The Brief

Thousands of volunteers will spread out across Los Angeles this week to take an official tally of the region’s unhoused population — an effort that carries new urgency after the recent wildfires.

The point-in-time Homeless Count, led by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, was originally scheduled for last month but was delayed due to the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles County. The annual event is a crucial metric for understanding the scope of L.A.'s homelessness crisis and the effectiveness of local policies.

But the fires this year have made the effort more complicated by displacing thousands of residents, polluting the region with toxic smoke and ash, and potentially upending the normal routines of homeless Angelenos.

Homeless service providers and advocates also say they fear the focus on wildfire recovery is already diverting public attention and resources away from homelessness. They say the data gathered in this year’s count is key to keeping the issue on the public’s radar.

“Not only do we get a snapshot of what's happening here in L. A. County — of what's working and what's not working – we also get to compare that against other parts of the country,” said Rowan Vansleve, president of Hope the Mission in the San Fernando Valley.

“And that is so important right now.”

Delayed count

The count had been scheduled for late January but was postponed over concerns that evacuations of both housed and unhoused residents and disruptions to homeless services providers would compromise the accuracy of the data gathered.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, was also worried about sending volunteers into burn areas where their health or safety could be jeopardized.

Because of the risks, LAHSA is expected to deploy teams of its own outreach workers, instead of volunteers, to count unhoused people within census tracts that sustained fire damage. Those teams will work with first responders to access the areas safely, officials said.

Despite the challenges, the agency says its volunteer recruitment efforts are on pace with last year’s numbers. As of Friday, more than 4,000 volunteers had registered. Last year, about 6,000 volunteers participated, LAHSA said.

The agency has requested nearly 8,000 volunteers for this year, but the agency said only about 2,600 are required in order to conduct an accurate count.

The annual point-in-time count of the unhoused population is required by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Government agencies, including LAHSA, use the data to decide how to allocate funding and resources.

“This is an opportunity for us to unite and participate in a project that will help people living on our streets,” said LAHSA spokesperson Chris Yee. “The Homeless Count helps us gain a clearer picture of homelessness in our community.”

LAHSA typically publishes the results of the count in late spring or early summer, but the agency hasn’t said how the postponement will affect this year’s release.

Volunteers arrive for the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count in 2022. LAHSA has made updates to the volunteering process this year to try to make it easier.

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The numbers 

In 2024, LAHSA estimated there were 45,252 unhoused people in the city of L.A. at the time of the January point-in-time count and 75,312 across the county.

In both cases, the numbers were a slight reduction from 2023. They measured a 2% decrease in the city of L.A. and a 0.27% decrease countywide, which is within the count's margin of error.

Still, it was the first time in several years without a spike in the region’s unhoused population. Nationally, the homeless population rose 18% over that same period.

The 2024 Homeless Count also showed a 10% decrease specifically in unsheltered homelessness, as more people moved into shelters and hotels. It’s unclear what those unsheltered numbers will look like this year, or how the wildfires might have shifted the balance.

“Are we gonna see more people unsheltered or, probably more likely, will the shelter numbers be up because people are displaced?” said Ben Henwood, director of USC’s Homelessness Policy Research Institute. “And then how will we know if it’s the disaster that impacted the numbers or something else?”

Deepening the crisis

The wildfires that ignited in early January destroyed nearly 12,000 homes in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Pasadena and caused more than $100 billion in losses.

They also spurred increases in rent prices, including instances of illegal rent gouging.

Most of the thousands of families who lost their homes in the fires are not expected to show up in next week’s homeless count, which tallies people living outside in tents and vehicles, as well as in homeless shelters. The count doesn’t include people living doubled-up with other families or staying in Airbnbs.

“Most people who are homeless were last housed with someone else. They weren't even renters, they were lodgers in someone else's property,” said Gary Blasi, a law professor at UCLA.

The loss of thousands of single-family homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena doesn’t necessarily mean a shorter supply of housing available to extremely low-income Angelenos, experts say.

But rising housing demand from wildfire victims will worsen L.A.'s existing housing shortage, likely forcing more low-income Angelenos into homelessness in the long-term.

“We've been trying to build ourselves out of this mess for a while,” said Sarah Hunter, director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness. “Now there's just going to be more strain on the system.”

How the wildfires will affect this year's Greater L.A. Homeless Count is a big unknown.

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Shifting priorities

Wildfire recovery is expected to remain a top priority for public officials, which could mean less spending on homeless services — especially as the city of L.A. is facing a budget crisis fueled by increased legal payouts and labor costs.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has said she aims to end street homelessness by next year, and homelessness has been at the top of the city’s agenda since she took office.

But UCLA's Blasi said that’s likely to change amid rebuilding efforts after the fires.

“The finite attention span of the government is going to be much more focused on this new problem,” he said, “And that's going to take that attention away from the homeless crisis, even as it exacerbates the homeless crisis.”

Many homeless services providers are nervous about decreases in public dollars and charitable donations forcing them to cut back services.

“Attention has shifted, so we're not seeing the number of volunteers,” said Vansleve. “Nor are we seeing the same amount of giving. That is all going to affect the services we provide.”

Providers also worry that rising housing demand after the fires could force certain housing units for the homeless to close.

“I'm concerned that some of the sites that we work with to house folks may be too expensive to actually bring folks indoors,” said Ryan Smith, CEO of homeless services provider the St. Joseph Center in West L.A.

Volunteering for the count

During last year’s count, some volunteers reported confusion about a cumbersome volunteer registration system, confusing training materials, delays checking in at deployment sites and technical issues with the phone app used to coordinate the count.

In response to those concerns, LAHSA officials say they’ve updated processes this year to improve the volunteer experience.

Volunteers will now use a single website to register and access training, according to LAHSA. The agency said it streamlined the check-in process for volunteers to reduce waiting times, and the Homeless Count app has been updated to provide better navigation and tracking features to keep volunteers in their assigned census tracts.

This year’s count will take place over three days this week, beginning at 8 p.m. each evening.

• Tuesday, Feb. 18: Volunteers will tally the unhoused residents in much of the L.A. metro area, the San Fernando Valley, and the Santa Clarita Valley.
• Wednesday, Feb. 19: Volunteers will spread out throughout East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
• Thursday, Feb. 20: The count will conclude with a focus on West L.A., South L.A., the Antelope Valley and the South Bay. 

People interested in volunteering can register and learn more at: theycountwillyou.org.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The FIFA World Cup has finally arrived once again on American soil.

On Friday night in Southern California, the world's largest sporting event returns to the U.S. for the first time in more than three decades when the U.S. men's national soccer team kicks off its first group-stage match against Paraguay.

This 2026 World Cup has been circled on the calendar of U.S. Soccer for nearly a decade — the long-awaited chance to finally rewrite a legacy of inferiority in international soccer.

The heavyweight talent and strong soccer tradition of European and South American teams have long proven elusive for the U.S. to match, despite decades of investment in the sport. The furthest the U.S. team has finished in a modern World Cup was a run to the quarterfinals in 2002; since then, the U.S. has managed just three total wins across all the World Cups.

Yet the chance to host the tournament at home has coincided with the development of perhaps the most talented generation of players that American soccer has ever produced.

For the first time in the national team's history, its major players all have key roles on teams in Europe's top-flight professional leagues. Midfielder Tyler Adams and defenders Chris Richards and Antonee Robinson are regular contributors to their English Premier League teams, while Weston McKennie is a favorite at Italian club Juventus, and Christian Pulisic, the one-time boy wonder of Team USA, is now, at 27, a bona fide star for AC Milan.

"This is for me the biggest opportunity to grow the game, to inspire people, to show that American players are at the level of the rest of the world," Adams said Thursday.

Paraguay is already hobbled

The team's first challenge is Friday's game against Paraguay, currently No. 40 in FIFA's international rankings. The two teams faced off in an international friendly last November, which the U.S. won 2-1 after a scuffle between players broke out during stoppage time.

"We know that they're gonna be super, super aggressive, so we're going to have to match that. We saw that the last time we played them," said U.S. forward Tim Weah.

Paraguay may have to play without its biggest talent, the 22-year-old midfielder Julio Enciso, who was stretchered off the field in the first half of his team's final warm-up match last week.

After Friday's match, the U.S. will play Australia next week, then wrap up the group stage with a June 25 game against Turkey.

The expansion of the tournament to 48 teams means it will be easier than ever to emerge from the group stage. A win in Friday's game, plus either a second win against Australia or Turkey or a draw against both teams, would likely be enough for the U.S. to advance to the knockout round — though the U.S. could earn a more advantageous path if it finishes the group stage in first place.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Four years in the making. The U.S. Men's National Team is finally ready to play its first game of the 2026 World Cup with a match on Friday against Paraguay in Los Angeles. For the 26 Americans on the squad, just making it to soccer's most prestigious tournament and the world's biggest sporting event is a culmination (or continuation) of a lifetime of soccer highs and lows.

Here's what to know about each of the players on the team.

⭐⭐⭐ = main star

⭐⭐ = starter or featured substitute

⭐ = contributor off the bench

Forwards

Name: Christian Pulisic ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Hershey, Pa.

Club team: AC Milan (Serie A)

The hot spotlight of American soccer has followed Christian Pulisic for years now, and, to his credit, he's largely lived up to the hype. He's a key starter on one of Europe's top clubs. He's the top active goalscorer for the USMNT, with 33 goals in 86 career appearances with the senior team. And though a goal-scoring drought had haunted him in the first half of this year, he broke through with a goal against Senegal late last month and is heading into this World Cup free and aggressive as ever.

Name: Folarin Balogun ⭐⭐

Age: 24

Hometown: London, England

Club team: AS Monaco (Ligue 1)

Born in Brooklyn to Nigerian parents and raised in London, Balogun was eligible for all three national teams. He made the switch to represent the U.S. in 2023, when the Americans were in dire need of a striker. Since then, Balogun has been heralded as the long-term solution up front. He scored at least two goals in each of his first three games with the national team and added his first of 2026 against Senegal. And he's headed into the World Cup in top form: At Monaco this season, he bagged 19 goals in 43 total appearances.

Name: Ricardo Pepi ⭐⭐

Age: 23

Hometown: El Paso, Texas

Club team: PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)

One of two Mexican-American dual-national players on the USMNT, Pepi was devastated when he was left off the 2022 World Cup squad. But the El Paso native played the best soccer of his career with PSV this season, with 19 goals in 34 appearances — and in the May match against Senegal, he showed a dangerous chemistry with Pulisic in helping to set up the first two goals of the game. "He's grown a lot. He probably deserved to be on that last roster," Pulisic said in May. "His time is now. He absolutely deserves to be here."

U.S. forward Christian Pulisic (r) runs with the ball as Nico Schlotterbeck of Germany chases during the international friendly match between at Soldier Field on June 06, 2026 in Chicago, Ill.

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Name: Timothy Weah ⭐

Age: 26

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Club team: Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1)

Soccer runs in Tim Weah's family; he is the son of George Weah, the star footballer-turned politician who won the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in 1995, then got involved in politics in his home country of Liberia after his retirement from soccer. The younger Weah was mostly raised in New York, his mother's home. Weah has had some high highs and low lows with the USMNT — from scoring a World Cup goal vs. Wales in 2022 to tanking the USMNT's chances in the '24 Copa America with a red card — and in this World Cup, he may not be a starter but is expected to play an active role, most likely off the bench on the right side.

Name: Alejandro Zendejas ⭐

Age: 28

Hometown: El Paso, Texas

Club team: Club América (Liga MX)

Zendejas is the second Mexican-American player on this squad. He was born in Ciudad Juarez and raised in El Paso. He was a regular in USMNT youth camps when he was young but moved to Mexico for a club career with Chivas de Guadalajara followed by Club America, two of Liga MX's biggest clubs. He had his choice of national teams but committed to the U.S. in 2023. His role on the World Cup team is a bit of a wild card; he's a talented attacker but likely won't start a match.

Name: Haji Wright

Age: 28

Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.

Club team: Coventry City (Premier League* just promoted)

Haji Wright scored one of the only three USMNT goals in the 2022 World Cup when he came off the bench against the Netherlands in the Round of 16. This past season, he was instrumental in getting Coventry City promoted to the top tier of English football. Able to play on the wings or as a striker, Wright could be a useful substitute for the U.S., but the USMNT has more quality at the position than it did in 2022, and he may struggle to see the field behind Balogun and Pepi.

Name: Brenden Aaronson

Age: 25

Hometown: Medford, N.J.

Club team: Leeds United (Premier League)

The "Medford Messi" hero of suburban New Jersey youth soccer is having a big summer: He's on the U.S. World Cup roster and got married barely two weeks ago (dipping out of training camp for a single night before rejoining the team in time for its two tune-up friendlies). He had a career year in the 2024-25 season with Leeds before taking a modest step back this year; it's likely he'll be in a spark plug bench role at the World Cup.

Midfielders

Name: Tyler Adams ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

Club team: AFC Bournemouth (Premier League)

Alongside Pulisic and fellow midfielder Weston McKennie, Adams is a main character of this generation of the USMNT. Raised by a single mom in upstate New York, Adams had to rely on sheer determination to overcome plenty of obstacles — like his small stature and lack of goalscoring touch — on his path to professional soccer. At 23, the midfielder was named the captain of the 2022 World Cup team, and his toughness sets the tone for the whole team. "I see guys get kicked, I want to kick anyone," he said after last weekend's (less than) friendly match against Germany.

Weston McKennie is the heart and soul of the U.S. Men's National Team. He's a lock to be a starter on the World Cup squad. The only question is which position.

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Name: Weston McKennie ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Little Elm, Texas

Club team: Juventus (Serie A)

McKennie might be the beating heart of this team. An all-American: Born on an Army base in Washington, raised in Texas, and spent some formative years at an air base in Germany where he caught the soccer bug before moving back to the U.S. He dyed a streak of hair red, white and blue for the '22 World Cup, and he's a lock to start — the only question is, where? Coach Mauricio Pochettino has played him in a variety of outfield positions over the past year and a half. He scored the opening goal in a March friendly against Belgium

Name: Malik Tillman ⭐⭐

Age: 24

Hometown: Furth, Germany

Club team: Bayer Leverkusen (Bundesliga)

Off the field, the soft-spoken Tillman (whose dad is American and mom is German) may be the quietest member of this team. But on the pitch, it's a different story altogether. Tillman is an attacking midfielder whose game has matured and improved so much that former U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart recently called him "one of the most amazing players I've ever seen." As he grows more comfortable, his reserved nature disappears, Stewart added: "He's a character that once he feels part of a group, he can show amazing special things. And he can actually control things as no one other that I know."

Name: Sebastian Berhalter ⭐⭐

Age: 25

Hometown: Columbus, Ohio

Club team: Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS)

The compact, confident Berhalter has a big last name in U.S. Soccer: His dad, Gregg, featured prominently as a player in the U.S. quarterfinal run at the 2002 World Cup, then became USMNT coach in 2018. He never called up his son to the senior national team — the younger Berhalter's debut came in 2025, after new coach Pochettino had taken over. "I know if I got a call from my dad, I would have to earn it double as any other player," he said recently. "He would never call me in just to call me in. I had to earn it." He's known for his quality set-piece deliveries, like corner kicks, so look for him on the field in those moments.

Name: Gio Reyna ⭐⭐

Age: 23

Hometown: Bedford, N.Y.

Club team: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)

To say Reyna is mercurial is putting it mildly: As a 17-year-old, he broke Pulisic's record as the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga and quickly made a name for himself as a gifted attacking creator — but then he dramatically fell off in form after a series of injuries. Reyna was also a breakout figure for the USMNT in 2022, but not for his performance in the World Cup; Instead, the long story involves complaints over his lack of playing time and criticism by then-coach Gregg Berhalter, whose long relationship with Reyna's parents (former teammates and college friends) became fodder for a leaked story that prompted a swirl of drama and Berhalter's eventual firing after the World Cup. Still only 23, Reyna has tried to move past all that, but his inconsistency on the field makes it hard to know what to expect from him this summer.

Name: Cristian Roldan

Age: 31

Hometown: Pico Rivera, Calif.

Club team: Seattle Sounders (MLS)

Roldan is another modern American story, born in California to a Guatemalan dad and Salvadoran mother who immigrated after their home countries were gripped by violence in the 1980s. Roldan grew up with two brothers in an eastside Los Angeles suburb, kicking the ball into a goal their dad had made of PVC pipe. Now, Roldan and his brother Alex are teammates on the Seattle Sounders. Roldan is a mature, calming locker-room presence and will likely play only a small role on the field, if he plays at all.

American defender Chris Richards talks to the media during a training session ahead of the 2026 World Cup on Wednesday in Irvine, Calif.

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Defenders

Name: Chris Richards ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 26

Hometown: Birmingham, Ala.

Club team: Crystal Palace (Premier League)

As an athletic kid growing up in Alabama, Chris Richards could easily have ended up with a career in a different sport altogether — at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, he shares a frame with plenty of point guards and wide receivers. But the young Richards caught the soccer bug early on and pushed through culture shock as a teenager on a professional contract in Germany to blossom into a talented defender. He's the best defender on the USMNT, but he hurt his ankle in a game with his club Crystal Palace in May and hasn't played since. The U.S. defense has looked porous without him, but on Wednesday he said he was "ready." (He may also have the best game-day fits)

Name: Antonee "Jedi" Robinson ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 28

Hometown: Liverpool, England

Club team: Fulham FC (Premier League)

Robinson grew up in England and developed as a player through the youth system at Everton. But the English national team never called him up — so when the U.S. offered him an opportunity, because his dad had grown up in the U.S. (and played soccer at Duke), Robinson seized the opportunity. Since then, the left-back has developed into one of the USMNT's most talented players. But a major injury set him back for more than a year, and he only just returned to the field for the U.S. in March. "There was no certainty on my end that I was going to be fit and available and make it, because it just seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel," he said earlier this year. A few weeks ago, he bleached his hair for the World Cup, then scored an absolute rocket of a goal in the friendly against Germany. Auspicious!

Name: Tim Ream ⭐⭐

Age: 38

Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.

Club team: Charlotte FC (MLS)

Ream is the oldest player on this squad, and his steady leadership has earned him the team captain armband. At 38 years old, he's no longer the fastest guy on the pitch, but those decades of experience — one of them spent in England at the Premier League club Fulham — mean he rarely finds himself out of position, and his passes are still well-placed. He wasn't chosen for the World Cup squad in 2014 and then the U.S. failed to qualify in 2018. But he played every minute of the U.S. run in 2022. "Tim is an amazing American story of perseverance," '22 USMNT coach Berhalter said last week. Expect to see Ream start at least some of these games, if not all of them.

Name: Sergiño Dest ⭐⭐

Age: 25

Hometown: Almere, Netherlands

Club team: PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)

Dest grew up in the Netherlands, but his father immigrated to the U.S. from Suriname, then a Dutch colony, when he was a child. Eventually, the elder Dest played college soccer in New York, served in the Vietnam War and became a U.S. citizen, retiring from the Army just a few years before having a son, Sergiño. The youngest Dest came up through the Ajax academy system in the Netherlands, and the U.S. began recruiting him a decade ago. He started all four games at the 2022 World Cup and is likely to be a starter once again.

U.S. defender Alex Freeman dribbles the ball against Senegal during an international friendly match last month in Charlotte, N.C. Freeman has quickly established himself as one of the USMNT's more versatile players.

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Name: Alex Freeman ⭐⭐

Age: 21

Hometown: Plantation, Fla.

Club team: Villarreal CF (La Liga)

The Baltimore-born son of the Green Bay Packers wide receiver Antonio Freeman, Alex has quickly established himself as one of the USMNT's more versatile players. His ability to attack and defend as a wingback shone while playing for MLS side Orlando City SC, for whom he scored six goals while playing as a defender last year. That performance earned him a move to the Spanish club Villarreal and call-ups to the USMNT earlier this year. His athleticism and rapidly growing understanding of the game have allowed him to quickly earn a starting spot on the back line, most likely on the right side next to Richards.

Name: Mark McKenzie ⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: New York, N.Y.

Club team: Toulouse FC (Ligue 1)

McKenzie has been around the USMNT for years now but he's finally found his footing with Pochettino at the helm, making 15 of his 29 career appearances since Pochettino took over. There's been a battle for playing time at center back since Richards has been out with his ankle injury, and McKenzie may be Pochettino's favored backup option. Expect to see him as a substitute, especially as Pochettino manages Richards' playing time coming out of his injury.

Name: Miles Robinson ⭐

Age: 29

Hometown: Arlington, Mass.

Club team: FC Cincinnati (MLS)

Robinson is savoring this World Cup. He'd scored the game-winning goal in extra time against Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2021. He was a lock to make the 2022 squad as a top defender prospect, but he ruptured his Achilles tendon and had to watch the tournament on television at home. Robinson was drafted #2 into the MLS by Atlanta United in 2017. He starred collegiately at Syracuse and found a passion for soccer watching his older sister play the game. Robinson, who has 40 appearances with the senior national team, is sure to make an impact in this World Cup, even if he comes off the bench.

Name: Auston Trusty

Age: 27

Hometown: Media, Penn.

Club team: Celtic FC (Scottish Premiership)

Trusty has gotten this far betting on himself, he says — his tryout for the Philadelphia Union Academy, his choice to forgo college for a professional career, his decision to make the jump to Europe after earning an extension with the Colorado Rapids. That's all paid off for Trusty. He attributes that belief in himself to being the youngest of six kids, the rest of whom all eventually played collegiate soccer. "If I wanted to have a relationship with them, if I wanted to help myself in the games I played with them, I had to be confident," he said. Trusty has shown some promise in his limited minutes in 2026, but it's unclear how big a role he'll play this summer.

Name: Joe Scally

Age: 23

Hometown: Lake Grove, N.Y.

Club team: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)

Despite only being 23, Scally's a veteran of the USMNT setup. He made his debut for the national team in 2022 and went to that year's World Cup in Qatar. He's an attack-minded fullback who's been a mainstay for Gladbach since moving there in 2021, and he'll look to be an outlet for build-up play. Scally never appeared in a game in the '22 Cup, and this year could be the same.

Name: Max Arfsten

Age: 25

Hometown: Fresno, Calif.

Club team: Columbus Crew (MLS)

The 6-foot-1 winger made his USMNT debut in January 2025, playing in 16 of 18 matches that year. He was drafted by the Columbus Crew in 2023 after playing collegiately at UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton. At UC Davis, he attended as a walk-on, earning a scholarship and being named to the Big West All-Freshman team. The Fresno native returns home to train, saying, "his Fresno upbringing fuels his motor and competitiveness on the pitch." Equally comfortable playing with his right and left foot, he's been featured in many USMNT matches in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup and is expected to see playing time.

Matthew Freese knows he has big shoes to fill. The USMNT has had a number of strong goalkeepers in the past. Freese will be the likely starter in goal for the U.S.

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Goaltenders

Name: Matt Freese ⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Wayne, Pa.

Club team: New York City FC (MLS)

There are big shoes for any USMNT goaltender to fill. The position has long been a strength for the U.S., from Kasey Keller to Brad Friedel to Tim Howard. Now, it's a question mark — a choice that's come down to two guys, Matt Freese and Matt Turner, both MLS starters who haven't been able to find a regular job in Europe. Last year, Freese, who played college ball at Harvard before finding a spot with the Philadelphia Union, surpassed Turner as the most frequent starter in goal for the national team. In last year's Gold Cup, he recorded two clean sheets and three penalty saves over six games. But that doesn't mean his spot is a lock.

Name: Matt Turner ⭐

Age: 31

Hometown: Park Ridge, N.J.

Club team: New England Revolution (MLS)

Turner's story is another scrappy prove-yourself saga. He came to goaltending relatively late in life, donning the gloves for the first time as a teenager to stay in shape for other sports. No colleges offered him a scholarship at first, so he walked on at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where he eventually earned conference honors. But even that couldn't find him a foothold in the pros, and it took some serious luck to eventually find regular playing time with the New England Revolution. His skills continued to grow, and eventually he earned a call-up to the USMNT and became the regular starter in 2021 through the 2022 World Cup, where he recorded a pair of clean sheets. "There's a healthy mutual respect between us," Turner said in May about Freese. "We both want to play, we both have played, we both will respect whatever the final decision is from the coaches. And then from there, our roles will change to be supportive of each other."

Name: Chris Brady

Age: 22

Hometown: Naperville, Ill.

Club team: Chicago Fire FC (MLS)

Brady, the Chicagoland native who plays now for his hometown club, has arguably been the best MLS goalkeeper over the past couple years, but he's still a firm No. 3 behind Freese and Turner when it comes to the national team. Brady earned his first senior team call-up last year, then made his debut in May in the second half against Senegal. "Whenever you get included in a camp or any type of squad, you got to be ready to play," he said. "If you're not playing, your goal then is to push the other guys who are."
Copyright 2026 NPR

David Hockney believed painting could change the world; in the midst of all our miseries, he said, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. Hockney, one of the best-known contemporary artists, has died at home, age 88, his publicist said Friday.

The artist, who died on Thursday, was one month short of his 89th birthday, publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement. He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.

"David Hockney's enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humor, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase," she said. "Love life."

British, he spent decades working in Los Angeles, making images that captured the wealth and sunshine of Southern California. Hockney created art on canvas, paper, photographic film, videos, iPhones and iPads. His bright, cheerful paintings sold for millions.

"I enjoy looking ..." he explained to me when he was 79. "I can look at a little puddle on a road in Yorkshire and just of the rain falling on it and think it's marvelous. I see the world as very beautiful."

Hockney poses in front of his painting 'The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011' at the Royal Academy of Arts on Jan. 16, 2012 in London.

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With electric colors — blues, greens, yellows, fuchsia — he made merry beauties all his life. Pictures of tree-lined roads, flowers, snow-covered trees, the Grand Canyon. The world became new in his hands. Hockney also made portraits of friends and helpers.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Barron remembers posing for him. She figured she'd go to work after a sitting. "What I found instead is that I was so exhausted from the intensity of the scrutiny, I went home and took a nap," she said. (You can hear from many more of Hockney's models in this story from 2018.)

Happily and luckily, I interviewed Hockney over the years. Our first encounter was in Paris in 2010 — an exhibit of little pictures he was making on his recently-discovered iPhone. He was charming, lively, open and engaged — and crazy for technology. An app called Brushes gave him a virtual paint box. Dipping his fingers into various colors, he touched the small iPhone screen and drew with his thumb. Then he got an iPad.

"The moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger," he said.

He was engrossed, his friend Charlie Scheips, said. "He said he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he's going at it, he rubs his finger on his clothes to like, clean the finger as if he was using real paint." (You can see artworks Hockney created on the iPhone and iPad here.)

Raised by supportive parents in a simple English town, Hockney struggled with his sexuality. In the early '60s he came out. Films show him then with dyed blond hair and flamboyant outfits — a pink plaid suit, wide black and white striped tie, a red sock on one foot, green on the other. His lovers were young and beautiful. In the LA paintings they loll around at swimming pools, displaying divine derrieres. Pools were an obsession.

Hockney's 1966 'The Splash' is unveiled at Sotheby's on Feb. 7, 2020 in London. He followed it with 'A Bigger Splash' 1967.

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Tristan Fewings

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"Water offers an interesting graphic problem, it seems to me," he explained. "Say, a swimming pool, the water is transparent. How do you paint transparency? It has reflections and things."

A Bigger Splash, his best-known painting from 1967, shows a California swimming pool, tan diving board angling in from the bottom right, and rising from the aquamarine water, a lively, white splash. Someone just dove in.

"I spent longer on the splash than on any other thing in the painting," Hockney says. "I spent about a week painting it because it's painted with small brushes. I mean, I didn't want to just take a brush and splash it like that. I wanted to paint it slowly. And I thought then it contradicts the splash really."

An actual splash lasts a few seconds. Painting it took a week.

As his 80th birthday approached in 2017 museums were flooded with Hockneys. He was getting ready to go to London for one opening. I saw him then, for the last time, at his L.A. studio, surrounded by some comfy chairs, five easels, and clouds of cigarette smoke. The floor had dark brown smears from the smokes he chain-puffed, then stubbed out with his foot. Knowing he'd be fussed over in London, he said he didn't like parties anymore. "Too deaf for them," he said. They made him sad.

"I just have to leave and go home, have a sit in a quiet bedroom," he said. "And that's what I do. And then I read. ... That's my life now. I mean, that's what it's going to be."

But his eyes twinkled when he said that. And friends sitting near smiled indulgently.

He went on painting after I left, and made art the next day, the day after that, the day after that.

David Hockney: Always looking, and giving us the world as he wanted us to see it. Through joyous, vibrant pictures. That 80th birthday year, in Paris, there was a huge retrospective. The last piece in the show was graffitied on a white museum wall. In blue, on the white, Hockney had painted: Love Life D.H.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Hockney poses at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, on June 16, 2017.

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You may have driven through North County on a scenic detour on the way to San Diego, or even stayed at one of its idyllic coastal communities like Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar. But you may not have been aware that this sun-soaked corridor has been undergoing a restaurant renaissance in recent years, with both seasoned chefs and newcomers making their mark.

“San Diego was labeled the home of the fish taco for many years,” said William Bradley, the chef of three-Michelin-starred Addison, which opened inside the Fairmont Grand Del Mar resort in 2006. “We didn't have our identity because it was always San Francisco, L.A. and Napa. It was tough for San Diego to show what they can do. ”

Over the past 20 years, Bradley, who grew up in San Diego’s South Bay community of Chula Vista, has witnessed the region’s transformation firsthand. He attributes San Diego’s inclusion in the Michelin Guide California in 2019 as a turning point for the local dining scene.

“They'll find a restaurant that doesn't have all the glitz and glamor, doesn't have the PR machine and a celebrity chef,” he said. “They find these diamonds in the rough.”

In 2022, Addison became the first restaurant in Southern California to earn three Michelin stars, the guide’s highest honor. Neighboring restaurants Jeune et Jolie and Lilo in Carlsbad, along with Oceanside’s Valle, have each earned and maintained a Michelin star in recent years.

“I think we're at a time now that we've got great restaurants, great chefs, and the accolades to support the talent that's here,” Bradley said.

Restaurants will know if they’ve kept, lost, or earned additional stars at the annual Michelin Guide California awards ceremony on June 24.

For road-trippers planning a weekend jaunt down the coast or food obsessives plotting a drive-there-and-back feast on the town, here are seven dining destinations defining North County’s culinary scene right now — listed in alphabetical order.

24 Suns

At 24 Suns, scallop and shrimp siu mai dumplings are paired with pickled blueberries and served in a luscious puddle of buttery fermented habanada.

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At 24 Suns, chefs Nic Webber and Jacob Jordan take an experimental approach to Chinese food, a cuisine with a deep history in California dating back to the Gold Rush.

Ever since the first Chinese immigrants established restaurants in 1849, traditional recipes have adapted to local ingredients and palates, resulting in dishes with a distinctly Chinese American flair, like chop suey and egg foo yong. This nearly 200-year-old culinary tradition continues to evolve inside a squat building in Oceanside that most recently served as a German dive bar (and a strip club before that, according to a server).

Here, the two chefs, who met while working on the line at Addison, serve their take on Chinese food inspired by local micro-seasons. Snow fungus and king oyster mushrooms mimic the slippery texture of a traditional tripe-and-tendon cold appetizer, while plump scallop and shrimp siu mai dumplings are paired with pickled blueberries and served in a luscious puddle of buttery fermented habanada (spiceless habanero pepper). Though the menu at 24 Suns changes often in accordance with ancient Chinese solar terms, Webber and Jordan’s cooking remains dependably earnest with every iteration.

Addison

One of Addison's offerings: garden greens, in the front, paired with chicken liver churros, in the back.

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Arriving at Addison is reminiscent of approaching a stately chateau while navigating through the French countryside. The impeccably manicured 400-acre Fairmont Grand Del Mar — with its Mediterranean Revival architecture full of Corinthian columns, abundant arches, and red clay tile roofs — provides an opulent and tranquil backdrop befitting of the restaurant’s culinary ambition.

Inside a newly renovated dining room overlooking the property’s sprawling golf course, chef William Bradley and his team deliver a three-Michelin-starred fine dining experience that attracts a global audience nightly — everyone’s hungry to experience the chef’s expression of French-rooted Southern California cooking.

A bright shot of pineapple tepache lightly sweetened with piloncillo welcomes diners before the parade of 10 courses ($395 per person), punctuated by exquisite Japanese seafood and more quenelles of caviar than one can count, begins. Nods and winks to local foodways, like a chicken-liver churro and a lemony “fish” taco, give the menu a sense of whimsy and place.

Atelier Manna

Manna's torrija, or Spanish french toast.

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Veteran restaurant-goers (and Anthony Bourdain stans) tend to roll their eyes at brunch, with its tired Benedicts prepared by hungover cooks for tipsy crowds. But chef Andrew Bachelier’s Atelier Manna in Encinitas makes a compelling case for the daytime meal.

After cutting his teeth for over two decades in fine-dining kitchens, including six years at Addison and leading the charge at Jeune et Jolie and Campfire in Carlsbad, Bachelier opened the breezy 25-seat restaurant seeking the ever-elusive work-life balance — and brunch time will never be the same again.

Bachelier’s standout French toast starts with an entire third of a sourdough loaf locally sourced from Prager Brothers that’s steamed until pliable, saturated with sweetened custard, soaked overnight, and baked to order. Ordinary poached eggs get the Turkish treatment under the chef’s care: cradled in herbed yogurt, bathed in chile-garlic butter, strewn with parsley, dill, and mint, and served with toast.

To wash everything down, there are non-alcoholic “vitality tonics” from bar manager Nick Sinutko, including a refreshing carbonated cold brew spiked with red ginseng, cinnamon, and holy basil, and bubbly dragonfruit juice laced with juniper and ginger.

Jeune et Jolie

Jeune et Jolie's interior.

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An inspired four-course pre-fixe menu ($120 per person) unfolds with elegance and ease at Jeune et Jolie , stationed on a quieter stretch of State Street in downtown Carlsbad, in one of the prettiest dining rooms in North County. The Michelin-starred restaurant’s menu is grounded in French tradition and seasonal sourcing, while Paris’s bistronomy tradition informs its sensibility.

Chef Eric Bost, who decamped from Los Angeles to North County when his critically acclaimed restaurant, Auburn, shuttered in 2020, is picking up where opening chef Bachelier left off.

Jeune et Jolie’s choose-your-own-adventure menu allows diners to curate meals to taste, selecting individual dishes from a handful of choices that change often to reflect peak seasonality. In the midst of springtime’s splendor, supple sea urchin tongues topped a crisp English pea tartlette, and caviar, dill, and wasabi accompanied chubby stalks of verdant asparagus.

“This is French cooking through a Southern California lens,” servers tell diners as they settle in for a spirited evening.

Lilo

Lilo's lobster with black mission fig, charred onion and bronze fennel with a sauce of dried chilies.

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There are no bad seats in the house at Lilo in Carlsbad, where 22 diners are seated along a U-shaped counter overlooking hushed, hunched-over, and hyper-focused cooks collectively assembling and delivering the night’s many courses.

Opened by chef Bost in a former boogie board factory after the success of Jeune and Jolie, Lilo serves an intricate tasting menu ($300 per person) featuring a dozen courses that are as beguiling to behold as they are to consume.

Locally caught spiny lobsters, prettied with charred cucumber and blackberry, arrive on an icy vessel surrounded by native plants. A savory-sweet quenelle of orgeat ice cream heaped with kaluga caviar has appeared on the menu since day one. Lilo’s seasonally-driven, technically precise cooking, coupled with warm yet expert hospitality, earned the restaurant a Michelin star just 10 weeks after opening.

Valentina

Valentina's raw local bluefin tuna, steelhead trout, and scallop, served with olive oil, paper-thin red onions, and fried capers.

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While many of North County’s most notable restaurants are chef-and-seasonally driven, Valentina Restaurant in Encinitas bucks the trend and leans into tradition instead.

Named after the daughter of owners Mario and Morgan Guerra, Valentina has garnered a passionate local following for its modern Spanish cooking since opening in 2019. The restaurant’s black and white interior — featuring white-washed booths, subway tile walls, and honeycomb floors — provides a duotone backdrop for a dazzling parade of tapas.

Traditional patatas bravas are reimagined as French potato pavé, daintily dolloped with spicy tomato sauce and chive aioli. A pristine plate of raw local bluefin tuna, steelhead trout, and scallop is served with olive oil, paper-thin red onions, and fried capers, riffing on San Francisco’s Swan Oyster Depot’s winning formula. Artichokes, trimmed of all their fibrous bits, are smashed and seared to golden perfection and served with a rich aioli for contrast. Valentina’s small plates deliver big, bold flavors.

Valle

Valle's patio next to the beach.

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Valle

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For anyone who’s ever dined in and around Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s wine country, the magic of the experience rests as much in the surroundings — undulating vineyards and hilly vistas — as what’s on the plate.

The dynamic spirit, characteristic of Baja dining, is brilliantly captured inside chef Roberto Alcocer's Michelin-starred restaurant Valle, located steps away from the Oceanside pier on the ground floor of the Mission Pacific Hotel. Polished service is delivered with ease, while the dining room pulsates with the kind of vibrant energy often missing from fine dining temples.

Valle’s 12-course, $220 menu is a celebration of modern Mexican cooking, full of visual twists (see: charred onion meets glossy caviar in a pitch-black tart), nods to tradition (see: nixtamalized local vegetables served with white mole), and utterly delicious mashups (see: miniature blue corn huaraches embellished with A5 Japanese wagyu). The culinary conversation between San Diego and Baja California is continually evolving with Alcocer as a trusty translator.