The United States and Papua New Guinea have signed a new bilateral defense cooperation agreement – a move that has sparked controversy in the Pacific Island nation and comes as Washington and China jostle for influence in the region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape signed the pact and a maritime security agreement on Monday during Blinken’s visit to the capital Port Moresby.

Advance text of the agreements were not released by either side, but the new defense cooperation was expected to expand US access to military and other facilities in PNG, bolstering Washington’s security ties in the South Pacific.

That region – a constellation of sparsely populated island and archipelago nations and territories as well as New Zealand and Australia – has outsized strategic significance. The Pacific Islands, for example, were the site of decisive battles during World War Two.

The region has taken on renewed importance for Washington as it seeks to bolster its relationships and presence in Asia amid rising tensions with an assertive China that’s rapidly expanded its naval capabilities in recent years.

Those concerns were heightened last year after Beijing signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands – and tried, but failed, to win support for a sweeping, regional trade and security communique with Pacific Island nations.

Blinken’s visit to PNG comes after US President Joe Biden last week cut short an Asia trip that would have included stops in Port Moresby and Sydney, Australia, due to ongoing debt ceiling negotiations at home.

New pact

In a statement Saturday, PNG framed its agreement with the US as an opportunity to advance its infrastructure and capacity for national defense at a time of growing global security concerns.

“Papua New Guinea does not have enemies but it pays to be prepared. Territorial dispute is (imminent), as in the case of Ukraine-Russia,” the statement said.

“This agreement is not about geopolitics but rather recognizes the country’s need to build its defense capabilities because border disputes are inevitable in the future,” it said, adding it did not preclude the government from “working with” other countries, including China.

China has become a significant player in the country’s economy, both as an investor and consumer of its rich natural resources.

The US and PNG militaries already have a cooperative security assistance relationship focused primarily on joint humanitarian exercises and the training of PNG military personnel, according to the State Department.

The new agreement has sparked debate in Papua New Guinea – including over a lack of transparency from the government on what it entailed, while purported leaked drafts circulated online.

The pact would need Parliament’s approval and could face judicial challenges, experts say.

But its signing sends a significant message to the region.

“PNG signing a defense agreement signals to the rest of the Pacific that its largest nation has chosen the West – Australia and the US – as its security partner,” said Maholopa Laveil, FDC Pacific Fellow at the Lowy Institute, seconded from the University of Papua New Guinea.

The defense pact and Fiji’s reported ending of its police training agreement with China earlier this year “are major wins, getting the largest Pacific nations on side for the US in its attempts to limit China’s influence in the region,” Laveil said, adding that Marape may “leverage the threat of China” to request more development assistance from the US.

Meanwhile, Australia is preparing to sign its own security treaty with PNG.

Pacific Island dynamics

The US deal with PNG – especially on the heels of the Solomon Islands’ security pact with China last year – may also raise concerns about lines of alignment being drawn in a region that has long prioritized projecting strength through unity.

“(Signing such pacts) can also create divisions,” said Patrick Kaiku, an academic focused on international relations at the University of Papua New Guinea, noting a perspective among Pacific Island states that they should not take sides in geopolitical rivalries.

“If states are not adhering to it … that can also be a problem for regional solidarity,” he said.

Blinken is expected to meet with leaders of the Pacific Island Forum regional body in Port Moresby on Monday, the forum has said, taking Biden’s place at the gathering.

The cancellation of Biden’s trip – which would have been the first from a sitting US President to Papua New Guinea – has been characterized by some observers as a potential ding to Washington’s recent bid to up its engagement with the region.

That bid has included opening embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga this year, while Biden hosted Pacific Island leaders in Washington for a summit in September and released the first-ever national strategy on engaging the Pacific Islands.

“US President Joe Biden’s now-scrapped visit to PNG was meant to be a culmination of these efforts and send a powerful signal to Pacific Islanders about the US commitment to the region,” said Parker Novak, a non-resident follow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington’s Global China Hub.

“Instead, it underlines skepticism about the United States’ ability to follow through on the promises it has made,” Novak said, adding that with Blinken’s visit and other expected diplomacy, it may not do “long-term damage to US efforts in the Pacific.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared the damage in Bakhmut to the destruction wrought on Hiroshima after it was hit by an atomic bomb, as he denied Russia had captured the frontline city.

Zelensky – who traveled to Japan for a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) – said pictures of Hiroshima “really remind” him of Bakhmut and other Ukrainian towns.

“Just the same, nothing alive left, all of the buildings have been ruined,” Zelensky told a news conference.

There are conflicting claims over who controls Bakhmut. On Saturday the chief of the Russian private military group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed to have captured Bakhmut after months of brutal fighting, saying he would hand it over to Russia later in May,

Zelensky used the conference to again deny that that Bakhmut is Russian as of Sunday and Ukrainian soldiers remain in the city.

“We are keeping on, we are fighting.” Zelensky said.

“I clearly understand what is happening in Bakhmut. I can’t share the tactics of the military, but a country even bigger than ours cannot defeat us. A little time will pass and we will be winning. Today our soldiers are in Bakhmut.”

Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) said they were continuing to counter Russia in the city, and that they were advancing in the suburbs, making it “very difficult for the enemy to remain in Bakhmut.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his congratulations for “the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk,” Russian state news agency TASS reported the Kremlin as saying, using the Soviet-Russian name for Bakhmut.

Zelensky rallies allies

If confirmed, the capture of Bakhmut would mark Russia’s first gain in months, but the city’s symbolism always outweighed its strategic importance.

Moscow has thrown huge amounts of manpower, weaponry and attention toward the city but largely failed to break down a stubborn Ukrainian resistance that had outlasted most expectations.

Bakhmut’s fall would also be an undoubted boost to Prigozhin, who recently announced his men would pull out entirely because dwindling ammunition supplies and mounting losses meant there was “nothing left to grind the meat with.”

Prigozhin is a former catering boss who has grown in prominence throughout the war, and his forces have been heavily involved in the fighting.

Zelensky made a surprise appearance at the G7, traveling halfway across the globe to address the world’s major industrial democracies in person.

The Ukrainian leader used the final day of the summit in Japan to appeal to G7 leaders for more powerful weapons and tougher sanctions against Moscow.

He left having won a clear boost after the Biden administration dropped its objections to sending advanced fighter jets to Ukraine.

“I cannot now tell you how many aircraft we’ll be able to get. I cannot tell you definitely when it takes place but we will speed it up because it’s important for us every day. We’re losing people’s lives,” he said.

At the G7 Ukraine’s allies reiterated their support, with British Prime Minister RIshi Sunak saying “Ukraine must not only win the war but win a just and lasting peace.”

Irish nationalists Sinn Fein followed up last year’s historic Northern Ireland Assembly victory by overtaking their unionist rivals by a wide margin in council elections on Saturday to become the biggest party at local level for the first time.

It is the latest political milestone for the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who want to leave the United Kingdom and form a united Ireland.

The left-wing party also comfortably leads opinion polls in the Republic of Ireland ahead of national elections due in 2025.

Sinn Fein’s share of the vote jumped almost 8 points to 31% and it won 144 of the 462 seats up for grabs, up 39% on the 2019 result. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), until last year the biggest party at local and regional level, held steady on 122 seats with 23% of the vote.

“Historic change is happening, and Sinn Fein is leading that change right across Ireland,” the party’s leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill said, telling the DUP that voters wanted them to end a 15-month boycott of the regional assembly.

The DUP had pitched the elections as a chance to bolster its call for further concessions from Britain on Northern Irish post-Brexit trade – the reason for its boycott – and said the results were a “strong mandate” from the unionist community.

Sinn Fein’s success came at the expense of more middle ground nationalist and unionist parties.

The cross-community Alliance Party made more limited gains than expected while the small, hardline Traditional Unionist Voice – which has put pressure on the DUP over the post-Brexit trade checks many unionists feel undermines their place in the UK – failed to repeat the surge in their vote at regional level.

“We want the (British) government to deliver on the commitments they have given to protect Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and I hope to see progress in the next few weeks,” DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson told Reuters.

“You can’t dispense with unionists, you can’t dispense with the DUP. Unionism won’t be pushed to the side.”

The poll also marked the first time a Black person was elected to office in Northern Ireland, with Maasai ​woman ​​Lilian Seenoi-Bar winning a seat for the nationalist SDLP.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Bakhmut was not occupied by Russia as of Sunday and Ukrainian soldiers remain there, a day after Russia claimed the fiercely contested city’s complete capture.

“We are keeping on, we are fighting,” Zelensky said at a news conference at the G7 in Japan.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) said they were continuing to counter Russia in the city, and that they were advancing in the suburbs, making it “very difficult for the enemy to remain in Bakhmut.”

On Saturday the chief of the mercenary Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed to have captured Bakhmut after months of brutal fighting, saying he would hand it over to Russia later in May,

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his congratulations for “the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk,” Russian state news agency TASS reported the Kremlin as saying, using the Soviet-Russian name for Bakhmut.

If confirmed, the capture of Bakhmut would mark Russia’s first gain in months, but the city’s symbolism always outweighed its strategic importance.

Moscow has thrown huge amounts of manpower, weaponry and attention toward the city but largely failed to break down a stubborn Ukrainian resistance that had outlasted most expectations.

Battle that became a ‘meat grinder’

Bakhmut sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, about 13 miles from the Luhansk region, and has long been a target for Russian forces. Since last summer the city has been a stone’s throw from the front lines.

Donbas – the vast, industrial expanse of land in Ukraine’s east, encompassing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – has been the primary focus of Russia’s war effort since last spring, after its initial lunge toward Kyiv and central Ukraine failed.

The battle has been compared to the kind of fighting seen in World War One, with soldiers fighting in a hellish landscape of mud and trenches, trees and buildings mangled by artillery fire.

While Russian forces have continued their slow street-by-street advance in Bakhmut for many months, over the past two weeks Ukrainian forces have managed to re-capture small pockets of territory held by Russian troops to the northwest and southwest of the city.

Russian forces, bolstered by members of the Wagner mercenary group, have taken heavy losses trying to capture the city.

The battle has also highlighted an extraordinary rift among Russian forces, with Prigozhin at one point accusing a Russian brigade of abandoning its position in the city and railing several times at the Defense Ministry over a lack of ammunition.

Prigozhin, a former catering boss who has grown in prominence throughout the war, compared the battlefield to a “meat grinder.”

Bakhmut’s fall would be an undoubted boost to Prigozhin, who recently announced his men would pull out entirely because dwindling ammunition supplies and mounting losses meant there was “nothing left to grind the meat with.”

Over the early part of 2023, the routes into Bakhmut had gradually come under the control of Russian forces and the battle for the city turned into an inch-by-inch grind, with Ukrainian forces repelling dozens of assaults each day.

Rather than drive directly toward the city center, Wagner troops sought to encircle the city in a wide arc from the north.

In January they claimed the nearby town of Soledar, and later took a string of villages and hamlets north of Bakhmut, making Ukraine’s defense of the city increasingly perilous.

But even as Moscow’s troops closed in and most residents fled through dangerous evacuation corridors, a small group of Ukrainian civilians remained in the ruined city. Before the war, around 70,000 people lived in Bakhmut, a city once famous for its sparkling wine.

As of March, the population stood at less than 4,000 and most of the once thriving city has been reduced to ashes and rubble.

In his comments at the G7, Zelensky said pictures of ruined Hiroshima he has seen on his visit to the Japanese city “really remind” him of Bakhmut.

The spokesperson declined to provide further information citing the ongoing investigation.

German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” first reported on the police investigation, writing that the two Russians took part in a conference held by Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Berlin on April 29 and 30.

Berlin police did not name the Russian exiles.

The police probe comes after Russian exile Natalia Arno, president of activist group the Free Russia Foundation, spoke publicly this week about falling ill after a trip to Europe.

“I have a suspicion that during my recent trip to Europe I was poisoned, probably by some nerve agent,” she wrote on Facebook.

Arno said she was on a visit to a European city, “at the end of April or beginning of May,” when she first had “strange symptoms” that she initially attributed to “jet lag, lack of sleep and tiredness in general.”

She then traveled to a second European city where, on returning to her hotel room after a series of meetings, she found the door “slightly open” and detected the “pungent smell of cheap perfume.”

Arno said she later developed “a sharp pain and strange symptoms” that led her to return home to the US early.

“On the flight the symptoms became very strange, spreading all over my body and with pronounced numbness,” she said. “I ended up in the emergency room, I was getting worse, but all my tests showed that I was an astronaut and could go straight into orbit.”

Russia has previously been accused of carrying out nerve agent attacks.

In 2020, Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is known for publicly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell ill on a return flight from Siberia.

It was confirmed as poisoning once he was medically evacuated to Germany where he was found with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group in his system.

Novichok is a deadly chemical weapon and was also used in the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury in 2018.

Both survived, but many others in the area were exposed to the military-grade nerve agent, and resulted in one fatality.

The attack has long since been connected to suspected Russian military intelligence agents, claiming to be tourists.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited areas of northern Italy hit by deadly flooding on Sunday, cutting short her visit to Japan for the G7 in response to the disaster.

Meloni went to the region of Emilia-Romagna, where more than 36,000 people have been evacuated and at least 14 people died in the floods.

Of those evacuated nearly 5,000 are sheltering in government allocated centers such as cinemas and museums, according to officials from the region’s Civil Protection Agency.

About 16% of the region’s territory has been evacuated so far, officials said.

Clean-up operations are in full swing, with video from the emergency services on Saturday showing the removal of mud from washed out roads after landslides.

More than 20 rivers burst their banks across the region, causing 280 landslides, the Civil Protection department said earlier this week.

Meanwhile up to 27,000 people were left without power, according to Enel, the Italian multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas.

The flooding also devastated farmland and drowned livestock, in a region renowned for its gastronomy. A farming association called the damage “incalcuable.”

The torrential rains come after months of drought that dried out the land – which meteorologists say has reduced its capacity to absorb water, worsening the floods.

Water levels on northern Italy’s Lake Garda fell to record lows in February, with Venice experiencing unusually low tides.

From lengthy droughts to severe flooding, the intensity of water-related disasters around the world has increased over the last two decades as global temperatures climbed to record levels, according to recent research.

Ukraine’s quest for US-made F-16 fighter jets received a big boost over the weekend when US President Joe Biden gave his backing for Kyiv’s pilots to be trained to fly them.

Biden’s comments at a summit with G7 leaders in Japan came days after Britain and the Netherlands said they were building an “international coalition” to help Ukraine procure F-16s as it seeks to improve its defenses against Russian air attacks.

The F-16s would be an upgrade to the largely Soviet-era aircraft currently in Ukraine’s fleet. President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Biden’s decision, saying in a tweet, “this will greatly enhance our army in the sky.”

But analysts cautioned that the jets aren’t a cure-all and have vulnerabilities that Moscow would be well aware of and could exploit.

“To your question about the F-16 being a difference maker. It’s not,” said the pilot, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.

Here’s what you need to know about the F-16.

World’s most active fighter jet

F-16s are single-engine, multirole jet aircraft, meaning they can be used in air-to-air or ground-attack missions.

The US Air Force calls the F-16, which first flew in the 1970s, a “relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system.”

Thousands of the jets have been built over the decades, and hundreds have been exported around the world.

According to Flight Global’s World Air Forces directory, almost 2,200 F-16s are active worldwide this year, making it the single most popular combat aircraft across the planet with 15% of the world’s fleet.

F-16s for Ukraine are expected to be older versions that have been in the fleets of US allies, especially those in Western Europe.

Analysts say the F-16s Ukraine would receive are not the oldest ones out there, but aircraft that have undergone what are called “mid-life upgrades,” meaning they’ve gotten improvements to avionics and software.

Ukraine has said it needs about 200 F-16s, so the numbers would work out.

“There is a surplus of F-16s in Western nations, offering immediate availability and a well-established logistics trail,” said Robert Hopkins, a military aviation author and former US Air Force pilot.

“There are other aircraft more capable than the F-16, but they are fewer in number and are not available to transfer,” Hopkins added.

Those more-capable aircraft are probably ones that you commonly hear about, US-made F-35s and F/A-18s or French Rafales, for instance.

And there are others that are lesser known.

“The best aircraft technically would arguably be the Swedish Grippen because of its combat capabilities, ability to operate from austere bases and easier maintenance,” said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer. “However, their annual production rate is low and there are none available off the shelf.”

Layton gives the Netherlands as a prime example of how the F-16 might be the easiest answer for Ukraine.

“The Dutch (have) about 40 F-16s on hand. These Dutch aircraft have been progressively upgraded, have relatively modern radars and avionics, and are able to use advanced weapons,” Layton said.

Keeping F-16s in the sky

The analysts say the sheer numbers of F-16s active around the world means they have an established logistics trail and a good number of spare parts available – important components to keep the jets combat capable.

But they also note that for a modern fighter jet like the F-16, training maintenance personnel can take longer than training pilots.

“I think it’s possible to teach a Ukrainian pilot to fly an F-16 in three months,” Layton said.

But “training maintenance personnel can take months or years, depending on the desired level of proficiency,” according to a March report on the possible F-16 transfers from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Even after undergoing up to 133 days of schooling, a US Air Force maintainer gains a year of on-the-job experience to become fully qualified, the CRS report says.

And the report notes that there can be a numbers problem. F-16s need a lot of maintenance; 16 hours per hour of flying time, it says.

F-16s are easy to learn how to fly, but employing them effectively in “a dynamic threat environment” could take years, according to the pilot.

“Learning to fly an F-16 is only one part of the battle. American pilots first learn to fly, then they learn how to lead two F-16s, then four F-16s. This is a multi-year process, and that’s just for the basic tactical unit of employment,” the F-16 pilot said.

Layton said Ukraine’s current jet fighter pilots have proven adept, and could “learn on the job” in the F-16s if confining themselves to air defense, shooting down intruding Russian aircraft or missiles, in the short term.

“My logic falls away if trying to teach them low altitude night/all-weather ground attack using infrared systems and laser guided bombs; this would take longer,” Layton said.

How do you hide F-16s?

Then there is the question of where Ukrainian F-16s would be based.

“F-16s do best on long, pristine runways. They could face difficulties on the rougher, former Soviet ones dispersed across Ukraine,” RAND Corp. analysts John Hoehn and William Courtney wrote in a blog post earlier this month.

“To bring in Western aircraft, Ukraine might need to repave and potentially extend a number of runways, a process which Russia would likely detect. If only a few airfields were suitable and in known locations, focused Russian attacks could impede Ukrainian F-16s from flying,” they wrote.

Assuming Ukraine can overcome logistics and maintenance hurdles, and find secure runways from which to fly F-16s, they still need the right armaments to be effective against the key fighter jets Russia is using, like the Su-25 and MiG-31, analysts say.

“The advantages of transferring advanced western fighter jets in seeking air superiority are likely to be realized only if paired with large quantities of western-manufactured munitions,” the CRS report says.

Advanced western armaments for the F-16s would be expensive.

For instance, a single Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) costs about $1.2 million, CRS says, adding that it takes about two years to make one.

The US could provide AMRAAMs and other arms from its stockpile, but with the long manufacturing times, it runs the risk of its own inventories being depleted if needed in a conflict directly involving US forces, the CRS says.

The political war and the future

Despite all the possible drawbacks to F-16s, Hopkins said a political war is being fought, and victories are needed in that battlespace.

Getting F-16s to Ukraine would demonstrate “a powerful political and diplomatic collaboration across multiple Western (and especially NATO) countries,” he said.

Layton said Ukraine needs to take a long view, too.

Kyiv is not going to be able to get replacements for its current Soviet-era aircraft as they wear out or are lost in combat, he said

“Over time, there will be no combat-effective Ukrainian air force. They need new aircraft for future air defense tasks,” he said.

Transitioning to a Western-made fleet now makes sense, he said.

But the war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending soon, and the current F-16 pilot doesn’t see the planes hastening the end of it.

“Getting the Ukranians F-16s will be a morale boost and add some limited combat capability, that’s all,” the pilot said.

“It might do a couple of strikes over the next year and have some wins, but no one airplane will change the course of the war.”

A 95-year-old woman who was tasered by police in her Australian nursing home last week has died, police in New South Wales said Wednesday.

Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother, had been in critical condition in hospital with serious head injuries sustained when she fell to the floor after being tasered.

On Facebook, police said, “Mrs Nowland passed away peacefully in hospital just after 7pm this evening, surrounded by family and loved ones who have requested privacy during this sad and difficult time.”

An officer who allegedly tasered Nowland has been charged with multiple offenses including recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and assault.

New South Wales (NSW) Police Commissioner Karen Webb announced the charges against the unidentified 33-year-old senior constable Wednesday.

Last week, NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter told reporters that police were called to Nowland’s care home in the town of Cooma, New South Wales, around 4:15 a.m. to reports of a resident with a knife.

“At the time she was tasered, she was approaching police. It is fair to say at a slow pace. She had a walking frame. But she had a knife,” Cotter told reporters on Friday.

Video of the incident was captured by two police body cameras but the footage hasn’t been publicly released.

NSW police guidelines say that tasers should only used on elderly or disabled people in “exceptional circumstances.”

Family friend Andrew Thaler said before the incident Nowland was frail and unable to stand unaided. She weighed just 43 kilograms (95 pounds) and was 5-foot-2 (1.58 meters) tall and was suffering dementia.

Outpouring of support

After charges were laid, he questioned why it had taken police so long to act.

“Why has it taken so long? Anyone else would have been charged straight away,” Thaler said.

Earlier this week, Nowland’s family released a statement asking for privacy, and thanking people for their support.

“This is a most worrying and distressing time for our family and we are united in our support for Clare and for each other.

“We stand together. We thank everyone here in Cooma, the wider region and, in fact, the whole country and around the world for the outpouring of support for her and her ongoing battle with dementia – which touches so many.”

There have been no shortage of surprises for Michael Block since the 46-year-old club pro authored one of sport’s great surprise stories at the PGA Championship.

Before he had even left Oak Hill Country Club, he’d been invited to play two PGA Tour events: Thursday’s Charles Schwab Challenge and June’s RBC Canadian Open. His press conference had been momentarily paused for an impromptu presentation of the 15th hole flag, the site of his remarkable slam dunk hole-in-one. Then, he received a $50,000 offer for the 7-iron he used to achieve it.

But one surprise has trumped them all. Amid the thousands of messages lighting up the Californian’s phone in recent days, one came from NBA legend Michael Jordan.

“I’m a big Jordan guy my whole life,” Block told reporters at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge, on Tuesday.

“I was a little kid in Iowa saving 100 bucks for a pair of Jordans back in the day. Pretty darn cool, to say the least.”

It’s not the first time that Jordan, a well-documented golf enthusiast, has reached out to a player that caught his eye. After Matt Fitzpatrick clinched the first major of his career at the US in June last year, he quickly received a congratulatory message from the five-time NBA MVP.

According to the Englishman’s friend and golf journalist Dan Rapaport, the text read: “Congrats Michael Jordan.”

Block’s was more wordy, though the Californian did not disclose the exact details.

“It was something in the way that what he saw is why he loves the game of golf so much,” said Block.

“I told him that I just want to be in one of his 36-hole games.”

It may, however, take a little longer for other messengers to receive a reply.

“There’s a lot going on, and I really apologize to all my friends and fans and PGA members out there that have texted me,” Block added.

“I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. I literally scroll and scroll and scroll, and it’s never ending. I can’t even get to the bottom of any of my feeds to even see how many or who’s seeing me, so it’s been crazy.”

On Thursday, Block will once again have the chance to compete alongside many of the game’s elite, with both PGA Championship runner-ups, new world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Norway’s Viktor Hovland, on the field list.

Joining them at Colonial Country Club are a host of stars Block finished above at Oak Hill; multiple major champions Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa, Max Homa and Tony Finau are all among the big names present in Fort Worth.

They will compete for a $1.566 million winner’s share of an $8.7 million prize pot. For Block, it will be an opportunity to add to the $288,333 he won at the PGA Championship, so long as he can bring himself to focus on golf.

“I’ve said it a lot, but it’s just a dream,” Block said.

“I’m just cruising. I’m actually kind of glad that, at this point, I haven’t come to the reality about what’s happening so I can actually play pretty good golf.

“I think, if I sit down and think about it too much, I’m not sure I could swing the club on Thursday.”

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka says LeBron James has earned the right to make a decision about his playing career without any interference.

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer hinted at possible retirement after the Lakers were swept out of the Western Conference Finals by the Denver Nuggets on Monday, telling reporters he had “a lot to think about.”

Pelinka says he and Lakers’ head coach Darvin Ham would speak to James in the coming days but admitted he hoped he would decide to continue playing.

“We all know that he speaks for himself and we’ll look forward to those conversations when the time is right,” Pelinka told reporters Tuesday.

“LeBron has given as much to the game of basketball as anyone who has ever played, and when you do that, you earn a right to decide whether you are going to give more.

“I think sometimes we put athletes and entertainers on a pedestal, but they’re humans, and just like us they have inflection points in their careers.

“Our job as a Lakers organization is to support any player on our team if they reach a career inflection point and LeBron is surrounded by incredible people.”

James concluded his 20th season in the NBA with the loss against the Nuggets but he’s clearly got a lot left to give.

The 38-year-old scored 40 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out nine assists on Monday but his individual brilliance wasn’t enough to dig his team out of trouble.

Bronny James

Earlier this year, he became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing the record that six-time NBA MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had held for 39 years.

Despite his long list of achievements, James has repeatedly said he hoped to one day play in the NBA alongside his oldest son.

Bronny James would be eligible to enter the NBA draft in 2024, the year his father will turn 40.

“LeBron has earned the right to do whatever he wants to do, to make whatever choice,” coach Ham told reporters.

“I’m not one to speculate, but I just want to thank him, AD (Anthony Davis), the rest of the crew, but especially him for being a consistent resource for me this year as a first-time head coach.

“He was one of the most, if not the most, supportive, knowledgeable, communicative resources that I had all year.”