system

A United States court has tossed a lawsuit from President Donald Trump that accused every federal judge in the Maryland district court system of having “used and abused” their powers.

On Tuesday, District Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump appointee, granted the Maryland judges’ request to have the case dismissed.

Cullen normally serves in the federal court system for the western district of Virginia, but since all 15 judges in Maryland’s district court system were named as defendants in the case, someone from outside the state had to be brought in to resolve the case.

The lawsuit was a highly unusual, broad-strokes attack on the federal judicial system in Maryland, where Trump’s immigration agenda has faced several high-profile setbacks.

Critics also say the lawsuit was yet another indication of Trump’s adversarial approach to the judicial branch of the government, which he has repeatedly accused of over-stepping its authority in the wake of unfavourable rulings.

But during hearings on the subject, Cullen had expressed doubt about the Trump administration’s case early on.

He questioned what might happen to the government’s separation of powers if Trump and his officials decided to sue an appellate court or even the Supreme Court for disagreeing with his policies.

Cullen described the lawsuit against all of Maryland’s federal judges as an escalation in Trump’s fight with the judiciary: “taking it up about six notches”, he said.

“I think you probably picked up on the fact that I have some scepticism,” Cullen told lawyers for Trump’s Department of Justice.

Cullen also suggested that the Trump administration would have been better served by appealing the specific court injunctions it disagreed with, rather than suing an entire district court system.

“It would have been more expeditious than, you know, the two months we’ve spent on this,” he said.

Origins of the lawsuit

The Trump administration first filed its lawsuit on June 25. At the time, the Justice Department explained that it objected to the “automatic injunctions” that the court system “issued for federal immigration enforcement actions”.

Trump has been leading a campaign of mass deportation since taking office for a second term in January. That effort, in turn, has prompted a slew of legal challenges over immigrants’ right to a court hearing, among other issues.

In announcing June’s lawsuit, Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that Trump had been subject to “an endless barrage of injunctions designed to halt his agenda”.

The complaint cited a May 20 order from Chief Judge George Russell of the Maryland district court system, which barred the Trump administration from immediately deporting immigrants who had filed a habeas corpus petition — a petition for a court to review the lawfulness of their detention.

Under Russell’s order, the block against deportation would remain in place for two business days, unless a judge decided to extend it.

In justifying the order, Russell explained that the Trump administration’s deportation push had resulted in “hurried and frustrating hearings” that lacked “clear and concrete” information.

He added that his order would ensure access to the court, allowing both the government and immigrants “fulsome opportunity” to present their cases.

Maryland has also been the site of other court hurdles for the Trump administration’s agenda, though Russell’s order was the only one singled out in the lawsuit.

For example, in April, Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the Trump administration had to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose wrongful deportation came in spite of a 2019 court protection order barring his removal.

Xinis has since warned that she was weighing contempt charges against the Trump administration for failing to comply with her orders.

What arguments were made in the case?

But the Trump administration has maintained that the judges’ court orders amount to the “unlawful restraint” of the president’s powers.

“Injunctions against the Executive Branch are particularly extraordinary because they interfere with that democratically accountable branch’s exercise of its constitutional powers,” the complaint said.

In an August 13 hearing, lawyers for the Justice Department presented those arguments before Judge Cullen.

“Every single time one of these orders gets entered, our sovereign interests in enforcing duly-enacted immigration law are being inhibited,” Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Hedges argued.

The extraordinary nature of an entire court system being sued required Maryland’s 15 federal judges to hire their own legal team in their defence.

Paul Clement — a conservative lawyer from the law firm Clement & Murphy who previously served under former President George W Bush — represented them at that hearing and called the Trump administration’s attacks “no ordinary matter”.

He pointed out that the lawsuit disrupted the everyday business of the court system, including by requiring Judge Cullen to travel from Virginia to oversee the case.

“All of the alternatives that are available avoid that kind of nightmare scenario,” Clement said. “That nightmare scenario is part of the reason that we don’t have a tradition of suits that are executive versus judiciary.”

Clement also argued that the Trump administration aimed to limit the power of the judiciary to weigh constitutional matters related to immigration.

“The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a coequal branch of government,” Clement said. “There really is no precursor for this suit.”

After all the transfer portal trackers and the Lincoln Riley Finebaum rants and the landscape-altering, paradigm-shifting changes to the sport, it’s finally game week here at the Times of Troy.

We’re at the doorstep of a new USC football season, which means there’s no better time to subscribe to this newsletter and ensure you get the best USC analysis — not to mention TV recs, Big Ten betting picks, Midwest travel tips and more — delivered to your inbox every Monday morning.

For this week, it’s time for the Times of Troy to get down to business. We’ve told you what the best-case scenario would look like for Lincoln Riley and the Trojans this season. We’ve told you the worst case. So now, let’s talk about how we actually think this season will unfold at USC.

Aug. 30 vs. Missouri State: USC was supposed to welcome Lane Kiffin back to the Coliseum in this one. Instead, they get a team playing in its first game as a Football Bowl Subdivision team. Missouri State had just six winning seasons in this century at the FCS level. Its record over the last five years (26-31) is the worst of any team making the FBS transition ever. The Bears have a quarterback with some potential in Jacob Clark, but that won’t be nearly enough.

Prediction: USC wins, 52-10

Sept. 6 vs. Georgia Southern: Clay Helton’s return to the Coliseum could be an uncomfortable affair, if only because Georgia Southern might actually be one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference. At the very least, they return a lot of experience on both sides of the ball. That shouldn’t trip up a team with the talent of USC. But don’t be surprised if the Trojans come out tight. A big mistake from USC makes things interesting before the defense clamps down in the second half.

Prediction: USC wins, 33-20

Sept. 13 at Purdue: It’s tough to know what to expect from a team that brought in 54 (!!) transfers, but I’ve seen enough of Purdue in recent years to not expect all that much. Barry Odom worked magic at Nevada Las Vegas, but it won’t be nearly that simple in West Lafayette, with a Big Ten schedule ahead. For USC, this is as smooth of a Big Ten road opener as they could hope for. It should be noted the Trojans did lose a game like this — to Maryland — a year ago. This time, USC takes the opportunity to prove it can push down the gas pedal late.

Prediction: USC wins, 38-13

Sept. 20 vs. Michigan State: Entering this game at 3-0 is essential because the road gets much rockier from here. If quarterback Aidan Chiles can make the leap in his second year with Jonathan Smith, the Spartans could make this interesting. But this is still a Spartan offense that ranked 123rd of 134 teams in points per game last season. They won’t be that bad in 2025, but this early in the season, I don’t see the Spartans keeping up. Especially with USC’s defense eager to make a statement.

Prediction: USC wins, 30-17

Sept. 27 at Illinois: I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the direction of USC’s entire season could be determined in Champaign, Ill., in late September. A win could catapult the Trojans into playoff contention. A loss could start a monthlong slide. They’re not the only ones with a lot on the line here, though. Illinois has its own playoff ambitions. Plus, the Illini return 18 starters, including quarterback Luke Altmyer, who’s already one of the best in the conference. I toiled over picking this game, but ultimately couldn’t get USC’s struggles on the road last season out of my head.

Prediction: USC loses, 24-23

Oct. 11 vs. Michigan: We know that Michigan will have a top-tier defense, but on offense, so much rides on a relative unknown, albeit one with a rocket right arm. True freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood looks the part of a Vince Young clone, but will he be able to handle a hostile atmosphere and keep his composure? Michigan will have already faced Oklahoma (at home) and Nebraska (in Lincoln) by this point, so this isn’t Underwood’s first rodeo on the road. The Coliseum will be rocking, and USC will be eager to avenge last season’s loss. But the Trojans offensive line will struggle to stay intact. And in a grind-it-out kind of game, I favor Michigan and its defensive front.

Prediction: USC loses, 28-24

Oct. 18 at Notre Dame: After back-to-back difficult defeats, USC travels to South Bend for arguably the toughest game of its season. We don’t know yet what to expect out of C.J. Carr and the Notre Dame passing attack, but that’s pretty much where the questions stop. The Irish have the best run game USC will face all season, led by Heisman candidate Jeremiyah Love, and probably the best overall defense, too. Unless Jayden Maiava has a star turn or USC’s defense creates turnovers, it could be a long trip for the Trojans.

Prediction: USC loses, 27-17

Nov. 1 at Nebraska: The bye comes at a critical time here for USC, having lost three in a row. In this scenario, we might be talking about whether or not Riley should continue with Maiava at quarterback. But traveling to Lincoln is no walk in the park. The Huskers have one of the more hostile environments in the Big Ten and could be primed for a leap this season. That said, I do think USC will exorcise its road demons somewhere on this schedule. The calls for five-star freshman Husan Longstreet might have gotten pretty loud by this point, but Maiava comes up big while the Trojans’ backs are against the wall.

Prediction: USC wins, 34-31

Nov. 7 vs. Northwestern: The short week after an emotional win leaves USC primed for a letdown, and the Wildcats should be improved with a passable quarterback in Southern Methodist transfer Preston Stone now under center. But the gap between these two teams is just too significant for Northwestern to bridge on the road. USC’s defense dominates, and Maiava continues to roll.

Prediction: USC wins, 41-16

Nov. 15 vs. Iowa: I think Iowa will surprise people this season, now that it finally has a quarterback in Mark Gronowski capable of slinging it. Kirk Ferentz will always have the Hawkeyes playing good defense, and they could make life difficult on Maiava and USC’s passing attack if the Trojans get behind. It’s just the sort of game where Riley’s coaching and in-game management will play a critical role. So, too, will D’Anton Lynn’s defensive prowess. I think his group comes up big in this one, giving Lynn another showcase for NFL teams looking for their next coordinator.

Prediction: USC wins, 24-17

Nov. 22 at Oregon: After so much roster turnover and with a new quarterback at the helm, Oregon is a big question mark to me. Between the two of USC’s toughest road tilts — Notre Dame being the other — this game feels more winnable to me. That said, I have a tough time envisioning USC heading into Autzen in late November. We just haven’t seen Riley’s teams win games like this yet. New Oregon running back Makhi Hughes will continue his surge as one of the Big Ten’s best backs, and the Ducks defensive front, led by Matayo Uiagalelei, will give USC’s offensive line fits.

Prediction: USC loses, 38-31

Nov. 29 vs. UCLA: Count me as someone who doesn’t buy the sudden hype for a Bruins offense led by Nico Iamaleava. For one, the weapons around Iamaleava aren’t nearly of the caliber as they were last season at Tennessee. UCLA’s defense was able to keep Maiava in check last season, but that was a full year ago. USC has a big day with its downfield offense, and the Trojans take the crosstown rivalry for the third time in four years.

Prediction: USC wins, 42-24

Official Times of Troy record prediction: 8-4

It’s only right, I guess, that after suggesting USC could go anywhere from 6-6 to 10-2, I end up settling right in the middle. USC’s defense is going to take a step forward this season — I feel confident about that much. But there are still too many questions on offense, namely along the offensive line, for me to trust the Trojans to beat teams like Illinois, Nebraska, Notre Dame or Oregon on the road. It’s up to Maiava to make me eat my words.

Matt Leinart led USC to the national title in 2004.

(Los Angeles Times)

—With DJ Wingfield not suiting up this fall, the starting offensive line that makes the most sense to me … has Tobias Raymond at left guard, and Justin Tauanuu at right tackle. Riley has harped for years about having his best five linemen, regardless of position, playing up front. Tauanuu has more pedigree and experience, both in practice and in games, than Micah Banuelos. Plus, when Redmond was being recruited, USC told him they saw him as a future NFL interior lineman. The bigger question may be at center, where Kilian O’Connor has kept even with transfer J’Onre Reed all camp.

—Count receivers Tanook Hines and Corey Simms as freshmen who could contribute. Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon will get the lion’s share of targets this season, but beyond them, the receiver room is wide open. Prince Strachan will presumably start the season on the outside opposite of Lane, while Zacharyus Williams and Jay Fair will factor in on a rotational basis. But before season’s end, don’t be surprised if either of these two works their way into a role.

—USC will once again pick its captains weekly. Most fans I’ve talked to didn’t love this setup last season, but Riley thinks it gives players an incentive to prove themselves every week. I think the real answer is probably that it doesn’t impact much at all. Players know who the team leaders are, whether they’re announced as captains or not.

—The SEC is finally adopting a nine-game league schedule. Which the Big Ten has been pushing for, publicly and privately. But while the Big Ten got what it wants in this case — and what’s best for college football, I might add — the SEC wouldn’t make this move for equity’s sake. My guess is that this compromise eventually leads the Big Ten to accept the SEC’s preferred model for the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten has held out to this point on a system with four automatic qualifiers for themselves and the SEC, the rest of the power conferences, including the SEC, want a format with five conference champions and 11 at-large bids.

—Auburn has decided to claim the 2004 national title for itself. L-O-L. The record books may say that USC vacated the 2004 national title. But let’s set aside that technicality for a moment to marvel at the audacity of claiming a championship more than two decades after the fact. And not just that, but claiming a championship that rightfully belongs to one of the greatest college football teams of the 21st century. That Trojans team set out to “leave no doubt” during that season after sharing the title in 2003, and they proceeded to go wire to wire at No. 1 in the AP poll, beating their opponents by an average net margin of 25 points per game. No one doubted who was the champion then, and no one doubts it now. No matter what the NCAA or Auburn happens to claim.

In case you missed it

Q&A: Former USC star Todd Marinovich says it was cathartic to finally write his own story

Carson Palmer embracing the challenges and joys of coaching high school football

Top USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane cleared to play after breaking his foot during offseason

Judge’s ruling effectively blocks two players from competing for USC and UCLA this season

What I’m watching this week

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Platonic.”

(Paul Sarkis / Apple TV+)

Seth Rogen has been on an absolute heater lately — “The Studio” is probably my favorite show of 2025 to date — and his role in “Platonic” is just another feather in his cap. I could watch Rogen and Rose Byrne banter for hours on end, which is pretty much the premise of this Apple comedy about two platonic forty-something friends grappling with their lives. What we’ve seen of the second season so far is letting other members of the cast cook, too, which is always a great sign for where a comedy is headed.

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — President Trump, as you sit down with President Lee Jae Myung on Aug. 25, you must not be swayed by his dangerously naive stance on “respect” for North Korea‘s political system. I say this not as a politician or a pundit, but as a soldier and practitioner/strategist who has spent his life confronting the nature of authoritarian regimes and understanding what it takes to resist them. President Lee’s position, that South Korea should affirm “respect” for the North’s totalitarian system and renounce unification by absorption, is not only strategically misguided but also morally bankrupt. It plays directly into Kim Jong Un‘s political warfare playbook, undermines the very purpose of the ROK/U.S. alliance, and sends a chilling message to 25 million oppressed Koreans living under tyranny.

Let’s be crystal clear: North Korea (with its Workers Party of Korea) is not a legitimate political system (which is why many of us write “north” in the lower case, though our editors often correct this). It is not a state that deserves our diplomatic courtesies or rhetorical deference. It is a mafia-like crime family cult masquerading as a government. It is a totalitarian regime that has committed, and continues to commit, crimes against humanity, as documented exhaustively in the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report. These are not allegations. They are facts backed by satellite images, eyewitness testimony, and escapee accounts. We are talking about gulags, torture chambers, public executions, and enforced starvation. To “respect” such a system is to betray the Korean people in the North who suffer daily under its jackboot.

President Lee’s argument is that by affirming respect and renouncing absorption, he can create space for inter-Korean dialogue and reduce tensions. But this is a fantasy built on hope, not strategy. The Kim family regime does not seek coexistence. It seeks domination. It does not want peace. It wants submission. It does not seek reconciliation. It seeks leverage. Every time a South Korean leader or American president makes conciliatory gestures without demanding reciprocal action, Kim Jong Un sees it not as good faith, but as weakness. He exploits it to gain legitimacy, extract economic concessions, and drive wedges into our alliance.

President Lee says he is not seeking unification by absorption. Fine. But he also says he “respects” the North’s political system. That is where the real danger lies. Because the more we normalize the abnormal, the more we embolden the regime to harden its rule. What the Korean people in the North deserve is not the international community’s respect for their captors, but solidarity with their longing for liberation. They deserve a unified Korea, not by force, but by freedom. That is not absorption. That is self-determination.

President Trump, you know what it means to negotiate from a position of strength. You know how dangerous it is to give away leverage before the other side has made a single concession. Do not allow your personal rapport with Kim Jong Un, or your desire for a legacy-defining deal, to cloud your judgment. You called Kim “rocket man” before you exchanged “love letters.” But love letters won’t free the Korean people, and respect for the regime won’t bring peace.

President Lee’s gestures, halting propaganda broadcasts, telling activists to stop sending leaflets and restoring the 2018 military agreement, may seem like confidence-building measures. But without reciprocity, they are simply appeasement. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a key regime mouthpiece, has already dismissed Lee’s outreach as a “pipe dream.” That should tell us everything we need to know about Pyongyang’s intentions.

The ROK/U.S. alliance must remain grounded in shared values, freedom and liberty, human rights, and the rule of law. Any strategy that begins by legitimizing the enemy’s political system undermines those very values. You would never “respect” ISIS’s caliphate or al-Qaeda’s ideology. Why offer respect to a regime that systematically enslaves its own people and threatens nuclear war?

To be clear, no one is advocating war. We are advocating clarity of purpose and unity of message. Our strategic objective must remain what it has always been: the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula under a liberal democratic system that guarantees the rights and dignity of all Koreans. That does not require invasion. It requires principled resistance to tyranny and a long-term strategy to support internal change, what some might call a Korean-led, values-based unification.

You have the power to set the tone for this summit. Do not give Kim Jong Un the propaganda victory of seeing the leader of the free world align with a South Korean president who chooses appeasement over accountability. Instead, reaffirm the alliance’s moral foundation. Remember the image of Ji Seung Ho holding up his crutches at your first State of the Union address to inspire all of us with his escape from the North. Speak directly to the Korean people in the North: We have not forgotten you. We will not abandon you. We do not “respect” your oppressors. We believe in your future.

Mr. President, history will remember what you say in that room with President Lee. Will you echo his message of concession? Or will you stand firm on the principles that made America great and the alliance strong?

I urge you, do not be persuaded by words that excuse oppression. Instead, speak truth. And let that truth be a beacon to all Koreans, North and South, who still believe in freedom.

David Maxwell is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel who has spent more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region. He specializes in Northeast Asian security affairs and irregular, unconventional and political warfare. He is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation. After he retired, he became associate director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. He is on the board of directors of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the OSS Society and is the editor at large for the Small Wars Journal.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, and the happiest of birthdays to my son, Camden, who turns 2 today. Judging by how often he’s pointing at the TV and screaming for me to turn on NFL preseason games, I’d say he is as ready for “ball ball” season as anyone.

Fortunately for him — and us — we are less than two weeks out from USC’s season opener against Missouri State. There’s still a lot we don’t know. But before we walk our way through the schedule next week, it’s time to get on the record with a few things I think might happen with USC..

Here are six bold predictions for the Trojans in 2025:

Jayden Maiava will throw for 30 touchdowns this season. But he’ll also throw 15 interceptions.

Maiava made a concerted effort over the summer to eliminate the back-breaking mistakes he struggled with last season. He dug deeper into Lincoln Riley’s offense, and he worked on his mechanics with the experts at the 3DQB training academy. But Maiava’s style is always going to lend itself to high variance. He loves to chuck it deep and still seems to throw it too often into coverage. That’s going to yield some thrilling results at times on an offense that should be more conducive to big plays. But 4.3% of his passes last season were deemed turnover-worthy by Pro Football Focus. That was third-highest in the Big Ten and too high for USC’s offense to reach its potential. His big-time throw rate was also third-highest in the Big Ten at 5.1%, though, and that was before he fully grasped the Trojans offense. There’s room to grow here. But I’d caution that his proclivity for throwing caution to the wind might just be a part of the deal with Maiava.

USC will be shuffling its offensive line all season.

USC hasn’t really had a reliable front since Riley’s first season, and this is by far his most unproven unit yet. The interior is a legitimate concern if DJ Wingfield isn’t deemed eligible. I expect at some point this season we’ll see a former walk-on (Kilian O’Connor) and a preferred walk-on (Kaylon Miller) start a game at center and guard, respectively. And while both should be commended for their development, that’s not a good sign for USC’s offense. The Trojans desperately need Elijah Paige to deliver on his huge potential this season at left tackle, Alani Noa to iron out some of his inconsistencies at right guard, and Tobias Raymond to live up to Riley’s billing of him as one of the best players on the team. That’s a lot to ask. Expect many different combinations up front for USC, with J’Onre Reed, Micah Banuelos and Justin Tauanuu also logging starts throughout. That’s eight different starters on the line, which would be the most since Riley took over at USC.

USC will have two 1,000-yard receivers.

The last time a duo of Trojan receivers crossed that mark was 2019, so not that long ago, but it’s been pretty rare around college football the past decade. Less than two teams on average per year, to be exact. Still, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Ja’Kobi Lane and Makai Lemon both cross that mark. Lemon’s last eight games of 2024 put him on pace for more than 1,000 yards already, and that was with a much less potent downfield passing game for most of the season. Lane might be the more unlikely of the two to reach this mark, but I’m betting on talent. He has to see more targets this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a target share for the two of them that nears 50%. In the bowl game, the two of them saw a combined 18 targets, a 46% target share.

Walker Lyons will be USC’s most productive tight end.

This is no shade on Lake McRee, who has been a reliable tentpole of the Trojans’ attack for a while now. But Lyons is just the sort of tight end that should thrive in Riley’s offense. More than anyone Riley has worked with yet at USC, Lyons is more in the mold of Mark Andrews, who emerged as one of the top tight ends in college football in Riley’s first season at Oklahoma. Like Andrews, he came to college as more of a skilled receiver learning to play inline. Now it’s clear he’s ready for the next step. A breakout season could be incoming.

USC will have three first-round picks next April.

A look at recent history might suggest that I’m crazy. USC had three players drafted total last spring and haven’t seen three Trojans drafted in the first round since 2009. Alas, I’m still not deterred. Either or both of Lemon and Lane could hear their names called in the first round. Kamari Ramsey might have been a first-round pick last season, if he’d declared, and Gentry has all the tools to make it happen. It’s not crazy to think that others could enter the chat too. With a huge breakout season, Maiava, Paige and defensive tackle Devan Thompkins are intriguing cases to consider. Though, the first round might be a bit too optimistic.

USC will rediscover its pass rush.

Count me as someone who believes USC’s defense takes another step forward. And I expect that progress will be most apparent in the defensive front, where USC could barely conjure a pass rush last season. Braylan Shelby led the 2024 defense with … three measly sacks. I expect we’ll see five different Trojan pass rushers pass that number this season. Gentry and sophomore Kameryn Fountain are both capable of reaching double-digit sacks, while Shelby, Anthony Lucas and freshman Jahkeem Stewart each are sure to chip in a handful on their own. Judging by early praise, Stewart could very well be the team’s best pass rusher by December.

Have your own bold takes or predictions that you want to get on the record in the next Times of Troy newsletter? Send them to me at [email protected], and I’ll include some of the best ones next week.

Makai Lemon

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

—The NCAA’s 2010 sanctions of USC only get more insane by the year. This week, the NCAA issued its punishment in the Michigan sign-stealing scandal. Aside from a $20-million fine, which is substantial, the punishment reflected how much has changed societally since 2010, and the reality of how toothless the NCAA has become. That wasn’t the case in 2010, when the NCAA dropped the hammer on USC, taking away 30 scholarships and banning them from bowl games for two seasons amid the Reggie Bush saga, while the BCS stripped the school of its 2004 title. That punishment was devastating primarily to players who had nothing to do with the crime. This latest ruling clearly tried to avoid that, which is a commendable change from the NCAA. But it did understandably upset some USC fans who are still frustrated with how they were treated in a case that had far less of an actual influence on the field.

—Special teams coach Ryan Dougherty understands USC’s placekicking hasn’t been good enough. Michael Lantz hit just 14 of his 21 attempts (66.7%) last season. Denis Lynch hit 10 of 14 (71%) in 2023 and 15 of 22 in 2022 (68.2%). A few more made field goals last season might have made the difference in some of USC’s narrow losses. This season, Dougherty will put his faith in sophomore Caden Chittenden, who set the Mountain West record last year for a freshman kicker with 26 made field goals. Chittenden seems like a safe bet to be a significant improvement at a position that’s been lacking during Riley’s tenure.

—Makai Lemon will be USC’s top punt returner. Some of you might wonder why USC would invite the added risk of having Lemon return punts. But Riley wouldn’t even entertain that line of thinking this week. The coach said that “there’s nothing anyone would do that would keep us from playing them on punt return.” Given how electric Lemon can be in the return game, I get it. USC has just one punt return touchdown during Riley’s entire tenure. That unit needs to be better.

—Rawlinson Stadium is officially open. Which means the first step of USC’s $200-million Athletics West capital project is complete. Reporters were invited last week on a tour of the Trojans’ gleaming new soccer and lacrosse stadium, and let’s just say it’s a significant improvement on their old home, McAlister Field. McAlister could barely fit 1,000 people, didn’t have lights and didn’t even have locker rooms for the team. Rawlinson has a capacity of 2,500, a press box, viewing decks for fans and a video board, while the lockers are customized based on feedback directly from the players. Women’s soccer coach Jane Alukonis made clear to reporters how much Rawlinson would influence the program’s recruiting efforts. USC invested $38 million to make it happen. Now we can see why.

In case you missed it

Michigan hit with major fine for sign-stealing scheme. Jim Harbaugh’s NCAA exile extended 10 years

Micah Banuelos works to make up for lost time as USC aims to build its strongest offensive line

Why USC is not in the AP Top 25 preseason poll

What I’m reading this week

Todd Marinovich reacts as he scores against Michigan in the Rose Bowl game, Jan. 1, 1990.

(Bob Galbraith / Associated Press)

So much has been written about Todd Marinovich over the years, but never has he written about his harrowing journey in his own words until now. In “Marinovich: Outside the Lines of Football, Art, and Addiction”, the former USC quarterback opens up a vein, giving readers an unvarnished look at how he went from child prodigy and “Robo Quarterback” to drug addict and NFL washout. It’s rare that athletes really examine themselves at the level that Marinovich does in this autobiography. He even tries to correct the record about his father, Marv, who he writes was a “thorny scapegoat.”

If you find Marinovich and his story of redemption at all interesting, I’d recommend checking it out.

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a clear mind about the value of Social Security on Aug. 14, 1935, the day he signed it into law.

“The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure,” he said in the Oval Office. “We can never insure 100 per cent of the population against 100 per cent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against … poverty-ridden old age.”

He called it a “cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete.” FDR envisioned further programs to bring relief to the needy and healthcare for all Americans. Some of that happened during the following nine decades, but the structure is still incomplete. And now, as Social Security observes the 90th anniversary of that day, the program faces a crisis.

If there are doubts about whether Social Security will survive long enough to observe its centennial, those have less to do with its fiscal challenges, the solutions of which are certainly within the economic reach of the richest nation on Earth. They have more to do with partisan politics, specifically the culmination of a decades-long GOP project to dismantle the most successful, and the most popular, government assistance program in American history.

From a distance, the raids on the program’s customer service infrastructure and the security of its data mounted by Elon Musk’s DOGE earlier this year looked somewhat random.

Fueled by abject ignorance about how the program worked and what its data meant, DOGE set in place plans to cut the program’s staff by 7,000, or 12 percent, and to close dozens of field offices serving Social Security applicants and beneficiaries. This at a time when the Social Security case load is higher than ever and staffing had already approached a 50-year low.

This might have been billed as an effort to impose “efficiency” on the system. But “a more accurate description,” writes Monique Morrissey of the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute, “is sabotage.”

That has been conservatives’ long-term plan — make interactions with Social Security more involved, more difficult and more time-consuming in order to make it seem ever less relevant to average Americans’ lives. Once that happened, the public would be softened up to accept a privatized retirement system.

Get the inefficient government off the backs of the people, the idea goes, so Wall Street can saddle up. George W. Bush’s privatization plan, indeed, was conceived and promoted by Wall Street bankers, who thirsted for access to the trillions of dollars passing through the system’s hands.

This was never much of a secret, but it simmered beneath the surface. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking at a July 30 event sponsored by Breitbart News, said the quiet part out loud. Referring to a private savings account program enacted as part of the GOP budget reconciliation bill Trump signed July 4, Bessent said, “In a way, it is a back door for privatizing Social Security.”

The private accounts are to be jump-started with $1,000 deposits for children born this year through 2028, to be invested in stock index mutual funds; families can add up to $5,000 annually in after-tax income, with withdrawals beginning when the child reaches 18, though in some cases incurring a stiff penalty.

I asked the Treasury Department for a clarification of Bessent’s remark, but didn’t receive a reply. Bessent, however, did try to walk the statement back via a post on X in which he stated that the Trump accounts are “an additive benefit for future generations, which will supplement the sanctity of Social Security’s guaranteed payments.”

Sorry, Mr. Secretary, no sale. You’re the one who talked about “privatizing Social Security” at the Breitbart event. You’re stuck with it.

Plainly, an “additive” benefit would have nothing to do with Social Security. How it would “supplement the sanctity” of Social Security benefits isn’t apparent from Bessent’s statement, or the law. Still, we can parse out the implications based on the long history of conservative attacks on the program.

In 1983, the libertarian Cato Journal published a paper by Stuart Butler and Peter Germanis, two policy analysts at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, titled “Achieving a ‘Leninist’ Strategy—i.e., for privatizing Social Security. From Lenin they drew the idea of mobilizing the working class to undermine existing capitalist structures.

Cato’s “Leninist” strategy paper explicitly advocated encouraging workers to opt out of Social Security by promising them a payroll tax reduction if they put the money in a private account.

IRAs, the authors asserted, would acclimate Americans to entrusting their retirements to a privatized system. They advocated an increase in the maximum annual contribution and its tax deductibility.

“The public would gradually become more familiar with the private option,” they wrote. “If that did happen, it would be far easier than it is now to adopt the private plan as their principal source of old-age insurance and retirement income.” In other words, it would provide a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.

(Germanis has since emerged as a cogent critic of conservative economics. Butler served at Heritage until 2014 and is currently a scholar in residence at the Brookings Institution; he told me in March that he still believes in parallel systems of private retirement savings as we have today, but as “add on” savings rather than a substitute for Social Security.)

Cato, a think tank co-founded by Charles Koch, has never relinquished its quest to privatize Social Security; the notion still occupies pride of place on the institution’s web page devoted to the program.

In 2005, when I attended a two-day conference on the topic at Cato’s Washington headquarters, Michael D. Tanner, then the chair of Cato’s Social Security task force, explained that Cato wasn’t concerned so much with the system’s fiscal and economic issues as with its politics. Its goal, he stated frankly, was to unmake FDR’s New Deal.

“This is about whether we redefine a relationship between individuals and government that we’ve had since 1935,” he told me. “We say that what was done was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. Our position is that people need to be responsible for their own lives.”

Yet forcing dramatic change on a program so widely trusted and appreciated is a heavy lift. That’s why Republicans have tried to downplay their intentions. Back in 2019, for instance, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) talked about the need to hold discussions about Social Security’s future “behind closed doors.”

Secrecy was essential, Ernst said, “so we’re not being scrutinized by this group or the other, and just have an open and honest conversation about what are some of the ideas that we have for maintaining Social Security in the future.”

As I observed at the time, that was a giveaway: The only time politicians take actions behind closed doors is when they know the results will be massively unpopular. Raising taxes on the rich to pay for Social Security benefits? That discussion can be held in the open, because the option is decisively favored in opinion polls. Cut benefits? That needs to be done in secret, because Americans overwhelmingly oppose it.

Curiously, Trump and his fellow Republicans seem to think that attacking Social Security is an electoral winner. Possibly they’ve lost sight of the program’s importance to the average American.

Among Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older, 39% of men and 44% of women receive half their income or more from Social Security. In the same cohort, 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.

Notwithstanding that reality, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently asserted that delays in sending out Social Security checks or bank deposits would be no big deal.

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month,” Lutnick said. “My mother-in-law, who’s 94 — she wouldn’t call and complain…. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month.” He claimed that only “fraudsters” would complain.

I had a different take. Mine was that even a 24-hour delay in benefit payments would have a cataclysmic fallout for the Republican Party. It would be front-page news coast to coast. There would be nowhere for them to hide.

While bringing misery to millions of Americans, a delay — which would be unprecedented since the first checks went out in 1940 — would be a gift for Democrats, if they knew how to use it.

Where will we go from here? The current administration has already done damage to this critically-important program. An acting commissioner Trump installed briefly interfered with the enrollment process for infants born in Maine—an important procedure to ensure that government benefits continue to flow to their families—because the state’s governor had pushed back against Trump in public.

In July, the newly-appointed Social Security commissioner, Frank Bisignano, allowed a false and flagrantly political email to go out to beneficiaries and to be posted on the program’s website implying that the budget reconciliation bill relieved most seniors of federal income taxes on their benefits. It did nothing of the kind.

To the extent that Social Security may face a fiscal reckoning in the next decade, the most effective fix is well-understood by those familiar with the program’s structure. It’s removing the income cap on the payroll tax, which tops out this year at $176,100 in wage income.

Up to that point, wages are taxed at 12.4%, split evenly between workers and their employers. Above the ceiling, the tax is zero. Remove the cap, and make capital gains, dividends and interest income subject to the tax, and Social Security will remain fully solvent into the foreseeable future.

Trump and his fellow Republicans don’t seem to understand how most Americans view Social Security: as an “entitlement,” not because they think they’re getting something for nothing, but because they know they’ve paid for it all their working lives.

As much as the system’s foes would like it to go away, as long as the rest of us remain vigilant against efforts to “redefine a relationship between individuals and government” established in 1935, we will be able to celebrate its 100th anniversary 10 years from now, in 2035.

The WFP says aid is being cut by 60 percent for the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and disabled people.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has said it will need to drastically cut rations to refugees in Kenya due to reductions in global aid, including major funding cuts from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Residents of the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps were beginning to feel the impact of food aid cuts on Monday as the WFP implemented a new assistance system there in which certain groups are prioritised over others.

The WFP said aid is being cut by 60 percent for the most vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and disabled people, and by 80 percent for refugees with some kind of income.

The two camps host nearly 800,000 people fleeing conflict and drought in Somalia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“WFP’s operations supporting refugees in Kenya are under immense strain,” Baimankay Sankoh, WFP’s deputy country director in Kenya, said in May. “With available resources stretched to their limits, we have had to make the difficult decision to again reduce food assistance. This will have a serious impact on vulnerable refugees, increasing the risk of hunger and malnutrition.”

“There has been a lot of tension in the last couple of weeks or so,” Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi said, reporting from Kakuma.

“People were very angry about what WFP is calling the priority food distribution, where some people will not get food at all and others are going to get a small fraction of the food.”

These tensions boiled over, triggering protests last week, which left one person dead and several others injured, said Soi, adding that WFP officials she spoke with said the aid cuts from organisations like USAID meant they have had to make “very difficult decisions about who gets to eat and who doesn’t”.

WFP worker Thomas Chica explained to Soi that the new system was rolled out after assessments were conducted by WFP and its partners.

Refugees are now assessed based on their needs, rather than their status, said Chica. “We need to look at them separately and differently and see how best we can channel the system so that it provides.”

The impact of these cuts is severe amid concerns over malnutrition. The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate among refugee children and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Kenya is above 13 percent. A GAM rate over 10 percent is classed as a nutrition emergency.

“Already the food that is being issued is quite low, 40 percent of the recommended ration, and this is being shared by a bigger chunk of the population,” Chica said, adding that stocks will therefore not last as long as hoped.

This reduction took effect in February and is based on a daily recommended intake of 2,100kcal.

With its current resources dating from last year, WFP will only be able to provide assistance until December or January, said Chica.

WFP said in May that $44m was required to provide full rations and restore cash assistance for all refugees just through August.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The federal judiciary is enhancing security on electronic case filing systems in U.S. courts, which have come under sophisticated and persistent cyberattacks in recent days, officials announced Thursday.

While it is working to block existing threats, a branch of the judiciary is also enhancing systems that will thwart future attempts to breach the filing system.

“The vast majority of documents filed with the Judiciary’s electronic case management system are not confidential and are indeed readily available to the public, which is fundamental to an open and transparent judicial system,” a release from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said. “However, some filings contain confidential or proprietary information that are sealed from public view.”

The court said the new security measures will also help protect litigants. The release said some of the documents can be targets of interest to hackers, and to better protect the records, the courts will create more “carefully controlled and monitored circumstances.”

In June, Judge Michael Scudder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit told the House Judiciary Committee that some electronic filing systems are “outdated, unstable due to cyber risk and require replacement.”

During his testimony, Scudder said the courts would update their security systems over time as opposed to unveiling a completely overhauled version.

In Kabul’s narrow alleys and quiet courtyards, boys dressed in white caps and tunics diligently recite Quranic verses across an expanding network of madrassas – religious schools that increasingly bridge critical gaps in Afghanistan’s struggling education system.

Public schools continue to function, but their effectiveness has diminished due to resource constraints, insufficient teaching staff and the lingering effects of decades-long conflict. Consequently, families are increasingly turning to madrassas, which provide structured education grounded in Islamic teachings. The surge in enrolment is remarkable; one school north of Kabul has expanded from 35 to more than 160 students within just five years.

While most madrassas prioritise Quranic memorisation, Islamic jurisprudence, and Arabic language instruction, some have begun incorporating fundamental secular subjects such as mathematics and English. Nevertheless, many fail to meet national and international educational benchmarks, prompting concerns about their impact on students’ comprehensive development.

For girls, educational barriers are especially severe. With secondary education banned under Taliban rule, some girls attend madrassas as one of their few remaining pathways to learning, though opportunities remain restricted even within these institutions.

Critics argue that madrassas often serve as centres for religious indoctrination, and their growing prominence may significantly influence Afghanistan’s trajectory.

Yet for countless children across the country, these religious schools represent their only accessible form of education.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — United Airlines on Wednesday night briefly suspended flight departures nationwide because of a technology issue and expected further flight delays throughout the night.

Shortly after 7 p.m. CDT, the airline reported an outage and one hour later the system was coming back up, CBS News reported.

“Due to a technology issue, we are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports,” United said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “We expect additional flight delays this evening as we work through this issue. Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations.”

United later posted on Instagram: “We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening. The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations.”

The airline said to go to united.com or its United app for the latest flight information.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily issued a ground stop for United flights at United hubs: Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Houston’s George Bush International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.

By 10:30 p.m. EDT, the stops were only in Denver and Newark until 11 p.m. EDT.

Airports urged travelers to check with the airline on status. Passengers on connecting flights with other airlines could be affected.

United Express Flights and those already in the air were not affected, the airline told ABC.

United, which is based in Chicago, has approximately 4,600 flights per day at 354 destinations in 38 countries.

Through 10:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 1,308 flights have been delayed and 53 have been canceled, according to FlightAware.

At O’Hare, 16 flights — 11 departures and seven arrivals — have been canceled. The airport was reporting delays ofg hours, as of 9:30 p.m. CDT.

A line of United planes at O’Hare were stopped at the tarmac waiting for available gates, according to video taken by a passenger to CBS News.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the college football offseason is now fully in the rearview mirror. USC opened its preseason camp last week, and already, my arms are a deep shade of red from failure to wear sunscreen at practice.

We’re back, baby.

This is the time of year when anything is possible. (Except for me getting an even tan.) Now is the time to convince yourself of your team’s unproven quarterback. Or buy into the hype about the rebuilt defensive line. Maybe you even start to come around on that coach you said you’d never trust again.

There’s plenty of time for us to get cynical in the next several weeks. But for this week, let’s consider what a best-case scenario might look like for USC’s season.

Let’s start here: I don’t think it’s crazy to convince yourself of a world where Lincoln Riley could lead USC to the College Football Playoff.

I’m not suggesting that’s the likely outcome. (In my actual opinion, it’s not.) But since we’re wearing our cardinal-and-gold-colored glasses this morning, let’s consider what that path might look like.

It’s safe to assume that a berth in the playoff would require winning 10 games. Just one team got in with three losses last year — Clemson — and that’s only because they had an automatic bid.

USC’s two toughest games of the season, by far, are its road tilts against Notre Dame and Oregon. I have a hard time envisioning a scenario in which the Trojans escape with two wins against surefire top-10 teams on the road. Losses in both would, in turn, require USC to run the table in their other 10. That’s not easy, no matter who you are. So in any scenario that ends with USC slipping into the playoff probably starts with stealing a win in one of Eugene or South Bend.

There are plenty of other points in the road where the Trojans could still stumble. If USC can afford to lose just one other game to maintain its playoff candidacy, as last year’s field suggests, that means it must win at least three of these four games: Michigan and Iowa, at home, and Illinois and Nebraska, on the road. All four feel like coin flips, as of early August.

Not only that, but USC also can’t afford to blow any of its games against inferior conference opponents such as Purdue, Michigan State and Northwestern. That shouldn’t be a problem. But, well … you never know.

Even in a best-case scenario, it’s reasonable to expect at least one loss in that crop of seven games. But if somehow USC emerged from its second Big Ten season with a 10-2 record, USC would probably punch its first ticket to the College Football Playoff.

It’s just that simple. Right?

Well … not exactly. But we’re staying optimistic here! Which, in this 10-win scenario, means first and foremost that USC’s defense — and its defensive line in particular — will have taken a major step forward in Year 2 under D’Anton Lynn. Defensive end Kameryn Fountain and defensive tackle Devan Thompkins will have lived up to their preseason hype with All-Big Ten seasons, while Eric Gentry will lead the Big Ten in sacks before skyrocketing into the first round of the upcoming NFL draft.

It’s not that difficult to imagine, really. But that sort of leap on defense probably also means more suitors for Lynn in the offseason — either in the NFL or as a college head coach — which is a problem for another day.

The best-case scenario for USC’s offense, meanwhile, starts with a breakout season for quarterback Jayden Maiava, who, in this hypothetical, proves to be a much better fit for Riley’s offense than Miller Moss was a year ago. USC throws deep more often than ever before under Riley, establishing itself again as one of the most explosive offenses in college football. Maiava manages to limit the back-breaking mistakes that plagued him late last season and even leads a few game-winning drives in the fourth quarter.

A steady rushing attack, in this scenario, is key to keeping the pressure off of Maiava, as Riley, following an offseason of soul-searching, finally realizes the true meaning of leaning on the run. Waymond Jordan, in turn, puts together a breakout season in USC’s backfield and becomes a household name in the Big Ten, while the offensive line manages to avoid any major injuries.

None of those things feel impossible, on their own. Actually reaching that best-case scenario, however, requires a significant number of those variables tilting the Trojans’ way.

Could it happen? Of course. But with so much uncertainty, this USC season could just as easily veer in the other direction, too.

Next week, we’ll talk about what that could look like — and how low the Trojans could potentially go, if everything happens to go awry.

Three questions with … Matt Leinart

Matt Leinart with the Trojans in 2004.

(Los Angeles Times)

The Heisman-winning quarterback and FOX analyst joined me to give his thoughts on USC, on behalf of Abbott’s “We Give Blood” drive, which encourages Big Ten fans to donate.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: What excites you about this USC roster? Where do you have questions?

Leinart: What excites me is — there’s always expectation at USC — but we’re flying under the radar. I don’t even think we’re in the top 25 preseason, which is fine. We made strides on defense last year with Coach Lynn. I thought he was fantastic. We’ve gotten a lot of big dudes in the portal, which we need. We needed the size up front. I’m excited to see what Jayden does with a full year and a full offseason ahead of Year 2 in Lincoln’s system. The schedule is kind of favorable, like you have some games you can win there and really make a run. To me, this year is about finishing for them. Last year they were very close in a lot of games, but close doesn’t win you football games. You’ve gotta learn how to finish, and if you can learn how to finish, that’s just a mindset. Just going out there knowing that when you go into the fourth quarter, that’s where you’re going to win the game. If they can develop that and that becomes ingrained in who you are as a team and as a player, they’re going to be pretty good. I think they’re underrated, and I think they have a chance to make a run. I really do. Now they just have to go out and prove that.

Question: What do you need to see out of Lincoln Riley in Year 4?

Leinart: Look, and I’m close with Lincoln. He knows what he needs to do. He knows what the team needs to do. He understands the frustrations that even someone like myself has as an alumni and a proud Trojan and someone who covers college football. But at the end of the day, he can’t worry about all that. I think with Lincoln, there’s always been a question: Are his teams tough enough? Are his teams physical enough? And I think that’s something they’ve really come out and attacked on both sides of the ball and with some of the coaching hires that he’s made. You don’t get a lot of time these days to build something. Look at Jim Harbaugh. It took him until Year 7 to win a national championship. There were a couple years where, gosh, we would talk on Big Noon like, ‘Should Jim Harbaugh be fired?’ And look what happened. Patience is hard to come by. That’s what I tell my kids all the time. But this is kind of the year, where he’s got to flip that script and that narrative.

Question: Who’s someone flying under the radar on this team that you expect to take a big step forward this season?

Leinart: Gosh. The receivers? Makai Lemon is one of my favorite players. I know he’s not technically under-the-radar. But like this is a breakout year for him, I think. Jayden is under the radar. I think he’s going to be fantastic. Year 2, and he showed a lot last year. And this might be a different Lincoln Riley offense, where they run the ball more and they’re more physical as he gets better. On defense, I love Anthony Lucas. I hope he steps up. And Jahkeem Stewart, the big-time freshman, I’ve heard like, ‘He’s so young, but he’s going to be a monster.’ Then there’s the couple guys we got from the SEC in the portal on the D-line. I’m excited.

—Lincoln Riley called on the NCAA to “do the right thing” with DJ Wingfield. But his case is with the courts now. Riley had refrained from saying much about the circumstances surrounding Wingfield, who’s now suing the NCAA in hopes of an injunction that would allow him to play this season. But asked about it on Friday, Riley made his frustration with the NCAA quite clear. “It isn’t right,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything like it in all my years of coaching.” He was frank about the fact that Wingfield is “not doing very good.” He’s not the only one across the country caught in a similar limbo as the NCAA tries to put its foot down on enforcing its Five-Year Rule for eligibility. To me, it feels pretty callous of the NCAA to loosen the reins after the Diego Pavia case, only to tighten them once again after the House settlement. I understand Riley’s angst with the NCAA. But the reality is the case is now with the courts. A hearing is set for Friday, and no one I’ve spoken with seems to have a good feel for what the judge might rule. If the judge grants Wingfield a temporary restraining order, he’d be ready to start practicing by the time our next newsletter drops.

—Notre Dame is willing to play the USC game early in the season. So now what? In a sitdown with reporters, Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua opened the door for at least one concession to USC in negotiations over the rivalry series. USC, at the moment, is still holding strong with the rest of the Big Ten on pushing for four automatic qualifiers to the College Football Playoff. But if that plan goes nowhere, which at this point seems likely, then I don’t see why USC and Notre Dame wouldn’t be able to iron something out to keep the series alive.

—Offensive line reinforcements are on the way in USC’s 2026 class. The rich got richer on the recruiting trail last week as USC nabbed the commitment of Breck Kolojay, a fast-rising interior line prospect from IMG Academy. That gives the Trojans seven (!!) commits on the offensive line, which would be the largest line class in recent memory at USC. That group is headlined by the nation’s top offensive tackle prospect, Keenyi Pepe, who just happens to be Kolojay’s teammate at IMG. USC already added four freshman linemen to the mix in 2025, giving the program a pretty solid foundation up front for the foreseeable future.

In case you missed it

Tobias Raymond is now a key cog — and de facto grillmaster — on uncertain USC offensive line

USC trusts new strength coach Trumain Carroll to help Trojans open and finish strong

Offensive lineman DJ Wingfield files lawsuit against NCAA in bid to play for USC

What I’m watching this week

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, and Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in “The Diplomat.”

(Netflix)

I’m a little late to the party, but “The Diplomat” on Netflix has been a pleasant surprise during a slow TV summer. The main draw for me was Keri Russell, who is at her best when playing a character as prickly as possible — i.e. her phenomenal work on “The Americans.” This role, as U.S. Ambassador Kate Wyler, definitely fits that bill. The back-and-forth between her and her husband, played by Rufus Sewell, is worth the price of admission alone. But it’s the unexpected twists and turns of the story that will keep you hooked. After burning through one season in a few days, my wife and I have already dug into Season 2.

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

In her first interview since losing the election to President Trump and leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” that her decision not to run for California governor was more “basic” than saving herself for a “different office” — which is to say, another run for president in 2028.

After years of being a “devout public servant,” Harris said in the interview, set to air Thursday night, she just doesn’t want to be “in the system” right now.

“Recently I made the decision that I just — for now — I don’t want to go back in the system,” she said. “I think it’s broken.”

She said that was not to take away from the important work being done every day by “so many good people who are public servants,” such as teachers, firefighters, police officers and scientists.

“It’s not about them,” she said. “But you know, I believe, and I always believed, that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now that they’re not as strong as they need to be.”

She said she instead wants to travel the country and talk to Americans in a setting that isn’t “transactional, where I’m asking for their vote.”

Colbert said to hear Harris — whom he called “very qualified for the presidency” — say that the American system is broken was “harrowing.”

“Well, but it’s also evident, isn’t it?” Harris replied, to applause from the studio audience.

The interview came on the heels of Harris’ announcements this week that she is not running for California governor and is releasing a memoir about her short, whirlwind presidential campaign following President Biden’s decision to drop from the race, and it was a big get for Colbert in what appears to be his final chapter on late-night TV.

CBS, blaming financial concerns across late night, announced July 17 that the 2025-2026 season of “The Late Show” would be its last.

The announcement followed Colbert sharply criticizing Paramount Global’s $16-million settlement with Trump over a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with Harris during the presidential campaign, which Trump accused the venerable news show of manipulating to make her look better.

Paramount Global was at the time seeking a major merger with Skydance Media and needed the Trump administration’s approval, which it ultimately got. Just days before the announcement that his show would be ending, Colbert described the “60 Minutes” settlement as a bribe to get the merger deal done.

All that caused many observers and allies of Colbert to speculate that the cancellation of the show was political in nature. The Writers Guild of America, for example, said the company appeared to be “sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration.”

Trump said it was “not true” that he was “solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert,” and that the “reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT” and that Colbert’s show was losing Paramount millions of dollars a year.

“And it was only going to get WORSE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Paramount has said the decision was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” though some polling has suggested many Americans don’t believe the company.

It’s unclear whether Harris considered any of that in granting Colbert her first interview since leaving office. However, it would almost certainly not have been her only reason.

Colbert is liberal and seen as a friendly interviewer by Democrats.

During Thursday’s interview, the late-night host heaped praise on Harris. After saying it was “harrowing” to hear she feels the system is broken, he asked whether she was giving up fighting.

Harris said she was not.

“I am always going to be part of the fight,” Harris said. “That is not going to change.”

July 29 (UPI) — Cash App on Tuesday announced a new group payment system that will also allow users to use Apple Pay and Google Pay to contribute for the first time.

The group payment system is only available to certain users currently, but it will roll out to more users in the upcoming months.

“If members of the group use different payment solutions, the organizer has historically needed to download multiple apps to collect the money from each person resulting in confusion, time wasted, and risk for all participants. Now, the organizer can create a shareable link for group members to contribute to a pool in seconds using Apple Pay or Google Pay,” Cash App said in a press release.

The company said it designed the pool for easier payment by separating the payment instead of one person taking the total entire fee.

“Pools were designed for groups to easily plan, collect, and track contributions before the event occurs so that nobody has to front the entire cost.”

The app works by allowing an organizer to set a goal amount and invite members to join the pool and track the group’s contributions.

“Cash App has always made sending money between friends and family feel effortless, and we know that many of our customers already use the platform as a way to collect payments from groups,” said Cameron Worboys, Head of Product Design at Cash App. “With pools, our customers now have a dedicated, easy-to-use solution for group payments: they can start a pool to collect the money in seconds, and then instantly transfer the funds to their Cash App balance when it’s time to pay.”

Cash App also announced it will introduce more features in the upcoming future.

State parks officials say they’re unveiling a lottery-style drawing system for select campsites in three of California’s most sought-after state park campgrounds: Malibu Creek, Morro Bay and McArthur-Burney Falls.

The new system began this month at Malibu Creek, allowing would-be campers to enter a lottery for possible openings eight months away — in this case, from March 1 to April 1, 2026.

Drawings are held seven months ahead of the stay, giving the winners 30 days to claim and pay for reservations. There’s a limit of one entry per visitor per drawing. ADA sites are included. Malibu Creek has about 63 campsites.

The programs will begin later this summer at Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County (over 140 campsites) and McArthur-Burney Falls in Shasta County (about 128 campsites and cabins), where growing crowds have posed challenges for visitors and rangers in recent years. Campsite reservation costs (which include nightly rates and an $8.25 reservation fee) are unchanged and the lottery process is free, but fees could be added later.

Meanwhile, the parks department has also streamlined its reservation websites so that campers can move more easily between the informational site parks.ca.gov and the booking site reservecalifornia.com and see fresher information on what’s available. In announcing the coming changes, parks officials said travelers will able to see “almost real-time campsite status and availability at other nearby campgrounds.”

The move to a lottery system had been expected since late 2023, when California’s legislature approved several measures designed to reduce no-shows and give more people access to the most popular spots. In previous years, reservations at many campgrounds have vanished within minutes of opening.

State parks communications staffers were unable to say Monday exactly how many of the campsites at Malibu Creek, Morro Bay and McArthur-Burney Falls would be part of the drawing.

The system is based on a pilot project at the State Ravine Cabins in Mt. Tamalpais State Park, where rangers started using a reservation drawing system in 2023. That system is still in place.

To level the playing field among those who make repeated use of the campground drawings, the state has set up a points system. “Unsuccessful applicants will receive one point to be used in future drawings, which increases their chances of winning until they are awarded a reservation,” the state’s FAQ on the system explains. “Once a visitor wins a reservation, their points are removed and their balance starts at zero.”

Statewide, California’s campground system continues to open most of its 15,000 campsites for online reservations at 8 a.m., six months ahead of the booking date, on a rolling basis. (In other words, at 8 a.m. Aug. 3 the state will start taking reservations for stays on the night of Feb. 3.) Telephone reservations are still possible at (800) 444-PARK (7275).

In May, a state parks spokesman said the state’s most sought-after campgrounds for the last two years have been Pismo State Beach, Crystal Cove State Park, Refugio State Beach, Half Moon Bay State Beach, Doheny State Beach, Bolsa Chica State Beach, San Clemente State Beach, New Brighton State Beach, San Elijo State Beach and Morro Bay State Park.

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where the last gasps of our football-free summer are upon us. USC’s fall camp begins Wednesday, and from then on, this newsletter will be back in your inbox every Monday.

I want to thank you all again for subscribing to The Times of Troy. I’m overwhelmed by how many of you jumped on board in Year 1 and thrilled to be back for Year 2. I’ve got a lot of new ideas to bring to you this season. But for this week, let’s keep it simple.

With fall camp looming, here are seven thoughts I have about USC and the season ahead:

USC is going to push it deep more often with Jayden Maiava at quarterback. That’s a good thing. With Miller Moss at quarterback, USC threw just 10.4% of its passes beyond 20 yards downfield. That’s the lowest rate of passes thrown deep by a starting quarterback during Lincoln Riley’s coaching career. But when Maiava took over the starting job, that rate skyrocketed to 18.1%, the highest rate of deep passes by a quarterback in Riley’s career. That’s where Maiava can make the biggest difference for USC this season, so I expect Riley to continue leaning into it.

Has Husan Longstreet closed the gap at all on Maiava? In the spring, it seemed to me that, while clearly very talented, Longstreet still had a lot to clean up before he was ready to play. We’ve only heard glowing praise of the five-star freshman since, and I expect we’ll see a marked improvement in camp. “He certainly has the ability to help this football team,” Riley said at media day. “In terms of the skill set, there’s not a whole lot more that you want to have.” But the longer he can learn as the backup, the better for USC. I expect it’ll be a while before he pushes for serious playing time.

The college football world is sleeping on Ja’Kobi Lane. The spotlight in USC’s receiving corps swiftly shifted this offseason to Makai Lemon, who some draft analysts apparently see as the No. 1 receiver in the upcoming NFL draft. Lemon is a tremendous talent and deserves all the plaudits he’s getting. But I’m not convinced he’s the best receiver prospect in his own locker room. Lane has all the physical tools you could ask for, and while I don’t expect him to be able to maintain his 28% touchdown rate, I do think Lane can announce himself as the best red zone target in college football this season. The duo of Lane and Lemon could be absolutely lethal, assuming Maiava can get them the ball as much as possible.

Similarly, we’re not talking enough about Eric Gentry. People are quick to forget that Gentry was on his way to an All-American season in 2024 before concussions cut his campaign short. He played in just four games, but I saw enough to know that D’Anton Lynn, unlike his predecessors, understands exactly how to use Gentry’s unique skill set. Add Rob Ryan, USC’s new linebackers coach, into the mix, and you have all the makings of a breakout season. I’m buying all the stock I can before the opener, when everyone else will jump on the bandwagon.

The offensive line is USC’s most glaring question mark ahead of camp. I was concerned before we learned that the NCAA denied DJ Wingfield’s appeal for another season of eligibility. That situation is still up in the air — Wingfield has hired an attorney and will push for an injunction from the court — but USC must go forward assuming the veteran guard won’t be eligible. What does that mean for a line that was already thin? My expectation is that Tobias Raymond would shift inside to right guard, while Justin Tauanuu slots in at right tackle. But count on many combinations being tested over the next month. Micah Banuelos is the other one to watch at guard, if he’s able to stay healthy. As for the rest of the line, USC really needs ascending starters Elijah Paige and Alani Noa to take the leap, if it hopes to stay steady up front.

I believe the hype about USC’s defensive line. I’ve been hurt before when making preseason predictions about USC’s supposedly improved defensive front. But this time really does feel different! The interior of the Trojans line looks as deep as it has in four years under Riley. Keeshawn Silver gives USC an experienced and ferocious nose tackle manning the middle. Devan Thompkins has been turning heads since spring and could be on the verge of a major breakout, while freshman Jahkeem Stewart has an impossibly high ceiling. At defensive end, Anthony Lucas returns, while Kameryn Fountain is one of my picks to impress this fall. Could a unit that was recently USC’s most glaring weakness already become its biggest strength? It’s definitely possible.

Cornerback is the most wide open position battle in camp. Transfer DJ Harvey is a shoo-in at one corner spot, but the other outside spot is very much up for grabs. DeCarlos Nicholson is probably the favorite at the start of camp, but transfer Chasen Johnson or redshirt freshman Braylon Conley, who impressed in spring, could push for the job. Prophet Brown was praised by Riley at media day and probably starts camp as the nickel, but don’t be surprised if others challenge for the role. A lot could still change here.

Some other players I’ll be watching closely through USC’s fall camp … running back Waymond Jordan, wideout Zacharyus Williams, wideout Xavier Jordan, tight end Walker Lyons, linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson, freshman linebacker AJ Tuitele, freshman cornerbacks Alex Graham, James Johnson and RJ Sermons and safety Kennedy Urlacher.

Juju Watkins has a lot of help heading her way.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

—The Big Ten is losing the battle for automatic qualifiers to the playoff. That doesn’t bode well for USC-Notre Dame. The Big Ten coaches fell in line with their commissioner at media day last week, speaking out in favor of having four automatic qualifiers to the College Football Playoff for the top four teams in both the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten. The SEC was once on board with the same format, but recently did an about-face, leaving the two power conferences at a stalemate. I don’t see those differences being resolved any time soon.

—Alijah Arenas is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury. Will he ever actually play at USC now? It’s hard to imagine worse news for Eric Musselman and the Trojans than losing Arenas, whom everyone in the building believed would be a difference-maker from the jump. The best-case scenario now would likely see the five-star freshman return in February. The worst case would be him never lacing it up for USC. At this point, my expectation would be that the latter is more likely. A lot can change between now and then, though. Maybe he returns for the NCAA tournament. The Arenas family has a lot of respect for Musselman, who also coached Alijah’s father, Gilbert. Maybe they decide that Arenas can raise his draft stock significantly by sticking around an extra season at USC. But if he can leave and be a lottery pick next summer, I can’t imagine he’d pass that up.

—So, who might step up in Arenas’ place? Terrance Williams might be the safest bet at the start, assuming the former Michigan forward is cleared to practice by late August as expected. Amarion Dickerson could also find himself in a larger role. He’s a long, athletic defender who won Horizon League defensive player of the year last year, but wasn’t expected to be a scorer. The reality is that everyone will have to shoulder a bit more of the load without Arenas. Rodney Rice will have to be a true floor general as the primary ballhandler, and Chad Baker-Mazara will have to be a more reliable offensive threat. I’d also expect we see more three-guard lineups with Jordan Marsh — the biggest surprise of summer practice — slotting in alongside Rice and Baker-Mazara.

—USC women’s basketball is building a veritable superteam for the 2026-27 season. A trio of JuJu Watkins, Kennedy Smith and Jazzy Davidson, the No. 1 overall recruit in 2025, was already formidable. But the rich got richer this week, as USC secured a commitment from Saniyah Hall, the No. 1 overall recruit in 2026. Hall is only 16, but was just named the MVP of the FIBA U19 World Cup as the American team’s leading scorer. Even on the same floor as Smith and Davidson, she was a difference-maker. But USC’s lineup will be so deep when she arrives, Hall might only be the Trojans’ third option on offense. That’s a good problem to have for Lindsay Gottlieb, who continues to prove herself as one of the college game’s best recruiters. She could add a national title to that resume two seasons from now with all the talent at her disposal.

—USC’s baseball stadium won’t be finished by next season. After suffering through two seasons without a stadium, the Trojans are going to have to wait a little bit longer for all the amenities that come with a sparkling new facility. A person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times that Dedeaux Field will definitely be open to fans by the 2026 season, but some of the finishing touches won’t yet be finished on the player’s end. That could mean temporary batting cages or facilities under construction through some of the season. Which has to be frustrating for players and coaches who thought they wouldn’t have to worry about this any longer.

Coverage note

USC is no longer allowing reporters to watch the first 15 or so minutes of practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That time was usually reserved for only stretching and individual drills, but sometimes there were interesting details to glean. There will be less of those to report this season, and no videos from practice to dissect like the Zapruder film. Interviews will still be held after, and reporters will get to watch some scrimmage action this fall. So, we persist!

In case you missed it

Miller Moss gives back to Palisades community by hosting youth football camp

With knee injury, USC’s Alijah Arenas and Eric Musselman weather another setback

USC women’s basketball lands another No. 1 recruit in Saniyah Hall

Plaschke: At sagging USC, Lincoln Riley should be on the hottest of hot seats

USC’s Lincoln Riley feeling ‘refreshed’ as pressure mounts to win in Year 4

Lincoln Riley ‘absolutely’ wants to keep USC-Notre Dame game on schedule

What I’m watching this week

Danny DeVito arrives at the “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” 20th anniversary event this month.

(Chris Pizzello / Invision)

It’s not often that a TV show finds its stride again in its 17th season, but that’s what’s happening right now with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Already one of the funniest and most enduring comedies of all time, somehow Sunny finds itself in the middle of another mid-series heat check. The recent “Is it Cake?” episode, in my book, belongs in the pantheon of Sunny episodes. Which is saying something.

Until next time….

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Los Angeles County’s health system, which is responsible for the care of the region’s poorest, is careening toward a financial crisis because of cuts from a presidential administration and Republican-led Congress looking to drastically slash the size of government.

President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed earlier this month, is expected to soon claw $750 million per year from the county Department of Health Services, which oversees four public hospitals and roughly two dozen clinics. In an all-staff email Friday, the agency called the bill a “big, devastating blow to our health system” and said a hiring freeze had gone into effect, immediately.

And the Trump administration’s budget for the next fiscal year will likely result in a $200-million cut to the county Department of Public Health, whose responsibilities include monitoring disease outbreaks, inspecting food and providing substance use treatment.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to say we survive this,” said Barbara Ferrer, head of the public health department, in an interview. “We can’t survive this big a cut.”

Both Ferrer and Department of Health Services head Christina Ghaly warned that the federal cuts will devastate their agencies — and the patients they serve — for years to come. Employee layoffs are likely.

In April, the White House announced it was ending infectious disease grants worth billions of dollars, including $45 million that L.A. County was supposed to use to combat the spread of measles and bird flu. California has joined other states in a lawsuit fighting the cuts, and the court has issued a preliminary injunction suspending the cuts.

A protest earlier this month in Anaheim, co-led by the California Nurses Assn., called on Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills) to vote against President Trump’s spending bill.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

This month, the county public health department lost another $16 million after Trump’s bill cut funding for a program educating food stamp recipients about how to buy healthy meals.

And there’s more to come. The Trump administration’s proposed budget for 2026 will be the biggest blow yet, Ferrer warned, yanking $200 million from her department — a 12% cut.

“I’m old. I’ve been around for a long time,” said Ferrer, whose work in public health dates back to the Reagan administration. “I’ve never actually seen this much disdain for public health.”

Ferrer said the cuts mean she no longer has enough money for the county’s bioterrorism watch program, which monitors for outbreaks that might signal a biological attack. Soon, she said, county officials may have to stop testing ocean water for toxins year round, cutting back to just half the year.

“Like, you want to swim? You want to know that the water is safe where you swim, then oppose these kinds of cuts,” she said. “That affects everybody who goes to the beach.”

L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said she is bracing for $200 million in cuts to her budget.

(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)

Layoffs are likely, said Ferrer. About 1,500 public health staffers are supported through federal grants. More than half the federal money the department receives is funneled to outside organizations, which would likely need to make cuts to stay afloat.

A similarly grim cost analysis is underway at the county Department of Health Services, where executives said they expect to lose $280 million this fiscal year because of the bill.

“I can’t make a promise that we will be able to avoid layoffs because of the magnitude of the challenges,” said Ghaly.

Ghaly said the bill slashed the extra Medicaid money the county typically gets to cover care for low-income patients. They expect many patients might be kicked off Medicaid because of new eligibility and work requirements. The federal government is pulling back on payments for emergency services for undocumented people, meaning the county will have to foot more of the bill.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Department of Health Services officials said they expect to lose $750 million per year by 2028. By then, the agency’s budget deficit is projected to have ballooned to $1.85 billion.

In an attempt to pump more cash into the system, L.A. County supervisors voted on Tuesday to increase a parcel tax first approved by voters in 2002, which is expected to raise an additional $87 million for the county’s trauma care network.

After a long debate Tuesday, Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Lindsey Horvath worked to direct $9 million of the parcel tax money to Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, a private hospital that serves as a critical safety net for South Los Angeles residents who would otherwise find themselves in a medical desert.

Without that cash infusion from the county, the cuts in Trump’s bill would have put the hospital at risk of closing, since the majority of patients in its emergency room are on Medicaid, said Elaine Batchlor, Martin Luther King’s chief executive officer.

“If they’ve lost their Medicaid coverage, we simply won’t get paid for those patients,” she said.

Dr. Elaine Batchlor, chief executive of MLK Community Healthcare, said her hospital was hanging by a thread financially. Then came more cuts.

(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

Martin Luther King replaced a county hospital that closed after losing national accreditation in 2005 because of serious medical malpractice, landing it the nickname “Killer King.”

“The fact that that hospital closed in the first place I think is criminal, and I intend to do all I can to protect the integrity of the services,” said Mitchell, whose district includes the hospital and who pushed for it to get a cut of money from the parcel tax increase.

Local health providers said that changes at the state level have created additional uncertainty. The state budget for this fiscal year freezes enrollment in Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, for undocumented immigrants ages 19 and older starting in January. Medi-Cal recipients ages 19 to 59 will have to pay a $30 monthly premium beginning July 1, 2027.

“Most families [we serve] are making about $2,400 to $2,600 a month. They’re going to have to choose between paying their Medi-Cal fees for a family of four — that’s $120 a month — or paying rent or paying for food,” said Jim Mangia, head of St. John’s Community Health, who said the cuts will disrupt care for tens of thousands of low-income residents.

The St. John’s clinic, which gets most of its revenue from Medi-Cal reimbursements, serves more than 120,000 patients a year, most of whom live below the federal poverty line.

If the clinic doesn’t find a way to replace the lost revenue, Mangia warned, services will have to be reduced. The clinic recently started treating immigrant patients in their homes after realizing they had been skipping appointments because they feared being arrested by federal immigration agents.

“Then what we’re looking at is closing several health centers,” said Mangia. “We’re looking at laying off hundreds of staff.”

At Venice Family Clinic, a community health center that serves nearly 45,000 patients annually, 80% of patients rely on Medi-Cal. Roughly half the clinic’s revenue comes from Medi-Cal reimbursements.

Dr. Mitesh Popat, a family physician and head of the clinic, said that federal policy changes — especially more frequent paperwork and added work requirements — will likely push eligible patients off of Medi-Cal. He said the clinic is exploring ways to expand support for patients to navigate the paperwork and keep their coverage.

“This puts a bunch of barriers in the way of people who already have enough challenges in life,” Popat said. “They’re trying to make it, trying to survive, trying to put food on the table.”

The United Kingdom is set to make an historic change to its electoral system.

The government has announced a plan to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. It says the move will modernise and strengthen British democracy.

But critics say this is more than just democratic reform.

So, what’s really behind the decision? Is this about democratic renewal or short-term political gain? And has lowering the voting age worked elsewhere?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Afzal Khan – Labour Member of Parliament in the UK

Yannis Koutsomitis – European affairs analyst

Alex Deane – Political analyst and conservative commentator

She lost her pregnancy in prison in what she describes as “a miscarriage of justice”. 

The experience Ayodele Bukunmi had in detention tore her heart apart and still haunts her to date. Now 23, Bukunmi was only 17 when she was thrown behind bars in Ondo State, South West Nigeria. It was October 2020, during the nationwide EndSARS protests against police brutality in the country. On her way to visit a friend in the Akoko-Akungba area, police officers waylaid and whisked her away, alongside protesters.

The police forced her to admit to obtaining flammable materials and causing riots in the state amid the #EndSARS protests, she said. After a few hours of interrogation, they locked her in a crammed cell in the Special Investigations Department of the Ondo State police. Bukunmi insisted she was just a passerby and not a participant in the protest that turned violent, yet, a month later, she was moved to the Surulere prison facility in Akure, the state capital. 

For weeks, no one knew she was at the prison facility. She was held incommunicado until her boyfriend, worried about her safety, found out. 

She was not alone in this situation; Kemisola Ogunbiyi was also arrested and detained in a similar fashion. Kemisola was on her way to buy drugs for her sick mother when the police picked her up, claiming she was among the #EndSARS protesters.

Kemisola and Bukunmi languished in the Surulere correctional facility with blurry hopes for justice. The duo came from different families and locations, but fate brought them together in a government confinement, where the slow justice system subjected them to torture and inhumane treatment. Interestingly, they both found out they were pregnant while in detention, begging to be given a fair hearing.

The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) was enacted in 2015 to reform criminal procedure, promote speedy trials, and protect the rights of suspects, defendants, and victims. However, the criminal justice system in Nigeria has been criticised for being riddled with mediocrity and systemic flaws. With overcrowded correctional facilities, more than 70 per cent of inmates are detained often for years without formal charges or access to legal representation, according to media reports.

A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows how indigent defendants, especially women, suffer disproportionately due to underfunded legal aid and systemic corruption. What the teenage detainees experienced at the correctional facility in Ondo confirms this report. For months, they were held in the police cell without being charged in a court. When the police raided the street and arrested them, they were framed for offences they insisted they knew nothing about. Bukunmi recalled how the officers wrote statements on their behalf, forcing them to confess to crimes they never committed. As hoodlums infiltrated the protests, burning houses and vehicles, including the All Progressive Congress (APC) secretariat, the state authorities unleashed police officers onto the streets to pick up the arsonists; Bukunmi and Kemisola, among others, were scapegoated.

“I was new to Akure at the time and knew nowhere, but they framed me and accused me of arson. They tortured me until I lost consciousness, and at the police station, they didn’t give me any chance to explain myself. I was humiliated and harassed,” Bukunmi said.

When they were finally charged in court, they had no lawyer to back them, and lost their voices before the judge. From the police station, they were moved to an all-female correctional centre in the state, where they would face another level of ill-treatment and dehumanisation. 

“They gave us terrible meals – watery beans and lumpy soups. We ate rice occasionally, and our regular stew was simply hot pepper and water. No palm oil, fish, meat, the typically grounded pepper, or tomatoes,” Bukunmi told HumAngle five years later. “I faced hell in detention and still went through hell after I regained freedom.”

The prison officials were cruel and tolerated no one, Bukunmi reminisced. She was once locked in a single, dark cell for over a week, with her legs chained and hands tied for disobeying an officer. She can’t recall the officer’s name, but she described her as “very dark” and newly recruited at the time. Her offence? She hesitated to help the officer clean her shoe. The officer reported her to a superior official, who ordered her to be locked in solitary confinement. They untied her hands once a day to serve her food and water while she was serving the punishment.

“I was still pregnant at the time, and I think these could have contributed to why I had a miscarriage,” she told HumAngle. “The prison space is not for the weak; you could be on your own, and an officer would accuse you of looking at them disdainfully and punish you for no reason. I didn’t really mean to disobey the officer; I was tired and sluggish at the time, and she accused me of hesitating to clean her shoe.”

No detainee dared greet an officer standing, even if they were older, she said. “You must always greet them because if you refuse, that could be a reason to be punished. And you must speak to an officer, you must be on your knees, with your head facing down.”

The ill-treatment meted out on them, experts said, violates section 8(1) of ACJA, which mandates that all suspects be treated with dignity and prohibits inhumane or degrading treatment. The Act also encourages non-custodial sentencing, such as community service and suspended sentences, particularly for minor offences. However, implementation remains inconsistent across states, and many people are still detained in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. 

They were in and out of the courtroom for about eight months without a clear direction, until the story broke in the media in April 2021. Despite getting pro bono legal backing, the court still refused to hear their appeal, aggravating their condition in detention. This slow pace of judicial proceedings worsened their case, further violating ACJA regulations. 

The ACJA had introduced reforms like day-to-day trials and limits on adjournments to reduce delays, yet courts remain overwhelmed by case backlogs. A critique published on Academia.edu points out that despite the ACJA’s innovations, poor funding, lack of training, and resistance to change have hindered its effectiveness. Vulnerable defendants often languish in detention while their cases stall, violating their constitutional right to a fair and timely trial.

Foetus lost, baby born in prison

Bukunmi broke the news of her pregnancy to her boyfriend, Balogun Segun, when he visited her in detention. He didn’t believe her initially, but something terrible happened two days later. She started bleeding, and her stomach wouldn’t stop aching. She lost the pregnancy to the daily stress and discomfort she witnessed at the Surulere facility. The pregnancy was four months when she had a miscarriage, leaving her in pain and anguish. Her boyfriend cried out to journalists at the time that Bukunmi had no medical attention, despite her condition.

“She is not being given any medical attention,” he complained. “In fact, the foetus inside her hasn’t been flushed out. She needs help.”

Kemisola also found out she was pregnant in detention, but she scaled through the inhumane conditions. A few months later, she delivered the baby at the facility, catching more media attention. She was one month pregnant when she was arrested and detained in October 2020; she delivered the baby in June and still spent days in detention with the newborn. Her situation sparked social media outrage, with #FreeKemisola trending. Activists and social media influencers pressured the state government until Charles Titiloye, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, promised to intervene.

A few weeks later, Kemisola was released, gaining public sympathy and receiving donations from well-wishers. The baby was christened and celebrated by notable Nigerians such as Naomi Ogunwusi, the estranged wife of the Ooni of Ife, a first-class monarch in Osun state. Amid the media outrage over Kemisola’s case, however, Bukunmi was left in limbo with no freedom insight. The dead foetus stayed in her belly for months, making her sick. Some online sympathisers protested and moved on quickly. But her mother and boyfriend protested while speaking to journalists, expressing fears that the public might have forgotten the detainee.

“I’m afraid something might go wrong with her in prison due to her health condition,” Iyabo Ayodele, Bukunmi’s mother, lamented. “Help me beg the public not to forget her there.”

She was not allowed to visit a hospital even after complaining on several occasions that her stomach ached badly. At the prison facility, only one matron attended to their medical needs, and she was accused of handling serious issues with levity and sometimes oversimplifying complex health conditions. When she complained bitterly about her aching stomach after having a miscarriage, the matron gave paracetamol, but that changed nothing. She said she endured the pain for months, until she regained freedom.

Three months after Kemisola was released, Bukunmi regained freedom after enduring gruelling complications from the miscarriage. Her life never remained the same, even when she became free. The memory of those moments still haunts her, continually flashing through her mind, she said. When she falls deeply asleep sometimes, she said, she finds herself in a dark dungeon, weeping bitterly to be set free. Other times, she appears in dramatic scenes, dragging matters with the police in her dream.

“Even after I was released, I suffered a lot, physically and mentally. Unknown to me, the miscarriage had affected my womb. But God, time and medical efforts helped me take in the second time,” she added.

ACJA protects the rights of vulnerable women like Bukunmi and their unborn children in detention, but the reality in many Nigerian prisons is different. Section 404 of the Act states that if a pregnant woman is convicted of a capital offence, the death sentence must be suspended until after childbirth and weaning. While this provision offers some relief, it does not prevent pretrial detention of pregnant women, even for non-violent offences. One woman, Fausat Olayonu, for instance, was pregnant when she was detained for stealing a radio set worth ₦20,000. Like Bukunmi and Kemisola, she had no legal representation and had resigned to fate that her unborn child would be delivered in prison. The International Association of Women Judges reports that over 1,700 women in Nigerian prisons are awaiting trial, many of them pregnant or nursing, with limited access to medical care and legal support.

Although the ACJA provides a robust framework for reform, experts, including social justice activists and lawyers, say its impact is limited by weak enforcement and institutional malfeasances such as prolonged detention and inadequate care. Abdullahi Tijani, a lawyer and pro-freedom activist, says bridging the gap between legislation and reality requires stronger oversight, better funding for legal aid, and targeted interventions for vulnerable populations. 

“Until these systemic issues are addressed, the promise of justice under the ACJA will remain largely unfulfilled,” Abdullahi argued. “No doubt, Nigeria has proper frameworks to reform its criminal justice system, but compliance is a barrier.”

Ridwan Oke, a Nigerian lawyer and criminal justice activist, says reforming the criminal justice system begins with law enforcement agents, especially the police. During the #EndSARS protest, Ridwan helped facilitate the release of several protesters randomly arrested without a thorough investigation. The legal practitioner said the police need to check their system in terms of arresting people indiscriminately and charging them with ridiculous offences not backed by evidence.

“If the police can always check themselves by not arresting indiscriminately without any evidence, the criminal justice reform becomes easier,” he urged. “Police officers are fond of arresting people indiscriminately, releasing those they can release and charging others to court before looking for evidence.”

He also advised the court to be more critical of cases presented before them, especially cases lacking basic evidence. “Now, anybody can charge anybody without any evidence. That’s bad for our criminal justice system. The court should always put people in critical check and reduce bail conditions for lesser offences so that there would be no delay in justice delivery.”

Fans of System of a Down desperately hoping the Armenian American alt-metal band will one day release a full-length follow-up to their chart-topping 2005 companion albums “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” can at least seek some solace in the latest offering from band co-founder Daron Malakian. “Addicted to the Violence,” the third album from his solo project Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, may lack System frontman Serj Tankian’s mellifluous singing, iconoclastic rants and feral screams, but its eclectic structure, melodic earworms, fetching vocal harmonies and poignant themes are sonically and structurally similar to System of a Down — and with good reason.

“All of my songs can work for either Scars or System because they come from my style and have my signature,” Malakian says from his home in Glendale. “When I wrote for System, I didn’t bring guitar riffs to the band. Like with [System’s 2002 breakthrough single] ‘Aerials.’ That was a complete song. I wrote it from beginning to end before I showed it to them.”

Malakian — who tackled vocals, guitar and bass — assembled “Addicted to the Violence” (out Friday) during the last five years, using songs he’d written over roughly two decades. The oldest track, “Satan Hussein,” which starts with a rapid-fire guitar line and features a serrated verse and a storming chorus, dates to the early 2000s, when System’s second album, “Toxicity,” was rocketing toward six-times platinum status (which it achieved nine months after release).

With Scars, Malakian isn’t chasing ghosts and he’s not tied to a schedule. He’s more interested in spontaneity than continuity, and artistry takes precedence over cohesion. None of the tracks on the band’s sporadically released three albums — 2008’s self-titled debut, 2018’s “Dictator,” and “Addicted to the Violence”— follow a linear or chronological path. Instead, each includes an eclectic variety of songs chosen almost at random.

“It’s almost like I spin the wheel and wherever the arrow lands, that’s where I start,” he explains. “I end up with a bunch of songs from different periods in my life that come from different moods. It’s totally selfish. Everything starts as something I write for myself and play for myself. I never listen to something I’ve done and say, ‘Oh, everybody’s gonna love this.’ For me, a song is more like my new toy. At some point, I finish playing with it and I go, ‘OK, I’m ready to share this with other kids now.’”

Whether by happenstance or subconscious inspiration, “Addicted to the Violence” is a turbulent, inadvertently prescient album for unstable times — a barbed, off-kilter amalgam of metal, alt-rock, pop, Cali-punk, prog, Mediterranean folk, alt-country and psychedelia — sometimes within the same song. Lyrically, Malakian addresses school shootings, authoritarianism, media manipulation, infidelity, addiction and stream-of-consciousness ramblings as dizzying as an hour of random, rapid-fire channel surfing.

Is writing music your way of making sense out of a nonsensical world?

I like to think of it as bringing worlds together that, in other cases, may not belong together. But when they come out through me, they mutate and turn into this thing that makes sense. In that way, music is like my therapist. Even if I write a song and nobody ever hears it, it’s healthy for me to make and it helps me work stuff out. When I write a song, sometimes it affects me deeply and I’ll cry or I’ll get hyped up and excited. It’s almost like I’m communicating with somebody, but I’m not talking to anyone. It’s just me in this intimate moment.

Is it strange to take these personal, intimate and therapeutic moments and turn them into songs that go out for the masses to interpret and absorb?

I want people to make up their own meanings for the songs, even if they’re completely different than mine. I don’t even like to talk about what inspired the songs because it doesn’t matter. No one needs to know what I was thinking because they don’t know my life. They don’t know me. They know the guy on stage, but they don’t know the personal struggles I’ve been through and they don’t need to.

Was there anything about “Addicted to the Violence” that you wanted to do differently than “Dictator”?

Different songs on the album have synthesizer and that’s a color I’ve never used before in System or Scars. Every painting you make shouldn’t have the same colors. Sometimes I’m like, “Will that work with the rest of the songs? That color is really different.” But I’m not afraid to use it.

[Warning: Video includes profanity.]

“Shame Game” has a psychedelic vibe that’s kinda like a hybrid of Strawberry Alarm Clock and Blue Oyster Cult, while the title track has a prog rock vibe redolent of Styx, Rush and Mars Volta.

I love all that stuff. I spend more time listening to music than playing guitar. It’s how I practice music. I take in these inspirations and it all comes out later when I write without me realizing it.

In 2020, System released the songs “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz,” which you originally planned to use for Scars on Broadway.

At that time, I hadn’t recorded “Genocidal Humanoidz” yet, but I had finished “Protect the Land,” and my vocals on the song are the tracks I was going to use for my album. Serj just came in and sang his parts over it.

Why did you offer those songs to System when every time you tried to work on an album with them after 2010, you hit a creative impasse?

Because [the second Nagorno-Karabakh War] was going on in Artsakh at that time between [the Armenian breakaway state Artsakh and Azerbaijan], and we decided we needed to say something. We all got on the phone and I said, “Hey, I got this song ‘Protect the Land,’ and it’s about this exact topic.” So, I pulled it off the Scars record and shared it with System.

You released the eponymous Scars on Broadway album in 2008, almost exactly two years after System went on a four-year hiatus. Did you form Scars out of a need to stay creative?

At the time, I knew that if I wanted to keep releasing music, I needed a new outlet, so Scars was something that had to happen or I would have just been sitting around all these years and nobody would have heard from me.

You played a few shows with Scars before your first album came out in 2008, but you abruptly canceled the supporting tour and only released one more Scars song before 2018.

That was a really strange time. I wanted to move forward with my music, but we had worked so hard to get to the point we got to in System, and not everyone was in the same boat when it came to how we wanted to move forward. I just wasn’t ready to do a tour with Scars.

Was it like trying to start a new relationship after a bad breakup?

I might have rushed into that second marriage too quick. I had [System drummer] John [Dolmayan] playing with me, and I think that was [a sign that] I was still holding onto System of a Down. That created a lot of anxiety.

A few years later, you announced that you were working on a new Scars album and planned to release it in 2013. Why did it take until 2018 for you to put out “Dictator”?

I was writing songs and thinking they were amazing, but in my head I was conflicted about where the songs were going to go. “Should I take them to Scars? Is that premature? Would System want to do something with them?” I underwent this constant struggle because Serj and I always had this creative disagreement. I finally moved past that and did the second album, but it took a while.

“Everything we’ve experienced has brought us to where we are now. And now is all we’ve got because the past is gone and the future isn’t here yet. So, the most important thing is the present,” Malakian said.

(Travis Shinn)

System of a Down played nine concerts in South America this spring, and you have six stadium gigs scheduled in North America for August and September. Is there any chance a new System album will follow?

I’m not so sure I even want to make another System of a Down record at this point in my life. I’m getting along with the guys really well right now. Serj and I love each other and we enjoy being onstage together. So, maybe it’s best for us to keep playing concerts as System and doing our own things outside of that.

The cover art for “Addicted to the Violence” — a silhouette of a woman against a blood-red background holding an oversize bullet over her head, and standing in front of a row of opium poppies — is the work of your father, Iraqi-born artist Vartan Malakian. Was he a major inspiration for you?

My approach to art and everything I know about it comes from my dad, and the way we approach what we do is very similar. We both do it for ourselves. He has never promoted himself or done an art exhibition. The only things most people have seen from him are the album covers. But ever since I was born, he was doing art in the house, and he’s never cared if anyone was looking at it.

Do you seek his approval?

No, I don’t. He usually is very supportive of what I do, but my dad’s a complicated guy. I admire him a lot and wish I could even be half of the artist that he is. And if he and my mom didn’t move to this country, I would not have been in System of a Down. I would have ended up as a soldier during Desert Storm and the Second Gulf War. That’s my alternative life. It’s crazy.

Have you been to Iraq?

When I was 14 years old, I went there for two months to visit relatives and it was a complete culture shock. I’m a kid that grew up in Hollywood, and I went to Baghdad wearing a Metallica shirt and I was a total smart aleck. Everywhere we went, I saw pictures and statues of Saddam Hussein. I turned to my cousin and said, “What if I walked up to one of the statues and said, ‘Hey Saddam, go f— yourself?’” Just me saying that made him nervous and scared. Talking like that was seriously dangerous and I had no idea. That was a definite learning experience of what I could have been. And it inspired me later to write “Satan Hussein.”

You had a glimpse of life under an authoritarian regime. Do you have strong feelings about the Trump administration and the way the president has, at times, acted like a dictator?

I don’t hate the guy and I don’t love the guy. I’m not on the right, I’m not on the left. There are some things both sides do that I agree with, but I don’t talk about that stuff in interviews because when it comes to politics, I’m not on a team. I don’t like the division in this country, and I think if you’re too far right or you’re too far left, you end up in the same place.

Is “Addicted to the Violence,” and especially the song “Killing Spree,” a commentary on political violence in our country?

Not just political violence, it’s all violence. “Killing Spree” is ridiculous. It’s heavy. It’s dark. But if you listen to the way I sing, there is an absolutely absurd delivery, almost like I’m having fun with it. I’m not celebrating the violence, but the delivery is done the way a crazy person would celebrate it. So, it’s from the viewpoint of a killer, the viewpoint of a victim, and my own viewpoint. I saw a video on social media of these kids standing around in the street, and one of them gets wiped out by the back end of a car and flies into the air. These kids are recording it and some of them are laughing like’s it’s funny. I don’t want to say that’s right or wrong, but from what I’m seeing, a lot of people have become desensitized to violence.

You’re releasing “Addicted to the Violence” about six weeks before the final six System of a Down dates of 2025. Have you figured out how to compartmentalize what you do with System of a Down and Scars on Broadway?

There was a time that I couldn’t juggle the two very well, but now I feel more confident and very comfortable with where System and Scars are. I love playing with System, and I want to do more shows with Scars. I couldn’t tell you how either band will evolve. Only time will tell what happens and I’m fine with that as long as it happens in a natural way. Everything we’ve experienced has brought us to where we are now. And now is all we’ve got because the past is gone and the future isn’t here yet. So, the most important thing is the present.