U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is exploring ways to ensure Americans benefit directly from the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, raising the possibility of the government acquiring stakes in leading AI companies. The idea comes as firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic pursue valuations that could make them among the most valuable companies in the world, fueling debate over whether the public should share in the wealth generated by AI technologies.

Why the Idea Is Gaining Attention

The AI boom is expected to create enormous wealth for technology companies, investors and founders. Policymakers and advocates argue that because AI development relies heavily on public infrastructure, government research and vast amounts of publicly generated data, ordinary citizens should receive some of the financial benefits.

The debate has intensified as major AI developers seek billions of dollars to build data centers, chip infrastructure and advanced computing systems.

Option One: Taxing AI Companies Through Equity

One proposal would require AI companies to pay part of their taxes in shares rather than cash.

Under this approach, the government would gradually accumulate ownership stakes in AI firms without directly investing taxpayer money. Supporters argue that it would allow the public to benefit from future growth while avoiding large government expenditures.

Some advocates have gone further, proposing substantial government ownership stakes and board representation to give the public a direct voice in how AI companies operate.

Option Two: Equity in Exchange for Government Support

Another model would involve the government receiving equity stakes in return for financial assistance or incentives.

This approach mirrors previous arrangements in strategic industries where federal funding was provided in exchange for ownership interests. Given the enormous capital requirements of AI infrastructure, government funding could potentially become a source of financing for companies building advanced computing facilities, semiconductor plants and other critical projects.

Supporters argue this would allow taxpayers to benefit if publicly supported companies become highly profitable.

Critics contend that such arrangements could blur the line between regulation and investment, potentially creating conflicts between public policy goals and financial interests.

Option Three: Public Wealth Funds and Citizen Dividends

A third proposal focuses less on government ownership and more on distributing AI-generated wealth directly to citizens.

Under this model, revenue generated through AI-related taxes or investments would flow into a public wealth fund, which would then distribute dividends to Americans.

The concept resembles Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which uses energy revenues to provide annual payments to residents. Advocates argue a similar system could ensure that AI-driven economic gains are shared more broadly across society rather than concentrated among a small number of technology firms and investors.

Some AI companies have expressed interest in versions of this idea, including proposals for digital dividends funded by taxes on the sector.

Why AI Companies Matter

The debate carries major financial implications because leading AI developers are becoming increasingly valuable.

OpenAI and Anthropic have both reportedly taken steps toward potential public listings, while companies across the sector are raising unprecedented sums to fund AI expansion. Some analysts believe the industry could generate trillions of dollars in economic value over the coming decade.

As a result, even relatively small government stakes could potentially produce significant long-term returns.

Challenges and Obstacles

Any effort to give the government ownership in AI companies would face significant legal, political and economic hurdles.

Questions remain over:

• How ownership stakes would be valued
• Whether companies would voluntarily participate
• The impact on private investment
• Potential conflicts of interest for regulators
• How revenues would be distributed to citizens

There is also likely to be strong opposition from free-market advocates who argue that government ownership could discourage innovation and distort competition.

What Happens Next

Trump has not outlined a specific mechanism for acquiring stakes in AI companies, and no formal proposal has been introduced.

However, the discussion highlights a growing debate over who should benefit from the AI revolution and whether existing economic structures are sufficient to distribute the gains from one of the most transformative technologies in modern history.

Analysis

The significance of Trump’s proposal lies less in whether the government ultimately acquires stakes in AI firms and more in what it signals about the future political debate surrounding artificial intelligence. As AI companies approach trillion-dollar valuations, pressure is likely to grow for policymakers to ensure that the economic gains extend beyond investors and technology executives.

The discussion mirrors earlier debates over natural resources, where governments sought ways to ensure that public assets generated public benefits. In this case, supporters argue that AI is built on public research, public infrastructure and publicly generated data, creating a rationale for broader wealth sharing.

At the same time, the proposal raises fundamental questions about the relationship between government and the private sector. Direct ownership stakes could provide taxpayers with financial upside, but they could also create tensions between the government’s role as regulator and its role as investor.

The debate is likely to become more prominent as AI companies grow larger, seek additional funding and exert greater influence over economic growth, employment and national competitiveness. Whether through equity ownership, taxation or public wealth funds, the central political question is increasingly becoming not whether AI will generate enormous wealth, but who will ultimately receive it.

With information from Reuters.

There are few things a Los Angeles local is less likely to do than take a Hollywood sightseeing tour on a big, garish bus. Only rush-hour traffic and $20 tacos inspire the same level of dread.

Yet nearly everyone aboard the open-air bus for a Tuesday night production of “California Gothic: A Bus Tour” was an L.A. resident. The show, which is produced by the aggressively hip New Theater Hollywood, recently wrapped its third “season” after debuting in February and returning for an April encore. Set on a moving bus, the 1.5-hour-long experience is part esoteric Tinseltown history lesson, part immersive theater. The narrative conjures meaning from the Los Angeles cityscape by fusing a hodgepodge of textbook theories about the sprawling metropolis onto the gritty reality of daily life.

“We originally organized this thinking there would be more people coming who aren’t from here,” said Oliver Misraje, the show’s writer and primary tour guide, as the bus pulled away from the curb at Santa Monica and Wilcox. “But this just goes to show how much people love the city and are from here, contrary to popular belief.”

In lieu of celebrity-hungry tourists, “California Gothic” has been packing its bus twice a night with rowdy young scenesters and in-the-know locals eager to absorb its heady mix of California history, public intellectualism and performance artistry.

While the show wrapped its latest run in mid-June, it will reopen its automated doors during the last week of October for a special “ghost tour” edition co-written by Misraje and New York it girl Ruby McCollister.

The bus arrives for New Theater Hollywood’s “California Gothic: A Bus Tour.”

My tour was far less steeped in irony than I feared. As the bus wound its way through the streets of Hollywood, starting at the New Theater’s doorstep before eventually circling the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Misraje led the audience through his take on the death of the “California dream” and the rotting carcasses of empty buildings and broken promises left in its wake. Along the way, we encountered a haunted-eyed Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Brooks Ginnan), a masked Hollywood legend known as the Duchess of Argyle (Shauna Frente) and a singing, swaggering “Rat Czar” with a lot to say about real estate developers (Loren Kramar).

Yes, it’s whimsical, and yes, it references Mike Davis’ “City of Quartz” more than any of the TMZ-type excursions it gently parodies, but it’s still, at its heart, a bus tour.

In a nod to classic Hollywood tour advertisements, the show’s winkingly all-caps poster declares, “You Will See: The Hollywood Sign, Marilyn Monroe, the Schizo City State.” There is also a stash of BuzzBallz ready-to-drink cocktails for trivia winners, but Misraje and his cast do not deliver their performances with smirks or smarm. They commit full-throatedly to playing out Misraje’s vision of a Hollywood haunted by the dreamers it’s wronged and the secrets it’s plastered over.

“Ultimately, we are trying to pay homage to the bus tour format, which is intrinsically ‘carny,’” Misraje said, likening himself to a carnival barker espousing aesthetic philosophy aboard an ever-changing “Ship of Theseus.”

Before the performers infiltrate the ship, “I’m trying to intentionally set up audience expectations to think they’re going to get this run-of-the-mill Hollywood death tour,” he explained. “I consider myself a kind of impish person, but still fundamentally sincere.”

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1. Tour guide Oliver Misraje begins the show. 2. Rat Czar, portrayed by Loren Kramar, performs during the bus tour. 3. Guests board the bus.

Given the show’s monologue-heavy format and bevy of literary references, it’s no surprise that the concept began as an essay. Misraje, a 27-year-old writer and self-described “Hollywood hustler” raised primarily in the Inland Empire, was inspired after the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires to stage a piece he had written bridging his love of Gothic literature with his “welfare class” upbringing in a family of seven raised by a single mother, which he considered gothic in its own right.

“We were in the Inland Empire and it was the 2008 financial crisis,” he said. “There was all this imagery of things famously California-coded, like the suburban house, the pool, the strip mall, and when we were there, it was just, like, destroyed. There were abandoned housing subdivisions rotting in the sun.”

The perfect setting, he explained, for the kind of “literature that emerges after the failure of a historical project.”

After reaching out to New Theater co-owner Calla Henkel and conceiving the project, Misraje and his producers elected to turn the funhouse mirror onto Hollywood, framing the neighborhood with historical context and Freudian theory but ultimately letting it speak for itself.

The bus passes the TCL Chinese Theatre.

The highly mutable nature of street life and the participatory character of the show means its tone can shift drastically from tour to tour, even within the same night. Sometimes, the streets appear glittering; other times, seedy and dangerous. Once, there was a showdown with another tour bus — one presumably not carrying theatergoers. At a different show, a drunk pedestrian tried to board the bus during faux-Monroe’s speech. One particularly harrowing night, someone circled the bus on an electric scooter, shouting homophobic slurs at the all-queer cast.

“It’s almost like surfing,” Misraje said. “There’s so much chaos you’re confronting, and you have to find a way to ride it and let it be a part of the show.”

The show’s high production costs make bringing in a profit difficult, but Misraje said he and the New Theater Hollywood team plan to revive it periodically, with an evolving story and cast of characters.

On my tour, no performer better represented the blurred line between theater and street life than the Duchess of Argyle, a.k.a. the Mysterious Masked Lady of Hollywoodland, a.k.a. Shauna Frente, a busty Blanche DuBois figure in an eyeless flapper mask and gartered stockings. Just three days before, she had been evicted from a home on Argyle Avenue that once allegedly belonged to Cecil B. DeMille. This happened after a lengthy legal battle, during which the show helped raise money for temporary housing.

As the Duchess spilled neighborhood secrets, our bus repeatedly passed an Extra Space Storage facility painted with images of old Hollywood behemoths: Lucille Ball, Groucho Marx and the like. The intermingling smells of sizzling hot dogs, urine and marijuana wafted through the open windows.

Hollywood may be ghostly, the Duchess told us, but it was hers to haunt.

Duchess of Argyle (Shauna Frente) tells Hollywood stories during the tour.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

Published on
22/06/2026 – 13:32 GMT+2

The German government announced on Monday that it intends to acquire 40% of the defence contractor KNDS, a move designed to bolster European arms production in partnership with its NATO and EU ally France.

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The decision deepens state involvement in a company whose hardware has become central to Europe’s rearmament efforts.

KNDS was created in 2015 through the merger of Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and France’s Nexter. The French state holds a 50% stake, while the other half belongs to the German family behind Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, whose planned exit has opened the door for Berlin to step in.

Based in Amsterdam, the group reported revenue of €4.4 billion last year and employs more than 11,000 people.

The timing reflects a broader scramble across Europe to expand military spending and manufacturing capacity, as governments weigh the continued threat from Russia’s war in Ukraine against growing doubts about the reliability of the US as a security guarantor.

Berlin framed the investment in explicitly strategic terms, saying it would secure lasting influence over a business it considers vital to European security and defence.

The German government added that the stake would reinforce domestic industrial output, technological independence and the safeguarding of key national security interests and technologies.

In a joint statement, Germany and France said they had agreed on the future strategy and governance of KNDS, which they intend to co-own through arrangements aimed at giving both countries equal shareholdings.

Clearing the path to a stock market listing

Neither government specified a timeline or the final level at which their holdings would settle, but they stated the agreement opens the way for a possible flotation of KNDS in the near future.

According to people familiar with the matter cited by the Associated Press, the two states plan to trim their stakes to around 30% within two to three years of any listing, while retaining equal voting rights regardless of the size of each holding.

The two governments cast the deal as a joint commitment to building up Europe’s defence industry and armed forces, and to securing the continent’s strategic independence well into the future.

State participation in the firm was first floated by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in 2025 as a way to protect strategic expertise and jobs.

Beyond its tanks, KNDS also manufactures the Puma infantry fighting vehicle and the Boxer and Dingo armoured personnel carriers, equipment which is in growing demand as European armies replenish stocks depleted by years of underinvestment and donations to Ukraine’s defence.

Additional sources • AP

Reporting from Washington — The hotly contested Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects that President Trump brought back to life with the stroke of a pen Tuesday may still never get built — but for Trump, that isn’t necessarily the point.

The projects have become among the country’s most potent symbols of the clash between an oil and gas industry seeking to maintain the old order of energy production and the climate change movement pushing for a different direction.

Trump used the two proposed pipelines to send an unmistakable message during his first week in office: energy firms and their projects are back in favor.

When the Obama administration rejected Keystone in 2015 after years of protests and tens of millions of dollars spent by all sides, green-energy champions celebrated a seminal victory. The decision against the project came right before Obama signed a landmark global warming accord with dozens of other heads of state at a summit in Paris.

The Dakota Access project more recently became a national rallying point not only for environmental groups but for Native American tribes who said it threatened grounds they hold sacred. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has set up a camp to protest the pipeline, and the battle over it has become violent at times, with protesters clashing with police.

As the fight drew increasing national attention last year, the Obama administration dealt the project a potentially devastating blow that once again sent a strong message of opposition to fossil fuel projects. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the pipeline a crucial easement and announced it would look for alternatives to its planned route under a dammed section of the Missouri River called Lake Oahe.

Days before Obama’s term ended, the Corps of Engineers announced it would start an extensive environmental review that could add months — potentially years — to the permitting process and open the project to more public comment, creating new opportunities for opponents to block it.

Trump’s decision to revive the prospects for both projects comes as his administration jettisons much of Obama’s climate policy — including U.S. participation in the Paris accord — and promises to work aggressively to curb regulations that inhibit drilling and mining.

As the Trump administration moves swiftly to change direction, it also issued a gag order to the staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, which took a lead in Obama’s climate fight. Officials at the agency have been instructed not to interact at all with the news media and to freeze all contracts and grants.

Trump’s directives on the pipelines may pay political dividends. The angry opposition to the announcements comes mostly from places and groups that have never supported Trump. By contrast, the moves are likely to be well received by workers in Rust Belt communities who backed Trump in the election and now see him delivering on his promise to work for more jobs in middle America.

The decision on the Dakota Access pipeline instructed the Corps of Engineers to “consider” whether it can grant final approval for the project. It does not immediately clear the way for construction to resume, but strongly tilts in that direction, telling the Corps to consider skipping any additional environmental review.

Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the advocacy group Earthjustice, called that directive illegal, saying it was “an insult to Standing Rock, and it continues a historic pattern of trampling on the rights of native people.”

Environmental groups call the $3.8-billion, 1,170-mile project — nearly all of which has already been built — a threat to clean air and water, as well as to farming communities.

On Keystone, the president emphasized the jobs aspect of the project by insisting that the pipeline be built exclusively with U.S. steel, which he said would generate still more jobs.

That demand may or may not be feasible. If it raises the pipeline’s cost, it could prove the death knell for a project that may no longer pencil out financially. The price of oil has plunged over the last couple of years to levels far below what Keystone’s designers had envisioned.

The order Trump signed on Tuesday invited TransCanada, the firm that developed Keystone, to submit a new application for a permit for the pipeline. It directed administration agencies to swiftly review that application and issue a new decision within 60 days. That would be in sharp contrast with the nearly eight years during which the project languished before Obama finally rejected it.

During the long delay, fighting Keystone became a rallying point for the environmental movement. While studies showed the effects of the single pipeline on the climate would be negligible — as would be its impact on boosting global oil production — resistance focused on the environmental movement drawing a line in the sand, demanding that public officials stop backing big, invasive infrastructure projects that feed the world’s oil habit and undermine the push for more green energy.

TransCanada immediately declared it would seize the new opening for its project, which is designed to ship 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the Canadian tar sands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

In a statement, TransCanada vowed the pipeline would create thousands of jobs and boost the American economy, saying it “represents the safest, most environmentally sound way to connect the American economy to an abundant energy resource.”

Trump echoed the project’s supporters, saying the pipeline could generate 28,000 construction jobs. Opponents dispute that number, saying the new jobs would be less abundant than Trump claims and noting that in any case they would be temporary. They also say the project would undermine the potential creation of many more jobs in solar, wind and geothermal energy.

Trump’s directive provoked predictable outrage from environmental groups, which are vowing to mobilize just as they did before to block construction with mass protest and relentless legal challenges.

For all the heavy symbolism, however, the project’s impact on the world’s energy sector will ultimately be limited.

“In the end, this is all a tempest in a teapot,” said Andrew Hoffman, a professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Michigan. The project, he said, ultimately would not lower prices at the pump or add significantly more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

“It is just one more battlefield between the left and the right about free commerce, the role of government and the influence of activists,” he said.

Halper reported from Washington and Yardley from Denver.

evan.halper@latimes.com

Follow me: @evanhalper

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World Cup: Not the best hosts ever

From Mirjam Swanson: How it started: A dream. A French machine-gun officer in the trenches during the First World War. A man named Jules Rimet, who believed an international soccer tournament would bring the nations together with the goal of peace.

How it’s going: The world’s biggest party. A 48-nation celebration of the world’s most beloved sport. Expected to generate about $8.9 billion, it’s become such a big deal that it’s being hosted by three countries — one of which, yes, launched a war on a competing nation in the months before the tournament.

The United States’ war with Iran, costly in all the profound ways that war is, also laid the groundwork for an uneven — and possibly precedent-setting — playing field.

At this World Cup, Team Melli has been subjected to shifting travel restrictions and uncertainty unlike the other 47 teams, spending the tournament commuting between Southern California and its base in Tijuana.

And still, after Sunday’s 0-0 draw against Belgium, the world’s No. 10-ranked team, Team Melli is in position to not only get out of its group at the World Cup for the first time, but to win Group G.

Iran’s treatment only makes its performance more impressive — while bringing into question the future of a tournament that purports to be apolitical. And conjuring up concerns about how the Olympics will operate when L.A. is supposed to open its arms to the world two years from now.

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Iran’s beleaguered World Cup team finds hope with draw against Belgium

Guadalajara protesters accuse Hyundai of using World Cup to hide ‘dirty supply chain’

Click here for complete TV schedule, groups and players to watch

Full World Cup coverage

Sunday’s World Cup results

Group G
Belgium 0, Iran 0
Egypt 3, New Zealand 1

Group H
Spain 4, Saudi Arabia 0
Cape Verde 2, Uruguay 2

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

All times Pacific
10 a.m., Argentina vs. Austria, Fox, Telemundo
2 p.m., France vs. Iraq, Fox, Telemundo
5 p.m., Norway vs. Senegal, Fox, Telemundo
8 p.m., Jordan vs. Algeria, FS1, Telemundo

World Cup Group standings

Group A
Country, W-D-L, Goal Differential, Points
x-Mexico, 2-0-0, +3, 6
South Korea, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Czechia, 0-1-1, -1, 1
South Africa, 0-1-1, -2, 1

Group B
Canada, 1-1-0, +6, 4
Switzerland, 1-1-0, +3, 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 0-1-1, -3, 1
Qatar, 0-1-1, -6, 1

Group C
Brazil, 1-1-0, +3, 4
Morocco, 1-1-0, +1, 4
Scotland, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Haiti, 0-0-2, -4, 0

Group D
x-United States, 2-0-0, +5, 6
Australia, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Paraguay, 1-0-1, -2, 3
Turkiye, 0-0-2, -3, 0

Group E
x-Germany, 2-0-0, +7, 6
Ivory Coast, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Ecuador, 0-1-1, -1, 1
Curacao, 0-1-1, -6, 1

Group F
Netherlands, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Japan, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Sweden, 1-0-1, 0, 3
Tunisia, 0-0-2, -8, 0

Group G
Egypt, 1-1-0, +2, 4
Iran, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Belgium, 0-2-0, 0, 2
New Zealand, 0-1-1, -2, 1

Group H
Spain, 1-1-0, +4, 4
Uruguay, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Cape Verde, 0-2-0, 0, 2
Saudi Arabia, 0-1-1, -4, 1

Group I
Norway, 1-0-0, +3, 3
France, 1-0-0, +2, 3
Senegal, 0-0-1, -2, 0
Iraq, 0-0-1, -3, 0

Group J
Argentina, 1-0-0, +3, 3
Austria, 1-0-0, +2, 3
Jordan, 0-0-1, -2, 0
Algeria, 0-0-1, -3, 0

Group K
Colombia, 1-0-0, +2, 3
Portugal, 0-1-0, 0, 1
Congo DR, 0-1-0, 0, 1
Uzbekistan, 0-0-1, -2, 0

Group L
England, 1-0-0, +2, 3
Ghana, 1-0-0, +1, 3
Panama, 0-0-1, -1, 0
Croatia, 0-0-1, -2, 0

x-clinched round of 32

The top two teams in each group plus the next eight best third-place teams advance to the next round.

Dodgers lose in the haze

From Liana Handler: An eye-watering, cough-inducing thick stench of burning plastic permeated Dodger Stadium on Sunday morning. The smoke from a Boyle Heights warehouse fire had spread into every crevice and corner of the facility, inescapable despite the masks handed out to staff.

“It’s a little dark out there, little Gotham City when I was driving up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Major League Baseball approved the Father’s Day game to be played, according to Roberts. Still, the ominous atmosphere was hard to miss. When rolling up Vin Scully Avenue, a white smoke hung like a curtain behind the small hills on the other side of outfield walls, obscuring the normally scenic view of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Perhaps that should’ve been the first sign things wouldn’t go as planned for the Dodgers, who lost 12-1 to the Orioles. The loss marked the first time the Dodgers (49-29) have lost consecutive games since May 12.

“It just wasn’t a great start for our team, and offensively we weren’t very good,” Roberts said. “Feel fortunate we won a game this series.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels power past the Athletics

Zach Neto hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning that gave them their first lead, Denzer Guzman tied the score with a three-run home run in the eighth, and the Angels beat the Athletics 9-7 on Sunday.

Donovan Walton also homered and had three RBIs, while Nolan Schanuel and Jose Siri each added two hits to help the Angels (32-47) split the series after losing the first two games, including blowing an 11-4 lead Friday night.

Nick Kurtz hit his 19th home run, and Zac Gelof had a single and a double to extend his hit streak to 24 games for the A’s (38-40). Kurtz has 55 career homers, tied with Bob Johnson (1933-34) for the most in franchise history through the first two seasons of a career.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Lawrence Tanter was a key man in Lakers history

From Bill Plaschke: For more than four decades his voice was embraced by millions, a calming baritone in a sea of Lakers bedlam.

Yet in the most unfair of twists, on the night his career ended he was silent and alone.

Three months ago, Lawrence Tanter was walking through his bedroom when he suddenly collapsed while losing all strength in his arms and legs.

He fell and couldn’t get up. He lives alone, so he couldn’t cry out for help. He was able to secure his phone, but he says he was too stubborn to call 911.

“I wanted to get up by myself,” he said. “I knew I would eventually get up by myself.”

But this 6-foot-7 bear of a man was too weak to get up by himself. Listening to a Lakers road game on a bedside radio, he remained on the floor and eventually fell asleep until finally summoning his oldest friend the next morning.

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Who will the Lakers pick in the NBA draft?

From Broderick Turner: The Lakers will seek to use their 25th pick in Tuesday’s first round of the NBA draft on a player who fills a need on a roster that could have up to nine free agents this summer. Yet the Lakers also are aware that picking that late in the round could leave them selecting the best player available.

They probably will be in search of a center who can be a lob threat or an athletic wing who can play defense and knock down three-pointers, two positions the Lakers crave as they try to build a team around star Luka Doncic that fits best with his style of play.

Names that NBA executives and mock drafts attached to the Lakers are Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance, Texas forward Dailyn Swain and Duke wing Isaiah Evans.

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Clippers’ pick could be key to the draft

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Even during an early start to their offseason, the Clippers got one major win in May.

The Clippers were the quiet winners of the NBA draft lottery, where, with coin-flip odds, they swiped the Indiana Pacers’ first-round pick in a loaded draft class. The No. 5 pick can add an immediate rotation player for the Clippers while also being a potential fulcrum for what experts consider one of the deepest draft classes ever.

The top four prospects are locked. The only question is in what order Brigham Young forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson will hear their names called Tuesday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Washington, which picks first, Utah, Memphis and Chicago have the first shots at those potential franchise-defining players.

The first round then could turn with the Clippers’ pick.

“It puts the Clippers in an interesting spot at five,” ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo said on a conference call with reporters. “They’ve got options, including trades.”

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Sparks win on buzzer-beater

From Joaquin Ruiz: Nneka Ogwumike called game.

The 10-time WNBA All-Star and Sparks forward hit a buzzer-beating three-point shot to give the Sparks an electric 98-97 come-from-behind win over the New York Liberty on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

In a rematch of the WNBA’s first-ever game from June 21, 1997, the Sparks overcame a 17-point Liberty lead, all while celebrating the inaugural matchup — and iconic alumni — that changed women’s sports forever.

Ogwumike led the way with a game-high 24 points on 11 of 18 shooting while the rest of the starting lineup — Dearica Hamby, Erica Wheeler, Kelsey Plum and Ariel Atkins — all finished in double figures. Guard Rae Burrell also scored 19 off the bench.

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Sparks box score

WNBA standings

Wyndham Clark wins the U.S. Open

On the edge of the greatest collapse in U.S. Open history, Wyndham Clark held his nerve against a charge by Sam Burns and a Shinnecock Hills gallery that never gave him much love Sunday until he captured his second Open title in four years.

Six shots ahead at the start of the final round, Clark’s final act was two putts from just outside 50 feet for par that gave him a three-over 73 and a one-shot victory over Burns.

Clark, who won the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, became the first wire-to-wire winner of the U.S. Open since Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014.

This sure didn’t feel like that. His lead was down to a single shot after just five holes, and the stress followed him the rest of the way.

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U.S. Open leaderboard

This day in sports history

1918 — Molla Bjurstedt wins the women’s U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. title for the fourth straight year, beating Eleanor Goss 6-4, 6-3.

1937 — Joe Louis knocks out Jim Braddock in the eighth round at Chicago’s Comiskey Park to win the world heavyweight title, which he would hold for 11 years.

1938 — In a rematch portrayed in both countries as good vs. evil, Joe Louis of the U.S. knocks out Germany’s Max Schmeling at 2:04 of the first round at Yankee Stadium to retain the world heavyweight title.

1949 — Ezzard Charles scores a 15-round unanimous decision over Jersey Joe Walcott at Comiskey Park in Chicago to win the vacant world heavyweight title.

1977 — John Ziegler is named the fourth president in NHL history, succeeding Clarence Campbell.

1979 — Larry Holmes stops Mike Weaver in the 12th round to retain the WBC heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1980 — UEFA European Championship Final, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy: Horst Hrubesch scores a double as Germany beats Belgium, 2-1.

1981 — John McEnroe throws a tantrum in his 7-6 (5), 7-5, 6-3 first-round win over Tom Gullikson on the opening day at Wimbledon. McEnroe’s return of Gullikson’s serve is ruled out by chair umpire Edward James. McEnroe shouts his famous line, “You cannot be serious.” He then calls James the “the pits of the world” and an “incompetent fool.” Tournament referee Fred Hoyles is called to the court after James hits McEnroe with a point penalty. After McEnroe’s arguments with Hoyle go unsatisfied, Gullikson holds serve and McEnroe curses Hoyle on the changeover, prompting another point penalty. He is later fined $1,500.

1991 — NHL Draft: Oshawa Generals center Eric Lindros first pick by Quebec Nordiques.

1994 — The Houston Rockets, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, win their first NBA title, beating New York 90-84 in Game 7 of the finals. Olajuwon gets 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.

1994 — FIFA World Cup: USA beats Colombia 2-1 in round match at the Rose Bowl. First WC win since 1950.

1996 — Michael Moorer beats Axel Shultz in 11 for IBF heavyweight boxing title.

1999 — In one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon’s 113-year history, top-ranked Martina Hingis loses 6-2, 6-0 in the opening round to Jelena Dokic, a 16-year-old qualifier ranked 129th.

2001 — Karrie Webb sets two scoring records in the LPGA Championship in shooting a 7-under 64 for a three-stroke lead. Webb, at 11-under 131, breaks the 36-hole scoring record by two strokes. Webb shoots a 29 on the front nine for the lowest nine-hole score in the 47-year history of the championship.

2006 — The U.S. soccer team is eliminated from World Cup play with a 2-1 loss to Ghana.

2007 — For the first time, Americans are taken with the top two picks in the NHL draft. Chicago selects Patrick Kane with the first pick. Philadelphia then selects left wing James vanRiemsdyk with the second pick.

2012 — NHL Draft: Sarnia Sting (OHL) right wing Nail Yakupov first pick by Edmonton Oilers.

2014 — Michelle Wie wins the U.S. Women’s Open for her first major championship. She beats top-ranked Stacy Lewis by two shots.

2017 — Washington point guard Markelle Fultz is the first pick of the NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers.

2018 — NHL Draft: Frolunda HC (SHL) defenceman Rasmus Dahlin first pick by Buffalo Sabres.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1925 — The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 24-6 with Kiki Cuyler and Pie Traynor each hitting a grand slam and Max Carey getting two hits in the first and eighth innings.

1930 — Lou Gehrig hit three home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a 20-13 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics in the second game of a doubleheader. Babe Ruth, who hit three homers in the nightcap the previous day, hit two homers in the opener and one in the nightcap for the Yankees. Ruth tied major league records for five homers in two games and six homers in three games.

1944 — Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves threw a five-inning 7-0 no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1947 — Cincinnati’s Ewell Blackwell almost duplicated Johnny Vander Meer’s double no-hit record by following up his June 18 gem over Boston. Brooklyn’s Eddie Stanky singled with one out in the ninth to end Blackwell’s bid. Blackwell ended up with a 4-0 two-hitter.

1962 — Baltimore Orioles first baseman Boog Powell became the first batter to hit a home run over the center-field hedge at Memorial Stadium. The 469-foot clout came off Don Schwall of the Boston Red Sox.

1982 — Philadelphia’s Pete Rose doubled off St. Louis pitcher John Stuper in the third inning to move into second place on the career hit list. Rose moved ahead of Hank Aaron with hit No. 3,772.

1994 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 31st home run of the season in Seattle’s 12-3 victory at the Angels, breaking Babe Ruth’s record for most homers before the end of June. Ruth needed 63 games to reach 30 homers in 1928 and 68 games in 1930. Griffey did it in the Mariners’ 70th game.

1997 — The Atlanta Braves, behind a four-homer, nine-run third, beat the Philadelphia Phillies 12-5. Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Michael Tucker and Jeff Blauser homered in the inning.

2002 — The Detroit Tigers ended Luis Castillo’s 35-game hitting streak. Castillo went 0-for-4 and was left on deck when the Florida Marlins finished off a four-run, ninth-inning rally to beat the Tigers 5-4.

2007 — Miguel Tejada goes on the disabled list with a wrist injury, ending a run of 1,152 consecutive games played, the fifth-longest run in major league history.

2010 — Jamie Moyer serves up the 505th home run of his major league career, to Russell Branyan, in a 2-1 win over the Indians. Moyer ties Robin Roberts for the most homers surrendered in the majors.

2013 — Francisco Rodriguez earned his 300th career save, finishing off Milwaukee’s second straight 2-0 victory over slumping Atlanta.

2015 — ESPN reveals it has obtained a copy of a notebook belonging to Pete Rose which contains evidence of regular betting on baseball games during the 1986 season. The notebook was seized during a police raid on one of Rose’s associates in 1989, after Rose was banned from baseball by Commissioner Bart Giamatti, and had been under court-ordered seal since. Its content corroborate the contents of the Dowd Report, which led to Rose’s suspension, and make it even less likely that current Commissioner Rob Manfred will reverse it, as Rose has pleaded for him to do.

2020 — MLB owners agree unanimously on a plan for a 60-game season beginning around July 24th, if everyone signs off on health and safety protocols.

2021 — The Arizona Diamondbacks snap their franchise record 17-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

2022 — One day after setting a personal best as a hitter with eight RBIs, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels sets another one on the mound as he racks up 13 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over Kansas City.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

June 22 (UPI) — Keir Starmer announced Monday that he was standing down as British Prime Minister, saying he had heard the message from his own party that he wasn’t the right person to lead them into the next general election.

“I will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision,” he said in a televised address outside No. 10 Downing Street in London shortly after 9 a.m. local time.

Starmer said he had instructed the Labour Party National Executive to draw up a timetable to select his replacement with a 7-day nomination period starting on July 9 — which, provided there is more than one challenger — fires the starting gun on a race that would see a new leader and prime minister in place by Sept. 1 at the latest.

It could be much sooner if the party throws its support behind a single candidate.

Starmer said he would stay on as prime minister until the process was complete and vowed to do everything he could to “ensure an orderly hand-over of power.”

The move came hours before Andy Burnham, the politician tipped to replace him, was due to be sworn as a Member of Parliament on Monday afternoon after a decisive win in a by-election last week.

Burnham confirmed he would run to replace Starmer, pledging in a post on X there would be no interruption to the business of governing and vowing to deliver on “economic growth, cost of living, public services, housing and opportunities for the next generation,” if he became prime minister.

If the nomination period comes to a close with him as the lone candidate he could be handed the keys to Downing Street as early as July 17 — in a revolving door of leaders that would see him become the country’s seventh prime minister in a decade.

Two of them — Conservatives Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak — never had a mandate from the electorate having been appointed by the Conservative Party in the middle of parliamentary terms, which normally run five years maximum.

The opposition Conservative Party did not immediately comment on Starmer’s resignation but Nigel Farage’s Reform UK said a general election should be called.

“If Labour thinks it can shove another professional politician into No. 10, it has another thing coming. Reform demands an election, and we are ready to deliver radical change,” he wrote in a post on X.

The end came swiftly for Starmer following Manchester Mayor Burnham’s very strong showing in Thursday’s by-election for the parliamentary seat for the Greater Manchester constituency of Makerfield.

Until this morning Starmer, publicly, had vowed to fight any challenge — and as the incumbent gets an automatic bye to stand in any contest — but over the weekend senior figures in his administration persuaded him it was in the interest of the country, and in particular the party, to avoid a messy and potentially damaging fight.

However, Starmer’s problems can be traced back to within months of the landslide election victory he won in July 2024.

Rumblings within the party began after a poor showing in local elections in May 2025, losing a by-election in the “safe” Labour seat of Runcorn and Helsby and declining approval ratings in the polls.

Rebellions by his own MPs forcing policy U-turns, the Peter Mandelson debacle, and more losses at the ballot box, culminating in a disastrous defeat to Reform UK in “mid-term” local elections in May, saw growing numbers of MPs call for him to quit and defections from his cabinet.

WITH temperatures hitting 38C across the UK this week, you’ll want to know about the top spots to soak up the sun with a refreshing tipple.

So why not head to a pub right by the beach with a beer garden looking out at the sea? We’ve rounded up 15 of the best.

Fortune of War, Brighton

Found in the popular seaside city of Brighton is the Fortune of War with a large outdoor terrace right on the beach promenade.

The boozer often has late night entertainment including live music events and it’s easy to get to as well – it’s also only 12 minutes from Brighton Train Station.

Founder’s Arms, London

Thought a London pub couldn’t be on a beach? You’re wrong. The Founder’s Arms, between the Tate and Blackfriars Station, sat on the Thames has its own small beach.

While technically not a beachfront, if you catch the tide at the right time, a smallsliverr of golden sand appears next to the pub.

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The Old Neptune, Whitstable

Punters who have visited The Old Neptune in Whitstable often note how it feels like you are abroad thanks to its sprawling pub garden looking out to sea.

What makes this spot even better? It often hosts events, including live music sessions.

Zetland Arms, Kingsdown

Also in Kent you’ll find the Zetland Arms, which sits on Kingsdown Beach.

Visitors can sit in the garden with their feet in the shingle and on a clear day might even be lucky enough to see the White Cliffs of Dover or even France.

The Bluff Inn, Cornwall

Run by Haven and found in one of their holiday parks, you can visit the Wetherspoons pub, The Bluff Inn, which overlooks Bluff Beach.

The pub garden has views across the sea and is just a short walk from the sand itself.

The Royal Victoria Pavilion, Ramsgate

You can’t really go wrong with a Spoons pub, and when it has a rooftop right next to the beach, what are you waiting for?

The Sun’s Deputy Travel Editor, Kara Godfrey has visited and said: “The Royal Victoria Pavilion, now a Grade-II listed building, was originally a concert hall and was said to have been inspired by the Little Theatre in Versailles.”

Brewers Fayre Inn on the Quay, Devon

Slap- bang in the middle of two beaches, The Inn on The Quay is a great family-friendly pub right next to the UK’s biggest outdoor waterpark.

If you want a pub with plenty to do, then this is definitely the spot – one of the beaches is dog-friendly too in case you have your furry friend with you.

Velvet Coaster, Blackpool

Another Spoons spot is the Velvet Coaster in Blackpool, with just a road between it and the beach and is even often named one of the most beautiful Spoons in the country.

In addition to the beach, you will also find Blackpool’s South Pier next door and Pleasure Beach just a short walk away.

Port William, Trebarwith Strand, Cornwall

Sitting right above Trebarwith Beach in Cornwall, you’ll find Port William.

The site is home to a restaurant and hotel as well as the pub, but it is the perfect place to sit with a pint overlooking the beach.

The Gloucester, Weymouth

With Weymouth Beach just across the road, there could not be a more ideal spot for a pint after a sunbathing session on the sand.

Outside, you will find a large outdoor patio and garden area, right on the Esplanade.

Bridport Arms, Bridport

With sand surrounding the pub, Bridport Arms is a great spot to enjoy a tipple before or after heading to the beach.

The garden overlooks the harbour and beach and dogs are allowed too.

The Anchor Inn, Seatown

Found in the hamlet of Seatown in Dorset, The Anchor Inn has accumulated many awards over the past years including in 2021 for the Best Destination Pub in Dorset & Somerset.

Head down to the beaches for some fossil hunting too, as the area is known for being on the Jurassic Coastline.

Ty Coch Inn, Wales

Over in Wales, you could head to the Tŷ Coch Inn in the village of Porthdinllaen.

Boasting views across the Irish Sea, the watering hole has the beach on its doorstep.

The Coble Inn, Newbiggin-by-the-sea

The Coble Inn sits right by the sea with views of the stretching coast and the entire pub is dog-friendly (you might even spot the resident dog).

As for outside, you can grab a tipple and sit on a terrace which overlooks the harbour and beach.

The Ship Inn, Elie and Earlsferry, Scotland

Around an hour from Edinburgh, you can head to one of Scotland‘s most famous seaside pubs.

The Ship Inn overlooks Elie Bay and is also known for hosting cricket matches right on the sand when the tide is out.

The next match takes place on July 5.

Coca-Cola and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States will face off in a Florida court this week in the latest episode of a decades-long legal battle over the beverage giant’s tax liability on overseas profits.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based company and the US tax service will begin oral arguments on Thursday in a dispute that centres on transfer pricing – the practice of setting prices for transactions carried out between a company’s own affiliates – and could result in Coca-Cola facing a tax bill of about $20bn.

The case is being closely watched in corporate circles because the outcome will have implications for the amount of tax US-based multinational corporations must pay on income generated through their foreign subsidiaries.

What is the case about?

Coca-Cola is appealing a 2020 US Tax Court ruling that upheld the IRS’s finding that the soft drink giant underreported profits from transactions between its foreign subsidiaries.

In 2015, the IRS notified Coca-Cola that it owed billions in back taxes after concluding that the company had undercharged its units in Ireland, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica, Egypt and Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland.

US multinationals often charge low licensing fees for their overseas units to minimise their reportable income in the US, which has a higher corporate tax rate than many of its peers.

“The IRS audited Coca-Cola because the company was earning astronomical profits in Ireland and a few other countries,” Alex Martin, an expert in transfer pricing at the tax consulting firm KBKG, told Al Jazeera.

The IRS first took Coca-Cola to court in 2015, but the origins of the dispute date back to 1996 when the two sides settled a tax audit for liabilities from 1987 to 1995.

Under the pricing formula agreed in that settlement, Coca-Cola’s foreign affiliates were allowed to retain a profit equal to 10 percent of their gross sales with the remaining income split evenly between the US headquarters and the overseas unit.

Coca-Cola argues that it should be able to continue to use this formula from 1996 while the IRS contends the terms of that settlement should have no bearing on the soft drink giant’s tax liabilities arising from audits in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

“The amount of potential exposure is about $20bn, so it is significant,” Reuven Avi-Yonah, an expert in taxation law at the University of Michigan Law School, told Al Jazeera.

Coca-Cola agreed to pay the IRS $6bn in back taxes and interest in 2024 while preparing its appeal but could be liable to pay up to $14bn more if the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sides with the government.

Coca-Cola argues that the IRS “misinterpreted and misapplied the applicable regulations” and has expressed its confidence that it will be successful in its appeal.

Why does the case have implications beyond Coca-Cola?

The case is important because it could serve as a template for the US government to raise more tax revenue from large multinational companies that generate huge profits overseas.

“The IRS designated this case for litigation because this litigation can provide a template for the IRS to audit other US companies with highly profitable subsidiaries,” Martin said.

Under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, the IRS ramped up its tax collection efforts against companies benefitting from transfer pricing arrangements.

In one of the most high-profile transfer pricing cases in recent years, the IRS announced in 2023 that Microsoft owed $28.9bn in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, on income derived from the distribution of software through its subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, Ireland and Singapore.

Microsoft said it disagreed with the IRS’s reasoning and would appeal to the tax service and, if that failed, go to court.

In 2024, the IRS announced that the short-term rental platform Airbnb and Newell Brands, a consumer products manufacturer, had underpaid their taxes to the tune of $1.33bn and $90m, respectively.

Airbnb and Newell Brands have both challenged the IRS’s determinations in the US Tax Court.

The Coca-Cola case is particularly significant because the IRS has historically fared poorly in litigating transfer pricing complaints, losing a string of cases against major corporations through the decades, including Bausch & Lomb, US Steel Corp and Hospital Corp of America.

“It is important because it is the first clear victory of the IRS in this kind of case involving profit shifting out of the US in many decades, so if it is upheld on appeal, more companies may be inclined to settle rather than litigate,” Avi-Yonah said.

For my 50th birthday, I bought a Toyota Corolla. Wait. Is my midlife crisis car really a Corolla, the best selling and most boring model of all time?

Well, yes. And no.

I have “modded” it, or in layman’s terms, modified the stock components and tuned the engine. This is not your aunt’s Corolla. When I hit the gas, the car pulls hard and the engine buzzes as if it’s powered by a hive of killer bees.

I get thumbs-ups from Mustang drivers and cool head nods from Challenger owners. My favorite is when kids at red lights ask me to rev the engine like I’m F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

Probably a lot of my drive-by admirers are fans of the movie “The Fast and the Furious,” which was released 25 years ago this month. Fans of modified Japanese import cars, like me, have a love-hate relationship with the $7 billion “Fast and Furious” franchise. On one hand, the movies helped popularize modified Japanese cars. People all over the world fell in love with them and the import car culture they publicized.

On the other hand, the movies left out so, so much of the story.

In Southern California in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, people lived, for the most part, phone-free. The internet was nascent — a repository for flyers and ’zines — and most websites looked like Tetris.

The fashion was baggy everything for guys and short shorts, midriffs and little backpacks for girls. The hair was outrageous. And the cars, especially Japanese import cars, had reached the pinnacle of automotive engineering.

During this era, I was in college at UCLA. I saved up and bought a red 1989 Honda CRX Si. It also had a slick five-speed manual transmission, peppy engine and nimble steering. That car got me to work and through college, and from the mountains of California to the border of Oregon. It probably helped me get girlfriends. It consoled me through breakups. It helped me move to the San Francisco Bay Area for my first grown-up job.

And then, stupidly, I sold it, and all the precious memories it carried.

Now when I hit a loopy freeway interchange at night and my GR Corolla carves through the turns, it’s 1996 and I’m cruising in my CRX, getting pho in San Gabriel or rushing to a flyer party at Naga in Long Beach. That’s the magic of certain cars. A regular car takes you from place to place. A special car takes you back in time.

To be completely honest, I bought the CRX to fit in.

The ’90s import car scene was as diverse as Southern California. But there’s no doubt it started with Asian Americans (specifically Japanese Americans in the South Bay city of Gardena) who were influenced by modified car culture in Japan. Soon, Asian American kids all over the region were taking their inexpensive, underpowered four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive Honda Civics (our parents preferred Japanese reliability over American muscle) and turning them into street rockets.

Not only were they building race cars from scratch, they were also building one of my first experiences with a collective Asian American identity: one that wasn’t overtly about politics and activism, or immigration and assimilation. It was about Asian American joy. It was Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese Americans building cool-looking, fast cars. It was kids stereotyped as nerds going to parties where the awful stereotype of Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” was shredded into rubber and obliterated by exhaust blasts.

At the time, the Asian Americans we saw in the mainstream media were negligible or offensive, especially for Vietnamese Americans like me. But in import car culture, I saw, for maybe the first time, Asian guys and Asian girls in a centered and even glamorous light.

We made our own cars and our own car shows. We raced each other and then got fast (with turbos, superchargers and nitrous oxide) and raced others. And we won. We published our own magazines, built our own automotive businesses and, for good and bad, promoted our own outlaw street racer image and our own beauty standard. In those 1990s clubs and car shows, you could see and feel that Asian Americans weren’t assimilating culture. We were creating it.

“The Fast and the Furious” picked up on that. Based on a 1998 Vibe magazine article about street racing import cars in New York, the film was transplanted to Southern California. But it got so many details glaringly wrong. Its street races looked like street raves on major, four-wide roads packed with pedestrians. The races of our scene were clandestine, underground events in industrial, under-policed areas, where cars faced off two at a time.

But the most egregious and inexcusable Hollywood crime to me is that “The Fast and the Furious” whitewashed Asian Americans, the creators of this world, out of starring roles. The Korean American actor Rick Yune appears in the movie, sure — but he plays the villain, Johnny Tran, a guy who hates Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto for a crime deal gone bad (understandable) and for sleeping with his sister (ditto). Of course, in a tradition that goes back to “Madame Butterfly” and “Miss Saigon,” Tran dies at the end, shot dead by the blond-haired, blue-eyed hero, Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner.

A few months ago, seeking a mechanic to mod my Corolla, I was referred to an auto shop in Garden Grove aka Little Saigon. The guy who sent me asked me, “Do you even know who’s working on your car?”

“No,” I replied.

He told me the name, and I Googled it.

Apparently, back in the ’90s, this Vietnamese American mechanic from Orange County had one of the fastest Honda Civics in the world. A true OG of the import car scene modified my car with his own hands. What an honor, and what a connection to the past.

This import car story ends in a full poetic justice circle. As a pioneer and legend of the real-life import car scene, my mechanic wasn’t the villain. He was the hero. He was the fastest, and his car was the most furious.

That’s the heart of my GR Corolla journey. Asian Americans created import car culture. We all deserve to be the hero of our own story.

Ky-Phong Tran is a Vietnamese American writer from Long Beach. He is a professional artist fellow with the Arts Council for Long Beach. This article was produced in partnership with Zócalo Public Square.

Democratic socialists are looking to extend their power in Los Angeles City Hall this fall with their biggest prizes yet: mayor and city attorney.

Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman and city attorney hopeful Marissa Roy, both members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, are heading into the Nov. 3 general election with strong showings in the June 2 primary as tailwinds.

If she prevails in November, Raman would join the ranks of democratic socialists leading big U.S. cities, including New York’s Zohran Mamdani and Seattle’s Katie Wilson. Washington, D.C., looks to be next: Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary for mayor there this month, all but ensuring her a general election win in that deep-blue city.

In Los Angeles, a democratic socialist mayor and city attorney could mean added clout because of an ideological lockstep between the two offices, said Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University. In such a scenario, he said, the city attorney’s office is less likely to be a check against the mayor’s authority to set policy on issues such as land use and public safety.

“It’s incredibly substantive that the city attorney will interpret much of the policy that the mayor may push to be the right policy, and not challenge it,” Guerra said.

The election of Raman and Roy would also underscore the leftward tilt of Los Angeles, which has four City Council members, including Raman, who are DSA members — two of whom were reelected in the primary. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who was recommended (although not formally endorsed) by DSA, was also reelected.

The DSA champions ideas sharply to the left of more establishment Democrats, such as incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. The L.A. DSA chapter, for example, says its objectives include abolishing prisons and defunding the police.

DSA-L.A. co-chair Sean Wakasa said his organization is thriving in L.A. and across the country because it has destigmatized the concept of socialism.

“Democratic socialism ultimately, at the end of the day, is about making the politics that working-class Americans can see themselves in,” Wakasa said.

In Los Angeles, Wakasa said, a DSA mayor would be expected to build more public transit, strengthen protections for renters, fight for workers’ rights, raise the minimum wage and defend local immigrants from the federal government.

The city attorney, he said, would be expected to defend working-class Angelenos by enforcing renter protections, resolving wage-theft issues and enforcing sanctuary city policies.

Business groups and public safety advocates have voiced concerns over the prospects of DSA members calling the shots at City Hall.

“They would run roughshod over the city,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. He said Raman and Roy “don’t just drink the DSA Kool-Aid, they live it.”

Waldman said he would expect Los Angeles under democratic socialist leadership to adopt overzealous tenant protection policies that would discourage new rental development. He said they would also seek to weaken the police, leading to a “free-for-all for crime.”

“They would run business out,” Waldman said.

Roy, who has promised to turn the city attorney’s office into “the largest public interest law firm in the city,” targeting wage theft, tenant harassment and other issues, disputed Waldman’s assertion.

“Allowing corporate bad actors to violate our laws doesn’t make L.A. safer or more affordable — enforcing protections for renters, workers, and consumers does,” Roy said in a statement.

Raman said in a statement that she shares “DSA’s commitment to fighting for working people and those who have been left behind by a political system that too often serves powerful interests instead of everyday Angelenos.”

But she also said “there is no liberal or conservative way to fill a pothole.”

“I’ve always believed the most progressive thing you can do is actually make government deliver,” Raman said. “Every time City Hall fails to do that— potholes that don’t get fixed, streetlights that stay dark, 911 calls that go unanswered — it erodes people’s faith that government can solve problems at all.”

Rick Cole, a former deputy mayor of L.A., said the DSA label for both candidates doesn’t mean they’ll adhere to the most dramatized versions of what DSA stands for. Neither candidate is an ideologue, he said.

Raman’s membership in DSA “is a signifier she’s going to be more skeptical of current policing,” said Cole, a Pasadena City Council member. “She’s going to be more focused on affordable housing. She’s going to be more focused on a humane approach to getting people off the streets.”

A poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by The Times showed that in a head-to-head runoff, Raman was supported by 32% of the registered voters polled, compared with 28% for Bass.

Bass finished first in the primary, ahead of Raman, with former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt finishing in third place.

With Pratt now out, the race is on for both campaigns to appeal to his voters, who are generally considered more conservative. Even so, the Bass campaign said it doesn’t plan to focus on Raman’s DSA affiliation.

“What’s important isn’t labels — it’s what her [Raman’s] record shows, and that’s voting over and over and over to allow encampments near schools and to shrink our police force. It goes against what L.A. needs and what most of L.A. believes,” Bass campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said in a statement.

Raman, who was twice elected to the City Council with DSA support, has voted against additional police hiring and spending and creating new anti-encampment zones around the city.

One irony is that the three other members of the DSA on the City Council — Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martínez — have all endorsed Bass, citing the mayor’s fierce resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration raids last year, among other factors.

In the primary, DSA’s L.A. chapter recommended Raman but didn’t endorse her, with the distinction being that an endorsement comes with active canvassing and support from DSA members. DSA-LA co-chair Leslie Chang said it wasn’t yet clear whether her group would endorse Raman in the runoff.

A DSA endorsement for Raman now might be a mixed blessing, given that Pratt’s support came from more conservative parts of the city, said Christian Grose, a political science professor at USC.

“Karen Bass is not popular with Pratt voters, and the DSA is not popular with Pratt voters, but that’s who will decide the mayor’s election,” he said.

Roy, a deputy state attorney general, finished first in the city attorney primary by a wide margin and will compete against John McKinney, a deputy district attorney, in the runoff.

McKinney said electing Roy to the city attorney’s office would be like “going back in time” to when George Gascón was the top prosecutor in Los Angeles County, which police and prosecutors said was a disaster for public safety.

In the recent City Council primaries, DSA-endorsed incumbents Hernandez and Soto-Martinez both won reelection easily, while DSA-endorsed Faizah Malik failed to push incumbent Traci Park into a runoff in her Westside district.

In the Council District 9 race, DSA-endorsed community organizer Estuardo Mazariegos will be in a runoff with Jose Ugarte, a former aide to termed-out incumbent Curren Price.

DSA leaders are pleased overall with how their candidates have performed.

“DSA has really claimed a foothold for ourselves in L.A. County politics,” Chang said.

New Angel City FC midfielder Ally Sentnor said she believes the team can break out of its slump and win during her introduction to the fans.

“Angel City has so many tools and opportunities at their disposal and it’s right there,” Sentnor said during a season-ticket holder party Saturday. “And it’s just pushing over the edge of just little things that are gonna make this team a constant top-of-the-table contender.”

Angel City traded for Sentnor, bringing her to her third National Women’s Soccer League team. Sentnor was selected by the Utah Royals with the first pick in the 2024 draft. She was acquired by the Kansas City Current in August 2025 and helped them finish atop the table.

This season, she has started 12 league matches, earning two goals and two assists.

U.S. midfielder Ally Sentnor and Japan defender Moeka Minami go up for the ball during a friendly on April 14 in Seattle.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

“This is an important moment for our team and we are very excited to welcome Ally to Los Angeles,” Angel City sporting director Mark Parsons said. “Ally is one of the world’s top young talents, has senior U.S. women’s national team experience and has built up important minutes in the NWSL.”

She arrived the same week Angel City sent midfielder Kennedy Fuller to Bay FC and fired coach Alexander Straus. The team went on a 1-6-1 slide before the World Cup break and sits in 12th place in the 16-team league.

Parsons said it was important to make the coaching change with 19 games remaining and a chance to move up the standings. Assistant Leif Gunnar Smerud was named interim coach while the team searches for Straus’ replacement.

“We’d been really clear over the last 12 months when we made the hire that this is a team heading in a direction to be able to make the playoffs,” Parsons said, noting the coach has to be able to continue to develop players and put them in position to succeed.

Sentnor hopes to add a new layer to the team, making a difference on and off the field.

“Most of the team style speaks for itself on the field, and all these girls are absolutely incredible and I’m excited to go in those relationships,” Sentnor said. “The energetic, passionate style of play is something really exciting.”

Sentnor, 22, brings experience to the Angel City roster at a relatively young age. She grew up in the national team system since age 12. She recalled traveling from Massachusetts to Colorado to attend camps and take the next steps in her career.

She has 22 appearances with the national team, recording seven goals and three assists.

The Massachusetts native hasn’t lived on the East Coast in years and has enjoyed traveling the country. She’s looking forward to the weather in California.

“It’s so fun for me to be able to try out different cities across the United States and immerse myself in different cultures,” Sentnor said.

She said her family attends many of her games, helping her feel comfortable anywhere she plays.

“Home is where the people are, so when my family travels and comes out here, it feels like home. So wherever my people are is where home is,” Sentnor said.

Former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae was sentenced to 25 years in prison Monday after a district court found him guilty of playing a key role in an insurrection through his involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law bid.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the heavy punishment for Park, which surpassed the 20-year prison term sought by special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team. The court immediately placed Park under custody, citing concerns that he may destroy evidence.

Cho’s team earlier indicted Park on charges of playing a key role in an insurrection and abusing his power by calling a meeting of senior ministry officials following Yoon’s declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

The court convicted Park on both charges, recognizing the special counsel team’s argument that Park had called the meeting to review dispatching prosecutors to a martial law-supporting body, check the capacity of correctional facilities, allegedly to hold politicians and key figures expected to be arrested under the martial law, and order ministry officials in charge of imposing travel bans to report for work.

“The defendant ultimately turned his back on his duty of upholding the Constitution at the idea that the insurrection could succeed, choosing to instead take part in it,” the court said.

Park joins other members of Yoon’s Cabinet who have been convicted of playing a key role in an insurrection, including former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.

In February, Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his short-lived imposition of martial law. He has appealed the ruling.

Meanwhile, the court dismissed additional charges against Park for violating the anti-graft law, ruling that it did not fall under the special counsel’s investigation mandate.

The special counsel team had also indicted Park on charges of giving inappropriate orders to his subordinates in line with a request from Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, in May 2024, to check certain details of the prosecution’s investigation into her corruption allegations.

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LOOKING forward to a seaside staycation with the family this summer?

It can be hard to know where to book your next UK seaside holiday. With many Brits picking the same overcrowded spots, you can soon feel like you’re fighting for every square inch of sand on the beach.

Luckily, there are plenty of off-the-radar stunning seaside towns and villages where you can enjoy a summer holiday without the crowds.

We’ve gathered travel insiders from Cornwall, Devon, Norfolk and Kent to share their favourite lesser-known holiday spots – with cheap pints, quiet beaches and stays from £30 a night.

Norfolk

Travel Reporter, Jenna Stevens

I grew up on the North West Norfolk coast, going quay jumping and crabbing after school with my friends.

Over the years, I’ve seen tourists flock to the same overcrowded spots time and again, while some of the prettiest towns and villages stay pretty much deserted.

While Cromer and Great Yarmouth make for great cheap and cheerful holidays, there are much prettier and less crowded options further west along the coast.

Wells-next-the-Sea is the picture-perfect seaside town. Walking down the high street, Staithe Street, feels like stepping back in time.

You’ll wander past an old-fashioned butcher’s, bakery and greengrocers on your downhill stroll towards the sea – plus plenty of trinket shops selling seashell earrings or buckets and spades.

The high street leads to the picturesque quay, where the Victorian Granary gantry jets out over the water, and you can watch fishermen haul in fresh catches throughout the day.

Here you’ll find the old-fashioned Pop Inn Amusements, a sweet shop selling giant lollies and classic sticks of rock, plus my favourite surfer dude-feel coffee shop, Wills of Wells.

Not to mention the fact that there’s a massive, golden, award-winning beach lined with colourful beach huts backed by a sprawling pine forest.

There’s a large beachside cafe too, plus you can stay by the sea at the Pinewoods Holiday Park, with camping and touring pitches from £30 per night.

While Wells is absolutely worth visiting, tourists have certainly caught on to its charm.

Further into West Norfolk, there are small towns and villages that offer true peace and quiet – where your only neighbours are grazing sheep.

Some of these best-kept secrets are Fring, Shernborne, Wolferton and Anmer.

They’re the kind of remote, rural villages perfect for a countryside walk where you won’t pass anyone but horse riders out on a hack.

Stay at nearby Bircham Windmill, where there are camping pitches for £36 a night.

In fact, this site makes for a fantastic family day out, where you can bake your own bread from scratch for £3.95 and climb up to the top of the mill for stunning views of the surrounding villages and fields.

Although it’s quiet, there’s plenty more to do nearby. Bottle feed lambs and hand feed deer at Snettisham Park, tour the royal grounds of Sandringham Estate, or sit down for a pint of local ale in the gloriously British pub The Rose and Crown.

Devon

Travel Reporter, Cyann Fielding

Devon or Cornwall? I’m here to tell you don’t need to look further than Devon – with fewer crowds, heaps of beaches and the quaintest of villages, nothing quite beats it.

As a born and bred Devonian, one spot I will always shout about is the English Riviera.

Formed of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, the coastal towns boast an unusual micro-climate for the UK that has allowed palm trees to thrive.

Named after the French Riviera, you can expect a similar vibe but for a fraction of the price.

Stay at the newly opened £20 million seafront Hotel Indigo by IHG in Torquay from £74 per night (and there are dog-friendly rooms) – you can’t get closer to the sea with only a road separating you from the beach.

From the hotel, stroll down to Abbey Sands Beach, where you will find red-pink sand backed by a green area and the famous Torre Abbey, which you can visit for £11pp.

On the other side of Abbey Sands, walk around the harbour, which is currently under development to make it into a swish seaside hub of restaurants and cafes.

Drop by Pier Point for some fish and chips on the way – which are often voted best in the country.

For more traditional and quieter seaside towns, head to Dawlish or Teignmouth, where you will find seaside arcades and cheap cafes selling freshly made Devonshire delicacies such as pasties and cream teas.

It’s not all about the seaside in Devon, though – Dartmoor National Park sprawls over 368-square-miles with over 160 rocky tors, ideal for lengthy country walks with dramatic views.

One of the most accessible spots is Haytor, where you can head up to the tor from a car park – and don’t worry, it isn’t too steep a climb – and then nearby check out Haytor Quarry, which appears frozen in time with disused machinery still present.

Keep an eye out for wild ponies too, of which there are about 1,500.

For a historic spot – head to Exeter – a university city with a sandstone cathedral and bustling high street.

The city even has links to Harry Potter as J.K. Rowling once studied there, and it is thought that she based Diagon Alley on Gandy Street in the city centre.

For another unique spot, pop to Totnes – a town that has often been noted for its hippie lifestyle, free of big brands and chains.

Drop by on a Friday or Saturday to catch the antiques and food market, for bargain finds and huge Lebanese wraps setting you back a tenner (but big enough for two!).

In the North of the county, head to Woolacombe for the perfect holiday park break.

You could head to Golden Coast Holiday Park, for example, which costs from £219 for a seven-night break for a family of four – so just £7.83 per person per night.

The beach stretches over three miles, and there is an abundance of holiday parks around the town, many of which have evening entertainment, hot tubs on chalet decks and indoor and outdoor pools.

Kent

Deputy Travel Editor, Kara Godfrey

Kent has seen a huge resurgence in recent years, aided by the pandemic, which saw thousands of people leave the Big Smoke for sunnier and sandier climes.

As one of the many who did so, I’ve since lived in both Folkestone and Margate, which are both on the rise as trendy destinations.

(I have a soft spot for both Whitstable and Deal as well, although both are much more established seaside towns).

When it comes to Margate, there are two new boutique hotels, Fort Road Hotel and No.42 Guesthouse, which have opened in recent years, the latter of which has a fantastic rooftop bar in the summer.

I love heading to the George & Heart pub just outside of the Old Town, or Rose In June for a cosy pub pint.

If you want a bit of weird and wonderful, make sure to hit up the Shell Grotto – whose origin remains a mystery – or the Crab Museum, free to visit and the largest crab museum in Europe.

Both the Turner Museum and Dreamland are free too, so you can easily visit on a budget.

The tidal lido is worth the trek, and you’ll be joined more by locals than tourists, but hop in before warming up with a coffee and sauna session.

But to me, Folkestone is winning on all sides.

It’s 52 minutes by train from London; you’ll never have to fight for space on the massive beach; it has the UK’s biggest beach sauna; it has so much art, including a Banksy – the hooks are endless.

Live music takes place at the Harbour Arms most weekends, and I highly recommend the Sunset Sessions at The Tasting Rooms for three courses and live jazz for £35.

Chase it with some oysters and a glass of champagne in The Lighthouse Champagne Bar – and you can even see France on a clear day.

Perhaps controversial, but even the touristy Good Yard food market is well worth a visit. No tourist traps here!

For an affordable place to stay, The View Hotel Folkstone has rooms from £67 per night.

Cornwall

Travel Writer, Katy Bright

Growing up in Cornwall, I’ve always had plenty of pretty places to explore. If I had to plan the perfect day in my home county, here are some places I would not miss.

Start the day off right with one of the best breakfasts around. Bude cafe The Coffee Pot offers £5 breakfasts with bacon, eggs, sausages and a hash brown, which cannot be faulted.

I may be biased, but I think Boscastle truly is one of the most beautiful places in the UK.

It’s a peaceful seaside sanctuary with a fascinating witchy history and beautiful walks, such as the one to Willapark Lookout.

Plus, it offers some of the best pub grub around – you’ve got to try the Cobweb Inn’s steak and ale pie (£13.95). Wash it down with a traditional Cornish ale.

Many tourists, of course, flock here, so it is important to learn to avoid the tourist traps.

Newquay, one of the most popular holiday destinations in Cornwall, is just way too busy during school breaks.

If you’d like to visit, I would definitely recommend going outside of the school summer holidays, when it is quieter, and the queues are much less manic.

If you are a coffee or matcha fanatic, Blend makes some of the best drinks I’ve ever tasted. Their banana bread iced matcha is a personal favourite of mine.

Something we all look for in a holiday to Cornwall is the best spots with a pint and a view – and my top pick for this is Trebarwith Strand’s, Port William.

A pub perched over the sea, it even offers cosy rooms for guests to stay in.

If you visit between mid-April and early May, you’ll be in my home county for one of my favourite events of the year.

Although it sits right on the border of Cornwall and Devon (so some may be a bit offended by me putting it in this list!) Strawberry Field Lifton’s ‘Tulip Fest’ makes for a very wholesome day out.

Picture a field full of half a million multicoloured tulip bulbs. There is something about walking around a field of endless tulips that just feels so whimsical.

An underrated place to stay is Whitsand Bay Fort holiday park. It’s very highly rated in online reviews, and it’s no surprise to me as a local – this is one of the best places to stay around.

Open all year, it offers both rooms and tent pitches with amazing views of Whitsand Bay. Pitches start at £15 a night, making it a super affordable and proper Cornish alternative to other popular places to stay.

Fans have been gripped by the latest dramatic season of Clarkson’s Farm, but where is Diddly Squat actually located?

Fans should definitely pay a visit to The Farmer’s Dog.

Clarkson’s Farm fans want to know exactly where the iconic Diddly Squat Farm location actually is.

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson returned to Prime Video this year with another gripping instalment of the documentary series, which sees him taking on numerous farming challenges to highlight the insurmountable tasks facing modern British farmers.

However, Jeremy faced even more hardship in Season 5 as it kicked off with his emergency heart surgery in October 2024 and concluded with the announcement that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Thankfully, his cancer is now in remission and Diddly Squat is back in business for Season 6, which is expected to arrive on screens next summer.

Now filming is once again underway, let’s take a look at the precise location of Clarkson’s Farm.

Where is Clarkson’s Farm?

Jeremy’s Diddly Squat Farm is located in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in West Oxfordshire, England.

It’s just a short drive from the market town of Chipping Norton to the north, while to the south is the village of Chadlington.

Diddly Squat’s nearest major city is Oxford, which is about a 50 minute drive away.

The farm is also drivable from London in around two hours.

For visitors who want to reach the farm by public transport, the easiest route from London is the Great Western Railway from Paddington station to Charlbury.

From there, it’s just a 20 minute bus ride on the X9, which runs past the Diddly Squat Farm Shop managed by Jeremy’s partner Lisa Hogan.

If you’re travelling from Birmingham, it’s the Cross Country train to Worcestershire Parkway you want before getting the GWR to Charlbury and taking the same X9 bus. This can take around two and a half hours.

In addition to the farm itself, Jeremy also owns the iconic pub The Farmer’s Dog, which serves Diddly Squat’s very own Hawkstone lager.

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The pub is just a half-hour’s drive away from the farm by the Asthall Barrow roundabout on the A40, a few miles from the town of Burford.

While it’s definitely possible to visit both the farm and The Farmer’s Dog in the same day, those using public transport will find the journey a little trickier.

From the shop, you can take the X9 bus back past Charlbury and down to the town of Witney. This takes about 40 minutes.

Visitors can then take the shorter 234 bus to Burford and it’s then just a few minutes’ walk to the pub. All in all the journey should take just over an hour.

Clarkson’s Farm is available to stream on Prime Video.

Stock index futures were down on Monday as traders awaited updates from U.S.-Iran negotiations, with the Middle Eastern country describing the talks as showing “progress.”

Now, here are 4 news stories that broke overnight to watch out for:

U.K. Leadership Shake-Up:

Tyrone have been drawn to face reigning All-Ireland champions Kerry in the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

The draw also pitted Monaghan, the only other remaining Ulster county, against Louth, with Galway up against Dublin and Cork to take on Mayo.

All four quarter-finals will be played at Croke Park on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June, with the details of dates and times expected to be confirmed later on Monday.

Tyrone are aiming to secure their fifth Sam Maguire title and their first since their most recent success in 2021.

Ulster runners-up Monaghan progressed to the last-eight stage by overcoming Westmeath 1-28 to 2-19 in round three on Sunday.

Munster champions Kerry kept their bid for a third All-Ireland in five years on track with a comprehensive 4-18 to 0-17 victory over Armagh.

The Dubs were 2-26 to 2-22 winners over Donegal after extra-time on Saturday as they attempt to reclaim the title they last won in 2023.

Meath beat Mayo to book their berth in the quarter-finals.

Cork, Galway, Louth and Tyrone all had the benefit of a weekend off after advancing straight to the quarter-finals from round two.

The eight remaining counties are chasing places in the semi-finals, which will be held on 11 and 12 July.

South Korean stocks finished at an all-time high Monday on a continued rally in semiconductor shares amid signs of progress in U.S.-Iran talks to end their monthslong war in the Middle East. The local currency lost against the U.S. dollar.

After opening 1.08 percent lower, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 62.13 points, or 0.69 percent, to 9,114.55 after rising as high as 9,253.00.

Trade volume was moderate at 377.2 million shares worth 41.4 trillion won (US$26.9 billion) with losers outnumbering winners 739 to 148.

Retail investors and institutions were net buyers, purchasing 2.15 trillion won and 308.4 billion won, respectively, while foreign investors sold a net 2.55 trillion won.

On Sunday, Washington and Tehran wrapped up their first talks and agreed on a road map to reach a final deal within 60 days, according to a statement issued by the mediating countries of Qatar and Pakistan.

The negotiations had been at risk of breakdown as Tehran said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. President Donald Trump had repeated his threats to resume attacks on Iran.

“Negotiations went smoothly in general despite some aggressive messages, which were considered short-lived noises,” said Kang Jin-hyeok, an analyst from Shinhan Securities.

Semiconductor shares ended in positive territory.

Chip giant SK hynix jumped 5.61 percent to 2.92 million won, surpassing Samsung Electronics in terms of market capitalization for the first time.

SK Square, the parent of SK hynix, surged 10.67 percent to 1.97 million won, and Hanmi Semiconductor, a leading chip manufacturing equipment provider, increased 2.2 percent to 301,500 won.

Defense giant Hanwha Aerospace advanced 0.27 percent to 1.13 million won, and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) climbed 1.43 percent to 148,600 won.

However, Samsung Electronics dropped 0.14 percent to 353,500 won, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electronic components manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Electronics, lost 1.85 percent to 2.23 million won.

Top carmaker Hyundai Motor decreased 5.22 percent to 581,000 won, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution dipped 4.7 percent to 385,500 won.

Samsung Life Insurance slid 9.36 percent to 450,500 won, and pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics retreated 5.75 percent to 1.3 million won.

The Korean won was quoted at 1,537 won against the U.S. dollar, down 10 won from the previous session.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 2.6 basis points to 3.810 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 3.9 basis points to 4.044 percent.

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A savvy traveller has shared a clever packing hack to beat Ryanair’s baggage allowance fees on a £15 flight — but it comes with risks if you’re caught at the airport

A clever traveller has taken the internet by storm after unveiling his ingenious trick to outsmart Ryanair’s notoriously rigid baggage rules, which frequently leave holidaymakers shelling out extra cash at the airport.

Rob Adcock, from Stoke-on-Trent, who regularly dishes out budget-conscious travel tips to his online following, has gone viral with his latest scheme to dodge luggage charges on a £15 Ryanair flight — a move that could save passengers a tidy sum given the airline’s hefty fees for additional bags.

In a clip that which now racked up over 2.4 million views from cost-conscious travellers, Rob shows how he managed to squeeze 20kg of luggage aboard without spending a single penny extra, by using a vacuum pack machine to compress his clothes down to a fraction of their original size.

With a laugh, he holds up his squashed clothing and quips: “Look at it.”

He then carefully stuffs the vacuum-packed bundles into his rucksack, which is allowed on board as a complimentary carry-on item, and breezes onto the plane without forking out a penny in hold luggage fees.

The video is captioned “POV: You’ve vacuum-packed all your suitcase to fit into a free Ryanair bag so you don’t have to pay for the hold luggage.”

As well as being a crafty way to sidestep additional costs, it carries the welcome bonus of avoiding the often frustratingly long wait at the baggage carousel on arrival.

Scores of fellow travellers found the cheeky wheeze hilarious, with one crowning it the “packing cube final boss”. However, sceptics pointed out potential drawbacks.

One baffled commenter questioned: “How are you supposed to vacuum it back up before going back on the plane when going home?”

A second chipped in with a laugh: “Vacuum packed stuff is HEAVY,” alongside a pair of laughing emojis.

Meanwhile, one female traveller highlighted the disadvantage that this approach would leave garments “creased” — hardly perfect for anyone wanting to look presentable on their break.

What’s more, you do risk being spotted by Ryanair staff at the airport.

One TikTok user shared: “Literally saw someone get caught doing this in Budapest today. It didn’t end well.”

Ryanair imposes a 10kg restriction on cabin luggage, and being caught out at the weighing scales could result in forking out additional charges for your trip.

It’s a risk that might not always work out — but for this passenger, it proved a success!

Nigeria’s security crisis is not only unfolding in forests, highways, villages and cities. It is unfolding inside the institutions responsible for confronting it.

The Nigeria Police Force faces a threat that receives far less attention than inadequate funding, obsolete equipment or personnel shortages: the gradual erosion of merit as the basis for advancement.

Every institution reveals its values through what it rewards. When competence, courage, and sacrifice are rewarded, then professionalism grows. But when proximity to power is rewarded, a different culture emerges.

Across Nigeria, police officers are risking their lives daily against insurgents, terrorists, organised armed groups, kidnappers, and violent criminals. Yet many are watching a different reality unfold. They see colleagues whose careers were built around powerful politicians, governors, ministers, and other influential figures rise rapidly through the ranks, often ahead of officers who spent years in dangerous operational theatres.

Some officers remain Superintendents of Police (SPs) while coursemates have risen to Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs). Similarly, some officers are Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) while their contemporaries have become Chief Superintendents of Police (CSPs), largely as a result of special promotions granted at different times. Due to these irregularities, an Assistant Commissioner of Police who has spent years on the frontlines can find themselves taking orders from a coursemate who has advanced higher than them, largely because of political connections and privileged appointments rather than demonstrated operational excellence.

Promotions signal to young officers and the outside world what behaviour the institution values. If political visibility matters more than operational excellence, ambitious officers will pursue access instead of experience. Dangerous assignments become career risks rather than opportunities for leadership. No security institution can survive such incentives.

This is not the time for a leadership pipeline shaped by patronage, but a time for leaders tested under pressure and promoted because they have demonstrated competence.

The Police Service Commission exists to protect the integrity of promotions and shield them from political influence. That responsibility has never been more important. The Commission has tried to tie promotion to examination, but has not been able to completely resist the pressure to award “special promotions”. Consequently, officers have questioned promotion outcomes that appear disconnected from performance, operational achievements and professional record. Whether every complaint is justified is not the point. Confidence in the system is eroding.

As thousands of police officers converge in Abuja for promotion examinations, this conversation must be a wake-up call for the institution. The credibility of the process matters as much as the process itself.

The consequences extend beyond morale. A police force that ceases to reward merit eventually ceases to attract and retain its best leaders. When this happens, strategic thinking suffers, professional standards decline, operational effectiveness weakens, and public trust erodes.

These concerns are compounded by longstanding allegations of corruption, extortion, abuse of authority and weak accountability. The EndSARS protests reflected years of public anger over police brutality and impunity. Although reforms were promised, many Nigerians remain unconvinced that accountability has become deeply embedded within the institution.

Merit is not only about promoting the best. It is about ensuring that leadership positions are occupied by individuals whose conduct strengthens public trust. Officers who demonstrate integrity, discipline, and excellence must see those qualities rewarded. Officers whose records are tainted by corruption, abuse, or chronic underperformance should not continue advancing without scrutiny.

Citizens are also noticing a troubling pattern. Some officers attached to powerful political figures are increasingly perceived as beneficiaries of privileges unavailable to most of their colleagues.

The reforms required are straightforward. Promotion criteria should be transparent and publicly accessible. Exceptional promotions should remain exceptional and be clearly justified. Service in high-risk operational environments should carry significant weight. Promotion records should face greater scrutiny. The Police Service Commission must demonstrate visible independence from political pressure.

Nigeria is moving steadily toward state police. If we do not fix the obvious gaps in the federal police before 36 states establish their own police services, the consequences could be chaotic. State policing requires a strong, disciplined, and professional federal police capable of setting standards, enforcing accountability and preventing abuse. A weak federal police cannot effectively keep state police in check.

The future leadership of the Nigeria Police Force is being determined today. Every promotion creates tomorrow’s commanders, investigators, and strategists.

A system built on merit produces leaders. A system built on influence produces loyalists. Nigeria cannot afford a police force where political proximity outranks professional excellence. The country is already paying too high a price for failure.

LOVE Island fans have been left terrified by “lying” Samraj’s behaviour as he continued to string along Priya.

The 25-year-old has been juggling both Mica and Priya over the last week but fans have noticed the Islander isn’t being honest about his feelings.

He told Mica, 21, a few episodes ago that business development manager Priya was “giving him the ick,” and she was his first choice.

But, he hasn’t let Priya privy to that information as he continued to act as if they’re relationship is flourishing.

During last night’s instalment of the famous ITV2 dating show, Samraj left fans taken aback by his “unfair” treatment of Priya, 25.

After returning from a chat on the terrace with Mica, Priya asked him if they were getting back together – which he denied.

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Priya hugged him saying: “I actually quite missed you, I wanted to speak to you…

“I feel like you hate me today.”

Samraj replied: “No, I don’t hate you. My mind is just in a really weird place, I swear.”

“You’re head,” Priya questioned.

He continued: “Not about us it’s just about like I think Sam going was just like the icing on the thing but I really do appreciate you being so concerned about me.”

Priya then tried to get Samraj to open up on his cheeky terrace rendezvous.

However he quickly shut it down, saying: “No we were just speaking because we were downstairs we got, not by you, but interrupted twice before and I was upstairs and Mica was like ‘Oh lets finish our conversation.’”

Poor Priya explained she was asking because things change so quickly in the villa and it was clear she didn’t want to waste her time if the feelings weren’t reciprocated.

Love Island fans were left fuming as Samraj lied to face her face repeatedly and strung her along.

One fan wrote: “Samraj is the reason why I don’t trust men #LoveIsland”

“Samraj, tell Priya you don’t like her This is not fair at all,” added a second fan.

Another viewer penned: “Samraj, why you lying?”

Meanwhile, a fourth fan said: “Why is Samraj lying like this HAAAAAA men can lie I’m so scared????”

Later on Samraj carried on his ruse, telling Priya he fancies her more and “wouldn’t be sharing a bed with her otherwise.”

But, during the previous episode fans watched on as Samraj told Mica he hasn’t said anything because Priya “will be mad.”

Speaking to the camera in the beach hut, Samraj confessed: “I can’t knock Priya because she’s given me everything I wanted and asked for. I feel like if I sit here and say ‘Everything is going swimmingly, it’s amazing… I’d be lying.’

“I don’t want to spend loads of time with her.”

Love Island continues tonight at 9:00pm on ITV2 and ITVX.