Flag

With the summer holidays on the horizon, travel lovers are preparing for their getaways

An insurance provider has shared a checklist for drivers planning a European getaway. Ahead of summer, many families and adventurers are preparing for road trips or holidays abroad. For anyone planning to drive their car in Europe, Green Flag recommends checking five things before setting off.

Sharing advice for motorists online, Green Flag said: “It’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure everything is properly arranged before you head off on your European travels. A quick check, a few weeks before you go, means you’ll have time to address anything that’s not already in place. Take a few minutes and check:

1. Whether any existing breakdown cover includes European travel
2. Which countries are covered under the policy
3. You have your vehicle insurance documents
4. Your driving licence and passport are valid
5. Any local driving requirements, such as safety equipment rules and items you’re expected to have in your car.”

The motoring experts explained that drivers should know their breakdown cover options, which could help them decide whether to take out European breakdown cover for the trip. Green Flag said the insurance helps drivers if their car develops a fault or breaks down during a trip outside of the UK but within Europe.

If drivers don’t take out insurance and then experience difficulties, it could prove costly. Green Flag said: “If you don’t have European breakdown cover and your car develops an issue while travelling abroad, you’d need to call up a breakdown and rescue service that operates in the country you’re in.

“This usually means contacting a local recovery operator and paying for roadside help and towing directly. Costs vary depending on the country, time of day and distance involved.

“In many cases, payment is required upfront, and getting English-speaking help may be difficult depending on where you are.” Green Flag added that you might also need to arrange accommodation and pay the costs to return your car to the UK if it can’t be repaired locally.

Despite this, some drivers might decide to go ahead without additional breakdown cover. The blog advised: “Whether it’s worth getting breakdown cover for your trip to Europe depends on how much of a risk you consider breaking down abroad to be.

“If you’re happy to figure things out should they happen, then maybe European breakdown cover isn’t for you. But if you’d rather set off knowing you’re covered should your car break down, then you’ll probably want to consider getting European breakdown cover.”

Nonetheless, knowing your options ahead of travel means you’re prepared in case of an emergency. For drivers considering European cover, insurers often offer single-trip or multi-trip cover.

Israeli settlers have been filmed vandalising a boys’ school in Huwara, spray-painting racist graffiti and raising an Israeli flag on the roof. The attack comes as settler violence intensifies across the occupied West Bank with homes and cars set on fire, leaving at least nine Palestinians injured.

Fake is the operative word. Tom Brady’s beef with Logan Paul, Paul’s beef with Rob Gronkowski and Brady’s beef with World Wrestling Entertainment all are as fake as plant-based meat.

It’s also so much fun.

That’s the consensus opinion of fans and participants alike to the promotional shenanigans ahead of this weekend’s Fanatics Flag Football Classic at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles and next month’s WWE WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Brady used the word himself, calling wrestling “fake B.S.” Wednesday night at the Flag Football Classic draft at a Beverly Hills hotel. The comments came shortly after Brady went on Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast and told the WWE star in no uncertain terms that he was not on the same athletic level as NFL players.

Paul took exception, pointing out that he played linebacker in high school. He is on the flag football roster of Team Wildcats alongside NFL quarterbacks and captains Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels, so inquiring minds can evaluate Paul’s gridiron bona fides during the three-team flag fun televised at 1 p.m. PDT Sunday on Fox Sports.

In addition to Team Wildcats, the inaugural flag football event features a team led by Brady and Jalen Hurts called Founders and another consisting of the U.S. men’s national flag football roster.

In promoting the venture, Brady poked the enormously popular WWE organization, telling Paul, “You know, I love WWE. It’s very cute. But honestly, this is like real football. This is just real competition.

“I’m glad you’re going to be there and finally participate in a competition that matters.”

Brady upped the ante after Sports Illustrated playfully asked how many WWE wrestlers it would take to sack him.

“They wouldn’t even get near me,” he replied. “Plus, if I had a good offensive line, they’d punch those guys right in the throat and they’d probably be crying.”

All a deft segue to WrestleMania 42, which many followers suspect is positioning Brady to be some sort of scripted villain during the WWE’s annual five-day extravaganza. Last year WrestleMania 41 attracted more than 100,000 fans to Allegiant Stadium, generating roughly $65 million in ticket revenue and reaching a global audience with more than a billion social media views.

Adding the greatest quarterback of all time would only boost those numbers. Introducing a surprise antagonist has long been a key ingredient of the WWE recipe, and at this point Brady surfacing is all but expected.

The seven-time Super Bowl champion has morphed into a glue guy, whose employment as a Fox Sports NFL television analyst, part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and key partner with Fanatics binds him with almost every major stakeholder in the Flag Football Classic and WrestleMania 42. Every stakeholder except the WWE.

That gives Brady license to take good-natured shots at wrestling for now and positions him to become a high-profile heel at WrestleMania 42.

It’s no coincidence that both events are in partnership with Fanatics, the outfit that has grown from designing and manufacturing licensed fan gear into a ubiquitous global digital sports platform and e-commerce company.

That leaves only the feigned feud between Paul and Gronkowski — Brady’s longtime pal and New England Patriots teammate. It started when Gronkowski labeled Paul a “flake” on a podcast a few days ago after Paul made a $1-million boxing challenge to NFL players and subsequently backed out of a fight with former running back Le’Veon Bell.

The tongue-in-cheek beef culminated in a verbal volley at the flag football draft with Gronkowski jawing at Paul while balancing a paper plate stacked with hors d’oeuvres and Paul shouting back over the head of 5-foot-5 comedian Kevin Hart, who somehow found himself in the role of peacemaker.

“No one can tackle me. So if Logan Paul wants a piece of me, I’m down to throw it down on the field and even throw my fist and just go at it, an all-out brawl on the flag football field,” Gronkowski said with an impish grin.

Crazy how Fanatics posted a video of the exchange so quickly. It had racked up 250,000 views as of Friday morning. Just Gronkowski and Paul following Brady’s lead, knowing their job descriptions include promotion as well as performance.

A Christian engineer with L.A. County claims his bosses discriminated against him by forcing him to pass by a Pride flag on the way to his office, the latest legal challenge to the government’s policy of requiring many government buildings display the flag throughout June.

Eric Batman, a 24-year veteran of the Department of Public Works, sued the county March 10 for refusing to let him work remotely in June, when the rainbow-striped flag hangs in front of his department’s Alhambra headquarters.

It’s the second lawsuit to target the county’s 2023 policy ordering the raising of the “Progress Pride Flag,” a modified version of the traditional rainbow flag with additional stripes representing people of color and transgender and nonbinary people.

In May 2024, Jeffrey Little, an evangelical Christian county lifeguard, sued the county for requiring he work feet away from the flag. That case, filed by conservative Catholic legal group Thomas More Society, is ongoing.

Batman said he first asked to work remotely for the month of June in 2024 to avoid the flag, which he found “highly offensive,” according to the suit.

A supervisor rejected his request, according to the filing, noting the county was “committed to fostering an inclusive workplace, including for our LGBTQ+ employees.” The supervisor suggested he use another entrance, Batman’s suit claimed.

“They wouldn’t give it to him because the county said ‘Our interest is in inclusivity — regardless of whether or not that includes you,”’ said Daniel Schmid, an attorney with Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group representing Batman.

Liberty Counsel frequently takes on high-profile plaintiffs who oppose same-sex marriage, including the case of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

A spokesperson for the county’s public works department said she could not comment on the suit as it had not yet been served.

Tom Brady‘s return to the football field will take place on U.S. soil.

Right here in Los Angeles, to be specific.

The Fanatics Flag Football Classic, featuring Brady and a slew of other NFL stars and athletes, will take place March 21 at BMO Stadium, the venue that is also slated to host flag football during the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The event was originally scheduled to take place on the same date, but at a location more than 8,000 miles away at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

No official reason for the relocation has been given, although the move was made amid increased tensions in the Middle East after the United States and Israel began military strikes against Iran this month. Last week, Iran used two drones to strike the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city.

The event will feature three 12-player teams. Brady, the retired seven-time Super Bowl champion and minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts will co-captain the Founders FFC team, which will be coached by Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton.

A second team, Wildcats FFC, will be co-captained by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, with San Francisco 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan coaching. During a March 18 draft, the two teams will be built from a pool of athletes that include Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, former Rams receiver Odell Beckham Jr., four-time Super Bowl-winning tight end Rob Gronkowski and WWE star Logan Paul.

The third team in the event is the U.S. national flag football team, the reigning IFAF flag football world champion coached by Jorge Cascudo and captained by Aamir Brown and Darrell “Housh” Doucette.