The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted in favor of new restrictions on so-called “pretextual” traffic stops, signaling a growing impatience with the Police Commission’s failure to rein in a controversial LAPD tactic that critics say enables racial discrimination.
The vote requests that the department’s all-civilian watchdog adopt new guidelines similar to San Francisco, which bars police officers from pulling people over for broken taillights and other minor equipment violations unless there is a safety threat.
“Board of Police Commissioners: Get this done; we’re watching, no excuses,” said Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who shared stories of her late father being stopped by police with no explanation. “This is what this generation wants.”
If the new policy were adopted, LAPD officers would be prohibited from stopping motorists, bicyclists or pedestrians for minor violations “except in cases where the violation poses a significant and imminent safety risk.”
The unanimous vote followed sometimes emotional testimony at a City Council meeting from Angelenos about how their lives had been shaken by discriminatory traffic stops and searches.
Several speakers pointed to a growing body of research showing that minor stops disproportionately affect Black and brown motorists and do little to combat violent crime while eroding public trust. In recent years, there have been several high-profile traffic stops that resulted in officers or drivers being killed.
The current LAPD policy, in place since 2022, requires officers to record themselves on their body-worn cameras stating the reasons for suspecting a more serious crime had occurred when making a stop for a minor infraction.
The measure passed Wednesday stops short of a categorical ban that some have sought, but was still met with cautious optimism by traffic safety reformers.
“It helps place the city of Los Angeles on a path of ending racial profiling by LAPD,” said Chauncee Smith, of Catalyst California, a group that advocates for racial justice.
Smith’s group recently released a report that said such stops have continued to disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers.
Smith said the new policy advanced by the City Council represents “a more formal, explicit prohibition,” adding that he hopes the Police Commission will ultimately give officers even less discretion in deciding when to make stops.
In a brief statement after the vote, Mayor Karen Bass thanked Harris-Dawson for his “leadership and dedication in moving this updated policy forward.”
“I will work closely with the Police Commission and Chief [Jim] McDonnell to implement it and to provide officers with appropriate training,” Bass said.
Any changes to the policy will probably draw strong challenges from within the LAPD and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the powerful union that represents the city’s rank-and-file officers.
McDonnell has publicly defended the stops as an essential law enforcement tool in the department’s fight against guns, gangs and drugs. He and some transportation safety advocates have argued that persistent traffic deaths — road fatalities have in recent years outpaced the number of homicides — indicate the city needs to crack down harder on reckless driving.
The proposed change comes against the backdrop of a broader effort by city leaders to wrest greater oversight of the LAPD from the Police Commission. A spokesperson for the civilian body said it would evaluate how to proceed.
“The Board intends to place this item on a forthcoming agenda to enable a full and transparent discussion of the Department’s pretextual stop policy, which will include the recommendations from the City Council,” the statement said.
McDonnell did not respond to a request for comment.
The vote was the latest move in a broader push to remove police officers from traffic enforcement. Some advocates have argued that more punitive approaches that prioritize arrests and traffic citations do little to keep city streets safe; instead, they argue the city should invest in unarmed civilian workers and speed bumps, roundabouts and other street modifications that could help curb unsafe driving.
Adrienna Wong, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday’s vote showed city leaders taking action on an issue that was personal to them.
“I think what you saw today in council was the council members have lived experiences and are hearing from their constituents and are voting to represent their constituents in a way that the Police Commission has not,” she said.
Just hours after Golden Tempo returned to the racetrack at Keeneland for the first time since his victory Saturday at Churchill Downs, DeVaux posted a statement on X.
“After much thoughtful discussion as a team, we have decided that Golden Tempo will bypass the Preakness Stakes,” the statement read.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the excitement and support surrounding the possibility of a Triple Crown run. The enthusiasm from racing fans, our owners, and our entire team has meant more to us than we can properly express. Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness, and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
The Preakness, set for May 16, is the second leg of the Triple Crown, followed June 6 by the Belmont Stakes, which for the third straight year will be contested in Saratoga, N.Y. Since 1978, the only horses to sweep all three races are American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.
Golden Tempo is the second straight horse and third in the last five years not to run in the Preakness. Sovereignty, who did not participate last year, won the Belmont and later the Travers and was voted Horse of the Year.
Unlike in the past, trainers almost never run horses with just two or even three weeks’ rest. That has prompted talk that the Preakness — which has been run 14 days after the Derby since 1950 — and Belmont could be moved back to allow horses more time between races. Sports Business Journal reported last month that the Preakness was “set to make a historic shift to one week later,” though many trainers have said that won’t make a difference.
DeVaux was asked the day after the Derby if having the Preakness four weeks after the Derby would make her decision easier.
“I mean, it would make anyone’s decision easier, but that’s not the Triple Crown,” she said. “So, the Triple Crown is hard to win for a reason. And I appreciate the history of it.
“You know, the horses are definitely different. They’re not built the same. They’re not trained the same as back then, but current times have shown that it can be done with the right horse.”
There is no shortage of horses aiming for the Preakness, which is limited to 14 starters. One of those — and the likely favorite if he runs — is Crude Velocity, who won the Pat Day Mile on Saturday at Churchill Downs in just his third career start. But trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times, has yet to decide whether he wants to run the horse in two weeks.
“I’m still on fence,” Baffert said Wednesday via text. “Tempted but I’m not leaning yet.”
The Daily Racing Form reported Ocelli, the maiden who finished third in the Derby, is now expected to run in the Preakness. Trainer Whit Beckman told the Form he had Ocelli jog Wednesday and “he looked better than great.”
Added Beckman: “You wouldn’t know this horse ran Saturday. He’s made of something different. Every indication he’s given me is to point to this race. … We’re having fun, the horse is having fun. If everybody’s having fun, why stop the fun?”
According to a news release from the Preakness, other horses under consideration who didn’t run in the Derby are Chip Honcho, Corona de Oro, Crupper, Express Kid, Great White, Iron Honor, Napoleon Solo, Pretty Boy Miah, Silent Tactic, Taj Mahal, Talkin, Talk to Me Jimmy and The Hell We Did.
The Racing Form reported jockey Jose Ortiz, who rode Golden Tempo to his Derby win, will ride Chip Honcho in the Preakness.
Though Jarred Vanderbilt suffered a gruesome dislocated right pinky injury during the Lakers’ loss in Game 1 against the Thunder on Tuesday, coach JJ Redick said his forward has been listed as day-to-day for the second-round series.
Vanderbilt, who is left-handed, was injured in the second quarter trying to block a dunk by Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, but his hand hit the backboard. Vanderbilt immediately doubled over in pain, as the bone broke through the skin and had to be put back in place.
“They were able to put his finger back together and it’s splinted and he’s day-to-day,” Redick said Wednesday.
The Lakers and Thunder play Game 2 here Thursday night at Paycom Center.
Redick said it was a “reduction” for Vanderbilt, meaning it was a procedure to restore his dislocated finger.
Vanderbilt had his finger taped and had a splint on the finger after the game.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s obviously a tough-minded player and person,” Redick said. “It just, he had a full dislocation. So they just put the stuff back together. You know, he’ll be day-to-day.”
Redick was asked if it’ll be a pain tolerance issue for his defensive-minded forward.
“Certainly the pain is involved,” Redick said. “From my understanding, it’s basically making sure basically the tissue is healed enough. We’re obviously going to splint him, but making sure the tissue is healed enough to protect his skin barrier.”
Jaxson Hayes called Vanderbilt’s finger injury “disgusting” because the “whole bone was out of his skin.”
“Obviously, you never want to see one of your teammates go down,” Hayes said. “But, I mean, that was gross. That was really gross.”
Reaching an agreement with Chansiri was never going to be easy.
During the administration process, the Thai was offered a number of offers on his debt, which were either outright refused, ignored or not taken in good faith.
“The EFL had to take into account the intransigent soul shown by Mr Chansiri and his reluctance to engage with offers made by the bidder,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.
It was only last week that things fell into place.
Chansiri was made an offer which would see him receive payments, in effect, to about 25p in the pound.
But he would not receive a penny now – it would all be based upon the club’s future success.
“We’re probably talking about promotion first of all back to the Championship, and in due course to the Premier League. He could then get his 25%,” Maguire says.
The EFL said the offer must remain on the table for a short period of time to show it was credible and serious.
A response to the offer had to be received by midday on Tuesday. Chansiri decided to accept, but replied too late – minutes after the deadline.
Chansiri – subject to any challenge – might now be left with nothing.
Having agreed to cancel Wednesday’s 15-point deduction, the EFL board made a few other stipulations.
Football creditors and HMRC had to be paid in full, while all other non-secured creditors – local businesses – had to get their 25p straight away.
Had the EFL been less flexible, those companies faced receiving a much lower return.
“The EFL probably took the view that as HMRC are being paid 100%, football creditors are being paid 100% and other unsecured creditors are being paid 25%, other stakeholders were being treated appropriately,” Maguire added.
“Therefore there was a clear case for having no penalty.”
Arise had to make a firm commitment to invest in the decaying stadium immediately.
In his speech on the pitch on Saturday, Storch promised there would be both running water, and hot water, in the toilets.
That might seem like a joke, but anyone who has attended Hillsborough in recent seasons would know it was anything but.
Arise did not hang about. An outstanding charge of about £7m owed on a loan Chansiri had taken out against Hillsborough was cleared on Wednesday.
Not too long after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland in 2019, the land brought me to tears.
It was a summer weekend evening, and I was strolling the 14-acre area, mainly to people watch. I caught a commotion in the crowd out of the corner of my eye, and decided to follow the activity.
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There, crouched along one of the walls of the fictional town of Black Spire Outpost, was an actor playing the role of Rey, the hero of the most recent trilogy of “Star Wars” films. Behind her was a crowd of more than a dozen, many of them young children. Rey turned to tell them to be quiet. They followed her as she shuffled along the walls, decoratively designed to look decades old and scarred with blaster fire and cracks.
They turned a bend and came upon two Stormtroopers, who jumped in surprise, and signaled that Rey was the person they were after. That’s when Rey held out her hand, palm up, to the troopers. She instructed those with her to do the same and to repeat after her. She and the crowd, now quickly growing, were collectively using the Force.
The “Star Wars” character of Rey leads guests in using the Force at Disneyland in the summer of 2019.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
The Stromtroopers turned, muttered that there was nothing to see here, and walked away. Rey faced her audience and begin hugging and shaking hands with those closest to her. This is when I welled up.
The promise of Galaxy’s Edge was tremendous. Audiences were invited to pretend, to become a hero or perhaps a rogue in a land designed to facilitate interactivity, and most importantly play. That a crowd was able to become a little silly, be a bit vulnerable and share a collective moment with a gaggle of strangers reinforced to me the importance of theme parks as communal spaces, ones that can get us out of our head, our struggles and our stressors.
As of last week, Galaxy’s Edge forever changed. I still love the land, and believe it one of the triumphs of Walt Disney Imagineering. But I mourn what it once was and never came to be.
A change in the Force
Leia and Han are now meeting with guests at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in an effort to infuse more classic characters into the land.
(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)
Galaxy’s Edge has shifted its timeline. Out is Kylo Ren, and in is Darth Vader. Also new to Galaxy’s Edge are Han and Leia. Luke is there, too, returning after a limited run last year. The arrival of the so-called “classic” “Star Wars” characters will in fact breathe new life into Galaxy’s Edge. Already, they are pleasing crowds, as the Disneyland faithful last week cheered Vader’s entrance, heard now to a score of John Williams’ ominous “Imperial March.”
Rey still makes appearances, but when she does she is stationed near showcase attraction Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Ahsoka Tano, as well as the Mandalorian and Grogu, are among the other characters who will meet with guests in various spots throughout the area.
Galaxy’s Edge will now become what it was never built to be: a hodgepodge of “Star Wars” characters and nods to past works rather than undiscovered tales. While many saw the absence of the most recognizable “Star Wars” figures as a flaw, it was part of its intended design. For the land’s creators, it was a tradeoff they were willing to make, a bet guests would be active archetypal “Star Wars” tourists rather than spectative consumers. It was a grand theme park experiment.
“It was not an immediately intuitive decision,” Scott Trowbridge, the key Imagineer behind the land’s ideals, told me in 2022 when asked about the choice to set the land in the timeline of the most recent “Star Wars” films.
Said Trowbridge: “Luke’s story, or Leia’s story, that we saw 10, 20, 40 years ago, we know those stories. We love those stories. But there’s not room for us in that world. We wanted to make sure we were leaving room for you and your friends.”
When Galaxy’s Edge opened, we heard the roar of spaceships and musings of war. Traditional theme park trappings — character meet-and-greets, passive rides and musical scores — weren’t found. It was instead designed as an invitation, a new, unknown location filled with lesser-known characters like rebel spy Vi Moradi, meant to serve as a living playset for guests to create their own tales. I saw this happen, too. Once, when strolling the land with my former partner, she turned to me and lightly punched me in the arm, saying, “What’s a respectable guy like you doing with a scoundrel like me?” That was the moment I knew I would fall in love with her, and it was facilitated by Galaxy’s Edge.
A failed dream
The centerpiece of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is the Millennium Falcon.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
If I’m being honest, I am aware that Galaxy’s Edge seldom lived up to this promise. Imagineers teased many characters — a bounty hunter, for instance, who would hang in the cantina — who never appeared. In order to play, we need people to play with, and this playland often felt empty. Droids, for instance, would show up, but often only for a limited time. Teased features, such as Bluetooth technology that would allow the land to track a guest’s reputation, courtesy of missions they completed in the Play Disney Parks mobile app, never reached their fruition. That game itself, which is still available, thus lacks any meaningful payoff.
Galaxy’s Edge was a theme park risk, asking how deeply guests would want to engage in physical spaces. But it came with challenges, namely that as these lands grow, the level of activity needed to maintain the illusion increases. A promised dinner theater was never built, and a stage for a special effects-laden stunt show has largely sat barren. Disney also relied not on actors but its retail staff — cast members, in park parlance — to do the heavy lifting when it came to performing.
Many on social media are musing that Disney is now fixing Galaxy’s Edge. Let’s be clear, Galaxy’s Edge was never broken. It just needed Disney to be a better steward and to fully support the ambitions of its Imagineers.
Last week at Disneyland, when Darth Vader walked on a Galaxy’s Edge stage through a smattering of smoke, the crowd erupted as if at a sporting event. It was fun, and clearly something some fans had been craving.
So bring on Darth Vader and the rousing music of Williams, I reluctantly say. Disney should do what it does well, and that is to create memorable character experiences. Operationally, the park had abandoned the initial goals of Galaxy’s Edge long ago, and the presence of Han, Luke and Leia will excite guests and at last give attendees more characters to interact with. It will be a busy, bustling place, and that I do applaud.
The week in SoCal theme parks
Changes have been reported at Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.
(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)
You can now get a “Star Wars” ID card in Downtown Disney. Located inside the Star Wars Trading Post shop is a plastic ID-making machine (similar to the fake driver’s license one can get in the queue for Autopia) that will take your photo and allow you to pick a role in the “Star Wars” universe (bounty hunter, fighter pilot, etc.). It looks neat. I want one, even though I don’t know what I would do with it, but so far, lines have averaged 90 minutes to two hours or more.
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin has lost its spin. Disneyland removed the ability for guests to twist and turn their cars, an operational-driven-tweak, as the ride now allows for lap seating for younger guests and will allow for more to experience the attraction. While I can see how some may miss the spinning feature, I often tried to keep the car steady to soak up the environment, so my initial reaction leans positive, especially if it improves a family’s Disneyland day.
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first “Harry Potter” film in an all-encompassing environment. Inglewood’s Cosm isn’t a theme park, but its dome-like screen offers a theme park-like experience (think the golden days of Circle-Vision). Opening Thursday is a re-imagined “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” with newly added environmental effects. The core film remains untouched, but the screen surrounding you aims to come alive with enchanting movement.
Magic Bands will soon disappear from Disneyland shelves. Disney reporter Scott Gustin, a friend of Mr. Todd’s Wild Ride, recently noted that Disneyland will not be replenishing its stock of the Magic Band+ once it sells through the remaining inventory. Those who have them (hand raised) needn’t worry, according to Disneyland officials, as Magic Band+ functionality, including the game Batuu Bounty Hunters in Galaxy’s Edge, won’t cease. But Magic Band+ has limited use cases at Disneyland, and never quite caught on here in the same way the wristbands have at Walt Disney World.
Happy birthday to the Great American Revolution. Magic Mountain’s classic coaster turns 50 this week, having opened on May 8, 1976. As part of the anniversary festivities, the park has restored its original name of the Great American Revolution (it was recently operating as the New Revolution). The ride is known for being the first modern looping coaster with a tubular steel track, earning it landmark status from American Coaster Enthusiasts.
The best thing I ate at the parks
A scallop appetizer at Carthay Circle. Go easy on me, I’m not a food photographer.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
No churros or treats for me this week. I hadn’t had a chance yet to check out the spring menu at the lounge at Carthay Circle, Disney California Adventure’s fine dining restaurant, so I made my way there Friday afternoon. Carthay Circle is always a welcome respite, a calming, relaxing environment where the theme park day tends to slow down.
I was after the scallops appetizer. Now, priced at $16, I knew this wouldn’t be a large portion, but I was longing for something light and breezy and this plate of six small scallops in a sea shell delivered. Drizzled with macadamia nuts, the citrus-forward dish is designed to bring out contrasts in texture. Overall, it’s a little zesty, a little nutty, and as a seafood person I’m happy an affordable, delicate dish exists at the resort. If you’re really hungry, though, you’ll need a second item.
Ride report
Space Mountain has begun its yearly, temporary overlay as Hyperspace Mountain.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
It’s “Star Wars” season at the Disneyland Resort, which means Space Mountain has been remade into Hyperspace Mountain. Now, generally speaking, this is my rule when it comes to ride overlays: The original is almost always better. That’s the case for Space Mountain as well, as the 1977 classic still thrills, its near pitch-blackness keeping you guessing while its uplifting score seems to capture the exhilaration and optimism of space flight.
But Hyperspace Mountain has its charms. The projections of lasers and X-wings look great in the darkness, and the sudden dips and turns work well for the dogfight atmosphere. The John Williams score brings the energy, and there’s the right amount of chaos and shifts in direction to make us feel as if we’re in a “Star Wars” battle. I’m just relieved, however, it doesn’t stick around too long, as the original is such a magnificent coaster.
Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
P.S.
Love Soarin’ Over California? Then I point you to this piece from former Times staffer Sammy Roth, an environmental reporter who also appreciates Disney theme parks. Here, Roth goes scene-by-scene, looking at how Soarin’ represents a snapshot in time and analyzing how its locations have been touched by climate change.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana’s congressional primaries won’t be going forward as scheduled in May, as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a majority-Black congressional district, the state’s top elected officials said Thursday.
Gov. Jeff Landry and Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill, both Republicans, said in a joint statement that Wednesday’s high court ruling effectively prohibits the state from carrying out the primaries under the current districts. Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday in advance of the May 16 primary.
“The State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map,” Landry and Murrill said in the statement posted to social media. “We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward.”
That path is likely to lead to a new U.S. House map benefiting Republican candidates in Louisiana.
President Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state’s congressional districts and urged Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to do likewise in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.
While civil rights activists denounced the potential for diminished minority representation in Congress, top Republicans cited the Supreme Court’s decision as justification to spur an already intense national redistricting battle among states before the November elections.
“I think all states who have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully, and I think they should do it before the midterm,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in Washington.
Questions persist about election postponement
Louisiana’s election suspension was denounced by some Democrats and questioned by some legal experts.
“This is going to cause mass confusion among voters — Democrats, Republicans, white, Black, everybody,” said Louisiana state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents the New Orleans area. “What they’re effectively doing is changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game. It’s rigging the system.”
Although Louisiana officials may legally be able to move the primary, it’s not accurate to assert that it was blocked by the Supreme Court’s decision, said Ruth Greenwood, director of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School.
State Rep. Kyle Green, a former assistant state attorney general who is chair of the House Democratic caucus, also cast doubt on the legal justification for postponing the congressional primary.
“The Court’s decision does not halt the election process on its own,” Green said. “And any attempt to suspend or disrupt an ongoing election at this stage would raise serious constitutional concerns.”
Delaying an election is unusual but not unprecedented.
During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several states pushed back elections because of health concerns. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who led Louisiana at the time, postponed Louisiana’s April 4 presidential primary three weeks before it was supposed to occur — then delayed it again until July 11.
Louisiana could join a national redistricting wave
Louisiana currently is represented in the U.S. House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterms — adding to Republican gains elsewhere from redistricting.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
On Wednesday, Florida became the latest state to redraw its U.S. House districts, adopting a new map backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that could give the GOP a chance at winning several additional seats.
The Florida vote occurred just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority issued a ruling that significantly weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. The court said Louisiana officials had relied too heavily on race when drawing a congressional district that is represented by Democrat Cleo Fields.
Trump wants Tennessee to also take up redistricting in response to the court’s ruling. The president posted on social media that he had spoken with Lee, who he said would work hard for a new map that could help Republicans gain an additional seat. Democrats currently hold only one of the state’s nine House seats — a district centered in Memphis, which is majority-Black.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said he is in conversations with the White House and others while reviewing the court’s decision.
Louisiana has a history of redistricting challenges
After the 2020 census, Louisiana officials had drawn House voting district boundaries that maintained one Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.
A federal judge later struck down the map for violating the Voting Rights Act. And the following year the Supreme Court found that Alabama had to create its own second majority-Black congressional district.
In response, Louisiana’s Legislature and governor adopted a new House map in 2024 that created a second Black-majority district. But that map also was subsequently challenged in court, leading to the most recent Supreme Court ruling.
After the ruling, Landry called U.S. House candidates on Wednesday and told them that primaries would probably be stalled, according to Misti Cordell, a Republican running in a crowded race to fill U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow’s vacated seat.
“It’s an inconvenience for a candidate for sure, but you know they want to do it right versus having to go through all this again,” Cordell said. She added that she appreciated the heads-up before she and other candidates began “spending their war chest” during the final weeks leading up to election day.
Republican state lawmakers are reviewing which pending bills could be used to alter primaries and reconfigure congressional maps, said Louisiana state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, chair of the House committee overseeing redistricting efforts.
Cline, Brook and Lieb write for the Associated Press. Brook reported from New Orleans and Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Mo. AP reporter Travis Loller contributed to this report from Nashville.
Beirut, Lebanon – On April 8, Ahmad Hamdi, 22, was sitting on his couch at home in Beirut’s Tallet el Khayat neighbourhood, hours after Israel had launched more than 100 attacks in under 10 minutes across Lebanon.
Then he heard the “indescribable sound” of a rocket. Ahmad jumped off the couch as the glass in his building shattered around him before more rockets hit.
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Clouds of dust obscured the view from his apartment on the fourth floor. When they dispersed, he saw the building directly facing his had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
He looked back at the couch he had been sitting on. At some point between the second and fourth explosion, shards of shrapnel had hit the couch exactly where his chest had been when the first rocket struck.
“When you think of Tallet el Khayat, you feel it is safe and secure,” Ahmad told Al Jazeera. “No one would expect something like that would happen.”
Indiscriminate attacks
April 8 has become known in Lebanon as Black Wednesday. Israel’s attacks on that day killed at least 357 people across the country. Israel claimed it killed 250 Hezbollah operatives. The exact breakdown of civilians and combatants is still not known, but numerous sources looking into the day’s casualties told Al Jazeera that the attacks appeared to be indiscriminate at best and in some cases may have amounted to the direct targeting of civilians. United Nations experts have described Israel’s attacks on April 8 as “indiscriminate”.
“The method in which the attacks happened in the middle of the day with dozens of strikes all at one time without warning and when civilians were present shows recklessness in Israeli military conduct,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera.
On March 2, Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in under two years. Earlier that day, Hezbollah had responded to near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon for the first time since December 2024 in response to the United States and Israel’s assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel also invaded southern Lebanon, where it has gone about systematically destroying towns and villages in what experts – and Israeli officials – said is an effort to create an uninhabitable “buffer zone” along its border.
“Part of [Israel’s] military strategy is to create a buffer zone and no man’s land,” Bassel Doueik, the Lebanon researcher for the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) conflict monitor, told Al Jazeera. “What Israel is doing in southern Lebanon is creating a multilayered buffer zone inside Lebanese territory and that is why they are demolishing houses in towns along the border.”
Israel has not stopped attacking Lebanon since October 2023 and has violated a November 2024 ceasefire more than 10,000 times, according to the UN. Most of its attacks have been in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the east.
Doubts about Israel’s claims
Israel conducted 100 air strikes and dropped more than 160 bombs across Lebanon on April 8, according to ACLED.
Israel claimed the attacks targeted Hezbollah headquarters, command-and-control sites, military formations and assets of its air force unit and elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah discontinued the practice of providing the circumstances of its fighters’ deaths in September 2024. The Lebanese group does conduct some public funerals for fighters killed during the battles in southern Lebanon, but it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of those killed, making it hard to prove or disprove Israel’s claims.
But groups investigating the April 8 attacks said the available information casts doubt on the Israeli narrative. Analysts with ACLED said they are still confirming casualties but early indications showed that only a few victims were known Hezbollah members.
“One hundred one women and children were killed on April 8,” Ghida Frangieh, a Lebanese lawyer and researcher with Legal Agenda, a Beirut-based nonprofit research and advocacy organisation, told Al Jazeera. “For this number of 250 to be correct, it means every man killed must have been a Hezbollah combatant. This is not true as we were able to document several civilian men killed during these attacks.”
Lebanese media reported on a number of those killed by Israel on April 8, including employees of local restaurants, teachers, a poet, journalists, Lebanese soldiers and a member of a Druze-majority political party.
In some cases, Israeli attacks wiped out several members of the same family. Seven members of the Nasreddine family were reportedly killed on April 8 in Hermel in northeastern Lebanon. And three generations of the displaced Hawi family, including three children, were killed in the Jnah neighbourhood bordering Beirut.
Israel ’emboldened to continue’ violations of international law
Even if Hezbollah targets were present at all of the sites struck during the April 8 attacks, researchers said the attacks should still be considered indiscriminate. And while there still may be a discrepancy over the exact numbers of Hezbollah members vs civilians killed, international humanitarian law places the burden of proof on the attacking army.
“International humanitarian law is clear: Armed forces must distinguish at all times between civilians and military objectives,” Reina Wehbi, Amnesty International’s Lebanon campaigner, told Al Jazeera. “Even when there is a legitimate military target and in order to avoid indiscriminate, disproportionate or other unlawful attacks, parties must respect the principle of precaution and do everything feasible to verify that targets are military objectives, to assess the proportionality of attacks and to halt attacks if it becomes apparent they are wrongly directed or disproportionate.”
Over the past two and a half years, Israel has regularly violated the laws of war in Lebanon and in Gaza by indiscriminately attacking civilians, targeting paramedics and journalists, and using white phosphorus. Still, experts said there is little chance Israel will be held accountable.
“For the Israeli military, there is no deterrence to committing violations in Lebanon,” Kaiss of Human Rights Watch said. “After the crimes of humanity against Gaza, countries could have immediately suspended arms sales, the transit of arms through airports, placed targeted sanctions on officials, and the US and others could have suspended arms sales, but none of that happened.”
Kaiss said Lebanon could also give jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which it is not currently a member, to investigate and prosecute Israel’s crimes in Lebanon. The ICC has already issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Attacks on Beirut have temporarily halted since US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire in Lebanon on April 16. But the war rages on in southern Lebanon with Israel continuing to kill civilians, including rescue workers. Israel and Lebanon have started to engage in direct negotiations despite Hezbollah’s objections in what the Lebanese state hopes will bring an end to Israel’s attacks and occupation of southern Lebanon.
But on the ground, there has been little deterrence or accountability for Israel’s crimes against civilians.
“This hasn’t happened in the last two years, so the Israeli military on the ground feels emboldened to continue,” Kaiss said.
WASHINGTON — Making his first appearance before Congress since the Trump administration went to war in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced withering questioning from skeptical Democrats Wednesday over a costly conflict being waged without congressional approval.
The war has cost $25 billion so far, according to Pentagon numbers presented to the House Armed Services Committee during the contentious hearing, ostensibly focused on the administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.
While Republicans focused on the details of military budgeting and voiced support for the operation, Democrats pivoted to the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children. Some lawmakers also questioned President Trump’s dealings with allies and his shifting justification for the conflict.
Hegseth dismissed the criticism as political and rebuked lawmakers who pushed him for answers.
“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” Hegseth said.
Democrats press about reasons for war
Wednesday’s hearing stretched nearly six hours as Democrats and some Republicans questioned Hegseth over the war and his ouster of several top military leaders.
In one tense exchange, Hegseth told Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated in a 2025 attack by the U.S., prompting Smith to question the Trump administration’s reasoning for starting the Iran war less than a year later.
“We had to start this war, you just said 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat,” said Smith, the ranking Democrat on the committee. “Now you’re saying that it was completely obliterated?”
Hegseth responded by saying that Iran “had not given up their nuclear ambitions” and still had thousands of missiles.
Smith said the war “left us at exactly the same place we were before.”
Democrats accused Hegseth of misleading Americans about the reasons for the conflict and said rising gas prices are now threatening the pocketbooks of millions of people in the U.S.
“Secretary Hegseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one and so has the president,” said Rep. John Garamendi of Walnut Grove, who called the war “a geopolitical calamity,” a “strategic blunder” and a ”self-inflicted wound to America.”
Hegseth blasted Garamendi’s remarks.
“Who are you cheering for here?” he asked the lawmaker. ”Your hatred for President Trump blinds you” to the success of the war.
Hegseth defends firings of officers
The Defense secretary faced intense questions from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) about his decision to oust the Army’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, one of several top military officers to be dismissed since Trump’s reelection.
Houlahan said George was deeply respected by both members of the military and Congress and asked why Hegseth fired him. Hegseth’s response that “new leadership” was needed failed to satisfy Houlahan.
“You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men —” Houlahan began before Hegseth interrupted her. “We needed new leadership,” he repeated.
The Pentagon announced this month that Navy Secretary John Phelan was stepping down. Hegseth previously removed Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the Air Force’s No. 2 leader, while Trump fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said that while Hegseth is empowered to make personnel changes, he shares what he called “bipartisan concern” about the firings.
“We had a huge bipartisan majority here that had confidence in the Army chief of staff and the secretary of the navy,” Bacon said. “And I would just point out it may be constitutionally right … but it doesn’t make it right or wise.”
Hegseth has said the changes are part of building a “warrior culture” at the Pentagon.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina defended Hegseth’s personnel moves, saying he is “trying to innovate and trying to change the way we do business.”
“I’m glad that you’re firing people,” Mace said. “There are people there that are getting in your way. They need to go.”
Republicans back Trump on Iran
During the extended hearing, Hegseth detailed plans to increase pay for service members and upgrade munitions while also announcing that, as of Tuesday, the Pentagon had authorized $400 million in military aid for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
But the debate and the questions were dominated by the war in Iran.
While a fragile ceasefire is now in place, the U.S. and Israel launched the war Feb. 28 without congressional oversight. House and Senate Democrats have failed to pass multiple war power resolutions that would have required Trump to halt the conflict until Congress authorizes further action.
Republicans say they back Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.
Democrats questioned Hegseth over the war’s economic impact and rising gasoline costs, noting Trump’s promise to lower consumer costs. Hegseth responded by citing the threat posed by Iran.
“What is the cost of Iran having a nuclear weapon that they wield?” he said.
Republicans expressed support for Trump’s decision to strike Iran, including Mace, who in late March had expressed concerns about the justification for the war. “The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people,” she wrote in a social media post.
On Wednesday, Mace noted her past concerns but said she is “impressed with where we are today.” She told Hegseth: “Everything I have seen, you have surpassed all of my expectations.”
Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping corridor for the world’s oil, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and posed problems for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade of Iranian shipping and three American aircraft carriers are in the Middle East for the first time in more than 20 years.
The countries appear locked in a stalemate. Trump told Axios on Wednesday that he is rejecting Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. blockade.
Finley, Groves, Klepper and Toropin write for the Associated Press.
According to Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and other top administration officials, the U.S. Secret Service did a fine job protecting President Trump and Cabinet members from the gunman who breached the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner Saturday.
“That horrible act was stopped because of the courage and professionalism of law enforcement — the officers who responded without hesitation and did their jobs as they were trained to do,” Blanche said Monday.
However, according to a detailed accounting filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors in the criminal case against suspect Cole Tomas Allen, the performance of the nation’s preeminent protection agency was marred by inattentiveness and misfires and saved by “extraordinary good fortune” and the gunman falling to the ground.
“The defendant, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 caliber pistol, two knives, four daggers, and enough ammunition to take dozens of lives, was apprehended by [Secret Service] officers mere feet away from the ballroom where his primary target was located, along with other members of the Cabinet,” prosecutors wrote Wednesday, in a filing arguing for Allen to be held in detention pending trial on one charge of trying to kill the president and two firearms charges.
Contradicting a prior claim by Blanche that officers had “promptly tackled and detained” Allen, prosecutors wrote that the 31-year-old tutor from Torrance simply “fell to the ground” after blowing past a team of agents just two open flights of stairs from the ballroom.
They wrote that one officer fired at Allen five times, but never hit him.
The same officer saw Allen fire his shotgun “in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom,” prosecutors wrote, and officers later discovered “one spent cartridge in the barrel and eight unfired cartridges in the magazine tube.”
Prosecutors said nothing about the Secret Service officer who Blanche said was shot in his ballistic vest during the incident — adding to speculation that the officer may have been shot not by Allen, but by a fellow officer, or not at all.
Agency critiqued before
In all, the court filing brought further into focus a chaotic Secret Service response that appeared flawed from the start, including in a video Trump posted shortly after the incident in which agents appeared to be idling around an unobstructed entrance when Allen ran past them.
It added to concerns that law enforcement, security experts and members of Congress had raised about the performance of an agency that has been repeatedly called on to improve after previous attempts on Trump’s life. At a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pa., a gunman fired a bullet that grazed Trump’s ear, and that same year, another assailant prepared to shoot him from the unsecured perimeter of a Florida golf course.
Robert D’Amico, a former FBI deputy chief of operations for hostage rescue teams who is now a security consultant, said the security failures he saw in the Secret Service’s preparation for Saturday’s dinner — including its failure to set up basic barriers to prevent people from sprinting into the secured area — were stunning, especially given the past threats and the fact the nation is at war with Iran.
“It’s for a person like Trump, who’s had two assassination attempts before and is at war with Iran, which has terrorist training and proxies up, and you still don’t have the basics?” D’Amico said. “It’s unfathomable.”
Other concerns have been voiced by members of Congress, including Republicans.
The House Oversight Committee has requested a briefing from the Secret Service, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has called for a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which also investigated the Butler incident.
In a letter urging the hearing, Hawley said the latest incident “raises questions about presidential security arrangements, potential resource needs, and the degree to which reforms previously proposed by Congress have been adopted.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News that from “a layman’s perspective,” event security “looked a little lax in terms of getting into the building,” and that it “doesn’t sound like it was sufficient.”
Sean M. Curran, director of the Secret Service, has been on Capitol Hill in recent days briefing lawmakers.
He told CBS News that agents did a “great job,” but also that the incident remains under review. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles would be leading discussions on potential updates to Secret Service plans for securing the president.
Fear of graver threats
Blanche has argued that proof of the Secret Service’s effectiveness at the press gala was in the result: Allen was stopped, Trump and other officials were unharmed and no one was killed, despite Allen’s alleged intent.
However, the concerns being raised have to do with the vulnerabilities that were exposed as much as those that were exploited.
Because the dinner was not designated a major “national special security event” — such as a political convention — there were no trained counterassault agents on standby to prevent a breach or to take down a person with a weapon, officials have said.
Law enforcement experts said that was clearly a mistake given so many top officials — Trump, Johnson, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, among others — were in the room.
Such a gathering could have been targeted by foreign adversaries or others with far more experience, less regard for human life and much greater firepower than Allen, experts said.
“Most of my military friends are all saying the same thing,” said D’Amico, who is also a former infantry platoon commander in the U.S. Marines. “If you had had a team of three or four [gunmen], they would have gotten to [Trump].’”
In the initial criminal complaint against Allen, prosecutors included the text of an email Allen sent to family just as he was preparing to rush the security perimeter, in which he allegedly wrote that he had chosen to use buckshot in order to “minimize casualties” and prevent bystanders from being wounded by more powerful bullets penetrating walls.
He also allegedly wrote that he was willing to “go through most everyone” at the event to get to top administration officials, but that guests and hotel staff were “not targets at all.”
In Wednesday’s filing, prosecutors describe Allen’s actions as “premeditated, violent, and calculated to cause death,” and say he was “laden with weapons” as he breached security. But none of those weapons included assault-style rifles that can fire multiple bullets rapidly and have been used to kill civilians in mass shootings across the country for years.
The filing described Allen — a Caltech graduate and high school tutor — not as some trained tactical expert, but as an ideologue who spent part of his Amtrak journey from California to Washington waxing poetic about the landscape around him, describing Pennsylvania’s woods as “vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks in spring.”
Could have been worse
D’Amico said he and other Marines learned early on in Iraq that entrances to secured locations have to be designed in a “serpentine” fashion, forcing anyone approaching to move more slowly through the area and giving security officers more time to assess their intentions. And at an event the size of the correspondents’ dinner, with so many top officials gathered in a public hotel, you would want to make entrances “even more difficult.”
And yet no barriers seemed to be in place at the event, he said — something anyone trained more than Allen could have capitalized on.
“If they just had come through in a team of three or four who were coordinated and trained, there absolutely would have been penetration into the ballroom,” D’Amico said. “It would have been a gunfight.”
Allen himself questioned the security at the event, according to court records, allegedly writing that he had walked into the Washington Hilton with multiple weapons and no one considered “the possibility that I could be a threat.”
He wrote that if he “was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen,” he “could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed” — referring to a powerful machine gun.
“It is fortunate he was only armed with what he had,” said Ed Obayashi, a California law enforcement expert on use of force.
WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee voted on party lines Wednesday to approve Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve to replace Jerome Powell, a longtime target of President Trump’s insults for not cutting borrowing costs as far as the president wanted.
The vote was 13-11, with all Republican senators voting in favor and Democrats opposed.
Warsh is a former top Fed official but has also been a sharp critic of the institution and Powell’s leadership. He has called the inflation spike to 9.1% in 2022 the central bank’s biggest policy mistake in four decades. A vote on his nomination probably won’t take place until next month, but he could be confirmed by the time Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.
The Senate Banking vote is the first of two key events surrounding the future of the Fed’s leadership. Also Wednesday, Powell is presiding over what will probably be his last meeting of the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Powell may indicate whether he will remain as a member of the central bank’s board of governors after his term as chair ends.
It would be unusual for Powell to stay, but doing so would deprive the Trump administration of an opportunity to appoint a new member to the board. Powell may choose to stay if he sees it as necessary to protect the Fed’s independence, which has become part of his legacy as its leader.
Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the committee, said Warsh is “battle tested” and added that, “It is incredibly important that we break the bind of Bidenomics on households across this nation.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, criticized the banking panel for voting on Warsh’s nomination. Doing so “will bring the president one step closer to completing his illegal attempt to seize control of the Fed and artificially juice the economy,” she said, citing Trump’s effort to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook and investigate Powell.
The Fed on Wednesday is widely expected to leave its key rate unchanged at about 3.6% for its third straight meeting, defying Trump’s calls for lower rates.
Warsh has called for “regime change” at the Fed and could alter many of its practices, including the economics models it focuses on, how it communicates with the public, and how large its bondholdings will be in the long run.
Those changes could affect financial markets, but otherwise won’t necessarily be visible to the general public. But Warsh has also advocated for additional interest rate cuts, which could potentially lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. He will face barriers to implementing those cuts anytime soon, however, largely because the Iran war has caused a spike in gas prices, pushing inflation to a two-year high of 3.3%.
The Fed typically keeps rates elevated, or even raises them, to combat worsening inflation.
Most of the other 11 members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee have indicated they would prefer to wait and evaluate where inflation and the economy are headed before making any changes to rates. It could take time for Warsh to build up enough influence to push for rapid rate cuts. He will also replace Stephen Miran, a member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee who was appointed by Trump last September and is the most consistent advocate for rate reductions at the central bank.
Warsh also faces questions about his independence from the White House, a key issue that dogged him during a Senate Banking hearing last week. On Wednesday, Warren said, “Mr. Warsh is a Trump sock puppet who is so cowed by the president that he could not even say that Trump lost the 2020 election.”
Last December, Trump called for much lower interest rates in a social media post, and added that “anyone who does not agree with me will never be Fed chair!” And just last week he told Fox Business that he expects rates to head lower, “when Kevin gets in.”
Warsh denied at his hearing, however, that Trump had ever pressured him directly to cut rates.
Less than four weeks after suffering a Grade 2 left oblique muscle strain, Austin Reaves is closing in on a return with the Lakers in position to clinch a spot in the Western Conference semifinals.
Reaves will officially be a game-time decision before Wednesday’s potentially series-clinching Game 5 against the Houston Rockets at 7 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena. He was questionable for Games 3 and 4, warming up on the court before each game, but was ultimately ruled out.
The Lakers have a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series despite playing without Reaves and leading scorer Luka Doncic, who is out because of a Grad 2 left hamstring strain.
“JJ [Redick] specifically was like you have to be comfortable with your body and what you can do to go out there and help us be successful,” Reaves said of his coach in his first comments to reporters since suffering the injury on April 2. “And I want to get back out there as fast as I can. But like I said, I feel good and trending in the right direction and can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and attack another day.”
Reaves said he typically has a very high pain tolerance. Even though he finished the game against Oklahoma City on April 2, he wasn’t surprised the injury that left him grabbing at his left side repeatedly during the game turned out to be significant enough to sideline him for several weeks.
The game was especially painful for the Lakers, who also lost Doncic on the same night. Reaves’ regular-season ending injury news came a day after Doncic’s. The Lakers, then in third place in the Western Conference, came crashing down from a 15-2 record in March. They suddenly looked like sitting ducks in the playoff hunt.
At least only to those outside the locker room.
“Our confidence doesn’t waver as a team,” Reaves said. “Basically the message from that day forward was … that they were going to do everything as a team to give us an opportunity to come back and play. And they’ve done exactly what they said.”
The Lakers finished the regular season with three consecutive wins to hold onto home-court advantage as the fourth seed. They raced out to a 3-0 series lead against the Rockets, who staved off elimination with a blowout win in Game 4.
Doncic is progressing in his return, but still has not started playing one-on-one yet. Last weekend, he improved enough to incorporate movement into his on-court work instead of just standstill shooting.
Todd Martens’ newsletter delivers news and commentary on the past, present and future of theme parks, right from the theme park capital of the world — Southern California.
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And here at The Times, I have been writing about theme parks for more than a decade. As a journalist but also as a fan, even attempting to analyze my own love for these spaces and why I keep going back.
My entry to theme parks were trips to Florida’s Walt Disney World. These vacations were the highlight of my youth, helping a shy, awkward kid get out of his shell and discover a safe world of play. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to see parks as places that reflect our popular myths back to us, allowing us to live inside them and define a role for ourselves. I still insist on riding Pirates of the Caribbean each Disneyland visit, just as my father used to. It’s the second-greatest ride at the park, after all.
Take on a character and quest at Universal Studios
I am standing in front of a makeshift cemetery. On the paths between gravestones are colored footprints, as if left by cartoon characters. These are the trails of a suspect. Purple imprints are what I’m seeking.
I am on the case, and the Scooby-Doo gang is here to help: Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and, of course, Scooby-Doo himself. Left in the thorny bushes of the graveyard is a clue. Once the latter is discovered, I am one step closer to solving the mystery, one that has unleashed a host of Universal’s classic movie monsters on the ol’ Europe section of the studio’s backlot.
A mash-up of Universal’s classic monsters and “Scooby-Doo!” characters is featured in a game-like experience at Fan Fest Nights.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Can I and a few hundred strangers restore order and save the day?
Universal’s Fan Fest Nights is in its second year, and after a mixed debut last spring, the after-hours, specially-ticketed event has hit its stride. The centerpiece of the fest, which runs on select nights through May 16 with tickets starting at $74, is a mash-up of “Scooby-Doo!” and Universal’s Monsters, a lengthy game-focused quest with escape room-worthy puzzles.
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The experience, as well as those focused on the worlds of “Harry Potter,” “Dungeons & Dragons” and anime sensation “One Piece,” are hefty, limited-time installations that would be worthy of including in a theme park’s daily operations, as the best of them experiment with character interactions and role play.
While exploring these pop-up worlds, I couldn’t help but think about how stagnant Disney’s own specially-ticketed events have become. Fan Fest and Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights change yearly, yet Disneyland’s popular Oogie Boogie Bash has become repetitive and its other themed nights are too reliant on photo ops and traditional character meet-and-greets.
Taken as a whole, Fan Fest resets expectations for what an after-hours, theme park event should be.
Here there are photo ops and limited-run food, sure (and I highly recommend the graham cracker-like Scooby Snack cookies), but Universal’s live theatrical team has placed the emphasis on exploratory attractions. Actors abound, allowing guests to lean in and take on an active role.
A “Harry Potter” experience at Fan Fest Nights is a walk through a fantastical forest looking for a magical creature.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In the Potter-focused “Forbidden Forest: Search for the Hippogriff,” we are amateur wizards on the prowl for a magical creature, in this case a majestic, oversized puppet. It reminded me of being a young Boy Scout and going on evening hikes into the woods with a guide regaling us with mysterious tales. In “Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep,” a returning experience from last season, we are alternately adventurers and thieves.
And in the Scooby gang’s “The Case of the Phantom Director,” we are cast as extras in a film production. The Scooby Doo quest, the heart of the night, comes complete with a 14-page manual full of character bios, clues and missions. You’ll have to read, but it’s a bet that today’s guests are craving personal and interactive attractions that pull as much from immersive theater as they do classic theme parks. I applaud this sort of tinkering with the formula, even as I wonder how attendees will take to having to complete actual brain-teasers in a theme park. At least there is a payoff with a mini show (you do not need to complete the challenges to see the finale).
It took my friend and me more than an hour to solve the Scooby game, and, I confess, we didn’t complete one of the four mini-puzzles. While none of the head-scratchers individually are all that stressful, they are more complex than typical theme park fare and require guests to get out of a mindset of rushing from event to event. (Another friend of mine declared herself too “stupid” to complete the missions, but Scooby fans may simply enjoy living in the make-believe world and playing with the actors).
More of this kind of playful inventiveness, please. Magic isn’t always a fancy animatronic. Sometimes it’s just personalization.
A “One Piece”-inspired stunt show is a popular offering at Universal’s Fan Fest Nights.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
The week in SoCal theme parks
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will roll out some major changes on Wednesday. Out with Kylo Ren and in with Darth Vader (and Luke, Han and Leia). I’ll have more on this next week.
It’s your last chance to meet a Wall-E and Eve robotic figure at the Pixar Place Hotel. Wednesday is the final day currently on the schedule. This has been a popular meet and greet at the Disneyland Resort, so give yourself at least an hour, maybe more, to stand in line if it’s a priority for you.
Looking for a Disneyland deal? If you can get there midweek, single-day, single-park tickets can be had for $104 on Wednesday and Thursday. The friendlier price is also available next week, on May 5-6.
Universal Fan Fest Nights returns Friday through Sunday and while I clearly had a positive experience, if you’re considering going, be prepared for lines. The “Harry Potter” walk-through was a two-hour wait most of the evening. Queue up early, too, for the crowd-pleasing “One Piece” stunt show, as there were only three performances on opening night.
Disneyland has announced a host of new food options coming to the park this week, including blueberry cobbler doughnuts at Lamplight Lounge and a Philly cheesesteak at Pym Test Kitchen.
Facial recognition is now being used widely at Disneyland entrance gates. Disney isn’t the first theme park or major SoCal venue to utilize such technology, but Times news writer Hannah Fry spoke to guests about its implementation and delved into the ethical concerns surrounding it.
The best thing I ate at the parks
Universal Studios’ Scooby Snacks cookies are a delightful treat.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
I mention this above, but as part of Fan Fest, Universal Studios has released a box of “Scooby Snacks.” They come in bundles of four, packaged in cute purple and green Girl Scout-inspired boxes. They are a delight, and only about $10. The honey & cinnamon dog tags also make a fine coffee accompaniment with breakfast as these are slightly oversize, graham cracker-style cookies. The only negative is you’ll need a Fan Fest ticket to snare them.
Ride report
There was recently a tweak to Universal Studios’ tram tour.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The past couple weeks I’ve spent a significant amount of time at Universal Studios, partly in prep for Fan Fest and the arrival of the Fast & Furious coaster this summer, but I also wanted to take in its studio tram tour (officially designed as the World Famous Studio Tour). Aside from being a historic attraction, there was recently a change to its “King Kong” section. Namely, 3-D glasses are no longer required. As someone prone to motion sickness, this is a welcome change and I’m pleased to report it looks spiffy. Now if we could just do something about that stomach-churning “The Simpsons” ride.
Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
P.S.
I often work remotely from theme parks — find me on my laptop at Flo’s V8 Cafe at Disney California Adventure, near the Calico Saloon at Knott’s or out in back of the Three Broomsticks at Universal Studios. But even when I’m in a normal office, I still like to write with a bit of theme park optimism. So I turn to music.
My favorite bands (Wilco, the Clash, Sleater-Kinney) will distract, so lately I’ve been seeking instrumental fare. And Disneyland Paris has just released a gem of a work soundtrack. It re-imagined its second park as Disney Adventure World, and while I’m confused as to why my editor didn’t send me to Paris to review it (nudge, nudge), I’ve been consoling myself with the “Adventure Way Symphonic Suite” from the London Symphony Orchestra and French composer Philippe Rombi. It’s calming, a bit majestic, and reminds me of early days music at Florida’s Epcot. That is, it’s music that aims to conjure wonder.
Pitching coach Gus Rico was having dinner on Thursday when head coach Matt Mowry of Birmingham High complimented him on closer Aidan Martinez recording all seven of his outs on strikeouts.
“I had no idea,” Rico said. “Everything is a blur when I’m calling pitches.”
Martinez is throwing some blurs these days after returning this season following Tommy John surgery in June 2024. He touched 92 mph with his fastball and has been improving each week, getting better command and walking fewer batters. He has 28 strikeouts in 15 innings and three saves.
Birmingham is one game behind El Camino Real in the West Valley League standings going into showdown week, playing El Camino Real on Wednesday at home and Friday on the road. The Patriots need a sweep to have a chance at their first league title under Mowry, who prefers winning City titles.
With Martinez throwing so well, it would be a good strategy for opposing teams to make sure they are leading going into the last two innings.
“He’s got a bright future,” Rico said.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort and relatives of U.S. service members stuck in Qatar to a third country, the U.S. government and some advocates said. Congo is an option, the advocates said.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said Wednesday that U.S. officials informed him and other groups of discussions between the United States and Congo about taking the Afghan refugees who have been in limbo at a U.S. base in Doha for the last year.
The 1,100 refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah include Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active-duty U.S. military members.
The State Department said Wednesday that it is working to identify options to “voluntarily” resettle the refugees in a third country, but it did not confirm which nations were being discussed.
An alternative provided to the refugees, VanDiver said, is to return to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal or even death at the hands of the Taliban for working alongside the U.S. during the two-decade war.
“You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you,” VanDiver said at a virtual news conference. “That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress.”
The discussions — which were reported earlier by the New York Times — come more than a year after President Trump paused his predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration.
That policy left thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution, and had gone through a sometimes years-long vetting process to start new lives in America, stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.
From one war-torn country to another
Negotiations between the U.S. and several other countries, including Botswana and Malaysia, started months ago, according to an executive at a refugee resettlement agency who was briefed by U.S. officials. The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share private negotiations, said that Botswana was seen by many refugee advocates as the most promising option but that talks between senior U.S. officials and the country’s leadership fell through. In early April, the executive was briefed that Congo was now the main option being discussed.
A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said they had heard from State Department personnel that the U.S. was looking at sending the Afghans at the base in Qatar to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The person said the Afghans were told Wednesday that there was no final deal on where to send them.
The base in Doha “was always intended as a transit platform. It was never designed to hold families for months or years, which is the situation that people are currently in,” said Jon Finer, who was deputy national security advisor to then-President Biden. “What I want to emphasize is that this was intended to honor a wartime commitment.”
Finer and other former U.S. officials and refugee advocates warned of the risk of resettling Afghans in Congo, a country that U.N. officials say is facing “one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the world.”
The African country has been battered by decades-long fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in its eastern region.
Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment on the discussions, which did not come as a surprise to some there. Congo is one of at least eight African nations that were paid millions in controversial deals with the Trump administration to receive migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.
Like most other African nations involved in the deportation program, Congo is also among the worst-hit by the Trump administration’s policies on aid and trade. At least 70% of the country’s humanitarian aid came from the U.S. before Trump’s second term, and aid workers say American aid cuts have led to avoidable deaths in the conflict-hit region.
Sean Jamshidi — an Afghan American who served in the U.S. military, including a stint in Congo — said he was deeply concerned about his brother possibly being sent from the Doha base to the war-torn country.
“I saw the security situation and what it looked like there. I saw the displacement camps. … I stood in places where the United Nations has counted the dead,” Jamshidi said. “I’m telling you, as someone who has been in uniform, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not a place you send vetted Afghan allies and their children to live.”
Refugees are in the dark as they await their fate
Negina Khalili, a former prosecutor in Afghanistan who fled during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, has been waiting to hear about the resettlement status of her father, brother and stepmother since they arrived at the Doha base in January 2025. That was just days before Trump suspended the refugee program soon after he returned to the White House.
Khalili told the Associated Press on Wednesday that she spoke to her family about reports that they could be sent to Congo.
“They are not giving them any information or updates regarding which countries they will go to,” she said. “They were so stressed and worried about it and said that Congo is not a safe place either. They don’t know if it’s a temporary location for them there or a permanent location. They are worried.”
She said U.S. officials at the camp have been suggesting to refugees that they go back to Afghanistan and offering them money to do so.
Amiri, Santana and Asadu write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from New York and Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria. AP writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
Democrats on Wednesday celebrated an election win in Virginia that could put them slightly ahead in the national redistricting competition that President Trump triggered in an attempt to preserve his party’s House majority in this year’s midterms, but it will not be the final round.
Now that it’s been approved by voters, the new Virginia map will have to clear additional legal hurdles. On Wednesday, the state attorney general’s office said it would immediately appeal a ruling earlier in the day from a judge in rural southern Virginia who ordered that the results of Tuesday’s vote not be certified.
Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court will decide whether Democratic lawmakers violated procedural rules when they referred a constitutional amendment to the ballot authorizing the new U.S. House districts that could help Democrats win as many as four additional seats in the state. If so, that could invalidate the map voters narrowly approved Tuesday.
What happens next in Florida also will matter.
The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature is to meet in a special session next week that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis called in part to draw a new map to expand the party’s congressional majority there. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to issue an opinion by the end of June in a Louisiana case that could overturn a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and lead to redrawn political maps across the South, though almost all of those could not happen until 2028.
After voters passed the Virginia amendment, Democrats could tentatively claim that they netted 10 seats nationally from the mid-decade redistricting, compared with the nine that Republicans claim. Even if things swing again in the GOP’s favor, the net result of Trump’s campaign would be at best an incremental increase in the number of GOP-leaning House seats at a time when his approval rating is dropping and Republican anxiety over losing control of Congress in November is rising.
“We have successfully blunted Trump’s attempt to completely hijack the midterms,” said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
Many Republicans agreed.
“The GOP will now lose net seats across the country. If you’re going to pick a fight, at least win it,” Ari Fleischer, who was a spokesman for President George W. Bush, posted on the social media site X after the Virginia vote. “All this was foreseeable and avoidable. We should not have started this fight.”
Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, argued that it is too soon to declare one party a victor.
“It’s an ongoing process with many legal challenges pending, and it’s far too early for sweeping statements on the final outcome,” he said.
Trump on Wednesday tried to undermine the Virginia result by leveling groundless accusations of fraud similar to ones he made after losing the 2020 presidential election. He called the Virginia vote “RIGGED” and “Crooked” in a post on his social media site and added, “Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’”
Redistricting spread from Texas to other states
Redistricting is typically done every 10 years after each census, unless ordered by a court. But last summer, Trump pushed a redrawing in Texas, prodding the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to add up to five winnable House seats for his party. Trump then began pressuring other Republican-run states to follow. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have since created more GOP-leaning seats in addition to Texas.
Democrats began to fight back, even though they were more constrained because several Democratic-controlled states had maps drawn by independent commissions rather than lawmakers and governors.
To counter Texas, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, pushed the Democratic-controlled Legislature to place a redistricting initiative on last fall’s ballot. After voters overwhelmingly approved it, the measure will replace a commission-approved map with one that could gain Democrats five seats.
Democrats reclaimed the Legislature and governor’s office in November in Virginia and swiftly moved to replicate California’s move with an even more aggressive redistricting plan. It replaces a congressional map imposed by a court after the last census that had resulted in a 6-5 edge for Democrats with one that could allow Democrats to win as many as 10 seats.
“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” state Senate President L. Louise Lucas said at a news conference Wednesday.
Courts could still have a say on redistricting
In Washington, U.S. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York warned Florida Republicans, who have been openly nervous about redrawing their district boundaries and potentially spreading their core voters too thin before an election that appears to be trending against them.
“Our message to Florida Republicans right now is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries said.
House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of the super political action committee aligned with House Democrats, has spent nearly $60 million to push back against Republicans’ redistricting efforts. Some $40 million of that was on the Virginia campaign.
Another obstacle in Florida is an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that was approved by state voters in 2010. It is likely that any new Florida map would trigger significant litigation, although six of the state Supreme Court’s seven justices were appointed by Republicans.
Nicholas Stephanopolous, a Harvard law professor, said a challenge for DeSantis is that the Florida amendment forbids drawing lines for purely partisan purposes, so he has to find some other excuse for revising the map. “Even with that sort of acquiescent state supreme court, I don’t think it’s a done deal,” Stephanopolous said.
The Virginia move comes with its own legal issues. Republicans have challenged the process that Democrats used to place the measure on the ballot and the state Supreme Court opted to wait for the vote before even scheduling arguments in the case. It is unclear when a ruling could come.
Wednesday’s ruling stopping certification came from a separate case that Republicans filed with the same lower court judge, whose initial ruling against the initiative was put on hold by the state supreme court.
“The ballot box was never the final word here,” Terry Kilgore, the Virginia House Republican leader, said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “Serious legal questions remain about both the wording of this referendum and the process used to put it before voters.”
The biggest legal wild card is held by the U.S. Supreme Court. Its conservative majority could throw out a requirement under the Voting Rights Act that in areas with a large minority population, mapmakers draw districts that are more favorable to the election of minority candidates.
That provision has led to the creation of several majority-minority congressional seats, especially in the South. Without it, Republicans in conservative states could shrink the number of U.S. House seats winnable by Democrats even further.
But it’s unlikely that any state other than Louisiana, which brought the lawsuit the high court will rule on, would be able to adjust its congressional lines in time for November even if the court eliminates that provision, known as Section Two. That’s because the November election is already officially underway in most states and candidate filing deadlines — and, in some cases, primary elections — have already passed.
Riccardi and Lieb write for the Associated Press. AP writers Lisa Mascaro and Leah Askarinam in Washington contributed to this report.
“Storage Wars” star Darrell Sheets was found dead by police on Wednesday in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He was 67.
According to Variety, which obtained a report from the Lake Havasu City Police Department, Sheets died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The statement said that on Wednesday around 2 a.m., officers were dispatched to Sheets’ home on Chandler Drive after reports of a deceased individual.
“Upon arrival, officers located a male subject who suffered from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The male was pronounced deceased on scene and the Lake Havasu City Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit was notified and responded to the scene to assume the investigation,” the statement read.
“The body was ultimately turned over to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s office for further investigation,” the release continued.
Police said that they identified the man as Sheets and that his family had been notified. “This incident remains under active investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available.”
Sheets appeared across 15 seasons of the popular A&E reality show “Storage Wars” from 2010 to 2023. His son, Brandon Sheets, was also a cast member, and the father-son duo was often considered the heart of the show. Darrell would use his not-so-stealthy approach when bidding on storage lockers that he was willing to bet contained what he would describe as “wow factor” treasures.
“I’m a buyer by trade. I love buying storage sheds. It’s my addiction,” he said on the series. “I’m basically known for taking the good stuff and just getting the heck out of here.”
According to Sheets’ cast bio, the antiques enthusiast loved to brag about “four Picassos and the world’s most lucrative comic book collection” that he scored through storage auctions. He told The Times in 2015 that he once invested in a locker and discovered pieces of original artwork by Frank Gutierrez that he said appraised for about $300,000, making for the biggest take in the TV show’s then-five-year history.
Rene Nezhoda, another “Storage Wars” cast member who was often considered Sheets’ rival due to their onscreen antics, posted on Instagram after news of Sheets’ death broke and called out cyberbullies.
“Unfortunately, Darrell Sheets took his own life,” Nezhoda said. “I know a lot of you guys think we hated each other because we competed a lot on the show, and you know, we had our moments. We had our run-ins, but that’s because we were both competitors, right?
“Deep down, me and Darrell were friends. We talked every now and then. He is a very hard worker that cared more than anyone I’ve probably ever met about their family, about his son, about [his granddaughter] Zoie.”
Nezhoda said that Sheets had someone “really, really tormenting” him on social media.
The “Storage Wars” alum then addressed cyberbullies for their treatment of public figures, saying, “Just because you watch us on television doesn’t mean you know us. You never know what demons somebody faces.”
ATLANTA — A man charged in a string of shootings near Atlanta that left three people dead, including a Department of Homeland Security employee who was walking her dog, died in jail Tuesday night, authorities said.
Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his cell, according to a statement from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Officials provided medical treatment to the U.S. Navy veteran, but he was later pronounced dead.
The official cause of death has not been determined, but officials don’t suspect foul play, according to the office. Officials are conducting an internal review.
Adon Abel was accused of killing Prianna Weathers, 31, and Homeland Security auditor Lauren Bullis, 40, in last week’s attack. Authorities also had been seeking an additional murder charge for Tony Mathews, 49, who was injured in the attack and died Sunday.
Authorities haven’t offered a potential motive for the shootings. It’s unclear if Adon Abel knew any of the victims. Police have said they believe at least one was targeted at random.
Adon Abel was represented by a public defender, and the state council overseeing defenders’ work said Wednesday in a statement that his death denies him “the opportunity to contest the charges in court.”
“We also regret that the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims may now be left without the fuller answers a public legal process might have provided about how these deaths occurred,” the statement said. “That is a painful and sobering reality for everyone affected.”
Adon Abel faced state malice murder, aggravated assault and gun charges over last week’s attacks, court records show. He also faced a federal charge of illegally possessing the gun as a person previously convicted of a felony, which was filed Friday.
His roommates told the Associated Press that shortly before the shootings, he got in an intense argument over the air conditioning in their home and stormed out. He lived with six others in separate units of the home.
The United Kingdom native was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022 while serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in the San Diego area.
The attacks in Georgia quickly drew the Trump administration’s attention, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin raising concern that Adon Abel was granted U.S. citizenship when Democrat Joe Biden was president. Mullin cataloged a litany of Adon Abel’s previous alleged crimes, but it is unclear whether any of them occurred before he became a citizen.
Military records show the Adon Abel enlisted in the Navy in 2020, last serving in the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron in Coronado, Calif., and as a petty officer received a Navy “E” Ribbon for superior performance for battle readiness.
Adon Abel pleaded guilty in October 2024 to assaulting two police officers with a deadly weapon and attacking another person when he was stationed in Coronado, near San Diego, according to California court records.
The attorney who represented him in that case, Brandon Naidu, has described him as polite, calm and soft-spoken in their interactions. He said Wednesday that his obligation to protect the confidentiality of their conversations limits what he can say publicly but, “Mental health was absolutely at the center of his San Diego case.” ““t was fueled by suicidal ideation as a result of mental health that he was self-treating with substances,” he said.
He added: “Nobody wins in this. We’ll never know the motives, what could have been done beforehand or even afterward. Nobody gets proper closure on this.”
Hanna and Golden write for the Associated Press. Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan., and Golden, from Seattle.
ORLANDO, Fla. — White men have been discriminated against through diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday after signing legislation which prohibits counties and cities from funding or promoting DEI initiatives.
The Republican governor defined DEI at a news conference as “an ideological construct that is designed to promote a particular political agenda, particularly to the detriment of disfavored groups.”
“The disfavored groups, No. 1, obviously, would be white males, and I think they’ve been discriminated against,” DeSantis said in Jacksonville. “And it’s like a lot of people are, ‘Oh that’s fine. That’s fine.’ No, it’s not fine. It’s wrong.”
While the governor is entitled to his opinion, his views differ from “everyone else’s,” said Evelyn Foxx, president of the NAACP branch in Gainesville.
“If you talked to 100 white men, they wouldn’t feel the same way” as DeSantis, Foxx said when asked Wednesday about his comments. “The governor is out of touch with people, and that is the bottom line.”
Supporters say the purpose of DEI is to remedy the effects of long-term discrimination against certain groups. A nationwide push by conservatives to limit diversity programs has led many companies, schools and governments to pull back on those initiatives, particularly during the current Trump administration, and DEI has been a frequent target for the governor.
DeSantis also said Wednesday that Asian Americans had faced discrimination in university admissions and that people should be judged on their merits. During his two terms in office, DeSantis’ administration has championed legislation which prohibits public colleges and universities from spending money on DEI programs and promoted the “Stop WOKE Act,” which restricts how race and sex are taught in schools.
Democratic lawmakers have warned that the legislation was overbroad and potentially unconstitutional.
Under the legislation, residents can sue local governments for violations. If local officials are found to have funded DEI initiatives in violation of the law, they can be removed from office.
“When people know there is accountability, they are much more apt to toe the line,” DeSantis said.
Shawna Thomas, who exited CBS News earlier this year, has joined MS NOW as political director.
The cable network formerly known as MSNBC announced Wednesday that Thomas will lead the organization’s political unit and direct coverage of campaigns and elections. She will also appear as an on-air analyst.
Thomas lands at the progressive-leaning MS NOW after five years as executive producer for “CBS Mornings.” She announced her departure from the program last month, just as co-host Gayle King was signed to a new deal.
Thomas is among a number of executives and on-air talent who have left CBS News since the arrival of editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, although she told colleagues her decision was about getting away from the grind of early morning television.
MS NOW is owned by Versant, a company created out of the cable assets spun off by Comcast. The new company chose not to rely on the news-gathering resources of NBC News, which oversaw MSNBC, and is building its own editorial operation.
Last month, MS NOW poached long time NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander, who will have a daily program on MS NOW and handle extended breaking news coverage starting later this year.
Thomas is a veteran of political coverage. She is a former Washington bureau chief for the news division at Vice Media, overseeing politics and policy stories for the HBO series “Vice News Tonight.”
Thomas spent a decade working for NBC News in various production roles, including planning its election coverage. She also had a stint as an executive at Quibi, the short-form streaming video platform.
Bill Cassidy’s roles as a lawmaker, a doctor and a political candidate will collide on Wednesday as he questions Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in two high-stakes Senate hearings.
The Louisiana Republican chairs one of the Senate committees that oversees Kennedy’s department and sits on another, giving him two chances to interrogate the secretary about his plans for an agency responsible for public health programs and research. As a doctor, Cassidy has clashed with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine ideas even though he provided crucial support for the health secretary’s nomination last year.
At the same time, Cassidy is fighting for his political future in next month’s primary in Louisiana, where President Trump has endorsed one of his opponents in an unusual attempt to oust a sitting senator from his own party.
How Cassidy handles the hearings could affect his chances at a pivotal moment of his reelection campaign and set the tone for how Congress oversees the nation’s health agenda at a time of rampant distrust and misinformation.
Cassidy hasn’t faced Kennedy in public since September. In the subsequent months, Kennedy has attempted a dramatic rollback of vaccine recommendations that, if not blocked by an ongoing lawsuit, could undermine protections against diseases like flu, hepatitis B and RSV.
After a backlash, Kennedy has also pivoted to spending more time talking about less controversial topics like healthy eating — albeit with his own spin, including sharing exaggerated claims that various ailments can be cured by diet alone.
Cassidy will have to decide on Wednesday whether to grill Kennedy on vaccines, an issue deeply important to him, or put their differences aside and prioritize loyalty to the Trump administration.
“He’s taken a risk showing any sort of resistance to RFK,” said Claire Leavitt, an assistant professor at Smith College who studies congressional oversight. “He may pay an electoral price for that.”
Cassidy has long advocated for vaccines
Cassidy has spent years walking a political tightrope. He’s one of the few Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during an impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
As a liver doctor, he advocated for babies to receive hepatitis B vaccines shortly after birth, a step that could have prevented the disease in his patients. But when Trump nominated Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, Cassidy supported him. He did so after securing various commitments, including that Kennedy would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring system and support the childhood vaccine schedule.
The vote for Kennedy did not appear to mollify Trump. The president endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, one of Cassidy’s two primary opponents.
Cassidy also faces opposition from Kennedy’s allies in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a group that includes both anti-vaccine activists and a wide variety of other crusaders for health and the environment. The MAHA PAC, aligned with Kennedy, has pledged $1 million to Letlow’s campaign. While the organization hasn’t publicly said so, some have questioned whether the support is partly in retaliation against Cassidy for criticizing Kennedy’s vaccine policy agenda.
“I’m not really sure what MAHA’s beef is,” Cassidy told reporters earlier this month. “Let me point out that I am the reason that Robert F. Kennedy is now the secretary of HHS. He would not have gotten there otherwise.”
Cassidy argues that he has “strongly supported” the MAHA agenda, especially when it comes to the fight against ultraprocessed foods. However, the physician-turned-senator acknowledged that he and MAHA have “disagreed on vaccines.”
“We’ve seen, frankly, that I am right,” Cassidy added, pointing to recent measles-related deaths of children who were not vaccinated.
At a hearing in September, he slammed Kennedy’s decision to slash funding for mRNA vaccine development. He interrogated Kennedy over his attempt to replace members of a vaccine committee, suggesting the new members could have conflicts of interest. He also raised concerns that Kennedy’s vaccine policy decisions could be making it harder for Americans to get COVID-19 shots.
Later that month, Cassidy convened a hearing featuring former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who was ousted by Kennedy less than a month into her tenure after they clashed over vaccine policy, and former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who resigned in August citing an erosion of science at the agency.
“I want to work with the president to fulfill his campaign promise to reform the CDC and Make America Healthy Again. The president says radical transparency is the way to do that,” Cassidy said at the time.
Experts say Cassidy’s vaccine stance might not hurt him
Political consultants said they expect Cassidy’s primary opponents, Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, to seize on any sound bites from Wednesday’s hearings that can make Cassidy seem at odds with the Trump administration.
But Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco, said the political risk of advocating for vaccines may not be as strong among Republicans as some people assume.
“He’s probably not alienating voters by focusing on the issue and calling it out,” she said.
Louisiana political consultant Mary-Patricia Wray said she thinks most diehard MAHA voters already know who they are voting for, and it’s probably not Cassidy.
Instead, she said, he may still be able to appeal to Democrats who switch their party registration to vote in the primary, as well as a wide swath of still-undecided Republican voters who care about the same health care affordability issues he advocates for every day in Congress.
“If I was advising Bill Cassidy, I would tell him your goal here is not to get out unscathed,” Wray said. “Your goal is to prove that your consistency on issues regarding public health is an asset in your campaign, not a detriment.”
Election outcome will shape future oversight of HHS
Also at stake if Cassidy doesn’t make it to November’s general election is what will happen to his responsibility to oversee the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.
Leavitt, the Smith College professor, said seniority typically plays the most important role in who chairs Senate committees. She said another Republican in today’s increasingly hyperpartisan Congress may not be as willing as Cassidy to check Kennedy’s power.
Reiss, the vaccine law expert, said she wishes Cassidy had done more hearings or introduced legislation to rein in Kennedy. And she said the senator bears the blame for allowing Kennedy to bring unfounded vaccine fears into the government in the first place.
“His original sin, of course, was voting for Kennedy at all,” Reiss said.
Swenson writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Sara Cline contributed to this report.
Anyone travelling with a pet needs to know the rule change
People travelling from the UK to Europe have been warned of a major passport change this week, making documents invalid from Wednesday, April 22. The post-Brexit change means that anyone travelling with a pet will need new documentation or face being sent home.
Until now, people taking their pets abroad – whether by plane, train, ferry or car – could use an EU Pet Passport. The EU Regulation 2016/429 – known as the Animal Health Law – comes into force this week after a 10-year transition.
That means anyone going to Europe with their pet now needs an Animal Health Certificate. The certificate requires a vet visit within 10 days of your trip, a new certificate each time and a £90 payment – per pet.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) issued Briefing Note 14/26 on April 17, 2026. This statement marks a significant shift in pet travel rules, effectively ending the “loophole” where Great Britain (GB) residents used EU-issued pet passports to avoid the cost of Animal Health Certificates (AHCs).
A spokesman said: “An EU pet passport, issued to or held by a pet owner who is resident in GB, will no longer be a valid document for travelling with pets from GB to the EU. This applies to EU pet passports issued in an EU Member State or Northern Ireland, including those issued before 22 April 2026 . EU pet passports may only be issued to owners whose main residence is within the European Un ion.”
If your primary residence is in Great Britain, you cannot use an EU pet passport for travel from the UK to the EU, regardless of where or when that passport was issued (e.g., if you obtained it in France or Spain). UK residents must now obtain an Animal Health Certificate (AHC) for every single trip to the EU.
The briefing clarifies that EU pet passports issued in Northern Ireland are also invalid for travel if the owner is a resident of Great Britain.
APHA is updating the AHC forms to align with new EU regulations. While these new templates are being finalised, there is a transition period where older AHC templates will still be accepted for travel into the EU. There are currently no changes to the requirements for pets entering GB. You can still use a valid EU pet passport or AHC to return to the UK.
For dogs, the requirement for a vet-administered tapeworm treatment between 24 and 120 hours before arriving back in GB remains in place.
You should contact your vet immediately to arrange an AHC, as pet passports will no longer be accepted at the border for UK residents from that date.
Updated rules on the movement of dogs, cats and ferrets are included in a January 2026 EU regulation which is coming into force on April 22.
