The second episode aired tonight and within minutes, a further two celebrities ripped off their arm bands and called it quits.
The stars were tasked with trekking up a hill, before taking on the challenge of hanging from a wire over a ravine.
However, Love Island star Chloe Burrows struggled on the climb, having already told her co-stars that she was finding the demands of the show difficult.
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As she was berated by the Special Forces staff for her moaning noises, she ripped off her arm band and told them between gasps for breath: “I can’t do it.”
The DS was furious and yelled: “Can’t do what? We’ve walked 300 metres up a f***ing hill!”
He then told Chloe she was “wasting a massive opportunity” but through her tears, she told him: “I’m done, I’m done.”
After handing over her arm band, she headed down the hill, chucking her water bottle before taking off her backpack and saying: “F*** off, this is the worst thing I have ever done in my whole life!”
But Chloe wasn’t alone for long, as within a minute she was joined by another former Love Islander.
The group continued climbing the hill, and the DS drilled number 5 – Tasha Ghouri – telling her to “dig deep” as she lagged behind.
Hannah Spearritt quits on day one of Celebrity SAS- Who Dares Wins
But an exhausted and struggling Tasha held up her arm band and told the shocked DS: “I’m not mentally here. I’m not mentally here to do this.”
After heading down the hill, the two women reunited and discussed their sudden exits from the course.
Tasha said: “You have to be so mentally strong to do this.”
Chloe replied: “And physically.”
4
Hannah Spearritt (left) was the first to quit on Sunday’s episodeCredit: Pete Dadds / Channel 4
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins continues Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.
Thirteen months after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament, Sparks forward Cameron Brink made her season debut, stepping onto the court at the 2:39 mark of the first quarter.
Brink looked comfortable despite the long layoff, jumping into the midseason contest intensity with confidence. She was active and competitive throughout, playing 13 minutes and 55 seconds during her return.
“We’re thrilled to have her back, and I’m incredibly proud of her,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “She’s on a minutes restriction. … I told her that she needs to enjoy the moment. … It’s a hard injury to come back from mentally and physically, and she’s done it with a smile on her face.”
But the night marked the end of the WNBA’s longest active winning streak, as the Sparks fell 89-74 to the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The Sparks (11‑15) trailed by double digits for most of the game and couldn’t recover against the surging Aces (14‑13), who extended their lead to as much as 21 points.
In the third matchup between the two teams this season, the Sparks came out a bit hesitant, while the Aces were the aggressors from the tip.
“That was the worst shooting we’ve had all season,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to be able to defend. It’s knowing personnel, it’s knowing tendency, it’s staying locked into the game plan even when they score the first eight points.”
The Aces leaned on strong starts from Jackie Young and A’ja Wilson, who combined for 34 points in the first half.
Wilson finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, while Young recorded a triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
Dearica Hamby remained a bright spot for the Sparks, contributing 15 points and six rebounds. Hamby was named WNBA Western Conference player of the week after leading the Sparks to three wins, including a road victory over the defending champion New York Liberty on Saturday.
Kelsey Plum added 22 points, five rebounds and eight assists in the loss. Brink had five points, including a three-pointer, three rebounds, one block and one steal in 14 minutes of play.
“I was really proud of her,” Plum said of Brink. “I told her after the game, ‘It’s very impressive to come in, make the impact that you did.’ … I think she’s gonna continue to just help us a ton.”
The Sparks, who had been rolling offensively, were startled by their difficulty scoring.
“We have been so used to making shots and so I think it caught us off guard a little bit,” Roberts said.
The Sparks will look to regroup before playing the Storm in Seattle Friday night.
Los Angeles (10-14) has won four in a row, beginning with a 92-88 victory over the Sun at home July 13 that snapped a 13-game losing streak against Connecticut.
The Sparks set a season high for points and have scored 90 points or more in four consecutive games, tying the franchise record set in 2013.
Azurá Stevens had 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Sparks. Julie Allemand scored 12 points.
Stevens made a three-pointer a little more than a minute into the second half that gave the Sparks the lead for good and ignited a 17-5 run that made it 64-54 with 4:45 left in the third quarter.
Connecticut’s Bria Hartley, who was called for a technical foul midway through the first quarter, was ejected after she picked up her second about three minutes into the third quarter. Hartley finished with 16 points in 18 minutes.
Sparks forward Azurá Stevens, driving to the basket against Sun center Olivia Nelson-Ododa, finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the win Thursday.
(Chris Marion / NBAE via Getty Images)
Tina Charles led Connecticut (3-20) with 24 points and 10 rebounds while Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 17 points. The Sun have lost four in a row and 14 of 15.
The Clippers had a need for a playmaker and ballhandler, and they were able to find that “natural fit” with Chris Paul.
Paul spent six seasons with the Clippers, a time when he had plenty of success leading them to relevancy and now he’s back to play his 21st season, which might be his last.
Paul, 40, a 12-time All-Star, agreed to a contract that will pay him $3.6 million next season.
“Chris was a natural fit,” Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, said over Zoom on Tuesday. “His roots with the organization are deep and meaningful. He obviously played a tremendous role in the upward trajectory of the franchise. He wanted to return to the Clippers and we wanted it the same, as long as it made sense with our current roster — and it does.”
Paul has spent his entire 20-year career as a starter in the NBA, playing in all 82 games last season with the San Antonio Spurs. He averaged 8.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 28 minutes per game while shooting 42.7% from the field.
Over the course of playing in 1,354 regular-season games, Paul has started in 1,314.
Frank said Paul will “slot into our roster as a reserve point guard,” a role the two of them discussed.
“So, we don’t take that lightly when you’re taking on a different role,” Frank said. “And so there were a lot of conversations. You put everything on the table and get everyone comfortable with it. But the fact that Chris wanted to come back, wanted to be at home, wanted to be with the Clippers, we obviously know what his skill set is, but we also wanted to make sure the role made perfect sense from both people’s perspective.
“And so I thought it was a very, very thorough process in terms of how we went about it, just to make sure that everyone knows exactly what we’re signing up for and we feel really, really good about it.”
Playing time also could be tricky at the guard spot with Paul now on board.
James Harden, who averaged 35.3 minutes per game last season, and Bradley Beal are the likely starters in the backcourt for Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. Then there is Kris Dunn, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Paul who could be in the rotation.
“We know that ballhandling was a little bit of an issue for us last year and we wanted to get … Chris was the best guy for the job as long as everyone understood exactly what the role was and we can all embrace it,” Frank said. “And so, we’ve been very, very honest and direct and we feel great that Chris is back.”
Frank said Harden played a big role in the team acquiring Beal. Frank was asked if Harden talked to Paul about returning to the Clippers. Harden and Paul played two seasons together in Houston, from 2017 to 2019, and there were reports that their relationship was strained.
Frank said, “They did.” when asked if Harden and Paul had talked.
“And when talking to James, talking to Kawhi [Leonard] — and we talked about what the role would be — both guys said CP would be the best guy for this role,” Frank said.
Paul and Beal have both worn No. 3 their entire careers. But Frank said Beal will let Paul wear No. 3 and decide later what his new number will be.
“So, it’s awesome that Brad made such a great gesture like that,” Frank said. “And so Chris will be No. 3.”
During his six seasons with the Clippers, from 2011 until 2017, Paul helped the franchise reach new heights. He joined Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form “Lob City.”
But it sounds as if this will be Paul’s last season in the NBA and it’ll be with the Clippers and it’ll allow him to play in front of his family that lives in the Los Angeles area.
“Well, I think there’s the nostalgic aspect,” Frank said. “But I think the No. 1 question that we always say, is how can he help impact winning? … And yeah, look, there’s the heartstrings part of it, of someone who was such a significant part of the Clippers’ rise to be able to bring it back. Whether this is his last year or not, that’s obviously Chris’ story in terms of what he feels and what he wants. But I think No. 1 is his ability to help impact winning.”
Fauja Singh, a torchbearer at the 2012 London Olympics and the world’s oldest marathon runner, died Monday in a hit-and-run, according to police in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab. He was 114.
Born in India in 1911, Singh lived much of his life in London. On Oct. 13, 2011, in Toronto, he set a flurry of world age-group records at a meet established especially for him, the Ontario Masters Association Fauja Singh Invitational.
Singh, nicknamed the “Turbaned Tornado,” ran the 100 meters in 23.14, 200 meters in 52.23, 400 meters in 2:13.48, 800 meters in 5:32.18, 1500 meters in 11:27.81, one mile in 11:53.45, 3000 meters in 24:52.47 and 5000 meters in 49:57.39. He was 100 years old.
“He rested between the events by sitting down and having a few sips of tea,” Ontario Masters official Doug Smith told the New York Times in 2017. “He was actually running — both feet off the ground.
“It was the most astonishing achievement.”
Singh became the first centenarian to finish a marathon three days later, completing the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8 hours, 11 minutes and 6 seconds. He didn’t begin the race until 14 minutes after the starting gun because of the congestion of runners, so his official time was 8:25:17.
Guinness World Records wouldn’t recognize the feat because Singh didn’t have a birth certificate. India didn’t keep official birth records when he was born in 1911. The birth date on his passport was April 1, 1911.
A Punjabi Sikh, Singh moved to London in 1992 to live with an adult son after his wife, Gian Kaur, a son and a daughter died. He took up running two years later to alleviate his grief after the death of his fifth son, Kuldip.
“The villagers would tell one of his sons to take him to the UK because he would keep visiting the cremation ground and sit there for hours,” his biographer, Khushwant Singh, told NDTV.
Running soon became his passion. Easily identified by his long white beard and orange Sikh turban, Singh was honored with a letter from Queen Elizabeth II of England when he turned 100 and was the subject of a biography launched in the House of Lords.
In all, Singh completed nine marathons and ran his last competitive race in February 2013 when he was 101, finishing a 10K run in Hong Kong in 1 hour 32 minutes and 28 seconds.
Singh returned to India during the pandemic and was hit by a car Monday while on his daily walk in his home village of Beas Pind. He died in a hospital, his former coach Harmander Singh told the New York Times.
“We would always tell him that someone his age running in India would always run the risk of being hit given how reckless the driving here is,” Khushwant Singh said. “This is what ultimately happened, unfortunately,”
LAS VEGAS — Even with all the sports dignitaries in attendance and even though they were watching a rivalry game of sorts between the Lakers and Clippers, the fans inside the Thomas & Mack Center still were mostly enamored with Bronny James.
Even with Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Kawhi Leonard looking on, Bronny James was the center of attention yet again.
James had one of his better NBA Summer League games, but it was the Clippers who came out on top in a 67-58 win Monday night at Nevada Las Vegas.
James had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists in 24 minutes and 17 seconds.
He was six for 10 from the field and three for five from three-point range.
And, yes, he was happy to have the support of his family and teammates.
“It definitely gave me a little boost, seeing them cheer for me and my teammates,” James said. “It’s great to get in the gym with them.”
The star of the night was Clippers forward Jordan Miller, his 19 points and seven rebounds a big reason why the Clippers are 3-0 in the summer league.
His three-pointer late in the fourth quarter gave the Clippers a lead they never lost. He scored nine of the Clippers’ last 11 points.
“We got it done,” said Clippers assistant coach Jeremy Castleberry, who is the team’s summer league coach. “We got it done. We did what we needed to do, the second night of a back-to-back. For a lot of those guys, it was the first back-to-back they played in a long time. So, happy we got it done.”
James started strong, shooting a three-pointer to open the scoring. He added a step-back three in the second quarter, those two shots being part of his 12 first-half points on four-for-four shooting.
He made a three-pointer in the fourth quarter that tied the score 51-51.
“Yeah, I can see growth, for sure,” James said. “Honestly, I just feel like my confidence is growing over the last year and a half or so. So, I’m just going to grow on that and keep my mind right.”
The Lakers shot 34.4% just from the field, 30% from three-point range and 38.5% from the free-throw line (five for 13). They also turned the ball over 19 times.
Lakers assistant coach Lindsey Harding said the team showed signs of “fatigue,” which she expected considering it was their sixth summer game (they played three games at the California Classic in San Francisco).
“It just seemed like we didn’t have much pop,” said Harding, the Lakers’ summer league coach.
But not James. He seemed energized the entire game.
“Bronny came ready. He came ready. He had the spark,” Harding said. “You want these guys, especially him in that position and who he’ll be with us with the Lakers, when you get your minutes, go hard. Play until exhaustion, we’ll take you out and then we’ll put you back in. I thought that he did that today.
“He did a great job, even on the offensive end in finding players, making reads on pick-and-rolls. I think they struggled guarding him and he did a great job on the defensive end.”
But James wasn’t the only one who got the fans excited.
In the past year, seven of the UK’s 10 busiest airports have increased the cost of dropping off a loved one before travel – to the point that London Luton is now more expensive than a stay at the Ritz
06:55, 11 Jul 2025Updated 06:59, 11 Jul 2025
London Luton Airport has the highest drop off zone charges of the UK’s busiest airports(Image: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Drop-off charges at one major UK airport have risen so much it’s more expensive – minute by minute – seeing a loved one off than staying at the Ritz hotel in London.
Most of the UK’s busiest airports have upped the prices of their drop-off zones, commonly known as “kiss and fly” areas, where travellers can say a quick farewell to their loved ones before jetting off. In the past year, seven of the aviation hubs have either increased prices or reduced how long drivers can stay before higher fees are applicable.
Luton Airport currently has the highest per-minute cost the UK’s busiest airports – charging £5 for five minutes before the £1 a minute fare rolls in for a maximum of 20. These prices rose steeply following the renovation of Luton’s drop-off zone after it was torched in a fire in October 2023. Before the fire, it was £5 for 10 minutes followed by the £1-a-minute charge.
By comparison, the Ritz costs around 91p a minute (Image: Getty Images)
For a deluxe king room at Mayfair’s Ritz hotel, you’d pay £1,149 per night, which works out at around 91p a minute. The airport said the charge helps maintain the flow of passengers and traffic, claiming that the majority of visits are within five minutes. They signposted customers to the mid-stay car park, which is a ten-minute walk to the airport terminal.
It tells The Times: “With a £5 fee, the barrierless system keeps passengers and the traffic flowing, with the average time spent in the area well within five minutes. For those with more time, drivers have a range of free and paid-for drop off, pick up and parking options to choose from.”
According to the RAC, these kiss and fly charges are “bordering on the ridiculous”. Rod Dennis from the RAC said: “Drivers will be understandably aghast at the prospect of paying as much as £7 for what amounts to nothing more than opening the boot so a friend or relative can collect their luggage and catch their flight.
“The problem is a lack of practical — and affordable — alternatives for getting to many airports. Faced with the choice of a double-decker bus with lots of luggage, or forking out for a taxi, it’s easy to see why people feel they have no option other than to drive.”
Many of the major airports ask drivers to pay before or after they arrive and late payment charges are issued if a payment isn’t made within 24 hours or by midnight the following day.
Graham Conway from Select Car Leasing, based in Reading, said: “Failingto pay for drop-off parking or exceeding your time limit can really hit you in the wallet. It’s all too easy to forget to log on and to then remember with a sense of dread when it’s too late.”
No club in MLS history played more games during a two-year span than the 103 LAFC played the past two seasons. It was an exhausting and unrelenting slog that saw the team play a game every five days.
Yet it may prove to be just a warm-up for what the team could face during the remainder of this season. Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the short-handed Colorado Rapids, which snapped a four-game winless streak in all competition, was LAFC’s 28th match in less than five months. If it makes long runs in both the Leagues Cup and MLS Cup playoffs, the team will play another 29 times this season, with seven of those matches coming in the next 26 days weeks.
It’s a tortuous schedule, especially in mid-summer. But it’s also an unavoidable one.
“This schedule is what it is. We cannot change that,” said coach Steve Cherundolo, who got goals Wednesday from Denis Bouanga, Nathan Ordaz and newcomer Javairo Dilrosun. “It’s important not to waste any moments; moments meaning games you can win, moments also meaning chances in each game. So it’s important to play as effective as possible.
“That is our objective.”
Another objective would be to call for help, or at least relief, which is something LAFC figures to do as well. Because while the schedule ahead looks daunting, the team appears to have ample resources to deal with it.
The departures of Olivier Giroud, who returned to France, and Cengiz Under, whose loan from Turkish club Fenerbahce expired, frees up two designated player spots and more than $2.6 million in salary heading into the summer transfer window, which opens in two weeks. And the $10 million LAFC will receive for making the FIFA Club World Cup gives general manager John Thorrington more money to fund a roster upgrade.
“I don’t think there’s been a transfer window that LAFC has not been active in,” Cherundolo said. “We are always trying to improve the team whenever possible. That is just part of who we are and how we do things.
“So I, of course, expect the exact same demeanor this window.”
Exactly what that would look like, Cherundolo said, was a question for Thorrington, who wasn’t taking any this week. But LAFC’s needs are as obvious as they are plentiful.
LAFC’s Nathan Ordaz (27) celebrates after scoring a goal against Colorado Rapids at BMO Stadium on Wednesday.
(Shaun Clark / Getty Images)
Bouanga and Ordaz, who scored the first two goals Wednesday, have combined for 13 of LAFC’s 33 goals this season and the departures of Giroud and Under make the offense even more top heavy. Keeping Dilrosun, a former Dutch international on a short-term loan from Mexico’s Club América, could help spread out the scoring but expect LAFC to look to add another attacker in the transfer window just the same
The loss of center back Marlon, whose contract expired nine days ago, has also created a hole, this one on the back line.
Time is critical because despite the win over Colorado, which went down a man in the sixth minute when left back Jackson Travis drew a red card for elbowing defender Sergi Palencia in the face, LAFC (8-5-5) is closer to the ninth and final playoff Western Conference playoff spot than it is to the top of the 15-team table. However the team’s congested schedule means it will play at least more two games than every other team in the conference the rest of the season, something that is both a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because it gives the team two extra chances to make up ground against the teams ahead of them. But it’s a curse in that it means the team’s MLS schedule is the most challenging down the stretch.
“That’s what I like,” Bouanga, whose first-half penalty-kick goal was his ninth of the season 50th in his MLS career, said through a translator. “I like play, play, play. When we train too much it becomes tiring for me.”
The crowded calendar is mainly a result of LAFC’s participation in the Club World Cup, which forced MLS four games, including Wednesday’s match with Colorado, to be rescheduled while adding four non-league games to the schedule. Then there’s the upcoming Leagues Cup, which will force LAFC to play as least three more games and perhaps as many as six.
Ordaz, whose goal early in the second half came off the rebound of a Dilrosun shot, said its important not too look too far ahead.
“You just have to go one day at a time,” he said. “I think we’re all going to be important, the whole team. Everybody’s ready and we’re going to trust in everyone.”
His coach agreed.
“We need to take it step by step, meaning game by game,” Cherundolo said.
“When you’re winning games that’s a great time to have a congested schedule because things are flowing and going in the right direction. So it’s important to get us going, get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
LAFC has been heading in the opposite direction the last month, earning just a draw in four games in all competition and getting shut out three times. Wednesday’s win, however, was the team’s most one-sided since a 4-0 victory over Seattle in mid May. The team also got a big effort from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who recorded his sixth clean sheet in 16 MLS games.
“There’s no replacement for wins, and more specifically three points in the position we’re in,” Cherundolo said. “So that was very important, regardless of how it happened.”
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Fabián Ruiz scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain built a three-goal lead in the first 24 minutes and routed Real Madrid 4-0 on Wednesday, advancing to the Club World Cup final against Chelsea.
Ruiz scored in the sixth minute and Ousmane Dembélé in the ninth following glaring mistakes by defenders Raúl Asencio and Antonio Rüdiger, and Ruiz made it 3-0 to cap a counter. Gonçalo Ramos added a goal in the 87th.
Coming off its first European title, PSG plays for the championship on Sunday.
“We’re truly happy to be in another final,” Ruiz said. “Now we have to enjoy it because we’re doing something historic. It’s very difficult to reach every final this season, and now we’re one step away.”
Real Madrid fared no better than Inter Milan, overrun by PSG 5-0 in the Champions League final. The 15-time European champion looked sluggish after traveling to Florida for training between games, and PSG had 76.5% possession in the first half.
A crowd of 77,542 was at MetLife Stadium on a scorching day with a temperature of 91 degrees at kickoff and humidity that made it feel like 101.
Real’s Kylian Mbappé was not a threat in his first game against his former team.
“It’s a painful defeat. We were not up to standard today,” Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said through an interpreter.
Luka Modrić entered in the 64th in likely his last match for Madrid, his team since 2012. Éder Militão came in at the same time in his first game since tearing his right ACL on Nov. 9.
PSG surged ahead after Lucas Beraldo’s cross was mis-hit by Raúl Asencio, Thibaut Courtois tipped the ball from Dembélé and Ruiz slammed it into the empty net.
Dembélé then took possession about 40 yards out after a Rüdiger mis-hit, dribbled and slotted past Courtois.
PSG went the length of the field to make it 3-0. Hakimi exchanged passes with Dembélé, then crossed for Ruiz, who maintained control despite Federico Valverde’s challenge and scored from 8 yards for his third goal of the tournament.
Madrid’s defense was missing Dean Huijsen, who got a red card Saturday against Borussia Dortmund, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had right leg muscle discomfort.
Paris Saint-Germain has earned $88,435,000 to $113,815,000 for reaching the final, the amount depending on a participation fee.
NEW YORK — Natasha Cloud scored 11 of her 23 points in the third quarter and sparked a huge run to lead the New York Liberty to an 89-79 victory over the Sparks on Thursday night.
Breanna Stewart added 17 points and 14 rebounds and Sabrina Ionescu had 20 points for New York (12-5).
The defending champion Liberty trailed 53-42 midway through the third before Cloud and Ionescu got going. Cloud’s three-point play sparked a 13-0 run and then Ionescu scored 10 straight points for New York to give the Liberty a 63-59 advantage.
New York extended its lead to 69-59 by the end of the period. The Sparks (5-13) cut it to five with 3:30 left before Leonie Fiebich hit a three-pointer to seal the win.
Dearica Hamby scored 25 points to lead the Sparks, who got a boost with the return of Rae Burrell. She saw her first action since injuring her knee in the opener. She checked in late in the first quarter and played 12 minutes, finishing with five points.
The game also marked the debut of Julie Vanloo, whom the Sparks picked up off waivers two hours before tip-off. She came in early in the second quarter and played two minutes.
New York was still missing star forward Jonquel Jones, who has been sidelined with a sprained ankle. Jones told reporters Wednesday that she’s progressing well, but didn’t want to put a timetable on her return. The Liberty welcomed back Fiebich, who had been playing for Germany in the EuroBasket tournament over the last few weeks.
The Sparks built a 41-37 halftime lead behind 10 points from Hamby. Stewart had 11 points and seven rebounds.
Liberty guard Marine Johannes had two standout plays in the first half. She hit a three-pointer off one foot as the shot clock ran out, and later made a no-look, behind-the-back pass to Stewart for a layup.
ST. LOUIS — Diego Luna scored twice in the first 15 minutes, and the United States hung on to beat Guatemala 2-1 on Wednesday night to reach its first CONCACAF Gold Cup final since 2021.
Luna put the U.S. ahead with a left-footed shot in the fourth minute, then scored with his right in the 15th for his third goal in two games.
Olger Escobar, an 18-year who was born in Lynn, Mass., cut inside and slid a shot from inside the area between Matt Freese and the far post in the 80th minute for his second goal of the tournament. Freese parried José Morales’ shot toward the far post in the second minute of stoppage time.
The U.S. plays defending champion Mexico or Honduras for the title Sunday at Houston, the Americans’ last competitive match before their World Cup opener next June. El Tri has won nine Gold Cups, the U.S. seven and Canada one.
The 16th-ranked Americans advanced to the Gold Cup final for the 13th time. All five losses in finals have been to Mexico.
No. 106 Guatemala, which has never reached the final, outshot the U.S. 13-1 in the last 30 minutes of the first half.
Luna got his first goal after Alex Freeman crossed for Malik Tillman. He touched the ball to Luca de la Torre, whose shot was stopped by goalkeeper Kenderson Navarro. Luna reacted quickly and switched the ball from his right foot to his left, then shot over Navarro’s outstretched right hand.
Eleven minutes later, Luna received a cross-field pass from Tillman about 40 yards out, dribbled in, got by defender José Carlos Pinto with a stepover and put the ball inside the near post from the edge of the penalty area.
Guatemala’s starters included a pair of former U.S. players: 29-year-old forward Rubio Rubin made seven appearances for the Americans from 2014-18 before switching in 2022 and 28-year-old defender Aaron Herrera made one in 2021 and then changed in 2023.
Rubin put the ball past Freese in the 29th minute, but the goal was disallowed for offside. Freese made a kick save on Rubin in the 34th.
Emmanuel Sabbi scored on Vancouver’s only shot on goal, Yohei Takaoka made four saves and the Whitecaps spoiled Olivier Giroud’s farewell match with a 1-0 victory over LAFC on Sunday night.
Giroud started and played 60 minutes in his final appearance for LAFC. The famed French forward is expected to sign with Lille after one disappointing year in Los Angeles during which he was largely an unproductive substitute, scoring just five goals in 38 matches.
Giroud had a chance to go out with a bang when Denis Bouanga fed him an exceptional cross while he was unmarked deep in Vancouver’s penalty area in the 50th minute, but Giroud volleyed it over the bar.
Giroud still left the field to a standing ovation 10 minutes later, but LAFC failed to equalize without him in its first match back from a winless three-game stint at the Club World Cup.
LAFC scored one goal in the entire FIFA tournament, but still netted at least $9.5 million for earning the final spot in the field. Back in Los Angeles, its nine-match unbeaten run in league play ended with even more offensive frustration against Vancouver.
Takaoka secured his 10th clean sheet for the depleted Whitecaps, who won for just the second time in six matches while falling out of first place in the Western Conference. Vancouver doesn’t have key contributors Brian White, Jayden Nelson and Sebastian Berhalter due to Gold Cup international duty.
Sabbi scored in the 20th minute with an exceptional effort, starting a counterattack with a midfield steal before controlling Jeevan Badwal’s pass in midair on the run and scoring his first goal since April 12.
Backup goalkeeper David Ochoa made his first appearance for LAFC in place of Hugo Lloris, who got the day off after playing the entire Club World Cup.
When Alijah Arenas opened his eyes, minutes after his Tesla Cybertruck struck a tree one morning this past April, the five-star Chatsworth High hoops phenom wasn’t sure where he was or how he’d gotten there. His initial, disoriented thought was that he’d woken up at home. But as he regained consciousness, Arena felt the seat belt wrapped tightly around his waist. He noticed the Life360 app on his phone, beeping. Outside the car, he could hear crackling sounds, like a campfire.
Then he felt the heat like a sauna cranked to its highest setting. The passenger side of the dashboard, Arenas could see, was already engulfed in flames. Smoke was filling the car’s front cabin. He could no longer see out of the windows.
Arenas reached for his iPhone, intent on using his digital key to escape, only to find the Tesla app had locked him out. Panic started to set in.
“I tried to open the door,” Arenas said, “and the door isn’t opening.”
A crumbled Telsa Cybertruck rests adjacent to a tree following a crash involving top USC basketball recruit Alijah Arenas.
(Handout)
He tore off his seat belt and moved to the back seat, away from the smoke, scanning the car desperately for an exit strategy. His heart was pounding. The heat was becoming unbearable. Then, he passed out.
No more than 10 minutes earlier — and less than two miles up Corbin Avenue — Arenas had just wrapped up a predawn workout at the DSTRKT, a gym in Chatsworth, where he’d been working his way up to 10,000 shots that week.
One of the top hoops prospects in Southern California, Arenas was weeks away from graduating from Chatsworth High after three years with the intention of joining USC a year early in 2025. He was doing everything he could to prepare for that extraordinary leap.
Alijah Arenas describes for the first time publicly how the steering wheel of his Tesla Cybertruck locked up and led to his fiery April wreck in Reseda.
He was on his way home from the gym, driving south on Corbin as he had so many times before, when Arenas noticed that the Cybertruck — which is registered to his father, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas — was acting strangely. The car wasn’t reading that he left the gym. The keypad kept flickering on and off.
After stopping at one red light, he tried to switch lanes, only to notice that “the wheel wasn’t moving as easily as it should.” Drifting into the right lane, he realized that he “can’t get back to the left.”
“So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I’ll just pull over,” he said. “So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I’m on to the right. But when I’m speeding up to turn, I can’t stop. The wheel wasn’t responding to me — as if I wasn’t in the car.”
The Cybertruck careened instead into a fire hydrant, then a tree, before bursting into flames.
Minutes felt like hours as he tried to escape the smoldering car. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Arenas did whatever he could to stay alert. He bit his lip as hard as he could and clenched his nails into his skin. He doused himself with water from a water bottle to cool his body down. He tried to make as much noise as possible, yelling and banging on the glass. But the flames were getting hotter, the smoke getting thicker.
“I’m panicking,” Arenas said. “I was fighting time.”
He set out to break a window, knowing Cybertruck windows are meant to be “unbreakable.” When his hands ached from punching the glass, he started using his feet. Then he passed out again.
USC freshman Alijah Arenas, who survived a Cybertruck crash earlier this year, talks with reporters on Tuesday.
(Ryan Kartje / Los Angeles Times)
When he woke up, “I realized my whole right side had caught on fire,” he said.
But as he tore off his clothes and doused himself in water again, he heard a thud outside the car window. Sirens wailed in the distance. Just keep going, he told himself.
He kicked at the driver’s-side window with everything he had. Eventually, he spotted a crack. He kept kicking, drifting briefly out of consciousness, before the window fell away and hands began pulling him from the vehicle by his legs.
The next thing he remembers feeling was a cold rush, as if he’d jumped in a freezing river. A video of the crash scene obtained by TMZ shows Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water, while the broken hydrant continues to spray into the air, after a group of good Samaritans had come to his rescue.
In all, Arenas spent at least 10 minutes in the burning car before people who happened to hear the accident eventually helped pull him to safety. It’s not lost on him how lucky he was.
“There are amazing people in this world that are willing to help and risk their own bodies for you,” Arenas said. “For me, it was like, I don’t ever want to think about me ever again.”
Alijah Arenas, of Chatsworth High, drives to the basket.
(Nick Koza)
The next hours and days are still hazy for Arenas, who was whisked away to a nearby hospital, then another. He was put into a medically induced coma, a common approach for dealing with extreme smoke inhalation.
When he finally awoke, Arenas still couldn’t speak. But right away, panic set in. He wondered if his car had hit another, or if anyone else had been hurt.
Months later, he still can’t bring himself to place any blame elsewhere for what happened. Even though there are no indications that Arenas was at fault for his steering wheel locking up.
“Honestly, I take full responsibility,” Arenas said. “Whether it was me, another car, a malfunction. I don’t really want to put anyone else in this situation — whoever made the car, anything. I want to take full responsibility for what I do. If I would’ve hurt somebody, that would have really taken a toll on me.”
Arenas spent six days in the hospital after the accident but suffered no major long-term injuries. In the weeks that followed, he took walks through his family’s neighborhood to regain his strength. Along the way, neighbors showered him with flowers and well wishes. Last month, the family welcomed the men who saved Arenas into their home to share their gratitude.
He’s still working his way toward joining USC for its summer hoops practices, with some preliminary classwork still remaining before his transition is complete. But after officially enrolling at USC last week, Arenas stood on the practice court sideline on Tuesday morning, high-fiving teammates and calling out assignments, looking every bit the part of a five-star freshman who’s ready to step in from Day One.
“His perspective is really unique,” USC coach Eric Musselman said. “Even before the accident, when you talk to Alijah, it’s a unique thought process on how he views life and views the game of basketball and how he views his teammates.”
But there’s no mistaking, in Arenas’ mind, how fortunate he is to have survived — and how many things had to go right for that to be the case. He’s convinced he was spared to help someone else in the same way he was helped.
“It taught me a lot,” Arenas said. “I’m very lucky — and not even just to be here. Just in general, in life.”
CHICAGO — Kamilia Cardoso scored a career-high 27 points, Angel Reese had a double-double and the Chicago Sky beat the Sparks97-86 on Tuesday night.
Reese finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds. Ariel Atkins scored 13 points for the Sky (4-10).
Chicago took its first lead, 74-72, at 7:23 of the fourth quarter on a driving layup by Cardoso and outscored the Sparks 30-17 in the final period.
Azura Stevens scored 21 points and Kelsey Plum had 20 for the Sparks (4-11), who lost their fourth straight. Dearica Hamby had 15 points and Rickea Jackson 11.
Cardoso followed her tiebreaking basket with a short jump shot, and moments later added a free throw to make it 77-72, and Chicago’s lead increased from there.
Cardoso will miss the next four games playing for her Brazilian national team at a tournament in Chile. The Sky also announced veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot had successful ACL surgery on her right knee.
The Sparks took control early, jumping out to a 10-2 lead in less than 90 seconds and had a 27-17 advantage after one quarter. Chicago cut the deficit to 31-28 early in the second quarter before the Sparks surged again, going up 44-32 . The Sky rallied again, getting to within 48-42 at halftime.
In the closing minutes of the third quarter, Rebecca Allen made a three-pointer and a runner, tying the score at 65-65 and 67-67, but the Sky never led. Plum’s basket in the last minute of the third gave the Sparks a 69-67 lead heading into the fourth.
“I was in shock,” the veteran winger said. “It’s very beautiful here. I like it very much. One day we [went] bowling. And played mini golf. I was thinking when I finish football, to come to live.”
Then there’s the soccer, where not all the memories have been good ones.
After contributing two assists to a win in PSG’s tournament opener, Kvaratskhelia was unable to get any of his game-high five shots past goalkeeper John Victor in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Brazilian club Botafogo before an announced crowd of 53,699 at the Rose Bowl.
The upset, the tournament’s most shocking result so far, snapped PSG’s win streak at six games in all competition, marked the first time it has been held scoreless since March 5 and leaves in doubt the team’s spot in the second round. Botafogo (2-0) leads the four-team group with PSG and Atlético Madrid (both 1-1) tied for second with a game remaining. With just two teams moving on, PSG will need a victory over the Sounders on Monday in Seattle to advance.
A draw would also send it through if Atlético Madrid loses its final group-stage match with Botafogo.
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard for PSG, the reigning French and European champion and a heavy pre-tournament favorite. Botafogo, which won last year’s Copa Libertadores, is the reigning South American champion, but it is just eighth in Brazil’s 20-team Serie A 11 matches into the current season.
Whether Thursday’s upset helps the struggling Club World Cup find an audience, it’s far too early to tell. But it can’t hurt, especially since Inter Miami also made history Thursday with a second-half goal from Lionel Messi in a 2-1 win over FC Porto, marking the first victory by an MLS club over a European rival in a competitive match.
Igor Jesus of Botafogo celebrates after scoring against Paris Saint-Germain in FIFA Club World Cup group play Thursday.
(Jam Media / Getty Images)
The Club World Cup is the largest and most lucrative global club competition in soccer history but attendance has lagged in the early going, averaging just 36,433 through 20 matches. Nearly half the seats have been empty.
Six games have drawn more than 50,000 fans, including both of Paris Saint-Germain’s matches at the Rose Bowl. But two got fewer than 5,300, with just 3,412 showing up in Orlando for a game between South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and South Korea’s Ulsan HD and 5,282 for Pachuca-RB Salzburg at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati.
And that’s despite the fact that FIFA, alarmed at the slow pace of ticket sales, slashed prices on the eve of the tournament.
“The atmosphere was a bit strange,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said after his team beat LAFC in its tournament opener before nearly 50,000 empty seats at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “This is a world tournament. It deserves more.”
That the competition hasn’t produced more interest is largely FIFA’s fault. World soccer’s governing body has been unable to convince fans or players that the tournament — a 32-team, month-long competition wedged between the end of one European season and the start of the next — was necessary, or even desired.
And until Thursday the tournament had produced little real excitement, with three of the first nine matches — including the opener featuring Messi and Inter Miami — ending in scoreless draws while Bayern Munich, ranked sixth in the world in the Opta Power Rankings, beat Auckland City, ranked 5,068 places lower, 10-0.
With many games kicking off at midday or in the early afternoon, the hot and sticky summer weather has also been a factor on both the play and the attendance. Powerful Real Madrid, playing with Kylian Mbappe in 89-degree temperatures and 71% humidity in suburban Miami, struggled to a draw against Saudi club Al-Hilal while Atlético Madrid wilted under bright summer skies at the Rose Bowl in its first game.
“Playing in this heat is impossible,” Atlético’s Marcos Llorente told reporters. “The heat is terrible. My toes hurt, even my toenails.
“No one in Europe is used to it. I couldn’t stop or start running. It’s unbelievable, but since it’s the same for everyone there’s no point complaining.”
It will be no cooler next year when the real World Cup returns to North America for the first time in 32 years. And in that sense, this summer’s tournament is making good on one of its aims by exposing national team players to the kind of weather, travel and atmosphere they can expect then.
“We’re going to come prepared next year,” said Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram, who played in the 2022 World Cup final for France. “It’s good preparation to manage the jet lag. America is very big. You get can a taste of what you will get next year. It’s a great preparation.”
As for Thursday’s game, Kvaratskhelia, PSG’s most dangerous attacker, was frustrated twice in the first 10 minutes, with Victor batting down his first shot and the second curling wide of the far post. That allowed Igor Jesus to put Botafogo in front to stay shortly before the intermission, splitting a pair of PSG defenders to run on to Jefferson Savarino’s perfectly weighted through ball, then beating keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from the top of the box.
It was the first goal PSG has allowed in 366 minutes in all competition and it was all Botafogo would need, although Savarino nearly doubled the lead eight minutes into the second half, putting a strong header on goal that Donnarumma batted down.
Bradley Barcola appeared to tie the score in the 79th minute, but two PSG players were well offside on the play. Then on the first touch of stoppage time, Kvaratskhelia sent a free kick just over the crossbar.
PSG dominated statistically, controlling the ball for three-quarters of the game, making more than three times as many passes, taking 10 corners to one for the Brazilians and outshooting Botafogo 16-4. But all four of Botafogo’s shots were on target while Victor was called on to make just two saves.
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this story.
It’s been just 18 days since Inter Milan played its last game, losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League final. But a lot has happened since then.
The team parted ways with manager Simone Inzaghi, who led it to two European finals in three seasons, and replaced him with Cristian Chivu. It temporarily lost the services of forward Mehdi Taremi, who had returned to his native Iran earlier this month and became stranded there when Israeli attacks closed the airspace over much of the Mideast.
Then the rest of the second-best club in Europe traveled 6,000 miles from Milan to Los Angeles, where it opened the FIFA Club World Cup on Tuesday in a 1-1 draw with Mexican club Monterrey before an announced crowd of 40,311 at the Rose Bowl.
“We’re trying to focus. And it’s not easy every day, I’m not going to lie,” said forward Marcus Thuram, whose 18 goals in all competition was second on the team this season. “But it’s part of what we do, we love what we do and we’ll continue doing what we do.”
Only doing what they do has become far more complicated and exhausting in recent years as the competition schedule for both club and country has expanded.
Thuram’s father, Lilian, was widely regarded as one of the best defenders of his era during an 18-year career that saw him win two Serie A titles, a European championship and play in two World Cup finals, winning one. But he appeared in 46 or more club matches in a season just four times before retiring in 2008.
His 27-year-old son has done that in each of the past two seasons. And if Inter makes it to the final of the Club World Cup, he’ll wind up playing 55 games in 11 months. That doesn’t count his 10 appearances for the French national team since last June.
Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram stands on the field during a loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League final on May 31.
(Luca Bruno / Associated Press)
“We were prepared for that at the beginning of the season. It’s not like they announced that at the end of the season,” Thuram, who came off the bench early in the second half Tuesday, said of the Club World Cup. “We knew it was going to be a long season.”
But how long is too long? In their ravenous quest for revenue, soccer clubs, leagues and governing bodies have crowded the calendar with invented competitions that have drained both fans’ bank accounts and players’ energy levels.
The Club World Cup is a perfect example. Although the tournament has been around since 2000, before this summer it never had more than eight teams and was held at one site during a 10-day break in the European season. This year it’s expanded into a 32-team, monthlong competition that will be played in 11 cities spread across a continent.
“The goal is to tell the American public who we are and what values have always guided us. It’s not about proving how good we are.”
— Giuseppe Marotta, CEO of Inter Milan, on the team’s participation in the Club World Cup
If Inter Milan makes it to next month’s final, its players will have just a couple of weeks off before reporting to training camp for the next Serie A season, which opens Aug. 23. With the World Cup also expanding next summer, national team players such as Thuram could play more than 70 games in 44 weeks and more than 120 games over two seasons.
That’s clearly unsustainable.
“A serious dialogue is needed between FIFA, UEFA, leagues, clubs and players to redesign an international calendar that protects the health of players and maintains the quality of games,” said Giuseppe Marotta, chairman and chief executive officer of Inter Milan. “With the introduction of the new Champions League format and the new Club World Cup, the workload on teams and players has clearly increased significantly.”
Yet clubs such as Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain (which played 58 games this season) and Manchester City (57 games) are drawn to the extra competitions for the same reason as the organizers who put them on: the money. The Club World Cup, now the largest and most ambitious global club tournament in history, is also the most lucrative, with a prize-money purse of $1 billion. The winner could take home $125 million, more than PSG got for winning the Champions League.
But it was forced into a gap in the schedule that really didn’t exist before.
“It’s undeniable that this event, positioned between two different seasons, is forcing us to do extra work and rethink what the traditional summer periods looks like for a football club,” Marotta said. “However these competitions also represent a huge opportunity in terms of visibility and revenue, often exceeding that of traditional competitions.”
The Club World Cup allows teams to face rivals from other continents, expanding their international following and generating additional revenue streams by planting the team’s flag in new markets and introducing its players to new fans.
“The goal is to tell the American public who we are and what values have always guided us,” Marotta said.
“It’s not about proving how good we are,” he added of the tournament. “It’s about contributing to the development of global football.”
To accommodate it, Marotta said, changes will have to be made. For example Italy’s Serie A could compact from 20 to 18 teams, the same as in the German Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. That would mean four fewer league games per year; not a dramatic reduction, but a start.
Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, left, and Monterrey’s Victor Guzman battle for control of the ball during Tuesday’s FIFA Club World Cup match at the Rose Bowl.
(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
Until that happens, Thuram said the players will continue doing what they do for as long as they can do it.
“It’s about doing everything every day to prepare your body for these extreme games and extreme competition. Because soccer at the highest level is extreme for the body. It’s tough,” he said. “But we have a lot of coaches, we have chefs, we have everything that is set up for us perfectly.”
As for the game, Milan dominated statistically, controlling the ball for more than 55 of the 90 minutes and outshooting Monterrey 15-9. But it couldn’t make that advantage count.
All the scoring came in a 20-minute span of the first half with the ageless Sergio Ramos putting Monterrey in front with a header in the 25th minute and Lautaro Martinez pulling that back for Milan three minutes before the intermission.
Brianna Pinto scored just seven minutes after entering off the bench for the North Carolina Courage in a 2-1 win against Angel City on Saturday.
The Courage (4-5-3) had lost all three of their previous visits to BMO Stadium.
Cortnee Vine had made it 1-0 in the first minute of the game when she slid the ball into the net from a cross by Manaka Matsukubo.
Riley Tiernan scored her seventh goal of the season to bring Angel City (4-5-3) level at 1-1 in the 11th minute, heading in a cross from Gisele Thompson.
The winner came from a scramble in the box in the fifth minute of stoppage time. After Angel City defender Miyabi Moriya blocked a shot on the line, Pinto scooped up the ball and fired it in from five yards out.
Giovanni Garcia pulled up to a dusty intersection in South Gate and scoped the scene. It was quiet, just folks walking home from work, but Garcia was among several people drawn there in hopes of bearing witness to one of the federal raids that have unfolded across Los Angeles County in recent days.
Just minutes before, several Instagram accounts had posted alerts warning that white pickup trucks with green U.S. Customs and Border Protection markings had been seen near the intersection.
With friends loaded into his white Grand Cherokee and a large Mexican flag flying out of the sunroof, this was the sixth day in a row that Garcia, 28, had spent up to 10 hours following such alerts through South L.A.’s immigrant-heavy neighborhoods.
Fueled by sodas and snacks he picked up at a Northgate Market, Garcia’s goal, he said, was to catch Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other immigration agents in the act of detaining people on the street.
So far, it had been a fruitless chase.
“I’ve been doing this for six days. It sucks because I get these alerts and go, but I never make it in time,” said Garcia, a Mexican American U.S. citizen who lives in South Central.
Monitoring ICE activity has become a grim pastime for some Angelenos. Apps dedicated to the purpose have popped up, which combine with Citizen, Nextdoor, X and other platforms to create a firehose of unverified, user-generated information about federal movements and operations.
Trying to keep up in real time can prove equally exhausting and frustrating. The reports sometimes turn out to be false, and immigration enforcers seem to strike and depart with swift precision, leaving the public little opportunity to respond.
It’s impossible to determine how many people are engaged in this Sisyphean chase. But they have become a frequent sight in recent days, as anger has grown in response to viral videos of swift and violent apprehensions. A Times reporter and photographer crisscrossed the southern half of L.A. County, encountering Garcia and other ICE chasers in hot pursuit of federal agents who constantly seemed one step ahead.
Giovanni Garcia, 28, drives through South Gate with a Mexican flag. He spent six days trying to witness an ICE raid with little luck.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A new notification popped up on Garcia’s Instagram feed Thursday afternoon: ICE agents had been spotted in a nondescript residential area of South Gate, a city of about 90,000 people, of which more than 40% are foreign-born, according to the U.S. census. So Garcia put his SUV in gear and sped over.
He and his crew were late again. They arrived on a corner about 15 minutes after witnesses say immigration agents with green bulletproof vests and gaiters over their faces had jumped out of vehicles, handcuffed and taken away a man who had sold flowers in front of a ranch-style house there for years.
“I keep doing this because they’re messing with my people,” Garcia said. “It’s no longer about immigration. Trump’s no longer targeting criminals; he’s targeting Hispanics.”
It was one of many such raids in South L.A. in recent days at homes, parks and businesses ranging from a car wash to grocery stores.
The people whisked away in incidents captured in photos and videos that bystanders shared online ran the gamut: One man plucked out of a diverse crowd for no discernible reason while walking in South Gate Park. Another handcuffed on the curb outside a Ross clothing store in Bell Gardens. Two men in Rosemead snatched from the parking lot of a bakery.
Workers at a Fashion Nova clothing warehouse in Vernon told The Times that ICE trucks had been spotted in the area and that they had heard agents planned to confront employees during a shift change.
From senior citizens to children, nobody was safe from the federal enforcement effort.
Jasmyn Vasillio, 35, said she first became concerned when she saw on social media that ICE agents had raided a car wash in South Gate, then an hour later saw a post about the flower seller’s apprehension.
“I knew that flower guy is always there and I live nearby so I drove right over,” she said as she stood on the corner where he had been standing 20 minutes earlier. “I think they’re just picking people up and leaving.”
“I’m just another frustrated person in L.A. that wants to see an end to this. Not all of us are criminals,” said Manolo, who runs a candle-making business in Vernon.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A 20-year-old Latino man who declined to provide his name out of fear of reprisal said that he has been doing everything he can to spread awareness of what immigration enforcement agents are doing in his South Gate neighborhood and across South L.A.
“I’m a U.S. citizen, so I’m good. I’m worried about other people. It’s been heartbreaking,” he said as he streamed live from a street in South Gate where CBP agents had been spotted minutes before, according to posts he had seen on Instagram.
“They’re here to work and being torn apart from their families,” he said. “It’s sad. They came here for the American dream and this is what happens.”
Teenagers Emmanuel Segura and Jessy Villa said they have spent hours over the past week scrolling through social media and despairing at the seemingly endless stream of videos of people being aggressively detained. They felt helpless in the face of the crackdown, so they planned a protest in the heart of their own community.
On Thursday, they took to Atlantic Avenue and Firestone Boulevard in South Gate, where Villa waved a flag pole with both American and Mexican flags affixed to it. They were joined by more than 30 other protesters who chanted slogans and hoisted anti-ICE posters. Drivers honked in support as they passed by.
Jessy Villa, 14, protests the recent ICE raids in the Southland at Atlantic Avenue and Firestone Boulevard in South Gate.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s kind of scary. They’re taking anyone at this point. I just saw that ICE went to a car wash and took two people. And those are hard-working people — they are not criminals,” Segura, a 15-year-old South Gate resident, said. “So we planned the protest to go against ICE, Trump and his administration.”
Villa, 14, lives in nearby Lynwood, where he says everyone he knows is terrified they or someone they care about will be the next person swept up in an ICE raid.
“The streets are empty. Nobody wants to come outside. And kids don’t want to go to school, especially kids who migrated here,” Villa said. “They’re scared going to school in the morning, and worried they’ll come home and find out their parents were deported.”
Five miles away in Vernon, Manolo stood Thursday morning on the loading dock of the candle-making business he owns as employees loaded boxes of candles into the back of a black SUV. He said he has been following news and rumors of the raids online, and that the fear generated by them and the protests in response have been devastating for his company and other small businesses.
“Everybody’s worried about it,” Manolo said, recounting how he had heard that earlier that day ICE had raided a business two doors over from his. His company received zero calls for orders Thursday morning, down from the 50 to 60 it typically receives per day. If the immigration raids and protests haven’t wound down by the end of the month, he said he might have to shut down his business.
Family members of STG Logistics employees wait to hear word of their relatives’ whereabouts after an ICE raid at the company’s facility in Compton.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“This whole snatching people on the street — they have you on the floor in handcuffs, traumatize you, why? It makes me nervous, of course,” said Manolo, a U.S. citizen who moved to the U.S. from Guatemala 33 years ago and declined to give his last name out of fear he and his company could be targeted by law enforcement.
“And it’s not just that, it’s affecting businesses, it’s affecting people’s lives. It affects the economy, law enforcement. It affects your daily routine. When’s it going to end?”
WASHINGTON — The tanks are staged and ready to roll. Fencing and barriers are up. Protective metal plating has been laid out on Washington’s streets.
And more than 6,000 troops are poised to march near the National Mall to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary on Saturday, which happens to be President Trump’s 79th birthday.
With preparations well in hand, one big unknown is the weather. Rain is in the forecast, so there is a chance the parade could be interrupted by thunderstorms.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Thursday that rain or shine the parade will go on. But it could be delayed if there is lightning.
“No matter what, a historic celebration of our military service members will take place!” Kelly said in a statement.
Daylong festivities celebrating the Army are planned on the National Mall — featuring NFL players, fitness competitions and displays — culminating in the parade, which is estimated to cost $25 million to $45 million. The Army expects as many as 200,000 people to attend.
A special reviewing area is being set up for the president, where he will be watching as each formation passes the White House.
Here’s what to expect at the parade Saturday:
The troops
A total of 6,169 soldiers as well as 128 Army tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery will parade before the president and viewers, while 62 aircraft will pass overhead.
The parade will tell the Army’s story, starting with the Battle of Lexington — the first battle of the Revolutionary War — and move all the way to present day.
Each conflict will have 150 troops in period costume, followed by a section of hundreds of troops in modern-day dress. For the last several weeks, Army planners have been working out how to get it timed to exactly 90 minutes, Army spokesman Steve Warren said.
Planners first tried marching troops five across and 12 deep — but the parade ran long. To get it down to the exact time, each section will have soldiers marching seven across and 10 deep, Warren said. That means, for example, the Civil War gets exactly three minutes and 39 seconds and World War II gets 6 minutes and 22 seconds.
The tanks and aircraft
Then there are the tanks. For fans, 8 minutes and 23 seconds into the procession, the first World War I Renault tank will make its appearance.
Compared with today’s tanks, the Renaults are tiny and almost look like a robotic weapon out of “The Terminator.” But they were groundbreaking for their time, lightweight and enabling movement in that conflict’s deadly trench warfare.
The first aircraft will fly over starting 13 minutes and 37 seconds into the parade, including two B-25 Mitchell bombers, four P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft and one C-47 Skytrain. The latter was made famous by the three stripes painted on the wings and body to mark it friendly over U.S. battleships on June 6, 1944, as thousands of Skytrain aircraft dropped more than 13,000 paratroopers into France on D-Day.
The procession will move along into the Gulf War, the war on terror and the modern day, showcasing the Army’s M1A2 Abrams tanks and other troop carriers, like the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and Stryker combat vehicle.
There will even be six High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS — the mobile rocket launchers that have been highly valued by Ukraine as it has defended itself against Russia’s invasion.
A massive show of Army air power will begin 48 minutes in, when a long air parade of UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters fly overhead as the Army’s story swings toward its future warfare.
The parade finale
The final sections of marching troops represent the Army’s future. The band at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will lead hundreds of future troops, including members of the Texas A&M Army Corps of Cadets, new enlistees just going through Army initial entry training, and cadets from the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel in South Carolina.
The last section includes 250 new recruits or soldiers who are reenlisting. As they reach the president, they will turn toward him and raise their right hand, and Trump will swear them into service.
The parade will end with a celebratory jump by the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team, which will present Trump with an American flag.
After the parade, a 19-minute fireworks show and concert will round out the celebration.
LAS VEGAS — Rickea Jackson scored a career-high 30 points, Azura Stevens had 19 points and 10 rebounds in leading the Sparksto a 97-89Commissioner’s Cup win over the Aces in Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
The Aces were without star center A’ja Wilson for the final 11 minutes of the game after she left with 1:17 left in the third quarter with an injury. She was accidentally hit in the face on Dearica Hamby’s drive to the basket.
Jackson went 11 of 17 from the field, including four of eight from three-point range, and four of five at the free-throw line to top her previous best of 25 points against Dallas last season.
Hamby scored 19 points for the Sparks (4-7) to go with eight rebounds and seven assists. Kelsey Plum had 13 points and nine assists against her former team.
Jackie Young tied her career high with 34 points and Chelsea Gray added 28 for Las Vegas (4-4), which has lost two straight games. Wilson was 2 of 12 from the field and 9 of 10 at the free-throw line to finish with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes.
Young scored 14 straight Las Vegas points in the second quarter.
Hamby, Stevens and Jackson all scored in double figures in the first half to help the Sparks build a 50-41 lead.
