The power of power, you know?

The power of friendship, the power of persuasion. Power of positive thinking, power at the plate.

Megan Grant’s power.

If there’s one thing in American sports that’s going to get people to sit up, lean forward and engage, it’s the home run. We all dig the long ball.

If anything can get someone to run home and turn on a softball game, it’s a big-time slugger from a big-time school mashing homers like nobody before.

Heard about Grant? She’s the UCLA softball player who’s hit an NCAA-record 40 home runs (so far) this season.

UCLA senior Megan Grant leans over and holds her helmet between pitches during a super regional game against UCF on Friday at Easton Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Forty! In 147 at-bats! That’s a home run every 3.68 at-bats!

If you’re wondering, Mark McGwire hit a home run every 7.3 at-bats in 1998, the year he finished with 70. And Barry Bonds went deep every 6.52 at-bats in 2001, when he hit his MLB-record 73 home runs.

Whenever she gets asked about her historic home runs, the red-hot, red-haired hitter is like, shucks: “I mean, it’s incredible,” she said. “I’m just honestly blessed to be able to say the number 40. But, yeah, that’s all I can say.”

She just wants to be thought of as a hard worker and a good teammate. But what Grant is going to be remembered for most is as the founding member of softball’s 40-home run club.

Her 40th home run came in her 58th game this season and on her seventh career grand slam — Grant Slam? — in the Bruins’ NCAA regional final victory over South Carolina last weekend.

Forty, a round number of round-trippers with a ring to it. And a sweet echo coming so soon after the Bruins women’s basketball team won its first NCAA championship, history to which Grant also contributed as a reserve before softball beckoned.

Side quest completed, the left-handed-hitting senior stepped back into the box to help the Bruins chase a 13th championship on the softball field.

Grant is soaking up the experience, and encouraging her younger teammates to, too: “‘Enjoy this, it’s so rare to be here’ … and, ‘Hey, we can do this, we can do it together.’”

A .469 hitter, she leads the nation in slugging percentage (1.333), on-base percentage (.650) and OPS (1.983). She bats second in UCLA’s NCAA record-breaking lineup that shattered Oklahoma’s 25-year-old previous record of 160 home runs. UCLA hit seven home runs during two super regional wins against Central Florida this weekend to push that record to 200.

With a 9-1 win Friday and a 14-4 victory Saturday, the Bruins advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the 34th time and for the third time in Grant’s astounding tenure.

UCLA senior Megan Grant (43) high-fives teammates during a win over UCF Friday at Easton Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Tip your helmet and toss Grant her bouquets — flower power — because there she is popping up on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and on the MLB Network. One of three finalists for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, she’s got guys discussing her exploits on a dad pod otherwise dedicated to NBA takes. Fans dressed up as chefs as a tribute to her nickname, “Chef Megan.”

Star power, power broker. Grant is a lift-all-boats attraction for a sport that’s been steadily carving out space in the public consciousness.

All over the country, college softball teams have been breaking attendance records. And ratings are up, up, up; ESPN said this has been its most-watched college softball regular season since 2009, with games averaging 292,000 viewers. The MLB-backed Athletes Unlimited Softball League is entering Season 2; Grant was drafted No. 4 overall by the Portland Cascade.

“People will pay to see her play,” said Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball legend and associate head coach.

Fernandez also is the general manager of the AUSL’s Utah Talons, for whom UCLA’s other senior slugger Jordan Woolery will play this summer.

The Bruins imported the latest in a lineage of Bay Area dynamic duos. The Oakland Athletics had the Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire; the Golden State Warriors gave us the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. And now UCLA has Walnut Creek’s Woolery and Grant, of San Bruno — the Bruin Bombers.

They’re the first teammates in NCAA history to each hit 30-plus homers in the same season, with 74 between them.

And, yes, chefs! Like Curry before her, Grant is cookin’ the competition, breaking the 31-year-old NCAA single-season home run record with No. 38 on May 9 against Nebraska.

Included among the record wreckage she’s leaving in her wake: Stacey Nuveman’s UCLA single-season record of 31 homers. For her career, Grant needs only one more to tie Nuveman’s Bruins record of 90.

But Grant’s got to get a pitch to hit first. After UCF walked her six times in two games, she has 74 walks this season and 69 base hits. She also has 13 hit by pitches.

“It’s very similar to Barry Bonds, right?” Fernandez said. “It’s either a walk or a home run. Like, you pick.”

The tale of the tape measure behind Grant’s greatness is the down-to-the inch precision of her preparation. The Mamba-esque magic is in the embracing behind-the-scenes monotony, powering through it.

“She was the hardest worker, always working. Never enough,” said Ray McDonald, Grant’s coach at the San Mateo-based Warrior Softball Academy since she was that kid with an electric, bat-busting swing. “It was eating and sleeping, hitting, and you know, shower. The essentials.”

“When we recruited her, Ray, he was like, ‘Coach, you better be ready to work,’” said Fernandez. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, I know how to work.’ And [then] I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, now I understand how people must have felt when I played.’

“There is an aspect of this game that people don’t realize unless you are in it. To be great, there’s a — for lack of a better word — monotony to the process. Can you master the same move over and over again? And she’s committed to it. To her drills, to the process, to her routine, all of it. There’s a lot of people who are committed to it when they’re not doing well: ‘Oh, got to get back to my drills.’ She has been committed to that process from the day she stepped on campus.”

The process includes working on her mind. That deep, deep breath before every deep, deep home run is a way to stay centered. To stay in the moment — and it is a moment.

For softball. For UCLA. For Grant, who, with all this power and responsibility, is hitting it out of the park.

May 24 (UPI) — The gunman who opened fire at the White House this weekend before being fatally shot by Secret Service officers has been identified as Nasire Best, unnamed sources confirmed to multiple media outlets.

The 21-year-old had previous encounters with the Secret Service and had previously posted threatening statements online, the sources told CBS News, NBC News and CNN. The sources said Best had never acted violently or brandished a weapon prior to Saturday evening, when police said he approached a checkpoint at the White House, pulled a firearm from his bag and opened fire.

Officers returned fire, striking Best, who was transported to a hospital where he was declared dead, Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in the statement.

A bystander was also injured in the shooting and was in critical condition.

“It remains unclear whether the bystander was struck by the suspect’s initial gunfire or during the subsequent exchange of gunfire,” a Secret Service representative told CNN.

President Donald Trump, who was inside the residence at at the White House at the time of the shooting, was unharmed. In a post on Truth Social just after midnight Sunday, Trump thanked the Secret Service for their actions during the shooting.

“Thank you to our great Secret Service and Law Enforcement for the swift and professional action taken this evening against a gunman near the White House, who had a violent history and possible obsession with our Country’s most cherished structure,” Trump wrote.

Sources told CNN that Best had been detained in June 2025 and committed to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington for evaluation after he blocked an entry lane at the White House and proclaimed he was God. A month later, the Secret Service arrested him after he allegedly tried to enter a White House driveway. A judge told him to keep away from the White House.

Investigators at the time said they found that he had made statements online saying he wanted to hurt Trump and that he was the real Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 1, 2001, terror attacks.

Trump also took the opportunity in his Truth Social post to renew his stance that the new ballroom he’s constructing would serve as added security at the White House.

“This event is one month removed from the White House Correspondent’Dinner shooting, and goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C. The National Security of our Country demands it!”

Convictions handed down amid an intensified crackdown by Bahraini authorities on individuals accused of having ties to Tehran.

Bahrain has sentenced nine people to life in prison for carrying out what authorities describe as “hostile and terrorist acts” in cooperation with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Two other defendants were also jailed for three years each after being convicted of collaborating with the IRGC in what prosecutors described as “terrorist and espionage” activities, state media reported on Sunday.

The convictions were handed down during an intensified crackdown by Bahraini authorities on individuals accused of ties to Tehran. The crackdown followed a wave of Iranian strikes on Bahrain after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February. Iran began striking all of its Gulf neighbours in response, saying it was targeting American interests, including military bases.

Prosecutors said some of the defendants photographed vital and strategic sites in Bahrain on behalf of the IRGC. Others were accused of facilitating the transfer of funds from Iran to Bahrain, including through cryptocurrency transactions, to finance the operations. Authorities also alleged that individuals inside the country were recruited to support some of the plans.

Bahrain began arresting individuals allegedly linked to Iran in March, shortly after the conflict began.

Earlier this month, authorities detained a further 41 people.

Less than two weeks later, more than 60 people were stripped of their citizenship for allegedly supporting Iranian attacks on Bahrain and “colluding with foreign entities”.

The London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy described the move as “dangerous” and said it constituted a clear violation of international law.

Other Gulf states have also arrested individuals accused of cooperating with Iran. Last month, the United Arab Emirates said it had dismantled a group allegedly planning to carry out what officials described as “terrorist acts”.

Bahrain is home to a large Shia population. Many of its members have long accused the authorities of political and economic marginalisation. The government denies discriminating against Shia citizens, accusing Iran of fuelling unrest in the country.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

There are, it goes without saying, a lot of movies out there. And so even for someone like myself, whose job is just to stay on top of them, sometime a title slips by. I had not taken much notice of “Is God Is” before it opened last week without playing any festivals in advance, but the reviews and conversation around it grabbed my interest. Once I realized that Tessa Thompson and Janicza Bravo were involved as producers, I made sure to carve out time to see the movie this week. And am I ever glad I did.

The debut as writer-director for Aleshea Harris (adapting her own play), “Is God Is” is among the most exciting movies released so far this year. Kara Young and Mallori Johnson are absolutely electric as twin sisters who set out to find the estranged, abusive father who abandoned them after leaving them and their mother horribly scarred in a fire. There is a volatile unpredictability to the storytelling that gives it a fresh energy. I saw it at a more-or-less empty matinee, but I’m glad I did. Catch this in theaters while you can.

35 years of ‘T2’

Linda Hamilton in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

(Rialto Pictures)

As far as I’m concerned, James Cameron’s 1991 “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” is the quintessential summer movie. You can pay close attention or not, the special effects and action are amazing, the villains are sentient machines (shades of our AI-addled present) and it has a song by freaking Guns N’ Roses.

The main cast of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong and Joe Morton are all perfectly tuned into the movie they are making, full of chaos, mayhem and just the right amount of thoughtfulness. (Morton and Hamilton in particular give the film an unexpected soulfulness.)

To celebrate the film’s 35th anniversary, the American Cinematheque is screening the film in 70mm, 35mm, 3D and DCP at different venues on different days. (Check carefully, as there have already been some schedule changes.) The Academy Museum will show the film on Wednesday in 4K with visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren and special effects creator Shane Mahan present. The film is also playing the Vista in 70mm June 6 and 7.

In his original 1991 review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Most of all, what makes ‘Terminator 2’ come alive in a major way is Cameron’s intuitive understanding of the mechanics and psychology of action films. Unlike many of the wanna-bes who find themselves in charge of pictures these days, this is one director who really knows how to direct. … Cameron flamboyantly underlines, for those who may have forgotten, why the pure adrenaline rush of motion is something motion pictures can’t live for very long without.”

Lena Dunham before ‘Girls’

David Call and Lena Dunham in the movie “Tiny Furniture.”

(Joe Anderson / IFC Films)

Lena Dunham recently published her second memoir, “Famesick,” a portrait of her rise to cultural prominence and media ubiquity and subsequent retreat from it, which makes this a perfect moment to revisit a key component of her initial ascent, the micro-budget 2010 feature “Tiny Furniture.” Made when Dunham was in her early 20s, the film is a deadly accurate portrait of post-collegiate ennui, shot partly in her parents’ NYC apartment, and remains fresh and startlingly insightful.

The Eastwood Performing Arts Center will be screening the film Friday and Saturday. The film is showing along with the “Welcome to Bushwick a.k.a The Crackcident” episode of Dunham’s series “Girls.”

I profiled Dunham at the time, having first encountered her at SXSW the year before when she was there with her film “Creative Nonfiction.”

“That movie is so personal,” Dunham said of “Tiny Furniture” during an interview from the New York production office of the pilot for what would become “Girls.” “It’s like I wrote it, I directed it, I star in it — if you don’t like the movie you don’t like me.”

With the lacerating self-awareness that made her a star, she added, “And I also understand there is something essentially unappealing about ‘girl makes movies about being a loser and then gets un-loserly things to happen to her.’ It’s a little absurd.”

More onscreen Bob Dylan

Rupert Everett, Fiona Flanagan and Bob Dylan in a production still for 1987’s “Hearts of Fire.”

(Skinner / Mirrorpix / Getty Images)

It was just a few weeks ago that we wrote about a program of Bob Dylan live concert footage. In honor of his 85th birthday, the American Cinematheque will be putting on another program of two oddball rarities from his long career.

Rarely screened in theaters, the 2021 film “Shadow Kingdom,” directed by Alma Har’el, was originally released to a pay-per-view streaming site. Though it purports to be a performance at the Bon Bon Club in Marseille, France, the film was actually shot on a soundstage in Santa Monica. The musicians on screen are not playing live and are not even the same musicians who played on the prerecorded tracks.

The whole thing is very confusing in a very Bob Dylan way, but also kind of incredible. With its Dust Bowl “Twin Peaks,” last-nightclub-on-Earth vibes and spare, haunting arrangements of many Dylan classics that he rarely plays at his own concerts anymore, it is a truly one-of-a-kind document.

The same could be said of the 1987 film “Hearts of Fire,” directed by Richard Marquand (who also helmed “Return of the Jedi!”) and screening in 35mm. In a rare acting turn, Dylan plays a reclusive musician who takes a young singer (Fiona) under his wing, only to have her fall for a pop star played by Rupert Everett. Let’s charitably call Dylan’s performance singular as he delivers every line as if he isn’t sure why he is in the movie. It’s still fascinating.

Kurosawa’s late masterpiece

Mieko Harada in Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 epic “Ran.”

(Rialto Pictures)

One of the highlights of the Academy Museum’s ongoing series on Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa will be this weekend’s 35mm showing of 1985’s “Ran,” a retelling of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” shifted to 16th century Japan. Playing in 35mm in the big David Geffen Theater, it’s a chance to see a truly epic-scaled film under ideal conditions.

Reviewing the movie on its initial release, Kevin Thomas wrote, “‘Ran’ is a heroic saga of human destiny, a war movie with some of the greatest battle scenes in the history of the cinema, a costume drama of the utmost magnificence — and a crackling good samurai movie chock full of swordplay and palace intrigue.”

David Fincher’s secret soft heart

Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried in the movie “Mank.”

(Netflix)

The last couple months have been a real feast for Fincher-heads out there, with high-profile screenings of “Seven,” “Fight Club” and “Zodiac.” Now, David Fincher’s 2020 film “Mank” will be playing this weekend at the Vista. Because it came out during the pandemic (and was launched by Netflix), the film has only ever played a limited number of theaters, let alone in 35mm, which should do wonders for its black-and-white photography.

From a screenplay by Fincher’s father Jack, the film stars Gary Oldman as writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, working on the script for “Citizen Kane” with Orson Welles. Amanda Seyfried gives a vibrant performance as actor Marion Davies, who attempts to save Mankiewicz from his own worst instincts when it comes to her own paramour, mogul William Randolph Hearst.

In his review Justin Chang called the movie “very much a story about class divides and clashing egos, outsiders and insiders, striving and ambition, creation and authorship, and the thrill and loneliness of being the smartest guy in the room. … The off-kilter rhythms feel both immersive and agitated, as if Fincher were trying to both hypnotize you and jolt you awake with his lustrous Old Hollywood homage.”

New this week

Director Boots Riley, photographed in Los Angeles in May.

(Ian Spanier / For The Times)

• Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf finished out their time at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (The awards will be announced over the weekend.) Amy took a look at what many have felt to be a weak program this year, while Josh spoke to Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin, whose sci-fi action film “Hope” has a cast that includes Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as space aliens.
• I spoke to Boots Riley, a musician and political activist turned filmmaker whose new movie is “I Love Boosters.” Riley maintains a deep sense of political commitment in his work, one which he does not feel he has to betray by also making things that are entertaining and enjoyable.
• The first new “Star Wars” movie in theaters since 2019, Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is now playing. As Robert Abele put it in his review, “The brand is back together for ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ which is a movie, a hoped-for franchise revival, a fourth season of sorts and an affable throwback. But it’s never quite riveting enough as canon or fodder to supplant anyone’s memories of [insert favorite “Star Wars” film here].”

DID you know that an Italian island has its own ‘Little Barcelona?’

With honey-coloured architecture and beautiful beaches, the coastal city is known to be a slice of Spain.

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

On the island of Sardinia is a coastal city called Alghero.

While it’s over 300 miles away from Spain, Alghero‘s link to Spain is from it’s Catalan history.

In 1353, Alghero was conquered by the Crown of Aragon and repopulated by Catalan settlers.

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Around 20 per cent of locals even speak Algherese, which is a dialect of the Catalan language and officially recognised by the Italian and regional governments.

Visitors will see that street signs throughout the old town are written in both Italian and Catalan too.

When it comes to looks, the two cities don’t strike up too much of a resemblance, but both have cobbled streets and golden-coloured buildings.

In Alghero you’re likely to see more of this in its Old Town.

This is where you’ll find its cafes and restaurants where you can pick up a glass of wine from €4 (£3.48) (or you can buy a bottle at the supermarket from €5 (£4.35)).

When it comes to what to do, most head towards the coastline and visit the city’s beautiful beaches.

One of the most popular is Spiaggia di Maria Pia which has white sand, and is backed by pine trees beach bars along the shoreline.

One visitor said: “The sea is completely Vicks blue – it’s absolutely amazing that there is such a lovely beach within walking distance of the cozy Alghero town.”

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Other pretty spots along the coastline include Spiaggia Mugoni and Delle Bombarde.

Something you can’t miss it Neptune’s Grotto (Grotta di Nettuni) which is a sea cave found at Capo Caccia with enormous stalactites and stalagmites.

The easiest way to reach it is by boat, otherwise take the 654-step staircase which has been carved into the fact of the cliff.

In June, Brits can fly directly to Alghero Airport from London Stansted with Ryanair from £18.

Foreign Office is warning UK holidaymakers

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) continues to caution travellers heading to Greece about the risk of “serious injury or death”.

The FCDO is tasked with issuing regular travel guidance for roughly 226 countries and territories worldwide. Updates from the FCDO cover information on safety and security, regional threats, health concerns, and more. The guidance highlights a popular holiday pursuit that has resulted in fatalities and severe injuries, with the Foreign Office warning: “Quad biking carries the risk of serious injury or death.

“You need specific travel insurance to cover quad biking, it is defined as an extreme sport and excluded on many policies. Always read the details of your insurance cover.”

Greece remains a favoured destination among British holidaymakers, with millions visiting annually. FCDO guidance adds: “Make sure you get full instructions and training before your activity.

“Insurance sold by the hire company usually only provides third-party insurance. It’s likely the company will charge you for any damage to the rental vehicle, and you may face arrest if you do not pay.”

Both drivers and passengers are required to wear helmets when using quad bikes and mopeds. Failure to comply could invalidate your insurance, and if police stop you, you risk being fined – with officers potentially confiscating your licence.

Earlier this week, a 42-year-old dad from the UK was killed while riding a quad bike in Greece. The man had been travelling with his 15-year-old son in Corfu when the vehicle veered off the road for reasons that remain unclear, according to local reports.

The collision reportedly occurred at around 2pm local time on Tuesday on the central rural road of Roda-Acharavi near Almyros. The teenager sustained serious injuries in the crash.

WASHINGTON — In the 2024 election, hundreds of social media influencers were credentialed for the first time to attend the Democratic and Republican conventions. They have been invited to holiday parties in the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, to political rallies in Texas and to events at the White House by both the Biden and Trump administrations.

The role of influencers is surging as candidates and groups across the political spectrum see their social media feeds and personas as a pathway to younger audiences and harder-to-reach groups of voters.

“You have that sense of authenticity, like a friend is talking to you,” said Emma Briant, a professor at Notre Dame University’s Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society who studies propaganda.

That’s exactly what campaigns are hoping to harness when they partner with influencers, she said.

But the nature of that partnership has come into question in California’s hotly contested gubernatorial race after it emerged that a number of content creators — some with millions of followers, others with only a handful — had taken payments from the campaign of Democratic candidate Tom Steyer and not disclosed that they were paid to create those posts.

Some popular content creators have felt the need to explain themselves to their audience. Others have questioned how common such under-the-table payments might be, since there are no disclosure requirements for paid content at the federal level and few jurisdictions have any rules mandating it.

Some campaign finance advocates are concerned that voters could increasingly be influenced by social media posts that they don’t know are sponsored.

“The problem is that it doesn’t look like an ad,” said Saurav Ghosh, a former enforcement attorney at the Federal Election Commission. “It ends up really getting people at a place where they’re not skeptical and not able to tell the difference between what’s voluntary and where the influencer is acting as a paid spokesperson.”

Ghosh is now the director of campaign finance reform at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, which has filed a petition asking the FEC to require disclaimers on paid content created by influencers.

Roughly 1 in 5 Americans said they regularly got news from social media influencers in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center, and that number was nearly double for younger adults between the ages of 18 and 29.

Working with social media creators can be an easy way for candidates to try to boost their image, particularly with a younger audience.

“If they don’t have big personalities, maybe partnering with some influencers who seem cool and fun can make you seem cool and fun also through association,” said Link Lauren, a political influencer and podcaster who served as a communications advisor for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign in 2024.

California is one of the few places that requires disclosure of sponsored social media posts, but the 2023 law that created those rules hadn’t gotten much of a workout before the issue was raised in this contest through a series of dueling complaints with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. The commission has yet to weigh in on the various accusations.

Under the law, influencers are required to provide disclosure that a post was sponsored and say who paid for it. Political groups are required to notify paid creators of the requirement.

Even if the commission finds that violations have occurred, the penalties are not especially harsh.

Violation of the law carries no civil, criminal or administrative penalties. The FPPC can take alleged violators to court and ask a judge to force compliance. And violations can be penalized with a fine of up to $5,000 per instance.

Influencers reporting influencers

In the gubernatorial race, the issue of compliance was raised, naturally, by a pair of influencers.

Beatrice Gomberg has built up a following of more than 180,000 followers on TikTok, where she posts under the handle antiplasticlady. Her side gig of creating nonplastic children’s cups and lunch boxes became her main gig after she lost her human resources job at Macy’s during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I started doing social media because I didn’t want to hire a marketing company,” Gomberg said.

Gomberg’s posts were initially largely focused on research related to plastic, but have become increasingly political over time. When campaigns put out the call for influencers to meet with candidates, Gomberg answered.

She interviewed Katie Porter, she met with Xavier Becerra. And it was at a Becerra event in April when she met Kaitlyn Hennessy, another influencer focused on politics.

They found that the world of online influencers can be isolating. “We stare in front of our phones,” Hennessy said. “You don’t want to see our screen time.”

As they scrolled through social media posts about the governor’s race, they found a cause to unite them.

They kept seeing videos posted by social media accounts espousing similar messages in support of Tom Steyer. Hennessy wondered at first if they were actually created by artificial intelligence.

They found that the posts seemed to be created by a network of women who, in some cases, had created several different profiles to promote a variety of products.

They pored over Steyer’s campaign disclosures and saw that the campaign listed payments to several prominent influencers — including one with the handle Zay Dante, with 1.8 million followers on TikTok — who had not disclosed creating paid content for the campaign.

The pair filed a complaint laying out their allegations, which the Steyer campaign has called “baseless.”

In the wake of their complaint, Steyer defended his campaign’s use of paid influencers, writing on Substack that his campaign believed content creators should be paid for their work and that the campaign had been transparent about disclosing those payments.

In a separate post, influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina said he had been paid $400,000 for work he has done for the Steyer campaign. Espina, who has more than 14 million followers on TikTok, is an advisor to the campaign, which was publicly announced.

“You will never see anything on my channels that I don’t believe in, or that I think goes against the best interest of my community. No one buys my opinion. But I also think it’s fair to be compensated for my work,” he wrote on Substack.

Not everyone is ready to accept payment for posts.

Lauren, the influencer who advised Kennedy’s campaign, said that while he doesn’t begrudge other influencers accepting sponsorship, he chooses not to.

“A passive viewer might think you really believe this,” he said. “I have a strong connection with my audience. I really consider them my family.”

Lauren said he favors disclosure requirements.

Briant, the propaganda researcher, said she is concerned about the possibility of foreign actors trying to influence Americans through paid posts.

In 2024, for example, federal prosecutors filed an indictment alleging that Russian state media employees had paid nearly $10 million to a Tennessee company that paid popular right-wing social media influencers to unwittingly produce pro-Russia content.

Briant said she believes that the only way to counteract increased manipulation through social media influencers is to impose harsh penalties when paid content is not disclosed.

“Ultimately, it’s a wild west at the moment if there are no repercussions for not doing it,” she said.

Pack up the car and get ready for temperatures in the upper 80s this coming weekend in Clovis and Fresno, where CIF state championships will be held in track and field and boys’ volleyball.

Buchanan High School is the site Friday and Saturday for the track championships, where City Section record-holder Lawrence Kensinger will try to win a state title in the shotput after his astonishing mark of 65-11 at the City finals broke a record established in 1973. Running events begin at 5 p.m. Friday to qualify for Saturday’s finals.

Servite sprinters will try to put on a show in the 4×100 relay, the 100, 200 and 400 races. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame high jumper JJ Harel will try to defend his state title. At the Southern Section finals, he cleared a career-best 7-1.

Fresno City College is the site for the volleyball championships on Saturday.

Tickets are available only through gofan.co.

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

A Baloch separatist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a train carrying soldiers in Quetta, Pakistan. The suicide car bombing killed at least 24 people and injured dozens more, including women and children.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has invoked ancient Persia’s victory in the face of a failed invasion by the Roman Empire. The post suggests the US has been forced to make concessions in a deal to end its war on Iran on Tehran’s terms.

The hit period drama has been hailed by fans as ‘even better than Downton Abbey’ – and both were created by the same person.

A period drama branded “superior” to Downton Abbey has totally captivated audiences.

The star-studded series, which fans are describing as “pure binge-worthy escapism”, has already secured renewal for an additional season.

Historical drama enthusiasts will be thrilled to discover the acclaimed new programme was crafted by Julian Fellowes, the creative force behind international hit show Downton Abbey.

Taking place several decades prior to the ITV drama, this series unfolds in the USA, with an IMDb synopsis stating: “The conflicts surrounding the new money Russell family and their old money neighbors, the van Rhijn family, in 1880s New York City high society.”

The Gilded Age debuted its inaugural season in 22, with season 3 landing just last year in 2025, reports the Express.

Fans are already clamouring for additional episodes, as the most recent instalment delivered more “nail-biting drama” than previously seen.

The impressive ensemble also boasts numerous recognisable talents, including The White Lotus’ Carrie Coon, Poldark’s Harry Richardson, Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon and Mamma Mia! star Christine Baranski.

Numerous devotees have championed the period drama, with one posting to The Gilded Age Fan Page on Facebook: “The Gilded Age is even better than Downton Abbey.”

In the comments section, multiple viewers expressed their views, with one agreeing: “Listen up! I just wrapped up the first season of Downton Abbey to carry me over until tonight, and let me tell you, it’s a solid show. However, The Gilded Age is on a whole different level.”

“The Gilded Age is indeed superior!” a second declared, as another contributed: “I actually agree but only because I’m American and this history is more close to home personally. Very interesting!”

Nevertheless, others disagreed, with one person stating: “I love The Gilded Age BUT Downton Abbey stands alone no comparison.”

Another added: “Sorry but Downton Abbey is better in my eyes but I do love the Gilded Age too.”

Others couldn’t decide, with another viewer explaining: “They are equally wonderful. A pair of timeless masterpieces.”

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Meanwhile, some enthusiasts recalled one of Britain’s most celebrated period dramas, observing: “But not as good as the original Upstairs, Downstairs, on which it was based.”

Another concurred: “Oh guys, Upstairs Downstairs from the 70’s was deeply wonderful.”

The Gilded Age boasts an impressive 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with season 3 in 2025 achieving its highest score yet of 96%.

Taking to the comments section on the review aggregator platform, one enthusiast remarked: “Amazing series! Can’t wait for season 4.

“The show keeps getting better!” another gushed, as a third penned: “One of the best series on TV.. I and my daughter absolutely loved it. All 3 seasons. The nail biting drama at the end of each episode, kept us on the edge of our seats. Nicely done. The acting was superb.”

“I have been watching this show since the 1st season and it just gets better and better,” another concurred, as another contributed: “Love it!!! the Gilded Age is pure binge worthy escapism!!”

One enthusiastic viewer wrote: “Best show on TV right now! I am from India and I freaking low this show. Been a fan of Downton Abbey and this show just gives more drama, power issues and love lessons. Beautiful to the core! Love it.”

The Gilded Age is currently available to watch on Sky, while Downton Abbey can be streamed on ITVX.

Sometimes it seems as though the only thing that stands between a functioning democracy and a full-on Trump autocracy is a thin, black-robed line.

Although the Supreme Court, in general, and conservative appellate courts, in particular, have bowed and granted President Trump permission to do pretty much anything he wants, they haven’t thoroughly capitulated to his endless grasping for ever more power. (The way invertebrate congressional Republicans have.)

At the lower-court level, judges have repeatedly ruled in ways intended to check Trump, most notably when it comes to violating civil and constitutional rights in pursuit of his indiscriminate immigration dragnet.

The tendency to slow-walk his administration’s response to those rulings — and ignore others that Trump thinks he can safely snub — only contribute to the perception of presidential lawlessness and a sense that our judicial system is being strained to something approaching a breaking point.

Go ahead, if you’d like, and dismiss those concerns as just so much overwrought hand-wringing, or the mindless anti-Trump blathering of your friendly political columnist. A new survey of legal experts — including federal judges, top-tier lawyers and scores of professors from some of the country’s leading law schools — finds widespread concern about the brittle state of our legal system.

And it’s not just the fears of a lot of shaggy-thinking liberals.

“The nation is strong as is its commitment to the rule of law,” said one appellate judge, a Republican appointee. “The current president presents the greatest threat in decades.”

The survey was conducted by Bright Line Watch, a nonpartisan academic group that monitors the health and resilience of American democracy, in conjunction with the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA’s School of Law.

Conducted between mid-February and early March, the poll anonymously surveyed 21 federal judges, 113 lawyers, 193 law professors, 652 political scientists and a nationally representative sample of 2,750 Americans.

What leapt out to UCLA’s Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project, was that “across the ideological spectrum and across judges, lawyers and law professors, there was considerable agreement that the rule of law in the U.S. is under tremendous stress.” That consensus, he said, suggests “a real risk to democracy.”

Most legal experts agreed that Trump is using executive power excessively, with a majority doubting the conservative-leaning Supreme Court would handle cases involving the Trump administration impartially. The experts also expressed concern about politicized law enforcement — Trump seeking to persecute his perceived enemies — executive branch overreach, and the failure of Congress or the Supreme Court to do more to rein in the rogue president.

Eight in 10 of those surveyed said federal officials fail to comply with court orders somewhat or very often, and nearly 9 in 10 said political appointees in Trump’s Justice Department mislead federal judges somewhat or very often.

Talk about contempt of court — not to mention our vital system of checks and balances.

There was, unsurprisingly, a split among conservatives and liberals who took part in the survey. (The study defined legal conservatives as those saying the Supreme Court should base rulings on its understanding of what the Constitution meant as originally written. Liberals, who made up most of the respondents, were defined as those saying the court should base its rulings on what the Constitution means in current times.)

Conservatives, for instance, were more likely than liberals to see former President Biden as a greater threat to the rule of law than Trump. Liberals were more likely than conservatives to see evidence of Trump politicizing the Justice Department.

There were also differences between legal experts — those most intimately involved in the judicial system — and the public at large. The experts were more concerned about Trump’s excesses and threats to the rule of law, which, Hasen said, stands to reason.

The legal system is not something most people encounter daily in the same way they do, say, gasoline prices or the cost of groceries. “Yet,” Hasen said, “it’s one of these background things that really matters.”

Why?

Hasen put it this way: “Imagine that a person had a dispute with their neighbor and it ended up in small claims court before a judge and the judge made the decision not based on the merits of the case but based on whether he was friends with one of the parties, or didn’t like people who were similar to one of the parties.”

Now imagine that kind of corrupted, perverted system of justice writ large.

If, for instance, “people know that the government can successfully seek retribution from people who criticize it, people will be less likely to criticize the government,” Hasen said, leaving the country worse off by muzzling those who would hold their elected leaders to account.

Or if, say, rioters overran the U.S. Capitol and tried to steal an election and, instead of being punished, received cash payouts from the federal government, what incentive would there be to follow the law?

Happily — and who couldn’t use a bit of good cheer right about now — all is not lost.

People “can demand that their elected representatives take steps to assure that the rule of law will be followed,” Hasen said, and can insist “that the government [not] play favorites or seek retribution against perceived enemies.”

That’s the power people have, come election time. That’s why voting matters.

There are lots of things riding on the outcome in November, not least the sanctity and integrity of our legal system.

Bear that in mind when you cast your ballot.

The final episode of Football Focus was broadcast on Sunday, bringing to an end 52 years on the air.

It was an emotional episode as long-time pundit Garth Crooks returned to Focus, sitting alongside Alex Scott to reflect on the show’s past and preview the final day of the Premier League season.

Bob Wilson, the show’s first presenter, closed out the programme by saying: “All good things come to an end. Thank you to all of you at home for watching Football Focus for the last 52 years. We have had a ball.”

Launched in 1974, Football Focus provided fans with interviews, analysis and stories from across the game every lunchtime before the weekend’s fixtures begin.

The longest-running magazine show in the world began with a tribute to the programme, with its former presenters sharing their favourite memories from across the decades.

The programme’s old branding was used throughout in a nod to its history.

Crooks ended the show by presenting Scott with a picture of herself and Bob Wilson, on behalf of the “Football Focus family”.

Before handing over to Wilson, an emotional Scott said: “For 52 years, this show has done one thing. Week in, week out, it has brought football into your Saturday afternoons. Whether it was Bob Wilson or any of the brilliant people who sat in this chair after him, the thing that never changed was you – the fans.

“I won’t pretend this isn’t hard. What I know is, the football doesn’t stop, the stories don’t stop. The goals, the drama, the heartbreak, the magic, none of that stops. It just finds a new home.

“From everyone who has ever worked on Football Focus, thank you. Thank you for making Saturday lunchtime something to look forward to. It has been an honour.”

Mohammad Abu Mallouh, ​Alaa Zaqlan and their child, Osama, killed in the attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics say.

An Israeli air raid on a home in Gaza has killed three members of a family, including a six-month-old child, medical workers said, as Israel continues to violate the “ceasefire” brokered by the United States last year.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza said it received the bodies of a couple and their young child in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Medics identified those killed in the attack on an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp as Mohammad Abu Mallouh, his wife Alaa Zaqlan, and their child Osama, the Reuters news agency reported.

Medical workers said about 10 people were wounded in the attack.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Since the “ceasefire” came into effect in October, Israel has continued with its near-daily attacks across the besieged Palestinian territory, which Gaza health authorities say have killed nearly 900 people.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said Israeli bombing began on Sunday as Palestinians were fleeing following forced displacement orders. He said many people ran while carrying personal belongings, including mattresses.

Separately, Israeli forces continued demolishing homes and civilian infrastructure in eastern Gaza on Sunday behind Israel’s so-called “Yellow Line”, referring to Israeli-designated military zones and buffer areas inside the enclave, he said.

Israeli jets also carried out air raids on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Sunday, causing extensive damage near a hospital, Mahmoud said.

Earlier this month, the Gaza Government Media Office said it had documented at least 2,400 Israeli violations in the first six months of the ceasefire, including more than 1,100 air raids and at least 921 shootings targeting civilians.

More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. Israeli officials acknowledged the data was broadly accurate in January, after casting doubt on their credibility for two years.

On Saturday, five police officers and a 13-year-old boy were killed in an Israeli attack.

Talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at reaching a permanent end to the war have stalled, with both sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire. Israel says Hamas’s refusal to disarm is a key obstacle, while the Palestinian group says negotiations have been paused due to continued violations and restrictions on aid entering Gaza.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said the territory’s humanitarian infrastructure remained in peril, more than six months after the start of the ceasefire.

Clashes have broken out between protesters and riot police after an antigovernment rally in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

Large crowds of demonstrators poured into central Belgrade on Saturday, many carrying banners and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the “Students win” motto of the youth movement that organised the gathering.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has sought to rein in mass demonstrations that have challenged his hardline rule in the Balkan country. The size of Saturday’s turnout suggested that dissent remains strong more than a year after protests first began with demonstrators demanding accountability for a train station tragedy in northern Serbia in November 2024 that killed 16 people.

Anticorruption protests forced then-Prime Minister Milos Vucevic to resign in January 2025 before the authorities moved to clamp down on the movement. Many in Serbia blamed the concrete canopy collapse at the station on alleged corruption-fuelled negligence during renovation work carried out with Chinese companies.

On Saturday, Serbia’s state railway company cancelled all trains to and from Belgrade in what appeared to be an effort to prevent at least some people from travelling to the capital from other parts of the country.

In a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, the president said protesters “have shown their violent nature and that they cannot stand political opponents”. Vucic, who was en route to China for a state visit, added: “The state is functioning and will continue to work in line with the law.”

Students on Saturday demanded early elections and the rule of law, accusing the government of crime and corruption. They said they now plan to challenge Vucic in this year’s elections, which they hope will unseat his right-wing populist government. Vucic said on Thursday that the parliamentary elections could be held between September and November.

Clashes were first reported near a park camp of Vucic loyalists outside the Serbian presidency building. The camp was set up before another large antigovernment rally last March as a human shield against protesters. Folk music blared from a fenced-off area surrounded by rows of riot police in full gear.

The Serbian president has come under international scrutiny for his hardline tactics against demonstrators over the past year, including arbitrary arrests and the use of excessive force. The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, criticised Serbia’s government in a report after he visited the country last week and said he “will monitor the situation closely”.

O’Flaherty also cited “reports of police protecting unidentified and often masked attackers of journalists and protesters”. He said the overall human rights situation has deteriorated since his previous visit in April 2025.

Serbia is seeking to join the European Union while cultivating close ties with Russia and China. Democratic backsliding under Vucic could cost the country about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8bn) in EU funding, the bloc’s top enlargement official warned last month.

HE’S responsible for teaching Michael Jackson the famous moonwalk and choreographed some of the pop superstar’s biggest hits.

Now Shalamar icon Jeffrey Daniel, 71, has spoken in defence of Jackson’s box office smashing biopic, Michael, which has come under fire for omitting controversial elements of the singer’s life – including multiple allegations of child abuse.

Giving his view on the film, which has grossed over $700m worldwide, he says: “At the end of the day, they’re a family and it’s about their family and it’s up to them to do. The public likes to hear controversy. The public likes dirt.

“They want to delve into that negativity. But when you look at Michael’s life and when you look back at it, the negativity was something that was fabricated. There are things that were just engineered to stand against him.”

Speaking from a friend’s home in LA ahead of Shalamar’s 50th anniversary UK tour, he continues: “There’s no way in the world you’re going to be totally vindicated on all charges and acquitted and still looked at as if you’re guilty? Then what was the point of even going to court?

“What was the point of even standing in front of a jury to come to a conclusion that you’re absolutely, unequivocally not guilty if the public is still going to keep running with the narrative of what you were supposed to have done? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

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The film’s critics have called it a glorified promo for MJ’s glittering career, void of the challenging and concerning allegations he faced over the course of his life.

However, Colman Domingo, who plays Michael’s dad Joe Jackson, told the Today Show that it was the film’s timeline that dictated the events. It focuses on Michael’s life from the 60s through to 1988, some five years before the first allegations were made.

With the film teasing a part two, the darker side of Jackson’s life could still be revisited.

Filmmakers were also reportedly forced to do expensive re-shoots, having originally intended to include Jordan Chandler’s 1993 accusations when he was 13 years old.

They were unaware that part of Chandler’s $23m settlement in 1994 forbade anyone from dramatising the account.

Further accusations came much later, with Gavin Arzio’s allegations that he had been molested by Jackson as a child leading to seven charges brought against the star. However, in 2005 he was found not guilty on all counts.

In 2019, 10 years after Jackson’s death, the documnentary Leaving Neverland raised more uncomfortable questions.

The two alleged victims who were the focus of it, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, have joined forces to seek $400m (£298m) in damages from the Jackson estate in a civil trial set to take place later this year.

But Jeffrey has a different outlook and cites an online conspiracy theory that claims Jackson used his Neverland Ranch to shield child victims of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as evidence of his innocence and insists MJ was trying to save “youngsters”.

Despite all of the allegations, Jeffrey maintains his late friend is still a great role model.

He continues: “You know what’s really inspiring? I’m seeing kids five years old, six and 10 years old imitating Michael.

“They weren’t alive even when he passed away. And they still love him. His legacy is living on.

“He’s the most successful post-mortem artist in history. He’s making more money in his grave than a lot of artists that are out there working their butts off right now. That is a testament to a miracle.

“I mean, because I work with him and I know him, I’m not trying to be biased.”

The biopic is very much a family affair, endorsed by the Jackson estate and with the King of Pop’s nephew Jaafar, 29, cast in the titular role.

However, MJ’s siblings Rebbie, Randy, and Janet don’t feature in the project and none has addressed their absence publicly, though La Toya Jackson said her sister “kindly declined” to be involved.

Jeffrey says the portrayal of the young Michael is so uncanny that it’s like seeing him revived from the dead.

“My God, you have to tip your hat to Jaafar,” says Jeffrey.

“That boy played the hell out of Michael. I couldn’t imagine anyone else. It’s like that guy who played Freddie Mercury [Rami Malek]. It’s like he was born to play that role. And deservingly enough, he won an Oscar for it.

“I see a lot of Michael Jackson impersonators, and they’re pretty good. But they either do too much or they only encapsulate just one dimension of Michael’s performance. Jaafar captured it in its totality.

“He was subtle when it was time to be subtle. He was dynamic when it was time to be dynamic. His mannerisms, the way he spoke, I got emotional.

“I mean, there’s about three times during the film I almost went to tears because I just got emotional because of the scenes that I had something to do with. And I was there when that happened. And I was a part of that when it was happening.

“And then it reminded me of being with Michael and the person he was. It was like seeing a relative come back to life or something. Because I was very close with him.”

Jeffrey’s working relationship with Michael began in 1980, two years prior to the Shalamar founder’s legendary performance on Top of the Pops.

Unknown to the public at the time, Jeffrey had taught the groundbreaking move to MJ after the Thriller star was mesmerised by it while watching an episode of American music show, Soul Train in 1979.

Jackson spent three years practising what was then referred to as a backslide before debuting his version in 1983 during a Motown 25 TV special.

Meanwhile, Shalamar had been scheduled to perform I Can Make You Feel Good on ToTP in 1982 but it was canned at the last minute when the song dropped down the singles chart.

Undeterred, they returned weeks later with a point to prove after Night to Remember became a hit.

Jeffrey’s backslide caused such a stir, bosses scrambled to get the group back for another performance.

Not long after, MJ took the backslide to new heights and remains synonymous with the move.

“I worked with him for over 20 years,” says Jeffrey. “And so, to see this come to life like that again, it was just amazing. I can imagine how his family must have felt.

“Jackie Jackson and Jermaine and Marlon were saying how they were feeling watching this come to life in front of them on screen. And by their own relatives as well, so it’s amazing.”

Jackson’s not the only megastar Jeffrey worked closely with.

He also found a fan in Sir Paul McCartney too, with the Beatle actively seeking him out on a visit to London in the 80s.

Their fortuitous meeting came when McCartney’s crew, who were filming musical drama Give My Regards to Broad Street, spotted Jeffrey taking a walk by the canal in Maida Vale and told him Macca was keen to work with him. The two music men had a brief introduction and Daniel would later return to the UK to work with him on the project properly.

On their second meeting, McCartney hopped out of a car after filming a scene with actress Tracey Ullman and proceeded to lead Jeffrey around the set by the hand, before they sat down for lunch with his late wife Linda.

He said: “I mean, oh my God. Come on, this is legendary greatness. You know, it was an amazing experience.”

Fast forward to the present day and Shalamar are gearing up to bring their energetic set to the UK next month.

Slick and well-honed after five decades, the group know what the audience wants and are more than happy to give it to them.

“The good thing about it is that we have so many hits to choose from and that’s a good thing,” says Jeffrey. “But we’re always trying to adjust it to make sure that we keep the shows interesting and that they appeal to the audience that’s there.”

The live music market is more competitive than ever. Already this year a string of big acts have been forced to cancel tours due to sluggish ticket sales.

When it comes to putting bums on seats, many of whom weren’t alive when Shalamar burst into the charts, Jeffrey says: “We have a catalogue of evergreen, feel-good music. And I think because when times get hard and we go through things, people need a respite.

“I think Shalamar’s music is kind of the antidote to that because it can help you get away when they’re in the audience. They’re up on their feet dancing. They’re singing along.

“I think we’re the last of the high performance bands in the 80s where the choreography, the costume, the interaction, it’s all there, you know.

“Not to toot our own horn, but I think we put on a good show together, you know. And it’s very entertaining. And the people love what we’re doing. And we love the people.”

WOULD you believe me if I told you that you could bag yourself a break for £1 just by doing your regular grocery shopping at Sainsbury’s or by filling up with petrol at BP – no strings attached?

You may roll your eyes at the term ‘loyalty scheme’, but you’re going to want to hear me out on this one, as Avios will make your Boots Advantage Card seem utterly pathetic.

And I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but what you think you know about Avios or air miles is completely wrong. You won’t need to hop on a single flight to earn points here.

In fact, I’m so confident about this scheme that if you follow my advice below for one year and don’t end up with enough points for a free flight or holiday, I’ll eat my hat (…that I bought with my points).

So, pay close attention. Here’s everything you need to know.

What actually is Avios?

It is essentially a rewards currency, some may call it an air-mile points scheme, although it’s so much more than that. 

Avios is linked to the IAG (International Airlines Group) loyalty scheme, meaning you can earn and (most importantly) spend with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL, as well as partner airlines Qatar Airways, Finnair, and Loganair.

It’s a very common mistake, however, to think that you can only earn Avios on direct spend with these airlines, by booking flights, for example. 

IAG Loyalty allows you to collect a generous number of points on over 2,000 brands, including major names like Deliveroo, Domino’s Pizza and Just Eat – and that’s only if you want a takeaway.

Clothing retail brands include River Island, H&M and Sports Direct, while department stores include Debenhams, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer, and wellness brands include Superdrug, Boots and Holland & Barrett.

You can earn points (Avios) on every penny you spend with these brands.

I won’t name every brand right now, but you can find the list here on the Avios website – chances are if it’s a well known name, it’ll be on there.

Do I need to spend big to earn big?

I was sceptical too, but rest assured you won’t have to pain-stakingly collect points for 10 years to reap the benefits.

A few months ago I gained 2,500 Avios simply by renewing my car insurance with Compare the Market – another brand on IAG Loyalty’s books.

I’ll explain what the number of points equates to below, but, in rough terms, that’s about a quarter of the points you’d need to pay for a one-way flight to Amsterdam.

If you’re serious about it, you can earn mega points quickly and easily (more on that below too).

What can I buy with Avios?

The most popular way to spend Avios is on “reward” flights with the IAG and Oneworld airlines. The big players will tell you that this gets you the most for your money, but you can also redeem your points against holiday packages (flights and hotel), as well as hotels, car hire and cases of wine.

There’s also the Avios shop which sells everything from perfumes and lotions to Apple products and coffee machines; plus you can convert Avios to Nectar points and spend in Sainsbury’s, Argos or Habitat; or feast at Pizza Express.

That’s why Avios is nothing like your Boots card – you’re not tied to one product or brand.

How many points will I earn?

It varies from retailer to retailer with many brands offering special deals throughout the year – keep your eyes peeled at Christmas time and in January.

But to give you some perspective, last month I earned 1,790 Avios, just through my regular, everyday shopping: I get 19 points for my train to work (booked through Uber), I earned 136 points for buying some protein powder and 14 points for some new socks from ASOS.

No, I’m not a big spender. I’m a frugal 33-year-old that’s currently living with her parents, in the process of buying her first home, meaning my key expenses are my commute to work, petrol for my car and the odd meal out with pals.

I – properly – started my Avios journey almost exactly two years ago and I now have 99,420 Avios.

Just shy of enough to fly me to the furthest-away destination possible, Sydney, Australia, and all the way back again.

But that is by following a few simple rules carved out at the end of this piece.

How many points do I need for a holiday or flight?

If you’re just looking for flights then 10,000 points can get you a one-way ticket to short haul destinations like Paris, Copenhagen or Munich, while 27,500 can get you to the far-flung cities of Chicago, Dubai and Toronto.

Sydney is of course the priciest spot, costing a minimum of 55,000 Avios each way.

The above figures are all based on travelling in an economy seat at off-peak times, although you can splash your points on premium economy flights and even business class, or use points to upgrade if you’ve already booked your flight.

Head for Points has a useful table on which destinations your points will get you to.

There is one thing you need to know, though.

You may have noticed that my opening sentence to this piece read: “bag a break for £1”. That is because you will have to pay a flat-fee, essentially a nominal charge that covers taxes, carrier charges and a fixed Avios amount.

For short-haul flights like Paris, this is just £1, but for destinations like Chicago this is £60 and this price increases if you decide to fly in an upper cabin or further afield. 

Points work differently on holidays and products, however, and you can pay partly in points and partly in cash – the split is entirely up to you. If, for example, I were to buy a fancy Dyson hairdryer worth £400, I could pay £200 in cash and the rest can be paid with 33,670 Avios.

How do I actually earn Avios points then?

This requires several minutes of faffing to set yourself up and link your cards and accounts, but once you’re done that’s everything sorted for good. 

Sign up for free to Avios here, or if you are already a member of the free British Airways Club you can sign in that way – or you can sign in via Iberia Club or Aer Club if you’d prefer. 

Those who like to shop on their phones should download the Avios app.

What comes next is the MOST important step. In general, every time you do any online shopping, you should check if you can earn points at that retailer by clicking on the ‘collect’ button on the Avios site or on the app.

Then select that retailer and the ‘shop now’ button. This will register your visit and then you can shop as normal and earn those points.

Sophie’s personal hacks

If you use Uber, link your account to your Avios account (Avios has a guide on this); if you buy your petrol at BP, link your Avios account to your BPme account; and if you shop at Sainsbury’s, link your Nectar account to your Avios account… you get the drift by now. 

If you have the ability to do so, get yourself a British Airways American Express credit card.

You don’t necessarily need one to earn Avios but simply using the Amex for the majority of your spending is the easiest way to accumulate points. Just remember to pay it off in full at the end of the month.

I have just two rules for earning big: Always(!) check if you can earn Avios before making any purchase (literally, any purchase) and only buy what you were going to in the first place – no willy-nilly spending, please.

Of course there are other airline loyalty schemes, I just don’t know enough about those yet.

Watch this space though…

Homicides in Los Angeles are down to levels not seen since the 1960s. Neighborhoods once awash in gang violence now sometimes go weeks, even months, without a shooting. And the follow-home robberies and street takeovers that captured the public’s attention in recent years have largely subsided.

By many measures, the city is safer than it has been in generations — and yet voters following L.A.’s hotly contested mayoral race might think the opposite.

The challengers to Mayor Karen Bass have zeroed in on homelessness and public drug use to argue she hasn’t delivered on public safety, while also criticizing how the Police Department has operated and been funded during her tenure.

Mike Bonin, a former L.A. City Council member, said the fact that Spencer Pratt — the former reality TV star who has been attacking Bass from the right — has gained so much traction in the race is proof of how Bass and other candidates to the left have failed to change “prevailing narratives that the city is unsafe.”

Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt hosts a campaign block party on 10th Avenue in Los Angeles on May 20, 2026.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Pratt has been particularly active on social media, where he has shared artificial-intelligence videos created by fans depicting him as various superheroes coming to the rescue of a city that, under Democratic rule, has turned into a dystopian hellscape.

In a March 26 post on Substack, Pratt railed against the thousands of drug-related calls that emergency officials respond to every month. He has said that if elected mayor, he would order the police and fire chiefs and the county health director to “treat every encampment as a grave-disability zone.”

“No new laws needed,” he wrote. “No endless task forces.”

Flanking Bass on the left is Nithya Raman, a progressive City Council member who was once the mayor’s political ally.

Raman has argued that Bass has thrown too much money at the LAPD, with raises for police officers coming at the expense of other basic services such as park maintenance and street paving. Raman said the LAPD pay increases have “bankrupted” the city, depriving other services of much-needed funding. In campaign ads, Raman has cast herself as a more sensible alternative to Bass. Raman has said she would work to reduce traffic deaths and prioritize safety on the city’s buses and trains.

When she first ran for office in 2020, Raman called for defunding the police, saying the Los Angeles Police Department should be a “much smaller, specialized armed force.” Since then, however, she has voted for some budgets that increased spending on law enforcement.

In response to questions from The Times, Raman said she would work to find ways to overhaul public safety.

“I’ll propose budgets that expand unarmed response, work with LAPD to improve 911 response to more quickly answer calls for help that don’t require armed officers, and will appoint leadership at the Police Commission who will actively partner with the City Council to work on reform,” she said.

Representatives for Pratt and Bass didn’t respond to requests for interviews with the candidates.

Bonin said Bass — who supported various police reform measures while Congress — has shocked some of her supporters with how “aggressively pro-police she has been.”

When she ran for mayor in 2022, Bass vowed to retool the recruitment and hiring process in order to restore LAPD staffing to 9,500 officers. That hasn’t happened. The number of sworn officers recently fell below 8,600, despite Bass striking a deal with the police union to offer higher starting salaries and new retention bonuses.

Mayor Karen Bass takes part in a candidate forum on May 5, 2026, in Sherman Oaks.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

On Thursday, the City Council approved a $15-billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which included funds to hire 510 new officers — just enough to offset turnover and maintain current staffing levels.

Raman has said the LAPD should not shrink any further because there aren’t enough officers to respond to 911 calls “in a timely fashion.”

Samantha Stevens, a Los Angeles political consultant and former legislative staffer, said people seem willing to back Pratt because he acknowledges that their sense of safety has been shaken — even if he has offered few concrete details about how to tackle crime beyond cracking down on homelessness.

Pratt’s critics say that his plan relies on funneling homeless people into a shelter system that doesn’t have the capacity to handle them all. Others have noted that the aggressive tactics he has proposed would probably face legal challenges.

L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor, makes a campaign stop at the site of a home burned in the Palisades fire.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

“He’s kind of a case study in somebody who has a lot of opinions but has no idea of how the city is run,” Stevens said.

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said Pratt seems to have tapped into a deep well of discontent among Angelenos who believe that crime and homeless have spiraled out of control. The challenge for Bass, he added, is that although the numbers suggest that crime has decreased, many people associate the sight of encampments spilling onto public sidewalks as “a breakdown” that indicates the city is becoming less safe.

“You want to go back to the days of Daryl Gates, you’ve got Pratt,” he said, referencing the former LAPD chief whose controversial police sweeps in the late 1980s yielded thousands of arrests while alienating large segments of South L.A.

“If you want more of the same from the past 20 years, you’ve got Bass,” Guerra added. “And if you want something new, then you’ve got Raman, but she has to explain what exactly she wants to do.”

Although Pratt and Raman appear to be the strongest challengers to Bass, several long-shot candidates have also made public safety a key issue in their campaigns. Some have gone after Bass for her support of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell. Hired by Bass in 2024, McDonnell has touted the impressive drop in crime under his leadership, but also faced criticism over an uptick in shootings by police and aggressive crowd control tactics during protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell attends a news conference at LAPD headquarters on May 21, 2026.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Rae Huang, a minister and housing rights advocate, said if elected mayor she would immediately replace McDonnell with someone who has the “ability to really reimagine what public safety really looks like.”

“I’m the only one with the guts to say that out loud,” Huang told The Times during a recent campaign stop at a bookstore in the West Adams neighborhood.

In social media posts and interviews, Huang has frequently referred to the LAPD as “one of the biggest legal gangs in the world,” and said she would work on diverting money from the police budget to scale up programs that have shown promise in sending unarmed specialists to deal with emergencies that involve people experiencing mental health crises.

The city is already running two such pilot programs, but under Bass they have remained underfunded, Huang said. Last week, the City Council signed off on expanding one of the programs.

Huang said she would also invest more heavily in addressing the city’s lack of affordable housing, which she said is an underlying cause of crime and homelessness.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into attack ads against Huang and Raman.

Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur, has tried to strike a balance in his mayoral campaign, advocating for changes while acknowledging that many people still feel unsafe despite the historic drop in violent crime.

He criticized a recent vote by the L.A. City Council to limit so-called pretextual stops, in which officers pull people over for minor traffic infractions in order to investigate more serious offenses. The stops have been blamed for enabling racial discrimination.

Miller said that “constraining the Police Department is the opposite of what we should be doing.” He called for “leveraging” AI and modernizing the department’s archaic computer systems, which he said could allow the LAPD to catch up to other agencies that have embraced new technology.

Miller told The Times that he recently went on a ride-along with officers from the Rampart Division, which he said was eye-opening.

“At the highest level I think Angelenos don’t feel safe anymore,” he said. “They don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods, but more recently they don’t feel safe even in their own homes.”

Statistically speaking, the city might be safer than it’s been in decades, he said — but that doesn’t necessarily matter to voters.

“I don’t think it’s just perception,” he said. “I think it’s reality that crime has spread.”

If Tribe does realise his ambition and become the first Glamorgan player since Simon Jones in 2005 to play for England, it will have come off the back of a willingness to pack his bags and head for wherever there were opportunities to play and improve.

He had never played a game outside of Jersey until he left the island to study in Cardiff when he was 18, but joined Glamorgan on a rookie contract in 2023 before signing an improved deal last year.

Since then, his travels have taken Tribe to the National Cricket League in Texas, a stint in Adelaide playing Grade cricket, then onto a Nepalese T20 competition, before he was picked up by Paarl Royals to play in the South African T20 tournament last winter – as well as getting a deal to play grade cricket in Australia.

His stint with Paarl Royals in particular is bearing fruit, with Tribe having been able to tweak his technique ahead of this tour in South Africa.

“I have made a couple of technical changes and they have served me well here,” he said.

“I am now more side on and added a little trigger in there and made sure I have added a few other shots.

“So if the lads are missing slightly short on the off-side I can still punch that, and I’m trying to narrow the margin for error on the bowler’s side.

“My movement is a bit more precise and accurate as well.

“It has given me the ability to know what their bowlers do with the ball.

“It has definitely helped me against their skilful bowlers and has given me a clue on what they do.

“The reason we have this type of cricket where we play against the second team of other countries is that it is going to be a better standard that what we potentially face in the County Championship.

“In the Championship you talk about slightly slower bowling whereas on this wicket it has had more pace and bounce. It is different challenges.

“I like the idea we get the opportunity to play in these because if you are then exposed to Test cricket then it will be faster.”

Whether Tribe is on the fast track to an England cap remains to be seen, but the already much-travelled young player continues to do all he can to make his dream a reality.