Two weeks ago, incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced his withdrawal from the premiership race. Amid political negotiations following the November elections, this move effectively paved the way for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to return to power.
This development is not just an act of political recycling; it reflects the failure of Iraqi state-building after the United States invasion of 2003. Under al-Maliki, Iraq may well go back to the disastrous policies that in 2014 led to the rise of ISIL (ISIS).
Sectarian politics
In reflecting on what al-Maliki’s return could possibly mean for Iraq, it is important to examine his track record. In 2006, when he was first nominated for the prime minister’s post, the administration of US President George W Bush supported him. Washington did so in the name of stability and trust, despite the early red flags. By November 2006, just six months after al-Maliki came to power, US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was already raising concerns about his ability to rein in violence against the Sunni population.
The decision by the Bush administration to continue its support for the prime minister reflects its own record of misguided policies, driven by ignorance of the region and its history. By backing al-Maliki, Washington paved the way for the chaos and instability it sought to avert.
During his first two terms, al-Maliki established a governance template that deliberately dismantled the post-2003 settlement’s vision of inclusive politics. He pursued policies of deliberate exclusion of the Sunni population on the political and social levels under the guise of de-Baathification. While originally intended to remove Saddam Hussein’s loyalists, the process was weaponised by al-Maliki as a sectarian tool. In 2010, for example, the prime minister used a de-Baathification law to ban nine parties and more than 450 candidates — predominantly Sunnis — from the parliamentary elections.
The security apparatus under his leadership also carried out arrests of moderate Sunni politicians on trumped-up charges of “terrorism” and suppressed peaceful demonstrations.
The 2013 massacre in the town of al-Hawija, in Kirkuk province, is a case in point. In January of that year, scores of Sunnis gathered for a peaceful protest of the discriminatory policies of al-Maliki’s government that lasted weeks. Three months later, security forces attacked the protest sit-in, killing at least 44 protesters.
Under al-Maliki, Baghdad also witnessed the deliberate displacement of Sunnis from their homes and the consolidation of Shia-dominated areas. This was a form of demographic engineering with the full support and complicity of the state.
As a result of these policies, sectarian politics escalated to the point where ethnic and religious identity became the main dividers of society, undermining national unity and plunging the country into civil conflict.
The constant assault on Sunni communities generated widespread discontent, which was easily exploited by extremist organisations – first al-Qaeda and then ISIL (ISIS).
Corruption and mismanagement
The industrial-scale haemorrhaging of national wealth during the al-Maliki era was nothing short of staggering. The Iraqi parliament’s own transparency commission estimated in 2018 that by then, $320bn had been lost to corruption since the US invasion; al-Maliki was in power for eight of those 15 years.
The money was used to fund the extravagant lifestyles of those close to al-Maliki, the purchase of expensive real estate, and deposits in shell companies and secret bank accounts. All of this is not a matter of administrative dysfunction but of large-scale thievery.
Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity carried out extensive documentation of such malpractices, but to this day, no one has been held accountable. Under al-Maliki, the independence of the judiciary was destroyed, rendering any process of accountability impossible.
Mismanagement also extended to the security and military forces. For years, the army was paying salaries to “ghost soldiers”; by 2014, the bill for this corruption scheme had grown to $380m a year. The prime minister himself was found to be running his own prison and commanding a special force of 3,000 soldiers loyal to him.
Years of corruption and dysfunction within the Iraqi army amid nearly $100bn in US funding led to the disaster of 2014, when military units dispersed in the face of advancing ISIL (ISIS) forces.
Al-Maliki’s return
Al-Maliki did not spend the past 11 years in political isolation. Instead, he was at the centre of the political machinery, plotting and lining up all the necessary components for his ultimate return under the watch of successive US administrations.
A third term for him would likely deepen sectarian divisions and entrench corruption. Iraqi governance will continue to be undermined by his tendencies to create shadow power structures in which loyalists are empowered at the expense of institutions.
Al-Maliki’s return would also be significant regionally. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the serious weakening of Hezbollah, Iraq has become Iran’s most critical regional security and financial asset.
Iran’s position in the region has not been this vulnerable in decades, but al-Maliki’s return would effectively preclude Iraq from embarking on a more independent path from Tehran in its domestic and foreign affairs.
His third term would also likely obstruct normalisation with Damascus. Al-Maliki has vocally opposed engaging Syria’s new leadership. Last year, he voiced his opposition to interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attending the Arab League Summit in Baghdad and described him as “wanted by Iraqi courts on terrorism charges”.
In parallel, a new al-Maliki government would also pose a challenge to US interests. The appointment of Mark Savaya as a special envoy to Iraq by the administration of US President Donald Trump, the first such appointment in 20 years, demonstrated its intent on pushing through policies aimed at curbing Iranian influence.
Washington wants the pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) dismantled and fully integrated into the Iraqi army. Al-Maliki is unlikely to undertake such a move because he is the “godfather” of these parallel armed structures. Dismantling them would mean destroying his own creation and severing his ties with Iran.
The issue at stake, however, is not just what policies al-Maliki will pursue. It is also the fact that Iraq is not able to escape a political cycle that has brought it nothing but catastrophe. It shows that the Iraqi political elite has learned nothing from the 2014 crisis.
Sectarian mobilisation and kleptocratic politics are still valid political options. Iraqi youth have repeatedly taken to the streets to protest this deeply flawed and dysfunctional status quo. Without significant changes to the incentive structure, accountability system, and sectarian distribution of power, Iraq is doomed to repeat the same grave mistakes of the past.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as a candidate for an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour’s ruling body.
As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday.
Labour sources have told the BBC lots of concerns were raised about the costs of an election to replace Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor and the “prospect of a divisive campaign”.
But allies of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer feared Burnham – a former cabinet minister – could mount a leadership challenge, should he return to Westminster.
The move is likely to infuriate Labour MPs and some ministers who said local party members should have had the option of choosing the Greater Manchester mayor as the candidate.
It is a big political gamble by allies of the prime minister and risks inflaming tensions within the party, which is consistently trailing Reform UK in national opinion polls.
One senior Labour source who had been supportive of Burnham’s candidacy said: “They’re gambling the PM’s whole premiership on winning a very hard by-election without their best candidate. It is madness.”
The decision was made by 10 members of the NEC, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, party chair Ellie Reeves and the prime minister himself on Sunday morning.
NEC sources told the BBC the vote was 8-1 in favour of blocking Burnham’s candidacy.
The prime minister was among those who voted to block Burnham from standing.
Mahmood abstained as the chair, while Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell voted to allow him to stand.
Sir Keir’s allies say Burnham is doing “a very good job” as mayor of Greater Manchester, adding a mayoral by election “would cost the party hundreds of thousands of pounds” and “cost the country millions of pounds during a cost-of-living crisis”.
The prime minister’s supporters were worried Reform UK “would outspend us ten to one” during the by-election campaign.
The argument those who blocked Burnham intend to make publicly is that during a period of geopolitics dominating the headlines and deep concerns about the cost of living at home, there would be no appetite in the country for a “return to political psychodramas of the Tory years”.
There was “overwhelming support” in the meeting “for upholding clear Labour Party rules preventing mayors and PCCs standing in by-elections”, a source said.
Earlier, Mahmood told the BBC allowing elected mayors to run as candidates in parliamentary by-elections had “organisational implications” for the party.
A mayoral election in Greater Manchester could also be costly for the taxpayer, with the last one costing about £4.7m.
I had been asked to give a key-note speech at a conference at Columbia University’s Journalism School. It was January 2002. Two planes had been flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre months earlier and you could still feel how wounded the city felt. You could read it in the faces of New Yorkers you spoke to.
In my speech I made a few opening remarks about what the United States had meant to me. “I was born 15 years after the Second World War,” I said, “in a world America made. The peace and security and increasing prosperity of the Western Europe that I was born into was in large part an American achievement.”
American military might had won the war in the west, I continued. It had stopped the further westward expansion of Soviet power.
I talked briefly about the transformational effect of the Marshall Plan, through which the United States had given Europe the means to rebuild its shattered economies, and to re-establish the institutions of democracy.
AFP via Getty Images
‘I was born 15 years after the Second World War in a world America made,’ Allan Little told an audience. ‘The peace and security and increasing prosperity of the Western Europe that I was born into was in large part an American achievement’
I told the audience, composed mostly of students of journalism, that as a young reporter I had myself witnessed the inspiring culmination of all this in 1989 when I’d stood in Wenceslas Square in Prague.
Back then I’d watched, awestruck, as Czechs and Slovaks demanded an end to Soviet occupation, and to a hated communist dictatorship, so that they too could be part of the community of nations that we called, simply, “the West”, bound together by shared values, at the head of which sat the the United States of America.
I looked up from my notes at the faces of the audience. Near the front of the lecture hall sat a young man. He looked about 20. Tears were running down his face and he was quietly trying to suppress a sob.
At a drinks reception afterwards he approached me. “I’m sorry I lost it in there,” he said. “Your words: right now we are feeling raw and vulnerable. America needs to hear this stuff from its foreign friends.”
In that moment I thought how lucky my generation, and his, had been, to be alive in an era in which the international system was regulated by rules, a world that had turned its back on the unconstrained power of the Great Powers.
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Donald Trump believes the free world has been freeloading on American largesse for too long
But it was the words of one of his classmates that come back to me now. He had arrived in New York just a few days before 9/11 from his native Pakistan to study at Columbia. He likened the United States to Imperial Rome.
“If you are lucky enough to live within the walls of the Imperial Citadel, which is to say here in the US, you experience American power as something benign. It protects you and your property. It bestows freedom by upholding the rule of law. It is accountable to the people through democratic institutions.
“But if, like me, you live on the Barbarian fringes of Empire, you experience American power as something quite different. It can do anything to you, with impunity… And you can’t stop it or hold it to account.”
His words made me consider the much heralded rules-based international order from another angle: from the point of view of much of the Global South. And how its benefits have never been universally distributed, something that the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reminded an audience at Davos last week.
Reuters
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos called for ‘the middle powers’ to act together
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false,” that young Pakistani student admitted all those years ago.
“That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or victim.”
“Don’t you find it interesting,” he asked, “that the US, the country that came into existence in a revolt against the arbitrary exercise of [British] power is, in our day, the most powerful exponent of arbitrary power?”
He declared that Denmark had only “added one more dog sled” to defend the territory. That speaks volumes to the undisguised contempt with which he and many in his inner circle appear to hold certain European allies.
“I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a WhatsApp group that included Vice President JD Vance last year, adding “PATHETIC”. (He hadn’t realised that the Editor of The Atlantic magazine had apparently been added to the group chat.)
Then President Trump himself told Fox News recently that, during the war in Afghanistan, Nato had sent “some troops” but that they had “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.
The comments provoked anger among UK politicians and veterans’ families. The UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer branded Trump’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling”.
Sir Keir Starmer said US President Donald Trump’s remarks about Nato troops in Afghanistan were “insulting and frankly appalling”
We know from the White House’s National Security Strategy, published in December, that in his second term, Trump intends to unshackle the United States from the system of transnational bodies created, in part by Washington, to regulate international affairs.
That document spells out the means by which the United States will put “America First” at the heart of US security strategy by using whatever powers they have, ranging from economic sanctions and trade tariffs to military intervention, to bend smaller and weaker nations into alignment with US interests.
It is a strategy which privileges strength: a return to a world in which the Great Powers carve out spheres of influence.
The danger in this for what Canada’s Prime Minister called “the middle powers” is clear. “If you’re not at the table,” he said, “you’re on the menu”.
Re-interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine
In Davos last week, America’s allies, especially Canada and Europe, were laying to rest what is now commonly called the rules-based intentional order, and in some cases mourning its demise.
But, as the young Pakistani student at Colombia journalism school argued all those years ago, to large parts of the rest of the world it has not seemed, in the last 80 years, that the United States, and on occasions some of its friends, felt restrained by rules.
“After World War Two, we saw, under the so-called rules-based international order multiple interventions by the United States in Latin America,” says Dr Christopher Sabatini, Senior Research Fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.
“It’s not new. There are patterns of intervention that go all the way back to 1823. There’s a term I use for American policymakers who advocate for unilateral US intervention. I call them “backyard-istas” – those who see Latin America as their backyard.”
In 1953, the CIA, assisted by the British Secret Intelligence Services, orchestrated a coup that overthrew the government of Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran. He had wanted to audit the books of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later part of BP), and when it refused to co-operate, Mossadeq threatened to nationalise it.
For posing a threat to British economic interests, he was overthrown and Britain and the US threw their weight behind the increasingly dictatorial Shah.
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The CIA played a key role in the 1953 coup which ousted Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq
At the same time, the US was conspiring to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala, which had implemented an ambitious programme of land reform that threatened to harm the profitability of the American United Fruit Company.
Again with active CIA collusion, the left-wing president Jacobo Arbenz was toppled and replaced by a series of US-backed authoritarian rulers.
In 1983 the US invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, after a Marxist coup. This was a country of which the late Queen, Elizabeth II, was head of state.
And the US invaded Panama in 1989, and arrested the military leader Manuel Noriega. He spent all but the last few months of his life in prison.
These interventions were all functions of the Monroe Doctrine, first promulgated by President James Monroe in 1823. It asserted America’s right to dominate the Western hemisphere and keep European powers from trying to meddle in the newly independent states of Latin America.
The post-war rules based international order did not deter the US from imposing its will on weaker neighbours.
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Panama’s leader Manuel Noriega was forcibly removed by US troops in 1989 and spent almost all of the rest of his life in jail
When it was announced by the fifth president of the US, James Monroe, the doctrine that bears his name was widely seen as an expression of US solidarity with its neighbours, a strategy to protect them from attempts by the European great powers to recolonise them: the US, after all, shared with them a set of republican values and a history of anti-colonial struggle.
But the Doctrine quickly became an assertion of Washington’s right to dominate its neighbours and use any means, up to and including military intervention, to bend their policies into alignment with American interests.
President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1904, said it gave the US “international police power” to intervene in countries where there was “wrongdoing”.
So could it be that President Trump’s re-interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine is simply part of a continuum in US foreign policy?
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The Monroe Doctrine was first promulgated by US President James Monroe (pictured) in 1823
“In the Guatemala coup, in 1954, that was entirely owned by the US. They orchestrated the entire takeover of the country,” says Dr Christopher Sabatini.
“The coup on Chile in 1971 [against the left-wing Prime Minister Salvador Allende] wasn’t orchestrated by the CIA but the United States said it would accept a coup.”
During the Cold War, the main motivation for intervention was the perception that Soviet-backed parties were gaining ground domestically, representing Communist advances into the Western hemisphere. In our own day, the perceived enemy is no longer Communism, but drug-trafficking and migration.
That difference aside, President Trump’s reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine “absolutely is ‘back to the future’,” says the historian Jay Sexton, author of The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth Century America.
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Guatamalan President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by a US-backed coup in 1954
“The other thing that gives Trump’s United States a 19th century feel is his unpredictability, his volatility. Observers could never really predict what the United States would do next.
“We don’t know what the future holds but we do known from even a cursory look at modern history, from 1815 onwards [the end of the Napoleonic wars], that Great Power rivalries are really destabilising. They lead to conflict.”
Cohesion among the allies
American unilateralism may not be new. What is new is that this time, it is America’s friends and allies that find themselves on the receiving end of American power.
Suddenly, Europeans and Canadians are getting a taste of something long familiar to other parts of the world – that arbitrary exercise of US power that the young Pakistani journalism student articulated so clearly to me in the weeks after 9/11.
For the first year of his second term, European leaders used flattery in their approach to Trump. Starmer, for example, had King Charles invite him to make a second state visit to the UK, an honour no other US president in history has been granted.
The Secretary General of Nato Mark Rutte, referred to him, bizarrely, as “daddy”.
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King Charles invited Donald Trump to make a second state visit to the UK – an honour no other US president had received
But Trump’s approach to towards Europe brought him clear success.
Previous presidents, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden also believed the European allies were not pulling their weight in Nato and wanted them to spend more on their own security. Only Trump succeeded in making them act: in response to his threats, they agreed to raise their defence spending from around two per cent of GDP to five per cent, something unthinkable even a year ago.
Greenland, however, seems to have been a game-changer. When Trump threatened Danish sovereignty in Greenland, the allies began to cohere around a new-found defiance, and resolved not, this time, to bend.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney gave voice to this moment. In his pivotal speech in Davos he said this was a moment of “rupture” with the old rules-based international order – in the new world of Great Power politics, “the middle powers” needed to act together.
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Previous presidents had also believed the European allies should spend more on their own security – only Trump succeeded in making them act
It is rare, at Davos, for an audience to rise to its feet and award a speaker a standing ovation. But they did it for Carney, and you felt, in that moment, a cohesion forming among the allies.
And in an instant, the threat of tariffs lifted. Trump has gained nothing over Greenland that the US hasn’t already had for decades – the right, with Denmark’s blessing, to build military bases, stage unlimited personnel there, and even to mineral exploitation.
The challenge facing ‘middle powers’ today
There is no doubt that Trump’s America First strategy is popular with his Maga base. They share his view that the free world has been freeloading on American largesse for too long.
And European leaders, in agreeing to increase their defence spending, have accepted that President Trump was right: that the imbalance was no longer fair or sustainable.
Reuters
In June 2004 I reported on the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. There were still many living World War Two veterans and thousands of those who had crossed the Chanel 60 years earlier came back to the beaches that day – many of them from the US.
They wanted no talk of the heroism or courage of their youth. We watched them go one by one or in little groups to the cemeteries to find the graves of the young men they’d known and whom they’d left behind in the soil of liberated France.
We watched the allied heads of government pay tribute to those old men. But I found myself thinking not so much of the battles they’d fought and the bravery and sacrifices of their younger selves, but of the peace that they’d gone home to build when the fighting was over.
The world they bequeathed to us was immeasurably better than the world they’d inherited from their parents. For they were born into a world of Great Power rivalries, in which, in Mark Carney’s words, “the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must”.
This was the generation that went home to build the rules-based international order, because they had learned the hard way what a system without rules, without laws, can lead to. They wanted no going back to that.
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The world the veterans bequeathed to us was immeasurably better than the world they’d inherited from their parents, writes Allan Little
Those born in the decades after the war may have made the mistake of believing that the world could never go back to that.
And 24 years ago, as I gave my talk in a New York City still traumatised by 9/11, did I too make the mistake of thinking the post-World War Two order, underpinned, as it was, by American might, was the new permanent normal? I think I did.
For we did not foresee then a world in which trust in traditional sources of news and information would be corroded by a rising cynicism, turbo-charged by social media and, increasingly now, AI.
In any age of economic stagnation and extremes of inequality, popular trust in democratic institutions corrodes. It has been corroding not just in the US but across the western world for decades now. As such Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of Carney’s “rupture” with the post-World War Two order.
Watching those old men making their way through the Normandy cemeteries was a graphic and poignant reminder: democracy, the rule of law, accountable government are not naturally occurring phenomena; they are not even, historically speaking, normal. They have to be fought for, built, sustained, defended.
And that is the challenge from here facing what Mark Carney called “the middle powers”.
Top picture credit: AFP/Reuters
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Arne Slot has good memories in Marseille. It was here in 2022 when his Feyenoord side held on to secure a place in the Europa Conference League final.
On the eve of this week’s game in the bowels of the Stade Velodrome, he was asked about those memories. He was also bizarrely and rudely asked about Xabi Alonso’s links to the Liverpool job.
Any noise surrounding the future of the Liverpool boss was quietened by a trademark European away performance from his side, who added Marseille to Eintracht Frankfurt and Inter Milan as the teams they have beaten on their travels this season.
Their unbeaten run of 13 matches (W7 D6) in all competitions may have been uninspiring for the large part but it is the longest ongoing streak of any team from Europe’s big five leagues. In itself, credit must be due for that. Liverpool last lost a game in November.
Crucially for Slot, it was a first win in a game that Mohamed Salah started for Liverpool since November 4, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League. It now looks like a line has been firmly drawn after Salah’s interview at Leeds and both player and manager can move on for the betterment of the football club.
The reality is that both need each other. Pre-match, Slot told TNT Sports: “The moments when I didn’t play him, I was trying something different. We have missed goals from all the ball possession. If there’s one player in the history of Liverpool that can score goals, it’s Mo Salah.”
It was a night where Salah did not add to his club record of 46 Champions League goals for Liverpool, even though he really should have when he fired wide in the second half, but the assurance with which Liverpool played in a 4-2-2-2 setup will leave Slot delighted and may well give him food for thought for the coming weeks.
“It says a lot about how big a professional he [Salah] is that he can be away for more than a month with a different team and be so fit to play 90 minutes for us after one day of training,” said Slot. “He was so close to a goal. It would usually be a goal from him, but it didn’t harm us because we scored three.”
DAVID and Victoria Beckham have returned to social media after their eldest son Brooklyn Beckham’s scathing six-page rant about their alleged “controlling” behaviour.
David and Victoria Beckham have returned to social media following their son Brooklyn’s scathing Instagram rantCredit: InstagramThe budding photographer, 26, went nuclear with a six-page rant alleging ‘controlling’ behaviourCredit: GettyVictoria returned to Instagram to wish her Spice Girls bandmate Emma Bunton Happy Birthday on her 50thCredit: InstagramDavid also returned to Instagram to wish fellow Man United alum Nicky Butt a special dayCredit: Instagram
Wedding Dress Controversy: Rumours begin circulating that there’s tension between Nicola and Victoria Beckham after Nicola chooses not to wear a Victoria Beckham-designed wedding gown. Nicola later clarifies in August 2022 (and again in March 2023) that Victoria’s atelier couldn’t make the dress in time, but reports in May 2025 suggest Victoria actually changed her mind about making the dress.
Post-Wedding (2022 onwards): Minimal interaction between Nicola and Victoria on social media, and noticeable absence of Nicola at key Beckham family events.
May 2025:David Beckham’s 50th Birthday Snub: Brooklyn and Nicola are notably absent from David Beckham’s 50th birthday celebrations in London, despite being invited. Reports suggest their absence was due to Brooklyn not wanting to be in the same room as Kim Turnbull, the girlfriend of Romeo who had previously been reported to have been dating Brooklyn, who David allegedly opted to have at the party over Nicola.
Rumours emerge of a falling out between Brooklyn and his younger brother Romeo, reportedly due to Romeo’s new girlfriend, DJ Kim Turnbull, who allegedly had a past connection with Brooklyn.
Reports surface that the Beckham parents are “hurt and disappointed” that Brooklyn is “playing no part in family life.” Sources claim that tensions between Brooklyn and Nicola and his parents are “definitely not beyond repair.”
July 2025: Reports indicate David and Victoria are “desperate” to reconcile with Brooklyn. Brooklyn publicly wishes his sister Harper a happy 14th birthday on Instagram, tagging Nicola, which is seen as a potential “olive branch” and a rare public message to his family amid the rumored rift.
Brooklyn UNFOLLOWS his brothers Romeo and Cruz just 24 hours after his birthday message to Harper. Nicola quickly follows suit and also ditches the Beckham bros from her Instagram following. Romeo and Cruz are now also no longer following Brooklyn.
As yet, Victoria and David have not commented on Brooklyn’s six-page statement.
Yet the former footballer was seen for the first time since the scandal broke as he attended the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaking live on CNBC’s financial program Squawk Box, Becks said: “I have always spoken about social media and the power of social media . . . For the good and for the bad.
“What kids can access these days, it can be dangerous.
The Beckhams will be in a tailspin – here’s why there is no going back
BY ELLIE HENMAN
Brooklyn Beckham has delivered what can only be described as the single most damaging blow ever to David and Victoria Beckham, albeit the whole Beckham family, with that explosive statement. But where do the family go from here?
Victoria and David are very much never complain, never explain. They are very much like the Royals in that sense. They will be in an absolute tailspin this morning because this is so damaging. This is a brand, this is a family unit they have built. They love their children dearly. They’ve always protected their happiness and tried to protect their privacy as much as possible. This has just blown every single thing apart.
Do I think the Beckhams are going to come out and say anything? No, I don’t. I think they’re going to say nothing. But I think one thing we can guarantee is there is definitely no going back now.
I think Brooklyn doesn’t want to go back. I think David and Victoria were always really open to reconciliation and I believe they probably still are. But this is so incredibly hurtful of Brooklyn to do so publicly.
Every single time I see an Instagram post by Brooklyn, his followers comment saying: ‘Call your parents!’ I wonder now if those people might have changed their minds and may be backing Brooklyn a bit more? Or are people are still going to be team Victoria and David?
It’s a tough one, but this is explosive and I actually still cannot believe what has happened.
“But what I have found personally, especially with my kids as well, use it for the right reasons.
“I’ve been able to use my platform for my following, for UNICEF.
“And it has been the biggest tool to make people aware of what’s going on around the world for children.
“And I have tried to do the same with my children, to educate them.
“They make mistakes, but children are allowed to make mistakes. That is how they learn. That is what I try to teach my kids.”
He added: “You sometimes have to let them make those mistakes as well.”
A source said: “Victoria is really embarrassed now she’s being mocked online, it’s just devastating to her.”
Brooklyn and actress Nicola Peltz married in 2022Credit: SplashDavid also wished Tracey and Phil Neville happy birthday on his pageCredit: InstagramThe eldest Beckham child made a host of claims in his upload, including suggestions his mum had danced ‘inappropriately’ at their weddingCredit: Getty
Big Brother is reportedly set to return with a major shakeup to the format, shortly after it was announced that the celebrity edition will be rested for at least two years
AJ and Will have hosted the series since it was revived (Image: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)
Big Brother bosses are reportedly planning an “extension” of the series. The iconic reality show, which initially started out on Channel 4 in 2000 and then moved to Channel 5, was revived by ITV in 2023 after several years off air.
The first series of the reboot was won by Jordan Sangha, and Ali Bromley reigned supreme the second time round, whilst Richard Storry was named the public’s favourite housemate at the end of the third series last November. The broadcaster also made the decision to launch a comeback of the celebrity version, with Ibiza Weekender star David Potts and Coronation Street actor Jack P Shepherd emerging victorious.
Shortly afterwards, it was revealed that ITV had decided to hit pause on Celebrity Big Brother, but sources have now insisted that the civilian version of the programme is still very much on the cards and there could even be an increase in the number of episodes.
A source said: “Despite the hold on the celeb version, ITV has always insisted that the programme is what they call a ‘priority reality format’. So it’s reassuring to see plans like this on the table. Extending by a week is something fans have been calling for as past runs have shown the action really only heats up in the latter days.”
The source teased that the upcoming edition of Big Brother will be worthwhile for both viewers and the broadcaster because it will be “exciting”, but it is also “far cheaper” to make than its celebrity counterpart.
Speaking to The Sun, the source explained: “The civilian one is far cheaper to produce than celebrity so the return on investment is worth the while. ITV really is committed to the format and has lots of ideas to keep the civilian version as exciting as possible, with the extension being one of the options being considered.”
It’s no secret that ITV have faced major budget cuts over the last year, with soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale each having had a reduction in episodes. The broadcaster’s daytime brands, Lorraine and Loose Women, have also been slashed significantly, and now only air for 30 weeks of the year as opposed to the full 52. So far, Celebrity Big Brother has been rested until at least 2027, and even hosts AJ Odudu and Will Best will not know whether they will be back at the helm until a later date.
The Sun reported an insider said: “Both hosts will plan most of their other TV work around fronting Big Brother, but that’s incredibly difficult when so much is up in the air. AJ, in particular, will have plenty of offers and usually makes decisions on taking other jobs based on recording dates for BB, as it’s her biggest gig and commitment.
ITV boss Kevin Lygo explained the issue at the Edinburgh TV festival last year. He said: “Celebrity Big Brother, we’re looking at. We’re thinking not on the main channel, that’s the answer. “It’s so difficult now to book big celebrities, famous people, which is what we need on the main channel. Whereas you can go more interesting and niche on ITV2.
“We’re in a battle with [production company] Banijay about the price. It does really well for us on ITVX. It’s a really important, crucial show. I love it and it does a tremendous job for us so, yes, it’s coming back.”
The Late And Live spin-off, which AJ and Will hosted, was also axed. The Mirror has contacted ITV for comment.
The cherished period drama made its debut in 2010, spanning six series and three films, with a stellar cast including Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, and the late Dame Maggie Smith.
The Harry Potter icon was honoured in Downton Abbey : The Grand Finale, which screened last year, though Hugh has now suggested another instalment might still materialise.
However, the Paddington star dismissed any personal participation, revealing to Saga magazine: “I wouldn’t be surprised if they make some sort of spin-off, but no, our company has left the building.
“The Grand Finale really was a farewell. As we came towards the end of filming, I would take a look around each set – let’s say the library – for the last time, so that I would be able to remember,” reports the Express.
He continued: “I feel enormous love for Downton. Every single day a message comes through about what it meant to someone, so I’m enormously proud.”
The finale concluded with a poignant ending, tracking Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle) as a divorcée and single mum rising above controversy, with the closing moments depicting the family and staff dancing alongside Violet Crawley, before the camera settled on a portrait of Dame Maggie as the Dowager Countess.
Fans flooded social media with pleas for additional content, with one viewer enthusing: “I’ve always said I’d like a sequel to the show around WWII time with George as the main, so we can see the kids more grown up! (I would also love a prequel).”
Others shared mixed feelings, with one remarking, “I would love more too, but I want a better written movie than what we’ve been given,” whilst another declared, “I would watch pretty much anything they put out.”
Show creator Julian Fellowes hasn’t ruled out future instalments, previously telling Entertainment Weekly: “That’s a possibility. I’ve learned never to say never anymore, because you have to take it back.”
He added that he was “not against the idea of revisiting Downton, but it would have to be in a different period of history so that their problems were different and they were facing different issues”.
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He said: “On that basis, I don’t see why not, but we’ll have to see what happens.”
Meanwhile, producer Gareth Neame had hinted that it may not be the end, saying: “The camera will pull away and we’ll have our last, last moment with those characters, but that’s not necessarily the end for Downton Abbey.”
WASHINGTON — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Friday she’s confident of her country’s eventual transition to democracy after the U.S. military ousted former President Nicolás Maduro.
But when pressed, she took pains to avoid giving any details on her plans to return home or any timetable for elections in Venezuela.
Her remarks reflect how President Trump’s endorsement of a Maduro loyalist to lead Venezuela for now has frozen out the nation’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning crusader for democracy. Still, Machado has looked to get closer to Trump, presenting her Nobel medal to him a day earlier at the White House.
As Machado was meeting with Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Venezuela to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, further confirmation that Maduro’s longtime second in command was the woman the White House preferred to see managing Venezuela for now.
Speaking to reporters at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, Machado said she was “profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition” to democracy that would also transform Venezuela’s self-proclaimed socialist government long hostile to the U.S. into a strong U.S. ally.
She rejected the notion that Trump chose to work with Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, over her opposition movement, whose candidate was widely believed to have won the 2024 presidential election.
“This has nothing to do with a tension or decision between Delcy Rodríguez and myself,” she said. But she stopped short of elaborating, instead pivoting to vague assertions about her movement’s popular mandate and the government’s dismal human rights record.
In apparent deference to Trump, she provided almost no details Friday about what they discussed or even what she thought the U.S. should do in Venezuela.
“I think I don’t need to urge the president on specific things,” she said.
Machado traveled to Washington looking to rekindle the support for democracy in Venezuela that Trump showed during his first administration. She presented him with the prize she won last year, praising him for what she said was his commitment to Venezuela’s freedom. The Nobel Institute has been clear, however, that the prize cannot be shared or transferred.
Trump, who has actively campaigned to be awarded the prize, said Machado left the medal for him to keep. “And by the way, I think she’s a very fine woman,” he said. “And we’ll be talking again.”
But her efforts have so far done little to alter the Trump administration’s perception that Rodríguez is best prepared to stabilize the South American nation.
Trump has pressed ahead with plans for American oil companies to revive Venezuela’s crumbling energy infrastructure and is exploring the possibility of reopening the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, which he closed during his first administration.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado crisscrossed Venezuela ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, rallying millions of voters looking to end 25 years of single party rule. When she was barred from the race, a previously unknown former diplomat, Edmundo Gonzalez, replaced her on the ballot. But election officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary.
Machado, revered by millions in Venezuela, went into hiding but vowed to continue fighting until democracy was restored. She reemerged months later to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, the first time in more than a decade that she had left Venezuela.
Goodman and Debre write for the Associated Press. Debre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. AP writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.
Emmerdale aired a comeback for a past character on the ITV soap on Friday, linked to the return of Graham Foster as there was a new twist linked to his fake death
Emmerdale aired a comeback for a past character on the ITV soap on Friday(Image: ITV)
There was a familiar face on Emmerdale on Friday night, leading to another twist linked to Graham Foster.
Graham returned from the dead after six years during the Corriedale crossover earlier this month. It was confirmed that he was alive, despite fans seeing him killed off in 2020 by Pierce Harris.
We still don’t know what happened all those years ago, and when he may be back on the show for good. But it seems he had help to fake his death, and on Friday we may have seen who that was.
DI Dent appeared in scenes with Joe Tate, after he grew suspicious about his sighting of Graham. He’d been injured in the Corriedale crash and when he was in hospital, he saw someone outside his room that he believed to be Graham.
It was him, but Joe believed he was imagining things. He hasn’t been able to let it go though and he contacted a private investigator, hoping to uncover the truth.
When he met with the PI on Friday, also there was DI Dent. Fans will recognise the detective, played by actress Linda Armstrong, as she appeared on the soap back in 2020.
She was one of the officers investigating Graham’s murder, helping to put away his apparent killer Pierce Harris. She left the show months later, and has not been in the village since.
Dent told Joe that Graham was very much dead, and had been for six years. She revealed how she’d been the one to see his body after he was found, and that she also saw him in the morgue.
Joe took her word for it and decided Graham had to be dead after all. But when they left, Dent was seen in her car making a rather cryptic phone call.
It wasn’t clear who she was speaking with, but it was clear some sort of cover-up was in play. She told the person the job was done, and that Joe had been told what he needed to hear.
So what exactly is she covering up, and why is she lying to Joe? Is it Graham she was talking to, or somebody else that doesn’t want anyone to know he’s still alive?
Over time, the 40-year-old has stepped up to co-host the daytime programme alongside presenters including Craig Doyle and Dermot O’Leary.
In recent weeks, Josie has been soaking up the sun on a luxurious Thailand getaway with her loved ones. However, she’s now confirmed her return to the show this week.
The presenter posted an adorable video of herself with her son Reggie at the This Morning studio, filmed before the ITV show relocated from Television Centre at the beginning of the year, reports Wales Online.
On Wednesday evening, she wrote: “Guys, I’m still working on my Thailand travel tips for you, but just to give you the heads up, I’m on @thismorning tomorrow talking about lipedema and what I’ve done to tackle mine.
“We are at brand new premises, so it’s a brand new era, which got me reminiscing. Here’s me trying to teach Reg how to be a This Morning presenter at television studios.”
Fans were quick to respond to the announcement, with many delighted by her return to television after an extended break, particularly to discuss a condition that remains relatively unknown to many viewers.
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One person enthused: “I’ll be watching!” Another shared: “So pleased you’re talking about Lipoedema. I have just found out I have it too. I have suffered with it all my life, but just thought it was cellulite, so I am really interested to see what you have been doing to help yours.”
Another fan chimed in with: “Love that you’re using your platform/audience through This Morning to continue to raise awareness of Lipoedema for those young and old trying to get answers, support and simply people to understand more! Hopefully, the NHS will over time too.”
Lipoedema, as defined by the NHS, is an ‘abnormal build-up of fat in your legs and sometimes arms. It can be painful and affect daily life, but there are things you can do that may help.’
This week, Josie has bravely spoken out about her diagnosis with the condition last year, sharing a video of herself exercising at the gym.
Acknowledging her ongoing battle with her genetics, Josie confessed: “The fight is real as my body retains fat unlike a normal body should.
“I have not shared because I thought it looked pretty obvious anyway. I have been working out more, and here is a circuit I completed at the @anantaramaikhao gym.
“Gyms can be intimidating sometimes, but we are all there for the same reason, and I love getting stuck into my own little circuits.”
Former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will return to action for the first time in over a year when he faces Joe Pyfer in Seattle, Washington on 28 March.
Nigerian-born New Zealander Adesayna hasn’t fought since he was knocked out by Frenchman Nassourdine Imavov last February in a third straight defeat.
The 36-year-old, who has eight wins in UFC middleweight title fights – second only to Anderson Silva’s record of 11 – has not won since beating Alex Pereira in 2023.
Adesanya dominated the middleweight division between 2020 and 2022 where he defended his title five times, but defeat against American Pyfer will raise questions about his UFC future.
Pyfer, 29, is ranked 15th in the UFC’s middleweight rankings and has won six of his seven fights in the organisation.
Adesayna, who is ranked sixth, has won just one of five fights in nearly four years.
After defeat by Imavov, Adesanya said he wanted to take some time out before focusing on “helping his team-mates” prepare for upcoming bouts.
He has also said chasing titles is no longer his aim, with his priority shifting to wanting to fight more freely and take more risks inside the octagon.
The bout with Pyfer takes place at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on a card which also sees Mexican former flyweight champion Alexa Grasso take on American Maycee Barber.
Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith have all indicated they will remain with LIV Golf rather than rejoining the PGA Tour.
Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka was recently accepted back on the American circuit after he quit the Saudi Arabian-backed series to prioritise “the needs of his family”.
The PGA subsequently opened the door for fellow major winners Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith to follow Koepka under a new returning member programme open until 2 February.
But the trio have since quashed the prospect of a return at a news conference for LIV Golf captains.
Rahm, 31, said he “wished Brooks the best” but was “not planning to go anywhere”.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m focused on LIV for this year and hoping my team can repeat as champs,” said the Spaniard.
American DeChambeau said he was “contracted through 2026” and “was so excited about this year” while fellow 32-year-old Smith of Australia added that he had “made a decision” and will “be on LIV for years to come”.
Only players who have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years and have won The Players Championship or a major between 2022-25 were eligible to return under the terms of the PGA initiative.
PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp outlined that programme would be only open for the 2026 campaign and was in “response to a unique set of circumstances”.
“This is a one-time, defined window and does not set a precedent for future situations,” Rolapp said in an open letter.
“Once the door closes, there is no promise that this path will be available again.”
Ryan Garcia will return to the ring nine months after his loss to Rolando “Rolly” Romero in May 2025, and he will do so in a world championship fight against Mario Barrios, the current World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion. The 12-round bout will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Feb. 21.
Turki Alalshikh, president of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, confirmed the matchup. The event will be called “The Ring: High Stakes” and broadcast by DAZN pay-per-view.
Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) won the WBC welterweight world championship in September 2023 and has defended the title twice, both times in fights that went the full 12 rounds. In November 2024, he fought to a split draw against Abel Ramos, and in July 2025, he recorded a majority draw against legendary former world champion Manny Pacquiao.
“This is my division, my moment and I’m ready to show the world why the WBC title is staying here,” Barrios said in a statement.
Barrios, who has faced Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Keith Thurman, was also world champion in the super lightweight division, where he won the World Boxing Assn. (WBA) title in 2019. Before his draws against Pacquiao and Ramos, he defeated Argentina’s Fabián Maidana and Cuba’s Yordenis Ugás, a fight in which he won the vacant WBC title.
For his part, García (27-1, 19 KOs) returns after losing to Romero in a fight in which he did not appear to enter the ring in optimal condition. During that fight, the Victorville native was knocked down in the second round and ended up losing by unanimous decision after 12 rounds. Garcia came into that fight with physical problems, suffered an injury during training camp and underwent surgery on his right hand after the fight, which kept him out of the ring for months.
“I will be world champion on February 21,” Garcia said in a statement.
Mario Barrios punches Manny Pacquiao during a July bout in Las Vegas. Barrios will next face off with Ryan Garcia.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
García’s return comes after a turbulent period in his career. In 2024, he defeated Devin Haney by decision in the super lightweight division, although he weighed in 3.25 pounds overweight, making him ineligible to compete for Haney’s title. He subsequently tested positive for the banned substance ostarine, which resulted in the fight being declared a “no contest,” as well as a lawsuit from Haney and a one-year suspension.
Now, Garcia will seek redemption in a new division against an established champion, while Barrios will attempt to reaffirm his dominance at welterweight against high-profile opponent.
Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where things are about to get extra busy.
The Lakers started a stretch of five games in seven days on Monday with a 124-112 loss to the Sacramento Kings. They’ve lost three games in a row and could have a tough time turning the tide during an incredibly difficult schedule this month. This week’s five-game sprint leads directly into an eight-game marathon trip that starts on Jan. 20 in Denver.
The Lakers (23-14) are in danger of letting their slump stretch further as LeBron James could be limited Tuesday against Atlanta. He has not played back-to-back games all year and already played 33 minutes against the Kings, scoring 22 points.
If James is out, the Lakers could at least still welcome someone else back.
All things Lakers, all the time.
Reinforcement on the way
Rui Hachimura was available against the Kings after missing two weeks with a calf injury, but didn’t play. He could be more valuable against the Hawks on Tuesday in the second game of a back-to-back.
Hachimura will begin on a minutes restriction and won’t immediately reprise his starting role. But the struggling Lakers know what they will need from him when he returns.
“He’s our best catch-and-shoot guy,” coach JJ Redick said of Hachimura. “He’s one of the best guys in the league. … This is the balance that we’ve been battling all years: We can play better defenders and our offense isn’t as good. We can play better offensive players and our defense isn’t as good. So we’re continuing to find that balance.”
Hachimura is shooting 43.6% on catch-and-shoot attempts, which ranks 23rd among players with 100 or more such attempts. He started the season on a Michael Jordan-esque shooting streak, but cooled off in recent games. He was four for 14 from three-point range in his last four games before the latest injury. Averaging 12.7 points per game, Hachimura is still shooting a team-best 44.5% from three. He’s the only player shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc on a team that is one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league.
But Hachimura has never been known as a stout defender. He’s averaging 3.8 rebounds per game this year, which equals his career-low.
Meanwhile, Jake LaRavia, who has started in Hachimura’s place, has been the Lakers’ most consistent defender all season. He can be a scorer, too. Only last week, we dedicated this newsletter to LaRavia’s back-to-back 20-point games.
But Redick also said that the team won’t count on that from him every night. LaRavia’s job is to be a perimeter anchor on defense and he has delivered in that role.
Redick said he hasn’t made any decisions about the starting lineup going forward as the team gets healthier.
The Lakers were 11th in offensive rating and 24th in defensive rating before Monday’s game. They were getting outscored by 0.7 points per 100 possessions. They’re the only team with a negative net rating with a winning record.
All-Star voting winds down
Luka Doncic is on top of All-Star voting.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
It’s election season in the NBA. All-Star elections, that is.
Lakers star Luka Doncic led the league in fan All-Star voting after two reveals, the league announced last Tuesday. His 2,229,811 votes were more than 137,000 ahead of Eastern Conference leader Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has led the league in All-Star fan voting for the last two seasons.
“Honestly it’s pretty amazing,” Doncic said of the early voting results. “Just, I mean, a kid from Slovenia only can dream about that, can dream about being in the NBA.”
Fan voting ends Wednesday at 8:59 p.m. PST. Doncic is in line to earn his sixth All-Star honor.
It’s already been quite the year for Doncic. After signing a three-year contract extension with the Lakers in August, the 26-year-old superstar is leading the league in scoring with 33.6 points per game. He had a second child. He launched a new signature shoe.
And he’s become the unquestioned leader of the Lakers in his first full season in L.A. Even LeBron James called Doncic “the franchise.”
“One, I think, [Doncic has] established himself as a global superstar. He has for years now,” Redick said. “Certainly speaks to the popularity of the Lakers’ brand and the amount of fans that follow us and cheer for us and live and breathe with every shot in every game like everybody in that locker room does. And I think he’s a fantastic representative of this organization.”
James was eighth in Western Conference voting in the second fan returns and 14th overall. The superstar who led the league in voting for seven consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2023 may see his 21-year All-Star streak end this season.
He has appeared in just 20 games, averaging 22 points, 6.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds while managing sciatica and foot arthritis. James was named a starter last season, but was a late scratch from the event because of foot and ankle injuries. It was the first time James didn’t participate in the NBA’s midseason showcase event since his rookie season.
This could be Austin Reaves’ first All-Star honor but a recent calf injury has hurt his campaign. Reaves was 11th in the West in fan voting after two returns.
Reaves appeared to be a lock for the honor earlier this season. He is averaging 26.6 points, 6.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds a game, all career-highs. He scored 51 points in a game against Sacramento.
The All-Star game will be held at Intuit Dome on Feb. 15 with yet another unorthodox format that hopes to generate some legitimate competition at the exhibition that has seemingly lost its luster in recent years. Voting takes place in traditional East vs. West format to decide the five players from each conference that are named “starters.”
But the group may not actually play together during the game.
The format will instead have two, eight-man teams of U.S. players and one “world” team of international players. They will compete in a round-robin tournament of four, 12-minute games. If the voting doesn’t yield 16 U.S. players and eight international players, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will select additional players to reach the minimum required.
Voting for starters is determined by fan vote (50%), NBA players (25%) and media (25%). After the starters are announced on Monday, NBA coaches decide the seven reserves for each conference.
On tap
Tuesday, vs. Hawks (20-21), 7:30 p.m.
The Hawks have won three consecutive games, including two after trading star Trae Young to Washington on Jan. 9. While Young — who ended up in Atlanta after in a draft-day trade that sent Doncic to Dallas — was the unquestioned headliner in the organization, the Hawks were just 2-8 in games with him this season. They didn’t need Young to beat the Lakers by 20 points in November.
Thursday, vs. Hornets (14-26), 7:30 p.m.
LaMelo Ball has returned since the last time the Lakers faced the Hornets in Charlotte. The former Chino Hills High star is averaging 19.9 points and 7.8 assists per game while Kon Knueppel leads all rookies with 19.1 points per game.
Saturday at Trail Blazers (19-21), 7 p.m.
Deni Avdija (averaging 26.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.9 assists) left Sunday’s loss against the Knicks in the fourth quarter with a back injury. The loss ended a five-game winning streak for the Trail Blazers, who had won seven of eight. Point guard Jrue Holiday (calf) also returned from a nearly three-month absence.
Sunday, vs. Raptors (24-16), 6:30 p.m.
This is the second game of the Lakers’ second back-to-back in a week. The Lakers have five games in seven days. Brace yourself for some ugly basketball during this stretch.
Status report
Austin Reaves: left calf strain
There’s about two weeks left until Reaves is reevaluated for the calf injury he aggravated on Christmas Day.
Adou Thiero: right MCL sprain
The rookie won’t be reevaluated for at least another two and a half weeks.
Favorite thing I ate this week
Simpang Asia’s festival rice: A platter of turmeric rice, and, clockwise from bottom left: fried wonton sheets, steamed vegetables under peanut dressing, tumeric chicken under shredded egg, fried noodles, potatoes under sambal balado, a red chili sauce with red peppers and tomatoes.
(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
I’m an indecisive eater. Choosing a dish at a restaurant feels like a very high-stakes decision. So a variety platter always hates to see me coming.
When I don’t want to just settle for one thing, the festival rice (nasi kuning komplit) from Simpang Asia in Palms helps cover all the bases. The Indonesian feast has a little bit of everything. A tower of turmeric rice stands at the center of the plate and is surrounded by potatoes under sambal balado — a red chili sauce with red peppers and tomatoes — fried noodles, turmeric chicken under shredded egg, steamed vegetables under peanut dressing and fried wonton sheets.
We also ordered roti paratha, Bali sea bass, which is grilled in banana leaves, and kwetiau goreng, a wok-fried rice noodle dish with bean sprouts, Chinese greens and eggs. We even uncovered a secret menu item: They don’t list their croquettes — fried potato balls filled with chicken — on the menu but you can still ask for them. You should ask for them.
Rams linebacker Samson Ebukam scores on an interception return against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Rams’ 54-51 win at the Coliseum on Nov. 19, 2018.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
On Nov. 19, 2018, the Rams and Kansas City Chiefs were scheduled to play their Week 11 game in Mexico, but the game was moved to the Coliseum because of poor field conditions caused by a Shakira concert.
The Southland was mourning the victims of a mass shooting in Thousand Oaks and reeling from fires that ravaged much of the region.
With thousands of first responders in the crowd, the Rams and Chiefs put on a show, combining for 1,001 yards of offense. A long touchdown pass from Goff to tight end Gerald Everett with less than two minutes left gave the Rams a 54-51 victory.
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka will make a PGA Tour comeback at the end of January under a new returning member programme, following his departure from LIV Golf.
The 35-year-old American controversially quit the PGA Tour to join the Saudi Arabian-backed series in 2022 and won five events over four seasons.
In December, Koepka announced that he was leaving the lucrative breakaway league despite reportedly having one year left on his contract and he recently reapplied for his PGA Tour membership.
“When I was a child, I always dreamed about competing on the PGA Tour, and I am just as excited today to announce that I am returning,” said Koepka, who has agreed to forego any payment from the FedExCup Bonus scheme during the 2026 season and will be ineligible for the Tour’s player equity programme between 2026-2030, which could amount to between $50-85m.
“I believe in where the PGA Tour is headed with new leadership, new investors and an equity program that gives players a meaningful ownership stake.”
Koepka’s desire to be reinstated appeared to have provided a huge dilemma for the PGA Tour, with rules dicatating that he would not be eligible to play on it again until August – a year after his last LIV appearance.
However, he will now line up at the Farmers Insurance Open, which is being played at Torrey Pines between 29 January – 1 February, after being offered an earlier route back on to the PGA Tour.
Only players who have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years and have won The Players Championship or a major over the previous four seasons are eligible under the terms of the newly-announced initiative.
In a letter to fans, PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp outlined that programme would be only open for the 2026 campaign and was in ‘response to a unique set of circumstances’.
“We will continue to aggressively pursue anything that enhances the fan experience and makes the PGA Tour stronger,” said Rolapp.
“This is part of our commitment to fans, who expect the world’s best players to compete on the PGA Tour week in and week out.”
Koepka, who won the third of his US PGA Championship titles in 2023, has also agreed to make a $5m charitable contribution and has already committed to play in the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale held on 5-8 February.
Returning PGA Tour members will be expected to participate in a minimum of 15 co-sponsored and approved tournaments in 2026.
It’s still unclear exactly when Rui Hachimura will return for the Lakers after missing six games because of right calf soreness, but coach JJ Redick said the forward is trending toward playing soon.
That could be as early as Monday night when the Lakers play at the Sacramento Kings or Tuesday night when they play the Atlanta Hawks at Crypto.com Arena.
Hachimura practiced Sunday and took extra shots after the session. “He was able to do everything in practice,” Redick said.
Hachimura has been rehabbing for two weeks. He took part in a few practices and is eager to return.
Does he think he will play against the Kings?
“I think so. I think I felt good after [practice], but I got to check with the trainers and everybody and then we’ll see for tomorrow,” Hachimura said.
When he does return, Hachimura will be on a minutes restriction and will probably come off the bench, Redick said.
Hachimura said his calf has “healed,” giving him a chance to practice with the South Bay Lakers, the Lakers’ G League team.
Hachimura is averaging 12.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 27 games. He is shooting 52.1% from the field and 44.5% from three-point range,
“I’m fine,” he said. “I feel good about it.”
Hachimura is aware how calf injuries have led to more serious ailments for NBA players. Although staying healthy is a priority with free agency looming at the end of the season, Hachimura said his main concern is helping the Lakers win games.
“I think at the end of the day … I’m trying to help this team win. That’s the whole purpose of being here,” he said. “I’ve been here for four seasons now. I think I’m one of the guys that has been here the longest too, so I’m happy to be here playing with these guys. The coaches and everybody, I love these guys.
“Of course the contract and stuff is coming up. But at the end of the day I’m just trying to focus on everyday, just in the moment. … We got a second half that is coming. As a team too, but for me, I got to be ready for the playoffs.”
NBA suspends Kings guard Dennis Schroder
A day after the NBA suspended Sacramento point guard Dennis Schroder three games for confronting and attempting to strike Luka Doncic after a game on Dec. 28, Redick offered little insight into the incident.
“It’s a league matter,” Redick said. “So, I don’t really have a comment on it, to be honest with you. They made their decision. And it’s up to them.”
The league said the incident occurred approximately 40 minutes after the game when Schroder sought out Doncic in a Crypto.com Arena hallway and initiated the confrontation.
The two had been sniping at each other all game, with Doncic at one point taunting Schroder for not signing an $84-million contract with the Lakers in 2021.
After the game, according to people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, Schroder was hiding and waiting to attack Doncic in the hallway.
Redick was asked if he was aware of what happened.
“There’s very few things I’m not aware of,” Redick said.
For his part, Schroder posted on social media, “Attempting,” with several emojis.
Army-aligned government returns to the capital, which was quickly overrun by the RSF in the early days of war in 2023.
Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris has announced the government’s return to Khartoum, after nearly three years of operating from its wartime capital of Port Sudan.
In the early days of the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the army-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly overrun by rival troops.
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The government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum since the army recaptured the city last March.
“Today, we return, and the Government of Hope returns to the national capital,” Idris told reporters on Sunday in Khartoum, which has been ravaged by the war between SAF and RSF.
“We promise you better services, better healthcare and the reconstruction of hospitals, the development of educational services … and to improve electricity, water and sanitation services,” he said.
For close to two years, the Sudanese capital – comprised of the three cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North (Bahri) – was an active battlefield.
Entire neighbourhoods were besieged, rival fighters shot artillery across the Nile River, and millions of people were displaced from the city.
Between March and October, 1.2 million people returned to Khartoum, according to the United Nations.
Many found a city with barely functioning services, their homes destroyed and neighbourhoods pockmarked by makeshift cemeteries authorities are now exhuming.
The war is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people in the capital alone, but the complete toll is unknown, as many families have been forced to bury their dead in makeshift graves.
According to the UN, the rehabilitation of the capital’s essential infrastructure would cost some $350m.
In recent months, the government has held some cabinet meetings in Khartoum and launched reconstruction efforts.
The city has witnessed relative calm, though the RSF has carried out drone strikes, particularly on infrastructure.
Army strikes RSF targets
Battles rage elsewhere across the vast country.
South of Khartoum, the RSF has pushed through the Kordofan region, after dislodging the army from its last stronghold in Darfur last year.
Sudan’s army on Friday said that it inflicted heavy losses on the RSF during a series of air and ground operations carried out over the past week in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
In a statement, the military said its forces conducted strikes against RSF positions, destroying about 240 combat vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.
It added that ground forces had succeeded in pushing RSF fighters out of wide areas in both Darfur and Kordofan, and that operations were ongoing to pursue remaining elements.
The RSF did not immediately comment on the army’s statement, and the information shared by the army could not be independently verified.
The conflict has left 11 million people displaced internally and across borders, and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.
Recently, the UN described el-Fasher in North Darfur as a “crime scene” after gaining access to the largely deserted city for the first time since its takeover, marked by mass atrocities by the RSF in October.
International aid staff visited el-Fasher following weeks of negotiations, finding few people remaining in what was once a densely populated city with a large displaced population.
More than 100,000 residents fled el-Fasher for their lives after the RSF seized control on October 26 following an 18-month siege, with survivors reporting ethnically motivated mass killings and widespread detentions.
SAF soldiers have also been accused of committing atrocities during the brutal war.
Myha’la is a married woman — and has been for a year.
The actor, known for HBO’s finance drama “Industry” and dark comedy “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” revealed that she and Armando Rivera tied the knot last year. She celebrated their anniversary via Instagram on Monday, sharing photos of herself with Rivera and pictures of friends and family during their intimate ceremony.
“One year of marriage,” she wrote in the caption of the post. The 29-year-old actor also included a disclaimer to reassure followers they weren’t the only ones who missed out on the wedding news.
“Sos if this is how you’re finding out, promise we didn’t tell most everyone,” she wrote. The San Jose native, birth name Myha’la Herrold, also expressed gratitude to her family and friends for “helping make this day so very magical.”
The spouses married five years after striking up a conversation during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to W Magazine. Myha’la gained popularity for her portrayal of dogged aspiring finance analyst Harper Stern in “Industry,” which debuted in November 2020. Rivera was among the fans who messaged Myha’la and her co-stars amid the show’s success. Rivera, a soccer player and an actor, then decided to interview his would-be-wife for a college journalism assignment.
“I thought, it’ll be five, 10 minutes, whatever. And immediately was like, ‘Whoa, you’re so hot and nice!’ ” Myha’la told W Magazine in 2023. “We talked much longer than we expected.”
They finally took their relationship offline, meeting in person in the Bay Area at the beginning of 2021. Since then, the pair have flaunted their romance on social media and various high-profile events, most recently the red carpet premiere of “Industry” Season 4 in New York City on Thursday.
“Industry” returns to HBO on Sunday. The drama hails from creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay and also stars Ken Leung, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, Kit Harington and Sagar Radia.
“That would be outstanding if we could snag him. He is some kind of an athlete.
“We were just doing some stats on him and he is in the top 10 for dominant carries, dominant tackles, out of all the second rows in the Top 14.
“That is as a 19/20-year-old and just shows the foundation of where he could get to.
“He is an international athlete and someone needs to make him into an international player. We feel like we are good at that.”
Any move for Kpoku is complicated by a contract which commits him to Racing until summer 2027.
But Sale, whose co-owner Simon Orange sold his investment business for a reported £1bn in January 2025, could strike an agreement to buy out the final season of Kpoku’s deal.
“There is still a transfer fee for anyone who wants to negotiate and we are duking it out with the big boys in France like La Rochelle,” said Sanderson.
“Fortunately, transfer fees don’t come into the salary cap so, as long as our owners are feeling generous and we feel he is a good prospect for our group, there is a good chance.”
Kpoku, who was born in London and joined Racing from Exeter in October 2023, is highly rated by England.
He took up an invite to train with the senior squad during last year’s Six Nations, and England’s hierarchy reportedly considered offering, external him one of their enhanced central contracts to ease his path back to the Prem.
Without a senior cap, Kpoku could become eligible for France on residency grounds if he remains in the Top 14, but he would prefer to play for England.
“France is not really what I want to pursue because it’s not my country,” he told BBC Sport in December 2024.
“I want to represent my own country, where I was born and raised.”
With Maro Itoje as captain, Martin, Northampton’s Alex Coles and Leicester’s Ollie Chessum are the leading candidates to partner him in the second row at the World Cup, which begins in Australia in September 2027.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 members, NASA pilot Mike Fincke, NASA commander Zena Cardman, mission specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos and mission specialist Kimiya Yui from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency walk out of the operations center before boarding a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in July. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
Jan. 8 (UPI) — NASA said Thursday that four astronauts aboard the International Space Station will return to Earth a month earlier than scheduled after one of them suffered a “serious medical condition.”
Neither the astronaut nor the medical issue were made public, with NASA officials saying they were withholding the information due to medical privacy.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters in a press conference that they expect to announce an anticipated undock and re-entry timeline in the next 42 hours.
It will be the first medical early return of an astronaut in the 25-year history of the orbiting laboratory.
“After discussions with chief health and medical officer Dr. J.D. Polk and leadership across the agency, I’ve come to the decision that it’s in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure,” Isaacman said.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov make up Crew-11, which launched on Aug. 1 for the ISS aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Polk said the affected astronaut was “absolutely stable” but had suffered a medical incident “sufficient enough” that they would be best served by a complete evaluation on Earth.
“Again, because the astronaut is absolutely stable, this is not an emergent evacuation,” he said. “We’re not immediately disembarking and getting the astronaut down, but it leaves that lingering risk and lingering question as to what that diagnosis is, and that means there’s some lingering risk for that astronaut aboard.”
Though it is ISS’ first medical evacuation, Polk said it was being carried out as NASA was “erring on the side of caution for the crew member and in their best interest and their best medical welfare.”
The announcement came hours after NASA postponed Thursday’s spacewalk from the ISS due to an astronaut medical issue involving a single crew member.
“Safely conducting our missions is our highest priority, and we are actively evaluating all options, including the possibility of an earlier end to Crew-11’s mission,” NASA said in a statement. “These are the situations NASA and our partners train for and prepare to execute safely.”
Crew-11 was originally scheduled to complete its mission and return to Earth in late February, after being relieved by Crew-12.
Isaacman said they are now looking at earlier launch opportunities for Crew-12 to reach the ISS.
Until then, NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, who launched to the station late November, will maintain a U.S. presence on the orbital laboratory.
Along with Williams, the ISS is inhabited by cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, who arrived via Russian Soyuz on Nov. 27.
