No one has won the City Section individual golf championship four times, but Layla Phillips has a chance to be the first.
The 14-year-old freshman from Harbor Teacher Prep carded a five-under-par 67 on Thursday at Balboa Golf Course in Encino, good enough for a six-stroke victory over Macy Lee of El Camino Real.
“She’s been playing since she was 2,” explained her father Kasey, who was there to watch his daughter’s round and could not have been more proud. “Our old house was right off of Maggie Hathaway Golf Course and balls were constantly flying onto our property. It was an annoying thing and my wife was afraid the kids might get hit playing in the backyard. So we complained about it and they offered us free lessons as kind of a peace offering.”
As fate would have it, Layla and her sister Roxanne, one year younger, both took to the sport like fish to water.
“We started taking lessons at Chester Washington Golf Course because they had a better driving range there,” said Layla, who started playing the Toyota Tour Cup series 18 months ago. “We get along great and we practice together everyday. She’s following in my footsteps. We’re opposites. I get really nervous but she just hits the ball and doesn’t care. At times, we have to take advice from each other.”
After bogeying the first hole, Phillips birdied the second, eagled the third and birdied the fourth to vault to the top of the leaderboard. She maintained at least a two-shot lead the rest of the way. A bogey on No. 6 was followed by two pars and three consecutive birdies that stretched the margin to six.
“I can’t be too mad with my performance today but there’s always room for improvement,” said Phillips, who got to six-under before bogeying 18 and who finished two strokes off the City finals record of 65 set last year by Palisades senior Anna Song, now a freshman at Stanford. “I’ve only played this course twice before and I’d never played the back nine.”
Phillips tries to get a round in once a week and plays a two-day tournament every month. She shot six-under (equaling her personal best) to win a Southern California PGA Junior Tour championship in Palm Springs in December. She has won around 50 SCPGA Junior events since she was 10. In March, Roxanne won the L.A. City Junior championship by 15 shots on the same course when she was only 12.
“School lets out at 3:30 so I’m practicing from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at Los Verdes [in Palos Verdes] or Victoria [in Carson],” said Phillips, who finished in the top 10 at the Junior World Golf Championship last year in San Diego.
Phillips longs to play college golf (maybe at USC, which is only a 30-minute drive from where she lives in Harbor City). When told she could potentially be the first four-time City champion, she said: Yeah, it’s a possibility. My best competition in City might be my sister. She’s beaten me a couple of times already.”
She will also have to contend with fellow ninth grader Lauren Song (Anna’s sister) who shot a 75 to finish alone in third Thursday to help Palisades (+55) win its fifth straight team title, one shy of the City record accomplished twice by Granada Hills. The Highlanders finished second by 64 shots Thursday but still advanced to next week’s SoCal Regionals.
The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.
“I’m already thinking about the third time,” he said in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with of thousands of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers fans lining the streets around him for the team’s 2025 World Series parade.
Turns out, he wasn’t alone.
Two days removed from a dramatic Game 7 victory that made the Dodgers baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years, the team rolled through the streets of downtown and into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already thinking about what lies ahead in 2026.
With three titles in the last six seasons, their modern-day dynasty might now be cemented.
But their goal of adding to this “golden era of Dodger baseball,” as top executive Andrew Friedman has repeatedly called it, is far from over.
“All I have to say to you,” owner and chairman Mark Walter told the 52,703 fans at the team’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be back next year.”
“I have a crazy idea for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it again?”
When manager Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that objective: “What’s better than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”
When shortstop Mookie Betts, the only active player with four World Series rings, followed him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I got four. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t never sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”
For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the ultimate end goal — the kind of scene that, as they embark on another short winter, will soon fuel their motivations for another confetti-filled parade this time next year.
“For me, winning a championship, the seminal moment of that is the parade,” Friedman said. “The jubilation of doing it, when you get the final out, whatever game you win it in, is special. That night is special. But to be able to take a breath and then experience a parade, in my mind, that is what has always driven me to want to win.”
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“[To] do this for the city, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as important as winning a championship. And if so happens to be three in a row, that’s what it is. But that’s what’s gonna drive us to keep going.”
Much of the group had been part of the 2020 title team that was denied such a serenade following that pandemic-altered campaign. They had waited four long years to experience a city-wide celebration. The reception they received was sentimental and unique.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy said with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage in the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”
“Losing,” star pitcher and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one of his memorable quotes from this past October, “isn’t an option.”
Doing it won’t be easy.
This year, the Dodgers’ win total went down to 93 in an inconsistent regular season. They had to play in the wild-card round for the first time since the playoffs expanded in 2022. And in the World Series, they faced elimination in Games 6 and 7, narrowly winning both to complete their quest to repeat.
“I borderline still can’t believe we won Game 7,” fan favorite Kiké Hernández said in a bus-top interview.
But, he quickly added, “We’re all winners. Winners win.”
Thus, they also get celebrations like Monday’s.
As it was 367 days earlier, the Dodgers winded down a parade route in front of tens of thousands of fans from Temple Street to Grand Avenue to 7th Street to Figueroa. Both on board the double-decker buses and in the frenzied masses below, elation swirled and beverages flowed.
Once the team arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue circular riser in the middle of the field — the final symbolic steps of their ascent back to the mountaintop of the sport.
Anthony Anderson introduced them to the crowd, while Ice Cube delivered the trophy in a blue 1957 Chevy Bel-Air.
Familiar scenes, they are hoping become an annual tradition.
“Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done,” Freeman said. “Job in 2026? Starts now.”
The Dodgers did take time to recognize their newfound place in baseball history, having become just the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles in the span of six years and the first since the New York Yankees of 1998 to 2000 to win in consecutive years.
Where last year’s parade day felt more like an overdue coronation, this one served to crystallize their legacy.
“Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty,” Hernández said. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back?”
And, on Monday, all the main characters of this storybook accomplishment got their moment in the sun.
There was, as team broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Hall of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now only trails Walter Alston in team history with three World Series rings.
“We talked about last year, wanting to run it back,” he said. “And I’ll tell you right now, this group of guys was never gonna be denied to bring this city another championship.”
There was Game 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up surprise October closer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to dance to his “Bailalo Rocky” entrance song; a request Sasaki sheepishly obliged by pumping his fist to the beat.
Yamamoto, coming off his heroic pitching victories in Games 6 and 7, received some of the day’s loudest ovations.
“We did it together,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. I love Los Angeles.”
Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell also all addressed the crowd.
“I’m trying to get used to this,” Snell said.
“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” Ohtani reiterated.
One franchise face who won’t be back for that chase: Clayton Kershaw, who rode into the sunset of retirement by getting one last day at Dodger Stadium, fighting back tears as he thanked the crowd at the end of his illustrious (and also Hall of Fame-bound) 18-year career.
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“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life. And today, that’s true,” Kershaw said. “And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”
Kershaw, of course, is one of the few still around from the club’s dark days of the early 2010s, when money was scarce and playoff appearances were uncertain and parades were only things to dream about — not expect.
As he walks away, however, the team has been totally transformed.
Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll records and bolstered their roster with a wave of star signings. They’ve turned the pursuit of championships into a yearly expectation, proud but unsatisfied with what they’ve achieved to this point.
“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” said Friedman, the architect of this run with the help of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim ownership group. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, that kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing. We want to add to it. We want to continue it, and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”
On Monday, they raised that bar another notch higher.
“This parade was the most insane thing I’ve ever witnessed, been a part of,” Kershaw said. “It truly is the most incredible day ever to be able to end your career on.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ long road toward holding another one begins.
“I know they’re gonna get one more next year,” Kershaw told the crowd. “And I’m gonna watch, just like all of you.”
Cricket fans have been celebrating across India after the women’s team claimed their first ever World Cup, defeating South Africa in the final in Mumbai.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson denied Denny Hamlin his first career championship when a late caution at Phoenix Raceway sent the title-deciding finale into overtime.
Hamlin was three laps from shedding the label as the greatest NASCAR driver to never win a championship when fellow title contender William Byron got a flat tire and hit the wall to bring out the caution.
Hamlin led the field down pit road and got four new tires on his Toyota; Larson only took two tires on his Chevrolet. It meant Larson was fifth for the two-lap sprint to the finish, with Hamlin back in 10th.
With so little time to run down Larson, Hamlin came up short with a sixth-place finish as Larson finished third. Ryan Blaney, who was eliminated from title contention last week, won the race.
It is the second championship for Larson, who won his first title in 2021 when he joined Hendrick Motorsports.
As Larson celebrated, Hamlin sat in his car motionless for several seconds, then wiped his face with a white towel, never showing any emotion.
“I’m just numb,” Hamlin said after consoling his crying daughters on pit road. “We were 40 seconds away from a championship. This sport can drive you absolutely crazy because sometimes speed, talent, none of that matters.”
Larson, who has been in a slump since his disastrous Memorial Day attempt to race both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, was also in shock.
“I really can’t believe it. We didn’t lead a lap and won the championship,” Larson said. “We had an average car at best and had the right front [tire] go down, lost a lap and got the wave around, saved by the caution with the wave around. It’s just unbelievable. What a year by this motorsports team.”
When Hamlin finally got out of his car he embraced his crew members but it was a scene of disbelief among the Joe Gibbs Racing crowd. Team members were crying, some sitting in shock on the pavement, Gibbs himself stood silent, one hand on his hip and a look of disbelief on his face.
It is the sixth shot at a title to slip away from Hamlin in his 20 years driving for Gibbs. He led 208 of the 319 laps and started from the pole.
“Nothing I could do different. I mean, prepared as good as I could coming into the weekend and my team gave me a fantastic car,” Hamlin said. “Just didn’t work out. I was just praying ‘no caution’ and we had one there. What can you do? It’s just not meant to be.”
He said crew chief Chris Gayle made the correct call with four tires, but too many others only took two, which created too big of a gap for Hamlin to close on Larson in so little time.
“Just numb. Feel like there’s still some racing left. I can’t believe it’s over but there’s nothing I can do but just suck it up,” Hamlin said. “I just needed 40 more seconds of green flag.”
Larson was OK during the race, but hasn’t won since early May, a slump that has now extended to 24 consecutive races.
Hamlin teammate Chase Briscoe finished 18th in his debut in the championship finale, while Larson teammate Byron was 33rd after his late issue. He felt awful for ruining Hamlin’s chance even though his Hendrick Motorsports teammate won the championship.
“I’m just super bummed that it was a caution obviously. I hate that. Hate it for Denny. I hate it for the 11 team,” Byron said. “I mean, Denny was on his way to it. I hate that. There’s a lot of respect there. I obviously do not want to cause a caution. If I had known what tire it was, known that a tire was going down before I got to the corner, I would have done something different.”
TORONTO — Beneath his feet, confetti decorated the turf. Behind him, the video boards congratulated his team on its latest championship.
The Dodgers owner who lives and breathes championships smiled broadly. Magic Johnson always does, of course. This time, he had an impish twinkle in his eye.
“They said we ruined baseball,” Johnson said. “Well, I guess we didn’t.”
If you are not in Los Angeles, you might be screaming in frustration. The team with all the gold makes the rules, and the new rule is that the Dodgers win every year, and now their most famous owner is mocking you?
He is not.
He is, however, issuing a subtle warning to all of baseball’s owners: Don’t let your desperation for a salary cap destroy a sport on the rise — in no small part thanks to the Dodgers.
The NBA was not much more than a minor league 45 years ago. This is crazy to imagine now, but the NBA Finals aired on tape delay, on late-night television, most often at 11:30 p.m. The NBA audience was so small that advertisers would not pay prime-time rates for those commercials, so the games were not broadcast in prime time.
Johnson helped change that. The rivalry between his Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics revived the NBA, and then Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls became global sporting icons.
From 1980-88, either the Lakers or the Celtics won the NBA title in every year but one. From 1991-98, the Bulls won six titles.
The Celtics and Lakers and Bulls did not ruin the NBA.
“What the Celtics and Lakers were able to do, and Michael Jordan’s Bulls, was to bring in new fans — fans that were, ‘Oh, I don’t know about the NBA,’” Johnson said, “but the play was so good, and the Celtics and Lakers and Bulls were so dominant, people said, ‘Oh man, I want to watch them.’
“It’s the same thing happening here.”
The NBA leadership could not believe its good fortune. Baseball’s leadership appears intent on lighting its good fortune on fire.
“My phone was blowing up with people who hadn’t watched baseball for a long time,” Johnson said. “They were watching this series.
“This was good for baseball around the world.”
The World Baseball Classic is four months away. The World Series most valuable player, the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is from Japan.
So is the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, the closest baseball has ever had to its own Jordan. The Dodgers rescued him from purgatory in Anaheim and surrounded him with a star-studded roster, and now he makes more money from pitching products than pitching baseballs. To the Dodgers, he doubles as an All-Star and cash machine.
The league — and all the owners complaining about the Dodgers and their spending — happily profited from this traveling road show. The Dodgers get the same share of international merchandise and broadcast revenue every other team does.
The Dodgers led the major leagues in road attendance, again. The league sent the Dodgers to Seoul last spring and Tokyo this spring, meaning that, for two years running, they were one of the first two teams to report to spring training and one of the last two playing at season’s end. The league’s television partners rushed to book the Dodgers, even for games at times inconvenient to the team.
“MLB put us in every hard situation you can think about,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “We never complained. We were trying to come through for the fans, for baseball, and everybody should be recognizing what we are doing.”
With the Blue Jays in the World Series, Canadian ratings for the World Series increased tenfold. The Dodgers did not destroy the Jays. They survived them, and barely at that.
The Dodgers have not ruined competition, despite the spotlight.
“They have a great team,” Toronto infielder Ernie Clement said. “There’s no denying it. They’re one of the best teams probably ever put together, and we’ve taken ‘em to seven games, so that’s got to say something about us.”
Toronto manager John Schneider said his team, which won more games than the Dodgers this season, had chances to sweep the World Series.
“People were calling it David versus Goliath,” Schneider said, shaking his head from side to side. “It’s not even… close.”
The Dodgers make a lot of money, pour the money back into the team, and win. They give the people what they want.
“People want the best,” co-owner Todd Boehly said.
Granted, not every team can spend like the Dodgers. Most cannot, and baseball should be able to find ways to share the wealth without risking its tenuous but growing popularity by locking out players in pursuit of a salary cap.
After all, isn’t a compelling product with stars from home and abroad good for baseball?
“You bet,” controlling owner Mark Walter said. “I think they think so, too.”
It was time to go. The parade was 36 hours away, and Johnson had to rest his throat.
“I’m hoarse,” he said. “I’ve never been hoarse.”
So we’ll leave you with one bit of sports trivia, in response to the mistaken notion that a salary cap assures competitive balance: In the Magic, Bird and Jordan years, the ones that lifted the NBA into popular culture, did the NBA have a salary cap?
It did then. It does now. Onto the quest for a three-peat.
Highlights from the Dodgers’ 5-4 win in 11 innings over the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series.
Great writing, even when an author sets a story in early 20th century Maine or during ancient uprisings, often sheds light on our own era. From a novel starring a sentient gale-force wind, on to a memoir from a leading African American writer, this month’s titles provide illumination as we lose daylight.
FICTION
Helm: A Novel By Sarah Hall Mariner Books: 368 pages, $30 (Nov. 4)
U.K. inhabitants of Hall’s native Cumbria region have grappled for centuries with a wind known as “The Helm.” Different eras have deemed it a measure of divine anger or human sin, and more recently, as one of earth’s vital signs. Helm’s narration alternates with chapters from perspectives including an astrologer, an astronomer, a Crusader, an herbalist and a climatologist, each adding to the strength of the immortal force.
Palaver: A Novel By Bryan Washington Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 336 pages, $28 (Nov. 4)
As in his first two novels “Memorial” and “Family Meal,” Houston-based Washington weaves scenes of Americans at home and in Japan with exquisite attention both to queer culture and to emotions. “The mother” and “the son” are never named; her Jamaican origins affect his upbringing, as well as his identity. When she makes an unannounced visit to see him in Japan, the title’s gentle irony becomes apparent.
Readers will recall Dr. Wilbur Larch from “The Cider House Rules.” Here he is the 1919 go-between for Esther Nacht, a 14-year-old Jewish refugee whom he places with the Winslow family as an au pair. Like so many women through the ages, that role results in a different kind of labor for her, one that turns this most Irving-esque (wrestling! sex!) book into writer Jimmy Winslow’s origin story.
The 1975 murder of Italian subversive film director Pier Paolo Pasolini forms the tortured heart of Laing’s first historical novel. In 1974 protagonist Nicholas Wade leaves England and lands in Venice, where he meets Danilo Donati, costume designer for Pasolini as well as Fellini and others. Their relationship reflects those auteurs’ themes, especially those of fascism’s rebirth in Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.”
Noted playwright Hudes pens a stunning debut novel that rends conventional notions of motherhood. Years after disappearing from her child’s life, April Soto writes her daughter Noelle a letter to read on her 18th birthday. Less apology than explanation, and less explanation than soul-searching screed, this novel has a huge voice, a woman’s attempt to create meaning from the depths of family trauma.
Only Margaret Atwood could write a debut memoir at age 85 and make it significantly different from her previous work while at the same time infusing it with her droll wit and many passions, literary, environmental and familial. While she has always combined public and private in her acclaimed and groundbreaking novels, essays, and poetry, this volume beautifully fuses Atwood the person, and Atwood the writer.
Barth, a freelance journalist, spent time in three different Bay Area encampments of unhoused people, including Oakland’s Wood Street Commons, and, as Gov. Gavin Newsom moves forward on a new task force targeting these areas for removal, he argues that solutions to homelessness should come from the ground up, with the involvement of those most affected.
Until the 1970s in most states, a married woman could not legally refuse to have sex with her husband. The 1978 Oregon trial of John Rideout for marital rape of his wife Greta — despite his then-acquittal — raised awareness of this legislation and led to Rideout’s conviction for rape and sodomy nearly four decades later in a case involving two other partners. Weinman (“The Real Lolita”) writes with energy about a case with present-day ramifications.
You say you want a revolution — and historian Sassoon says: Consider your predecessors. Although we focus on hot-button moments, the long tale of these uprisings can lead to long-term instability and injustice (e.g., the young United States choosing to persist with enslavement). What is the real price of transformation? Is it worth considering when people unite against tyranny and oppression?
Wideman’s 1985 essay “The Language of Home” was about the power of words to capture our foundations, so it’s fitting that his new collection covering 50 years of his powerful prose mimics that essay’s title. The new title’s plural refers to the author’s constant themes, which aren’t surprising. What does surprise is his prescience about still-relevant concerns, from a disappearing middle class to police brutality.
TORONTO — Tyler Glasnow threw seven, maybe eight, pitches in the bullpen. There was no more time to wait. The red emergency light was flashing.
For 14 years, Glasnow has made a nice living as a pitcher. He has thrown hard, if not always durably or effectively.
There is one thing he had not done. In 320 games, from the minors to the majors, from the Arizona Fall League to the World Series, he never had earned a save.
Until Friday, that is, and only after the Dodgers presented him with this opportunity out of equal parts confidence and desperation: Please save us. The winning run is at the plate with no one out. If you fail, we lose the World Series.
No pressure, kid.
He is not one of the more intense personalities on the roster, which makes him a good fit in a situation in which someone else might think twice, or more, at the magnitude of the moment.
“I honestly didn’t have time to think about it,” Glasnow said.
In Game 6 on Friday, the Dodgers in order used a starter to start, a reliever to relieve, the closer of the moment, and then Glasnow to close. In Game 7 on Saturday, the Dodgers plan to start Shohei Ohtani, likely followed by a parade of starters.
Glasnow, who said he could not recall ever pitching on back-to-back days, could be one of them.
“I threw three pitches,” he said. “I’m ready to go.”
The Dodgers had asked him to be ready to go in relief on Friday, so he moseyed on down to the bullpen in the second inning. He didn’t really believe he would pitch. After all, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had thrown consecutive complete games. If Yamamoto could not throw another, Glasnow did not believe he would be the first guy called.
He was not. Justin Wrobleski was, protecting a 3-1 lead, and he delivered a scoreless seventh inning. Closer Roki Sasaki was next, and the Dodgers planned for him to work the eighth and ninth.
Glasnow said bullpen coach Josh Bard warned him to be on alert. Sasaki walked two in the eighth but escaped. He hit a batter and gave up a double to lead off the ninth, and the Dodgers rushed in Glasnow.
“I warmed up very little, got out there,” Glasnow said. “It was like no thinking at all.”
The Dodgers’ scouting reports gave Glasnow and catcher Will Smith reason to believe Ernie Clement would try to jump on the first pitch, so Glasnow said he threw a two-seam fastball that he seldom throws to right-handed batters. Clement popped up.
The next batter, Andrés Giménez, hit a sinking fly ball to left fielder Kiké Hernández. Off the bat, Glasnow said he feared a hit.
If the ball falls in, Giménez has a single and the Dodgers’ lead shrinks to one run. If the ball skips past Hernández, the Blue Jays tie the score.
Glasnow said he had three brief thoughts, in order:
1: “Please don’t be a hit.”
Hernández charged hard and made the running catch.
2: “Sweet, it’s not a hit.”
Hernández threw to second base for the game-ending double play.
3: “Nice, a double play.”
Wrobleski tipped his cap to his new bullpen mate.
“He’s a beast, man,” Wrobleski said. “To be able to come in in that spot, it takes a lot of mental strength and toughness. He did it. I didn’t expect anything less out of him, but it was awesome.”
Wrobleski was pretty good himself. The Dodgers optioned him the maximum five times last year and four times this year. He did not pitch in the first three rounds of the playoffs, and his previous two World Series appearances came in a mop-up role and during an 18-inning game.
Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski reacts after striking out Toronto’s Andrés Giménez to end the seventh inning in Game 6 of the World Series on Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On Friday, they entrusted him with helping to keep their season alive. They got three critical outs from Wrobleski, who is not even making $1 million this season, and three more from Glasnow, who is making $30 million.
“We got a lot of guys that aren’t making what everybody thinks they’re making, especially down in that bullpen,” Wrobleski said. ”We were talking about it the other day. There’s a spot for everybody. If you keep grinding, you can wedge yourself in.”
He did. He was recruited by Clemson out of high school, then basically cut from the team.
“They told me to leave,” he said.
Did a new coach come in?
“No, I was just bad,” he said. “I had like a 10.3 ERA.”
Glasnow signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates out of Hart High in Santa Clarita. In the majors, the Pirates tried him in relief without offering him a chance to close. Did they fail to recognize a budding bullpen star? “I never threw strikes,” he said. “I just wasn’t that good.”
We’ve all heard stories about the kid who goes into his backyard with a wiffle ball, taking a swing and pretending to be the batter who hits the home run in the World Series.
Glasnow doesn’t hit.
“I’ve had all sorts of daydreams about every pitching thing possible as a kid — relieving, closing out a game, starting in the World Series,” he said. “I thought about it all the time. So it’s pretty wild. I haven’t really processed it, either. I think going out to be able to get a save in the World Series is pretty wild.”
The game-ending double play was reviewed by instant replay, so Glasnow missed out on the trademark closer experience: the last out, immediately followed by the handshake line. Instead, everyone looked to the giant video board and waited.
Eventually, an informal line formed.
“I got some dap-ups,” he said. He smiled broadly, then walked out into the Toronto night, the proud owner of his first professional save. For his team, and for Los Angeles, he had kept the hope of a parade alive.
Britain’s Chantelle Cameron has vacated her WBC light-welterweight world title in protest at not being able to compete under the same rules as male fighters.
In women’s professional boxing title fights are usually over 10 rounds, each of two minutes, while men’s title bouts are 12 rounds of three minutes.
“Women’s boxing has come a long way, but there’s still progress to be made,” said 34-year-old Cameron.
“I’ve always believed in equality, and that includes the choice to fight equal rounds, equal opportunities, and equal respect.
“I’m proud of my accomplishment in becoming a WBC champion, but it’s time to take a stand for what’s right and for the future of the sport.”
Cameron was elevated from ‘interim’ champion to full WBC light-welterweight world champion last month after Ireland’s Katie Taylor informed the sanctioning body she planned to take time away from boxing.
Since turning professional in 2017, Cameron has won 21 of 22 fights, is a former undisputed light-welterweight world champion and has also held a world title at lightweight.
She handed Taylor her first career defeat in May 2023 to become undisputed champion, before losing the rematch six months later.
A trilogy bout had been mandated, but Taylor chose not to pursue it as she takes a break from the sport.
The United Kingdom’s King Charles III has stripped his brother, Andrew, of the title of prince and ordered him to leave his lavish residence near Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday. Observers say the Palace is finally taking decisive action over Andrew’s connections to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager.
Andrew, 65, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth and younger brother of King Charles, has faced growing scrutiny over his personal conduct and ties to Epstein. Earlier this month, he was pressured into giving up his title of Duke of York.
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” Andrew said at the time. He also said he “vigorously den[ies] the accusations” against him.
Buckingham Palace hopes to be seen as taking a decisive step, drawing a line after years of compromising scandals. In 2022, Andrew was removed from numerous royal duties due to his connections to Epstein.
How did Andrew’s ties to Epstein come to light?
Born in 1960, Andrew was once one of the more popular members of the British royal family, known for his military service as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War in 1982.
For years, however, Andrew’s personal antics have generated embarrassing headlines, testing the patience of the royal family. In 2024, for instance, court documents revealed that a close adviser on Andrew’s business affairs was a suspected Chinese spy.
But it was Andrew’s persistent ties to Jeffrey Epstein that ultimately forced King Charles’s hand and led to Andrew stepping down from his royal duties in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In 2021, Virginia Giuffre – one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein – filed a lawsuit alleging rape and sexual abuse against then-Prince Andrew. She claimed she had been forced to have sex with him on multiple occasions when she was 17, a minor under US law.
Prince Andrew has always denied Giuffre’s allegations, even insisting that a now-infamous photograph that appeared to show them together had been doctored. But in 2022, he agreed to settle the lawsuit, costing him as much as $16m.
Virginia Giuffre died by suicide in April this year. She was 41 years old.
Earlier this month, British newspapers reported that Andrew had emailed Epstein in February 2011 – more than two months after the prince told the BBC he had severed all ties with his former associate.
The email was sent at a time of heightened media coverage of the Epstein scandal, with Andrew telling Epstein they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it”.
These disclosures ultimately prompted Buckingham Palace’s response on Thursday.
What has Buckingham Palace said?
In a statement released on Thursday night, Buckingham Palace said the King’s brother is now to be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
He will no longer be styled “Prince” or “His Royal Highness (HRH)” and he has lost his dukedom, earldom, barony, military ranks and royal patronages.
It also announced that he is to be evicted from his residence, the sprawling Royal Lodge that was once home to the Queen Mother, near Windsor Castle, west of London.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation,” the palace statement said.
“These censures are deemed necessary… Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse,” it added.
A palace source said the decision was taken by King Charles, but that he had the support of the wider family, including heir-to-the-throne Prince William, in a bid to limit reputational risks to the monarchy.
Elsewhere, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC’s Question Time programme that the king’s latest decision was a “truly brave, important, and correct step”, sending a “powerful message” to survivors of sexual abuse.
Activists from the anti-monarchy group Republic stage a protest at the entrance to Windsor Great Park and Royal Lodge, where Prince Andrew lives, on October 21, 2025, in Windsor, England [Peter Nicholls/Getty Images]
Why has Andrew been evicted from Royal Lodge?
In recent weeks, the British press has been rife with speculation about Andrew’s finances after The Times newspaper reported on October 21 that he had not paid rent on his 30-room mansion – known as Royal Lodge – for two decades.
It was revealed that he had a lease on the property stipulating a “peppercorn rent”: In return for carrying out renovations and maintaining the mansion, Andrew was paying a rent of “one peppercorn” each year.
In a rare political intervention, a British parliamentary committee on Wednesday questioned whether Andrew should still be living in the house, which is owned by the monarch and located 5km (3 miles) south of Windsor Castle.
On October 28, the BBC also revealed that Prince Andrew had hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s associate, later jailed for sex trafficking – and Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced film producer convicted of rape, at Royal Lodge.
The three visited Andrew’s home in 2006 to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday, just two months after a United States arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein over the sexual assault of a minor.
A drone view shows Royal Lodge, a sprawling property on the estate surrounding Windsor Castle, where Britain’s former Prince Andrew lives, in Windsor, UK, on October 21, 2025 [Stringer/Reuters]
Where will Andrew live now?
It is understood that Andrew will move to a property on the private Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, which will be privately funded by his brother, the king.
The wider Sandringham Estate covers approximately 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) with 240 hectares (600 acres) of gardens, and the Palace has not stipulated which property he will stay in.
It is also understood that Andrew’s move to Sandringham will take place “as soon as practicable”.
His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson – who still lives at Royal Lodge with him – will also move out of Royal Lodge and make her own living arrangements.
Have other royals in the UK been stripped of their titles in the past?
The stripping of Prince Andrew’s royal titles by King Charles III is unusual in modern British history.
Other royals have relinquished titles voluntarily – such as Princess Diana giving up HRH following her divorce from King Charles – and King Edward VIII, who abdicated from the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American woman who had been divorced twice.
Others have lost their privileges for political reasons – such as Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, for siding with Germany in World War I – but there has not been a case of a reigning monarch or immediate family being stripped of their status for scandal-related reasons.
In that sense, Andrew’s case is the most serious demotion of a senior British royal in recent memory.
Britain’s Prince Andrew was stripped of his official titles on Thursday over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jefferey Epstein. Photo by Juien Warnand/EPA
Oct. 30 (UPI) — England’s Prince Andrew has been stripped of his official title and will leave his royal residence amid fallout from his relationship with the late convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew, the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, is alleged to have attended gatherings hosted by Epstein.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has provided him with legal protection to continue in his residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.”
Andrew stopped using his Duke of York title and announced in a statement released by the palace that “the continued accusations about me may distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
It is the first time that a member of the royal family has been stripped of their title in more than a century, according to the House of Commons.
Andrew will move from the royal residence on the grounds of Windsor Castle to a property on Sandringham, which is the private estate of the King in Norfolk, England, according to ABC News.
Andrew has consistently denied accusations against him regarding his association with Epstein and attacked the credibility of Virginia Giuffre, author of a book centered on Epstein called, “Nobody’s Girl.”
In Feb, 2022, Andrew settled a sexual assault lawsuit filed by Giuffre while not admitting any wrongdoing. Epstein and Giuffre settled a lawsuit for $500,000 in 2009.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former accomplice, was convicted in 2021 on child sex trafficking and other charges connected to her involvement with Epstein.
Maxwell has consistently denied all wrongdoing and is the only Epstein associate who has been charged in connection with his crimes.
A first-inning blitz and a dominant outing by rookie starting pitcher Trey Yesavage put the Toronto Blue Jays within one win of their first World Series title since 1993.
Major League Baseball’s only Canadian franchise hammered the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 to give them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven ‘Fall Classic’, which now returns to Toronto for its conclusion.
Right-hander Yesavage, who was only called up to the majors in September, threw seven solid innings, with 12 strikeouts – a World Series record for a rookie – and only gave up one run.
The game started in unbelievable fashion at Dodger Stadium as Davis Schneider launched the very first pitch of the night over left field for a home run, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr repeated the feat off the second pitch he faced, leaving the Dodgers 2-0 down before some fans had taken their seats.
While Enrique Hernandez halved the deficit with a solo homer in the bottom of the third inning, Toronto restored their two-run lead straight away as Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly scored Daulton Varsho.
It got even worse for the Dodgers in the top of the seventh as multiple wild pitches and a walk allowed Addison Barger to score, and Bo Bichette drove in Andres Gimenez to make it 5-1.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s base hit added another run in the eighth as the home fans headed for the exits, on a night when even the Dodgers’ Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani went hitless for the second successive game.
After a travel day, the series returns to Toronto on Friday for game six at the Rogers Centre, also the venue for a potential decider on Saturday.
It was excruciating. It was exhausting. It was ecstatic.
It was Fred-die, Fred-die, Fred-die, forever.
Repeating history, rocking the Ravine, winning the unwinnable, Freddie Freeman has done it again for the Dodgers, knocking a baseball for a second consecutive October into probably a second consecutive championship.
In the 18th inning of the longest World Series game in baseball history Monday, nearly seven hours after it started, Freeman smashingly ended it with a leadoff home run against the Toronto Blue Jays to give the Dodgers a 6-5 victory and a two-games-to-one lead.
This time last year he was hitting an extra-inning, walk-off grand slam against the New York Yankees that propelled the Dodgers to the title. At the time, he was being compared to Kirk Gibson and his memorable 1988 World Series homer.
This time, he can only be compared to himself, a guy who was struggling so much in the postseason that both Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts had been intentionally walked in front of him late in the game.
Three times in extra innings, he could have ended the game with a hit. Three times he left runners stranded.
But, finally, Freddie once again became Freddie, driving the ball deep over the center field fence, thrusting his right hand in the air, and watching his teammates dancing and jumping and screaming with a jubilation not previously seen by this workmanlike team this postseason.
“I don’t think you ever come up with the scenario twice,” said Freeman. “To have it happen again, it’s kind of amazing, crazy, and I’m just glad we won.”
Nobody seemed happier than Ohtani, who left the scrum to run down to the bullpen to embrace teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite throwing a complete game two days ago, Yamamoto was preparing to pitch in this game because the Dodgers had run out of arms.
It was that kind of night. It was two seventh-inning stretches. It was umpires nearly running out of baseballs. It was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. eating in the dugout.
“It’s one of the greatest World Series games of all time,” said Dodger Manager Dave Roberts while meeting the media after midnight. “Emotional. I’m spent emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.”
When Ohtani returned toward the dugout he was hugged by water-spraying teammates, and for good reason.
Throughout the night Ohtani once again wrapped Dodger Stadium in his giant arms and shook it down to its ancient roots.
The win was set up after Tommy Edman made a perfect relay throw to the plate to gun down Davis Schneider in the top of the 10th, then Clayton Kershaw dramatically worked out of a base-loaded inherited jam in the 12th.
But before Freeman’s homer, Ohtani owned the night.
He led off the game with a ground-rule double. Then he gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a third-inning homer. Then he closed a 4-2 deficit with a fifth-inning RBI double. Then he tied the game at 5-all with a seventh inning home run.
Then, his aura became even crazier.
Four times in a five-inning stretch from the ninth inning to the 15th, Ohtani was intentionally walked — drawing a fifth walk on four pitches in the 17th. Twice the bases were empty. Once he had to pause at second base to relieve leg cramping. It was nuts.
Imagine a player so dangerous he is given a base four times with a World Series game on the line. One can’t imagine. That’s Ohtani.
“He’s a unicorn,” said Freeman. “There’s no more adjectives you can use to describe him.”
Remember 10 days ago when Ohtani had three home runs and struck out 10? Monday night was nearly as impressive because it was in the World Series, his four extra-base hits tying a record that had last been set in 1906.
And, yeah, he pitches again Tuesday in Game 4, so by the time you comprehend all this, he may have done it again.
“Our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” said Freeman with wonder.
Ohtani was so good, he was better than the Dodgers bad, which included bad baserunning, bad fielding, and a bit of questionable managing.
The Dodgers stranded the winning run on base in the ninth,10th, 11th, and 13th, 14th and 15th inning and 16th…and really should have won it in the 13th.
That’s when Roberts surprisingly batted for Kiké Hernández after a Tommy Edman leadoff double. Miguel Rojas bunted Edman to third, but Alex Call and Freeman couldn’t get him home.
That was only one of numerous potentially game-changing plays on a night when the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead, fell behind 4-2, tied it up at 4-all, fell behind 5-4, then tied it up again in the seventh. Who’d have thought it would remain tied for the next 11 innings?The Dodgers left 18 men on base. They were two-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Max Muncy went 0-for-7. Mookie Betts went 1-for-8. Freeman was just 2-for-7.
“Weird how the game works sometimes, huh?” said Freeman.
The official time of this one was 6:39, which wasn’t so long that one thought of actor Jason Bateman’s reminder to the crowd during a pregame cheer. He noted that the Dodgers had not clinched a World Series championship at Dodger Stadium since 1963.
Two wins in the next two days and they’ll finally do it again.
After Monday’s doubleheader sweep, it’s hard to believe they won’t.
Dutchman Gian van Veen shocked world number one Luke Humphries to win his first PDC title at the European Championship in Dortmund.
The 23-year-old beat countryman and four-time champion Michael van Gerwen 11-9 in the semi-finals before holding his nerve to come through a tense match with Humphries 11-10.
“I said it to my girlfriend when I walked on stage, whenever I win my first TV title I wouldn’t cry – and here I am crying,” Van Veen told ITV Sport.
“I will never forget this moment or even this crowd. It is phenomenal to win my first major in Germany.
“I said to Luke after the game, when he hit the bull to go 10-10, that is why he is world number one. That’s how amazing person Luke is. It is definitely a night to never forget.”
Tom Aspinall’s first defence of his undisputed heavyweight title ended in bitter disappointment after an accidental eye poke from Ciryl Gane left the Briton unable to continue at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi.
At the end of a competitive first round, France’s Gane poked Aspinall in both eyes while attempting a punch, with the referee stopping the contest.
Aspinall, 32, could be seen telling the doctor “I can’t see” as he held a cloth to his eye, and with the Briton unable to fight on the referee deemed the bout a no-contest.
The result meant Aspinall retained his title – but not in the way he wanted to and he showed his frustration in his post-fight interview as the crowd booed the outcome.
“Guys, I just got poked knuckle deep in the eyeball. Why are you booing? I can’t see,” said a crestfallen Aspinall.
“The fight was just getting going. I can hardly open my eye. Look! It was a double eye poke.”
Aspinall was taken to hospital after the fight and did not appear for the post-fight news conference.
Calling the fight a no-contest means the referee deemed the foul accidental rather than intentional, which would have resulted in a disqualification.
A disqualification would have gone down as a win for Aspinall.
Gane was equally annoyed at the outcome and could be seen pacing around the edge of the octagon, shaking his head, as the result was announced.
“I feel sorry. I’m sorry for the crowd, for the fans, I’m sorry for Tom Aspinall and sorry for myself,” said Gane.
“We put a lot of energy in this fight so I’m disappointed, but this is the sport, this is life.
“I don’t know what is going to happen for the future, but we will see.”
Tom Aspinall retains heavyweight title after Ciryl Ganes accidently pokes him in both eyes at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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Champion Tom Aspinall and top-ranked Ciryl Gane could not make it through the opening round of their heavyweight main event at UFC 321 inside Etihad Arena before the match was ruled a no-contest.
Aspinall (15-3-0) and Gane (13-2-0) both came out with a lot of energy until an accidental double eye poke prompted an official timeout at the 4:35 mark of the first round.
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Aspinall (15-3-0) could not see out of his right eye during the allotted five-minute break, and at 4:09 into the stoppage, the match was ruled a no-contest.
It was Aspinall’s first defence as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
“What am I supposed to do about it? I can’t see,” said a disappointed Aspinall, speaking in the ring in response to the chorus of boos throughout the arena. “This is [expletive]. The fight was just getting going.”
Gane dropped to his knees, also disappointed, as the ring announcer made the official announcement.
“I’m feeling sorry,” Gane said. “I’m very sorry about that.”
Aspinall was off to a fast start, as the champion wasted no time in throwing heavy shots at Gane.
Known for his elusive footwork, Gane showed no intimidation and stood toe-to-toe while taking command in the centre of the cage.
Gane used a sharp jab to bloody the champ. And when Aspinall took his shot for a takedown, Gane successfully defended it midway through the round. When Aspinall tried to cut off the cage, Gane did a good job of circling out of it while landing jabs and low kicks.
Inside the final minute of the round, Gane continued to out-strike Aspinall until his poke to the eye.
Aspinall, left, moments after being poked in the eye by Gane at Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on October 25, 2025 [Rula Rouhana/Reuters]
Dern downs Jandiroba
In an intense co-main event in which both women left the cage with battered right eyes, fifth-ranked contender Mackenzie Dern (16-5-0) won the vacant strawweight belt over top-ranked Virna Jandiroba (22-4-0) with a unanimous decision.
Though both fighters had impressive moments within some tightly contested rounds, Dern’s left hand was much more effective and damaging.
Upon hearing the ring announcer announce her name as the new champ and having the belt wrapped around her waist, the 32-year-old Brazilian fell to her knees in tears.
“It feels amazing,” Dern said. “I need to see Moa. This is for Moa.”
Dern was then joined in the cage by her six-year-old daughter, Moa, who draped the UFC belt over her shoulder.
In earlier bouts, No 2 Umar Nurmagomedov (19-1-0) earned a unanimous decision over No 8 Mario Bautista (16-3-0) in a battle of top-ranked bantamweights.
Second-ranked heavyweight contender Alexander Volkov (39-11-0) won by split decision over No 5 Jailton Almeida (22-4-0)
In the light heavyweight division, 10th-ranked Azamat Murzakanov (16-0-0) made quick work of No 7 Aleksandar Rakic (14-6-0).
Murzakanov’s first-round stoppage extended the second-longest active UFC win streak in the division to six consecutive wins.
Aspinall leaves the ring after suffering an eye injury [Giuseppe Cacace/AFP]
A star-studded lineup that sputtered through the previous two rounds of the playoffs sputtered again here Friday, this time without the cover of outstanding starting pitching.
The Dodgers had seven hits in their NLCS opener, when Blake Snell threw eight shutout innings. He picked up the offense.
They had six hits in the World Series opener, when Snell gave up five runs in five-plus innings, and they could not pick him up.
The Blue Jays scored 11 runs. The Dodgers led the National League in runs during the regular season, but even then they have scored at least 11 runs just three times since the All-Star break. The Blue Jays have done it three times in this postseason alone.
“You can make it something if you want to make it something,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “We’re more than capable of scoring 10, 11 in a game. It’s just hard to do in the postseason.
“Obviously, they just did it. They’ve been doing it the whole time, so it may not be hard for them. For us, we haven’t done it. But we’ll find out ways to win games.”
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts reacts during an at-bat in the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
They had better find it soon. The Blue Jays are averaging seven runs per game in the postseason. The Dodgers have not scored seven runs in any game in the NLDS, NLCS or World Series.
“You look back at the last couple of weeks, there’s some pivotal at-bats that can flip games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “At times, I think that the offense looks great as far as building innings, but there’s some key at-bats that you got to win pitches and use the other side of the field, get a hit, take a walk, whatever it might be.
“I think that we can be better. We need to be better.”
The Dodgers had three hits in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, which sounds pretty good until you realize all seven of those at-bats came in the second and third innings.
In the third inning, three of their final four batters hit with a runner in scoring position, and they scored once. But the second inning was worse: they had the bases loaded with one out for three successive batters, and again they scored once.
“We’ve got to cash in in that situation, especially against a team like that that’s swinging it really well,” Betts said. “I feel like that was a big point in the game that really changed things.
“That really changed the game.”
The Dodgers struck out 13 times, the Blue Jays four. The Jays ran their high-contact, low-strikeout offense to perfection Friday. The Dodgers led the NL in home runs this season, and they hit 50 more than Toronto, but they hit only one home run Friday: a two-run shot from Shohei Ohtani, with the team down by nine runs.
The Blue Jays’ starting pitcher for Game 2, Kevin Gausman, has a long memory. On Friday, he thought back to Oct. 14, 2021.
That was the day the Dodgers eliminated the 107-win San Francisco Giants in the NLDS. Gausman, working in relief, was the final pitcher for the Giants. Max Scherzer, also working in Toronto now, was the final pitcher for the Dodgers.
The final pitch of the game: a highly debated third strike to Wilmer Flores.
“I still think about the check swing on Wilmer Flores,” Gausman said. “I don’t think it was a swing, but, you know, that’s kind of water under the bridge.”
Four years later, Gausman hasn’t forgotten. Thing is, just because the Dodgers count on getting to the World Series every year does not mean they will. If the team with three Hall of Famers atop their lineup doesn’t get its bats rolling, the Dodgers might not forget this for years to come.
The McLaren drivers go into the final five races free to race with each other and with no internal team rules hanging over them – other than not to crash with one another.
Norris had been facing undefined “repercussions” after colliding with Piastri while taking third place from him at the first sequence of corners in Singapore.
Following the crash between the two at the start of the sprint at the US Grand Prix last weekend, these have now been removed.
“There is a degree of responsibility from my side in the sprint and we are starting this weekend within a clean slate for both of us, just going out and going racing,” said Piastri.
The Australian, who won at Zandvoort, has seen his lead erode after being beaten by Norris in each of the past four races, but he said he had also been surprised Verstappen had come into the equation so quicky.
“The run of form he’s had since Monza has been a bit of a surprise,” said Piastri.
“There were flashes earlier in the season but there were also some pretty big dips. We know they have been throwing a lot of things at their car trying to improve it but he has come to the fight quicker than I expected.”
However, when asked if he was concerned about Verstappen, Piastri said: “It’s not really something I think about. He has been consistent and strong the last few weekends but there is no benefit in worrying about or focusing on that.
“The thing that’s going to help me win the championship is get the most out of myself, the car, the team. He’s there, he’s in the fight but ultimately it doesn’t change how I go about my racing.”
Norris added: “Max has had very good form the last month or so. They have been performing better than we have.
“He has won a good amount of races and he’s Max Verstappen. You’d be silly if you didn’t want to give Max a chance.
“At the minute, they are in better form, a lot of races they have been quicker. But we still have chances. We have a better car from now until the end of the season and we just have to make use of that.”
Verstappen said: “It’s clear we had a good run, definitely been enjoying it a lot more like that and we will try to carry that momentum forward. We know we need to be perfect to the end to have a chance, but we just try to maximise everything and see where we end up.”
The statistics of the last four races over the past month and a half are quite remarkable.
After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen was 104 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the championship, and 70 adrift of Lando Norris. Now, he is 40 points behind the Australian, whose lead over his team-mate has been cut to just 14 points.
Verstappen expressed his own incredulity at what he had achieved. If someone had told him after Zandvoort this would happen, he said, “I would have told him he was an idiot.
“But we found a good way with the car. It’s simple as that. Of course, we put some upgrades on the car, but we just understood our car a bit better, where we wanted it to perform better.”
A 64-point gain in four races tells its own story, but how it has come about is just as remarkable.
McLaren trounced Red Bull through the summer races in Europe – until the Italian Grand Prix in early September, when an upgraded floor and front wing finally gave Verstappen the balance he had been craving all year.
Since then, the Red Bull has been the fastest car. Until this weekend in Austin, that could have been explained away through circuit characteristics – Monza, Baku and Singapore are all short, slow corners, and require good braking and traction.
The McLaren’s strengths are not in this area – they are in long-duration, medium-speed corners, where they crush everyone else.
But Austin is a “normal” circuit, a road course not a street circuit, not a high-speed outlier like Monza, with a good range of corners. And Verstappen won again.
There are five races left, two of them sprint events. If he keeps closing on the McLaren drivers at the rate he has been, he will win a fifth consecutive title, it’s as stark and simple as that.
The United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew on Friday announced that he would give up the title of the Duke of York days before the publication of a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of raping her after being trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Effective immediately, Prince Andrew will no longer sign off as the “Duke of York” or append “KG” – denoting Knight of the Garter – after his name. And the other titles will become inactive as well, like the His Royal Highness (HRH) honorific.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April at the age of 41, had accused Andrew of forcing her to have sex on three occasions, including when she was underage. Though the disgraced UK prince denied Giuffre’s claims, he paid millions of dollars to settle a civil sexual assault case with her in 2022.
The 65-year-old was stripped of most of his titles and removed from royal duties in 2022 due to his connections to Epstein, who died by suicide in a United States prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His title decision came as he hit the headlines again in the wake of new revelations about his links to Epstein.
So, why has he “given up” his titles? What does it mean for the UK’s Royal Family? And what are his ties with US child sex offender Epstein?
FILE PHOTO: UK’s Prince Andrew speaks with King Charles as they leave Westminster Cathedral at the end of the Requiem Mass, on the day of the funeral of Britain’s Katharine, Duchess of Kent, in London, UK, September 16, 2025 [Toby Melville/Reuters]
What has the disgraced prince said?
“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life,” Andrew added in the statement.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me,” he said, adding that the continued accusations against him “distracted” the royal family.
He also used the statement, released via the Royal Family’s channels, to “vigorously deny the accusations” against him, as he has maintained.
What difference does it make to him?
Andrew had moved back to a largely private life in recent years, even though he remains part of the family, even if ceremonially, as brother of King Charles and uncle to Prince William and Prince Harry.
He has been shunned from using other titles given to him on his wedding day – the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. Theoretically, Andrew will retain the dukedom – that can only be removed by an act of parliament – but he will not use it.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and Andrew’s ex-wife, would also not use her title. The titles of their two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, will remain unaffected.
The couple will continue to live in the 30-room Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor, a Grade II-listed property.
However, the property has been leased from the Crown Estate, meaning he cannot sell it – as he did with Sunninghill Park home in 2007 for 15 million pounds ($20m) to Timor Kulibayev, the son-in-law of the then-president of Kazakhstan.
The 12-bedroom house near Windsor Castle was given to the disgraced prince as a wedding present from Queen Elizabeth.
What to know about Andrew?
Prince Andrew, earlier the Duke of York, is the second son and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – making him the younger brother of King Charles III.
Born in 1960, he was once one of the more popular members of the British royal family, known for his military service as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the Falklands War in 1982.
But in recent years, Andrew has largely withdrawn from public life following intense scrutiny over frequent scandals. His ties to the convicted sex offender Epstein – which pushed him to step down from his royal duties in 2019 – has resurfaced after the release of new Epstein files in September.
Andrew was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages in 2022 after a US judge allowed a civil sexual abuse case against him to move to trial. He was also stripped of his role as the Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, one of the oldest regiments in the British army, by the queen.
Widely believed to be the late queen’s “favourite” child, other titles held by the disgraced royal will be rendered dormant – leaving “prince” as his only remaining title, one that cannot be stripped since he was born the son of a queen.
FILE PHOTO: UK’s Prince Andrew stands next to Prince William and his wife Catherine, princess of Wales, as they leave Westminster Cathedral at the end of the Requiem Mass, on the day of the funeral of Britain’s Katharine, Duchess of Kent, in London, UK, September 16, 2025 [Toby Melville/Reuters]
What are the accusations against Andrew?
In 2021, Giuffre, one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein, filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in a US court, alleging that he had sexually abused her on multiple occasions, including when she was 17 years old – a minor under US law.
She claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, and forced to have sex with the prince in London, New York, and the US Virgin Islands.
Prince Andrew has denied all allegations – even insisting that a now-infamous photograph that appeared to show them together was doctored.
The case was settled out of court in early 2022, with Andrew reportedly paying about 12 million pounds ($16m) – then causing widespread backlash over whether UK taxpayers’ money was used for the payout.
In April this year, Giuffre was found dead at her home near Perth, Australia. Her family confirmed the death as a suicide, attributing it to the emotional toll of her past abuse and ongoing personal struggles.
Last Friday, the US House Oversight Committee also released documents from Epstein’s estate showing “Prince Andrew” listed as a passenger on the convicted sex offender’s private jet, the Lolita Express, from Luton to Edinburgh in 2006.
What does Giuffre’s posthumous memoir say?
On Tuesday, Giuffre’s posthumous memoir goes on sale, where she details her time with the prince and Epstein. In the excerpts published by several media organisations, Giuffre wrote that Andrew believed sex with her was his “birthright”.
In the book, Nobody’s Girl, Giuffre describes her meetings with the prince – and also recounts what unfolded in London during their meet-up.
“Back at the house, [Ghislaine] Maxwell and Epstein said goodnight and headed upstairs, signalling it was time that I take care of the prince. In the years since, I’ve thought a lot about how he behaved. He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright.
“He seemed in a rush to have intercourse. Afterward, he said thank you in his clipped British accent. In my memory, the whole thing lasted less than half an hour,” she writes in her memoir.
“The next morning, Maxwell told me: ‘You did well. The prince had fun.’ Epstein would give me $15,000 for servicing the man the tabloids called ‘Randy Andy’.”
Giuffre’s family has lauded the decision of Andrew being forced to relinquish his titles as “vindication for Virginia”.
“We, the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, believe that Prince Andrew’s decision to give up his titles is vindication for our sister and survivors everywhere,” they said in a statement.
“Further, we believe it is appropriate for King Charles to remove the title of Prince.”
From L: Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000 (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
What were Andrew’s ties with US sex offender Epstein?
Prince Andrew is reported to have had a longstanding association with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender and financier from the US.
The relationship reportedly began in the 1990s, with Andrew socialising with Epstein in elite social circles in both the UK and the US. He is reported to have stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, his private Caribbean island, and flown on Epstein’s private jet on multiple occasions. Andrew was also listed on another flight to West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2000.
Epstein’s close associate, British socialite Maxwell, facilitated introductions between Andrew and other prominent figures, drawing him further into Epstein’s network. Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.
The association came to public scrutiny after Giuffre in 2021 accused Andrew of sexual abuse.
In an infamous 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew said he broke off his friendship with Epstein in December 2010.
But the release of new documents last month shows Andrew reportedly sent a mail three months after the interview. In the email, Andrew appeared to tell Epstein “we are in this together” after the two men were photographed together strolling in New York.
In 2008, Epstein had pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, for which he served 13 months in jail.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019, awaiting a trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Has the prince been part of other scandals?
Andrew has been mired in a number of other scandals, including an instance of his “close confidant” being banned from the UK over allegations he was a Chinese spy.
Andrew reportedly held meetings in 2018 and 2019 with Cai Qi, a member of China’s ruling political bureau.
Cai was suspected by the UK government of being the recipient of sensitive information allegedly passed to China by two British nationals accused of spying for Beijing.
Sarah Ferguson (L) and Britain’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, react as they leave St George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, after attending the Easter Mattins Service, on March 31, 2024 (Photo by Hollie Adams / POOL / AFP)
