climb

Laura and Ste Knowles, from St Helens in Merseyside, were left red-faced after a hilarious incident was caught on camera during their holiday in Tenerife, Spain

A couple were left in stitches after one of them was caught on camera face-planting onto the pavement while attempting to ride a plastic elephant at a Spanish holiday resort.

Most people will have recollections of doing something daft and amusing after having had a tipple too many. For one pair, from St Helens in Merseyside, this recently occurred during their getaway in Tenerife in Spain, which resulted in them face-planting on the street. Laura and Ste Knowles had indulged in “a few champagne cocktails” before the comical accident, which was recorded and subsequently posted on social media. After finding the bright yellow elephant outside a shop, 42-year-old Laura challenged her partner Ste, 44, to clamber on top for an amusing snap.

If you’ve previously visited Tenerife, you might recognise the yellow elephant, as it’s the renowned logo of the Fund Grube department store chain, which sells an extensive range of cosmetics, perfumes, and jewellery at prices frequently lower than in other European nations, and can be discovered in numerous locations throughout Tenerife.

However, the pair’s boozy dare rapidly transformed into a catastrophe as Ste lost his footing and tumbled forwards, causing both him and the elephant to crash to the pavement.

The tumble left the furious shop owner absolutely livid, as Laura remembered: “She chased us up the street a bit.”

The duo, from St Helens, Merseyside, had been wandering along the Veronicas strip in Playa de las Américas, Tenerife, Spain, when they encountered the plastic creature. Laura went onto reveal it was her idea for Ste to climb onto the elephant.

“We’d had a few champagne cocktails and I stupidly suggested to Ste to climb on the elephant for a photo,” Laura explained. “I thought it was like the Superlambanana sculpture in Liverpool.

“But it wasn’t held down and it was as light as a feather. So he fell and hit the deck, taking it with him,” Laura added. “The shop owner was livid.”

She continued to say: “It had a few bumps on it so obviously it had happened before, but she chased us up the street a bit.”

The pair’s clip became an internet sensation on TikTok, amassing more than 370,000 views and hundreds of responses from entertained followers.

“It didn’t gone so well,” one viewer commented, while another jokingly penned: “Us Brits just love to say sorry! Now was he saying sorry to the elephant for knocking it over?”

“Darling hold my hand… Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday,” another person quipped.

Nevertheless, not everyone was amused, as some grumbled it was ‘typical’ holidaymaker behaviour that residents usually detest, which has recently sparked demonstrations across numerous popular holiday spots in Europe, including Tenerife.

“Quality tourism,” one person moaned, while someone else added: “Tourist Go Home.”

That it took until Sunday’s three-wicket win over India for them to complete their first ODI chase over 300, taking back their record for the highest in the women’s 50-over format, is, in truth, a compliment to the bowlers that have worn canary yellow (OK, Australia gold) over the past 50 years.

It is hard for their batters to hold a record if never given the chance.

Ultimately, the result of Australia conceding 330 was captain Alyssa Healy being given an opportunity to produce her latest masterpiece.

Then best known as the 19-year-old niece of renowned former Aussie wicketkeeper Ian, she debuted in 2010 after her nation failed to win either of the 20 or 50-over World Cups held the previous year and has seen it all through 15 trophy-laden years since.

A T20 World Cup win came three months after her bow and seven world titles have followed from 10 attempts across formats.

The gritty keeper was also there in Derby in 2017 when a semi-final defeat by India briefly halted the run of success.

That loss “drove us to rethink our standards,” Healy said this week.

At the next 50-over World Cup in New Zealand, Healy made 170 against England in the final and was named player of the tournament. She ensured her country would not fall short again.

Whether this latest epic knock topped that previous effort can be debated.

Some will argue the case for the pressure of a final. Others can counter with the challenge that comes when facing a record target and a raucous India-supporting crowd of 20,000.

What is certain is this century was far harder to see coming.

The Christchurch carnage in 2022 came as she topped the run-scoring charts, but this knock followed six innings in India since the start of last month in which she had failed to pass 30.

“If you’ve been watching me in the nets, it’s been a frustrating experience because I feel like I’ve had no rhythm whatsoever,” said Healy.

“But once you step out on the field, your competitive instincts kick in and you just lock into the contest.”

Despite a difficult start to the year, Tesla (TSLA 2.27%) stock is now up by double digits in 2025. With a market cap of $1.3 trillion, however, many investors are wondering how much additional growth potential shares offer. Some analysts think that Tesla can become a $2 trillion business by the end of 2026. But there are some key risks to be aware of before loading up on Tesla stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

Tesla trades at a steep premium to Rivian and Lucid Group

The biggest risk facing Tesla right now is the stock’s premium valuation. Shares trade at a price-to-sales ratio of around 16. Other electric car stocks like Lucid Group and Rivian have stocks that trade between 3 and 7 times sales. According to this metric, Tesla trades at a 100% to 400% premium over the competition. That’s the case even though competitors like Rivian and Lucid have market caps under $20 billion, theoretically providing much longer growth runways versus Tesla’s $1.3 trillion valuation.

Of course, paying a high premium isn’t a problem if the company in question is growing fast enough to justify such a valuation. A company that trades at 16 times trailing sales, for instance, would trade at just 8 times sales one year from now if revenues grew by 100%. That is far from the case for Tesla, however.

This year, analysts expect Tesla’s sales to fall by around 5%. For comparison, Lucid and Rivian are expected to see sales grow by 61% and 6%, respectively. Next year, analysts do expect positive growth to return for Tesla, with 20% sales growth expected. But Lucid and Rivian are still expected to see higher sales growth than Tesla, with 93% and 33% expected sales growth, respectively.

So at least on a price-to-sales basis, Tesla shares trade at a hefty premium to both Lucid and Rivian even though its expected sales growth both this year and next year are below that of both companies. What’s up with that?

To be sure, competitors like Rivian and Lucid don’t have the scale or brand name recognition that Tesla does. But as mentioned, both also have arguably much more room to grow long term. The main differentiator is current or near-term growth, but long term growth potential in a new and exciting — but possibly overhyped — business segment: robotaxis.

Source: Getty Images

Robotaxis could become a $1 trillion business for Tesla

Analysts are very bullish on Tesla’s robotaxi dreams. The company launched a pilot version of its autonomous taxi service this summer in Austin, Texas. Additional cities like San Francisco may soon be on the way. Tesla CEO Elon Musk optimistically believes there could be 1 million or more Tesla robotaxi’s roaming the streets of America by the end of 2026.

How big could this business be for Tesla? Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, believes it could soon add $1 trillion to Tesla’s market cap. Cathie Wood, a high-profile, outspoken Tesla investor, believes the overall market could eventually be worth $10 trillion. Tesla is uniquely positioned to take on this market, with its large production facilities, multi-year investments in autonomous driving, and its sheer access to capital.

Even if Tesla’s robotaxi service stumbles in its first year — which many skeptics predict — the growth opportunity is clearly immense. And as mentioned, Tesla is uniquely capable of taking a leading role in this new industry. But as Reuters recently pointed out, “getting from dozens to millions of self-driving cars won’t be easy.” This should be viewed as a multi-decade opportunity for Tesla, not a near-term reality. Tesla’s bumpy rollout in Austin should be a testament to that fact.

Tesla’s stock price is reasonable for long-term investors who believe in the company’s robotaxi aspirations. But the premium is far too high for a simple EV manufacturer with smaller business segments in energy storage and generation. Tesla remains an exciting company to watch, but investors must be bullish on robotaxis over the long haul to justify a position.

Donald Trump says he can be the first Republican presidential nominee to win California since 1988, but his rhetoric on immigration, the environment and guns risks pushing the strongly Democratic state even further out of his reach.

In recent travels across the state, Trump has shown no inclination to modulate his language the way nominees normally do as they turn from their party’s primary toward a wider general-election audience.

Instead, he has emphasized positions that are not only out of step with independents and Democrats whose support he would need to carry California, but also with many fellow Republicans in the state.

“He’s reinforcing all of the negative stereotypes of the Republican brand that have been hurting us for 20 years, which is a peculiar approach to putting California back in play,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican campaign consultant in Sacramento.

At rallies in Anaheim, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Redding over the last week, Trump has riled up overwhelmingly white crowds with his call to build a wall along the southern border and force Mexico to pay for it.

“It’s going to be a big, fat, beautiful wall!” Trump shouted to cheering supporters Thursday night in San Jose.

More than 7 in 10 Californians oppose building a border wall, according to a poll last month by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Though Republicans favored the proposal, they are a sharply diminished force in California elections, thanks largely to a GOP hard line on illegal immigration that has turned away the state’s growing Latino and Asian population. The party’s share of California voters has slid to 27%.

In San Diego last week, Trump deepened his trouble with Latinos as he attacked the judge overseeing a fraud lawsuit against Trump University, his defunct real estate program, calling the judge a Mexican and saying, “I think that’s fine.”

He went further Thursday and Friday, saying the ethnic heritage of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, made it a conflict of interest for him to handle the case. “He’s a Mexican,” Trump told CNN. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.”

Bill Carrick, a veteran California strategist running the U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Loretta Sanchez, called the initial remark “blatantly racist” and “blatantly stupid.”

“It just makes it harder for him to have any appeal to Latino voters at all – and a lot of other voters,” Carrick said.

Republican leaders have voiced similar concerns on a national scale. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Thursday that he worries Trump might drive Latinos from the Republican Party the way GOP nominee Barry Goldwater did with blacks after opposing the Civil Rights Act during the 1964 presidential race.

McConnell, who has endorsed Trump, told CNN that Trump made a “big mistake” last week by attacking Republican Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the nation’s first Latina governor.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump can be deft about calibrating his rhetoric at times, routinely muting some of his more controversial positions.

Apart from answering reporters’ questions, Trump rarely discusses his support for barring Muslims from entering the U.S., punishing doctors who perform abortions, overturning the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, and deporting millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump also refuses to answer questions about his demand in 2011 that President Obama release his birth certificate to prove he was born in the U.S.

And he rarely talks about his belief that climate change is a hoax, a topic he often raised on Twitter in the years before his run for president – and one that could cause him trouble in California.

On the eve of his California visit last week, Trump told a petroleum conference in North Dakota that he would withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

“In a Trump administration, political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules,” he said.

But 8 in 10 Californians, including half of Republicans, viewed global warming as a serious threat to the state’s economy and quality of life, a Public Policy Institute survey found last year. And nearly two-thirds of Californians supported the state making its own policies separate from the federal government to address global warming.

At his California rallies, Trump has steered clear of climate change. But in Fresno, he mocked environmentalists, saying their misguided efforts “to protect a certain kind of 3-inch fish” were depriving farmers of sorely needed water.

It was a sharp break with the custom of California Republicans to use support for environmental protections to appeal to Democrats and the independents who side with them in most statewide elections.

The state’s last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, made efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions a cornerstone of his 2006 reelection campaign. Schwarzenegger also broke with conservatives in his party on immigration, supporting a path to citizenship for many of those in the country illegally.

When he was first elected in the 2003 recall election, Schwarzenegger also had advantages Trump will not: Most Californians thought the state was moving in the wrong direction, and they strongly disapproved of its Democratic leadership.

“That’s not the mood in California now,” said pollster Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California.

Trump’s staunch opposition to gun control could also pose problems in the state, where polls have found most voters believe in stronger restrictions on access to firearms. At all of his campaign stops here, Trump has touted his endorsement by the National Rifle Assn. and accused his presumed Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, of trying to abolish the 2nd Amendment.

“We’re going to keep our guns — don’t worry about it,” Trump told the crowd in Sacramento. “You need them.”

Beth Miller, a Republican campaign consultant in Sacramento, frets that Trump could cause long-term harm to GOP candidates in California who embrace his candidacy.

“It could potentially backfire for years to come,” she said. “I think there are going to be a lot of Republican candidates who are going to have to very delicately distance themselves from Donald Trump’s rhetoric.”

As for Trump himself, his prospects in California are grim, according to the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. It found that 71% of California voters had an unfavorable impression of him, and Clinton would beat him in a hypothetical November match up by 26 points.

ALSO

Speaker Paul Ryan endorses Donald Trump

Clinton says Trump’s foreign policy agenda is ‘dangerously incoherent’

Just like Clinton, Obama has an argument against what Donald Trump says about foreign policy

[email protected]

Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

June 3, 5:41 p.m.: This article was updated with additional remarks by Trump.

June 2, 8:09 p.m.: This article was updated with a quote from Trump in San Jose.

“Splitsville” lands at a moment when every comedy released to theaters feels like a battle cry, an attempt to defend audiences’ rights to have a good time at the movies.

Directed by Michael Angelo Covino, who also produces, co-writes and co-stars alongside Kyle Marvin, the film continues the duo’s comic exploration of bad choices, in which men predictably make poor decisions and are depicted as vain, infantile and often motivated by their worst impulses. (It’s funny because it’s true.)

As the movie begins, Carey (Marvin) is married to Ashley (Adria Arjona), who tells him she has been seeing other people and wants a divorce. He seeks solace from his best friend Paul (Covino) and his wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson), who tell Carey they are in an open relationship. Soon Carey sleeps with Julie and all sorts of jealousies and complicated feelings arise among the four of them.

“Splitsville” — the title appears briefly onscreen as the neon sign of a dessert stand — is outwardly a satire of bourgeois aspirations, modern marriage and how no one really understands the dynamics of what goes on with other couples. But the film is actually more concerned with the absurdities of male friendship, to the extent that Covino and Marvin are perennially enamored of themselves and can’t help from centering their own antics.

Their previous movie, “The Climb,” was also about two friends locked into an up-and-down relationship alternating between of moments of betrayal and gestures of support. While they are not playing the same specific characters from “The Climb,” they are very much playing the same type. Covino is seemingly more smooth and together, though riddled with insecurities, while Marvin initially appears hapless and vulnerable, with an emotional intelligence that reveals him to be savvier than he first appears. So they basically meet in the middle.

The entire movie has a disappointing air of smug self-regard about it, with an expectation the audience will adore everything about the characters as much as they do. What at moments feels like a nascent interrogation of contemporary masculinity ultimately suffers from the very impulses it seems to want to parody. (We hear numerous times that one of them is generously endowed.)

Both Arjona and Johnson are asked to play variations on personas they have depicted elsewhere. Arjona has the same earthy warmth she did in “Hit Man,” while Johnson exhibits a placid air of controlled chaos similar to what she showed earlier this year in “Materialists.” They undoubtedly elevate the movie, though too often their characters feel like game pieces manipulated on a board controlled by the film’s male leads.

Johnson and Arjona are movie stars, beguiling and captivating. Covino and Marvin seem like a couple of guys who somehow wandered onscreen. The tension is never reconciled and is constantly throwing the story off balance.

In “The Climb,” there is a moment where Covino and Marvin briefly wrestle, a ludicrous sight of two grown men tussling on the ground. Here that beat expands into a full-blown fight scene that goes on for more than six minutes, as Paul attacks Carey after learning he slept with Julie. Smashing furniture, breaking drywall, destroying a fish tank (while saving the fish) and somehow singeing off Carey’s eyebrows, the fight scene is the movie’s centerpiece, one of its major selling points and indicative of everything that both works and doesn’t. It is funny, escalating ridiculously, but it is also too outlandish for the characters and the story and only really exists as something that Covino and Marvin simply wanted to do for themselves.

They’re good at jokes but much weaker on meaning, stumbling when it comes to making it all add up to something. With a background in advertising, Marvin and Covino are strong on short, punchy ideas conveyed through strong visuals. They may eventually be better served by making work they do not appear in — their performances are the weakest thing about their movies so far. Even as they remain a promising duo, “Splitsville” never quite fully comes together.

Published on
12/08/2025 – 15:34 GMT+2

ADVERTISEMENT

Russian markets are reacting positively to the upcoming visit by President Vladimir Putin to the United States — his first since 2015 — with the MOEX Russia Index climbing above 2,950 points, its highest level since late April.

The index initially rose last Wednesday as Putin met with Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow. It then began to climb again as the location of the Trump-Putin summit was announced on Friday.

On Tuesday at around 15.15 CEST, the MOEX was trading at 2,959.63, a bump of 1.2% compared to its close at around 2,924.63 on Friday.

Investors are hopeful about a diplomatic breakthrough at the upcoming Trump–Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, likely counting on an easing of sanctions or new trade channels being unlocked.

The jump was buoyed by Russian energy giants, with Gazprom shares climbing 3.65% and Novatek surged 5.44%, according to the Moscow Times.

Geopolitical buzz

Geopolitical buzz can swing markets as investors are encouraged by the possibility of conflict resolution or escalation.

Just the prospect of high-level talks can trigger climbs in sectors tied to trade, energy or infrastructure.

However, uncertainty or lack of results can just as quickly reverse the gains, which could happen if the much-anticipated summit does not produce any tangible results — something that is likely due to the fact that European powers are so far not involved in the talks between Trump and Putin.

It also remains unclear how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be incorporated in the talks, as he and European powers insist there can be no lasting deal without Kyiv agreeing to it as well.

Before the 2022 sanctions caused by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the MOEX Russia Index was trading near record highs above 3,800 points in late 2021, backed by strong oil prices and post-pandemic recovery momentum.

The revamped Club World Cup has not received universal acclaim but an unforgettable last-16 tie will be talked about in all corners of the globe.

Al-Hilal clung on in the first half and were fortunate to only be 1-0 down thanks to goalkeeper Bono’s heroics but they recovered to go ahead in the second period.

They were twice pegged back but Marcos Leonardo delivered the decisive blow and once the final whistle was blown, staff and substitutes poured on to the pitch to enjoy the moment with their players.

The joyous Al-Hilal fans, a large cluster of whom were directly behind the dugout, waved the blue flags of the club and the green and white of the country.

Exiting the Camping World Stadium, travelling supporters packed out the concourses, dancing and singing “ole, ole ole ole”, while Saudi journalists hugged and kissed each other in the post-match news conference room.

One walked in with wide eyes and arms raised, screaming “Mabrook” in Arabic, translating as “congratulations”, almost in disbelief as to what he had witnessed.

A journalist from the media outlet Arryadia called the result “one of the biggest in the history of Saudi football” – but added that the country’s shock 2-1 win over Argentina at the 2022 World Cup will “always be top”.

A lot of money has been spent to try to grow the Saudi game’s profile – more than £700m has gone on bringing players to the Pro League, while Portugal great Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Al-Nassr two and a half years ago was a significant signing.

Saudi Arabia will also host the 2034 World Cup – a decision that has been defended by Fifa president Gianni Infantino amid significant criticism – with the human rights campaign group Amnesty International describing it as “reckless”.

Infantino – the man behind the new 32-team Club World Cup format – has argued that staging the World Cup in the Gulf kingdom can be a catalyst for social improvements.

Saudi Arabia has faced years of scrutiny over its human rights and environmental record. Its World Cup bid was backed by the Football Association in December after it received assurances that all fans would be welcome.

The Saudi bid for the World Cup was unopposed, as Australia – the only other potential candidate – decided not to enter the running, hinting it was futile to do so after being given less than a month by Fifa to mount a challenge.

Fifa stood by a fast-tracked process that critics argued lacked transparency. They suggested it effectively paved the way for the Saudis thanks to a decision that only bids from Asia and Oceania would be considered.

Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who joined Al-Hilal from Lazio in 2023, was asked about the disapproval players have received in leaving Europe for the riches of the Middle East.

“Let’s see now if they will criticise us,” he said. “We showed them it’s not like they are speaking about the league.

“We show against Real Madrid, Salzburg, Pachuca and tonight. I hope we will continue to show it.”

Former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly, who scored in extra time, added: “We knew it would be difficult against one of the best in the world.

“We wanted to show our talents. We are so happy because we wanted to show Al-Hilal had the talent to be here.”

Rory McIlroy says he is looking forward to climbing “another mountain” by winning an Open Championship on home soil after ending a frustrating US Open on a positive note.

The Northern Irishman has struggled since his career Grand Slam-clinching victory at the Masters in April, but carded an encouraging three-under 67 to close out his week at Oakmont on seven over.

The 36-year-old says he will play in next week’s Travelers Championship before taking a couple of weeks off to “get myself in the right frame of mind” for July’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where he missed the cut in 2019.

“I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb,” said the world number two.

“An Open at Portrush is certainly one of those.”

The five-time major champion added: “If I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me.

“I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the past few weeks.

“But getting home and having a couple weeks off, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”