Carabao Cup holders Newcastle will start the defence of their crown at home to League One Bradford in the third round.
League Two Grimsby Town will travel to Championship Sheffield Wednesday after shocking Manchester United in a spectacular penalty shootout win at Blundell Park.
Manchester City will take on League One Huddersfield Town at the Accu Stadium while Arsenal will travel to Port Vale.
Reigning Premier League champions Liverpool, who were beaten in last season’s final, will host Championship Southampton, while Chelsea have been handed a trip to Lincoln City.
Brentford will host Aston Villa and Wolves will welcome Everton in the two all-Premier League ties.
The eight teams in the Champions League and Europa League – Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa – were seeded to avoid scheduling clashes.
Crystal Palace were not included in the seeding because the Conference League league phase does not get under way until October.
The third round fixtures will take place across two weeks, beginning on 15 and 22 September with Champions League and Europa League fixtures also scheduled during this period.
Roberto Delgado and his wife were praying the rosary on the night of Jan. 7 when they heard two loud booms that shook their Sylmar home. Then came a flash of light so bright that in the dead of night they could briefly see out their window the rocks and gullies of the San Gabriel foothills behind their house.
Seconds later, Delgado said in an interview, the couple saw flames under two electric transmission towers owned by Southern California Edison — even more shocking because they had seen a fire ignite under one of those towers just six years before.
“We were traumatized,” he said. “It was almost the exact same thing.” In both fires, the family was forced to race to their car and flee with few belongings as the flames rushed through the brush toward their home, which survived both blazes.
Edison’s maintenance of its power lines is now under scrutiny in the wake of January’s devastating Eaton fire, which destroyed a wide swath of Altadena and killed 19 people. Video captured by eyewitnesses shows the Eaton fire igniting under Edison transmission towers.
A lawsuit making its way through Los Angeles County Superior Court is raising new questions about Edison’s role in the 2019 Saddle Ridge fire in Sylmar and whether the company was transparent about the cause of the blaze. The fire killed at least one person and destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes and other structures. Firefighters were able to contain the more recent Sylmar fire, called Hurst, before any homes were destroyed.
The lawyers contend that both fires were caused by the same problem: an improperly grounded transmission line running through the foothills of Sylmar that Edison failed to fix, which the company denies.
In a court filing, the lawyers included a deposition they took of an L.A. Fire Department captain who said he believed that Edison was “deceptive” for not informing the department that its equipment failed just minutes before the 2019 blaze ignited, and for having an employee offer to buy key surveillance video from that night from a business next to one of its towers.
Edison has flatly disputed the lawyers’ assertions, calling their claims about the 2019 fire an “exotic ignition theory” based on “an unproven narrative.”
Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokeswoman for Edison, said that the utility had complied with the requests of investigators looking into the two fires and that “there is no connection” between the incidents.
Dunleavy said Edison did not tell the fire department about the failure of its equipment in 2019 because it happened at a tower miles away from where the fire ignited. And she said it is common for any investigator to seek to obtain video that could aid in an investigation. “SCE’s investigator did not offer to buy surveillance video,” she said.
“We follow the law. Period,” she said.
Dunleavy said the company has completed tests that show the transmission line is safe. She declined to share the results and pointed to testimony by Edison’s expert in the case — Don Russell, a Texas A&M professor of electrical engineering — who said the line was properly grounded.
As for the Jan. 7 Hurst fire, the utility told regulators in a February letter that it believes its equipment “may be associated with the ignition” of the blaze. The letter said the company found two conductors on the ground under a Sylmar tower. The repairs, the letter said, included replacing equipment at several towers and more than three miles of cable.
Delgado and Perez say that on the night of the fire they heard two loud booms and a flash of light so bright they could briefly see out their window the rocks and gullies of the San Gabriel foothills.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Undergrounding of towers questioned
In dispute is whether the failure of steel equipment at the top of an Edison transmission tower on the night of Oct. 10, 2019, caused a massive power surge across the system, resulting in multiple towers becoming electrified and intensely hot.
The tower, where the steel part known as a y-clevis broke, sits just off the 210 freeway in Sylmar on land shared with a nursery. The Edison tower behind Delgado’s home where investigators say the 2019 fire ignited is more than two miles away from the nursery.
The attorneys said in court filing that Edison made a “cost-saving choice” when building the transmission line in 1970 to not include “any purposeful grounding devices” that would enable power surges to dissipate down the tower and into the earth. Instead, the company used “only insufficient concrete footings,” the lawyers said in their filing.
Mark Felling, an electrical engineer and paid expert in the case, testified that he found that the size of the cement footings under the towers along the line varied by a factor of 10. The size of the footings, he said,affects whether the tower is properly grounded.
Felling said he believed that a sudden power surge could cause some towers to become “electrified and potentially very hazardous.”
Edison has disputed that theory and said in court that the electrical surge caused by the failure of equipment at the tower by the nursery safely dispersed. The utility said it was scientifically impossible that the electrical surge caused a fire 2½ miles away.
“The undisputed material facts cannot support plaintiff’s theory that SCE caused the Saddleridge fire,” the company wrote in a motion this month, which asked the judge to dismiss the case. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Oct. 6.
Edison’s motion included a copy of the L.A. Fire Department’s investigation, which included new details of how the company responded to fire investigators days after the 2019 fire.
Delgado said his rosary and prayers were important to surviving the fires.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Failure to report power surge
L.A. Fire investigator Robert Price arrived at the dirt road leading up to the hillside transmission line where the fire had ignited the night before to see the yellow crime scene tape lying on the ground and an Edison truck driving out, Price said in his report.
Price also wrote that Edison’s equipment recorded a fault that resulted in a surge of electricity about three minutes before Delgado reported the fire to 911 at 9 p.m. But the company did not tell the Fire Department about the fault, Price wrote.
Instead, L.A. Fire Capt. Timothy Halloran learned from a news report that Sylmar resident Jack Carpenter had recorded a large flash of light on his dashboard camera at 8:57 that night as he was traveling west on the 210 freeway.
Halloran traced the flash to a transmission tower built on land used by Ornelas Wood Recovery Nursery. Halloran interviewed employees at the nursery, who told him that an Edison employee had offered to buy the surveillance footage from the nursery’s camera, according to a deposition Halloran later provided to lawyers representing the victims.
A nursery employee also had taken photos of the broken steel equipment he found at the foot of the tower, according to Price’s report. The employee told Halloran that an Edison crew came the day after the fire and cleaned up the shattered pieces.
Halloran said in the deposition, according to a June court filing, that the company’s failure to report the fault and its offer to buy the nursery’s surveillance video made him believe that the company’s actions were “deceptive.”
Price said in his report that he also saw Edison crews cleaning the towers along the line three days after the fire’s start. An Edison employee told him that the utility cleans the towers once a year but had decided to clean them that day “because they were dirty from the smoke and fire,” Price wrote.
The cleaning did not prevent fire investigators from finding burn marks at the bottom of a second tower not far from where Delgado and his wife live, which Price said may be related to the “catastrophic failure” of equipment at the tower by the nursery.
In his final conclusion on the fire, Price wrote that it was “outside my expertise” to determine whether the failure of equipment at the tower above the nursery “could cause high voltage to travel back through the conductors … and cause a fire, possibly through the tower’s grounding system” more than two miles away.
“Therefore the cause will be undetermined,” Price wrote.
Dunleavy said that Edison had notified the California Public Utilities Commission about the fire before it began cleaning up the broken pieces of equipment found under the tower at the nursery. That cleanup and the company’s repairs, Dunleavy said, were needed to “ensure safety and reliability” of the line.
She added that it was common practice for utilities to wash down equipment after a fire before the system was reenergized.
According to an L.A. Fire investigator, Edison’s equipment recorded a fault that resulted in a surge of electricity about three minutes before Delgado reported the fire to 911 at 9 p.m.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
State utility investigators find violations
Also investigating the 2019 fire in the days after its start was Eric Ujiiye at the Public Utilities Commission.
The commission’s safety staff investigates fires that may have been caused by electric lines to determine whether the utility violated safety regulations.
Ujiiye said in his report that he found that Edison violated five regulations, including failing to safely maintain its equipment at the tower by the nursery.
Even though Price’s investigation for the L.A. Fire Department stated that the cause is undetermined, Ujiiye said in his report that he believed that the failure of equipment at the tower by the nursery “could have led to a fire ignition” at the pylon more than two miles away.
The commission’s staff asked Edison to perform tests to show that the towers on the line were properly grounded. According to a written response from Edison, the utility objected to the request as “vague and ambiguous.” But the company agreed to do the tests, which would be observed by the commission inspectors.
Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the commission, said that the agency’s staff was planning to meet with Edison at the transmission line to witness the tests. However, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions delayed that meeting and the requested undergrounding tests. She said that commission staff later learned that Edison had performed similar tests soon after the fire. Those test results “sufficed,” Prosper said, and the company “was not made to re-do the tests.”
Prosper said the commission did not fine or otherwise penalize Edison for the five violations because the LAFD report said the cause was undetermined. She said company had corrected the violations.
April Maurath Sommer, executive director of the Wild Tree Foundation, which has challenged Edison’s requests to have utility customers pay for fire damages, questioned the commission’s handling of the 2019 fire.
“You would think that the Public Utilities Commission would use fines to address really egregious behavior in the hope it would deter future behavior that causes catastrophic fires,” she said.
Maurath Sommer noted that Edison has been repeatedly found to have failed to cooperate with investigators looking into the cause of devastating fires. For example, commission investigators said in a report that the utility refused to provide photos and other details of what its employees found at the site where the Woolsey fire ignited in 2018. The Edison crew was the first to arrive at the scene of the fire that destroyed hundreds of homes in Malibu. Edison argued that the evidence was protected by attorney-client privilege.
Edison’s Dunleavy said the allegation by commission investigators was later resolved. “We take our obligation to cooperate with the CPUC seriously,” she said.
Prosper of the commission said, “Public safety is, and will remain, our top priority,”
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1.Fire fighters kept an eye on the wild fire burning behind Olive View Medical Center.(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)2.A firefighting plane drops red Phos-Chek, a fire retardant, to protect Olive View Medical Center from wind driven Saddle Ridge wild fire in October 2019.(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)3.Interstate 5 and California State Rute 14 were closed to traffic through Newhall Pass due to the Saddle Ridge fire.(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)4.Firefighters cleared brush and mopped up a hillside along California State Highway 14 due to fire in 2019.(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Another fire in Sylmar
At about 10:30 on the night of Jan. 7, Katherine Twohy heard a loud crack and saw a bright flash. Edison’s transmission towers in Sylmar skirt around the edge of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, where Twohy, a retired psychologist, lives.
“I was just coming in my back door and there was just this incredible flashing of white lights,” Twohy said. “Incredibly blue-white lights.”
She walked to her living room window where she can see two Edison towers, which are separated by more than a hundred yards. Twohy said she could see flames at the base of each one.
“The fires had made little circles around the base,” she said.
Twohy said she saw flames under the same towers the night the Saddle Ridge fire ignited in 2019.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, it’s just like last time,’” Twohy said.
In court, lawyers representing victims of the 2019 fire have seized on Edison’s admission that its equipment may have sparked the Jan. 7 fire.
“The evidence will show that five separate fires ignited at five separate SCE transmission tower bases in the same exact manner” as the 2019 fire, they wrote in a June court filing.
Delgado’s home sits next to the dirt road leading up to the towers. The Jan. 7 fire melted his backyard fence but did little more damage. In the days after the fire, he found that some of the same Edison employees he spoke to in 2019 as a witness reappeared.
“I saw the exact same people from Edison show up,” he said. “I told them your towers almost killed my family again.”
Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
Hannah Seabert made the most of her first NWSL start.
The veteran goalkeeper, who starred at Woodcrest Christian High in Riverside and Pepperdine University, made five saves as she helped Angel City FC to a 0-0 draw against the Utah Royals in Sandy, Utah.
Seabert was signed by Angel City in May and joined the club July 1 after playing professionally in Norway, Denmark and Portugal for the past seven years.
Sveindís Jónsdóttir had both shots on goal against Utah goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn.
Angel City beat the Royals 2-0 on May 9 and remain unbeaten all-time with a 2-0-2 record against Utah.
Angel City improved to 4-7-5. The Royals are 1–11–4.
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Denis Bouanga scored on a penalty kick in the 81st minute to rally LAFC to a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Fire at SeatGeek Stadium on Saturday night.
Bouanga notched his 14th goal of the season for LAFC (10-6-7) after subbing in for Mathieu Choinière in the 61st minute. The PK was awarded after Son Heung-min — in his debut with the club — was fouled by defender Carlos Terán.
Chicago (10-9-6) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute on Terán’s first goal this season. Philip Zinckernagel collected an assist on the score. Terán has one goal in five straight seasons.
LAFC pulled even in the 19th minute on a goal by defender Ryan Hollingshead — his second. Nineteen-year-old midfielder David Martínez picked up his first assist this season after notching two in 17 appearances last year.
The Fire took a 2-1 lead in the 70th minute on a goal by Jonathan Bamba — his fourth in his first season in the league. Zinckernagel snagged another assist — his 13th — and Brian Gutiérrez earned his second.
It was the first of three straight home matches in Bridgeview for the Fire whose home these days is Soldier Field. Chicago is 102-55-72 in regular-season play at SeatGeek.
Chris Brady saved four shots for Chicago.
Hugo Lloris totaled one save for LAFC.
Chicago began the day in possession of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as it tries to make the postseason for the first time since 2017.
LAFC entered the day sixth in the Western Conference, but the club has at least two matches in hand on all five teams above it.
Alanna Kennedy scored a late equalizer and Angel City tied the San Diego Wave 1-1 on Saturday night in their Southern California rivalry.
Just as the Wave looked to be securing a first home win over Angel City since 2022, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir sent in a cross and Kennedy scored on a header to make it 1-1 in the second minute of stoppage time. The goal was Kennedy’s first for Angel City.
San Diego opened the scoring in the 85th minute, when Makenzy Robbe curled in a shot across the goal from the right side of the box. It was Robbe’s first goal of the season, but her 10th career goal for the Wave.
In the first half, after being struck in the head by the ball, Angel City defender Sarah Gorden left the game with a concussion.
The fourth-place Wave (7-4-4) are undefeated in their last four matches, although the last three have been ties.
Angel City (4-7-4) remains 11th in the standings and is winless in its last seven games. The team is winless since coach Alex Straus came aboard in June.
If the fourth day of this Test was astonishing for its fluctuations and high emotion, the fifth day provided drama that was barely believable.
England’s target of 374 represented their second highest successful chase in Tests and the highest ever on this ground. They began Monday on 339-6, 35 adrift.
Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton were being given a torrid time on Sunday before the weather ended play early. England’s task instantly looked easier on Monday when Overton pulled Krishna’s first ball of the day for four and followed by inside-edging the next delivery past his stumps to the fine-leg fence.
The runs required were down to 27, then the pendulum swung once more.
Smith looked all at sea. He played and missed at his first two balls from Siraj and edged his third. There was a wait to see if Jurel had pouched the catch, but there was no doubt.
Atkinson edged the first ball he faced, inches short of KL Rahul at second slip. India’s fans, comfortably outnumbering the England support, surrounded the ground with noise.
Siraj charged in again. Overton played all around his pad. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena took so long to raise his finger, Overton had completed a run. The England man was so sure the review would save him, he began to mark his guard, only for the replay to show umpire’s call for shaving the leg stump. India were delirious.
Atkinson was unsure whether to farm the strike or trust Josh Tongue. The sky got darker and floodlights took hold. Tongue was given leg before to Krishna, only for the review to show the ball missing leg stump. England still needed 19.
England had added two more when Tongue was bowled by Krishna. There was confusion as to whether Woakes would bat, only for the 36-year-old to appear with his left arm covered by his England sweater.
Woakes ultimately never faced a ball, but his bravery will not be forgotten.
Atkinson’s mighty blow off Siraj was parried over the ropes by Akash Deep and left England with 11 to win. India captain Shubman Gill had the decision over bringing in the field to prevent the single, or to protect the boundary. He chose the latter. Woakes was in obvious pain when he shuffled the bye off the final ball of Siraj’s over.
Atkinson dug out Krishna for two to long-on, at the beginning of the next over. India kept the field back. England took another single. They needed seven when Siraj set off once more.
Atkinson cleared his front leg again, attempting another heave to the leg side, but Siraj’s yorker was pinpoint. He ended with 5-104, his effort every bit as heroic as the lion-hearted Woakes.
Before Motherwell found their late equaliser, former Rangers midfielder Derek Ferguson has expressed deep concern about his old side’s approach.
“At the moment there’s nothing coming from Rangers; it’s quite worrying,” he said on BBC Sportsound. “I’ve not got a clue what their tactic is. I don’t see it.”
After Motherwell netted the leveller their play more than merited, Ferguson added: “I’ve got a real worry after watching that second half. They players still have a lot to prove to that Rangers support.”
Speaking on Sky Sports, irate former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said: “It’s the same things that keep happening time after time after time.
“It’s early in the season. We know there are going to be players arriving. We know there are going to be players going out. But the alarming thing for is he’s calling them out so early on.”
Despite agreeing with Martin, former Celtic forward Chris Sutton was also taken aback by the Rangers boss’ comments, saying the remarks “were extreme”.
“For him to for him to do that first game of the season, he sees him every day in training, he must think they’re rank rotten,” he said on Sky Sports.
“Because why wouldn’t there be a bit more balance there? When have you ever seen a manager do that first game of the season? That was extreme as extreme.”
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The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 7, 2004, by three organisations: France’s Française des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain and the Camelot in the UK.
One of the UK’s biggest prizes was up for grabs on December, 4, 2020 with a whopping £175million EuroMillions jackpot, which would make a winner richer than Adele.
Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Scotland, netted a huge £161,653,000 in the July 12, 2011.
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Last season’s runners-up Manchester City have been drawn in Group A alongside Women’s Super League side Everton and second tier Nottingham Forest and Newcastle in the Women’s League Cup.
Manchester United were also not included in the draw because they have to go through Champions League qualifying. If they fail to reach the group stage in Europe, there will be another draw to determine if they slot into Group A or Group B.
The group-stage matches will get under way on 24/25 September.
Centuries by Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar send England-India series to fifth test match decider at The Oval.
India, led by captain Shubman Gill, batted with great character to secure a hard-fought draw in the fourth test against England and keep the series alive going into the final game.
After losing two wickets before they had scored a run in their second innings, India batted for over five sessions for the loss of two more wickets to end the match on 425-4 at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday.
A courageous hundred from Gill – his fourth of the series – and dogged unbeaten centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar – gave the home crowd little to cheer on a tough day five for England.
A closely fought series remains at 2-1 to England, and the hosts must avoid defeat in the final test at The Oval in London, starting on Thursday, to win it.
“This is no less than a win for us, given we were around 300 runs off the lead. Our batsman put on a great display,” Gill told the BBC.
“As soon as England got the new ball, it was doing a little bit, but our batters did really well, and it was tremendous, with a little bit of luck going our way as some balls can get dragged on, brilliant batting and brave batting.”
England captain Ben Stokes, who took five wickets in India’s first innings but was not fit to bowl much on Saturday, brought himself into the attack on Sunday morning with India resuming on 174-2.
The hosts were firm favourites to seal victory at this point, even more so when Stokes’s reintroduction paid dividends. The 34-year-old trapped KL Rahul by lbw for 90, ending his excellent third-wicket partnership with Gill at 188.
Gill remained undeterred, however, even after getting a nasty blow on the hand. In his first series as captain, the 25-year-old became only the third skipper to score four hundreds in a single test series.
Captain Shubman Gill set the tone for the India fightback, with a century in the second innings [Darren Staples AFP]
Gill Falls
After almost seven hours at the crease, a tired-looking Gill wafted at a Jofra Archer delivery to fall just before lunch for 103. Jadeja was dropped on the next ball by Joe Root, a tough chance at first slip.
England still had plenty of time to secure victory, but the home side barely created any chances, with India seeing out the draw in relative comfort.
Washington moved along conservatively after lunch, but hit successive boundaries, one a huge six, to move to his fifth test half-century. Jadeja reached his fifty and passed 1,000 test runs against England, becoming the third Indian player to do so this series.
After tea, with their chance of victory gone, England offered India the opportunity to call a halt to proceedings early, but Gill kept his team out there.
With England rotating their bowlers, Jadeja swept to his fifth test ton under no pressure, before Washington quickly completed his maiden test hundred.
India did then agree to a draw – the first non-rain affected draw for England since coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes came together in 2022.
“Another hard-fought test,” Stokes told reporters. “Another five-dayer. We set the game up really well, the way we put the Indian bowlers under pressure, focusing on batting once.
“We gave ourselves a great chance of bowling them out. We played the game how we wanted to; it didn’t just pan out the way we wanted,” Stokes added.
“Mentally, I feel fine; physically, I’ve been better. It has been a pretty big workload this series.”
England captain Ben Stokes was named player of the match at Old Trafford, but is an injury concern heading into the deciding fifth test at The Oval [Darren Staples/AFP]
The rivalry between the old-school Galaxy and its upstart neighbor LAFC was once the best in MLS. The Galaxy traces its roots to the inception of the league while LAFC helped define its modern era, setting up a turf war so good, so competitive and so emotional, it had its own nickname.
Much of that drama had faded from El Tráfico in recent matches. But that changed Saturday when Maya Yoshida scored on the last touch of the game to give the Galaxy a 3-3 draw before a packed house of 22,301 at BMO Stadium.
And the teams didn’t limit their fight to the scoreboard. A tense shoving match broke out seconds into stoppage time, leading referee Guido Gonzalez Jr. to send off LAFC’s Eddie Segura with a red card while handing two yellow cards to the Galaxy and one to LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Galaxy and LAFC players get into a on-field scuffle during Saturday’s 3-3 draw at BMO Stadium.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
The most devastating punch, however, came from Yoshida, who was in the center of the shoving match. Minutes later his header off a cross from Mauricio Cuevas — his first goal and just his second shot on target of the season — capped a Galaxy comeback from a late 3-1 deficit.
The draw gave the Galaxy (3-14-7) points in five of their last seven games, the team’s best stretch of the season. LAFC (10-5-6) is unbeaten in four straight and has lost just once in 14 league games since April 5. But the two points it lost on Yoshida’s goal dropped it to fifth in the Western Conference standings.
Bouanga’s fifth goal in six games gave LAFC the early lead in the 26th minute and, significantly, it was the first goal in that span that didn’t come from the penalty spot. It also gave him a goal in his last six games against the Galaxy.
LAFC star Denis Bouanga celebrates after scoring in the first half against the Galaxy on Saturday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
Dilrosun doubled the lead with his second MLS goal on a counterattack five minutes later.
Pec halved the deficit for the Galaxy on a penalty kick less than 10 minutes before the intermission. That goal, set up by a Ryan Hollingshead hand ball in the box, snapped a 375-minute scoreless streak for LAFC.
Bouanga extended the LAFC lead on another counterattack set up by a Galaxy mistake in the 67th minute. Afterward, as the teams walked back to the center circle, Pec and Galaxy defender Emiro Garces, who was out of position on the breakaway, engaged in a heated argument.
Pec calmed down enough to get his fifth goal of the season, on a cross from Marco Reus, to pull his team closer in the 79th minute. The Galaxy then appeared to tie the score just before stoppage time, but Lloris made a spectacular kick save on Christian Ramirez while lying on his back on the goal line.
That set the stage for Yoshida, however, with the Galaxy captain slipping in front of Nkosi Tafari to redirect a glancing header inside the far post, earning the Galaxy a league result at BMO Stadium for the first time since August 2021, a game that also ended in a 3-3 draw.
The 46-year old’s comeback bid for 13th world title falls short with a draw against WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios.
Manny Pacquiao’s bid to become the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history fell short as he failed to beat Mario Barrios at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
But he did not lose, either.
Instead, the 46-year-old Pacquiao and the 30-year-old Barrios fought to a majority draw on Saturday, with one judge giving Barrios a 115-113 win and the other two judges scoring it a 114-114 draw.
The result allowed Barrios (29-2-2, 18 knockouts) to retain his WBC welterweight belt.
“I thought I won the fight,” Pacquiao said afterwards.
“I mean, it was a close fight. My opponent was very tough. It was a wonderful fight. It was good.”
Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) already holds the record for the oldest welterweight champion, winning the belt via split-decision over Keith Thurman in 2019.
The Filipino legend was enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame last month. Pacquiao dominated Saturday’s fight early on, showing energy against his younger foe.
Ultimately, though, CompuBox stats had Barrios landing more punches (120-101) and more jabs (45-20), though Pacquiao landed 81 power punches to Barrios’s 75.
Barrios, right, throws a right at Pacquiao in the third round [Ethan Miller/Getty Images via AFP]
Pacquiao held the lead on all three cards after 10 rounds, but Barrios took all three rounds on all three scorecards to avoid the upset. Age and stamina were definitely on Pacquiao’s mind after the fight.
“I need to continue my training for longer going into a championship fight,” said Pacquiao, who lost his senatorial bid in the Philippines in May. “Because of the election, I started late, but it’s OK. Of course, I’d like a rematch. I want to leave a legacy and make the Filipino people proud.
“Don’t tell that to Barrios.
“His stamina is crazy,” the champion said. “He’s still strong as hell, and his timing is real. He’s still a very awkward fighter to try to figure out.”
As for a rematch, Barrios is ready.
“I’ll do the rematch. Absolutely. This was huge for boxing. I’d love to do it again.”
Barrios, left, and Pacquiao react after fighting to a majority draw in their welterweight title bout [John Locher/AP Photo]
WASHINGTON — Foreign tourists are trickling back to China after the country loosened its visa policy to unprecedented levels. Citizens from 74 countries can now enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, a big jump from previous regulations.
The government has been steadily expanding visa-free entry in a bid to boost tourism, the economy and its soft power. More than 20 million foreign visitors entered without a visa in 2024 — almost one-third of the total and more than double from the previous year, according to the National Immigration Administration.
“This really helps people to travel because it is such a hassle to apply for a visa and go through the process,” Georgi Shavadze, a Georgian living in Austria, said on a recent visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
While most tourist sites are still packed with far more domestic tourists than foreigners, travel companies and tour guides are now bracing for a bigger influx in anticipation of summer holiday goers coming to China.
“I’m practically overwhelmed with tours and struggling to keep up,” says Gao Jun, a veteran English-speaking tour guide with over 20 years of experience. To meet growing demand, he launched a new business to train anyone interested in becoming an English-speaking tour guide. “I just can’t handle them all on my own,” he said.
After lifting tough COVID-19 restrictions, China reopened its borders to tourists in early 2023, but only 13.8 million people visited in that year, less than half the 31.9 million in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
30 days for many in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast
In December 2023, China announced visa-free entry for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Almost all of Europe has been added since then. Travelers from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible last month, followed by four in the Middle East. The total will grow to 75 on July 16 with the addition of Azerbaijan.
About two-thirds of the countries have been granted visa-free entry on a one-year trial basis.
For Norwegian traveler Øystein Sporsheim, this means his family would no longer need to make two round-trip visits to the Chinese embassy in Oslo to apply for a tourist visa, a time-consuming and costly process with two children in tow. “They don’t very often open, so it was much harder,” he said.
“The new visa policies are 100% beneficial to us,” said Jenny Zhao, a managing director of WildChina, which specializes in boutique and luxury routes for international travelers. She said business is up 50% compared with before the pandemic.
While the U.S. remains their largest source market, accounting for around 30% of their current business, European travelers now make up 15% to 20% of their clients, a sharp increase from less than 5% before 2019, according to Zhao. “We’re quite optimistic,” Zhao said, “we hope these benefits will continue.”
Trip.com Group, a Shanghai-based online travel agency, said the visa-free policy has significantly boosted tourism. Air, hotel and other bookings on their website for travel to China doubled in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year, with 75% of the visitors from visa-free regions.
No major African country is eligible for visa-free entry, despite the continent’s relatively close ties with China.
North Americans and some others in transit can enter for 10 days
Those from 10 countries not in the visa-free scheme have another option: entering China for up to 10 days if they depart for a different country than the one they came from. The policy is limited to 60 ports of entry, according to the country’s National Immigration Administration.
The transit policy applies to 55 countries, but most are also on the 30-day visa-free entry list. It does offer a more restrictive option for citizens of the 10 countries that aren’t: the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Aside from the U.K., Sweden is the only other high-income European country that didn’t make the 30-day list. Ties with China have frayed since the ruling Chinese Communist Party sentenced a Swedish book seller, Gui Minhai, to prison for 10 years in 2020. Gui disappeared in 2015 from his seaside home in Thailand but turned up months later in police custody in mainland China.
Ting writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Ken Moritsugu and video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
July 8 (UPI) — The Transportation Safety Administration will soon let passengers keep their shoes while they go through security checkpoints at select airports.
ABC News reports that a memo went out to TSA officers nationwide last week that stated the new policy would start Sunday, and CBS News correspondents at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and Los Angeles International Airport reported Monday that they and other passengers were permitted to keep their shoes on during the screening process. NBC News reports a press release received Monday states the TSA is “exploring new and innovative ways to enhance the passenger experience and our strong security posture.”
NBC also reported Tuesday that a senior government official said that while this is only happening now at selected airports, the rule could be relaxed across the country in the future.
Other airports where the shoe rule is ending include Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina and Portland International Airport.
However, the memo notes those who set off an alarm while being screened will then be required to take their shoes off for additional screening.
Shoe removal while being screened began in 2006 due to intelligence that indicated a threat that began after Richard Reid unsuccessfully tried to ignite homemade shoe explosives on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December of 2001.
SONAY KARTAL bowed out of Wimbledon – amid more Centre Court line-calling controversy.
Kartal, the last British player in the women’s singles and making her Centre Court bow under a roof closed for daylight play for the first time this Championships gave her all in a topsy-turvy roller-coaster of a match against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
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Sonay Kartal is out of Wimbledon following defeat on Centre CourtCredit: Reuters
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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova argues with the chair umpireCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Despite earning a set point in the opener, the 23-year-old Kartal was eventually out-hit as she lost 7-6 6-3 in a two hours and two minutes.
But the BIG talking point was the latest malfunction of the new automatic line-judging system in operation in SW19 for the first time this year.
Just two days after Emma Raducanu publicly called out the AI judging on the All England Club’s showpiece venue, the last British woman left standing was involved in another bizarre incident.
Kartal’s forehand at game point to Pavluchenkova in the ninth game of the opener was clearly out but there was no call from the electronic officials.
With both players perplexed, German umpire Nico Helwerth halted play for three minutes as TV replays showed the non-call was totally wrong.
Eventually, Helwerth announced: “The electronic system was unable to track the last point”, ordering a replay, which saw Pavlyluchenkova volley wildly and eventually lose serve again.
It was a bizarre moment in a strange match, which saw neither player able to dominate on their serve.
Getting her third break – in those circumstances – could have been the springboard to a victory which would have seen her tournament earnings reach £400,000 – compared to her previous CAREER prize money of £333,000.
But despite a set point, Kartal was unable to serve out before being swept aside in the tie break.
And while the Brighton star bounced back from losing her opening service game in the second set she was crucially broken once more at 2-2, a missed forehand starting to put the writing on the wall.
‘You took the game away from me’ – Major Wimbledon controversy as new technology FAILS and Kartal rival fumes at umpire
Kartal refused to give up, asking the ultimate question of her opponent as she made the Russian serve out for the victory.
But Pavlyuchenkova, who matched her 2016 feat of reaching the last eight here in SW19, did not fold.
Kartal, though, can be proud of her run and she deserved the standing ovation that accompanied her exit.
Pavlyuchenkova, 34, apologised to the home fans after her victory ended Kartal’s dream run.
She said: “Sorry guys. I’d like to thank you for the great energy.
“I understand that she was local and that’s it. But it’s nice to play in a full stadium.”
The Russian added: “I was so impressed with her – but also myself, too.
“I was getting out of breath at one stage but to keep up with these young guys at this age and for me to play at this level is incredible.”
Banda, 25, came into the tournament off the back of a stellar 12 months which saw her also named BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year, score the winning goal for club side Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League Championship final, and become Africa’s all-time leading scorer – male or female – in Olympic football.
However, she had been forced to wait a long time to make her mark at a Wafcon.
An unused member of the Copper Queens squad in 2018, she saw the 2020 edition cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and missed out in 2022 amid confusion over ‘gender eligibility’ rules, with the situation later resolved.
But her first contribution on African football’s biggest stage caused obvious fear in the Moroccan rearguard, with three defenders backing off as Banda carried the ball from the halfway line to the edge of the box.
Her shot was on target but should have been saved by goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi, who somehow allowed it to squirm past her to provide a truly electric start.
But Morocco, who dominated with over 70% of possession throughout the game, were not behind for long.
Play was initially waved on by referee Shamirah Nabadda following a clumsy challenge inside the box by Grace Chanda on fellow midfielder Najat Badri, but the video assistant referee advised Nabadda to go to the monitor and the Ugandan duly overturned her original decision.
Jraidi made no mistake from the spot, hitting the ball high into the net to level proceedings in the 12th minute, lifting the volume inside the Olympic Stadium, the venue which will also host the final on 26 July.
Orlando Pride forward Banda then showed her class again 15 minutes later, finding time on the ball to slide a defence-splitting pass into the path of another player based in the USA, Bay FC’s Racheal Kundananji, Africa’s most expensive player, who finished calmly past Er-Rmichi.
And deep in first-half injury time, Banda looked set to tap home another goal at the back post, only to see Morocco full-back Hanane Ait El Haj pull off an amazing headed clearance from her own goal line.
Xu sat A-Level biology exams in-between her matches at the British grass-court tournaments, but she is now able to fully focus on tennis.
The US Open junior semi-finalist believes she will not be daunted by playing 22-year-old Raducanu on one of the biggest stages in the sport – potentially on Centre Court or Court One.
Xu was moving between rented accommodation when the draw was made at Wimbledon on Friday, and was left in suspense about who her opponent would be.
Xu and mum Wendy started receiving messages before they had seen the news.
“It was funny because we were moving at like 10:05am and I got a message from my coach saying what an exciting draw,” Xu said.
“And then my mum’s getting messages saying ‘that’s so good and so exciting’, but they weren’t saying the name.
“So I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, what is the draw? Who am I playing?’ so I went onto the Wimbledon website and it wasn’t there. Eventually someone told me.
“I feel like I’m really ready and excited for it. It’s going to be a really good test for me – a good opportunity to go out, play and have fun.”
Xu is one of three British players aged 17 and under in the women’s draw – the first time this has happened in Wimbledon history.
Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic – both aged 16 – have also been handed tough draws against seeded players.
The trio have known each other since they were little and have developed together through the ranks.
“To play Wimbledon for the first time together is cool,” US Open junior champion Stojsavljevic added.
