Call it instinct. Call it mentality. Call it a pressure gene.

Whatever it is, Mateo Fuerbringer has it.

“I was born with it,” he says.

When the pressure is on and Mira Costa High’s volleyball team needs someone to step forward and deliver, Fuerbringer doesn’t need to raise his hand or ask for permission.

He just delivers.

“I’m able to be good under pressure in tough moments.”

Maybe it has something to do with being a volleyball player since he could walk, though a basketball was put in his crib. He quickly switched sports favorites.

His mom, Joy, played at Long Beach State and has her own club program. His dad, Matt, played at Stanford and is head coach for the 2028 Olympic Games men’s beach volleyball team. His sister, Charlie, plays at Wisconsin.

“My parents run a volleyball club, so I always came with them to work,” Fuerbringer said. “I’d always be around volleyball and got into it.”

He has grown to 6 feet 5 as a 17-year-old junior and is committed to UCLA, which is No. 1 in the nation with a 21-1 record.

Mateo Fuerbringer (8) of Mira Costa, a UCLA commit, delivered 37 kills in a five-set win over Loyola.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Mira Costa is ranked No. 1 in Southern California, and stopping Fuerbringer from rising up and coming through with a kill is always the challenge for opponents. He’s certainly not perfect, but his power and knowledge of the sport puts him on a path for future success at each level he competes.

“I really love playing,” he said. “I really love the sport.”

That kind of passion and commitment combined with talent is reflected during matches. When he smiles, you can see his joy and satisfaction after he or a teammate comes through.

Loyola coach Mike Boehle has been watching Fuerbringer for years.

“It was in his blood since he was born,” Boehle said. “To watch him as a 12-year-old you could see he was special. He was playing up. He’s probably the best outside hitter in his class. The thing I appreciate about him is he’s pretty even keel. It’s not cockiness. He just plays the game. Nothing worries him. Playing against us, he got better as the match went on. He didn’t say a lot but spoke volumes with his play.”

Boehle said he’s looking forward to seeing Fuerbringer play alongside former Loyola star Sean Kelly at UCLA.

“It could be one of the best duos in a long time,” he said.

Mateo Fuerbringer of Mira Costa High tries to deliver a kill against Loyola. He had 37 for the match.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

He lives walking distance from the sand in Hermosa Beach, which means he’ll be receiving even more lessons when top beach players are training under his father this summer. He’ll be hanging out just like when he was young.

He’s just getting started. He has a jump serve that can be tough to handle. And he’s always looking to improve.

“I’ve been getting in the weight room to get stronger and increase my vertical,” he said.

There used to be two-on-two family volleyball matches, mom and dad vs. Mateo and his sister. Or card games, board games, pickleball games.

“It’s pretty feisty in the family,” Matt said.

So where do things go from here?

“One of Mateo’s big things is he wants to play with friends,” his father said. “He wants to play at the highest level with people he knows and likes.”

A HISTORIC market in England is getting a massive revamp – and its in a town named one of the best places to live.

Founded back in 1170, Kingston’s Ancient Market is one of the oldest in London and even the entire UK.

Today, it is home to about 30 local traders including fishmongers, a bakery and street food.

Plans have now been submitted to give the Kingston Market Square a major revamp turning the square into a ‘piazza’, with 45 new Borough Market-like stalls made from sustainable materials with solar panels on top.

The piazza would host pop-ups as well as farmers’ markets, weekend events and concerts too.

If the plans are approved, the Market House nearby would get a refurb as well with the ground floor turned into a restaurant and cafe and the first floor becoming an events space.

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And there would be a new roof terrace overlooking the revamped square.

The statue of Queen Anne that currently sits in the square, will be relocated to the edge of the square too.

The planned revamp is also part of a bigger project to completely revive the area.

Since last year, Between the Bridges – the same operator as the Between the Bridges attraction on South Bank in London – has been operating the 800-year-old Kingston Ancient Market.

Throughout the year, the market usually hosts a number of different events including a Maker’s Market and Christmas market.

The market is open every day from 10am to 5pm.

One recent visitor said: “The market is charming, and offers some very nice gourmet foods, both to take home and dine out for lunch.

“Great atmosphere, particularly in the lead up to Christmas when it really comes alive with a kind of German Christmas market feel and the smell of mulled wine fills the air.”

Another added: “Kingston-upon-Thames is one of London’s most beautiful suburbs.

“The historic square is also a delightful place surrounded by beautiful and historic buildings.”

Last year, Kingston was also named the second best place to live in the UK by The Times.

The Better Lives Index, which is produced by the International Longevity Centre (ILC) think tank, ranks the authorities across the UK based on nine categories.

Categories include life expectancy at birth, the child poverty rate, pollution, disposable income, housing costs, ‘avoidable’ mortality, life expectancy at 65, economic activity for over-16s and economic inactivity of 50 to 64-year-olds.

If visiting the market or Kingston, make sure to head to the edge of the market square where you will find All Saints Church, which dates back to 1120.

Venture through the town too, where you can peruse a number of independent shops and grab a bite to eat at one of the restaurants right next to the river.

You can also head to a couple of pubs with outdoor gardens right next to the river.

If the sun is shining, you can even rent your own boat and sail on the River Thames.

From Central London, it takes just 25 minutes to get to Kingston on the train.

For more places outside of London to explore, there’s an English village under an hour from the city that makes the perfect day out.

Plus, have a look at the trendy London neighbourhood with world-famous new museum and cool hotels.

The multi-discipline event scheduled for May 8 will now be held on June 19 should conditions allow, organisers say.

World Athletics has postponed its season-opening event in Qatar’s capital, Doha, due to concerns for “player and spectator safety” as the  US-Israel war on Iran continues to affect the Middle East.

The Doha Diamond League has been rescheduled from May 8 to June 19, conditional on the safety and security situation in the region, World Athletics said in a statement on Wednesday.

“In the interests of athlete and spectator safety, a decision has been taken to postpone the meeting,” the global governing body for athletics said, adding that the event will go ahead on the new date “should conditions allow”.

The Diamond League said it had been “monitoring the situation in Doha” in recent weeks and was “working in close coordination with meeting organisers, Qatari authorities and other stakeholders”.

While Iran and the United States accepted a two-week ceasefire deal – mediated by Pakistan – Gulf states continued to intercept missile and drone attacks on their territories.

Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that it intercepted a missile attack in the hours leading up to the ceasefire announcement, and the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain reported strikes after news of the ceasefire was confirmed.

The organisers said they would continue to monitor developments in the Middle East in the coming weeks to deliver “the highest level of safe and secure competition for athletes, media and spectators”.

The Doha meeting was originally scheduled to take place at the Qatar Sports Club as the opening event of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League season, but will now be held at the Khalifa International Stadium, a temperature-regulated venue with air cooling vents.

The stadium hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2019 and was one of the FIFA World Cup 2022 venues in Qatar.

Olympic gold medallist from Botswana, Letsile Tebogo, headlined the 2025 event, winning the 200m race, while Jamaica’s Tia Clayton won the women’s 100m event.

Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra was the crowd favourite for the field event but finished behind Julian Weber of Germany.

Chopra, Olympic gold medallist in 2021 and silver winner in 2024, has finished on the Doha Diamond League podium on five occasions.

The new date of the Doha Diamond League will fall between the Bislett Games in Oslo on June 10 and the Meeting de Paris on June 28, making it the eighth leg of the 2026 season.

The series will begin in Shanghai on May 16 and end at the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 5.

Are viewers ready to return to Gilead?

Less than a year after “The Handmaid’s Tale” concluded its startling and emotionally draining look at what can happen when unchecked power and totalitarianism become codified, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian saga expands on screen with “The Testaments” — and shifts focus to the simmering rebellion of teenage girls, led by actors Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday.

Based on Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name, the new series takes place three to four years after “The Handmaid’s Tale” finale, which kicked off the beginning of the end of Gilead. It is set at an elite preparatory school to groom future wives, made up of daughters of Commanders, many of whom have been taken away from their birth parents, and so-called Pearl Girls, recruited from outside of Gilead. It is named after and run by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), the profoundly complex antagonist from the original series.

Infiniti plays Agnes MacKenzie, the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, but her actual identity is Hannah, the kidnapped biological daughter of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss). Meanwhile, Halliday plays Daisy, a recent arrival to the Pearl Girl squad who is really there as an undercover spy for the Gilead’s resistance group, Mayday, under the guidance of June. In a departure from the book, Daisy is not June’s other daughter, Baby Nicole.

Bruce Miller, who developed “The Handmaid’s Tale” and served as showrunner for much of its run, returned to adapt the sequel. And much like how June summoned her power to fight against the world that confined her, Miller thinks the grit that Agnes, Daisy and their young peers possess to bring it all down is the reason “The Testaments” won’t feel like doomscrolling.

In “The Testaments,” Daisy (Lucy Halliday), left, is a recent arrival to the Pearl Girl squad who is paired with Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti), the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, by their school’s overlord, Aunt Lydia.

(Disney)

“The hope that it has is why viewers should be ready to come back,” Miller says. “What kind of women has Gilead built? They built the kind of women that could really bring down Gilead. All the things Gilead told them not to do — become friends, develop their own moral compass — they’ve done them all. If June knocked Gilead on its back, her daughter is gonna stand on their neck until it dies.”

The first three episodes of the series are now streaming on Hulu. In an early April video conversation, The Times caught up with Infiniti and Halliday to discuss their induction into “The Handmaid’s Tale” universe, observing Moss in action and the playlist that made an impression on set. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Tell me about your knowledge of Margaret Atwood’s universe. Had you read either book before this project? Did you watch “The Handmaid’s Tale?”

Infiniti: [Points to Halliday] You’ve got the Margaret Atwood No. 1 fan right here.

Halliday: I am the Margaret Atwood No. 1 fan — I hold my hands up. I’d read all of her books. I’d read “Handmaid’s” and “The Testaments” prior to this job and, obviously, I knew about the show.

Infiniti: My first exposure to the story was through the show. I was in high school when “The Handmaid’s Tale” first started airing, and so I remember it kind of taking over my school campus. Everybody was watching it, everybody was talking about it, and I just remember it being so, so massive. And then after that, I read the books.

Halliday: “The Testaments” book came out when I was in school, and my friend brought it in, and we spoke about it at lunchtime. It’s very serendipitous, it’s full circle.

What types of conversations were you having about it?

Halliday: It always feel timely regardless of what point you’re approaching the text at. I think, particularly at the time I read it, and now with this show, what appealed to me was that it was a younger perspective, and it was a new voice in Gilead. I had a level of interest that I hadn’t expected, just because I was a teenage girl at the time I was reading this book and [saw] another experience of a teenage girl that, in some ways, mirrored my own, despite, obviously, I don’t live in Gilead.

After starring in the Oscar-winning “One Battle After Another” as the daughter of revolutionaries, Chase Infiniti is poised to lead another revolution in “The Testaments.” “You feel an extra sense of responsibility playing somebody so young who is fighting for something that is bigger than them,” she says. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Chase, how do you see Agnes and how do you think her identity may shift when she is maybe living as Hannah? And Lucy, how do you see the Daisy in flashbacks versus the Daisy we meet in Gilead?

Infiniti: I haven’t thought about how Agnes will be when she is free as Hannah. I have concepts in my mind, but I don’t want to form anything too soon that will change the way that I personally could perform, if we’re lucky [enough] to have a Season 2 and beyond. But I think the growth that you see in Agnes, from even just Season 1, you really see her grow into herself and understand her place and understand her voice in the world.

Halliday: It’s an interesting juxtaposition because Daisy in Toronto is free and liberated and happy, but in a way, she’s not as open-minded as she could be. For example, when it comes to Gilead, she’s got these very strong, preconceived ideas of who these people are. She thinks they’re primitive, and she’s got no interest in befriending them. And then she comes to Gilead, and suddenly she’s lost access to a lot of the opportunities she had in Toronto, where she doesn’t have freedom, she can’t just do whatever she wants to, say what she wants and a there’s a great deal of oppression. But by experiencing these girls and by befriending these girls, she is actually now opening her mind to be more susceptible to friendship, and … understanding individuals who are different from who she is.

Let’s get into Agnes and Daisy’s relationship. They’re initially suspicious and distrusting of each other. What intrigued you about their dynamic?

Infiniti: Lucy has a great description about how she views Agnes and Daisy, which I think is very accurate.

Halliday: I see Agnes and Daisy as being two cats in a room sniffing each other out. And it’s because I think they immediately recognize the inherent similarities present in the other person, and that scares them because the other person, from both of their perspectives, is a foreigner, is not what they want to be associated with, yet there’s this innate kindred spirit present, and they can’t deny that. They’re the same language, just in different fonts. We see that throughout the season, and they really, like, rub off on each other and they have something to give to the other person.

There’s one big change from book to screen. Daisy is not Baby Nicole, the half-sister of Agnes. What did you make of that change, Lucy?

Infiniti: Wait a minute. I thought we were sisters this whole time. [laughs]

Halliday: It actually didn’t impact the story that much because in very many ways, Agnes and Daisy are sisters. Their relationship hasn’t altered because of this information. June is still an incredibly important figure in both of their lives. June adopts Daisy when her family is gone, so they still share all of these pieces of their history. They’ve had very similar life experiences, although unbeknownst to each of them, and the bond that they create for themselves is a sisterhood, and they have a love for each other by the end of the season. Although the lineage may be different, just about every single other aspect of Margaret Atwood’s original Daisy and Agnes remains.

An exterior shot of the elite preparatory school to groom future wives that is central to the story of “The Testaments.” It is named after and run by Aunt Lydia, the profoundly complex antagonist from the original series.

(Disney)

A girl’s menstrual cycle is a key character in this story — the power and promise it holds in the eyes of these teenage girls. What was it like to get back to that mindset of your younger self and your ideas of it then? Agnes is frustrated by the rigidness of being a girl, but she’s also curious about what’s to come, and getting her period is critical to that.

Infiniti: I feel like mine and Agnes’ experiences could not be more different. She was very excited to get it, and she was very eager, too, because of what it promises. And she was scared, but she knew that this was the hopeful step, if she was blessed by God, right, to become a wife — it would only benefit her to have it. Also, there’s so much secrecy around it, and a lot of things that these girls are just not taught about what it actually means to get your period, as opposed to the outside “next steps” that they go through. But I remember when I got mine, I was so scared. I remember I cried because I didn’t know what to do.

Were you home? I was at a sleepover and was mortified.

Infiniti: I was in math class at school — and that’s extra terrifying because I was really bad at math. I just remember being very scared. So, when Agnes gets it, I was a bit in awe of the way that she handles it and the way that she takes it and doesn’t let her fear hold her back in her tracks. That’s something that I found to be very intriguing. But you do feel bad because they don’t really know anything about what it means to have your period, what it means to become a woman and go through puberty like that, and all the changes that are going to happen.

Halliday: Periods are not talked about, really, in a mainstream manner. Whereas in Gilead, it’s not a liberated place, it’s not a really progressive society, but periods are spoken about quite freely. I don’t necessarily have anything to say about it, but I do think it’s an interesting idea that even though we, in society, would like to think of ourselves as not being in Gilead, we’re not as freely speaking about periods and menstruation the way that they do there.

Infiniti: I remember in Episode 2, when Agnes goes through that ceremony and she’s literally telling everybody. She’s like, “I was blessed by God. Yo, I’m on my period.” It was crazy. She said it exactly like that, by the way [laughs]. There’s a whole system to announce that this thing has happened because it’s so uncommon in Gilead.

Halliday: On the set, I remember Mike Barker [who directed the first three episodes] called “menarche playlist” and it was just a bit of a laugh.

Infiniti: Guess what one of the songs was?

Please tell me. I’m thinking Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love.”

Infiniti: One of them was totally “… Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears.

Halliday: But I just remember that we’re on set in 2025 and people would be like, “What’s menarche?”

Infiniti: The period aspect is something that I really love that you get to see in the show; you see how openly they all talk about it with each other. Because with your friends, you have very open dialogue, and those are the people who teach you how to use a pad, those people teach you to use a tampon, how to properly take care of yourself in that way. That’s something that I really love about the show is that we get to highlight that, and that’s one of the bonds that it brings between people. Or in the case of our show, the bond that it brings, but also the amount of chaos that it can bring, too, since fertility is so low in Gilead.

In “The Testaments,” Lucy Halliday stars as Daisy, a new Pearl Girl who is really an undercover spy for Mayday. “I hope people watch the show and it only further ignites their disgust for these things and their shock, because we should never be comfortable,” she says. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

We talked earlier about the flashback and what we learn about how Daisy found herself in Gilead. But we didn’t dig into Elisabeth Moss — she’s an executive producer, but also we get to see her as June. It starts as a brief glimpse, and more in Episode 3, getting the backstory on how she agrees to let Daisy be a spy at the school and help in Mayday’s mission to bring down Gilead. What was it like having Elisabeth on set?

Infiniti: I snuck onto set when she was working with Lucy, don’t worry. She just showered us with so much love and support. That was the biggest gift that we could have gotten since, in a way, she is “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She is the handmaid in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Halliday: Getting to watch her was truly a privilege because she is so knowledgeable, she is an encyclopedia when it comes to this world and when it comes to Gilead and these characters. And I wanted to leech off of that. I wanted to take that home with me because it really further enforced to me the importance of being prepared as an actor, and it’s something that I know we both took seriously in terms of our work ethic when approaching this job. But it definitely was daunting — I think that was actually my first day on set, was a scene with her.

Actors often talk about how their costumes inform their performances. The red garments in “The Handmaid’s Tale” became such a symbol of resistance in real life. Here, you’ve got the plum and green garments that are in accordance with a narrow view of what is acceptable for women to wear. How did the costumes inform your work?

Infiniti: The first thing it really taught me was that my posture is not as good as I thought it was because those costumes really force you to take over perfect posture. I remember when we first started to wear them every single day, for at least 12 to 14 hours [a day], your back is hurting because of how perfectly straight you’re standing. Even though the costumes are made to fit you exactly, they are restrictive and so you feel immediately like you’re thrown into Gilead and thrown into these girls’ shoes. You have to be almost like a doll, in a sense.

Halliday: I physically was a different character when I was in the scenes in Toronto versus when I was in Gilead because I was inhabiting the space in a very different way. It felt like a full transformation, and it was so helpful in terms of understanding how Daisy would feel in that environment because she’s not getting to present herself in any way that she would feel comfortable or would normally do it.

Infiniti: And you had your little pearl [in your ear].

Halliday: I would check if it was there for maybe a month after we finished filming. I was walking around looking like a Secret Service agent.

Infiniti: I was like, “Is that how the Pearl Girls communicate with each other?”

Halliday: It was like the Starship Enterprise.

Lucy Halliday, right, and Chase Infiniti of “The Testaments.” (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Many people speak of the timeliness of the themes of this show. When you’re actively playing these characters, are you thinking about the politics of the story or does that element come later when you’re reflecting on it or watching it?

Halliday: I don’t think it’d be possible to tell a story without being conscious of any sort of parallels because we all watch the news, we’re all aware of the world we live in. But it’s also worth remembering that none of it was ever intended to be a documentary. Margaret Atwood wrote it based on history, and so everything was always factual, but it was historically factual, and it’s just so happened to be that, unfortunately, we’re seeing events repeat themselves or being emulated in reality.

Chase, you’re coming off “One Battle After Another,” which spoke of modern political division and extremism. How was it to go from that to something like this?

Infiniti: One of the cool things that I really loved about both of those projects is the fact that both Willa [her character in the film] and Agnes are revolutionary characters. You feel an extra sense of responsibility playing somebody so young who is fighting for something that is bigger than them. We’re privileged to be part of something that’s saying something about the world and has the ability to enact change in the world. We really wanted to make sure that we were doing justice by the story, by the writing, by Margaret Atwood’s work and telling the story as authentically as we can from our characters, so that in the most perfect situation, we can transcend the screen and continue to touch people and hopefully enact change in viewers’ own personal lives.

Halliday: We hope people enjoy it because it is a source of entertainment. We hope people feel hope because there’s friendship and there’s a beautiful storyline inherent to it. But I think also what would be great is if people watch it and they do feel shocked. People should feel shocked or taken aback or disgusted by these scenes because we have such an overabundance of exposure to scenes of these nature — whether it be on the news or whether it be on a fictional TV show — but we hear about these events all the time nowadays, and I think we run the risk of becoming desensitized to them. I hope people watch the show and it only further ignites their disgust for these things and their shock, because we should never be comfortable. We should never be able to sit with it and feel OK. We should always have that fire burning.

The Diamond League’s season-opening event in Doha has been postponed until June amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The meeting, the first of 15 stops on the Diamond League circuit this season, was set to be held at the Qatar Sports Club on 8 May but will instead take place at the Khalifa International Stadium on 19 June “should conditions allow”.

It comes after conflict was sparked across the Middle East when the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran in February.

This year’s Diamond League series will now begin on 16 May in Keqiao, China.

The decision to also change the venue of the Doha meeting was taken because of Qatar’s scorching summer temperatures, which can exceed 40C in June.

The Khalifa International Stadium, which hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2019, is temperature regulated to allow for safe competition.

The new date of the Doha event will fall between the Oslo (10 June) and Paris (28 June) Diamond League meetings, making it the eighth leg of this year’s series.

Diamond League organisers said they would “continue to monitor developments in the Middle East in the coming weeks”.

“The series and meeting organisers remain committed to delivering the highest level of safe and secure competition for athletes, media and spectators,” they added in a statement on Wednesday.

Several high-profile sporting events have been affected by the crisis in the Middle East, including the cancellation of Formula 1 Grand Prix weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April.

April 8 (UPI) — Global oil prices tumbled after the United States, Israel and Iran agreed to a Pakistan-brokered two-week cease-fire deal that included reopening the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.

The Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate benchmarks saw double-digit percentage falls following U.S. President Donald Trump‘s announcement of the breakthrough Tuesday evening, and have since stabilized, changing hands at $95.51 and $96.48 a barrel in early trade on Wednesday.

The market reacted to the prospect that oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf would be finally be able to transit the 21-mile-wide body of water between Iran and the UAE and Oman, easing major disruption to global supply caused by Iran’s effective blockade of the strait.

However, oil remained well above its $72 a barrel level on Feb. 27, the day before the United States and Israel unleashed their airborne offensive against Iran, amid uncertainty over the mechanism for the resumption of maritime traffic in the strait and the ongoing impact of war damage to energy infrastructure in Gulf countries.

There was also confusion over whether the cease-fire extended to Israel’s military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Pakistan said it did, but Israel said it did not and that its operations would continue.

Financial markets in Europe rallied Wednesday morning, following very significant gains in Asia, where the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo ended up 5.42%, Korea’s KOSPI surged almost 7% higher and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up more than 3%.

Out-of-hours futures transactions in the United States suggested equities would also rally very strongly there when stock exchanges open in a few hours.

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets in New York, expressed skepticism.

“It wasn’t much of a surprise that there was an announced reprieve in the Iranian conflict. The concern now is if this all too familiar ‘two-week’ timeframe is going to lead to a resolution,” said Woods.

A statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council posted on X by the Iranian foreign minister said safe passage of ships through Hormuz Strait would be possible for the duration of the cease-fire, but that it would have to be “via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Wednesday hailing the cease-fire, Trump pledged U.S. assistance with the logistical problems.

“The United States will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will. Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!” Trump wrote.

MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic told the BBC that while the number of ships getting through the Hormuz Strait would increase from a trickle, a return to normal levels of energy production in the region was unlikely without a permanent end to the conflict and warning that repairs to damaged infrastructure could take many months.

Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian energy facilities recently, as peace talks show no signs of progress. Several key facilities have been impacted:

NORSI, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery, owned by Lukoil, halted operations on April 5 due to a Ukrainian drone attack. This refinery, which processes 16 million metric tons of oil per year (around 320,000 barrels daily), is also Russia’s second-largest gasoline producer.

The Kirishi oil refinery may restart partial operations within a month after sustaining damage from drone attacks in late March that caused fires. Sources indicate that three of its four main units will resume operations, representing about 60% of its capacity. Last year, Kirishi produced 2 million tons of gasoline, 7.1 million tons of diesel, 6.1 million tons of fuel oil, and 600,000 tons of bitumen.

Novatek’s Ust-Luga processing plant suspended gas condensate processing and naphtha exports after drone strikes caused fires. The complex features three processing units, each with a capacity of 3 million tons per year, processing stable gas condensate into various fuels. In 2025, it processed 8 million tons.

Ukraine’s military reported hitting Russia’s Bashneft-Novoil oil refinery, located over 1,400 km (870 miles) from the border, which can process more than 7 million tons of oil annually.

The Saratov refinery was attacked on March 21, which led to the shutdown of its crude distillation unit. In 2024, it processed 5.8 million metric tons of oil, representing 2.2% of Russia’s refining capacity.

A fire at the Ilsky refinery occurred on February 17 due to drone attacks, with the blaze fully extinguished the next day. The refinery’s annual capacity is 6.6 million tons.

The Volgograd refinery was completely shut down on February 11 from drone strikes, affecting its primary processing unit, which accounts for 40% of its operations, with a processing figure of 13.7 million tons of oil in 2024.

A fire at the Ukhta refinery on February 12, caused by a drone attack, affected its primary oil processing unit, which processes 6,000 tons per day. In 2025, it processed around 3 million tons of oil.

The Afipsky refinery experienced a fire on January 21 due to drone attacks, focusing mainly on exports and processing 7.2 million metric tons of crude oil in 2024.

Additionally, a recent attack by Ukraine damaged facilities at the maritime transhipment complex in Novorossiysk, affecting oil product reservoirs. The damage did not disrupt CPC oil exports via the Black Sea, and U. S. oil major Chevron confirmed that crude oil exports from Tengiz remained stable. Ukrainian drones also caused fires at the Sheskharis oil terminal and damaged an oil pipeline at Primorsk, which saw significant storage capacity losses from drone attacks last month.

With information from Reuters

To laugh or to cry? It’s a question that feels a little too familiar of late — one confronted often while watching “Maddie’s Secret,” the debut as writer-director from comedian and performer John Early.

Playing the title role with an unnerving sincerity and startling sense of vulnerability, Early stars as Maddie Ralph, a young woman climbing the ranks as a Los Angeles food influencer while secretly hiding her struggle with bulimia.

Early’s performance is a truly remarkable highwire act, all the more so for the wig, padding and prosthetics he wears to play the character. Made in the earnest style of a disease-of-the-week television movie without ever tipping over into winking irony, the film is both funny and tender.

“That, to me, is Maddie’s true secret,” says Early, 38, on a recent video interview from the apartment he is renting in New York City while appearing onstage in Wallace Shawn’s new off-Broadway play “What We Did Before Our Moth Days.”

“The secret of the movie — the real twist of the movie — is not any kind of trope-y reveal,” Early says. “The twist is actually a tonal twist. What I hope is then that becomes funny: the sheer commitment to the stakes of it.

“At any given moment, you can experience it as totally sincere, you can absorb it genuinely and be moved by it,” Early continues, “or you can take a little break and step out of it and find it uproariously funny that we’re even doing this to begin with.”

John Early, front, and Eric Rahill in the movie “Maddie’s Secret.”

(Magnolia Pictures)

Early’s skillfully wrought psychodrama, which had its world premiere at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, is now the opening-night selection for this year’s Los Angeles Festival of Movies, playing Thursday at Eagle Rock’s Vidiots with members of the cast present for a Q&A, and then again on Friday at 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown.

“Maddie’s Secret,” which opens in theaters June 12, makes for a fitting kickoff for this year’s event. Though the programming includes movies from all over the world, organizers ended up leaning heavily into films made in Los Angeles.

“This year it really does feel like a homegrown festival,” said Sarah Winshall, LAFM’s co-founder and festival director. “What it ended up doing is making us think about L.A. as a small town as a result.”

“I think the movie is an incredible accomplishment,” said Micah Gottlieb, LAFM co-founder and artistic director. “It’s made by somebody who’s not just a great comedian but also is a cinephile, knows the history of cinema, is trying to make something that fits within that lineage, while also just making an all-out entertaining movie.”

“Maddie’s Secret” was shot in the same workaday, creative-class neighborhoods where LAFM unspools. (Maddie’s house in the movie is Early’s own home.) The actor and filmmaker describes it as a “very Echo Park, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock, Frogtown, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Los Feliz movie.”

The story is also rooted in Early’s own complicated feelings about the L.A. food scene.

“It’s completely born out of my time in L.A. and my initial shock when I was confronted with a burgeoning restaurant scene,” says Early, who grew up in Nashville and moved to L.A. from New York in 2016.

“Not to always be talking about millennials, but it seemed very much of my generation,” he says, “specifically these kinds of restaurants where the food is really expensive but you’re sitting on a milk crate, eating lots of Middle Eastern food made by white people. There was just something very funny about all of it to me, even though I completely also sincerely loved it and still do.”

The film’s supporting cast is drawn largely from Early’s own circle of friends, including his most frequent collaborator, the comedian and writer Kate Berlant, along with Conner O’Malley, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill and Vanessa Bayer. The film’s production designer Gordon Landenberger is his ex-boyfriend and Early is excited that a number of other key collaborators, including costume designers Kimme Aaberg and Izzy Heller and cinematographer Max Lakner, are working on a feature for the first time, just as he is as writer-director.

“I think I wanted to force myself at gunpoint into a place of innocence and naivete,” says Early. “I think this movie is a strange mutation of the camp tradition.”

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Berlant plays Maddie’s best friend in the film. She and Early have worked together on shorts, live performances and their 2022 Peacock special “Would It Kill You to Laugh?” The two always share what they are developing and so Berlant first heard about “Maddie’s Secret” when it was just percolating as an idea.

“It was a very wild proposition,” she recalls with a laugh while driving down L.A.’s Beverly Boulevard. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to play a woman who’s struggling with bulimia.’ I was like, ‘Good luck.’ I was astonished that he totally pulled it off and he’s such a true filmmaker. It was kind of miraculous.”

Berlant describes their shared sensibility, the ability to simultaneously play comedy and pathos, as a kind of freedom. “Just the underlying absurdity or joke really gives you the ability to go to these really intense emotional places,” she says. “It gives you the permission to go to places that otherwise would be too unbearably saccharin.”

For Early it was also a chance to fulfill his longtime desire to play an old-school ingénue.

“I think I wanted to force myself at gunpoint into a place of innocence and naivete,” says Early. “I think this movie is a strange mutation of the camp tradition.”

“I was astonished that he totally pulled it off and he’s such a true filmmaker,” says Kate Berlant, Early’s longtime collaborator. “It was kind of miraculous.”

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

He references Susan Sontag’s famous essay “Notes on Camp” to say there are two kinds of camp humor, one that is unknowing and another that is knowing. It is near impossible now to genuinely create the first kind, but the process of making “Maddie’s Secret” was in a sense about being the second and striving for the first.

“In the age of the internet and in the kind of crumbling, depressing world we live in, it’s almost impossible to be the first kind of camp,” says Early, “to feel innocent and naive and to twirl. But obviously there is a part of me, there’s a part of all of us, that is very childlike and innocent and has hope. So I think this movie, it knows itself to be camp but it’s aching to be more like the first kind of camp. It’s aching to be pure and naive.”

Though it may be easy to place what Early is doing in the tradition of drag performers such as Divine’s work with filmmaker John Waters, to Early his performance in “Maddie’s Secret” sits outside of it.

“Drag is often obviously about a certain kind of extravagance and fabulousness and Maddie is very humble,” he says. “And so I don’t really see it as drag. It didn’t feel like drag doing it, whatever that means. It honestly just felt like acting to me.”

In dealing with the serious topic of bulimia, Early was careful never to make the eating disorder the joke. He points to a trio of TV movies — 1986’s “Kate’s Secret,” starring Meredith Baxter Birney; 1997’s “Perfect Body,” starring Amy Jo Johnson; and 1981’s “The Best Little Girl in the World,” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh — along with Lauren Greenfield’s 2006 documentary “Thin” as key influences on how he approached the film’s depiction of the illness. (Other non-bulimia influences include Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” Paul Verhoeven’s trashy “Showgirls” and Adrian Lyne’s “Flashdance.”)

“I don’t find bulimia itself funny,” says Early. “The genre of these movies — that’s what’s funny. It’s the emotional pitch of those movies and the way that they’re made and the acting style and the kind of moralistic quality while being totally pervy. All that was funny to me. And then also putting contemporary life — young, gentrified L.A. food-content influencer culture — putting all that through a melodrama-style filter, that was funny to me.”

While writing the screenplay, Early says he often found himself weeping, overtaken by the emotions of what he was creating. “I guess I’m not above the genre at all,” he admits.

But playing the part was another matter, having sold everyone involved in the production on a very specific tone and conception of what they would do together.

“I was like, ‘I am so stupid, I can’t believe I have put myself in this position,’” Early says, laughing at the memory. “I had set myself up to do the thing that I really had no proof that I could do, which is to play an almost Juliet kind of character who’s going through these extreme things. And I was the one that promised everyone that we would take it seriously. And then suddenly I was like ‘OK, well you have to do it. You actually have to do it.’”

Even if Early was uncertain in the moment, the result is undeniable: a dizzying, disarming blend of humor and emotion — and one of the year’s boldest performances.

When she ran for mayor four years ago, Karen Bass said she wanted to regrow the Los Angeles Police Department to the 9,500-officer force it was before the ranks began to shrink. Now up for reelection — and facing a budget crunch — Bass says her plan has shifted.

The aim going forward, she told The Times in a recent interview, is to simply stop the department from getting smaller.

As of this week, the department had 8,677 sworn personnel — the lowest total in nearly a quarter-century. Even after efforts under Bass to streamline hiring and boost recruitment, some officials are concerned there won’t be enough new cops to replace those projected to leave or retire in the coming years.

“My goal changed, unfortunately,” Bass said. “I do hope that one day we get to the expansion, but we are not there now.”

A Bass spokesperson said after the interview that the mayor remains committed to reaching the 9,500-officer benchmark in the long run, but did not provide a timeline for getting there.

On April 20, Bass will release her spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on July 1. She and the City Council will spend the coming months working out how to balance the city’s books in a way that avoids deep cuts to other services and the layoffs of city employees. A projection by the city administrative officer estimates the city’s budget deficit to be “several hundred million.”

Bass said she had spent years addressing a years-old administrative bottleneck within the city’s personnel department, which runs the background process for police hires.

The efforts were targeted “at every level: at the top, as well as internal to the department,” said Bass. “At least the impediments that kept us from retaining recruits, to get them in the academy, that has changed.”

The mayor called the old hiring process “archaic,” and said similar issues exist with other city departments. At the LAPD, she said, “We expanded recruitment and had a record number of recruits, and then we couldn’t get them hired, so we had to revamp the hiring process.”

Despite attrition at the LAPD in recent years, crime has plummeted, with homicides in the city falling to levels not seen since the 1950s. Yet public safety remains an issue in the mayor’s race, where Bass faces a challenge from City Councilmember Nithya Raman.

A recent survey co-sponsored by The Times found that more than half of voters view Bass unfavorably in the race. The same poll found that 39% of Angelenos think the LAPD needs to increase in size, with 29% saying the department should stay the same size and 19% saying it should shrink.

Raman came out ahead of Bass in a recent poll that only identified candidates in the mayoral race by their platforms, but not their names, though other surveys that identified them by name showed Bass in the lead.

Raman has said that she believes the police force is the right size at around 8,700 officers. Bass’ onetime ally has argued the mayor has thrown too much money at the LAPD, an approach Raman claims has come at the expense of other basic services such as park maintenance and street paving.

Raman has accused the mayor of signing off on raises for police officers with a contract that has done little to make a dent in the department’s recruitment struggles and only made worse the city’s financial picture. She and other critics say that with the dwindling number of cops, officials need to start investing more in community-led efforts that prioritize prevention over punishment in order to further reduce crime.

Bass said she had embraced a crime-fighting strategy that balances traditional policing with a more public health-oriented approach, pointing out that she had opened an Office of Community Safety to support gang interventionists who help defuse neighborhood conflicts before they explode into violence. Her administration also spearheaded sending mental health teams or other unarmed responders to emergency calls that were once fielded by police.

It’s no accident, she said, that killings in some of the most crime-impacted neighborhoods had fallen by 27%. So far this year, police say that most crime categories are down compared to where they were at this point in 2025.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has said that without addressing police staffing the city’s progress on crime is at risk, especially as L.A. gets set to host large-scale sporting events like the World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.

During his briefing to the Police Commission on Tuesday, McDonnell said roughly 8% of the department’s employees are unavailable to work because they are on sick leave or other work restrictions. McDonnell and other police officials have said staffing shortages are limiting the department’s ability to respond quickly to low-level crimes, leading to high officer burnout rates, and driving up overtime expenses.

Asked to assess McDonnell’s first year-and-half as the city’s top lawman, Bass issued a written statement that said she considered McDonnell a strong partner “lowering crime, hiring more officers, and reversing longstanding trends.”

She added: “I will always keep pushing every City leader to do better by the people of Los Angeles.”

Bass said she would continue working with the chief to “identify measures” to reduce the number of police shootings, particularly those involving people in crisis.

Such changes would go hand in hand with an overhaul of the department’s much-maligned disciplinary system, which has faced criticism from some corners for not meting out harsh enough punishments when officers shoot unarmed people. The union that represents the department’s rank-and-file members has long complained of a double standard that lets well-connected officers and senior leaders off the hook.

Bass said that based on her conversations with officers, “the internal part of the disciplinary system has gotten a little better.”

Broader reforms have also been under discussion, with the council weighing new limits on so-called police pretextual stops, in which officers use a minor violation as justification to pull someone over and then investigate whether a more serious crime has occurred. Bass said she is in favor of further changes to tighten LAPD policies.

A recently published report by Catalyst California, a group that advocates for racial justice, found that such stops have continued to disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers, even as the LAPD has scaled back their use over the past decade.

“Certainly, when I was younger, I experienced pretextual stops, and they are terrifying,” Bass said, adding that she believed the department’s culture was already changing. “I will tell you that as many roll calls as I’ve been to, a lot of officers already feel like they can’t do pretextual [stops] anymore — so I think there’s been progress there, but clearly more, more to go.”

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.

From Maddie Lee: As Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto came set on the Rogers Centre mound Tuesday, he didn’t let his mind drift to the last time he gazed from that exact spot.

He didn’t think of the snap of Alejandro Kirk’s bat as it splintered, or the fluidity of Mookie Betts’s movement as he started the double play, or the joy on Freddie Freeman’s face as his arms flew in the air.

He didn’t think of the relief as a back-and-forth World Series Game 7 finally ended, or the mayhem that ensued around him as he tilted his head back and smiled.

Yamamoto insisted he didn’t think about the final pitch of last year’s World Series during his start Tuesday. And in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win against the Blue Jays, his focus showed.

“No matter how important, how big the game is, I just treat every game as the same,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter the day before. “And in just normal games, I just pretend that that’s the biggest game.”

Tuesday was, by all measures, just a normal game. And Yamamoto held the Blue Jays to one run through six-plus innings.

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Dodgers-Blue Jays box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

With Big 3 out, Lakers lose to Thunder

Lakers guard Bronny James dunks during a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: No Big Three. No surprise.

Without 80% of their starting lineup, the Lakers, predictably, got crushed by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, losing 123-87 to drop their third consecutive game and fall one game out of third place in the Western Conference.

Already without Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) for the rest of the regular season, the Lakers had to dig deep in their bench when LeBron James (left foot injury management) and Jaxson Hayes (left foot soreness) were ruled out.

With Marcus Smart (ankle) sidelined for his eighth consecutive game, the Lakers were without five of their top nine players. Even some veterans left from the rotation didn’t inspire confidence early.

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Lakers-Thunder box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

Jorge Soler, Reynaldo López get into benches-clearing fight

Angels batter Jorge Soler, left, fights Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo López as the benches clear in the fifth inning at Angel Stadium on Tuesday night.

(Ethan Swope / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Ozzie Albies hit his third home run of the season, starter Reynaldo López struck out seven in 4⅔ innings before being ejected after a bench-clearing brawl, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Angels 7-2 on Tuesday night.

Angels designated hitter Jorge Soler went after López following a high-and-tight wild pitch in the fifth. There was a lengthy staredown before Soler took steps toward the mound and López held out his arms before the two exchanged punches. López was holding the baseball when he landed a punch on Soler’s batting helmet.

Soler homered in the first — the fifth of his career in 23 at-bats against López — and was hit by a pitch in the third.

Atlanta snapped a three-game skid and ended the Angels’ three-game winning streak.

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Angels-Braves box score

Aday Mara winning a national title exposes Mick Cronin’s failure

Michigan center Aday Mara celebrates during the Wolverines’ NCAA men’s basketball championship win over Connecticut on Monday night.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

From Bill Plaschke: Was that really Aday Mara?

It was the most maddening part of March.

It was a Cinderella story that smelled like rotting pumpkin.

It was a big dance over the sensibilities of everything that is UCLA.

Seriously, was that really Aday Mara?

The biggest player on the giant national champion Michigan basketball team Monday night looked familiar, yet strange.

Familiar, because he once played for the Bruins.

Strange, because he wasn’t buried on the bench.

Meet Mick Cronin’s nightmare, a 7-foot-3 indictment of his embattled program, a monumental mistake that has spent three weeks eating at the heart of even the most dedicated Bruin loyalists.

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Kawhi Leonard leads Clippers past Mavericks

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, right, passes the ball in front of Dallas Mavericks forward Dwight Powell during the first half of the Clippers’ 116-103 win Tuesday at Intuit Dome.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

From the Associated Press: Kawhi Leonard scored 34 points, hitting six three-pointers, and the Clippers recovered after blowing a 23-point lead to beat rookie Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks 116-103 on Tuesday night.

It was Leonard’s 55th straight game with 20 or more points in the Clippers’ first win in three tries against the Mavericks this season.

Leonard played in his 62nd game, and he’ll have to appear in the final three games of the regular season to reach 65 and be eligible for postseason awards such as league MVP and All-NBA honors.

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Clippers-Mavericks box score

Ducks shut out by Predators

Nashville goaltender Justus Annunen makes a save on a shot by Ducks forward Ryan Poehling in the first period of the Ducks’ 5-0 loss at Honda Center on Tuesday.

(Scott Strazzante / Associated Press)

From the Associated Press: Justus Annunen stopped 43 shots — one shy of his career high — for his third career shutout, and the Nashville Predators sent the Ducks to their sixth consecutive loss, 5-0 on Tuesday night.

Erick Haula, Filip Forsberg and Brady Skjei scored second-period goals, and Zachary L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov scored in the third for the Predators. Joakim Kemmell and Ryan O’Reilly each had two assists.

The win pushed Nashville (84 points) one point ahead of the Kings for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Predators have four regular-season games left.

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Ducks-Predators box score

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NHL standings

Who UCLA could pursue in transfer portal

Iowa State center Audi Crooks, a prolific scorer, is in the transfer portal and is among the players UCLA could pursue.

(Jessica Hill / Associated Press)

From Marisa Ingemi: Women’s college basketball’s version of free agency is here. Less than six hours after UCLA won its first NCAA national title, the transfer portal opened, allowing teams to talk to players seeking new schools. And, like the past few seasons, it is already filled with star power.

UCLA coach Cori Close has to replace six seniors and graduate students who exhausted their eligibility after scoring every point in the national title game.

Close enters the derby with considerable momentum.

“The transfer portal just got easier,” she said with a smile with a championship net draped around her neck Sunday.

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Rory McIlroy learns something about winning

Rory McIlroy watches his tee shot on the 17th hole during a practice round ahead of the Masters on Tuesday.

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

From Sam Farmer: Rory McIlroy, defending Masters champion, finally belongs.

That’s how he feels in the Augusta National clubhouse, at least, even though this week marks his 18th start in the historic golf tournament.

“I always felt like I knew the week of the tournament that the clubhouse is for participants and their families,” he said, “but I still felt like I had to earn the right to be there a little more often.”

A year ago, McIlroy beat Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to become the sixth man to complete a career grand slam, winning all four major championships.

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This day in sports history

1935 — Gene Sarazen gets a double eagle on the 15th hole to erase Craig Wood’s three-stroke lead, then goes on to win the Masters.

1941 — In his 4th title defense in 9 weeks Joe Louis beats Tony Musto by TKO in the 9th round.

1943 — The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins 2-0 to win the Stanley Cup with a four-game sweep.

1956 — Jack Burke, Jr. comes back from eight strokes behind to beat Ken Venturi by one and win the Masters.

1966 — American Football League votes in 36 year old Al Davis as commissioner after Joe Foss resigns. Appointment lasts 3 months when AFL merges with NFL.

1968 — Major League Baseball decides to postpone Opening Day because of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1969 — MLB expansion teams Royals, Expos, Padres & Pilots win their 1st games

1971 — The first legal off-track betting (OTB) system in the United States opens in New York City.

1974 — In the home opener in Atlanta, Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s career record by hitting his 715th home run, connecting off Al Downing of Los Angeles in the fourth inning.

1975 — Frank Robinson, the first black manager in the majors, debuts as player-manager for the Cleveland Indians. Robinson hits a home run in his first at-bat — as a designated hitter — to help beat the New York Yankees 5-3.

1989 — Alex English scores 26 points to become the first player in NBA history to score 2,000 points in eight straight seasons, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz 110-106.

1989 — One-handed pitcher Jim Abbott makes MLB debut.

1990 — Nick Faldo becomes the second player to win consecutive Masters, beating Ray Floyd on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff. Faldo joins Jack Nicklaus as the only repeat winner.

1991 — Major league umpires & baseball reach a 4-year agreement after strike.

1995 — Oliver McCall beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.

2001 — Tiger Woods claims the greatest feat in modern golf by winning the Masters, giving him a clean sweep of the four professional majors in a span of 294 days. Woods, with his winning score of 16-under 272, sweeps the majors with a combined score of 65-under.

2003 — 22nd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Tennessee, 73-68.

2007 — Zach Johnson hits three clutch birdies on the back nine of Augusta National, to close with a 69 for a two-shot victory over Tiger Woods at the Masters.

2008 — Candace Parker, playing with an injured left shoulder, scores 17 points and grabs nine rebounds to help Tennessee capture its eighth women’s NCAA championship with a 64-48 victory over Stanford.

2012 — 76th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Bubba Watson wins on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff.

2013 — Luke Hancock makes all five of his 3-pointers and leads Louisville to its first NCAA men’s basketball championship since 1986 with a 82-76 victory over Michigan. Coach Rick Pitino adds this title to the one he won at Kentucky in 1996 and became the first coach to win a championship at two schools.

2014 — 33rd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship: Connecticut beats Notre Dame, 79-58.

2017 — Damian Lillard scores a franchise-record 59 points and matches his career high with nine 3-pointers to help the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Utah Jazz 101-86.

2018 — 82nd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Patrick Reed wins his first major title.

2019 — 81st NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: Virginia beats Texas Tech, 85-77 OT.

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.

A former Trump administration official predicted Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump could meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a summit sometime this fall, citing Trump’s continued indications of interest in resuming dialogue with the reclusive leader.

Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff of the National Security Council under the previous Trump administration, made the remarks as speculation persists that Trump and Kim may resume dialogue around the time when Trump visits China for summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in May.

“I believe there is a good chance of a Trump-Kim summit this fall,” said the vice chair of the America First Policy Institute at a press event on the sidelines of a forum hosted by the Asan Institute of Policy Studies.

“President Trump has often indicated that he wanted to resume a successful personal diplomacy … It is something that Trump believes in that this was a big success that he has to build upon,” he said.

Fleitz pointed out that although Trump is open to meeting Kim again, he would not back away from the U.S. demand for denuclearization.

“The Trump administration might join talks with North Korea but will be pushing for denuclearization,” he said. “I would strongly advise the Trump administration that another progress should be that North Korea has to stop sending weapons (to Russia for its war) in Ukraine.”

“They are helping a disastrously bloody war and I don’t think it’s a lot to ask for Trump to say that to Kim Jong-un.”

On a similar note, Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, gave an outlook of a “more than 50 percent chance” that Trump will meet Kim, after he meets Xi in Beijing.

“I don’t think Xi Jinping will want a meeting (between Trump and Kim) before his summit with Trump,” he said. “There is a greater than 50 percent chance that they could meet after their (Trump-Xi) meeting in Beijing.”

Cha also noted that unlike the approach to China, Russia or Iran, Trump shows that he puts North Korea in a “different basket” in terms of his potential engagement with Kim.

“I think he clearly wants to engage with him, which is just fascinating,” he said.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is expecting to receive ‘third-country’ deportees after a deal with the US. Some people are unhappy with the deal, arguing that conflict and insecurity make life difficult enough without the added consequences of more arrivals.

This quirky village boasts England’s tiniest Grade II listed building and residents who love to see the stars at night

England boasts thousands of villages and countless tiny hamlets, each with their own unique stories to share. Communities have been moulded by history, weather patterns, landscape, geology, wildlife, conflict, inhabitants, faith, transportation and commerce.

Yet, one distinctive village in Kent is home to Britain’s smallest listed building. The close-knit community of Otford in the Darent Valley is near Sevenoaks — a town that consistently appears on ‘best places to live’ rankings.

For those yearning to escape city living and immerse themselves in the natural world, one of Otford’s attractions is that the majority of it lacks street lighting. Certain residents have claimed they “like to see the stars” and one recommending to “buy a torch”.

However, one new arrival wasn’t entirely ready for the darkness, recalling: “I remember my shock the first night after we got the keys to our house.

“I’d never been to Otford at night before. But you will get used to it, and grow quite fond of it, very quickly. Just wait for the first full moon with clear skies and suddenly the penny will drop for you.”

One long-term resident remarked: “Otford doesn’t have street lights as it’s a village not a small suburban town. There are very few people living in Otford who I think want street lights due to light pollution as it’s lovely at night when the skies are clear to see the moon and stars so easily”, reports Kent Live.

The village is home to approximately 3,500 residents, and locals are described as “really friendly” and “lovely”. Surrounded by countryside, it offers the “fresh air” that residents treasure, along with beautiful walking routes.

It’s also conveniently near the M25 and boasts rail connections to London, with journeys taking as little as 35 minutes to London Bridge with one change.

Another intriguing feature of this village — something of a claim to fame — is its diminutive Grade II listed structure, which happens to be England’s smallest. Its occupants are of the web-footed variety, as it’s actually a duck house situated in the village pond.

Historic England said: “The award for smallest listed structure goes to the Duck House in the middle of Otford Village Pond roundabout in Sevenoaks. This rubble and brick circular house shelters the luckiest ducks in England – they enjoy a food allowance from the Parish Council!”

If you are looking to relocate to Otford, Rightmove states the average property sale price over the past year stood at £810,059. The majority of properties sold were semi-detached, fetching an average of £693,458.

Values rose by two per cent compared to the previous 12 months. By contrast, Kent’s average sale price was £421,327.

Otford also has a Solar System, which is a scale representation of planets’ positions. Created for the Millennium, it guides visitors throughout the village to the various planets in proportion.

The village also features the picturesque River Darent, four churches, a village pond, pubs, cafes and shops. If you enjoy travelling back through time, you’ll adore Otford as its history and archaeology reveal people have inhabited this spot for no less than 3,000 years: including farmers during the Iron Age, Romans and Royalty.

Over the years, there has been a palace, a poor house, and a manor court. There’s a heritage trail, a Millennium Mosaic and more attractions to explore, all of which can be discovered on the Otford Heritage website.

The Bull Pub, located on the High Street, is an ancient coaching inn with roots dating back to 1512. The pub is owned by WH Pubs, who also operate The Chaser Inn in Shipbourne, The Little Brown Jug in Chiddingstone, and two other establishments in Kent.

For those keen to delve deeper into Otford’s history, a visit to Otford Palace is a must. This site was once home to the Archbishop’s Palace, dating back to 821 AD.

In 1515 AD Archbishop Warham constructed one of England’s grandest palaces, slightly surpassing Hampton Court in size. Sadly, the buildings fell into disrepair in the 17th Century, and today only part of the North Range remains.

The North West corner tower, part of the Northern Gatehouse and a connecting wall, which has been converted into a row of three quaint cottages. The site, including the Palace Field, is open to visitors.

In 1519, the hunting-obsessed Henry VIII stayed at Otford Palace with his companions, pursuing game in the vast deer park attached to the palace grounds. Between 1532 and 1533, Princess Mary, the future Queen of England, took refuge there amidst the political and religious upheaval that followed the dissolution of her mother’s marriage to Henry.

Ownership of Otford Palace was transferred to a trust in the early 2020s, preventing it from being turned into a housing development.

If you’re up for a five-mile circular walk and prefer not to drive, the railway station is just a third of a mile from your starting point. This route is known as the Otford Walk.

It takes you out of the village, along tracks, over several stiles, through wooded areas and high onto the North Downs for breathtaking views of the countryside. You can park for your Otford Walk in the High Street opposite the Bull Pub.

PREGNANT influencer Chantelle Thompson has shared an emotional update on having her footballer husband’s child – a year after his death.

The social media star, 36, lost her beloved husband Joe Thompson last April, after he died at the age of 36 from cancer.

Chantelle, who is best known for being a skincare influencer, revealed her incredible news that she is set to welcome her late husband’s third child in February.

Now, in her latest Instagram post, the star gave fans an emotional update on her pregnancy journey so far, which this time she is doing “alone”.

Chantelle shared a video which showed her going through the various stages of IVF – which included injecting hormones and having hospital appointments.

It also showed her emotional roller-coaster, and at one point she is seen wiping away a tear in the car.

‘incredible news’

Wife of ex-Man Utd star pregnant with his child year after tragic death

‘BRAVE’

Who is Joe Thompson’s wife Chantelle Perry and how many children did they have?

Speaking over the video, Chantelle said: “I never imagined I’d be here alone making this decision to have Joe’s baby without him being here.

“But before he passed, he told me that I would have a baby boy and he even gave me his name.

“So it isn’t just a decision, it feels like a promise I’m keeping.

Chantelle, who married late husband Joe in 2016, also captioned the video with a touching message, which read: “Some events in life break you and rebuild you at the same time.

“Walking into an IVF clinic on my own was never part of the plan. But neither was losing Joe.

“After being told we couldn’t have children naturally again but then falling pregnant with Athena was a miracle.

“I didn’t think I would be returning to the IVF clinic to have more children, let alone doing it alone!”

Continuing, she said: “Before Joe passed, during one of his out of body experiences he told me that I’d have a baby boy… and he even gave me his name.

“I know Joe’s experiences were real and I trust everything he told me.

“So when my intuition told me to start IVF I did…. And here we are pregnant on the first attempt.

“This isn’t just about having a baby. This is about love continuing, even after loss.

“Knowing that Joe is with me every step of the way!”

Chantelle and her late husband Joe welcomed their first child, a daughter named Thailula-Lily, in September 2014 and had a second daughter in 2022 named Athena Rae.

Sadly, Joe passed away a year ago, after battling cancer for the third time.

The footballer, who started his career at the Manchester United Football Academy, was found to have stage four lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, which had spread to his lungs.

When Chantelle shared her pregnancy news in February, she talked about how her life had gone from “darkness to light”.

When the speaker of the Texas House recently outlined his priorities for the next legislative session, he mentioned tax relief, the development of data centers and a notion that sent many eyebrows skyward.

Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, directed the chamber’s governmental oversight committee to study the legal and economic implications of Texas absorbing one or more counties in eastern New Mexico.

The “conversation,” Burrows told the Dallas Morning News, “is ultimately about culture, opportunity and the right to choose a path that reflects the shared values of the Permian and Delaware basins,” a vast desert expanse awash in oil and natural gas.

Apparently, Texas lawmakers have time and money to burn.

The notion of the swaggering state swallowing a chunk of its resistant neighbor is completely far-fetched. Just four states have been carved from the territory of others: Kentucky, Maine, Vermont and West Virginia. And it’s been quite a spell since the last time that happened. West Virginia split off from Confederate Virginia in 1863.

Realistically, there is no end of hurdles — legal, political, practical — that would have to be surmounted for a partial Texas-New Mexico merger to occur. Both states would need to agree — New Mexico is a hard no — and Congress would also have to approve.

But the impulse to bust up, break away and move on is as old as America itself and, at the same time, as fresh as the latest provocation to pass the lips of the nation’s frothing commander-in-chief.

“Calexit,” the idea of California breaking away from the U.S. and becoming its own nation, took root during President Trump’s turbulent first reign and gained renewed support as soon as he returned to power. Texas toyed with the idea of secession when Barack Obama was president.

“The driver,” said Syracuse University professor Ryan Griffiths, an author and expert on secession, “is politics and polarization.”

The notion being if you don’t like it, then leave.

Or, at least, make noise about doing so.

Eastern New Mexico — dry, desolate — looks and feels very much like an appendage of West Texas. Its residents have long been estranged from the rest of their state and, especially, the Democratic leadership in Santa Fe, the state capital. That is not to say, however, the slightest inch of New Mexico territory will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Earlier this year, two Republican state lawmakers introduced a measure to give voters a say on whether they wanted their counties to break away — or, as one of the legislators put it, “Get the hell out of New Mexico.” The constitutional amendment died without a hearing.

When Burrows renewed talk of a takeover, Javier Martinez, speaker of the New Mexico House, responded without equivocation. “Over my dead body,” he said.

But the notion has garnered Burrows plenty of attention in the Lone Star State, a place with no lack of self-regard. And it certainly hasn’t hurt his standing with Texas’ arch-conservative Republican base, which has sometimes viewed Burrows with suspicion.

“People in Texas have a lot of fun with the idea that Texas … is entitled to secede and that maybe it can restore lost lands in New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado and beyond,” said Cal Jillson, a longtime student of Texas politics at Southern Methodist University. “It [appeals to] the conservative base, but also to everyone who loves to chuckle.”

Serious or not, secession — or independence, as some prefer to call it — has long been the dream of dissenters, of the discontented and those who feel put upon or politically unrepresented. America, after all, was birthed by divorcing itself from Britain and King George III.

For the longest time, residents in the ruddy north of blue California have agitated for a breakaway state called Jefferson. In recent years unhappy conservatives in eastern Oregon have spoken of splitting from their Democratic state and becoming a part of Republican Idaho. (Lawmakers in Boise passed a measure in 2023 inviting Oregon to the negotiating table; Oregon has so far declined to show.)

Since 2020, voters in 33 rural Illinois counties have voted to separate from their state and its Democratic leadership, a move welcomed in a measure passed by the Republican-run Indiana Legislature and signed by the state’s GOP governor, Mike Braun. (Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker dismissed the 2025 legislation as “a stunt.”)

Which, indeed, it appeared to be.

But Richard Kreitner said there is a certain logic behind secession movements, as governments from Washington to the statehouse are seen as increasingly unresponsive and dysfunctional.

“As people become more disenfranchised … more disillusioned from the political process, you’re going to start looking outside of the political process, the political structure, the constitutional structure, for a possible solution,” said Kreitner, who hosts a history podcast, “Think Back,” and has also written a book on secession. “If you’re going to do that in a country founded with a secessionist manifesto, the Declaration of Independence, at some point people are going to start thinking about that.”

Legitimate grievance grounded in serious concern is certainly worthy of attention. But exploiting that discontent to draw notice or score cheap political points — as Burrows seems to be doing in Texas — is something altogether different.

The chance of New Mexico ceding a part of itself to Texas is precisely zero, meaning the legislative study is less about “culture” and “opportunity” than the speaker and fellow Republicans evidently looking to troll their blue-state neighbor.

There are better, more productive ways for lawmakers to spend their time.

And their taxpayers’ dime.

Reaction to Tiger Woods’ car crash and driving under the influence arrest last month ranged from sadness to dismay to exasperation. Few observers, however, expressed surprise.

Although widely recognized as perhaps the greatest golfer of all time, Woods, 50, has been in a downward spiral personally and professionally for years.

His struggles with prescription drugs became public in 2017 when police found him asleep at the wheel of his car with the engine running near his Jupiter, Fla., home. Multiple painkillers, sleep aids and THC were detected in his system. Woods checked into rehab shortly after that incident, saying his efforts to manage insomnia and pain from his staggering number of surgeries on his own was a mistake.

Now, though, he’s again in rehab, likely in Switzerland after his private jet landed in Zurich on Friday, according to reports. The latest crash is the fourth major incident involving Woods behind the wheel since 2009.

“I feel bad for Tiger,” fellow golf great Jack Nicklaus told the Palm Beach Post. “He’s been taking painkillers for a long time and I don’t know how much pain he’s in. But I don’t think he’d be taking them if he didn’t need them.”

Woods’ current pivot to recovery follows a barrage of headlines about his rollover crash and unfocused, hiccups-laden aftermath captured on police officers’ body cameras that included a phone call to President Trump, failed field sobriety tests, handcuffs and a drive to jail in the back seat of a squad car.

A vehicle rests on its side after a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods along a road in Rancho Palos Verdes on Feb. 23, 2021. Woods suffered leg injuries that required surgery.

(Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

The episode also provides an opportunity to reflect on Woods’ meteoric rise, sustained excellence and precipitous decline on the golf course, his scandal-plagued personal life and what the future might hold.

What does this latest episode say about Tiger Woods and where does he goes from here?

Prodigy to supremacy

Born Eldrick Tont Woods on Dec. 30, 1975, Tiger was given his nickname by his father, Earl, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Green Beret who served in Vietnam. Earl’s combat partner was nicknamed Tiger and it was passed along.

Earl was deployed in the 1960s to the same base in Thailand where Kultida Punsawad worked as a secretary. They married and settled in the Orange County town of Cypress after the war. Tiger was their only child.

“When Tiger was 10 months old, I unstrapped him out of his high chair and he walked over and hit the ball,” Earl recalled on an HBO documentary about his son. “I said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got something special.’ ”

Amateur Tiger Woods, right, talks with his father, Earl Woods, after practice for the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in the 1990s.

(Amy Sancetta / Associated Press)

That soon became apparent to everyone. At age 5, Woods showed his golfing prowess on the television show “That’s Incredible.” At 6, he played a televised two-hole exhibition at Calabasas Country Club with legendary golfer Sam Snead, whose record of 82 PGA Tour victories would be equaled by Woods nearly 40 years later.

Life wasn’t all manicured greens. The only black child in his kindergarten class, he was tied to a tree by sixth graders, The Times’ Bill Plaschke reported. Woods played in his first national junior tournament at 13 in Texarkana, Ark., and a local reporter accused him of participating only because he wanted to integrate the local country club.

His excellence eventually stifled racism and quieted critics. As a high school sophomore in 1992, Woods became the youngest golfer to play in a PGA Tour event, shooting a one-over-par 72 at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

He first hurt his back during that historic round, pulling a muscle while hitting out of deep rough. Afterward he remained on site for treatment, foreshadowing what would be a career-threatening battle with back injuries that includes seven surgeries since 2014 — several microdiscectomies, a 2017 lumbar fusion and most recently a lumbar disc replacement performed in October 2025.

“Tiger Woods’ experience with spinal disease highlights a real and under-recognized issue among modern-era golfers,” said Dr. Corey Walker of the Barrow Neurological Institute. “Tiger’s use of the mechanics of the modern-day swing places a tremendous strain on the back.”

The high-torque swing emphasizes maximum rotation of Woods’ shoulders relative to his hips. It’s tough on his spine but also results in long drives and low scores.

Bothersome backs are common among golfers. Scotland-based osteopath Gavin Routledge, who has teamed with renowned golf coach Gary Nicol in developing a treatment program for spinal injuries, views Woods’ medical history as particularly telling.

“I honestly can’t see a way out for him,” Routledge told Golfweek. “We have known for decades that once you have one disc surgery, the chances of having another are substantially higher, especially if you use the fusion technique like Tiger. It’s a domino effect.”

Woods had no such worries in the mid-1990s. Amid winning three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles, he attended Stanford but left in 1996 after two years and turned pro at 20, smiling and saying “Hello, world” at his introductory news conference.

By 2000, he became the youngest golfer to complete the career Grand Slam of winning the Tour’s four majors and only the fifth ever to do so, following Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, and Nicklaus.

His dominance accelerated quickly, and nearly every year from 1997 to 2013 he won at least four and as many as nine tournament championships. He had his first back surgery in 2014 and the victories ceased until he shocked the sports world in 2019 by winning the Masters — the tournament considered the pinnacle of golf — for the fifth time, but the first in 14 years.

Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams watch Woods’ chip shot teeter at the edge of the cup before dropping in the 16th hole during the final round of the 2005 Masters tournament.

(Al Tielemans / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

“It’s overwhelming, just because of what has transpired,” Woods said. “It’s unreal to experience this.”

A few months later he won the inaugural PGA Tour event in Japan to tie Snead’s record of 82 career titles, hoisting the trophy 23 years to the day of his first Tour title at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational. It was his last victory.

Comeback attempts have been infrequent and unsuccessful, measured against the standards he set for decades. All the while, his injuries mounted and personal life deteriorated.

Losing his grip

Even with his career at its pinnacle and before his back became chronically balky, Woods found his way onto tabloid headlines. It all started with his first public car accident.

Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant outside his home in Isleworth, Fla., at 2:30 a.m. Nov. 27, 2009. He was treated at a hospital with minor injuries and the incident turned out to be the culmination of a whirlwind of missteps that revealed Woods having affairs with several women outside of his marriage to Swedish model Elin Nordegren, the mother of his two children.

Additional reporting identified Woods as a regular at the Mansion, a club for high rollers at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas, where he had a $1 million betting limit and played blackjack at $25,000 a hand with NBA superstars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

Woods admitted in 2010 that he had a sex addiction and spent 45 days at an inpatient program in Hattiesburg, Miss. He and Nordegren divorced.

The turmoil took a toll on Woods’ golf game for two years, but he rebounded, winning three tournaments in 2012 and five in 2013. It wasn’t until his first back surgery in 2014 that his career plummeted for good.

Research indicates that retirees who define themselves primarily through their careers are vulnerable to prolonged distress. Few have had a professional life so clearly defined and wildly successful as Woods.

Tiger Woods hits from the fairway at the Riviera Country Club during the second round of the Genesis Invitational on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 in Pacific Palisades.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

While not officially retired — he planned to play in this week’s Masters until his rollover crash and arrest — his last PGA Tour event was the Open Championship in Scotland in July 2024.

His most formidable obstacles to another comeback might be physical. Woods walks with a limp after suffering extensive damage to his right leg and ankle from a near-fatal single-car crash in Rancho Palos Verdes in 2021. And his most serious back surgery took place only six months ago.

Woods’ more immediate concern seems to be kicking his use of addictive opioid painkillers. A judge in Martin County, Fla., granted his request to seek treatment outside the U.S. He also turned down the role of United States Ryder Cup captain in 2027.

“I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today,” Woods said in a statement. “I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery.

“I’m committed to taking the time needed to return to a healthier, stronger, and more focused place, both personally and professionally. I appreciate your understanding and support, and ask for privacy for my family, loved ones and myself at this time.”

What now?

Woods will continue to make a sizable impact on golf even if he never sets another ball on a tee.

He serves as Founder and CEO of TGR, a multibrand enterprise that includes a charitable foundation, a golf course design company, an events production company and an upscale restaurant, among other holdings.

His $120 million earnings from PGA Tour purses pales in comparison to what he has made in endorsements — an estimated $2 billion, most notably from Nike.

His immense popularity lined the pockets of nearly everyone associated with the PGA Tour. TV ratings skyrocketed, tournament purses spiked and he single-handedly expanded golf’s demographic appeal.

The Masters is taking place this week in Augusta, Ga. Woods, who has donned the famed green jacket given the champion five times, is on the minds of many of the golfers.

Tiger Woods celebrates after sinking his putt on the 18th green to win the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019.

(Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

“He was my hero growing up,” said Jason Day, a veteran pro golfer and close friend of Woods. “It must be hard to be who he is and have everyone kind of down on him.”

Later, Day added this: “The only thing I don’t understand is that it’s a bit selfish of him to drive and put other people in harm’s way as well. But when you’re the player he was and how strong-willed he is — he thinks he can do almost anything — and that’s probably why he’s driving and a little bit under the influence.”

Woods has also been on the mind of Nicklaus, at 86 the only living golfer who enjoyed anything close to the success of Woods.

“Sometimes you get too far down the line and just need somebody to help you,” he said. “I think Tiger probably needs some help. We all want to help him. We are all on his side.”

Israel has backed a ceasefire between the US and Iran but made clear it does not extend to Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett reports that as Israeli strikes continue, residents remain wary after repeated violations of past ceasefires and ongoing displacement.