Smith

Star receiver Puka Nacua will play against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday in Philadelphia, but star defensive lineman Aaron Donald is out because of a back issue, Rams coach Sean McVay said Friday.

Donald, a three-time defensive player of the year, has not practiced this week following the Rams’ loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday in Denver. McVay said Donald, 35, was experiencing back soreness.

“He’s as tough as it gets. Just not feeling good enough,” McVay said, adding, “He would do it and he could probably go be productive but part of our job is to protect these tough dudes like him from themselves.”

Donald has played in two games since ending a two-year retirement in late August. He did not make the trip to Australia for the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, but made three tackles in the Rams’ 28-6 victory over the New York Giants at SoFi Stadium.

Donald had one tackle and one quarterback hit in the 30-26 loss to the Broncos.

“He’s working as hard as he can to get himself feeling as good as possible and we’re hopeful and optimistic that good days are ahead,” McVay said.

Nacua sat out the last two games because of a hip injury that caused hip, groin and abdominal soreness.

McVay said Nacua has been “strong, looks sturdy, looks explosive,” during practice this week.

“I think it will really just be a feel for the overall conditioning,” McVay said, adding that he hopes “the magic of the [game] jersey” will help Nacua have a productive game against the Eagles.

Tight end Terrance Ferguson (ankle) and cornerback Jaylen Watson (shoulder) will not play on Sunday, McVay said. Tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder, knee) and edge rusher Josaiah Stewart (groin) are questionable.

Rams place Terrance Ferguson on injured reserve

Rams tight end Terrance Ferguson jogs back to the locker room against the Giants on Sept. 21.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

The Rams opened the season with five tight ends on the roster, which some might have regarded as a surplus.

But the Rams need the depth.

On Friday, the team put Terrance Ferguson on injured reserve because of an ankle injury.

Ferguson, a 2025 second-round draft pick, was injured Sept. 21 against the Giants, but he played through it against the Broncos.

Ferguson has seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.

Ferguson must sit out at least the next four games against the Eagles, Buffalo Bills, Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders. He is eligible to return for the Nov. 1 game against the Chargers.

The Rams began the season with five tight ends on the roster. Tyler Higbee and Davis Allen are at full strength. Max Klare, a second-round draft pick from Michigan, could get his first action on offense against the Eagles.

Rams release punt returner Xavier Smith

Rams wide receiver Xavier Smith runs the ball against the Kansas City Chiefs during a preseason game in August.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

What a difference a day makes.

Less than 24 hours after Rams special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said the team was not going to replace punt returner Xavier Smith, the team released him.

“We just need better production out of that position,” McVay said, adding that some of the “decisions” that Smith made in last Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos proved costly.

“We’ve got to make better decisions,” McVay said. “We’ve got to be able to field it.”

Receiver Alex Bachman is expected to be promoted from the practice squad to handle punt returns. McVay said he was “optimistic that I think we’re going to see some good stuff from Alex on Sunday.”

Smith, 29, is a third-year pro who signed with the Rams as an undrafted free agent and worked his way into a role as a kick returner and rotational receiver.

Smith appeared to be on his way to overcoming a major error in last season’s NFC championship game, when he lost a fumble in the 31-27 defeat by the Seattle Seahawks.

But through three games, Ventrone on Thursday described Smith’s performance as “inconsistent.”

“We need to do a better job of tracking the ball, judging the ball, fielding the ball when necessary, not fielding it in other situations,” Ventrone told reporters. “He knows that and hopefully we’ll get the improvements that we need in that area.”

Ventrone was asked if there was any thought about replacing Smith as the punt returner.

“No, we have a lot of trust in ‘X’, I really do,” Ventrone said. “He’s put in a lot of time and effort in training camp and obviously moving into the season. I think that he’ll do the necessary things to be able to sustain at that position for us.”

But on Friday morning, the Rams announced they had waived Smith.

McVay said the Rams “weren’t thinking” about making a change when Ventrone spoke to reporters Thursday.

“As you get a chance to kind of take a step back, evaluate the totality of our group, what’s the best way to try to be able to put together all three phases, did feel like that was in the best interest of the group,” McVay said, adding, “and that decision was made kind of later [Thursday night].”

Two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith has been arrested in Texas on family violence charges.

The former Laker is being held on suspicion of family violence assault causing bodily injury, with no bond currently set, according to the Hunt County jail’s booking records. The charge is usually a misdemeanor for first-time offenders.

According to a news release from Royse City police chief Kirk Aldridge, officers stopped Smith, whose full name is Earl Joseph Smith III, on Interstate 30 on Monday afternoon after receiving an automatic license plate alert about an outstanding warrant for his arrest issued by the Southlake Police Department..

The officers stopped the vehicle, identified Smith and took him into custody. He was transported to the Hunt County dentention center and booked on the Southlake warrant. Smith’s car was released to his brother, who was with him at the time.

Southlake police said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time.

Smith played for five teams during his 16-year NBA career. He was named the league’s sixth man of the year in 2013 as a member of the New York Knicks and was a member of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers that won the 2016 NBA championship.

After signing with the Lakers while the league was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic in July 2020, Smith played sparingly after the season resumed in a bubble environment in Orlando, eventually winning another NBA championship with James as his teammate. His last NBA appearance was in Game 3 of the 2020 finals, a 115-104 Lakers loss to the Miami Heat.

In 2009, Smith was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 60 days suspended, and 500 hours of community service for reckless driving after he caused a 2007 auto accident in Millstone, N.J., that resulted in the death of a friend who was a passenger in the vehicle.

WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Trump, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he “will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.

Smith also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics.

“I made those decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said. “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

Republicans sought to cast the prosecution as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending ordinary procedures in an overzealous pursuit of the president.

“The Smith election case ultimately wasn’t just about Trump,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the committee. “It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus.”

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the committee, accused Republicans of spreading “baseless conspiracy theories” about Smith’s investigations as part of an effort to “whitewash” the history of Trump’s 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump’s supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

“President Trump demonstrated a wanton disdain for the laws of the United States, the will of the people and our national security,” Durbin said. “The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith, nonstop, are petty, personal and political. They are nothing but a smoke screen to distract from the president’s own clear, unlawful conduct.”

The hearing is expected to focus on subpoenas for phone records

Even as Smith defends his investigations, he is expected to be pressed anew by Republican senators about his team’s access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers as prosecutors investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

In previous testimony, Smith has stood behind subpoenas that prosecutors issued for the phone records of Republican members of Congress who were in touch with Trump when violent supporters of the president rioted inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He has said that such subpoenas are a “common practice” in investigations and were necessary in this instance to understand the “scope of the conspiracy” between Trump and his Republican allies.

Nonetheless, the revelation that Smith’s team secretly obtained the phone records during his investigation has animated some Republican lawmakers, who point to it as proof of overreach by the Biden administration Justice Department and a hard-charging prosecutor.

In July, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, referred Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on allegations that he lied at a previous hearing about his collection of the records — something Smith’s attorneys have vigorously disputed.

“I stand by my testimony before the House of Representatives,” Smith said. “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others.”

Grassley, the Senate committee chairman, first disclosed last year that Smith’s prosecutors had obtained what’s known as “toll records” — data that reveals the date, length and time of phone calls between two parties but not the content of the communications.

Smith has repeatedly justified the move as necessary to document any contact that Trump or surrogates may have had with lawmakers on Jan. 6, 2021, as the president beseeched his supporters to halt the certification of the election results.

“My office didn’t spy on anyone,” Smith said during a hearing in January.

Smith is the subject of a criminal referral from Republicans

Smith was appointed in 2022 by then-Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland to take over investigations into Trump’s efforts to reverse his election loss and Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Both investigations resulted in felony indictments, but Smith abandoned the cases after Trump won back the White House in 2024, citing longstanding Justice Department opinions that say sitting presidents cannot be federally indicted.

Smith has remained a top target of retribution for Trump and his administration, which last year announced that it would revoke the security clearances of the lawyers representing the former special counsel. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency responsible for enforcing a law against partisan political activity by federal employees, also announced last year an investigation into Smith.

Jordan’s referral to the Justice Department centers on a December 2025 exchange in which Smith was asked about subpoenas that prosecutors had issued for the toll records.

Smith said the records he requested did not include the content of the communications. But Jordan maintains that answer was misleading in light of records released by Grassley showing that Smith had obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers’ text messages in a separate subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration that sought the communications of various Trump advisers and aides.

In response, Smith’s lawyers called his answers “unimpeachably truthful” and noted that he was responding to questions explicitly about toll records, which did not include the contents of any text messages.

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press.

Double Olympic swimming champion Tatjana Smith is coming out of retirement with the aim of competing at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The 29-year-old, who is South Africa’s most decorated Olympian, said she was “missing the water”, adding her return “feels a little crazy, a little scary and very exciting all at once”.

Smith, who won 100m breaststroke gold and 200m silver at the Paris 2024 Games, to add to 200m breaststroke gold and 100m silver at Tokyo 2020, is aiming to compete over a new Olympic distance of 50m.

“It’s definitely a new challenge, a new event, a new race, but also a new me,” she said.

“For the first time, I am choosing swimming and I am choosing the event and I am choosing a new event, that has no history but to try and write some new history.

“LA 2028 is the goal. It is not a promise. I still have to build a race, qualify and earn my place back on those blocks.”

The former 200m breaststroke world record holder initially retired from swimming after the 2024 Olympics.

‘From -17 to Europe’, read a flag in the away end at at the Anoeta Stadium.

As Bournemouth embarked on the first European campaign in the club’s 127-year history, it served as a reminder of just how far they have come.

But a 2-1 victory at Real Sociedad in their Europa League opener shows they are not ready to stop there.

It is now 11 years since the Cherries were first promoted to the Premier League, meaning there is now a generation of supporters who will view top-flight football as the norm.

From that perspective then, qualifying and playing in Europe might simply appear the next logical step for a well-run and ambitious club.

“It’s a brilliant win in our first European game. It’s brilliant for the club and the 2,000 fans from Bournemouth,” manager Marco Rose told TNT Sports.

Yet for the vast majority of fans celebrating a famous victory on Thursday, the whole thing still seems surreal.

Just 18 years ago, the club was on the brink. A 10-point deduction for entering administration resulted in their relegation to League Two.

To even stay in the Football League for the 2008-09 season, they had to accept a 17-point deduction and agree not to appeal against the decision after it was ruled that, as they had been unable to agree a Company Voluntary Arrangement, they had not met their terms for exiting administration.

Thoughts of a £100m-rated midfielder picking out a Brazil winger to head Bournemouth to victory in Europe was the stuff of fantasy as the Dorset club battled for survival.

But that now is Bournemouth’s reality with Alex Scott swaggering around San Sebastian, showing why there is such a clammer for his signature among top Premier League clubs, and Rayan providing another example of why the Cherries will demand every penny of a reported £130m release clause to let him go.

Bournemouth have nothing to compare it to but this was a proper European away performance.

Up against a Real Sociedad side led by a World Cup-winning forward in Mikel Oyarzabal and who beat Atletico Madrid to win the Copa del Rey last season, they were dominant for 45 minutes.

They suffocated Sociedad with their relentlessness off the ball, winning the ball back high up the pitch time and again and showing the quality on the ball to create chances – even when the defence was set.

But there is an edge to the Basque side and, poor as they had been, that they came out fighting after the break was no surprise.

The adrenaline-fueled exuberance of Rose’s side in the first half appeared to catch up with them in the second, but their desire to compete never wavered.

Bournemouth are not known for their defensive resilience and, as Sociedad ramped up the pressure as the game wore on, thoughts might have turned to leads surrendered in each of their first four Premier League games.

But the Cherries, aided by the sharp reflexes of Djordje Petrovic in goal, held on to secure a famous win.

“It was very intense and tough,” Rose told TNT Sports.

“Brilliant first half in everything. The way we won balls and the possession high up. In the second half, we needed to suffer because we were not so sharp.”

Speaking on BBC Radio Solent, former Cherries full-back Charlie Daniels added: “It is a big occasion. A big moment for the club, and they should be applauded for it.”

ANCHORAGE — Alaska prosecutors are dropping voter misconduct cases against a group of residents born in American Samoa after a state appeals court threw out felony charges against a woman who wrongly checked a box saying she was a U.S. citizen.

The state’s Department of Law announced the decision Friday, after a three-judge Court of Appeals panel ruled a week earlier that state law requires proof that defendants who erroneously filled out voter registration forms had a “consciousness of wrongdoing” and intended to break the law.

The panel found flaws with a state trooper’s questioning of Tupe Smith, the woman involved in the case that was thrown out, as well as with the grand jury process that led to her indictment. It overturned a lower court’s decision that had kept the charges against her alive.

Acting Alaska Atty. Gen. Cori Mills said in a statement that after reviewing the decision and applying it to the facts, prosecutors concluded that they could not prove cases against Smith and the others beyond a reasonable doubt. Her husband, Michael Pese, had also been charged.

“We respect the role of the courts in interpreting Alaska law and will faithfully execute our duty to apply the law and carefully evaluate our prosecutorial decisions,” Mills said.

In a statement Saturday, Smith’s lawyer Whitney Brown said the dismissal would allow the community “to put this ordeal behind them and begin moving forward.”

Earlier in the week, she heralded the Court of Appeals decision, saying it “establishes an important safeguard against imposing felony liability for an honest mistake.”

The court “made clear that Alaska law requires more than simply showing that a statement was false — the State must prove a person acted with a consciousness of wrongdoing,” Brown said. “That distinction makes a world of difference to Ms. Smith and helps ensure that Alaska’s voter-misconduct statute is applied as the legislature intended going forward.”

Neil Weare, part of the legal team representing Smith and Pese, said Saturday that the decision to drop charges “raises questions about why this prosecution was even brought to begin with.”

“It’s clear that all along, they really had no evidence of any consciousness of wrongdoing on the part of Michael, Tupe or the other defendants,” said Weare, co-director of the nonprofit Right to Democracy.

In all, 11 people from the small community of Whittier, about 50 miles southeast of Anchorage, were charged with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship either when registering or trying to vote. Messages seeking comment were left for their lawyers.

American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered U.S. nationals. Paths to citizenship exist, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.

American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections.

Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. She has said she relied on erroneous information from election officials in Whittier when she identified herself as a U.S. citizen on voter registration forms.

Smith said she marks herself as a U.S. national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark herself as a citizen, according to court papers.

Prosecutors contended that Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship, pointing to warnings on voter registration forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022 that noncitizens “are not eligible to vote.”

The Court of Appeals panel said in its ruling that toward the end of a police interview, a state trooper asked Smith “a long compound question that implied that Smith actually knew she was not eligible to vote” but wanted to be involved in the school board.

When Smith, whose native language is not English, did not respond right away, another state trooper clarified, “He’s asking you,” and the first trooper again presented his question, which the panel described as “a lengthy and complex statement containing four individual questions.”

Smith answered “Yes,” the panel said, leading to her arrest and indictment on two counts of felony voter misconduct.

Jamie Smith reaches his half-century, becoming England’s fourth batter to score a 50 in the innings against Pakistan, helping them build a strong lead in day two of the third Test at Edgbaston.

FOLLOW LIVE: England v Pakistan – Third Test, day two

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Even Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who’d never be accused of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, was a little worried during his monthslong absence because of a persistent neck injury that he might not be healthy by the end of the season.

“‘It was kind of the ‘who knows how long it’s going to take,’” Smith said when the Dodgers activated him at the beginning of the month. “But at some point I was going to be fed up and just kind of deal with it.”

It apparently didn’t come to that. And in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, Smith’s fifth time in the lineup since returning from the injured list, he put the Dodgers ahead with a first-inning home run and guided Dodgers left-handed starter Tarik Skubal through 7 ⅓ innings of two-run ball.

“He called a great game,” Skubal said of his Team USA teammate. “And the targets that he sets up, and the way that he goes about it, he gives me a ton of confidence back there.”

A neck problem that was initially expected to resolve on its own in a few days turned into a nearly three-month IL stint. With the revolving door behind the plate in Smith’s absence, getting him back down the stretch and into the postseason was going to be key.

While Smith was on the IL, backup catcher Dalton Rushing was thrown into the starting role, learning how to balance the defensive responsibility of serving as the main backstop at the major-league level with a desire to also contribute offensively.

Rushing seemed to be getting the hang of it, with Chuckie Robinson and then Eliézer Alfonzo behind him, before he hurt his right elbow right before the trade deadline. The Dodgers traded for an entirely new catching duo, Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt, who held down the position until Smith’s return.

“It was frustrating early,” Smith said. “Just looking for answers why it was taking longer, but we finally got those answers. And then it was kind of a pretty straightforward process from there. So last month or two hasn’t been too bad.”

Smith and the Dodgers sought multiple doctors’ opinions. He was eventually diagnosed with an annular tear and given two possible recovery timelines. Though they proceeded with hope for the earlier return, the longer one came to fruition.

Now, the Dodgers are carrying three catchers, trying not to overwork Smith in his first weeks back. He’ll be out of the lineup Wednesday and play two of three games in Miami, manager Dave Roberts said.

With Rushing back on the IL for the same elbow injury, Feduccia can also serve as a left-handed bat off the bench, and Alfonzo gives the team more substitution flexibility.

Entering Tuesday, Smith had already thrown out three baserunners attempting to steal in his first week back in action. But despite some hard contact, hits weren’t falling for him. He went two for 17 with a single and a double in the same time period.

“Will is just very consistent, dependable,” Roberts said. “I know he’s taking really good at-bats. Hitting some balls to the warning track.”

On Tuesday, batting third in the lineup against Reds left-handed starting pitcher Nick Lodolo, he showcased the kind of influence he can make on both sides of the ball.

In Smith’s first at-bat, he battled for nine pitches, finally lifting a changeup over the left field wall.

“That was really good to see,” Roberts said. “With Will, it’s just great having him in there because you know you can count on the at-bat quality, and obviously having him behind the plate has been good.”

The next inning the Dodgers (88-57) doubled their score when Tommy Edman — hitting in the leadoff spot in place of Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), who was out of the lineup Tuesday as the Dodgers ease him back from a four-day absence over the weekend — was hit in the leg by a pitch with the bases loaded.

The Reds then tied the score in the third, as Elly De La Cruz launched a two-run homer off Skubal. But the Dodgers pulled ahead again two innings later, courtesy of the red-hot bat Teoscar Hernández has been swinging in September.

Tarik Skubal pitches in the second inning Tuesday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Hernández avenged his ill-fated inside-the-park home run attempt — he was thrown out at the plate on an aggressive send two innings earlier — with a well-struck RBI single.

Skubal wrapped up his deepest start of his Dodgers tenure to a standing ovation. He’d limited the Reds to just four hits, while recording five strikeouts in an efficient performance.

Flame-throwing reliever Edgardo Henriquez replaced Skubal, tasked with recording the last two outs of the eighth. He did so with the help of an ABS challenge from Smith that secured an inning-ending strikeout.

Lefty Tanner Scott earned the save, retiring three straight batters after a leadoff walk, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to six games.

“It’s the last stretch,” Smith said at the beginning of the month. “We’re fighting for seeding as well. So yeah, it’s definitely time to step on the gas.”