By Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times

The union representing Starbucks workers on Monday filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee, opposing the popular chain’s role as the “official coffee partner” of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The union, Starbucks Workers United, contends in the complaint that Starbucks’ treatment of U.S. workers looking to unionize and bargain a contract — as well as allegations of forced labor abroad — conflict with the Olympic Games’ code of ethics.

The 22-page complaint notes findings by federal labor regulators in recent years that the company had unlawfully retaliated against employees, failed to bargain with the union, and took other actions in an “aggressive, unrelenting campaign of intimidation and interference” to discourage workers from exercising their right to organize.

It also cites legal actions filed in April by Brazilian workers and watchdog groups, alleging the company’s supply chain relies on human trafficking and “slavery-like” labor in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee grower — allegations the company has denied.

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Starbucks, which denies accusations made in the complaint, announced its Olympics partnership last month. As part of the deal, it plans to build “a specially-designed” coffeehouse in the Olympic and Paralympic villages, and will serve coffee across competition venues, volunteer hubs and other locations.

Michelle Eisen, a spokesperson for the union and a former Starbucks employee, said the company in negotiations had been “fighting [its] own baristas” and “stonewalling” a union contract.

“Starbucks’ long pattern of disrespecting workers’ rights stands in stark contrast to the Olympic spirit, which celebrates human dignity, fairness, solidarity, and teamwork,” Eisen said. “Until Starbucks starts playing fair … they have no place at the Olympic Games.”

Starbucks maintains, however, that the union is to blame for stalled contract talks by walking away from negotiations in the winter.

Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in response to a request for comment Monday that “allegations by Workers United have all previously been debunked and are without merit.”

Anderson said the company denies allegations of forced labor in Brazil and is committed to ethical sourcing. The company has said that the coffee farms it works with are thoroughly vetted.

“Our commitment to bargaining with Workers United and reaching agreements has not changed,” Anderson said. “We are proud to bring connection, culture, community and incredible coffee to the world stage at the LA28 Games.”

The union’s Monday complaint also alleges that Starbucks, by lobbying for the Olympics deal, created a possible conflict of interest, because a prominent former member of Starbucks’ board, Mellody Hobson, also serves on the board of LA28, the organizing committee for the Summer Games.

Anderson said that Hobson left the Starbucks board in March, and that the Olympics deal was finalized after her departure.

Hobson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Complaints alleging ethics violations submitted to the International Olympic Committee are analyzed by the committee’s chief ethics and compliance officer, who, according to the group’s procedures, would then either submit the complaint to an independent ethics commission to make a recommendation or inform the person or group that made the complaint that no breach of ethics had been found.

Games in years past, with billions of dollars in revenue at stake, have at times been beset by corruption and scandal. The IOC set up its independent Ethics Commission in 1999 after IOC members were accused of accepting bribes — in the form of cash, gifts, travel expenses and even college tuition for members’ children — to advance Salt Lake City’s bid to host the 2002 Winter Games.

The accusations lodged by the union come amid a period of strained contract talks.

A nationwide movement to unionize the coffee chain began in 2021, when the first store in the chain won its union election. After several years of heightened union-management tension, hope grew that Starbucks and unionized baristas would be able to hammer out a deal in early 2024, when Starbucks pledged to publicly to work with the union. But talks broke down in December, and the union has said in recent months that it’s gearing up for a potential strike.

The complaint marks the latest point of tension between Southern California workers and their employers in the lead-up to the L.A. Olympics.

L.A. labor groups launched over the summer a campaign for what they are calling a “New Deal” to get the city and the LA28 Olympics organizing committee to invest in the community by building more housing, being more transparent about venue agreements and adopting protections for immigrant workers — as well as foreign visitors and fans — from federal raids.

And in a recent battle over raising wages for hotel and airport workers in the city, business groups launched a petition drive to block the city’s efforts to raise tourism workers hourly wages to $30 in time for the 2028 Olympics. But in early September the business groups fell short of securing the minimum number of valid signatures needed to qualify their initiative for the ballot.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Progressive groups looking to reconnect with Latino voters are emphasizing economic hardship and highlighting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda in an effort to regain support in places where the Republican leader made inroads.

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The $1.4 million digital ad and field campaign is led by a Democratic donor fund backed by a progressive network called Way to Win, which launched after Trump’s 2016 White House win. The Valiente Action Fund effort is tailored to connect with voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas by convincing them that some of Trump’s economic promises are falling short while his immigration tactics go too far.

Tory Gavito, a Democratic strategist and president of Way to Win, says the groups are trying to pivot to talk to Latinos “in their full experience” about housing and the cost of living without abandoning the case against Trump’s hard-line approach to immigration in his second term as president, including the use of helicopters and chemical agents in Chicago.

“The Chicago stuff should be more than a canary in the coal mine,” Gavito said. “This administration is using extreme enforcement measures to distract from the fact that housing is still just too damn expensive, our rent is still too expensive.”

Trump has promised to remove millions of people from the United States in the largest deportation program in American history. Gavito says the Trump campaign succeeded at crafting a message around the “scarcity of resources” and blaming immigrants for taking jobs. Some voters were persuaded, she said, because they want “access to a thriving economy.”

There are already signs that Trump’s immigration crackdown could impact the U.S. labor market. A July report by the Brookings Institution and the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute found that the loss of foreign workers will mean monthly U.S. job growth could be near zero or negative in the next few years.

FILE – Juan Ojeda, 33, who is Puerto Rican, attends a grand opening event at the “Latino Americans for Trump” office in Reading, Pa., June 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, FIle)

The fight to gain Latino support

Nationally, Hispanic voters shifted significantly toward Trump in the last election, though a majority still backed Democrat Kamala Harris: 43% of Hispanic voters nationally voted for Trump, up from 35% in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. Hispanic voters in Texas and Florida shifted by a similarly large margin toward Trump. There were slight shifts toward him in New Jersey, New York and Arizona and no significant shifts in Nevada or Georgia.

Democratic operatives and strategists have been advising candidates to focus on voters’ pocketbooks to reverse the trend.

The progressive groups’ field operation involves partnering with local groups to knock on doors to do what they call “deep canvassing” — looking to have longer conversations about voters’ concerns and gather support to launch specific ballot initiatives.

Effort underway in New Jersey

In New Jersey, one of only two states with a governor’s race this year, ads started to roll out earlier this month, not specific to the governor’s race but criticizing Trump, who has endorsed GOP candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

The digital ads show images of Latinos while a narrator says that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going after people who “look like him, like her, like us,” echoing racial-profiling concerns by human rights groups. A Supreme Court decision last month cleared the way for more robust immigration operations, lifting a restraining order that had banned arrests based on any mix of four factors: race and ethnicity; language; location; and occupation.

In another ad, narrators talk about the cost of food and electric bills rising as images of billionaires Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are shown.

One of the ads shares the story of how an immigrant advocacy group, Make the Road New Jersey, passed a ballot initiative capping rents in the Hispanic-majority city of Passaic, which leaned heavily Democratic in 2016 but backed Trump in 2024. The ad says the rest of New Jersey is still seeing rent costs rise, blaming Trump and GOP lawmakers who oppose rent caps.

“We do serve as a bellwether to what is sort of a hot take on what voters feel,” said Nedy Morsy, director of Make the Road New Jersey, who said messages are being tested with an eye toward next year’s midterm elections.

FILE – Kids play outside a polling precinct, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Guadalupe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Latino outreach in other states

In Nevada, the effort is targeting Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo as he seeks reelection in what is expected to be a highly competitive race in the battleground state, which Trump carried in 2024.

The director of Make the Road Nevada, Leo Murrieta, takes Lombardo to task for actions he has taken on the economy, including a veto of legislation that would have added tenant protections.

“We have to do everything we can to let our gente knows who out there has our backs and who is there stabbing us in the back,” Murrieta said, using the Spanish word for people.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Mahmoud Khalil appeared Tuesday in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia as he continues to challenge a deportation case brought by President Donald Trump’s administration over his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University.

The hearing before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals came as the government seeks to overturn a lower court order granting Khalil’s June release from a Louisiana immigration jail.

Khalil’s attorneys have asked the three-judge panel to affirm the district court’s ruling, which prevents federal authorities from detaining him again and beginning the deportation process.

Drew Ensign, an attorney for the government, countered that the lower court judge overstepped his authority and that the case should be left to the immigration judge in Louisiana.

“All of this is being conducted in an improper forum,” Ensign said. “So that should be a full stop.”

An immigration judge last month ruled that Khalil could be deported, though the case is now under review by a separate appeal board.

Khalil, who is a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen, has vowed to continue advocating for Palestinians as his case plays out. He was recently permitted by a magistrate judge to travel across the country for rallies and other events.

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“They want to make an example of me to intimidate those speaking out for Palestine across the country,” Khalil said in a statement following the hearing. “I’m stating unequivocally: I will continue my legal fight in federal courts for my rights, and for everyone’s right, to free speech.”

Khalil was the first protester arrested in the Trump administration’s sprawling effort to deport student activists, academics and others who joined pro-Palestinian protests, which the government has equated with antisemitism.

Khalil has repeatedly rejected allegations of antisemitism.

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, Associated Press

Daniel Naroditsky, a chess grandmaster who started as a child prodigy and quickly became one of the most influential American voices in the sport, died Monday. He was 29.

The Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina, where Naroditsky trained and worked as a coach, announced his death on social media, calling him “a talented chess player, educator, and beloved member of the chess community.”

“Let us remember Daniel for his passion and love for the game of chess, and for the joy and inspiration he brought to us all every day,” his family said in a statement shared by the center.

The cause of death was not immediately known.

Naroditsky became a grandmaster, the highest title in chess aside from World Chess Champion, at the age of 18.

Years earlier, the California-born player won the Under 12 world championship and spent his teenage years writing chess strategy books as he climbed the world rankings.

He was consistently ranked in the top 200 worldwide for traditional chess and also excelled at a fast-paced style called blitz chess, maintaining a top 25 ranking throughout his adult career. Most recently Naroditsky, known to many as Danya, won the U.S. National Blitz Championship in August.

Fellow grandmasters credited Naroditsky with introducing the sport to a wider audience by livestreaming many of his matches and sharing live commentary on others. Thousands of people regularly tuned in on YouTube and the interactive streaming platform Twitch to watch Naroditsky play.

“He loved streaming, and he loved trying to be educational. The chess world is very grateful,” Hikaru Nakamura, an American grandmaster, said on a livestream Monday.

In a final video posted to his YouTube channel on Friday titled “You Thought I Was Gone!?” Naroditsky tells viewers he’s “back, better than ever” after taking a creative break from streaming. He talks viewers through his moves as he plays live chess matches on the computer from a cozy home studio.

Other elite chess players from around the globe took to social media to express their shock and sadness.

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Dutch chess grandmaster Benjamin Bok reflected on his lifelong friendship with Naroditsky, who he said he’s known since the Under 12 world championship that Naroditsky won in 2007.

“I still can’t believe it and don’t want to believe it,” Bok said on X. “It was always a privilege to play, train, and commentate with Danya, but above all, to call him my friend.”

Naroditsky was the son of Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Ukraine and Azerbaijan. He was born and raised in San Mateo County, California, and was described by his parents as a very serious kid with an impressive attention span and memory. He went on to study history at Stanford University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2019 after taking a year off to play in chess tournaments.

After college, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he coached the area’s top junior chess players.