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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh Founder, Chairman & Publisher Ilayas Quraishi Chief Operating Officer Ela Dutt Editor Archana Adalja Contributing Editor T. Vishnudatta Jayaraman Advisor Arun Shah Ahmedabad Bureau Chief Peter Ferreira, Deval Parikh, Freelance Photographers Bhailal M. Patel Executive Vice President Jim Gallentine Business Development Manager - U.S. Shahnaz Sheikh Senior Manager Advertising & Marketing Sonia Lalwani Advertising Manager Shailu Desai Advertising New York Muslima Shethwala Syed Sheeraz Mahmood Advertising Chicago Digant Sompura Consultant for Business Development Ahmedabad, India Hervender Singh Circulation Manager Main Office Editorial & Corporate Headquarters 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Tel. (212) 675-7515 Fax. 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Postmaster: Send address change to News India Times, 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Annual Subscription: United States: $28 Disclaimer: Parikh Worldwide Media assumes no liability for claims/ assumptions made in advertisements and advertorials. Opinion/ US - India News India Times (June 13, 2026 - June 19, 2026) June 19, 2026 3 Why Spencer Pratt Failed. AndWhy Nithya Raman Came 2nd S pencer Pratt was never going to be elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2026. It’s too blue a city and too Democratic a year for a Republican with President Donald Trump’s backing to prevail. But the former reality TV star’s failure to advance to the general election underscores the chal- lenges of fixing America’s urban centers. The Associated Press projected late Monday that socialist councilwoman Nithya Raman finished second in last week’s jungle primary to face Mayor Karen Bass (D) in November. With an estimated 92 percent of votes counted, the mayor garnered 34.3 percent to Raman’s 28.6 percent. After being a reliable ally through most of Bass’s term as mayor, and endorsing her reelection, Raman jumped into the race hours before the filing deadline. Raman may well win the head-to-head matchup because Bass is so unpopular, but don’t expect the insurgent candidate to fundamentally change the trajectory of the country’s second most-populous city. Everyone knows Bass bungled last year’s wildfire response, but she also has struggled to efficiently deliver other basic ser- vices. The mayor spent more than $300 million on a program called Inside Safe. It has permanently housed just 1,537 people. While Bass touts a decline in the homeless count, the number of people without permanent housing remains around 44,000. That’s 16,000 more than in 2015. Meanwhile, the most famous trade in the city of 4 million - show business - continues moving toward friendlier tax environments. Raman, 44, was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America when she ran for city council on a platform of defund- ing the police. She has voted dozens of times against ordinances to stop homeless people from setting up tents within 500 feet of schools and day care centers. Bass, 72, is now attacking Raman for allowing encampments and trying to shrink law enforce- ment’s footprint. Bass preferred to face Pratt in the general, knowing Demo- crats would consolidate around her. Trump’s endorsement was a kiss of death in a city that Vice President Kamala Harris carried with 70 percent two years ago. Notably, Trump received 26.5 per- cent of the city’s votes in 2024. Pratt is slightly underperforming that, with 25.8 percent in the latest count. Billionaire Rick Caruso, a developer, lost to Bass four years ago as an independent by nine points. Caruso opted not to try again because he understood the fundamentals were against him. National Republicans got excited about Pratt because of viral campaign videos on social media. But what played well online with the right didn’t broadly inspire the city’s left-leaning elec- torate. California’s inability to quickly tabulate votes is embarrassing. It shouldn’t take six days to call a mayoral primary, but the state allows ballots to be counted as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day. Younger people tend to return their ballots closer to the deadline, which created a wave of late-breaking votes for Raman. This is not evidence of a rigged election, but it creates fertile ground for conspiracy theories to take root, and it’s irresponsible for Pratt to intimate on social media that the race is being stolen. San Francisco shows reform in a city like L.A. will probably need to come from inside the Democratic Party. Mayor Daniel Lurie (D) was elected by promising law and order, and his ap- proach is working. How much worse will circumstances need to get in the City of Angels for residents to make that kind of change?. - Editorial Board/TheWashington Post I ndia urged the United States to halt strikes on shipping on Thursday after three U.S. attacks on Indian-crewed tankers this week, including one that killed three sailors. The deaths are the first reported since a U.S. blockade on Iran-linked shipping began on April 13 in which U.S. forces have disabled eight ships and turn back more than 100 others. “These attacks must cease and end,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.”We also call for dialogue and diplomacy so that we can have an early return to peace and stability in the region.” Jaiswal said the U.S. Navy has attacked three ships with Indian crews this week, including one on Thursday. U.S. OFFICIAL SUMMONED He said the ministry had summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires in New Delhi onWednesday to convey its “deepest concerns over the ongoing attacks” after a strike on the tanker Settebello off Oman in which three Indian sailors died. The U.S. embassy did not respond to requests for immediate comment. The U.S. military’s Central Command said a U.S. aircraft had carried out a precision strike on the Settebello’s engine room “after the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces”. It said the Settebello “violated the ongoing blockade by attempting to trans- port oil from Iran”. The ship’s manager, IOS Marine FZE, rejected claims that it ignored warnings or was carrying Iranian crude and called for a transparent international investiga- tion into the matter. The Settebello “holds no affiliation whatsoever with Iran or Iranian oil”, it said in a statement posted on X by For- ward Seamen’s Union of India. OMANI NAVY RESCUED 21 CREW The Omani Navy responded to the Settebello’s distress call after it reported an engine fire and 21 Indian sailors were rescued.Family members of Shivanand Chaurasia, one of the sailors who died, told reporters he had gone to sea about nine months ago and had told his father earlier this week that everything was fine. Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the deaths of the three sail- ors was a “profound loss to our maritime family”. India has more than 300,000 sailors working in global shipping fleets, accord- ing to government data. MODI AND TRUMP TO MEET The U.S. attacks come ahead of next week’s Group of Seven summit where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold bilateral talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. Centcom said the U.S. blockade had disabled eight non-compliant vessels, redirected 134 ships that complied, and allowed 42 vessels supporting humani- tarian aid to pass. U.S. forces disabled the unladen Marivex oil tanker, which also had Indian crew aboard, in the Gulf of Oman on Monday after it attempted to sail to an Iranian port. Ships being targeted by the U.S. block- ade include Iranian vessels as well as so-called shadow fleet tankers, which are typically older vessels withoutWestern insurance used to transport sanctioned oil and sailing under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership, cargo and movements. “I strongly condemn any act from any party that endangers the lives of seafarers and the safety of international shipping. This is simply unacceptable,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the UN’s shipping agency the International Maritime Organization, said onWednes- day. - TheWashington Post By Hritam Mukherjee, Nidhi Verma and Saurabh Sharma India Demands End To US Attacks On Ships After Three Sailors Killed