Tropea in the Calabria region of Italy has recently been voted the prettiest village in the whole country
Tropea has been voted Italy’s most beautiful town
Few places can be beaten for splendour than the duomo in Florence, and turning a corner to be greeted by the Colosseum in Rome would take anyone’s breath away.
Travel to Italy and you’re never far from a spectacular sight – be that the shores of Lake Garda, which as a dyed in the wool Cumbrian even I have to admit looks like the Lake District on steroids, to the canals, gondolas and majestic cathedral of Venice, and Verona’s amphitheatre and Juliette’s balcony to the high end shops of Milan, there really is something for everyone.
But venture a little of the beaten track, and escape the hordes of tourists battling for an inch of beach in the Amalfi coast, to travel south to the untapped and undiscovered region known as Calabria and you’ll step into the ‘real Italy’ – and back in time.
One of the crown jewels of this region, which is Italy’s poorest, is the stunning medieval town of Tropea, where I was lucky enough to spend a blissful week. And it’s not just me who’s a fan, the town was recently voted the prettiest in Italy, which I think we can all agree means it was up against some stiff competition.
Nestled into the cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea, this ancient town tumbles down the rock face and into the turquoise blue of the ocean.
Surrounded by stunning golden beaches with plenty of room to feel like you have them to yourself, this town has a magical dream-like quality.
Tropea has survived it all – invasions, earthquakes and bombings – to stand proud on the clifftops. Its array of noble palaces and stunning churches, all contained within the winding, cobbled streets of the old town.
I was lucky enough to spend a week in Calabria with Tropea as my base. A glorious sunny October afternoon spent strolling through its streets, with secret, hidden alleys at every turn, and sampling the delicious food from the region, including the sweet, red onions and spicy ndjua, was an utter delight.
Stopping for one of the most delicious ice-creams I’ve ever eaten while overlooking the awe-inspiring Tyrrhenian from one of the many viewing points in this quaint little town quite simply took my breath away. Meanwhile, stopping for a crisp, white wine in an ancient tavern half way up the cliff face on my way back from the beach was the perfect way to while away a few hours.
If it’s history you’re after, then Tropea has it in bucketloads – from the cathedral to the Sanctuary of Santa Maria dell’Isola, the church on the rock, gazing out into the wide expanse of azure sea.
From the incredible viewing points, you have an amazing view of Stomboli, the still erupting volcano which lights up the night sky every evening off this part of the coast of Italy.
I have but one complaint about this undiscovered, Italian hidden gem – and that’s that I don’t live there and only got to spend a week wandering its beautiful streets.
President Donald Trump said that Hamas “is going to disarm” but if they don’t the US would act to disarm them “quickly and perhaps violently.” Trump declined to elaborate or to explain how the group would disarm a day after the Gaza peace deal was signed.
John Swinney was the third SNP leader in a little over a year
A year or so ago, the Scottish National Party looked to be in deep trouble.
They had been comprehensively thrashed in the general election, falling from 48 MPs to just nine.
They had managed to have three leaders in a little over a year: Nicola Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and then John Swinney.
It was a rate of attrition that would make even the Conservative Party of recent years blush.
There had also been a high-profile and long-running police investigation into the SNP’s finances, involving Sturgeon, who was told earlier this year she would face no action.
Plus there were bitter rows over gender identity.
And the SNP has been in devolved government in Scotland since before you could buy an iPhone – since May 2007.
Electoral gravity looked to be catching up with them, and catching up big time – just ahead of the crucial elections to the Scottish Parliament next May.
PA Media
John Swinney, with Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon
But in case you needed yet another reminder that our domestic politics remains a smorgasbord of competitiveness and unpredictability, the SNP is the latest case study.
Swinney has brought stability to a party that indulged in the opposite for a while.
And support has splintered among its rivals – Labour, Reform and others.
“Since last year’s general election, Labour’s support has more than halved in Scotland while the SNP has marginally improved its standing. While not seeing as significant a rise as in England, Reform has emerged as the potential second-place party after the SNP in Scotland, suppressing the Conservatives’ vote share as well as eating into Labour’s.”
Its analysis continues:
“Despite losing 11 points in the constituency vote, this result would put the SNP just shy of a majority in Holyrood, mostly due to fragmentation in the other parties.”
Remember, this is a snapshot, not a prediction. But it is fascinating nonetheless.
The mood among SNP party members and senior figures at the conference was chipper and upbeat.
The party feels competitive again and not only hopeful of victory next year, but even talking of that outright majority.
Just winning again, with or without a majority, would be an extraordinary achievement.
The party, if it does so, would he heading into its third consecutive decade in devolved power.
A majority is a big ask, with an electoral system that makes securing one tricky.
But it matters because the SNP’s latest attempt to make an argument for another independence referendum rests on securing a majority.
The party’s logic goes like this: the last time they persuaded the government at Westminster to grant one, they had won a majority at Holyrood a few years before.
That majority was won by Alex Salmond in 2011. The referendum followed in 2014.
Swinney is hoping to emulate the electoral success of Alex Salmond in 2011
The stumbling block is the UK government has made it clear, including in its manifesto, that it is opposed to another referendum.
Privately, senior SNP folk ponder that if they do win a majority, and Labour lose power in the Senedd in Wales and do badly in local elections in many parts of England, Sir Keir Starmer might be out of Downing Street.
There are a lot of ifs there and who knows.
But even if Sir Keir was a goner, that manifesto would still be something Labour could point to.
And the SNP would ask, again, just how voluntary the union of the United Kingdom really is if there is no achievable mechanism for another referendum.
The SNP’s critics point to what they see as a dismal domestic record, on the NHS, housing and the number of deaths among drug addicts, for instance.
The party counters with its own riff on what it sees as its greatest hits – they had one for every stair between the ground and first floor of the conference centre.
Free university tuition and free prescriptions are among them.
But there is something else going on too.
There is a near 50/50 split on the constitutional question in Scotland – independence or not.
This is a nation split down the middle.
This gives the SNP a deep well of potential support.
It offers the opportunity to continue to defy what in other circumstances would likely be the undeniable gravity of longevity in office – plunging to defeat.
Let’s see.
In local politics, politics in the nations and at the UK level, conventions continue to be upended in multiple directions.
It is also true – and the SNP and its rivals know it – things can change quickly too.
US President Donald Trump said he believes negotiations involving Israel and Hamas will go “very quickly” as mediators arrive in Egypt to discuss the details of his 20-point plan to end the Gaza war.
As someone who’s lived in and visited family throughout the Inland Empire for years, I have seen firsthand the rapid growth that has changed the region.
When I travel to Yucaipa nowadays, the orange groves of my youthful weekend visits have long since been replaced by housing developments as the town has nearly doubled in 30 years.
My colleague Terry Castleman has been analyzing the demographic changes taking place in California but he recently took a deep dive into the explosive growth of income in the Inland Empire, in particular the south desert portion of Riverside County.
Castleman, a data reporter, noted that two of the top three communities that saw the greatest growth in average income in the state between 2017 and 2022 were in the Coachella Valley, perhaps best known for hellish summer temperatures, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
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For this analysis, The Times considered only communities with more than 3,000 tax returns. I’ll address the cities with fewer returns shortly.
Thousand Palms saw average incomes rise more than 3.5 times over that span, from $12,700 in 2017 to nearly $45,000 three years later. In nearby Indian Wells, incomes nearly doubled, from $139,000 to $256,000.
The Coachella Valley is experiencing a desert bloom
Income levels in Thousand Palms were far lower than in Indian Wells — but each is getting richer from a regionwide perspective, said Kyle Garman, an agent for Keller Williams who has sold real estate in the Coachella Valley for eight years.
Part of the story is attributable to remote work, he said, but the valley has also undergone a shift from being primarily a tourist destination to a place to settle down.
“It’s not just Palm Springs, it’s not just people coming for the festivals, it’s the whole valley,” Garman said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, home prices were much lower and only about 35% to 40% of residents stayed for the hottest months of the year, he said. As more attractions and infrastructure have become available to residents, though, “people are sticking around more.”
So, who is moving in?
The average California household has a net worth between three and six times their adjusted gross income, meaning that the average Indian Wells resident probably became a millionaire between 2017 and 2022 as average household income skyrocketed to $256,000 from $139,000.
In the Coachella Valley, “the money’s coming from all over,” Garman observed. When the housing market was most competitive, around 2022 and 2023, cash buyers flooded in.
Now, they’re high earners who have relocated to towns that were formerly less tony. “This is the new norm,” he said.
Garman pointed to a number of new Coachella Valley attractions that were drawing families — the Firebirds professional ice hockey team and Disney’s Cotino housing development.
Thousand Palms is unincorporated, drawing homeowners because, as one businessperson there put it: “Taxes are more reasonable, you have fewer regulations when you want to build.”
Notes that didn’t make Castleman’s cut
When Castleman looked at the income changes in smaller towns, he found some intriguing data.
He discovered staggering income jumps in towns like Helm, an unincorporated Fresno County village that has about 200 residents.
Between the 2017-2022 period, Helm saw incomes grow by 10 times, reaching near $200,000.
Castleman said many smaller towns throughout the state are disproportionately impacted by the moves of one or a handful of “big fish.”
“The experts told me that there was likely a big farm owner who reported huge losses one year and then huge gains the next year,” he said. “So, these towns can have wild fluctuations.”
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff writer Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor Andrew J. Campa, reporter Hugo Martín, assistant editor Karim Doumar, head of newsletters Diamy Wang, homepage intern Izzy Nunes, audience intern
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court granted an unusually quick hearing on President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Tuesday, putting a policy at the center of his economic agenda squarely before the nation’s highest court.
The tariffs will remain in place in the lead-up to arguments set for November, a lightning-fast timetable by the Supreme Court’s typical standards.
The court agreed to take up an appeal from the Trump administration after lower courts found most of his tariffs illegal.
The small businesses and states that challenged them also agreed to the accelerated timetable. They say Trump’s import taxes on goods from nearly every country in the world have nearly driven their businesses to bankruptcy.
Two lower courts have agreed that Trump didn’t have the power to impose tariffs on nearly every country on earth under an emergency powers law, though a 7-4 appeals court has left them in place for now.
The Trump administration asked the justices to intervene quickly, arguing the law gives him the power to regulate imports and striking down the tariffs would put the country on “the brink of economic catastrophe.”
The case will come before a court that has been reluctant to check Trump’s extraordinary flex of executive power. One big question is whether the justices’ own expansive view of presidential authority allows for Trump’s tariffs without the explicit approval of Congress, which the Constitution endows with the power to levy tariffs. Three of the justices on the conservative-majority court were nominated by Trump in his first term.
While the tariffs and their erratic rollout have raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth, Trump has also used them to pressure other countries into accepting new trade deals. Revenue from tariffs totaled $159 billion by late August, more than double what it was at the same point a year earlier.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued that the lower court rulings are already affecting those trade negotiations. If the tariffs are struck down, the U.S. Treasury might take a hit by having to refund some of the import taxes it’s collected, Trump administration officials have said. A ruling against them could even the nation’s ability to reduce the flow of fentanyl and efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, Sauer argued.
The administration did win over four appeals court judges who found the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act lets the president regulate importation during emergencies without explicit limitations. In recent decades, Congress has ceded some tariff authority to the president and Trump has made the most of the power vacuum.
The case involves two sets of import taxes, both of which Trump justified by declaring a national emergency: the tariffs first announced in April and the ones from February on imports from Canada, China and Mexico.
It doesn’t include his levies on foreign steel, aluminum and autos, or the tariffs Trump imposed on China in his first term that were kept by Democratic President Biden.
Trump can impose tariffs under other laws, but those have more limitations on the speed and severity with which he could act.
A dozen years before he charted a bold, new path for the USC football program, Chad Bowden was living on the pull-out couch of a cramped studio apartment in Hollywood with no clue where his life was headed.
Bowden couldn’t have dreamed up the role he’d one day occupy a few miles down the street at USC, where as the Trojans football general manager, Bowden has infused the program with new energy while putting together the top recruiting class in America.
So how did Bowden rise from that couch to being held up as one of the most consequential arrivals at USC since Pete Carroll himself?
Bowden thought that he might play college football. A few small schools had offered him opportunities to play linebacker coming out of high school in Cincinnati. But Bowden’s father, former baseball general manager Jim Bowden, didn’t think it was the right move. He worried about how his son would handle the rest of the college experience.
“He felt like it was best for me, from a maturity standpoint, to go right into working,” Bowden says.
USC football general manager Chad Bowden looks across the field during preseason camp.
(William Liang/For The Times)
Which is what led him to the tiny apartment off Highland Avenue. He split the place with Jac Collinsworth, his close high school friend, the two of them packed like sardines into a single room that doubled as the kitchen and dining space. Neither seemed to mind the close quarters. Everything became a competition, with each of them pushing the other.
“Both of us were highly motivated guys,” says Collinsworth, whose father is the famed commentator, Cris Collinsworth. “Plus we had [Chad’s] dad in our ear.”
So every morning, they would wake before sunrise to race each other to L.A. Fitness. After, they’d race back up the hill to devour the usual breakfast of egg whites — sometimes mashing in bananas for sweetness. Some days, they’d throw in a motivational video on YouTube to get the blood pumping again, before racing off to try to be the first in the office.
They were both staying up late, getting up early, grinding all day in between. But after a while, it felt to Bowden like he was running in place. He’d tried an internship with a sports agency, only to realize the agency life wasn’t for him. Then he sold Google ads for a company called Linktech, whiling away his days cold-calling strangers who weren’t exactly happy to hear from him. It gave him perspective, he says. But not much else.
It was important to Bowden to find his path as soon as possible. He’d always planned for success at a young age, Jac Collinsworth says. His father, after all, was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as the youngest GM in baseball history back in 1992, and Bowden had practically grown up in that Reds clubhouse. He rode in Ken Griffey Jr’s Lamborghini. He was in the draft rooms, the trade talks, the contract negotiations. Once, he even called out a Reds player’s lack of hustle on the basepaths — and ended up stuffed in a garbage can.
His childhood was intertwined with the game. Even dinnertime could turn on a night’s result. When the Reds won a game, father and son would go out to a local steakhouse for dinner. When they lost, Chad says, they would only eat Triscuits and cheese.
“[Chad] knew that he was going to have to work twice as hard to get that respect from his dad,” Collinsworth says.
As hard as he was working, Bowden didn’t seem to be getting any closer to finding his way in L.A. Evan Dreyer was worried about him.
Dreyer had coached Bowden as a freshman football player at Anderson High in Cincinnati, and they’d stayed in touch since. So when Dreyer was out in L.A., he checked in on his favorite former player.
“Chad needed somebody to look him in the eye and say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” Dreyer says.
He called Bowden back soon after and offered him a job as his defensive coordinator at Western Brown High, back in Ohio.
Bowden was just 20 years old. He had no coaching experience, aside from filling in for a few weeks as an assistant baseball coach for Dreyer at 14. But Dreyer knew how much Bowden loved football. And he had no doubt that Bowden was bound for great things. He saw it in Bowden even before high school, as early as the fifth grade, when all of the kid’s energy was zeroed in on being the best possible water boy he could be. He sprinted full speed down the sideline to retrieve a loose ball. He didn’t care for school, but memorized the stats of opposing players. It was clear he took pride in the job.
USC general manager Chad Bowden, center, attends a team practice.
(USC Athletics)
But that was when football first swept Bowden up. Now, years later, Dreyer was offering him a chance to get his foot in the door.
“He called me and was like, ‘What are you doing with your life? Football is everything to you.’” Bowden says. “I just kind of sat there and said, ‘What am I doing?”
So took Dreyer up on the offer. The only problem? He had no idea what he was doing as a defensive coordinator.
The team went 1-9. The next year, he followed Dreyer to another high school, and it didn’t get much better. He dialed up blitz after blitz, just hoping for the best. One night, his defense gave up almost 80 points, and a frustrated Bowden was ejected from the game.
Still, he wasn’t one to sit idly by, waiting on a problem to solve itself. Even if there was no obvious — or rational — solution. One week, when his defense gave up over 400 rushing yards, he responded by buying huge tubs of peanut butter, convinced more sandwiches could be the key to bulking up his defensive front.
Once, he babysat for Dreyer’s 3-year old daughter and upon finding out she loved school buses, set out to stop one in the street in order to give her a ride.
There were no half-measures with Bowden, on or off the football field. He preferred to take matters into his own hands if he had to.
“That’s the best way to understand Chad,” Collinsworth said. “He will move a mountain to make something happen.”
He seemed to be in constant motion, attending school at the University of Cincinnati in addition to coaching.
After two seasons coaching high school football, Bowden decided to try a new direction. A friend of his father helped hook him up with an opportunity to shadow the senior vice president of the Miami Dolphins, who eventually helped connect him with Brian Mason, the new recruiting coordinator at Cincinnati.
Mason hired Bowden as a student intern, helping out with Cincinnati’s recruiting. It didn’t take long for him to make an impression on the rest of the staff.
Some staffers, Mason says, were admittedly “thrown off a little bit by his energy” when they first met him. But there was no doubting Bowden’s work ethic as an intern. When Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell gave him a task, coaches remember Bowden sprinting down the hallway to complete it.
“We had to tell him to leave the office, even as a student intern,” Mason said. “He’d go 100 miles per hour to get things done.”
Mason played a critical role helping Bowden focus that energy. He surrounded him with structure and taught Bowden how to be better organized without tamping down his enthusiasm.
“I owe a lot of what happened in my life to Brian Mason,” Bowden says. “Brian did such a great job of understanding that I was crazy. But he also saw the good in me.”
Mason connected Bowden with Marcus Freeman, who at the time was Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator. Bowden asked if he could sit in on meetings with Freeman and Fickell to absorb as much knowledge as he could.
Bowden didn’t stay quiet in those meetings for long. “I never shut up after that,” he says.
It was out of that back-and-forth banter that Bowden and Freeman formed a close bond. Both, according to their fellow coaches, seemed uniquely suited for keeping the other in balance. Where Freeman was the more measured and thoughtful of the two, Bowden was bold and daring. He would push the envelope, and Freeman would rein him back in if need be.
“Like yin and yang,” said Mason, who also worked with both at Notre Dame.
Bowden quickly rose through the ranks at Cincinnati, from defensive quality control assistant to recruiting director. Along the way, there was “tough love” from Freeman that, Bowden says, was exactly what he needed to hear.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and his team line up to enter the field against USC at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
“He gave me what I needed to be the best version of me,” he said. “‘If this is what you want to be, this is what you need to do.’”
When Freeman left in 2021 to be Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, he brought along Bowden, who took a lesser role in South Bend. A year later, Freeman was promoted to head coach and Bowden became his recruiting director and right-hand man.
The recruiting operation quickly took on Bowden’s personality.
“We were flying fast,” says Chris O’Leary, who coached safeties at Notre Dame. “Whether it was offers, calling kids, it was rapid fire all the time. Every day was life or death.”
When it came to talking to recruits, Gerad Parker, who coached tight ends at Notre Dame, likened Bowden to “the crazy uncle at the birthday party.” During official visits, he orchestrated NBA style entrances for recruits and their families. Sometimes he showed up in costume. He memorably dressed up as a leprechaun, another time as an FBI agent.
A leprechaun costume at Notre Dame might seem silly, but Parker said Bowden owned it.
“It’s like going into character when you’re working at Disney,” Parker said. “Those people don’t roll their eyes because they’re in a Cinderella costume. They are Cinderella.”
Of course, not all of his ideas got past the cutting room floor. For one, Freeman refused Bowden’s request to jump out of a helicopter to impress recruits.
“He might bring a list of five ideas, right? And four of them are crazy,” Mason said. “He brought up helicopters on multiple occasions.”
Whatever others thought of his methods, Bowden’s approach was working. He was relentless in building relationships. Recruits raved about his impact. Notre Dame pulled in a trio of top-12 classes that would serve as the bedrock of a run to the national title game.
Michigan had already pursued Bowden to be its general manager before that 2024 run. He turned it down, in order to continue on with Freeman.
By the following January, Bowden decided to change directions. Four days after Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the national championship, he was named USC’s new football general manager.
At the time, Bowden called the decision “a no-brainer.” While talking with reporters in March, he said “some things that were out of my control” at Notre Dame.
But to those who once worked with both Freeman and Bowden, it was unexpected..
“That had to weigh heavy on Chad,” said Parker, the Irish tight ends coach.
“[They were] like brothers,” said O’Leary, the safeties coach. “I know there’s a lot of layers behind it. But yeah, I was surprised to see him leave Notre Dame.”
By choosing USC, Bowden was once again striking out on his own, walking away from the world he knew best for the promise of building something bigger and better. Fittingly, it would bring him back to the city where his search for a career began.
In seven months at USC, he has completely revamped the front office operation with his hand-picked staff, repaired relationships with local coaches and power brokers and reinvigorated USC’s entire recruiting strategy. The Trojans’ 2026 class has soared to the top of the national recruiting rankings, with 32 commitments and climbing. And boosters are buying in, once again crowding the sidelines of football practices.
Staff members will tell you that Bowden’s impact in that short time at USC runs deeper. That his energy and his willingness to test limits and challenge norms has set a tone for the entire department.
When USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen approached Bowden during a recent football practice, she found him busy scribbling down notes.
“He had 15 things from that practice that he noticed or ideas that he had,” she said.
“He’s the eyes and ears of a program in a way that really takes the pressure off of everyone. He’s just been great within the university community, within the athletic department, with donors, with former players. We could not be more pleased with the progress that he’s made and his team has made and the impact that he’s having on USC football.”
Rachel Smith spent over 200 days backpacking around Southeast Asia so she’s learned a thing or two about packing along the way – but early on she made a crucial mistake
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(Image: Rachel and Omio)
Packing for holidays can be a timely process, whether you’re off on a short city break, spending a week on a beach in the sunshine, or prepping your hiking boots for a walking getaway.
Rachel Smith, 25, is a solo travel influencer who shares her adventures on TikTok, and recently spent 210 days backpacking across Southeast Asia, so she knows a thing or two about how to pack efficiently.
However, the travel pro admitted to the experts at Omio that she quickly realised she’d made one crucial error when she planned for her seven-month trip.
She explained: “I originally packed with the ‘just in case’ in mind; however, this just used unnecessary space, and ended up untouched. When travelling now, I only pack what I truly know I’ll wear. Another thing that I forgot to do that I wish I had was to check the weather differences between countries, which is especially important when country-hopping. For example, while places like Malacca and Kuala Lumpur are hot and humid year-round, I was freezing when I visited Northern Vietnam. Thankfully, I had a lightweight jacket with me, which also came in handy on buses where the air-conditioning was blasting.”
Rachel has become a pro at packing efficiently(Image: Rachel and Omio)
Rachel went backpacking for seven months(Image: Rachel and Omio)
Luckily, she quickly learned her lesson, and now she’s been sharing her top tips with other intrepid explorers, to help them get the most out of their baggage allowance without having to spend a fortune on excess baggage.
Her must-haves include a hanging wash bag which “keeps all my toiletries in one place and off hostel floors”, two microfibre towels o she has “one for the beach, one for showering”, a worldwide travel adapter that “works everywhere”, a power bank that’s “essential for long travel days and safety as a solo traveller”, travel locks “for securing valuables in hostels” and a waterproof phone case, although she warns to test the latter in a sink before heading off!
She regularly shares her packing essentials with her TikTok followers(Image: Rachel and Omio)
Another top tip from Rachel is to pack clothes which you can mix and match throughout the trip. She explained: “For clothes, I had plenty of mix-and-match outfits so I could create lots of looks without packing too much. I also brought makeup and a couple of nice dresses for when I wanted to feel good on nights out. I ended up using almost everything I packed, but the items I used daily were: my packing cubes, microfibre towel, power bank, and travel locks. My makeup and dresses weren’t everyday essentials, but I was so glad I had them when I wanted to feel a little extra.”
It’s a similar trick to using the 5-4-3-2-1 packing method which experts say can help you pack 30 different outfits in just the one suitcase. The idea is to stick to a simple formula; five tops, four bottoms, three pairs of shoes, two bags, and one destination-specific item. Then if you have the space and think you might need an extra item or two, you can add those in. (There’s the extra bonus of sticking to one bag and therefore not needing to pay extra for a second bag too!).
Do you have a travel story you want to tell us? Email us at [email protected].
Hello everyone, my name is Houston Mitchell, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. It’s amazing how three games can change things, isn’t it?
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Random thoughts
—To be honest, I would not have bet on the Dodgers sweeping the Padres. Winning two of three? Yes. But not a sweep. It was a good sign, as championship teams need to rise to the occasion. The question now is, will the Padres rise back next weekend at San Diego? Heck, with the way baseball goes, the Dodgers could be back in second place before that series. But I doubt it.
—Mookie Betts. People like, oh, newsletter writers, have been pointing out his flaws all season. He shouldn’t be playing short. He’s playing terrible. But you know what? He came to the park early most days and put the work in. Worked to find what happened to his swing. Worked to become a better shortstop. So it had to be sweet redemption on Sunday when he hit that home run.
—Since I said Betts should be moved down in the order, he has hit .306/.366/.472 with nine runs scored and nine RBIs in nine games.
—Last time we talked about some concerns on the Dodgers. One area that wasn’t mentioned was the defense. The defense has been much worse than last season, and not always in ways that show up in the fielding numbers. Teoscar Hernández is not playing well in right. He looks like he’s running uphill all the time. Ryan O’Hearn of the Padres hit a fly ball hit into the right-field corner Sunday that seemed to hang up in the air forever, but Hernández couldn’t get there in time and it dropped for an RBI double. Those are the types of plays the Dodgers took advantage of against the Yankees during the World Series, and then later said they knew the Yankees had weaknesses defensively. Well, the Dodgers are in that boat this season.
—The Dodgers were the team not getting any breaks this season, but they seemed to get them all in the Padres series. Manny Machado dives for and misses a ball he would probably catch 99 times out of 100 on Friday, eventually leading to two runs. Jackson Merrill drops a fly ball in center field Saturday, scoring two runs. With a runner on second, Blake Treinen benefits from a very generous strike call from the umpire with Machado at the plate, avoiding a walk and then getting out of the inning.
—And what can you say about Clayton Kershaw? The guy can barely reach 90 on his fastball. Analytics would tell you this guy could not possible be successful in the majors. But there he is, working the corners and, you know, pitching. Not just throwing. The man is 7-2 with a 3.01 ERA. In some ways, this is the most impressive season of his career. And now I’ve probably jinxed him.
—Will Smith threw out three baserunners trying to steal Saturday, and has thrown out 27.9% of attempted base stealers this season. That’s 12th in the majors among catcher who have had 25 chances to throw out a stealer. Salvador Perez leads the majors at 48%. In case you were wondering, Johnny Bench, considered by many to be the best defensive catcher ever, was at 43.5% for his career. Steve Yeager was 38% and Mike Scioscia 34.4%. Mike Piazza was 23.2%. Smith’s career number is 25.5%. His best season was last year, 33.3% (32 of 96).
—The Dodgers head to Denver next to play the Rockies, who are the worst team in baseball, on pace to finish 46-116. Prime spot for a letdown. The Dodgers are 6-0 against the Rockies this season, 10-3 against them last season.
—I get many emails from readers saying the Dodgers leave too many men on base. This is something we’ve talked about in seasons past, so you veteran subscribers out there, forgive me for a moment. The teams with the best offenses are frequently the teams with the most runners left on base, because they have more runners on base. A game ends 6-2. The team that scored six had nine hits and three walks and left six on base. The team with two got both runs on homers and drew no walks. They left no one one base. But which team had the best offense?
Since 1950, the team that has left the most runs on base in a season is the 1976 Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds, who are in the conversation for best team in history. They averaged 5.29 runs per game and averaged 8.19 LOB. Next are the 1993 Detroit Tigers, who averaged 5.55 runs per game and 8.10 LOB.
The Dodgers are averaging 5.16 runs per game and are 6.82 LOB. Runners left on base is not a big problem.
But, I hear you saying, this could mean they lack clutch hitting, stranding all these runners. No.
Batting average with runners in scoring position this season:
1. Milwaukee, .288 2. Toronto, .286 3. Dodgers, .283 4. Miami, .275 5. Tampa Bay, .270 21. San Diego, .243 30. Chicago White Sox, .221
Batting average with two out and runners in scoring position this season:
Batting average with runners in scoring position (minimum 20 at bats)
1. Hyeseong Kim, .387 (31 at bats) 2. Freddie Freeman, .354 (96) 3. Will Smith, .341 (82) 4. Andy Pages, .336 (107) 5. Max Muncy, .329 (76) 6. Tommy Edman, .303 (66) 7. Teoscar Hernández, .300 (110) 8. Dalton Rushing, .280 (25) 9. Mookie Betts, .276 (98) 10. Kiké Hernández, .233 (43) 11. Shohei Ohtani, .230 (76) 12. Michael Conforto, .167 (78) 13. Miguel Rojas, .163 (43)
Batting average with two out and runners in scoring position (minimum 10 at-bats):
1. Hyeseong Kim, .462 (13 at bats) 2. Andy Pages, .373 (51) 3. Max Muncy, .371 (35) 4. Will Smith, .333 (39) 5. Teoscar Hernández, .327 (52) 6. Freddie Freeman, .310 (42) 7. Shohei Ohtani, .281 (32) 8. Kiké Hernández, .200 (20) 9. Mookie Betts, .196 (46) 10. Tommy Edman, .188 (32) 11. Michael Conforto, .156 (45) 12. Miguel Rojas, .125 (24)
Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani made his first pitching start of the season on June 16. Let’s look at his batting numbers before and after:
Before June 16 .297/.393/.642, 83 for 279, 11 doubles, 5 triples, 25 homers (one every 11.1 at bats), 41 RBIs, 11 steals, 44 walks, 79 K’s
Since June 16 .262/.390/.595, 51 for 195, 5 doubles, 3 triples, 18 homers (one every 10.8 at bats), 39 RBIs, 6 steals, 39 walks, 71 K’s
His batting average is down but the home runs are up. His steals are down, while his walks and strikeouts are up. Really, it’s sort of what you would expect.
Newest Dodger
The Dodgers added Buddy Kennedy, a utility infielder, to the roster last week when Max Muncy went on the IL. (They hope Muncy, who has a strained oblique, is back in September.)
Kennedy was born Clifton Lewis Kennedy on Oct. 5, 1988, just 12 days before the Dodgers won the World Series that year. He was drafted out of Millville (N.J.) High by Arizona in the fifth round of the 2017 draft. He was in triple-A by 2022, and the Diamondbacks brought him to the majors that year. He hit .217 in 30 games, then .167 in 10 games the next season and was put on waivers. Oakland picked him up in September, but put him on waivers in October and he was picked up by St. Louis, who put him on waivers in Sept. 2024. Detroit signed him and he hit .182 in eight games before Philadelphia purchased his contract. He played in 12 games over two seasons for them, was released, and Toronto signed him. He went one for five for them this season and they released him, and now he’s with the Dodgers.
So, four seasons in the majors, seven teams.
He trains with Mike Trout in the offseason. Trout also went to Millville High. “Mike has been great to me,” Kennedy told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2024. “He slowly started … not getting on me, but holding me accountable. And to this day, I can call him, or text him, and ask him about a pitcher I’m facing, or how to handle myself in the big leagues.
“He’s very open and honest. And that’s helped me a lot.”
Kennedy’s grandfather is Don Money, who was a really good player for the Phillies and Brewers in the ’70s and ’80s.
Why is it so hot with all these fans?
Why do the Dodgers keep raising prices on tickets? What about the family of four who want to go to a game? Well, this is why. They have no incentive to lower prices. Average home attendance this year:
1. Dodgers, 49,961 2. San Diego, 42,567 3. NY Yankees, 41,995 4. Philadelphia, 41,836 5. NY Mets, 39,765 8. San Francisco, 36,225 12. Angels, 32,317 16. Arizona, 29,689 17. Colorado, 29,345 30. Athletics, 9,590
Postseason
If the postseason started today, these would be the 12 teams to qualify:
NL 1. Milwaukee 2. Philadelphia 3. Dodgers 4. Chicago 5. San Diego 6. New York
AL 1. Toronto 2. Detroit 3. Houston 4. Boston 5. Seattle 6. New York
The top two teams in each league get a first-round bye. The other four teams in each league play in the best-of-three wild-card round, with No. 3 hosting all three games against No. 6, and No. 4 hosting all three against No. 5.
The division winners are guaranteed to get the top three seeds, even if a wild-card team has a better record.
In the best-of-five second round, No. 1 hosts the No. 4-5 winner and No. 2 hosts the No. 3-6 winner. That way the No. 1 seed is guaranteed not to play a divisional winner until the LCS.
These names seem familiar
A look at how some prominent Dodgers from the last few seasons are doing with their new team (through Saturday). Click on the player name to be taken to the baseball-reference page with all their stats.
Steve Garvey and Jim Wynn hit consecutive home runs in the 1975 All-Star game. Watch and listen here.
Until next time…
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
A couple were left baffled by how some Spanish locals behave when it comes to taking their dogs for a walk and the cleaning up process – and they were very vocal about their displeasure
It’s important to not ignore the locals (Stock Image)(Image: Daniel Llao Calvet via Getty Images)
The last thing on your mind when taking the dog out for a walk is probably where your pet will urinate. It’s generally accepted that dogs just do their business, and there’s no need to clean up after them, regardless of where they choose to relieve themselves when it comes to a number one. However, one couple had a completely different experience when visiting Spain, receiving a culture shock as locals “yelled” at them for not being more considerate.
TikTok users Lance and Dua, who post under the handle @theldworld, revealed it was “only in Spain” they’d encountered this, not in America or Iceland, where they’re originally from.
Dua explained they were told they needed to “wash Rudi’s [their dog’s] pee with a water bottle”.
Lance then showed what they’d been instructed to do by a local, demonstrating the urine had to be entirely covered and washed away using bottled water.
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Dua said they “have been yelled at by locals” multiple times for not cleaning up after their dog.
She recounted how one man even “made a scene” when there were many people around. She tried to explain to him that she didn’t “have water” to wash away the pee, asking him: “What am I supposed to do?”
Lance admitted he’d been “yelled at every time” by disgruntled locals. He was even caught out by a woman on a balcony who decided to give her two cents about what he was doing.
During the footage, Lance also raged that someone had their pooch off the lead without carrying a water bottle.
They were bewildered the regulation wasn’t enforced across the board, yet they’d faced criticism over it.
Lance claimed he was being “dead serious” when he insisted he was the “only one getting yelled at” for the conduct.
Nevertheless, it appears the duo escaped relatively unscathed, as certain regions in Spain demand dog owners don’t simply rinse away their pet’s wee with water, but use a disinfectant solution.
The Local Police in Seville were even granted powers to penalise pet owners who weren’t carrying disinfectant solution and fine those who fail to wash away their dog’s waste, according to Paws Patas.
This comes as Spain attempts to maintain the streets as spotless as possible, and clear of canine messes, including urine, as during sweltering weather, it can become intolerably pungent.
In the TikTok clip, someone moaned the pair appeared to be “complaining about cleaning up” after their hound.
Someone fumed: “It is the law now in many parts of Spain & you can be fined €€€ for not doing it. Locals are yelling at you because you are clearly foreigners. The fact that this has happened to you multiple times & you still forget the water bottle is disrespectful. As a fellow immigrant, please do better.”
Another person chimed in: “Starting spring 2026, Barcelona will enforce a new regulation requiring dog owners to clean their pet’s urine from streets using water or a disinfectant solution (like soap or vinegar). This is part of the upcoming reform of the city’s Civility Ordinance.
“Although the measure was approved by the city’s government commission in mid-2025, it is not yet in effect. Final approval is expected in November 2025, followed by official enforcement a few months later. Dog owners who fail to comply may face fines of up to €300.”
However, others rallied behind the couple, stating that “kindness is free,” and they shouldn’t have been “yelled” at when being informed about the rules.
WASHINGTON — Federal immigration authorities are attempting to quickly deport an Arizona woman who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, in what her lawyers are calling the first test of a federal law holding that longtime immigrants cannot be removed until they’ve had a chance to plead their case before a judge.
Lawyers for Mirta Amarilis Co Tupul filed a lawsuit Saturday night in U.S. district court in Arizona and are seeking an emergency stop to Co Tupul’s imminent deportation to Guatemala while the case plays out in court.
“Only this administration would go this far,” said Co Tupul’s lead attorney, Chris Godshall-Bennet, “because at the core of it is an underlying complete disrespect for the rule of law.”
Godshall-Bennet said the government’s move against Co Tupul is just the latest of many illegal actions being attempted by the Trump administration in its effort to remove as many immigrants as possible. If Co Tupul’s deportation is allowed to proceed, her defenders said, it could have wide implications for millions of other immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years and are at risk of deportation.
The lawsuit was filed against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Phoenix ICE Field Office Director John Cantu. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal law since 1996 allows the government to place immigrants in expedited removal proceedings if they have lived in the U.S. for under two years. The Trump administration appears to be using that law beyond its limits.
“They are going to start going around, grabbing people who have been here for decades and throwing them out without immigration court hearings,” said Eric Lee, another of Co Tupul’s attorneys.
Co Tupul’s lawyers don’t deny that she lacks legal status. At issue, they say, is how much due process she should receive.
Co Tupul, 38, entered the U.S. around 1996. She is a single mother of three U.S. citizens, ages 8, 16 and 18, and lives in Phoenix.
She was driving to work at a laundromat on July 22 when an officer wearing a green uniform — believed to be a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent — pulled her over and quickly asked about her immigration status. When Co Tupul declined to answer, the agent held her while he called ICE, who transported her to the Eloy Detention Center about 65 miles southeast of Phoenix.
Three days later, her attorney Mindy Butler-Christensen called Co Tupul’s deportation officer, who explained that her client had been placed in expedited removal proceedings and would be removed within one to three weeks.
“I asked the Deportation Officer to share with me why she would be placed in Expedited Removal,” Butler-Christensen wrote in a sworn declaration. “He told me that this was a ‘new policy’ that ICE would be implementing with immigrants who have just had ‘their first contact with ICE.’”
He refused to provide documentation of the policy, she said.
Under regular deportation proceedings, immigrants are entitled to plead their case before an immigration judge, with rights to appeal. Because of significant court backlogs, that process can be drawn out for years.
Under expedited removal, the immigration court process is bypassed and immigrants cannot appeal, though they are entitled to an asylum screening.
Initially, the faster process was only applied to immigrants who arrived at ports of entry, such as airports. By the mid-2000s, it had expanded to those who entered illegally by sea or land and were caught by border agents within two weeks of arrival.
Use of expedited removal was expanded again in June 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, to those present in the U.S. for under two years.
In January, the Trump administration announced that the government would now seek expedited deportation for those arrested not just within 100 miles of the border, but to those arrested anywhere in the U.S. The policy still applied only to those in the U.S. for under two years.
In the Federal Register notice announcing the change, then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman wrote that it “restores the scope of expedited removal to the fullest extent authorized by Congress.”
“First they expanded the geographical area, and now they seem to be challenging the two years,” said Godshall-Bennet.
Co Tupul’s brother assembled a large collection of documents, including 16 signed affidavits of close friends and family and vaccine records dating back to July 1996, proving that she has lived in the U.S. for decades, that she has no criminal history and that she is an upstanding member of her community.
According to emails reviewed by The Times, Butler-Christensen sent the evidence to Eloy Detention Center staff and to Cantu, the ICE regional field office director, saying that Co Tupul should be placed in regular deportation proceedings immediately.
The response came July 29 in an email from a deportation officer who said “the case was reviewed and she will remain in Expedited Removal proceedings.”
On a call the next day, a supervisory detention and deportation officer asked Butler-Christensen why she was so insistent that Co Tupul be placed in regular proceedings, telling her, “What is the difference?” according to her declaration.
“He told me that during the arrest, she refused to disclose to the officers how long she had lived here,” Butler-Christensen wrote.
She added: “I responded that according to the law, she doesn’t have to share that information, and that I, as her lawyer, had supplied plenty of evidence to [ICE] regarding how long she had resided in Arizona.”
The officer didn’t budge.
Another ICE official confirmed what that officer had suggested — that Co Tupul was being placed in expedited removal proceedings because she had declined to share her immigration status with the officer who arrested her.
“Upon the administrative arrest of your client, she invoked her right to not make a statement,” the official wrote in an email to Butler-Christensen. “Based on this, officers processed her as an Expedited Removal.”
Co Tupul’s eldest son, Ricardo Ruiz, said his mother had prepared him for the possibility of her being detained. She frequently watched the news and was afraid the reported ICE raids would eventually reach her doorstep.
In short calls from the detention center, Ruiz said she told him to look out for his brothers and to stay focused on his own school work as a freshman in college.
Ruiz works at Walmart and split the bills with his mother. Without her help, he said he’s quickly feeling the pressure to keep their family afloat. Ruiz described Co Tupul as a dedicated and hardworking woman who raised her kids to be good citizens who respect the law.
He said it’s unfair that immigration officials aren’t respecting the law themselves.
“I just don’t think she deserves this,” he said. “No one does.”
On Monday, Co Tupul’s youngest sons started their first day of the new school year. For the first time, it was Ruiz dropping them off instead of their mother.
The United States slaps 25 percent tariffs on a nation long viewed as an ally.
The United States has imposed a punitive 25 percent tariff on India.
US President Donald Trump warns that more could follow.
It’s a spectacular change from six months ago, when the leaders of the two nations declared their friendship at the White House.
So what went wrong – and what will happen next?
Presenter: Dareen Abughaida
Guests:
Brahma Chellaney – Professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and a former adviser to India’s National Security Council
Elizabeth Threlkeld – Senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center
Sumantra Bose – Political scientist and professor of International and Comparative Politics at Krea University in India
A woman has left people divided after a mum asked her to swap seats with her son for a ‘stupid’ reason, but she branded her as selfish and accused her of ‘making a scene’
Things became awkward quickly when she was asked to move (Stock Image)(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Everybody has their preferred plane seat, which is likely to be a window or an aisle. The middle seat is often one that’s dreaded – especially if you’re sitting next to random people. But when one woman asked if she could swap with the occupant of a window seat on the plane for a “stupid” reason and was told no, she was seething.
Posting a video of her side of the interaction, @life_in_mini_stories shared a clip of a woman sitting in a window seat, minding her own business. Of course, many times when you occupy these seats, you’ve paid an additional fee for the pleasure.
She shared a woman allegedly said to her: “Excuse me, would you mind switching seats? My son really wants to sit by the window. He just loves watching the clouds.”
The female responded by saying she couldn’t switch, because she “picked this seat ahead of time”. The woman in the video also shared she also likes looking outside during a flight.
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The mum was incensed already, saying she didn’t understand why the woman wouldn’t swap with her, pointing out “nobody has ever refused before”.
She also seethed: “You must not have kids; otherwise, you’d know it’s normal to give your seat up for a child. Or do you want him crying for the whole flight?”
The woman in the video explained it wasn’t her “problem” if the child was crying, stating once more that she wouldn’t be giving up her seat.
“If you wanted your son to sit by the window, you should’ve planned ahead and booked a window seat,” she pointed out.
The mum said she wasn’t “paying extra just because one person thinks she’s smarter than everyone else”. She also continued her attack, saying: “You’re a grown woman, have some shame,” accusing her of “making a scene”.
But the female responded by pointing out she knows she’s a “grown woman,” and that’s why she books her seat “ahead of time instead of guilt-tripping strangers into giving theirs up”.
The mum accused her of not caring about other people’s feelings, or children, branding her as “disgusting”.
In the comments of the video, someone wrote: “You’re 100% in the right and she has absolutely no right to ask.”
Another added: “Asking is okay, but she needs to take no for an answer.”
“While I agree that I’d keep my seat, I also think the mother of the child has a right to ask as much as I have the right to say hell no,” somebody shared.
A man seethed: “NEVER give up a seat you prepaid extra for! ESPECIALLY to accommodate those who tried to be clever by not paying for seats they wanted.”
Someone joked: “You’re teaching that child and parent a great lesson… In the real world you, #1 plan ahead, #2 stand your ground, #3 you can’t get what you want by crying.”
A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Trump has begun to unravel.
Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies.
But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would be arrested and deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.
As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded that his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.
In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said “the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.”
His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record. The revelations were first reported by CNN.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wis., northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond.
Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July.
Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.
The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney’s office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time.
Abduli, Morales Reyes’ attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can’t write in Spanish and doesn’t know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters.
“There is really no way that it could be even remotely true,” Abduli said. “We’re asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon’s name of anything having to do with this.”
Balsamo, Bauer and Licon write for the Associated Press.
The US president has repeatedly threatened to unleash air strikes targeting Iran’s programme if a deal isn’t reached.
United States President Donald Trump says that Iran has his administration’s proposal regarding its rapidly advancing nuclear programme as negotiations between the two countries continue.
Trump made the remarks on Friday on board Air Force One as he ended his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is the first time he has acknowledged sending a proposal to Tehran after multiple rounds of negotiations between US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump told a journalist when asked about the proposal.
“We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said.
“But most importantly, they know they have to move quickly, or something bad is going to happen.”
On Thursday, Araghchi spoke to journalists at the Tehran International Book Fair and said that Iran had not received any proposal from the US yet.
Araghchi also criticised what he called conflicting and inconsistent statements from the Trump administration, describing them as either a sign of disarray in Washington or a calculated negotiation strategy.
Witkoff at one point suggested that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, then later said that all Iranian enrichment must stop.
“We are hearing many contradictory statements from the United States – from Washington, from the president, and from the new administration,” Araghchi said.
“Sometimes we hear two or three different positions in a single day.”
Iranian and American officials have met in Oman and Rome in recent weeks for the negotiations mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a trusted interlocutor between the two nations.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic republic.
Trump has previously threatened to launch attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme if a deal isn’t reached.
Some Iranian officials have warned that Tehran could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Separately on Friday, Iranian officials also met officials from Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul to discuss their nuclear negotiations with Washington.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who attended the talks in the Turkish city, said in a post on X: “We exchanged views and discussed the latest status of the indirect nuclear negotiations and the lifting of sanctions.”
Gharibabadi added that if necessary, Tehran would meet with the so-called E3 – the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, along with China, Russia and the United States – once again to continue discussions, after several meetings since last year.
Trump had effectively torpedoed the deal during his first term by unilaterally abandoning it in 2018 and reimposing sanctions on Iran’s banking sector and oil exports.
A year later, Iran responded by rolling back its own commitments under the deal, which provided relief from sanctions in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.
SHOPPERS are hot footing it down to B&M to buy pretty and on-trend garden plants scanning for just £10 at the checkout.
The bargain shop is selling the social media garden must-have just in time forsummer.
1
B&M is selling Salix Flamingo plants for only £10
People couldn’t believe their eyes after a fellow Flamingo Tree fan let everyone know in a Facebook group, Bargain Lovers, they were being sold for the cheapest price yet.
Delighted users started commenting and tagging their friends in.
One person wrote: “That’s a great price they are lovely shrubs so pretty.”
Meanwhile, another added: “Love these, £10, right bargain.”
Another let her friend know about the deal and simply said “quick”.
The pink Salix Flamingo Trees, known for their brightly-coloured foliage, are just £10.
They are also selling small hedge plants which were being sold for £4 last year.
They’re the cheapest on the market right now, with B&Q selling its 17cm trees for a pricier £24.99.
If you can’t find the Flamingo Tree in B&M, The Range is also selling them for £15.
Wilko‘s deal on the plant, like B&Q, is also more expensive than The Range, charging £17 for a 40cm tree.
5 ways to save money in B&M
On eBay you would have to pay £9.95 for a mini plant – an amount which could almost get you three when shopping at B&M.
It comes as a reminder to always compare prices before buying a product, which you can do through websites like Trolley.
The flamingo plants are currently unavailable to view online – meaning you’ll have to visit your local store to see if they stock it.
It’s important to bear in mind that prices may vary between locations.
If you want to find your nearest B&M store, you can use the Store Finder tool on its website.
They have 280 outdoor plants and trees to browse online, such as a rose bush for £23.99.
Another quick way to cut costs is by visiting at the right time.
One ex-manager told The Sun this is around 10am on a Wednesday, when staff slash the price of items to as little as 10p to clear excess stock and make way for new products.
Deals expert Tom Church said to keep an eye out for red sticker products as well.
It’s worth signing up to Facebook pages dedicated to hunting for bargains from B&M and other discounters too.
