A GRIEVING mum has paid a heartbreaking tribute to her seven year-old-daughter who tragically died just days after she was seen “running and dancing.”
Tasmine Nichols, 28, has been left devastated following the death of her “beautiful and funny little girl.”
Bonnie Haydon’s family, from Plymouth, had to face the unimaginable and turn off their seven-year-old daughter’s life machine in August.
Tasmine explained that Bonnie had been in and out of Derriford Hospital since July.
Bonnie was diagnosed with asthma at a very young age but “had been doing fine over the years” until this year, according to her mum.
She was medicated for the asthma and had an inhaler, but was described as a happy child that was always full of energy.
The young girl was on her second admission on August 10 and was sent home, however, tragedy struck just 12 days later.
The concerned mother took her daughter straight back to hospital.
Tasmine explained that on August 25, Bonnie seemed full of life and was behaving like a normal, energetic seven-year-old.
She said: “She was running around the hospital playing, dancing and singing everything a child would do.
“But the next day she was placed into an induced coma in the early hours.”
Tasmine went on to tell PlymouthLive that at first she was told they were just going to sedate Bonnie, but soon after, she was informed that her daughter was going to be placed into a coma.
This was a coma that Bonnie would tragically never come out of.
She was later rushed to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children where Tasmine explained she was doing well, until 9am on August 27.
After being rushed in for a CT scan, Tasmine was delivered the devastating news that her daughter’s brain had no activity.
The following day, Bonnie was taken for an MRI where it was confirmed that the little girl had no brain activity at all.
In the early hours of August 29, the family had to face the unimaginable, and let Bonnie go.
In the wake of her death, family friend Charlie Wilkinson has set up a GoFundMefundraiser to help support the family during this terrible time.
Charlie explained that Tasmine is facing every parent’s worst nightmare, planning a funeral for her child.
Writing on the fundraising page, Charlie said: “Bonnie deserves the most beautiful and special send off and we want to help take that stress away so her family can focus on saying goodbye.
“Every single penny will go towards giving Bonnie the most stunning and special day, one that shows just how loved she was and always will be.
“She will forever be seven, forever loved, and forever missed.”
AN ex-cricket star married to a Thai woman who tragically died in a Waitrose aged just 46 has paid tribute to his “loving” wife.
Duncan Pauline, 64, said he and his wife Wiyada were looking forward to retiring to her home country before her sudden death on Wednesday.
5
Wiyada, who died in a Waitrose, was just 46-years-oldCredit: Supplied by husband
5
Wiyada and her husband were looking forward to retiring to her home country before her sudden death on WednesdayCredit: Supplied by husband
5
Duncan, head coach at Esher Cricket Club, said he will now have to take the ashes of his wife, who was a Buddhist, back to her family in ThailandCredit: Supplied by husband
They had already bought a retirement home and planned to leave the UK in a couple of years, however Duncan will now have to return alone with Wiyada’s ashes.
Wiyada, who was known as ‘Lek’ to her friends – which means small in Thai – collapsed while shopping at the Waitrose in Esher High Street, Surrey.
Duncan told The Sun: “I’m absolutely devastated. She went out to Waitrose at about 5.15pm and then I got a call from one of her friends.
“I went up there expecting she’d had a knock on the head but not that she was dead.
“When I got there the police told me she had passed away.
“She had a cloth over her head and she looked very peaceful when they pulled the cloth off her head.
“She was only 46, it’s a shock that she could go so young. We’ve been married for 22 years and we were due to retire in a couple of years.
“She wanted to go back home to Thailand. We even bought a house in Thailand for our retirement.
“The sad thing is she won’t get to do that now.”
Duncan, head coach at Esher Cricket Club, said he will now have to take the ashes of his wife, who was a Buddhist, back to her family in Thailand.
Holding back his tears, he said: “That won’t be easy.
“I was the one who should have died, not her. I’m a lot older than her and I smoke and drink. I didn’t even think about her going first.”
Duncan said he and his wife had shared 22 brilliant years together.
SHE SAVED MY LIFE
She once saved his life when he ended up in Kingston Hospital with a life-threatening “flesh-eating” condition.
“I got an infection in my foot from a flesh-eating thing in 2014,” he said.
“They had to cut off my leg. I went into a coma and the doctors wanted to turn off the life-support machine.
“She pleaded with them to give me one more day. And during that last day, things started to work again in my body.
“I came out of a coma and I lived. If she hadn’t pleaded with the doctors to give me one more day I would have died.”
Wiyada helped care for Duncan, who now uses a wheelchair, after he lost his leg.
The pair lived together at Esher Cricket Club, where Wiyada would cook Thai food for members.
Paying tribute to his wife, Duncan, a former Surrey County Cricket Club player, said: “She was an all-round good person. Everyone loved her. She will be enormously missed.
“We hardly ever argued – even though we worked together all day.
“She loved cooking for people and she loved the cricket club. We have 750 kids here at the club and she really had fun with them.
“She was a giver. She was always happy and she was such a loving, generous and kind person. She had a tremendous smile.”
Duncan does not know the cause of his wife’s death.
Emergency crews had rushed to the supermarket in Esher, Surrey, at around 6pm on Wednesday after receiving calls of a “concern for safety” at the store.
Both the high street in the town and the Waitrose itself were closed as medics tried to save her life.
Tragically, despite their best efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the time of the incident, Surrey Police issued an update to those in the area, saying: “We are currently on scene following a call to a concern for safety in Esher shortly after 6pm this evening (August 20).
“Waitrose on the high street has been closed, and there is a significant emergency services presence in the area as we deal with this incident.”
A spokesperson for Surrey Police said: “Officers were called to Waitrose on Esher High Street shortly after 6pm yesterday evening (August 20) by the South East Coast Ambulance Service, who were responding to a medical emergency at the location.
“Despite the best efforts of paramedics, a woman in her 40s died at the scene.
“Her next of kin have been informed. There was a significant emergency services presence in the area, including police, South East Coast Ambulance Service, and the Air Ambulance Charity Kent, Surrey, Sussex.
“Waitrose was closed to allow emergency services to carry out their work, but has since reopened.”
A Waitrose spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with our customer’s family and loved ones.
“Our Partners acted quickly and offered support while the emergency teams arrived.
“We’re now making sure everyone is supported.”
5
Tragically, despite the best efforts of emergency services, she was pronounced dead at the sceneCredit: Supplied by husband
5
Duncan said he and his wife had shared 22 brilliant years togetherCredit: Supplied by husband
The saying goes “curiosity killed the cat”, as if being nosy is a bad thing. As I stood knee-deep in the cool Atlantic Ocean, marvelling at the beauty and emptiness of the Plage de Port Lin, I decided this was nonsense: without this little detour, “just to have a look”, I’d never have discovered Le Croisic, on the Guérande peninsula. The downside is that time isn’t on my side: it’s past 5pm and I’m supposed to be at the big resort, La Baule-Escoublac, six miles east by now. But the presqu’île (a “nearly island”), as the French call it, tucked in the corner where Brittany meets Pays de la Loire, is calling out to be explored.
First, though, a late afternoon dip in the sea is too hard to resist, and I wade into the water, sharing a delighted smile with fellow swimmers. Two elderly women in flowery swimming caps nod a cheery “Bonsoir” as I take my first strokes. Afterwards, I wander up the coast a little way. A row of belle epoque villas overlook the rocky coastline, and I climb down on to the sand in front of them to look west at the enchanting view of the small headlands jutting into the sea and scattered black rocks in silhouette.
Illustration: Guardian Graphics
Back in the car, I hazard that I have just enough time to do a circuit of the peninsula if I delay my evening dinner reservation in La Baule, and so I follow the coast road west, spotting menhirs, small sandy coves and a golf course along the way. As I approach the town of Le Croisic, there are more people out for a stroll beneath the towering maritime pine trees and I park up again to join them for a while.
At the jetty that usually sees passengers boarding the foot ferry to the islands off the coast, such as Belle-Île-en-Mer and Hoëdic, I notice a crowd of people aren’t queueing, but fishing. Old men and teenage boys are peering over the railings, with nets lowered down on lines; there’s a jolly camaraderie and their chatter carries on the breeze.
One of Le Croisic’s squares. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy
In the sea behind them, I spot the Trehic jetty, an 850-metre stone pier that snakes into the bay nearby – its end point marked by a lighthouse – as well as the tip of the Pen Bron peninsula on the other side of the bay, which seems so close it could be within swimming distance. Its proximity reminds me what the two peninsulas embrace: 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) of marshland and the salt ponds from which the famous Guérande salt crystals are harvested. The thought of sprinkling it on my dinner makes my stomach rumble, and so I head on to La Baule, taking a detour through the main town, along the pretty harbour front with its yachts and quaysides.
After checking into the Hotel des Dunes, I wander out for dinner. There’s a holiday vibe in the town and restaurants are full of families and friends dining together, black-clad waiters whirling between them with trays aloft. I arrive for my reservation at Restaurant Le M (starter, main course and dessert from €18.90), and tuck into briny oysters from Brittany and grilled fish with Mediterranean vegetables.
La Baule-Escoublac first welcomed tourists in the late 19th century, after the opening of the railway line, and became a sophisticated resort. Today, it is a mix of modern apartments, belle epoque-era timber-framed architecture, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. Away from the main drags are desirable 19th-century villas shaded by the cypress and pines that were planted in the early 1820s to stabilise the dunes. It is undeniably touristy, but that’s no surprise for a place with such a good beach.
The next morning, I wander down to the seafront and inhale the ozone before wandering along the shore, sitting for a while on the golden sand.
Some 15 minutes north of La Baule-Escoublac is impressive Guérande – its name familiar from the eponymous salt – with its mighty walls, towers, moats and grand medieval gate, La Porte Saint-Michel. Inside, it is a delight: bunting flutters above streets packed with bakeries, arty boutiques and creperies.
The mighty walls and grand gate, La Porte Saint-Michel, in the medieval town of Guérande. Photograph: Hemis/Alamy
The sun is shining, so I take a table in the main square on the terrace of the creperie Chez Lucien and soon I’m tucking into a crispy golden galette complète, with ham, cheese and a gooey egg at its centre, and a cup of cider. I might strictly be in the region of Pays de la Loire, but the identity here is resolutely Breton, and the salt harvested from the nearby marshes has been a key ingredient in Brittany’s famous salted butter for centuries.
To find out more about the fascinating process of harvesting the sel de Guérande, I head out to the marshes. At the shop and visitor centre of the Terre de Sel cooperative (salt marsh tours from €10.50), I meet Simon Pereon, a paludieror salt harvester, who has agreed to show me how he and his 220 fellow paludiers enact the process of salt harvesting between June and September. Salt has been prized in these parts since Roman times, when soldiers were sometimes paid in salt (hence the origin of the word salary), but the marshes as we see them today date from around 1,000 years ago.
As we drive to Simon’s ponds, I start to see the appeal of working under the big skies and open air, and the reason he followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. “The government classes us as ‘farmers’,” he explains, “but we work with seawater and the whole landscape is balanced between the land and the sea.” With a long, toothless rake called a las, he moves the seawater between a labyrinth of shallow rectangular ponds that don’t drain, due to the clay mud beneath, coloured pink by the algae that thrives here. As the water moves between each pond it becomes increasingly concentrated as the sun evaporates the water and leaves the salt behind.
‘Big skies and open air’ – Marais Salants de Guérande. Photograph: Hilke Maunder/Alamy
Simon sweeps the las across the ponds and the water ripples gently: the process is hypnotic. By the end of each day, he has raked the salt into neat piles on the dykes between ponds. “In summer, we harvest 50kg every day. The job has evolved over the years, with tractors and other machines, but for the actual salt harvesting, we still use the identical process that’s been around for centuries.”
The tranquillity has been passed down the ages: I hear little more than the calls from the avocets and ibis in the neighbouring lagoon. “I start at daybreak,” Simon says, “and for the first few hours of the day, I see the sun rise, listen to the birds, and there’s no one around. At the end of the day, too, I just watch the sun go down.”
It sounds like bliss and, after I take another detour later that day through the salt marshes – the clouds in the reddening sky are reflected in the mirror-like ponds – I am reassured that curiosity can only be a good thing.
The trip was provided by Pays de la Loire Tourism; accommodation provided by Hotel des Dunes in La Baule (doubles from €65 room-only). Brittany Ferrieshas crossings from Portsmouth to St Malo from £229 return for a car and two people, including en suite cabin on the outward, overnight leg
Amuse Bouche: How to Eat Your Way Around France by Carolyn Boyd is published by Profile, £10.99. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com
PIANIST and co-founder of Derek and the Dominos, Bobby Whitlock, has died at the age 77.
The rock icon died of cancer after a short battle with the illness as his heartbroken wife leads the tributes.
2
Bobby Whitlock has passed away after a brief battle with cancerCredit: Getty
2
Whitlock was the pianist and co-founder of Derek and the DominosCredit: Getty
His manager, Carole Kaye, confirmed his death this morning saying he died at home in Texas at 1:20am.
The legendary rockstar surrounded by his loved ones when he passed.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.
THE heartbroken family of a dad found murdered on a riverside bench have paid an emotional tribute following his death.
Robert Brown, 57, was found dead on a canal footpath close to the River Nene in Northampton at around 6.30am last Friday.
He had last been seen visiting a Morrisions supermarket the previous day before he was discovered with fatal injuries on the bench from a wound to his arm.
A 38-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of murder and since been released on police bail pending further enquiries.
Yesterday, Robert’s grieving family paid a moving tribute to the dad – who was also a grandfather – as having “the gift of the gab and a heart of gold”.
His parents and brothers said in a statement: “Rob was quite a character and always full of fun.
“He was our real-life Peter Pan – the boy who never grew up.
“Everyone who knew Rob just loved him.
“He definitely had the gift of the gab and could talk the hind legs off a donkey.
“We would joke that he knew more about everybody else’s business than his own, but that was Rob.
“He had a heart of gold and was always ready to help others.”
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
Thesun.co.uk is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.
Columbia University will pay $221m to settle accusations by the Trump administration that it failed to police anti-Semitism on campus. Critics say the deal threatens academic freedom and sets a dangerous precedent.
Morning Live star Helen Skelton had some warm words for her Channel 5 co-star as she shared a gushy tribute post that he has since responded to
Kelly Smith Screen Time Reporter
12:58, 24 Jul 2025
Morning Live star Helen Skelton has took to Instagram with a joyful post to pay tribute to her beloved co-star while confirming to fans she’d be taking a brief break.
It’s clearly been a hectic period for the former Strictly star, with many projects in the pipeline, including her newest on-screen adventure alongside former BBC Breakfast star Dan Walker.
The pair have been dazzling their loyal legion of fans with their show Yorkshire Great and Small with Dan and Helen – which is still available to stream on My5.
Much to the delight of fans Helen had good news to also share, announcing that her show with Dan had been greenlit for a another series and would be returning the channel in September.
Dan Walker and Helen Skelton have been working together on their Channel 5 show(Image: Helen Skelton / Instagram )
Announcing the joyful information, she took to Instagram with an slew of happy snaps alongside the Channel 5 newsreader, while paying tribute to Dan, the crew and confirmed filming had now finished.
Helen told her followers: “That’s a WRAP… Snatched a load of afternoons to wander around Yorkshire with this legend. Met some epic people. Ate some sensational food. Celebrated some stunning landscapes that hopefully give you some ideas for adventures. Laughed A LOT.”
Dan was quick to shut down romance rumours with Helen(Image: Helen Skelton / Instagram)
The Morning Live host confirmed: “Series starts @channel5_tv in September,” and offered up some kind words: “Thanks to the hardest working man in the game for always making me belly laugh @mrdanwalker at the most ridiculous things.
“Thanks to a crew who have become family over the last few years and for humouring our self proclaimed glorious nonsense.”
She signed off the post, adding: “Phone and shoes off for the foreseeable,” alerting her fans that she would be taking a well deserved break for the time being.
Dan and Helen have worked together for years(Image: Helen Skelton / Instagram )
Helen’s co-star, Dan was quick to respond to her post, pointing out a major detail before any misconceptions were formed. In the abundance of pictures shared, one image saw the pair cosied up outside what appeared to be some kind of castle or church.
Dispelling rumours before they even began to swirl, Dan replied: “Just for clarity… the last photo is not a wedding snap. Thank you my friend for so many fun afternoons. You are a wonderful human to be around.”
Fans appeared to be too elated over the happy news that their show would be returning to screens and appeared to not even notice the last snap of the pack.
Racing to the post, masses joined in with celebration: One person penned: “Dynamic duo are back.”
Another online user beamed: “Love this programme look forward to it,” as a third stated: “Fantastic can’t wait to view it,” while a fourth wrote: “You two are a good partnership, always a pleasure to watch.”
Yorkshire Great and Small with Dan and Helen is available to stream on MY5
If you hadn’t heard of Garcia prior to the Club World Cup, you will have now.
The young Madrid forward has led the line in the absence of Kylian Mbappe – who made his comeback from gastroentiritis against Juventus – and has taken his chance with both hands.
With three goals in four games, Garcia is Los Blancos’ top scorer at the tournament and is behind only Benfica’s Angel di Maria in the overall standings.
Aside from a one-year spell away from the Spanish capital with Mallorca in 2018-19, the 21-year-old has been part of the Madrid set-up since the age of 10.
He rose through the ranks and made his first appearance with Madrid’s B team, Castilla, in March 2022.
The Spanish forward made his first-team debut in the November of that year but was still predominantly playing with Castilla, eventually scoring his first senior goal in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals against Leganes in February 2025.
After Real’s 3-0 victory over Salzburg, in which Garcia scored his second goal at the tournament, Alonso likened his attributes to that of the legendary Raul Gonzalez.
“What he’s doing isn’t a surprise. He’s done it many times at Castilla,” he said.
“He’s the typical number nine, who knows how to wait for his opportunity, who moves well.
“He has Raul qualities in his movements. There are no decisions regarding the start of next season.”
Mikel believes Garcia has earned his chance to start, even with Mbappe’s return to fitness.
“Who needs Mbappe when you have Garcia?” Mikel told Dazn.
“I’m pushing for the young lad, he has been on fire. This is what we love to see – young players getting opportunities.”
Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, added: “In December 2024, Rahul – then manager of Real Madrid B – said Garcia should be in the first team. He was part of the youth team that won the treble in 2022/23. He was playing as a nine but also can play as a left winger.
“Real have been looking for a forward, someone who accepts his role behind Mbappe. Now they have got that nine through the ranks, Alonso has got a lot of confidence in him.
“He was the third top scorer in Real Madrid B history, arrived at Real Madrid when he was 10 and now he is a first teamer.”
The Writers Guild of America West has removed Randall Emmett from its “strike list” after the film producer paid $630,000 to resolve a judgment in a long-standing dispute over unpaid compensation.
The resolution comes more than five years after Emmett’s former production firm, Emmett/Furla Oasis, failed to pay health insurance benefits and other compensation to four writers on a proposed Arnold Schwarzenegger television show, “Pump,” that collapsed in 2019 when the action star bowed out.
“This was originally a financial obligation tied to former companies,” Emmett said in a statement. “However, I made the personal decision to take it on independently because it was simply the right thing to do.”
For the record:
9:03 p.m. June 30, 2025An earlier version of this article said WGA writers can now work with Emmett. The guild said writers are not supposed to be employed by him until he becomes a signatory to its contract with producers.
The WGA confirmed Monday that Emmett had been taken off its strike list after nearly five years, a penalty due to his former firm’s lingering debt. But a WGA representative said members should still refrain from working with him unless he becomes a signatory to the guild’s contract with producers.
Emmett/Furla Oasis has been defunct for years. His current production firm, Convergence Entertainment Group, is trying to mount a film project in collaboration with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese. The filmmakers hope to bring to the screen “Wall of White,” a story of a deadly 1982 avalanche near Lake Tahoe.
However, in March, the WGA warned its members to stay clear of the project, citing the unpaid debt. The WGA’s high-profile advisory clouded Emmett’s endeavors.
Emmett ran afoul of union rules in 2019 after hiring four guild writers to develop scripts for a TV series loosely based on Schwarzenegger’s early years in California.
Writers of the project previously told The Times they wanted “Pump” to be a love letter to Venice Beach in the early 1970s and the birth of the modern bodybuilding culture.
At the time, Emmett’s firm was burning through cash, according to internal documents previously viewed by The Times. The writers were also brought on board before Schwarzenegger committed to the project.
The WGA won a $541,464 judgment against Emmett/Furla Oasis in 2021 after it filed a claim on behalf of writers. The debt swelled with interest.
The “Wall of White” project draws on a 2010 book as well as a 2021 documentary, “Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche.” After a heavy spring storm in Northern California in 1982, tons of snow rushed down a mountain and into a village, trapping eight people at a ski resort. Seven died, and rescuers pulled one woman from the wreckage.
Screenwriter Petter Skavlan, a WGA member, was attached to the film, according to IMDb.
Book author Jennifer Woodlief also has been listed as a screenwriter.
Emmett has been working on the project for more than a year. He introduced the Netflix documentary to Scorsese, according to a March article in the Tahoe Guide, which touted how the local tragedy was being adapted into a feature film.
The filmmakers are searching for a director.
“We expect to finalize an A-list director by this summer in preparation for a February 1st production start,” Emmett said.
The project is expected to film in Nevada, Ohio and Canada, he said.
The Enduring Wild: A Journey into California’s Public Lands
By Josh Jackson Heyday Press: 264 pages, $38 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
Josh Jackson’s “The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California’s Public Lands” is a story of adventures across 41 California landscapes, with photos of beautiful places you are unlikely to have seen, in locations ranging from the Mojave Desert to the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness in Mendocino County. Early on, the author lays out mind-bending stats: more than 618 million acres in the United States are federally owned public land and 245 million of those belong to the Bureau of Land Management.
Public lands, he notes, “are areas of land and water owned collectively by the citizens and managed by the Federal government.” These lands “are our common ground, a gift of seismic proportions that belongs to all of us.”
Drive across the United States and consider that 28% of all of that is yours. Ours.
Jackson’s assertion that we are all landowners is a clarion call amid a GOP-led push to sell off public land. The shadow of the current assault on public lands weighs heavy while reading this lovely book.
The book has endearing origins. When Jackson could not get a reservation for weekend camping with his kids, a buddy suggested that he try the BLM. Until that moment he had never even heard of the Bureau of Land Management. Yet, 15.3% of the total landmass in California is … BLM.
Jackson starts out with history: All these lands were taken from Native American peoples, and he does not overlook that BLM used to be jokingly referred to as the Bureau of Livestock and Mining. In 1976, a turnaround came via the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which built a multi-use mandate to emphasize hiking and conservation as much grazing and extraction (a.k.a. mining). This effort to soften the heavy use of public lands by for-profit individuals and companies led to the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion and the election of President Reagan. Arguably, we’ve been struggling with finding the multi-use balance ever after.
Jackson’s first BLM foray was out to the Trona Pinnacles in the Mojave Desert, where he and his two older children camped, playing in a wonderland where “hundreds of tufa spires protrude like drip-style sand castles out of the wide-open desert floor that extend for miles in every direction,” while his wife, Kari, an E.R. nurse, stayed home with their newborn. The pandemic shutdown in 2020 inspired Kari’s suggestion, “Why don’t you start going to see all these BLM lands?”
Jackson’s love affair with BLM lands was not immediate, as just a few miles into his next hike in the Rainbow Basin Natural Area near Barstow, he was underwhelmed, like he was missing something. A few miles later, he sat and considered a Terry Tempest Williams quote from “Refuge”: “If the desert is holy, it is because it is a forgotten place that allows us to remember the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self.” Revisiting this quote on repeat, Jackson had an emotional shift, deciding to stop hiking and … start walking.
On his next trip to the Amargosa Canyon, Jackson began by reaching out to the Amargosa Conservancy, learning about the Timbisha Shoshone people whose ancestral land this is, about past mining and dozens of plant and animal species. Committed to going at the pace of discovery, he admired the enchanting, striated geology of Rainbow Mountain, cherished creosote, mesquite and the brave diversity of desert flora and was struck by the gaze of an arrogant coyote. On his return, he found that in three hours, he had only traveled … a mile.
Yet it was during this meander that his writing made a steep drop into seeing, feeling, connecting, plunging toward transcendence.
For the record:
2:36 p.m. June 26, 2025An earlier version of this review referenced the heavy rains of 2022. The correct year is 2023.
A highlight of the book is a repeat trip to Central California’s Carrizo Plain, first during a drought, silenced by its sere magnificence. After the heavy rains of 2023, he joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo botanist Emma Fryer and was overcome by the delirious beauty of a superbloom, feeling like “I had wandered into the Land of Oz.” Fryer observed that the drought was so severe that only the hardy native seed survived within the soil, releasing their beauty the moment water allowed them to come to life. Seeing the same place twice was revelatory, both familiar and completely new.
It’s hard to tell if the places he visits gets more beautiful over the course of the book or his capacity to appreciate them and share his joy has grown. Despite the frequent paucity of BLM cartographic resources, apparently Jackson never got lost or worried about dropping the thread of a trail. Describing his father, Jackson might as well be talking about himself: “I have no memories of my dad being worried or fearful in unfamiliar situations.” Nevertheless, toward the end of the book, when he and his hardy father camped next to the rushing Eel River, Jackson did worry about bears breaking into their tent. Fortunately, the bears did not arrive but, inspired by William Cronon’s “The Trouble With Wilderness,” Jackson’s heart opened as he realized that “Nature” is not out there; nature is wherever we are.
Back in Los Angeles taking long walks with his daughter, past bodegas and car washes, he saw jacaranda, heard owls and coyotes and realized the wild had been here all along. An urban sycamore claimed its space regardless of enclosing cement and car exhaust, as spectacular and venerable as any sycamore in the state.
Can the places Jackson visited for his book endure public larceny? He is tracking the answer to this question, real time, on his Substack, where he’s currently describing the shocking attempts to sell millions of acres of BLM land.
“It’s been a wild few weeks for BLM lands. 540,385 acres in Nevada and Utah were on the chopping block to be sold off,” Jackson recently noted. “Everyone was talking about the land totals — but no one was showing what the landscapes actually looked like. So, I decided to go see them.”
Great advice: Bring a friend, pack water and go.
Watts’ writing has appeared in Earth Island Journal, New York Times motherlode blog, Sierra Magazine and local venues. Her first novel is “Tree.”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Kerr said in 1849. Nearly 200 years later, that is sadly true of the greatest protest songs. In 2025, songs like Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” are as needed for their messages as they were when they were written more than 60 years ago.
So when Grammy-winning jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington set out this year to pay homage to one of her stick-wielding idols, the legendary Max Roach, by revisiting his seminal 1961 album, “We Insist!,” it turned out to be more than a musical tribute. In the process of recording the album “We Insist 2025!,” Carrington took time to reflect on how issues of inequality, racism and more that Roach fought against in 1961 are unfortunately just as prevalent today.
“Wow, I can’t believe that this stuff is still relevant,” Carrington says. “When we look at these examples of how things have shifted in some ways, but not in other ways, it can be very depressing, especially right now. When we started this record, the election hadn’t happened yet. I thought I knew what was going to happen during this election, and it was still relevant. But now it’s even more relevant.”
Now 59, Carrington, who also serves as Zildjian Chair in Performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston, is ready to pass along some of the fight for social justice to the younger generation.
“I do feel like it’s a youthful game. I had an uncle that I would talk to when I was in my 20s, who has since passed. He would say that this is your fight now, and I would be mad at him, feeling like he wasn’t doing more,” she recalls. “And he would say, ‘No, this is your fight now. I‘ve done it, I‘ve been there, I‘m tired.’ I get that sentiment too. I‘m going to do whatever I do, but I‘m relying on the younger generation and how pissed off I feel like they are and what that will do.”
Terri Lyne Carrington playing a drum kit.
(John Watson)
Among her many ventures to champion the jazz music she loves so much is A&R for iconic jazz label Candid Records, founded by the great jazz writer Nat Hentoff in 1960. So, she called on the younger generation to help share her vision of “We Insist 2025!”
“I thought of calling the people that had been signed or were being signed to Candid Records because I do A&R for Candid. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to also shine a light on a lot of these artists, young people and progressive artists that are being signed right now to Candid. It‘s kind of like a family gathering; we all came together to pay tribute to this great artist and this great project,” she says.
At the center of the next generation of jazz artists on the album is vocalist Christie Dashiell, with whom Carrington collaborates on the album.
“Somebody like Christie Dashiell was really important to the project, because I felt like the voice is so out front. It‘s what people relate to; the average ear relates to the voice the most,” Carrington says. “I just feel like she perfectly embodies all these different areas of Black music traditions. That was really important, so I started there. What is the voice that’s going to work with this idea?”
Having toured with Herbie Hancock and played with giants as Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, Carrington has a strong sense of jazz history and rightly sees herself as a bridge between the history and future of jazz. She made sure that bridge was strong on “We Insist 2025!” by including trombonist Julian Priester on the record, who, at 89, is the last living musician who appeared on Roach’s 1961 work.
“Jazz has always been about these kinds of bridges between generations. It‘s been such an important part of jazz. Mentorship, apprenticeships — it‘s an apprenticeship art form,” she says. “So we did contemporary things with this music, but it wasn‘t so contemporary that there was no place for a Julian Priester. I think that the ability to be a bridge is important — pointing to past legacies, to the foundation of what we stand on, while trying to also point to the future or reflect the present is important.”
As much as the album‘s original political message weighs in this turbulent current climate, and as much as Carrington wanted to make the record a vehicle for younger artists, the impetus for “We Insist 2025!” was to pay tribute to Roach for the centennial anniversary of his birth. For Carrington, the heart of her interpretation was to honor the music and spirit Roach created on “We Insist!”
Jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington poses for a portrait.
(David Butow / For The Times)
“I had a history with reimagining projects in other people‘s work, and helping that legacy continue, but doing it in a way that also has my own identity involved in a way that really feels new, in a sense,” she says. “The music is not new, but so many elements around those things are new. So I feel like it‘s reshaping these things a little, even though we didn‘t change the lyric content. By changing the music around the lyrics, it gives the lyric a different slant.”
As one of the country‘s primary ambassadors of jazz music today, Carrington hopes the record will introduce new fans to Roach’s considerable legacy while helping to revive the soul of protest music. To that end, she has discussed bigger plans with his family.
“I‘ve talked to Max‘s son, Raul Roach, quite a bit about trying to collaborate by doing shows that would be expansive. Doing some of this music, maybe doing some other Max music, like some of the double quartet music,” she says. “So we‘ve talked about finding ways to continue this celebration of Max Roach and his artistry. There‘s a lot there as a foundation that can be expanded upon.”
1 of 3 | Left to right, Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and Princess Aiko arrive at Kozakura Tower, a monument to victims of the Tsushima Maru cargo ship, in Naha, Okinawa-Prefecture, Japan, on Wednesday. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI
License photo | Permalink
June 5 (UPI) — Japan’s royal family wrapped up a two day visit to Okinawa Thursday, where they paid respects to the victims of a World War II-era Japanese evacuation ship that was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko prayed for the victims who were lost aboard the ship, according to the Japanese national daily news outlet the Mainichi. They called for peace during their visit.
The imperial family presented flowers and bowed deeply at a memorial site in Nama for the Tsushima battleship, on which at least 1,500 people, including hundreds of schoolchildren, were killed in the torpedo attack.
The family also visited a nearby memorial museum where they spoke to survivors and bereaved family members, and also witnessed several personal items that belonged to the schoolchildren who died.
One man, 85-year-old Masakatsu Takara, recounted the pain of losing nine of his family members, including his parents and siblings.
The Tsushima Maru was hit with a torpedo near southwestern Japan’s Tokara Islands while traveling from Okinawa to Nagasaki during an August, 1944 government ordered evacuation.
Left to right, Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and Princess Aiko arrive at Kozakura Tower, a monument to victims of the Tsushima Maru cargo ship, in Naha, Okinawa-Prefecture, Japan, on June 5, 2025. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
Race Across the World paid tribute to a former contestant at the end of tonight’s episode, after it was revealed that Sam Gardiner has died aged 24 in a car crash
23:23, 04 Jun 2025Updated 23:23, 04 Jun 2025
Sam Gardiner died at the age of 24(Image: BBC)
Race Across the World has honoured a past contestant following their untimely passing. The emotional tribute came at the close of Wednesday’s episode for 24-year-old Sam Gardiner, who passed away this week.
When the end credits began to roll, the viewers were met with a touching tribute to the series two adventurer. Displayed alongside Sam’s photo, the message read: “In loving memory of Sam Gardiner, 2000 to 2025.”
Fans of the hit BBC travel show expressed their sorrow on X (formerly Twitter), with one posting: “They gave Sam Gardiner an end card. Sad.” Another shared: “The tribute to Sam Gardiner [sad face],” and one more added: “Rest in peace to Sam Gardiner, who took part in series 2 with his Mum, Jo, back in 2020.” A fourth viewer noted: “Lovely tribute to Sam at the end,” while another wrote: “Rest in peace Sam.”
A tribute was left to Sam
Sam tragically died in a car crash on Sunday (June 1), as confirmed by his family, reports Plymouth Live. His mother Jo, who was his teammate on the 2019 series, and father Andrew offered a heartfelt statement: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved son Sam in a terrible accident.
“We hold on to the beautiful memories of him, even though words can’t fully do justice to how much light and joy he brought into our world. Sam was adored by his family. As a son, brother and nephew, he was loyal, funny and fiercely protective.”
Sources revealed that after participating in Race Across the World, the experience “opened his eyes to the wonder of adventure and travel”. A heartwarming post was later made on Instagram by the official BBC travel series account, honouring Sam and Jo’s memorable journey from Mexico to Argentina.
“We are all deeply saddened to hear the tragic news about Sam, who died this week following a car accident,” the post read. The tribute expressed how evident it was to those who met him and viewers alike, just how life-changing and significant the journey had been for Sam and his mum, Jo.
The homage was wrapped up with: “Since filming, both Sam and Jo have been an integral part of the Race Across the World cast family and on behalf of us all from the BBC, production and the rest of the cast, we would like to extend our deepest condolences.”
Sam and mum Jo were unable to compete in the final leg of the race after they ran out of money. However, Sam had described his time on Race Across the World as a “life-changing” experience.
As mass protests over the police murder of George Floyd raged across Los Angeles in late May 2020, the LAPD had an unexpected problem.
After a week of demonstrations, officers had fired so many “less-lethal” crowd control projectiles made of rubber that the department’s stockpile was running low.
Scrambling to buy more, officials arranged for two reserve officers to fly a private plane to Casper, Wyo., to pick up 2,000 additional rounds from an arms wholesaler called Safariland, according to LAPD emails reviewed by The Times.
The days and weeks that followed brought more unrest in the streets, with police criticized for indiscriminately firing rubber rounds into crowds, injuring scores of people with shots to the face or torso.
Multiple reports and activists assailed the department’s response to the protests as a botched operation that resulted from poor planning, inadequate training and failure to learn from past mistakes.
According to The Times’ analysis of LAPD data released by the L.A. city attorney’s office, police actions related to the George Floyd protests have cost $11.9 million in settlements and jury awards. Scores of other pending lawsuits represent potentially tens of millions more in liability exposure.
Yet five years removed from Floyd’s killing, police backers say public opinion has largely swung back in favor of aggressive law enforcement, pointing as proof to last year’s passage of tough-on-crime legislation and ousting of progressive prosecutors.
Last month, President Trump issued an executive order promising to “unleash high-impact local police forces” in his administration’s campaign against “criminal aliens.”
The U.S. Department of Justice moved last week to cancel settlements to overhaul police departments in Louisville, Ky., and Minneapolis. The federal oversight was part of the national reckoning with racism and police brutality that followed the law enforcement killings of Breonna Taylor and Floyd, who was pinned to the pavement by a police officer for nearly 10 minutes before dying.
The push to overhaul the LAPD that began in 2020 did not result in sweeping changes, but the Police Department has in some ways come to resemble the slimmed-down version sought by some activists.
While its multibillion-dollar budget has only grown, the number of low-level arrests and traffic stops have plummeted, and staffing shortages have forced the department to focus more on responding to and solving violent crimes.
Today, the department is nearly 1,300 officers smaller than it was when Floyd died, with fewer cops on the force than at any point since 1995, mirroring nationwide declines in police staffing.
On Thursday, the L.A. City Council signed off on a $14-billion spending plan for 2025-26 that cuts funding for police recruitment in order to avoid laying off hundreds of city workers. The council provided enough money for the LAPD to hire 240 new officers over the coming year, down from the 480 proposed by Mayor Karen Bass last month.
Asked in a news radio appearance last week whether Floyd’s death had changed policing, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said it had, largely with the slump in hiring.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, center, and Capt. James Hwang perform the uniform inspection during graduation for recruit class 11-24 on May 2.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The department lost scores of cops who didn’t “feel support,” he said, and recruitment continues to prove challenging.
“So that has had a negative impact on the profession overall,” he told public radio station KCRW. “We have to restore morale within the organization; we have to restore pride within the profession.”
Following years of calls for embracing alternatives to traditional policing, LAPD officials and city leaders are continuing to explore ways to hand off calls involving substance abuse, homelessness and mental illness. Officers are also no longer responding to minor traffic accidents.
Efforts to limit police traffic involvement have gained some traction, and a controversial policy enacted by former Chief Michel Moore still restricts so-called pretextual stops of motorists or pedestrians that critics say led to the disproportionate harassment of Black and brown Angelenos. The department has also taken steps to try to limit dangerous pursuits by asking supervisors to monitor them in real-time, and if the chase proves too dangerous, to call them off.
Police data show violent crime continues to drop from pandemic highs, with the exception of aggravated assaults and robberies in certain parts of the city. Property crimes, including most burglaries, have also started to trend downward.
Some efforts at reform have stalled, including a proposal to overhaul the department’s disciplinary system for officers. Another plan that would have replaced LAPD officers with unarmed transportation workers on traffic stops sputtered amid debates around jurisdiction and funding.
Art Acevedo, who began his career with the California Highway Patrol before serving as police chief in several major cities including Houston and Miami, blamed movements to “defund” and “abolish” police for polarizing the debate on how to move forward.
Acevedo, who applied for the LAPD chief’s job that eventually went to McDonnell, said police unions and allies weaponized such rhetoric because it “effectively equated advocating for police reform as one and the same as advocating for defunding the police.”
“That movement created a backlash that has translated into a diminished appetite” for reform, he said.
Acevedo also worried about officers feeling emboldened to bend or break the rules in the current climate: “You don’t want to re-create the perception, real or not, that it’s open season for bad policing, because you’re going to have that small percentage that’re going to act on that belief that they’re not going to be held accountable.”
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, shared similar concerns.
“I think they absolutely feel unleashed,” she said of police. “Not that they were ever on a leash.”
Part of the problem, Abdullah said, is public fatigue over the seemingly constant barrage of troubling incidents.
“People don’t have the bandwidth to respond with the kind of outrage that they would when you saw the beatings at Pan Pacific Park,” said Abdullah, referring to the LAPD’s response to protests in 2020.
John Burton, an attorney who filed lawsuits on behalf of several people who were wounded by less-lethal rounds during L.A. protests in 2020, said that most changes to the LAPD have been around the edges, but the department hasn’t addressed its culture of aggression.
The lack of progress, he said, is obvious in the LAPD internal affairs investigations he’s reviewed that rarely found anything wrong with officers’ use of force — even in the face of overwhelming video evidence. More than a few officers mentioned in his lawsuits have since been promoted, he said, even after he accused them of lying in police reports.
LAPD supervisors looked the other way, he said, because they are “very protective” of their officers.
Burton also noted that rubber projectiles are still being used, despite little evidence the weapons helped rein in chaos on the streets. Police also once faced criticism last year for the handling of pro-Palestinian protests on the USC and UCLA campuses.
“The thought that you’re going to stop somebody from throwing a rock at the cops by shooting one of these first is a fantasy,” he said. “They can cause very serious injuries.”
PRINCESS Diana’s former bodyguard who protected princes William and Harry has died at the age of 63.
Lee Sansum, who served as a royal military police officer, was one of Diana’s bodyguards shortly before her death in 1997, escorting her during a family holiday to the French resort of Saint Tropez that year.
6
Princess Diana’s former bodyguard Lee Sansum has died at the age of 63Credit: Northpix
6
The former royal military police officer (far right) protected Diana and her kids Harry and William during a trip to Saint Tropez in July 1997Credit: B960
6
Harry on a jet ski while on holiday with mum Diana in Saint Tropez just one month before her tragic deathCredit: Getty
The former bodyguard’s wife announced the tragic news of Lee’s death in a post on Facebook on Monday, revealing he had died of a sudden heart attack.
Sharing a compilation of pictures of the couple throughout the years, she wrote: “Since meeting in 1998, Lee Sansum has been my soul mate, hero and most amazing man in my world.
“So I’m devastated to share that he is no longer with us. He had a fatal heart attack on Saturday morning at home.
“His huge presence will be missed around the world as much as it is in our household although his capacity for love, and the life skills he has shared have left a legacy that will never be lost.
“He’s forever loved and will always be with us
“I love you more than ever ‘My Lovely Lee’.”
On top of being a bodyguard for Diana and her kids, father-of-six Lee also served as a bodyguard for the late Alex Salmond, while he was serving as First Minister of Scotland in 2014.
Lee, who held black belts in karate, jujitsu and kick-boxing, was nicknamed “Rambo” by Diana and was no stranger to the spotlight.
He also loyally protected stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Nicole Kidman, and Tom Cruise during his career.
He had been assigned to look after Diana and her young sons Prince William and Prince Harry during their stay at Al-Fayad’s 30-bedroom villa in Saint Tropez in the summer of 1997.
This was tragically just one month before Diana died in a Paris car crash, alongside Dodi.
Lee had released a book in 2022 – called The Bodyguard – in which he explored his close relationship with Diana and the young princes, particularly Harry.
He revealed how he had tried to teach the two boys kickboxing but that they were too “apprehensive” to it.
6
Lee received a touching letter from Diana, William, and Harry after protecting them on their holiday to Saint TropezCredit: Northpix
6
He also served as a bodyguard for the late First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond in 2014Credit: Northpix
6
Lee was nicknamed Rambo by Princess DianaCredit: Supplied
However, he managed to succeed in teaching Harry how to drive a jet ski – even helping him to soak photographers who were waiting to snap a picture of the young prince on holiday.
For his loyal and kind services on the trip, he was given a touching thank you letter by Diana.
In it, she wrote that she was grateful for the “magical ten days [which] would not have been possible without your invaluable contribution”.
The former bodyguard also revealed that Diana had turned to him for comfort, even crying on his shoulder, after her fashion designer friend Gianni Versace had been fatally shot outside his home in July 1997.
Lee, born in Burnley, Lancashire, said Diana would chat to him every day after she woke up at 7am – adding that she was worried about the safety of her own life.
He added that Diana was an “amazing woman”, saying: “She cared a great deal. She never said a bad word about anyone.”
25 years following her death, Lee also revealed how he could have been in the car with the princess on the day she died.
Speaking in a 2022 interview, he said: “It could have been me in that car.
“We drew straws to see who would be accompanying Trevor [Rees-Jones] that weekend.
“When I learned they were not wearing seatbelts in the crash I understood why they didn’t survive.
“I always insisted on it.”
Lee claimed Diana would still be alive if he had been on duty the night she died in a car crash.
The ex-Royal Military Policeman and “international security consultant” explained it was standard practice for the family to wear seatbelts – an order which had been sent down by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
When Diana, Dodi, and driver Henri Paul crashed and tragically died, none were wearing seatbelts.
Lee had begun his service as a military police officer in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
He said: “I was looking after people in witness protection. I learnt my craft in Northern Ireland.”
After leaving the Army he started working as a civilian bodyguard, known in the industry as The Circuit.
A friend then recommended him to billionaire businessman Al-Fayed, who was so impressed by Lee that the bodyguard said he “became like family”.
