Outgoing Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the memories and relationships built during his decade at the club mattered more than the 20 trophies he won, as he reflected emotionally on his unforgettable spell at City following his final match in charge.
Published On 25 May 202625 May 2026
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May 23 (UPI) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a graduation speech to graduating West Point cadets Saturday, and told them they are “ready” for war.
“West Point is set apart. It’s special. It’s above politics,” Hegseth said at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Saturday. “Success here is based on merit. It’s how you perform that matters.”
He accused former “foolish and feckless leaders” of pushing identity politics on the academy.
“The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy,” The Hill reported Hegseth said. “Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it.”
He said previous “woke and weak leaders” tried to transform the school into “woke Princeton.” Hegseth got a bachelor’s degree from Princeton.
“They embraced the [diversity, equity and inclusion] craze and tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies,” Hegseth said. “They hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls, but no more.
“You are fit, not fat. You are disciplined, not distracted,” Hegseth told the cadets.
While he didn’t mention the war in Iran, he told the graduates that they “are stepping into the arena at a time when the stakes could not be higher.”
“We’re sending you to lead, we’re sending you to forge warriors, and we are sending you, perhaps, to war, and you are ready,” he said.
On stage were also Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and other military officials.
Last year, President Donald Trump delivered the graduation speech.
Emery’s previous four were already a competition record and while he dismissed the suggestion he was a European king, he is a serial winner.
It now six finals and five wins – with the latest cementing a legacy at Villa Park which will last decades.
Villa officials were nervous talking about the trophy parade in advance, which needed to be organised ahead of time given the disruption in Birmingham, but the squad will flaunt it in the city Thursday afternoon.
Emery said: “I am thankful to [co-owners] Nassef [Sawiris] and Wes [Edens]… they are supporting always. I am thankful to the supporters and I am thankful for the players.
“All the times I am successful in this competition I needed good players. Now I am so thankful for the players, they are following our ambitions.
“They are protagonists on the field. This is the reason I am not feeling the king in this competition. I am feeling really thankful – we are the kings together.
“After 1982 the club won the European Cup, it was something they were missing – the supporters – a trophy. Achieving this one is making us so, so happy but we are not going to stop.”
If Tielemans’ volley – rounding off a short corner routine – gave them the platform then Buendia’s curler into the top corner put one hand on the trophy.
Former Villa midfielder Ian Taylor, a fan of the club who scored in the 1996 League Cup win – the last time Villa had won major silverware – leaped out of his press box chair and punched the air.
Rogers’ third had the substitutes celebrating on the pitch and an airborne Emery jumping on the touchline with clenched fists. Victory was assured.
“I feel amazing,” Tielemans told TNT. “My voice is a bit gone but it’s all good. We put in a shift, a top performance, we had a great season. To top it off with this is amazing.
“It’s been a season with a lot of ups and downs. We started so so bad. Our standards were very poor.
“The way we turned things around was a credit to the players and staff. We kept working, believing. We got the win in the end, Champions League next season and a trophy.”
King Charles III has hailed US-UK ties at a state dinner in the White House after speaking at a joint session of Congress in a rare appearance by a British monarch. The visit marks 250 years since American independence, and comes amid strains over the war on Iran.
Published On 29 Apr 202629 Apr 2026
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The best coming-of-age stories derive their power from being endings as much as beginnings. There’s often a clarifying, poignant harshness in the losses they depict. That applies — with sobering grace — to the memory ballad “Amrum,” set on Germany’s titular North Sea island in 1945, when the winds of a world war’s conclusion blow into a 12-year-old boy’s life with unexpected consequences.
The movie bears a curious credit: “A Hark Bohm film by Fatih Akin.” Bohm, who died last year at 86, was a highly respected film writer, actor and academic, a veteran of Germany’s New Wave. Realizing he’d be unable to direct his fictionalized childhood remembrance, he entrusted it to his mentee Akin, the firebrand behind modern German classics such as “Head-On” and “In the Fade.” The project became, according to Akin, like “adopting a child.”
In story terms, that child, a stand-in for Bohm himself, is wide-eyed, sensitive Nanning (well-cast newcomer Jasper Billerbeck), who works in the potato fields of local farmer Tessa (Diane Kruger, in a small but key role). At home, he has a pregnant mother, Hille (Laura Tonke), aunt Ena (Lisa Hagmeister) and two younger siblings, but not the high-ranking Nazi officer patriarch who relocated them from bombed-out Hamburg to an ancestral house on this tiny, beachy outpost. Pejoratively dubbed a mainlander by even the friendliest neighbors and generally viewed with suspicion for his family’s Nazi ties, Nanning is assured by his ideology-soaked mom that their roots, their “bloodline,” make them real Amlumers.
The boy’s first real lesson in the shifting sands comes when, at dinner, he remarks that the war will soon be over, intending it as good news — Dad could come home. Yet his mother reacts as if he’d sided with the enemy by wishing defeat. Later, with the news of Hitler’s demise, she sinks into a depression, refusing food unless it’s white bread, butter and honey, all in scarce supply. So Nanning sets out to secure her the necessary ingredients, as if the fabric of his world depends on it.
What follows is a tightly told fable-like journey built around the war-battered realities of survival when everyone’s tired, hungry and irritated. There are brutal truths in store for Nanning about what his family represents. It’s an evolving boyhood, framed with unshowy elegance by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub against the island’s flat, grassy, weather-rich horizons. “Amrum” avoids the sentimentality baked into so many childhood-during-wartime stories. Akin, as if inspired by the unfussy youthfulness that marked Italian neorealism and the New Waves in both France and Iran (there are shout-outs to “Bicycle Thieves” and “The 400 Blows”), zeroes in on the steady accumulation of detail rather than the trappings of cuteness or melodrama.
That measured approach, exemplified in star Billerbeck’s arresting simplicity and the many fine supporting turns around him, allows us to clock Nanning’s growing awareness of what matters to others, what’s impossible to ignore and how to interpret an unjust world that’s still full of beauty and kindness if you know where to look. Which, of course, includes inside himself.
Near the end, “Amrum” serves up a wonderfully understated moment: Nanning is invited to celebrate the war’s end with a small group of dancing, drinking islanders. He hangs back, though, as if not quite ready to choose their joyous relief over obediently tending to his broken family. But you can see this dutiful son’s wish to be one of them. For all of us wondering when an ugly time will fade, the moment will resonate like a cautious, dawning hope.
‘Amrum’
In German, with subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, April 24 at Laemmle Royal and Laemmle Town Center, Encino
Senior Jayden Rojas of Bell unleashed his best pitching performance of the season on Friday, giving up one hit and no walks while striking out 14 in a 1-0 win over Roosevelt. He also drove in the game’s only run with an RBI single in the fifth inning.
Rojas retired the first 18 Roosevelt batters until giving up a leadoff single in the seventh to break up his perfect game.
“I wanted to attack,” Rojas said. “I felt more confident throwing fastballs.”
Bell improved to 19-3 and 5-1 in the Eastern League.
“He was dialed in on the mound,” coach Frank Medina said. “Extremely efficient. He is usually plagued by 3-and-2 counts and walks, but today he had no walks and most of his 14 strikeouts came on four or less pitches. He was nasty.”
Granada Hills 5, Cleveland 2: The Highlanders are surging in the West Valley League after completing a two-game sweep of the Cavaliers this week to move into third place. Nicholas Penaranda had three RBIs and Foss Bohlen threw 5 1/3 innings of hitless relief.
Birmingham 2, Chatsworth 0: Nathan Soto threw six shutout innings and closer Aidan Martinez got three strikeouts in the seventh. Martinez also had three hits.
El Camino Real 5, Taft 3: The Royals broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the top of the ninth to stay one game ahead in the West Valley League. RJ De La Rosa had two hits and two RBIs.
Carson 6, Banning 2: The Colts won the Marine League game. Nate Ruan, Noah Sandoval and Xavier Alllen each had two hits.
St. John Bosco 6, Santa Margarita 1: Noah Everly hit two home runs to help the Braves complete a three-game sweep of Santa Margarita.
Sierra Canyon 9, St. Francis 2: Brayden Goldstein homered, Cody Gallegos had three hits and Charlie Cummings had a two-run single.
Bishop Alemany 14, Chaminade 13: A bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh ended a wild game. Chaminade scored five runs in the top of the seventh for a 13-7 lead. Alemany scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh to win. Eli Stephens hit two home runs and had six RBIs for Chaminade. Chase Stevenson had a two-run double for Alemany in the seventh.
Harvard-Westlake 10, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 4: The Wolverines took over first place in the Mission League with a three-game sweep. Freshman Nathan Englander hit a two-run home run and Ethan Price had a home run and two RBIs. Freshman Louis Lappe had two RBIs.
Loyola 12, Crespi 2: Matt Favela finished with two hits and three RBIs.
Cypress 2, El Dorado 0: Tate Belfanti struck out eight and gave up two hits for Cypress.
Los Alamitos 4, Corona del Mar 1: Logan Anderson threw a complete game and Parker Sanchez contributed two doubles.
Huntington Beach 11, Fountain Valley 1: Jared Grindlinger, Owen Bone, Ely Mason and Brayden Wood each had two RBIs.
Arlington 8, Paloma Valley 1: Carter Johnson had a three-run home run for Arlington.
Palos Verdes 3, Mira Costa 2: Kai Van Scoyoc had two hits and two RBIs and also threw five innings in Palos Verdes’ win.
Oaks Christian 7, Thousand Oaks 6: Jack Brinkman threw a scoreless seventh to pick up the save and Carson Sheffer homered for the Lions.
Newbury Park 8, Agoura 2: Carson Richter had a three-run home run and Jack Laubacher added a solo home run to power the Panthers.
Westlake 9, Calabasas 6: Leadoff hitter Blake Miller had three hits and three RBIs. Evan Barak hit a two-run home run for Calabasas.
Saugus 8, Hart 6: Joey Nuttall had three hits and four RBIs for Saugus, including a home run. Hayden Rhodes hit a home run and double for Hart.
Valencia 6, West Ranch 0: Steve Genovese threw a three-hit shutout.
Corona 9, Corona Centennial 3: Anthony Murphy hit two home runs and Tyler Ebel added another home run for Corona.
Corona Santiago 3, King 0: Troy Randall had two hits and picked up a two-inning save.
Norco 18, Eastvale Roosevelt 0: Jacob Melendez had four RBIs and Dylan Seward and Zion Martinez each had three hits for Norco.
El Camino Real 14, Taft 2: Madison Franklin had a home run, a double and four RBIs.
Orange Lutheran 7, Mater Dei 1: Sierra Nichols finished with four hits in the leadoff role and Carlie Snyder homered.