thought

I may be revealing a secret cherished by columnists the world over, but I admit that among the columns we relish writing the most fall into the “I told you so” genre.

Case in point: In April last year, in a column about the gambling mess ensnaring Shohei Ohtani’s then-interpreter, I warned that the pro sports leagues’ enthusiastic embrace of betting would inevitably produce a major scandal.

“It might not surface in the next months or even years,” I wrote, “but it will happen.”

The calendar, as it turned out, ticked over at 19 months. Last Thursday, federal prosecutors charged National Basketball Assn. player Terry Rozier and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones with fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to fix bets on NBA games. Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was charged in a separate indictment linking him to a Mafia scheme to fix poker games; Jones was also named in that indictment.

The NBA has placed Billups and Rozier on leave. They’re both due to appear in federal court in Brooklyn over the next few weeks to enter pleas, though both have asserted their innocence.

It may not be easy for the league to wash its hands of this mess. All the professional sports leagues spent years shunning gambling as a threat to their public image of integrity before embracing the siren call of big-time sports betting, bringing gambling companies and their ever-increasing customer base into their tents. But the NBA was ahead of the crowd.

In a 2014 op-ed, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver effectively cried “uncle” in the league’s battle against gambling.

“For more than two decades,” he wrote, “the National Basketball Association has opposed the expansion of legal sports betting, as have the other major professional sports leagues in the United States.” The leagues supported a 1992 federal law prohibiting sports betting except in grandfathered venues, such as Las Vegas.

They took a stern position against players and personnel caught betting on their games and their sports, dating to 1919 and the so-called Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series for the benefit of a gambling ring. Major League Baseball hired an austere federal judge, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as its commissioner and gave him unchecked authority to clean up the game. He banned the eight players from baseball forever.

In recent times, Silver observed in his op-ed, the American appetite for sports betting has only risen. Accordingly, he called for legalizing the practice so it could be “brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”

(The 1992 law was overturned by the Supreme Court, and legalized sports betting spread coast to coast.)

Given the subsequent developments, one can tag Silver for his childlike innocence in counting on the government to regulate an industry collecting billions of dollars a year from millions of users while operating with a legal imprimatur.

Silver wrote that among his “most important responsibilities as commissioner of the N.B.A. is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport.”

When I asked the NBA if Silver has had second thoughts about his 2014 op-ed, the league replied, “We continue to believe that a legal, regulated, and monitored sports betting market is far superior to an illegal one operating underground,” and suggested that a single federal regulator would be preferable to the existing state-by-state patchwork, though the activities alleged in the federal indictments almost surely would be crimes in any state. Silver did say during a broadcast interview Friday that the case gave him “a pit in my stomach.”

The league’s ability to monitor the behavior of its own people is questionable. Consider a March 23, 2024, Charlotte Hornets game against the New Orleans Pelicans. According to the indictment, Rozier let the gambling conspirators know that he would take himself out of the game early, allowing them to profit from bets that his stats would fall short of bookmakers’ expectations.

The NBA, alerted by sports wagering companies to “aberrational behavior” involving Rozier in the game, investigated but later said it could find any “violation of NBA rules.”

The NBA can hardly claim to have been blindsided by the new indictments. Only last year, another federal gambling case erupted involving NBA games.

In that case, prosecutors alleged that a gambler named Ammar Awawdeh forced then-Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter to take himself out of a game early. That led gamblers who knew of the arrangement to bet that his stats for the game would fall short of expectations; those insiders made more than $100,000 on their bets, the prosecutors charged.

According to text messages filed with the 2024 indictments, Awawdeh acknowledged “forcing” Porter to participate in the scheme to help clear some of his gambling debts.

Awawdeh engaged in plea negotiations in the case, but the outcome couldn’t be determined. Porter pleaded guilty to related federal fraud charges, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. The NBA has banned Porter for life.

Awawdeh was also named in last week’s indictment over the alleged poker scam.

In recent years, the pro leagues have cozied up to the gambling industry, claiming that their interest is merely “fan engagement” — that is, keeping TV viewers in front of their sets even during blowout games.

Only 11 states bar sports gambling today. They include the customary anti-gambling holdouts Utah and Hawaii, and California, where ballot measures to legalize sports gambling were defeated in 2022. As I mentioned in 2024, the perils of this expansion are manifest.

They’ve created a new underclass of gambling addicts while largely failing to fulfill their advocates’ assurances that state-sponsored and regulated gambling would produce a new, risk-free revenue stream for state and local budgets. The outcomes of some games have come under suspicion even where no evidence of fixing has been found.

The leagues have gone beyond just tolerating gambling; they’ve made partnership and sponsorship deals with the major sports gambling companies. The two leading companies, FanDuel and DraftKings, are official corporate gambling partners of the NBA, National Football League and Major League Baseball.

During broadcasts and steaming of games, it’s common to see in-game statistical projections on-screen — what are the chances of this hitter striking out, or hitting a home run, for instance.

During the seventh inning of Game 2 Saturday, Fox flashed a projection that there was a 36% chance that Yoshinobu Yamamoto would pitch 9+ innings. (He went the distance.)

The only reason to offer such projections is to feed the appetite for in-game proposition, or “prop,” bets. These are fundamentally bookmakers’ estimates. They don’t tell ordinary viewers anything they need to know to enjoy the coming innings, but do give bettors something to chew on before putting money down on the proposition “will Yamamoto pitch a complete game?”

In-game prop bets, as it happens, are like heroin to the vulnerable, offering instant gratification (or dismay). They “may be associated with risky gambling behavior,” according to the National Council on Problem Gaming. Draftkings heavily promotes prop bets on its sportsbook web page.

In a memo issued Monday, the NBA singled out prop bets as trouble spots: “In particular,” the memo says, “proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.”

The major gaming companies have rolled out new ways to keep bettors betting. Smartphone apps, for example. In the old days no one could place a legal sports bet without traveling to Las Vegas, a built-in curb on problem gambling. Today, anyone with a smartphone can place a bet, often without certifying their age or financial resources.

“The advent of smartphones in 2007 and the Supreme Court decision in 2018 opened the door to fully frictionless, 24/7 legal gambling,” problem gambling experts Jonathan D. Cohen and Isaac Rose-Berman wrote recently.

I asked FanDuel and DraftKings if they accepted any responsibility for problem gaming in the U.S. DraftKings didn’t reply. A spokesman for FanDuel told me by email that the company “takes problem gambling seriously and continually works to identify at-risk behavior … including when a customer attempts to deposit significantly more than what they typically do,” or “excessive time on site, chasing losses or signals from customer service interactions.” In those cases, the company sometimes imposes deposit limits or timeouts or can exclude the user entirely.

That brings us to the latest indictments. The feds identified seven NBA games in 2023 and 2024, including the 2023 game in which Rozier allegedly tipped confederates to his decision to bench himself.

Among the others were a 2023 Trail Blazers game in which gamblers were tipped that the team would sit its best players so it would lose, thereby acquiring a better position in the upcoming NBA draft; and two Lakers games in which Jones allegedly tipped gamblers that star LeBron James, a friend since they played together on the Cleveland Cavaliers, was hurt and wouldn’t be playing.

“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight,” Jones allegedly told a contact before the first game, against the Milwaukee Bucks. James sat it out and the Lakers lost. James isn’t identified by name in the indictment, but its description of his roles helped identify him. James hasn’t made a public comment about the case, but he hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.

Can anything stem this tide? The smart bet at this moment is “no.” There’s just too much money riding on the continued expansion of sports betting: DraftKings has more than doubled its revenue since 2022, reaching $4.8 billion last year, and nearly doubling its monthly average users to 3.7 million. FanDuel is owned by a British gambling conglomerate, so its U.S. sports revenue is difficult to parse.

That’s a lot of money to be thrown around promoting more sports gambling, making it harder for governments to regulate and for sports leagues to turn up their noses at the income. Keeping their image for integrity intact in this world of greedy and needy players and voracious gamblers is only going to get harder.

It’s dead certain that if you’ve been a television critic for, ahem, a number of years, you’re going to have reviewed a passel of shows based on the writing of Stephen King, America’s most adapted, if not necessarily most adaptable author. (It’s been a mere three months since the last, “The Institute,” on MGM+.) The latest float in this long parade premieres Sunday on HBO — it’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” a prequel to the 2017 film, “It” (and its 2019 follow-up, “It: Chapter Two”) based on King’s 1986 creepy clown novel, each of which made a packet. (There was a 1990 TV miniseries version as well.)

Developed by Andy Muschietti (director of the films), Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, “Derry” is an extension of the brand rather than an adaptation, which features a white-faced circus-style clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, back from the movies) who lives in the sewer and comes around every 27 years to feed on children’s fear — fear being the preferred dish of many famous monsters of filmland, and white-faced circus clowns having lost all goodwill in the culture. (No thanks to King. Or Krusty.) And while I assume some of the series’ points may be found within King’s original 1,138-page novel, life is short and that is going to have to remain an assumption. In any case, it’s very much a work of television — not what I’d call prestige television, despite a modicum of well-done fright effects — just ordinary, workman-like TV, with monsters. (Or one monster in many forms.)

It’s 1962 in Derry, Maine, and everywhere else. (Subsequent seasons — prequel prequels — will reportedly be set in 1935 and 1908.) The Cold War is heating up. Schoolchildren, forced to watch animated films about the effects of a nuclear blast, are ducking and covering beneath their desks (a psychological rather than a practical exercise). But the threat of annihilation has done nothing to slow them in their teenage rituals. Bullies chase a target down the street. A group of snobby girls is called the Pattycakes, because they play patty cake, and their leader is named Patty. On the other hand are the kids we care about, the outsiders, banded together in unpopularity. It’s a paradoxical quality of horror films that to be an outsider either qualifies you as a hero or the monster — the insiders are usually just food. Not that the monsters are particular about whom they eat.

We open in a movie theater. Robert Preston is on the screen in “The Music Man,” performing “Ya Got Trouble.” (Chronologically accurate foreshadowing!) In the audience is Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a boy way too old to be sucking on a pacifier. Chased from the theater — he’s been sneaking in — it’s a snowy night, and he accepts a ride from a seemingly normal family, who quickly turn abnormal. Suddenly it’s four months later and Matty is an officially missing child.

Taylour Paige, Blake Cameron James and Jovan Adepo play the Hanlon family, who have just moved to Derry, Maine.

(Brooke Palmer / HBO)

The series begins promisingly, setting up (as in “It,” or, hmmm, “Stranger Things”) a company of junior investigators. Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) has a lot of thoughts about aliens and sex; Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler) is studious and serious and has thoughts about Matty. Lilly (Clara Stack) is called “loony” because she spent time in a sanitarium — the King-canonical Juniper Hill Asylum — after her father died in a pickle factory accident. (Not played for laughs, although the pickle is perhaps the funniest of all foods.) Lilly thinks she heard Matty singing “Trouble” through the drain in her bathtub; Ronnie (Amanda Christine), the daughter of the cinema’s projectionist Hank (Stephen Rider), has heard voices in the theater’s pipes. The kids run the film, and supernatural mayhem ensues. It’s pretty crazy! Gross hallucinations — or are they? — will afflict them through the series.

Meanwhile, Air Force Maj. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) has been transferred to the local base, where secret doings are afoot, involving (classic plot line) the military’s desire to claim and weaponize whatever barely understood dangerous thing that’s out there in the woods. (His value to this operation is that he cannot feel fear, the result of a brain injury.) The Hanlons — including wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), a civil rights activist in a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat, and son Will (Blake Cameron James) — are Black (as are Ronnie and her father, seemingly accounting for 100% of Derry’s in-town African American population). “Don’t be looking for trouble,” Leroy tells Charlotte, who responds, “There’s going to be trouble anywhere we go. That’s the country you swore your life to defend.” Will, who is scientific, will become friends with Rich (Arian S. Cartaya), an appealingly goofy kid in a band uniform; they’ll both wind up on the Pennywise case.

Typically, the kids — also including Marge (Matilda Lawler, the secret weapon of “Station Eleven” and “The Santa Clauses”), Lilly’s socially desperate friend — are the strongest element in the story and the show; their energy overwhelms the obviousness of the narrative, and whatever takes us away from them, into pace-slowing side plots, is time less well spent.

What else? There’s a Native American element — including the old Indian burial ground story — represented by Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), who runs a thrift store (called Second Hand Rose, in a nice nod to Fanny Brice) and whose indomitable air makes her a kind of counterpart and potential ally to Charlotte. Manifest destiny gets a mention, and the plot will conventionally pose Native humbleness against white hubris. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is a Black serviceman with a tragic mental gift, used cruelly by his superiors — a familiar King type. Racism is a recurring theme without becoming a consistent plot point, with messages for 2025. (Rich: “This is America. You can’t just throw people in jail for nothing.” Will: “Are we talking about the same country?”)

Also: A statue of Paul Bunyan is going up in town — and in fact a 31-foot-tall Bunyan statue was unveiled in Bangor, Maine, in 1959. This is pointed to a couple of times, so I would imagine some kind of Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man scenario coming in the series’ unseen back half. Or something.

Horror, especially body-horror — there are two monstrous birth sequences in the five episodes, out of nine, available to review — has, you may have noticed, moved from the fringes to the center of popular (even high) culture, with A-list stars signing on and Oscar and Emmy nominations not unlikely. Indeed, the good, cheap, unrespectable, unambitious variety of scare flick has mostly disappeared from the big screen. That “Welcome to Derry” is more of a cheesy B-picture than its makers might like to imagine, assembled from worked-over tropes — somewhat excusable for King having originated many of them — is more in its favor than not. TV remains a haven for cheesiness. Long may it remain so.

A new expanded edition of Maia Kobabe’s award-winning graphic memoir “Gender Queer” will be released next year.

Oni Press has announced that “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” will be available in May. The special hardcover edition of the seminal LGBTQ+ coming of age memoir includes commentary by Kobabe as well as other comic creators and scholars.

“For fans, educators, and anyone else who wants to know more, I am so excited to share ‘Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition,’” Kobabe said in the news release. “Queer and trans cartoonists, comics scholars, and multiple people who appear in the book as characters contributed their thoughts, reactions, and notes to this new edition.”

The new 280-page hardcover will feature “comments on the color design process, on comics craft, on family, on friendship, on the touchstone queer media that inspired me and countless other people searching for meaningful representation, and on the complicated process of self-discovery,” the author added.

Released in 2019, “Gender Queer” follows Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, from childhood into eir young adult years as e navigates gender and sexuality and eir understanding of who e is. The books is a candid look into the nonbinary author’s exploration of identity, chronicling the frustrations and joys and epiphanies of eir journey and self discovery.

A page from “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” by Maia Kobabe.

(Oni Press)

“It’s really hard to imagine yourself as something you’ve never seen,” Kobabe told The Times in 2022. “I know this firsthand because I didn’t meet someone who was out as trans or nonbinary until I was in grad school. It’s weird to grow up and be 25 before you meet someone who is like the same gender as you.”

Since the publication of “Gender Queer,” the political climate has been increasingly hostile to the LGBTQ+ community. Right-wing activists and politicians have pushed for legislation to restrict queer and trans rights, including how sexual orientation and gender identity can be addressed in classrooms. Caught in the crossfire of this conservative, anti-LGBTQ+ culture war, “Gender Queer” has become one of the most challenged and banned books in the United States.

In addition to commentary by Kobabe, “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” will feature comments from fellow artists and comics creatives Jadzia Axelrod, Ashley R. Guillory, Justin Hall, Kori Michele Handwerker, Phoebe Kobabe, Hal Schrieve, Rani Som, Shannon Watters and Andrea Colvin. Sandra Cox, Ajuan Mance and Matthew Noe are among the academic figures who contributed to the new edition.

“It’s been almost seven years since I wrote the final words of this memoir; revisiting these pages today, in a radically different and less accepting political climate, sparked a lot of new thoughts for me as well,” Kobabe said in the news release. “I hope readers enjoy this even richer text full of community voices.”

A page from “Gender Queer: The Annotated Edition” by Maia Kobabe.

(Oni Press)

IF you ski down through the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.

Especially when you are in Hundfjallet — one of four ski areas in the Swedish mountain resort Salen.

A magical beginner slope winds through a Troll Forest where dozens of wooden statues protrude from the snow, singing and telling folk tales.

My young kids liken this enchanted realm to the lands of Elsa and Anna in Disney movie Frozen.

And there’s even a ski-thru McDonald’s too — see right.

It is the first time I’ve taken my family skiing and the children are spellbound from the get-go.

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Making their way through the mythical woods of Trollskogen, they look in wonder.

The only things that stop them begging to return immediately to the top of the run are a log cabin serving hot chocolate near an open fire — and an open-air theatre with a dance show featuring the resort’s mascot, Snowman Valle.

Aside from it being wonderfully child-friendly, one of the best things about Salen is how quickly you can get there.

The resort, in west-central Sweden, near the Norwegian border, is just a two-hour flight from the UK then a ten-minute transfer.

Within an hour of landing at the airport, we had dumped our bags, got completely kitted out — including with ski pass, part of our deal from operator Sunweb — and were gliding down the pistes.

All of this was made even easier by our 4H “ski in and ski out” SkiStar Lodge apartment hotel, which has everything you could wish for within a short walk, from ski school, ski rental and sledging hill, to luxury spa, restaurants, playroom, creche and supermarket.

Salen is generally suited more to beginner and intermediate skiiers. But with 101 runs, including some nice off-piste, back-country routes, and a 45-degree black run called The Wall, there is enough to keep even the most advanced occupied.

If you are looking for an alternative to downhill skiing or boarding, the area also offers dog-sled rides, Ski-Doo snowmobile trails, and superb cross-country skiing.

After a tiring day on the mountain you can simply slide back to the hotel — which has a vast storage room for all your gear — and head to the bar for authentic Swedish apres ski.

Yes, that means Abba songs, as well as lots of sing-along tunes for the kids — while they energise on their slush puppies with marshmallows, and the adults relax with a beer and bowls of hot, salty chips.

Another great way to unwind after all that exertion on the mountain is the on-site Frost Spa, where you can look at the ski slopes from a steaming outdoor pool, relax in two tingling-hot Jacuzzis, melt away in the sauna and steam rooms, and get a Swedish massage — before a drink at the bar.

Salen also comprises the busier Lindvallen ski area — 20 minutes away on the free bus — where you can grab a burger and chips in the world’s one and only ski-thru McDonald’s.

Lindvallen also has a ten-pin bowling alley, arcade and the SkiStar Experium fun pool with surf simulator and two exciting waterslides for the kids to go wild in.

At day’s end, back at the hotel, the children can also enjoy free table tennis, pool and shuffleboard until they are ready to drop.

And when they are finally tucked up in bed, adults can settle down in front of the apartments’ giant TVs  and watch Frozen or listen to Abba songs.

Just Gimme, gimme, gimme another Swedish ski holiday.

AS I look down into the valley below, I spot the unmistakable outline of the Golden Arches gleaming in the snow.

Peeling off my gloves, I unlock my phone screen and hit the McDonald’s app, ordering two Happy Meals, a Big Mac and a McChicken sandwich.

I’ve never seen my children ski as quickly as they did to the hatch to collect our order.

The world’s only McSki in Sweden’s Lindvallen, is decked out like an Alpine chalet with stone and wood features and can seat up to 170 people.

It offers all the same menu items that can be found in other McDonald’s around the world and the prices are comparable to back home in England – with main meals costing around £7.

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This means you can get a pretty cheap lunch compared to other mountain restaurant options.

Who can say no to that?

MANCHESTER UNITED wonderkid Jim Thwaites has been hailed as a “cheat code” by fans.

The youngster has been added to first-team training by manager Ruben Amorim.

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Thwaites, 17, plays in central midfield and has already seen comparisons to United legends David Beckham and Paul Scholes.

Reports have claimed that he trained with United’s senior players on Friday.

This came following his brilliant performances in the youth sides so far this season.

It is claimed that he is viewed as one of the most technically good players in the academy.

It is added that Amorim and his coaching staff have been impressed in the sessions he has had with the first team.

Thwaites has also been likened to Barcelona and Spain midfielder Pedri with his ball skills.

This is extended to his passing vision as he often breaks defensive lines with his through balls.

The midfielder also possesses plenty of ability in carrying the ball forward up the pitch.

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There is said to be some hope among the coaching staff that he can continue to impress and get an opportunity in the first team this season.

Thwaites has made 48 appearances across the United U18s and U21s, scoring 12 goals and assisting four times.

He was a part of the U18s side that won their age category Premier League in the 2023/2024 season.

Videos of his performances have started to flood social media, leaving plenty of fans optimistic over his potential.

Clips of his matches showed he was comfortable on the ball and able to beat opposition presses multiple times.

One fan posted: “Jim Thwaites is a first-phase cheat code.

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“Press him at any speed, from any angle, he will find a solution and move his team up the pitch.”

A second wrote: “This is more of what we need in our midfield.”

A third commented: “I am always happy watching this boy play, very good player.”

A fourth said: “They not ready for this Michael Carrick regen.”

Another added: “Like Scholes and Beckham wrapped into one.”

Thwaites appeared for United in the pre-season 1-0 defeat to ASEAN All-Stars and left a good impression on Amorim.

The manager suggested that there would be “space” in the squad for players like the teenager.

He said: “I think Jimmy [Thwaites], in the last 15 minutes, as a midfielder, he wants to play.

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“It doesn’t matter how many minutes. These kind of young kids are really important. They will have space in our team.”

Meanwhile, United will be itching to get back on the pitch to try and keep the momentum after beating Sunderland before the international break.

Their first match will be away at Anfield against the reigning Prem champions Liverpool.

This will then be followed by clashes with Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest.

Former USC quarterback and current Fox NFL analyst Mark Sanchez was stabbed early Saturday morning and is being treated in an Indianapolis hospital.

Fox Sports said in a statement that Sanchez, 38, is recovering and in stable condition.

“We are deeply grateful to the medical team for their exceptional care and support. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mark, and we ask that everyone please respect his and his family’s privacy during this time,” the Fox Sports statement read.

Sanchez, who was Indianapolis ahead of an assignment to cover the Raiders-Colts game, was injured following a fight in downtown Indianapolis at around 12:30 a.m.

The Indianapolis Metro Police Department released a statement that read: “Detectives believe this was an isolated incident between two men and not a random act of violence.”

Sanchez, who was born in Long Beach, led Mission Viejo to a 27-1 record as a starting quarterback, winning a Southern Section Division II title in 2004.

He played at USC from 2006-08, passing for 3,965 yards and 41 touchdowns. During his final season at USC, he passed for 3,207 yards and 34 touchdowns as the Trojans posted a 12-1 record and won the Rose Bowl.

Despite objections from then-USC coach Pete Carroll, Sanchez left school early to enter the NFL draft. He was selected by the Jets with the No. 5 pick and went on to play eight NFL seasons, posting a 37-36 record as a starter.

He spent four seasons with the Jets, starting each of his 62 games while throwing for 12,092 yards and 68 touchdowns with 69 interceptions. The Jets lost in the AFC championship in each of Sanchez’s first two years in the league.

Sanchez also appeared in games with Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington. He finished his playing career with 15,357 yards passing, 86 TD passes and 89 interceptions.

The Jets and several of Sanchez’s former teammates posted message of support on social media on Saturday.

“Sending our thoughts and love to Mark Sanchez and his family. Hoping for a speedy recovery, 6,” the Jets said, using Sanchez’s former jersey number.

“Send prayers up for my former teammate mark.. sucks so much to see this,” Kerry Rhodes wrote.

“So sad. Pray for his recovery,” Nick Mangold wrote.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

Can you really visit one of New York’s most upmarket borough’s on a budget? I visited this wallet-friendly hotel and felt like I was staying in a boutique haven.

When I arrived in upmarket New York City neighbourhood Chelsea to see the sprawling streets of flower markets, trendy art galleries and Madison Square Garden in eyeshot, I had a feeling this trip wasn’t going to be kind on my wallet.

But the hidden gem hotel I stayed in showed me that you don’t always have to choose between luxury and sticking to a budget. Nestled between the string of flower stalls gracing 28th St, the Moxy Chelsea hotel blends in almost too well—with greenery surrounding the entrance and a structure to match its neighbours. You would be forgiven for missing it despite its towering 35-floor height.

With rates from $189 (£141) per night, the four-star Moxy Chelsea – one of the brand’s five hotels across the city – sits right in the competitive price point for the city, which has an average of $300 per night for a hotel stay.

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The hotel doesn’t pretend to have all the bells and whistles, with a modern check-in area replacing a typical hotel lobby and a grab-and-go style café, Café d’Avignon, serving breakfast rather than a kitchen serving up full American fry-ups. However, guests do get a $25 voucher to spend at the café, which will get you a cappuccino or one of their fresh baked goods. The almond croissant and banana bread were personal favourites.

With a contemporary design and gorgeous interiors across the building, it was easy to forget I wasn’t in a luxury hotel, with a boutique feel throughout.

Stepping into our King View room certainly felt luxurious, with floor-to-ceiling windows allowing me to have a full view of Manhattan’s skyscrapers from the bed. New York isn’t known for its large hotel rooms, and the Moxy doubles down on this with more compact rooms than you’d usually find on holiday.

But what it lacks in size, the room makes up for in detail without feeling cramped. The rooms have a deconstructed bathroom design, which means the sink—doubling as a vanity—is in the main room, while the shower and toilet are side by side and separated by sliding doors.

Mitchell Hochberg, the architect who designed the hotel, told me that he refused to go budget on the small details. “The things we didn’t scrimp on were the shower, which we made sure was high pressure and good quality, and the beds. The bedding is the same quality used in the Ritz-Carlton,” he said.

With plenty of vibrant touches, such as a vintage telephone that tells bedtime stories and bottle openers attached to the doors, I doubt you’d find that at the Ritz.

While they offer comfort and hard-to-beat views, the hotel rooms aren’t somewhere you’d entertain and serve as more of a crash pad in the city. But the rest of the hotel has plenty going on to make sure you don’t need to leave.

I visited at the end of July, which meant the hotel was bustling with guests and summertime activities. With constant events such as drag bingo, paint and sip nights, pizza parties, and DJ performances, Moxy Chelsea has enough going on to keep you busy every night.

One thing I noticed while walking around the hotel was its popularity with locals, who pop in and out to use the several on-site bars. I headed up to The Fleur Room, Moxy Chelsea’s 360-rooftop, to find plenty of New Yorkers enjoying after-work drinks and cocktails. All with the Empire State Building in eyeshot.

Despite the hotel’s low price point, you can experience a touch of luxury at The Fleur Room, which offers upmarket cocktails, champagne, and well-known wines such as Whispering Angel. The venue, which has a separate entrance to the main hotel for non-guests, has even served the NFL and A-list guests for events.

Then there’s the first-floor bar, which doubles as a work-from-home space for nearby residents to come and work from, with meeting rooms and plug sockets all around the relaxed bar area.

After arriving at the hotel, I decided to take in my surroundings with a walk around the block, and was surprised to stumble across Madison Square Garden and foodie haven Chelsea Market less than 10 minutes after leaving, with Times Square less than 20 minutes away.

My jet lag meant that I was heading to the nearby Starbucks at 5am every morning, which turned into a positive as I managed to catch the flower wholesalers unpacking for the day on my doorstep. They transformed the whole street into a carpet of gorgeous blooms.

My stay at Moxy Chelsea left me with a newfound love for the borough and the realisation that you don’t need to spend your life savings to have a taste of the high life in the city that never sleeps.

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Moxy Chelsea room rates start at $189 (£141) per night. Book at moxychelsea.com

A woman has shared her frustration after an ‘entitled’ passenger tried to steal her plane seat – but she managed to get the last laugh with a cutting response on the flight

A woman has hit out at an ‘entitled’ passenger who stole her plane seat and tried to pull it off with ‘main character energy’. She detailed her experience on a nine-hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Bali, which had two economy sections.

The first section was described as “big and crowded”, but she had the foresight to pre-book a seat in the second section where every seat boasted extra leg room. Taking to Reddit, she shared: “Guess which one I booked? Yep, the smaller one, because I actually planned ahead, paid the higher fare, and got the perks (priority boarding, luggage, and that sweet legroom).

“Boarding finishes, and the woman next to me slides into the empty window seat, leaving the middle empty. Dream scenario: me on the aisle, her on the window, and glorious space in between.

“I’m snuggled up under a blanket, headphones in, hoodie up. Universal ‘do not disturb’ mode activated.”

Once the aircraft reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign went off, the woman felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see a woman in her late 20s to early 30s grinning at her.

The woman continued: “She starts with, ‘Wow, you look so comfortable!’ Translation: she’s about to make me uncomfortable.

“She explains she wants me to swap seats with her so she and her friend (currently seated in the sardine can section) can take my aisle and the free middle seat.

“Her seat? Somewhere back in the busy main cabin, absolutely not extra legroom. I just smiled and said: ‘No thank you.’ Her jaw dropped.

“She tried to argue, so I spelled it out, ‘This is a paid extra legroom cabin. I booked it in advance, it wasn’t free, and I’m not giving it up so two adults who didn’t plan ahead can sit together’.”

She says the entitled woman looked at her as if she’d just “slapped her across the face” before walking away with a sour expression.

She added: “I put my headphones back on, hoodie up, and turned toward the window. Curtain closed on that conversation.

“The absolute audacity of people never ceases to amaze me. Pay for your seat like the rest of us.”

Commenting on her post, one user said: “I can’t believe the hide of some people.”

While someone else added: “My brother is tall so he always books the extra legroom seats. He also travels pretty often.

“He has told me that on almost every flight he is on someone will try to get him to swap with them to some squished no no-legroom seat. He has mastered the ‘f*** off’ and ‘what part of f*** off don’t you understand?'”

A third user said: “My come back line as always is….. ‘sure for $1,000 (£743) cash, you can have the seat, that’s my price.'”

Antonia Lambert intially noticed something was wrong with her daughter Delilah in March, before it was discovered in June that she had a rare and serious condition

When Antonia Lambert took her 17-month-old daughter Delilah-Rose Lambert to the opticians earlier this year, she had no idea what was about to transpire.

Antonia, 20, had noticed her daughter’s left eye shine white and wanted to find out why. After the opticians referred her to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, they attended an appointment, after which they were sent home when nothing was found.

When Delilah started rubbing her left eye constantly and developed a fear of the dark just weeks later, Antonia, from South Killingholme in North Lincolnshire, was referred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

It was there that doctors made a tragic discovery. In June, three months after symptoms had first been noticed, Delilah was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma. According to the NHS, this is a rare type of eye cancer that can affect young children.

Following the diagnosis, which Delilah’s family believed caused her fear of the dark because she could see less, Antonia’s daughter had to have her entire left eye removed.

Although Delilah has now been given a temporary prosthetic, it will be a few more weeks before she receives a longer-lasting one. While the situation cannot be changed, hairdresser Antonia believes that, had they not been initially dismissed, her daughter might still have her left eye.

Speaking about the beginnings of their horrific ordeal, Antonia spoke about how she first came to notice something was wrong with her daughter.

She said: “We had a lamp on in our room and one of her pupils looked white. We didn’t think much of it but she started to get wobbly so we took her to get her eyes tested.

“[Before her diagnosis], she refused to settle in her room and would cry for hours until I put a light on or took her out of that room.”

Antonia also spoke about how hard it was to hear that her daughter had such a difficult diagnosis. She said: “There were so many emotions at the time and I didn’t know how to feel. I sat and cried for days.

“I think most of the frustration was with our local hospital because they decided her eye wasn’t important enough to examine at the start and it made me think that it could have been different. The tumour might have been smaller if she was seen earlier and they could have potentially saved her eye.”

Despite the heartbreak, Antonia is determined to raise awareness of retinoblastoma so that other parents know what symptoms to look for and can act quickly.

She urged: “You need to trust your gut and push as much as possible. We didn’t push enough at the start, but we kept going and going – and she ended up getting her eye removed.

“It’s not massively common. We were told 30 to 40 kids a year in the UK get diagnosed with this. You don’t think it’s going to be you – until it is.

“Opticians don’t usually test children’s eyes under four unless there are concerns, but if you spot anything unusual, you definitely need to get their sight checked.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NHS Humber Health Partnership said: “We are sorry to hear about the difficulties Miss Lambert and her daughter encountered at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital earlier this year.

“We would be keen for her to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service team so we can discuss the issues with her in more detail and allow us to investigate fully.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Administrators at the state university’s campus in Colorado Springs thought they stood a solid chance of dodging the Trump administration’s offensive on higher education.

Located on a picturesque bluff with a stunning view of Pikes Peak, the school is far removed from the Ivy League colleges that have drawn President Trump’s ire. Most of its students are commuters, getting degrees while holding down full-time jobs. Students and faculty alike describe the university, which is in a conservative part of the blue state of Colorado, as politically subdued, if not apolitical.

That optimism was misplaced.

An Associated Press review of thousands of pages of emails from school officials, as well as interviews with students and professors, reveals that school leaders, teachers and students soon found themselves in the Republican administration’s crosshairs, forcing them to navigate what they described as an unprecedented and haphazard degree of change.

Whether Washington has downsized government departments, rescinded funding or launched investigations into diversity programs or campus antisemitism, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs has confronted many of the same challenges as elite universities across the nation.

The school lost three major federal grants and found itself under investigation by the Trump Education Department. In the hopes of avoiding that scrutiny, the university renamed websites and job titles, all while dealing with pressure from students, faculty and staff who wanted the school to take a more combative stance.

“Uncertainty is compounding,” the school’s chancellor told faculty at a February meeting, according to minutes of the session. “And the speed of which orders are coming has been a bit of a shock.”

The college declined to make any administrators available to be interviewed. A spokesman asked the AP to make clear that any professors or students interviewed for this story were speaking for themselves and not the institution. Several faculty members also asked for anonymity, either because they did not have tenure or they did not want to call unnecessary attention to themselves and their scholarship in the current political environment.

“Like our colleagues across higher education, we’ve spent considerable time working to understand the new directives from the federal government,” the chancellor, Jennifer Sobanet, said in a statement provided to the AP.

Students said they have been able to sense the stress being felt by school administrators and professors.

“We have administrators that are feeling pressure, because we want to maintain our funding here. It’s been tense,” said Ava Knox, a rising junior who covers the university administration for the school newspaper.

Faculty, she added, “want to be very careful about how they’re conducting their research and about how they’re addressing the student population. They are also beholden to this new set of kind of ever-changing guidelines and stipulations by the federal government.”

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Misplaced optimism

Shortly after Trump won a second term in November, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs leaders were trying to gather information on the incoming president’s plans. In December, Sobanet met the newly elected Republican congressman who represented the school’s district, a conservative area that Trump won with 53% of the vote. In her meeting notes obtained by the AP, the chancellor sketched out a scenario in which the college might avoid the drastic cuts and havoc under the incoming administration.

“Research dollars — hard to pull back grant dollars but Trump tried to pull back some last time. The money goes through Congress,” Sobanet wrote in notes prepared for the meeting. “Grant money will likely stay but just change how they are worded and what it will fund.”

Sobanet also observed that dismantling the federal Education Department would require congressional authorization. That was unlikely, she suggested, given the U.S. Senate’s composition.

Like many others, she did not fully anticipate how aggressively Trump would seek to transform the federal government.

Conservatives’ desire to revamp higher education began well before Trump took office.

They have long complained that universities have become bastions of liberal indoctrination and raucous protests. In 2023, Republicans in Congress had a contentious hearing with several Ivy League university leaders. Shortly after, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned. During the presidential campaign last fall, Trump criticized campus protests against the war in Gaza, as well as what he said was a liberal bias in classrooms.

His new administration opened investigations into alleged antisemitism at several universities. It froze more than $400 million in research grants and contracts at Columbia, along with more than $2.6 billion at Harvard. Columbia reached an agreement last month to pay $220 million to resolve the investigation.

When Harvard filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s actions, his administration tried to block the school from enrolling international students. The Trump administration has also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

Northwestern University, Penn, Princeton and Cornell have seen big chunks of funding cut over how they dealt with the protests about Israel’s war in Gaza or over the schools’ support for transgender athletes.

Trump’s decision to target the wealthiest, most prestigious institutions provided some comfort to administrators at the approximately 4,000 other colleges and universities in the country.

Most higher education students in the United States are educated at regional public universities or community colleges. Such schools have not typically drawn attention from culture warriors.

Students and professors at UCCS hoped Trump’s crackdown would bypass the school and others like it.

“You’ve got everyone — liberals, conservatives, middle of the road” at the college, said Jeffrey Scholes, a professor in the philosophy department. “You just don’t see the kind of unrest and polarization that you see at other campuses.”

The purse strings

The federal government has lots of leverage over higher education. It provides about $60 billion a year to universities for research. In addition, a majority of students in the U.S. need grants and loans from various federal programs to help pay tuition and living expenses.

This budget year, UCCS got about $19 million in research funding from a combination of federal, state and private sources. Though that is a relatively small portion of the school’s overall $369-million budget, the college has made a push in recent years to bolster its campus research program by taking advantage of grant money from government agencies such as the U.S. Defense Department and National Institutes of Health. The widespread federal grant cut could derail those efforts.

School officials were dismayed when the Trump administration terminated research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation, emails show. The grants funded programs in civics, cultural preservation and boosting women in technology fields.

School administrators scrambled to contact federal officials to learn whether other grants were on the chopping block, but they struggled to find answers, the records show.

School officials repeatedly sought out the assistance of federal officials only to learn those officials were not sure what was happening as the Trump administration halted grant payments, fired thousands of employees and closed agencies.

“The sky is falling” at NIH, a university official reported in notes on a call in which the school’s lobbyists were providing reports of what was happening in Washington.

There are also concerns about other changes in Washington that will affect how students pay for college, according to interviews with faculty and education policy experts.

While only Congress can fully abolish the Department of Education, the Trump administration has tried to dramatically cut back its staff and parcel out many of its functions to other agencies. The administration laid off nearly 1,400 employees, and problems have been reported in the systems that handle student loans. Management of student loans is expected to shift to another agency.

In addition, an early version of a major funding bill in Congress included major cuts to tuition grants. Though that provision did not make it into the law, Congress did cap loans for students seeking graduate degrees. That policy could have ripple effects in the coming years on institutions such as UCCS that rely on tuition dollars for their operating expenses.

DEI and transgender issues

To force change on campus, the Trump administration has begun investigations targeting diversity programs and efforts to combat antisemitism.

The Education Department, for example, opened an investigation in March targeting a PhD scholarship program that partnered with 45 universities, including the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, to expand opportunities for women and nonwhites in graduate education. The administration alleged the program was only open to certain nonwhite students and amounted to racial discrimination.

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news UCCS is included on the list” of schools being investigated, wrote Annie Larson, assistant vice president of federal relations and outreach for the entire University of Colorado system.

“Oh wow, this is surprising,” wrote back Hillary Fouts, dean of the graduate school at UCCS.

UCCS also struggled with how to handle executive orders, particularly those on transgender issues.

In response to an order that aimed to revoke funds to schools that allowed trans women to play women’s sports, UCCS began a review of its athletic programs. It determined it had no transgender athletes, the records show. University officials were also relieved to discover that only one school in their athletic conference was affected by the order, and UCCS rarely if ever had matches or games against that school.

“We do not have any students impacted by this and don’t compete against any teams that we are aware of that will be impacted by this,” wrote the vice chancellor for student affairs to colleagues.

Avoiding the spotlight

The attacks led UCCS to take preemptive actions and to self-censor in the hopes of saving programs and avoiding the Trump administration’s spotlight.

Emails show that the school’s legal counsel began looking at all the university’s websites and evaluating whether any scholarships might need to be reworded. The university changed the web address of its diversity initiatives from www.diversity.uccs.edu to www.belonging.uccs.edu.

And the administrator responsible for the university’s division of Inclusive Culture & Belonging got a new job title in January: director of strategic initiatives. University professors said the school debated whether to rename the Women’s and Ethnic Studies department to avoid drawing attention from Trump, but so far the department has not been renamed.

Along the same lines, UCCS administrators have sought to avoid getting dragged into controversies, a frequent occurrence in the first Trump administration. UCCS officials attended a presentation from the education consulting firm EAB, which encouraged schools not to react to every news cycle. That could be a challenge because some students and faculty are calling for vocal resistance on issues from climate change to immigration.

Soon after Trump was sworn in, for example, a staff member in UCCS’s sustainability program began pushing the University of Colorado system to condemn Trump’s withdrawal from an international agreement to tackle climate change. It was the type of statement universities had issued without thinking twice in past administrations.

In an email, UCCS’ top public relations executive warned his boss: “There is a growing sentiment among the thought leadership in higher ed that campus leaders not take a public stance on major issues unless they impact their campus community.”

Tau writes for the Associated Press. AP education writer Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.

People have been left in stitches of laughter after hearing about a woman’s story while holidaying in Ibiza – she thought she had hit the jackpot and met Wayne Lineker but the truth left her red-faced

A young woman on a girls’ holiday with her mate was absolutely buzzing after she believed she’d encountered her “hero”, Wayne Lineker. Gary Lineker ‘s brother can frequently be found chatting to punters at his cherished party destination, Ocean Beach in Ibiza – with countless visitors clamouring for snaps with his during their visit.

The Spanish beach club has enjoyed tremendous success since launching 13 years ago, and remains essential for Brits visiting the party isle. Celebrities including Ed Sheeran, Jason Derulo, Jack Grealish and Conor McGregor have been photographed at the San Antonio venue. One woman was thrilled after meeting who she believed was Wayne Lineker, who has remained single for seven years.

She became even more excited when he reportedly offered to buy her a drink. The party-goer was holidaying with a friend she’s called Faye, and the duo were staying at Ibiza Rocks. One day while at the poolside party hotel, the two women were approached by some “absolute sorts” they nicknamed “Ibiza Final Bosses”. The blokes invited them to Ocean Beach for the day, which they accepted.

She and her mate headed to the beach club with the group and claims she was “having the time of her life” with them, until something caught her attention. She revealed in a frank TikTok video : “Out the corner of my eye I could see Wayne Lineker. I know exactly who Wayne Lineker is, I know he is into brunettes.”

READ MORE: Cruise ship worker shares reality of life onboard and ‘common’ secret

She continued: “My mate Faye doesn’t know who he is. He approaches and asks ‘do you want a drink’. I respond ‘I’ve got my own drinks but sure I’d love you to get me a drink’. So we end up spending time with Wayne Lineker and his companion, let’s call him Barry for the story.”

Lacy explained she and her friend departed from the initial group they’d joined at the beach club, hoping to spend their day with ‘Wayne’ and his mate. She observed they were having “a great time”.

The pair were invited to an afterparty at the location where the two men were staying. Lacy revealed: “I’m like absolutely, I’m thinking there’s going to a party, this is going to be lit, me and Wayne are going to be a thing, I’m literally going to come back to Torquay engaged. I manifested the whole thing.”

However, she began feeling doubtful when they climbed into a vehicle to reach the party. “I thought we were going to get into a Range Rover, it wasn’t quite that,” she revealed.

Lacy explained she hadn’t realised how intoxicated they were until that point. She described how they exited the car and entered a hotel, despite anticipating a large villa gathering.

“It is a disappointment to say the least,” she remarked.

Please note the follow video contains strong language.

She continued: “So we’re all sat in this twin room with Wayne, Barry, my mate Faye and me. They’re like ‘do you want a drink’, I’m like ‘yeah sure’. Anyway we do the whole formal thing of asking each other’s names.”

Lacy revealed she jokingly asked ‘Wayne’ what his name was, completely convinced it was him, and was stunned when he replied saying ‘Tim’.

She explained: “I said you’re so funny. He goes, ‘what do you mean’. I go ‘you’re name’s not Tim’, he goes ‘yeah my name’s Tim’. So it’s at that moment I realise what I’ve done. This ain’t Wayne Lineker.”

She continued: “I realised I have royally f***ed up. I have brought us to the back end of Ibiza where I have never even visited with this guy Tim – and now come to think of it, he doesn’t even look anything like Wayne Lineker. I am that lit, I’m stuck in this crazy hotel room with my mate.”

She feigned illness so she and her pal could make their getaway.

But matters got worse when they couldn’t find a taxi for more than an hour.

Lacy continued: “I am stuck in a hotel room with f***ing Barry, Wayne, Faye, and me drinking the worst f***ing prosecco while all the Ibiza final bosses are at a party.”

Wayne Lineker, who also runs Linekers bars and Bam-Bu-Ku, spotted the post and replied in the comments.

Wayne quipped: “Who’s Barry? Must be Dean Gaffney.”

Lacy fired back: “No way has Wayne entered the chat. Deffo not as hot as Dean Gaffney, more like Barry from Eastenders. Don’t worry Wayne I would recognise you in a crowded room any day of the week…it was an off brand night.”

The video was a hit with viewers, with one quipping: “What in the Jet 2 Holidays is going on here.”

Another chimed in with: “Wayne Lineker from Temu,”. A third couldn’t contain their laughter, commenting: “I am crying,” while another person penned: “I have never laughed so much at 7am on a Sunday morning.”

Another fan added: “Haha brilliant. Knew that was coming. Sounds like something I’d do. At least you have a great story to tell.”

One viewer shared a personal anecdote, stating: “Wayne Lineker tried chatting me up in his bar in Tenerife 35 years ago! He’s spent his life trying to pull women. I think you can do better.”

LYING in bed at night 68-year-old Melanie O’Reilly lay awake worrying about how she couldn’t afford to quit her £23,500 a year, 37.5-hour a week job working in a call centre. 

She was £13,000 in debt and knew she couldn’t afford to pay the £500 a month repayments to the bank – but she was desperately unhappy in her job.

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Her days were spent fielding angry calls from Hounslow residents complaining about council tax and housing benefit. 

She had moved from South Africa to England in September 2019 with no savings but found a job quickly due to her past career in office furniture sales. 

However, the pandemic hit and in October 2020 she was made redundant before struggling to find a job at a call centre in the local council in Hounslow, West London in February 2022. 

“I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was sitting there most days in full-blown migraine feeling like I had sandpaper in my eyes, until I couldn’t see the screen anymore,” Melanie, now 69, said.

“I had been very good at my job in South Africa, and I was excellent at sales.”

“Suddenly I was being micromanaged by a 26-year-old, who would count how many times I went to the toilet in a day, and tell me off if I took 31 seconds on a call instead of 30 seconds.

“The staff turnover was ridiculously high and it started to affect my physical and mental health.”

Melanie, who had previously worked as an insurance PA in London before the move to South Africa, was utterly fed up, and knew she had to retire – but had no idea how she could do so with her mounting debt.

She had lent her son and daughter-in-law, who had also moved to the UK, money for a deposit on a home in Colne, Lancashire – but then disaster struck. 

Suddenly her daughter-in-law was made redundant shortly after they had their first child, meaning they couldn’t pay Melanie back as quickly as they’d planned. 

Melanie was also dealing with the financial fall out of splitting from her partner and she took out a £15,000 personal loan and she had mounting credit card debt of £3,000. 

Worryingly one in three people approaching retirement now have debt, with the average over-65 borrower owing £17,000, according to Money Wellness. 

Financial anxiety among the 65 to 74 age group has more than doubled since 2021.

“I had the personal loan, but I was not behind in my payments and I just knew, ‘I’ve got to leave. I have to retire.

“If I don’t, I am going to have a breakdown’,” Melanie said. 

“I decided to retire and I did, in April 2024. I called up Lloyds Bank and I said, ‘I’ve got this personal loan with you and I know that a few months from now I’m going to end up not being able to pay you.’

“I knew I had to take preventative measures before I got behind in any of my payments.

“I was hugely concerned about how to get Lloyds Bank to agree to a reduced monthly payment. 

“I knew I couldn’t pay them back £500 a month, and I knew they wouldn’t negotiate a new loan with me because I was unemployed, as I was now retired with no real income.”

Lloyds put Melanie in touch with Money Wellness, one of the largest providers of debt advice and debt solutions in the UK.

Money Wellness provides free, confidential support to anyone struggling with money or debt, with support available online 24/7 or over the phone, so people can get help in the way that suits them best.

Melanie still owed £13,000 of the £15,000 personal loan. She called Money Wellness, and they asked her to draw up an income and expense statement.

Advisors went through her statement in detail, making allowances for everything from clothing to haircuts, and calculating how much she could afford to pay back each month to help Melanie put a debt management plan in place.

“They were so empathetic and professional,” Melanie explains.  

“We revised the budget down to a manageable figure that I could pay Lloyds Bank back and by the end of it, it felt like this was too good to be true.

“They took the burden of negotiations off my shoulders and it was all done seamlessly for me without me having to worry about anything.”

The adviser told Melanie that they would negotiate the figure she had to pay back directly with Lloyds Bank, to the extent of setting up a debit order.

“After the call, I sat back and wept,” Melanie remembers. 

“I was hugely concerned because when I was working at the council, I had people calling me up saying, ‘I’ve got the bailiffs at my door. They’re bashing my door down. What do I do?’

“I did not want to be in that position, and I knew that that is a reality that can and does happen.

“I did not want to go anywhere near being that person who’s got the bailiff bashing at your door. That is why I nipped it in the bud before it became a problem.”

From paying £500 a month back, Melanie now pays back £134 a month, with no added interest. 

She lives in a HMO in Burnley so she doesn’t pay utility bills or council tax and receives housing benefits and pension credit.  

Her repayments come from a small state pension, pension credit and housing benefits.

She receives £456.64 state pension, £451.56 pension credit and £368.20 housing benefit every four weeks.

She’d had to spend her small private pension on replacing her car after a car accident, and buying essentials like furniture. 

Money Wellness reviews her plan annually, adjusting the amount if her income changes.

Melanie feels positive about the future and says the debt advice she received from Money Wellness is “the best decision I ever took”.

“For so long, I’d sat with this worrisome burden, thinking ‘I need to retire but I’ve got this debt. What do I do?’ Then these angels from heaven stepped up and helped me,” she adds.

“I feel as though a mountain had been lifted off my shoulders.”

BY rights, I shouldn’t really be talking to The Black Keys duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney.

But here they are on a Zoom call with me to discuss their thirteenth studio album, No Rain, No Flowers.

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The 11 tracks are coming kicking and screaming into the sunlight earlier than expected — and for good reason.

Last September, The Black Keys were supposed to start a North American arena tour in support of their previous album, Ohio Players, noted for songs written with Noel Gallagher and Beck.

But, to their dismay, the dates were scrapped, prompting the pair to fire their management team.

Without going into detail, Auerbach says: “The first thing I wanted to do was kill somebody and the second thing I wanted to do was kill somebody.”

Carney adds: “I don’t want to get into it too much because we’ve gotten letters telling us not to talk about it by one of the most powerful people in the music industry.

“We got f***ed by the person who was supposed to be looking out for us.

“So, because of some bad advice, we were left with no plans for the summer. We had to take one on the chin.”

The situation was a rare mis-step in The Black Keys’ upward trajectory, which stretches back nearly 25 years.

Starting out in a dingy basement in Akron, Ohio, childhood friends Auerbach and Carney took their exhilarating mix of bluesy garage rock to the world stage, drawing on soul, hip hop, psychedelia, you name it, along the way.

Their new album, however, is the product of unplanned time on their hands. Still smarting from losing their tour, they convened at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in his adopted hometown of Nashville — and set about turning adversity into triumph.

‘Reminder of the power of our music’

“We realised that maybe we’d better do something positive with this free time,” says the singer/guitarist.

“So we dove head first into working with people we’d never met and trying things we’d never tried before as a band. Ultimately, it really helped us.”

For drummer Carney, it was a natural reaction to what had happened.

“When Dan and I are not on the road, we’re in the studio,” he says.

“So we thought, ‘Let’s just get back in there and reboot’.”

One thing that remains undiminished is the cast-iron bond between Auerbach and Carney.

The latter affirms: “We’ve been doing this together for almost 25 years — from the struggle to the big s**t.

We got f***ed… so we thought we should do something positive

Carney

“Dealing with being broke, dealing with getting money, headlining Coachella, dealing with getting married, getting divorced, having kids, we’ve been through it all.

“As screwed up as last year was, it had very little to do with us so we got back on it, to prove to ourselves what we can do.”

As we speak, The Black Keys have been back on tour — on this side of the Atlantic.

Carney says it can be “brutal chasing the festivals, sleeping on the bus or in hotel rooms.

“But getting out here and getting in front of these crowds has been the biggest reminder of the power of our music.

“Seeing the fans flip out has helped us to get our heads out of music-business bulls*t and back into what it’s all about”.

Auerbach agrees: “The show in London [at Alexandra Palace] was the biggest headliner we’ve ever played.

“It was great after the year we had. Whatever happens, we know the fans are still there for us.”

Another thrill was playing Manchester’s Sounds Of The City festival two days before the first Oasis homecoming gig at the city’s Heaton Park.

“The atmosphere was electric. Our audience was so up for it,” says Auerbach.

Noel and Liam are both incredible — we’re really happy for them

Auerbach

He credits Oasis with lifting the mood. “I feel like they’ve transformed the continent. We’ve never seen anything like it.”

And he couldn’t resist visiting the Oasis Adidas store. “I had one of the black soccer jerseys made — Oasis on the front and AUERBACH on the back. Had to do it, man, they’re the kings.”

It was in 2023 that The Black Keys visited Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, East London, to write three songs with Noel Gallagher, who they describe as “the chord lord”.

Auerbach says: “It was amazing. We just sat in a circle with our instruments and we worked things up from nowhere.

“Not too long after that we played a song with Liam [in Milan] and hung out with him afterwards. He gave us some really good advice about our setlist.

“Noel and Liam are both incredible — we’re really happy for them.”

‘We’d never written with a piano player’

We return to the subject of their new album, No Rain, No Flowers, which involved a new approach for The Black Keys.

Instead of big-name guests like Noel and Beck and, before them, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, they turned to acclaimed songwriters — the unsung heroes — for their collaborative process.

They welcomed into their world Rick Nowels (Madonna, Stevie Nicks, Lana Del Rey), Scott Storch (Dr Dre, Nas) and Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves).

Auerbach had encountered Nowels while producing Lana Del Rey’s 2014 third album Ultraviolence and had long been impressed with his keyboard skills.

He says: “We’d never written with a piano player before. After 20-plus years in the band, it was cool to try something new in the studio.”

Carney adds: “The way we worked with each one of these people was completely different.

“With Daniel, for instance, we’d start with a jam session. With Rick, it was all about getting the title of the song.”

And Auerbach again: “Scott’s all about instrumentation. He didn’t want to think about the words. He just lets you do that stuff afterwards.”

One of the co-writes with Nowels is the life-affirming title track which begins the album.

With lines like, “Baby, the damage is done/It won’t be long ’til we’re back in the sun”, you could be forgiven for thinking it reflects on the band’s recent woes.

Auerbach says it does, but only up to a point. “It started with the title and we built it from there.

“We tend to shy away from diary-type songs. It gives us ‘the ick’ when it sounds like somebody’s reading from their diary.

“But there’s a lot of truth in the song. It’s us trying to be positive, which maybe wasn’t how we were feeling.

“It was a nice thought to write a positive anthem but still have blood in the eye.”

If The Black Keys’ go-to sound has been the blues, this album is remarkable for its funky, airy and soulful vibe.

Auerbach says: “We were heavily influenced by soul growing up, maybe more than anything, and it really shows.

“With us, it’s all about the feel. When we started out, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we knew when it felt right.”

Another strong touchstone has been hip-hop, which is why Auerbach and Carney are thrilled to have worked with Scott Storch, another dazzling keyboard player, who started out in the Roots and went on to work with Dr Dre, 50 Cent, Beyonce and Nas.

“We are a product of where we were raised,” affirms Auerbach. “We grew up in the golden age of hip- hop. That’s what pop music was for us.

“The first time I heard the Geto Boys was at the middle- school dance and it affected us.

That’s the s**t on those blues records I love so much. You hear Son House grunting when he’s playing slide guitar

Auerbach

“But then my mom’s family played bluegrass — I would listen to my uncles sing. And when The Stanley Brothers sing, it’s white soul music. I love it all.”

As for Storch, Auerbach continues: “We’ve obsessed over videos of him since we were in high school. Seeing him play all the parts of his hits makes our jaws hit the floor.

‘You can hear Scott physically grunting’

“The idea of getting him in the studio seemed crazy because he seemed like a larger-than-life figure.”

Auerbach was mesmerised by Storch when he arrived at Easy Eye Sound.

He says: “Scott’s a real player, an absolute musical savant. As a hip-hop producer, he tends to spend 99.9 per cent of the time in the control room.

“But we have all these acoustic pianos, harpsichords and analogue synthesisers. He was in heaven, and so were we watching him go from keyboard to keyboard.

“On Babygirl, he’s on an acoustic piano with microphones and you can hear him physically grunting in time with his playing. That’s got to be a first for Scott Storch on record.

“That’s the s**t on those blues records I love so much. You hear Son House grunting when he’s playing slide guitar.”

The No Rain, No Flowers album is loaded with hook-laden songs — the exhilarating rocker Man On A Mission, the psychedelic Southern rock swirl of A Little Too High.

One explanation for their eclectic approach is The Black Keys’ regular Record Hang in Nashville, which involves Auerbach and Carney hosting all-vinyl DJ dance parties.

For these, they scour online marketplaces and record shops for obscure but revelatory old 45s.

Carney explains: “We end up exposing ourselves to thousands of songs that somehow we’ve never heard.

“It’s really cool to be so deep into our career and uncovering all this incredible music. It’s totally reinvigorating — particularly when one of us finds a record that the other hasn’t heard and it’s a banger.” So check out Carney’s discovery Nobody Loves Me But My Mama by Johnny Holiday, which he describes as “f*ing insane — psychobilly fuzz rock”.

Then there’s Auerbach’s fave, Yeah Yeah by Blackrock, “a rare 45 instrumental which rearranged our minds. It still hits like crazy”.

We just fell right into it, started playing it and luckily we were recording

Auerbach

With The Black Keys, you always get a sense of passion for their craft, and for other people’s.

Auerbach says: “Pat and I were talking about this earlier — music can hypnotise you. You can use it for good or for evil. It’s a very powerful tool.”

And Carney: “It’s my biggest passion and it has been since I was 11.

‘Sensitive about what we listen to’

“I also think about the delicate balance you need when you do it for a living. You’re taking the thing you love the most but you never want to ruin it for yourself.

“Dan and I are very sensitive about what we listen to. We were at a music festival in a spot in between seven stages. It sounded horrible. I said, ‘This is the kind of thing that could make me hate music’.”

Finally, we talk about another of their own songs, the sublime, festival-primed anthem Neon Moon, which closes No Rain, No Flowers.

Written with Daniel Tashian, Auerbach modestly calls it a “first-take jam” but that doesn’t really do it justice.

“I think it just started with the ‘neon moon’ lyric,” he says. “We just fell right into it, started playing it and luckily we were recording.”

As the song gets into its stride, he sings: “Don’t let yourself get down too long.”

It’s a line that The Black Keys have taken to heart.

THE BLACK KEYS

No Rain, No Flowers

★★★★☆

3

A WOMAN who thought she was going on a romantic cruise with her partner was left stunned after she realised what was really going on.

Robyn-Jay was looking forward to her 10-day cruise, but that excitement quickly faded when she realised many of the holiday makers were swingers.

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Taking to TikTok to share her story, she explained that she and her partner went to the ship’s nightclub on the first night as they tried to settle in and get their bearings.

That’s when things began to take a turn and as they decided to sit in a booth and people watch when a man came up to them to ask if they “wanted a third”, Robyn-Jay claimed.

But the strange encounters didn’t end there, as on the second night Robyn-Jay claimed a woman called their room and tried to hook up with the couple, despite having never met them before.

According to Robyn-Jay, the woman needed to know their room number, which they didn’t share, to be able to call, which made the couple feel uneasy.

The pair said they could also hear couples from other rooms on the ship shouting at each other from their balconies.

“It’s not that they were friends, they were trying to arrange hook ups,” she said in the viral video.

But it was what allegedly happened next that drew the line for the holidaymaker.

She explained that one night she got all dressed up to enjoy some of the entertainment the cruise put on.

After finding a quiet place to sit with her partner, Robyn-Jay claimed she noticed a man sat at another tabled was staring at her.

“This was something different, this was a whole other level. I felt so uncomfortable in my skin, it really gives you that horrible feeling inside,” she said.

That’s when the man, who was sat with his wife, allegedly bent down to try and look up Robyn-Jay’s skirt.

She went on to explain that her partner, William, soon noticed and called the man out on his behaviour before he got up and left with his wife.

The holidaymaker went on to claim that she even saw an older man act inappropriately towards a young girl on the ship and he was overly touchy with her.

“I just really think [cruises are] a place for a bit of lawlessness and I think people go there knowing that and I honestly dread to think what goes on in the eyes of other people,” she said.

After sharing her experience, people chimed in to share their experiences on cruise ships, and many thought Robyn-Jay got unlucky.

“I’ve just been on a Marella Cruise and never experienced anything like this,” one person said.

And a second agreed: “Been on a few cruises – not my experience,” they commented on the video.

“This could have happened absolutely anywhere, it’s not because you were on a cruise. It’s also completely common knowledge that cruises are swinger’s paradise,” someone else wrote.

And someone who claimed to work for a cruise company added: “This is a well known thing on some cruise ships.

“Unfortunately you have experienced some awful behaviour and some people should understand that not everyone’s a swinger. Not all cruise lines behave like this.”

“I’m going to give you everything you want,” President Trump told disaster-stricken residents and local officials. “I’m going to give you more than any president would have ever given you.”

That was in January, in Los Angeles, in the wake of the catastrophic Palisades and Eaton fires. If Trump could express such magnanimity in California, typically the blue-state butt of his partisan jabs and threats, imagine what he’ll tell red-state Texans on Friday when he visits the flood-ravaged Hill Country, where the usually easy-going Guadalupe River turned mass killer on the Fourth of July.

He’s sure to promise that the federal government will spare no expense. (Note: California is still waiting.) But words are cheap, especially for the truth-challenged Trump. Even as the president, playing Daddy Warbucks, promises money in the moment, he must be held to account for his administration’s continued mindless axing of federal funds and government-wide expertise (a process greenlighted on Tuesday by the ever-accommodating Supreme Court) — and not least in gutting essential agencies that forecast weather, warn of storms and then help Americans recover from disasters.

Trump isn’t to blame for the deaths and destruction in Texas. But raising questions about the effect of his, and the now-disfavored Elon Musk’s, reckless rampage through government offices isn’t “depraved and despicable,” as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt fulminated on Monday. It’s merely holding the government to account, which is, to be sure, a foreign concept to a president accustomed to impunity. (Leavitt’s protestations are particularly rich considering that Trump falsely blamed then-President Biden after Hurricane Helene during last year’s campaign, and initially suggested on Sunday that the Texas tragedy was somehow a “Biden set-up.”)

For a decade now, Trump has exploited Americans’ disdain of government, even when he’s at the head of it. But Americans don’t like government until they need it, and they expect it to keep them safe in the meantime. Because Trump is taking Musk’s chainsaw to federal agencies, with the acquiescence of Congress’ Republican majorities, he should be on the defensive from here on out for every emergency, crisis and tragedy that might have been prevented or at least mitigated by federal action.

Most of Trump’s proposed and attempted cuts have yet to take effect. Some — say, cutbacks in public health and scientific research programs — might not be fully felt for years. Yet even if administration reductions, eliminations and layoffs aren’t culpable this time, in this tragedy, what about the next? Because there will be a next time.

Consider: Climate change is demonstrably turbocharging the number and intensity of severe storms, yet Trump’s budget calls for closing the National Severe Storms Laboratory, which has pioneered forecasting technology for years.

It’s way past time to ignore the familiar post-catastrophe mantra that people inappropriately politicize calamity by raising questions, proposing remedies and, yes, laying blame: Only thoughts and prayers allowed. We’ve heard it in recent days not only from the likes of Leavitt, but also from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his fellow Republican, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who inserted further cuts to weather forecasting funds as part of the One Big Ugly Bill that Trump signed into law on the Fourth, as Texans dealt with the flood nightmare.

The victims deserve more. We all do.

For months since Trump took office and began his slashing spree on Day 1 with his executive orders, critics and experts have predicted that his actions could boomerang, in particular when it comes to weather-related threats, such as the hurricane season underway.

Just to cite one example: Back in April, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, the senior Democrat on the House committee that oversees the National Weather Service, complained (presciently?), “Chaotic and illegal firings, coercions to resign, reductions in force, and a general obsession with destroying the morale of dedicated public servants have left the National Weather Service’s work force so strained they cannot carry out their duties as they once did.”

So when we have a natural disaster like that in Texas, where survivors lament inadequate warnings, why should Lofgren or anyone else keep quiet and just think and pray? It’s political, but it’s proper as well that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York asked for an investigation of whether staffing shortfalls at the weather service contributed to the Texas flood’s death toll. A Republican, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, cited Texas’ plight at a Senate hearing on Wednesday to complain that Trump’s federal hiring freeze has also left his state and others short of meteorologists, and without 24/7 coverage when tornadoes ripped through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in May.

Early evidence and anecdotes suggest that federal forecasters did their job in warning Texans of flooding hours in advance. But years of penny-pinching and antitax zeal at the local and state levels, especially, meant that the region — known as “flash flood alley” — had no system in place to adequately transmit the warnings to rural residents in the dead of night.

Yet the feds — Trump mainly — still have much to answer for. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, was among the earliest targets of his misnamed Department of Government Efficiency. Trump said he wants to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency completely.

Months before the storm, a union official representing staff of the weather service, Tom Fahy, told the New York Times that its offices nationwide were “struggling to maintain operations” amid what the agency acknowledged as “severe shortages” of meteorologists and other employees. After the storm, Fahy said that vacancies at the two offices overseeing the Texas Hill Country were roughly double what they were when Trump took office. The longtime “warning coordination meteorologist” for the Hill Country in April announced that he was “sad” to prematurely end his career amid the administration cutbacks and early-retirement offers.

A local media outlet lamented the man’s departure: “The importance of experience” in the job he’d held “cannot be understated.” Abbott is being defensive, as he should be. “Who’s to blame?” the three-term governor snapped at a reporter on Tuesday. “That’s the word choice of losers.” Expect more such vituperation when the Guv greets his friend, the president, on Friday — from both men — should anyone suggest they bear any blame.

Losers? If the word fits…

@Jackiekcalmes
@jackiecalmes.bsky.social
@jkcalmes

Danielle Kelly’s right leg and left arm are now in plaster, having suffered injuries as she and other passengers were forced to flee a Ryanair flight at Majorca Palma Airport

A mum has described how “utter chaos” ensued when she thought a terrorist was on her Ryanair flight.

Danielle Kelly grabbed her daughter Frankie and “feared for her life” amid the mayhem, during which she and other passengers jumped from the plane’s wings as it sat stationary at Majorca Palma Airport. Ms Kelly, 56, knew she was seriously injured once she plummeted to the ground as she was unable to walk.

The Ryanair flight, which was destined for Manchester, experienced a “false fire alarm” as it attempted to take off on Saturday morning. However, amid the confusion and panic, passengers scrambled to flee the plane, and several have reported sustaining injuries. Ryanair says these were “very minor injuries” but Ms Kelly, a self-employed fitness instructor, suffered a broken right heel, fractured left wrist and smashed elbow. The mum’s right leg and left arm are now in plaster.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Kelly said: “It was terrifying, we’ve been left completely traumatised by the experience. I’ve got my foot and arm in plaster and I’ve got to have three different surgeries to pin my foot, wrist and elbow tomorrow, I’m in a mess.”

READ MORE: ‘I booked seat on Ryanair’s cheapest flight and cost of trip left me floored’

The mother, from Bury, Greater Manchester, told Mail Online: “I’m 56-years-old, I didn’t want to jump but I feared for my life. It felt like a life or death situation. I knew as soon as I landed that I was seriously injured, I couldn’t walk but the ground staff were shouting for everyone to move away from the aircraft in case it exploded.

“It was utter chaos, passengers were screaming, ‘open the doors, open the doors’. It was terrifying, I thought there was a terrorist on board, so I grabbed my daughter and got out.”

Ms Kelly was travelling with 26-year-old Frankie, friend Francine Elkinson, 57, and her daughter, Savannah. Savannah, also 26, said: “We got off via the wing. There were no slides. I’ve hurt my shoulder, my friend hurt her knee. Her mum fractured her elbow, wrist and foot. My mum broke her ankle. She’s in a cast. She’s having surgery now. She’s done it in in three places.”

Joanne Baker, who was on the flight with her husband, said the passengers heard a “loud bang” before crew members asked passengers to “brace.” She told us: “The crew was shouting “brace! brace!. We didn’t quite know what we were meant to do. They shouted, ‘get off the plane’, and leave your possessions. The communication was awful, the staff did their best, but they are kids and were obviously frightened as well.”

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Palma to Manchester, on July 4, discontinued take-off due to a false fire warning light indication. Passengers were disembarked using the inflatable slides and returned to the terminal.

“While disembarking, a small number of passengers encountered very minor injuries (ankle sprains, etc.) and crew requested immediate medical assistance.

“To minimise disruption to passengers, we quickly arranged a replacement aircraft to operate this flight, which departed Palma at 07:05 this morning. We sincerely apologise to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.”

The easyJet flight from Cyprus to Bristol was forced to land in Turkey due to the smell of smoke on the aircraft, with one passenger revealing the ‘mayhem’ it caused on board

A passenger on an easyJet flight, which was forced to make an emergency landing due to the smell of smoke, has recounted his harrowing ordeal, revealing that he and his fellow travellers “thought that they were going to die.”

The easyJet service, flying from Paphos, Cyprus, to Bristol Airport on Saturday (June 14), had to make an unscheduled descent into Izmir, Turkey, just an hour and 20 minutes after takeoff.

Jamie Shorland, returning from a trip to see his grandfather in Cyprus with a friend, was aboard when the smoke alarms went off. He described how the crew’s lack of communication likely added to the ensuing chaos.

The 21-year-old Exeter resident detailed that the plane, already behind schedule by half an hour, finally left the ground at 10:30 p.m. It was while soaring over the Turkish coast that Jamie sensed trouble brewing. Jamie said: “The air cabin crew were told to put away the catering trolleys, whilst we were told no information at all, then we were told to brace for an emergency landing.”

READ MORE: I visited the best seaside town in the UK – and it’s just 20 mins from major cityREAD MORE: British man in Spain issues ‘serious’ advice to anyone visiting Benidorm in June

He continued: “We were above the water so we thought we’d crash into the sea, there was pure panic and none of the crew were helpful. I thought to myself ‘this is how it ends’, people were screaming ‘we are going to die!'”.

“One father rushed up the plane to hug his kids and the airline staff told him to go back to his seat. He told them to ‘f**k off, if I am going to die I am going to be with my kids.'”

Speaking to BristolLive, Jamie described the terrifying moment their aircraft suddenly veered off course, executing a gut-wrenching 180-degree turn towards Turkey, with passengers experiencing the sensation of the plane flying sideways before it dramatically dropped 15,000ft.

“I saw cabin crew crying at the back of the plane thinking they were going to die, however the plane flew into Izmir and landed at the airport,” Jamie said. “It was a traumatic experience, I genuinely thought I was going to die. I was trying to think happy thoughts of my family as we fell through the sky.”

He recounted the disorder that ensued: “It was a load of mayhem, the plane had no lights and it was a scary time.”

Passengers made to wait half an hour as firefighters stormed plane

Further tension followed after the emergency landing as passengers were made to wait onboard for half an hour amidst confusion, while firefighters swarmed the aircraft.

In the midst of uncertainty after landing, Jamie watched as emergency crews accompanied the plane until it came to a full stop, resulting in firefighters storming the laneway.

Passengers remained in limbo, confined within the aircraft without sufficient information. After a tense 20 minutes, they gradually learned that the ordeal might be linked to a fault with the cooling system.

Following the incident, EasyJet confirmed that accommodations were arranged for all affected travellers, spreading them across three hotels. Jamie was briefed on the arrangements, being told he could remain at the hotel until 6pm on Sunday in anticipation of the rescheduled 10pm flight.

Jamie recounted the mayhem that ensued at their hotel, with all guests being asked to leave suddenly at noon, resulting in a prolonged wait at the airport for a flight that was further delayed until 11pm.

Reflecting on his ordeal, Jamie expressed his apprehension about flying again: “I did not want to leave Izmir, I thought ‘I might not make it’.”

Airline criticised over lack of response

EasyJet was heavily criticised for their poor communication during the disruption.

Jamie reported difficulty in getting information from easyJet, saying the airline wasn’t helpful: “They’ve been no help at all, the pilot [of the initial flight] even made a joke after landing telling everyone to buy a lottery ticket because ‘we got lucky’, I couldn’t believe it.”

After the delayed take-off, the flight landed at Bristol Airport at 12.30am on Monday, with Jamie arriving in Exeter just before 3am.

He described the ordeal’s impact on his companion, stating: “It was my friend’s first time flying in 12 years. We will never get on a plane again, I’ve never been so scared of flying, it was the worst experience of my life.”

EasyJet released an official statement on Saturday, June 15: “We can confirm that flight EZY2902 from Paphos to Bristol diverted to Izmir due to a technical issue which resulted in a smoke smell onboard.

“The aircraft landed safely in Izmir and was met by emergency services as a routine and precautionary measure only.

“All passengers disembarked as normal into the terminal and were provided with hotel accommodation and meals where required. Passengers will continue to Bristol on a replacement aircraft later today.”

The carrier emphasised its commitment to safety: “The safety of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines.

“We would like to thank customers for their understanding and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

The last time Shohei Ohtani thought he might be in trouble was when his name was linked to a federal investigation into illegal sports gambling in March 2024.

His name was soon cleared by authorities, who charged and convicted Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, in federal court with surreptitiously stealing more than $17 million from the Dodgers superstar to pay off an Orange County bookmaker.

Ohtani wondered if something was amiss Wednesday when manager Dave Roberts summoned him before the Dodgers’ home game against the New York Mets.

But not for long. Ohtani rushed into Roberts’ office, saw a bright pink remote-controlled toy car on the ground and immediately started laughing.

“I have a gift for you,” Roberts told him. “Actually, for your daughter.”

“For my daughter? OK, thank you.” Ohtani replied.

“This is from my wife [Tricia] and me to you and your family and your daughter,” Roberts said. “So, we have jokes always. This is a little bit of a joke. It’s a Porsche. This is going to be your daughter’s first car.”

“Thank you, I love it,” Ohtani said. He tapped the car with his hand and said in English, “I thought I’m in trouble. Some trouble,” evoking laughter from Roberts and others in the room.

Ohtani had gifted Roberts a tiny toy Porsche a year ago when he broke Roberts’ franchise record of seven home runs by a Japanese-born player, placing it in the manager’s parking lot space as a practical joke.

When Ohtani signed with the Dodgers in December 2023, he gifted Ashley Kelly, the wife of pitcher Joe Kelly, a Porsche — not a toy — for Kelly giving up No. 17. Roberts kidded Ohtani about gifting him when the modest record was inevitably broken, and the new Dodgers slugger obliged with the toy.

It took Roberts — born in Naha, Okinawa, to a Japanese mother and American father — a year to reciprocate.

“Shohei has been very gracious and we’ve got this long-running practical joke,” Roberts said on video. “This is more of a sincere gesture, not necessarily a practical joke but I wanted to present it to him.”

Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, have not revealed the name of their daughter, who was born April 19.

“I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter,” Ohtani wrote on social media at the time. “To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.”

Super anxious? Wait until she starts driving.

LONDON — A 53-year-old British man plowed his minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who had been celebrating the city team’s Premier League championship Monday and was arrested, police said.

There was no immediate word from authorities on how many people were injured. An air ambulance and other emergency vehicles swarmed the scene to respond to reports that multiple pedestrians had been hit.

“It was extremely fast,” said Harry Rashid, who was at the parade with his wife and two young daughters and only several feet away. “Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being updated on the situation and thanked police for their quick response.

“The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected,” Starmer said.

Liverpool fans had come out in their tens of thousands to celebrate the team winning the Premier League this season for a record-tying 20th top-flight title.

Liverpool’s last league title came in 2020 but supporters were denied the chance to publicly celebrate that trophy because of restrictions in place at the time during the pandemic.

Dancing, scarf-and-flag-waving fans braved wet weather to line the streets and climb up traffic lights to get a view of Liverpool’s players, who were atop two buses bearing the words “Ours Again.”

The hours-long procession — surrounded by a thick layer of police and security — crawled along a 10-mile route and through a sea of red smoke and rain. Fireworks exploded from the Royal Liver Building in the heart of the city to seemingly signal the end of the parade.

The team issued a short statement saying its thoughts and prayers were with those affected.

Rashid said after the car rammed its initial victims, it came to a halt and the crowd charged the vehicle and began smashing windows.

“But then he put his foot down again and just plowed through the rest of them, he just kept going,” Rashid said. “It was horrible. And you could hear the bumps as he was going over the people.”

Rashid said it looked deliberate and he was in shock and disbelief.

“My daughter started screaming and there were people on the ground,” he said. “They were just innocent people, just fans going to enjoy the parade.”

Melley and Douglas write for the Associated Press.