LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles sports organizations are uniting to launch an “LA Strong” custom logo and apparel line that will raise money for organizations assisting those impacted by this week's devastating wildfires.
Fanatics announced Friday that T-shirts featuring the new logo will be available to purchase on team and league online stores, as well as the Fanatics website. The collaboration spans eight leagues, the University of Southern California and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee.
The sports organizations and Fanatics will donate all proceeds from the initiative to the American Red Cross and Los Angles Fire Department Foundation. LA Strong hoodies will also be available in the coming weeks.
“What’s happening is absolutely gut-wrenching and it’s our duty to use our platform in any way we can,” said Fanatics founder Michael Rubin in a statement. He said he was heartbroken to watch the “horror continue to unfold across Los Angeles and completely upend so many lives."
“We are proud to have teamed up with the LA sports community to launch a new ‘LA Strong’ merchandise collection,” he said.
Wind-whipped fires tore across Los Angeles, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled as the fires burned uncontained Wednesday.
The pro teams partnering together on the initiative include the Los Angeles Lakers, Dodgers, Rams, Chargers, Clippers, Sparks, Angels, Kings, Football Club, Galaxy, Golf Club (TGL), Angel City FC and Anaheim Ducks.
The leagues span from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, Women's National Basketball Association, National Women's Soccer League and TMRW Golf League.
A swing hangs from a tree in front of a fire-damaged residence in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel has demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court said independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team made the request at a hearing Tuesday. Yoon was expected to make remarks there.
Removed from office last April, Yoon faces criminal trials over his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.
The court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February.
Yoon has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda and complicate state affairs.
Yoon called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.” But lawmakers rushed to object to the imposition of martial law in dramatic overnight scenes, and enough of them, including even those within Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.
Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.
Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.
Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)
