Month: July 2026

In an unexpected move, Boston traded the All-Star guard to division rivals Philadelphia for Paul George and draft picks.

Jaylen Brown’s time in Boston has come to a surprising end with the Celtics deciding to trade him to one of their most storied rivals.

Brown – the 2024 NBA Finals MVP, a five-time All-Star and the league’s fourth-leading scorer this past season – is getting traded by the Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers, a person with knowledge of the deal’s terms said on Wednesday night.

Boston is getting Paul George, along with a slew of draft capital that could become two first-round picks and two second-round picks, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade does not yet have the required league approvals.

ESPN first reported the trade agreement, and the terms were later confirmed by The Boston Globe.

Brown latest NBA star to be traded, joins Antetokounmpo, Leonard

Add this news to the list of blockbuster moves across the NBA so far this off season.

LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent. All-Star-calibre players Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram are also on the move.

Now, this.

“Welcome to Philly, JB!” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro posted on social media. “Sixers get way better and, as a bonus, the Celtics got worse!”

It’s a move that breaks up what has been one of the league’s most successful 1-2 punches in Brown and Jayson Tatum, who helped carry the Celtics to the 2024 NBA title.

Tatum missed most of this past season while recovering from an Achilles tear that happened during the 2025 playoffs, meaning Brown had to carry even more of the load for Boston – and he wound up with career-best averages of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.

It seemed, though, that Brown had felt underappreciated, especially after it became known that Boston had included him in trade talks with Milwaukee when Antetokounmpo was on the market.

“Nobody has won more combined regular-season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,” Brown posted on social media over the weekend. He’s right: The Celtics have won 523 games with Brown in the lineup, including playoff contests, which is six more than Denver has won with Nikola Jokic over that span.

Brown now gets to be part of a squad in Philadelphia alongside guard Tyrese Maxey and centre Joel Embiid, someone who Brown recently called a flopper on a livestream.

“Joel Embiid is a great player. One of the best bigs in f****** basketball history flops,” Brown said. “He know it. This ain’t breaking news.”

Brown, Maxey (the league’s fifth top scorer this past season) and Embiid (a two-time NBA scoring champion) could become a positively frightening trio in Philadelphia, and the Celtics deciding to play a role in creating such a triumvirate only adds to the intrigue surrounding why they wanted to trade Brown in the first place.

The trade ends a tremendously disappointing two-year stint for George, who was traded with two years left on a four-year, $212m free-agent contract. The 36-year-old never approached his nine-time All-Star form in Philadelphia, and his tenure was marred by a 25-game suspension last season for flunking a drug test.

He averaged just 16.7 points in his two seasons in Philadelphia after topping the 20-point mark in nine straight seasons with Indiana, Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers.

A HUGE new indoor soft play park is coming to a major city in the UK this weekend.

Families are set to get a new destination for rainy-day fun with everything from laser tag to trampoline games.

Epicland UK will launch in Partington, Greater Manchester on Sunday, July 5.

Owners say the venue has been completely fitted out from scratch, with all-new play equipment installed throughout.

Children can look forward to light-up racing slides, interactive trampoline games, laser tag arena and soft play zones.

Parents won’t be left out either as they can sit back and enjoy fresh coffee and matcha drinks at a brand-new cafe.

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After an active play, your little ones won’t go hungry as the cafe offers healthy snacks and children’s lunch options.

The centre is designed to cater for children of all ages, with plenty of space for toddlers and older youngsters alike.

To celebrate the opening, the centre is offering a bargain deal with 20 per cent off all entry tickets until the end of August.

Customers can use the code “WELCOME20” to book a play session at a discounted rate.

The new attraction will open its doors at 9am on Sunday with a full programme prepared for the occasion.

The grand opening will be packed with fun activities from face painting, balloon artist, traditional lion dancing to giveaways.

The centre will stay open until 6pm on July 5, which means you’ll have to be quick to make the most of it.

The historic 1920s tower that once housed the beloved Ace Hotel is entering a new era just in time for the summer.

Two years after opening in the iconic Spanish Gothic building on South Broadway, Stile Downtown Los Angeles has unveiled its multimillion-dollar renovation and its expansion from a limited-service hotel to a full “creative hub.” The makeover adds a 24/7 membership-based creative lab with state-of-the-art music studios, co-working lounges, an updated rooftop bar called Somewhere Special, a restored theater and a curated retail shop for the community.

“We don’t really want to call it just a hotel — it’s more of a hub,” says Jaisun Ihm, CEO of AJU Continuum, the investment company that purchased the historic space.

Throughout the space are throwback touches — for instance, hotel guests can borrow a Walkman and browse the curated cassette library with titles like Sade’s “Promise,” Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl” and the Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets.”

Behind the massive overhaul is South Korea-based AJU Continuum, which purchased the property in 2019 but didn’t change the name until 2024. The project marks the investment company’s first U.S. expansion.

“We don’t really want to call it just a hotel — it’s more of a hub,” says Jaisun Ihm, CEO of AJU Continuum, which is best known for its culture-forward Ryse Hotel in Seoul. With Stile, Ihm says their mission was to “connect L.A. to Seoul.”

Ryse, Ihm says, encapsulates today’s eclectic lifestyle hotel: “It’s grounded in street culture. We say it’s iconoclastic. It’s youthful in nature.”

AJU Continuum teamed up with L.A. architecture and interior design studio Design, Bitches — the group behind the chic Checker Hall in Highland Park and Verve Coffee Roasters in the Arts District. Ihm didn’t care that it was Design, Bitches’ first hotel venture. After working with several firms over the years, he was tired of seeing the same aesthetic everywhere and wanted to work with a team that would bring a “bold” perspective, he says.

When the creatives at Design, Bitches got the invitation, they were all in. “I’ve always wanted to do a hotel,” says RA Rudolph, the studio’s co-founder. “I love hotels and I have opinions,” she adds laughing.

For Angelenos who frequented the Ace Hotel, a maverick venue that helped revitalize downtown L.A. for a decade beginning in 2014, walking through Stile will feel both familiar and new. While the building’s bones remain intact — a requirement of its historic-cultural monument designation — the space has an industrial-modern twist inspired by L.A.’s creative spirit.

For example, the United Theater on Broadway, which was once the 1927 flagship movie palace for the influential United Artists collective (Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith), now features fresh carpet, modernized sound and stage equipment and roughly 125 new light fixtures inspired by the lobby’s original Spanish Revival-style chandelier. As a nod to the building’s legacy, where Hollywood’s earliest icons broke away from major studios to control their own work, AJU Continuum has launched its own in-house booking team for the live entertainment venue. Also, the giant neon “Jesus Saves” sign that has sat atop the building since its days as a church is still there — and the owners have no plans to remove it.

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1. A clawfoot tub inside the Loft King Suite. 2. Lounge chairs inside the Loft King Suite. 3. Hotel guests lounge in the rooftop pool. 4. Adriana Castellanos and friends hanging out in the lobby bar. 5. Photos taken in the photo booth at the Somewhere Special rooftop bar.

Some of the most significant changes can be found in the hotel lobby, which features a curated convenience store called the Goodie Shop, which is adorned with throwback boomboxes. Located next to the front desk, which was significantly condensed, the store is filled with a selection of California-sourced snacks and beverages, lifestyle goods, Stile-branded merch and travel essentials (phone chargers, toothpaste, hair care, etc.).

On the opposite side of the lobby is SparkHouse, a private members club and creative hub for up-and-coming musicians and creatives. The two-story space features professional recording studios, podcast and video suites, co-working lounges and meeting spaces, which are slated to open by early next year once permits are approved, Ihm says. SparkHouse’s cafe and bar is open to the public and sells tea, coffee (try the honey matcha latte), wine, beer cocktails and small bites. Ihm says programming at SparkHouse will include listening sessions, live showcases and even a mentorship program for rising artists.

“I’ve always wanted to do a hotel,” says RA Rudolph, the co-founder of Design, Bitches.

The rooftop bar, which offers stunning skyline views of the city and a pool, is now called Somewhere Special. The design team removed about 90% of the plants that used to pack the area to maximize space for dancing and mingling. Also, the pool area, now painted in a playful shade called Carrot Orange, has more seating and a photo booth nearby.

All 182 guest rooms were given a fresh coat of dusty rose paint, new custom carpet, furniture and upgraded bathrooms. In each room, you’ll find Korean amenities like face masks, a custom robe by a local brand called Room Service Los Angeles and books from the former Los Angeles University Cathedral that occupied the space from 1991 to 2011. With the hotel motto being “stay by your own rules,” Rudolph says it was important for them to make the rooms adaptable to each guest’s needs and to prioritize comfort. The result is uncommon room layouts like the tri-suite king room equipped with two twin-sized beds and a king bed split by a privacy divider that doubles as a playful art installation. Rudolph, who used to travel often with her now-adult children, says that’s the type of room she always wished had existed.

Stile’s arrival comes at a precarious moment for downtown L.A. In recent years, the neighborhood’s once buzzy hospitality and nightlife scene has experienced dwindling foot traffic, slow pandemic recovery and increased vacancies. Some business owners say crime and neglect are driving away customers. Nearly 1,000 businesses left downtown in 2024. Launching a high-concept lifestyle hotel is a bold gamble.

The Goodie Shop, a new curated convenience store, is filled with a selection of California-sourced snacks and beverages, lifestyle goods and travel essentials.

But Ihm says he hopes that Stile will help rejuvenate the area and create an ecosystem that will support neighboring businesses as well. Rudolph says she’s already starting to see that change.

“It’s been nice to see that in the last year that I’ve been coming here to work on the project, it’s livened back up again,” she says. “Especially this block, it feels better.”

RYANAIR has warned Brits of further travel chaos ahead of the school summer holidays, after passengers missed their flights home and have been left in massive queues at the border.

The budget airline has slammed the EU’s rollout of the new passport control Entry/Exit System (EES), claiming it is not ready for the school summer holidays travel period.

As a result, the airline is now calling on European governments to suspend EES, which started back in April.

The airline warned that seven airports are likely to be hit the worst having already experience problems – these are:

• Tenerife South
• Palma
• Alicante
• Malaga
• Milan Bergamo
• Krakow
• Paris Beauvais

Ryanair added that the system should be suspended until September – which marks the end of the busy summer period – to avoid travel chaos.

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Rafael Schvartzman, the vice-president for Europe at the International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned earlier this summer that queue times could stretch to as much as six hours.

It comes as some families have experienced lengthy delays at airports across Europe already this year, which has resulted in missed flights.

Last month, 150 Ryanair passengers missed their flight from Toulouse, France to the UK due to queues of up to 500 people in the airport.

In another case, around 50 passengers returning home from Athens recently missed their flight as they were still queuing through the airport.

Travel Reporter Alice Penwill recently also queued for three hours to get out of Lanzarote Airport.

Ryanair is advising passengers to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to ensure they have enough time to get through the queues.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon said: “As schools break up and Europe enters the busiest travel period of the year, it is clear that EES is still not ready for peak summer volumes.

“Passengers and families should not be used as guinea pigs for a half-baked passport control system that risks creating long queues, missed flights and unnecessary stress at airports this summer.

“It is as simple as postponing EES until September, as other EU countries like Greece have already done.

“Ryanair calls on European Governments once again to delay the implementation to protect passengers, families and airport operations during the school holiday rush, instead of forcing holidaymakers to endure needless passport control chaos.”

Chances are, right about now, you’re considering how you’d like to spend this upcoming Fourth of July weekend. At the beach, maybe, at a barbecue or whatever place sets fireworks pinwheeling through your holiday-happy mind.

Which makes it a perfectly excellent time to talk about elections and vote counting.

Every two years, in the spring and fall, California holds an election. Every two years the state faces an outraged chorus, voices raised nationwide, decrying the length of time it takes to tally the millions of ballots cast and, in a handful of races, determine the winner.

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Then, just as suddenly, the din fades away, the focus shifts and the election process is forgotten until the next round of howling protest.

Just that word, process, can throttle and snuff the life out of the subject.

So it’s good news that lawmakers in Sacramento have used this inattentive time to address the biennial hullabaloo and perhaps shut some people up.

The budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Monday includes an additional $40 million aimed at speeding up California’s vote count, and even if the sum is less than half the $90 million sought by reform-minded advocates, it’s something.

Most of the money will go toward staffing, technology and equipment upgrades. Another $10 million will pay for voter education and outreach. A further $750,000 will be used to combat election misinformation. (A $3.50 roll of duct tape would be a far more economical way to address the latter were it applied to the inciteful mouth of America’s election-denier-in-chief. More about him in a moment.)

“While the amount budgeted is less than we had recommended, it still represents a sizable investment that prioritizes timely election results,” said Kim Alexander, head of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, which has been at the forefront of election reform efforts in the state.

A surprise Supreme Court decision

As it happens, the budgetary infusion came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of states to count mail ballots that are postmarked by election day, even if they arrive days afterward. In California, where most voters mail their ballots, that lag time can be up to a week.

It was a surprise decision from this most Trump-obeisant court, a setback for the petulant president and a ruling that will have very little effect on California’s prolonged vote counting.

That’s because those late-arriving ballots have very little to do with the time it takes to complete the count. My colleague Kevin Rector reported that in 2024 California tallied more than 406,000 late-arriving mail ballots — which represents only about 2.5% of the more than 16 million ballots cast. The long count is a result of the huge number of ballots placed in drop boxes or arriving at processing facilities on or just before election day — and, really, is it such a bad thing for voters to watch for late developments before letting go of their ballot?

(Does the name Eric Swalwell ring any bells?)

Lawmakers in California made a purposeful decision that voting should be convenient and not a chore, as a way to to encourage the greatest turnout possible. That’s a good thing if you believe in our system of representative democracy. The voice of the people, and all that.

There wasn’t much hue or cry — especially about mail balloting, which has exploded in popularity and introduces all sorts of time-consuming steps, such as signature verification — until Trump cried fraud and made other specious claims. That’s what happens when you have a sore, whiny loser astride the bully pulpit; Trump is perfectly willing to torch people of good faith and burn working systems to the ground if it salves his eggshell ego.

An election, not a soccer match

Many political commentators are complicit in Trump’s arson.

Awaiting California’s election results, they act like pouty birthday children forced to leave their presents unopened until all the kids have had their cake. They speak of voters losing faith in the election process without explaining the commendable reason for the delay — seeking maximum voter participation — or acknowledging how their impatience contributes to the sense that something wrong is afoot.

At bottom, the push for instant results, and instant gratification, is much more about sating the curiosity of pundits and political junkies than some widespread agita among voters glued to the ballot-counting as if it were a World Cup match.

Is there a soul out there who feels there’s insufficient time between June 8, when the Associated Press called the Los Angeles mayoral race, and June 9, when the call came in the gubernatorial contest, for candidates to present their cases and voters — who haven’t already decided — to make up their minds?

Hang out with family and friends. Enjoy some barbecue. Watch fireworks paint the night sky. There’s plenty of time for speechifying, TV ads and campaign mailers to blitz the state between now and the election on Nov. 3.

Frankly, most Californians welcome the break.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: What you should know about the $351.7 billion state budget Newsom just signed
The deep dive: Costs of Iran war will linger despite conflict’s end, experts say
The L.A. Times Special: This California bill is so bad it has me agreeing with a Trump Republican

Until next time,
mzb
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SACRAMENTO — Is this series worth hyping?

The Dodgers welcome their bitter rivals to Dodger Stadium on Thursday for what should be a big four-game series, but the San Diego Padres are a mess. They trail the Dodgers by 12 games in the National League West. Their best batter by WAR, according to Baseball Reference, is journeyman infielder Ty France.

The Dodgers lost a game Wednesday by six runs, 7-1 to the Athletics. The Padres lost a game by 20 runs.

However, standings and statistics be damned, the Dodgers are coming for the Padres, their closest pursers in the division even if “close” is relative. The Dodgers didn’t have to say anything out loud, but you could see it on the field Wednesday.

Shohei Ohtani was the scheduled starting pitcher, but the Dodgers pushed him back so he could face the Padres this weekend. The Padres will face Roki Sasaki on Thursday, Ohtani on Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday.

And the Dodgers still won a series in Sacramento, behind Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski. Now comes a 10-game sprint to the All-Star break against division rivals, starting with the Padres.

“They’re all big for us,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We try to take every series with the same importance, but obviously winning that series is the goal.”

For the final game of the Athletics series Wednesday, with Ohtani held back, the Dodgers used Jack Dreyer as a first-inning opener, then handed the ball to triple-A callup Charlie Barnes and told him to go as long as he could.

That did not go well and still went exactly according to plan.

In what was billed as a bullpen game, Barnes handled the final seven innings, leaving the varsity bullpen in fine shape for the Padres series.

“For him to be able to save everyone else puts us in a great position for the four games this weekend,” Roberts said.

The innings were not great. The first batter Barnes faced, Jonah Heim, deposited a 444-foot home run on the roof of the Dodgers’ clubhouse beyond the center-field fence.

The A’s bunched 11 hits over the first four innings against Barnes and his 90-mph fastball, and still the Dodgers gave Barnes the rest of the game, because a 12-game lead affords you the chance to sacrifice today in order to line up your pitching for your tomorrows.

In all, Barnes gave up seven runs and 12 hits, including three home runs. He did make a very reasonable 79 pitches over his seven innings.

Barnes, a 30-year-old still in search of his first major league victory, barely had a chance to take in the evening before Roberts told him immediately after the game that he would return to triple-A, with Paul Gervase coming up as a fresh arm.

“It’s tough for me to enjoy it when you give up seven,” Barnes said. “That’s part of the business. I did my job in providing length. Any time they need that or may want that, I’ll do my best to give it to them.”

This was not all on Barnes, to be sure. When Wrobleski won his 10th game in a 9-3 victory on Tuesday, he said the offense deserved a fair share of the credit for his success.

“We bang,” Wrobleski said, “so you can get a lot of wins if you go deep in games and go five innings. That’s more of a team thing than it is a performance thing for me, but it’s super cool.”

After collecting 17 hits here on Monday and 14 more on Tuesday, the Dodgers mustered five hits Wednesday, including a 431-foot home run from Freddie Freeman.

The Dodgers went hitless with runners in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, two men on in the third and two more in the eighth.

Will Smith out until after All-Star break

The first half of the season will conclude with Will Smith in the same place he has been for the last month: the injured list.

The Dodgers’ three-time All-Star catcher has been on the IL since June 8 because of what the Dodgers list as neck inflammation. Smith said he had been diagnosed with an inflamed disk.

Roberts said he “just can’t see any world” in which Smith would return before the All-Star break, which concludes July 16.

“It’s certainly longer, I know, than all of us expected,” Roberts said. “But I don’t think it’s anything real, kind of affecting-the-season type thing.”

Will Smith has been sidelined by an injured neck.

(Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)

Roberts said Smith has not been able to accelerate his rehabilitation to the point of doing baseball activities.

Dalton Rushing, who has taken over as the Dodgers’ primary catcher in Smith’s absence, is batting .210 with one home run and 20 strikeouts in 19 games while Smith has been on the injured list. The Dodgers gave Rushing most of the day off Wednesday, although he struck out as a late-game replacement.

The Dodgers were 14-6 with Smith on the IL entering play Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, the team scratched shortstop Mookie Betts from the starting lineup because of a sore right wrist. Roberts said he expected Betts to play Thursday.

Research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has found that a United Kingdom-United States pharmaceutical deal could cause 229,000 excess deaths as a result of the diversion of billions of pounds away from Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

In December, the UK and US signed a pharmaceutical trade deal, under which the US government agreed not to impose tariffs on UK pharmaceutical and medical technology exports for the next three years.

In return, the British government committed to increasing NHS spending on new US medicines from 0.3 percent in 2026 to at least 0.6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2036. This means that medicine spending overall should increase from 10 percent to 12 percent of the NHS budget.

UK politicians defended the deal with Science Minister Patrick Vallance saying in April that the arrangement gives patients across the NHS access to “life-changing new medicines that they previously would have been denied”.

“Not only this, but as the first country in the world to benefit from a zero percent tariff on pharmaceuticals to the US, Britain’s life sciences sector will be further boosted,” Vallance argued.

But the research published in the BMJ found that the commitment to spend so much more on new branded medicines over the next decade without any increase in NHS funding will “create substantial opportunity costs elsewhere, having a direct effect on population health”.

Samuel Cross, a professor in the department of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Liverpool, who coauthored the report, said the agreement “benefits pharmaceutical companies and comes at a cost of NHS patients”.

“There’s really no way to sugar-coat that. The numbers speak for themselves,” Cross told Al Jazeera.

Here’s what we know about the report:

What is in the US-UK deal?

The agreement signed on December 1 was hailed as a landmark deal between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump on pharmaceutical trade and pricing.

The US agreed not to impose tariffs on UK pharmaceutical and medical exports for the following three years – until January 19, 2029.

According to a policy paper published by the British government, the preliminary understanding of the agreement recognised that the US and UK shared a “mutual interest in developing a global medicines system that supports development and commercialisation of new innovations”.

 What did the research find?

In February, Vallance disclosed that funding for the increased spending on medicines would come from the Department of Health and Social Care, which funds the NHS in England, rather than the Treasury.

The study in the BMJ forecast that if spending targets are met and the economy grows as forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the NHS would need to spend an extra 1.3 billion pounds ($1.73bn) a year by 2028 – about 25 million pounds ($33.4m) a week. By 2036, this would rise to an extra 8.8 billion pounds ($11.74bn) a year – about 170 million pounds ($227m) a week). Over the course of the agreement, that would add up to about 44.7 billion pounds ($59.7bn) by the end of 2036.

“Costs are even higher if the impact on publicly funded adult social care is also considered – modelling of English local authority data indicates that every £1bn [$1.33bn] the NHS must find to fund this deal will increase the costs of adult social care by £118m [$157.5m] because of increases in morbidity and mortality,” the report found.

Ultimately, the study predicted, excess deaths are likely as a result.

“Even if we restrict attention to the direct effect of reductions in available NHS expenditure, by 2036 this deal is likely to result in roughly 229,000 excess deaths – more than during the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020 and June 2022 (137,000). If the indirect effect on adult social care is also included, the increase in excess deaths is even greater (291,000),” the report stated.

The report added that the findings are “unsurprising” given the existing pressures on the NHS and the “large burden of unmet need in highly cost-effective areas of care”.

It also referred to shortfalls in NHS funding and pharmaceutical pricing as “opportunity costs”.

Cross said that in health economics, opportunity costs are the “key to all of this”.

“In the NHS, we have a finite budget – we’re not made of money – and if you take money away to pay for, in this case, more medicines. then that comes at an opportunity cost of the places that the money has been diverted away from,” he explained.

Which health sectors will be worst affected?

The research predicted that the greatest number of deaths would occur in cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal and cancer patients.

It added that there will also be broader harm caused to quality of life for patients in those sectors as well as “neurological, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and mental health problems”.

“Despite this evidence and reassurances that ‘frontline services’ will be protected, the NHS will need to fund this deal from allocations made six months before the deal was agreed. The evidence suggests that if additional public expenditure was available, it could be more effectively deployed within the NHS itself,” it added.

The report also called the government’s claims that the US-UK agreement would encourage pharmaceutical innovation in the country “uncertain”.

“Pharmaceutical research and development operate within a global market, of which the UK represents a relatively small share. As such, there is limited evidence that UK domestic pricing materially influences global investment decisions,” the report stated.

“Even so, evidence suggests in most cases the UK is already paying more than 100 percent of the long-term value of new medicines; incentivising production of new medicines under this deal will do long-term harm to the public health objective of the NHS,” it added.

Cross added that because money has in effect been diverted away from the NHS, there is no way for the government to offset the impact on the service.

“If the funds are used to pay for new medicines, we will lose positive health outcomes elsewhere, and that is as simple as that,” he said.

He called for the government to release an impact assessment to trigger a public discussion about how good the US-UK deal really is for Britain.

After what appeared to be cryptic indications that prompted online speculation and excitement, fans of the B-21 Raider won’t be seeing America’s newest bomber in any Fourth of July celebrations, the Air Force confirmed to TWZ Wednesday morning. The aircraft, two of which are now undergoing flight testing, will remain at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Asked by TWZ to “confirm B-21 will not take part in any 250th celebration events in DC or anywhere else,” an Air Force official offered the following response: “The B-21 will not take part in any flyovers for this week’s celebration.” 

The official further clarified that the aircraft won’t take part in any such events, even though the flyovers in Washington, D.C. continue through July 10.

The Air Force official’s statement about the B-21 not taking part in any Independence Day celebrations adds additional clarity to comments Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made to Air & Space Forces Magazine last week about the topic.

“No, no, the program is going really, really well, but the planes are out at Edwards, and we just started doing refueling,” Meink told the publication. “So to get a B-21 here [for the Fourth], not going to happen.” 

TWZ was first to report on the Raider’s initial refueling trials.

The first pre-production B-21 arrived at Edwards Air Force Base following its maiden flight in 2023. A second pre-production Raider took to the skies last year. The Air Force is eventually expected to take delivery of a total of six pre-production examples of the new stealth bomber. Non-flying airframes are also being used to support ongoing testing.

The Air Force expects to procure 100 of these jets, and possibly significantly more. You can read more about the program in our story here.

B-21 Takeoff and Landing

Speculation about whether the B-21 would make an appearance over the nation’s capital was mainly fueled by a campaign of cryptic videos and an image posted on social media by the jet’s manufacturer, Northrop Grumman.

A 30-second video titled “Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday” was posted on YouTube 11 days ago.

It opens with credits showing “Utah Salt Flats” and then shows the silhouette of a Raider followed by one flying low and blowing out 250 candles on pillars placed in a row before roaring off with the words “Happy Birthday, America” emblazoned on the screen.

Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday

A seven-second version of that video, posted on X June 25 and titled: “Some things stay off the radar. America’s 250th isn’t one of them,” just shows the silhouette and the candles being blown out.

Former Big Brother presenter Davina McCall and Sarah Hiscox have been best friends for 40 years

Davina McCall was left in tears as she opened up on her addiction battle live on air.

The beloved TV presenter, 58, admitted she “wouldn’t be here” without the help from close friend Sarah Hiscox.

The duo, who have been best friends for 40 years, appeared on Thursday’s (July 2) episode of Lorraine Kelly’s ITV chat show as Sarah promoted her new book, The Beginning and End of Everything, that looks into her devastating drug addiction.

At the time, Sarah’s addiction was so bad that it cost her both her marriage and custody of her two sons. Now, after 25 years sober Sarah is now back with her family and she says she couldn’t have done it without Davina.

In a heartfelt moment, Davina was tearful as she admitted: “I’m so unbelievably proud of her. In so many ways she put herself out there. She wrote a book that was very painful for her to write.”

Visibly moved, she continued: “Behind all of it is the sweetest most beautiful love story ever.. I’m going to start crying. Sarah’s husband is an amazing man and what they went through together and where they are now.”

In an emotional moment, Davina went on to explain how Sarah ‘saved her life’. The former Big Brother presenter started drinking during her teenage years before developing a heroin habit, but she became clean and has maintained sobriety for over three decades.

She admitted: “She got me clean – I wouldn’t be here without her. I really wouldn’t. I was desperate and I was pretending and I was trying to fake everything was fine.”

Turning to Sarah she continued: “She (Sarah) was honest with me and I hated her for it. She locked me in the car.”

Sarah jumped in: “I loved her and I could see this incredibly vital woman that I loved. You know, she’s family to me. I could see her just disappearing. She was running clubs at the time and everybody wanted to be on the guest list for one of her clubs so no one would dare confront her.”

She explained: “So I locked her in the car and I said listen…” Davina joked: “I thought I was going to a Santana gig.”

Lorraine said: “You were getting a right talking to.” Davina admitted: “Yes I was.” Lorraine went on: “But isn’t that the thing about how much you need your pals because when the tables were turned, Davina you helped.”

Turning her attention to Sarah’s book, Davina pointed out: “You know what I also think is an important message for anybody watching is that I read this book and I had to call you (Sarah) every five pages because I didn’t know.

“I was best friends with her when we were 19, but I was kind of taking drugs recreationally. It was getting quite out of control but I was so self obsessed and wrapped up in myself, I didn’t know how broken she was.”

She added: “You’ve got to ask people how they are, check in and make sure they’re ok. Double check in – ‘How are you really?’ – because I never knew.”

Lorraine airs weekdays from 9.30am on ITV1 and ITVX.

Ryanair’s intervention comes after an open letter published online on Wednesday in which top representative bodies for Europe’s airports and airlines said that delays caused by EES had reached a “critical point”.

Ryanair has issued a warning to families travelling this summer.

The budget airline has lashed out at the EU’s passport control Entry/Exit System (EES), arguing that the system is not ready for the end-of-school-term travel period, when millions of families will travel across Europe for their summer holidays.

Ryanair has called on European governments to suspend the rollout of EES until September, when the busiest travel period has passed, to prevent passengers, many travelling with young families, from being forced to suffer long and avoidable passport control queues.

The airline’s intervention comes after an open letter published online on Wednesday in which top representative bodies for Europe’s airports and airlines said that delays caused by EES had reached a “critical point”.

“Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough. Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues,” the statement from industry groups ACI Europe, which represents airports, Airlines 4 Europe and the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, read.

The group claimed some planes have had to delay takeoff while waiting for passengers and that queues are reaching up to five hours at peak times. Recently, The Mirror exclusively reported that huge passport and security queues at Athens Airport led to passengers missing their Ryanair flight – without the EES gates even being in operation.

Ryanair has warned passengers of the increased queues at passport control when travelling to non-Schengen destinations, and urged them arrive earlier at the airport.