Month: July 2025

It’s been 20 years since Dan Biddle fatefully missed his stop on the Circle Line train. Twenty years since Mohammad Sidique Khan looked him in the eye and reached inside his backpack. And 20 years since Dan’s cosy happy life was, quite literally, blown apart.

It’s been 20 years since Dan Biddle fatefully missed his stop on the Circle Line train. Twenty years since Mohammad Sidique Khan looked him in the eye and reached inside his backpack. And 20 years since Dan’s cosy happy life was, quite literally, blown apart.

On Monday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be among 400 people in St Paul’s Cathedral paying their respects to the 52 killed and more than 770 injured in the London suicide bombings of July 7, 2005.

But for Dan – 7/7’s most severely-injured survivor – the day will also mark another anniversary. It’s been 19 years since Dan left hospital and he’s been fighting for an inquiry into what was known. He and countless others want and need answers.

Now instead of tears and platitudes from Britain’s great and the good on Monday, Dan, who can be seen in new Netflix series Attack on London Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, is calling on Starmer to put right what Tony Blair once did wrong – and finally grant the 7/7 victims their long called-for public inquiry.

He says: “We don’t need tears. We don’t need platitudes. We need our public inquiry. And we need answers to the questions we still have. It’s been 20 years – Now is the time to do it.”

Meanwhile there’s one person Dan won’t be wanting to speak with, if, as expected, he attends: Tony Blair. He was prime minister at the time of the attack and blocked the initial plea for an independent public inquiry. The War in Iraq was also cited as one of the motivations for the bloodbath in the bombers’ confession videos.

“I don’t think I could sit in a room with him [Blair] and not use a large amount of expletives, because the anger is always there,” explains Dan, now 46. “I firmly believe 7/7 could have been prevented, and I’ve got to live it with that knowledge. And I cannot believe Blair would be so naive to think that if we go to war, there’s not going to be repercussions in this country. When I think of the money he earns giving talks about it”

The 46-year-old first renewed appeals for Starmer to reconsider an inquiry through the Mirror last month. But he’s vowed to keep on asking.

Hundreds of families were affected that day in 2005 when four suicide bombers, led by primary school assistant Mohammad Sidique Khan unleashed the deadliest terror attacks in Britain since Lockerbie.

Armed with backpacks filled with homemade explosives, Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, both from Beeston, Leeds, and father-of-one Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, Bucks, boarded three morning rush hour tube trains. Around 8.49am they set off the explosives on circle line trains near Edgware Road and Russell Square stations and a Piccadilly Line train near Aldgate station, killing six, seven and 26.

A fourth bomber, Hasib Hussain, 18, also from Leeds, detonated his device an hour later on the top deck of the Number 30 bus, which had been diverted via Tavistock Square, killing 13. It’s believed his device initially failed.

On the morning of July 7 2005, Dan boarded a circle line train towards Edgware Road, a 26-year-old 6ft4in football-mad construction manager. Then in a flash of the explosion, everything changed. Dan lost both legs, an eye and his spleen and had a pole speared through his abdomen after being one to the victims of the Edgware Road blast.

He perforated his colon, burst his eardrum, lacerated his liver, was covered in burns and spent eight weeks in a coma. He now faces a daily battle with Complex PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and survivor’s guilt.

It later emerged Khan was known to intelligence services but was not considered a high priority. The Government’s internal 2009 Intelligence and Security Committee review concluded the decision was “understandable” given “the information available” at the time.

Dan and Adrian Heili, the hero Army medic who saved his life against the odds that day, meanwhile maintain there are still vital questions not answered by either the committee’s 2009 report, their earlier report in 2006 or indeed, the latter 2011 Coroner’s Inquest, which identified a number of failures and missed opportunities by MI5 – but ultimately ruled they would not have prevented 7/7.

Former construction manager Dan says: “The inquest was more about ascertaining time of death, place of death, perpetrator, that type of thing. A public inquiry looks at what was known. It looks at ‘was there any point where there could have been an intervention to stop it’?”

“The guy that did this is dead. I don’t get a trial. I don’t get my day in court. But why can’t we have the same disclosure around what led up to 7/7 as other atrocities got?”

Dan has a long list of questions, including: how long Khan was on MI5’s radar, why a telephone recording discussing an attack was not acted upon and why Khan was not made a high priority, despite alleged photos of him at a suspected extremist training camp. It was also reported that the US National Security Agency had looked into disturbing emails from Khan the year before the attacks. These are just a few of many.

“A public inquiry won’t give me my legs back,” says Dan, now an accessibility consultant in Abergavenny. “It won’t give me my eye back. But I’d have a sense of justice that somebody has been held accountable.

“Some 52 people lost their lives, why doesn’t that warrant one[an inquiry]? Jean Charles de Menezes was tragically shot a couple of weeks after 7/7, he got a public inquiry. Why is his one life worth more than 52? If they really think it’s not possible, then please just explain to me why – and I’ll get back in my box.”

Dan has recently spent days reviewing all the previous Government reports line by line while writing his first book Back From the Dead, which was released in June.

The 2006 Intelligence and Security Committee Report had originally been sent to Dan while he was still in hospital. It came with a covering letter from the then-Committee chairman The Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP. It referred to the attacks of “July 7, 2006.”

“Talk about adding insult to literal injury,” says Dan, who married the love of his life Gem, 42, in 2015. “How can you put much credence in the report if they can’t even get the date of the attack right?”

A public inquiry could also be a financial lifeline to those, like Dan, with life-changing injuries. Dan received just shy of £116,000 from the Government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

It’s a fund which gives a standardised payout, calculated by which body part is injured, to all victims of violent crime, with no regard as to whether it was a street mugging or a terror attack. Dan says he was also instructed he could only claim for three injuries.

“The money’s gone,” he says. “It barely lasted five years.”

If an inquiry found anyone was to blame, it could open up an avenue for victims to receive extra compensation.

Meanwhile Dan admits the thought of Blair earning north of £100,000 for speaking engagements about his time as prime minister – including the War in Iraq – is particularly painful. “I think he’s disgraceful,” says Dan.

In one final plea to the dignitaries who’ll be attending on Monday, Dan adds: “I’m not a stupid man. I knew that getting blown up, life was going to be tough. But I didn’t think it would be unjust.”

The Home Office has no current plans to hold a public inquiry.

Complete timeline of how the 7/7 bombings unfolded

*Around 8:49 a.m Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19, detonated homemade devices on Circle Line trains between Edgware Road and Paddington and Liverpool Street and Aldgate, and a Piccadilly Line train between King’s Cross St Pancras and Russell Square. They killed six, seven and 26.

*At 9.47am Hasib Hussain, 18, detonated a device, believed to have earlier failed, on the top deck of the Number 30 bus outside the British Medical Association HQ in Tavistock Square.

*All but Lindsay were British-born, from Beeston, Leeds. Jamaican-born Lindsay, an Islam convert, lived with his then-pregnant wife in Aylesbury, Bucks. She was later revealed to be the ‘White Widow’, Samantha Lewthwaite, an alleged member of Somalia ’s radical Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab.

*Video confessions later saw the bombers citing the War in Afghanistan and Iraq as one of their motivations. The Met Police’s Operation Trident collected more than 2,500 pieces of evidence. There was further tragedy at Stockwell Tube on 21/7 when Brazilian student Jean Charles De Menezes, 27, was mistaken for a suspect in a feared follow up attack and shot dead by police

*A 2006 Initial Intelligence and Security Committee Report finds no evidence MI5 could have prevented the attacks.

During a separate trial regarding a foiled fertiliser bomb plot, it was revealed Khan and Tanweer had been tracked by MI5 for a time during 2004, but it was decided they were not a priority.

The then Home Secretary John Reid refused a public inquiry into what had been known, saying it would be a “massive diversion of resources” from the security services’ operations. Some 25 7/7 Families start legal proceedings to force a public inquiry.

*Reid authorises the subsequent 2009 IASC report which also concluded 7/7 could not have been prevented.

* David Cameron becomes Prime Minister and grants the seven-month Coroner’s Inquest, overseen by Lady Justice Hallett, with a more limited scope of inquiry. In 2011, after seven months of evidence, she made nine recommendations to the Home Office, Security Services and Emergency Services. She also concluded MI5 could not have prevented it and rules against a public inquiry as it would add further distress to the families.

*The 25 Families drop their legal suit for an inquiry immediately after the inquest report. They make it clear they still have unanswered questions but fear their emotionally-draining legal action is futile.

* Various news organisations report on allegations that Khan visited a Pakistan Al-Qaeda training camp as well as military training camps in Dubai and that The US’s NSA had intercepted alarming emails from him the year before the attacks.

*Dan maintains several key questions around how long Khan was on their radar, why a telephone recording discussing an attack was not acted upon and why Khan was not made a high priority, despite alleged photos at a training camp.

Back From The Dead: The Untold Story of the 7/7 Bombings by Dan Biddle with Douglas Thompson, by Mirror Books hardback, £20, is out Thursday. Buy here

United States President Donald Trump has toured Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility in the Everglades before it gets its first detainees.

“It’s known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate because I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking,” Trump told the media during a livestreamed event on Tuesday. “But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.”

Trump campaigned for the presidency on promises to tackle immigration but faces a shortage of detention beds. The One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump’s tax and spending plan, passed the Senate during his Florida stop and includes $150bn for his deportation agenda over four years.

State officials quickly built the expected 5,000-bed facility to detain immigrants on top of a decades-old landing strip. The Department of Homeland Security pegged the one-year cost of running the facility at $450m, which it plans to pay for with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program.

Florida officials, including former Trump rival Governor Ron DeSantis, joined the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for the tour. DeSantis said Noem’s team told him the facility would be opened to receive detainees after Trump’s departure.

Trump talked for more than an hour as he deflected questions about who could lose Medicaid healthcare coverage under the tax and spending legislation, warmly responded to a suggestion to arrest former President Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and repeated a frequent complaint about shower heads lacking sufficient water pressure. Noem, meanwhile, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained a “cannibal” who “started to eat himself” on an airplane.

Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s remarks:

Trump’s ‘illegal alien’ cost estimate comes from group that advocates for low immigration levels

While talking about the goal of cutting the federal budget, Trump said: “The average illegal alien costs American taxpayers an estimated $70,000.”

That is a lifetime estimate by an organisation that supports low levels of immigration. Critics have taken issue with it.

The White House quoted 2024 testimony to a committee in the House of Representatives by Steven A Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Camarota said in written testimony: “The lifetime fiscal drain (taxes paid minus costs) for each illegal immigrant is about $68,000.” He based his estimate on immigrants’ net fiscal impact by education level.

Camarota said the estimate came with caveats, including what percentage of immigrants in the US illegally were using welfare programmes and the amount of benefits they received and their use of public schools and emergency services.

Other analyses show positive economic effects from undocumented immigrants in the US.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan research arm of Congress, in a 2024 report found both costs and benefits from the Biden-era immigration increase. On net, CBO found, the impact was positive in several areas.

The CBO estimated an $8.9 trillion boost to the gross domestic product – a measurement of overall economic activity – over 10 years because of the immigration surge, which would improve wages, salaries and corporate profits. The CBO also estimated that federal deficits would decline by almost $1 trillion over 10 years because of increased tax revenues from immigrants, which the agency estimated would outweigh the costs they imposed in the form of additional federal outlays.

Separately, the libertarian Cato Institute in 2023 found “immigrants generate nearly $1 trillion (in 2024 dollars) in state, local and federal taxes, which is almost $300 billion more than they receive in government benefits, including cash assistance, entitlements, and public education.”

Michael A Clemens, a George Mason University economist, told PolitiFact that although the Center for Immigration Studies counted the use of public schools by immigrants in the US illegally as a cost, he and other economists see public school funding as having net positive benefits.

Trump repeats ‘autopen’ conspiracy theory about Biden

Trump said: “We have a lot of bad criminals that came into the country. … It was an unforced error. It was an incompetent president that allowed it to happen. It was an autopen, maybe, that allowed it to happen.”

He was referring to a conspiracy theory in pro-Trump circles that Biden was so out of the loop during his own presidency that aides were able to repeatedly forge his signature with a mechanical autopen to pursue their own policy goals.

No evidence has surfaced to indicate that a document Biden signed – whether by autopen or not – was done without his knowledge or consent. Anything Biden signed using an autopen would have been valid, legal experts say.

In March, we rated Trump’s claim that Biden’s pardons weren’t valid because they were signed with an autopen false. US presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, routinely have had subordinates sign pardons on their behalf.

Trump falsely says policy bill targets only Medicaid ‘waste, fraud and abuse’

During his visit, reporters asked Trump about the One Big Beautiful Bill – which the Senate approved mid-visit – and its effect on Medicaid. “Are you saying that the estimated 11.8 million people who could lose their health coverage, that is all waste, fraud and abuse?” a reporter asked.

Trump said: “No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s going to be a very much smaller number than that, and that number will be waste, fraud and abuse.”

We rated a similar version of Trump’s statement false, finding that the Medicaid changes go beyond just waste, fraud and abuse.

The 11.8 million figure comes from a CBO analysis of the Senate-passed bill.

Although some provisions could improve the detection of beneficiaries who aren’t eligible for coverage, other provisions of the House and the Senate bills would change the healthcare programme for low-income Americans to align with Trump’s ideology and Republican priorities.

The bill incentivises states to stop using their own funds to cover people in the US illegally; it requires people to work or do another approved activity to secure benefits; and it bans Medicaid payments for gender-affirming care and to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood that provide abortions among other services.

Other changes would impose copays and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. These would change the programme’s fiscal outlook but would not target waste, fraud or abuse.

Trump doubles estimate of immigrant arrivals under Biden

Trump said: “In the four years before I took office, Joe Biden allowed 21 million people, … illegal aliens, to invade our country.”

This campaign talking point remains false. During Biden’s tenure, immigration officials encountered immigrants illegally crossing the US border about 10 million times. When accounting for “got-aways” – people who evade border officials – the number rises to about 11.6 million.

Encounters aren’t the same as admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts as two encounters. Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country. The Homeland Security Department estimated about 4 million encounters under Biden led to expulsions or removals.

During Biden’s administration, about 3.8 million people were released into the US to await immigration court hearings, Department of Homeland Security data show.

PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Ella Moore contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to weigh in on the growing controversy over transgender athletes and decide if federal law bars transgender girls from women’s school sports teams.

“Biological boys should not compete on girls’ athletics teams,” West Virginia Atty. Gen. JB McCusky said in an appeal the court voted to hear.

The appeal had the backing of 26 other Republican-led states as well as President Trump.

In recent weeks, Trump threatened to cut off education funds to California because a transgender athlete participated in a women’s track and field competition.

Four years ago, West Virginia adopted its Save Women’s Sports Act but the measure has been blocked as discriminatory by the 4th Circuit Court in 2-1 decision.

Idaho filed a similar appeal after its law was blocked by the 9th Circuit Court in San Francisco. The court said it would hear that case together with the West Virginia case.

At issue is the meaning of Title IX, the federal education law that has been credited with opening the door for the vast expansion of women’s sports. Schools and colleges were told they must give girls equal opportunities in athletics by providing them with separate sports teams.

In the past decade, however, states and their schools divided on the question of who can participate on the girls team. Is it only those who were girls at birth or can it also include those whose gender identity is female?

West Virginia told the court its “legislature concluded that biological boys should compete on boys’ and co-ed teams but not girls’ teams. This separation made sense, the legislature found, because of the ‘inherent physical differences between biological males and biological females’.”

California and most Democratic states allow transgender girls to compete in sports competitions for women.

In 2013, the Legislature said a student “shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions…consistent with his or her gender identity.”

The Supreme Court had put off a decision on this issue while the divide among the states grew.

McCusky, West Virginia’s attorney general, said he was confident the court would uphold the state’s law. “It is time to return girls’ sports to the girls and stop this misguided gender ideology once and for all,” he said in a statement.

Lawyers for Lambda Legal and the ACLU said the court should not uphold exclusionary laws.

“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Sasha Buchert, director of Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal.

“Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”

Two years ago, the justices turned down a fast-track appeal from West Virginia’s lawyers on a 7-2 vote and allowed a 12-year old transgender girl to run on the girls’ cross country team.

Becky Pepper-Jackson and her mother sued after the school principal said she was barred by the state’s law from competing on the girls’ teams at her middle school in Bridgeport, W. Va.

She “has lived as a girl in all aspects of her life for years and receives puberty-delaying treatment and estrogen hormone therapy, so has not experienced (and will not experience) endogenous puberty,” her mother said in support of their lawsuit.

ACLU lawyers said then the court should stand aside. They said B.P.J. was eager to participate in sports but was “too slow to compete in the track events” on the girls team.

Last year, West Virginia tried again and urged the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit’s decision and uphold its restrictions on transgender athletes.

The state attorneys also claimed the would-be middle school athlete had become a track star.

“This spring, B.P.J. placed top three in every track event B.P.J. competed in, winning most. B.P.J. beat over 100 girls, displacing them over 250 times while denying multiple girls spots and medals in the conference championship. B.P.J. won the shot put by more than three feet while placing second in discus,” they told the court.

Last year, the court opted to rule first in a Tennessee case to decide if states may prohibit puberty blockers, hormones and other medical treatments for young teens who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

On June 18, the court’s conservative majority said state lawmakers had the authority to restrict medical treatments for adolescents who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, noting the ongoing debate over the long-term risks and benefits. The ruling turned aside the contention that law reflected unconstitutional sex discrimination.

On Thursday, the justices released their final orders list before their summer recess granting review of new cases to be heard in the fall. Included were the cases of West Virginia vs. BJP and Little vs. Hecox.

In response to the appeals, ACLU lawyers accused the state of seeking to “create a false sense of national emergency” based on a legal “challenge by one transgender girl.”

The lawsuit said the state measure was “part of a concerted nationwide effort to target transgender youth for unequal treatment.” The suit contended the law violated Title IX and was unconstitutional because it discriminated against student athletes based on their gender identity.

West Virginia’s lawyers saw a threat to Title IX and women’s sports.

They said the rulings upholding transgender rights “took a law designed to ensure meaningful competitive opportunities for women and girls—based on biological differences — and fashioned it into a lever for males to force their way onto girls’ sports teams based on identity, destroying the very opportunities Title IX was meant to protect.”

It wasn’t so much the culmination of a career as it was another signpost pointing the way to the Hall of Fame.

It certainly wasn’t the last pitch Clayton Kershaw will ever throw for the Dodgers, but it will likely be among the most memorable.

Because when Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra took a 1-2 slider for a strike to end the sixth inning Wednesday night, Kershaw became just the 20^th pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts.

More people have flown to the moon than have struck out 3,000 major league hitters. And for Kershaw, who has been chasing history since he threw his first big-league pitch as a skinny 20-year-old, entering such an elite club will be a big piece of his legacy.

Only now he has the wisdom and the grace to realize it was never about him in the first place.

“It’s an incredible list. I’m super, super grateful to be a part of it,” Kershaw said. “But if you don’t have anybody to celebrate with, it’s just doesn’t matter.”

Kershaw would know since he’s one of the most decorated players in history. Twice a 20-game winner, a five-time ERA champion and two-time world champion, he’s won three Cy Young Awards, was a league MVP and is a 10-time all-star.

“The individual stuff,” he repeated “is only as important as the people around you.”

So while Kershaw stood out when reached the 3K milestone on the 100^th and final pitch he threw in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win, he refused to stand apart, pausing on his way off the field to point at his family sitting in their usual seats in the front row of the loge section. He then accepted hugs from teammates Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández.

But he saved his warmest embrace for manager Dave Roberts, who bounded up the dugout steps to greet him.

“We’ve been through a lot together,” said Roberts, who has guided Kershaw through doubts and disappointments, through high points and lows in their 10 years together.

“I’m one of the few people in uniform that has been through them,” Roberts said. “That was kind of what the embrace was.”

Kershaw, 37, is just the fourth left-hander to reach 3,000 strikeouts but more important, he said, is the fact he’s just the second in a century, after Bob Gibson, to do it with the same team. No pitcher, in fact, has spent more years in a Dodger uniform that Kershaw.

“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” he said. “Over time you get older and appreciate one organization a little bit more. Doc [Roberts] stuck with me, too. It hasn’t been all roses, I know that.

“So there’s just a lot of mutual respect and I’m super grateful now, looking back, to get to say that I spent my whole career here. And I will spend my whole career here.”

Kershaw struck out the first batter he faced in his Dodger debut 18 years ago, getting the Cardinals’ Skip Schumaker to wave at a 1-2 pitch. It was the first of three strikeouts he would record in his first big-league inning. So even from the start, the K in Kershaw — the scorebook symbol for a strikeout — stood out more than than the rest of the name.

In between Schumaker and Capra, Kershaw fanned nearly 1,000 different hitters, from CJ Abrams and Bobby Abreu to Ryan Zimmerman and Barry Zito.

He’s stuck out (Jason) Castro and (Buddy) Kennedy, Elvis (Andrus) and (Alex) Presley and (Billy) Hamilton and (Alex) Jackson. He’s whiffed (Scott) Cousins and brothers (Bengie and Yadier Molina), a (Chin-lung) Hu and a Yu (Darvish), a Cook (Aaron) and a (Jeff) Baker as well as a Trout (Mike) and multiple Marlins (Miami).

Former Giant Brandon Belt was Kershaw’s most frequent victim, striking out 30 times in 62 at-bats. Fewer than 50 batters have faced him at least five times without striking out, according to Baseball Reference.

Along the way Kershaw’s unique windup, the right knee pausing as he lifts both hands just above his cap, has become an instantly recognizable silhouette for a generation of Dodger fans.

There’s only one other left-hander in team history that can compare with Kershaw, yet he and Sandy Koufax are so different the comparisons are more contrasts than anything.

Kershaw has been brilliant over the entirety of his 18-year career, winning 10 or more games 12 times. He’s never finished a season with a losing record and his career ERA of 2.52 is the lowest of the last 105 years for pitchers who are thrown at least 1,500 innings. Even at 37, he’s unbeaten in four decisions.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw walks off the mound after recording his 3,000th career strikeout as right fielder Andy Pages, left, and first baseman Freddie Freeman, right, react behind him.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Koufax was 36-40 with an ERA above 4.00 through his first six seasons. And while Koufax’s career was ended by injury before his 31^st birthday, Kershaw has pushed through repeated problems with his back, shoulder, knee, toe, elbow, pelvis and forearm.

Only Don Sutton has won more games in a Dodger uniform than the 216 that belong to Kershaw, who will soon be enshrined next to Koufax and Sutton in the Hall of Fame.

“Early on they were talking about this next Sandy Koufax guy, this big left-hander. Really didn’t have an idea where the ball was going, but pretty special,” said Roberts, who retired as a player after Kershaw’s rookie season. “It’s much better to be wearing the same uniform as him.”

But Roberts has seen the other side, when the young promise gives way to pitfalls. He’s seen Kershaw battle so many injuries, he’s spent nearly as much time on the injured list as in the rotation over the past five seasons. Alongside the brilliance, he’s seen the uncertainty.

So with Kershaw approaching history Wednesday, Roberts loosened the leash, letting him go back to the mound for the sixth inning despite having thrown 92 pitches, his most in more than two years.

“I wanted to give Clayton every opportunity,” he said. “You could see the emotion that he had today, trying to get that third strike. But I think it just happened the way it’s supposed to happen, in the sense that it was the third out [and] we got a chance to really celebrate him.”

Each time Kershaw got to two strikes, something he did to 15 of the 27 hitters he faced, “I said a few Hail Marys” Roberts said.

“It’s the last box for Clayton to check in his tremendous career,” he added, saying he doubted many more pitchers will ever reach 3,000 strikeouts. “You’ve got to stay healthy, you’ve got to be good early in your career, you’ve got to be good for a long time.”

And Kershaw has been all of that.

That, Roberts said, was behind the second long hug he and his pitcher shared in the dugout Wednesday night as a highlight reel of Kershaw’s career played on the video boards above both outfield pavilions. The sellout crowd, which had long been on its feet, continuing cheering, eventually drawing Kershaw back out onto the field to doff his cap in appreciation.

“That ovation,” he said “was something that I’ll never forget, for sure.”

Because who wants to celebrate alone?

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran is committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), dismissing speculation that Iran would leave the accord in response to major attacks by Israel and the United States on its nuclear and other sites.

Araghchi also said on Thursday that Iran will honour its safeguards agreement with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), despite recently passing a law to suspend cooperation with the agency.

Safeguards agreements between the IAEA and NPT signatories allow the UN agency to ensure that the countries’ nuclear programmes remain peaceful.

“Iran remains committed to the NPT and its Safeguards Agreement,” Araghchi wrote in a social media post.

“In accordance with the new legislation by Majlis [parliament], sparked by the unlawful attacks against our nuclear facilities by Israel and the US, our cooperation with [the IAEA] will be channelled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons.”

It is not clear how that cooperation will proceed or when and how IAEA inspectors will be granted access to Iran’s nuclear sites.

Araghchi’s comment was made in response to a German Federal Foreign Office statement decrying the Iranian legislation against the IAEA as a “devastating message”.

The Iranian foreign minister hit out at the criticism by Germany – one of Israel’s most committed allies that backed the attacks against Iran last month.

At the height of Israel’s strikes, which were launched without direct provocation, Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested Germany and the West are benefitting from the war.

“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said. The remarks earned him praise from Israeli officials and caused outrage in some other quarters.

On Thursday, Araghchi rebuked “Germany’s explicit support for Israel’s unlawful attack on Iran, including safeguarded nuclear sites, as ‘dirty work’ carried out on behalf of the West”.

He also accused Berlin of repudiating its commitments under the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Tehran by demanding zero enrichment by Iran.

The pact – which US President Donald Trump torpedoed during his first term in 2018 – allows Iran to enrich uranium at a low grade under a strict monitoring regime.

“‘Iranians were already put off by Germany’s Nazi-style backing of Genocide in Gaza, and its support for Saddam’s war on Iran by providing materials for chemical weapons,” Araghchi said in a post on X.

“The explicit German support for the bombing of Iran has obliterated the notion that the German regime harbours anything but malice towards Iranians.”

Companies from the former West Germany have long been accused by Iran of helping late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein develop chemical weapons, which he used against Iranian forces during the war between the two countries in the 1980s.

Iran has been calling on Germany to investigate its ties to Iraq’s chemical weapons, but Berlin has not publicly acknowledged any role in the programme.

Germany and other European countries came out in support of Israel in its recent 12-day war with Iran, which killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, including nuclear scientists and their family members, as well as top military officials.

The US joined the Israeli campaign last month, bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran retaliated against the US attack with a missile strike against an airbase in Qatar where US soldiers are stationed. Hours later, a ceasefire was reached.

Iranian officials have sharply criticised the IAEA not only for failing to condemn the Israeli and US strikes but also for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing Tehran of noncompliance with its nuclear obligations, the day before Israel attacked.

International law offers special protection to nuclear sites due to the high risk of an environmental disaster if attacks result in the leak of radioactive material.

The state of the Iranian nuclear programme after the US and Israeli strikes remains unclear.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the US bombing operation set back Iran’s nuclear programme by one to two years.

But IAEA chief Rafael Grossi recently said Iran could be enriching uranium again in a “matter of months”. Enrichment is the process of enhancing the purity of radioactive uranium atoms to produce nuclear fuel.

Iran has repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon while Israel is widely believed to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal of dozens of atomic bombs.

EXPLAINER

The football world remains in shock after tragic road accident involving Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother.

In the early hours of Thursday, Diogo Jota, forward for Liverpool FC and the Portuguese national team, and his younger brother, died in a car accident in northwestern Spain.

At just 28 years old, Jota was enjoying some of the best moments of his career and personal life; he won the UEFA Nations League with Portugal, the Premier League with Liverpool, and he recently married his childhood sweetheart.

The tragedy has left a deep void in the football world, which is still trying to come to terms with the loss.

What caused the car crash?

The two were travelling in a Lamborghini Urus SUV, which, according to reports, suffered a tyre blowout just after midnight while overtaking another vehicle on the A-52 highway, at kilometre 65.300, near the town of Cernadilla, Zamora, just 15 kilometres from the Portugal border.

The car veered off the road, crashed, and instantly caught fire.

By the time firefighters arrived at the crash scene, the vehicle was completely burned out.

The charred remains of the two footballers could only be identified through their identification papers.

Why was Jota driving back to England?

Jota was travelling by car to catch a ferry from the Spanish port of Santander back to northern England after being advised not to fly as a result of a previous lung surgery, according to multiple media reports in Portugal and Spain.

His club side, Liverpool, are due to begin preseason training on Monday.

What was Cristiano Ronaldo’s reaction?

Ronaldo, Portugal’s national team captain, was deeply shaken by the news of teammate Diogo Jota’s death.

“It doesn’t make sense. We were only just in the national team together, you had only just got married,” Ronaldo posted on the social media platform X.

“To your family, your wife and your children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world. I know you’ll always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and Andre. We’ll all miss you.”

Who was travelling with Jota?

His brother Andre Silva, his only sibling.

Though less known internationally, Silva, 25, was also a professional footballer.

He played for Futebol Clube Penafiel in Portugal’s second division and was previously part of FC Porto’s youth academy.

O Futebol Clube do Porto está de luto.

É com choque e profundo pesar que enviamos as sentidas condolências à família e amigos do Diogo Jota e irmão André Silva, que também foi nosso atleta nos escalões de formação.

Descansem em paz.#FCPorto pic.twitter.com/BXlR8v7y7Z

— FC Porto (@FCPorto) July 3, 2025

What family does Jota leave behind?

A wife and three children.

Rute Cardoso has suddenly and painfully become the widow of Diogo Jota, less than two weeks after they were married at a ceremony in his home city of Porto on June 22.

A flight attendant has shared the unexpected hotel appliance you should always check before using it – and you’ll probably never look at it the same way again

Checking into a hotel room often brings the joy of unwinding, but a seasoned flight attendant has shared a word of caution about a common hotel item. Barbara Bacilieri, from Argentina, is no stranger to hotel stays thanks to her flying career, yet she confessed there’s one thing you might not consider when brewing up a cuppa in your room.

Revealing all to her TikTok followers, Barbara insists you should ALWAYS peek inside the kettle to confirm it’s clean before use. She warned: “Always take a look inside the coffee pot. Before boiling water for making tea or coffee, think it through.”

The Argentinian air hostess shocked viewers with claims that guests have used the kettle for bizarre purposes, from rinsing underwear and cooking sausages to cleaning menstrual cups!

So, the next time you settle into your travel abode, make it a point to boil the kettle once and give it a good rinse prior to enjoying your brew. Barbara added: “You weren’t expecting this one, right? Just imagine how many other things guests do and we don’t know.”

But that’s not all Barbara suggests scrutinising – she also points out the importance of inspecting the bed. While it may appear spotless, certainty is elusive. She advises: “Before getting into bed, lift the sheets. Check for bugs or socks that other guests may have left behind.”

The flight attendant expressed her astonishment at the lengths some guests go to pilfer items from hotel rooms, and we’re not just talking about the complimentary mini toiletries.

“Some people believe that everything in the room is up for grabs, or they feel entitled because they’ve paid a hefty sum,” she remarked.

“Items like the batteries from the remote control or even worse, the light bulbs.”

However, she clarified in the video that while tea, coffee and sugar are free to use and take, mugs and pillows certainly aren’t. “You wouldn’t believe how many guests nick the hotel pillows.”

And as for hotel towels?

“Loads of people have them at home.”

Barbara ended on a humorous note, suggesting you should always check the hotel safe – you might just get lucky if “the previous guest forgot their millions.”

Natalie Z. Briones is a concert veteran. She’s been to heavy metal concerts and a punk music festival where she napped most of the time. On Sunday, she attended her first baby rave.

Natalie is a few months shy of two. In the arms of her dad, Alvin Briones, 36, the pigtailed toddler squealed “Hi!” to anyone passing by the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood where the Briones family was lined up to meet Lenny Pearce, the mastermind behind Natalie’s favorite song, “The Wheels on the Bus.”

Natalie Z. Briones, held by her father Alvin Briones, sports rainbow face paint at the baby rave.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

It’s not the classic version most parents sing while slowly swaying and clapping — Pearce’s rendition rages with enough bass to rattle rib cages. Natalie is here for it, and so is her mom, Alondra Briones, who plays the techno remix during her drives to work even without Natalie in the backseat.

“It’s a pick-me-up,” said Alondra, 28, from Compton, before filing into the theater with other parents and caregivers for an afternoon rager with their kids.

In Pearce’s techno remixes of classic children’s music, an unexpected subgenre is taking off — toddler techno — which melds the cloyingly sweet lyrics of songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” with the edgy beat drops associated with music from gritty warehouse parties.

The unlikely musical pairing creates a bridge between parents like Sandra Mikhail and her 6-year-old daughter, Mila. Both dressed in fuchsia at Pearce’s dance party, the mother-daughter duo were there to celebrate Mila’s promotion from kindergarten. In their Riverside home, Pearce’s music is on heavy rotation.

Children squeal in delight at the baby rave at the Roxy as Kuma the money, Lenny Pearce’s sidekick, hypes up the crowd.

“I can handle kids’ music now,” said Sandra, 38. “With the beat and [Pearce] adding that techno touch to it, it makes me able to tolerate listening to it all day long.”

For the last year, Pearce has been hosting sold-out dance parties boldly called baby raves — first in his native Australia — then on the first leg of his U.S. tour, which culminated in a June 29 double-header at the Roxy.

In the afternoon show timed for that sweet spot many parents know well — post-nap and right before the evening witching hours — Pearce pranced, high-fived kids and waved at babies being hoisted in the air.

Lenny Pearce vibes with the crowd at his sold-out show at the Roxy.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

At 34, he’s been an entertainer for most of his life. Over a decade ago, he was dancing in music videos as a member of the Australian boy band, Justice Crew. Now, he’s firmly affixed in his dad era. His dance partner is now a large balloon spider named Incy Wincy.

“I’m just being a dad on stage,” said Pearce in a video interview from New York. “I can make a clown of myself to entertain kids.”

From boy band to toddler techno

Lenny Pearce uses props during his shows, including an inflatable duck.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

Pearce’s journey into children’s entertainment seemed preordained, if only because his identical twin brother is arguably the second most famous purple character on a children’s TV show (behind Barney, of course).

“We’re both in the toddler scene,” said John Pearce, the older twin by minutes, who in 2021 joined “The Wiggles” cast as the Purple Wiggle. “[My brother’s] stuck with it for a long time, and it’s all paid off now.”

At the Roxy, many parents and caregivers said they found Pearce through the Purple Wiggle. Others discovered him on social media: He has more than 2 million followers on TikTok and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

Before becoming children’s entertainers, the Pearce brothers were members of Justice Crew, a dance troupe that won “Australia’s Got Talent” in 2010. For a few years, the boy band’s future burned white hot with the aspiration to break through in the U.S. — a dream that never materialized.

Lenny Pearce started making what he calls toddler techno music after his daughter was born in 2022. As a dad, he says he’s happy to act silly for kids.

Most boy bands have a finite time in the spotlight, said Pearce. In 2016, he quit the Justice Crew to focus on DJing and music production, but the transition from boy band to toddler techno didn’t happen overnight. For a time, he worked as a salesperson at an Australian electronic store.

“People were like, ‘Aren’t you from Justice Crew?’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah. Now, do you want this lens with that camera?’”

In 2022, becoming a dad to his daughter Mila changed the course of his creativity. Pearce started remixing children’s songs with “ravey” music and filming himself dancing with her to the songs. Soon, other parents started sharing videos of their kids dancing to his songs, too. In this way, social media allows for ideas to be refined until something sticks.

In March, Pearce released his first solo album aptly titled, “Toddler Techno.”

All along the way, he imagined playing these songs at mini raves. For this generation of kids and their millennial parents, it’s not a stretch, said Pearce. Pretend DJ tables are just as commonly sold in toy aisles as construction trucks.

In the fall, Pearce and his baby raves will return to the U.S. — and, yes, to L.A. — in a 30-city tour. As a solo artist, he’s done what he couldn’t do in a band — he’s broken through to the U.S. and international audiences.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” said Pearce. “I always felt like I had something to say, but no one really listened.”

But are techno parties OK for kids?

Many attendees at the baby rave were wearing ear covers.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

The roots of techno — in Detroit or Berlin depending on whom you talk to — were always antiestablishment, said Ambrus Deak, program manager of music production at the Los Angeles Film School.

“It was exploratory,” said Deak, a longtime DJ who went by DJ AMB, about techno.

Toddler techno plays with that contrast — an edgy genre made safe for kids. Deak would not attend a baby rave — “It would be very cringe for me,” he said — but sees the appeal.

“I can definitely see a lot of people being into it,” said Deak, 48.

Still, not everyone is sold on the idea of taking kids to a rave — even one held in the middle of the day with a face-painting station. In the comments of Pearce’s social media posts, parents occasionally debate the appropriateness of exposing kids to drug-addled rave culture.

“I know that most people would say, ‘Is this the image we want to teach our kids?’” said Pearce. “What image are you imagining? Because if you think about it, they’re just kids with light sticks, right?”

He gets the concern, but kids don’t know about the darker sides of raves unless they are taught. And that’s not what his baby raves are about.

In the right dose, some experts say techno music and baby raves can be beneficial for kids and parents.

“Parents’ happiness and stress regulation also matter,” said Jenna Marcovitz, director of the UCLA Health Music Therapy program. “Techno can promote oxytocin and boost endorphins. It can encourage joy and play and really support brain development, emotional regulation and really enhance the parent-child bond as well.”

At the Roxy, one man vigorously pumped his fist to the beat of the music.

“Fist pump like this!” he shouted to the child on his shoulders. Both fists — little and big — jabbed the air.

How to keep it safe and sane

Glow sticks were a popular accessory at the event.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

Everything — especially baby raves — should be enjoyed in moderation. The pulsating music, giant inflatables tossed into the crowd and sudden blasts of fog can overstimulate kids.

For the roughly one-hour show, the music is loud. Typically set to 85 to 90 decibels, Pearce said. Having a sensory support plan is key, said Marcovitz, who recommends toddlers wear headphones with a noise reduction rating of 20 to 30 decibels or higher — like this one or this one. Practicing dance parties at home, so your child knows what to expect, is also helpful.

At the rave, look for signs of overstimulation, which can present differently with each child — some might shut down while others might start shoving each other mosh pit-style. At the Roxy show, one toddler sat down, ate half a bag of Goldfish crackers and poured the rest on the floor. Another disappeared into the crowd for a few alarming moments before being returned by a good Samaritan.

Toddlers crawl and lay down amid the crowd at the baby rave.

(Elizabeth Weinberg / For The Times)

“For any child, I would recommend breaks every 30 minutes,” said Marcovitz. “Step outside.”

Because techno hypes people up — even little kids — it’s important to help a child regulate their nervous system back down after the show.

“Lots of cuddles, silence and hugs,” said Marcovitz.

Pearce also starts the party late, so the dance party before the rave can tucker kids out before he takes the stage.

Ashley and Todd Herles drove from Santa Clarita to the Roxy so their son, Oliver, 3, could meet Pearce before the show. They said they bought $120 VIP tickets, which included a meet and greet and table seats where Oliver got to high-five Kuma, Pearce’s dancing sidekick in a turquoise monkey suit. For Pearce’s November 23 show at the Novo in downtown Los Angeles, ticket prices currently range from $48 to $195, fees and taxes included.

Overall, Oliver loved it — until he didn’t.

“[The] meltdown happened around 1:40 so we left then,” said Ashley, 40.

They had big post-rave plans to refuel with french fries. But Oliver was tired.

And, most importantly?

“Our backs hurt,” said Ashley.

Children bopped along to the music from atop their parents’ shoulders during the dance party.

WASHINGTON — Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he suffered severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation and psychological torture in the notorious El Salvador prison the Trump administration had deported him to in March, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

He said he was kicked and hit so often after arrival that by the following day, he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. He said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night long and guards hit anyone who fell.

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and became a flashpoint in President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The new details of Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador were added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia’s wife filed in Maryland federal court after he was deported.

The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is now moot because the government returned him to the United States as ordered by the court.

A U.S. immigration judge in 2019 had barred Abrego Garcia from being deported back to his native El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs who had terrorized him and his family. The Trump administration deported him there despite the judge’s 2019 order and later described it as an “administrative error.” Trump and other officials have since doubled down on claims Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang.

On March 15, Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador and sent to the country’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

In the new court documents, Abrego Garcia said detainees at CECOT “were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.”

He said prison officials told him repeatedly that they would transfer him to cells with people who were gang members who would “tear” him apart. Abrego Garcia said he saw others in nearby cells violently harm each other and heard screams from people throughout the night.

His condition deteriorated and he lost more than 30 pounds in his first two weeks there, he said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador in April. The senator said Abrego Garcia reported he’d been moved from the mega-prison to a detention center with better conditions.

The Trump administration continued to face mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order to return him to the United States. When the U.S. government brought back Abrego Garcia last month, it was to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time of Abrego Garcia’s return that this “is what American justice looks like.” But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the charges “preposterous” and an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion.

A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release — under certain conditions — as he awaits trial on the criminal charges in Tennessee. But she has kept him in jail for now at the request of his own attorneys over fears that he would be deported again upon release.

Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press last month that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him again.

Separately, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland last month that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans. But Abrego Garcia’s attorneys cited Guynn’s comments as a reason to fear he would be deported “immediately.”

Baumann and Finley write for the Associated Press.

India captain Shubman Gill reaches 200 for the first time in his Test career to help his side build a huge first innings score against England on day two of the second Test against at Edgbaston.

FOLLOW LIVE: Men’s International Test Match Series – England v India

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July 3 (UPI) — An island chain in southwest Japan was shaken by an earthquake on Thursday after over 1,000 tremors throughout two weeks.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the Tokara island chain at about 4:13 p.m. with a magnitude as high as 7 recorded on Akuseki Island.

All 76 people on Akuseki Island were confirmed safe, no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of injury or property damage.

The residents have found shelter at a school after an evacuation order was issued, and the village is considering evacuating from the island.

The island chain has experienced heightened seismic activity since June 21 as local media described the wave of quakes as unusual.

“It’s very scary to even fall asleep,” one resident said. “It feels like it’s always shaking.”

“You can hear a strange roar from the ocean before the quakes hit, especially at night. It’s eerie,” Chizuko Arikawa from Akusekijima island told The Asahi Shimbun.

Some residents have been sleep-deprived and tired as they asked media to “be considerate and not make excessive inquiries or interviews,” according to a notice on the village website

The country is on the edge of its seat with this series of tremors by rumors that a deadly earthquake could be coming soon.

Japan is prone to be one of the most seismically active nations, with about 1,500 earthquakes each year.

Strictly Come Dancing star, Dan Walker, has broken his silence after leaving viewers concerned following his lengthy absence from Channel 5 News and Classic FM

Presenter, Dan Walker, has assured fans there is nothing to worry about after taking leave from his Channel 5 News and Classic FM shows. The former Football Focus host, 48, is one of the nation’s most recognisable presenters and is usually on our screens weeknights on Channel 5 and on the radio on Sunday for Classic FM.

However, Dan has recently been absent from both programmes, prompting viewers to express their concern. Revealing the real reason for his mysterious disappearance, he took to Instagram, saying the “answer is twofold”. Explaining that he’d been on a family holiday as well as filming a new show for Channel 5, he said, sitting in his car: “Hello, I’ve been asked by quite a few people if I’ve left Channel 5 and why I’ve disappeared from Classic FM. The answer is twofold.”

READ MORE: Coronation Street rejects Matt Lucas after Little Britain star asks for role on soap

Dan continued: “First is, I’m on holiday with the family for a couple of weeks and the second is that I’m filming a new series for Channel 5, which you should be able to see I think in September, which I can’t tell you too much about but it’s going to be great fun.

“So that’s why I’ve not been on the telly. The radio I’ll be back on Monday and I’ll be back on 5 News in a couple of weeks time once I’ve finished filming the series.

“There you go, that’s the answer, it looks like the lovely weather is over, the rain has returned, have a great day.”

BBC Breakfast viewers were stunned when Dan jumped shipped and headed over to Channel 5 in 2022. Dan had been at the helm on the red sofa at the Beeb since 2016, but decided it was time for a change – as well as a lie-in.

Speaking on This Morning, he admitted he used to “cry in the toilets” while at the BBC as he opened up about his tough schedule. Talking to hosts Dermot O’Leary and Josie Gibson, he said: “When I used to do BBC Breakfast, you know what it’s like. If that alarm goes off at three that’s far too early, that’s flight to Spain time isn’t it.

“I get up now about 5.30am/ 5.45am, which is essentially a lie in and I feel great, I feel refreshed and I really enjoy the job I do.”

He continued: “By Wednesday I was, like, full zombie mode. And also you get really emotional. By Wednesday I was like, end of the show, you are like, in the toilets just crying.

“Anything sets you off. Someone says something nice about your trousers and you are like [fake cries]. Not everyday, but I think you just get a little bit emotional when you are sleep-deprived.”

Dan went on to bag a reported £1.5million deal with Channel 5 to host it’s nightly news programme in 2022.

He made the announcement posting a short video on Twitter, now X, with the caption: “Here we go. See you next Monday at 5, on 5.

“It’s great to be joining Channel 5, but news is never about who sits in the chair. It’s the stories that matter most from a team you can trust.”

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Masked federal agents are snatching up immigrants. It’s been less than two weeks since the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. President Trump’s long-threatened tariffs could finally kick in next week.

Given all that, most people probably aren’t focused on climate change.

But they should be. Because Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the Senate this week and was poised to clear the House early Thursday, would do more than gut Medicaid, cut student loan relief and increase funding for deportations. It would kill federal support for solar and wind power, undoing President Biden’s historic climate law and punishing Americans with deadlier air, more lethal heat waves and higher electric bills.

I’m usually a climate optimist. But it’s hard to find reasons for hope right now.

The Senate bill would eliminate tax credits for solar and wind farms that don’t come online by the end of 2027 — a brutal deadline for projects that take years to permit, finance and construct. That would slam the brakes on new development and also jeopardize hundreds of projects already in the works — not only solar and wind farms, but also factories to build solar panels, wind turbines, lithium-ion batteries and other clean energy technologies.

Solar and wind farms that start construction by June 2026 would get tax credits no matter when they come online, a last-minute concession to the handful of Republican senators with a modicum of sense.

As if needing to counterbalance that concession, Republican leaders added lucrative tax credits for metallurgical coal, an incredibly dirty fossil fuel that’s mostly shipped to China and other countries to make steel.

The bill would also end tax credits for rooftop solar, electric vehicles and energy-efficient home upgrades — while reducing royalty rates for coal mined on public lands, and requiring more oil and gas leasing on those lands.

“The fossil fuel industry helped pay for this government, and now they’re getting their reward,” Bill McKibben, the preeminent climate author and activist, wrote in his newsletter.

That’s part of the explanation. Another part, I think, is that most voters aren’t paying close attention.

Polls consistently show that an overwhelming majority of Americans want cleaner energy, and climate action writ large. But polls also show that climate ranks low as a priority for most Americans.

Wind turbines in the California desert, seen from Highway 58.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

So when it comes time for Trump and his allies to pay for their deficit-ballooning tax cuts — which mostly benefit the rich — clean energy is an easy target. They can tell outrageous lies about solar and wind being unreliable and expensive, and many people will either believe them or not care enough to seek out the truth.

Indeed, Trump wrote on social media last month that renewable energy tax credits are a “giant SCAM.” He claimed that wind turbines “and the rest of this ‘JUNK’” are “10 times more costly than any other energy.”

That’s not even remotely true. Authoritative sources, including the investment bank Lazard, report that solar and wind are America’s cheapest sources of new electricity, even without tax credits. Those low costs help explain why solar, wind and batteries made up 94% of new power capacity in the U.S. last year. Even in Texas, they’re booming.

For now, at least. John Ketchum, president of Florida-based NextEra Energy, warned the Trump administration in March that shelving renewables and battery storage would “force electricity prices to the moon.”

Lo and behold, research firm Energy Innovation estimates the Senate bill would cause average household energy costs to increase $130 annually by 2030. The firm also predicts 760,000 lost jobs by 2030.

“Families will face higher electric bills, factories will shut down, Americans will lose their jobs, and our electric grid will grow weaker,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Assn.

The point about the grid growing weaker is key. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, one of three Republicans to vote against the bill, mentioned a global turbine shortage that’s slowing the construction of gas-fired power plants. He stated plainly what energy executives know: that renewables and batteries are needed for a reliable grid.

“What you have done is create a blip in power service,” Tillis told his colleagues.

Here’s a question: If clean energy is so cheap, and in such high demand, why does it need subsidies?

For one thing, solar and wind projects require big upfront investments, after which the fuel, be it sun or wind, is free. Gas plants are often less expensive to build, but they can subject consumers to huge utility bill swings when fuel costs soar — during geopolitical turmoil, for instance, or during climate-fueled weather disasters.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Eland solar and storage plant, located in Kern County, generates electricity for a record-low price.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Also relevant: Fossil fuel subsidies are so deeply entrenched in the U.S. tax code that they rarely make news. Coal, oil and gas benefit from tens of billions of dollars in subsidies every year, by some estimates.

And that’s without accounting for the bigger wildfires, harsher droughts, stronger storms, hotter heat waves and other harms of fossil fuel combustion, including air pollution that kills millions of people worldwide each year. Oil, gas and coal companies don’t pay those costs. Taxpayers do.

So, yes, solar and wind still need a leg up. But even under Biden’s climate law, the U.S. hasn’t been reducing heat-trapping emissions enough to help keep global warming to less-than-catastrophic levels.

And now, under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the U.S. will be moving backward instead of forward.

So if you care about the climate crisis, what can you do?

I wish I could say California was doubling down on climate leadership, like it did during Trump’s first term. Sadly, Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t prioritized clean energy as he readies a possible presidential run. Again and again, he and his appointees have yielded to the fossil fuel industry and its allies — on plastics recycling, oil refinery profits, emissions disclosures and more.

Other Golden State leaders are doing no better. This week, lawmakers passed an awful law pushed by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) that will pause new energy efficiency rules for homes until 2031. Meanwhile, a potentially transformative “climate superfund” bill — which would charge fossil fuel companies for their pollution and use the money to help Californians cope with climate disasters — is languishing in Sacramento.

The landscape is bleak. But we’re not doomed.

The planet will almost certainly warm beyond an internationally agreed upon target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. But 2 degrees is a lot better than 2.5 degrees, and way better than 3 degrees. Climate change isn’t a game we win or lose. Every bit of avoided warming means safer, healthier lives for more people.

Yes, the U.S. is a climate train wreck right now. But global warming is just like immigration or healthcare: Nothing will change if most of us do nothing. So don’t tune out. Don’t surrender to despair. Bring up climate when you talk to your friends and call your representatives. Make protest signs about it. Let it guide your vote.

As McKibben wrote: “Our job from here on out … is to make ourselves heard.”

“It may not work tomorrow. It may not work until we’ve gotten more decent people into office. But it’s our job, and not to be shirked,” he wrote. “And in some sad way it’s an honor: We’re the people who get to make the desperate stand for a country and a planet that works.”

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our “Boiling Point” podcast here.

For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @sammyroth.bsky.social on Bluesky.

From Bill Plaschke: The slider was sizzling. The hitter was frozen. The strikeout was roaring.

With an 84-mph pitch on the black in the sixth inning against the Chicago White Sox Wednesday at a rollicking Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw struck out Vinny Capra looking to become the 20th player in baseball history to record 3,000 strikeouts.

As impressive as the pitch itself was the cementing of a truth that has been evident for several years.

Clayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher in Dodgers history.

Greater than even the great Sandy Koufax.

Gasp. Scream. Please.

I wrote this opinion three years ago and was deluged with a barrage of emphatic and mostly emotional arguments for Koufax.

How dare you diss our Sandy! Koufax won more championships! Koufax never choked in the postseason! Koufax was more dominant!

All true, as well as Koufax being a tremendous human being worthy of every syllable of praise. But as Wednesday so clearly proved in front of a history-thirsty crowd at Chavez Ravine, Kershaw has done something that any defense of Koufax cannot equal.

Continue reading here

Photos: Kershaw’s road to 3,000

Fans react to Clayton Kershaw reaching 3,000 career strikeouts

Clayton Kershaw reaches 3,000 career strikeouts, is 20th pitcher to do so in MLB history

Dodgers’ All-Star lineup record quest fizzles with 3 of 8 finalists voted as starters

Dodgers DEI efforts target of federal civil rights complaint filed by conservative group

North Hollywood mural lauds Dodgers’ Kiké Hernández ‘for standing up for what is right’

Hernández: The Dodgers have the best record in baseball. Why they still have room to improve

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

ANGELS

Matt Olson had a grand slam among his three hits, and the Atlanta Braves used a seven-run sixth inning to beat the Angels 8-3 on Wednesday night.

Sean Murphy hit a three-run homer, and Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies each had two hits for the Braves, who received more bad injury news before the game when it was announced right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach was headed to the IL because of a broken elbow.

Braves left fielder Jurickson Profar returned from an 80-game PED suspension and was two for four with a home run and two runs scored.

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Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

LAKERS

From Broderick Turner: The Lakers finally got a center they have so desperately needed when they agreed to a deal with Deandre Ayton, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The Lakers were able to get Ayton after he received a buyout from the Portland Trail Blazers of his $35-million contract, giving up about $10 million, according to reports. That opened the door for the Lakers to get Ayton for $16 million over two season after he cleared waivers Wednesday, according to people familiar with the deal. Ayton holds a player option for the second season.

Ayton averaged 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds over 30.2 minutes per game for the Trail Blazers last season. But he played in only 40 games, missing every game after the All-Star break because of a calf injury.

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Lakers announce Summer League roster, schedule

Bronny James plays coy about father LeBron’s future with Lakers

NBA report: Knicks offer Mike Brown head coaching job

GOLD CUP

Diego Luna scored twice in the first 15 minutes, and the United States hung on to beat Guatemala 2-1 on Wednesday night to reach its first CONCACAF Gold Cup final since 2021.

Luna put the U.S. ahead with a left-footed shot in the fourth minute, then scored with his right in the 15th for his third goal in two games.

The U.S. plays defending champion Mexico for the title Sunday at Houston, the Americans’ last competitive match before their World Cup opener next June. El Tri has won nine Gold Cups, the U.S. seven and Canada one.

The 16th-ranked Americans advanced to the Gold Cup final for the 13th time. All five losses in finals have been to Mexico.

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U.S.-Guatemala summary

WIMBLEDON

Before Wimbledon began, Coco Gauff reflected on the significance of her breakthrough performance at the place six years ago — a run to the fourth round at age 15 — and what aspirations she harbored as she prepared to return.

“Even when I see videos of me during that time, it just doesn’t feel like it’s me. It felt like a dream. I’ll always have special memories from that run and, I guess, it definitely fueled the belief that I can be on tour and live out my dream,” she told the Associated Press.

“It’s something that always holds a special place in my heart. Obviously, I would love to win this tournament just for it to be like a full-circle moment,” she continued. “I feel like it would be like the start of the dream, and — I don’t want to say ‘the finish,’ because I obviously have a lot of career left, but — a full-circle type of situation.”

A week after that conversation, the No. 2-ranked Gauff was out of the bracket at the All England Club in the first round with a 7-6 (3), 6-1 loss to unseeded Dayana Yastremska at No. 1 Court on Tuesday night. Gauff was undone by serving troubles, including nine double-faults, and more than two dozen unforced errors in all, not to mention Yastremska’s hard, flat groundstrokes.

It was an abrupt, and mistake-filled, exit for Gauff, who so recently earned her second Grand Slam title — at the French Open via a three-set victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

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THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1920 — Suzanne Lenglen beats Dorothea Chambers a second straight year (6-3, 6-0) to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon.

1925 — Suzanne Lenglen wins her sixth and final women’s singles title at Wimbledon, easily beating Joan Fry, 6-2, 6-0.

1931 — Max Schmeling knocks out Young Stribling at 2:46 of the 15th round to retain the world heavyweight title in Cleveland.

1951 — Sam Snead wins his third PGA Championship with a 7 and 6 victory over Walter Burkemo at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club.

1976 — Bjorn Borg beats Ilie Nastase 6-4, 6-2, 9-7, to win his first men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

1981 — Wimbledon Women’s Tennis: Chris Evert beats Hana Mandlíková 6-2, 6-2 for her third and final Wimbledon singles title.

1982 — Martina Navratilova begins her streak of six straight singles titles at Wimbledon with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Chris Evert Lloyd. It’s the third Wimbledon singles title for Navratilova, all against Evert Lloyd.

1983 — Calvin Smith sets the 100-meter world record at Colorado Springs, with a run of 9.93 seconds. He breaks the previous record of 9.95 set by Jim Hines in 1968.

1983 — Wimbledon Men’s Tennis: American John McEnroe wins 5th career Grand Slam title; outclasses Chris Lewis of New Zealand 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

1994 — FIFA World Cup: In a huge upset Romania eliminates Argentina 3-2 from the round of 16 at the Rose Bowl.

2004 — Maria Sharapova, 17, wins her first Grand Slam title and instant celebrity by beating Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4. For the first time since 1999, none of the four major titles is held by a Williams.

2005 — Roger Federer wins his third consecutive Wimbledon title by beating Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Federer is the third man since 1936 to win three straight Wimbledon crowns, joining seven-time champion Pete Sampras and five-time winner Bjorn Borg.

2006 — Annika Sorenstam wins the U.S. Women’s Open after 10 years of frustration and wins her 10th major championship. Sorenstam, who shot a 1-under 70 in the 18-hole playoff, beats Pat Hurst by four strokes for the largest margin of victory in a playoff at the major since Kathy Cornelius won by seven shots 50 years ago.

2006 — Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman officially retires from the NHL, finishing with 692 goals and 1,755 points.

2007 — The Alinghi team from Switzerland — a country more often associated with Alpine skiing and winter snowscapes — successfully defends sailing’s coveted America’s Cup, beating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2.

2010 — Serena Williams wins her fourth Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam championship by sweeping Vera Zvonareva in straight sets in the women’s final. Williams, who finishes the tournament without dropping a set, takes 67 minutes to win 6-3, 6-2.

2011 — Novak Djokovic wins his first Wimbledon, beating defending champion Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Djokovic, already guaranteed to take over the No. 1 ranking from the Spaniard on July 4, extends his mastery over Nadal this season with a fifth straight head-to-head victory.

2016 — Serena Williams overwhelms Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Centre Court at Wimbledon, advancing to the fourth round with her 300th career Grand Slam match win.

2018 — Feliciano Lopez makes history just by taking to the court at Wimbledon. The 36-year-old Spaniard breaks Roger Federer’s record by appearing in a 66th consecutive Grand Slam singles tournament, continuing a run that started at the 2002 French Open. Lopez beats Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1912 — Rube Marquard of the New York Giants raised his season record to 19-0 with a 2-1 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. His winning streak ended five days later against the Chicago Cubs.

1939 — Cleveland’s Ben Chapman ties the modern major-league record with three triples in a 4-2 win over the Detroit Tigers.

1939 — Johnny Mize of St. Louis hit two home runs, a triple and a double, leading the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Mize drove in three runs and scored three times.

1947 — The Cleveland Indians purchased Larry Doby from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League, making him the first Black player in the American League.

1966 — Atlanta pitcher Tony Cloninger became the first National League player to hit two grand slams in one game. He added a single for nine RBIs in a 17-3 triumph over San Francisco.

1968 — Cleveland’s Luis Tiant struck out 19, walked none in a six-hit 1-0, 10-inning triumph over Minnesota.

1970 — Clyde Wright of the Angels used only 98 pitches to no-hit the Oakland A’s 4-0 at Anaheim Stadium.

1973 — Jim Perry of the Detroit Tigers and brother Gaylord of the Cleveland Indians faced each other for the only time as opposing pitchers. Neither finished the game. Gaylord took the loss, 5-4.

2006 — Manager Felipe Alou picked up his 1,000th victory in San Francisco’s 9-6 win over Colorado.

2013 — Max Scherzer worked into the seventh inning to become the first pitcher in 27 years to get off to a 13-0 start, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

2016 — Stephen Strasburg was removed from a no-hit bid after 6 2/3 innings, and Ramon Cabrera singled against Matt Belisle leading off the eighth for Cincinnati’s first hit in the Washington Nationals’ 12-1 rout of the Reds. Strasburg (11-0) threw 109 pitches, five shy of his season high. Strasburg won a franchise-record 14 straight decisions and is the first NL starter to begin a season 11-0 since San Diego’s Andy Hawkins in 1985.

2016 — Wilmer Flores went 6 for 6 with two of New York’s five home runs, and the Mets romped to a 14-3 win and a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs. Jon Lester gave up eight runs and nine hits in 1 1/3 innings, the shortest of his 301 career starts over 11 major league seasons.

2016 — New York’s Mark Teixeira hit his 400th and 401st home runs and Chad Green got his first big league victory as the Yankees avoided a three-game sweep with a 6-3 win over San Diego.

2020 — Major League Baseball announces the cancellation of the 2020 All Star game in Dodger Stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

July 3 (UPI) — As many as 1,500 people were evacuated from areas of the Greek island of Crete as wildfires burned out of control, fanned by gale-force winds, authorities said.

The fire, centered in the far southeast of the island, broke out in a forested area Wednesday, rapidly spreading toward the town of Ierapetra, forcing authorities to order residents and tourists in five surrounding settlements to move.

Some people whose escape routes were cut off by the fire had to be rescued from beaches by boat. At least four elderly people were hospitalized with respiratory problems due to smoke inhalation.

Displaced people were provided with makeshift accommodation in Ierapetra in an indoor sports center or hotel rooms, where available.

More than 150 firefighters, 38 fire trucks and four helicopters dropping water were deployed with two specialist forest-firefighting units from the Greek mainland en route to the scene to provide back-up.

That number rose to more than 230 on Thursday, but firefighters, facing a wall of flames almost four miles across with visibility down to zero, were forced into a tactical retreat for safety reasons and to focus on firebreaks to protect settlements being threatened by the fire.

Homes and rental properties in the beachfront village of Agia Fotia, 8 miles east of Ierapetra, have been destroyed and the settlement and surrounding area were without power.

The fire service, which has been issuing alerts and evacuation instructions via mobile phone messaging, warned in its daily update that the risk of wildfires remained high across Crete and parts of southern Greece.

The emergency on Crete came after authorities in Turkey’s nearby Izmur region evacuated 50,000 people in the face of wildfires in recent days.

Scientists have designated the Mediterranean, including much of Greece, a “wildfire hotspot” as blazes become ever more frequent and destructive during hot, parched summers. Governments of the affected countries say the climate crisis is the cause.

All of Europe is currently sweltering in a deadly heatwave with temperatures topping out at 46 degrees Celsius in southern Spain and 40 degrees Celsius in Paris, although temperatures in the eastern Mediterranean held closer to normal in the high 20s to low 30s degrees Celsius.

Spain, Italy and France recorded at least eight deaths connected to the extreme heat.

The blaze comes as southern Europe contends with an acute summer heatwave which has killed people in several countries.

A wildfire on the Greek island of Crete has led to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people, local media outlets have reported, as an early summer heatwave continues to grip southern Europe.

At least 230 firefighters, some dispatched from Athens, were attempting on Thursday to contain the blaze, which broke out on Wednesday evening near Ierapetra, a town on the island’s southeastern coast.

Elsewhere, a wildfire killed at least two people in the northeast Spanish region of Catalonia, and heat-related deaths have also been recorded in France and Italy this week.

Spread by gale-force winds, the blaze on Crete reached houses and hotels, according to local authorities, who said dozens of residents and tourists had been evacuated to an indoor stadium in Ierapetra.

“Three settlements were evacuated and more than 1,000 left their homes. Some were taken to health centres with respiratory problems,” George Tsapakos, Crete’s deputy civil protection governor, told public broadcaster ERT.

Meanwhile, Vice-Prefect Yannis Androulakis confirmed that the blaze, which currently has “three active fronts”, had spread quickly because of strong winds.

“There are still a number of different fronts. The fire is burning scrubland and crops,” he said. “The winds are very strong – up to nine on the Beaufort scale.”

In an interview with the TV channel Mega, Androulakis added that water bomber planes were unable to reach the affected areas overnight.

Drones and 10 helicopters were also being used to fight the fire, according to a spokesperson for the Greek fire service.

In its daily bulletin on Thursday, the fire service warned that the risk of wildfires in Crete and southern Greece remained very high.

Last year, Greece experienced its warmest summer ever, with 45,000 hectares (111,200 acres) torched by wildfires, according to WWF Greece and the Athens National Observatory.

Even more land was damaged in 2023, when almost 175,000 hectares (432,400 acres) were affected by wildfires as temperatures hit 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit).

LOVE Island fans claim they’ve spotted ‘clues’ that ‘prove’ producers are trying to keep a villa beauty on the show.

Last night, original villa girl Alima and new bombshell Ryan were dumped from the show, prompting some to claim it’s the latest twist designed to save Toni.

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Though there’s no evidence of any producer meddling, one armchair sleuth took to Reddit last night to share their theory with other viewers.

They outlined five points which they felt backed up their viewpoint.

The first of which focused on Harrison’s arrival and his opening dates with Malisha and Toni.

Footballer Harrison is based in Miami, while Toni works in Vegas, and the viewer felt the US link gave her an unfair advantage when she was ultimately picked to partner him.

Next, they highlighted Harrison and Toni being sent on the only date of the series so far before a public vote, claiming it was a method of boosting interest in them.

Thirdly, they pointed out a change to the dumping process after the public voted for their least favourite Islanders.

They wrote: “We know Love Island loves making the islanders decide the bottom 3 and if they did Toni would likely have been dumped, instead they go by straight votes and Megan is dumped despite having a strong connection in there.”

The fan alluded to more ‘meddling’ in their fourth point, claiming that by choosing Ben to go first in Sunday’s recoupling it prevented Harrison from picking Helena and leaving Toni single and at risk.

Finally, they flagged last night’s dumping and the fact Islanders weren’t given the chance to stand up for the remaining singletons, which would likely have seen Ben couple with Alima, potentially leading to a reshuffle that would’ve put Toni at risk.

Last night’s scenes played out with newbies Ryan and Billykiss being told to stand in front of their co-stars

The boys were told to stand up if they’d like to recouple with Billykiss.

Conor stood up and said their date went really well and he’d be doing himself a disservice to not explore their connection.

Alima, left uncoupled, then took Billykiss’s place at the front.

The girls then had to stand up if they’d like to recouple with new bombshell Ryan, but none did so.

Due to them both being single, Alima and Ryan were eliminated.

Other fans bought into the theory.

One said: “honestly i can’t argue with this even though i like toni.”

Another wrote: “I wholeheartedly agree. I am sure Toni is a nice girl, but it’s becoming very exhausting.”

The Sun has contacted Love Island for comment.

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