trip

SOME people enjoy netball or cross-stitch, but my hobby is booking holidays – and I’m really good at it.

I know a lot of people hate searching for a family holiday, working out what resort is best and whether it’s good value for money, but I enjoy it and it can save you A LOT of money.

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I treat it like a sport, and as a family of four, with two children aged 8 and 5, we have been on some brilliant budget breaks.

There is no better feeling than getting a really great deal for a week in the sun, and I’ve got some great tips to help you do the same.

I go through the flights, hotels and dates with a fine-tooth comb, working out little ways to save. 

It’s even easier to do this at the end of the school holidays or in the shoulder season, such as the October half term, because there are some great deals around.

I have been doing this since my early 20s, after picking up the habit from my dad – back then, the best bargains were on last-minute deals.

We used to pack our suitcases, and my dad would be on the phone to Teletext Holidays, nabbing a same-day bargain. 

His greatest achievement was booking a flight that had already started boarding. Although we’d never be able to do that now. 

However, it’s still a thrill when you lock in a trip for a bargain price. It makes the holiday instantly better. 

Sometimes it’s a small saving, like finding a cheaper airport transfer and saving £20, but sometimes my research pays off, saving hundreds, and nowadays it all adds up. 

Getting a package deal

Last year, I got my biggest saving yet on a family holiday to Greece. 

By booking everything individually, instead of going for a package deal, I saved over £1000 – which was a third of the price. 

I couldn’t believe it!

Having just moved house, we hadn’t booked anything for the summer, hoping to utilise the garden. 

But the end of term was approaching, and after months of grey skies and drizzle, I decided we needed a proper holiday. 

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Heading first to a popular holiday provider, I browsed the best deals across all six weeks of the kids’ school break. 

I didn’t have a set departure airport or destination in mind, and I kept the dates and length of time we’d be away flexible, which meant I had a wide range to choose from. 

At the time, Greece was coming up as the cheapest, and I narrowed it down to the Louis Apostolata Island Resort in Kefalonia.

The deal was pretty good. Flights from London, a week’s half-board in a four-star resort, a suitcase each and transfers to and from the airport in Greece for £3400.

But, since we hadn’t planned on a summer holiday, it was still over budget. 

That’s when I started looking into each aspect separately. I discovered that instead of flying with the designated airline, we could fly with Ryanair for half the cost. 

Flights were £140 return on the budget airline.

Since we didn’t need four suitcases, we just booked one between us for the week, immediately saving another £150 on the Ryanair flights. 

Going onto the hotel’s own website, I noticed that I could book directly with them, and the price was coming up a lot less.

They also had an offer on a room upgrade if you signed up for the mailing list. We actually ended up with a nicer room while paying less. 

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The only thing that wasn’t covered was transfers. On the package deal, a coach transfer was included, but it also stopped at a number of other hotels. 

When I looked it up, a taxi to the resort was only £80 return. 

However, even with this on top, we still saved a whopping £1001 on the whole trip, which in total cost £2300.  

We used the money we saved to book a weekend in Disneyland Paris in October.

Again, I booked everything separately, using the Eurotunnel to drive to France and booking a hotel close to the theme park with 2-day tickets for just £440 for all of us. 

Our trip only cost £1300. 

After saving money on our Greece trip, I told people that Disneyland only cost us £300! 

Book carefully

My advice would be to always book with reputable suppliers, because you could end up forking out more if they are not legitimate. 

If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. 

I do like DIY holidays, but I am not against booking a package deal, and sometimes they are so good, I can’t beat them.

Our favourite places to shop for a package holiday are Jet2holidays and TUI.

Booking a package means you get extra protection for your holiday through regulators like ABTA, ATOL and ABTOT. 

This means you’ll get your money back on all aspects of the package in the event of any holiday disasters, like flight cancellations or issues at the hotel – which I wouldn’t have had with my DIY version.  

For peace of mind, some people prefer to pay extra and not have to think about that, but massive holiday disasters are rare so I am happy to take the risk. 

Aug. 24 (UPI) — On the day celebrating Ukraine‘s independence, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada made a surprise visit to Ukraine where Ottawa and Kyiv entered several agreements centered on defending the besieged European nation from Russia.

Carney made the official visit to Ukraine at President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s invitation, reaffirming their strong and enduring partnership, a joint communique read. The visit occurred on the 34th anniversary of the restoration of Ukraine’s independence. Canada was the first Western country that recognized its independence and sovereignty in 1991.

During a joint press conference in Kyiv with Zelensky, the Canadian leader said when Ottawa made that decision to recognize an independent Ukraine more than three decades ago, it was choosing between clinging to the past in the name of stability and “to recognize Ukrainian independence in the name of freedom, fairness and democracy.”

“I’d underscore the world faces a similar choice today,” he said.

“At this hinge moment in history, Ukraine is, once again, at the frontline of the struggle for democracy and freedom,” he continued. “This is a critical moment where allies must step up and lead, and Canada is answering that call. Canada is, has and always will be a steadfast ally in Ukraine’s relentless pursuit of freedom.”

He reiterated the widely held belief of Western leaders that an investment in Ukraine’s defense is an investment in their own, reaffirming Canada’s commitment to Ukraine.

Four documents were signed between the two governments on Sunday.

Carney and Zelensky signed a security cooperation action plan, which covers implementing mechanisms for cooperating in military training, defense capabilities development, intelligence sharing and more. It specifically sets out steps for the implementation of an agreement signed between the two in February.

A letter of joint defense production intent was signed by the countries’ defense chiefs to co-produce defense materials in both Canada and Ukraine.

A mutual administrative assistance in customs matters agreement was also signed, along with the joint communique, which states Ottawa and Kyiv agree to initiate annual foreign affairs and defense ministries consultations among other actions.

A statement from Canada’s prime minister’s office states that among funding allocated Sunday includes more than $600 million to buy armored vehicles medical supplies and other “critical equipment” for Ukraine; $500 million to buy military equipment sourced from the United States through NATO, about $160 million for drone, counter-drone and electronic warfare capabilities; $120 million to support Canada’s work in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and $72 million to source ammunition and explosives through a Czech initiative.

Carney also announced $22.4 million for humanitarian assistance and investments in Ukraine’s democracy.

The amount equals the roughly $1.4 billion in aid that Canada pledge for Ukraine in February.

The visit occurs as the United States under President Donald Trump is pushing to secure a halt in the fighting in the nearly 3 1/2-year war if not a full peace agreement.

Zelensky has been seeking to confirm security guarantees from allies, and said during a press conference that followed a meeting between the two leaders that it is important to Ukraine that Canada participate at the same level as European countries, seeking assurances that Carney will deploy troops on the ground.

“We are counting on the presence of Canadian forces in Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “This is important for us.”

Carney said that the frontlines will be a “robust” Ukrainian military, and that they are working with ally nations through “the modalities of those security guarantees, on land, in the air and the sea, and I would not exclude the presence of troops.”

Ukraine officially declared independence from the former Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.

The glass partition wall in Lisa Hanawalt’s office is lined with reference sheets dedicated to the members of the central family in “Long Story Short.”

Each page lists a character’s name, birth month and year — along with their zodiac sign — and a dated timeline of full body images that tracks how they look at different ages. Depending on the character, this includes their designs as children, teens and middle-aged adults.

During a mid-August morning at ShadowMachine studio, Hanawalt sits at her desk, pulling up different looks of earlier incarnations of the characters that she did before their final designs were set along with newer works in progress. Raphael Bob-Waksberg sits just behind her as they point out little details that they’re fond of and bounce their thoughts back and forth on whether certain characters might drastically change their appearance one year, as people tend to do.

“It’s a fun thing you don’t get to do on a lot of animated shows,” says Bob-Waksberg, the creator and showrunner of “Long Story Short.” “To evolve with our characters and dress them up and have so many different looks for them.”

On most animated sitcoms, characters are trapped in time: perpetually the same age, usually wearing the same clothes, rarely even getting a haircut — no matter how many holiday episodes they get through the years. Not so on “Long Story Short,” where the passage of time is a feature.

“It’s really fun to get to know the characters and to think about their aesthetic,” says Hanawalt, the show’s supervising producer. “We have to draw a lot of different versions of everybody.”

Siblings Shira, left, Yoshi and Avi Schwooper in “Long Story Short.”

(Netflix)

Launching Friday on Netflix, “Long Story Short” follows the Schwoopers, a Bay Area family whose portmanteau last name is a blend of the parents’ Schwartz and Cooper, through the ups and downs of their lives. The show’s cast includes Lisa Edelstein and Paul Reiser, who voice the parents Naomi and Elliot, respectively, and Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson and Max Greenfield as the Schwooper children, Avi, Shira and Yoshi.

Their story unfolds over time across both everyday happenings and milestones, with each self-contained episode jumping between moments that reverberate from anywhere in the 1950s to 2020s.

“It feels cumulative, even though the episodes themselves are not necessarily connected directly,” Bob-Waksberg says. “We thought a lot about emotional arcs more than narrative arcs. Can we feel like these characters have gone on a journey, even though we’re seeing the [story] out of order?”

“Long Story Short” is Bob-Waksberg’s first new show since the conclusion of “Bojack Horseman,” the acclaimed adult animated series that ended in 2020, about a washed up former sitcom star and his struggles set in an alternate Hollywood where humans lived alongside anthropomorphic animals. While “Bojack” didn’t shy away from showing how terrible parents were the root cause of various characters’ troubles, “Long Story Short” is a more nuanced take on dysfunction where it’s not as easy to place blame.

“As you get older, you kind of realize, we’re all screwed up in different ways and most of us didn’t have parents that bad,” Bob-Waksberg says. “We had parents who were trying and in some ways succeeding, and in other ways, not quite giving us what we needed.”

The show marks the pair’s third animated series together. Hanawalt served as the production designer and producer on “Bojack” before developing her own series, “Tuca & Bertie,” on which Bob-Waksberg served as an executive producer. But their easy rapport as they comment on a short clip of sauce exploding and whether a character is the type of person to only own one suit — as well as when the conversation detours into listing actors they insist the other likes after a missed film reference — makes it obvious that their friendship runs much deeper.

Longtime friends Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Lisa Hanawalt have previously worked together on “Bojack Horseman” and “Tuca & Bertie.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Bob-Waksberg and Hanawalt explain that even during their high school years in Palo Alto, where they crossed paths as theater kids and became friends, they would talk about working on projects together and dream up TV show ideas. Describing Hanawalt as one of his favorite people and artists, Bob-Waksberg says she is the first person he thinks of whenever he needs someone for artistic work.

After hearing Bob-Waksberg’s idea for “Long Story Short,” “I just immediately felt like I knew what it should look like,” says Hanawalt. “That it should look like Sunday funnies, comics and ‘Peanuts.’ … I thought this should be more hand-drawn and loose. The warmth of the show, but also playing against how serious some of the subject matter is, I thought [that style] would help warm it up a bit.”

Though Hanawalt says backgrounds are not her forte, she had a vision of what she saw for the world and started drawing houses and buildings that resembled those they grew up in. Bob-Waksberg credits that as the reason for the show being set in Northern California.

Another reason Hanawalt wanted to work on the show was because it involved designing humans — something she’s leaned away from in the past.

“All the other stuff I get sent is for animals [and] animal people,” she says. “People see me as the animal lady, which I am — I do love anthropomorphic animals and plants. But I was actually leaning toward something more realistic. … I don’t want to get pigeonholed. And doing the same thing over and over, it gets really boring to me. So this was a fun challenge, drawing humans that are as cute as animals.”

Hearing this, Bob-Waksberg is amused by how aspects from their past have come to define them.

“I was just thinking about how 13, 14 years ago, I was developing a whole bunch of TV shows,” he says. “The one that went was the animated one and now I’m a cartoon guy, which I don’t resent. It’s been very good for me. But it’s so funny, [to think that] there’s another universe in which this other show went and then I’d be known as that kind of writer.”

The Schwooper family in an episode of “Long Story Short.”

(Netflix)

Both Bob-Waksberg and Hanawalt acknowledge it’s still a tough time for the industry, including for writers looking for work and creatives trying to get things made. Both mention having pitched different ideas that they were certain would be their next projects that ultimately went nowhere.

“I’m glad to work on this because I’m happy to not be a showrunner right now,” Hanawalt admits. “‘Tuca & Bertie’ wiped me out [and] I didn’t have enough juice to keep pitching.”

Still, Bob-Waksberg believes animation is one of the few places were shows based on original ideas have a chance, and for that he and Hanawalt are both grateful because they’d rather work on their own ideas than play in someone else’s sandbox. In other spaces, studios appear to only show interest on ideas based on existing IP like a book, news article or podcast. They also remain hopeful that, in time, things will get better.

“The appetite for original, good shows and animated shows is always there,” Hanawalt says. “That’s consistent. The audience is there. It’s just a matter of getting it to them.”

Although the show centers a Jewish family in Northern California and includes nods to his upbringing, Bob-Waksberg has been clear that “Long Story Short” is not autobiographical. But it is deeply personal. He explains that discussing the novel “Interior Chinatown,” which confronts the interplay of representation and identity, with author Charles Yu was one of the things that made him think about what it would be like to address his own identity in his work.

“It felt like it opened up this new door of story possibility that I hadn’t considered before,” Bob-Waksberg says. “One of the interesting things about working on this show is unpacking [how], especially in conversation with my other writers and the actors and other people, some things that I attributed to being Jewish is just my family.”

“Long Story Short” showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg and supervising producer Lisa Hanawalt.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

While the series addresses the “trauma” — in quotes depending on which character you ask — rooted in people’s upbringing, it’s also filled with plenty of humor and heart. Most episodes are zoomed in on whatever more personal issue the Schwoopers are facing, and the passage of time is conveyed through characters’ ages and appearances rather than by referencing specific happenings and headlines that might be associated with that story’s era.

But one global event the series does acknowledge is the COVID-19 pandemic. For Bob-Waksberg, it was important to do so because it’s a collective trauma that affected everyone and should be remembered as such.

“This was a real dividing point for our world and for us all as individuals,” Bob-Waksberg says. “I feel like it’s been underrepresented in pop culture in a weird way [and] we all were very quick to move on.”

“Let’s not pretend that it never happened,” he continued. “I do feel like, as a storyteller, it is in some ways my job to be a document of the world.”

Recalling how important it was for him to hear stories from Holocaust survivors about their experiences when he was younger, Bob-Waksberg adds: “I don’t want to forget about these things.”

The Lake District route passes by some of the national park’s most beautiful villages and stunning landscapes

Summer is the ideal season for a road trip, and what better place to explore than the stunning landscapes right in the north-west of England?

The UK’s top five road trips have been unveiled, with a breath taking route in the Lake District clinching third place. It was only outdone by Scotland’s North Coast 500 and a coast-to-coast loop in Cornwall. Digital car finance lender Carmoola has teamed up with renowned travel expert Gemma Logan of The Brighton Bucket List to reveal the best road trips in the UK.

The beautiful Lake District route showcases some of the national park’s most picturesque villages, as well as offering views of the region’s majestic fells and stunning lakes.

READ MORE: Popular UK beach made famous by Poldark is closed off to the publicREAD MORE: Best curry house in England named – and it’s in a tiny market town

Covering approximately 80-100 miles depending on the chosen route, it begins in Windermere and takes you through Grasmere, Keswick, Coniston and Borrowdale before looping back to Windermere.

While it can be completed in three to four hours of continuous driving, it’s best savoured over two to three days, allowing ample time to fully explore the area.

This road trip is perfect for outdoor enthusiasts and hikers, but it also offers a fantastic opportunity for people to appreciate the beauty of the Lake District from the comfort of their car. Gemma commented: “We’ve seen a major shift towards slower, more meaningful travel.

“Road trips offer freedom, flexibility, and the chance to uncover hidden gems along the way – all while travelling on your own terms. They’re no longer a backup plan – they’re the way people want to travel.”

Another road trip easily accessible from Greater Manchester that made it into the top five is a scenic route through the stunning Yorkshire Dales and Moors.

This 120-mile journey begins in Skipton, taking you through Grassington, Malham, Hawes, Helmsley and back to Skipton, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Equally, if you want to explore more of Wales, the Coastal Way is a fantastic chance to see some of the country’s more beautiful scenery. The Coastal Way runs for about 180 miles down the entire length of Cardigan Bay.

Driving by, you can glimpse the peaks of Snowdonia and expanses of blue ocean. There is Michelin-starred food found along the way, making it the perfect drive for food-lovers.

Even better for those who don’t have a car or who would prefer to go without – much of this road trip can actually be done on foot or by cycling.

The top five UK road trips

1. North Coast 500, Scotland
2. Cornwall coast-to-coast
3. Lake District
4. Yorkshire Dales and Moors
5. Wales’ Coastal Way

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Pope Leo XIV is expected to travel to Lebanon before the end of the year on his first international trip.

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said in an interview that Leo would visit Lebanon “sometime between now and December.”

“The visit will happen after a decision from the Vatican about when it will take place, so until now it’s not yet determined. But preparations for the visit are underway, though the exact timing is still unknown, waiting for the Vatican to announce it,” Rai said.

There has been no official announcement from the Vatican about the international trip yet

Archbishop Paul Sayah, deputy to Lebanon’s highest-ranking Catholic leader, told BBC that a trip to Lebanon would be an important visit for the pope.

“Lebanon is a multicultural, multi-religious country and is a place of dialogue,” Sayah said. “It’s one of the rare environments where Muslims and Christians are living together and respecting each other so it sends a message to the region.”

Throughout recent decades, popes have been conducting overseas travels to connect with Catholics worldwide.

Pope Francis during his 12 years, visited 68 countries on 47 foreign trips.

Francis had formerly expressed his desire to visit Lebanon, but the country’s political and economic crisis complicated the planning.

Lebanon is home to more than two million Catholics and has carried symbolic weight for the Church.

Antiques Road Trip star Angus Ashworth has recalled a heartwarming moment in his career

Antiques Road Trip star Angus Ashworth left a guest “in tears” with a valuation after his wife’s cancer battle.

The BBC antiques expert and auctioneer, who currently appears on The Yorkshire Auction House, admitted that emotions often run high when dealing with the estate of a loved one who has passed away.

In an exclusive chat with the Express, Angus shared some touching experiences with owners of antiques.

He explained that while he often witnesses “incredible” reactions, there have been those who are “just in it for the money” over the years.

Angus revealed: “We’ve had a lot of good reactions. It’s usually people that are not doing it for the money. They’re doing it because they’ve got to clear the house, so they’ve never really considered the value. It’s just part of the process, then all of a sudden you tell them they’ve made £10,000.

“There’s been several like that where they’re absolutely speechless. We’ve had some incredible reactions. People genuinely do break down into tears,” reports the Express.

“On the telly, a chap’s wife was badly ill [with cancer] and he wanted to raise enough money to get a second-hand stairlift put in to help her mobility.

“He was hoping to raise £2,000 because that’s what he needed for the stairlift and we made him £9,000. He just couldn’t comprehend it.”

The TV auctioneer went on: “You’ve always got to be mindful when you step into a house. You’ve got to read the room, and read the client. Everybody’s situation is different – some of them, it’s very straightforward and businesslike.

“But what you’ve got to remember is even if something is not saleable, and doesn’t have a commercial value, it has a sentimental value. I’ve always gone by the mantra that whenever you talk about something, you’ve got to remember it belonged to somebody’s late father, mother, brother.

“That might be their prize item. You can be enthusiastic about something, just because it’s not [worth much commercially]. There’s a lot of empathy that’s got to be given, put yourself in their shoes.”

He added: “I suppose that’s partly why people get us in – because we can take a non-attached approach to it, we can just do the job. But there are odd stories you get where you go, ‘Ugh, that’s tough’.”

Angus then recalled meeting a woman who was moving to Spain to start a new life after her son had died.

“I’d not long had children at that point and I was [holding back tears]. Every once in a while you’re just… taken aback,” he said.

Angus further shared: “A slightly different one that hasn’t aired yet was a military veteran who was badly injured and suffered very badly with PTSD, and we were the first people he’d let in his house for 15 years. That was a different sort of emotional.

“He got us because we’ve got the military connection and he felt he could let us in – that was a massive step for him. It’s not always about people who are deceased. It’s a unique job.”

He concluded: “Then you get clients where it’s all about the money and they’re there to the penny, saying ‘You didn’t quite get what we were thinking’. Auctions are like that – some things will do better than expected, some things will do worse.”

Antiques Road Trip airs on BBC One and BBC Two. The Yorkshire Auction House is available to stream on Discovery+

You can find it on Spotify in playlists for insomniacs, but on a Friday afternoon on Exmoor, we are happily listening to the real thing: the gorgeous ambient sound made by grasshoppers, birds and the buzzing insects that momentarily fly in and out of earshot.

The view is just as serene: the deep-blue Bristol Channel in the middle distance, golden fields just in front of us and, in our immediate surroundings, huge expanses of grasses and wildflowers. Our tent is pitched between two strips of woodland, which provide just enough shade. To complete the sense of calm wonderment: for 24 hours, we have this piece of land completely to ourselves.

Essentially, we are wild camping, but in a reassuringly managed way. Our spot has been arranged by CampWild, an adventure outfit that started in 2023 and has about 200 approved locations on its books.

Glacier National Park, Mont. — JOHAN looked up. Jenna was running toward him. She had yelled something, he wasn’t sure what. Then he saw it. The open mouth, the tongue, the teeth, the flattened ears. Jenna ran right past him, and it struck him — a flash of fur, two jumps, 400 pounds of lightning.

It was a grizzly, and it had him by his left thigh. His mind started racing — to Jenna, to the trip, to fighting, to escaping. The bear jerked him back and forth like a rag doll, but he remembered no pain, just disbelief. It bit into him again and again, its jaw like a sharp vise stopping at nothing until teeth hit bone. Then came the claws, rising like shiny knife blades, long and stark.

Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive

Johan and Jenna had been on the trail little more than an hour. They had just followed a series of switchbacks above Grinnell Lake and were on a narrow ledge cut into a cliff. It was an easy ascent, rocky and just slightly muddy from yesterday’s rain.

Johan took some pictures. Jenna pushed ahead. It was one of the most spectacular hikes they’d taken on this trip, a father-daughter getaway to celebrate her graduation from high school. There were some steps, a small outcropping, a blind turn, and there it was, the worst possibility: a surprised bear with two yearling cubs.

The bear kept pounding into him. He had to break away. To his right was the wall of the mountain, to his left a sheer drop. Slightly behind him, however, and 20 feet below the trail, a thimbleberry and alder patch grew on a small slope jutting from the cliff. As a boy growing up in Holland, Johan had roughhoused with his brother and had fallen into bushes. He knew it would hurt, but at least it wouldn’t kill him.

So like a linebacker hurtling for a tackle, he dived for that thimbleberry patch. The landing rattled him, but he was OK. His right eye was bleeding, but he didn’t have time to think about that. Jenna was now alone with the bear.

She had reached down to pick up the bear spray. The small red canister had fallen out of the side pocket of his day pack, and there it was, on the ground. But she couldn’t remove the safety clip, and the bear was coming at her again. She screamed.

“Jenna, come down here,” he yelled.

She never heard him. She was falling, arms and legs striking the rocky cliff, then nothing for seconds before she landed hard.

The bear did hear him, however. It looked over the cliff and pounced. Johan had never seen anything move so fast in his life. He tucked into a fetal position. The bear fell upon him, clawing and biting at his back. His day pack protected him, and his mind started racing again.

His daughter didn’t have a pack. He always carried the water and snacks. If the bear got to her, it’d tear her apart.

He turned, swung to his right and let himself go. Only this time there wasn’t a thimbleberry patch to break his fall. It was a straight drop to where Jenna had landed, and instead of taking the bear away from her, as he had hoped, he was taking the bear to her.

JOHAN Otter lived with his wife, Marilyn, and their two teenage daughters in a two-story home in a semirural neighborhood of Escondido, Calif. He worked as an administrator at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. He ran in marathons and bred exotic birds. He knew the love of his family, success at his job, good health. At 43, he had dreams of a long and happy life. But dreams are often upended. Johan knew this, and whenever possible, he tried to distance himself and his family from risk.

It was Aug. 25, 2005. Seven days earlier, Johan and Jenna had packed up the family pickup truck and driven north through Nevada and Utah. In September, she would begin her freshman year at UC Irvine. Hiking was their special bond. He was a runner, she was a dancer; they both were in good shape for the trail, and it wasn’t unusual for Marilyn and Stephanie, their younger daughter, to stay home.

Johan Otter, top photo at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park on Aug. 24, 2005. A day hike that he and his daugther Jenna took. “My last day with hair,” Otter said. Bottom photo shows Jenna Otter in of the last photos taken by Johan Otter before being attacked by a Grizzly bear on the Grinnell Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, Montana.

(Jenna Otter)

Johan and Jenna checked into a motor lodge on the east side of Glacier. Johan was eager to experience the wildness of the park, and the first night he did. A black bear, just outside the lodge.

For millenniums, bears have lurked on the periphery of everyday life, dark shadows just beyond the firelight. On this continent, they have been our respected competition and greatest threat. Even though close encounters with bears, especially grizzlies, are rare, they trigger a conditioned response, a reflex of fear and flight that is seldom called upon in modern life. Sometimes we get away. Sometimes we can’t.

But most of all, bears inspire a deep fascination. Johan remembered how, as a boy, he would go with his family on vacations to Norway and how his parents, his brother and he had always wanted to see a bear. The curiosity never left him. Three years ago, during a trip to Canada with the family, he and Stephanie saw a cub. Marilyn and Jenna stayed back.

On this trip to Glacier, they had an ambitious hiking schedule, and they were disappointed when it rained their first full day. They contented themselves with driving to various sights. The next day was beautiful. The sun cut through scattered, misting clouds. Johan was eager to get out on the trail before anyone else. It was 7:30 a.m.

The path wound through a lush carpet of thimbleberry, beargrass and lilies growing beneath a mix of Engelmann spruce and Scotch pine. They skirted Lake Josephine, and in less than an hour, Johan and Jenna were above the tree line. Surrounding peaks were lightly dusted with snow. At one point Johan spotted a golden eagle trying to catch a thermal. They talked loudly, just as you’re supposed to do in bear country. Jenna was trying to figure out how she could be both a dancer and a doctor. He wondered if he’d be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

As they made their way along the southern flank of Mt. Grinnell, a glacier-carved cliff that rises nearly 3,500 vertical feet from the valley floor, they fell silent, lost in the sounds of the wind and the water, the beauty of the moment. Ahead of them were the Gem and Salamander glaciers. A ribbon of water cascaded into the forest below. A river flowed into the turquoise stillness of Grinnell Lake.

Penstemon, columbines and fireweed bloomed amid the low-lying alder scrub. They passed through Thunderbird Falls, a landmark on the trail where a stream often pours from the cliff above onto a platform of flat stones. Today it was only wet and slippery, but the drop-off was unforgiving.

(Doug Stevens / Los Angeles Times)

TEN minutes past the falls, they ran into the bear. In a matter of minutes, they had all tumbled 30 feet down a rocky V-shaped chute, landing on a ledge beneath the trail. Jenna had scrambled away, and the grizzly was on top of Johan.

The attack had just started, and it had been going on too long. He grabbed the bear by the fur on its throat. The feeling of the coarse hair, as on a dirty dog, was unforgettable, and for a moment the animal just stared at him, two amber-brown eyes, its snout straight in his face. It showed no emotion, no fear, no anger. There were just those eyes looking down at him.

Johan considered fighting. He reached to his left for a rock. A piece of shale, it crumbled in his fist. He tucked his knees to his chest and tried to cover his head.

The bear bit again and again on his right arm. So this is what it feels like to have your flesh torn, he thought, still trying to comprehend the attack. He tussled about, trying to avoid greater injury.

“Aaagh,” he screamed.

Now the bear was tugging on his back. It felt as if someone were jumping up and down on him, and he found himself growing angry. Throw it off the mountain. If only he could throw it off the mountain.

He felt a sharp pressure on the top of his neck and his head. The bear was biting into his skull, chewing into the bone. This could be it, he thought. This could be his death, and his right hand was useless. He could not push the bear away.

If only this were a movie or one of those old episodes of “Bonanza” he used to watch on TV. He’d be a stuntman, and they’d stop shooting any time.

But this was real. He’d die if he didn’t make another move, so he rolled and fell again, sliding 20 feet down the slope to a small ledge and then over that and onto a narrow shelf. Right foot, left foot. He landed on his feet. He was lucky he stopped. He wouldn’t have survived the next long straight drop.

He was silent. The bear stood above him, unable to reach him. It felt good to be left alone. Water flowed down his back. Cold water. He’d fallen into a small stream, runoff from yesterday’s rain.

Jenna heard the bear panting as it came closer to where she lay beneath the branches of a low-lying alder. She felt woozy from her fall. She had a knot on her head. Her back ached, and her ankle was bleeding.

She tried to stay tucked in, but when the bear got close to her face, she had to push it away. It nipped at the right corner of her mouth, at her hair, her right shoulder. Each bite was quick, followed by a slight jostle.

Her screams split the morning silence like an ax.

Source: National Park Service. Graphics reporting by Thomas Curwen

(Thomas Suh Lauder/Los Angeles Times; Photo by Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

JOHAN pressed himself against the mountain. There was no room to sit or lie down. He heard Jenna, but he couldn’t do anything. He would remember the sound as the worst he had ever heard, and then there was nothing. All was still.

He was wet and dirty, soaked with blood and starting to shiver. The attack had lasted at most 15 minutes. He looked at his right arm and saw exposed tendons. His medical training as a physical therapist told him no major nerves or arteries had been cut. They can sew that together, he thought, and that, and that.

Then he touched the top of his head and felt only bone. He stopped exploring. It was enough to know that his scalp had been torn off. His neck hurt. He wondered if something was broken.

He couldn’t see out of his right eye. He reached up. It was full of blood and caked over. Was his eyeball hanging out? No, it was still in place. He carefully parted his eyelids. The sweet turquoise stillness of Grinnell Lake shimmered nearly 1,500 feet below him. He could see. He was relieved.

“Jenna,” he eventually called out.

“Dad.”

She had played dead, and the bear had moved on. She assessed her injuries. A bite on her shoulder as deep as a knuckle. Lower lip torn down to her chin. Hair caked with blood.

Her father’s voice was the best sound she’d ever heard.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

“I’m OK. How are you?”

“I’m bleeding a lot.” He thought of his own injuries and of his daughter’s appearance. “How’s your face? Did it get you?”

“Just my mouth.”

“And your eyes?”

“They’re fine.”

He could tell by the sound of her voice that she was OK. Thank you, God.

He gazed up into the sky above Mt. Gould on the far side of the valley. He thought of the people he knew who were dead. His mother and father. Thank you, Mom, and thank you, Dad, for being an energy that he could draw on. Somehow it made him less afraid.

And thank you, Sophie. She was a patient of his, an 80-year-old woman who had died last year. They had grown close as Johan worked with her. She would complain — I’m going to die, she’d say — and he’d tell her to be quiet. You’re not going to die, Sophie. And to think he nearly had.

And thank you, Steve, his father-in-law, Marilyn’s dad, who had become his own dad in a way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Then he called back to Jenna. “It got me kind of bad.”

It was the only time he told her how he felt. After that, he turned stoic. No complaining. No despairing. He knew his dad would have reacted the same way. He chalked it up to being Dutch: You take care of yourself and your children. Jenna would do the same.

Together, unprompted, they began to call out.

“Helllp.”

“Helllp.”

GLACIER National Park straddles the Continental Divide. Popularly thought of as North America’s Switzerland, famous for its snowy peaks, alpine meadows, rivers and lakes, the park attracts nearly 2 million visitors each year. On the east side of the park, the Grinnell Glacier Trail is one of the most popular day hikes.

“Helllp.”

Johan knew he couldn’t stand here much longer. He took off his day pack and camcorder. His digital camera was gone, lost in the chaos. He pulled a jacket out of his pack and put the hood over his head. The night before, he’d read a book about bear attacks: how a woman in Alaska had stopped the bleeding of her scalp by covering her head. He also thought it might be easier on Jenna or anyone else who might happen to see him.

He wanted to climb to the ledge above. He didn’t know how he’d carry his pack and camcorder. Then it came to him, what they say on airplanes. Leave your luggage and take care of yourself. It made sense. He clambered and crawled off the narrow shelf and up to the ledge. He felt dizzy, so he sat down.

Johan and Jenna alternated their calls. Jenna had decided to stay where she was. She too was dizzy and uncertain of her injuries. Perched on the side of the mountain, about 75 feet apart, they looked down into the valley. Their cries disappeared in the vast open space. It was windy and cold, and the quiet seemed unreal after the intensity of the attack.

“Helllp.”

Then Jenna called out. “Dad, the boat just got to the dock. I see people getting off.” It was a water taxi that ran a regular service across Lake Josephine.

Johan knew that with the arrival of the boat, hikers would soon be streaming along the trail and their shouts would be heard. He was tired. He stopped yelling and tried not to think about how badly injured he was. Nothing a little surgery can’t fix, he told himself. Besides, he was alive, and his daughter was fine.

Amid the isolation and the cold, he grew sore and stiff and numb. Lying down, sitting up, nothing helped. Forty-five minutes later, he heard Jenna talking with someone. She called to him. “Dad, there are people here now. They’re getting help.”

Still it seemed like forever. Then Johan saw a man cutting through the bushes and sliding down toward him. The man’s eyes were wide open. The expression said everything.

“Are you OK?” the man asked.

“Do you see a camera?” Johan replied.

Jim Knapp was surprised by the question, but very little was making sense.

Knapp and his wife had started their hike that morning a little past 8, well ahead of the water taxi. After an hour on the trail, they heard what sounded like a coyote or a hawk or some animal being attacked. Then there was more, and it sounded human. They started running. Someone must have fallen or sprained an ankle.

Knapp told Johan he would look for the camera, but his attention was focused on the injured man before him. It was the most gruesome sight he had ever seen.

Blood covered Johan’s face. His arms and legs oozed blood. His voice and sentences were jerky and repetitive. He reminded Knapp of Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman,” and with his sweat shirt pulled up over his head, he looked like Beavis in an episode of “Beavis and Butthead.”

“Jenna’s OK,” Knapp said, as he began to get a sense of Johan’s injuries. He noticed the day pack — but no camera — on the shelf beneath them, and he climbed down to retrieve it. Inside were a sweat shirt and four water bottles. He covered Johan and tried to make him drink. He took off his T-shirt and wrapped it around a deep gash on Johan’s leg. He laid out some nuts and a granola bar and took some water up to Jenna.

Then Johan saw a girl. She was sliding down to him. Her name was Kari.

Kari Schweigert and Heidi Reindl had been car-camping in Glacier. They were just starting on an 11-mile hike when they ran into Jim Knapp’s wife, running down the trail, screaming for help.

Then there were two teenage boys. Johan couldn’t keep track of everyone, but one of the boys — the one who wore a beanie — did get his camera. It was the camcorder, and Johan was glad to see it. He was also glad that people were finally getting there, but he felt bad for them. He knew stumbling upon a bear attack — and finding him as bloody as he was — couldn’t be easy for them. A fall or a sprain, sure, but a bear attack? He tried to tell himself that it would be OK. He tried to console himself. If he and Jenna had not been attacked, then these other hikers would have.

What can we do, everyone asked. How can we help?

The rock at the back of his head felt like it was digging into his skull. He squirmed about. He wanted them to help him sit up, but they didn’t want to. They were worried about his neck.

Then he’d have to do it himself. He simply wanted to sit up, have a drink of water and then maybe lie down again.

But he was fading.

Grinnell Glacier at Glacier National Park

(Ryan Herron/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

VOICES told him that help was on the way, only he was losing interest. He didn’t want to deal with any of this anymore. It was all too much: wondering how they’d get him and Jenna off the mountain; wanting to be cleaned up from the dirt and sticky blood; saddened that their trip was ending this way.

Kari Schweigert sat beside him, talking. Her curly hair was tied back in a ponytail. She was in a tank top; Johan was wearing her jacket. He was shaking and numb with cold.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“The pain is OK,” he said. “I’d just like to take a nap.”

Then she started to move in closer to him. She knew he was cold. She said she wanted to warm him up. She angled around him and covered his abdomen and chest with her body, her legs off to a side.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked. He didn’t want her to get covered with blood; it would be impossible to wash out.

She couldn’t cover him completely, but she did shield him from the wind. It was a moment he would never forget. How strange, he thought, to be hiking along on this trail one moment, thinking about running in a marathon, and then suddenly not being able to walk, being so dependent upon strangers, and now this girl so close to him, so tender and different from the savagery of the attack.

His mind kept going back to Jenna. Everyone told him that she was not as badly injured as he was. He felt guilty. Why had he wanted to go hiking here? Why wasn’t he a better parent?

Schweigert kept talking to him. She told him not to fall asleep. It made sense. He knew he’d lost a lot of blood, and he knew he was in shock. The wash of voices and movement of people around him, once reassuring, began to blur.

A park ranger and a dozen hikers were on the trail above them. The ranger radioed a report on Johan and Jenna’s status to the ranger station at Many Glacier, where an incident commander was assembling a rescue team.

A few of the hikers peered over the edge.

“Do you need anything?” they yelled.

“More jackets.”

Someone tucked one under Johan’s head.

His neck felt broken.

“WHAT’S your name?”

“Johan Otter.”

“Where are you?”

“Glacier National Park.”

“What time of day is it?”

“Late morning.”

“What happened?”

“Bear attack….”

The name badge said Katie. She wore the green and gray uniform of the park service. She had slid down the slope, balancing a medical kit and a shotgun in her hands, and once she determined that he was alert and oriented, she started dressing his wounds.

Katie Fullerton had pulled into the Many Glacier parking lot expecting just another summer day. Then she heard about the attack. She and another ranger were ordered to get to Johan and Jenna as soon as possible. Since opening in 1910, Glacier National Park has had only 10 bear fatalities, and they were enough.

The incident commander at Many Glacier had put a call out for additional rangers, some stationed on the west side of the park, 70 miles — a two-hour drive — away. A helicopter, chartered from Minuteman Aviation, would ferry those rangers to the site of the attack and would be used to shuttle equipment and personnel up to the mountain.

Whup, whup, whup.

Katie Fullerton looked up. At 9,000 feet, the white chopper had negotiated a U-shaped notch in the Garden Wall, a narrow filigree of stone crowning the Continental Divide. As it drew close, it circled, looking for a place to land. Johan and Jenna Otter could not have fallen in a less accessible place.

Three hours had passed since the attack, and Johan’s metabolism was slowing down. The blast of adrenaline triggered by the attack was long gone; the 15-minute torrent of thought and reaction had dissipated in a miasma of pain, discomfort and boredom. Why was the rescue taking so long?

Crashing mentally and emotionally, he knew he needed to stay warm and awake. Gusts of wind ghosted along the cliff; temperatures shot from warm to freezing as clouds drifted beneath the sun. Hikers on the trail were tossing down energy bars, water and more outerwear. A ranger was talking on the radio.

A second ranger crouched beside Johan. He had arrived with nearly 50 pounds of gear, including a life-support pack with IV fluids, medications and an oxygen tank, and he began cutting away Johan’s jackets and clothing. He introduced himself as Gary, Gary Moses. Johan appreciated his calm and confident manner.

Moses explained that the plan was to place Johan and Jenna on litters, have them lifted up to the trail and then carried down to a landing zone, where the chopper would take them to the Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell, Mont., in the Flathead Valley on the west side of the park.

Rangers on the trail set up a belaying system. They knew they had to move fast. Moses took Johan’s vitals. His blood pressure was 80 over 30, his pulse 44, his temperature dropping.

Moses prepared an IV line. Johan tried to lie still, but he was shivering uncontrollably. Then he heard something. It was Katie Fullerton; she was crying. The sound startled him at first.

“Do you want to stand down?” Moses asked his fellow ranger.

She shook her head.

Johan was glad. She had worked hard to make him comfortable and safe.

This was her first season as a patrol ranger, her first major trauma. Just last year, she’d been collecting user fees, and she had grown up near the park. She and her family had hiked these trails. This could just as easily have been her father.

Her tears reminded Johan how grave his situation was.

THE helicopter was making a second landing, and all Johan could think was: Hurry up. A second medic had joined Moses and Fullerton.

“How’s Jenna?” It was his steady refrain.

“There’re people with her.”

Moses and the other medic put a C-collar around Johan’s neck and got ready to insert a urinary catheter. Johan reminded them about a scene in “Seinfeld” in which an embarrassed George Costanza is caught naked and complains about “shrinkage.” They burst out laughing, and Johan relaxed a little. This is who he was: not just a bloodied man but someone always there with an easy line, ready to lighten the mood, to give to others.

Moses reassessed the rescue plan. It had taken nearly an hour to find a vein and get the IV started. Carrying Johan out, lifting him to the trail and then down to the helicopter landing zone was going to be too traumatic, and the afternoon was getting on.

He thought a helicopter could lift Johan directly off this ledge, in a rescue known as a short haul. It would be quicker but riskier. Still, he didn’t see any way around it. He radioed in his recommendation. The incident commander agreed. They called in the rescue helicopter operated by the hospital in Kalispell.

As they waited, Johan remembered an Air Force chopper that had crashed during a rescue on Mt. Hood little more than three years earlier. Everything — the foundering, the dipping, the rolling down the slope in a cascade of snow — had been televised on the evening news.

It made him nervous.

“Am I going to die?” Johan asked.

“You’re not going to die up here,” the second medic said.

RED against the blue sky and white clouds, the short-haul helicopter was easier to spot than the Minuteman.

“Hear that?” Gary Moses looked out over the valley. “That’s the sound of your rescue.”

Pilot Ken Justus adjusted the foot pedals and hand controls to bring the Bell 407 closer to the cliff. Travis Willcut, the flight nurse, sat next to him, calling out positions, monitoring radio traffic. Jerry Anderson, a medic, dangled 150 feet beneath them on a rope with a red Bauman Bag and a body board at his waist.

Piloting a helicopter at moments like this is like pedaling an exercise bike on the roof of a two-story building while trying to dangle a hot dog into the mouth of a jar on the ground. Lying on his back, Johan watched.

The IV had kicked in. Though stiff and still cold, he was wide awake and in no pain. Anticipation was everything, and he remembered feeling a little afraid. He hated roller coasters and worried about his stomach.

“You’ll have the best view of your life,” Moses said, hiding his worry. He knew getting Anderson in would be tricky. Because helicopters can’t cast sharply defined shadows on steep terrain, pilots flying short-haul missions have trouble judging closing speeds and distances.

Johan Otter is airlifted from the Grinnell Glacier Trail with medic Jerry Anderson, after being attacked by a grizzly bear and her two cubs in Glacier National Park, Montana on August 25, 2005. Johan tumbled down a steep chute about 75 feet where he almost died.

(Heidi Reindl)

Anderson, dangling at the end of the rope, had a radio in his helmet. He was using it to direct Justus lower and closer to Johan. Abruptly, the radio died.

“I’m at your 11 o’clock position, a mile out,” Moses broke in with his radio, once he understood the problem. “Half mile, 12 o’clock.”

“Do I need to come up or down?”

“Up about 10 feet.”

Then just as Justus got closer, he caught Anderson’s shadow on the ledge and set him down about 20 feet to the right of Johan. The other rangers shielded Johan from the rotor wash and dust.

Anderson unhooked himself. Justus moved the helicopter away. With the rangers’ help, Anderson slid the body board beneath Johan and strapped the Bauman Bag around him. He waved Justus back in.

“We’re ready to lift.”

“Roger, ready to lift.”

Johan couldn’t tell when he was off the ground. Dangling with Anderson beside him, 150 feet beneath the helicopter, all Johan would see was Anderson’s face, the blue sky and the belly of the chopper. The wind whistled around him.

“Woo hoo!” The hikers and rangers on the mountain started cheering and clapping.

With Johan and Anderson still beneath him, Justus accelerated down the valley to the helipad at Many Glacier. A waiting crowd was asked not to take pictures. Johan was transferred into an ambulance while Justus went back to pick up Jenna. Finally Johan was out of the wind and in a warm place.

Then he heard the news.

“Jenna is here,” someone said.

“Hi, sweetie,” he called out as they prepared to fly him to the medical center in Kalispell. With his head wrapped in bandages, mummy slits for his eyes and the C-collar on his neck, Johan couldn’t see her. “Make sure when they call Mom that you talk to her.”

He knew he wouldn’t be the one making that call.

“Otherwise she’ll totally freak out,” he said.

About this article

The accounts in this article are drawn from interviews over a span of 18 months with Johan, Marilyn and Jenna Otter. Additional interviews were conducted with the following individuals:

National Park Service: Jan Cauthorn-Page, Katie Fullerton, Rachel Jenkins, Kathy Krisko, Gary Moses, Rick Mulligan, Melissa Wilson, Amy Vanderbilt and Andrew Winslow.

Hikers on the Grinnell Trail: Julie Aitchison, Colin Aitchison, Kathleen MacDonald, Jim Knapp, Marla Moore, Robin Malone and Heidi Reindl.

Minuteman Aviation: Jerry Mamuzich.

Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s Advanced Life Support and Emergency Rescue Team (ALERT helicopter): Jerry Anderson, Addison Clark, Ken Justus, Travis Willcut, Patricia Harmon and Keith Hannon.

Additional reporting came from the National Park Service’s investigation report concerning the attack.

There are times when we want to disappear from the world for a while and escape to somewhere truly off-the-beaten track. Whether it’s a remote island, a forest hideaway, a sparsely populated swathe of countryside, or a town few tourists visit, we want to hear about trips in Europe where you’ve really been able to get away from it all.

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Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min has confirmed he will be leaving the Premier League club this summer.

South Korean sportsman Son Heung-min was in transit to the United States on Tuesday to officially join Los Angeles FC, a record-breaking signing for Major League Soccer, which is expected to be announced in the coming days.

Videos on social media showed Son signing autographs for fans at Incheon airport in Seoul before he boarded a flight to Los Angeles.

The Athletic and GiveMeSport reported on Tuesday that LAFC is paying a transfer fee of about $26.5m to $27m to acquire Son, shattering the current MLS record of $22m that Atlanta United paid for Emmanuel Latte Lath last offseason.

Son, 33, announced over the weekend that he planned to leave Tottenham Hotspur, saying he had achieved everything that he could with the North London club and was interested in a new challenge.

Son scored 172 goals and added 94 assists in 451 matches for Tottenham across all competitions, with 127 coming in Premier League play. A team captain, he helped the Spurs win the 2025 Europa League for the first major trophy of his career.

Son has also scored 51 goals in 134 matches for South Korea, the country’s second-leading goal-scorer of all time. Son played in the past three World Cups.

The forward made his last appearance for Spurs, waving to the club’s travelling fans after their preseason friendly against Newcastle United on Sunday.

Son was given an emotional farewell by his teammates, Newcastle players and almost 65,000 fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium in his native South Korea.

The game between the Premier League teams ended 1-1, with the high point being Son’s second-half exit when he was surrounded by both sets of players before eventually sitting on the bench in tears.

“First, we had the walk around, and then the teammates gathered around, and he was emotional,” Tottenham coach Thomas Frank said. “In the changing room, it was more of the same. I just said a few things, but not much, because it’s about Sonny, and then he said a few things. It was beautiful.”

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe also paid tribute to the South Korea forward.

“The reaction was instinctive from my players. I think that speaks volumes about him,” Howe said. “I think he’s seen as one of the game’s great Premier League players. It’s not just the talent he has but the way he has carried himself over the years.”

GENEVA — Switzerland’s president and other top officials were traveling to Washington on Tuesday in a hastily arranged trip aimed at striking a deal with the Trump administration over steep U.S. tariffs that have cast a pall over Swiss industries like chocolates, machinery and watchmaking.

President Karin Keller-Sutter was leading the delegation after last week’s announcement that exports of Swiss goods to the U.S. will face a whopping 39% percent tariff starting Thursday.

That is over two-and-a-half times higher than the rate on European Union goods exported to the U.S. and nearly four times higher than on British exports to the U.S. Many Swiss companies in industries including watchmaking and chocolates have expressed concern about the issue.

It’s also more than the 31% that Switzerland had been set to face when President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on products from dozens of countries in early April.

The Swiss government said the trip was “to facilitate meetings with the U.S. authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland.”

Keller-Sutter, who also serves as Switzerland’s finance minister, has faced criticism in Swiss media over a last-ditch call with Trump before a U.S. deadline on tariffs expired Aug. 1. She was leading a team that included Economy Minister Guy Parmelin.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump alluded to the call, saying “the woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen” and that he had told her: “We have a $41 billion deficit with you, Madame … and you want to pay 1% tariffs.”

“I said, ‘you’re not going to pay 1%,’” he added.

It was not immediately clear where that $41 billion figure came from. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States ran a $38.3 billion trade imbalance on goods last year with Switzerland.

Swiss officials have argued that American goods face virtually zero tariffs in Switzerland, and the Swiss government says the wealthy Alpine country is the sixth-biggest foreign investor in the United States and the leading investor in research and development.

Ivan Slatkine, the head of the Federation of Romandie Enterprises, which regroups companies in French-speaking Switzerland, told Le Temps newspaper that 39% tariffs amounted to a “hammer blow for the entire Swiss economy.” Some Swiss companies — like high-end watchmakers with little direct competition — might face less impact, but others in airplane parts, machines and mid-level watchmaking would be hit, he said.

“For all the companies that depend on the American market, it’s really bad news — in particular compared to rivals in the European Union, whose exports are taxed only at 15%,” he was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The trip comes a day after Switzerland’s executive branch, the Federal Council, held an extraordinary meeting and said it was “keen to pursue talks with the United States on the tariff situation,” the government statement Tuesday said.

After consulting with Swiss businesses, the council said it had developed “new approaches for its discussions” with U.S. officials and was looking ahead to continued negotiations.

“Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking U.S. concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,” a council statement said Monday.

Under the U.S. announcements Friday, Swiss companies will now have one of the steepest export duties — only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.

Keaten writes for the Associated Press.

Palestinian group rejects reported comments by US special envoy Steve Witkoff that it is ‘prepared to be demilitarised’.

Hamas has denied claims it expressed a willingness to disarm during Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Israel, stressing that it has “national and legal” rights to confront the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

In a statement on Saturday, the Palestinian group rejected recent remarks purportedly made by United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, during a meeting with relatives of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Citing a recording of the talks, Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported that the US envoy told the families that Hamas said it was “prepared to be demilitarised”.

But Hamas said in its statement that the group’s right to resistance “cannot be relinquished until our full national rights are restored, foremost among them the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital”.

Witkoff met the Israeli captives’ families in Tel Aviv on Saturday, one day after he visited a US and Israeli-backed aid distribution site run by the controversial GHF in Gaza.

More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed trying to get food at GHF-run sites since the group began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in May, the United Nations said earlier this week.

Hamas had earlier slammed Witkoff’s visit as a “staged show” aimed at misleading the public about the situation in Gaza, where Israel’s blockade has spurred a starvation crisis and fuelled global condemnation.

But the Trump administration has stood firmly behind GHF despite the killings and growing global criticism of the group’s operations in Gaza. In June, Washington announced that it approved $30m to support GHF.

Witkoff’s comments on disarmament come amid a widening international push to recognise a Palestinian state amid the scenes of starvation in Gaza.

The United Kingdom announced at a two-day United Nations conference in New York this week that it may follow France in recognising a Palestinian state in September.

Echoing an earlier statement by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said London would proceed with recognition if Israel did not meet certain conditions, including implementing a ceasefire in Gaza.

The UN meeting also saw 17 countries, plus the European Union and the Arab League, back a seven-page text on reviving a two-state solution to the conflict.

The text called on Hamas to “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.

Media reports say US Senator Roger Wicker may visit Taiwan after President William Lai Ching-te cancelled a trip to Latin America.

Taipei, Taiwan – A senior United States Republican legislator is reportedly planning a trip to Taiwan, according to media reports, where fears have been growing that US President Donald Trump is losing interest in relations with the democratic, self-ruled island in favour of building ties with China.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that US Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi is planning to visit Taiwan in August, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Wicker is the Republican chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and “one of Taiwan’s biggest allies in Congress”, according to the report.

Wicker’s office and the American Institute in Taiwan – Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei – did not immediately reply to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the reported trip.

US legislators regularly visit Taiwan, an unofficial ally of Washington, but Wicker’s trip comes at a time of uncertainty for US-Taiwan relations.

Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te was reportedly planning to stop in the US next month en route to visiting allies in Latin America, but he cancelled his travel plans after Trump nixed a layover in New York, the Financial Times also reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Lai’s office never officially announced the trip, but on Monday, his office said the president had no plans to travel overseas as he focused on typhoon cleanup in southern Taiwan and tariff negotiations with the US.

The timing of President Lai’s cancelled visit was noted in Taiwan, as it was followed by a separate announcement from Trump that he hoped to visit China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping as Beijing and Washington hammer out a tariff deal.

Xi, who also heads the Chinese Communist Party, has pledged to annex Taiwan by peace or by force and considers Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to be “separatists”.

Beijing objects to visits by Taiwanese leaders to the US, even if they are carried out on an unofficial basis.

Experts say it is possible that Wicker’s trip was planned months ago, but the visit could still be used by US legislators to assuage fears that the White House is losing interest in Taiwan.

“I’m sure many will hope for words of affirmation and commitment to the US-Taiwan relationship, which before would be par for the course, but today will feel extra needed to assure both the DPP and Taiwanese citizens who have a declining view of the United States,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

Although the US is Taiwan’s security guarantor and has pledged to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself, there are deep currents of scepticism towards the US – known as yimeilun – running through Taiwanese society.

That has grown more prominent since Trump took office last year and said that Taiwan should pay for its own defence, later threatening to slap a 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese exports.

A survey in April of 1,500 Taiwanese voters by Nachman and others found that just 23.1 percent viewed the US as either a “trustworthy or very trustworthy” partner, down from 33.6 percent in June 2024 when US President Joe Biden was still in office.

Liza Tobin, managing director at the geopolitical advisory group Garnaut Global, said the pendulum could swing the other way if Beijing tries to block the trip.

Trump has granted Beijing a number of concessions already, from access to Nvidia’s H20 chip to the terms of sale for the Panama Canal, she said, and a trip by a senior legislator could join the list.

“Unilateral concessions are like catnip for Beijing to push for more concessions, and with the president angling for a trade deal with China and a visit with Xi, China may try to pressure the admin to in turn put pressure on Wicker to cancel the trip,” she said. “Let’s hope he doesn’t give in.”

US President Donald Trump reportedly opposed a stopover in New York by Taiwan’s president, says China visit under consideration.

Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te has cancelled a trip to three allies in Central and South America after a planned stopover in the United States was reportedly nixed by his US counterpart, Donald Trump.

Lai was preparing to visit Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize in early August, with stopovers planned in New York and Dallas on the first and last leg of the trip, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The Taiwanese leader’s trip was called off when US officials said they opposed his stop in New York, the newspaper said, citing three people close to the matter.

Lai’s office had never formally announced his trip to Latin America, but on Monday, it said the president had cancelled all overseas travel to focus on tariff negotiations with the US and a cleanup operation following a typhoon in southern Taiwan.

The president of Taiwan cannot officially visit the US, which does not recognise its government. But Taiwanese leaders have made use of “transit stops” in the US over the years to liaise with top administration officials outside Washington, DC.

In 2023, then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen used a transit stop to visit New York and Los Angeles while Joe Biden was still the US president.

Beijing, which claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, held military exercises in the Taiwan Strait after Tsai’s US stop-off to demonstrate its anger.

Trump’s reported decision to block Lai’s stopover follows news that the US president is angling for a trip to China himself, although he said he does not want a “summit” with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

“The Fake News is reporting that I am SEEKING a ‘Summit’ with President Xi of China. This is not correct, I am not SEEKING anything! I may go to China, but it would only be at the invitation of President Xi, which has been extended,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Monday night.

Reuters reported that Trump may be aiming to visit China around the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, which runs from October 31 to November 1.

Whether the meeting will take place will depend on the outcome of ongoing trade talks between the US and China to resolve Trump’s tariff war launched earlier this year.

US and Chinese officials are in Stockholm this week to try to hammer out a tariff agreement before a “truce” expires on August 12, but they have many issues to discuss, including export controls, which could drag out talks.

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland’s northeastern coast rank among President Trump’s favorite spots on Earth.

“At some point, maybe in my very old age, I’ll go there and do the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,” Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.

At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, landing in Scotland on Friday as his family’s business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a golf course bearing his name.

Trump will be in Scotland until Tuesday, and he plans to talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the Republican president is also visiting a Trump course near Turnberry, about 200 miles away on Scotland’s southwest coast. Trump said upon arrival Friday evening that his son is “gonna cut a ribbon” for the new course during his trip. Eric Trump also went with his father to break ground on the project back in 2023.

Using a presidential overseas trip — with its sprawling entourage of advisors, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters — to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family’s business interests.

The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump’s business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal to voters.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a “working trip.” She added that Trump “has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport.”

Tee times for sale

Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But this trip comes as the new golf course is already actively selling tee times.

“We’re at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn’t seem to see much of a difference,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW. “It’s as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.”

During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics framework for Trump’s second term allows them.

Trump’s assets are in a trust run by his children, who are handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he’s in the White House. The company has inked many recent lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the Trump administration negotiates tariff rates for those countries and others.

Past legal fights

Trump’s existing Aberdeenshire course has a history nearly as rocky as the area’s cliffs.

It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump’s company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government’s legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers’ views.

The development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals.

Trump’s company’s initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he’d be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged.

Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines — a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals.

Weissert writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

July 23 (UPI) — Los Angeles’ Union Station will give visitors a closer look at Southern California’s railroad history during Train Festival 2025: LA’s Spirit in Motion in September.

The free two-day event is scheduled Sept. 20 and 21 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT and will feature railroad equipment tours, displays, model train exhibits and interactive information booths.

Visitors also can enjoy live entertainment and giveaways during the family-friendly event that is sponsored by Metro, Amtrak and Metrolink and celebrates Los Angeles’ “vibrant rail history and its revolving role in the city’s future.”

“Transportation is … about the people, places and stories that compel us to move,” Metro Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Wiggins said.

“We’re proud to make those connections possible,” Wiggins added, “and there’s no better place to see that in action than Los Angeles Union Station.”

She called the event a “celebration of the journeys we embark on, the history that grounds us and the communities we build through shared travel.”

Visitors can learn about nearly a century of rail history and tour and view displays of railroad equipment dating from 1927 to now.

Among featured exhibits will be the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society’s Santa Fe 3751 steam locomotive, which pulled the rail station’s first named passenger train more than 85 years ago.

“Many kids grow up reading about steam trains in their history books but will never actually see one in person,” SBRHS President Alex Gillman said.

“Santa Fe 3751 offers families … the chance to experience what a working, 874,000-pound steam locomotive looks like as they climb into the cab, meet the engineer and learn what it takes to keep this rare icon of American history operating today,” Gillman added.

Amtrak, Metrolink, LARail.com and the Pacific Railroad Society also are scheduled to display their respective train equipment during the event.

So will several of Southern California’s model train clubs.

Young attendees can visit the kids’ zone and receive a train conductor hat that they can keep and wear while taking selfies next to Travel Town Museum’s restored Railway Express Agency delivery truck.

More event information is available at Union Station’s Train Festival 2025 webpage.

NEW YORK — Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer to power the New York Mets to a 6-3 win and series sweep of the Angels on Wednesday.

Alonso, mired in a 2-for-34 slump dating to July 10, homered two batters after Francisco Lindor broke a career-long 0-for-31 drought with an RBI single.

Brandon Nimmo hit his 14th career leadoff homer and Lindor added another RBI single in the fourth for the Mets, who swept a series for the fifth time this season.

Sean Manaea (1-1), making his third appearance and second start after battling oblique and elbow injuries, allowed one run and struck out five over five innings. Edwin Díaz got the final four outs for his 21st save.

Mike Trout homered in the third — the 396th home run and 999th RBI of his career — for the Angels, who were swept for the seventh time. Luis Rengifo (forceout) and Chris Taylor (double) collected RBIs in the seventh.

Left-hander Jake Eder (0-1), the last of three Angels pitchers on a bullpen day, gave up five runs in a career-high six innings.

Key moment

Alonso’s first homer since July 8 was the 248th of his career, pulling him within four of Darryl Strawberry for the all-time Mets franchise lead.

Key stat

Trout is aiming to become the second active player with 400 homers and the ninth with 1,000 RBIs.

Up next

Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi (4-6, 3.13 ERA) starts Thursday, when the Angels return home for a four-game series against the Seattle Mariners and RHP Logan Evans (3-3, 3.81 ERA).

White House Correspondents’ Association condemns White House’s move to exclude newspaper as ‘deeply troubling’.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has barred The Wall Street Journal from accompanying the president on an upcoming overseas trip amid a spat over the newspaper’s coverage of his links to the notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that the Journal would not be among 13 media outlets travelling with Trump on a visit to Scotland this weekend due to its “fake and defamatory conduct”.

“Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible,” Leavitt said in a statement.

The move comes after the Journal last week reported that Trump sent Epstein, who died in jail in 2009 while facing sex trafficking charges, a “bawdy” letter in 2003 to mark the occasion of his 50th birthday.

Trump, who has vigorously denied the report, on Friday filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and its owners seeking $20bn in damages.

In a statement, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) called the Trump administration’s move “deeply troubling”.

“Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media,” WCHA president Weijia Jiang said.

“We strongly urge the White House to restore the Wall Street Journal to its previous position in the pool and aboard Air Force One for the President’s upcoming trip to Scotland. The WCHA stands ready to work with the administration to find a quick resolution.”

The Trump administration has taken similar action to limit the access of media outlets over their coverage before.

In February, the White House began excluding the Associated Press from news events over its decision to keep using the “Gulf of Mexico” in some cases, despite Trump issuing an executive order to rename the waterway the “Gulf of America”.

Trump has been under pressure to release more information about the government’s investigations into Epstein, particularly from segments of his “Make America Great Again” base, which had expected his administration to confirm their belief in a conspiracy implicating powerful elites in sex crimes against children.

Many MAGA supporters have expressed outrage over the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called “Epstein files” since the release of a law enforcement memo that concluded the well-connected financier died by suicide and there was no credible evidence of him blackmailing powerful figures.

Trump, whom Epstein once described as his “closest friend”, has acknowledged knowing Epstein, but said in 2019 that they had not spoken in 15 years after a “falling out” between the pair.

Road trips make for a great holiday, but if you don’t check these things before you leave, it can get expensive.

If you’re planning a summer road trip, it’s crucial to be clued up on the rules. Road trips can be a fantastic holiday and a summer staple, but they can also lead to financial woes if you inadvertently break any road laws, potentially leaving you thousands of pounds poorer.

Yell’s experts consulted Mark Hayes from HG Evans Garage Ltd, who boasts 44 years in garage services, about some of the lesser-known regulations that could trip up travellers this summer. The most common blunder people make is neglecting to check their tyre PSI.

Before heading out on any summer excursion, it’s essential to inspect your tyres, ensuring your tread depth exceeds the legal minimum of 1.6mm to dodge a hefty £10,000 fine.

Brit holidaymakers urged to understand 12 European road signs or face finesUK city is ‘best for relaxing walks’ with top attraction and impressive views

Additionally, verify that the rubber is in good nick and that your tyre pressure matches the correct PSI.

Don’t forget to check your brakes too, to avoid earning three points on your licence and a £2,500 penalty.

Ensure your brake fluid levels are up to scratch before hitting the road. If you suspect they might be faulty, get in touch with your local garage or service centre for help before setting off, reports the Express.

If you’re planning a full-blown road trip and towing a caravan or trailer, it’s vital to confirm your car has the appropriate towing capacity.

Knowing your route is equally important. Familiarise yourself with the journey and local roads, and keep a close watch on your clutch.

If your vehicle has clocked between 50,000 and 100,000 miles, it’s high time to have your clutch inspected to prevent any unexpected breakdowns.

This is particularly crucial if you frequently drive in hilly terrains.

Extreme heat can also wreak havoc on your car battery. If you’re aware that your battery is getting on in years, it would be wise to replace it ahead of any lengthy trips.

A replacement every three years is generally advised, and Hayes suggests avoiding numerous short drives during the summer, especially with multiple devices plugged in as this could deplete your battery at a much faster rate.

In hot weather, it’s recommended to check your car battery roughly once a week, particularly if it’s around three years old.

The Northumberland Coastal Route has been named as England’s best road trip, taking you to some of the most beautiful beaches in the country – and it’s just a road trip away from Newcastle

The North East boasts England’s top road trip, according to one travel blogger. If you’re looking for a last-minute trip that doesn’t necessarily involve getting into a plane and travelling thousands of miles away, this is a good alternative. You need a car, good company and a bathing suit.

Paul McDougal champions the Northumberland Coastal Route, stating it “isn’t the biggest, the most famous, or most dramatic road trip in England, but it’s absolutely my favourite”. However, the travel aficionado concedes he “might be a bit biased” as he hails from the region himself.

READ MORE: ‘Dreamy’ seaside town with sandy beach and one of UK’s best ice cream parlours where you can spot dolphins

Nonetheless, once you see it for yourself, it won’t take you long to understand why. He also suggests starting the journey from Tynemouth and “hugging the coast as closely as you can”.

Departing from Tynemouth, just a stone’s throw from Newcastle, it’s a mere 10-minute drive to Whitley Bay. This seaside town is packed with traditional pubs and independent shops, and boasts a mile-long stretch of Blue Flag beach, reports the Express.

A half-hour drive from the bay will take you to Cresswell, a coastal village renowned for its sandy beach, which Visit Northumberland describes as “one of the best on the Northumberland coast for dog walkers and families looking for a day at the beach”.

Just shy of an hour further up the coast, you’ll find Craster, a fishing village nestled within the Northumberland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This designation makes it one of England’s 34 sites earmarked for conservation under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

Visit Craster describes the village as “it is a popular destination for those seeking peace and quiet in a spectacular setting.” Just moments away lies Alnwick Gardens, cultivated by the Duchess of Northumberland back in 1996.

READ MORE: ‘Sensational’ UK beach that spans for ‘miles of golden sand’

Welcoming visitors to explore its grounds, the attraction boasts a mysterious “poison garden” housing roughly 100 lethal and hazardous plants, with standard adult admission priced at £18.95.

A mere 50-minute journey north from Craster brings you to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the ultimate destination on this scenic route. This charming town earned recognition as the Guardian’s “happiest place to live in Britain” for 2025, with Monty Python legend Michael Palin once describing it as: “It feels like somewhere where stories happen and where stories are told.”

Travellers are advised to savour the journey at a leisurely pace, allowing ample opportunity to immerse themselves in each location and experience the region renowned for its welcoming locals.