Ben

Anne Burrell, the quick-witted host of Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America,” has died. She was 55.

The television personality died Tuesday morning at her home in New York, according to her publicist.

“Anne was a beloved wife, sister, daughter, stepmother and friend — her smile lit up every room she entered,” Burrell’s family said in a statement. “Anne’s light radiated far beyond those she knew, touching millions across the world. Though she is no longer with us, her warmth, spirit and boundless love remain eternal.”

Born and raised in Cazenovia, N.Y., Burrell, inspired by her mother and celebrity chef Julia Child, expressed an interest in food from a young age. She earned her degree in English and communication at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., and later attended the Culinary Institute of America.

During her time on Food Network, Burrell was best known for her Italian cuisine — particularly pasta — and competitive fire. She got her start on TV as a sous-chef for Mario Batali on “Iron Chef America,” where she honed her skills in competition cooking before launching her own cooking show, “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef,” in 2008.

“Anne was a remarkable person and culinary talent — teaching, competing and always sharing the importance of food in her life and the joy that a delicious meal can bring. Our thoughts are with Anne’s family, friends and fans during this time of tremendous loss,” said a Food Network spokesperson.

Burrell had been a steady presence on the network, competing in “The Next Iron Chef,” “Chopped,” “Guy’s Grocery Games” and “Beat Bobby Flay.” She was also a longtime host and mentor on “Worst Cooks in America,” where she coached teams of novice cooks as they competed while improving their culinary skills. She had various co-hosts since 2010 during the show’s 28-season run.

Most recently, she appeared in the first season of “House of Knives,” a seemingly “Game of Thrones”-inspired reality series, hosted by Scott Conant, where she was among the top chefs competing to sit on the culinary throne.

Burrell authored two cookbooks: New York Times bestseller “Cook Like a Rock Star” (2011) and “Own Your Kitchen: Recipes to Inspire & Empower” (2013).

She is survived by her husband, Stuart Claxton; stepson, Javier; mother, Marlene; siblings, Jane and Ben; nieces, Isabella and Amelia; and nephew, Nicolas.

Tracy Brown contributed to this report.

Spencer joined Bath in 2020 after nine years with Saracens where he won seven major trophies – including four Premiership titles – through the London club’s era of dominance.

The 32-year-old was made captain in 2022-23 as head of rugby Johann van Graan’s tenure at Bath began, just months after the club had finished bottom of the league the season before.

“The amount of hard work this has taken to turn the ship around… we were bottom three years ago,” added Spencer.

“I can’t credit [Van Graan] enough, he’s been absolutely brilliant. If we [understand] there’s always an opportunity to get better then I’m really excited for the next couple of years.”

Bath narrowly lost to Northampton in the Twickenham showpiece last June but were overwhelming favourites this time around.

They ended the regular league campaign 11 points clear at the top of the table and wrapped up top spot and a home semi-final in the play-offs with three rounds of games still to play.

Scrum-half Spencer said he mainly felt “relief” at the final whistle because of the prolonged build-up.

“To get the mindset right when you qualify early as we did is quite tough,” he said.

“I played that semi-final in my head hundreds of times. Day in, day out it was, ‘who are we going to get?’ It’s a hard place to be mentally.

“It’s relief for me, the players, staff and fans.”

Twelve weeks into the season, the Dodgers are already turning to a 12th different starting pitcher in their revolving door of a rotation.

For Ben Casparius, it’s an opportunity he’s patiently waited for all season.

Though Casparius is technically still a rookie, the 26-year-old right-hander has seen a lot in his young MLB career. Last year, he went from starting the season as an overlooked double-A prospect (one who didn’t even get an invite to big-league spring training) to finishing it pitching key innings in four postseason games, including as an opener in Game 4 of the World Series.

This spring, a rash of bullpen injuries ensured he’d have a spot on the opening-day big-league roster. More injuries to top right-handed relievers pushed him into a de facto leverage role.

At every step, the former fifth-round draft pick has excelled, posting a 2.86 ERA over 44 innings this year with 46 strikeouts and only nine walks.

Along with fellow rookie reliever Jack Dreyer, Casparius has become one of the unsung heroes responsible for helping the first-place Dodgers overcome their injury-riddled start.

“We don’t win this game tonight without Ben,” is the kind of quote manager Dave Roberts has uttered more than once, and most recently after Casparius pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings of relief in a come-from-behind win against the New York Mets on June 3.

“He’s had to grow up really quickly for us,” Roberts added that night, “and he’s got the respect of his teammates.”

Now, however, Casparius is getting a new level of respect from the team’s decision-makers, too.

After exhausting virtually all their other starting pitching alternatives to this point — from struggling minor-league arms such as Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Justin Wrobleski, to a bulk-inning option such as Matt Sauer — the Dodgers are finally entrusting Casparius with a starting role.

For all the value he brought in the bullpen, they simply couldn’t afford to keep him out of the rotation any longer.

“Where we were at [earlier this season], we felt that there was more value [having him come] out of the ‘pen and being kind of a versatile type reliever,” Roberts said. “But where we are at now currently, he’s certainly showing that he’s 1 of 5.”

Casparius got his first shot at a more traditional start on Wednesday in San Diego, producing four innings of one-run ball in an outing he didn’t know he was making until the night before.

In the days leading up, the Dodgers had lost Tony Gonsolin to an elbow problem — already their fourth starter to get injured just since the start of the season. They had demoted Knack to the minors, and watched Wrobleski give up four runs in six innings to the St. Louis Cardinals as his replacement. They saw Sauer get roughed up as a bulk-innings pitcher Tuesday against the Padres, and Miller implode in a 10-run outing in triple-A that same night.

Suddenly, the team was down to just three healthy starters it could trust: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw.

Emmet Sheehan might be part of that group before long, continuing his recovery from Tommy John surgery with a third triple-A rehab start on Thursday in which he pitched 3 ⅓ innings (once he completes four innings, Roberts said, he will be a viable option for the big-league club). Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell are also making progress towards returning, though none of them are likely to be back until sometime next month.

Emmet Sheehan, left, with Ben Casparius and River Ryan during the World Series ring ceremony in March, made his third triple-A rehab start on Thursday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Thus, with a Wednesday rubber match against the Padres looming, the Dodgers decided to reassign Casparius from multi-inning reliever to their latest fill-in starter.

“We like this kind of transition right now,” Roberts said. “Figuring out how we get through this period before we get other guys back to health … potentially there’s a chance to continue to build him up, which right now makes sense.”

In a win over the Padres that kept the Dodgers in sole possession of first place of the NL West entering another key series this weekend against the San Francisco Giants, Casparius responded with quality production. He limited damage (with the help of an Andy Pages outfield assist) to one run during a bases-loaded jam in the second. He retired the side in order in each of the other three innings he pitched.

Most notably, he also fought to take down an inning more than initially expected — lobbying to stay in the game for the fourth despite Roberts’ pregame assertion he likely wouldn’t pitch past the third (not since May 5 had Casparius thrown more than three innings in an outing).

“He wasn’t going to come out of that game after three,” Roberts said. “He wanted to stay in for the fourth.”

It gave Casparius the chance to flash his full arsenal of starting-caliber stuff; from a big-breaking combination of sweepers and curveballs, to a late-biting cutter that can induce soft contact, to an upper-90s mph fastball that, one point, even Padres star Manny Machado outwardly endorsed, pointing to Casparius with an approving nod of his head after swinging through a 98-mph heater up in the zone for a first-inning strikeout.

“I saw that,” Casparius said. “He’s one of the best players in the game, so it’s pretty cool.”

Casparius also showcased his evolved mental approach.

During his minor-league career, Casparius started in 57 of his 79 career appearances. Moving to the bullpen full-time at the start of his major league career gave him perspective he believes will benefit him in his return to a starting role now.

“Taking that reliever mindset, pitch by pitch, inning by inning, has helped me to slow the game down in general,” Casparius said. “So I think it’s been kind of a blessing. And then whatever happens going forward, I think I can just use that to keep going.”

Eventually, Casparius could be shifted to the bullpen again. Once the Dodgers get healthier, his value as a multi-inning relief option will likely mean resuming his swingman role.

But for now, Roberts has already confirmed that “the next time he’s on the mound, it will be as a starter.”

And for a pitcher who, despite his success out of the bullpen, has continued to view himself as a starter long-term, it represents an opportunity that might have been borne of out necessity, but was also long-ago earned.

“Obviously, I’ve been doing it for the majority of my professional career, so it’s something I’m comfortable with routine-wise,” Casparius said of starting games. “I’m just looking forward to what’s going on and what’s coming up next.”

MMA icon Ben Askren is “unresponsive” in hospital after being struck down by severe pneumonia.

The former MMA and wrestling star infamously came out of retirement to face Jake Paul in a boxing match in 2021.

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Askren, a former Olympian, was active in MMA for over a decade.

News of his hospitalisation broke during UFC 316 in New Jersey on Saturday night.

Funky has not been active in the squared circle since his exhibition with Paul almost four years ago.

But he is fondly remembered in wrestling circles as one of the greatest grapplers of all time.

Askren, 40, is currently battling “a sudden and severe onset of pneumonia”.

His wife Amy penned a heartfelt update on her husband’s condition.

She wrote on Facebook: “You may have heard that my husband Ben is going through something.

“He developed severe pneumonia, which came on very suddenly.

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“He’s currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time.

“We welcome all prayers for healing and for peace.

“We are trying to keep life as normal as possible for our children currently and doing our best to support them thoughtfully, so please refrain from discussing it with them for now.”

Fans were quick to send their well wishes to the Askren family.

Former UFC champ Henry Cejudo wrote on X: “Pray for Ben Askren.”

One fan wrote: “You got this Ben, keep fighting.”

While another commented: “Wishing the best for Ben Askren and his family. Ben was an innovative and creative wrestler in his prime and now he builds up some of the best wrestlers America has ever seen. The wrestling world owes a debt of gratitude to a man like him.”

He’s currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time.

Amy Askren

Askren began wrestling at the age of just 6.

He competed for the Missouri Tigers in college, twice becoming a D1 national champion.

Askren was a member of the 2008 US Olympics wrestling team, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Cuba’s Ivan Fundora on points.

Following his Olympic adventure, the Iowa-native transitioned into MMA.

He boasted 19 wins from 22 MMA pro fights, with his first loss coming in an infamous flying kick KO by Jorge Masvidal five seconds into their bout at UFC 239.

Askren’s highly publicised boxing bout with YouTuber Paul saw 500,000 PPV buys.

Paul, then aged 24, won the bout via TKO in one minute and 59 seconds of the first round.

Canadian Nick Taylor shot an impressive four-under-par round of 68 to take a share of the lead at the Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio.

The 37-year-old made four birdies during his second round as he joined overnight leader Ben Griffin, who carded an even-par 72, at the top of the leaderboard.

Griffin’s fellow American Akshay Bhatia is a further two shots behind the pair in third at five under.

World number one Scott Scheffler is within striking distance after he finished the day at four under following back-to-back rounds of 70 at the Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry is the heading the European challenge a further shot back, four off the lead.

Centuries from Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett highlight a dominant batting display as England wrap up day one on 498-3 in the first innings of their single Test match against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.

MATCH REPORT: Pope, Crawley and Duckett tons flatten Zimbabwe

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England Test captain Ben Stokes tells Jonathan Agnew that they “can be the best Test team in the world” but admits “we have been guilty in the past of being too stuck in our ways”.

England play a one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge from Thursday, before marquee series at home to India and away in Australia.

READ MORE: McCullum calls on England to improve ‘humility’

Mike Gillespie had a premonition about Ben Orloff.

The USC and UC Irvine coaching legend guided Orloff for two years as an Anteater, watching Orloff become the baseball program’s all-time hits leader with his peak bat-to-ball abilities. But it wasn’t Orloff’s eye-popping swing or swift speed on the basepaths that captivated Gillespie the most. It was the future he imagined for his star infielder, the then-Big West Conference player of the year.

“I don’t know how else to say it: His instincts, his clue, his feel for the game, his baseball IQ, is like nothing else,” Gillespie said as Orloff’s collegiate career wrapped up in 2009. “He should be a major league manager. He might be wasted as a major league manager, because they can do so little, in terms of all these little things.”

The American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall of Famer, who died in 2020, continued: “He probably should be a college coach, a college head coach.”

It’s mid-May and Orloff sits in the office Gillespie once occupied. Orloff is bald with a bright smile. He’s just 38, and yet this is his 12th season on the UC Irvine coaching staff — and his seventh as the Anteaters’ head coach.

Orloff settles down at a table, crosses his legs and is ready to reminisce, talk shop — and praise the mish-mosh ballclub that’s set the Big West aflame for the second consecutive season in which it won its second regular-season conference championship under the coach.

“Not many people get their first job ever in college with no coaching experience [and become a] paid assistant coach at a place like UC Irvine,” Orloff said. “I’m aware that I was given opportunities that a lot of guys work a long time to get. I’m trying not to ruin it.”

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff walks on the field during a game against USC on Feb. 18.

(Matt Brown / UC Irvine Athletics)

Gillespie eventually gave Orloff the call back in 2013. The former All-American, who had been playing in the minors since 2009, was hitting just below .300 and had a .379 on-base percentage with double-A Corpus Christi when he decided it was time to return to UC Irvine.

Orloff said he always knew he was going to be a college coach. Whether it was after playing Major League Baseball for 15 years or directly after earning his bachelor’s degree, it was a goal he strived to achieve. But there was only one way he would “quit,” as he put it, and hang up his cleats for a new career: coaching at his alma mater for Gillespie.

Hired in 2013, the then-assistant was fully aware that he knew nothing about the ins and outs of coaching. Sure, he could practice the fundamentals — the basics of fielding and throwing strikes that Orloff still preaches — but much of the job was foreign. All he wanted to do, Orloff said, was to live up to his coach’s expectations.

“I was just extremely motivated to not let coach Gillespie down,” Orloff said. “Now being in this seat, to hire a guy for professional baseball that’s never coached at any level before, you don’t do that.”

He had to learn to recruit — he nabbed outfielder Jacob McCombs (.363 batting average/.448 on-base percentage/.627 slugging percentage) out of the transfer portal from San Diego State, signed junior college infielder Colin Yeaman (hitting .352 with 13 home runs) from College of the Canyons, and has developed Southern California talent such as sophomore starting pitcher Trevor Hansen (8-2 with a 3.14 earned-run average) from Royal High. Orloff said he is willing to sign any player from any level, knowing UC Irvine’s reach is different from blue blood programs, such as UCLA or Vanderbilt.

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff greets outfielder Jacob McCombs during a game.

(Robert Huskey / UC Irvine Athletics)

Orloff remarked that most articles written about the program highlight him. But he is also first to praise his coaching staff, such as pitching coach Daniel Bibona in his 13th year with the Anteaters or hitting coach J.T. Bloodworth, who helped the Anteaters notch their fourth-best batting average in program history a year ago.

“We played together for three years,” he said of Bibona. “Coach Gillespie hired him directly at a pro ball to be the pitching coach. … He does a really good job with these guys.”

“I think we broke every school offensive record last year,” Orloff remarked about Bloodworth’s impact. “This year, the numbers are like the same with a completely brand new group.”

Orloff and his staff brought in 20 new players before the season, restocking a roster that produced a 45-14 record and an NCAA regional appearance in 2024. And the Anteaters haven’t missed a beat. Irvine is ranked 20th in the nation, according to D1Baseball, and is pegged as the top West Coast program in the country — above UCLA — by the National College Baseball Writers Assn., with a No. 11 ranking.

“Winning matters to these guys,” Orloff said of his 39-13 squad. “I think our team has placed what’s best for the team above what’s best for them and I think that’s uncommon, probably in 2025, and so I think it’s why we’ve won.”

Heading into the inaugural Big West Conference tournament, Orloff said UC Irvine can compete with any team in the nation. He points to early-season battles against Nebraska, New Mexico and Vanderbilt — coming up just short of a three-game sweep at the MLB Desert Invitational in February.

When it comes to showing resolve against opponents, Orloff embraces football coach Bill Belichick’s inverse theory of winning — often credited to businessman Charlie Munger’s inversion technique. As Orloff puts it, the technique focuses on how “before you can win, you can’t do the things that make you lose.”

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff speaks to his players before a game against San Diego on April 1.

(Matt Brown / UC Irvine Athletics)

“You can look and just see how competitive they’ve been and how complete they’ve been,” said UCLA baseball coach John Savage, a disciple of coach Gillespie as a USC assistant and former Irvine head coach from 2002 to 2004.

“He’s clearly, I think, the best up-and-coming young coach in America. I truly believe that.”

With Irvine on the hunt for its first trip to Omaha since 2014 — and Orloff leading the way — the Anteaters might have the right recipe brewing at Cicerone Field.

Gillespie, long before Orloff took the reins, certainly thought so.

“I’m not kidding, he’s a better coach than I am,” Gillespie said in 2009.

Ben Cohen among seven people arrested after interrupting testimony by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and six other people have been arrested after disrupting a United States Senate hearing to protest Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

The arrests of Ben Cohen and the other protestors on Wednesday came as US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was giving testimony to lawmakers on his shake-up of federal health agencies.

“Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US,” Cohen said as he was escorted away by police.

The seven were arrested on charges of “crowding, obstructing or incommoding”, assault of a police officer or resisting arrest, US Capitol Police said in a statement.

Cohen was only charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding, according to Capitol Police.

Cohen and his Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Jerry Greenfield are well known for their progressive activism, including opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Cohen, who is Jewish, said the US had a “strange relationship” with Israel that involved Washington “supplying weapons for its genocide”.

“Right now, what it means to be American is that we are the world’s largest arms exporter, we have the largest military in the world, we support the slaughter of people in Gaza,” Cohen said.

“If somebody protests the slaughter of people in Gaza, we arrest them. What does our country stand for?”

In 2021, Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would no longer allow its Israeli licensee to sell its ice cream in the West Bank and Gaza, saying that doing so would be “inconsistent with our values”.

A US judge the following year rejected Ben & Jerry’s bid for an injunction to block the sales after finding that the company had failed to show that it would suffer irreparable harm.

Ben & Jerry’s, which was founded in 1978 in the US state of Vermont, and its parent company, Unilever, later settled their legal dispute on undisclosed terms.

In March, Ben & Jerry’s filed a lawsuit accusing Unilever of firing chief executive David Stever over his support for the brand’s “social mission”.

More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war, following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on the country.