In 2019, a Sudanese team of jiu-jitsu athletes set out on an extraordinary quest: to travel by land from Sudan to Kenya, despite having no funding and limited resources, to compete in the LionHeart Nairobi Open.
Together members of the Muqatel Training Center for martial arts travelled across three countries, carrying not just their hopes and dreams, but the spirit of a revolution that reshaped Sudan.
Journey to Kenya is a documentary short about resilience, unity and determination — a powerful reminder that dreams can transcend borders.
A film by Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmed, produced by In Deep Visions.
OK, no more nostalgia about 1990s ‘Girl Power,’ but the times they are a-changing and then some.
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The Red Roses won the Rugby World CupCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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The Lionesses went back-to-back in the EurosCredit: Getty
The Red Roses blossomed last weekend as the England women’s rugby team won the World Cup in front of a record 82,000 Twickenham full-house.
That came hot on the heels of our Lionesses’ back-to-back European Championships successes and proves that women’s sport is here to stay.
Rewind two or three decades and women, when mentioned in the same breath as football, was something approaching a dirty word. Just look at the history books.
In 1921 there were over 150 women’s football clubs playing games in front of 40,000-plus gates.
So what did the FA do? They banned it, saying it was “unsuitable for females.”
It only took nearly five decades for the FA to change their minds and growth in the women’s game in the 70s and 80s was slow.
In fact, the national team had to wait until 1998 to have its first full time coach, Hope Powell.
The 2012 London Olympics handed the women’s game a massive boost. TeamGB were watched by over 70,000 at Wembley against Brazil and footie for females was finally freed.
Last year, an FA study revealed a 56 percent rise in the number of women and girls playing football in the previous four years.
The number of registered female football clubs has more than doubled in the last seven years and just look at crowds in the WSL.
Seven seasons ago the highest gate at any game was 2,648 for Chelsea against Manchester City. Last season it was nearly 57,000 for the North London derby.
A new sponsorship deal with Barclays is worth £15million a year and WSL clubs’ revenues soared 34 percent in 2023-24 alone. So from the grassroots all the way up, women’s football is on the up.
Thankfully, that kind of progress is being repeated in other sports and not just rugby, where there has been significant growth in recent years to the tune of a 60 percent rise in registered players since 2017.
What about cricket? Our girls took a pasting against the Aussies, but the World Cup is upon us with England aiming for a fifth title.
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Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson re stars of the trackCredit: AP
In other sports, women do us proud. From netball’s Jade Clarke to tennis star Emma Raducanu, to athlete Keely Hodgkinson and world champion boxer Lauren Price… the list is long and shows just how women are flourishing.
Having said that, I was stunned to read that middle-distance runner Georgia Hunter Bell still worked full-time in tech sales just a few months before winning a bronze at last year’s Paris Olympics.
I cannot imagine a male elite athlete doing the same.
Georgia won silver at the World Championships last month and hopefully being a 24-7 athlete will help her go one better next time.
I’m obviously aware of the lack of female representation in the corridors of power within football and other sports, but I hope that is slowly changing.
Both the FA and PL chairs are women — Debbie Hewitt and Alison Brittain — and are doing a fine job.
Right now, though, I’d rather concentrate on the progress that has been made in a relatively short time.
The WSL is in rude health and will get bigger and better, underlining the fact that we, as a nation, are leading the way in the men’s and women’s game.
We should celebrate that because ‘girls just wanna have fun’.
The mayor of Chicago struck back Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to surge federal officers into the nation’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.
The Chicago Police Department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to an executive order signed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Johnson directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government.”
When asked during a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
Johnson also blocked Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, as most federal immigration officers have done since President Trump launched his crackdown.
The federal surge into Chicago could start as early as Friday and last about 30 days, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public.
The officials described the immigration crackdown as part of a larger effort to expand the federal law enforcement presence in major Democratic-run cities, as it did earlier this year in Los Angeles.
On Saturday, Trump commented about Chicago crime and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on his social media site: “Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing CRIME. He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming! MAGA. President DJT”
Unlike the recent federal takeover of policing in Washington, D.C., the Chicago operation is not expected to rely on the National Guard or military and is focused exclusively on immigration, rather than being cast as part of a broad campaign against crime, the officials said.
Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Johnson’s order builds on the city’s longtime stance, saying neither Chicago nor Illinois officials have sought or been consulted on the federal presence and demanding Trump stand down on those plans.
The mayor had harsh words for Trump during his news conference, accusing the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution” and seeking a federal presence in Democratic cities as retribution against his political rivals.
“He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”
In response, the White House insisted the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email Saturday.
Critics have noted that Trump, while espousing a tough-on-crime push, is the only felon ever to occupy the White House.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that he will move forward with the construction of 3,401 new settlement units in Area E1, located between Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement.
The decision comes despite international pressure against construction in the area beyond the Green Line and after a 20-year pause.
Smotrich’s plan aims to link Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem, cutting off Palestinian movement between Ramallah and Bethlehem. The area is considered strategic and could undermine any future political settlement.
Smotrich said: “Construction plans in the E1 area cancel the idea of a Palestinian state and continue the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan we started with the formation of the government.”
He added: “After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking agreements and linking Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem.”
Raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sparked fear, protests and the cancellation of several public events throughout the Los Angeles area. Amid the tense climate, more than 100 people recently gathered at the Maywood Boxing Club to watch Julio César Chávez Jr. train as he prepares to face Jake Paul on June 28 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Chávez, visibly surprised by the turnout, confessed that he did not expect to see so many people given the circumstances.
“I thought there wouldn’t be people here, because of everything happening, but I’m glad they made the time to come,” the Mexican boxing star told L.A. Times en Español moments before beginning his training session.
While they were drawn to the chance to watch a boxing star train, the event also united a community and showed its resilience in the face of adversity.
Boxers Jake Paul, left, gestures toward Julio César Chávez Jr. during a boxing news conference at the Avalon Hollywood Theatre in L.A. on May 14. Nakisa Bidarian, CEO and co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, center left, and Oscar De La Hoya, of Golden Boy Promotions, center right, look on.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
The last few weeks have been particularly difficult in Los Angeles. Testimonials and videos on social media have documented arrests of immigrants in the middle of public streets, generating a generalized state of fear. Chávez, who has lived in the city for more than a decade, reflected on the impact of the raids.
“It even scared me, to tell you the truth, it is very ugly,” he said. “I don’t understand the situation, why so much violence. There are many good people and you are setting an example of violence to the community.”
Chávez said his concerns about the raids have little to do with political debates over immigration policy. He is more focused on the treatment of people being detained by federal agents wearing masks who don’t identify themselves and target workers who appear to be immigrants.
“Seeing children left alone because their parents are grabbed. … That is common sense, we are people and we are going to feel bad when we see that situation,” he said.
Although he acknowledges immigration crackdowns could affect ticket sales for his fight against Paul, Chávez was confident that the fight will go off without a hitch.
“I don’t think the fight will be affected, maybe the tickets, although you can watch it on pay-per-view at home, because in the end there will be a fight,” he said. “The support for me is going to be there and if they don’t go, I know they will go another way. People want me to beat Jake Paul with my heart and I want to give a fight like I haven’t given in a long time.”
Sean Gibbons, president of Knucklehead Boxing and MP Promotions, was more direct. For him, the June 28 fight is safe.
“I don’t think there will be any changes. The fight will happen at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and everything that happens is happening in Los Angeles,” he said. “If we had done the fight at Crypto.com Arena, it could have been a problem, but I think the people sent a strong message by being here [at the training session], despite everything that’s going on. Hopefully things will calm down long before the 28th.”
Gibbons also stressed that the attendance at the training is proof that fans are willing to come out and support Chávez, even in uncertain times.
Among those attending the event was 38-year-old Maywood resident Olaf Luevano. For him, being at the gym was not only a show of support for the boxer, but also an act of unity.
“This was a good way to come out and support the people, to show everyone that we are together. He is someone from our community and he will come out and fight, representing our people,” said Luevano, who added that although he has legal documents, discrimination and fear affect everyone equally. “Just because of the color of our skin and how we look, it affects us too.”
Miguel Castañeda, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, lives in Lynwood and came to witness the open-door training. Castañeda shared the same nervous feeling, but also the need to resist.
“Dismayed everyone, even the celebrities are worried,” said Castañeda, 39. “One thinks about it, but you have to go out and live. You don’t have to live in fear. Not to be locked up, no, we all have to go out. … We have to be encouraged.”
Castañeda was also surprised by the size of the crowd at the gym he has visited in the past.
“I’ve never seen so many fans in this gym. It’s good to see this, that people come out to support,” he said.
Two miles away, Chávez’s legendary father opened the doors of the now defunct Azteca Boxing in Bell to connect with fans before some of his historic bouts.
Julio César Chávez Jr. said working out in front of a big group of fans not only motivates him, but also connects him with his roots.
“It’s impressive, the people there. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many people together and even more so in these difficult times,” he said. “It’s a motivation to keep working hard. Also, coming to these kind of gyms, people remember the times of before and I am very grateful.”
Chávez said he takes issue not only with the raids, but the way political speeches — especially those by President Trump — have attacked immigrants.
“I’m from Sinaloa, where you see things over there so ugly and to come here, to such a beautiful country, and see Trump attacking immigrants, Latinos, without a purpose,” Chávez said. “… You have to get closer to God and I think Trump made a bad decision.”
Chávez said he understands the fear many in the community feel as a result of the recent immigration crackdown, but it was encouraging to see people gather at his gym.
“One of my trainers didn’t want to come because of the fear of ICE,” he said. “… I just ask them to take care of themselves, to stay away from danger. We know … there is a very big conflict and we’re hoping that nothing bad happens.”
