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Ruud, a two-time runner-up at Roland Garros, said: “As we know, there’s a bit of a heatwave at the moment and that can sometimes cause problems.

“It felt like it was a bit of a kind of heatstroke feeling. I experienced something similar some years ago when I played in Washington DC and I had to retire in the third set because I had that – that’s the only time I had that same feeling as I had today in the fourth set where I felt at times really dizzy, really tired and walking around like a zombie almost.

“Luckily, I was 2-1 up still and allowed myself to kind of lower the intensity a bit to get my pulse and body temperature down as much as possible in the fourth to see if there was any chance to finish in the fifth and have some extra energy. Luckily, that ended up working.”

Asked if he felt it was a mental victory or physical victory, the 27-year-old said: “It feels like a mental win.

“At times in the fourth [set] I was thinking ‘I have to book the flight home tomorrow and I’ll be watching from home on the sofa the next two weeks’. Luckily, that’s not the case.

“Physically, also, I’m proud because I never really gave in. I didn’t give up.”

Caracas, May 24, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan grassroots organizations took to the streets on Saturday to protest the US holding “rapid response” military drills in Caracas.

Dozens of activists from multiple collectives belonging to the ALBA Movimientos coalition gathered in the morning in front of the Indigenous Resistance monument in Plaza Venezuela and read a statement expressing “outrage” at the US holding an exercise in Caracas less than five months after its January 3 bombings and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

“As Venezuelan popular organizations, 141 days since the brutal US military attack and kidnapping of President Maduro and Deputy Cilia Flores, […] we repudiate yankee militarist imperialism and are outraged that the US is executing military exercises in our country,” the organizations expressed.

Speakers, including National Assembly deputies Rigel Sergent and Oliver Rivas, condemned the US-Israel war against Iran and the growing threats against Cuba while reiterating support for the Venezuelan government led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

Also on Saturday, several leftist organizations held a rally in Chacaíto to protest the violation of the country’s sovereignty and denounce the Venezuelan government’s accommodation of US impositions.

“This exercise is extremely serious because it makes concepts like sovereignty appear hollow for younger generations,” trade unionist Adelmo Becerra told those present. “Our challenge is to maintain the idea of sovereignty alive in collective memory.”

Demonstrators painted posters reading “Yankee go home!” and chanted slogans such as “We refuse to be a US colony!” Participating organizations included the Communist Party (PCV), Corriente Comunes, and the Socialist Workers’ League (LTS).

A third rally, called by members of the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), took place in Plaza Bolívar, with participants shouting anti-imperialist slogans and burning posters of US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On Saturday morning, US forces flew two Osprey MV-22B aircraft over Caracas before landing near the embassy compound in the southeast of the capital. The tiltrotor transport aircraft took off from the USS Iwo Jima, one of the warships that participated in the January 3 attacks and where Maduro and Flores were airlifted to after being kidnapped by US special forces.

“Ensuring the military’s rapid response capability is a key component of mission readiness, both here in Venezuela and around the world,” a social media statement from the US embassy read.

US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander General Francis Donovan oversaw the military drills and visited Caracas for a second time. He flew in on an Osprey alongside a marine contingent.

According to US officials, Donovan met with “senior” Venezuelan government leaders at the embassy. At the time of writing, there is no public information on which officials were present. Donovan’s previous visit in February saw him hold talks with Rodríguez, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and then-Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.

In a statement, SOUTHCOM reiterated US forces’ commitment to the Trump administration’s “three-phase plan,” which ends with a political “transition.”

For its part, the Venezuelan government did not comment on the US military drills. Caracas issued a statement on Thursday announcing that it had authorized “evacuation exercises” for eventual “medical emergencies and catastrophic events.” Foreign Minister Yván Gil read the communiqué in a video published through official social media channels.

However, amid fierce public backlash, Venezuelan authorities deleted the statement and video from all accounts. A similar incident occurred in late February when the Foreign Ministry published a statement that criticized Iran’s response to the US-Israeli aggression and then withdrew it following outcry from grassroots and solidarity movements.

On Saturday night, the Communications Ministry posted a video stressing the importance of “controlling emotions and waiting for the right moment.” Though making no reference to the US exercises, it stressed that the priority is safeguarding “the existence and the security of the state.”

Since the January strikes, the Trump White House has exacted major concessions from the acting Rodríguez administration, including taking control of Venezuelan oil revenues, auditing its Central Bank, pushing pro-business legislative reforms, and securing the handover of former diplomatic envoy Alex Saab to face money laundering charges in Florida.

Saturday’s military exercises also elicited strong anti-US reactions on social media from Chavista and opposition figures alike. Writer José Roberto Duque, a staunch government supporter, urged people to paint patriotic murals and express their repudiation of “imperialist arrogance.”

Claudio Fermín, a longtime opposition politician, expressed his “outrage” in a social media message, comparing US forces to “cats marking their territory.” Jesús “Chuo” Torrealba, former secretary-general of the opposition MUD coalition, argued that the US actions appeared to be a “demonstration of military prowess.”

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Caracas.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the move toward a green transition built on renewable energy are fundamentally restructuring the global economy. While unleashing unprecedented opportunities, these developments also provide new geopolitical weapons due to the unequal distribution of critical minerals, in particular rare earths, the advanced technology and expertise involved in manufacturing, and the omniscient and inexorable role of the resulting products like semiconductors and batteries for the operation of today’s technologised societies. Thus, countries like China and the United States (US) increasingly seek to safeguard national access to these crucial components and products. This weaponization has implications for global business interests, supply chains, technological development and existing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and between the US and China.

Semiconductors—the new oil?

Semiconductors, or advanced chips, have been likened to the oil of the 21st century. Just as in the 20th century, oil formed the basis for global economic activity, semiconductors form crucial parts of everything from critical infrastructure like 5G data networks, military technology like missiles and AI data centers, to smartphones, fridges and electric vehicles. Indeed, the semiconductor market, growing rapidly since the launch of large language AI models in 2022, is projected to hold a value of $1 trillion by 2030. Hence, whoever controls the supply of semiconductors holds the power to bring rivaling economies to a standstill. This capability is reinforced by the fact that advanced microchips, and the rare earths contained in them, lack ready substitutes.

Assuredly, oil still offers geopolitical leverage—brought to the fore by the current energy crisis resulting from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Yet, semiconductors offer a more potent geopolitical weapon. For example, European sanctions on Russian oil and natural gas following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has been largely ineffective in crippling the oil-reliant Russian economy, as Russia has been able to find alternative supply routes like the Caspian Sea and alternative buyers such as India, Türkiye and China. By contrast, semiconductor supply chains are more concentrated due to differential geography, and economic, technological and intellectual capital. For example, Taiwan produces over 90% of the world’s advanced chips, while China controls 60% of global rare-earth production, and 90% of mineral refinement. Similarly, the US enjoys supremacy in semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME) and expertise, while the Netherlands is the world’s sole producer of extreme ultraviolet lithography required to imprint circuits on semiconductors. Hence, the highly concentrated supply chains of semiconductors gives a handful of countries significant strategic leverage as countries are willing to go far to secure access to these crucial components.

Capitalising on critical mineral supply

This power is reinforced by the fact that the majority of the planet’s critical minerals—such as copper, cobalt and lithium—used in semiconductors and batteries are concentrated in developing countries in Africa and Latin America like Brazil, Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, the capital-intensity of mineral extraction has allowed major powers like the US and China to expand their influence over supply chains through massive investment in the mining industries of these regions. Hence, supply chains are further concentrated in the hands of a few states, enhancing the weaponisability of these resources. This is bolstered by the rarity and geographic disparity of these elements, meaning that countries cannot easily find substitutes or alternative suppliers for these critical resources, should the aforementioned mineral ‘gatekeepers’ choose to wield their strategic leverage and restrict supply.

Global business caught in the crossfire

This development subjects international business activity, especially within emerging technologies like AI, to geopolitical tensions. For example, the US introduced export controls in 2022, banning US semiconductor company Nvidia from exporting its advanced H2000 chips to China to protect US technological dominance. And Nvidia is not an isolated case—in the last few years, the amount of US companies on the Commerce Department’s Entity List restricting exports has quadrupled. In effect, US companies are losing global competitiveness and access to China—one of the biggest markets in the world. This effect might be hard to reverse. Although the Trump administration relaxed export restrictions in early 2026, no Nvidia chips had arrived in China by mid-May. Part of the reason is that China in response to US restrictions has built up its domestic production, and legally favored domestic chips producers like Huawei to reduce its strategic vulnerability to foreign powers. For similar reasons, China prevented US-based Meta in 2025 from buying up Manus, a Chinese-founded AI company. Thus, business interests are highly susceptible to the weaponisation of concentrated critical supply chains in the geopolitical rivalry between US and China.

Semiconductors—beyond oil

Hence, semiconductors and related products may not simply be the economic and strategic, 21st-century equivalent of 20th-century oil, but may indeed hold greater geopolitical leverage than oil ever did. While the US dominates global oil production, China does not have to import oil from its geopolitical rival at the expense of Chinese strategic power—despite China relying on imports for over 70% of its oil—as diversified global energy markets allow for alternative energy sources like coal and natural gas, and alternative suppliers like the UAE, Iran and Qatar. By contrast, China’s ability to manufacture the most advanced semiconductors without the currently unique US SME is highly limited, with Chinese semiconductor development 3 years behind the US. Consequently, China accounts for over half of the semiconductor exports of US-allied Taiwan.

Taiwan in the crossfire

This in turn increases the strategic importance of the Taiwan dispute. While China has long claimed Taiwan to be part of China, the US endorses Taiwanese independence. The importance of semiconductors has cemented this conflict, with China desiring reunification to gain control over global semiconductor manufacturing, while the US for the same reason favors Taiwanese independence from China to maintain US access to its semiconductor supply, in extension of current efforts to induce TSCM to offshore its production to the US, and reduce semiconductor exports to China. Similarly, China has leveraged its global dominance of refined rare earths and battery production by introducing export restrictions on batteries, refined critical minerals, and rare earths in response to US SME restrictions, exploiting the fact that the US has limited ability to employ its SME to manufacture semiconductors without these Chinese inputs. In response, the US and its allies are scrambling for alternative access to critical minerals by expanding trade partnerships with mining countries like the DRC, investment in battery-production, and by launching Project Vault, a $12-billion investment to create a national critical minerals reserve.

The weaponisation capacity of semiconductors has only begun. As countries are approaching the deadlines of net-zero emissions goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, increased dependency on renewable energy will increase susceptibility to global supply chains for batteries, rare earths and semiconductors for products like EVs, solar panels and energy storage.

Murrell admitted the offences at the High Court in Edinburgh after an investigation into the party’s finances.

The former chief executive of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), and ex-husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than 400,000 British pounds ($540,000) from the party’s funds.

Sixty-one-year-old Peter Murrell admitted the offences at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, following a years-long investigation into the SNP’s finances and the alleged diversion of donations intended to support the Scottish independence campaign.

Murrell, who was the SNP’s chief executive from 2001 to 2023, was remanded in custody by the judge before a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 23.

Judge James Young said Murrell was responsible for a “gross breach of trust” for embezzling offences between August 2010 and October 2022.

Murrell’s arrest came after a lengthy investigation into the diversion of 600,000 British pounds ($810,400) in SNP donations intended to support the party’s campaign for Scottish independence.

Although part of the United Kingdom, Scotland has a devolved government with powers over areas such as health and education. But the country has so far rejected calls for full independence.

Sturgeon, the former head of Scotland’s administration, quit as SNP leader and first minister in February 2023.

Murrell was arrested in April that year after officers searched the home he shared with Sturgeon near Glasgow, as part of an investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Sturgeon was herself arrested in June 2023 and questioned for seven hours before being released without charge.

Current First Minister John Swinney, who was re-elected to his post following the SNP’s victory in local elections in May, said he felt “betrayed” by Murrell’s actions.

“By embezzling from the SNP, Peter Murrell was stealing the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of thousands of people all over Scotland,” said Swinney.

‘I am betrayed’

Sturgeon, who was cleared in the probe last year, announced in January 2025 that she and Murrell had separated.

In an Instagram post, she said she was “utterly appalled” by her former partner’s admission and that she had “no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever”.

“To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain,” she added.

Sturgeon stepped down as a lawmaker earlier this year, ending a nearly 30-year career as one of the independence movement’s main figureheads.

Less than a year after we got our first proper look at China’s wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft, dubbed the ‘Bohai Sea Monster,’ the aircraft has appeared again, with evidence that it has a combat role, likely including launching weapons. We can also confirm that, contrary to some earlier assessments, the craft is powered by four turboprop engines, rather than turbofans. This confirms our original analysis that the craft may have propeller engines as opposed to jets.

The Bohai Sea Monster was first identified by submarine warfare analyst HI Sutton in June 2025. The aircraft, with its distinctive flying-boat hull and joined v-tail, was spotted on a pier on the Bohai Sea, at the northwestern end of the Yellow Sea. The following month, better imagery appeared, showing the craft on the water, but without its propellers fitted, adding to speculation that it might be jet-powered.

New images show the Bohai Sea Monster in greater detail, including its powerplants, which appear to be regular turboprops, rather than a hybrid-electric propulsion system, something that would make a lot of sense for an aircraft of this kind. Each of the four engines drives a three-bladed propeller.

Perhaps even more interesting is the appearance under each wing of a pair of hardpoints, which appear to be intended to release stores. Potentially, these pylons could be used to mount external fuel tanks or sensor pods. However, they appear to be fitted with shackles, which would clearly indicate a plan to release stores. While some kind of search-and-rescue payload, such as life-raft containers, is a possibility, the military paint scheme and PLA doctrine point more to the craft being armed with some kind of offensive weapons. Air-launched drones could be another payload, with this being an area of growing interest for the Chinese military.

The development raises questions about some reports that this is a “civilian” program nominally tied to the China Coast Guard, although cover stories of this kind are hardly unusual for Chinese military programs.

At the very least, the Bohai Sea Monster is certainly not a pure transport craft. Some kind of multi-role platform is also a strong possibility.

There is also the possibility, one that we raised in the past, that the Bohai Sea Monster is actually a subscale demonstrator, one that’s intended to prove out the WIG concept. If successful, this could then lead to a much larger craft and one that would, of course, have a different powerplant and much greater payload — including weapons.

The Bohai Sea Monster’s broad similarities to the now-abandoned, U.S.-designed Liberty Lifter could also point to the Chinese craft being a subscale technology demonstrator.

Notably, subscale demonstrators of flying boats are nothing new. Indeed, Germany built one to trial the flight characteristics of its planned Dornier Do 214 transatlantic flying boat back in World War II. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union built a single example of its first jet-powered flying boat, the Beriev R-1, before the same company fed this experience into the much larger and more ambitious Be-10 Mallow.

As for WIG craft in general, these were extensively explored by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, leading to some enormous vehicles, including anti-ship strike platforms and assault craft, which even saw some military service. In Russian parlance, they are known as Ekranoplans.

A video showing the Soviet Lun class missile-armed Ekranoplan:

Video Lun class Ekranoplan (Caspian)

Post-Cold War, the WIG concept fell from favor, but it has made something of a return in more recent years. These craft are able to skim the dense air above the surface of the water with relatively high efficiency and speed, while most are also capable of less-efficient higher-altitude flight.

In the context of the Pacific, specifically, WIG craft are seen as a potential partial answer to some of the challenges of fighting in that theater. This includes moving cargoes (including very heavy ones), as well as personnel and materiel to far-flung locations that may not be served by runways. In the process, large distances may need to be covered, and fast. It is for the logistics mission that the U.S. military was looking to the Liberty Lifter.

There is also the very important fact that, by skimming low over the water, a WIG craft can stay below the radar horizon, avoiding the gaze of surface- and land-based sensors. At the same time, it is immune to mines, submarines, and other hazards that can threaten even relatively safe waters. These advantages have to be weighed up against an airframe that remains generally vulnerable in a heavily contested combat zone.

For China, a platform of this kind would also be very useful, especially in the highly strategic South China Sea. In peacetime, a WIG craft could be used to support bases in the region, as well as search and rescue, and other missions. In a conflict, the same types of craft could perform rapid resupply, as well as surveillance, in island chains and littoral regions.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is expected to be a recipient of the AG600 amphibious flying boat, which could perform similar missions. Unlike most militaries, the PLA has never fully moved away from operating flying boats, most recently the SH-5, a handful of which were completed, primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but were apparently withdrawn in recent years.

When it comes to an armed WIG craft, even in its current size, the Bohai Sea Monster could be a very useful sea control platform, undertaking both anti-submarine warfare and anti-shipping strike over regional distances, perhaps as a more ‘tactical’ counterpart to the AG600 and shore-based types. It would still be large enough to accommodate sensors, with up to four torpedoes or smaller anti-ship missiles carried underwing. Depth charges are another possibility.

Such a craft would be suitable for local patrols of littoral areas, as well as support of special forces, etc. A smaller WIG craft would also be valuable for combat search and rescue (CSAR), likely to be a key mission should China go to war in the Pacific.

Of course, a scaled-up Bohai Sea Monster would be much more capable across all these kinds of missions. It would likely offer the capacity for an internal stores bay, as well as a heavier payload, a more comprehensive sensor suite, and a longer range.

Exactly what role the Bohai Sea Monster will ultimately fill, and whether it represents an operational platform or merely a stepping-stone toward something far larger and more capable, remains unclear.

However, its reappearance with apparent weapons-carrying provisions strongly suggests China is exploring far more than a niche transport or utility aircraft. Instead, it points to a broader effort to revive and adapt the WIG concept for modern military operations in the Pacific, where speed, range, payload, and access to austere maritime areas could all prove critical.

At the same time, the craft joins a growing list of highly ambitious and sometimes novel Chinese aerospace and naval programs that are emerging at a remarkable pace, often revealing themselves only in fragments before their true purpose becomes apparent.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

People in Lebanon have gathered to observe Liberation Day, which marks the date in 2000 when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr explains how this year’s celebrations come as occupation returns to the country’s south.

Gaza will not forget

The suffocating smoke still hangs over her ruins, thick with the acrid stench of explosives powder and dust carrying the scent of betrayal and the mark of courage. Her streets, once filled with children’s laughter, became Israeli fields of slaughter. Now they echo with the names and memories of martyrs.

The mass graves, the broken concrete, and the twisted steel are not just evidence of Zionist hatred. They are witnesses to those who stood with her, and to those who failed her. Today, Gaza’s rubble holds more memories than all the nation’s libraries.

Palestine will remember

She will remember the selfless sacrifices of doctors and healthcare workers who refused to abandon their sick patients as bombs rained on their hospitals; the journalists who became the news, targeted for daring to expose the truth; the mothers who wrapped their children in the red, black, green, and white flag of a nation Israel is desperate to erase.

These are not tales of despair, but of defiance, insisting on its right to breathe life amid death.

Gaza will not forget

She will not forget the silence of Western democracies. In a tragic inversion, most European nations, shackled by the ghosts of their past, traded morality for absolution. The self-proclaimed champions of human rights offered Palestinians on the altar of yesterday’s victims to atone for Europe’s sins.

Gaza will not forget the Biden administration, which vetoed every U.N. Security Council resolution calling to end the genocide. Nor Donald Trump, who poured fuel on the fire, then demanded recognition for dousing his own flames.

This week, Arab, Muslim, and world leaders gather like moths around the American arsonist-turned-firefighter, “celebrating” the ashes of Gaza.

Palestine will remember

She will remember the people who rose for Gaza, from Yemen to Dublin, from Cape Town to London and Madrid, while Arab capitals from Cairo to Riyadh slept. Ireland and Spain led the boycott, while Arab countries from the Gulf to Jordan opened their ports and highways to provide alternative routes for Israeli goods, even as Yemen imposed a sea blockade in the Red Sea.

Gaza will not forget — nor forgive — the Arab governments that opened their ports when shipyard workers in Italy refused, delivering American weapons used to annihilate her children and destroy her hospitals.

Palestine will remember

She will remember South Africa — not an Arab or Muslim nation — that led her case before the International Court of Justice, charging Israel with genocide. A country once scarred by apartheid became the moral conscience of a world too timid to speak. In that act of solidarity, South Africa rekindled the universal truth that justice knows no borders.

Palestine will remember the Lebanese resistance that gave its leaders for Gaza’s defense; Yemen, poor in wealth but rich in dignity, whose solidarity never wavered; and Iran, steadfast against Israeli hubris. She will remember Ireland and Spain, who did not turn away when Arabs did, proving that true solidarity transcends borders, faith, and kinship, resting only on shared humanity.

She will remember the heroes of the flotillas who braved waves of hatred and siege to carry messages of compassion; the nameless volunteers who left the safety of their countries to heal the wounded and feed the hungry; the American students who turned campuses into encampments of resistance; the artists, actors, and musicians who risked careers for justice; the employees who lost their jobs protesting the complicity of Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants in Israel’s crimes.

Gaza will not forget those who betrayed her

Palestine will forever be grateful to those who dared to speak the truth when it was dangerous, who marched when it was forbidden, who grieved when it was unfashionable.

Palestine will remember. History will remember. Justice will remember.

For nearly two years, Gaza has endured a genocide so relentless it defies descriptive language. Israel’s war machine has turned hospitals into morgues, UN schools into mass graves, and refugee camps into craters. Yet Gaza refuses to die.

Each time she is bombed “back to the Stone Age,” she rises — like the phoenix — to rebuild, not only her structures but her indomitable will. In that defiance lies the occupier’s greatest fear: memory.

Israel can destroy buildings but not erase remembrance. The siege may starve Gaza’s body, but it nourishes Palestine’s collective soul.

Gaza’s children will grow up with memories no child should bear. But they will also inherit something indestructible: dignity. In every demolished home and every shattered family lives a story that refuses burial.

Gaza’s memory will not fade. For the mind, unlike stone, cannot be occupied. It is the eternal archive of a people’s resilience, passed from one generation to the next, weaving the indelible tapestry of Palestine today.

The ruins of Gaza stand not only as testimony to Israel’s genocide but to the moral collapse of those who enabled it.

Gaza will rise again, brick by brick.

But what will never be resurrected is the Israeli lie, which, for eight decades, cloaked the Zionist project in the guise of victimhood, occupying Western narratives and manufacturing consent.

Gaza will rise — and the Israeli myth will remain buried beneath her rubble, forever.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Dodgers defeat the Brewers

From Maddie Lee: Looking back, Alex Vesia can say that when was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Dodgers with fellow pitching prospect Kyle Hurt in 2021, he had “no idea” what it actually meant to trust the process.

Sure, it’s a cliche, and one most strongly associated with the Philadelphia 76ers’ rebuild in the NBA a decade ago. But it’s had staying power in the sports lexicon for a reason.

The mantra clicked for Vesia in his first season with the Dodgers.

“When I first heard of it, it was just like, OK, I know what a process is,” he said before the Dodgers’ 5-1 win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. “But then watching it over the course of the year — where fastballs need to be placed, where sliders need to go, just trusting the information. That when a guy swings a lot at sliders and misses them, trusting that when you throw yours, he will miss it.

“And then over the course of a few outings, when you see those results, it’s like, ‘OK, I can do this’ more and more and more.”

Vesia is now one of the veteran leaders in a Dodgers bullpen that set a franchise record Saturday with 36 consecutive scoreless innings, surpassing the mark of 33 set in 1998. The Dodgers extended the streak to 38 on Sunday.

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Some Angels fans are fed up with Arte

From Joaquin Ruiz: Lifelong Angels fan Johnny Gonzalez has reached his boiling point as the team sits at the bottom of the standings, but he’s not giving up. And he’s not alone.

The Angels completed a surprise sweep of the Rangers Sunday, but the team still is tied for the worst record in Major League Baseball with a 20-34. Their fans spent the holiday weekend pushing back against the idea that the franchise would never be more than a bargain option amid rising prices all around them.

Frustrated fans have gone shirtless during the Angels’ homestand and chanted for owner Arte Moreno to “sell the team.” And about 75 fans heeded Gonzalez’s call for a protest, gathering in front of the Angel Stadium State College Boulevard entrance on Saturday chanting “sell the team,” “we want playoffs” and “winning matters.” Drivers passing the spectacle honked their horns in support.

“They’re not doing much for us fans,” said Gonzalez, who organized the protest using the Instagram account @AngelsBoycott. “It seems like every other team is just doing a lot more than us, despite us having a huge following [and] having some of the best players to ever play the game. I mean, it’s just like a lack of commitment, to say the least, and that’s why we’re here today.”

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Angels sweep the Rangers

From Joaquin Ruiz: Reid Detmers had a career-high 14 strikeouts and pinch runner Donovan Walton touched home on an errant throw in the ninth to give the Angels a walk-off 2-1 win at Angel Stadium and their first three-game sweep of the season.

With one out and runners on first and second in the ninth, third baseman Oswald Peraza grounded into a fielder’s choice at second. Rangers second baseman Justin Foscue bobbled the ball and first baseman Jake Burger couldn’t cleanly field his throw, allowing Walton to advance from second to score the game-winning run.

The Angels’ dugout erupted as Walton scored.

“That was amazing,” Peraza said. “I went up there and just put the ball in play, and not trying too much. I’m happy for the sweep. And yeah, amazing.”

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Big win for UCLA baseball

The UCLA comeback kings are Big Ten tournament champions.

A clutch hit by Aidan Espinoza and two reviews fueled the No. 1 Bruins’ rally for a dramatic 3-2 win over Oregon in 11 innings in the Big Ten tournament title game Sunday in Omaha, Neb.

UCLA rallied for wins during all three of its Big Ten tournament games and has earned 28 comeback wins this season.

“I’m just glad we won,” UCLA junior Mulivai Levu said during a postgame interview on the Big Ten Network. “It was a team effort today. Everyone did their job. Once again, we came from behind and did it.”

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UCLA’s Megan Grant is making history

From Mirjam Swanson: The power of power, you know?

The power of friendship, the power of persuasion. Power of positive thinking, power at the plate.

Megan Grant’s power.

If there’s one thing in American sports that’s going to get people to sit up, lean forward and engage, it’s the home run. We all dig the long ball.

If anything can get someone to run home and turn on a softball game, it’s a big-time slugger from a big-time school mashing homers like nobody before.

Heard about Grant? She’s the UCLA softball player who’s hit an NCAA-record 40 home runs (so far) this season.

Forty! In 147 at-bats! That’s a home run every 3.68 at-bats!

If you’re wondering, Mark McGwire hit a home run every 7.3 at-bats in 1998, the year he finished with 70. And Barry Bonds went deep every 6.52 at-bats in 2001, when he hit his MLB-record 73 home runs.

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LAFC shuts out Seattle

Timothy Tillman scored in the 86th minute, his first goal in more than two years, Thomas Hasal had five saves, and LAFC beat the Seattle Sounders 1-0 on Sunday night in the final MLS match before the 2026 World Cup break.

LAFC (7-5-3) ended a three-game losing streak and a four-game winless stretch.

LAFC has won six straight and is 9-0-1 at home against the Sounders in the regular season. Seattle has two wins at BMO Stadium in the MLS Cup playoffs, most recently a 2-1 victory in extra time to advance to the 2024 Western Conference final.

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LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos hopes to restore attacking identity after World Cup

LAFC summary

MLS standings

This day in sports history

1935 — Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks four world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan; remembered as “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport”.

1948 — Ben Hogan wins the PGA championship, beating Mike Turnesa in the final round, 7 and 6.

1965 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston a minute into the first round in the controversial rematch for Ali’s heavyweight title. Listed as the fastest knockout in a heavyweight title bout, Liston goes down on a short right-hand punch.

1967 — European Cup Final, Estádio Nacional, Lisbon: Glasgow Celtic beats Internazionale, 2-1; first British team to win the Cup.

1972 — Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Ron Stander.

1975 — The Golden State Warriors become the third team to sweep the NBA finals, beating the Washington Bullets 96-95 on Butch Beard’s foul shot with 9 seconds remaining.

1977 — 21st European Cup: Liverpool beats Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 at Rome.

1978 — The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 6 for their third straight Stanley Cup.

1980 — Johnny Rutherford wins his third Indianapolis 500 in seven years and becomes the first driver to win twice from the pole position.

1983 — 27th European Cup: Hamburg beats Juventus 1-0 at Athens.

1987 — Herve Filion becomes the first harness racing driver to win 10,000 races. Filion reaches the milestone driving Commander Bond to victory in the third race at Yonkers Raceway.

1988 — 32nd European Cup: PSV Eindhoven beats Benfica (0-0, 6-5 on penalties) at Stuttgart.

1989 — Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Calgary Flames beat Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 to win series 4 games to 2; Flames’ first SC title.

1991 — The Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Mario Lemieux, win the Stanley Cup for the first time with an 8-0 rout of the Minnesota North Stars.

1998 — Princeton punctuates its claim as one of college lacrosse’s great programs by beating Maryland 15-5 for its third straight NCAA Division I title and fifth in seven years.

2002 — Boston sets an NBA record, overcoming a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 94-90 win over New Jersey. The Celtics outscore the Nets 41-16 in the quarter.

2003 — Juli Inkster shoots a 10-under 62 — tying the lowest final-round score by a winner in LPGA Tour history — to beat Lorie Kane by four strokes in the LPGA Corning Classic.

2005 — 13th UEFA Champions League Final: Liverpool beats Milan (3-3, 3-2 on penalties).

2007 — Bjarne Riis is the first Tour de France winner to admit using performance-enhancing drugs to win the sport’s premier race, further eroding cycling’s credibility after a series of doping confessions. His admission means the top three finishers in the 1996 Tour are linked to doping — with two admitting to cheating.

2008 — Seven crashes and spinouts mar the first Indianapolis 500 since the two warring open-wheel series (CART and IRL) came together under the IndyCar banner. Scott Dixon stays ahead of the trouble to win the race.

2008 — Senior PGA Championship, Oak Hill CC: Jay Haas wins his second title in the event by 1 stroke from Germany’s Bernhard Langer.

2009 — Syracuse rallies from a three-goal deficit in the final 3:37 of regulation to beat Cornell 10-9 and win its second straight and unprecedented 11th NCAA lacrosse title.

2013 — UEFA Champions League Final, London: Arjen Robben scores twice as Bayern Munich beats Borussia Dortmund, 2-1 in first all-German final.

2014 — Senior PGA Championship, GC at Shore Harbor: Colin Montgomerie of Scotland wins first of 3 Champions Tour majors by 4 strokes from Tom Watson.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1906 — Jesse Tannehill’s 3-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox snapped a 20-game losing streak — 19 at home — for the Boston Red Sox.

1935 — Babe Ruth, winding up his career with the Boston Braves, hit three homers and a single at Pittsburgh, but the Pirates won 11-7. Ruth connected once off Red Lucas and twice off Guy Bush.

1941 — Boston’s Ted Williams raised his batting average over .400 for the first time during the season. Williams finished the season batting. 406.

1951 — Willie Mays, a highly touted rookie for the Giants, went 0-for-5 in his debut against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1982 — Ferguson Jenkins became the seventh pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in the Chicago Cubs’ 2-1 loss at San Diego. Jenkins reached the milestone by striking out Garry Templeton in the third inning.

2001 — Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs gave up one hit and struck out 14 in a 1-0 win over the Brewers. Wood took a no-hit bid into the seventh before giving up a leadoff single to Mark Loretta.

2001 — Hideo Nomo of the Boston Red Sox tossed a one-hitter and struck out 14 in a 4-0 win over Toronto. Nomo faced one batter over the minimum of 27, giving up a leadoff double in the fourth to Shannon Stewart.

2002 — Shawn Green of the Dodgers homered twice in a 10-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, setting a major league record with seven homers in his last three games.

2005 — The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, in 12 innings, as manager Tony La Russa wins his 823rd game with the Cardinals, passing Whitey Herzog for second place on the franchise list. La Russa is 218 victories behind Cardinals leader Red Schoendienst.

2009 — Jim Thome passes Mike Schmidt for 13th on the all-time home run list, as the White Sox thump the Angels, 17-3.

2009 — Cleveland rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the fourth as Victor Martinez’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth capped a seven-run inning and lifted the Indians to an 11-10 victory over Tampa Bay. The Indians became the first team in the majors to win after trailing by 10 runs since the Texas Rangers rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 16-15 on May 8, 2004.

2011 — Andruw Jones hit a pair of two-run homers, Mark Teixeira also hit a two-run shot and Mariano Rivera made a milestone appearance in New York’s 7-3 victory over Toronto. Rivera pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation, the 1,000th game he’s played for the Yankees. The 11-time All-Star closer became the first player in major league history to reach the plateau for one team and the 15th to make it overall. Jones homered in the second inning and Teixeira in the third off Jo-Jo Reyes, who matched a major league record by making his 28th consecutive start without a win.

2011 — Infielder Wilson Valdez wound up as the winning pitcher when the Philadelphia Phillies needed 19 innings to outlast the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Valdez threw a hitless 19th inning in his first pro pitching appearance. He became the first position player to become a winning pitcher since Colorado catcher Brent Mayne on Aug. 22, 2000.

2012 — Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam and tied his career high with eight RBIs, Josh Hamilton hit his 19th home run of the season and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 14-3. Cruz’s grand slam came in the seventh inning and gave Texas a 14-1 lead. He also had a three-run double in the first and an RBI single in the sixth.

2013 — Angel Pagan became the first San Francisco player to end a game with an inside-the-park homer, connecting with a runner aboard in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Giants a 6-5 victory over Colorado. The last major leaguer to hit an inside-the-park home run that ended a game was Rey Sanchez for Tampa Bay on June 11, 2004 — also in a 10-inning victory over Colorado.

2014 — Josh Beckett of the Dodgers records the first no-hitter of the year by blanking the Phillies, 6-0. It is the first no-hitter by a Dodgers pitcher since Hideo Nomo pitched one in 1996, and the first nine-inning no-hitter by an opposing pitcher in Philadelphia since Bill Stoneman of the Montreal Expos back in 1969.

2019 — The Padres set a franchise record with seven homers in a 19-4 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe hit two each while Austin Hedges blasts a grand slam off Edwin Jackson. Cal Quantrill is the beneficiary of this power display as he records his first career victory a short distance from his hometown of Port Hope, Canada, while another local boy, Josh Naylor from Mississauga, Canada, collects his first three big league hits for the Padres in the game.

2021 — By working home plate in a game between the Cardinals and White Sox, Joe West sets a new career record with 5,376 games as an umpire, passing Bill Klem, whose last game was in 1941.

2022 — Anaheim City Council votes unanimously to cancel the sale of Angel Stadium and surrounding land to Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno, after the resignation of Mayor Bill Sidhu on corruption charges a few days earlier. The $350-million sale had been agreed in December 2019 but not yet finalized, and was at the center of an FBI investigation that led to accusations that Sidhu had provided insider information to the team and in return demanded kickbacks in the form of campaign contributions. The city council members are now no longer convinced that the proposed deal reflects the city’s best interests, and are willing to risk a breach of contract lawsuit from Moreno in order to examine a potential deal again, starting from scratch.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that her country will host the Iranian national football team during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, due to tensions with the United States.

On Monday, Sheinbaum said that FIFA, the global football governing body, had approached Mexico about hosting Iran, after the US said it did not wish to do so.

“We have no reason to deny them the possibility of staying in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said during her daily media conference.

Previously, Iran had been scheduled to play all three of its group matches in the US.

But the administration of US President Donald Trump has previously said it is not “appropriate” for Iranian team members to be in the country, “for their own life and safety”.

It has yet to grant the Iranian team the necessary visas to travel to the US, despite Trump’s assertion that players and staff would be “welcome”.

Since February 28, the US and Israel have been at war with Iran, and peace negotiations are tense but ongoing.

The head of Iran’s football federation, Mehdi Taj, confirmed on Sunday that the team planned to move its training base from Tucson, Arizona, to the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

Taj explained that team leaders got approval for the move after meeting with FIFA officials in Istanbul, as well as holding an online conference with FIFA’s Secretary General, Mattias Grafstrom.

Switching the team’s base to Mexico, Taj said, would help avoid visa complications, with the team able to travel directly to Mexico aboard Iran Air flights.

But the US-Israeli war against Iran has cast a pall over the World Cup, making the Iranian team’s participation uncertain.

Roughly 3,468 people have been killed in Iran since February’s war began, and more than 26,500 have been injured. Further fatalities have been reported across the region.

The war has also thrown the global economy into turmoil, driving up the costs of fuel and agricultural fertiliser, among other goods.

Iran’s football team has long been a top squad in its region: It currently ranks near the top of the Asian Football Confederation. Its participation in the 2026 tournament marks its fourth straight World Cup qualification.

Trump, however, has sent mixed messages about Iran’s presence at the World Cup, suggesting at times that Iran should sit out the tournament. At other moments, he has expressed ambivalence.

In March, for instance, Politico asked Trump about Iran’s presence at the World Cup. Trump reportedly responded, “I really don’t care”, before calling Iran a “badly defeated country”.

The US, Mexico and Canada are co-hosting the games, with 78 matches in the US alone, including the final. Kick off is on June 11.

Iran is set to play its first two Group G matches in Los Angeles against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, before facing off against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

The Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration has raised additional concerns about whether the US will be a welcoming host for fans from around the world.

Already, Trump has moved to suspend visa processing for applicants from nearly 75 countries, including Iran, Brazil, Colombia, Ivory Coast and Senegal, which have teams at the World Cup.

Residents from some of those countries, however, are not required to receive visas to enter the US for short-term visits.

On Monday, Sheinbaum explained that she had been approached by the Iranian team and FIFA officials for help hosting players and staff.

“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian team to spend the night,” Sheinbaum said. “So they asked us, ‘Can we stay the night in Mexico?’ We said sure, no problem.’”

The U.S. Air Force plans to send a new version of the glider-like Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft (ULTRA) drone with a turbocharged engine to the Middle East for an operational evaluation. The ULTRA Turbo can fly faster and higher than the original design, while still being able to stay aloft for multiple days at a time.

Earlier examples of the ULTRA drone, developed by DZYNE Technologies, have conducted at least one previous operational evaluation in the Middle East, back in 2024. Run by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the ULTRA program is one of several avenues the service has pursued in recent years to find ways to provide additional persistent aerial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) coverage and do so at relatively low cost. The importance of this added capacity in the Middle East, in particular, has only been underscored by recent active combat operations against Iran and the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports. These capabilities that would be valuable elsewhere globally, too, including during operations across the broad expanses of the Pacific.

The Air Force’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget request includes details about the new planned operational evaluation and other plans for the ULTRA program. In April, DZYNE announced that it had secured a new contract to supply additional ULTRA Turbo aircraft to AFRL.

“FY26 [Fiscal Year 2026] funding will support an OCONUS OA [operational assessment outside of the continental United States] in CENTCOM’s [U.S. Central Command] Area of Responsibility (AOR), which is the next step (operational testing and evaluation) in developing the ULTRA system,” according to the Air Force’s budget documents. “This assessment will begin with the OCONUS OA in FY26. FY27 funding will continue the OA and fund needed capability improvements to meet user requirements.”

The Air Force’s ULTRA drones have a so-called “Multi-INT” configuration, according to the service’s budget documents, but no further specifics are provided. This term is generally used to refer to a mixture of sensors that could include electro-optical, infrared, or hyperspectral cameras; radars with synthetic aperture imaging and ground moving-target indicator modes; and/or signals intelligence suites. ULTRA drones have been seen previously at least with sensor turrets under their fuselages.

The budget documents also note that the new version of the drone is powered by a Rotax 916, a four-cylinder piston aircraft engine. The Rotax 916 is also used on a number of civilian ultralight aircraft, as well as other drones designed for military use, including the Hermes 900 from Elbit in Israel.

“The new engine unlocks power and operational capability at altitudes above 25,000 feet which enhances ULTRA’s mission flexibility and improves resilience in adverse weather,” DZYNE said in a press release announcing the new version’s first flight last year.

In February, DZYNE announced that the ULTRA Turbo had “completed a mission-representative flight achieving 60 hours at 25,000 feet altitude and 100 knots true airspeed (KTAS).”

At the time of writing, the company’s website says the baseline ULTRA design can stay in the air for more than 70 hours, fly at altitudes up to 25,000 feet and speeds up to 96 knots, and carry a payload weighing 450 pounds. ULTRA Turbo looks to trade some endurance (maximum flight time stated to be more than 60 hours) for increased speed and operational ceiling (120 knots and up to 30,000 feet).

A boost in speed would reduce the time needed to get to and from a designated operating area, especially one that is very far from the point of launch. This could also increase on-station time.

Especially for a glide-like design, being able to fly at higher altitudes can offer benefits when it comes to fuel economy. It also expands the available field of view for sensors, including when using a slanted flight pattern to peer deeper into a target area from a stand-off distance. As DYZNE has noted in past press releases, being able to operate at a higher ceiling offers benefits when it comes to getting above bad weather, as well.

DYZNE has also described the ULTRA family, the core design of which is based on a commercial sport glider, as being relatively cheap to acquire and operate, though the exact unit cost and cost per hour to fly are unclear. The drones are also said to have a small deployed footprint. The Air Force is currently asking for $16.57 million to continue work on the entire ULTRA program in the 2027 Fiscal Year.

What we know about the 2024 operational evaluation provides a more practical sense of the capabilities the ULTRA design offered even before getting a new turbocharged engine. There were indications that it involved drones flying sorties from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates to Afghanistan, thousands of miles away, and back again. At the time, the Air Force was also using MQ-9 Reapers for these missions, but those drones offered only limited time on station after transiting from the Persian Gulf via the Arabian Sea and Pakistan.

As an aside, lower-flying MQ-9s have continued to be a key element of the U.S. military aerial ISR ecosystem in the Middle East since the ULTRA operational evaluation in 2024. At a hearing last week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said the Reaper had been “perhaps the most valuable player” in the latest conflict with Iran, despite dozens of reported losses. The continued demand for MQ-9 coverage, but also the growing vulnerability of those drones, had already been highlighted during previous operations targeting Houthi militants in Yemen.

As noted, active combat operations against Iran and the continued blockade of the country’s ports have only underscored the U.S. military’s immense appetite for persistent ISR coverage. In April, TWZ explored these demands in great detail in the context of the emergence of a very stealthy, extremely long-endurance, very high-altitude ISR drone commonly (but unofficially) referred to as the RQ-180, or an evolution thereof, in Greece. The RQ-180 and related designs are, of course, in an entirely different class from the ULTRA family.

As mentioned, ULTRA is also not the only effort the Air Force and other branches of the U.S. military have pursued in recent years to help provide more persistent ISR coverage in environments that do not require a highly exquisite asset like the RQ-180. Drones and balloons designed to operate in the stratosphere have also been major areas of interest, including for use in and around the Middle East and the Pacific. These are platforms that can be used as high-altitude communications nodes and even potentially for launching smaller payloads, including drones or munitions.

The continued work on ULTRA comes at a time when the Air Force is looking again at what might succeed the MQ-9. The requirements the service has put forward publicly so far, including a range of up to 932 miles and a 20-hour endurance, point to a design that would have less reach than ULTRA or ULTRA Turbo. The service also wants the Reaper replacement to be lower-cost and readily producible, allowing for greater “mass” to be committed more freely in higher-risk environments. This might leave open an operational space that an enlarged fleet of ULTRA drones could slot into as part of a larger mix of capabilities.

Altogether, though the ULTRA program is still relatively small, it does continue to expand in scale and scope, with the drones now heading back to the Middle East with new turbocharged engines.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. The greatest day in high school baseball for City Section players is when you make it to the Open Division or Division I championship game and get to play on Dodger Stadium. Another memorable day happened on Saturday.

The Field of Dreams

Verdugo Hills players celebrate a 3-1 win over Taft in the City Section Division I final on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

(Craig Weston / For The Times)

For Birmingham and Verdugo Hills, there was a celebration at Dodger Stadium after winning the City Open Division and Division I championships, respectively. But runner-ups Taft and El Camino Real got their moment of appreciation and memories, too.

It’s become clear to win the Open Division, the key requirement is having three pitchers. Birmingham’s two starters, Carlos Acuna and Nathan Soto, did their job. Acuna (11-0) had complete games in the first round and semifinals. Closer Aidan Martinez was waiting to be called upon and delivered at Dodger Stadium in support of Soto with four strikeouts in two innings.

Even with its pitching, Birmingham still needed someone to deliver a clutch hit in a 4-2 win. It was the improbable that happened. Masen Ruiz, who hadn’t come to the plate since May 7 while stuck on the bench, hit a three-run triple to break open the game after being put in as a defensive replacement. Here’s the report.

Verdugo Hills was the biggest surprise. The Dons entered the playoffs at 10-18 after finishing fourth in the Valley Mission League and defeated Taft 3-1. Anthony Velasquez threw a complete game, but the story was the Dons’ defense, from the infielders to the outfielders. Here’s the report.

Baseball

Lachlan Clark of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame will be on the mound against Norco. He threw a shutout the last time he faced the Cougars.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

The Southern Section Division 1 semifinals are set for Tuesday, and no one knows who’s going to make it to Cal State Fullerton. The games could go either way, with Harvard-Westlake at St. John Bosco and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at Norco.

The last time Lachlan Clark faced Norco two weeks ago, he threw a shutout. He’s expected to face left-hander Landon Hovermale. It’s Notre Dame’’s first road game of the playoffs. Harvard-Westlake is also facing its first road game against the defending Division 1 champions.

Norco received a tremendous performance from Jordan Ayala in a 3-0 win over Orange Lutheran. He struck out 10 with no walks and also hit a home run. James Clark hit two home runs and Julian Garcia struck out 14 in St. John Bosco’s 5-2 win over La Mirada.

Here’s a report from Friday’s semifinals.

Newport Harbor and Laguna Beach are surging in the playoffs. Here’s a report.

Birmingham and El Camino Real have chosen to opt out of the state baseball playoffs. Pairings will be announced Sunday. It’s likely the final time that teams decide they don’t want to play in state playoffs because next season the first state championship games will take place, motivating schools to participate.

Softball

Liliana Escobar of JSerra threw a shutout in 1-0 win over Garden Grove Pacifica.

(Dylan Stewart)

The Southern Section Division 1 final in softball will take place probably Saturday with JSerra facing La Mirada at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.

The playoffs have been about the dominant performances of JSerra pitcher Liliana Escobar, who struck out 14 in eliminating defending champion Norco 2-0 last week.

The Southern Section will release final dates and times for its championships Monday.

In the City Section, Carson and Granada Hills could be headed for fourth straight final. First they each have to win their Wednesday semifinal games. Granada Hills hosts San Pedro and Carson hosts Birmingham. The championship game is expected to be Saturday in Long Beach.

Track

The moment Lawrence Kensinger of Venice broke a 53-year-old City Section record in the shotput with a mark of 65-11.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Things couldn’t have been more exciting at the City Section track and field finals when Lawrence Kensinger of Venice broke the second-longest held record in the shotput. It was set in 1973 and he obliterated it with a staggering mark of 65-11 putting him squarely in the competetion for a state title at the CIF state championships Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

Here’s a story on Kensinger’s massive accomplishment.

At the Southern Section Masters Meet, there were plenty of outstanding marks in the girls’ competition, and sprinter Benjamin Harris of Servite set himself up to win multiple state titles. Here’s a look at top qualifiers.

Volleyball

Mira Costa has proven itself to be the No. 1 boys volleyball team in the state and the Mustangs are one win away from a Division I title. They face Northern California champion Northgate on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Fresno City College.

They’ve already accomplished what few teams have done — beat rival Loyola in three matches this season. They won the Southern California regional title with a five-set win over the Cubs.

Golf

The Southern California Regional championships are set for Thursday.

Austin Downing of San Marcos won the individual championship.

Notes . . .

Richard Simms has resigned after 21 years as girls’ soccer coach at Harvard-Westlake. His teams won four CIF championships and 18 Mission League titles. He coached the Thompson sisters, Alyssa and Gisele. Another Thompson sister is arriving in the fall….

In tennis, Harvard-Westlake continued its success by winning the Southern California Regional championship….

Steve Kennedy has resigned as softball coach at Newbury Park….

Loyola track star Ejam Yohannes has committed to Stanford….

Ernest Baskerville has resigned after seven years as basketball coach at South Pasadena….

Hurdler Peyton Brown from Trabuco Hills has committed to Cal Poly….

Terrence Worthy is the new basketball coach at West Covina….

Orange Lutheran announced that the Orange Police Department is investigating “a serious allegation” made against a former staff member believed to have worked with the football program….

Sage Hill has promoted Jethro Julian to girls basketball coach after being the interim coach last season….

Dezi Delgado, who was all-Mission League as a sophomore baseball player at Sierra Canyon, said he is transferring to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for his senior year….

From the archives: Trent Grindlinger

Former Huntington Beach catcher Trent Grindlinger.

(Nick Koza)

After a terrific high school career playing catcher for Huntington Beach, Trent Grindlinger has been equally impressive as a freshman for Tennessee.

He led the team going into last week’s SEC tournament action with a .357 batting average, eight home runs and 28 RBIs.

His younger brother, Jared, is expected to be a first-round pick in this summer’s amateur draft.

Here’s a story from 2024 on the Grindlinger family of baseball players.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, a look at former Gardena Serra receiver Marqise Lee going back to earn his degree at USC.

From Philadelphiabaseballreview, a story on a youth pitcher throwing 160 pitches.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on three-year JV player JJ Saffie of El Camino Real taking advantage of his opportunity to finally play varsity. He had two hits at Dodger Stadium.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.

Two years ago, Bashir Muhammad received an invitation to attend a journalism summit in Niamey but declined. That decision, and the argument it provoked, told him everything he needed to know.

He runs one of the growing number of Hausa-language digital news platforms that have emerged across northern Nigeria in the past decade, serving local audiences that legacy English-language media have largely ignored. That profile made him a target. In 2024, Bashir was approached by Mariam Laouali – a woman known across West African Hausa media circles as Sarkin Abzin. She is a prominent Nigerien broadcaster and, as he would come to understand, a committed supporter of the military regime that had seized power in Niamey the previous year.

In July 2023, the military junta, led by General Abdurrahman Tchiani, overthrew the democratically elected President Muhammad Bazoum. The coup met with strong resistance from the international community, particularly the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), under the leadership of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu. This led to severe diplomatic tensions between ECOWAS and the new military regime in Niger, culminating in threats of invasion from Nigerian leaders and ultimately the division of ECOWAS and the formation of the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES). While some diplomatic efforts have been restored, tensions remain, and the Niger Republic, supported by Russia and its AES allies, has been engaged in information efforts to attack ECOWAS countries, particularly Nigeria and Benin Republic. Bashir felt this approach could be part of the recruitment efforts. 

The pitch sounded professional. Sarkin Abzin told him of a pan-African summit of Hausa-language journalists to be convened in Niamey. It was the first of its kind, according to her. She described it as an exercise in cross-border media cooperation and a chance for journalists from across the continent’s Hausa-speaking belt to build something together. 

Bashir had questions, but he did not like the answers, so he declined.

Sarkin Abzin pushed back, insisting that he should consider it, but he became more suspicious. The conversation escalated. By the end, she was visibly frustrated. It ended there. 

“She didn’t take it well,” Bashir told HumAngle, sitting in his home office while casually scrolling on his computer, searching for her Facebook page. “The way she reacted told you this wasn’t just about journalism.”

He was right. It was not all about journalism. The summit in Niamey was just bait. What Sarkin Abzin and her sponsors in the Niger Republic seemed to want was access to northern Nigeria’s forty million Hausa speakers and to exploit their grievances and distrust of Nigerian leaders.

Many Nigerians were consumed by anxiety and bitterness over the country’s dire economic pressures. Many also harboured deep anger toward their leaders – particularly President Bola Tinubu, against whom protests erupted in August 2024, during which some demonstrators raised Russian flags and called for a coup. For that reason, this was a country where recruiting the discontented would come easily, because the grievances were already there, waiting.

Pro-junta actors and AES-aligned influence networks have been weaponising TikTok’s virality to erode confidence in Nigerian democratic leadership, particularly targeting President Tinubu and the broader ECOWAS establishment.

Online influencers and sympathetic media outlets, including some based within Nigeria itself, have circulated claims accusing Nigerian politicians of backing insurgent networks and conspiring with foreign powers to destabilise the AES states.

The recruitment drive

Sarkin Abzin’s tour of northern Nigerian newsrooms and radio stations in 2024 was, in retrospect, the visible edge of something much larger. She moved through Kano, through the northwest, knocking on the doors of editors and station managers, carrying the same pitch: come to Niamey, meet your counterparts, and build solidarity. Several journalists, like Bashir, declined quietly. A general manager at a prominent radio station in Kano, who pleaded anonymity, told HumAngle that Sarkin Abzin had reached him, but that he had turned her down.

“Looking at the timing when there was a diplomatic rift between Nigeria and Niger, and the suspicion of foreign influence, I felt it was unwise to join,” he said.

However, not everyone had the luxury of that suspicion, or the will to act on it. Musa Abba (not real name), a journalist at a private radio station in Kebbi State, saw a conference invitation and a chance to connect with Hausa journalists beyond Nigeria’s borders. His station was invited and the managers nominated him. Accommodation and food were covered by the organisers. The journey, according to him, was arranged through the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), in a vehicle shared with other attendees and, notably, with some politicians and government officials who had also been invited.

What he found in Niamey, however, upended the premise of the invitation entirely.

He concluded that “it was a sophisticated plan to form Hausa journalists who will be promoting the Nigerien junta and anti-West sentiment across Hausa-speaking countries.”

On her TikTok page, Sarkin Abzin does not hide her bias. She promotes Sahel juntas and specifically asks her followers to promote Tchiani. 

In a social media exchange with Fati Niger, a Kannywood musician originally from the Niger Republic who had called for a return to democratic rule, Sarkin Abzin’s response betrayed her sentiments. “We don’t care about entertainment,” she mentioned in a TikTok video. What mattered, she said, was building their country and confronting those she described as “hypocrites and oppressors within the West,” as well as “hypocrites among us here, those in exile in every country in the world, including Nigeria, and those Nigerians who support the old system [of democracy] and do not stand behind these soldiers under Abdourahamane Tchiani.”

The summit Sarkin Abzin organised had state backing, institutional cover, and a well-hosted programme. It had everything, in other words, that a genuine journalism conference would have – except genuine journalism at its centre.

The irony is that the junta in Niger has been repressing and arresting journalists in the country. Moussa Ngom, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)’s Francophone Africa representative, explained that “arrest and detention have become tools of choice for Nigerien authorities to try to control information they find undesirable.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that in October 2025 six journalists were arrested in Niamey – Moussa Kaka and Abdoul Aziz of Saraounia TV; Ibro Chaibou and Souleymane Brah from the online publication Voice of the People; Youssouf Seriba of Les Échos du Niger; and Oumarou Kané, founder of the magazine Le Hérisson – over their alleged role in circulating a government press briefing invitation on social media, criticising the introduction of the mandatory payment for “Solidarity Fund for the Safeguarding of the Homeland”, a form of security levy in Niger. 

The conference that wasn’t

The organisation behind the summit, Kungiyar Yan Jarida Na Afrika Masu Magana Da Harshen Hausa or, in French, Résegu Africain des journalistes en langue Haoussa (Association of Hausa-speaking Journalists in Africa), was founded by Sarkin Abzin herself. She held a senior position at RTN, the Nigerien state broadcaster. Her organisation, she told prospective attendees, had the backing of the Nigerien government institutions. 

Inside the hall at the Centre International de Conférences Mahatma Gandhi in Niamey, when the summit was opened on Aug. 24, 2024, the keynote speakers were not press freedom advocates, editors or media economists. They were politicians. Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine appeared as Tchiani’s representative, delivering a speech whose original French had been translated into Hausa. He spoke about Niger’s exit from ECOWAS as a show of sovereignty.

The junta had, by this point, accused ECOWAS countries, particularly Nigeria and Benin, of colluding with France to destabilise Niger and sabotage its economy- allegations that, according to independent fact-checkers, had no credible evidentiary basis but which had proven effective at consolidating domestic support by replacing accountability with external threat. The Niamey summit was the moment that the narrative was offered to Nigerian voices who could carry it home.

Among those who spoke was Hamza Almustafa, a Nigerian retired general and a politician who used the platform to denounce the West. Najaatu Muhammad, a prominent northern Nigerian political figure, delivered what several attendees described as the most incendiary address of the proceedings. She told her audience that the Nigerian federal government was conspiring to sever Niger from Nigeria – to cut through bonds of religion and culture that no colonial border had ever truly divided. Abuja, she suggested, served Paris and Washington before it served Kano or Sokoto.

“It was not really a journalists’ meeting,” Musa told HumAngle, “By the time the politicians started speaking, those of us who understood what was happening knew we had made a mistake.”

Sarkin Abzin’s organisation had achieved, in a single day, what overt propaganda rarely manages: it had placed legitimate reporters in a room and given the junta’s narratives the texture of a press conference. The journalists went to Niamey to cover something. They came back as part of it. 

HumAngle reached out to Sarkin Abzin for comment. She did not respond. 

The Hausa messages 

The Niamey summit was not the opening move in this campaign. 

On Christmas Day of 2024, General Tchiani sat before the cameras of Radio-Télévision du Niger and delivered what a casual viewer might have mistaken for a holiday address. Although French had been Niger’s official language, he spoke in Hausa – a lingua franca in both Niger and most of northern Nigeria, spoken by millions across West Africa. 

His choice of language was deliberate. The message was not addressed to Niamey alone. It was addressed to Kano and other Hausa-speaking states, particularly in Northern Nigeria, where there is an already visible pro-Russian and anti-West sentiment, as reflected in 2024 when Russian flags were raised during a nationwide protest against insecurity and economic hardship.

The claims Tchiani made were engineered to sound verified. He alleged that France had paid Nigerian authorities to establish a military base in Borno State with the sole aim of destabilising Niger and its Sahel Alliance partners. He also accused France of supplying Boko Haram fighters in the Lake Chad basin with anti-aircraft weapons. He claimed that France and ISWAP had struck an agreement to establish a Lakurawa training camp in the Gaba forest near Sokoto, and that Nigerian leaders were aware. He named Nigerian security officials by name. He cited dates and operational specifics to express the grammar of verified intelligence, though deployed in the service of disinformation.

The hook embedded in the allegations was not entirely invented, which is precisely what made it effective. Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters had classified Lakurawa as a terrorist organisation with jihadist affiliations just weeks earlier, in November 2024. HumAngle’s own investigations had revealed the group had operated in the northwest for around six years, with local security authorities having previously and dangerously dismissed it as a harmless faction of herders from across the border. The name was already known. The fear was already settled. Tchiani simply attached a culprit to both.

In Sokoto and Zamafara, where communities had been facing terrorist violence for years, the allegation did not sound outlandish.

“People said, ‘We always knew France was behind this,’” a civil society worker in Kano who monitors social media, Muhammad Hamza, told HumAngle. “Tchiani just confirmed what they already believed.”

When BBC Hausa published testimonies refuting Tchiani’s claims, the reaction was contemptuous. “We know you won’t agree because you’re all on the same side,” one commenter wrote. “But we believe what he said. We have seen the signs.”

A survey conducted by HumAngle in Kano State found that 50 per cent of the respondents believed Tchiani’s claims, 30 per cent were undecided, and only 20 per cent rejected them outright. Many pointed to President Tinubu’s perceived closeness to France as a reason for suspicion. 

One respondent, Abubakar Saidu, explained his reasoning, “President Tinubu has been close to France since he assumed power, and we all know that France can create terrorists to attack Niger due to their diplomatic fallout.”

Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s National Security Advisor, had attempted to refute the claim, but it was unsuccessful. According to him, “Nigeria has never given its land to any foreign troops—not even Britain. When the [United States] requested a military base, we denied them, but Niger gave them.”

In a country with an audience that receives official rebuttals as confirmation of the original charge, its psyche could easily be captured. Nigerians didn’t believe Ribadu. 

“This is the new reality of information warfare. It is no longer just about truth versus falsehood. It is about who controls the language in which truth is told. It is about who defines the enemy—and, ultimately, who is believed,” Kano-based security analyst Balarabe Ismail told HumAngle in April 2025.

Tchiani returned to the theme in June 2025, this time in a three-hour televised address delivered in Hausa, Zarma, and French, in which he again accused Nigeria of conspiring with France and the United States to sponsor terrorism, alleging a covert meeting in Abuja in December 2024 attended by CIA agents and Nigerian security officials who discussed arming groups targeting Niger. 

The headquarters of disinformation 

Analysts had already identified increased activity from disinformation networks affiliated with Russia in Niger following the coup in Niger. 

According to a report by Al Jazeera, since the July 2023 coup, Niger had become the latest hotbed of disinformation in the Sahel, with social media inundated by false rumours, misleading videos, and manipulated audio clips. The template, according to the report, was borrowed from Mali and Burkina Faso, where Wagner-linked networks had deployed online assets, locally cultivated contacts, and Russian state media to produce a sustained information environment that preceded, accelerated, and then legitimised military takeovers. In Niger, the same playbook ran faster because the infrastructure was already warm.

Following the death of Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023, these operations were absorbed into two successor structures: the Russian Africa Corps, which provides military presence on the ground, and the Africa Initiative news agency, connected to Russian intelligence services and overseen from Moscow. Africa Initiative is an upgrade and institutional legitimacy that Wagner never possessed. With press credentials, cultural programming, and regional language capacity, it successfully dressed influence as media development.

The three Alliance of Sahel States junta leaders — in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso — have converged around a shared political project. They launched a joint television channel to promote a unified narrative across their territories, a regional media infrastructure whose audience mandate extends explicitly beyond their borders — into the Hausa-speaking communities of northern Nigeria, who share language, faith, and enough legitimate frustration to make the narratives land without the need for fabrication in every detail. 

Sarkin Abzin’s journalist recruitment initiative sits within this structure. The goal may not have been to turn Nigerian journalists into salaried agents but to create a class of northern Nigerian media voices who feel a degree of solidarity with the junta’s framing. 

A security analyst who works on influence operations in West Africa and spoke to HumAngle on condition of anonymity offered some insight. “What Niger and Russia are doing is not complicated,” he said. “They are creating the conditions under which Nigerian citizens begin to see their own government as the enemy.”

The operation has not yet achieved its full objective. Bashir Muhammad’s refusal was one of the resistance points among others. Some journalists who attended the Niamey summit have since spoken, cautiously, about the gap between what they were promised and what they found. The WhatsApp group formed after the summit, according to Musa Abba, the journalist who attended, had almost collapsed. 

“They promised to continue communicating via WhatsApp and to organise more summits in other countries, but more than a year later they said nothing and group members didn’t say anything either,” he said. Even Sarkin Abzin’s Facebook page is no longer active.  

This article was produced by HumAngle with support from the African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI) and the African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO) as part of an initiative by Code for Africa (CfA). Visit https://disinfo.africa/ for more information.

At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a suicide car bomb detonated on a train carrying soldiers in Quetta, capital of the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, on Sunday.

The attack came amid Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s four-day visit to China, and the day before his meeting in Beijing with China’s President Xi Jinping, marking 75 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

Pakistan is among an exclusive group of countries China regards as an “all-weather strategic partner”, with ties featuring close economic, trade and security cooperation.

Responsibility for the train attack was claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), an armed Baloch separatist group which, apart from calling for an independent state, also strongly objects to large-scale Chinese investment in the region.

While the BLA has long carried out attacks that have killed civilians and members of the security forces in Balochistan and beyond, there has been a recent uptick in such incidents.

We examine what is behind this increase in attacks:

What happened in Sunday’s attack?

Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said several houses and buildings adjacent to the railway line were severely damaged in the blast, which caused train carriages to overturn and catch fire.

According to local media reports, a state of emergency was declared at public hospitals in Quetta, with doctors and other medical staff ordered to remain on duty.

Footage shared online showed charred vehicles and train carriages lying on their sides, with thick plumes of black smoke rising into the sky.

Pakistan has experienced several attacks by separatist groups in recent months. The attacks have increased in ferocity and have also targeted Chinese workers amid protests over Beijing-backed infrastructural projects in Balochistan.

As part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project – one of the main arms of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” designed to improve trading routes – China’s Xinjiang region has been connected to Pakistan’s deep-sea Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea in Balochistan.

Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif condemned Sunday’s train attack in Quetta in a post on X.

“Such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan. We remain steadfast in our determination to eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” he said.

He added that while initial reports indicated a suicide bombing, this has not been officially confirmed. If it is, Yunas Samad, an emeritus professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK, told Al Jazeera, “this would reflect tactics that insurgent organisations in the region have increasingly adopted over recent years”.

“There are also persistent claims regarding the circulation of sophisticated weaponry originating from stockpiles left behind after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he said.

Are we seeing a new phase of armed separatist attacks in Balochistan?

According to research gathered by the independent, Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, Balochistan recorded at least 254 attacks in 2025 – roughly 26 percent more than in 2024.

A December 2025 report published by independent conflict monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) found that separatists had also intensified attacks and pressure on security forces. The report said the number of attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and grenades, mainly targeting convoys and police stations, grew by more than 65 percent in the first 11 months of 2025, compared to the same time period in 2024.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report this year found that there has been more Baloch armed group activity in Pakistan in 2025 as well. The GTI is an annual report published by the Australia-based independent think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

Its 2026 report states that the BLA was responsible for Pakistan’s largest terror attack of 2025 – when the Jaffar Express, a train travelling from Quetta to Peshawar, was hijacked in March.

The BLA claimed responsibility and reported that six military personnel had been killed. Hundreds of people were taken hostage from the train, which was carrying 400 passengers.

“What can reasonably be said is that, following the earlier coordinated attack on the Jaffar Express, the Pakistani authorities appear to have intensified security measures around transport infrastructure, military personnel and key lines of communication,” Samad, of Bradford University, told Al Jazeera.

“The fact that this latest incident nevertheless occurred may suggest that militant groups retain a significant operational capability despite those efforts,” he noted.

The group stunned Pakistan’s security establishment in 2022 when it ‌stormed army and navy bases. In August 2024, militants carried out coordinated ⁠attacks across Balochistan, including highway assaults in which passengers were pulled from buses and shot after identity checks.

“While statistics in such conflicts are always contested and should be treated cautiously, they do indicate that the intensity of the conflict has not significantly diminished,” Samad said.

“Whether this constitutes an entirely ‘new phase’ is perhaps too strong a conclusion at present. However, it does appear to indicate a degree of resurgence in militant capability and confidence among sections of the Baloch insurgency.”

Who are the BLA and major Baloch armed groups?

The BLA, which has a suicide squad called the Majeed Brigade, says it is fighting for the independence of Balochistan, a province located in Pakistan’s southwest and bordering Afghanistan to the north and ⁠Iran to the west.

It is the largest of several ethnic separatist groups that have been fighting the federal government for decades. Balochistan’s mountainous border region serves as a safe haven and training ground for both Baloch separatist fighters and Islamist armed groups.

The BLA often targets infrastructure and security forces in Balochistan, but has also struck in other areas – most notably the southern port city of Karachi.

The BLA has deployed women suicide bombers, including in an attack on Chinese nationals in Karachi, and was designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States in August 2025 in a move welcomed by the Pakistani government. Analysts say BLA is particularly known for its ability to recruit young, often well-educated fighters.

The group, separately, was at the centre of tit-for-tat strikes in 2024 between Iran and Pakistan over what each said were armed group bases on each other’s territory, which brought the neighbours to the brink of war.

What is the Baloch cause?

Home to about 15 million of Pakistan’s roughly 240 million people, according to the 2023 census, Balochistan is the country’s poorest region despite its wealth of natural resources, including coal, gold, copper and gas.

These resources generate significant revenue for the federal government – unfairly, according to the BLA, which wants Balochistan’s natural wealth to belong to its people and rejects federal control over resource extraction and security.

The province is Pakistan’s largest by area, but smallest by population. It has a long Arabian Sea coastline, not far from the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lane.

Balochistan is also home to one of Pakistan’s major deep-sea ports at Gwadar, a crucial trade corridor for China’s $65bn investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a wing of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.

The province is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, which is operated by Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold and is believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines.

China also operates a gold and copper mine in Balochistan.

The province – which was annexed by Pakistan in 1948, six months after partition from India in August 1947 – has a long history of marginalisation. It has since experienced at least five separatist uprisings.

Separatist sentiment was particularly high in the 2000s, around the time the BLA emerged. Analysts of Baloch resistance movements say it was led by Balach Marri, the son of veteran Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri.

After the government of military ruler Pervez Musharraf killed prominent Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006, the separatist movement escalated.

Rebel fighters have targeted Pakistan’s army and Chinese interests, in particular the strategic port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit the province. Fighters have killed Chinese citizens working in the region and attacked Beijing’s consulate and language centre in Karachi.

More recently, the BLA has also attacked civilians and migrant labourers from other provinces, a shift that officials say marks an escalation in tactics.

Pakistan accuses India and Afghanistan of backing Baloch armed fighters, an allegation both countries deny.

“Baloch separatist groups themselves have, at times, sought to internationalise their cause and last year publicly appealed for diplomatic recognition by India,” Samad said.

“However, establishing clear evidence of direct state support is considerably more difficult, and much of the discussion in this area remains politically contested.”

Hundreds of Baloch activists, many of them women, have protested in Islamabad and Balochistan over alleged abuses by security forces – accusations the government denies.

Over time, the BLA has set itself apart as a group explicitly committed to Balochistan’s full independence from Pakistan. Unlike more moderate Baloch nationalist parties, which press politically for greater provincial autonomy, the BLA has consistently rejected compromise.

Why is this significant now?

Regional stability and international investment

The attack comes as Prime Minister Sharif meets with China’s President Xi in Beijing to discuss economic and security cooperation – something the BLA is strongly opposed to.

The movement could pose a challenge to Pakistan’s attempts to retain Chinese and American investment, experts say, if it reveals a deeper instability.

The Baloch separatist movement is one of the major unresolved questions over Pakistan’s statehood. It is a constant reminder of the challenges of the Pakistani state to stay united, they say.

“More broadly, the persistence of insurgency has had implications for Pakistan’s wider political system,” Samad explained. “Security concerns in Balochistan have increasingly shaped governance and political discourse, strengthening the role of the military and security establishment in national affairs and undermining the democratisation process.”

“Internationally, the issue matters because Pakistan remains a nuclear-armed state of enormous strategic importance,” Samad told Al Jazeera.

“While speculation about state fragmentation is highly premature, any significant escalation in internal instability in a country with nuclear capabilities inevitably attracts international concern. For that reason alone, developments in Balochistan are likely to remain closely watched both regionally and globally.”

Rare-earth metals

Another major issue is that geological assessments suggest Balochistan contains 12 of the 17 rare-earth minerals on the periodic table. Rare earths are critical minerals used to manufacture a vast array of modern items, including batteries, clocks, wiring, military hardware, smartphones and semiconductors, among other technological products.

Since the start of his second term, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed plans to diversify Washington’s stockpile of critical minerals in order to reduce reliance on China, which currently dominates the supply and processing of the world’s rare-earth minerals.

When Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif met with Trump at the White House in September 2025, he offered the US access to critical minerals and rare earths.

Then, in December 2025, the US announced a $1.25bn investment in critical minerals mining at Reko Diq to drive “economic growth in Balochistan”.

The Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for a train bombing that killed at least 30 people in Pakistan. Kamran Bokhari of the Middle East Policy Council argues that the separatist BLA is timing its attacks to exploit Pakistan’s other entanglements.

Gaza will not forget

The suffocating smoke still hangs over her ruins, thick with the acrid stench of explosives powder and dust carrying the scent of betrayal and the mark of courage. Her streets, once filled with children’s laughter, became Israeli fields of slaughter. Now they echo with the names and memories of martyrs.

The mass graves, the broken concrete, and the twisted steel are not just evidence of Zionist hatred. They are witnesses to those who stood with her, and to those who failed her. Today, Gaza’s rubble holds more memories than all the nation’s libraries.

Palestine will remember

She will remember the selfless sacrifices of doctors and healthcare workers who refused to abandon their sick patients as bombs rained on their hospitals; the journalists who became the news, targeted for daring to expose the truth; the mothers who wrapped their children in the red, black, green, and white flag of a nation Israel is desperate to erase.

These are not tales of despair, but of defiance, insisting on its right to breathe life amid death.

Gaza will not forget

She will not forget the silence of Western democracies. In a tragic inversion, most European nations, shackled by the ghosts of their past, traded morality for absolution. The self-proclaimed champions of human rights offered Palestinians on the altar of yesterday’s victims to atone for Europe’s sins.

Gaza will not forget the Biden administration, which vetoed every U.N. Security Council resolution calling to end the genocide. Nor Donald Trump, who poured fuel on the fire, then demanded recognition for dousing his own flames.

This week, Arab, Muslim, and world leaders gather like moths around the American arsonist-turned-firefighter, “celebrating” the ashes of Gaza.

Palestine will remember

She will remember the people who rose for Gaza, from Yemen to Dublin, from Cape Town to London and Madrid, while Arab capitals from Cairo to Riyadh slept. Ireland and Spain led the boycott, while Arab countries from the Gulf to Jordan opened their ports and highways to provide alternative routes for Israeli goods, even as Yemen imposed a sea blockade in the Red Sea.

Gaza will not forget — nor forgive — the Arab governments that opened their ports when shipyard workers in Italy refused, delivering American weapons used to annihilate her children and destroy her hospitals.

Palestine will remember

She will remember South Africa — not an Arab or Muslim nation — that led her case before the International Court of Justice, charging Israel with genocide. A country once scarred by apartheid became the moral conscience of a world too timid to speak. In that act of solidarity, South Africa rekindled the universal truth that justice knows no borders.

Palestine will remember the Lebanese resistance that gave its leaders for Gaza’s defense; Yemen, poor in wealth but rich in dignity, whose solidarity never wavered; and Iran, steadfast against Israeli hubris. She will remember Ireland and Spain, who did not turn away when Arabs did, proving that true solidarity transcends borders, faith, and kinship, resting only on shared humanity.

She will remember the heroes of the flotillas who braved waves of hatred and siege to carry messages of compassion; the nameless volunteers who left the safety of their countries to heal the wounded and feed the hungry; the American students who turned campuses into encampments of resistance; the artists, actors, and musicians who risked careers for justice; the employees who lost their jobs protesting the complicity of Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants in Israel’s crimes.

Gaza will not forget those who betrayed her

Palestine will forever be grateful to those who dared to speak the truth when it was dangerous, who marched when it was forbidden, who grieved when it was unfashionable.

Palestine will remember. History will remember. Justice will remember.

For nearly two years, Gaza has endured a genocide so relentless it defies descriptive language. Israel’s war machine has turned hospitals into morgues, UN schools into mass graves, and refugee camps into craters. Yet Gaza refuses to die.

Each time she is bombed “back to the Stone Age,” she rises — like the phoenix — to rebuild, not only her structures but her indomitable will. In that defiance lies the occupier’s greatest fear: memory.

Israel can destroy buildings but not erase remembrance. The siege may starve Gaza’s body, but it nourishes Palestine’s collective soul.

Gaza’s children will grow up with memories no child should bear. But they will also inherit something indestructible: dignity. In every demolished home and every shattered family lives a story that refuses burial.

Gaza’s memory will not fade. For the mind, unlike stone, cannot be occupied. It is the eternal archive of a people’s resilience, passed from one generation to the next, weaving the indelible tapestry of Palestine today.

The ruins of Gaza stand not only as testimony to Israel’s genocide but to the moral collapse of those who enabled it.

Gaza will rise again, brick by brick.

But what will never be resurrected is the Israeli lie, which, for eight decades, cloaked the Zionist project in the guise of victimhood, occupying Western narratives and manufacturing consent.

Gaza will rise — and the Israeli myth will remain buried beneath her rubble, forever.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Yamal, one of eight Barcelona players named in the 26-man squad, with seven Arsenal players picked by Luis de la Fuente.

Lamine Yamal has been included in Spain’s squad for the FIFA World Cup, named by coach Luis de la Fuente, who also included Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino in the European champions’ roster after his recent return from injury.

For the first time since 1950, Spain’s World Cup squad will not include a Real Madrid player as De la Fuente opted against naming one in his 26-man squad announced on Monday.

Real Madrid’s Dean Huijsen was dropped due to an injury, and veteran Dani Carvajal was also excluded after struggling through an injury-hit campaign.

Along with teenage Barcelona star Yamal, Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams played a key role as Spain won Euro 2024, and he is in the squad despite a season badly disrupted by fitness issues.

Yamal, 18, is a doubt for the first matches of the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury with Barca, which has kept him out since late April.

De la Fuente played down the absence of Madrid’s players, preferring to highlight those who are in the squad.

“I’m the manager, and I don’t look at where the players come from. They’re ‌national team players; I don’t look at one club or another. I don’t have the same local bias that a fan might have. All I want is for these players to feel proud to represent the national team,” De la Fuente told reporters.

In addition to Yamal, Barcelona’s contingent includes Joan Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Eric Garcia, Gavi, Pedri, Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres, while seven players called up are based in the Premier League.

“Excitement is the keyword. Passion,” De la Fuente said.

“The reaction of people all over Spain – adults and children ⁠alike – is that they are fully behind the national team. It is an ⁠honour for me to represent the national team.”

Arsenal provide three of Spain’s Premier League-based players in goalkeeper David Raya and midfielders Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino, while Manchester City’s Rodri gives De la Fuente a commanding presence in midfield.

The coach also addressed the injury concern regarding ⁠Yamal and Williams, who will arrive at the tournament nursing hamstring issues.

“We’re very relaxed. Barring any setbacks, we’ll have everyone available from the very first match. ⁠We’re in close contact with the clubs’ medical teams,” he said.

“We’ll call ⁠on them when we deem it appropriate. I’d like to reiterate that we’ll have everyone in top form and we’ll be able to enjoy watching them in the tournament.”

Spain will arrive at the World Cup carrying the confidence of their European Championship triumph in Germany two years ‌ago, but with the weight of expectation from a passionate fanbase.

Spain’s World Cup 2026 squad

Goalkeepers: Unai Simon, David Raya, Joan Garcia

Defenders: Marcos Llorente, Marc Pubill, Pedro Porro, Aymeric Laporte, Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Marc Cucurella, Alejandro Grimaldo

Midfielders: Rodri, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Pedri, Gavi, Fabian Ruiz, Alex Baena

Forwards: Yeremy Pino, Victor Munoz, Mikel Oyarzabal, Ferran Torres, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams, Borja Iglesias

A small boat believed to be part of the Global Sumud Flotilla that was carrying aid for Gaza has washed ashore in Alexandria, Egypt. Activists were intercepted and detained by Israeli forces in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea last week.

On the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the de Havilland Canada Chipmunk basic trainer, an aircraft that generations of British and other military pilots learned to fly on, it’s worth recalling perhaps the most unusual episode of its career. Between 1956 and 1990, a handful of these propeller-driven trainers kept watch on Warsaw Pact forces in the divided and heavily fortified city of Berlin — a front line of the Cold War.

One of the two Chipmunks flown last week by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is WG486 — formerly attached to the RAF Gatow Station Flight for intelligence-gathering flights over Berlin:

At the end of World War II, defeated Germany was left divided between the Allied powers of France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The division of the country also extended to the former capital, Berlin, which was left deep within the Soviet occupation zone. Under the quadripartite agreement, the Western Allies retained the right of access to Berlin, using land and air corridors running into the Western-occupied zones of Germany.

The quadripartite agreement also included provisions for the Allied powers to maintain ‘liaison missions.’ Formally, these were supposed to ensure communications between the Western Allies and the Soviets. In practice, they soon became a critical way of gathering intelligence, especially since the Western missions were permitted to move, relatively unimpeded, in the Soviet zone, which would later become East Germany. The same applied to the Soviets in the West. For the British, the liaison mission was known as the British Mission to Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS), and it was based in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.

Meet The Real Cold War Spies Of BRIXMIS • FULL DOCUMENTARY | Forces TV

The agreement also ensured access to West Berlin for the Western Allies, flying through three air corridors in and out of the city. Each of the Western Allies had an airport in the city, with the British using RAF Tegel. These corridors were full of transport activity during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, when the Soviets attempted to cut off the Western sectors of the city by blockade. Outside the corridors, Western Allied military aircraft could also fly over the Soviet Zone of Berlin, although this was something Moscow was never happy about.

By the mid-1950s, relations between East and West were becoming more tense, and this airspace access began to be exploited for intelligence-gathering.

After the Berlin Airlift, the Western Allies were prohibited from flying combat aircraft in the corridors. Transport and training types, like the Chipmunk, were excluded from this rule, and in late 1956, the British launched the top-secret Operation Schooner (later renamed Operation Nylon), under which the trainers would conduct spy flights within the roughly 1,200-square-mile Berlin Control Zone.

Flying out of Gatow, the Chipmunk flights were officially for continuation training, which provided the required cover story. Actual training flights were also regularly conducted, also to preserve the cover.

From the mid-1950s onward, East Germany rapidly became the focal point for Soviet military expansion in Europe, and the British and other Western Allies had a growing need for precise intelligence on Soviet basing, equipment, tactics — anything, in fact, that provided a better understanding of the adversary and potential warning of an attack.

The U.K. Prime Minister’s office individually approved the Chipmunk flights from RAF Gatow. Two or three sorties were typically scheduled for each week. These were flown under visual flight rules (VFR) — so only in good weather — and not above 1,500 feet. The quadripartite Berlin Air Safety Center, which ensured the security of flights in the Control Zone, was notified in advance, and each flight was planned to last around three hours.

The primary ‘targets’ were the numerous Soviet military installations located within the Berlin Control Zone. The Soviet controller within the Berlin Air Safety Center, not coincidentally, often stamped the flight request card with the words “Safety of Flight Not Guaranteed.”

Mission equipment, at first, was a handheld camera, operated by a BRIXMIS member in the front cockpit of the Chipmunk, with the RAF pilot sitting behind. Each sortie required careful preparation, with the crew wearing oxygen masks at all times to prevent their identification. They would climb aboard the aircraft inside a hangar, with the cameras already loaded, and the engine would be started behind closed doors. After all, Soviet ‘watchers’ were posted around Gatow, and observation towers overlooked the base.

Though the Soviets were well aware of the real nature of these flights (once, according to one BRIXMIS account, a camera lens was accidentally dropped from an open cockpit onto a busy parade ground), the quadripartite agreement provided diplomatic immunity to the Royal Air Force pilots. Nevertheless, Moscow was upset about any Western flights outside of West Berlin, and harassment of aircraft was hardly rare. At least once, a Chipmunk was damaged by groundfire from a Soviet infantryman.

The importance of Schooner/Nylon increased as the Soviets made efforts to conceal their military activity in East Germany. To try to avoid the eyes of the liaison missions, they set up more Permanent Restricted Areas (PRA) — another provision of the quadripartite agreement. Within the Berlin Control Zone, the Chipmunks had access to several major Soviet divisional HQs, including some of its best-equipped and highest-readiness forces.

The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 underscored the East-West standoff and led to the Soviets further bolstering their military presence in and around the city, including new air defense missiles and surface-to-surface sites. According to some accounts, Chipmunks were among the first assets to bring back evidence of the extent of the border closures enacted by the Soviets in August 1961.

By the end of the 1960s, one of the Gatow Chipmunks had received a permanent camera installation, and both got new radios. According to one pilot, the new camera was powerful enough to “record the maker’s name from the inside of a tank if the turret was open.”

10 April 1978, the British BRIXMIS Liaison Mission had access to two Chipmunk aircraft, which they used for photo reconnaissance over parts of East Germany, between West Berlin and the Inner German Border. In this case they’ve captured a T-64 engine being removed for maintenance. pic.twitter.com/NQTdOn7Qul

— The Tank Museum (@TankMuseum) June 5, 2023

On one occasion, a BRIXMIS member recalled being intercepted and closely followed by a Soviet Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter, which escorted the Chipmunk from the Soviet helicopter base at Oranienburg to the north of Berlin.

Right at the very edge of the Berlin Control Zone was an especially interesting ‘target,’ the Soviet airbase at Werneuchen. This was latterly home to MiG-25 Foxbat reconnaissance jets, and it also hosted periodic deployments of Soviet long-range bombers. It was also deep within a PRA, making ground access very difficult. The Chipmunks would fly close enough to photograph every aircraft on the flight line, aware that if they strayed beyond the main runway centerline, they would be outside the Berlin Control Zone and would be shot down.

Also connected to Werneuchen and even more remarkable in terms of mission equipment is the fact that at least one Chipmunk was fitted with electronic intelligence (ELINT) gear. This modification was approved by the U.K. Prime Minister in 1981 but was only revealed by aviation journalist Ben Dunnell in 2024. It is known that the ELINT equipment was used to gather information about a new Soviet battlefield radar, equipping the 9K35 Strela-10 (SA-13 Gopher) short-range air defense system. However, it was also used in at least one flight over Werneuchen. No other details of the results of these missions have ever been released.

The Chipmunks remained busy until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 heralded the end of the Cold War. Immediately before German reunification, in 1990, BRIXMIS was stood down and, with it, the need for intelligence-gathering flights came to an end. At its biggest strength, the RAF Gatow Station Flight never had more than four Chipmunks assigned.

The Gatow Station Flight remained active until 1994, when the last Chipmunk departed. Gatow finally closed as an RAF station the same year.

Last week, as the Royal Air Force marked the 80th anniversary of the classic Chipmunk trainer, it is worth remembering the unique role that the aircraft played during one of the tensest periods of recent history, during which the intelligence it collected helped keep the peace between East and West.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

US secretary of state says a ‘pretty solid’ deal is on the table in terms of opening up the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States will either secure a strong agreement with Iran or confront the country “another way”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says after President Donald Trump moved to temper expectations that an agreement to end the war is close.

“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today. I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Rubio said in New Delhi on Monday, referring to the potential agreement to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28.

“We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits open,” he told reporters in the Indian capital, where he has been on an official visit.

Washington and Tehran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement although Iran has continued to block the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping and the US has blockaded Iran’s ports.

A day earlier, Trump wrote on Truth Social ⁠⁠that the US blockade would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”.

“Both sides must take their time and get it right,” he added.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. But the Tasnim News Agency, linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the US was still obstructing parts of a potential deal.

“We’re either going to have a good agreement, or we’re going to have to deal with it another way. We’d prefer to have a good agreement,” Rubio said.

Points of contention

A senior Trump administration official outlined what he said were the latest contours of the issues being negotiated.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official told the Reuters news agency that Iran had agreed “in principle” to dispose of its highly enriched uranium and open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its naval blockade.

The US understood that Supreme Leader ⁠⁠Mojtaba Khamenei had endorsed the broad template of the deal, he added.

There was no immediate confirmation from Iran or elaboration on what an “in principle” ⁠⁠agreement meant.

The US official said Washington envisioned first reopening the strait and lifting the US naval blockade. Negotiating the details of the nuclear measures would take more time, he said.

The official pushed back on suggestions that Iran had not accepted disposing of its stockpiled enriched uranium. “It’s a question about how,” the official said.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the back and forth between the US and Iran means a deal will not likely be agreed anytime soon.

“I think this is kind of par for the course for the Trump administration. One day they walk this way. The next day they walk that way,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Part of the conversations are private. Part of it is public diplomacy, but until we have a concrete sense that the Iranians are likely to say yes to getting rid of their highly enriched uranium … and to opening this Strait of Hormuz with no restrictions, I think one can say that we’re still far away from a lasting deal,” Kupchan said.