At least two people died in a shooting incident near the United States consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to local police and a spokesperson for the consulate. One of those killed was a consulate security guard.

“A person in a car stopped near the American consulate building in Jeddah Governorate and got out of it carrying a firearm in his hand,” Saudi state news agency SPA reported citing a statement by the Mecca city police spokesperson. That person was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces, it said.

“A Nepalese worker in the consulate’s security guards was injured and then later died,” it also said.

A spokesperson for the consulate confirmed the incident. “There were two fatalities, including a member of the Consulate’s local guard force as well as the assailant, who was killed by Saudi security forces,” they said.

The spokesperson said the consulate was locked down during the incident, no Americans were harmed in the attack, and all official American and locally employed staff have been accounted for.

“We offer our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased local guards member,” the spokesperson said.

Saudi authorities are investigating the the incident.

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko claims he convinced Russian leader Vladimir Putin not to “destroy” the Wagner group and its chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, talking up his role in halting the mercenaries’ military insurrection that caused crisis in Russia at the weekend.

Lukashenko on Tuesday described his view of the negotiations that led to Prigozhin ending his march towards Moscow, and said the oligarch is now in Belarus per the deal.

“The most dangerous thing, as I understand it, is not what the situation was, but how it could develop and its consequences,” Lukashenko said, according to Belarussian state media.

“I also realized there was a harsh decision taken – to destroy. I suggested Putin not to hurry. Let’s talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.”

Lukashenko – a longtime ally of the Russian President – said Putin told him: “Listen, Alex, it’s useless. (Prigozhin) doesn’t even pick up the phone, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

But Lukashenko said he managed to get hold of the Wagner boss and, according to his account, warned he would be “crushed like a bug” if Wagner troops continued their advance to the Russian capital.

“We talked for the first round of 30 minutes in a swear language. Exclusively. There were 10 times more swear words (I later analyzed them) than normal vocabulary,” Lukashenko added, describing his interactions with a foul-mouthed Prigozhin.

“Of course, he apologized in advance, and began to tell me everything using these obscene words.”

The Kremlin has credited Lukashenko with helping to deescalate the situation, though the Belarus leader’s account of events has not been corroborated by Putin or Prigozhin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Lukashenko was able to draw on a personal relationship with Prigozhin to reach the deal, which would also see Wagner troops and equipment absorbed by the Russian military.

Russia’s Federal Security Service meanwhile said it would drop a case against Wagner fighters over the apparent uprising.

Prigozhin’s rebellion marked a sudden and dramatic escalation of his long-running feud with Russia’s military commanders.

He seized control of a southern military headquarters and directed his private Wagner troops towards Moscow, and demanded the resignation of defense minister Sergei Shoigu – a call that Lukashenko says he eventually backed down from during discussions.

While Putin survived the events, his standing appears significantly weakened. In an address on Monday, the Russian leader thanked the mercenaries for making the “right decision” in halting their advance, and offered them contracts to join the Russian ministry of defense’s force. He also claimed that the “armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyway,” without specifying how.

Lukashenko said Tuesday that Prigozhin has received his personal assurances of safety, and the safety of his men, in order to defuse the rebellion on Saturday evening.

“At five o’clock in the evening he called me and said: “…I accept all your conditions. But … What should I do? We stop – they will destroy us.” I say: “They won’t. I guarantee you. I’ll take it upon myself,” Lukashenko recalled.

Russian missiles struck the busy city center of the east Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and a nearby village on Tuesday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian officials.

A 17-year-old girl was among those killed, and an eight-month-old baby was among the 42 injured, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The attack quickly prompted accusations that Russian forces had targeted civilians.

“At the epicenter of the explosion were also apartment buildings, commercial premises, cars, a post office and other buildings, in which windows, glass and doors were blown out,” the Prosecutor General’s statement said, adding that rescue teams are still working to locate victims under the rubble.

Restaurants in the targeted plaza are popular with Kramatorsk residents and with the military; RIA Pizza, one of the establishments, is often frequented by soldiers and journalists.

The soldier, who asked to be identified only by the call sign Alex, said there had been a banquet for 45 people at one of the restaurants when the strike occurred, and that it hit “right in the center of the cafe.”

The attack happened at around 7:30pm local time, Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of Donetsk region military administration, said on Ukrainian state TV.

A second missile also struck the nearby village of Bilenke, according to Andriy Yermak, adviser to the Office of President Zelensky.

It comes during a potentially pivotal moment of the Ukraine war, as Russia’s security apparatus reckons with the continuing fallout of a short-lived insurrection by the Wagner mercenary group, and as Kyiv’s counteroffensive pushes forward.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike on Kramatorsk “a manifestation of terror” in his nightly address on Tuesday and called for a tribunal to try alleged crimes.

Zelensky also noted his gratitude to US President Joe Biden for a new package of security assistance to Ukraine, worth up to $500 million.

This is a developing story.

The universe is filled with infinite mysteries, and scientists are tackling them, one celestial puzzle at a time.

A multitude of experiments were aboard Virgin Galactic’s inaugural flight on Thursday. A rocket-powered space plane carried the company’s first paying customers on a research-focused mission. During its brief time in zero gravity, the mission monitored how passengers’ heart rates behaved during acceleration and measured cosmic radiation in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope continue to enable astonishing discoveries, including detecting a crucial molecule in space for the first time.

The European Space Agency is aiming to launch the Euclid mission this weekend, with an eye toward unraveling one of the biggest cosmic puzzles of our time — the increasing expansion of the universe — and the enigmatic forces behind it.

And that’s not all. This week, scientists shared glimpses into invisible aspects of the universe that could alter our understanding of the cosmos.

Across the universe

There is no shortage of scintillating imagery of the Milky Way galaxy — but we’ve never seen it from this perspective.

Astronomers used a detector sunk deep into the thick ice of Antarctica to trace “ghost particles” that created a new portrait of the Milky Way.

These ghost particles, called neutrinos, can pass through any kind of matter without changing. By tracing their origins across the galaxy, scientists were able to see our celestial neighborhood in a new way that could ultimately reveal the answers to bigger cosmic mysteries.

Another team of scientists detected new gravitational waves that resonate across the universe and “hum” in a celestial choir, like the background noise of the universe.

A long time ago

Thinking of ancient hunter-gatherer societies may call to mind a certain picture of men returning from hunting while women foraged. But new research flips those gender stereotypes upside down.

Archaeological evidence shows that women — young and old — hunted big game with bows and arrows, knives and nets. Sometimes the hunters worked alone, or alongside children and dogs. And these women even shared their knowledge and strategies with others.

The research got its start in the Andes Mountains after scientists unearthed a set of 9,000-year-old remains buried with an array of hunting weapons and assumed the skeleton was male. DNA analysis told a different story.

Fantastic creatures

At first glance, you might think you’ve wandered into the Beatles’ mythical “Octopus’s Garden.”

Scientists were surprised to discover an active octopus nursery on an underwater mountain nearly 2 miles (3,218 meters) down off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The research team believes the area may be only the third known example of a brooding site where huge numbers of the creatures cluster together.

The rare sighting in the ocean’s twilight zone was made by an underwater craft during an expedition of the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor research ship.

Researchers captured spectacular footage of hundreds of octopuses hatching babies as well as other deep-ocean life.

Turn, turn, turn

Summer is here — and so are the mosquitoes. As the world warms due to the climate crisis, the annoying insects are thriving and even appearing in new places.

Rising temperatures allow mosquitoes to grow faster, live longer and even become more infectious.

Scientists are still trying to understand the particular factors that may draw mosquitoes to certain people.

But experts agree on some tried-and-true tips to avoid mosquito bites, like using insect repellent and dumping standing water from your yard.

Other worlds

About 520 light-years beyond our solar system, astronomers have found a planet that shouldn’t exist.

The exoplanet, named Halla, may have survived a violent outburst from the giant star it orbits called Baekdu.

As stars age, they burn through different elements at their core and swell in size, which is usually bad news for any world close enough to become engulfed by the transition. It’s a fate Earth is likely to experience in 5 billion years.

But astronomers have theories about this unlikely survivor of an event that would mean certain death for most planets.

Discoveries

These stories might make you do a double take:

— Killer whales won’t stop ramming boats in the Strait of Gibraltar near Spain, and experts have two theories as to why.

— Humans have pumped so much groundwater for drinking, livestock and crops that Earth’s axis has shifted.

— Researchers have made a startling fossil find that suggests our ancient human relatives butchered one another for reasons beyond ritual.

— The Perseverance rover snapped a new photo of a mysterious doughnut-shaped object on the Martian surface.

A mission designed to unravel some of the greatest mysteries of the universe has taken off.

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope launched at 11:12 a.m. ET Saturday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Mission control received a signal from the telescope around 11:57 a.m. ET.

The 1.2-meter-diameter (4-foot-diameter) telescope has set off on a monthlong journey to its orbital destination of the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, which is nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth and also home to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Euclid will keep pace with Earth as our planet orbits the sun.

After arriving at orbit, Euclid will spend two months testing and calibrating its instruments — a visible light camera and a near-infrared camera/spectrometer — before surveying one-third of the sky for the next six years.

Investigating cosmic mysteries

Euclid’s primary goal is to observe the “dark side” of the universe, including dark matter and dark energy.

While dark matter has never actually been detected, it is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe. Meanwhile, dark energy is a mysterious force thought to play a role in the accelerating expansion of the universe.

In the 1920s, astronomers Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe has been expanding since its birth 13.8 billion years ago. But research that began in the 1990s has shown that something sparked an acceleration of the universe’s expansion about 6 billion years ago, and the cause remains a mystery.

Unlocking the true nature of dark energy and dark matter could help astronomers understand what the universe is made of, how its expansion has changed over time, and if there is more to understanding gravity than meets the eye. Both dark matter and dark energy also play a role in the distribution and movement of objects, such as galaxies and stars, across the cosmos.

Euclid is designed to create the largest and most accurate three-dimensional map of the universe, observing billions of galaxies that stretch 10 billion light-years away to reveal how matter may have been stretched and pulled apart by dark energy over time. These observations will effectively allow Euclid to see how the universe has evolved over the past 10 billion years.

The telescope was named in honor of Euclid of Alexandria, the Greek mathematician who lived around 300 BC and is considered the father of geometry. While primarily an ESA mission, the telescope includes contributions from NASA and more than 2,000 scientists across 13 European countries, the United States, Canada and Japan.

The telescope’s image quality will be four times sharper than those of ground-based sky surveys. Euclid’s wide perspective can also record data from a part of the sky 100 times bigger than what Webb’s camera can capture.

During its observations, the telescope will create a catalog of 1.5 billion galaxies and the stars within them, creating a treasure trove of data for astronomers that includes each galaxy’s shape, mass and number of stars created per year. Euclid’s ability to see in near-infrared light could also reveal previously unseen objects in our own Milky Way galaxy, such as brown dwarfs and ultra-cool stars.

A dynamic duo

In May 2027, Euclid will be joined in orbit by the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. The two missions will overlap in their study of cosmic acceleration as they both create three-dimensional maps of the universe.

“Twenty-five years after its discovery, the universe’s accelerated expansion remains one of the most pressing mysteries in astrophysics,” said Jason Rhodes, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement.

“With these upcoming telescopes, we will measure dark energy in different ways and with far more precision than previously achievable, opening up a new era of exploration into this mystery,” said Rhodes, who serves as the deputy project scientist for Roman and the US science lead for Euclid.

Roman will study one-twentieth of the sky in infrared light, allowing for much more depth and precision. The Roman telescope will peer back to when the universe was just 2 billion years old, picking out fainter galaxies than Euclid can see.

Roman also has the ability to hunt down rogue planets that aren’t attached to stars, search for exoplanets across our galaxy and study objects on the outskirts of our solar system.

“Together, Euclid and Roman will add up to much more than the sum of their parts,” said Yun Wang, a senior research scientist at the California Institute of Technology, in a statement. “Combining their observations will give astronomers a better sense of what’s actually going on in the universe.”

In 2017, Han Kwang Song became the first North Korean to score a goal in one of Europe’s five major soccer leagues and even made a shock transfer to Italian giant Juventus in 2019, then later to Qatar’s Al-Duhail.

But his promising career was cut short when he disappeared from the world soccer stage in 2020, leaving fans with a question: “Where is that North Korean player?”

“The Little North Korean,” as an Italian commentator once described him, Han was not especially tall, but with his scorching pace, strong tackling and lethal heading in front of goal was still capable of competing among Europe’s best.

The young striker from Pyongyang quickly drew attention from soccer pundits and fans – not just for his unique background, but for his technical prowess as well.

Han was praised back home as “a promising player who drew the attention of the European football world,” according to North Korea’s propaganda media Sogwang.

But the good times didn’t last after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions against North Korea for conducting its sixth nuclear test in 2017.

The sanctions ordered member states to repatriate all North Korean nationals working in their respective jurisdictions amid concerns that foreign money was being transferred to support Kim Jong Un’s nuclear and weapons programs. The UNSC resolution set the end of 2019 as the deadline for repatriation.

Pyongyang

Han was born in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in 1998. Little is known about his life aside from his enrolment in the prestigious Pyongyang International Football School founded in accordance with Kim Jong Un’s well-known love of sports.

When Kim took the reins of the regime in 2012, sport became a rare window into a country that is often hidden from the rest of the world.

The North Korean leader used sports as an exercise in soft power, investing in elite sport to promote his country internationally and public sport to enhance defense and labor power, according to South Korea’s unification ministry report.

North Korea began to step up participation in major international sporting events, including the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2018 Winter Olympics hosted by South Korea – which technically remains at war with its northern neighbor.

At PyeongChang 2018, however, the two nations even marched together under the Korean Unification Flag during the Opening Ceremony and participated as a unified Korean team in women’s ice hockey. The opening of North Korea through sport seemed like a door that would not be closed any time soon.

“There were some local TV channels – never live games – which would sometimes show European soccer in the week. Maybe one from the Bundesliga [in Germany], one from [Spain’s] La Liga, one from Italy, England … I think many watched,” Andersen explained of the sporting events that air on North Korean state broadcaster KCTV almost every day.

In 2013, Kim founded the Pyongyang International Football School in the capital’s Rungna Islet to foster soccer talent, send students abroad, and host experts – representatives from world soccer governing body FIFA were invited to Pyongyang in 2014 to help educate local teams and instructors – and soccer players from overseas in an effort to raise the country’s standard in the sport “to the world’s level,” according to state news agency KCNA.

The soccer school also featured exclusive facilities and programs designed to help nurture young talent.

Just months after its founding, 14 students were sent abroad to Spain and 15 to Italy at the expense of the state to learn from established soccer clubs, according to Sogwang. Amongst the many who graduated from the prestigious elite program, Han Kwang Song stood out the most. 

His national fame is apparent in a YouTube video published on a channel run by YuMi, a vlogger experts believe is likely related to high-ranking North Korean officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign aimed at rebranding the country’s international image.

“I like Han. His skills are solid and he is very good at dribbling,” a Pyongyang citizen can be seen saying in Korean.

Han became the biggest success story from Kim’s efforts to turn the country into a sports powerhouse when he was recruited by Italian youth scouting center ISM Academy via its Talent Identification Program.

In 2015, the then ambitious teenager packed his bags for its base in Perugia – the capital of Italy’s central Umbria region, located about 105 miles north of Rome – alongside fellow North Korean prospect Choe Song Hyok.

Move to Europe

At the ISM Academy, the pair joined young footballers from across the globe, sharing the same dream of making it through the competitive pathway to the professional game in one of Europe’s top leagues.

The academy proudly shows a photo of Han on its website as a player who “reached their goal and entered the world of professional football.” Also featured is Han’s friend Choe, who went on to play for AC Perugia Calcio, which plays in Italy’s lower leagues.

Han spent at least a year at the academy before a successful try-out with the youth team of Cagliari. The move put him on the map and gave him regional recognition.

“I was kind of upset because we had an important match that Saturday,” Canzi said, recalling that he initially refused to see the player.

“He started training, and after 20 minutes, I looked at my assistant coach and said, ‘Tell Mario he has to come out. We have a problem – he’s very good.’”

Putting pen to paper, however, took longer than usual given what Canzi described as the “bureaucratic problems” and “voices going around.”

“Somebody in [the Italian] parliament even put out a question as to if it was the right thing to do because we [Italy] had an embargo against [signing contracts with] North Koreans,” he said.

But it turned out to be a worthwhile pursuit for Cagliari.

The North Korean striker, who joined the club’s youth team under Canzi in March 2017, quickly proved his value by scoring in his very first youth match, earning him an immediate promotion to the first team in Serie A, according to Canzi.

Han headed in his first top-flight goal – the first time a North Korean player had scored in one of Europe’s five major leagues – just a week after his professional debut on April 2, 2017.

Han had arrived from North Korea not knowing how to speak English or Italian, but it didn’t take him long to adapt to Western culture – something forbidden in his homeland.

Nicholas Pennington, a former Cagliari youth teammate, remembers Han as “a very, very good player” on the pitch and “a bit shy but really nice guy” off it.

Pennington recalled asking Han and Choe about North Korea multiple times.

“But they really didn’t say anything. I think you could even see that they were a bit scared to say anything. They would say, ‘I don’t know,’ little things, but mostly very reserved and didn’t want to say anything about it,” he said.

Han also barely spoke about his family back in Pyongyang, Pennington said.

“I remember [Han] talking about his family, saying his family was there, he misses them, he didn’t know when he gets to go home and see them, because obviously at the time I don’t think it was easy for him to just travel back home and travel back to Italy. I remember in my head thinking it’s crazy how little he says about back home compared to what I do,” he said.

Canzi, who lived in Seoul for three years as a child, also said Han was “very shy, very polite.”

“When Han arrived for the first time, I used the few Korean words I knew and said annyeonghasaeyo [hello in Korean], and he said, ‘Wow, what’s happening here?’ And when he passed the water at our first meal, I said kamsahabnida [thank you in Korean],” Canzi said.

“Football is strange, because when you play in a team and you’re a good player, everybody likes you. He arrived and everybody saw immediately how good a player he was,” Canzi remembers.

“Here in Cagliari, everybody loves me. I feel like I am at home,” Han said in fluent Italian in a video posted by Cagliari in 2018.

While under contract with Cagliari, Han was sent on loan stints to AC Perugia and to Juventus’ under-23s before Juventus secured his shock transfer for $3.74 million (€3.5 million) in January 2020, according to Transfermarkt.

“That was quite a bargain for Cagliari because he arrived for nothing,” Canzi said.

“Yes, I was quite surprised [Juventus was interested]. I thought he was a very good player, but he was young and I couldn’t imagine how far he could go. We had some other players in the team quite similar to him that, of course, had a lot less news made [of them] because the fact that he was a North Korean was a big issue.”

Playing in Serie A was a milestone for Han but moving to the Bianconeri – as fans call Juventus – was an even bigger achievement.

“It has been a long way but finally I can say my dream came true [after] scoring my first goal in the Serie A and becoming the first North Korean to dress such an important shirt as Juventus. My dream came true!” Han said in a written post via the ISM International Scouting Center.

Han’s dream of wearing the famed black and white stripes, however, lasted only a week as Juventus subsequently sold him to Qatar’s Al-Duhail in that same month for a transfer fee of $7.7 million (€7 million), according to a UNSC report of the Panel of Experts.

While Han was beginning his journey in the European top flight in 2017 – marking several milestones for North Korea – his home nation was ramping up tensions on the Korean Peninsula by testing what it claimed as its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

Then on September 3, 2017, the North carried out its sixth nuclear test, which prompted the UNSC to impose a list of sanctions over concerns that the reclusive nation’s “ongoing nuclear- and ballistic missile-related activities have destabilized the region and beyond.”

The sanctions required all member states to stop providing work authorizations for North Korean nationals in their jurisdictions, and three months later, the UNSC additionally decided that all North Korean nationals working abroad and “generating foreign export earnings that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea] uses to support its prohibited nuclear ballistic programs” be repatriated by no later than December 22, 2019.

Holding a North Korean passport, Han was no exception to these sanctions, despite his preternatural soccer talent. But it remains unclear how Juventus and Al-Duhail went forward with the transfer in January 2020, which fell after the UNSC’s deadline.

Juventus would not comment on the issue.

“I don’t know if he was at the level to play for Juventus at the time. Then what happened after, I don’t know. He went to play somewhere in Qatar,” Canzi said.

A move to Qatar

Han’s promising career in Italy had come to an end, but the talented youngster was warmly welcomed by Qatar’s top-tier club Al-Duhail.

Since joining the club in January, in the middle of the Qatar Stars League 2019/20 season, he went on to play in 10 league games, scoring three goals and playing a significant role in the club’s league title win.

Qatar had signed the North Korean on a five-year, $4.60m (€4,310,000) contract until the 2023/24 season; as such, Han was remunerated around $296,200 (€270,000) between February and April 2020, according to the UNSC report of the Panel of Experts from mid-2020.

Though Han was performing admirably on the pitch, questions remained over whether he was sending money back to his homeland, as the UNSC said of other North Koreans working abroad.

The UN document shows Han had signed a pledge to a Qatari bank to not transfer “any money cost or amount to North Korea in any cases.”

Fellow soccer talent and friend Choe, who had traveled to Italy with Han, missed out on the opportunity to play for Serie A club Fiorentina after the Italian parliament opened an investigation over concerns that his wages were being appropriated by the Kim regime. 

Although it is unclear in Han’s case whether he had been sending money back to the Kim regime, it is widely reported that North Korea often forces its workers abroad to send money to the government back home. The UNSC Panel of Experts in another report released in March 2020 said it is investigating North Korea’s nationals suspected of earning income overseas, which also include “specialists such as sports players.”

Han’s last game for Al-Duhail was on August 21, 2020, when he came off the bench against Al-Ahli in the season finale.

The then 21-year-old Han threw his hands up in the air as he and his Al-Duhail teammates lifted the Qatar Stars League trophy, wearing a red t-shirt that read: “CHAMPIONS.”

It would be the last time soccer fans would see Han play a professional game. By the time the new season kicked off the following month, Han was gone – no longer in the starting line-up nor on the bench, with no news emerging of any transfer.

Months passed without any update regarding Han’s whereabouts until a UNSC final report of the Panel of Experts released in March 2021 confirmed that the player’s contract had been terminated with Al-Duhail earlier that year and he was deported from Qatar.

However, as the world entered the second full year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, North Korea kept its borders sealed and restricted all persons and goods coming into the country out of fear of the virus.

Kim Jong Un even fired several senior officials in 2021 who failed to enforce the country’s stringent Covid-19 prevention efforts. The resulting tough border shutdown left Han stranded.

Han was last reported to be living in an unspecified North Korean embassy in 2021, awaiting the resumption of flights back to Pyongyang, according to another official close to the issue.

Choe, who had traveled to Italy with Han, was still in the country in 2021 “due to the suspension of international flights to enter the DPRK,” according to the UNSC’s final report of the Panel of Experts.

The official added that some North Korean embassies have been accommodating the country’s nationals unable to return home as the borders remain closed, with “some housing many tens [and more] of North Korean nationals in long-term ‘transit’ in accommodation blocks.”

While his status remains the subject of speculation, for Canzi and Andersen, it is the fading of Han’s dreams of playing for a celebrated soccer club – solely for his circumstance of birth – which is perhaps the biggest shame.

“It will not be easy to come back at that level, but it’s possible. If he has a chance to come back, it’s a very good motivation … Of course, it would have been a good career and good money, so it’s a waste,” Canzi said.

“[For] almost two years, he [hasn’t] played soccer, I think he’s only been training with a small team, I don’t know which, but he [isn’t] playing soccer. So, he’s lost a lot of his quality,” Anderson said regretfully.

“I’m very sorry for him that he had to stop playing soccer. He was such a big talent.”

Shohei Ohtani continued his incredible run of form as the Los Angeles Angels two-way star hit the biggest home run of the MLB season so far.

In the Angels’ 6-2 home loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, Ohtani hit a huge homer to deep right field which has been recorded by Statcast as going a projected 493 feet.

The sixth-inning solo homer is the longest home run of the 28-year-old’s career and No. 30 for the 2023 season.

Speaking post-game, Angels manager Phil Nevin said it was the longest home run he thinks he will ever see.

“I hear about all those 500-foot shots from guys in the past, but I don’t think I’m ever going to see one,” Nevin said, per MLB.com. “Because I [don’t think it’s possible] to see one hit farther than the one I saw.

“The calculations before and now are a little different, but I don’t think there’s a ball that can be hit farther than that one. Just awesome.”

‘Shotime’ has had an incredible season for the Angels and has been selected in the American League All-Star team as the designated hitter.

After this latest home run, the 2021 American League MVP also became only the fourth player in AL history to hit 15 home runs in June.

Ohtani has been on fire both pitching and hitting this year. On Tuesday, he struck out 10 batters and hit two home runs in a 4-2 win against the Chicago White Sox.

After the game against the White Sox, Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman tweeted in awe about the Japanese star’s performance.

“MVP with ease. He should win it every year. What he’s doing is insane. All of us at the highest level can’t believe our eyes. Truly remarkable. Be thankful you get to witness a real GOAT! #OHTANI.”

Ohtani’s contract with the Angels comes to an end after this season and he could be set for a massive deal as he becomes a free agent.

Franchón Crews-Dezurn will put her status as the undisputed super-middleweight world champion on the line when she faces Savannah Marshall on Saturday.

Two of the biggest hitters in women’s boxing will step into the ring at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, with all four of Crews-Dezurn’s title belts up for grabs.

In her last fight, Crews-Dezurn completed the set of super-middleweight titles by beating Elin Cederroos in April last year in New York to earn WBA and IBF belts with the WBC and WBO titles to her name already.

The pair have faced each other once before, coming to blows in an Olympic Test Event in 2011 long before both were professional fighters.

Although Marshall won that time out, Crews-Dezurn says she disputes the result, adding extra fuel to her motivation heading into this weekend’s fight.

“I’m bitter about the decision,” she told Sky Sports. “Savannah did what she can do, which was her best, and she can’t control the people pushing the button. But if you feel like you can do what you think you did then, do it again now. Do it. I know in my heart I won that fight.”

And on Saturday, the American will have an opportunity to enact revenge on Marshall.

“It’s going to be payback and getting paid,” she said. “You ain’t got nothing. I’ve got it all and I’m going to keep it.”

She added: “I’m in the future now, it’s not about what you did, it’s what you are doing. And I’m blessed to be undisputed, still being consistent, still competing at the top level and I want to continue to do that for as long as I can. She knows and I know it’s not what you did back then, it’s what you’re doing now.”

For Marshall, the British fighter has the chance to bounce back after suffering her first career professional defeat last time out.

The 32-year-old lost via an unanimous decision against Claressa Shields in October last year in what was a middleweight unification bout.

As well as being a keen contest between two of the best in the sport, that fight took on more meaning outside of the ring as it was first time two female boxers headlined at a major venue – the O2 Arena in London – in the United Kingdom.

And in a fiery pre-fight media conference, Marshall highlighted the impact the fight had on the perception of women’s boxing.

“The reception I got at the O2 was absolutely massive. The whole countries has just got behind female sport and I feel like me and all the other female boxers are just riding this massive wave,” she said.

Mother Nature will threaten Fourth of July travel and holiday plans as severe storms, record heat and wildfire smoke converge on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

AAA projects more than 50 million people will take to the roads or skies over the next few days, and millions of them will have to contend with potential disruptions from storms.

More than 100 million people face the risk of damaging winds, tornadoes or hail in the next 48 hours. This, after tens of thousands of flight delays and thousands of flight cancellations have created travel chaos for more than a week.

Atlanta, St Louis, Nashville, and Cincinnati face the biggest threat for air travel disruptions Saturday. For Sunday, storms in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic could cause interruptions to major airports in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

A level 3 of 5 enhanced risk for severe storms is in place for portions of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, including St. Louis and Louisville on Saturday.

By Sunday, the highest chance for severe storms stretches from western Kentucky to New Jersey. Strong storms are also a concern farther west in cities such as Denver, Colorado Springs and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The high pressure responsible for the ongoing heat wave across the South will erode as the severe storms shift eastward. That will help temperatures drop ever so slowly east across the central US.

But as temperatures begin to cool down in some areas this weekend, others will actually see temperatures spike.

At least 20 record-high temperatures could be broken this weekend across California, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Afternoon highs on Saturday in areas of California and the desert Southwest will climb well into the triple digits and even exceed 110 degrees in the hottest locations.

Remarkably, Friday was the first time Las Vegas hit triple digits so far this year – a record long wait. The last time Las Vegas waited this long for triple digit heat was “58 years ago on June 30, 1965,” the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said.

The first heat wave could catch people off guard, increasing the risk of heat-related illness.

“This rapid rise in temperatures will result in a major risk of heat-related impacts for anyone without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” the National Weather Service office said.

Overnight low temperatures will also be exceptionally warm this weekend and pose more danger.

“Your body requires cooling off at night, and actually expects it while you’re sleeping,” said Jenn Varian, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas. “When we have very warm overnight temperatures, your body is simply not able to cool off properly, which in (and) of itself can cause complications, but will set you up to be less prepared for the daytime heat as well.”

Nighttime temperatures need to drop to at least 80 degrees for heat recovery to begin. In fact, a sweating person can lose up to two liters of fluid overnight if the temperature never drops below 85 degrees.

Both the Saturday and Sunday overnight low temperatures will only get down to the mid-80s for cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Palm Springs, California. Even cities farther east won’t fare much better. New Orleans, Houston and Key West, Florida, are expected to bottom out in the low 80s.

If extreme heat and severe storms weren’t enough, there’s still the Canadian wildfire smoke to contend with in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The good news is that storms and smoke dispersion will help slowly improve air quality over the weekend from very unhealthy and unhealthy levels down to moderate level and levels unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Swimming in UNESCO-protected canals. Breaking into historic sites. Driving down the world’s most famous staircase and smashing priceless sculptures in a fit of pique. And just when you thought that was as bad as it gets: vandalizing one of the world’s iconic monuments.

With Europe seeing an explosion of visitors a year after Covid travel restrictions dropped, incidents of visitors behaving badly in Italy show no sign of abating.

This week, a young tourist was filmed allegedly carving what appeared to be the names of himself and his girlfriend into the wall of the Colosseum, sparking Italy’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano to call for a manhunt to identify the pair.

“I hope that whoever carried out this act will be identified and sanctioned according to our laws,” he tweeted. Three days later, Rome’s carabinieri police force announced that they had identified a suspect, resident in the UK.

If convicted of scratching “Ivan+Haley 23” into one of the world’s most famous structures, the suspect will face a fine of at least €15,000 ($16,360) or up to five years in prison.

The incident has highlighted the problem of tourists behaving destructively in Italy – one that seemed to come to a head in summer 2022 when a slew of incidents around the country hit the headlines.

In June 2022, two American tourists caused $25,000 worth of damage to the Spanish Steps in Rome, when they pushed – and then threw – their scooters down them.

Think that’s bad? A month earlier, a Saudi visitor drove his rented Maserati down the travertine staircase, fracturing two of the steps.

Meanwhile in Venice, tourists routinely swim in the UNESCO-protected canals, which double as the city’s sewer system. In August 2022, two Australians surfed down the Grand Canal, while in May, Americans stripped off for a skinny dip beside the 14th-century Arsenale landmark.

Surely that’s the worst that could happen in one season?

Nope: Also in August 2022, an Australian decided to ride his moped around the ancient Roman site of Pompeii, while in October, an American smashed two priceless sculptures in the Vatican Museum, apparently after being told that he could not see the pope.

There was a carving incident, too. In August 2022, an American couple were caught carving their initials into the Arch of Augustus, a 2,000-year-old monument beside the Colosseum.

But is this worse than usual, or have we just forgotten how badly people behave when they’re on vacation?

There’s no question that Italy is full to bursting. International visitor numbers from January to July 2022 were up 172% on 2021 and even 57% on pre-pandemic records, according to ENIT, Italy’s tourist board.

And 2023 looks set to be even more packed. The first quarter of 2023 saw international arrivals increase by 86% year on year, according to data from ENIT.

The tourist board has announced “significant growth” for 2023, adding that “the short-term outlook on international tourism, especially in the months leading up to the summer season, far exceeds those for 2022.” June arrivals by air were up by nearly 9% year on year, ENIT calculated earlier this month. Nearly 3 million arrivals by air are scheduled for summer 2023, they say, with the vast majority foreign citizens. And that’s leaving out the many Europeans who drive to Italy.

And yet as visitor numbers spiral, Italy, and its precious heritage sites, are not getting any bigger.

“I don’t think it’s worse this year – I think what we’ve got now is where we stopped in 2019, and it’s come back because the visitors have come back,” he said.

“There are certainly people who don’t respect the situation that they’re in.” Like the woman he witnessed pre-pandemic, sitting down amid the priceless works of art to give herself a pedicure.

The Uffizi is so well policed that incidents rarely happen inside, said Schmidt – but outside is a different story. The gallery creates its own pedestrian cul de sac, with inbuilt benches carved from local pietra serena stone acting as a place for tired and hungry tourists to sit.

Only, they don’t just sit. Oblivious to the fact that the benches were carved by hand in the 16th century, they sit and eat, smearing sauces on the porous stone, which promptly stains. They also have been known to graffiti the gallery’s exterior.

In 2018, Schmidt said, staff made a concerted effort every morning to clean off “all markings on the buildings that people were adding late at night after too many drinks.”

He said the policy paid off.

“People don’t tend to write on a clean surface – but if one person has made a little drawing or written a bad word, [adding your own] sits much easier because the psychological barrier is lower. Now, people very rarely write anything on the building. But what has returned post-pandemic is the problem of panini and wine and Coca-Cola and all sorts of greasy and sugary stuff. People buy it from places with no seating, they look around for where to sit and the first thing they find is the monuments.”

‘People steal gondolas’

There were also 46 cases of tourists defacing Venice monuments from January to October 2022.

“They’re behaving as they’ve always behaved, it’s just that this year the numbers have returned to what they were pre-pandemic and that corresponds to an increase in boorish behavior,” he said at the time.

“Sometimes Venice isn’t seen as a city. Tourists behave as if it’s the beach.”

And while from outside it looks like actions are getting more violent – a tourist stole a water taxi last summer and revved it down the Grand Canal – Zarantonello added that extreme behavior isn’t new. “A few years ago a Russian tourist stole a vaporetto (waterbus),” he said. “People have stolen gondolas. Once they fell off [a stolen gondola] at New Year and by the time we reached them, one of them was dying of hypothermia. We saved him.”

Apart from the canal-swimming, last year Zarantonello and his colleagues dealt with a Czech tourist sunbathing topless on a war memorial, a Belgian riding a Vespa down the [pedestrianized] waterfront, two Australians zipping down the Grand Canal on eFoils, and an Italian from another region permanently damaging one of the city’s main churches with graffiti.

While Zarantonello doesn’t think it’s been made worse by the pandemic, Schmidt suggested last year: “It’s your first trip in two years, you’re young and not allowed alcohol in your home country, you’re here for the first time and you might engage in behavior you’d be ashamed of at home.”

‘A by product of the sheer volume of visitors’

Tourists behaving badly is by no means a new phenomenon, of course. British, Australian and American tourists have long been known for their ugly behavior in Southeast Asia, for example.

But Tom Jenkins, CEO of the European Tourism Association (ETOA), says that there’s a very specific spate of incidents in Italy – and it’s down to its uniquely sensitive fabric. Italy’s cultivation of its most fragile environments and architecture as cities of art makes an explosive combination when you add visitors, he says.

“Italy is peculiar in the wealth of tourism features the country has, and it’s unique in that people occupy these spaces in a way that doesn’t occur in many countries,” he says.

Venice and Rome, he adds, are living cities in which people coexist with cultural treasures. “There’s nowhere in France [the most visited country in the world] that’s as sensitive. And they’re getting 65 million international visitors a year, so the sheer volume of people going into these spaces means a small fraction behaving irresponsibly isn’t that surprising.”

Because the environment is so fragile, any damage is likely affecting a world heritage site, he says, where other countries have less heritage to rampage through.

“I think what we’re watching is a byproduct of the sheer volume of visitors – and the appalling behavior of a fraction of the total number,” he says.

“It’s also possible that Italy attracts people who have a broader interest than merely pursuing artistic, architectural and archaeological curiosity, and these people don’t necessarily fit in with the environment.” That idea of the dolce vita, that Italy is a place of freedom to let loose, isn’t doing its heritage any good.

‘A place with no rules’

It’s not all down to Italy’s fragility, though, say Italian experts. We didn’t hear similar stories pouring out of France, Spain or other popular European destinations in 2022. Rather, they say, the way foreigners think of Italy is driving their bad behavior.

For film historian Nicola Bassano, movies such as “La Dolce Vita,” the 1960 classic by Federico Fellini, in which Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg jump into the Trevi Fountain to kiss, have created a false idea of Italy abroad.

“Italy is seen and judged by foreign tourists – and particularly Americans – through stereotypes that are rooted in films, especially “La Dolce Vita” and “Roman Holiday,” and through the image that foreigners have formed of us through [Italian] immigration,” he says.

“It is seen as a place devoid of rules and laws, where everything is art and therefore nothing is art.

“Tourists don’t know how to relate to the artistic heritage because they have no relation with our history – so they refer to their cultural imagination, and therefore to our cinema. The “Dolce Vita” Trevi Fountain scene has become a model to emulate.

“They don’t distinguish between the Roman dressed as a centurion to earn tips and the Colosseum. It all becomes part of a show where there are no rules.”

Maria Pasquale, journalist and author of “How to be Italian,” agrees.

“The world is enamored by Italy and the Italian lifestyle is the country’s trademark,” she says. “In their approach to life, the Italians have something intangible. It truly feels like the coolest, most magnificent party ever hosted – everyone wants in, but invites are limited. Because being Italian is a feeling, it’s hard to truly express. And to be a part of that party is to appreciate that this feeling is inspired by so much: the awe-inspiring sights, the sounds, the tastes, the smells, all of it. Italy as an idea, as an image is exciting, dynamic, alluring and intoxicating. It offers foreigners an escape; it offers freedom.

“So many tourists have said to me over the years, ‘In Italy there are no rules.’ But they are mistaken. Of course there are rules, but as someone who lives here and who experiences the daily struggle of bureaucratic, economic and institutional instability can tell you: sadly there often aren’t consequences for those who don’t follow the rules.”

Jenkins agrees: “I think the authorities have to be seen to be doing something to prevent this behavior. How they go about preventing it is a questionable point.” Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro has constantly railed on Twitter about the limited powers the authorities have to deal with “imbeciles.” Since many of these acts, such as swimming in canals are classed as civil offenses, cities can only fine them and ban them from the city limits for a period of 48 hours. It’s only when landmarks are damaged that prosecution is an option.

However, the future might look a little brighter. In April 2023, the government put forward a bill that, if turned into law, would see various penalties including jail for people who damage works of art and landscapes, as well as landmarks.

The law was proposed in response to climate activists throwing various substances at works of art, dyeing the water in a Roman fountain, and spraypainting buildings and columns, but will also cover bad tourist behavior. Fines will range from 10,000 to 40,000 euros ($11,000 – $43,400) for anyone defacing heritage property or environments, and from 20,000 to 60,000 euros ($21,700 – $65,000) for those who destroy or cause deterioration.

“Whoever vandalizes our art must take responsibility for it and must pay out of their own pocket,” Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, tweeted in April. The bill is now moving through parliament.

Holiday madness

Why is it that bad behavior comes out specifically in vacationers, though? For psychologist Dr Audrey Tang, a member of the British Psychological Society, it’s a similar situation to trolls on social media: “We have a sense of anonymity. We’re not known, and that gives us a bit of protection.”

An added element, she says, is the “risky shift” – the concept in which groups egg each other on to behave in more extreme ways, ultimately taking actions they’d never dream of doing alone.

“If you’re there with friends, the risky shift can occur – you might not even realize you’re doing it, but you’re in a group and everyone gets caught up in the enthusiasm.”

But generally it comes down to two things: practical and psychological. Drinking on vacation “removes the filter we normally have; add the risky shift and we might do something we’d never think of doing,” she says.

“Jung said we all have a dark side, and if we suppress it it’s a bit like a pressure cooker, and will explode at some point. Vacations give us permission to explode. And it may have got worse [since the pandemic] because we’ve had an enforced bottling up.”

What’s more, she says, paying for a vacation uncorks a sense of entitlement. “We forget that what we’re entitled to has to come with social acceptability. And that we are part of a community. If everyone behaves the same as [the rulebreakers] that’s a problem.”

Ignorance as an excuse?

Sometimes, tourists say they didn’t know what they were doing wasn’t allowed – that was the excuse of the Australian caught riding around Pompeii. And, says Zarantonello, sometimes that’s true. When it comes to swimming or surfing in Venice, he says, “these are actions that are allowed in their own countries but banned here. So it’s the kind of behavior that’s seen as legal.”

Tang says that sometimes people don’t check the rules of a destination before traveling. Cutting in line, spitting in the street, or even urinating, she says, are “completely inappropriate” in Europe, but are often done in other places – though she adds, “That’s not excusing the behavior, because we do need to find out the cultural situation on holiday.”

Jenkins is less convinced.

“I think it’s pretty obvious you shouldn’t be riding a motorbike through Pompeii. These guys are clearly idiots. People have been writing names on statues and breaking things since the dawn of time but this is no excuse. It’s abhorrent.”

Perhaps it’s less about ignorance, and more of a desire for internet clout. As social media gains an ever stronger hold over us, we’re seeing more and more outrageous behavior, says Tang: “Bad behavior gets more likes, shares and notoriety than positive things, and lots of people use it to gain followers and make an impact. Something terribly wrong can be extremely effective for that.”

Zarantonello sees this a lot in Venice. “Their actions are amplified by social media,” he confirms.

One English tourist, a university lecturer, tweeted a video in July 2022 of him swimming across the Grand Canal and then running away from the police, in a bid to emulate his hero, the 19th century poet Lord Byron. But attitudes like this, Zarantonello says, are harming the city that Byron loved – and he begs them to consider their actions, even when it comes to something as seemingly banal as swimming in a canal.

“It’s a matter of respect for the city. It’s a place so rich in history, it’s not a pool or a beach where you can do all this stuff,” he says.

“Byron was here 200 years ago. You’d be better off reading one of his poems than swimming in the Grand Canal.”

After Michelangelo’s Pietà sculpture was attacked by a hammer-wielding Hungarian in 1972, it was put behind bulletproof glass. Butorac fears this could be the sign of things to come:

“One of the beautiful things is that [the museum] allows visitors to get literally face to face with these sculptures – my fear is that with behavior like this, barriers could be put in place.”