Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim backs striker Benjamin Sesko to find his feet at Old Trafford and insists his early “struggles” are “normal” amid the scrutiny the Red Devils face from the media and “club legends”.
READ MORE: ‘Control freak’ Sesko should ignore critics – Amorim
Forget consumer chatbots — IBM is targeting a much more lucrative AI market. Here’s the overlooked opportunity that could drive massive growth for Big Blue’s AI business.
With other tech giants sparring over consumer chatbots, IBM (IBM 1.22%) is quietly positioning itself to dominate a different artificial intelligence (AI) battlefield: the enterprise segment.
The centennial tech titan might seem like an unlikely AI winner, but there’s one key factor that could make IBM the surprise star of the artificial intelligence revolution. IBM’s AI solutions are tailor-made for large corporations.
Image source: Getty Images.
The watsonx platform for generative AI services isn’t trying to write your poetry or plan your vacation. Instead, it’s helping Fortune 500 companies deploy AI with strict attention to data security and regulatory requirements. Combined with Red Hat’s OpenShift platform — IBM’s $34 billion acquisition from 2019 that’s now paying proverbial dividends — the company offers something unique: AI that works within existing enterprise infrastructure.
This isn’t just theory. Banks are using IBM’s watsonx to detect fraud while maintaining compliance with financial regulations. Healthcare systems are deploying IBM’s AI to analyze patient data without violating patient privacy regulations.
It’s all done with auditable data flows. Sure, watsonx will hallucinate from time to time, like any other system based on large language models (LLMs). But when it does, you’ll be able to trace the error back to its original inspiration.
Meanwhile, IBM’s consulting arm helps these enterprises make use of AI solutions. This unique focus on support services creates sticky, long-term business relationships.
IBM’s AI-based Automation segment grew 14% year over year in Q2 2025, while Red Hat revenue continues its double-digit revenue expansion. The enterprise AI market is projected to reach $600 billion by 2028, and IBM is uniquely positioned to capture this opportunity.
Unlike consumer AI companies burning cash on compute costs, IBM’s enterprise focus means higher margins and predictable revenue streams. While others chase the next viral chatbot, IBM is selling the picks and shovels of the enterprise AI gold rush — and that’s exactly why it will thrive. Buying IBM stock today should set you up for robust AI-boom gains.
Anders Bylund has positions in International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Greg Biggins, the 247Sports.com college football recruiting analyst who is one of the best in the nation at what he does, likes to say that you need dudes to win big.
No one has won a national championship in the College Football Playoff era whose roster wasn’t at least halfway stocked with four- and five-star players. Only a handful of teams have made the title game without meeting that blue-chip ratio — and they’ve been walloped.
Newsletter
Sign up for UCLA Unlocked
A weekly newsletter offering big game takeaways, recruiting buzz and everything you need to know about UCLA sports.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
“So you’ve got to have dudes, you have to have talent,” Biggins recently told The Times. “Coaching and development is huge, but you take coaching and development with guys who look like [star Ohio State wide receiver] Jeremiah Smith, now that’s a different level altogether.”
As UCLA’s DeShaun Foster prepares to open his second season as the head coach at his alma mater, he’s increasingly replenished his roster with dudes. Transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava is a five-star talent, and 13 other players who arrived through the transfer portal were rated as four stars either coming out of high school or as a transfer.
While the Bruins’ blue-chip ratio still falls well short of 50%, it’s creeping upward. But as Biggins mentioned, coaching and development also matter. Former UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger, who received zero stars coming out of high school, is now with the Cleveland Browns after being selected in the second round of the NFL draft.
For the Bruins to have the breakthrough they’re seeking under Foster, they will need both blue-chippers and less heralded prospects to emerge as stars. Here are 10 players who must become dudes for UCLA to succeed in 2025:
Offense
QB Nico Iamaleava: Well, duh. UCLA is not going to have the kind of season it wants unless its quarterback puts himself in the conversation for the school’s best player at the position since Brett Hundley. (Sorry, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Josh Rosen, eight- and nine-win seasons don’t suffice.) Efficiency will tell the story. If Iamaleava exceeds his 2024 accuracy, when he completed 63.8% of his passes and tallied nearly four times as many touchdowns (19) as interceptions (five), then the Bruins will be in business.
OT Courtland Ford: Quickly slotting into the starting left tackle spot in spring practices, Ford projects to have his biggest role since he started the first eight games of the 2021 season at USC. He went on to become a part-time starter with the Trojans in 2022 and at Kentucky in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to UCLA. The hope is that he can provide stability and bolster an offensive line that was a major weakness last season amid several injuries at left tackle.
RB Jaivian Thomas: Jaydn who? Foster likes to point out that Thomas was the top tailback at California last season despite Jaydn Ott receiving much of the hype. There’s a widespread expectation that Thomas will reprise that role with the Bruins as part of a deep group of running backs that also includes Jalen Berger, Anthony Woods, Anthony Frias II and Karson Cox. While each of those players holds promise, Thomas appears to have the biggest upside given his speed, patience and vision.
WR Kwazi Gilmer: Often by Iamaleava’s side getting off the team bus at training camp, Gilmer quickly established a narrative of becoming his quarterback’s go-to receiver. The duo established a strong connection during the short practice viewing window open to the media, Iamaleava often finding the speedy and shifty Gilmer in the end zone. It’s easy to envision Gilmer more than doubling his output from 2024, when he caught 31 passes for 345 yards and two touchdowns. Gilmer showed some swagger by saying he wanted to win the Biletnikoff Award that goes to the nation’s top college receiver; now he’s got to back up those words.
TE Hudson Habermehl: After shedding his surfer look, those long blond locks replaced by a far more streamlined hairstyle, Hambermehl yearns to reintroduce himself as a sleeker, more productive version of the player Bruins fans last saw in the spring of 2024. That’s when he suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury that would require two surgeries and more than a year of recovery. Now Habermehl is back, ready to become the team’s most targeted tight end while exceeding his 2023 production (nine catches for 148 yards and three touchdowns).
Defense
LB JonJon Vaughns: Having abandoned his baseball pursuits for football full time, Vaughns needs to slide into a starring role. He’s shown glimpses of promise, particularly during a 2022 season in which he started 11 games and made two interceptions and five pass breakups. Now comes the challenge of sustaining that sort of production while leading a defense that thirsts for new playmakers to emerge at every position.
S Key Lawrence: Perhaps the most energetic player on the team, the Mississippi transfer also boasts plenty of talent thanks to his combination of speed and smarts. Barring a setback from the minor right leg injury he sustained midway through training camp, Lawrence projects to be an opening-day starter. He’ll need to anchor a secondary that’s replacing every starter.
Edge Devin Aupiu: UCLA’s pass rush was meh last season, generating 22 sacks to rank tied for No. 78 in the nation. As a part-time starter, Aupiu made 4½ tackles for loss, including 1½ sacks — decent production given his role and easily the most among returning players. Getting into the backfield more often this season is a must for the redshirt senior.
DT Gary Smith III: Most successful diets don’t end with someone weighing 340 pounds. But after shedding 20 pounds thanks to what he described as clean eating, Smith appears slimmer, stronger and more explosive in his return from the ankle injury that sidelined him all of last season. He posted a video of his squatting a team-high 700 pounds and could combine with fellow interior defensive lineman Keanu Williams to make running up the middle the place where ambitions go to die for opposing tailbacks.
LB Isaiah Chisom: In case Chisom was tempted to get cocky after one season at Oregon State in which he was selected a freshman All-American by The Athletic, he lost out to new UCLA teammate Jalen Woods in the battle to keep his No. 9 jersey. Maybe every time he glances at his No. 32, it will remind him of the work he needs to put in to become a super sophomore.
The program that produced Sigi Schmid, Cobi Jones and Paul Caligiuri hasn’t been in the news much lately.
UCLA men’s soccer has not made it past the Round of 16 in the NCAA tournament since reaching the finals in 2014, when it lost to Virginia. The Briuns’ last national championship came in 2002.
Could 2025 be a breakthrough year?
Answers will start to emerge once the Bruins open the season Thursday evening at UC Irvine. UCLA returns four starters, including junior midfielder Philip Naef, who led the team last season with 10 assists — the most since Jackson Yueill also reached double digits in 2016. A bevy of talented freshmen from the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class, according to TopDrawerSoccer, should also help coach Ryan Jorden’s bid to guide his team deep into the NCAA tournament.
UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger at the NFL football combine earlier this year.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
Carson Schwesinger’s incredible ascent continues.
The linebacker who was essentially unwanted out of Oaks Christian High when UCLA snagged him with a walk-on spot impressed in his NFL preseason debut, leading the Cleveland Browns with six tackles during a 30-10 exhibition victory over the Carolina Panthers.
Making that production all the more impressive, it came in only 13 snaps. Maybe that transition from college to the NFL isn’t so hard after all.
“I mean, I think there’s always going to be a difference going to the next level,” Schwesinger told reporters after the game, “but we’ve been practicing against it so much now that it’s something that I’m getting used to. So there wasn’t a huge difference, I would say, from practice to the game. I think that’s because of how we practice.”
UCLA quarterback Mike Fafaul gets away from Utah defensive back Justin Thomas in a 2016 matchup.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
My favorite UCLA-Utah game felt like one played in an alternate universe.
The Bruins, who ran what could have been called the “Point-Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust” offense under Kennedy Polamalu in 2016, came out in a spread, no-huddle, hurry-up formation against the Utes for the first time all season.
It might have resulted in a UCLA victory had the Bruins’ defense showed up.
Utah running back Joe Williams ran for a school-record 332 yards and four touchdowns during the Utes’ thrilling 52-45 victory, overcoming a record-setting day for UCLA quarterback Mike Fafaul. Continuing to start in place of the injured Josh Rosen, Fafaul completed 40 of 70 passes for a career-high 464 yards and five touchdowns while breaking Rosen’s previous school records for completions (34) and pass attempts (57).
In a lost season for the Bruins, this was as entertaining as it got.
You can watch highlights from that game here.
We asked, “Which UCLA football player not named Nico Iamaleava will be the team’s most important in 2025?” and gave you five choices: offensive tackle Courtland Ford, running back Jaivian Thomas, wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, defensive tackle Gary Smith III or linebacker Isaiah Chisom.
After 534 votes, the results:
Running back Jaivian Thomas, 37.4%
Wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, 23.7%
Offensive tackle Courtland Ford, 17.6%
Defensive tackle Gary Smith III, 17.4%
Linebacker Isaiah Chisom, 3.9%
UCLA’s 2025 football schedule features a handful of games that scream intrigue.
The opener against Utah is a battle of former Pac-12 rivals. A showdown against presumed national title contender Penn State could match undefeated teams if the Bruins get off to a hot start. The game at Ohio State provides fans willing to travel more than halfway across the country a chance to visit one of college football’s top venues. The rivalry game at USC speaks for itself.
Which game are you looking forward to most?
Utah on Aug. 30
Penn State on Oct. 4
Ohio State on Nov. 15
USC on Nov. 29
Click here to vote in our survey.
UCLA’s training camp a real tearjerker as players, coaches open up to bond
Michigan hit with major fine for sign-stealing scheme. Jim Harbaugh’s NCAA exile extended 10 years
Can UCLA’s Kwazi Gilmer win the Biletnikoff Award? He’s going to give it a go
UCLA stars Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Gabriela Jaquez share lessons with kids close to home
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on X @latbbolch. To order an autographed copy of my book, “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” send me an email. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
OZZY Osbourne has been buried near bat boxes – and it feels “like Ozzy had the last laugh”, a family friend said.
The Black Sabbath legend, who died on July 22 at the age of 76, was laid to rest next to the lake in his Buckinghamshire home on Thursday.
8
8
8
A family friend told the Mirror: “This was like a classic Ozzy move. The man loved humour and this sure would have tickled him pink knowing how close friends reacted to this bat situation.
“After all those decades caught up in this drama around bats and animal rights groups, here at his final resting place there are bespoke bat boxes to help encourage the animals thrive in the UK countryside.
“It has prompted quite a few laughs and funny reactions. It is just like Ozzy had the last laugh.”
They added that the bat boxes – installed in trees by the lake a few years ago – have brought moments of laughter to the grieving family.
One of the most controversial moments of the heavy metal singer’s career came in January 1982, when he famously bit the head off a bat on stage.
Something small and black landed near him on stage during a show at Des Moines’ Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
Believing it was a rubber toy, Ozzy picked it up and bit into it.
In his 2010 autobiography I Am Ozzy, he wrote: “Somebody threw a bat. I just thought it was a rubber bat. And I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I bit into it.
“Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong,” he added.
Ozzy said he deeply regretted the incident as he had to have daily rabies shots for months.
It remains unclear whether the bat was alive or dead – in a 2006 interview with the BBC, Ozzy described it as a “dead real bat”.
Buckinghamshire – home to many brown long-eared and pipistrelle bats – has recently taken steps to improve bat conservation.
On Thursday, an “incredibly emotional” funeral service was held for the rocker, a family friend told The Sun.
Tents were erected on the 250-acre grounds of the house Ozzy and Sharon bought in 1993, along with a stage where tributes were paid to the rocker.
8
8
8
8
The home was decorated with pictures of Ozzy, and mourners were given a photograph of him to take home.
110 of the singer’s nearest and dearest attended, joining his wife Sharon and his children Jack, 39, Kelly, 40, Aimee, 41, and Louis, 50, his son from his first marriage to Thelma Riley.
Stars at the service included Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmates, Metallica’s James Hetfield, punk singer Yungblud and Sir Elton John.
Rock icon Marilyn Manson flew in from the US to attend, alongside Ozzy’s guitarist Zakk Wylde and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor.
The family friend said: “Everyone at the service just wanted to support Sharon and the kids, it has been an awful time.
“Toasts were raised, memories were shared – it was a very fitting goodbye.
“Ozzy wanted his final place of rest to be at home and he is buried at a beautiful point on the lake.
“As well as the ‘Ozzy f***ing Osbourne’ wreath, which made people smile, there was another floral tribute which spelt out ‘Ozzy’ that was placed by the fountain on the lake.
“There was a stage where people including Yungblud, who grew very close to Ozzy in recent years, were set to pay tribute to him.
“The day was incredibly emotional. Pictures of Ozzy were dotted throughout the house and a photograph of him was given to everyone who attended to take home with them.”
Guests were sent a simple black invitation featuring a cross and the words: “In loving memory of Ozzy Osbourne.”
The road leading to the couple’s Buckinghamshire home near Gerrards Cross was closed from 1pm.
Mourners were transported from The Crowne Plaza and The Bull in Gerrards Cross to the house at 2pm, with the service starting at 3pm.
The day before, thousands of fans gathered in the streets of Birmingham to pay tribute to Ozzy.
8
For much of the first 30-plus years of its existence, hardcore music was, for the most part, predictable. While there were outliers such as Bad Brains and Orange 9mm, many acts never veeredfar from the sound set in place by bands like Minor Threat in the early 1980s. Subgenres like metalcore (and other styles of music with “core” added) blossomed into their own scenes and sounds, but the central tenets of hardcore remained fairly constant — often with hordes of angry fans deriding anything that stepped too far in one way or another.
But over the last five to 10 years, the latest generation of musicians from punk rock’s slightly more aggressive cousin has expanded into new sonic territory. Bands like Baltimore’s Turnstile, Kentucky’s Knocked Loose and Santa Cruz’s Scowl have pushed the genre in new directions — gaining acclaim and popularity outside the hardcore scene, sometimes at the expense of its die-hard fans.
“It’s very awesome to be a part of that wave,” Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris says. “I think there are a lot of bands that are bringing in new things and opening a lot of doors for everybody else. It’s like the generic saying, ‘A rising tide raises all ships.’ I truly believe there’s room for everybody to win, so it feels really good that all these brand-new opportunities are opening for everyone. You see younger hardcore bands really going for it right off the bat, and we’re very fortunate to be a part of the era that’s taking it to new heights.”
That’s why it’s only fitting for Knocked Loose to be headlining this weekend’s Sound and Fury Festival, bringing two full days of the best modern hardcore to Exposition Park. Since its inception in 2006, Sound and Fury quickly established itself as the event for hardcore and hardcore-adjacent music (from the heavier side of emo bands like Anxious to more extreme, metal-leaning acts) first in Los Angeles and then across the country. Just as the festival’s lineup and footprint has expanded both in size and musical variety over the years, Knocked Loose has seen its own popularity skyrocket as the band has continued to push the boundaries of what hardcore could be.
“From a sonic perspective, all these bands bringing in new influences to hardcore was pretty polarizing at first,” Garris says. “You had all these bands that toured and participated in the hardcore world but didn’t sound like a traditional hardcore band — and people really made that extremely controversial for an annoying amount of time. Once that barrier was broken, it allowed for so many unique artists and bands to bring new things to the table. Bills and touring packages became more diverse, and I think the coolest thing is when you put a tour package together that makes sense on paper but sonically makes no sense at all. It keeps things interesting and doesn’t create such a monotonous atmosphere at a show.”
Kentucky hardcore band Knocked Loose headlines this year’s Sound and Fury Festival
(Brock Fetch)
For Knocked Loose, one of the biggest steps outside of “traditional hardcore” it could possibly take was collaborating with pop-turned-metal artist Poppy on last year’s “Suffocate” — a gamble that paid off handsomely, introducing the band to a whole new audience and earning the group its highest-charting single and a Grammy nomination for metal performance. It’s a track that Garris still considers “definitely one of [his] favorite songs” while also allowing the band to get “weirder” and experiment in ways it might not normally consider.
While the band is already considering how it can continue to push the envelope even further without losing what makes Knocked Loose work at its core, the group is mindful of its history in the hardcore scene both as fans and artists. No scene is quicker to disown an act for its commercial success, and Garris (along with guitarists Isaac Hale and Nicko Calderon, bassist Kevin Otten and drummer Kevin Kaine) is fully aware of the line the band walks.
“We’ve never been writing a song and felt like we had to check in with how [hardcore fans] would feel about it, but when it comes to how we present the band, that’s where we keep hardcore in mind,” Garris says. “That’s where we come from and what we’re used to. Even though we know the band is obviously not going to be playing crazy small DIY, no-barricade hardcore shows anymore, it allowed us to create an experience on a much bigger stage. Then we do things like play Sound and Fury or put hardcore bands that we like on our bills because we still feel very passionately about these things. We’re very fortunate to be able to play these massive shows and have conversations about [pyrotechnics] and lights, but we’re still hardcore fans and that’s never changed.”
With acts like Knocked Loose, Scowl and England’s Basement on the bill this year, Sound and Fury continues to show why it’s arguably America’s preeminent hardcore festival, bringing together dozens of rising bands with just enough nostalgia acts (such as this year’s Forced Order reunion and Poison the Well) to remind the younger generations of those who came before. It’s a lineup you won’t see anywhere else, with a DIY hardcore vibe that fit just as well when hardcore fans and artists Sean Riley, Robert Shedd and Todd Jones held their initial event at the Alpine in Ventura 19 years ago.
“There are a lot of festivals in the mainstream rock atmosphere where the lineups are essentially the same,” Garris says. “For example, two years ago or so, every major rock fest in America was headlined by Metallica. That’s no diss at all, but Sound and Fury is such a different thing and the lineups feel so organic and exciting. They’re very good about scratching an itch that you didn’t know you had.”
“I think [hardcore fans] are seeking more context than what they’re getting from the mainstream — and since most of the people here arrive through that filter, it makes for a very open and welcoming space,” Riley adds. “So whether it’s being straightedge and eschewing drugs and alcohol, or whether you are someone who likes wearing corpse paint in public, or you’re a person who likes to dance at shows, this is a place you can come and be yourself without judgment. Combine that with hardcore shows being, in my opinion, the rawest form of live-music experiences you can find, it’s a freeing experience.”
Although Riley is the only one of the three original founders still working on Sound and Fury — currently teamed with Martin Stewart and Madison Woodward — he’s made sure to keep it as true to the hardcore ethos as possible year after year. Despite numerous venue changes and growth that many corporate festivals could only wish to have, Sound and Fury today is as instrumental to and beloved by the hardcore scene in Los Angeles and beyond as it’s ever been. It’s found a way to speak to multiple generations of hardcore kids (and adults), and now some of its biggest fans are the ones onstage.
“[Sound and Fury] has never been our ‘day job,’ but more of something we do in our off time that can hopefully inspire people — knowing how empowering and meaningful this DIY world has been for us and our lives outside of this music scene,” Riley says. “We’ve seen attendees start bands that play the fest, put out zines that they sell at the fest, start businesses or become food vendors that operate at the fest, and even people who now help us run the fest and have actual ownership stakes in the festival. Seeing it grow year after year in a very organic way really validates our approach and hopefully means it’s serving its purpose.”
“When we were preparing our year, [Sound and Fury] was one of my most anticipated shows of the year because I am such a fan of the festival,” Garris adds. “I’ve gotten to watch the festival grow from a fan’s perspective, and I remember going to the fest when it was like 1,000 people total. To see what it is now is amazing. It’s setting the bar for hardcore every single year and taking it to new places, because it was never supposed to be that big. The people that put it together care so much to protect the festival and to scale it to these unimaginable places — all while keeping it feeling DIY and like a hardcore festival. We’re just so excited to be a part of it.”
Or, as Scowl vocalist Kat Moss put it, “I would argue Sound and Fury is the best hardcore festival ever.”