Lainey Wilson and Devlin “Duck” Hodges made a splash last weekend, getting married Sunday at a picturesque waterfall in Tennessee.
And unlike at Wilson’s recent headlining gig at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, nobody had to evacuate because of dangerously high wind.
“You could hear the water trickling down and birds singing, and we had a nice spring breeze,” the country singer and “Yellowstone” actor told Vogue, which had an exclusive on the event. “I arrived in a white horse-drawn carriage and walked down the aisle with my Deddy to join Duck at the altar.”
Yup, she said “Deddy.” She also said at Stagecoach — once the wind had slowed down and she was performing as promised — that she hoped her fans “sat in your cars and drank some tequila” when they were hastily and temporarily evacuated.
On Sunday, a friend took the couple through their vows as they were standing on a cobblestone ledge at the foot of a waterfall on the 121-year-old Ruskin property about an hour out of Nashville.
The groom wore a bespoke mallard green suit and ornate bolo tie for the ceremony, per Vogue, while the bride rocked some 5-inch Louboutin heels under her Oscar de la Renta gown. She also kept some blinged-out, custom-made high-heeled cowboy boots nearby just in case. Perhaps for the reception?
There was a 12-piece jazz band, Wilson told the fashion publication, and a Cajun meal that reflected her Louisiana roots. The caterer? It was her very own Nashville bar, Bell Bottoms Up, which turns 2 years old at the end of this month.
Wilson and Hodges, an NFL quarterback-turned-entrepreneur, met on a blind date in 2021 that started with a dinner on the water in Hendersonville, Tenn., and ended up at a honky-tonk. “We’ve been pretty inseparable since,” the Grammy winner said.
They got engaged a couple of days before Valentine’s Day in 2025. The retired athlete, who played for the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, is now a Memphis-based real estate agent who specializes in land and recreational properties.
On the contrary. Seeing him chillin’ in a Dodger-blue hoodie — and not dressed for success in his white home uniform top — was the most striking part of the Dodgers’ 5-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Back on Tuesday, before the Dodgers’ fourth consecutive loss, with Ohtani having recorded just four hits in 36 at-bats, manager Dave Roberts announced plans to bench baseball’s best player.
To get him some R&R — rest and reset. “A good spa day,” Roberts would joke Thursday.
Of course, it’s Ohtani, so much is being made of the much-needed breather.
Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Maybe you hate it. Maybe you hate it for him. Maybe you think a $700 million contract doesn’t account for days off. Maybe you were among the unfortunate 51,048 paying customers who came to watch the Dodgers even their series with the Giants without Ohtani’s help, and you’re sad about it.
Maybe, though, you should give Roberts the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you should remind yourself Ohtani isn’t actually a unicorn. Not a myth, but a man.
“Mentally, the days that he does pitch, it’s tougher on him [to also hit],” Roberts said Thursday. “Physically, it’s the day after.”
And so the manager wasn’t joking; he wasn’t juking. Even after Ohtani homered for the first time in 53 plate appearances in Tuesday’s 6-2 loss, Roberts stuck with the plan and gave his superstar a whole day off Thursday after having him only pitch the night before.
Only. As in that he only pitched seven scoreless innings, only struck out eight and only lowered his ERA to a major-league leading 0.82. Yes, he only teed up the Dodgers for a 4-0 victory. An honestly exceptional day’s work for anyone else.
Then on Thursday, Ohtani contributed only vibes.
Which was weird. Which was good.
Instead of swinging a bat, Ohtani served as the welcoming committee after Will Smith led off the game with a home run. Ohtani was later an accessory to Smith’s prank filling Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s hood with wrapped pieces of bubble gum. And still, for the second consecutive game without him in the lineup, the Dodgers (26-18) finished the job.
For all of their recent scuffing and shuffling, these loaded, baseball-ruining Dodgers should be able to survive an Ohtani skip day every so often.
But it’s important that the Dodgers don’t let the 31-year-old burn himself out.
“The thing is with all players, once you get to a point where you’re exhausted and tired and that’s in the middle of the summer, it’s tough to recoup,” Roberts said. “So you kind of have to know how to push them but not get to the red line point. If we can kind of hold and get a good rhythm, which I think we’re getting a good grasp on now, then we’ll have more of a base, a foundation to push him when the time is right. It’s certainly not right now.”
Roberts said Ohtani is sharing in these decisions. If there are days that Roberts feels like Ohtani would benefit from a day off, he’s given the manager his blessing.
Sometimes less is more, even for the guy who can do it all.
Vivica A. Fox dreamed of being a model, but in order to receive her mother’s blessing to move to Southern California, where the jobs were, she had to promise her one thing: She’d go to college.
So that’s what she did. At 18, Fox left her hometown of Indianapolis for Huntington Beach, where she attended Golden West College and got an associate’s degree in social sciences. On weekends, she’d drive up to L.A. for auditions, getting her first taste of show business while dancing on Don Cornelius’ iconic television series “Soul Train” and later nabbing her first acting gig as Dr. Stephanie Simmons on “Young and the Restless,” a role she recently reprised after more than 30 years.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
“The rest is kind of history,” says Fox, who went on to star in other hit films including “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “Two Can Play That Game,” “Soul Food” and “Set It Off,” which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Her latest project, “Is God Is,” hits theaters Friday. Directed by Aleshea Harris, who wrote the award-winning play of the same name, the film follows twin sisters as they embark on a vengeful quest to find their abusive father, who left them for dead. Fox plays God, the twins’ mother, a burn victim and domestic abuse survivor who gives her daughters a simple yet chilling instruction: “Make your daddy dead. Real dead.” Harris handpicked Fox for the role.
“I just was so honored,” Fox says. “Then when I got the script and dove into it a little bit more, I was like ‘Ooh, this is a way no one has ever seen me. This is going to be challenging.”
She adds, “I was like, ‘Wow. We don’t get things like this,’ so it was honestly, for me, a no-brainer.”
Sundays are the one day of the week where Fox can “do me,” she says. Here’s how she’d spend it in L.A.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
6:30 a.m.: Quick coffee run
I’m usually up by 6:30 or 7 a.m. I’m an early bird because I’m so used to either having to be on set or when my publicist, B.J., was living on the East Coast and I’d have to respond to answer his emails in a timely manner. Once I’m awake and settled, I’d get some Starbucks. I’d order a venti white chocolate mocha with an extra shot of espresso, no whipped cream. I used to order kale bites, which I’d eat with the meat from the sausage and egg sandwich, but they discontinued them so now I just get the sandwich.
8 a.m.: Float in hot springs
I’d head to the Beverly Hot Springs. I would get a body care treatment. It’s awesome because they rub you from head to toe with body oil, then they wash your hair and give you a cucumber and yogurt mask. After that, I would get a facial and float in the water. It is one of the only spas with natural, alkaline hot springs in L.A., so the water is just heavenly.
2 p.m.: Margarita and caviar fries with a view
After that, I would meet with a friend, more than likely B.J., at the rooftop restaurant at Waldorf Astoria. The reason why I love going there is because of the view. On a beautiful, clear day, you can see all of Los Angeles. It has a 360 view that is absolutely incredible. I would start off with the caviar fries and a spicy margarita with a tajin rim. Then I would do either the salmon with spinach or if it was a super cheat day, I’d have a cheeseburger.
4 p.m.: A Broadway show or a sports game
I’d probably go home and take a short nap. But if my godson, Quentin Blanton Junior, is in town, I’d go see him perform at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. He’s playing little Michael in “MJ: The Musical” at the Pantages Theatre. [Editor’s note: We interviewed Fox before the show ended earlier this month]. I’m so proud of him. But if he’s not performing, I’d go to a Chargers or Lakers game. I’m a sports junkie. I’m from Indiana. We grow up on football and basketball. I’ve always loved the Lakers. I remember going to the games back in the day in Inglewood because I used to live there. I used to walk to the games. That was the golden era of Magic and all those guys, then Kobe and them moved up to Staples, which is now Crypto.
9 p.m.: Nightcap before bed
I’d end my Sunday with a night cap at the Delta Club at the Lakers game. I’d have a glass of wine before heading home, then I’d drink a Lacroix to hydrate. I try to be in the bed definitely before midnight.
The US and Chinese leaders agreed during talks in Beijing that the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to ensure global energy supplies.
Published On 15 May 202615 May 2026
United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the Strait of Hormuz during talks in Beijing, with the White House saying Xi agreed the strategic waterway “must remain open to support the free flow of energy” as tensions over the Iran war continue to roil global markets.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged fellow BRICS nations at a meeting in New Delhi, India, to condemn the US-Israel war on Iran as a violation of international law, insisting Tehran would “never bow to any pressure”.
At the same time, a third round of direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli negotiators is under way in Washington, DC, aimed at ending hostilities, even as Israeli attacks continue across towns and villages in southern Lebanon.
Here is what we know:
In Iran
Iran urges BRICS to condemn US and Israel: Araghchi told the BRICS+ bloc that Iran was a “victim of illegal expansionism and warmongering” and called on member states to oppose “Western hegemony” by condemning the actions of the US and Israel.
Iran accuses UAE over war: Araghchi also accused the United Arab Emirates of playing an active role in the war against Iran, saying during the BRICS summit in India that the UAE was “directly involved in the aggression against my country”.
Iran signals new Hormuz strategy: Iranian media reported that more than 30 ships, including some linked to Chinese companies, were allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz overnight as Tehran signalled the waterway was “open to all commercial ships” that cooperate with Iranian naval forces.
War diplomacy
Xi offers help on Hormuz: Trump said Xi Jinping had offered China’s help to open the Strait of Hormuz and pledged not to send military equipment to aid Iran in its war against the US and Israel.
Trump-Xi summit held amid ‘promise fatigue’: Analyst Drew Thompson said Washington and Beijing remain deeply distrustful after years of unmet expectations, with both sides accusing the other of breaking promises. He described the summit as “carefully managed” and focused on preventing further deterioration in ties.
US says Israel-Lebanon talks ‘positive’: A US official said talks in Washington on Thursday between Israel and Lebanon about an expiring ceasefire were “positive” and will take place as planned for a second day.
In the US
Trump wants Iran’s uranium for ‘public relations’: The US president suggested that hunting down Iran’s enriched uranium was primarily for political optics, after Israel demanded it as a goal in the war. “I just feel better if I got it, actually, but it’s – I think, it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else,” Trump told Fox News.
Trump says Iran must make deal: In the same interview, Trump told Sean Hannity he was running out of patience to reach a truce with Iran as peace talks have stalled. “I’m not going to be much more patient… They should make a deal. Any sane person would make a deal, but they might be crazy,” Trump said.
In Israel
NYT lawsuit: Israel says it will sue The New York Times after the newspaper published an article by columnist Nicholas Kristof detailing rape allegations by Palestinian detainees against Israeli forces. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced the legal move three days after the report, which was based on accounts from 14 male and female Palestinian victims.
In Lebanon and Syria
Hezbollah claims attacks on Israeli forces: The group said it launched rockets, drones and artillery attacks on Israeli troops and military vehicles in southern Lebanon, and claimed to have downed Israeli drones.
Israel-Lebanon talks face uncertainty: According to Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo, Israel is seeking stronger security guarantees and Hezbollah’s disarmament, while Lebanon wants a permanent ceasefire and Israeli troop withdrawal from the south. Rapalo says Hezbollah’s refusal to commit to any future agreement adds significant uncertainty, although diplomats still view the talks as a breakthrough.
Amnesty urges Israel to conduct Syria war crimes probe: The rights group called for investigations into Israeli raids and shelling in southern Syria, which residents say have destroyed homes and farmland and led to detentions. Israel has also seized additional territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights, in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement.
SACRAMENTO — Hours before Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to present his budget plan on Thursday, his office released new projections of a $16.5-billion state revenue windfall over three years and offered a rosy outlook on California’s fiscal position during his final year in office and the year after.
Newsom’s office provided few details about his plan to reduce spending or other adjustments that he would need to propose in combination with the increase in revenue to eliminate projected deficits from 2026-27 through 2027-28.
The unusual early look at his budget proposal comes as Newsom begins to wind down his time at the state Capitol and considers a run for president in 2028.
Two weeks ago, the Legislative Analyst’s Office issued an analysis of state spending that said California could not, in the long term, afford to pay for existing services and the new programs that Newsom and Democratic lawmakers have enacted since he took office in 2019. State spending has outpaced California’s strong revenue growth by about 10%, creating a perennial budget shortfall, defined as a structural deficit.
California’s spending problem threatens to define Newsom’s fiscal legacy and could provide ripe fodder for his critics. If projections of the unexpected tax windfall, which analysts attribute to stock market interest in artificial intelligence companies, bear out, the upswing could mark a lucky break for Newsom.
The governor has largely resisted adopting new across-the-board tax increases or sharply curtailing his expensive policy proposals in order to align state spending with revenue.
His budget proposal includes a call to increase taxes on corporations by limiting state tax credits to no more than $5 million, or 50% of a company’s tax liability, beginning in the tax year 2027. No estimates were offered to explain how much revenue the new cap would bring in to support the state budget.
The preview of his budget has several new spending proposals, including providing $300 million to help low-income Californians keep $0 monthly premiums on healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act in response to cuts by the federal government, as well as $100 million to help wildfire victims afford construction loans to rebuild their homes. Two days before Mother’s Day, Newsom also introduced a plan to provide 400 free diapers for every California newborn at select hospitals beginning this summer.
Newsom is expected to present his budget in more detail late Thursday morning in Sacramento.
I was 10 when I first read “All Creatures Great and Small,” devouring each subsequent book that Alf Wight, under the pen name James Herriot, wrote about life as a veterinarian in his beloved Yorkshire Dales. I was a bit older when I encountered Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” which opens in the seaside town of Whitby, where cliffs overlook the sea in which the ill-fated ship Demeter meets its end. In my teens, I discovered the wild moors and ancient halls of “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” More recently, I have been entranced by the work of Sally Wainwright, whose string of critically acclaimed series — ”Last Tango in Halifax,” “Happy Valley,” “Gentleman Jack” and “Riot Women” — have made her the modern bard of Yorkshire, England.
So when a friend, planning a visit to her daughter at Durham University, proposed I join her for a side trip of our own, I jumped at the chance to travel to a land I knew only through the eyes of others.
The Dales of James Herriot
In mid-April, I joined my friend Nancy in York, a city often mentioned in Yorkshire-based literature. On a sunny Saturday, we took a train to Thirsk, where Herriot, alongside Donald and Brian Sinclair (known in the books as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon) lived and worked in “Skeldale House,” now the World of James Herriot museum.
Lambing season in North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
The city sprawl quickly gave way to stone-walled fields full of dazzling yellow rape and spring-green grass dotted with sheep and frolicking lambs. April is lambing season, the perfect time to visit Herriot Country. “All young animals are appealing,” he wrote, “but the lamb has been given an unfair share of charm.”
Situated between the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales national parks, Thirsk (known as Darrowby in the Herriot books) is a market town, organized around a great open plaza in which stands a clock tower that on this day was decorated with rather splendid floral creations by the Thirsk Yarnbombers, in celebration of its 10th anniversary.
Even so, it looks much as it must have when Herriot lived here — modern businesses housed in medieval and Georgian buildings. Surely the Ritz Cinema is the theater Herriot describes as he begins his courtship of Helen Alderson; a blue circle marker proudly declares its date of establishment as a picture house, 1912.
The entrance to the World of James Herriot in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
The World of James Herriot museum is a sudden splash of crimson and white signage on an otherwise ordinary, albeit charming, street; at the far end stands St. Mary’s Church, where Herriot married his actual wife, Joan Anderson. When we visited the church later that afternoon, they were cleaning up from a community tea and I spoke with a woman who remembered Herriot and especially his son Jim and daughter Rosie, who were the town vet and doctor, respectively, for many years.
The museum, on the first floor, is a re-creation of “Skeldale House,” down to the pint pot in which Siegfried kept the petty cash and the old central telephone. There’s a display documenting the evolution of the books — originally printed in the UK, beginning in 1972, under different names, until a struggling St. Martin’s Press published two of them with the title “All Creatures Great and Small” and helped turn Herriot into a franchise.
The old central telephone at the World of James Herriot museum in Thirsk.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Various outbuildings now house a small screening room, where clips from a documentary on Herriot’s life play, as well as a re-creation of the TV studio and set on which the 1978 television series was filmed. The set from the current PBS series, which began in 2020, is in another part of the museum, which also includes an extensive exhibit of historic veterinarian instruments.
As we wandered through the town and the museum, Herriot the man came to life as lyrically as his fiction. A country vet, whose career began before the age of antibiotics and many now-commonplace vaccines, wrote, beginning at age 50, a series of semi-autobiographical novels that would become international bestsellers and launch several films and two series, one of which was filming 35 miles away in Grassington.
He never left the Dales, or stopped being a vet; during his lifetime, fans would line the street outside his practice, waiting for autographs and photos. Twenty years after his death, Thirsk remains both an ordinary Yorkshire town (the only Herriot memorabilia advertised is in the museum gift shop) and an enduring tourist destination. (If you go, may I recommend lunch/tea at Upstairs, Downstairs, where I got a life-changing Yorkshire rarebit with bacon and fried egg as well as a sack of the local sweet, cinder toffee.)
Grassington, North Yorkshire, becomes a film set for “All Creatures Great and Small.”
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Deeper in the Dales, Nancy and I rented a “glamping pod” in Malhamdale. On our way, we stopped in Grassington, where the town was being transformed into Darrowby with period-and-place-appropriate signs, advertisements and community announcements. “Open as usual but dressed for filming” read a sign in the window of the Stripey Badger Bookshop, Coffee Shop and Kitchen.
Filming would take place in two days’ time, so we returned then to see the square come alive with extras in period clothing. Within the crowd of fellow onlookers, controlled by lovely but firm crew members, we watched as a scene between Siegfried (Samuel West) and Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) was filmed outside the Drovers Arms.
A breathtaking view and unique fractured “pavement” at Malham Cove.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
We had chosen Malhamdale because its limestone topography is considered the most stunning of the Dales. And that it most certainly is.
From the village of Malham we hiked to Malham Cove, which rose in near miraculous silver splendor among the sylvan greenery, and then ascended the nearly 500 steps to its top. There, a breathtaking view and unique fractured “pavement” has been used in countless films, including “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and the 1992 “Wuthering Heights.” We followed the trail to the Gordale Scar, a glorious gorge and waterfall that is also a favorite filming spot, and thence to Janet’s Foss, a woodland waterfall and pool, beside a cave where the queen of the fairies is said to live.
Janet’s Foss, a woodland waterfall and pool.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
After just three days in the Dales, I clearly understood why no amount of money or fame had convinced Herriot and his family to leave.
Dracula town
Windswept Whitby sits on the east coast of Yorkshire, with its back to the North York Moors National Park and its face to the North Sea. It climbs either side of a valley created by the River Esk, as it joins the port where whalers once launched and Captain Cook first commandeered the HMS Endeavour.
On the west side, the street along the harbor is chockablock with venues catering to tourists and daytrippers come to enjoy the pier and small beaches. Families rent crab pots and put their catch in plastic buckets held by delighted children. Atop the cliffs behind, Georgian homes, hotels and guest houses stand in gracious testament to Whitby’s Victorian history as a popular spa town, as it was when Stoker visited in 1890. He stayed in a West Cliff guest house, gazing, as everyone must do, across the harbor where the remains of the 13th century Whitby Abbey dominate the East Cliff.
The harbor at Whitby, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Even under a beaming sun, the ruins, aproned by the graveyard of the nearby Norman church of St. Mary’s, carve a formidable black silhouette against the sky. Beneath are the roofs and cobbled streets of the medieval Old Town, where ancient pubs stand among jewelers specializing in local jet. To reach the abbey, visitors must climb the town’s famous 199 steps that rise along the cliff.
“It is a most noble ruin,” Mina Harker writes in her journal in early chapters of “Dracula.” “Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbor.”
Here Mina and her friend Lucy Westenra sit among the graves, sketching and talking, later, watching clouds gather for the storm that would bring the Demeter, and Count Dracula, to Whitby. Here too Mina would see, from the West Cliff, her sleepwalking friend half reclining on “our favorite seat” and for a moment “it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it.”
The remains of Whitby Abbey.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
We visited on a sunny day, and the wind blew hard as we traced Mina and Lucy’s steps through the tombs and along the path past the Abbey toward Robin Hood’s Bay. With its glorious views and picturesque harbor, Whitby is the antithesis of gothic horror. Still, it was here that Stoker, researching another novel, first read of Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula, and no doubt heard of the wreck of the Russian ship Dmitry, which had run aground beneath East Cliff five years before his visit.
And so the godfather of modern horror was born.
Brontë Country
It is difficult to imagine a fictional tale more gothic, inspirational and remarkable than that of three brilliant sisters who lived in relative isolation on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, secretly battling their socially conscripted futures by writing poems and novels that they dared not publish under their own names.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Two of those novels — ”Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, are still considered masterworks, influencing subsequent generations and endlessly adapted for film and television. (In the ultimate Yorkshire crossover, Wainwright wrote the breathtaking two-part Brontë biopic “To Walk Invisible,” which everyone should see.)
The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the town of Haworth which it overlooks, is very much a tourist attraction. An information annex, gift shop and public restroom have been added behind it, but once you enter the small garden that stands between the parsonage’s front door and St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, you are in another world.
In 1820, Patrick Brontë, recently appointed incumbent of St. Michael, moved his wife, Maria, and their six children into the parsonage where they all lived for the rest of their natural (albeit in most cases, short) lives. Maria died in 1821; the two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, died four years later after being sent to a typhoid-plagued school Charlotte would pillory as Lowood in “Jane Eyre.”
The museum is meticulously restored to reflect the years that the surviving children — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, the only son — were young adults. The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen. Patrick had his own study but it is difficult to imagine three women being able to write separate works, never mind classics, in such close quarters. Ironically, only Branwell’s room, papered with sketches and poems, looks like an artist’s refuge.
St. Michael and All Angels’ Church in the town of Haworth.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
Unlike his three sisters, Branwell, his artistic career stunted by alcoholism and an opium addiction, never published. He died of tuberculosis in 1848 at 31.
If any place should be haunted, it is the Brontë parsonage. Shortly after Branwell’s funeral (and just a year after “Wuthering Heights” was published), 30-year-old Emily also died of tuberculosis, expiring on the sofa that stands beside the dining room table. A few months later, after the publication of her second novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Anne, 29, succumbed to the disease in nearby Scarborough, just south of Whitby.
Charlotte, who wrote two more novels after “Jane Eyre,” was the only sister to be celebrated during her lifetime. She married and then died at the parsonage in 1855 at 38 of complications from her first pregnancy. Only Patrick lived to old age — 84 — dying in 1861 in the home where he had served for 41 years.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, North Yorkshire.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
But it is not a sad house; instead visitors are left to wonder at the genius, resolution and audacity that roiled the quiet rooms and halls where the sisters secretly wrote and sent out their manuscripts, all initially under the the names of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.
The steeply descending main street of Haworth is filled with tea shops, pubs and stores clearly dedicated to pleasing Brontë pilgrims, but its basic form, including the original stationery store where the sisters once bought their paper, remains the same.
As do the moors that stretch behind the parsonage. On a walk to the Brontë Waterfall (more like a small but still lovely rill) and Top Withens, the ruin of a 16th century farmhouse believed to have inspired “Wuthering Heights,” the wild silence and sweeping vistas are even more transporting than the parsonage. One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain.
Wainwright’s Way
Our final accommodation on this literary sojourn was Holdsworth House, a manor hotel near Halifax where screenwriter Wainwright and her casts often stay during filming, and where Alan (Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) were married in “Last Tango in Halifax.”
Holdsworth House, a manor hotel near Halifax.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
With creaking floors, fireplaces, a first-class restaurant, mullioned windows and a lovely garden, Holdsworth House would be glorious even without its famous connections (including a 1964 stay by the Beatles). Plans for at least two weddings were being discussed by staff during our sojourn.
On our way there, we stopped in Heptonstall, a tiny town above Hebden Bridge, where Sylvia Plath is buried in the St. Thomas A’ Becket churchyard. Her husband, Ted Hughes, was born in the nearby town of Mytholmroyd and though they were estranged at the time of her death, he was her next of kin and chose the site, and the stone, on which the poet is identified as Sylvia Plath Hughes above an epitaph that reads: “Even amidst fierce flames, the golden lotus can be planted.”
Heptonstall, a tiny town above Hebden Bridge, where Sylvia Plath is buried in the St. Thomas A’ Becket churchyard.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
There are no signs directing visitors to Plath’s resting place; we relied on Apple Maps and my memory of a brief glimpse of it in Wainwright’s “Happy Valley” (Becky, the daughter of main character Catherine Cawood [Sarah Lancashire], is buried nearby). Looking for the piles of pens that once adorned Plath’s grave didn’t help; it is now blanketed in planted flowers. A few pens have been left on the headstone, which has been replaced at least once; generations of fans have attempted to obliterate “Hughes.”
Down the hill in Hebden Bridge, Wainwright’s world comes miraculously to life — the canals with their longboats, on which Catherine battled Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton); the Albert pub which proudly announces on a placard that it is the Duke of Wellington in “Riot Women”; even the public car park where Alan had his car stolen while meeting Celia for the first time in “Last Tango.”
The canal at Hebden Bridge.
(Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times)
While driving around Hebden Bridge and towns surrounding nearby Halifax, I more than once imagined I was Catherine Cawood and marveled at Wainwright’s loyalty to this land, its cities, towns, farms and moors. Her series are inevitably female-centric and like the Brontës, who wrote 200 years and a few miles away, her work excavates the drama of daily life and the tension between good and evil that sings below any surface.
Watch the highlights as Celtic score a controversial late penalty to win at Motherwell and take the Scottish Premiership title race to a final-day decider against Hearts.
“It’s so intimidating to walk through here,” says an arena staffer as she scurries under the sight line of a video camera on a tall tripod. It’s a couple of hours before the Sparks’home opener against the Las Vegas Aces on Mother’s Day. None of the photographers or videographers or security guards respond. She says it again. Still they don’t react, but they’re not being rude. They’re just all laser-focused on a 6-foot-4 blond wearing a stunning white Alaïa runway set that happens to be both a perfect ab showcase and an unmistakable style gauntlet thrown.
As every WNBA fashion watcher already knows, the blond can only be Sparks forward Cameron Brink, a Vogue favorite and a staple on LeagueFits, the Instagram account that has amassed a million followers since 2018 with a curated stream of tunnel fits. How do they differ from regular off-court attire? These are highly stylized, high-stakes pregame outfits that many professional athletes wear when arriving at the stadium or arena, capitalizing on the opportunity to get seen on their own terms.
Cameron Brink wears an Alaïa top and skirt and Louboutin shoes.
The popular images share a common visual language: The players show up in outfits so expressive they raise an exhilarating middle finger to the very idea of quiet luxury. The backdrops are always drab; concrete floors and metal doors. The stark contrast between the two, and the suggestion of backstage access, make the photos irresistible to fans.
No one skips the tunnel walk. The Sparks rookies are here early, Ta’Niya Latson first, followed by Ji-Hyun Park and then Chance Gray, all arriving while the last section of sparkly black carpet is still being laid down on the literal tunnel, which is finally emblazoned with the team logo. That’s the one they’ll all walk in uniform to get onto the court. We are in the proverbial tunnel, it is the bustling back-of-house that players must traverse on their way to the locker room, which means that all around us the enormous task of staging a pro ballgame is unfolding in a practiced frenzy.
Less than a month ago, Latson went classic Hollywood at the WNBA draft with a glamour girl dress, meticulously laid spit curl and elbow gloves, but today she comes in sporty and fun, in a Puma top and jeans with a folded-down waistband. It’s her very first league game, and the moment is surreal, joyful. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m here, but I am,” she says.
A team staffer pulls a forgotten wad of blue painter’s tape off the floor. A photographer checks her light levels. Three gaffers rush by with heavy coils of electric cord slung over their shoulders. Park is next to arrive. A basketball star in Korea, she’s new to L.A. but already wearing a sweatshirt from a local brand, Madhappy, and does not seem at all intimidated by the cameras, giving them a playful pose, head cocked and leg kicked out. Not long after, Gray, in a plaid mini, is also posing at the photographers’ request, switching effortlessly between signature Gen Z stances, chin resting atop a bent hand. She, too, showed up at the draft in a flawless gown, but today all three rookies seem to have wisely cast themselves in a sort of spirited younger sibling role.
Ta’Niya Latson wears a Puma top and Louis Vuitton bag.
Jihyun Park arrives for her tunnel walk in a Madhappy sweatshirt and Nike sneakers.
Chance Gray wears a Revolve top and shoes, I.am.Gia. skirt and Ganni bag.
Word spreads that Sparks starter Kelsey Plum will be there soon and everyone straightens up. More team staffers rush by. To play basketball you need only a ball and a basket. To magic a WNBA production into existence, you need so much more. A man bearing a dozen brand new jerseys, designed as a callback to the original 1997 uniform, weaves past a line of people going the other way, carrying orange Gatorade coolers and stacks of branded blankets wrapped in thin plastic. An assistant speeds back and forth, loaded down with pallets of snacks, her long hair streaming behind her.
And then Nneka Ogwumike steps into view. After two seasons in Seattle, her return to L.A. is triumphant. As president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Assn., she helped secure a historic new agreement, signed March 24, with salary numbers that mean real money across the board. And in case there were any lingering doubts about her loyalty, she’s made a pointed clothing choice: a pair of custom tapestry pants constructed from a Lakers logo blanket, created by KA Originals designer and former player Kristine Anigwe. The message is simple. “L.A. for life,” says Ogwumike.
Nneka Ogwumike wears custom KA Originals tapestry pants constructed from a Lakers blanket.
Now the rush begins. As we’re talking to Ogwumike, Sania Feagin slips by in a multicolored knit beanie, smile unmissable, holding a bouquet of Mother’s Day flowers from one of the league’s social media managers. Then Emma Cannon embraces the holiday by pulling her son and twin daughters behind her in a wagon. As the family is photographed, several Aces members come in and pause for a brief hug and coo before ducking quickly out of frame. The energy could not be more different from a boxing weigh-in. No spotlight stealing. No antagonistic peacocking.
It is, indisputably, the home team’s turf. And Plum, next to arrive, treats it like her runway. Willy Chavarria sunglasses on, textured Ferragamo trousers glittering with each camera flash, she strides through without pausing. The look has her signature rebel edge, but the guard is working with a new stylist, Karla Welch, who’s known for transforming actors into fashion darlings — her client Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) is the face of Dior’s latest campaign.
Soon after, we get another speed strut from guard Erica Wheeler, whose giant “EW” initial chain from the GLD Shop is the iced out topper to an outfit that’s a master class in artful layering, composed with the assistance of stylist Miguel Moss. Wheeler dipped into Willy Chavarria’s Adidas collab with both her shorts and a pair of black sneakers with a metal-tooled toe in a floral pattern that the designer named after the Compton Cowboys.
WNBA LA Sparks player Emma Cannon with her three children.
Kelsey Plum wears Ferragamo top and pants, Willy Chavarria sunglasses and Jude boots.
The entire time players are walking through, music has been booming through the hallways. Gradually, it becomes clear that the game DJ and host are also getting ready, running through their playlists and patter. When Rae Burrell enters, the game announcer is rehearsing, exhorting the not-yet-arrived crowd to cheer for their team. Burrell may have worked with a shopper to procure options, but she styled herself in this cheer-worthy outfit — a gray minidress that satisfyingly contrasts with a pair of bright white Moon Boots, all pulled together the night before.
Star stylist Brittany Hampton, who has worked with Brink and Plum, says, “historically, [the players] were told to kind of put themselves in a box … to shrink themselves.” The league had very narrow standards for how women were expected to look. But now, according to Hampton, their fashion choices are a projection of power: “It’s an act of their own ownership.”
Before she headed to the locker room, Burrell thanked everyone and called out a cheerful invocation, “Successful first game!” That’s the appeal of the tunnel walk. You cannot stay suspended in pure potential. There is always a ticking clock. A game will be played. Someone will win and someone will lose. None of us know yet that the Sparks are about to get trounced by the Aces, losing by 27 points. It might seem like it would be more sensible for this ritual to take place after the game, for the victors to stage a triumphant, high-style parade and for everyone else to slink out, unnoticed. But where’s the glory in that? To be an athlete is to prove yourself constantly, to always be risking your ego and your body. Without these stakes, without the backdrop of the tunnel and the promise of the competition, it would just be a runway.
In the third quarter, as the Aces’ points keep piling up, the Jumbotron lingers on a fan wearing a simple white T-shirt, probably self-made, emblazoned with an iconic 2024 image of Kelsey Plum in black sunglasses and head-to-toe black leather. Plum is braless, her vest open to reveal a shimmery pile of silver chains, her abs on defiant display. It is a potent, and lasting, assertion of self. The fan in the T-shirt smiles as their image, and Plum’s, looms over the arena.
Dearica Hamby poses with her daughter, Amaya, and wears an Ottolinger set, Steve Madden shoes and Balenciaga.
Rae Burrell wears Prada sunglasses and Diesel bag.
Ariel Atkins wears Zara pants, Charles Keith top, Bape shoes and Ganni bag.
Sania Feagin wears Mnml pants and jacket and Supreme beanie.
Head coach Lynne Roberts.
Jade Chang is the author of the novel “What a Time to Be Alive.”
Keeping the kids entertained is no mean feat, but a UK attraction has been named as the best for a family-packed day out or holiday, with thrill-seeking rides that beat Alton Towers and Thorpe Park
You don’t need to fork out on Disneyland when this seaside amusement park is right on our doorstep (Image: Getty Images)
It’s not always easy to keep the kids entertained and prevent them from losing interest, but there’s one attraction that has been named as the UK’s best – and it’s not where you might think.
As we lap up warmer rays on weekends and edge closer to school holidays, parents will be looking for fun-packed holidays and activities to keep the little ones entertained now more than ever. A trip to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris has long been a popular choice among families, yet these trips can come with a hefty price tag, despite the never-ending fun.
In a bid to help parents beat the kids’ boredom, Attraction Tickets has ranked the holidays most likely to keep little ones happily off their screens. While Disney and Universal claimed the top spots on the global list, Blackpool Pleasure Beach was the top UK destination, ranking in a respectable sixth place.
Taking the number one UK spot on the event ticket seller’s Banish Boredom Index, following thousands of analysed reviews across 160 worldwide destinations, Blackpool Pleasure Beach scored 24.3 out of 30. The combination of immersive attractions and high-energy experiences is thought to make these top attractions, where parents need not worry about their kids getting bored.
As a thrilling seaside amusement park with nostalgic wooden coasters and mega rides like ICON and The Big One, Blackpool Pleasure Beach even beats the likes of Alton Towers and Thorpe Park on the list. There are jaw-dropping rides at the Blackpool theme park, with loops, turns, twists and drops, along with Nickelodeon Land, water rides and attractions for younger children.
And it’s not just the event ticket seller that has hailed Blackpool Pleasure Beach as the best UK family day out. One visitor shared on TripAdvisor: “Visited through the week with my 11-year-old son. Had a great day. Got on loads of rides. Went on all the big rides numerous times. Found all the staff were very friendly. The guy at the entrance was lovely.”
They added: “Disappointed that Valhalla wasn’t open. Got lunch at the Southern Fried Chicken shop. Wasn’t expecting much, but the chicken was actually really nice. Not a bad price for a theme park either. Toilets were all clean too. We will be back.”
A second shared: “The children loved it here. Very good value with the ultimate pass.” While a third summed up their trip by commenting: “I love the Pleasure Beach, it seems to get a bit of a reputation for being a ‘tired’ amusement park, but I completely disagree, still think it holds its own against the more popular parks like Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, etc.”
Top 10 attractions to beat the boredom
Walt Disney World Resort, Florida, USA
Universal Studios Orlando, Florida, USA
Disneyland Paris, Paris, France
Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo, Japan
Aquatica, Florida, USA
Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Lancashire, UK
Waterbom Bali, Bali, Indonesia
Universal Studios Hollywood, California, USA
Diggerland, Kent, Durham, Yorkshire, Devon, UK
Legoland Billund, Denmark
Oliver Brendon, CEO of Attraction Tickets, said: “Nowadays, keeping children entertained on holiday is more challenging than ever. With many kids accustomed to the instant gratification of iPad games and interactive television shows, traditional holiday moments, such as lounging by the pool or playing on the beach, often aren’t enough to hold their attention.
“To take the guesswork out of planning, we created the Banish Boredom Index. By analysing hundreds of thousands of reviews, we identified the destinations and attractions that genuinely captivate kids and keep them engaged throughout the trip. The results are clear – the best family holidays are the ones where children are immersed in the experience from start to finish.
“It’s no surprise that destinations such as Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, and Disneyland Paris top the list, as they each offer high levels of interactivity and imagination. For parents, that means fewer screen-time battles and more meaningful moments together. However, you don’t always need to travel across the pond, as spots like Blackpool Pleasure Beach prove that the UK can deliver that same level of excitement and engagement closer to home.
“If you’re hoping to break the iPad habit this summer, the data speaks for itself – swap Wi-Fi for rides, tower drops, or historical activities. Whether you’re planning a staycation or a long-haul escape, real-world excitement is the key to banishing your children’s boredom in 2026.”
To book tickets or to read the full list of holidays on the Banish Boredom Index, you can visit the Attractions Tickets website. For more information on Blackpool Pleasure Beach or to plan your day out, visit their website.
Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
Ian Bowen is manager of the “66 to Cali” shop/kiosk on the Santa Monica Pier. Many travelers go to the kiosk for the Route 66 “passports” and certificates of completion.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Beyond the merry-go-round and before the Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Ian Bowen does business in a snug kiosk overstuffed with souvenirs, guidebooks and replica highway signs. The whole structure measures about 77 square feet. But the idea behind it sprawls for miles and keeps Bowen talking for hours on end: Route 66.
The 66 to Cali kiosk is owned by Dan Rice, who started the business in 2009 after years of travels on the Mother Road. But Bowen, 35, has been managing it for 10 years, making sales, offering advice and hearing travelers’ tales, which almost always come with surprises. He calls himself “a bona fide nerd about Route 66.”
“It took me six years to do the whole road and finish my last stretch in Arcadia, Oklahoma,” Bowen said between customers one recent night. Rather than cover more than 2,400 miles in a single trip, he has done what many American “roadies” do: biting off one chunk at a time. Before you know it, he said, “you become part of the community.”
That became obvious as Bowen flipped through the photo albums he keeps in the kiosk. There’s Harley Russell, ribald proprietor and performer at the Sandhills Curiosity Shop in Erick, Okla. There’s Fran Houser, the late, widely beloved proprietor of the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas. And there’s Bowen getting a haircut from Angel Delgadillo, the Seligman, Ariz., barber, now 99, who kicked off a resurgence of interest in Route 66 in 1987 with a call for historical recognition.
This is not the career Bowen planned for; he studied to be an industrial designer. But now that he’s in the business of celebrating Route 66, he sees it, and other highways like it, as a launching pad for independent businesses, a lifeline for small towns and an antidote to the isolation of contemporary society.
“The old roads aren’t just about nostalgia,” Bowen says on his website. “They’re about creativity, honest work, investing in ourselves and our communities, and the notion that effort is rewarded.”
For those considering a Route 66 trip, Bowen has advice of all kinds.
Want an old-school meal along the route in Santa Monica? Bowen will point you toward Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery, which opened in 1925.
A lunch spot near Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande? Cross-Eyed Cow Pizza, said Bowen, is just down the road.
The backstory on Bobby Troup’s song “Route 66?” Bowen can tell you that Nat King Cole recorded it in early 1946 in a studio at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd. And that address, now occupied by the Jeffrey Deitch art gallery, is actually on Route 66.
Whatever your itinerary, Bowen urges a loose schedule, leaving plenty of room for discoveries and unplanned conversations. Otherwise, “it’s so easy to use up all your time and end up running behind,” he said.
One recent Friday, Leonidas Georgiou, 36, stepped up to the kiosk, brimming with enthusiasm.
Georgiou, who lives in Athens, only learned about Route 66 last year “from an influencer on Greek TikTok.” But once he heard about it, he acted fast. Georgiou plotted a U.S. trip, recruited his mom to ride shotgun and picked up a rented Mazda SUV in Chicago. They made the drive in 23 days, with detours to Las Vegas and Monument Valley and a stop at the Walter White house (from “Breaking Bad”) in Albuquerque.
The varying weather and landscape, Georgiou said, made it feel like a four-season trip. Several times, in cities where hotels seemed too pricey or too sketchy, he and his mom slept in their SUV. Before Bowen could speak up, Georgiou added that he’s a police officer in Athens, and that he chose their spots carefully. Georgiou’s mother, who didn’t speak much English, nodded in affirmation.
“Instead of spending $40 each and getting bedbugs, it’s better to sleep in the car,” Georgiou said. And in the larger picture, he said, it was important to give the trip all the time it needed.
“This is a lifetime journey,” Georgiou said.
Bowen nodded and smiled. Another 66 traveler, another set of surprises.
May 11 (UPI) — AAA estimates that 45 million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles from home over Memorial Day weekend, a slight uptick over last year.
AAA reported its estimate on Monday, forecasting an uptick in travel between Thursday, May 21 and Monday, May 25. Last year about 44.8 million people traveled for Memorial Day weekend.
About 39.1 million people are estimated to be hitting the road while another 3.66 million will fly and 2.22 million will take other forms of travel.
“Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, and for most Americans, it’s a three-day weekend,” Stacey Barber, AAA vice president, said in a statement. “Travel demand remains strong, and despite higher fuel prices, many people are prioritizing leisure travel during holiday breaks.”
AAA said last year the average gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.17 on Memorial Day.
Fuel prices remain high across the United States as the war in Iran drags on. The average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States is $4.52. That is up from $4.45 last week, $4.13 last month and $3.13 a year ago.
Oil prices climbed again on Monday, following President Donald Trump‘s statement that Iran’s response to the United States’ latest peace proposal was “totally unacceptable.”
Brent crude oil increased by 4% to $105.50 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate rose 4.4% to $99.80.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at an event he is hosting for a group that includes Gold Star Mothers and Angel Mothers in honor of Mother’s Day in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
Hundreds protested in Mexico City on Mother’s Day to demand justice and accountability for missing loved ones. 130,000 people are registered as missing in Mexico, as of early 2026, which has been driven by organised crime and escalating violence.
One rebound got away. Another went to the Oklahoma City Thunder on a foul by Deandre Ayton. When a third opportunity glanced past Ayton’s nonchalantly extended arm, JJ Redick had seen enough.
The Lakers coach couldn’t even sub fast enough before Ayton’s two-handed frustration shove of Oklahoma City guard Ajay Mitchell put a disappointing punctuation mark on a disastrous 19-second stretch for the Lakers starting center.
Ayton, a key part of the Lakers’ first-round series win, has been largely absent in the Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the Lakers behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series after Saturday’s 131-108 loss at Crypto.com Arena, Ayton has averaged 7.7 points per game and 9.3 rebounds against the Thunder.
Desperate to avoid the dreaded 3-0 hole, Ayton was limited to 10 points and six rebounds and just one defensive board. He was held to one-of-seven shooting in Game 2 for just three points, although he had 22 rebounds over the first two games.
After an up-and-down regular season, it appeared that the former No. 1 overall pick was ready to live up to the hype. He was a quiet star in the Lakers’ first-round series win against the Houston Rockets, often guarding All-Star Alperen Sengun one-on-one and dominating the paint. He averaged 11 points and 10.8 rebounds against the Rockets.
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault took note. He called Ayton a “priority” for the Thunder defense in this series. Redick said Ayton raises the Lakers’ ceiling more than any other player.
The Lakers tried to spark their X-factor in the third quarter. They built a two-point halftime lead off the stellar shot-making of Rui Hachimura (21 points) and Luke Kennard (18 points) but funneled the ball toward Ayton after the break.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton dunks against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Hachimura, who made all four of his three-point attempts in the first half, had a chance at a three on the Lakers’ first possession but instead passed to Ayton, who was fouled on the floor. Marcus Smart tried a lob to Ayton, but the center couldn’t corral the pass. The Lakers went back to him on each of the next two offensive possessions and he scored on both.
He scored six of his 10 points during a three-and-a-half-minute stretch of the third quarter.
“DA is a hell of a player,” said Smart, one of Ayton’s closest teammates. “We all know it. We just want to get him the touches and get him the feel early, just to give them a different look. … All the guards are doing their thing. So we’re just trying to get the big fella involved.”
Ayton’s signature soft touch around the basket has suddenly escaped him. After shooting 60.4% from the field during the first round and a career-best 67.1% during the regular season, Ayton is shooting 39.3% (11 for 28) against the Thunder. He made just three of 11 shots in the restricted area during the first two games.
The Lakers needed Ayton to thrive during this series against the double-big lineup of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Some of Ayton’s shooting struggles have depended on where the lanky 7-foot-1 Holmgren has been on the court, Redick said. The Lakers have tried to draw Holmgren out of the paint more to free up Ayton.
Holmgren has still been a force in this series with 21.3 points and 10 rebounds per game. Hartenstein has made 14 of 16 shots from the field in the three games.
Ayton’s backup Jaxson Hayes was also neutralized in Saturday’s blowout, not returning to the game after just eight minutes and 30 seconds of mostly ineffective play. When Redick had seen enough from Ayton in the fourth quarter after he gave up two offensive rebounds and fouled twice in 19 seconds, the coach opted for rookie Adou Thiero.
Thiero, a 22-year-old who tries to make up for his lack of experience with pure motor and athleticism, had a team-high eight rebounds with four points in 13 minutes and 12 seconds.
But the Lakers gave up an offensive rebound off a free throw immediately after Thiero replaced Ayton. Hayes, sitting at the end of the bench with his arms folded across his chest, stared blankly ahead and shook his head slowly.
No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series. Ayton has been quiet in this series, but he doesn’t plan to be silenced much longer with the season on the line.
“We ain’t gonna give up,” Ayton said on his way out of the arena. “We will be back to fight on Monday.”
Staff writer Broderick Turner contributed to this report.
For Sarah Gorden, Mother’s Day is special because it’s not just a celebration of motherhood. For her, it’s also a celebration of perseverance, grit and survival.
Especially survival.
Gorden became pregnant during her junior year of college and for most of the next 12 years, she tried to balance her life as a professional soccer player with her responsibilities as a single mother. It wasn’t easy.
“I honestly look back and I have no idea how we got through that,” said Gorden, who made $8,000 as an NWSL rookie with the Chicago Red Stars in 2016, less than the city’s minimum wage. “We’re making no money. We were definitely using government assistance and government aid. And then the help of family and friends.
“I’m impressed and proud of the part of me that got through that. But it was no way to live.”
As the memories come flooding back, so do the tears.
Angel City midfielder Ariadina Alves Borges walks off the pitch with her son, Luca, at BMO Stadium on May 2.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s so difficult to explain,” said Gorden, now 33 and the captain at Angel City, as she dabbed at the tears with a tissue. “Not having enough money, not having enough time, wondering if I’m being selfish, wondering if I’m making the right decision. Ultimately it came down to: I didn’t feel like I had another [choice].”
A decade later, the NWSL minimum wage is $50,500 and the league’s collective bargaining agreement guarantees mothers job protection, full salary and benefits for the duration of a pregnancy-related absence, stipends for child care and subsidized arrangements for women traveling with children up to age 14.
Angel City, founded by three mothers, has gone beyond what the league has mandated by supporting mothers with perks that include a well-stocked nursery at the team’s training facility on the campus of Cal Lutheran University.
“From the beginning, we always strive to support the whole player. Physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically,” said Julie Uhrman, one of Angel City’s founders and now a principal adviser to the team. “And then to support them if they came in as parents or became parents. That’s not just players. Staff too.”
Uhrman, who raised two children while building a successful career as a media and entertainment executive, speaks from experience.
“They can do both and they can excel at both,” she said of her players. “And we’re going to provide the support and the environment for them to do that.”
On its active roster of 25 players, Angel City has four mothers — the most in the NWSL. The work that went into the infrastructure now in place for them originated with Sarah Smith, the team’s former director of medical and performance.
Smith, who left the club in January and now advises elite athletes — primarily skiers — in Utah, said the support she got from Uhrman and others during her own pregnancy two and a half years ago inspired and informed her work with Angel City.
“Having the leadership of the club and the female leaders in the club, and then wanting to be able to support all of the players through their different journeys, through motherhood, I was really glad to be part of that,” she said. “But it really started with the fact that I had just gone through it, and I was able to share those experiences.”
Angel City forward Sydney Leroux’s 9-year-old son, Cassius, waits for his mom to leave a team huddle at BMO Stadium on May 2.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The first player she guided through that journey was Scottish forward Claire Emslie, who gave birth to a son in December.
“I’ll be honest. Having seen how much she wanted to do for moms in the game made me excited to become a mom,” Emslie said. “We weren’t even thinking about having a kid. But knowing what she wanted to do if there was a pregnant player made me want to have a kid because I knew that this is the best place I could possibly be.”
Emslie, 32, was cleared to suit up for Angel City’s game with San Diego on Saturday — the day before Mother’s Day — after missing the past 12 months on maternity leave. But she continued to train until just before giving birth and that, combined with the year off from the weekly pounding of professional soccer and the physiological changes her body went through during pregnancy, have made her better, she says.
“I feel better. I’m different,” she said. “I got a lot stronger and that’s something you can’t build while you’re in competition. My speed is back. I think I’m actually faster. And there’s also sort of an effect where you’ve got more red blood cells in your system now. So they say your cardio is actually better.”
The prime years for a women’s soccer player — between the ages of 25 and 29 — overlap with their prime reproductive years. Until recently, however, women had to make a choice between a family and a career. Now many are choosing to do both.
Sophia Wilson, a former NWSL scoring champion and MVP, and Mallory Swanson, her teammate on the U.S. Women’s National Team, both missed play in 2025 to give birth. They are among the 28 mothers in the league, and more are coming with the most recent NWSL availability report showing six teams missing players going on maternity leave.
Angel City player Claire Emslie, who is pregnant, tours a nursery the team built for players.
(Courtesy of Angel City FC)
Emslie’s own experiences tell her those numbers will continue to grow.
“I got to a point where I need[ed] to start thinking about life after football. And if I want to have a family, because of the biological clock, I need to start trying soon,” Emslie said. “It’s now kind of a normal thing to have a baby and come back.”
“Now I wish I’d done it younger,” she added. “Having a baby and continuing to play, they’re on the journey with you. So to have, say, five, six years professional football with a family, that’s amazing.”
Smith believes the willingness of star players such as Wilson and Swanson — and before them, Alex Morgan and Manchester United’s Hannah Blundell — has brought important focus to the issue of motherhood in soccer.
“That is where the game is going. I think you probably can see it across the league, the number of mothers,” Smith said. “And that’s a variety of circumstances. It may be mothers whose partners have carried children. It may be also players that are thinking about having children later and want to freeze their eggs. What I wanted to make sure is that we, we supported all of those different circumstances.”
That included designing and stocking the nursery at the training facility Angel City inherited from the NFL’s Rams in the fall of 2024.
“We put stuff in there for Caiden, for Sarah’s son, because it wasn’t just for Claire,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure that all of the players and their partners felt good and comfortable. You just want to take a little bit of stress off of the players.”
Angel City captain Sarah Gorden with her oldest son, Caiden, during a photo shoot.
(Courtesy of Angel City FC)
When the club inherited the nine-acre practice facility in 2024 from the Rams, Angel City designated the largest of the offices for the nursery. The office belonged to head coach Sean McVay, and now it features walls painted pink and light blue and a crib, a changing table and a menagerie of stuffed animals.
“We want players to come to Angel City because we are the absolute best place for you to grow as an athlete, as a human,” Uhrman said. “And, you know, thinking about the fact that they might want to become mothers at some time or they’re coming in as mothers is really important.”
Gorden remembers a time not so long ago when that wasn’t the case. Early in her career in Chicago, she said she had to bring her son to a team meeting and was punished by being benched. Another time she couldn’t find child care on the day of a game — a Mother’s Day game.
“I just remember bawling all morning and just feeling so stressed,” she said.
Gorden has a fiance who is helping with parenting and her son Caiden, now in middle school, has grown into a sweet, empathetic boy.
“So yeah,” Gorden said, smiling through the tears, “a lot of progress. The league gets it now.”
On Mother’s Day, let’s salute two single mothers who became the No. 1 fans for their sports-playing sons and stayed by their side through good and bad times.
Sylmar pitcher Matthew Torres has tried to make it through life without a father after his parents’ separation when he was 12.
“He’s not been to any high school games,” Torres said.
Enter his mother, Roxanne, who has raised four boys and one girl by multitasking and embracing sports activities. She intervened to help Matthew make it through tough times.
“Her bringing me to church and getting to know God has made me the man I am today,” the 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior said.
Torres became the No. 1 pitcher in the Valley Mission League this season with an 8-0 record while also hitting .488. He helped Sylmar win the league title and become the No. 1 seed for the City Section Division I playoffs.
He has a secret plan scheduled for Sunday to salute his mother. Who doesn’t like surprises?
At Carson High, All-City quarterback Chris Fields has a mother, Shere Fletcher, who could play or coach football the way she has dived headfirst into learning the sport to be at the side of her son.
There were once tough times as a family. Fields said the family was “impoverished.” Mom worked multiple jobs while also studying but sacrificed everything to make sure her son and daughter could have a bright future. She became a paralegal and never misses a practice or game. She should be called “Coach Fletcher” but prefers mom.
“I’ve been through everything with my mom,” Fields said.
Her Mother’s Day gift since the 49ers are her favorite team is a vintage Jerry Rice jersey and a trip to Santa Anita.
There are plenty of moms who’ve spent countless hours driving, feeding and motivating their sports-playing sons and daughters through highs and lows.
Happy Mother’s Day to all.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
The Lakers are one playoff defeat from their season being over and from the conversation turning to LeBron James’ future.
They are in a hole no team has climbed out of in the history of the NBA, the Lakers’ 131-108 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 putting L.A. down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.
James and his teammates gave a gallant effort Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, but the defending champion proved to be more than the Lakers could handle.
James finished his night with 19 points on seven-for-19 shooting, eight assists and six rebounds. Rui Hachimura had 21 points and Austin Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists.
Even so, the Lakers have now lost all three games by double digits.
And the Lakers are fully aware that no NBA team has successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs, with those teams holding a 161-0 record. Only four teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0, all of which ultimately lost the series, including the Boston Celtics in 2023.
Lakers forward LeBron James shows frustration as Thunder center Chet Holmgren slam dunks during Game 3 on Saturday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Game 4 is Monday night, when the Lakers will try to stave off elimination and a night that will determine how the conversations go with James if they lose.
James has been frequently asked this season about retirement, but he has not given any indication of what the future holds for him.
He’s 41 years old and playing in an NBA-record 23rd season.
James is in the final year of his contract that pays him $52 million, making him a free agent this offseason. He can retire, join another team or perhaps return to the Lakers next season.
That will be the conversation if the Lakers can’t win Game 4.
They will see the same Thunder team that had seven players score in double figures, led by Ajay Mitchell’s 24 points and 10 assists and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 23 points and nine assists.
The Lakers went down 13 in the third quarter and had to play catchup the rest of the way. They never did, going down by 112-94 with 6 minutes and 12 seconds left, forcing Lakers coach JJ Redick to call a timeout.
The deficit just kept growing, topping out at 27 points in the fourth.
They were outscored 33-20 in the third quarter. The Lakers didn’t take care of the basketball in the third, turning it over six times, and they didn’t play good defense, allowing the Thunder to shoot 59.1% from the field and 55.6 percent from three-point range,
The Lakers did not give an inch to the Thunder in the first half, even when they fell behind by 10 points.
They just kept grinding until they led 59-57 at halftime.
Hachimura had 16 points in the first half, continuing his hot three-point shooting by making all four of his threes. Luke Kennard came off the bench to give the Lakers 13 points, shooting five for six from the field and three for four from three-point range.
The Lakers kept the pressure defense on Gilgeous-Alexander. Though he had 14 points in the first half, he shot only four-for-14 from the field and one for five from three-point range.
The Lakers shot 55% from three-point range in the first half, which went a long way in helping them.
The Lakers lost the first two games by identical margins of 18 points and each loss was magnified because Gilgeous-Alexander was kept under wraps for the most part by L.A.’s defense.
When Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth foul with 10:34 left in the third quarter of Game 2 and went to the bench, the Thunder turned a five-point lead into a 13-point advantage at the end of the quarter.
So, when he wasn’t on the court, the Lakers failed to take advantage.
“Well, you know, again, I’ll repeat what I said after the game: we’ve got to be better in the non-Shai minutes,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Role players like Mitchell and Jared McCain hurt the Lakers in the second game. Chet Holmgren also was hard to deal with.
“Mitchell and McCain have hurt us in those non-Shai minutes, and then Chet [Holmgren] has hurt us the whole game,” Redick said. “I think you’ve got to be willing to live with something. Shai playing one-on-one, thus far in the series, we haven’t been willing to live with, so you’re going to be in rotation. That can lead to smalls on bigs at the hole, and the offensive rebounding from Chet has really hurt us.”
Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney says the club need to decide quickly whether to appoint Michael Carrick as their permanent manager, as the uncertainty could lead to difficulty when trying to sign transfer targets ahead of next season.
Russia has held one of its most scaled-back Victory Day parades in years, citing the threat of attack from Ukraine, where a decisive victory for Moscow’s forces has remained elusive more than four years into the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The May 9 parade on Moscow’s Red Square is Russia’s most revered national holiday, a moment to celebrate the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany and to commemorate the 27 million Soviet citizens, including many from what is now Ukraine, who were killed during the war.
Once used to showcase Russia’s military might, including its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, this year’s parade featured no tanks or other heavy military hardware rolling across the cobblestones of Red Square.
Instead, weapons including a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile, the new Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine, the Peresvet laser weapon, the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet, the S-500 surface-to-air missile system and a range of drones and artillery were displayed on giant screens on the square and broadcast on state television.
Soldiers and sailors, some of whom have served in Ukraine, marched and chanted as President Vladimir Putin looked on, seated alongside Russian veterans in the shadow of Vladimir Lenin’s Mausoleum. North Korean troops, who have fought against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, also took part in the march.
Fighter jets flew above the Kremlin’s towers and Putin delivered an eight-minute address, promising victory in the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation”.
“The great feat of the victorious generation inspires the soldiers carrying out the tasks of the special military operation today,” Putin said. “They are confronting an aggressive force armed and supported by the entire NATO bloc. And in spite of that, our heroes march forward.”
1 of 5 | President Donald Trump delivers remarks at an event for Gold Star Mothers and Angel Mothers to honor Mother’s Day, which is this Sunday, in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
May 8 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday delivered a Mother’s Day address as he hosted Gold Star Mothers and Angel Mothers in the White House Rose Garden.
Starting with his own mother, Trump thanked mothers across the country in a 20-minute speech that included specific thanks for mothers in the audience and those who work for his administration.
“I want to thank every single mother here this afternoon and all across our nation for your work,” Trump said.
“Every single day, America’s moms are raising — really — raising the future of our country … You have the most important job there is in America or any place else, and you’re doing an incredible job,” he said.
During the speech, Trump honored the mothers of children who died in crimes linked to illegal immigrants, whom he has dubbed Angel Mothers, noting that he hoped to prevent their ranks from growing due to “open borders” and what his administration has in pursuit of that goal.
The president honored Gold Star Mothers — the mothers of members of the military who have been killed in action — some of whom in attendance lost children during the war in Afghanistan.
Questioning whether “time heals all wounds,” Trump said that “our hearts are out to you on Mother’s Day.”
He also spoke about legislative and executive actions his administration has meant to benefit mothers and families.
“We’re honored to be joined by many strong and truly heroic moms who have stood up for their children,” he said, wishing them a Mother’s Day “filled with love and gratitude and joy.”
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at an event he is hosting for a group that includes Gold Star Mothers and Angel Mothers in honor of Mother’s Day in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
On a rare off day in Los Angeles, Sparks guard Kelsey Plum settles into a quieter rhythm. She brings a book to a dog park near her home, finds a spot, and reads. But even here, the stillness is partial at best. Her mind keeps working, circling the same question that has followed her through every stage of her career. What does greatness actually require?
Right now, Plum is reading “The Talent Code,” a book that digs into the tension between nature and nurture. It’s not exactly light reading for a day off, but then again, she isn’t really wired for off days.
“Talent,” she says, “takes countless hours of practice. Sure, you have some natural ability, but you have to train it. You look at like a Russian tennis player, why are they good? Is it random? The similarity with greatness is practice.”
That idea, practice as the great equalizer, shapes how Plum sees her career now, in a moment that demands more from her than ever before.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum moved to L.A. because she wanted to play a bigger role than she did on the Las Vegas Aces title-winning teams.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
In the week before the WNBA season, she’s no longer in the calm of the park but inside the controlled chaos of media day at El Camino College’s gym. Between photo shoots, she sits on a green room couch in a makeshift makeup area, the morning already filled with obligations: a news conference, cameras, questions about what comes next. Beside her earlier was Ariel Atkins, one of the veterans she helped bring to Los Angeles, a signal that this next chapter is meant to be different.
“Have you ever driven a really expensive car, but didn’t have good insurance?” Plum asked. “When you have great coverage, you can relax a little bit. That’s what it feels like now, there’s so many people paddling in the boat with me.”
That sense of shared momentum didn’t come immediately. Not long ago, there was doubt.
Until a few weeks ago, Plum wasn’t entirely sure she had made the right decision to join the Sparks. After being traded from the Aces in 2025, she knew she wanted more responsibility, more ownership and the chance to be the face of a team. But belief in a vision is one thing; living through the roughest stretches of the transformation is another.
The Sparks went 21-23 last season, finishing two wins short of reaching the postseason. There were flashes, particularly late in the year when Cameron Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in 2024, returned from injury. Still, the result was familiar in L.A.: another year without a playoff berth.
For a player like Plum, that kind of outcome lingers.
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum feared she might have made a mistakes during some difficult moments early in her tenure in L.A., but free agents’ decision to join her boosted her confidence.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“I don’t think that last year I realized how big of a decision I made,” she said. “Obviously there’s a you don’t understand the gravity of it till you’re in it. I think when Nneka [Ogwumike] signed this year, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not crazy. They’re seeing the vision I am seeing.’”
That validation mattered. It reframed the risk as something shared.
The Sparks leaned into the direction Plum believed in during the offseason. Some of that came directly from her influence and some of it came from the example she set.
“KP came here because she wanted to test herself on how she impacts winning,” said Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley. “And there’s a lot of things that go into impacting winning. It’s on the [score]board, but it’s also, are you a leader? Can you influence other people to come along with you? And she’s been able to do that. She’s been a great, great person to partner with.”
Plum understands that distinction well. She’s been on championship teams before with back-to-back titles in Las Vegas in 2022 and 2023, but this is different. In Los Angeles, she’s helping define what the organization will become.
The franchise hasn’t reached the postseason since 2020, the longest active drought in the WNBA. For a team in a major market, the absence has been noticeable, even as individual pieces hinted at potential.
Plum, in her first season away from the franchise that drafted her No. 1 overall in 2017 after her record-setting run at Washington, produced immediately: 19.5 points and 5.7 assists per game. But numbers alone weren’t the point.
“I felt like I can be the connector,” she said. “When you’re part of a championship culture, you get to see what goes into it. And it’s way more than just basketball. It’s like the business, the operations of it all. They all work together. Obviously, what Mark Davis has done is tremendous in Las Vegas, and really investing in that team. So, yeah, coming here definitely, I learned a lot more than basketball, right? About what goes into building a championship team, a roster, what goes into investing in players and making it feel like a destination where players are like, ‘Ooh, I want to go play there.’”
Sparks guard Kelsey Plum accepted a lower salary so that the team could pursue key free agents capable of helping win a championship.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
That perspective shaped her decisions this offseason in tangible ways. Despite being eligible for a $1.4 million supermax contract after her core designation, Plum chose to sign at a lower number, giving the Sparks flexibility to build around her.
They used that space to add Ogwumike and Erica Wheeler, while still leaving $1,468,650 in cap space for a potential in-season move. They also traded for Atkins from Chicago, parting with 2024 first-round pick Rickea Jackson to ease the pressure in the backcourt.
“I want to really help transform an organization,” Plum said. “As a player, you don’t really know how good you are, or how much you can handle, capacity wise, until put in a situation that’s maybe a little over your head.”
Belief, in this case, became contagious. Plum helped recruit Wheeler. Ogwumike, already familiar with the franchise, pointed to broader changes as part of her decision to return.
With key pieces in play, Sparks guard Kelsey Plum said the team must embrace high expectations. “We’re no longer the cute, young tadpole team,” she said. “We have to win.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“The last couple years have strategically been very, very focused with our ownership and improving the player experience,” Pebley said. “We’ve got a practice facility that is being built. … Players are experiencing a much more consistent and high level, just player experience. And I think they can now look at their peers eye to eye and say, ‘This is where you need to be. you’re going to be treated really well here.’”
All of it builds toward a simple, unavoidable truth: this version of the Sparks can’t afford to linger in potential.
Plum’s legacy in Los Angeles will hinge on whether this reset becomes a turning point or just another chapter in a long rebuild. The expectations have shifted, internally and externally.
“Last year was tough,” Plum said. “We were right there at the end. But I think this year is different. Obviously, with all the free agency acquisitions, this is very exciting. We’re no longer the cute, young tadpole team. We have to win.”
There will be no replacement referees — and therefore, hopefully, no “Fail Mary” repeat — in the NFL this fall.
The league and the NFL Referees Assn. have avoided a work stoppage by agreeing on a new collective bargaining agreement that runs through the 2032 season.
The current deal was scheduled to expire May 31. The sides having been negotiating since the summer of 2024, and the NFL had begun the hiring process for replacement officials last month.
“This agreement is a testament to the joint commitment of the league and union to invest in and improve officiating,” NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said in a statement. “It also speaks to the game officials’ relentless pursuit of improvement and officiating excellence. We look forward to working together for the betterment of the game.”
Terms of the agreement have not been released, but the Associated Press reported in March that the league had increased its offer to a 6.45% annual growth rate”growth rate” = increase? in compensation over a six-year labor deal.
“We see this new CBA as a partnership with the league that benefits our membership but also seeks to make our game better,” NFLRA president Carl Cheffers said in a statement. “It is good to get these negotiations behind us so we can focus on preparing for the 2026 season.”
No such agreement between the sides was reached during the 2012 offseason, leading to a lockout that lasted 110 days. It all culminated in Week 3 of that season with the notorious “Fail Mary” call at the end of the Green Bay Packers-Seattle Seahawks game on “Monday Night Football.”
With the Seahawks down by five in the closing seconds, quarterback Russell Wilson threw deep to receiver Golden Tate in the end zone. Green Bay defender M.D. Jennings appeared to come down with the ball first, with Tate attempting to wrestle the ball away.
Two officials stood above the players, with one signaling touchdown (meaning Tate caught the ball, Seattle wins) and the other signaling touchback (meaning Jennings caught the ball, Green Bay wins). The final call on the field was a touchdown, which stood after a lengthy review.
It got worse. The next day, the NFL released a statement saying the officials missed a pass interference call on Tate that would have negated the touchdown. A day after that, the NFL and the referees union announced a new collective bargaining agreement that brought the regular officials back for that weekend’s games.
