Month: September 2026

Sept. 3 (UPI) — Sen. Thom Tillis has called on President Donald Trump to fire Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense following a series of high-profile exits and firings of senior Pentagon officials in recent months.

Tillis’ comments on Wednesday are the strongest yet from a Republican politician amid mounting GOP criticism of Hegseth’s leadership of the Department of Defense, and came two days after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned following months of reported of clashes with Hegseth.

“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force,” Tillis said on X.

“I urge the president to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.”

Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major who took office with less senior government and military leadership experience than any other secretary of Defense, has overseen a sweeping overhaul of the department, which has seen nearly two dozen generals, admirals and senior civilian defense officials resign, retire early or be fired. Several have left following reported clashes with Hegseth.

Critics have accused the former Fox News host of politicizing the traditionally nonpartisan position, highlighting his purge of senior leadership and his effort to eliminate policies he has characterized as “woke.”

In his statement, Tillis, who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, thanked Driscoll for his leadership and praised him and Gen. Randy George, who stepped down at Hegseth’s request in April, for having initiated “a transformative period of innovation in how we array our forces and equip our soldiers.”

“If we had a @SecWar who maintained the same priorities and forward-thinking, he would be fighting to retain talented leaders like Dan and the many flag officers he has forced into retirement,” he said. “Instead, he is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks.”

Hegseth faced strong criticism from Democrats over his lack of experience and alleged issues with alcohol and high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse, but there has been a growing chorus of Republicans who have voiced concerns since the U.S. war with Iran began on Feb. 28.

A former Trump supporter whom Trump endorsement ahead of his successful 2020 re-election bid, Tillis became a target of the president after saying he could not support his so-called One Big Beautiful spending and tax cut bill. In June 2025, Tillis announced he would not seek another term.

“My Senate colleague Thom Tillis is right,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in response to the Republican’s statement.

“Pete Hegseth has long passed his expiration date as SecDef. He needs to go.”

Families in Nepal held symbolic funerals for relatives who remain missing, hoping to free their souls after they were presumed dead.

In Hindu tradition, cremation is a vital final rite, and for some families, performing the ceremony without the bodies of their loved ones has brought a measure of spiritual release.

Authorities in Nepal have meanwhile been burying recovered bodies in temporary graves until they can be identified. DNA samples are being preserved, distinguishing facial features photographed and other identifying details recorded to help match the remains with missing people and eventually return them to their families.

The August 26 flash flood has been one of the deadliest disasters to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years.

More than 1,200 people were killed and about 4,750 remain missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region, after a huge wave of mud and debris destroyed towns, roads, bridges and several hydropower dams.

The fans of the BBC show think one beloved character should take the spotlight and lead the Saint Marie team.

It looks as though Death in Paradise viewers are in agreement for a shake-up.

Earlier this year, the beloved BBC crime drama came to an end after a dramatic series for DI Mervin (Don Gilet). Following a season of new additions, family reunions and a much-welcomed return, people are eager to see what’s next in store for the Saint Marie police team.

The programme ended with DI Mervin deciding to let his niece remain with him on the island as her dad and his brother, Solomon (Daniel Ward), finished his time in prison. Elsewhere in series 15, people saw the new DI grow closer to Detective Sergeant Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson).

While the pair worked together to solve the crimes on the island, their relationship got stronger as he often turned to her for advice and guidance. As people gear up for the annual festive special later this year, they are looking forward to the return of the beloved characters.

However, it seems as though many are calling for a major shake-up for the island, with demands for DS Naomi to step up in the new series in a higher role. During a discussion thread on Reddit, one person shared their thoughts on the matter.

They commented: “Although I adore Don Gilet/Mervin, I think it’s time for a female inspector. Naomi would be awesome as Inspector, with Mattie as her Sgt. I really hope that before the series ends and/or she leaves, they give the character a chance to advance.”

Someone else added: “I would love for Naomi to be the DI at some time.” As another wrote: “She’s really spot on. I hope the writers show more of her investigative skills this season.”

In another thread, someone shared: “I really hope when there is a next inspector that Naomi gets the nod. Watching her navigate being in charge would make a good story.” The demand for a change comes after actor Don Gilet joined the BBC show back in 2024.

He joined the long-running drama following the exit of actor Ralph Little, who played Detective Inspector Neville Parker for four years.

As each lead DI has been fronted my a male since the series began, could there be a first female DI on the way for Death in Paradise?

Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the BBC drama has been recommissioned for another two series. There will also be two more Christmas specials for fans to look forward to.

Speaking about the news, Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said: “Death in Paradise is a global phenomenon and we are incredibly proud to have it on the BBC, where it goes from strength to strength. It’s with great pleasure that we share the news that we’ll be returning to Saint Marie for two more sun-soaked series and Christmas specials.”

Meanwhile, Tim Key, Executive Producer, Red Planet Pictures added: “We remain incredibly proud of the show and the team that makes it, and delighted that the audience continue to love it as much as we do.

“The response to our latest series has been wonderful and we can’t wait to get started again – we’ve got something very special lined up to kick off our 16th season, with a big surprise setting it up in our Christmas special. Watch this space…”

Death in Paradise is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

There is a huge change to how people can travel between the UK and Ireland

Travel expert Simon Calder has branded the new changes to travel between the UK and Ireland as “completely pointless”. Anyone travelling between the UK and Ireland by ferry will be required to show a passport before boarding.

The new rules come into force later this month and mark a major change in the ease of travel. Currently, those sailing to and from the Irish ports of Dublin and Rosslare can use photo IDs rather than passports. This can even include a bus pass.

Yet, from September 28, passports will be required. Simon shared his thoughts on the change during his Telegraph Travel Expert podcast.

He said: “We want more security, but if you’ve got a huge, long international frontier between the UK and Ireland which is completely open, and has to remain so without any checks because of the Good Friday Agreement, then putting these rules in place across the Irish Sea is completely pointless.”

While many people do have passports, Simon explained that the change can be a problem for many passengers.

He said: “There is a significant contingent of people, perhaps older travellers, who simply think ‘why do I need a passport, the only international journey I make is going back to Dublin to see family or going on the odd holiday to Kerry’.

“At the other end of the age spectrum, many people want to take their brand new child across the Irish Sea. Bring the baby, newborn across, and they are able to do that without a passport.

“It is going to be very significant in almost making life very difficult for the sorts of people who have got used to seamless travel.”

If people are not aware of the rules or do not have a passport with them from September 28, Simon said: “They won’t be getting on the ship I fear.”

The travel expert recommended other options for travellers to be able to cross between the UK and Ireland without a passport.

He said British Airways do not plan to require passports, and that you can sail from Scotland or Wales to Northern Ireland and cross by land without a passport.

New passport rules

Irish Ferries said: “From 28 September 2026, all passengers travelling on Irish Ferries services between the Republic of Ireland and Britain must present a valid passport or Irish passport card before boarding. The new passport requirement applies to Irish Ferries’ Dublin–Holyhead and Rosslare–Pembroke routes, in both directions.

“This requirement applies to all passengers, including Irish and UK citizens. From 28 September 2026, driving licences, national identity cards and other forms of photographic identification will no longer be accepted for travel on these routes.

“Irish Ferries is introducing this requirement to comply with UK Border Force requirements on the accuracy and integrity of passenger data before boarding.”

Stena Line added: “From Monday 28 September 2026, passengers travelling between Holyhead and Dublin or Fishguard and Rosslare will now need to show their passport on departure.

“There is no change to the ID requirements for business or leisure passengers travelling with Stena Line from Belfast, Liverpool, Cairnryan or Heysham.”

Cam Schlitter gave up one run and two hits in eight superb innings, and the New York Yankees scored five two-out runs in the 10th in a series-clinching, 6-3 victory over the Angels on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.

New York loaded the bases with one out in the 10th when Jose Caballero singled, the automatic runner holding at third, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked against reliever Luke Murphy (0-2).

Murphy got Luis Garcia Jr. to pop out, but Austin Wells stroked a two-run single to right, Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single to center, Trent Grisham hit an RBI single to left, and Ben Rice had an RBI single to right for a 6-1 lead.

David Bednar (7-3) struck out three in a scoreless ninth for the win. Yankees reliever Michael Fulmer gave up a two-run homer to Moisés Ballesteros in the bottom of the 10th, but New York won its second straight after dropping the opener, despite enthusiasm in Anaheim over an announced agreement for Arte Moreno to sell the team to Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

A marquee matchup between two of baseball’s best pitchers did not disappoint, Schlittler striking out nine and walking none, and Angels left-hander Reid Detmers giving up one run and six hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking none.

Schlittler, who has an American League-leading 2.04 ERA, retired 20 of the first 21 batters he faced, his only blemish a soft single to left by Vaughn Grissom in the second inning.

But Schlittler grooved a 95-mph cutter to Grissom in the seventh, and the Angels first baseman drove it over the center-field wall for a a 1-1 tie.

It was Schlittler’s franchise-record 19th start this season in which he has given up one or no runs, moving him ahead of Ron Guidry (1978), Whitey Ford (1964) and Jack Chesbro (1904), who had 18 each.

Detmers, who has a major league-best 1.52 ERA since the All-Star break, gave up a run in the fourth on Amed Rosario’s double.

The game was delayed for about 10 minutes in the sixth when a 79.5-mph line drive off the bat of Rice hit a photographer in the head in the first-base camera well. The photographer was able to walk to a medical emergency vehicle and shake Rice’s hand before being carted away.

AN airport in the UK has been forced to close AGAIN just days after strike action resulted in cancelled flights.

Strikes have been ongoing throughout the last few weeks causing some passengers to be rerouted by over 100 miles.

And Norwich Airport will close again for three parts of today with flights already cancelled and delayed.

The air traffic closures are from 6am to 2pm, then 4pm to 4.45pm, and finally from 6.45pm to 7.30pm.

Three KLM flights have been cancelled so far, two of which were departing Norwich Airport this morning.

The 9am KLM flight from Amsterdam to Norwich has also been cancelled.

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However the 2.05pm flight is currently delayed to depart at 2.45pm.

Another flight set to depart Norwich at 5pm for Amsterdam remains on the schedule.

The TUI flight to Rhodes is set to leave at 2.05pm, rather than its scheduled time of 12:35pm.

On the website, it reads: “Due to Air Traffic Control staff sickness and ongoing industrial action which limits the flexibility to provide additional staff cover, Norwich Airport will be closed to air traffic on Thursday 3 September during the following periods: 0600 to 1400, 1600 to 1645  and 1845 to 1945.

“Airlines have been informed of the closures. Passengers should check with their airline for the latest information about their flight before travelling to the airport.

“We apologise to passengers for the inconvenience this may cause.”

Last month, Norwich Airport was forced to close for an entire day and suspend all of its flights.

The 24-hour-strike was held by Prospect union as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, terms and conditions.

Some passengers were forced to divert their journey by 101 miles as they departed from Southend Airport in Essex rather than Norwich.

China has long been a rare partner to Iran, with the economic heft to blunt the United States’ efforts to strangle the Iranian economy.

Yet even as China opposes US President Donald Trump’s latest pressure campaign, few observers expect it to go much further than the modest economic links it has thus far forged with Iran to shield it.

While China opposes the Trump administration’s military attacks and sanctions against Iran, Beijing’s relationship with Tehran is just one consideration in a foreign policy that seeks to balance relations with numerous countries, including the US and the Gulf states, limiting its appetite to prop up the Iranian leadership at any cost, analysts say.

“China, with broader global interests, can only actively promote de-escalation of the US-Iran conflict, and cannot and will not engage in fierce confrontation with the US for Iran’s sake,” said Hongda Fan, director of the China-Middle East Center at Shaoxing University in China.

“Ultimately, the US-Iran conflict must be resolved by the two countries themselves,” Fan said.

China and Iran share substantial trade links, particularly in energy, and a mutual suspicion of US dominance, but their relationship is heavily lopsided, with Tehran depending on Beijing far more than vice versa.

That asymmetry in ties was on full display this week at the annual gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a 10-member bloc widely seen as a counterbalance to US hegemony, where Chinese President Xi Jinping joined more than a dozen non-Western leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

While Iranian state media reported that Pezeshkian held a “brief meeting” with Xi on the sidelines of the summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Chinese outlets made no mention of the encounter.

Xi immediately followed his attendance at the summit with his first visit to Egypt in a decade on Tuesday, using the visit to call on countries in the Middle East to oppose “external interference” and reiterate his calls for a diplomatic resolution to the Iran war.

As Iran’s top trade partner, China has taken up to 90 percent of Iranian oil exports since the US and Israel launched their war in late February.

Iranian crude, however, accounts for only about 2 percent of China’s overall energy mix.

While China’s oil purchases have been an economic lifeline for Tehran, Chinese importers have not been immune to fears of exposure to US sanctions.

China’s major state-owned refiners such as Sinopec and PetroChina have shunned Iranian oil for years, leaving the trade to independent “teapot” refiners with minimal links to the dollar-based global financial system.

Though the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on these “teapot” refiners and a limited number of China- and Hong Kong-based firms and individuals, it has yet to target major Chinese banks accused of facilitating Iranian oil purchases.

The Trump administration has hinted at targeting China’s financial system as part of its ramped-up sanctions campaign, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast”, though analysts are sceptical that Washington will risk provoking Beijing’s ire as the sides seek to lower the temperature in their trade war before a scheduled summit between Xi and Trump on September 24.

“The legitimate question is why third countries should be expected to adopt Washington’s unilateral economic policy towards another sovereign state,” said Zichen Wang, deputy secretary-general of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) think tank in Beijing.

“That does not, however, mean that Beijing will provide Tehran with a blank cheque,” Wang said.

“China is likely to continue opposing US secondary sanctions politically and to defend what it considers legitimate Chinese commercial interests. But past behaviour also shows that major Chinese banks and state-owned companies are highly conscious of sanctions exposure.”

Rhetoric versus reality

Even as Beijing and Tehran have forged closer ties, their relations have for years been marked by a substantial gap between rhetoric and reality.

While China pledged to invest up to $400bn in Iran over 25 years as part of a “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” signed in 2021, few projects have materialised amid what analysts say is Chinese firms’ reluctance to navigate sanctions and the opaque Iranian bureaucracy.

In 2023, Iran’s then deputy economy minister, Ali Fekri, complained that he was “not satisfied” with China’s level of investment since the agreement, saying it had only amounted to about $185m.

“Iranian experts often blame their government for not doing enough to attract Chinese investors or not pushing Chinese companies to share more technology,” said Andrea Ghiselli, head of research at the ChinaMed Project.

“However, the reality is that there is no point for Chinese companies to give up their ties with the international financial system to expand their business in Iran,” Ghiselli said.

“It is much easier and more profitable to trade and invest elsewhere. Iran’s own domestic physical and bank infrastructure is also an obstacle.”

Meanwhile, the most tangible measure of China’s economic support, purchases of Iranian oil, has been dwindling amid the US blockade of Iranian ports.

Iranian crude exports via the Strait of Hormuz, mostly bound for China, fell from an estimated 1.85 million barrels per day (bpd) in March-April to just 240,000bpd in August, according to data from ship-tracking platform Kpler, though millions more barrels shipped before the blockade are still at sea.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “only” about 30 million barrels of Iranian oil remained on the water and Chinese remittances to Iran were “going to run out”.

Kpler last month estimated that about 80 million barrels were in on-water shortage, enough to provide revenues to Tehran for up to six months.

“For China, Iran is valuable – but replaceable across many dimensions. Iranian oil matters, but China can obtain energy from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, and numerous other suppliers,” said Mordechai Chaziza, an expert on China’s Middle East policy who lectures at Ashkelon Academic College in Israel.

“Iran offers geopolitical access, but China possesses relationships throughout the region. Iran supports China’s multipolar agenda, but so do many other states.”

China’s support for Iran is also not risk-free for Beijing, given its important relationships with Iranian rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Chaziza said.

“Saudi Arabia and the UAE are major energy and commercial partners.

“Gulf stability is vital because China obtains roughly half of its crude imports from the Middle East,” he added.

The “ideal outcome” for Beijing, Chaziza said, would be “a stable, sovereign, economically connected, and internationally non-Western” Iran, but not one “whose confrontation with Washington, Israel, or the Gulf monarchies forces China to choose sides”.

Wang, at the CCG, said that while Beijing appears determined to defend Chinese commercial interests, it is unlikely to sacrifice its broader interests in the region or elsewhere.

Beijing’s warning that it is ready to take countermeasures against unilateral sanctions is “not the same thing as promising to underwrite the Iranian economy”, Wang added.

For China, Iran is seen more as a customer than an ally, said Kerri Bitsoff, a former senior official at the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

“I don’t think this is the alliance some people think it is, even though there’s real support. I think of a more like a customer relationship that Iran can’t walk away from,” Bitsoff said.

“And it was good for China – they got cheap oil, they got a US tied up in the Middle East, but I think that only lasts up until the point where it threatens China’s other interests,” she added.

Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

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Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.

Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.

“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

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Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”

US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

AN emotional Stacey Solomon has revealed that she’s sold £1.3m ‘dream home’ Pickle Cottage.

The Sort Your Life Out presenter, 36, took to her Instagram story alongside husband Joe Swash, 44, to share the news.

The pair, who tied the knot in the garden of their former home in 2022, bought the property back in 2021.

Now, five years later, they have decided to “start a new chapter” with their three kids Rex, Rose and Belle, as well as Stacey’s older children Zachary and Leighton.

Speaking to her 6.1 million followers, Stacey said: “We are leaving Pickle Cottage, we are moving out of Pickle Cottage, which I never thought I’d say, imminently.

“The reason we haven’t said anything up until this point is, anyone who has moved before knows what it is like. You don’t know if it is going to actually happen before it happens.

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“Also, leaving Pickle Cottage was a massive, massive, decision for us, we had a lot of people we needed to speak to, we needed to get the kids around to the idea and speak to all our neighbours and lovely friends in the area. There were so many people we needed to speak to before we told everybody.

“Then also, even the thought of selling Pickle Cottage would be impossible if everyone knew we were selling Pickle Cottage.

“Does that make sense? We have just waited until someone amazing come along and fell in love with the cottage.”

Stacey continued: “Pickle Cottage is our dream house, as soon as we moved here we fell in love with it and I still love it so, so, so, so much.

“It’s a really special place to us. I gave birth to both of the girls there, we got married there, it’s just so special to us.

“But for a little while we have always wanted to rescue more animals, grow more vegetables, my vegetable patch, I have got so much joy out of it, but it’s on Farmer Scott’s land. So if he decides to do something with that land, it’s gone.

“So we have always been thinking if there was ever a chance to move further out and to get a bit more land, then we would consider it.

“We saw somewhere, found somewhere, and I was like ‘Oh my God’ and I was like, we could have a massive vegetable patch and we could offer our land to animals who need it and stuff like that.

“We could bring the horses back there, the ponies, and we went to see it…”

Joe chimed in: “We fell in love. It wasn’t an easy decision, like we said, we’re leaving behind somewhere we built our lives together at Pickle Cottage but now we have find somewhere where we can see our family growing and really flourishing. And this is the place.”

Stacey ended the video with: “So it’s time to say goodbye to Pickle Cottage, which feels so weird and basically move across to our new chapter.

“It’s a project, we’re moving somewhere really, really different. And it needs a lot of love. What I can say is I loved bringing Pickle Cottage back to life.

“I had so much joy from that. I genuinely, every single thing I did there, I loved.

“I will truly miss Pickle.”

Stacey captioned the post: “A new chapter…”

Fans rushed to the comments section to share their love and support about their huge move.

One said: “Good luck on your new journey.”

Another wrote: “Can’t wait to see it!! Happy for you all!”

A third chimed in: “You did such a great job before and you will again.”

“Living the dream guys,” a fourth added.

Over the years Stacey has shared her renovations online.

This article provides a historical and cultural overview of San Marino, recognized as the oldest existing state in Europe and the world’s smallest republic. It details the nation’s origins with Saint Marinus, a Christian stonemason who established a mountain sanctuary on Monte Titano to escape religious persecution by the Roman Empire. Beyond its foundational history, the text highlights the country’s unique status as a landlocked enclave completely surrounded by Italy. Practical travel insights are included, describing the region as a picturesque, lesser-known destination characterized by its medieval architecture and rolling hills. Additionally, the source notes contemporary facts, such as the high density of motor vehicles relative to its popu … 

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American golf brand Good Good has sacked two senior executives following backlash over an advert which showed a woman being pushed to the ground after reaching for a club.

The company, whose YouTube channel has 2.1m subscribers, said it had parted ways with chief executive Matt Kendrick and president Joe Flannery following the release of the advert created for golf club manufacturer Callaway.

Good Good vice-president of brand and marketing Jeffrey Lefkovits was sacked earlier this week.

Head of finance and operations at Good Good, Alex Puchala, said the dismissals on Wednesday were a “difficult day for the entire Good Good family”.

Nahid Giga, a board member and investor in Good Good, has been installed as interim CEO.

The video drew widespread criticism and was accused of making light of violence against women.

Last month Good Good and Callaway removed the advert and issued apologies.

Callaway ended its partnership with Good Good and said it was donating $1m (£736,000) to organisations working to prevent violence against women and support victims.

Good Good, whom Callaway has worked with since 2023, has stepped away from its sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in Austin, Texas, in November.

Good Good products have also been pulled from the shelves of several retailers.

The advert showed Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark rushing over to Alexis Miestowski – a professional golfer and regular content creator for Good Good – and pushing her to the ground before shouting: “Do not touch my new driver.”

The brand, which has become one of the largest content creators in golf, launched its YouTube channel 2020. Regular clips include men and women competing in various golf challenges.

Good Good also creates made-for-TV shows as well as adverts for golf clothing and other merchandise.

Puchala said Good Good was “concouraged by the continued support” of its fans and said it is “focused on moving forward and building the next chapter of the company”.

Carlos Queiroz quit the job after leading Ghana to the World Cup Round of 32 but has returned for an interim period.

Carlos Queiroz has been reappointed Ghana coach for an indeterminate period, two months after stepping down in the wake of the country’s FIFA World Cup campaign.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) said on Wednesday the 73-year-old Portuguese coach would “embark on a new coaching mandate, commencing with the upcoming international window”.

“The GFA believes Queiroz’s extensive international experience, technical expertise, and knowledge of the Black Stars position him strongly to lead the team into this next chapter,” the association said in a statement.

The experienced former Iran, Portugal, Colombia and Egypt coach guided the Black Stars to the round of 32 at the World Cup despite having only a couple of months to prepare them for the tournament.

Ghana were left without a coach 72 days before the World Cup kickoff ‌‌after parting company with Otto Addo following friendly defeats by Austria and Germany in March.

Ghana are scheduled to play home and away group matches against Ivory Coast in qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations during the next international window, which runs from September 21 to October 6.

Queiroz led Portugal to the round of 16 at the 2010 ⁠⁠⁠⁠World Cup and later coached Iran in the last three ⁠⁠⁠⁠editions of the tournament, ⁠⁠⁠⁠recording three wins in 13 matches.

Born in Mozambique, the former goalkeeper has also held coaching positions with Egypt, Japan, ‌‌‌‌Colombia and South Africa, and previously led Portugal in the early 1990s.

EXCLUSIVE: Crissy Rock has admitted she would love to join the Loose Women panel following the exit of Denise Welch and revealed that there was a time she could have had a part in Coronation Street

Crissy Rock has revealed that she would like to join Loose Women. The actress, 67, is probably best known for playing hotel manageress Janey Yorke during the first four series of the sunny sitcom Benidorm, and has also had an incredibly successful career as a stand-up comedienne.

Over the years, the TV star has appeared on the ITV lunchtime chat show, which has recently seen the exits of long-serving panellists Denise Welch and Nadia Sawalha, that she would jump at the chance to become a full-time panellist.

Speaking to The Mirror ahead of starring in a nationwide tour of Tits Up!, she said: “I would love to be a panellist, instead of just going on talking.”

When it was suggested that she could act as a replacement for Denise, who recently quit after more than 20 years, Crissy said: “Oh yeah, I’ll have to get in there!” Denise, also known for her roles in Waterloo Road and Coronation Street, said she was stepping down because acting is her “first love and the thing she’s best at,” so would like to make the most of new opportunities.

Crissy shot to fame when she took on the role of Maggie in the Ken Loach film Ladybird, Ladybird in 1994 and won critical acclaim for her performance. Since then, the Liverpool-born star has appeared in episodes of Peak Practice, Brookside and Dalziel and Pascoe, whilst also treading the boards regularly in productions such as Snow White, Cinderella and Menopause the Musical.

Shortly after Crissy competed on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2011, there was speculation that she could be about to join the cast of Coronation Street as the sister of Jackie Dobbs, played by fellow Liverpudlian Margi Clarke – but it never came to fruition.

She said: “I’ve never done Coronation Street, ever. There was rumours, but it never, ever happened. It never come about. It would have been lovely, that, wouldn’t it? To play Margi Clark’s sister, Tyrone’s auntie. That would have been a good thing, but it just never happened.

“You always hear things. Like ‘Oh, Benidorm’s going to come back.’ but is it or isn’t it? We don’t know, and I’m just as in the dark as everyone else!”

Benidorm began in 2007 and, over the course of 10 series, followed the escapades of a group of British holidaymakers, with a host of names such as Sheridan Smith, Siobhan Finneran, and Hannah Waddingham all checking into the Solana hotel during its long run.

Whether a Benidorm revival is on the cards or not. Crissy admitted that even though she had been in the industry for years before it all began, that was the role that cemented her status in showbiz.

She said: “I’ve been an actress way before Benidorm, but I think Benidorm because of what it did and how it influenced everyone, and it become like a cult thing, it did, in my eyes, put me firmly back on the map, you know what I mean?”

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Mist blankets the valley as I wheel my camping gear down the small hill towards a clearing ringed by trees and shrubs. A picnic bench sits at its edge, angled towards the reason why I’m here: one of the last remaining fragments of temperate rainforest in Britain. I’m pitching my tent at Wray Valley Camping, a low-impact site on Dartmoor’s eastern edge between Lustleigh and Moretonhampstead, where I’ll spend five days on one of the site’s “nearly wild” pitches.

Also known as Atlantic woodland, temperate rainforests depend on a rare combination of high humidity, rainfall and consistently mild coastal temperatures where the sea moderates the climate. They once stretched from the western Highlands of Scotland down to Cornwall, covering 20% of the UK, and sheltering rare and delicate lichens and plants. Today more than 95% of our temperate rainforest cover is gone, but Devon’s near-constant dampness and its exposure to the Atlantic make it one of the last strongholds for this rare habitat.

Wray Valley Camping owners Michelle Grist and her partner Kevin Chamberlain have spent seven years restoring this fragile ecosystem while developing the adjacent campsite.

“We always intended to run a sustainable campsite from here,” says Michelle, a retired environmental consultant, admitting that neither she nor Kevin (a member of the Dartmoor search and rescue Ashburton team) had ever run one previously. “We did not take it over,” she adds. “We built it from scratch.” Years of camping, both in the UK and abroad, gave them enough experience to know what they liked and what they didn’t. The valley’s topography dictated their designs from the start, Kevin explains – tents only, nothing driven in.

The early years were slow-going: Kevin built a compost toilet by hand before a shower block and other facilities arrived. Running alongside it all was the harder, longer graft of coaxing the temperate rainforest back to life.

“It was actually difficult getting on to the land,” Michelle tells me. “While the drains upland had been cleared, our land was completely flooded.” Michelle and Kevin worked along with several other organisations to restore the woodland, adding 1,200 native plants, 200 metres of new hedgerow and 45 native saplings as well as removing invasive species.

Their efforts culminated in February this year, when Wray Valley Camping saw six acres of its 4-hectare (10-acre) estate designated a Devon county wildlife site (CWS), recognising its importance as one of Dartmoor’s fragile remnants of temperate rainforest and wet woodland. The campsite now offers a unique opportunity to sleep beside this rare ecosystem in one of its four Nearly Wild camping pitches.

A short signposted sustainability trail around the campsite and woodland explains the restoration work. Along the way, I spot a pied flycatcher between the oaks, hazels, rowans and willows while stonechats call to each other and an oil beetle meanders across a mossy stone in search of food.

In the distance, the whiz of bike chains and children’s voices echo from the Wray Valley Trail. This 7-mile (11km) walk and cycle track snakes along the edge of the temperate rainforest, retracing where the Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway steam train once ran. Today it links the historic villages of Moretonhampstead and Lustleigh, and beyond to Bovey Tracey.

As I walk along the old trackbeds of the valley trail, I imagine iron cleaving the valley and clouding it with steam and soot. When once the scream of the train whistle heralded fallen timber and quarried stone, today it’s given way to the shrill call of the treecreeper. It’s a small measure of how fast this corridor has recovered since industry nearly gutted it in the 19th century.

The Wray Valley Trail acts as a low-impact gateway for exploring eastern Dartmoor, and it is worth building a few days’ itineraries around it. From the Wray Valley campsite, it’s an easy cycle or walk to Lustleigh and on towards Hound Tor, where towering granite boulders guard the low moss-strewn walls of abandoned medieval settlements. Waymarked paths from here weave between Dartmoor’s scattered prehistoric monuments and weatherworn waycrosses.

A 40-minute drive away, Dartmoor’s most popular temperate rainforest, Wistman’s Wood, is a cautionary lesson on what happens when these fragile environments go viral: eroded paths, damaged mosses and trampled roots from footfall they were never intended to sustain. Even as conservationists work there to double the woodland’s size, it remains under pressure from its popularity.

For Michelle and Kevin, restoring the woodland is only part of the challenge. The harder task is ensuring that welcoming visitors help protect the landscape rather than putting it under pressure. Their approach is simple: keep visitor numbers low and deliberately limit the impact they have on the landscape, even if that means sacrificing some of the conveniences of modern camping. There are no electric hookups, cars are left in the parking area and campers wheelbarrow their kit to their pitch. Kevin admits that the arrangements can divide opinion but says the extra effort is intentional: “If you’re asking people to make a bit more effort to protect this environment, it tends to attract those who appreciate it.”

That philosophy runs through the rest of the carbon-negative site, from borehole water and solar power to discounts for guests arriving on foot, by bike or by public transport. The result feels as close to wild camping as you can get with a hot shower.

Both Michelle and Kevin say they’re surprised by the enthusiasm of the campsite guests. One horticulturist recently helped catalogue its plants, while scout groups have joined woodland management activities.

The dying embers of sunlight fade behind our tent as we position our chairs towards the rainforest and sit, whisky in hand, and wait. A stoat dashes past liverworts into the undergrowth. An owl hoots in the distance and bats swoop and dart in the starlight above us. Without the white noise of everyday life, every splash and wingbeat becomes audible.

Wray Valley may only be a small site, but it sits in a much larger mosaic of habitats. Ancient woodland lies on either side, while the nearby site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Bovey Tracey supports species such as adders and ground-nesting birds. Camping here offers more than a place to pitch a tent – it provides a glimpse of how a small patch of land can contribute to the wider recovery of Dartmoor’s nature.

Nearly Wild stays at Wray Valley Camping include small pitches at £10/£8 (adult/child) per person or large pitches priced per pitch (from £40 for four people). Both include hot showers and toilets. The site has six pitches in the Hay Meadow plus four Nearly Wild pitches

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was flawless over his first five innings in the Dodgers’ 8-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, giving up no hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.

“It comes down to starting pitching,” Roberts said pregame, after his team gave up 13 runs in a loss Tuesday. “And obviously it’s a young, hungry team out there. Came out last night swinging the bats, so it’d be nice to put up a zero, get a lead, and go from there.”

Roberts’ wish appeared granted, as the Dodgers led 3-0 in the first after Freddie Freeman ended his career-long 47-game homer drought with a three-run blast against Cardinals lefty Brycen Mautz.

But the once-cruising ace encountered turbulence. He later gave up a pair of two-run homers, with the Cardinals’ Thomas Saggese launching the first in the sixth and Leo Bernal the second in the eighth.

The Dodgers showed fight amid chaos on Tuesday.

“[Tuesday] night I really liked the way we just kind of fought, saw some different arms, got the closer up, and things to build on,” Roberts said pregame.

On Wednesday, not even a Mookie Betts two-run homer in the seventh could lift the Dodgers (82-57) to a win.

Yamamoto’s night was done after seven innings. He threw 93 pitches, had eight strikeouts and gave up five hits, two walks and four runs, a few mistakes away from a completely different outing.

Tanner Scott stepped in for Yamamoto in the eighth, allowing a Joshua Báez double three pitches in. And after Ivan Herrera moved Báez to third via a groundout, Alec Burleson tied the score at five with a sacrifice fly to right.

Jack Dreyer kept things stable with a clean ninth. However, in the 10th, Brock Stewart (0-2) uninspiringly gave up three runs. Orange County native Nathan Church got the Cardinals’ wheels turning iwith a single up the middle, advancing José Fermin to third. Saggese delivering the go-ahead run on an infield single. One pitch later, Báez put the game out of reach with a two-run double

The Dodgers could only get one run back in the bottom of the miserable 10th.

CT3 comes home

Chris Taylor, his wife Mary and son Theo watch a video tribute to his career before the start of Wednesday’s game.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers welcomed back former longtime utility player Chris Taylor to Dodger Stadium and presented him with a video tribute and his third World Series ring.

“It’s pretty much what I identify my career as — over 90% of my entire career was in Dodger Blue,” Taylor said. “This is the place I call home. Always proud to be a Dodger, and it means a lot to me that they would do this for me. So, I’m extremely humbled.”

Taylor, a 12-year veteran who retired earlier this season, said Wednesday night was the first time he was able to watch a game with his family.

Injury Updates

Shohei Ohtani reacts after striking out in 10th inning Wednesday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Roberts said the plan is still for Shohei Ohtani to return to pitching this season. However, there is no timetable for when he’ll throw his next bullpen session, and shutting down Ohtani as a pitcher remains a distant possibility.

“We’re not there quite yet, but it’s certainly an option,” Roberts said.

Roberts also shed light on some of the work Ohtani’s doing to get back on the mound.

“He’s doing plyos,” Roberts said. “He does that a handful of times a week. … That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

Will Smith was given a breather after going one for five with two RBIs in his first game back from a three-month stint on the IL on Tuesday.

“It was good to see him get a knock,” Roberts said. “I thought he swung the bat pretty well. So, it’s a premeditated day off today. He’ll be back in there tomorrow, but I guess no news is good news.”

It wasn’t a full day off, as Smith pinch-hit for Hunter Feduccia in the ninth and scored the Dodgers’ run in the 10th.

Rōki Sasaki’s blister is healing as planned, and he shouldn’t miss additional time.

“I saw him yesterday at the end of the bench; it’s healing well,” Roberts said. “He’s still moving his arm, playing catch. So I think it’s going to be a shorter term getting him back.”

Roberts doesn’t yet know whether Sasaki will take a spot in the bullpen or rotation upon his return.

Gavin Stone could potentially pitch in September, according to Roberts.

“Gavin’s been good,” Roberts said. “I think right now — and again, this is not talking to the guys in the, you know, player development — but it’s more of just getting him to stay upright, stay healthy, is the win for 2026.”

Sept. 2 (UPI) — A 19-year-old gunman forced his way into a Virginia elementary school on Wednesday morning where he wounded an employee before turning the weapon on himself, authorities said.

The suspect, identified as Anthony Ignatiadis-Isabelle of Waynesboro, Va., was found by police dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the library, the Waynesboro Police Department said in a statement.

Authorities said police were notified of a suspicious individual on the grounds of Westwood Hills Elementary School in Waynesboro at 9:12 a.m. EDT. Officers responded within minutes, entered the school and found Ignatiadis-Isabelle in the library where there were no students at the time of the incident.

One staff member, identified only as an adult, was shot by the suspect, suffered what police described as a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and was released from the hospital after receiving treatment.

Little information about the shooting has been made public. Waynesboro Police Chief David Shaw would not detail during a press conference exactly how the suspect was gained entry to the school, which requires one to be buzzed in, only that it was “forced.”

He said he was unsure of what position the wounded employee held at the school, what their possible relation was to the shooter or where they were shot. He also said he did not know if the alleged shooter was known to police. The suspect was not and had never been a student at Westwood Hills Elementary School, Superintendent Jeffrey Cassell said.

The school was immediately put into lockdown following the shooting, according to Cassell, who said the facility would be closed on Thursday.

“Today is the day every school system hopes they never have to deal with,” an emotional Cassell said. “Every student and staff member is safe and returned home to their families. Please hug your children and your families this evening.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=744PSJYLKhA

Shaw said that as a precautionary measure, additional law enforcement would be at the school for the remainder of the week.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a statement that its Washington field office responded to the shooting.

“My heart is with these young students, their parents and families, and the teachers and staff at the school,” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in a statement that explained she was monitoring the emergency at Westwood Hills Elementary School.

Mérida, September 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar International Airport, located in Maiquetía, La Guaira State, officially resumed commercial flight operations on Tuesday through newly constructed temporary terminals.

Air connections resumed more than two months after a powerful double earthquake struck central and coastal Venezuela on June 24, causing severe structural damage to the Simón Bolívar Airport, including fractured runways.

The initial phase of renewed operations relies on four modular, temporary terminals erected in the airport’s external parking areas. Spanning more than 10,000 square meters, the temporary structures house fully functional services for ticketing, baggage drop and retrieval, security checkpoints and migration control.

Venezuelan authorities have also set up shuttle buses to take passengers from the modular gates to the aircraft on the tarmac. They have also issued operational guidelines for passengers and organized a security deployment in the airport grounds and surrounding areas.

Before official operations began, national aviation authorities executed four operational simulations to test passenger circulation routes, security protocols, luggage handling, and overall system readiness.

During an official inspection, Minister of Transportation Francisco Garcés outlined the operational milestones, technical parameters, and long-term recovery timeline for the nation’s main aviation hub.

“There is full operationality from these temporary terminals, with capacity to accommodate 720 departing and 496 arriving passengers in the international area, and 480 and 472, respectively, in the domestic sector,” Garcés stated during a media briefing. “We have made a strong effort to maintain rigorous international standards for user comfort and safety, completing this complex logistical solution in record time.”

Garcés explained that the current facilities restore approximately 25 percent of the airport’s pre-earthquake operational capacity, with projections of expanding to 40 percent within the next two months and 60 percent by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, engineering teams continue comprehensive structural repairs on the main permanent terminals, with full reconstruction scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.

On September 1, the opening day of the temporary facilities featured eight scheduled flights split equally between domestic and international routes, with the inaugural flight departing to Valera, Trujillo State.

Air carriers currently operating or scheduling their immediate return to Maiquetía include national lines Conviasa, Laser Airlines, Estelar, Avior and Venezolana, alongside international operators such as American Airlines, Iberia, and Copa Airlines.

Throughout the two-month shutdown following the June 24 seismic events, national and international air transit was diverted through smaller, regional airports across the country, including Barcelona (Anzoátegui State), Valencia (Carabobo State), and Maracaibo (Zulia State).

Alongside the reopening of Venezuela’s main air hub, the acting Delcy Rodríguez government has continued to address housing rehabilitation and structural reconstruction in damaged urban centers.

In La Guaira State, Rodríguez oversaw the formal handover of 210 fully repaired apartments in the Ana Victoria community. The rehabilitation works under the Plan Venezuela Renace allowed displaced families to return to their homes after two months in temporary shelters.

Additional structural works in La Guaira include “tetra-houses” in Catia La Mar and public infrastructure reconstruction near the El Trébol highway interchange.

Concurrently, Rodríguez announced the delivery of direct financial assistance and low-interest loans to 104 condominium boards and 1,216 individual housing units in the Chacao and Altamira areas of Eastern Caracas.

“We have begun an inspection process; I know it may take some time, but it is important because we are in a phase of changing the seismic resistance standards for construction,” she said.

Disbursed through joint public and private banking channels, individual loans can be up to US $5,000, while funding for common area repairs can reach $20,000.

These funds enable residents and homeowner associations to address structural issues on buildings categorized under yellow and red risk tags, ensuring compliance with updated seismic resistance construction standards.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Jason Watkins and Robson Green are back for the next chapter in their dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Channel 5’s The Game season two is well underway with fans already desperate to find out what happens next.

Patrick Harbottle (played by Robson Green) continues to attack Huw Miller (Jason Watkins) and his family from behind bars but this time, he sets his sight on his daughter Margot (Indy Lewis).

This time around, Patrick goes a step further in the second episode, getting prison guard Jackie ( Tanya Franks ) to break into her flat and steal her diary in a bid to really get under Margot’s skin.

Things get even more intense though when she discovers that Huw has secretly visited Patrick in prison again, causing her to “explode”.

But the worse could still be yet to come as she grows suspicious that Patrick has hired someone to stalk her.

But as she grows suspicious that Patrick is hiring someone to stalk her, will Margot be able to trust that her own father wasn’t somehow involved?

When is Channel 5 The Game season 2 next on?

Channel 5’s The Game has returned one year later for its second series which made its debut last night, Tuesday, September 1.

Fans have since been treated to episode two this evening, Wednesday, September 2, but unfortunately, its third instalment won’t be airing on Thursday night as expected.

Channel 5 viewers are going to have to wait until the following week for the remaining two episodes of the four-part drama.

The Game season two, episode three, will be shown on Tuesday, September 8, and the grand finale on Wednesday, September 9, both at 9pm, on Channel 5.

What will instead be taking its place tomorrow night will be the sixth and final episode of Benidorm is Murder starring John Hannah.

The intense official synopsis for the finale reads: “A farewell party takes a deadly turn after a power cut plunges the gathering into darkness.

“When the lights return, one guest lies dead on the floor, a kitchen knife in his chest.

“Forced to investigate to clear his name, Dennis reconstructs the blackout second by second, exposing contradictions in the guests’ stories and asking whether the killing was a sudden act of rage or meticulously planned.”

The Game is available to watch on 5.

Rams’ Stan Kroenke agrees to buy Angels

From Sam Farmer and Bill Shaikin: Rams owner Stan Kroenke has agreed to buy the Angels, adding Major League Baseball to a portfolio that spans six leagues and two continents.

The deal marks the end of Arte Moreno’s turbulent ownership of the Angels, with the news triggering shock followed by celebration among beleaguered fans whose team owns baseball’s longest playoff drought.

The transaction runs through Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, Kroenke’s holding company, which also owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, the Colorado Rapids of MLS and Arsenal of the English Premier League.

The Angels are being sold for an MLB-record $4-billion valuation, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times. The previous high was the $3.9-billion sale of the San Diego Padres that was completed last month.

Forbes had valued the Angels at $2.8 billion in March. The sale is “subject to customary closing conditions” and MLB approval, with the expectation it will close in the first quarter of next year, according to a news release announcing the deal.

Continue reading here

Light the Big A! Stan Kroenke just made Angels fans big winners

Angels fans hold up signs on Tuesday thanking Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, led by Stan Kroenke, for buying the majority share of the Angels from Art Moreno.

(Mark J. Terrill / Ap Photo/mark J. Terrill)

From Bill Plachke: Whose house? Angels’ house!

To all you long-suffering Halos fans, light that baby up, because salvation is at hand.

His name is Stan Kroenke, and he’s Rams tough, and he’s just spent a record $4 billion to transform your slumbering baseball organization into something that dazzles like Matthew Stafford and dominates like Myles Garrett.

Kroenke, whose illustrious ownership of the Rams resulted in their move to Los Angeles, a $5.5-billion stadium, and a Super Bowl championship, has agreed to take control of the Angels’ carcass from Arte Moreno in the franchise’s best move since Darin Erstad caught that fly ball on Oct. 27, 2002.

This is huge. This is landscape altering. This is like Southern California just added an expansion team led by one of the best owners in sports.

For the Angels, currently the second-worst team in baseball and on track to finish a league-worst 12th consecutive season out of the playoffs, this is downright life changing.

Kroenke builds. Kroenke spends. Kroenke wins.

Continue reading here

Angels exuberant about Stan Kroenke buying the franchise

Angels star Mike Trout, center, was excited to learn Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought the majoirty share of the Angels.

(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images)

From Bill Shaikin: Mike Trout was practically beaming. He dropped the phrase “fresh start” four times in an interview that barely lasted five minutes.

The burden of the Angels’ failures has been disproportionately his to bear. He has insisted that his path to Cooperstown would run through Anaheim and only Anaheim. He has played 16 seasons for an owner that blessed him with half a billion dollars, treated his family like royalty and stranded him in position to conclude a star-spangled career without ever winning a postseason game.

On Tuesday, Trout learned that the Angels would have a new owner: Stan Kroenke. Trout got off the call, looked up Kroenke and has not stopped smiling since.

“What a track record,” Trout said. “Wherever he buys, he wins.”

Continue reading here

MORE ANGELS COVERAGE:

Arellano: Arte Moreno finally sells the Angels. Anaheim’s long nightmare is over

Shaikin: ‘A big day for Anaheim.’ Angels get a fresh start with Stan Kroenke, and much more

Yankees strike back, beat Angels on day Anaheim team sale is announced

Angels box score

MLB standings

Sluggish Dodgers open homestand with lopsided loss to Cardinals

Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker can’t reach a fifth-inning homer by Cardinals shortstop Thomas Saggese at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers’ August woes followed them into the first day of September.

Roster expansion, returning three players from the injured list, the mental relief of turning the calendar page — none of that gave the Dodgers the boost they needed against the Cardinals on Tuesday.

Instead, the Dodgers lost 13-8 to a team that entered the day 4 ½ games out of the last National League wild-card spot.

“I just think tonight we just got behind the eight ball,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Continue reading here

Dodgers-Cardinals box score

MORE DODGERS

Will Smith and Dalton Rushing among Dodgers activated as rosters expand for September

Ignore the out-of-town trolls. Los Angeles sports fans are the nation’s best

USC fans brace for the heat before kickoff of the Trojans’ game against San José State at the Coliseum on Saturday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

From Bill Plaschke: The coach was mad. Sections of his home stadium were empty for a blowout win against an overmatched opponent, and he couldn’t understand why.

“I can honestly say I was a little disappointed there weren’t more students at the last game,” the coach said, adding, “There’s got to be a spirit that makes it special to play here, because that’s what makes it special to be here. And if that’s not here…”

Lincoln Riley after USC’s sparsely attended opener?

No, that was Nick Saban after a midseason home game between Alabama and Louisiana in 2018.

Hmmm. Empty seats even at the royal palace of the king of college football, huh?

There has been much similar chatter this week after the sports landscape witnessed a virtual ghost town at the USC opener against San José State Saturday at the Coliseum. There was an announced crowd of 51,444 but only about half that many showed up, immersing a national television audience in a giant bowl of empty red that left outsiders in a rage.

They called the Los Angeles sports fans a disgrace. They said they weren’t real sports fans. They whined so loudly on social media that USC embarrassingly felt compelled to issue a statement promising better turnouts.

“We understand the factors that impacted Saturday’s attendance,” read the statement. “We have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.”

With all due respect, I would like to issue a second statement to all you arrogant dummies spouting lazy cliches about a market you don’t understand.

Stick a foam finger in it.

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MORE USC NEWS:

Lincoln Riley defends USC amid criticism of season opener crowd

This day in sports history

1901 — Seven-year-old Ogden wins two races in a single day at Sheepshead Bay race track in Coney Island, New York. Ogden edges Cameron by a head in the second race on the card, a six furlong sprint on the main track. In the sixth race, a 1 1-16 mile distance on the turf, Ogden beats Monarka by a length.

1908 — Tommy Burns knocks out Bill Lang in the sixth round in Melbourne for his last successful defense of his heavyweight title.

1924 — Bill Tilden wins his fifth straight U.S. men’s singles title with a 6-1, 9-7, 6-2 victory over Bill Johnston.

1940 — Byron Nelson wins the PGA by beating Sam Snead 1-up at the Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.

1945 — Frank Parker wins the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships by beating Bill Talbert. Sarah Palfrey Cooke beats Pauline Betz for the women’s title.

1965 — Cubs slugger Ernie Banks hits his MLB 400th career HR (off Curt Simmons) in Chicago’s 5-3 win v St. Louis at Wrigley Field; Simmons also gave up Willie Mays’ 400th HR in 1963.

1970 — The tie-break debuts in Grand Slam tennis at the U.S. Open. A total of 26 tie-breaks (the nine-point sudden death tie-break) are played on the first day of the tournament. Bob McKinley and Ray Ruffels both win matches in fifth-set tie-breaks.

1971 — Sixteen-year-old Chris Evert wins the first of her record 101 U.S. Open matches, defeating Edda Buding, 6-1, 6-0, in 42 minutes. Jimmy Connors, playing on 19th birthday, comes back from a two-set deficit to beat Alex Olmedo for his first U.S. Open victory.

1984 — In his first NFL start, Atlanta’s Gerald Riggs rushes for 202 yards and scores two touchdowns as the Falcons beat New Orleans 36-28.

1991 — Jimmy Connors turns 39 years old and rallies from a 2-5 fifth-set deficit to defeat 24-year-old Aaron Krickstein, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6. The fourth-round Labor Day match lasts 4 hours and 41 minutes.

1995 — Frank Bruno wins a heavyweight championship in his fourth attempt registering a unanimous decision over Oliver McCall to take his WBC title in Wembley, England.

2001 — Michael Schumacher becomes the winningest driver in Formula One history, winning the Belgian Grand Prix for his 52nd career victory. Schumacher breaks the mark shared with Alain Prost and clinches his fourth world championship.

2004 — In a second-round match, Sargis Sargsian defeats Nicolas Massu, 6-7 (8), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, in five hours and nine minutes. It’s the second-longest match on record at the U.S. Open and falls 18 minutes shy of breaking the record for longest match, set in 1992 when Stefan Edberg defeated Michael Chang in 5:26 in the semifinals.

2007 — Clay Buchholz throws a no-hitter in his second career start against the Baltimore Orioles.

2008 — Adrian Beltre goes 5 for 6 and hits for the cycle in a 12-6 Seattle Mariners win over the Texas Rangers.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1929 — Joe Cronin of the Washington Senators hit for the cycle in a 10-7 win against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

1937 — For the second time this season, two batters opened a game with home runs. Boze Berger and Mike Kreevich of the Chicago White Sox connected off Boston’s Johnny Marcum, en route to a 4-2 win over the Red Sox.

1944 — Dixie Walker of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit for the cycle and drove in four runs in an 8-4 win over the New York Giants at Ebbets Field.

1952 — Mike Fornieles of the Washington Senators, in his major league debut, pitched a one-hitter for a 5-0 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics in the second game of a doubleheader.

1957 — The Milwaukee Braves swept the Chicago Cubs, 23-10 and 4-0. Bob Hazle of the Braves got four hits in the first game and teammate Frank Torre scored six runs to tie the major league record.

1963 — Cincinnati’s Pete Rose hit a leadoff homer of Jay Hook to give the Reds a 1-0 win over the New York Mets in the second game of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds.

1965 — Ernie Banks hit his 400th home run as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 at Wrigley Field. The blow came off Curt Simmons in the third inning.

1971 — Cesar Cedeno’s 200-foot fly ball in the fifth inning fell for an inside-the-park grand slam home run as second baseman Jim Lefebvre and right fielder Bill Buckner of the Dodgers collided. The hit helped the Houston Astros beat Los Angeles 9-3.

1972 — Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs retired 26 consecutive San Diego Padres before walking pinch-hitter Larry Stahl on a 3-2 pitch. Pappas then retired Gary Jestadt to finish his 8-0 no-hitter.

1987 — Houston’s Kevin Bass went 4-for-4, including home runs from both sides of plate, and drove in three runs as the Astros posted a 10-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

1990 — Dave Stieb, who had lost three no-hit bids with one out to go in the previous two seasons, finally pitched one as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Cleveland 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.

1996 — Mike Greenwell set a major league record by driving in all nine Boston runs, the final one on a 10th-inning single to give the Red Sox a 9-8 victory over Seattle.

2001 — New York’s Mike Mussina came within one strike of pitching the first perfect game in the 89-year history of Fenway Park in a 1-0 win over Boston. Mussina’s bid was broken up by pinch-hitter Carl Everett’s clean single.

2002 — Miguel Tejada had his second straight game-ending hit as he singled home Terrence Long with the bases loaded in the ninth inning as Oakland tied the longest winning streak in AL history with a 7-6 victory over Kansas City. Oakland, which overcame a 5-0 deficit, equaled the 19 straight wins by the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees.

2003 — Eric Gagne set a major league record with his 55th consecutive save in Los Angeles’s 4-1 victory over Houston.

2009 — Alex Rodriguez picks up the 2,500th hit of his career as his Yankees defeat Baltimore, 10 – 2, to complete a sweep at Camden Yards. Eric Hinske‘s home run is the Bronx Bombers’ 20th at the park this season, the most by a visiting team since the ballpark opened in 1992. CC Sabathia earns his American League-leading 16th win.

2012 — Jurickson Profar made quite a debut at age 19, homering in his first major league at-bat and doubling his next time up in the Texas Rangers’ 8-3 win over Cleveland.

2015 — Clayton Kershaw strikes out 15 batters tying a career best and setting a new personal record of 251 for the season.

2022 — Yu Darvish reaches a rare milestone with a strikeout of Cody Bellinger in the 5th inning of the Padres’ 7 – 1 win over the Dodgers: this gives him 1,750 Ks in ten major league seasons, and this gives him 3,000 when the 1,250 he amassed in seven seasons in Japan are added. Among all pitchers who have struck out 1,000 or more batters on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, only Hideo Nomo has preceded Darvish in reaching the mark.

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 Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.