The loud engine announces the approach of the Soviet-era armored BTR vehicle long before it appears – racing through a grassy plain on the outskirts of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine. Suddenly it stops, its door opens and Ukrainian soldiers rush out, storming the trench below.

“Today our task is training and cleaning the trenches,” a Ukrainian soldier with the call-sign Jenia says. He is a member of Kyiv’s Offensive Guard, which is part of an initiative by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs to establish new assault brigades.

“The enemy has lost positions, we quickly arrive, take positions, and restore it,” he adds.

This operation is just a drill, but the scenario has been engineered to be as realistic as possible. The trenches are muddy – despite weeks without rain – and the soldiers are forced to face the unexpected, such as tending to and evacuating the wounded, or adapting after suffering casualties.

“Some people say training is not hard, that there is no danger – but running through the trenches and constantly training, knowing that you will go to battle, it is not easy,” Jenia says. “Everything comes with practice, It is clear that during the hostilities there will also be the psychological impact of war – but practice is very important.”

Even as Ukrainian cities experience barrage after barrage of Russian missile and drone strikes, Jenia and the other members of the Offensive Guard have remained unfazed, simulating scenarios they expect to find once Kyiv finally launches its much anticipated counteroffensive.

That day is fast approaching, if one of the top advisers to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is to be believed.

“Everything that is happening now is a precursor to a counterattack, a necessary pre-condition,” Podolyak explained. “When the intensity of fire increases, especially on the logistics supplies, when the number of operations increases.”

‘Shaping’ operations ongoing

Ukraine has increased the number of strikes on Russian ammunition depots, logistical nodes and rear echelon bases, such as the ones seen in Mariupol and Berdyansk in the past few days. The military’s top general, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, released a slickly produced video over the weekend with the caption: “The time has come to take back what belongs to us.”

In his nightly address Monday, President Zelensky said the timing of the counteroffensive had been set, but did not provide further details. And despite the clear signs that a counteroffensive is coming, Podolyak also refuses to commit to specific dates.

“You can’t say about a counterattack that it will start any one day, one time when some events will start,” he says. “Already now there are intensive relatively offensive actions on the flanks of the town of Bakhmut. There is essentially no city left, but offensives are underway.”

These smaller operations are but a sample of the larger offensive, whose ambitious goals Ukraine is very open about and has openly advertized. But for it to succeed, Kyiv needs continued Western support.

“If there are timely deliveries of large quantities of the necessary consumable components, I am talking about shells, drones and missiles, then of course the war can mathematically be over this year,” Polodyak says. “But it will end undoubtedly on the borders of Ukraine as they were in 1991, with the de-occupation of Crimea, and undoubtedly with the beginning of a massive process of transformation of Russia’s political system.”

“There will be a counteroffensive in any case, and it will be successful. It will not be quick, it will take some time, it will be complicated, but it will be successful nevertheless,” he added.

These bold goals are why Kyiv has delayed an attack that was initially expected in early in spring but has yet to materialize with summer around the corner, taking time to perfect the strategy.

“It is impossible to be perfectly prepared for such a large volume of combat. There will always have to be fine-tuning,” Podolyak explains. “These or other initiative events along the front lines go on, we will continue to accumulate resources, we will continue to conduct combat cohesion, we will continue to train and practice our troops, including the partners conducting training.”

Back on the training grounds, the Offensive Guard’s commander, call sign Kyiv, shares a similar combat philosophy.

“We improve our fighting skills in special combat training every day to liberate our lands,” he says. “Our servicemen now know how to deal with the enemy – because we practice everything until it becomes automatic.”

He’s been helping train tens of thousands of troops and believes Ukraine has what it takes to succeed.

“We have motivation,” he says. “We defend our lands, this is our country, this is our home.”

“Of course victory will be ours,” he adds.

At least 34 soldiers of NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo were injured during clashes with protesters in the northern part of the country Monday, according to the Italian defense ministry.

Tensions have risen in the past week after ethnically Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo, a majority Kosovo Serb area, following April elections that Kosovo Serbs had boycotted.

NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) said the recent developments prompted them to increase their presence in northern Kosovo on Monday morning, which they later said turned violent.

The Italian defense ministry said 14 of its KFOR peacekeeping soldiers were injured when protesters threw “Molotov cocktails, with nails, firecrackers and stones inside.”

Hungarian and Moldovan soldiers were also among the injured peacekeeping troops, according to the Italian defense ministry.

“Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” it said, adding that KFOR medical units treated the soldiers.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her sympathy for the Italian KFOR soldiers injured in the clashes, adding in a statement, “What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible. We will not tolerate further attacks on KFOR.”

Meanwhile, Nemanja Starović, Serbian State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, offered a different version of events than what was outlined by NATO countries. He said “many” protesters were injured in the clashes and accused KFOR of using flash grenades when the “peaceful” protesters had “decided to disperse and continue the protest tomorrow morning.”

Kosovo, which is mainly ethnically Albanian, won independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia still considers Kosovo to be an integral part of its territory as do the Serbs living in northern Kosovo.

NATO has troops stationed in Kosovo to maintain peace, with tensions often flaring between Serbia and Kosovo.

Rising violence

The NATO-led multi-national contingents had been deployed to four municipalities in the region to contain “violent demonstrations” as “newly elected mayors in recent days tried to take office,” KFOR said in a statement.

On Friday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić put the armed forces on the highest level of combat readiness. That decision followed Kosovo police clashing with protesters who tried to block a newly elected ethnic Albanian mayor from entering their office.

Kosovo police say protesters had shown violence on Monday as they gathered in the municipalities of “Leposaviq, Zubin Potok and Zveqan.” Police added that in front of a facility in Zvecan, protesters had thrown tear gas and “tried to cross the security cordons to enter into the municipality facility by force.”

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić described KFOR’s increased presence in northern Kosovo on Monday as “belated” and said “the task of this international mission was to protect the interests and peace of the people in Kosovo and Metohija, not the usurpers.”

Brnabić said the situation in Kosovo and Metohija is “tense and difficult” and said, “It has never been more difficult.” Brnabić also expressed her “gratitude to Serbs in the province for remaining calm and refraining from violence.”

Meanwhile, the United States ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, condemned “violent actions” by protesters, citing the use of explosives.

The European Union Ambassador to Kosovo, Tomáš Szunyog, also condemned actions by protesters, citing damage to media vehicles.

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, also spoke about the situation on Monday, describing it as a “large eruption is brewing up in the center of Europe.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong title for Nemanja Starović. He is the state secretary in Serbia’s Ministry of Defence.

When nature calls, sometimes you just have to answer.

During his third-round match at the French Open, Australian tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis was left dumbfounded after seemingly being refused a toilet break by the umpire.

After losing the second set, Kokkinakis – who had taken a toilet break after the first set – approached chair umpire Katarzyna Radwan-Cho.

“All I’m asking is to try and p*ss,” he told her. “Now you’re telling me I’ve got 50 seconds. Can you just be realistic and give me something decent for once.

“F**king sh*t, we get two for a match,” he added, referencing the number of toilet breaks permitted in five setters. “Do you want me to p*ss on the court?

“Is that what you want?”

Kokkinakis eventually lost in four sets to Russia’s Karen Khachanov, who overturned a 4-1 deficit in the fourth-set tiebreak to close out the match and advance to the fourth round.

British former player Laura Robson, now working as a pundit for Eurosport, explained why Kokkinakis might have had trouble making it to the bathroom and back on time.

“You have to sprint, but the problem is on [court] Simonne-Mathieu the bathrooms just aren’t quite as close as they are on Chatrier and Lenglen.

“You can see his frustration because he’s trying to get there as fast as possible, but it’s just physically not going to happen … but at least it didn’t happen on court.”​

The owner of Churchill Downs, the racetrack that hosts the Kentucky Derby, is set to temporarily suspend all racing operations at its legendary namesake track to review protocols in the wake of a series of horse deaths, the company announced Friday.

According to Churchill Downs Incorporated, all racing operations at the Louisville racetrack will be suspended from June 7 through the remainder of the Spring Meet, which was scheduled to run to July 3.

The company said that an expert review concluded that the racetrack’s surface is consistent with that of past years and that there is no clear factor linking the deaths yet.

“Churchill Downs Racetrack has seen an unusual number of horse injuries over the previous month resulting in 12 equine fatalities,” the company said in a news release. “Following a thorough internal review and concurrent investigations conducted by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (‘KHRC’) and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (‘HISA’), no single factor has been identified as a potential cause and no discernible pattern has been detected to link the fatalities.”

Churchill Downs and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority chose to conduct the intensive review in collaboration with national experts.

“The team at Churchill Downs takes great pride in our commitment to safety and strives to set the highest standard in racing, consistently going above and beyond the regulations and policies that are required,” Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs Incorporated, said in the release. “What has happened at our track is deeply upsetting and absolutely unacceptable. Despite our best efforts to identify a cause for the recent horse injuries, and though no issues have been linked to our racing surfaces or environment at Churchill Downs, we need to take more time to conduct a top-to-bottom review of all of the details and circumstances so that we can further strengthen our surface, safety and integrity protocols.”

The rest of the Spring Meet will take place at nearby Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, starting June 10, the release said. Ellis Park is also owned and operated by Churchill Downs Incorporated.

“In addition to our commitment to providing the safest racing environment for our participants, we have an immense responsibility as the economic engine of the Thoroughbred industry in Kentucky which provides jobs and income for thousands of families every day,” Carstanjen continued. “By relocating the remainder of the meet to Ellis Park, we are able to maintain this industry ecosystem with only minor disruption. We are grateful to the Kentucky horsemen for their support, resiliency and continued partnership as we collectively work to find answers during this time.”

On Thursday, Churchill Downs announced new safety initiatives, including an increase in health screenings for racehorses and restricting horses to four starts during a rolling eight-week period. The racetrack will also establish ineligibility standards for horses that finish 12 or more lengths back in five consecutive races, Churchill Down announced.

A total of 12 race horses have died at the racetrack since March 30, many of them euthanized after suffering injuries while racing.

World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka did not participate in a customary post-match press conference after her third-round win at the French Open on Friday, saying she didn’t feel safe when participating in a press conference held earlier this week.

On Wednesday, after winning in the second round of the tournament, the Belarusian had been repeatedly asked in a press conference to comment on the war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role, but she repeatedly declined to do so. This continued until the moderator halted the line of questioning.

“After my match I spoke with the media like I normally do,” Sabalenka said Friday. “I know they still expect some questions that are more about the politics and not so much about my tennis.

“For many months now I have answered these questions at tournaments and been very clear in my feelings and my thoughts.

“These questions do not bother me after my matches. I know that I have to provide answers to the media on things not related to my tennis or my matches, but on Wednesday I did not feel safe in press conference.

“I should be able to feel safe when I do interviews with the journalists after my matches. For my own mental health and well-being, I have decided to take myself out of this situation today, and the tournament has supported me in this decision.

“It hasn’t been an easy few days, and now my focus is continue to play well here in Paris.”

Instead of doing a press conference Friday, Sabalenka’s comments are from an interview released by tournament organizers at Roland Garros in Paris, according to Reuters. Normally, press conferences by players are required.

Reuters also reported that French Open organizers said that they want to “protect” Sabalenka and that whether she attends other post-match press conferences will be her decision.

In 2021, Naomi Osaka of Japan sparked headlines and debate when she had announced she wouldn’t participate in press conferences during the French Open, citing her mental health. She later withdrew during the tournament, before her second-round match.

Sabalenka on ‘hate’

Sabalenka has already fielded some difficult questions in press conferences at Roland Garros, including from one reporter who accused her of “twisting it as if Ukrainians hate you” and “avoiding” questions asking her to condemn the war, with Belarus being used as a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Sabalenka said in March that she struggled to understand the “hate” she encountered in the locker room amid strained relations between some players following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“About the war situation, I said it many, many times, nobody in this world – Russian athletes, Belarusian athletes – supports the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Normal people will never support it,” she said.

Russian and Belarusian players are currently still competing on the tours as neutral athletes without their flag or country displayed.

The pain of defeat from last season’s Women’s Champions League final has lingered at Barcelona.

After a perfect domestic season with 30 wins from 30 games and a Champions League campaign in which the team barely broke a sweat, Barcelona arrived in Turin last year as the overwhelming favorite to lift the trophy for a second straight season.

Even faced with a resurgent Lyon, the record eight-time Champions League winner, Barcelona was expected to come out on top.

To say, then, that a 3-0 deficit after just half an hour was a surprise would be something of an understatement.

Though the team did pull a goal back before half time, it was left with too much of a mountain to climb as Lyon lifted its second Champions League trophy in three years.

The defeat was perhaps even more painful for midfielder Ingrid Engen, who was on the receiving end of a another 3-1 final defeat to Lyon a year earlier while playing for Wolfsburg.

Engen, who moved to Barcelona a year after that defeat, says memories of last season’s loss have “definitely” inspired everybody at the club throughout this current campaign.

“So I think the focus was on there from the beginning, like how can we improve to be at a better level for the next year and obviously go through this whole way.

“It’s been a journey to come to the final.”

‘How to right the wrongs’

Barcelona’s road to this year’s final has certainly been bumpier than the last.

There was no group stage clean sweep – this season Barça suffered a defeat to Bayern Munich – and the team was pushed all the way by Chelsea in a narrow 2-1 aggregate win in the semifinals.

These might seem like the standard trials and tribulations teams must face to reach the final of the Champions League, but there is nothing standard about this Barcelona team that often borders on perfection.

The defeat to Lyon also prompted the club to freshen up the playing squad, with three-time Champions League winner Lucy Bronze one of the marquee additions.

Bronze, winner of FIFA’s The Best award in 2020, said “one of the first conversations” she had with manager Jonatan Giráldez after joining was about how the team “had learned probably most of their lessons literally from that one game.”

“Wanting to improve certain things in the team and I think that’s the mentality of a top team, is wanting to fix things for a final that we weren’t even in yet because we had that belief and that mentality that we would make the final, that we would get there and that when we do get there, we know how to right the wrongs of previous experiences.

“I think that’s something similar to the feeling that I had when I played for Lyon.”

‘We are capable of defeating Barcelona’

When the two teams line up in Eindhoven, the Netherlands on Saturday, Engen will face some familiar faces.

The Norway international still maintains close contact with a number of the Wolfsburg squad, but says texts and phone calls have been kept to a minimum in the build up to the final.

“Of course, it’s special emotions and feelings when you meet the club and players that you’ve had a really close relationship to in my two years there,” she said.

“I’m close with Lena Oberdorf from my last year there, so it’s going to be special to meet them. I’ve been in a final with them also, so it’s special.”

Still only 21, Oberdorf is considered one of German football’s brightest prospects and played a key role in the national team’s run to the Euro 2022 final, earning the award for Young Player of the Tournament and a place in the team of the tournament.

After adding a place in FIFA’s World XI and fourth place in the Ballon d’Or voting to her resumé, she has continued her meteoric rise this season and cemented her status as one of the world’s best midfielders.

If Wolfsburg is to stand any chance on Saturday, Oberdorf will need to be at her supreme best.

It may seem like a lot of pressure to put on such young shoulders, but Oberdorf – and much of this Wolfsburg squad – has the experience of already having faced this Barcelona side.

The team lost the first leg of last season’s semifinal against Barcelona 5-1 and although Wolfsburg was eliminated 5-3 on aggregate, the 2-0 second-leg win has given head coach Tommy Stroot confidence that his side can come out on top in a one-off match.

“Last season, there was only a week between the two games and we managed to win the second leg,” Stroot told UEFA. “It was a completely different game. Those games helped us to shift up a gear in our development. Now it has been a year since our last game instead of a week, and that’s what we want to show in Eindhoven.

“We are capable of defeating Barcelona in a game; that will be our challenge,” he added. “We know that it is the biggest challenge that we will face this season, in regard to opponents, but we also know it’s possible.

“It will be an occasion that none of us will forget. No matter how old we are, we will always be able to look back on this. Playing in a Champions League final will be a great moment in our careers.

“It’s almost impossible to imagine what winning the trophy and bringing it back to Wolfsburg would mean.”

After struggling with anxiety and depression for years, Christian Lewis, a former paratrooper from Wales, had hit an incredibly low point and realized he needed to make some drastic changes in his life.

On the verge of becoming homeless for the second time, the single father made a “split-second decision” to leave everything behind.

A few days later, with the equivalent of just $12 in his pocket, Lewis bid farewell to his daughter Caitlin, who had recently left home, and set off from Llangennith beach in Swansea, Wales, in August 2017 with the aim of walking the entire UK coastline.

He launched a fundraising page for armed forces charity Ssafa, which he’d sought help from when he left the army in 2004, shortly before he set off.

Nearly six years later, Lewis, now 42, is just a few months shy of completing the 14,000-kilometer (around 8,700-mile) hike and has raised over £320,000 (around $400,000). But he’s no longer walking solo. In fact, he now has three companions.

Over the course of the journey, Lewis met and fell in love with former teacher Kate Barron, 36, who has joined him, and dog Jet, who he’d picked up in Northern Ireland about nine months in. The couple have since had a son, Magnus.

Life-changing journey

As he approaches the final section of the walk with Barron, Magnus and Jet beside him, Lewis, who has been documenting his journey via his Facebook page, Chris Walks The UK, can’t help but reflect on what has been a truly life-changing adventure with absolute wonder.

And to say there have been many twists and turns throughout his journey is something of an understatement.

After making his way up the west coast towards Scotland from Swansea, Lewis took a brief detour to Northern Ireland, where he returned a message in a bottle thrown into the Irish Sea more than two decades ago that he’d found washed up along the Scottish coast.

He then decided to walk the coast of Northern Ireland, before returning to Scotland to walk the Shetland Islands, located around 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the mainland.

Lewis was close to completing the Shetland archipelago, which has 300 islands and skerries, of which only 16 are inhabited, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdown in March 2020.

He quickly found himself stranded on the remote island Hildasay, located off the coast of the Shetland Islands, which measures less than half a square mile.

“I was far more than halfway through my journey,” he says. “At the time, I estimated that I had about a year left, but obviously, things changed.”

After spending three months on Hildasay, Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed and Lewis was able to continue on, spending around three and a half weeks walking the rest of the Shetland Islands. He then got a boat back to the mainland, and started heading south.

While he mainly foraged and fished to survive, Lewis also relied on donations of food, water and equipment from well wishers.

Lewis was camping near the Whaligoe Steps, a stairway of 365 steps that descend down a cliffside to a natural harbor, when he met Barron, who had been wild camping around North Coast 50, an 830-kilometer (516-mile) route along Scotland’s northern coast, after leaving her job as a teacher at a London school.

“I was hiking and wild camping and just happened to go down to the bottom of a cliff on my last day of the trip,” Barron says. “And then I met Chris.”

Barron found herself instantly intrigued by Lewis, who was fixing his tent while chatting to a group of well wishers, and decided to approach him.

Cliff encounter

“So this lady just kind of wanders down all bubbly and chirpy,” he recalls. “And we had a very, very brief encounter.”

Lewis was stunned when Barron returned alone about 40 minutes later with some fish and chips and two cans of Tennent’s Lager.

“She said, ‘I’ve been looking for somewhere to camp. Do you mind if I come and camp next to you?’ he says. “And that was it. The rest was history.”

The pair spent around four days in the wilderness together foraging for food, making fires, distilling seawater and talking until the early hours of the morning, and quickly realized that there was a strong connection between them.

“We spent these magical four days together in the wilderness,” says Barron. “We just had so much in common.”

Barron then left to take a trip to Afghanistan, but the pair kept in touch constantly while she was away.

When she returned to the UK about six weeks later, Barron rejoined Lewis, having wrapped up her work commitments, and asked if she could “enjoy the rest of the adventure” with him.

“As soon as I got back to the airport in London, I just took a flight straight up to Inverness [a city in the Scottish Highlands],” Barron says. “And that was it. I never went home.”

The couple, along with Jet, continued on, walking down the east coast of Scotland together, and then into England.

“It was quite surreal to have somebody with me,” admits Lewis. “But Kate loves doing all the things that I love. It just seems to knit so perfectly together.”

Around nine months later, while bedding down in horse stables in Yorkshire, northern England, they learned that they were expecting a child together.

With many miles of the journey still left ahead of them, the pair say they never once discussed the prospect of returning home and simply kept on going.

“We wild camped the whole way through the pregnancy,” says Barron. “I walked every day, up until I was 37 weeks [pregnant].

“I was lucky in the sense that in the first trimester, I had no morning sickness. I just felt tired. Sometimes I would take a nap under a tree as we were walking.”

Although Barron found camping more tricky during her third trimester she managed to carry on regardless.

“It was uncomfortable, but I did it,” she adds.

When one of Lewis’ supporters offered up a yurt in Dorset, a county in southwest England, as a potential location for the birth, they quickly accepted, with Barron making arrangements with local midwives en route. They welcomed their son Magnus in May 2022.

New arrival

The couple then took a break from the walk, and spent time with friends and family, who traveled over to Dorset to visit them.

“We had a couple of months basically to let Kate recover, and then we decided to just carry on,” says Lewis.

“We had to make a few changes to adapt, obviously, for safety reasons for Magnus.”

With a newborn now along with them for the duration, the pair found themselves with a slightly heavier load of essentials to carry, and decided to get a van as a “contingency back up.”

They’ve since had to adapt their routine even further, as Jet has been finding the constant walking more difficult.

“Jet’s getting older,” says Lewis. “She’s done a lot of miles. And I can really start to see her slowing down.

“So I just make every single effort to make sure that she lays off as much of the walk as she can.”

Although they are still completing the route on foot, Lewis and Barron walk separately at times so that one of them can stay with Jet.

According to Barron, Lewis tends to walk ahead on these occasions. She’ll then go to pick him up in the van further along the route, drive to where he started, and walk the same route with Magnus, while Lewis stays behind with Jet, before driving back to rejoin them.

“We sort of pepper pot down the coast like that,” she explains.

Their son Magnus, who has spent much of his young life outdoors, is “absolutely thriving,”

“He lives outside. So he actually gets to visually see everything and he’s so happy,” says Lewis. “You can tell he’s going to be a little adventurer already.”

They say they tend to walk somewhere between eight to 12 kilometers (or five to eight miles) a day.

Unsurprisingly, walking and camping with a baby has been a totally different experience for both of them.

Lewis explains that they’ve particularly struggled since entering England, where there are stricter rules around wild camping.

“In Scotland, you have what’s called the ‘right to roam,’ which means basically, you’re legally allowed to camp anywhere you want,” he says. “Those rules don’t apply in England.

“So the hardest part for us has been being able to find places where we can camp, where we’re not going to get kicked off, which has happened to us many times.

“Making fires is illegal and we need fire during winter.”

Challenging times

He admits that the combination of the typical concerns of new parents and the added worry of having to keep warm outdoors was incredibly difficult during some of the colder winter nights.

“Magnus slept better than any of us,” he says. “He was always wrapped up nice and warm.”

The couple say that it’s been much harder to forage on this section of the trip, so they tend to carry food with them and use camping stoves to cook outdoors.

Lewis released a book, “Finding Hildasay,” about the first few years of his walk, earlier this year, and they’ve been living off the advance payment, along with donations of food, equipment and clothing received from companies and members of the public.

The father of two is about to begin a follow up book, which will cover the significant developments in his life since he left the island and met Barron.

Despite their challenges, the family are happily persevering and very much looking forward to reaching Llangennith beach, on the western edge of the Gower Peninsula, the final point of their journey, and the same spot that Lewis set off from.

“I think it’s probably going to be a bit overwhelming,” he admits, recalling how he stood at the beach before he began his walk and wondered what life would be like when he finally “crossed that line.”

“To see that spot again, I think there’s gonna be a lot of tears and a lot of pride,” he adds.

Lewis is hoping some of the many well wishers who’ve followed him over the years will be there to greet them, and says he’s looking forward to enjoying “a few beers and a few whiskies.”

As for Barron, she’s incredibly thankful that she took a “leap of faith” and chose to join him just a few weeks after they met in Scotland.

“I had to give everything up,” she says. “But I knew that it was what I wanted to do. I just felt that it was worth it. This adventure. This undertaking. This endeavor.”

She describes the experience as “real blood, sweat and tears,” but incredibly rewarding in many different ways.

“Becoming a mother on this journey. That’s just an incredibly powerful thing,” she adds.

Adventurer family

Once they’ve covered the North Devon coast, they will start heading back up towards Swansea, where their journey ends. They estimate that it will take them another three months to complete this final section.

“Magnus will be one by the time we finish,” adds Barron. “So his first year on this Earth will have been spent on this journey.”

Lewis has kept in touch with his daughter Caitlin throughout and says she’s extremely proud of how far he’s come.

“She was the catalyst for me really with starting this [walk],” he says. “I don’t think you can give a child a greater life lesson than to go out and think big.

“Dream big and go out and pursue it rather than just plodding on through life.”

He’s incredibly thrilled to have been able to raise money for the charity Ssafa, which helped him get back on his feet when he was living on the streets after leaving the British Army’s Parachute Regiment and experiencing tough times while “returning to civilian life.”

He and Barron are often asked whether they plan to “go home and settle down” once they’ve completed the hike, but they say they have no intention of doing so anytime soon.

“Why fix what’s not broken?” says Lewis. “Kate and I love what we’re doing. We love the fact that we’re able to help other people, and that’s what we want to continue [doing].

“We’re going to be an adventure family and bring Magnus up in a way where he gets to experience different countries and different cultures.”

So what will their next big family adventure be? According to Lewis, things are very much up in the air at the moment.

“It’s a really strange position to be in,” he says. “Kate and I don’t have any money or anything like that. But we know that we can make things work if we put our mind to it.

“So whatever it is that we dream up for the next adventure, it could be absolutely anything we feel like. Because we don’t have houses and we don’t have commitments. We’re not tied to anything.”

“We almost have a blank sheet of paper. So not having anything is actually the greatest gift for us.”

When he thinks back to the person he was when he left Llangennith beach, Lewis says the difference is quite staggering.

“I’ve got a serious purpose [now],” he says. “I realized doing this walk that it’s not the material things in life that make me happy.

“And there are people out there, like Kate, for example, that feel the same way.

“To have that sort of connection, where we both have exactly the same dreams and exactly the same goals, is a very rare thing.

“I don’t need to have big houses or expensive cars. I just need these cool little people around me, and we can go wherever we want.

“As long as I’ve got that, I’m a happy man.”

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Cristiano Ronaldo concedes he did not expect to finish the season empty-handed at Al Nassr but the Portuguese forward says he is happy in Saudi Arabia and hopes other big-name players will follow him to the league for the next campaign.

Ronaldo signed a two-and-a-half year contract estimated by media to be worth more than 200 million euros ($220.16 million) with Al Nassr, making his debut in January.

He scored 14 goals in 16 games but it was not enough to help his side win the Saudi Pro League (SPL) title, with Al Nassr finishing second behind Al Ittihad.

The 38-year-old, who missed the final matchday due to injury, said the league was very competitive but that there were many opportunities to grow.

“We have very good teams, very good Arab players, but the infrastructure – they need to improve a little bit more. Even the referees, the VAR system, should be a little quicker,” he said in an SPL interview.

“But I’m happy here, I want to continue here, I will continue here.”

Ronaldo said he had adapted to life at the club, though there were many differences from his time at Europe where he played for elite teams such as Manchester United, Juventus and Real Madrid.

“In Europe we train more in the morning and here we train in the afternoon, or night. When you start Ramadan, we train at 10 o’clock in the night. It was so strange,” he added.

Since Ronaldo’s arrival, several other top players have been linked with a move to the Saudi league, with Lionel Messi receiving a formal offer to join Al-Hilal next season.

Ronaldo’s former team mate and Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema has reportedly received an offer worth more than 100 million euros from Al Ittihad.

“If they are coming, big players and big names, young players, ‘old players’, they are very welcome,” said Ronaldo.

“If that happens, the league will improve a little bit. Age is not important.”

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that the league has “uncovered a fair amount of additional information” in relation to Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant and a video which surfaced on social media in May appearing to show him flashing a gun while in a vehicle with others.

Silver went onto to explain that an announcement of a potential suspension for Morant will be announced after the NBA Finals concludes.

While speaking to reporters before the tip-off of Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Denver on Thursday, Silver said it would be “unfair” to announce the results of the investigation during the series.

“In terms of the timing, we’ve uncovered a fair amount of additional information I think since I was still asked about the situation,” Silver said.

“I would say we probably could’ve brought it to a head now but we made the decision and I believe the players association agrees with us that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of this series to announce the results of that investigation and given that we are of course in the offseason, he is now been suspended by the Memphis Grizzlies indefinitely so nothing would have changed anyway in the next few weeks.”

In May, Morant was suspended from team activities after an Instagram Live video appeared to show him flashing a gun while in a vehicle, just two months after the athlete was suspended over a similar video.

It is not known when or where the more recently surfaced video was filmed.

“It seemed better to park that at the moment at least any public announcement and my sense now is that shortly after the conclusion of the Finals we will announce the outcome of that investigation,” Silver added.

Shortly after the second incident, Silver told ESPN that he was “stunned” to see the video and was “assuming the worst.”

On Thursday, Silver reiterated that the league looked into many factors in assessing potential punishment.

“In assessing what discipline is appropriate if that’s the case, we look at both the history of prior acts and then we look at the individual players’ history as well – and the seriousness of course of the conduct,” Silver said.

“Those are all things that get factored in. It’s not an exact science to judgment at the end of the day on the part of me and my colleagues in the league office.”

When asked if he felt the initial suspension was “taking it too lightly” on Morant, Silver said at the time, the eight-game suspension seemed “very serious.”

“The conversation we had … felt very heartfelt and serious but I think he understood that it wasn’t about his words but it was going to be about his future conduct,” Silver said.

“So, I guess in hindsight I don’t know. If it had been a 12-game suspension instead of an eight-game suspension would that have mattered? I don’t know. … It seemed appropriate at the time. That’s all I can say.

“I don’t think we yet know what it will take to change his behavior. Same thing I said at the time, he seems to be a fine young man. In terms of my dealings with him,

“I think he’s clearly made some mistakes but he’s young and I’m hoping now that once we conclude at the end of our process, what the appropriate discipline is, that it’s not just about the discipline, it’s about now what we, the players association, his team, and he and the people around him are going to do to create better circumstances going forward. That’s ultimately what’s most important here.”

Last month, authorities performed a wellness check at the 23-year-old’s home after Morant, according to multiple published reports, posted and then deleted messages to his Instagram Stories telling various family members he loved them before writing “bye.”

The earliest the best-of-seven NBA Finals could finish is June 9 but the latest could be June 18 if Game 7 is required.