family

Millions of people have attended funeral prayers in Tehran for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in a joint US-Israeli strike on February 28. Aerial video reveals the scale of the crowd.

PITTSBURGH — If her husband is elected president, Teresa Heinz Kerry will be among America’s most recognizable figures. But she already is commander of a family empire that has been a familiar name to Americans for over a century — one whose history includes political activism and philanthropy, but also infighting and tragedy.

The Heinz family history is told all over this riverfront city — at a stylish museum named for Teresa’s late husband, Sen. H.J. “John” Heinz III, and in archives at Carnegie Mellon University. The name is stamped on parks, schools and a magnificent limestone chapel at the University of Pittsburgh.

The symbols of Heinz wealth, power and patronage in Pittsburgh tell the public story of a pioneering American industrial family almost as important to food as the Fords are to autos and the Rockefellers are to oil.

A closer look reveals a long record of conservative as well as liberal political activity and philanthropy, mixed with epic battles over money and personal turmoil such as divorces, suicides and alcoholism.

Within the family, there are painful memories of a schism in the 1930s that led to a 50-year legal battle and helped shape the modern Heinz family. To this day, it has left some of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of patriarch H.J. Heinz feeling cast out.

“Most of the time, people aren’t talking to each other,” said Nancy Heinz Russell, a granddaughter of H.J. Heinz. “That’s what happens when people have money.”

Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira joined the family in 1966, when she married John Heinz, future Republican senator from Pennsylvania and great-grandson of H.J. Heinz, the ketchup and pickle king.

She assumed control of the family empire in 1991 after Sen. Heinz died in a plane crash. Five years later, she married John F. Kerry, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

Even as she made a new life with Kerry, she remained loyal to the Pittsburgh branch of the family. She is addressed by her staff as Mrs. Heinz, and her legal residence is the Heinz family estate outside of town.

She has fought fiercely to protect the family image. Ten years ago, Heinz Kerry hired an archivist to research the family tree, but has kept the findings private, even within the family. She declined to be interviewed for this article.

After a lengthy genealogical investigation, The Times has identified the other descendants of H.J. Heinz, founder of the pioneering food company, who died in 1919 at age 74.

He left three wings of the family under daughter Irene and sons Howard and Clifford. Four generations later, there are more than three dozen descendants.

The family is spread far and wide, most having severed their Pennsylvania roots years ago. In several cases, The Times’ reporting led to members of the Heinz family getting in touch with each for the first time, including two distant cousins living a few streets apart near Monterey.

Except for Heinz Kerry and her three sons, most of the family lives in California. Heinz Kerry, worth at least $1 billion, controls the lion’s share of the family’s money, but there are other centers of wealth and sharply varied political views about how it should be used.

Separate Lives

Heinzes pioneered the industrialization of the U.S. food supply, pushed government reforms to improve food safety and advocated for military intervention to stop the Armenian genocide.

Heinz Kerry is the family’s largest philanthropist, but other Heinzes have opened their wallets for public causes from Orange County to New York. Family money has funded hospitals, assisted the poor and educated scientists and artists.

The family has also experienced tragedies, most notably the midair plane collision over a suburban Philadelphia schoolyard that killed Sen. Heinz and six others. Far less known is the alcoholism, suicide, eccentric behavior and marital instability that have plagued all three wings of the family.

Along the way, there were odd encounters with the rich and powerful. Rock star David Bowie wrote the song “Young Americans” for his good friend in the celebrity circuit, the late Sharon Heinz Tingle. Sarah Heinz Waller, whose husband was a maverick Chicago alderman in the 1920s, was personally threatened by mobster Al Capone, friends and family say.

Many Heinz family members today lead very private lives, tired of jokes about ketchup and requests for loans. Family members no longer manage H.J. Heinz Co., and they own less than 4% of the firm’s stock.

Some descendants have no real sense of heritage or kinship.

“I had no idea I had any relationship with this family until I was 12 years old,” said Wilda Northrop, a watercolor artist and a great-granddaughter of H.J. Heinz. “I was raised that this was a big secret.”

Northrop, president of the Carmel Art Assn., shook hands this year with Heinz Kerry at a fundraising event, but didn’t mention she was the second cousin of Heinz Kerry’s late husband.

Northrop’s son, Lowell, is supporting Sen. Kerry’s campaign, making videos for MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group. Lowell Northrop says he knows little about Heinz Kerry.

“It’s an interesting little story that I am a Heinz, but it is not something I have gone out of my way to tell anybody,” he said in a phone interview. “Money sometimes brings out the worst in people.”

‘Just Johnny Heinz’

The man Heinz Kerry married was the child of Joan Diehl Heinz and H.J. “Jack” Heinz II. The couple’s marriage did not last long, and they played very different roles in their son’s upbringing.

After their divorce, Joan moved to San Francisco with her young son in tow and, an aviation pioneer herself, married naval pilot Monty McCauley.

“No one in San Francisco knew where he came from,” said a family friend, Ted Stebbins, referring to the future senator. “He was just Johnny Heinz.”

Meanwhile, Jack Heinz, the father, was a consummate jet-setter. He owned a dozen homes and had two more wives after Joan. Suave and imperious, he hobnobbed with British royalty and Greek shipping tycoons while running the family company from Pittsburgh.

By most accounts, Jack Heinz had a distant relationship with his only son, and was none too happy when he learned that the main heir to the family fortune wanted to marry the daughter of a Mozambique doctor.

“His dad disapproved of his marriage…. The story was that his dad felt he had been hoodwinked by a fortune-seeking European woman,” recalls Cliff Shannon, who headed John Heinz’s Senate staff in the 1980s. “Eventually, he made his peace with Teresa.”

Jack Heinz underwrote the performance hall for the highly regarded Pittsburgh Symphony. Less well known is the philanthropy of his ex-wives.

Drue Heinz, the last of Jack Heinz’s wives, had bit parts in film, and still controls a foundation with assets of $32 million that supports some of the top fiction writers in America.

His first wife, Joan McCauley, who died in 1999, left the bulk of her $31-million estate in the Bay Area, contributing to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the ARCS Foundation, which supports the nation’s elite students in science and engineering.

Progressive Legacy

The progressive views of family patriarch H.J. Heinz were out of sync with early 20th century capitalism. He provided employees with medical care and adult education. Some of his factories had rooftop gardens where workers could relax.

It was in this era that armed guards for U.S. Steel killed 10 employees during the infamous 1892 Homestead strike at a plant in Pittsburgh. In a move laden with symbolism, Heinz Kerry would later purchase the abandoned U.S. Steel plant and turn it into a public park.

“He treated his workers better than anybody I have seen in the early 20th century,” Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School, said of H.J. Heinz. “He was the real deal.”

H.J. Heinz was branded a traitor in some sectors of the food industry because he supported government intervention to ensure minimum safety standards. As food-processing scandals raged in the background, he pushed hard for the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which created the Food and Drug Administration.

His son Howard, also deeply involved in public service, was sent to the Middle East by the Wilson administration after World War I to head famine-relief efforts. On the day H.J. Heinz died, Howard was delivering 30,000 tons of food to the region, where he witnessed the unfolding genocide that took the lives of 1.5 million Armenians.

Howard tried to get Wilson to send troops to halt the slaughter in harsh, remote areas of eastern Turkey and Armenia. In a dispatch to the president, he wrote, “I do not believe America, when she knows the truth, will be satisfied to have all our ideals of humanity thrown to one side while these people are murdered.”

His pleas were ignored.

It was Howard’s grandson, John Heinz, who became a U.S. senator and came to personify a moderate Republicanism similar to his grandfather’s.

John Heinz tried working in the family business but left unsatisfied after five years. He became a college professor, and in 1971 was elected to Congress, six years after marrying Heinz Kerry.

Sen. Heinz drew an unusual mix of support. Steelworkers liked his protectionist policies, and he tirelessly promoted the coal industry. But he also backed environmentalists’ efforts to clean up the state’s air and water. On the campaign trail, he successfully masked his blue-blood pedigree.

“He had a common touch,” said Louis Pagnotti, whose family owns a Pennsylvania coal mine. “And Teresa was a big hit in the ethnic communities up here.”

Since the death of her husband, Heinz Kerry has kept tight control over family documents. About 10 years ago, she began collecting detailed personal information from distant relatives, recalled Robert Heinz, a great-grandson of H.J. Heinz.

After meeting the family archivist for lunch in San Francisco, Robert Heinz said, he repeatedly asked to see the family tree — with no success. “The archivist finally told me that Teresa has not authorized it,” Heinz said in a phone interview.

A Conservative Side

If Sen. John Heinz represented the family’s moderate politics and public policy, Clifford Heinz represents a different outlook.

A grandson of H.J. Heinz, Clifford has long — and quietly — underwritten conservative causes from his base in Orange County. He has acquired a wealth, celebrity and power separate and apart from the Pennsylvania wing of the family.

When the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, he was awakened with the news at Clifford’s mansion in Newport Beach, where he was a guest.

Heinz has helped fund the Free Congress Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, and has underwritten the campaigns of various Republicans, including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach. He has long funded ethics programs and endowed a chair for peace studies at UC Irvine.

“Clifford is a very principled, conservative Republican,” Rohrabacher said.

Clifford Heinz, 85, declined to be interviewed. His attorney, Bernard I. Segal, said his client had no desire to be drawn into a public controversy with Heinz Kerry. To put it mildly, the two have little in common politically.

Clifford Heinz was a key financial supporter of Oliver North, contributing $25,000 to his unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1994 — the same year Teresa Heinz sharply attacked the former U.S. Marine colonel and his role in the Iran-Contra matter in a speech before the National Assn. of Christians and Jews.

“It is difficult to imagine anything more cynical than Oliver North running for Congress,” she said in her speech. “This is a man who used his moment in the public eye to spit not just on politicians, but on the institution of Congress itself.”

Geographic Schism

Not long after the death of patriarch H.J. Heinz in 1919, his descendants began migrating to California, and a Western branch of the family came to outnumber the Eastern branch. By the Depression, a full-blown schism had occurred, centered around who would get the family wealth held by the senior Clifford Heinz.

A director and vice president for labor relations, Clifford had always been second fiddle to his older brother, Howard. And by the Depression, Howard’s son Jack was playing an influential role in the family business.

The battle began in March 1935, when the senior Clifford Heinz died of pneumonia at a Palm Springs hotel. He had left Pittsburgh three months earlier, hoping the dry desert air could cure him. Clifford’s third wife, Vira Ingham, was by his side when he died.

But the three children from his second marriage — Clifford, Nancy and Dorothy — were never informed of their father’s illness, even though they lived only a few hours away in Beverly Hills. Their mother was socialite Sara Moliere Young, who had run afoul of the Pittsburgh family.

After their father’s death, the teenage children received a second jolt, discovering that in Clifford’s final will, they had been disinherited. They came to believe that decision was made on his deathbed under pressure from the elders of the Pittsburgh clan.

“They tried to cut us out of the will,” recalled Nancy Heinz Russell. “Dad was not a strong, forceful man … and the Heinz family hated my mother. The Eastern family hated the Western family.”

The resulting lawsuit dragged on for decades, ultimately resulting in the children getting a large share of key Heinz trust funds.

It wasn’t the only time the family played tough when it came to money.

Rust Heinz, grandson to the company founder, moved to Pasadena in the 1930s and married Helen Clay Goodloe, daughter of a prominent family from Kentucky that included a U.S. senator and an ambassador.

When Rust was killed in a 1939 car accident, Heinz family attorneys persuaded his wife to take $25,000 and forfeit any claim to the family money. The couple had separated, but they were still legally married.

The inside story of what had happened was detailed in a newspaper article 16 years later in the Pittsburgh Press. The headline: “Heinz widow traded fortune for $25,000.”

After a second unhappy marriage, Helen Heinz took her life, according to her daughter, Margot Pierrong, a convention planner who lives in Anaheim.

“She was so young,” Pierrong said. “I am not bitter, but what the Heinz family did to my mother will come around.”

Out of Public View

Irene Heinz, the eldest child of the company founder, married and moved to Manhattan, and her branch of the family virtually disappeared from public view.

Irene’s husband, John LaPorte Given, suffered a nervous breakdown — under the harsh treatment of the Heinz family, according to his granddaughter. He retired early to play golf, and gave away tens of millions of dollars to Harvard University and other schools.

A daughter, Sarah Given, came to distrust the family money, saying it destroyed personal character. She married twice, the second time to a firefighter.

Sarah’s younger brother, John Given, became estranged from the family and was known for eccentric behavior. New York City police arrested him in 1948 on allegations that he beat a man with his cane.

When police examined the cane, they found a 28-inch dagger in its shaft. Four years later, after he fired a pistol at a neighbor’s birthday party, he was ordered by a New Jersey magistrate to leave town.

Given, who never married and suffered from alcoholism, died in 1957. In his will, he instructed executors at Chase Manhattan Bank to find deserving beneficiaries for his estate.

They gave more than $4.5 million to charity.

LeRoy Irvin, a cornerback and special teams player who made two Pro Bowls with the Rams in the 1980s, has died, the team said Thursday. He was 68.

Irvin holds the Rams record for most non-offensive touchdowns (11 — five interception returns, four punt returns, one fumble recovery return and one blocked field goal return). He also is tied with Janoris Jenkins and Ed Meador for most pick-sixes in team history.

“We mourn the loss of Rams Legend LeRoy Irvin,” the team wrote on social media. “We extend our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.”

No further details were provided. Freelance sports journalist Eric Geller reported that Irvin died Wednesday after a long battle with throat cancer.

Born Sept. 15, 1957 in Fort Dix, N.J., Irvin played running back at Glenn Hills High School in Augusta, Ga. He told Sports Collectors Daily in 2023 that he patterned his running style after O.J. Simpson’s.

“That parlayed into my pro career,” Irvin said. “When I moved to defensive back in college, I always prided myself on being a great runner, which led to me being a great punt returner.”

As a senior at Kansas in 1979, Irvin led the Big Eight Conference with 27 punt returns for 321 yards and two touchdowns. He also intercepted five passes that season. In four years with the Jayhawks, Irvin had 42 punt returns for 454 yards and two touchdowns to go with 10 interceptions.

Selected by the Rams in the third round of the 1980 draft, Irvin played in L.A. for 10 seasons before spending his final season with the Detroit Lions in 1990.

In an NFL record that still stands, Irvin recorded 207 punt return yards during a 37-35 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 11, 1981. Two of his six punt returns that day went for touchdowns, of 75 and 84 yards.

Irvin finished his career with 35 interceptions for 676 yards, and 147 punt returns for 1,457 yards. After retirement, he worked as a coach, broadcaster and businessman.

“Devastated to hear about the passing of my brother, teammate, and Rams legend Leroy Irvin,” his former Rams teammate and business partner Eric Dickerson wrote on Instagram.

“Leroy wasn’t just a lockdown corner and a fierce competitor on the field; he was a true friend and a great man who always brought incredible energy. Rest in peace, my brother. Sending my thoughts and prayers to the Irvin family and all of Rams Nation.”

CARRY On actor Leslie Phillips’ family is set for a High Court ding-dong over his will, The Sun can reveal.

The late star‘s estate is suing his wife, Zara, at the High Court, after she refused to move out of their £4.4million marital home.

The long-running spat is said to have strained the relationship between Zara, 68, and Harry Potter actor Leslie’s children, who say they are entitled to the proceeds of the Edwardian mansion’s sale.

Leslie, who died in November 2022 at age 98 after an eight-decade showbiz career, left his family a huge £5.3million fortune and dictated exactly how his belongings should be shared.

He gave his OBE and CBE medals to his grandchildren and a Buddha statue to his third wife, Zara Phillips.

But the actor, known for his “Ding Dong,” “Well, Hello” and “I Say” trademark lines, also stipulated his posh West London house should be sold exactly two years and nine months after his death.

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But Zara has repeatedly insisted Leslie, whom she wed in 2013, had promised she could stay there for the rest of her life.

She even claims his will was changed without her knowledge to force the sale of the property and hand more cash to his kids.

At the four-storey Edwardian house, filled with pictures of Leslie, Zara previously told The Sun: “This is my marital home.

“I want to live here for the rest of my life, not to move out.

“Leslie always promised me I could stay here.

The will, seen by The Sun, says the £4.4million house is to be sold two years and nine months after his death, with the proceeds going into a trust.

It means the deadline for the sale passed in August 2025, but Turkish social worker Zara has not moved and is determined to stay put.

The sale trust would have been split between Phillips’ four children from his first marriage, Caroline, Claudia, Andrew, and Roger, as well as Zara.

Phillips’ two sons and two daughters were each left £50,000 in the will, while his 15 grandchildren were each awarded £5,000.

Zara was left £155,000, along with ten of Phillips’ belongings, each worth as much as £1,500, and more than 25 per cent of the shares in the trust fund.

The house spat will now be decided at London’s High Court, though Zara insists she has not been told about the case.

A case filed this week names the Estate of Leslie Samuel Phillips CBE as the claimant, and Zara Phillips as the defendant.

It is listed as a Part Eight claim, meaning the parties do not agree on the facts, and is said to be a case about “provision for family/dependants”.

Speaking outside her home yesterday, Zara told The Sun: “I am very surprised. I had no idea about any of this.

“Leslie’s children have not been in touch with me at all.

“If they want me to come to court, I will do.

“I will come to court and fight it if I must.

“I am planning to stay put. I have no plans to move out – this is my home.

“I will have to speak to my lawyers.”

Zara met Leslie in 1995, but the couple were friends for 18 years before they married.

Leslie was walking near his home when he saw Zara, then a 39-year-old widow, who insisted she did not know the star was world-famous.

At the time, Leslie was married to his second wife, Bond actress Angela Scoular, who took her own life after her cancer returned in 2011.

The executor of Leslie Phillips’ estate, solicitor Martin Terrell, said he could not comment on an ongoing case.

July 3 (UPI) — A California man has pleaded guilty to sending phony ransom requests to the family of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, who has been missing for five months, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities have been investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie as a kidnapping and ransom scheme since she was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1.

In his plea deal, announced Thursday, 42-year-old Derrick Callella of Hawthorne, Calif., admitted to calling and texting a demand for a bitcoin transfer to a member of Nancy Guthrie’s family on Feb. 4, while acknowledging that he knew there had been an earlier ransom demand.

He also admitted that he meant to harass the family by seeking information about the 84-year-old woman and the investigation into her disappearance.

Authorities have said that Callella is not connected to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

After Nancy Guthrie went missing, her adult children, including Savannah Guthrie, posted a video to social media urging the kidnappers to contact them.

According to the complaint, not long after the video was published, two people identified in the document as A.C. and A.C.’s husband, T.C., who are believed to be Annie Guthrie, one of Nancy Guthrie’s daughters, and Tommaso Cioni, separately received text messages, stating: “Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction.”

Authorities said the messages were sent with the use of voice-over-Internet-protocol and a smartphone application that allows users to obtain a separate phone number for the device other than the one they were assigned.

Despite the efforts to obfuscate the origin of the text messages, authorities were able to trace the messages back to Callella in California, the complaint states.

The FBI arrested Callella a day after the text messages were sent.

When sentenced, Callella faces up to a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 for each of the two counts of harassment using a telecommunications devices he pleaded guilty to.

Callella pleaded guilty amid renewed interest into the case following reports stating authorities believe notes from the purported kidnappers claiming Nancy Guthrie had died were legitimate.

On Wednesday, the FBI’s Phoenix field office appeared to be undercutting those reports, issuing a statement stating that some of the ransom notes they have received over the course of their investigation have not been legitimate.

Popular lifestyle and fashion influencer Nara Smith spoke out about her daughter’s private health battle, revealing on Wednesday that the 2-year-old is battling cancer.

Smith, 24, said in an Instagram video that her daughter Whimsy was diagnosed late last year when she and husband model Lucky Blue Smith noticed “something suspicious” on the toddler’s body and sought immediate medical attention. The models first took their child to the emergency room and eventually to the pediatrician, who urged the parents to take their daughter to the nearest children’s hospital, she said.

“I just remember him going really quiet and calm, and my heart dropped in that moment,” Smith recalled of that pivotal visit with the pediatrician.

The content creator said her daughter underwent numerous X-rays, ultrasounds and a biopsy before the hospital team determined the cancer diagnosis. Smith did not specify the type of cancer, but said the illness had spread and Whimsy needed to begin chemotherapy. Smith, who went viral in late 2023 for her absurdly elaborate videos crafting processed snacks from scratch in fabulous outfits, said her daughter’s health battle is partially why she has taken a break from social media. She also spoke about finding comfort and community online via forums and social media and connecting with families who have loved ones also battling cancer.

“Processing this and navigating this as a family has been really hard,” she said. Smith added that in addition to Whimsy’s cancer battle, she found it challenging to balance caring for her other children, recovering from the fall 2025 birth of her youngest daughter and her social media work. “Some days are a little easier. Some days are really hard,” she said.

Nara and Lucky Blue Smith, 28, married in 2020 and share four children: eldest daughter Rumble Honey, son Slim Easy, Whimsy Lou and infant Fawnie Golden. Lucky Blue Smith also shares a daughter with his ex-girlfriend, social media star Stormi Bree.

Though Nara Smith kept most details about Whimsy’s cancer battle private, the thumbnail for Wednesday’s video appears to be her husband and a doctor next to an MRI machine. “Thankful for each and every nurse and doctor along our journey who helped us get through and out the other end,” she captioned the video.

Former NFL running back Chris Johnson has issued a challenge to his family, friends and fans — one that could quite literally send a chill down the spine of those who remember a certain viral trend from more than a decade ago.

A quick refresher: A social media sensation went viral in 2014, involving people posting videos of themselves having a bucket of ice water poured over their heads and challenging others, by name, to do the same.

The trend was often referred to as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge because many folks used the videos to raise awareness for and funding to help fight the degenerative neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Johnson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who holds the NFL record for most yards from scrimmage in a single season, on Tuesday revealed on “Good Morning America” that he has been diagnosed with ALS. Soon after, former Utah basketball player and sports content creator Hunter Mecum posted a video on Instagram in which he dumped a large bowl of ice water on himself in Johnson’s honor.

That video inspired Johnson to bring the movement back.

“Man… the love y’all have shown me these last few days really [means] more than you know. Me and my family appreciate every prayer, message and every bit of support,” Johnson wrote on Wednesday on Instagram.

“After seeing @huntermecum video, I’m asking y’all to help me with something. Let’s bring back the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Grab a bucket, challenge 3 people and if you can, donate to help fund ALS research.”

Johnson included a link in his bio to a fundraiser for ALS research set up in his honor. As of Thursday morning, it had raised more than $32,000.

The retired player known as CJ2K also called on three people to accept the ice bucket challenge — ex-Tennessee Titans teammate LenDale White and fellow former NFL greats Marshawn Lynch and Adam “Pacman” Jones.

So far, White and Lynch have accepted Johnson’s challenge. Lynch, the former star running back for the Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders, obliged by getting hailed on by a bucket of ice.

White, who was Johnson’s “Smash and Dash” counterpart in the Titans backfield, took the traditional ice water route and nominated former NFL players Deion Sanders, Vince Young and Michael Sims-Walker, who was on hand at the time and accepted the challenge in a separate video.

Johnson also posted a video of his daughter Honey Love taking the challenge, with White handling the ice-bucket duty. She nominated her brothers and former Lakers superstar LeBron James.

James hasn’t yet responded, but he was one of the many celebrities who took part in the original challenge 12 years ago. Others included Kobe Bryant (who submerged himself in an ice tub), Shaquille O’Neal (who humorously poured one drop of water on his head) and Donald Trump (who joked he was nominated because “they want to see whether or not it’s my real hair, which it is”).

“The World Cup is ruining my life,” a neighbor recently said with a laugh. “I’m supposed to be working; instead I’m watching World Cup. I’m supposed to be doing chores; instead I am watching World Cup.”

I laughed in guilty recognition. We had met on the street by chance while I was walking the dog. Having just spent the last two hours watching, then celebrating Lionel Messi’s hat trick during Argentina’s first-game victory over Algeria, I had less than an hour to get back in time to watch Austria play Jordan.

That was on Day 6, and it’s only gotten worse. If I had to calculate my own ratio of work done to soccer watched … well, as I am not a sports reporter, I don’t think my editor would be thrilled. (Though I’m sure she appreciated the England/Congo updates I provided as I finished this piece.)

Like millions worldwide, my family and I have been deeply, and in our case, weirdly, engrossed in this year’s games. “Weirdly” because we do not follow men’s soccer. The World Cup is different, of course — going in, I figured I would check out the U.S., keep an eye on Messi, then tune into the final few games. Perhaps my husband would join (but only if he at least pretended to understand the offside rule), but with our two oldest children out of the house, it is, with the exception of the Super Bowl, unheard of for our family to concurrently view any sporting event in real time.

Until this World Cup. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but suddenly we’ve got game times written onto our calendar. Entire days have been spent in front of the TV with at least one child and the others watching from their homes, our family texts studded with “are you watching…?,” “did you just see that?” and, of course, “OMG MESSI!”

(I would attempt to calculate my recent ratio of chores done to Messi videos watched if I weren’t legitimately concerned that my family would have me committed.)

The fact that my son and his girlfriend live in Kansas City certainly helped spark our newfound fascination. Yes, Los Angeles is also a host city, but L.A. hosts so many things; inevitably we were mostly concerned about what it would do to the traffic. KC, on the other hand, is the smallest and most unlikely of the host cities, and over the last few years we have seen — on visits and through my son’s accounts — all the construction, effort and can-do spirit that has gone into preparing for the event.

We were thrilled when it was announced that Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria would be based in or near KC. We wanted the city to shine, and it has — from nearby Lawrence’s enthusiastic adoption of Algeria to Messi’s historic hat trick at Kansas City Stadium.

Team USA defender Mark McKenzie, left, and Turkey midfielder Baris Alper Yilmaz in the World Cup match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 25.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

But it’s more than vicarious Midwestern pride. When our older daughter began texting out missives from the earliest games and our son sent pictures of fans streaming into Kansas City Stadium, we started watching as a way to stay connected.

First, as a family, and then to our country and the rest of world.

The games have been inevitably exciting, especially as now that they’re in the knockout round, but the overall sensation was unexpected relief, a soul-soothing balm.

At a time when the news cycle seems to serve up nothing but conflict, crisis and woe, the World Cup offers shelter, a truly international event in which conflict is defined by long-term sports rivalries and questionable referee decisions.

We want our national or preferred teams to win, of course, but no matter the outcome, it’s impossible not to be thrilled by the sight of phenomenal play, underdog tenacity and so many adoring and enthusiastic fans.

Soccer is called the beautiful game for many reasons, and hours/days/weeks of sustained beauty is impossible to resist. Even social media has surrendered to spectacular highlights along with tales of Japan supporters cleaning up stadiums, fans of the victorious consoling fans of the defeated and Europeans discovering the glories of free refills and ranch dressing.

None of this changes the realities we face in America and the rest of the world. Grocery and gas prices remain catastrophically high; Iran continues to contradict U.S. claims of diplomatic resolution to an unpopular war. The unnecessarily revamped reflecting pool in Washington remains a swamp of algae and tourist arrests, as the semiquincentennial struggles under the weight of our president’s self-centered hubris.

But for a few blessed weeks, the World Cup offers inspiration, escape and cultural healing.

It has also, thus far, escaped President Trump’s so often internationally insulting social-media notice and more importantly, his presence. Historically, the leaders of host countries attend the opening match; Trump has, apparently, been too busy (including planning and attending the UFC Freedom 250 cage match recently held on the South Lawn.)

Given his tendency to suck the oxygen out of any room (like his recent reception at Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York), it’s definitely for the best. If nothing else, the World Cup has given us a chance to take a break from politics and talk instead about Messi, France’s Kylian Mbappé, England’s Harry Kane and all the amazing goalkeepers, including Cape Verde’s now-iconic Vozinha.

Never before have I so understood the therapeutic power of sport.

Who wouldn’t want to at least take a break from rising measles cases, the latest federal or Supreme Court decisions and primary tea-leaf readings to lose themselves in a game where exquisitely patient passing suddenly bursts into spectacular feats of speed and footwork? Where a well-defended ball can suddenly become a goal with a nearly undetectable flick of a foot, or a perfectly placed shot blocked by a goalie’s incredible ability to launch into space? Where an outcome that seems assured can be overturned in the final minutes to the collective roar of an international cast of thousands?

Vozinha of Cape Verde makes a save during the World Cup match between Spain and Cape Verde at Atlanta Stadium on June 15.

(Justin Setterfield / Getty Images)

Like many Americans, I have been occasionally embarrassed by the World Cup’s exposure of my world-geography ignorance — I know where Bosnia and Herzegovina lies on a map, but until recently, I couldn’t place Cape Verde, Curacao or, if I’m being completely honest, Cote d’Ivoire.

Isn’t it wonderful, though, to have a reason to reacquaint yourself with a world map that isn’t related to war, natural or man-made disaster or economic and political tension? The current U.S. administration may seem to be at odds with just about everyone, but visiting World Cup fans are here to remind us of all we share, beneath our crazy wigs and face paint, our cheers, groans and chants.

And we, as hosts, have shown them that America is so much more than the sum of our current government’s policies and posturing.

Watching all this happen, in real time, has been magical, miraculous and magnetic.

Not every moment, of course. Various visa issues created unnecessary and embarrassing drama; high ticket prices and transportation issues were blamed for empty seats at some of the early games. Members of the Iranian team and its coaching staff criticized the way they were treated (though the team left a handwritten note in the dressing room of Los Angeles Stadium, thanking L.A. for its hospitality). The controversial hydration breaks, and the extra commercials they accommodate, can be irritating (though when it’s close to 100 degrees in many stadiums, quite necessary). And though it didn’t matter in terms of standing, watching the U.S. lose to Turkey wasn’t much fun for American fans (though the Turkish exuberance was pretty infectious).

Overall, the 2026 World Cup has done exactly what it was supposed to do: create, in this country, a stage for the finest teams and players in the world’s most popular sport and, more important, carve out five weeks in which we can all spend a few hours removed from the political and cultural divisiveness that threatens to define us.

It’s space in which we can cheer, gasp and leap out of seats along with our families, friends and all the millions we will never meet but to whom we are connected all the same.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the next game is about to start.

The summer holidays are almost upon us. And whether you’re planning to stay at home or travel further afield, family adventure expert Conor Carter shares his advice for stress-free fun

Adventure doesn’t have to mean climbing the highest mountain, buying all the gear or travelling for hours before the day has even begun. Often, the best summer adventures are the ones that feel simple enough to actually do. Conor Carter, known as ConorHikes on Instagram and a member of the Dacia Adventure Community, has amassed over 200k followers offering advice on the best places to go, and how to make the outdoors feel accessible. Whether it’s a local trail, a coastal walk or a weekend somewhere new, a bit of preparation can turn an ordinary day into a proper adventure. Here are his tips for getting started this summer.

Start with what’s nearby

You don’t need to go far to find a good route. Look for circular walks, country parks, canals, hills, forests or coastal paths within easy reach. Starting close to home keeps the pressure off, especially if you’re new to hiking or getting out there.

Pick the right route

Be realistic about distance, terrain and who’s coming with you. A shorter route with a great view, café stop or somewhere to paddle can be more enjoyable than pushing through a walk that’s too long.

Check the basics

Look at the weather, parking, facilities and how clearly marked the route is. Download a map or screenshot key details before setting off, especially where phone signal may disappear.

Pack properly

British summer can be unpredictable, so take water, snacks, sun cream, a waterproof layer, comfortable footwear and a fully-charged phone. A small first aid kit is worth carrying, too. Being prepared means you can relax and enjoy the day.

Leave room for spontaneity

Some of the best moments happen when you’re not rushing: an unexpected viewpoint, a quiet beach, a village pub, or a path that looks too good not to follow. Build in extra time so the day can unfold naturally.

Make space for the right kit

Walking boots, rucksacks, layers, food, camping gear or beach kit can quickly fill a car. A practical, spacious car such as the Dacia Bigster helps make it easier to bring what you need without overthinking the day.

Respect the outdoors

Take litter home, stick to marked paths where needed, close gates and give wildlife space. And while photos are brilliant for remembering a day out, try not to experience the whole thing through a screen. Take the picture, then put the phone away and enjoy where you are.

“Lethal Weapon” star Danny Glover has revealed he has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for years.

In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that aired on the “Today” show on Wednesday, the 79-year-old actor and activist opened up about living with the disease. According to People, he received his diagnosis in 2023, which was not long after he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2022.

“I could live with it, in a sense,” Glover says of his condition, which has been affecting his movement, speech and memory. “I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.”

A neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior and worsens over time, according to the Alzheimer’s Assn. Holt reports that more than 7 million Americans over 65 are living with Alzheimer’s, with Black men suffering at a rate double the national average.

Glover and his family say the Hollywood icon is sharing his story now to “have ownership of his life” and to help remove the stigma around the disease.

“They’ve got my back,” Glover says of his family’s support.

Besides his portrayal of L.A. police Det. Roger Murtaugh in the “Lethal Weapon” film series, Glover is known for roles in movies including “Places in the Heart” (1984), “The Color Purple” (1985), “To Sleep With Anger” (1990), “Angels in the Outfield” (1994), “Dreamgirls” (2006) and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” (2019). He’s also been a vocal advocate for social justice and humanitarian causes both in the U.S. and abroad.

He was the recipient of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2022.

“I don’t feel like it’s the end of my life,” he said in his interview with People about living with Alzheimer’s. “There’s work to do.”

Early in “Romería,” the film’s main character, Marina, is asked by some children if she’s ever seen the Santa Compaña, a collection of ghosts who, in Spanish legend, supposedly wander in a pack across the landscape. Humoring the kids, Marina says she hasn’t. That’s good, one of the girls responds. “They’re spirits that can’t die.”

As it happens, Marina is actually on a journey of sorts to connect with the dead — and so is Spanish writer-director Carla Simón, whose third feature is an autobiographical tale about her own quest to make peace with her late parents. Slender but flecked with magical touches, “Romería” is so gentle it never quite qualifies as haunting. Nonetheless, Simón stirs up the ineffable sadness that comes with wanting answers to the mysteries of your family — and then, like it or not, receiving them.

Newcomer Llúcia Garcia plays Marina, an 18-year-old aspiring filmmaker. It’s July 2004, and she’s traveled to the picturesque port city of Vigo to obtain government paperwork that will make her eligible for a university scholarship. She never knew her father Alfonso, who died in 1987. For some reason, there are no records indicating that she was his daughter. Hence the trip to Vigo to see her paternal grandparents for the first time so she can authenticate her ancestry.

Simón, whose previous features “Summer 1993” and “Alcarràs” also grappled with family matters, follows along with Marina on the way to this anxious meeting. Marina’s mother died only a few years after Alfonso, making Marina an orphan. But the mom’s parting gift, a diary, provides opaque glimpses into her life with Alfonso in the mid-1980s. Before Marina arrives at her grandparents’ home, though, she must run a gauntlet of uncles, aunts and cousins, their reactions to her existence varying from warm to wary. Repeatedly, Marina is told she looks just like her mom, but the comment occasionally contains a trace of bitterness. Many of these new faces view her as an unwelcome reminder of a past they’d prefer to forget. When they see Marina, it’s like they’re looking at a ghost.

The strongest component of Garcia’s doe-like performance is the way it captures someone in the midst of shedding her adolescence, gingerly trying on adulthood. Over the course of a few days, this bashful teen, always armed with her camcorder and far less free-spirited than her cousins, will be beset by her father’s feuding family. Silently observing the passive-aggressive maelstrom, Marina will receive an intense immersion in what her life might have been like if he’d lived.

But she quickly realizes that their memories of the man are far from perfect. No one can decide exactly where Alfonso lived in Vigo. And, more troublingly, Marina’s belief that he died in 1987 is contradicted by relatives, who insist that it was five years later. If Marina has that information wrong, what else does she not know?

“Romería” is hardly the first film in which an impressionable soul goes on the hunt for the parents she never had. Likewise, viewers will not be startled when Marina eventually discovers painful secrets about her mom and dad that cause her to reconsider those phantom figures.

Simón, who undertook a similar odyssey at the same age, never allows this delicate story to succumb to self-indulgence or an inflated sense of its own importance. Instead, her film is suffused with a rich, casual immediacy. Simón and her star bracingly recall the electricity of youth as Marina prepares for life as an artist. The movie, in part, is about how she finds her voice.

Simón’s films favor naturalism and “Romería” leaves ample room for Spain’s seaside beauty and glorious sunshine. The calming locales both complement and contradict the plot’s revelations, which are hardly bombshells but do speak to how well-to-do families labor to shove inconvenient skeletons into the closet. If anything, Marina will be more shocked by her grandparents (José Ángel Egido and Marina Troncoso), whose fiercely icy demeanor suggests this teenager should consider herself lucky not to have grown up around them.

Because “Romería” is a coming-of-age story, Marina will be tempted by cute boys; she’ll also begin to display a rebellious streak. As the picture rolls along, Garcia shows a more assertive side, relishing her character’s emergence from her shell. But this modest saga saves its biggest surprise for its final reels, when the narrative folds in on itself beguilingly, allowing Marina to relate to her mom and dad in ways she never had before. Maybe we can never truly know our parents, but if we’re lucky, we can gain the maturity to one day see them in ourselves.

Immigrants detained at two federal facilities in California have launched a boycott in protest of increasing and, in their view, burdensome prices at the facilities’ commissaries for items including tampons, coffee and soup.

The Times reviewed a grievance letter and spoke with three detainees who are involved in the boycott at the California City Detention Facility, about 80 miles east of Bakersfield, and at the Golden State Annex in McFarland.

More than 300 detainees are estimated to have signed grievance letters sent recently to facility administrators, according to advocates with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.

Both facilities are operated by private prison corporations — the California City facility by Tennessee-based CoreCivic and the Golden State Annex by Florida-based GEO Group.

The Times has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, GEO Group and CoreCivic for comment.

Detainees are provided certain essentials, such as food and soap, free of charge, but many also purchase items at commissary stores that are of better quality or otherwise unavailable. Detainees said shampoo and other hygiene items sometimes run out for days and that meals are small or exacerbate diabetes and other health issues.

“The three daily meals that CoreCivic provides at California City Detention Facility are the bare minimum to keep a person alive,” they wrote. “Because of this, charging inflated prices on necessities is considered price gouging and profiteering against vulnerable incarcerated population who have no ability to refuse or shop elsewhere.”

The detainees said an 8 oz. jar of Folgers instant coffee costs $18 at the California City facility, a single instant ramen soup is 75 cents and a box of 40 tampons costs nearly $21.

At Walmart, the same Folgers coffee costs $8.97, Maruchan chicken ramen soup is 50 cents and 40 Tampax tampons are $12.19.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains immigrants for civil purposes. Detention is meant to facilitate removal proceedings but is not meant to be punitive.

Detainees are paid $1 per day under a voluntary work program for cleaning or cooking. Many detainees rely on money from family and friends.

In their grievance letter, the detainees called the markups an unacceptable business practice with no apparent limit. They said they view the situation as an example of captive market exploitation and economic coercion.

The detainees requested a review of commissary pricing by facility leaders, a comparison of prices with prison industry standards, an immediate reduction in prices of essential items and the implementation of reasonable price caps. They also requested an increase in the portions of daily meals, including for meals meeting religious requirements, which they said are particularly small.

In May, the California State Senate passed a bill that would prohibit the excessive markup of products sold at private detention centers, limiting prices to 35% above the vendor cost. Existing California law already limits such markups in state prisons. The bill is now in the Assembly.

Priya Patel, an attorney at the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, represents people who have been detained at both facilities. She said that during legal service consultations, commissary pricing frequently comes up.

“The higher the prices get, the higher of an impact the conditions have on people and the more difficult it becomes to fight their cases,” Patel said.

The collaborative is one of the organizations that brought a lawsuit last year alleging inadequate medical care, as well as insufficient clothing, food, water and outdoor recreation time at the California City facility, which can hold more than 2,500 people. The lawsuit remains ongoing; in March, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco appointed an external monitor to ensure the facility provides “constitutionally adequate health care.”

The lawsuit describes multiple commissary-related issues. For example, it says the facility doesn’t provide headphones for tablets, making private phone calls — including privileged calls with attorneys — impossible unless the detainee can afford to purchase headphones from the commissary.

“One detained person has difficulty walking and standing for extended periods of time without shoes that provide arch support,” the complaint says. “He arrived at California City with appropriate shoes to accommodate his mobility disability, which were approved as an accommodation at a prior ICE facility. California City staff confiscated those shoes and instead provided him with plastic, orange sandals.”

“Several weeks after staff confiscated his shoes, he had an appointment with a doctor at California City,” it continues. “The doctor told the him … to buy different shoes from commissary to accommodate his foot condition.”

A contract between CoreCivic and ICE for the California City facility, dated April 1, 2025, says the contractor must provide notice of any price increases and that “any revenues earned in excess of what is required for commissary operations shall be used solely to benefit aliens at the facility.”

Alfredo Parada Calderon, 52, has been detained at the California City facility since September. He said commissary prices were already high before they increased around mid-June.

Parada Calderon said he asked an ICE officer why the prices had increased so much. The officer said he wasn’t aware of the change but that the vendor is Keefe Group, which supplies commissaries at prisons and immigrant detention centers across the country.

Detainees in his dormitory submitted a grievance about commissary prices, Parada Calderon said. The answer was vague.

“They’re blaming it on inflation,” he said.

Parada Calderon said his family sends him about $100 per month to spend on commissary items, which he spends on packets of crackers, coffee, soups, soap, shampoo, deodorant and chips.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “It’s a horrible enough place to be in and you guys are making it even more horrible, not just for me but for my family. The detainees want to be heard and this is the only option we actually have — a peaceful protest.”

Tommaso Bardelli, a researcher at New York University who studies mass incarceration, said the families of most people in prison are working class and may sacrifice their electricity bill or credit card payment to send money to their incarcerated relatives. The money they send no longer pays for small luxuries, he said, because prisons have over the years reduced how much they spend per person on necessities such as food.

Bardelli published a research article in 2022 about inequality within prison commissary stores. Commissary is often now the difference between starving and a semi-normal diet, he said.

Eddie Huang has never felt lighter. Last month, after his debut novel, “Come Undone,” finally released, something shifted.

“I have a family. I feel healed,” he said over coffee and short ribs in Santa Monica hours ahead of a live talk with Ottessa Moshfegh, the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Huang’s favorite book, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.”

“People always write me off as a personality or a multi-hyphenate,” he said. “It’s a nice way of saying I’m not really good at anything. But I didn’t have any of that this time.” He leaned forward, serious. “I have to be honest. I do think the Knicks are a big, big part of it.”

His beloved Knicks winning the championship, he said, kept him from spiraling over the book. In person, Huang subdues his ironic braggadocio with polite eye contact and rolling belly laughs at his own jokes. For years, audiences have watched Huang resist whatever box you put him in. His particular brand of cultural fluency — a rapid-fire mix of food, fashion, basketball, politics and pop culture — is what made the “Gua Bao Bad Boy” impossible to categorize.

For most of his career, Huang has seemed constitutionally incapable of standing still. Chef. Memoirist. TV host. Filmmaker. Lawyer. Comic. Podcaster. His first book, “Fresh Off the Boat,” became the longest-running network sitcom centered on an Asian American family, even as Huang publicly distanced himself from the show. Since leaving post-fires L.A. for New York, he’s reopened Baohaus — returning to the kitchen that built his career. Waiting for him at home after the book tour is his wife, Natashia Perrotti, and their 2-year-old son.

Now there’s “Come Undone,” fiction that Huang called his most honest — and vulnerable — work to date.

“It’s sort of this next-gen auto fiction type thing that is creating its own rules,” Moshfegh said ahead of their Q-and-A. “It made me think about my own appreciation for the experience of male heterosexuality and how much it’s been commodified.”

The book follows Hubie, a globe-trotting food-show host drifting through Chateau Marmont, Madeo, Nobu and other “dirtbag L.A” (as Huang coins) spots. He meets Janine, his equal in appetite and id, sending him into a tailspin of yearning and loops of Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” on sadboi walks. The “two walking red flags” decide to try to make it work.

Huang called the novel an “autofictional riddle.” The puzzle isn’t especially difficult if you’ve followed his relationship with Perrotti, who co-hosts their podcast, “Canal Street Dreams.” Marrying a writer, she’s learned, often means finding out what he feels by reading it. “We’ll get into a fight,” she said, “and I’ll wake up to a Substack article about it.”

It’s also part of the private life she’s since conceded. “It’s annoying,” she added. “But now I can read it, and maybe understand him a little bit better. He’s trying to communicate through the writing, like sending somebody a song and saying, ‘I want you to listen to these lyrics.’”

The novel goes further, drawing from experiences the couple has never discussed publicly. In the novel, Hubie and Janine’s relationship pivots after an ectopic pregnancy ends in loss. Perrotti said the scene is fictionalized but mirrors a similar experience they had early in their own relationship.

“It brought us closer together,” she said. “It was the catalyst for us realizing we were serious.”

Before Huang could finish the book, the life he was writing about had to fall apart. “This book was very much about breaking up with your family to start your own,” he said. “There was a lot of anger in the book that had not been resolved.”

By the end of 2024, Huang had stopped speaking to his mother. The break followed what he described as a blowup at a Cheesecake Factory. It also unlocked the ending he’d been chasing.

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Looking back, Huang thinks the earlier versions failed because he was still arguing with her. He’s still trying, in some way, to communicate with her through his writing. “If there’s one person I wish would read the book,” he said, “it would be my mom.”

There were other chapters he had to close the book on, mainly Hollywood. His foray into fiction coincided with the writers’ strike, drying up all his income and future projects. That same year, he became a father. “I had to accept and realize that my value was not in making money,” he said. “Because for three years, I couldn’t.”

He recalled a particular low point researching life insurance policies. “I had to rebuild my whole self. Really love myself despite not being able to offer anybody anything.”

That new certainty didn’t make Huang any less willing to pick fights. Last year, as his documentary “Vice Is Broke” — an autopsy of the media company behind “Huang’s World” and its eventual bankruptcy — awaited release, Huang said distributor Mubi shelved the film after he boycotted the company over Sequoia Capital’s investment in an Israeli defense technology startup. (Mubi denied this and said it still planned to distribute the film.)

The ghost of Vice still lingers in today’s media ecosystem in what he called our “era of cartel journalism:” creators navigating a world of blurred incentives and corporate interests. He traced this instinct to challenge those systems back to Socrates’ “gadfly” — the person whose job was to annoy power. “As a writer, you should be challenging people,” he said. “If your memoir can be turned into a sitcom, it probably wasn’t challenging.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

After the 2025 L.A. fires drove his new family back to New York, Huang went back to cooking. He worked pop-ups, reopened Baohaus and found himself alongside line cooks half his age. In March 2025, he rewrote the novel in five days. That same month “was the first month I didn’t overdraft my credit card,” he said, with the majority of his income today coming from the restaurant. It’s allowed him to make films, write books and walk away from deals he doesn’t believe in. “Being a chef is the anchor that allows me to maintain my artistic integrity.”

For years, comparisons to Anthony Bourdain followed Huang everywhere. The two eventually became friends.

“He was one of the few people who was as advertised,” Huang said. “Nicer and more generous in person. And wounded.”

Bourdain is the only real person who appears in “Come Undone” under his own name.

When Huang mentions him, he stops talking. He covers his face. Tears come.

“I don’t believe in God,” he said, “but I asked the universe why for many, many years.”

Bourdain’s suicide, he said, was one of the reasons he walked away from “Huang’s World” in 2018. At the time, few people understood why. “It was Tony. It was family. It was everything.”

Eddie Huang.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Now, looking back, Huang thinks he was writing “Come Undone” toward a different ending than the one he’d imagined.

“This book is a guy saying, ‘I don’t want to be like my biological father,’” he said. “And, in the most respectful, loving way, I don’t want to go out like Tony.”

He paused. “I needed to name the sadness in me. I needed to allow myself to be loved.”

Huang is already writing another memoir about getting back into the kitchen. Still, he said, these days, he’d rather write fiction.

Rudi, an L.A. native, is a freelance art and culture writer. She’s at work on her debut novel about a stuttering student journalist.

In 1913, Antonino Alati left southern Italy to find a better life in a land where many people regarded him as little better than scum.

He joined millions of his fellow countrymen in the United States, where the press vilified Italians as poor, dirty, violent Catholics who had too many babies, refused to assimilate and could never possibly be considered “white.”

Politicians were already working to shut the door on them. A congressional report released two years before Alati’s arrival cited southern Italians as evidence that “the new immigration as a class is far less intelligent than the old.” They came to the U.S., the report asserted, “with the intention of profiting, in a pecuniary way, by the superior advantages of the new world and then returning to the old country.”

Alati wouldn’t let bigotry win. He soon sent for his wife and children, including his infant son Salvatore. Alati turned to Alito, Salvatore became Samuel. A generation later, the family had a Supreme Court justice in Samuel A. Alito Jr. — the second Italian American, after Antonin Scalia, to sit on the highest court in the land.

During his 2005 confirmation hearings, Alito praised his father as an “extraordinary man who came to the United States as a young child and overcame many difficulties” to ensure a better life for him and his sister. By then, Italian Americans were established as an essential part of this country’s fabric, from music to politics to food.

It’s the most American of tales — which is why it’s so surprising, yet not, to read Alito’s blistering dissent in the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision rejecting President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship.

If there’s one constant in this country besides death and taxes, it’s how quickly descendants of immigrants, and sometimes immigrants themselves, forget how loathed their ethnic group was and how they proved the haters wrong. Too many become uncharitable to the policies that helped them and the immigrants who followed.

But Alito’s stance against birthright citizenship goes beyond just forgetting his roots. His 39-page opinion describes the supposed impact of undocumented migrants on the U.S., using words — “overran,” “soared,” “exploded,” “massive,” “a stream,” “huge” — that read like the same invective used against Italians in his grandfather and father’s time.

The justice channels anti-Italian conspiracies of the past by casting doubt on the national allegiances of the U.S.-born children of Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants — the same patriotism test that Italian Americans faced generations ago when xenophobes questioned their Catholicism. Alito claims without evidence that millions of agricultural workers were able to apply for American citizenship after President Reagan’s 1986 amnesty “at least in part because of fraud” — a charge also leveled against Italians who sought to naturalize back in the day.

And so it goes, each passage a jumbled argument dressed up in judicial interpretations largely rejected by his fellow Catholic Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Coney Barrett signed on to the majority opinion that Roberts wrote, and Kavanaugh concurred.

Rev. William Barber II speaks during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 1 while justices heard oral arguments on birthright citizenship.

(Al Drago / Getty Images)

I know how quickly families forget their own immigrant histories. Yet I look at people like Alito and wonder how they ended up thinking the way they do, because I could never imagine doing the same.

My maternal grandmother was born in Arizona to parents who fled their home country during the Mexican Revolution, becoming an American citizen by birthright. My father, who crossed the border in the trunk of a Chevy, legalized his status in an era when it was far easier to do so.

Like Alito’s paisanes, my Mexican family was also demonized for supposedly being insufficiently American and posing a threat to national unity. They also sacrificed their own dreams so their children and grandchildren could achieve theirs.

And just like Alito, some members of my family have forgotten our history and support Trump or favor some of his immigration policies, dismissing new arrivals as criminals or lazy. That’s why I will always side with undocumented people and welcome anyone who gives birth in this country with the hope that their newborn finds a better life.

It seems from his dissent that Alito somewhat agrees with me. He posits that millions of Americans who were born in this country to parents without papers “have a strong moral claim to be able to remain in the land where they grew up.” Congress “can and should address their situation,” he writes.

The justice blasts birth tourism, where women from China and other countries travel to the U.S. to have a baby, then return home, benefiting from our generosity and offering nothing in return.

I agree that’s a mockery of what being an American should be and ruins it for people who want to contribute to building a better nation. But Alito throws out the baby with the bathwater by failing to recognize that Trump’s attempt to erase birthright citizenship via executive order is presidential overreach based on bigotry, not rule of law. He’d rather cut up the Constitution to spite something he doesn’t like. Thank God his side lost, yet it’s sad that Trump’s pathetic attempt to define who can be an American went as far as it did.

Alito concludes by stating that the court’s decision to uphold the 14th Amendment is “a mistake that will seriously affect the country’s future.”

What new immigrants might inflict on this country is the perpetual worry of immigration restrictionists — and yet history keeps proving them wrong. Alito’s family did; so did mine. Only in these United States can the progeny of people once portrayed as parasites and invaders side with those making the same argument about the latest batch of newcomers.

History will see Alito’s vote for what it is: a forsaking of the promise his family once fulfilled, to support the people who never wanted them here in the first place.

The wife and two children of Argentine soccer player Lucas Trejo were killed after two earthquakes struck northern Venezuela late last week.

Trejo has played for several first and second division soccer clubs in the South American country since 2023 and signed on with the northern Venezuela-based Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira earlier this year.

On Sunday, Trejo’s club announced the deaths of his family in an Instagram post.

“Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira profoundly laments the irreparable loss of the wife and sons of our player Lucas Trejo,” the team wrote. “[The deaths] occurred on June 24th during the earthquake that shook the entire country.”

According to Venezuelan government officials, more than 1,700 people have died as a result of the quakes.

When the earthquakes struck, Trejo was at a training session in the capital city of Caracas while his wife Yanina and children— Aarón and Ainhoa— were at the family home in the severely affected beachfront city of La Guaira.

Trejo’s brother-in-law Ricardo Ardiles told CNN Español that the Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira defender rushed home after the temblors and was “emotionally overwhelmed” as he dug through rubble for days in search of his family.

“What he found was a horrific scene,” Ardiles said last week. “He found absolutely nothing of what the building itself had been.”

Trejo was far from the only athlete gravely affected by the seismic activity in Venezuela.

Former Club Sport Marítimo de La Guaira player Héctor Bello also lost his wife Andrea during the earthquakes. She died while protecting their infant daughter, who was later found alive by rescue teams.

“I’m going to make sure our baby remembers how wonderful you were, how much you loved her,” Bello wrote in an Instagram post honoring his wife. “I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her, how you gave your own life for our daughter, how you were a brave woman who, even with your last breaths, never abandoned her.”

On Friday, the Venezuelan Football Federation announced the death of 18-year-old rising star Yimvert Berroterán who played with the youth national teams from 2024 to 2026.

“Venezuelan football bids a heart-wrenching farewell to a young man who represented our country’s colors with pride, commitment and love,” a social media statement from the federation read. “His passing has plunged the entire Vinotinto family into mourning and leaves an indelible mark on all those who shared moments with him both on and off the pitch.”

Eighteen-year-old Razan Sijaa, who played for Caracas Fútbol Club, 14-year-old Víctor Palacios of Club Sport San Augustín’s academy and 17-year-old prospect Ricardo Veloz were also killed by the quakes.

Locally, the family of Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas narrowly escaped tragedy and were doing OK after the earthquakes.

“Literally two blocks away from where my family was, two buildings collapsed — the whole building,” Rojas told reporters last week. “I’m lucky, to be honest with you guys. I’m really lucky to have my family still alive and with me. I’m not taking this for granted.”

According to Rojas, his wife and kids were in Caracas, which is approximately six miles south of where the quakes struck. His wife was there to renew her passport, and the kids were going to try to get Venezuelan citizenship. He added that his sister was in Los Teques, Rojas’ hometown about 17 miles south of the coastal destruction.

“It’s really tough to see teammates of mine and players that I played with at some point in my career lose family members, to lose kids,” said Rojas, who spent years playing baseball in La Guaira. “It’s really devastating. It’s been really hard for me to go to sleep at night.”

JOSH Duggar has been moved to a new federal prison more than 100 miles closer to his wife and family after leaving a medical facility, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.

The disgraced TLC reality star, 38, is currently serving more than 12 years after being convicted of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material following his arrest in April 2021.

Official records show he has been transferred to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City after a short stay at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson previously said inmates may be transferred for a variety of reasons, including medical concerns, or other measures designed to maintain institutional safety and inmate protection.

Duggar is now about 218 miles from the family’s home in Tontitown, Arkansas — compared to the roughly 350-mile journey to FCI Seagoville in Texas, where he had been incarcerated since 2022.

The new facility serves as a temporary processing hub for federal inmates being moved between prisons, which means Duggar could be transferred again before serving out the remainder of his sentence.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to the bureau and Duggar’s lawyers comment.

He has been incarcerated since his conviction on federal child pornography charges stemming from downloads made at the used car dealership he operated in Springdale, Arkansas.

In December 2021, a federal jury found him guilty of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material after investigators traced illegal downloads to a password-protected computer at his business.

Prosecutors argued Duggar was the only person with the knowledge and access needed to download the files.

In May 2022, he was sentenced to 151 months — more than 12 years — in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release.

He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Ever since, Duggar has unsuccessfully fought to overturn his conviction, arguing that errors were made during his trial and that evidence should not have been admitted.

Federal appeals courts have rejected the arguments, leaving his conviction and sentence intact.

His wife Anna has remained publicly loyal to her husband throughout his imprisonment despite the scandal that ended the Duggar family’s reality TV empire.

She has regularly visited him in prison and attended court hearings during his legal battle, while continuing to raise the couple’s seven children in Arkansas.

They have been married since September 2008 and have seven children together.

The Bureau of Prisons has not disclosed why Duggar was transferred or where he will ultimately be sent next.

Federal inmates are commonly moved because of security classifications, institutional needs, programming opportunities, medical reasons or other administrative decisions.

For now, Duggar remains in Oklahoma City as officials determine his permanent placement.

His projected release date remains October 2, 2032, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

Meanwhile, his racy messages to his wife Anna while he was in custody in Arkansas were revealed in a report by PEOPLE.

“[I] miss you my lover. i miss being in the shower with you scrubbing, i miss watching you try on clothes, I miss watching you being sexy,” Josh wrote.

He also congratulated his wife for “making the scale numbers lower than expected” and suggested she buy herself “something low cut” to wear in the shocking text.

He continued, “[O]r you can try on clothes and send me a pic of you in your bra and panties 😉 or try on ‘go to the private pool for sun’ swimsuit? btw you should order you a 2-piece swimsuit since summer is coming on soon, get something hot and fun.”

Josh then signed off, telling her he would love her forever and calling her “sexy.”

He wrote a similar sign-off in a message sent to Anna, 38, days later, and added, “p.s. – send pics asap as requested, imlied (sic), inferred or otherwise stated lol. nice one(s) with your twos in it! (OvO).”

School’s (almost) out … and with a long summer stretching ahead, we want you to share fun activities that will help others fill the family diary. We’d love to hear about your favourite summer days out and adventures in the UK. Perhaps it’s a trip to an outdoor sculpture park or gallery, a great picnic spot by a river, a small theme park or coastal hike to a quiet cove.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

Keep your tip to about 100 words

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words we will be judging for the competition.

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The competition closes on Monday 6 July at 10am BST

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WASHINGTON — Holiday gatherings and major life events have come with an empty seat. Certain dates on the calendar meant time at a cemetery, standing before granite stones.

They are a relatively small group of people, scattered across different states, but they share a common bond that stretches decades: Each had a family member die violently in the struggle for voting and civil rights, victims on a long and difficult path marked by blood that ended when the country seemed to mature into the nation of its creed.

But 61 years later, and as the country approaches its 250th anniversary this weekend, those sacrifices are in question. In a series of decisions over the last dozen years, including one in April, the Supreme Court has essentially dismantled the law that their family members died to see enacted, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“My mother’s blood is on that bill. We were always proud of that, and now it’s gone,” said Anthony Liuzzo, whose mother, Viola Liuzzo, died on an Alabama highway between Selma and Montgomery while driving marchers in 1965.

Critics of the law contend that times have changed, an argument Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made in a 2013 decision that was the first major step in rolling back the law.

Survivors of lost loved ones disagree, pointing to the speed with which Republican-led state legislatures eliminated majority-Black congressional districts after the court’s April ruling, which severely weakened a section of the law that had protected voting rights for minority communities. They feel anger and sadness that a milestone political victory decades ago has been reversed, but they are committed to keep fighting.

A church bombing and a chunk of concrete

Lisa McNair was born Sept. 19, 1964. Her older sister, Denise, died in the Sept 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. The church had been a central organizing point for civil rights protest.

The explosion killed Denise McNair, 11, and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris Wesley. Nearly two dozen others were injured. Three Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted years later.

One of Lisa McNair’s early memories of her sister was of the box that their grandmother kept from the funeral home. It included Denise McNair’s shoes, a purse and a rock-sized piece of concrete that had been embedded in her skull.

The crime brought the civil rights struggle onto the national stage and outraged President Kennedy.

The times were tumultuous, McNair said, but it seemed the nation was heading in the right direction. Most of her life, “I’ve seen advances” on television, in commercials, with interracial marriages, civil rights and voting rights, “a plethora of rights that we got over the greater part of my lifetime.” But that has changed, she said.

McNair, 61, said she is “physically sick” about the Supreme Court decision and subsequent actions by lower courts and legislatures.

“I am constantly working to pray my way through it, so I can get up and go to work in the morning and do what I need to do. But I just want to ask every white person I see, ‘What more do you want?;” she said. “‘Why do you hate us so?’”

They left for Freedom Summer and never came home

Michael Schwerner, known as Mickey, came from a family in which human rights activism and challenging social norms were expected. He was in Mississippi in 1964 as part of Freedom Summer when he, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney vanished one day in June while investigating a bombing at a Black church.

Their bodies were found weeks later, buried in an earthen dam in a rural area of Neshoba County. Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, were white; Chaney, 21, was Black.

Stephen Schwerner, who died earlier this year and was a social activist in his own right, told the Associated Press in a 2023 interview that as soon as the family heard his younger brother and the other men were missing, they knew they were dead.

“Our family was very out front in the media that the only reason there was international attention was two of the young men were white,” said Stephen’s daughter, Cassie Schwerner. “Had all three of those young men been Black, they would have ended up absent from our history and our narrative.”

The executive director of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Cassie Schwerner, said her family has followed voting rights through their ups and downs. That includes the 2013 Supreme Court decision that allowed states and counties with a history of discriminatory voting rules to make changes without prior approval from the Department of Justice.

The court’s April decision, she said, brought rage “and a good deal of sadness — not for me and my family, but for this country.” There is, she said, work to be done on multiple fronts.

Rights paid for in blood turned out to be fragile

Tamara Orange said among her many thoughts when she heard of the Supreme Court decision in this year’s Voting Rights Act case, there was relief — “relief that my dad is not here to see that; that Jimmie Lee Jackson is not here to see it; that Viola Liuzzo is not here to see it,” she said. “I’m relieved for them because to me, it’s as though the sacrifices that were made were done in vain.”

Her father, James Orange, was working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organize voting rights protests in Marion and Perry County, Ala., in 1965. When juveniles joined the effort, he was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Concern arose that Orange was going to be taken out of the jail and lynched.

A protest to intervene ended with Jackson, a 26-year-old Black church deacon, being shot in the stomach by a state trooper while Jackson tried to shield his mother and grandfather.

His death was the catalyst for what became the Selma-to-Montgomery march and “Bloody Sunday.”

Orange stayed in the movement all his life and died in 2008, Tamara Orange said. But even after the Voting Rights Act passed, “he would say, ‘Be careful or we’re going to lose it.’”

‘We got bad news for you’

Anthony Liuzzo had just turned 10 when his mother, 39, left their middle-class neighborhood in Michigan and headed for Selma. She had cried as she watched scenes from “Bloody Sunday” on television.

Viola Liuzzo participated in a portion of the second march and then helped drive other civil rights protesters around the Black Belt region of the state. On March 25, 1965, she was driving one protester between Selma and Montgomery when a vehicle pulled alongside and fired into the car.

The phone call came around midnight. Anthony Liuzzo remembers the caller asking his dad, “Is your wife Viola? We got bad news for you. She’s been shot.” When his father asked whether she was all right, the caller said, “No, she’s dead,” and then hung up.

An informant for the FBI quickly identified members of the Ku Klux Klan as her killers. The three men charged would escape conviction on state charges but be convicted in federal court.

Anthony Liuzzo and his siblings lived with the lost birthdays and other missed milestones. His comfort was that the voting rights she had died for had become a reality. But the April ruling by the Supreme Court and the subsequent rush by Republican-led legislatures in several Southern states to eliminate congressional districts represented by Black lawmakers left him angry and distraught.

Even so, he said he is still proud his mother had the courage to go to Selma “when others sat in their pretty little houses.”

One morning, the Klan returned

The inscription at the bottom of Vernon Dahmer Sr.’s tombstone reads simply: “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.”

It is a message that embodies his life’s work and the story behind his death.

Even after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, not every state was eager to implement the new law. In Mississippi, it came with a poll tax. The amount was $2, but in a world where a farmworker’s wages might only be $5 a day, that was substantial, said Dahmer’s son, Dennis Dahmer Sr.

The elder Dahmer, 57 at the time of his death, was a successful businessman who owned a store, sawmill and farm near Hattiesburg. He also was a civil rights leader and NAACP president in Ford County. He offered to pay the $2 for Black residents who wanted to register to vote.

He had already been under scrutiny by the local Ku Klux Klan. There was harassment and there were threatening phone calls. The windows were shot out of his store, but no one challenged him directly because his sons were always present and armed.

That seemed to tail off after Johnson signed the law.

“The Klan quit calling,” Dennis Dahmer said. “They quit shooting out the windows, so my family thought that all of this was behind us.”

That changed in the early hours of Jan. 10, 1966, when two carloads of Klansmen showed up. They firebombed the house and adjacent grocery store and began shooting at the house. The elder Dahmer shot back, using his ample arsenal to fight off the attack.

His wife and the three children who were home survived, but he suffered severe injuries from inhaling the smoke and fumes from the flames. He died later that day.

Dennis Dahmer was 12 as he stood next to his dad’s hospital bed. He wondered why some people wanted his father dead just for trying to help Black people vote.

A former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Sam Bowers, was convicted in 1998 for the attack and sentenced to life in prison.

Like the families of other survivors, Dennis Dahmer’s family has witnessed the methodical dismantling of the Voting Rights Act.

“Finally, they basically turned it into a relic,” he said.

His plan now is activism, to speak out and promote the need for a massive voter turnout. He also wants to remind people of the price that certain families paid for everyone to have the right to vote and be represented by someone of their choosing.

“We’re living in a time when America has a lot of the same characteristics of the 1960s that I grew up in,” he said. “People say, ‘Are we going back?’ Hell, we’re already there.”

Fields writes for the Associated Press.

MOLLY-MAE Hague has shared some sweet new snaps of baby Midas, and they look absolutely adorable.

The reality TV stunner and her beau Tommy Fury welcomed their second child together four weeks ago.

Now marking the milestone of four weeks as a family of four, Molly-Mae took to her Instagram story to share a series of unseen baby photos.

In the first snap Tommy is cradling tiny Midas in his arms and laughing with glee.

The couple’s daughter Bambi, 3, is sitting playfully on Tommy’s leg and looking up at him as he laughs.

Over the top of the photo Molly-Mae penned: “One month as a crazy family of four,” followed by emojis of a laughing face, white heart and a family.

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A second snap shows Midas being held outside on some patio furniture.

The little one is swaddled up in a white blanket, sleepily keeping his eyes open.

Above his head, Molly-Mae gushed yet again: “4 weeks of you.”

A final snap shows Molly-Mae holding Midas while still in a hospital bed.

Tommy is looking down at his son with his hands held up to his face in disbelief and joy.

Molly-Mae said of the moment: “One of the best moments of my life. Will never get over it.”

The new photos come less than a week after Molly-Mae posted a sentimental post about Tommy’s first Father’s Day as a father of two.

Molly-Mae had set up a beautiful balloon display and filmed Tommy’s shocked reaction as he walked down the stairs. 

The sweet clip also showed Bambi as she passed a card to her father, full of giggles. 

Narin Flanders hit le road with her family, stopping off at Disneyland and Eurocamp as part of a tour of the country that began with Brittany Ferries and ended with Le Shuttle

There are plenty of good reasons to swap flying for a driving holiday this summer: airline prices are creeping up, airport strikes are planned in several European hub cities and rumblings about jet fuel availability with the ongoing issues in the Strait of Hormuz.

However, why my family and I finally took the plunge, after months of reading about roadtrips online, was a reason much closer to home. As a family of four allergic to the concept of travelling light, the idea of being able to fill our Kia Sportage with everyone’s (admittedly often non-essential) essentials and travel to a few different places in one trip was a tempting prospect.

So we took the plunge and put together an itinerary, including a bit of something for everybody. We started by getting on a Brittany Ferry at Portsmouth, travelling five hours to Caen and then two hours cross-country to a Eurocamp in Domaine des Ormes, Brittany.

Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

We started with four days of Center Parcs style, living at a fraction of the price of a hotel. Swimming, ziplines, and playgrounds were aplenty (along with unlimited wifi – it wasn’t all Swallows and Amazons ). Then we meandered across to Le Mans as a treat for my husband and I, who are both major racing fans.

From the hallowed tarmac, we headed towards the capital to visit Disneyland Paris. After two full days at the European House of the Mouse, soaking up the new Adventure World Park as well as fulfilling all my son’s and my Marvel nerd dreams, we took Le Shuttle home.

While we were definitely nervous about driving abroad, what I realised quickly was that Gemini could answer lots of questions and even help plot the itinerary, right down to recommending great towns between our main destinations with things to do with the kids.

Planning ahead allowed us to get organised with essentials. In France, there’s a lot to consider to stay road legal. All cars driving in France need to have a safety kit in the boot in case of an emergency by law. They’re easily bought from Amazon for around £20, although make sure to buy extra high viz jackets if needed – everyone in the car needs their own.

Meanwhile, an Emovis tag is a £9 Bluetooth gadget that you can place on your dashboard and then just drive through tolls and be billed afterwards. It arrived in the UK in plenty of time for our trip, and we loved not having to faff with coins or payment cards at tolls along the way.

Cars driving in major cities that have been designated low-emission zones also need a Crit’Air sticker. These cost €4.71 (£4) including delivery and can be ordered from the French transport ministry – although beware the scam sites that come up on Google suggesting you order through them at a higher price. Cars without a Crit’Air can be fined €68, so if you think you’re going to stray into low-emission zones, it’s worth getting one for peace of mind.

While, of course, driving in France involves getting used to being on the wrong side of the road, once we were actually there, the experience was largely stress-free. I’d say French drivers are better at using motorways properly than we are – middle lane hogs didn’t seem to be much of a thing.

There are some differences, though. Notably, the responsibility for drivers to give way to cars joining the motorway, so remembering to move over took some getting used to. We were relieved to find Google Maps worked effectively everywhere we went, so it’s definitely worth paying for roaming data or picking up a temporary SIM from brands like Lebara or Smarty that include it free.

While a driving holiday was slightly out of our comfort zone, it turned into a fun family adventure we’d absolutely do again.

As well as the joys of the individual stops – and surprise diversions along the way, including discovering an unassuming restaurant with steak frites so epic it has become the stuff of family legend – we found, much to my surprise, that the time spent in the car watching the French landscape go by became part of the fun.

At home we’d be firmly in ‘are we there yet?’ territory, but a family Spotify playlist sharing our favourite songs and regular stops at French petrol stations for snacks made the drive as much a part of the adventure as everything else.

Book it

Narin stayed at the Domaine des Ormes Eurocamp. Currently, a four night stay for a two bedroom lodge through Eurocamp starting on Monday, July 20 is £975. For the October half term, Eurocamp is £289.64 for four nights.

The cost of taking a car on Le Shuttle starts at £69, and £89 for Brittany Ferries.

This indoor UK attraction could just be the heatwave hack you’ve been waiting for as families swap hot beaches and overcrowded swimming pools for some cold snow

As temperatures continue to rise, with no promise that the UK won’t be thrown into a heatwave again this summer, this unlikely family day out may just be your saving grace.

As much as the UK loves to complain about rain, as soon as those summer temperatures soar, we’re really not different. As the fans are pulled out of storage and paddling pools assemble, there’s somewhere even cooler that you can escape to.

Families can turn the sun into snow by visiting indoor ski slopes this summer. SnowDome, which has dubbed itself the ‘Midlands’s biggest fridge’, is a good place to start.

Smack bang in the middle of the country, based in Tamworth, just 30 minutes from Birmingham, the indoor activity centre offers a whole load of snow-based activities. From ice skating to slope activities such as skiing and snowboarding, as well as climbing and swimming, there’s plenty to keep you busy all under one roof.

Kirsty Tucker, the head of marketing at SnowDome, said: “The UK isn’t always prepared for extreme heat, and when temperatures climb, families are often looking for fun ways to stay cool. SnowDome offers a unique escape, where guests can enjoy everything from snow slides and skiing to ice skating and swimming.

“Combined with our June Sale savings, it’s the perfect opportunity for families to enjoy a refreshing day out this summer.”

The indoor ski centre is offering 55% off selected activities in June for bookings made by 28th June for visits before 19th July 2026.

Having paid the place a visit in June, one recent skier shared on TripAavisor: “As we were visiting the area from Kent, we decided to book a beginner snowboarding lesson, having never tried before, and what an awesome 2hrs! Staff were friendly from the reception area right through to equipment hire helping guide us on correct equipment fitting.”

Alternatively, elsewhere in the country is The SnowCentre, which has two locations, one in Manchester and the other in Hemel Hempstead, for those both in the north and south of the country.

At both SnowCentre locations, visitors can enjoy a whole host of different ski and snowboard lessons, lift passes, and freestyle options.

The UK’s largest indoor snow centre can be found in Milton Keynes, called Snozone. The company has another site in Yorkshire, offering visitors a gateway from the warm summer, transporting them to a snow-filled day of fun. It works as the ideal space for sharpening up your snow-sports skills, all while providing a unique day out at this time of year.

It may not have been at the forefront of your mind, but it’s never too early to get the skis back on. In fact, there may be no better time to hit the snow as you find yourself slowly melting under the UK sun this month.

KELLY Osbourne has signed up to star in a new reality show documenting her life and personal struggles after the death of her father.

The daughter of belated icon Ozzy Osbourne, 41, used to feature in the much-loved show The Osbournes alongside her family.

But this time around Kelly will be taking centre stage in a show focusing on her reinvention as a single mother to son Sid, 3.

Kelly and her fiance, Sid Wilson from Slipknot, split up in March of this year.

She’s since been romantically lined to hairstylist Kiinicki but according to The Daily Mail it’s been an “on and off” relationship.

Kelly’s family and friends, including Lily Allen and DJ Fat Tony, may also be making appearances in the new programme.

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Speaking about the show’s contract, a friend said: “The deal is done, and the production company is finalising which broadcaster this will go with; most likely Disney.

“It will focus on how she is stepping back into life after the trauma of Ozzy dying last year and after breaking up with Sid. It’s about her rebuilding.”

Kelly lost her father in July last year after he suffered a heart attack in his home in Buckinghamshire.

The Black Sabbath star, 76, had only finished his farewell tour Back To The Beginning a matter of weeks before passing away.

Despite suffering a heart attack, Ozzy struggled with numerous other health conditions including Parkinson’s and complication of a quad bike accident from 2003.

Kelly and her family have since been grieving and doing their best to stay strong.

In December, marking the first Christmas without her father, an emotional Kelly shared online: “Christmas will never be the same.

“I will never be the same. The person I was before he died does not exist any more.

“It changes you. He was magical. There is no one like him.”

The Osbournes premiered its first episode in 2002 on MTV, with its first season being cited as the most-viewed series to ever hit MTV.