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The Electronic Travel Authorisation fee for British holidaymakers travelling to this holiday hotspot has been scrapped, saving Brits around £40 and making the tropical destination even more accessible this summer

Travelling to a tropical holiday destination has just become even more appealing, as Brits no longer need to fork out a tourist fee.

British holidaymakers planning to discover the stunning country of Sri Lanka won’t have to worry about shelling out an extra tourist fee, as it was abolished from Monday, 25 May. The Sri Lankan government confirmed it had made its Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) free for UK visitors, scrapping the $50 fee (around £37) in an effort to draw more tourists to the South Asian nation.

The change has come into force for the UK, along with 39 other countries. Brits planning a trip to Sri Lanka will need to apply for a free ETA, which is a type of visa, prior to departure, and will be valid for 30 days.

Those wishing to extend their time in Sri Lanka can apply online via the country’s official Immigration portal. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed: “You do not need a visa if you are transiting through Sri Lanka by air, if the connecting flight is within 24 hours of your arrival. Check with your airlines about transit times.”

However, the FCDO also cautioned: “If you overstay the period of your ETA (30 days), you risk being subject to immigration procedures that may include temporary detention, a fine, deportation at your own expense, a travel ban or refusal of entry to Sri Lanka in the future.”

To enter Sri Lanka, British travellers must also confirm their passport has an expiry date of at least six months beyond their arrival date. Should the passport fail to meet this requirement, holidaymakers risk being turned away at the border, reports the Liverpool Echo.

While travel to Sri Lanka faced restrictions earlier this year owing to the Middle East conflict, there is presently no Foreign Office guidance advising against travel to the nation for Brits. That said, they do caution that there have been “global travel impacts due to escalation in the Middle East.”

The FCDO outlined: “Escalation in the Middle East has caused widespread travel disruption, including airspace closures, delayed and cancelled flights. Your travel plans may be affected, even if your destination is not in the Middle East.

“Some flights from Colombo to the UK via Middle Eastern hubs may be delayed, postponed, or rerouted. British nationals in Sri Lanka should check the latest updates from their airlines and consider alternative carriers or routes where necessary.”

The FCDO advises that tourists should do the following things before they travel:

• Check travel advice for any countries or territories you are transiting through
• Check for the latest updates from your airline or tour operator
• Review your travel insurance policy for coverage
• Monitor local and international media for the latest information and sign up for travel advice email alerts

For further details, visit the Foreign Office travel advice page.

The catalog of unrequited hopes and hearts is a long one.

Captain Ahab went mad in his vengeful search for “Moby Dick.” Jay Gatsby’s ostentatious fortune failed to win the love of Daisy Buchanan. Charlie Brown never kicked the football.

Then there’s Texas, the land of broken Democratic dreams.

It’s been half a century since the party carried Texas in a presidential election. The last time Democrats won a statewide office, back in 1994, “The Lion King” was smashing box office records, Boyz II Men ruled the radio and the World Wide Web was about to change everything.

As Texas grew increasingly Republican, and politically beyond reach, Democrats insisted every election year was the one when they’d end their futility and take back power in either Washington or Austin, the state capital.

It never happened.

But is this, finally, the year?

With Ken Paxton stomping incumbent John Cornyn on Tuesday in a fierce and astronomically expensive U.S. Senate primary, many Democrats believe so — and even neutral observers agree they’ve been handed their best shot at resurrection in a good while.

“Paxton is going to be a much tougher guy [for Republicans] to haul over the finish line five months from now as opposed to Cornyn, who never lost an election until this one,” said Richard Murray, an emeritus political science professor at the University of Houston, who spent decades surveying Texas voters. “We’re looking at a very expensive, hard-fought race.”

Paxton, Texas’ three-term attorney general, is a singularly flawed candidate. Indicted, impeached, accused by his ex-wife of adultery, the GOP nominee is, to put it mildly, “an ethically challenged individual,” as the famously understated (and concerned) Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins put it.

But Paxton was the choice of President Trump — he, too, of impeachment, indictment and adulterous infamy — and that settled that.

Trump described Cornyn, a four-term senator and former justice of the Texas Supreme Court, as a “good man” but insufficiently supportive when “times were tough.” Among those occasions of abandonment, Cornyn voted to certify the incontrovertible result of the 2020 presidential election, thwarting Trump’s bid to illegally stay in office.

The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate is James Talarico, 37, a state representative from Austin and a Presbyterian seminarian and former public schoolteacher who’s built a nationwide following with his articulate and scriptural takedown of Republican foes. Imagine Beto O’Rourke with a clerical collar and capacity to mint money.

In 2018, O’Rourke came from seemingly nowhere and nearly upset Republican Ted Cruz in the closest Texas Senate race in decades. Before that it was the filibustering Wendy Davis who fired up Democratic imaginations nationwide. She commandeered the floor of the state Senate to briefly block antiabortion legislation — This is the year! — before falling well short in a 2014 bid for governor.

The key difference this time, with all due credit to Talarico and his prodigious fundraising, is his damaged-goods opponent. Normally, all it takes to win in Texas is a Republican ‘R’ beside a candidate’s name. But polling suggests a not-insignificant number of GOP voters could have a hard time supporting Paxton, which doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll back Talarico. They may simply not vote in the Senate race, which could be nearly as costly.

(The counterargument is that Paxton, a martyred hero to the MAGA movement, could boost turnout among the party base at a time Trump is leaking support within the establishment GOP.)

Either way, the president’s me-first political self-indulgence is not making things any easier for his fellow Republicans as they fight to hang on to control of the House and Senate in November.

In the 2022 midterm election, Trump boosted a batch of unappealing misfits — their sole attribute being their fealty to him — with poor results. Republicans lost eminently winnable Senate contests in Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and, with it, their chance at control of the chamber.

Even if Paxton prevails in November, Trump’s endorsement could prove quite costly to the GOP, and not just in the figurative sense.

Democrats need a gain of four seats to flip the Senate. To do so, they must successfully defend seats in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire and then pick up at least four others from a menu that includes Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and, now, Texas.

It’s a considerable reach. But Democratic chances look a lot better than they did just a few months ago, before Trump mired the country in an Iranian quagmire and the price of gas and just about everything else began to sail through the ceiling.

Holding on to Cornyn’s seat will end up costing Republicans a kingly sum — money that “can’t be spent in two places at the same time,” as Matt Mackowiak, a longtime Texas GOP strategist and advisor to Cornyn’s campaign, noted. “It can go either to Michigan, New Hampshire, Georgia, Iowa, Alaska. Or it can go here to Texas, which is extremely expensive.”

Odds are against Talarico and Democrats winning the Senate race in November, because Texas remains, fundamentally, a Republican and conservative-leaning state. Paxton may win for that reason and that reason alone.

“This is as good an environment as Democrats are going to get realistically,” said Jim Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas in Austin, who’s witnessed many highly touted Democrats fail in a blaze of unwarranted hype. “But when you start doing the math, it’s a little bit hard to see it all adding up.”

Which is not to say it can’t happen.

Truth, as the saying goes, can be stranger than “Moby Dick” or any other fiction.

After their work permits expired, an immigration attorney near San Diego was fired and a nurse in the East Bay area was placed on unpaid leave.

Both depend on work permits and legal protection afforded under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program created by President Obama in 2012 for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. But recent processing delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are leaving many DACA recipients vulnerable to arrest and deportation as their two-year work permits expire.

“It’s definitely an attack on the program,” said the lawyer, Maria Fernanda Madrigal. “My first thought was, ‘Oh, they’re so clever. They weren’t able to end the program through the courts, so this is what they’re doing.’”

Over the last several years, median processing times for DACA renewals remained under two months. Now, most cases are finished within 3.5 months, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The agency did not explain what’s causing the processing delays. Spokesperson Zach Kahler wrote in a statement that “under the leadership of President Trump, USCIS is safeguarding the American people by more thoroughly screening and vetting all aliens.”

DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country, he said.

During his first term in office, Trump tried unsuccessfully to rescind DACA.

This time around, his administration has simply weakened its benefits.

Last year, Department of Homeland Security officials started urging DACA recipients to self-deport. The Department of Health and Human Services made DACA recipients ineligible for health insurance through Obamacare.

And last month, a precedent-setting decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals, which will apply to immigration judges across the country, said having DACA is not enough to protect someone from deportation.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE arrested 650 DACA recipients between Jan. 20, 2025, and April 30, nearly 90% of whom had been charged with or convicted of a crime. The spokesperson did not say how many have been deported.

DACA recipient Javier Diaz, center, is welcomed by his neighbors including Martha Avelar, right, in South Los Angeles after returning home from a detention center in Texas in July 2025.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

But in a February letter to U.S. senators, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency had deported 86 DACA recipients between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025. Federal judges have ordered the agency to return some, including Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Sacramento mother who was deported a day after her green card interview.

Lawmakers are expressing alarm that DACA’s promise of protection is being undermined.

Last month, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee held a forum on the Trump administration’s “all-out assault on DACA.” The forum featured Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez, who testified that he had been forced to fire a police officer because their work permit renewal was not processed on time.

Last week, members of the House from California’s Central Valley, including Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), sent a letter to Homeland Security and Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders, urging them to expedite DACA processing.

“Our offices have seen a substantial increase in constituent cases involving pending renewals, with many remaining unresolved for more than six months,” the letter continued. “These extended processing times are creating avoidable hardships for our communities and our economy.”

California has more than a quarter of the nation’s approximately 500,000 DACA recipients, according to Citizenship and Immigration Services figures. On average, they are 31 years old.

To qualify for DACA, applicants had to pass background checks and meet certain educational or work requirements.

During a news conference ahead of the DACA forum last month, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) reflected on the day in June 2012 when DACA applications first opened. He said parents of young immigrants asked him if it was safe for their children to sign up for the program, which required admitting their lack of legal status and home address.

“Are you sure that the government won’t use that information against us at some time?” he remembered them saying. “I said, ‘Follow the law exactly as it is written and announced in the executive order, and we’ll stand by you. Just believe in us to do that.’”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), foreground, speaks during a Homeland Security oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

“Well, I didn’t anticipate the current president and what he is now doing,” Durbin continued.

Sarah Krieger, a former Citizenship and Immigration Services official who is now senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, said processing delays were caused, in part, by the agency temporarily pausing an automated system for processing DACA and other applications.

Krieger said that “streamlined case processing” was turned off about a month after Trump took office last year, in order to audit whether each process had sufficient security checks. The automated system was turned back on a couple of months later but was modified to include more manual security checks. Krieger left the agency last July.

Turning off the automated system was “a purposeful choice that doesn’t increase national security,” she said. “All it does is slow things down.”

Citizenship and Immigration Services recommends that applicants submit their paperwork and pay the $555 fee between 120 and 150 days before their benefits expire.

Among those who did so are two nurses who work for Kaiser Permanente in the Bay Area. Both requested anonymity out of concern over their immigration status.

One of the nurses, who came to the U.S. from the Philippines as a toddler, said she applied for renewal on Dec. 1. Her work authorization expired April 15.

Kaiser placed her on a 30-day unpaid leave of absence, after which she would be fired. Eventually, her work permit was renewed, but only after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and two other members of Congress lobbied the federal government on her behalf.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) speaks during a news conference on the DACA program on May 12 outside the U.S. Capitol.

(Graeme Sloan / Getty Images)

Padilla said his office has fielded requests from hundreds of DACA recipients this year.

Another Kaiser nurse, who also submitted her renewal paperwork in December, is still waiting. She has been on unpaid leave for nearly a month.

The nurse, who is from South America, said one Citizenship and Immigration Services officer told her it could take up to 10 months for her renewal to be processed.

The nurse is pregnant and she and her husband just bought a house. Losing her job would mean losing her healthcare and maternity leave benefits.

“I’ve spent years caring for others in my community, paying taxes, contributing to a healthcare system,” she said. “I worked through COVID and it’s heartbreaking to feel like you’re so easily discarded.”

Another DACA recipient, Elsa Sanchez, 35, of Georgia has maintained DACA status since 2012 and says she always follows the recommendation to submit the renewal application at least 120 days before the expiration date.

For the last three renewals, she said, she was approved within a week or two. This time, her work permit and DACA expired on April 1, more than four months after she submitted her application.

Elsa Sanchez, whose work permit expired because of DACA renewal delays, at her home in Atlanta.

(Emilie Megnien / Associated Press)

The healthcare IT company where Sanchez works as a senior customer success manager allowed her to take a 60-day unpaid leave of absence but said it would have to terminate her employment afterward.

Sanchez’s unpaid leave was set to run out on June 1. On May 20, she got notice that her DACA renewal had finally been approved. But by then Sanchez, a single mom, had had to pull funds out of the college savings account for her 19-year-old daughter, who is attending a local university. She put the money toward her nearly $2,000 rent and food.

“I feel so relieved and grateful,” she said in an Instagram video announcing the news. “I know that a lot of us are still being affected by these delays. I wish that I could share my approval with all of you and that we would all be celebrating today.”

Others have also turned to social media to share their experiences and swap resources. Madrigal, the fired attorney, pivoted to making daily videos. On Tuesday, she shared “day 35 of unemployment.”

“Some days look like big emotions and uncertainty,” she wrote. “Other days look like walks, toddler activities, cooking dinner and ending the night with tostadas. Trying to find joy and normalcy in the middle of it all.”

Almost exactly one year ago, I speculated about how President Trump could sabotage the World Cup and the L.A. Olympics.

Since then, speculation has congealed into reality.

By almost any measure, tourism to the United States has cratered. Overall, it was down 5.5% last year from the year before. Visitors from Canada, traditionally the largest pipeline of foreign tourism, plummeted 21%.

That’s the largest drop from any country, according to statistics from the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration cited by the Congressional Research Service. The runner-up is Germany, with a decline of 11.3%.

Expectations have faded that this summer’s World Cup games, which begin in the U.S. on June 12 with USA vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium, would buoy the flow of foreign visitors. Hotel bookings show that hasn’t happened, as my colleague Caroline Petrow-Cohen reports. According to an April survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Assn., hotel operators in all 11 of the U.S. host cities say that bookings are below their expectations.

Those figures bode ill for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, whose organizers are also counting on a robust flow of foreign visitors.

More than 65% of the Los Angeles hotels responding to the survey reported dashed expectations, the association said. That wasn’t the worst result; the percentage was higher in five host cities, led by Kansas City, where nearly 90% of survey respondents reported booking paces below expectations.

The association identifies several reasons for the lackluster bookings, including botched planning by FIFA, the World Cup’s governing body. But much of the blame falls on issues created by one person: President Donald Trump. These include “increased gas and jet fuel prices,” which are artifacts of Trump’s Iran war and its upward pressure on oil prices.

The survey also points to concerns about visa availability and the treatment of foreign visitors once they land in the U.S. or cross the border.

The administration has disavowed any intention to interfere with the World Cup or the Olympics.

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the FIFA 2026 World Cup will no doubt be one of the greatest and most spectacular events in the history of mankind,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told me by email.

“International visitors who legally come to the United States for the World Cup have nothing to worry about,” the Department of Homeland Security said. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the U.S. — full stop.”

Trump pledged in 2018, when FIFA was weighing bids to host the 2028 World Cup, that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination.” But concerns remain that family members of participating athletes might face restrictions on entering the U.S.

Those concerns could hardly be assuaged by a comment from Vice President JD Vance, chair of a government task force overseeing preparations for the World Cup, at a 2025 meeting attended by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Vance said the U.S. wants foreign visitors “to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up, we want them to go home, otherwise they will have to talk to Secretary Noem.” (Trump subsequently ousted Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, replacing her with former Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma.)

Trump also committed himself to safeguarding the L.A. Olympics, stating, “I’m going to be supportive in every way possible and make them the greatest games.”

Yet America’s standing as a world-class tourist destination has plainly soured under Trump.

“Even with global anticipation building, the path to the U.S. for many World Cup travelers feels increasingly less like a red-carpet welcome,” the Hotel & Lodging Assn. observed.

“There is a perception that international travelers may face lengthy visa wait times, increased visa fees, and lingering uncertainty around entry processing. For those who do make the journey, concerns do not end at the border — questions about airport security screening wait times and airport congestion add another layer of hesitation.”

None of this should come as a surprise. As I projected last June, two administration initiatives in particular were poised to affect the World Cup and Olympics. The first was Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Immigration agents, I noted, were acting as though they had carte blanche to detain people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, conducting raids that sometimes swept up American citizens. That was before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and other communities where immigration agents were accused of targeting specific ethnic and racial groups. And it was before the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by immigration agents worsened their image as lawless thugs.

By then, however, stories had surfaced of foreign tourists being detained for weeks, even months, without explanation or apparent cause. A 65-year-old British woman named Karen Newman traveling on a valid tourist visa was arrested in September 2025 at the Montana border, shackled and held for six weeks in an ICE detention center. Other stories involved a German tourist who said she was held by ICE for 45 days, some of that time in solitary confinement; and a New Zealand woman who was detained with her 6-year-old son for three weeks.

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t deny that these incidents had occurred, though in relation to the New Zealand woman, whose visa had been only partially renewed, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said, “When someone with an expired parole leaves the country and tries to re-enter the US, they will be stopped in compliance with our laws and regulations.”

The other policy that could interfere with the World Cup and Olympics are Trump’s travel bans and restrictions, which as of January covered 75 countries, including Brazil, Russia and 26 African countries.

Stringent regulations for some visa applicants — notably those coming to the U.S. to study or for work-study programs and their dependents — have further clouded America’s image as a destination. Applicants for those visas are required to open their social media accounts for the last five years for inspection by visa officers.

And Homeland Security Secretary Mullin last month raised the prospect of withdrawing customs officers from airports in so-called sanctuary cities, a move that would effectively shut down international flights at those airports.

The change couldn’t happen in time to affect the World Cup, but it could happen before the 2028 Olympics. Mullin’s idea didn’t win immediate favor with other members of Trump’s cabinet, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Last year, the Department of Justice published a list of nearly three dozen states, cities and counties it defined as “sanctuary jurisdictions” because they “obstruct or limit local law enforcement cooperation” with ICE. Most are led by Democrats. They include California, and the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley.

It’s true that immigration policies and rising travel costs are only part of the problem. The Hotel & Lodging Assn. also flayed FIFA for having block-booked hotel rooms in venue cities. These blocks “manufactured artificial demand by locking up large pools of inventory well ahead of the tournament,” the hotel group complained. The practice upended hotels’ planning by prompting them to increase staff and begin World Cup-themed renovations, preparing for crowds that may have been overestimated from the outset.

The block-booking “masked softer underlying traveler demand,” the association said, “with FIFA returning some blocks without a single reservation having been made.”

The hoteliers also groused that New Jersey and Philadelphia had proposed raising sales or lodging taxes in order to squeeze visitors. New Jersey lawmakers have proposed a short-term increase in its sales tax to 9.6% from 6.6% and in its lodging tax to 7.5% from 5%. Philadelphia is planning to raise its hotel tax to 10.5% from 8.5%.

None of this means that ticket sales for the World Cup won’t be healthy. FIFA has said that 5 million tickets have already been sold for the matches, even though the average price for even the cheapest seats at some venues tops $500. As my colleague Kevin Baxter has reported, fans are beginning to feel mulcted. That’s so especially because ticket buyers only learned the specific location of their seats after plunking down their money, at which point they discovered that they were placed in sections nowhere as desirable as they expected.

With average gas prices topping $6 in Los Angeles, it can be painful to watch your fuel gauge creep toward “E” during a day out around town. It’s time to stop the car and walk. And where better to do that than in the most walkable city in California?

For more than a decade, West Hollywood has been designated a “Walkers Paradise” by Walk Score, earning a 91 out of 100 on the popular walkability index that looks at distance to amenities, pedestrian friendliness, population density and road metrics. The small city within a city scores two points above the state’s second most walkable city, San Francisco. It’s also a full 22 points above Los Angeles, which has a middling score of 69.

But you don’t need a formula to know that West Hollywood’s well-maintained sidewalks dotted with cafes, shops and historic sites is a great place for walking. Take a stroll around the city and you can find out for yourself.

That’s what I did on a recent Friday afternoon, where I met locals like Kimberly Beauchaine out in the neighborhood — yes — walking. “We really don’t use our car here,” Beauchaine said, pushing her 18-month old in a stroller past the Pacific Design Center on Melrose Avenue. “It’s very walkable and very central.”

Alex Uihlein and Kimberly Beauchaine walk down Melrose Avenue with their 18-month-old on their way to the West Hollywood Aquatic & Recreation Center.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

While West Hollywood is easy to navigate on foot, getting there without a car can be a challenge. The closest Metro stop is along the just-opened D-line on Wilshire Boulevard, a two-mile hike from the West Hollywood border. Fortunately, West Hollywood has ample public parking. I found a spot in a public lot on North San Vincente Boulevard, where I paid $12 for the whole day.

The hardest part about planning a fun day in West Hollywood might be choosing a place to start. According to Walk Score, there are about 339 restaurants, bars and coffee shops in the city and you can walk to an average of 13 of them in 5 minutes.

I asked Eric Parker, director of PR and communications for the city of West Hollywood, why there’s such an abundance of spots to eat and drink in the tiny city. He explained that West Hollywood serves not just residents who live within its borders but also the many folks who live in the residential neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills.

“They need a place to live their lives too,” he said. “Beverly Hills has become a little jam-packed with tourists, so West Hollywood has become the heart of L.A. in many ways.”

My journey began at the Butcher’s Daughter on Melrose Avenue, a cheerful and bright plant-forward cafe a few blocks from where I parked my car. The croissant I ordered was fine, but the atmosphere was lovely — open and airy with a communal wood table inside and green and white bistro chairs outside. Pedestrians of all ages strolled by on the wide flat sidewalks, many with small dogs in tow. Trees along the street offered dappled shade, and there were several other cute restaurants nearby, many with outdoor spaces of their own.

Adisa Aditheparot, left, and Mari Muay enjoy a light lunch at the Butcher’s Daughter on Melrose Avenue after walking over from a nearby Pilates class.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

Moving on from the Butcher’s Daughter I headed one block east to the corner of Melrose and San Vincente to take in the rolling lawns and massive green, red and blue glass buildings of the 14-acre Pacific Design Center, which first opened to the public in 1975 and currently houses nearly 100 showrooms. Across the street on San Vincente, I strolled past the excellent West Hollywood Library, the luxurious rooftop West Hollywood Public Pool, and the green expanse of West Hollywood Park where young children were shrieking on the playground.

The vibe shifted as I continued north toward Santa Monica Boulevard. Here, the city’s identity as a gay haven was in full view. The crosswalks were painted with stripes and triangles celebrating the full range of queer identity and although the many colorful bars were quiet on this early Friday afternoon, it was easy to imagine them filled with revelers after the sun set. On the weekends, a free bus runs down this street every 15 minutes, connecting the Troubadour to Formosa Cafe. The area felt fun and funky, but I was only passing through, determined to get to my next destination.

To be fair, walking in West Hollywood is not ideal for everyone. After having lived in Boston, New York and Santa Monica, Sean Patrick Gallagher points out that the hills are real.

“It’s walkable if you are walking east to west,” said Gallagher, who has lived in the city for two years. “If you have to venture north or south, you are destined to hit inclines that are not for every able body.”

Pedestrian traffic outside Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

At the same time, daily conveniences are generally in easy walking distance for many residents. “Most people in West Hollywood can walk to the gym, the grocery store and the laundromat,” he said. “There are enough things on each street that cater to your needs.”

Parker describes West Hollywood as a place where history is hidden in plain sight. I certainly felt that as I passed onto the quiet, shaded streets of Norma Triangle, a historic neighborhood in West Hollywood where Dorothy Parker and Christopher Isherwood once lived. The sidewalks here are more narrow but well maintained, and the streets are filled with locals walking dogs of all sizes. The homes and apartment buildings, many of which date to the mid-20th century, are beautifully landscaped and clearly tended to with care, but I was searching for one in particular — the Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, designed in 1927 by Frank Lloyd Wright’s eldest son who also worked as an architect.

The house was not a disappointment. It’s not open to the public, so I was only able to see the exterior, but it was worth it. The desert landscaping on the corner lot is on point and the building itself, a two-story space that makes use of the organic textile-block pattern popularized by Lloyd Wright’s father, has a unique interlocking design of stylized Joshua Trees. I loved it. It’s also located in deep shade, which is very welcome on a hot day.

With that done, I made my way up to Sunset Boulevard, which is loud and unshaded and not nearly as pleasant a place to walk as some of West Hollywood’s more green and leafy streets. However, there are some cultural landmarks here that I felt should not be missed along with a surge of oval-eyed delivery robots (seriously, so many). This is the famous Sunset Strip where you’ll find the Roxy Theatre, the Whisky a Go Go and the Viper Room. All very cool, but this writer was most excited about getting to spend some time in Book Soup, the iconic bookstore with a real-life magazine stand outside that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Down a narrow alley right next door is the more esoteric Mystery Pier Books, which specializes in first editions and is beloved by celebrities.

Taking a walk down Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

I had ambitious plans to amble past more spots in West Hollywood. More than one friend suggested I go to Mamie on Sunset and Fairfax for Italian sandwiches (the focaccia is supposed to be amazing). I considered ending my day at the perfect patio at Chateau Marmont on the border of the Hollywood Hills. But reader, I was tired, and walkability is not about exhausting yourself. It’s about enjoying your time car-free. So instead, I headed back toward where I started, walking past the high-end shops of Melrose Place before arriving at Zinque for a simple prosciutto and cornichon sandwich and an Arnold Palmer. At 4 p.m., a waiter came past my table to tell me happy hour had officially begun and asked if I’d like a drink.

There is more than one reason why it makes sense to live in a walkable community.

For a 20-year-old Eric Lauer, fresh out of Kent State University in 2016, talking pitching with Mark Prior made the big leagues feel closer.

“We were so young,” Lauer said in a conversation with The Times, “that it was kind of funny, because everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Mark Prior.’ ”

Prior, the beloved former Cubs All-Star, finished third in NL Cy Young voting when Lauer was 8 years old.

“He was one of the first experiences I had where I was like, ‘OK, like, these elite big leaguers are just normal guys. They’re just like us.’ ”

Prior was a “high-level thinker,” as Lauer put it, who steered Lauer toward in-depth self-evaluation. But he also was just “a normal dude.”

The two have reunited with the Dodgers. Lauer — who held the Rockies to one run and four hits in his six-inning Dodgers debut Tuesday — was a midseason addition as injuries thinned the team’s starting pitching depth. Prior has been on the Dodgers’ coaching staff since 2018, serving as the pitching coach since the 2020 season.

But when they first met, Lauer was a Padres 2016 first-round draft pick and Prior was the minor-league pitching coordinator.

“He’s always been an uber-competitor, obviously pitched off his fastball, sneaky,” Prior said. “And then I saw him, obviously, when he got called up with the Padres. And he’s pitched well against us at various times, and it’s been a really good career together.”

When they connected last week — at the Padres’ Petco Park, as fate and the Dodgers’ schedule would have it — they had a whole range of career phases to catch up on.

Lauer has gone through delivery adjustments and career leaps. He debuted with the Padres in 2018, was traded to the Brewers ahead of 2020, revived his career with a 2024 stint in Korea, returned to MLB and won the American League pennant with the Blue Jays.

“I would say I’m much more mature now,” Lauer said. “But as a pitcher, I’ve gone through mechanical changes, arm action changes. And [Prior] knew me when I was really, really long.”

On their first day back in the same organization, Lauer said to Prior: “I’m not comping with [Madison] Bumgarner anymore.”

Bumgarner famously would reach way back at the beginning of his motion. Lauer at one time had a similar arm path.

“I used to be really, really long,” Lauer said, “and then I got really, really short, and now I’m kind of in between. And so we just talked about that, and what caused that, and what the process was to do all that, and then kind of where I want to be now.”

They landed on shorter arm action, but the trick will be syncing that up with the lower half of his delivery. And the Dodgers have dug into his pitch usage and arsenal.

“I haven’t been involved in Lauer’s path for eight years, so I don’t know all the iterations,” Prior said. “… But at least there’s a relationship there to some degree, it’s a friendly face.”

That was one of Lauer’s first thoughts when he found out the Dodgers had traded for him after the Blue Jays designated him for assignment.

“I was like, ‘Oh shoot, Prior’s the pitching coach there,’” Lauer recounted. “I know this guy, I can talk to him right away, it’s not somebody that I have to learn how they operate. … It was nice to [have a] full-circle moment and just happened to be in San Diego.”

Lauer had climbed through the Padres’ system, with Prior overseeing the minor-league pitching department, as part of a group that would inspire the “hot talent-lava” motto — a phrase originally coined by baseball superagent Scott Boras. Though Lauer’s career has taken twists and turns since, those were formative years.

“They taught us that you’re never done really learning to pitch,” Lauer said. “It’s a constant adjustment. As you get older, you have to change some things, and you have to tweak some things when your body doesn’t move the same as when you’re 21 compared to 28. So that idea stuck with me throughout.”

It’s been clear in Lauer’s short time with the Dodgers that he’s still evolving.

The former Toronto Blue Jay, who shoved against the Dodgers in the World Series, warmed up on the Dodger Stadium mound to “squabble up” by Kendrick Lamar, a Compton native who famously torched Toronto native Drake in their 2024 feud.

After a clean first inning with two strikeouts, Lauer missed down the middle with a fastball to Hunter Goodman, who hit it out for the 12th homer Lauer has given up this season.

On a night littered with Dodgers home runs, however, that was the only run Lauer gave up, as he mowed down the Rockies for the next four innings.

Stephen Colbert’s viral public access spot had former bosses CBS and its parent company Paramount in a brief tizzy over the weekend, mere hours after his buzzy late-night sign-off.

The longtime TV personality, 62, returned to the air on Friday evening on “Only in Monroe,” a public access program in Monroe, Mich., with an hour-long late-night parody episode that featured several guests and took shots at Paramount’s monopolistic aspirations in media. Colbert, previously a one-time host of “Only in Monroe,” began his episode: “It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV, so I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community before they also get acquired by Paramount.”

The “Only in Monroe” episode was broadcast in southeast Michigan, the Associated Press reported, and also published to Colbert’s official YouTube page. News of Colbert’s surprise late-night spot spread online, with social media users reposting the episode in its entirety or sharing clips. Journalist and the Desk founder Matthew Keys shared the episode to his X (formerly Twitter) page, tweeting on Sunday that he received a “frivolous” copyright notice from Paramount Global.

CBS said in a statement shared over the holiday weekend to multiple outlets that the “Only in Monroe” episode was “financed and produced by CBS Studios” and was posted on Colbert’s YouTube page through a collaboration with Monroe Community Media and Colbert’s “The Late Show” YouTube channels. The network, which was home to “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” for more than a decade, said in its statement that it is “regular practice” to copyright-strike “unauthorized websites” that repost its “copyrighted content,” but later added that it’s walking back its actions.

“For this episode, we have decided to waive further enforcement of this standard industry practice until additional review,” the statement said.

A representative for CBS did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Tuesday. A representative for Colbert also did not immediately respond.

Colbert’s guests on Friday included regular “Only in Monroe” hosts Michelle Baumann and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko Wilson, Emmy winners Jeff Daniels and Steve Buscemi, rapper Eminem (via video call) and White Stripes rocker Jack White. Friday’s broadcast ended with a literal bang, with Colbert, Daniels and White taking hammers to the talk show set and setting it ablaze.

“Since they are no longer using this set, it would actually be helpful for me to destroy it,” Colbert said, “which is pretty great news because right now — for no particular reason — I would very much like to break something.”

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ended its run at CBS after 11 seasons and more than 1,800 episodes. Colbert began his late-night talk series in 2015, succeeding David Letterman. CBS announced it was canceling “The Late Show” in July 2025, with chief executive George Cheeks claiming “this is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” Cheeks added at the time.

CBS announced it was parting ways with Colbert, a relentless critic of President Trump, after Paramount settled a lawsuit filed by Trump for $16 million. At the time, media mogul David Ellison’s Skydance Media was also awaiting federal approval to acquire Paramount for $8 billion. Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder, tech billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison.

Colbert ended his CBS tenure at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Thursday evening, joined by an impressive roster of celebrity guests including Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, Tim Meadows, Ryan Reynolds and Paul McCartney. The “Late Show” time slot now hosts media mogul Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” syndicated show.

After late night, Colbert revealed in March that his next project is co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” movie with his screenwriter son Peter McGee. Even as Colbert begins a new chapter away from late night, work may bring him right back under the Paramount umbrella.

The new “Lord of the Rings” films, including Colbert’s project, will be produced by New Line and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. David Ellison‘s Paramount Skydance is seeking a $111-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery and its properties.

Times staff writers Greg Braxton and Meg James contributed to this report.

Dean Harrison set the fastest time in Tuesday’s first qualifying session for the Isle of Man TT.

The Honda Racing rider topped the Superbike leaderboard with a speed of 133.925mph, a time of 16 minutes 54.206 seconds.

The five-time TT winner had earlier posted a lap of 133.222 from a standing start on his opening lap before shaving more than five seconds off his lap time on his second circuit.

The Yorkshireman, now based on the Isle of Man, was a double winner in the Superstock class last year, his first race victories since 2019.

Michael Dunlop was second quickest in the Superbike class on his Hawk Racing Honda at 130.341, almost 28 seconds slower than his rival.

Manx rider Nathan Harrison, Ian Hutchinson, David Johnson and John McGuinness completed the top-six leaderboard.

Australian Josh Brookes led the Superstock qualifying leaderboard thanks to a lap of 130.197 on his DAO Racing Honda, with 14-time winner Peter Hickman second behind the double British Superbike champion with 129.42, followed by Jamie Coward at 128.702.

Dunlop was best of the Supersports on 126.922 on his V2 Ducati, the Northern Ireland rider making a strong start in his bid to extend his run of eight consecutive race wins in the class.

Brookes was second at 124.271 on a Suzuki, then Hickman on his Triumph on 123.584.

Paul Jordan topped the Sportbike speeds thanks to a lap of 120.208 on an Aprilia, with Coward (119.199) and Browne (119.097) second and third respectively.

The concluding sidecar session was ended prematurely because of a red-flag situation.

An update from Race Control said they were “managing an incident that occurred at Brandish”.

The opening practice session of the 2026 event on Monday was red flagged following a crash on the northern section of the 37.7-mile (60km) Mountain Course, leading to the abandonment of the remainder of the day’s schedule.

Two spectators have been subsequently flown to the UK for specialist medical care after a competitor crashed into the crowd.

Event organisers said six other spectators and the motorbike racer had been discharged from hospital.

The Southern Section finalized its championship schedule for softball this week, and the Division 1 final between La Mirada and JSerra will take place Friday at 7 p.m. at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.

La Mirada is 26-4 and will be facing JSerra pitcher Liliana Escobar, the best in the Southland. La Mirada lost to JSerra 5-2 on March 7. The Matadores have been led by Riley Hilliard, who’s hitting .577 with 10 home runs.

JSerra (24-8), which began the school year winning the Southern Section flag football championship, is trying to end the year on top behind the arm of Escobar, who has 252 strikeouts in 146 innings. The top hitter has been sophomore catcher Annabel Raftery.

The Division 2 final will match Mater Dei against Whittier Christian on Friday at 4 p.m.

The Southern Section is waiting for the baseball semifinals to be played on Tuesday before announcing dates and times. The only certainty is the Division 1 final will be played on Friday at 7 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton unless either of the finalists has a scheduling issue on that date.

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

ZOE Ball has opened up about having an empty nest at home, after her daughter Nelly, 16, moved out to live with her dad, Fatboy Slim, full time.

The former Radio 2 DJ, 55, who recently lost out on the Strictly Come Dancing hosting job, is now living in a “quieter” house with her boyfriend.

Mum-of-two Zoe shares both Nelly, and son Woody, 25, with her ex-husband, Norman Cook, 62.

But, the presenter has revealed how her house is now “so quiet” after both of her children had moved out, as her son now lives in Bristol.

Speaking to Jo Whiley, 60, on their Dig It podcast, Zoe reflected on how empty her Brighton home was, in comparison to her co-host’s busy house.

“Mine’s so quiet, it’s like ugh! It’s less and less because Nel is based more at her dad’s now because I think she’s got to that point of, ‘Ah can I just be in one place?’” the star said.

HAVING A BALL

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STRICTLY SNUB

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“All of her CSI revision notes are on the wall at her dads and it’s just [nice] not having to move from house to house, so she’s just spending more time there now.”

Zoe then revealed how Nelly was not far away, as Norman lived closed by.

“It’s great because it’s only around the corner and I can nip round at any time, which is great, and she can come here if she gets upset about anything like, ‘Mum, I need you’ but it’s less and less,” she said.

But Zoe isn’t on her own in her big house, as she moved her boyfriend Mathieu Weekes, 49, into the family home earlier this year.

The couple have been dating for a year now, with the pair completely smitten with each other.

Speaking about being a single mum and dating, Zoe previously told her podcast: “Introducing new partners, it’s a tricky one.

“You just have to go with the feeling of it. I think it’s okay to have a bit of a private life that isn’t part of the kids’ life for a little bit.

“In the past I’ve rushed that by welcoming someone in and being like ‘here’s my kids. Here’s my life. This is me.’

“And it’s all a bit much. It’s all a bit much for me. It’s all a bit much for the kids.

“Hopefully at some point there is someone where you think actually this person’s pretty cool and they’re pretty laid-back and they’re not going to come in and demand to be part of your kids’ lives.”

Meanwhile, this latest revelation comes just days after Zoe opened up to The Sun about how she REALLY feels about not getting the plum Strictly hosting job.

The star was beaten to the role by comedian Josh Widdicombe, 43, presenter Emma Willis, 50, and dance pro Johannes Radebe, 39.

The trio take over from Claudia Winkleman, 53, and Tess Daly, 57, who stepped down last year.

Zoe told The Sun: “I screen tested with Josh and he is hilarious. He is going to be so good.

“Emma is just gorgeous and I love Johannes, so they are going to ace it.

“And I don’t have to have a facelift, so I’m quite happy.”

Zoe also sent her congratulations to the trio, and thinks they will give the series a boost.

She said: “I have messaged Emma, Josh and Johannes — they are going to be brilliant.

“You know what? It needed fresh energy, and you can totally see why that’s happening.

“It’s like, move forwards, and that is great.”

A former world junior number one and three-time Grand Slam junior champion, Monfils, by his own admission, perhaps did not fully fulfil his potential in the senior ranks, but he insists his “bucket list is full”.

Over the course of his 23 seasons in professional tennis, he has won 13 ATP titles, reached at least the last eight at three of the four majors – Wimbledon is the exception – and achieved a career-high ranking of sixth in the world.

There were 38 wins over top-10 ranked players, including multiple victories over both Federer and Nadal, and two Davis Cup finals with France.

Such is his longevity, this was his 70th appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam and 19th at the French Open. He holds the record for most Slam match wins by a male French player in the Open era, even if a major title has been elusive.

But Monfils will be best remembered for his on-court showmanship, athleticism and outrageous shot selection. His near physics-defying slides along the baseline and basketball-like hangtime before smashes have cemented his status as a fan favourite.

“I was never quite good enough to win a Grand Slam,” reflected Monfils before the French Open. “But maybe I won something more important than that – a tennis career I’m proud of.”

In a testament to his popularity on and off the court, the farewell festivities began last Thursday with a charity event on Philippe-Chatrier – fittingly named ‘Gael & Friends’ – featuring appearances from stars such as Jannik Sinner, Djokovic and Naomi Osaka, as well as fellow Frenchmen – both retired – Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Gasquet was also in attendance for Monfils’ final bow against Gaston, as were French tennis royalty Mauresmo – the tournament director – and Henri Leconte.

Thirty-five years after his death, jazz giant Miles Davis, who would have turned 100 years old Tuesday, remains a truly larger-than-life figure in music and well beyond.

Still possessor of the biggest-selling jazz record in history, “Kind of Blue,” Davis casts a huge influence over the whole music world for his uncompromising artistic vision, constant evolution, style and more. Though he came from jazz, he may be the biggest rock star there ever was. Talk to any musician, regardless of genre, and they will tell you Davis defined swagger and cool. He had a vibe unlike that of anyone else.

In honor of Davis’ centennial, The Times spoke to an array of notable artists from all walks of music, some who knew and played with him, some fans of the man, but all agreed, Miles Davis was and is a singular force in music, an artist like no other in his vision, passion and feeling for the music. In short, there was only one Miles Davis.

‘A complete innovator’

Chuck D, rapper: I like Miles Davis and all the exterior aesthetics. I like the Blue Note album covers, Prestige album covers, his style, his way of life.

Cindy Blackman Santana and her husband Carlos Santana in 2019.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Cindy Blackman Santana, drummer: Stylistically, Miles was a complete innovator. I remember hearing him say that he didn’t play right if he wasn’t dressed right. That is completely something that inspires me as well, because it becomes not only what you’re putting out on your horn or your drums or your guitar or your piano, but it’s your whole being that is expressing this innovative approach to music and to life.

Bilal, singer: If you play the music you’ve got to look the part, and it was almost like he got into a movie role or something like that. But he was always into the clothes … It was almost like every era had a different outfit. But, yeah, I definitely take his style. The clothes make you feel a certain way to play that way. So that’s the vibe. You’ve got to have that character, that attitude.

Emmet Cohen, left, performs with Terence Blanchard at Lincoln Center in 2025.

(Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images for Find Your Light)

Emmet Cohen, pianist and composer: I think when you listen to Miles’ records you can really appreciate them all the way through and there’s something in there for all sides of humanity. Whether it was the Prestige records that he pumped out in a couple of days, or there was “Birth of the Cool,” he just knew how to assemble musicians and let them tell their stories. And the storytelling is really where I think the deepest connections are made. He was a rock star, but he had a story to tell. And that always comes first.

‘Always evolving’

Guitarist Lenny Kaye performs onstage at Carnegie Hall in 2023.

(Noam Galai / Getty Images for Tibet House US)

Lenny Kaye, guitarist: He started in the bebop era, with the immortals of that moment in time. But I always got the sense that he was looking for something else. He didn’t want to participate in the faster-than-light speed changes and virtuosity. So, I really respect the fact that when he moved into “Birth of the Cool,” he pulled it back so he could inject more of his human self into it. And over the years, he kept on doing that, “Sketches of Spain,” “Kind of Blue,” one of the most jazz friendly records of all time.

Flea, bassist: Every time Miles changed it up, he destroyed everything that came before. He is the ultimate artist, always evolving, always coming organically from the depths. His music is the warmest and the wildest.

Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a solo jazz album in March.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Bilal: I really like his electric era, but I would say I keep discovering and rediscovering stuff from Miles that I’m just like, “Damn, man. It’s like it’s another artist because he went through so many different changes.” … The other day I found his “Sketches of Spain” record. I put it on. I was like, “This is crazy. I forgot he was into this too.”

Wyclef Jean, rapper: When you go through Miles’ whole catalog, you see you can have quiet days. You can have loud days. You can have explosive days. But the key is that consistency. And that discipline.

Kaye: I respect Miles. For me, he’s an artist that transcends the jazz genre. He’s so alert to the shifting moods of the culture, the directions of the music. And what I find fascinating about him is his ability to morph into new styles and to keep challenging himself. One thing about Miles is that he doesn’t repeat who he is.

Musician Ron Carter in 2011.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images)

Ron Carter, bassist: We always thought that we were honored to have Miles hire us out of other guys who were available to him. The first few gigs, we had a couple of weeks up and down the West Coast, and everybody but Miles was trying to find out what the tunes were, what the changes were. I was just trying to do what I thought was necessary to make this guy think he hired the right guy and make the band sound good. … Whatever his method was, it was successful.

Ibrahim Maalouf, trumpeter: Quincy [Jones] always spoke about Miles not just as a genius, but as someone who knew when to move on. And that’s a lesson I still carry with me every day.

Kaye: In “Bitches Brew” he created the template for what would be jazz fusion and made rock ‘n’ roll an important part of his evolution. Just an artist who never stands still and that is what I personally respect and honor within his work. When he saw what an artist like Jimi Hendrix was doing, he thought, ‘Yeah, I know how to access that and not be Jimi Hendrix. I can be myself.’ He understood the tides of cultural transformation as much or better than most musicians of the 20th century.

Don Was performs onstage at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in 2022.

(Jason Davis / Getty Images for Americana Music)

Don Was, musician and producer: In life, as exemplified by music, if you don’t change, you stagnate. And the thing about Miles that really stands out, I think, is that he was always willing to risk losing his audience in order to keep moving forward. He was courageous in every era, including eras when maybe courage wasn’t held at a premium.

‘More than that’

Maalouf: For me, as a trumpet player, of course, the musical influence; space, phrasing, silence, we can talk about this for hours. But I think that more than that, there’s an attitude.

Ibrahim Maalouf performs at the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad at L’Olympia on July 24, 2024, in Paris France.

(Julien M. Hekimian / Getty Images)

Trombone Shorty, musician: Miles has inspired me because of that attitude, ‘I’m going to do what I want.’ He was playing what he felt in whatever time period or whatever decade he was inspired by. He really embraced that tremendously. And that’s always the thing that I admire about him as a person and as a musician. Whatever the spirit is, he’s going to go with that. That’s what I always got from Miles.

Nas, rapper: With Miles it wasn’t just about the music he made, it was about how he carried himself as an artist and a pioneer. His impact on me personally is as much on a human level as it is on the artist level.

Trombone Shorty performs at the Anaheim Convention Center in 2015.

(Jesse Grant / Getty Images for NAMM)

Trombone Shorty: The swagger, he may have created the swag.

Vince Wilburn Jr., nephew and drummer, who now co-manages Davis’ estate: He liked to catch things, that’s why the tape kept continuously rolling, because he said it was songs inside of songs.

Carlos Santana, guitarist: “I recommend that people who never heard of Miles Davis, I’ll say start with “Kind of Blue,” then move on to “Bitches Brew.” Because the thing about Miles Davis is that he teaches people who have never meditated how to stop and be coherent about absoluteness. In one note, Miles can play absoluteness. One note for Miles, like Billie Holiday, like Cindy says, that’s enough to understand all the whys and all the reasons why it’s sacred to be alive.

Was: He probably changed the face of music more than anybody did, at least four or five times. Maybe more than that. It’s a combination of mastery and an unstoppable spirit of adventure that I think make him unique. Because he was absolutely a master of harmony, rhythm, of creating a vibe. Yet he loved upsetting the cart and I think went out of his way to create friction musically, within the band, to keep things stirred up constantly and make every day an adventure. It requires tremendous courage. But also, supreme excellence to do it on the level that he did with the level of musicians that he surrounded himself with. That’s another thing, too. He wasn’t just the most innovative man on the horn. His genius was also as a curator of human chemistry.”

‘Larger than life’

Musician Wyclef Jean performs in 2023.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Jean: The main thing that I learned from Miles at a very young age is just the braveness, you can’t be scared to just go. Going doesn’t just mean learning one part of it. It means learning the entire metrics. … When it comes to Miles, he’s just a complete teacher; even on how he sees art, how he sees shapes, and also there’s a whole part of Miles that’s tough love when it comes to it. So, all of that instills character.

Bilal: As an older musician, you could see all of the building blocks are in those records. If you take some of those records out, I don’t know where jazz would be. You can see the essential building blocks.

Izzy Escobar, singer: Miles Davis made jazz feel cinematic to me. When I listen to songs like “It Never Entered My Mind” or “Flamenco Sketches,” there’s mystery, romance, restraint and tension in every note. Nothing feels overdone, yet somehow it says everything. As a songwriter, that’s deeply inspiring because the best music doesn’t just sound good … it creates an entire world you can step into. I think that’s why his influence has lasted a century. His music still feels fearless, elegant and emotionally alive — all of which never go out of style.

Jorma Kaukonen, guitarist: I had always thought of jazz as somewhat of a haughty art form. Probably because at the time many of the time signatures and chordal progressions that Miles used were over the head of a young guitar player still functioning in the blues and folk idioms. … The growing rock and art movement in the Bay Area in that era taught us to eschew boundaries and labels, and it became possible to see similarities and possibilities with jazz music that would have gone previously unnoticed. Our harmonic tendencies were nowhere near as complex, but they were rapidly becoming more sophisticated thanks to our exposure to such great improvisers as Miles! Miles knew no boundaries.

Jean: One thing that I learned from Miles is someone can have the best technique. They could be moving around. But if you can dig and play from your soul, this instrument just becomes a vessel of sound and orbit, bro, it’s over. There’s a connection with the soul. And I wouldn’t be able to do that, bro, if I didn’t have people like Miles to really teach me how to hear.

Theo Croker plays trumpet the Kennedy Center in 2018.

(Paul Morigi / Getty Images for Thelonious Monk)

Theo Croker, trumpeter: He was definitely a larger-than-life figure. And it encourages me to be a larger-than-life figure. Growing up as a kid, we sit in a room all day and play trumpet for hours. You see somebody like Miles Davis and you’re like, “Wow, I can be a rock star.” Because I couldn’t sing, otherwise, you end up being a pop star, Prince, Michael Jackson and Stevie and all that. But Miles was that for the trumpet, of course. So, it’s so much bigger than music.

Musician Mia Doi Todd performing in 2012.

(Paul Redmond)

Mia Doi Todd, musician and singer: Miles Davis was such an outstanding band leader, bringing together a group of musicians and seeking to break the boundaries. That is what I look to him most for as a celestial mentor, being a band leader and creating those sonic landscapes. The records that I love most of his are from that electronic jazz fusion era, which weren’t his most popular at the time. I love “On the Corner.” I’m a person of mixed race, so the records that he was bringing together, all these different musical elements, those are the ones that I really admire … “I wish I could play in that band.”

Maalouf: There’s this idea that music is not about providing something. It’s about searching. It’s about staying alive artistically. I think that strength goes far beyond music, it’s really a message for all the musicians that we are. Never stay where people expect you to stay. Every time the audience thought they understood him, he changed direction. And I think that’s definitely one of the most inspiring parts of his musical life.

Was: I never met him. But he was a heroic figure to me as a teenager, very much in the same way that simultaneously, like Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones were, or John Lennon was, or Allen Ginsberg was.

Bilal performs in New York City in 2023.

(Roy Rochlin / Getty Images)

Bilal: That [artistic vision] is a major influence that I take from Miles. … I always approach the music in that way where you got to do your own thing. You’ve got to have something to say, and you’ve got to want to evolve and always look for ways to grow and change and with the music. Miles was quintessential at that.

Trombone Shorty: To me, Miles Davis was a real rock star. It just wasn’t the sound. When he walked on stage … he looked the way that the music sounded to him. … And as he grew, he just really embraced everything that was coming to him, and he didn’t run away from it. He wanted to have his influence and also be tremendously influenced by things that were happening. He was just the coolest; when they say cool, Miles Davis has to be next to that word.

‘Playing within the language that he created’

Nas performs in New York City in 2018.

(Bennett Raglin / Getty Images for Jenn-Air)

Nas: I think Miles’ impact on every inch of music after him is the most impressive part. Musicians from every genre speak on his influence. It has no language or cultural barriers.

Jean: I would literally tell everybody to do a deep dive and start with early Miles, start from the bebop and the blues, don’t just go in. I started my daughter with “Birth of the Cool.” Now she’s vibing and slowly working her way up.

Musician Vince Wilburn Jr. in 2011.

(Theo Wargo / Getty Images)

Wilburn Jr.: Style, creativity, forever evolving, ever looking back, unapologetic. Lenny White used to say everybody wanted to live and be like Miles, all the musicians. You have Miles, and then you have everyone else.

Santana: Miles is what I call a sacred rascal, a divine rascal, a genius. When I’ve been in the room with Herbie [Hancock], Wayne [Shorter] and Tony [Williams], and the name Miles comes up, they all stop. It has such an impact on all of them to this day it shows that Miles is Da Vinci, Stravinsky, Picasso. Collect all the geniuses of this planet, and that’s what Miles is in one note. In one note, he reveals more because in one note, he teaches an individual how to hug infinity with emotions.

Kaye: I think of him as a lodestar for someone who wants to continually move music forward into the future because that’s what music is about. When you play music, you’re moving from one note to the next and creating the future of that piece. I just find Miles a fascinating creature of transformation. Miles, for all his artistic innovation, was a pop star.

Maalouf: Miles Davis’ legacy is not only a sound, it’s a mindset. He gave all of us the permission to be many people in one lifetime. It feels to me it’s the secret and he was generous enough to do it himself and show the world and especially the jazz world that is not always easy to please that someone can be many people in one lifetime. It’s not only true for music. It’s true for everything in life.

Cohen: He’s always on the cutting edge of the next thing and the next group of musicians that he finds. The story in that is that there’s constant change, constant evolution, and to find the thread throughout is kind of the meaning of life. And to play his music is the same thing. He created a language. So, when we play his music, we’re playing within the language that he created.

Was: “That’s why he’s that cat. He’s the most rebellious musician of all time, I think. He was the complete package man, no one more innovative or influential.

The idea grew as organically as the purple cauliflower at Erewhon. One day, I walked from my place in Los Feliz to the beach. I stopped at two Erewhon locations on the way to refuel. I made a reel about my journey and posted it to Instagram. My friend Fish saw it and said, “You should walk to all the Erewhons.”

I thought: I don’t have time to do that. I’m a very serious person who needs to write her novel.

But later I found myself mapping out an 89-mile hike in my Notes App, starting in Pasadena and ending in Calabasas, stopping at all 10 Erewhon locations on the way. (My route did not include the Palisades, which is closed because of the fires; nor did it include LACMA or the new Glendale locale.)

“I need to write my novel” is a thought I have a lot. I usually heed this thought and sit at the desk like a soldier, imagining the wonderful day when I’ll sell said novel — for an amount that would probably be comparable to a fraction of an Erewhon employee’s yearly salary.

Erewhon Trail map illustration by Swan Huntley.

(Erewhon Trail map illustration by Swan Huntley. )

I really wasn’t in the mood to write the novel, though. When I imagined myself pecking away at the keyboard, I felt bad. When I imagined myself walking around L.A. in my Home Depot gardening hat, I felt good. So, I put on my hat, got into an Uber headed for Pasadena, and texted my sister, “Carpe diem, bitch.” Or at least that was my intention. What I actually sent was, “Carpet diem hitch.”

Over the summer, I hiked a little bit of the Pacific Crest Trail. A few years ago, I biked the Camino in Spain. I’ve walked from Los Feliz to the beach a handful of times. I’ve traversed the length of Manhattan thrice. Before that, when I was a teenager, I used to trek from La Jolla to Del Mar while drinking beer (I carried a cooler; yes, I’m sober now) and listening to Sarah McLachlan on my Discman. I’ve always been drawn to activities that many people find tedious. Like walking forever. Or writing a novel.

Starting in the fourth century, pilgrimages were served up by the church as a way for Christians to pay penance for their sins. They were hard and dangerous and a lot of people died. Fast-forward to now: Such treks have taken on an “Eat, Pray, Love” aura. Or a “Wild “ aura. They live in the realm of self-help and of sport. They’re a way to create friction in an increasingly frictionless world. By walking from Mexico to Canada, or from Erewhon to Erewhon, I wonder whether we’re trying to get back to the part of ourselves that wants to try harder.

Or we just want to become more valuable dinner party guests.

What do you do?

I do really long walks.

I ordered a Goddess Smoothie in Pasadena, and then I repeated this tradition at every store thereafter. The smoothie costs $19, tastes like heaven, and it’s green, which my brain reads as “good for me.”

It took me a little over three hours to walk 11 miles to Silver Lake. I got a Vegan Avocado Sandwich for lunch, took an Uber home and posted a reel on Instagram about my first day on the trail. A lot of people liked it. Some of them called me a genius.

In the last 10 years, I’ve published four novels and two illustrated books for adults. I was naïve and just totally blindly happy about the publishing process in the beginning. People wanted to buy my work? Other people wanted to read it? Cool.

The first book, “We Could Be Beautiful,” did well because the publisher put real money into the marketing of it. Then that stopped happening. At a certain point, I realized that expecting too much was unwise. It was up to me to market my books myself. Which meant: social media.

They say you have to see a book cover six times before you buy the book — or consider buying it. There are a lot of book covers on Instagram. Actually, there’s a lot of everything on Instagram, and out of all the everything, is a book cover that exciting?

No.

My second reel, which depicted my journey from Silver Lake to Studio City, went a little bit viral. To date, almost 10,000 people have shared it with their friends. Why? I think the answer has something to do with a desire for levity.

If the atmosphere of the world could be depicted by an Erewhon beverage, it wouldn’t be a vibrant, cheerful one, like the bright magenta Pitaya Smoothie. It would be the dark and brooding Germ Warfare Shot. I find it perplexing that people talk about the apocalypse as if it’s happening later. It’s happening now. If we were really thinking about how climate change is affecting us, we’d be out in the streets screaming. All the time. But we’re not doing that. We’re carrying on with our usual lives. Apparently, for me, that includes walking to Erewhons.

Any long-distance trek is as much an internal journey as it is external. As I continued the trail, I started to think that maybe my endeavor was a reaction to my feeling of total powerlessness. I can’t save the polar bears. I can’t force the president to go to therapy. But I can add some levity to the brooding atmosphere.

Recently, someone commented on one of the reels, “Transplants make LA locals look bad.” This person, and many others, hear the name Erewhon and assume I’m poking fun at it. Erewhon has become a joke about L.A. — a joke that was amplified after Hailey Bieber invented her smoothie in 2022 that Erewhon dubs the “Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie.” I’ve never had it, but I can tell you that it looks like a sky full of strawberry clouds. According to an Erewhon employee I spoke to, this smoothie was a turning point. It aligned the brand with wealth and power. Now, Erewhon evokes the image of smooth-skinned, health-conscious Angelenos with money to burn.

The Erewhon Trail, then, inevitably becomes a conversation about privilege, my own included. Instagram hid my two favorite comments, because it was worried they’d be too rude to show, but I think they’re the funniest ones.

This is what white people do on Prozac.

This is what happens when a liberal arts teacher gets fired.

To both of these comments, I say: Yes.

I’m not on Prozac yet, but maybe after I get fired, I will be.

In order to get fired, though, I’d have to get an actual job, which might never happen.

The most intense leg of the trail was from Santa Monica to Calabasas. My friend Fish joined me. Google said it would take 27 miles. After marching through the mountains, I decided to use my own intelligence to make the route shorter. This cut out four miles, bringing the total to 23. For long stretches, Fish and I walked in the bike lane, or in the bramble by the side of the road. That’s the penalty for straying from Google. Your sidewalks disappear and your chances of getting hit by a car go way up.

My legs were noodles by the time we got to Calabasas. I crawled across the parking lot to show my viewers how weak they’d become. The employee at the door smiled at me and handed me a basket, and I thought about the pain of my legs, which no one could see, and about all the secret battles people are fighting all the time, and I wished that we cared about each other as much as Erewhon cares about us. Multiple employees were perfecting the already-perfect plateaus of bell peppers and apples in the produce section. Their thoughtfulness was the opposite of the vibe I encounter in most public restrooms, which is that the strangers who were there before me didn’t have many thoughts about my experience. As lame as the fact that an Erewhon smoothie costs $19 is that so many of us need to be paid to be nice to each other.

When I tell people about my love for Erewhon, they either say, “Duh, I know,” or something along the lines of, “That place is ridiculous, right?” This is almost always followed by the mention of a food item and some amount of money. Like, “Doesn’t a carrot cost $12,000?”

Actually, I tell them, no. Although sometimes, yes. There is a Japanese strawberry that’s famously expensive ($20), but that’s avoidable. I then explain that contrary to popular thought, there is a way to shop at Erewhon on a budget. A jar of soup, for example, costs $15.50. If you return the bottle, you get $3 back. In my opinion, the soup can be two meals, so that’s $6.25 per meal. A lot of the produce is either the same price or only a little bit more expensive than at other health food stores, and it’s in consistently better shape. The most important piece of making Erewhon more affordable, though, is becoming a member. You get 10% off, a free drink of the month and discounts on a bunch of items.

You might be wondering: How many Erewhon memberships has she personally sold?

She’s lost count.

The other reason to go to Erewhon is the environment. It’s visually appealing and the employee-to-customer ratio is notable, and the result is that you feel like you’re at a resort. And frankly, these simple things — a nice environment, high quality food — should be available to everyone.

Back to the question of whether or not Erewhon is ridiculous — yes, of course it is. If you sit at any of the locations and listen to the conversations around you, you’ll probably feel like you’re an extra in a satirical movie. At Studio City, I overheard two moms in white pants and cashmere sweaters talking about how, based on their Instagram recon, they figured out that so-and-so was sitting next to so-and-so at a benefit dinner. Another snippet I overheard in Studio City: “You gotta make music from the heart, man, and the label will feel it.”

It didn’t occur to me to ask for free merch until after I’d finished the trail. Armando at the Santa Monica location was the lucky recipient of my request. I explained my uniquely heroic feat to him, and then wondered aloud if perhaps I could get a sweatshirt, or at least a hat.

Sadly, Armando was unauthorized to give me merch, but he did offer me a gift card in a tiny envelope. I was very grateful. I assumed the card was worth $50 at least.

After we parted ways, I opened the envelope.

Ten dollars.

Enough to put a down payment on a smoothie.

My dreams now are so different from when I was younger. Back in grad school, I imagined that maybe I’d write a bestselling novel, and maybe it would be adapted for the screen, and maybe my tombstone would read: She contributed very serious literature to civilization.

What I never accounted for was, of course, the unknown. Maybe one day, over a decade after school ended, I’d get a lot of attention for making performance art about walking to grocery stores.

Huntley’s novels include “I Want You More,” “Getting Clean With Stevie Green,” “The Goddesses” and “We Could Be Beautiful.” She’s also the writer/illustrator of the darkly humorous “The Bad Mood Book” and “You’re Grounded: An Anti-Self-Help Book to Calm You the F— Down.” She lives in Los Angeles.

The majority of the 42 athletes taking part used performance-enhancing substances and Enhanced Games said “13 athletes set personal bests”.

The event was played out in front of a curated crowd of around 2,500, with tickets not on sale to the general public.

On the track, American former world champion Fred Kerley – one of the athletes competing ‘clean’ – won the men’s 100m in 9.97 seconds, which was short of his personal best of 9.76.

British swimmer Ben Proud, who won silver in the men’s 50m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics, triumphed in the 50m butterfly, clocking 22.32 seconds which was 0.05secs short of Andrii Govorov’s world record.

“We all know what we came for. And that’s world records. And so to be that agonizingly close, it’s frustrating,” Proud said.

Another British Olympic swimmer, Emily Barclay, won the women’s 50m freestyle in 24.09, around half a second slower than the world record.

Weightlifter Hafthor ‘Thor’ Bjornsson, who played The Mountain in TV show Game of Thrones, was another taking part but was unable to break his own deadlift record of 510kg.

Drugs used at the Enhanced Games must be legal and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

They include testosterone, growth hormone, peptides, anabolic steroids and other substances banned in sport.

Those behind the event argue enhancement already exists in elite sport, but secretly and without transparency, and say bringing it into the open where it can be monitored makes it safer.

However many sporting governing bodies have publicly rebuked athletes for choosing to compete in the games and some sporting governing bodies have banned athletes for taking part.

The IOC and Wada have described the Enhanced Games as “immoral” and “a dangerous and irresponsible concept”, while World Athletics president Lord Coe said anyone taking part was “moronic”.

The project was founded by entrepreneurs Aron D’Souza and Maximilian Martin in 2023 and has attracted backing from prominent investors including billionaire Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr.

Martin had predicted that athletes would beat “quite a few” world records at the event.

Clara Adams expected to win the 400-meter dash Saturday in the Southern Section Masters Meet at Moorpark High. The Long Beach Wilson junior not only won, she broke the section record, circling the track in 51.98 seconds.

“To be honest, I did not expect a 51 today … that was my end goal and I got it before state,” said Adams, who topped the previous mark [set by Norco’s Shae Anderson in 2017] by one hundredth of a second. “It says a lot about my training and teammates who push me in practice every day. I’m ecstatic.”

Even better than breaking a section record is breaking a state record and Adams was smiling wider several hours later after she and teammates Brooke Blue, Brooklyn Fowler and Saniah Varnado did just that by clocking 3:33.83 in the 4×400 relay to obliterate the time of 3:35.49 set by Moore League rival Long Beach Poly in 2004. Rosary Academy was a distant second in 3:41.33.

“The 400 was our first race of the day, all of us ran it and we all qualified for state and that carries over to the rest of the day,” said Adams, who ran the third leg and widened the Bruins’ lead before handing the baton to Varnado for the anchor leg. “The state record is a bonus. We handled our business and now we have a week to prepare to go for the national record.”

Florida Montverde Academy owns the national record of 3:31.68, achieved at the 2024 New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia, but Wilson’s foursome was content with the state record, at least for now.

“We already had a good lead when I got it but everyone was getting loud and I was pushing,” Varnado said. “I was thinking we could run in the high 3:30s. I’m proud of how well we did and hopefully we can do even bigger things at state.”

The CIF state track and field championships are next weekend (prelims Friday and finals Saturday) at Buchanan High in Clovis and as usual the Southern Section will be well-represented as numerous athletes met the qualifying standards.

After three-peating in the 1,600 and 800 one week before at the Southern Section finals, Corona Santiago senior Braelyn Combe won both events again Saturday, winning the 1,600 in 4:43.03, well off her 4:41.36 effort at the section finals but still more than two seconds faster than runner-up Reese Holley of JSerra. She won the 800 Saturday by about the same margin in 2:06.04.

Calabasas dominated at the section finals with four runners breaking the Division 3 record in the 100. They were back at it Saturday as last week’s champion Malia Rainey ran 11.33 to win the first heat. Devyn Sproles equaled Rainey’s 11.41 one week before to win the second heat and take second overall. Marley Scoggins (11.46) was third and Coyotes teammate Olivia Kirk (11.62) was fifth.

Tra’via Flournoy led off Rosary’s 4×100 relay, which won in 44.79 at the Masters Meet on Saturday in Moorpark.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Rosary’s 4×100 relay established itself as the favorite at state finals with a 44.79, more than a second faster than runner-up Canyon Country Canyon. The Royals’ foursome of Tra’via Flournoy, Justine Wilson, Pfeiffer Lee and Maliyah Collins is hoping to top the state-record (44.23) it set at Arcadia in April when it heads north for the state meet.

“It wasn’t a [personal record] but it was faster than last week,” said sophomore Collins, who ran the anchor leg. “This was a tuneup. Our handoffs were clean and we got the baton around the track. That was our main focus.”

West Ranch junior Tamea Crear (23.50), Kirk (23.54) and Rosary’s Wilson (23.61) and Collins (23.69) took the top four spots in the 200 meters.

San Jacinto Valley Academy sophomore Kaaliyah Lacy clocked 13.44 to win the 100 hurdles, one hundredth off her state-leading time that earned her the Division 4 section title one week ago. Varnado won the 300 hurdles in 41.53.

Irvine senior and Duke commit Summer Wilson, a three-time Southern Section champion in the 3,200, ran a new-season best (10:14.45) and shaved nearly 10 seconds off her time in the Division 2 sectional race.

Irvine’s Summer Wilson wins the 3200 meters in 10:14.45 at the Masters Meet after placing third last year.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

After sweeping the all three jumps events at the Division 3 section finals, Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez did the same Saturday, winning the long jump in 20 feet, 0.75 inches, the triple jump in 40-7 and the high jump in 5-8.

Los Alamitos senior Cassidy Nguyen cleared 13-2 to win the pole vault while Aliso Niguel was first in the discus (165-10) and shot put (49-0) after winning the Division I section crown in both last week.

Woodbridge junior Aidan Antonio won the 3,200 boys race in 8:55.30 while Sterling White of Oaks Christian became the first freshman in state history to break nine minutes, finishing seventh in 8:59.26 to break the ninth-grade record of 9:01.1 set by Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach in 1973.

Riverside King’s Maximo Zavaleta (4:06.30) and Antonio (4:06.54) battled all the way to the finish line to claim the top two spots in the 1,600.

Having won the Division 3 boys title in 38.39 one week earlier, Servite’s 4×100 relay won Saturday’s race in 40.17, followed by Moorpark (40.60) and Loyola (40.83).

“I like the first leg and coming out of the blocks because I get to see my teammates win,” said Jace Wells, whose exchange to Jorden Wells was smooth. Kamil Pelovello and Benjamin Harris ran the last two legs. The foursome set the state record (39.70) at Arcadia.

Harris won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.17 (one hundredth faster than his time in the Division 3 section finals last week), then won the 200 in 20.80 (31 hundredths slower than his winning time a week ago).

“It’s what I expected — I’m proud of it,” Harris said of his 100 time. “I just wanted to execute, win my race and move on. There’s more work to be done.”

Loyola’s Ejam Yohannes beats Servite’s Jaelen Hunter by 11 hundredths of a second in the 400-meter dash.

(Steve Galluzzo / For the Times)

In the most exciting finish of the day, Loyola senior Ejam Yohannes edged Servite sophomore Jaelen Hunter by 11 hundredths of a second in 46.40 in the 400 meters, one week after Hunter ran 46.36 to set a section Division 3 record. Johannes cut three tenths off his Division I winning time last week.

Upland (3:18.54) won the boys 4×400 and Gardena Serra (3:18.88) was second. Crean Lutheran’s Noah Richardson cleared 15-6 to win the pole vault while Redondo Union’s Bo Ausmus won the discus with a throw of 185-7 and the shot put with a mark of 61-9.

Having won the Southern Section Division 3 high jump crown in a lifetime best and state-leading 7-01 seven days earlier, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior JJ Harel still had the best height Saturday at 6-10, tied with Nathaniel Baca but winning on fewer misses. Harel aims to repeat as state champion.

Moorpark’s Davis Benson was first in the long jump Saturday at 22-11.75 (he won the Division 3 section crown with a leap of 23-5 last week), followed by Dane Malloy (22-10.5) and Harel (22-9.25). Paloma Valley senior Arthur Stringer won the triple jump in 47-4.5.

Long Beach Poly’s Lynnox Newton won the 110 high hurdles in 13.69, Etiwanda’s Brandon Andrade (13.85) was second and Benson (13.94) third. Andrade (37.01) was second behind Palm Desert’s Kingston Penny (36.86) in the 300 hurdles.

There’s nothing better than losing track of time while wandering around a city bursting with character before popping into cosy bookshops – and there’s only one UK city for it

A beautiful city brimming with cosy bookshops, including one that holds a Guinness World Record, offers the perfect escape for book lovers or those looking to explore the ‘city of dreaming spires’.

With the magnificent medieval architecture of Gothic spires and honey-colored stone, against grand libraries, cobbled streets and narrow lanes, a stroll around Oxford is enough to transport you to a scene from Hogwarts. And rightly so, as the historic city, renowned for its prestigious university, was used as a filming location for the Harry Potter franchise.

The historic Duke Humfrey’s Library, which dates back to 1487 and is part of the Bodleian Libraries, was portrayed as the Hogwarts Library in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Meanwhile, the vaulted ceiling of the Divinity School was used as the backdrop for the Hogwarts Infirmary.

READ MORE: Beautiful blue lagoon is one of the ‘best wild swimming’ spots as UK set to be hotter than IbizaREAD MORE: Small Cotswold town used as film set for Disney’s Rivals with independent shops and railway walk

But it was Christ Church College that provided numerous scenes for Harry Potter, with its staircase and hallways used to represent Hogwarts, and its Tudor great dining hall famously inspiring The Great Hall in the wizarding boarding school. New College also took centre stage with its ancient covered cloisters and courtyard, used to portray parts of Hogwarts.

UK’s best city for bookshops

Yet away from its famous movie links and breathtaking architecture that characterise the city, Oxford is an oasis for bibliophiles. The city has the optimal balance of world-famous literary heritage and a vibrant, modern vibe, so there really is something for everyone.

Thanks to its literary delights of more than 30 bookshops nestled among the historic streets, Oxford was named as the UK’s best city for bookshops by Time Out. The publication conducted a survey and found that 60 per cent of people said that Oxford’s book offerings were either ‘good’ or ‘amazing’, and it’s easy to see why.

The city is the birthplace of the well-known UK bookseller and library supplier, Blackwell’s, after it was founded in 1879. Its flagship store is situated on Broad Street in Oxford, and is a labyrinthine maze of shelves stacked with hundreds of thousands of titles.

Yet it’s the Norrington Room, nestled underground, that is perhaps the most impressive feature of this sprawling bookshop. Spanning 10,000 square feet and featuring over three miles of shelves stacked with more than 150,000 books, it is officially the largest single bookselling room and holds a Guinness World Record for this impressive accomplishment.

A wander around the store is a bookworm’s haven, welcoming a gentle calmness away from the busy streets outside, along with a friendly atmopshere, and of course, an abundance of enticing reads. Many have often described it as a tardis-like space, as it spans across multiple floors, with a welcoming café to enjoy a warming cuppa and sweet treat alongside a gripping thriller -it’s easy to spend hours in the historic yet cosy bookshop.

Independent bookshops

But that’s not the only notable offering for bibliophiles alike. Elsewhere, there’s the independent Bookstop and the Last Bookshop by Bill and Ben Books, with a focus on those preloved titles, alongside the little shop of Arcadia found on St Michael’s Street.

In Oxford’s iconic 250-year-old market, where small shops burst with eateries, vintage clothing and produce, there’s Gulp Fiction, which hosts book clubs, author events and jazz nights. St Philip’s Books, situated next door to the Alice in Wonderland shop, is another highlight in the city for those rare finds, while Daunt Books in Summertown is packed with titles suitable for all ages.

Yet it’s easy to lose track of time while exploring Oxford, especially as the city famously runs on its own time.

‘Oxford time’

Before the railway standardised British time back in the 19th century, cities would set clocks by the sun. Due to Oxford’s location, its natural solar time is five minutes and two seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In a long-standing tradition, it’s known as ‘Oxford time’, and today, many of its scheduled events and lectures begin five minutes past the hour.

Whether you’re an avid reader or simply want to explore the historic sites used as a film set and a place on its own time, a day trip or weekend escape to Oxford is absolutely worth it. Just be sure to set your watch five minutes and two seconds behind to experience it like a local!

Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Saturday that the United States and Iran have agreed on the basic terms of an agreement to end the two countries’ nearly three-month-long war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened.”

Iran’s state television network quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying the draft pact will be a “framework agreement” that defers talks toward limiting Iran’s nuclear program until later. Trump did not mention the nuclear issue in his statement.

If that is the form the deal takes, it would represent at least a short-term concession from the president, who initially demanded a definitive end to Iran’s nuclear program as the price of peace.

Trump has also relaxed an earlier U.S. demand that Iran give up its right to enrich uranium and says he would be satisfied with a deal to “suspend” enrichment for 20 years.

Those signs of U.S. flexibility have raised alarm from Iran hawks, reportedly including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They say they fear Trump is so intent on restoring the flow of oil from the gulf that he might agree to a deal that falls far short of U.S. goals.

Mark Dubowitz, a leading critic of past agreements with Iran, said he worries that Trump might settle for “a foolish agreement” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I’m concerned that the administration is looking to cut some ‘Phase One’ deal” in which Iran is given “significant sanctions relief in exchange for agreement to reopen the strait,” he said in an interview Friday. “I think that would be a foolish agreement. Iran would get real money, but they could continue to close the strait any time they wanted simply by making threats.”

Robert Kagan, a conservative foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution, wrote that a deal to reopen the strait while deferring the nuclear issue would amount to a U.S. “surrender.”

“On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war,” Kagan wrote in the Atlantic.

When the war began in February, Trump said he wanted not only to end Iran’s nuclear activities and destroy its ballistic missile program, but bring about regime change as well.

Instead, the nuclear talks have focused on narrower, more achievable goals: a “suspension” of nuclear enrichment for 20 years or less and removal or destruction of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, the essential ingredient for a nuclear weapon.

“A basic agreement shouldn’t be impossible to achieve,” said John W. Limbert, who worked on Iran policy at the State Department for three decades, and was one of the American hostages seized by Iranian militants in 1979. “The deal would be some kind of verifiable limits on the nuclear program in return for economic relief.”

“The fact that we’re talking about a suspension of all enrichment, and the question is whether it will be five years, 20 years or halfway in between — that’s important,” said Nate Swanson, an Iran expert who worked at the National Security Council under President Biden and Trump. “That sounds like you really have the basis for an agreement. … But don’t fool yourself to think that completely addresses the situation.”

Swanson said other issues, including Iran’s nuclear research and its advanced ballistic missiles, haven’t been addressed.

Despite signs of progress toward an agreement, the gaps between the two countries remain large.

Part of the problem is that both sides appear to believe they have won the war, said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Iran analyst at Israel’s defense intelligence agency.

Trump and other U.S. officials frequently assert that the United States has gained the upper hand by destroying Iran’s navy, air force and many of its missiles.

But the Iranians use a different scoring system, Citrinowicz said.

“Iran does not measure success the same way Washington often does,” he wrote in an email. “From Tehran’s perspective, simply holding firm in the face of American pressure can be framed as a win.”

“Tehran believes time is working against Trump politically and strategically,” he added. “Iran is prepared for prolonged confrontation; the United States, far less so.”

And even if a negotiated agreement is reached, the deals under discussion now won’t resolve all the conflicts between the two countries.

“An interim deal to buy time [is] probably where we end up,” Swanson said. “Buying time is not a bad thing. Ending a war is not a bad thing. But it’s not a comprehensive solution.”

One by one, the visitors descend through a tight tunnel cut through volcanic rock into the damp foundations of the Teatro Romano buried beneath Herculaneum, with the weight of 2,000 years of city above them. “This is a time machine,” the guide says, “and we are going back.” It is pitch black as film-maker Gianfranco Rosi’s camera finds torchlight catching the tourists’ transparent waterproof capes, making them appear like ghosts.

Released on the streaming platform Mubi this March, Rosi’s documentary Pompei: Below the Clouds threads a needle from classical antiquity to the present day. Presented in ashen black and white, without narration or interviews, it places the viewer inside the region surrounding Naples and leaves us there, each scene presenting a place and a moment in the area’s long history.

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and most visitors see only a fraction of it before boarding the Circumvesuviana at Porta Nolana and riding the narrow-gauge railway east to Pompei or Herculaneum. In Below the Clouds, Rosi does not alight there. He stays on the train, camera in hand, and traverses this seismic landscape – from the Sorrentine peninsula, crowned by Vesuvius in the east, to the lesser-known craters of the Phlegraean Fields in the west. The train, Rosi says, is “my time machine”. His lens draws us into the Naples most visitors never see.

As a film-maker myself, who has lived and worked in Naples for the past 15 years, I was inspired by Below the Clouds to make my own pilgrimage, and boarded the overcrowded, noisy trains I usually avoid.

Before the Circumvesuviana reaches the archaeological site of Pompei, it skirts the Bay of Naples, passing through a number of overlooked towns characterised by a stratification of history visible in the architecture. Drawing into the station of Torre Annunziata, Rosi holds the camera on the visible layers of the town’s history: diamond-patterned Roman brickwork cut from nearby volcanic quarries, Doric columns from an excavated Roman villa, and the still-lived-in mid-century housing blocks rising above them. That Roman villa is worth stopping for. Believed to have been built for Poppaea Sabina, the second wife of Emperor Nero, Villa Oplontis feels like a secret discovery. Its frescoes are almost untouched, its colonnade pristine, and on this day, as always, there was scarcely another soul in sight.

Back on the Circumvesuviana, I head east to Somma Vesuviana. A team from the University of Tokyo has been excavating here for decades, slowly uncovering the Villa Augustea, the imperial estate where the Emperor Augustus is believed to have died in AD14. It was not the great eruption of AD79 that buried the villa, but a later one in AD472. The archaeological treasures still buried across the region are so numerous that tomb raiders have long burrowed into the soft volcanic stone looking for loot to sell on.

A second train line, the Cumana, runs in the opposite direction. It departs from Montesanto station in central Naples and heads west, reaching Pozzuoli in 25 minutes. At the end of the line lies a working port city of 75,000 people living in the basin of one of the world’s most geologically active calderas (volcanic craters). The lore surrounding Vesuvius has long overshadowed the dangers posed by the Phlegraean Fields, which rumble daily beneath the city’s foundations.

Stepping off the train at Pozzuoli, I was hit by the pungent sulphuric smoke drifting over the port. I had timed my arrival for a simple lunch at Abbascio ù Mare (a local favourite serving fish landed from the boats that morning) before visiting the Macellum of Pozzuoli, a 2nd-century Roman market near the harbour. Here, I found the clearest record of what is known as bradyseism, the movement of magmatic fluid and gas beneath the surface of the Earth that lifts and lowers the land, sinking entire towns and raising them again centuries later. Halfway up the ancient columns, I spotted bands of small holes in the stone. These were bored by molluscs when the columns once stood metres below the bay. Rosi’s camera follows the phenomenon underwater, descending into the submerged ruins of nearby Baia, where robed marble figures stand upright on the seabed as shoals of fish drift over mosaics and between their feet.

Between east and west, at the intersection of the Circumvesuviana and the Cumana, lies Naples – known to the Greco-Romans as Neapolis (the new town) because it was new compared with Pompei and Baia. In the centre of the city, at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Rosi films Maria, the museum’s archaeologist, deep in the storage vaults. This is what he calls the casaforte (the safe of memory) – shelf upon shelf of fragmented marble torsos, legs and busts, the overflow of 2,000 years of excavation. These artefacts are down here, Maria says, until it is their turn to return to the museum floor above – a mirror, Rosi suggests to me when we speak, of society’s own hierarchies. Like Rosi, I am obsessed with these perfectly formed marble figures, the survivors of catastrophe, that live in the galleries of the museum upstairs among the frescoes and bronzes, pulled from the same volcanic earth that buried thousands of people under Vesuvius.

Rosi juxtaposes the marble torsos with shots of dismembered ex-voto, small metal plates shaped like individual body parts. These are offerings, often left in churches or street shrines along with prayers to saints in exchange for bodily cures.

At the small church of Santa Maria Francesca delle Cinque Piaghe in the Quartieri Spagnoli, one of my favourite corners of the city, hundreds of ex-votos in the shape of pregnant women have been left for the saint of fertility. These practices, still very much alive today, speak to the Neapolitan impulse to marry the sacred and the profane.

Rosi’s film ends in an abandoned cinema somewhere along the train line, its seats destroyed, its screen partly intact. Into this ruin, Rosi projects clips from Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy, a film about the past, playing in a ruin, in a city built on ruins, above a city that was itself once buried. Like a Chronovisor (a mythical 1950s invention that supposedly broadcast actual historical events), the cinema is where the present tense becomes the past even as you watch it. Just like Naples. Just like Below the Clouds.

By the end of the film’s nearly two-hour runtime, the viewer has made the same journey as those visitors descending into the foundations of the Teatro Romano in Herculaneum to behold and reflect on a civilisation buried mid-sentence. Below the Clouds insists, however, that this confrontation does not require a museum ticket. “We are already living inside the catastrophe,” says Rosi.

Pompei: Below the Clouds is available on Mubi. Herculaneum, Pompei, Villa Oplontis, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli are open to visitors. The Circumvesuviana runs from Napoli Porta Nolana east to Pompei and Herculaneum. The Cumana line runs from Montesanto station west to Pozzuoli. Sophia Seymour offers bespoke city walks and itineraries through Looking for Lila

Beware the Bruins Bombers.

UCLA claimed the first of a best-of-three super regional over Central Florida with a 9-1 run-rule win Friday at Easton Stadium, putting the Bruins one win away from reaching the Women’s College World Series.

Freshman infielder Bri Alejandre squared up and smashed a home run over the center-field wall to give UCLA the lead in the second inning. She tied the Big Ten freshman home-run record with her 23rd of the season.

“You don’t want this heat,” one fan yelled from behind home plate. The Bruins, though, were just getting started.

UCF struggled to find answers to match UCLA’s offensive firepower. Three Knights pitchers tried in vain as the Bruins diced up the diamond even though UCF walked UCLA and NCAA home-run leader Megan Grant three times.

Ava Stuewe ended her night in the fourth inning after she walked one Bruin and hit another. But her replacement, sophomore Isabella Vega, couldn’t find her footing, either.

UCLA strung together a sacrifice bunt and an RBI-ground out to score one run. Ramsey Suarez sliced a double down the left-field line as the ball landed less than a foot into fair territory.

Second baseman Kaniya Bragg’s three-run home run put UCLA up by five in the fifth inning. And Rylee Slimp ended the game with a three-run homer.

Yet, UCLA wasn’t perfect. The Bruins left the bases loaded when UCF’s Sierra Humphreys made a diving catch to end the fourth.

The Knights clawed back a run when Humphrey, the first batter of the fifth inning, homered to left. The hit was a small smudge on Bruins ace Taylor Tinsley’s line, finishing with two strikeouts and three hits across the five innings.

She looked shaky earlier in the game when she worked herself into a 3-2 count during the Knights’ first at-bat of the super regionals. As she took a moment to breathe, staring out at the blue wall, center fielder Jolyna Lamar nodded her head three times.

Tinsley then pitched three hitless innings before UCF’s Aubrey Evans doubled off to right in the fourth. Evans ran to third on a wild pitch, but Tinsley worked out of the jam with a groundout that she fielded herself and a lineout to Garcia at shortstop.

UCLA and UCF will play Game 2 Saturday at 7 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN. If the Bruins win, they advance to the WCWS. If they lose, the teams play again Sunday for the WCWS bid.

Kyle Busch was one of NASCAR’s biggest stars and most successful drivers.

He was Cup Series champion in 2015 and 2019 and his 234 wins in NASCAR’s top three series is an all-time record.

The driver known as “Rowdy” and “Wild Thing” may have been known for brash behavior that included post-race fights and feuds with other drivers, but he was also respected as a fierce competitor and dedicated family man.

His death Thursday at age 41 came as a shock to the racing world. No cause of death has been disclosed.

“Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch,” NASCAR said Thursday in a statement released jointly with the Busch family and his team, Richard Childress Racing. “A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans.

“Throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR’s highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series. His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal ‘Rowdy Nation.’”

The statement concluded: “NASCAR lost a giant of the sport today, far too soon.”

Busch is survived by his wife Samantha, son Brexton, 10, daughter Lennix, 4, parents Tom and Gaye Busch, and older brother Kurt Busch, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee who was the Cup Series champion in 2004.

Kyle Busch, left, and Kurt Busch pose with their mother, Gaye Busch, prior to a race May 8, 2022, in Darlington, S.C.

(James Gilbert / Getty Images)

RCR announced Friday that it is suspending the use of Busch’s No. 8 and will run No. 33 in its place.

“Kyle Busch was instrumental in the design of RCR’s stylized No. 8 and it has become synonymous with Kyle and an important symbol for his fans and the NASCAR industry,” the team said in a statement. “No one can carry it forward to the level that he did. The No. 8 is reserved and ready for Brexton Busch when he is ready to go NASCAR racing.”

Busch spent the early years of his NASCAR career with Hendrick Motorsports.

“This is an incredibly painful shock for all of us and a heartbreaking loss for the NASCAR family,” team owner Rick Hendrick said in a statement. “Kyle was one of the most talented drivers I’ve ever seen and a racer in the truest sense of the word. He had a fire and competitive spirit that drove him to be great.

“I watched Kyle grow up in this sport and valued the friendship we shared long after he drove for our organization. As much as he loved to drive a race car, nothing brought him more joy than being a husband, a father and watching his son race.”

Busch won his first Cup Series race in 2005 and claimed rookie of the year honors the same year.

Jeff Gordon, left, talks with Kyle Busch prior to a race Oct. 30, 2016, in Martinsville, Va.

(Robert Laberge / Getty Images)

“Kyle was a fierce competitor who demanded the very best from himself each time he put on the helmet,” former Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon wrote on X. “As teammates, I saw firsthand the passion and intensity he brought to the sport every single day. He was a champion and prolific racer who made a tremendous impact on NASCAR and was a lifelong advocate for all forms of motor sports.”

Fellow former Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson wrote on X: “Kyle Busch wasn’t just one of the fiercest competitors our sport has ever seen, he was one of the most talented race car drivers I’ve ever shared a track with. We spent years as teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, and even as competitors, there was always a deep respect for what he could do behind the wheel.

“Kyle pushed all of us to be better. His passion, intensity, and love for racing were unmatched, and his impact on this sport will be felt forever. I’ll always remember the many laughs and conversations away from the spotlight, and most importantly the way he cared so deeply about his family. …

“NASCAR lost one of its greatest talents today, and we’ve all lost a friend.”

Busch was let go by Hendrick Motorsports after the 2007 season, making room for the team to sign Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Kyle and I had a really challenging existence for many years,” Earnhardt wrote on X. “But we luckily took the time to figure out our differences and that was something he instigated with a conversation in his bus around how we each managed our racing teams. I was super eager for us to get on better terms. But it was he who made the effort for that to be possible.”

Earnhardt added: “Kyle was one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. No one can deny that. But he was also a father, a husband, brother, son, and a friend to many. My heart is broken for the Busch family. I will never be able to make sense of this loss but I am thankful that we had found a way to become friends.”

Busch then moved to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he remained until 2023 and saw much of his career success.

“Kyle was a fierce competitor, an incredible teammate, and, far more importantly, a devoted husband, father, and son,” Joe Gibbs Racing said in a statement. “His impact on our organization and on the sport of NASCAR will never be forgotten.”

Kyle Busch, left, stands in the garage with Denny Hamlin before a practice Oct. 11, 2007, in Concord, N.C.

(Streeter Lecka / Getty Images)

Former JGR teammate Hamlin wrote on X: “Absolutely cannot comprehend this news. We just need to think of his family during this time. We love you KB.”

Busch was ranked 24th in the Cup Series this year, with his best finish being eighth place at Watkins Glen International in Dix, N.Y., on May 10. He also was racing part-time for Spire Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series. He had two victories in that series this season, including one last week at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware.

“Simply put, he was one of the best to ever do this,” Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson said in a statement. “But for those closest to him, there was always another side. For years, many of us would tell people there was a softness behind the public persona they rarely saw. As much of a bad ass as he was on the track, some of us were lucky enough to experience how deeply he loved, how much he cared, and yes, how much he hurt. …

“We used to tell people about that side of him, and some would assume we were just trying to reshape public perception. No one could question it now. By now, the world has seen the incredible devotion he had to being a father to Brexton and Lennix. He loved his kids more than anything. The pride in his voice whenever he talked about them is something I will always remember with gratitude. … My heart absolutely breaks for you, Brexton and Lennix.”

Here are more tributes to Busch posted on X by members of the racing community:

— “I made him earn every victory and stole a few from him along the way,” Brad Keselowski wrote. “We took our shots at each other, in the media and on the track. But I’d like to think that somewhere deep down there was an appreciation that we pushed each other to perform at the highest level, even if neither of us would’ve admitted it. Tonight, I feel a little like the coyote with no more roadrunner to chase. His loss is all of our loss, but none more so than his family’s.”

Kyle Busch, left, and Clint Bowyer sit together in the garage during practice Sept. 21, 2007, in Dover, Del.

(Russ Hamilton / Associated Press)

— “There aren’t really words for today,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrote. “I’ve raced against Kyle for a long time, and anyone who’s lined up next to him knows exactly what made him special, he gave you everything he had, every single lap, and he made all of us better for it. But more than the wins and the records, I keep thinking about Samantha, Brexton, and Lennix, and the entire Busch family right now. That’s where my heart is. Rest easy, Rowdy. The sport won’t be the same without you.”

— “I just talked to him Friday,” Clint Bowyer wrote. “In complete shock, as we all are. The devastation and sadness is beyond words. Praying for Samantha, Brexton, Lennix, his entire family and loved ones.”

— “I’m so sad and stunned to hear the news about KB,” William Byron wrote. “He meant so much to a lot of people, not just myself. Kyle was the best mentor you could ever have. He was incredibly unselfish, cared about his people and his family deeply. And helped shaped my career to what it is. I’m heartbroken.”

May 22 (UPI) — The Federal Communications Commission on Friday opened public comment on a petition from the Disney-owned network ABC to declare its show The View as a “bona fide news interview program.”

Disney submitted the petition in early May on behalf of its television station KTRK-TV in Houston and its parent company ABC for the declaration in order to receive an exemption from laws requiring that non-news programming include equal time for representation of political candidates for office.

The equal time rule is part of the Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC and regulations for the use of wire and radio, and later television, communications.

The rule is meant to ensure equal access to broadcast station facilities for all candidates for office — essentially, the same amount of air time — to prevent broadcasters from using the public airwaves to push one political candidate or party over another.

Disney and ABC’s request for an exemption to the rule, which are generally granted for news broadcasts, stems from years-long squabbling between President Donald Trump and various people who have hosted The View, which is a news and pop culture analysis program hosted by a panel of women.

“Is The View a ‘bona fide news interview program?” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a post on X announcing the public comment period.

“Under FCC case law, tv shows do not qualify as ‘bona fide news’ if their decisions are based on partisan purposes, such as an intention to advance or harm an individual’s candidacy,” Carr said.

Disney compared the show to NBC’s Meet The Press and CBS’ Face The Nation, which feature interviews and roundtable analysis of political and news topics.

Carr, however, contends that The View does not meet the criteria of those shows as news programs, and so should be required to offer time to multiple candidates in a political race if they feature one of them.

In its May 7 petition to the FCC, Disney and ABC noted that the FCC’s actions could upend “settled law and practice,” as well as “chill critical protected speech both with respect to ‘The View’ and more broadly.”

The filing also notes that the show has “been broadcasting under a bona fide news exemption granted to it more than 20 years ago,” and that the exemption “remains valid.”