Villa’s wretched 2-1 home defeat by Tottenham on Sunday – a third consecutive loss – did not give them the ideal platform, even if Emery made eight changes.
It underlined the lack of depth within the squad, with Emi Martinez, Matty Cash, Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers viewed as the only first-choice starters in Sunday’s XI.
Emery, though, has earned admiration from at least two fellow Premier League managers who have been privately impressed with the decisions he made – a clear focus on his biggest game at the club – and how he stuck to the strategy.
He has won the Europa League a record four times – three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal – and with minds focused those close to Emery expect to see a different performance to Sunday’s surrender.
“We are improving, including myself, and we will have more challenges to set for the present or future,” said Emery, when asked if this is the last chance for this squad to win something.
“I don’t think tomorrow is the last opportunity for us or anyone. The players are enjoying the process we are doing and they are aware about how difficult football is, and this is the greatest moment we are having in the last three years.
“It will break nothing about how we are thinking and trying to improve.”
Even if Emery believes they can push for honours beyond this season and with Champions League football – Villa should finish in the Premier League’s top five regardless of their European fate – changes are expected.
The squad needs to be refreshed and selling players is the easiest way to comply with regulations – with England forward Morgan Rogers their biggest asset.
There is a realisation a significant number need to be recycled and Emery has been aware since the opening month of the season what needs to be done.
He and president of football operations Roberto Olabe are aligned, but Olabe was brought in to help progress Villa further, more medium and longer term.
Going forward there will be more focus on younger players, and filling the necessary first-team gaps with more senior signings, but Emery, the same as any manager, wants players who are ready now.
The pair are close – Emery handpicked Olabe to replace Monchi in September – so a common ground is found and the duo spend hours talking about tactics and philosophies, conversations which usually start in the club’s canteen at Bodymoor Heath.
Yet the desire for new players to take Villa to the next level is the hardest task.
Champions League analysts Nedum Onuoha, Guillem Balague and Stephen Warnock look at two contentious handball decisions that weren’t awarded against Paris St-Germain, including a potential red card for Nuno Mendes and a possible penalty for Bayern Munich.
Champions League analysts Stephen Warnock, Nedum Onuoha and Guillem Balague explain how Arsenal were able to “make life difficult” with the use of a man-to-man press high up the pitch to force Atletico Madrid to play the ball long in their semi-final second leg at the Emirates Stadium.
Former WNBA MVP Tina Charles has retired after 14 seasons in the league.
“Today, I officially announce my retirement from basketball,” the eight-time All Star wrote in a post shared across her social media accounts Tuesday. “This game gave me everything and I’ll miss it deeply.”
The veteran center — the No. 1 overall draft pick selected by the Connecticut Sun in 2010 — played for six WNBA franchises over the course of her career, including a lengthy stint with the New York Liberty. Named the league MVP during her 2012 campaign, Charles is the WNBA’s leader in career rebounds (4,262), double-doubles (201) and made field goals (3,364), as well as second on the list for career points (8,396) behind Diana Taurasi.
“I’ve experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I’m thankful for all of it,” Charles wrote, reflecting on her professional career and “lifetime of love for this game.” “Growing up in Queens, New York, basketball wasn’t just a game, it was a language, a rhythm, its survival, its expression. It pulled me in early, and I gave myself fully to it. It shaped me into the woman I am today and for that, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Charles is an expected future Hall of Famer. While a WNBA championship eluded her, her career includes three Olympic gold medals with Team USA, two NCAA championships with the UConn Huskies and a number of titles in leagues overseas. Her individual accolades also include being named to the All-WNBA team nine times, most recently in 2021, and to the league’s All-Defensive team four times. (Charles did not play in the 2020 and 2023 WNBA seasons.)
In a July episode of Sue Bird’s “Bird’s Eye View” podcast, Charles spoke candidly about her thoughts around retiring.
“I thought I was done in 2023 when I didn’t play,” she said. “Then [I] came back, found the joy, love for the game again. But here, I probably think about it every day. … Going in, playing, at this age, in the 30-minute range. Just how you feel physically, and then it’s more games.”
Charles returned to play with the Sun for the 2025 season, starting 42 of 44 games while averaging 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds. She received the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award for the second time during her final season, for her work with Hopey’s Heart Foundation. Charles founded the nonprofit in 2013 in honor of her late aunt, Maureen “Hopey” Vaz, to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and provide automated external defibrillators to schools and recreation centers that need them.
According to the New York Times, Charles is currently pursuing a master’s degree in sports management at UConn and is eyeing the possibility of working in a front office of a WNBA, NBA or college team in the future while continuing her Hopey’s Heart Foundation efforts. She also has plans to get into the beer business.
“There are still dreams in my heart that are waiting to be lived, and I can’t wait to share that journey with you all,” Charles said in her social media post.
Their Spanish coach is the mastermind of this new PSG, built from the ashes of the superstar era which saw Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar the centrepieces of a dysfunctional, ego-ridden outfit who never resembled a team.
In their place is the perfect combination of brilliant individual skill bolted on to a savage work ethic and defensive solidity that will make them a formidable hurdle for Arsenal to overcome.
And the leader is Marquinhos.
The Brazil centre-half arrived at PSG from Roma in 2013, surviving Luis Enrique’s cull of big names because the coach is wise enough to see a consummate professional and world-class defender when he sees one.
He has formed a superb partnership with the formidable Willian Pacho, who played a key role in keeping Kane under wraps until the England captain’s strike in the dying seconds.
Kvaratskhelia and Dembele combined for the game’s defining moment, while 20-year-old Desire Doue – the young face of the new PSG – tormented Vincent Kompany’s side, coming close on several occasions in the second half.
And yet the glue that held it all together was Marquinhos, still peerless at 31, and with the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time while exuding calm authority.
To complete the picture, PSG’s midfield of Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz and Joao Neves is the well-oiled engine room linking it all together.
Ruiz’s pass in the build-up to Dembele’s goal was a thing of beauty – but he then reverted to doing the defensive dirty work Luis Enrique demands and which his team seems only too happy to deliver.
Vardy was released by his boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday for being too small, but the documentary unearths footage of his blistering goalscoring form in his Stocksbridge days while also working in a factory making medical splints.
However, in the first of a series of problems in 2007, Vardy admits in the documentary he had “no stability” in his life. He had been convicted of assault when out drinking and had to wear an ankle tag for six months.
He also had a 6pm curfew which meant he had to leave matches early.
Moves to Halifax Town – where Vardy met his long‑time agent John Morris – and later Fleetwood Town followed, before his £1m move to then‑Championship club Leicester City.
Woven throughout are “The Inbetweeners” – a nickname given to Vardy’s small, all‑male social group from Sheffield – who act as his main support, alongside his wife.
“If one of us is having a problem, then get it in the group. Might get abused for a bit but at least it’s us lot keeping an eye on each other,” Vardy says.
They were needed, as former Foxes midfielder Andy King says Vardy experienced an initial “culture shock” at Leicester, where the striker admits he initially felt not good enough.
Physiotherapist Dave Rennie also corroborates accounts of Vardy’s struggles with alcohol, worsened by the pressure of the move, including “manufacturing his own Skittles vodka at home”.
Vardy would arrive at training hungover and, on one occasion, uncontactable to his then-pregnant Rebekah, or Becky as he affectionately calls her.
There was a feeling he was going to throw away his career, but the work of a “good psychologist”, the patience of manager Nigel Pearson and his own efforts to grow up after the birth of his daughter Ella kept him going.
He later described it as “a massive, massive learning curve”, explaining he was never taught which terms he could and could not use.
The film also highlights “one of the harder things” Vardy experienced when he rushed home from a team‑bonding trip to Helsinki after being told a tabloid was publishing a story about his secret biological father, who he had no prior knowledge of.
Still, Vardy became the poster boy and top scorer for Leicester’s Premier League title‑winning campaign in 2015‑16, went on to lift the FA Cup and fulfilled his agent’s prediction, made when he signed for Halifax, that he would one day play for England.
Asked whether he could have achieved more internationally after retiring from England in 2018, Vardy replied: “Possibly. We’ll never know.
“I’ll be honest, going away with England is unbelievable – you want to play for your country – but the mental side of it was tough. That changed when Gareth [Southgate] came in, but before that you were stuck in your room all day.
“You trained and then you were just back in your hotel room, pulling your hair out. There’s only so much time you can spend on a PlayStation or speaking to the kids on video calls. You’ve already not seen them and now you’re getting pulled away for another two weeks. It’s tough.
“At the time, after the World Cup, I just wanted to protect [my legs] as much as possible, prolong my club career, and as I’m still going now, it was obviously the right decision.”
Travis d’Arnaud hit a three-run homer, Walbert Ureña threw six innings of two-hit ball, and the Angels defeated the Chicago White Sox 8-2 on Wednesday.
The Angels won a series for the first time since April 10-12 at Cincinnati. The Angels (15-23) are 2-7-2 in series this season.
D’Arnaud’s 396-foot shot off Noah Schultz (2-2), the backup catcher’s first homer of the season, kicked off a five-run second inning for the Halos. After Bryce Teodosio doubled on a ball that got past right fielder Jarred Kelenic, Zach Neto hit a stand-up RBI triple.
Mike Trout brought one more across with an infield popup that second baseman Chase Meidroth lost in the afternoon sun for a single.
Jorge Soler and Jo Adell were hit by back-to-back pitches from reliever Osvaldo Bido with the bases loaded to bring in two runs in the fourth.
Ureña (1-3) allowed one run, struck out five and walked three in his second quality start of the season. Brent Suter, Drew Pomeranz and Chase Silseth completed a four-hitter.
Meidroth had two hits for Chicago (17-20). Standout rookie Munetaka Murakami, who is tied for the major league lead with 14 home runs, struck out four times for the second time this season.
Schultz allowed seven hits and seven runs in 3⅔ innings. He had allowed a total of six earned runs in four previous starts this year.
Up next for the Angels: Open a three-game series at Toronto on Friday with LHP Reid Detmers (1-2, 4.28) facing Blue Jays RHP Dylan Cease (2-1, 3.05).
Just hours after Golden Tempo returned to the racetrack at Keeneland for the first time since his victory Saturday at Churchill Downs, DeVaux posted a statement on X.
“After much thoughtful discussion as a team, we have decided that Golden Tempo will bypass the Preakness Stakes,” the statement read.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the excitement and support surrounding the possibility of a Triple Crown run. The enthusiasm from racing fans, our owners, and our entire team has meant more to us than we can properly express. Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness, and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
The Preakness, set for May 16, is the second leg of the Triple Crown, followed June 6 by the Belmont Stakes, which for the third straight year will be contested in Saratoga, N.Y. Since 1978, the only horses to sweep all three races are American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.
Golden Tempo is the second straight horse and third in the last five years not to run in the Preakness. Sovereignty, who did not participate last year, won the Belmont and later the Travers and was voted Horse of the Year.
Unlike in the past, trainers almost never run horses with just two or even three weeks’ rest. That has prompted talk that the Preakness — which has been run 14 days after the Derby since 1950 — and Belmont could be moved back to allow horses more time between races. Sports Business Journal reported last month that the Preakness was “set to make a historic shift to one week later,” though many trainers have said that won’t make a difference.
DeVaux was asked the day after the Derby if having the Preakness four weeks after the Derby would make her decision easier.
“I mean, it would make anyone’s decision easier, but that’s not the Triple Crown,” she said. “So, the Triple Crown is hard to win for a reason. And I appreciate the history of it.
“You know, the horses are definitely different. They’re not built the same. They’re not trained the same as back then, but current times have shown that it can be done with the right horse.”
There is no shortage of horses aiming for the Preakness, which is limited to 14 starters. One of those — and the likely favorite if he runs — is Crude Velocity, who won the Pat Day Mile on Saturday at Churchill Downs in just his third career start. But trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times, has yet to decide whether he wants to run the horse in two weeks.
“I’m still on fence,” Baffert said Wednesday via text. “Tempted but I’m not leaning yet.”
The Daily Racing Form reported Ocelli, the maiden who finished third in the Derby, is now expected to run in the Preakness. Trainer Whit Beckman told the Form he had Ocelli jog Wednesday and “he looked better than great.”
Added Beckman: “You wouldn’t know this horse ran Saturday. He’s made of something different. Every indication he’s given me is to point to this race. … We’re having fun, the horse is having fun. If everybody’s having fun, why stop the fun?”
According to a news release from the Preakness, other horses under consideration who didn’t run in the Derby are Chip Honcho, Corona de Oro, Crupper, Express Kid, Great White, Iron Honor, Napoleon Solo, Pretty Boy Miah, Silent Tactic, Taj Mahal, Talkin, Talk to Me Jimmy and The Hell We Did.
The Racing Form reported jockey Jose Ortiz, who rode Golden Tempo to his Derby win, will ride Chip Honcho in the Preakness.
Bukayo Saka reacts quickest as Leandro Trossard’s shot is saved by Jan Oblak, putting in the rebound from close range to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead against Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Emiates Stadium.
Though Jarred Vanderbilt suffered a gruesome dislocated right pinky injury during the Lakers’ loss in Game 1 against the Thunder on Tuesday, coach JJ Redick said his forward has been listed as day-to-day for the second-round series.
Vanderbilt, who is left-handed, was injured in the second quarter trying to block a dunk by Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, but his hand hit the backboard. Vanderbilt immediately doubled over in pain, as the bone broke through the skin and had to be put back in place.
“They were able to put his finger back together and it’s splinted and he’s day-to-day,” Redick said Wednesday.
The Lakers and Thunder play Game 2 here Thursday night at Paycom Center.
Redick said it was a “reduction” for Vanderbilt, meaning it was a procedure to restore his dislocated finger.
Vanderbilt had his finger taped and had a splint on the finger after the game.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s obviously a tough-minded player and person,” Redick said. “It just, he had a full dislocation. So they just put the stuff back together. You know, he’ll be day-to-day.”
Redick was asked if it’ll be a pain tolerance issue for his defensive-minded forward.
“Certainly the pain is involved,” Redick said. “From my understanding, it’s basically making sure basically the tissue is healed enough. We’re obviously going to splint him, but making sure the tissue is healed enough to protect his skin barrier.”
Jaxson Hayes called Vanderbilt’s finger injury “disgusting” because the “whole bone was out of his skin.”
“Obviously, you never want to see one of your teammates go down,” Hayes said. “But, I mean, that was gross. That was really gross.”
With the Lakers down 1-0 in the Western Conference semifinals, Luka Doncic has not yet ramped up to on-court contact drills while recovering from an injured left hamstring that had an inital eight-week timeline for his return.
Doncic, speaking to reporters for the first time since he hobbled off the court at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center on April 2, said Wednesday he has improved enough to begin running but he has not progressed to on-court contact drills. After suffering a left hamstring injury earlier this season, Doncic said the latest Grade 2 strain to the same area is unlike any he’s experienced because of its severity.
But it has not stopped him from trying to come back as soon as possible.
“I’m just doing everything I can,” Doncic said. “Every day I’m doing stuff I’m supposed to do. Obviously recovery, now I’m working … just going day by day, and I feel better every day.”
Soon after his injury, Doncic went to Spain and received platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections with hopes to help his recovery. He stayed for roughly two weeks because he needed to wait four days between each injection. He received four in total.
Without their leading scorer, the Lakers fought through a six-game, first-round series against the Houston Rockets, playing four of those games without Austin Reaves, who was also injured in the same game as Doncic. The fourth-seeded Lakers lost 108-90 to the defending champion Thunder in Game 1 of the conference semifinals on Tuesday.
Doncic had dutifully cheered from the bench during the playoff games, offering as much advice to his teammates as he can.
“It’s very frustrating,” Doncic said of the injury. “I don’t think people understand how frustrating it is. All I want to do is play basketball, especially at this time. It’s the best time to play basketball. It’s very frustrating seeing what my team is doing, I’m very proud of them. It’s been very tough just to see and watch them play.”
Ted Turner, the brash media mogul who created CNN and revolutionized how Americans watched television, and who wielded his media empire and wealth to pursue liberal global causes and land conservation, has died. He was 87.
In 2018, he revealed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disease, which had been progressing in recent years.
Turner’s outsized public persona — some called him the “Mouth from the South” for his free-wheeling trash talk — matched the Georgian’s influence on news, politics, sports and entertainment in the late 20th century. Turner repeatedly shook up established industries by invading quickly and expanding options for consumers, while railing against monolithic competitors who were less daring or nimble than his maverick Turner Broadcasting System.
Turner created the cable stations TBS and Turner Classic Movies; he owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and revitalized professional wrestling with World Championship Wrestling.
Turner was one of the first adopters of cable and satellite broadcasting technology, and for many rural Americans living beyond the tower signals of major cities, he was the first person to bring them interesting TV.
The media baron constantly generated headlines. He had a Clark Gable pencil mustache, raced sailboats, cavorted with the late communist leader Fidel Castro in Cuba, and at one point married Academy Award-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda. His wealth enabled him to become one of the largest private landowners and wealthiest philanthropists in the U.S.
July 1990 image of Ted Turner with Jane Fonda.
(Tony Duffy/Getty Images)
His crowning cultural achievement was the creation of the Cable News Network in 1980, which created the model for today’s cable news titans. The 24-hour news channel was not widely expected to be a success. All-night broadcasting had not been proven as a business model in an industry dominated nationally by corporate monoliths like ABC, NBC and CBS, where news programming was something that happened on a set schedule. And CNN’s headquarters weren’t in media centers like New York or Los Angeles, but Atlanta.
But Turner believed that “over-the-air networks would decline as audiences turned to videos and other outlets for entertainment on demand,” wrote the late journalist Daniel Schorr in a 2001 memoir.
“The network future belonged to whoever would deliver what was happening now — live news and live sports. That was why he wanted to be the first to deliver all news, all sports, all the time,” wrote Schorr, whom Turner courted to join CNN.
Within two years, CNN had more than 9 million subscribers. By the 2000s, Turner’s once far-flung idea for an around-the-clock news service had become so successful that it had attracted imitators like MSNBC (now called MS NOW) and Fox News.
“We not only became profitable, but also changed the nature of news — from watching something that happened to watching it as it happened,” Turner said of CNN in 2004. “If we needed more money for [broadcasting from] Kosovo or Baghdad, we’d find it. If we had to bust the budget, we busted the budget. We put journalism first, and that’s how we built CNN into something the world wanted to watch.”
Fox Corp. Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, who was both a rival and friend of Turner, said his “vision for 24-hour cable news transformed the media industry and gave viewers everywhere a front seat to witness history unfold. His impact as a trailblazer has left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.”
Turner recognized the value of global distribution long before his rivals, launching CNN’s international business in the mid-1980s. He bought his first western property, The Bar-None Ranch in Montana, and would eventually become one of the nation’s largest individual landowners with nearly 2 million acres, which provide habitat for threatened species and his beloved American bison.
“Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever,” David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, said Wednesday in a note to employees. “He believed deeply in the power of ideas, in doing things differently and in building platforms that could inform, inspire and connect people around the world.”
Robert Edward Turner III was born in Cincinnati on Nov. 19, 1938, and raised in Georgia. A mischievous child — who later became a mischievous adult despite attending the Georgia Military Academy — he had a tough childhood at the hands of his alcoholic father, Ed.
“Ninety percent of the arguments I had with Ed were over his beating Ted too hard,” Ted’s mother, Florence Turner, recalled later.
“My dad ran an old-fashioned household and he insisted that pretty much everything had to be his way,” Ted Turner said in a 2008 memoir. “My father and I had a complex relationship but I loved him.”
The younger Turner attended Brown University but dropped out before graduating. His savings had run out, his father had stopped financially supporting his tuition, and in his final days on campus, he was suspended for bringing a woman to his dorm room, according to his memoir.
He soon joined his father’s expanding billboard advertising company, Turner Advertising, where he had been working off and on for years since childhood.
He inherited the business at the age of 24 after his father died by suicide. By then, Turner had already had years of experience , and he worked furiously to reverse his father’s recent sale of part of the company to a competitor and paid down its daunting debt, an act that presaged the empire-building to come.
While growing the business, Turner also pursued his passion for competitive sailing, which is how he met his first wife, Judy Nye, in college. It’s also how their marriage ended. Turner intentionally hit his wife’s boat during a 1963 race to keep her from passing him, and the pair, who had two children, split immediately afterward.
It was to be the first of three divorces. . “My problem is I love every woman I meet,” Turner has said. He would go on to win the America’s Cup in 1977 while expanding his father’s company into a modern multimedia conglomerate.
Leveraging the billboard business, Turner started buying local radio stations across the South in the late 1960s. In 1970, he bought the Channel 17 television station in Atlanta, competing with local network affiliates by airing old movies whose rights were affordable and picking up programming dropped by the less nimble competition. He didn’t like putting news on prime time back then — too negative — and soon picked up broadcast rights for the Braves, Hawks and other local sports.
Oct. 1998 photo of former President Jimmy Carter, right, and Atlanta Braves team owner Ted Turner, during Game 6 of the National League Championship Series in Atlanta.
(PAT SULLIVAN/AP)
The Braves were a ratings hit, and when the team flailed and went up for sale, Turner’s company became its owner in 1976. The team continued to flail but Turner boosted its profile with gimmicks such as sewing “Channel 17” on the back of a pitcher’s jersey and dressing up as the team’s batboy and manager, to the league’s disdain. Turner bought the Hawks shortly after.
Facing entrenched local network affiliates, Turner expanded his independent station’s reach across the South and then the U.S. by embracing the new technologies of cable and satellite broadcasting. Channel 17 became nationally known as the “SuperStation,” with call letters WTBS, later shortened to TBS.
The quirky Atlanta station’s local broadcasts of old movies and sports games had become national broadcasts.
Still hungry for more, Turner finally turned his attention to news programming. He launched CNN in 1980 in a desperate bid to create a national 24-hour news channel before the broadcast titans ABC, NBC and CBS — and their gargantuan budgets — could beat him to it.
“The 24/7 genre started with Ted Turner,” veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour said Wednesday on CNN. “He was the original, and he made us all proud, and he made us all hopeful, and he made us all strive for his vision of a better world.”
There were some lean early years. But the nascent channel fended off an attempt by ABC to create a competitor, and critics could see the value of an ever-present news channel, even if quality was a little thin at times.
“Non-viewers of CNN are missing a lot. There are so many reasons to watch,” Los Angeles Times critic Howard Rosenberg wrote in 1986, hailing the 6-year-old channel as an “institution.” “It’s not always good, but it’s always there.”
In 1986, CNN was the only broadcaster running live coverage when the Challenger shuttle liftoff ended in disaster. In 1991, the network gave Americans a live and uninterrupted look at the invasion of Iraq. American officials held news conferences knowing that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was watching them on CNN.
Americans had seen images of war before, but not broadcast nonstop into their homes.
“CNN seeks to be a stethoscope attached to the hypothetical heart of the war, and to present us with its hypothetical pulse,” the French theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote, critiquing the conflict as a media spectacle. Media scholars began to wonder whether a “CNN effect” was influencing government policy. Officials found that they now had to respond much more quickly to crises unfolding on live television.
Turner was not adversarial to communist countries of the era and even tried his own version of the Olympics, called the Goodwill Games, a bit of private-sector peace-craft that brought the Soviet Union and the U.S. out of their respective Olympic boycotts and back into direct competition in the 1989s. All on television, of course.
Turner also saw professional wrestling as part of his sports portfolio, at one point trying to pit his World Championship Wrestling program against competitor Vince McMahon’s wrestling empire, then called the World Wrestling Federation. Turner similarly tried to take a bite out of MTV with the Cable Music Channel, with a promise “to stay away from the excessive, violent or degrading clips to women that MTV is so fond of putting on.”
Moralism was a Turner hallmark. Turner had started his life as a conservative — Turner had met his second wife, Jane Smith, at a 1964 fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater — and turned toward more liberal-leaning causes, such as world peace, nuclear nonproliferation and fighting climate change, later in life.
At the 1990 American Humanist Assn.’s annual convention, Turner presented his “Ten Voluntary Initiatives” — his atheistic version of the Ten Commandments — which included pledges to world peace, environmentalism, nonviolence and “to have no more than two children, or no more than my nation suggests.” He would become a major private donor to the United Nations, pledging $1 billion and launching the United Nations Foundation nonprofit.
In 1991, a year marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first U.S. war against Iraq and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Time magazine named Turner its “Man of the Year” for his “visionary” creation of CNN, which covered those events live. He also married Fonda that year (the ceremony was reported by CNN) and his Braves narrowly lost the World Series.
Time’s honorific was also a nice bit of corporate synergy. The magazine’s parent company, Time Warner, owned about 20% of Turner Broadcasting System stock.
Turner launched the Cartoon Network in 1992, which helped introduce his then-newly acquired Hanna-Barbera characters — including Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo — to a new generation of viewers.
Adversaries thought that Turner’s ventures could be reckless and impulsive. Far-seeing accomplishments in national broadcasting and the creation of CNN were also paired with several expensive misadventures, including a failed attempt to buy CBS.
Turner had to unwind a purchase of the MGM film studio less than a year after buying it, though he held onto one valuable asset: The studio’s film library, which became the foundation of the Turner Classic Movies channel and, later, jewels in the Burbank-based Warner Bros. studio vault.
In 1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner to form the world’s largest media company, marking the beginning of the end of Turner’s apex in corporate media. Time Warner’s 2000 merger with budding internet giant AOL, then the largest-ever corporate merger, ended in disaster. Turner, who had not been a key player in the negotiations and had made no secret of his disdain for that deal, was fired as an executive.
“Ted Turner was one of the rare leaders who truly changed the trajectory of an industry,” Versant Media Chief Executive Mark Lazarus, a former Turner underling, said in a statement. “I saw firsthand his willingness to take risks and his belief that media could be something bigger and more impactful.”
CNN Worldwide Chairman Mark Thompson added: “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand.”
Turner resigned from the AOL Time Warner board in 2003, and in 2007, announced he had sold his company shares. In his later days, one of his best-known ventures was his Ted’s Montana Grill restaurant chain. His philanthropy and land conservation efforts and protection of the American bison became guide posts during his retirement years.
While CNN maintains influence in the U.S. and abroad, its TV ratings have declined in recent years — a casualty of changing consumer behavior, the rise of social media, derision from President Trump — and several ownership changes.
During the past decade, CNN has had three different corporate owners. The company is poised to be sold again, this time to billionaire David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance. That proposed merger would bring CNN under the same roof as CBS News.
“I’ve often considered and joked about what I might want written on my tombstone,” Turner said in a 2008 memoir. “At one point, when I felt like I could get out of the way of the press, ‘You Can’t Interview Me Here’ was a leading candidate. … These days, I’m leaning toward, ‘I Have Nothing More to Say.’”
Turner is survived by his five children — Laura Turner Seydel (Rutherford), Robert Edward “Teddy” Turner IV (Blair), Rhett Turner, Beau Turner, Jennie Turner Garlington (Peek) — 14 grandchildren and a great granddaughter. The family plans a private and public service at a later date.
Pearce is a former Times reporter. Times Staff Writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
Over his two spells in charge this season, 74-year-old O’Neill has averaged more Premiership points per game than any of his peers.
He has been more successful than Celtic could have hoped for when they brought him out of retirement after Brendan Rodgers’ acrimonious departure, and again following Wilfried Nancy’s ill-fated eight-game spell.
There is at least an arguable case that had he been in charge since Rodgers left, Celtic would be strong favourites to win the league by now.
On that basis, has O’Neill done enough to return as manager next season? Is his future contingent on winning the Premiership? Should Celtic look to the future? Does O’Neill want to keep managing in such a harsh environment at 74?
Right now these are unanswered questions, at least outside the walls of Celtic Park.
“I feel a sense of renaissance, coming back and working with young people, it’s really, really terrific,” O’Neill told talkSPORT on Tuesday when asked about the future.
“We’ll have to see see how we stand at the end of the season, and that’s nearly upon us now. “
While grateful to O’Neill, who was already a legendary figure, some Celtic supporters feel a fresh face in the dugout is needed.
Paul John Dykes, from A Celtic State of Mind podcast, believes O’Neill “should go and chill out and just enjoy retirement” at the end of the season.
“Martin O’Neill has been dreadfully let down by the Celtic board,” Dykes told the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
“There’s no way he came to Celtic in January, one week into a January transfer window, on the promise of four loanees and an out-of-contract player to win the double. No chance.
“So regardless of what happens, Martin O’Neill’s legacy is intact.”
Reaching an agreement with Chansiri was never going to be easy.
During the administration process, the Thai was offered a number of offers on his debt, which were either outright refused, ignored or not taken in good faith.
“The EFL had to take into account the intransigent soul shown by Mr Chansiri and his reluctance to engage with offers made by the bidder,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.
It was only last week that things fell into place.
Chansiri was made an offer which would see him receive payments, in effect, to about 25p in the pound.
But he would not receive a penny now – it would all be based upon the club’s future success.
“We’re probably talking about promotion first of all back to the Championship, and in due course to the Premier League. He could then get his 25%,” Maguire says.
The EFL said the offer must remain on the table for a short period of time to show it was credible and serious.
A response to the offer had to be received by midday on Tuesday. Chansiri decided to accept, but replied too late – minutes after the deadline.
Chansiri – subject to any challenge – might now be left with nothing.
Having agreed to cancel Wednesday’s 15-point deduction, the EFL board made a few other stipulations.
Football creditors and HMRC had to be paid in full, while all other non-secured creditors – local businesses – had to get their 25p straight away.
Had the EFL been less flexible, those companies faced receiving a much lower return.
“The EFL probably took the view that as HMRC are being paid 100%, football creditors are being paid 100% and other unsecured creditors are being paid 25%, other stakeholders were being treated appropriately,” Maguire added.
“Therefore there was a clear case for having no penalty.”
Arise had to make a firm commitment to invest in the decaying stadium immediately.
In his speech on the pitch on Saturday, Storch promised there would be both running water, and hot water, in the toilets.
That might seem like a joke, but anyone who has attended Hillsborough in recent seasons would know it was anything but.
Arise did not hang about. An outstanding charge of about £7m owed on a loan Chansiri had taken out against Hillsborough was cleared on Wednesday.
But if Fuchs is considering his next managerial move, he is certainly playing his cards close to his chest. In fact, he says work has already begun on preparations to improve upon County’s position of 20th, after a season mostly spent in and around the relegation zone.
“That’s the goal, right? We’ve definitely got to review the whole season, not only the period when I was here, but from the very beginning, to see what mistakes have been made, definitely,” he said.
“But then also, you have those two games that finished the season [that has put the club] in a good place and to push forward.
“We cannot just sit around and see what will happen next season, we need to push forward and need to better the team, need to use that momentum that we just created to push forward.”
Whatever happens in the next campaign, it will certainly be a new-look County squad, with as many as 17 players either out of contract or returning to parent clubs after loan deals.
For Fuchs, keeping key players like Kamwa – who scored vital goals in the final two games of the season – and captain Matt Baker, will be vital. Not to mention stalwarts such as Courtney Baker-Richardson and Cameron Evans.
Loan stars Sven Sprangler, Ryan Delaney, Harrison Biggins and Ben Lloyd have also played their part.
When asked when the recruitment strategy starts for the new season, Fuchs said: “It’s immediately, yes. All that has started already but I’m also looking forward now to a few days off my phone. You cannot really turn it off all the time, but I’m actually really looking forward to after a couple of days.
“To go through those ups and downs – and too many downs for my taste – then at the end to come out on top has just been incredible.
“I like to be in the background and do my job and be humble, but it also felt good, to be honest.”
Most County fans will be hoping that feel-good factor continues next season, with Fuchs in charge.
Football Australia has urged the Victorian government to reverse a ban on World Cup matches being shown on big screens at Melbourne’s Federation Square.
Australia supporters have gathered there to watch tournament matches since 2006.
However, the Melbourne Arts Precinct, which manages the venue, said behaviour in previous years had been “unacceptable and damaging”.
Video of fans celebrating went viral during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as Australia advanced to the last 16, but there were incidents involving people being injured by flares and projectiles.
Supporters also stormed barricades during the 2023 Women’s World Cup semi-final between Australia and England, leading to the screening of the Matildas’ third-place play-off being cancelled at the square.
“After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision not to show the World Cup on Fed Square’s Big Screen this year,” said Melbourne Arts Precinct director and CEO Katrina Sedgwick on Wednesday.
“This is due to the behaviour of a small number of people at previous screenings which was simply unacceptable and damaging to Fed Square.”
Former captain Michael Vaughan says it is “ridiculous” England are yet to appoint their new national selector.
The process to name the successor to Luke Wright, who announced he was stepping down on 22 January and left after the T20 World Cup concluded in March, has reached the final stages, with interviews for the position held this week.
There have already been four rounds of action in the County Championship and England are set to name their squad for the first Test against New Zealand in two weeks’ time.
“It’s ridiculous how they’re announcing a selector so late,” Vaughan said on the Stick to Cricket podcast.
“I wanted the selector there on 1 April, going out, having a look, gathering information.
“Luke Wright quit at the back end of Australia. We knew didn’t we?
With domestic football in Iran suspended because of the ongoing conflict, Nazon is following an individual training programme to prepare for the World Cup.
The Haiti squad have become heroes for leading the nation back to football’s grandest stage, where they will make just their second appearance at the finals.
Nazon acknowledges that the players are now “part of the country’s history” but insists they will play without “extra pressure”, starting with their opener against Scotland.
“We are ambassadors of our country and we know we have a responsibility,” he says. “We know the young people also see us as examples.
“But we don’t have to put extra pressure on ourselves and, when we play for our country, it’s more a mission and we do it with passion and with love.”
On loan at St Mirren from Belgian club Sint-Truiden for the second half of the 2018-19 season, Nazon “had a story” in Scotland. It was short-lived, though.
The forward played 12 games, scoring twice, but said he was “not ready for this kind of aggression and fight” in Scottish football, while the weather also played a part.
“I remember one game we had sun, snow and rain,” he recalls. “After this, I was like, OK, I’m done.”
Weather is unlikely to be an issue for Nazon this summer in North America. The striker, a friend of Scotland defender Dominic Hyam – with whom he played at Coventry – did, however, voice concerns about inflated ticket prices for the upcoming World Cup matches.
“There is only one thing that starts to go in my brain – it’s the ticket prices,” he says. “Hopefully this is not going to affect the crowd and people coming to the stadium, because we want this atmosphere.
“We want this energy around us. I’m looking forward to seeing Scottish people and Haitian people in the stadiums. This is going to be important.”
The US, Canada and Mexico will co-host the World Cup between 11 June and 19 July.
Iran are scheduled to play two games in Los Angeles, against New Zealand on 15 June and Belgium on 21 June, and then Egypt in Seattle on 26 June.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week that no-one with ties to the IRGC would be admitted to the country.
“We are going to the World Cup, for which we qualified, and our host is Fifa – not Mr Trump or America,” Taj said.
“If they accept hosting us, then they must also accept that they must not insult our military institutions in any way.
“Because if they do, then naturally it could create the same kind of situation that happened in Canada, where there was a possibility we might have to return.
“So there must be this kind of guarantee so that we can go with peace of mind.”
The US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran in February.
Iran was the only Fifa federation among the 211 member countries that did not have representation at the Fifa congress in Vancouver.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino said Iran will be going to the US and playing as scheduled – despite Iran’s request in March for its matches to be moved to Mexico.
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS TUESDAY’S RESULTS QUARTERFINALS
DIVISION 1 Mira Costa d. Tesoro, 25-18, 25-19, 25-23 Huntington Beach d. Corona del Mar, 3-0 Loyola d. Newport Harbor, 25-16, 25-17, 25-22 Redondo Union d. Santa Margarita, 3-2
DIVISION 2 Orange Lutheran d. Fountain Valley, 25-20, 25-14, 25-16 St. Margaret’s d. San Clemente, 3-0 Camarillo d. Yorba Linda, 3-1 Edison d. Arcadia, 3-1
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE
CITY SECTION (Matches at 7 p.m. unless noted) QUARTERFINALS
OPEN DIVISION #8 Carson at #1 Granada Hills #5 LA Marshall at #4 Venice #6 Wilmington Banning at #3 Chatsworth #7 Eagle Rock at #2 Palisades
Note:Second round Divisions I-V May 7; Quarterfinals Divisions I-II May 7; Quarterfinals Divisions III-V May 11; Semifinals Open Division-Division I May 12; Semifinals Divisions II-V May 13; Finals All Divisions May 15-16.
SOUTHERN SECTION (Matches at 6 p.m. unless noted) QUARTERFINALS
DIVISION 3 Valencia at Palos Verdes St. John Bosco at Eastvale Roosevelt, Thursday Servite at Santa Ana Foothill Windward at Crescenta Valley
DIVISION 4 Chino Hills at Village Christian Royal at Temple City Northwood at Sunny Hills San Marino at Crossroads
DIVISION 5 Dos Pueblos at El Dorado Bishop Diego at Brea Olinda Bellflower at Flintridge Prep Western Christian at St. Anthony
DIVISION 6 Beverly Hills at Temecula Valley Culver City at Firebaugh Capistrano Valley Christian at Garden Grove Pasadena Poly at Santa Ana Calvary Chapel
DIVISION 7 La Sierra Academy at Rialto Foothill Tech at Cerritos Valley Christian Oakwood at Knight Tustin at Indio
DIVISION 8 Santa Rosa Academy at Temescal Canyon Eastside vs. CAMS at Lindsey Middle School Burbank Providence at West Valley Glendale Adventist at Palmdale Aerospace
DIVISION 9 Tarbut V’Torah at Webb Le Lycée at YULA Vasquez at Cantwell-Sacred Heart Avalon at Downey Calvary Chapel, Thursday
Note:Semifinals All Divisions May 9; Finals All Divisions May 15-16.
Of the six British singles players who began the year in the top 100, Cameron Norrie is the only one to have avoided injury or illness, and he has returned impressively to the world’s top 20 in recent weeks.
Raducanu, 23, had been due to return at the Italian Open in Rome this week but withdrew after her media commitments on Tuesday with post-viral symptoms. Kartal is currently on track to reappear during the grass-court season, but the back injury the 24-year-old suffered during her run to the Indian Wells fourth round in March has cost her the entire clay swing.
Francesca Jones had a month out after a glute injury at the Australian Open and Draper’s comeback from his serious arm injury has been checked by a knee problem, while Fearnley came through qualifying in Rome after a seven-week absence.
British number three Katie Boulter, who tumbled out of the top 100 last year as she battled foot and hip injuries, says it can be hard to step away even if players have information to suggest their bodies are at breaking point.
Fitness trackers, which offer performance analysts a wealth of data, will be allowed on a trial basis at this year’s remaining three Grand Slams, as they have been for a while now on the men’s and women’s tours.
But Boulter, who has climbed back into the top 60, told BBC Sport: “I think it’s impossible as a tennis player to be like, ‘I’m going to take the week off because my wearable [device] says that I’m in red’.
“Financially, there might be people that don’t have that luxury to stop a week out of their schedule and not play – the majority of us are still trying to make a living.
“I’ve played through many injuries, I’ve also stopped through many injuries. Ultimately you have to make the best judgement call you can.
“It’s good to have that information, but it doesn’t necessarily marry up sometimes.”
The LTA has refreshed its entire physiotherapy staff over the past 18 months and believes it now has the right expertise to support the modern player. The next task is to consider how best to upgrade its recovery facilities.
British players have a lot more resources at their disposal than many other nationalities. An LTA physio was sent to Miami in March as Kartal started to realise the extent of her back problem, but the emphasis is also on players building their own support network.
