The Rams star receiver, who sat out the last game because of an ankle injury, said Thursday that he was “feeling great” and planned to play on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints at SoFi Stadium.
“That’s the plan,” he said after practice. “I’m feeling fantastic. Feel ready to go.”
That enabled Nacua to rest and receive treatment for an injury suffered during an Oct. 12 victory against the Ravens in Baltimore.
Nacua had two catches for 28 yards before he and Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey leaped for a pass near the end zone. Both came down hard on the turf as the pass fell incomplete.
Nacua said he was intent on making sure that if he did not come down with the ball, neither would Humphrey.
“Really thought it was like just getting the wind knocked out of me, just of how I landed,” Nacua said. “Got up and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s definitely not my back.’”
The Rams defeated the Jaguars without Nacua to improve their record to 5-2 heading into the off week.
“Never a good time to be injured,” Nacua said, “but the bye did land at a great time to rest and recover.”
Nacua returns to a receiving corps that got a three-touchdown performance from Davante Adams against the Jaguars. The Rams, however, will be without Tutu Atwell, who is on injured reserve for at least four games because of a hamstring injury.
Nacua ranks third in the NFL with 54 catches and fourth with 616 yards receiving. He has two touchdown catches and also has rushed for a touchdown.
Nacua eclipsed 100 yards receiving three times this season, the last a month ago when he caught 13 passes for 170 yards in a 17-3 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
The Ipswich fighter came in at 17st 5lb (110 kg), consistent with his recent bouts.
“This is the one before the one. All the work is done. Training is ticked off. All the hard work is put in. Let’s get some rest now. Big night coming up tomorrow,” he added.
Spitalfields Market in east London saw more than fresh produce on the scales as the two heavyweights squared up for the final time before fight night.
Parker winked at the camera and bobbed along to the music.
As he flexed his muscles, he looked hefty and powerful as he tipped the scales at 18st 10lb (119 kg), just five pounds lighter than his career-heaviest.
It is a far cry from the 16st 12lb (107 kg) version who lost his world title to Anthony Joshua in 2018.
“We’re weary, we’re cautious, but I’m going to fight fire with fire and I’m going to get to him,” Parker said.
When Diane Keaton was 11, her father told her she was growing into a pretty young woman and someday, a boy would make her happy. She was horrified. One boy? Keaton — then going by her birth name of Diane Hall — needed to be loved by everyone. It was an early sign that she was meant to be an actor.
“Intimacy meant only one person loved you, not thousands, not millions,” Keaton wrote decades later in her 2011 memoir “Then Again.” Like drinking and smoking, she added, intimacy should be handled with caution.
“I wanted to be Warren Beatty, not date him,” Keaton confessed, romancing fellow artists as long as their relationship was mutually stimulating and then after that, remaining friends. “I collect men,” she jokingly told me when I interviewed her a decade ago, referring to a photo wall in her Los Angeles home of fellows she admired, including Morgan Freeman, Abraham Lincoln, Gary Cooper and John Wayne. She wanted an excuse to add Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum, so I suggested a love-triangle comedy as a twofer. “No! Not one movie!” Keaton exclaimed. “I want to keep my career going.”
Just as she hoped, millions of us did fall in love with Keaton, who died Saturday at age 79. She captivated us for over 50 years, from awards heavy-hitters to a late-career string of hangout comedies that weren’t about anything more than the joy of spending time with Diane Keaton, or in the case of her 2022 body swap movie “Mack & Rita,” the thrill of becoming Diane Keaton.
In her final films, including “Summer Camp” and the “Book Club” franchise, Keaton pretty much only played variations of herself, providing reason enough to watch. I looked forward to the moment her character fully embraced looking like Diane Keaton, writing in my otherwise middling review of “Mack & Rita” that the sequence in which she “picks up a kooky blazer and wide belt is presented with the anticipation of Bruce Wayne reaching for his cowl.”
I wanted to be Diane Keaton, even if she wanted to be Warren Beatty.
The contradiction of her career is that the things we in the audience loved about her — the breezy humor, the self-deprecating charm, the iconic threads — were Keaton’s attempts to mask her own insecurities. She struggled to love herself. Even after success, Keaton remained iffy about her looks, her talent and her achievements. In interviews, she openly admitted to feeling inadequate in her signature halting, circular stammers. That is, when she’d consent to be interviewed at all, which in the first decade of her career was so rare that Keaton, loping across Central Park in baggy pants to the white-on-white apartment where she lived alone, was essentially a movie star Sasquatch.
Journalists described her as a modern Garbo. “Her habit is to clutch privacy about her like a shawl,” Time Magazine wrote in 1977, the year that “Annie Hall” and “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” established Keaton as a kooky sweetheart with serious range. I love that simile because she did refer to her wardrobe as an “impenetrable fortress.” The more bizarre the ensemble — jackets over skirts over pants over boots — the less anyone would notice the person wearing it.
Odd ducks like myself adored the whole package, including her relatable candor. She showed us how to charge through the world with aplomb, even when you’re nervous as heck.
Once young Keaton decided she wanted to perform, she set about auditioning for everything from the church choir and the cheerleading squad to the class play. But her school had a traditionally beautiful ingenue who landed the leads. This was Orange County, after all. Keaton would go home, stare at the mirror and feel disappointed by her reflection. She dreamed of looking like perky, platinum blond Doris Day. Instead, she saw a miniature Amelia Earhart. (She’d eventually get a Golden Globe nomination for playing Earhart on television in 1994.)
Keaton stuck a clothespin on the tip of her nose to make it smaller, and acted the part of an extrovert: big laugh, big hair and, when she stopped liking her hair, big hats. By age 15, she was assembling the bold, black and white wardrobe she’d wear forever and her taste for monochrome clothes was already so entrenched that she wrote Judy Garland a fan letter wondering why Dorothy had to leave Kansas for garish Oz. She might have been the only person to ever ask that question.
Not too long after that, Keaton flew across the country to New York where several things happened in short succession that would have puffed up anyone else’s ego. The drama coach Sanford Meisner gave her his blessing. The Broadway hit “Hair” gave her the main part (and agreed she could stay fully clothed). And “The Godfather,” the No. 1 box office hit of 1972, plucked Keaton from stage obscurity to give the fledgling screen actor its crucial final shot, a close-up.
Keaton made $6,000 for “The Godfather,” less than a quarter of her salary for the national deodorant commercial she’d shot a year earlier. Her memories from the set of the first film were uncharacteristically terse. Her wig was heavy, her part was “background music” and the one time Marlon Brando spoke to her, he said, “Nice tits.”
Nevertheless, Keaton’s Kay is so soft, friendly and assured when she first meets the Corleone clan at a wedding, sweetly refusing to let her boyfriend Michael dodge how the family knows the pop singer Johnny Fontane, that it’s heartbreaking (and impressive) to watch her become smaller and harder across her few scenes. But Keaton says she never saw the finished movie. “I couldn’t stand looking at myself,” she wrote in “Then Again.”
Woody Allen put the Keaton he adored front and center when he wrote “Annie Hall.” He wanted audiences to fall in love with the singular daffiness of his former girlfriend and it worked like gangbusters. It’s my favorite of his movies and my favorite of hers, and there’s just no use in pretending otherwise, as obvious of a pick as it is. Even now that I know the Annie Hall I worship is a shy woman putting on a show of being herself, the “la-di-dah” confidence she projects makes her the most precious of screen presences: the icon who feels like friend.
But I wonder if Allen also made “Annie Hall” so that Diane Keaton could fall in love with Diane Keaton just as he had. Maybe if she saw herself through his eyes, it could convince her that she really was sexy, sparkling and hilarious. But Keaton only watched “Annie Hall” once, in an ordinary theater well after it opened, and she found the experience of staring at herself miserable. She never absorbed her lead actress Oscar win. “I knew I didn’t deserve it,” she said. “I’d won an Academy Award for playing an affable version of myself.”
Nearly herself, that is. The onscreen version of Keaton is stumped when Alvy Singer brings her a copy of the philosophical tome “Death and Western Thought.” But a decade later, Keaton directed “Heaven,” an entire documentary about the subject, in which she asked street preachers and Don King and her 94-year-old grandmother how they imagined the afterlife. (As in Allen’s movie, her grandmother actually was named Grammy Hall.)
“Heaven” is an experimental film that’s heavy on dramatic shadows and surreal old movie footage, the sort of thing that would play best on an art gallery wall. It flopped, as test screenings warned it would, cautioning Keaton that her directorial debut only appealed to female weirdos — people like her. Keaton isn’t a voice in the film. Yet, that she made it at all makes every frame feel personal, and you hear her affection for the cadence of her occasionally tongue-tied subjects. Her first interviewee stutters, “Uh, heaven, heaven is, uh, um, let me see.” Exactly how Annie Hall would have put it.
Today more than ever, I’m wishing Keaton had been comfortable turning her camera on herself. I’d have liked to watch her explain where she thinks she’s gone, however adorably flustered the answer. But in her four memoirs, she safely bared all in print, openly confronting her harsh inner critic, her battle with bulimia, and — yes, Alvy — her musings on death.
“I don’t know if I have the courage to stare into the spectacle of the great unknown,” Keaton wrote in 2014’s “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty,” sounding as apprehensive as ever. “I don’t know if I will make bold mistakes, go out on a blaze of glory unbroken by my losses, defy complacency, and refuse to face the unknown like the coward I know myself to be.”
At last, a sliver of confidence peeks out. “But I hope so.”
Draper was modelling next summer’s collection for one of his sponsors last week and has been working out regularly at the National Tennis Centre in London this week.
The work is primarily physical at the moment, and when pre-season training begins in earnest later this month, the initial on-court drills are likely to be low in intensity.
The British number one first felt discomfort in his upper left serving arm during the clay court season in the spring, and following a scan after Wimbledon, did not hit any serves for a month.
But the period of rest proved insufficient. He won his first-round match at the US Open, but withdrew before the second, and the opportunity to make his debut at the season ending ATP Finals was gone.
”He’s top 10 and he played half of the year. Just to say how good he is…” Mouratoglou added.
“His only problem for the moment is the injuries: he has been through several injuries already in the past.
“I always thought he was going to be a top player, but for every player that is supposed to become a top player, there are things to solve.
“For him, it’s to find a way to be injury free as much as possible because that’s what made him lose a little bit of time otherwise he would be higher [in the rankings], I think.”
LAS VEGAS — It’s easier for everything to go according to script when you have one.
As DeShaun Foster strode across the stage inside a convention center here Thursday afternoon, the UCLA football coach clutched several pages of prepared remarks that helped him navigate a lengthy opening monologue with poise and confidence.
Poking fun at his widely mocked and memed performance from a year ago, when he delivered a short, unrehearsed address filled with awkward pauses and an uneasy smile, Foster indulged reporters in a short recap of the lowlights.
“Last year I stood up here and reminded everyone that UCLA is in L.A., which looking back might have been the most obvious geography lesson in Big Ten history,” Foster said. “But you know what? Important things are worth stating clearly. We are in L.A., and we’re proud to be in L.A. This year we’re ready to show the Big Ten what L.A. football looks like when it’s firing on all cylinders.”
The Bruins can only hope their turnaround on the field is as stunning as their coach’s transformation onstage.
A year ago, as UCLA stumbled to a 1-5 start, “We’re in L.A.” became a catchphrase freely wielded to ridicule a team that often looked as lost as its coach had while delivering his opening remarks inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Rather than run from his troubles, Foster barreled ahead like a running back who found an opening in a wall of defenders. The rookie coach found his footing with a team that won four of its last six games, narrowly missing an opportunity to play in a bowl game.
His offseason was even more impressive. Foster overhauled his staff (only two assistants from last season remain) and redoubled his recruiting efforts, leading to a 2026 high school class ranked No. 21 nationally by 247Sports.com. Landing Nico Iamaleava from the transfer portal after the quarterback’s spring of discontent at Tennessee generated immediate buzz.
“We’re just excited to have a playoff quarterback, somebody that was able to lead his team to the playoffs,” Foster said. “They might not have gotten the outcome that they wanted, but he still was able to play. He showed how tough he was in that game. Just being able to come back home and be comfortable and being in a familiar environment, I think the sky is the limit. We’re excited about this.”
While Iamaleava’s arrival isn’t expected to vault the Bruins into contention for the Big Ten title, much less the College Football Playoff — UCLA was picked to finish 15th in the 18-team conference by a media poll conducted by Cleveland.com — there is recent precedent for teams taking a big leap in their coach’s second season.
Colorado finished 9-4 last season after going 4-8 in Deion Sanders’ debut season and Arizona State went 11-3 and made the CFP one year after going 3-9 in Kenny Dillingham’s first season. Foster said he hopes this season goes as well as his second in the NFL, when he helped the Carolina Panthers reach the Super Bowl.
Questions abound, particularly on a defense that loses every key playmaker, as the Bruins prepare to open training camp in Costa Mesa on Wednesday. The team will practice off campus for the first time since training in San Bernardino in 2016 because of the installation of a grass field outside the Wasserman Football Center.
Some changes around the program feel more than cosmetic. UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said that Foster’s willingness to make wholesale changes on his coaching staff after just one season and the associated recruiting surge are signs that this is a program on the rise.
“He’s just brought a vibe back, a buzz and energy about UCLA football that we haven’t had since I’ve been here, quite honestly,” Jarmond said. “And that’s what you want to see.”
A few hours before Foster took a few sips of water and dabbed his head with a handkerchief before ascending stairs to the podium inside the Mandalay Bay, his boss predicted that he would have a better showing than he did last year.
“I think he’s just more comfortable,” Jarmond said. “You know, everybody is new at something and you don’t nail the landing every first time. And so, thankfully, you’re not graded on what you say; you’re graded on how you perform and how you lead, and that’s what he’s done exceptionally well. I mean, the last half of the season, we finished 4-2 — the momentum he had going into the second half of the year and then the recruiting, that’s what matters, what you’re doing with the program.
“So I think he’s excited about today. I think he’s going to feel more comfortable because he’s done it before. And that’s just part of the deal. But he’s going to be himself and he’s going to be great.”
Foster said his verbal stumbles from a year ago taught him a valuable lesson.
“Authenticity resonates more deeply than perfection,” he said. “Our players saw me being human, and it brought us closer together. We’ve been joking about it for about a year now. The players know that that same genuine approach is how we coach, recruit and build this program.”
Entering his second season, Foster said he expected significant improvement not just from his team but also from himself.
“Growth is part of the process, and we’re all committed to being better than we were last season,” Foster said. “I know there are questions about our progress, expectations and how well we’re performing in this conference. That’s totally fair. We’re here to earn respect, not demand it. However, I can tell you this: My team is ready. They’re confident. They’re prepared, and they’re hungry to show up and show out and redefine what UCLA football can be. So, yes, we’re still in L.A. We’re proud to be Bruins, and we’re ready to make it happen starting now.”
And with that, Foster announced that he was happy to take any questions, having answered a big one about himself.
July 8 (UPI) — The Department of Defense’s announcement that it would end a weather-data sharing program surprised some climate watchdogs but forecasters assure it does not heighten risks.
The department announced the termination of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program late last month, citing cybersecurity concerns. The program is slated to end on July 31.
The Department of Defense has been monitoring meteorological data using satellites for more than 60 years, though during the first decade of the DMSP it was kept classified. It is currently operated by the U.S. Space Force.
Three DMSP satellites remain in operation, with the newest satellite having launched in 2014. These microwave satellites capture data through the clouds that is used for weather prediction, including tactical weather prediction used by the U.S. military.
“We and other countries have microwave satellites up there. There’s many of them up there,” Clifford Mass, professor of atmospheric and climate science at the University of Washington, told UPI. “It’s one of the most important sources of data for all weather prediction. It’s like a cat scan of the atmosphere.”
A network of satellite systems, including those that are part of the DMSP, take readings of large portions of Earth from low-earth orbit. DMSP satellites are in low-earth polar orbit and can scan an area of about 1,600 nautical miles, covering the entirety of the planet about every 14 hours, according to the U.S. Space Force.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is among the agencies that uses data from the DMSP. Kim Doster, communications director for NOAA, told UPI in a statement that the DMSP is a “single dataset in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools in the [National Weather Service] portfolio.”
Other sources of data used by NOAA and the National Weather Service include geostationary Earth-observing satellites, polar orbiting satellites, ground-based weather radar and other microwave satellite systems such as the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder.
“In particular, the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, currently flying on NOAA’s [Joint Polar Satellite System], provides the richest, most accurate satellite weather observations available,” Doster said. “NOAA’s data sources are fully capable of providing a complete suite of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve.”
Erin Sikorsky, director of The Center for Climate and Security, told UPI she remains concerned about ending the DMSP. It is not about ending the program alone but about ending the program in combination with staffing reductions at NOAA and peeling back climate change mitigation policies.
“For me, it’s looking at the broader pattern of risky actions we’ve seen from the administration when it comes to weather and climate data since they took office in January,” Sikorsky said. “If this was an isolated incident — I’d be less concerned. But the fact that this also comes at a time when we’ve seen the shutdown of climate.gov and the U.S. Global Change Research Program and other cuts to NOAA staffing. It all kind of adds up to a picture of blinding ourselves to critical information about climate hazards in a way that puts Americans at risk.”
Sikorsky’s concerns also stem from a lack of clarity about the decision to end the program. The Department of Defense’s reasoning being a cybersecurity threat is vague, lacking more detailed information.
U.S. Space Force did not respond to requests for comment.
“It caught everybody off guard in the weather community,” Sikorsky said.
Mass explained that there are a number of redundancies in the U.S. government’s weather data systems, with multiple agencies carrying out overlapping functions.
“They’re basically running three redundant numerical weather prediction enterprises, run by the U.S. government,” Mass said. “It’s an interesting question about whether we need so many different groups doing the same thing. NASA runs numerical weather predictions as well. The EPA does.”
Redundancy can be, and often is good for ensuring there is a reliable and consistent flow of data. It is also a source of inefficiency, according to Mass. However, the Trump administration’s goal of reducing government inefficiency does not appear to play into the decision to end the DMSP.
“It has nothing to do with the Trump administration’s attempts to reduce government waste,” Mass said. “The DOD decided they had a security issue. This is a DOD problem. They decided to shut it down very abruptly and they didn’t talk to anybody about that.”
The cybersecurity threat may be the result of an outdated operating system, Mass adds. Meanwhile satellite launches are becoming more frequent, less costly and advancements continue to be made in satellite technology.
“There’s all of these new generations of satellites that are going up. It turns out that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites might be very useful for further weather observation,” he said. “Having a lot of satellites in low-earth orbit, seeing how those signals are bent by the earth’s atmosphere, it might be possible to get vastly more observations. Having all of the satellites up there is very useful for weather predictions.
The Buss family’s decision to sell its majority stake in the Lakers to Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter sent shockwaves through L.A. on Wednesday.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was among those surprised by the development. Speaking to reporters before his team’s game against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium, Roberts shared his thoughts on what Walter could bring to the Lakers.
Question: What’s your reaction to the deal?
“Obviously he’s had some kind of stake the last few years or whatever. He’s really committed to the city of Los Angeles in various ways. Sports is something that he’s very passionate about, and certainly Los Angeles sports. I think it’s a very exciting day for the Lakers, for the city of Los Angeles. And I think speaking from [the perspective of] a Dodger employee, he’s very competitive. He’s going to do everything he can to produce a championship-caliber team every single year and make sure the city feels proud of the Lakers and the legacy that they’ve already built with the Buss family.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts smiles before a game against the Texas Rangers in April.
(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)
When did you learn that about him?
“I would say probably seven, eight, nine years ago, just having a conversation with him as far as how much he enjoyed spending time in Los Angeles, and a lot of low-hanging fruit in the sense of what this city could be, already is, and can be. He wanted to infuse kind of his intelligence, his resources. He just wanted more skin in the game. That’s just speaking for him. But he’s obviously a very smart person.”
How have you seen him be competitive
“I think he does everything he can to provide resources, support. He wants to win. He feels that the fans, the city, deserves that. I think that’s never lost. It’s more challenging us always to, how do we become better and not complacent or stagnant to continue to stay current with the market and the competition to win not only now but for as far as we can see out.”
What makes a good owner?
“I think a good owner in my eyes is a person that lets the people that he hires do their jobs. He does a great job of letting Stan and Andrew and Gomer, all those guys, Lon, do their jobs right. But also kind of holding us all accountable, and also providing resources needed. In this case, players, to field a team that’s warranted of a championship-caliber team every year. Also, doing stuff for charity and appreciating not only the baseball side but just as important, the business side. He invests a lot of resources in that as well. I think that that’s kind of all-encompassing of what I’ve been fortunate to be around.”
Does this mean you’re sitting courtside?
“Yes. (Laughter). I’m sure a lot of people are hitting Mark up, but I might add myself to the list.”
Chargers offensive linemen Savion Washington, left, Mekhi Becton and center Bradley Bozeman (75) participate in drills in May.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
Looking for answers on the offensive line, Zion Johnson and returning starting center Bradley Bozeman alternated days at center and left guard during offseason sessions. When left tackle Rashawn Slater joined the team for minicamp, the potential starting offensive line looked significantly different than the one that got steamrolled in the playoffs.
While Bozeman and Johnson continue to jockey at center and left guard, key free-agent signing Mekhi Becton has solidified the right guard position. The 6-foot-7 Super Bowl champion and 6-foot-8 tackle Joe Alt have the potential to be a dominant right-side duo.
Coaches mentioned Jamaree Salyer as someone who could still battle for a major role on the inside with Bozeman and Johnson, along with free-agent addition Andre James, who was a starting center for three seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders. After starting last season as the team’s No. 1 right guard, Trey Pipkins III’s role remains unclear.
Considering both a player’s contribution at an individual position and how well a specific combination works together, Harbaugh said he hopes to set the starting lineup around eight to 10 days into training camp.
“It’s always who’s playing the best [and] best combination,” Harbaugh said. “How do we know that? They play the best. It’s really that simple.”
Australia says the plan to deliver nuclear submarines remains unchanged, despite opposition to the pact from a top Trump official.
Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said he is “very confident” that the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom will continue to move forward despite news that the Pentagon is reviewing the 2021 deal between the three nations.
News of the review was first reported on Thursday as US defence officials said re-assessing the pact was necessary to ensure that the military deal, agreed to with much fanfare under former US President Joe Biden, was in line with US President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
The pact includes a deal worth hundreds of billions of dollars to provide Australia with closely-guarded nuclear propulsion technology. Only five other countries besides the US can build nuclear submarines: the UK, China, Russia, France and India.
“The meetings that we’ve had with the United States have been very positive in respect of AUKUS,” Defence Minister Marles told the ABC network.
A review of the deal is “something that it’s perfectly natural for an incoming administration to do … It’s exactly what we did”, Marles said.
“There is a plan here. We are sticking to it, and we’re going to deliver it,” he said.
Under the terms of the AUKUS deal, Australia and the UK will work with the US to design nuclear-class submarines ready for delivery to Australia in the 2040s, according to the US Naval Institute.
The three countries are already close military allies and share intelligence, but AUKUS focuses on key strategic areas, such as countering the rise of China and its expansion into the Pacific.
Due to the long lead time in building the submarines under the AUKUS deal, Australia also agreed to buy up to three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines during the 2030s. The US and UK also plan to start the rotational deployment of their submarines out of Australia in 2027.
But some Trump administration officials, such as Pentagon policy adviser Elbridge Colby, say the submarine deal puts foreign governments ahead of US national security.
“My concern is why are we giving away this crown jewel asset when we most need it?” Colby said last year.
Other officials, including US Representative Joe Courtney from Connecticut – a US state which has an industry focused on building submarines for the US Navy – say the deal is in the “best interest of all three AUKUS nations, as well as the Indo-Pacific region as a whole”.
“To abandon AUKUS – which is already well under way – would cause lasting harm to our nation’s standing with close allies and certainly be met with great rejoicing in Beijing,” Courtney said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to discuss the deal when he meets Trump next week during a meeting of the G7 leaders in Canada.
Earlier this year, Australia made a $500m payment towards AUKUS and plans to spend $2bn this year to speed up the production process in the US of the Virginia-class submarines.
The UK, like Australia, has downplayed concerns that the Trump administration could renege on the pact.
A UK official told the Reuters news agency that the deal is “one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades” that will also produce “jobs and economic growth in communities across all three nations”.
“It is understandable that a new administration would want to review its approach to such a major partnership, just as the UK did last year,” the official said.
Three years before the Olympics, LA28 organizers gave International Olympic Committee officials the kind of Games preview that even Hollywood’s best scriptwriters couldn’t plan.
The electric celebration, passing grades for an advanced venue plan and a growing corporate sponsorship portfolio keeps LA28 on track approaching the three-year mark until the 2028 Olympics open in a dual-venue ceremony at SoFi Stadium and the Coliseum.
“We are really confident in the progress we’ve made,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said after the coordination committee’s three-day visit. “We’re focused on what we’ve always done to deliver the greatest Games we are capable of delivering in this city in the most fiscally responsible way that pays dividends for every member of our Olympic movement and our community.”
With the city of Los Angeles facing deep financial problems and transportation updates lagging behind schedule, LA28 is under pressure to deliver a completely privately funded Games. The private group says it remains up to the challenge as fundraising for the L.A. Games has been “going gangbusters,” John Slusher, chief executive of LA28’s commercial operation, said in an interview with The Times.
With six new partnerships this year — matching the total number of deals in all of last year — LA28 has contract revenue worth more than 60% of its total $2.5 billion sponsorship goal. Slusher expects an estimated seven to nine more deals coming this year, and the group is on pace to reach its goal of $2 billion in corporate sponsorship dollars by the end of the year, Slusher and Wassserman said.
“I would tell you where I’m sitting today, we feel very confident we can either meet or exceed that $2.5 billion target,” Slusher said, “which I think people would have called a stretch target in November.”
A major partnership with Honda signaled a boon for business as it was the first founding-level partnership for LA28 since Salesforce signed on in 2021. The cloud-based software company backed out of its deal in 2024. The sudden split raised eyebrows about LA28’s fundraising progress, casting doubt whether the committee could fulfill a promise of a privately funded Games that shielded local and state taxpayers from picking up any debt.
But organizers remained undeterred.
Such twists have marked LA28’s long-planned Olympic journey. The L.A. Games were awarded in 2017 in a rare dual-city announcement that also placed the 2024 Games in Paris. Instead of the typical seven-year lead-up time, LA28 preached patience through an unprecedented 11-year planning period.
“More time is always better than less time,” Wasserman said in an interview with The Times. “The only negative of selling is there’s more distance between deals, so everyone’s like, ‘You’re not doing well.’ Which is never how we’ve been feeling. … My view is judge us when we get to the startline on how we did on sponsorship revenue.”
Judgment time is creeping ever closer. The Olympic Games will open on July 14, 2028.
Although the city has agreed to cover the first $270 million in debt incurred from the Games if LA28 goes overbudget, Wasserman said organizers don’t intend to come close to the financial backstop.
According to the latest financial report filed to the city in March, LA28 plans to cover the proposed $7.1 billion cost with about one-third of the projected revenue coming from domestic sponsorships and another one-third coming from ticketing and hospitality.
“The caliber of new domestic partnerships this year highlights the power of the Olympic Games to bring people together, create long-term value and reflect growing national engagement with LA28’s vision,” said Nicole Hoevertsz, the IOC coordination commission chair.
An artist’s rendering of the rowing venue in Long Beach for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Long Beach is one of several cities that are slated to host events during the Games.
(LA28)
To begin the 2025 sponsorship momentum, LA28 announced an official partnership with AECOM in March as the engineering company will support venue infrastructure for the Games.
Mortgage company Pennymac, mattress brand Saatva, cloud-based data storage company Snowflake and aviation company Archer signed on as official supporters, one tier below a partnership such as AECOM.
While not specifying the financial details, Slusher said he estimated LA28 would make three or four times as much sponsorship revenue this year compared with all of last year.
“Our job is to maximize revenue,” Wasserman said. “I am very confident in our ability to generate, frankly, more revenue that’s ever been generated for a Summer Games in the history of the Olympics. I have no doubt about that.”
While a smaller portion of the budget than sponsorship, merchandise and licensing is gaining momentum as well, Slusher said, as companies clamor for a chance to issue official pins, T-shirts, programs or plush toys.
LA28’s financial report states that it has signed commercial or retail agreements with several companies, including Cisco, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Skims. Licensing and merchandising is projected to bring in $344 million, according to LA28’s latest annual report.
The next major piece will be ticketing, which, with hospitality, is slated to generate $2.5 billion in revenue, a $569 million increase from a June 2024 estimate. LA28 expects to begin registration for the ticket lottery in early 2026.
While LA28 and city officials have hailed the Games as a moment to welcome the world to L.A., concerns about international travel have mounted under the current administration. Delays in visa processing prompted Congressional action ahead of next year’s World Cup. President Trump signed a travel ban Wednesday that bars citizens from 12 countries from entering the United States. On Sunday, the Trump administration deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles amid protests over immigration raids.
The latest Trump order targeting visitors from 12 countries includes exemptions for certain athletes, including those traveling to the United States for major sporting events, and Wasserman was not worried about visa issues affecting the Games.
“It’s very clear that the federal government understands that that’s an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for,” Wasserman said of the recent travel ban. “So we have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date and it will certainly be the case going forward to the Games.”
Because Wasserman anticipates the majority of ticket sales to be domestic, he said he is not concerned with a potential drop in revenue if international fans don’t attend amid visa or safety concerns.
But Paris 2024, which sold a record 12.1 million tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, sold about 38% of its Olympic tickets to fans living outside France, according to the IOC. The successful event exceeded its ticketing and hospitality revenue target by $397 million and brought in a roughly $30-million surplus.
Continuing the Olympic movement’s success has been at the top of LA28’s mind while bringing the Games back to L.A. for the first time in more than four decades. The 1984 Games were also privately funded and hailed as a massive success for their $225 million surplus that was invested in youth sports. The opportunity to use existing venues in 2028 dramatically reduces potential costs by avoiding new, permanent construction.
“I fully expect that LA28 will be successful in meeting its revenue goals, and I fully expect that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a financial success,” Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles executive director for the office of major events, said in a statement to The Times. “Twice before, Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics, even in the face of adversity, and both of those Games were a huge success for our city and its residents.”
Still, city leaders face enormous pressure to ensure that streets and sidewalks are safe and accessible for the millions of people expected to visit L.A. during the Games. Mayor Karen Bass recently unveiled a citywide initiative called “Shine L.A.” that encourages volunteers to beautify the city with clean-ups and tree plantings ahead of next year’s World Cup and the Olympics.
With city and federal funding, L.A. has planned to overhaul its public transportation system, including a long-awaited Metro station that opened Friday at Los Angeles International Airport. But other updates such as an electrified bus network, expanded rail lines and the LAX people mover have lagged. While the city’s transportation plan is outside of LA28’s Games operation and budget, Wasserman expressed confidence that L.A. will be able to repeat its transit success from the 1984 Games.
But the Olympics have grown larger than ever. A record 11,198 Olympians will compete in 2028. The Paralympics will be the city’s first. Especially with L.A. still recovering from devastating wildfires and a nearly $1 billion deficit, the threat of taxpayers absorbing any costs for the Games looms large.
With financial momentum growing behind the 2028 Games, Wasserman wants to put worried minds at ease.
“The last thing a taxpayer should be worried about is us,” Wasserman said. “We know how to do this. We are proving that every day and we will prove it all the way throughout the process and we are in every sense of the word, giving to the city, not taking from the city.”
The Dodgers’ biggest question this season is an eerily familiar one.
Will their pitching ever get back to full (or at least, significantly improved) health? And will it be as productive as expected if or when that happens?
To this point, the team remains confident on both fronts.
Injured starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki are all in throwing progressions. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani is continuing to build up his arm through weekly live batting practices, and Emmet Sheehan is on a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City. And a whole litany of relievers are also expected back at some point, with Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech likely to return this weekend, and Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol possibilities over the coming couple of months.
Still, as this last week has epitomized, there is an ever-present lack of certainty hanging over the state of the staff as well, with the recovery of any injured pitcher seemingly liable to shift at any moment.
“I’m very confident we’re going to get them all back,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday. “I just don’t know when.”
This week, Glasnow became the latest example of that unpredictable dynamic.
On Monday, Roberts offered a seemingly troublesome update on the oft-injured right-hander. After Glasnow had thrown one bullpen session a week and a half earlier, a bout of back tightness had kept him from throwing off a mound again since.
“There was one ‘pen and, then [his] body didn’t respond,” Roberts said. “So we’re trying to figure out when we can ramp him back up.”
On Tuesday, however, Glasnow presented a more optimistic version of events. Yes, his back became “a little tight” after his initial bullpen session, he said. But he described the resulting pause in his throwing progression as nothing more than a “precaution,” adding that he plans to resume throwing bullpens in the coming week.
“I feel totally fine, totally normal,” said Glasnow, who initially went on the injured list in April because of shoulder inflammation. “My shoulder’s totally fine. That issue, I haven’t felt since I started throwing. It was fine. [The back tightness] really was just, I think, a precaution. I felt totally fine. I’m good to go.”
During his time on the IL, Glasnow believes he found a middle ground between the pitching mechanics he had last year (when his season ended early with elbow tendinitis) and the changes he made over the winter (which he felt contributed to his more recent shoulder issue).
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki watches a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks from the dugout at Dodger Stadium on May 21.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“Trying to meld a best-of-both worlds situation,” he said. “But right now, I feel really, really good mechanics-wise, to just be athletic and throw. It’s enabled me to just be myself more now.”
And though he is still weeks, if not a month or more, away from being activated, Glasnow said he’s confident about having enough time over the second half of the season to rediscover a rhythm ahead of the playoffs.
“I’m trying to get back as soon as I can,” Glasnow said. “But we’re on the same wavelength of, ‘Let’s get you back out as healthy as possible as soon as possible, in a healthy way.’”
Snell, who has also been out since early April because of shoulder trouble, has endured his own stop-and-start recovery process.
After first going on the injured list two starts into the season — because of shoulder pain that he later said had been bothering him since spring training — Snell started to ramp up a few weeks later, progressing to a bullpen session on April 19.
His shoulder, however, didn’t respond well in the days following that step. Thus, he was shut down from throwing again, and received an injection to help alleviate his lingering discomfort.
Since then, Snell has been on a more methodical throwing plan. Recently, his shoulder has finally started to feel normal. And, like Glasnow, he is hoping to begin throwing bullpens once more over the next week.
“I can’t wait [to get back],” Snell told AM 570 last weekend. “Having to wait, it sucks. It’s a long process. But I’m gonna go slow. I’m gonna make sure I’m ready. So when I start pitching, I can get going and do my thing.”
This remains the Dodgers’ company line with most of their injured arms — the team wanting to purposely take their progressions slowly in the short term, to ensure they are available in the long run later this year.
“As far as return to play, there’s certainly a cautiousness to it,” Roberts said. “Because as you start getting into the middle of the year, then any setback could be detrimental for the rest of the season.”
In the meantime, uncertainty on the mound — where the Dodgers currently rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.10 team ERA — will continue to loom.
There is always the threat of setbacks; like what happened with Evan Phillips, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery Wednesday for an injury that was initially expected to sideline him for only two weeks.
And even once pitchers do come back, their levels of performance are subject to variance. That’s been the case recently with Kopech, who struggled so much during a rehab stint in Oklahoma City (where he gave up 11 runs and 11 walks in 6 ⅓ innings) that the Dodgers had him throw a live batting practice session in front of their big league coaching staff Wednesday to help him work through some mechanical adjustments.
“The stuff was good,” Roberts said of Kopech, out since the start of the year because of a shoulder impingement. “Just curious to see what the pitching guys and the training staff feel, and what he thinks of how he felt today. And we’ll kind of move forward after that.”
Yates, who has not required a rehab stint recovering from a hamstring strain, also threw live BP on Wednesday.
“We’ll see how they feel tomorrow,” Roberts said. “And then I think we’ll have a much better decision on this weekend for both guys.”
The good news for the Dodgers is that they do have depth. They don’t need every one of their injured pitchers to return to health and previous form. Even if only half of the arms currently on the IL get back to where they were before, they could still have a pitching staff capable of contending for another World Series title.
Because of that, it seems unlikely they’ll make overly aggressive moves on the trade market leading up to the July 31 deadline. They could use another right-handed reliever to replace Phillips but might be wary of a high-cost splash for a front-line starter (especially after doling out more than half a billion dollars the last two winters to Glasnow, Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto).
For now, they continue to trust that pitchers such as Snell, Glasnow and Ohtani will be impact contributors for the stretch run of the season. They are confident that Sasaki (who has continued regular catch play while battling his own shoulder issue), Sheehan and Graterol will give them more pitching coverage as well.
But until then, they will nonetheless face a precariously familiar situation: hoping enough injured pitchers are able to regain health over the course of the season, and that more unforeseen setbacks won’t continue to leave them shorthanded on the mound.
“I think we’re very confident that we’re going to get the guys we’re talking about back,” Roberts said. “Then once we get them back, we got to make sure we keep them back too.”
May 19 (UPI) — Authorities in New Orleans are expressing confidence they will apprehend the remaining seven of 10 escaped inmates on the loose as they increase the reward for information on the whereabouts of the fugitives.
“We’re confident at this time that we have actionable intelligence on all seven of these fugitives, and we hope in the coming day — if not the coming hours — that we have them all apprehended,” Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Robert Hodges told reporters Sunday in a press conference.
Ten detainees escaped police custody at the Orleans Parish jail early Friday, sparking a manhunt that has so far led to the recapture of three of them.
A reward was offered for information resulting in any of their arrests, which was increased to $20,000 Sunday, with the FBI doubling its reward to $10,000 per inmate, while both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Crime Stoppers were each increasing their rewards to $5,000 an inmate.
“We need the public’s help and we cannot do it alone,” Hodges said. “More importantly, if you are helping and assisting these fugitives, allowing them to remain uncaptured and not brought to justice, there will be consequences and there may be charges for you.”
Hodges emphasized that the recapture of these inmates occurred within the first 24 hours of their escape due to help from the public. Dkenan Dennis, 24, Kendell Myles, 23, and a 15-year-old male, have been relocated to another Louisiana state facility for their safety and the safety of others, Hodges said.
The seven inmates who remain at large have been identified as Corey Boyd, 19, Derrick Groves, 27, Jermaine Donald, 42, Lenton VanBuren, 26, Antoine Massey, 32, Leo Tate, 31, and Gary Price, 21.
“These are violent criminals and they escaped and they have consequences for their actions,” Hodges said.
FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp told reporters they “strongly believe” the escaped inmates are receiving help to evade capture.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said jail officials discovered the breakout at 8:30 a.m. local Friday during a routine headcount.
It was learned that the detainees were able to exit Thursday night due to “defective locks and doors,” it said.
They next broke through a locked cell door at about 12:23 a.m. Friday before breaching a wall behind a toilet in their housing unit and then exiting the jail through a door at about 1 a.m., scaled a wall and fled across the interstate.
Three staff members have been suspended without pay amid an internal investigation into facility operations and supervision practices in connection to the escape, the sheriff’s office said.
More than 200 officers with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are participating in the manhunt.
