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Rayan Cherki: ‘One of Europe’s greatest technicians’ – why Man City want French ‘genius’

Cherki is only the latest talent fresh off the Lyon production line, but may be the best yet.

He joined Lyon at the age of seven from AS Saint-Priest and, aged 16 years and 140 days, Cherki became the youngest goalscorer in the Ligue 1 side’s history in a French Cup tie back in January 2020.

Before that in November 2019, a Champions League debut came against Zenit, while he also helped France reach the quarter-finals of the European Under-21 Championships in 2023.

Previously linked with Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, in 2020 he admitted to Lyon TV “my dream is to play for Real Madrid”.

His footballing idol is Cristiano Ronaldo, can play as a winger but his preference is a more central number 10 role.

Cherki has just enjoyed a break-out campaign in Ligue 1, providing 11 assists, 22 big chances – the most in the league – 13 through-balls and 48 successful dribbles.

A return of 12 goals in all competitions is by far the best of his short career, but it is his work and understanding of the game off the ball that has arguably improved the most this term.

French football expert Julien Laurens, speaking on the Euro Leagues podcast, said: “He has been incredible this season. Since he was 16 – even before that – the talent is there, left foot or right foot.

“A player at this level who takes corners with each foot depending on which side of the corner it is, to be an inswinger every time is just incredible.

“He is one of the greatest technicians in Europe right now.”

The stats support Cherki’s ambipedal qualities. Of the 44 shots he took with his feet in Ligue 1 last season, 22 came with the left and 22 with the right.

Cherki’s growing reputation was only enhanced by Thursday’s stunning international debut on Thursday against Spain, where he sparked France’s comeback from 5-1 down.

Three days later he made his full international debut as Les Bleus beat Germany 2-0 in the Nations League third-place play-off.

Laurens certainly isn’t Cherki’s only admirer.

France legend Thierry Henry has previously said he has “never seen a player in history who dribbles as quickly as him”, while Lyon’s captain Alexandre Lacazette described him as “special”.

The former Arsenal striker added: “This season, he has managed to raise his level. I would put [Mesut] Ozil in a different category but, with time, Rayan can get close to him.”

Cherki, also part of the France squad that finished runners-up at the 2024 Olympics, scored in both legs for Lyon against Manchester United in a Europa League quarter-final defeat last season.

Speaking to BBC Sport in April about him, Lyon’s former Arsenal player Ainsley Maitland-Niles said: “He is the best natural talent I’ve ever seen. An absolute master, a wizard with the ball.

“He is taking chances, assists and dragging us up the pitch by taking people on and nutmegging them – he is a genius.”

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Alejandro Garnacho jets off to Rome with girlfriend as Saudis prepare to rescue outcast from Man Utd nightmare

ALEJANDRO GARNACHO has jetted out on holiday to escape his Manchester United nightmare.

The Argentine forward’s Old Trafford career appears over after being told to find a new club by boss Ruben Amorim.

Selfie of Alejandro Garnacho and Eva Garcia.

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Alejandro Garnacho and partner Eva Garcia have jetted to ItalyCredit: instagram @evagarcia
Mirror reflection of a man kissing a woman, with their toddler son standing between them.

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The Argentine’s future at Manchester United remains uncertainCredit: instagram @evagarcia
Woman sitting outdoors at night holding a cocktail.

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Eva posted a series of snaps from the pair’s summer holidayCredit: instagram @evagarcia
Woman in beige pinstripe jumpsuit in front of the Pantheon.

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The couple took in the sights of the Italian capitalCredit: instagram @evagarcia
Woman smiling outdoors at night.

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Eva and Garnacho have been together for over 4 yearsCredit: instagram @evagarcia

Garnacho was left fuming after being benched for the Europa League final last month.

He later angered his teammates after giving an interview where he described United’s season as “s**t”.

The 20-year-old cut a dejected figure on the Red Devils’ disastrous post-season tour of Asia.

Garnacho was spotted in an altercation with a fan, before flashing the middle finger to supporters after a loss to the ASEAN All Stars.

The former Puskas Award winner has jetted out to Rome with girlfriend Eva Garcia for some much-needed R&R.

Garcia posted a host of snaps of the pair enjoying the Italian capital with their young son Enzo.

The influencer – who has her own jewellery line – uploaded the memories to her 664,000 Instagram followers.

Eva posed infront of the Trevi Fountain, before enjoying coffee in the sun with her boyfriend of over four years.

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SunSport exclusively revealed last month United want £50million for Garnacho, who joined the club’s youth ranks from Atletico Madrid in 2020.

The 20-year-old has made Chelsea his No1 choice.

Gary Neville names four Man Utd stars who must leave this summer

Garnacho is also attracting attention from Napoli, but would prefer to stay in the Premier League.

United rejected a £40m January bid from the Naples club for Garnacho but may get twice that from the Saudis. 

Pro League club Al-Nassr are preparing an audacious bid with Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at the club uncertain.

Garnacho’s relationship with Amorim fell apart after a dressing room spat boiled over infront of teammates.

Amorim reportedly told Garnacho he needs to “pray he can find a new club.”

United have since signed Matheus Cunha and are eyeing up Swede goal machine Viktor Gyokeres.

Illustration of Man Utd's £407M squad value drop, showing player names, fees, current values, and value drops.

Garnacho appeared in 36 Premier League games last season, contributing 6 goals and 3 assists.

Following Europa League heartbreak against Tottenham, the Argentine refused to be drawn on his future at United.

Garnacho said: “Until we reached the final, I played every round.

“And I played 20 minutes today – I don’t know. “I’m going to try to enjoy the summer and see what happens next.”

Manchester United's coach Ruben Amorim speaks with players Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.

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Ruben Amorim has told Garnacho to find a new clubCredit: Getty

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‘A huge moment’: Jarmond discusses UCLA’s plans after House settlement

Like a quarterback who completed offseason workouts, spring practices and fall training camp, Martin Jarmond had been preparing for this moment for nearly a year.

On Saturday came the big unveiling.

The UCLA athletic director discussed with The Times the plans for his department’s operations in the new college sports world created by the House settlement agreement with the NCAA that will allow schools to pay athletes directly for the first time starting July 1.

The big takeaways: UCLA will distribute $20.5 million in revenue sharing — the maximum allowed under the settlement — while keeping its Olympic sports programs and athletic department staff intact. The school will also preserve scholarship limits at their current levels for at least one year in order to distribute more revenue sharing money to each player.

“This is a pivotal moment in collegiate athletics, and we have to continue to invest in our athletics program to compete at the highest level,” Jarmond said. “That’s why student-athletes come to UCLA, to get the best education and compete at the highest level, and we must invest in our student-athletes to provide that championship-level experience.”

While Jarmond would not divulge the specifics of his revenue-sharing arrangement, it’s expected that UCLA will follow other Power Four conference schools in using U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken’s back-payment formula as a model for current athletes. Under this formula, which will distribute $2.8 billion to athletes who competed from 2016 to 2024 to compensate them for lost name, image and likeness opportunities, roughly 75% of the money will be shared with football players, 15% with men’s basketball players, 5% with women’s basketball players and 5% with all remaining athletes.

“We’ve worked really hard to look at the House settlement, along with other factors,” Jarmond said, “to determine how we were going to split up the revenue share.”

Jarmond told The Times last year that he anticipated a bigger share of revenue going to football and men’s basketball players because they were “responsible for more of the revenue based on the House settlement and the back pay for NIL and all those things.” Payments will rise each year as part of the 10-year settlement agreement.

Even though roster limits could eventually rise to 105 for football and 15 for men’s basketball as part of the settlement, keeping scholarship limits at their current levels — 85 for football, 13 for men’s basketball — will allow UCLA to provide each player on scholarship a bigger share of revenue. As part of the settlement agreement, any money used for scholarships (which have an estimated value of $65,000 per athlete at UCLA) comes out of the revenue sharing pot. Jarmond said his department would reevaluate this arrangement in a year to ensure it was best serving the school’s athletes.

UCLA is also committed to preserving its Olympic sports that have provided the lion’s share of NCAA championships in an athletic department widely regarded as one of the best in the nation. Jarmond said there would be no staffing cuts, but some personnel might be reassigned to better serve the athletic department.

“We are looking at reallocating staff,” Jarmond said, “to positions that better meet our needs in a changing landscape.”

The ability to pay players directly could help UCLA in ways that go beyond compensating its athletes. Revenue sharing arrangements could help narrow the resource gap between the Bruins and other Big Ten Conference schools that had more deep-pocketed NIL collectives engaging in pay-for-play practices.

Now, all new NIL deals exceeding $600 must be approved by NIL Go, a clearinghouse created by the College Sports Commission to analyze deals to ensure they serve a valid business purpose and provide fair market value.

It’s expected that all existing college NIL collectives — including UCLA’s Men of Westwood (which serves men’s basketball), Bruins for Life (football) and Champion of Westwood (women’s basketball, Olympic sports) — will essentially become marketing agencies that try to find endorsement deals for athletes.

Jarmond said UCLA was seeking a third-party partner to help secure so-called true NIL opportunities. Being based in Los Angeles should provide Bruins athletes with a clear advantage in securing marketing deals, Jarmond said.

Other challenges remain. Having traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal NIL legislation, Jarmond said he believed it was necessary to eliminate the imbalance that exists with more than 30 states having their own NIL laws.

While distributing $20.5 million in revenue will be another financial blow to an athletic department that has run $219.5 million in the red over the last six fiscal years — though the entire debt has been covered by the university, bringing the balance to zero — Jarmond said he has long championed athletes being paid and believes the move is long overdue. As part of the settlement involving back pay to athletes, UCLA’s share of NCAA revenue will be reduced by more than $1 million annually for the next 10 years.

UCLA’s finances could soon improve under a College Football Playoff revenue sharing agreement that is expected to provide Big Ten schools an additional $8 million to $12 million annually beginning in 2026. That’s on top of media rights deals tilted heavily in favor of Big Ten and Southeastern Conference schools, giving the Bruins another infusion of much-needed cash.

The athletic department has a new ally in Chancellor Julio Frenk, who signaled his intention to be closely involved with the school’s sports programs during a recent interview with The Times.

“Chancellor Frenk has been extremely supportive of athletics and the impact that it has on our community,” Jarmond said. “He has been supportive of our efforts every step of the way. He hit the ground running during a pivotal time not just for athletics but the university, and he has demonstrated support at a high level and I’m grateful for his leadership at such a pivotal time for athletics.”

While acknowledging that UCLA athletics needed to be more creative with revenue generation as part of what he called “a huge moment” that would forever change the trajectory of college sports, Jarmond said the school’s commitment to sports was unwavering.

“We have to be bold and innovative in this new world,” Jarmond said. “UCLA has always been on the forefront and been a leader and that’s not going to change. We will embrace this new era and we will continue to support our student-athletes at a championship level.”

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Man Utd gave Zinedine Zidane a blank cheque to take over as manager.. he’s not in it for money, says Premier League icon

ZINEDINE Zidane rejected a blank cheque to join Manchester United as manager, according to his old team-mate.

Former Chelsea centre-back Marcel Desailly is adamant that Zidane is NOT driven by cash.

Zinedine Zidane at a soccer match.

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Zinedine Zidane has not worked as a manager since his time at Real MadridCredit: Getty

Zidane has been approached by some of the biggest clubs in the world since quitting Real Madrid after failing to win a trophy in 2021.

The World Cup icon was heavily linked with a move to Man Utd before, during and after Erik ten Hag‘s rollercoaster two years.

One of the reasons he supposedly turned Old Trafford chiefs down was becasue he didn’t feel confident speaking English.

A few years on and ahead of the upcoming 32-team Club World Cup, Zizou was offered an eye-watering £84million to commit to a one-year contract at Saudi Pro League runners-up Al-Hilal.

And his former team-mate Desailiy has revealed how difficult it is for club’s to persuade him to join, and where he’s likely to go next.

Desailly said: “Will Zinedine Zidane be tempted by Saudi Arabia?

Well he had a blank cheque on the table from Chelsea and a blank cheque from Manchester United and turned them down.

He isn’t in it for the money. I don’t see why money will change anything, I know privately that he won’t change his lifestyle.

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“He likes to travel and always keeps an eye on the France national team. He’s ready because Didier Deschamps has started the transition.

France will be one of the favourites for the World Cup and win or lose it’s not the end of this era for France.”

Zinedine Zidane suffers embarrassing wardrobe malfunction as he brings out Champions League trophy at Wembley

Zidane is the only manager in the world to have won a staggering three Champions League titles in a row during his first spell with Real.

And he followed that up by lifting two LaLiga titles during his second stint, having only managed the Spanish giants.

Desailiy believes that Zidane is most attracted to the France job because they have a new generation of superstars, including Champions League hero Desire Doue.

He added: Since 2016, France have been growing and growing. New players have come into the team constantly and now they have the right guys.

Rayan Cherki is one of them alongside Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe is still there and on top of his game.

“There is a real dynamic. William Saliba is in defence with Ibrahima Konate, Bayern have Dayot Upamecano.

“There is a squad and a philosophy and Zidane will know how to take that on to rebuild his own team. For another eight years at least France will be at the top level in Europe.”

Zidane made a £4MILLION investment into a new sport project in February, which turned out to be a new padel centre in France.

Zinedine Zidane holding the UEFA Champions League trophy.

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Zidane won three Champions League titles

Zidane’s managerial career

Zizou spent 18 months in charge of Real Madrid Castilla before being given his shot at the big time following the sacking of Rafael Benitez.

Zidane, 51, took charge of the first team in January 2016 and guided them to a second-place finish in his maiden season at the Bernabeu helm.

But he went one better in the Champions League, sealing Real’s 11th European Cup triumph with a shootout victory over Atletico Madrid.

The former Los Blancos star went one better in the league in the 2016-17 season, in which they also won the Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup.

A second successive Champions League triumph also followed, with Real beating Italian giants Juventus at the Principality Stadium.

He would create history the following season by becoming the first manager to win the tournament three times on the bounce.

A 3-1 win over Liverpool saw Real become the first team to win Europe’s elite club competition three times in a row.

Zidane announced his resignation five days after the final, insisting the club needed a “change” of direction.

He would return to the Bernabeu in March 2019 following Santiago Solari and Julen Lopetegui’s short reigns.

A return to the summit of Spanish football would follow in the 2019-20 season, in which Real also scooped the Spanish Super Cup.

Zidane would leave the Bernabeu again in June 2021 after overseeing Real’s first trophyless season in 11 years.

Zinedine Zidane’s Honours:

– La Liga: 2016–17, 2019–20
– Supercopa de España: 2017, 2019–20
– UEFA Champions League: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18
– UEFA Super Cup: 2016, 2017
– FIFA Club World Cup: 2016, 2017

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Isle of Man TT: Senior race delayed by rainfall

Racing on the final day of the Isle of Man TT has been delayed because of rain around the course.

Clerk of the course Gary Thompson said road closures around the circuit had been pushed back by four hours, with a further update due at 12:30 BST.

Saturday’s race schedule features the blue riband Senior event, due to be held over six laps of the Mountain Course, now scheduled to start at 14:45.

As it stands, the A18 Mountain Road is set to close at 13:00, with the lower part of the course due to shut an hour later at 14:00.

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Man Utd transfer news LIVE: Fernandes ‘REJECTS’ Al-Hilal, Mbuemo ‘wants United move’, Red Devils in battle for Mitrovic

I think for Man United it’s best to ship [him] out. If I was the manager I’d be a little bit similar to [Ruben] Amorim in the case of I just want team players.

I want a bunch of lads who are good, honest, hard working team players. And I don’t get that vibe from Garnacho, I don’t get that vibe from a few of the players.

You look at the full-time whistle after the Europa League game. You have Brennan Johnson doing an interview.

He looks like he hasn’t had a haircut for about three months, [hair] horrible all over the place, but his interview was incredible.

You could tell he’s a real nice lad, he’s hard working, he does everything for the team. Then you look at Garnacho. Fresh trim a day ago, dyed blonde ready for the final.

The full-time whistle goes, he’s sat on the pitch sulking by himself, not trying to get behind the other lads, picking them up, saying, ‘Well done we got this far’.

“And I think that there is the big contrast. I just want good lads, honest, hard working lads.

Ben FostertalkSPORT

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British man orders pint in Benidorm but is totally floored by price

A British man recently visited Benidorm and ordered a pint at a well-known bar. He was floored when he was told the price of the tipple, and what it would set him back

He was left stunned by the price of it (stock image)
He was left stunned by the price of it (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)

A British man ordered a pint in Benidorm but was left totally floored by the price. The man, who appears to be no stranger to Spain, was taken aback when he was told how much a drink would set him back at the popular holiday hotspot.

Known as the Benidorm Fanatic to his TikTok followers, he told people he headed to Uncle Ron’s bar, which is said to be “famous” for its pints, notable for how cheap they’re sold for. As he ventured to the venue, he was left astoudned at the price list, as he seriously got a lot for his money.

In the clip, he said: “I tell you what, I believe it’s actually a very, very nice pint as well, so it comes to the equivalent of about 84p in British money. Let’s go and try it out, shall we? Let’s give it a try.”

After he made his way to the bar, he added: “So there you go, I’ll give you a euro, a €1 pint, and I’ll take that. Let’s try this €1 pint. Look at that – a nice, clean, cold pint. It’s got a nice, good head on it – let’s try it.

“That is actually one of the best pints I’ve had in one of the popular bars. That is actually one of the best pints I’ve had in Benidorm to be honest with you. €1, I’ll drink them all day.”

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Since he shared the video, many people have viewed it, and they were quick to comment too. They shared their thoughts, and some posted their own Benidorm stories.

One said: “Wow.” Another shared: “I was there last week.”

A third replied: “Lovely pint. Had many.” Meanwhile, a fourth also commented: “Bargain.”

If you’ve never heard of Uncle Ron’s before, it’s a popular spot for British tourists in Benidorm. As well as being known for its cheap drinks, it also serves food too.

According to TripAdvisor, the venue serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and also has 3.8/5 rating on average, according to the review platform. Many people say it’s worth a visit if you’re looking for a reasonable meal and a few drinks while on holiday.

In the review section, one person wrote: “Had a fantastic breakfast at Ron’s today. Lovely English produce. Great service. Brilliant staff.

“A massive group came in, but they were serviced promptly. Don’t know how they manage with so few staff.”

Another said: “Last day we visited for some lunch before heading to airport. Left full, which is always a good thing. In all my times of going here, never left unhappy at the service nor the food – always really good.”

A third replied: “We went many times during our two-week holiday. The staff are friendly and extremely hard working day and night.

“Cheapest drinks you will find in town and food to suit everyone (daily deal only 6 euros). It’s not a stylish 5* restaurant but then you wouldn’t expect it.

“For drinks just go to the bar like a normal bar. Always busy Sunday and Friday, so expect to book if you want a Sunday lunch. Would we go again? Certainly would!”

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Migrants and ICE officers contend with heat, smog and illness after detoured South Sudan flight

Migrants placed on a deportation flight originally bound for South Sudan are now being held in a converted shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, where the men and their guards are contending with baking hot temperatures, smoke from nearby burn pits and the looming threat of rocket attacks, the Trump administration said.

Officials outlined grim conditions in court documents filed Thursday before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts to swiftly remove migrants to countries they didn’t come from.

Authorities landed the flight at the base in Djibouti, about 1,000 miles from South Sudan, more than two weeks ago after U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston found the Trump administration had violated his order by swiftly sending eight migrants from countries including Cuba and Vietnam to the east African nation.

The judge said that men from other countries must have a real chance to raise fears about dangers they could face in South Sudan.

The men’s lawyers, though, have still not been able to talk to them, said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, whose stated mission is to ensure the United States is a global leader on human rights. Barnard spoke Friday at a hearing of Democratic members of Congress and said some family members of the men had been able to talk to them Thursday.

The migrants have been previously convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., and President Trump’s administration has said that it was unable to return them quickly to their home countries. The Justice Department has also appealed to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene and allow swift deportations to third countries to resume.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight became another flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the president’s policies.

The Trump administration said the converted conference room in the shipping container is the only viable place to house the men on the base in Djibouti, where outdoor daily temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the declaration from an ICE official.

Nearby burn pits are used to dispose of trash and human waste, and the smog cloud makes it hard to breathe, sickening both ICE officers guarding the men and the detainees, the documents state. They don’t have access to all the medication they need to protect against infection, and the ICE officers were unable to complete antimalarial treatment before landing, an ICE official said.

“It is unknown how long the medical supply will last,” Mellissa B. Harper, acting executive deputy associate director of enforcement and removal operations, said in the declaration.

The group also lacks protective gear in case of a rocket attack from terrorist groups in Yemen, a risk outlined by the Department of Defense, the documents state.

Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador back in U.S. now

June 6 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is back in the United States after being indicted in Tennessee on two federal charges involving migrant smuggling, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

Bondi said Abrego Garcia, 29, is in the United States to “face justice.”

He made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Nashville. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes set his arraignment for Wednesday and a hearing on whether he should be detained before the trial.

The Justice Department said in a court filing that he should be held in pretrial custody because “he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”

On May 21, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment, charging Abrego Garcia with criminal counts of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, Bondi said at a news conference.

Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy indicted.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was presented with an arrest warrant for him and he agreed to return him to the United States, Bondi said.

“We’re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges and serves his sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

President Donald Trump later told reporters that “I don’t want to say that” it was his call to bring him back to the United States.

“He should have never had to be returned. Take a look at what’s happened with it. Take a look at what they found in the grand jury,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey. “I thought Pam Bondi did a great job.”

Ben Schrader, the chief of the criminal division in the office for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, resigned the same week of the grand jury indictment last month, CNN reported. Schrader’s post on LinkedIn does not mention the Abrego Garcia case.

On April 17, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with his constituent in El Salvador.

“After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X Friday. “This has never been about the man — it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”

In the indictment unsealed Friday afternoon, Abrego Garcia and others are accused of participating in a conspiracy in which they “knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”

The allegations from 2016 to this year involve a half-dozen alleged unnamed co-conspirators. Abrego Garcia and others worked to move undocumented aliens between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times, according to the indictment.

They “ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the indictment said.

Abrego Garcia and someone referred to a CC-1 “then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”

To cover up the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors say Abrego Garcia and his co-conspirators “routinely devised and employed knowingly false cover stories to provide to law enforcement if they were stopped during a transport,” including claims that migrants being transported were headed to construction jobs.

In November 2022, Abrego Garcia is accused of driving a Chevrolet Suburban and was pulled over on a Tennessee interstate highway, with nine other Hispanic men without identification or luggage.

Prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia transported narcotics to Maryland, though he wasn’t previously charged with any crimes.

“For the last 2 months, the media and Democrats have burnt to the ground any last shred of credibility they had left as they glorified Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a known MS13 gang member, human trafficker, and serial domestic abuser,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on X. “Justice awaits this Salvadoran man.”

Abrego Garcia and his family have denied allegations that he’s an MS-13 member, and he fled gang violence in El Salvador.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said his client should appear in immigration court, not criminal court.

“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” Sandoval-Moshenberg Now told CNN. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

Abrego Garcia deported in March

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland since he arrived in the United States in 2011 unlawfully.

The government earlier, through a confidential informant, said his clothes had alleged gang markings when he was arrested in 2019.

Abrego Garcia was living with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and children when he was arrested in March and deported to El Salvador to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He was with a group of more than 230 men, mostly Venezuelans, accused of being gang members.

In April, the State Department said Abrego Garcia was moved to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake because he had been granted a legal status in 2019. The Department of Homeland Security is banned from removing him to his home country of El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution by local gangs. He didn’t have a hearing before his deportation.

The government has utilized the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to quickly deport migrants from the United States.

In an April hearing, District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to comply with expedited discovery to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The high court and district judge said the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return for due process.

On Wednesday, Xinis ordered seven documents to be unsealed in the deportation.

Trump criticized judges for interfering in cases.

“Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide,” Trump said Friday night. “And that’s not supposed to be the way it is. So I could see bringing him back … he’s a bad guy.”

The criminal charges could impact his immigration case, John Sandweg, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told CNN.

“I think what we’re going to see is on the back end of this criminal prosecution — now that they’re prosecuting him for these immigration-related offenses — if they get a conviction, they will go back to the immigration court and argue that now there are those changed circumstances,” said Sandweg, who is now a partner at law firm Nixon Peabody.

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Deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to US to face charges | Donald Trump News

After his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia faces US charges of transporting undocumented migrants.

A man the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been brought back to the United States, where authorities say he will face criminal charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran immigrant who had lived nearly half his life in Maryland before he was deported in March, faces charges of transporting undocumented migrants inside the US, according to recently unsealed court records.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that Abrego Garcia was returned to the US to “face justice”.

The indictment against him was filed on May 21, more than two months after he was deported in spite of a court order barring his removal.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking but ultimately issued only a warning for an expired driver’s license, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.

Bondi, speaking at a news conference, said a grand jury had “found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring”.

She said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.

Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador as part of a Trump scheme to move undocumented migrants it accuses of being gang members, to prison in the Central American country without due process.

Bukele said in a social media post that his government works with the Trump administration and “of course” would not refuse a request to return “a gang member” to the US.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference about Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Justice Department, Friday June 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
US Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference about Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Justice Department, Friday, June 6, in Washington, DC [Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo]

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said Abrego Garcia could face up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

But “that does not deal with the ongoing matter of whether or not he should be deported”, she added. “That’s a separate legal matter.”

Abrego Garcia will have the chance to enter a plea in court and contest the charges at trial. If he is convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said.

In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” said Rossman, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation defied an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection from being sent back to El Salvador, where it found he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned, court records show.

Trump critics pointed to the erroneous deportation as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive approach to stepping up deportations.

Officials countered by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His lawyers have denied that he was a gang member and said he had not been convicted of any crime.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flash point for escalating tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary, which has ruled against a number of Trump’s policies.

The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his “warrantless arrest”.

US District Judge Paula Xinis also opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration did to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.

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UCLA’s new chancellor suggests he’ll be involved with UCLA athletics

Julio Frenk does not appear to be a university administrator content to watch his school’s athletic program from the sidelines.

In his last stop before becoming UCLA’s chancellor, Frenk led an overhaul of the University of Miami’s athletic department, bringing in a new athletic director and football coach after the Hurricanes were criticized for not making football a priority under Frenk’s leadership.

That shakeup resulted in coach Mario Cristobal leading his team to a 10-3 season in 2024 that represented the Hurricanes’ best finish in nearly a decade.

Can UCLA fans expect a similar level of involvement in athletics from their new chancellor?

In a word, yes.

During a recent interview with The Times, Frenk indicated that he would be hands-on with UCLA athletics because of its importance to the university as a whole.

“I am [going to be involved] because I think athletics plays a very central role,” Frenk said. “It is, first, an avenue for recruiting very talented students. Secondly, it benefits the other students. It enriches the student experience of everyone. But let me tell you, when we talk about the contribution to society, part of the reason many universities have a deficit, it’s not because of football. Football actually has a positive cash flow for the university.

“What we do in the United States that no other country that I know of does, is that universities are the place where we train Olympians, Olympic competitors, competitors who go to the Olympic Games. That function — just like the research function — has been delegated to universities and we are investing in having Olympic athletes. In most of the other countries, it’s government-run high-performance centers.

“But here the federal government doesn’t have to worry about that because universities do that and they fund that. And when we have the Olympics every four years, everyone is very proud to see the United States top the medal chart. That work starts in universities and that’s why we also fund that. It’s an intrinsic part of education. It enriches everyone’s experience. It builds community. It also produces the best performing Olympic teams in the world.”

Frenk’s comments would seem to suggest that he is not considering any cuts to UCLA’s Olympic sports even at a time when the school’s athletic department has run up a $219.5-million deficit over the last six fiscal years. That deficit would be even higher had the university not agreed to provide $30 million to its athletic department as part of its most recent fiscal budget.

Frenk also said that federal legislation was needed “to create a much more predictable model” for football and men’s basketball, controlling expenses while propping up the rest of an athletic department.

Los Angeles, CA - June 05: Seventh UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk speaks.

UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk speaks during his inauguration ceremony at Royce Hall on June 5.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

“I acknowledge this costs money,” Frenk said of allocating resources to the revenue sports, “but the money goes to be able to have all the other disciplines that do not generate money. The most direct way to do that would be to find other sources of funding. Right now, we use the revenue from football and that requires investments to fund the entire athletic operation.

“It is time to have a conversation and create a legal framework that doesn’t leave it to each institution or each state to find their own way in this. We’re part of an ecosystem. I think the move to the Big Ten has been very positive in that respect. And those are the conversations we are having. How do we generate other sources of revenue — mostly to be able not just to maintain the excellence of the sports that are widely followed by the public, but also all the other sports, including, very importantly, the Olympic sports, which are such a source of pride?”

Frenk has shown he will not tolerate failure in high-profile sports — or the perception that he is not doing everything he can to help his teams.

As Miami’s president, he led an upheaval of the school’s athletic department after ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit criticized the Hurricanes during a September 2021 broadcast, mentioning a Miami Herald article stating that football was not a priority for Frenk. Herbstreit went on to say that Miami’s athletic director, football coach and president were not in alignment about team needs like other powerhouse programs.

Five days later, Frenk issued a statement saying that he wanted “to make clear that the board of trustees and I, as president, recognize the essential part of our brand and reputation derived from athletics and we are fully committed to building championship-caliber teams at the U.” Frenk added that he would have his chief of staff and senior advisor engage with the athletic department to enhance his own commitment to sustain winning teams.

With the football team headed for a 7-5 finish that fell far short of preseason expectations, athletic director James Blake was fired before the end of the season and football coach Manny Diaz was dismissed a little more than a week after the final game. The Hurricanes then gave Cristobal a 10-year, $80-million contract, with Frenk attending the introductory news conference and calling his new coach’s selection “a bold vision for the future.”

UCLA football went 5-7 last season under first-year coach DeShaun Foster.

UCLA football went 5-7 last season under first-year coach DeShaun Foster.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Last month, while making his first public remarks about UCLA athletics at a UC regents meeting, Frenk referenced the role athletics played in the school’s institutional identity, mentioning legendary basketball coach John Wooden and the Bruins’ dominance in Olympic sports with the school set to host the athlete village for the 2028 Olympics.

Frenk also mentioned how UCLA’s recent move to the Big Ten Conference was made with “the goal of stabilizing the program and positioning it for long-term success.” The chancellor referenced the school’s national championship in men’s water polo, a Final Four appearance in women’s basketball and a national runner-up finish in women’s gymnastics as part of a haul that also included six team and four individual conference titles, the most of any Big Ten team.

Ultimately, an athletic department is only as healthy as its highest-profile sports. UCLA’s football team needs to fully capitalize on the recent buzz created by the arrival of transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava after finishing 5-7 in coach DeShaun Foster‘s debut season. The men’s basketball team must maximize the ability of transfer point guard Donovan Dent to make everyone around him better if it hopes to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2023.

Going forward, every UCLA team seems assured of one thing: Their new chancellor will be watching.

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For ‘Life of Chuck,’ TIFF-to-Oscars journey could be a long march

If a movie inspires you to get up in the middle of a Koreatown steakhouse and do the robot with your waiter, isn’t that worthy of some kind of award, even if it’s not an Oscar?

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. Let’s talk about “The Life of Chuck,” the latest Stephen King adaptation, a film possessing the pedigree of an Oscar best picture contender.

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Can ‘Chuck’ extend Toronto’s Oscar streak?

The last 12 movies to win the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award have gone on to earn an Oscar nomination for best picture. It’s a list that includes eventual Oscar winners like “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book” and “Nomadland.” Two years ago, Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” premiered at Toronto and parlayed the momentum from its People’s Choice prize into an adapted screenplay victory for Jefferson.

Suffice it to say, it’s a prime precursor.

Which makes the arrival of “The Life of Chuck,” last year’s People’s Choice winner, all the more of a curiosity. Neon, the indie studio behind best picture winners “Anora” and “Parasite,” bought the film out of Toronto after it won the award, voted on by festivalgoers. With not enough time to craft a marketing or awards season campaign, the studio slotted the movie for the summer of 2025. It opens in limited release today — you can find it in five theaters in the Los Angeles area — and will expand nationwide next week.

“The Life of Chuck,” adapted from a 50-page Stephen King story published in 2020, is feel-good tale about the end of the world. It is indeed about the life of Chuck, a prototypical King everyman, an ordinary accountant we don’t meet until the the second part of the movie’s backward-moving triptych. But we know about him because in the film’s opening section, the one with the world ending and California tumbling into the sea (Steely Dan was right!), Earth’s inhabitants are inundated with baffling billboards and ads featuring a picture of Chuck, thanking him for 39 great years.

Tom Hiddleston, star of "The Life of Chuck," at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

Tom Hiddleston, star of “The Life of Chuck,” at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

We eventually learn that Chuck, played as an adult by Tom Hiddleston, is a remarkable dancer and has lived a life filled with loss. In between the tragedies, there were moments of pure, unadulterated joy. The movie, faithfully adapted and competently directed by Mike Flanagan (the man behind Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and other horror tales), wants to leave you with the message that such moments are enough. And also to remind you that when these occasions come, we should recognize them and store them away as found gold.

It’s an original story arriving in a summer movie landscape dominated by sequels and retreads. Call it counterprogramming. Critics have been split, which isn’t surprising. You either suspend disbelief and settle into this movie’s vibe or you find yourself unmoved and checking the time, thinking that, in the momentary pleasure department, a root beer float would go down easier. I liked it well enough, but given the choice, I’d probably opt for the ice cream.

For “The Life of Chuck” to be an awards season play, moviegoers will need to fall for it as hard as audiences did at Toronto. That feels like a long shot, though maybe the film’s sweetness and optimism will resonate in the current moment. Times film critic Amy Nicholson was mixed on the movie and yet, as I mentioned at the outset, it did make her “make magic out of the mundane” and boogie with a waiter. She sent me the video. Don’t let her tell you otherwise … she’s a dancing machine.

Join us live!

Want to catch the Envelope in person? RSVP for our free live screening and Q&A with the stars of “Landman,” Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, Andy Garcia and Jacob Lofland.

When: Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m.
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Since I’m being a little wistful here, let me call your attention to a recent column I wrote about the late, great Linda Lavin, a singular talent who never won an Emmy.

That may surprise you, particularly if you were around when Lavin headlined the long-running CBS sitcom “Alice,” in which she played a widowed mom working as a waitress while pursuing her dream of singing. The series ran from 1976 to 1985, piling up more than 200 episodes, a spinoff for Polly Holliday (Flo, the “kiss my grits” sass-flinger) and a lasting reputation for presenting an early, understated feminist role model. Alice wasn’t nearly as brash as Bea Arthur’s Maude or quite as lovable as Jean Stapleton’s Edith Bunker, but like her contemporary Mary Tyler Moore, she could turn the world on with her smile.

Lavin, who died in December at 87, did earn two Golden Globes for the role and, after “Alice” ended, she won a Tony Award in 1987 for lead actress in a play for her turn as a Jewish mother navigating a changing world in Neil Simon’s “Broadway Bound.”

“It was one of the greatest stage performances I have ever seen, and I told her that the first day I met her,” says Nathan Lane, who had the opportunity to share his enthusiasm with Lavin when they worked together on the Hulu sitcom “Mid-Century Modern.” Lane recalls watching the play and choking up when Lavin absent-mindedly wiped off a phone receiver — her character was always cleaning — right after a wrenching phone call.

“She could do anything and make it look effortless,” Lane says. “Working with her was the happiest experience I’ve ever had in television.”

Surreal illustration featuring the floating head of Linda Lavin set against a floral, abstract background.

(Photo illustration by Susana Sanchez / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images / CBS Photo Archive)

In Emmy history, 33 actors — 22 men and 11 women — have been posthumously nominated. Most recently, Treat Williams earned a nod last year for his supporting turn in the FX limited series “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.” Ray Liotta was nominated in 2023 in the same category for “Black Bird.” And in 1978, Will Geer received three posthumous nominations, including his last season on “The Waltons.” (He lost all three.)

Lavin has a legitimate case. She elevates “Mid-Century Modern” every time she’s onscreen with her vitality and comic timing. In April, she picked up a comedy supporting actress nod from the Gotham Television Awards.

You can read the entire column, which includes some terrific stories from “Mid-Century Modern” showrunners Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, here.

Have a great weekend. Hope you find a moment to dance.

Read more of Glenn’s Emmys coverage

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State authorities to probe LAPD shooting of man officers say had gun

The California Department of Justice will investigate a fatal shooting by Los Angeles Police Department officers under a law that empowers the state attorney general to probe police shootings of unarmed people — despite the LAPD saying the man killed Tuesday was holding a gun.

At 10 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a reported shooting in an apartment building in the 1000 block of Ardmore Avenue in Koreatown, LAPD officials said in an unsigned statement.

As they entered the building, Ronald Gainer Jr. exited an apartment holding a handgun, officials said. The officers fired at Gainer, who retreated into the apartment.

The officers entered the unit and took Gainer into custody, according to the LAPD. Gainer, 35, died at a hospital, according to the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office.

Officers found a handgun and discharged cartridge casings “at scene,” the LAPD said, along with a second gun and ammunition inside the apartment.

According to the police statement, Gainer was involved earlier that evening in a “domestic violence incident” with his girlfriend. After she fled, Gainer allegedly fired a gun into the air and toward a building, prompting the response by the officers who shot him, the LAPD said.

The LAPD’s Force Investigation Division was already probing the shooting — standard protocol for all uses of force by officers — when on Wednesday
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced his office was investigating as well.

In a press release, Bonta cited Assembly Bill 1506, which requires the state’s Department of Justice to investigate police shootings of unarmed people.

Alexandra Duquet, a spokeswoman for Bonta, said state prosecutors will investigate cases when it isn’t immediately clear whether the person killed had control of a weapon.

Assembly Bill 1506 defines “possession” of a weapon as being “under the civilian’s dominion and control at the time of the shooting.”

Agents from the Department of Justice’s Division of Law Enforcement will conduct an investigation separate from the LAPD’s and present their findings to prosecutors in Bonta’s office, who will make a decision to bring criminal charges.

If no case is filed, state prosecutors must release a report detailing the evidence and the legal reasoning for why charges were not warranted.

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Police charge man with providing fertility clinic bombing materials

Daniel Jongyon Park of Kent, Wash., was arrested Tuesday on charges of providing material support to the man who bombed a Palm Springs, Calif., fertility clinic in May. Photo courtesy of the FBI

June 4 (UPI) — Federal officials have arrested a Washington man they said provided “significant quantities” of explosive materials to the man who attacked a California fertility clinic in a suicide bombing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California charged Daniel Jongyon Park of Kent, Wash., with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Officials arrested him Tuesday night shortly after he arrived on a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Park had been deported from Poland where he traveled to in the days after the May 17 attack.

Police said Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, Calif., attacked the American Reproductive Centers location in Palm Springs, Calif., using a vehicle-borne bomb. He was allegedly motivated by his anti-natalist views that people shouldn’t be brought into the world without their consent.

The Justice Department said Park shared Bartkus’ views and bought and shipped more than 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus’ home. Park also joined Bartkus in Twentynine Palms, where the two allegedly conducted experiments on how to build explosives using the chemicals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked the Polish government for assisting in returning Park to the United States to face charges.

“Bringing chaos and violence to a facility that exists to help women and mothers is a particularly cruel, disgusting crime that strikes at the very heart of our shared humanity,” she said.

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Edmund White, a groundbreaking gay author, dies at 85

Edmund White, the groundbreaking man of letters who documented and imagined the gay revolution through journalism, essays, plays and such novels as “A Boy’s Own Story” and “The Beautiful Room Is Empty,” has died. He was 85.

White’s death was confirmed Wednesday by his agent, Bill Clegg.

Along with Larry Kramer, Armistead Maupin and others, White was among a generation of gay writers who in the 1970s became bards for a community no longer afraid to declare its existence. He was present at the Stonewall raids of 1969, when arrests at a club in New York’s Greenwich Village led to the birth of the modern gay movement and for decades was a participant and observer through the tragedy of AIDS, the advance of gay rights and culture and the recent backlash.

A resident of New York and Paris for much of his adult life, he was a novelist, journalist, biographer, playwright, activist, teacher and memoirist. “A Boy’s Own Story” was a bestseller and classic coming-of-age novel that demonstrated gay literature’s commercial appeal. He wrote a prizewinning biography of playwright Jean Genet, along with books on Marcel Proust and Arthur Rimbaud. He was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, where colleagues included Toni Morrison and his close friend, Joyce Carol Oates.

“Among gay writers of his generation, Edmund White has emerged as the most versatile man of letters,” cultural critic Morris Dickstein wrote in the New York Times in 1995. “A cosmopolitan writer with a deep sense of tradition, he has bridged the gap between gay subcultures and a broader literary audience.”

White was born in Cincinnati in 1940, but at age 7 moved with his mother to the Chicago area after his parents divorced. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a psychologist. Feeling trapped and at times suicidal, White sought escape through the stories of others, including Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” and a biography of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.

“As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excite me or assure me I wasn’t the only one, that might confirm my identity I was unhappily piecing together,” he wrote in the 1991 essay “Out of the Closet, on to the Bookshelf.”

As he wrote in “A Boy’s Own Story,” he knew as a child that he was attracted to boys but for years was convinced he must change — out of a desire to please his father (whom he otherwise despised) and a wish to be “normal.” Even as he secretly wrote a “coming out” novel while a teenager, he insisted on seeing a therapist and begged to be sent to boarding school. One of the funniest and saddest episodes from “A Boy’s Own Story” told of a brief crush he had on a teenage girl, ended by a polite and devastating note of rejection.

“For the next few months I grieved,” White writes. “I would stay up all night crying and playing records and writing sonnets to Helen. What was I crying for?”

Through much of the 1960s, he was writing novels that were rejected or never finished. Late at night, he would head out to bars. A favorite stop was the Stonewall, where he would down vodka tonics and try to find the nerve to ask a man he had a crush on to dance. He was in the neighborhood on the night of June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall and “all hell broke loose.”

“Up until that moment we had all thought homosexuality was a medical term,” wrote White, who soon joined the protests. “Suddenly we saw that we could be a minority group — with rights, a culture, an agenda.”

White’s debut novel, the surreal and suggestive “Forgetting Elena,” was published in 1973. He collaborated with Charles Silverstein on “The Joy of Gay Sex,” a follow-up to the bestselling “The Joy of Sex” that was updated after the emergence of AIDS. In 1978, his first openly gay novel, “Nocturnes for the King of Naples,” was released and he followed with the nonfiction “States of Desire,” his attempt to show “the varieties of gay experience and also to suggest the enormous range of gay life to straight and gay people — to show that gays aren’t just hairdressers, they’re also petroleum engineers and ranchers and short-order cooks.”

His other works included “Skinned Alive: Stories” and the novel “A Previous Life,” in which he turns himself into a fictional character and imagines himself long forgotten after his death. In 2009, he published “City Boy,” a memoir of New York in the 1960s and ’70s in which he told of his friendships and rivalries and gave the real names of fictional characters from his earlier novels. Other recent books included the novels “Jack Holmes & His Friend” and the memoir “Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris.”

“From an early age I had the idea that writing was truth-telling,” he told the Guardian around the time “Jack Holmes” was released. “It’s on the record. Everybody can see it. Maybe it goes back to the sacred origins of literature — the holy book. There’s nothing holy about it for me, but it should be serious and it should be totally transparent.”

Italie writes for the Associated Press.

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Schoolboy, 16, killed and e-bike rider, 18, seriously injured in hit-and-run crash as man & woman in their 40s arrested – The Sun

A SCHOOLBOY has been killed and an e-bike rider was left seriously injured after a “serious” hit-and-run.

Cops have arrested two people in their 40s after Grey Audi failed to stop following the horror smash in Sheffield on Wednesday afternoon.

Police car with flashing blue lights at a road closure.

1

A man and a woman in their 40s have been arrested on suspicion of aiding an offender.

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Deportation of family of man charged in Boulder firebombing halted

A federal judge issued an order Wednesday to prevent the deportation of the wife and five children of an Egyptian man charged in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo.

U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman to halt deportation proceedings of his wife and five children who were taken into federal custody Tuesday by U.S. immigration officials.

The family members have not been charged in the attack on a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Soliman faces federal hate crime charges and state charges of attempted murder in the Sunday attack in downtown Boulder.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Wednesday that they are being processed for removal proceedings. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation.

Soliman’s wife, 18-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.

Noem also said federal authorities will immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas in response to the Boulder attack.

Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as “Mohammed.”

Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of victims in the attack from 12 to 15, plus a dog.

Boulder County officials who provided updates on the number of victims said in a news release they include eight women and seven men, ranging in age from 25 to 88. The Associated Press left an email message Wednesday with prosecutors seeking more details on the newly identified victims and the dog.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman, an Egyptian man who federal authorities say has been living in the U.S. illegally, didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.

His wife and five children were taken into custody Tuesday by U.S. immigration officials, and the White House said they could be swiftly deported. It’s rare that family members of a person accused of a crime are detained and threatened with deportation in this way.

“Anyone who thinks they can come to America and advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism — think again,” Noem said in a statement. “You are not welcome here. We will find you, deport you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his plans for the attack, according to court documents that, at times, spelled his name as “Mohammed.”

According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.

A vigil was scheduled for Wednesday evening at the local Jewish community center to support those affected by the attack.

Defendant’s immigration status

Soliman was born in el-Motamedia, an Egyptian farming village in the Nile Delta province of Gharbia that’s located about 75 miles north of Cairo, according to an Egyptian security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.

Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, he spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.

He has been living in the U.S. illegally, having arrived in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that it also expired.

DHS did not respond to requests for additional information about the immigration status of his wife and children and the U.S. State Department said that visa records are confidential. The New York Times, citing McLaughlin, said his family’s visas have since been revoked and they were arrested Tuesday by ICE.

Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Homeland Security Department reports.

The case against Soliman

Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting for his daughter to graduate before carrying it out, the affidavit said.

A newspaper in Colorado Springs that profiled one of Soliman’s children in April noted the family’s journey from Egypt to Kuwait and then to the U.S. It said after initially struggling in school, she landed academic honors and volunteered at a local hospital.

Soliman currently faces federal hate crime charges and attempted murder charges at the state level, but authorities say additional charges could be brought. He’s being held in a county jail on a $10-million bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday.

His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday.

Witnesses and police have said Soliman threw two incendiary devices, catching himself on fire as he hurled the second. Authorities said they believe Soliman acted alone. Although they did not elaborate on the nature of his injuries, a booking photo showed him with a large bandage over one ear.

The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. The attack happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

Six victims hospitalized

The victims ranged in age from 25 to 88, and the nature of some of their injuries spanned from serious to minor, officials said. They were members of the volunteer group called Run For Their Lives who were holding their weekly demonstration.

Three victims were still hospitalized Tuesday at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, spokesperson Kelli Christensen said.

One of the 15 victims was a child when her family fled the Nazis during the Holocaust, said Ginger Delgado of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, who is acting as a spokesperson for the family of the woman, who doesn’t want her name used.

Slevin, Bedayn and Santana write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Eric Tucker in Washington; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo.; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

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Secret Service agents arrest man who scaled wall at Mar-a-Lago

June 4 (UPI) — A 23-year-old Texas man has been arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents after jumping the wall at President Donald Trump‘s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports.

Anthony Thomas Reyes had entered the property early Tuesday and told law enforcement that he was there to “spread the gospel” to the president and marry his teenage granddaughter, Kai Madison Trump, Florida Today reported, citing a Palm Beach Police arrest report.

A Secret Service spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that the suspect had “scaled a perimeter fence and triggered alarms” shortly after midnight Tuesday.

The suspect was taken into custody without incident, the spokesperson said.

Jail records state Reyes has been charged with a misdemeanor trespassing offense and is being held at Palm Beach County Jail on a $50,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty later Tuesday during his first appearance in court.

Trump was in Washington at the time of the incident.

The police report also states that Reyes was arrested and accused of trespassing at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve.

In April, 58-year-old Adrienne Tajirian was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for allegedly trying to enter Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to have dinner with the president.

And in January, Bijan Arceo was arrested on the same charge after allegedly jumping over the outer wall at Mar-a-Lago.

A security zone was erected around Trump’s estate following an assassination attempt on Trump’s life during a campaign rally in July.

Kai Madison Trump is the 18-year-old daughter of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

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Transfer news LIVE: Luka Modric to JOIN AC Milan, Liverpool in Kerkez talks, Man City closing in on Ait-Nouri deal

THE thrills and spills of the summer transfer window are finally here – with some huge deals already in the pipeline.

Ballon d’Or winner and Real Madrid legend Luka Modric is set to leave Los Blancos, and will join AC Milan upon the expiration of his current contract.

Elsewhere, Liverpool are entering a final round of talks for Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez, with a deal expected to be struck in the coming days.

In other news, Man City are advancing in talks for Wolves left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri.

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

Follow ALL the latest news, moves and completed deals with our live blog below…

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Man Utd transfer news LIVE: Fernandes ‘REJECTS’ Al-Hilal, Mbuemo ‘wants United move’, Red Devils in battle for Mitrovic

Scholes says Man Utd must KEEP Hojlund

Paul Scholes has fired a rocket at Manchester United, insisting they must BACK under-fire striker Rasmus Hojlund.

Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, he said: “I’d keep Højlund.

“I know he’s not been great, but he’s a 22-year-old kid who has been asked to play centre-forward for Manchester United on his own for the last two years.

“He’s had to play every week. He’s the only one there, and he’s a 22-year-old kid.

“With the way they play, Man United should have at least three top centre-forwards, and I’d bring him into that group.

“Get [Victor] Osimhen and [Viktor] Gyokeres. Hojlund has struggled – like mad of late especially but he’s not had the chance to sit down and watch.

“If a striker is lacking confidence the manager should sit him down and say, ‘Have a look, get a bit of hunger back, a bit of feeling back for the game’.

“We all know he has centre-forward qualities — we’ve seen it. Not enough, I know that. But if he had experience around him.

“Say he had Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke around him, it would bring him on so much. He’s been absolutely flogged to death.

“People forget how young he is. A lot of it is confidence.”

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