Young

Cameron Young delivers surprising rally, ties McIlroy at the Masters

The most unexpected of revelations unfolded Saturday at the Masters.

It became a golf tournament.

Rory McIlroy, who built the biggest 36-hole lead in history, wobbled and wilted — one shot in the water, another in the woods — while others surged and made a run at the reigning champion.

Cameron Young, who was eight back of McIlroy to start the day, overtook the Grand Slam winner late in the day. McIlroy briefly reclaimed a one-shot lead but gave that back with a bogey on 17, bending over in exasperation when he left a par putt just short.

Cameron Young fist bumps his caddie, Kyle Sterbinsky, on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters.

Cameron Young fist bumps his caddie, Kyle Sterbinsky, on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters on Saturday in Augusta, Ga.

(Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

Young, whose first PGA Tour victory came last August, heads into the final round tied atop the leaderboard with McIlroy at 11 under par.

The 28-year-old from Westchester County, N.Y., is going to take a business-as-usual approach to the biggest day of his career. He plans to start the day with Mass at a nearby church — before taking on Amen Corner.

“It might be difficult to go undetected, but it’s not going to stop us,” said Young, who has three children younger than 5. “We’ll find somewhere and take the kids. We’ll be out in full force just like usual.”

Saturday was a remarkable turnaround for Young, who was all but cooked on Thursday, playing the first seven holes in four over par. He bounced back strong with a 67 on Friday, and a 65 on Saturday, collecting a combined 14 birdies over those rounds.

Rory McIlroy reacts in frustration on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters on Sunday in Augusta, Ga.

Rory McIlroy reacts in frustration on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters on Sunday in Augusta, Ga.

(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

“I don’t get the sense I’ll be the fan favorite,” Young said. “Rory’s kind of a world favorite in the golf world. A year ago if I’d been in the same situation, there would have been very little [fan support], and now there’s probably a little more. So I’ll take what I can get.”

A host of other competitors moved within striking distance of their first green jacket — Sam Burns, Nick Lowry, Jason Day and Justin Rose.

Lowry had a hole-in-one on No. 6, a decade after acing the 16th. He became the first player in Masters history to record multiple holes-in-one.

Scottie Sheffler, ranked No. 1 in the world, started the day at even par but shot 65 to climb into the mix at four shots back, saying, “I don’t feel like I’m out of the tournament.”

For Day, the key to his 68 was staying patient. He three-putted the opening hole for bogey but kept his cool.

“Statistically I average around four to five birdies a round, so I just knew they were going to come,” he said. “I just didn’t know when they were going to come.”

He got hot from the 12th through 15th holes, stringing together four birdies in a row.

Day has been in contention at the Masters several times, finishing second in 2015.

“I feel like the guys that are leading right now have all the pressure,” he said. “I’m just kind of the chaser. Usually the chasers don’t really have a lot of the pressure.”

That Collin Morikawa is even relevant at this point is stunning, considering the physical battle he’s enduring. The two-time major winner shot 68 on Saturday despite issues with an injury — possibly his back — affecting his legs. He said he’s swinging at roughly half-speed.

“My legs aren’t moving the way they used to,” he said. “So then I’m throwing my arms, and I’m having to time up my arms. So, like, every swing I’m putting at, I am essentially just throwing my arms at the ball hoping that it squares everything up.”

Morikawa was six shots back along with former UCLA standout Jake Knapp and one behind another former Bruin, Patrick Cantlay (five back).

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto Cy Young doesn’t mesh with Dodgers’ plans

For a couple moments Tuesday afternoon, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spit out a rapid-fire version of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s biography, or at least his Baseball Reference page.

World Series winner? Check. World Baseball Classic winner? Check. Olympic Games gold medalist? Check. Sawamura Award winner, presented annually to Japan’s best pitcher? Check.

Cy Young award winner? No.

Or, at least, not yet.

The Dodgers have won 12 Cy Young awards, the most of any major league team, with franchise icons including Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser and Clayton Kershaw bringing home the hardware. Yamamoto has the talent to win.

Is it in their best interest if he does? Or could the numbers he might need to put up to win the award be counterproductive to the Dodgers winning another World Series?

In this century, only two players have won a Cy Young award and a World Series championship in the same season: Randy Johnson, with the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, and Justin Verlander, with the 2022 Houston Astros.

The Dodgers include October on their schedule every year. Their regular season consists of priming pitchers for October, not padding their resumes for awards.

No Dodgers pitcher has thrown 200 innings or won 20 games over the past four years, the last two of which have ended with parades. If the Dodgers choose not to mess with team success, they would not afford Yamamoto the chance to hit either of those traditional barometers of excellence.

The last time a Dodgers pitcher won a Cy Young in a year in which the team won the World Series: Hershiser, in 1988. He threw 267 innings that season, then another 42⅔ in the playoffs. The Dodgers are as likely to let Yamamoto throw that much as they are to let him bat cleanup.

“I think he could throw more, but I don’t think he needs to,” Hershiser said. “Every organization is different.

“If Yamamoto was on a .500 club that was hoping to get a wild card, they wouldn’t be planning for October every year like the Dodgers. They would be pitching him more.”

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto prepares to deliver in the first inning.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto prepares to deliver in the first inning of a 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.

(Cole Burston / Getty Images)

Roberts said he did not believe that whatever restraints the Dodgers might put on Yamamoto would spoil his chances for the Cy Young award, if his performance otherwise warrants it. The game has changed, and with it the award voting.

Of the 10 Cy Young winners over the past five years, eight did not throw 200 innings. None won 20 games.

Yamamoto has pitched six innings in each of his first three starts, including Tuesday’s 4-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. He averaged 5.8 innings per start last season, when he pitched 173⅔ innings.

Is a seven-inning pitcher beyond where he is, or where the game is today?

“I purposefully took him out of a lot of games where he had six innings, and I could have pushed him, and I don’t know how it would have played out,” Roberts said before the game. “But there’s a lot of intentionality to kind of banking what you have with him. But could he be? I don’t see why he couldn’t.

“I think he would certainly argue that I’ve probably taken him out too soon at times.”

If Yamamoto is the Dodgers’ best pitcher, then every inning he pitches is an inning that gives the Dodgers their best chance to win. There is no need to extend him beyond his comfort zone, but he pitched 193 innings twice in Japan, averaging 7.4 innings per start. He should be able to handle 200 innings.

“It’s certainly possible,” Roberts said, “but I’m just not going to manage to get him to reach a certain milestone. How he’s pitching in a certain game, to then go to the next game and how it looks, that’s kind of how I do it.”

Yamamoto started 30 games last season. One more inning in each start would have gotten him to 200 innings.

To his credit, Roberts did not take him out after six innings Tuesday. Yamamoto started the seventh inning and faced two batters — the first doubled after an ABS review nullified a strikeout, the second dropped a bunt single — then left after 97 pitches. Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen and Edwin Díaz collected the final nine outs.

That, too, is a plan. Handing the ball to an ace like Yamamoto and asking for nine innings is ancient history.

“You have bullpens that are a lot richer and deeper,” Hershiser said. “You’ve got quality arms in the bullpens, where ballclubs are spending money.

“As far as the workload in the playoffs compared to what they’re doing in the regular season, I think they all could still do what we did. I just think they’re not being trained or asked to do it. I just think it’s a different time and a different culture.

“He’s able to do it. I think (Shohei) Ohtani is able to do it. I think (Blake) Snell is able to do it. I think (Tyler) Glasnow is able to do it. But there is a different way to spend your assets now.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 26 at Dodger Stadium.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 26 at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The concept that a team would give a pitcher an extra start or two to make his case for an award? Not this team, anyway.

“Now they’re saving those 10 or 20 innings for the playoffs,” Hershiser said.

“I think our guys have a chance to win a Cy Young even pitching once a week, if that’s what they ask them to do, until the games mean something more. Then they might bring them back on no days rest, as they have.”

That was a wink and a nod toward Yamamoto, who has won his last four appearances here: Game 2 of the World Series on 10 days rest; Game 6 on five days rest; Game 7 on no days rest, and Tuesday on five days rest.

The Dodgers have made clear that saving an inning for the postseason is preferable to spending it during the regular season. For a pitcher under contract to the Dodgers through 2035, it is certainly defensible in the short and the long term.

But, for a coaching staff and front office that loves the phrase “gives us our best chance to win,” a little more of Yamamoto could do just that.

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Tiny ADU houses young adult children struggling to pay rent in L.A.

When Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen purchased their South Pasadena Craftsman home in 2001, the one-car garage dated back to 1917, a time when people parked their narrow Ford Model T cars inside garages like this one.

“We bought it for $650,000,” LaMonica says of the house. “Of course, we could never afford to buy it now.”

The couple moved in when their daughters, Sophie and Ruby Wellen, were little, and their tree-lined street was full of families with young kids who rode their scooters throughout the neighborhood.

“We all grew up together and had block parties,” says Sophie, 30. Now, she adds, “There are no new families moving in. No one left. Why would they?”

Tina LaMonica, Warren Wellen, their daughter Sophie Wellen and their dog Hazelnut.

Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen sit on the patio with their daughter, Sophie Wellen, and their dog, Hazelnut, next to the 230-square-foot ADU where Sophie lived for two years. Her younger sister is now living in the ADU.

Music was always a part of their home, Sophie says, thanks to her father, Warren, 65, who is both an attorney and a musician in the alternative rock band Brahms’ Third Racket.

“He plays everything,” Sophie says. “Throughout my entire childhood, he was always making music.”

LaMonica adds, “It can be disruptive.”

So in 2021, the couple pulled together money from different sources, including a line of credit, and turned the garage into a tiny 230-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, for Warren to use as a music studio.

“It was intended to be a creative space, not a home,” says LaMonica, 64, who is a commercial real estate broker. “The total cost was around $125,000, including permits, construction and all systems — a significant investment, but one that ended up serving our family in unexpected ways.”

Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen's South Pasadena garage before it was turned into an ADU.
The garage before, left, during, right, and after, below, construction.

The garage before, left, during, right, and after, below, construction. (Tina LaMonica)

A Craftsman style ADU rests behind a swimming pool.

A few months after using his new music studio, Sophie, who had been in law school at the University of Michigan, moved back to Los Angeles after being away for 10 years.

“She wasn’t working right away, and like many new grads, she had student debt and credit card debt from getting through school,” says LaMonica. “Market rent in the Los Angeles area wasn’t realistic, even with a job offer lined up. So, the studio became her first home. It gave her stability and independence during a major transition.”

Sophie, who describes her relationship with her parents as close, says the ADU was always meant to be temporary and she’s grateful for it.

“At 28, I didn’t know where I wanted to live in L.A.,” she says. “I had only grown up in Pasadena, which is a small community. I felt lucky to be able to live in this little house in the back and explore the city to find the right place for me, instead of rushing to grab the first place I could, like so many of my associates had to do. It was right after the bar exam, and I was really stressed.”

A tiny ADU with black and white tile and white kitchen.

The ADU features a Murphy bed and and a nice-sized kitchenette.

An all-white kitchen in an ADU.

The kitchenette has a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim, Classic retro-style refrigerator.

After clerking for a judge in Washington, D.C., Sophie’s boyfriend William Lang moved to Los Angeles and joined her and her dog in the ADU, bringing his two cats with him.

“It was a full house,” Sophie says, laughing. “And yes, they were indoor cats! But we made it work. Finding a rental was hard. I couldn’t really afford a nice apartment in L.A. I had to save up and wait until my boyfriend got here so we had two incomes.”

It’s no surprise they felt at home. Although it’s small, the unit is sunny and bright, with a pitched roof and a big picture window overlooking the lush backyard and swimming pool. (The blinds can be closed for privacy.)

There’s a Murphy bed that turns into a love seat when pulled down, which saves space, and classic black-and-white checkerboard porcelain tile from Mission Tile in South Pasadena that gives the living spaces a surprising sense of fun. The unit also has a bathroom with a shower, a closet and a storage nook above the bathroom.

A desk in an ADU overlooking a backyard.

The ADU has room for a desk, flat-screen TV and comfy chair.

There’s also room for a desk, a flat-screen TV on the wall and a comfortable chair. Not having a dining room isn’t a problem because there’s a welcoming patio just outside the French doors, with two chairs, a couch and a coffee table.

“The backyard was our saving grace,” says Sophie. “Most of the time, William sat at the little table. It was cozy and nice. I got to be near my parents, and they got to know my partner better.”

The ADU has a roomy kitchenette with white cabinets and countertops, a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim retro-style refrigerator from Unique. “You can bake, broil and fry with the small Wonder Oven,” LaMonica says. “Ruby uses it all the time.” There’s also a mini-split system for heating and cooling, and if needed, a stackable washer and dryer can be added later.

An outdoor patio in South Pasadena.

A patio area provides another living space steps outside the ADU.

Soon after Sophie moved out, having lived in the back house for two years, her 27-year-old sister Ruby moved in. “She works in Torrance and can’t afford to rent an apartment close to her job,” her mother says. “The ADU gives her a chance to live affordably, stay safe and be near family, while building financial footing on her own terms.”

LaMonica is happy with the ADU, though she wishes they could have added a second floor, which the city of South Pasadena didn’t allow at the time.

She imagines a future in which one of her daughters lives in the main house, and she and her husband live in the ADU. “I think an ADU is a great long-term solution,” she says. “It keeps people from moving out of California. With an ADU, at least you can keep your family on site.”

In some ways, the small ADU is more than just a solution for young people who can’t afford to live in Los Angeles. A 2025 study found that Los Angeles ranked second among the 50 largest U.S. metros for its share of working adults (ages 25 to 40) living with parents.

Backyard homes can also help people connect with their community.

“The nice thing about the ADU is that it can give you a sense of community that’s hard to find right now because people are so isolated,” says Sophie, who now rents a two-bedroom duplex in Hancock Park with Lang for $4,500 a month. “We’re both lawyers at private law firms and doing well, but I still don’t feel like I could have a child right now and give them the life I want. It’s hard to make big life decisions in L.A., especially if you have student debt. It was really nice to have dinner with my parents every once in a while. They didn’t want William and I to leave.”

A tiny bathroom inside an ADU.

The bathroom inside the ADU.

As Southern California gets more crowded and housing costs rise, young people have to look for options different from those their parents had when they were growing up.

LaMonica says she and her husband never thought they would house both daughters in a converted garage. “But in a place like Los Angeles,” she says, “the tiny ADU turned into a flexible and essential lifeline for our family, not just once but twice.”

And maybe one day, Warren will finally get his music studio.

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Bo Lueders dead: Harm’s Way guitarist and co-founder was 38

Bo Lueders, guitarist and co-founder of the Chicago-based hardcore metal band Harm’s Way, has died, his bandmates announced “with heavy, broken hearts” Thursday on social media. He was 38.

Lueders “will be remembered for his unwavering empathy and compassion for his friends & family and his magnetic, inimitable presence on & off the stage,” Harm’s Way wrote on Instagram, asking for “grace and privacy” during a difficult time.

No cause of death was provided, but the band offered up the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline to anyone “struggling with depression or urges to self-harm.”

Born Bohan Daniel Lueders in November 1987, the musician co-founded Harm’s Way in 2006 as a side project of the punk band Few and the Proud. It turned into a full-time band that has released five studio albums and five EPs in the years since, with songs including “Human Carrying Capacity,” “Become a Machine” and “Call My Name.”

In a bio posted by the band on Spotify, Lueders took a shot at describing the music on Harm’s Way’s 2018 album, “Posthuman,” which was followed by its fifth album, “Common Suffering,” in 2023.

“To a Harm’s Way fan, I would describe ‘Posthuman’ as a blend of ‘Isolation’ (2011) and ‘Rust’ (2015), but it’s sonically way more insane,” he said. “To anyone else, I would simply say it’s like full on aggression.”

Lueders began the “HardLore” podcast in 2022 with Twitching Tongues frontman Colin Young to chronicle life on the road in the hardcore/punk/metal scene. A new episode — the second part of a two-part interview with Madball singer Freddie Crician — was posted Wednesday.

But on March 19, before that two-parter was done, Young and Lueders posted a “HardLore” episode that broke from format, instead answering listener questions for an hour and a half. One listener asked the hosts what piece of music they wanted to hear last before they died. Young picked “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. His buddy chose another track that was distinctly non-metal and non-punk.

“Mine would be some Björk song, probably. Either ‘Unravel’ or ‘Aurora.’ I just wanna drift and go peacefully,” Lueders said, rubbing both eyes before making a drifting gesture with both hands.

“I think ‘Unravel’ is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.”

A GoFundMe campaign was launched Friday by Young on behalf of Lueders’ “mother Wendy and girlfriend Taylor to help cover the costs of both afterlife & memorial services in Chicago.” The campaign had reached nearly $140,000 by midday.



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Lola Young is recovering after addiction woes led to collapse

British singer-songwriter Lola Young is opening up about the “breaking point” that steered her toward recovery.

The “Messy” hitmaker told Rolling Stone in a recent interview that she was grateful that she fainted onstage late last year, and framed the scary ordeal as a wake-up call. “What do you call that? Like, a breaking point which allowed me to then be able to be here today, allowed me to be better for my fans, better for the future, and better for myself,” she told the outlet.

In September, the Grammy winner collapsed onstage during a performance at the All Things Go Music Festival in New York City. Following the health scare — which drew speculation and worry from fans who’d watched the viral video of Young stumbling and dropping her microphone before falling backward — Young canceled the remainder of her tour, which included a 21-stop North American run.

The tour, in support of her third album, “I’m Only F— Myself,” was expected to conclude with two dates at the Hollywood Palladium in December. Instead, she spent two months seeking holistic addiction treatment in a facility that prioritizes psychotherapy. She’s now attending 12-step meetings and working with a sponsor.

When announcing that she would have to nix forthcoming performances to prioritize her health, Young told fans on social media that she was “going away for a while” and apologized, writing, “I love this job and I never take my commitments and audience for granted so I’m sorry to those who will be disappointed by this. … I really hope you’ll give me a second chance … once I’ve had some time to work on myself and come back stronger.”

Young told Rolling Stone that, naturally, some folks were really angry that she’d canceled her tour. “[I]t was a decision that I had to make, and it was sad that I had to do that. What else was I going to do, die? That was the reality of where my addiction was heading.”

This wasn’t the first health incident for Young, who is known for her chart-topping breakout hit, “Messy.” The budding megastar performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2025, and during her Weekend 1 performance, she struggled to get through. The heat lingered around 100 degrees, and while Young danced and sang, she began to visibly gag and retch before running off the stage and asking for a bucket.

The acclaimed artist has been candid about her struggles with cocaine and alcohol addiction and often explores those struggles in her lyrics. In the song “d£aler,” a bouncy goodbye letter to her drug dealer, she sings about spending the day trying to be sober but feeling miserable nonetheless: “I wanna get away, far from here / Pack my bags, my drugs, and disappear.” … “Pack my bags and tell my dealer I’ll miss him.”

Young also sat down with the Times UK and said that she didn’t want to say too much but confirmed that she was in recovery for drug addiction. “But what I would say is that recovery is an ongoing process. I’m not the finished article, but I’m doing a hell of a lot better.”

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How Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani can put himself in the 2026 NL Cy Young conversation

Shohei Ohtani’s three straight strikeouts in the fourth inning of his final spring start Tuesday featured a different putaway pitch for each.

He got Angels slugger Jorge Soler to whiff on a sweeper. Jeimer Candelario went down on a curveball. And Jo Adell struck out on a fastball.

“Just shows the confidence he has and different ways he had to attack guys, to get ahead and also put guys away,” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 3-0 loss to the Angels in the Freeway Series finale. “And today the feel was really good, even better than the first outing.”

Pretty much everything was clicking for Ohtani heading into the regular season, even though it was only his second spring training start on the mound. Ohtani recorded 11 strikeouts in four-plus innings. He held the Angels to four hits, three of which were consecutive singles in the fifth, and was charged with three runs, all scored in the fifth.

For the first time in three years, Ohtani is set to begin the season as a fully healthy pitcher. And it will be the Dodgers’ first time managing his two-way schedule all year. Limited the last two seasons by his recovery and build-up from elbow surgery, Ohtani last made 20-plus starts in 2023 with the Angels.

“The desire is high,” Roberts said when asked about Ohtani’s aim to pitch wall to wall. “I think it’s realistic. Then the bigger question is, how are we going to manage that and navigate it?”

Thinking through the plan going into the season, Roberts floated the idea of giving Ohtani a little extra rest between starts. Dodgers starters are already on a six- to seven-day rotation. But a six-man starting pitching group gives the team flexibility as they map out their pitching plan.

“My intent is to be in the rotation under normal rest, normal circumstances,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton last week in Arizona. “Now if management thinks that I need extra rest, I’ll take it. But I’ll let management handle that. Just looking at our roster, we have a lot of pitchers. It doesn’t hurt to rest more.”

Ohtani’s in-game limits, after a build-up slowed by his participation in the World Baseball Classic as a position player, will be adjusted before each start. But his Freeway Series outing Tuesday set him up well. He stretched out to 86 pitches.

“When you’re talking about the first game of the season, could he get through six innings? Could he touch the seventh? Yes,” Roberts said Tuesday afternoon. “But he won’t touch the eighth inning. So there’s got to be some responsibility as far as how we manage him.”

When it comes to awards, Ohtani is going after a third World Series title. But his trophy case is well stocked with individual accolades too. He’s won four MVPs, five All-Star selections, four Silver Sluggers and a Rookie of the Year award.

The Cy Young, however, has remained elusive. He came close in 2022, when a 2.33 ERA and league-leading 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings earned him a fourth-place finish in the American League. It was the only time in his career that he crossed the 25-start threshold, with 28.

“I would never want to sacrifice our chance of winning and performing in the postseason,” Ohtani said. “So I think that’s really the No. 1 goal in my mind. Just because I want to try to win the Cy Young and throw more innings, that’s not necessarily the priority over winning a championship. So with that being said, if there’s a situation where there’s some injuries and I do have to pitch on shorter rest, I’m happy to do so.”

Would showing that he can make regular starts all year automatically put him in the Cy Young conversation?

“Oh yeah,” Roberts said. “Because of just talent, ability, will. If he does that, he’ll be in the conversation, absolutely. I have no doubt about that.”

Of course, besides reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, Ohtani would also be competing for the award with his own teammate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who enters the season with the edge.

If Ohtani continues to pitch like he did on Tuesday, while building up the rest of the way, he and the Dodgers will be in good shape.

“It was another good one for him,” Roberts said, “and he’ll be ready to go.”

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Young immigrants face concerning conditions at Texas site, lawyers say

Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months without enough food, medical care or mental health services, as their time inside stretched beyond court-mandated limits, according to court documents.

Children and families held at the detention facility in Dilley, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were sent this year, also faced virus outbreaks and lasting lockdowns in December and January, although the total number of children held there has fallen in recent weeks, according to the attorney reports and site visits.

The case of Liam, a preschooler who was wearing a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack when he was picked up in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, stoked protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, including among detainees who gathered and held up signs in the yard behind the Dilley facility’s chain-link fences.

Last week about 85 children remained detained at the Dilley facility, but concerning conditions continued, said Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, who visited in mid-March. In early February, a legal advocate for the children observed about 280 children.

The filings Friday cited numerous poignant cases, including that of a 13-year-old girl held at Dilley who tried to take her own life after staff withheld prescribed antidepressants and denied her request to join her mother, as reported by the Associated Press. The government reported there had been “no placements on suicide watch,” according to the filing. The AP obtained Dilley facility discharge documents that described a “suicide attempt by cutting of wrist” and “self-harm.”

The filings were submitted in a lawsuit launched in 1985 that led to the creation in 1997 of court-ordered supervision of standards and eventually established a 20-day limit in custody. The Trump administration seeks to end the Flores settlement, as it is known.

“For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left that is antithetical to the law and wastes valuable U.S. taxpayer funded resources,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Being in detention is a choice.”

Attorneys for detainees highlighted the government’s data showing longer custody times for immigrant children, and also cited worms in food and poor access to medical care or sufficient legal counsel as reported by families and monitors at federal facilities.

“Dilley remains a hellhole,” said Leecia Welch, the chief legal director at Children’s Rights, who visits the center regularly to ensure compliance. “Although the number of children has decreased, the suffering remains the same.”

The Homeland Security spokesperson said the Dilley facility is retrofitted for families, who receive basic necessities including adequate food and water while in detention, and the Trump administration is working to quickly deport detainees.

A report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that about 595 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit in December and January, with some stretching into months, per the court filings.

“Approximately 265 of these children were detained for more than 50 days and a shocking 55 children were detained more than 100 days,” the filings state.

That is up from a previous government disclosure late last year that showed that from August to September, 400 children had been held at the Dilley facility beyond the 20-day limit. Homeland Security did not respond to questions seeking comment on the data.

Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of the Central District of California is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case later this month.

Burke writes for the Associated Press.

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Social media making young people less happy, report finds | Social Media

Heavy social media use has contributed to ‘worrying decline’ in wellbeing in Western countries, World Happiness Report says.

Social media has played a large role in declining happiness among young people in Western countries, a United Nations-backed report has found.

Heavy social media use partly explains a “worrying decline” in the wellbeing of young people in the West, the latest edition of the annual World Happiness Report said on Wednesday.

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In total, 15 Western countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, saw significant declines in youth wellbeing over the past two decades, according to the report.

The trend was not observed globally, with young people in regions covering 90 percent of the world’s population reporting higher life satisfaction than before.

“The trends are caused by many factors, which differ between continents. However, the evidence in this report does suggest that heavy social media use, especially in some countries, provides an important part of the explanation,” researchers John F Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D Sachs, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Lara B Aknin, and Shun Wang said in an executive summary of the report.

“Outside the English-speaking world and Western Europe, the links between social media use and wellbeing are more positive, and they vary between platforms,” the researchers added.

The report, published by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, cited data from sources including the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and research by the American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

Despite the decline in youth wellbeing, Western countries, particularly in Scandinavia, dominated the overall happiness rankings across age groups.

Finland ranked as the world’s happiest nation for the ninth consecutive year, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway.

The Netherlands, Israel and Switzerland also made the top 10.

Middle Eastern and African countries had the lowest happiness scores.

Afghanistan reported the lowest life satisfaction, with Zimbabwe, Malawi, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon also ranking among the bottom 10 countries.

Social media use among young people has been a growing concern for governments amid reports linking platforms to bullying, sexual exploitation and worsening mental health.

Australia last year introduced the world’s first social media ban for under 16s, with plans for similar restrictions under way in Indonesia, France and Greece.

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