WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), saying “the United States and this Administration have no trade policy,” Saturday called on the White House to impose restraints on shoe imports to help the suffering domestic footwear industry.
“It is time we got beyond simplistic catchwords that have immobilized us for so long,” he said in the Democratic response to President Reagan’s weekly radio address. “Free trade does not really exist in the modern market.”
“The U.S. shoe industry is literally withering on the vine due to a surge in footwear imports that reached 75% of the U.S. market in 1985,” Sasser said. In the senator’s home state, Tennessee, once the fifth-largest shoe-producing state in the country, 12 shoe factories have closed in the last 18 months.
Disarming in Trade War
“Far more is at stake here than the fate of a single industry. Frankly, we’re dealing with the credibility of our entire system of trade law,” Sasser said. “If the President fails to act here, where the evidence of import damage is truly extraordinary, we will be declaring unilateral disarmament in the intensifying battle for world trade.”
The President is required under law to act by next Sunday on a recommendation made by the International Trade Commission in June that he impose a novel shoe import quota system, in which the government would auction the right to import certain amounts of shoes.
“The International Trade Commission found that the shoe industry deserves and needs temporary relief, but the continued vacillation of the White House . . . only affirms what some of us have suspected for some time: that the United States and this Administration have no trade policy,” Sasser said.
“The belief that there is no middle ground between absolute free trade and absolute protectionism is largely responsible for the trade crisis we face today,” he added.
Trade Deficit Zooms
He said that the scope of that crisis is indicated by the growth of the nation’s trade deficit from $28 billion in 1981 to “the very real prospect of trade deficits that will have increased fivefold, to $150 billion” in 1985.
“For the first time in this century, the United States is now a debtor nation and our main export right now is American jobs,” Sasser said.
The problem, he said, is not with Japan or Canada or any other foreign nation. “The problem is ours and it’s a matter of gross inaction,” he said.
“The protectionist label is a red herring when virtually every government in the world seeks to assist its domestic industries with subsidies, with currency manipulation or with quotas,” he said.
USC women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins will miss the upcoming college basketball season as she recovers from the serious knee injury she sustained during the NCAA tournament in March.
Watkins said in an announcement on social media that she planned to take the 2025-26 season to “fully focus on continuing to recover so I can come back to the game I love.”
“The last few months have been filled with a lot of healing, rest and reflection,” Watkins said in a statement. “Recovering from this injury hasn’t been easy, and I want to say thank you — your love, support and kind words have truly lifted me up during one of the most challenging times in my life.”
Watkins was in the midst of a stellar sophomore season when her knee buckled on a breakaway during the second round of the NCAA tournament. The injury proved to be a devastating blow to USC’s title hopes, as the Trojans eventually lost in the Elite Eight to Connecticut.
There was a glimmer of hope that Watkins might be able to return for a potential postseason run in March 2026, a full year after her injury. Two orthopedic surgeons told The Times at the time that she’d require upwards of 12 months to recover.
“There’s going to be a lot of differences from person to person in that recovery process,” said Dr. Gabriella Ode, an orthopedic surgeon who serves as the team physician for the New York Liberty. “There’s nothing wrong even with a 12-month recovery. I want to be very explicit about that. There are many people who it takes 12 months.”
Any speculation that Watkins might return sooner than that ended Sunday, more than a month before the start of the women’s college basketball season.
USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in a statement that the program would “fully support her decision to focus on recovery this season.”
“While we will certainly miss her impact on the court, she continues to play a vital role in our program as a leader and teammate. The strength and maturity she has shown through this process is a reflection of who she is.”
Her impact won’t be easily replaced. But the arrival of another top prospect, Jazzy Davidson, should help fill some of the void.
“No one is filling JuJu’s shoes,” Gottlieb said earlier this month. “Those are unique shoes. But the fact that Jazzy can step into our program and already just make a really unique and incredible impression on everybody is pretty wild. She’s really, really good.”
In two seasons at USC, Watkins has been nothing short of a phenomenon, both on and off the court.
A Compton native, Watkins arrived at USC in 2023 intent on helping build the program back up, and within one season had helped turn the Trojans into national title contenders. As a sophomore, she won the Wooden Award, the Naismith Trophy, Big Ten Player of the Year and became the first USC player ever named the Associated Press player of the year. She also powered USC to a Big Ten title in its first season in the conference, all while becoming the fastest Trojan ever to 1,000 career points, a mark that she surpassed early in her sophomore year.
Upon her return as a senior, Watkins technically would still have two years of eligibility remaining. But the Trojan superstar is almost certain to declare for the WNBA draft when she’s first eligible in 2027.
In an overstuffed workshop in East L.A., Chris Francis reached out a heavily tattooed arm and pulled a single shoe box from one of the floor-to-ceiling shelves lining the walls.
“Anjelica Huston,” the shoemaker and artist said. “Let’s see what’s in here.”
Removing the top of the box, he revealed two carved wooden forms known as shoe lasts that cobblers use to make their wares. Beneath those were strips of yellowing shoe patterns and a tracing of the actor’s foot with a note written in loopy cursive:
To Pasquale My happy feet shall thank you — Anjelica Huston
The Di Fabrizio collection includes shoe measurements for stars like Nancy Sinatra, Kim Novak, Joe Pesci and Madeline Kahn, all adorned with green, white and red striped ribbon.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Cool, huh?” Francis said, gazing reverently at the box’s contents. “Every time I open one it’s amazing. It’s like Christmas all the time.”
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For the last three years, Francis has been surrounded by a sprawling archive of famous feet originally amassed by Pasquale Di Fabrizio, the late shoemaker to the stars. From the early ‘60s to the early 2000s, Di Fabrizio created custom footwear for the rich, famous and notorious out of his humble shoe shop on 3rd Street.
The shoes went to his customers, but his voluminous collection includes shoe lasts, patterns, drawings, correspondences, leather samples and handwritten notes from thousands of clients, all stored in cardboard shoe boxes that the Italian immigrant trimmed with green, white and red striped ribbon.
The names, written in bold Magic Marker on the front of each box are a who’s who of entertainers from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond: Liza Minnelli, Tom Jones, Richard Pryor, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bea Arthur, Arsenio Hall, Nancy Sinatra, Ace Frehley. The list goes on and on.
Francis found foot measurements, wooden shoe lasts and a shoe in progress that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for Ginger Rogers in a box marked with her name.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Shoe Machine” is one of Chris Francis’ art pieces that he has shown at museums.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“So many great people stood on these pieces of paper,” Francis said, looking at the stacks of boxes around him. “Roy Orbison. Eva Gabor. Stella Stevens. Lauren Bacall. I could pull these down all day.”
Francis never met Di Fabrizio, who died in 2008, but in 2022 he traded two pairs of his sculptural shoe-art pieces to Di Fabrizio’s friend and fellow shoemaker Gary Kazanchyan for the entirety of the Italian shoemaker’s archive. Three years later, Francis is still making his way through it all.
The amount of material is overwhelming, but he is committed to preserving Di Fabrizio’s legacy. Ultimately, he wants to find a space where he can share it with others.
“I never want to be without it, but I’m realistic that it deserves to be appreciated by more than just myself,” he said. “If my life’s work ended up in somebody’s hands, I don’t think I’d want them to just keep it for themselves forever.”
A shoemaker’s journey
Francis isn’t just cataloging L.A.’s shoemaking history, he’s helping to keep it alive.
Over the last decade and a half he’s made a name for himself as a custom shoemaker, creating handmade bespoke footwear for rockers like former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford and Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, as well as sculptural art shoes that are displayed in museums like the Craft Contemporary, the Palm Springs Art Museum and SCAD FASH in Atlanta.
Wooden shoe lasts hang from the ceiling as Chris Francis works on a shoe for the singer Lita Ford in his garage.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In his East L.A. workshop, he eschews modern technology, focusing instead on traditional methods of shoemaking, often with hand tools.
“The handmade shoe is alive and well in this shop,” he said, dressed in pressed black slacks and tinted sunglasses, chunky gold rings gleaming on his fingers. “There’s no computer here, and even the records half the time are vinyls or 78s.”
Making shoes by hand is time-consuming and expensive work — Francis doesn’t sell a pair of shoes for less than $1,800 — but for his mostly musician clientele, a sturdy, custom-made, comfortable shoe that also boasts over-the-top style is well worth the price.
“At my price point, my customers are buying something that’s really a tool,” he said. “It’s part of their look, but it also has to hit 27 guitar pedals, keep all of its crystal, be beautiful, last multiple tours and they have to be able to stand in it all night.”
Francis, who has a certain aging-rocker swagger himself, never expected to become a shoemaker.
After going to art school and hopping freight trains for several years, he moved to Los Angeles in 2002 originally to join the Merchant Marines. Instead he found work hanging multi-story graphics and billboards on the side of hotels and high-rises on the Sunset Strip and at casinos in Las Vegas. “That gave me the same thrill of riding a freight train,” he said. “Being on a high-rise building and rappelling down.”
Francis found fabric samples and designs for shoes that Pasquale Di Fabrizio made for a Broadway production of the musical “Marilyn: An American Fable.”
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Shoemaker and artist Chris Francis makes shoes the traditional way in his workshop in East Los Angeles.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He discovered he had a knack for pattern making in 2008 when he began creating hand-stitched leather jackets to wear to the Hollywood parties he had started attending with his now-fiancee. One day a stranger approached him and said she knew someone who would appreciate a jacket like the ones he was making. She was a stylist for Arnel Pineda, the lead singer of Journey. Commissions from Mötley Crüe and other rock bands followed.
A few years later he became interested in making shoes, but although he knocked on the door of several shoe shops in town, he couldn’t find a mentor.
“They didn’t have time, or they’d say, ‘You belong in a rock and roll band, you’re not one of us,’” he said. “But I would say, ‘Just teach me one thing, one trick.’ And everyone had time to teach one trick.”
It was an education in much more than shoemaking.
“Almost every shoemaker I met had immigrated to the country,” he said. “So I learned how to make shoes from the Italians, from guys from Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Syria, from everybody. And while doing so, I learned about all these different cultures.”
‘He was the king’
As Francis dove deeper into the history of shoemaking in Los Angeles, one name kept coming up again and again: Pasquale Di Fabrizio.
The late Pasquale Di Fabrizio, a cobbler to the Hollywood elite, photographed in front of his collection of shoe lasts, circa 1982.
(Bret Lundberg / Images Press / Getty Images)
“I started asking other makers about him, and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we remember him,’” Francis said. “He was the king.”
For more than 50 years Di Fabrizio was the most sought after shoemaker in Los Angeles. He made Liberace’s rhinestone-encrusted footwear and shod Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck for touring productions of Disney on Parade. He was the go-to shoemaker for country western stars, Vegas showgirls, Hollywood movie stars, gospel singers and casino owners. The Rat Pack helped put him on the map.
“My best customer is Dean Martin,” Di Fabrizio told The Times in 1972. “He buys 40 pairs a year.”
Sporting a thick, bristled mustache and oversize glasses, Di Fabrizio had a tough reputation. He once kicked a movie star out of his shop because the star brought back a pair of patent leather shoes that he claimed were defective. Di Fabrizio accused him of missing the urinal and peeing on them at the Oscars.
“Never come back here again,” he said in his thick Italian accent.
The shoemaker occasionally made house calls, but his customers mostly came to him. In his workshop on 3rd Street near Crescent Heights, he would trace their bare feet on a piece of paper and measure the circumference of each of their feet at the ball, around the arch, the heel and the ankle. Then he would customize a pre-carved wooden last from Italy, adding thin pieces of leather 1 millimeter at a time to more perfectly mimic the unique shape of the client’s foot.
The size and shapes of the lasts varied wildly. He once told a reporter that it took “half a cow” to make shoes for Wilt Chamberlain, who wore a size 15. In his archives, Francis found a petite high heel shoe last roughly the length of his hand.
Francis holds a foot tracing and shoe lasts made for Robert De Niro by Pasquale Di Fabrizio.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“Di Fabrizio did lots of shoes for little people,” Francis said. “He really offered an important service for that community. They could have formal footwear rather than having only the option of wearing kids shoes.”
The same lasts could be used over and over again to make several pairs of shoes, as long as the heel height was the same. Each last went in its own box decorated with a ribbon in the colors of the Italian flag.
“It’s so simple, but he claims his territory with that ribbon,” Francis said. “He cared enough to take one extra step. It’s what really made that collection iconic.”
A legacy preserved
Francis first encountered Di Fabrizio’s archives in 2010 when Kazanchyan offered him a job at Andre #1 Custom Made Shoes on Sunset Boulevard. Kazanchyan inherited the shop from his uncle, Andre Kazanchyan, who once worked with Di Fabrizio and became his good friend.
Gary Kazanchyan and Di Fabrizio were close as well. When Di Fabrizio retired in the early 2000s, Kazanchyan hired all of the guys who worked at his shop. Di Fabrizio was at Kazanchyan’s wedding and when the older shoemaker was in a nursing home at the end of his life, Kazanchyan visited him every day.
For years Kazanchyan stored as many of the ribbon-trimmed boxes as he could fit in his Hollywood shop, but just before COVID he moved his shop to his garage in Burbank and transferred Di Fabrizio’s archives to his backyard. “At one point, my whole backyard was this mountain of shoe lasts,” he said.
Chris Francis, left, and Gary Kazanchyan at Palermo’s Italian Restaurant in Los Feliz.
(Deborah Netburn / Los Angeles Times)
Kazanchyan started a renovation on his house in 2022 and could no longer store Di Fabrizio’s archive in his backyard. He’d sold some of the most famous shoe lasts at auction — a bundle of Di Fabrizio’s shoe lasts for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. went for $4,375 in 2013 — but he still had several tons of material stacked on pallets and covered in tarps. He remembered that Francis loved the collection, so he called him and asked if he wanted it. Francis did.
Francis didn’t have the money to purchase the collection in cash, but he offered Kazanchyan two art pieces that he’d exhibited and Kazanchyan accepted. The first carload of boxes Francis took to his studio included lasts for Wayne Newton, Paula Abdul, Ginger Rogers, Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone.
“My excitement was on fire,” he said.
Francis spent a few weeks sorting through the archive and discarding lasts and shoe boxes that were too covered in mold or deteriorated to be worth keeping. Just before a rainstorm threatened the rest of the collection, he brought thousands of shoe lasts to his studio but even now regrets that he was unable to save it all.
“I tried to grab the big names, but there was so much I couldn’t keep,” he said. “It was heartbreaking.”
The boxes hold stories — and life lessons
Living and working among the Di Fabrizio collection has taught Francis a lot more than just the art of making shoes.
“I’m constantly seeing the obituary of a celebrity who has passed and I go to the workshop and there’s their box,” he said. “It really lets you know that life is for the living. It’s up to you to be responsible and live your life when you’re alive. Be yourself, teach others, leave something behind.”
Hanging onto the collection has not been easy — but Francis believes he was chosen from beyond to care for Di Fabrizio’s archive and to share it with others responsibly.
He’s still not sure what that will look like, but he’s determined to try.
And in the meantime, he is also determined to keep the traditional art of shoemaking alive in Los Angeles.
If you look around his workshop, you’ll spot several boxes adorned with red, white and blue striped ribbon.
Francis is making those boxes his own.
Working with hand tools, Chris Francis makes a custom pair of shoes for musician Lita Ford.
This column is the latest in a series on parenting children in the final years of high school, “Emptying the Nest.” Read the last installment, “A Mother’s Plea to Trump.”
My third and youngest child went off to college a week ago, and for the first time in 27 years, my husband and I are living in a house with no kids. It’s a strange and silent place, in which all the beds are neatly made, the floors around them no longer mulched with clothing, charge cords and snack wrappers. There are no discarded once-frozen coffee drinks sweating rings onto wooden tables; no empty Styrofoam takeout containers littering kitchen counters mere inches away from the trash can.
One can walk freely across the family room now, with no fear of tripping over abandoned shoes, balled-up socks or peanut-butter-smeared dishes, and the days remain unpierced by the maddening repetition of overheard TikTok memes and the escalating cries of “mom, Mom, MOM” to indicate an impending celebration or crisis.
My daughter very kindly left me a hamper full of dirty clothes upon her departure and a closet that was essentially an archaeological site of the months’ (years’?) worth of her particular method of tidying her room. My discovery therein of the perfume (in a plastic bag that also included her crumpled prom dress) she had been desperately searching for as she packed for college was sweet but short-lived. Yes, I did tell her to look in her closet and, yes, she did roll her eyes and swear that she did, but it doesn’t matter now.
She is gone, the last of the children who have been the light of so much of my adult life, and I miss her truly, madly, deeply. The sight of her luminous smile and her “nothing’s wrong” grimace; the smell of her floral shampoo and funky basketball shoes; the sound of her singing in the shower and yelling at the dogs to get off her bed.
Those dogs, I hasten to note, are doing the best they can to bridge the void. Sensing that a workday no longer interrupted by my daughter’s frantic search for her jersey/wallet/shoes is no workday at all, Harley has been nudging his toys under my sofa or chair and then whining for me to “find” them while Koda has taken on teenage-affection duty — randomly hurling himself onto my lap for attention only to pull away and vanish once I put my laptop aside and attempt to cuddle.
Still I am bereft and unmoored. The mad scramble to prepare and pack for college is finally over and in its place is … nothing. Well, there is my job, of course. But after 27 years of (often imperfectly) balancing work and motherhood, I feel like a professional juggler who is left with a single ball. For the first time in a very long time, I am the sole proprietor of my day, responsible only for myself.
Already I can see this is going to be a problem.
Not only do I miss my daughter for her own sweet, occasionally maddening self, I miss the structure she, and her siblings, imposed on my life. The school schedule, the after-school schedule, the weekend sports schedule. The doctor’s appointments, the dentist appointments, the haircuts and meal making, the playdates and sleepovers and trips to the playground/zoo/theme park/museum. The bedtimes, the dinner times, homework; the unexpected accommodations for illness, injury and very bad days. Parenthood is many things, but while your children are actual children, it is the clock and calendar.
Which are also now gone. I am still a working mother, but the “mother” part suddenly requires much less work. With juggling no longer required, my job should be so much easier. And yet it’s not. Facing a different sort of day, I find myself struggling to reset. And so I have created a list of Empty Nest/Labor Day resolutions. (And if they sound suspiciously like the advice I’ve given my kids over the years, well, I guess I am mothering myself.)
Popcorn and frozen yogurt are not dinner. After three decades of shopping for and preparing reasonably healthy evening meals, I confess I was looking forward to taking a break. But my post-college drop-off “dinner” is clearly not the answer. Eat some fruit and veggies, for heaven’s sake.
Put down the phone. Checking for texts or haunting my child’s Instagram is just sad, and perusing Facebook for friends also dropping kids off at college has thus far only led me to endless video feeds. Sure, watching border collies at work and the outtakes from “This Is 40” is great fun, but is it worth an hour of my one and only life? No.
Keep setting the alarm. I may no longer need to be up and dressed in time to take or see my kid off to school, but that alarm has been starting my day for five decades now.
Get up, stretch and walk around. Despite having a desk job, I never paid much attention to all those pesky ergonomics instructions. I had kids who regularly demanded that I interrupt my work to get up and do something else (which often required actual running). Now I don’t. So it’s up to me.
Go outside at least a few times a day. Even with the playground days in the distant past, it is amazing how often your teenage children require your presence outside — if only to walk across the Target parking lot for the third time in a week or examine the dent “someone” put in your car. Find a way to touch grass that doesn’t involve picking up dog poop.
Keep up with the calendar. I was certain that, without the presence of so many child-related appointments/events, I could keep track of my husband’s and my schedules in my head. Three missed appointments later, that’s a hard nope.
Plan things for the weekends. For years, our weekends were dominated by sports events. More recently, as the empty nest loomed, my husband and I kept them clear on the off chance that our daughter might want to do something with us. Now we are free to do those weekend things we enjoyed as a couple — and I’m sure we’ll remember what they were in time.
Carry tissues. I did not cry when I drove away from my daughter at her New York college — I was frankly too tired from the move-in and too worried about the traffic around JFK airport. But when I made my first trip to Ralphs a few days later and saw her favorite potato chips, I burst into tears. Right in the snack aisle.
Bite back the wistful advice. When I was deep in the maelstrom of life with young kids, nothing pushed me closer to the edge of insanity than some older mom telling me to “treasure these moments” because “time moves so fast.” “Not fast enough,” I would think grimly as I balanced a crying baby with an exploding diaper and a whiny toddler with an exploding juice box. Now I am that older mom who can’t believe how quickly time passed. But I’ll try to keep it to myself.
Be patient. When the last child goes, it’s as big a life change as when the first child arrives (albeit with less spit-up and more sleep). Everything is different and it will take time to adjust. And just when I get used to my calm, quiet house, my daughter will be home for the holidays, leaving shoes and trash and dirty clothes all over the place. No doubt it will drive me nuts. At the moment, I cannot wait.
Revelations in a new book saying Queen Camilla was the victim of an attempted indecent assault as a teenager dominate Monday’s papers. The Daily Mail leads with the detail that the future Queen fought off her attacker on a train by “hitting him with her shoe”. Also splashed on the paper is Labour’s “civil war”, as it features shadow cabinet minister Alex Burghart saying senior figures in the party are more concerned with “jockeying” to take over from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer than dealing with problems facing the country.
The Daily Telegraph headlines with “Queen fought off sex attacker”. The paper says the incident, detailed in Power and the Palace by Valentine Low, occurred when the Queen was “16 or 17”. The Telegraph adds that the episode was relayed by the Queen to former PM Boris Johnson in 2008.
“Camilla whacked groper in goolies” is the Sun’s take. The paper notes the Queen’s campaign for victims and survivors of sexual and domestic abuse, and features a quote from the book of her saying she defended herself by doing “what my mother taught me to”.
The Times leads with a report that says the UK withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights will not jeopardise peace in Northern Ireland. The paper says the study by the Policy Exchange think tank says the argument is “entirely groundless”. Also front and centre is some “black magic” brought by actress Alicia Vikander, as she poses on the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival.
Sir Keir has vowed to tackle Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s “scare tactics”, repots the Daily Mirror. The paper says the PM is ready with a range of policices that “offer genuine hope” and accuses Farage of “talking down” to the British people. Sharing the top spot is Liverpool’s “stunner” of a win over Arsenal, after a “hotshot” made by Dominik Szoboszlai.
“The deadly war on journalism in Gaza” leads the Guardian, as the paper fills its front page with pictures of some of the reporters killed in the region during the3 conflict with Israel. A special report by the Guardian says at least 189 journalists have been killed in 22 months in Gaza. Alongside, the paper reports doctors have found a drug that is better than aspirin at preventing heart attacks and strokes. It says the “stunning” discovery could transform health guidelines worldwide.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says Europe is laying the “road map” for deploying troops in Ukraine, according to the Financial Times. In an interview with the paper, von der Leyen says European capitals are working on “pretty precise plans” for potential military deployments to support Kyiv as part of post-conflict security guarantees. Filling the top picture spot is the protests in Indonesia as people continue express their “rage at MPs” over politicians’ salary perks.
The Metro declares a “rail tickets revolution”, as the trialling of a pay-as-you-go ticketing app for passengers starts on Monday in England. The paper says the system which allows people to check in and out of rail journeys using an app on their phone could make travel “simpler and cheaper”. Elsewhere, the Metro teases a three-way “battle of the Bonds” between actors Aaron Taylor Johnson, Callum Turner and Jacob Elordi.
The Daily Express announces their new campaign to “halt the shoplifting crisis” costing stores “more than £2.2bn a year”. The paper is demanding that police attend every reported theft as it says “opportunistic stealing sprees” have soared to record levels.
Finally, the Daily Star announces “Nessi’s back!” as it reports on what it says is a new sighting of the Loch Ness monster. The paper dubs the return of “Britain’s fave monster” as the “best in 30 years”.
The Times leads on a report, backed by former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw, that finds withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights would not jeopardise peace in Northern Ireland.
It says the study – by the Policy Exchange think tank – dismisses the argument widely cited to oppose leaving the ECHR as “entirely groundless”.
Straw is quoted as saying the report “helps clear the ground” for a debate about leaving.
The Daily Mail focuses on the “sleaze crisis” surrounding Angela Rayner after the Conservatives argued that criticism of the deputy prime minister was being fuelled by a civil war within Labour over who should succeed Sir Keir Starmer.
Shadow cabinet minister Alex Burghart tells the paper it is “very likely” that Labour rivals of Rayner are behind leaks about her personal life and tax affairs.
The Mail says Rayner’s allies insist she is the victim of a smear campaign.
An asssertion by the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, that she was offered a place at a prestigious US medical school has been described as “impossible” and “implausible”, according to the Guardian.
It says Badenoch has told multiple interviewers she was invited to study at Stanford University in California when she was 16, but academic and admissions experts have said such an option does not exist at that age.
A spokesman for Badenoch insists she was offered the place and says the Tory leader questions “hysterical efforts” to disprove this.
The party’s deputy leader Richard Tice is quoted as blaming high fees and bad investments for wasting taxpayers’ money.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says it does not recognise Reform’s assertions about the Local Government Pension Scheme.
The Daily Express is demanding action to halt what it calls the shoplifting crisis.
It wants police to attend every reported theft as part of its “stop the shoplifters crusade”.
The policing minister, Dame Diana Johnson, tells the paper the government’s neighbourhood policing plan will reverse a decade of decline under the Conservatives.
Ryanair and EasyJet passengers have long been warned about the strict hand luggage rules, but a shoe expert has shared a ‘simple yet effective’ shoe rule to help you stay within the limit
This packing method means you’ll never pay extra(Image: Vera_Petrunina via Getty Images)
Budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet might lure travellers with their low-cost tickets, but their stringent cabin bag policies can quickly bump up the overall price. Holidaymakers are bound by tight restrictions on both the weight and dimensions of their hand luggage if they want to sidestep extra fees for additional carry-ons or checked baggage.
However, a savvy shoe guru has come forward with a “simple yet effective shoe rule” that could help jet-setters keep within the free luggage limits. It’s all about planning your holiday agenda well in advance, which enables you to be discerning about what earns a spot in your suitcase and what gets left at home.
Gabriel Miller from Gatsby Shoes points out that shoes are often the biggest culprits when it comes to hogging space and piling on the pounds in your luggage.
Gabriel’s top tip for travellers is to curb the number of shoes they pack. “Packing efficiently not only eases the stress of travel but also helps you navigate different situations with ease, safe in the knowledge that you have a shoe for every occasion,” he said.
This rule will help you pack like a pro(Image: Kathrin Ziegler via Getty Images)
He champions a pared-down packing strategy: stick to a maximum of three pairs of shoes for any trip, which not only frees up space but also encourages thoughtful packing, reports the Express.
Gabriel reassures that a carefully curated trio of footwear can meet the demands of various outings, from exploring urban landscapes during the day to enjoying an elegant evening meal.
“It’s about bringing what you need, not what you might use,” he said.
Gabriel has broken down the must-have shoes for holidaymakers into three essential categories, advising travellers to pack just one pair from each to cover all bases on their trip.
For the first category, Gabriel suggests a pair of comfy walking shoes or trainers that are versatile enough for travel days. “Your primary pair of shoes should be comfortable for walking, durable enough for adventure activities, and stylish enough not to detract from your daily outfits,” Gabriel explained.
Pack some comfortable walking shoes(Image: Tatsiana Volkava via Getty Images)
He advises sticking to neutral colours that can easily match with a variety of outfits.
Moving on to the second category, Gabriel recommends a smarter pair of shoes for any posh dinners or formal events you might attend while away. “Even on vacation, a dressier shoe option is crucial for evenings out or more formal events,” Gabriel noted.
For men, he suggests versatile loafers, while women might opt for chic heeled sandals that can elevate any look.
Lastly, for those jetting off to sunnier shores or beachside locales, Gabriel insists on including a pair of sandals or appropriate beachwear shoes. These types of footwear are usually light and take up little space in your suitcase.
“Ideal for relaxing days by the water or casual strolls, a good pair of sandals is indispensable,” Gabriel stated. He recommends choosing sandals that are easy to clean, quick to dry, and comfy enough for all-day wear.
July 8 (UPI) — The Transportation Safety Administration will soon let passengers keep their shoes while they go through security checkpoints at select airports.
ABC News reports that a memo went out to TSA officers nationwide last week that stated the new policy would start Sunday, and CBS News correspondents at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and Los Angeles International Airport reported Monday that they and other passengers were permitted to keep their shoes on during the screening process. NBC News reports a press release received Monday states the TSA is “exploring new and innovative ways to enhance the passenger experience and our strong security posture.”
NBC also reported Tuesday that a senior government official said that while this is only happening now at selected airports, the rule could be relaxed across the country in the future.
Other airports where the shoe rule is ending include Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina and Portland International Airport.
However, the memo notes those who set off an alarm while being screened will then be required to take their shoes off for additional screening.
Shoe removal while being screened began in 2006 due to intelligence that indicated a threat that began after Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to ignite homemade shoe explosives on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December of 2001.
Converse? Where Chuck Taylor retros reside? Sure, Gilgeous-Alexander — known simply as SGA — was a rapidly improving player on a rapidly improving Oklahoma City Thunder team. But him as the face of a fading performance sneaker outfit didn’t compute.
Fast forward to the NBA Finals. Moments after the Thunder’s 103-91 Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers, SGA ascended the stage to accept his most valuable player trophy with a golden colorway of his signature shoe hanging from his neck.
Then on Tuesday, SGA doubled down, enjoying the championship parade with “Trophy Gold” Converse SHAI 001s on his feet.
Who would have thought Oklahoma City would become a flash point of foot fashion. And during Paris Fashion Week no less, when big brands from Nike and New Balance to Adidas and Asics introduce new product lines.
Nothing enhances marketing like winning, and SGA is the undisputed NBA victor of the season. He’s the anointed MVP of the regular season as well as the Finals, leading the league in scoring and doing it all with an impish grin and requisite humility.
As creative director of Converse, the shoe fits.
“I’m able to essentially do whatever I want to do with the shoe. How it’s going to play out, the ball is really in my court,” SGA told Boardroom TV in December. “It’s something that I could imagine every athlete would want to ask for, to try and tell their story and show themselves to the world how they want to do it. To have complete control, it’s a blessing.”
But can SGA elevate Converse from the bargain rack? His SHAI 001s aren’t grandpa’s Chuck Taylor All-Stars, those classic shoes of timeless design consisting of a white toe cap over cotton canvas adorned with a distinctive All-Star logo.
Chuck Taylor was a semi-pro basketball player and traveling salesman for the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in the early 1920s when he designed the shoe. By the 1950s nearly everyone on a basketball court wore them, but they declined in popularity by the end of the 1970s before enjoying a comeback as nostalgic casual footwear.
A few years after going through bankruptcy, Converse was swallowed up by Nike in 2003 for $305 million. So, technically, SGA is just another massively paid shill for Nike, standing in line behind Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Selena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rory McIlroy.
But by aligning himself with an all-but-forgotten underdog of a brand, SGA has an opportunity to author a chapter in the signature shoe wars that could rival his already substantial accomplishments on the court.
There is one problem. The Shai 001 won’t be available for sale until the fall. Converse can’t capitalize on OKC and SGA fans wanting to rock the golden “butter” footwear of their new hero, and wanting them NOW.
A limited release, at least, did take place in downtown Oklahoma City for two hours Tuesday before the parade.
Aligning with a current player always involves an element of risk for a shoe company. Converse learned this firsthand in 1997 when it dropped Latrell Sprewell as an endorser and spokesman after the NBA star choked coach P.J. Carlesimo during a Golden State Warriors practice.
And the risk isn’t always about misbehavior. Puma unveiled the Hali 1, its first shoe in collaboration with the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton on the day this year’s NBA Finals began. Haliburton tore an Achilles tendon in Game 7 and will miss most, if not all, of next season.
So Converse must continue to be quick on its feet to capitalize on its so far fortunate choice of SGA to represent the brand. He’s only 26 and displays leadership and other qualities of a role model in addition to otherworldly hoop skills.
Can Converse become relevant again in the performance space? Can SGA become as linked to the brand as Chuck Taylor? First the shoes must hit the market. One step at a time.
“I wanted to create something new,” SGA told Boardroom TV. “I wanted to bring Converse into my world and have Converse through my lens.”
“The shoe has had a life of its own,” said Stan Smith, 78, whose eponymous Adidas kicks, with their timeless lines and leather uppers, are the king of all tennis sneakers with more than 100 million sold. “People from all walks of life have embraced them.”
Not surprisingly, Smith has a head for business to match his feet for tennis.
With that in mind, he and longtime business partner Gary Niebur wrote the just-released “Winning Trust: How to Create Moments that Matter,” aimed at helping businesses develop stronger relationships with their clients, with tips that readers can apply to their personal relationships and to sports.
“The book is about developing relationships that can elevate the element of trust, which is a depreciating asset in today’s world,” Smith said this week in a call from the French Open.
Stan Smith and Gary Niebur’s book, “Winning Trust,” was released earlier this year.
(Courtesy of Stan Smith)
When it comes to building and maintaining high-stakes relationships, Smith and Niebur have distilled their process into five key elements they call SERVE, a recurring theme throughout the book. That’s an acronym for Strategize, Engage, Recreate, Volley and Elevate.
For instance, recreate — as in recreation — means to build bonds through fun shared experiences, and volley means to trade ideas back and forth to find solutions.
“When people realize that you care more about the relationship than the transaction,” Niebur said, “trust follows.”
A onetime standout at Pasadena High and USC, Smith was a close friend of the late Arthur Ashe, the UCLA legend whose name graces the main stadium court at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ashe’s victory at Wimbledon, when he beat the heavily favored Jimmy Connors in the 1975 final. Ashe remains the only Black man to win the singles title at that storied tournament.
“Arthur was a good friend,” Smith said. “He made a huge impact, and much more of an impact in the last few years of his life when he was fighting AIDS and the heart fund, and obviously for equal rights.”
Arthur Ashe celebrates after winning the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1975.
(Associated Press)
Ashe, who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart-bypass surgery, died in 1993. Although he was four years older than Smith, the two developed a close friendship when they traveled the globe as Davis Cup teammates and rising professionals.
Smith has vivid memories of traveling with him, Ashe in his “Citizen of the World” T-shirt with his nose forever buried in a newspaper or magazine. Smith was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. at the time, two spots ahead of his pal, yet the wildly popular Ashe always got top billing.
“When we went to Africa, I was the other guy who played against him in all these exhibitions,” Smith told The Times in 2018. “They would introduce him as Arthur Ashe, No. 1 player in the U.S., No. 1 in the world, one of the greatest players to ever play the game … and Stan Smith, his opponent.”
Smith laughs about that now, but it used to chafe him. Finally, he raised the issue with his buddy.
Recalled Smith in that 2018 interview: “Arthur came up to me and said, ‘I’m sorry about that. If we do a tour of Alabama, I’ll carry your rackets for you.’ He was in tune with everything.
“Arthur was a quiet leader walking a tightrope between a traditionally white sport and the black community.”
Smith will be at Wimbledon next month, where his UCLA friend will be honored.
As for his shoes, they’re everywhere, and have been since the 1970s. Adidas originally developed the shoe for French player Robert Haillet in the mid-1960s, and the sneakers were known as the “Haillet.”
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Tennis great Stan Smith talks about some of the ideas he hopes his new book will convey to readers.
In 1972, the company switched to Smith, naming the shoes in his honor and printing a tiny picture of his mustachioed face on them. There were subtle changes to the Haillet, including a notch in the tongue for laces to pass through and a heel better shaped to protect the Achilles tendon.
They sold like crazy. In 1988, Stan Smiths made the “Guinness Book of World Records” for the most pairs sold at 22 million. Yet that was only the beginning as sales surged with the release of the Stan Smith II and retro Stan Smith 80s. The most common ones were solid white with touch of green on the back.
“Hugh Grant turned around last year in the [Wimbledon] royal box and said, `First girl I ever kissed, I was wearing your shoes,’” Smith told The Times in 2022. “Another guy said he met this girl when he was wearing my shoes. It was so meaningful that they both wore the shoes for their wedding seven years later.
“It started off as a tennis shoe. Now it’s a fashion shoe.”
Tennis great Stan Smith with his namesake Adidas shoe.
(Sam Farmer / Los Angeles Times)
Smith’s personal collection has climbed to more than 100 size 13s in all sorts of colors, including his favorite pair in cardinal and black, an homage to his USC roots.
In 2022, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Smith’s Wimbledon singles title, Adidas gave all of its sponsored players a pair of shoes with SW19 on the tongue — Wimbledon’s postcode — with the date of that match against Ilie Nastase inside the right shoe and the score of the match inside the left.
At Wimbledon this year, the spotlight swings to the other side of Los Angeles, to an unforgettable Bruin, a sports hero who impacted so many lives.
For Smith, his friendship with Ashe was an early example in his career of a relationship forged with trust.
The book, incidentally, is affixed with a unique and fitting page marker.
With 31 league goals and 62 points, Mbappe is European football’s top scorer this season.
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe has ended his first season in Spain by collecting the European Golden Shoe award.
Mbappe, who also won the Pichichi Trophy for being the top goal scorer in La Liga, scored twice in Real’s final league game on Saturday to overtake Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres at the top of the weighted table, which counts only league goals.
Mbappe, 26, ended with 31 league goals and became the third Real Madrid player to win the award after Hugo Sanchez and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The last Frenchman to collect the Golden Shoe was Thierry Henry, who won it in 2004 and 2005 with Arsenal.
Mbappe could have been caught on Sunday while he was in Monaco watching the Formula One Grand Prix.
Mohamed Salah, who needed a hat-trick in English champions Liverpool’s last league game, scored once to finish third with 29 goals.
Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona, already certain to finish ahead of Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish league title, scored twice on Sunday at Bilbao. He achieved a total of 27 goals for fourth place in Europe and second in the Pichichi.
The Pole won the Golden Shoe twice with Bayern Munich and claimed the Pichichi in 2023.
Last year’s Golden Shoe winner, Harry Kane, finished fifth with 26 Bundesliga goals to go with his league champions medal at Bayern. Mateo Retegui with 25 for Atalanta was the top Serie A player in sixth place.
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe scored 31 goals in La Liga in the 2024-2025 season [File: Matthew Childs/Reuters]
Gyokeres outscored Mbappe with 39 goals, but the table is weighted. Each goal in the “big five” European competitions – La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A – is doubled. For the next 16 ranked leagues, goals are multiplied by 1.5.
Below that, a goal is just a goal.
In the final calculations, the top five in the rankings were as follows: Mbappe (62 points), Gyokeres (58.5), Salah (58), Robert Lewandowski (54) and Harry Kane (52).
Mbappe, the top scorer in the 2022 World Cup, hit 43 goals in all competitions for Real this season.
