Centre James Hume says Ulster’s players are “embracing” the chance to make history in the Challenge Cup final on Friday.
Richie Murphy’s side face Montpellier in Bilbao as they look to end a 20-year trophy drought and also secure their place in next season’s Champions Cup, having missed out through the United Rugby Championship [URC] with a ninth-place finish.
With no URC play-offs to look forward to, Friday represents the final act of Ulster’s season and the opportunity to bring a first trophy back since the 2006 Celtic League success.
There have been some near misses since, with Hume part of the squad that lost out in the 2019-20 Pro 14 final, so the 27-year-old is keen to make up for that disappointment.
“I’m definitely embracing it,” Hume said.
“Richie [Murphy, head coach] said just this morning, ‘you have a chance to write your name in history’.
“I think it’s my eighth season and there’s times where you get really, really close, like the semi-final in 2022 [a last-gasp loss to the Bulls in South Africa]. The Pro 14 final during Covid – stuff just didn’t go as we had planned.
“This is a massive opportunity for us to bring some silverware back home to Belfast, where there hasn’t been since 2006, so we’re buzzing for it.”
After Friday’s disappointment when a late Glasgow try saw the Scottish club claim a dramatic 26-22 win in Belfast, Ulster’s eggs are firmly in Friday’s Challenge Cup final basket if they want to play in next season’s Champions Cup.
With a cup final to look forward to, Hume insists “you can’t let that affect you too much” as they prepare to face the side sitting second in the Top 14.
The three-times capped Ireland international admits away defeats in the league against Scarlets and Ospreys “cost us” but the challenge of European rugby is one in which Ulster have produced some of their best moments this season.
“It seems that when we play in Europe against teams that aren’t in our league [URC], we seem to play better rugby or it’s like more enjoyable to attack against.
“French defences are a bit more erratic and not as organised as what the northern hemisphere rugby usually is within our league, so sometimes that presents different opportunities and maybe suits us a bit more, but we’ll see in the weekend.”
Tucked inside the downtown skyline, four floors and 50 feet above Olive Street, the Rooftop Cinema Club is hosting daily summer showings of cult classics, blockbusters and an occasional art-house piece. Each ticket holder is provided a pair of wireless headphones, and sunglasses are recommended for earlier showtimes.
Cost: $21 to $27 for patio chairs. $32 to $36 for cushioned loveseat. Parking rates below the building range from $10 to $12.
Next film: “Saved!” on May 14, 8:15 p.m.
Other films: “Twilight,” “Josie and the Pussycats,” “Past Lives,” “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Food options: Outside food and drinks are not allowed. Concession stands carry popcorn, nachos, pretzels and other snacks. Full bar with cocktails, beer and wine.
Dog-friendly? Pets not allowed.
Things to note: Bring-your-own-blanket policy for cold nights. Age requirements vary; most showings are 16+, but select films are 18+ and 21+. If weather conditions become too extreme, showings may be canceled.
NEW YORK — President Trump won’t have to pay an $83-million defamation award to a longtime advice columnist until the U.S. Supreme Court gets a chance to review the case or reject an appeal, according to a court entry Tuesday.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to a request by one of Trump’s lawyers to let the president delay the payment to E. Jean Carroll, though it required that Trump post a $7.4-million bond to cover any additional interest costs, a request Carroll’s attorney had made.
The appeals court late last month refused Trump’s request for a rare meeting of the full 2nd Circuit to hear an appeal of a three-judge panel’s affirmation of the January 2024 verdict.
Afterward, Trump attorney Justin D. Smith asked the 2nd Circuit to stay the effect of its decision upholding the award so that the president would not be forced to pay the judgment before the high court has a chance to consider an appeal.
Smith said last week there was a “fair prospect” that the Supreme Court will find in favor of Trump, who has called Carroll’s claims — first made publicly in 2019 — that she was sexually attacked by Trump in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996, a “made-up scam.”
The $83-million award to Carroll, 82, came from a jury that briefly heard Trump testify and observed his animated behavior for several days.
In upholding the verdict, a 2nd Circuit panel wrote in September 2025 that Trump continued his attacks against Carroll for at least five years, making them “more extreme and frequent as the trial approached.”
“He also continued these same attacks during the trial itself,” the appeals court said. “In one such statement, issued two days into the trial, Trump proclaimed that he would continue to defame Carroll ‘a thousand times.’ ”
The jury had been instructed to accept the findings of a jury that in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in the department store and then defamed her after she published her account of it in a 2019 memoir.
Trump is challenging the $83-million award on several grounds, asserting “absolute immunity” for comments he made while president as he disavowed knowing Carroll and attacked her motivations, saying they were politically driven or arose from a desire to promote her memoir.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
The league’s worst team this season is getting the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
The Washington Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday and are poised to pick first overall for the first time since choosing John Wall in that spot in 2010. Wall was the Wizards’ on-stage representative for the lottery.
Washington had a 14% chance of winning No. 1, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds. The Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot.
But three consecutive years of losing — the three worst seasons in the franchise’s 65-year history — finally paid off Sunday for the Wizards, who went 17-65 this season and even allowed Miami’s Bam Adebayo to score 83 points for the league’s second-highest single-game total ever.
The Wizards swung deals to land Trae Young and Anthony Davis last season, and now they have a chance to add an immediate impact player with the No. 1 pick.
Utah will pick No. 2, Memphis will pick No. 3 and Chicago will pick No. 4.
The Clippers got the fifth pick — via a trade with the Pacers — followed by No. 6 Brooklyn, No. 7 Sacramento, No. 8 Atlanta, No. 9 Dallas, No. 10 Milwaukee, No. 11 Golden State, No. 12 Oklahoma City, No. 13 Miami and No. 14 Charlotte.
The draft begins June 23 in New York. The draft combine in Chicago starts on Monday.
No. 1 pick possibilities
There are four candidates that generally are considered front-runners to be the No. 1 pick, all of them entering the draft after their freshman years of college. They are:
— BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game in his lone college season.
— Duke’s Cameron Boozer, the AP player of the year who averaged 22.5 points and 10.1 rebounds.
— Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, who averaged 20.2 points in 24 games for the Jayhawks.
— North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds on 58% shooting.
All four of those players, and a few other likely first-round selections, were all among those in the studio for the announcement of the lottery results Sunday at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
“Standing here is kind of crazy,” Dybantsa said. “One of these teams is going to be home.”
Last of this format (probably)
This was the eighth, and likely final, year of this version of an NBA draft lottery, with the worst teams having a 14% chance of winning.
Framework fell into place last month on changes meant to further discourage tanking, and the league’s Board of Governors is expected to ratify that plan in the next few weeks — with general managers meeting in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss them presumably for one last time.
The three worst teams, starting next season, would have a 5.4% chance of winning — with the next seven teams all having an 8.1% chance of winning. The lottery would grow from 14 to 16 teams if the plan, as expected, is approved.
For teenagers dreaming of playing in the NFL, former Corona Centennial high defensive back Camryn Bynum has first-hand knowledge of what it takes. It involves more than a star ranking or posting videos on social media.
“It’s a simple formula to make it to where you want to go,” said Bynum, who recently signed a $60-million contract with the Indianapolis Colts and will be holding a youth camp at his alma mater on May 23.
“It’s just hard to stay on the right track and do every single thing to the best of your ability and consistently do everything the right way,” he said. “You play a few good years of high school ball, you’ll get a chance to play college ball. If you become a starter, maybe one or two years and play well enough, you’ll get a chance at the league, whether you get drafted in the first round, like everybody wants to, or you you’re an undrafted free agent. If you get your foot in the door, there’s hundreds of stories about people getting in.”
Bynum says there’s a big sacrifice that many teenagers are unwilling to accept. It’s called avoiding distractions at all costs. At least it worked for him. He didn’t start on varsity until his junior year. He became a four-year starter at Cal, was a fourth-round draft pick of the Vikings, who immediately told him he’s switching from cornerback to safety. He was ready for anything.
“I think the best way to reach the point where you want to go is to stay distraction free,” he said. “Stay working towards that goal and don’t let anything come in between. That’s been the biggest part of my journey, my faith, and being able to just trust that God will put me exactly where I need to be, but also putting in the work myself knowing that if I want to play college ball, I need to keep my grades up in high school, stay away from all the distractions, the parties, the drinking, the drugs, like a lot of people unfortunately fall into.”
His first major test was dealing with adversity. He started on JSerra’s freshman team, then transferred back home to Centennial. He said he was fifth string on the JV team. “I was literally not playing,” he said. He gave serious consideration to leaving. But Centennial coach Matt Logan and others made it clear he had to earn his playing time.
Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta (87) is tackled by Minnesota Vikings safety Camryn Bynum in 2024.
(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)
“Coach Logan, he’s like, ‘No, you gotta work. You gotta work, figure it out and grind. You’re good. You’re plenty good enough, but you have to earn your spot.’ And I remember a few other coaches telling me, ‘It’s all up to you, if you want to put the work in and you want to compete, This is a competitive program, you got to figure out how to earn your playing time.’”
Bynum went to a private coach and started training morning and night. He became stronger, faster and more confident. As a junior, he became a standout. He still uses that same private coach, Jordan Brown, in his training.
Bynum, born to a Filipino mother, now lives in the offseason with his Filipino wife and young daughter on the outskirts of Manila.
Asked if Manila traffic is worse than Los Angeles traffic, he said, “They’re both pretty bad. They’re just bad in different ways.”
His first youth camp will help raise funds for his foundation that is supporting causes such as teaching flag football in the Philippines. The camp will be for youth and high school-age players and provide a vehicle for exposure along with football development.
“We want it to be a learning environment and a competitive environment to help kids get recruited and be seen more,” Bynum said.
Just remember the path is simple but the road blocks are many to overcome.
Jess Warner Judd does not remember much about that night in Rome.
It has been a long and difficult journey since, but the 31-year-old speaks with admirable ease about the traumatic events which have led her to a London Marathon debut in 2026.
“I’m very lucky to have had sort of a second chance at running. It’s a second chance I just didn’t think I’d probably have,” Warner Judd tells BBC Sport.
“I remember having really horrible discussions after trying to restart my track season and it quickly not happening. The doctors, who were brilliant, saying that I would probably have to retire if I kept trying before I had therapy, because my body wasn’t going to cope.”
The distressing details of what unfolded at Stadio Olimpico are recalled vividly by her husband Rob, who witnessed it all from the stands alongside Warner Judd’s father and coach, Mike, in June 2024.
Less than 10 months had passed since Warner Judd celebrated one of her proudest achievements, placing eighth in the world over 10,000m, but it became evident early in the European Championship final that something was amiss.
The noticeable lack of co-ordination. The veering out into lanes two and three. The distress increasingly visible across her face.
“It got to the point around five or six kilometres in when Mike and I had got as close as we could to the track and were shouting at her to stop,” says Rob.
Warner Judd struggled on until, with 600m to go, she collapsed.
Welcome to this week’s Lakers newsletter, where we’re playing chess, not checkers.
The intensity has picked up now that the playoffs have started. The Lakers won Game 1 against the Houston Rockets and now the fun begins. Coaches tinker with their game plans trying to capitalize on every perceived advantage. Players are locked in intense multi-game matchups. For a self-proclaimed basketball sicko such as JJ Redick, it’s almost basketball nirvana.
“Every day I wake up, I’m excited to go to work,” Redick said. “Every day feels exciting.”
All things Lakers, all the time.
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Playoff DA
Days before the game, on the day of the game and the day after the Lakers’ playoff opener, Redick fielded different versions of the same question.
How influential will Deandre Ayton be in these playoffs?
“The ceiling for our team is maximized when he’s playing at a high level,” Redick said Monday, one day after Ayton’s 19-point, 11-rebound double-double highlighted the Lakers’ Game 1 win. “I remember saying that three times already in the last week. I don’t know how else to answer that.”
Facing consistent scrutiny as the Lakers’ biggest X factor, Ayton now needs to deliver consistent performances in the playoffs. Just one impressive performance won’t be enough to silence critics.
Ayton sent a solid statement in Game 1. In addition to shooting 80% from the field, Ayton helped hold Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun to 19 points on six-of-19 shooting. The Lakers’ defense, anchored by Ayton on the back line, smothered Houston. Playing without Kevin Durant, who was a late scratch with a right knee contusion, the Rockets shot just 37.6% from the field.
“I really tried my best to show [Redick] that I’m here and I’m ready throughout those practices just being super and extremely consistent,” Ayton said after the Lakers’ playoff opening win Saturday. “I couldn’t wait to just beat up on somebody else in the first game.”
In front of a buzzing Crypto.com Arena crowd, Ayton made his presence felt early. He scored the Lakers’ first points with a turnaround floater in the lane. He caught two two lobs for dunks. The Lakers’ crowd erupted each time.
Ayton, after two lost years in Portland, hadn’t experienced that thrill in too long.
“It got my blood boiling a little bit,” Ayton said of not playing in the postseason since 2023.
Ayton’s career was fading in Portland. He became known more for inconsistent play and lagging energy than his soft shooting touch or defensive prowess. He looked at the two-year, $16.6-million contract with a player option from the Lakers as a lifeline. It felt like the last chance for him to prove he could still be that player who started for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.
Ayton averaged 14.7 points, 12 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on 53.1% shooting in the 2021 Finals series against the Milwuakee Bucks. When speaking of Lakers players with playoff experience, LeBron James always leads the conversation, but Redick, conscious of Ayton’s importance to this team, never leaves out Ayton’s playoff past.
There is still a reason why Ayton was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, center Jaxson Hayes said.
“When it comes to this serious time of year, like playoffs, he already knows,” Hayes said. “He’s been there, and so he knows what to do. He just came locked in. And I loved it. It was awesome.”
The Lakers were 22-3 in the regular season when Ayton took 10 or more shot attempts and 15-1 in games when he had 11 or rebounds. The trend continued in the playoffs when Ayton made eight of 10 shots in Game 1. He grabbed his 11th rebound in the final seconds.
Ayton’s dominance allowed Hayes to “take a chill day,” the backup center joked. But both big men aren’t resting on one successful game.
“We’re not gonna sit here and take this for granted,” Ayton said. “We have to take care of home court, and that’s our job.”
Gang’s all here
Luka Doncic, left, and Austin Reaves chat as they sit on the bench during Game 1 against Houston.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Each seat in Crypto.com Arena for Game 1 was carefully decorated with a yellow T-shirt featuring every Lakers player and Redick. Each photo, a little black-and-white headshot, was the same size arranged in a grid, symbolizing unity from everyone on the Lakers’ bench. On the free T-shirt and in real life, the Lakers brought the entire band together just in time for the playoffs as Luka Doncic reunited with the team Saturday.
The superstar guard is still out indefinitely while rehabbing a Grade 2 hamstring strain, but his presence on the bench at least offered a timely morale boost.
“I think people don’t know how much impact Luka has, not only on the court, but off the court,” forward Rui Hachimura said. “He’s a guy that always wants to be around with us. We love him just being around, just hanging out, talking. So, yeah, we’re happy that he’s back finally and he’s doing funny things always.”
While continuing treatment for his injury, Doncic’s role at practice was limited to rebounding and passing the ball in shooting drills. He and Reaves helped distract teammates during free-throw shooting drills at the end of practice Monday and engaged in a quick game of rock-paper-scissors while Jarred Vanderbilt was at the free-throw line. After their shared agent Bill Duffy helped Hayes get a Slovenian passport to potentially play internationally together, Doncic has been calling the 7-foot center from Cincinnati “my Slovenian brother.”
Doncic adds his joyful energy to a typically tense time. Maintaining that balance of lightness and focus has been key for the Lakers all season. Like how Redick often describes when Doncic is at his best, the Lakers look their best when they’re having fun too.
In the final seconds of Saturday’s Game 1, when the Lakers were dribbling out the clock, Hachimura was standing dutifully in the corner in front of the Lakers’ bench with his hands up ready for a pass. Doncic playfully smacked his teammate on the head several times.
Hachimura had no recollection of the moment. That’s just life with Doncic.
“I’m used to it,” Hachimura said.
On tap
Tuesday vs. Rockets, 7:30 p.m.
The Lakers have a chance to go up 2-0 in a playoff series for the first time since the 2020 NBA Finals.
Friday at Rockets, 5 p.m. PDT
The Lakers have lost nine consecutive road playoff games. The last postseason win on the road came in Game 1 of the second round in 2023 against Golden State. The Lakers won that series in six and advanced to the Western Conference finals.
Sunday at Rockets, 6:30 p.m. PDT
Maybe the Lakers are going for the sweep Sunday. If not, they will at least get two days’ rest before Game 5 back in L.A.
Status report
Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain)
Doncic is still out indefinitely but at least reunited with the team Saturday after returning from Spain. Redick said Doncic is in good spirits to be back with his teammates, and he sat on the bench for Saturday’s Game 1.
Austin Reaves (left oblique strain)
Reaves is working diligently with hopes of returning this postseason. Like Doncic, he had an initial four- to six-week recovery timeline, which would make April 30 the roughly four-week mark.
Kevin Durant (right knee contusion)
The Rockets superstar missed Game 1 after banging his knee in practice last week. He was a game-time decision Saturday and remains questionable for Tuesday’s Game 2.
Favorite thing I ate this week
Duck tsukune meatballs and wagyu beef tongue skewers from RVR in Venice.
(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
My friends heard conflicting opinions about RVR — a new izakaya on Abbot Kinney — so, naturally, we had to investigate.
Our verdict is all the thumbs up.
The menu rotates so often that between sitting down and ordering, our server handed us new menus because the kitchen got a different batch of produce from the farmers market that morning.
There were waves of small shareable plates and we started with the duck tsukune meatballs and wagyu beef tongue skewers (pictured). The meatballs are among the most popular dishes on the menu, our server told us. The beef tongue wasn’t popular at all, he said, but they were his favorite. We’re on his side. He said the beef tongue is brined for days in dashi, and the care shows in the beautifully tender pieces; we cut one of the cubes with the skewer that it came on.
We had a seasonal blood orange and fennel salad, pan fried pork rib gyoza that came with a unique yozu kosho sauce, and wagyu beef keema curry. The miso-orange glaze-soaked mochi beignets were the ideal sweet treat.
WASHINGTON — Amid the din of battle over the federal budget, President Clinton summoned Democratic congressional leaders to the White House last week and gave them an unexpectedly upbeat message: With a little discipline and a little luck, they might win this fight yet.
“The Republicans are very disciplined and very good,” Clinton warned his war council around the Cabinet Room’s long mahogany table, according to people who were present. “But we’re making headway.”
Congress’ drive to cut the budget this spring was launched by triumphant GOP leaders, confident that they had a mandate from voters to slash government programs and shrink the federal budget deficit to zero.
But after three months of rhetorical battle, Clinton believes that he has begun to turn the Republicans’ issue around–into a major political opportunity for himself.
The budget battle is “the centerpiece” of Clinton’s work this year, said White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta. “It will determine a lot about the priorities of the country; it will determine a lot about our economy in the future; it will determine a lot about the role of government.”
It will also determine a lot about how voters view Clinton as the election year of 1996 approaches. “It . . . will better define who the President of the United States is, and I think that’s helpful,” Panetta said in an interview.
Transforming budget-cutting from a liability into an asset would be a startling turnaround for a President whom Republicans succeeded in painting as a “tax-and-spend Democrat” only last year. But public opinion polls read raptly by White House aides suggest that the voters are moving Clinton’s way: An ABC News-Washington Post poll last week found that while respondents by a wide margin once trusted Congress over Clinton to deal with the deficit, the President has nearly closed the gap.
Clinton’s biting attacks on GOP plans to shrink Medicare, education and veterans programs have helped lift his approval rating in the poll to 51%, its highest level in a year.
White House strategists said they were not worried that the House Republicans passed their GOP budget plan last week, as was long expected. More important, they said, was that Clinton apparently succeeded with his threat to veto a GOP spending-cut bill, since the GOP leadership acknowledged that they probably wouldn’t have the votes to override a veto. It showed that the President can still make himself relevant.
Clinton is betting that House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other GOP leaders overestimated the public’s desire for cutting government–especially once the public realizes that the savings would come not only from unpopular programs, such as welfare and foreign aid, but also from middle-class benefits.
Political strategists note that Clinton’s argument may attract some swing voters–especially white women older than 35, one of the President’s critical demographic targets. Making up more than one-fourth of the electorate, they largely voted for Clinton in 1992, abandoned the Democrats in 1994–and could be key to his prospects in 1996.
At the same time, Clinton and his aides believe that they must eventually seek a budget compromise with the Republicans–if only to avoid the charge that the President has become irrelevant to the process of shrinking the government, a goal most voters still want.
“Preserver of the Big Government status quo is not a place you can end up in a fight this big,” one presidential adviser said.
So Clinton, Panetta and other aides have devised a two-part strategy to try to stop the GOP juggernaut and turn the budget battle to their advantage.
The first phase has been to shift the topic away from the deficit, force the public to confront the kind of cuts the Republicans want and paint the GOP as heartless vandals who would loot Medicare and student loans to give tax cuts to the wealthy.
“Less government? That’s not the issue. The issue is: Do you want your kids to go to college?” Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said.
If that tactic works, and Republicans retreat from their proposed spending and tax cuts, then the Administration wants to sit down and try to negotiate a compromise, a budget “that might be nobody’s first choice but that is really quite a good budget,” said Alice Rivlin, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
But Clinton doesn’t want to begin those negotiations until “his leverage is at a peak,” Panetta said, meaning the President wants to continue whipping up public opposition to GOP budget cuts and threatening to veto a budget he doesn’t like, at least for a while.
“The Republicans are beginning the budget triage, amputations and decapitations, and for the moment the Democrats are happy to sit in the surgical theater and watch the blood flow,” said Ross K. Baker, an expert on Congress at Rutgers University.
Already, however, Panetta and other Administration officials have begun sending signals to Capitol Hill about the kind of deal Clinton might eventually want to make.
“Yes, we want additional deficit reduction,” Panetta said. “But in order to engage, the Republicans have to back off these huge tax cuts, they have to recognize that any Medicare or Medicaid savings have to be done in the context of [health care] reform, and they have to be willing to protect education as a key investment.” Almost everything else is “on the table,” he said.
One key concession the White House has quietly offered: Clinton is willing to drop most or all of his proposed $500-per-child tax credit–the core of his long-promised “middle-class tax cut”–if Congress agrees to make college tuition tax-deductible.
Those early signals suggest to some members of Congress, including some worried liberal Democrats, that Clinton may be willing to give up quite a lot–except for his major concerns on Medicare, Medicaid and education–for the chance to claim a victory.
When bargaining can begin in earnest depends mostly on the GOP’s tolerance for pain. Aides say Clinton will stay on the attack for at least three weeks as Republicans pass their budget resolutions and begin making decisions on the discretionary portion of the budget.
But White House officials hope that the solid Republican line will begin to fracture as members of Congress read the mood of their constituents. Some in Congress predict a turning point could come as early as the Memorial Day recess, which begins Saturday, but others warn that it might be September before negotiations start.
The White House strategy is not assured of success, of course. At least three problems loom:
First, Clinton has succeeded only partially in changing the focus of the debate from deficits to middle-class benefits. By a wide margin, the public still says it wants a balanced federal budget, with no deficit. The President’s dirty little secret is that he doesn’t think a balanced budget can be achieved in the foreseeable future at reasonable cost.
In fact, the public is inconsistent on these issues. Large majorities say they want to balance the budget, but equally large majorities say they are opposed to significant cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, student loans and other education programs.
Second, Democrats aren’t entirely unified behind Clinton’s strategy, which is why the President spent much of his meeting in the Cabinet Room last week appealing for more discipline.
Some strains were already evident in the closed-door session, participants said. House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) urged Clinton to give the Republicans no quarter, but Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said: “It’s not enough to complain; we need to say where we go from here.”
Third, and most important, the Republicans may not cooperate. “Democrats have no standing to say anything about what we are doing in the House and the Senate,” House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) said last week. Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) often disagree with each other, but they agree on one point: They don’t want Clinton to win credit for their hard work in fashioning a leaner federal budget. So they may be tempted to pass a budget bill of their own design and dare Clinton to veto it this fall.
That would lead to a messy confrontation that could require the federal government to halt routine operations until a solution is found.
“I don’t think anyone comes out a winner” in an impasse like that, Panetta said. “I don’t think the President wins; I don’t think Republicans or Democrats win.”
In the weeks before Justin Bieber’s headlining performance at this month’s Coachella festival — the 32-year-old teen-pop survivor’s first major concert after a lengthy stretch in the celebrity wilderness — speculation began to mount that he planned to play only songs from his recent “Swag” and “Swag II” albums.
And indeed, for 45 minutes or so last Saturday, it seemed like that was what he’d come to do as he sang new song after new song on Coachella’s giant main stage. But then he pulled out a laptop, fired up YouTube and started singing along with some of his old hits — a thrilling subversion of our expectations for a big festival set and a poignant act of self-examination by an artist who’s lived more than half of his life on our screens.
For the singer, Bieberchella was clearly a trip down memory lane. But it also offered the audience a chance to look back on a career that’s encompassed virtually every major shift in pop music over the last two decades.
Ahead of Coachella’s second weekend, then, here’s a list, ranked from worst to best, of every hit that Bieber has put inside the Top 10 of Billboard’s flagship singles chart, the Hot 100. Pop, of course, is an art as much as a science, meaning statistics get you only so far: Some important Bieber songs aren’t here, not least among them “Lonely,” which may be his finest vocal performance but stalled out at No. 12 on the chart. Other throwaways made it on the list thanks to Bieber’s gamesmanship or Billboard’s methodological quirks.
Yet these 27 songs tell a fascinating story about a boy, about a man, about a talent possibly more vital today than ever before.
27. ‘Never Say Never’ (peaked at No. 8 in March 2011)
Co-written and co-produced by the guy who would later top the Hot 100 with “Rude” by the band Magic, this booming kiddie-rap track was introduced as the theme song for Jaden Smith’s 2010 remake of “The Karate Kid” before Bieber used it in a 2011 concert film of the same title. The voice is high; the beat is blah.
26. ‘Monster’ (peaked at No. 8 in Dec. 2020)
Just a month after he dropped “Lonely,” Bieber returned to his teen-idol woes — far less movingly, alas — in this dreary duet with Shawn Mendes.
25. ‘Stuck With U’ (peaked at No. 1 in May 2020)
The nicest thing you can say about the doo-woppy “Stuck With U” is that Bieber and Ariana Grande donated the song’s proceeds to first responders navigating the early months of the COVID pandemic. Do not rewatch the video unless you want to be reminded of the smiley horrors of Zoom life.
24. ‘No Brainer’ (peaked at No. 5 in Aug. 2018)
We’ll get to Bieber’s convivial 2017 hook-up with DJ Khaled and friends. As for this shameless sequel, Khaled’s “another one” tag has never been less necessary.
23. ‘Cold Water’ (peaked at No. 2 in Aug. 2016)
Sleek. Pretty. Forgettable.
22. ‘As Long as You Love Me’ (peaked at No. 6 in Sept. 2012)
How high was Bieber riding as he prepared to release 2012’s “Believe” LP? High enough to swipe the title of the Backstreet Boys’ classic teen-pop ballad for this junior-dubstep jam. Stick around (or don’t) for Big Sean’s guest verse about needing “you” to spell both “us” and “trust.”
21. ‘Holy’ (peaked at No. 3 in Oct. 2020)
In which Bieber and Chance the Rapper preach about marriage like two horny youth pastors.
20. ‘Anyone’ (peaked at No. 6 in Jan. 2021)
What if Phil Collins had recorded “In Your Eyes” instead of Peter Gabriel?
19. ‘10,000 Hours’ (peaked at No. 4 in Oct. 2019)
Timed to commemorate his and Hailey Baldwin’s wedding among the salt marshes of South Carolina, Bieber’s crack at high-gloss country music was warmly welcomed by the Nashville establishment; it even spent two weeks atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. No surprise, really: To listen to earlier stuff by Dan + Shay, Bieber’s collaborators on “10,000 Hours,” is to hear how extensively white-soul singing had reshaped country by the early 2010s.
18. ‘I Don’t Care’ (peaked at No. 2 in May 2019)
Has any would-be song of the summer ever song-of-the-summered harder? Bieber and Ed Sheeran’s breezy dancehall bro-down was clearly modeled on the sound — and the success — of Sheeran’s “Shape of You.” (Call it “Shape of II.”) Yet the duo’s chemistry feels real enough to believe that all of these hooks — hey, they just happened.
17. ‘I’m the One’ (peaked at No. 1 in May 2017)
Bieber’s first Khaled collab has a merry bounce that softens the braggadocio from him, Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne, whose verse opens pricelessly like so: “Looking for the one?/ Well, b—, you looking at the one.” Fun chart fact per Billboard: The week after “I’m the One” bowed atop the Hot 100, Bieber became the first artist ever to score new No. 1s back to back when his remix of “Despacito” replaced “I’m the One.”
16. ‘Boyfriend’ (peaked at No. 2 in April 2012)
A decade after Justin Timberlake stepped out from NSYNC, JB blatantly ripped JT’s “Like I Love You” for this heavy-breathing flirtation. “Baby, take a chance or you’ll never, ever know/ I got money in my hands that I’d really like to blow,” Bieber pants over a spacey, Neptunes-style beat. (Later, he suggests fondue.) In an ironic twist, given the song’s all-grown-up-at-18 energy, “Boyfriend” was blocked from No. 1 by “We Are Young” from Jack Antonoff’s old band, Fun.
15. ‘Ghost’ (peaked at No. 5 in April 2022)
A hurtling lost-love lament that doubles as a farewell to a departed grandparent (as in the song’s music video, which stars the late Diane Keaton).
14. ‘Let Me Love You’ (peaked at No. 4 in Oct. 2016)
In the final Top 10 hit of Bieber’s EDM era, a pleading tenderness in the singer’s vocals cuts appealingly against DJ Snake’s strobing Sahara Tent beat.
13. ‘Baby’ (peaked at No. 5 in Feb. 2010)
New puppy, old love.
12. ‘Yummy’ (peaked at No. 2 in Jan. 2020)
“Hop in the Lambo, I’m on my way/ Drew House slippers on with a smile on my face,” Bieber sings — not the last time he’d plug one of his or his wife’s brands in a lyric. A country remix with Florida Georgia Line adds shout-outs to Waffle House and Chick-fil-A.
11. ‘What Do You Mean?’ (peaked at No. 1 in Sept. 2015)
The path to Bieber’s first No. 1 on the Hot 100 was cleared by a better, more interesting song that reframed him as a dreamboat experimentalist. (More on that one in a minute.) But if “What Do You Mean?” deploys a more conventional tropical-house production, it’s still built around one of the singer’s loveliest vocals. And the fake pan flute still hits.
10. ‘Despacito’ (peaked at No. 1 in May 2017)
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s pop-reggaeton seduction had already found an enormous audience among Latin music fans when Bieber jumped on a remix after hearing the song in a Colombian nightclub. Yet the star’s presence — in a Spanish-language chorus whose lyrics Bieber learned phonetically over the course of a four-hour recording session — turned “Despacito” into a global juggernaut. In the U.S., the song became the first Spanish-language chart-topper since “Macarena” two decades earlier; it also became something of a protest tune amid the anti-immigrant rhetoric of President Trump’s first term in office. Said Scooter Braun, Bieber’s then-manager, in a 2017 interview with The Times: “A song in Spanish is all over pop radio in an America where young Latino Americans should feel proud of themselves and their families’ native tongue.”
9. ‘Essence’ (peaked at No. 9 in Oct. 2021)
Like “Despacito,” this slinky Afrobeats track was a hit before Bieber got involved. (Among its fans: President Obama, who put it on his best of 2020 list.) What distinguishes the version with Bieber is how gently he slides between the Nigerian singers Wizkid and Tems, who both joined him for a rendition of “Essence” at Coachella.
8. ‘Stay’ (peaked at No. 1 in August 2021)
At a mere 2 minutes and 22 seconds, this breakneck electro-pop duet with Australia’s the Kid Laroi (who also put in a cameo at Coachella) is the shortest of Bieber’s 27 Top 10 singles. Yet with 63 weeks on the Hot 100, it’s also his longest-lived chart hit — and his most-streamed song on Spotify.
7. ‘Intentions’ (peaked at No. 5 in June 2020)
“Stay in the kitchen cooking up, got your own bread/ Heart full of equity, you’re an asset.”
6. ‘Beauty and a Beat’ (peaked at No. 5 in Jan. 2013)
The most fondly remembered of Bieber’s teen-idol hits anticipates the EDM makeover to come even as it stays rooted in his squeaky-clean persona: “We’re gonna party like it’s 3012 tonight” is truly something only a kid would say. Seven months after “Beauty and a Beat” peaked on the Hot 100, Bieber was infamously caught on video urinating in a mop bucket in a New York City restaurant kitchen; this song would be his last Top 10 single for more than two years.
5. ‘Peaches’ (peaked at No. 1 in April 2021)
A sumptuous R&B jam about procuring one’s peaches from Georgia and one’s weed from California, this three-way joint with Daniel Caesar and Giveon was nominated for record and song of the year at the 2022 Grammys. (It lost both prizes to another sumptuous R&B jam in Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open.”) Extra props here for the vivid contrast among the singers’ voices and for the Kool & the Gang-ish synth solo at the end.
4. ‘Love Yourself’ (peaked at No. 1 in Feb. 2016)
A sick burn delivered oh so sweetly.
3. ‘Where Are Ü Now’ (peaked at No. 8 in July 2015)
Behold the dreamboat experimentalist. In search of a fresh sound after Bucketgate, Bieber found it with Skrillex and Diplo, veteran dance-music producers who took a morose piano ballad that Bieber and his frequent accomplice Poo Bear had demoed and turned it into a glimmering boudoir-rave fantasia. “I was like, ‘Diplo, Skrillex — I don’t really know if that’s, like, where I wanna go,’” Bieber later told the New York Times. “They did it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is blowing my mind.’”
2. ‘Daisies’ (peaked at No. 2 in July 2025)
Is putting a nine-month-old song at No. 2 on this list an act of recency bias? Maybe. But what a song! Against a bracingly lo-fi guitar lick played by his pal Mk.gee, Bieber sings with beautifully understated soul about coming into an emotional maturity he admits he avoided for too long.
1. ‘Sorry’ (peaked at No. 1 in Jan. 2016)
A plea, a flex, a come-on — this delirious pop masterpiece contains multitudes. “Is it too late now to say sorry?” Bieber asks, and the trick of a song born from a branding problem is that it summons the sensation of endless ascent.
At a Monday event during which six Bruins were drafted among the first 18 picks — a WNBA record — the Sparks didn’t have their first pick until No. 20 in the second round.
Two years earlier, they had traded away their first-round pick for the rights to draft the exciting Rickea Jackson.
Whom they recently traded to Chicago for somebody named Ariel Atkins.
You can see where we’re going with this…
One of the WNBA’s founding franchises, the failure-ridden Sparks enter the league’s 30th season attempting to break a five-year playoff drought with an understandable yet unremarkable game plan.
They’re going old. They don’t have a choice. Five years of lottery missteps have produced exactly one current Sparks player, Cameron Brink, a social media star who’s been an injured basketball bust.
While the national champion Bruins spent Monday dancing across the league from Toronto to Chicago, the Sparks didn’t get a chance to acquire any of them, and wound up with three late picks who will raise no eyebrows and play few minutes.
So, yeah, old.
When the Sparks open the season by hosting defending champion Las Vegas May 10, their fans are going to say, “Oh yeah!” followed by a resounding chorus of, “Oh no!”
Oh yeah, they’re bringing back longtime Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, a bruising inside force for 14 seasons. She played well for Seattle last year, but, oh no, she’ll be 36 during the season, and one wonders when the physicality will take its toll.
Oh yeah, they’re bringing back Erica Wheeler, who played strong minutes here several years ago. But, oh no, she played for three teams in the last four years and will be 35 during the season.
Oh yeah, they’re bringing in Atkins, who once won a WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics. But, oh no, that was seven years ago, and she’s bounced around with six international teams and two WNBA teams since.
Those three veterans will be joining a team with two returning starters — Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby — but little else.
The league’s celebrated new CBA made all these players rich, but did little for the Sparks, who were unable to make a dent in the league-wide free agent market and were out of decent draft picks and so must survive for one more season before getting a shot at JuJu Watkins.
So they should tank? No! Not yet! I’ve got season tickets! But you’ve got to wonder. And if this aging band gets off to a slow start, you’ve got to wonder if they’re wondering.
“I’m super excited about the roster we have,” said coach Lynne Roberts on a Zoom call Monday night. “We brought in some tremendous leadership.”
But they also lost some tremendous youth by giving up on Jackson, who averaged nearly 15 points last season and provided much-needed energy to another deadly dull squad. While the Sparks made nice with her publicly, one can read between the lines on the following Zoom quote from general manager Raegan Pebley.
”Loved having her here … she’ll be successful wherever she goes,” said Pebley of Jackson. “But we’re focused on winning a championship and finding that fit and balance and getting all those pieces locked in with each other.”
Here’s guessing Jackson, an independent spirit, was never quite locked in. And now she’s locked out of a new culture that will be solid and steady… but will they be any good?
“You have to have that balance of youth and experience and I think our roster has nailed that,” said Pebley.
Who knows? Will Brink stop trying to be an influencer long enough to be an inside presence? Will Rae Burrell take another step in her fifth season? Can the new veterans stay healthy enough to inspire the kids, who could include draft picks Ta’Niya Latson, Chance Gray and Amelia Hassett? Can Roberts, a relative WNBA newcomer who lost more than half of her games in her debut last season, actually coach?
They’ve already had one win with the ongoing construction of an $150-million El Segundo practice facility, which should open next year and serve to attract the type of stars that a Los Angeles team deserves.
They have another steady win with a Crypto.com Arena fan-friendly game experience that ranks among the best in this city’s sports landscape.
Now they just need wins on the scoreboard, lots of them, enough to restore faith in what was once one of this city’s shining basketball operations.
The odds aren’t good — going old usually means going home early — but what else can they do? No Bruins are walking through that door. For at least one more year, the Sparks have to marinate in their past mistakes and hope that their veterans can somehow lay a foundation for their future..
“This isn’t a slow roll,” said Roberts. “We want to do it.”
The rest of the league, which has greatly benefited from five years of Sparks’ bad basketball decisions, will be waiting.
Their passionate fans, who have loyally kept showing up for the last five years to watch the lousy basketball those decisions have wrought, will be wanting.
