The travel advice was shared to help prevent disruptions for people with upcoming trips
People should be aware of the travel guidance (stock photo)(Image: Getty)
HM Passport Office (HMPO) has shared essential travel advice for anyone travelling abroad. The alert comes amid the busy summer holiday period, when countless families are planning trips.
In a post shared on social media, HMPO urged people not to travel with a passport that they had previously reported lost or stolen. The X alert said: “Found a passport you previously reported lost or stolen? Don’t travel with it. Once reported, it’s cancelled and using it could disrupt your trip.”
Instead, they will need to apply for a replacement. HM Passport Office says it considers passports damaged if any of your details cannot be read, any of the pages are ripped or cut, there are holes in the cover, the cover is coming away, or there are stains on the pages. For instance, ink or water damage is not allowed.
HM Passport Office says it is important to cancel a lost or stolen passport as soon as you can. “This will reduce the risk of anyone else using your passport or your identity.
“You can report a lost or stolen passport for someone else if they cannot do it themselves.” If you have a photo of the lost passport, you can use this to answer the necessary questions.
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The advice continues: “You might be able to apply for an emergency travel document. You’ll need to pay a fee. If you apply for an emergency travel document, you do not need to cancel your passport now. You’ll cancel it as part of your application for the emergency travel document.”
When renewing your passport online, you will need a credit or debit card and a digital photo. It costs £102. If you are replacing a lost or stolen passport, you also need someone to confirm your identity online. More details are available on GOV.UK.
You can also follow @HM_Passport on X for general updates and tips. For instance, another recent post shares tips for taking your passport photos. The advice said: “A suitable passport photo can help avoid delays. Make sure your photo is in focus, against a plain background and meets all requirements.”
GOV.UK says: “In your photo you must: be facing forwards and looking straight at the camera, have a plain expression and your mouth closed, have your eyes open and visible, not have hair in front of your eyes, not have a head covering (unless it’s for religious or medical reasons).
“Do not have anything covering your face, not have any shadows on your face or behind you.”
WHEN Brandon Flowers was a kid, his dad tried to teach him how to fight.
The lad had been picked on at school, so his father Terry talked him through what to do if it happened again.
Brandon Flowers’s third solo album is rooted in country musicCredit: SuppliedThrasher arrives 11 years after his last solo album, The Desired EffectCredit: Supplied
The Killers’ frontman still remembers sitting beside his father Terry in his old 1946 Chevy truck. “I was in fifth grade, so only 11 years old,” he recalls.
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“My dad grew up fighting and I still remember him trying to explain to me how to fight.
“You can explain to me all day, but I’m not a fighter.
“He’d say, ‘You don’t just swing. You think about when you’re going to throw your punch and you have to block yourself’.
“When I’m on stage, I find myself doing it so much. You have this crazy relationship, boys and their dads. I’m still trying to show him that I can do it.”
Flowers is all smiles when we meet at his central London record label. He’s just back from a week in Scotland with his family and feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.
Thrasher arrives 11 years after his last solo album, The Desired Effect. It is inspired by country and western, the music his dad listened to when Flowers was growing up.
“Much has been said about how my love of music came from my brother [Shane].
“Yeah, it did, but at the same time, I was hearing country music from my dad. His favourites were the heavy hitters — Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard — along with some of those who were not as famous. There’s a guy named John Conlee who he listened to, who I really love.
“As a teenager, I felt I had to choose — the kid who listens to New Order doesn’t also listen to Waylon Jennings.
“As I get older, I just seem to gravitate back to my father’s music.”
Flowers says he has become closer to his father, and increasingly like him, as he has grown older — and admits he is still trying to prove himself to his dad.
He says: “I’m trying to show my dad that I can do what he does. He’s a good man. He’s doing pretty good.
“He had open heart surgery at 81, which is a difficult thing. He’s five months past it now and is pretty good.”
Ideas for Thrasher began shortly after Flowers finished The Killers’ last record — 2021’s Pressure Machine.
Flowers looks back on his childhood on ThrasherCredit: Getty ImagesFlowers on stage with The Killers in 2018Credit: Getty
He says: “I really enjoyed making this. It was a very important record to me. I didn’t want to leave it alone, so I just continued. It was such a revelation.
“I had all these memories, all these characters and sadness — all of this stuff that I could now find a place for and turn them into something.
“These songs don’t feel like Killers songs — they’re quite personal, so it felt natural that it should be a solo record. It’s been nearly ten years since the last one — I can’t believe it.”
Thrasher is a beautifully observed, emotionally affecting record.
The first single Plans “picks up where Pressure Machine left off”, says Flowers.
“It does a good job of representing the record. There’s some strong emotional material on this album.”
One of the most moving songs on Thrasher is One Of Us, a tribute to his sister’s late husband.
Flowers, the youngest in his family, jokes that he was always told he was “a surprise” — until he was eight, when a friend’s dad bluntly informed him he was “a mistake”.
The Killers frontman received the Special International Award at The Ivors in 2025Credit: GettyThrasher was recorded in Nashville with seasoned session musicians, including legendary harmonica player Charlie McCoyCredit: Getty
“I have a sister who is 17 years older than me so her husband was around since I was a little boy.
“He was my brother, so when he passed, it was just heartbreaking and completely unexpected. He was just out of heart surgery. You just want to pay tribute to them and my sister loves it.”
The warm, wistful Paradise finds Flowers imagining the life he might have led, had music not taken him away from home.
“I always thought I would be a valet parker. That was my goal,” he says with a chuckle.
“And if music didn’t work out, it was my Plan B.
“I would be really happy to support my family and be a valet. That’s what my cousins and uncles have done — bellman and valet.
“I have a cousin, Bobby, who has spent his whole adult life as a valet parker, and he was sending me some texts one day complaining about work.
“I was sitting at the piano and just jumped on it, and used it as a launching pad for a song about an ageing valet parker.
“It’s basically him, and it’s where I would be right now if I didn’t have this incredible thing happen to me.
“I have this empathy for him and I’m exploring what could have been and what might have been. There’s sadness in it, but there are also winks and nods.
“That’s the thing I love about country music — how those can coexist.”
Thrasher was recorded quickly in Nashville with seasoned session musicians, including legendary harmonica player Charlie McCoy, whose credits include Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Flowers says: “He played on all those Bob Dylan records and on Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman and Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer. He played with Leonard Cohen and had great stories about them all. He’s the mascot of Nashville and so incredible.”
Flowers says that the song Red Ground came especially quickly.
“I was trying for a Lee Hazlewood vibe and that song fell into our laps. These guys do this every day for hours. They make decisions that would break a band.”
Thrasher also finds Flowers making peace with his own past.
Although Las Vegas has always been central to The Killers’ identity, he admits he once felt conflicted about his Utah upbringing.
Now he says: “It did feel like I was keeping Utah a secret because I am happy to wave the flag for Las Vegas, but had a bit of a conflict about Utah.
“Now, there’s nothing wrong with embracing both.
“I look back with more tenderness now, and I’m so grateful for my upbringing there.
“I really lived in a golden time where you’re just free. It was before phones and technology and was idyllic — like something out of Stand By Me.”
Having interviewed Flowers many times over the past 20 years, one of the biggest changes is how much more comfortable he now seems revealing parts of himself he once kept guarded, particularly his Mormon faith.
He says: “I was so shy back then. I’m still shy, but I was also unsure about interviews and you don’t know what you’re supposed to reveal.
“It’s so not rock ’n’ roll to talk about Jesus in a positive light. It’s very common in sports but I think people are less open in music.
“There is this authenticity turmoil, where you feel like we’ve always glorified hedonism and debauchery in rock ’n’ roll — and even beyond rock ’n’ roll.
“In every kind of art form, those seem to be the people that we really revere because they are outliers. But I’ve realised it doesn’t make me any less creative because I have faith. I’m just never going to be Sid Vicious.”
Flowers, 45, says coming to terms with his different identities, and simply being himself, has become easier as he’s got older.
“I’m more forgiving of my younger self, but I’m still hard on my current self,” he says.
“We all have that inner voice and it can be the worst critic.
“It’s not been easy, but I now realise I can be that guy on stage, and also a family man,” he explains. “But I was so conflicted for a while.
“Half of you feels like an imposter, and then the other half is trying to show why you belong — it messes with your mind. I was lucky to find something that I was passionate about.
“That’s what I encourage my boys to find.”
Flowers’ sons Ammon, 19, Gunnar, 17, and Henry, 15, have all grown up with their dad on stage — but they are not impressed by his status.
Flowers says: “Ammon loves fitness and being outside — he is just about to go to college in Philadelphia which he’s half excited and half scared about. My wife is sad about him leaving home.
“Then Gunnar loves horror and 90s rock and a lot of grunge, too.
“Mick Jagger was there as well but it was all about Beckham, who signed a football card for him. He’s also a full-blown Oasis fan, so I need to take him to see them when they play again next year.”
Flowers remains hopeful about the future, even though he admits he is deeply troubled by Donald Trump’s America and the actions of ICE.
“This administration is scary,” says Flowers.
“It feels so un-American, and it goes against all of our values and the things that are beautiful about our country.
“You do feel a little bit hopeless and helpless.” But he still believes change can come through younger generations and the ballot box.
“We have to remember to use our voices and to fight back at the polls when the time comes.”
He adds: “Nobody from the other side is rising up at the moment. Somebody needs to rise up. Get the hell up.”
Never one to stand still for long, Flowers has always had an impressive work ethic.
Another solo album is already in the pipeline, with a new Killers record also expected in 2027.
Until then, he is excited about his solo tour, which begins next week and arrives in the UK in October, including a night at the Royal Albert Hall.
He’s already debuted songs from Thrasher at July’s Newport Folk Festival — the famous Rhode Island event where Bob Dylan went electric in 1965.
“I’ve got a band together. This tour is going to be a different experience than you are accustomed to,” he says.
“I’m going to tell more stories and take advantage of these smaller rooms — the Albert Hall is the biggest room I’m playing.
“I want to explain the story behind the songs, which you can’t do in a stadium — so I thought this would be the time to give it a shot.
“I worry people will get sick of Mr. Brightside so I feel lucky that I have different outlets for my music.”
Lisa Hayden-Johnson was jailed after fabricating her son Matthew’s illnesses
23:00, 19 Aug 2026Updated 23:00, 19 Aug 2026
Lisa Hayden-Johnson is defending herself years after being jailed for cruelty in a new Channel 4 series(Image: Channel 4)
Lisa Hayden-Johnson has defended her actions in a new Channel 4 documentary.
The Devon woman has spoken out for the first time since being released from prison. She was jailed in 2010 for three years and three months after admitting cruelty and perverting the course of justice.
Matthew’s supposed health battle attracted widespread media attention. The youngster went on to appear on various TV shows and was famously introduced to the Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla.
The young boy, now aged 25, was also subjected to medical interventions before doctors grew suspicious about his alleged health problems. Now, both mother and son are telling their sides of the story in new Channel 4 three-part series, Love You to Death.
A synopsis for the show states: “Young Matthew’s health problems worry medics and his mum Lisa. But when doctors’ efforts to improve Matthew’s condition don’t work, suspicions are raised and the police are called in to investigate.”
In the first episode, which aired on Wednesday (August 19), Lisa refutes the infamous ‘most evil mum’ title she earned as a result of the story.
She says: “I’ve never had the opportunity to [tell her story]. The newspaper articles are so incorrect. How can I be ‘Britain’s Most Evil Mother?'”
She goes on to add: “The only thing I was guilty of was putting my son first and fighting his battle, which is what I did. And I don’t regret that.”
Matthew, who will feature in the second episode of the series, spoke to the BBC about how it felt to hear his mother’s perspective.
He said: “It was a lot of disappointment but I think also frustration as almost two decades on, there is still a lack of accountability from her side.
“When I could see, even after two decades… she still holds the same story and believes that she did the best by me… that obviously isn’t right.” Matthew’s older sister, Laura, also speaks out in the documentary.
Love You To Death Episode 1 is streaming now on Channel 4
LINCOLN, Calif. — One thing Anne Smull, a retired feedstore owner, was looking forward to on election day was voting for the man who currently represents her in Congress, conservative Rep. Kevin Kiley. Now she can’t.
That’s because California Democrats sliced Kiley’s district six ways as payback for Republican redistricting in Texas and elsewhere. The chunk of the district that Smull, who identifies as a conservative, lives in is now grafted onto an overwhelmingly Democratic seat based in the state’s wine country.
During a recent lunch at a cafe in Lincoln, a onetime agricultural town that has morphed into a bedroom community on the edge of Sacramento’s exurban sprawl, Smull was heartbroken to hear she can no longer vote for Kiley.
“He believes in the same things I do,” Smull said. “It feels sneaky and underhanded.”
Republicans started the redistricting competition. Democrats might finish it
Democratic voters in several other states know how Smull feels.
President Trump last year told GOP-controlled states to redraw their maps before this year’s midterm elections to increase the number of winnable seats for Republicans in order to help the party hold on to the U.S. House. The effort was turbocharged by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the spring of this year that neutralized a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and cleared the way for Republicans to redraw more seats across the South that had elected Black Democrats.
Democratic-leaning and heavily minority communities from Texas to Tennessee have been split into multiple congressional districts that dilute the Democratic vote by stretching deep into conservative areas.
In the future, it is likely that more Republican voters in other states will go through what Smull and other conservatives in Northern California are facing. Democrats in Maryland, New York, Illinois and other strongholds have pledged to retaliate in time for the 2028 elections and split Republican-leaning districts the way their California counterparts did Kiley’s.
Democrats have been hindered nationally by stricter rules against partisan line-drawing in their states, but California showed a way around that. California Democrats won voter approval last year to redraw the state’s congressional map, originally made by an independent commission, and formed five new Democratic-leaning seats.
‘We have zero voice,’ says voter angry at the Democratic drive for a new political map
Kiley’s is one of them. The reworked political lines led the two-term congressman to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the slightly Democratic-leaning district that now includes his home.
He spoke out against partisan gerrymandering, even unsuccessfully trying to force the Republican-led House to allow a vote on a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting.
“We’ve seen partisan divisions really spin out of control in really harmful ways, and I think Exhibit No. 1 is the redistricting wars,” Kiley recently told a group of voters in the suburb of Citrus Heights.
Democrats contend Kiley’s party switch is purely a political trick to survive in a more liberal district. They note that he still caucuses with House Republicans and has voted for many of the GOP’s priorities, including Trump’s sweeping budget and tax cut bill last year, and that political organizations run by House Republicans are spending money to back his reelection.
Even some of Kiley’s supporters think the election was a factor in the congressman’s decision to become an independent.
“My original thinking was he did it because of redistricting — maybe it’d help him get reelected,” said John Coburn, a 68-year-old retired business owner, at the Citrus Heights event.
Coburn is furious at the Democrats’ redistricting and hopes Kiley wins. Coburn does not care that they did it in retaliation for Texas, where Republicans at Trump’s directive revised that state’s map to carve out up to five new winnable conservative seats.
“I don’t care about Texas, I live in California,” Coburn said, adding that “40% of the state is Republican, and we have zero voice. Zero. It’s not how our Founding Fathers intended.”
For Democrats in the district, a rare political opportunity
In an interview, Kiley said his switch to independent was no political gambit. If he wanted to stay in the House, he argued, he could have had an easier time staying in the GOP, moving to a more conservative district that included parts of his old one and running in a Republican primary there.
“I could have gone there and run and played the same game these other politicians are playing,” he said.
Kiley said that he is caucusing with Republicans to avoid losing his seats on committees and that in the next Congress he will try to change rules so independent members do not lose committee seats because they do not caucus with one of the two major parties.
Among his backers, he noted, is onetime Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, a former technology entrepreneur who co-founded a centrist party for independents.
The Democrat running against Kiley, former state Sen. Richard Pan, scoffs at his rival’s newfound independent status.
“He was a MAGA champion when he first ran for Congress, and now he’s trying to say ‘I’m not,’” Pan told a crowd at a senior community in Roseville, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Earlier that day, Pan swung by the Placer County Democratic Party office, tucked away on the second story of a brick shopping arcade in Lincoln’s compact downtown.
Placer is a Republican county that stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the northwestern shores of Lake Tahoe. The entire county is in Kiley’s current district, but it will be divided among three districts in the new map.
Kathleen Crawford, chair of the county Democratic Party, was enthusiastic about the county getting carved up.
“It’s worth it, because we have an opportunity to get Democratic representation, which has been missing from our county,” Crawford said. “I’ve been here 15 years, and this is my first real opportunity to elect a Democrat.”
A never-ending cycle that cuts out ‘the little people’
Lincoln’s downtown is flanked by fruit, vegetable and flower farms, as well as new subdivisions. The community and its neighboring suburbs have become a destination for people fleeing the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing prices. That has helped change the once solidly conservative area into a political battleground where skilled mapmakers can draw winnable seats for Democrats.
Ed Church, a 61-year-old risk manager, was eating lunch at Simple Pleasures cafe in Lincoln when he contemplated Kiley’s shift. A Democrat, Church has not been a Kiley fan and he was bemused by the congressman’s move.
“If that’s how he’d been initially and not so MAGA, I probably could have supported him,” Church said of Kiley’s independent status. Now Church, as a Lincoln resident, is in a purely Democratic district and will not have a say in Kiley’s fate in November. His main criteria in the election will be “who’s going to stand up to Trump?”
Across the street at a gun store, Wesley Johnson, 43, who considers himself a conservative independent, said he was dispirited by the state’s redistricting.
“I feel Northern California is not represented fairly,” Johnson said. “San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles control everything.”
He acknowledged Republicans were doing the same thing in states they controlled and said he did not know how it could stop.
“You’re just cutting out the little people,” Johnson said.
For the tourist industry, 2026 has been a rocky year, with war, EU border delays, climate and economic woes gnawing away at holiday plans. But while much of Britain is feeling the loss of visitors from the Middle East and beyond, one part is thriving.
Scotland is reeling in ever more visitors, with strong annual growth and a 15% rise in flight bookings to Scottish airports in June and July, compared with a drop in bookings to London and the rest of England in recent months, according to VisitBritain figures.
With heatwaves gripping much of Europe, the hope of finding cooler climes farther north may have increased Scotland’s allure – although tourism chiefs say dashing Highland warriors and kilted football fans may have more to do with it.
Long-term plans to increase direct flights from North America have come to fruition in the last two years, bolstering the traditional US-led foreign tourist base.
A rise in visitors from continental Europe, possibly looking to escape the heat, has added to the mix. And more Britons have chosen to holiday at home rather than face the border confusion and delays under the EU’s entry-exit system.
In Edinburgh, where August has long been the busiest time of the year, Princes Street was this week particularly teeming with tourists, gathered around bagpipers and being targeted with leaflets by cheery fringe promoters.
The Gilded Balloon, one of the main venues during the Edinburgh fringe. Photograph: PA
Festival sales are up 30%, according to Marc Crothall, the chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance. “Edinburgh is jumping, which is great. And that’s a massive draw for international visitors,” he said.
Not all were here for the world’s biggest arts festival: Zanet Garcia, from Mexico City and on her second day in the country, had no idea it was on. “I was really confused by it all. I had never heard of the fringe and I didn’t know what it was,” she said with a laugh. “But everyone has been so friendly.”
Garcia chose Scotland because of her interest in Scottish mythology, sparked by books and TV shows that were huge UK exports, such as Harry Potter and Outlander, and had visited locations connected with them. She was taking in traditional national attractions too, fresh from the Johnnie Walker Experience – “I don’t even drink whisky” – and with tickets to the military tattoo.
An earlier visitor to the Johnnie Walker Experience in Edinburgh, the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
The majority of tourists are from the UK. But it is the big-spending foreigners who are more likely to stay longer, chalk up the visitor attractions and pack in the experiences. An average overseas visitor to Scotland spent just over £900 in a week in 2024, compared with just over £300 in three nights for a British holidaymaker.
According to data from the Moffat Centre for travel and tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University the biggest jump this year has been in visitors touring by campervan rather than staying in hotels.
Numbers are up but spending per head is down, Crothall said, describing the overall picture as “healthy but by no means booming”.
The holidaying Briton is more likely, he said, to be pursuing free visits to museums and walking in the countryside, with the cost of living still a big issue. “Instead of the three course meal, it’s the one. The 5% VAT and free travel helps, but it’s not magic,” Crothall said.
A scene from an earlier series of the TV show Outlander has helped spark an interest in Scottish mythology among visitors. Photograph: Starz! Movie Channel/Courtesy
Although Scotland has suffered its own heatwaves, and devastating wildfires in the Cairngorms, it remains cooler than the southern UK. “We hope and suspect that we’ll see more European visitors given the climate conditions,” Crothall added.
Conclusive data linking the heat to changing tourism habits is not yet available, said Vicki Miller, the chief executive of VisitScotland. “But certainly we’ve seen this year strong demand from Europe including Spain and Italy, which is potentially the climate impact,” she added.
What the research does show, however, is just how many visits, such as Garcia’s, were inspired by the screen. Online searches spiked on the back of reality TV hit The Traitors, although Ardross Castle – the main location for the UK and US versions of the show – is not open to visit. Castles that have featured in Outlander – a long-running hit in the US and parts of Europe – have also become big draws.
Ardross Castle, where The Traitors is filmed, is not open to visitors, but castles that have featured in Outlander have been big draws. Photograph: Peter Jolly/Shutterstock
“We know that 36%-37% of international visitors are inspired by film or TV,” said Miller. “And people’s memories are long: they remember Braveheart or Local Hero as well.”
Sport has also pulled in visitors, from this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow to big golf tournaments, along with the reflected glory from travelling Scottish football fans.
Interest from Germany increased after it hosted Euro 2024, when the Tartan Army were voted the best supporters at the football tournament: a mixture of “friendliness, banter, and donations to local charities – they capture hearts, they’ve been fantastic ambassadors”, Miller said.
Scotland fans cheer in the stands before their team’s World Cup match against Morocco at Boston stadium in June. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
At this year’s World Cup, when Scotland played in the US, VisitScotland “painted Boston tartan” to capitalise, she said, prompting local online searches for Scottish holidays to double.
While Scotland hopes to reap the fruits of a long-term strategic approach, including more direct flights – 100,000 more seats annually from the US alone – and promoting visits in all seasons, many are still feeling the pinch from reduced spending.
On the streets of the Scottish capital, Dexter, working at Edinburgh Bus Tours, was rueful. “I’ve been here seven years and the crowd is going down. Tips have gone, big time. I used to be able to go on vacation just on my tips, now that’s not the case,” said the tour guide, who is originally from Nevada, US.
He said the tourist tax – a 5% levy introduced in July on accommodation in Edinburgh – “has hurt”, on top of the cost of living: “People have got no money.”
Leon Thompson, the executive director of the trade body UKHospitality Scotland, concurred. “People are in their cost of living crisis and that is a challenge,” he said.
Thompson added that companies were feeling the impact of business rates, national insurance contributions and VAT, and were anxiously awaiting tourist levies to be introduced by other Scottish local authorities after Edinburgh.
“Scotland will always be a popular destination, but we can’t be complacent. We can’t allow ourselves to be priced out of what is the global visitor market,” he said.
The importance of parental support goes meta in Julia Hart’s “Don’t Say Good Luck.” The YA musical drama, which premieres Friday, pays homage to musical theater, unconditional maternal love and the family-hour TV, er, Netflix movie. In a landscape littered with teenage dysfunction, “Don’t Say Good Luck” is a moving argument for aspirational television.
And with a star whose famous father serves as producer, it‘s an admonition to the term “nepo baby.”
We meet normal kid Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny Sandler) as she anxiously prepares for a day that will include auditioning for her high school’s production of “Waitress.” While her father, Ted (Max Greenfield, marvelously transformed by a beard), wrangles her rambunctious younger twin brothers, her mother, Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey), assures her that she is talented and beautiful and will do just great. These sentiments are echoed by Sophie’s best friend, Carolyn (Scarlett Estevez), who joins her at the audition where the director is the super-cool Ms. Parker (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Stephanie Beatriz) and even theater department queen bee Mallory (Elyse Bell), who everyone knows is going to get the lead, is pretty nice.
It’s a high school experience that’s about as far from “Euphoria” or even “Glee” as one can get while still being situated on Earth. Still, all is not perfect in Sophie’s world. When Elizabeth learns that her cancer has returned, Sophie overhears her parents’ subsequent conversation via a butt-dial from her father’s phone. Her first impulse is to flee the audition; instead her emotional turmoil fuels a powerful performance that (spoiler alert?) lands her the lead role.
Determined to downplay the seriousness of her illness, Elizabeth insists that life continue on as normal — she and Ted own a local deli, which offers some nice bagel versus wrap shade and a Jon Lovitz cameo. Though Sophie is worried, she believes her mother who says she will beat cancer again. So she throws herself into the stomach-churning rigor of being the star of the show, which includes a painful separation from her bestie, a crush on her co-star and a struggle to find the confidence to let her obvious talent shine.
“Don’t Say Good Luck” is, obviously, a showcase for Sandler, whose parents, Adam and Jackie Sandler, serve as producers (which may have had something to do with the extraordinary supporting cast, which also includes Bebe Neuwirth and Steve Buscemi as Elizabeth’s parents). Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions have a long and lucrative partnership with Netflix, which recently debuted “Happy Gilmore 2” and announced “Grown Ups 3” as part of their deal. One could see this as yet another case of nepo-baby triumph — streaming is currently littered with the progeny of famous parents — or simply a living example of the film’s theme. Like the Birenbaum parents, the Sandlers want to help their daughter shine in her chosen career and that she certainly does.
Adam Sandler serves as a producer, which may have had something to do with the extraordinary supporting cast, which also includes Steve Buscemi as Sophie’s grandfather.
(Netflix)
Though Sophie is the only older daughter ever to escape the task of caring for her younger brothers (or doing any chores at all), Sandler makes her completely believable as a nice, self-conscious kid who just needs a push to trust her talent. If the tone of the film is 1970s-family-comedy aspirational (particularly in the mother-daughter scenes), that shouldn’t be construed as a low level of difficulty.
Indeed, it is almost revolutionary to see emotionally resonant teenage characters who aren’t mired in abuse, addiction or some kind of horror; leveraging dysfunction has become shorthand for “drama.” “Don’t Say Good Luck” is based on the real-life experience of co-writer Laura Hankin (collaborating here with Hart and Jordan Horowitz), and though the stakes are emotionally high, portraying a loving family doing their best to get through a devastating situation with minimal meltdowns is its own act of bravery.
It certainly helps that this family is firmly anchored by Lynskey, who proves, yet again, that she can do anything. Her Elizabeth is neither martyr nor saint, just a woman who wants to live as she’s always lived for as long as she can. Lynskey lifts what could have been a sappy (or even worse, guilt-inducing) cancer-mom tale into a quietly transcendent contemplation of motherhood. (A scene in which she flips through the calendar trying to figure out when to let the kids know what’s really going on drove the breath from this mother’s body.)
Does “Don’t Say Good Luck” skirt around the grim realities of cancer as cavalierly as it paints a Pinterest mood-board vision of high school? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean the message and the feelings (yes, you absolutely will cry) are not just as authentic. Love is the root of much pain, but it’s also what conquers it in the end.
Melanie Lynskey as Elizabeth, Max Greenfield as Ted and Jon Lovitz as Lenny in “Don’t Say Good Luck.”
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) runs a clearing process matching students with university and college courses which still have spaces., external
Students can use it if they:
Fail to achieve the grades for their conditional offer
Fail to receive any offers they want to accept
Decide after 30 June to apply for university
Achieve better grades than expected and want to change universities
Clearing opened on 2 July and closes on 19 October.
Each A-level grade is worth a certain number of Ucas points. For example, an A* at A-level is worth 56 points and a D is worth 24 points.
BTecs, T-levels and other qualifications are worth Ucas points too – you can work out how many points your results are worth using the calculator tool on their website, external.
Many students may decide not to go to university and start an apprenticeship or go straight into work.
Others take a gap year, external so they have more time to decide what to do next.
Reporting from Sacramento — A Bay Area lawmaker wants to knock down what he believes is a key barrier to California meeting its ambitious climate change goals: one of the state’s most prominent environmental laws.
Assemblyman Tim Grayson (D-Concord) has introduced legislation that aims to make it harder for lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, to stop construction of roads and public transit.
CEQA requires developers and public agencies to disclose a project’s environmental effects and take steps to reduce or eliminate them. But Grayson says the law can grind to a halt transportation projects that are needed to reduce the amount of cars on the road.
His legislation, Assembly Bill 1905, would make it easier for road or transit projects included in a state-approved regional growth plan to begin construction before any CEQA litigation is resolved.
Since state climate regulators will have already signed off on those road and transit projects when approving a region’s growth plan, the projects shouldn’t face multiple threats of environmental litigation, Grayson argues.
“What I’m looking at is how do we cut down on traffic congestion where we’re just spilling greenhouse gases, creating clouds of greenhouse gases and impacting the environment negatively,” Grayson said.
But Grayson’s approach is already attracting concerns from high-profile environmental organizations. Environmental groups often credit CEQA, which took effect in 1970, with preserving California’s natural beauty, and argue it is complementary — not contrary — to the more recent climate change laws.
A court should rule in a CEQA lawsuit before construction starts, said Kyle Jones, a policy advocate for Sierra Club California.
“It just seems prudent that you’ve gotten all your legal barriers out of the way,” Jones said.
California has many laws that force private developers and public agencies to examine the environmental impacts of their housing, commercial, industrial and transportation plans and projects.
In 2008, the state Legislature began requiring regional governments, including the Southern California Assn. of Governments, to draw up plans to accommodate population growth and reduce greenhouse gases with proposals for new housing and transportation primarily in already developed areas. The goal is to reduce sprawl and emissions from long commutes. Regional governments are now revising their plans to comply with the state’s new aggressive targets to cut carbon emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030.
But actual growth doesn’t have to follow the plans, and individual projects can stall for many reasons, including environmental litigation. Under Grayson’s bill, however, any road, transit or other transportation project included in an approved regional climate plan would receive relief in potential CEQA lawsuits.
Currently, a court can stop construction on a project if the judge finds its required CEQA analysis failed to account for all effects on the environment. Under Grayson’s bill, a court could do so only if the project was found to have serious life or safety risks.
State lawmakers have approved this legal standard before to speed the development of a new Sacramento Kings basketball arena. Those rules weren’t tested in a lawsuit against the arena. But state and local officials have said the legal standard allowed construction to go forward without fear of litigation tying up the project and potentially costing the city the team.
In Los Angeles, Grayson’s bill could affect large road and transit projects including a Metro Gold Line extension into eastern Los Angeles County and tunnels through the Sepulveda Pass.
But Sierra Club California and the Natural Resources Defense Council are among the environmental organizations that believe the bill goes too far. State climate regulators don’t heavily scrutinize individual projects when approving regional growth plans, representatives of both groups said.
For instance, a judge might find that a transportation project’s environmental review didn’t account for all the effects the development could have on air quality, but under AB 1905 that judge couldn’t stop the project because of it, said David Pettit, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Without the threat of halting construction, agencies won’t need to take seriously any subsequent demands to improve the air surrounding the project, he said.
AB 1905 “may look good on its face, but it’s fantastically unrealistic when you look at the effects of when concrete is already in the ground,” Pettit said.
Grayson said the inspiration for his bill came from the California Transportation Commission, a state agency that advises Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature on transportation policy and spending. In its most recent annual report, the commission recommended an idea similar to Grayson’s bill as a way to speed up project construction.
The recently passed gas tax and other fee increases are expected to bring in more than $5 billion annually for road repairs and mass transit upgrades. Grayson said it’s important to spend that money quickly, and making it easier to defend against CEQA lawsuits is one way to do it.
“If we’re ever going to make a huge impact it is going to be now with the amount of revenue at our disposal,” he said.
It’s been four years in the making, now a staggering ‘real life’ Lion King tells the story of how one cub makes it all the way to the top
Filming Kio’s story was both ‘terrifying’ and ’emotional’ according to series producer Jane Atkins(Image: National Geographic/Simon Blakeney)
When the makers of National Geographic’s Lion started out on their four-year mission to tell the story of a pride of lions in the Masai Mara, they did not think they get the real-life version of The Lion King.
But after 52 shoots over 1400 filming days in Kenya and 1,000 hours of footage, they ended up focusing on the journey undertaken by eight-week old male Kio – the first natural history series to follow a lion throughout their full journey from a tiny cub to a king.
The four-part series is the brainchild of The Lion King director Jon Favreau and BBC Studios executive producer Mike Gunton, and has a score by renowned composer Hans Zimmer. Series producer Jane Atkins said it had been a rollercoaster of emotion. “We poured so much love into the project, so I just hope that passion comes through with the way audiences receive it. We want to make films that transport people.”
Lions have a high infant mortality rate, with more than 50% not making it past their second year – and male lions are notoriously hard to follow because they are always wandering off. Jane initially thought the main story would be about a female matriarch but she soon knew that Kio, who was incredibly close to his experienced mother Summer, had potential to become the main star. “I knew it was risky, because of all the statistics, but I was backing that story quite early on. To not have a clue right at the beginning what our end story was going to be was terrifying. But we thought we must be bold, ambitious and able to shift if we don’t get the story that we want. We were playing a very kind of high-stakes gamble the whole time.”
Mike said that when he pitched the project to National Geographic all those years ago, he could only do so in the vaguest terms. “My pitch was not to tell the Lion King, it was to tell the story of a lion pride,” he explained. “None of us knew that it would end up being a male but relatively quickly this male started to stand out as a potential character. But you’d be foolish to just follow him. We were following some adult females, we were following many other lions but as time went on, he became more and more a key character.
“As time goes on, it gets increasingly risky, because you’ve invested more and more in that individual, both emotionally and in terms of footage. As you get closer and closer to the end – which is when you run out of time and money – every day, you think, please don’t die, please don’t die.”
Across the four episodes Kio not only loses important family members, he also loses his home. But over time he proves himself an equal among his older brothers, becoming strong enough to fight rival males and together he and the brotherhood take over a new pride of females, and finally take control of a new kingdom.
Jane said she has found the filming process pulled at the heartstrings in more ways than one. “We were so in love with the characters, by the end I felt really emotional, not just because I was so proud of the team, but also – this sounds strange – I was so proud of this little cub who had made it. He had become this incredible adult male, and it’s like seeing my 14-year-old son, over those years, kind of become a man.”
She said the male lions had to fight hard to succeed, which wasn’t always easy to watch. “You feel incredibly protective, so it is like having your own son, and having to sort of let go of them a little bit.” She could only relax after three and a half years of filming. “We lived and breathed every second of it,” she said. “Jon Favreau was so nervous, he’d say ‘every time you phone me, I feel like you’re about to say something terrible’. His first question was always, ‘is Kio alive?’
At one point, one of the big characters does die and director of photography Sophie Darlington had to overcome her grief to carry on filming. “The way she died was incredibly sad,” Jane said. “We had meetings straight away in the office, and people were crying and there was a lot of upset, and then we had to ask Sophie to go back out to film the aftermath of what happened on Kio and the boys.”
Mike told the Mirror that it was nerve-wracking to make a drama featuring a cast over which they had no control with one of the biggest challenges simply keeping tabs on them. “They’re not collared so we rely on the guides to find them. Every morning before dawn you’d go to where you saw them last, and hope they’re there. If they’re not you drive around and hope that you can find them.”
He said the only script was the one that “nature has written” and explained: “Our job is to just gather and pick the moments of relevant excitement.”
He said the skills of those on the ground were phenomenal. “You are spending 90% of the time with nothing, and then, bang, something will happen almost out of the blue. That’s why the skills of the trackers and the camera teams are extraordinary, they know it’s coming, they’ve got that sixth sense.”
One shocking storyline involves Kio’s mother. “Viewers are going to be shocked by Summer’s story,” Mike warns. “We knew what happened, and it was an interesting filmmaking challenge, how you tell that story without the actual imagery. But you also have to be quite careful politically about how you frame that story.”
Mike found that while it was extremely challenging – it was also incredibly rewarding. “It’s been one of the most joyful things I’ve ever worked on. I say that because it all worked ou,” he laughed. “Imagine if after three and a half years they all died – I would probably be having a very different conversation.”
Mike, who works on many of the David Attenborough series for the BBC, added: “I know epic gets overused, but it does feel, genuinely, like an epic story. I think it’s a real privilege to do something that is this epic.”
In order to know precisely what they were filming, the team gave each lion its own identification card and quickly becoming expert at identifying up to 50 lions from different prides by name and family relationships.
The four episodes will be voiced by actor OJ Lynch – because Favreau wanted the series to use a “storyteller’s voice,” as if the audience was sitting around a campfire with an elder. Lynch previously played Mufasa in the West End version of The Lion King – and also used to work at BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. “I knew him when he was a postboy about 40 years ago,” Mike says. “I just thought his voice was fantastic. I wanted a voice that wasn’t a famous voice but could be anybody from that part of the world, and Jon felt the same. We felt this was a story that could have been told at any time – 10 years ago, 100 years ago, a thousand years ago. It’s a story of all time.”
– Lion airs on National Geographic as a double bill from Thursday 20 August at 8pm and 9pm, and also streams on Disney +
SACRAMENTO — Weeks before voting ended in California’s primary for governor, Los Angeles-based influencer Shaka Smith took to Instagram to tell his more than 700,000 followers whom he was voting for and why.
“Healthcare shouldn’t bankrupt you, housing should not feel impossible, polluters shouldn’t pass their bill to us, and artists should not be replaced by AI,” Smith said. “That’s why I’m supporting Tom Steyer for governor.”
But Smith started the video with a disclaimer: “This is an ad, and honestly, I wish more political content said that first.” His caption specified that he was paid by Steyer’s campaign.
California is one of two states, along with Texas, that have passed policies requiring content creators to say if they’ve been paid by a political campaign to post, and the Golden State is considering cracking down by fining people who don’t.
Campaigns have long worked with celebrities and major influencers to win over voters, but now they are teaming up with smaller creators — sometimes with fewer than 100,000 followers — to reach more tailored audiences. That has sparked debates about whether disclosure rules for political advertisements should apply to content creators, who are expected to play prominent roles in the upcoming midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
“If you’re running for president and you are not currently trying to court some of these people or lining up your own people to act as surrogates for you, you’re already behind,” said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist who worked for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Campaigns tap creators to spread their message
Questions about transparency have been fueled by high-profile instances of influencers making content intended to change minds or votes without disclosing they were being paid.
In 2022, the campaign of Democratic then-Senate candidate John Fetterman paid Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of “Jersey Shore” to record a video teasing his GOP rival for leaving New Jersey before announcing his run in Pennsylvania. In 2023, content creators were paid by an influencer marketing agency with conservative ties to defend Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, a Republican, after he was impeached for alleged bribery and other accusations of misconduct, according to the Texas Tribune. The payments weren’t clearly disclosed in either case.
Steyer, a Democratic billionaire who spent more than $215 million of his own money on his unsuccessful bid for governor, took fire from rivals for paying content creators. He wasn’t the only contender in the race paying influencers, but he faced much of the blowback because he had already been accused of trying to buy the election for having poured much of his personal fortune into his campaign. Many of the creators who worked with Steyer’s campaign disclosed that they were paid, but the state’s campaign finance watchdog is investigating several other instances in which creators allegedly didn’t.
There are no federal disclosure rules
Sen. Adam Schiff of California introduced federal legislation last month, but it hasn’t received a vote yet. Some outside groups are urging the Federal Election Commission to pass its own rule.
California’s law requiring disclosure, passed in 2023, is difficult to enforce. The state’s campaign watchdog can seek a court order compelling an influencer to disclose that they were paid, but that can take months.
That prompted Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) to write a new bill to penalize content creators and political committees if the creator fails to state they were compensated. The bill would give the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission the power to fine influencers and committees if they are found to have violated the law, allowing the commission to bypass the court process. They could face fines of up to $5,000 per violation, according to the commission.
“Voters should have a right to know whether or not campaigns are paying for the messaging that they’re seeing,” Berman said.
Texas’ campaign watchdog passed a rule in 2024 requiring content creators to include disclaimers when they are paid for political advertisements, and the New York Legislature is considering a similar requirement. Other disclosure bills failed in recent years in Utah and Georgia.
Influencer says his ad had an impact
Smith, the L.A. influencer, hadn’t committed to a candidate for governor when a trusted friend told him to look into Steyer. That friend had been paid to post about Steyer.
Smith liked Steyer’s promise to increase taxes on billionaires and his refusal to accept donations from corporate political action committees.
He ended up doing two paid ads, both of which included compensation disclaimers that the Steyer campaign told him were a requirement.
Smith wouldn’t say exactly how much the campaign paid him, but he said it was in the thousands of dollars. He thinks the posts had an effect on his followers, with only a few detractors objecting.
“They kind of trust my voice,” he said of his audience. “They knew that if I’m saying it, it’s at least something they should look into.”
Creators respond to proposed policy changes
Dustin Torreverde, a content creator in Southern California who hasn’t been paid by a political campaign for social media posts, said it’s important for influencers to be transparent with their audiences. But the bill could pose an unfair burden on creators who are just trying to make a living, he said.
“A lot of us are very small creators,” he said. “So if we were to get penalized and we have to get lawyers, stuff like that, it’s going to be very difficult for us.”
Adina Flores, a libertarian content creator in Northern California who votes for both parties, said influencers should have to disclose if they are paid and that she generally supports penalties. She worries some people may take money to post political content without doing a “deep dive into the candidate to make sure that’s somebody they should support.”
Saurav Ghosh, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on protecting American democracy, hopes disclosure requirements passed by states will lead to federal rules.
“Transparency is one of the most important pillars of our election system,” he said.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. It’s too hot. I’m convinced that the Earth has been torn from its orbit and is hurtling toward the sun.
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Trade deadline review
The Dodgers made some acquisitions at the deadline, the big one beingTarik Skubal. Let’s take a look:
Acquired Skubal from the Tigers for minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith
Andrew Friedman recently told reporters, “There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game. Any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations.”
Participate he did, as the Dodgers got the top player available. Skubal won the last two AL Cy Young Awards when he went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA last season, leading the league in ERA both seasons. He also led in strikeouts in 2024 with 228. Last season he struck out 241. You can see all of his stats here.
Skubal was taken by Detroit out of Seattle University in the ninth round of the 2018 draft. He reached the majors in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, going 1-4 with a 5.63 ERA in eight starts. He has gotten better each season since until this season, where he is 7-6 with an ERA of “only” 2.81.
Skubal was born in Hayward, Calif., on Nov. 20, 1996. He was a freshman All-American for Seattle in 2015, then missed most of the 2016 and all of the 2017 season after having Tommy John surgery. He pitched again in 2018 and was drafted by Detroit.
After winning his second Cy Young last season, he set the arbitration record by getting $32 million for 2026 (the Tigers had countered with $19 million). On May 4 this season, he had surgery to remove loose bodies in his pitching elbow (the same surgery Edwin Díaz had). He came back on June 13 and since then he has gone 4-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 59.1 innings, giving up 43 hits and walking 10 while striking out 77. The Dodgers will be on the hook for about $10 million of his salary this season.
Was this a good trade? Well, for now, yes, as the Dodgers are a better team with Skubal than without him. Long term, it depends on a lot of things. Will he be a key factor if they win the title again? He’s a free agent after this season, will the Dodgers re-sign him? Will the three prospects the Dodgers gave up turn out to be good to great major leaguers?
In 1987, Detroit was battling for the AL East and pulled off a deadline deal, acquiring Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves. Alexander went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA for the Tigers, who won the division thanks in large part to that. So, a great trade, right?
Well, Alexander retired two years later, and the prospect the Tigers sent to the Braves turned out to be pretty good: John Smoltz.
Hope, 21, is an outfielder who has hit at every level of the minor leagues. He is hitting .291/.368/.525 at double-A this season. He is considered by all sources to be one of the top 100 prospects in baseball, ranked 63rd by Baseball America, 27th by MLB and 18th by Baseball Prospectus.
Ryan, who turns 28 this month, pitched for the Dodgers in 2024, with a 1.33 ERA in four starts. He has been hampered by injuries ever since. He had arm surgery in August 2024 that sidelined him for the 2025 season. He made eight starts for triple-A Oklahoma City this season, with a 4.46 ERA. He has great stuff, but his age and injury history indicates he might never get a real chance to show it.
Smith, 21, was drafted in the third round in 2023. He missed the 2024 season because of injuries. He made only nine starts with a 6.00 ERA last season and in 21 starts in Class A ball this season, he was 0-7 with a 4.36 ERA, striking out 113 in 74.1 innings.
Acquired Ben Rortvedt from the New York Mets for Chayce McDermott
Rortvedt is a familiar name to Dodgers fans, as he filled in admirably when needed for Will Smith last season and took the backup catcher job from Dalton Rushing. He hit only .224/.309/.327, but he seemed to always get key hits, or laid down a bunt when needed. And the pitching staff loved him. It was as if he had been a Dodgers catcher for years. Look at the team ERA by catcher last season:
Doesn’t it seem like Barnes has been off the team for a few seasons already?
McDermott has a career 12.00 ERA in 15 major league innings.
Acquired Hunter Feduccia and Jacob Kmatz from the Tampa Bay Rays for Jack Suwinski and $250,000 in international bonus pool money
The Dodgers acquired another old friend by getting Feduccia, who is also a catcher. He played in eight games for the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025 before he was traded to Tampa Bay for Rortvedt and pitcher Paul Gervase. Feduccia is one of those Dodger prospects who never panned out, as he is hitting .207/.297/.290 in 104 major league games. But, he knows the Dodger pitching staff and the Dodgers are better with Rortvedt/Feduccia than with Robinson/Eliezer Alfonzo.
The reason the Dodgers acquired two catchers is because of some bad news. Rushing has a torn UCL in his right elbow and more than likely won’t be able to play catcher again this season, though he may be able to serve as a right-handed pinch-hitter. With Rushing out, and Will Smith still sidelined by his neck injury, the Dodgers turned toward defense. Neither Rortvedt nor Feduccia have proven to be starting catchers, but they have been solid backups. The question is, who will get the most playing time the rest of the way? They both bat left-handed.
Acquired pitcher Kris Bubic from the Kansas City Royals for Carlos Duran
This reminds me of the trade for Danny Duffy at the 2021 deadline. Duffy was a good pitcher who was injured, but the Dodgers hoped he would return in time to help down the stretch during the 2021 season. He didn’t return. They signed him in the offseason hoping he would return from injury to help during the season. He didn’t return. He then retired.
Bubic was on the 60-day IL for the Royals, and is on that IL for the Dodgers. He was an All-Star last season for the Royals, finishing the season 8-7 with a 2.55 ERA in 20 starts (116 innings). He was 3-2 with a 4.11 ERA in nine starts this season before going on the IL because of shoulder soreness. The Dodgers hope he can return before the end of the month.
But let’s not hold our breath awaiting that, OK?
Duran, 25, had a 3.38 ERA in 42.2 innings at triple-A Oklahoma City.
Acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen from the Colorado Rockies for Nick Frasso and Landyn Vidourek
This trade happened on July 20, but we will include it. Halvorsen was, wait for it, on the 15-day IL for the Rockies because of shoulder inflammation. He is currently off the IL and has pitched 5.1 scoreless innings at Oklahoma City. He reaches 100 on the radar gun and has a 4.31 career ERA in 71 innings in the majors.
Frasso, 27, was selected in the fourth round by Toronto in the 2020 draft, was sent to the Dodgers for Mitch White in 2022 and never reached the majors with L.A. He had shoulder surgery before the 2024 season and sat out the season.
Vidourek, 22, an outfielder, was chosen by the Dodgers in the third round of the 2025 draft. He has power but strikes out a lot, fanning 141 times in 317 at-bats in the minors, where he is hitting .205/.357/.369.
So, there you have it. Your new Dodgers. The Dodgers are a better team today than they were before the deadline. It guarantees nothing though. They got Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer in previous years and did not win the title.
Next in line: Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Eric Lauer, Emmet Sheehan.
Here’s what the other NL contenders did. I won’t comment, because this newsletter is long enough already and there’s still another item after this one, but if you click on each player’s name, you will be taken to their stat page at baseball-reference.com.
For full reports on all the trades across the majors, I suggest visiting mlbtraderumors.com.
What, me worry?
So, the Dodgers have lost six in a row and were swept in two consecutive series. Time to worry or panic?
To find the last time the Dodgers lost six in a row and were swept in consecutive series, you have to go all the way back to … July 2025. The Dodgers woke up on July 4 leading the NL West by nine games. They then proceeded to get swept twice:
lost to Houston, 18-1 lost to Houston, 6-4 lost to Houston, 5-1 lost to Milwaukee, 9-1 lost to Milwaukee, 3-1 lost to Milwaukee, 3-2
The then lost their first game against the Giants, 8-7. After that, they were in first place by only four games.
Then they won two in a row and lost three more in a row. They went 5-13 over one stretch that month and went 10-14 in July. They lost five in a row to start September. They ended up winning the division by three games, but did not get a first-round bye.
My memory fails me, what happened in the postseason last season?
If the Dodgers get a couple of major injuries and lose like 15 in a row, then we can begin to panic. But they are going to make the postseason, and anything can happen in the postseason. They could be swept in the first round, they could win it all again. It’s all part of the ride.
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
The day after the state’s Senate primary, I was at a gym in Michigan when I overheard a brief exchange about the results of the close race.
The small group of voters were all elderly and white. Most of them expressed disappointment that Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens lost. Most of them questioned victor Abdul El-Sayed’s ability to win in November against a Republican. One of them called El-Sayed — a born and raised Michigander who attended the University of Michigan and ran the Department of Health, Human and Veteran Services for the largest county in the state — “a radical.”
For a few seconds, the group went quiet.
The only sound heard was the echo from the dog whistle that was just blown.
The prejudicial rot at the heart of that comment is just one of the challenges facing El-Sayed in November, however it is the most significant.
MAGA Republicans may complain about identity politics, but they aren’t afraid to use them. During the primary campaign, both Republican gubernatorial candidates in the state continuously ran ads characterizing immigrants as violent criminals. That will likely continue. El-Sayed’s opponent, Mike Rogers, is endorsed by President Trump, who has been making racially offensive statements for more than half a century.
That’s documented as far back as the 1973 lawsuit the Nixon administration filed against him and his family for racial discrimination, and it’s documented as recently as the octogenarian’s latest social posts about people from Somalia and Haiti. Not to be outdone by his boss, Vice President JD Vance started his fearmongering during a supposed anti-fraud event this week. The 2028 presidential hopeful quipped “God forbid, you’re going to have President El-Sayed in three years” — a thought I had not considered until he said it.
Many of us hadn’t given El-Sayed much consideration at all until recent months. When Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced he was not seeking reelection in January 2025, El-Sayed was not considered a strong contender to replace him. Many establishment Democrats believed former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who quietly moved to Michigan after running for the White House in 2020, or Stevens, were the party’s best shot of holding on to the seat and helping Michigan do its part to flip the Senate.
They discounted El-Sayed’s chances in large part because they misread the moment we are in. The days of performative campaign endorsements, huge war chests and strongly worded posts started fading noticeably in 2016 — after Jeb Bush dropped out of the race early despite having north of $100 million at his disposal. Yet over the last decade, establishment Democrats have continued to replay the same playbook with mixed results. And in totality, Tuesday’s primaries in Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington are a mixed bag with no clear message beyond whatever you read into these facts: El-Sayed is a Muslim who has criticized the government of Israel, and yet he won a Democratic primary. Even so, the chatter before and after the vote is more revealing than the primary outcome. (On Tuesday, roughly 2 out of 10 eligible voters in the state cast a ballot in Michigan. Sweeping interpretations of El-Sayed’s narrow victory are rather bold when 80% of voters didn’t participate.)
Questions about his electability have little to do with his résumé — the Rhodes scholar led Columbia University’s research on global population health — and more to do with him being the son of Egyptian immigrants who prays five times a day. The president takes photos holding an upside-down Bible and has a 22-foot gold statue of himself, but it is El-Sayed’s faith that should worry good Christian folks?
Over the weeks leading to Tuesday, we saw entire interviews with El-Sayed — an epidemiologist — that dwelled solely on his thoughts about Israel, while voters in his state were dealing with a cyclosporiasis outbreak. He has plenty to say on other topics. Getting “money out of politics” is not only central to his campaign messaging, but also is an actual grassroots ballot initiative in Michigan. Yet the talk about El-Sayed mostly orbits around one foreign policy topic.
To be clear: The issue for establishment Democrats isn’t that something like “Medicare for all” is too radical of an idea to champion. Both President Obama and President Clinton campaigned heavily on healthcare, and history views them both as centrist. No, the concern is how easy it is for Trump, Rogers and other Republicans to “other” El-Sayed, so when he does question our spending priorities it can be painted as un-American or antisemitic. As a result, election analysis is indirectly being dictated by his identity, all but ignoring he’s one of the top healthcare experts in a state still reeling from a foodborne illness.
What El-Sayed and his supporters are questioning isn’t Israel’s right to exist. They’re wondering why the United States, the richest of all the developed democracies, is still the only one that does not guarantee healthcare to its citizens? The list of nations that do guarantee access includes Israel, which receives billions in U.S. aid. For a doctor who has written a book on healthcare access and co-authored about 100 scholarly articles on health, that line of questioning doesn’t seem radical at all.
For things to do on the island, you can head to Opalsoen, where there is a zipline over a lake.
And if you want to see more of the island’s dramatic landscape, try Pissebaekken which is one of Denmark‘s highest natural waterfalls.
One beach spot to visit is Balka Strand, which boasts fine white sand and if you happen to be there during the summer months there is even yoga on the beach each day at 8:30am.
It is about three hours by bus and boat from Copenhagen, which you can fly to from as little as £15 one-way.
Gotland, Sweden
Gotland is Sweden’s largest island and is home to a UNESCO World Heritage townCredit: Alamy
Sweden‘s largest island, Gotland, boasts a UNESCO World Heritage town called Visby with cobblestone streets and pastel coloured buildings.
Venture across the island and you’ll also find the largest sand dunes in Sweden at Tofta Strand.
If you happen to be on the island during August, make sure to visit Medieval Week, which is Sweden’s largest historical festival with jousting and markets.
The island even has its very own Blue Lagoon you can go swimming in.
It takes about four hours to get to the island via the ferry from one of two mainland ports – Nynashamn which is south of Stockholm or Oskarshamn in Småland.
Nynashamn is around a 50minute drive from Stockholm, which costs from £16 to fly to, per way.
Eilean Shona, Scotland
Eilean Shona is a tidal island in Scotland that can only be accessed by boatCredit: Alamy
This small tidal island in the Inner Hebrides in Scotland is completely car-free and only has around nine permanent residents.
While there isn’t much in the way of attractions on the island, you can immerse yourself in the nature as well as the calm and clear waters surrounding the island, all of which inspired J.M.Barrie’s Neverland in Peter Pan.
Travel reporter Cyann Fielding who recently visited said: “One of the activities to do on the island that is well worth experiencing, though, is taking acold water plungeor swim – the scenery is stunning and the water is serenely calm.“
You can hop on the Caledonian Sleeper from London costing around £60 per way for a seat to Fort William, and then drive for an hour to the island.
To get to Eilean Shona itself, you’ll need to hop on a small boat operated by the island.
It is worth noting though, that you can only visit the island if you are staying in one of the shepherds huts or houses there.
Heligoland, Germany
Heligoland in Germany has lots of wildlife including gannetsCredit: Alamy
Often considered the most fought over island in Germany, Heliogland has changed hands many times throughout its history including belonging to the Danes, the Brits and then the Germans.
In fact, the Brits tried to blow up the island during World War II resulting in loads of huge craters across the island that you can visit on scenic walks.
The island boasts huge sandstone cliffs and as a result, is brimming with wildlife including gannets.
To get to the island, you’ll need to hop on a four-hour ferry from Hamburg – which you can fly to from £16 per way.
From the Heligoland, you can also get on a ferry for five minutes to another German island called Dune, where you will find loads of seals.
You can even camp on this island, in case you want to extend your time exploring the two islands before returning to Hamburg.
Ile de Sein, France
Ile de Sein sits off the coast of BrittanyCredit: Alamy
Surrounded by azure blue waters, Ile de Sein in France sits off the tip of Brittany.
In the sea around the island, you’ll also often spot dolphins and seals.
The island has no trees, just wild moorland and white-washed houses and make sure to visit the Grand Phare, which is up 250 steps and is a 52-metre tower with views of the coastline.
Down by the port, venture around the village too, where you will find an intricate network of winding alleys, with some measuring just 85cm wide.
To get to the island, hop on a Brittany Ferry between Plymouth and Roscoff, with prices ranging depending on your vehicle.
Once in Roscoff take the two-hour drive to Audierne, where you can catch an hour-long ferry to the island, costing between €33 and €40 (£28.29 and £34.29) for a round trip.
Île d’Yeu, France
Ile d’Yeu in France boasts golden sand beaches and white housesCredit: Alamy
Dubbed the ‘Atlantic Pearl’, Ile d’Yeu off the coast of France is a small island where you’ll find sprawling golden sand beaches and clear waters.
The most popular way to get around the island is by hiring a bike and make sure to visit the 14th century Vieux-Chateau which sit on the edge of a cliff above the sea.
There’s also Saint Sauveur, which is a village on the island with traditional architecture including a Romanesque church surrounded by white houses.
The best way to get to the island is by flying to Nantes costing from £13 per way and taking an hour drive to Fromentine on the Vendée coast, where you can catch a 45-minute ferry across to the island.
Elba, Italy
In Italy you could head to Elba Island with clear water beachesCredit: Getty
Elba Island in Tuscany, Italy is known for boasting stunning beaches including the popular spot of Pomonte Beach, where you can swim out to a shipwreck and snorkel around it, discovering lots of brightly coloured fish.
Visit Portoferraio – the island’s main town – where you will find pastel houses as well as Villa dei Mulini, which is where Napoleon lived during his exile.
For keen hikers, take the 40minute hike to the fortress of Volterraio to capture the breathtaking sunset.
The best way to get to the island is by flying to Pisa, which costs from £17 per way and then driving for an hour to the port of Piombino in Tuscany, where you can then catch an hour-long ferry to the island.
Tabarca, Spain
Tabarca in Spain is only a short distance from AlicanteCredit: Alamy
Tabarca sits off the coast of Alicante in Spain and is home to around 50 people.
On the island, there are a number of cobbled streets to stroll down as well as pretty beaches, including Playa de Levante – known for being the main beach, with shallow waters ideal for families.
There are no cars on the island and it can easily be explored within a day, but don’t leave without trying some of the local restaurants where you can pick up traditional seafood such as lobster stew.
The easiest way to get to the island is by flying to Alicante from £13 per way, before hopping on a ferry from Alicante to the island, taking around an hour and costing €24 (£20.58) for a return trip.
Ilha da Armona, Portugal
Ilha da Armona can be easily reached from FaroCredit: Alamy
Ofted nicknamed the ‘Portuguese Maldives’, Ilha da Armona sits on the Algarve.
Ilha da Armona forms part of the Ria Formosa Natural Park where you’ll find no cars, white sand beaches and calm, shallow waters.
Praia de Armona is the main Blue Flag beach on the island and is known for being a family-friendly spot.
After exploring the beach, make sure to head to one of the waterfront tavernas to try some of the local cuisine.
In the village itself, you can expect to see colorful houses and flower-filled courtyards too.
To get to the island, fly to Faro from £15 per way, before hopping on a 10-minute train to Olhao, where you can catch a ferry to the island for as little as €4.20 (£3.60) for a return trip.
Paxos, Greece
Paxos is known for its quiet waterfront with tavernas and quaint shopsCredit: Getty
The Greek island of Paxos is often dubbed one of the most beautiful islands in the world.
Head to Gaios village where you can explore a Venetian-style waterfront was quaint shops and tavernas looking out across the water.
For a beach spot, visit Kanoni Beach which is a pebble beach but sheltered by the bay of Lakka and surrounded by fragrant olive groves,
You can get to the island by flying to Corfu from £15 per way, before hopping on a ferry from Corfu to the island, which takes between an hour and an hour and a half.
Paramount Chairman David Ellison believes the tug-of-war over his proposed $111-billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery comes down to a single question: whether he can be trusted to control CNN.
“I believe this fight is not really about market share,” Ellison wrote in a Tuesday op-ed in the New York Times, noting that regulators around the world, including the U.S. Justice Department, have approved the deal that has been temporarily blocked by an antitrust lawsuit brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and his coalition of Democrat state attorneys general.
“I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases … The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN,” Ellison wrote.
The rare opinion piece serves as Ellison’s acknowledgment that his family’s close association with President Trump has sullied his standing in Hollywood and beyond.
Shakeups at CBS News, which is part of Paramount, the departure of CBS late night host Stephen Colbert, and a visible presidential lobbying effort — including hosting a dinner for Trump in Washington in late April and attending Trump’s birthday extravaganza in June with UFC fights on the White House lawn — have come with a cost.
Bonta and the other state attorneys general sued, saying the merger of two of the major film studios would give Paramount-Warner Bros. more than 25% of the wide-release theatrical film market. Their lawsuit also alleged the combined company would own too many cable TV channels — more than 50, including CNN, TBS, HGTV and Comedy Central.
Many in Hollywood fear that the consolidation of two historic studios will bring thousands of layoffs and contribute to a bleaker employment picture. Ellison’s Skydance Media’s takeover of Paramount a year ago resulted in the loss of 2,000 jobs.
Some have opposed the Warner Bros. deal, saying one family shouldn’t be allowed to control two significant news operations: CBS News and CNN, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
“There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” Ellison wrote.
“Unfortunately, I can’t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans,” Ellison said. “And when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.”
“Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle,” he said. “That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”
“These were founding principles for both CNN and CBS News, for legends like Ted Turner and Edward R. Murrow, and it is exactly that kind of independence that has always fueled the greatness of “60 Minutes,” Ellison wrote.
Fired “60 Minutes” correspondents, including Cecilia Vega, have complained that since Bari Weiss became editor-in-chief of CBS News last fall, journalists have been asked to tilt the presentation of controversial news events, including protests to Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions earlier this year in Minnesota, which led to the deaths of two Americans.
Paramount has pushed back saying the plaintiff states have defined markets that fail to factor in the rise of technology companies, including Netflix, Google’s YouTube and Amazon Studios, which also attract significant swaths of viewership.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who is overseeing the high-profile case, issued a temporary restraining order to block the merger from finalizing while the two sides hash out the evidence. Late last month, Paramount agreed to delay the merger until after a trial — or until June 1, whichever date comes first.
In court documents filed Friday, Bonta and his coalition of 11 other Democratic attorneys general proposed having a two- to three-week trial in April to weigh the evidence.
Ellison’s Paramount pushed back, saying the media company would like to start the courtroom action on Nov. 4.
Now the judge must schedule the court date.
“The states claim this deal will give one company too much influence over theatrical releases and cable operators, while the W.G.A. argues that our combined market power will hurt writers,” Ellison said in the opinion piece. “Both suits imagine a Hollywood that no longer exists — an industry ruled by a handful of legacy studios.”
Don’t Date Brandon is the ‘terrifying’ true crime series that fans won’t be able to stop watching tonight.
Hayley Anderson Screen Time TV Reporter
22:10, 30 Jul 2026
Channel 4 is airing a ‘chilling’ three-part true crime doc tonight. (Image: PARAMOUNT PLUS)
Don’t Date Brandon viewers have been left with “chills” after watching the three-parter.
Originally released on Paramount Plus last year, Don’t Date Brandon is making its way to Channel 4 tonight, Thursday, July 30, with all three episodes shown back-to-back.
The true crime doc follows Brandon Johnson’s first and second ex-wives, Athena Klingerman and Amber Rasmussen, respectively. After getting in touch and sharing their experiences of a toxic relationship with Johnson, including alleged years of threats, stalking and harassment, they reportedly secured protective orders against him.
The pair then went on to the podcast Ex-Wives Undercover to alert other women and give others who encountered him a voice.
Where is Brandon Johnson now?
Brandon Johnson was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2023 to assault as well as attempted kidnapping with intent to rape.
According to the docu-series, he also “admitted to 10 counts of attempted first-degree theft in a separate fraud case”, stealing $392,000 from his former employer HTC.
He was sentenced to 36 months in prison in 2019 for this case ordered to be served concurrently with his 10-year term.
As part of the original plea deal that Johnson made at the time, he agreed to lifetime registration as a sex offender in California.
He is currently serving his decade-long sentence in a California state prison but Johnson is up for parole in May 2027.
Speaking to Variety about concerns they had about turning the podcast into a series, Klingerman said: “We thought long and hard about it, because you’re right: This story is reaching an even broader audience now.
“But we needed to get the word out, so it was worth any consequences we could face. At this point, it’s like let’s keep moving forward.
“Let’s expose who Brandon is, because Brandon represents so many other Brandons out there. It’s worth the risk of backlash to reach a larger audience and let other people know who might be going through this that they are not alone.”
Don’t Date Brandon is available to watch on Channel 4.
R&B singer Nivea publicly revealed her recent leukemia diagnosis on an episode of the Atlanta-based performance and interview series “Cadillac Chronicles.”
In a conversation with host Brian Freeman, the 44-year-old Grammy-nominated artist said she was diagnosed earlier this year and is “grateful to God” for her health as she undergoes treatment.
“I’ve been going through treatment, and everything is going great so far, and I expect it to continue. Amen, amen, amen,” she said on Tuesday’s episode.
“Cadillac Chronicles” features Freeman riding in his 1974 Cadillac Eldorado with a musician, usually a hip-hop or R&B artist. In addition to discussing gratitude, Nivea also performed her hits from the car’s passenger seat, including 2002’s “Don’t Mess With My Man,” which earned her a 2003 Grammy nomination.
It seems the diagnosis hasn’t slowed her down. The singer also revealed she’s working on new music and going to school for audio engineering, which she said she’s “always wanted to learn.”
“I’m doing all the things I want to do,” she said. “Loving on my children, and just being grateful and taking every opportunity that comes my way.”
Nivea — born Nivea B. Hamilton — was married to singer-songwriter and record producer The-Dream from 2004 to 2008, and shares three children with him: daughter Navy Talia, born in 2005, and twin sons London and Christian, born the following year.
She also shares a son, Neal — who performs as Lil Novi — with rapper Lil Wayne.
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood that begins in the bone marrow, which varies based on the type of blood cell affected and the stage of the disease. The “Complicated” singer did not reveal which type she was diagnosed with, but said she maintains a “positive” outlook in all areas of life.
“I’m very grateful for life. It’s so cliche to say, you don’t know the time nor the hour, but it’s true, and it just helped me put a lot of things in perspective,” she said. “I live in gratitude religiously.”
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham stands by her comments about transgender athletes competing: She says she just ‘wants to protect’ women’s sports.
Despite her views that were expressed in an ESPN article published Tuesday, Cunningham insisted the next day that she doesn’t have anything against the transgender community.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” Cunningham said in the article. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
The article became fodder for questions Wednesday before the Fever’s 123-88 victory against the Connecticut Sun.
“I think it’s kind of common sense,” Cunningham told reporters. “And I think I’ll always believe in that. I think it’s really important to protect children, and that’s little girls who are also involved in that category. And so I’ll stand on what I said, and I’ll always believe that.”
She reiterated that her feelings on the matter don’t stem from hatred.
“I think there is room for absolutely everyone here, and I think there is room to love everyone,” Cunningham said. “I truly think when you get people in the same room and you have conversations, you actually have a lot in common with a lot of people. And so I’m there to love.
“But I’m also there to love biological women, and I think that there are rights that need to be protected. And, like I said, I’m gonna stand true to that. I’ll never falter in my beliefs in that. But I have never once said that I hated the trans community. Like I said, I think there’s space for everyone.”
Cunningham appeared to triple down on her comments Thursday morning on Instagram, writing simply, “I said what I said.”
The topic of transgender athletes participating in women’s sports has become a polarizing issue in recent years. In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that looked to ensure that entities receiving federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the administration’s view that a person’s sex is the gender they were assigned at birth.
Last month, the Supreme Court upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho that banned transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams. Days later, two transgender girls who were the first to challenge Trump’s executive order dropped their lawsuit in New Hampshire.
“Men should not be playing in women’s sports. It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday. “It’s even more ludicrous that you do have [Sophie] Cunningham — a female athlete herself, very accomplished in her own right — coming forth and speaking that truth that men shouldn’t play in women’s sports, we want to protect women and girls, and the backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing.”
The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but does not specifically exclude transgender women. When reached for comment, a WNBA representative referred The Times to a statement released by the Fever on Wednesday.
“Our players are thoughtful adults with their own perspectives and voices, and those views are their own,” the team said. “We are committed to welcoming fans from every background and treating everyone with respect, and that’s what guides us as an organization.”
Cunningham has been called “MAGA Barbie” since her college days at Missouri, according to Complex, because some of the people she follows and engagement with conservatives on social media.
In 2022, when Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, Cunningham reposted a since-deleted tweet stating that “female collegiate athletes deserve so much better than this.”
Soon after, Cunningham posted a statement saying that she stands “with all people, especially my fellow athletes.”
“I do not judge, but support all races, religions, sexual preferences and gender equity,” she wrote. “We all have a place in this world to compete and I hope we are able to grant everyone that opportunity fairly.”
Even with a seeming endorsement from the White House and a nickname that’s followed her, Cunningham says her political views are “very much in the middle.”
“I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides,” she said in the ESPN article. “And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume.”
On Wednesday, Cunningham went into more detail, telling reporters “I’m not a very political person.”
“But I do have beliefs, I have morals, and I’ll always stand on those and be true to who I am,” she added. “… And so when it comes to just protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that.
“That’s why you have Title IX. That’s why you have some of the greats in women’s sports. If Title IX and women’s sports weren’t protected, then you wouldn’t hear about any type of women in sport.”
TV presenter and content creator Jordon Cox said the ‘secret’ could help holidaymakers save hundreds
The TV presenter shared a helpful tip for holidaymakers(Image: Jordon Cox/YouTube)
Holidymakers could ‘save hundreds’ on their next hotel booking using a ‘secret’ booking trick. The advice was shared by Jordon Cox, an ITV presenter and content creator, known as the ‘Coupon King.’
Posting on YouTube and Facebook, the deals expert shared a tip for anyone making a hotel booking. He explained how people can save hundreds by taking advantage of the ‘free cancellation’ policy often found on bookings if they find the same booking at a lower price closer to the date.
While it won’t always apply, Jordon said he’s saved £400 in the past using the trick – and shared exactly when he would check back to look for offers. Jordon claimed: “Hotels don’t want you to know this hack.”
In his caption, he explained: “If you book a hotel stay which includes ‘Free Cancellation’ – you could use this as a trick to save you money. Even after you’ve booked, check back at the website you booked through to see if prices change.
“If the price drops, you can cancel your original booking, get your money back, and rebook at the cheaper price! It’s worth having a look at prices around two months, two weeks and five days before you travel (although check when your last day for free cancellation is. Most are up to about 48 hours before).
“I once got £400 off a week’s hotel stay by using this trick. So it could pay a lot to check! It won’t work every time, but set a reminder in your phone, and spend a few minutes to potentially save £100s!”
Sharing another tip in the comment section, Jordon added: “Works on Car Hire too! Always worth a look – set some reminders!” The post delighted social media users, gaining over 20k views and hundreds of likes.
Commenting under the video, a viewer said: “That’s a decent tip tbf.” A second comment claimed: “And that’s why hotels don’t offer cancellation for long.”
Someone else replied: “Recommend doing it the other way round. Make a new booking at the lower price, THEN cancel the original. Much safer in case someone else books.”
MoneySavingExpert also shares similar advice for holidaymakers. On a webpage sharing tips for cheap hotel bookings, the consumer website advises: “You can also save by cancelling if the price drops after you’ve booked. To do this, simply cancel the original booking, then rebook at the cheaper price. Often this can work with the site you booked with.
“Most booking sites and hotel websites give you a non-refundable and a free cancellation option for each room type. Non-refundable rooms tend to be cheaper, so you’ll need to weigh up if paying more for free cancellation is worth it.”
Go get the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner and cement your October. Go get the marvelous Detroit Tigers left-hander and claim your three-peat.
Everyone will say you are ruining baseball, but you know what really would ruin baseball? If its reigning dynasty is wrecked by loose bodies or back spasms or a needle stuck in a left knee.
Everyone will say you don’t really need him, but unless you have some sort of time machine that can restore vitality to some of the veterans showing serious wear, you need him.
The 29-year-old Skubal is a pending free agent, so the Tigers have to trade him or lose him to a $400-million contract elsewhere. The Tigers could keep him for a possible pennant run, but Skubal is a pitcher, not a miracle worker, and his 44-52 team has to leapfrog six others to sneak into a wild-card spot.
He’s there for the taking and, more than any other team, the asset-rich Dodgers are in the best position to take him. They have the best minor leaguers. They have the best fringe major leaguers. Give the Tigers whatever anonymous talents they desire because, as Dodgers fans have learned, nobody will be lamenting the lost kids when the big leaguers are parading down Figueroa.
Yes, agreed, this is an insane column to write … if it hadn’t already been written.
“They need to surrender prospects and take on debt and do whatever it takes to trade for an ace starting pitcher or they have zero shot at a championship,” I wrote at the time. “They need to find somebody who can take the ball in one of the first two games of what could be a three-game wild-card playoff series or they have zero shot at surviving that series.”
One month later, failing to improve the team for one of the rare times in his brilliant career, Andrew Friedman struck out.
Three months later, they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs while rolling out a rotation of noodle-armed Clayton Kershaw, massively disappointing Bobby Miller and a human dinger machine named Lance Lynn.
Three years later it feels like it’s happening all over again, the Dodgers once again faced with a nightmare they’d rather ignore.
Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani puts on his batting gloves after pitching against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on July 3.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The team with four aces needs an ace. The team that began the season with two Cy Young candidates needs a third. The supernatural pitching staff needs help.
Start with Shohei Ohtani. They’re understandably acting like the knee-draining procedure he underwent last weekend was no big deal, but it pulled him off the mound and there has been no definitive word when he’ll return.
“We all know with where we’re at, who he is as a player, if there’s opportunities to be extra cautious and mindful, it’s just prudent,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media.
In less than three months, will “cautious and mindful” become “ready to roll?” Who knows? Ohtani is 32 with slowly diminishing tread on those overworked wheels. Then there are Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the injured starters who everyone thinks will just magically appear at full strength in the playoffs.
Believe that, and I’ve got some loose bodies to sell you.
Snell, 33, hasn’t lasted a full season in three years, and even though he’ll be pitching again soon, any season that includes even the most minor of elbow surgeries can have a problematic ending.
Glasnow, who turns 33 next month, has made but 25 starts in the last two seasons and missed the playoffs completely two years ago, and by now it feels like back spasms are the least of his problems.
The surprise bright spot of the rotation has been Justin Wrobleski, and last season he didn’t give up a run in four World Series relief appearances, but can he be trusted with the start? In Tuesday’s All-Star Game, deep-bombing Miguel Vargas reminded him how the heat increases when the expectations are higher.
The starting pitcher fears are heightened by the vulnerability of the man who is catching them. Will Smith will be back from his neck injury, but he’s lately shown some of the strain of his record-setting postseason workload. And do you really want Dalton Rushing talking trash behind the plate for pressure playoff battles?
To all these worries, add the bullpen, which has fallen back to earth after its club-record 38-inning scoreless streak. Edwin Díaz can’t come back soon enough and, oh wait, does that 10.50 ERA really belong to him?
Into this tightrope-walking atmosphere would step Skubal, who underwent a minimally invasive elbow procedure in May but came back stronger than ever. He has gone 36-15 over the last three seasons with two full years of sub-3.00 ERAs while being generally regarded as the best pitcher in baseball.
He might be a rental. So what? A third consecutive championship would be forever. The rest of the baseball world would cry foul. Who cares? The only sound that matters around here is the cheers accompanying one more title before the game goes dark.
The Dodgers’ rotation is hurting. The Dodgers’ window is closing. The Dodgers are on the verge of a three-peat, yet still one player away.
Checking a little-known page could help you find cheap flights, even in the six-week school holidays, and if you’re not fussy about your destination you can save on a family getaway
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The page includes deals on school holiday dates(Image: Getty Images)
The school summer holidays are in full swing in Scotland, and looming for parents across England and Wales, meaning there are going to be families up and down the land looking for inexpensive ways to get away.
Unfortunately, going away with the kids during the six-week break is never going to be an inexpensive undertaking, but if you aren’t fussy about the destination and just want some sunshine, a little-known webpage could be a good place to start.
Simply enter the dates you’d like to depart, plus airports you want to fly from, and you’ll find a list of the cheapest places to take the family. The more flexible you can be, the better the deals, so midweek departures and choosing a slightly farther airport could help cut your costs.
TUI airways’ dedicated Cheap Flights page is where you’ll find inexpensive return tickets for selected routes for unbooked or returned seats. The best deals are often found on last-minute dates, as the airline looks to fill remaining capacity.
Best of all, unlike many cheap flight deals, flying with TUI Airways on a flight-only ticket gives you two pieces of hand luggage per adult and child. You can take one small personal item like a handbag or laptop bag that’s small enough to fit under the seat in front of you, with maximum dimensions 40x30x20cm, as well as a 10kg bag per passenger of maximum dimensions 55x40x20cm.
Checked-in bags and seat selection cost extra, but TUI says: “If you’re flying with TUI Airways and there’s a child under the age of 12 on your booking, we’ll make sure they’re seated with at least one adult in your party.”
It’s worth noting that this can mean they end up sitting in front of you or across an aisle, so consider whether you want to pay to select your seat.
TUI’s flights operate from more than 20 UK airports and cover over 100 destinations, so you may find a hidden gem using this tool that you might have otherwise missed. Return flights on this tool can start at as little as £30 return, and you’ll find both short-haul destinations such as Spain, Greece, and Italy, as well as long-haul routes from the Caribbean to Mexico and Thailand.
Cheap deals in the next couple of weeks from Scotland include a £70 fare from Glasgow to Reus, departing July 11 and returning July 25. While parents in England and Wales can choose from school holiday deals such as a £70 return from Bournemouth to Ibiza from July 18 to 29, just at the start of the six-week break, or London Gatwick to Split, Croatia for £128 return from July 20 to 27. However, seats for these deals are extremely limited and will sell out very quickly.
Flight search aggregator sites such as Skyscanner are also a great way to find the best deals. Simply choose ‘everywhere’ as your destination and tick ‘add nearby airports’ if you’re willing to fly from a different hub.
A family travel advisor at Lapland Famille, who plans full Arctic adventures, advised parents to consider the total cost of the journey, not just the headline fare. “A very low flight price can be a brilliant find, but families need to look at the whole trip before booking.
“If the cheapest option means difficult flight times, separate seats, extra baggage costs or a long transfer with tired children, the saving can disappear quickly. The best-value holiday is usually the one where the total cost, timing and stress level all work for the family.”
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
LILY Allen has defended herself against complaints that the setlist of her West End Girl Tour is “too short”.
The singer, 41, released the album in October of last year and it features 14 songs.
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Lily Allen has clapped back against fans who aren’t happy with the length of her tour showsCredit: Henry RedcliffeThe singer is currently on her West End Girl tourCredit: Henry Redcliffe
The album in its entirety is only 45 minutes, which has led some to question if the £86 ticket fee is value for money.
Complaining about the show, one X user said: “Lily Allen at the O2. No support act. Arrived on stage at 9:10pm. All wrapped up by 10pm. Not one word to the audience.”
Addressing the backlash over the length of the gigs, Lily responded to the comment directly with a statement.
Lily’s latest album came out at the end of last yearCredit: GettyFans praised the star for backing up her artistic vision for the shorter length of the albumCredit: Getty
“The show has always been advertised as “Lily Allen performs West End Girl.”
“I was a few mins late as my tights were laddered and i had to change them.
“The show is just over an hour as it’s just the album in its entirety. It’s my artistic choice not to talk to the audience, the fourth wall helps with the storytelling.
“Most people find it to be effective. I don’t want anyone to feel ripped off,
“Everyone on this tour is really working very hard to give people the best show we possibly can, and i’m extremely proud of it.”
Fans responding to the post praised Lily for speaking up and supporting her artistic vision with the shorter album.
One user said: “I was there last night and it was incredible, you are incredible!”
A second shared: “You tell them, the girls that get it get it.”
A third added: “The concept of buying tickets to a show called “Lily Allen Performs West End Girl” and being mad that you didn’t hear Not Fair [another track of hers], like let’s use our brains for a moment.”
West End Girl is Lily’s fifth studio album to date.
The warning comes as the country has faced hazardous conditions this week
The alert includes a warning for cigarette smokers (stock image)(Image: Getty)
Spain’s Ministerio del Interior has issued a warning to anyone in the country, including visiting tourists, as hot weather bakes the country. This week, the European nation faced unprecedented, record-setting heat.
The country was caught in a severe and hazardous heatwave caused by hot air travelling north from the Sahara Desert. These extreme temperatures broke long-standing weather records and led to widespread red alerts, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. Temperatures soared past 45C in some areas of northern Spain at the beginning of the week.
The northern region of Cantabria broke its previous heat record, hitting an incredible 43.7C in Tama. Bilbao Airport recorded temperatures over 40C on three different days (Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). This is a historic first for the region: reaching this level three times in one year.
On Thursday, June 25, temperatures began to drop, and there was some rain and thunderstorms in parts of the northern and central plains, including Madrid. However, high temperatures are still sticking around.
Places like Andalusia and cities such as Seville and Córdoba are experiencing usual summer highs. Temperatures are rising back up to 37C to 38C as the weekend comes to a close.
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The Ministerio del Interior translates as the Ministry of the Interior (also known as the Home Office or the Ministry of Internal Affairs). This government cabinet department handles domestic policy, public safety, law enforcement, immigration, and civil protection.
Taking to X on Sunday, June 28, the ministry urged people to avoid doing three things for safety reasons. It said: “In the forest, every gesture counts.
“Don’t throw away cigarette butts or matches. Don’t make fire outside of authorised areas. Don’t abandon flammable waste.” It added: “With heat and wind, the risk increases. A small oversight can turn into a big fire.”
Has Spain experienced wildfires this week?
This week, Spain has been hit hard by a serious wave of wildfires after experiencing its first big summer heatwave. The temperatures soared above 45C in the south and reached up to 43C in the north.
These extreme heat levels, along with dry weather and lightning strikes, have led to several devastating fires. One major wildfire erupted between Tamarite de Litera and Alcampell, consuming more than 4,000 hectares of land. It is thought that a harvesting machine started the fire, which resulted in the evacuation of around 240 people from three nearby villages.
Is Spain prone to wildfires?
Spain faces a significant risk of severe wildfires during hot weather, ranking it among the most fire-prone countries in Europe. The mix of intense summer heatwaves, extended periods of drought, and powerful winds results in “tinderbox” conditions that enable fires to start and spread rapidly.
Data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition in Spain reveals that human activity is responsible for the majority of wildfires. More than half of the annual fires in Spain are deliberately set, and a significant portion is due to accidents or negligence, such as mismanaged agricultural burning, cigarette butts that are carelessly thrown away, or barbecues.
