prove

As an aspiring young quarterback at Muleshoe High in the early 2000s, Lincoln Riley attended a football camp at Texas Christian University, run by a coach known even then as a mastermind of defense, a man whose ideas and 4-2-5 scheme would one day be disseminated across college football.

Gary Patterson had just been elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at TCU, a job he would occupy for the next two decades. Around the same time, his staff saw something in Riley. They talked briefly about giving him a shot at safety on Patterson’s vaunted TCU defense.

“Needless to say,” Riley told The Oklahoman in 2018, “it didn’t turn out.”

But a quarter-century after first crossing paths at that camp, it’s now the young quarterback giving the old ball coach a chance to prove himself.

When USC announced it was hiring Patterson as Riley’s defensive coordinator in January, ears perked up across college football. On one hand, Patterson, 66, is a freshly minted College Football Hall of Famer and one of the great defensive minds of the modern era. On the other hand, he hasn’t led a college football team since 2021, when he was forced out at TCU, and a lot has changed in the sport since. Not to mention it’s been more than 25 years since Patterson last served as a coordinator.

Those were fair concerns, considering all that’s riding on Riley getting it right with Patterson, his third defensive coordinator in five seasons. But after seven months with him on the job, you won’t find anyone at USC — players, coaches or administrators alike — with an ounce of distress over Patterson’s stamina.

“I think I would have had more reservations had I not known him,” Riley said. “But that fire still burns very, very hot.”

That much was obvious in the spring when Patterson jumped into the middle of a tackling circuit to teach proper technique, and ended up running through the whole drill. He even delivered a blow at the end.

“He knocked the guy back,” said safeties coach Paul Gonzales, who coached with Patterson for a decade at TCU. “For a 60-year old guy, he still got some pop.”

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson watches practice in March.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Riley is betting big on that translating to the Trojans’ defense this fall. Over his four seasons as USC’s coach, there’s no mistaking what’s held Riley back from reaching the same heights at USC as he had at Oklahoma. The Trojans finished 124th, 104th, 87th and 65th in yards allowed per play during those years.

At TCU, Patterson’s defenses finished No. 1 in yards allowed five times during a 10-year stretch. Yet in the second half of his tenure at TCU, there was a noticeable decline, as his defenses finished in the top 25 of that same category just twice.

It was during that time that Riley’s offense went toe-to-toe with Patterson’s defense on numerous occasions. Riley, who was in his first head coaching job at Oklahoma, got the better of Patterson in each of their four meetings, piling up at least 498 total yards each time out.

“There was never anyone who was more of a pain to gameplan for or try to move the ball against than this guy,” Riley said.

During his five years away from coaching, Patterson said he actually spent more time studying the game than he had at TCU, where he was often consumed with other responsibilities. After consulting briefly at Texas and Baylor, Patterson took a job with an Amazon college football show, he says, primarily for the subscription service that came with it. Every Sunday morning, he’d watch whatever college game he wanted, just to stay fresh.

When he did return to coaching, Patterson didn’t just want to install the same scheme he used at TCU. So he closely studied Ohio State and Indiana’s defenses, which gave up a combined 32 touchdowns last season — seven fewer than USC’s defense (39). He took cues on how both clamped down better than anyone else in the red zone, where they each allowed opponents to convert touchdowns just 37% of the time.

“All I did was do football,” Patterson said. “I mean, it’s like getting married. I mean, it’s like I got nothing else. I wasn’t doing anything else.”

Those habits haven’t changed at USC. When other assistants took time for vacation this summer, Patterson stayed in the facility. He wanted to hone in on how to install his defense for a second time this fall. So he came in every day before 7 a.m., in a mostly empty office — just to beat the traffic.

“You want to change things, it’s a full-time job,” Patterson said. “It’s not one of those things that you do 70 or 80% of your time.”

It also gave him time to get to know his new players, each of whom have been summarily stunned by their veteran coach’s vitality.

“I don’t know how old he is, but he‘s out there like he’s 30,” linebacker Desman Stephens said. “He‘s still being active with us. He’s showing us drills. Like, if he want it done right, he gonna show you the exact way how to do it.”

So far, at USC, Patterson has had his hands on just about every detail of the defense. Which is precisely what Riley envisioned after watching him coach at TCU — and why he wasn’t worried about the game passing Patterson by.

“He was such a hands-on head coach,” Riley said. “He wasn’t a head coach just kind of doing a practice schedule, doing the speech, getting out early. He didn’t just straight CEO this thing, right? He was still calling defense, still game planning. He was very involved in every aspect of that program through all those years.”

USC defensive coordinator Gary Patterson fist bumps linebacker Desman Stephens during practice on Aug. 5.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

He won’t have to do that at USC. And Patterson seems perfectly fine with that.

But while others still wonder if he can make a successful return to college football, with a scheme that hasn’t been tested since 2021, Patterson is pretty confident his decades of experience count for something, too.

“It’s an advantage for me compared to somebody that’s 30 years old and doesn’t have kids, never been married, doesn’t know what it’s like to grow somebody up and raise a family and do things,” Patterson said.

“This is, I think, my 45th season. … “There’s not a lot of guys in this profession of the age where you can go back to all the things that I’ve learned through all the years.”

It’s a few minutes after 10 a.m. on a recent morning and the thermometer is closing in on 95 degrees, but Marc Papas isn’t fazed. “The heat doesn’t bother me much,” he said, unloading his bicycle — a blue and yellow 1989 Trek 400 — from the trunk of his car on a side street in Reseda. “I just keep going.”

Papas adjusted the heart monitor underneath his T-shirt, checked the bike computer attached to his handlebars, then set off on the day’s ride; he’s taken it upon himself to bike every public street in Los Angeles. The Phoenix native has completed over 78% (about 5,840 miles) after two years. He calls it “The Project,” and says there’s about 7,516.07 miles in total, when you include various enclaves and adjacent cities like Beverly Hills or Burbank. Today he’s headed toward the longest continuous bike lane in Southern California — a stretch of Reseda Boulevard. It’s an unexpected amenity in a part of the city that seems otherwise hostile to pedestrians and cyclists, but one Papas wants incorporated around more of Los Angeles.

“Somebody once asked me on a Reddit Ask Me Anything what is one street you think needs a bike lane,” he said. “I wrote him a whole essay in response, because I can’t just say one street.”

Marc Papas estimates he covers about 75 new, unique miles each week, putting him on track to complete the entire city after nearly three years of riding.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Marc Papas sets his blue and yellow 1989 Trek 400 near a graffiti post along the Los Angeles River.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

After a few blocks on Reseda, Papas turned back into the neighborhood centered around Etiwanda and started tracing loops across the blocks. It’s his standard pattern for covering any area he rides for the Project. “I base my routes on a math theory called the Eulerian Path,” said Papas, a mechanical engineer by training. Each new segment of the city he rides is generally a rectangle bound by major streets. “Then, I start with loops around the edges and work my way in,” he continued. “It’s the most efficient way to cover an area without overlapping.”

Today’s ride would yield eight new miles for Papas. “So, I’ll be about 12 miles away from 80%,” he calculated.

Papas started his biking project almost by accident. He moved to Los Angeles in late 2020 after finishing his PhD at Georgia Tech. He had taken up biking around Atlanta as part of triathlon training and worried he wouldn’t be able to continue once arriving in L.A.

“I remember having a sort of fear around it,” said Papas. “I’d heard it’s just so car-filled and dangerous to be on the roads.” But riding along the beach and around much of the Westside quickly changed his mind. With perfect weather year-round and a mostly flat topography, why wasn’t everyone in L.A. riding bikes?

He was soon cycling to work in Monrovia from his apartment in Pasadena, and biking more than he ever had in his life. “Sometimes friends would be surprised to learn I have a car,” he said. “They thought I bike everywhere because I don’t drive.”

Then, on Dec. 31, 2023, Papas decided to get in one last bike ride for the year. He rode a section of San Marino that he and friends refer to as “The Mitochondria” for the shape the streets make when viewed in the tracking app Strava. After riding the Mitochondria, he decided to keep going — making a path up each street and block — until he was satisfied. It gave him the idea to ride every mile of street in San Marino. “It’s only 60 miles total,” said Papas. “That seemed doable.”

“There are beautiful pieces of art on the walls that you wouldn’t imagine,” says Marc Papas, who has spotted murals throughout the city.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Marc Papas cruises along the Los Angeles River bike path.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Finishing the 60 miles of San Marino led to completing the 400 miles of Pasadena. He next found himself taking detours to cover new streets in Northeast Los Angeles as he’d ride to and from Koreatown Run Club meet-ups at Los Angeles Community College. But it wasn’t clear to himself, or anyone else, what he was doing. “Friends were seeing my Strava activities and texting me like, ‘What the heck are you doing, man?,’” Papas recalled. One friend jokingly asked if he was drawing the Nazca lines across the city, but Papas wrote it off as just trying to clock extra mileage. “There’s a level of self-deception, because riding the whole city of Los Angeles seemed impossible to do,” he said. Still, his treks around Northeast L.A., East Hollywood and Los Feliz were starting to build up mileage — he had completed about 18% of the city.

When Papas drove out to North Hollywood in November 2024 specifically to track new mileage, he realized he had crossed the Rubicon. “At that point, I can’t lie to myself anymore about what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m driving out to these places to get miles more efficiently. When that happened, I was like, all right, I’m in it for the long haul.”

“Biking is like a superpower to gain familiarity with your neighborhood,” says Marc Papas.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

As Papas covered more and more of the city, he began growing an appreciation for various architecturally-significant neighborhoods as well as the many murals across large swaths of South and East L.A. “There are beautiful pieces of art on the walls that you wouldn’t imagine,” he said. “I want to take people to these places and do a mural tour.” He was especially moved when he was riding in Pacoima and saw a Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens mural that memorializes the tragic plane crash that killed both Holly and Valens. “So many of these murals are commemorating people and events that are culturally important to those specific areas,” he added.

The bike rides were connecting him to his city in ways he never expected. “I’m not necessarily saying that everybody needs to go out and ride their bikes,” said Papas, though he’d certainly love it if more Angelenos did. Instead, he hopes his biking project is showing people what’s possible — in the most extreme way. Yes, you can bike in Los Angeles, as many Angelenos often do out of necessity. It’s even enjoyable. And yes, you can do it across every single mile of the city, even if the cycling infrastructure isn’t perfect yet. “I think to me, success would be if people just go out and explore their own neighborhood,” he said. He views cycling as a form of civic engagement and a way to see things otherwise invisible when speeding by in a car. For beginners, Papas recommends sticking to bike paths and joining cycling groups. More experienced riders should venture out into new areas, said Papas. “Biking is like a superpower to gain familiarity with your neighborhood, but it just needs to be unleashed.”

“At this point, I can’t lie to myself anymore … I’m in it for the long haul,” says Marc Papas. He’s already clocked thousands of miles on his mission to cover every street in L.A.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Last September, Papas passed the 50% mark of his project and estimates he’s been covering an additional 1% (or about 75 new, unique miles) every week since. That puts him on pace to finish sometime around mid-December — should everything go smoothly — nearly three years after he first began. Does he know what his final mile will be? “Eldred Street in Mount Washington,” he said. He notes it’s one of the steepest streets in the entire country.

“It’’s a fitting end, like a final boss [in a video game], just one last all-out hard effort to completely finish things off,” Papas said. “It gives me goosebumps to think that would be the time and place that this years-long project would be done.” Of course, there’s always the rest of Los Angeles County to conquer.

Olympic champion cyclist Emma Finucane insists she has “nothing to prove” at the Commonwealth Games despite her ambitions of winning an elusive gold in Scotland.

Finucane, 23, collected two bronze medals in Birmingham four years ago but has since won 16 medals at the Olympics, World and European Championships.

The Welsh star says she is targeting “the top step” on the podium in Glasgow.

“I haven’t actually stood on the top step at the Commonwealth Games,” Finucane told BBC Sport Wales.

“That’s something I’d love to achieve this time round.

“I feel like I’m a different person four years on and I can’t wait to show what I can do on the track.”

The Carmarthenshire native credits the Birmingham 2022 Games as the “springboard” to where she is today.

“I would not be where I am today without the Commonwealth Games,” she said.

“The first time I was pretty young, pretty naive to the sport of sprint cycling.

“It was a very overwhelming experience, whereas this time round I feel like I’m more of an established rider.”

She added: “I was 19 [in Birmingham] and the year after I won my first world title, which was crazy for me.

“I think it gave me the confidence I needed as an athlete to develop in my career, and get to where I am so quickly.

“We became Olympic champions two years ago, and I actually don’t even know how that happened.”

ANKARA, Turkey — President Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Turkey that were issued after Ankara purchased a Russian missile defense system that led to the country being kicked out of the F-35 fighter jet program.

There are still a number of legal hurdles before Turkey could be fully admitted back to the U.S. program, but the removal of the sanctions — issued under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act — would help ease the process for Ankara to regain access to the F-35s, a top goal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and one that Trump has predicted for some time would occur.

“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off, OK?” Trump said in response to a question during a meeting with Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara. He said Cabinet officials were working on the matter. Earlier in the meeting, he said the possibility of selling the F-35s to Turkey is “certainly something we will consider.”

Trump and Erdogan repeatedly underscored their warm relationship as they met soon after the U.S. president arrived in Ankara for the NATO summit. Erdogan greeted the U.S. president with an elaborate welcome ceremony involving cannons, military officials on horseback and jets flying overhead emitting red, white and blue smoke.

“Sometimes you get along with the toughest people, like him,” Trump said, gesturing to Erdogan. The U.S. president repeatedly praised Turkey for its loyalty to the U.S., particularly during the war in Iran.

Trump, who has often upended NATO gatherings with complaints that European allies did not spend enough on defense, had said he would not have attended this year’s summit had it not been for his close ties with Erdogan.

‘Moment of great pride’

Earlier in the day, NATO showcased a series of military projects worth billions of dollars — an investment that the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, called “money well spent.”

An energized Rutte was speaking to government ministers and defense industry officials at a forum billed as NATO’s “big reveal,” to the thrum of techno music and a slick video display.

NATO as an organization does not own any weapons — these are the property of the 32 member countries — but it does have a fleet of 14 AWACS early warning radar surveillance planes that are about 50 years old, along with some newer surveillance drones.

A deal to replace the aging planes was announced Tuesday. Swedish manufacturer Saab will be supplying up to 10 new GlobalEye surveillance aircraft for a 10-nation consortium, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced.

“It’s a moment of great pride,” he said, noting that the twin-engine aircraft would be “made within the alliance for all the alliance.”

Some of the projects will be paid for with funds from a system of cheap loans for defense purposes set up by the European Union, comprising up to $170 billion raised on capital markets.

“We need to ensure that we are translating our economic might into military capabilities, putting the cash to work from defense plans to drones, from money to missiles and interceptors,” Rutte said.

Trump has branded NATO a “paper tiger” that would cease to function without American arms and leadership. At the forum on Tuesday, Michael Duffy, a U.S. undersecretary of defense, said “the reality is that we need production increases across the board.”

“We will be looking to increase our exports to those who are looking to buy our equipment, and we’ll also be looking to partner with the expansion of production capacity here in Europe,” he said.

Defense sales announced

Representatives from 15 nations shook hands and patted shoulders on a vast podium under the NATO logo as they announced a multinational effort to buy air-to-air refueling and transport planes from Airbus.

Then Rutte announced a four-country effort to purchase as many as five new Triton surveillance drones to add to NATO’s small fleet.

“It is genuinely made in NATO, and creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.

Rutte told reporters on the eve of the military alliance’s two-day summit in Turkey that “we will announce tens of billions in new contracts that will provide the crucial kit we need to deter and defend.”

However, at Tuesday’s event, no dollar figures were given and the display included some projects long since agreed.

The defense industry splash comes a few weeks after Rutte tried to ease U.S. concerns about military spending at NATO with a new pitch using a chart labeled “The Trump Trillion” — showing $1.2 trillion in spending by European allies and Canada since 2017.

Trump appeared unmoved, saying he was still disappointed at some NATO allies’ refusal to join the Iran war, which he had launched alongside Israel without consulting them.

“We don’t need their money — we don’t need anything,” Trump said. “I just want loyalty.”

Debate over jet sales to Turkey

The summit is being held in Erdogan’s sprawling palace compound in Ankara, and Trump has suggested he would come bearing gifts for the Turkish leader.

Turkey was barred from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 after it purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. When asked about the fate of Turkey’s return to the F-35 system, Trump said as he sat next to Erdogan that “it’s certainly something we will consider.

Speaking Monday on the morning show “Fox & Friends,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the U.S. not to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, saying that Erdogan “calls openly for the annihilation of Israel.”

Turkey and Israel have acrimonious relations. Erdogan frequently accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war in Gaza, triggered by the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Netanyahu said selling Turkey F-35s would “upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also, I think, by America’s posture in the Middle East.”

Turkey beefed up security and banned protests in Ankara during the summit, but a small group of demonstrators gathered on Tuesday in the capital. They were quickly surrounded by police, and a legal association said 22 students affiliated with the leftist Turkish Workers Party and three lawyers had been detained.

Seeking a stronger Europe for a stronger NATO

The Pentagon wants a reboot and is promoting what it calls “NATO 3.0,” a vision of the alliance in which Europe assumes greater responsibility for its own defense, freeing the U.S. to concentrate on other priorities.

But hiking defense spending means increasing taxes or diverting resources from other priorities. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey unexpectedly quit last month, saying the British government was not willing to spend at a time of rising threats.

Separately on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for his country to be allowed to join the alliance, saying its armed forces are highly experienced and resilient would only boost the alliance’s defense capabilities.

He highlighted Ukraine’s adaptability and its ability to strike deep inside Russia, hit oil refineries and other energy targets. He said that Ukraine’s armed forces are “eliminating” on average 30,000 Russian troops every month.

“Frankly we take no pride in this,” Zelensky said, noting that the war with Russia — now in its fifth year — is “a war we did not seek but one we are forced to fight.”

Concern is mounting among some northern and central eastern countries that Russia might be preparing a hybrid attack — a combination of conventional warfare with tactics like cyberattacks — on the continent as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to secure victory in Ukraine.

Cook, Fraser, Sewell and Kim write for the Associated Press. AP writers Jill Lawless in London and Andy Wilks in Istanbul contributed to this report.

Over the past year, it may have appeared that the pro-Palestine protest movement in the United States has lost momentum in the face of smears, crackdowns, indifference and fatigue.

But a string of electoral wins by critics of Israeli abuses appears to indicate that activism’s success can only be measured in the long term.

In New York, Darializa Avila Chevalier, an activist who participated in the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, won a Democratic congressional primary against a five-term incumbent.

“It’s just so satisfying to feel like the tide is finally turning,” said Maryam Alwan, who participated in the Columbia protest in 2024.

“Public opinion has shifted to a point where it’s unavoidable and undeniable, and I think we’re finally starting to see the ripple effects of movements like the encampment that happened two years ago.”

Avila Chevalier’s win was one of several victories for pro-Palestine candidates in New York last week.

Last year, Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, in part thanks to the efforts of young pro-Palestine activists who powered his campaign.

In Colorado on Tuesday, Melat Kiros, who was fired from her law firm in 2023 for a letter defending Palestinian rights supporters from accusations of anti-Semitism, ousted a House member who had been in Congress for nearly 30 years.

Candidates backed by supporters of Palestinian rights also won key races in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Columbia case

Avila Chevalier’s victory especially stands out in the context of the long-term impact of the student protests.

The democratic socialist nominee, who is likely to cruise to victory in a safe Democratic district in November, will represent large parts of Columbia University’s campus, where it all started.

Witnessing horrific atrocities in Gaza that were partly funded by their own government, students at Columbia set up the first encampment in support of Palestinians, kick-starting a national movement.

Students nationwide then turned their campuses into a front line for political activism against Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians.

Dozens of encampments sprang up on campuses across the country in 2024 and chants of “free Palestine” rang out in schools from Seattle to Miami.

The students demanded an end to their own schools’ complicity in Israel’s abuses. They called for divestment from Israeli companies and weapons manufacturers.

A security crackdown soon ensued, leading to the arrest of hundreds of students and the removal of encampments.

Avila Chevalier herself was arrested in 2024 as an alumna taking part in the protests.

Many students faced academic disciplinary action and others were charged with alleged crimes related to the protests as politicians from both major parties portrayed the movement as anti-Semitic.

Then, Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025 and went after student activists who were not US citizens, pushing to deport them.

With the encampments removed, the protests getting quieter and the activists going on the defensive to preserve their own personal reputations, safety and freedom, it appeared that the pro-Israel camp successfully suffocated the student movement.

‘New wave of hope’

But the story is not over yet, activists say, and the recent elections show it.

“There’s no words to describe the joy and satisfaction that comes from seeing Darializa, a former leader and organiser of the encampment, represent the school that arrested her,” Alwan said.

She added that while students may not have succeeded in securing divestment despite rallying and suffering personal costs, change is proving to be a “gradual process”, and public opinion is now more aligned with the protesters.

“We’re experiencing a new wave of hope,” Alwan told Al Jazeera.

Cameron Jones, who participated in the protests at Columbia, said Avila Chevalier was always supportive of younger activists and unafraid to speak up for Palestinian rights, even when it wasn’t popular.

“It’s really inspiring to see how, even though we have faced such immense repression and have been organising in such a hostile environment, the power of the people is still able to overcome all the barriers that are being set by the federal government, Columbia, the media,” Jones said of Avila Chevalier’s win.

The Columbia protests were part of Avila Chevalier’s political identity as she launched her campaign last year.

One of her criticisms of her now-defeated opponent, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, is that he did not adequately support Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil as he was targeted for deportation by the Trump administration.

Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), said the recent electoral wins for pro-Palestine candidates would not have been possible without the student protests of 2024.

“When we think about social movements, we think about them as bursts of action, as temporally limited things,” Gowayed told Al Jazeera.

“And when the students are dispersed and the students are expelled and the university doesn’t divest, we see that as the loss of a movement.”

She added that there have been many articles declaring the defeat of student protests and claiming they have petered out and questioning the lack of campus activism in the Trump era after the crackdown.

“But here we have Darializa’s win, Mamdani’s win and the win of the entire socialist slate,” she said. “This does not happen if those students don’t encamp; it just doesn’t happen.”

Wednesday’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in San Francisco Bay Area Stadium was thoroughly deserved and earned Pochettino’s side a date with Belgium in Seattle on Monday evening (01:00 BST on Tuesday).

It did not, however, come without a price.

Folarin Balogun, the 24-year-old former Arsenal youngster, who inspired the US to a thumping win over Paraguay with two goals to begin their campaign, added his third of the tournament to break the deadlock shortly before half-time.

He might have had a hat-trick, firing one effort wide of the near post, seeing an effort ruled out for offside and slicing a shot onto the bar from close range, but just after the hour mark his night, and potentially his World Cup was ended.

What looked an innocuous tussle with Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic for a looping ball down the left channel ended with the forward being shown a straight red card.

As Balogun attempted to shield the ball, Muharemovic managed to get in front of him, and as the forward’s boot returned to the ground it landed on the back of the Bosnian’s ankle, causing it to twist gruesomely.

In real time, and in all likelihood in reality, it looked entirely accidental, but Brazilian referee Raphael Claus was sent to the monitor to watch a super slow-motion replay, which gave him little choice but to brandish the red card.

It etched Balogun’s name further into the record books.

On the night when he became just the third American to score three goals in a World Cup edition, he also became the fourth player to both score and be sent off in a knockout match, following Brazil’s Garrincha in the 1962 semi-final, his compatriot Ronaldinho in the 2002 quarter-final against England, and France’s Zinedine Zidane in the infamous 2006 final against Italy.

The sending-off brings an immediate one-game ban, ruling him out of the Belgium match, but it could yet be extended by Fifa officials to potentially rule him out of the quarter-final and semi-final, should the Americans make it.

Long-time Fulham target Ricardo Pepi is the man most likely to fill Balogun’s boots , though he has not scored in his 184 minutes on the pitch at this tournament, nor in the four friendly games before it.

The PSV man’s last international goal came in a Nations League game in November 2024.

Crystal Palace and US defender Chris Richards said the players were supporting Balogun.

“We told him we have got his back,” he said. “We are a team of 26, not just one.

“Ultimately we are going to miss him for the next game but we know whoever is going to step up is going to do a job just as well as he did.

“I think it’ll keep us stronger. One man is down, the next guy steps up. We are a team, we are more than just one player, we are more than just 11 players.”

Pochettino added: “When Balogun received the red card, I thought that is the moment we need to show we are a team and the eyes of the players were [saying], ‘Coach, we are ready to go and fight’ and that is amazing.

“These guys are creating a legacy in this country and with our amazing fans everything is possible. Why not us?”

WITH thousands of people flocking to the seaside to cool off, beach safety is all the more important.

And there is one phenomenon called “square waves” which are extremely dangerous for anyone in the water.

Also called cross waves, the unusual wave pattern is formed when two different weather systems collide, creating the checkered effect.

This is because of the waves hitting each other as the they come rom different directions.

While they may look pretty, or even not very strong, they actually are much more dangerous than they appear.

They are similar to rip tides which can make it hard for people to get out of the water.

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They can be found both close to the shoreline and far out at sea – which has even resulted in causing shipwrecks, according to the European Space Agency.

Some of the places they have been spotted include La Rochelle in France, where they can seen from above via the lighthouse.

Last year, they were also spotted off the coast of Turkey, in the Aegean Sea.

Lisbon in Portugal and Hawaii are all places where they can occur too.

One person previously wrote on social media: “We were always taught to keep an eye out for the ‘squares’ – the grid can pull you back and fourth for hundreds of feet and make it hard to stay calm.”

If you want to avoid the ocean entirely, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best inland beaches in the UK.

Beneath azure skies and fluffy white clouds, three giggling toddlers and their mothers arrive at a candy-colored water park in the town of CoComelon.

It’s the opening of “Fast Little Fishy Splash Water Park Adventure,” a three-minute episode of “CoComelon,” the popular children’s cartoon series that is perhaps as controversial as it is appealing to young children.

Moonbug Entertainment, the studio behind “CoComelon,” says the episode, which debuted on YouTube in May, is the result of a years-long collaboration with a UCLA think tank.

In an unconventional move for a privately held entertainment company, the studio released its child development guidelines on its website Tuesday. Moonbug’s head of communications Bao Nguyen said the company began to incorporate findings from the research into its creative process in late 2025.

“It’s a great example of what we’ve been trying to do,” said Rich Hickey, Moonbug’s chief creative officer, referring to the episode. “Inclusive storytelling and learning through play — they’re all evident within that episode.”

Nina and Cody, ecstatic about visiting their neighborhood splash pad, run through fountains and hop in kiddie pools, but protagonist JJ is a bit more skeptical.

With support from his friends and his mother, who offers him goggles and a pair of orange arm floaties, JJ decides to face his fears. He joins his friends under a tipping bucket, and — spoiler alert — realizes that he actually enjoys playing in water. (“I just love to swim, swim, swim,” he sings.)

The guidelines, called the “Moonbug Learning Principles Framework,” are informed by academic research and advise that Moonbug shows should help young viewers navigate “real life moments” and “model positive relationships among children and their friends and caregivers.”

Other priorities include creating shows that encourage kids to learn through play, as this helps them develop their imagination and creativity, and featuring characters from diverse backgrounds (“CoComelon’s” Nina is Mexican American, Cece is Korean American and Cody is Black) — and giving said characters depth — across all Moonbug shows.

“We’re a digital-first company and we realized that there may be some … hesitation to sharing online content with children,” Hickey said. “This is really to keep building on the trust we think we’ve built.”

“CoComelon” is Moonbug’s flagship preschool show, and the series’ origins date back to 2006 when commercial director Jay Jeon shared a YouTube video of an alphabet cartoon set to music. The videos began to revolve around toddler JJ in 2017.

By 2020, “CoComelon” was the most-watched YouTube channel in the world, averaging 3.5 billion monthly views. That year, the show made its streaming debut on Netflix — where it broke ratings records — and was bought by London-based entertainment company Moonbug.

Moonbug was then acquired by Candle Media, a firm led by ex-Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, for a reported $3 billion. Disney+ has since obtained the exclusive streaming rights to “CoCoMelon.”

“CoComelon‘s” image woes aren’t new. The series has developed a reputation for keeping children glued to the screen, as seen in videos that have gone viral on social media of babies bolting to the television upon hearing the marimba theme song.

In 2020, a Guardian columnist wrote that “CoComelon” was “like crack” for a preschool child. A New York Times report in 2022 gave the public more insight into Moonbug’s audience development process, which included testing “CoComelon” videos on young children to make its shows as attention-grabbing as possible.

The program has been a hot topic on parenting forums. The exchange typically goes something like this: Someone asks if “CoComelon” is “bad” and a gaggle of parents weigh in. “Very overstimulating,” said a user in one Reddit thread. “It moves too fast for kids’ brains to process, which can cause a speech delay,” wrote another.

Asked to respond to the criticism, Hickey said he believes Moonbug makes “age-appropriate content” and produces a range of videos to cater to different moments throughout a child’s day, from slow bedtime videos to faster-paced ones meant to encourage movement, Hickey said.

In 2023, Moonbug recruited the Center for Scholars and Storytellers, a think tank at UCLA that bridges entertainment media and psychology research, to “create the best possible product” for its audience, Hickey said.

The center was tasked with analyzing Moonbug’s content and crafting the learning principles to guide the studio’s future preschool programming, which also includes the “Blippi” and “Little Angel” franchises.

A scene from Moonbug Entertainment’s “Blippi’s Job Show.”

(Jessica Perez / Moonbug)

Moonbug also asked the center to determine if there was research showing that audiovisual content could be addicting for preschoolers, said Yalda T. Uhls, an assistant adjunct professor of psychology at UCLA and executive director of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers. Uhls said the center’s review of existing peer-reviewed research found that there was no such evidence.

And despite oft-repeated claims that long-form content is better for kids than short-form content, “there isn’t really actually any evidence for that,” Uhls said. “It’s very inconclusive.”

The center found that preschool children struggle to learn as much from content with frequent cuts, though consuming it doesn’t impact their attention span negatively, Uhls said.

As such, the principles the center crafted recommend Moonbug “minimize distractions and tangential songs or storylines” when characters are navigating real-life situations to make sure it does not interfere with preschool children’s ability to learn lessons.

The center interviewed members of Moonbug’s creative teams and formed an advisory council of academic experts in child development to evaluate a selection of Moonbug’s episodes, assess the quality of socio-emotional learning and find areas for improvement, Uhls said.

“The content certainly had a lot of places where it could improve, but it wasn’t horrible,” Uhls said. “There was some learning within the episodes. … It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad.”

Uhls said she recalled several instances of episodes modeling unsafe behavior, but declined to share specifics.

The center plans to continue to work with Moonbug to integrate child development research much earlier in the studio’s creative process and aid with the integration of the learning principles into its content slate, Uhls said.