In various households across the Palm Springs area this week, some Californians will have seen the face of a previous Uber driver staring back at them on sports broadcasts and online articles.

While many of the passengers Berry Henson has taxied during some 3,000 rides knew he played golf, few were aware of just how good he is. On Thursday, their 4.99-rated driver will tee off at Los Angeles Country Club for the US Open.

The 43-year-old’s world has turned upside down since he stamped his ticket to the 123rd edition of the tournament with a dominant performance across 36 holes in final stage qualifying at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey on July 5.

Henson, ranked 444th in the world, shot seven-under overall to clinch the second of four available spots from the 67-player field.

Dubbed “Golf’s Longest Day,” the second and final stage of sectional qualifiers hosted across the US and Canada confirmed the last of the 64 US Open places, whittled down from the record 10,187 entries who attempted qualification this year.

For Henson, who has played just three events on the PGA Tour since turning pro in 2003, the US Open will mark a dream first career major appearance.

“To put in the work that I’ve put in the last few years and reach a goal that has been a dream, I don’t know if I can summarize it right now … I’m just living a day at a time.

“I feel like I’m leading a golf tournament every day. New emotions, new feelings, but I feel like I’m getting through it pretty good.”

Tee drive

Better yet, it will effectively be a home tournament for Henson, born a one-hour drive away in Thousand Oaks.

And, given his second job away from the golf course, they are roads he knows well.

Henson began driving for Uber in 2016 when he was temporarily sidelined by a wrist injury. Looking for something to occupy his restless mind, as well as needing to rent a car, ferrying passengers in the Palm Springs area offered a convenient solution to both problems.

Racking up rides in spare time away from the fairways, he used the money earned to pay off the costs of his rental car and food expenses, as well as raising money for a charity in Thailand, where he now lives.

Favorite passengers have included actor Ke Huy Quan, who played Richard “Data” Wang in his beloved film “The Goonies,” as well as Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios.

Henson chatted at length with his fellow athlete about the trials and tribulations of professional sport, though the majority of his passengers typically have to play a game to find out their driver’s true occupation.

“I usually let them ask me questions to find out what I really do and I can only answer yes or no,” Henson said.

“A lot of my Uber passengers, when they find out what I do, end up following me on social media – they can’t believe it at first.

“I’ve had a bunch of them message me this week like, ‘Oh my gosh you were our Uber driver!’ I think I might have a few of them out here rooting me on this week, you never know.”

Long road

Teeing up alongside the game’s biggest stars Thursday will mark the greatest stopover yet in what has been a long and winding road for the self-described “journeyman.”

Pepsi Tour, Hooters Tour, eGolf Tour: name a professional golf league and Henson has probably played it over the course of his 20-year career.

After several attempts to gain his card for the PGA Tour and DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) via Qualifying School narrowly fell short, in 2011 the University of San Diego alumnus found himself down to his last sponsor.

Needing to take a big swing, Henson forked out $5,000 to compete on the Asian Tour. The gamble paid off: he rattled off two wins in his rookie season and, having settled in Thailand, has played most of his golf on the tour for the last decade.

“It’s been an unbelievable place for me to get better, hone my game,” he said.

“The journey just seems to keep continuing for me. I’m 43, I feel like I’ve got plenty years left in the tank.

“My team have kept me very sharp, very healthy, and I’m looking forward to what’s in store not just this week but towards the remainder of my golf career.”

Henson has already penned a chapter in his fairytale week after playing practice rounds with Phil Mickelson last weekend. The six-time major winner took Henson up on the offer after reaching out to congratulate him on qualifying via Twitter.

“It was unbelievable … I can’t thank him enough for doing that and giving me all the nuggets that he’s given me,” Henson said.

“He could not have been more accommodating to me and my team on getting ready for my first major. He wants me to do well, and I want him to do well.”

‘I just know she’s here this week’

Nicknamed “The Hensonator,” a comic alter-ego tag given to him by a college coach, the 43-year-old can expect many of his friends and family – “The Hensonator Nation” – to be cheering from the sidelines at Los Angeles Country Club.

However, one absence will hit hard. Henson’s mother died in March following a battle with dementia. Though his step-dad was alongside her, Henson was in Thailand when he received the news.

“I think she’s gonna pass on a lot of birdies this week,” Henson said.

“I didn’t feel nervous [in New Jersey], I felt emotional and I kept telling myself, ‘No, you can’t go there, you can’t go there’ … I feel like the more I talk about it, the more I can grieve a little bit because I haven’t been able to grieve.

“I just know she’s here this week. I know it, I can feel it, it’s just a special week and I can’t wait to walk up that green on Sunday.”

About 70 million people across the South and parts of the Northeast face the threat of severe weather Wednesday, including the potential for damaging winds, very large hail and isolated tornadoes, a few of which could be strong.

A second wave of severe weather during the afternoon will produce the potential for the most dangerous weather.

The area facing the biggest threat stretches from northeast Louisiana to north Florida, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

This level 4 out of 5 “Moderate Risk” of severe weather includes Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; and Columbus, Georgia.

“A busy 24 hours is ahead of us as an anomalous pattern for June continues to take shape, the National Weather Service office in Jackson warned. “Local residents are strongly urged to be weather aware particularly this afternoon into tonight due to the strong likelihood of significant severe weather.”

Tennis ball-sized hail, damaging winds up to 80 mph and isolated tornadoes are possible, the weather service said.

“Multiple waves of storms are possible, and unfortunately, they may persist well into the overnight tonight,” the Jackson office said Wednesday morning.

A level 3 out of 5 “Enhanced Risk” of severe weather extends from the Ark-La-Tex region to the Georgia coast.

This includes Shreveport, Louisiana; Mobile and Tuscaloosa in Alabama and Savannah, Georgia.

Floodwaters are receding following the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, but debris washed along the Dnipro river is turning Odesa’s Black Sea coastline into “a garbage dump and animal cemetery,” according to Ukrainian authorities.

“A lot of mines, ammunition and other explosive objects are being carried into the sea and thrown onto the shoreline,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said on its website at the weekend, adding that border guards had observed a “plague of fish” in the area.

“The Dnipro river flows into the Black Sea, bearing many signs of the devastation caused by Russians,” the ministry said.

“The consequences of ecocide are terrible,” it added.

The collapse of the dam in southern Ukraine on June 6 is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. The catastrophe has destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.

But it’s still impossible to say whether it collapsed because it was deliberately targeted as part of Russia’s war in Ukraine or whether the breach could have been caused by structural failure. Several Western officials have blamed the collapse of the Russian-occupied dam on Moscow.

A total of 2,699 people, including 178 children, have been evacuated from endangered settlements in the Kherson region since the collapse, the Ukrainian head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Prokudin said in a Telegram post on Saturday.

Swimming, fishing banned

Swimming and fishing have been banned in the region and people are being advised to drink only bottled or imported water, Prokudin said.

Meanwhile thunderstorms and squall winds expected on Sunday mean “volunteers will not be allowed to perform any rescue operations,” he added.

“The concentration of harmful substances in water samples is ten times higher than the permissible norm,” Prokudin said.

Prokudin said the area of flooded territories in Kherson region had “decreased almost by half” and the average water level had decreased by 27 centimeters (0.9 feet) to 4.45 meters (14 feet).

However, “32 settlements on the west bank of Dnipro river are still flooded and 3,784 residential buildings are under water,” he said.

Prokudin also described the situation on the “temporarily occupied east bank” as “critical.”

“Now 14 settlements are flooded there. The (Russian) occupation authorities are not carrying out evacuation measures,” he added.

Call for international support

The developments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for international support to help rescue victims of the dam collapse in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

“Russia does not provide any real help to the people in the flooded areas” that are under its occupation, Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday.

“In the occupied territory, it is only possible to help people in some areas – Russian terrorists are doing everything to make the victims of the disaster as many as possible. Russian shelling continues – even at evacuation points,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader has previously accused Russian forces of shooting at Ukrainian rescuers trying to reach flooded areas in the Kherson region that are under Russian control.

“We are pressing and encouraging so that international organizations and international support come to the part of Kherson region where the occupiers are now,” Zelensky emphasized in his Saturday address.

The Ukrainian president said “over 3,000 people have already been evacuated in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions” following the dam collapse – but that was only in the “free territory under our control.”

On Saturday, the Russian Foreign ministry released a statement blaming the dam’s collapse on “methodical attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

It claimed that “regular attacks” on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant from Ukrainian armed forces “led to the destruction of its structures and the uncontrolled discharge of water from the Kakhovka reservoir downstream of the Dnipro river.”

Far-reaching impact

The impact of the dam collapse has been felt far beyond the Kherson region.

In addition to the Black Sea coast, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Marhanets, Nikopol, Pokrovsk and Hrushivka communities have been partially left without water supply, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs website reported Sunday, while a “whole section of a railway track was destroyed near Nikopol, according to the Ukrainian rail authority.

In Mykolaiv, access roads to the village of Afanasivka, where 379 residents live, have been completely cut off, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported.

Meanwhile, during a visit to Ukraine Saturday by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Zelensky offered his country’s assistance in fighting the wildfires that have consumed many parts of Canada.

“Of course, we will not stay away from the disaster Canada is facing now,” Zelensky said.

“Massive wildfires, colossal environmental losses, and threats to people… Ukraine is ready to help extinguish fires if Canada needs such international assistance.”

“Our Ukrainian sense of international relations is precisely in the fact that we should always take care of each other when support is needed. And really help,” Zelensky said.

Editor’s note: The southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol has long been known for its sweet delights. The name “Melitopol” means “the Honey City” in Ukrainian and the city’s official logo features a cherry, a nod to the deep red fruit the region is famous for.

But life in Melitopol is anything but sweet. The city was captured by Russian troops shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Pro-Ukrainian partisans have remained active in the city, orchestrating several attacks against the pro-Russian administration installed in the place of its elected leaders. The Zaporizhzhia region in which the city lies is partially occupied by Russia and was illegally annexed last September.

There is terror in Melitopol. But it’s quiet, you don’t see it in the streets.

For partisans, the situation here is terrible. For those of us who rejected Russian passports and are now known as “the unreliable,” the situation is terrible. But if you go to the market, you wouldn’t think that anything is going on.

The Russians are trying to force everyone here to get Russian passports. It’s easier to manipulate people when they have Russian citizenship. Not getting the passports makes our life very difficult. They are refusing to give us access to hospitals and so on. We are a family of farmers and we are losing our land because we don’t have any Russian documents.

I’m afraid I will eventually have to get it. But we are delaying this moment. One relative went to the office and the queues were huge because everyone was intimidated into getting a passport. The process has sped up. Previously, you had to wait a month or two, but now they can print a passport in a week.

Everyone was given cash welfare payments until February, but starting in March, only people with Russian passports get them. That’s why many pensioners started getting passports now because there was no need for it before. Disabled people, people on low incomes, and those who wanted to use free healthcare took the passports immediately after the Russians started offering them, because they didn’t want to lose the benefits.

All in all, a large percentage of the population already has Russian passports. If you don’t, you’re a black sheep, and you can be subject to a frisking.

Here in Melitopol, searches are usually conducted after shelling and after guerrilla attacks on pro-Russian collaborators. My grandmother’s house was searched because a Russian soldier deserted when he was in the village. They searched the houses in the village, trying to find him.

The people who remained in Melitopol can be divided into several categories. There are those who are basically satisfied with the current pro-Russian government. There are those who don’t care and who would support whoever gives them more money in cash payments.  

Those who stayed mostly support the pro-Russian government. They are convinced that it is here to stay.  

Obviously, there are also Ukrainian patriots, those of us waiting for Ukraine to win this war. We whisper to each other in the market. You can tell that someone is supporting Ukraine at the market when you ask for high quality produce. Vendors start cursing Russia because they now have to choose between selling bad products and worse products.

There are still a lot of partisans, God bless them, but we are in the minority. Most of the Ukrainian patriots have left, especially those who actively participated in rallies, because there was a direct threat to their lives.

Our neighbor turned us in for supporting Ukraine, but we are not being touched, at least not yet. My neighbor works for the new government and she knows that we actively opposed Russia during the first phase of the war.

I think we will be issued some kind of document that they give to “the unreliable” which says we have refused the passports. This means nothing except showing that we refused to take Russian passports. It’s a temporary certificate of non-citizens, but you either take this piece of paper or you have to leave Melitopol. So, we are going to take it.

Until April, it was possible to move freely throughout the occupied zone without documents. Now you need a Russian passport or the non-citizen document, but they keep issuing warnings and saying that you need to get a Russian passport by June or you will not be allowed to leave.

People here are encouraged to send their children to summer camps in Crimea, like they were last year. Some parents on our street voluntarily sent their children to Crimea for a month and the children came back. But our neighbors, who have since left for Germany, did not want to send their son to a Russian school or to a camp, and it was okay. Their son stayed at home all year, studying online at a Ukrainian school. Children are not taken away by force here. You have to understand that parents send them there voluntarily.

We call the war a ‘situation’ here   

It’s true that the occupiers are worried about the counteroffensive. The mood in the city has changed dramatically over the past month, from “Melitopol is forever with Russia” to thinking where and how they will build defense lines.

Of course, this is just what the ordinary soldiers in the city are saying, but there is no longer that victorious mood. I feel that something is going to happen here soon. Ukrainian hryvnias are being bought up in the market, and farmers are refusing to sell their products, because they are waiting to give it to Ukraine. And all the neighbors who are in favor of Russia have stopped communicating with us, because they are no longer sure that Russia will stay here forever and are afraid to talk.

There are more or less no problems with getting food. There is no variety, but there are no shortages either. The standards and packaging have completely changed since the invasion started. Butter that is made at the same factory tastes so bad now that we don’t know what to do to mask the taste.

Everything that is imported from Russia contains palm oil. That’s not an exaggeration, the ingredient list of a candy lists palm oil three times. It’s in everything. Sausages, cheese, candy, cookies, butter.

But the biggest problem is with medicines and household goods, as well as baby food. Russia doesn’t have good quality medicines and there is no choice. You go to a pharmacy and they give you one option, take it or leave it. People inquire about medicines for 10 minutes and in the end, they only have iodine. A woman in front of me was trying to buy Nestlé baby food, but the price was out of this world. She ended up buying some Russian-made equivalent.

My mother and grandmother have diabetes. The Russian medicines have the same active ingredient but they affect them in completely different ways. They have different dosages and excipients and my mother and grandmother started feeling much worse when they began taking them. We received some Ukrainian medicines from Ukraine through Crimea, enough for a month and a half.

The cynicism of doctors and pharmacists here is overwhelming. No one says anything directly. We call the war a “situation” here. So, they just answer: “Well, this is the situation, if you need it, go to Ukraine or Europe.” When I told the doctor that I needed specific medication, I was told to go to the city of Zaporizhzhia to buy it. And just so you understand, to go to Zaporizhzhia, you have to go via Moscow. That’s the only way.

In Russia, they don’t have the same standards and regulations for products. Nothing like that. Russian soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes are of terrible quality. Belarusian ones are a little better, and the best option for us here is Turkish shampoo. There are a lot of Chinese and Turkish products on the market. Russian and Chinese products are of the worst quality, while Belarusian and Turkish products are more or less okay, but more expensive.

The problem is that only the military here have a lot of money, and often they buy everything decent. The rumours that Russians themselves do not want to buy Russian products are true. Until September, Ukrainian products were smuggled to Melitopol and the Russian military bought everything themselves. Soldiers stood in line in front of me and asked for Ukrainian socks and soap. Now there are no Ukrainian goods anymore.

Everyone is pretending to live a civilian life. There’s no talk of evacuation. People are used to the explosions and to the fact that from time to time there are burnt-out cars of pro-Russian collaborators on the main street. People are used to the fact that Russian troops and authorities can come to your house and kick you out.

People have gotten used to everything over the year.

The date is set, venues have been chosen, tickets are on sale.

One hundred years after the Olympics last graced the streets of Paris, the city is braced for the return of the world’s largest sporting event next summer.

While organizers and the French government claim that it’ll be the most inclusive games yet, a growing chorus of voices isn’t convinced.

Accessibility is a main concern, both financially due to the eye-watering cost of tickets, and for disabled people who worry about navigating Paris’ decades-old transport infrastructure.

Olympic games, titanic prices

Flavien Lallemand had barely made it on the Paris 2024 ticketing site, before deciding it wasn’t worth it.

“It’s a shame, it’s being done in our city, it’s just next door, we’ll be bothered by all the visitors etc; we’ll be impacted but we won’t have the positive sides,” he said, adding that he’ll likely end up watching the games on TV at home.

Many French people have taken to social media to protest the cost of tickets, complaining that those available are were well beyond average budgets.

It’s an embarrassing distraction for the games organizers, who have trumpeted the events accessibility credentials.

“Paris 2024 will be the first Games to focus on solidarity and inclusivity,” boasts their official site.

The cheapest tickets for the main games were put on sale from 24 euros ($26), with Paralympic tickets sold from 15 euros ($16). However, these tickets were limited in number and often were for tournaments like basketball or soccer taking place in other French cities. By the time many sports fans were able to purchase tickets, more affordable options were often scarce.

Unlike past Games, Paris 2024 set up a “games pack” purchase system. Members of the public were asked to sign up for a lottery draw for the chance to buy tickets. From mid-March, when sales started, lottery winners had a 48-hour window to buy tickets from a minimum of three events, reserving the same number of tickets for each session.

For those hoping to see just one sport, it meant potentially tripling their budget, although organizers have promised to allow resale of unwanted tickets next spring.

“The price makes me sick,” European medalist and former Olympic gymnast Marine Debauve said of the 690 euros ($742) that tickets to a gymnastics final event would cost her.

“It may be easier to participate in the Olympics than see it as a spectator in my own country,” she said on Facebook, echoing the anger of current athletes at not being able to secure tickets for their families.

He said the ticketing was “really exorbitant,” especially for what “is fundamentally an affordable sport for all and accessible, and there aren’t great stars.”

“We know there’s much more demand than supply,” regarding tickets, Estanguet added.

Some 10% of the approximately 10 million tickets on sale for the games are priced at 24 euros, with half on sale for under 50 euros ($54). Organizers say the Games’ pricing isn’t more expensive than the London 2012 Olympics.

In contrast to past Games, the Paris 2024 opening ceremony will be held along a stretch of the River Seine, which crosses the city, offering unprecedented (and mostly free) access to the competition’s overture.

Even so, the best views of the floating parade from the river banks will be ticketed, with some spots on sale for as much as 2,700 euros ($2,900).

Obstacles to entry

Paris 2024 organizers have boasted that inclusion is at the heart of the project and that the Paralympic Games next September will be the “most accessible ever,” styling itself as a leader in accessibility. One half of the official mascot pair – two smiling Phrygian caps – sports a prosthetic leg, the first mascot to do so, according to organizers.

“It’s a strong message to have a mascot with a visible disability,” Estanguet said last November when the mascots were revealed, adding that the imagery promotes a message of inclusion and value for disabled people in society.

But that’s little relief for disabled visitors, who will have few accessible ways to get around the city.

Paris’ more-than-century-old metro network, riddled with staircases and lacking in elevators, is notoriously inaccessible for disabled passengers.

President Emmanuel Macron announced in April that the government would spend 1.5 billion euros to improve disabled access across France and committed to making the Games “100% accessible” to people with reduced mobility.

Disability rights activist Stephane Lenoir is “rather worried” about disabled access around Paris for the Games, with one line “far too little” to serve the needs of the disabled community.

Currently, only one metro line is entirely step-free, the M14 line that traverses the city. Only an estimated 10% of the network’s 332 stations will be accessible for wheelchair users by the Games.

Compare that to London, where ahead of the 2012 Games, the city ensured step-free access for around a quarter of stations in the Tube – the name for the London Underground – despite it being far deeper that Paris’ and the world’s oldest network. In Tokyo too, home to the postponed 2021 Games, more than 95% of metro stations were step-free in 2020.

Organizers have promised shuttle buses between Paris’ main train stations and Games venues, but Lenoir is worried about a lack of information about bus access and capacity, especially for families traveling with disabled ticket-holders.

Nicolas Merille, from APF France Handicap, a national disability rights association, blamed the difficulties on France’s approach to accessibility in general.

Disabled people “are perceived as social and medical cases, they are not considered as citizens,” he said.

“Wheelchair travel is always made precarious, with no guarantee of trouble-free travel,” Merille said.

Two teenage students and a man in his 60s were stabbed to death, and a further three people were injured after a stolen van plowed into them, in a spree of violence across the English city of Nottingham early Tuesday morning.

Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar, both 19-year-old students at the University of Nottingham, and Ian Coates, 65, a school janitor, were fatally stabbed.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Nottinghamshire Police said Wednesday that they were “working closely with counter terrorism policing to establish the facts,” but added they were keeping an “open mind” about the motive.

Police were called to Ilkeston Road in the northwest of the city just after 4 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) on Tuesday, after a member of the public reported that two young people had been stabbed and were unresponsive.

Another member of the public then called police to Milton Street, after the driver of a stolen van had attempted to run over three people – in an attack which left one man in hospital in a critical condition, and two others with minor injuries.

The vehicle was then stopped on Maple Street, where the suspect was tasered and detained on suspicion of murder by police officers.

Coates was later found dead from knife injuries on Magdala Road by a member of the public, police said.

“At the moment, we believe that the suspect has stolen this man’s vehicle and driven it to Milton Street, where he has then driven at members of the public,” Chief Constable Kate Meynell told reporters on Tuesday evening.

Meynell said “we are still in the early stages of the investigation and need to determine exactly what the motives were behind this attack.”

One eyewitness, Lynn Haggitt, told the BBC she saw a white van go “straight into these two people,” during her work commute.

“The woman went on the kerb. The man went up in the air. It was such a bang,” Haggitt said. “I wish I never saw it, it’s really shaken me up.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Detectives have spent “countless hours piecing together” the events using security camera footage and eyewitness accounts, according to a police statement released Wednesday.

The statement added that investigations so far had found that “a man matching the description of the suspect” tried to break into a residential home, but “was denied entry.” The incident was not reported to the police at the time.

‘Complete devastation’

“It is with great sadness that we confirm the sudden and unexpected death of two of our students following a major incident in Nottingham city center overnight,” the University of Nottingham’s vice-chancellor Shearer West confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.

The university added that this is likely to cause distress for staff and students in the community and that support is available through their wellbeing services.

Tributes have poured in for the three victims: Webber, Kumar and Coates.

“Complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son,” Webber’s family said Wednesday in a statement shared by Nottinghamshire Police. “His brother is bereft beyond belief.”

Webber, from Taunton, England, was a talented young cricketer who was studying history, according to the statement.

“Barnaby Philip John Webber was a beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to,” his family said.

“At 19 he was just at the start of his journey into adulthood and was developing into a wonderful young man,” the family added.

Bishops Hull Cricket Club, Webber’s local team where he had played since 2021, also released a statement following the news, calling him a “dear friend and teammate” and inviting members of the public to leave flowers for him at the club.

“‘Webbs’ joined the club back in 2021 and has since then been a key part of our club and made such an impact in such a short space of time,” the statement said.

Kumar, a first-year medical student and a hockey player for the England Under-16 and Under-18s squads, also received tributes from her family and from teams she represented.

Her family said: “Grace was an adored daughter and sister; she was a truly wonderful and beautiful young lady.”

“We were so incredibly proud of Grace’s achievements and what a truly lovely person she was. She was resilient and wise beyond her years. Grace was so happy in life fulfilling her ambition of studying to become a doctor whilst playing topflight hockey at university,” the statement added.

Kumar’s parents said: “Words cannot explain our complete and utter devastation.”

“We are all deeply saddened by the news,” England Hockey, the national governing body for field hockey, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with Grace’s family, friends, teammates and the whole hockey community at this time,” it added.

Coates’ employers, the L.E.A.D. Academy Trust and Huntingdon Academy, also expressed shock at the school site manager’s death.

“Ian was a much-loved colleague who always went the extra mile for the benefit of our children and will be greatly missed. As a school community, it will take time to process this deeply upsetting news,” Ross Middleton, headteacher of Huntingdon Academy, said in a statement Wednesday.

L.E.A.D. Academy Trust CEO Diana Owen said in a statement: “I am deeply shocked and saddened to hear about this tragic news. Ian was a beloved and respected member of the Huntingdon Academy staff.”

A vigil was held for those killed at St Peter’s Church in Nottingham on Tuesday evening, and the Lawn Tennis Association held a minute of silence for the victims before play began at the Rothesay Open in Nottingham on Wednesday.

The city of Nottingham will hold a separate vigil at 5.30 p.m. local time (12.30 p.m. ET) on Thursday for Webber, Kumar and Coates.

“Our city remains in shock after the tragic death of three people. We know the impact of these awful events will be felt not only by the victims’ families and friends but by the wider Nottingham community and so it is important that we take time to join together to share our grief and to remember the people we have lost,” said Leader of Nottingham City Council David Mellen in a Wednesday statement.

Uncertain motives

Chief Constable Meynell told reporters on Tuesday evening that police were working to determine the suspect’s motives.

“Officers have also carried out a number of searches at addresses across the city to gather evidence,” Meynell said.

“A team of dedicated detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incidents and will continue to gather evidence over the coming days,” she added.

No further arrests have been made, according to Meynell, who did not take questions from reporters.

“This is a very sad day for our city and we will do everything possible to get justice for the victims and their families,” Meynell said.

The Vegas Golden Knights, in just their sixth NHL season, defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 Tuesday night in Las Vegas to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in five games.

Vegas captain Mark Stone had a goal in each period to lead the Golden Knights, who joined the NHL before the 2017-2018 season.

The 31-year-old Stone becomes the first player since 1922 to net a hat-trick in a Stanley Cup-clinching victory, according to the NHL.

After the game, each player took a turn, as is tradition, in hoisting the famed trophy.

“Unbelievable,” Stone told TNT of the experience. “I just looked at my teammates’ eyes … One of the craziest feelings I’ve ever had. Just to know that I did it with my 25, 30 best friends makes it that much more special.”

The Golden Knights’ offensive prowess was again in full display on Tuesday night in front of a raucous crowd inside and outside of T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights became the seventh team in NHL history to score five or more goals in three or more games of the same Stanley Cup Final series.

The championship is the second major title in two years for the city of Las Vegas. In 2022, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces won the league crown with a 3-1 series win over the Connecticut Sun.

Vegas led 2-0 at the first intermission, then the rout commenced in the second period as the newly crowned champs scored four times and took a 6-1 lead into the final 20 minutes.

Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill let in two goals but continued to thwart the Panthers with several fine saves in the third.

Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the best player in the postseason. But he deflected credit for the championship.

“You know, one night it’s one guy, one night it’s another guy,” he told TNT. “That’s the mentality we had this year. We’re a bunch of good teammates in that locker room. … Everybody stepped up at different times.”

Vegas pulls away with a flurry of goals

Stone put the Golden Knights up 1-0 with a short-handed goal with 8:08 left in the first period. Less than two minutes later, the puck got under Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, and Vegas’ Nicolas Hague snapped it into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Already facing an uphill battle in the series, the Panthers were without superstar Matthew Tkachuk for Game 5, who was ruled out due to a fractured sternum. Tkachuk had led the Panthers with 24 points and 11 goals, including several game-winners, in the playoffs.

But early in the second period the Panthers cut the deficit to one when Aaron Ekblad scored on an assist from Nick Cousins. Ekblad’s second goal of the playoffs made it 2-1 with 17:45 remaining in the second.

Alec Martinez reestablished a two-goal lead for the Golden Knights with a wrist shot that found the top shelf over Bobrovsky’s right shoulder. With 9:32 left in the period, it was 3-1 Golden Knights.

Vegas extended the lead to three when Reilly Smith scored on a nifty pass from William Karlsson to his wide-open teammate. The score was 4-1 Vegas with 7:47 left in the second period.

The fifth goal for Vegas came when Stone fired in his second on a smart cross-ice pass from Brett Howden with 2:45 remaining before the intermission.

Disaster struck for the Panthers when – with just seconds left in the period – Florida failed to get the puck out of the defensive zone and Smith picked it up at the blue line. He fed Michael Amadio in front of the net and his rebound shot trickled under Bobrovsky’s leg.

In the third period, Ivan Barbashev of the Golden Knights made it 7-1 before Florida’s Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored consolation goals.

Stone capped his hat-trick with an empty net goal as Florida played with six skaters to make it 8-3. Then with just over a minute left in the season, Nicolas Roy made the final score 9-3.

After making the Stanley Cup Final in the franchise’s inaugural season, the Golden Knights returned to the championship series for a second time in their young history.

“That pain was, it was tough. to be honest. It took me almost couple months, a full year, to get over it cause you’re so close but so far,” said Marchessault, who has been with the team all six seasons. He said his approach changed and “look at where we are right now. Our team has been unbelievable since the beginning. And we’re winners.”

With the victory the Golden Knights became the second-fastest franchise in the league’s modern era – since 1943-44 – to win a championship. The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup in the franchise’s fifth season in the NHL.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has been relieved of day-to-day duties while he recuperates from a medical situation, the organization announced Tuesday.

“Jay Monahan informed the PGA TOUR Policy Board that he is recuperating from a medical situation,” a joint statement from the PGA Tour and Monahan read.

“The Board fully supports Jay and appreciates everyone respecting his privacy. During Jay’s absence, Ron Price, Chief Operating Officer, and Tyler Dennis, Executive Vice President & President, PGA TOUR, will lead the day-to-day operations of the PGA TOUR with the assistance of the great team Jay has built, ensuring seamless continuity.”

No further information was shared but the Tour said it would provide further updates “as appropriate.”

Last week, Monahan, 53, and the PGA Tour sent shockwaves through the golfing world after announcing a partnership with the European-based DP World Tour and LIV Golf, unifying the trio under a new, yet-to-be-named, commercial entity and consequently ending a feud that has dogged the men’s professional game for the past year.

The announcement led to the US Senate opening an investigation into the proposed merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s owners – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – on Monday.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal issued both organizations with letters in his role as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The letters detail the causes for concern and subsequently request documentation relating to the new agreement and how it came to be formed, as well as records “referring” to the dispute between the organizations prior to the proposed partnership.

Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami is yet to be finalized, but already his impact on Major League Soccer is being felt.

US soccer is no stranger to welcoming some of the sport’s biggest stars; David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and even Pelé have played in the States.

However, it’s possible that Messi will have a greater influence on the sport in the US than any of the names that went before him.

As Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin said: “It’s the biggest day in probably MLS history.”

Inter Miami has already benefited from a huge boost in social media followers, while ticket prices all around the league are soaring as fans eagerly await Messi’s first visit to play against their teams with his new club.

But are the prices and level of interest sustainable in the long term? Kieran Maguire, author of The Price of Football and a football finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool Management School, expects them to eventually flatten out again.

“For those people who want to be able to say: ‘I was there at Lionel Messi’s first MLS game,’ demand will exceed supply.

“He’s not playing at every ground in every week so I don’t see a huge ripple effect and also I think there will be a sharp spike and then things will return to some form of normality, especially if he doesn’t transform things for them.”

In the minutes after it was reported that Messi would be moving to the US, ticket prices for Inter Miami matches soared by more than 1,000%.

According to resale website TickPick, the cheapest ticket for Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul on July 21 – potentially Messi’s first game with his new team – was just $29.

In the 24 hours after news of Messi’s pending move emerged, the cheapest ticket was $329, TickPick said – a surge of 1,034%.

The biggest increase, however, was for Miami’s game against the New York Red Bulls, with ticket prices soaring by 1,236% for Messi’s first trip to the Big Apple in August.

There has been a similar impact on StubHub, which has seen sales for Inter Miami’s games from July until the end of the season increase 28 fold since Messi’s deal was announced.

Other MLS teams have also enjoyed a boost in ticket sales; Miami’s game away to Los Angeles FC has gone from the 15th highest-selling event in LAFC’s season, StubHub said, to the second highest-selling event – and is on track to be No. 1.

Breaking America

Messi’s pending arrival at Inter Miami, which currently sits bottom of the MLS’ Eastern Conference, has already given a huge boost to the club’s global reach.

Before the announcement, the club had around one million followers on Instagram; as of June 13, it now has 7.8 million – more than every NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS team account.

“Converting followers or monetizing followers is always a challenge,” Maguire adds. “It helps in terms of commercial deals because if you want to pitch to a commercial partner, you can now say: ‘Well, your product is now going to be seen by six million people instead of one million.

“So it will help from that perspective, A) in terms of the prices that Inter Miami can charge and B) with the number of commercial partners, who all of a sudden they want their product next to Lionel Messi.”

Of course, a large part of Messi’s remit in Miami will be to help boost interest in MLS and soccer in general in the United States, as has been the case for every major star since Pelé moved to the New York Cosmos in 1975 in what was then the North American Soccer League.

While the Argentine won’t have to ‘crack America’ in the same way Beckham was asked to, with the sport growing exponentially in both popularity and value since Beckham moved to Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, soccer could certainly still do with an uplift in the US.

According to a Statista report from 2022, MLS still lagged behind the US’ four other major sports leagues – the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB – in terms of popularity among fans.

Maguire says part of Messi’s “objective” while in the US will just be to “keep the trajectory growing” but believes soccer is “never going to break into” the US sports scene.

“The NFL and NBA are part of the US culture and those cultural norms are so established that there is no chance of soccer, football ever, ever competing with them,” he explains.

“I think he will help the game to grow, we’ve got the 2026 World Cup taking place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, but in my view there is a natural ceiling for the MLS and he’s going to help the sport get to that ceiling that much quicker, rather than being a disruptor or a challenger for the traditional big sports in the States.”

While Inter Miami is unable to contend with the salaries on offer from Saudi Arabia’s clubs, the reported structure of the deal means Messi’s earning opportunities are much higher than his basic MLS salary.

According to multiple reports, Messi’s new deal with Miami includes an option for part-ownership of the club and a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass streaming service.

Last year, MLS announced a 10-year deal with Apple to stream every US top-flight men’s game worldwide.

This season, viewers can watch every MLS, Leagues Cup, MLS NEXT Pro and MLS NEXT match through the men’s professional soccer league’s streaming platform, which is available through Apple TV.

Apple recently dropped the price of a soccer subscription to $49 from $99 for the remainder of the season. The company doesn’t disclose viewership figures, but Apple SVP of services Eddy Cue recently said it’s doing “much better than forecasted” for number of subscriptions and viewership numbers.

Despite that agreement, Maguire says he believes the offers from Saudi Arabia would have still been “far more lucrative.”

“He’s been offered a nine-figure salary in the Middle East,” he says. “There’s no way he’s going to be getting hundreds of millions [in Miami].”

Regardless of the details of the contract, Messi will have to perform on the pitch for his stay in the MLS to remain relevant.

The Argentine has his work cut out, too, with Miami languishing bottom of the Eastern Conference with the third-worst points total in the entire league.

But if there is one player who can turn around the fortunes of the club and the MLS, it’s Messi.

Rafael Nadal has dropped out of the world’s top 100 for the first time in 20 years as he continues to recover from the hip injury he suffered in January’s Australian Open.

The 22-time grand slam champion missed this year’s French Open, a tournament he has won a record 14 times, meaning he dropped the 2,000 ranking points he earned last season for winning at Roland-Garros.

Nadal, who turned 37 during the French Open, has now fallen from world No. 15 to 136 in the rankings.

The Spaniard underwent surgery on his hip muscle earlier in June after his initial recovery from the injury didn’t progress as anticipated, ruling him out for five months and all but ending his season.

When announcing his decision to undergo surgery, Nadal said that next season will be his last on the ATP Tour. The former world No. 1 has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, making his accomplishments all the more incredible.

Nadal’s doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, told Reuters at the French Open that he expects “Rafa will recover perfectly in the time necessary or maybe even less.”

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has reclaimed the world No. 1 spot from Carlos Alcaraz after winning his 23rd grand slam at Roland-Garros.

Djokovic ousted Alcaraz in the semifinal of the French Open, helping him rise two places from third to begin his 388th week at world No. 1.

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev dropped from second to third after his shock first-round exit in Paris, while beaten finalist Casper Ruud remains in fourth place.

Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was beaten by Alcaraz in straight sets in the quarterfinals, rounds out the world’s top five.