Month: May 2026

Warning follows Jewish man’s arrest over brutal attack in which a nun was pushed and kicked in Jerusalem this week.

The head of a Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem has condemned a brutal attack on a nun in the city earlier in the week and warned of growing concerns over the future for Christians living in the Holy Land.

Archbishop Atallah Hanna said on Facebook that “the attack on a nun in the city of Jerusalem comes amid escalating violations against Christian institutions in the city”.

He added that “this reflects increasing concerns about the future of the historic Christian presence in the Holy Land”.

In his post, which was accompanied by a video, he warned that such attacks “are no longer isolated incidents, but part of a recurring pattern that threatens the Christian presence,” calling for international action to stop them.

On Thursday, Israeli police released a video showing what witnesses said was an attack by a Jewish man on a French nun in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Video footage showed the man following the nun, forcibly pushing her to the ground, causing an injury to her head, then briefly walking away before returning to kick her as she lay on the ground, before bystanders intervened.

According to The Times of Israel, police said they had arrested a Jewish man suspected of assaulting the nun in Jerusalem.

“The suspect, a 36-year-old male, was identified and subsequently arrested by police,” the police said in a statement on Wednesday, adding it viewed with “utmost severity” any violent act “driven by potentially racist motives and directed toward members of the clergy”.

Father Olivier Poquillon, director of Jerusalem’s French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, told the AFP news agency the 48-year-old nun is a researcher at the institution and did not wish to speak publicly.

Rising attacks on Christians

Attacks on Christian communities in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel have risen in recent years, according to the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, which tracks such incidents.

Churches in Jerusalem have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to act decisively to put a stop to them.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the incident a “shameful act” in a statement on X.

“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” the ministry added.

Last month, a viral photograph showing an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon with a sledgehammer caused outrage.

The military said an investigation had been opened and that “appropriate measures will be taken against those involved in accordance with the findings”.

Israel later said the soldier had been jailed for 30 days, along with another soldier who had been filming him. Six other soldiers have been summoned for questioning.

Despite efforts to rebuild ties with Western nations, Syria remains heavily dependent on Russia for its oil supply. Since the fall of Bashar al Assad in late 2024, shipments from Russia have surged, making Moscow the primary supplier of crude to Syria.

This shift comes even as the new government in Damascus seeks closer alignment with Europe and the United States. The contradiction highlights the economic constraints facing a country still recovering from years of war and isolation.

Rising Dependence on Russian Oil
Russian oil exports to Syria have increased significantly, now covering a large portion of the country’s energy needs. Domestic production remains far below demand, leaving Syria reliant on imports to sustain basic economic activity.

Before 2025, Iran had been Syria’s main supplier, but that relationship ended following political changes in Damascus. Russia quickly stepped in, becoming the first to resume large scale shipments after the leadership transition.

Limited Alternatives and Structural Weakness
Syria’s options remain extremely limited. Years of conflict have weakened its economy, reduced purchasing power, and restricted access to global financial systems. Even after the easing of Western sanctions, integration into international markets remains slow and incomplete.

Efforts to secure alternative suppliers, including potential deals with regional partners such as Turkey, have so far failed. This leaves Russian supply networks as the most accessible and reliable option in the short term.

Sanctions Risk and Diplomatic Tension
Reliance on Russian oil poses significant risks for Syria’s foreign relations. Continued trade with Moscow could strain ties with Western governments and expose Syria to renewed sanctions, particularly if geopolitical tensions escalate.

The situation is further complicated by Russia’s ongoing military presence in Syria, including key naval and air bases. These assets give Moscow continued influence over the country’s strategic direction.

Opaque Supply Chains and Sanctioned Networks
Much of the oil trade is conducted through complex and opaque shipping networks. Tankers linked to sanctioned entities frequently deliver crude to Syrian ports, often using ship to ship transfers to obscure the origin of cargo.

These methods reflect both necessity and constraint. Syria’s exclusion from conventional shipping and financial systems has pushed it toward alternative networks that carry reputational and legal risks.

Supply Gap and Energy Reality
Syria’s domestic oil production remains a fraction of pre war levels, while demand continues to exceed supply. Russian shipments now fill a significant portion of this gap, alongside smaller volumes obtained through informal or regional channels.

This dependency underscores the difficulty of rebuilding an energy sector after prolonged conflict, particularly without strong international investment or infrastructure support.

Analysis
Syria’s reliance on Russian oil reveals the limits of political realignment when economic realities remain unchanged. While Damascus may seek closer ties with the West, its immediate survival depends on securing energy supplies, and Russia is currently the only actor able and willing to meet that need at scale.

For Moscow, the relationship offers continued leverage in Syria despite the fall of its former ally. Energy supply becomes a tool of influence, allowing Russia to maintain a strategic foothold even as political dynamics shift.

At the same time, the arrangement creates long term risks for Syria. Dependence on sanctioned networks could undermine efforts to rebuild credibility with international partners and attract investment. It also leaves the country vulnerable to external pressure, particularly if Western governments decide to enforce stricter controls on Russian energy flows.

Ultimately, Syria is caught between geopolitical ambition and economic necessity. Until it diversifies its energy sources and strengthens its economic foundations, its foreign policy choices will remain constrained by the basic need to keep fuel flowing.

With information from Reuters.

SHE went from a little known model to posing for Fendi almost overnight when she started dating Brooklyn Beckham.

Stunning Hana Cross, now 28, dated the nepo baby for just eight months but almost seven years on the Beckham family name still haunts her – and as insiders tell us she’s gained a reputation for being difficult to work with, the famous connection is doing more and more of the heavy lifting.

An industry source explained: “Hana can be hard work behind the scenes, especially when things don’t go her way, and that’s started to follow her.

“Brands are becoming more hesitant, not because of one specific issue, but because of a general unpredictability around how things might be received with her.

“Brands have mentioned how difficult she is to work with. She’s a stunning girl with so much potential but there’s a sense some partnerships have cooled as companies weigh up whether the attention she brings is the right kind.

“There’s a growing feeling in the industry that a lot of the attention around her still ties back to her past with Brooklyn, whether she likes it or not.”

We’re told she recently hired a new press team to help restore her reputation and shed the family name once and for all.

It became apparent just how far off that dream was earlier this year as she found herself dragged into the Beckham family drama surrounding Brooklyn falling out with his parents.

Our source continued: “The recent Beckham drama has definitely rattled her more than she’s letting on, she’s trying to stay composed but it’s clearly unsettled things behind the scenes

“She’s more cautious than ever now, particularly when it comes to anything linked to that circle

“She’s brought in a new PR team in an attempt to reset the narrative and give herself a fresh angle. There’s a sense that without her Brooklyn ties, there’s not much cutting through in terms of her own identity.”

The Leeds-born model started dating the eldest of the Beckham brood, 27, back in 2018, but it was a tumultuous time, overshadowed by a series of very public rows.

Hana was thrown into the spotlight – compared to Brooklyn she’s had a very modest upbringing, living in Huddersfield and then Chipping Campden, where she attended the local state school. 

From Leeds to LA

Born Hana Mahmood, her mum Sarah was working in a shop when she married Khalid Mahmood in November 1994. 

When she was 18 she was scouted while out shopping with her mum in Cotswolds. She had been planning to go to university to study business with equine studies, but her career took off pretty quickly.

Hana has worked for everyone from high street brands Topshop and New Look to designers Valentino and Missoni.

She was 21 when she first met Brooklyn, who was 19 at the time. It’s thought that Brooklyn’s cousin Libby Adams introduced them and they soon became inseparable.

The couple appeared to have their struggles at the time and they were pictured seemingly having a heated discussion outside a Los Angeles restaurant.

And not long after, another confrontation at the Agent Provocateur party, at Annabel’s members club in London in September 2019, left Hanna running to the bathroom in tears.

A fellow partygoer at the time told The Sun Online: “They were chatting together and it was very tense. By the end of it I could hear Brooklyn say, ‘it is what it is.’

“He walked off and she went back to her friends looking dejected, but she held it together while her pals comforted her”.

Brooklyn’s parents Victoria and David were said to be “seriously frustrated” by the negative attention the rows were creating and warned him to spend more time with the family.

Looking back at that time in a rare interview Hana admitted that dating the budding chef and being part of the famous family sparked her “anxiety” .

She told Hello! Magazine: “My time with the family caused me a lot of anxiety, in all honesty.

“There were a lot of warning signs and things that happened during the relationship that, in hindsight, should have made me think and maybe end the relationship or walk away a lot sooner than it did”.

In recent months Brooklyn’s current relationship – his marriage to Nicola Peltz – has come under scrutiny due to his very public family feud.

The famous family’s spat exploded when he launched a nuclear attack on his famous parents – blasting his Spice Girls star mother, 51, in a damning message posted on social media.

Hana admitted: “It’s hard not to be mentally drawn back into that part of my life, especially with all this feud stuff coming out. 

“It’s hard because I don’t look back on that as a fond time, on reflection.”

The couple finally called it quits in the summer of 2019, which was said to be a huge relief to Brooklyn’s parents. Little did they know Nicola Peltz was just around the corner. 

Hana had a brief foray into music and released a track that seemed to hint at Brooklyn. 

She sang: “I wish that someone told me you had a habit for dishonesty – though you break my heart, I want to stay.”

She went on to date Jude Law‘s son Rafferty, Jack Whitehall and Scott Disick. She’s now living in LA and was last linked to aristocrat Peregrine Pearson, following his split from Sophie Turner. 

Our insider added: “It’s a bit of a catch 22 situation because she knows that without Brooklyn she wouldn’t be where she is now and it’s still the thing people are most interested about with her.

“But she’s determined to push forward and prove she can stand on her own.”

In an era of 150-page novels in 14-point font, and books on Venezuela’s recent history that feel like overly long opinion pieces, Ulises Milla’s Editorial Alfa opted for something entirely different: a chronicle of how chavismo took over the Venezuelan State between 1999 and 2004, the product of ten years of research, divided into two volumes totaling more than 1,400 pages.

It is titled La oscuridad no llegó sola (no English translation yet), taken from a line by a Colombian poet, and has a subtitle that speaks volumes: “chronicle of a Venezuelan tragedy.” Yes, it is a chronicle in the broadest sense of the term, a systematic and multifaceted account that protects a series of events from oblivion in a specific era. It is also a Venezuelan tragedy, one among many, in which everything leads to an unhappy ending that seems inevitable, as in those of Aeschylus or Sophocles.

There is a classical feel to Mirtha Rivero’s new work, not only because she has drawn on literary genres that are over two millennia old, but also because it is a book that took a long time to write, one made to transcend time. For this reader, it is another essential text about our past, like José Domingo Díaz’s chronicles of the First and Second Republics or Lisandro Alvarado’s Historia de la Revolución Federal, and certainly like Rivero’s previous work: the bestseller La rebelión de los náufragos, published in 2010. It does not attempt to impose a personal thesis, defend one side or one figure, or propose a solution to the nation’s ills. It is an effort to understand how things happened, on a scale vast enough to allow the patterns of behavior developed by political actors over those years to emerge.

For those of us who experienced these events firsthand, through the media, La oscuridad no llegó sola still reveals aspects of the story we didn’t know, thanks to the quantity and quality of its sources. For those who were too young, it is an unparalleled document on how the traditional political class underestimated chavismo, how chavismo took advantage of the negligence and frivolity of its adversaries to seize control of institutions, and how the anti-politics we saw explode in La rebelión de los náufragos helped demolish what little remained of that democracy, which committed suicide, or allowed itself to die. A tragedy that, with its variations, has happened before. And that will very likely happen again. La oscuridad no llegó sola by Mirtha Rivero is available on Amazon and in bookstores in Spain. From Monterrey, Mexico, where she has lived for several years, the economics journalist who is showing how Venezuela’s contemporary history must be written spoke with Caracas Chronicles.

I want to start with the moment when La rebelión de los náufragos was published, had the impact it did, and you began the journey that led to these two volumes. You addressed this in the preface to La oscuridad no llegó sola, but what was the process like for defining not only the 1999-2004 timeframe, but also the questions you wanted to answer?

After La rebelión de los náufragos was published, I didn’t immediately consider any other topics. It was the third book I had written, but it was the first one that was published, and its reception changed my way of working. It was like a shock. For a year and a half, I couldn’t think about another “topic” because I was adapting to that new reality. It was in mid-June 2011 that another topic emerged. I wanted to answer a question: What happened in the 2004 recall referendum? For me, it was personally very important because, as a result, my husband and I began looking for a new place to live. Did voting fraud occur or not? What was it like? How did we get to that point? So I marked the period: from Chávez’s inauguration on February 2, 1999, until the day of the referendum, August 15, 2004.

It wasn’t so much that chavismo was pressuring the Supreme Court, but rather that a large part of society favored a Constituent Assembly.

I had to go back quite far because Chávez didn’t appear out of nowhere. Nor did other figures: the architects who helped him set up his political machine, those who accompanied him from that day forward, and those who had been with him even before the 1992 uprisings didn’t appear out of nowhere. They all have a past and a reason for being there, just like the people who kept appearing in my research. I confirmed along the way that during those years, the foundations were laid and the entire structure that allows chavismo to endure was built. As I guide my narrative, I realize that I not only have to look back, but that I often force myself to project into the future. For example, I look back when I discuss the oil industry, which is an important topic in my chronicle, but I also look forward when someone talks about the changes in the judicial sphere that the 1999 Constitution imposed, and I’m going to the trial against Judge Afiuni in 2009.

I see. For me, La oscuridad no llegó sola is a twin of La rebelión de los náufragos, in its structure, its tone, and its intention: first, you show how the political class sacrificed democracy with Carlos Andrés Pérez and paved the way for chavismo, and now we see how it overestimated its own strength and underestimated Chávez. Was describing this hall of mirrors the plan, or did it emerge during the research?

It wasn’t the plan. I didn’t see it as a continuation, nor as a hall of mirrors: it turned out that way, the story led me there. Exploring the recall referendum was actually a pretext for me to delve into that era, which I was afraid of. What was important was what happened before the referendum. How the referendum was repeatedly postponed until Chavismo had all institutions and powers under its control, which culminated in the expansion of the Supreme Court, and how it was able to regain popular support through direct subsidies via the social missions. How the opposition promoted the recall referendum without having a candidate to challenge Chavismo if Chávez lost and elections were held.

What did you learn, while writing this book, about the ability of the various opposition leaders to interpret reality? Do you share the common opinion that popular support for Chávez was underestimated in 1998 and 1999?

I was very surprised by their inability to see what was right in front of them. We had already seen how short-sighted the political parties were, their reluctance to form and renew themselves, since the 1980s. This is evident in the conspiracy against Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1993, based on a check from the secret fund that had been annulled in 1989 and was used against him in 1992; in the corruption accusations made by (future chavista minister) José Vicente Rangel; in the resistance to the reforms of the Presidential Commission for State Reform; and in the insistence of the old leaders on remaining political bosses.

There were people who knew who this Hugo Chávez they were opposing really was, but even so, there were those clumsy last-minute maneuvers in the 1998 campaign, and they weren’t prepared for the scenario in which Congress would be eliminated, as Chávez himself had said would happen. They acted with great carelessness in the face of Chávez’s rise: society, the political parties, and even a political animal like Teodoro Petkoff underestimated him. I was very surprised that they didn’t know how to confront the lieutenant colonel, the authoritarian tendencies that came with him, the power-hungry Left that accompanied him, the people who applauded the military coup attempts of 1992. They offered no resistance when Chavismo abolished Congress, taking advantage of the anti-political sentiment that had also been brewing since the 1980s. The lack of vision, and even of any statesman-like discourse, on the part of the politicians, did surprise me greatly.

One of the book’s many achievements was to unearth and trace a somewhat forgotten but key episode: how the Supreme Court accepted the Constituent Assembly’s suspension of the Legislative Branch. Did that also surprise you, how they paved the way for the dissolution of the separation of powers? How much pressure was chavismo exerting on the Supreme Court?

It didn’t surprise me that much, because we experienced it firsthand. The chavistas had just come to power and were barely learning how to use it, and they couldn’t exert pressure before Chávez took office on February 2, 1999. It wasn’t so much that chavismo was pressuring the Supreme Court, but rather that a large part of society favored a Constituent Assembly, even though a constitutional reform would have sufficed. Many people believed that this Constituent Assembly would save the country, to create a new, bright, efficient nation. Everyone was riding that wave. As Simón Alberto Consalvi said, we cannot absolve the people of their decisions.

Some of your interviewees, as expected, fall into hindsight bias: assigning to certain moments a meaning that we see today but that wasn’t easy to discern then. For example, everyone in your book says they knew the 2002-2003 strike was a bad idea, but that “the majority decided”: Didn’t you yourself fall into hindsight bias? Because when I write about those years, I have to tell myself, “Remember what you thought then about the 2002 general strike, not what you think today.”

One can always fall into that bias because one isn’t objective, pristine, but I was very careful about that and made an effort to compare the accounts. Because many interviewees told me things that didn’t happen as they said; they were mixing what others had told them with what they would have liked to have happened. My own interpretations of a particular moment fell apart as I investigated. Sometimes the same scene had six different testimonies, and I had to cross-reference them, sometimes going back to the witnesses to confirm or discuss parts of their story. The good thing is that I encountered very little reluctance from the interviewees, although of course there were people who didn’t want to talk, who stood me up, and I even made trips for nothing. 

Both the oil workers and the dissident military officers were convinced they were right and that they could convince some people, while these people already had a plan in place.

With those I did talk to, I sometimes confronted them, because now it turns out, for example, that nobody agreed with the national civic strike, or as we called it then, the “oil strike.” But the investigation was able to determine who truly resisted, and how society pressured for a repeat of what happened on April 11, even though it was so unlikely to have any effect.

April 11, 2002, is like the novel Rashomon; the same event is seen differently depending on many perspectives. But it’s quite well documented; much less known is what happened within PDVSA, and you contributed a lot to those of us who aren’t familiar with the oil world. How do you see today the role played by the oil executives when they decided to step outside their bubble? 

Within that bubble were people like Edgar Paredes and Juan Santana who, having been involved in university politics, were politically savvy. They knew their place and what might happen, but also what they needed to do. They created that protest movement to rescue PDVSA. Society joined them because, in reality, it used the PDVSA conflict as an excuse to protest many other things, but the oil workers were trying to defend their company because, ever since Chávez was elected in ’98, they saw him as a threat. Naively, they believed they could change the policies because they came from a school of thought where debate and consensus were reached. But even during the 2002 strike, they continued fighting to rescue PDVSA. They were fighting for the country too, but to rescue the country, they believed, PDVSA had to be rescued. The same was true for the soldiers in Plaza Altamira. Right or wrong, they wanted to rescue the FAN (National Armed Forces) where they had made their careers, without understanding that they couldn’t, because the first political prisoners of chavismo were military personnel.

The idea that Chávez also provoked the April 11th march, or the movement to crush it, is a narrative he fabricated after those events.

Both the oil workers and the dissident military officers were convinced they were right and that they could convince some people, while these people already had a plan in place. They thought that the truth would prevail and that the people would act for the good of the country. But that wasn’t meant to happen. They suffered a lack of understanding of the country’s political history, of what the 1992 coups meant. Because they were caught up in their own business, in what they knew. In fact, not all the oil workers or the military saw Chávez as a threat and voted for him in 1998, like a large part of the country.

Reading the book, I came to feel more empathy for what the oil workers and even certain military personnel, did than for what the politicians did.

Because they actually did more than the politicians in terms of trying to rescue their respective organizations. With all their naiveté, the oil workers and the military did force others to act. They gave their all to try to save not only their professional world, but democracy itself.

The book makes it clear that Chávez sought out conflicts, he provoked them. Even the massacres, not to mention the strikes: he sought out battles because he saw them (and he was right) as opportunities to wipe out pockets of resistance. Right? Do you see this as a pattern that connects everything from the 2001 enabling legislation to the recall referendum?

Chávez sought out battles because it was his way of life. He always said, like Pinochet, that he was a soldier. I believe he launched the enabling legislation package in 2001 to impose his agenda, not to provoke, because I don’t think he knew it would generate such strong resistance, even though there had already been protests since 2000. He introduced those laws at the last minute and without consulting anyone because he was an authoritarian who believed he was the center of the world. The idea that he also provoked the April 11th march, or the movement to crush it, is a narrative he fabricated after those events. He knew there were disaffected military officers and expected a classic coup, which he planned to counter with civilians, but he didn’t provoke it, because in fact, his intelligence services ultimately failed him. Just as there are people who, after the strike failed, said they never agreed with it, he rewrote history to impose the narrative that everything was his agenda. But many things surprised him, even though he eventually managed to navigate each situation. However, after April 11th, he did dedicate himself to provoking conflicts, now with the advice of Fidel Castro, and surrounded by radicals like Alí Rodríguez Araque. 

Another pattern I noticed is the persistence of anti-politics, how distrust of political parties shaped different situations. And you get the feeling that this still resonates with people, that three decades after the 1990s, anti-politics continues to define us, right?

The parties were already badly weakened, following a decline that began in the mid-1980s, and even more so after what happened with Pérez II. Their crisis became impossible to hide by the second year of Chávez’s presidency, but anti-politics was very much present during Chávez’s election itself, before that night of April 11, 2002, when decisions were made driven by the desire to remove politicians from important matters. Although politicians met, participated in discussion groups, and sought solutions on their own, such as promoting Adán Celis as transitional president, anti-politics was pervasive across all sectors and prevailed among the main actors who attempted to remove Chávez from power in 2002. The book includes testimonies from politicians who recount how the media favored the opinions of emerging civil society actors who viewed politicians as corrupt and stuck in the past. And yes, as you say, this continues today. Those in power still promote this idea of ​​politicians as a corrupt caste that led the country to ruin. Because it’s very easy to blame politicians for something in which the citizenry also played a part.

The World Championship semi-final between John Higgins and Shaun Murphy is delicately poised at 8-8 after a captivating second session at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

In contrast to the opening to their match on Wednesday, Higgins appeared the stronger of the two players in their early exchanges.

The four-time world champion, who turns 51 on 18 May, ruthlessly punished a missed black from Murphy to take the opening frame with a break of 72.

Englishman Murphy, who is looking to end a 21-year wait for his second Crucible crown, delivered the perfect riposte with an 88 as he took two of the next three frames to draw level at 6-6.

When Murphy failed to convert a plant to the right middle, his error was again exploited, with Higgins enjoying a run of 57 to edge back in front.

The Scot then knocked in a wonderful break of 86 off the back of a brave long red to open up a two-frame advantage.

However, Murphy took a scrappy 15th frame and turned the tables on his opponent to restore parity when Higgins missed a tricky red with the rest down the left cushion.

Their best-of-33-frames encounter will resume on Friday at 19:00 BST, with another eight frames to be played in the third of four sessions.

China’s Wu Yize takes a 6-2 lead into the second session of his last-four meeting with Mark Allen, which gets under way at 14:30 BST.

YOU can still go abroad May half term with these fantastic last-minute holiday deals

We’ve scoured the web to find some of the cheapest package holidays you can still book, so you can whisk your family off somewhere hot and sunny this May.

We’ve found great deals in Italy, Greece, Spain, Morocco and Portugal.

Whether you’re after a family-friendly hotel with a big pool and lots of entertainment, or a European holiday park in the pinewoods by the beach, we’ve got you covered.

Tuscany, Italy

Head to the pretty, pine forest-backed beaches of Tuscany’s Maremma Coast with this bargain holiday deal.

This package includes a stay at Gitavillage Le Marze, an Italian holiday park with kids adventure activities, exciting entertainment, and its own beach bar.

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Nearby you can walk or cycle through Maremma Nature Park, or go island-hopping and visit sunny Elba and Giglio.

On the Beach offer a 7-night stay from 23 May, including return flights from Edinburgh, for £280pp.

Calpe, Spain

Calpe is a stylish Spanish resort on Spain‘s Costa Blanca with gorgeous beaches, a colourful Old Town and unique nature.

Whether you’re sunbathing on the massive Playa del Arenal-Bol beach, or spotting wild flamingos at saltwater lagoon Las Salinas, Calpe makes for a Spanish holiday unlike any other.

This deal comes with a stay at Sunsea Village, a complex with a swimming pool, tennis courts and spacious apartments to stay in.

On the Beach offer a 7-night stay from 23 May, including return flights from Edinburgh, for £275pp.

Salou, Spain

Salou sits on Spain’s sunny Costa Dorada, where you can expect to find temps hovering at a toasty 25C in May.

This popular family destination has plenty to see and do, including water slides and rollercoasters at PortAventura World, and theme park Ferrari Land – home to the fastest and tallest hypercoaster in Europe, Red Force.

Bag a stay at the Rentalmar Apolo Suites, where you’ll have a modern apartment as your base with the beach just a few steps away, and PortAventura World just a few minutes down the road.

On the Beach offer a 5-night stay from 23 May, including return flights from London Luton, for £235pp.

Rhodes, Greece

Head to Rhodes in Greece this May for a slice of sun with plenty of history and charming streets lined with tavernas and souvenir shops to explore.

Faliraki is an energetic seaside resort with lots of watersports activities, nightlife and is home to Faliraki Water Park, one of Europe’s largest.

A stay at the Anseli Apartments comes with access to a shimmering swimming pool surrounded by loungers, plus a games area and TV lounge for somewhere to relax.

On the Beach offer a 4-night stay from 25 May, including return flights from Birmingham, for £365pp.

Agadir, Morocco

Agadir has a six mile stretch of sandy beach, colourful souks to explore – plus it reaches highs of up to 26C in May.

Whether you want to try new water sports, drive a beach buggy, or simply laze back on the sands and relax, this coastal resort has something for everyone.

The Bahia City Hotel is in an ideal location, just five minutes’ walk from Agadir beach with plenty of bars and restaurants nearby.

Loveholidays offer a 5-night stay, including return flights from Leeds Bradford, for £369pp.

Manilva, Spain

Manilva sits on the Costa del Sol, and offers plenty to see and do for families.

The coastal town has a lively marina lined with bars and restaurants, your pick of unspoilt beaches, plus lots of wildlife such as dolphins and whales which you can spot from boat tours.

The Village Terrazas Costa del Sol is a picturesque holiday village with modern apartments, two outdoor pools, a kids club and regular live entertainment.

Loveholidays offer a 5-night stay from 25 May, including return flights from East Midlands Airport, for £329pp.

Tenerife, Canary Islands

Puerto de la Cruz on the stunning Northern coast of Tenerife is a sunny coastal town with plenty of attractions and unique landscapes to explore.

Stroll through centuries of exotic plant collections at Jardín Botánico, or take a tour up to the volcanic peak of Mount Teide, or head to the beach at Playa Jardín with its unique black sand backed by palms, while Lago Martiánez has mineral-rich saltwater pools.

Be Smart Florida Plaza is an affordable base just a short walk from Playa Jardin and the Old Town, and it offers 132 spacious rooms plus a sizeable outdoor swimming pool.

Loveholidays offer a 5-night stay from 25 May, including return flights from Belfast, for £309pp.

Alvor, The Algarve, Portugal

Alvor is a pretty Portuguese fishing village, which is a fantastic option for those who want the coastal views without the crowds.

Here you can set off in boats or kayaks to discover the Bengali caves, cycle the Alvor boardwalk, or simply stretch out under the sun on Alvor’s two-and-a-half-mile Blue Flag beach.

The Clube Alvorferias is a modern, whitewashed hotel with a large circular swimming pool surrounded by palms. It has comfortable apartments with air con, balconies and kitchenettes, plus you’re only a 10-minute walk into the vibrant town centre.

Loveholidays offer a 5-night stay from 25 May, including return flights from Norwich, for £299pp.

Ryanair is warning customers after problems with the European Entry/Exit System (EES)

Ryanair has provided an update regarding its stance on the new European Entry/Exit System (EES), which is continuing to pose difficulties for travellers. The system affects Brits heading to the Schengen zone, encompassing sought-after destinations including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

It is a digital system that is taking the place of conventional passport stamps. Travellers may need to register biometric information, such as fingerprints and a photograph, upon arrival. No advance action is required before reaching the border, and there is no charge for using the system.

EES officially went live on April 10, 2026. Yet difficulties with the system, particularly during peak periods at busy airports, have resulted in its suspension in several countries on multiple occasions.

Budget carrier Ryanair issued a blistering message on social media, demanding the EES rollout be halted until September. The low-cost airline criticised France, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Spain, and Germany for failing to ‘ensure that adequate staffing, system readiness, or kiosks are in place’.

Reports indicate that passengers have been left waiting for hours due to the new system, with some even missing their flights as a result. Branding the system as ‘half-baked’, Ryanair’s statement read: “Despite knowing for over three years that EES would become fully operational from 10 April 2026, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Spain, and Germany have failed to ensure that adequate staffing, system readiness, or kiosks are in place.

“As a result, passengers are suffering long passport control queues and, in some cases, missing their flights.

“Ryanair calls on these EU Governments to suspend the rollout of the EU’s passport control Entry/Exit System (EES) until September to ensure that passengers are not needlessly forced to suffer long passport control queue delays at European airports during the peak summer season.”

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The system was gradually rolled out from October 2025 before coming into full effect on April 10 across Schengen countries, which comprise 25 of the EU’s 27 member states alongside Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

Frustrated holidaymakers have reported a range of issues, from an insufficient number of kiosks to handle registrations, to malfunctioning fingerprint scanners and being forced to repeat the entire process on both arrival and departure.

EUROPE’S biggest airline is calling for new European travel rules to be suspended.

Ryanair has written to the 29 countries where Europe‘s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is being enforced, to suspend the system until September following lengthy airport delays.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

The budget airline’s COO Neal McMahon said: “Governments across Europe are attempting to roll out a half-baked IT system in the middle of the busiest travel season of the year, and passengers are paying the price, being forced to endure hours-long passport control queues and in some cases, missing flights.

“The solution is simple and already provided for under EU law (EU Reg. 2025/1534) – Governments should suspend EES until September when the peak summer travel season has subsided, just as Greece has done.

“This would allow passengers – many of whom are travelling with young families – a smoother airport experience for their summer holidays.”

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It comes as the airline has called on the French government to suspend the rollout of EES to ensure passengers do not suffer long queues at airports during the summer period.

According to the airline, despite French authorities knowing that EES was going to be introduced on April 10 this year for the past three years, they have “failed to ensure adequate staffing, system readiness or kiosks are in place”.

This has meant that there are long queues at passport control and in some cases, passengers are even missing their flights.

For example at Beauvais, Marseille and Nantes airports, queues are taking around one to two hours for passengers to get through.

Other European countries are also suffering, with Sun Travel Reporter Alice Penwill recently getting stuck at Lanzarote Airport in Spain for three hours.

Other reports have seen two-hour queues at Lisbon Airport in Portugal and in Malta, one flight was forced to wait on the tarmac for 40 minutes before passengers could get off, as passport control queues in the airport were so long.

Greece, on the other hand, has suspended EES until September, to manage peak summer travel.

Back on April 18, a statement from the Greek Embassy announced that Brits are “exempt” from biometrics at all “Greek border crossing points”.

Eleni Skarveli, the director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, added: “The exemption of British passport holders from biometric registration at Greek border crossing points, effective from 10 April 2026, is expected to significantly reduce waiting times and ease congestion at airports.

“UK travellers will no longer need to undergo additional EES biometric procedures, ensuring a smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece.

“The Greek National Tourism Organisation remains committed to ensuring a seamless and welcoming journey for all visitors from the UK.”

May 1 (UPI) — U.S. First Lady Melania Trump was instrumental in securing the return of at least 26 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia over the past several months, Ukraine‘s top human rights official said.

Speaking at a Bring Kids Back event in Kyiv on Thursday, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukraine Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner, said Trump had become an important ally in negotiating with Moscow to return children to their families from Russia and regions under Russian control.

“She helps us a lot… It is clear that the involvement of the first lady of the United States makes it [negotiating with Russia] easier for me in some sense,” said Lubinets, who added that Moscow “can’t avoid” responding to Ukrainian requests when they were routed via the White House.

He said that his office held weekly discussions with Trump regarding the issue.

According to Ukraine Government data, 20,570 children had been deported or forcibly displaced from Ukraine by Russia, as of May 1, of whom only 2,126 have been returned.

At least two are alleged to have been taken from their homes in Crimea and sent to a North Korean “summer camp” where they underwent indoctrination.

The latest return in which Trump was involved was of seven children on April 2 following on from three other groups of children since she wrote a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in August personally asking for Ukrainian children deported to Russia to be returned.

The letter was hand-delivered to Putin by U.S. President Donald Trump when the pair met in Alaska for a summit on ending the Ukraine war on Aug. 15.

While Trump’s letter avoids directly accusing Moscow of carrying out deportations, she makes her intent clear, telling Putin he had the power “restore the melodic laughter” of children whose innocence “stands above geography, government, and ideology” with a stroke of his pen “today.”

Following the return of the most recent batch of children, the first lady said she was heartened by the commitment of both sides to the effort.

“Reunifying children with their loved ones in this region of the world remains one of the most important global issues today. I am encouraged that both sides remain committed to ongoing cooperation, raising the safety and well-being of children above this abhorrent war,” she said in a statement.

The initiative has also seen some Russian children displaced by the war return to their families in Russia.

Both Lubinets’ Russian counterpart, children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, and Putin are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in connection with illegal transfers of children from Ukraine to Russia.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Putin in March 2023. The warrants were sealed to protect the children affected.

Neither Russia nor the United States is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute that established the court and neither recognizes its jurisdiction.

The United States, along with Britain and other countries, has however, sanctioned Lvova-Belova for her role in removing children from Ukraine and forced adoptions.

Israel’s military reportedly seized 22 vessels sailing among the Global Sumud Flotilla.

More than ‌160 activists on board aid ships forming a flotilla bound for Gaza have been taken to the Greek ⁠island of Crete ⁠after Israeli forces seized their vessels in international waters near Greece earlier this week, Freedom Flotilla organisers have said.

The organisers told the Reuters news agency on Friday that 168 members of the flotilla crew had been taken to Crete while two activists remained with Israeli authorities.

According to the group’s tracker, 22 boats have been intercepted so far by Israel, while 47 others are still sailing.

On Wednesday, Israeli military forces intercepted the boats travelling with the Global Sumud Flotilla from Barcelona in Spain, using drones, communications jamming technology, and armed raiding parties to halt the humanitarian fleet in the middle of the Mediterranean as it headed to Gaza, according to organisers and Israeli media.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the activists on the intercepted boats would be taken to Greece.

On Friday, an Israeli army ship transferred 168 members of the flotilla crew to Greek boats, which then took them to Crete, where buses and an ambulance car waited for them, organisers said and Reuters footage showed.

A source who asked not to be identified also told Reuters that the remaining 47 boats at sea were still sailing off southern Crete and planned to anchor there at some point before continuing onwards to Gaza.

Each ship is carrying about a tonne of food, medical supplies and other equipment, the source added.

‘A straight-up attack’

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for the Global Sumud Flotilla, described Israel’s boarding of its vessels as “a straight-up attack on unarmed civilian boats in international waters”.

“This is illegal under international law. Israel has no jurisdiction in these waters. Boarding these boats amounts to illegal detention, potentially kidnapping on the high seas,” Tsabar added.

Officials around the globe have condemned the interception of the boats bound for Gaza as a violation of international law, with Turkiye calling it an “act of piracy”.

“By targeting the Global Sumud Flotilla, whose mission is to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe faced by the innocent people of Gaza, Israel has also violated humanitarian principles and international law,” Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Spain called the interception “illegal”, while Germany and Italy expressed “great concern” and called for the release of detainees.

But in a statement on Thursday, the US Department of State threatened “to impose consequences” against those who support the flotilla, which it cast as “pro-Hamas”.

Pro-Palestinian activists say Israel and the United States wrongly conflate their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for Hamas fighters.

Last October, Israel’s military intercepted about 40 boats from the first Global Sumud Flotilla as they tried to carry aid to besieged Gaza, arresting more than 450 participants, including the grandson of South African leader Nelson Mandela, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan.

Detained and taken to Israel, several of the flotilla activists claimed they were subjected to physical and psychological abuse while in Israeli custody.

Israel later expelled the arrested crew members and activists.

Each of us has a shortlist of movies we find ourselves rewatching, movies we will finish even if they’re half-over when we tune in. Even if it’s being streamed with commercials. Even if it’s playing on a 19-inch black-and-white television with no sound in a crowded dive bar.

For the past 20 years, “The Devil Wears Prada” has been one of those films for me and other Americans who entered the workforce just in time to say goodbye to pensions and hello to increases in student loan debt. Generation X had the highest homeownership rate relative to their age, so when the housing bubble popped in 2008, it hit Gen X the hardest. And yet this same group of workers is also shouldering the care of aging parents and adult children. According to Pew Research, more than half of 40-year-olds (“elder millennials”) and more than a third of 50-year-olds fall into this category, doing so with shrinking financial margins because wages have lagged behind the cost of living our entire adult lives.

While the current No. 1 movie at the box office — the biopic chronicling Michael Jackson’s rise from Gary, Ind., in 1966 to headlining stadiums in 1988 — may evoke a sense of nostalgia for Gen X, the sequel to “Devil” (which opens in theaters Friday) feels more like a peer review.

Twenty years ago, when we last saw our protagonist, Andrea Sachs, she had decided to leave her big corporate job because success in that environment required her to be someone she didn’t like or respect. As young professionals, seeing a fictional character like Sachs leave a toxic work environment felt like a satisfying conclusion in 2006. However, over the decades, you learn work/life balance is an oxymoron and characteristics such as integrity and loyalty are often valued but rarely useful on a spreadsheet.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the campy humor, the fashion and soundtrack of the first “Devil.” However, the thing that elevated the Oscar-nominated film to its cultlike status is the same thing that lifted similarly edgy coming-of-age stories such as “The Graduate” in 1967, “American Graffiti” in 1973 and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in 1982: truth. Despite the fantasy elements of beautiful and talented people dressed in clothing designed by the upper echelon of the fashion industry, “Devil” has a sequel because what Sachs was experiencing felt real. Many of us have been there — behind on rent, desperately trying to build a career, navigating friends and romance.

The line the character Nigel told an overwhelmed Sachs in the original — “let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke … means it’s time for a promotion” — was more than a humorous quip. It was also foreshadowing for the young professionals in the audience who had not yet learned that being good at your job, or even great, wasn’t enough to keep it.

We know that all too well now. Just this week, the Wall Street Journal reported corporate layoffs in the first quarter of 2026 surpassed 200,000. Of course, it wasn’t always like this.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the immediate three decades after World War II, workers saw their hourly compensation in line with the country’s productivity growth. That’s because during the height of the Cold War — when employers offered employees pensions and union participation was at its peak — corporate America was incentivized to offer labor a larger share of the profits as a way to counteract communism. However, when the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990s, so did the motivation from domestic CEOs to share profits with workers. The split between capital and labor began measurably in 1970, and the gap has only increased since.

Twenty years ago — before the 2008 recession, the pandemic and the nearly $1-trillion price tag stemming from the Afghanistan war — it was believable a young professional like Sachs would walk away from a good corporate job for the sake of her integrity. However, given how fraught the current work environment feels, with the shadow of artificial intelligence looming over entry-level positions across multiple disciplines, would we find Sachs’ actions believable today? Or laudable? Or would we demand that she compromise her principles because it’s pragmatic to let go of the idealism of youth? Time has forced many of us to begrudgingly accept that possibility. Our younger selves might not approve, but our older selves know that’s how most people survive long enough in their careers to have a sequel.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

Vote-by-mail ballots will not be forwarded to a new address, so your ballot will be returned to your local county election office if you haven’t updated your voter registration.

The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk recommends voters who have been impacted or displaced by wildfires update their mailing address or request a replacement ballot be sent to their temporary address or new permanent address. Los Angeles County residents can follow a guide created for Pacific Palisades and Altadena fire survivors online. Residents can also make updates by phone by calling the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office at (800) 815-2666, Option 2.

You also can update your mailing address by re-registering to vote online. In the “residential address” section, enter your former place of residence and in the “mailing address” section, check the box that says your mailing address is different from your home address and then enter your temporary mailing address.

Lakers lead series, or do they?

From Bill Plaschke: There have been 160 times an NBA team has led a series three games to none.

There have been 160 times that team has won the series.

Marvel in that statistic. Appreciate its power. Wax in its endurance. Embrace its existence.

Because the Lakers are two losses from blowing it to bits.

This is not really happening, is it? The Lakers aren’t really on the verge of messing up a three-games-to-none lead to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, are they?

It’s happening. With a glare and a snarl and youthful athleticism, the wrong side of history beckons.

Like Reed Sheppard wrestling the ball out of LeBron James’ hands in the final minutes, the Rockets are in the process of stealing this.

Continue reading here

Swanson: Lakers need another ageless LeBron James performance after Game 5 loss

Marcus Smart says Lakers must ‘be willing to run through a wall’ in Game 6

Lakers playoff schedule

First round
All times Pacific

at Lakers 107, Houston 98 (box score)
at Lakers 101, Houston 94 (box score)
Lakers 112, at Houston 108 (box score)
at Houston 115, Lakers 96 (box score)
Houston 99, at Lakers 93 (box score)
Friday: Lakers at Houston, 6:30 p.m., Prime Video
*Sunday: Houston at Lakers, TBD

*-if necessary

Ducks advance to second round

Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Chris Kreider had a goal and two assists apiece, and the Ducks eliminated Connor McDavid the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 victory in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series Thursday night.

Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, Ryan Poehling scored the opening goal and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves in a standout performance for the upstart Ducks, who stormed to their team’s first playoff series victory since 2017.

After ending a seven-year postseason absence by knocking out the powerhouse Oilers, the Ducks will face the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights’ series with the Utah Mammoth. Vegas leads 3-2 heading to Salt Lake City on Friday night.

Connor Murphy and Vasily Podkolzin scored as Edmonton followed up its worst regular season since 2021 by going out in the first round for the first time since that season.

Continue reading here

Ducks summary

NHL playoffs schedule

Ducks playoffs schedule

All times Pacific

at Edmonton 4, Ducks 3 (summary)
Ducks 6, at Edmonton 4 (summary)
at Ducks 7, Edmonton 4 (summary)
at Ducks 4, Edmonton 3 (OT) (summary)
at Edmonton 4, Ducks 1 (summary)
at Ducks 5, Edmonton 2 (summary)

Cheap transportation to World Cup in L.A.

From Kevin Baxter: Ticket prices are just the start of the soaring expenses many fans will face while trying to watch World Cup games this summer.

NJ Transit is charging $150 for round-trip tickets from Manhattan to the Meadowlands (the regular price is $12.60) for the World Cup final, while host committee shuttle buses will cost $80.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is demanding $80 to ride one of the 14 express trains on the 30-mile trip from downtown Boston to Foxborough for games at Gillette Stadium. That’s more than three times the normal price.

In Southern California, however, it will cost $1.75 to get to SoFi Stadium on a combination of buses or trains from as far away as Claremont and Simi Valley. That’s also what it costs to get to the Inglewood venue on any other day of the year; only two of the 11 World Cup cities in the U.S. are offering less expensive public transportation.

Continue reading here

Sparks say they can make playoffs

From Marisa Ingemi: Expectations around the Sparks are higher than they’ve been in some time. During Thursday’s media day, that was evident.

The Sparks reloaded for this season, adding veterans Nneka Ogwumike, Erica Wheeler and Ariel Atkins to returners Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink.

After falling just two games short of the playoffs last season, this year’s goal is clear.

“Transformation takes time, and it’s a process, right?” Plum said. “And I think I see that we’ve had tremendous growth. To bring in players like Nneka, Erica Wheeler and then Ariel, we have everyone in camp fully healthy.

“I think, really, our depth and our talent is immense this year, and the mission is very clear from everyone on this team and equipped with the jump and training camp, very excited about the hunger and sense of urgency that we have. We want to win now, that’s very important to us.”

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

1943 — Count Fleet, ridden by Johnny Longden, wins the Kentucky Derby by three lengths over Blue Swords.

1948 — Citation, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Kentucky Derby by 3½ lengths over Coaltown. It’s Citation’s toughest race in winning the Triple Crown.

1954 — 80th Kentucky Derby: Raymond York wins aboard Determine, his only Derby success.

1955 — American golfer Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina, her final victory before her death the following year.

1959 — Floyd Patterson scores 11th round KO of Englishman Brian London in Indianapolis; his 4th World Heavyweight Boxing title defence.

1965 — The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 in Game 7 to capture the Stanley Cup.

1965 — 91st Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker wins aboard Lucky Debonair, the third of his four Derby victories.

1969 — Leonard Tose buys NFL Philadelphia Eagles for a professional sports record $16.15 million.

1976 — 102nd Kentucky Derby: Puerto Rican jockey Ángel Cordero Jr. wins aboard Bold Forbes, the second of three Derby successes.

1981 — Tennis player Billie Jean King acknowledges a lesbian relationship with Marilyn Barnett, becoming first prominent sportswoman to come out.

1982 — Gato del Sol, ridden by Ed Delahoussaye, comes from last place in a field of 19 to win the Kentucky Derby. Gato del Sol, finishes 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Laser Light, who beat Reinvested by a neck for second. He finishes in 2:02 2/5 and returns $44.40 for a $2 bet. Air Forbes Won, the 5-2 favorite of the crow of 141,009, finishes seventh.

1984 — NFL Draft: Nebraska wide receiver Irving Fryar first pick by New England Patriots.

1988 — After scoring 50 points in Game 1, NBA Eastern Conference playoff series, Michael Jordan has 55 in Chicago Bulls 106-101 win vs Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2; first to score 50+ points in consecutive playoff games.

1992 — The Pittsburgh Penguins become the 11th NHL team to rebound from a 3-1 deficit and win a playoff series after beating the Washington Capitals 3-1.

1993 — Bruce Baumgartner wins his 11th straight national wrestling title by beating Joel Greenlee 6-0 in the 286-pound freestyle division at the U.S. championships in Las Vegas.

2003 — The three-time defending champion Lakers beat Minnesota 101-85 to win the series 4-2. It’s the 13th straight playoff series won under Phil Jackson, and Jackson-coached teams have an NBA-record 25 consecutive series wins.

2004 — Smarty Jones splashes his way past Lion Heart in the stretch to win the Kentucky Derby. Smarty Jones runs his record to 7 for 7 and becomes the first unbeaten Derby winner since Seattle Slew in 1977.

2005 — 17-year old Lionel Messi scores his 1st senior league goal for FC Barcelona in 2-0 win against Albacete Balompié, at the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona.

2006 — Detroit, winner of the President’s Trophy by leading the league in points (124) this season, is eliminated in the first round for the third time in five postseasons after a 4-3 loss to Edmonton in Game 6.

2008 — Johan Franzen records his second hat trick in three games with three more goals and helps Detroit complete a four-game sweep of Colorado with an e is 8-2 win. He is the first player with two hat tricks in one playoff series since Jari Kurri did it for Edmonton in 1985.

2010 — Jockey Calvin Borel steers Super Saver through the mud to win his third Kentucky Derby in four years, beating Lookin At Lucky by 2 1/2 lengths. The win ends trainer Todd Pletcher’s Derby drought. Pletcher, who had four horses in the race, came into the race 0 for 24 since 2000.

2019 — Argentine forward Lionel Messi scores twice for his 600th goal for FC Barcelona in a 3-0 home win over Liverpool in a Champions League semifinal.

2021 — 147th Kentucky Derby: Medina Spirit gives jockey John Velazquez his fourth Derby win and trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh victory in the race.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1884 — Toledo’s Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first Black player in the pre-modern era of the major leagues. His Blue Stockings lost 5-1 to Louisville.

1891 — In front of almost 10,000 fans, Cy Young of the Cleveland Spiders defeats the Cincinnati Reds, 12-3, in the first game ever played in Cleveland’s League Park.

1901 — Chicago’s Herm McFarland hit the first grand slam in American League history and Dummy Hoy also homered in the Chicago White Sox’ 19-9 rout of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers committed an AL record 12 errors, 10 by the infield, in the loss.

1906 — John Lush of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched a no-hitter at Brooklyn, beating the Dodgers 6-0.

1920 — Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves and Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Dodgers each pitched 26 innings in a 1-1 tie, the longest in major league history.

1920 — Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a Yankee, and 50th of his career, as New York beat Boston 6-0 at the Polo Grounds.

1925 — The Philadelphia Athletics introduce another future Hall of Famer, 17-year-old catcher Jimmie Foxx, who pinch-hits a single in the 9-4 loss to the Washington Senators.

1926 — Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige makes his debut in the Negro Southern League.

1944 — George Myatt of Washington went 6-for-6 and the Senators beat the Boston Braves 11-4.

1951 — New York’s Mickey Mantle hit his first major league home run in an 8-3 loss at Chicago. The first of Mantle’s 536 homers came in the sixth inning off Randy Gumpert.

1968 — Philadelphia Phillies pitcher John Boozer was ejected by umpire Ed Vargo at Shea Stadium for throwing spitballs during his warmup pitches. Boozer was the second major league pitcher to be ejected from a game for this.

1969 — Houston’s Don Wilson beat the Cincinnati Reds with a 4-0 no-hitter at Crosley Field, one day after the Reds’ Jim Maloney no-hit the Astros and nine days after Wilson absorbed a 14-0 pounding by Cincinnati.

1973 — The San Francisco Giants scored seven runs with two out in the ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-7.

1975 — Hank Aaron collects four hits and two RBI in the Brewers’ 17-3 win over Detroit. This brings his career RBI total to 2,211, breaking Babe Ruth’s published record of 2,209.

1984 — Dwight Gooden became the first teenager to strike out a least ten batters in a game since Bert Blyleven did it in 1970. The Mets’ 19-year-old phenom would set a major league rookie record with 276 strikeouts.

1991 — Rickey Henderson surpassed Lou Brock as baseball’s career stolen base leader with his 939th steal as the Oakland Athletics beat the New York Yankees 7-4.

1991 — Nolan Ryan pitched his seventh no-hitter, struck out 16 and shut down the best-hitting team in the majors, as the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.

1992 — The Dodgers postponed a three-game series against Montreal because of rioting in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict.

1992 — Rickey Henderson garners his 1,000th stolen base.

2000 — San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds becomes the first player to hit a ball into San Francisco Bay (McCovey’s Cove) as the first “splashdown” home run at Pacific Bell Park.

2012 — Orioles manager Buck Showalter wins his 1,000th game as a major league skipper when the O’s defeat the Yankees, 7-1.

2015 — Alex Rodriguez ties Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time home run list when he hits number 660 against the Red Sox.

2020 — Even though there is no baseball being currently played, pitcher Emmanuel Clase of the Indians manages to get himself suspended, as the results of a test are positive for Boldenone, an anabolic steroid. He will be suspended for 80 games from whenever the season eventually starts.

2022 — Kelsie Whitmore becomes the first woman to start a game in the Atlantic League, which is now part of Organized Baseball as a partner league of Major League Baseball, when she starts in left field for the Staten Island FerryHawks against the Gastonia Honey Hunters.

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.

A TOP travel company has launched a new guarantee for customers that allows them to get a refund the same day their flight is cancelled.

On The Beach has launched a new initiative for travellers this summer, where, if their flight is cancelled, they will get a refund on the same day.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

The holiday package provider is the first to offer ‘Cancelled Flight Cover’, and it is included on all On The Beach packages.

The perk will come into play if your flight is either cancelled or rescheduled by 12 hours or more, with On The Beach first trying to find you the “next best flight”.

If this is not possible or you don’t want the alternative flight, a refund will be processed on the very same day for your flight, hotel and any extras you booked.

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It comes as airlines and travellers face uncertainty this summer, with possible cancellations across Europe due to fuel supply concerns.

Some airlines are already cutting flights but other providers usually take up to 14 days to refund customers.

Caspar Nelson, holiday expert at On the Beach, said: “Holidaymakers deserve certainty, especially when disruption strikes.

“We’re proud to be the first package holiday provider to commit to same-day refund processing for cancelled flights, giving customers the confidence to book knowing we’ve got their back when it matters most.

“If the worst happens and a flight is cancelled, we’ll move quickly to either find a new route or return every penny of their holiday money that same day.

“This means they can get a new break booked, make alternative plans fast, and get back to looking forward to their summer instead of worrying about it.”

A majority of South Koreans support raising the country’s senior age threshold to 70 from the current 65, a survey by Gallup Korea showed Friday.

The survey, conducted from Tuesday to Thursday on 1,002 adults aged 18 and older, found that 59 percent of respondents favored raising the eligibility age for senior benefits.

Opposition stood at 30 percent, while 12 percent either declined to answer or said they were unsure.

In similar surveys conducted in 2015 and 2023, 46 percent and 60 percent of respondents, respectively, backed raising the threshold.

The poll also found 60 percent of respondents believe individuals should be primarily responsible for their own livelihood in old age.

By contrast, 29 percent said the government and society should take responsibility, while 4 percent said such responsibility fell on their offspring and 3 percent chose other options.

Across all age groups, more than half said individuals should take primary responsibility for their retirement.

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.

ONE of the oldest lidos in the UK is set to undergo a huge expansion with a new spa and children’s water play area.

Droitwich Spa Lido near Birmingham originally opened in 1935 and is one of the few remaining open-air, saltwater pools in the UK and now, it will get a £12.5million facelift.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

There will be several new features at the lido including a spa experience, a new brine pool, a new reception and a new water play area for little ones.

Other parts of the attraction will be updated, including reintroducing Art Deco features, enhancing the cafe and refurbishing the changing rooms.

Councillor Richard Morris said: “The Droitwich Lido is seen as one of the best in the country and when the public were consulted about the Town Prospectus the residents in Droitwich rated it the area they were most proud of after fighting for it to be reopened in 2007.”

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He added that the final design might evolve, but that the lido is expected to open in the first half of 2028.

Currently, the destination already includes a heated saltwater pool, children’s wet play area, sun terrace and a cafe.

The 40metre lido also sits on vast deposits of salt, which have been extracted from the ground for centuries.

In fact, the natural brine in the town is 10 times stronger than sea water and when the lido first opened, diluted brine was pumped from the local streams into the pool to keep it aseptic.

It was then heated to the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea and marketed as the ‘seaside of Droitwich Spa’, without actually being on the seaside.

The lido previously closed in 2000, but remained a popular attraction with many travelling to just see the once busy open air pool.

Then in 2007, the lido reopened having been completely refurbished, with the water still using a natural brine feed.

Previously, the pool was even named the fifth best in the country by The Times.

The pool is already open for the 2026 season and is heated to between 22C and 26C.

General swim sessions costing from £7.20 per adult for an hour or £9.40 for two hours and £7.20 per child per session.

The U.S. Marine Corps is working toward adding an active protection system (APS) capability to its fleet of 8×8 wheeled Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV). APSs on the market today are generally designed to defeat incoming anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-armor weapons. However, many of them also have the inherent ability to down incoming drones or are being modified to address this ever-growing threat, something TWZ previously explored in a detailed feature. The Marines are already exploring additional options to improve the ACV’s defenses against uncrewed aerial attackers, as well as other upgrades to the vehicles.

Chris Melkonian, the Marine Corps’ current Program Manager for Advanced Amphibious Assault (PM AAA), talked today about APS for the ACV fleet and other plans for those vehicles at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition, at which TWZ is in attendance.

The Marines currently field two ACV variants, the baseline personnel carrier type (ACV-P) and a version optimized for command and control tasks (ACV-C). The service is in the process of acquiring two more variants, one armed with a turreted 30mm cannon (ACV-30) and a recovery vehicle version fitted with a crane and other specialized features (ACV-R). The Corps is presently targeting 2028 for reaching initial operational capability with the ACV-30 and the ACV-R.

The Marines view the entire ACV family as central to its ability to conduct amphibious operations, as well as for providing additional lethality and other support to forces once ashore. At present, the service is planning to acquire a total fleet of 608 ACVs, consisting of 389 ACV-Ps, 33 ACV-Cs, 152 ACV-30s, and 34 ACV-Rs. Prime contractor BAE Systems has also proposed additional variants, including ones configured for electronic warfare or dedicated to the counter-drone role.

In 2018, the Corps announced it had selected the ACV as the replacement for its Cold War-era tracked Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) family. The service announced the formal retirement of the AAV last fall.

There are already “things that we’re doing today to make the ACV family vehicles even more capable,” Melkonian said at Modern Day Marine. “The analogy I use is the ACV that Marines are using today is not the ACV that they’re going to use in the future.”

This includes an “active protection system,” he added. “We’re working with the vendor to mature that capability. We’re going to move that right into production.”

Recently released budget documents also say that the Marines are asking for $28.35 million in Fiscal Year 2027 for “Ancillary Equipment” for the ACV fleet, which “is primarily attributed to the procurement of Special Mission Kits for the Active Protective System (APS).” Those same documents further note that the “funding provides APS production kits, integration kits, installation labor, countermeasures, and spares for 21 ACV-P vehicles and will add a new defensive capability to existing vehicles.”

However, neither Melkonian nor the budget documents have said what specific type of APS the ACVs are now in line to get, or when. TWZ has reached out to the service for more information.

This is certainly not the U.S. military’s first foray into APSs for armored vehicles. The U.S. Army previously integrated the Israeli-designed and combat-proven Trophy APS onto a portion of its M1 Abrams tanks.

TROPHY is the world’s ONLY operational APS (Previous Version – Updated Video Available)

That service is also now in the process of adding another Israeli-developed APS, Iron Fist, onto at least some of its Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The Army’s version of Iron Fist, now designated as the XM251, is also set to be fitted to next-generation M1E3 tanks and a planned replacement for the Bradley family, tentatively designated the XM30.

There are other APS designs on the market today that the Marines could have chosen for integration onto the ACV, as well.

As noted, APSs available today are generally designed to neutralize anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-armor weapons. They typically achieve this through the use of ‘hard-kill’ projectiles designed to destroy targets either using an explosive warhead or via the sheer force of impact. Hard-kill APSs use a mixture of sensors, which can include small-form-factor radars and electro-optical/infrared cameras, to cue those interceptors to engage incoming threats.

From when the Marines first announced the selection of BAE’s ACV back in 2018, TWZ has noted that an APS could provide the vehicles with a valuable extra layer of defense against anti-armor missiles and rockets. More capable infantry anti-armor weapons continue to be developed and proliferate globally. Those threats present additional challenges in beach landing scenarios for amphibious vehicles like the ACV, which move much more slowly in the water than they do on land.

The threat that drones pose, and to armored vehicles in particular, which TWZ has been sounding the alarm on for years, has also now been fully rammed into the public consciousness. This is thanks largely to the stark visuals of tanks and other vehicles being attacked by uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) that emerge on a daily basis now from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian drone from the 79th Air Assault Brigade drops a 40mm HEDP grenade on a Russian UR-77 Meteorit, causing a catastrophic payload explosion. pic.twitter.com/SsaQCKXsNL

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 14, 2023

Drones are an ever-more common and still evolving threat across a growing number of conflict zones worldwide. First-person view (FPV) type kamikaze drones controlled via fiber optic cable have become a particular point of concern, since they are impervious to radio frequency jamming. In turn, this has already prompted the development of a variety of active and passive countermeasures for armored and unarmored vehicles. We will come back to this in a moment.

TWZ has previously laid out a detailed case specifically for using hard-kill APSs to provide added counter-drone defense for armored vehicles. The Israeli firms behind Trophy and Iron Fist have both now notably demonstrated the ability of their respective systems to defeat uncrewed aerial threats in certain envelopes, as can be seen in the videos below. It should be noted that Trophy, Iron Fist, and other hard-kill APSs have a limited number of engagement opportunities and are not really intended to defeat large volumes of threats simultaneously, such as drones attacking in swarms.

Trophy® APS – The land maneuver enabler

Iron Fist APS | Active Protection System for Armored Vehicles

When it comes to the APS capability now planned for Marine ACVs, “that is not going to be the end-all, be-all,” Melkonian, the Marine Corps’ Program Manager, said today. “We’re constantly looking at what the next generation of APS is and how we can get that onto the platform in a lightweight form factor.”

Melkonian also highlighted other potential counter-drone and more general survivability upgrades that could be on the horizon for ACV. This could include the integration of directed energy weapons and some form of added overhead protection. Top-down attacks on vehicles where the armor is typically thinnest can be very threatening, in general.

As an aside, the Army has already been working to acquire hundreds of Top Attack Protection (TAP) add-on armor systems for installation on its M1 Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles. This reflects an expanding global trend in the integration of so-called ‘cope cage’ type armor around the turrets and other areas of armored and unarmored vehicles, primarily to protect against drone attacks. The first cope cages appeared on Russian tanks in the lead-up to the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This kind of armor does present tradeoffs, including the potential to interfere with other capabilities, such as APSs.

Improved “situational awareness, that’s kind of a gateway to counter-UAS, in terms of the ability to sense your environment,” Melkonian also noted today while talking about other possible upgrades for the ACV. “Take all that video on board and then be able to feed that into [a] counter-UAS system.”

Melkonian highlighted several other areas of interest where the Marines are looking to improve the ACV’s capabilities. His list included things like reducing the vehicle’s signatures to make it harder for enemies to spot, improving its mobility while in the water, and upgrades to just help keep everything inside dry.

“Marines operate in very humid, very difficult environments,” he explained. “The ability to dehumidify the vehicles is a critical enabler, being able to improve the maintenance strategy and keeping [sic] those components running for as long as they need to.”

Broadly speaking, the Marines are interested in new “lightweight solutions, advanced technology, and anything that’s going to be marinized. It must be marinized,” he added. “I can’t tell you how many solutions have been picked, and that’s one of the first questions we ask, and sometimes the solutions are designed for a marinized environment, sometimes they’re not. Marines go where no one else goes, and we’ve got to be able to make sure that our capabilities can support their needs.”

The core marinization requirement will apply to the APS integration just like any other upgrades for Marine ACVs.

Altogether, the addition of active protection systems looks to be just one important upgrade for the Marine Corps’ ACV fleet now on the horizon.

Eric Tegler contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Crime thriller fans are heaping praise on a gripping new BBC series starring Sheridan Smith, as people say it’s the ‘show of the year’ and has some ‘unexpectedly’ funny moments

A new BBC crime thriller series could be your next obsession. If you’re looking for a new series to sink your teeth into, then forget about Netflix and Amazon Prime Video – as a new series now available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer has already been touted as one of the best shows of 2026.

The five-part series stars Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha, and according to people on social media, it is both gripping and “unexpectedly funny”. With only five episodes, it’s the perfect thing to binge this weekend – especially if you’re looking for a “high-stakes” show with tension and laughter.

TV and film reviewer Emily posted a video on TikTok in which she heaped praise on the new series, called The Cage, stating that fans of crime dramas should “get this one on your watch list” immediately.

She said: “We have a brand-new high-stakes crime thriller that the BBC have just dropped, starring Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha. So if you love a good crime thriller, then definitely get this one on your watch list.”

The Cage is set in a casino in Liverpool, where two casino workers named Leanne (Smith) and Matty (Socha) realise they have both plotted to steal from the same safe.

Emily explained: “It’s all about two employees who are both secretly stealing from the same safe without knowing that the other exists. What starts off as a quick way to make extra money turns into something far more dangerous when their lives collide, pulling them into a situation involving crime, pressure, and people that they really do not want to be involved with. From then on, everything just keeps spiralling.”

The TV reviewer said she hasn’t yet finished the series herself, but she’s already “hooked” after just two episodes.

She continued: “I have watched the first two episodes so far, and I am hooked. It’s really tense, gritty, unpredictable, and you have this constant sense that something could go wrong at any moment, which really raises the stakes. It also really leans into desperation and bad decisions, and how quickly things can spiral, even if you think you have a plan.”

The Cage was created by Tony Schumacher, who also created the BBC police drama The Responder, which starred Martin Freeman as a police officer who has been demoted from his position as an inspector and takes on a series of night shifts in Liverpool city centre.

Alongside Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha, The Cage also stars Barry Sloane, Geraldine James, and Sue Jenkins. The show was directed by Al Mackay and was filmed in Liverpool and Merseyside in early 2025.

Commenters on Emily’s video were split over the series. Some said they had already seen it and found it to be “slow”, while others said it was “unexpectedly” good.

One person said: “Watched it all over the past two nights, really, really good. Would recommend it.”

Someone else posted: “This is really good. Unexpectedly, it was quite funny in parts.”

But another wasn’t convinced, writing: “I’ve watched the first episode, [and] it needs to get better. I will try one more, but if it hasn’t grabbed me, that will be me done.”

A fourth shared: “Watching it now. [It’s] a bit slow.”

Robert Luna seeks a second term as L.A. County Sheriff but faces nine challengers, including predecessor Alex Villanueva, whom he defeated in 2022.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Robert Luna is hoping to be the first L.A. County Sheriff to win a second term in more than 10 years. He points to a reduction in crime for the county during his term and says he brought stability after a series of one-term sheriffs since 2014.

Last year, deputy-patrolled areas of the county experienced a 12.5% drop in serious crimes from the previous year, including a drop of 12% in murders and 20% in auto thefts.

Perhaps the most vocal and well-known of Luna’s opponents is his predecessor, Alex Villanueva, who paints a picture of a department in disarray, with low morale and trouble in recruiting. Villanueva claims his return would keep deputies from leaving and appeal to new hires.

Former sheriff’s Lt. Eric Strong, who also served as chief of campus safety and security operations at the county probation office, has entered the fray once again after finishing third in 2022. Strong has called for increased transparency by the department, advocating for the agency to work with oversight bodies like the Office of Inspector General and the Civilian Oversight Committee.

“Nothing has really changed, and that’s why I’m running,” Strong said.

Mike Bornman, a retired former captain, also is vying for the job. He’s looking to lift morale inside the department, which he said has faced a series of challenges with social movements that have been “anti-cop,” such as the George Floyd protests of 2020 and calls to defund the police.

“There’s been no real pushback from law enforcement; there’s been nothing coming from this office relative to that,” Bornman said.

He said the department is struggling with difficulty in recruitment, significant overtime hours and deputies at risk of burnout.

Sgt. Karla Carranza is running again after an unsuccessful campaign in 2022. At one point assigned to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown L.A., Carranza has made jail reform one of her top campaign focuses, promising to reduce violence and lower the risk of lawsuits and what she says are preventable inmate deaths.

Brendan Corbett, also running for the job, served as assistant sheriff during Villanueva’s tenure. He’s looking to restructure the department, focus resources on patrol and line functions and increase the reserve program.

Lt. Oscar Martinez, assigned to the department’s Palmdale station, is running to unseat his boss and criticizes Luna for fostering relationships with the county board of supervisors and oversight bodies, saying his focus should be on law enforcement, not politics .

“The sheriff is more interested in protecting the political establishment,” Martinez said. “Under my leadership, the mission of the sheriff’s department is to fight crime. Our job is not to fix politics.”

Andre White, a detective with about 11 years at the department, also vowed to take a “community-oriented approach” if elected.

Some voters may recognize Sonia Montejano, a former senior deputy in the department’s court services division, as the court bailiff in the television court program “Judge Joe Brown.”

Montejano filed paperwork for the position and listed her personal website on campaign forms. Her website, however, makes no mention of her campaign or position on issues involving the department. She did not respond to requests for comment.

Head coach Eddie Howe says the desire of Newcastle United‘s owners to get to the top remains “unchanged” after meeting with them this week.

Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and minority owner Jamie Reuben are among those who have flown in for a two-day annual summit at Matfen Hall in Northumberland.

Although the PIF is to withdraw its multi-billion dollar backing of LIV Golf at the end of the season, senior figures at Newcastle were informed a couple of weeks ago that the pullout would not affect the club.

Newcastle are 14th place in the Premier League, but Howe stressed the “determination to succeed” came through from those above him in the meetings he attended on Thursday.

“The desire is unchanged,” he said. “It’s to try and get to the top of the Premier League, to try and consistently win as many trophies as possible.

“I don’t think that will change while the PIF are our owners, part owners or majority owners. They are very ambitious for the football club.”

Newcastle’s hierarchy have talked of achieving such goals by 2030, but Howe recognised that the infrastructure needed to elevate the club to such a position will take time.

Following a major capital investment, an announcement is expected regarding plans for a new state-of-the-art training ground to underline the owners’ commitment.

There have also been discussions this week regarding the future of St James’ Park as Newcastle weigh up whether to expand the stadium or build a new ground in a bid to turbocharge income streams in the long run and bridge a huge revenue gap on the league’s highest-earning clubs.

“They clearly care so much about the football club [given] the long-term planning that’s going on, on a number of levels,” Howe said of the PIF, who bought an initial 80% stake in 2021 before going on to increase their share.

“[There are] very exciting times ahead for the club, regardless of what happens short-term. The long-term vision is clearly there.”

This gathering of executives, which had been in the diary for several months, was viewed as an opportunity to discuss such infrastructure projects, recruitment plans, the team’s slide down the table and how the club go about addressing it.

Howe was among those to give a presentation on Thursday, as was always planned.

Rather than reacting emotionally, the view internally remains that Newcastle need to respond rationally with the help of cold, thorough analysis.

Howe had “challenging conversations” with those at the top, but the head coach sounded upbeat at his news conference on Friday before the visit of Brighton.

“I was pleased by the level of support given to me, but of course still understanding how football works and knowing we need to get results,” he said. “That will never change.”

May 1 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors are suing New Jersey for offering qualifying noncitizen residents in-state college tuition and state-funded benefits, the latest state the Trump administration has accused of discriminating against out-of-state Americans in its anti-immigration crackdown.

The Justice Department has brought nine lawsuits challenging states’ laws often called Dream Acts, which generally offer noncitizens who have lived in and attended high school in the state for several years the same college tuition that citizen residents are charged.

The Justice Department filed its lawsuit Thursday, asking the court to block New Jersey from enforcing two laws: one passed in 2013 that offers in-state tuition to eligible noncitizen residents, and another passed in 2018 that extends their eligibility to state financial aid programs and scholarships.

Federal prosecutors alleged in the lawsuit that the laws “blatantly discriminate in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens from other states” and violate federal law, which bars states from offering postsecondary education benefits based on residency to people unlawfully present in the country unless U.S. citizens are eligible for the same benefits.

“Imagine being denied the opportunity of education in our own country. By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, the state of New Jersey is doing just that,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration carries out an aggressive anti-immigration policy that has included mass round-ups of noncitizens to revoking deportation protections for those from war- or catastrophe-torn nations.

Almost exactly a year ago, President Donald Trump signed the “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens” executive order, which directed the attorney general to identify laws “favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens,” including state laws “that provide in-state higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-state American citizens.”

Of the nine lawsuits challenging these Dream Act laws to date, Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma have resolved their cases either through agreements, consent decrees or joint motions.

Lawsuits are still pending in Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, Nebraska, California and now New Jersey.

According to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal, 21 states and Washington, D.C., provide in-state tuition to undocumented students, while 18 and D.C. also provide access to state financial aid.