Open

The 23-time Grand Slam champion will not be playing singles, but could team up with her older sister Venus for doubles.

Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to create a powerhouse mixed doubles pair on her return to the US Open.

The US Tennis Association announced on Saturday that Williams and Alcaraz had been given a wild card into the tournament. The mixed doubles main draw begins on Tuesday, with the winning team sharing $1 million.

It will be Williams’s first time playing at the US Open since 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to tennis this summer.

“Let’s gooooo!” Alcaraz posted on X, with a fire emoji and tagging Williams.

Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. The USTA had been holding one women’s wild card, presumably in case Williams wanted it. However, the tournament announced on Saturday that it had been given to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.

Williams played singles at Wimbledon but sustained a knee injury in her first-round loss. She played doubles with older sister Venus at the Cincinnati Open, and they could still opt to play together at the US Open.

Alcaraz announced this week he would return to defend his US Open singles title after being sidelined since April with a right wrist injury.

Serena Williams won a mixed doubles title at the US Open even before winning any of her six singles titles there. She teamed for the 1998 championship with Max Mirnyi, who now works with top-ranked woman Aryna Sabalenka.

The mixed doubles tournament is far different now, as the USTA revamped it last year to make it a two-day, 16-team event it hoped would draw top singles players.

Few are bigger than Williams and Alcaraz, the two-time US Open men’s champion who is ranked number two.

The USTA also announced a number of updates to the field after some players withdrew from the competition.

Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up, after their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries. The teams of Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul, along with Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, were given the remaining two wild cards into the main draw.

Diana Shnaider remains in the field and will be given a chance to find a new partner after Daniil Medvedev withdrew.

US Open mixed doubles teams: Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Pegula and Fritz, Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien, two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils, Williams and Alcaraz, Muchova and Mensik, and Navarro and Paul.

The remaining two spots will be determined through an eight-team qualifying tournament on Monday.

The USTA gave wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field.

It is otherwise largely made up of the traditional doubles specialists who lost out on the chance to play in the US Open last year, with direct entry based on the players’ combined singles ranking.

Ex-Australia batter Hussey said he was informally approached by Stephen Flemming, England’s new red-ball coach.

Australian great Mike Hussey could face his own country in the Ashes after saying he was open to joining England as their Test batting coach.

England host Australia in the Ashes in June, July and August next year, looking to take possession of the urn for the first time since 2015.

Hussey has had an informal approach from England’s new red-ball coach Stephen Fleming, the duo having spent 15 years as teammates and then coaches at Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings.

“We obviously get on really well and work a lot together,” former Test stalwart Hussey told Fox Sports, where he is employed as a commentator.

“So it was just a bit of a passing comment, really saying, ‘Look, what do you reckon? Would you think about being the batting coach?’”

Hussey, known as “Mr Cricket” for his technical expertise, has just returned home after coaching Welsh Fire in The Hundred and said he had not given it proper consideration yet.

“To be honest, I have not been able to give it any thought whatsoever,” he said.

“Would I? I mean, I wouldn’t say never to anything really. I just love the coaching side of the game, and just to be able to work with different players.”

Should Hussey accept, it could see him plotting the downfall of Australia with Fleming when they tour England for the Ashes series next year.

Hussey admitted it would “feel a bit weird”.

“I have worked with England once before at the T20 World Cup (in 2022), and I must admit it did feel very weird pulling on that training shirt for the first time,” he said.

“But once you get in the nets and you start working with players, you sort of almost forget what shirt you’ve got on.

“So, look, I haven’t fully considered anything at this stage. I’m sort of just trying to take a bit of a break from it all at the moment and will give it some thought in due course.”

Fleming was appointed coach in late July following the sacking of fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum, who remains in charge of England’s white-ball teams.

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his return at the US Open after missing four months with a wrist injury.

The 23-year-old triumphed at the Australian Open in January to become the youngest man to win all four Grand Slam titles.

However, the Spaniard has not played a competitive match since 14 April after injuring his right wrist at the Barcelona Open.

The news was confirmed by football influencer Fabrizio Romano in a joint post with Alcaraz on Instagram.

Seven-time major champion Alcaraz also wrote “here we go!” – Romano’s catchphrase – in a post on X, external with an emoji of the American flag and a plane.

As well as playing singles, Alcaraz could also enter the mixed doubles competition that takes place the week before the US Open, with three wildcards still to be handed out.

Alcaraz played in the revamped event last year alongside Britain’s Emma Raducanu, who is out of this year’s tournament with injury.

Alcaraz has been replaced as world number two by Alexander Zverev after being unable to defend his Cincinnati Open title.

Rival Jannik Sinner is well clear at the top of the world rankings, having won Wimbledon in July, while Zverev won the French Open and finished runner-up at SW19.

Sinner – as he did at Wimbledon – will go into the US Open with no match time on a hard court after withdrawing from Cincinnati with a knee injury.

The US Open singles event begins on Sunday, 30 August in New York.

Venus has fared better in doubles in recent years, reaching the quarter-finals in New York last year alongside Canada’s Leylah Fernandez.

She has not won a singles match at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2021, where she reached the second round.

However, the Williams sisters still draw huge crowds together or separately, with stands packed out in Cincinnati for their recent return.

Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, played what was expected to be the last tournament of her career in New York in 2022.

However, she made her return first in doubles at Queen’s in June before being given the final Wimbledon women’s singles wildcard.

Venus won her first US Open singles title in 2000, two months after earning her maiden major at Wimbledon.

She beat Serena in the final a year later to defend her title – the first of nine major showpieces the sister would contest.

Venus became the oldest US Open singles player in 44 years when she played at the tournament last year.

She lost in three sets to ninth seed Karolina Muchova and gave an emotional news conference afterwards, saying it was “nice to be free”.

In 2011, Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disease with symptoms including pain, numbness and fatigue.

She spoke in 2025 about the impact of painful fibroids – abnormal growths that develop in the uterus – on her daily life.

In the men’s draw, France’s Gael Monfils has been awarded a wildcard in the final Grand Slam of his career.

The 39-year-old, who reached the New York semi-finals in 2016, will retire at the end of the season.

There is also one remaining wildcard for the men’s singles, which could go to 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka.

The Swiss is also calling time on his career at the end of the year.

SACRAMENTO — A billionaire-funded political group gave a $5-million donation to the campaign opposing California’s proposed wealth tax, the first of many expected in the expensive fight over a ballot question dividing the state.

If approved by voters, Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires who were residing in the state at the start of this year to pay primarily for healthcare.

The ballot measure has splintered California Democrats and their allies, who are at odds over which public services would receive a portion of the revenue and Proposition 40’s long-term impact on the state budget.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and groups including Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and the California Teachers Assn. oppose the tax, arguing it could push many of the state’s biggest taxpayers to relocate and in effect destabilize the state’s finances.

On Monday, nine Democratic state lawmakers announced their opposition to Proposition 40, writing in an open letter to voters that “while well-intentioned, this measure will blow a massive hole in our state budget in the years ahead and undermine our ability to sustain investments in the very priorities Prop 40 claims to support.” Its signers included Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks), Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier) and John Harabedian (D-Pasadena).

The California Democratic Party, the California Federation of Labor Unions and progressive officials including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) support the tax, which is intended to raise roughly $100 billion over five years to backfill federal cuts to healthcare and other social safety net programs by President Trump and the Republican-led Congress.

To this point, Building a Better California — a group funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and other members of the Silicon Valley elite — has focused on qualifying two ballot measures meant to defang the billionaire tax while maintaining a neutral position on Proposition 40 itself.

That changed over the weekend when the group of billionaires officially came out against the measure and reported the $5-million donation to the anti-Proposition 40 campaign backed by teachers and firefighters unions.

A handful of billionaires have pumped more than $156 million into Building a Better California, mostly from Brin, who has given more than $100 million to the group. It has also received more than $17 million from venture capitalist L. John Doerr, $12 million from Ripple Labs founder Chris Larsen and $3 million from philanthropist and former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

In addition to opposing the wealth tax, Building a Better California announced support for Proposition 3, which would permanently extend an existing tax on certain high earners, along with two housing bonds.

The group has already spent more than $127 million on two competing ballot measures written to weaken or nullify the billionaire tax: Proposition 41 would require audits for new state special taxes and prohibit new taxes from being excluded from the state spending limit. Proposition 42 would ban new taxes on assets such as as personal property, intellectual property and retirement accounts.

If Proposition 40 passes but either Proposition 41 or Proposition 42 receive more votes, the billionaire tax would be voided.

“A few controversial billionaires like Sergey Brin would rather spend millions to fund shady opposition campaigns than simply pay their fair share in taxes so millions of their fellow Californians don’t lose their healthcare. That’s shameful,” said Debru Carthan, executive vice president of Service Employees International United-Healthcare Workers West, the union that collected the signatures to put the measure on the ballot.

Abby Lunardini, a spokesperson for Building a Better California, said the state “is at an inflection point” due to its high cost of living and taxes.

“California’s future rests on both maintaining our economic competitiveness and making smart, accountable public investments that improve affordability and quality of life for all,” Lunardini wrote in a statement. “It’s rare for such a broad coalition to unite around any single cause in California, but it reflects the potentially devastating impact of this measure on healthcare, education, and our state’s economy.”

The $5-million donation is the largest reported by the Proposition 40 opposition campaign, which wrote in a statement that it “welcomes support from everyone — teachers, doctors, hospitals, community clinics, firefighters, housing advocates, blue-collar unions, entrepreneurs, small businesses, Democrats, and Republicans.”

The donation indicates that members of the opposition coalition — and not billionaires — will play a more visible role in campaign ads.

“Two groups in California that have the most credibility with voters are the teachers and the firefighters,” said Garry South, a Democratic strategist who has worked on past ballot measure campaigns. Making them visible messengers against Proposition 40 “is a very important credibility aspect for the No campaign.”

“Nobody likes political consultants or lawyers. They like firefighters and nurses and teachers,” Republican strategist Matt Rexroad agreed.

Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz clinched an AVP Manhattan Beach Open three-peat on Sunday, sweeping Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft.

It was the tournament’s first three-peat since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won four straight titles from 2005-08.

Brasher and Cruz, the top-ranked women’s pro beach volleyball team out of Louisiana State, rolled past Cheng and Kraft 2-1 (21-18, 21-16).

Brasher and Cruz took a commanding 4-1 lead to start the first set, the first of back-and-forth surges by both sides. Cheng and Kraft tied the set at 15, but Brasher and Cruz pulled ahead for the 21-18 win.

Kristen Cruz dives for a dig during the AVP Manhattan Beach Open women’s final at Manhattan Beach Pier on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Taryn Brasher, left, and Kristen Cruz celebrate after defeating Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft during the AVP Manhattan Beach Open women’s final Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Brasher and Cruz kept the pressure on during the second match, pulling ahead early 8-6 and leading by as much as 17-12 before closing out the victory.

On the men’s side, Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb defeated Thomas Hurst and Gage Basey in two sets (21-14, 21-13) to clinch the tournament title.

Crabb previously clinched a Manhattan Beach Pier bronze plaque, but it was Benesh’s first time winning the open.

Crabb and Benesh took a commanding 8-3 lead in the first set with all of the energy flowing on their side. Hurst and Basey rallied to cut the deficit to 8-7, but Benesh ended the scoring drought with a monster block.

Taylor Crabb dives for a ball during the AVP Manhattan Beach Open men’s final at Manhattan Beach Pier on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Andy Benesh, left, spikes the ball under pressure from Thomas Hurst.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb stand alongside friends and family after winning the AVP Manhattan Beach Open on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)

Benesh and Crabb added to their lead to 13-8 with back-to-back blocks and rolled to a 21-14 win.

The duo led early in the final set and had little trouble delivering a 21-13 victory.

Crabb had 10 kills and 14 digs during the match, with many of the kills coming during the second set. Benesh closed with 14 kills and eight blocks.

Jack Whaley became only the second Englishman to win the US Amateur Championship since 1911 as he beat American Jay Leng Jr 4&3 at Merion.

Victory will give the 22-year-old a place in the field for the Masters, US Open and The Open at St Andrews in 2027.

Whaley, who attends Florida State University, came into the contest as a major underdog against Leng Jr, who is 23rd in the world amateur golf rankings, some 67 places higher than the 22-year-old from Doncaster.

The on-course form looked to be following the rankings as Whaley slipped two down after the opening 18 holes in Sunday’s 36-hole encounter.

However, Whaley fought back superbly, making back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes of his second round on his way to winning four holes consecutively.

With rain lashing down in Pennsylvania, both players took two of the next six holes before Leng Jr misread a putt on the 12th to hand his opponent a three-hole lead.

Whaley rounded off his win with a superb left-to-right putt for birdie at 15 to become the first English amateur to triumph in the US Amateur since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.

Prior to Fitzpatrick, Harold Hilton had been the last Englishman to won the title in 1911, with Scotland’s Richie Ramsay (2006) the only other British winner since 1898.

Fitzpatrick went on to follow up his success at The Country Club in Brookline by winning the US Open on the same course in 2022.

Former US Amateur winners include Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland.

Novak Djokovic suffered from punishing heat and humidity on Saturday but made a match of it before falling 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Thiago Tirante in what could be the Serb’s last appearance at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.

The second-round battle lasted for more than two and a half hours, and it proved too much for the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who was playing his first match since he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon semifinals more than a month ago.

Top-seeded Alexander Zverev, the French Open champion who fell to Sinner in the Wimbledon final, was more fortunate, squeezing out an opening 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cameron Norrie in a match that took two hours and 45 minutes and ended at 2:15am.

Britain’s Norrie has now lost all eight of his matches against the German, winner of the Cincinnati title five years ago, who is hoping a return to Ohio will help him shake off an abrupt exit in Canada last week.

Norrie had wrapped up the opening set before Zverev began to find his footing to level the match.

Norrie saved six break points in a 12-minute game to begin the deciding set but was broken twice as Zverev advanced.

“I needed to get a match rhythm,” Zverev said. “The confidence was not there after Canada.

“The first set was not great, but the other two were at a high level, and I’m happy about that.”

Depleted Djokovic

Djokovic, who claimed the last of his three Cincinnati titles in 2023, took the opening set against Argentina’s Tirante with little fuss.

But the sweltering afternoon temperatures took a toll.

“It was a combination of the heat and humidity, all those things,” he said. “Everything involved makes it worse.”

Djokovic won a brutal 18-minute third game of the second, saving four break points over nine deuces. But he was bent over in distress between several points and even dropped to his hands and knees after one particularly gruelling exchange.

Djokovic took a medical timeout after that game, with the physio and then a doctor coming on court to assist with assessments and ice towels.

After Tirante took the second set, both players cooled off in the locker room.

Slightly revived, Djokovic set the pace again in the deciding set. But it all went wrong in the ninth game, when Djokovic saved three break points before getting it wrong on a drop shot to bring up a fourth break chance that his opponent converted.

Tirante clinched the biggest win of his career in the next game as Djokovic again failed to land a drop shot on match point.

The Serb, who must now try to regroup before the US Open starts on August 30, admitted he might have played his last match in Cincy.

“It looks like I won’t be back, unfortunately, to play here,” he said.

Tirante called the win the best of his career.

“I managed the nerves of playing a legend like Novak. It was all so much pressure.”

‘Focused’ Eala advances

In the WTA draw, Philippines sensation Alexandra Eala advanced to the third round 6-1, 3-0 as injured Elena-Gabriela Ruse retired from their match during a weather delay.

The Romanian had received treatment on her right ankle just before play was halted by a thunderstorm, Ruse pulling the plug during the delay.

Eala, the emerging WTA star who captured her first WTA title in Washington, DC, this month, will next play ninth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova, who beat Turk Zeynep Sonmez 6-2, 6-3.

“I was playing well and feeling really focused,” Eala said. “I tried to stay in the zone.”

“A retirement is not the way you want to end a match,” she added. “Injuries are not fun.”

Roland Garros finalist Maja Chwalinska advanced 6-2, 6-2 over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.

Wimbledon winner Linda Noskova followed suit with her 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Britain’s Katie Boulter.

There was heartbreak for Payton Stearns, who grew up just blocks from the tennis centre. She lost 7-6 (9/7), 1-6, 7-5 to Dane Clara Tauson, who played through back pain but rallied from 4-1 down in the final set to win.

Novak Djokovic struggled with the heat and humidity as he fell to a shock defeat by Argentina’s Thiago Tirante in the second round of the Cincinnati Open.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion dropped onto his hands and knees and took a medical timeout during the second set before eventually losing 2-6 6-4 6-4 to the South American, who is ranked 50th in the world.

Djokovic, 39, the world number five, was making his first appearance since losing to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals at Wimbledon in July.

The Serbian had never failed to reach at least the last 32 of the tournament in Ohio since making his debut in it in 2005.

However, despite claiming the first set, Djokovic toiled badly after winning an 18-minute third game in the second set and appeared to vomit twice.

A physio and a doctor both provided on-court assistance and both players returned to the dressing rooms after the second set.

However, when play resumed Djokovic dropped serve in the ninth game of the third set and Tirante was able see out the match.

“This is the best win of my career,” said the Argentine.

“I managed the nerves of playing a legend like Novak. It was all so much pressure.”

A GRAND historic castle in the UK is getting a new lease of life, by reopening as a major tourist attraction.

Haverfordwest Castle in Pembrokeshire, Wales, is set to undergo a massive £17.7million project to become a top tourist attraction with Christmas markets, open-air theatre shows, community events and a visitor centre.

There will also be a new cafe at the castle as well as a shop selling locally crafted items and produce.

The castle itself dates back over 800 years and over that time has changed hands several times, seeing numerous wars.

In 1648, Oliver Cromwell even ordered the castle to be destroyed and later in the 18th century part of the castle was turned into a prison.

It then later became a police station and local council offices.

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Today, the castle is mainly in ruin with the remains of some of the castle’s towers still standing.

Regarding the upcoming project, the castle’s website states: “The new flagship heritage attraction will tell Pembrokeshire’s fascinating story in a fun, immersive and interactive exhibition space.

“You will explore how creativity and resourcefulness have shaped local life; feel the spirit of place, myths, legends and natural forces; and explore stories through playful, physical and digital experiences.

“There will be a new café selling locally-sourced food and drink and a 500-seater outdoor event space with shows and live-music expected to be programmed throughout the summer months.”

The castle is then expected to reopen to the public in 2028 and will be free to visit.

Councillor Paul Miller, deputy leader of Pembrokeshire County Council, said: “We are excited to see this ambitious project continue apace and this next stage brings us much closer to what will be a flagship heritage attraction, boosting not only the town’s economy but also the wider area.”

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams defeated 6-2, 6-2 by Emiliana Arango in the first round of Cincinnati Open.

Venus Williams’s losing streak in singles play has reached 13 matches.

The seven-time major champion was defeated 6-2, 6-2 by Emiliana Arango late on Friday in the first round of the Cincinnati Open.

The 46-year-old Williams received a wild-card entry to the WTA 1000 event. She has not won a singles match since July 2025.

Arango, a 25-year-old qualifier from Colombia ranked 95th, needed 1 hour, 5 minutes to defeat Williams on the grandstand court at Lindner Tennis Center.

Williams had her serve broken in the first game of the match and faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. Arango was 4 of 5 on converting break points and won 71 percent of her first-serve points.

Williams was unable to convert on her lone break opportunity and was only 41 percent on first-serve points.

“That kind of eased my nerves a little bit of having maybe a little bit of breathing room. And then I think I just did a good job of staying on it, trying to make her play as much as possible,” Arango said about getting ahead early.

Arango will face No 7 seed and defending Cincinnati champion Iga Swiatek in the second round.

Williams’s last singles victory came last year in Washington, when she defeated Peyton Stearns.

“I think that at all times I was really controlling the point, but unfortunately didn’t finish it the way I wanted to,” said Williams, who is making her 11th appearance in the tournament. “The encouraging part is that I’m controlling the shots, but I have to just get a little more consistent on that last part.”

Williams will remain in Cincinnati to play doubles with her sister, Serena, after they received a wild-card entry. They last played doubles together at the 2022 US Open.

The Williams sisters were slated to play doubles at Wimbledon before an injury to Serena. They will play Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns in the first round.

The doubles portion of the tournament starts on Sunday.

“I’m excited and hope that we can both go into it fresh, on our toes and ready. I’ll be preparing for that,” Venus Williams said.

Venus is also slated to play mixed doubles at the US Open later this month with Alexander Bublik.

Ein el-Hilweh, occupied West Bank – Adel Daraghmeh lies on his side on a thin mattress laid straight onto the dusty ground, one arm flung out, a sandal hanging half off his foot. “We don’t sleep, we barely drink, we barely eat,” he says weakly.

Above him, a patchwork of dark tarpaulins and old blankets is tied together between a few bent wooden poles – the only thing standing between his family and a sun pushing past 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in the early afternoon.

They are homeless again – their home destroyed days before by an Israeli bulldozer despite a court injunction they believed protected them. Beside him, his wife, Kheirieh, sits on a chair, a small plastic cup of water cradled in both hands.

About 30 metres up a slope, a settler-built fence now cuts across the hillside, cutting Adel and his brothers off from land their flocks grazed for generations. Past the fence, on the crest of the hill, an Israeli flag flies – visible from where Adel lies. “Isn’t this a disgrace, what we are living in?” he asks, more than once, over the course of an hour.

Adel manages diabetes with daily medication, but it’s been a struggle to obtain it in recent days. “They bulldozed the medication [in the house],” says Adel. “Our things, our household goods – all gone. They destroyed us. Our phones, the solar panels – no electricity, no water.”

As the family has learned in recent weeks, as Israel gears up for fiercely contested elections in October, even an Israeli Supreme Court injunction may not stop the bulldozers from coming now.

‘Five minutes to clear the whole area’

The wreckage of the Daraghmehs’ house is still scattered: clothes, a pulverised medicine cabinet, a hollowed-out mini-fridge with its door hanging open, and split cinderblocks.

Even after their son Hilal’s home was demolished shortly before without warning, the July 28 demolition of Adel and Kheirieh’s home came as a shock. With Adel a short drive away in Tubas collecting medication, Kheirieh was home with their daughter, Hanaa, when Israeli soldiers, settlers and Civil Administration officials arrived with a bulldozer and about 10 other vehicles. “They came while I was asleep,” she says.

Kheirieh walked out to meet them with the family’s legal papers – proof, she believed, that the home was protected by an earlier Israeli Supreme Court order barring demolition until the family’s case was resolved.

The court had suspended a 2022 demolition order while a case brought forward by the family progressed.

Soldiers took the documents, read them, conferred among themselves, and handed them back.

Then the bulldozer started anyway.

“Five minutes to clear the whole area,” one of them told her, she says.

“I told him: I can’t. I can’t clear the area. I’m on my own, and I’m ill,” she says. Already sick, and now seeing the bulldozers bearing down on her home with nearly everything she owned inside, she blacked out, waking up three hours later in an ambulance.

“And before I knew it, the bulldozer had started,” she says. “The whole house – all of it. All our belongings. Gone.”

“No order, no law,” added Adel weakly from the ground. “No humanity.”

‘Discriminatory’ system

“The army and the settlers demolished … despite the existence of a court order prohibiting it,” says Tawfiq Jabareen, the lawyer representing the Daraghmeh family, referring to the initial July 2 demolition of Hilal’s home. “The prosecution claimed it was a mistake by the army, and that it would not happen again – but the demolition was repeated.”

“The law and court rulings mean nothing to the settlers,” adds Jabareen, “who try to circumvent them by every means, believing that imposing facts on the ground is stronger than any law or court ruling.”

The Daraghmehs are herders of livestock who have lived along the Ein el-Hilweh spring, in the northern Jordan Valley, for generations. Four brothers and their families live in the area. “I was born here,” Adel says. “My father was born here.”

Nearby are the illegal Israeli settlement of Maskiyot and several settler outposts established in recent years, subjecting the extended family to numerous attacks, thefts and raids.

Like herding communities across Area C of the West Bank – under complete Israeli military and administrative control – the family has spent years navigating demolition orders under a planning system that leaves Palestinians almost no legal path to build.

Adel has had his home demolished before and spent significant money to rebuild it, he explains. What’s different now, they say, is that even that limited process – a warning, a demolition order, followed by a chance to appeal – has stopped applying to them at all. No demolition order was presented for either Hilal’s home or Adel’s when they came to bulldoze them despite the court injunctions.

Soldiers, settlers and Civil Administration officials arrived together during the demolitions, according to the family and activists present.

Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the West Bank Protection Consortium and a lawyer who has represented Palestinians before Israeli courts for decades, says the irregularity of such demolitions is no aberration in an otherwise functioning system.

“This is a continuation of the deterioration of any pretence of legal protection for Palestinians,” she says. Even the ordinary planning process was built to fail Palestinians, she argues. Under a zoning system inherited from Jordanian and British Mandate-era law, Israel changed some of the laws to the detriment of Palestinians, leaving most Palestinian areas in Area C without approved building plans, while Israeli settlements – illegal under international law – are zoned and built freely.

“The Israelis set up the system to be discriminatory and to fail Palestinians,” says Pacheco. “So people build anyway, get the stop-work order, then demolition [order] – which you can appeal. But you’re appealing to the one who made the rule to discriminate against Palestinian construction.

“There’s no way for Palestinians in general to win under the current Israeli legal framework.”

As lines blur between authorities and settlers, who exactly spearheaded the demolition – soldiers, settlers, the Civil Administration – was unclear even to the family. “They’re all the same when they come,” says Hilal. “They’re all together.”

According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since January 2023, more than 6,200 Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, have been forcibly displaced, including more than 2,300 people since the beginning of 2026 alone. More than 907 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank have already been demolished this year.

Al Jazeera reached out to Israeli authorities and the military for comment on the events described in this article, but no response has yet been received.

‘Nothing is holding them back’

A short walk from the rubble of his parents’ home – and his own – Hilal sits under the shade of a tree beside the spring that sustained his family for generations, one that he and his flocks can no longer use.

Minutes earlier, he’d watched two settlers cool off at the spring, dousing themselves with water as one of them changed into a military uniform on the bank.

Hilal’s own remaining cattle – most of the herd already stolen, confiscated or sold – scrounge instead for whatever run-off is left once the settlers are gone. “We used to drink from this spring, and carry water on the donkey,” he says. “But they stopped us. The settlers fenced it off.”

Later, he rides his donkey across the road to what remains of his home. What had been walls and a roof is now a field of scorched rubble and gnarled metal piping, bent and knotted where the bulldozer dragged it. On his donkey, Hilal points to where each room had stood. He estimates the losses at 170,000 shekels ($57,000).

“Not a single thing I got to take – all of it is gone,” he says.

Next door, at the home of Adel’s brother, Qadri – which was previously demolished in August last year – several relatives, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, describe an extended family bracing for its turn.

“Nothing is holding them back now,” one son says. “They don’t even need an order any more. Of course we are scared they will come for us next.”

Prevented from rebuilding by nearby settlers and soldiers, Adel and Kheirieh now rely on relatives for help getting basic supplies. “All of our family helps each other,” says one relative, “but it is so hard when we don’t have enough, and we might be next.”

Following earlier thefts by settlers and confiscations from authorities a year and a half ago, the family had another 50 head of cattle stolen by settlers, they say.

Amid deteriorating health, an exhausted, heat-stricken Adel sits up from lying on the ground only when the topic of past weddings comes up. His hoarse voice strengthens, and he breaks into a wide smile. Softly, he begins clapping out the rhythm of a dahiyyeh – the sung, chanted line-dance of Bedouin celebrations – his wavering voice rising over the sound of his own hands.

“What beautiful times together,” he says. “Beautiful.”

Then, as if that singing expended the last of his dwindling energy, he sinks back onto the sweat-stained mattress and exhales. “Inshallah those times will return,” he says. “Inshallah.”

Elena Rybakina stages a huge comeback to beat Naomi Osaka and will now play Coco Gauff for a place in the final.

Second-seeded Elena Rybakina fought back from a set and a break down to prevail 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in her Canadian Open quarterfinal against Naomi Osaka in Toronto on Tuesday.

Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon and 2026 ⁠Australian Open champion, will meet fourth-seeded Coco Gauff for a place in the final after the American’s opponent, Belinda Bencic, withdrew due to a hip injury.

In ⁠the first tour-level meeting between Osaka and Rybakina, the Japanese player looked to be cruising to victory after breaking in the opening game and holding that advantage to pocket the first set.

The four-time Grand Slam champion then surged to a 4-2 lead in ‌the second set, but Rybakina rallied and came out on top in a tiebreaker to force the decider.

In the third set, the Kazakh successfully defended four break points before breaking Osaka’s serve in back-to-back games to seize control and seal victory in two hours and 33 minutes.

“This first game of the match was really tough because it cost me the set,” Rybakina said. “In the second ⁠I was just trying to stay closer to the score, ⁠even if I’m losing.

“It’s rare when you don’t play some players for so many years you’re on tour. She’s a great champion. She’s a fighter. I knew it would be a tough match.”

Earlier ⁠on Tuesday, Gauff advanced without striking a ball after Bencic withdrew from their quarterfinal, giving the American more time to ⁠fine-tune her game before the US Open.

The 2023 ⁠US Open champion is into the 16th WTA 1000 semifinal of her career as the 22-year-old chases her first title of the year.

Gauff finished runner-up in Miami and Rome before her Wimbledon campaign ended ‌in a tight semifinal defeat. She has introduced new tactical elements to her game and has looked strong in Toronto, where she has not dropped a set.

The only ‌previous ‌meeting between Gauff and Rybakina was also in Toronto, where the American won in three sets in 2022.

For five decades, Top Of The Pops defined the music industry.

Before streaming, YouTube, and TikTok, the hit BBC show was the go-to place for both fledgling singers looking for a big break and superstars alike.

Now the show’s assistant floor manager Gareth Davies, 51, has lifted the lid on what really went on behind the scenes — branding Jennifer Lopez and Shania Twain the biggest divas.

He also recalls how Madonna was left twiddling her thumbs after her clothes went missing.

Gareth, who worked on the show from the mid-to-late Nineties through to the early Noughties, said: “My job was to get artists from backstage and guide them to the stage for their performance.

“Jennifer Lopez had the most demands, for sure.

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“The dressing rooms were all along this narrow corridor — so nothing special, really, quite old-fashioned. But for that small stretch of space, she made it completely her own.

“The best way to describe it is that she turned her dressing room entirely white.

“I’m not sure where the fascination with white came from, but she wanted everything transformed.

“The whole room was covered from top to bottom, which was quite unusual.

“She didn’t paint it. She had plastic sheeting put up everywhere instead, so it created this striking, all-white environment.”

It’s a far cry from the image of the Bronx girl done good portrayed in the lyrics of her 2002 hit Jenny From The Block.

But J.Lo’s antics pale into insignificance compared to country legend Shania Twain.

Recalling how the superstar was flanked by her team at all times, Gareth said: “Shania Twain had a really large entourage with her, and my lasting memory was watching her walk from the dressing rooms to the studio.

“There was this long line of people moving ahead of her, like a relay.

“Apparently she didn’t open doors, so someone would always be one step ahead holding it open for her. It was this perfectly choreographed system so she could just keep walking.”

Shania appeared on the show four times during Gareth’s time on the series, making her debut in June 1999 with That Don’t Impress Me Much before returning in December that same year. She also performed in 2000 and 2002.

But for every diva, there was also an unlikely down-to-earth performer.

Perhaps the most surprising was Janet Jackson, sister of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Gareth said: “I remember everyone on the studio floor waiting quite a long time for Janet to arrive.

“We were all being very casual about it, thinking, well, she’s a major A-lister, of course she’s going to be late. So we just waited around.

“But it turned out Janet and all her dancers had been there the whole time, quietly waiting on stage themselves while we were all waiting for her.

“She was just there in her tracksuit bottoms and hoodie, completely relaxed in that effortlessly cool way.

“What really stayed with me was how kind, gentle, and soft she was. Everyone was genuinely taken aback.

“She felt like one of the dancers, really, just keen to be part of the group rather than setting herself apart as the star.”

Kylie Minogue was also reportedly a total sweetheart.

Speaking about the I Should Be So Lucky singer, Gareth said: “I was quite obsessed with Kylie.

“I remember knocking on her dressing room door with my little script in hand.

“I’d already managed to get Gina G’s autograph — it was around the time she was doing the Eurovision Song Contest (in 1996) — so I thought, right, I’m going to get Kylie Minogue’s on here too.

“I knocked on the door, told her I was a big fan, and she was so lovely.

“She invited me in and chatted with me for a bit, just as a person rather than as a BBC employee. That really stayed with me.”

As well as performing on the show, Kylie went on to make a number of presenting cameos.

Music legend Madonna made her Top Of The Pops debut in January 1984, belting out her single Holiday. She went on to perform a further 13 times, all of which were lapped up by fans. But Gareth recalls how one performance almost didn’t happen after she lost her costume.

He told online gambling platform Zingo Bingo: “I do remember that one time when Madonna came over, everything felt much tighter and more rushed than usual.

“Sometimes an artist would record several songs from an album in one go, so they wouldn’t have to keep coming back again and again.

“From the moment she arrived, it was straight into the studio, rehearsing, back to get ready, then out on stage.

“But she and her team had all rushed in from a hotel in central London, and somehow her stylist had left all the outfits behind.

“We actually had to delay because Madonna had nothing to wear.

“It really felt like she had someone responsible for every tiny detail, so you can imagine whoever was in charge of the wardrobe that day was probably in serious trouble.”

First broadcast on the BBC on New Year’s Day in 1964, Top Of The Pops ran for over four decades.

But despite the huge names and viewing figures, the show was actually as humble as it gets, with greasy-spoon breakfasts being served metres away from where LA-based megastars were doing their pre-show yoga.

Gareth said: “It was filmed at Elstree Studios, where EastEnders was shot, and Grange Hill was filmed there too.

“It was a very traditional, slightly old-fashioned BBC studio that hadn’t really been updated for years. You had this classic canteen staffed by people who’d been there forever, serving no-frills British fry-ups, along with old-school dressing rooms.

“Elstree felt quite remote, almost in the middle of nowhere. So when artists came over, especially from America, they were expecting to appear on the BBC’s biggest music show.

“They probably imagined being right in the heart of London where everything’s happening.

“Instead, they were on the quiet outskirts with very little going on.

“It did make for some surreal moments. You’d spot a big star sitting near a soap star legend, tucking into a breakfast.”

The show was so big that from 2001 to 2005, the BBC hosted the Top Of The Pops Awards at the Manchester Arena.

Explaining how the show felt more like a family at times, Gareth said: “What was so nice was that there really wasn’t much for anyone to do.

“An artist might rehearse at ten in the morning, and then we wouldn’t record until seven in the evening, so they’d just be hanging around.

“It created a real sense of community. You got to see people as much backstage and offstage as you did onstage, which was quite unique.

“Normally, artists come in, rehearse, and then disappear until they’re needed.

“But there, everyone stayed, mingled, and just spent time together, which gave it a very different, much more relaxed atmosphere.

“I remember the first time the Spice Girls got on stage for their rehearsals, they were all jumping around and hugging each other. That was a moment where they felt they had made it.

“The five of them just had this amazing chemistry together. Their personalities worked so well and it wasn’t faked for cameras.

“You’d go into the dressing room and the energy was electric. They were so fun.”

After five decades of being “still number one”, the final Top Of The Pops aired on July 30, 2006.

The BBC said in a statement: “The decision to bring the show to an end after 42 years has not been taken lightly and over the past few years every effort has been made to maintain the quality and distinctiveness of the show.

“However, the BBC’s Creative Future Music Strategy has concluded that in a rapidly changing musical landscape, Top Of The Pops no longer occupies the central role it once did.”

Scottish rock band Snow Patrol were the final ever act to play on the show — belting out their single Chasing Cars.

Zhang Anda shocked world number three Zhao Xintong with a thrilling 6-5 victory by potting a respotted black ball in round one of the China Open.

Zhang, who was down 3-0 in frames, fought back to eventually lead 5-4.

However, last year’s world champion Zhao forced a deciding frame that ended in dramatic fashion.

Zhang, ranked 19th in the world, was in control at 57-0 up, but Zhao fought back to lead with both players on the black.

The black was eventually potted by Zhang to force a respot – used as a tie-breaker when a frame ends with the scores level – with the 34-year-old prevailing.

He will now face England’s Chris Wakelin.

World number five John Higgins also lost in the first round after he was defeated 6-4 by 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — Iran has replaced its top security official with another commander of its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a spokesman for Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian said late Sunday.

Mohsen Rezaei, who had been an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will be the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. He replaced Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who resigned.

Zolghadr had been in the post since his predecessor, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli air strike in March. He will serve as political adviser to Khamenei.

The shakeup came as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is not talking directly with the U.S. to end the war with Tehran and open the Strait of Hurmuz, despite claims by U.S. officials that the sides are near a deal.

Araghchi was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying that “messages are being exchanged through intermediaries” and Iran isn’t talking directly with Washington. He reportedly added Washington must meet conditions by Iran if a deal is reached with Oman to open a trade route through the waterway.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday his administration is “low keying it” in negotiations with Tehran.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump said. “It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and Khamenei would have to agree to any deal to open the strait.

On Saturday, Zolghadr said U.S. forces should be withdrawn from near Iran. He added that the U.S. should compensate Iran for war damages as well as lift sanctions.

Iranian diplomats said earlier last week that Tehran and Oman were near a new agreement to manage the strait.

Number one ranked player in men’s tennis will miss the tournament due to a knee issue, he says via organisers.

World number one Jannik Sinner has pulled out of the Cincinnati Open due to a right knee injury, the Italian has announced.

“After consulting with my doctors and my team, I have to announce that I need to withdraw from the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati,” he said in a statement posted on the ATP website on Sunday.

“My right knee has been bothering me and even though we have been working hard with my medical team, I have to accept that I’m not ready to compete yet.”

The tournament begins on Thursday, the same day as the end of the Masters event in Montreal, which Sinner also missed.

The five-time Grand Slam winner had been on a six-tournament winning streak at 1000 level heading into the North American hard-court swing, before skipping the event in Canada.

The 24-year-old said then that the decision was taken to “prioritise my health”.

Sinner’s subsequent withdrawal from Cincinnati follows that of world number two Carlos Alcaraz as the Spaniard continues to battle a wrist injury.

The Cincinnati Open and Montreal Masters are the two principal warm-up events ahead of the final Grand Slam of the season, the US Open, which starts in New York on 30 August.

World number one Judd Trump lost to Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham, while Shaun Murphy set a new scoring record and Ronnie O’Sullivan made a winning start to his campaign on day two of the China Open.

Trump could lose his world number one ranking before the end of the month after a 6-3 loss to Saengkham, ranked 45th in the world.

In round two, the Thai player will face seven-time world champion O’Sullivan, who made a century break and four further breaks over 60 as he recovered from losing the opening two frames to beat Wales’ Jackson Page 6-2.

The China Open is the first main ranking tournament of the 2026-27 season and former world champion Murphy made some snooker history in his 6-0 victory over fellow Englishman Matthew Selt.

Murphy, who lost 18-17 in the World Championship final to China’s Wu Yize in May, made breaks of 18, 61, 132, 103, 139, 113 and 41 in frame six, before playing safe for a record total of 607 unanswered points before Selt potted a ball.

His tally surpassed the previous record of 556, set by O’Sullivan during a 6-0 win over Ricky Walden at the 2014 Masters.

Murphy, who turns 44 on Monday, told the World Snooker Tour (WST) website: “I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon.

“I knew I was close – at the interval I didn’t want to go looking on any websites to check what the record was. If you find yourself in the bubble and in the flow, you just want to stay in it.

“It was a delight to play for a great crowd out there and put on a good show. I haven’t set that many records throughout my career and I am sure someone will go out and beat this one at some stage. But to be part of snooker history in this way is a great thrill.”

As well as setting a new record for most points without reply, Murphy also equalled the record for the most consecutive centuries with four, something he has now done twice. Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Australia’s Neil Robertson are the others to have achieved that feat.

Murphy’s incredible day could have got better in frame five as he was on course for a maximum 147, only for the run to end at 113 as he missed the 15th black.

Ekaterina Alexandrov took down four-time Grand Slam singles champion Aryna Sabalenka in a three-set marathon in Toronto.

World number one ‌Aryna Sabalenka suffered a setback in her US Open ⁠build-up after ⁠she was beaten 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 by Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the fourth round of the Canadian Open ⁠in Toronto on Saturday.

The 16th-seeded Alexandrova fought a hard battle, lasting nearly two and a half hours, to secure her quarterfinal berth.

Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and reigning US Open winner, recovered from a set down to force a decider but was unable to halt Alexandrova’s aggressive shot-making in the final set.

The Belarusian ‌broke early in the opening set before Alexandrova rallied to force a tiebreak, which the Russian won to move ahead.

Sabalenka responded by seizing control of the second set with a break for a 4-3 lead before serving out to level the match.

Alexandrova held her nerve in the decider as ⁠Sabalenka’s error count rose. Serving to stay ⁠in the match at 4-5, the top seed saved two match points, but a double fault on the third handed victory to the Russian.

“I just tried to ⁠play every single point as if it was the last one because with her, you ⁠don’t [get] a lot of chances during ⁠the match,” Alexandrova said in her on-court interview.

“Honestly, I was trying not to think about the score or anything. Just hit the ball, and that’s it.

“I’m super ‌happy that I could win because after the second set, I thought (the chance) was already past me.”

Alexandrova will face Ukraine’s Elina ‌Svitolina, ‌who defeated American eighth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 6-4 for a place in the semifinals.