hope

Patti Scialfa’s cancer battle has taken a turn for the better. Take it from the Boss himself.

Bruce Springsteen announced the improvement in his wife and longtime E Street Band member’s health over the weekend in a video message for the Pan-Mass Challenge, a bike-a-thon fundraiser that benefits cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In the video, shared Tuesday on Facebook by Pan-Mass Challenge, the 76-year-old rocker praised the organization’s ongoing commitment to advancing cancer research and spoke about Scialfa’s battle with blood cancer.

“As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years but now thankfully she is in remission,” he said in his video message, which played during the PMC 2026 opening ceremony in Worcester. “Like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns: Hope has a face.”

Scialfa’s cancer battle became public in 2024 when she shared the health revelation in the world tour documentary “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.” Scialfa, now 73, said in the film that she was diagnosed in 2018 with multiple myeloma, a condition that occurs when cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In the film, Scialfa said touring with her husband and the E Street band was difficult because of her disease and she has had “to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.” She has been part of the E Street Band since 1984 and is its only woman member.

Scialfa, who provides backing vocals and plays tambourine and guitar, married Springsteen in 1991.

Scialfa was absent from the video message, but Springsteen said her health journey offers a lesson he hopes “every American can understand.” “Medical research isn’t an idea. It isn’t politics,” he said, “it isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason why families find hope when hope seems hardest to find.”

Times staff writer Mark Olsen and former staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

Your team could have done this.

Is baseball headed for a lockout this winter? Yes.

Because the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal? No.

The Dodgers play a video before each home game, which includes these words from a sinister-sounding voice: “You need teams like us to point your finger and say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ ”

In this case, “you” means the owners of the other 29 teams. You can hear them wailing now: Baseball is rigged, and only a salary cap can unrig the sport. The Dodgers are the back-to-back champions, and they just picked up the best player on the trade market.

They. Have. Too. Much. Damn. Money.

But here’s the thing: All the money the Dodgers lavish upon their major league roster isn’t what made the trade for Skubal possible.

Oh, all that money helped put them in position to where Skubal could help them in October, but Skubal could have helped the Milwaukee Brewers or the Chicago Cubs or the Tampa Bay Rays or the Atlanta Braves or the New York Yankees or the Philadelphia Phillies.

When the Detroit Tigers took bids for Skubal, they liked the Dodgers’ offer the best. And here is what the Dodgers offered: three prospects, none a first-rounder, none ranked among baseball’s top 20 prospects.

Outfielder Zyhir Hope was drafted in the 11th round, by the Cubs. When the Cubs needed a corner infielder, the Dodgers shipped them a surplus major leaguer, Michael Busch, in exchange for two prospects. One was Hope, whose professional experience was limited to 11 games of rookie ball.

Pitcher River Ryan was drafted in the 11th round, by the San Diego Padres. When the Padres needed a left-handed bat that could play the outfield, the Dodgers shipped them a surplus major leaguer, Matt Beaty, for a prospect that had yet to make his professional debut, Ryan.

Pitcher Brady Smith was drafted in the third round, by the Dodgers. This is his second professional season.

The Dodgers developed Hope and Ryan from minor leaguers into top prospects, and the Tigers hope some of that Dodgers development dust has rubbed off on Smith.

Tarik Skubal delivers during a game between the Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles on July 29.

(Paul Sancya / Associated Press)

For now? The prospect rankings on the league website put Hope at No. 25 and Ryan at No. 68. The Baseball America prospect rankings put Hope at No. 55, with Ryan outside the top 100. Neither ranking includes Smith among the top 100.

As Baseball America editor-in-chief J.J. Cooper wrote, Hope was the third-best outfielder on the Dodgers’ double-A team.

That might be the greatest testament of all to the Dodgers’ player development system, particularly considering all of their winning means they draft at the end of every round, every year.

Maybe the trio of prospects never pans out, at least not the way the Tigers hope. Two of three prospects traded at the deadline never do, according to Baseball America research.

Will money come into play here? Yes, but not yet. Skubal is a free agent at the end of the season, and not every team could afford $300 million or $400 million or so to sign him to a long-term contract.

But, for these final months of the season, the cost to pay Skubal is $9 million. Any team can do that. And, if the owner of your team tells you he could not have done that, the proper response would be to laugh, and then chant “Sell the team!”

And, as the Brewers and Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays prove just about every year, any team can afford to build an excellent player development system.

Look, I am not going to try to tell you that every team could sign Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker.

But the New York Mets, in the largest market in the major leagues, certainly could. Their Saturday was not spent trading for Skubal. It was spent taking trade offers for players on their last-place team and commemorating the 40th anniversary of their 1986 World Series championship team — their last championship team.

In Anaheim, the last-place team in the second-largest market in the major leagues lost to the Brewers, the team in the smallest market in the major leagues — and, as of Saturday, the team with the best record in the majors.

Market size need not be destiny, if you can scout and sign and coach and develop players. The owners could learn from that, but it’s easier to point at the Dodgers and say, “That’s the bad guy.”

Instead, some poor league employee probably stayed up late Saturday night, planning how to splice clips of Skubal wearing a Dodgers uniform into the “Level the Playing Field” ad campaign the owners are running to persuade fans to take their side in collective bargaining. Imagine what they could do with clips of Skubal waving to fans in a championship parade.

At the start of his fifth fall camp at USC, Lincoln Riley found himself enamored with all that felt new around him. Namely the state-of-the-art, $200-million facility towering over one end of the Trojans’ practice field, with all the luxuries any football coach could ask for.

“This building is magical,” Riley said. “It’s hard to explain how different, how fantastic it is.”

On the field, in front of that gleaming facility, the Trojans also were breaking in something entirely new on Saturday: their receiving corps.

USC opened training camp this week without the services of its top returning wideout, Tanook Hines, after the sophomore underwent an offseason surgical procedure that has yet to revealed. Riley said the injury affecting Hines, who missed the spring, isn’t “overly serious” and that he’s expected back for the start of the season. But his absence leaves the Trojans with a totally new and unproven group to catch passes; many of them are getting their first experience of college football, and of quarterback Jayden Maiava.

“A lot of new bodies. Fortunately he had spring and all summer with all these guys to start developing that chemistry and that confidence,” Riley said of Maiava. “But that’s going to be something we have to work at every single day.”

Among those new players is a host of top receiver recruits expected to contribute right away. Partly, out of necessity.

Freshmen wideouts Trent Mosley and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt already made a strong impression and should immediately step into roles on offense. Tron Baker is another who presumably could carve out a place. And joining them this week at practice, after just enrolling this summer, is a freshman wideout who some believe will be the best of the bunch, top-60 recruit Boobie Feaster.

It may take Feaster time to get up to speed. Hines stepped into a similar position last season, having just arrived on campus for the summer. He proceeded to start eight games anyway.

But Hines was 19 years old by the start of his freshman season. Feaster just turned 17 in late May — and presumably would be one of the youngest players ever to suit up for USC.

Receiver isn’t the only position at which the Trojans are trending young. USC should get key contributions out of freshmen at tight end (five-star Mark Bowman), on the defensive line (five-star Luke Wafle), in the secondary and, at some point, on the offensive line.

That sort of impact should be expected after bringing in a 35-player class that ranked No. 1 in the nation. It also helps, Riley said, that so much of that class has been enrolled for seven months.

“Having as many midyears made a massive difference; I mean, there’s no question about it,” Riley said. “You can feel some of the confidence level.

“And so the less that we can have new as we go on, the more these guys settle in off the field, the better they play.”

That’s the primary goal over the next four weeks of fall camp. One that Riley already has spent plenty of time focused on, while breaking in the Bloom Football Performance Center

“These first few days in here have honestly been a little bit of a dream,” Riley said. “It’s honestly been hard to get players to go home. I haven’t left this place in five days. I haven’t left the compound.”

Another failed summer. Another broken promise.

The most underachieving team on the Los Angeles sports landscape is embarrassingly stumbling through another season.

The Sparks stink. Again.

They’re not making the playoffs. Again.

There’s no reason to watch them even though there’s more than a month left on their schedule. Again.

For the sixth consecutive season, one of the WNBA’s legacy franchises has come apart at the seams, tattering the franchise’s three-championship history with a sordid record that mandates a clear response.

Trade your best player.

Trade Kelsey Plum.

The trade deadline is Sunday so do it quickly, and do it boldly, sending her to the sort of playoff contender who would find her worthy of young talent and draft picks.

Trade KP and do it now.

Yes, her 25-point scoring average would rank second in the league if she had not missed half the games with injuries.

Truly, she is arguably the team’s biggest attraction with the sort of Hollywood flash that overshadows even Nneka Ogwumike.

Indeed, the hard-nosed ballplayer elicits more screams and sells more tickets than any other Sparks player.

Trade her anyway. Swallow hard and make it happen. Out of a million reasons, here are just three.

First, her contract expires at the end of the season and she reportedly does not want to spend her prime years on a losing team. Can you blame her? Trade her before you lose her for nothing.

Nneka Ogwumike shoots over Chloe Bibby of the Chicago Sky during a game this month.

(Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)

Second, at age 31, she is the team’s most valuable asset, and would command a high price among contenders looking for a shooter with a championship pedigree.

Third, this would be a powerful first move in a season-ending tank job.

You read that right. The Sparks should tank. They should tank hard. Tank, tank, tank. They should do anything it takes to have the best chance at nabbing the first pick in the 2027 draft and a chance to take USC phenom JuJu Watkins. The pursuit of Watkins, who will need to be convinced to give up her final year of college eligibility, should be the organization’s most important priority.

Anything for JuJu, and that includes trading Plum. While they’re at it, could they also please dump the massively disappointing Ariel Atkins and Erica Wheeler? Those two busts were part of the Sparks’ ill-conceived attempt last offseason to build a veteran team that could immediately compete.

It didn’t work, and now the Sparks have only four players who should be welcomed back next year — Cameron Brink, Rae Burrell, Dearica Hamby and Ogwumike.

Without Plum, Brink can have more space to work inside. Without Plum, Burrell can score 25 points a game. It’s a tank, but it’s not necessarily an ugly tank.

The front office should also be cleansed. Former general manager Raegan Pebley is already gone, meaning coach Lynne Roberts is next, probably fired the day after the season ends.

Cameron Brink is pressured by Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull during a game in May.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Their replacements might be anonymous shadow dwellers, but that’s OK. The Sparks need to not hire college wonders — no Cori Close — and enlist some good old-fashioned WNBA veteran thinkers and evaluators and leaders.

The Sparks basically need to start from scratch, and it starts with a major move sometime in the next five days.

Trade KP.

Please?

“We pushed in a lot of chips this year, and we had good reason to do that, but the reality is it hasn’t gone as we’d hoped or expected,” said Farhan Zaidi, special advisor to Sparks’ owner Mark Walter. “Now we have to be open for anything. Everything has to be on the table for us. We have to take a long-term perspective rather than focusing on the rest of the season.”

In other words, the trade light is lit!

Zaidi wouldn’t comment on specific players or club personnel, only to note that the Sparks cannot grow as constituted.

“We have to be realistic where we are,” he said. “We don’t want to be that team stuck in the middle.”

In other words, keeping Plum might give them a few more wins, but to what end? They contend for the final playoff berth only to fall short? And if they make it, how long would they last against a powerhouse like Minnesota? For a big-market, win-now team like the Sparks, mediocrity is a death knell.

Zaidi trusts that Sparks fans will understand, and I agree.

Their growing fan base is as smart as they are passionate. They understand that to break this losing spell, the Sparks will have to break with franchise tradition and basically give up on this season to build hope for the next.

My daughter and fellow season-ticket holder MC was quick to react when I told her I was going to advocate trading Plum.

The Sparks should trade Kelsey Plum before she walks away as a free agent.

(Aryanna Frank / Getty Images)

“Write it,” she said. “I want hope.”

Zaidi thinks other fans will agree.

“We have very smart fans, I don’t want to patronize them as to where we are,” he said. ”Our dedicated fans will understand if we have to take a step back to get to that championship level. I can step back if I feel like we’re building something.”

Zaidi noted, “I think it can happen quickly.”

He’s right. In a league in which a team like Golden State can contend for a title in only its second season, in a space where both of this year’s expansion teams — Toronto and Portland — can have better records than the Sparks, rebuilding doesn’t take much.

If the Sparks get some young talent and draft picks for Plum, then sign a top free agent by using the construction of their new practice facility as a selling point… who knows?

The Sparks need to do whatever it takes to become the Sparks again.

Hello, hope.

Goodbye, KP.

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza cautiously welcome Israel’s approval for an international stabilisation force to enter the territory under the US-backed ceasefire plan. Residents hope the force can help rebuild Gaza and allow them to return home after months of bombardment and displacement.

At one point in the documentary, House of Hope, the protagonist, Manar Wahhab, breaks down in a classroom corner in the school she founded with her husband in the occupied West Bank. The cameras keep rolling.

“To step into someone’s life with a camera at the moment when they’re really down, it feels a little bit uncomfortable, but we made the choice together to keep filming during these moments. I wanted the audience to be there with them,” director Marjolein Busstra told Al Jazeera.

The film follows Wahhab, a Palestinian woman who established a Waldorf school with her husband, Milad Vosgueritchian, in al-Eizariya in the occupied West Bank.

House of Hope Vision Kindergarten & School teaches the Waldorf philosophy of non-violent resistance and offers children a space to express their emotions and cope with the trauma and difficulty of living under occupation.

“The school protects the children’s dignity in the present moment. It’s more about refusing to let occupation shape their inner world, so that they can actually be children and have agency,” Busstra said. “It’s in Waldorf philosophy that they make space to express the feelings.”

Working with a Palestinian crew, Busstra spent three years with Wahhab, travelling to the occupied West Bank nine times throughout the course of the documentary. She first met Wahhab 18 years ago during a film workshop in the West Bank.

Although the documentary centres around the elementary school, Wahhab is the story’s driving force. The story follows Wahhab and Vosgueritchian, both at the school and at home with their children.

“I started filming the school, but right away, I knew I wanted to do it about Manar’s inner life,” Busstra said. “I think hope is a difficult word at the moment, but I have a deep awe for Manar, who keeps creating and teaching even while carrying so much herself.”

For Wahhab, her respect for Busstra and their existing friendship helped her trust the film crew during vulnerable moments.

“We both believe deeply in education, in children’s creativity and freedom and in seeing the human being as something whole and beautiful in mind, soul and spirit. Those shared values created openness and trust between us and helped shape a film that is not only about events but also about humanity,” Wahhab told Al Jazeera.

The film was produced by Think-Film, the company behind The Voice of Hind Rajab, which tells the story of the five-year-old Hind killed by Israeli forces in 2024. Soldiers fired 335 bullets into the car carrying the girl and six of her family members – a story that became a symbol for the system failure to protect children in Gaza.

Although sometimes difficult, Wahhab said she made an effort to let the crew document multiple facets of her life.

“Over those three years, the crew met many versions of Manar. Sometimes they arrived, and I was fresh, energetic and cooperative. Other times, they found me exhausted, angry, overwhelmed, or ill,” she said. “I understood that I had to be as authentic as possible, because I was representing not only myself, but also my community, hope, peace and the voice of Palestinians.”

Wahhab and Vosgueritchian founded the school out of a desire to offer a different kind of education to Palestinian children and to provide a place where they felt safe and could share their emotions.

“The school was born many years ago when we saw the hardships surrounding our community and wanted to create something different, a space of love, safety, creativity and healing,” Wahhab said. “House of Hope is an idea, a mission and an energy that we carry wherever we go.”

In an increasingly violent Israeli occupation, Wahhab considers the Waldorf philosophy essential.

“I do not see nonviolence as weakness. Actually, I believe the opposite. Violence is easy. Nonviolence requires courage, awareness, patience and inner work. It asks us to see beyond our own pain and ego and to hold on to our humility even when circumstances are trying to pull us away from it,” she said.

“The world absorbs the energy that we create, and right now, there is so much fear, anger and violence in our world. I think we need more peace within ourselves, peace with one another and peace with nature,” Wahhab added.

After Hamas’s incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, came Israel’s brutal military response. Life became increasingly difficult for Wahhab, Vosgueritchian and the children at House of Hope, but the crew continued to document their realities.

“The story I wanted to create with Manar stayed the same, but after October 7, everything became heavier. They were so down for a while. They were like different people, like they lost all hope,” Busstra said. “The school built this safe haven, but the occupation is always rattling at the door.”

Israel’s intensified military actions in the West Bank, including the shooting and killing of children, are a constant spectre. In another scene, Wahhab watches her son leave for school and checks to see if he has a phone charger and spare clothes in case he is held at a checkpoint for hours.

“The energy is so heavy now. I hope people understand that we are not asking for something extraordinary. We are asking for basic human rights, the right to live with dignity and freedom, the right to safety and the right to be fully human beings,” Manar said.

Busstra, who closely followed Wahhab for three years, said she wants audiences to go “beyond the framing of us vs them”.

“I hope that this stays with people, not as something distant that happens to others, but something they can locate within their own understanding of what it means to love someone in an unsafe world.”

Wahhab believes the film offers a more nuanced perspective of Palestinians.

“I think that in the West, many people see a very limited picture of Palestine and the Middle East. Sometimes they see us through stereotypes as terrorists, as people who are undeveloped or somehow less than themselves,” she said. “I hope this film helps people look beyond those images. The news does not tell the full reality. It often shows only violence and people killing one another. It doesn’t show the essence of people’s lives. It shows negativity,” she said.

Wahhab encouraged people to consider the documentary through a lens of shared humanity.

House of Hope won the best international feature documentary prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2026 and was recently screened at UNESCO in Paris. It will soon be screened at the Jerusalem Arab Film Festival.

“Even though our story is deeply rooted in the West Bank, its message is universal. Our hope is that people everywhere can see our story and take something meaningful from it.”

The Son, as they say, will come out tomorrow.

Bet your bottom dollar that Son Heung-min, LAFC’s $26 million man — the record MLS fee for an incoming player — would peel himself off the mat and clear away the cobwebs and sorrows of the past few weeks and months.

He did it with a sizzling, right-footed goal in the 57th minute of LAFC’s 3-0 victory Friday over the Galaxy in the 27th rendition of El Tráfico and the first this year. Also, the first crosstown showdown of Son’s so-far, so-so tenure in L.A.

His arrival last August from Tottenham Hotspur in England’s Premier League was met with uncommon fanfare. Here came another global soccer icon to Major League Soccer — and to L.A., where the South Korean sensation was welcomed enthusiastically by a Korean diaspora that’s about 250,000 strong.

LAFC forward Son Heung-Min celebrates after scoring a goal against the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson on Friday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

The first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot, Mayor Karen Bass spoke at Son’s introductory news conference. The Dodgers invited him to throw out the first pitch on Shohei Ohtani’s bobblehead night (and turned around this season and produced a bobblehead of Son throwing that pitch).

His first LAFC goal — a free kick over the wall in a 1-1 draw with FC Dallas — was named the MLS’s goal of the year. After notching 173 goals across all competitions with Tottenham Hotspur, he finished with nine goals in his first 10 regular-season appearances for LAFC.

Then the scoring stopped. As if someone turned off the spigot.

Before Friday, Son recorded nine assists but no goals over 13 unlucky matches this season. He went 44 shots without striking a goal. And 237 days between goals, according to The Chosun Daily’s tally.

Yeah, just a bit of what his LAFC teammate Mark Delgado described as “a drought.”

Most painfully, Son also was shut out in South Korea’s disastrously short World Cup stay.

South Korea entered the tournament with the expectation that its “golden generation” – led by Son – would reach the knockout stage. But after it opened Group A with a 2-1 win over Czechia, the Koreans lost 1-0 to Mexico and 1-0 to South Africa and failed to qualify for the round of 32 as one of the eight best third-placed teams.

The uproar in South Korea that followed included the country’s president demanding an investigation.

Mexico’s Julián Quiñones and South Korea’s Son Heung-min vie for the ball during a World Cup match on June 18 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

(Ricardo Mazalan / Ap Photo/ricardo Mazalan)

For his part, a heartbroken Son shared a statement on Instagram: “I don’t dare to convey the disappointment and hurt of the fans with a single word ‘sorry.’ So even saying those words feels insufficient.”

It was impossible not to wonder: What the heck?

Where was the version of Son that everyone was celebrating a year ago?

How did the 34-year-old’s game decline so suddenly?

Was this a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering?

It still might be. LAFC — now 8-5-3 and third in MLS’s Western Conference — is going to face tougher competition in the days ahead than the work-in-progress Galaxy.

But on Friday, the center-forward was aggressive and in control. He took two shots in the first seven minutes, both blocked by defenders. He toyed with the Galaxy just before halftime, lining up to take a penalty before turning it over to Denis Bouanga, who scored to make it 2-0.

Then he and Delgado exchanged passes in the second half to set up Son’s first goal in darn near forever.

LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos gave Son 10 days off after the World Cup, but Son said he was eager to return to L.A., because he so enjoys the camaraderie of this club.

Those good vibes were on display when Son’s shot whizzed between two defenders and the outstretched arms of Galaxy goalkeeper Novak Micovic.

Son put his finger to his lips in the universal “shhh” sign and then did his patented camera celebration — click! — miming a snapshot. Because every goal is precious, and let’s be real, you never know when another will come.

LAFC’s Son Heung-Min celebrates after scoring what could be a breakthough goal against the rival Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson on Friday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Around him, the crowd and his colleagues went wild.

Dos Santos did some vein-popping flexing on the sideline. Mathieu Choinière pumped his fists as though he were operating a handcrank. Jacob Shaffelburg and Ryan Hollingshead flanked him on either side as though posing for a family photo. Son’s hair got tousled and nobody wearing black and gold could stop smiling.

“He deserves it, coming back from an emotional World Cup, and joining us right away,” Dos Santos said.

“He’s a great guy,” Delgado said. “He’s been in a bit of a goal drought, and, you know, we all want him to score. We all, he’s always smiling, and in training, he’s always scoring.

“And we’re like, ‘yeah, we need that, we need that!’ Trying to give him confidence,” Delgado continued. “And in games, he finally is getting that confidence back. So to see him score and put the ball in the net and just see his face light up with a smile is awesome. We all want to see him succeed here. We all want him to lead this club like we know he can.”

Now the goal is to keep the goals coming.

“Scoring the first goal of this season, I think it [will] help me,” Son said. “I think, definitely, going forward through the second part of the season. So, let’s keep going, and hope Wednesday [against Salt Lake] I can score another goal.”

LOU Teasdale has split with footballer Andy Carroll for a third time – and for her sake, I hope this time it’s for good.

To me Andy is a classic Peter Pan, a man seemingly devoid of the ability to grow up and stop partying like he’s a single twenty-something.

We saw it in the run up to his marriage to the lovely Billi Mucklow back in 2022, when he made a buffoon of himself by passing out topless in bed with two women in Dubai, and now it seems history is repeating itself.

I watched him sidling up to two rather attractive women at Glastonbury last year and although it might have just been a flirt – who doesn’t get turned on by The Prodigy? – it was enough to get the red flags waving in my mind.

If you feel like this is the nineteenth time Andy and Lou have split over the past year, you’re a little way off but not totally incorrect.

They’ve been more on and off than my laptop over the past 12 months so I am hoping, if only for Lou’s sake, that this is the final time.

If she was one of my mates, I’d be staging an intervention because enough is enough.

This time around, insiders have said it’s Lou who has kicked Andy to the kerb, after he flew off on a boozy holiday to Ibiza, despite supposedly promising her he wouldn’t touch drink to save their relationship.

Lou, a respected make-up artist, has now wiped Andy from her social media.

But why she stood by him time and time again is what I cannot understand. They first started dating back in the autumn 2024 and on social media, naturally, it all seemed rather rosy.

Andy had only been single for a short time, following the end of his ill-fated marriage to Billi, the mother of his three youngest children.

But from the outside, all appeared to be well. And, long had been forgotten the scandal that had engulfed the lead up to their wedding back in 2022.

To recap, and if you don’t remember, Andy ended up landing himself in hot water after getting so drunk at his stag do in Dubai that he ended up topless and in bed with two women – who took photographs of him and shared them with pals.

I reported on the story at the time as I knew people close to Billi.

The former reality star was so humiliated by the footballer she almost called off the wedding.

Nothing happened between Andy and the women who partied with him in Dubai, but her friends confessed to me at the time that they were begging her not to marry him.

But their pleas fell on deaf ears and the pair looked genuinely happy in their wedding pictures in the summer of that year.

But fast-forward two years and they announced they were divorcing.

I rang one of her pals after hearing of his latest split with Lou and they made a pertinent point.

“Marrying Andy was something Billi did for love but it was never going to work out,” a friend admits.

“We told her not to go through with it but everything was in place for the wedding, calling it off would have been a nightmare.

“She did love him deep down and wanted to move past it though.

“Andy might not have cheated in Dubai but he was as drunk as a skunk and topless in bed with two women.

“What does it say about your future husband that he’s going to put himself in this position?”

Well, quite.

Not long after his split from Billi was revealed by The Sun, it emerged Andy had started dating Lou.

There was no crossover between the relationship and on the outside, things between Andy – who has two older children from a previous relationship – and Lou seemed happy.

Their Instagram accounts were full of snaps of them together in France, where Andy had been playing for fourth tier club Bordeaux.

But less than a year into their relationship, it all started to get a bit messy.

Lou, who is sober and has been for over a decade, appeared to have no issue with the fact Andy drank alcohol and the pair made it work.

But last summer, things came to a head in Mykonos – with Andy being quizzed by the police twice after two very public rows last June.

The first incident, at the Nikolus Tavern, was so shocking, a restaurant worker went on the record and told us Andy was “very drunk and furious” with Lou.

He added: “He was using very bad words. It was improper behaviour. The woman looked very upset.”

After speaking to police, Andy was allowed to return to Lou but just hours later alarmed staff called cops again after reports of damage to their £500-a-room at a posh hotel.

Andy was taken to a station for questioning but was released without being arrested. Despite the two incidents, Lou stuck by Andy and their relationship continued.

For eight more weeks, the pair went back to posting loved-up selfies online, until out of the blue – Andy’s pals confessed he had dumped Lou last August.

And thus the madness started.

A friend close to Andy was less than charming about their relationship when they told us about the break-up and said: “Andy got sick of Lou’s demands and her influencer lifestyle.

“She’s always posting on social media and he hates that. He told her it was over this week. He’s single now.”

Days later, Andy then confessed he’d “made a mistake” and they got together again.

But fast forward a few weeks and they split up once more.

This time was after a “make or break” holiday, with a friend saying: “They’ve tried to make it work, but they’re just too different.”

Bizarrely, even after all of this – they ended up patching things up – but unsurprisingly it’s now over again.

That relationship, which has become a very tedious version of Groundhog Day, should, in my opinion, end for good now.

And Lou, I implore you not to take Andy back.

There are only so many times someone can drag you down before something has got to give.

I had the misfortune of standing next to the Dagenham and Redbridge player at Glasto last summer as I watched The Prodigy and he got very friendly with two women during the set.

Lou had been on-site with Andy that weekend but by this point had retreated to the Babington House for a well-earned rest from the stench of the long-drops at Worthy Farm.

Being honest, I can’t work out what annoyed me more – having a colleague poke me repeatedly because Andy was all over these women while my favourite song Smack My B**** Up was playing or the fact he had the gall to act like a single man when he was in what appeared to be a loving relationship.

I’m not saying anything happened with those women, or that his actions went beyond a flirt and someone to lean on late at night.

But when a man truly loves a woman, he doesn’t give another one a second look, let alone put his arms around them when his missus’ back is turned.

We’ve all been the woman, or man, that forgives stupidity because we love. But as the old saying goes, once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.

Don’t let him make a mug of you, Lou.

In 2012, when Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, team president Stan Kasten declared mediocrity would no longer be acceptable.

Would the Dodgers improve their minor league system? Yes. Would the Dodgers improve their major league roster? Also yes. Would spending in one area preclude spending in another? Absolutely not.

“These fans expect and deserve a team that can win,” Kasten said then.

So do Angels fans. For the first time this decade, with the arrival of John Mozeliak as interim general manager, they have legitimate hope.

Mozeliak, whose St. Louis Cardinals teams reached the playoffs more often than not in his 18 years running baseball operations there, is here to end baseball’s longest postseason drought, or at least steer the Angels in that direction.

At first, I was shocked to hear him say he does not believe the Angels need to rebuild. Under owner Arte Moreno, the Angels have resisted rebuilding, preferring to add lower-tier free agents and rush college players to the major leagues in an effort to field a competitive roster. That has failed: For the first time in franchise history, the Angels could finish in last place for a third consecutive season.

But, when Mozeliak and I sat down in the Angels’ dugout the other day, he explained that the path forward in Anaheim should not be tanking. It should be acting like the major-market team the Angels are — and were, during Moreno’s first decade of ownership.

“The one thing you have to realize about the Los Angeles Angels is: they do have resources,” Mozeliak said. “From Mr. Moreno to the market size, this is a place that could be a very, very special place.”

In Moreno’s first decade, under Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia, the Angels were a player development machine. In 2003, in his first winter as owner, Moreno signed the best position player on the free-agent market in Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and the best pitcher on the market in four-time All-Star Bartolo Colon.

The questions Mozeliak asks and answers now are the same ones Kasten did with the Dodgers. Can the team deploy resources to upgrade scouting and player development? Yes. Can the team do the same with the major league roster? Also yes.

“There are many franchises in the game of baseball that cannot do that,” Mozeliak said. “They have trade-offs. They have to make a decision: If I’m going to give you $20 million for your infrastructure, that’s $20 million less for your payroll.

“This place is different.”

The Dodgers parallel only goes so far. Walter and Kasten inherited a core of Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. Mozeliak will work with Mike Trout and a long-touted “young core” that has shown by now it is not the foundation of a championship-caliber team.

No one expects Moreno to spend like the Dodgers do (and even Walter’s fellow owners want a salary cap in an attempt to stop the Dodgers). Yet, in St. Louis, Mozeliak built winners without the Cardinals owners ever paying a luxury tax.

The first step in revitalizing the Angels comes Saturday, in the draft.

“We’re going to take the best available player,” Mozeliak said.

Mozeliak said he is not interested in two recent Angels trends: paying less to a first-round pick in order to spread the savings around longer shots in the lower rounds, or targeting a polished college player in part because he could get to Anaheim in a hurry.

“I’m not wedded to a high school player or a college player,” Mozeliak said. “I want the best player.”

The second item on the agenda: the Aug. 3 trade deadline, which would afford Mozeliak the opportunity to collect prospects for such players as pitcher Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano and outfielder Jo Adell.

In 2020, Moreno nixed a trade that would have brought Andy Pages – then a Dodgers prospect, now an All-Star – to the Angels.

In 2023 and 2024, Moreno rebuffed trade offers for Shohei Ohtani that could have returned the likes of Junior Caminero or Jackson Merrill. No player of that caliber would be coming in return for what the Angels have to offer now.

Mozeliak said the Angels should not consider a trade proposal in isolation, without considering how to flex their major-market muscles to fill whatever hole a trade might create.

“If we understand what we’re doing today can help make us stronger tomorrow, and then look at potentially what we could do on the free-agent market,” he said, “that should be something we are doing in parallel thinking.”

Mozeliak said he does not believe any player should be untouchable. As if on cue, Trout walked by.

Trade Trout? That’s not happening, right?

“That’s not happening,” Mozeliak said.

In his hours of conversations with Moreno, Mozeliak said, the topic of whether the owner might sell the team “never came up.”

Does Moreno appear interested in staying for the long haul?

“Absolutely,” Mozeliak said.

Mozeliak said he had presented Angels President Molly Jolly with a 100-day plan for what the team calls a consulting role: run baseball operations on an interim basis; do a deep dive into how the Angels do things now and how they can do them better; recommend a new general manager. Maybe he stays in that role, or in a supporting role, or he simply leaves when his contract expires in December.

“I’m certainly confident in what we need to do, and I’m certainly confident this is a market that could be amazing,” he said. “It’s exciting times for me. I’m energized.

“I’m smart enough to know that one person cannot change everything. But one person can begin change, and that’s what I’m going to start to do.”

Distinguished executives, including the likes of Dave Dombrowski and Andrew Friedman, have wanted no part of the Angels. Then again, Mozeliak is only committed for six months. If Moreno does not do what Mozeliak believes should be done, and if Mozeliak is not allowed to begin that change, he can just walk away.

“I think I have that authority,” Mozeliak said, “and I think he understands that he can embrace change, because that is what is going to be required.”

Based on Moreno telling you that?

“Yes,” Mozeliak said.

The last time the Angels hired an experienced general manager from outside the organization: 35 years ago, when they also looked to St. Louis for Whitey Herzog. That didn’t work. Herzog won a power struggle in the front office, then quit anyway, amid disputes with ownership.

This might work, or might not. But think back to 2020, when then-Angels president John Carpino said this: “Obviously, we’re not doing it the right way. We’re not winning games. So something is not right in our organization.”

Carpino retired in April, without ever explaining what was not right in the organization or, based on the standings, repairing it.

Jolly replaced him and, within two months, secured Moreno’s approval to hire the architect of a World Series championship team to figure out what was not right in the organization, and to fix it.

In one bold step, the Angels admitted they had a problem and set out a path to remedy it. With three months to go in this wretched season, the MVP of the 2026 Angels is abundantly clear: Molly Jolly.

After years of closure due to war, hospitals in the Sudanese capital are welcoming mothers again, despite lingering economic and logistical hurdles.

In the Sudanese city of Omdurman, the maternity hospital, known locally as Al-Dayat or ‘Midwives” in English, has resumed operations after a long closure caused by the war. Mothers are once again arriving at maternity wards, navigating difficult economic and logistical conditions to give birth safely.

Al-Toma Jabara, a mother from East Nile, gave birth to her daughter, Doaa, at the hospital two days ago. She told Al Jazeera that she was unable to conceive during the war years. Fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) separated Jabara from her husband for two years.

She has lived under constant bombardment and clashes in her home, making a normal family life seem impossible. She described Doaa’s arrival as a “new beginning” for her family after years of fear and deprivation.

At Bahri Hospital, Fatima Abdel Rahman, a mother from Al Jazirah state, recounted her exhausting and expensive journey to the capital Khartoum. Her family had to spend a large portion of their income on transportation and temporary accommodation near the facility to monitor her condition post-delivery.

Abdel Rahman noted that medication shortages forced her to buy basic drugs from outside pharmacies at inflated prices, adding to her financial burden. However, she stressed that the functioning maternity ward provided her with a vital sense of safety, sparing her the fear of dying due to lack of medical care – a constant dread she lived with during the war.

Rebuilding the shattered health sector

During the conflict, the closure of specialised maternity hospitals forced many women to undergo unsafe home births or travel long distances, drastically increasing risks for both mothers and infants. An anonymous official from the Khartoum State Ministry of Health confirmed that maternal and infant complications and mortality rates surged during the war due to closures.

The official told Al Jazeera that complication rates are now gradually decreasing as services resume. The health ministry has repaired and reopened 15 maternity wards across the capital, including Al-Dayat and the Saudi Hospital. The capital’s hospitals are now recording a significant increase in births, reaching about 7,000 new deliveries per month.

Emad Abdullah, director of the Omdurman Maternity Hospital, noted that it initially received only one or two cases a day upon reopening. Today, that number has climbed to approximately 60 births per day, as services expand to meet growing demand.

The hospital has several vital departments, including a caesarean section, an intensive care unit and a neonatal department equipped with about 140 incubators, making it the largest in Sudan.

Rising costs and logistical nightmares

Maternity costs vary significantly depending on the facility. At government hospitals, a natural birth typically costs about 130,000 Sudanese pounds ($216), while C-sections cost around 400,000 pounds ($666). In private hospitals, the cost of a natural birth shoots up to approximately 500,000 pounds ($813) and C-sections range between 600-800,000 pounds ($999-1,322), depending on the service level.

Despite the reopening of wards in Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, large challenges remain with patients from distant regions such as Al Jazirah and Kordofan facing exhausting journeys and exorbitant transport costs.

In the hospitals, there is a shortage of basic medicines and emergency rooms often operate beyond their capacity. In addition, the wartime exodus of doctors and nurses has left a critical gap in qualified staff, while essential medical equipment needs regular maintenance to keep up with demand.

Amira Othman Abdel Majeed, an infection control officer at Bahri Hospital, described the war as the most challenging period for the health sector, marred by severe shortages of supplies, electricity and water. That has imposed psychological pressure on medical staff who feared losing mothers and children during treatment.

However, she said the “liberation of Khartoum” and the resumption of maternity services have dramatically changed the landscape. Staff emerged stronger and more resilient, with the ongoing medical care serving as a prime symbol of the capital’s recovering health sector.

THE word “splat” has been on Ian Gillan’s mind for a few years now.

To him, it is a word to conjure with, one to fuel his wild flights of imagination.

To most of us, it summons visions of insects hitting windscreens or ripe tomatoes falling to the floor.

As you will discover, however, the Deep Purple singer and lyricist — he of the legendary full-throated holler — has given “splat” a much deeper meaning.

What if it represents the end of humanity as we know it?

Then, as he suggests with an “optimistic” spin on the notion, “What if we morph into something else that’s metaphysical?”

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When Gillan first considered Splat! as an album title, he thought it sounded “too terminal”.

He says: “I knew how the interviews would go — ‘So this is your last record, right?’ ”

It soon becomes clear from talking to the hard rock survivor that Deep Purple, the last band standing in a so-called “unholy trinity” alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, are very much alive and kicking.

When it came to writing themed lyrics for Purple’s 24th studio LP, Splat! screamed out from the pages of the notebook Gillan keeps to record his ideas.

Now, in tall, spidery type, it adorns an album cover housing some of the band’s heaviest, most riff-driven, yet most concise music in years.

As Gillan attests, Splat! summons the devil-may-care spirit of iconic early albums Deep Purple In Rock and Machine Head — and songs like Child In Time, Smoke On The Water and Black Night.

“What I’m hearing now is the band as it was in ’69,” he says.

There’s no doubting that the current line-up of Gillan, founder member Ian Paice (drums), another stalwart in Roger Glover (bass), Don Airey (keyboard player since 2001) and recent recruit Simon McBride (guitar) has hit a purple patch.

“You can give all kinds of reasons, but, quite simply, I think it’s human chemistry,” says Gillan, who lives in Portugal and turned 80 last August.

“The songs are coming easy.

The band is cranking live.

When all the elements work well, they feed off each other.”

He salutes Northern Irish guitarist McBride, who replaced Steve Morse in time for previous album =1, for adding a dynamic gut-punch to proceedings.

He agrees with me that the songs on Splat! don’t “outstay their welcome”, crediting legendary Canadian producer Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Kiss) for “keeping the arrangements snappy”.

Gillan recalls how it used to be: “With the band having no leader — we never have really — it was often a case of sitting there and one of us would say, ‘Let’s make this bit longer, let’s put another section in there’.

“We might spend weeks arguing or debating an arrangement.

But Bob just comes in and says, ‘I’m not liking that’, and cuts it out.”

Gillan considers Purple to be “an instrumental band”, with the music always getting written first.

Then it’s time for him to step in with the lyrics and those still mighty vocals, delivered with all the theatricality you might expect from someone who took the part of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album.

It’s fair to say that Splat!, also the name of the album’s emphatic closing track, represents one of Gillan’s most ambitious concepts, so let’s return to his thought process.

“For some time now, I’ve been trying to make an album sound as if all the songs belong,” he says.

“There’s one exception on this record and I’m not happy about it,” he announces by way of a slight digression.

When I suggest that the track in question might be Third Call, which seems more to do with sex than metaphysics, Gillan replies: “Oh, how did you guess?

It should have been called Sore Thumb.

“I’ve done my own little album on my computer, replacing it with a song destined to be a B-side or bonus track called Hoot ’n’ Slither, which does fit.”

So, let’s hear about his mind-boggling concept, so big that it almost hurts the brain.

“I’ll probably find myself in pseud’s corner again,” he mutters with a smile, before launching into his explanation.

“I’ve been fascinated by the word eternity since I was eight.

I couldn’t understand how things could go on forever.

As a child, it didn’t seem possible to me.

“One summer night, I started thinking about the end of the road, the end of the country, beaches, the sea, the sky, the stars.

“I started panicking, so I built a brick wall around my universe, as many kids have, I’m sure.

“That was it, I was safe.

And then, a horrible thought occurred to me: ‘What’s behind the bricks?’ ”

Gillan says that “later in life”, Edwin Abbott’s classic novella Flatland, a satirical study of a two- dimensional world written in 1884, got him thinking about other dimensions, the afterlife and spiritual worlds.

Then he considered that the population of Earth had “virtually tripled” during his lifetime.

He continues: “For some years, this explosion has seemed unsustainable to me and that the only way to escape is not by flying through the solar system in tin cans.

“It has to be metaphysical.

I’m hopeful.

Perhaps we might become some sort of intelligent energy.”

Gillan draws my attention to the song The Only Horse In Town, one of the last recorded for Splat! and driven by Airey’s fulsome keys and McBride’s shimmering riffs.

It was inspired by a real-life encounter with someone close to death near Noble Street Studios in Toronto where Purple were doing a recording session.

“The snow came down and we saw there were these vagrants living under a blue tarp,” he says.

“The place looked like a rubbish dump.

“We offered them some hot food when we went out to get our takeaway for lunch — and they didn’t want it.

They just wanted dollars for crack.

“I thought of this one guy who probably had days to live.

I imagined his final hit.

“Then (in my mind) I stepped into his shoes and started walking across America until I got to the high plains of New Mexico and found this derelict film set.

“Along with a clapped-out old horse, this guy finds solace, a haven.

It fits very nicely with the overall pattern of the album.”

Next, we take a dive into more of the Splat! songs, starting with the three-minute opening blast, Arrogant Boy, about a bloke called Billy.

“The attitude in the music screamed frustration to me,” says Gillan.

“I had this idea of an ordinary guy down the pub who doesn’t give a monkey’s toss about what goes on at the higher levels of society.

He’s sick of the political pendulum.

“Everyone knows that nothing’s happened in the last fifty, sixty years.

We’ve built nothing.

We’ve done nothing.

We’ve gone backwards in almost everything.

The great institutions are useless piles of rubble.

“So Billy is sticking his head up out of a hole and saying, ‘Get on with it!’”

This brings us to the wild Diablo, recorded in Nashville and featuring guitar solos from none other than country rock star Keith Urban, whose studio the band were occupying.

Here, Gillan truly lets his imagination run riot.

“Diablo is a place where young people go for their rite of passage.

It’s dangerous and many don’t come back,” he says.

“This is the story of Dra-ma.

She pickles her knuckles and has 20 fights before beating up Guts McKenzie in the final.

She celebrates with a bucket of wine and falls into the glitter pool.

It’s all a bit surreal.”

You may think Gillan’s gone off on one but this ceaselessly entertaining character is also partial to a bit of humour.

The Rider is not about someone on a horse, but more about the notorious demands of rock stars when they go on tour.

He says: “I’m not going to mention his name, but he’s a very famous musician in a very famous band.

I was sitting having a beer with him and he said, ‘Someone got a fear of flying so we hired a psychologist.

The next week, there were four psychologists on the plane, one for each member of the band.

Then someone got a bad back so we got a physiotherapist.

The next week, there were four of them.’’

So what about his band’s riders?

“Deep Purple have never been extravagant,” he answers.

“When I was with Black Sabbath, it was a slightly different story, more funny than extravagant.

“I remember Geezer [Butler] complaining that the ham was round and the bread was square, that his sandwich was an incongruous mess which didn’t look right.

“My rider has always been very simple.

It’s bread and cheese, some tea bags — it has to be PG Tips — and a kettle.”

Elsewhere on Splat!, Jessica’s Bra has got to be one of the most eye-catching song titles of the year.

It was supposed to be Bar but, as Gillan admits: “I can’t see too well and make loads of typos these days.

“It’s a sort of Irish pub song.

I grew up in pubs with a beer in one hand, a fag in the other, and in fantastic company.

“My pals were drinking pals — I didn’t smoke a joint until I was 38.

We were pub guys who got locked in, behaved outrageously, but it stayed within the walls.

No harm done.”

Guilt Trippin’, with its gorgeous piano intro and outro and screaming vocals, is about “God and Charlie Darwin having a pint”.

Gillan says: “God is saying, ‘We’ve got to get the numbers right next time,’ but Darwin just goes, ‘Humpty, humpty’.

He doesn’t want to interfere!”

The Lunatic, inspired by the plight of George Orwell’s 1984 protagonist Winston Smith, summons a bout of indignation from Gillan.

“I can’t believe the prescient nature of that book, which was published in 1949,” he says.

“More recently, the NHS proscribed the word lunatic.

I take great offence at that.

Most of my friends are lunatics and always have been — and I happily follow the moon around.”

Through the song Scriblin’ Gib’rish, Gillan vents his spleen at those online matrixes where you have to identify motorbikes or traffic lights, “proving that I am a human being to a f***ing robot”.

Of note here is that he’s heading to UK theatres next spring for his Talking Gib’rish spoken-word tour, a departure from the arena-sized norm.

It’s an opportunity for him to regale audiences with stories from more than six decades in the business.

On a personal level, it’s clear that Gillan is pressing on despite the rigours of live performance and, as he reports, “failing eyesight”.

“Over the past few days, I’ve been taking a deep breath and looking at the future,” he says.

“A few years ago I was doing a talk and the theme was positive ageing.

I realised that when people retire, they stop making long-term plans — even if it’s small things to do with the house or garden.

“But I keep thinking some years ahead with projects, and don’t worry whether I complete them.

“That’s a self-creating energy, like nuclear energy.

It’s incredible.

So, I’m making long-term plans and to hell with it!”

If that’s the template for his mind, what about his body?

Alluding to his younger self — that skinny figure in tight flared jeans with a shaggy mane — he says: “Obviously, I used to be quite athletic when I was young, but I can’t pole vault anymore!

“Well into my sixties, I used to run upstairs two at a time, and now I run down ten at a time.

“So, you’ve got to have a laugh.

Otherwise, you’d sit down and cry.”

One thing is for certain, Ian Gillan and Deep Purple are NOT about to go Splat!

DEEP PURPLE

Splat!

★★★★☆

OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. — In the pre-dawn chill of the Sierra Nevada, Christina Klayko bounced on the balls of her feet, trying to keep warm and calm before one of the planet’s most punishing competitions.

Surrounding her at the starting line for the Western States Endurance Run — a lung-busting 100-mile race over towering mountain ridges and through deep, sun-scorched canyons — were some of the most elite athletes in the world, including former champions, record holders and an Olympic marathon medalist.

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Klayko, a 48-year-old mother of three, had no illusions about winning — she was just relieved to be there. She is a two-time cancer survivor, and a year earlier, she was lying on an operating table enduring a full hysterectomy, followed by months of radiation treatment. She was terrified she might die.

Spectators trekked to Emigrant Pass before dawn to cheer at the first significant milestone the Western States Endurance Run.

“I was in a very dark place,” she said. “I would have given anything just to be able to walk my dog around the block.”

But Klayko, a former software engineer from Los Altos, has never been a quitter. In her twenties, following a breast cancer diagnosis and a full mastectomy, she finished an Ironman triathlon. Last Saturday, she was hoping to complete an even more miraculous comeback.

To do so, she would have to run almost half the width of California, from the shores of Lake Tahoe to Auburn, a former mining town in the foothills above Sacramento, along remote, rock-strewn paths that rise and fall like a roller coaster.

In all, she would have to propel herself up more than 18,000 vertical feet, or three times the elevation hikers climb to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S. And she’d have to endure relentless jack-hammering from nearly 23,000 feet of descent.

Hard things are nothing new to her, Klayko said. And unlike cancer, running is a choice. You can walk away when you’ve had enough.

There’s no prize money for doing well in the Western States 100, but finishers get a commemorative belt buckle and, more importantly, membership in one of the most exclusive clubs in all of sports. More than 11,000 runners entered a lottery for fewer than 400 spots this year. Many had waited for more than a decade for their chance.

But there’s a cruel twist — not everyone who crosses the finish line wins the bragging rights.

There’s a strict 30-hour time limit. Which means, most years, dozens of competitors struggle over snow-capped mountains, push themselves to the brink of heat stroke in the sweltering canyons and endure a long, dark night in the wilderness, only to show up at the finish line a few minutes late.

Eric Strand, 65, of Wildwood, MO, center, runs in front of the Granite Chief Wilderness at the start of the Western States Endurance Run.

They’re not acknowledged as finishers. As far as the official record is concerned, they didn’t make it.

So as Klayko waited for the ceremonial shotgun blast that signals the start, she wasn’t worrying about cancer, or mortality, or even the hours of torture that lay ahead — she was dreading the cutoff.

“I knew I could just push and push as long as I had to,” Klayko said. But she couldn’t escape the looming fear of “running out of time.”

The first major obstacle was Emigrant Pass, a high ridge that is four miles, almost straight uphill, from the start at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort.

Half an hour after the start, the sun peeked over distant summits, turning the horizon orange, and the first runners approached the top.

In the lead pack was Jim Walmsley, a four-time Western States champion and holder of the course record — an astonishing 14 hours, 9 minutes and 28 seconds. Spaniard Kilian Jornet, arguably the greatest ultra runner of all time, was right there with him. That was no surprise. In addition to having won Western States and almost every other notable ultramarathon, Jornet famously summited Mt. Everest twice in one week — without supplemental oxygen.

Among the women was Molly Seidel, perhaps the most recognizable name after Jornet. Seidel had been a 27-year-old barista and babysitter before the COVID-delayed Olympics in 2021, when she shocked the running world by winning the bronze medal in the marathon. It was only the third marathon she had ever run.

These battle-hardened pros barely flinched when they crested the ridge and ran headfirst into bitter, gale-force winds gusting to 65 mph. Their bare, muscled legs kept pumping steadily and carried them down the other side, where the gusts quickly subsided.

The rest of the pack didn’t make it look so easy.

Spectators watch the sunrise before the start of the Western States Endurance Run.

Many were hunched and gasping as they struggled toward the crest. One woman bent over and started retching violently. Locking eyes with a reporter, she shouted, “I’M OK!” — apparently unaware that she was screaming over the wind and whatever was playing in her headphones. “I JUST SWALLOWED TOO MUCH SPIT!”

Then she straightened and staggered into the howling gale: only 96 more miles to go.

Seven hours later, at mile 56, the lead runners climbed out of the course’s deepest and hottest canyon, onto a dusty promontory called Michigan Bluff.

The first few looked almost as fresh and fast as they had at the ridge. But the punishment was starting to show on everyone else.

Jornet, who had been nursing a knee injury before the race, was concerned about the canyons. He didn’t make it through them, dropping out at mile 38.

Walmsley, who had been among the leaders for the first 30 miles, was fading by Michigan Bluff. Persistent hip pain would force him from the race at the next aid station. At this point, most of the other runners, including Klayko, were hours behind.

Justin Grunewald, a 40-year-old Colorado doctor, who some picked as a dark horse contender to finish in the top ten, looked exasperated as he emerged from the canyon. He went straight to his support team, who started dumping water down the back of his shirt and tying an ice bag around his neck.

“I’m totally fine,” he told them, “but my knee is killing me because I keep eating s—.” That’s runner shorthand for falling.

His knee was bleeding, but the real problem was his vision. He pulled off his sunglasses, and his eyes were a scary shade of red. He leaned his head back while a friend squeezed drops into them and reminded him to keep wearing his glasses. Obvious advice — but what else do you say to someone hellbent on running another 44 miles?

“Ultra runners are a strange breed,” said Amanda Basham, Grunewald’s wife. She was on his support team this year, but she has twice finished the race in fourth place.

Jacob Banta, of Mill Valley, pushes up the trail near Michigan Bluff during the Western States Endurance Run.

As Grunewald composed himself and trotted off into the distance, it seemed like a good time to ask the obvious: why does anyone put themselves through such an ordeal?

Basham laughed and said most people would probably brush the question aside with something safe and trite, like, “I just love running!” But the truth, she said, is that “almost everyone here has an intense story.”

Grunewald’s first wife and running partner, Gabe, died after fighting a rare cancer for 10 years, Basham said. Other competitors have lost a child, struggled with mental health or battled addiction. Running long distances on secluded trails can be a coping mechanism. For some, showing up at big races to commune with their tribe is like group therapy.

“We all come together for this common thing, and it doesn’t really matter if you went to rehab 10 times,” Basham said. “You’re here trying to get better, and it’s cool.”

Minutes later, Seidel hobbled out of the canyon clutching her thighs. When her crew offered her a chair, she tried to settle but started panting in pain, apologizing that she was in too much agony to sit.

This was her first attempt at 100 miles. She would explain later that she hadn’t eaten enough during the race and had developed excruciating skin lesions from chafing. It looked like her day was done, but she refused to quit.

The women’s winner, Jennifer Lichter, might have the most intense story of them all. Born in Bogota, Colombia, she was a nine-year old orphaned by cartel violence when a couple from Wisconsin adopted her.

In her first 100-mile race, she shaved a minute off the women’s course record, finishing in 15 hours, 28 minutes and five seconds.

The men’s winner, Vincent Bouillard, smashed the overall course record by more than 20 minutes, sprinting across the line in 13 hours, 46 minutes and 15 seconds.

Klayko, who never imagined herself involved in the chase for records, emerged from the canyon eight hours behind the leaders.

For most of the race, she hovered between hiking fast and running slow. She subsisted mostly on energy chews and gels, indulging in a baked potato sprinkled with salt at one point, and luxuriating in a cup of broth with rice at another.

Was attempting the race wise, given her health? Had she told her doctors she was planning to do this?

“That’s, um, a good question,” she said with a chuckle. “They know I’m a serious runner but … I don’t think I actually told them I was running the Western States.”

Probably for the best.

Like a lot of the runners, Klayko said she got a jolt of much needed energy at mile 78, on the bank of the American River, where the run suddenly turns into an obstacle course.

Racers grab a thin nylon rope and gingerly wade into the freezing water. Volunteers offer life vests and stay close to prevent drownings, but offer no assistance.

A racer crosses the American River during the Western States Endurance Run.

Near the middle of the crossing, the water got so deep that many runners submerged completely, pulling on the rope to haul themselves to the far bank.

“It definitely woke me up,” Klayko said of her crossing in the dark at 3 a.m. “It was a lot colder than I expected.”

On the other side — soaked to the bone, with wet clothes and shoes — she crawled back onto the dusty trail and started running again. Soon after, the trouble set in.

It began with a burning sensation on the bottom of her left foot. As the pain intensified, she started hobbling, leaning on the trekking pole in her right hand to take pressure off the blister that was growing bigger than a golf ball.

With just miles to go, her husband, Chris, who ran beside her — after the halfway point, competitors are allowed to have a companion for safety — kept checking the time. They were falling behind.

What do you say to someone you love in such a situation? You don’t want them to suffer, but you don’t want them to fail.

“We need to hustle,” he told her.

In the last few hundred yards, the race enters the football stadium at Placer High School. Seidel had finished hours earlier, at 5:29 a.m., when the stadium was relatively empty.

But the last 60 minutes before the notorious cutoff — known as Golden Hour — attracts a huge crowd.

Cameras film from every angle as one battered body after another circles the track. Some jog, some hobble, some openly sob. Whatever they do, it’s fully public and likely to go viral on social media.

Christina Klayko pushes for the finish at Placer High School with just minutes to spare in the Western States Endurance Run..

Klayko said she was coached to visualize her finish during training. In her head, it looked nothing like this.

When she came around the final bend with the clock ticking down, gasps arose from the media gaggle behind the finish line.

Desperate to compensate for the enormous blisters on both feet now, she leaned forward and to the right at almost 90 degrees — wobbling and weaving on her heels, relying on trekking poles to stay upright and claw forward.

It was hard to watch but impossible to look away.

When she was finally in stumbling distance of the line, Chris bounced up and down and thrust his arms in the air. The crowd roared.

She finished with 18 minutes to spare.

Christina Klayko nearly collapsed after crossing the finish with minutes to spare in Western States Endurance Run.

Story and pictures by Erick Franco

A short drive along the Playa Grande coastal boulevard provides a glimpse of the scale of the disaster, 100 hours after the June 24 earthquakes. Businesses burned due to gas leaks, while the limited police presence began to give way to theft and looting throughout La Guaira’s commercial district. Along the 8.8-kilometer stretch between the Playa Grande Caribe Hotel and Calle Real de Mare, vacation and residential buildings from the mountainside collapsed onto the roadway, blocking much of the route and making access to Playa Verde extremely difficult. Once there, the damage to the smaller beachfront buildings becomes immediately apparent. As night falls, makeshift shelters appear along the coastline, high-voltage power lines lie across the roads, and damaged buildings continue to shed debris.

By 8:00 am of June 26, after the first 36 hours following the tragedy, the upper areas of Playa Grande and Playa Verde reveal an even more devastating reality. Daylight exposes nearly three kilometers of destruction, from Playa Grande’s Main Avenue to South CV Avenue, now reduced to ruins. Near the César Nieves Stadium, one resident helps distribute water throughout the community while telling us that he lost his three daughters, ages 7, 11, and 14. Despite his unimaginable loss, he says he must keep going because his mother is still alive.

Local residents report that about 40 people were inside the Chipi’s Beach Hotel when the building collapsed, but only two managed to escape alive. Using only their own resources, community members worked to rescue 10 people whose cries could still be heard beneath the rubble. Finally, after more than 30 hours without assistance, firefighters arrived following an appeal made by volunteer students from the Central University of Venezuela.

Next to Chipi’s Beach is the home of Mary, who has spent the past two days beside the body of her mother. As they attempted to flee during the earthquake, her mother became trapped in the narrow passage between the hotel’s exterior wall and the wall of their home. Mary explained that a forensic team determined her mother died instantly and without suffering after a structural column fell across her torso. University volunteers spent two hours attempting to recover her body, but were unsuccessful.

The same scene repeats itself on Fifth Street in Playa Grande, where residents and volunteers at the Residencias Malecón buildings recover three bodies from the rubble. At the same time, paramedics and rescue teams from El Salvador gradually arrive to assist in rescuing a children’s dance group trapped inside the Aguja Azul building.

Venezuelan military personnel, volunteer rescue teams from El Salvador, Venezuelan firefighters, and police officers began to experience the physical toll caused by the odors, dust, and debris in the La Páez area of Catia La Mar. Cases of diarrhea, nasal allergies, and back pain were treated by volunteer medical personnel. Family members gathered at Block 3 of La Páez, where 13 people had been rescued alive, while search teams used probe technology in an effort to locate additional survivors.

These first 100 hours after the earthquake revealed the complete collapse of an entire sector and the social abandonment of the affected communities by government institutions. Residents remained outside hospitals hoping to receive medication, surviving through donations, supplies, and the generosity of others while conducting physically demanding rescue efforts with little training and driven only by the hope of finding their loved ones.

One week after the tragedy, access to water remains limited, the smell of decomposition permeates the entire Catia La Mar area, the businesses that could provide food and essential supplies remain closed, telephone coverage is still incomplete, and power service is being restored only gradually.

¿Y si sí?

As Mexico moves to the Round of 16 in the 2026 World Cup following its Tuesday night 2-0 win over Ecuador — advancing in the knockout stage of the tournament for the first time in 40 years — El Tri fans have rallied behind a unifying phrase: “¿Y si sí?”

The simple three-word expression — which roughly translates to “What if… yes?” — has given Mexico supporters all over the world renewed hope: What if Mexico wins the World Cup?

The now ubiquitous phrase has been featured in memes and compilation videos. Even Mexican goalkeeper Memo Ochoa has gotten in on the action, posting a selfie on Instagram wearing a straw cowboy hat with “¿Y si sí?” etched on it.

Origins of the phrase can be traced back to a May interview with Efraín Juárez, who led Pumas UNAM to the Liga MX Clausura final. During the media appearance, journalist Rodrigo Celorio asked the head coach, “Y si sí?” (“What if yes?”), to which Juárez responded, “Y si sí? Y si los Pumas sí son campeones?” (“What if yes? What if Pumas are be champions?”).

Although Pumas would lose to Cruz Azul 2-1, the optimistic sentiment resonated with TikTok users, especially with the World Cup just weeks away. Some hopeful fans took to social media to post their own interpretation of the phrase, often coupled with clips of past Mexican men’s national teams. Others included a mariachi soundbite of Juan Gabriel’s “Hasta Que Te Conocí” from his 1990 performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes — an appearance that was seen as a milestone for Mexico’s working-class communities given that the iconic Mexico City venue was best known to cater to the elite class. Because if someone who grew up in extreme poverty like Juan Gabriel could bring a mariachi band to the illustrious Palacio de Bellas Artes, why couldn’t the Mexican national team win its first ever World Cup?

The phrase “¿Y si sí?” is also a callback to a 2018 interview Javier “Chicharito” Hernández gave to journalist David Faitelson, who asked the former striker if he was serious about Mexico’s chances of winning that year’s tournament.

“Why can’t we be Greece in the [2004] EuroCup? Why can’t we be Leicester in the Premier League? Why not?” said Hernández, referring to underdog teams that defeated the odds against more favorable clubs.

As the two discussed Mexico’s probability of advancing in the knockout stages of World Cup, Hernández balked back with his now famous phrase: “Imaginémonos cosas chingonas!” (“Let’s imagine badass things!”), followed by “Porque no?” (“Why not?”)

Now both “¿Y si sí?” and “Porque no?” have taken on new meaning in 2026. After Fox Deportes reporter Rodolfo Landeros asked attacking midfielder Gilberto Mora why Mexico could win the World Cup ahead of the June 11 kickoff, the 17-year-old responded with “Es qué, porque no?” (“Because, why not?”).

After Mexico won all three of its group stage matches, TUDN reporter Julio Ibáñez asked the wunderkind Mora, “¿Y si sí?” to which the young soccer player replied “Y Porque no?” When Ibáñez asked if people should get their hopes up, Mora said yes. “Si, que se ilusione” (“Yes, they should dream big”), playing up the running gag.

With Mexico set to face England, one of the teams favored at the start of the tournament, on July 5, would it be so wrong if fans allow themselves to dream? ¿Y si sí? ¿Porque no?

Search and rescue operations continue in Caracas, Venezuela nearly five days after the devastating double earthquakes. Al Jazeera’s Noris Soto speaks with a family member who remains hopeful their loved one is still alive beneath the rubble.

VICK Hope has shared a rare glimpse inside her and husband Calvin Harris’ £15M Ibiza home.

Calvin, 41, bought the stunning 138-acre farm, known as Terra Masia, back in 2022, and the couple spend their summers there – with the Scottish DJ remaining close to maintain his dual-residency at nearby superclub Ushuaïa Ibiza,

Last summer, Vick, 36, gave birth to their son Mica at the Spanish home, and has now shared a glimpse of the little one with dad Calvin at the home.

In a Father’s Day post for Calvin shared on Sunday, Vick shared a video of the musician serenading Mica in a sweet moment.

The clip sees Calvin sitting on the floor of their Ibiza home – which is neutrally decorated with a beige couch and textured nude rug – and playing a ukulele.

His son can be seen adorably dancing along to the tune, bobbing up and down in between his dad’s legs.

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In the clip, Calvin and Vick’s sprawling farm backdrop can be seen – with a large window showing the beautiful views and collection of trees.

Vick wrote alongside the video: “Happy first Father’s Day, love from the person you make dance the most”.

A number of celebrities took to the comment section on the post, with Davina McCall writing: “Awwwwwww xxxx my heart”.

“Awwwwwwww ❤️,” said Carol Vorderman.

The clip is a rare glimpse into Calvin and Vick’s life in Spain during the summers, with the couple – who married in 2023 – famously private about their personal lives.

The residence holds special memories for the couple, with Calvin reportedly popping the question to Vick underneath a grand tree there, as well as welcoming their son there.

Calvin bought the Ibiza property after selling his two multi-million pound mansions in Los Angeles.

The chart-topping DJ and producer’s sprawling 138-acre residence is known as Terra Masia, which is the largest organic farm in the White Isle.

It can produce veg, eggs, wine and farm-to-table meals, and also hosts special events such as weddings.

At the time, a source told The Sun: “Calvin employs an expert team including farmers and chefs.

“But that hasn’t stopped him getting involved and he regularly gets his hands dirty, helping to plant seeds and everything else involved in running a farm.

“He is really passionate about what he and the team are doing.”

When the couple aren’t spending their summers in Ibiza for Calvin’s residency, they reside in a countryside home in the Cotswolds.

Iran’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad World Cup got a lot better Sunday.

By playing Belgium to a scoreless draw before another packed house at SoFi Stadium, Iran is in position to win its group with a victory over Egypt on Friday and advance to the knockout stage for the first time.

That would be a just reward for a team that is unbeaten two games into what has been a trying tournament off the field.

Before it even left Iran, the team was forced to move its training camp from Tucson to Tijuana, and more than a dozen members of its delegation were told they would be barred from entering the U.S. The players had their movements in the U.S. severely limited, heard their national anthem jeered twice and generally have been unwelcome as the first qualifiers to play a World Cup game in a country with which they are at war.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, on Sunday, Iran had a brilliant first-half goal, one that seemingly had given it its first lead of the tournament, erased on a video replay that confirmed the narrowest of offside violations.

The disallowed goal, one of the best any team has scored in this World Cup, came on a set piece in the 25th minute. Iranian captain Ehsan Hajsafi took the free kick from about 35 yards, but instead of going to the goal, he pushed the ball through the Belgium wall to Mehdi Taremi, who took a clean first touch, then put a left-footed ball between Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois and the left post.

Iranian soccer fans hold a pre-revolutionary Iranian flag following the team’s scoreless draw with Belgium in the World Cup at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The play caught Belgium completely by surprise, and for one of the few times in this tournament, Iran had reason to cheer. But the celebration was short-lived when referee Dario Herrera took the goal away after a lengthy video review determined Taremi to be offside.

That was the best thing that went right for Belgium in a first half it dominated, only to come up empty. It had an 11-2 edge in shots, completed six times as many passes and controlled the ball for more than 36 of the first 45 minutes. But it couldn’t get the ball past Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand.

If the World Cup has been trying for Iran, it’s been frustrating for Belgium, which needed an own goal from Egypt’s Mohamed Hany to escape with a draw in its opener. And a smothering Iranian defense that frequently packed seven players in the box added to that frustration Sunday.

Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku, left, and Iran defender Shojae Khalilzadeh battle for the ball in the second half of a World Cup match at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

That allowed Iran to get the first dangerous chance of the second half — and it also came off a set piece — with Taremi banging a clean volley on target from the center of the box. But Courtois stood his ground and made the save.

The game took a turn in the 62nd minute when Belgium’s Nathan Ngoy mishit a weak backpass, sending Taremi on a breakaway with only Courtois to beat. When Ngoy reached out and grabbed the Iranian by the shirt, pulling him to the ground, he drew a red card, leaving Belgium to play the final half-hour down a man.

Iran clearly deserved a better fate after absorbing wave after wave of a withering Belgium attack without breaking. It also was quicker and far more creative on offense, though it had nothing to show for that.

For Belgium, still looking for its first goal of the tournament, the result was another strain on an aging golden generation of players. If they don’t beat New Zealand in their final group-stage game Friday, they’ll leave the World Cup after the first round for a second straight time.

In many ways, the most ambitious World Cup in history — which kicked off Thursday in Mexico City — has inspired more angst than anticipation, more fear than fervor.

The competition, returning to North America for the first time in more than three decades, has expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches, to be played over 39 days in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The complex planning was eight years in the making.

Yet even before the competition opened with Mexico facing South Africa at the iconic Estadio Azteca, it has been marred by a number of controversies that threaten to overshadow the soccer and cloud the tournament’s legacy.

“I view this World Cup as the most politically combustible World Cup in recent history. And that’s saying something,” said Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at the University of Portland and author of eight books on the politics of international sport.

“We’re in uncharted territory in many ways.”

Relations between the host countries, once strong, have been strained by the Trump administration’s tariff policies and disagreements over border security. Travel bans have barred potential World Cup visitors — and even support staff and match officials — from entering the U.S. and others are fearful of making the trip, worried about ICE raids and immigration roundups.

The U.S. is at war with a tournament qualifier, Iran. And Iran has fired missiles and drones on Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, nations that also are World Cup participants.

The International Sports Press Assn. said Iranian and African journalists have been denied visas to cover games in the U.S., and Iran protested after more than a dozen members of its support staff had their requests to enter the U.S. rejected. The Iranians, who were forced to move their training base from Tucson to Tijuana, will spend limited time in the U.S. during group-play games that will take place in Inglewood and Seattle.

Players and journalists from Senegal, Uzbekistan and Iraq have been detained at U.S. airports for up to seven hours by immigration officials. Then on Monday, Omar Artan, a decorated referee and the first Somali official selected to work a World Cup, was turned away at Miami International Airport.

In addition, ticket prices have been so high and the lottery process for obtaining them so opaque, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have begun formal investigations into FIFA practices. Other states, including California, hosting tournament matches have begun asking questions as well.

All that has conspired to produce a World Cup that is struggling to catch on with the public. According to a recent poll by Yougov.com, a majority of Americans — 54% — say they are not at all interested in the tournament and nearly six in 10 say they will not watch any matches.

“People are just in a bad mood,” Boykoff said. “It’s a tough time.”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino remains optimistic, promising this will be “the biggest, the most inclusive, the greatest FIFA World Cup ever.” He made the same claim about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2018 tournament in Russia.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaks during a news conference on Wednesday before the start of the World Cup.

(Carl Recine / Getty Images)

“The World Cup should be understood as both a global sporting celebration and a major commercial enterprise, with these two dimensions being mutually enforcing rather than contradictory,” said Steve Georgakis, a lecturer on sports studies at the University of Sydney and a frequent author on soccer.

This year’s tournament is projected to swell FIFA’s coffers by nearly $9 billion and the TV ratings, it says, will be massive.

“Its universal appeal combined with the participation of 48 nations ensures that it remains a genuinely global sporting event,” Georgakis said.

Boykoff has his doubts.

“In this particular political moment, with the Trump administration being erratic and impulsive and needing a win from this tournament and the fact there’s so many moving parts geopolitically, I don’t have confidence that it’s just going to end up being a soccer-focused next five weeks,” he said.

This is not the first World Cup to kick off under some kind of black cloud.

The 1974 tournament in West Germany was tarred by the geopolitical fallout of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Four years later Argentina’s military dictatorship used the World Cup to sportswash a “Dirty War” in which as many as 30,000 people were tortured, murdered and disappeared.

The 2010 and 2014 World Cups were troubled by cost overruns and delays in the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure and the threat of labor unrest while global outrage over human rights violations and discrimination against women and LGBTQ people hung over the last two tournaments.

Those issues never fully disappeared but were overshadowed by the brilliance of the soccer. Jonathan Wilson, a columnist with the Guardian and author of “The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup,” expects the same this summer.

“The other stuff will still be there in the background,” he said, “but fundamentally the football will, for the vast majority of people, take over. It’s just sort of a natural cycle.”

Argentina star Lionel Messi controls the ball during an international friendly against Iceland on Tuesday.

(Butch Dill / Associated Press)

And as with every World Cup, there undoubtedly will be unforgettable moments.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the top scorers in soccer history, will be playing in their sixth and final World Cups — Messi chasing a second straight title and Ronaldo pursuing the only prize that has eluded him.

Kylian Mbabbe will be trying to take France to a third consecutive final while young superstars like Erling Haaland of Norway and Lamine Yamal of Spain will be looking to put their mark on their first World Cups.

Four teams — Jordan, Curacao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan — have qualified for the tournament for the first time.

And there will be other storylines no one saw coming, all of which will contribute to the narrative of this World Cup.

“Major sporting events have a way of capturing public attention and shifting the conversation toward what is happening on the field rather than off it,” Georgakis said.

How much the actions of the Trump administration affect that calculation remains to be seen.

There are travel restrictions in place that fully or partially bar citizens from 39 countries — including a number of World Cup participants — from entering the U.S. And the administration has said ICE and Homeland Security personnel will have a visible presence at World Cup venues, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the American team will begin play Friday.

“There will be federal agents,” confirmed L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, who added that he could not guarantee immigration sweeps would not take place. “ They told us that specifically would not be occurring,” he said. “Any of that’s subject to change.”

Mexico fans celebrate during a watch party at Plaza Mexico in Lynwood on Thursday.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

The difficulty in obtaining visas and the fear of being rounded up by immigration agents are being blamed, in part, for less-than-expected tourist traffic. Hotel operators in all 11 World Cup host cities say bookings for the tournament are well below projections. Several countries have issued warnings about travel to the U.S.

Then there are the own goals from FIFA over tickets and parking prices as high as $900 at some stadiums, weather issues and a short-lived ban on water bottles.

FIFA has defended its policies on ticket prices by arguing that premiums are necessary to maximize revenue, which it will invest in global soccer development. Variable, market-based pricing, it said, simply reflects standard entertainment practices in North America. The organization did, however, reverse its ban on fans bringing bottles into games. Spectators are now allowed to enter stadiums with one soft, plastic 20-ounce water bottle.

And despite a warning from climate scientists that one in four World Cup games could be played in dangerously hot conditions, FIFA will start 40 of them at 3 p.m. or earlier local time, the warmest time of day, to accommodate European TV viewers.

Georgakis said the play on the field will have to overcome all those issues if this World Cup is to earn a favorable place in history.

“Ultimately the success of the World Cup will be judged by what happens on the field,” he said. “If the football is compelling, dramatic and memorable, the tournament will likely be remembered as a great World Cup. If the play falls short, then the off-field issues such as ticket prices, extreme heat, ICE enforcement activities, the Trump administration will receive great attention and could shape perceptions of the event.”

PREGNANT Daisy Lowe showed off her baby bump as she joined Lily Allen and Vick Hope at a Royal Academy event.

The model and former Strictly star revealed she was pregnant with her second child in February.

Her pregnancy came just seven months after she tied the knot with husband Jordan Saul.

The couple already have daughter Ivy together, and as Daisy showed off her burgeoning bump on the red carpet, it looks like it won’t be too much longer until the family of three becomes four.

Daisy, 37, was attending the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition preview party at Burlington House, and wore a cream, lace dress which featured a large slit up the back, allowing her to show off her legs as she walked.

Daisy was joined at the event by Lily Allen, who wore a striking gown which featured a black mesh overlay and a cream feather drape detail running from her neck down her back to the floor.

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Meanwhile Vick Hope wore a striking orange and pink tiered summer dress and accessorised with a gold clutch.

Also in attendance was Claudia Winkleman, who wore her trademark black alongside husband Kris Thykier, and Jenna Coleman.

When announcing her pregnancy,  Daisy shared pictures from her family holiday with Jordan and Ivy.

She wrote: “Heading home from our honeymoon with an extra stowaway.

“Little bump is growing FAST & Ivy is so excited to meet *her* baby.”

Daisy and property developer Jordan, 31 married in a “wild and romantic” ceremony last June.

The model, whose dad is Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale, wore a Vivienne Westwood couture gown and completed her stunning look with a gorgeous tennis bracelet by The Vault London, a Lulu Guinness shell bag and crystal-dotted Jimmy Choos.

Three wins and three defeats to finish third in their qualifying group may not look like much, but there is plenty for Republic of Ireland to be proud of in how they navigated what many said was the ‘group of death’ in League A.

The bottom seeds, who had only won promotion to League A with a last-gasp goal against Belgium in a promotion/relegation play-off last year, were tipped to go straight back down to League B when they were drawn against France, Netherlands and Poland.

Manager Carla Ward always said they wanted to aim as high as possible, and while they fell short of scaling their Everest by narrowly losing to France in their final qualifier to miss out on automatic World Cup qualification, they still have a chance to reach next year’s tournament in Brazil.

They became the first side promoted to League A not to be relegated straight back down and the first to pick up not just two but three wins in the top tier, including that sensational win over Netherlands in Cork on Friday.

Their third-place finish has secured a seeded play-off in the autumn and they will be the team many will want to avoid when the draw is made on 18 June given how they have shocked Poland twice and the Netherlands and run France ever so close.

Ward’s overriding feelings when speaking to RTE were pride tinged with pain that they couldn’t get over the line, although she was philosophical in how far they have come and how far they can go.

“I’m incredibly proud of this group and I said it to them there. We’ve got a special, special group who work unbelievably hard. It shows you everything, the [French] scenes at the end, they didn’t have it easy tonight,” she said.

“France are a top, top side and the fact we are here disappointed tells you an awful lot about where we are.

“You can take so many positives. This campaign we have grown and got better and better. Whether we had won, drawn or lost tonight we wanted to continue on the journey. We are in a really good place going into October and that has to be the focus.”

OSCAR winner Marcia Lucas has died from cancer aged 80.

Known as the secret weapon and unsung hero of Star Wars, Marcia died at her holiday home in Rancho Mirage, California.

The ex-wife of George Lucas, Marcia was best known for editing Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.

Marcia died on Wednesday evening, her family said.

In an emotional statement, they called the filmmaker a “trailblazer”.

A family member said: “Marcia was a force.”

“A true trailblazer for women in film and one of the most influential editors in cinematic history; she helped redefine what film editing could be and paved the way for generations of women who followed.”

She won an Academy Award in 1977 for Best Film Editing.

In 1969 she married George Lucas, who she had met while working on the documentary Journey to the Pacific.

Raised in North Hollywood, Marcia met her future husband while they were working as assistants for editor Verna Fields.

CANNES, France — The movies of Na Hong-jin aren’t hard to love — they’re as obsession-worthy as the stylish rigor with which they are made. His 2008 debut, “The Chaser,” found new febrility in the post-Fincher serial killer thriller. “The Wailing” somehow added ghosts, demon-possessed children and inky black crows to the mix with a near-crazed sense of showmanship.

That was 10 years ago. Na, 51, now sits on the other side of a project that has consumed him for years, a sci-fi action film called “Hope” that arrives with expensive CGI, a pair of A-list stars (Michael Fassbender and Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander) and James Cameron-sized franchise ambitions. It will undoubtedly make Na’s gallows-humor-inflected brand more global, even if it lifts him out of the cult niche that’s nourished him to date.

Cannes is an unlikely place to launch “Hope.” That could be seen as a sign that the festival’s increasing accommodation of blockbuster bigness doesn’t need Hollywood. Na sits in the corner of a Côte d’Azur waterfront lounge on a glorious midday, the sky an almost abstract blue. He tugs at his goatee distractedly. His world premiere is tonight.

Neon, the distributor currently enjoying a six-year Palme d’Or winning streak, will release “Hope” in America sometime after its summer bow in Na’s native South Korea. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. It also contains significant spoilers.

A scene from the movie “Hope,” directed by Na Hong-jin.

(Neon)

When did you realize that you had a big sci-fi alien monster movie in you?

The idea came to me in 2017 in Seoul. The premise started off with somebody watching news in a diner or a small restaurant. It was that image that I had in my head. So I started developing that initial image in more detail. By 2018, I was able to write my first draft.

“Hope” brings to mind several genre classics, from “Jaws” and John Carpenter movies like “The Thing,” to something more homegrown such as Bong Joon Ho’s “The Host.” Were those inspiring to you?

I must have looked all the genre films that I could find, including the ones you mention, before I went into filming. And, as I hope you noticed, I was looking more at films from before 2000 and I tried to reflect that look.

It seems like you’re using Cannes as a moment to pivot or reinvent yourself. Is that intentional?

I didn’t intend for this to be a turning point in terms of style or direction going forward. I never thought of it that way. What I really dwelled on was thinking about how to tell this story in a way that was approachable and entertaining for people.

Why did you set the story in the demilitarized zone?

If you look at it from a universal perspective, what happens in this very shabby, humble, small, insignificant space potentially creates an impact that can go on infinitely. I think none of the characters in the film do anything with any malice. I guess the underlying story I want to tell is that there is no reason for evil intention behind anything, but innocent acts can build up to something tragic.

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are wonderful surprises in the movie as some rather dignified aliens. What led you to them?

When I was casting the alien roles, I had a bigger story in mind. I don’t know whether there’ll be a sequel after this one, but if so, that sequel is going to be centered around them. So picking the right actors was very important for me. We asked them to learn this invented alien language, which they prepared and came onto set knowing.

How important to you is comedy and releasing tension with laughs?

Very. I try to really think it through and if it comes out the way I intended, that gives me such a thrill. I tried to incorporate it in many places.

A lot of the movie feels like a virtuoso chase sequence, people barreling down the road, guns blazing. But it took me a minute to realize that the more interesting question is: Who’s doing the chasing? Is “Hope” meant to make us examine our own violence?

Yes, very much so. And two of the major chase scenes were designed so that what starts off as righteous somehow tilts toward being unjust. I wanted the action to bring up that transition in perspective.

You’ve premiered at Cannes before but, in a way, it feels like the wrong festival for a movie like this. You’re laughing because I think you agree with me.

It goes without saying. I’m incredibly nervous. And I feel so grateful that you’re treating me so nicely and gently.

A scene from the movie “Hope,” directed by Na Hong-jin.

(Neon)

Why did it take you 10 years to make this film?

There was a pandemic in the middle of that. But except for the pandemic where everything stopped, I was working my ass off before and after. It still took this long. I’m a little concerned myself, like: How did this happen?

With “Hope,” are you saying goodbye to the filmmaker you once were?

Not at all. Throughout the entire process of making this film, I was bloodthirsty. I was thirsting for blood. I have another script written already.

And maybe now it’ll go faster because there won’t be a pandemic. Are you hoping that this movie is going to have an impact on the Korean film industry?

It’s not my place to say that. I’m not sure. I want things to be freer.

Would it be a mistake to read this film as an allegory for what’s happening now in the world? Is it a plea for understanding?

I don’t regard it as a plea for understanding. Rather, let’s hope people will be able to relate to it and be empathetic about the story and realize for themselves, understand for themselves. Maybe there’s something more to it, but you take away what you will from that.

Your dark humor flares on occasion. Did you make it a point to try to preserve that?

Well, you can’t just do something like this without having that. It’s not fun.

This doesn’t feel like an “Avatar”-style film. There’s an openness to it, a sense of exploration. Do you believe in heroes?

I do believe in heroes, but, as I tell in the story, anyone can be a hero.