The Atlantic hurricane season is headed into uncharted territory with water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico warmer than they have ever been on record.

Seasonal forecasters are warning it means you need to prepare for a more uncertain forecast for the rest of the season with the potential for more storms and stronger ones.

Warm ocean water is one of the key ingredients for fueling hurricanes and it’s been in abundance so far this year. Scientists first sounded the alarm in April and the ocean warmth has only escalated since. Water in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic has been record warm, especially for this early in the year. It includes off the coast of Florida, where water temperatures in the Florida Keys were close to 97 degrees in some spots last week.

But hurricane season predictions involve more than just warm water. It’s just one factor in the birth and survival of tropical cyclones, and it is creating more uncertainty than usual in what could happen the rest of the hurricane season.

“Uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty! That’s really the story going forward with this season,” Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University told me.

Klotzbach and the team at CSU are some of the pioneers of long-term hurricane season outlooks, and just increased the number of expected hurricanes and major hurricanes in their prediction for this season due to the warmer water in the Atlantic.

What makes this year even more uncertain is we are now under the influence of El Niño which typically suppresses activity in the Atlantic with increased wind shear, the changing of wind direction and speed with height which can blow budding storms to pieces and shred existing storms to death.

Klotzbach said the confluence of these record warm temperatures at the same time as a moderate to strong El Niño hasn’t been “observed historically.”

The million-dollar question right now is which will win out: warm ocean temperatures or El Niño. Early season predictions called for a near-average season, but Klotzbach and team seem to think the warm water will win out and are now calling for “an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season.”

Warm water won in June. According to Klotzbach, June had the lowest wind shear in the southern Atlantic Basin since 1988. Arlene, Bret and Cindy formed as a result.

Wind shear and dry air from Saharan dust picked up in the month of July, suppressing hurricane activity for the most part, but August through October could be different.

“Most climate models are forecasting slightly to somewhat-below normal shear in August, September and even into October,” Klotzbach said. “If that were the case, we would likely have an extremely busy season given how warm the Atlantic is.”

As of now, there’s not much noteworthy on the horizon as far as tropical development goes. Subtropical Storm Don is meandering around the north-central Atlantic but poses no threat to land. Forecast models aren’t picking up any development this week. Forecasts for next week are hinting at some tropical development, but it’s far too early to have confidence in how, if or when this could materialize.

What we do know is hurricane season typically starts ramping up as we head into August. The first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August. The eight-week span from mid-August through mid-October is when ocean temperatures are nearing their highest levels in the Atlantic, wind shear lessens considerably and when nearly 90% of all hurricane activity in the Atlantic happens.

The bottom line is this season is already unprecedented given the hot ocean temperatures, so forecasting the season in the uncharted territory we’ve entered is a challenge. We’ve got a lot of hurricane season left to go, which means you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Authorities have identified the two children still missing nearly two days after they were swept away by turbulent floodwaters that killed their mother.

Matilda “Mattie” Sheils, 2, and her 9-month-old brother, Conrad Sheils, vanished after intense flooding engulfed parts of southeast Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.

The body of their mother, 32-year-old Katie Seley, was found late Saturday.

A family member acting as a spokesperson expressed the family’s gratitude to the searchers at a news conference Monday afternoon.

“Their compassion, kindness and bravery have given us strengthen in this unspeakably difficult time,” said Scott Ellis, brother-in-law of Jim Sheils, Seley’s fiancé.

Seley was among five people who died after storms pummeled Bucks County over the weekend, according to Upper Makefield Fire Company Chief Tim Brewer.

The Bucks County coroner identified the other victims as Enzo Depiero, 78, and Linda Depiero, 74, of Newtown Township; Susan Barnhart, 53, of Titusville, New Jersey; and Yuko Love, 64, of Newtown Township. According to a news release from the coroner, they all died from drowning. Love’s cause of death was listed as drowning with multiple injuries.

The victims didn’t travel into already high water, Brewer noted at the news conference. “They were caught,” he said. “This was a flash flood. … The wall of water came to them.”

Brewer earlier said officials had tripled the number of resources in the search for the missing Sheils children.

Thanks to improving weather, searchers can use more resources, including underwater and air assets as well as drones and search dogs, to look for Mattie and Conrad.

The family was visiting from South Carolina and were driving to a barbecue when they got stuck in flash flooding, Brewer said Sunday.

The mother and a grandmother grabbed Mattie and Conrad. The father grabbed the children’s 4-year-old brother.

The father and the 4-year-old “miraculously” made it to safety, the fire chief said. But the mother, grandmother and younger children were swept away.

The children’s grandmother survived and was treated at a hospital, police said.

“The mass casualty incident, like these, which we have never seen before, (is) unbelievable and devastating to all the families involved,” he said.

Over the past month, parts of interior New England and the Northeast have seen 200% to 300% of their average monthly rainfall, leading to last week’s disastrous flooding in parts of Vermont, New York and western Massachusetts.

Floods are among the deadliest weather hazards in the US, according to the National Weather Service. It only takes 2 feet of rushing water to carry away most vehicles, including pickups and SUVs, according to the weather service.

A flash flood can happen anywhere intense rain falls faster than the soil can absorb, and generally happen within a short time period after rain, making them more life-threatening, according to the National Weather Service.

Ever wondered what happens when a jetsetting flight attendant swaps life in the skies for life on the ground? If the experiences of former Pan American World Airways crew are anything to go by, life takes off in a completely different direction.

Pan Am has always been synonymous with glamor, and its flight attendants lived their opportunities to the max. It was a career filled with luxury and international intrigue, going to Rome one day and Rio the next.

It was also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn more about people, places, and cultures worldwide.

“My experiences with Pan Am helped shape the global perspectives and understanding of the human experience that I hold to this day,” says former flight attendant Camille Lewis. Pan Am flight attendants doubled as ambassadors for the airline. They brought diverse viewpoints to the skies, and valued inclusion.

When the airline folded on December 4, 1991, a grand era in aviation history came to a close – but those who once called a Boeing 747 their office, and the world their home, found unique ways to take their lives to new heights.

What happened next? How do you harness all those experiences to take your next step? Seven former Pan Am flight attendants tell us where they ended up.

Camille Lewis

Growing up, Camille Lewis’s plan was to finish college and work in corporate management. However, she traded in the office for wings. “Flying gave me an uncommon, global perspective and extended education,” she says.

“There were unique exposures, social experiences, and a global perspective that could not reasonably be obtained any other way for the average young American. I remember riding camels in Pakistan, [enjoying] the hotel pool in Rio de Janeiro, bargaining with shop vendors in Nairobi, eating, drinking, and laughing all day at Caesar’s Beach in Liberia, and making trips to Saudi Arabia on my favorite airplane, the 747SP” – a shorter, longer-range 747.

“The memories are vast and have lasted a lifetime. I only traveled a little on vacations. My job, in many ways, was a vacation.”

Her most memorable passengers were Mother Teresa and primatologist Jane Goodall. She also played her part in history – one of her passengers was Michèle Bennett, the wife of Haiti’s dictator ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier of Haiti. She and her entire entourage were on their way from New York to Paris after the first family had fled the country.

Today Camille is a retired school principal in Los Angeles, following a 30-year career in education. Her career as a flight attendant made her familiar with many cultural aspects of the diverse community that makes up California schools, she says – giving her an advantage in her new career.

Phillip Keene

Actor and philanthropist Phillip Keene has Pan Am roots. In 1987, he answered an LA Times recruitment ad for the airline. It would change the direction of his life, taking him from a dead-end job in California to a glamorous life, circling the globe from his new base in London.

He watched as the pages of his passport filled with new stamps from countries around the globe. Working with Pan Am was “eye-opening, educational, exciting, exhilarating and expensive, while living in London and Amsterdam,” he says.

Meeting celebrities onboard – like movie and TV stars John Gielgud, Tracey Ullman, hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, and rock band Huey Lewis and the News – gave him a glimpse of what his future life could be.

Today, Keene is an actor living in Paris and traveling regularly to Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, the UK and the US. He can be seen in the award-winning shows “Major Crimes” and “The Closer,” in which he plays Buzz Watson, the tech-savvy member of LAPD’s team.

Keene keeps his Pan Am love alive with his 3,500-strong collection of airline memorabilia – said to be the world’s largest collection.

Karren Pope-Onwukwe

“Traveling around the world broadened my view of life and exposed me to fine wine, gourmet food, and real couture,” says Pope-Onwukwe, who was a flight attendant from 1980 to 1991.

One of her favorite trips was flying to Dakar, Senegal, on the 747, where she was language-qualified to deliver French announcements. And her love of traveling took her to other warm destinations like the Caribbean, where she had a chance to meet Susan L. Taylor, the formidable former editor of Essence magazine.

Her flights often had celebrities on board. Author and civil right activist Coretta Scott King traveled with her own peanuts (still in their shell), while boxing promoter Don King was “hilarious” during a flight from Italy. “He engaged with the crew and the passengers, smiling and joking – his laugh itself made you smile,” she remembers.

If that wasn’t enough celebrity overload, she once shared an airport-to-airport limo ride with singer James Brown, from La Guardia to JFK. “He was nice enough to give me a ride; we were both trying to make our flights.”

Losing the glamorous lifestyle has been hard, she says: “I still love hotels and room service, laundry service, spa treatments, and drinking poolside.” Yet much of what she learned at Pan Am remains. Pope-Onwukwe credits the airline with making her independent and confident. Today, she practices law in Maryland and has had her own company since 2000.

Linda Reynolds

Jetting in to different cities across the globe heightened Linda’s love for international intrigue and espionage. Her experiences getting to know places and cultures inspired her three novels: “Spies In Our Midst,” “Spies We Know,” and “One Deliberate Act.”

“Pan Am gave me so much knowledge about the world and introduced me to people in the intelligence and diplomatic communities. I use all that in my writing,” she says.

Reynolds once spent a flight from New York to London chatting with US broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite: “He was exactly what everyone wanted him to be: kind, personable, intelligent, interesting, and a great conversationalist.”

The airline also brought her into contact with her husband, Joe, who was a Pan Am station manager in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Pan Am was their life, so when the airline folded it was a double blow.

“The memory that sticks with me is how passengers felt seeing that big Pan Am blue ball on the airplane tail,” says Reynolds.

“Living or traveling abroad is not always a lark … sometimes the place just explodes in danger. Whether the Vietnam War, natural disasters, or the overthrow of a government, we were always there to evacuate and care for people. It was our calling, and we went. I remember people literally kneeling and kissing the floor of the aircraft … their relief was palpable. Pan Am meant home.”

Penny Powell

In 1985 Powell, a fluent Spanish speaker, began what she calls “the best career of my life.” Living in Paris, she was based out of London.

Her love of Pan Am lives on in her current business: making candles. Penny’s Flame candles have a collection named “Clipper Blue Lights” after the nickname for Pan Am planes, “Clippers.”

Her candle business is a recent move. After Pan Am, Powell moved to another airline, until she married, raised her daughter in Chicago, and trained as a realtor.

Elena Williams

For five years, Williams flew the friendly skies after graduating college, looking to add excitement to her life. Fun-filled layovers sometimes meant meeting other airline crew in exotic places – on a trip to Rome, she and her roommate went to dinner with two Italian Learjet pilots.

“They met us at the Metropole Hotel, and we went to a romantic dinner with violin players. They carried us in their arms into the Trevi fountain and back to the hotel for a nightcap. The next day they stood on the wings of their jet and blew kisses across the Tarmac as our flight readied for take off. We had gotten zero sleep on the layover, but we walked on cloud back to New York.”

One, she met JFK Jr. on a flight. “He came up and shook my hand and said, “I’m John F. Kennedy, Jr.” I shook his hand and said, “I’m Elena Sugarman!”

After leaving Pan Am, Williams headed home to Memphis to become a Spanish teacher, sharing how a second language can take you around the world. She’s still there today, enjoying family life and her dance club “The Energizers.”

Annita Thomas

I, too, was a Pan Am flight attendant in the 1980s, jetsetting to Rome one week and across West and East Africa the next. My life was filled with meeting interesting people, learning about different cultures, and trying foods a young girl from South Georgia hadn’t known existed.

On a 20-hour flight from JFK to Tokyo’s Narita airport, I had my first cross-cultural experience serving soba noodles. Slurping is the Japanese way to eat noodles – it demonstrates enjoyment. I didn’t know this – my mom had always taught me to swirl the noodles around my fork and not slurp. The sound of over 200 passengers slurping together was both surprising and shocking. I couldn’t believe it.

I realized I’d had a cultural experience. While one mom in Georgia was teaching her daughter to quietly swirl noodles, thousands of miles away, another mother was teaching her children to slurp them with sounds of delight. This single flight broadened my curiosity and made me interested in learning more about the cultures of the places I visited.

It wasn’t all so positive. We were also greeted with not-so-friendly skies when coups and political uprisings disrupted air travel, but our training taught us to stay in control during emergencies and high-pressure situations. In April 1980 I was in Liberia, sequestered in a hotel at the Robertsfield airport (now Roberts International Airport) after a coup d’etat which killed president William Tolbert and 13 of his cabinet members.

Over the 11 years, working for Pan Am changed my outlook on the world. It prepared me for my current role as host of “Travel With Annita,” a travel radio show inspiring listeners to put down the glossy brochures and go out to have their own adventures.

Keeping the fires burning

Pan Am flight attendants find ways to keep the spirit alive. Memories live on, with many of us becoming members of World Wings International, a non-profit organization of former Pan Am flight attendants. We focus on philanthropic work through four international and 23 domestic chapters supporting our community needs.

Other former Pan Am flight attendants have unique ways of honoring the airline. One, David Hinson, has co-created accessories line David Jeffery, many with Pan Am themes. Their items have been selected several times for Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list. Linda Little Freire heads the Pan Am Museum Foundation, where you’ll find exhibits dedicated to the airline. The foundation also has a podcast filled with Pan Am stories.

For those of us lucky enough to fly for the airline, Pan Am shaped our world and gave us courage, wisdom, and a large, powerful dose of “you can do it.” Ask any “Pan Amer” their favorite slogan from their time crisscrossing the skies, and they’ll likely say, “Pan Am, you can’t beat the experience.”

The polar bear was just a faraway speck in a frozen white expanse. A film crew began to follow at a distance, gradually getting closer. Suddenly the bear picked up a scent and changed direction – the crew followed, hoping it would lead to footage of a kill. The bear came to a rest at a seal hole in the ice and started to wait. So did the crew.

For 12 hours they sat, waiting for the bear to make a move. For 12 hours the bear lay half asleep, half awake at the edge of the hole. It was too long; the crew had been awake working for 22 hours straight on the sea ice and needed to get back to camp. Cold and exhausted, they admitted defeat. Hours of waiting for little reward is not uncommon. “It’s the price we pay to get unique images,” recounts award-winning French photographer and filmmaker Florian Ledoux.

This is the reality of wildlife photography – it is always on nature’s terms. But that’s the challenge and attraction of it, too. “Every shot we get in the Arctic is a battle,” he says. “We push our limits; we feel alive by doing it.”

He has spent the last two winters on the Arctic sea ice, filming iconic scenes for the BBC’s nature documentary series “Frozen Planet” and the Disney film “Polar Bear” among others. Driven by a passion to preserve nature, his extraordinary aerial photography has earned him awards such as the 2018 Siena International Photo Awards drone photographer of the year and Nature TTL’s photographer of the year in 2020. Now he’s planning for his 2023 winter expedition, which will see him setting off from Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost settlement, to spend days and nights on the sea ice.

“If we start at the end of February, we have a bit of light. The sun passes above the horizon around 11am or 12pm and then it’s dark at 2pm or 3pm,” he explains. From then on, the hours of light rapidly increase. “At the beginning of April, you can’t see the stars anymore, and by mid-April you have the midnight sun,” he adds.

The months when the sun just starts to poke through create the perfect palette for a photographer, Ledoux says. Every pastel shade of blue shines through and as the sun disappears, a pink belt shimmers on the horizon.

But capturing this Arctic twilight comes at a cost. Ledoux describes how the obliterating winter conditions take their physical toll – overwhelming darkness and low vitamin D levels affect your mood, the lack of routine messes up your body clock, and you are forever fighting the bitter cold, with temperatures on some days plummeting to minus 40 degrees Celsius. On those days, everything you touch with bare hands sticks to your skin and every time you exhale the moisture freezes on your face, he says. Despite wearing several layers of clothes, huge down mittens and a neoprene face mask and ski goggles, the cold bites through.

Yet these are the days Ledoux lives for. There was a time last winter, when the air was crisp, the sun was low, and an intense silence enveloped the sea ice. He spotted steam rising from behind an iceberg and, following it with his drone, discovered a large male polar bear asleep on the ice: “His body was warm and as he was breathing, smoke came out of his mouth like a dragon.”

Starring roles

Despite being out in the wilderness beyond most human contact, Ledoux is often at the mercy of a producer’s shot list. Disney, Netflix or the likes will request a specific shot of a polar bear, such as a successful hunt or a mating scene. Ticking these off can take days or months, but the key is not to rush it.

After finding a bear, the crew will position itself ahead of the bear and wait for it to gradually come closer. “We want to make sure the bear likes us,” says Ledoux, adding that to capture candid and unique behavior the bear needs to feel comfortable in their presence. If a bear is skittish or reacts badly to them being there, they will stop pursuing it. “That’s just the way it is – if it doesn’t want to be the star, you can’t force it.”

Over time, Ledoux believes you begin to recognize individual bears. Some look different, with the shape of their face or physical markings giving them away. Others have distinct characters; some are shy and some are curious and playful.

One of his blockbuster shots, which took pride of place in Disney’s “Polar Bear”, shows two bears joyfully ice skating together. Ledoux had never witnessed two bears having such fun: “It was pure magic. We were so high after that we forgot to eat all day or night.”

The feeling of being close to a polar bear is addictive, he says. The first time he saw one he had goosebumps, and despite hundreds of encounters since, that reaction hasn’t died down. “They are so majestic and beautiful … It brings (up) a lot of emotions,” he adds. His goal is to convey these emotions through his images.

Melting ice

One of Ledoux’s photos, which landed the cover of Oceanographic Magazine and Wildlife Photographic, shows a polar bear leaping precariously between broken bits of ice. It sends a message of fragility and reflects the threat of shrinking ice sheets. The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, causing ice to melt and threatening the whole ecosystem that depends on it.

Even in the few years Ledoux has explored the Arctic, he has witnessed these changes. It has rained for days in the winter months and the terrain they can work on is diminishing as sea ice becomes less stable.

“It’s important to document,” he says, comparing his role to that of a war photographer, albeit at a slower pace and less imminently dangerous. There is an urgency, and he feels a duty to record what is happening.

“Would I fly the drone just for flying the drone? No,” he says. “The drone is a tool that allows me to capture some unique beauty and perspective of nature, to give a voice to the one that cannot speak.”

Two more tourists have been caught apparently defacing the Colosseum in Rome, following a similar incident in June.

The very next day, a 17-year-old student from Germany was caught allegedly doing something similar. This time, a security guard spotted the teen and reported him to the Carabinieri.

Both teenagers risk a fine of up to €15,000 ($16,850) and up to five years in jail.

This is the same punishment potentially faced by a 27-year-old British tourist who was filmed apparently carving his name into the wall of the ancient arena last month.

The man, Ivan Dimitrov, later sent a letter of apology to the local prosecutor’s office, according to his defense lawyer.

Dimitrov allegedly scratched “Ivan+Hayley 23” into the wall of the Colosseum, representing his and his girlfriend’s names.

Following the release of the video, Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, called for the perpetrator to be “sanctioned according to our laws” in a tweet.

“I consider it very serious, unworthy and a sign of great incivility that a tourist defaces one of the most famous places in the world, a historical heritage (site) such as the Colosseum, to carve the name of his fiancée,” he said.

A similar incident also occurred in 2020, when security staff spotted an Irish tourist allegedly carving his initials into the ancient structure and reported him to the police.

Ivana Andrés, the captain of the Spanish women’s national team, has apologized after the country’s football federation (RFEF) posted a now-deleted video on social media of four players appearing to mock New Zealand’s traditional haka.

The haka is a ceremonial Maori war dance, with many of the country’s national teams across a variety of sports performing their own version before matches.

Ahead of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the Spanish players and the federation were accused of being disrespectful towards the dance and Maori culture.

“We’ve only been here a few days in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and there’s still much to learn about this culture,” Andrés said at a traditional welcome ceremony, according to Reuters.

Andrés went on to ask for “forgiveness for our mistakes” and vowed to be “better each day.”

At the ceremony, Andrés gave the tribe a Spain jersey bearing the name Papaioea, the Maori name for the city of Palmerston North, where the ceremony was held.

“This shirt symbolizes all the sacrifices and the victories that have made it possible today to have the privilege of being here to play the World Cup in this admirable land and to do it with the value of the friendship that we all share together today,” Andrés said.

According to Reuters, a spokesperson for the local Rangitane tribe called the ceremony “a very good outcome.”

“Their words came from the heart and there was an acknowledgement that they understood the haka is very precious, not only to Maori, but to all of Aotearoa,” the spokesperson said.

Spain will play all of its group stage matches in New Zealand, starting with Costa Rica on Friday.

Rory McIlroy delivered a sensational finish to triumph at the Scottish Open on Sunday, birdieing the final two holes to snatch victory from home hero Robert MacIntyre.

As blustering winds battered the field at The Renaissance Club, the Northern Irishman struck “one of the best shots” of his glittering career with a stunning approach at the 18th hole before rolling home to clinch a one-stroke victory.

A first ever triumph in Scotland sees the 34-year-old become the first player to win The Scottish Open, The Irish Open and The Open Championship, which returns to Royal Liverpool for the first time since 2014 – the year of McIlroy’s last major triumph – on Thursday.

The four-time major champion had carried a one-stroke lead into the final round, which had teed off early in an attempt to get out ahead of expected heavy winds, but saw his advantage evaporate after a grisly start.

Four bogeys across his first nine holes contrasted a faultless, bogey-free start from MacIntyre, who shot an eagle at the 10th before closing with a birdie to cap a blistering, round-best six-under 64 and set the clubhouse target at 14-under par.

It put the world No. 54 ranked Scot within touching distance of a fairytale home victory, with McIlroy needing to birdie one of the two notoriously challenging closing holes for the first time that week just to force a playoff.

McIlroy went one better. After arrowing his 5-iron tee shot to within five feet of the par-three penultimate hole to draw level, he switched to his 2-iron to send an incredible 200-yard effort onto the 18th green.

A putt from almost 11 feet to win was no easy feat, but there was a certain inevitability about the outcome given preceding events. McIlroy lasered home to card 68 for the round and 16-under overall, sealing the £1.2 million (almost $1.57 million) winner’s prize money and leapfrogging Jon Rahm to No. 2 in the world rankings.

“This is right up there with the best of them,” McIlroy told reporters about the end of the tournament.

“I thought if I can birdie one of the last two and get into a playoff, that would be a bonus. The two iron shots that I hit … are probably two of the best shots I’ve hit all year, and then to finish them off with the putts as well.”

His 16th win on the DP World Tour, the victory provides a perfect momentum boost as McIlroy heads to Royal Liverpool to attempt to end a nine-year major drought on Thursday.

Victory at the Merseyside course highlighted the best season of McIlroy’s career in 2014, with the Northern Irishman adding his fourth major triumph at the PGA Championship a month later. Yet despite finishing inside the top-10 on 19 occasions since, McIlroy’s wait for a fifth major crown endures.

After missing the cut at The Masters, McIlroy finished tied-seventh at the PGA Championship before falling narrowly short of Wyndham Clark at the US Open in June, his third runner-up finish at a major since 2014.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” McIroy said.

“I’ve had a few close calls recently so to get over the line and get this bit of confidence going into next week and the rest of the season is huge.”

McIlroy’s ecstasy contrasted agony for MacIntyre, who had been roared on by the Scottish crowds in pursuit of his national tournament and a third DP World Tour win.

The 26-year-old had pulled off a remarkable birdie of his own on the final hole, superbly hitting his approach to within a few feet after his tee drive had settled on a spectator path, and was given a rousing reception as he left the 18th green.

“I’ll never forget it … that’s why I play this sport,” MacIntyre told reporters.

“The Scottish Open will be up there with the event I want to play for the rest of my life. It’s one I’ve dreamed of winning since I watched at home, and I thought today coming down once I birdied 18, I thought, this might be the one.

“But it’s not to be just now, and plenty of years ahead … Rory McIlroy’s potentially the best in the world, and he showed why today. I take my hat off to him.”

For years, tennis’ so-called ‘Next Gen’ stars have tried and largely failed to topple the sport’s ‘Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Between Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka winning consecutive grand slams – Wimbledon then the US Open – in 2016 and Carlos Alcaraz’s 2022 US Open victory, only Daniil Medvedev won a grand slam title, the 2021 US Open, in which one of the ‘Big Three’ was beaten during the tournament.

Many of the players once tipped to take over the mantle of being one of tennis’ leading men came and went, while others are still knocking on the door.

But in much the same way that Federer’s fourth-round Wimbledon win over Pete Sampras in 2001 signaled the passing of the torch to a new era, so too Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Djokovic in Sunday’s final could finally herald the next generation’s coming of age.

And a decade on from his last defeat on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, Djokovic having his aura of invincibility shattered could also help tennis’ young stars emerge, Alcaraz said.

“I did it for myself, not for [the next] tennis generation, honestly,” Alcaraz told reporters after the final. “It was great. Beating Novak at his best, in this stage, making history, being the guy to beat him after 10 years unbeaten on that court, is amazing for me.

“It’s something that I will never forget, that’s for sure. It’s great for the new generation as well, I think to see me beating him and making them think that they are capable of doing it. It’s great for me and I think for the young players as well.”

Not that Djokovic is likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

While Alcaraz was a deserving winner on the day, Djokovic has proven over the last two weeks that he is still capable of playing some of the best tennis of his career – and this at the age of 36.

As the Serb said following his victory in the semifinals: “36 is the new 26” and Djokovic certainly appears to have enough left in the tank to win multiple grand slam titles.

Now, however, there is finally a player that looks capable of stopping him that isn’t named Federer or Nadal.

But Alcaraz isn’t so sure that tennis’ changing of the guard has finally happened.

“Let’s talk about it in some years ahead. In the future we can talk about it, but right now, it’s not the right moment.”

A mix of Roger, Rafa and Novak?

Though it’s hard to pinpoint any one defining moment in a five-set, near five-hour epic that decided the outcome of the match, Djokovic’s gruelling 26-minute service game in the third set, which Alcaraz eventually won, was certainly a crucial stage of the final.

There were 32 points in total – as many as in the entire first set – 13 deuces and seven break points before Alcaraz finally came out on top to go two breaks of serve to the good. The Spaniard eventually took the third set 6-1.

On almost any other day, against almost any other player, it seems hard to image that Djokovic would have lost that game, which turned into as much of a battle of the mind as it was of the body.

But Alcaraz is different. Djokovic acknowledged his opponent’s remarkable “mental resilience” for a player who is barely 20 years old.

Ever since Alcaraz burst onto the scene, the youngster has been likened to a mix of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal.

“I would agree with that,” Djokovic said. “I think he’s got basically best of all three worlds.
He’s got this mental resilience and really maturity for someone who is 20 years old. It’s quite impressive.

“He’s got this Spanish bull mentality of competitiveness and fighting spirit and incredible defense that we’ve seen with Rafa over the years. And I think he’s got some nice sliding backhands that he’s got some similarities with my backhands.

“Two-handed backhands, defense, being able to adapt. I think that has been my personal strength for many years. He has it, too.

“I haven’t played a player like him ever, to be honest. Roger and Rafa have their own strengths and weaknesses. Carlos is very complete player. Amazing adapting capabilities that I think are a key for longevity and for successful career on all surfaces.”

In the end, perhaps only a potent mix of the ‘Big Three’s’ best bits was ever going to be enough to topple Djokovic.

However, the 23-time grand slam champion doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon and sees the potential for a great new rivalry at the top of tennis.

“I would hope so, for my sake,” Djokovic said with a smile. “He’s going to be on the tour for quite some time. I don’t know how long I’ll be around. I mean, let’s see.

“It’s been only three matches that we played against each other. Three really close matches. Two already this year in later stages of grand slams.

“I hope we get to play in US Open. Why not? I think it’s good for the sport, one and two in the world facing each other in almost a five-hours, five-set thriller. Couldn’t be better for our sport in general, so why not?”

The search continues for a 2-year-old girl and her 9-month-old brother who were swept away in ferocious flood waters that left their mother dead in southeastern Pennsylvania as a powerful storm hammered the region over the weekend.

The children and their family were visiting from South Carolina and were driving to a barbecue when they got stuck in flash flooding, Upper Makefield Fire Chief Tim Brewer said Sunday afternoon.

The family tried to escape the floodwaters, with the mother and grandmother grabbing the two children, while the father took a 4-year-old boy, Brewer said.

The father and young sibling “miraculously” made it to safety, he said. But the two women and young children were swept away by the flood waters.

The mother, who has not been identified, was found dead on Saturday, Brewer said. There was no sign of the two children.

The children’s grandmother survived and was treated at a local hospital, Upper Makefield Township Police said.

Search efforts will continue, Brewer said Sunday, adding that crews remain “steadfast on the commitment on finding and bringing these two children home.”

“We cannot even begin to imagine what the family is going through with two beautiful children gone,” Brewer said.

The children’s mother is among five people who died as storms battered Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Brewer said Sunday. Another seven people were still missing in flood waters, according to authorities.

“The mass casualty incident, like these, which we have never seen before, (is) unbelievable and devastating to all the families involved,” Brewer said.

Storms hit Southeastern Pennsylvania hard Saturday, bringing flash floods and inundating roadways less than a week after parts of the state were ravaged by storms.

Over the last month, parts of interior New England and the Northeast have seen 200% to 300% of their average monthly rainfall, leading to last week’s disastrous flooding event in parts of Vermont, New York and western Massachusetts.

Floods are among the deadliest weather hazards in the US, according to the weather service. It only takes 2 feet of rushing water to carry away most vehicles, including pickups and SUVs, the weather service says.

A flash flood can happen anywhere intense rain falls faster than the soil can absorb, and generally happen within a short time period after rain, making them more life threatening, according to the National Weather Service.

Search and rescue crews in Southeastern Pennsylvania are expected to see more favorable conditions Monday as the region gets a reprieve from the rain.

The threat of excessive rainfall decreases across the region Monday, with a marginal risk of excessive rainfall over parts of the Northeast to the Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service. There is a marginal risk for excessive rainfall for western Pennsylvania on Monday, as well as a marginal risk for severe storms, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

“Heavy rainfall across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast will move off the coastline provide a well needed break to start the week,” the National Weather Service said.

A pilot of a small plane suffered a medical emergency in the air Saturday, prompting a passenger to take over controls and make a crash landing with no landing gear at Martha’s Vineyard Airport, authorities said.

The pilot of the aircraft, a Piper Meridian Turboprop six-seater plane, suffered a medical condition as it approached the airport Saturday afternoon, the West Tisbury Police Department said in a statement.

The passenger then took over the controls and “crash landed” at approximately 3:15 p.m. in the grass near a runway, Massachusetts State Police said. The hard landing caused the aircraft’s left wing to break in half, state police said.

The woman, 68, suffered minor injuries, West Tisbury police said. The man was extricated from the plane and flown to a Boston hospital in serious, life-threatening condition, state police said. Both are Connecticut residents, according to state police.

The plane had departed from Westchester, New York, earlier in the afternoon.