The Sports Report: Dodgers lose game and Roki Sasaki
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.”
Mark Walter’s company TWG Global defends Dodgers financing and Lakers sale
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.
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.
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:
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.”
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.
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.
Norway’s King Harald in an ‘extremely serious’ condition, Palace confirms
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.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famed “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech galvanized the nation’s civil rights movements and led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. File photo by UPI | License Photo
Inquests open into A66 crash police deaths near Middlesbrough
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.
Follow BBC Tees on X,, external Facebook, external, Nextdoor and Instagram, external and listen to Radio Tees on BBC Sounds.
Melanie Sykes reveals new look with wig
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.”
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.
What is alopecia and what causes it?
About two per cent of the population will experience alopecia at some point in their lifetime, with around one in every 4,000 developing the condition each year.
It can start at any age but is most common in early adulthood and can lead to a lack of all hair including eyelashes and eyebrows, nasal hair and public hair.
Alopecia areata causes patches of baldness about the size of a large coin.
“Alopecia” is the medical term for hair loss and “areata” means that it occurs in small, random areas. There are various classifications, including:
- Alopecia areata totalis: Total hair loss on the scalp
- Alopecia areata universalis: Total hair loss on your scalp and all body hair
The causes of alopecia areata are not fully understood but the loss of hair is because of inflammation around the hair follicles.
The cause of the inflammation is unknown but it is believed that the immune system, which normally protects the body from infections and other diseases, misfires and attacks the hair follicles.
Therefore, it is understood to be an autoimmune condition, says Alopecia UK.
Genetics may be behind the condition, but there are other things thought to trigger it, including a virus, iron deficiency or stress. Studies are not conclusive.
For women, sometimes birth can trigger postpartum alopecia.
In most cases of alopecia areata, hair will grow back in a few months to a year. At first, hair may grow back fine and white, but over time it should thicken and regain its normal colour.
There is no cure for the condition, only treatments that are not guaranteed to work.
People with alopecia may need to take extra precautions, including protecting their skin and eyes when outside and preventing stress.
“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.”
Nordics weigh merging their stock exchanges into one regional market
The idea of one bourse for the whole Nordic region has resurfaced.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
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 £26bn mega airport to be the biggest in the WORLD reveals latest plans
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.
Read more on travel inspo
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.
Clinton Sweeps the South : Tsongas Takes 3 States; Bush Wins All 8 Races : Democrats: Arkansas governor’s victories, including Florida and Texas, re-establish him as front-runner. Contests held in 11 states.
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.
UK attraction to close for two YEARS ahead of massive ‘once-in-a-generation’ £13million renovation
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.
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.
The world’s scariest tunnel where 200 men died took 24 years to build
This train track claimed the lives of hundreds of people during its 24 years of construction.
This tunnel claimed the lives of hundreds(Image: Getty)
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.
Sparks are growing but Mark Walter should still sell the team
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)
North Korea threatens ‘powerful response’ over U.S. arms sales to Seoul
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.
Italy withdraws support for Infantino, but Cannavaro backs FIFA chief | Football News
Italian football federation says its decision is based on Infantino’s recent initiatives on international competitions.
Published On 27 Aug 2026
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.
Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields is a festival-scale roar for abortion rights and women’s health
Just after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022, ending the nationwide right to legal abortion, Olivia Rodrigo walked onstage at the Glastonbury festival in the United Kingdom, sad and furious but also galvanized. “I’m heartbroken over what happened in America yesterday,” Rodrigo said onstage then. “I’m devastated and terrified that so many women and so many girls are going to die because of this.”
Four years later, Rodrigo has a new festival of her own this weekend, Daisy Chain Fields in Irvine’s Great Park, that’s entirely in service to those causes of women’s rights and reproductive autonomy.
“I remember being at Glastonbury that day with the most exciting opportunity to perform on that stage, but at the same time, being shaken to my core knowing that women’s rights were being stripped away,” Rodrigo told the Times via e-mail just before the festival. “I want people to walk away from here feeling hopeful and feeling like they can effect change. That was the entire thesis of this festival. I do think we can. We’ve seen it happen before, and we’re seeing some change now.”
Daisy Chain Fields is an ambitious escalation of Rodrigo’s activism in this sphere, which has paralleled her chart-topping success after debuting as a teenager with her LP “Sour” in 2021. The festival — with similarly-aligned acts including Chappell Roan, Doechii, Bikini Kill, Katseye and others — will be a globally-prominent cultural event, underlining the urgency for reproductive and women’s rights work amid the current right-wing backlash. It raises funds to benefit 10 like-minded advocacy groups, and intertwines her music career and women’s rights advocacy in ways few pop artists at her scale are attempting.
“We are ecstatic to have Olivia supporting our work, not only financially, but using her voice and reach to shine a light on these urgent issues,” said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which challenged abortion bans in 11 states, and filed the first lawsuit on behalf of women denied abortions in 50 years. “Women are continuing to suffer under these bans, and that won’t stop until abortion is federally protected once again. Her support will help us continue filing lawsuits and advocating for laws that expand reproductive rights, both in the U.S. and globally.”
Olivia Rodrigo performs during the opening night of her Guts tour at Acrisure Arena on Feb. 23, 2024, in Palm Desert, Calif.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Rodrigo’s public work in activism began in earnest on the tour for “Guts” in February 2024. That tour coincided with the launch of Rodrigo’s Fund 4 Good, a nonprofit (under the fiscal sponsorship of the 501(c)(3) group Entertainment Industry Foundation) that steered $2.5 million in profits and donations from that tour to a range of global groups working in women’s rights, health and reproductive care. These included Jhpiego — a Johns Hopkins-affiliated global women’s health NGO — along with Women’s Shelters Canada, Women Against Violence Europe, and the Korea Foundation for Women.
“She did something. She could have played it safe, but she acknowledged that she has the power to make stuff happen, and she’s going to use it for good,” said Kathleen Hanna, founder of the legendarily activist punk group Bikini Kill, who will play Daisy Chain Fields on Saturday. While Hanna recalled feeling initially skeptical about the all-women Lilith Fair in the ’90s, she respects how Rodrigo learned about that fest’s communal, radical goals from a recent documentary, and sought to update it for her fans’ generation.
“What’s awesome about that is that it’s not that rare” for artists to be outspoken on these issues now, Hanna said. “Look at Megan Thee Stallion, Hayley Williams — all I see is women who are like ‘This is bull—.’ In a fascist era, we need to be meeting each other and opening friendship circles instead of isolating ourselves.”
Rodrigo’s advocacy hasn’t always gone smoothly. While on tour for “Guts” in 2024, Rodrigo brought abortion rights groups under the National Network of Abortion Funds to canvass at shows, and some groups handed out free condoms and emergency contraceptives to fans. Those efforts upset conservatives in states like Missouri, which had enacted a near-total abortion ban, and where state legislators sought to ban the morning-after pill. Fearing political backlash, Rodrigo’s management team at the time reportedly asked the groups to refrain from passing out contraceptives, but still encouraged them to canvass on-site.
“I don’t think demanding that women and girls be safe and have ownership over their own bodies is a radical idea,” Rodrigo said. “I was raised by parents who encouraged that belief in me.”
At Daisy Chain Fields, Rodrigo will likely face little resistance — but the show arrives in an ever more challenging time for women’s health and rights.
The return of President Trump to office has resulted in legislation like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that slashed funding for healthcare; decimated funding for groups like USAID; and saw controversial, conspiracy-pushing figures like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought into government. Crucial issues in women’s health risked being ignored or exacerbated.
“It is a fraught moment” said Angela Aina, co-founder and executive director of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, one of the groups supported by Daisy Chain Fields. Aina said that American Black women die in childbirth at three times the rate for white women, and 87% of these deaths were preventable.
“What matters most to us is that the festival is showing people the organizations that are doing this work and pushing solutions,” Aina added. “Black maternal health has too often been treated as a niche concern, something discussed among public health professionals and then set aside.” But when these topics underpin a massive, sold-out festival of music with an audience of young women, it becomes “part of ordinary civic life,” she said.
These organizations said Rodrigo made a real effort to connect personally with their teams and more closely learn about their issues and strategies. Some, like the National Institute for Reproductive Health and Planned Parenthood, focus on reproductive justice. Baby2Baby supports mothers in poverty while Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health focuses on Native and First Nations community healthcare; FreeFrom responds to the epidemic of gender-based violence, while the National Domestic Workers Alliance advocates for care workers, the vast majority of whom are women.
“It’s really extraordinary,” said National Domestic Workers Alliance President Ai-Jen Poo. “[She’s] making the time to come to meetings and learn about each organization directly from us, offering to think through different ways that she can lift up our work even beyond the festival.”
Part of NDWA’s mission is to change the cultural conversation around domestic labor — “We as a culture often refer to it as ‘help,’ as opposed to the profession that it is for millions of workers,” Poo said — an undertaking Poo said Rodrigo understands well.
“I think that she is a great storyteller herself through her music, and she knows that great storytelling is at the heart of what moves people and what creates change for people,” she said.
Olivia Rodrigo speaks at the beginning of the July 14, 2021, daily briefing at the White House in Washington, where she was filming a video to promote vaccines.
(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
The National Women’s Law Center works across virtually every issue affecting women and girls in the United States. “One of the things I like to say is that our fingerprints are on the lives of women in this country in ways that they’re probably not even aware of,” said Uma Iyer, NWLC’s chief external affairs officer.
Iyer said that the “constant conversation” between law, policy and culture change is at the heart of the NWLC’s work, and Rodrigo’s advocacy keeps that conversation urgent.
“We’ve seen that in how #MeToo played out. That spawned litigation, but it was also a big global cultural moment,” Iyer said. “You’re talking about it at kitchen tables and movie theaters and on talk shows, and that discourse really matters when you’re trying to effect change.”
Each of the nonprofits will have a physical presence at the festival in Irvine’s Great Park. For their station, Poo said the NDWA will set up a space for visitors to learn about care work and pay tribute to the caregivers in their own lives through artwork, which will all knit together “in a big chain of care” by the festival’s end.
“We’re really excited about all the people who will come to our tent and have a conversation with us and stay involved in our movement long afterwards,” she said. “We feel like Daisy Chain is almost like a catalyst for really growing this movement for care in our country.”
Several organizers said the recognition and opportunities for connection that the festival brings are just as meaningful as whatever financial support it generates.
While the festival’s total donation pool is yet unclear, Rodrigo has said that all artists on the lineup are performing for free, though production and staffing costs for a fest this size will be substantial.
What money the nonprofit groups do receive will go right back into “continuing the work,” Iyer said. “The work of gender justice in whatever form it shows up for any of these 10 organizations is really the work of protecting our democracy.”
Money generated by Daisy Chain Fields will be “flexible dollars,” Iyer explained, usable for anything an organization needs to fill in the gaps. “Those are critical dollars for nonprofits to be able to survive and do the work,” she said. Beyond the impact for populations the organization serves, Iyer said the promise of Daisy Chain Fields has boosted morale among NWLC staff during an extremely difficult time in America.
“When you have this big festival with people you love to hear, who bring you joy and bring you comfort and peace and entertainment and laughs and love, and they’re all banding together because this one incredible person asked them to, because she believes it’s the right thing to do — it makes the work a little less hard.”
The work seems to be catching on. Roan, long outspoken on LGBTQ+ rights issues, will throw the Super Graphic Spectacular concert at the Shrine in Los Angeles on Oct. 21-22, benefiting trans youth through Roan’s Midwest Princess Project. Last year, Doechii told the audience at the GLAAD Media Awards in L.A. that as ”hard-won cultural change and rights for transgender people and the LGBTQ+ community have been threatened,” the superstar rapper was “disgusted” by the revanchism.
“Olivia’s involvement is such a gift, because she is reaching and educating young people who may feel checked out or hopeless on these issues,” Northup said. “Olivia is giving us a chance to meet young people where they’re at, and she’s approaching it with positivity. Her message is not about what we’ve lost, it’s about what we can accomplish if we channel our collective power as women and girls.”
Rodrigo just followed up her acclaimed LP “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” with a new single, “Serena Joy,” titled after a character in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” who complies with an oppressive theocracy.
“If they do it to them, they’re gonna do it to you,” Rodrigo sang, with a fury that brooks no room for despair.
“There’s a growing sentiment among young people and women that we have to create change, and hopefully people are inspired, whether it’s by engaging with some of our NPO partners or simply finding whatever way feels right to them,” Rodrigo said. “There is no doubt in my mind that protecting women and girls, and ensuring they have ownership over their own bodies, has to be a priority for all of us.”
Lawmaker outlines plans for Trump inquiry if Democrats win Congress
Where, Robert Garcia must consider, does one begin?
Garcia is a two-term Democratic congressman from Long Beach. He’s the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, which makes him the top Democrat on the panel charged with patrolling and policing operations of the federal government — a role congressional Republicans have conspicuously abdicated. If, as seems likely, his party wins control of the House in November, Garcia is poised to take over as chairman.
After two years of reckless abandon, the most obvious target for some badly needed congressional oversight is the crooked occupant of the White House. Like a shoreline strewn with seashells or a meadow bursting with mushrooms, President Trump’s brazen corruption and naked self-dealing offer a field that is ripe for the plucking.
So, given the gavel, where to start?
“First we have to ensure that people understand that this president and the administration, what they’re doing, is unprecedented and the most corrupt administration we’ve ever seen,” Garcia said.
To wit: In just his first year back in the Oval Office, Trump reported earning at least $2.2 billion, which is 5,500 times the president’s $400,000 annual salary. (No wonder he gives away his paycheck.) But it’s not just Trump who’s raking it in hand over fist.
“You have Jared Kushner getting billions from the Saudis and other foreign governments,” Garcia said. “You have [Trump’s sons] doing real estate deals across the country, being on boards that are getting contracts from the federal government. You have the selling of pardons. I mean, the list goes on…. It is just like an endless amount of corruption.”
Before he digs in, however, Garcia has to win reelection in November.
A vote, then a reckoning?
His reconfigured congressional district, which straddles Los Angeles and Orange counties, is somewhat less friendly than it used to be. As part of a redrawing under Proposition 50, the 2025 measure California voters passed to boost Democratic membership in the House, the lines were extended south, to take in the Trump-friendly territory of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. (The remap gave away a chunk of Garcia’s Democratic voters to bolster other districts.)
Still, the odds are strongly in his favor — especially in a midterm election serving as a referendum on the deeply unpopular incumbent.
Though his district leans left even after modification, Garcia said his pursuit of Trump isn’t some ideological bender. The president’s malfeasance is something constituents raise often, he said. “It’s corruption and it is affordability,” Garcia said this week from his district office in Long Beach. “Those are the two issues I hear constantly about. It’s just nonstop.”
Apart from Trump and his family, Garcia has a long list of administration officials he’d like to hold to account, and an even longer list of questions he’d like answered.
Why, for instance, are “JD Vance and Susie Wiles and Kash Patel having secret meetings in the Situation Room about the Epstein files?” Garcia asked, name-checking, respectively, the vice president, White House chief of staff and FBI director. “Why is [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen Miller out there essentially creating this huge … loss-of-due-process crisis in this country as it relates to what he’s doing with” Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security?
Also, Garcia said, he wonders what businesses have gotten in return for their generous giving to this most avaricious of administrations.
“If you are cutting secret deals with the Trumps, if you are helping to set up these these crypto schemes, if you are paying for this ballroom that no one knows about and you are gaining some sort of favor from the presidency,” he said, “we need to understand exactly what’s going on.”
Of course, any attempt to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing is sure to run into stonewalling from an obstructionist White House. The “Justice” Department, which has been thoroughly tainted and co-opted by Trump, won’t be any help either.
For that reason, Garcia said, “not only does there have to be efforts made by the Congress and the House … we also have to partner with our state partners and attorneys general and governors and outside organizations…. I think the state court process is going to also be really important for us.”
Impeachment in abeyance
Impeachment, which has a visceral appeal to certain of those deeply aggrieved by this lawless president, is not a first resort, Garcia said. Nor, he suggested, is it necessarily the second or third resort.
“Trump commits an impeachable offense every week,” Garcia said, exaggerating somewhat. But, as he noted, Trump was impeached twice in his first term and still won reelection in 2024. (Throw in a conviction on 34 felony counts and you can see the futility of trying to shame Trump into submission.)
“I don’t think you ever take anything off the table, and that includes impeachment,” Garcia said. “But that’s not our focus on Day One…. It’s time for [Democrats] to work on actually passing a forward-looking agenda and making sure that we are taking on this family and these dealings that are clearly the most threatening we’ve ever seen. To me, that has to be the immediate priority in front of us.”
Garcia and fellow Democrats are mindful of what’s driving unhappy voters who face a vexing mix of inflation and weak economic growth. Affordability is, for good reason, the central issue this election season.
But accountability matters, too. Indeed, in Trump’s debauched Washington, it’s long overdue.
That’s something else voters should consider in November.
What else you should be reading
The must-read: Supreme Court for now allows Trump to plan new mail ballot rules. California to sue again
The deep dive: Will Trump interfere in the midterms? Democrats and their allies are preparing
The L.A. Times Special: Two good ideas from Republicans dead on arrival in Democratic Legislature
Until next time,
mzb
—
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Premier Inn confirms new 187-bedroom hotel in famed English seaside resort – and it’s in an old nightclub
PREMIER Inn has confirmed it is opening a new 187-bedroom hotel in a popular seaside resort.
The UK’s largest hotel chain has transformed the site of a former nightclub complex in the city centre.
Located near to Brighton seafront, building work has now been completed with a “topping out” ceremony taking place this week.
The budget hotel is set to open its doors to customers in early 2028.
The new hotel, which will trade as Premier Inn Brighton City Centre (Seafront), will feature the chain’s latest bedroom designs.
In addition to enhanced Premier Plus rooms, guests can enjoy a ground-floor restaurant.
The six-storey development will also include a reception area and landscaped roof areas.
Once opened, the new hotel will be the second Premier Inn in Brighton.
Simon Lancaster, Whitbread’s head of construction for London and the South, told The Argus: “It is always a proud moment topping out a new Premier Inn hotel, and it is especially significant at a location as prominent as West Street in Brighton.
“Completing the frame brings us another step closer to delivering a flagship new Premier Inn for the city, and I would like to thank everyone involved for their dedication, expertise and hard work in reaching this stage.”
The development forms part of Whitbread’s strategy to expand Premier Inn hotels in high-demand city-centre locations.
Premier Inn currently operates nearly 850 hotels in the UK.
NFL ends the Pro Bowl game, will honor players in L.A. instead
The Pro Bowl is no more, the NFL announced Wednesday, ending an exhibition of the league’s top players that was held in some form almost every year since 1951.
The game wasn’t played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was the only pause in the postseason event.
The league said 88 players will still be named as Pro Bowl players and honored in Los Angeles after this season. Several flag football events also will take place at that time.
“The Pro Bowl has always been about recognizing the players who distinguish themselves as the very best in the NFL,” league executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said in a statement. “A Pro Bowl selection will return to its original purpose, honoring the best of the best. We want that distinction to carry even greater meaning for the players, their families, their clubs and our fans.”
The Pro Bowl has waned in popularity in recent years. Once a staple in Honolulu, the NFL has moved the event to various cities and even switched from tackle to flag football in 2023.
At least 2 killed, 10 injured after car driven into people in Normandy
Authorities in northern France are investigating an incident in Caen late Wednesday in which at least two people were killed and 10 were injured after a car was driven into a crowd near a train station. File photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
Aug. 27 (UPI) — At least two people were killed and 10 were injured, after a car was driven into a crowd near a train station in Normandy in northern France.
Seven of the injured were in a critical condition in the hospital after the vehicle allegedlly srruck the group of people in the city of Caen late Wednesday evening on purpose, following an altercation, local authoritiies said.
Calvados department prefect David Clavière said the car “deliberately drove into pedestrians in the street opposite the train station.”
A fight had broken out between two groups of men immediately prior to the incident, according to witnesses.
A major emergency response was mounted across the wider Normandy region, leading to the arrest of a 26-year-old Russian-born male suspect in Ouistreham, a port on the Normandy coast.
The deputy prosecutor and police said terrorism had, for now, been ruled out.
“For the moment, we are not dealing with a terrorist motive, but the investigation is only just beginning,” said the city’s deputy mayor with responsibility for security, Bruno Coutanceau.
The incident came a month after a car attack on a Pride parade in Berlin that killed at least one person and injured many more and nine months after 10 people were injured, two critically, when a man purposely drove into pedestrians and cyclists on the French holiday island of Oléron.
Plug-in solar panels are coming to a shop near you – what to know
The government hopes the plug-in panels will offer people a more affordable way into solar energy compared to roof installation, although savings will be lower because they generate less power.
A one-panel kit will cost £699 while two-panels will be £1,089, according to UK solar company UKSOL.
The current regulations only allow people to plug in one device per property, but this may be changed in future. A single device may include more than one panel.
The government expects prices to settle at £400-£600 as competition increases and more products are developed.
Its research shows a household could save between £70 and £110 a year on their energy bills.
The precise amount will depend on how the panels are orientated and how long they run. An unshaded south-facing spot is best.
Households which use energy during daylight hours will benefit most as the electricity must be used as it is generated.
Any power not consumed will flow back to the grid, but it’s unlikely homes will get any cash for this.
Unlike rooftop solar panels, these systems do not need to be certified under the official Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), which is the UK’s official quality mark for small-scale renewable energy systems.
But it also means they will not normally qualify for the Smart Export Guarantee that pays people for excess solar power.
‘Voluptuous sex symbol.’ Judge cites Dolly Parton, overturns Texas ‘drag ban’
Dolly Parton may be gone, but her spirit of self-expression is still making waves — this time in a Texas federal court.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner on Tuesday cited the late artist in his decision to strike down Senate Bill 12, a 2023 law that sought to restrict drag shows. His decision, which blocks the Texas attorney general from enforcing the law, noted that the prohibition was “an unconstitutional restriction on speech.”
Just as many people “chastised Dolly Parton as a voluptuous sex symbol because of her big hair, flamboyant clothes and breast exposure … there are erotic elements in countless popular performances that could be subject to both civil and criminal penalties under S.B. 12,” Hittner wrote in his decision.
And because the law doesn’t specify who determines whether a performance “appeals to the prurient interest” or that the work be considered as a whole, a single sexual or erotic moment in a performance could result in penalties, he wrote. Those penalties include civil fines of up to $10,000 for businesses and a misdemeanor charge that carries up to a year in jail for participating individuals.
Hittner’s decision came down on the same day Parton, the 80-year-old legendary songwriter, actor and businesswoman, died following a brief battle with cancer.
Parton was referenced several times in court records associated with the case. One of the plaintiffs, Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen and longtime activist, frequently performs as the Grammy-winning artist.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Bandit wrote that Parton had been a “huge influence” on her life and her drag performances. She even brought a children’s book about Parton to testify at the Texas Capitol, which eventually got back to the country music star, who then gifted Bandit a signed rhinestone-covered guitar.
“Dolly has shaped much of my life as a drag artist,” Bandit wrote on Instagram, calling her a “queen who has changed the world with her love, artistry, and GLAM! my diva forever.”
After the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Parton called herself a “patron saint” of the gay community in an interview with Billboard.
“All those drag queens, sometimes I see some of them look more like me than I do,” said the star, who famously lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest.
Tuesday’s ruling wasn’t the first time the law, widely touted as a “drag ban,” has been deemed unconstitutional by the courts.
Hittner initially struck down the law in September 2023, just a few months after the Texas Legislature passed it. In November 2025, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s injunction and returned the case to district court with instructions on how to reconsider it.
In the end, the high court’s directions did not change Hittner’s determination that the law violates the 1st and 14th amendments.
Hittner wrapped up his decision with a suggestion for those who oppose or are offended by the performances: “[T]he solution is relatively simple … just don’t go.”
New passport rules introduced for Brits travelling by ferry
RULES are set to change for any Brits heading to Ireland via ferry from next month.
Passengers will be required to carry a valid passport with no exceptions – or risk being stopped before boarding for the first time in over 100 years.
The change will be enforced from September 28 and is UK Border Force tightening rules on “accuracy and integrity of passenger data before boarding”.
Currently, passengers are not required to show a passport but can be asked to have another form of photo ID with a photograph like a driving licence or a bus pass.
Ferry operators Stena Line and Irish Ferries which operate regular crossing told customers yesterday of the changes.
Irish Ferries explained: “This is a change to the current ID accepted and means that from 28 September, no other forms of photo ID will be accepted by Irish Ferries for any passengers, including Irish and UK citizens.
“This is to ensure compliance with UK Border Force requirements relating to the accuracy and integrity of passenger data before boarding.”
Irish Ferries operates two routes between Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
These go between Holyhead and Dublin, and Pembroke and Rosslare.
Another ferry enforcing these rules is Stena Line which has crossings between Holyhead and Dublin as well as Fishguard and Rosslare.
Passengers on these crossings must produce a passport on departure and it added that “no other ID is accepted”.
Customers with pre-existing bookings with both ferries will be contacted by customer service prior to their journey.
Previously, passengers didn’t have to carry their passports with them because of what’s known as The Common Travel Area (CTA).
The CTA is a passport-free zone involving the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands dating back to 1923.
British and Irish citizens don’t legally need a passport to travel between the two destinations.
But carrying passports has since became a requirement by airlines like Ryanair and Aer Lingus for passengers flying between the two destinations.
I found the best value London river cruise
DROPPING £40 on dinner usually gets you standard pub grub these days – but I’ve found a deal for a posh two-course meal on the Thames for even less.
This City Cruises Thames lunch cruise is currently on sale, with tickets costing £38 instead of the usual £53.
Click below to book a City Cruises lunchtime cruise from £38
City Cruises offers loads of experiences on the Thames, from Afternoon Tea and fancy dinner cruises to jazz, murder mystery and Elvis tribute nights. Click here to browse all the options.
I put their most popular cruise – the Lunch Cruise – to the test to see what you actually get for your money. Spoiler alert: I was pretty blown away.
The tour begins at Tower Milennium Pier, which is right beside the Tower of London.
After scanning my ticket, I stepped onboard to find a fancy dining area with huge floor-to-ceiling windows for soaking up the views.
Tables are laid with crisp white tablecloths, and once you are seated, friendly waiters are soon swooping in to serve you glasses of wine, cocktails or soft drinks.
After relaxing into my seat, we soon set off to gently drift along the Thames.
I sipped my wine and enjoyed the views, and, within 15 minutes, a delicious main course was placed in front of me.
For the main event, diners choose between a hearty white bean and oyster mushroom cassoulet or a roasted chicken supreme. Do note that drinks, other than tea and coffee with pudding, are an add-on.
I opted for the chicken and was genuinely stunned. It was drenched in a rich, creamy mushroom sauce and paired with an indulgent, cheesy fondant potato.
It’s a dish that could easily hold its own in a top-tier London restaurant – which makes it all the more impressive aboard a moving boat.
Click below to bag a lunch cruise for £38 – or browse offers
Then dessert arrived: a baked cheesecake bursting with a molten white chocolate centre, topped with sweet raspberry coulis.
I washed it down with a warming cup of tea, and decided to head up to the upper deck to soak up the views.
We had cruised from Tower Milennium Pier all the way along to Canary Wharf, taking in the contrast between London’s old maritime docks and the ultra-modern skyscrapers of London’s financial district.
After pausing to soak up the glittering lights of the financial hub and the towering skyscrapers reflecting off the water, we turned around to make our way towards the main event: Big Ben.
There were plenty of impressive sights along the way, and the tour guide, who stood out on the open-air deck to share his expertise, revealed plenty of fascinating facts.
We glided under nine magnificent bridges and learned all about their history.
One of my favourite facts I learned was that the famous Tower Bridge was originally painted a drab chocolate brown before being given its vibrant red, white, and blue colours for the Queen‘s Silver Jubilee in 1977.
The expert guide also explained how the modern Millennium Bridge famously had to close just two days after opening because it wobbled so violently under the footsteps of pedestrians.
After cruising past the legendary Globe Theatre (and spotting the pub that Shakespeare used to frequent: The Anchor) we drifted right past the London Eye.
It was amazing to see the landmark up-close and take in its size, watching teeny tiny people in their pods raised high above the impressive London skyline.
Soon we reached Big Ben, where we paused on the water to take in the views and take photos.
The view from the water was breath-taking – plus it was far more peaceful taking in the landmark from the boat than the noisy, bustling streets surrounding it.
I snapped some shots before we headed back down to Tower Milennium Pier, feeling far more knowledgeable – and full – than I had before stepping aboard that day.
Overall, I think the lunch cruise is a fantastic way to tick off London’s major sights in one go.
And when you consider the fancy meal that’s also included, I think this cruise is the ideal experience for a date, birthday or special occasion.
Click below to browse offers at City Cruises
Prices correct at the time of publication.
Grieg Seafood Non-GAAP EPS of -NOK 1.30, revenue of NOK 1.83B; updates full-year outlook
Grieg Seafood Non-GAAP EPS of -NOK 1.30, revenue of NOK 1.83B; updates full-year outlook
Source link