Warriors

SAN FRANCISCO — Jimmy Butler had 21 points, five rebounds and five assists, Stephen Curry added 19 points and eight assists, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Clippers 98-79 on Tuesday night.

Curry shot 7 for 15 a night after four Warriors players scored 20 or more points to beat Memphis — but it marked just the sixth time in Curry’s 17 seasons he wasn’t one of them.

Butler and Moses Moody each hit three-pointers late in the third quarter as the Warriors used a 10-2 burst over the final 2:07 to go ahead 78-63 starting the fourth.

Brandin Podziemski followed up a 23-point performance against the Grizzlies with 12 points, while Quinten Post had 12 points on four three-pointers and eight rebounds.

James Harden scored all 20 of his points by halftime while Kawhi Leonard added 18 points and five rebounds in a game featuring a 13-point second quarter by Golden State followed by the Clippers’ 14-point third.

Harden’s three with 41 seconds left in the first half gave the Clippers their first lead heading into halftime ahead 49-46 after ending the second quarter on a 24-6 run.

Ivica Zubac contributed 14 points and a season-best 13 rebounds for the cold-shooting Clippers, who went 6 for 33 from long range and 30 of 82 overall (36.6%).

The CLippers had won the last seven in the series and three in a row at Chase Center, where the Warriors improved to 3-0 so far.

Al Horford was back for the Warriors against the tall, physical Clippers team featuring the 7-foot Zubac after sitting out the front end of the back-to-back to manage a left toe injury.

The Clippers began six for 20 and one for eight on threes to fall behind 27-14 on a night they missed Bradley Beal for a second consecutive game because of back soreness.

The Lakers were not whole for their season opener and that meant Luka Doncic had a heavier load to carry while LeBron James sat on the bench injured in this game against rivals Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

So, the question while James recovers from sciatica injury on his right side, is who will fill his void and help Doncic navigate the stretch his running mate is out.

The Lakers didn’t get that complete answer Tuesday night, falling 119-109 to the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena despite Doncic’s impressive performance of a near triple-double with 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.

James is entering an NBA-record 23rd season, but it was the first time over his career that he has missed a season opener.

He sat on the end of the Lakers’ bench dressed in a double-breasted suit, cheering his teammates on, offering words of encouragement when necessary, knowing that was the only way he could help until returns to the court in mid-November.

“It’s hard to forget about LeBron, (but) the reality is, when you’re focused on the group that you have, you’ve got to make the group work,” said coach JJ Redick afterward. “Sometimes you can just be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point.’ Like it’s awesome, but you are focused. I’ll be honest with you, I did have one moment in that first half when we had a few possessions when we couldn’t score against the zone and I thought, ‘It’d be great to have LeBron.”

Lakers guard Austin Reaves gets past Warriors guard Gary Payton II for a layup during the second half Friday night.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

When the Lakers went inside to center Deandre Ayton, he didn’t overpower the small Warriors. Ayton got seven touches, scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.

But he had four turnovers. One of the other issues was his teammates trying to get the ball inside to Ayton. The lobs just weren’t working, a big reason why the Lakers had 19 turnovers.

“Yeah, today, I was realizing I’m probably a confusing big (center), whether I can roll and stand in the pocket, probably gets a little difficult for them sometimes,” Ayton said. “I’m so used to the league having that low man on me. Sometimes I can’t even finish a roll, and I tiny bit linger around the free-throw area just to be available for him.”’

Austin Reaves showed he was up to the task with James out, producing 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

But he had a team-high five turnovers and picked up five fouls by the third quarter.

“We haven’t had a lot of time together as a complete group,” Reaves said. “Obviously, we’re still not complete, but we’re just gonna continue to build, get better, and learn how to play alongside one another. I mean, I had five turnovers tonight, and I don’t think a couple of them are just dumb. But a couple of them were just miscommunications on where I needed to throw a pass to DA (Deandre Ayton). It wasn’t the wrong read. It was the wrong pass at the right time, basically. So it’s just like learning those little things, and you learn those on the fly.”

The Warriors, meanwhile, had four players score in double-figures and that was a big difference in the game. Jimmy Butler led the Warriors with 31 points, Stephen Curry had 23 and Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield each had 17.

The Lakers fell into a hole in the third quarter, going down by 17 points, putting them in catch-up mode.

They were outscored 35-25 in the third. They allowed the Warriors to make 60% of their shots, 50% (five-for-10) of their three-pointers.

Even with the Lakers cutting that deficit to six points in the fourth, their poor play in the third doomed them again.

“The trend I see is that we continue to be a terrible third-quarter team to start,” Redick said. “That was last year. That was the preseason. Gotta rethink some things and it’s, you know, a two-way thing with the guys. What do they need at halftime to make sure they’re ready to play? They’re not ready to play to start the third quarter.”

Etc.

The Lakers picked up the rookie option on Dalton Knecht for $4.2 million for the 2026-27 season, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. … The Lakers said that forward/center Maxi Kleber has an oblique strain and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.

We could hear the band before we saw it: a group of retirement home residents with trumpets and drums waiting to greet us as we approached. Others using wheelchairs waved homemade flags. As we swarmed into the building and up the staircase, a bottleneck formed. I slowed down as a nurse put a stamp on my sweaty arm, then I jogged off down the corridor.

Running through a retirement home is just one of the many surreal moments that participants signing up for the Nîmes Urban Trail (NUT) get to experience on this 24km race around the city, which takes place each February. Not only does the route give you a whistlestop sightseeing tour, taking you past the town’s impressive Roman monuments and landmarks, it also grants you access to places that would normally be off limits to outsiders.

Earlier in the day, I’d cantered through the lobby and bar of a five-star hotel, a Michelin-starred restaurant, the hôtel de ville (city hall), a barracks, a chapel and an olive grove. I even ran through a nightclub – easily the most wholesome sweat I’d ever worked up there. The school classrooms were particularly fascinating: I moved to France aged 28 so I’d never seen the inside of a French primary school. The retro maps pasted to the walls were the same pink as French toilet paper.

Crowds had gathered to cheer us on at various points along the route, but nowhere was the welcome more enthusiastic than at the retirement homes where the residents and carers had spent weeks preparing for our arrival. As I left the building, I realised my cheeks were damp – but not from sweat. This was the first time a running race had moved me to tears.

Running tourism has been gaining momentum for years. A third of participants in the Paris Marathon aren’t French, and in the Berlin Marathon, roughly two-thirds are from outside Germany. A recent survey found that 18% of Britons were planning to travel abroad for sports this year, many to take part in marathons, half-marathons and triathlons. Urban trail running, however, has really taken off in France, and 98% of NUT runners in 2025 were French.

Europe’s first organised urban trail run was in my home city, Lyon, in 2008. I’ve participated in the Lyon Urban Trail for the last three years, pounding up and down stairs, helter-skeltering down the muddy slope of the city’s former ski piste, la Sarra, and jogging through the grounds of old forts. It’s enormous fun, and now there are more than 100 urban trail runs in France, but none quite like Nîmes.

At the starting line I checked out my fellow competitors. I was sandwiched between Queen Elizabeth II and a couple of gladiators. Many of the fancy dress outfits had a Nîmois theme. Nîmes became part of the Roman empire around the first-century BCE, when it was known as Colonia Nemausus, and alongside the emperors and gladiators, I saw crocodiles and palm trees. Crocodiles may be about as native to Nîmes as lions and unicorns are to Great Britain, but they’ve become the symbol of the city. In the 16th century, a Roman coin showing a crocodile and a palm frond, to depict Roman victory over Egypt, was unearthed here. Now the Nîmois crocodile appears on paving stones and fountains, and there are even four stuffed ones hanging from the ceiling of the hôtel de ville.

Although my running attire was relatively dull, the race promised to be anything but. The people running the full marathon had been released into the (urban) wild half an hour earlier; I, surrounded by gladiators and crocodiles, was about to tackle the shorter, but still hilly, 24km race. After us would come runners participating in the 16km and 10km races, and finally the 10km hikers (breaking into a trot was strictly forbidden), so there’s something for all fitness levels and abilities.

When he co-founded the NUT 10 years ago, Benoît Goiset was clear he wanted to create something more than just a calf-buster. He envisioned a run that broke down social barriers and got the whole city involved.

The route changes each year, with new and unusual sites being added. “After the pandemic we were seeing an epidemic of loneliness, so I added in the EHPADs [retirement homes],” said Goiset. “The five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants were [included] because so few people get to experience them, particularly people who live in Nîmes. I didn’t want anywhere to be off limits.”

At the end of the race, we burst into the Roman arena with a rush of pride, feeling like warriors, to be greeted by trestle tables loaded with snacks and beer and lemonade. This had been my first full day in Nîmes, and I’ve never had such a complete introduction to a city. Not only had I seen all the Roman sites – the arena, Tour Magne (watchtower), the Temple of Diana and even the Musée de la Romanité (we ran across the roof terrace) – I’d also had a glimpse of “the real Nîmes”, behind closed doors. I’d seen where children go to school, where soldiers train, and where some of the city’s older residents spend their later years. The tiered Jardins de la Fontaine, an 18th-century park full of stone fountains set over canals, was so beautiful that as soon as my legs had recovered that afternoon, I went back again.

At the risk of sounding like so many obnoxious yogis, who told me the reason I don’t like yoga is that I haven’t found the right class, if you don’t like running, perhaps you haven’t found the right race.

Registration is open for the next Nîmes Urban Trail, which takes place on 15 February 2026. Prices vary depending on distance, but the 24km trail run is €38pp. Appart’City is opposite the race start line, with double rooms from €105 (room only).

Whereas the 2024 final was a tense and a low scoring affair, Hull KR flipped that script on its head with this year’s war of attrition.

Gone was the caginess of last year. And nerves? What nerves? This was a side made for the occasion, that knew they were on the cusp of greatness and took their opportunity.

Yet it might not have been that way as they were off the pace in the opening stages, and were lucky not to fall behind when they failed to pick up French on the turnover prior to his score being chalked off.

Other than that if they seemed unnerved by the occasion, knowing they were 80 minutes from a history-making treble, they did not seem to show it.

Much had been said in the build-up to the game about Hull KR’s recent and distant past – whether that is relegation in the Million Pound Game in 2016 or finishing bottom of Super League in 2020.

Indeed, outside of some second-tier honours, you had to go back 40 years to the last time the Robins reigned supreme.

Bolstered by the retiring Waerea-Hargreaves – who almost missed the game through suspension prior to KR’s successful appeal this week – and Micky McIlorum, they soon carved open Wigan and never looked back.

Robins talisman Lewis has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons but, much like his team, this feels like the moment in his career where he truly came alive.

But this was a team performance. It was not won by individual moments of brilliance.

It was a display befitting a treble-winning side and masterminded by an elite coach in Willie Peters.

Hull KR have got better every season under Peters’ tutelage and, on this evidence, it makes you wonder if they could be even more formidable in 2026.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Lakers entered training camp with hopes of finally establishing chemistry between stars Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. But the trio have yet to see the court together. On Sunday, they all stayed on the bench during the Lakers’ 111-103 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center.

With Doncic (rest) and James (glute) already out, Reaves was rested Sunday after an already full first week of training camp. The fifth-year guard had the highest workload on the team entering the first preseason game that took place after three days of practice. He scored 20 points against the Phoenix Suns as one of the few offensive bright spots in Friday’s blowout loss.

Without their top offensive playmakers, the Lakers got a lift from guard Gabe Vincent, who made his preseason debut after nursing a knee injury. He had 16 points and five assists while center Deandre Ayton, who scored just one point on two shots in Friday’s preseason game, scored seven points, all in the first quarter, with seven rebounds.

“We came with more intention,” Vincent said compared to the Lakers’ 103-81 loss to the Suns on Friday. “We were more focused. Obviously it’s different with those three not playing. They’re a huge part of our team and everything that we do. But next man up.”

After their first two preseason games, the Lakers have one week of practice until their first home preseason game against the Warriors on Oct. 12. Coach JJ Redick said that although Doncic was scheduled to rest for the first two preseason games after he played in EuroBasket with his national team, the Slovenian superstar is still expected to play before the team officially opens its season on Oct. 21. The Lakers have four preseason games remaining.

Whether James, who was held out of early training camp practices because of nerve irritation in his glute, will play in the preseason remains to be seen. Entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season, James is on a slower ramp-up schedule than previous years, Redick said.

The Warriors took a similarly cautious approach with their aging superstars as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler III and Al Horford were all limited to one half. The 37-year-old Curry still scored 14 points in 15 minutes, draining five of seven shots from the field and drawing loud cheers from a nearly full Chase Center crowd when he laid up an acrobatic shot through contact and pointed two finger guns into the ESPN baseline camera.

Redick called it a challenge to get a proper evaluation of his team in a 48-minute preseason game when his top three stars are out, but after Friday’s preseason opener, he was looking for better organization on offense early in the shot clock, playing with pace and more physicality.

“We’ve got to be more physical getting open,” Redick said before the game. “We’ve got to be more physical with our screening. That doesn’t change based on who’s in the lineup, so that habit, we can build that.”

“Championship habits” is one of three pillars Redick has preached relentlessly during training camp, along with championship communication and championship shape. He said he would judge the latter in part by whether players are sprinting back on defense.

The Lakers were outscored 23-5 in transition Sunday and 42-11 through two preseason games.

With the exception of a 10-0 Warriors run to end the second quarter and a nearly six-minute stretch to begin the third quarter during which Golden State pushed a seven-point halftime lead into a 23-point rout, Redick said the overall competitiveness was “much better” than against Phoenix. But the next challenge will be to put forth that effort consistently.

It follows a recent theme Redick introduced to the team: Kaizen, the Japanese word for improvement.

“It’s just getting 1% better each day,” said forward Jake LaRavia, who had 10 points and three assists. “And that goes along with just winning the day. We thought when we played Phoenix, we didn’t. Today, we thought we did a good amount better, obviously, still not the result that we wanted, but we’re working in the right direction.”

Wigan said: “At 10.37pm on Tuesday 30 September, our club was informed in writing by Derek Beaumont of Leigh Leopards that they do not intend to fulfil Friday’s scheduled semi-final fixture.

“We can confirm that Leigh Leopards were offered the choice of 4,600 unreserved seats or 5,400 reserved seats in the North Stand.”

Wigan said the allocation had been determined by the independent Safety Advisory Group and the club’s Ground Safety Officer, following consultation with the police.

They said Super League had “sought separate safety advice” and had “fully endorsed this approach”.

Wigan added that the allocation offered was almost double the 10% minimum required for away supporters.

“While we regret that Leigh Leopards found this arrangement unacceptable, our club is legally, and professionally, bound to comply with the directions of our Ground Safety Officer and the conditions of our Ground Safety Certificate,” Wigan’s statement added.

“The safety and welfare of all supporters must come first. This is not open to negotiation and underpins every decision we make.

“We continue to prepare for Friday’s semi-final and will release further information as the situation develops.”

Wigan finished one place and three points above Leigh in the regular season and the winner of Friday’s scheduled match will face either Hull KR or St Helens in the Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday, 11 October.

Wigan Warriors: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Byrne, O’Neill, Thompson, Walters, Farrell, Ellis.

Interchanges: Havard, Nsemba, Mago, Leeming.

Leeds Rhinos: Hankinson, Lumb, Newman, Watkins, Simpson, Croft, Sinfield, Oledzki, O’Connor, Jenkins, Gannon, McDonnell, Palasia.

Interchanges: Shorrocks, Bentley, Lisone, Holroyd.

Referee: Chris Kendall.

Wigan: Field; Eckersley, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall; French, Smith; Havard, O’Neill, Byrne, Walters, Farrell, Ellis

Interchanges: Nsemba, Mago, Leeming, Hill.

Sin-bin: Havard (60 mins)

Wakefield: Jowitt; Walmsley, Scott, Pratt, Johnstone; Trueman, Lino; McMeeken, Hood, Storton, Vagana, Griffin, Pitts

Interchanges: Atoni, Cozza, Smith, Faatili.

Referee: Chris Kendall.

Lakers and NBA fans in general will get a quick view of two of the league’s longtime greats when LeBron James and the Lakers open the regular season against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 at Crypto.com Arena, people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told The Times on Friday.

The game will be nationally televised on NBC and it will give Lakers fans a chance to see Luka Doncic’s new and trimmed body.

According to those people, the Lakers will play the Houston Rockets and newly acquired Kevin Durant on Christmas Day at home, one of five games on the holiday. That will give fans another chance to see the league’s veteran superstars go at it again.

The NBA will release the full schedule soon.

The Lakers will start training camp Sept. 29 and will play six preseason games.

The first preseason game is against the Suns at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs on Oct. 3. The rest of the preseason game are: at Golden State on Oct. 5; against the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena on Oct. 12; against the Suns in Phoenix on Oct. 14; against the Dallas Mavericks at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Oct. 15; against the Sacramento Kings at home on Oct. 17.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — National Purple Heart Day will be celebrated on the seventh day of August after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation making it so on Thursday.

The president was joined by many Purple Heart recipients and their families during a signing ceremony honoring the nation’s military personnel at the White House.

“We’re here to honor and celebrate the unyielding patriotism and grit and devotion to America’s Purple Heart veterans with emotion and great love,” Trump told the audience.

He said Gen. George Washington created the Purple Heart on Aug. 7, 1782, when he presented a purple ribbon shaped like a heart to each of three soldiers for their gallantry in battle.

“Just as George Washington did 243 years ago, today we give our everlasting thanks to you and your unbelievable families,” Trump said while referencing the dozens of Purple Heart recipients in the audience.

While Washington was the first to bestow a Purple Heart to soldiers, it remained a footnote in U.S. military history until Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the War Department officially created the Purple Heart as a badge for military merit in 1932.

The award was narrowed to one solely for those wounded or killed in combat in 1944, and nearly 1.9 million service members have received the honor.

Three of the nearly 100 wounded warriors who attended Thursday’s signing ceremony last year gave their Purple Heart medals to Trump after he survived being shot in his right ear by a would-be assassin during a campaign rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13, 2024.

Those veterans are Thomas Matteo, Gerald Enter Jr., and John Ford.

“What a great honor to get those Purple Hearts,” Trump said while thanking the three men.

“In a certain way, it wasn’t that easy for me, either,” he added,” but you went through a lot more than I did, and I appreciate it all very much.”

The president also honored his 2024 campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, who is a Marine Corps veteran and received a Purple Heart in 1991 while serving in the Gulf War.

Others mentioned during the signing ceremony include Kevin Willette and his son Brian Willette. Both he and his son received Purple Hearts while serving in Afghanistan.

Military specialist Kevin Brown also was honored for pulling Capt. Sam Brown from a Humvee that an explosive device had damaged.

Both men earned their Purple Hearts on that day, and the Senate last week confirmed Brown as the Military Affairs Department’s under-secretary for memorial affairs.

Trump said the Purple Heart “tells a story of courage, sacrifice and purpose” and “speaks of a price paid for the soldier beside you, the country behind you and the generations of Americans yet to come.”

He then signed the proclamation designating Aug. 7 as National Purple Heart Day.

A slow-paced, fact-based period drama of war and love in precolonial Hawai’i, “Chief of War,” premiering Friday on Apple TV+, presents co-creator and star Jason Momoa as the late-18th century warrior Ka’iana in a story set at the intersection of the island kingdoms and the arrival of European colonists. It’s clearly a passion project, and like many passion projects, it can go overboard at times, grow overstuffed, not to say oversolemn — though solemnity, to be sure, is appropriate to the history. But the passion shows through, and the stuff is interesting — nothing you see everyday, for sure.

Hawaii, of course, was a cultural touchstone, an obsession among continental Americans, long before it became the 50th state. Ukuleles. Steel guitars. Elvis Presley in “Blue Hawaii” and “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” not to mention “Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite.” The Brady Bunch traveled there, and so did Dennis the Menace in a comic book I once owned. “Magnum P.I.,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “The White Lotus,” Season 1. Hawaiian Punch (created 1934), which mixed orange, pineapple, passion fruit, guava and papaya flavors, and is still available at a store near you in at least 14 flavors. Tiki bars. Suburban luaus. Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, where the birds sing words and the flowers croon, presented by Dole. It goes on and on.

Momoa, who was born in Honolulu, raised in Iowa and returned to the islands for college, slipped into show business by way of “Baywatch Hawaii,” followed by the Oahu-set hotel drama “North Shore.” He played an alien in four seasons of “Stargate Atlantis,” Conan the Barbarian, Aquaman, of course, and twice hosted “Saturday Night Live.” (And recently Ozzy Osbourne’s swan song concert “Back to the Beginning.”) It’s not surprising that he’d want to stretch a little, to step away from genre projects, and represent the roots of his people in a respectful manner. One would call “Chief of War” well-researched, even if one was not at all aware of how much research was done. The ordinary viewer may need to take notes to keep things straight; titles notwithstanding, I wasn’t always certain what island we were on, especially since characters might be living on or aligned with another, and because within an island, various “districts” might be at war, intramurally, as it were. (I did take notes, and I’m still a little confused as to exactly what some of them were after.)

A comparison to “Shogun” is as good as inevitable, given the subtitled dialogue — most of the series is performed in Hawaiian — the encounters with outsiders, the ambitious monarchs and the warring factions. In the latter respects, the series also resembles “Game of Thrones,” where Momoa spent two seasons as chieftain Khal Drogo. And its opening might make you think of “The Lord of the Rings,” as a woman’s voice sets the story (a prophesied king will unite the endless, ending “a cycle of endless war”), introducing the island kingdoms of Kaua’i, Hawai’i, Maui and O’ahu, “separated by cunning chiefs and powerful gods.”

We’re introduced to Ka’iana, a Maui war chief who has left that island, and more to the point, deserted its army, to live a peaceful life on Kaua’i with his two brothers Nahi’ (Siua Ikale’o) and Namake (Te Kohe Tuhaka) and significant others Kupuohi (Te Ao o Hinepehinga) and Heke (Mainei Kinimaka). On the whole, given what follows, one would call this the superior lifestyle, and I would have been happy just to spend a little time in this world, with its plant-based architecture and fashions and cheeky local children getting into Ka’iana’s stuff. But like a retired gunslinger in a western movie, circumstances will not let him rest. (He will, in fact, sling a gun before the season is out.)

Kaina Makua and Luciane Buchanan also stars in “Chief of War.”

(Nicola Dove/Apple TV+)

“A war chief who runs from war — you are a chief of contradictions,” says Kaʻahumanu (Luciane Buchanan), a young Maui woman Ka’iana meets in a cave while he’s on the run, where she’s lying low from her councilor father (Moses Goods), who means to ship her to Hawai’i to marry her to Kamehameha (Kaina Makua), in charge of the “god of war,” a sort of military good-luck charm whose possession will be a major issue, though Kamehameha’s own inclinations bend toward peace. But with crazy villains like King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) and Keoua (Cliff Curtis), not to mention some rogue white sailors with their own dreams of conquest, that may have to wait.

A contemporary account describes the real-life Ka’iana as “near 6 feet 5 inches in stature, and the muscular form of his limbs was of a Herculean appearance,” which is basically typecasting for Momoa. In many ways “Chief of War” is another superhero role for him, if a more emotionally busy one. He’s the best fighter by miles, can catch a spear in his head, ride a shark (a drugged shark, but still) and whip out a laser stare calculated to make his enemies quake. But he also must grapple with family business, love stuff and getting people to listen to his better ideas.

Circumstances will lead Ka’iana into the ocean and onto a British sailing ship, where he will travel to Alaska and the Spanish East Indies, learn all about guns, which he regards as a potentially useful invention, and to speak English — John Young (Benjamin Hoetjes) a marooned sailor taken into the community, is teaching it back on Hawai’i, and soon many characters are speaking English, even when it doesn’t make any practical sense. And in a story in which “pale-skin” colonists meet and exploit Indigenous populations, white racism necessarily gets a licking — “They do not see you as people,” says Tony (James Udom), a Black man who befriends Ka’iana on his accidental voyage — including an actual licking.

Injecting a strain of anticipatory feminism, Momoa and his collaborator Thomas Paʻa Sibbett have taken care not only to incorporate women into their testosterone-heavy world (including Sisa Grey as a street-smart Hawai’ian expat), but to give them interesting things to do — Kupuohi “was once a chiefess of war,” Heke wants Nahi’ to teach her how to fight — and wise things to say, e.g., “Men train their whole lives to be warriors but they fear being wrong more than they fear death.” (So true.) There are gay characters, too, presented without comment.

The actors are appealing when they’re meant to be, and very much unappealing when they’re meant to be, but they’re all excellent (including the nonprofessional Makua). The pacing can be pokey — elegiac if you prefer — between the big action scenes, which can be disturbingly violent. (It can also be very violent when someone’s just trying to make a point.) Filmed across Hawaii and New Zealand and thoughtfully designed, it’s always a pleasure to look at, notwithstanding some dodgy CGI in the volcano scene. (Yes, there’s a volcano.) There is one red-hued orgy scene (denoting villainy) too many — which is to say, there’s one. The score, by Hans Zimmer and James Everingham, is Hollywood-obvious, and the series as a whole is not immune to corniness — but that is sometimes just another word for love.

Current majority shareholders Bond Group, led by businessman Whittingham, purchased Morecambe in May 2018. By September 2022, Whittingham had put the club up for sale.

The club has since been relegated twice, and no takeover has been completed in that time.

Whittingham has been a director at 25 companies during his career, according to Companies House. Of those 25 companies, 18 have been either dissolved, voluntarily dissolved, put into administration, put into liquidation, or put into receiver action (the precursor stage to liquidation).

Two of Whittingham’s companies had been dissolved by compulsory strike-off prior to his takeover of Morecambe – but he still passed the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test.

At 21 of the companies, Whittingham was joint director with business partner Colin Goldring – a legal worker turned entrepreneur – including at Morecambe until Goldring’s resignation in August 2022.

Whittingham and Goldring were disqualified as company directors for 12 months following a court hearing in 2022.

Goldring has also been barred by the Solicitors Regulation Authority from working for any law firm without clearance.

The pair also ran Worcester Warriors rugby club, which went into liquidation in 2022.

Wardle pierced the Leopards’ resistance after just five minutes, taking a short cut-out pass from Jai Field to dot down for the first time since grabbing a try in Wigan’s last win against Leigh in May.

The score from the decorated centre came in a week that he was called up for an England squad get-together that has had national team boss Shaun Wane calling for greater intensity from Super League’s biggest names as they prepare to take on Australia in the autumn Test series.

The clash of regional rivals delivered on Wane’s demand for a “low-scoring” game which has “teams going at it”.

While Leigh were kept scoreless in the first half, they went close through Frankie Halton, who failed to ground his finish after racing onto a grubber kick from Ipape, while Charnley should have done better to link up with Hodgson when in a promising position after breaking clear.

Leigh finally got their chance to respond thanks to Harry Smith’s attempted 40-20 kick that went long and out on the full.

The hosts made the most getting the ball back inside Wigan’s half, with Tonga international Niu weaving his way over from close range following clever work from Ipape and Lachlan Lam.

Ipape then went over himself at the end of a free-flowing move, with the ball passing through multiple hands before Umyla Hanley sent him clear to touch down under the posts.

And after Charnley had a try of his own ruled out – which would have been the 250th of his career in Super League – Trout profited from an in-goal fumble from Wigan’s defence as they tried to mop up the danger created by a Ipape kick in the final minute.

Castleford: Cini; Simm, Senior, Wood, Tate; Asi, Atkin; Singleton, Horne, Amone, Lawler, Mellor, Westermann.

Interchanges: Griffin, Hall, Hill, Stimson.

Wigan: Field; Eckersley, Keighran, Wardle, Douglas; Farrimond, Smith; Byrne, O’Neill, Thompson, Nsemba, Farrell, Ellis.

Interchanges: Havard, Mago, Dupree, Leeming.

Referee: Tom Grant.

Aaron Turner, 34, was holidaying with his fiancee Shauna Wall, 32, and their four-year-old daughter Halle when he spotted the bizarre scenes at Hotel Sol Barbados

British holidaymakers have been dubbed ‘towel warriors’ as they rush to secure prime loungers by the pool at a Magaluf hotel the moment it opens.

Aaron Turner, 34, witnessed the comical spectacle while vacationing with his fiancée Shauna Wall, 32, and their four-year-old daughter Halle at Hotel Sol Barbados. In true British style, these eager tourists lined up beside the pool for as long as they could before the staff allowed access.

This family from County Meath, Ireland, reported that each day dawned with sun-seekers poised at one of the three entrances to the pool. Aaron, a full-time content creator and father of one, observed them congregating from 9am in anticipation of the 10am opening, despite the abundance of available sunbeds.

“The queues would get pretty long. Once the barriers opened, all the rules went – people were jumping the queue, and some were properly running,” he said.

Have you been swept up in the sunbed wars? Email [email protected]

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Aaron highlighted the surplus of sunbeds yet pointed out that everyone was after the most coveted spots. Finding amusement in the situation, Aaron added: “I thought it was hilarious, I’ve seen videos of it online before but it was the first time I experienced it myself. We got a good laugh out of it.”

The sunbed wars are a long-standing, long-drawn-out battle that typically marks the start of the summer. When videos and tales emerge of the first 5am queue for a pool-side spot and mad dash across the tiles of the year, you know the weather is beginning to warm up.

Earlier this week we reported how a group of irate holidaymakers thwarted a cunning plan by fellow Brits to bag sunbeds seven hours before their hotel pool opened on a recent Spain holiday.

While having a late-night chinwag on their balcony, Mandy Boyd spotted some lads she thought were having a cheeky swim in the pool. But upon closer inspection, the 34-year-old realised the young men were trying to nab the best beds at 2am, despite the fact that the pool wasn’t due to open until 9am the next day.

The quartet of girls watched as the lads dragged out their sunloungers to try and secure prime spots. Mandy and her mates patiently waited on the balcony for the perfect moment to dash down and swipe the towels.

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The comical sunbed wars sabotage took place around 2am at the Aquasol Aparthotel, Palmanova, near Magaluf, Spain.

Joined by her mate, Sally Willows, the pair dashed down to the pool and swiftly grabbed the towels. “We’re just doing the Lord’s work,” Mandy from Bridgend, South Wales, said. “I can’t stand it when people reserve sunbeds and don’t use them all day.

“I find it really inconsiderate. It was shocking to see them reserving beds at 2am, especially when there was no chance of those lads being up to enjoy them. We kept the towels, but made sure we left them where they would find them.”

Julius Randle scored 29 points on 13-for-18 shooting, and the Minnesota Timberwolves held on for a 121-110 win over the Golden State Warriors to clinch their Western Conference second-round playoff series in Minneapolis.

Anthony Edwards finished with 22 points and 12 assists for Minnesota, which won the best-of-seven series in five games. The Timberwolves advanced to the conference finals, where they will await the winner of the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets.

“It’s great,” Randle said on Wednesday night. “We’ve had a season full of adversity. Coach (Chris Finch) said at the end of the regular season that we didn’t do anything as far as trades or firing coaches. We just stuck together, and we got through it together.

“I’m super proud of our team, everybody that stepped up in some type of way this year. We got win No. 8 (in the playoffs). We’ve got to keep going.”

Brandin Podziemski scored 28 points on 11-for-19 shooting to lead Golden State. Jonathan Kuminga added 26 points off the bench, and Jimmy Butler III chipped in 17 points and six assists.

“It was a fight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I’m really proud of our guys. They hung in there and they battled the whole way through.

“(It was) quite a turnaround in our season from where we were a few months ago to giving ourselves a chance and having a swing at the plate for some real chances to go deep. We were right there. Obviously, it didn’t go our way. The Wolves were great, they deserved it. But I’m very proud of our team.”

The Warriors dropped their fourth straight game without Stephen Curry, who watched in street clothes from the bench. Curry injured his left hamstring in the series opener after leading Golden State to a first-round playoff series win over the Houston Rockets.

Kerr said of the challenge of playing without Curry, “Injuries are part of the playoffs. I learned a long time ago that the playoffs are really about health and then just guys stepping up and making some big shots, big plays in key games. That’s what decides every series.

“We’ve been on both ends of that. It’s just part of it. There’s no sense in dwelling on it, and I don’t want to take anything away from what Minnesota just accomplished.”

The Timberwolves led by as many as 25 points late in the third quarter. Randle dribbled the ball from one end of the court to the other and finished with a running layup to give the Timberwolves a 93-68 edge with 1:01 remaining in the third.

The Warriors made a determined push in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to nine. Moses Moody drained a 3-pointer to bring Golden State within 99-90 with 7:11 to play.

Edwards helped Minnesota regain a double-digit advantage moments later. He knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Timberwolves on top 102-90, and Jaden McDaniels increased the lead to 14 points with a steal and a layup with 6:36 remaining.

“The team has come together at the right time and is playing its best basketball,” Finch said.

The Timberwolves led 62-47 at the half.

Golden State trailed 45-42 after Podziemski made a jump shot with 4:11 left in the half.

Minnesota closed the second quarter on a 17-5 run to grab a 15-point lead. Randle finished the first-half scoring with a three-point play after making a layup and drawing a foul.

The Timberwolves shot 62.8 percent (49 of 78) overall and 41.9 percent (13 of 31) from beyond the arc. The Warriors shot 43.3 percent (39 of 90) from the field and 28.2 percent (11 of 39) from 3-point range.

Celtics rebound to win Game 5 without Tatum

In an earlier playoff fixture on Wednesday, Derrick White scored a game-high 34 points and the Boston Celtics extended their season by beating the visiting New York Knicks 127-102 in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference second-round series.

The Knicks lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading into Friday’s Game 6 in New York.

White shot 7-for-13 from 3-point territory and made nine of his 11 free-throw attempts. Boston sank 22 of its 49 shots from behind the 3-point arc (44.9 percent) and outscored New York 68-43 in the second half.

The Celtics received 26 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds from Jaylen Brown. Luke Kornet added 10 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots and Payton Pritchard came off the bench to make five 3-pointers and score 17 points.

“We made winning plays on both ends of the floor,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They made enough plays to win. Gave us another chance to play.”

It was Boston’s second playoff game without All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, who had surgery on Tuesday to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon.

Josh Hart scored a team-high 24 points for New York, which shot 29-of-81 from the field (35.8 percent). Jalen Brunson collected 22 points and six assists, but he fouled out with 7:19 to play. Brunson was called for his fifth foul with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter.

“That we didn’t play for 48 minutes,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau when asked what stood out on Wednesday. “We didn’t play tough with the lead. Can’t afford to do that.”