Newsletter: Today: Trump Retreats, but It’s Far From Settled
President Trump bows to the family separation outcry, but the path forward is far from clear.
TOP STORIES
Trump Retreats, but It’s Far From Settled
President Trump rarely backs down in the face of public pressure, but the widespread outcry over painful scenes of children being separated from their migrant parents forced a retreat. He signed an executive order that aims to keep families together, albeit in detention. But that is likely to open a legal battle over the 21-year-old court settlement, known as the Flores agreement, under which the government agreed to hold immigrant minors no longer than 20 days – not nearly long enough for most immigration cases. Nor is it clear how long the order will remain in effect. Officials also have no plans to begin reuniting the more than 2,300 children (nearly 100 of whom are now in the L.A. area) who’ve been forcibly separated from their parents under the six-week policy. Meanwhile, experts say such separations typically leave long-term physical and mental damage.
More Politics
-- Voter interest in the November midterm election has reached historic highs, mostly because of Trump. Michael Bloomberg, the Republican-turned-independent former mayor of New York, says he’ll spend $80 million to help Democrats retake control of the House.
-- A federal judge challenged attorneys for the Trump administration and California over their contrasting views on three “sanctuary state” laws and appeared skeptical about some of the administration’s arguments.
-- Less than a year after deadly clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., the main organizer has gained federal approval for another demonstration, this time across the street from the White House.
LAPD Enters a New Video Age
The Los Angeles Police Department has a fraught history with video. This week, it entered a new era by releasing police body-camera video in what is supposed to be a regular process, aimed at increasing transparency when officers use force. While civil liberties advocates hailed the move, they also expressed concern about the “highly edited” nature of what the LAPD revealed.
Why the House of Mouse Wants Fox
The news that Walt Disney Co. increased its offer to buy much of 21st Century Fox to $71.3 billion, in a bid to knock out rival Comcast Corp., took many on Wall Street by surprise. But it’s not so shocking when you consider Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger put off his retirement to get this deal done. Why is it so important? Read on.
Just Listed: In the DMZ (or DMZ-Adjacent)
The demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea may be one of the last remains of the Cold War, but the real estate market for land there has been hot. The buildup to the summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fueled a boom for property along the border, even if it cannot be currently accessed. Things cooled off a bit after the Singapore meeting produced few specifics.
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MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- Trump comments on immigration as he signs an executive order to stop family separations.
-- Carnell Johnson sings as a gondolier at the Venetian in Las Vegas, but you may have seen him on TV as the anthem singer at the Vegas Golden Knights games.
CALIFORNIA
-- Anaheim voters will get to decide on a measure to require hospitality businesses, including the Disneyland Resort, to pay workers a “living wage.”
-- A Los Angeles jury convicted a graphic novelist of the 2016 torture murder of his fiancee, which prosecutors say was patterned after a book he worked on years earlier.
-- A court hearing provided a glimpse into horrific conditions that the Turpin siblings described to investigators after they were removed from their parents’ home.
-- At a juvenile detention center in Commerce, giving teenagers a prom is part of the therapeutic process.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Film critic Justin Chang writes that we need more diversity in movie criticism, but “Who is this movie for?” is the wrong question to ask.
-- Kobe Bryant won an Oscar earlier this year along with director Glen Keane for the animated short film “Dear Basketball,” but Bryant did not make the final cut for film academy membership.
-- Peter Fonda apologized for a tweet that suggested people “rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles.”
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD
“Fanny and Alexander” won four Oscars, including foreign-language film and cinematography. But that was the abbreviated three-hour version of director Ingmar Bergman’s five-part, five-hour Swedish TV series from 1982. A rare screening of the latter takes place in L.A. on Saturday.
NATION-WORLD
-- More than 100 workers were arrested at an Ohio meatpacking plant by federal agents after a yearlong immigration investigation.
-- Tensions along one of the Middle East’s volatile borders continued to escalate this week, with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip firing rockets and the Israeli military unleashing aerial assaults.
-- The Sinai Trail, Egypt’s first long-distance hiking route, has reunited Bedouin tribes in the name of jobs and tourism.
-- Astronomers say they may have finally discovered the universe’s “missing” detectable matter. The findings might solve a decades-old mystery.
BUSINESS
-- New studies suggest the Trump administration’s plans to make Medicaid enrollees pay more may prevent many poor patients from getting healthcare.
-- L.A. Live’s design has been scorned, but the last decade has shown it’s been crucial to downtown’s resurgence.
SPORTS
-- The real NBA draft is tonight. These reporters took a crack at predicting how the first round would unfold in The Times’ inaugural beat writers’ mock draft. Here’s how it played out.
-- The Mexican soccer federation was fined $10,000 for “discriminatory and insulting chants” during Sunday’s World Cup game against Germany.
OPINION
-- Caging immigrant children alongside their parents isn’t much of a solution.
-- A historian argues that Trump’s ridiculous Space Force is sadly an extension of America’s existing national security strategy.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- She was born in Germany and raised in an asylum center, the child of Vietnamese refugees. (Die Zeit)
-- Are memes under threat by new European Union copyright rules? (Daily Beast)
-- Another newly discovered creature has been named after Barack Obama, but he’s got nothing on Sir David Attenborough. (SF Gate)
ONLY IN L.A.
Chubbs the cat weighed 29 pounds and became an internet sensation last week after he was found wandering in Altadena. Even though he’s big, there’s only one of him to go around. So after Chubbs was adopted Wednesday, shelter officials are encouraging other would-be pet parents to consider his less famous brethren, including a selection of other “portly cats.”
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