei — the son of the former leader — would be an “unacceptable” choice.

As the war’s end remains nebulous, the battlefield actions continue to have an economic impact domestically, particularly on oil prices.

“If the war continues like this, there will be neither a way to sell oil nor have the ability to produce it,” Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a social media post Sunday. He added the war would affect not just the U.S., but also the rest of the world “due to [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s delusions,” referring to the Israeli prime minister.

Israeli strikes on Sunday hit an oil storage facility in Tehran, marking what appears to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that there’s currently a “fear premium in the marketplace” and sought to assure Americans that the soaring oil prices are a short-term problem.

“We never know exactly the timeframe of this,” Wright said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the same assurances in an interview with Fox News‘ “Sunday Morning Futures,” calling the rising gas prices a “short-term disruption.”

“Ultimately taking out the rogue Iranian regime is going to be a good thing for the oil industry,” Leavitt said. “Those prices are going to come back down just like they have over the course of the past year, because of President Trump’s American energy dominance agenda.”

The strike on the oil storage facility came as Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict.

Iran also hit a desalination plant in Bahrain, and according to Araghchi, a U.S. airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plan on Qeshm Island that is a critical drinking water supply in the parched deserts of the gulf.

“Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences. The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X.

The United States has also come under scrutiny after evidence suggested that an American strike was likely responsible for an explosion at an Iranian elementary school that killed more than 165 people, most of them children.

Trump administration officials have said the matter is under investigation and that no determination has been made as to who was responsible for the strike. But on Saturday, Trump said Iran was to blame for the explosion.

“It was done by Iran,” Trump told reporters. “They’re very inaccurate as you know with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.”

Asked Sunday if Iran had any evidence that the strike was conducted by the Americans, Araghchi said it had to have been either the U.S. or Israeli military and said that Trump’s suggestion that Iran was responsible for the attack was “funny.”

“It is our school, these are our students and our girls and they are attacked by an American fighter, a jet fighter and they have been killed. Why [is] Iran responsible?” Araghchi said.

Jordan Chiles is always in motion.

The decorated gymnast and two-time Olympian recently competed in the latest season of “Dancing With the Stars,” finishing in third place alongside her partner Ezra Sosa. She’s an ambassador for brands including Nike and Hero Cosmetics. In August, she launched a mentorship program called SHERO Athlete Collective for young athletes.

And in the midst of all of that, she’s finishing up her senior year at UCLA.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

“I’m happy, but I’m also sad,” the 24-year-old says about her final year as a Bruin, adding, “It’s pretty cool to know that my dream school has become my legacy.”

Chiles is also in the thick of a legal battle to reclaim the bronze medal she won, then was stripped of, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In January, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court granted her an appeal to reexamine the matter. “I’m going to stand for what is right,” she says. “I am doing the things to make sure no other athlete has to go through what I had to go through.”

With the Olympics arriving in Los Angeles in 2028, the question of whether Chiles will participate is top of mind for many fans. Her response?

“Right now, it’s just me and my college career,” she says, flashing a bright smile. “I think right now just being able to be a part of UCLA for my last season and then seeing from there on, from April until the next year, we’ll see what happens.”

Chiles trains every day except Wednesdays and Saturdays, but on her perfect Sunday, she’d skip the gym to hang out with her dogs, take a trip to the mall and binge-watch her favorite shows.

9 a.m.: Gospel music to start the day

I feel like waking up at 9 a.m. is the perfect time because it gives you enough time in the day to do whatever, but also you didn’t wake up too early. The first thing I’d probably do aside from washing my face and brushing my teeth, is put on gospel music or listen to anything that can put my mind at ease. If I don’t have practice, then that’s typically what I’m doing, cleaning my house and starting to rejuvenate my body differently. I’d take my dogs out. I have an Aussie doodle, a teacup poodle and a maltipoo. Their names are Versace, Chanel and Dolce Gabbana. Very bougie dogs.

9:30 a.m.: Breakfast with a side of “Chicago Fire”

I’d cook for myself. I like typical scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado toast and sometimes a bagel. To get in some fruit, I’d drink some apple juice to make it feel like, “OK, this was a great, healthy breakfast.” Then I’d most likely sit on my couch and start binge-watching something. This is where lazy Jordan comes in. Like I got up, I did this, I ate, so now it’s time to relax. I’ve recently been watching all of the Chicago [shows] like “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med.” I also recently started rewatching “Pretty Little Liars.”

12:30 p.m. Shop for athleisure and other goodies

This is typically when Jordan feels like she needs to go shopping. I’d put my dogs up and go to the mall. I deserve to go shop. I deserve to go splurge. I like going to the Topanga mall. I really, really like Jamba Juice and there’s one in the Topanga mall. I used to know the secret menu by heart before they started putting it on the actual menu. My go-to is the White Gummi smoothie.

I love streetwear, so if there’s sneaker stores around, I’d check that out. I sometimes end up in an Apple Store, don’t ask me how or why. It just always ends up like that. If I need to get athleisure wear, I always go to Nike. You can never have too many Nike Pros. If I need to get my eyebrows threaded or my nails done, I can do everything at the mall while I’m shopping.

4 p.m.: Time for homework

I’m heading back home so I can beat traffic and let my dogs out. I’d probably sit on my couch, scrolling on Pinterest, trying to figure out what I’m going to eat. Then I’d start doing my homework. Since I am still in college, I’d start whatever I need to do for that week. I try to stay as organized as best as I can because it is hard being a businesswoman and still being a college student. I’d probably do homework for about 2 ½ hours.

7 p.m.: Domino’s pizza and more binge-watching

I’d turn whatever show I’m watching back on, then I’d either cook or sometimes I’ll order in. It honestly depends on what Sunday it is. If it’s football Sunday, you know I have the wings and the typical Sunday vibes. But if it’s not, I might make tacos or Alfredo, or order off Uber Eats. I know this is probably crazy but I really, really, really, really love Domino’s. I am a pizza person. My Domino’s order is a small pepperoni, pineapple, olives and sausage slice … hand tossed, cheesed up, and then I will get a side of garlic knots and a side of buffalo wings with ranch.

If it’s not Domino’s, then I either will do Shake Shack or Wendy’s. I know it’s probably crazy and you’re like “Jordan, you’re an athlete,” but sometimes a girl just has to go in that direction. I like teriyaki food and hibachi places, so I’d either order from a place called Blazed N Glazed or Teriyaki Madness, or this place on campus called Hibachi Papi.

9 p.m. Video games before bed

I have an Xbox and a PlayStation, so sometimes I will go into my game room and just literally sit in my chair and play “Call of Duty” or “Halo.” Other than that, I have no night rituals. I will just make sure my dogs are fed. I always pray before I go to bed and my skincare is legit all Medicube, but I always make sure to do a face mask every other day before I go to bed.

10:30 p.m.: Prepare for an early practice

Since I probably have to wake up the next morning for an early practice, I feel like 10:30 p.m. is a good time to go to sleep. Unless I’m doing something with my friends and we don’t get back until like 11:30 p.m., but other than that, I’m in my bed or at least on my couch just relaxing.

Sunday marked Senior Night for the USC women’s basketball team at Galen Center, but it was the other team’s seniors who stole the show.

Gabriela Jaquez scored 14 points, Kiki Rice had 11 points and four assists and Lauren Betts had 15 rebounds as UCLA wrapped up the regular season with a 73-50 victory over its rival and finished undefeated in conference play for the first time since going 18-0 in the Pac-10 in 1998-99 under Kathy Olivier.

Having already clinched the regular-season title, UCLA became the first team to navigate the Big Ten schedule without a loss since Maryland in 2014-15.

It was the Bruins’ 22nd consecutive win, one shy of the record they set last season. Since their lone loss to then-No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas, they have won by 20 or more points 16 times.

Ranked second in the nation in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls behind defending national champion Connecticut (30-0), the Bruins earned the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament in Indianapolis and got a bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

Charlisse Leger-Walker finished with a game-high 20 points for the Bruins while Gianna Kneepkens added 14 points and five assists.

UCLA center Lauren Betts, left, controls the ball in front of USC forward Vivian Iwuchukwu during the first half Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA (28-1, 18-0) held USC to 27% shooting in the teams’ first meeting — a 34-point Bruins victory at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 3 behind Betts’ 18 points. It was USC’s most lopsided loss under coach Lindsay Gottlieb. On Sunday, USC (17-12, 9-9) shot 39% and was only three for 19 from three-point range.

UCLA jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first five minutes and carried a 19-11 advantage into the second quarter. The Bruins widened the gap to 18 points by halftime, holding the Trojans scoreless for the last 3:08.

USC opened the second half on an 11-2 run.

Tim Lovejoy made a return to Channel 4 alongside co-host Simon Rimmer on Sunday morning

Sunday Brunch suffered an awkward moment as Tim Lovejoy was quick to question a guest on her unexpected “feud” with David Attenborough.

During Sunday’s (March 1) episode of the Channel 4 hit show, Tim made a return to TV alongside co-host Simon Rimmer, for the usual three-hour show packed with celebrity interviews, culinary demonstrations and light-hearted entertainment.

On the long-running programme, the pair chatted to the likes of EastEnders Samantha Womack and American pop star Tiffany Renee Darwish.

However it was their interview with Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock that took everyone by surprise as Tim was quick to call out the science expert on her unexpected fall out with David Attenborough.

Without hesitation, Tim went on to say: “I’ll just put it out there, we understand you’ve got beef with David Attenborough. You fell out with him.”

Maggie burst out laughing as she replied: “Yeah, It’s an ongoing feud, he’s going down.”

Tim wasted no time digging for information as he jumped in: “Tell us about that because you’re both legends of this country and you don’t like each other.” Simon: “It’s so sad actually.”

Maggie explained: “So I was sitting next to him at dinner and I was gobsmacked sitting next to him and he was lovely and wonderful and we started talking about each other’s lives.”

Tim joked: “When did you fall out, was it the main course?” Maggie burst out laughing as she continued: “We were talking about life beyond the earth. It’s just sort of a lovely topic and he was like, no, no Maggie, you know, life needs water.

“And I was like ‘but David no’. I was thinking because that’s life as we know it. All life on earth needs water. But out there there could be life.”

She added: “So we had this ongoing debate, at the end, I said, ‘okay, David, I’m gonna go out and prove my theory’. He said, ‘Maggie, you’re a star. Stay here with us’.”

Viewers watching at home were pleased to see Dame Maggie as they rushed to social media to share their reaction.

One viewer wrote on X: “I could listen to Dame Dr. Maggie all day. She’s got that infectious enthusiasm that always reels me in. #SundayBrunch.” Meanwhile another added: “I love Maggie she’s so humble and nice #SundayBrunch.”

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Local chapters of National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame have begun honoring the top senior football student-athletes, with the Coastal Canyon area banquet set for Sunday in Agoura.

Players are selected based on their grade-point averages and leadership skills, among other attributes, honoring the best of the best.

Such players as James Moffat from Crespi, Mateo Bilaver from Chaminade, Jacob Paisano of Hart, Diego and James Montes from Granada Hills Kennedy will represent their schools on Sunday.

The Los Angeles chapter will hold its gathering in Manhattan Beach on Friday.

Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert has taken over running the Coastal Canyon group with dozens of individual student-athletes set to be honored.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Andy Richter has found his place.

The Chicago area native previously lived in New York — where he first found fame as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on “Late Night” — before moving to Los Angeles in 2001. Three years ago, he moved to Pasadena. “Now that I live here, I would not live anywhere else,” he says.

There are some practical benefits to the city. “I am such a crabby old man now, but it’s like, there’s parking, you can park when we have to go out,” Richter says. “The notion of going to dinner in Santa Monica just feels like having nails shoved into my feet.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

But he mostly appreciates that Pasadena is “a very diverse town and just a beautiful town,” he says.

For Richter, most Sundays revolve around his family. In 2023, the comedian and actor married creative executive Jennifer Herrera and adopted her young daughter, Cornelia. (He also has two children in their 20s, William and Mercy, from his previous marriage.)

Additionally, he’s been giving his body time to recover. Richter spent last fall training and competing on the 34th season of “Dancing With the Stars.” And though he had no prior dancing experience, he won over the show’s fan base with his kindness and dedication, making it to the competition’s ninth week.

He hosts the weekly show “The Three Questions” on O’Brien’s Team Coco podcast network and still appears in films and TV shows. “I’m just taking meetings and auditioning like every other late 50s white comedy guy in L.A., sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.”

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

7:30 a.m.: Early rising

It’s hard for me at this advanced age to sleep much past 7:30. I have a 5 1/2-year-old, and hopefully she’ll sleep in a little bit longer so my wife and I can talk and snuggle and look at our phones at opposite ends of the bed, like everybody.

Then the dogs need to be walked. I have two dogs: a 120-pound Great Pyrenees-Border Collie-German Shepherd mix, and then at the other end of the spectrum, a seven-pound poodle mix. We were a blended dog family. When my wife and I met, I had the big dog and she had a little dog. Her first dog actually has passed, but we like that dynamic. You get kind of the best of both worlds.

8 a.m.: Breakfast at a classic diner

Then it would probably be breakfast at Shakers, which is in South Pasadena. It’s one of our favorite places. We’re kind of regulars there, and my daughter loves it. It’s easy with a 5-year-old, you’ve got to do what they want. They’re terrorists that way, especially when it comes to cuisine.

I’ve lived in Pasadena for about three years now, but I have been going to Shakers for a long time because I have a database of all the best diners in the Los Angeles metropolitan area committed to memory. There’s just something about the continuity of them that makes me feel like the world isn’t on fire. And because of L.A.’s moderate climate, the ones here stay the way they are; whereas if you get 18 feet of winter snow, you tend to wear down the diner floor, seats, everything.

So there’s a lot of really great old places that stay the same. And then there are tragic losses. There’s been some noise that Shakers is going to turn into some kind of condo development. I think that people would probably riot. They would be elderly people rioting, but they would still riot.

11 a.m.: Sandy paws

My in-laws live down in Long Beach, so after breakfast we might take the dogs down to Long Beach. There’s this dog beach there, Rosie’s Beach. I have never seen a fight there between dogs. They’re all just so happy to be out and off-leash, with an ocean and sand right there. You get a contact high from the canine joy.

1 p.m.: Lunch in Belmont Shore

That would take us to lunchtime and we’ll go somewhere down there. There’s this place, L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele, in Belmont Shore. It’s fantastic for some pizza with grandma and grandpa. It’s originally from Naples. There’s also one in Hollywood where Cafe Des Artistes used to be on that weird little side street.

4 p.m.: Sunset at the gardens

We’d take grandma and grandpa home, drop the dogs off. We’d go to the Huntington and stay a couple of hours until sunset. The Japanese garden is pretty mind-blowing. You feel like you’re on the set of “Shogun.”

The main thing that I love about it is the changing of ecospheres as you walk through it. Living in the area, I drive by it a thousand times and then I remember, “Oh yeah, there’s a rainforest in here. There’s thick stands of bamboo forest that look like Vietnam.” It’s beautiful. With all three of my kids, I have spent a lot of time there.

6:30 p.m.: Mall of America

After sundown, we will go to what seems to be the only thriving mall in America — [the Shops at] Santa Anita. We are suckers for Din Tai Fung. My 24-year-old son, who’s kind of a food snob, is like, “There’s a hundred places that are better and cheaper within five minutes of there in the San Gabriel Valley.” And we’re like, “Yeah, but this is at the mall.” It’s really easy. Also, my wife is a vegetarian, and a lot of the more authentic places, there’s pork in the air. It’s really hard to find vegetarian stuff.

We have a whole system with Din Tai Fung now, which is logging in on the wait list while we’re still on the highway, or ordering takeout. There’s plenty of places in the mall with tables, you can just sit down and have your own little feast there.

There’s also a Dave & Buster’s. If you want sensory overload, you can go in there and get a big, big booze drink while you’re playing Skee-Ball with your kid.

9 p.m.: Head to bed ASAP

I am very lucky in that I’m a very good sleeper and the few times in my life when I do experience insomnia, it’s infuriating to me because I am spoiled, basically. When you’ve got a 5 1/2-year-old, there’s no real wind down. It’s just negotiations to get her into bed and to sleep as quickly as possible, so we can all pass out.

CAMERON, N.C. — The 21-year-old North Carolina man who drove through a gate at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun before he was shot and killed worked as a golf course groundskeeper and liked to sketch.

Austin Tucker Martin rarely, if ever, talked about politics, seemed afraid of guns, and came from a family of Trump supporters, according to Braeden Fields, a cousin who said the two grew up together.

“I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said. “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun.”

Martin drove into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday and raised a shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who then opened fire “to neutralize the threat,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

Trump, who often spends weekends at the Palm Beach, Fla., resort, was at the White House at the time.

Investigators have not identified a motive. Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago when a man was spotted aiming a rifle through shrubbery while Trump was golfing.

Following Sunday’s incident, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believed Martin bought his shotgun while driving to Florida. Authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.

Martin was from central North Carolina, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they’d go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told the Associated Press on Sunday.

He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron. No one answered the door Monday, and the large police presence from the day before was gone.

Martin’s sister was killed in a car accident a few years ago, and he has an older brother who’s in the military, Fields said.

For the last three years, Martin had worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.

“It’s tragic. I feel for his family,” said Kelly Miller, president of the course in nearby Southern Pines. “It’s just unfortunate what transpired. It was totally unexpected.”

Martin last year started a business to sell pen drawings he made, according to state records. A website matching the company name features illustrations of golf courses, buildings and ancient Roman architecture.

Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said

“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”

Breed writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

On one of the most historic golf courses in the world, Jacob Bridgeman made some history of his own Sunday afternoon at Riviera Country Club.

Two months and three days after getting married, the 26-year-old from South Carolina has another memory to last a lifetime after winning for the first time on the PGA Tour and threatening the tournament scoring record at the Genesis Invitational.

“To do it against this field is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt,” said Bridgeman, who prevailed by a single shot over Kurt Kitayama and Rory McIlroy. “Fans were super supportive all day and winning at this course is a dream come true. I grew up watching this on TV.”

Beginning the final round with a six-stroke lead, Bridgeman birdied the first and third holes to take a seven-shot lead and send an early message to the other 50 players that he would be tough to catch. He carded a one-over-par 72 to finish at 18 under for a four-day total of 266 — two off the 72-hole standard achieved at the 1985 Los Angeles Open by Lanny Wadkins, who won by seven shots with rounds of 63, 70, 67 and 64.

Wadkins’ record-setting performance 41 years ago earned him $72,000 and made him the ninth golfer to earn more than $2 million in his career. Bridgeman pocketed $4 million on Sunday while Sepp Straka and Brian Harman split the last-place share of $51,000.

Making Bridgeman’s accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that he had never played Riviera before. What he lacked in experience he more than made up for with instinct, ingenuity and poise, especially during a crucial stretch of eight consecutive pars from holes eight through 15 on Sunday to become the tournament’s 100th champion.

Kurt Kitayama chips to the first green during the final round.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

“I didn’t play golf on Monday or Tuesday because of the weather and I just was a little bit worn out.” he said. “I played my pro-am Wednesday and kind of just had a casual round and let my caddie point me around. It wasn’t a whole lot of practice. I feel like I got my first kind of learning experience of the course Thursday and on Friday everything was a lot more familiar. I knew where some slopes were and where the tee shot lines were, so I started feeling a little more comfortable.”

Bridgeman, who had a stellar college career at Clemson (setting a school record with 50 career rounds in the 60s) before turning pro in 2022, was so dialed in with the putter Friday while grouped with Akshay Bhatia and Maverick McNealy that Bhatia’s caddie Joe Greiner asked him on No. 17: “Are you sure you’re not from the West Coast?”

The last player to notch his first PGA Tour victory at Riviera was James Hahn, who beat Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey in a playoff in the 2015 Northern Trust Open.

“This morning I let myself think about winning and everything was under control but guys started making runs and it got a little tighter than I wanted it too,” Bridgeman said. “This is one of the coolest places I could’ve done it.”

Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, winner of last year’s Genesis at Torrey Pines, tied for 20th at nine-under after a final-round 66.

The day before, Bridgeman matched the tournament’s 54-hole scoring record of 194 set four years ago by Joaquin Niemann, who went on to shoot even par in the final round to win by two strokes at 19 under.

As solid as Bridgeman was playing the first three rounds, eclipsing Wadkins’ record seemed almost inevitable. Instead, he had to have nerves of steel to par the last two holes and preserve the win.

Bridgeman stumbled with bogeys at No. 4 and No. 7 and was wary of two-time Riviera champion Adam Scott, who leapfrogged into second alongside McIlroy, Kitayama and Aldrich Potgieter after beginning the back nine with back-to-back birdies. He narrowed the margin to three with back-to-back birdies at the 17th and 18th to cap his second 63 in three days and finished alone in fourth at 16 under.

Rory McIlroy hits from the fourth tee during the final round.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

“It’s fun to make birdie at the 18th with this amphitheater,” Scott said. “Today I didn’t have my best and still had a great score.”

History has proven that no lead is safe on Sunday at Riviera. The last time it was played there in 2024 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan overcame a six-shot deficit to win by three shots after firing a 62 — the lowest final round score ever on the course.

“The pins were a lot more challenging than the first three days,” Bridgeman said. “They were harder to get to. For the putts on 17 and 18 I had no idea how hard to hit them.”

Kitayama, who started the final round nine shots behind, nearly pulled off an even bigger comeback, pulling to within one shot when he rolled in a 32-foot birdie at No. 17, and Bridgeman bogeyed No. 16 to drop to 18 under.

Ken Venturi staged the biggest final-round comeback in tournament history, shooting a 63 to erase an eight-shot deficit at Rancho Park in 1959.

McIlroy hit his 30-foot birdie putt just hard enough to fall at the famed 18th green to move into a second-place tie with Kitayama. Then, with tournament host Tiger Woods watching, Bridgeman nervously left his birdie putt three feet short but made his par and the crowd roared.

“I thought it would be a lot easier,” Bridgeman admitted. “It was easy until the 16th, then I made it harder. I was crazy nervous on that five-footer for bogey. I couldn’t feel my hands the last two greens.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was tied for last after the first day and barely made the cut at even par but played the last two rounds in 11 under par to finish tied for 12th.

NEW YORK — The Transportation Security Administration said Sunday that its PreCheck program would remain operational despite an earlier announcement from the Department of Homeland Security that the airport security service was being suspended because of the partial government shutdown.

“As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said in a statement.

Airport lines seemed largely unaffected through midday Sunday, with security check line wait times listed as under 15 minutes for most international airports, according to TSA’s mobile app.

Amy Wainscott, 42, flew from the Destin-Fort Walton Beach airport in Florida to Dallas Love Field on Sunday and said she didn’t hear about the announced suspension until she had already gone through TSA’s PreCheck.

“When we got to the airport this morning everything was working like usual,” she said. “It didn’t seem like anything had changed.”

Jean Fay, 54, said she had no issues going through TSA PreCheck at the Baltimore airport for her 6 a.m. Sunday flight back home to Texas. She didn’t hear about the suspension announcment until she was changing planes in Austin on her way to Dallas Love Field.

“When I landed in Austin I started getting the alerts,” she said.

It was not immediately clear whether Global Entry, another airport service, would be affected. PreCheck and Global Entry are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines, and suspensions would probably cause headaches and delays.

Since starting in 2013, more than 20 million Americans have signed up for TSA PreCheck, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and millions of those Americans also have overlapping Global Entry memberships. Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that allows preapproved, low-risk travelers to use expedited kiosks when entering the United States from abroad.

The turmoil is tied to a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have been demanding changes to aggressive federal immigration operations, central to President Trump’s deportation campaign, which have been widely criticized since the shooting deaths of two people in Minneapolis last month.

The security disruptions come as a major winter storm hit the East Coast from Sunday into Monday. Nine out of 10 flights going out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Boston Logan Airport on Monday have been canceled.

Homeland Security previously said it was taking “emergency measures to preserve limited funds.” Among the steps listed were “ending Transportation Security Administration (TSA) PreCheck lanes and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Global Entry service, to refocus Department personnel on the majority of travelers.”

“We are glad that DHS has decided to keep PreCheck operational and avoid a crisis of its own making,” said Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Assn.

Before announcing the PreCheck shutdown, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Saturday night that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.”

One group of fliers will definitely be affected, according to TSA.

“Courtesy escorts, such as those for Members of Congress, have been suspended to allow officers to focus on the mission of securing America’s skies,” the agency said.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, said Saturday night that “it’s past time for Congress to get to the table and get a deal done.” It also criticized the announcement, saying it was “issued with extremely short notice to travelers, giving them little time to plan accordingly.”

“A4A is deeply concerned that TSA PreCheck and Global Entry programs are being suspended and that the traveling public will be, once again, used as a political football amid another government shutdown,” the organization said.

Democrats on the House Committee on Homeland Security criticized the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of airport security after the initial announcement Saturday night. They accused the administration of “kneecapping the programs that make travel smoother and secure.”

Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, said Noem’s actions are part of an administration strategy to distract from other issues and shift responsibility.

“This administration is trying to weaponize our government, trying to make things intentionally more difficult for the American people as a political leverage,” he said Sunday on CNN. “And the American people see that.”

Swenson writes for the Associated Press.

Sunday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.

CLOSING CEREMONY
11:30 a.m. — NBC

MULTIPLE SPORTS
2 p.m. — Best of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games | NBC
9 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Closing ceremony, bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, hockey. | NBC

BOBSLED
1 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, Run 3 | Peacock
3:15 a.m. — 🏅Four-man bobsled, final run | Peacock
3:35 a.m. — 🏅Four-man bobsled, final run (in progress) | USA
4:15 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, final run (delay) | NBC
8 a.m. — Four-man bobsled, runs 3-4 (re-air) | NBC

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
1 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic | USA
4 a.m. — Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic (re-air) | USA
8:45 a.m. — Women’s 50-kilometer mass start classic (re-air) | NBC

CURLING
🏅Women’s gold-medal match
2:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden | Peacock
4 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden (delay) | USA, NBC
10:30 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Sweden (re-air) | USA

HOCKEY
🏅Men’s gold-medal match
5:10 a.m. — United States vs. Canada | NBC
1:30 p.m. — United States vs. Canada (re-air) | USA

Not only is Betye Saar a living legend, but the prolific L.A. artist continues to add to her impressive oeuvre day by day.

She’s been creating powerful, thought-provoking artwork since the ’60s and her pieces have been shown at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and LACMA, as well as museums and galleries around the world.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

As her centennial birthday approaches this July, Saar shows no signs of slowing down. She still routinely creates art and continues to garner headlines and accolades. Last year, she was honored with the distinction of “Icon Artist” at the Art Basel Awards. During the upcoming Frieze Los Angeles art festival, which opens Feb. 26, she will be the subject of the photography installation “Betye Saar Altered Polaroids.” And this May, “Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar” will debut at Roberts Projects, the gallery that represents her. The exhibition will feature pieces from her early career as a costume and jewelry designer.

Though she’s skilled at painting and photography, she’s most widely known for assemblage, the art of juxtaposing miscellaneous items to form a single cohesive work. Her dioramas, sculptures and large-scale multimedia installations explore the legacy of American slavery, confront racial injustice and celebrate the strength and resiliency of African American women.

“I work with found objects that had another purpose before they came to my hands,” Saar says while seated at a patio table in her succulent-filled tiered garden. “The hardest part of it is going to a flea market, secondhand stores, an estate sale or even just going behind a store to see what people throw away.”

Over the years, she’s traveled by plane, train and automobile in search of usable materials. Meanwhile, admirers, colleagues and gallery workers have sent her curios from New Mexico, Tennessee, New England and beyond. Her daughters — artists Alison and Lezley, and writer Tracye, their mother’s studio director — also stay on the lookout for objects that might catch her eye.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I have quite a collection,” she says.

Indeed, Saar’s multi-level home studio in Laurel Canyon is bursting with dozens of old empty picture frames, discarded window panes, wooden chests, antique chairs and vintage clocks. But there’s always room for more.

Her idea of a perfect Sunday includes foraging for new items (or old ones, as the case may be) to use in her daily art practice. And she’d return to her roots to do it.

“Pasadena is my hometown and I still have a few relatives that live there,” she says.

While visiting her old stomping grounds, she’d embark on a multi-stop shopping spree and wander through a longtime favorite San Gabriel Valley attraction (where her work just so happens to be on display).

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

10 a.m.: Search for hidden treasures

Pasadena Community College Flea Market is something that’s part of “the hunt.” Alison usually drives, sometimes Tracye. Some people are there early to get the deals; we’re not like that anymore. I like to look around and sometimes I find interesting fabrics, scarves to wear and strange-shaped succulents for my garden. I hardly ever find really good antiquing things there, because those are at antique stores and they’re usually pretty pricey. But I bought an old, rusty metal birdcage the seller said was from France. I like rusty stuff for my art. I also found an indigo blue kimono to wear at an art event later this year.

1 p.m.: Replenish with Thai food

I’d go down Fair Oaks Avenue — there’s some secondhand stores. Usually, it’s nothing I can use, but I still can’t say no. I have to go see for myself. Then, lunch at Saladang Garden. I always order chicken sate and the green papaya salad. Last time I went, we tried the Thai corn fritter which was really good and crispy. If food is too spicy, I can’t eat it. But somebody in my party would always have something spicy and I can have a spoonful to add to mine.

2:30 p.m.: More shopping

I am attracted to all the odd things at Gold Bug. Notepads and trinkets, curious vintage-y things with animals or interesting patterns, strange candles. Sometimes I surprise myself by buying something. They have a mixture of things that — whether it’s for the color, or the texture — I feel that I can recycle and fit into an art object that I’m making.

3:30 p.m.: Visit a childhood haunt (with a side of more shopping)

I really like the Huntington’s gardens. I remember the first time I went there was with my mother and a friend of hers, and we walked around. All the paths were dirt, you know, they hadn’t even gotten around to paving it yet. But I just fell in love with it. And I really like their gift shop.

6 p.m.: Head west for a culinary classic

If I go someplace to eat for lunch, I usually have leftovers to warm up. Nothing wrong with leftovers — if you liked it the first time, you’ll like it again! But if I had to go out to dinner, the Apple Pan. I would go there in the ’80s with my daughters. I like their sandwiches, or the hickory burger with cheese, and there’s good French fries.

8 p.m.: Tuck into some wind-down watching

Before bed, I like to watch the news because, otherwise, I don’t know what’s going on. I also like a lot of shows on PBS. “Finding Your Roots,” or dramas like “Sister Boniface Mysteries” and “Call the Midwife,” which has been going on forever!

A pair of F-16s sitting alert at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, were scrambled early Sunday morning after unidentified flying objects were reported over Nevada and, later, California. One of the objects proved puzzling enough to controllers at Oakland Center, the FAA’s regional air traffic hub, that it reached out to aircraft flying over the northern California area for visual confirmation about what was being observed.

Eventually, it was determined that the objects were weather balloons, officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told The War Zone Sunday night. As we have frequently reported, UFOs, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), are often confused with drones and balloons, although that doesn’t mean there still aren’t some odd, if not unexplainable, cases. Still, many in the UFO community roll their eyes at these claims as from Roswell on, balloons became a regular explanation for strange things in the sky.

We must note that information remains limited as to what exactly occurred, so details could change as we find out more.

The incident began at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday local time, according to flight tracking data and Air Traffic Control (ATC) audio. The F-16s, call signs SURF 31 and SURF 32, were scrambled after an object was tracked over the Reno, Nevada area. It was later seen over northern California and then a second object was observed.

Much of what happened during these encounters is unclear. At some point, however, Oakland Center was informed about an object flying near Sacramento, but did not know what it was. So an air traffic controller asked aircraft in the vicinity if they saw anything in its direction. A 747-8, UPS flight 32 (UPS32), responded, reporting a “glowing and dimming” object somewhere over the Sacramento area.  Additional aircraft saw it too, so the F-16s, refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker from March Air Reserve Base, callsign GASMAN, were vectored toward the area.

The following is a transcript of ATC recordings obtained by The War Zone from aviation enthusiast Josh Cox that offer snippets from the conversation between Oakland Center and the UPS flight, as well as between Oakland Center and SURF 31.

Oakland Center to UPS 32: UPS Three-Two, if you could do me a favor, One to two o’clock in about 60 miles, F level, 2-5-0, I guess we’re looking for something out there that we don’t have any information on. So if you just keep an eye on that direction, again, one to two o’clock, 60 miles currently, I’ll call it out as you get closer, and if you see anything. 

UPS 32: Something we’ve been kind of looking at in that direction, that sort of right, giving we kind of figured it was just something along the horizon near the dawn. Sometimes you get kind of weird stuff like that, but it’s not really moving. Is your object staying in one place?

Oakland Center: Yeah, we’re being told it’s in that area. And you said…it’s dimming and glowing a little bit. We’ll keep that in mind, but thanks. I appreciate it. If it changes at all, just let me know… I’m not showing anything on my radar, but we’re being told something’s out there that they’re looking for. And UPS Three-Two. Do you know about what altitude it looks like?

UPS 32: (Indecipherable).

Oakland Center: UPS Three-Two, appreciate all the help. We’ll share more information for you, but you can contact Oakland Center at 1.34.15. You have a good one, yeah, it’s about 60 miles…that’s about where we were showing it too. Like I said, thank you. 

The recording we obtained then segues to a conversation between AORTC and SURF31.

SURF 31: SURF Three-One, approved as requested…

Oakland Center: SURF Three-One, it would now be a two-six-zero heading. Just let me know if you want to proceed. 

SURF 31: SURF Three-One, flying two-six-zero.

Oakland Center: SURF Three-One affirmative…it would be about 20 miles from your current position…probably about your nine o’clock. If you could keep an eye out for anything that’s unusual…When we last saw it, it had some orange glowing and dimming lights. But if you see anything unusual out there, just let me know.

You can listen to the audio yourself in the video below:

Oakland Center Asks UPS Flight 32 To Spot Unidentified Object Over Sacremento

After about two hours, the F-16s were ordered to return to base, but then were again tasked toward northern California due to reports of a second unidentified target. The pilot of one of the F-16s was heard on air traffic control audio describing the object seen in the second intercept as a balloon.

“There were no solar panels that I could see, like a balloon with a line hanging down,” the pilot stated. It was unclear which of the two F-16s he was flying. “There was something about halfway down the line. There was another, like tiny object. I can’t tell what it was. Then the line hung down further than that. There were no solar panels. There was no payload. The only distinctive color was the balloon itself was semi reflective. The line itself looked a whitish gray, but it’s hard to tell no other determinately of objects that could be identified.”

While unconfirmed, there seems to have been an E-3 Sentry AWACS involved in this operation. We have seen them scramble to support fighter intercept operations during the Chinese balloon incident and following it when it came to scrambles on mysterious objects. It appears this was one of those cases. The E-3 could provide persistent high-fidelity radar tracking of the target and help support the fighters in their investigation.

While not identifying what type of aircraft was used to track down the balloons, NORAD confirmed the F-16 pilot’s observation.

“On February 15, 2026, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected and tracked two Unidentified Balloons (UIBs) over the north central coast of California,” NORAD told us. “The balloons were observed moving northeast, and NORAD assets, including fighter aircraft, were deployed to assess the objects.”

“NORAD’s assessment determined that both objects exhibited characteristics consistent with typical weather balloons,” the command added. “The balloons do not pose a military threat, present no risk to civil aviation, and have no means of maneuver. Based on this evaluation, NORAD has assessed that the UIBs pose no threat to North America.”

While NORAD said that both objects were balloons, we have no independent confirmation, such as radio traffic, regarding the first one.

Balloons are the objects most frequently identified as UAPs by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The office was established in 2022 as a centralized organization for managing U.S. military-wide policies and procedures for tracking, reporting, and analyzing UAP incidents, as well as a repository for relevant intelligence assessments and other data.

According to the most recent AARO data from a 30-year period up to January 15, 2026, balloons were named as the source of 52.1% of all UAP reports where an identification could ultimately be made. Satellites were the next most commonly identified objects. Sightings of SpaceX Starlink constellations in particular have often been reported as UAP. This is especially true for pilots seeing ‘flares’ from the Starlink satellites, which can look like aircraft making circles on the horizon.

While NORAD explained that the balloons on Sunday posed no threat, not all have proven to be benign. It was almost exactly three years ago that an object identified as a Chinese spy balloon traversed the U.S. before being shot down by an F-22 Raptor off the coast of South Carolina. That incident sparked concerns that sensitive installations were being surveilled by Beijing and questions about why it took so long to bring it down.

The next week, U.S. fighters shot down a trio of UAPs in the course of three days in separate incidents over Alaska, Canada’s Yukon Territory, and Lake Huron. 

Last month, the commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, operational commander for the Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Region (CANR), confirmed to us that the object shot down over the Yukon was a balloon.

“I’m tracking one object that was shot down near White Horse using an F-22 under the NORAD agreement, obviously authorized by the Canadian government,” Royal Canadian Air Force Maj. Gen. Chris McKenna explained during an exclusive interview. “I don’t believe they have found the wreckage of that thing yet. It’s a white balloon in the middle of a white expanse of snow, so it is actually hard to find. We had Canadian military folks searching for it for weeks. As far as I know, we did not recover it. It was a balloon, either research or a state actor. It’s not known which. I can’t really give you that detail.”

The object over Lake Huron, brought down by an F-16, was determined to most likely have been a weather balloon launched from a U.S. National Weather Service radar station in Michigan. Audio we obtained of that event also more or less confirms that it was a balloon. 

Radio Audio From F-16 Shoot Down Of Object Over Lake Huron

While the F-16s weren’t scrambled Sunday specifically to intercept balloons, the shootdowns in 2023 showed serious gaps in how these objects are tracked. There have been major challenges digesting the massive amounts of sensor data that is available, as the Chinese spy balloon incident clearly showed. Data from sensors that might have picked up the Chinese spy balloon, in particular, was previously filtered out so as not to overwhelm radar controllers and their analysis process. That presented a dilemma, because balloons pose a variety of very real potential national security threats, something The War Zone regularly highlights.

Changing the sensor filters to allow more data to be collected has resulted in more targets being seen, which in turn has resulted in more scrambles. NORAD is clearly taking these objects more seriously, as we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of the Chinese spy balloon.

Once again, right now we still only have information based on radio chatter, flight tracking and what NORAD told us. As we noted earlier, this story could evolve if we find out more on exactly how this chain of events all started and how the first object was identified. It certainly isn’t the first time we have seen a strange occurrence in the air over this region.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

The way Sheila E. remembers it, she received her first call about a gig as a working Los Angeles musician as she was busy unpacking the moving truck with which she’d just moved to L.A.

“‘Can you come do a session?’ — that type of thing,” the Oakland native recalls with a laugh. “It was pretty awesome.”

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

This was 1980 or ’81, she reckons, just after she’d come off the road playing percussion for the jazz star George Duke; by 1984, she’d become a star herself with the pop hit “The Glamorous Life,” which she cut with her mentor Prince and which went to No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Over the decades that followed, Sheila E. went on to record or perform with everyone from Ringo Starr to Beyoncé. Yet her latest projects look back to her earliest days playing Latin jazz with her father, fellow percussionist Pete Escovedo: “Bailar” is a salsa album with guest vocal spots by the likes of Rubén Blades and Gloria Estefan, while an accompanying instrumental disc features appearances by players such as bassist Marcus Miller and trumpeter Chris Botti.

Sheila E. will tour Europe in April. Here, she runs down her routine for a welcome day off at home in L.A.

10 a.m.: Parents in the pews

I would get up around 7:30 or 8, and the first thing I’ll do is go to church. My church is called Believe L.A., and it’s in Calabasas. My pastor is Aaron Lindsey, who’s an incredible gospel producer who’s won many Grammys. The band is always on point, and it feeds my soul — it’s what I need as part of my food. You just walk out so happy. I mean, I walk in happy most of the time. But you walk out filled with love and peace. It’s a joyful time, especially when I get to bring my parents with me. Still having them around is a huge blessing. They just celebrated their 69th anniversary. That’s really rare.

Noon: No juice required

After church we’ll go to brunch at Leo & Lily in Woodland Hills. Sometimes I’ll order the breakfast, which is two eggs and turkey bacon and potatoes. But sometimes that’s a little bit too heavy, so I’ll get the orzo salad, which is really good. I might have an espresso, or I might have a glass of Champagne. I don’t like mimosas — just give it to me straight.

1:30 p.m.: Retail therapy

My parents love driving down Ventura Boulevard. We’ll stop at some places and go window shopping, or maybe we’ll go to the Topanga Westfield mall. And when we finish at the mall, I have to go to Costco. The Costco run is really just for my dog — I have to get all her food. I get turkey and vegetables, and I cook all that and pre-make her meals for two weeks so I don’t have to deal with it. I can just open it, warm it up and feed her. She’s a mixed pit rescue, and her name is Emma. I got her when she was 5 months old in Oakland while we were performing, and now she’s 12. She’s a sweetheart.

4 p.m.: Family secret

We’re sports fans, so if it’s football season, we have to hurry up and get back to my house for the game. We’re a 49ers family. I would say the Raiders because we’re from Oakland, but we’ve always been 49ers fans. I mean, when it’s time to root for the Raiders, we do. We don’t hate like the Raiders hate on us. I’ll cook food depending on who all’s coming over — my nephews and various friends and so on. I grill a lot, so I’ll do steaks or lamb chops or chicken wings. My mom loves making potato salad. I can’t tell you the recipe — it’s a secret. It’s actually her mother’s potato salad, and they’re Creoles. Those Creoles don’t mess around with their potato salad.

8:30 p.m.: Games after the game

I never tell anyone to leave. Sometimes people spend the night — it’s an open house. If we’re not too tired, we’ll start playing board games or card games. Don’t get us started on poker.

11:30 p.m.: Steam time

Before bed I’ll get into the sauna just to relax and do a little sweating. Then I go take a shower with jazz or spa music playing. Sometimes I’ll do a little stretching before I get in the bed. I usually don’t read before I go to sleep. My go-to is HGTV — I set it for an hour and a half, and I’m out.