meet

Pamela Anderson has admitted to being ‘nervous’ to meet Liam Neeson on the set of The Naked Gun but he has revealed how the unique way she created ‘chemistry’ between them

Pamela Anderson has admitted that she was ‘very nervous’ to meet Liam Neeson on set of The Naked Gun.

The Baywatch legend, 58, has had a major career revival in recent years and recently enjoyed a star turn in The Last Showgirl but now she is back on-screen alongside fellow A-lister Liam in the upcoming action comedy, admitted amid romance rumours that she had assumed he was ‘very scary’ before they actually worked together.

During an appearance on Monday’s Loose Women in a pre-recorded segment with panelist GK Barry, she explained: “Your nerves are always going before you meet an entire crew and everybody all at once but especially meeting Liam. It was really scary, because he’s so scary. He’s had an amazing career and I feel like I’m just starting so I felt a little insecure. But then the butterflies went away and there you are.”

But in the end, Pamela and Liam were able to bond simply by spending ‘so much time’ together during production, and insisted that there was a “a kind of natural chemistry that happened, I don’t know if it always happens but we were lucky”. Liam revealed that his co-star would often bake for him, as he explained during the joint interview: “Pamela is a fantastic cook, she’s a baker, and she, very sweetly, numerous times made me some sourdough bread.”

However, GK stopped the interview momentarily to note her surprise at the model’s self-conscious nature as she reminded her: “You are Pamela Anderson…”. But the actress was quick to note that she isn’t fond of hearing her full moniker, as she claimed: “I don’t like that name. Every time I hear that name I go…no, sometimes, it just sounds funny.”

Pamela, who was famously married to Motley Crue rocker Tommy Lee in the 1990s and has sons Brandon 29, and Dylan, 27, with him also admitted that it was just ‘nice to play a role in a film’ as opposed to her ‘a role in personal life’ but insisted that amid this period of her career, she is doing things on her terms. She said: “I’m just doing it my own way. I’m not listening to too much of the advice of others because I don’t know what my next incarnation will be or what I want to be but I just feel more comfortable this way right now. But it could change tomorrow, we could change our mind!”

Liam recently joked that filming the ‘sex scenes’ with Pamela was his favourite part of filming the latest instalment. He also commented on having an intimacy coordinator on set. “I’d never had one before. But she was in the background. There was no kind of, ‘OK! Excuse me!’,” he said. Pamela, who plays a nightclub singer who goes to Police Squad for help after her brother is murdered, said the intimacy coordinator knew when to walk away.

She joked that the staff member stormed off as Liam claimed she was exasperated and said: “I can’t take this! This is too hot for me. I’m going for coffee.” Liam and Pamela had nothing but compliments for each other, with Liam previously telling People that he was “madly in love” with the former Playboy cover star.” She’s just terrific to work with,” he said. “I can’t compliment her enough, I’ll be honest with you. No huge ego. She just comes in to do the work. She’s funny and so easy to work with. She’s going to be terrific in the film.”

And last month, Pamela said: “Our chemistry was clear from the start. We have the utmost respect for one another. I invited him and his assistant over for romantic dinners with me and my assistant so our relationship stayed ‘professionally romantic’ during filming.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Gov. Gavin Newsom stood alongside six Democrats from the Texas Legislature on Friday and joined them in accusing President Trump and Republicans of trying to “rig” elections to hold onto congressional seats next year.

“They play by a different set of rules and we could sit back and act as if we have some moral authority and watch this 249-, 250-year-old experiment be washed away,” Newsom said of the nation’s history. “We are not going to allow that to happen.”

The Texas lawmakers and the governor spoke with reporters after meeting privately at the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento to discuss a national political fight over electoral maps that could alter the outcome of the midterm elections and balance of power in Congress.

At the urging of President Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called his state Legislature into a special session this week that includes a call to redistrict the Lone Star State to help Republicans pick up seats in Congress.

The move is part of a gerrymandering effort pushed by Trump to prevent the GOP from losing control of the House of Representatives next year. If Democrats take the House, they could derail the president’s agenda, which has so far included a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, tariffs on imports, rescinding efforts to combat climate change and undercutting state protections for the LGTBQ+ community, among other policy priorities.

Newsom has threatened to mirror Trump’s tactics and said he’s in talks with leaders of the California Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts to favor electing more Democrats and fewer Republicans.

Texas Democrats, who said they traveled to California to meet with the governor and explain the state of play in Texas, pledged do everything in their power to push back against Trump’s plan.

“We’re going to use every tool at our disposal in the state of Texas to confront this very illegal redistricting process that is going to be done on the backs of historic African American and Latino districts,” said Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchía.

Another group of Texas lawmakers are expected to meet with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in Chicago.

Changing the maps to benefit Democrats is a massive departure from California’s work over the last decade to remove political partisanship from the redistricting process.

California voters in 2010 gave an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission the power to determine the boundaries of voting districts for the U.S. House of Representatives instead of leaving that authority with the state Legislature.

To redistrict before the midterms, the most legally sound option is for state lawmakers to send a constitutional amendment to voters that seeks to allow changes to the voter map outside the boundaries of California’s independent redistricting process. The vote would need to happen in a special election before the June primary.

Newsom has said he’s also exploring a potential legal loophole that could allow the California Legislature to redraw the congressional maps themselves with a two-thirds vote.

The governor’s office said state law charges the redistricting commission with crafting new maps after a census, which is conducted about every 10 years. But they say the law is silent on everything that happens in between that time period.

Newsom’s lawyers believe it could be possible for the Legislature to redistrict congressional seats mid-decade on its own without going to the ballot.

The governor’s call to fight Trump using his own gerrymandering tactics has drawn a mixed response.

Newsom argues that Democrats will continue to lose if they remain the only party that plays by the rules. But others worry about the integrity of electoral outcomes across the nation if political parties in every state resort to naked political gamesmanship to gain control.

Texas Republicans have long been accused of crafting political maps to dilute the power of Black and Latino voters, which led to an ongoing lawsuit from 2021. Newsom’s effort in California would effectively seek to increase the share of Democrats in Republican-held districts.

Redistricting experts in California say redrawing the maps in the Golden State could create the potential for Democrats to flip at least five of the seats held by GOP incumbents.

Democrats may have the potential for greater gains from gerrymandering, particularly in places such as California that have attempted to practice nonpartisan redistricting, compared to states such as Texas, where maps are already drawn in favor of Republicans.

“It should be no surprise to anybody who covers Texas that every decade since 1970 Texas has been found to discriminate against people of color in its redistricting process,” Anchía said.

“In trying to do this, it is going to create great harm, not only to the people we represent, to the voters of the state of Texas, but also potentially to all Americans,” he said about Trump’s plan.

It’s common for the party in control of the White House to lose seats nationally in the first election after a presidential contest. Republicans hold majorities in the Senate and the House, and losing power to Democrats could be detrimental to Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s job approval rating dropped to a second-term low of 37% in a Gallup poll conducted earlier this month. The dip is just above his lowest approval rating ever of 34% at the end of his first term.

Trump has said publicly that he thinks it’s possible for Republicans to redistrict and pick up five seats in Texas, with the potential for gains in other states that redraw their maps.

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials were set to meet on Thursday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The meeting in Florida, which Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he was working to arrange, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of President Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

In a social media post Tuesday, Blanche said that Trump “has told us to release all credible evidence” and that if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the Justice Department “will hear what she has to say.”

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday. The person who confirmed the meeting insisted on anonymity to describe a closed-door encounter to the Associated Press.

A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed on Tuesday there were discussions with the government and said Maxwell “will always testify truthfully.”

The House Committee on Oversight issued a subpoena on Wednesday for Maxwell to testify before committee officials in August.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is housed at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla. She was sentenced three years ago after being convicted of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Officials have said Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell’s links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would not release more files related to the Epstein investigation, despite promises that claimed otherwise from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. The department also said an Epstein client list does not exist.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Bondi told Trump in May that his name was among high-profile people mentioned in government files of Epstein, though the mention does not imply wrongdoing.

Trump, a Republican, has said that he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy” but that they later had a falling out.

A subcommittee on Wednesday also voted to subpoena the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein. And senators in both major political parties have expressed openness to holding hearings on the matter after Congress’ August recess.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has introduced legislation with bipartisan support that would require the Justice Department to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his associates.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican majority leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, have said they will address whatever outstanding Epstein-related issues are in Congress when they return from recess.

Epstein, under a 2008 nonprosecution agreement, pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. That allowed him to avert a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work release program. He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.

In 2019, Epstein was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for nearly identical allegations.

Tucker and Williams write for the Associated Press. Williams reported from Detroit.

July 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, at a federal courthouse in Florida on Thursday.

She was originally scheduled to meet Justice Department representatives at the minimum-security prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking, but instead the meeting will happen at the U.S. attorney’s office, located inside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, as first reported by ABC News.

“For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” posted U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to X Tuesday in regard to the Thursday meeting.

Maxwell has also been subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairperson Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., for a deposition slated to take place at the prison where she is held on Aug. 11.

Maxwell was convicted and sentenced in June 2022 as an accomplice in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and was denied a reassessment by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that President Donald Trump‘s name appeared several times in the files, and that Trump was informed of that by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in May before the Justice Department said it would not make those files public.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday during a press conference that when the Epstein files are made public, “which we must do as quickly as possible,” it needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned in the files, some of whom are purportedly minors.

But he also stressed that only “credible evidence” should be revealed, and Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus responded on X Wednesday that “We understand [Johnson’s] general concern, Congress should always vet the credibility of its witnesses.”

However, Markus claimed, “those concerns are unfounded,” and that Maxwell testifies before Congress and not invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that “she would testify truthfully.”

Markus also said that Maxwell is looking forward to her meeting with the DOJ, and that will inform how she proceeds in regard to the Congressional subpoena.

Rumors that Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in custody, had a list of clients who participated in the abuse and exploitation have been denied by the DOJ. Further rumors involve President Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein, although Trump has since called public’s interest in the Epstein files a “scam” and a “hoax” created by his political opponents.

A YOUNG woman has shared all on her “cool” side hustle that sees her make thousands of pounds in just a few days.

Chifae, a 23-year-old woman from London, explained that with her job, not only does she make cash quickly, but she even gets to meet loads of celebrities too.

2

2

And that’s not even the best part – with this line of work, anyone can do it and no qualifications are needed.

Eager to reveal more about how she earns a living, Chifae took to social media and explained that instead of a 9 to 5 job, she works as a film extra.

In film and television, a film extra, also known as a background actor, is a performer who often appears in a non-speaking role, typically in the background of a scene. 

Film extras help create a sense of realism by populating scenes, whilst providing context for the main action.

As Chifae filmed herself in the street, she beamed: “If you live in London, this is your sign to start working as a film extra.

“I made almost £2,000 for just seven days of shooting and got to meet Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike.” 

While Chifae is a film extra in London, and has even met Harry Styles whilst out and about in the city, many other major cities in the UK and around the world will also be looking for people to star in the background of scenes. 

For those in London, Chifae recommended the following casting agencies – Rachel’s People, Key Castings, Universal Extras, Extra People, Entertainment Partners and Slick Casting.

Chifae’s TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @chifou02, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly racked up 179,700 views in just seven days. 

Not only this, but it’s also amassed 18,300 likes, 212 comments and 2,952 saves.

Social media users were stunned by Chifae’s unique side hustle and many were eager to “learn” more about it and would “love to know more.” 

One person said: “I need to learn from you girl.” 

Another added: “This is true, I miss being an extra.” 

A third commented: “That’s so cool!!” 

Meanwhile, someone else beamed: “I do the same and it’s the best thing ever. They feed you good food like three times on shift as well. I once got paid the full date rate for three hours of work too.” 

Whilst another chimed in and claimed: “I did this for years and even a body double role, was fun and was on set with many big names.” 

At the same time, one user begged: “Can you send the agencies please.”

You have to sign NDAs – you’re not allowed to post pictures of sets or anything, they’re very strict on that

Chifae

And another asked: “Do you need professional pictures taken to apply?”

In response, Chifae wrote back and confirmed: “I have professional photos but a lot of people don’t. You don’t need them.” 

In a follow-up clip, Chifae then shared more on her job as an extra, as she claimed that it is often “very long hours” and shifts usually start from 4am or 5am and can go on until 8pm.

Although the hours are long, Chifae claimed that working as an extra is a great way to make “a lot of money” as extras are paid “very good extra money for the overtime.”

She then added: “You don’t have access to your phone, so it’s a good way also to make friends and meet people.

“You have to sign NDAs – you’re not allowed to post pictures of sets or anything, they’re very strict on that.

“But if you don’t have a 9 to 5 and you wanna do this for fun or extra money, or just to gain some experience in film, it’s a very good way to start because you meet a lot of people and you get to meet very famous actors, film directors and it’s just a good experience.”

Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club

Leaders expected to hold talks on bilateral trade days before US tariffs on Philippine goods set to take effect.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will meet United States President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally will secure a more favourable trade deal.

Marcos will be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump during the US leader’s second term.

Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in negotiations even with close allies that Washington wants to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China.

“I expect our discussions to focus on security and defence, of course, but also on trade,” Marcos said in a speech before leaving Manila and arriving in Washington on Sunday, with hopes to reach a deal before August 1, when Trump says he will impose 20 percent tariffs on goods from the Philippines.

“We will see how much progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we would like to institute to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines,” Marcos said.

The US had a deficit of nearly $5bn with the Philippines last year on bilateral goods trade of $23.5bn.

Trump this month raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from the Philippines to 20 percent from 17 percent threatened in April.

Although US allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea have yet to strike trade deals with Trump, Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Marcos might be able to do better than Vietnam, with its agreement of a 20 percent baseline tariff on its goods, and Indonesia at 19 percent.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement of a deal with the Philippines at a lower rate than those two,” Poling told the Reuters news agency.

Marcos visited the Pentagon on Monday morning for talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and will see Secretary of State Marco Rubio later in the day, before meeting Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

He will also meet US business leaders investing in the Philippines.

Philippine officials say Marcos’s focus will be on economic cooperation and Manila’s concerns about Trump’s tariffs.

They say he will stress that Manila must become economically stronger if it is to serve as a truly robust US partner in the Asia Pacific.

Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Raquel Solano said last week that trade officials have been working with US counterparts seeking to seal a “mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial” deal for both countries.

China tensions

Trump and Marcos will also discuss defence and security, and Solano said the Philippine president would be looking to further strengthen the longstanding defence alliance.

Philippine media quoted Manila’s ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, as saying on Sunday that the visit would see a reaffirmation of the seven-decade-old mutual defence treaty and “discussions on how we can continue to cooperate with the United States, our major ally”.

With the Philippines facing intense pressure from China in the contested South China Sea, Marcos has pivoted closer to the US, expanding access to Philippine military bases amid China’s threats towards Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing.

The US and the Philippines hold dozens of annual exercises, which have included training with the US Typhon missile system, and more recently, with the NMESIS antiship missile system, angering China.

Manila and the US have closely aligned their views on China, Poling said, and it was notable that Rubio and Hegseth made sure their Philippine counterparts were the first Southeast Asian officials they met.

Poling said Trump also seemed to have a certain warmth towards Marcos, based on their phone call after Trump’s re-election.

Goals scored: Five Goals conceded: Five Wins: Three Best Euros performance: Runners-up, 1993 and 1997

Chance of winning Euro 2025 (Opta): 8.9%

Italy are the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament at 13th in the Fifa rankings, but after their impressive performance against Norway in the last eight it would be foolish to underestimate them.

They failed to qualify for four successive World Cups between 2003 and 2015 and have flown under the radar in Switzerland to reach a first European semi-final since 1997.

Progressing behind Spain in Group B they were the underdogs heading into the quarter-final against two-time European champions Norway, but they impressed with their pace, control in possession and natural width.

Key player: Captain Cristiana Girelli scored both goals in the 2-1 victory with the crucial winning goal a dramatic stoppage-time header.

Former England defender Anita Asante said it was “special” for a “senior veteran in the team” to deliver in that moment.

“They’re reflecting the growth of Italian women’s football. Italy found a bit of quality when it really mattered and capitalised,” she said.

What the pundits said: Houghton said defending champions England would need to be “mindful” of Italy’s underdog status.

“Knocking out Norway, who were higher ranked than them, that probably was not the expectation from the outside,” she said.

“They have experience in their team. They have some threats, especially in wide areas, and really good midfielders.

“This is monumental for them. They’ve made another historic progression so they’re going to be well up for it.”

Standout stat: At the age of 35 years and 84 days, Girelli became the oldest player to score more than once for a European nation in a single match at a major tournament.

Talks between Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the British Medical Association (BMA) will take place next week in a bid to avert strike action in England’s NHS, the BBC understands.

Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, announced earlier this week that they will walk out for five consecutive days from 25 July until 30 July over a dispute about pay with the government.

The BMA said strikes would only be called off if next week’s talks produce an offer it can put to its members.

The government has insisted it cannot improve its offer of a 5.4% increase for this year.

Resident doctors were awarded a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year – which will go into pay packets from August – following a 22% increase over the previous two years.

But they are arguing that pay in real terms is still around 20% lower than it was in 2008 and have called for the government to set out a pathway to restoring its value.

They believe that this year’s 5.4% increase doesn’t take them far enough down that path.

Health department sources have told the BBC the health secretary is sympathetic to improving working conditions for resident doctors, but he won’t budge on salaries.

After the BMA’s strike announcement, Streeting called the strike “unnecessary and unreasonable”, adding: “The NHS is hanging by a thread – why on earth are they threatening to pull it?”

He said the government was “ready and willing” to work with the BMA, but any further strike action would be a disaster for patients and push back the progress made in reducing waiting lists in England.

BMA resident doctor committee co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, said on Wednesday they had been left with “no choice” but to strike without a “credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay”.

Lord Robert Winston, a professor and TV doctor who was a pioneer of IVF treatment, resigned from the BMA on Friday over the planned strikes.

In an interview with The Times, he urged against strike action and said it could damage people’s trust in the profession.

Resident doctors took part in 11 separate strikes during 2023 and 2024.

In order to end the previous strikes last year the incoming Labour government awarded a backdated increase worth 22% over two years.

The action in England will not affect resident doctors in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, who negotiate directly with their devolved governments on pay.

Resident doctors’ basic salaries in England range from £37,000 to £70,000 a year for a 40-hour week, depending on experience, with extra payments for working nightshifts and weekends.

That does not include the latest 5.4% average pay award for this year which will start to be paid into wage packets from August.

Draft deal to end bitter decades-long conflict agreed 4 months ago, but timeline for sealing it remains uncertain.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks in the United Arab Emirates after nearly four decades of conflict.

The meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, confirmed by both their governments, comes after the two countries finalised a draft peace deal in March.

The South Caucasus countries have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.

Peace talks began after Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September 2023, prompting a huge exodus of almost all of the territory’s 100,000 Armenians, who fled to Armenia.

But the timeline for sealing a deal remains uncertain.

Ceasefire violations along the heavily militarised 1,000km (620-mile) shared border surged soon after the draft deal was announced, though there have been no reported violations recently.

In a potential stumbling block to a deal, Azerbaijan has said it wants Armenia to change its constitution, which it says makes implicit claims to Azerbaijani territory.

Yerevan denies this, but Pashinyan has repeatedly stressed in recent months – most recently this week – that the South Caucasus country’s founding charter needs to be updated.

Azerbaijan also asked for a transport corridor through Armenia, linking the bulk of its territory to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku’s ally, Turkiye.

Pashinyan and Aliyev’s last encounter was in May, on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Tirana, Albania.

In June, Pashinyan made a rare visit to Istanbul to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a meeting Armenia described as a “historic” step towards regional peace.

This week, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope for a swift peace deal between the Caucasus neighbours.

The outbreak of hostilities between the two countries in the late 1980s prompted mass expulsions of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Azeris from Armenia, and Armenians, who are majority Christian, from Azerbaijan.

LONDON — At least Novak Djokovic could laugh about it afterward.

Yes, he took what he called a “nasty slip” on his second match point at Wimbledon on Wednesday. Yes, he slid into the splits and ended up face-down on the Centre Court grass. And, yes, those sorts of things aren’t ideal for a 38-year-old seeking an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title.

Still, Djokovic dusted himself off and took the next two points, reaching the semifinals at the All England Club for a men’s-record 14th time with a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 22 seed Flavio Cobolli to set up a showdown against No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

“Well, I finished the match,” Djokovic said with a chuckle. “It did come at an awkward moment, but somehow I managed to … close it out. Obviously, I’m going to visit this subject now with my physio and hopefully all will be well in two days.”

That’s when he will take on three-time major champion Sinner, who didn’t play like someone dealing with an injured right elbow while using terrific serving and his usual booming forehand to beat 10th-seeded Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.

“I look forward to that,” said Djokovic, who has lost his last four meetings with Sinner, including in the French Open semifinals last month. “That’s going to be a great matchup.”

Novak Djokovic lies on the grass court after slipping and falling while attempting to return a shot Wednesday.

(Kin Cheung / Associated Press)

Djokovic is 2-0 against Sinner at Wimbledon, eliminating him in the 2023 semifinals and 2022 quarterfinals.

Against Cobolli — like Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy — the late-match tumble was not the only thing that was far from smooth for Djokovic. He served for the opening set at 5-3 but was broken at love. He later was a point from owning that set before first-time major quarterfinalist Cobolli came through.

Djokovic did stretches and breathing exercises at changeovers. He whacked his shoe with his racket after one miss in the fourth set. He seemed bothered at times by the bright sun above Centre Court.

He also showed off all of his considerable skills, accumulating 13 aces, holding in 19 of 21 service games, using a drop-shot-lob-drop-shot combination to take one point and limiting his unforced errors to 22 — half as many as Cobolli.

On Friday, Djokovic will try to reach his seventh consecutive final at the All England Club and get one win closer to equaling Roger Federer’s men’s mark of eight trophies there. The other men’s semifinal is two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 finals, against Taylor Fritz.

Against Shelton at No. 1 Court, Sinner wore a white sleeve on his right arm with strips of tape visible underneath — one above the elbow, one below it — after he was hurt when he fell in the opening game of his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov on Monday.

Sinner, the runner-up to Alcaraz at Roland-Garros, had an MRI exam on Tuesday and initially canceled a practice session that day but did hit some balls in a 20-minute session at an indoor court later.

“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,” Sinner said. “It has improved a lot from yesterday to today.”

He played as though nothing were amiss, winning 27 of 29 service points in the first set while accumulating a total of 15 winners to just one unforced error.

“You can’t go into a match thinking that the guy’s not going to be at 100%,” Shelton said. “His ball was coming off pretty big today, so I didn’t see any difference.”

Shelton stayed right with him until 2-all in the tiebreaker. That’s when Sinner surged in front, helped by a double fault and four consecutive forehand errors by Shelton.

At the outset of the second set, Shelton finally made some headway in a return game, getting a pair of break points at 15-40.

On one, Sinner produced a forehand winner. On the other, he pounded a 132 mph serve — his fastest of the match — and rushed forward, getting to deuce when Shelton’s backhand pass attempt found the net. That was followed by a 118 mph ace and a 125 mph service winner.

Those were Shelton’s only break chances.

A first for Swiatek

Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday.

“Even though I’m in the middle of the tournament, I already got goosebumps after this win,” said Swiatek, who will face unseeded Belinda Bencic on Thursday for a spot in the final. “I’m super happy and super proud of myself.”

Bencic beat No. 7 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2019 U.S. Open. The other semifinal is No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against No. 13 Amanda Anisimova; they advanced with wins Tuesday.

United States President Donald Trump has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second time in 24 hours to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The unscheduled talks on Tuesday evening lasted just over an hour, with no media access.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he would be speaking with Netanyahu “almost exclusively” about Gaza.

“We gotta get that solved. Gaza is… it’s a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,” he said.

The two men had also met for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday during Netanyahu’s third visit to the US since the president began his second term on January 20.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the latest meeting was “tightly sealed with very little information coming out”.

“The fact that it was so hermetically sealed, the fact that there has been no clear readout of exactly what was discussed, the fact that the meeting lasted just over an hour before the prime minister returned to his residence – all of it may indicate that there’s some kind of stumbling block, something that is clouding the optimistic position that the two leaders have adopted over the past 24 hours,” Hanna said.

Shortly before the unscheduled meeting, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the issues keeping Israel and Hamas from agreeing had dropped to one from four, and he hoped to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement this week.

“We are hopeful that by the end of this week, we’ll have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten live hostages will be released. Nine deceased will be released,” Witkoff told reporters at a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet.

But Netanyahu, meeting with the speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said Israel’s campaign in the Palestinian enclave was not done and that negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.

“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’s military and government capabilities,” the Israeli leader said.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan, said Israeli media are reporting that Netanyahu is facing “extreme pressure” to reach a deal on Gaza.

“But still, there’s been no breakthrough,” she said from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

“Israeli media is also talking about a delay in the travel plans of Witkoff to Doha, although earlier in the night, he had sounded very optimistic about possibly reaching a deal. Because according to him, only one issue remained problematic – which is, ‘Where will the Israeli army redeploy to?’” Odeh said.

“Now, this is important, because Israel wants to maintain control over the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. According to the Israeli minister of defence, Israel plans to build a tent city in Rafah, where it will concentrate the population, control who enters, not allow anyone to leave, and then push the population out of Gaza to implement, according to the Israelis, the Trump plan of depopulating Gaza and taking over the enclave,” she added.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 57,575 Palestinians and wounded 136,879 others. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, and nearly half a million people are facing famine within months, according to United Nations estimates.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Some 50 captives remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Trump has strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics by criticising prosecutors over a corruption trial against the Israeli leader on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges, which Netanyahu denies.

In his remarks to reporters at the US Congress, Netanyahu praised Trump, saying that there has never been closer coordination between the US and Israel in his country’s history.

July 7 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a peace deal against Hamas during their dinner meeting at the White House on Monday.

And regarding another hotspot in the Middle East, Trump said he is hopeful of a nuclear deal with Iran, nine days after the United States bombed three uranium enrichment sites

It was Netanyahu’s third visit to the White House since Trump became president again on Jan. 20.

The two leaders met for dinner, which was partly closed to the media, who asked some questions before they left. Specifics regarding Hamas and Iran were not given.

Steve Witkoff, who is Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, told reporters at the dinner that “we have an opportunity to finally get a peace deal” involving Israel and Hamas. Witkoff also is handling negotiations between the United States and Iran on a nuclear deal.

Trump said the two leaders have “had a tremendous success together, and I think it will only go on to be even greater success in the future.”

They sat across from one another in the White House with their aides.

Seated with Trump were Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Rubio met with Rubio at Blaire House before the dinner.

“We had a substantive and important conversation about strengthening the alliance between Israel and the United States, and about the challenges we share in the regional and international arena,” Nertanyahu, who is staying until Thursday in Washington, D.C., posted on X.

During the dinner he said: “I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people and many, many admirers around the world, for your leadership, your leadership of the free world, your leadership of a just cause, and the pursuit of peace and security,” he said. “The president has an extraordinary team, and I think our teams, together, make, an extraordinary combination to meet challenges and seize opportunities.

“But the president has already realized great opportunities. He forged the Abraham Accords,” he said in describing normalize relations with between Israel and severalArab nations in 2020. “He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country and one region after the other.

The Israel leader gave Trump a copy of a letter he sent to the Nobel Prize committee nominating him for the peace prize.

“It’s well deserved, and you should get it,” Netanyahyu said.

“Wow,” Trump said. “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful.”

Situation in Gaza

Trump has proposed a 60-day truce that involves the release of 10 live Israeli hostages and 18 deceased ones as a way to work toward a peace agreement.

Netanyahu has been unwilling to sign a deal to end the war, which began Oct. 7, 2023, when the militants invaded Israel from Gaza. Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas.

And Hamas won’t release all of the remaining hostages unless Israel withdraws its forces and agrees to let Hamas control all of Gaza.

Netanyahu wants Arab countries to control Gaza and provide security with Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, Axios reported. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia oppose this and want some role for the Palestinian Authority.

There are 2.2 million Palestinians on the Gaza Strip of 131 square miles. Trump has proposed moving them to other places, and in February with Netanyahu said his nation “would take over” and “own” Gaza with the residents going elsewhere.

At the White House on Monday night, Netanyahu said: “We’re working with the United States, very closely, about finding countries that will seek to realize what they have always said, that they want to give the Palestinians a better future, and I think we are getting close to finding several countries. Again, the freedom to choose, Palestinians should have it.”

Trump said: “We’ve had great cooperation from many surrounding Israel …something good will happen.”

Netany has been opposed to a separate state for Palestinians though Monday he said they should have the power to govern themselves.

There are 5.5 million Palestinians living on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They are considered occupied by Israel under international law, and a blockade prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory.

In2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, which is between Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt controlled this area from 1948 until the Six Day War with Israel in 1968.

Israel and Hamas previously had two cease-fires since the war. The first one lasted four days in November 2023. The last one went from Jan. 19 to March 1, during which 25 Israeli living hostages and 1,737 Palestinian prisoners were released. Weeks later, Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza and ended humanitarian aid, which later resumed in late May by U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

While Netanyahu headed to the United States on Sunday, Israeli negotiators went to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas about a possible accord.

Situation in Iran

Trump wants a nuclear deal with the nation after the United States used B-2 jets to send bombs deep into the ground at the nuclear sites. Israel first used airstrikes on Iran on June 13, targeting military and nuclear sites.

Trump said the nuclear locations were “obliterated” but the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said the nation’s uranium enrichment program has only been set back months.

Many leaders worldwide are fearful that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb.

“When those sites were knocked out, that was essentially the end,” he told reporters at the dinner.

“I asked what’s the purpose of talking if it’s been knocked out and knocked out completely. But they requested a meeting and I’m going to go to a meeting and if we can put something down on paper, that’ll be fine.”

Witkoff said a deal could be worked out “very quickly. In the next week or so.”

Trump wants no uranium enrichment in Iran.

Netanyahu opposed the nuclear accord in 2015 that Trump withdrew from in 2018 during his first term in office.

“For the first time in history, the United States and Israel have gone to war together jointly in offensive operations against the military capabilities of a primary common adversary,” John Hannah, senior Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Fox News. “That’s a very big deal.”

Negotiations resume in Qatar as the Israeli leader is set to hold talks with the US president, who has said a deal could be reached this week.

Israel and Hamas are set to hold indirect talks in Qatar for a second day, aimed at securing a ceasefire and a captive deal in Gaza, ahead of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.

The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, aiming to broker a deal on a truce and the release of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The US president has said a deal could be reached this week.

Before departing for the US on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israeli negotiators were given clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire under conditions that Israel has accepted.

“We’ve gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out,” he told journalists, adding that his meeting with Trump could “definitely help advance this” deal.

Of the 251 captives taken by Palestinian fighters during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 people the Israeli military says are dead.

Netanyahu had previously said Hamas’s response to a draft US-backed ceasefire proposal, conveyed through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, contained “unacceptable” demands.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan because Israel has banned the network from reporting in Israel and the occupied West Bank, said Netanyahu “cannot seem to be going against Trump’s wishes”, adding that the Trump-Netanyahu meeting is being set up as a “very important meeting” for Israel’s regional agenda, not just on Gaza.

“There are disagreements within the Israeli cabinet that it will find difficult to adopt, especially on the issues of redeployment and food aid distribution,” she said, stressing that Netanyahu is under pressure both from Trump and his coalition back home.

Trump is expected to meet the Israeli leader around 6:30pm local time (22:30 GMT) on Monday, the White House said, without the usual presence of journalists.

The truce talks have been revived following last month’s 12-day Israeli and US air strikes on Iran.

Ending war the sticking point

The US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire envisages a phased release of captives, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely.

Concluding the war has been the main sticking point in past rounds of talks, with Hamas demanding a full end to the conflict in return for releasing all captives, and Israel insisting it would fight on until Hamas is dismantled.

Some of Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners oppose ending the fighting. But, with Israelis having become increasingly weary of the 21-month-old war, his government is expected to back a ceasefire.

Since Hamas’s October 2023 attack and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, mediators have brokered two temporary halts in the fighting. They have seen captives freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

Recent efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for a lasting ceasefire.

Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities, led to a hunger crisis, displaced nearly all the population, and left most of the besieged territory in ruins.

If you’re just hearing about the British underdog who has caught Wimbledon’s imagination, then there’s one thing he would like you to know – he’s Ollie, not Oliver, Tarvet.

“I usually only get called Oliver when my mum is annoyed at me. So you know, I try to avoid it at all costs,” the 21-year-old said.

He added that when he heard “Oliver” being shouted from the stands of court four during his first-round victory on Monday, it made him think he had “done something wrong”.

The fans could be forgiven for not knowing – after all, he is the world number 733 making his Grand Slam debut.

But he is quickly carving a name for himself and is unfazed by what lies ahead in the second round – namely, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz on Centre Court on Wednesday in front of 15,000 fans.

Should the US college student win, it would mark the biggest upset in Wimbledon history. But he is not ruling out his chances, choosing to see it as an opportunity not an experience.

“I don’t really like the word ‘experience’ because I feel like then you’re just there to almost just spectate; you don’t really have the expectation to win,” he told BBC Sport.

“And, obviously, I’m not saying that I expect to win. But at the same time I feel like I’ve been quietly confident this whole tournament and it’s got me to where I am.

“A big thing for me is just playing the ball, not the player.”

For his father Garry, it is a moment he can scarcely believe.

“What a mouth-watering prospect,” he said.

“A week of qualifying, a round one win. And this is just too much. It is going to be fun because Ollie has played in front of big crowds – 700 or 800, maybe 1,000. To go in front of 15,000, that is quite a step up, isn’t it?”

Harry Kane scores two goals as German giants oust yet another determined South American team from the Club World Cup.

Bayern Munich have overcome a determined resistance from Flamengo to book their place in the Club World Cup quarterfinals with an entertaining 4-2 victory in their round of 16 clash.

Harry Kane scored twice as the German giants became the latest European team to knock out their South American counterparts from the global cup competition on Sunday, prompting Flamengo coach Filipe Luis to say the football elite “remain in Europe”.

Vincent Kompany’s side will now play European champions Paris Saint-Germain in Atlanta on Saturday for a place in the last four.

Flamengo, backed by a huge and passionate following at Hard Rock Stadium, bowed out of the tournament despite a performance of real determination from Luis’s team.

Joshua Kimmich opened the scoring for Bayern in the sixth minute, and the score was doubled four minutes later as Kane bagged his first.

Bayern looked like they were going to run away with the game but the three-time Copa Libertadores champions were able to find a foothold.

Flamengo were rewarded for their efforts in the 33rd minute when after the dangerous Luiz Araujo played the ball in from the left, the ball fell to Gerson who unleashed a thunderbolt which rocketed past Neuer to bring the bulk of the 60,914 crowd to their feet.

But all that good work from the Rio team was undone four minutes before the break when Araujo’s poor clearance landed straight at the feet of Leon Goretzka who had the time and space to settle himself before, from more than 20 yards out, placing his shot into the corner to make it 3-1.

Flamengo came out determined to respond once again and they reduced the deficit again in the 55th minute when Michael Olise handled a cross from Giorgian de Arrascaeta at close range and Jorginho took advantage of the opportunity with an ice-cool conversion.

The contest was finally settled in the 73rd minute when Konrad Laimer won the ball in midfield and fed Kimmich who, in turn, slipped the ball through to Kane, who confidently beat Agustin Rossi with one of his trademark precision and power drives.

‘European teams have the best Brazilian players’

Later, Luis said the football elite remained in Europe as he doffed his cap to Bayern’s killer touch.

“It’s up to us to simply recognise the superiority of our opponent. They are very good, we knew that. At this level, any mistake is fatal. Those who deserved to go through got through,” he said.

“Our plan did work and we were able to apply pressure and create goal-scoring opportunities, but they were better than us; we’re playing against the football elite. If Vinicius Jr had not left for Real Madrid, we would have the best player in the world.

“They [South American players] want to be in the elite and that’s what they are, had we won today and the tournament, it would not change the reality – they’re high-quality teams. We have many Brazilian players in our teams, but they [the European teams] have the best ones. They have better players – that’s a fact.”

European teams were expected to dominate the expanded Club World Cup but sometimes struggled in the group phase while all Brazilian teams advanced and made an impression.

Bayern, however, restored a measure of what the European football establishment would call “order” ahead of Inter Milan’s clash with Brazil’s Fluminense, also in the last 16. Palmeiras progressed by beating fellow Brazilian side Botafogo on Saturday.

Wilbur Ross became rich investing in faltering businesses like steel mills and coal mines, finding a fortune in blue-collar industries that others dismissed as beyond saving.

But before he was scooping up Rust Belt factories, the banker was sizing up another troubled asset: Donald Trump. More than two decades ago, Ross represented bondholders who were gunning for Trump after he failed to pay back the high-interest loans he had taken out to build his casino empire.

When Ross arrived in Atlantic City, N.J., for negotiations in 1990, he found a throng of journalists and curious onlookers eager to catch a glimpse of Trump, according to “The Vulture Investors,” by Hilary Rosenberg. For the quiet Ross, the scene inspired a revelation: Trump’s flashy image had resilience.

Ross embarked on a strategy that helped Trump avoid a personal bankruptcy that could have derailed his unlikely trajectory from real-estate mogul to reality television star to president-elect.

Consider it another investment that has paid off for Ross, whom Trump recently tapped to lead the Department of Commerce. A private equity billionaire who once led a secret Wall Street fraternity, Ross is among the rich, loyal insiders Trump picked for a Cabinet that is shaping up as the wealthiest in history.

If confirmed by the Senate, the 79-year-old veteran investor will spearhead trade policy and business development in the new administration.

Trump rejected criticism that Ross was too out of touch to serve, saying during a rally last week in Cincinnati that Ross was chosen because “this guy knows how to make money, folks.”

Trump added, “I put on a killer.”

Ross, however, once spared Trump.

The future president-elect at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market. But Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.

Donald Trump celebrates the grand opening of the Taj Mahal in 1990. The Atlantic City casino was in financial trouble later that year.

(Mike Derer / Associated Press )

Ross, then an investment banker working for Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.

“Why did we make a deal with him?” one asked, according to Rosenberg’s book.

Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.

“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.

Trump himself proved to be less of a sure bet. Though the agreement allowed Trump to soldier on in Atlantic City, his casinos landed in bankruptcy court twice more.

The president-elect respects Ross’ deal-making skills, said Jason Miller, the communications director for Trump’s transition team.

“He’s seen Mr. Ross up close and personal,” Miller said. “He knows that he can depend on him.”

Ross grew up in New Jersey and attended a Jesuit prep school in New York before earning degrees from Yale and the Harvard Business School. He spent two decades at Rothschild working on bankruptcies before starting his own private equity firm, WL Ross & Co., in 2000.

A Palm Beach, Fla., resident who owns an art collection valued at nine figures and is worth an estimated $2.5 billion according to Forbes, Ross earned a reputation as a so-called vulture investor for finding profits in dying businesses. Ross described himself differently in an interview with New York magazine: “We’re a phoenix that rebuilds itself from the ashes.”

At the Commerce Department, Ross would oversee a portfolio containing responsibilities as diverse as weather research and promoting minority-owned businesses. However, with Trump in the White House, foreign trade likely will be the issue that gets the most of Ross’ attention. Trump has promised to remake free-trade deals.

Follow live coverage of the presidential transition on Trail Guide »

President-elect Donald Trump, left, with Commerce secretary pick Wilbur Ross, whose estimated worth is $2.5 billion.

(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

The department has wide latitude to determine when other countries are violating trade rules, experts said, allowing U.S. officials to slap tariffs on imports or find loopholes in international agreements.

The Trump administration won’t rush toward tariffs but wants to renegotiate some deals, Ross told CNBC after he was tapped by Trump.

“We’ve been doing a lot of dumb trade,” he said, echoing Trump’s campaign-trail rhetoric.

Trump’s pronouncement that companies that leave the U.S. will face a 35% tariff on goods they want to sell domestically has been met with a tepid response from his fellow Republicans. GOP leaders on Capitol Hill suggested this week that they would not go along with such a proposal, though they emphasized that they would wait to hear exactly what Trump had in mind.

“Take a deep breath. He’s not sworn in yet,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told reporters. “Let’s not predetermine what the outcome of this stuff is.”

Even Trump’s vice president-elect, Mike Pence, deflected when asked repeatedly on MSNBC whether he agrees with the proposed tariff.

“What we don’t want to do is for companies to say it cost — it costs this much to manufacture it overseas and sell it in the United States and it costs this much in taxes and regulations and other burdens to manufacture here,” Pence said Tuesday on “Morning Joe.”

Ross, though, helped formulate Trump’s economic policies, which include tax cuts, reduced regulations on energy production and privately financed infrastructure spending spurred by tax credits.

Peter Navarro, a UC Irvine professor who worked with Ross on the proposals as a Trump adviser, praised Ross for his “precision, compassion, humility and subtle humor.”

“Donald Trump continues to choose very well for America,” Navarro said.

A report from Moody’s, however, predicted that Trump’s plans would lead to a recession, while the Tax Foundation projected that deficits would increase, conclusions that Navarro and Ross have dismissed.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) slammed Trump’s choice of Ross. Democrats have no power to block his eventual nomination.

“Choosing a practiced corporate raider to head the Commerce Department reflects Republicans’ disdain for hard-working Americans struggling to make ends meet,” she said in a statement. “With sprawling conflicts of interest and a troubling record on worker safety, Democrats have serious concerns that Wilbur Ross’ corporate interests will trump the concerns of American families, entrepreneurs and our economic security.”

Her reference to worker safety was particularly damning. Ross’ private equity fund bought financially troubled coal operations several years ago, and in West Virginia, one of them, the Sago mine, suffered a collapse that killed a dozen people in 2006.

Miller defended Ross’ response to the blast, noting that Ross raised money to help families of the victims and invested in better mining safety.

Ross’ record with steel companies is less controversial. Under the banner of the International Steel Group, he acquired mills on the verge of being shuttered when their owners fell into bankruptcy. The company became the largest producer of steel in the country, and Ross sold the operations for $4.5 billion two years after he entered the industry.

Despite his Wall Street background, Ross had a good relationship with labor. Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, said that his exchanges with Ross weren’t “peaches and cream,” but he was open to workers’ concerns.

“Lots of these folks are bottom-feeders. They come in, and they strip the assets,” Gerard said of other investors. “Wilbur went the other way.”

[email protected]

Twitter: @chrismegerian

ALSO:

Trump to preside over the richest Cabinet in U.S. history

Trump says he saved American jobs, but he hasn’t shown how he can turn the victory into policy

Step by step, Trump is assembling an administration far more conservative than his campaign

Saturday is one of those busy days in summer passing competitions for fans to get a sneak peek of the high school football season.

Mission Viejo is hosting a seven-on-seven passing tournament that includes Mater Dei, which will then take its mandatory two-week dead period immediately after the tournament. A matchup of Mission Viejo and quarterback Luke Fahey against Mater Dei’s outstanding defensive backs will be something that’s likely to take place.

Santa Margarita has pulled out from participating in the Mission Viejo tournament and will be replaced by Schurr, which won a tournament earlier this month.

There’s also an eight-team passing tournament at St. John Bosco featuring the Braves, Servite and Gardena Serra, among others. Salinas pulled out and has been replaced by La Sierra in Riverside.

Simi Valley, Redondo Union and Baldwin Park are also hosting tournaments this weekend.

After Saturday, the next big day for passing tournaments is July 12, featuring Huntington Beach Edison’s Battle at the Beach, along with tournaments at Ocean View and Huntington Beach.

Spain’s Real Madrid to meet Italy’s Juventus in FIFA Club World Cup after eliminating Salzburg, Man City face Al Hilal.

Real Madrid swept past Red Bull Salzburg with a 3-0 win in their final Group H match to set up a round of 16 meeting with Juventus at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde netted first-half goals for the Spanish giants in the match in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Gonzalo Garcia added the third in the 84th minute for Madrid in a second consecutive multi-goal win following a tournament-opening draw against Al Hilal.

The result eliminated Real’s Austrian opponents as Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal leapt above Salzburg with their 2-0 win against Mexico’s Pachuca.

Manchester City beat Juventus 5-2 earlier in the day and, as Group H winners, will now face Al Hilal in the next round.

The defeat was Salzburg’s second loss to Real Madrid in 2025 after a 5-1 loss in Spain in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Madrid, five-time winners of the competition, were more efficient than dominant. The teams had 12 shots apiece, with the victors’ four attempts on goal only one more than Salzburg’s three.

Madrid again played without Kylian Mbappe, who has yet to feature in the tournament due to a stomach illness that left him briefly hospitalised.

But Vinicius Junior did enough to compensate for the Frenchman’s absence on Thursday.

He failed to convert the game’s first shot on target, denied on the break by Christian Zawieschitzky after Jude Bellingham had played him into a 20th-minute breakaway.

But two brilliant moments over a five-minute stretch tilted the game squarely in Madrid’s favour.

In the 40th minute, the Brazilian ran onto another terrific ball out of the back from Bellingham, before weaving left on the dribble to evade defender Joane Gadou. He drove an early low finish well out of Zawieschitzky’s reach and into the bottom right corner.

In the 45th, he reached Arda Guler’s deflected pass on the right side of the box before directing a backheel pass to a wide-open Valverde behind him for an equally clinical finish past Zawieschitzky.

Bellingham had the next crucial intervention in the 66th minute, blocking Edmund Baidoo’s effort off the line with Thibaut Courtois beaten.

Real will now face Juventus in Miami on Tuesday, while City stay in Orlando for their round of 16 match with Al Hilal on Monday.

EU leaders gather in Brussels to address sanctions on Russia, US tariffs, and Middle East conflicts.

The heads of the European Union’s 27 member nations will meet in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, ways to prevent painful new United States tariffs, and how to make their voices heard in the Middle East conflicts.

Most of the leaders will arrive at the event taking place on Thursday from a brief but intense NATO summit, where they pledged a big boost in defence spending and papered over some of their differences with US President Donald Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the EU summit by videoconference, after having met Trump on Wednesday.

US-led NATO downgraded Ukraine from a top priority to a side player this week, but Russia’s war in Ukraine remains of paramount concern for the EU.

Members will be discussing a potential 18th round of sanctions against Russia and whether to maintain a price cap on Russian oil, measures that some nations oppose because it could raise energy prices.

Meanwhile, Trump’s threatened tariffs are weighing on the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries. He lashed out at Spain on Wednesday for not spending more on defence and suggested yet more tariffs. France’s president criticised Trump for starting a trade war with longtime allies.

European leaders are also concerned about fallout from the wars in the Middle East, and the EU is pushing to revive diplomatic negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

EU members have internal disagreements to overcome. They are divided over what to do about European policy towards Israel because of its conduct in its war on Gaza. And left-leaning parties are attacking European Commissioner Ursula von Der Leyen’s pivot away from the EU’s climate leadership in favour of military investment.

Defence and security are likely to top the agenda. The summit will end with a statement of conclusions that will set the agenda for the bloc for the next four months, and can be seen as a bellwether for political sentiment in Europe on key regional and global issues.

June 25 (UPI) — U.S. and Iranian officials will meet next week to discuss current events but won’t necessarily negotiate any agreements, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.

The president didn’t say when or where the talks would occur, who would participate or their purpose as he was leaving the NATO summit in The Hague.

“We may sign an agreement,” he told media. “I don’t think it’s that necessary.”

Trump said Iran won’t continue trying to create a nuclear arsenal after the U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday morning local time.

“They had a war they fought, [and] now they’re going back to their world,” Trump added. “I don’t care if we have an agreement or not.”

He said the attacks by the United States and others by Israel have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities and buried its enriched uranium, USA Today reported.

Reports conflict regarding the extent of damage to the nuclear facilities in Iran and the aerial attacks’ impact on the Middle East nation’s nuclear weapons program.

A Pentagon report suggests aerial attacks only have delayed Iran’s nuclear weapons aspirations by a few months. It also says about 400 kilograms of enriched uranium might have been moved hours before the attacks.

An Israeli report, though, says Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility that housed thousands of centrifuges some 300 feet underground is buried by granite, steel and concrete after being struck by several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.

“We hit them so hard and so fast they didn’t get to move,” Trump told reporters.

“It’s very, very heavy and very hard to move,” he said of enriched uranium.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the aerial attacks caused far greater damage than Iranian officials thought was possible.

The impact on their nuclear weapons program was so significant that it caused them to agree to a cease-fire with Israel, Hegseth added.

Trump said Israeli and Iranian forces are “both tired, exhausted,” but he acknowledged hostilities between the two might start again soon.