practice

Nico Iamalealva is probably going to have a chance to go down in cross-town rivalry lore.

Barring a setback, UCLA’s quarterback is expected to play against USC on Saturday afternoon when the teams meet at the Coliseum, according to one person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly because of the sensitivity of health matters.

After being limited by neck spasms earlier in the week, Iamaleava was a full participant in practice on Thursday and Friday. If he continues to feel good in warm-ups, he’ll start the game for the Bruins (3-8 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) against the No. 17 Trojans (8-3, 6-2).

Iamaleava has sustained one injury after another in recent weeks. After missing the Bruins’ game against Ohio State because of a concussion, he returned to play against Washington the following week. Late in the game against the Huskies, Iamaleava absorbed a crunching hit and departed with neck spasms, forcing backup Luke Duncan to replace him.

Iamaleava has unquestionably become the Bruins’ top player since transferring from Tennessee, completing 63.5% of his passes for 1,728 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s also the team’s leading rusher with 641 yards and four touchdowns in 101 carries.

The Bruins are also expected to have tight end Hudson Habermehl back after he was cleared out of concussion protocol. But tight end Jack Pedersen (high ankle), wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. (calf) and running back Jaivian Thomas (unspecified injury) are considered doubtful.

Cornerback Rodrick Pleasant will not play after undergoing surgery this week to repair a shoulder injury.

Championship leader Lando Norris was fastest in a second practice session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix interrupted and then curtailed by a loose manhole cover.

The McLaren driver was 0.029 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third, 0.161secs off the pace.

But the interruptions to the session meant a number of top drivers did not get runs on the soft tyre during the session, including Norris’ team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

The manhole cover will likely mean a long night for race officials.

The problem emerged at Turn 17, the final corner, about 20 minutes before the end of the session.

The Trump administration filed a federal suit Thursday against California and its public university systems, alleging its practice of offering in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools is illegal.

The suit, which named Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, the UC Board of Regents, the Cal State University Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges, also seeks to end some provisions in the California Dream Act, which in part allows students who lack documentation to apply for state-funded financial aid.

“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a statement. “This marks our third lawsuit against California in one week — we will continue bringing litigation against California until the state ceases its flagrant disregard for federal law.”

Higher education and state officials were not immediately available to comment.

The tuition suit targets Assembly Bill 540, which passed with bipartisan support in 2001 and offers in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who completed high school in California. The law also offers in-state tuition to U.S. citizens who graduated from California schools but moved out of the state before enrolling in college.

Between 2,000 and 4,000 students attending the University of California — with its total enrollment of nearly 296,000 — are estimated to be undocumented. Across California State University campuses, there are about 9,500 immigrants without documentation enrolled out of 461,000 students. The state’s biggest undocumented group, estimated to be 70,000, are community college students.

The Trump administration’s challenge to California’s tuition statute focuses on a 1996 federal law that says people in the U.S. without legal permission should “not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state … for any post-secondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit … without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”

Scholars have debated whether that law affects California’s tuition practices since AB 540 applies to citizens and noncitizens alike.

Thursday’s complaint was filed in Eastern District of California, and it follows similar actions the Trump administration has taken against Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

LeBron James said his lungs felt like those of a “newborn baby” and his voice was “already gone” after his first Lakers practice Monday as he moved a step closer toward making his season debut after being sidelined by sciatica.

The Lakers listed James as questionable for Tuesday night against the Utah Jazz at Crypto.com Arena, and he sounded as if he was close to playing in his NBA-record 23rd season.

“We got a long time,” said James as he wiped sweat from his face while speaking to reporters. “I mean, we’ve been taking literally one minute, one hour, one step at a time throughout this whole process. So, see how I feel this afternoon, see how I feel tonight. When I wake up in the morning. … We’ll probably have [a] shootaround [Tuesday]. So, just gotta see how the body responds over the next 24 hours-plus.”

James, who will turn 41 next month, was asked how long it took him to become pain-free.

“I wouldn’t take it that far,” James said. “Like I said, if you ever had it, you go about it and you wake up one day and you hope that when you step down from the bed that you don’t feel it. You go to bed at night, and you hope that when you’re in the bed that you don’t feel it. So I’ve been doing pretty good with it as of late. There’s a lot of exercises and a lot of mobility things and a lot of things you can do to help it. So I’m just keeping a positive mindset.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick said it was like having a new player in practice with James on the court.

James agreed, saying, “Definitely feels new, for sure.”

The Lakers have four days off after Tuesday’s game against Utah — including three practice days — before playing the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Sunday.

“One day back, barking out calls and assignments and stuff, getting my voice working again,” said James about his first day at practice. “Be a lot of tea and rest tonight.”

James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer (42,184 points), admitted he had to mentally adjust to missing the start of a season for the first time in his career.

“It sucks. It definitely sucks,” James said. “Never in my life since I started playing the game of basketball have I ever not started the season — in my life. It’s been a mind test, but I’m built for it and it’s been putting in the work, both mentally and physically trying to get myself ready to rejoin the team.

“It’s just been kind of the same revolving door. Just repetition, repetition, repetition; rehabbing, rehabbing, rehabbing. Just trying to get back where I can feel like myself again. It’s great to be out here today.”

James said this wasn’t the first time in his career that he had sciatica.

“I had it two years ago,” he said. “You had it, then you know what the hell it’s about. If you ain’t never had it and people are making jokes about it, I pray you never get it. It’s not fun.”

James practiced with the Lakers’ G League team, the South Bay Lakers, twice last week, getting in some five-on-five work.

“It was great,” James said. “I got cleared to play some five-on-five for the first time since … hurting my MCL versus Minnesota. And that was the blessing.”

The Lakers have gone 10-4 without James. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have led the way as one of the most potent two-way tandems in the early part of the NBA season.

Doncic leads the NBA in scoring (34.4 points per game) and Reaves is ninth (28.3). Doncic is fifth in assists (8.9) and Reaves is seventh (8.2).

James, who is 50 games away from breaking Robert Parish’s all-time record of most games played in NBA history (1,611), knows he’ll have to adjust things when he returns.

“I have to work my way back into it,” James said. “The guys have been going on road trips, shootarounds, flights. So it’s kind of like a kid going to a new school again. Got to learn the guys and everything. So they got some great chemistry. Feeling my way back in and do it organically. It shouldn’t be hard. But it’s definitely a feel-out process.”

Etc.

Redick said all 14 players practiced for the first time this season and that Rui Hachimura (left call soreness) and Marcus Smart (viral illness) will be available to play against the Jazz after sitting out against Milwaukee on Saturday.

Over the past decade, we have seen again how the suffering experienced by the people of Gaza continues in the midst of global political forces that are silent on the sidelines. The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) as a new form of global solidarity emerged and was formed to turn a blind eye to this injustice. This movement itself sails across the country’s borders carrying messages of humanity and peaceful resistance as a form of opposition to Israel’s blockade policy that closes Palestinian land, air, and sea access to the Gaza Strip (Global Sumud Flotilla, 2025). The failure of formal diplomacy to open humanitarian channels has led international civil society to take the initiative to take over the role to show the world that now geopolitical conditions no longer limit and bind global solidarity to take steps on humanitarian issues like this.

The author considers that the Global Sumud Flotilla movement is a real representation of the practice of transnationalism, where this movement is a network of cross-border communities that move together with the same goals and basic human values. The moral, social, and political dimensions are all combined into one in the GSF; this is a concrete example of the active role of global civil society in humanitarian issues in Palestine. For this reason, the author will focus this discussion on three main aspects, namely the origins and actors behind the formation of the GSF movement, the human values and transnational solidarity that underlie this movement, and its relevance in the era of globalization, which is a manifestation of transnational society.

Discussion

The history of the formation of the Global Sumud Flotilla movement is rooted in an international network that has also tried to penetrate the blockade of Gaza through the sea route since 2010, namely the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) movement. Based on information from the official website of GSF (2025), there are more than 30 organizations from various parts of the world that are involved in this initiative, including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. It is not because of the state’s agenda or political interests, but the reason they sail is because of the humanitarian mission they bring, namely “Break the siege, break the silence.” There are various actors who participate in this movement, ranging from humanitarian activists and civil society leaders to journalists anddoctors, so this proves that the global community can also collaborate or cooperate outside the state structure. Keck and Sikkink (1998) put forward the theory of transnational advocacy networks; within the framework of this theory can be a strong example of how this network of cross-border activism uses their moral solidarity to oppose state power.

The main value that underlies or is the foundation of this movement is an Arabic term, namely “Sumud,” which means constancy or fortitude. Well, in this Palestinian context, sumud reflects the determination of the Palestinian people who are trying to survive and protect their homeland even in the midst of the colonial siege and violence that constantly hits them. This value was then adopted by the global community that is a member of the GSF as a form of symbolic solidarity that underlies their movement so that it is not only the Palestinian people who have constancy but also the common spirit of humanity who are moving to oppose and reject the injustices that occur. GSF volunteers stated that in this mission they not only brought the issue of aid but also defended the dignity of humanity in the face of the ruling military power (Harakah Daily, 2025).

            The practice of transnationalism in the GSF is very clear, and we can see it in how this movement operates. All coordination is carried out in full by global civil society networks through various mechanisms, such as donations, digital campaigns, and international advocacy, so no single country is the main leader or sponsor in this movement. In breaking through the blockade of Gaza, global civil society faces various major challenges, but the presence of this GSF shows us all how this cross-border collaborative movement can suppress world public opinion. Every voyage they make can be used as an alternative space for diplomacy or citizen diplomacy, which emphasizes the position of the global community, which plays an important role in encouraging international humanitarian issues.

In addition to bringing physical aid, such as food, medical equipment, clothing, and so on, the GSF also plays a powerful symbolic role that is no less important. For example, when their ship was attacked by the Israeli navy, which occurred in October 2025, these volunteers did not show their fear of the Israeli navy (Kumparan, 2025). Instead, they showed and affirmed their determination to continue sailing to give freedom to the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. The attitude shown by these volunteers reflects how the sense of transnational solidarity can transcend and eliminate their fear of repression. So, these people are actually not just volunteers but also a real form of global moral resistance to structural injustice.

The GSF movement also showed the world an important shift in international political practice. We can see that in humanitarian issues, which used to only move and become the realm of state diplomacy, it has now changed with the takeover by a global civil society network that has a common vision. The biggest challenge for the international community in dealing with this problem lies not only in the physical blockade of Gaza but also in the moral blockade that occurs here, which makes many countries reluctant to take action (Dall’Asta, 2025). For this reason, the GSF is here as the antithesis of state passivity, which shows countries and the whole world that if the citizens of the world unite and take collective action, then they can break through the global political impasse, as happened to the state.

From an academic point of view, the Sumud Flotilla has actually expanded the meaning of transnationalism, as explained by Scholte (2005) in his book entitled “Globalization: A Critical Introduction,” that social relations that cross national borders are built on the basis of shared values and goals, not because of national sovereignty. The GSF here affirms the existence of a global civil society that works in parallel with the nation-state system. In addition, this kind of cross-border solidarity can create a transnational form of humanity that is arguably more organic, so it means that the world community forms a network of collective action to deal with the ongoing global crisis.

Although this impact has not been able to end the blockade of Gaza, the existence of the GSF itself has had a great moral impact. This movement revived our awareness that in fact world politics does not only belong to the elite and the state but also belongs to all of us, belonging to the citizens of the world who care about it. Not only that, this movement also shows how a human value is able to penetrate walls or boundaries in geopolitics. This kind of initiative plays a very important role in building global awareness of what is happening in Palestine, that the struggle of the Palestinian people is a universal humanitarian struggle (Saleem & Khurshid, 2025).

Conclusion

The three arguments above, which focus on the origins and actors behind the GSF movement, the underlying and foundational humanitarian values, and its relevance as a manifestation of this transnational society, have shown that the Global Sumud Flotilla movement is a tangible form of cross-border solidarity on humanitarian issues in Palestine. This movement confirms to the world that the moral strength possessed by global civil society can be a real alternative to diplomacy that has repeatedly failed to uphold justice. Thus, we can conclude that the Global Sumud Flotilla is not only a symbol of humanitarian shipping but also a form of real representation of the birth of a transnational society that plays an active role in fighting for global humanity. And it also reminds us that true humanity does not know the state border but is something that is born or created from the collective consciousness to continue to sail against the injustice that exists in this world.