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LA28 revealed the schedule Monday for an extended Olympic soccer tournament that will begin four days before the opening ceremony.

The soccer competition begins July 10 with four men’s group stage games across New York, Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis. The women’s tournament begins July 11 with games in all six of the preliminary round sites, including San José and San Diego.

The soccer competition, which will feature 12 women’s teams and eight men’s teams for the first time, has the longest competition window of any sport in Olympic history because the International Olympic Committee Executive Board wanted to give each team two extra rest days throughout the tournament.

Each team will have two days of rest between group stage games and three days between the final group game and the quaterfinal rounds. The men will begin their knockout round games on July 20 while the women start quarterfinal play on July 21, including one women’s quarterfinal match at the Rose Bowl.

The iconic stadium in Pasadena will host only five matches for the Olympics, including a men’s and women’s semifinal July 24 and the men’s gold medal match on July 28 and the women’s on July 29.

San Diego’s SnapDragon Stadium will have the most matches of any site with 11. In addition to three days of women’s group stage games, the home of San Diego State football, San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC will host a women’s quarterfinal July 21, men’s and women’s semifinals July 24 and both bronze medal matches.

With the coast-to-coast soccer tournament shaping up, LA28 announced additional ticket opportunities for the competition, allowing fans interested in attending soccer matches to buy up to 12 soccer tickets in addition to the current 12-ticket maximum for all other Olympic events. The 12-ticket maximum for Olympic events includes the opening and closing ceremonies on July 14 and 30, respectively, which each have a four-ticket limit.

Ticket registration for the first ticket drop ends Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. PDT with the first tickets going on sale to locals in Southern California and Oklahoma beginning April 2. The first general ticket drop begins April 9. Fans who are randomly selected to participate in the first ticket drop will be notified via email between March 31 and April 7 with information and their assigned timeslot to purchase tickets.

More than 5 million fans have already registered for Olympic tickets, LA28 said, with Paralympic tickets going on sale in 2027. The organizing committee expects 14 million tickets to be available for the Games, which could eclipse the total ticket sales record set by Paris in 2024.

OLIVIA Attwood looked stunning as she enjoyed a wild night out with a host of Love Islanders this weekend in New York- with the star posing up a storm in knee high boots and a lace skirt.

It comes following the TV personality’s split from her footballer husband Bradley Dack, who was seen without his wedding ring for the first time this week.

Former Love Island star Olivia is across the pond to celebrate the launch of her collaboration with high street brand River Island.

She is joined fellow reality stars such as Toni Laites, Samantha Kenny. and Samie Elishi – who is also newly single following her split from Ciaran Davies.

Sharing a reel to her Instagram, Olivia was filmed as she told the camera: “First night in New York, going to town, RIP.”

She then said: “It all goes downhill from here…”

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Dressed in a satin mini skirt with a lace trim and knee-high boots, Olivia looked stunning for the night out.

She posed for a slew of snaps before hitting the town.

Olivia and the group were then filmed throughout the night as they hit the city’s clubs and let loose.

Sipping on cocktails and wine, the video showed the group as they danced together and even cheekily lifted up their tops and skirts – covering themselves with emojis.

Confirming that the girls had quite the time, Toni commented on the post: “downhill for sure”.

“A time was had,” said Sophie Piper.

The hangover seemed to hit hard too, as Olivia joked this morning that she was “hanging on by a thread”.

It comes as her estranged husband Bradley was pictured leaving training at League Two Gillingham, minus his gold wedding band this week.

The TV star split from footballer Bradley, 32, earlier this year following a “breach of trust” on his part.

Olivia is yet to divulge exactly what went on between them.

However, she did say that she would speak about her marriage breakdown when the time is right – insisting she had a “lot to process”.

The couple wed in 2023, four years after getting engaged.

When Julie Uhrman and a fledgling ownership group that would quickly grow to more than 100 announced plans to start a women’s soccer club in the summer of 2020, the goal was to build something unique and different.

And in that she was wildly successful: four years after its founding, Angel City became the most valuable team in the history of women’s professional sports while funneling millions of dollars to community programs throughout Southern California.

What the team hasn’t done is win. And that, Uhrman said, has to change.

“It’s time to win,” said Uhrman, who this month is stepping down as the team’s chief executive to take a new role as principal advisor. “We’re in L.A. We live in a city of champions and we want to be on the same mantle as them. It’s a process but we have the right team in place, on and off the pitch, to accomplish that.”

Angel City will kick off its fifth season Sunday at BMO Stadium against the Chicago Stars. Over its previous four seasons, Angel City lost 12 more games than it won, finished with a winning record only once and made just one playoff appearance. And it has used four coaches, three sporting directors and more than 70 players in its search for success.

So this year sporting director Mark Parsons and coach Alexander Straus decided to try a new approach.

“We needed to rip it up and start again,” Straus said.

As a result, more than half the players on the opening day roster weren’t with Angel City at the start of last season. And nine women who started at least a half-dozen games last season aren’t there this year.

“This is Angel City 2.0,” Parsons said. “We’ve gone through a huge amount of staff change. We’ve gone through a huge amount of roster change. And January 2026 has become Year 1.

“Year 5 is Year 1 of building what we believe is a sporting organization that can get to the top and stay at the top.”

That’s probably not what the team’s long-suffering fans wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that this is the year Angel City wins a trophy. But after watching his team finish 11th in the 14-team NWSL in 2025, Parsons said that’s not realistic.

“You don’t go from 11th to being a top-four team. I think you come from 11th and you become a playoff team ,” said Parsons who, as a manager, took a Portland Thorns team with a losing record to an NWSL Shield and a league title in his first two seasons. “Last year was a tough year. Now we’re in a better place. So we’re still on the journey.”

Angel City coach Alexander Straus watches over a practice session at the team’s training facility in Thousand Oaks in February.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

So is the league. With the addition of expansion franchises in Denver and Boston, the NWSL entered its 14th season Friday with a record 16 teams, meaning each club will play a record 30 games. The top eight finishers in the table will make the playoffs.

For Angel City, the makeover to 2.0 really launched about six months before Parsons arrived when Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, became controlling owners of the club and committed $50 million to improving it. Part of that investment paid for the purchase and renovation of a sprawling state-of-the-art training center at Cal Lutheran University and part of it allowed Parsons to come in and tear things up.

When he took over as sporting director last winter, Parsons quickly set about overhauling the roster, leaving Angel City with one of the youngest teams in the NWSL, averaging 25 years of age, this season. Two players are still in their teens and eight others have yet to turn 23.

A year ago, eight players on the roster were 32 or older.

Among the key offseason additions are defender Emily Sams, an Olympic champion with the U.S. national team, and midfielder Ary Borges, a Brazilian international. They will join a core that includes Japanese midfielder Hina Sugita and Zambian striker Prisca Chilufya, who joined the team at the end of last season.

Of the four, only Sugita, a two-time World Cup veteran, is older than 26.

“We’re getting closer to competing for trophies,” Parsons said. “But making [the] playoffs right now is a logical next step. This year is about showing that we’re going in the right direction. But we can’t jump from 11th to one. Those days are over.

“We have overachieved the last 12 months in building a sporting organization, staffing departments and [constructing a] roster. There’s going to be ups and downs this year, like there is every year.”

Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, entering her fourth season with Angel City, making her one of the team’s longest-tenured players, believes in Parsons’ deliberate approach and is confident the team is about to turn the corner.

“Having that methodical approach is really smart and it gives us kind of an overview of like, we want to win the championship, we feel like we’re in a really good spot, but there are daily, monthly, season-long challenges that we’re going to have to overcome if that’s where we want to get to,” said Anderson, one of three team captains. “It’s actually a very smart way for all of us to manage our expectations.”

Uhrman agrees too but being realistic is hard. When she helped launch Angel City, it was with the vision of building a winning team and nearly six years later, she’s still waiting for that vision to be released.

“Our aspiration is to win the championship. Our goal is to make the playoffs,” she said. “And we feel very comfortable that we can do that. It is a process. We’re realistic about where we are in the process and what we need to do to develop and grow.

“Believing in the fact that it’s a process is comforting because we are being realistic about what we are. But that doesn’t change what we want to accomplish.”

CCTV shows the moment a car hits a Muslim woman in broad daylight in southeast London before the driver speeds away. The woman survived, and an investigation is ongoing, but no suspects have been arrested yet.

ACTOR Warwick Davis’s mystery lover is a woman named Yvette who he has been dating for a year.

The star, whose wife Samantha died in 2024, ­affectionately referred to his new partner as “Sponge” in a speech last year.

Pals said American-born Yvette, who Warwick said had helped him “to laugh and to love again”, was his ­formal date when he received his OBE from Prince William at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

The Sun can reveal she also attended the Bafta Film Awards with the Harry Potter star, 56, at London’s Royal Festival Hall last month.

And they were also seen backstage together at a Madness concert in Cornwall last July.

A source told The Sun: ­“Warwick has been with Yvette for over a year now and they couldn’t be happier.

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“She has no interest in being a public figure and — although she has accompanied Warwick to events — Yvette does not court the limelight.

“Yvette is so proud of Warwick and loves to be by his side at events, but she will stand back and allow him to be in the ­spotlight.

“Yvette is close with his children and they have a lovely life together.

“All anyone wanted was to see Warwick happy and he has that with Yvette.”

Warwick revealed he had started dating again at the Bafta Film Awards in February last year.

After accepting the Bafta ­Fellowship on stage, he said: “Above all I’d like to dedicate and thank my wonderful wife Sammy, who died almost a year ago.

“Since then life has been pretty tough for me, but thanks to the support of our wonderful children Annabelle and Harrison, I’ve been able to continue working and engaging in life.

“A special mention too should go to Sponge, you know who you are.

“Thank you for showing me that life can still have meaning and helping me to laugh and to love again.”

This week at his investiture, Yvette was spotted in the background with his children while her partner spoke to William.

Warwick, who was born with a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia ­congenita, was named in King Charles’ New Year Honours list.

He was praised for his work supporting people with dwarfism, co-founding the charity Little People UK in 2012 with Samantha.

Meanwhile, the Star Wars actor is to reprise his role as Professor Filius Flitwick in the upcoming Harry Potter TV spin-off.

A Woman of Substance is premiering tonight on Channel 4 starring Vera legend Brenda Blethyn and Outlander star Jessica Reynolds.

A Woman of Substance draws from author Barbara Taylor Bradford’s novel, widely regarded as amongst the best-selling books ever published.

Channel 4 unveils its fresh adaptation of A Woman of Substance tonight, Wednesday, March 11, featuring actress Brenda Blethyn in her debut role following the conclusion of ITV drama Vera.

Adapted from the identically titled novel, A Woman of Substance follows housemaid Emma Harte as she challenges societal conventions to establish a worldwide business empire.

Spanning dual timelines, the eight-episode series chronicles Emma’s (portrayed by Jessica Reynolds) ascent from her formative hardships through to the present day, where she (Brenda Blethyn) confronts fresh, unforeseen challenges.

Where was A Woman of Substance filmed?

Captured during spring 2025, sequences depicting young Emma in the early 1900s were shot throughout Yorkshire, with the Grade I-listed Georgian residence Broughton Hall serving as Fairley Hall.

Broughton Hall previously featured as a filming venue in Channel 4’s original 1984 adaptation of A Woman of Substance.

Broughton Hall is the 16th Century manor house situated at the centre of the 3,000 acre Broughton Sanctuary estate.

Whilst the property remains unchanged, it’s now encompassed by the sanctuary, housing the Avalon Wellbeing Centre and offering holiday accommodation available for guest bookings.

Production teams were additionally observed at Ilkley Moor, Barnsley Town Hall and at Brodsworth Hall and Gardens in Doncaster.

Speaking about the use of Brodsworth Hall in the series, a representative from English Heritage said: “Last year we were pleased to welcome a production company, filming scenes for an adaption of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance.

“Filming took place within our Servants’ Wing, Laburnam Arch and Target House/Range and we are extremely excited and proud to see Brodsworth on the small screen!”.

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Reynolds, who portrays the younger version of Emma Harte, shared her experiences of filming in Yorkshire with Country and Town House.

She said: ‘I know the crew worry about wind and rain, but I just love being able to have nature around me and working off the elements.

“I feel much less self-conscious, and freer.

“Some of the locations were just breathtaking and those are the images that stick in my mind today when I think back to filming; Yorkshire is just stunning.

“Those are some of Emma’s happiest moments too, when she’s so connected to the land – it’s a beautiful thing.”

Meanwhile, the contemporary scenes featuring Vera legend Blethyn, which are supposed to be set in New York, were actually filmed in Liverpool.

This isn’t the first time Liverpool has served as a stand-in for New York in film production, with major films including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and 2022’s The Batman also shot in the UK city.

A Woman of Substance premieres on Wednesday, March 11, at 9pm on Channel 4.

WASHINGTON — Jill Biden is breaking her silence about Joe Biden’s decision to abruptly end his 2024 presidential reelection bid under pressure from Democrats concerned about his age, health and viability against Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 campaign.

A political spouse for nearly 50 years, Jill Biden said she has never publicly discussed her feelings about the three-week stretch when her husband ended his political career, instead saving her thoughts for the pages of her soon-to-be-released memoir.

Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on Wednesday announced that her book, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir,” is scheduled to be published June 2.

Jill Biden told the Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that the book is a “reflection of my four years as first lady” and that writing it was somewhat healing.

“It was kind of cathartic for me to write it, and I wrote about all the, you know, sometimes painful — but other times, most of it really beautiful moments that Joe and I shared during his presidency,” she said.

Jill Biden declined on Tuesday to discuss any of those moments, good or bad — including watching her husband work his way to the decision to end his five-decade-long political career by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

In an announcement video shared on Instagram, she said she wants to “set the record straight.”

The last chapter of her husband’s political career

In April 2023, then-President Joe Biden was 80 and the oldest president in U.S. history when he announced he was running for a second term. His age and fitness to serve another four years — which would take him to age 86 — became a source of concern for the public. Some fellow Democrats began to pressure him to step aside after he turned in a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 in which he struggled, in a raspy voice, to land his debating points and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Aides blamed the poor performance on a cold.

Joe Biden at first insisted that he would stay in the race, but after a few weeks he withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris, his vice president. Harris became the party’s presidential nominee but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election.

Jill Biden said that, with the book, “I have put things in perspective,” presenting what she describes as a “more balanced view” of her husband’s time as president.

The memoir is also a tribute of the sorts to women who, like herself, juggle multiple roles.

“It’s also a story about my being able to balance life, you know, as a working woman and as a mother, a grandmother, a first lady,” she said.

During her four years in the role, Jill Biden, 74, made history as the first first lady to continue the career she had before entering the White House. She had taught English and writing for decades at the community college level, and she continued teaching twice a week at a Northern Virginia school while serving as first lady.

Joe Biden ‘doing well’ after his cancer diagnosis

The former president’s office announced in May 2025 that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. He’s receiving treatment.

Jill Biden said it was “quite a shock getting the diagnosis” for her husband, who’s now 83.

“The fact that it is in his bones means that he will have cancer, you know, all his lifetime,” Jill Biden said. She said the doctors say he will “live out his natural life.”

“Like most retired couples, he’ll probably drive me crazy till the end of it,” she joked.

She said he visits Washington at least once a week for meetings or to give speeches.

A unique period in American history

The former first lady also writes in the book about serving during a unique period in U.S. history, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the publisher.

Her husband was sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021, just two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters, spurred by his false claims that the Republican lost because of election fraud, stormed the building in a violent attempt to keep lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

Joe Biden’s first year in office was dominated by the federal response to the pandemic and, while he mostly stayed at the White House, Jill Biden wore face mask and traveled around the country to encourage people to get their vaccinations. She also continued her advocacy on behalf of military families, education and community colleges, cancer prevention and women’s health initiatives.

Before she became first lady, Jill Biden was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, when her husband was Barack Obama’s vice president. She currently chairs the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network.

Jill Biden is also the author of “Where the Light Enters,” published in 2019, in which she writes about meeting Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, and marrying and building a life with him. She also has written three children’s books.

Superville writes for the Associated Press.