DARREN BARKER is gutted his heartbreaking interview with Ricky Hatton was the British boxing legend’s last.
The 43-year-old former middleweight champion of the world sat down with the 46-year-old at his Manchester gym on Tuesday September 9 for a wonderful 90 minute podcast.
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Darren Barker says he was “gutted” to be Ricky Hatton’s last interviewCredit: YouTube/Dazn
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Barker hailed Hatton as “a great man” and said he didn’t want their chat to endCredit: YouTube/Dazn
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The boxing legend was found dead at his home last monthCredit: PA
The two-weight world champ Hitman had to wrap-up the interview to collect his daughters from school.
And, tragically, on the morning of Sunday 14 the national treasure was found dead at his home, leaving Barker and the rest of British sport sobbing.
The hour-and-half chat is available online and lets Hatton brilliantly reflect on his small-hall rise, legendary Kostya Tszyu world title win, iconic Las Vegas takeovers and his post-boxing demons.
It is a travesty it will be his final media appearance but a perfect reminder of the honest, open, funny and brilliant boy-next-door Hatton was and will be remembered as.
Barker told us: “I remember leaving him after that interview and I was gutted because I enjoyed his company that much.
”I said this at the top of the pod, he was perfectly Ricky Hatton.
“He was so funny, so warm towards me and the crew that were there, he was just bang on, he was perfect.
“And it was so nice to hear all of those stories directly from him.
Ricky Hatton’s biggest boxing wins
Ricky Hatton tasted defeat just three times in an illustrious 46 fight career that saw him earn an estimated £37million in prize money. Here are some of his most memorable victories:
Tommy Peacock by TKO – In his 11th fight as a professional Ricky won his first title – the vacant Central Area light-welterweight belt – at Oldham Sports Centre
Jon Thaxton on points – Ricky picked up national honours when he defeated Thaxton for the vacant British light-welterweight strap at Wembley Conference Centre in 2000
Kostya Tsyzu retired – In front of a rapturous home crowd inside Manchester’s MEN Arena, Ricky became a world champion for the first time. He won the IBF and The Ring light-welterweight titles against the former undisputed champ Tsyzu
Luis Collazo unanimous decision – Just three fights later Ricky added to his title collection, claiming the WBA light-welterweight title stateside by beating tough Collazo over 12 rounds
Paulie Malignaggi TKO – Ricky’s final boxing victory came against loud-mouthed American-Italian fighter Malignaggi in Las Vegas. The Hitman let his fists do the talking and stopped his foe in the 11th round. He earned a cool $2.5million for his night’s work.
Six months later Ricky would taste defeat for a second time, the first being against Floyd Mayweather in 2007, against Phillippino superstar Manny Pacquiao. He suffered a brutal second round knockout and was taken to hospital for a precautionary brain scan
“He was just a person that everyone wanted to be around; a great man, a boxing man, a family man, the people’s man and I was gutted that the interview was over.
“I was just gutted. I really am gutted.”
Barker – without any hint or suggestion of the tragedy that was around the corner – asked Hatton outright how he wanted to be remembered.
And his answer was a magnificent reminder of how the Manchester City and Oasis lover cherished his working-class reputation over every belt and pound he ever earned.
Last Ricky Hatton interview filmed just four days before death is released as boxing icon ‘tells story for final time’
He said: “He was just that man-next-door, that relationship that he had with his fans.
“When I asked him how he wanted to be remembered, he mentioned the likes of Frank Bruno and Nigel Benn.
“And his name is in that mix and he was so proud to be alongside those great names.”
Darren Barker hosts Pro Project Promotions’ charity boxing event on October 18, that offers ten retired footballers another night in the limelight .
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who feels as cantankerous as Jackson Lamb by the end of the workweek.
The fifth season of “Slow Horses” premiered this week. And everyone’s favorite team of disgraced British spies are back to connect the dots of a new mysterious threat. Once an underrated gem, the spy thriller’s move into the awards spotlight has brought more attention to the critical darling. But in following the very British model of releasing six-episode seasons, the entertaining ride can feel fleeting — luckily, two more seasons are already in the works. Will Smith, the show’s head writer, who is stepping down after this current season, stopped by Guest Spot to talk about the sleeper hit.
Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations include an Italian-set action-drama about a fixer at a luxury resort and a beloved baking competition series that always serves up a refreshing dose of wholesome goodness and showstopping sweet treats.
P.S.: Last week’s newsletter incorrectly stated that new episodes of ABC’s “High Potential” air on Wednesdays. They air on Tuesdays, and are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day. Don’t tell Morgan or she’ll add us to the murder board!
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Jordan Alexandra as Genny and Jesse Williams as Daniel De Luca in a scene from “Hotel Costeria.”
(Virginia Bettoja / Prime)
“Hotel Costiera” (Prime Video)
A charming Jesse Williams, the “Grey’s Anatomy” alum, plays Daniel De Luca, a sort of action concierge at a high-end boutique hotel on the Amalfi Coast in this easygoing mix of “The White Lotus” and a midcentury Continental adventure show, like “The Saint” or “The Protectors.” A long-arc plot involving the missing daughter (Amanda Campana) of Daniel’s hotelier boss (Tommaso Ragno) runs alongside episodic stories — the search for a missing guest, sourcing a flight-worthy coffin, stealing an important bracelet from a local crime figure — mixing mysteries with human interest and a lot of local color. (Williams speaks Italian with persuasive fluency.) Assisting Daniel in his investigations is a team of classic types — a beautiful yet brainy woman (Jordan Alexandra); a comical aristocrat (Sam Haygarth), like Bertie Wooster by way of Mr. Bean; and a rotund restaurateur Bigné (Antonio Gerardi), at whose trattoria they all hang out, plotting whatever needs to be plotted. It’s saying nothing against the rest of this pleasantly diverting series that these scenes are the heart of the show, and, yes, I would like a cappuccino, grazie. — Robert Lloyd
Paul Hollywood, left, Alison Hammond, Prue Leith and Noah Fielding in a promotional still from “The Great British Baking Show.”
(Mark Bourdillon / Channel 5 / Netflix)
“Great British Baking Show,” Collection 13 (Netflix)
September means the arrival of fall and another season of the best baking show on TV. Over the years, the series has stuck to a simple yet effective recipe of beautiful bakes, friendly competition and soothing voiceovers (thanks to Noel Fielding). This season’s contestants are just as talented and endearing as previous ones, but now that we’re three episodes in — and past the dreaded Bread Week — we’re down to nine bakers. Among them are Nataliia, a Ukrainian immigrant living in East Yorkshire; Iain, a short king and self-proclaimed “yeastie boy” from Belfast; and Jasmine, an ever-smiling 23-year-old medical student. In this week’s back-to-school-themed episode, the bakers’ challenges include making flapjacks (in the U.K., they’re like a granola bar) and school cake (a sponge with icing and sprinkles). They sound simple, but no recipe is what it seems on this show. And those low-stakes surprises and competition are precisely what makes “Baking Show” a balm for the soul right now. — Maira Garcia
Guest spot
A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching
Rosalind Eleazar, left, Christopher Chung, Saskia Reeves, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Jack Lowden in “Slow Horses.”
(Jack English / Apple TV+)
Do you ever look at your boss and feel both deep gratitude and disappointment because they’re not Jackson Lamb? There’s at least a new season of “Slow Horses” to vicariously experience the walking HR nightmare and his joyously rumpled, smelly and messy leadership style, as expertly portrayed by Gary Oldman. Based on Mick Herron’s “Slough House” novels, the espionage thriller/workplace dramedy centers on a misfit crew of MI5 outcasts — led by Lamb — who’ve blown their careers and now find themselves banished to Slough House, a dumping ground where the agency hopes they’ll be forgotten. The Apple TV+ series returned this week with its eponymous group of spies investigating a series of coordinated terror attacks that have struck London. A new episode will be released every Wednesday until the season finale on Oct. 29. In his last season as head writer, Will Smith stopped by Guest Spot to discuss his creative collaboration with Oldman, his pick for most the competent agent and the best show he’s seen in years. — Yvonne Villarreal
This once–sleeper hit has become such a force with critics and fans. Knowing Season 5 would be your last as head writer, did it feel any different writing this first episode? What was the most important decision you made in this season opener?
You just always want to make it the best it can be and you don’t want to repeat. You need to give the audience enough of what drew them to the show in the first place without making them think, “I’ve seen this,” and you need to give them enough that’s new without them going, “This isn’t the show any more.” The same goes for the cast, by the way; they have to feel their characters are moving on but in an organic way, that you’re acknowledging what went before and building on it. Luckily, that’s Mick’s approach with the books too. And it really helps having the same crew and returning director Saul Metzstein (from Season 3) — Saul and the camera team know what’s gone before and are continually finding new ways to shoot in our existing locations. A really obvious example of how we try to move things on but keep it all connected is Slough House itself. I know it’s a cliche, but it really is a character in the series; to me, it’s an embodiment of Lamb, it reflects so much about him, but it’s never the same. We establish it in Season 1, in Season 2 it’s a discomforting sweatbox, in Season 3 it’s full of boxes of files, which completely changes how people move around it. In Season 4 it’s shot to pieces, and in Season 5 we see the cheap repairs have been started and left. So I hope we’ve hit that same sweet spot with this series, that it gives you exactly what you want and then some things you didn’t know you wanted but feel totally in keeping with the show.
The episode opens with both a mass shooting and a fatal sniper shot in London. While it’s a sequence in the books and was written months ago, it could feel all too timely and provoking depending on the news cycle in which it’s being viewed. How do you decide what to show, how much is enough, what will engage and what will overwhelm?
This weighed quite heavily on us as we sadly knew that some horrific event could happen around the launch of the show that could affect how it was viewed. We actually had a version that cut out after he first opened fire, but felt that that didn’t go far enough. So we went and filmed a pickup where we stayed with the shooter and see his victims fall in the distance. We didn’t want the horror to be overwhelming, although being with him and his blank detachment in this version is disturbingly chilling. And then we took it as far as the assassin himself being killed out of nowhere. Which is a shock and a twist — what the hell is going on? The audience are confused in a good way. I hope by now they trust that all will be explained.
How involved is Gary in terms of script and character development? Can you give an example of a detail or moment over the run of the series that he advocated for or against that proved valuable to the story?
Gary is an incredibly generous and deferential collaborator. As I’ve said before, he’s not just one of the greatest actors of his generation, he’s also a hugely talented writer and director, and he’s completely respectful of myself and Saul Metzstein and the other directors. I think it helps that we’re very in tune creatively. Gary and I both have a love and respect for the source material, so he knows I’m not going to junk the book — we’re going to work on it and bring a version of it to life. The other brilliant thing about Gary is that he’s not intimidated by the fact that Lamb’s arc is all in the backstory. He absorbs and plays that, even if he doesn’t know the specifics. You just get the sense that Lamb has been through some bad stuff. Lamb is a cautionary tale, a smoking ruin; he’s not going to change now. The changes come to our perspective when we learn a little bit more about him and what he’s been through. The moment he was most involved in I can’t talk about in detail because it’s a spoiler. But it came from an idea his wife, Gisele, had. Gary and I then discussed the best version of it in story terms, and then we shot it twice as Saul had an even better idea as to how to make it land. We put an awful lot of thought into it, and actually it’s the one area where we do depart from the book (with Mick’s blessing). I’m very excited about it and what it can lead to in future series that I’m looking forward to watching as a fan.
If you were running the spies, who would you say is the most competent agent? And what have you learned about how to walk the line between keeping the “misfits and losers” bit believable but also allowing the Slow Horses to actually triumph in the end?
After Lamb, Catherine is the smartest agent in the building, although River is the most effective field agent. Catherine is not trained as a spy but has been around them most of her adult life. She’s incredibly bright and perceptive but lacks confidence. She’s often the person putting the pieces together but never gets the credit. I think Lamb wants her around for that reason, as well as the twisted mix of protecting her and goading her and having her as a living reminder of his own fallibility — they were both betrayed by Charles Partner (Catherine’s boss, Lamb’s friend and mentor) and Lamb had to execute him. I’m not saying Lamb was sunshine and light before that, I think he’s always been a hard-living cynic, but that really did break something in him. And yes, it’s a delicate balance maintaining the premise of the show — these people are useless yet every season they save the day but are still not allowed out of exile. I think the compromise and unfairness is what makes it believable. Although at some point I feel they either have to redeem themselves or accept that it’s fruitless and move on. But again, usually Mick will kill them off before they reach that crossroads.
In “Clown Town,” Herron’s latest installment in the book series, he references the language of the show. There’s a line — “It’s like explaining Denmark to a cat”— that feels like a direct reference to the Season 1 line, “It’s like explaining Norway to a dog.” As a writer, what’s it like to see the way he has acknowledged and tipped his hat to the show?
One of the things I’m proudest of is how much Mick and his readers love the show. Sometimes I think a line is Mick’s and it turns out to be mine or vice versa, and Mick has the same confusion. He’s also read out the opening scene of Season 4 at events and said he didn’t write it, but he would have done [it] if he’d thought of it. Knowing I’m in tune with him and his characters and stories has been absolutely wonderful because I started this and finish it as a huge fan of his work.
What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?
“Lost Boys and Fairies” by Daf James on the BBC [available to stream on Britbox] is the best show I’ve seen in years. It’s about a gay couple going through the adoption process and is charming, tragic, playful, sad and uplifting. It’s so deftly written by Daf and wonderfully directed by James Kent and stars one of my favorite actors, Sion Daniel Young, whom “Slow Horses fans” will know as Douglas from Season 3.
What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?
I will always watch Michael Mann’s “Heat” [Prime Video] whenever I chance upon it, and watch it by choice at least one a year. It’s perfect. But for true comfort, I return again and again to the Hal Roach-era comedies of Laurel and Hardy, which have brought me unlimited joy throughout my life.
In an overstuffed workshop in East L.A., Chris Francis reached out a heavily tattooed arm and pulled a single shoe box from one of the floor-to-ceiling shelves lining the walls.
“Anjelica Huston,” the shoemaker and artist said. “Let’s see what’s in here.”
Removing the top of the box, he revealed two carved wooden forms known as shoe lasts that cobblers use to make their wares. Beneath those were strips of yellowing shoe patterns and a tracing of the actor’s foot with a note written in loopy cursive:
To Pasquale My happy feet shall thank you — Anjelica Huston
The Di Fabrizio collection includes shoe measurements for stars like Nancy Sinatra, Kim Novak, Joe Pesci and Madeline Kahn, all adorned with green, white and red striped ribbon.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Cool, huh?” Francis said, gazing reverently at the box’s contents. “Every time I open one it’s amazing. It’s like Christmas all the time.”
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For the last three years, Francis has been surrounded by a sprawling archive of famous feet originally amassed by Pasquale Di Fabrizio, the late shoemaker to the stars. From the early ‘60s to the early 2000s, Di Fabrizio created custom footwear for the rich, famous and notorious out of his humble shoe shop on 3rd Street.
The shoes went to his customers, but his voluminous collection includes shoe lasts, patterns, drawings, correspondences, leather samples and handwritten notes from thousands of clients, all stored in cardboard shoe boxes that the Italian immigrant trimmed with green, white and red striped ribbon.
The names, written in bold Magic Marker on the front of each box are a who’s who of entertainers from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond: Liza Minnelli, Tom Jones, Richard Pryor, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bea Arthur, Arsenio Hall, Nancy Sinatra, Ace Frehley. The list goes on and on.
Francis found foot measurements, wooden shoe lasts and a shoe in progress that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for Ginger Rogers in a box marked with her name.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Shoe Machine” is one of Chris Francis’ art pieces that he has shown at museums.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“So many great people stood on these pieces of paper,” Francis said, looking at the stacks of boxes around him. “Roy Orbison. Eva Gabor. Stella Stevens. Lauren Bacall. I could pull these down all day.”
Francis never met Di Fabrizio, who died in 2008, but in 2022 he traded two pairs of his sculptural shoe-art pieces to Di Fabrizio’s friend and fellow shoemaker Gary Kazanchyan for the entirety of the Italian shoemaker’s archive. Three years later, Francis is still making his way through it all.
The amount of material is overwhelming, but he is committed to preserving Di Fabrizio’s legacy. Ultimately, he wants to find a space where he can share it with others.
“I never want to be without it, but I’m realistic that it deserves to be appreciated by more than just myself,” he said. “If my life’s work ended up in somebody’s hands, I don’t think I’d want them to just keep it for themselves forever.”
A shoemaker’s journey
Francis isn’t just cataloging L.A.’s shoemaking history, he’s helping to keep it alive.
Over the last decade and a half he’s made a name for himself as a custom shoemaker, creating handmade bespoke footwear for rockers like former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, as well as sculptural art shoes that are displayed in museums like the Craft Contemporary, the Palm Springs Art Museum and SCAD FASH in Atlanta.
Wooden shoe lasts hang from the ceiling as Chris Francis works on a shoe for the singer Lita Ford in his garage.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In his East L.A. workshop, he eschews modern technology, focusing instead on traditional methods of shoemaking, often with hand tools.
“The handmade shoe is alive and well in this shop,” he said, dressed in pressed black slacks and tinted sunglasses, chunky gold rings gleaming on his fingers. “There’s no computer here, and even the records half the time are vinyls or 78s.”
Making shoes by hand is time-consuming and expensive work — Francis doesn’t sell a pair of shoes for less than $1,800 — but for his mostly musician clientele, a sturdy, custom-made, comfortable shoe that also boasts over-the-top style is well worth the price.
“At my price point, my customers are buying something that’s really a tool,” he said. “It’s part of their look, but it also has to hit 27 guitar pedals, keep all of its crystal, be beautiful, last multiple tours and they have to be able to stand in it all night.”
Francis, who has a certain aging-rocker swagger himself, never expected to become a shoemaker.
After going to art school and hopping freight trains for several years, he moved to Los Angeles in 2002 originally to join the Merchant Marines. Instead he found work hanging multi-story graphics and billboards on the side of hotels and high-rises on the Sunset Strip and at casinos in Las Vegas. “That gave me the same thrill of riding a freight train,” he said. “Being on a high-rise building and rappelling down.”
Francis found fabric samples and designs for shoes that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for a Broadway production of the musical “Marilyn: An American Fable.”
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Shoemaker and artist Chris Francis makes shoes the traditional way in his workshop in East Los Angeles.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He discovered he had a knack for pattern making in 2008 when he began creating hand-stitched leather jackets to wear to the Hollywood parties he had started attending with his now-fiancee. One day a stranger approached him and said she knew someone who would appreciate a jacket like the ones he was making. She was a stylist for Arnel Pineda, the lead singer of Journey. Commissions from Mötley Crüe and other rock bands followed.
A few years later he became interested in making shoes, but although he knocked on the door of several shoe shops in town, he couldn’t find a mentor.
“They didn’t have time, or they’d say, ‘You belong in a rock and roll band, you’re not one of us,’” he said. “But I would say, ‘Just teach me one thing, one trick.’ And everyone had time to teach one trick.”
It was an education in much more than shoemaking.
“Almost every shoemaker I met had immigrated to the country,” he said. “So I learned how to make shoes from the Italians, from guys from Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Syria, from everybody. And while doing so, I learned about all these different cultures.”
‘He was the king’
As Francis dove deeper into the history of shoemaking in Los Angeles, one name kept coming up again and again: Pasquale Di Fabrizio.
The late Pasquale Di Fabrizio, a cobbler to the Hollywood elite, photographed in front of his collection of shoe lasts, circa 1982.
(Bret Lundberg / Images Press / Getty Images)
“I started asking other makers about him, and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we remember him,’” Francis said. “He was the king.”
For more than 50 years Di Fabrizio was the most sought after shoemaker in Los Angeles. He made Liberace’s rhinestone-encrusted footwear and shod Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck for touring productions of Disney on Parade. He was the go-to shoemaker for country western stars, Vegas showgirls, Hollywood movie stars, gospel singers and casino owners. The Rat Pack helped put him on the map.
“My best customer is Dean Martin,” Di Fabrizio told The Times in 1972. “He buys 40 pairs a year.”
Sporting a thick, bristled mustache and oversize glasses, Di Fabrizio had a tough reputation. He once kicked a movie star out of his shop because the star brought back a pair of patent leather shoes that he claimed were defective. Di Fabrizio accused him of missing the urinal and peeing on them at the Oscars.
“Never come back here again,” he said in his thick Italian accent.
The shoemaker occasionally made house calls, but his customers mostly came to him. In his workshop on 3rd Street near Crescent Heights, he would trace their bare feet on a piece of paper and measure the circumference of each of their feet at the ball, around the arch, the heel and the ankle. Then he would customize a pre-carved wooden last from Italy, adding thin pieces of leather 1 millimeter at a time to more perfectly mimic the unique shape of the client’s foot.
The size and shapes of the lasts varied wildly. He once told a reporter that it took “half a cow” to make shoes for Wilt Chamberlain, who wore a size 15. In his archives, Francis found a petite high heel shoe last roughly the length of his hand.
Francis holds a foot tracing and shoe lasts made for Robert De Niro by Pasquale Di Fabrizio.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Di Fabrizio did lots of shoes for little people,” Francis said. “He really offered an important service for that community. They could have formal footwear rather than having only the option of wearing kids shoes.”
The same lasts could be used over and over again to make several pairs of shoes, as long as the heel height was the same. Each last went in its own box decorated with a ribbon in the colors of the Italian flag.
“It’s so simple, but he claims his territory with that ribbon,” Francis said. “He cared enough to take one extra step. It’s what really made that collection iconic.”
A legacy preserved
Francis first encountered Di Fabrizio’s archives in 2010 when Kazanchyan offered him a job at Andre #1 Custom Made Shoes on Sunset Boulevard. Kazanchyan inherited the shop from his uncle, Andre Kazanchyan, who once worked with Di Fabrizio and became his good friend.
Gary Kazanchyan and Di Fabrizio were close as well. When Di Fabrizio retired in the early 2000s, Kazanchyan hired all of the guys who worked at his shop. Di Fabrizio was at Kazanchyan’s wedding and when the older shoemaker was in a nursing home at the end of his life, Kazanchyan visited him every day.
For years Kazanchyan stored as many of the ribbon-trimmed boxes as he could fit in his Hollywood shop, but just before COVID he moved his shop to his garage in Burbank and transferred Di Fabrizio’s archives to his backyard. “At one point, my whole backyard was this mountain of shoe lasts,” he said.
Chris Francis, left, and Gary Kazanchyan at Palermo’s Italian Restaurant in Los Feliz.
(Deborah Netburn / Los Angeles Times)
Kazanchyan started a renovation on his house in 2022 and could no longer store Di Fabrizio’s archive in his backyard. He’d sold some of the most famous shoe lasts at auction — a bundle of Di Fabrizio’s shoe lasts for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. went for $4,375 in 2013 — but he still had several tons of material stacked on pallets and covered in tarps. He remembered that Francis loved the collection, so he called him and asked if he wanted it. Francis did.
Francis didn’t have the money to purchase the collection in cash, but he offered Kazanchyan two art pieces that he’d exhibited and Kazanchyan accepted. The first carload of boxes Francis took to his studio included lasts for Wayne Newton, Paula Abdul, Ginger Rogers, Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone.
“My excitement was on fire,” he said.
Francis spent a few weeks sorting through the archive and discarding lasts and shoe boxes that were too covered in mold or deteriorated to be worth keeping. Just before a rainstorm threatened the rest of the collection, he brought thousands of shoe lasts to his studio but even now regrets that he was unable to save it all.
“I tried to grab the big names, but there was so much I couldn’t keep,” he said. “It was heartbreaking.”
The boxes hold stories — and life lessons
Living and working among the Di Fabrizio collection has taught Francis a lot more than just the art of making shoes.
“I’m constantly seeing the obituary of a celebrity who has passed and I go to the workshop and there’s their box,” he said. “It really lets you know that life is for the living. It’s up to you to be responsible and live your life when you’re alive. Be yourself, teach others, leave something behind.”
Hanging onto the collection has not been easy — but Francis believes he was chosen from beyond to care for Di Fabrizio’s archive and to share it with others responsibly.
He’s still not sure what that will look like, but he’s determined to try.
And in the meantime, he is also determined to keep the traditional art of shoemaking alive in Los Angeles.
If you look around his workshop, you’ll spot several boxes adorned with red, white and blue striped ribbon.
Francis is making those boxes his own.
Working with hand tools, Chris Francis makes a custom pair of shoes for musician Lita Ford.
Anastasia, 23, was left with a big shock when she finally landed at her destination after travelling with Ryanair. She couldn’t get over the major travel blunder
13:18, 27 Aug 2025Updated 13:18, 27 Aug 2025
The journey left her a little shocked (stock image)(Image: Dmitri Zelenevski via Getty Images)
A woman who flew with Ryanair has shared how she ended up “miles away” from her holiday destination due to a significant travel mishap. Anastasia, 23, took to social media to share her blunder in the hope that others won’t make the same mistake.
In a recent video, she revealed that she was travelling to Brussels with Ryanair when she made a startling discovery about her trip. Despite the journey being smooth, she got the shock of her life upon landing at her chosen destination, and the reason why might surprise you.
Sharing a clip of her journey, Anastasia wrote: “When Ryanair says you’re flying to Brussels without mentioning the airport is 60km away from the city.” This equates to just over 37 miles.
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Although she confessed it was “her fault” for not checking, the error seemed to cause them some travel chaos. It serves as a reminder to thoroughly research before travelling.
The video has since been viewed over 11,000 times, and people were quick to comment. A variety of opinions were shared.
One person said: “Yeah, this one’s on you.” Another added: “Not to be that person, but did you check how you would get from the airport to your destination?”
A third replied: “I’m from Brussels and I think it’s badly indicated. Yes, it says Brussels Charleroi, but they write Brussels when they are two completely different cities?”
Meanwhile, a fourth could relate to the story, as they commented: “I have flashbacks of this happening to me and my friends on New Year’s in Antwerp waiting for the bus at 2am in the middle of nowhere.”
Someone else also chimed in with: “In your defence, they do market it as Brussels South Airport when, in fact, it’s very far away, and in a small town called Charleroi.”
If you weren’t aware, Brussels actually operates two primary airports. These comprise Brussels Airport (BRU), situated in Zaventem, and Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL), positioned in Charleroi.
Brussels Airport is regarded as the principal international hub and sits nearer to the city centre, whilst Charleroi Airport lies further south and is frequently utilised by low-cost carriers.
The Ryanair website declares: “Brussels is a wonderful city break destination at any time of year, so the timing of your trip really depends on what you’re interested in seeing and doing. The busiest season is summer, from the end of May until the beginning of September, and of course this comes with both pros and cons.
“If you like to see your cities bathed in sunshine, summer is undoubtedly the best time of year to book flights to Brussels, and Brussels’ gilded baroque buildings do look beautiful in the sunlight.
“But Brussels is busy at this time of year too, and you might prefer a little more space to yourself when you visit. If that’s the case, the shoulder seasons (April/May and September/October) are a really good idea. The kids are in school and students in college, so the streets are a little quieter but the weather is still hospitable – and cheap Brussels flights are easier to find off-peak season too.”
The airline has been approached for further comment.
GOMA, Congo — President Trump claims that the war in eastern Congo is among the ones he has stopped, after brokering a peace deal between Congo and Rwanda in June. But residents, conflict researchers and others say that’s not true.
Trump on Monday repeated claims that he ended the decadeslong conflict, describing Congo as the “darkest, deepest” part of Africa. “For 35 years, it was a vicious war. Nine million people were killed with machetes. I stopped it. … I got it stopped and saved lots of lives,” he asserted.
The Associated Press previously fact-checked Trump’s claim and found the war far from over. Now residents report clashes in several hot spots, often between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who seized key cities earlier this year and militia fighting alongside Congolese forces.
A final peace deal between Congo and the rebels, facilitated by Qatar, appears to have stalled. Each side has accused the other of violating peace terms.
Here’s what people say about Trump’s latest claim:
An inspector says people are still being displaced
The local human rights inspector in South Kivu province’s Kabare territory, Ciruza Mushenzi Dieudonné, said residents in the communities of Bugobe, Cirunga, Kagami and Bushwira continue to flee clashes between the M23 rebels and the Wazalendo militia.
“The problem now is that we do not have humanitarian assistance, hospitals operate during the day and health professionals find refuge elsewhere at night to escape the insecurity,” Dieudonné said.
Amnesty International says clashes reported this week
Christian Rumu with Amnesty International said the rights group learned of clashes during the past 24 hours in various locations. “It is far from the reality to say that he has ended the war,” he said of Trump.
“The U.S. president is misguided in his assessment because people on the ground continue to experience grave human rights violations, and some of these amount to crimes against humanity,” Rumu said, urging Trump to speed up the peace process.
A student says fighting has continued
Amani Safari, a student in Goma, the city first seized by the M23 and most affected by the fighting, said nothing has changed since the peace deal was signed in June.
“Unfortunately, when you look at this agreement, there are no binding sanctions against the two countries that violate it,” Safari said. “The United States only sees American interests.”
An activist in Goma says Trump needs to do more
Espoir Muhinuka, an activist in Goma, said there is no sign the war will end soon and urged Trump to take steps to achieve the permanent ceasefire the peace deal provided for.
“If this does not happen, it would deceive all of humanity,” Muhinuka said.
Civil society leader says residents are losing hope of peace
The president of civil society in North Kivu province, John Banyene, said he and other residents are losing hope of permanent peace.
“The killings, the displacement of the population and the clashes continue, therefore, we are still in disarray,” Banyene said. “We, as civil society, encourage this dialogue, but it drags on.”
Analyst says peace efforts appear to have stalled
Christian Moleka, a Congo-based political analyst, said the peace deal brokered by Trump initially helped to facilitate the peace process, but Congo and the M23 missed a deadline to sign a final peace agreement.
“For a conflict that combines the complexities of the structural weaknesses of the Congolese state, local identity and land conflicts, and the fallout of crises in neighboring countries … Trump’s approach may appear as a truce rather than a definitive settlement,” Moleka said.
Asadu and Kabumba write for the Associated Press. Asadu reported from Dakar, Senegal. Janvier Barhahiga in Bukavu, Congo contributed to this report.
Dr Shivam Sharma, right, feels let down by the health secretary
The five-day doctor strike in England has ended, but it is clear this dispute – 12 walkouts and counting – is far from over.
“We’ve been let down by Wes Streeting,” says Dr Shivam Sharma, who joined one of the last picket lines of the walkout before it finished at 07:00 on Wednesday.
When Labour came to power they quickly managed to make a deal with the British Medical Association (BMA), handing them extra money and promises of improvements to working conditions.
Doctors took that as a sign that the journey towards restoring pay to 2008 levels was in sight but that still requires another 25% hike in pay, on top of previous rises, according to the BMA.
“Since last year he has not delivered,” says Dr Sharma, who is six years into his training in child and adolescent psychiatry, when asked why walkouts have returned.
Dr Sharma, who joined other striking doctors outside an east London hospital in Streeting’s constituency, says his years as a resident doctor, the new name for junior doctors, have been hard – harder than they should have been.
He faced regular rotations through different jobs across the West Midlands in his early years. “You can be posted anywhere across large geographic areas. You have little control over your rotas, people missing weddings and important family events.”
In September, he is sitting an exam which will set him back more than £1,000. “That’s just for one exam. It can cost us tens of thousands of pounds over the course of our training.”
The BMA’s position remains the best way to solve this dispute is to increase pay further. But with the government adamant pay for this year cannot be revisited (resident doctors are getting an average 5.4% rise in 2025-26) attention has turned to non-pay issues.
During five days of talks, which broke down on Tuesday last week, a range of topics were discussed, including exam fees, career progression and the frequency of job rotations, which for some can happen every four months.
The BMA wanted to add writing off student loans (medical students can rack up £100,000 of debts) although the government refused to countenance this.
‘Breathing space’
With the clock ticking, the dispute turned acrimonious when the BMA announced its first strike under Labour would go ahead.
Streeting accused the BMA of being reckless and showing “complete disdain” for patients. The union responding by saying they were losing confidence in any of the promises being made.
Tensions boiled over between NHS England and the union on Monday, with health leaders criticising the “hardline” approach of the BMA for blocking requests to let doctors return to work to deal with emergencies.
The union has responded by accusing the NHS of putting patients at risk by stretching senior doctors covering for striking resident doctors too thinly.
At times, a return to the negotiating table has seemed almost impossible but, with the strike ending, both sides have shown signs of softening.
Senior sources at the BMA have talked about not wanting to get into a cycle of strikes and no talks, as they did in the latter months of the Tory government – there were 11 strikes in the space of 16 months. They mention creating “breathing space” in the coming days and weeks for further negotiation.
It has also not gone unnoticed within the BMA that public opinion appears to have swung against resident doctors.
Meanwhile, those close to Streeting stress he wants to get a deal done, although he remains disappointed the union did not at least postpone this strike to continue the talks.
And in a statement to coincide with the end of the strike, the health secretary said: “My door is open to resume the talks we were having last week.”
But, if they do get around the table, is there enough common ground for a deal to be reached given the BMA wants more pay rises and the government is adamant this is not an option?
“It won’t be easy,” says Dr Billy Palmer, an NHS workforce expert at the Nuffield Trust think-tank. “This divisive situation is taking a toll on doctors and the wider NHS alike.”
He says alongside pay, retention and wellbeing are “real problems” but he believes a series of individual changes could combine to have a potentially significant impact.
Alongside covering the cost of out-of-pocket expenses like exam fees and making the system of rotas and rotations less brutal, he has other suggestions.
These include student loan repayment holidays so doctors can delay, interest free, paying them off until they start earning more.
He also mentions the need to tackle the shortage of speciality jobs that resident doctors move into after the first two years of training. Figures from the BMA show there were more than 30,000 doctors chasing 10,000 posts this year.
In addition, he warns the government may still have to address one particular pay issue, pointing to the anomaly that means first-year resident doctors earn less than physician assistants.
Would it all be enough to resolve this? Possibly, he says, but as with everything in this long-running dispute, there are no guarantees.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that he ended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and threw the now-disgraced financier out of his private club in Florida after Epstein betrayed him more than once by hiring people who had worked for him.
Trump did not say what the people’s jobs were or where they worked, and the White House had no immediate comment. But with the fresh comments, Trump shed a little light on the reason why he has said he had ended the relationship with Epstein, though Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, recently said on X that, “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”
Epstein killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death before Trump returned to power and are now struggling to manage the fallout after the Justice Department said Epstein did in fact die by suicide and that it would not release additional documents about the case.
The president and his allies, some of whom are now in the administration, had promised to release the files.
The case has dogged Trump at home and abroad and even followed Vice President JD Vance during an appearance in his home state of Ohio on Monday. A small group of protesters assembled outside a factory in Canton that Vance toured, holding signs that spelled out “JD Protects Pedophiles” and indicating that “GOP” stands for “Guardians Of Pedophiles.”
The Republican president spoke at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland, as he sat with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the leaders had met and were answering questions from U.S. and U.K. journalists. Asked to explain why the relationship had faltered, Trump said, “That’s such old history, very easy to explain, but I don’t want to waste your time by explaining it.”
He then explained, saying he stopped talking to Epstein after “he did something that was inappropriate.”
“He hired help and I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” Trump said. “He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again, and I threw him out of the place, persona non grata.”
“I threw him out and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth,” Trump added.
Trump recently directed Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to seek the public release of sealed grand jury transcripts in the case. One federal judge has denied that request; a second judge has yet to rule.
Vance on Monday visited the factory to promote Trump’s tax cut and border bill, but also addressed the Epstein matter, saying the president wants “full transparency” in the case.
“The president has been very clear. We’re not shielding anything,” Vance said in response to a reporter’s question. “The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.”
“Some of that stuff takes time,” Vance said, adding that Trump has been “very clear. He wants full transparency.”
Trump had said back in 2019 that Epstein was a fixture in Palm Beach but that the two had had a falling-out a long time ago and he hadn’t spoken with Epstein for 15 years.
Trump on Monday also denied contributing to a compilation of letters and drawings to mark Epstein’s 50th birthday, first reported on by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said the letter believed to be from Trump included a drawing of a woman’s body.
“I don’t do drawings of women, that I can tell you,” Trump said.
Superville writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Julie Carr Smyth in Canton, Ohio, contributed to this report.
They were deployed by the Trump administration to combat “violent, insurrectionist mobs” in and around Los Angeles, but in recent days the only thing many U.S. Marines and California National Guard troops seemed to be fighting was tedium.
“There’s not much to do,” one Marine said as he stood guard outside the towering Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood this week.
The blazing protests that first met federal immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles were nowhere to be seen along Wilshire Boulevard or Veteran Avenue, so many troops passed the time chatting and joking over energy drinks. The Marine, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said his duties consisted mostly of approving access for federal workers and visitors to the Veterans Affairs office.
More than five weeks after Trump mobilized an extraordinary show of military force against the will of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, few National Guard troops and Marines have remained in public view, most retreating to local military bases in Orange County.
As an indication of the military’s dwindling role in immigration enforcement operations, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered the release of 2,000 National Guard troops. Now, Bass, Newsom and others are demanding the complete removal of remaining troops — or about 2,000 California National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines.
“Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state,” Newsom said on X, accusing Trump of using California National Guard troops as “political pawns.”
“End this theater and send everyone home,” the governor said.
Bass said the troops’ primary mission in L.A. was to guard federal buildings that “frankly didn’t need to be guarded.”
“They had to leave their families, they had to leave their education, they had to leave their work,” Bass said at a news conference Tuesday. “We have had no problems for weeks, so why were they here?”
Steve Woolford, a resource counselor for GI Rights Hotline, a nonprofit group that provides free, confidential information to service members, said calls from troops had gone down dramatically over the last month.
“The most recent people I talked to sounded like they’re sitting around bored without much to do,” Woolford said. “And they’re happy with that: They aren’t asking to do more. At the same time, I don’t think people see a real purpose in what they’re doing at all.”
The majority of National Guard troops have been stationed at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, according to military officials and governor’s office officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Over the last few weeks, a massive tent city has risen at the Orange County base — about 25 miles southeast of downtown L.A. The tents, some of which stretch up to 50 yards long, provide living quarters, cafeteria space and other facilities. On a recent morning, National Guards troops — some dressed in full combat fatigues, others in T-shirts and shorts — could be seen exercising, milling about and playing a game of touch football.
A separate group of Marines and National Guard troops have remained at the Westwood federal building for an entire month. The federal building has been outfitted with sleeping and eating arrangements for troops, according to a Marine who spoke with The Times.
To be sure, some California National Guard troops embarked on tense missions with federal immigration agents on sweeps at farms, warehouses and public streets.
On July 7, Guard troops accompanied federal agents as they descended on MacArthur Park on horses and in armored vehicles in a heavily militarized show of force. It’s still unclear whether any arrests were made that day, but crowds quickly formed around the federal agents and military troops, screaming for them to “get the f— out!”
But most of the deployed Guard troops and Marines do not appear to have been engaged in raids or even the federal building security in recent weeks.
An estimated 90% of the National Guard troops stationed in the L.A. area over the last few days have not been deployed on daily missions, according to a source within Newsom’s office who has knowledge of the military operation.
“For the most part … they’re sitting around,” the source said.
The source, who spoke on condition on anonymity because they were unauthorized to speak publicly on the deployment, said an estimated 3% of the 4,000 troops — about 120 soldiers — were taking part in daily missions, mostly consisting of security at federal buildings.
An additional couple hundred were standing by for “quick response force” missions — ready to mobilize within a few hours for an immigration raid or a crowd control operation. But even if all those troops were used each day, the source said, that still left about 88% of the 4,000 troops — or about three-quarters of the remaining 2,000 — underutilized.
The Pentagon and Task Force 51, the military’s designation for Los Angeles area troops, declined to answer questions about how many Guard troops and Marines were engaged in protecting federal buildings or accompanying immigration agents on daily missions. Nor did they comment on the claim from Newsom’s office that most troops were “sitting around.”
Guard soldiers and Marines were “primarily protecting fixed-site federal facilities and protecting federal law enforcement personnel while they conduct immigration enforcement activities, such as warrant services,” read a task force statement.
Federal officials have also declined to provide precise details on the cost of the deployment. Hegseth previously said that the mobilization of troops would cost $134 million, but it’s unclear whether that estimate is accurate.
Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a military research group, said there is little evidence that the military presence is necessary.
“The need for military forces in Los Angeles is low while the need for National Guard forces elsewhere in the state is rising,” Kavanagh said. “That they’re still deployed after so much time, when there doesn’t seem to be a need, suggests that this really is about setting precedent of having military forces involved in immigration enforcement and deployed in U.S. cities.”
Kori Schake, senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed: “They have a real job to be training for — fighting and winning the nation’s wars — which this performative policing is a distraction from.”
The first convoys of Guard troops rumbled into L.A. on June 8, shortly after the Trump administration announced it would send 2,000 Guard members to the city to quell unrest as protesters graffitied buildings downtown, set Waymo driverless cars ablaze and clashed with ICE agents as they tried to conduct immigration raids.
As California leaders protested, and called the deployment unnecessary, the Trump administration doubled down. On June 10, 700 Marines from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center about 150 miles west in Twentynine Palms arrived in L.A. A week later, the task force ballooned to 4,800 personnel when Hegseth added 2,000 more Guard troops.
Newsom condemned Trump for diverting members of the California National Guard as they geared up for wildfire season, noting that the unit assigned to combating wildfires was at just 40% of its regular staffing levels due to the deployment. The governor’s office also complained that about 150 California Guard soldiers were being pulled from the state’s Counterdrug Task Force, which focuses on interrupting drug trade at the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout California.
The Trump administration eventually approved a request to release 150 Guard members for state wildfire suppression.
The Guard has been deployed to Los Angeles before, but never against the will of the L.A. mayor and California governor.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush mobilized the National Guard to L.A. after multiple days of riots following a jury’s acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King. About 6,000 troops were ultimately sent in, requested by California’s then-Gov. Pete Wilson and Mayor Tom Bradley, to guard trouble spots and gain control of neighborhoods after rioters attacked stores, torched buildings and, in some extreme cases, beat and killed residents. The Times dubbed it “the worst civil unrest in Los Angeles history.”
But last month, the federal government sent in the troops without local politicians’ support, setting in motion an intense legal showdown.
A day after National Guard troops hit the ground in L.A., Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to end the “illegal and unnecessary takeover” of a California National Guard unit. They argued that the unwarranted commandeering of National Guard troops, without the consent or input of the governor, violated the U.S. Constitution and exceeded the president’s Title 10 authority.
A U.S. district judge in San Francisco sided with the state, ruling June 12 that Trump broke the law when he deployed thousands of California National Guard troops to L.A. against the state’s will. The judge issued a temporary restraining order that would have returned control of the National Guard to California. But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals paused that court order, allowing the troops to remain in L.A. while the case played out in federal court.
Kavanagh said she was disturbed to see Guard troops accompanying federal agents on immigration raids. Even if they had orders not to participate in law enforcement activities, confrontations could escalate quickly.
“There’s so many chances for things to spiral out of control,” she said. “While we haven’t seen any unintentional escalation yet, that doesn’t mean we won’t.”
When troops were first deployed to L.A., advocates for service members warned of low morale. The GI Rights Hotline received a flurry of calls voicing concern about immigration enforcement, Woolford said.
Some military personnel told the hotline that they did not want to support ICE or play any role in deporting people because they considered immigrants part of the community or had immigrants in their family, Woolford said. Others said they did not want to point guns at citizens. A few worried that the country was on the verge of turning into something like martial law, and said that they didn’t want to be on the side of being armed occupiers of their own country.
Many were shocked that the deployment orders were for 60 days.
“There’s no way they’re really going to keep us here that long, are they?” Woolford said he was asked.
But as the military brought in more contractors and set up giant tents with cots, Woolford said, callers to the hotline seemed more resigned to the idea that they would remain in L.A. a long time.
Asked about the pressures facing troops on their mission to Los Angeles, one Marine outside the Wilshire Federal Building summed it up this way:
“That’s just orders,” he said. “We do what we’re told — it’s the system.”
Times staff writer Jeanette Marantos contributed to this report.
Players do not come much more decorated than Ramos. His spell at Real Madrid, where he made 671 appearances, resulting in four Champions Leagues and five La Liga titles. Plus four Fifa Club World Cups.
He was a key cog in one of international football’s most dominant teams as he won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 during his 180-cap Spain career.
But by February 2025 he had not played competitive football for almost nine months, having ended his second spell at Sevilla at the end of 2024-25.
And so came the call from Monterrey, who are also known by their nickname of Rayados.
They are five-time champions of Mexico – and five-time Concacaf Champions League winners – including in 2021, which meant they would compete in this summer’s Club World Cup.
Ramos accepted the offer, a one-year deal to become Monterrey’s top earner.
Rayados president Jose Antonio Noriega spoke to the Athletic, external in February about how they persuaded Ramos to join.
“It’s a package deal. There is no single aspect, Sergio is not convinced by just one thing,” said Noriega, a former midfielder for Monterrey and Mexico.
“We are a team that fights for titles and that attracts Sergio. But surely that wouldn’t be enough.
“It’s a serious team with a good reputation and the city is nice. It’s an accumulation of things that Sergio found fulfilling. Also the fact that each year there are five championships and one of them this year is the Club World Cup, which is special.”
He added: “We knew there was a market for Sergio. We heard about the interest from San Diego FC, from some clubs in Brazil and some in Saudi Arabia.
“Let me tell you a metaphor – it’s like when you want to fall in love with a girl. The only way to make a girl fall in love is to be yourself. We were like that with Ramos.
“We told him ‘this is who we are, this is what we can give you’. Fortunately, we understood each other.”
When US President Donald Trump entered the war between Israel and Iran late on Saturday night, the region was braced for escalation.
The US dropped 17 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs and two dozen cruise missiles on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow and Esfahan, assisting Israel, which had already been trading missile fire with Tehran since July 13.
Iran’s response soon came. On Monday evening, it launched 14 missiles aimed at the US Air Force’s Central Command in the Middle East, at Al Udeid in Qatar, a neutral country. Those missiles flew over the capital, Doha, spreading alarm.
Yet instead of leading to the “rathole of retaliations” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned against, the attack presaged a truce that Trump announced hours later, and that was facilitated by sophisticated diplomacy involving Qatar, the US and Iran.
So, how did a ceasefire emerge from the smoke of an attack?
What options did Iran have?
A military response against a US base was an obvious choice, because the US has exposure in Iran’s neighbourhood.
Apart from Al Udeid airbase, its Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain. Both are just more than 200km (125 miles) across the Persian Gulf from Iran. There is also an air base in Kuwait and four logistics air bases in Oman. Further afield, the US has three air bases in Saudi Arabia, three air bases in Iraq, and an air base in Jordan.
“The US has 40,000 troops in the region [on] 19 US bases, eight of which are permanent, and Iran has said previously they will become legitimate targets if the US strikes Iran,” said Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari.
In the past, Iran’s proxies in the region have been Tehran’s “primary Iranian means of retaliating against adversary attacks,” wrote The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, on Friday.
Houthi militias could resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, and Iran could itself attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz – thus menacing two of the world’s most economically important shipping chokepoints simultaneously.
But the proxy attacks never came, demonstrating the limitations of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance”, and “how exhausted it is after months of fighting the United States and Israel”, said the ISW in a comment on its website.
Still, even as the world prepared for Iran to respond to the US attacks, an Iran historian at St Andrews University in the UK, told Al Jazeera on Monday that he thought “an ‘off ramp’ with the United States” was likely.
“There will be a lot of public bluster, but privately, I think feelers will be put out,” he said, before the Iranian strike later that evening.
How did the strike unfold?
At around 7pm local time (16:00 GMT) on Monday, Iran struck Qatar.
Qatar condemned the attack as “an extremely dangerous escalation that represents a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar”. It issued a demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Doha.
But the “feelers” Ansari had talked about appear to have been put out beforehand.
“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice,” wrote Trump on social media, “which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.”
The warning also allowed Qatar to prepare its air defences, shooting down 13 of the missiles and allowing one to fly “in a nonthreatening direction”, according to Trump.
Satellite images suggested the US had evacuated staff and aircraft from Al Udeid even before it struck Iran, so targeting it represented a low risk of casualties. Neither the US base at Al Udeid nor the Qatari Air Force suffered few material losses.
“I am pleased to report that NO Americans were harmed, and hardly any damage was done. Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system’,” wrote Trump three hours after the attack.
A mere two hours later, he announced the ceasefire.
“CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!),” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Trump later revealed that “Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, ‘PEACE!’”
Iran’s government was eager to put the war behind it, issuing a statement early on Tuesday saying it had delivered a “humiliating and exemplary response to the enemy’s cruelty”, and framing the ceasefire as a “national decision to impose the cessation of war on the Zionist enemy and its vile supporters”.
How are Qatar’s relations with the US and Iran?
Qatar hosts the largest US airbase in the Middle East and has worked closely with Washington on a series of tricky diplomatic negotiations, involving the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in Gaza, among others.
At the same time, it enjoys warm diplomatic and economic ties with Iran. “The South Pars and North Pars and North Field have been a joint [venture] for a long time – over 25 years,” Doha-based energy expert Roudi Baroudi told Al Jazeera, referring to gas fields that Qatar and Iran share.
The South Pars gas field alone holds almost as much gas as all the other known gas fields on the planet, said Baroudi.
Right after he announced the ceasefire, Trump thanked the emir of Qatar.
“I’d like to thank the Highly Respected Emir of Qatar for all that he has done in seeking Peace for the Region,” he wrote on Truth Social. Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian telephoned the Qatari emir on Tuesday to express “regret” over the attack the previous day.
Pezehkian clarified that Qatar and its people were not the target of Iran’s strikes. “[Pezeshkian] stressed that the State of Qatar will remain a neighbouring, Muslim, and sisterly state, and expressed his hope that relations between the two countries will always be based on the principles of respect for the sovereignty of states and good neighbourliness,” the emir’s office said in a statement.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said on Wednesday that “Qatar undertook significant diplomatic efforts with regional and international partners to defuse tensions.”
And the impact of those efforts will be felt well beyond just Israel and Iran, Baroudi suggested.
“Washington and Doha defused an unseen economic and ecological bomb,” he said, because the Gulf is a powder keg of highly inflammable oil and gas wellheads, offloading terminals and tankers.
“The whole region has over 34 refineries along the coast. We have over 105 power plants and desalination plants, so a ceasefire will put away any danger to the water and electricity [supply] of the whole region,” he said, suggesting Qatar be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
With a rifle pressed to his temple, Barry was told he had ten seconds to admit he was a spy.
As the grim countdown began, the New Yorker wrestled with the dilemma of either being perceived as a traitor to his country or leaving his kids fatherless.
“On the count of five I relented,” Barry told me.
“I signed the false confession, distraught and completely ashamed.”
Trump’s shock Iran strikes take us to brink of global conflict and will strengthen Axis of Evil alliance, experts warn
Barry would eventually return to his loved ones in the US after 444 days in captivity.
Britons are high-value hostages for the regime.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian government.
She was finally released when Britain paid a £400million outstanding debt to Iran.
I would eventually get out — more on how later — after staying with an extraordinarily kind Iranian man who put me up in his apartment and tempered my nerves with some rocket-fuel home brew.
Today — with Iran’s tyrannical regime in Israeli and US crosshairs — I cast my mind back to the welcoming people I met while travelling this ancient land.
These folk loathe rule by the hardline ayatollahs and long for a time less than 50 years ago when women wore miniskirts in capital Tehran, the hair bouncing on their shoulders.
I had arrived in Iran — successor state of the Persian Empire — in 2012 with the idea of travelling from Tehran to Persepolis, a millennia-old desert ruin once the centrepiece of its civilisation.
On the way I’d talk to ordinary people to try and understand what made this land tick.
Did they really think Britain was the cursed Little Satan?
‘GREAT SATAN’
On landing in Tehran — a high-rise city of 9.8million shrouded by mountains — fleets of white taxis honked their way through the city’s awful traffic.
In the pollution-choked centre, I was struck by the number of women walking around with white plasters on their noses.
Tehran has been called the nose job capital of the world.
Women here also face a daily battle over what they can wear in public, with checks made by the dreaded Basij militia network.
Yet many were wearing their head scarves pulled back to reveal dyed blonde hair, while their overcoats were colourful and figure-hugging.
Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, when the Shah — or king — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled and replaced by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic dress has been strictly enforced.
Alcohol was banned, protests stifled and unmarried couples prevented from meeting in public.
Today, the internet is censored and the regime attempts to scramble satellite TV signals.
Near the Taleghani Metro station is the old American embassy — known here as “the nest of spies” — its walls daubed with murals and slogans decrying the so-called Great Satan.
Months after the revolution, students stormed the embassy compound and took 66 Americans hostage.
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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian governmentCredit: AFP
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US embassy worker Barry Rosen was held hostage for 444 days in 1979Credit: AP:Associated Press
In Palestine Square — in the heart of Tehran — beats a Doomsday Clock predicting Israel’s end by the year 2040. The regime put it there in 2017.
It helps explain why Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, senior nuclear scientists and top brass last week.
Nearby, I visited the British embassy compound, its gateway overlooked by lion and unicorn statues.
Around six months before my visit, diplomats had fled as a frenzied mob of Iran- ian “students” storm- ed the building and ransacked offices.
It would remain shuttered for nearly four years.
The rioters — who were chanting “Death To England” — were in fact state-sponsored Basij thugs.
It is the same sinister paramilitary force that is responsible for the policing of morals in this hardline Shi’ite Muslim state, including the wearing of the hijab or headscarf.
Yet these repressive goons are far from representative of the beating heart of this oil-rich nation.
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Oliver’s ‘Denmark’ passportCredit: Supplied
A short stroll away in the teeming Grand Bazaar, women shoppers, in the all- covering black cloak-like chador, were out looking for bargains.
But surprisingly, Union Jack-patterned knickers and bra combos were on sale on at least three stalls.
American stars and stripes underwear was also available in several shops.
One black-clad shopper in her thirties told me: “The underwear is very popular.
“We have nothing against your country.”
The message that the lingerie worn under the chadors sent out was clear: Knickers to the hardliners.
Indeed, as a metaphor for things being very different under the surface in Iran, it couldn’t be bettered.
“We don’t hate Britain,” a 26-year-old Red Devils-mad taxi driver told me.
“Far from it.
“We admire your freedom.”
After a few days in Tehran I took a shared taxi on the five-hour, 280-mile journey to Iran’s third largest city Esfahan.
It’s home to an exquisite square overlooked by the imposing aquamarine dome of Shah Mosque, regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture.
The city’s outskirts are also home to one of the largest uranium enrichment facilities in the country.
‘EVERYBODY BREWS THEIR OWN NOW’
Terrified that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon to make good on its doomsday prophecy, the site was pummeled by more than two dozen US Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday morning.
I had checked into a largely empty hotel in the city centre which had no safe for valuables.
That evening I went out shopping for a Persian rug.
Warily passing some soldiers in the street, I was dismayed to see them beckon me over.
Yet they simply wanted a selfie alongside a rare Western traveller.
Emerging with my new carpet, I was heading for an electronics store bearing a fake Apple logo when I was surrounded by pickpockets.
Now passportless, I was petrified about being stopped by police and asked to produce my documents.
I then remembered meeting some Iranian migrants in Calais who had told me they used to work as smugglers, trekking over the mountains from Iran to Turkey with some contraband alcohol in backpacks.
Finding an internet cafe to research the journey, a man started using the computer next to me to watch porn.
The idea of attempting to walk alone over rugged mountains seemed more hazardous than another internet suggestion — go to another country’s embassy and throw myself at their mercy.
Travelling back to Tehran I attempted to check into a hotel but the receptionist insisted I needed to show my passport.
When I explained my predicament, he told me: “I’ll phone the police and they’ll sort this out.”
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who was toppled in 1979Credit: Getty
I told him I needed to collect my luggage then scarpered.
Knowing no one in the country, a contact then put me in touch with someone who could put me up.
The grey-haired father lived alone in a ramshackle flat and said I was welcome to the sofa.
“I was jailed for protesting against the Shah when he ruled,” he told me.
“Now I wish I hadn’t bothered.
“This regime is far worse.
“We have far less freedom now.”
Deciding the Dutch would be most amenable to a stricken Brit, I tried their embassy but it was closed for holidays.
So I went to the Danes instead.
They took my details and I was told to return the following day.
Presented with a paper Danish temporary passport 24 hours later, I profusely thanked the embassy staff for making me an honorary viking.
Taking a cab to the airport, I checked my bag on the flight then queued up at immigration dreaming of a glass of red on the plane.
A bearded border guard disdainfully looked at my Danish passport, sniffing as he tossed it away: “No good, no ministry stamp.”
It was back to my new friend’s sofa to watch subtitled TV, including shows with Jamie Oliver and James May.
The former prisoner — raising a glass of home-distilled spirits — revealed: “Twice every year the police go upon the roof and smash up all our satellite dishes.
“But we simply go out and buy some more.
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A chanting crowd during the Iranian revolution in 1979Credit: Getty
“There’s a saying here that the regime closed down thousands of brewers during the revolution but created a million more.
“Everybody brews their own now.”
After two days queuing at the relevant Iranian ministry — and praying that they wouldn’t google my identity — I finally got my stamp.
My plane banked over the vast mausoleum built to house Khomeini’s remains as it headed west.
One after another, most of the women on the flight removed their head scarves, then their restrictive chadors.
Settling with a glass of wine, I hoped one day to return to this fascinating land under better circumstances.
Now, with the ayatollahs’ regime perhaps at threat of being toppled, I may one day make it to Persepolis.
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The European Union has lifted all sanctions on Syria. The decision follows Donald Trump’s recent announcement than the US would also lift sanctions, as Syria’s new government looks to rebuild the country.
Momentum swung back and forth in the opening set between Watson and Saville, with the Briton rallying to a 4-2 lead after initially going a break down, only for Saville to level up.
Watson battled back from 40-0 down on serve to move within one game from the opening set, but she was unable to take her first set point.
A tie-break was confirmed by another exchange of breaks – but not before Watson initially refused to continue the match after being given a second time violation by the chair umpire.
She claimed she had been waiting for a ball to be returned to her, rather than deliberately delaying the point, but the umpire disagreed.
Saville ultimately stepped in and asked the umpire to give Watson her first serve back.
The Australian former world number 20 then dominated the tie-break and carried that momentum into the second set, quickly establishing a 3-0 lead.
Watson briefly threatened a comeback when she broke back for 3-2, but Saville was able to reset and closed out victory with another three-game streak.
