debut

In a TikTok video captured by a fan at one of SiR’s sold-out L.A. shows last August, the Inglewood-born singer-songwriter breaks down into tears after his wife appears onstage behind him.

“Y’all give it up for my beautiful wife, Kelly Ann,” he says on the mic after collecting himself. When he leans to give her a kiss, the crowd erupts into a sea of “aws” and cheers.

It was a tender moment between the couple during the final stretch of his Life Is Good tour in support of “Heavy” — his most vulnerable project yet, which took five years to make and tackles his years-long battle with drug addiction, depression, infidelity and the process of getting sober. Behind the scenes, though, SiR was grappling with a different hardship: The death of his mother, Jackie Gouché, a talented performer who sang with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and helped build SiR’s confidence as an artist.

His team was “ready for me to just drop everything and come home,” says SiR over Zoom. “But I prayed about it. I talked to my family, and we made the decision for me to finish the tour out, in honor of her.”

So by the time he got to the Hollywood Palladium, where he performed back-to-back shows, he says, “I think I was drained and I needed my support, and my wife just so happened to be there, which was just perfect for me. I’ll never forget that night.”

Since that emotional performance, SiR, born Sir Darryl Farris, released an extended version of “Heavy,” subtitled “The Light,” in April, which features six new tracks, some of which are new, such as “Sin Again” and “No Good,” and others that didn’t make the cut on the original project.

The Grammy-nominated singer, who is signed to L.A. powerhouse label Top Dawg Entertainment alongside R&B darling SZA, is set to make his headlining debut at the Hollywood Bowl on July 20 for the KCRW Festival. The upcoming show will feature an opening set from singer-songwriter Leon Thomas, of whom SiR is a “huge fan,” along with two surprise appearances from, he says, the “best guests I could get.”

Ahead of the upcoming show, we caught up with the “John Redcorn” singer to discuss how he’s keeping his late mother‘s memory alive through his music, how becoming a father of two daughters has affected him both personally and artistically and his goal to make a classic record that everyone knows.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You recently wrapped up your Step Into the Light tour a few weeks ago. How was it being onstage with your older brother, Davion, who sang background vocals, and your uncle Andrew, who is a gospel bass legend?

It was so fulfilling. I’ve worked with them before on so many different levels. My uncle plays on all my songs, and Davion and I write songs together, but to have them on the road with me was just a different outer-body experience. I think my favorite part of all of that was the time we spent [together] before and after the shows, like having dinners with my uncle and finding out things about my parents that I didn’t know. Finding out stories about my grandfather that I’d never heard. Now, our bond is that much stronger. It’s really nice to have him on the road. My uncle Andrew is awesome. I got sick of my brother. [laughs]

You were also on tour last year in support of “Heavy,” which is your most vulnerable project yet. How was it performing these songs this time around as opposed to last year? Did any songs hit differently?

We changed the set list just a tad because we had new music that we wanted to promote. The newer songs felt great. I was really specific about which ones I added because I wanted them to be songs that I enjoyed singing. The songs that I have in the set list that are staples still hit the same, and the audience still responds the same way. But it was surprising to see people singing the new music. I was fully prepared to go there and have to explain myself through these songs, but people were already vibing and singing along, which was great. My audience is great. I love my fans so much.

What songs did you add from the “Heavy Deluxe: The Light” project?

We added “No Good,” “Sin Again,” “Out of My Hands” and then, of course, “Step Into the Light,” which we added to the end of the set. But we also have songs like “John Redcorn” in there, which is a staple. If I don’t sing “John Redcorn,” people will come for my neck.

Last August, a fan posted a video of you crying during one of your shows at the Hollywood Palladium after you saw your wife, and the comment section was filled with sweet and supportive messages. Do you mind sharing what headspace you were in that night and why you felt so emotional in that moment?

That was the end of the tour, so I knew I was done, and in the middle of that tour, I actually lost my mom. At the time, I was on the phone with [TDE Chief Executive Anthony “Top” Tiffith], and he asked me if I wanted to continue. They were ready for me to just drop everything and come home. But I prayed about it, I talked to my family, and we made the decision for me to finish the tour out, in honor of her. My energy was just so low. I’ve never felt like that and had to go perform, and we had like eight more shows left. So by the time I got to the Palladium, I was drained. There’s a song that I sing called “Tryin’ My Hardest,” and I wrote that when I wasn’t sober and I was just trying to work myself through recovery. It was an ode to my mother and my wife, just telling them that I wasn’t giving up every time I relapsed. I [think] it was that song that she came out to. Half the time, tears were flowing down my face. So I think I was drained and I needed my support, and my wife just so happened to be there, which was just perfect for me. I’ll never forget that night. We sold out the Palladium twice.

You had a really close relationship with your mother, Jackie Gouche, who was a phenomenal artist in her own right. Have you written any songs in dedication to her since her passing?

I have a song that goes: (Starts singing lyrics)

Her name is Danielle, born in December but never felt the cold
Chocolate skin and a heart that’s made of gold
A certain resemblance to someone that I know
As bitter, as sweet
As easy as it was to sweep me off my feet
I never imagined that you may never meet
I wish you could be here to watch my baby grow
She’s gonna to do well
Her name is Danielle.

It’s just a song about my daughter that I wrote for her, and hopefully, I put it on the next project. Ooh. But we’ll see. My mother was such a big reason why I started really writing songs and wanting to be SiR. I was a different kind of guy growing up. I was very timid. I wasn’t sure about my musical abilities or gifts, and anytime I sent her songs, she would just light up and tell me how beautiful it was and give me advice, which was very important. After a while, I just kept impressing her and kept blowing her away in her own words. She was a huge part of my confidence.

“I should be able to have an album out every year,” SiR said. “I’m a studio rat so we should be able to find it. But my sobriety had to be at the forefront of everything, and I’m navigating being SiR sober.”

(Rolexx)

You’ve been vocal and vulnerable about your experience of dealing with addiction and all of the lifestyle changes you’ve made since becoming sober. Can you talk about what you’ve learned about yourself throughout this time?

I’ve learned that I have an addictive personality, no matter what the drug is, and I’ve created some good habits. The gym is now the biggest addiction that I have. I definitely had to just learn who I was looking at in the mirror, because when you’re inebriated, intoxicated all the time, you don’t really know what’s going on or who you are, and it’s a tough place to be. It’s a tough hole to dig yourself out of, but once you get out of that, you’ve got to navigate not falling back into the hole. It took about a year before I even got close to being sober. I’d have, like, sober weeks, and relapse after relapse and things like that. But at this point, I’m proud of where I am as a father, as a husband, and I’m trying to make sure that I just keep nourishing my artistry, because as much as I’m glad that that album came out, it took me five years to put that album out, and that shouldn’t happen. I always like to think of myself as a hyper-creative, and I should be able to have an album out every year. I’m a studio rat, so we should be able to find it. But my sobriety had to be at the forefront of everything, and I’m navigating being SiR sober. This is all new, and it’s definitely fun, but I definitely had to really work to get here.

Since releasing “Heavy,” you had another daughter, whom you talked about earlier, so now you’re a father of two. Can you talk about how fatherhood has affected you personally and creatively?

Fatherhood is like, ooh man, it’s a process. It taught me a lot about myself. I’m selfish. I’m impatient. I’m getting old. [laughs] My body doesn’t move and respond the same. When you have a 3-year-old who’s running as fast as she can and you’re trying to keep up with her, it’s tough. But it also just taught me a lot about how well I was raised. My parents were sweet. They were so nice and so kind and so gentle with us, and very protective, but in the best ways. If I’m half as good of a parent to my kids as my mother was to me, I think they’re going to be fine.

On Sunday, you are going to headline the Hollywood Bowl for the first time. How are you feeling about the show and what are you most excited about?

I can’t lie, I was excited about Leon Thomas’ set, but I realize now that I’m not going to be able to watch it, because I’m going to be doing my vocal warmups and getting ready for own thing. So now I’m just excited to see that sea of people. In L.A., I’ve done some really good shows, but it’s a 17,000-cap venue, and I think we’re doing good on ticket sales. This is the largest SiR audience that I’ve ever seen, so I’m excited to see the fans and hear them sing along.

Have you met Leon Thomas before?

We haven’t met, but I’m a huge fan. I don’t know if a lot of people [know], but Leon Thomas was a songwriter before he started putting music out on his own. Of course, everyone knows him from his acting days, but he was a part of a writing group that is based in L.A. and has been writing songs for other artists, so to see him come to the forefront of his own artistry is a beautiful thing. I think I’m on the waiting list for a Leon Thomas session. Collaborating is big right now with me, especially since things have changed and I don’t work as much as I used to on my own. I want to bounce ideas off of good artists, and I want to have great musicians in the room so we can make sure that everything is where it’s supposed to be in the song. We talked about it. I texted him [last] week just to thank him for being a part of this, and I wanted to congratulate him on all of his success. He’s a good guy, and I’m definitely a huge fan.

Why is collaboration so important for you now? What’s changed?

I want better songs. I’ve been around a long time. I got a lot of music out, but I have this thing in my head where I just want a classic. I feel like I have some really good records, but I want a song that everybody knows. As a songwriter, I think the most beautiful music comes from collaboration because you have people there to give you guidance in your own thought process. Even if I’m leading the way, I have somebody in my ear that’s navigating into this place we’re trying to get to. But I definitely just want to write better songs, and I’m not afraid to ask for help. I’ve had to learn that the hard way. I spent a lot of time over the years just kind of closed off in my box, which was great because it created my world, my sound. But now that I have established my sound, I should always be open to people helping me create in my world, especially if they know what my world is.

Have you started thinking about your next project yet?

I am definitely thinking about my next project. It does not have a name. We don’t have a date, but I am as busy as I can be right now, just with new songwriting and trying to stay ahead of it, because if I make you guys wait another five years for another project, I don’t think I’ma survive. I might have to go get me a day job. So I’m definitely working, but I’m not gonna rush. I’m not gonna force anything. I’m not just gonna put out anything. We need, you know, at least 40 to 45 minutes of just greatness, and I’m gonna do everything I can to deliver for the fans, because they deserve it more than anything.

Denis Bouanga scored on a first-half penalty kick and Hugo Lloris made it stand up for his third straight clean sheet as LAFC edged Minnesota United 1-0 on Wednesday night.

Bouanga scored his 11th goal when he sent a right-footed shot past Dayne St. Clair in the 42nd minute. The PK was awarded after Jeremy Ebobisse was fouled by defender Nicolás Romero, who received a yellow card.

Lloris finished with three saves for his league-high-tying ninth clean sheet of the season for LAFC (10-5-5).

St. Clair entered with nine shutouts and totaled five saves for Minnesota United (11-5-7), which falls to 6-3-3 at home.

Minnesota United has just one home win over LAFC, which joined the league in 2018. That came in March of last season in the debut of Minnesota manager Eric Ramsay.

LAFC posted a 1-0 victory over Minnesota United at home in the season opener.

LAFC improves to 2-3-4 on the road. The club was coming off shutout wins at home over the Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas by a combined 5-0 score.

LAFC will host the Galaxy on Saturday.

James Gunn’s “Superman” soared to the top of the box office this weekend, giving Warner Bros.’s DC Studios much-needed momentum in the superhero genre after a string of underperforming movies.

“Superman,” which stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, hauled in a robust $122 million in the U.S. and Canada. Globally, “Superman” brought in a total of $217 million.

The movie was a big swing for Burbank-based Warner Bros. and DC, costing an estimated $225 million to produce, not including substantial spending on a global marketing campaign.

“Superman” benefited from mostly positive critics reviews — the movie notched a 82% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers liked it too, indicated by an “A-” grade from polling firm CinemaScore and a 93% positive audience rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

The performance for “Superman” fell short of expectations from some analysts, who had projected an opening weekend of $130 million. Industry observers attributed that to heavy competition from other blockbusters, including Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Apple and Warner Bros.’ “F1 The Movie.”

Shortly before its release, “Superman” came under fire from right-wing commentators, who criticized comments Gunn made to the Times of London about how Superman (created by a Jewish writer-artist team in the late 1930s) is an immigrant and that he is “the story of America.”

“If there’s any softness here, it’s overseas,” said industry analyst and consultant David A. Gross in his FranchiseRe newsletter, after describing the domestic opening as “outstanding” for a longrunning superhero franchise.

The movie generated $95 million outside the U.S. and Canada.

Analysts had raised questions about whether Superman’s reputation for earnestly promoting truth, justice and the American way would still appeal to a global audience, particularly as other countries have bristled at the U.S. tariff and trade policies enacted by President Trump.

“Superman has always been identified as a quintessentially American character and story, and in some parts of the world, America is currently not enjoying its greatest popularity,” Gross said.

The movie’s overall success is key to a planned reboot and refresh of the DC universe. Gunn and producer Peter Safran were named co-chairmen and co-chief executives of DC Studios in 2022 to help turn around the Warner Bros.-owned superhero brand after a years-long rough patch.

While 2013’s “Man of Steel,” directed by Zack Snyder, and 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” each achieved substantial box office hauls, they did not receive overwhelmingly positive reviews. 2017’s “Justice League,” which was intended to be DC’s version of Marvel Studios’ “Avengers,” was a critical and commercial disaster for the studio.

More recently, films focused on other DC characters such as 2023’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash” and last year’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” struggled at the box office.

With Gunn and Safran at the helm, the pair are now tasked with creating a cohesive vision and framework for its superhero universe, not unlike its rival Marvel, which has long consolidated control under president Kevin Feige (though its films and shows are handled by different directors).

Starting the new DC epoch with Superman also presented its own unique challenges. Though he is one of the most recognizable superheroes in the world, Superman’s film track record has been a roller coaster. Alternatively sincere, campy or gritty, the Man of Steel has been difficult for filmmakers and producers to strike the right tone.

Gunn’s version of “Superman” — still mostly sincere but a touch of the filmmaker’s signature goofy humor — worked for critics and audiences. It was a tall order, considering some fans still hold Richard Donner’s 1978 “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve, as the gold standard.

“Pinning down ‘Superman’ has been a challenge,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “It’s been like Kryptonite for years for many filmmakers and producers to get it right.”

“Superman” bumped “Jurassic World Rebirth” to second place, where it collected $38.8 million domestically over the weekend for a total of $231 million so far. “F1,” Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon” and Disney-Pixar’s “Elio” rounded out the top five at the box office this weekend.

Later this month, another major superhero movie will enter the summer blockbuster marketplace: “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” from Walt Disney Co.-owned Marvel Studios.

Embeth Davidtz’s home is so quiet. Nestled in Brentwood Park, the 59-year-old actor’s spacious yet cozy place feels like a sanctuary, the skylight in her kitchen offering plentiful afternoon sun. Once owned by Julie Andrews, the house is where Davidtz feels most comfortable. It’s taken most of her life to find somewhere that made her feel that way.

“I seldom leave,” she says, smiling. “I’m not someone who likes to run around. I like being here.”

She’s lived in this house for about 20 years — it’s where she and her husband raised their children, now 22 and 19. She moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and before then, hers was a completely different world. Lately, that world has rarely been far from her thoughts.

In the early 1970s, when Davidtz was eight years old, she moved from America with her South African parents to Pretoria, in the midst of that country’s apartheid system. Long wanting to come to terms with the institutional racism she witnessed during her childhood, she has done something that previously had never held much interest: write and direct a movie. Pivoting from an on-screen career of stellar, precise performances in movies like “Schindler’s List,” “Junebug” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Davidtz has at last made a directorial debut with “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” (in theaters Friday), a gripping and somber drama based on Alexandra Fuller’s acclaimed 2001 memoir about growing up in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The film is about Fuller’s family, but it’s also very much about the lessons Davidtz never wants to stop learning herself.

“It’s a constant processing,” she says of how she is always reckoning with her past. “I think I’ll probably have to grapple with it till the day that I die — what I remember seeing.”

Davidtz, Lexi Venter and Rob Van Vuuren in the movie “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.”

(Coco Van Oppens / Sony Pictures Classics)

Set in 1980, the year that the African region known as Rhodesia, ruled by a white minority, would become the independent nation of Zimbabwe, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” features Davidtz as Nicola, an angry, alcoholic policewoman whose privileged life crumbles as the Zimbabwean War upends the country’s racial power imbalance. However, the movie is not told from Nicola’s perspective but instead, from that of Bobo, her 8-year-old daughter (played with beguiling immediacy by newcomer Lexi Venter), who reflects Fuller’s own blinkered worldview at the time. As Bobo provides voice-over narration, we witness a disturbingly naturalized culture of colonialism in which our main character, a seemingly innocent child, bikes through town with a rifle slung on her back and parrots the racist attitudes espoused by white landowners around her.

Zimbabwe isn’t South Africa, but when Davidtz read Fuller’s stark memoir, the similarities of racial injustice were striking.

“She cuts you off at the knees,” says Davidtz. “You recognize it, then you feel shame.”

Davidtz was born in Indiana, but after some time in New Jersey, her family moved to Pretoria when she was eight. Her 17 years in South Africa left their mark. Even though she’d never written a screenplay before “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” she had been working on something about her upbringing. But after reading Fuller’s memoir, Davidtz says, “I remember thinking, ‘Well, that’s the definitive book on it. I’m never going to be able to write a book like that.’”

“I wouldn’t say mine was a happy childhood,” she continues. “I think it was very unhappy in ways. Did I love Africa? Yes. But was it an idyllic childhood? No.”

Bobo’s bigoted views — the girl has come to believe Black people don’t have last names and are secretly terrorists — weren’t what Davidtz experienced growing up. “My family didn’t act that same way, they didn’t speak that same way, but you were part of the system by being there,” she says.

Like Bobo’s family, Davidtz did not enjoy many luxuries, except in comparison to the help around her. “If you had servants in your home, you were part of the system,” she says. “[My parents] certainly were not out marching for civil rights. They fell in that gray area.”

Not that Davidtz excludes herself from the racist mindset that’s evident in Bobo, who enjoys spending time with her family’s housekeeper, Sarah (Zikhona Bali), despite treating her as beneath her. That relationship picked an emotional scab for Davidtz. “There’s uncomfortable memories that I have,” she admits. “I remember playing with [Black] children and being bossy and being just an a—hole.”

Her personal connection to “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” goes deeper. Fuller’s mother was a drinker; in Davidtz’s family, it was her father, who studied applied mathematics and physics in the States. She sees his alcoholism as the byproduct of an idealism that got crushed.

“He was a physical chemist; he was a scientist,” she says, “and his whole thought was this altruistic thing of, ‘I’m going to take everything that I’ve learned and bring it back [to South Africa].’ That’s where the alcoholism emerged. That government that was running South Africa really tightly controlled everything that my father did. I think they were highly suspicious of somebody coming from America. He very much felt his wings were clipped. And so the bottle got raised.” (These days are happier ones for her dad: “He’s medicated; he’s calmer,” she says. “He doesn’t drink anymore.”)

“This [performance] was hard and it was scary, but it was necessary,” Davidtz says of her turn in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” as a racist farm owner in Rhodesia.

(Matt Seidel / For The Times)

Davidtz can’t quite pinpoint where her passion for performing originated. “No one else has it,” she says of her family. “I really think that 7-year-old me sat in my living room in New Jersey watching the ‘Sonny & Cher’ show. Cher with that hair was just the most glamorous, amazing thing I’d ever seen. And then, suddenly, we land in this dirty, dusty farmhouse with my dad in decline and no television.”

Davidtz escaped Pretoria — at least in her mind — by going to the movies, including an early, formative screening of “Doctor Zhivago,” David Lean’s 1965 historical romance. “My mind was blown by the sweep, the story, the epicness,” she recalls. “Maybe I wanted, somehow, to remove myself from that dirt and squalor and aspire to something.”

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” doesn’t contain the gratuitous violence you often see in films about racism. In its place is a codified class structure ruled by its white characters, who strongly encourage the locals to vote for approved candidates in the upcoming election in order to maintain the status quo. But once revolutionary Robert Mugabe comes to power, that old system gives way, leading to an unsettling scene in which Nicola wields a whip to keep Black Africans off what she considers to be her farm.

The questionable optics of a white woman telling a story about Zimbabwe entered Davidtz’s mind. She did her homework about the region, even though she ultimately had to shoot in South Africa because of Zimbabwe’s current political unrest. She spoke with her cinematographer, Willie Nel, about how the film had to look.

“I need the light shining through her eyes like that,” Davidtz remembers. “I want the closeup on the filthy fingernails. This is the way Peter Weir gets in super-close, how Malick [shows] skies and nature.” And she made sure to center her pessimistic coming-of-age narrative on the white characters, condemning them — including young Bobo.

“I don’t think a Black filmmaker could tell the experience of a white child,” she says. “I think only a white filmmaker could tell that. [Bobo] misunderstands a lot of what [the Black characters are] doing. That was deliberate — I tried to handle that really carefully. I’m certainly not trying to make the white child sympathetic in any way.”

She was just as adamant that Nicola be an utterly unlikable, virulent bigot. “You needed her to be diabolical in order to show what really was happening there,” says Davidtz. “I saw people behave like that.”

This isn’t the first time she’s played the villain, but she wanted to ensure there was nothing sympathetic or devilishly appealing about Nicola. Recalling her portrayal of the superficial, materialistic Mary Crawford in the 1999 adaptation of “Mansfield Park,” Davidtz observes, “She was just cheerfully going about her life — being diabolical, but with a smile. She was charming. That was more acceptable, more palatable.” She allowed none of that here, tapping into the desperation of a woman whose self-worth is wrapped up in the subjugation of those around her.

The veteran actress has often done terrific work by going small, her breakthrough coming as a Jewish maid prized by Ralph Fiennes’ sadistic Nazi in 1993’s “Schindler’s List.” More recently Davidtz has earned rave reviews in series like “Ray Donovan” and “The Morning Show.” She doesn’t do showy and she’s the same in person, appealingly modest and soft-spoken. But in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” she gives a boldly brazen performance as Nicola, a portrait of ugly, entitled hatred. Although Davidtz felt anxious playing such a demonstratively racist character — especially around her Black cast — she also found it a refreshing change from how she usually approaches a role.

“This [performance] was hard and it was scary, but it was necessary,” she says, Getting herself to such a dark place for “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” was easy, though. The trick? “I didn’t have time,” she says. “Everything was focused on only the three hours [a day] that I had with the kid. It was like, ‘I got to get this quick,’ and I was on my last nerve, which was great for the character — I was pretty worn down by the time we shot a lot of my stuff.”

“When you’ve been in a place where things have been so wrong, you spot it really quickly in other places,” Davidtz says of injustices occurring both in America and abroad. The actor and director is photographed at home with her two rescue dogs, Parfait (front) and Zoomie.

(Matt Seidel / For The Times)

Similarly to “The Zone of Interest,” which Davidtz reveres (“I love that film,” she declares, awed), “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” illustrates the insidiousness of bigotry by stripping away the simplistic moralizing. Bobo, her parents and the other white settlers benefit from an unjust system, always presented matter-of-factly, as the adults relish their domestic bliss at the expense of the indentured locals. I ask Davidtz if she’s showing us what everyday evil looks like.

“Evil’s a strong word,” she replies. “I’d say ‘oblivious’ or ‘unconscious’ or ‘culpable.’ It’s all of the above. I really wanted to reveal something the way ‘The Zone of Interest’ revealed something. It’s the casual racism. An ordinary person watching [the film] goes, ‘Oh, my God, that was normal to them. That was their normal.’ Then you see the full picture. Then, the evil of it shows up.”

In her memoir, author Fuller writes about her later political awakening, a process Davidtz underwent as well. “I saw moments around me — horrible, violent police arresting men on the streets, the people chucked into the back of police vans,” she says. “Just that terrified feeling inside and knowing, ‘If you’re white, you’re safe. If you’re Black, you’re not.’ Then as I got older, [there was] the disconnect between what I’m seeing and what is right.”

According to Davidtz, “the scales fell off” once she attended South Africa’s liberal Rhodes University in the early 1980s and started taking part in protest marches. “I felt like that was the big awakening,” she says, “but it’s an awakening that continues.”

There is one frequent sound in the calm oasis of Davidtz’s home: the chatter of news broadcasts. “It’s often on in the background,” she says, “but I think it’s a habit that’s eroding my peace of mind.” She admits to the same conflicted feelings many in Los Angeles have, a desire to stay informed of everything that’s happening — the ongoing war in Gaza, the stories out of Ukraine, the violent ICE raids in Southern California — but not succumb to despair and anger. No amount of quiet can tune out the world, and Davidtz doesn’t want to.

“When you’ve been in a place where things have been so wrong, you spot it really quickly in other places,” she says of the injustices occurring both here and abroad. “One thing that we can do is say what we think.” Remembering her own childhood, and pondering what prompted her to make this movie, she suggests, “I think it comes from watching something silently for a long time. I think that part of me will never want to not say, ‘I don’t think this is right.’”

With “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” Davidtz is speaking up, but she knows those bad old days aren’t over. In fact, they’ve never been so present. As the film ends, Bobo takes one last look at the town and the locals that shaped her. There’s a glimmer of hope that, one day, this girl will outgrow the racism she’s ingested. But the land — and the pain — remains. Davidtz has not allowed herself to look away.

Joao Pedro hits a brace on debut against former club Fluminense to send Chelsea into FIFA Club World Cup 2025 final.

England’s Chelsea defeated Fluminense of Brazil 2-0 to reach the final of the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup, with Blues debutant Joao Pedro netting twice against his boyhood club.

The Brazilian forward, who was at Fluminense from age 10 until leaving for Watford in 2020, curled his new club in front at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday from the left side of the box in the 18th minute.

The 24-year-old, who joined the Londoners from Brighton for $81.5m last week, sealed the win in the drilled effort that went in off the underside of the bar early in the second half.

The Blues will face the winner of Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain, who play in the second semifinal on Wednesday.

Temperatures were soaring in New Jersey, which will stage next summer’s FIFA 2026 World Cup, ahead of the 3pm kickoff.

A crowd of 70,556, which was only 10-15 percent short of capacity, attended the game, despite the 34 degrees Celsius (93F)  at kickoff, with humidity that made it feel like 40C (104F).

FIFA had, however, cut ticket prices from $473.90 to $13.40 last week.

It did not take long for the action on the field to reach similarly heated levels soon after Pedro’s opener, when Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah handled in his own area.

Video Referee Assistant (VAR) intervened, and the original awarding of the penalty was overturned. Fluminense were incensed, but Chalobah’s arm was in a natural position by his side.

Fluminense’s best opening came moments earlier, when Marc Cucurella was forced to clear Hercules’s shot off the line in the 27th minute.

Former Chelsea defender Tiago Silva, who appeared 113 times for Brazil, lined up against his former club since departing the London club last October.

The 40-year-old was far busier than his former teammates in their defensive lines, with his keeper, Fabio, drawn into a number of saves.

There was little the oldest player in the tournament, at 44, could do about either of Pedro’s strikes, the second a brilliant finish following a counterattack early in the 56th minute. Cole Palmer set the move in motion by dribbling past three players before laying off for Enzo Fernandez, who in turn laid on to Pedro.

Much like his first goal, where he took two steps to start to celebrate, then stopped and clasped his hands, Pedro showed respect to his former club by muting his response to both strikes.

Chelsea will now seek to secure a second FIFA Club World Cup, following their 2021 victory.

European teams will win their 12th straight Club World Cup title, and 17th in 18 tries, the lone exception a 2012 victory by Brazil’s Corinthians over Chelsea.

The London-based club has earned $88.4m to $103.8m for reaching the final, the amount depending on a participation fee FIFA has not disclosed.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bronny James made his 2025 summer league debut, scoring 10 points in 10 minutes during the Lakers’ win over the Miami Heat in the California Classic at the Chase Center on Sunday.

The Lakers led for most of the game, rolling to a 103-83 victory.

The Heat went on a 10-0 run to start the third quarter, but the Lakers responded with strong perimeter shooting to maintain a double-digit lead.

Cole Swider was the Lakers’ leading scorer for the second consecutive game, finishing with 20 points against the Heat. Swider shot seven of 10 from the field, including two of five from three-point range.

“We have to get back to defending how we did in the first half, I thought we did a great job,” Swider said. “They only had 38 points in the first half. They came out high, but we were able to weather the storm and win the third quarter, which was huge for us.”

James, who didn’t suit up for the Lakers’ loss to the Warriors on Saturday, was three-of-seven shooting and two-of-five from three-point range. He sat out the second half because of a minutes restriction for conditioning.

“It felt good, just getting out there for the first time this summer. I’m just trying to make a difference any way I can defensively and offensively,” James said. “… First wind was definitely tough. … Pretty much just trying to go out there have fun and not be so tired while I’m doing it.”

Bronny opened up the game with a steal and fast-break dunk to score the Lakers’ first points.

The Lakers shot 57.1% from the field and stepped up their perimeter defense while limiting the Heat to 14 free throws. Miami made just eight of 27 (29.6%) from beyond the three-point line.

Swider said as one of the veterans on the roster, he tries to provide support for younger players.

“This is my fourth year doing this thing, I think I might be the oldest guy on the roster,” he said. “Just giving these guys a game, trying to help Dalton [Knecht] as much as possible, trying to help Bronny as much as possible. Me and Bronny had a great stint together with the South Bay Lakers, so just trying to continue that chemistry and continuity.”

The Lakers get a day off before they play the San Antonio Spurs in the final game of the California Classic on Tuesday. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m. The team will then travel to Las Vegas for the remainder of its summer league schedule.

New Zealand coach Scott Robertson has described Fabian Holland’s rise as “movie stuff” as the Dutch-born lock prepares to make his All Blacks debut against France on Saturday.

The 22-year-old is one of four uncapped players in the starting XV to face Les Bleus in the first Test at Dunedin.

Holland watched the All Blacks sevens team train in his hometown of Castricum in the Netherlands in 2014 aged 11 and moved to New Zealand five years later to pursue his dream of playing professional rugby.

“He’s pretty excited. From Zeeland to New Zealand,” Robertson said on Thursday.

“He’s come a long way. It’s a great story. Pretty single-minded from a 14-year-old to make that call to come over and represent another country in a game he loves – and he saw the All Blacks as the ultimate.

“It’s movie sort of stuff, isn’t it?”

Holland met All Blacks sevens captain DJ Forbes and Akira Ioane when they trained at Castricum Rugby Club, where he had been playing since the age of five.

“As soon as I was on the field, I was a different little boy, to be honest,” Holland said in an interview in 2021, external.

“I developed more and more passion about rugby and there are not a lot of countries like New Zealand when it comes to passion about rugby.

“I always dreamed of coming but it never felt real for me. When I was 16 I got the opportunity to come to New Zealand and I’ve been living the dream every day. I still have to pinch myself that it’s real.”

Holland initially arrived in New Zealand for a six-month spell at Christchurch Boys’ High School but his rise has been rapid.

He started on a developmental contract with the Highlanders in 2021 and signed a professional deal with the Super Rugby side the following year.

On Saturday he will line up alongside his former Otago and Highlanders team-mate Christian Lio-Willie, who is also set to make his All Blacks debut.

Robertson said it was fitting that Holland’s first cap would come at Forsyth Barr Stadium, home of the Highlanders.

“I’m sure Fabian’s Highlanders supporters, and Christian’s Otago fans, will be out in full force,” Robertson said.

Foo Fighters are celebrating the anniversary of an old album with the release of a new song.

Nearly 30 years to the day after Dave Grohl’s stadium-filling rock band dropped its self-titled debut on July 4, 1995, the group on Wednesday revealed “Today’s Song,” its first piece of original material since 2023’s “But Here We Are” LP, which itself followed the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022.

“I woke today screaming for change / I knew that I must,” Grohl sings over a subdued organ part, “So here lies the shadow / Ashes to ashes, dust into dust.” Later, the frontman sings about “waiting for someone to repair you” as the song explodes with the band’s signature guitar theatrics and bludgeoning drums.

In a statement, Grohl, 56, said, “Over the years, we’ve had moments of unbridled joy, and moments of devastating heartbreak. Moments of beautiful victory, and moments of painful defeat. We have mended broken bones and broken hearts. But we have followed this road together, with each other, for each other, no matter what. Because in life, you just can’t go it alone.”

Referring to former members of the band, he added, “It should go without saying that without the boundless energy of William Goldsmith, the seasoned wisdom of Franz Stahl, and the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete, so we extend our heartfelt gratitude for the time, music, and memories that we shared with each of them over the years. Thank you, gentlemen.” (Freese, who took over as drummer following Hawkins’ death, was fired from the band in May for reasons he’s said remain unknown to him.)

“And… Taylor,” Grohl continued. “Your name is spoken every day, sometimes with tears, sometimes with a smile, but you are still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever. The enormity of your beautiful soul is only rivaled by the infinite longing we feel in your absence. We all miss you beyond words. Foo Fighters will forever include Taylor Hawkins in every note that we play, until we do finally reach our destination.”

A spokesperson for Foo Fighters declined to specify who played drums on “Today’s Song,” though the playing recalls Grohl’s work on the band’s debut, which he recorded as a one-man band, and as the drummer of Nirvana. Earlier this week, Foo Fighters released a cover of Minor Threat’s early-’80s hardcore classic “I Don’t Wanna Hear It,” which the band said combined music recorded in 1995 with vocals recorded in 2025.

“Today’s Song” comes less than a year after Grohl — who has three daughters with his wife, Jordyn Blum — wrote in an Instagram post that he’d fathered a daughter with a woman outside of his marriage.

“I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her,” he wrote. “I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.” Grohl’s oldest daughter, 19-year-old Violet, performed Nirvana’s “All Apologies” with Nirvana’s surviving members at January’s FireAid concert; his second-oldest daughter, Harper, designed the single artwork for “Today’s Song.”

Foo Fighters are scheduled to play a series of concerts in Asia in October before headlining Mexico City’s Corona Capital festival in November.

The Brad Pitt-led racing film “F1 The Movie” sped to the top of the box office this weekend, another in a string of big summer movies that Hollywood hopes will keep driving people to theaters.

The big-budget film from “Top Gun: Maverick” director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer hauled in $55.6 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates. That’s better than analysts had expected for a non-sequel racing movie. People who read pre-release audience surveys had anticipated a debut of $40 million to $50 million.

Powered by the global appeal of Formula One racing, the film took in an additional $88 million internationally. Still, with a reported budget of more than $200 million, not including marketing costs, “F1” will still need significantly more ticket sales to break even.

Only three Hollywood films so far this year have grossed more than $500 million globally — “A Minecraft Movie,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” — and each of those opened above “F1” domestically.

Nonetheless, with “F1,” the iPhone maker has its first box office hit.

While Apple TV+ has found critical success with its shows, including “Severance,” “The Studio” and “Your Friends & Neighbors” — and notched its first best picture Oscar win in 2022 with “CODA” — its films had not yet clinched box office gold.

Its previous star-studded and filmmaker-driven movies have struggled at theaters, including the 2024 spy comedy “Argylle” and space-age romantic comedy “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

“F1” benefited from a heavily promoted Imax run, which helps make it seem like a must-see on the big screen. Imax screens accounted for 23% of the domestic weekend revenue for “F1,” the cinema technology provider said Sunday. Around 55% of domestic sales came from large-screen formats including Imax, Dolby Cinema and motion seats.

As usual, Apple worked with a major studio to handle the theatrical release. “F1” is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, adding to the studio’s winning streak that includes “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners” and “Final Destination Bloodlines.” Pitt and Dede Gardner’s Plan B Entertainment produced along with Bruckheimer.

Quality also helped.

“It’s emotional, it’s exciting, it’s got romance, it’s got humor,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer told The Times earlier this month. “It’s the reason I got into this business — to make movies that thrill you on that big screen, that you walk out feeling you’ve been on a real journey and got lost for a couple of hours. That’s the goal every time.”

Strong reviews from audiences and critics bode well for the film’s future grosses and its eventual performance on streaming for Apple. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie a grade of “A,” while the movie holds a critics’ score of 83% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Not faring as well was Universal Pictures’ murderous doll sequel “M3GAN 2.0,” which debuted with a weak $10 million and landed in fourth place at the domestic box office, behind holdovers “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Elio.”

The Blumhouse film was expected to open with around $20 million. It fell far short of the success of the original, which opened with $30 million in 2023 and eventually collected $180 million worldwide.

Overall, though, it’s been a strong last few months for the horror genre, starting with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which has now grossed $364 million worldwide, and followed by “Final Destination Bloodlines” and zombie franchise revival “28 Years Later.”

The staying power of movies like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch” shows the continued draw of family-friendly films at the box office, which have been major winners since the spring. The exception has been Disney and Pixar’s original animated movie “Elio,” which notched Pixar’s worst opening weekend ever last week.

“Elio” collected about $11 million Friday through Sunday, bringing its total to a poor $42 million in the U.S. and Canada for the $150-million animated picture.

Times staff writer Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.

Agnes (Eva Victor) has the face of a classical Hollywood movie star but she dresses like an old fisherman. Her expressions are inscrutable; you never know what’s going to come out of her mouth or how. When asked on a written questionnaire how her friends would describe her, she puts down “smart,” crosses it out, then replaces it with “tall.” She is all of those things: tall, smart, striking, endearingly awkward, hard to read. And she is an utterly captivating, entirely unique cinematic presence, the planet around which orbits “Sorry, Baby,” the debut feature of Victor, who not only stars but writes and directs.

Agnes’ backstory, revealed in time, is a distressingly common one of sexual assault, recounted with bursts of wild honesty, searing insight and unexpected humor. Victor’s screenplay earned her the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival this year, where the film had its premiere. As a writer and performer, Victor allows Agnes to relay what happened in her own way while keeping the most intimate horrors protected.

Set in the frigid environs of the English department at a rural Massachusetts university, “Sorry, Baby” carries a literary quality, emphasized by nonchronological titled chapters (e.g., “The Year With the Baby,” “The Year With the Bad Thing,”) carefully establishing our protagonist, the world she inhabits and a few nagging questions.

Agnes is a professor of English at the university where she completed her graduate studies, but we first meet her as the best friend of Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who arrives for a winter weekend visit. Two codependent besties reunited, they snuggle on the couch and laugh about sex. Lydie delights at the mystery man who turns up on her friend’s doorstep — a friendly, familiar neighbor named Gavin (Lucas Hedges).

But Lydie’s quiet concern for her friend is also palpable. When she reveals her pregnancy to Agnes, she says, “There’s something I need to tell you about my body,” as if Agnes is a child who needs gentle explanation. And in a strange way, Agnes seems to take to this childlike role with her friend. Lydie carefully probes her about her office and its previous occupant. She presses her about remaining in this town. Isn’t it “a lot”? “It’s a lot to be wherever,” Agnes replies. Lydie requests of her, “Don’t die” and Agnes reassures her she would have already killed herself if she was going to. It’s cold comfort, a phrase that could capably describe the entire vibe of “Sorry, Baby.”

Victor then flips back to an earlier chapter, before their graduation, to a time when Agnes seems less calcified in her idiosyncrasies. Their thesis advisor, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi), handsome and harried, tells Agnes her work is “extraordinary” and reschedules a meeting due to a child-care emergency. They both end up at his home, where dusk turns to night.

What ensues is what you expect and dread, though we only hear about it when Agnes recounts the excruciating details of the incident to Lydie later that night. The fallout renders Agnes emotionally stunted, running alternately on autopilot and impulse. Lydie fiercely protects (and enables) her friend until she has to move on with her life, leaving Agnes frozen in amber in that house, that office, that town, that night.

There’s an architectural quality to Victor’s style in the film’s structure and thoughtful editing, and in the lingering shots of buildings standing starkly against an icy sky, glowing windows beckoning or concealing from within: a representation of a singular kind of brittle, poignant New England stoicism. Victor captures Agnes the same way.

Thanks to the profound and nuanced honesty Victor extracts from each moment, “Sorry, Baby” is a movie that lingers. Even when Agnes does something outlandish or implausible — turning up on foot at Gavin’s door in a tizzy is one of her curious quirks — it feels true to the character.

But Agnes is a mystery even to herself, it seems, tamping down her feelings until they come tumbling out in strange ways. She goes about her daily life in a never-ending cycle of repression and explosion, cracking until she shatters completely. Her most important journey is to find a place to be soft again.

The only catharsis or healing to be found in the film comes from the titular apology, more a rueful word of caution than anything else. We can never be fully protected from what life has in store for us, nor from the acts of selfishness or cruelty that cause us to harden and retreat into the protective cocoon of a huge jacket, a small town, an empty house.

Life — and the people in it — will break us sometimes. But there are still kittens and warm baths and best friends and really good sandwiches. There are still artists like Victor who share stories like this with such detailed emotion. Sometimes that’s enough to glue us back together, at least for a little while.

Crypto prices are surging after Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran in the Middle East. Solana is a top gainer with an 8% pump.

It now trades at $145 and appears well on track to take local highs in the days ahead.

However, as the Solana price surges on renewed investor confidence, the newly launched Solana layer 2 blockchain, Solaxy ($SOLX), has gained 60% in the past 24 hours following its DEX launch on Uniswap and Raydium.

According to CoinMarketCap data, presale profit-taking ensued once $SOLX hit the open market on Monday, causing an initial crash to lows of $0.00059. However, the selling has stopped, and bulls have taken charge, with the $SOLX price rallying to a current valuation of $0.0011.

Solaxy is strategically positioned to extend Solana’s ecosystem with layer 2 scaling, removing the network’s long-standing congestion issue and replacing it with blistering speeds, lower fees, and reliability.

Investors looking to capitalize on Solana’s growth appear to be buying Solaxy in order to generate bigger gains. While Solana is worth $76 billion, Solaxy’s market cap is just $124 million, offering huge upside potential, especially since it solves a crucial ecosystem issue.

Solana’s rapid surge as geopolitical tensions soften

Solaxy leads crypto gainers – but there’s room for more big gains

After raising $58 million to become the largest Solana presale in history, Solaxy is living up to expectations on its decentralized exchange (DEX) debut.

With a 60% pump over the past 24 hours, it’s one of the biggest gainers across all altcoins as seen on CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko.

Furthermore, its trading volume is also surging, having increased from $2 million 16 hours ago to over $6 million at press time.

As word spreads about Solaxy’s exchange listing, new investors are scrambling to buy. It’s important to note that Solaxy currently remains at a substantial discount compared to the price at which several top analysts anticipate it trading this cycle.

Something else worth noting is that Solaxy has locked $1.6 million in liquidity until June 2026. This doesn’t just ensure seamless buying and selling; it reflects Solaxy’s long-term approach and signals that the team isn’t going anywhere.

And the chart is starting to reflect that – $SOLX has broken all key resistance and now has room for an 59% uptick to the next important price point.

Solaxy mainnet launch and “massive exchanges” coming soon

Strap in because Solaxy’s gains may just be getting started.

The project aims to address Solana’s congestion issue by utilizing off-chain computation and transaction bundling technology, validating transactions on its layer 2 in batches and then reporting back to Solana for finality.

Its goal is to achieve 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), which will make it significantly faster than Solana, capable of 6,500 TPS.

The test network is now live, allowing developers to begin building Solaxy apps. The team has confirmed that the main network will go live on July 7. Other key launches include Solaxy’s meme coin launchpad Igniter Protocol and its native DEX Neptoon.

The team has also promised that Solaxy will list on “massive exchanges.” And although they have yet to confirm which ones, its ambitious use case, ties to Solana, and strong DEX debut all indicate that top tier 1 platforms will be interested.

There is no doubt that listings on such exchanges, coupled with the launch of major ecosystem features, will contribute to a strong uptrend continuation for Solaxy in the months ahead.

$SOLX is currently available on the Ethereum and Solana networks, so investors can purchase it from Uniswap or Raydium.

Holders can also transfer their tokens between networks using the Solaxy bridge.

You can also follow the project on X or join its Telegram for the latest news and updates. Alternatively, visit its website to learn more or stake $SOLX.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.

An ITV star and her brother have signed up to Celebrity Gogglebox, despite Maya Jama and Omar becoming stars in their own right their new career venture sees them team up

Love Island host and ITV star Maya Jama appeared with her brother Omar on last night’s Celebrity Gogglebox. The pair made their “wild” debut on the Channel 4 hit show, alongside a slew of familiar faces from the UK.

Omar, 28, is Maya’s younger brother, and although the pair remain close despite Maya’s meteoric rise to fame, the Bristolian is a star in his own right. Having followed Maya’s lead and made his way into showbiz, Omar has modelled for some huge brands, including Celine, Etro Fashion and Portuguese Soul.

The siblings teased their Gogglebox appearance on social media, appearing together to tell Maya’s 3.2 million followers that they would be on the show. Sitting next to her brother, Maya, 30, told the camera: “Hi everyone. It’s Maya and my brother Omar.

“We are so excited to be on Gogglebox this Friday 9pm. Make sure you tune in and hear us chatting absolute rubbish.”

Omar added: “Yeah, we’ll be there, will you?” She captioned the clip: “Me an my brother are on gogglebox tonight! Hoping they edited out most of the wild stuff that out of our mouths Loo but how funnn.”

Fans were blown away by their similarities, with one writing: “Male version I swear. Trippy.” Another commented: “Wow they look so much alike.”

Another added that they were hoping to catch her with her Man City star boyfriend penning: “We wanted Ruben Dias.” Someone else joked that they were torn over what to put on, replying: “Oh god, how’s this gonna work then dying to know what happens on Love Island tonight, and now you’re on my other fav gogglebox. Catch up it is, but which one?”

For the latest series, Celebrity Gogglebox has signed up some of the biggest names from across the board to appear on the reality TV show, in which celebs are filmed watching and reacting to popular television shows. Darts star Luke Littler is joined by YouTuber Angry Ginge, while other celebrity pairings have returned.

Nick Grimshaw is back, with his sidekick and niece Liv, who he says is like a little sister to him. Happy Mondays stars Shaun Ryder and Bez are also back, playing up to their Madchester personas for viewers.

And in a Celebrity Gogglebox first, two Strictly Come Dancing judges have joined this season’s cast. Craig Revel Horwood and Anton du Beke signed up to offer their views on some of the country’s TV for the show.

The co-stars and close pals are the first judges of the BBC dance competition to sign up to appear on the Channel 4 show, which is now in its seventh series since starting in 2019. Anton and Craig have worked on BBC One for over 20 years, and are the OGs having started together when it launched in 2004.

Prior to that, they knew each other on the dance circuit. Also appearing is Strictly lifer Tess Daly’s husband, Vernon Kay.

Anton told the Mirror: “I’m super excited to be swapping the judges chair for a comfy sofa! Sitting down with my dear friend and fellow Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood to enjoy a bit of telly on this new series of Gogglebox.”

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

READ MORE: Stacey Solomon’s pastel pink midi dress is the perfect pick for a day at the races

Better at attacking than defending has been one of the most common ways to describe Alexander-Arnold’s career to date.

A full-back who bombed forward, and sometimes in a hybrid right-back/midfield role.

For a while, then England boss Gareth Southgate even tried him as a regular midfielder.

He left Anfield with 23 goals and 86 assists as he almost changed what the idea of a full-back can be.

So all eyes were on how he would fare with a new team.

“We know Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quality on the ball,” said former Newcastle and Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given on Dazn.

“He is a phenomenal player.

“Real Madrid in the Spanish league will have a lot of possession and Trent will play higher up the pitch.

“He will be questioned in this tournament defensively as they come up against stronger opposition. Can he step up?

“He said he wanted to go there and win the Ballon d’Or. That’s a big statement in itself.”

Alonso lined up with a standard back four in Miami – as opposed to the wing-back system he enjoyed great success with at Bayer Leverkusen.

Alexander-Arnold played at right-back and did get involved in midfield too.

But as the graphics above show he did not get as involved as much centrally as he did in his last start for Liverpool, a 3-1 loss at Chelsea on 4 May.

And he got involved in deeper positions too, to the right side of the penalty box, which is a place he was not seen as often in that game at Stamford Bridge.

But he attempted more crossfield balls than he did at Chelsea (as evidenced by the graphics below).

However – and it is something he might have to get used to until he settles in – he did not take any set-pieces for Real.

Newcastle striker Callum Wilson, who has been in England squads with the defender, said: “I have not seen as many people strike a ball as cleanly as him. Free-kicks, corners, set-pieces, he is going to add that to their game.

“He is going to be showing his qualities and won’t be getting challenged defensively as much.”

The Japanese player will pitch for his MLB side for the first time since his signing a $700m contract with them in 2024.

Shohei Ohtani is set to return to the mound as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the opener of a four-game series against the visiting San Diego Padres, the Major League Baseball (MLB) team has announced.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts originally told reporters on Sunday that Ohtani was set to pitch a simulated game in the coming days, but the team decided to give him the nod against the rival Padres on Monday.

“He’s getting very eager, very excited,” Roberts said. “I think the thought is that given where we’re at right now, anything he can give us is additive, even if it’s an inning or two innings on the front end.”

This will mark Ohtani’s first big league pitching appearance since August 23, 2023, and his first with the Dodgers. The two-way player had Tommy John surgery on his elbow in September 2023, three months before signing a 10-year, $700m contract with the Dodgers.

Ohtani has been ramping up for a return to the mound in June. On Tuesday, the right-hander threw 44 pitches over three simulated innings against minor leaguers from the Dodgers’ Arizona spring complex.

Ohtani’s return could not come at a better time for Los Angeles. Starters Roki Sasaki (right shoulder), Blake Snell (left shoulder) and Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder) are all on the injured list. Sasaki was recently forced to shut down his throwing programme after feeling discomfort this week. There is no timetable for his return this season.

In total, the Dodgers have 14 pitchers on the injured list – the most in the MLB.

Over his career in the majors, Ohtani is 38-19, with a 3.01 ERA in 86 career starts, all with the Los Angeles Angels. In 481 2/3 innings, he has compiled 608 strikeouts and 173 walks.

A three-time MVP, Ohtani is hitting 0.297 with 41 RBIs in 70 games this season, leading the National League with 25 home runs and a 1.035 OPS.

The long-anticipated wait is over — Shohei Ohtani is ready to pitch.

The Dodgers announced after Sunday’s 5-4 win over the Giants that Ohtani will make his Dodgers pitching debut Monday against the San Diego Padres. He will start, but there’s a chance he will be an opener, only pitching one inning.

For Ohtani, it’s been a long road back to pitching. He signed with the Dodgers on a 10-year, $700-million contract before the 2024 season — a value representing not just his MVP-level bat, but his potential Cy Young Award-level pitching.

He underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2023, only hitting in his first season with the Dodgers. He tallied unprecedented numbers at the plate (.310 batting average, league-high 54 home runs, 130 RBI and 59 stolen bases). In recent weeks, Ohtani ramped up his throwing program, facing live hitters a handful of times.

Ohtani had been brilliant for the Angels, going 38-19 with a 3.01 earned-run average over 86 starts since coming over from Japan before the 2018 season. In 2022, Ohtani posted his best pitching numbers in the majors, with a 15-9 record, a 2.33 earned-run average and 219 strikeouts over 166 innings en route to placing fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting.

It’ll likely be an incremental start for Ohtani as he looks to add more pitches and innings in the weeks ahead.

“He’s getting very eager, getting very excited,” Roberts said before Sunday’s game. “I think that there’s a point where, in hearing from Shohei, that the effort that it takes to throw lives and things like that, [rather] than to play a game, then let’s use those bullets in a game. He’s getting very excited.”

Now those proverbial “bullets” will be used Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Mary Alice Vignola scored the equalizer in the 80th minute and Angel City salvaged a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Stars at BMO Stadium on Saturday night.

Angel City (4-4-3) took a 1-0 lead into halftime on Kennedy Fuller’s goal from inside the box in the 29th minute.

Chicago (1-8-2) made it 1-1 just before the hour mark when an attempted cross from substitute Nadia Gomes took a wild deflection and looped over the head of goalkeeper Angelina Anderson.

The Stars went up 2-1 up when Ally Schlegel scored from 25 yards out in the 66th minute. Anderson got one hand to the shot but could only tip the ball onto the crossbar and into the back of the net.

Vignola rocketed in a rebound from close range to make it 2-2.

The tie was Alex Straus’ first game as Angel City coach. Straus, who has never previously coached in the NWSL, arrived from Bayern Munich last week.