A general view of cargo containers at the Port of Balboa in Panama City, Panama, on Monday, February 23, 2026. The Panamanian government has taken control of two ports near the Canal whose concessions, held by a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate CK Hutchison, were annulled by a final court ruling. Photo by Bienvenido Velasco/EPA
Feb. 24 (UPI) — Panama authorities have taken control of two ports operated by a subsidiary of a Hong Kong company, assets that came under scrutiny after President Donald Trump claimed China exerted too much influence over their operation.
Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings condemned the Monday takeover in a statement on Tuesday that said the actions of Panama were “unlawful” and raised risks to the operations, health and safety of the Balboa and Critobal terminals that its subsidiary, Panama Ports, has been operating for decades.
“None of the actions by the Panama State were advised to or coordinate with PPC,” Hutchison Holdings said.
“The Panama State is responsible for harm and damage caused by the confiscatory actions it has taken.”
On Monday morning, Panama’s official gazette published a late-January Supreme Court ruling that made final the court’s decision that the contract law granting Panama Ports Company’s concession extension to operate the ports was unconstitutional.
The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits filed challenging the contract, which was issued by the Maritime Authority of Panama on June 23, 2021. According to a statement from the Panama presidency’s office, the contract was found unconstitutional because it gave a foreign-based company broad rights that limited the state’s control over the use and management of its resources.
After the gazette was published, Panama authorities arrived at the two ports and informed representatives of the Panama Ports Company that it must cease operations, and that those who do not comply with their orders will be prosecuted.
“PPC and CKHH will continue to consult with their legal advisors regarding the ruling and forceful takeover, the purported termination of PPC’s concession and all available recourse, including additional national and international legal proceedings against the Republic of Panama and its agents and third parties colluding with them,” CK Hutchison Holdings said.
The two ports and their Hong Kong connection were thrust into the spotlight on the first day of Trump’s second presidency, when in his inaugural address he said the United States has been “treated very badly” by Panama and that “China is operating the Panama Canal.”
Trump has repeatedly made the claim since, drawing attention to the Hong Kong-based conglomerate that has operated the two ports since 1997.
PLENTY of sunshine and highs of 17C – the UK is finally set to bask in some long-awaited warmth.
After weeks of rain and dingy skies, tomorrow the capital city is set to bask in high temperatures that make it on par with Barcelona.
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London will bask in highs of 17C tomorrow – you can head to Green ParkCredit: AlamyThe Duke of Edinburgh in Brixton also has a huge beer gardenCredit: Instagram / @dukebrixton
So if you’re stuck with what to do – here are some of our top suggestions for all ages…
Beer gardens
When the sun shines, why not do what us Brits do best? Head over to a beer garden.
London has plenty so you’re really spoiled for choice, but one of the most popular is The Duke of Edinburgh over in Brixton.
Last year it was named London’s best beer garden by Barratt London who ranked them on reviews, price, and the amount of sun each one gets.
It even has its own mini Paddington Rec Station with a wooden train, and swings too.
There’s also an adventure play section with a wooden play structure, rope bridges and a zip line.
The Cove at the National Maritime Museum is completely freeCredit: rmg.co.uk
In central London, head to the National Maritime Museum to explore The Cove – it has a play ship, Kraken, and even its own shark – it’s also free entry.
Exploring the world’s largest botanical garden is something that is better when it’s hot.
Attractions
Kew Gardens holds the Guinness World Record for its massive living plant collection, which includes over 50,000 plants.
Of course many of the exhibits are indoors and climate-controlled, but outside there are lots of trails and even more plants to see.
Travel Reporter Cyann Fielding went along late last year and said: “The gardens appear to sprawl on for miles and miles, with numerous different attractions and features to be explored.
“Another spot that is great for kids, is Kew Gardens’ new Carbon Garden. Having only opened in summer of this year, it is a great new spot to explore for returning visitors and children alike.
“The garden shows the essential role plants and fungi play in tackling climate change and in the centre is a pavilion that was created using low-carbon, natural materials.
“Elsewhere in the gardens, visitors will find the Treetop Walkway, which allows you to walk level with the tree canopy and even see London‘s skyline.”
Peak tickets cost from £24 online or £27 at the gate for adults.
Restaurants
In the evening, you can enjoy the last of the sun (for a little while at least) while tucking in to a riverside meal.
Darcie Green canal barge bar sits on Regent’s CanalCredit: Alamy
Time Out has revealed their top riverside restaurants in London – and here are best ones that you can go to tomorrow.
Ombra sits on the banks of the Regent’s Canal and is the perfect spot to sip on a spritz and indulge in some pasta.
The bright pop art Darcie Green barge actually sits on the water on Regent’s Canal and brings a taste of Australia to the city.
You can enjoy a ‘Bondi Brunch’ in mid-morning, or tuck into a tasty lunch of tuna steak, chicken parmigiana or sirloin steak.
It also has an extensive cocktail list – with an Aussie twist of course.
Disney California Adventure this month turns 25. Though Disneyland Park’s littler and much younger sibling, the park has grown into a respectable offering, one that ranks among my favorite Disney parks in North America. No small feat, considering its checkered, less-than-ambitious launch.
California Adventure is today emblematic of some of the best that Disney has to offer. And yet it remains a work in progress. The subject of constant tinkering, another reimagining is on the horizon.
With more Marvel, more “Avatar” and more Pixar due to be injected into the park, California Adventure stands at a crossroads. But also one with risks: Will it soon feel like a collection of brand deposits? This, of course, has appeared to be the vision of the company’s theme parks in the recent past. This doesn’t always have to be a negative. Consider it more a word of caution.
A “Coco” boat ride is destined for Disney California Adventure. The ride is under construction.
(Pixar / Disneyland Resort)
Few Disney properties, for instance, seem more ripe for exploration in a California-focused theme park than “Coco.” Under construction where Paradise Gardens and Pixar Pier meet, a “Coco”-inspired boat ride will give the park at long last a permanent home to recognize our state’s Latin culture and heritage. While fans may long for the days of original attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, those based on intellectual property — IP in industry speak — aren’t evil, especially when used to heighten the overall themes of the park. California Adventure’s own Cars Land is a key example.
When it starts to feel like retail, however, parks can become exhausting. Looking at you, Avengers Campus, a half-finished land with a bombastic orchestral score and familiar, urban design that wouldn’t be out of place in downtown L.A. In its current state, the land works best as a backdrop for live entertainment as it lacks the welcoming feel of Disney’s top creations.
California Adventure, at its most idealized, stood for more than an assortment of film properties. Its pitch was to show the Golden State as a romanticized destination, one that in the post-Gold Rush era has often given America permission to dream. It would capture our people, our nature, our food and our glamour through a lighthearted, optimistic lens. When completed, the park had a mini Golden Gate Bridge and giant letters that spelled out the name of our state (which were removed about a decade later).
By the time California Adventure opened in February 2001, it had already been the subject of much revision. The Walt Disney Co. wanted it to be a West Coast answer to Walt Disney World’s Epcot. Its plans at the time were well-documented, with the Walt Disney Co. initially giving Westcot, as it was to be called, a spherical answer to the Florida park’s Spaceship Earth. In time, and in attempts to quell neighborhood concerns, the globe’s design would shift to become a large, futuristic needle.
California Adventure in 2001 was meant to depict a romanticized vision of California.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
None of it was to be. Financial headaches, caused in part by the early-year struggles of Disneyland Paris, inspired Disney to change course. Disney California Adventure would open with few attractions that rose to the Disneyland level, and yet The Times was kind in its opening coverage, praising the park’s change of pace from its neighbor and admiring how its architecture blurred fiction and reality.
The hang-gliding simulation Soarin’ Over California was an instant hit, and Eureka! A California Parade was Disney theatricality at its weirdest, with floats that depicted Old Town San Diego, Watts and more. But California Adventure’s prevalence of dressed-up county fair-like rides failed to command crowds. Disney’s own documentary “The Imagineering Story” took a tough-love approach, comparing some of its initial designs to those of a local mall.
The grand opening of California Adventure in February 2001.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
And yet today it’s home to one of the Walt Disney Co.’s most fully-realized areas in Cars Land, which opened in 2012. Flanked by sun-scarred, reddish rocks that look lifted from Arizona, Cars Land is a marvel, and on par with the best of Walt Disney Imagineering’s designs (see New Orleans Square, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Pandora — the World of Avatar). Nodding to our Route 66 history, the land is a neon-lit, ‘50s rock leaning hub of activity, complete with the showstopping Radiator Springs Racers.
Cars Land led a major makeover of the park that also included the nostalgic Buena Vista Street, a nod to the Los Feliz era of the 1920s. And by the mid-2010s, many of California Adventure’s most insufferable traits, such as its ghastly puns (San Andreas Shakes was bad, but the Philip A. Couch Casting Agency was cringe-inducing) as well as the short-lived disaster of a ride that was Superstar Limo, had begun to disappear.
Cars Land, added to California Adventure in 2012, is one of Walt Disney Imagineering’s grandest achievements.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
With the nighttime show World of Color, and a bevy of in-park entertainment, California Adventure pre-pandemic began to feel like something akin to a full-day park. It wasn’t perfect, of course — no park is.
The Little Mermaid — Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, though lightly charming, suffers from being a hodgepodge of familiar scenes from the film rather than a narrative tableau that can stand on its own. Too many empty buildings clutter its Hollywood Land area, the makeover of Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier did little but add garish film-referencing art to the land and the crowd-pleasing transformation of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror into Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! was completed at the expense of the park’s prime Southern California theming.
Paradise Pier at California Adventure in 2002. The land has since been remade into Pixar Pier.
(Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)
But there is much about California Adventure to adore. It shines during holidays, whether that’s Lunar New Year at the top of the year or the back-to-back combo of Halloween and Christmas seasons near its end. Here is when California Adventure’s entertainment comes to the fore, bringing the park alive with cultural tales that at last reflect the diversity of the modern theme park audience.
How grand it would be, however, if California Adventure were blessed with this level of entertainment year-round. The Hyperion Theater, a 2,000-seat venue at the end of Hollywood Land, and once home to shows inspired by “Frozen,” “Aladdin” and “Captain America,” today sits empty. If the Walt Disney Co. can’t justify funding the theater, jettison it with the park’s upcoming makeover, as it stands as a reminder of how fickle the corporation can be when it comes to live performance (also gone, the great newsboy-inspired street show).
Staff at California Adventure put the final bit of polish on the letters that spell out “California” ahead of the park’s 2001 opening. The letters once stood at the entrance of the park.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Looking ahead, I expect Disney to deliver a powerful “Avatar” ride, and early concept art has shown a thrilling boat attraction that appears to use a similar ride system to Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, which is hailed by many as one of the company’s strongest modern additions. Worthy of debate, however, is how the pure fantasy landscape of “Avatar” fits in a park that still nominally tries to reflect California and our diversity.
And does it matter?
The company would likely argue that if the ride wows guests and extends the “Avatar” brand into another generation, that it does not. But Disneyland next door isn’t timeless because it has “Peter Pan” and “Star Wars.” It has endured for 70 years because its attractions, by and large, reflect cultural myths. And it’s a park we want to spend days in, thanks to its gorgeous landscaping, calming Rivers of America, and human tales of avarice, unity and romance spread throughout its attractions.
For theme parks, after all, can jump the shark, so to speak. Spend some time, for instance, sitting in California Adventure’s San Fransokyo Square. It’s a needless, post-pandemic makeover. What was once a simple food court has been transformed into a loud nook stuffed with a “Big Hero 6” meet-and-greet and gift shop. You’ll be transported, but to a place more akin to a marketing event.
So happy 25, California Adventure. We love you, and you’re a park worth celebrating, but like most post-collegiate kids, there’s still some room to learn.
The San Fernando Valley is back in the spotlight, thanks in part to Bravo’s reality franchise “The Valley,” where viewers may recognize a slew of Ventura Boulevard staples (we see you, Rocco’s Tavern).
Much of the show is filmed in and around Studio City, a neighborhood just west of the Cahuenga Pass, about 10 miles from downtown L.A. and within the city of Los Angeles.
That last fact is what usually throws people off guard.
“Isn’t Studio City a separate city from L.A.?” they ask.
Get to know Los Angeles through the places that bring it to life. From restaurants to shops to outdoor spaces, here’s what to discover now.
This is when I must reply no and launch into an explanation on the expansiveness of the 818, the identity crisis it never asked for and how its lore has endured for decades on the silver screen, from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “The Karate Kid” and “Licorice Pizza,” to name a few.
See, long before Kendall Jenner bottled our area code with her tequila brand or “The Valley’s” Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi created her Valley Girl jewelry line (a response to a castmate’s constant gripe that the area had no vibe), Studio City was already a vibrant L.A. hub. It claimed a roster of power players — “The Brady Bunch” soundstage, Laurel Canyon News and the iconic Studio City Hand Car Wash — all of which still transcend ratings or storyline.
The neighborhood was originally formed around film producer Mack Sennett’s studio, which later became Republic Studios and then CBS Studio Center. With the studio as the focal point, the U.S. Postal Service designated its branch in that area as the Studio City Post Office, formalizing the name Studio City. Not exactly poetic, but it stuck. By the 1940s, Studio City developed into a “just over the hill” refuge for Hollywood’s working families, with new restaurants and bars abuzz.
My first memories of Studio City were hanging out with a childhood friend whose parents worked at CBS, and back then, it felt like the ultimate suburban dream. Fast forward to the mid-aughts and I got to live it myself, renting an apartment a few blocks from Tujunga Village, the neighborhood’s own “small-town U.S.A.” I spent countless weekends perusing food stands and trendy coffeehouses, the flaky bread and baked goods reviving me after hours of line dancing at Oil Can Harry’s or a booze-soaked late night at Page 71.
As one of the Valley’s most social enclaves, where nature is within reach, strip mall sushi is world-class and shaded residential streets feel worlds away from the Sunset Strip, Studio City still feels like the perfect remedy. Sure, finding parking after 6 p.m. can feel like something out of “The Hunger Games,” but on any given weekend you’ll still find me channeling my inner Katniss, circling blocks and deciphering cryptic signage all to revisit one of the L.A. neighborhoods that raised me.
Studio City must be the place. Then again, it always was.
What’s included in this guide
Anyone who’s lived in a major metropolis can tell you that neighborhoods are a tricky thing. They’re eternally malleable and evoke sociological questions around how we place our homes, our neighbors and our communities within a wider tapestry. In the name of neighborly generosity, we may include gems that linger outside of technical parameters. Instead of leaning into stark definitions, we hope to celebrate all of the places that make us love where we live.
Our journalists independently visited every spot recommended in this guide. We do not accept free meals or experiences. What L.A. neighborhood should we check out next? Send ideas to guides@latimes.com.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday warned countries against backing away from recently negotiated trade deals with the U.S. after the Supreme Court struck down his emergency tariffs, saying that if they did, he would hit them with much higher duties under different trade laws.
Trump, in a series of social media posts, said he also may impose license fees on trading partners as uncertainty over his next tariff moves gripped the global economy and sent stocks lower.
“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to. BUYER BEWARE!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said that despite the court’s decision to invalidate his tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), its decision affirmed his ability to use tariffs under other legal authorities “in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.”
He suggested that the U.S. could impose new license fees on trading partners but did not provide further details. A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s plans.
EU Trade Deal on Hold
In Brussels, the European Parliament decided on Monday to postpone a vote on the European Union’s trade deal with the U.S. after Trump said he would impose a new temporary import duty of 15% on imports from all countries.
EU goods under the deal would face a 15% U.S. tariff, with exemptions for hundreds of food items, aircraft parts, critical minerals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and other goods, while the EU would remove duties on many imports from the U.S., including industrial goods.
Trump initially announced the temporary duty under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 at 10% but promised on Saturday to raise it to 15%, the maximum allowed under the statute. An initial 10% tariff came into effect at a minute past midnight on Tuesday, though it is unclear when the 15% rate would take effect, as Trump has only signed an executive order for the 10% tariff so far.
Markets React
Wall Street stocks ended lower on Monday as renewed tariff uncertainty following the Supreme Court decision, coupled with concerns about AI-fueled disruption, unnerved investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.65%
The S&P 500 fell 1.02%
The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.01%
The dollar weakened against the euro and the yen, reflecting market anxiety over potential trade escalation and economic uncertainty.
Global Trade Uncertainty
The path forward for Trump’s foreign trade deals remains unclear:
China has urged Washington to scrap tariff measures.
The EU has frozen its approval process.
India delayed planned talks.
The U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, said the administration expects to open new Section 301 unfair trade practices investigations on several countries, potentially paving the way for new tariffs.
Meanwhile, a group of 22 Democratic U.S. senators introduced legislation to force the Trump administration to issue refunds for all now-illegal IEEPA-based tariffs within 180 days, although the bill faces an uncertain path to a vote.
Trump also criticized the Supreme Court justices who ruled against him, including two he appointed, and expressed concern that the Court could rule against his administration in a forthcoming birthright citizenship case.
Analysis
Trump’s latest moves reflect his ongoing use of tariffs as a negotiating tool and political messaging device, rather than a targeted economic strategy. By threatening higher tariffs and potential license fees, he is signaling to trading partners that backing away from deals could carry immediate financial consequences.
However, the approach carries multiple risks:
Market Volatility: Investors are already responding with caution, as uncertainty over tariffs can disrupt supply chains, raise costs for U.S. companies, and weigh on stock prices.
Diplomatic Strain: Allies such as the EU, as well as emerging partners like India, may view the moves as destabilizing, complicating future trade negotiations.
Legal Vulnerabilities: Section 122 of the Trade Act has rarely been invoked, and using it in place of IEEPA may invite further litigation, leaving Trump’s administration open to judicial challenges.
Global Trade Ripple Effects: A 15% tariff on broad imports could increase prices for U.S. consumers, provoke retaliatory tariffs, and shift global supply chains, particularly in sectors like tech, automotive, and pharmaceuticals.
Economists suggest that while Trump’s threats may pressure trading partners, the overall economic rationale is weak, since the U.S. is not in a balance-of-payments crisis, and broad-based tariffs risk collateral damage to U.S. businesses and consumers.
In sum, Trump’s tariff strategy highlights a blend of economic pressure and political signaling, but it comes with high uncertainty and potential unintended consequences for both the U.S. and global markets.
The much-loved forensic scientist, who joined the BBC drama back in the sixteenth series when he replaced Harry Cunningham, has struggled throughout season 29.
The new series has seens Jack, Emila Fox’s Dr. Nikki Alexander and the team relocate to Birmingham from London, where a new enviroment and fresh set of cases has seen Jack “more affected by the trials and tribulations of his work,” as he struggles to find balance.
In the latest episode, called Grace of God, Jack gets himself into a drunken bar brawl as pressure mounts, but things turn from bad to worse when the man he was fighting, Scott Ashton played by Chris Coghill, later winds up dead on Nikki’s examination table.
Consumed with guilt, Jack turns himself in and ends up in prison, with Nikki on the outside trying to keep her husband safe. With his career as a forensic scientist hanging in the balance, many have wondered whether the latest instalment is setting David Caves up for a Silent Witness exit. Warning: The below contains spoilers for Grace of God Part Two.
However, viewers will be pleased to know it looks like Jack is remaining where he is for now, after the second part of Grace of God clears him of the Scott’s murder.
The episode, which is already available on BBC iPlayer, reveals that Jack’s brawl was part of a wider investigation and he was simply a pawn, with Nikki confirming Scott died of injuries sustained after his fight with Jack.
In the instalment, which will air on BBC One on Tuesday, February 23, Jack and Nikki have a teary heart to heart as Jack tells his wife: “The reason I didn’t tell you about the fight is because you trust me and I let you down.”
Responding, Nikki tells him: “And you might do it again. And I might do it to you,” pointing to her wedding band she adds: “That’s what this is. We make mistakes but we come back to each other. We always come back.”
“I’m sorry,” he tells her before they share an emotional embrace and head back home. The episode ends with Jack opposite his therapist as he explains: “We deal with violence almost every day. I experienced the results of violent acts first-hand. And I fool myself that I can separate them from my own life. I grew up being told that strong was the thing. Strength would get you through, no matter how bad.”
“And now?” the therapist asks. “It’s okay to ask for help from time to time, right?” Jack says smiling.
His final reflection seems like a good omen that Jack is returning to work and remaining on the show, as he shares: “Someone once said life is understood backwards but lived forwards. I want to be there… for all of it. I’m ready.”
It’s also worth noting that Jack is scheduled to appear in the final two episodes of Silent Witness season 29 which aire next week on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Silent Witness is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
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From Bill Plaschke: The fans never got an opportunity to give a grateful goodbye, Pat Riley resigning on an early summer afternoon 36 years ago after the end of a lost season.
Everyone will have that chance now.
When Riley left town at the wrong end of grumblings from players and fans, he was the greatest coach not only in Lakers history but also in basketball history, his .730 winning percentage and 102 playoff victories both NBA records at the time.
Everyone will understand now.
He has been Showtime’s forgotten kingpin, its lost leader, its missing warrior, a stylishly distant legend who had been overshadowed by the seven Lakers whose statues stand watch over the plaza outside Crypto.com Arena.
Make that eight Lakers.
Riley finally is coming home, returning Sunday with the unveiling of a long overdue statue in whose bronze reflection a couple of wistful realizations can be found.
Riles has been terribly, terribly missed.
The Showtime era seems terribly, terribly distant.
Riley hasn’t been with the Lakers in 36 years. The Lakers haven’t won an asterisk-free NBA title in 16 years. Maybe because Shaquille O’Neal spoke only via video Sunday, the greatness of this organization never felt further away.
From Broderick Turner: All of the current Lakers realized that playing against the Boston Celtics on national television really was more than just one of 82 games on the schedule.
It was crystallized even more because iconic former Lakers coach Pat Riley sat courtside after a celebration for the unveiling of his statue on the Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena. He was the first Lakers coach to beat the hated Celtics for an NBA championship after eight failed attempts.
So, yes, on this Sunday afternoon, this game meant more if only because it was another game in the long rivalry, a game the Lakers lost, 111-89.
Luka Doncic had 25 points for the Lakers but he was just nine for 22 from the field. LeBron James had 20 points but was just nine for 21 from the field.
Desmond Bane scored 36 points and Paolo Banchero added 16 points and eight assists as the Orlando Magic held on for a 111-109 victory over the Clippers on Sunday night.
Wendell Carter Jr. had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Tristan da Silva scored 13 for the Magic, who improved to 5-2 since Feb. 5.
Kawhi Leonard shrugged off an ankle injury to score 37 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 21 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Clippers, who are 4-5 since Feb. 2. Mathurin missed a three-point attempt to win the game at the buzzer.
Jordan Miller had 14 points for the Clippers (27-30).
From Felicia Keller: The No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball team beat Wisconsin 80-60 on Sunday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion and became outright regular season conference champions for the first time in their history.
“I’m so fortunate to coach incredible young women as people and that we’re willing to believe in a vision that we could create together and to be the first team in UCLA history to win a conference championship outright in the regular season,” coach Cori Close said. “It’s just humbling to be a part of.”
Lauren Betts recorded a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds — including three in quick succession in the fourth quarter — as the Bruins celebrated their six graduates on Senior Day by winning their 21st game in a row. Five Bruins — all seniors — scored in double digits.
“That’s the reason we all came here is to do things UCLA has never done before and to win a lot of games and win championships, and so super proud of everyone on this team for really putting in the work,” Gabriela Jaquez said.
Jaloni Cambridge scored 33 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, and No. 10 Ohio State used a 15-0 run to rally for an 88-83 victory over USC on Sunday.
It was Cambridge’s fifth 30-point game this season. The sophomore was 12 for 21 from the field and eight for nine from the line as the Buckeyes (23-5, 11-4) snapped a two-game losing streak.
Cambridge also had three steals and helped force USC to commit a season-high 25 turnovers as the Trojans (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten) had their six-game winning streak come to a close.
USC’s Jazzy Davidson scored a season-high 32 points, including six three-pointers, before fouling out with 1.1 seconds left. The freshman also had six rebounds and four assists.
Nicolás Fernández scored on a penalty kick in the second half and New York City FC tied the Galaxy 1-1 in a season opener on Sunday before a sellout crowd of 30,510 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Newcomer João Klauss needed 90 seconds to win the hearts of Galaxy fans, scoring with assists from Marco Reus and Joseph Paintsil for a 1-0 lead. L.A. worked a cash-for-player trade with St. Louis City to acquire Klauss on a one-year deal, hoping he’ll ease the loss of superstar Riqui Puig for a second straight season after complications from a torn ACL.
Los Angeles maintained the lead until Emiro Garces was sent off the field for a second yellow card, setting up a successful PK for Fernández that tied it in the 66th minute and left the Galaxy a man short. Fernández scored five goals in 19 appearances with L.A. last season.
Two months and three days after getting married, the 26-year-old from South Carolina has another memory to last a lifetime after winning for the first time on the PGA Tour and threatening the tournament scoring record at the Genesis Invitational.
“To do it against this field is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt,” said Bridgeman, who prevailed by a single shot over Kurt Kitayama and Rory McIlroy. “Fans were super supportive all day and winning at this course is a dream come true. I grew up watching this on TV.”
Beginning the final round with a six-stroke lead, Bridgeman birdied the first and third holes to take a seven-shot lead and send an early message to the other 50 players that he would be tough to catch. He carded a one-over-par 72 to finish at 18 under for a four-day total of 266 — two off the 72-hole standard achieved at the 1985 Los Angeles Open by Lanny Wadkins, who won by seven shots with rounds of 63, 70, 67 and 64.
Over 53 games after his May call-up, the highly regarded prospect batted .204 with a .258 on-base percentage, .582 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, four home runs and 24 RBIs. It was the only time in his baseball life — aside from his freshman year at the University of Louisville — that Rushing was not a regular fixture in his team’s lineup.
“It was very, very up and down,” Rushing said. “It was some good, some bad, some ugly. A lot of things were new to me; the scattering [of] playing time was tough. It was a little tough being able to stay on top of compete mode, keep the swing in a good spot.”
But it still yielded a satisfying end result.
”I got to win a World Series with this team,” Rushing said. “And it’s hard to look back and think, ‘I’d take this back or I’d take that back.’ It went exactly how it was planned.”
With three-time All-Star catcher Will Smith in front of him, Rushing’s role is clear: He is the Dodgers’ backup catcher. Manager Dave Roberts feels good about Rushing’s progression.
1935 — George “The Iceman” Woolf makes history, riding Azucar to victory in the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap. Azucar beats such greats as Equipoise and Twenty Grand in the first $100,000 horse race.
1938 — Joe Louis knocks out Nathan Mann in the third round to defend his world heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.
1960 — Carol Heiss captures the first gold medal for the United States in the Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif., winning the figure skating event.
1968 — Wilt Chamberlain becomes first player to score 25,000 points in the NBA.
1980 — Eric Heiden wins his fifth gold medal and shatters the world record by six seconds in 10,000-meter speed skating at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. His time is 14:28.13.
1985 — Indiana coach Bob Knight is ejected five minutes into the Hoosiers’ 72-63 loss to Purdue when he throws a chair across the court. Knight, after two fouls called on his team, is hit with his first technical. While Purdue was shooting the technical, Knight picks up a chair from the bench area and throws it across the court, earning his second technical.
1987 — Seattle’s Nate McMillan sets an NBA rookie record with 25 assists to lead the SuperSonics over the Clippers 124-112.
1991 — North Carolina becomes the first team in NCAA basketball history to win 1,500 games with a 73-57 victory over Clemson.
2002 — The Americans end nearly a half-century of Olympic frustration for the U.S. men’s bobsled team, driving to the silver and bronze medals in the four-man race at the Salt Lake Olympic Games.
2007 — Tiger Woods’ winning streak on the PGA Tour, which began in July, comes to a shocking end. Woods fails to notice a ball mark in the line of his 4-foot birdie putt that would have won his third-round match against Nick O’Hern. Woods misses, then loses in 20 holes when O’Hern saves par with a 12-foot putt at the Accenture Match Play Championship.
2013 — Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche makes history just by stepping into the UFC cage. Rousey wins the UFC’s first women’s bout, beating Carmouche on an armbar, her signature move, with 11 seconds left in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at UFC 157.
2014 — Canada defends its Olympic men’s hockey title with a 3-0 victory over Sweden. Canada becomes the only repeat Olympic champ in the NHL era and the first team to go unbeaten through the Olympic tournament since the Soviet Union in Sarajevo in 1984.
2014 — Russia, the host country of the Winter Olympics, finishes with 33 medals overall and 13 gold. It’s the first time Russia topped both medals tables since the breakup of the Soviet Union. The U.S. wins 28 total, including nine gold.
2014 — Jason Collins becomes the first openly gay athlete in the United States four major pro leagues, playing 10 scoreless minutes with two rebounds and five fouls in the New Jersey’s 108-102 victory of the Lakers.
2014 — Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins a rain-delayed Daytona 500, a decade after his first victory in the “Great American Race.” Earnhardt snaps a 55-race winless stretch that dated to 2012. It also ends a frustrating sequence at Daytona International Speedway that had seen him finish second in three of the previous four 500s.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
The pool will be the Olympic standard 2.6metres deep and remain 67metres in length and 13metres wide.
Ahead of the launch, visitors can purchase a ‘Founder’ membership for £40 per month, which allows locals to swim and use the sauna as much as they like.
This membership is only available to the first 500 people though.
Normal membership fees are then £52 a month on a rolling contract for swim and sauna or £48 a month on a 12 month contract.
If you just want to swim, this will be £34 a month on a rolling contract or £32 a month on a 12 month contract.
Swim and sauna sessions are each £8, but if you fancy both you can pay to do both for £12.
The lido will be open between 6am and 9pm Mondays to Thursdays, 6am to 8pm on Fridays and 7am to 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
According to Portsmouth News, Judit Kollat, general manager at Hilsea Lido, said: “It is more than a pool, it’s a place with history and heart.
“We aim to create a vibrant hub for the local community, a centre for both mental and physical wellbeing.”
The lido has been closed for more than two yearsCredit: Portsmouth City Council
Councillor Steve Pitt at Portsmouth City Council added: “The reopening of Hilsea Lido will transform the north of the city, following the successful launch of the KGV Football Complex and ahead of the North Portsea Coastal Scheme finishing this year.”
The announcement about Hilsea Lido comes as the lido celebrates its 90th birthday.
Many people have taken to social media to express their excitement for the reopening.
One person said: “Can’t wait so many memories and I was a life guard there.”
Another added: “We’ll be over as soon as possible, we’ve watched the project from the beginning.”
The lido first opened in 1935 and at the time was known as the deepest lido in the UK, with a depth of 4.6 metres.
And over the years the lido has welcomed many celebrities including former James Bond, Sean Connery.
ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 24 (UPI) — The high-profile abduction of Nancy Guthrie is focusing new attention on a little-known, but quickly growing, segment of the insurance industry known as “kidnap and ransom” in which underwriters cover clients at risk from criminals at home and abroad.
While “K&R” insurance has traditionally been seen the domain of business executives whose travels take them to hot spots across the globe where abduction risk is high, the Guthrie case shows that even within the relatively safe United States, anyone can be subjected to kidnapping or extortion, industry leaders told UPI.
As of Monday, the fate of Nancy Guthrie remained unknown. The 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie has been missing from her home in Tucson since Jan. 31. Police were notified after she failed to show up to watch a live stream of a church service at a friend’s house.
Her family has been cleared in her disappearance and the case is still being treated as a kidnapping. The FBI describes the prime suspect as a male between 5 feet, 9 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches in height with a medium build and carrying a 24-liter black Ozark Trail Hiker Pack.
An unknown person’s DNA was recovered at the crime scene, authorities said.
Meanwhile, reports have indicated the Guthrie family received a ransom demand of millions of dollars to be paid in cryptocurrency.
As the search has dragged on for weeks without any substantial breaks in the case, the costs to the Guthrie family are likely mounting quickly, even excluding the potential payout of a multimillion-dollar ransom.
This has led to speculation over whether Savannah Guthrie — who has a reported net worth of $50 million — owns a kidnap and ransom insurance policy covering herself and family members.
But, if she is like the vast majority of high-net worth Americans such as top business executives, media figures, politicians, athletes and celebrities, it’s probable she does not have a K&R policy.
This is because kidnappings-for-ransom have always been rare in the United States and, as a result, the worldwide market for such policies has remained relatively small at anestimated at $2 billion in 2025.
But that figure is expected to nearly double by 2033 as buyers’ perceptions of the threat levels evolve.
“Glaring gap”
The Nancy Guthrie case, as well as a recent rash of kidnappings targeting holders of large amounts of cryptocurrency, is shining a light on what some have described as a “glaring gap” in the security measures typically taken by wealthy families, media personalities and others.
Insurers don’t want to talk about the cost of K&R policy premiums. However, according to independent estimates, basic policies can cost as little as $500 per year, but quickly rise in price as coverage expands and risks increase.
If, for instance, the policyholder is planning to travel to kidnapping “hotspots” such as Mexico, the cost will increase. Insurance for high-profile CEOs, regardless of where they travel, can ruin $10,000 or more per year, industry estimates indicate.
One of the world’s largest providers of K&R insurance is the French company AXA and its specialized division for complex risks, AXA XL. Denise Balan, the firm’s senior vice president and head of U.S. security risks, told UPI the need for these policies is evolving beyond business people traveling into risky global hotspots, although that remains a core customer base.
“You’d be surprised how many entities and individuals actually do carry this insurance, because it is a ‘duty of care’ product,” she said, meaning it is provided by businesses as part of their legal duty to protect their employees.
“So, most companies that have a significant number of employees who either travel internationally or have CEOs or board members who have concerns about threats to their physical safety or extortion, they do tend to carry this insurance.”
There are basically two elements to a typical K&R policy, Balan explained, including the obvious benefit: reimbursement of expenses and costs up to and including the ransom payment.
“But the more important aspect of the policy that you get is the service,” she said. “And that’s in the form of a security consultant. I’m sure you’ve heard a number of different security consultants who have been interviewed recently about the Savannah Guthrie case. Each insurance company that offers kidnap-for-ransom policies also offers a security service.”
The cost of the consultants, usually drawn from a small pool of well-known providers such as London-based S-RM Intelligence and Control Risks Group, is entirely absorbed by the insurer and doesn’t erode the policy limit — rather, it is in addition to the limit.
“It is a wonderful service that will give you not only response in a crisis, but will also give you preventative assistance,” Balan said. “It’s useful if a company wants to set up a crisis management plan or to do an exercise so they’d know how to react if, for instance, they get a call on a Sunday night from someone who says one of their products is going to be tampered with unless they get a million dollars.”
The provided security consultant can offer expert advice on “everything from how to speak to a kidnapper to how much ransom might be an appropriate amount to pay. They might know, for instance, that the going rate for kidnapping in Mexico is $2,500, and they can help with the negotiation, although they never speak directly to the kidnapper.”
One reason that K&R policies are generally little-known is that they’re highly confidential in nature and the potential for their abuse is high.
“You can’t be out there talking about how you have an insurance policy that pays in the event of a kidnap because there’s just so much potential for fraud,” Balan said. “So, it’s a very under-the-radar product that’s been around since probably the early 1920s.”
Another indication that threats are expanding beyond the traditional business travel sector is evident with a new phenomenon dubbed “crypto-kidnapping,” in which organized gangs utilize leaked data to locate and target high-net-worth cryptocurrency holders.
The latest such incident came Feb. 12 outside of Paris when masked assailants targeted Binance France CEO David Prinçay in a failed home invasion and kidnapping attempt — an attack that has put the entire cryptocurrency industry on high alert.
Matthew Humphries, head of crisis management at Lockton Cos., the world’s largest privately held independent insurance broker, said such incidents show the universe of who should have K&R policies is expanding.
“Kidnap and ransom insurance is available for people and organizations whose profile or operations are exposed to heightened security risks, whether abroad or closer to home,” he told UPI.
“There’s a perception that kidnapping only happens in places with obvious political or security tensions, but the risk is far broader. We’ve seen kidnapping cases emerge in places few would expect, including some high‑profile incidents targeting people in the crypto sector in the U.S., France and Canada.”
Payment for expert security teams covered
Estimates indicate as many as 25,000 kidnappings occur each year worldwide, according to another leader in the industry, the U.S.-based Travelers Cos., which warns in its literature, “If you still think it could never happen, consider this: Coercive threats to you and your business can take many forms.”
The company cites two real-life examples.
In one, the president of a company was kidnapped in his parking lot and held for five days until a ransom was paid. Costs incurred included $650,000 for the ransom, $2,000 per day for an independent negotiator, $500 per day for recording equipment used to obtain the man’s release, and $200 per day for extra security guards hired to protect his family.
In the other case, a physician’s wife was attending a conference. The physician received a call that his wife had been kidnapped and that he had two hours to wire a ransom payment. He wired the funds, but realized later that his wife was never kidnapped or in any danger — and all the while the expenses, such as the ransom payment and costs for a security team, quickly added up.
What’s essential in any kidnapping scenario is the presence of experts to advise those close to the victims, which is perhaps the most important benefit of a K&R policy, said Tracey Santor, assistant vice president for financial institutions at Travelers.
Much like AXA AL’s Balan, she emphasized the policies usually come with a crisis management team to be made available to victims’ families and paid for by the carrier.
“The firm usually consists of former law enforcement officers from a number of agencies, such as the FBI, DEA and CIA, who can often determine if a kidnapping is from a specific group and what past behavior and demands have been,” she told UPI. “The crisis team may also work with local authorities on the safety and return of the kidnap victim.”
Travelers only issues commercial K&R policies for businesses rather than personal policies for individuals, for whom they recommend another U.S. provider working with the Travelers Syndicate 5000 in London.
Asked whether heavily publicized cases such as the abduction of Nancy Guthrie can drive up demand for K&R insurance, Santor responded, “Any high-profile story in the news has the ability to influence new buyers to look to purchase coverage related to the incident.”
The incident in Isfahan province follows crash of fighter jet in Hamadan province less than a week ago.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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Tehran, Iran – Two military pilots and two merchants have been killed after an army helicopter crashed into a fruit market in central Iran.
The crash on Tuesday morning occurred in Dorcheh, a town in Isfahan province, where the army has a major airbase, according to state media, which said the cause was likely a technical fault in the aircraft.
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Footage broadcast by state media from the scene of the crash showed the wreckage and emergency responders putting out the fire.
The Army Aviation Training Centre, in a statement, identified the killed soldiers as Colonel Hamed Sarvazad, the pilot; and his co-pilot, Major Mojtaba Kiani.
Two people working at their booths in the market were also reportedly killed on the scene after the helicopter crashed and caught fire.
The army centre said the cause of the crash is under investigation. The local judiciary chief, Asadollah Jafari, said he had also opened a case and dispatched investigators.
The crash comes less than a week after an Iranian Air Force fighter jet, reportedly an old United States-built F-4 model, crashed during a late-night training mission in the western province of Hamadan.
State media reported that one of the pilots was killed, but the other survived after successfully ejecting. The cause of that crash is under investigation, but state media said it was likely caused by a technical fault, as well.
Iran has been largely unable to upgrade its ageing fleet of aircraft, both military and civilian, as a result of decades-long sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.
Iran has purchased a number of fighter and training aircraft from Russia, and has been seeking to buy advanced Su-35 jets, but they have yet to be delivered by Moscow.
The crash of the helicopter took place amid rising tensions between the US and Iran before a new round of nuclear talks, which are set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday.
Iranian officials have warned that the country will not “bow down” to US pressure as Washington bolsters its military presence in the region.
In recent weeks, the US military has amassed hundreds of advanced fighter aircraft, both in military bases and on two aircraft carrier strike groups, as it threatens to strike Iran if it fails to reach a deal on its nuclear and missile programmes.
Tehran has rejected negotiations about its missiles, but has said an agreement may be possible to ensure it will never possess a nuclear weapon.
The 2026 original song contenders come from deep inside the characters singing them: a simple man wistfully looking back on his ordinary life; a budding bluesman with talent to burn down the house; a 17-time Oscar nominee; a demon-hunting K-pop star channeling the real-life singer-songwriter behind her; and a joyous expression of life from inside a documentary’s main “character,” a retirement home for musicians.
‘Dear Me’ from ‘Diane Warren: Relentless’
Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
Diane Warren in “Diane Warren: Relentless.”
(Don Holtz)
When 17-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren agreed to be in a documentary about her life, she found herself back in her childhood home in Van Nuys — specifically the bathroom where she wrote songs as an angsty teen.
“The acoustics in that bathroom were always great,” she says. “It was cool to go back and look at the bedroom window I used to sneak out of. I’m always connected to that 14-year-old me, with a guitar my dad bought me.”
Inspired by the documentary’s examination of her troubled youth, Warren wrote an “It gets better” ballad sung by Kesha: “Dear me, it’s gonna be all right, all right / Trust me, all of the pain is gonna fade.”
“I get notes from all ages; the song makes them feel like they could hug the little kid inside them,” says Warren. “It’s a love song to your younger self.”
‘Golden’ from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
She related to the film’s protagonist, Rumi, a monster-fighting singer who is secretly part monster herself. “She has this side that she’s so ashamed of, that she was born with. I struggled with my own demons that I was ashamed of, growing up in the K-pop industry, [harshly critiqued for] my physical appearance, my voice, my personality.
“Even when writing ‘Golden,’ things were just not happening. It was a really bad time.”
Yet the hit is a catchy K-pop banger.
“It was very cathartic,” she says. “I remember crying while recording the demo. I was desperate.
“Now when I sing it, it’s a different feeling. I was able to reach a dream, and it makes me feel like this is who I was meant to be.”
‘I Lied to You’ from ‘Sinners’
Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson
Miles Caton, center, in “Sinners.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” features a central moment of musical ecstasy. Emerging bluesman Sammie plays a song he wrote as a confession to his pastor father, a paean to the music he loves. As the juke joint crowd responds, he loses himself in the timeless transcendence artists hope for.
Co-writer Ludwig Göransson says, “It doesn’t happen very often, but you have those experiences when you really are getting into the music and time and space disappears. Ryan’s not a musician, but it was written like he’s been in that position.”
In cosmic communion, practitioners of Black music from many eras appear to Sammie, the joint’s roof combusting in his mind. Göransson assisted in the Dolby Atmos mix, moving the music and sound around spatially as the camera travels.
Co-writer Raphael Saadiq says, “Sammie’s father felt secular music was devil music. Even today, you have people who go to church who don’t listen to the blues [for that reason], but deep down inside, they love it because it’s something we inherited from our ancestors.”
‘Sweet Dreams of Joy’ from ‘Viva Verdi!’
Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike
Milan’s Casa Verdi, a retirement home for musicians depicted in “Viva Verdi!”
(Viva Verdi! LLC)
Even those who know little about opera have heard of Giuseppe Verdi. What many don’t know is one of his most enduring accomplishments is Casa Verdi — a retirement home for musicians. Yvonne Russo’s documentary “Viva Verdi!” captures the vibrant life inside its walls, expressed in the aria “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” sung by soprano Ana María Martínez and composed by Nicholas Pike.
The filmmakers “sent me this 12-minute assembly, kind of like a teaser, and that’s all I saw,” says Pike. “The passion, the vitality of these residents, the mentoring of young, up-and-coming artists … I went over to the piano and wrote the song.”
He says the whole thing took about a day to craft, with its contemporary piano figures and classical vocals, imbued with the vivaciousness of Casa Verdi’s residents.
He wanted to capture the footage’s “energy and life and hope. We’ve all been to retirement homes; they can be pretty down places. This is 180 degrees from that.”
‘Train Dreams’ from ‘Train Dreams’
Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave
Joel Edgerton in “Train Dreams.”
(Netflix)
When “Train Dreams” star Joel Edgerton called Nick Cave to work with composer Bryce Dessner on a song for the film, the postpunk poet and art rocker was on holiday, avoiding the “attendant agony” of songwriting. But Denis Johnson’s book happened to be a favorite of Cave’s.
Edgerton sent him the film. Cave says, “I sat up in bed and watched it with Bryce’s gorgeous score and fell asleep and had a kind of fever dream with all the images of this extraordinary film, and woke up with the lyrics fully formed, which is extremely unusual for me.”
He went to the hotel’s breakfast room, where there was a piano. “It all just sort of poured out of me. The melody and the lyrics fit perfectly to Bryce’s score.”
The song expresses “the inarticulate wonder at the world that the lead character has. There’s this chordal thing after the refrain, that rises up — an expression of that wonder, rising out of the grief.
“‘This has been going on for years … I can’t begin to tell you how that feels.’”
Scotland and Ireland will face hosts England at the Women’s T20 World Cup after the draw for this summer’s tournament was finalised.
Scotland and Ireland booked their place at the World Cup in the qualifying tournament in Nepal earlier this month.
They join England in Group Two, alongside West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The game between England and Scotland at Headingley on 20 June will mark the first occasion the two countries have met in any kind of cricket World Cup fixture, men or women, in the UK.
Ireland meet England in Southampton on 16 June, while Ireland and Scotland start their campaigns against each other at Old Trafford on 13 June.
The tournament begins a day earlier when England take on Sri Lanka at Edgbaston.
Bangladesh and the Netherlands were the other two teams to come through the qualifier and join Australia, South Africa, India and Pakistan in Group One.
With the 12-team field confirmed – the largest in the 17-year history of the Women’s T20 World Cup – the full groups and fixtures have been published for the first time.
New Zealand will defend the title they won in the United Arab Emirates two years ago in the first Women’s T20 World Cup to be held in England since the inaugural tournament in 2009.
As well as Old Trafford, Headingley and Southampton, group matches will be played in Bristol. The semi-finals will be at The Oval on 30 June and 2 July, with the final at Lord’s on Sunday, 5 July.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), shown on a screen in the trading room at Hana Bank in Seoul, topped a record-high 5,000 on Tuesday. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul shares surged more than 2 percent Tuesday to close at a fresh record high above the 5,900-point mark, driven by strong gains in technology shares. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 123.55 points, or 2.11 percent, to finish at an all-time high of 5,969.64.
The index has extended its upward momentum in recent weeks, surpassing the 5,000-point mark for the first time on Jan. 27 and crossing 5,500 on Feb. 12. It moved above 5,800 on Friday.
Trading volume was heavy at 1.58 billion shares worth 30.73 trillion won (US$21.3 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 465 to 407.
Institutions bought a net 2.37 trillion won worth of stocks, offsetting net sales of 199.16 billion won by foreign investors and 2.28 trillion won by retail investors.
The rally came despite overnight losses on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.66 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 1.13 percent.
In Seoul, investors scooped up major chip stocks ahead of an earnings report from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia later this week, while remaining cautious over U.S. President Donald Trump‘s push to impose new tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down his original sweeping duties, analysts said.
Trump signed an executive order Friday (U.S. time) authorizing new 10 percent global tariffs that took effect Tuesday. He has also threatened to raise the rate to 15 percent, though no formal order has been issued.
“Even if the global tariffs are raised to 15 percent, there will be no major impact on the local stock market because current U.S. tariffs on Korean imports already stand at 15 percent,” an analyst at IBK Securities Co. said.
Technology and automobile stocks led the gains.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics jumped 3.63 percent to 200,000 won, while chip giant SK hynix surged 5.68 percent to a record high of 1,005,000 won.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.19 percent to 524,000 won, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 4.17 percent to 412,500 won.
Among decliners, shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean fell 2.79 percent to 143,100 won, and Lotte Shopping declined 1.67 percent to 111,700 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,442.50 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 2.5 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 0.4 basis point to 3.158 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds also climbed 0.5 basis point to 3.410 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Joint statement says Israeli land grab is ‘deliberate and direct attack’ on the viability of a Palestinian state.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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Foreign ministers of 19 countries, including Turkiye, Qatar, France and Brazil, have signed a joint statement condemning Israel’s moves to unlawfully extend and consolidate its control over Palestinian land.
The statement issued late Monday by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Israel’s plans to begin land registration in the occupied West Bank, which will sanction the seizure of land from Palestinians who cannot prove ownership, as “de facto annexation”.
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“Changes are wide-ranging, reclassifying Palestinian land as so-called Israeli ‘state land’, accelerating illegal settlement activity, and further entrenching Israeli administration,” said the joint statement, also signed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the heads of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel’s plans, signed on February 15, will see registration introduced across Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank’s territory, according to the illegal settlement monitoring organisation, Peace Now.
The joint statement warned Israel’s moves could permanently alter the “legal and administrative status” of territory that is largely under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule, but which would constitute part of a future Palestinian state.
“Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian State and the implementation of the two-State Solution,” the statement said, rejecting measures altering “the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem”.
Signatories also called on Israel to end settler violence against Palestinians, pledging to take “concrete steps, in accordance with international law, to counter the expansion of illegal settlements in Palestinian territory and policies and threats of forcible displacement and annexation”.
The foreign ministers stressed that Israeli settlements constitute “a flagrant violation of international law”, including previous United Nations Security Council resolutions and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The landmark ICJ ruling stated that Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” rendered its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful”.
According to the ICJ, approximately 465,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, spread across some 300 settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Israel’s land registration plan could lead to the “dispossession of Palestinians of their property and risks expanding Israeli control over land in the area”.
Signatories of the statement urged Israel to immediately release withheld tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority in accordance with the 1994 Paris Protocol.
They also stressed the importance of preserving the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan.
When Jared Snow goes to the hospital, he’s usually in serious pain, which he hopes will be assuaged soon. But living with sickle cell disease as a Black man in America often tests this hope.
The Compton born stand-up comedian and actor has been living with sickle cell disease since he was a child. Hospital visits and pain have always been part of his life. But now he’s using his latest project, a documentary film called “You Look Fine,” to show the world how he copes as an entertainer with living with sickle cell disease in an industry steeped in image and perception.
Alongside actor-comedian Marlon Wayans, Snow wanted to make the film to raise awareness about the realities of sickle cell disease and how it impacts Black communities.
In the United States, sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 people, with more than 90% of cases being among Black people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sickle cell disease occurs in about one out of every 365 Black or African American births. People living with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that are crescent shaped due to a gene mutation. Because of this, the red blood cells can block blood flow to the rest of the body and can cause chronic pain, strokes, lung problems, infections and kidney disease.
The nearly 90-minute documentary has Snow filming himself inside small hospital rooms, nurses trying to find a vein in which to stick needles, and even him trying to work on material as he lies in hospital beds. The film also includes interviews with his friends.
Snow was adamant about showing the blood and needles in the film as well as footage of himself writhing in pain on hospital beds and the frustration of waiting hours for doctors to provide adequate dosages of pain medication that can help him. He cracks jokes during his hospital stays, but in between you get a front-row look at how tiring, tearful and emotionally devastating his illness can be. Interspersed within such footage are clips from his stand-up shows and him trying to live his best life by traveling, skydiving and even experiencing New York City snowfall.
The Times caught up with Snow and Wayans to talk about the film, vulnerability, Black men’s health, and finding levity through the pain.
J. Snow in the hospital in “You Look Fine”
(J. SnowPro)
I was struck by the handwritten notes with title ideas. Tell me where “You Look Fine” comes from?
J. Snow: It’s just something I hear a lot. It’s something I’ve heard a lot during my life. It’s cultural Black gaslighting is what it is. When you’re in pain, sometimes you look fine. When you are telling people, “I’m not fine,” they’re like, “Your hair is nice.” I can’t go to the hospital with gold. I had gold beads. Sometimes you go there looking too nice. Sometimes I got to dress down just to try to get the help. But if I dress too far down, I look homeless, and they really won’t be open to helping me. So you got to find the balance. But that’s kind of where it comes from. … I wanted to throw it back into people’s face. This is something that a lot of sickle cell warriors, and people with chronic illnesses in general hear, people with mental illness hear, and so I think it’s important to highlight how that literally is gaslighting.
What was your motivation to do this documentary now?
J.S.: I wanted to show that humor lives within this and that a lot of resilience and strength are also within this, and that was really the motivator. Also, just growing up with it, not having a lot of information, not seeing a lot of men talk about it. I wanted to be different, you know.
Marlon Wayans: For me it fits on brand for several reasons. One is because I love taking the dark things in life and finding some humor in it. And I think I try to do that with my comedy. I try to do it with my specials. I try to do it because I think we need to all find smiles no matter what your situation is; laughter is always healing and always necessary. Being African American, I grew up when sickle cell was like a prominent disease, and in our culture I know even when it came to dating, my mother would ask “Who you dating? You know, because if she got the trait, and you got the trait, you know, what could happen.” So I’ve always been aware of it, and I’ve lost now four friends to sickle cell. I just lost two in the last year. It’s a long fight, and so I’m here to support them and our culture and the awareness. And you know, Jay is a friend, and you know, I want him to see fame.
For Jared, in the film, you say, “I just want to see what my body can do.” I thought that was just so deeply profound. What is your relationship like with your body now, compared with the moment you were filming that?
J.S.: When somebody sees me eating a salad, and they’re like, “Oh, you eating salad?” I’m like, “This could save my life.” When I’m stretching and doing yoga, it’s not because I want to be a yogi. It’s because it literally gets oxygen into the joints that are suffering without oxygen. It stretches my hips and I want the longevity. I see what happens in sickle cell warriors and people without sickle cell who just age without moving frequently.
J. Snow walks through the halls of a hospital while dealing with issues from sickle cell.
(Courtesy of J. SnowPro)
Black people, especially for Black men, don’t have their pain taken seriously — be it their physical pain or their emotional pain. What has it been like for you to publicly show that pain?
J.S.: It’s been challenging. It took awhile for me to get to the point where I could even talk about this publicly, especially being in entertainment and trying to maintain a certain persona and image in entertainment where like your ego clashes against your vulnerability and you feeling like you’re weak. That’s the stigma that comes with people who admit that they have illnesses and stuff like that, especially in entertainment. It makes people not want to work with you. I’ve suffered through that. I’ve lost jobs while in the hospital because of this. And so it got to a place where it just was unavoidable. The pressure built so much and the frequency of the hospital visits became so crazy that it was like, you’re either going to be viewed as this very lazy, sometime-y person, or you’re going to come clean about what you’re actually dealing with and just face it.
M.W.: I live in the pain. I live in the vulnerability. I think that’s why I create my best work. You know, my parents died. I thought it was only appropriate to talk about that thing that hurts me so much. I think part of it takes courage, but at the same time, I know it’s necessary.
What was going through your mind when you first saw that footage of [Snow] in the hospital?
M.W.: “This [man] is crazy. Why you filming?” He made sure he had a GoPro on his foot and set cameras up — dude really wants to make it. Forget this disease. He may be faking it just to make it bigger. I was proud, right? That’s because I love the resilience, I love that you still have a passion, that you still have a thing that you want to do, and you have this art and this vessel and this expression, and I know that even though he’s hurting, that he’s healing at the same time, at least, you know, emotionally and spiritually. Because to put art out there at the time that it’s happening, that you’re in pain, that takes a lot of courage from the artist, and so I was proud. That’s why I stand behind it, because I think it’s something I’ve never seen, and I think it’s something that’s necessary for the culture.
How has this film changed your relationship to your understanding of masculinity and strength?
M.W.: For me, it’s just on theme. It hasn’t changed, it just enforced how I feel. You know, I’ve never been one to hide my feelings. I go to therapy. I have two therapists, I go on my walks. I talk to God. I’m reading my Bible. I understand that life is a long journey of suffering, and you need these outlets, and this movie and art are part of that. I have the stage. I always have this thing that I’m expressing because it helps me reconcile all that’s going on with me, especially when I take this pain and make other people laugh or are entertained by it, then I go, all right, I did something good with that thing that was bad. And so this enforces what I want people to feel. I want people to watch this. That’s why I stand behind this, because it’s on theme spiritually for me.
J.S.: I think when you stand outside of that vulnerability and you’re afraid to really go into it, I don’t know, I feel like that’s orbiting your true power. The most masculine thing you can do is face your highs and lows head on and own them. And that’s where you find out who you really are. This is where you find out what you can really bring to the table for yourself, for others, and where you become fearless. And that’s exactly what this showed me, was that I can do anything, I can conquer a lot of things. I walk around with a new energy because I’ve done this. I literally had a film on hard drives, and I sat for 11 months and edited it relentlessly, and now I have my first feature film because I was fearless enough to at least try to do it and not feel, what are people going to think, or what are people going to say? That didn’t matter to me. Also with this clock over my head, you don’t got time to think about stuff like that. It’s like, what do you want to do while you’re here? And what I wanted to do was make movies, make people laugh and inspire others to do things that they want to do too. And that took letting go of whatever this masculine image was that was blocking me.
J. Snow on stage at the Hollywood Laugh Factory
(Brianna Joseph)
The whole film is endearing, but I found those moments of levity so well- timed and so thoughtful and funny. How do Black people find those moments of levity, oftentimes, during these moments of pain?
M.W.: Because Black people have been through so much trauma before we get into family trauma, just as a people. We have suffered the most trauma from being separated from our family, slavery — we’ve been through it — and yet, and still, we find that funny. And that has been, I think, our saving grace is our sense of humor. It’s been a lifesaver. It’s been a raft in a really rough ocean for us. And I think it’s beautiful that we can. I will always promote laughing when you’re in your most pain to find the funny, because that takes a little pressure off. You’re laughing and crying at the same time. It’s like the best feeling.
J.S.: It’s like oxygen, like when the air is being sucked out of the room by your circumstances, your trauma, your pain or whatever. That little laugh is like a little breath of oxygen. It gives you something to keep going forward, to continue to think, “OK, like, where’s another solution from here? What else can I do here?” It gives you that breath that you need.
CK Hutchison says the Panamanian government has taken ‘administrative and operational control’ of its two ports on the canal.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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The government of Panama has seized control of two ports on either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong conglomerate following a recent ruling by the country’s Supreme Court.
Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison said on Tuesday that Panama’s government had “made direct physical entry into the terminals at Balboa and Cristobal” and assumed “administrative and operational control” over the two ports on the Panama Canal.
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The company said the “unlawful” takeover reflects the culmination of a campaign by the Panamanian state against its subsidiary, Panama Ports, following the Supreme Court ruling last month.
According to a government decree, the Panama Maritime Authority has been authorised to occupy the ports for “reasons of urgent social interest”, according to The Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The maritime authority also has the right to take over port property, including computer systems and cranes, according to the decree.
The state takeover marks the latest twist in a yearlong saga for CK Hutchison, which has been caught in a three-way fight between China, the United States, and Panama following US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year.
Starting in December 2024, Trump began to allege that the Panama Canal was being operated by China and promised to “take it back” – using military force if necessary – as part of a greater effort to reassert US dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
Last month, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that CK Hutchison’s concession to operate the two ports was “unconstitutional” despite the company renewing its concession in 2021 for another 25 years.
The Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) weighed in on the controversy, describing the ruling as “absurd” and “shameful”, while warning that the Latin American country would pay “heavy prices both politically and economically”.
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino responded, saying he “strongly” rejected China’s threat against his country and that Panama was a country that upholds the rule of law “and respects the decisions of the judiciary, which is independent of the central government”.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. buildup of forces in the Middle East ahead of a possible attack on Iran relies very heavily on the performance of the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC). Hundreds of its cargo jets and aerial refueling tankers have moved materiel into theater and helped tactical jets, radar planes and other aircraft deploy across oceans to places like Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, among many other locations. At the same time, the current crisis in the Middle East pales in comparison to the massive spike in demand for airborne logistics that would occur during a Pacific fight against China. Regardless, ever greater demand is being placed on an increasingly aging AMC fleet.
Few people know the nuts and bolts of AMC and its mission better than Michael “Mini” Minihan, a retired Air Force general who led the command from October 2021 to November 2024. In a 45-minute interview, Minihan offered his insights on that and a whole host of other topics. They include the current crisis and its airlift demands, challenges from China, future airframes, arming airlifters and refuelers, the connectivity issues he championed, AI and the leaked memo that put a cap on his career.
Michael Minihan led U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) from October 2021 until his retirement in November 2024. (USAF) AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan. USAF
Since retiring, Minihan serves as a strategic advisor and board member to defense and technology companies, non-profits, and think tanks while continuing to write and speak on leadership, national security, and the future of air mobility and global power projection.
Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
Q: The C-17 Globemaster III heavy lifters have been supporting one crisis after another it seems. Have the hours accumulated faster on those airframes? What do you think should replace them and when?
A: All the things I was concerned about while I was in uniform, I remain concerned about right now. The options on the table are service life extension programs [SLEP] that the C-17 is already a candidate for. There was talk late last year about the KC-135 Stratotanker receiving another [SLEP]. You know, those types of things are concerning to me. At the end of the day, I think this nation needs to pay for the Air Force it needs, and the Air Force that it needs has a modern, capable mobility fleet. It’s not just old stuff that keeps getting patched up to get older. That’s the reality. So I’m concerned.
C-17 Globemaster. (USAF)
Q: Right now, a massive buildup is underway in the Middle East. AMC is doing the heavy lifting there as always. But in a crisis in the Pacific, would we have enough airlift aircraft to support moving quick enough across that vast theater, especially to respond to an invasion of Taiwan?
A: What you’re talking about is always a concern, regardless of the scenario. The reality is that America relies on the mobility fleet to project its power… So there’s not any scenario, even in the day-to-day competition, where you’re happy with the supply-demand intersection. So I think that we’ve got to work on capacity, certainly out of the entire mobility fleet, when it comes to the airlift and the air refueling. And then if you overlay that in contested environments, the concern gets bigger.
This KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tanker remains at Moron Air Base in Spain after suffering a mishap earlier this momth. (Pepe Jimenez)
Q: Considering how long it has taken to build up forces in the Middle East, where tankers and cargo jets are flying over uncontested airspace, how concerned are you about being able to project enough power over long distances to protect Taiwan from an attack by China?
A: The alarm that I had when I was active duty exists today… So the reason I’m a civilian right now is because I was ringing the bell on the exact questions that you’re asking right now and that concern still remains. The reality is against a China or against a Russia, they’re going to challenge you in all domains, from great distances. They absolutely understand that the mobility fleet is America’s capability to project power quickly. So there’s going to be a focus on it. But once again, you’re describing concerns that I had and expressed when I was active duty, and I still have those same concerns.
Inside Taiwan’s Strategy to Counter a Chinese Invasion | WSJ
A: The leak created antibodies that would want me in another job. That memo was getting after all the things that you’re asking about right now. It was getting after capability and capacity. It was getting after readiness. It was getting after explode into theater. It was getting after the mobility fleet being able to do what it’s asked to do, despite being extremely vulnerable, despite it being extremely antiquated – all those things.
A portion of the memo AMC Commander Gen. Michael Minihan wrote that was leaked to the public. (USAF via X) USAF via Twitter
I believe that the Chief of Staff of the Air Force [Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach] now is focused on modernization and readiness. Those were 100% things that I was championing very early. And I think those things exist now, and I think we need to continue to put pressure on [those things] to get the resourcing, to get not just the Air Force, but America’s mobility fleet, to the capability and capacity that it needs to be at, so that we can not have concerns about China and not have concern about [deploying] to Europe when needed.
Q: Were you fired over the memo?
A: I was not fired. I thought for two weeks that I was going to be fired, but I was thankfully allowed to serve out the rest of my command tour. But I was asked to retire.
Gen. Mike Minihan, U.S. Air Force retired, delivers a speech at the Herk Nation Legacy Monument Award at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, May 5, 2025. The event honored Minihan as the second recipient of the Herk Nation Legacy Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to Herk Nation and the Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Rachel Bates-Jones)
Q: What were the biggest lessons learned by Mobility Guardian and our readiness to meet the challenge China poses in the Pacific?
A: We’ve got to explode into theater very quickly. We’ve got to be able to explode into theater in numbers and volumes and challenges that we’ve not experienced in any of the modern…operations. We’ve got to put the entire joint force in place. We’ve got to do it quick enough that it gives an enormous deterrent value and also be able to provide that decisive victory, should it get to that.
We’ve got to transition from a deploy to an employ phase very quickly. So that’s establishing hubs and spokes. And then the last thing I’ll say – this is about maneuver. We have got to maneuver at a tempo required to win. So we got to put America’s unique and amazing capabilities in a position of advantage, and then once they’re in that position of advantage, we’ve got to be lethal, and that requires logistics, sustainment, supply maneuver, all the things that have to come together in the joint force to be lethal have to be there, and we need to work extremely hard to do that.
So Mobility Guardian was really a rehearsal, and we demonstrated that we couldn’t explode into theater. We demonstrated that we could go from deploy to employ. But we also learned some hard lessons, and to get it to the scale and the volume of the tempo that we needed to be, we’ve got work to do.
Mobility Guardian 2023
Q: What were some of these lessons?
A: The lessons are connectivity. You probably heard me say that a bunch both in uniform and out of uniform, but connectivity became my number one thing. I testified before the House Readiness Committee on that. I came up with a concept called 25% of the fleet by 2025, but the reality is that the car I rented right now driving from the airport to my hotel room has more connectivity in it than the overwhelming majority of the mobility fleet. So connectivity matters.
We’ve got to operate at a tempo required to win, which means we need to do extremely long missions. We need to have exquisite situational awareness. We need to understand the changing dynamic of the operational environment. When it comes to red forces, blue forces, threats, priority receivers, priority users. We’ve got diffuse information and logistic priorities across services, so there’s almost an unlimited amount of lessons learned. And then command relationships matter as well as command and control. All those things matter too. So plenty of lessons learned. I don’t think any of those are surprising. I think they’re accounted for in the Air Force’s readiness and modernization. But we also need to get resources so that we can be the Air Force this country needs.
An F-15 Eagle from the 159th Fighter Wing receives mid-flight refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 128th Air Refueling Wing of Milwaukee during Sentry Aloha off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii on January 15, 2026. (Master Sgt. Lauren Kmiec photo) Master Sgt. Lauren Kmiec
Q: How would you peg our overall readiness, realistically, to confront China in the Pacific militarily?
A: We’re ready. I like the way that [IndoPacific Command leader] Adm. [Sam] Paparo uses it. He says we’re ready, but he’ll never admit to being ready enough. This is kind of like the coaches that you love to play for – they are never satisfied. I would broaden it beyond readiness. I would say readiness, integration and agility of the joint force is what matters. And as ready, integrated and agile as we are, we need to be more. And those things have a deterrent value in themselves, and they’re also the essentials to decisive victory. So China enjoys positional advantage, but America enjoys extreme warfighting capabilities that can always get better, and it starts with readiness, integration and agility. We want to get to the point where we’re so ready that they don’t want to take us on.
Q; What were the three biggest problems you faced in your job and how did you go about solving them? Were you successful?
A: The three biggest problems I faced during my command tour at Air Mobility Command was resourcing, resourcing and resourcing – articulating the state of the mobility platforms and securing the resources necessary to get them on step to where they need to be. And so I said resourcing three times, and I mean it.
The Pentagon. (Department of War) (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
This is all about money. You can say everything you want. You can say all the things are important. You can say ‘you’re right, General Minihan, we agree with you,’ but if it’s not followed up with resourcing, then it’s meaningless, you know? So at the end of the day, this is all about resourcing. Can we decide to be the Air Force, the joint military that puts the resourcing behind what it means to decisively defeat a near peer adversary? Or do we wait until another December 7, or another September 11 event to finally get all the things pulled together that we need to pull together. So I get it. This is expensive.
We’ve got a chance of a century right now, I believe, with this administration. When you line up the executive orders, when you line up the acquisition reform, when you look up the possibility of a $1.5 trillion defense budget, you know those things come together means that we can move faster and move differently than we’ve ever done but we’ve got to be ready to do it.
We can’t apply all the opportunities over the same template of how we acquire, how we take risk, how we get our warfighters the things that they need and expect a different outcome at the end of the day. The overall statement for this, and this is big into problem statements. If I were to describe the problem statement we’re trying to solve is, can we get critical war-winning capabilities to our warfighters faster than China? At the end of the day, if we can answer yes to that question, then we’re going to be okay. If it’s a maybe or a no, then we’re going to have some significant concerns moving forward.
Trump Calls For Massive Increase To Defense Spending: $1.5 Trillion For 2027
Q: Were you successful in your efforts to solve those problems?
A: Was I successful? I would say I was successful at ringing the bell. I needed three more years to get it across the line. And I’m not comparing myself to a Gen. [Curtis E.] LeMay or a Gen. [Wilbur L.] Creech, but those two [Major Command] MAJCOM commanders – who are the fathers of the modern strategic bomber force and the father of the modern fighter force – were both MAJCOM commanders for over six years. So if I had to give myself a grade, I would say me and my teams were A-plus for effort and articulation and at the end of the day, getting the system to react quickly within three years proved extremely challenging.
Q: What was your grade for that?
A: It’s to be determined. You know, the money process takes a little time. I think there’s money for connectivity coming up in the current and the next few years, which is a great sign and a big change. If I were to grade it for what I wanted, I would have given myself a C, but I think it’s a higher grade than that, due to the circumstances, due to the realities of the budgeting and the resourcing process.
A: The problems are getting resourcing across the line. Can you deliver them? Money. You know, at the end of the day, MAJCOMs don’t have the money to get the things that they need and under the current process. So how do you affect the organizations and entities above you, so that you can align the resourcing to do the things that it needs to do, and the timelines that you need to do it when that’s always a challenge for everybody.
Air Mobility Command (AMC) Change of Command Ceremony – Scott AFB
But if you’re asking what [Lamontagne] needs to worry about…if you look at the first Iran operation, if you look at the Venezuela operation, whatever is going to happen over the next short-term future for the Middle East, you can walk away saying, ‘we’re just fine.’ You can walk away saying, ‘Hey, we can project power over long distances. We can impose America’s will. We can do the things that our president and our nation asked us to do.’ And that’s right, you can do it under those circumstances.
The courage of the joint team is phenomenal. The capability of the joint team is phenomenal, but it does not compare to what will happen in a near-peer fight in the Pacific or in Europe. We are going to be contested from long distances in all domains, and the fleet that we have now is not going to be successful in that environment unless we take quick action and fix things.
A B-2 bomber drops a GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb during a test. (USAF) USAF
Q: There is a lot of hype around Rapid Dragon and giving the airlift community a ‘shooter’ role. But in a major conflict, won’t the fleet be tasked to the max just with its core logistics mission? Do we need more airframes to really do the Rapid Dragon concept justice?
A: I hear this one a lot. So here’s the reality. I’ve got to carry the missile, the bomb anyway. Okay, I’m not trying to be Global Strike. I’m not trying to be a fighter. I’m not trying to compete with capabilities that are legit and high-end when it comes to delivering kinetic effects. But if I have to carry it anyway, and there’s an ability for C-130s, C-17s and other airlift platforms, why would you not want that capability?
So I’m not saying it can go into the high-threat areas or the medium-threat areas. I’m not saying that it needs to be a primary mission. But let’s really look at the thing – at the entire process here. I’ve got to carry that stuff anyways, so I am either gonna stop and drop it off for someone else to shoot, or I could have the ability to do it. If a combatant commander needs a demand signal, there’s a ton of C-130s. Our foreign partners and allies operate them. These aren’t complex systems. The munitions already exist. It’s essentially air-dropping it out of the airplane. And I think it has enormous viability in the Pacific. It can service medium- to low-[threat] targets all day long that need servicing and free up the other sets to get after the high-end threat environments where they need to be focused. So I think it’s something we need to consider.
Rapid Dragon
Q: That segues nicely to my next question. What are the biggest threats China poses to our tankers and airlifters during a time of war?
A: The ability to get out of town by dropping electrical grids and navigation signals. This is true for all the platforms. This is why I say we’ll be contested at great distances in all domains. Critical infrastructure matters and getting out of town – we already talked about what it means to explode into theater. So it’d be silly to think that they’re going to not take a very inexpensive way to disrupt our ability to do that. And then, the farther you get to the threat, regardless of which way you’re heading around the ocean, you know is going to increase their ability to reach out with long-range effects and stop mobility.
If you stop one tanker, you stop six fighters. That sounds like a good return on investment if you’re an adversary trying to prevent us from projecting power. I don’t think I’m saying anything I haven’t said before, and I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s inconsistent with others [are saying] about what the real environment is going to look like.
They’re students of us. They have unimpeded access to our critical infrastructure for a decade or more, and we’re going to expect them to call in on their investment and impose a cost on us a great distance.
Q: Is there any particular Chinese system or munition that worries you the most?
A: What worries me the most? I’m worried, just like I was in uniform, about the multi-domain aspect for which they’re going to go after us. I’m worrying about how those all come together. Certainly, without connectivity in the mobility fleet, it’s hard for mobility aircraft to understand where the threats are, especially the kinetic threats. So our ability to understand if you’re in a threat ring or a dynamic threat environment is extremely handicapped. And certainly the kinetic ones are of the biggest concern. Like they are in any war.
1/2 During the 3rd Sept 🇨🇳CCP Military parade in Beijing, some Air Defense Missile systems were shown in CCTV 4K: HQ-9C, HQ-11, HQ-19, HQ-22A & HQ-29… pic.twitter.com/cIxoX5Tc7Z
A: The single biggest contributor to survivability in a big airplane is connectivity. The biggest contributor is not having a 12-hour-old Intel brief that you’re relying on to get you through the mission. So real-world updates, real-time updates, just like our fighters and our bombers enjoy. Battle management that gets after maneuver and not just kill chain. Those things matter.
If you were to ask me what I would want most when it comes to survivability, it would be connectivity that gives me the situational awareness to let our young crews – our captains, our lieutenants, our NCO – go out there and make great decisions as they’re operating under delegated authorities. Connectivity matters most. No doubt. Connectivity is why I put the priority on it when I was in uniform, because it’s the single biggest contributor to survivability. I just don’t think because of the size of these airplanes, in the maturity of the threat, that we’re going to be able to rely on traditional means of survivability.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Jarod Suhr, left, 100th Operations Support Squadron pilot and wing tactics officer, clarifies points of the Real-time Information in the Cockpit system to Capt. Anthony Vecchio, 100th OSS pilot and wing tactics officer, on a KC-135 Stratotanker at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, Oct. 18, 2023. The newly installed communications system gives aircrew the ability to access vital information including threats, target data and locations of friendly forces, providing much more accurate and instant information. (U.S. Air Force photo by Karen Abeyasekere) Karen Abeyasekere
Q: What about mini interceptors, or pairing these aircraft with CCA-like companions? Would that work?
A: I mean, I love it. The whole concept we came up with, the next-generation air lift [NGAL] and next-generation air refueling systems [NGAS]. I definitely see a role for CCA beyond just loyal wingman to fighter. So we can do this with everything from a CCA version of a tanker. We can do it with a stealth version of a tanker. I don’t think we need huge numbers of those. We can do stealth-like characteristics, like blended wing.
We can certainly have aircraft that are multirole, both cargo and air refueling. And so then you can have a lot of tankers that look like the tankers that we have now, the ability for small CCA and drones and other things to do electronic warfare and spoof and jam and other things like that are all on the table in my book and things that we should be exploring.
A rendering of the blended wing body demonstrator aircraft now in development for the Air Force. (USAF) A rendering of the blended wing body demonstrator aircraft now in development for the Air Force. USAF
A: I think that we’ve got to have a family approach to air refueling, and that’s where the NGAS concept came up. It’s hard for me to believe, to think that you’re going to be able, in a highly contested environment, to get our highest capabilities into the high-threat environments without having some sort of stealth-like CCA air refueling capability. I don’t think we need big numbers of them. I understand completely that they’re expensive, but we’ve got to work through that process, and we’re doing it with NGAS. So everything I’m telling you, I’ve said for years, and I’ve got a lot on the record out there that’s getting after the questions you’re asking, and I’ve not changed since I got out of uniform.
A rendering of a notional stealth tanker refueling an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works) Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
The announcement by Northrop Grumman, the partnership with Embraer gets after this. If you go tackle that announcement, it gets after creating a family-of-systems approach to the problem, as opposed to we’re just going to field one piece of the problem at a time. We’re not going to work the integration in advance. We’re not going to work the readiness in advance. We’re not going to work the agility in advance, and I was happy to see in that announcement that they’re approaching the problem differently, because that’s the kind of approach I think we need to be successful.
Q: Have you looked at adapting the B-21 for this kind of stealth tanker role?
A: I don’t know what they’re looking at adapting, but I think there’s eloquence in the solutions that exist and that they’re working on, and then broadening their missions to beyond just the original intent for which they were designed. So I think that there’s great value in looking at those opportunities.
A B-21 Raider conducts flight testing, which includes ground testing, taxiing, and flying operations, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Courtesy photo) 412th Test Wing
Q: What about an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) tanker capable of supporting small numbers of fighters from forward airfields? The KC-390 is being pitched for such a role. Do we need smaller tankers capable of operating from shorter fields?
A: We need a family of tankers that can address all the warfighter needs in all the warfighter environments. So we need tankers that look a lot like the ones we have now, that can handle the low-threat environments. We need tankers that can push into the medium-threat environments and service the big volume offloads in the abundant amount of receivers that will be out there. We need tankers that can operate in a medium- to high-threat with blended wing and stealth characteristics. And then we need stealth like tankers that can go into a higher-threat environment, as well as unmanned and CCA.
Northrop Grumman and Embraer are working together to evolve the multi-mission KC-390 Millennium aircraft, to provide advanced tanking capabilities for the United States Air Force and allied nations. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
I believe there’s room in the Air Force for all in that capability. Let’s be clear, it’s what the kinetic force needs, you know. So the strike force and the bomber force are [fifth-generation] fifth-gen and [sixth-generation] sixth-gen, and yet we still operate a mobility force that’s on its best day, 2.5 Gen and in some cases, second generation. So we’ve got to catch up, not because of ego, but because of capability. At the end of the day, this is about equilibrium of the enabling force to actually do what it needs to do, so that the strike force can carry out its missions in all environments. That’s what needs to happen.
Q: Is there money to do that? Is there a will from higher headquarters and then the administration to make that happen?
A: Well, there needs to be. Like I said, I think the opportunity is here with this administration. Its executive orders, its acquisition reform, and the possibility of a significant increase in the budget. But this gets back to, are we going to pay for the Air Force that this country needs? It’s been under-invested in, especially in mobility, and we need to ensure that this president and every future president, when they call on the Air Force to support the joint force, to project America’s power to serve the national interests and impose our will when needed, that we need to develop these kind of things. We have to do this if we want to be the Air Force that this country needs.
The last KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jet was delivered to the Air Force in 1965. (USAF)
Q: Have you talked to anybody in the current administration or the current Department of War about this, and what’s your sense of the interest there?
A: I think the conversation is turning where it needs to go. I have not talked to the current administration about this specifically, but I think there’s an appreciation, when you line up the talking points that align the priorities of where the department is going, I think that there is 100% alignment with what my priorities were when I was in uniform, what my priorities are now that I’m out of uniform, with the priorities of where this administration is going.
I realize it’s still hard. I realize there are still challenges. I realize there are no easy answers to any of this, and I realize that there’s more to modernization and readiness than just the mobility fleet. And I also realize that these are the things that we need to do.
Q: Low-end drones are a big problem, especially for big airplanes sitting idle on the ground. What do you think should be done to defend our airlift assets against lower-end drones?
A: Just like everyone else, I watched the [Operation Spider Web] attack that Ukraine carried out on Russia’s strategic forces. And the only thing that surprised me about that is that people were surprised and that it took so long for them to do it. This is a real threat. It gets down to air base defense. It’s something that we championed in Air Mobility Command during my time there, because of the drone incursions that were happening over multiple Air Mobility Command bases and multiple Air Mobility Command missions. So this isn’t a surprise to me.
Over 4-minutes of drone footage from Operation Spiderweb has just been released by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), showing the targeting of roughly two dozen Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 Long-Range Strategic Bombers as well as two of the Russian Air Force’s extremely limited A-50… pic.twitter.com/ZpW85oPb7M
This is going to have to be a joint solution, and I know the Army is working very hard on this, but there’s also going to have to be a capability of the Air Force and wings that are deploying to be able to do this on their own as well. So no easy answers here.
I feel like we’re behind, but catching up. I think it nests nicely into the Golden Dome opportunity as well. But you know, you gotta be able to handle everything from the low-cost drones all the way up to the highest capability missiles that could attack the homeland. This all fits in a spectrum of threats that we need to be concerned about.
A graphic of how the Golden Dome missile defense system will be designed to work. (DIA)
Q: You brought up drone incursions. When and where did they happen and was the source ever found?
A: The incursions took place in late 2021 and early 2022 for Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and constantly at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey throughout my command. I’m not tracking that the source of those incursions was identified. It doesn’t mean that they weren’t. To my knowledge they weren’t. But, you know, at the end of the day, if you can’t control the airspace, including the airspace that drones are using, that’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re in garrison or deployed. We’ve got to have the ability to defend at a greater capability than we have.
Q: How are the C-5M Galaxy cargo jets doing? Are readiness rates improving? Will we need a direct replacement of something its size when their time finally comes to head to the boneyard? Was the M upgrade program successful?
A: I’m a year and a half out of the conversation. The last data point I got was from U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) commander Gen. [Randall] Reed‘s congressional testimony, where he said that the mission reliability rate, I believe, had fallen to 46%. So, if that’s true, then it’s still an enormous concern. I don’t know any part of your life where you tolerate a critical capability operating less than half the time when you need it. So C-5s are an enormous concern for me.
I think there are options out there when it comes to large-volume aircraft that exist, that are being worked now, that can help us get capability quickly. And then I think there are concepts out there, like the commercialization of the C-5 fleet, that need to be taken seriously as well and apply commercial standards, commercial supply chain to increase the readiness of it. And between a combination of those two, I think that you can sustain what America needs to project large volume lift, but also get much higher than a 46% mission reliability rate.
A C-5 Galaxy transport jet. (USAF)
Q: Do you see the need for a similar sized cargo aircraft to replace the C-5 when it’s finally time for them to retire?
A: I do. I think building large, colossal aircraft is one of the hardest things to do on the planet, when you think about it. I need someone to help fact check me on this, but I don’t think more than 250 large aircraft have ever been built. You know, when you include the Hughes aircraft, include the C-5, include the Russian Antonovs, the fleet has been small because it’s hard. At the same time, it does things that nothing else can do. You don’t have to condemn your cargo to sea lift only. You can move things very quickly – large volume things, critical capabilities. And so we need to have this capability.
But I don’t see the Air Force buying C-5 replacements. I see them transitioning C-5s to a different model, like commercialization. And I see the manufacturer of a large aircraft that can handle the volume being in the CRAF [Civil Reserve Air Fleet], and being a service concept that can get America the stuff we need when we need it. As opposed to developing another C-5 replacement, in addition to what’s going to have to eventually replace the C-5…
Q: Was the M upgrade on the C-5 successful?
A: I wasn’t there for when it was done, but … I would love to see what the original predictions were. When you spend all that money on that airplane and then still have a 46% mission reliability rate, it sounds like it is still challenged, like it used to be.
Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 1, NMCB 11, and Air Force Personnel from the 436th Maintenance Squadron (MXS), install a new tail rudder on a C5 Super Galaxy. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Sean P. Rinner) Petty Officer 1st Class Sean P Rinner
A: Aviation right now is at a point of affordability and simplicity that we have got to distribute capability down to more tactical levels and have less centralization. Drones, automated aircraft 3,000 pounds or less, need to be a part of that equation. They need to be a part of the equation.
I am a big fan of drones…The problem we’re trying to solve is getting winning capabilities to our warfighters faster than China. That’s what we need to be focused on. We have got to be infatuated with automation and connectivity. We have to be infatuated with drones and automated aircraft from small to medium to large capabilities.
China’s unmanned transport aircraft completes maiden test flight
The biggest question I hear about why people don’t want small- and medium-capability is because they’re concerned about who commands and controls it and in my mind, that’s the point. You don’t have to command and control it. This is like a distributed maneuver pool, like a Jeep used to be in the Army. It’s inexpensive, it’s easy to operate, and we give it to maneuvering commanders in the field. We get TRANSCOM and Air Mobility Command out of the command and control of it. We let commanders determine their own priorities and service them, and then all we have to do is integrate them into the critical capabilities that Air Mobility, Command and TRANSCOM provide. You know those and we actually free up more of their assets to do that strategic and operational lift, as opposed to always having to get down into the capabilities that can be served by something much smaller. Does that make sense?
A: Final thought on that is, we need to do more of it. I’m not saying we need to do more testing, but when it comes to automation, when it comes to concepts, when it comes to the tempo, the things we’re going to be required to do, we have to set ourselves up to be successful in an extremely deadly and demanding operational environment.
And to think that we’re going to apply the old dogma over this new operational environment, it’s just going to put us in a really challenging place to be successful in. So single tanker pilot ops made a comment on autonomy. It made a comment on what we need to do to win in the Pacific. It made a comment on risk taking, and it made a comment on, I think, a command team that understood how to apply real concepts over real problems and come out with an informed way forward. So there was a larger message than just single pilots in tankers.
A picture the Air Force released of the KC-46A that was used for the single-pilot sorties on October 25, 2022. (USAF) A picture the Air Force released of the KC-46A that was used for the single-pilot sorties on October 25, 2022. USAF
Q: Finally, how did you see the rise of AI influencing AMC and how do you see it being used by the command in the future?
A: I’m a big fan of AI as long as commanders maintain the risk and the priority settings. You know I tried hard to get AI incorporated in Air Mobility Command, but the entire ecosystem wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet. I think AI and data are its own domain.
Like other domains we’re going to need supremacy and superiority in it. We’re going to need to fight for it and fight from it. It’s going to benefit from the other domains, but I think disproportionately it’s going to benefit the other domains. More so our ability to sense and seize opportunity, our ability to simplify, our ability to reduce variables, our ability to gain decision advantage, our ability to make better decisions, quicker, at a higher tempo than the adversary. I think all those things are AI- and data-oriented, and I’m still not certain that we see it that way. We have got to get first mover advantage in the AI domain, and that’s going to take some work. I think that we’re starting to get there, but I think we have a long way to go on it.
Boeing KC-46A Tanker Refuels Military Aircraft Using 3D
Q: Why do you think that there’s been such resistance to AI?
A: I’m not certain most people actually use it. It’s new. Certainly there’s a newness to it. But at the end of the day, this is about data. Can you trust the data? It really flips the script, if you think about it as its own domain, because then you understand the magnitude of its importance, and you understand that this is about decision making and trust, and that you’re actually not off-shooting that to the machine to do. That you’re asking the machine and the AI to reduce variables and increase simplicity.
Then you really think about, how does a commander be able to set priorities, set risk tolerances, adjust those as required, and then, at the end of the day, this is about better decision making. I think that there’s a complexity to this that just needs to play out a bit, but I know one thing, I don’t think our adversaries are downplaying AI and data as a domain. I think that they’re 100% embracing it, and I think we need to do the same. And of course, it’s American ingenuity. We’ll get better at it and dominate.
Q: Any final thoughts you want to share? Any questions I didn’t ask?
A: No, I appreciate the opportunity here. I think that the Air Force has it right when it comes to modernization and readiness. I think that the Air Force has it right, and we need to have the resourcing to be their Air Force that this country needs. I think mobility has a longer way to go than most within the Air Force. So I continue to champion that. Those things I cared about in uniform, I care about out of uniform, and I didn’t wait to retire to have an opinion on these things. So I want to be the generation of Americans that gets this straight before we get slapped like we did on December 7th and September 11th. Let’s not wait till we get slapped to get the act together. Let’s go now hard, because our sons and daughters deserve it.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’ve got a jam-packed edition for you this week. USC beat reporters were given the chance to talk to assistants we don’t often get access to during the season. So this week, we’re going to empty the notebook, with 15 notes, quotes and other things you should know ahead of USC’s spring football session.
Fight on! Are you a true Trojans fan?
1. Jayden Maiava has taken “a huge leadership jump” from last season. That’s according to offensive coordinator Luke Huard, who said the quarterback has been meeting with young wideouts, setting up group chats, watching film and working with them at walk-throughs. There will be a lot on his shoulders with such a young receiving corps.
2. Freshman quarterback Jonas Williams is “pretty developed” from a physical standpoint. The athleticism also is obvious when you watch him on tape. The question is how quickly can he get up to speed mentally? Huard said Williams ran a “very multiple” offense that asked a lot of its quarterbacks. So that’s a good sign. But with Husan Longstreet gone, USC is starting from square one again at backup quarterback. Sam Huard is still an option, but this wasn’t necessarily what USC planned.
3. Huard addressed Longstreet’s exit and how plans at quarterback change on a whim nowadays. Huard’s tone, which can’t really be detected in the quote, suggested he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the situation. (Huard, after all, spent a lot of time and energy getting Longstreet to USC.) This is part of what he said: “We are going to recruit guys that are going to represent USC at an elite level and give us an opportunity to win and compete for national championships. So for us, it’s identifying those guys that USC is important to ‘em. They want to truly be here. They want to stay and develop.”
4. Don’t be shocked if a freshman running back makes an impression, even with a clear top two in the backfield. Deshonne Redeaux and Shahn Alston earned raves from running backs coach Anthony Jones — and are very different. Alston is the bigger power back, while Jones called Redeaux “a jack of all trades.” Jones said Redeaux is already a solid blocker and even can line up in the slot as a receiver if need be.
5. What’s the next step look like for King Miller? “Hopefully, King 2.0,” Jones said, with a laugh. Miller’s main goal in the offseason has been “transforming his body,” Jones added. And if Miller can maintain his breakaway speed while adding strength, the sophomore running back could be bound for an even bigger year than he had in 2025.
6. Sophomore receiver Tanook Hines is working on his route running. Hines’ athleticism was clearly off the charts in his debut season. But there’s still plenty to polish in his game. Receivers coach Dennis Simmons said that’s the next step for him as he takes the reins as the Trojans’ No. 1 wideout. This offseason is a crucial one for Hines.
7. Zach Williams will move to slot receiver. Could that mean more opportunity? Williams didn’t make much of a splash last season, largely because of injury, but when he left Utah, then-coach Kyle Whittingham said he would’ve been the Utes’ top receiver the next season. Williams has talent. And with the move inside, he finally could get the opportunity too.
8. The rest of USC’s receiving corps is very young. I expect that means we’ll see a lot of sets with Hines, Williams and N.C. State transfer Terrell Anderson at first. But freshmen Boobie Feaster and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt no doubt will get their chances to change that. Redshirt freshman Corey Simms turned heads in camp last fall and could be primed for a step forward too.
9. The competition at tight end is wide open. Lake McRee is off to the NFL. Walker Lyons transferred. “Who’s going to fill all those snaps?” tight ends coach Chad Savage asked. “Those are a lot of snaps that have gotta be replaced.” Savage mentioned that Wisconsin transfer Hunter Ashcraft would be a part of that equation. Redshirt freshman Taniela Tupou had begun to impress by the end of last season as well.
10. That said, freshman Mark Bowman might make a serious push to start. When I asked Savage about where Bowman was most developed, he said Bowman was “pretty complete” already. Remember, he still should be in high school at this point. Of course, it’ll take time for him to adjust to the physicality and blocking of college football. But I suspect that won’t take long. “In terms of being a natural pass-catcher, route runner, being explosive,” Savage said, “he can do all that.”
11. Savage had a chance to leave for another opportunity. He chose to stay and was promoted accordingly. The Trojans’ new pass game coordinator called working at USC “a dream come true.” He added, “There’s so much growth for me to happen here at USC. … I’m a West Coast guy.” That’s good news, considering he might be one of the best recruiters in college football.
12. Offensive line coach Zach Hanson said USC’s front was “nowhere near where we need to be” last season. The unit actually overachieved, considering its circumstances, but he feels there’s “a lot of room for growth.” I agree. This group will look a lot different in the fall than it did last season, with some linemen starting at new positions. Hanson believes the added competition will lead to a big leap for the line. I tend to agree.
13. Tobias Raymond will take reps at center in the spring. It has been the plan for a while that eventually Raymond would try his hand at center, as coaches see that as his best chance to stick in the NFL. It’s not out of the question that he could play there full time, assuming another linemen steps in.
14. Five-star freshman Keenyi Pepe will start off working at right tackle. Can he win the job in Year 1? He’ll have Justin Taunauu, last year’s starter, as well as young returners like Elijah Vaikona and Aaron Dunn to compete with, but Pepe is further developed than the usual freshman. “A lot is just God-given talent,” Hanson said. “The Lord blessed him with unbelievable gifts.”
15. New coordinator Gary Patterson famously split his 4-2-5 defense into two calls. One for the front seven, one for the defensive backs. But that could play out differently at USC, he said. Patterson’s plan is to use pieces of USC’s old scheme under D’Anton Lynn and “add another scheme to it.” Sometimes that’ll mean just one call for the whole defense, other times he’ll plan to deploy a double call. With slower offenses in the Big Ten, that approach could work quite well.
USC’s Laura Williams looks to pass after getting a rebound.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
—The USC men are in serious danger of missing March. It’s not just that the Trojans lost to No. 10 Illinois. They were blown out by the Illini, who then lost to UCLA three nights later. It’s not just that USC lost to Oregon, either. It’s how they lost to Oregon, a team that had lost 11 of 12, by letting the Ducks go on a stunning 7-0 run in the final minute. This version of USC doesn’t deserve to be in the tournament. But I do believe this team has the talent to be a tournament team and it’s not out of the question that it could win two of the next four, win a couple of games in the Big Ten tournament and sneak in. That climb is just a really steep one after Saturday.
—Laura Williams’ emergence as a reliable rebounder and rim protector is a big deal. All season long, Lindsay Gottlieb has been content to rely on a rotating group at the five. USC has been able to get by for most of the season, but come March, it’ll help to have someone who can do what Williams did against Wisconsin, when the redshirt freshman reeled in 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.
—What a start to the season for USC baseball. After leading a combined no-hitter the previous week, Grant Govel threw six scoreless innings, gave up just one hit and struck out 11 in a win over Rice. That was after No. 1 pitcher Mason Edwards pitched a shutout the night before. The Trojans are surging to start Andy Stankiewicz’s third season as coach, and if the pitching continues to be this good, USC could be on the brink of a breakthrough campaign.
Olympic sports spotlight
USC beach volleyball opened its season on a hot streak in Honolulu with four straight wins, including a victory over No. 2 Stanford, only to trip up twice on the final day of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic. That one of those losses came to No. 1 UCLA, which USC won’t face again until April 4, made it an especially tough way to end the weekend.
But the season is young, and there’s no reason to doubt that Dain Blanton will have USC in the mix to win a national title when the rivals meet again.
What I’m Watching This Week
Jason Segel in “Shrinking.”
(Apple TV+)
It’s shocking that it took until this show’s third season for it to get a mention in this space, but “Shrinking” is back, and there is no show on TV that I find more life-affirming.
Jason Segel stars as Jimmy, a therapist working through grief after the sudden death of his wife. That might sound heavy — and, sure, it is sometimes — but it’s also hilarious, optimistic and heartwarming. Few shows these days can make you both laugh out loud and tear up in the same episode. This is one of them.
The second season was a revelation. And so far, I’m hopeful that Season 3 will be a worthy follow-up.
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday appealed his life sentence over his insurrection conviction from his failed bid to impose martial law.
The appeal was filed by his lawyers five days after a court sentenced Yoon to life in prison for leading an insurrection when he briefly imposed martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.
“We think we have a responsibility to clearly point out the problems with this decision for not only court records but for future historical records,” the lawyers said in a notice to the press.
“We will not be silent about the special counsel’s overzealous indictment and the contradictory decision of the court of first instance premised on it, as well as its political background,” they added.
The Seoul Central District Court delivered the ruling last Thursday, saying Yoon aimed to cripple the National Assembly by sending troops to the compound after declaring martial law, meeting the definition of an insurrection as stipulated by the Constitution.
It also said the former president planned the crime personally and in a leading role, incurring an enormous social cost, but hardly expressed an apology.
Seven other defendants received their first verdicts alongside Yoon, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik.
The former defense minister was sentenced to 30 years in prison, while Cho was given 12 years and the former Seoul police chief 10 years for their roles in the martial law bid.
Yoon was earlier sentenced to five years in prison in a separate trial on charges that include his alleged obstruction of investigators’ attempt to detain him last year.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
The last in this series of underexplored, overlooked, bypassed towns revisits three places loosely linked to somewhere I’ve lived at different stages of my life. Relocating is grand-scale vacationing, as there are a few months when the new place feels like a holiday destination – fresh, strange, not filtered and tainted by habit or prejudice. Going back years later is part-pilgrimage, part-funeral.
Harrow
The lexicon of suburbia – commuting, dormitory, cul-de-sac, privet hedge – resonates with not seeing. In densely peopled north-west London, you have to dig – with eyes, books and boots – to find the occluded past.
In a 767 charter, Harrow is Gumeninga hergae, the “heathen temple of the Gumeningas [tribe]”. The small hill – pronounced on old sketches – was a natural spot for practising worship; harrows are found all over England. Later it was part of the archbishop of Canterbury’s estate and by Domesday had 70 ploughlands, 117 households and 102 villagers, two cottagers, three knights, two slaves and a priest – a sizeable place for 1086.
Headstone Manor Museum explores Harrow’s history. Photograph: Brian Anthony/Alamy
Trees outnumbered people. The medieval manor boasted a 100-hectare (250-acre) deer park in Pinner. The name of Harrow Weald derives from the Old English for woodland, a reference to the Forest of Middlesex that once stretched from Houndsditch in the City of London, through Highgate and Mill Hill, to these outer reaches. It provided pannage (autumn feeding) for 20,000 pigs.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Harrow attracted gentry, who could easily reach court and parliament by coach and four. The wealthy landowner John Lyon founded Harrow school by royal charter in 1572.
On an 1868 map, Harrow on the Hill is a mere scattering of houses surrounded by parks, groves and school fields. The only nearby railway line is the London and North Western, arrowing away to Birmingham and Crewe. In 1930, there was enough greenery and wildlife to inspire Harrovian Tom Harrisson (later involved in the Mass-Observation project) to publish Birds of the Harrow District.
Metro-land would, by the 1950s, submerge the hill and its environs in housing, lasso it to London, spawn North, West and South Harrows and other subdistricts, and provide suburban living for more than 200,000 people. A more populous, less planned version of this greeted me when I moved there in the summer of 1987, to travel, as Betjeman puts it, “Smoothly from Harrow” on the Metropolitan line “fasts” to a dreary office job in Blackfriars.
Knowing, now, a little about this lost town’s historical layers helps explain the still tangible sacrificial feel of the place, the amorphous sensation of inhabiting a populous nowhere. Things to see and do: walk section 9 of the Capital Ring; Headstone Manor Museum; Zoroastrian Centre (former Ace Cinema).
Clitheroe
Holmes Mill, a deli-cum-bar, cinema, brewery and hotel. Photograph: Mark Waugh/Alamy
I recommend a slow approach to Clitheroe, to take in the setting. A walk into town allows time to admire the hill, the steep-sided lump on which sit the ruins of the Norman castle, with the “second smallest surviving stone keep in England”. From the top of the hill, the views are uplifting: weather coming in from the west, the Bowland Fells, slivers of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks, Pendle Hill.
The A59 Lancs-Yorks trunk road became a bypass at the end of the 1960s. Before then, cars and vans chugged up Moor Lane and along Castle Street, which remain the traffic-cluttered sections of the high street. The narrowness and low-slung 17th– and 18th-century shopfronts remind me, in a way, of Totnes, which is largely Tudor. There was a continuity to towns into the modern era, warped by redbrick Victorian pomp and finally shattered by the 20th-century’s brutal raze-and-redevelop wave of shopping precincts (many of them since condemned).
In some respects, Clitheroe is archetypalLancashire. The struggling one-time textile boomtowns to the south of Pendle Hill show what industry did and offshoring took away. Clitheroe, relatively speaking, is intact. Old places seem to weather booms and busts better. New money helps, of course.
There were factories here, though. Two former spinning blocks, a weaving shed and offices have been given a creditable makeover to create Holmes Mill: a combined deli-cum-bar, “luxury” cinema, brewery and alehouse, hotel and wedding venue, ticking aspirational boxes for affluent Lancastrians. Lively local boozers are dotted all around town, and Camra groups are probably Clitheroe’s main excursionists. The New Inn is riotously cosy. Georgeonzola does cheese and wine. There are three cocktail bars, at least. No clogs or caps there.
The River Ribble at Edisford Bridge, close to Clitheroe. Photograph: Paul Melling/Alamy
I live a couple of miles outside Clitheroe. It’s sometimes strange to think it belongs to the same county as St Helens and Warrington, where I was born and raised. Locals say “Pennine Lancashire”. I’m from the Plains. The rain is worse here, and the wind can be evil, but this north-facing town is a likable knot of streets and stonework; plenty to discover, still. Things to see and do: Edisford Bridge (a swimming spot in summer); walk up Pendle Hill or on the Ribble Way (ideal for winter); Whalley Abbey (by bus or train); the No 11 bus to Bowland and for Pen-y-ghent.
Princetown
Princetown in Dartmoor national park. Photograph: Peter Titmuss/Alamy
Devon is the least bleak county I know. It has balmy summers, rolling pastures of red earth and green grass, cove-serrated coasts, hamlets, high hedgerows and long lanes, an ecclesiastical city, a maritime city, and mild winters. Princetown is its sole flirtation with grim. Tourists do come, and not as seldom as other spots in this series, but they often look shocked when they get out of their cars or dismount their bikes.
The granite-grey Dartmoor prison is the dominant feature of Princetown, as well as the township’s reason for being. Thomas Tyrwhitt MP secured land from the Duchy estate of the Prince of Wales to establish a “depot” for prisoners taken in the Napoleonic wars. It was remote enough to deter escape and sufficiently inhospitable.
The first prisoners arrived in 1809 and soon Princetown prison was overcrowded. When US prisoners from the war of 1812 began arriving, conditions deteriorated, and diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid and smallpox became “natural” death sentences. The Depot closed when the conflicts ended, reopening in 1850 as a penal establishment for “common criminals” – which included, over time, the future Irish premier Éamon de Valera, the conscientious objector and MP Frank Longden and Zen poet Reginald Horace Blyth.
HMP Dartmoor. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images
Tyrwhitt – now Sir Thomas – built a railway to shift quarry stone down to the port and bring up farm produce, coal, timber and lime for fertiliser. Prisoners and passengers used the line at various times until its closure in 1956. The prison was temporarily closed in 2024, due to “higher than normal” levels of radon, a cancer-causing gas formed by decaying uranium in rocks and soils.
The old railway is now a track down which runners and cyclists hurtle away from Dartmoor’s anti-twee, anti-wild camping, anti-tourism, possibly radioactive town, or “village”, by population if not for its looks. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed at the Duchy hotel, now the national park visitor centre. An escaped convict, Selden, has a pivotal role in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Between two farmhouses called High Tor and Foulmire and the great prison “extends the desolate, lifeless moor. This, then is the stage upon which tragedy has played, and upon which we may help to play it again.” For the modern, leisure-age gaze, the moor is a wild camping backdrop and, at least potentially, full of vitality, thanks to its airy solitudes; HMP Dartmoor in Princetown, emptied for now, is the tragic set. Things to see and do: Princetown to Burrator Reservoir mountain bike tracks; Dartmoor Prison Museum; Foggintor Quarry.
Chris Moss’s latest book, Lancashire: Exploring the Historic County That Made The Modern World, is published by Old Street Publishing at £25. His book based on this series, Where Tourists Seldom Tread will be published by Faber in 2026
