needed

US states have relied on vaccine mandates since the 1800s, when a smallpox vaccine offered the first successful protection against a disease that had killed millions.

More than a century later, Florida’s top public health official said vaccine requirements are unethical and unnecessary for high vaccination rates.

“You can still have high vaccination numbers, just like the other countries who don’t do any mandates like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the [United Kingdom], most of Canada,” Florida Surgeon General Dr Joseph Ladapo said on October 16. “No mandates, really comparable vaccine uptake.”

It’s true that some countries without vaccine requirements have high vaccination rates, on a par with the United States. But experts say that fact alone does not make it a given that the US would follow the same pattern if it eliminates school vaccination requirements.

Florida state law currently requires students in public and private schools from daycare through 12th grade to have specific immunisations. Families can opt out for religious or medical reasons. About 11 percent of Florida kindergarteners are not immunised, recent data shows. With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s backing, Ladapo is pushing to end the state’s school vaccine requirements.

The countries Ladapo cited – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the UK and parts of Canada – don’t have broad vaccine requirements, research shows. Their governments recommend such protections, though, and their healthcare systems offer conveniently accessible vaccines, for example.

UNICEF, a United Nations agency which calls itself the “global go-to for data on children”, measures how well countries provide routine childhood immunisations by looking at infant access to the third dose in a DTaP vaccine series that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough).

In 2024, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 94 percent of one-year-olds in the United States had received three doses of the DTaP vaccine. That’s compared with Canada at 92 percent, Denmark at 96 percent, Norway at 97 percent, Sweden at 96 percent and the UK at 92 percent.

Universal, government-provided healthcare and high trust in government likely influence those countries’ vaccine uptake, experts have said. In the US, many people can’t afford time off work or the cost of a doctor’s visit. There’s also less trust in the government. These factors could prevent the US from having similar participation rates should the government eliminate school vaccine mandates.

Universal healthcare, stronger government trust increase vaccination

Multiple studies have linked vaccine mandates and increased vaccination rates. Although these studies found associations between the two, the research does not prove that mandates alone cause increased vaccination rates. Association is not the same as causation.

Other factors that can affect vaccination rates often accompany mandates, including local efforts to improve vaccination access, increase documentation and combat vaccine hesitancy and refusal.

The countries Ladapo highlighted are high-income countries with policies that encourage vaccination and make vaccines accessible.

In Sweden, for example, where all vaccinations are voluntary, the vaccines included in national programmes are offered for free, according to the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Preventive care is more accessible and routine for everyone in countries such as Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK with universal healthcare systems, said Dr Megan Berman of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences.

“In the US, our healthcare system is more fragmented, and access to care can depend on insurance or cost,” she said.

More limited healthcare access, decreased institutional trust and anti-vaccine activists’ influence set the US apart from those other countries, experts said.

Some of these other countries’ cultural norms favour the collective welfare of others, which means people are more likely to get vaccinated to support the community, Berman said.

Anders Hviid, an epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, told The Atlantic that it’s misguided to compare Denmark’s health situation with the US – in part because Danish citizens strongly trust the government to enact policies in the public interest.

By contrast, as of 2024, fewer than one in three people in the US over age 15 reported having confidence in the national government, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of advanced, industrialised nations. That’s the lowest percentage of any of the countries Ladapo mentioned.

“The effectiveness of recommendations depends on faith in the government and scientific body that is making the recommendations,” said Dr Richard Rupp, of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences.

Without mandates, vaccine education would be even more important, experts say

Experts said they believe US vaccination rates would fall if states ended school vaccine mandates.

Maintaining high vaccination rates without mandates would require health officials to focus on other policies, interventions and messaging, said Samantha Vanderslott, the leader of the Oxford Vaccine Group’s Vaccines and Society Unit, which researches attitudes and behaviour towards vaccines.

That could be especially difficult given that the United States’s top health official, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, has a long history of anti-vaccine activism and scepticism about vaccines.

That makes the US an outlier, Vanderslott said.

“Governments tend to promote/support vaccination as a public health good,” she said. It is unusual for someone with Kennedy’s background to hold a position where he has the power to spread misinformation, encourage vaccine hesitancy and reduce mainstream vaccine research funding and access, Vanderslott said.

Most people decide to follow recommendations based on their beliefs about a vaccine’s benefits and their child’s vulnerability to disease, Rupp said. That means countries that educate the public about vaccines and illnesses will have better success with recommendations, he said.

Ultimately, experts said that just because something worked elsewhere doesn’t mean it will work in the United States.

Matt Hitchings, a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions, said a vaccine policy’s viability could differ from country to country. Vaccination rates are influenced by a host of factors.

“If I said that people in the UK drink more tea than in the US and have lower rates of certain cancers, would that be convincing evidence that drinking tea reduces cancer risk?” Hitchings said.

Google Translate was used throughout the research of this story to translate websites and statements into English.

A private Scottish estate is looking to hire a couple on a long-term basis who will support the smooth running of the estate, which includes a seven-bed main property

A “special opportunity” for a couple to relocate to a private Scottish estate for work has come up. Included with the positions is a three-bedroom cottage.

An estate in rural Dumfriesshire is currently looking to hire two people on a long-term basis. The successful couple will support the smooth running of the “beautifully restored” estate in the south of Scotland.

The salary for the positions is listed as between £70,000 and £80,000 on the Greycoats Lumleys job listing. As well as the “private” three-bedroom cottage, the accommodation includes council tax and firewood.

One half of the couple will serve as the estate’s housekeeper, overseeing a seven-bed main residence plus several guest properties. The other partner will work as a handyperson, taking charge of the estate’s upkeep and maintenance.

Core duties for the housekeeper include cleaning, laundry, ironing, and wardrobe management, alongside maintaining household inventories and shopping responsibilities. They’ll also handle household supplies and coordinate with estate contractors, whilst caring for antiques, fine furnishings, and delicate finishes.

The housekeeper will also assist with entertaining guests and their arrivals, plus handle light cooking and meal preparation. Overall, they’ll be expected to establish and maintain a serene, well-organised, environmentally conscious, and efficiently managed household.

Meanwhile, the handyperson will handle general upkeep and care for all properties both indoors and outdoors. Duties will encompass pressure washing sandstone terraces and pathways, coordinating tradespeople and overseeing repairs and timetables, plus supporting security and the seamless daily running of the estate.

The handyperson will also need to provide driving and errand assistance, alongside inspecting all estate properties—including one situated a 15-minute drive away. Additionally, they’ll be expected to maintain a swimming pond and building.

Candidates applying for these roles should possess prior experience in comparable positions, plus hold a full UK driving licence and solid references. Further sought-after qualities include “a good understanding of privacy and discretion”, adaptability to work evenings and weekends, and contentment working in a rural countryside environment.

The job advert reads: “Greycoat Lumley’s client are seeking a kind, capable, and discreet Domestic Couple to support the smooth running of a beautifully restored Private Estate in rural Dumfriesshire. The previous housekeeper was in post for seven years prior to the building work.

“There is a seven bed principal property and further ancillary guest properties. Full details are available on application.

“This is a long-term opportunity for a professional Couple who bring warmth, initiative, and pride to their work and who value the rhythm of life in the countryside. You’ll be joining a supportive, established estate team, and caring for a home with beautiful interiors set in a stunning garden.

“Willingness to work flexible hours is essential as this is a second home and there are consequently periods of intense activity balanced by quieter spells.”

The Greycoat Lumleys website adds: “This is a special opportunity to join a thoughtful and well-supported household where your contribution will be genuinely appreciated. The right couple will enjoy the peace and beauty of the locality while helping to maintain a beloved family home.”

According to the job advert, the positions are set to begin in February 2026. For further information about the roles, visit the Greycoat Lumleys website.

A DEVASTATED family ripped apart by the death of their beloved son in the Idaho murder tragedy was forced to quickly move on from unimaginable heartbreak in less than five months for the sake of their surviving children. 

Ethan Chapin, 20, was a triplet and one of Bryan Kohberger’s four victims in the sickening University of Idaho knife attack in November 2022.

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Brave mom, Stacy, opened up her heart to The U.S. Sun at Crimecon last month about the nightmare of dealing with her beloved, fun-loving son being murdered with the world at his feet. 

She stressed that even though sick Kohberger will rot behind bars for the rest of his life after eventually pleading guilty to the savage killings of Ethan, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves and Xana Kernodle, her family aren’t interested in the reasons why. 

But Stacy, who has thrown herself into vitally important advocacy work in the wake of her son’s shocking death, has revealed there was no time for her and husband Jim to wallow in misery. 

With Ethan’s brother and sister, Maizie and Hunter, who were on campus on that fateful evening, recently completing their own studies, the couple made the decision to somehow come to terms with the tragedy and move on for the sake of the remaining triplets’ future.

She says a heart-heart with Jim over a cup of morning coffee helped them realize that the best way forward was to “just get up and live life.”

They will never forget their beloved son, who they joked was minoring in Bud Light Lime and Taco Bell.

But with his brother and sister needing their parents more than ever to deal with the aftermath of Ethan’s senseless killing, Stacy and Jim vowed to honor his memory by ensuring Maizie and Hunter have their unconditional attention and support. 

“We just decided that you can lose yourself in grief, “ Stacy told The U.S. Sun.

“We had to do that for Ethan’s siblings. They didn’t deserve parents who had potentially gone in the tank or lost themselves. 

“We made a decision on a day in March of 2023 that we couldn’t change the outcome, and we had to still live our life and be great parents to Maizie and Hunter, giving them the best life they deserved.”

BRAVE FACE

The Chapin’s were the only family to abstain from attending Kohberger’s sentencing hearing earlier this summer.

They didn’t want to subject themselves to any more pain. 

Once the deranged Washington State graduate admitted to his heinous crimes, that at least removed the prospect of Ethan’s brother and sister having to take the stand and retrace the moments leading up to the sickening murders in a potential retrial.

Kohberger has never revealed why he cut short the lives of the four students. 

Stacy admits she won’t waste any time wondering why. 

The agony remains and will never leave her. Seeing her children recover from the nightmare and thrive, however, fills her and husband with hope.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say there are still tough moments,” Stacy continued. 

“But even now, every day feels like we’re a little bit closer to our new normal, whatever that looks like. Our kids are doing great. 

“They’ve also persevered in a way that amazes me as a mom. They were there that day. They all went to college together; they spent every second together.

“The fact that they went back to school and graduated and are now looking at their careers. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Kohberger avoided the death penalty upon pleading guilty on July 23 and was hit with four consecutive life sentences. 

The full details of Bryan Kohberger’s sentence

On July 23, 2025, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Bryan Kohberger to the following:

• Count 1: Burglary – 10 years fixed, zero years in determinate. $50,000 fine.
• Count 2: First-degree murder of Madison Mogen: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 3: First-degree murder of Kaylee Goncalves: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 4: First-degree murder of Xana Kernodle: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.
• Count 5: First-degree murder of Ethan Chapin: Fixed term of life in prison without the possibility of parole. $50,000 fine and civil penalty of $5,000 payable to the family of the victim.

The sentencings will run consecutively to one another.

ALWAYS REMEMBERED

While the Chapins stayed away from court, Ethan was on their mind. Stacy posted an emotional message on social media declaring her late son would “forever” be in their hearts.

His name will also shine on through Ethan’s Smile Foundation, which was established by the family to honor his memory. 

It aims to showcase “his love of life, people and new adventures” by providing scholarships for fellow students to “follow their dreams.”

“Ethan’s love for life was boundless. With a booming laugh and infectious smile, he spread joy to all who were fortunate enough to know him. Ethan was our storyteller, hard worker, and friend-maker,” Stacy and Jim declared on the foundation website.

‍“In the wake of his absence, the foundation was born—a tribute to Ethan’s unwavering passion for life. Our mission is simple yet profound: to carry forward the legacy of Ethan by providing scholarships that enable others to follow their dreams.

‍“In every corner we venture, in every heart we touch, we strive to keep the spirit of Ethan alive, reminding ourselves and others of the adventures and kindness that life has to offer.”

Stacy has also begun to foster a strong relationship with cutting-edge forensics company Othram, who helped accelerate the process of proving Kohberger’s guilt.

The Texas based specialists were able to extract DNA from the tan leather knife sheaf which was found in the room of Goncalves following the killings.

Investigators believe she was the first victim, with Kohberger leaving it behind after her friends came back to check on her wellbeing. 

“Myself and Jim are a team,” Stacy concluded. “To have closure means the world to us.”

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Liverpool were certainly clinical.

But Newcastle will still rue not pressing home their advantage with a full complement of players when the game was goalless.

Set-plays were wasted. The hosts were screaming out for a poacher to get on the end of teasing crosses that were gratefully claimed by Alisson. On the one occasion a delivery from Harvey Barnes picked out the head of Gordon, the forward failed to hit the target.

Digging deeper, Newcastle have had 26 shots in their opening two league games of the season, but Howe’s side have managed just six efforts on target and two goals.

Although Osula got on the scoresheet on Monday night, the 22-year-old is still developing and has never started a Premier League game for the club.

However, if Newcastle do not reach a breakthrough in the transfer market in the coming days, the Dane could yet line up against Leeds United on Saturday after bids were turned down for Wolves star Jorgen Strand Larsen and Brentford striker Yoane Wissa.

It was certainly not lost on Howe that one of the best strikers in the world is still on Newcastle’s books – and how the hosts could have used the Isak of old.

“The quality of Alex would have made a difference in the team,” Howe said. “I don’t think there’s any denying that. But, that said, the team has functioned really well.

“The performance of the players and the team in the two games doesn’t happen without every part of the team functioning well. You can’t carry anyone in this division against any opponent. Yes, we needed to score in that first half when we were on top. Goals change games, but we’re just dealing with what we have.”

Howe said he was “not party to the talks that were happening” after suggestions that Jamie Reuben, the club’s owner, had held face-to-face discussions with Isak while chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is also in town.

But, one way or the other, a resolution to this saga is finally imminent, with the window closing on 1 September.

How it is needed.

Los Angeles just can’t get a break.

The latest embarrassment is LA28 chair Casey Wasserman, the man tasked with making sure the 2028 Summer Olympics are a massive success. At a news conference this week announcing that President Trump will head a federal Olympics task force, Wasserman offered L.A. a giant whoopie cushion.

With Wasserman at his left side, Trump vowed to bring L.A. “back stronger than ever.” On Trump’s right was a rash of L.A. haters, some of whom played a prominent role in Southern California’s summer of deportations, including Vice President JD Vance and Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem. Not present, but hailed by Trump during the presser as an “MVP candidate,” was Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has made it his life’s mission to crush the multicultural metropolis that birthed him.

So what did Wasserman, a prominent Democratic donor who in recent months has thrown some cash at Republican committees, do in front of people who want to rain holy hell on his hometown?

He praised Trump’s “support” of the L.A. Olympics as “truly extraordinary” and gifted him a set of medals from the 1984 Games hosted by the city. If that wasn’t groveling enough, Wasserman was grinning after Trump joked about not using an autopen to sign the executive order creating the task force — a jab at President Biden. It was more bricks on the foundation Wasserman has been laying since January, when he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

I haven’t seen such a suck-up since the last time I vacuumed my dad’s pool.

The federal government was always going to play a role in providing security for the 2028 Olympics, just as it has for previous Games in the U.S. But Trump, as the head of the task force, now gets to personally oversee our own siege.

When asked by a reporter if he would deploy the military to L.A. the way he did this summer, Trump responded, “We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military, OK?”

With the Games happening in a presidential election year, Trump would love nothing more than to traipse around an L.A. radically transformed by his deportation blitzkrieg to proclaim his mission accomplished and broadcast his conquest to the world.

That’s why L.A. needs to withdraw from hosting the Olympics — the sooner the better.

Trump’s news conference, where he also called Mayor Karen Bass “not very competent,” looked like a preview of what we can expect in the lead-up to the Games. Hey, maybe the president will fall in love with the city over the next three years — and maybe Miller’s bald pate will grow hair worthy of Samson. But history has shown that no amount of puckering up to Trump will deter him from his goals — and a long-standing one is to humiliate blue L.A. at every chance.

Angelenos: Do ustedes really want to give Trump and his goon squad more chances to make life miserable for y’all? You don’t stand idly by as your sworn enemy assumes even more power to mess with you — you toss that problem elsewhere if you can. And you definitely don’t entrust kiss asses like Wasserman — I’m still not sure what he did to deserve his powerful LA28 gig, except being the grandson of the late Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman — with calming down someone like Trump. That’s like giving a rich kid a Super Soaker and telling him to water the Huntington Library gardens.

Mayor Karen Bass speaks at an event with local leaders in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2024.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

In a city that has long faced existential problems, the idea of staging such a spectacle always sat uneasy with me. Boosters have drowned out skeptics by insisting that the Olympics will help the city and come at “no cost” to taxpayers. But the city government will have to cover the first $270 million of any cost overruns or revenue shortfalls — and where on earth would that money come from?

Indeed, few Olympics ever turn a profit. The organizing committee behind last year’s Paris Games claimed to have brought in about $30 million — which isn’t bad, but it’s just 3% of the nearly billion-dollar budget deficit that the city of L.A. faced at the beginning of the year.

Expecting the Olympics to be a financial and spiritual salvation for the city betrays Angelenos’ lack of trust in their ability to save themselves. Nevertheless, an executive for the tourism group Visit California said at a state Senate committee hearing last month that hosting the Games would present a “refreshed global image of California as the most welcoming destination in the nation.”

Spare me the PR pablum. The city doesn’t need a multibillion-dollar ad campaign to let the world know how cool it is or make it believe in itself. It needs people committed to solving problems for those who have to live with them daily — not for tourists and visiting athletes.

Supporters will whine that pulling out of the Olympics at this point is a huge inconvenience and will wreck L.A.’s global standing. But withdrawing from a commitment to host a huge sporting event isn’t unprecedented. Denver dumped the 1976 Winter Olympics three years and three months before they were set to open, and its reputation came out just fine. Mexico hosted the 1986 World Cup after Colombia pulled out three years earlier.

By passing on the Olympics, L.A. officials can set aside their concerns about whether producing a month’s worth of seven Super Bowls a day, as Wasserman loves to boast, will strain city resources. Wasserman and his band of the best and the brightest can focus on what L.A. really needs, not how to transform SoFi Stadium into an aquatics center.

And if LA28 throws a snit fit over the move? Well, then you know how truly committed they were to bettering L.A. in the first place.

I write this columna as a huge Olympics fan who watches the opening ceremony every four years, the Games’ problems be damned. I have vague but fond memories of the 1984 Games and clearly remember the Sam the Olympic Eagle lunchbox I toted around in first grade. I was looking forward to trying to score tickets to the swimming events for my wife, who was a competitive backstroker at University High in Irvine, and me.

But I don’t want my money going toward something that Trump will use to bolster his noxious legacy. I’m not going to cheer on Wasserman as he chums up Trump while la migra continues to terrorize L.A., possibly for months, if not years. I don’t want to support an event where footage of an occupied L.A. might be as front and center as the Coliseum or badminton.

What true Angeleno would?

‘Most officers want that information out there’

The UN says that despite being permitted to deliver the first fuel shipment to Gaza in 130 days, it was not enough to cover even a single day’s needs, leaving hospitals and other critical facilities on the brink of shutdown.

For 46 years it’s been a wonderful ride, the sweetest of sagas, the Buss family treating the Lakers like their precocious child, nurturing, embracing, empowering, transforming them into arguably this country’s most celebrated sports franchise.

But it’s time.

It’s time to give their baby to somebody who won’t be burdened by the family ties or deep friendships that have increasingly interfered with the chasing of championships.

It’s time to hand their beloved to somebody with enough money to keep it strong and enough vision to keep it relevant.

It’s time for the Lakers to… become the Dodgers?

Yes! It’s them! They’re here! Welcome, welcome, welcome! Come on in! Make yourself at home! History has been waiting for you!

This is really happening, the majority ownership of the Lakers is really being sold to Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and his TWG Global group at a franchise valuation of $10 billion, making it the richest transaction in sports history.

To Los Angeles sports fans, it’s worth even more.

For the future of professional sports in this city, it’s priceless.

This is the best thing to happen to the Southland’s sports landscape since, well, the last time Walter’s TWG Global group bought something this big.

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It was 2012, and they bought the Dodgers, and just look what they’ve done with them.

Since 2013, Walter’s team has been in the playoffs every year, won their division 11 of those 12 years, appeared in four World Series and won two of them.

Since 2013, the Lakers have won one title in their only Finals appearance during that period while making the playoffs only half the time.

Mad respect to the Buss family, who oversaw 11 championships while providing the stage for greats from Magic Johnson to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James. But since the death of patriarch Jerry Buss in 2013, the organization has lacked a sustained championship vision and effective championship culture.

Everybody loves Jeanie Buss, who will continue in her role as Lakers governor, but she has grown increasingly out of touch with the demands of the modern game.

Where contending teams are now led by analytics-driven minds, she would rely on old friends like Linda and Kurt Rambis and Rob Pelinka, who became part of the family by being Kobe Bryant’s agent.

Where contending teams increasingly relied on younger players, Buss’ Lakers were always tied to aging superstars, their title hopes crashing around a hobbled Bryant and now buckling under a slowly eroding James.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss with children (clockwise from top left) Jeanie, Johnny, Jim and Janie in 1979.

(Gunther / mptvimages.com)

Since Jerry Buss’ death, the vision-less Lakers have wandered through the NBA desert in search of a strong leader who could build for sustained success.

In Walter’s group, they have that leader.

If the Dodgers are any indication, the Lakers are in for the sort of massive facelift that would make even a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon blush.

There will be money poured into the Lakers’ woefully small infrastructure, more money for coaches, more money for scouts, more money for trainers, more money for the amenities at Crypto.com Arena.

Who knows, maybe even more money for a new arena eventually? Don’t scoff, the Dodgers spent more than $500 million just to put a shine on Dodger Stadium, they will dig deep for that fan experience. They will dig deep for everything.

If there’s an insanely expensive but wildly successful general manager candidate out there — former Golden State guru Bob Myers comes to mind — the new Lakers will buy him.

Jeanie Buss attends a game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena on March 20.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

If there’s an experienced but costly head coaching candidate hanging around, the new Lakers will nab him.

Although they will be somewhat constrained by the salary cap, the new Lakers will go deep into any tax to buy the best players as long as they can retain their draft picks.

The Dodgers are about winning every year, not just the next year, so expect the new Lakers to covet the future as much as the present.

This is good news for young Luka Doncic. This is not such good news for James.

The Buss family always vowed to do whatever it takes to keep James happy and allow him to retire here. The new Lakers won’t be so sentimental. James hasn’t signed on for next season yet, and maybe this change of ownership changes what once appeared to be a slam dunk.

The new Lakers won’t have the rich heart of the old Lakers. But they also won’t have the old destructive loyalties.

The new Lakers will be only about winning, something Jerry Buss understood and amplified, something which has been sadly lost since his passing.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss celebrates with the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the team’s 1980 NBA championship victory.

(NBAE / Getty Images)

The Buss family was good for Los Angeles, and their stewardship of one of this city’s crown sports jewels should be celebrated.

But it’s time, and it’s perfect that their neighbors down the road have decided to be the ones to spruce up the place.

Before this sale, the only thing the Dodgers and Lakers shared occurred after victories, when both team’s sound systems would blare, “I Love L.A.”

Now they share a championship bank account, a championship vision, and a championship commitment.

Man, I love L.A.

JAI OPETAIA inflicted the “worst broken jaw ever seen” by the doctor who saved Caludio Squeo’s face.

Australia’s 29-year-old cruiserweight king had to defend his IBF crown against the brave Italian on Sunday night.

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And he did so with his trademark ruthless brilliance, battering the previously unbeaten man inside five one-sided rounds.

A body shot dropped Squeo in the fourth and a lead right hook from the South Coast southpaw in the fifth broke his mouth and dreams.

Opetaia’s Tasman team looked after the 34-year-old, rushing him to hospital where he got expert care and the diagnoses that left him needing a minimum of THREE metal plates to reinforce his jaw.

“He has two breaks,” Dr Shannon Webber explained to the team in a video shared – with full permission – with SunSport.

“He was obviously clipped here and then it’s gone ‘BANG’.

“And, when there is one fracture, there is always an exit break. It’s like a ring that always breaks in two spots.

“And there is a piece of fragmented bone left floating in his left cheek.”

Despite the brutal injuries suffered, as soon as Squeo came out of theatre, he helped praise on Opetaia and his classy team for their phenomenal assault on thr 14st 4lbs division and their decency outside the ropes.

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS

“I just came out of surgery to fix the two fractures I sustained in my jaw during the match,” he explained.

“The operation went very well. I’m fine.

“I learned right after the match that Opetaia was concerned about my condition and told his team to take care of me in every way possible.

“This shows us who the current IBF heavyweight champion truly is – not just a boxing phenomenon – but a real man, endowed with great sensitivity and heart.

“This is a boxing story driven by extreme men, filled with incredible tension, but also by boundless mutual respect.”

Opetaia – who overcame a broken jaw during his gruelling 2022 win over Mairis Briedis – now has a unification against Gilberto Ramirez on his wish list.

“Next fight Zurdo Ramirez, he’s mentioned me, he’s told me he will fight me next after his mandatory,” Opetaia said.

“Let’s get it on, I’m chasing that belt, let’s go.”

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To hear Republicans tell it, California is a failed state and Donald Trump won the presidency in a landslide that gives him a mandate to do as he pleases. No surprise there.

But more and more, Democrats are echoing those talking points. Ever since Kamala Harris lost the election, the Democratic Party has been on a nationwide self-flagellation tour. One after another, its leaders have stuck their heads deep into their navels, hoping to find out why so many Americans — especially young people, Black voters and Latinos — shunned the former vice president.

Even in California, a reliably blue state, the soul-searching has been extreme, as seen at last weekend’s state Democratic Party convention, where a parade of speakers — including Harris’ 2024 running mate, Tim Walz — wailed and moaned and did the woe-is-us-thing.

Is it long-overdue introspection, or just annoying self-pity? Our columnists Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak hash it out.

Chabria: Mark, you were at the convention in Anaheim. Thoughts?

Barabak: I’ll start by noting this is the first convention I’ve attended — and I’ve been to dozens — rated “R” for adult language. Apparently, Democrats think by dropping a lot of f-bombs they can demonstrate to voters their authenticity and passion. But it seemed kind of stagy and, after a while, grew tiresome.

I’ve covered Nancy Pelosi for more than three decades and never once heard her utter a curse word, in public or private. I don’t recall Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “I have a [expletive deleted] dream.” Both were pretty darned effective leaders.

Democrats have a lot of work to do. But cursing a blue streak isn’t going to win them back the White House or control of Congress.

Chabria: As someone known to routinely curse in polite society, I’m not one to judge an expletive. But that cussing and fussing brings up a larger point: Democrats are desperate to prove how serious and passionate they are about fixing themselves. Gov. Gavin Newsom has called the Democratic brand “toxic.” Walz told his fellow Dems: “We’re in this mess because some of it’s our own doing.”

It seems like across the country, the one thing Democrats can agree on is that they are lame. Or at least, they see themselves as lame. I’m not sure the average person finds Democratic ideals such as equality or due process quite so off-putting, especially as Trump and his MAGA brigade move forward on the many campaign promises — deportations, rollbacks of civil rights, stripping the names of civil rights icons off ships — that at least some voters believed were more talk than substance.

I always tell my kids to be their own hero, and I’m starting to think the Democrats need to hear that. Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. Move on. Do you think all this self-reproach is useful, Mark? Does Harris’ loss really mean the party is bereft of value or values?

Barabak: I think self-reflection is good for the party, to a point. Democrats suffered a soul-crushing loss in November — at the presidential level and in the Senate, where the GOP seized control — and they did so in part because many of their traditional voters stayed home. It would be political malpractice not to figure out why.

That said, there is a tendency to go overboard and over-interpret the long-term significance of any one election.

This is not the end of the Democratic Party. It’s not even the first time one of the two major parties has been cast into the political wilderness.

Democrats went through similar soul-searching after presidential losses in 1984 and 1988. In 1991, a book was published explaining how Democrats were again destined to lose the White House and suggesting they would do so for the foreseeable future. In November 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president. Four years later, he romped to reelection.

In 2013, after two straight losing presidential campaigns, Republicans commissioned a political autopsy that, among other recommendations, urged the party to increase its outreach to gay and Latino voters. In 2016, Donald Trump — not exactly a model of inclusion — was elected.

Here, by the way, is how The Times wrote up that postmortem: “A smug, uncaring, ideologically rigid national Republican Party is turning off the majority of American voters, with stale policies that have changed little in 30 years and an image that alienates minorities and the young, according to an internal GOP study.”

Sound familar?

So, sure, look inward. But spare us the existential freakout.

Chabria: I would also argue that this moment is about more than the next election. I do think there are questions about if democracy will make it that long, and if so, if the next round at the polls will be a free and fair one.

I know the price of everything continues to rise, and conventional wisdom is that it’s all about the economy. But Democrats seem stuck in election politics as usual. These however, are unusual times that call for something more. There are a lot of folks who don’t like to see their neighbors, family or friends rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in masks; a lot of people who don’t want to see Medicaid cut for millions, with Medicare likely to be on the chopping block next; a lot of people who are afraid our courts won’t hold the line until the midterms.

They want to know Democrats are fighting to protect these things, not fighting each other. I agree with you that any loss should be followed by introspection. But also, there’s a hunger for leadership in opposition to this administration, and the Democrats are losing an opportunity to be those leaders with their endless self-immolation.

Did Harris really lose that bad? Did Trump really receive a mandate to end America as we know it?

Barabak: No, and no.

I mean, a loss is a loss. Trump swept all seven battleground states and the election result was beyond dispute unlike, say, 2000.

But Trump’s margin over Harris in the popular vote was just 1.5% — which is far from landslide territory — and he didn’t even win a majority of support, falling just shy of 50%.

As for a supposed mandate, the most pithy and perceptive post-election analysis I read came from the American Enterprise Institute’s Yuval Levin, who noted Trump’s victory marked the third presidential campaign in a row in which the incumbent party lost — something not seen since the 19th century.

Challengers “win elections because their opponents were unpopular,” Levin wrote, “and then — imagining the public has endorsed their party activists’ agenda — they use the power of their office to make themselves unpopular.”

It’s a long way to 2026, and an even longer way to 2028.

But Levin is sure looking smart.

Chabria: I know Kamala-bashing is popular right now, but I’d argue that Harris wasn’t resoundingly unpopular — just unpopular enough, with some.

Harris had 107 days to campaign. Many candidates spend years running for the White House, and much longer if you count the coy “maybe” period. She was unknown to most Americans, faced double discrimination from race and gender, and (to be fair) has never been considered wildly charismatic. So to nearly split the popular vote with all that baggage is notable.

But maybe Elon Musk said it best. As part of his messy breakup with Trump, the billionaire tweeted, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

Sometimes there’s truth in anger. Musk’s money influenced this election, and probably tipped it to Trump in at least one battleground state. Any postmortem needs to examine not just the message, but also the medium. Is it what Democrats are saying that isn’t resonating, or is it that right-wing oligarchs are dominating communication?

Barabak:

Chabria: Mark?

Barabak: Sorry.

I was so caught up in the spectacle of the world’s richest man going all neener-neener with the world’s most powerful man I lost track of where we were.

With all due respect to Marshall McLuhan, I think Democrats need first off to figure out a message to carry them through the 2026 midterms. They were quite successful in 2018 pushing back on GOP efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, if you prefer. It’s not hard to see them resurrecting that playbook if Republicans take a meat-ax to Medicare and millions of Americans lose their healthcare coverage.

Then, come 2028, they’ll pick a presidential nominee and have their messenger, who can then focus on the medium — TV, radio, podcasts, TikTok, Bluesky or whatever else is in political fashion at the moment.

Now, excuse me while I return my sights to the sandbox.

Michelle Collins has opened up about her upcoming break from playing Cindy Beale on EastEnders and even admitted that playing the character was ‘exhausting’

Michelle Collins has revealed that playing infamous Cindy Beale is “exhausting”. The actress left EastEnders fans gobsmacked when she returned from the dead in 2023, and since heading back to Walford, she’s left no stone unturned in her plan of destruction.

Since returning, Cindy has certainly made her mark – reuniting with her former husband, George Knight, and their children, Anna and Gina, after completely vanishing from their bar in Marbella, and even leaving her mother-in-law, Kathy Beale, speechless when she first appeared in her kitchen.

Cindy also found herself having an affair with George’s son, Junior, leaving the Knights’ and Beales’ in a state of disbelief when the bombshell was announced. Over Christmas, she was almost killed when Kathy hit her around the head with a shovel, leaving her for dead in the middle of the square.

Now, she’s opened up about playing the controversial character and admits she finds Cindy “exhausting.” Speaking to Ed Balls and Kate Garraway on Good Morning Britain, Michelle said: “I am loving it, Cindy has taken over The Prince Albert which is really fantastic, so we’re kind of seeing another side to Cindy, a lighter side – which I think, Cindy can be exhausting for people to watch and exhausting for me to play.

“Which is why it’s nice to go off and do something nice. Years ago, they didn’t let people go off and do many things – maybe the odd panto or something but we have a very new lovely producer and I was very quiet.” Speaking about taking a break to pursue another project, Michelle said: “When I broached the idea, he said ‘Maybe we can make it work’ and he has made it work, which is really exciting.

“You go off and I am going back, you go back and feel re-engergised, you bring something else to the table.” Michelle added: “You’re doing a continuing drama, continuing throughout the year, it’s good for the soul. It’s good to go and do something else.”

But now, the actress, 63, is heading towards taking a break from the BBC One soap opera and will be turning her hand to a live stage production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Michelle will be taking part in a one-woman show, which she says is “exciting.”

Michelle will be performing in Motorhome Marilyn, a dark comedy following Denise, an aspiring actress, who had an obsessive relationship with the late Hollywood pin-up.

The show has been inspired by Michelle’s real-life encounter with a woman known in Hollywood as Motorhome Marilyn, who is often spotted on Hollywood Boulevard cosplaying as the movie icon.

But Michelle admits she “wasn’t obsessed” with Marilyn. Speaking about her break, Michelle told the Mirror at the British Soap Awards: “Well I’m going off in the summer. I’m doing my one woman show at the Edinburgh festival, called Motorhome Marilyn.

“I don’t think she’s anything like Cindy. It’s a play about a woman impersonator lookalike who lives in a trailer and dresses as Marilyn Monroe. But she’s 60, it’s kind of strange. It’s about failure, lost dreams, and feeling like life has passed you by. She’s an interesting character. I’m really excited to play it. EastEnders have let me have a month off so I’m very excited.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX. EastEnders airs at 7.30pm each weekday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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

Ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine may soon be under way, but Ukraine’s economic recovery will be hobbled unless the European Union fast-tracks the war-torn country’s membership and provides hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of insurance and investment, experts tell Al Jazeera.

“I think what Ukraine needs is some kind of future where it will have a stable and defendable border, and that will only come, I would think, with EU membership,” historian Phillips O’Brien told Al Jazeera.

The US administration of President Donald Trump last month handed Ukraine and Russia a ceasefire proposal that excluded future NATO membership of Ukraine, satisfying a key Kremlin demand and leaving Ukraine without the security guarantees it seeks.

“What business is actually going to take the risk of getting involved there economically?” asked O’Brien. “With NATO off the table, I think if Ukraine is going to have a chance of rebuilding and being integrated into Europe, it will have to be through a fast-tracked EU membership.”

That membership is by no means assured, although the European Commission started negotiations in record time last June, and Ukraine has the support of EU heavyweights like France and Germany.

If Ukraine becomes an EU member, it would still face a devastated economy requiring vast investment.

The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) estimated that between Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and November last year, Moscow’s onslaught had destroyed $170bn of infrastructure, with the housing, transport and energy sectors most affected.

That figure did not include the damage incurred in almost a decade of war in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk since 2014 or the loss of 29 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) from the invasion in 2022. The estimate also did not put a value on the loss of almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, which Russia now occupies.

That territory contains almost half of Ukraine’s unexploited mineral wealth, worth an estimated $12.4 trillion, according to SecDev, a Canadian geopolitical risk firm.

It also does not include some types of reconstruction costs, such as chemical decontamination and mine-clearing.

The World Bank put the cost of infrastructure damages slightly higher this year, at $176bn, and predicts the cost of reconstruction and recovery at about $525bn over 10 years.

‘The Kremlin has certainly looted occupied territory’

Economic war has been part of Russia’s strategy since the invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014, argued Maximilian Hess, a risk analyst and Eurasia expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

“The Kremlin has certainly looted occupied territory, including for coking coal, agricultural products, and iron,” Hess told Al Jazeera.

The KSE has estimated Russia stole half a million tonnes of grain, included in the $1.9bn damages bill to the agricultural sector.

Using long-range rocketry, Russia also targeted industrial hubs not under its control.

Ukraine inherited a series of factories from the Soviet Union, including the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, the Zaporizhia Automobile Plant, the Pivdenmash rocket manufacturer in Dnipro and massive steel plants.

“All were targeted by Russian forces,” wrote Hess in his recent book, Economic War. “Russia’s attacks were, of course, primarily aimed at devastating the Ukrainian economy and weakening its ability and will to fight, but they also raised the cost to the West of supporting Ukraine in the conflict, something the Kremlin hoped would lead to reduced support for Kyiv.”

Through occupation and targeting, Russia managed to deprive Ukraine of a flourishing metallurgy sector.

According to the United States Geological Survey, metallurgical production decreased by 66.5 percent as a result of the war.

That is a vast loss, considering that Ukraine once produced almost a third of the iron ore in Europe, Russia and Central Eurasia, half of the region’s manganese ore and a third of its titanium. It remains the only producer of uranium in Europe, an important resource in the continent’s quest for greater energy autonomy.

Ukraine’s claims to have built a $20bn defence industrial base with allied help, a rare wartime economic success story.

That can make up for the losses in metallurgy, Hess said, “but only in part and in different regions of the country from which those mining and metallurgical ones were concentrated. Boosting [metallurgical activities] in places like Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and ideally territory ultimately freed from Russian occupation, will be necessary to win the peace.”

Trump’s minerals deal, and other instruments

Weeks ago, Ukraine and the US signed a memorandum of intent to jointly exploit Ukraine’s mineral wealth.

Ukraine committed to putting half the proceeds from its metallurgical activities into a Reconstruction Fund, but experts doubted the notion that mineral wealth can rebuild Ukraine.

“Projects have a long launch period … from five to 10 years,” Maxim Fedoseienko, head of strategic projects at the KSE Institute, told Al Jazeera. “You need to make documentation, environmental impacts assessment, and after that, you can also need three years to build this mine.”

The US and EU might invest in such mines, Fedoseienko said, because “we have more than 24 kinds of materials from the EU list of critical [raw] materials,” but they would only contribute to the Ukrainian economy if investments were equitable.

Trump presented the minerals deal as payback for billions in military aid.

“There’s nothing remotely fair about it. The aid was not given to be paid back,” said O’Brien.

As Fedoseienko put it, “It is not fair if everyone will say, ‘OK, we will help you in a time of war, so you are owned [by] us.’”

In addition to fairness, Ukraine needs money. Some of that needs to come in the form of insurance.

A state-backed war-risk insurance formula Kyiv reached with the United Kingdom in 2023, for example, brought bulk carriers back to Ukraine’s ports and defeated Russian efforts to blockade Ukrainian grain exports.

As a result, Ukraine exported 57.5 million tonnes of agricultural goods in 2023-2024, and was on track to export 77 million tonnes in the 2024-2025 marketing year, which ends in June, its agriculture ministry said.

“There needs to be a substantial expansion of public insurance products in particular, as well as a move to seize frozen Russian assets,” said Hess.

Seizing some $300bn in Russian central bank money held in the EU was deemed controversial, but the measure is now receiving support.

“The Russian state has committed these war crimes, has broken international law, has done this damage to Ukraine –  that actually becomes a just way of helping Ukraine rebuild,” said O’Brien. “[Europeans] have a very strong case for this, but they, right now, lack the political will to do it.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has already repeatedly asked Europe to use the money for Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction.

What Europeans have done in the meantime is going some way towards rebuilding Ukraine.

Some $300m in interest payments proceeding from Russian assets are diverted to reconstruction each year.

A European Commission programme provides 9.3 billion euros ($10.5bn) of financial support designed to leverage investment from the private sector.

Financial institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank are providing loan guarantees to Ukrainian banks, which gives them liquidity.

“So Ukrainian banks can provide loans to Ukrainian companies to invest and operate in Ukraine. This is a big ecosystem to finance investment and operational needs to the Ukrainian economy,” said Fedoseienko.

Together with the finance ministry, the KSE operates an online portal providing information about the various instruments available, which has already helped bring 165 investments to fruition worth $27bn.

“Is it enough to recover the Ukrainian economy?” Fedoseienko asked. “No, but this is a significant programme to support Ukraine now.”

May 21 (UPI) — The United Nations said no aid has reached people in Gaza in dire need of food and medical supplies, including baby food, despite dozens of trucks crossing from Israel into the strip after Israel ended its 11-week blockade.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing in New York on Tuesday afternoon that none of the trucks Israel said had been allowed in during the day had gotten beyond a staging area on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing at the southeastern corner of the strip as Israeli authorities had not permitted U.N. staff on the ground to collect the aid.

He said U.N. humanitarian teams were sending in baby food, flour, medicines and nutrition supplies and other basic items through the Israeli border fence to the Palestinian side that needed to be distributed as a matter of urgency, “as we need much, much more to cross.”

“The Israeli authorities are requiring us to offload supplies on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom crossing and reload them separately once they secure our teams’ access from inside the Gaza Strip. Only then are we able to bring any supplies closer to where people in need are sheltering,” Dujarric said.

He said one U.N. team had to wait “several hours” for Israel to clear access to the Kerem Shalom area for nutrition supplies to be collected, but they weren’t able to bring them back to their warehouse.

“They were able to get into the area, but given the lateness of the hour, they were not able to bring the trucks out,” Dujarric said, explaining all movement needed clearance from Israel Defense Forces, routes needed to be agreed, and U.N. staff needed to ensure the general area was safe and contend with perilous, congested roads.

“We’re obviously thankful that some aid is getting in, but there are a lot of hurdles to cross and we haven’t been able to cross. Our colleagues have not been able to cross all those hurdles to get aid to where it’s actually needed,” said Dujarric.

He said even if the aid got through, it was “only a drop in the ocean” of what was required for the massive scale of the operation to meet humanitarian needs.

“The deprivation we are seeing in Gaza is the result of ongoing bombardments and blockade and recurrent displacement,” said Dujarric.

Israeli Prime Minister announced Sunday the aid blockade would be lifted immediately after coming under intense pressure from the international community amid warnings of an imminent famine, with Israel saying 93 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, up from five on Monday.

However, Netanyahu’s insistence Israel would allow only “a basic amount of food” to reach the population of Gaza prompted Britain on Tuesday to suspend negotiations with Israel on a trade agreement, slap new sanctions on West Bank settlers and Foreign Minister David Lammy to summon the Israeli ambassador to the Home Office.

“Humanitarian aid needs to get in at pace,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament.

“We’re horrified by the escalation from Israel. We repeat our demand for a cease-fire as the only way to free the hostages. We repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” he said.

Israel hit back, saying the trade talks were already moribund and that Starmer’s administration was only hurting Britain with its actions and reminded Britain it was no longer in charge.

“The agreement would serve the mutual benefit of both countries. If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote in a post on X.

He called the sanctions against West Bank settlers “unjustified and regrettable,” especially in the light of a deadly attack on a pregnant woman that had left her unborn child fighting for its life.

“The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction,” Marmorstein said.

The Mandate for Palestine was authorization granted to Britain in 1920 by the League of Nations, the forerunner to the United Nations, to administer then-Palestine in the wake of World War 1, which lasted until May 1948 when Israelis declared independence and the creation of the State of Israel.

The measures from London came a day after Britain, Canada and France on Monday issued a strongly worded rebuke warning Israel of “concrete actions” if it did not halt a major new military offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the strip.

They also called on Hamas to “release immediately the remaining hostages they have so cruelly held since October 7, 2023.”