Aug. 27 (UPI) — The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden wrote the European Commission urging it to kickstart a stalled plan to use Russian assets frozen in Europe’s banks and clearing houses to plug a $26.8 billion gap in Ukraine’s defense funding.

The letter to the EU’s top foreign policy chief on Thursday calling for another look at ways to tap into the $244.5 billion of assets came ahead of an informal meeting of foreign ministers being hosted by Ireland on Sept. 1-2, according to Politico, The Kyiv Independent and The Financial Times.

“Ukraine needs more financial support in both the short and long term. We believe now is the time to revert to the issue of how we can make further use of Russia’s immobilized assets for the benefit of Ukraine,” reads the letter, which was addessed to Kaja Kallas and Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee.

The call comes three months after the Netherlands raised the issue at a closed-door meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, arguing that a deal agreed in December for a conditional $105 billion loan over 18 months, would not be enough to keep Ukraine afloat for long.

Efforts back then to leverage frozen Russian assets — the largest portion of which are held in Belgium — were sidelined amid objections from the Belgian government and other EU member states.

The so-called “reparations loan” option, where the assets would be used as surety in the event Russia failed to pay war reparations to Ukraine required to recoup the loan, lacked the votes for the required two-thirds majority of EU states.

What the bloc ultimately finalized in April, was a back-up proposal under which the EU would use its budget to borrow in the international debt markets — with skeptics Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic backing the measure only on condition they would not be on the hook financially.

Wednesday’s letter acknowledges the complexity of the issue but urges policy experts in Brussels to look at alternate solutions that “ensure that the risk rests with all EU Member States and where no Member State holds a disproportionate burden.”

“Now is the time to start a new discussion about how we can make further use of Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine’s, and our, benefit,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told the Financial Times.

Four people claiming familiarity with the letter said it requested the commission revist the issue of the frozen assets and sought an uddate on the formulation of legal and technical tools to get around the veto wielded by Belgium.

Last time around, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said his opposition was due to Russian legal and economic threats against Belgium, and him personally, and that he needed guarantees that other EU states would share the risks Belgium could be exposed to.

A person familiar with the matter said the Belgian government’s concerns over possible retaliation through the courts and erosion of trust financial markets had not diminished.

In a speech Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the EU to accelerate the pace of loan tranche transfers, saying that even with the money the country was facing a $26.8 deficit in 2026.

That prompted the EU to point to an additional $25.7 billion already approved, $16.8 billion of which had been provided, and call on other Western partners to follow its lead.

Poland has asked the European Commission to impose a €250 million ($291.3 million) fine on Meta, accusing the social media company of failing to adequately tackle fraudulent advertisements and scams on its platforms.

Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on Wednesday that Meta had failed to respond effectively despite repeated warnings from Polish authorities and cybersecurity teams.

“Despite repeated reports from the relevant Polish authorities and teams responsible for cybersecurity, Meta still does not provide an effective and adequate response to fraudulent advertisements,” Gawkowski said in a post on X.

Poland’s Cybersecurity Tests Raise Concerns

The request followed tests conducted by CERT Polska, Poland’s national cybersecurity incident response team. The team identified 122 advertisements that were classified as fraudulent.

According to Gawkowski, Meta decided not to remove 106 of those advertisements, representing 86.8% of the cases. Only 10 advertisements were removed, while authorities received no response in six cases.

The Polish minister called on Meta to introduce more effective tools to identify and remove scams, false advertising and promotions for illegal applications.

Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The dispute adds to broader regulatory and legal pressure on Meta over the content and safety of its platforms.

The company has faced criticism over allegations that its products can harm children and that it has misled the public about their safety. In Poland, Meta has also faced criticism over fraudulent advertisements and a lawsuit filed by billionaire Rafal Brzoska over fake advertisements using his identity.

In April 2026, a Warsaw appellate court ruled that Meta was responsible for advertisements hosted on its platforms. Meta has argued that it should not be held responsible for fraudulent actions carried out by its users.

Poland’s request places the issue within the broader European debate over the responsibility of major technology platforms for illegal and deceptive content. The European Commission now faces a decision over whether the evidence provided by Polish authorities warrants further enforcement action.

Analysis

The dispute highlights a growing regulatory challenge for social media companies: whether platforms can continue treating fraudulent advertising primarily as user generated content or must take greater responsibility for what they distribute.

For Poland, the requested €250 million penalty is not only about individual scam advertisements. It is also a test of whether existing European digital regulations can compel major platforms to respond more effectively when national authorities identify systemic failures.

If the European Commission takes action, it could increase pressure on Meta to strengthen its advertising verification and content moderation systems across Europe. It could also establish a broader precedent for holding technology companies accountable when their platforms repeatedly facilitate fraudulent advertising.

With information from Reuters.

Production services vendor Quixote stunned Hollywood in April when it said it was winding down most of its Los Angeles soundstage business, delivering another blow to an industry already buffeted by steep losses in film and TV production.

Now, one of those facilities is attempting to stage a comeback.

Film and TV producer Manny Halley said he has taken over a 125,000-square-foot former Quixote North Valley complex on Montague Street in Pacoima under a 25-year lease with an option to buy, and plans to reopen it this fall under the name Imani Studio. The land is owned by Rexford Industrial Realty, which is not a party to the production business.

Halley’s credits include the “True to the Game” film trilogy that featured Vivica A. Fox, and the BET reality TV series “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is,” which ran on BET from 2006 to 2008.

In an interview, Halley declined to disclose the price he paid, but said the lease is worth more than $25 million and that the cost to build the facility three years ago was about $19 million. The deal was financed with capital from his Imani Media Group.

“Right now is a unique time for independent producers because we don’t have to sit back and wait for a studio,” he said. “And in order for us to build a library and keep going, we have to keep costs down. So having your own stage is going to keep costs down.”

Producer Manny Halley has taken over ownership of one of the former Quixote North Valley studio facilities in Pacoima.

(Dae Howerton and Dallas J. Logan)

Halley said he was also motivated by the ongoing production crisis in L.A. and the continued loss of industry jobs. His company has shot 18 productions in California, 14 of which received a state production incentive.

“Somebody’s got to believe in Hollywood,” Halley said. “It’s a sad industry right now, and I want to change it.”

He is making a long bet on a market a much larger company has struggled with. Former owner Hudson Pacific announced it was shutting down most of its L.A. soundstages as well as operations in Atlanta as part of a cost-reduction move.

The Los Angeles-based real estate company bought Quixote in 2022 for $360 million, saying at the time that the acquisition would address the growing demand for soundstage space. Quixote was originally founded in 1995.

Though L.A. area soundstages had average occupancy rates of about 90% from 2016 to 2022, their business plunged in 2023 amid the work stoppages of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, according to data from the nonprofit FilmLA, which tracks on-location shoot days in the Greater L.A. area. In 2024, the average occupancy rate was 63%.

“Keeping production infrastructure active and investing in California’s capacity to support film and television is essential to our long-term competitiveness,” California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell said in a statement. “Facilities like this help keep productions here, sustain good-paying jobs, and support the thousands of businesses and workers that make up our entertainment economy.”

Halley said he plans to invest $2 million to $6 million into the facility, including additional staff and LED volume walls. He retained three employees to help run operations and hopes to hire others who previously worked there.

He said he plans to use the facility, which has four soundstages, to shoot his own shows and movies, but also intends to rent out space to other productions, including student projects.

“I just want to give everybody their opportunity to shine,” he said. “I want to give them their own playing field to create and make their visions come to life with affordable stages.”

But even if outside productions don’t rent the space, he said the facility could sustain itself on his company’s projects. Imani Media Group has a distribution arm that has worked with Amazon, Tubi and the major theater chains.

By late September, Halley said he intends to start shooting a “True to the Game” TV series at the Pacoima facility, as well as the BET comedy “Lot Patrol,” which the network recently picked up for an additional five episodes.

“Supporting Black ownership and entrepreneurship across the entertainment industry remains deeply important to BET,” Brian Rikuda, BET’s executive vice president of enterprise growth strategy, business operations, and programming strategy, said in a statement. “As Manny Halley expands Imani Studios into a 125,000-square-foot production home, we’re proud to continue our partnership rooted in a shared vision to create culturally impactful entertainment and expand opportunity in our industry.”

Locals say overcrowding and soaring property prices have made it a “nightmare” to live in the town

One historic seaside town on the Yorkshire coast, loved for its dramatic coastal views, traditional seaside charm and fascinating history has been hit by a mass of tourism. Research by HeyDiscount previously ranked Whitby among the UK’s most overcrowded tourist spots.

In a town with just 13,000 residents, Whitby has an estimated 3,275 commercial holiday lets, according to research carried out for the town’s Neighbourhood Plan. So it is no wonder that this has had an impact on housing and affordability.

Why is Whitby famous?

The town is perhaps best known for Whitby Abbey, the striking Gothic ruins perched high on the East Cliff overlooking the harbour and coastline.

Visitors can reach the abbey by climbing the famous 199 Steps, one of Whitby’s best-known landmarks and a popular spot for taking in views across the town.

The history of the site stretches back to 657 AD, when the first monastery was founded there. The medieval abbey that later stood on the site was eventually destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.

Meanwhile, Bram Stoker visited Whitby in 1890 and drew inspiration from the town for his famous novel Dracula. Its Gothic links have since become a major part of Whitby’s identity and appeal.

Alan Cuthbert, a lifelong Whitby resident and fisherman said: “You can’t walk down the street without bumping into someone with a camera or a bag of fish and chips.

“For us locals, it’s a nightmare. Traffic’s worse, parking’s a joke, and the peace we used to have is long gone.”

Tourists and second-home purchasers have driven property prices to new heights, forcing locals to move out.

Mr Cuthbert added: “Houses that used to be for families like mine are now being snatched up as holiday lets or second homes. Prices have gone through the roof. I’ve got friends who’ve had to move out of Whitby altogether because they can’t afford to live here anymore.”

Former Mayor Linda Wild told MailOnline: “Where I live, 90% of the neighbouring houses are holiday lets or second homes. Every Friday night, I can hear the rattle of suitcase wheels on the pavement.”

According to Rightmove figures, the average house property price in Whitby is £239,777.

The majority of properties sold in Whitby during the last year were semi-detached properties, selling for an average price of £227,143. Terraced properties sold for an average of £234,090, with detached properties fetching £336,614.

Tourism

Despite these challenges, tourism undeniably brings benefits to local businesses.

Between one and two million tourists visit Whitby each year, according to the BBC.

Sarah Bennett, a café owner in the town centre, acknowledges that tourism has been crucial to her livelihood. She said: “My café gets more visitors, which helps keep the business going year-round, not just in the summer.”

Yet she is equally candid about the downsides, particularly the strain placed on local services. She added: “Tourism has definitely put pressure on local amenities. It can be harder to get a doctor’s appointment or find a spot in local schools. The challenge is making sure that the benefits of this investment reach everyone, not just the tourists.”

While some residents cash in on the tourism boom, others are left picking up the pieces.

Neil Swannick, a Labour councillor for Whitby Streonshalh ward, summed up this rift, saying last year: “There are certainly people that have done well out of tourism in Whitby, but that benefit hasn’t been evenly spread across the residents of the town.”

North Yorkshire Council has identified parking, transport and housing as some of the key challenges facing Whitby as visitor numbers continue to grow.

The council now plans to limit new holiday lets and has drafted a Neighbourhood Plan which proposes a Principal Residence Policy. This means new open-market homes could be used as permanent residences rather than second homes or holiday lets.

Meanwhile, traffic and parking is another issue. The council says Whitby’s historic streets were not designed to cope with the volume of traffic brought by the town’s popularity, particularly during busy periods. Improving parking is therefore among the priorities outlined in its emerging Town Investment Plan.

There are also plans to make Whitby more pedestrian-friendly, with proposals to routinely pedestrianise the Whitby Swingbridge and surrounding harbourside.

North Yorkshire Council says the changes could improve safety during busy tourist periods, reduce pollution and make it easier for pedestrians to travel between the two sides of the town.

Published on
27/08/2026 – 14:10 GMT+2

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that if negotiations to reduce the record-high trade deficit with China did not produce a breakthrough, the EU should make use of all its trade defence mechanisms.

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Tensions have remained high between Brussels and Beijing since the talks were launched last June. Over the summer, China moved to ban Chinese firms from participating in EU antitrust probes, while the Commission has continued opening trade defence investigations into the suspected dumping of Chinese products into the European market.

“Dialogue with China remains necessary. But it must produce results. And when dialogue is not enough, we must be ready to make full use of our instruments,” von der Leyen said in remarks to Medef, the French business organisation.

The EU is facing a wave of cheap imports coming from China, which have increased by 45% in five years, the Commission’s President added, pointing out that 30 trade defence investigations have been opened over the last year – “almost three times more than the historical average”.

“We are stepping up investigations significantly,” she said.

Von der Leyen’s remarks come as the EU’s trade deficit with China reaches €1 billion a day. The Commission has set October as a deadline to reach a deal with Beijing to rebalance the trade relationship.

“China is a key economic partner. And our approach is clear and consistent: derisking without breaking ties. But being a partner does not mean accepting permanent imbalances,” von der Leyen said.

Beijing and Brussels have been on the verge of a trade war in recent months, with China threatening several times to retaliate against proposed EU regulations that could reduce market access to Chinese firms.

On Thursday, von der Leyen recalled that all EU member states now record a trade deficit with China.

In June, EU leaders gave her a mandate to act to rebalance the relationship through dialogue as well as the use and review of defence mechanisms. Among these is the EU’s so-called anti-coercion instrument, which can be triggered in case of pressure from a foreign country on the EU to change its policies.

This tool, sometimes referred to as the “trade bazooka”, allows the EU to adopt strong measures such as restrictions on access to public procurement or the removal of intellectual property rights.

However, it requires the support of a majority of the bloc’s member states. It is unclear whether this could be achieved while EU countries continue trading with China on a bilateral basis, seeking access to its market or investments from Beijing.

A MAJOR UK theme park has been forced to close all day “due to adverse weather and flooding”.

Owners of the park have apologised for any disappointment caused by the decision, telling visitors “your safety comes first”.

Drayton Manor Resort will remain shut all day today after heavy downpours and thunderstorms caused significant flooding in the area.

Floods have swamped Birmingham and the West Midlands overnight, with locals reporting cars being “stranded” in flood water and homes being left inundated with water.

More rain is forecast to hit Birmingham and other cities throughout today, with a Met Office yellow warning for thunderstorms continuing into the evening.

Customers have been advised not to contact staff at Drayton Manor at this stage, saying they would contact visitors at a later date to rearrange visits.

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A statement on the theme park’s Facebook said: “Due to adverse weather and flooding, Drayton Manor Resort will be closed today.

“We know many of you were looking forward to visiting, and we’re very sorry for the disappointment and inconvenience this causes.

“There’s no need to contact us at this stage. We’ll be in touch with affected guests shortly with information on how to rearrange your visit for another date.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding while we make alternative arrangements. We look forward to welcoming you to Drayton Manor soon.”

Drayton Manor, located in Tamworth in Staffordshire, is considered to be the fourth-largest theme park in the country.

With over 50 rides and attractions, Drayton is home to Europe’s only Thomas the Tank Engine Land and a 15-acre zoo.

Bosses have not yet confirmed whether the park will reopen to visitors tomorrow or throughout the Bank Holiday weekend.

When talking about the Gerhardt brothers, Hudson, a quarterback, and Bailen, a receiver, first-year Village Christian coach Rand Holdren says there’s never a boring moment when the two are together.

“I want to send them off to their room,” he joked about the brothers bickering with each other.

What brothers don’t occasionally raise their voices, and fight over food, gifts and clothes?

In Village Christian’s 34-0 win over Huntington Park last week, Hudson, a senior, completed 11 of 13 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns. Bailen, a junior, caught four passes for 91 yards and one touchdown. Of course, if Bailen ever drops a pass, big brother might give him a nasty look.

Holdren left Maranatha to take over the Village Christian program.

“The first day of spring practice, we had nine kids,” he said. “I quickly realized why they called me.”

He’s up to 25 players and hoping the Gerhardt brothers will continue to be entertaining in games and in huddles.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of Rasonque, a new treatment option for people with advanced pancreatic cancer.

A tablet taken once a day, the medication targets forms of a protein called RAS, which is a key driver of tumor growth in many patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the most common form of the cancer, the FDA said. This form of cancer develops in cells lining the ducts of the pancreas.

“Today’s approval provides a critical new option for patients facing an extraordinarily difficult and historically hard-to-treat cancer,” said Kyle Diamantas, acting commissioner of the FDA. “It is our fundamental duty to deliver more cures and meaningful treatments to patients as quickly as possible.”

A press release from the FDA said the approval demonstrates the agency’s “commitment to moving with urgency, reducing unnecessary delays and advancing innovative treatments.”

Rasonque has been approved for adults who have metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma who have received at one least one prior systemic therapy or those who are not candidates for multiagent systemic therapy.

About 90% to 95% of the new cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed in the United States each year are this form, the FDA said, citing the National Cancer Institute. Johns Hopkins Medicine also said “the vast majority” of pancreatic cancer diagnoses are this form.

In a clinical trial, the new treatment improved median overall survival to 13.2 months from 6.7 months with standard chemotherapy, the FDA said.

“This drug showed unprecedented results in an area of high unmet need,” said Angelo de Claro, director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence.

The agency granted this approval to Revolution Medicines Inc.

The firm said it only became aware of the hack on Tuesday and quickly prevented the hackers gaining any more access, and notified affected customers.

“We immediately contained the risk and have been working with specialist advisors and taking appropriate steps to protect our customers and systems,” MAG said.

“We have informed and are working with the relevant authorities.”

The airport group said the e-mail addresses obtained by the hackers came from passengers signing up to the airports’ on-site wifi.

More detailed data, including vehicle registrations, came from people booking car-park spaces, arranging access to lounges, and booking fast-track.

Customers are urged to remain vigilant about suspicious emails, text messages or phone calls and avoid opening attachments from unknown contacts.

The identity of the hackers was known, MAG said, and the relevant authorities had been informed.

TIKTOK star Baylen Dupree broke down in tears as she married her fiance and accidentally called him ‘the greatest d**k of my life’ in a sneak peek of her big day.

The social media favourite, 24, and Colin Dooley, 26, tied the knot back in May this year at the Airlie estate in Warrenton, Virginia.

The loved-up pair filmed the whole thing as part of her TLC show Baylen Out Loud – and the two-part special concluded on August 25.

Baylen couldn’t control her emotions as they came face to face at the aisle.

Fighting back the tears, she said: “Oh God, everyone bear with me.”

Baylen, who has Tourette syndrome, went on to say: “Three years ago, what started as a simple swipe became the greatest d**k… god damn!”

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As their guests laughed, she continued: “The greatest blessing God has ever given me.

“You came into my life in some of the darkest moments and without even realising it you became my medicine.

“When I was hurting you loved me gently, when I felt lost you reminded me of who I was.

“God used your heart, patience and your love to pull me out of places that I thought I would never escape.”

Baylen and Colin started dating in 2022.

The pair got engaged in February last year.

Baylen Out Loud hit our screens last year on American channel TLC.

“Following the journey of Baylen Dupree, a young woman living with an extreme case of Tourette Syndrome.

“Despite her challenges, Baylen and her family are not afraid to laugh and embrace the chaos,” Apple TV’s synopsis reads.

The first season aired in January, followed by a second in October, and a third in May this year.

Baylen shot to fame in lockdown on TikTok and now boasts an incredible 13m followers on the platform.

Dodgers lose Roki Sasaki

From Maddie Lee: The gathering on the Truist Park mound kept growing. At first, Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki was visited by pitching coach Mark Prior and catcher Hunter Feduccia, with the help of interpreter Will Ireton. Then, Prior summoned head athletic trainer Thomas Albert. Then, they called out manager Dave Roberts, who eventually made the pitching change.

The group had been examining the middle finger on Sasaki’s right hand. Sasaki exited the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss to the Braves in the fourth inning with a blister on that finger, which will land him on the 15-day injured list, Roberts said after the game.

“There’s just no way we can avoid it given the severity of the blister,” Roberts said. “So we’ll give him some time. But we can cover it up actually to keep his arm moving.”

Still, it’s unclear how long it will sideline him. In the meantime, Roberts said, left-hander Eric Lauer will return to the rotation, and the Dodgers will add a reliever as the corresponding move.

“It’s more disappointing with Roki because he has been so consistently good,” Roberts said. “And I don’t think he’s dealt with any blister issues. So for it to kind of come out of nowhere was a surprise to all of us. He was on a good run. So now unfortunately, it’s going to be minimum two weeks.”

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Mark Walter’s company TWG Global defends Dodgers financing and Lakers sale

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels swept by Guardians

Steven Kwan hit a tying double in the ninth inning, Travis Bazzana followed with a sacrifice fly and the Cleveland Guardians rallied past the Angels 4-3 on Wednesday for their seventh straight victory.

Hunter Gaddis (2-3) retired the final two batters in the eighth to earn the win. Erik Sabrowski worked a scoreless ninth for his second major league save and first since 2024.

With a runner on second, Sabrowski struck out pinch-hitter Travis d’Arnaud and got pinch-hitter Oswald Peraza to pop up to second as Cleveland completed a three-game sweep.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Jeanie Buss takes siblings to court again

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Jeanie Buss is taking her siblings to court. Again.

Attorneys representing the Lakers’ controlling governor filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday to block her five siblings from trying to sell the family’s remaining 17.82% of the NBA franchise the Buss family has owned since 1979.

Jeanie contends that her siblings should abide by a 2017 court order that mandated the family’s co-trustees to “take all actions reasonably available to ensure that Jeanie is appointed and remains as the NBA controlling owner of the Lakers.” The 2017 legal battle installed Jeanie’s younger siblings, Janie and Joey, as her fellow co-trustees, two roles that were previously held by her older brothers Jim and Johnny, who were ousted after a failed attempt to wrestle control away from Jeanie.

The 97-page petition accuses Janie, Joey and the other siblings Jim, Johnny and Jesse of “devious behavior” for not including Jeanie in discussions to sell the family’s last stakes in the team earlier this month. While the other siblings elected to sell soon after Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner agreed to a record-breaking transaction with Mark Walter and released a statement attributed to the Buss family, Jeanie “never agreed to any sale, was never consulted and was never even informed,” the petition states.

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What to watch for in Rams preseason game against Chargers

From Gary Klein: Under coach Sean McVay, the Rams’ final preseason games routinely are showcases for players vying for spots on the practice squad, not the roster.

But Thursday night’s game against the Chargers at SoFi Stadium will offer another look at perhaps one of the most important players for the Rams’ future:

Rookie quarterback Ty Simpson.

Simpson, the 13th pick in the NFL draft, has been competing with fourth-year pro Stetson Bennett to back up Matthew Stafford, though Bennett took the vast majority of second-team reps during training camp and preseason workouts.

Other things to watch Thursday:

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Jim Harbaugh wants to see improvement from Chargers

From Joaquin Ruiz: It’s decision-making time.

With a 53-man roster needing to be finalized by Sunday, the Chargers wrap up the preseason against the Rams at SoFi Stadium on Thursday night.

The Chargers looked sloppy in their 41-17 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers last week, following an inspiring 27-7 road win over the Houston Texans, and now aim for a better on-field product in their final tuneup.

“Just want it to be crisp [and] clean,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said. “Want to see improvement. … Everybody doing what they’re supposed to do.”

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Angel City loses to North Carolina

Ashley Sanchez scored twice to break the single-season goals record for the North Carolina Courage in a 2-0 victory over Angel City on Wednesday night.

The former All-American at UCLA leads the National Women’s Soccer League in scoring this season with 15 goals.

Sanchez scored her 14th goal in the 41st minute, tying Lynn Biyendolo’s record for the North Carolina set in 2019. Evelyn Ijeh’s backheel flick found a charging Sanchez, who blasted it into the far corner.

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Angel City summary

NWSL standings

This day in sports history

1884 — Richard Sears beats Howard Taylor 6-0, 1-6, 6-0, 6-2 to win his fourth straight U.S. national tennis championship.

1903 — Britain’s Hugh Doherty is the first non-American to win the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships with a 6-0, 6-3, 10-8 victory over the William Larned.

1909 — William Larned wins his fifth U.S. singles tennis title with a five-set victory over William Clothier in Newport, R.I.

1928 — Helen Wills beats Helen Hull Jacobs to take the fifth women’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championships. Wills needs only 33 minutes, defeating Jacobs 6-2, 6-1.

1957 — Hickory Smoke, driven by John Simpson, Jr., wins the Hambletonian Stakes after capturing the fifth and deciding heat.

1969 — Lindy’s Pride, driven by Howard Beissinger, wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats.

1975 — Onny Parun of New Zealand defeats Stan Smith 6-4, 6-2 in the first night match at the U.S. Open before a crowd of 4,949 at the West Side Tennis Club.

1976 — Transsexual Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, is barred from competing at the U.S. Open tennis championships after refusing to submit to a chromosome qualification test.

1978 — The Cosmos defeat the Tampa Bay Rowdies 3-1 to win the NASL Championship.

1985 — Mary Joe Fernandez, 14, becomes the youngest player to win a match at the U.S. Open. Fernandez beats Sara Gomer 6-1, 6-4.

1996 — Stefan Edberg stuns Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek at the U.S. Open, winning 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in his record 54th straight and final Grand Slam event.

1999 — Maurice Greene and Inger Miller win at 200 meters at the world championships, giving the U.S. a sprint sweep. Greene is the first to win the 100 and 200 at a major global meet since Carl Lewis at the 1984 Olympics.

2006 — Marco Andretti, 19, becomes the youngest winner of a major open-wheel event, beating Dario Franchitti by 0.66 seconds to take the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.

2015 — Usain Bolt wins his fourth straight 200-meter title at the world championships, finishing in 19.55 seconds in Beijing.

2018 — Simona Halep becomes the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open in the half-century of the pro era. Halep is overwhelmed by 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-4.

2023 — Gymnast Simone Biles (26) wins her record eighth U.S. championship.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1897 — Roger Bresnahan, later a Hall of Fame catcher, made his major-league debut as a pitcher for the Washington Senators by shutting out the St. Louis Browns 3-0.

1911 — Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox. Walsh struck out eight and walked one.

1937 — Brooklyn’s Fred Frankhouse pitched a rain-shortened no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. The game was stopped with two out in the eighth inning with the Dodgers leading 5-0.

1977 — Toby Harrah and Bump Wills of the Texas Rangers hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs on consecutive pitches in the seventh inning in an 8-2 victory over New York at Yankee Stadium.

1978 — Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds hit his 200th home run to become the first player in major league history to have 200 homers and 500 stolen bases.

1982 — Rickey Henderson of Oakland broke Lou Brock’s 1974 record of 118 stolen bases in a season and stole three more bases in the Athletics’ 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. It gave Henderson 122 thefts in 127 games.

1999 — Vladimir Guerrero’s hitting streak was halted at 31 games by Cincinnati’s Ron Villone in the Reds’ 4-1 win over Montreal. Guerrero went 0-for-2 with an intentional walk against Villone, ending the majors’ longest hitting streak since 1987.

2005 — Jeff Kent became the first player to hit 300 home runs as a second baseman in the Dodgers’ 8-3 win over Houston. The homer was the 325th of his career.

2010 — Florida led off a game with back-to-back homers for the first time in franchise history in a 7-1 victory over Atlanta. Cameron Maybin hit the first pitch of the game into the left-field seats. Logan Morrison then connected off Tommy Hanson for his first major league home run.

2011 — Justin Verlander became the majors’ first 20-game winner, grinding through six innings in the Detroit Tigers’ 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Verlander (20-5) became the first pitcher to win 20 games before the end of August since Arizona’s Curt Schilling in 2002.

2017 — Giancarlo Stanton hit his 50th home run to break an eighth-inning tie, helping the Miami Marlins sweep the San Diego Padres with a 6-2 victory. Stanton became the first NL player to reach 50 homers since Prince Fielder hit 50 for Milwaukee in 2007.

2017 — Rookie Rhys Hoskins homered for the fifth straight game and made a diving catch to start a game-changing triple play in the fifth inning, leading Philadelphia to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Hoskins led off the eighth with a drive to left-center to give him 11 home runs in his first 18 games, becoming the fastest in major league history to reach 11 homers. Hoskins was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Aug. 10.

2018 — Kendrys Morales’ home run streak was ended at seven games by the Baltimore Orioles, who halted an eight-game skid by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0. Morales went 0 for 3 with a walk and did not hit the ball out of the infield.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — The family of King Harald V of Norway gathered at his bedside in an Oslo hospital on Thursday with the Royal Household saying the 89-year-old’s condition was “extremely serious.”

Royal family members were seen arriving by car at Oslo University Hospital, including daughter-in-law Crown Princess Mette-Marit, with Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon canceling all royal engagements.

Norwegian media reported that Princess Astrid, Harald’s sister, was also in attendance.

NRK, the state-owned broadcast network, said the people of Norway should brace for “the worst.”

“The whole nation is with us as we send warm thoughts to the king and the rest of the royal family,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement.

The king has been hospitalized for the past 10 days due to complications related to haemolytic anaemia, a rare blood condition where red blood cell attrition exceeds the rate at which they can be replaced, causing fatigue and breathing difficulties.

His condition unexpectedly worsened on Monday and deteriorated still further overnight.

The king has been hit by succession of health issues dating back to 2024 when he had a pacemaker fitted after being taken ill in Malaysia during a holiday, leading to him partially stepping back from royal duties in line with his advanced agee, including a “permanent reduction” in his public engagements.”

He was hospitalized for an infection and dehydration in February during a private visit to Tenerife with Queen Sonja, who is also 89.

His son, Prince Haakon, 53, is next in line in the succession.

There has never been any hint Harald might abdicate to allow Prince Haakon to take over, having long argued that the oath he took before the Norwegian Parliament when he ascended the throne in 1991 was for life.

Warning: This article contains details people may find upsetting

Two police officers killed in a crash on the A66 died from head and neck injuries, an inquest has provisionally concluded.

Cleveland Police officers PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, died on Saturday when their police vehicle was hit by a Volkswagen Passat which was going the wrong way down the dual carriageway near Middlesbrough.

Area Coroner for Teesside and Hartlepool Paul Appleton opened and adjourned their inquests at Teesside Coroner’s Court in short, consecutive hearings.

Further inquests, into the deaths of the five young men in the VW Passat, are expected to open later.

Appleton said both officers died in a fatal road traffic collision on the A66 between Normanby Road and Church Lane in Eston, after their vehicle was in collision with a Volkswagen Passat that was driven “against the flow of traffic”.

He said there had been an “aborted” police pursuit, which both officers were “not directly involved in”.

The inquest was told PC Blades’ provisional cause of death was head and neck injuries, while PC Clough’s provisional cause of death was given as neck injuries.

It was told PC Blades was identified by his wife and PC Clough by his partner.

The coroner said he was waiting on a report on the full post-mortem examinations into the men’s deaths, a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and a police collision report.

A fundraising appeal set up by the Cleveland Police Federation for the two officers’ families has raised more than £1m.

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MELANIE Sykes has revealed a new look with a wig – after shaving her head amid her alopecia battle.

The 56-year-old, who revealed her autoimmune disease diagnosis last year, took to her Instagram page to share the stunning selfie with fans.

According to NHS Inform, alopecia is a “general term for hair loss”.

The TV star has proudly been showing off her new shaved head look after previously being left “two thirds bald”.

But she recently was all smiles as she posed for a picture while rocking a brunette bob.

Melanie captioned the post: “Options………….. #chameleon #wigstagram.”

MODEL STAR

Mel Sykes stuns in first photoshoot since shaving her head amid alopecia battle

BRAVE MEL

Melanie Sykes shows off her bald head after alopecia battle

Earlier this month Melanie, looked radiant as she went back to her modelling roots for the first time since losing her hair.

And just days before she showed off her bald head in her “Monday Motivation” post.

Throughout Mel’s alopecia battle she has been open and honest about the impact it has had on her.

She previously explained how her autoimmune condition had progressed over time and had left her with noticeable bald patches across her head.

Mel told how she was in “so much pain” after spending a long period of time unwell.

The star said at the time: “I’ve got an autoimmune condition, I am losing my hair, I keep having crazy inflammation all over and I am working on healing.

“In the last three months, I’ve done a meditation teacher training course.

“I was too ill to finish it, like the last two days of it I couldn’t do.

“It’s meditation teacher training, I don’t necessarily want to teach, but I can do…

“Mostly I’ve been living a very, very very spiritual existence.

“I’m two-thirds bald, really. Every time I say I’m bald I laugh, I don’t know why… Thank god I can laugh.”

The idea of one bourse for the whole Nordic region has resurfaced.

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Reports on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the discussions, said industry alliance Nordic Compass is studying options including the consolidation of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland’s national exchanges, as well as the harmonisation of their regulatory frameworks.

Nordic Compass told Euronews it is analysing a range of possibilities but that the work remains preliminary.

“Nordic Compass’ Capital Markets Track is working to improve opportunities to raise capital to support competitiveness across all stages, from start-up, venture, growth and scale-up to IPOs, as well as the ecosystem for Nordic listings,” said Christian Clausen, chair of the alliance’s Capital Markets Track and chairman for the Nordics at BlackRock.

“This includes analyses of a range of potential initiatives, including issues related to liquidity. The work is still at an exploratory stage, and no agreement has yet been reached on specific initiatives or conclusions,” Clausen explained to Euronews.

Nordic Compass was launched in May as a pan-Nordic industry alliance gathering more than 25 companies, foundations and organisations, among them Wallenberg Investments, EQT, Nordea, SEB, Nasdaq Nordic, Ericsson, Nokia, Saab, Ørsted and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Chaired by former Finnish prime minister Jyrki Katainen, it works across four tracks covering capital markets, deep tech, defence and energy.

The alliance’s first initiatives are due at a summit in Gothenburg on 4 and 5 November, where the capital markets proposal is rumoured to be presented.

The prize is considerable.

Nordic pension funds and sovereign investors manage close to $4 trillion (€3.43tn) and take in more than $175 billion (€3.43tn) a year, but that capital is spread across four separate markets rather than being pooled into one.

Who owns the exchanges?

Any merger would need the cooperation of three parties that do not answer to the alliance directly.

Nasdaq operates most of the region’s national bourses, Euronext owns Oslo’s stock exchange, and Euroclear plays a central role in settling Nordic securities trades.

Nasdaq did not respond to a request for comment.

Euronext signalled openness telling Euronews that through Oslo Børs, its securities depositories in Norway and Denmark, Nord Pool and Admincontrol, it has an established Nordic franchise and is “in dialogue with Nordic Compass about potentially contributing to practical measures.”

“Euronext welcomes initiatives aimed at making the Nordic capital markets even more competitive globally,” the exchange operator added.

“The region already benefits from strong market traditions, sophisticated investors and successful local ecosystems. The opportunity is to build on these strengths by making it easier for capital to flow across borders,” a spokesperson for the group told Euronews.

Euronext also pointed to its own multi-country structure as a template.

“Our experience demonstrates how deeper liquidity, shared technology and harmonised rules can benefit issuers and investors, while our federal model keeps local exchanges close to the markets they serve,” the exchange operator concluded.

What potentially emerges in Gothenburg in November will show whether the exploratory work has produced anything firmer than analysis.

THE world’s largest airport is set to open by 2032 – and inside passengers can expect forests, waterfalls and super modern technology.

Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) is set to overtake the likes of King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia to become the biggest airport in the world.

Construction of the £25.9billion airport is currently underway and it will eventually have five runways once complete, with 360 flights an hour (200 departures and 160 arrivals).

According to Khaleej Times, the project has been unimpacted by the situation in the Middle East.

In an interview, Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, added that construction has not slowed due to the tensions in the Middle East.

Over the past months the Middle East has faced escalating unrest, due to tensions between the US, Israel and Iran.

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The conflict has seen airspace impacted with major airlines such as British Airways and Lufthansa suspending flights across the Middle East.

Dubai International Airport also saw minor damage in an attack earlier this year.

However, the new airport is set to have capacity for 150million passengers each year within the first decade, before eventually rising to 260million passengers.

This is compared to London Heathrow which has a capacity of 84million a year, although this is set to increase to 150million with the third runway.

Al Maktoum International Airport will have more than 400 gates which will be able to host ‘next-generation’, ultra-wide body planes from Airbus and Boeing.

There will be two terminals and a huge underground baggage system capable of moving 30,000 bags per hour.

Inside the terminals passengers can expect giant halls and open air concourses, as well internal waterfalls and gardens.

And because the airport is so big, passengers can hop on the ‘integrated underground Automated People Mover system’, which includes a multi-track train.

Across the airport, there will be 14 stations in total.

Technology at the airport will also be super modern, with automated travel systems, AI security checks and robot staff.

The robots will be used for various tasks, including baggage handling.

The current title of the largest airport in the world belongs to King Salman International Airport, which is currently being constructed in Saudi Arabia.

WASHINGTON — Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton swept the Southern states in Super Tuesday’s Democratic presidential voting, including delegate-rich Texas and Florida, re-establishing himself as the front-runner for his party’s nomination.

Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, Clinton’s principal rival, had his chief success in his home state, which he won easily as expected. He also won the Rhode Island primary and the caucuses in Delaware.

But Tsongas did no better than second in the Southern states, including Florida, where he had made his biggest commitment of time and resources and which was generally viewed as the most significant test of the day for him and Clinton. In addition to Florida and Texas, Clinton came in first in the primaries in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana, and he won the caucuses in Missouri.

The victories Tuesday brought Clinton 418 delegates, contrasted with 208 for Tsongas and 23 for former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. Clinton started the race with 275 delegates, twice what Tsongas had. The eventual nominee will need a minimum of 2,145 delegates.

“I must say, it is only tonight that I fully understand why they call this Super Tuesday,” Clinton told cheering supporters in Chicago, where he arrived to launch his drive for primaries next Tuesday in Illinois and Michigan. “From Florida to Texas and all states in between, people opened their hearts to Hillary (his wife) and to me.”

For his part, Tsongas put a brave face on the results. “We’re on our way to the White House,” he said at a victory rally in his hometown of Lowell, Mass. He cited a Washington Post-ABC poll published Tuesday that showed him beating President Bush by 5 percentage points in a trial heat, 3 points more than Clinton’s margin over Bush.

Brown had his best showings Tuesday in Massachusetts, Mississippi and Oklahoma, running second in those states.

“This crusade rolls forward,” Brown declared Tuesday night at a United Auto Workers union hall in Romulus, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. “Hey, governing elite, watch out.

“I think I’m a lot closer to the heart and soul of this party” than the other candidates, he claimed. “I’ve got as good a chance as anybody. But this is a campaign that builds week by week. We’ve already moved from the margin to the center.

“We’re getting Tom Harkin’s vote now.” Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s role in the campaign as the spokesman for traditional Democratic liberalism ended this week when he dropped out of the race.

All told, 783 delegates–more than one-third the total required for nomination–were at stake in contests waged in 11 states, from Hawaii to Rhode Island. But seven of them were in Dixie or on its borders, which gave the day its special cast and gave Clinton an advantage he fully exploited.

A television network exit poll showed Clinton taking 68% of the vote among native-born Southerners, contrasted with 19% for Tsongas and 8% for Brown.

Once again, as in the Georgia and South Carolina primaries last week, blacks made a big contribution to Clinton’s victory. He got about 80% of the black vote across the South, according to network exit polls, contrasted with 59% of the white vote.

A Times exit poll in Florida showed that voters picked change, compassion and agreement on the issues as the main reasons that influenced their choice for President. Clinton won the support of the first two of these groups soundly and split the third evenly with Tsongas.

Tsongas appeared to have been hurt by Clinton’s charges that he was prepared to tamper with cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries. About one-fourth of those interviewed in The Times poll said that issue had influenced them, and three-fifths of that group backed Clinton.

Even on this day of triumph, concern over Clinton’s controversial draft status during the Vietnam War cast a shadow. Of Southern Democratic voters polled by the networks, 20% said this issue made them think less favorably of Clinton, although one-third of these voted for him anyway.

By contrast, in Florida, the Times poll showed that Tsongas took the votes of those interested in a candidate whose ethics they do not doubt, whom they believe they can trust, who has convictions and who has values like their own.

These answers appeared to reflect not only their confidence in Tsongas, but also their misgivings about Clinton because of the draft controversy and earlier allegations that he had been unfaithful to his wife. Those charges had damaged his campaign in New Hampshire, when polls had him far in front of the field.

Clinton attempted to address this problem Tuesday night in his victory speech in Chicago.

“The people of the South heard the worst about me but they saw the best,” he said. “They know that the true measure of character in politics can never be perfection, because, if it were, no one could pass. The true measure is genuine commitment that lasts day in and day out, through failures and disappointment and defeat and setback.”

Tsongas, who was outspent and who many thought was outmaneuvered in the day’s battle, sounded a defiant note.

“There are those who believe the American people are not intelligent, that you can be Santa Claus, that you can pander and give middle-class tax cuts,” he said, sounding one of his favorite themes at his Lowell rally. “I’m going to tell you something, Bill Clinton, you’re not going to pander your way into the White House as long as I’m around.”

Brown also sounded as if he had just begun to fight.

“I will tell you that I have a better chance than my two opponents” of getting the nomination, he told ABC News interviewer Peter Jennings. “Both of them are fatally flawed. They don’t represent the majority of who the Democratic Party is. I do. That’s my background.

“It’s hard to get the message out. But as we do, the crowds are going now from the hundreds to the thousands.”

In the frantic days of campaigning that preceded Tuesday’s day of decision, the contrasting objectives of the three Democratic contenders reflected the differences in their prospects and resources.

For Clinton, the balloting presented the opportunity to take a giant step forward in the delegate race and to gain momentum for next week’s critical contests in Illinois and Michigan.

“It’s always been the case that we had more money and more organization than anybody else,” Craig Smith, Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, said on the eve of the balloting. “Our strategy has been to go in and win as many states as we can and roll up a big delegate margin.”

That is exactly what Clinton did Tuesday throughout the South.

Perhaps just as important as these tangible assets in helping Clinton was the region’s demography. It created an environment more receptive to Clinton’s economic message–centered on his call for a small tax cut for middle-class families–than Tsongas’ doctrine of relying mainly on tax incentives for business to generate growth.

“The clarity of choice between Clinton and Tsongas on economic policy works to our advantage in the South more than in states like Maryland and New Hampshire,” where Tsongas won, said David Wilhelm, Clinton’s campaign manager. “There are more middle-income voters and more working families.”

Under these circumstances, the Super Tuesday confrontation represented mainly an exercise in damage control for Tsongas. Seeking to minimize the impact of defeat, the candidate and his managers conceded the outcome well in advance.

They set their goal as finishing a “strong second” everywhere, particularly in Florida, Super Tuesday’s most competitive battleground. And they pointed to what they asserted would be more positive results elsewhere in the country next week.

“Once Super Tuesday is over, he (Clinton) has to go into the rest of the country, and we’ve done better there,” said Tsongas campaign manager Dennis Kanin, citing his candidate’s victories in New Hampshire and Maryland.

As for Brown, the self-styled candidate of protest, the balloting offered a chance to enhance the credibility his candidacy gained with victories in Colorado and Nevada. Waging his guerrilla style of political warfare from Dixie to New England, Brown sometimes seemed mainly a threat to Tsongas’ support, particularly when he appealed for the vote of environmentalists by demanding a ban on ozone-threatening products.

But Brown also sought to make inroads in Clinton’s backing among minorities, telling a rally of Latinos in El Paso, “You know you’re being ripped off, lied to, shined on.”

Here is a brief look at how the contest took shape in the biggest battlegrounds:

FLORIDA: 148 delegates.

Tsongas was drawn into making his biggest Super Tuesday commitment of time and resources here mainly because of demographics–the presence of more expatriate Northerners, more suburbanites and more upper-income voters than anywhere else in the South. Those characteristics have defined Tsongas voters in past primaries.

Recent political history also seemed encouraging. In the last two Democratic presidential campaigns, Florida has been won by non-Southern candidates who, like Tsongas, won the New Hampshire primary–former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart in 1984 and former Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in 1988.

But as Tsongas strategists soon realized, circumstances were more favorable for Hart–who was running against another non-Southerner, former Vice President Walter F. Mondale–and for Dukakis–who had financial and organizational assets that in the 1992 contest are possessed by Clinton.

Clinton’s operation had daily polling to guide it. By contrast, conceded Rob Schroth, Tsongas’ state coordinator, “The only way I can find out what is going on is by talking to voters, to reporters and to the Clinton people.”

More important, Clinton strategists contend, Tsongas hurt his own cause. Instead of concentrating solely on his theme of economic revival, they point out, he spent much of the past few days attacking Clinton, calling the Arkansas governor “cynical and unprincipled.” He also was forced to deal with Clinton’s attacks on him for favoring a gasoline tax, for allegedly being insufficiently supportive of Israel and for supposedly being willing to tamper with Social Security cost-of-living allowances.

“He got off his message for three days and it hurt him,” said Jeff Eller, Clinton’s state coordinator. Kanin concedes that Tsongas’ shift in emphasis may have undercut his message but asserts that his candidate had no choice but to hit back at Clinton. “What Clinton was doing was attacking him all over Florida on whatever issue appealed most in that area,” Kanin said.

TEXAS: 196 delegates.

Clinton helped himself by coming to Texas early and often, as well as by capitalizing on friendships in the state that go back more than 20 years. “He’s paid a lot of attention to this state,” said George Christian, an Austin political consultant and onetime aide to former President Lyndon B. Johnson. “He’s here every time you turn around.”

Because of that, Clinton has lined up an impressive list of endorsements from elected and party officials and from leaders of key interest groups.

“He’s got the who’s who of the Mexican community and the who’s who of the black community on his side,” said George Shipley, a Democratic consultant who guided Texas Gov. Ann Richard’s campaign to victory in 1990.

One influential group, the Texas Mexican-American Democrats, not only endorsed Clinton, but also mailed out 200,000 letters to Mexican-American voters urging them to cast their ballots for the Arkansas governor.

Tsongas campaigned here for only two days, and his late-starting organization seemed to have relied at least as much on misgivings about Clinton as on Tsongas’ own virtues to get support.

Clinton “has impressive financial assets, but he has heavy personal liabilities,” said Texas Railroad Commissioner Robert Kreuger, Tsongas’ state chairman.

The personal contrast with Clinton did appear to help Tsongas win some votes. After hearing Tsongas speak at a rally at the Alamo last week, Sylvia Jiminez, a San Antonio accountant, praised his economic message but said pointedly, “Bill Clinton is too much glitz.”

SOUTHERN PRIMARIES: Clinton was helped by a big edge in endorsements from prominent Democrats in the rest of the South. Tennessee, with 68 delegates, was the only state in which Tsongas campaigned, aside from Texas and Florida. Only Brown made a significant attempt to compete in Mississippi, with 39 delegates. In Oklahoma, with 45 delegates, Tsongas failed to get on the ballot because of a technical slip-up by his staff, leaving second place to Brown.

Staff writers Cathleen Decker, David Lauter, J. Michael Kennedy and Marilyn Yaquinto contributed to this story.

RELATED STORIES, PICTURES: A12-14

Super Tuesday Vote

Here are the top finishers in Super Tuesday’s key states:

DEMOCRATS Clinton Tsongas Brown % of vote in 1. Massachusetts (primary) 11 67 14 83 2. Rhode Island (primary) 21 53 19 100 3. Delaware (caucus) 21 30 19 100 4. Florida (primary) 51 34 12 92 5. Tennessee (primary) 67 19 8 99 6. Mississippi (primary) 73 8 10 94 7. Louisiana (primary) 69 11 7 99 8. Missouri (caucus) 61 6 4 90 9. Oklahoma (primary) 70 — 17 99 10. Texas (primary) 66 19 8 78 11. Hawaii (caucus) — — — —

GOP Bush Buchanan Duke % of vote in 1. Massachusetts (primary) 66 28 2 90 2. Rhode Island (primary) 63 32 2 100 3. Delaware (caucus) — — — — 4. Florida (primary) 69 31 — 92 5. Tennessee (primary) 73 22 3 99 6. Mississippi (primary) 72 17 11 93 7. Louisiana (primary) 62 27 9 95 8. Missouri (caucus) — — — — 9. Oklahoma (primary) 70 27 3 99 10. Texas (primary) 70 24 3 76 11. Hawaii (caucus) — — — —

All numbers are percentages. Complete results, A12

Super Tuesday Roundup

Here are the latest results from Tuesday’s presidential contests. PRIMARIES Texas DEMOCRATS 78% of precincts reporting

Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 819,554 66 97 Paul E. Tsongas 230,607 19 28 Jerry Brown 93,657 8 2 REPUBLICANS 76% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 425,588 70 121 Patrick Buchanan 143,829 24 0 David Duke 15,723 3 0 Uncommitted 18,259 3 0 Florida DEMOCRATS 92% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 536,088 51 87 Paul E. Tsongas 360,339 34 58 Jerry Brown 131,267 12 3 REPUBLICANS 92% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 554,173 69 97 Patrick Buchanan 254,150 31 0 Massachusetts DEMOCRATS 83% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Paul E. Tsongas 443,150 67 88 Jerry Brown 94,483 14 6 Bill Clinton 70,480 11 0 Uncommitted 10,114 2 0 REPUBLICANS 87% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 149,247 66 26 Patrick Buchanan 63,124 28 11 David Duke 4,785 2 0 Uncommitted 8,618 4 1 Tennessee DEMOCRATS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 211,488 67 56 Paul E. Tsongas 60,662 19 12 Jerry Brown 25,415 8 0 Uncommitted 12,217 4 0 REPUBLICANS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 177,173 73 23 Patrick Buchanan 54,328 22 10 David Duke 7,662 3 0 Uncommitted 5,043 2 0 Louisiana DEMOCRATS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 259,731 69 59 Paul E. Tsongas 41,790 11 1 Jerry Brown 24,925 7 0 REPUBLICANS 94% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 75,346 62 26 Patrick Buchanan 32,484 27 5 David Duke 10,438 9 1 Oklahoma DEMOCRATS 99% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 288,031 70 38 Jerry Brown 68,432 17 7 REPUBLICANS 98% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 147,426 70 34 Patrick Buchanan 56,234 27 0 David Duke 5,474 3 0 Mississippi DEMOCRATS 94% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 138,777 73 39 Jerry Brown 18,222 10 0 Paul E. Tsongas 15,093 8 0 Uncommitted 11,642 6 0 REPUBLICANS 92% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 104,065 72 33 Patrick Buchanan 24,320 17 0 David Duke 15,516 11 0 Rhode Island DEMOCRATS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Paul E. Tsongas 26,875 53 13 Bill Clinton 10,729 21 6 Jerry Brown 9,519 19 3 Uncommitted 689 1 0 REPUBLICANS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates George Bush 9,911 63 10 Patrick Buchanan 5,012 32 5 David Duke 327 2 0 Uncommitted 440 3 0 CAUCUSES Missouri DEMOCRATS 90% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton 306 61 34 Paul E. Tsongas 30 6 2 Jerry Brown 20 4 0 Uncommitted 143 29 30 Delaware DEMOCRATS 100% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Paul E. Tsongas 48 30 5 Bill Clinton 33 21 3 Jerry Brown 31 19 2 Uncommitted 47 30 4 Hawaii DEMOCRATS 0% of precincts reporting Dele- Vote % gates Bill Clinton xxx xx x Paul E. Tsongas xxx xx x Jerry Brown xxx xx x Uncommitted xxx xx x

* Republican caucuses in Missouri, Delaware and Hawaii will be held in the coming months.

IT’S your last chance to visit a major tourist attraction in the UK – unless you can wait until 2028.

Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens dates back to 1879, now home to four floors of local history, science and art as well as an impressive glass-domed tropical greenhouse.

However on August 29, the free-to-visit attraction will close its doors for two years for a huge renovation project.

The £13.6million project will include new entrances and a ‘shop window’ style exhibit.

This will allow it to show off items like its Nissan car that was the first off the production line at the Sunderland factory in 1986.

New rooms will be created too such as The Growing Space, with a tree-like canopy that will be used as a place for activities, and other exhibition spaces will be added.

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The tropical gardens which sit alongside the museum will get new lighting and seating areas as well as new plant species.

Currently inside the greenhouse are over 2,000 plants as well as man-made streams and ponds with colourful Koi fish.

There’s also a treetop walkway to see through the canopy and spot Mowbray Park through the glass.

Amongst the tropical plants is a permanent collection of life-sized dinosaur models and fossils.

During the works, the dinosaurs will be stored away safely, as will Wallace the Lion – a taxidermy lion from 1868.

During the closure, a new Culture House will open on September 12, where some museum activities will take place.

Other events that would have usually been held in the attraction will go-head at other places across the city.

Councillor Ciera Hudspith, cabinet member for culture, tourism and heritage at Sunderland City Council, said: “This once-in-a-generation transformation is about creating a museum that is fit for the future, while protecting its heritage and collections for generations to come.

“While we know people will be sad to see the museum temporarily close, this marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of our best-loved attractions.”

Ciera continued: “We’re also really excited to take museum activities out into communities across our city while the redevelopment work is underway.”

If you want to find out more about the museums around England – here’s a full list of 200 that are completely free.

This train track claimed the lives of hundreds of people during its 24 years of construction.

Burrowing beneath a towering mountain range in Massachusetts is a railway tunnel with a long and blood soaked history. The Hoosac Tunnel travels between North Adams in the west to the town of Florida, Massachusetts in the east. It was constructed in 1851 and finally finished in 1975.

However, during its 24 years of construction, this railway tunnel claimed the lives of around 200 men, giving it the terrifying nickname of ‘the Bloody Pit’. Men were killed by explosions, falling rocks and accidents with ladders and scaffolding, leading to a strike in 1865 where workers burned buildings in protest of the horrific working conditions.

Over the year following the strike, a further 14 men were killed or injured at work in the tunnel.

On October 17, 1867, the tunnel saw the deadliest accident of its 24 years in construction.

Workers were digging a 1,028 foot long vertical exhaust shaft when a candle ignited the fumes that had leaked from a lamp.

An explosion ripped through the shaft, setting the hoist alight. It collapsed into the shaft, trapping 13 men working at the base of the shaft inside the darkness.

The pumps were destroyed, and the shaft began to fill with water.

In a desperate attempt to save the men trapped below, a worker was lowered into the shaft the following day but was overcome by fumes and reported no survivors once he reached the surface again.

Horrifyingly, when workers reached the bottom of the shaft months later they found that at least some of the men had survived long enough to build a raft to escape the rising flood waters before they suffocated.

The men died due to a lack of oxygen as fires burned through the air.

Despite the tragedies that befall construction, the tunnel was finally completed and used by both passenger and freight trains.

Today, the tunnel still stands but is only used for freight trains.

Mark Walter doesn’t need to sell the Sparks. It said so in a release from his company Wednesday: “TWG is not looking to sell its sports assets at ‘fire sale’ prices to raise capital for its insurance operations.”

He should sell the Sparks anyway.

Not because of the investigations into allegations that insurance companies under Walter’s umbrella failed to properly disclose and conduct transactions between other companies he controls.

But for the sake of the storied WNBA franchise, which hasn’t won a championship in a decade and is about to miss the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season — something that would have been unthinkable six seasons ago.

Sell for the sake of the Sparks, who have long deserved an owner who wants seriously to run the team like Walter’s group runs, well, the Dodgers.

With passion and pride, foresight and smarts.

A steel beam is raised as the final structuarl piece of the Sparks’ $150-million training facility in El Segundo on Wednesday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

And, yes, the new $150-million training facility that’s going to open in El Segundo next year is a better-late-than-never step in that direction.

It’s not too little; the 64,000-square-foot space, which will be tremendous in a prime location near the beach and shopping.

But it’s very late. Wednesday’s topping-out ceremony, when a construction crew lifted the final structural beam into place, doesn’t change that.

While so many of the Sparks’ rivals have had the upper hand in recruiting and retaining talent with state-of-the-art private practice spaces for the past few years, the Sparks have been — to use star forward Nneka Ogwumike’s word — “nomads.”

The Sparks have always offered fans a famously fun game-day experience, but their players had to continually get familiar with facilities all over Southern California, from L.A. Southwest and El Camino College to Academy USA in Glendale to Jump Beyond Sports in Torrance, from Windward School and Galen Center to JR286, the gym in Torrance where they practice now.

Starting next season, they’ll have a home.

A rendering of the Sparks’ new training facility in El Segundo.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

But it’s not because the Sparks’ ownership wanted to do what Mark Davis did with the Las Vegas Aces when he was the first owner to provide fancy new digs in 2023.

Not because they were resolute about giving the Sparks a first-class experience, like Joe Tsai did when he chartered flights for New York Liberty before the league said it was legal, getting himself fined $500,000.

But because the Sparks would fall further behind if they didn’t.

Because now “it’s the bare minimum,” said forward Dearica Hamby, whose input — dedicated spaces for family and naps — was incorporated into the building’s design.

It also will include two regulation basketball courts, a performance and training environment, hydrotherapy and recovery rooms and a player sanctuary.

“It represents a belief in our players,” said Stacy Johns, the team’s president. “It represents a belief in the future of the Sparks. And it represents a belief in where women’s basketball and women’s sports are going.”

Members of the media and guests gather with the Sparks’ front-office staff for the topping-out ceremony in El Segundo on Wednesday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Where’s that? Up.

Valuations are growing. In May, CNBC reported that the WNBA’s current teams were worth an average of $460 million — 84% more than the league’s most recent expansion fee of $250 million.

The Sparks — without taking the new facility, the largest investment to date in the history of women’s sports, into account — were valued at $415 million, seventh among the WNBA’s 15 teams.

The Golden State Valkyries, an expansion team in 2025, were valued at a record $1 billion, more than any women’s sports team in history.

That’s because the Valkyries — who are owned by the Golden State Warriors’ Joe Lacob and Peter Guber — have been innovative and imaginative, run more like the Dodgers than the Sparks, who are owned mostly by the same folks as the Dodgers.

The Dodgers instituted a private player-only plane and added Japanese-style toilets after then-recruit Roki Sasaki asked. The Valkyries established a 30-plus network of area bars for fans to gather to watch games and they helped a player with sleeping problems by offering everything from a different comforter to a sleep study.

Rendering of the inside the contrition of the Sparks’ new training facility, including a dining area.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers gave the keys to Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts. The Valkyries’ GM is Ohemaa Nyanin, formerly an assistant GM with the WNBA champion New York Liberty, and their coach is former UCLA Bruin Natalie Nakase, before an assistant on Aces championship teams and an NBA assistant for years with the Clippers.

The Sparks have for the past several seasons cycled through unproven coaches and GMs, or fired experienced ones. Unable to pick a lane and drive it, they keep ricocheting between preaching patience and acting impatiently. And at the moment, they don’t even have a GM after firing Raegan Pebley in July.

Johns, who was brought on to oversee the team’s business in April, said things are changing. And change takes time.

The Sparks are 13-25, behind the expansion Portland Fire in the standings and having lost twice to the expansion Toronto Tempo. But they’ve tripled their sports staff this year, adding performance and mental health therapists and additional basketball data people — who apparently aided in the construction of an old, uncompetitive roster.

“I couldn’t tell you what happened or who woke up one day and decided,” said Johns, who worked for the MLS champion LAFC and Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts. “But when I was recruited … I was explicitly told like, ‘This is changing,’ and like, ‘We’re hiring you because we want to signal change.’”

The biggest change that could help the Sparks? At the top, with someone who wants to push the envelope instead of compensate and play catchup.

Rendering of the inside the contrition of the Sparks’ new training facility, including a basketball court.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

SEOUL, Aug. 27 (UPI) — North Korea on Thursday condemned U.S. approval of a possible $125 million sale of Sidewinder missiles and related equipment to South Korea, warning of a “serious, immediate and powerful response.”

In a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson called the proposed sale and other recent U.S. actions “hostile moves adversely affecting the security environment of the DPRK and the regional situation.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

The spokesperson cited last week’s U.S. State Department approval of a possible sale of 103 AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II tactical missiles, 10 tactical guidance units and related equipment to South Korea.

The statement also pointed to U.S. approvals this year involving naval helicopters, attack helicopter upgrades and precision-guided munitions.

In May, the State Department approved a possible $3 billion sale of 24 MH-60R multi-mission helicopters and a $1.2 billion upgrade package for South Korea’s AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. It approved a possible $106 million sale of Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits and related equipment in June.

The sales are “encouraging the ROK to boost its capability to fight a war,” the spokesperson said, using the official acronym for South Korea.

“Now that the military integration of the U.S. and its allies is being accelerated in the Asia-Pacific region, we cannot overlook the adverse effect of the U.S. sale of its weapons to the ROK on the regional security environment,” the spokesperson said.

The statement also criticized a State Department funding initiative announced last week that would provide up to $2.96 million for projects documenting human rights abuses in North Korea and countering Pyongyang’s propaganda and influence operations.

The spokesperson called the initiative a “human rights smear campaign” aimed at creating instability in North Korea’s political system.

The DPRK “will make a serious, immediate and powerful response to the hostile acts in different spheres,” the spokesperson said.

The statement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes to restart direct diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump last week abruptly ordered the United States and South Korea to curtail their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise, citing its cost and saying the drills sent an “inappropriate and hostile” signal to Pyongyang.

North Korea has so far shown little inclination to engage, however. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, said last week that Pyongyang had “no interest” in the reduction of the drills.

“If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get desired answer,” she said.

Kim Jong Un led a key ruling party meeting this week but made no mention of Trump’s overtures, according to a report Wednesday by KCNA.

Italian football federation says its decision is based on Infantino’s recent initiatives on international competitions.

Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has withdrawn its support for embattled FIFA President Gianni Infantino over his failed attempt to sell off stakes in the World Cup.

“This decision is intended to clearly and transparently express the FIGC’s position… regarding the recent initiatives promoted by the FIFA president concerning the governance and development of international competitions,” said a FIGC statement on Wednesday.

The move comes as a host of European national associations, including England, Ireland and Wales, have already scrapped their backing of Infantino, who is seeking re-election at next year’s FIFA Congress.

Infantino has come under increasing pressure to step down as head of world football’s governing body over his now-abandoned plan to secure private investment in FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup.

“We will continue to work alongside UEFA and the other European federations to promote a vision of football based on merit, solidarity, sustainability and the central role of the fans,” said FIGC head Giovanni Malago.

“We identify with a model of dialogue, listening and shared responsibility which has, to date, enabled football to grow, innovate and, at the same time, defend its founding principles.”

However, Italy’s World Cup-winning captain, Fabio Cannavaro, and his Brazilian counterpart, Cafu, have joined a group of former footballers backing Infantino.

Their social media messages expressing support came after another group of former players, led by Frenchman Mikael Silvestre, called for “change” in FIFA’s leadership.

“Over the last ten years, world football has improved,” and footballers “have once again taken centre stage,” Cannavaro – who was part of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning team, posted on social media on Wednesday.

“Infantino has done a great job… Not acknowledging that would be intellectually dishonest,” added the former centre-back, who coaches the Uzbekistan national team.

Similar messages were posted on Tuesday night by Brazilians Cafu and Roberto Carlos, Argentines Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso, Colombia’s Ivan Ramiro Cordoba and Mexico’s Jared Borgetti.

“We have followed the work of FIFA and president Infantino to promote the representation of players in football, something that didn’t exist before,” wrote Cafu, who lifted the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 and 2002.

Infantino, the 56-year-old former UEFA secretary general, had the broad backing of European nations when he succeeded Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in 2016.

European football body UEFA said it would formally withdraw its threat to boycott FIFA competitions after receiving assurances that Infantino’s failed sell-off plan will not be revived.

UEFA, which oversees European football, had threatened to boycott FIFA competitions.