And Paul has now revealed the two are already goading each other privately over social media – as all’s fair in love and war.
He said: “It was all nice, we’ve been cordial. He DMd me today like saying “LOL” to one of my training clips and then I sent him a “LOL” of of him getting knocked out.
“And so I guess like we’re kind of s*** talking, behind the scenes a bit. But I have a lot of love for Anthony Joshua.
“I think this type of stuff is funny and he’s a great guy and I think just a fight between us would be awesome and I do believe I can win.”
And Paul – who gorged on pasta, steaks and potatoes to bulk up – admitted the heavyweight jump was “brutal”.
Jake Paul reveals ‘hefty’ six-man hit-list of opponents for next fight including Anthony Joshua and world champ
The 28-year-old added: “It was just too much and my body wasn’t made for it and even when I got into the ring I just felt too fat.
“So cruiserweight is definitely the perfect weight for me.”
Paul will come down from 16st 2lb to the 200lb cruiserweight limit of 14st 4lb to face Chavez in California.
It followed after Canelo Alvarez, 34, pulled out of a shock deal to fight Paul in Las Vegas on May 3 – instead signing with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.
Canelo – who beat Chavez on points in 2017 – regained his undisputed super-middleweight titles with victory over William Scull in May.
But he said: “Chavez and I have been going back and forth for a long time and he’s always been a great opponent on the list of someone that I wanted to fight.
“And now it made perfect sense to go up against him as a former world champion and just continuing to further my resume and get more time under the lights.”
Paul also revealed he is in talks to fight current cruiserweight champions Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, 33, and Badou Jack, 41.
And with Gervonta Davis, 30, also lined up for an exhibition bout – Paul says he is boxing’s most desired man.
He joked: I’m like like Megan Fox from Transformers movie like everyone wants me! So there’s not enough time to do it all and it could make sense. Look, it might.
“It might line up but at the end of the day, there’s 100 people that want to fight me. I got Canelo, Gervonta, Anthony Joshua, Badou, Zurdo, Tommy Fury, KSI, the list keeps on going.
“It’s just about what makes sense and we’ll see when the negotiations come but I would for sure entertain a fight with him.”
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Jake Paul faces Julio Cesar Chavez Jr nextCredit: Reuters
June 9 (UPI) — Delegates from the United States and China are set to meet Monday in London after a phone call between the nations’ leaders seemingly led to a cooling of tensions related to their otherwise heated recent trade dispute.
“We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody’s interests, so we welcome these talks,” said a British government spokesperson.
The U.K. has provided the space for the countries to chat but hasn’t publicly disclosed its location.
American attendees are slated to include U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, while Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead his country’s delegation. It is expected the discussion will put a fair amount of focus on the rare earth minerals situation.
The Trump administration had expected China to back down on export restrictions it had imposed in April on such minerals after talks held in May. China imposed those restrictions in response to tariffs levied by Trump on Chinese goods.
The resulting trade disruption has led to a 2.9% decrease on exports to the United States from April to May, the decrease from May 2024 is 3.4% and the cumulative year-on-year decrease from January to May is at 4.9%, according to Chinese customs data.
However President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last week, and the conversation was reportedly so friendly it not only led to Monday’s meeting but each invited the other to make a personal visit.
American and Chinese representatives had met last month in Geneva and reportedly reached an agreement to suspend most of the tariffs that had been reciprocally imposed, but both countries have since been accused of agreement violations by the other.
“Super surprised,” he said after a presentation in which he was told by coach Andy Wise that he’d be taking a team photo and instead found former major leaguer Dexter Fowler greeting him with the player of the year trophy while family, friends and teammates were cheering him on.
The Gatorade national baseball player of the year award that was presented to Corona pitcher Seth Hernandez.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Hernandez joined Corona last season after two years of being home schooled. He has developed into the top high school pitching prospect available in next month’s MLB amateur draft.
“At the end of the day, I have brothers for life and I’ll never forget the memories I spent with them,” he said of his high school days.
He went 9-1 this season with an 0.39 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings with only seven walks.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that his first call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since returning to office was “very positive,” announcing that the two countries will hold trade talks in hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.
“Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” Trump wrote on his social media platform after the call, which he said lasted an hour and a half.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the U.S. side in negotiations.
The Republican president, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, also said Xi “graciously” invited him and First Lady Melania Trump to China, and Trump reciprocated with his own invitation for Xi to visit the United States.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Trump initiated the call between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies.
The ministry said in a statement that Xi asked Trump to “remove the negative measures” that the U.S. has taken against China. It also said that Trump said “the U.S. loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America,” although his administration has vowed to revoke some of their visas.
Comparing the bilateral relationship to a ship, Xi told Trump that the two sides need to “take the helm and set the right course” and to “steer clear of the various disturbances and disruptions,” according to the ministry statement.
Trump had declared one day earlier that it was difficult to reach a deal with Xi.
“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media site.
Craig Singleton, senior director of China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the phone call “simply paused escalation on trade” but “didn’t resolve core tensions” in the bilateral relations.
With the White House still weighing more punitive measures, the current calm could be upended as Beijing also is prepared to fight back the moment Washington escalates, Singleton said. “We’re likely one competitive action away from further confrontation,” he said.
In his note, Gabriel Wildau, managing director at the consultancy Teneo, wrote that the call “prevented derailment of trade talks but produced no clear breakthroughs on key issues.”
Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled shortly after a May 12 agreement between the two countries to reduce their tariff rates while talks played out. Behind the gridlock has been the continued competition for an economic edge.
The U.S. accuses China of not exporting critical minerals, and the Chinese government objects to America restricting its sale of advanced chips and access to student visas for college and graduate students.
Trump has lowered his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days to allow for talks. China also reduced its taxes on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. The back and forth has caused sharp swings in global markets and threatens to hamper trade between the two countries.
Bessent had suggested that only a conversation between Trump and Xi could resolve these differences so that talks could restart in earnest. The underlying tension between the two countries may persist, though.
During the call, Xi said that the Chinese side is sincere about negotiating and “at the same time has its principles,” and that “the Chinese always honor and deliver what has been promised,” according to the Foreign Ministry.
Even if negotiations resume, Trump wants to lessen America’s reliance on Chinese factories and reindustrialize the U.S., whereas China wants the ability to continue its push into technologies such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence that could be crucial to securing its economic future.
The United States ran a trade imbalance of $295 billion with China in 2024, according to the Census Bureau. Although the Chinese government’s focus on manufacturing has turned it into a major economic and geopolitical power, China has been muddling through a slowing economy after a real estate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns weakened consumer spending.
Trump and Xi last spoke in January, three days before Inauguration Day. The pair discussed trade then, as well as Trump’s demands that China do more to prevent the synthetic opioid fentanyl from entering the United States.
Despite long expressing optimism about the prospects for a major deal, Trump became more pessimistic recently.
“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted last week. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Weissert and Megerian write for the Associated Press.
IN 2015, 12 twentysomething singles walked into a Majorcan villa for the very first time – and viewers fell head over heels for Love Island.
The premise was simple: couple up and don’t get dumped, to win £50,000.
Ten years on, psychologist Dr Louise Goddard-Crawley says: “Love Island rewired the way we think about love, attraction and even language. It normalised enhanced beauty.”
With the 12th series kicking off next Monday, here we look at how the show shaped the nation.
SKIMPIER SWIMWEAR
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Antigoni Buxton wears a bikini top upside downCredit: Instagram
THE Islanders’ clothes — or lack of — made us reassess our own poolside wardrobes.
Thongs stole the show in 2018, with contestants including Laura Anderson and Georgia Steel wearing the painful-looking cheese-string variety.
Sales of thong bikinis subsequently soared as the nation got on board.
But a family-friendly pool in Lincolnshire banned customers from wearing “thongs or see-through” garments, dubbing it the “Love Island effect”.
In 2019, Molly-Mae Hague and Yewande Biala helped spark an underboob revolution, while 2022 contestant, Antigoni Buxton, inspired us to turn swimwear tops on their head, with searches for “upside-down bikini” rising by 203 per cent.
Sun Fashion Editor Clemmie Fieldsend says: “At the start of each series I’m hit with a barrage of emails from retailers reading, ‘Get the Love Island look’ as they all quickly roll out the on-trend swimwear for that year.”
MAKE-UP RITUALS
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Dani Dyer uses a hairdryer to dry her false lashes in 2018Credit: ITV
AS well as putting their love lives under the spotlight, the Islanders revealed their beauty hacks.
In 2018, Dani Dyer brushed her false eyelashes with a spoolie and blasted them with a hairdryer to give them a fluffy look.
The following summer, Molly-Mae sparked the top-knot trend after she gave a tutorial on how to achieve her trademark hairdo, while in the show’s Beach Hut.
And last year, Ella Thomas changed the way we cleanse our faces when she blew on a cotton pad soaked in micellar water — causing the liquid to foam.
Series two’s Malin Andersson has given up BotoxCredit: Rex Features
BOOB jobs, fillers, Botox — you name it, a Love Island contestant has had it.
Every summer, fans take to Google to see what islanders looked like before their tweakments, with bombshell Megan Barton-Hanson’s transformation one of the most talked about.
The “Love Island Effect” has been blamed for a boom in the number of women — many of them young or even teenagers — seeking cosmetic procedures.
One plastic surgeon said that requests for dermal fillers increased twelve-fold after last year’s series. Demand for other tweakments at High Street salons is up 31 per cent in five years.
However, many former contestants such as Molly-Mae and Shaughna Phillips have had their filler dissolved.
Adam Collard was accused of ‘gaslighting’ Rosie WilliamsCredit: Rex Features
THE show has made headlines over the years for demonstrating the problematic and toxic behaviour of both men and women.
In 2019, domestic abusecharity Women’s Aid accused Adam Collard of “gaslighting” Rosie Williams by denying he was flirting with Zara McDermott, who he later ended up with.
Similarly, in 2022 the charity was “forced” to speak to ITV after being tagged by viewers in social media posts criticising Luca Bish for his “misogynistic and controlling behaviour” towards screen partner Gemma Owen.
Earlier this year, media watchdog Ofcom received thousands of complaints about All Stars contestant Elma Pazar’s “alleged bullying” of co-star Ekin-Su Culculoglu during an argument.
However, the pair were soon shown working through their fall-out before making up.
THE LINGO
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‘The ick’ was made popular by Olivia AttwoodCredit: Getty
REMEMBER the time when “muggy” referred to the weather and “my type on paper” was just a font?
The show’s catchphrases have left a lasting impression on the English language.
“The ick”, made popular by Olivia Attwood, was added to the Cambridge Dictionary in 2024, defined as “a sudden feeling of dislike or loss of attraction towards someone or something”.
Linguist and interpreter Ana Clarke says the show’s own lingo has even helped British men drop the stiff upper lip and better express emotions.
She said: “Now we see younger males talking about their feelings. They talk about ‘my type on paper’, ‘being mugged off’, ‘keeping their options open’.
“They often talk about relationships and use the word ‘journey’.”
Other terms popularised by the show include “pied” (to be dumped); “it is what it is” (that’s the situation); “putting all my eggs in their basket” (focusing on one person); and “melt” (liking someone so much that you don’t mind embarrassing yourself to prove it).
MENTAL HEALTH
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Former presenter Caroline Flack’s suicide threw ITV into turmoilCredit: Rex
SADLY, Love Island has been hit by a number of tragedies, which highlighted how reality TV shows that thrive on conflict and emotions can harm the mental health of contestants.
After the suicides of former Islanders Sophie Gradon (series two) and Mike Thalassitis (series three) and presenter Caroline Flack within a period of 20 months, ITV was thrown into turmoil.
Bosses introduced new duty-of-care protocols including pre-show psych-ological and medical assessments, training on social media impacts and ongoing support both during and after the programme aired.
Following Caroline’s shock death early 2020, Love Island and its sponsor JustEat replaced advertising with messages from charity Samaritans.
PR expert Nick Ede said: “ITV understood that they do have a duty of care. They put in place stringent guidelines to really support each of the contestants.
“After Caroline, it was important for them to support their viewers as well.”
A STAR IS BORN
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Ovie Soko poses for Asos after signing a brand deal
A BEVVY of beauties have found fame on the show — becoming some of the our most talked about and successful celebs.
Even the losers have walked away winners thanks to lucrative brand deals or showbiz gigs.
Nick Ede says: “They are kind of relatable. Millions feel they could be with them or be on Love Island.” Season five runner-up Molly-Mae has been the most successful influencer.
She has made an estimated £6million from deals with Pretty Little Thing, L’Oreal and Beauty Works.
She now has a daughter with her Love Island boyfriend boxer Tommy Fury, her own clothing line and a docuseries with Amazon Prime Video.
Alex and Olivia Bowen have a son and are worth almost £10million, mainly due to sponsored Instagram deals. Maura Higgins has fashion and beauty deals and hosts a US Love Island spin-off.
Olivia Attwood makes document-aries and a podcast.
CUT-OUT dresses and co-ords and, for men, spray-on jeans were all popularised on the show.
The early seasons’ contestants were dressed by sponsors including fast-fashion retailers I Saw It First and Missguided, but it soon sparked a backlash.
In 2022, the show made headlines by announcing it would now dress the Islanders in pre-owned outfits from eBay, to promote more sustainable shopping habits.
PR expert Nick Ede said it was a savvy move by ITV to appeal to eco-conscious Gen Z.
“It opened them up to a whole new generation,” says Nick. “We know younger audiences are more conscious when it comes to clothing.”
ONE SIZE FITS ALL
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Mimii Ngulube and Josh Oyinsan became the first black couple to be crowned winnersCredit: Rex
YOU can’t deny there is a stereotypical Love Island look.
While the show has included contestants such as Tasha Ghouri, who is deaf and wears a cochlear implant, raising awareness around her disability, it has been criticised for failing to include any plus-size contestants.
Dating coach Eimear Draper says: “TV shows such as Love Island are putting a huge amount of pressure on beauty standards. For those who already struggle with self- esteem, this is concerning.”
Eimear, founder of Kindling Dating, adds: “All the women look the same with their bikinis, tanned skin and long, flowing hair.
“The Love Island guys likeChris Hughes are all hunks. They are buff. They, too, are tanned and tattooed.”
Young blokes have been warned by the group UK Anti-Doping not to resort to performance-enhancing drugs to achieve “ripped” physiques,
Periodically, Love Island has also been accused of tokenism, with often only one or two black contestants each series. Last year, Mimii Ngulube and Josh Oyinsan became the first black couple to be crowned winners.
LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX
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Alex Bowen and Zara Holland have sex on TV in series 2
IN the early days, the show was a bit of a bonkfest.
Ofcom received complaints about one couple getting busy in front of their rival housemates in series two.
And Miss Great Britain Zara Holland was stripped of her pageant title after getting it on with Alex Bowen.
Series three winners Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies were also at it like rabbits.
In 2018, producers decided to stop showing sex scenes. Nowadays, you might just get a glimpse of a headboard banging or happy feet under the sheets.
But experts reckon the show has, in some ways, sexually empowered women.
Therapist Sergio Rebelo says: “Many women on the show are unafraid to talk about their bodies and sexuality. This can encourage others to discuss their own sexuality.”
Case in point: Maura Higgins talking about which of the men gave her “fanny flutters”.
Then there’s ex-stripper Megan Barton-Hanson, who was on Love Island in 2018 and later paired up with Ann Summers to launch her own range of sex toys.
Jaden Soong, a freshman golfer at St. Francis High, thrives under pressure.
“I will say I like pressure,” he said.
Twice in the last two weeks, he has won playoffs to keep his season going. But the story of his first playoff win is comedy at its best.
He had left the Temecula Creek Golf Club at the Southern Section individual championships after concluding he had failed to qualify for the SCGA regionals and stopped at Jack in the Box to get food for the ride home. Then he got a phone call from a friend: “Hey dude, we’re in a playoff.”
He was 17 minutes away from the course and needed to be back in 10 minutes. “We hauled it,” he said.
Thankfully, there were no police with radar guns in the vicinity as he was driven back to the course.
The playoff had already started when he arrived. Players were in the fairway. He had no time to change into his golf shoes, so he played in his Nike Air Force shoes. He got a par on the first hole, then a birdie to win the playoff and advance. Last weekend, he won another playoff to reach the state championships on Tuesday at Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach.
The 14-year-old is ready for anything.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Norco High’s softball program under coach Richard Robinson has been setting the standard for excellence in the Southern Section for years. The top-seeded Cougars will seek to add a seventh section title on Saturday in the Division 1 final against El Modena in a 7 p.m. game at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.
This team has lots of top hitters. Leighton Gray is batting .455 with 40 hits, eight home runs and 25 RBIs. Ashley Duran has six home runs, 34 RBIs and a .438 batting average. Tamryn Shorter is hitting .407 with 37 hits, nine home runs and 24 RBIs. Sophomore Coral Williams has emerged as a quality pitcher with a 16-0 record, backed by junior Peyton May.
El Modena has gotten hot in the playoffs behind second baseman Kaitlyn Galasso and shortstop Kylie Tafua. Don’t doubt that the Vanguards can score runs if needed. They were able to knock off high-scoring Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6-4 in the quarterfinals and scored 13 runs in a semifinal win over Temescal Canyon. …
Cal State Northridge will be the site for three City Section softball championship games on Saturday, with the featured matchup at 3 p.m. in the Open Division in which Carson will try to defeat Granada Hills for a third consecutive year. The Division I final at noon has Port of Los Angeles facing Legacy. Taft faces Marquez in the Division II final at 9 a.m.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Major League Baseball has been trying for years to increase the number of Black players participating in the sport, creating such programs as the Compton Youth Academy and the DREAM Series. There were 59 Black players on opening day MLB rosters, a slight increase from the previous year but far from the numbers in the 1980s.
St. John Bosco’s baseball team, which plays for a Southern Section Division 1 championship on Friday against Santa Margarita at Cal State Fullerton, offers hope for the future with five Black players in the starting lineup.
“Definitely something to be proud of,” center fielder Miles Clark said.
The sports of football and basketball have been taking away Black athletes, but St. John Bosco’s group of Clark, his twin brother James, Noah Everly, Jaden Jackson and Macade Maxwell have embraced baseball and put themselves in position to pursue college baseball and beyond.
Each player offers speed and athleticism. Maxwell had an RBI single in the semifinals against Seth Hernandez of Corona. James Clark and Everly lead the team in hitting at .394 and .347, respectively. St. John Bosco won its first Trinity League title since 2017 and is 24-5. …
Santa Margarita is much improved after getting players back from injuries, so ignore the fact it has 12 losses. Carter Enoch came back to add hitting to the Eagles’ lineup and Brennan Bauer has been the winning pitcher in all four playoff games. Seventeen seniors are graduating at 10 a.m. at the Honda Center.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
The NCAA Division I college baseball playoffs begin this week, and there are several graduates from Southern California high schools representing in the college ranks.
Freshman Dylan Volantis of Texas, a Westlake High graduate, has had an All-American season, going 4-1 with a 1.99 ERA and 12 saves as a closer in the SEC.
Freshman shortstop Nate Castellon, a Calabasas grad, helped Cal Poly win the Big West tournament. He’s batting .364.
Collin Clarke (Santa Margarita) is 5-2 with a 4.59 ERA for Oregon. Trent Caraway (JSerra) has 33 RBIs for Oregon State. Colin Yeaman (Saugus) is batting .342 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs for UC Irvine. Aiden Taurek (Foothill) is batting .336 with 10 home runs and 45 RBIs for St. Mary’s.
Derek Curiel (Orange Lutheran) is the No. 2 hitter for LSU with a .336 average and 45 RBIs. Aidan Cremarosa, who once played for Burbank Burroughs until enrolling at IMG Academy, is 6-5 with a 4.13 ERA for Fresno State.
Dean Curley (Northview) is batting .313 with 12 home runs for Tennessee. Jimmy De Anda (Mater Dei) has a .281 average for Utah Valley.
For USC, Ethan Hedges (Mater Dei) leads the team with a .343 average and has nine saves. For UCLA, freshman Easton Hawk (Granada Hills) has been a late-season closer with five saves.
The Call brothers, Chase and Phoenix, play for UC Irvine and UCLA, respectively, and could face off in the Westwood regional.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Berlin Wednesday to talk defense against Russia with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE
May 28 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Germany Wednesday to discuss the state of German military support, which could include a delivery of powerful missiles to Ukraine for use against Russian targets.
Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation were welcomed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz shortly after their arrival in Berlin, and Zelensky is also expected to meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The visit takes place as speculation continues in regard to whether Germany will supply Ukraine with its Taurus cruise missiles, which can strike targets as far away as 300 miles. Merz had signaled before his ascension to chancellor that he would overturn a previous ban by his predecessor Olaf Scholz on the provision of such weaponry to Ukraine.
The decision to provide the Taurus missiles remains officially unresolved as it has been a matter of contention between the conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union parties, and the Social Democratic Party, their coalition partners.
However, Merz announced Monday that Germany would “do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine,” and that “also means no longer having any range restrictions on the weapons we supply. Ukraine can now also defend itself by attacking military positions in Russia.”
Merz later explained the comment was in reference to actions taken months ago, and German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil has since confirmed that no new decision in regard to the Taurus missile issue.
Germany has previously provided Ukraine with two weapons systems capable of strikes within Russian borders, the Mars II rocket launchers and Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery, and range restrictions on their usage were lifted in May 2024.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskovannounced Monday that European countries who lift restrictions on the range of provided armaments for use against Russia on Russian territory would be making a “rather dangerous decision.”
Zelensky posted to social media Tuesday that in an “extended meeting” with Ukrainian military leadership, they had discussed “preparing new agreements with our European partners in the near future, to attract investment into Ukrainian production,” which “First and foremost,” means “the production of unmanned systems and long-range capabilities,” so that the military can “operate at significant distances.”
Grant Leary of Crespi High has a future as a golfer _ and photographer.
After winning the Southern Section individual title last week with a 66, Leary went on to practice his other fun endeavor — photography. He was shooting photos for the school yearbook at Crespi’s Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoff game.
Asked to set up a photo of himself, he brought out an iron, put one of his unused tees in his mouth and posed with a smile.
Only a junior, Leary won the tournament at Temecula Creek Country Club. He went to the final hole tied. He faced a seven-foot putt for a par but wasn’t aware of its importance.
“I knew it was a very big putt,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was for a tie or the win.”
Grant Leary of Crespi is your Southern Section individual golf champion. He also knows how to take photos for the school yearbook so maybe he’ll offer putting lessons, too. pic.twitter.com/xPg2B2fhac
It’s the greatest gift to baseball players who attend schools in the City Section. Every season since 1969, except for two years during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, the championship game has been played at Dodger Stadium.
The championships return to Dodger Stadium on Saturday. Marine League rivals Banning and Carson will face off at 10 a.m. for the Division I title, followed by El Camino Real taking on Venice at 1 p.m. for the Open Division championship. There’s free parking and tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for students. Gates open at 9 a.m.
Three of the four semifinal games were decided on walk-off hits, showing the parity this season.
In the Open Division, El Camino Real has its top two pitchers ready to go. Devin Gonor will get the start and Luke Howe has four innings left to throw if needed. Venice has its ace, Noel Moreno (12-1) available.
As usual, handling the environment and dimensions of Dodger Stadium will be key, from catchers preventing balls in the dirt from going to the backstop to outfielders making catches in the sun.
Banning has beaten Carson two of three times this season. Carson is coming off a dramatic win in the semifinals over Taft in which Xavier Allen hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the 11th inning.
Canon King of Venice is coming off a five-for-five performance against Birmingham. El Camino Real has won nine City titles.
All the teams involved will be invited to play in the Southern California regionals that begin in two weeks.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Top-seeded Corona won with ace Seth Hernandez on Tuesday but now must get past Big VIII League rival Norco on the road with Ethin Bingaman pitching against freshman standout Jordan Ayala. This is the game the Panthers might be most vulnerable.
St. John Bosco, the Trinity League champion, is playing at Villa Park in a noon matchup. Villa Park defeated Aquinas on Tuesday. Los Alamitos is playing at Santa Margarita in a matchup of teams that didn’t win league titles.
Mira Costa, with a 26-game winning streak, faces Mission League champion Crespi on the road in a 2:15 start at Hartunian Field. The Celts have No. 2 pitcher Tyler Walton ready to go.
The winners advance to Tuesday’s semifinals. …
The City Section Division III baseball championship will take place Friday at Stengel Field, with University playing Jefferson at 3 p.m. Then the Division II final has Port of Los Angeles playing Chavez at 6 p.m. …
Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf title on Thursday, shooting a 66.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
When it comes to going over hurdles, DeAuna Louis of GALA is the best in the City Section. She will try to defend her City titles in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles on Thursday at the City Section track and field championships at Birmingham.
Equally important is her goal to do well at next weekend’s state championships at Buchanan High in Clovis.
She has become one of the most successful athletes in the history of the Girls Academic Leadership Academy, which is the first and only all-girls STEM school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
CHAMPS! 🥇 CIF SS D3 MEET RECORD 💨 Your Phantoms Broke The 45 Year Old D3 Meet Record Previously Held By Centennial/Compton. FOUR Consecutive CIF SS D3 Championships in the 4x400m!#GoPhantomspic.twitter.com/RxKDsrnmN6
— Cathedral Athletics (@PhantomNationLA) May 19, 2025
Running events are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. weather permitting (there’s a heat wave coming this week) …
The City Section will hold an Open Division baseball semifinal doubleheader on Tuesday at Cal State Northridge, with El Camino Real playing Birmingham at 3 p.m., followed by Venice taking on Sylmar at 6 p.m. The winners advance to Saturday’s 1 p.m. final at Dodger Stadium.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Alyssa Lee of El Camino Real has achieved something few volleyball coaches can claim.
With El Camino Real’s boys team winning the City Section Open Division championship on Saturday after an upset over No. 1-seeded Venice, Lee has won City titles coaching El Camino Real’s boys, girls and beach volleyball teams, the Triple Crown of volleyball coaching.
“That’s very impressive,” said Granada Hills coach Tom Harp, who had Lee on his girls’ team when she graduated in 2009.
Harp, a future Hall of Fame coach in the City Section, said Lee is calm and comfortable on the bench and knows strategy well.
The CIF Southern California tennis championships will be held Friday and Saturday at Claremont Club. Here’s the bracket…
Southern Section golf team championships are set for Monday and Tuesday. The individual championship will be Thursday. The City Section championships are Wednesday at Harding Golf Course.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
You can go ask any college football recruiter whether they’d be more impressed with a high school player who spends the majority of time in offseason seven-on-seven competitions or working on other skills in track and field? They’d always say track.
Darren Haggerty of Viewpoint High is an example of a football player who’s going to benefit from showing what he can do in track and field.
On Saturday, he pulled off career-best performances to win the Division 4 high jump at 6 feet, 6 inches and the long jump at 22-8 at the Southern Section championships at Moorpark High. He helped Viewpoint share the Division 4 title with Gardena Serra.
He was a little shocked afterward, not knowing he had it in him. He was considered Viewpoint’s best football player last fall as a sophomore, leading the team in receiving with 39 receptions for 674 yards and five touchdowns. He also had 37 tackles on defense. …
Quarterback Luke Fahey led Mission Viejo to the championship of the Millikan seven-on-seven tournament, beating San Diego Lincoln in the final. San Juan Hills won the tournament at Dana Hills and Charter Oak took its own tournament title. …
The semifinals are set for City Section Division I baseball on Wednesday at Stengel Field in Glendale. It will be No. 5 Verdugo Hills vs. No. 1 Banning at 6 p.m. and No. 11 Taft vs No. 2 Carson at 3 p.m.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
There’s also the state swimming championships at Clovis West High. …
The City Section will hold a Tuesday semifinal doubleheader in baseball for the Open Division at Cal State Northridge, with El Camino Real playing Birmingham at 3 p.m. and Venice facing Sylmar at 6 p.m.
PHOENIX — Former President Biden’s time in office is behind him, but his age and mental acuity have become an issue for the next leaders in his party.
Audio was published Friday from portions of interviews Biden gave to federal prosecutors in 2023, the latest in a stream of reports putting questions about Biden’s health back in the spotlight. Months after former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, a new book alleges that White House aides covered up Biden’s physical and mental decline.
Several potential Democratic contenders for the 2028 nomination have been asked in recent days whether they believe Biden was declining in office or whether he should have sought reelection before a disastrous debate performance led to his withdrawal.
Many Democrats would prefer to focus on President Trump’s second term and his sagging poll numbers. Trump has done his best to prevent that — mentioning Biden’s name an average of six times per day during his first 100 days in office, according to an NBC News analysis — and Republicans have followed his lead, betting that voters frustrated by Trump’s policy moves will still prefer him over memories of another unpopular presidency.
In the race for Virginia governor, one of this year’s highest-profile contests, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is running a pair of digital ads tying Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger to Biden, with images of the two hugging and the former president calling her a friend.
“The stench of Joe Biden still lingers on the Democratic Party,” Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett said. “We have to do the hard work of fixing that, and I think that includes telling the truth, frankly, about when we were wrong.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Politico this week that “there’s no doubt” that Biden, now 82, experienced cognitive decline as president.
Pete Buttigieg, who was Biden’s Transportation secretary, wasn’t as blunt but stopped short of defending Biden’s initial decision to run for reelection. He responded “maybe” when asked Tuesday whether the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden hadn’t declared a bid for a second term.
“Right now, with the advantage of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that’s the case,” Buttigieg told reporters during a stop in Iowa.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he didn’t see signs of mental or physical decline in his meetings with Biden.
“I saw him a few times,” he told CNN this week. “I certainly went to the White House whenever there was an opportunity for me to make the case for something for people in my state. And I never had the experience of anything other than a guy who brought to the table a lot of good ideas about how to solve problems.”
The book “Original Sin,” by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, revives a core controversy of Biden’s presidency: his decision to run for a second term despite voters, including Democrats, telling pollsters that he should not. Biden would have been 86 at the end of a second term had he won in November.
A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to a request for comment.
“We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job,” the spokesperson has told many media outlets in response to the book.
Late Friday, Axios published portions from audio recordings of Biden’s six hours of interviews with prosecutors investigating his handling of classified documents after his term as vice president ended in 2017, for which he was not charged.
The Biden administration had already released transcripts of the interviews, but the recordings shed light on special counsel Robert Hur’s characterization of Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and appeared to validate his claim that the then-president struggled to recall key dates, including the year his son Beau died of cancer — 2015.
Biden and his aides fiercely objected to Hur’s report, which they characterized as a partisan hit. Biden at that time — early 2024 — was still planning to run for a second term and fending off accusations that he was too old for another four years in the job.
The recordings released by Axios include Biden’s discussion of his son’s death. His responses to some of the prosecutors’ questions are punctuated by long pauses, and his lawyers at times stepped in to help him recall dates and timelines.
Before he dropped his reelection bid last summer, Biden faced widespread doubts within his own party, even as Democratic leaders dismissed a series of verbal flubs and Republican allegations about his declining acuity.
In January 2022, a year into Biden’s first term, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that only 48% of Democrats wanted him to seek reelection. That fell to 37% of Democrats in an AP-NORC poll in February 2023. Three-quarters of Americans — and 69% of Democrats — said in August 2023 that they believed Biden was too old to serve as president for another four-year term.
And shortly after his debate flop, nearly two-thirds of Democrats said Biden should withdraw from the race.
Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden appeared on ABC’s “The View” on May 8 in a preemptive defense of his health and decision-making before the first excerpts of “Original Sin” were published.
The former president said he’s responsible for Trump’s victory but attributed Harris’ loss, at least in part, to sexism and racism. He maintained that he would have won had he remained the Democratic nominee. Both Bidens rejected concerns about his cognitive decline.
Patricia McEnerney, a 74-year-old Democrat in Goodyear, Ariz., said Biden should not have tried to run again.
“I think it’s sad the way it ended,” she said.
She compared him to Douglas MacArthur, the World War II and Korean War general famously dismissed by President Truman.
“I think he needs to stop giving interviews. I think that would help,” McEnerney said. “Like MacArthur said, generals just fade away.”
Janet Stumps, a 66-year-old Democrat also from Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, had a different view.
“I don’t think it’s going to hurt the Democrats,” Stumps said. “I feel badly that he feels he has to defend himself. I don’t think he has to. Everybody ages. And the fact that he did what he did at his age, I think he should be commended for it.”
Hackett, the Democratic strategist, predicted Biden won’t be a major factor in the 2026 midterms or the 2028 presidential primaries. But he said Democrats who want voters to trust them would be well-served “by telling the truth about the mistakes that our party made in the run-up to 2024.”
“Those mistakes were largely driven by Joe Biden, and I think any Democrat not willing to say that is not really prepared to face the voters, who want the truth and they want authenticity,” Hackett said.
Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, said Republicans want to talk about Biden to avoid defending Trump. But he said the strategy is folly.
Besides “political nerds,” he said, “no one else cares.”
Cooper writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Thomas Beaumont in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, contributed to this report.
