I’d come for the sunrise but I quickly discovered three things that can ruin even the most beautiful moment
There’s nearly always a queue for a selfie at this remarkable beauty spot(Image: Portia Jones )
It was just gone 5am when I arrived very tired and ready to tackle a scenic sunrise hike at one of the UK’s most popular peaks. But looking around, it appeared I wasn’t the only one who had this marvellous idea — despite the time, the car park was starting to fill up.
I could make out the faint glow of iPhones as early risers emerged from cars, clutching coffee and camera tripods, shivering in the dark. From here, the route to the summit of Pen y Fan, the highest peak in south Wales, is one of the most straightforward ways to the summit and is often described by locals as a “motorway”, so it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise to find myself surrounded by other keen walkers.
Pen y Fan rises 886 metres (2,907 ft) above a landscape of rolling high hills. It’s one of several flat-topped summits in the area, and the dramatic peak was once a mountain for the committed: avid hikers, the British Army on training exercises and reluctant school kids dragged up for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. These days, it attracts anyone with a phone and a sunrise, with viral social media clips turning the picturesque summit into a must-visit backdrop for selfies.
Interest in the UK’s beauty spots has surged since Covid-19 restrictions began in 2020, when an hour’s exercise was a brief escape from lockdown life. In recent years, reports of national parks, beaches, and hiking trails being overrun with crowds, litter, and queues have become almost routine as more people head for the hills, clutching their smartphones.
We set off from the car park in the dark, joining the steady stream of hikers snaking up the trail. The ‘motorway’ path was well-trodden and wide enough in parts to accommodate the crowd without too much jostling. My companions, seasoned hikers with well-worn gear, moved with practised efficiency, while I kept pace, observing the scene unfolding around us.
The trail was a mix of gravel and uneven stone, occasionally slick with dew, and the dawn light had not yet hit the high, rolling green hills, verdant valleys, and grassy mountain plateaus.
Headlamps and iPhone lights dotted the landscape like fireflies, and it was hard not to slow down and take in the absurdity of what felt like hundreds of us all crawling up the same path, multiple dogs running loose, phones flickering, and me, trying not to become part of someone’s Instagram Live.
As we crested the final rise, the line of hikers slowed to a crawl, everyone funnelling toward the summit marker. The Pen y Fan cairn, a large pile of stones that has stood since the Bronze Age, marked with a National Trust plaque and topped by a trig point, was already commanding attention. People had formed an orderly queue, patiently waiting for their turn to stand beside it for a photo.
Even in the soft pre-dawn light, it looked like a scene from a theme park: polite shuffling, polite muttering, everyone clutching phones and cameras, some even doing little TikTok dances.
Watching the strange scene, it was hard not to think about the meteoric rise of ‘TikTok travel’, the phenomenon of visiting somewhere not to discover it, but to make the place a backdrop for your own carefully choreographed content.
Don’t get me wrong: I love a good selfie. But queuing for a picture, or orchestrating an hour-long photoshoot solely for social media, is not something I have patience for.
And yet, despite the absurdity of it all, the sunrise we had come to see was spectacular. The first golden rays of light struck the ridges, catching the Llyn Cwm Llwch lake in a soft, golden glow and providing expansive 360-degree views of the surrounding countryside, including the Black Mountains, Carmarthenshire Fans, and the Cambrian Mountains to the north and west.
A thin mist lingered in the valleys below, and a “dragon’s breath” cloud inversion spread across the landscape, curling around the peaks like smoke and catching the sun’s pink-and-gold light. Even the most devoted TikTokkers paused for a moment just long enough to gape at the extraordinary panorama.
The way the glacier-carved peaks glowed, the soft light spilling over the valleys, and the atmospheric ‘Dragon’s breath’ are why Pen y Fan draws so many, why we brave the crowds, and why, inevitably, you find yourself taking a quick selfie, trying to preserve the moment without letting it slip away.
I’d come for the sunrise, but I quickly discovered three things that can ruin even the most epic mountain moment: crowds, dogs running wild off lead, and litter. None of them is enough to spoil Pen y Fan entirely, but together, they’re a reminder that our growing love for the outdoors can have unintended consequences.
I’m also self-aware enough to know I’m part of the problem. I came for the same thing as everyone else, a photogenic sunrise shared with my hiking pals.
I could have chosen one of the many quieter peaks or valleys scattered across Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) — there’s no shortage of them. But here I am, trudging up the most popular route with everyone else. The lure of dawn light is hard to resist, even when you know exactly how crowded it’s going to be.
As I sipped my coffee and surveyed the summit, it was impossible to ignore the consequences of Pen y Fan’s popularity. The cairn, once a quiet marker of the highest point in south Wales, had become a pivot point for human activity.
Every so often, discarded rubbish or a stray dog poo bag would catch your eye, small but persistent reminders of the mountain’s rising footfall.
Even the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team has had to intervene, “downing tools” during training sessions in the National Park to clear up litter, including disposable barbecues, something they described on social media as increasingly common and, heartbreakingly, unnecessary.
Another complication was dogs off-lead. Bounding freely, they sometimes disappeared from view entirely, prompting panicked calls from their owners and, presumably, even more posts in local hiking Facebook groups about missing pets.
On a slope like Pen y Fan, it’s a worry: not just for the dogs (which I love to be clear) but also for wildlife and the growing problem of erosion and mess along the most popular paths.
For all the talk of crowds and chaos and poor pet management, though, I know most people who come here care deeply about the mountains.
I’m a member of enough hiking groups to see how much affection there is for these astonishing landscapes. Most walkers are respectful; they don’t drop litter, keep dogs close, and tread carefully. A small minority spoil it with blaring music, buzzing drones, or abandoned dog poo bags. Perhaps that’s why this behaviour feels so jarring; it isn’t the norm.
What’s needed isn’t less enthusiasm, but more awareness. Simple, consistent reminders of how to “leave no trace,” and a bit of encouragement to explore beyond the same three or four photogenic peaks, might go further than any warning sign ever could.
Of course, awareness is easier to preach than practise when the sunrise forecast looks promising, and so, here I am. It turns out that it’s easy to grumble about the crowds until you realise that you’re one of them. And maybe that’s the paradox of places like Pen y Fan, they’re loved to the point of being over-loved.
This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Wednesday.”
In a world where teenagers grapple with accusations of withering attention spans and a lack of motivation, Wednesday Addams managed to rouse from a coma and made the back-to-school scaries feel even more like a mind trip by … summoning Lady Gaga?
“Wednesday” returned for the second half of its sophomore season on Netflix this week, picking up right after Part 1’s ominous cliffhanger to reveal its moody teenage protagonist evaded potential death and that she was ready to dive back into the twisty world of deadly family secrets, monsterly situationships and friendship woes.
In the middle of the new threats and old mysteries are the show-stopping contributions from the pop superstar (and honorary mother to all outcasts, including her legion of Little Monsters, as her fanbase is called). Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, made a roughly two-minute appearance as Rosaline Rotwood, a deceased professor at Nevermore, the school for outcasts that Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) attends, with second sight capabilities that trigger a Freaky Friday/body-swap interlude between Wednesday and her estranged friend Enid (Emma Myers). The multi-hyphenate artist also provides the song “The Dead Dance” to score what’s poised to be another social media dance trend akin to Ortega’s viral Season 1 moves to the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck.”
The Times spoke with creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar to break down the season. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You know where we have to start: Lady Gaga. Tell me the origin story of this casting.
Gough: It all grew out of the viral dance from the first season. Some fan, who should collect a lot of money, put Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” [over the dance] — because it was “Goo Goo Muck”— and suddenly the dance became its own, whole new thing. We’ve always been huge Lady Gaga fans. And if there was anybody who was the ultimate outcast, it would be her. We just started a conversation with her and her team … is there a way for her to be involved in Season 2? We found this character — because obviously, she’s very busy and touring — that could be a small role, but it’s an impactful one. Out of that grew “The Dead Dance,” a song that she had which we heard a year ago and loved it. They’re like, “She’ll hold it for the show.” And we were like, “Oh my God.”
Millar: When we heard the lyrics, it was almost like she had written the song for the show. And we had this moment in Episode 7, which we’d always planned — we never wanted to repeat ourselves with Jenna doing a dance — but it feels like music and the show and dancing are integral now. To not scratch that itch creatively in Season 2, I think the audience would have been so disappointed. So it felt like, how do we honor the incredible Rave’N dance in Season 1, which became such an iconic moment, but do it in a way that’s different and celebrate new characters? That’s why we came up with the idea of the gala and seeing Agnes [Evie Templeton] and Enid come together. They’ve been antagonistic, and it felt like a beautiful moment of female friendship and blossoming and this incredible Gaga song was just like the icing on the cake.
I was expecting a long courting process when you’re trying to get Lady Gaga — like, writing letters.
Gough: The process wasn’t fast, but it was always very pleasant and complimentary. Everybody wanted it to work. I think that’s where we were starting from, is everybody wanted it to work.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and Lady Gaga as Rosaline Rotwood. (Helen Sloan / Netflix)
There’s a lot of discussion right now about gaps between seasons, and obviously there were some factors that caused the gap here — namely the strikes, but also other projects. How do you feel about that, especially knowing the fan base skews younger? Is it harmful to maintaining that relationship with the material?
Millar: We certainly never wanted a three-year gap. I think the show feels like an event movie, in a weird way, so I think people are prepared to wait, but it’s not ideal. It’s something that we would never want ourselves, as viewers. It’s been gratifying that people have come back in the way they have, and we definitely feel their love for the show, but we had obstacles in terms of getting to that place, coming back. No one’s to blame. It’s just the reality of the strike and everything else. Now the focus is coming back quicker. We rolled right from production into the writers’ room; now we’re rolling right into production [on Season 3 in October]. We’re definitely on a faster cadence, and that’s certainly the plan moving forward.
That said, as hopefully you see on screen, it is a huge show. We have over 3,500 visual effects shots. We’re still finishing [the finale] this week. There are still shots that are going to be dropped in that monster fight on the roof, the fight in the clock tower. The most complex visual effects in the show actually is Professor Olaf, which is the Christopher Lloyd character. But that takes a lot of time and trial and error to get to the point where I think the show looks as good as it does. Certainly our imperative is to get the show back faster; I know Netflix has that goal and wish as well.
Gough: Our goal is we’ve got to create the best show we can create. As Miles said, it takes us a certain amount of time. When you get in your head like that, you can’t actually do your best work. I can guarantee you that’s something that the Netflix marketing department thinks about a lot. They certainly try to keep fans engaged online and through other ways. And the Netflix Houses now that have those [fan] experiences. Can you translate that and keep engagement? You’re right, there’s a lot of shows and movies out there and you want to be able to stay in the zeitgeist in that time when you’re not in the zeitgeist. But for us, at a certain point, we just got to create the show, try to keep all the noise outside.
In the space between Season 1 and 2, Jenna was pretty vocal about not connecting with the character choices from the first season. I’m curious how you felt as it happened? And what has “Wednesday” taught you about how to work with actors and how to consider their opinions or perspective about the material?
Gough: We’re not going to speak to some of that because we’ve spoken to it in previous interviews, but I think our philosophy has always been — from “Smallville” on down “Into the Badlands” — it is a collaboration and a conversation with the actors. We always say movies is a party, but a television show is like a family. They have to feel ownership. We had that with Jenna in Season 1 — she read all the scripts, she gave notes. She’s continued to do that in Season 2. She’s taken a more active role in terms of being in production meetings and understanding the marketing perspective and just having all of that. She’s a generational talent and she’s going to have a very long career, and the career will be more than just acting. Actors are the keeper of the world and they have to be able to [understand] their characters. We’ll take a good idea from anybody. You just want them to be engaged and to have good ideas and be thinking about their characters. It’s something we learned from John Wells, who we met with very early on, before we started running “Smallville,” to get his advice. That’s what he told us. As a creator, you have to have the vision for the show, but you have to be open to these ideas and funnel them through.
Enid (Emma Myers) and Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) in “Wednesday.” Season 2 explores the growing pains of the polar-opposite friends: “The end of Season 1, Wednesday made a friend, but then it’s like, OK, how do you be a friend?”
(Netflix)
Is it fair to say you took some of it into consideration because there was less of an emphasis on a love triangle, at least with Wednesday? We really see things build in the friendship between Enid and Wednesday.
Gough: The thing is, if your first boyfriend turns out to be a monster, there was never going to be like, “Oh, I can’t wait to dive back into a romance” idea. The show’s been in our head for six years; it was always like, Season 2 was once bitten, twice shy, especially if you’re Wednesday Addams — or once bitten, twice stabbed. That felt like the natural evolution. Again, she’s not a character who was, even Season 1 [boy crazy] and it worked great. People were invested and intrigued and wanted to know. I can tell you from having daughters — because most times it’s portrayed as the girls are loving for the boys. That’s not true in every situation. With my two daughters, it’s the boys who’ve been way more interested in the girls, and then they eventually come around or think, maybe I’ll do it. If you look at Season 1, Xavier and Tyler were way more interested in Wednesday. Wednesday had no interest and any time she even delved into what you would see as romance — she went to the dance because she thought he was a suspect. Wednesday never does anything because she goes with the flow. She’s either backed into a corner or it’s going to help her in her larger case. Even in that love triangle, we never betrayed Wednesday. She was never starry-eyed for either boy.
Millar: That love triangle worked, actually, very well. It’s the dramatic backbone of the season and leads Wednesday — because I think Wednesday, as we like to say, is often wrong; she is someone who just is very headstrong, and I think that’s what makes her so intriguing, that she’s complex and flawed. That’s an interesting thing for teenage female protagonist, who often aren’t that. It’s the journey of a teen; with Season 2, we can change it, and Jenna was in an agreement with that. It’s been a very successful partnership in terms of the steering the course of the character, and where she goes and how she behaves and what she says.
What were you interested in exploring between the Enid-Wednesday dynamic in Season 2? And how did you arrive at the body-swapping idea?
Gough: The end of Season 1, Wednesday made a friend, but then it’s like, OK, how do you be a friend? That’s something that she is still very Wednesday [about] and she still has her preconceived notions of Enid, which is, “I can’t tell her the secret, I have to save her. I can’t include her — she’s weak, she’ll lose her mind.” She doesn’t think that Enid can handle it, so she doesn’t really see her friend. With Enid, it’s even the case with Ajax, and moving on to Bruno, which is Ajax saw her one way, and she’s not that girl anymore.
The body-swap episode was a way to explore that so that they could see [what it’s like] literally walking a mile in somebody else’s shoes — in this case, their bodies — and seeing what it is that they appreciate about each other. It’s an idea that’s sitting there — they’re so polar opposites and they’re both such good actors that they’ve created characters with such specific quirks and body movement and cadences and things like that. To then put the one in the other, it just felt like, why wouldn’t we do that?
Millar: We’ve had moments of real darkness this season; we just need to have an episode where the audience is going to have the best time and it be a great ride. I remember we were on set and it was the moment where Enid wakes up in [Wednesday’s] body and starts screaming. Jenna can scream nonstop. She was screaming all day, but it was so incredible to hear. You didn’t know who it was really. It was complete transformation. It was definitely a challenge. It was more than halfway through the season, they were tired and it was a real testament to their resilience and professionalism that they really just went for it.
Gough: They would record each other doing the line so that they could hear. They studied like two A students. They really put everything into it.
The Addams family plays a bigger role this season. From left, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez).
(Helen Sloan / Netflix)
You brought the Addams family further into the fold this season, particularly giving attention the mother-daughter dynamic between Morticia and Wednesday — their parallels, their tension.
Gough: The show‘s a comedy, it’s a satire, but it always comes down to [being] a family drama. Season 1 even went back Wednesday’s ancestor, Goody vs. Crackstone; then it was Gomez and Morticia vs. the Gates family. It all comes down to family secrets in this show. We wanted to expand that. The feedback we also got was people love the Addams Family and they’re intrigued by them because there’s no real mythology for the Addams Family. They didn’t have names until the TV show in the ’60s. Then you got a couple movies in the ’90s. People love them, but you don’t know much about them. For us, it’s great because it’s the opposite of “Smallville.” It is a clean slate where you can build the family tree. And we do it with the blessing of Kevin Miserocchi, who runs the Addams Foundation.
You got a taste of it in Season 1, with Morticia and Wednesday, and then you saw it in the Parents’ Weekend episode. But then the idea of Morticia is here, and what does that do? And the idea of this mother-daughter relationship, which especially in the teenage years, can be very fraught. They’re a lot more alike than they want to admit, on both ends. To take that very universal idea and relationship that a lot of people have experienced, but put it through the prism of the Addams Family with Morticia and Wednesday, and they solve their fights with swords and there’s more life-and-death sort of circumstances — that felt like a fun way to do it and a way to open up the show.
Millar: We really wanted to give Jenna some relief as well; she was in every scene of Season 1. It was a creative opportunity for us to explore different characters and to really expand the world of the show.
Thing, performed by Victor Dorobantu, and Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in “Wednesday.” The rogue appendage received a backstory in Season 2.
(Netflix)
I loved getting an origin story for Thing.
Millar: The first thing you see of Slurp is this gloved hand coming out of the ground. We thought, “Oh, everyone’s going to know immediately; it’ll be the worst kept secret in Hollywood.” It’s been really gratifying because that’s such a great twist, if we could pull it off — it’s right in front of your face the whole time.
We talked about [whether Thing] should be attached to someone who is so evil. Obviously, he’s flawed. He’s often doing things for the right reasons; they’re sort of deranged reasons. But Isaac Night [Owen Painter] is a flawed character, but he’s also the noble genius as well. That was a debate. We had some other options we explored and went down the road with, but ultimately we thought it was this idea of transformation of seeing a zombie who then becomes human and the comic foil of Pugsley [Isaac Ordonez] choosing him like a pet dog, and then he starts eating brains — it just sounds so insane, but actually it make sense in the show.
Now I want to know the path you didn’t take with him.
Millar: We had a whole backstory for him, which is he was in a circus and he fell in love with a circus performer. It was a very much more sweet story, rather than this one, which is much more macabre, sort of inspired by Frankenstein, zombie movies.
What can you tease about Season 3? Will there be more Lady Gaga? Things ends with Enid being seemingly trapped in wolf mode and there’s Wednesday’s psychic vision of Ophelia, Morticia’s sister.
Millar: We’re in the middle of [writing] Season 3 now. Our lips are sealed. We can’t say anything, but obviously the end of Season 2 does set up that Ophelia will be coming to feature in Season 3. We’ll say that much.
Women who used the Tea app in the US are facing backlash after their data was leaked
Sally was stalked by her ex-boyfriend.
After ending their relationship, he would turn up at work – and even her friends’ houses. She eventually had to move.
When she finally got back on to the dating scene, she was wary. She decided to sign up for a new app where women could do background checks and share experiences of men they were dating.
Users of the US-based Tea Dating Advice app, which is only available in America, could flag if potential partners were married or registered sex offenders.
They could run reverse image searches to check against people using fake identities. It was also possible to mark men as red or green flags, and share unproven gossip.
The app was founded in 2023 but climbed the charts in the US to the number one spot in July this year. It reportedly attracted more than a million users.
Sally, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, thought it was interesting to read what was being said about men in her area. But she found it “gossip-y” and that some of the information on it was unreliable.
In late July, the app was hacked. Over 70,000 images were leaked and posted on the online message board 4chan – including IDs and selfies of users which were meant to have been for verification purposes only and “deleted immediately”.
The leak was seized on by misogynist groups online, and within hours, several websites had been created to humiliate the women who’d signed up.
Two maps were published on social media, showing 33,000 pins spread across the United States. Fearing the worst, Sally zoomed in, looking for her home.
She found it – although it wasn’t linked to her name, her exact address was highlighted for anyone to see.
She was worried her stalker ex-partner could now track her down. “He didn’t know before where I lived or worked and I’ve gone to great lengths to keep it that way,” she says. “I’m very freaked out.”
The BBC alerted Google of the two maps hosted on Google Maps purporting to represent the locations of women who had signed up for Tea.
The company said the maps violated their harassment policies and deleted them. Since the breach, more than 10 women have filed class actions against the company which owns Tea.
A spokesperson for Tea app said they were “working to identify and notify users whose personal information was involved and notify them under applicable law” and that affected users would be “offered identity theft and credit monitoring services”.
They also said that they “bolstered resources” to enhance security for current membership, that they’re “proud of what [they’ve] built”, and that their “mission is more vital than ever”.
Misogynists ‘rank’ leaked selfies
Since the breach, the BBC has found websites, apps and even a “game” featuring the leaked data which encourages harassment towards women who had joined the app.
The “game” puts the selfies submitted by women head-to-head, instructing users to click on the one they prefer, with leaderboards of the “top 50” and “bottom 50”. The BBC could not identify the creator of the website.
Users outside of the misogynistic groups were also reposting content deriding the appearance of women on X and TikTok.
Copycat Tea apps for men have also proliferated – but there’s no suggestion the men are doing this for their safety. Instead, users post harsh derogatory reviews of women.
Men posted asking for reviews of women on one of the male tea apps, some objectified women, while other’s racially or sexually abused women that were posted
In screen recordings seen by the BBC, users comment on women’s sexuality and post intimate images of women without their consent in the apps.
The BBC also identified more than 10 “Tea” groups on the messaging app Telegram where men share sexual and apparently AI-generated images of women for others to rate or gossip. They post the women’s social media handles, revealing their identities.
A spokesperson for Telegram said that “illegal pornography is explicitly forbidden” and “removed when discovered”.
John Yanchunis, a lawyer representing one of the women against the company that owns the app, said she had been subject to immense online abuse.
“It caused a tremendous amount of emotional distress,” he told the BBC. “She became the subject of ridicule.”
It is unsurprising that the leak was exploited.
The app had drawn criticism ever since it had grown in popularity. Defamation, with the spread of unproven allegations, and doxxing, when someone’s identifying information is published without their consent, were real possibilities.
Men’s groups had wanted to take the app down – and when they found the data breach, they saw it as a chance for retribution.
“This leak was picked up by misogynist communities as a great cause and one that they obviously take a lot of pride in,” says Callum Hood, head of research at the Centre for Countering Digital Hate.
More than 12,000 posts on 4Chan referenced Tea Dating app from 23 July, three days before the leak, to 12 August, he adds.
A rift between men and women?
Online, the Tea app leak is being referred to as part of a “gender war” and the final straw in heterosexual dating.
There is growing evidence that suggests that heterosexual young people are turning away from traditional dating and long-term romantic relationships.
Negative experiences in online dating are adding to these tensions.
A 2023 Pew research found that in the US, over half of women’s experiences on dating apps have been negative, with women being more likely to report unwanted behaviours from men and feeling unsafe on dating apps.
Dr Jenny Van Hooff, a sociologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, says the perceived lack of safety impacts how many young women may want to take part in online dating.
Unlike meeting partners through friends or work, there are fewer repercussions for poor online dating behaviour.
“Women’s experiences of the opposite sex on dating apps is a feeling of fear and lack of trust,” she says. “Misogyny is just getting more entrenched in dating.”
Previous incarnations to the Tea app, such as ‘Are We Dating the Same Guy’ social media groups with thousands of followers, have existed for years globally.
At first, they were hailed as a new way to hold men accountable. But, like Tea, controversy followed, and many men felt misrepresented by what was posted.
With reportedly more than a million users, the Tea App took this concept to a new scale.
But experts have also questioned possible profit motivations behind the app, alongside the trustworthiness of the information posted.
For women wishing to use the app for safety, verifying the information can be challenging. Meanwhile, men, who are unable to access the app, have no way of knowing if false information is posted about them.
Dr Van Hooff said the leak was “proving women’s point to why this app was felt to be necessary”.
“It’s definitely not disabusing these women of any thoughts they have about men and male behaviour.”
She believes women’s safety has been compromised, and men have felt their actions were taken out of context and exploited for gossip.
For Sally, the leak has impacted her sense of protection.
“I’m moving in with loved ones just to feel safe,” she says.
The FIFA Club World Cup kicked off on Saturday so our TV writer Jake Hackney registered for a free DAZN account to catch all the action, here’s what he made of the streamer.
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DAZN is letting football fans watch every Club World Cup fixture for free
The FIFA Club World Cup kicked off over the weekend so I bagged myself a free DAZN account to see what all the fuss is about. Like many Brits, I’ve always associated DAZN with boxing, but as that’s never been my sport I’m yet to truly explore the platform.
DAZN is now the exclusive global broadcaster of all 63 fixtures in the Club World Cup and is airing every game for free, which is definitely more my bag. FIFA has really gone all out with this competition, revamping it with a new format featuring 32 of the best clubs from around the world.
There’s Manchester City and Chelsea representing the Premier League, plus the likes of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami and Boca Juniors. The competition runs through to the final on July 13, and fans can register for a free DAZN account to watch every fixture.
It certainly feels strange not watching football on the BBC or Sky Sports, but considering the quality of content and amount of extras on offer, I wouldn’t be surprised if DAZN becomes more synonymous with football in the coming years. I opted for the free account, but there’s also the option to upgrade to DAZN’s Premium plan from £9.99.
This includes every Club World Cup game in HDR picture quality and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, plus highlights, replays, fewer adverts and full access to the rest of the DAZN platform. But even with a free account, there’s plenty of football content to keep fans entertained in the lull between the Premier League and EFL seasons.
Watch the Club World Cup free on DAZN
The FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 of the world’s best club teams including Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich play across 63 games from June 14-July 13.
Fans can watch every match live and for free by signing up to DAZN.
What struck me was how much there is to watch besides the live games, with countless features, shows and compilations right there on the Club World Cup homepage. There’s interviews with some of the big names taking part including Harry Kane and Pep Guardiola, as well as DAZN’s ‘Icons’ series, which takes a closer look at each team and the 12 USA host cities.
I’ve also been enjoying the plethora of documentaries centred around greats like Cristiano Ronaldo, Maradona and Brazilian Ronaldo. There’s a host of vintage footage featuring all the goals scored by certain teams at previous FIFA World Cups, starring legends like Alessandro Del Piero, Raúl and Didier Drogba.
There’s loads of Club World Cup content from years gone by to keep football fans busy
In short, there’s plenty to tuck into. But it’s easy to follow the latest competition too, with every upcoming fixture displayed on the Club World Cup homepage complete with dates and kick-off times, as well as the option to display the group brackets and tables, making it easy to keep up to date with the current standings.
You can follow your favourite teams in the competition to receive a push notification before their games, so I followed Chelsea and Man City. DAZN now reminds me about each of their fixtures just in case I forget – though as some kick off in the early hours, I think I’ll wait for their DAZN highlights.
For those who don’t want to sign up for another subscription, DAZN has also sublicensed select fixtures to Channel 5, meaning 23 games will be broadcast on both DAZN and 5. This may be a good option for less tech-savvy football fans who are not bothered about every game.
Of course, there’s also a classic Sky Sports which can be purchased for £35 a month for a 24-month contract alongside essential Sky TV. This includes nine dedicated channels, including the Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Boxing, NFL, NBA, Netball and much more, though the length of contract may be a downside for some.
DAZN’s free account includes a host of interviews and documentaries
DAZN boasts some huge names in its Club World Cup punditry lineup, including none other than Brazilian legend Ronaldo. Other stars include John Obi Mikel and Sami Khedira, with Conor McNamara, Andros Townsend, Brad Friedel, Rob Green among the commentators, which makes a nice change from the usual voices on Sky or TNT Sports.
I’ve been using DAZN on both my Samsung smart TV and iPhone 13 and it’s performed largely ok. There have been times where it’s been slightly slow to respond and there’s been a bit of lag, but once a piece of content like a live game or documentary has loaded up I’ve experienced no major issues.
This week, we are jumping into the fire with Kelly Ramsey. Her new book, “Wildfire Days: A Woman, A Hotshot Crew, and The Burning American West,” chronicles her time fighting some of the state’s most dangerous conflagrations alongside an all-male crew of Hotshots. The elite wildland firefighters are tasked with applying their tactical knowledge to tamp down the biggest fires in the state. We also look at recent releases reviewed by Times critics. And a local bookseller tells us what our next great read should be.
In 2017, Ramsey found herself in a holding pattern. Living in Austin, with an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh under her belt, she didn’t know what or where she wanted to be. So she took a nanny job. “I was spending all my time outdoors with these kids,” she told me. “I thought, is there a job that would allow me to be outside all the time?”
Ramsey landed a volunteer summer gig working on a fire trail crew in Happy Camp, Northern California, on the Klamath River. While Ramsey was learning the delicate art of building firebreaks, a large fire broke out just outside the town. “My introduction to California that summer was filled with smoke,” says the author. “This is when I got the bug, when I started to become interested in fighting fires.”
Ramsey became a qualified firefighter in 2019, joining an entirely male crew of fellow Hotshots. Ramsey’s book “Wildfire Days” is the story of that fraught and exciting time. We talked to Ramsey about the “bro culture” of fire crews, the adrenaline surge of danger and the economic hardships endured by these frontline heroes.
Below, read our interview with Ramsey, who you can see at Vroman’s on June 23. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
✍️ Author Chat
Ramsey details how she became a qualified firefighter in 2019, when she joined an entirely male wildland fire crew, in her new book.
(Lindsey Shea; Scribner)
What was it like when you confronted a big fire for the first time?
It was the Bush fire in Arizona. I was so incredulous, just marveling at what was happening. “Look at that smoke,” and “that helicopter is making a water drop.” It was kind of a rookie move, because all the other crew members had seen it thousands of times. To see a helicopter up close making a drop, it looks like this gorgeous waterfall. I had to get acclimated to the epic nature of fires. And that wasn’t even a big fire, really.
In the book, you talk about entering into a pretty macho culture. How difficult was it for you to gain acceptance into this cloistered male world of the fire crew?
It was definitely shocking at first, to be in an entirely male space. The Forest Service had some sexual harassment scandals in 2017, so everyone was on their best behavior at first. It took me some time before I was accepted into the group. I had to perform over-the-top, irrefutably great, just to prove to them that I was OK. It’s an unfair standard, but that’s the way it was. I wanted to shift the way they saw women, or have better conversations about gender and fire.
You write about the pride and stoicism of the fire crew members, the ethos of actions rather than words. No one brags or whines, you just get on with it. Why?
When my editor was going through the book, he insisted that I mention the 75 pounds of gear I was always carrying on my back, and I resisted, because you don’t complain about that kind of thing when you’re out there. But I realized that readers would want to know these details, so I put them in. I was inclined to leave them out.
You also write about the difficulties of re-entering civilian life.
I don’t know of any firefighters who don’t struggle with the idea of living a normal, quiet life. It’s just a massive letdown after the adrenaline rush of the fire season.
What was shocking to me reading “Wildfire Days” is that fire crews are essentially paid minimum wage to work one of the most dangerous jobs in the state.
It was $16.33 an hour when I was in the crew. And most firefighters that I worked with didn’t have other jobs. They would take unemployment until the next fire season rolled around. You would just scrape by. During the first month of the season, everyone would be flat broke, eating cans of tuna. The joke is that you get paid in sunsets. But we all love being out there. The camaraderie is so intense and so beautiful.
📰 The Week(s) in Books
In this vintage photo, a man walks in front of the Italian Hall, constructed in 1908; all the structures on the block behind him have been demolished. A new book looks at Los Angeles in this time period.
(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)
Hamilton Cain reviews National Book Award winner Susan Choi’s new novel, “Flashlight,” a mystery wrapped inside a fraught family drama. “With Franzen-esque fastidiousness,” Cain writes, “Choi unpacks each character’s backstory, exposing vanities and delusions in a cool, caustic voice, a 21st century Emile Zola.”
Jessica Ferri chats with Melissa Febos about her new memoir, “The Dry Season,” about the year she went celibate and discovered herself anew. Febos wonders aloud why more women aren’t more upfront with their partners about opting out of sex: “This radical honesty not only benefits you but it also benefits your partner. To me, that’s love: enthusiastic consent.”
Carole V. Bell reviews Maria Reva’s “startling metafictional” novel, “Endling,” calling it “a forceful mashup of storytelling modes that call attention to its interplay of reality and fiction — a Ukrainian tragicomedy of errors colliding with social commentary about the Russian invasion.”
Nick Owchar interviews Nathan Marsak about the reissue (from local publisher Angel City Press) of “Los Angeles Before The Freeways: Images of an Era, 1850-1950,” a book of vintage photos snapped by Swedish émigré Arnold Hylen and curated by Marsak. Owchar calls the book “an engrossing collection of black-and-white images of a city in which old adobe structures sit between Italianate office buildings or peek out from behind old signs, elegant homes teeter on the edge of steep hillsides, and routes long used by locals would soon be demolished to make room for freeways.”
Diesel, A Bookstore manager Kelsey Bomba tells us what’s flying off the shelves at the Westside bookseller.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
This week, we paid a visit to the Westside’s great indie bookstore Diesel, which has been a locus for the community in the wake of January’s Palisades fire. The store’s manager, Kelsey Bomba, tells us what’s flying off the store’s shelves.
Six months before a January transfer window deal took Fernandes to Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon for £47million, Spurs were deep in discussions to sign the midfielder.
There had been five meetings between the two parties with Fernandes’ camp left impressed by their structure and Sporting all set to accept the bid.
Of the talks, a source involved in the talks told the BBC: “They were absolutely next level when it comes to detail.
Even the rooms at the training ground – each one was decorated just like the players’ bedrooms at home, the ones they share with their partners.
“The bed was exactly the same. Even the flowers in the garden gave off a scent that’s meant to be beneficial – it was mind-blowing.”
However, the deal fell through when the Sporting board decided to hold out for an offer twice the size which ultimately never arrived, before selling Raphinha to Rennes instead.
Indeed, Fernandes had been so convinced he would be leaving that when club president Frederico Varandas tried to explain the situation he told him to go away.
“Tottenham fit into everything I wish I had at that moment. It is an appealing championship. Knowing that Tottenham would be willing to pay for me and make every possible effort to take me, leaves a player eager to take that step.”
Up 70k Man United and Spurs fans begin flooding Bilbao soaking up sun & cervezas ahead of Europa League final
In the last five years, no outfield player has made more appearances (288) or played more minutes (24,747) across Europe‘s top five leagues than Fernandes.
The all-action club captain has almost single-handedly kept the team afloat this season with 19 goals and 19 assists in all competitions.
That includes 12 goal contributions in the Europa League, featuring a hat-trick in the last-16 against Real Sociedad, a penalty in the 5-4 win at Old Trafford over Lyon and a brace in Spain against Athletic Bilbao.
Earlier this month, he had said: “The manager and physio say that I need to relax and rest, but I say no. When I die, I will have a lot of time to lay down and rest.”
Fernandes is one of five players still at Man Utd who was in the matchday squad when the club fell to defeat on penalties against Villarreal in the final in 2021.
Man Utd have lost to Spurs three times this season – twice in the Prem and once in the League Cup – but have the chance to salvage the club’s worst-ever Premier League finish with a European trophy and a spot in next season’s Champions League.
