Explosions heard in the port cities of Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Chabahar, Bandar-e Deyr and Asaluyeh as US bombs Iran for a third time this week.
Published On 12 Jul 202612 Jul 2026
Share
A UK travel company has entered administration with future trips cancelled.
Groupia Ltd, which used to create group-based trips within the UK and Europe including hen and stag dos, weekend adventures, spa days and ski trips, has shut down.
More than 750,000 people have travelled with the company since it opened in 2002, with destinations including Prague and Barcelona.
The company also traded under other names including Groupia Golf, GoHen, StagWeb, Groupia School Trips and Company Away Days.
According to the company’s website, Groupia Ltd entered administration on June 16.
The website states: “Nigel Fox and Christopher Marsden of S&W Partners LLP appointed as Joint Administrators.
Read more on travel inspo
“The Company has now ceased taking new bookings, and arrangements are in place with ABTOT (a UK government-approved travel protection scheme) to support customers with existing bookings.”
For anyone who had an upcoming event or holiday on or before August 31, “ABTOT have arrangements in place”with events “expected to go ahead as planned”.
Travellers can use the company’s existing VIP booking system to manage their bookings.
On the other hand, if you had something booked from September 1 onwards, the website states: “Your event will unfortunately be cancelled and is subject to a refund claim.”
You can claim back in different ways – either by requesting a credit card refund or a debit card back-charge, with different letters for each available on the company’s website for customers can send to their banks.
There is also an option for anyone who paid a different way to either credit or debit cards.
The website also warns that refunds might take up to six weeks.
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
Explosions hit Qeshm Island, ports along Strait of Hormuz after Trump threatens to hit Iran ‘very hard’.
Published On 10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026
The United States has launched fresh strikes against “multiple targets” in Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, in a fresh escalation that prompted Tehran to declare the Strait of Hormuz closed to “all types of vessels”.
The US military said the strikes late on Wednesday were “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression”, as Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm Island and in the cities of Bandar Abbas and Sirik along the Strait of Hormuz.
list of 4 itemsend of list
Blasts also hit the southern city of Kargan, wounding at least two people.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused the US of “repeated violations” of their April ceasefire, and said the Strait of Hormuz was “closed until further notice”.
It said all traffic in the vital waterway, including oil tankers and commercial vessels, would be affected, and firmly rejected the US’s previous claims that it had helped ships pass through the strait.
The IRGC subsequently added that “two oil tankers attempting to illegally pass through the strait were hit”.
The escalation comes a day after the US and Iran exchanged tit-for-tat strikes over the downing of a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier, Trump said the US would hit Iran “very hard”.
“We’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal. But they keep stringing us along. They keep playing us for suckers because you know what? They dealt with some very stupid presidents. I have to say that I’m embarrassed to say it,” he told reporters at the White House.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian slammed Trump’s threat in a post on X.
“Critical infrastructures are the lifeblood of the people. Threats to target them – from transportation networks to the electricity and water industries – are not a show of strength but a sign of desperation in the face of a nation’s will,” he wrote.
“Iran, relying on the knowledge and capabilities of its specialists, national unity, and solidarity, will stand firm against any pressure or threat,” he added.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman cut deeper into the lead of reality television personality Spencer Pratt on Saturday, as his lead slimmed to just a single percentage point.
Pratt fell to just over 27% of the vote while Raman jumped up to slightly over 26%, according to the results from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder. Pratt now leads Raman by just 7,494 votes.
“We’ve seen Nithya Raman catching up on every update and the last two in particular she’s accelerated,” said Paul Mitchell, vice president of the bipartisan voter data firm Political Data Inc. “She’s continued to gain at a rate that means she will eventually catch up unless Pratt starts getting some ballots coming in that are either geographically or demographically better for him.”
Democratic consultant Michael Trujillo, who doesn’t represent anyone in the mayoral race, said the results suggest Raman will surpass Pratt as more votes are counted.
“I think it’s over,” Trujillo said. “It appears Nithya will be in the runoff. Pratt doesn’t appear to be growing much more.”
The second-place finisher in the mayoral primary will face Mayor Karen Bass in a Nov. 3 runoff. On election night Tuesday, the Associated Press determined that Bass had secured enough votes to qualify for the runoff.
Pratt has been in second place since then, but Raman has gradually eroded his lead as mail-in ballots have been counted. The updated vote tally released Thursday showed Pratt with 29% of the vote and Raman with 23%.
With Friday’s update, Raman’s share had risen to 25% and Pratt’s shrank to 28%, for a 3 percentage point gap.
In the most recent batch of mail-in ballots counted, Raman received 23,514 votes, while Pratt gained 10,336.
Election analysts expected Raman to gain ground as the mail-in ballots were tallied, reasoning that many left-of-center voters — Raman’s base — held onto their mail-in ballots until the last minute as they waited to choose between Democratic gubernatorial candidates. They also say younger, more progressive voters tend to hold onto their ballots longer generally.
Although the mayor’s race is nonpartisan, Pratt is a Republican in a city that is overwhelmingly dominated by Democratic voters and elected officials.
A poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, which was co-sponsored by The Times, had Pratt running in third place behind Bass and Raman.
The poll of 1,351 likely voters conducted May 19-24 had Bass with 26% support, Raman with 25% support and Pratt with 22% support, with a 3% margin of error.
Los Angeles voters have become accustomed to seeing election results change as late-arriving ballots are tabulated. In the 2022 mayoral primary, real estate developer Rick Caruso led the pack for about a week before Bass pulled ahead.
Pratt was favored in many of the same neighborhoods that voted for Caruso, according to a Times analysis of precinct-level returns provided by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder on Wednesday, when an estimated 62% of the projected vote had been counted. Raman, by comparison, made inroads in progressive areas dominated by Bass four years ago.
Pratt, whose Pacific Palisades fire home burned in the January 2025 fire, was strong there and on the Westside, as well as in the San Fernando Valley communities of Encino, Woodland Hills, Chatsworth and Sunland-Tujunga.
Raman dominated precincts known for their progressive politics, particularly those with younger people in renter-heavy neighborhoods stretching from Hollywood to Highland Park, including her home base of Silver Lake.
Mail-in ballots with an election day postmark will continue to be accepted by county election officials through Tuesday.
Uganda has closed its border with neighbouring DR Congo for four weeks in an effort to contain an Ebola outbreak. Authorities say at least seven cases, including one death, have been confirmed, while hundreds are being monitored.
Published On 28 May 202628 May 2026
Share
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and my doctor told me to walk a mile every day. Now I’m 30 miles from home and don’t know what to do.
Get our Dodgers Dugout newsletter for insights, news and much more.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy such as personalizing your experience and ads.
Time to hear from a different voice about the Dodgers, and colleague and columnist Mirjam Swanson was kind enough to answer a few questions about the team.
Q. We are almost a third of the way through the season. How would you assess the Dodgers so far?
Swanson: Exactly where I thought they’d be! And where they thought they’d be, too, I imagine.
Even without overexerting themselves (or Shohei Ohtani), forever keeping the main thing, the main thing, they’re one of baseball’s best teams.
As I write this, at 31-19, they have the third-best winning percentage in baseball and, even more tellingly, they have the second-best run differential: plus-98. Only the Atlanta Braves’ plus-104 is better.
They’re cruising along, weathering the expected injuries, deep enough to not have to rush anyone back, hopeful that all their most important pieces will be primed for postseason play.
In other words: Another year in the life of the Dodgers.
Q. The Dodgers are still the favorites to win the World Series. Which NL team would you say has the best chance to unseat them in the postseason, and which AL team would you say is best right now?
Swanson: Whomever the Dodgers face in the NLDS.
Because that club — be it the Padres, Cubs, Cardinals, Phillies or whoever — will have to beat the Dodgers only three times. There’s much more variance in a best-of-five series than in a traditional seven-game set.
But beating this team four times? Good luck.
As far as the American League? Does it matter? The AL is to MLB what the Eastern Conference is to the NBA: Meh.
The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees are the only teams that have consistently played good ball all season. The Cleveland Guardians have gotten hot, so now they’re in the same proverbial ballpark standings-wise, at 30-22.
But after that: The A’s and the Chicago White Sox, who are barely .500, won’t intimidate anyone come playoff time.
And those are the only five teams in the AL that are above .500. Woof.
Q. I get emails from readers who say the Padres are now the Dodgers’ biggest rival, not the Giants? Your thoughts?
Swanson: When I was schooling at the University of Oregon, fans there thought of UCLA as our rival (the football teams were both good or getting good at the time).
I’m pretty certain UCLA didn’t think much about Oregon. Because obviously … USC.
That’s kind of how it seems with the Padres-Dodgers situation.
The Padres and their people really might have it in for the Dodgers.
But the Dodgers have an already established historical rival that overshadows any tug-of-war of the moment. They have the Giants.
I posed this question to a Dodger fan in my life to see what he’d say, reminding him that the Giants have stunk lately.
His response: “Good.”
Q. At some point, the window will close on this team and they won’t make the postseason. I don’t think the window closes this season, but do you think that time is coming soon?
Swanson: What’s soon? Five seasons? Four? I think as long as this ownership group is involved and this front office is calling the shots, they can play the game — on the field and off, salary cap or no. The Dodgers are going to be able to keep that window propped open.
They spend big, but they also build smartly, so they’ve got prospects lined up, just waiting for a crack at the regular big league opportunity. (See: Dalton Rushing, River Ryan, Hyeseong Kim, who would be regulars by now on almost any other team.)
Especially with a dozen teams getting in every season, I’d be shocked if they didn’t put some distance on the Braves’ 14-consecutive-playoff-appearance record, which the Dodgers should tie this season.
But, no, I suppose they won’t go on winning at this clip for the next 50 years.
The Dodger bullpen has pitched 38 consecutive scoreless innings. breaking the team mark of 33 set by the 1998 bullpen.
Dave Roberts: “They’re on a heater. It’s one of those things where when it doesn’t go well, they get the blame. And when it does go well, they don’t get a lot of credit. But they are getting the credit now, and it’s earned. Really happy for those guys. We spread those innings pretty well with a lot of different arms.”
The last time the bullpen gave up a run was in the seventh inning of a loss to the Giants on May 12. Blake Treinen gave up a run that inning. The Dodgers were 24-18 after that game. Since then:
Dodgers record: 9-2
Charlie Barnes, 2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 K
Jack Dreyer, 2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 4 K’s
Paul Gervase, 2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk
Edgardo Henriquez, 1-0, 5 1/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 6 K’s
Jonathan Hernández, 2 IP, 1 K
Kyle Hurt, 5 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Will Klein, 1 save, 3 IP, 4 K’s
Chayce McDermott, 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 K
Wyatt Mills, 2 IP, 3 walks, 2 K
Tanner Scott, 1-0, 1 save, 5 1/3 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 10 K’s
Blake Treinen, 3 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 2 walks, 3 K’s
Alex Vesia, 4 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 2 walks, 8 K’s
Total, 38 IP, 13 hits, 15 walks, 44 K’s
And that doesn’t include the two scoreless innings Klein threw as an opener the day Blake Snell was put on the IL.
Catcher Dalton Rushing: “They’re pretty relentless. “Everyone wants the ball, regardless of who you are, regardless of the situation. They want to go out there, they want to succeed, they want to show out of the team. I don’t think it’s really in their head, what they’re doing right now — I don’t think they’re aware of it. But that’s the good thing about it. They just go out there, throw the ball and good results come.”
This is the fifth-longest streak in history. The top four (according the baseball-reference.com):
45.2 innings: 1962 Detroit Tigers
44 innings: 1966 Kansas City Athletics
41 innings: 2016 Kansas City Royals
38.2 innings: 2017 Cleveland Indians
If you are having trouble remember the 1998 Dodgers bullpen, which had the previous team record, the main arms were: Jeff Shaw, Antonio Osuna, Scott Radinsky, Mark Guthrie and Jim Bruske.
And you know no one in the current bullpen wants to be the one to break the streak.
Best bullpen ERA in the majors:
Dodgers, 2.87
Boston, 3.00
Texas, 3.01
Seattle, 3.01
Atlanta, 3.08
Worst: Houston (no relation), 5.62
Former Dodger Chris Taylor broke his left forearm while playing for the Angels’ triple-A Salt Lake team last week. On Friday, his name appeared on the retirement list, prompting “Chris Taylor has retired” stories throughout baseball media. On Saturday, it was removed from the list, prompting, “Chris Taylor has unretired” stories throughout baseball media. On Sunday, he finally, officially, definitely retired, stating on his Instagram page,
“Clearing up any confusion. I’ve officially decided to retire from the game I’ve dedicated my entire life towards. I’m beyond grateful to all of my coaches and teammates, and the organizations who allowed me to live out my childhood dream. I’ll forever cherish the memories along the way and most of all, the friendships that will last a lifetime. Thank you to the loyal fans who have supported me through my success and stuck with me through the struggles. Thank you to my parents and family who have been with me from the very beginning. My baseball journey would have never begun if it weren’t for you guys. Most of all, thank you to my wife Mary who has been my number one. You stepped up for our family and allowed me to see my dream through all the way to the end and then some. I cant wait to start our next chapter in life together with our boys.”
We will have a newsletter dedicated to Taylor in the next week or two. In the meantime, we thank him for all the wonderful moments he provided and wish him the best in retirement.
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams. Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 1-0, 5.96 ERA, 22.2 IP, 19 hits, 8 walks, 19 K’s, 72 ERA+
Austin Barnes, out of baseball (released by Mets in spring training)
Cody Bellinger, Yankees: .274/.381/.473, 223 PA’s, 13 doubles, 3 triples, 6 homers, 32 RBIs, 144 OPS+
Walker Buehler, Padres: 3-2, 5.05 ERA, 46.1 IP, 47 hits, 18 walks, 41 K’s, 80 ERA+
Mike Busch, Cubs: .230/.360/.380, 238 PA’s, 11 doubles, 1 triple, 5 homers, 29 RBIs, 118 OPS+
Michael Conforto, Cubs: .284/.388/.537, 80 PA’s, 8 doubles, 3 homers, 11 RBIs, 168 OPS+
Justin Dean, Cubs: in the minors
Caleb Ferguson, Reds: just off the IL, hasn’t pitched yet
Jack Flaherty, Tigers: 0-6, 5.94 ERA, 47 IP, 49 hits, 29 walks, 55 K’s, 70 ERA+
Tony Gonsolin: out of baseball
Kenley Jansen, Tigers: 1-3, 5.02 ERA, 7 saves, 14.1 IP, 9 hits, 5 walks, 19 K’s, 84 ERA+
Craig Kimbrel, Mets: designated for assignment
Michael Kopech: out of baseball
Gavin Lux, Rays: on the IL
Dustin May, Cardinals: 3-5, 5.00 ERA, 54 IP, 60 hits, 17 walks, 42 K’s, 77 ERA+
Zach McKinstry, Tigers: .177/.240/.240, 104 PA’s, 3 doubles, 1 homer, 7 RBIs, 36 OPS+
James Outman, Twins: .179/.258/.286, 62 PA’s, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 3 RBIs, 53 OPS+
Luke Raley, Mariners: .265/.326/.545, 140 PA’s, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 10 homers, 27 RBIs, 151 OPS+
Ben Rortvedt, Mets: in the minors
Corey Seager, Rangers: .179/.286/.353, 182 PA’s, 6 doubles, 7 homers, 20 RBIs, 91 OPS+, on the IL
Chris Taylor: retired
Justin Turner, Tijuana (Mexican League): .298/.412/.536, 81 PA’s, 8 doubles, 4 homers, 17 RBIs
Trea Turner, Phillies: .225/.281/.338, 231 PA’s, 9 doubles, 5 homers, 16 RBIs, 72 OPS+
Miguel Vargas, White Sox: .244/.376/.500, 221 PA’s, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 12 homers, 31 RBIs, 146 OPS+
Alex Verdugo: Out of baseball, had season-ending shoulder surgery
Kirby Yates, Angels: 0-0, 4.26 ERA, 6.1 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks, 9 K’s, 102 ERA+
Monday: Colorado (*Kyle Freeland, 1-5, 7.04 ERA) at Dodgers (Emmet Sheehan, 3-1, 4.93 ERA), 6:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Tuesday: Colorado (TBA) at Dodgers (*Eric Lauer, 1-5, 6.69 ERA, first start with Dodgers), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Wednesday: Colorado (Tomoyuki Sugano, 4-3, 3.86 ERA) at Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani, 4-2, 0.73 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
All times Pacific
*-left-handed
How Eric Lauer is trying to return to a better version of himself with the Dodgers
Shaikin: Do the Dodgers need a “Will he hit?” drama every time Shohei Ohtani pitches?
Chris Taylor makes an incredible catch against the Brewers in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS. Watch and listen here.
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Will Ferrell has done the Will Ferrell thing for so long — playing embarrassingly self-absorbed doofuses, both fictional and based on real people — that it’s easy to forget that when it counts, he can still serve as the glue on “Saturday Night Live.”
For his sixth time hosting the show since leaving the cast in 2002, Ferrell had plenty of those doofuses to portray, including a “Nudeman” dad whose underwear are exposed in the rear when he meets his daughter’s boyfriend. But in sketch after sketch on the show, he showed his usual 100% commitment to every character, even when he was playing himself in the monologue doing a bit about an identity mix-up with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. (Smith stuck around for the whole show, sitting in with the “SNL” band and playing drums for Paul McCartney.)
The ability to stay in character no matter how absurd the premise served Ferrell well yet again whether he was playing a doctor who accidentally chopped off a man’s penis (Mikey Day, trying hard not to laugh), a halfling in a “Lord of the Rings”-style fantasy clip who betrays his fellowship, a gibberish-speaking mechanic, and a cruel high school drama teacher (along with another former cast member, Molly Shannon) withholding a cast list for “Grease.” He also made a surprising appearance in the cold open as the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein.
Ferrell was an ideal closer for Season 51, which has largely been about developing relatively new talent in the cast, including rising stars Ashley Padilla, Jeremy Culhane and Marcello Hernández. Ferrell gelled with each of them and everybody else, doing the Will Ferrell thing, which still works tremendously well after all these years.
Musical guest Paul McCartney appeared in Ferrell’s monologue and in the mechanic sketch, and performed a new song, “Days We Left Behind,” as well as “Band on the Run” and “Coming Up” at the end of the show while the credits were shown.
After an absence of a few weeks, President Trump (James Austin Johnson) returned, sleepy from his trip to China. After a non-apology for not bringing Vice President J.D. Vance (Culhane) with him, Trump fell asleep on a gold bar from Switzerland before being visited by Epstein (Ferrell), who makes a series of jokes and insinuations about his association with Trump. When Trump bemoans his low approval rating in the 30s, Epstein responds, “The 30s? Gross, call me when it hits 17.” But Epstein, who claims Hell is “really, really hot” and includes Joseph Stalin and John Wayne Gacy, is there to show Trump the future, one in which former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (Padilla) is selling vacuum cleaners on the Home Shopping Network and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) and FBI Director Kash Patel (a returning Aziz Ansari) are co-hosting a bro podcast while sharing a giant beer bong. Trump believes the podcast is a signal that by then, the war in Iran will be over. “We came in second,” Epstein assures him. The two then launched into a version of “Just the Two of Us” before almost kissing ahead of launching into “Live from New York… It’s ‘Saturday Night!’”
Even eagle-eyed viewers might have needed a full minute or so to realize that the person on stage delivering the monologue was not actually Will Ferrell but Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who has been doing an extended gag for more than a decade about their uncanny resemblance. Ferrell followed, wearing the same gray suit, claiming, “He pushed me down backstage. And I fell hard. Lorne (Michaels) had to give me mouth to mouth.” Ferrell tried to do a hard reset of the monologue but couldn’t get the vibe back. He turned to the audience for questions, but only found McCartney there, who still couldn’t tell the difference between the host and the drummer. Ferrell listed many of the songs that McCartney has written (which weren’t performed on the show this time out), but pointed out that there are a few great songs he didn’t write, including “Timber” featuring Pitbull.
In a piece that calls itself, “What It Feels Like Talking to a Mechanic,” Ferrell plays an auto expert telling a clueless couple (Day and Padilla) that their vehicle needs a lot of work. But he uses completely foreign terms including “dong rod gasket” and a “camber” that’s out of whack and rotting to describe what’s wrong. Another specialist (Hernández) arrives, who describes the car’s ailments in funny noises and partly in Spanish. “You need a new trans person,” he declares. He also expects them to return every six days and come to his private party. A third mechanic (McCartney) found the steering wheel is on the wrong side and that their “tipsy wispy” is all “dangly goodly.” The absurdity level keeps rising, but it will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever felt like their mechanic is speaking in an entirely different language. The only false step in the sketch is the ending, which goes on on a cheap joke.
It’s been a bit shocking how good some of the pre-filmed pieces this season have looked, including this one, a “Lord of the Rings” Midnight Matinee sketch called “Bobbin’s Sacrifice.” It features, with quite good special effects and costumes, a full cast of orcs, elves and dwarves during a castle siege, as well as Ferrell as a little Hobbit-looking halfling named Bobbin who bravely volunteers to destroy a bridge that separates the heroes from the monsters. However, once outside the castle gates, Bobbin proudly declares in song that he’s switching sides. And not just switching, but offering the orcs blueprints of the castle and giving them magic items he stole from his friends. Things don’t end so well for Bobbin, but at least he goes out memorably and with a song in his heart.
“Update” traditionally does a joke-off between co-hosts Jost and Michael Che in which each writes jokes the other has to read. This edition wasn’t too surprising: Jost was made to spew racist jokes about black vampires (in reference to “Sinners”) and using his Staten Island Ferry to ship Black people “back to the motherland.” Che was made to make light of molestation claims against Michael Jackson. The segment ended up being one of the weaker joke-offs, ending with the threat of Jost getting his hair cut off by a barber on live television (it didn’t happen). Surprisingly, the joke-off was not as funny as Culhane’s return as Mr. On Blast, a guy with takes that are far from hot. Example: “AI? More like P.U.” “Metaverse? Why don’t you go read a Bible verse?” Mr. On Blast punctuates his weak jokes with very entertaining dance moves punctuated with sound effects. This time out, the character deployed a new catch phrase, “Devout!” in reference to being both Christian and Jewish, and he brought out bearded backup dancers called Blast Boys. Culhane was on point and is a lock to return next season for more fun like this.
