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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Progressive city council member Nithya Raman has advanced to a November runoff against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, setting up an unexpected matchup between two Democrats and former political allies to run the struggling city of nearly 4 million. The outcome means Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former reality television personality from “The Hills,” is out of the running. His candidacy had drawn national attention because of his celebrity and willingness to challenge liberal governance in a city dominated by Democrats, but the buzz did not translate into enough votes to make the runoff. Raman made a last-minute entry into the race, after she had endorsed Bass for reelection. She was elected to the council with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the election will test whether voters in the heavily Democratic city want to move further to the political left to address long-running problems of homelessness, buckled streets and sidewalks and climbing rent and home prices. The race also has historical markers. Bass is the first Black woman to hold the post, and Raman could be the first South Asian woman in the job. In a statement, Bass campaign strategist Douglas Herman said, “A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning.” The mayoral race was technically nonpartisan, so the candidates appeared on the ballot without party identification next to their names. The election was not a vote of confidence in Bass, who according to incomplete returns received under 35% of the vote, a vulnerable position for an incumbent. Raman had been running in third until Sunday, but she gained more votes with every update provided by election officials in Los Angeles since June 2, primary day. Bass represents the Democratic establishment as the incumbent mayor, and she’s backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with influential labor unions. She served in the state Legislature and Congress before becoming mayor in 2022 and was under consideration to be former President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020. Raman — in her first run for citywide office — has promised to speed up housing construction, bring back entertainment industry jobs and improve services in a city known for dirty streets, gridlock and homeless encampments that are commonplace in many neighborhoods. “What we are doing right now is just not working,” Raman says. “LA’s primary strategy for homelessness has been to move encampments from one block to another, from your block to your neighbor’s block and back again. … It’s political theater.” It took nearly a week to determine who would face Bass in November due to California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Ballots are mailed to every eligible voter and they are counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at an election office within seven days. Los Angeles, like other counties in California, processes and counts mail ballots in roughly the order they are received, so the last ones returned are the last ones counted. On Tuesday night after polls closed, Los Angeles released results from mail ballots that had been returned early and already processed as well as votes cast that day. Those votes put Bass in the lead with Pratt running in second and Raman behind in third. Since then, the county has been processing and releasing results from mail ballots that arrived later. Election data shows that large numbers of Democrats held onto their mail ballots and returned them in the race’s final days, which helps explain why Bass and Raman have been doing better than Pratt in the votes counted since primary day. Born in India, Raman moved to the United States as a child and earned degrees from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied urban planning. She has opposed efforts to prohibit homeless people from setting up tents within 500 feet (152 meters) of schools and daycare centers. However, she appears to have softened her opposition to no-camping zones, which were intended to curb the spread of encampments and clear streets. She voted against dozens of them on the council but later said she would not block them if elected mayor. Raman’s positions on policing in the city have also changed. She once talked of a department that would be much smaller and posted “defund the police” on social media in 2020. She did not support the mayor’s 2023 police contract, which she said was too expensive for the financially strapped city. More recently, she said the Los Angeles Police Department should remain at its current size, about 8,600, down from about 10,000 in 2020. The police union has taunted her in ads, calling her “Flip Floppin’ Raman.” In diverse Los Angeles, mayors are elected by building coalitions, ethnically and geographically. And to surpass 50% of the vote and win, Raman will need to find more supporters. “I don’t think it’s impossible, but she is going to have to expand beyond her ideological base,” said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who sees Bass as vulnerable. “The people who didn’t vote for Nithya weren’t voting against her, they were voting for somebody else. Karen (Bass) had a good number of people who were voting against her,” Carrick added. Though Raman and Pratt are political opposites, both have attracted voters who aren’t happy with the city’s status quo. Tanika Vickers, who works for a housing nonprofit in Los Angeles, said that she felt like she was part of a group of people who work and pay taxes but have been “forgotten.” She said she was frustrated with the way tax dollars were being spent, especially “throwing” more money toward homelessness without results. She said she voted Raman for mayor because she was most qualified to execute her plans and fulfill what the city needs. “I think that we are all looking for change,” she said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

June 8 (Reuters) – SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday that building orbital AI data centers is not a difficult engineering challenge as the company prepares for its blockbuster IPO this week. The billionaire said that much of the required technology already exists in its current Starlink satellite network. “Part of what we want to convey here is that there is not some magic that is necessary, that doesn’t exist,” Elon Musk said in a video discussion released by the company. “A lot of this is technology we’ve already made for the Starlink V3 satellites. We don’t think this is a super hard problem compared to the things we already do.” The comments come as investors scrutinize SpaceX’s plans for orbital AI data centers, a key element of the company’s long-term growth narrative ahead of an initial public offering expected to value the company at about $1.75 trillion. Musk and SpaceX engineer Ian Dahl outlined plans for AI satellites that would operate as computing nodes in orbit, powered by solar energy and cooled by radiating heat into space. The company argues that placing computing infrastructure in orbit could help overcome some of the power constraints increasingly facing terrestrial AI data centers.  According to the presentation, the first proposed AI satellite would generate about 150 kilowatts of peak power and 120 kilowatts of sustained compute power. Musk said that is roughly comparable to a single Nvidia GB300 AI server rack, which typically consumes around 140 kilowatts at peak power.  SpaceX said the satellites would rely heavily on technologies already being deployed in its next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, including solar arrays and thermal-management systems. Dahl described the spacecraft as being simpler than Starlink satellites because they would not require the large phased-array antennas used for broadband communications.  The company said Starship’s fully reusable design would eventually allow it to launch the large volumes of solar panels, radiators and computer chips needed to scale orbital computing. Musk said SpaceX expects its AI satellite factory in Bastrop, Texas, to reach meaningful production volumes by the end of next year. The orbital computing initiative forms part of a broader strategy to position SpaceX not only as a launch and satellite communications company but also as a major AI infrastructure provider as it enters public markets. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Pooja Menon June 9 (Reuters) – Oil prices inched up in early trade on Tuesday after Iran and Israel left the door open to a possible resumption of attacks on each other, though they had called a halt to hostilities following an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump. Brent crude futures rose 13 cents, or 0.14%, to $94.38 a barrel at 0001 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate were up 11 cents, or 0.12%, at $91.41 a barrel. Prices climbed as much as 5% in the previous session after renewed Israeli strikes on Iran and attacks in Lebanon reduced hopes of an imminent end to the wider war, but pared gains after Iran’s armed forces announced the end of military operations against Israel. “While there is some relief from the latest pause in direct strikes, investors are not convinced the truce will hold,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade. The market is pricing in continued uncertainty rather than a lasting resolution, Waterer added. Iran and Israel said they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump that they immediately “stop ‘shooting'”, though Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon. “While this helped stop the situation snowballing, the geopolitical backdrop remains tense, and a lasting peace deal remains elusive,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement carried by Israeli television that Israel would respond with force if Iran attacked again. Trump told Axios in an interview published on Monday that he warned Netanyahu that he might find himself fighting alone if he went back to war with Iran. “The key question is whether current de-escalation efforts can finally translate into a longer-lasting resolution, or if we’re simply in another temporary lull,” Waterer said. One of the key issues Washington is pressing Tehran for in peace talks is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s supply of oil passed before the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran at the end of February. On Monday, U.S. forces disabled an unladen oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port in violation of the ongoing blockade against Iran, the U.S. military said. (Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Laviolette will be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Kings hadn’t yet announced the results of their lengthy search for a permanent replacement for interim coach D.J. Smith, who replaced Jim Hiller in March. The 61-year-old Laviolette is expected to get a three-year contract to take over his seventh NHL team. The Kings have made the playoffs in five consecutive seasons, but they’ve also endured five straight first-round exits under three head coaches and two general managers. Laviolette is returning to the NHL after being fired by the New York Rangers in April 2025. He has also led the New York Islanders, Carolina, Philadelphia, Nashville and Washington during a 23-year head coaching career highlighted by a Stanley Cup championship with the Hurricanes in 2006. Laviolette’s teams have reached the postseason in 11 of the past 14 seasons he finished behind a bench, and he also led the Flyers (2010) and the Predators (2017) to the Stanley Cup Final. His 1,594 career games coached are the ninth most in NHL history. In his first West Coast NHL job, Laviolette is taking over a good team that is stuck in a profound rut, unable to become a Stanley Cup contender. General manager Ken Holland fired Hiller shortly after the Olympic break in the coach’s second full season in charge, and the Kings went 11-6-6 after Smith stepped up from his assistant’s role. Smith, who was a candidate for the permanent job, got the Kings into the final Western Conference playoff spot — but Los Angeles was swept out of the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. The Kings’ four previous first-round exits were all at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, leading to the departure of general manager Rob Blake a year ago. Los Angeles still hasn’t won a playoff round since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, but the roster has a solid core of talent despite the retirement of longtime captain Anze Kopitar. Holland acquired high-scoring forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers last winter, and high-scoring forwards Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala are all returning in the fall. The intense Laviolette became known for creating aggressive offensive attacks and making quick franchise turnarounds in his previous stops. He could be part of an organizational shift for the Kings, who have spent two decades as a philosophically defense-first team — to the regular detriment of their offense. Los Angeles finished 29th in the NHL in scoring last season with just 220 goals, easily the fewest among playoff teams. The Kings are in the bottom half of the NHL in scoring over the past five seasons despite making the playoffs every year. Holland publicly wondered whether the Kings are too defensive-minded after they scored just five goals in their four-game sweep at the hands of the Avs, but he didn’t commit to a change in team philosophy. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In an unprecedented move, the embattled chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was suspended from his duties late Monday, after the court’s oversight body referred British barrister Karim Khan for disciplinary proceedings. The 56-year-old is facing allegations of sexual misconduct with a female aide, in a scandal that has dragged on for more than two years. He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing. A final decision on Khan’s fate is now up to the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, which will hold a special session to decide if Khan can remain in his job at the global court. The Bureau of the Assembly of States parties — the executive committee of the court’s oversight body — said in a statement that it based its decision “on the report of an investigation undertaken by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the underlying evidence, the advice of an ad hoc Panel of judicial experts, and written submissions.” It added that Khan’s suspension pending the assembly meeting “is not an indication of the final outcome.” The U.N. investigation found evidence that Khan had “nonconsensual sexual contact with (the aide) in his office, at his private residence, and whilst on mission,” according to a copy of its report seen by The Associated Press. However, a three-judge panel selected by the executive committee for a legal assessment of the findings found that the investigation was not conclusive enough. When contacted for comment, Khan’s legal team said a statement would be issued Tuesday. Khan had already temporarily stepped down in May 2025 pending the outcome of the investigation. The process is unprecedented for the ICC, and the Assembly of States Parties has had to repeatedly create new rules to accommodate the situation. The allegations against Khan were first reported to the court’s independent watchdog more than two years ago. An AP investigation revealed that Khan was alleged to have seen the woman working in another ICC department and moved her into his office. She later became a regular presence on official trips, according to whistleblower documents. On one foreign trip, Khan allegedly asked her to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her,” the documents said. Other alleged nonconsensual behavior cited in the documents included locking the door of his office and sticking his hand in her pocket. He also allegedly asked her several times to accompany him on a vacation. Only the Assembly of States Parties has the authority to remove Khan from office, a move that would require a majority in a secret ballot of its 125 member states. Sixty-three countries would need to support a measure to remove him. No date was immediately set for the session, but the assembly said it would be convened as soon as possible. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com