doubt

THE beloved “Hogwarts Express” steam train could be heading for the buffers thanks to a bitter health and safety row.

The iconic service, made famous by the Harry Potter film series, is under threat after rules forced a major overhaul.

The iconic train, known as The Jacobite steam train, runs through Scotland’s stunning countryside between Fort William and Mallaig, crossing the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct.

But now the popular locomotive – which is enjoyed by around 70,000 passengers a year – is at a crossroads due to a long-running dispute over safety regulations and the resulting financial strain.  

Old-style carriages used in the films have effectively been banned because their doors don’t have central locking.

Operator West Coast Railways says being forced to swap them out has caused huge problems.

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Newer coaches are unpopular with tourists and far more expensive to run. They even require a diesel engine at the back just to power air conditioning.

The train, which should have started running this month, has yet to begin its 2026 season.

Bosses are now begging regulators at the Office of Rail and Road to allow the return of the original carriages.

James Shuttleworth of West Coast told The Telegraph: “I don’t know what we would do. We were losing money working like that and you don’t go into business to lose money.”

Local businesses are already feeling the pain, with trade slumping as visitors stay away.

Fears are now growing that unless a solution is found soon, the world-famous Hogwarts Express could run out of track for good.

LeBron James was exhausted. Marcus Smart was drained. Luke Kennard was invisible.

The Lakers were cooked, the playoff magic finally drained from a team without its two leading scorers, a team in the process of making every conceivable mistake, reality bouncing off their feet and ricocheting off their hips and falling out of their hands.

On a jarring Friday night at Houston’s Toyota Center, the Rockets led by six with 30 seconds remaining and had possession of the ball. They just needed to get it upcourt. They just needed to play catch.

The Lakers were done.

And if you believe that, then you don’t believe what they believe.

They believed Smart would steal a terrible backcourt pass, absorb a terrible shooting foul and make three free throws.

They believed James would knock away a dribble on the next possession, run to beyond the three-point line, take a pass from Kennard and sink a game-tying trey.

They believed in the miracle of forcing this game into overtime, then believed in the destiny of a 112-108 victory to take an historically insurmountable three-games-to-none lead in a first-round playoff series they should have lost.

How frantic was that finish? In the postseason over the last 29 years, NBA teams that led by six or more points in the last 30 seconds are now 1,713-2.

“It was just a gutty win for us,” James said.

Gutty, gritty, growling, great, great win.

“Everything that we needed to do, even when it wasn’t pretty, we just kind of found a way to do it,” said coach JJ Redick. “And … we’re playing hard. I mean, that’s what you have to do to put yourself in a position to win.”

Lakers center Deandre Ayton, right, and guard Marcus Smart slap hands as they celebrate in overtime during their win Friday.

(Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)

They are true believers, this bunch, as much as any Laker team has believed since the 2020 championship run, perhaps more than any other Lakers team in history.

They believe in their legendary leader, LeBron. They believe in the playoff-tough Smart. They believe in their connectivity, in their desperation, in their destiny.

They believe this is a special team. Once they get their two injured scorers back — and Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic are apparently returning faster than anyone imagined — they believe this could be a championship-contending team.

They will find out in the next round, when their opponent will be either the defending champions from Oklahoma City or the the Phoenix Suns.

Even if they finish off the Rockets in a sweep — and this series is already over considering NBA teams are 159-0 with a 3-0 lead — they will be considerable underdogs moving forward.

Surely they were lucky that star Kevin Durant didn’t play in two of these three games, including missing Friday’s Game 3 with a sprained ankle.

Surely they can’t keep winning games with 21 turnovers and half as many offensive rebounds and blown 15-point leads.

Surely that even if Reaves and Doncic return, they will revert to being the same team that lost to Oklahoma City by 43 points and lost to San Antonio by 16 in their most recent meetings while at full strength.

Surely they’re not this deep and committed and inspired as they’ve shown in these first three games.

Right? Wrong. Were you watching?

The Rockets used numerous Lakers mistakes and defensive mistakes to take the lead in the final five minutes and seemingly hold it for a series-changing victory. The dagger appeared to be a fastbreak dunk by Alperen Sengun to give the Rockets a 101-95 lead and eventually the ball with the crowd roaring and barely 30 seconds left.

Little did they know the Lakers had them right where they wanted them.

“We’ve talked … about elevating everything,” said Redick, later adding, “You have to elevate your poise, you have to elevate your composure, recognizing that there’s going to be moments where the crowd’s going crazy or you get down, they make a run, whatever it may be. We weathered a lot tonight. … And then, in that moment, just to have the poise to just keep playing.”

The Lakers had that poise. The Rockets lost their cool.

In that moment… what was Jabari Smith Jr. doing throwing a looping backcourt pass to apparently nobody? And after Smart grabbed it and threw up a desperate three… what was Jae’Sean Tate doing fouling him?

“I see Tate running really fast and I’m like, ‘OK, he probably not going to be able to stop in time,’” explained Smart. “So, I just pulled up right away and he ran right under me, exactly what happened. So, it was a smart play. That’s part of my vet, being a vet and my vet savvy. Been in the league for 12 years. I picked up some tricks from some guys.”

Even after the vet’s three free throws, the Rockets still could have easily won this, but… what was Reed Sheppard doing casually dribbling the ball upcourt without noticing James behind him? James knocked the ball away for the steal, eventually got it back, and drained a trey with 13 seconds remaining for the eventual overtime-sending gut punch.

“We don’t have the luxury of being passive or being complacent,” James said. “Our whole mindset is we have to do everything it takes in that particular game and that particular moment in that particular possession in order for us to win basketball games, because we don’t have a long leash of error. We don’t have a lot [of room] for error.”

Once they reached the extra period, well, it was over the moment an angrily stunned Sengun threw a towel to the floor in front of the Rockets’ bench moments after the end of regulation.

The Rockets were unnerved and eventually undone.

Smart started the extra period by hitting a three, then kept the Lakers’ mojo going with a flying save of a rebound that became a Rui Hachimura layup.

Soon thereafter James went to the floor fighting for a ball, then missed a shot that Smart came out of nowhere to grab the offensive rebound, leading to two free throws that eventually put the game out of reach.

Even on a night when James scored 29 points, had 13 rebounds, and threw an ally-oop pass to son Bronny for a reverse layup — so cool! — the hero here was Smart.

He was signed by the Lakers last summer for his postseason toughness and savvy, and he showed every bit of it Friday, with 21 points, 10 assists and five steals. Not to mention, eight points in overtime.

“You got to leave it all on the court, because you never know,” Smart said. ”Because you never know. It can be taken away at any moment, right? And with two of our best players down, we got to play desperate. We got to be the most desperate team and that’s how we have been playing and that’s how we are winning, right? The chemistry has been built because of that.”

It’s a chemistry that works. It’s a chemistry that has built a faith even amid Friday night’s immeasurably high hurdle, a faith that should persist beyond the framework of this finished first-round series.

Down six. Thirty seconds left. Steal the game. Steal the series.

Believe.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Hani Odeh has spent four and a half difficult years as mayor of Qusra, southeast of Nablus.

Surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements and outposts, the small Palestinian town of approximately 6,000 in the northern West Bank faces relentless settler attacks that left two residents killed last month.

Many are unable to access their agricultural fields as settlers repeatedly damage the village’s water pipes. But when his Palestinian neighbours go to the polls for municipal elections on Saturday, he will not be on the ballot.

“The resources are limited, the demands are many, there’s the settlers, the army – the problems don’t stop,” he says. “You can’t do anything for them. I’m exhausted. I just want to rest, honestly.”

Only three months ago, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced that there would be local elections on April 25 for municipalities and village councils, the first such elections in nearly five years. There have been no national elections since 2006, keeping the Fatah-ruled PA in power in the West Bank more than 17 years after its initial mandate expired.

Odeh, who will be stepping down, doesn’t believe there is much point to the vote. “It won’t change the reality,” he says, pointing out that the gate to enter Qusra has been shut by the Israeli military for two years.

Meanwhile, the PA civil servants that Odeh relies on to run Qusra receive salaries of just 2,000 shekels ($670), a fraction of what they are owed, as Israel continues to withhold tax revenues earmarked for the Palestinians.

According to the Palestine Elections Commission, 5,131 candidates are competing across 90 municipal councils and 93 village councils on April 25, with nearly a third of the electorate between the ages of 18 and 30.

Across the West Bank, many agree with Odeh, and express doubts that these elections can move the needle on anything that actually matters.

‘Sense of futility’

In the days leading up to the vote in Ramallah, there have been no campaign posters hanging along the streets. That is because Ramallah – the city where the PA is headquartered – is not holding competitive elections this Saturday. Neither is Nablus, another major city in the West Bank.

Instead, both cities are being decided through a process known as acclamation, in which a single list of candidates is elected without a formal vote. Across the West Bank, 42 municipal councils and 155 village councils will be filled this way – a majority of local administrative authorities.

Historically used in small villages where extended families agreed on candidates, the process is now being applied in major cities that are PA strongholds – such as Ramallah and Nablus – where Fatah mobilisation has discouraged challengers.

“There is definitely a sense of futility in certain places,” says Zayne Abudaka, cofounder of the Institute for Social and Economic Progress (ISEP), which regularly surveys Palestinian sentiments and views, “and I think that makes it easier for places to just not have an election.”

Fatima*, a businesswoman who runs an education centre in el-Bireh, says she hasn’t voted in an election since the last Palestinian national election 20 years ago – and she doesn’t plan to this time, either. “They will choose a new group of decisionmakers, and I believe they will do the same according to the old decisionmakers,” says Fatima. “We don’t see any difference between them. It is not fair.”

Sara Nasser, 26, a pharmacist who commutes to Ramallah for work from the village of Deir Qaddis, west of the city, says she has simply grown accustomed to elections not happening and will not vote. “It’s been since before I was aware that there were significant elections,” she says. “We’ve always lived like this.”

Some hopeful, others less so

Not everyone is so pessimistic. Iyad Hani, 20, works at a children’s store and is enthusiastic to vote for the first time in his life in el-Bireh. “Hopefully, the one coming is better than the one who left,” he says. “There should be construction in the town and fixing the streets – that’s the most important thing.”

Muhammad Bassem, who is a restaurant manager in Ramallah, is also showing up to the polls, optimistic for what change may bring. “It is the new faces that bring about change for the better – always for the better,” he says. “We want our country to be beautiful, clean and to offer plenty of comfortable employment opportunities, tourism and development.”

Others are not so sure. Amani, who is from Tulkarem but works in Ramallah as a receptionist, watches the campaigns play out on her phone, though she does not plan to vote. “Right now, they keep saying, ‘we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that,’” she says. “But I don’t know if any of it will actually yield results.”

The Tulkarem issues she is thinking of, such as inadequate waste management, no parks for children and roads in disrepair, fall squarely into the kinds of changes that local elections might have an impact on, she suggests. “I just hope that something genuinely new and positive comes out of this.”

‘There isn’t a credible setup’

Underlining the question of these specific elections is a broad disillusionment with the PA that colours nearly every conversation about Palestinian political life.

Fatima says she and her whole family are politically aligned with Fatah, the effective governing party of the PA. “We don’t hate Fatah,” she says. “We hate the decisions they are taking right now.” While she says her business has contracted 85 percent in recent years, the PA still charges her 16 percent VAT.

That same disillusionment extends even to the elections in small localities like Qusra, which Mayor Odeh calls “a family affair, not a political affair”.

“People have lost faith in the parties, lost faith in the [Palestinian] Authority, lost faith in the whole world,” he says, expecting low turnout on Saturday. While most candidates in Qusra are politically aligned with Fatah, Odeh says no candidates in Qusra’s election this Saturday are doing so officially. “If they run under political affiliations, no one will support them.”

According to the Palestine Elections Commission, 88 percent of those on the ballots this year are doing so as independent candidates.

While polling suggests roughly 70-80 percent of Palestinians distrust the PA as an institution, Obada Shtaya resists framing this simply as a PA problem, considering the PA’s hobbled finances and its shrinking autonomy in Areas A and B under Israeli occupation. Israel continues to expand settlements and military raids in the West Bank, and the PA has no power to respond, with the prospect of a Palestinian state increasingly distant.

“Pessimism, lack of hope, helplessness – it is beyond the classical distrust in the PA,” he says. “It is looking at the PA and potentially understanding that these people also don’t have much that they can do to help themselves.”

A new amendment to the local elections law, requiring all candidates to affirm their commitment to agreements signed by the PLO – widely understood as a measure to exclude Hamas and other opposition factions – now threatens to taint how people perceive these elections. “If you want to run, you need to pre-agree to things at the national level,” says Shtaya. “But this is about local service delivery. Why am I having to sign things that deal with agreements between the PA and Israel?”

Despite the many naysayers in this election, “Palestinians are thirsty for democracy,” says the pollster, including those in Gaza. What is missing is not the will, he says, but the proper architecture for it: elections announced years in advance, a functioning legislature, and accountability that extends beyond voting day.

“There isn’t a credible setup that shows people their vote makes a difference,” says Shtaya. Without that, sporadic elections take place at what he calls the surface level: real enough that some people show up, but shallow enough that not much changes underneath.

Soon to be relieved of his mayoral duties, Hani Odeh plans to open a toy shop and set up a house for himself. “Let people breathe,” he says. “We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.”

A federal judge has blocked Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2-billion acquisition of its rival, upending the already consummated union of the nation’s two largest television station groups.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley on Friday issued a preliminary injunction that forbids Nexstar, which owns KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles, and its takeover-target, Tegna Inc., from combining operations amid a legal dispute with California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and seven other state attorneys general.

The order takes effect Tuesday.

“Nexstar must permit Tegna to continue operating as a separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar,” Nunley wrote in his 52-page order. “And Nexstar must put measures in place to maintain Tegna as an ongoing, economically viable, and active competitor.”

The injunction is Nexstar’s latest setback in the controversial deal championed by President Trump.

Bonta and the others are opposed to the merger, arguing it violates a 112-year-old U.S. antitrust law by knocking out a major competitor. The deal would give Irving, Texas-based Nexstar control of 265 television stations across the country, up from 164. And, in dozens of markets, including San Diego and Sacramento, Nexstar would own multiple TV network affiliates.

That duplication has raised concerns about staff consolidations and widespread newsroom layoffs.

“This is a critical win in our case,” Bonta said in a statement. “This merger is illegal, plain and simple. The federal government may have thrown in the towel, but we’ll keep fighting for consumers, for workers, for affordability and for our local news.”

Nexstar, in a statement, said that it will appeal the ruling, but that it has taken steps to comply with the court order.

“For nearly thirty years, Nexstar has provided free over-the-air access to all its broadcast stations — local news, weather, and community-focused programming alongside major network programming,” Nexstar said. “This procompetitive transaction will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news.”

Bonta and other state attorneys general sued to block the merger March 18. The state officials, all Democrats, alleged the union would create “a broadcast behemoth” with the “power to raise prices for television consumers” and diminish “local news and sports,” their lawsuit stated.

El Segundo-based DirecTV separately sued. It alleged the merger would dramatically tilt the pay-TV playing field, forcing DirecTV to pay dramatically higher fees for the rights to carry Nexstar-Tegna station programming, including local news and NFL football. Those costs, DirecTV said, would be passed along to its 10 million customers.

Trump had been agitating for the deal, writing in a February social media post: “GET THAT DEAL DONE!”

On March 19, the day after the lawsuits, the Trump administration approved the deal. The U.S. Justice Department terminated its antitrust review and the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau authorized the transfer of Tegna’s station licenses to Nexstar.

Within an hour, Nexstar announced that it had finalized the purchase of its McLean, Va.-based rival.

Tegna was dissolved and its stockholders were paid out — raising questions about the fate of Tegna’s stations.

“Nexstar must not influence the management of the held-separate TEGNA business unit,” Nunley wrote. “Tegna personnel must maintain control over Tegna’s decisionmaking, including … negotiations [with pay-TV partners], newsroom personnel, operations and programming, product and service offerings, product development, advertisement sales, and personnel.”

Nexstar has complained about the unusual nature of blocking a transaction after-the-fact. But the plaintiffs noted that Nexstar had been aware of the state attorneys general concerns since at least March 10 — more than a week before DirecTV and the state regulators sued.

Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia have joined California in the lawsuit.

The merger was not approved by the full FCC commission, prompting two U.S. senators — Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) — to question the FCC’s handling of the matter.

“This decision raises serious concerns about the Commission’s use of delegated authority in matters involving significant legal, policy, and economic consequences,” the two lawmakers wrote in a March 30 letter to the FCC. “The transaction is unprecedented in scale, resulting in the largest local broadcast television group in U.S. history.”

Nexstar has built itself into a colossus through a series of acquisitions, including its $6.2-billion takeover of Tribune Broadcasting, the longtime owner of KTLA, in 2019 — during the first Trump term.

Opponents have argued that Nexstar’s proposed purchase of Tegna gives Nexstar stations in 44 states covering 80% of the U.S. population — exceeding a 39% ownership cap set by Congress.

DirecTV has argued that the combination of the nation’s two largest television station groups could harm its pay-TV business by raising prices for consumers and potentially increasing programming blackouts.

The judge late last month combined the two lawsuits.

During a two-hour hearing earlier this month, Nexstar attorneys argued against the injunction, saying it had obtained the necessary federal approvals to take control of the Tegna stations.

“Setting aside the unusual FCC clearance process here, the Court does not find Defendants’ arguments persuasive,” Nunley wrote.

Nexstar contends the deal would strengthen TV station economics, allowing stations to bolster their news gathering and expand the number of newscasts. But DirecTV countered that in markets where Nexstar owns two stations, it relies on just one newsroom to program both channels.

“We commend the Court’s decision, which reinforces the coalition of states’ and our shared belief that unchecked station consolidation will force consumers to pay more for less by reducing the quality and variety of local news coverage,” DirecTV said in a statement.

Nexstar attorney Alexander Okuliar said the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the merger posed an immediate threat to the public.

Nunley, who was appointed by former President Obama, wrote in his order that the plaintiffs demonstrated they had a path to prevail at a trial due to the merits of their arguments.

Nexstar had asked the judge to require the plaintiffs to post a $150-million bond to compensate it for damages it would suffer from any delays in closing the deal.

But the judge denied that request, writing that Nexstar did not offer a “financial analysis or documentary evidence to support a bond in this amount” or any evidence that it would incur financial losses should the injunction be overturned.

“The US Navy at this point can’t even get anywhere close to the Strait of Hormuz without being attacked.” Experts are pouring cold water on Pete Hegseth’s claims that the US is working effectively to reopen the world’s most crucial shipping lane.