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News.com.au
13 hours ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Brad Waters' best bets and value play for Geelong races on Friday, June 20, 2025
Form expert Brad Waters analyses Friday's Geelong meeting, presenting his best bets, value selection and jockey to follow. Form analyst Brad Waters looks at Friday's meeting at Geelong., presenting his best bets, value selection and jockey to follow. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! â– â– â– â– â– BEST BET KAZUNGULU (Race 1 No.2): Short odds but wasn't far from a subsequent city winner at Swan Hill. That's strong form for Friday's race. â– â– â– â– â– NEXT BEST YES I KNOW (Race 4 No.16): The Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained 3YO ran on strongly at Sale and natural improvement should allow him to go close at Geelong. ANGEL OF THE SEA (Race 6 No.9): The filly improved with a slight rise in trip at Pakenham second-up. Expecting her to be harder to hold out with added fitness. â– â– â– â– â– VALUE BET VORES (Race 7 No.12): Has performed well in harder races at her last two runs. Dropping back to BM58 level will be perfect at Geelong. â– â– â– â– â–
Los Angeles Times
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
With FIFA World Cup one year away, fans and politicians still aren't sure what to expect
Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited. Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday marking the one-year countdown to the tournament's kickoff, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee, acknowledges there's still a lot of tidying up that has to be done before the guests arrive. 'As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces,' he said. 'Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we signed up for this, we knew we would be working to the end to get ready.' The 2026 World Cup will be the largest and most complex sporting event in history, with 48 national teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. With more than 6 million fans expected to attend matches and another 6 billion engaging globally, FIFA, the World Cup's organizer, says the economic impact to the three countries could top $40 billion. But the number of obstacles host cities will have to negotiate are almost as large and complex as the tournament itself. 'Transportation, communications, ticketing, security, the fan fest,' Freedman said. 'You name it.' Hovering over it all like a black cloud are uncertainties over visas, which about half the fans coming to the U.S. for the tournament will need in order to enter the country. Last week, the Trump administration reneged on a pledge to host an open World Cup by issuing a travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup. Citizens of seven other countries face severe restrictions in obtaining visas. Before that, the State Department, which is charge of visa issuance, announced plans to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates and reduce its work force by 3,400 at a time when the average wait for a visa application appointment in some countries is more than a year. And Southern California, which will host the U.S. national team's first game, has experienced days of civil unrest sparked by widespread immigration raids. After protesters shut down freeways, burned cars and vandalized businesses, the national guard was deployed. The turmoil could threaten the success of an event that Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive of the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission, considers both a unique opportunity and a major responsibility. 'The thing that keeps me awake at night is how quickly this has been,' she said. 'We started in 2017 on this bid and it just always seemed like it was a long way away. Then, all of sudden, poof, we're at one year out.' 'I want to make a positive impact on people and their memories,' she continued. 'That, to me, is the biggest responsibility here because we're not going to have this event here again in my lifetime. So this is the one opportunity of the world's biggest event to really do some good in L.A.' This is already the second World Cup played in the U.S. in Schloessman's lifetime. The first, in 1994, was the most successful in history, setting records for average and overall attendance and returning a record $50-million profit to its organizing committee, headed by Alan Rothenberg. A year out from that tournament, Rothenberg had far different concerns. The U.S. didn't have a first-division soccer league then and its national team had played in just one World Cup since 1950. As a result, soccer was so foreign to most Americans, many of the nine stadiums selected to host games didn't have fields wide enough to meet FIFA standards. 'We had a keen sense of confidence and yet, at the same time, total apprehension. Because nobody had ever done it before,' Rothenberg said. 'We were reasonably confident about how ticket sales were going to go. A lot was riding on the success of the [U.S.] team. If the team was an embarrassment it would be a real downcast over the entire operation.' Instead, the U.S. drew Switzerland, beat Colombia and advanced to the knockout round, where it played eventual champion Brazil even for 70 minutes. That World Cup also introduced a number of features that have since become common, such as fan fests and group-play victories counting for three points instead of two. It was also the first World Cup in which a temporary grass carpet was laid over an artificial-turf field; next summer eight of the 16 stadiums will do that. Rothenberg even planned a halftime show for the final at the Rose Bowl, signing Whitney Houston to perform. FIFA nixed the idea then but has revived it for 2026. 'Everything we did was like a first, other than the actual playing of the matches,' Rothenberg said. 'I think it really took '94 to let the rest of the soccer world accept the fact that 'OK, the U.S. can be part of our club.' We were doing some unusual things. We were using celebrities and doing all kinds of entertainment events to build public interest. We had our legacy tour where we were going to city after city, basically traveling the country to get people interested.' And Rothenberg could do that because, as president of U.S. Soccer and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee, he was in charge of the entire tournament. That has changed. FIFA now runs the show, overseeing each of the 16 World Cup cities, who are acting independently of one another. The financial agreements between FIFA and the World Cup hosts have also changed, which is why it's highly unlikely any future tournament will be as profitable for the host country as Rothenberg's was for the U.S. In 1994, FIFA shared some of its earnings with local organizers, who were also allowed to cut their own sponsorship deals. That led to a $50 million surplus that funded the U.S. Soccer Foundation. This time around FIFA is taking virtually all tournament-related revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcasting, even at the local level, while leaving host cities on the hook for public services, security and stadium operations. The relationship is so one-sided that Chicago, where the World Cup opened in 1994, backed out of the 2026 tournament citing the costs to the public. Los Angeles threatened to pass on the tournament as well until a privately funded host committee made up of nearly a dozen local sports and civic organizations agreed to cover much of the risks to taxpayers. In return, a report by Micronomics Economic Research and Consulting estimates Southern California will receive $594 million in economic impact from the tournament, including $343 million in direct spending on hotels, meals, transportation and other services from the estimated 180,000 out-of-town World Cup visitors. But that's assuming those visitors show up. According to the State Department website, wait times for a non-immigrant B1/B2 visa — the one World Cup visitors who do not qualify for a visa waiver will need to enter the U.S. — topped a year in Colombia, Honduras and several cities in Mexico. And things may be getting worse. 'Based on our experience, the approval rate for B1/B2 tourist and/or temporary business visas in Colombia has changed,' said Pamela Monroy, a paralegal who helps prospective U.S. visitors through the immigration process. 'There has been a considerable increase in the denial rate for this visa category. We believe this is a result of the ongoing policies and changes in immigration matters being implemented by the Donald Trump administration.' Those kinds of stories worry Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose district borders SoFi Stadium. Last month Kamlager-Dove sent a letter, signed by a bipartisan group of more than 50 congressional representatives, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to 'ensure expeditious and secure visa processing' for the World Cup. In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kamlager-Dove is a member, Rubio promised he would. But the congresswoman has yet to see proof. 'Show me what that looks like,' she said Monday. 'We're not going to wait too long. We're all unified, Republicans and Democrats. We want these games to be successful, want them to get their act together and are willing to work with one another to push the State Department to follow through on their commitment.' The White House, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages. Last month, President Trump opened the first meeting of a task force on the World Cup by saying that 'everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.' A month later he signed the travel ban, effectively limiting the definition of 'everyone.' At that same White House meeting in May, Vice President JD Vance, the co-chair of the task force, warned World Cup visitors that they would have to leave immediately after the tournament. 'Otherwise,' he said 'they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,' referring to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has detained and interrogated people with approved immigration documents at U.S. points of entry. The last two World Cup hosts — Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022 — allowed visitors to enter their countries with a game ticket essentially doubling as their visa. Both governments also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the tournament. Trump's travel ban, which took effect Monday, bars travel to the U.S. for people in 12 countries and severely limits access to people from seven others. In addition to Iran, which has already assured itself a place in the 2026 tournament, those 19 countries include Sudan, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, whose teams still have a chance to earn World Cup bids via regional qualifying tournaments. An exception to the travel ban will allow athletes, coaches and support staff into the U.S. but not fans, directly contradicting FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who told delegates at last month's FIFA Congress that 'the world is welcome in America ... but definitely also all the fans.' Infantino has built a relationship with Trump, attending the president's inauguration in January. If the administration's seemingly contradictory actions caught the FIFA leader by surprise, it also might have convinced some foreign soccer fans to not attend games in the U.S. Marcel Ott, a 30-year-old software consultant from Leipzig, Germany, has long been saving for a trip to the World Cup but reports of German tourists being detained, some for weeks, at U.S. airports has led him to reconsider. 'Now I'm not so sure because of the political developments in the U.S.,' he said in German. 'I don't know if it's worth the risk of getting stopped and detained at the airport and risk being deporting back to Germany.' Germany is one of 42 countries whose citizens are eligible for the visa waiver program, which generally allows them to enter the U.S. for visits of up to 90 days without a visa. However, they must obtain Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and can be turned away at any point of entry by Customs and Border Protection officers. Ott, who has attended two World Cups, said he may fly to Canada and try to enter the U.S. from there. 'If I get sent back at the border crossing to Canada, I won't have to fly back to Germany right away,' he said. 'I'm thinking the guards at the border to Canada might be a little more relaxed. And there are World Cup games in Canada, too, so it wouldn't be so bad if I get sent back at the Canadian border. 'To be honest, I am still not sure what to do next year.' Marlene, 33, who declined to give her last name, is also uncertain. A city government employee in Berlin, she attended the last two World Cups in Russia and Qatar and planned to travel to the U.S. next summer 'but the general events and U.S. politics put me off. I think it would be better for me not to travel to the USA.' But Volker Heun, who worked as a bank executive in the U.S. and once golfed with Trump, said those fears are misplaced, citing the nearly two million Germans who visited America without issue last year. 'This whole issue is being totally overblown in the German media,' said Heun, who plans to enter a World Cup lottery for tickets to multiple games. 'The atmosphere is going to be great.' In South Korea, Jo Ho-tae, who helps manage the Red Devils, a supporter group that recently followed the country's national team to a qualifying match in Jordan, said he will rely on government officials to warn of potential problems. 'I haven't thought too much about Trump's immigration policy yet,' he said. 'But who even knows if our matches will be held in the U.S. and not in Canada or Mexico?' The White House could always reverse its immigration policy, as it has done repeatedly with tariffs, and prioritize visa requests for World Cup travelers. That's the solution Freedman, L.A. organizing committee co-chair, is betting on. 'They are looking at this as a showcase event for the country and the host cities. And they understand, it seems, how important it is to welcome the world,' he said. 'I am hopeful that it all gets sorted out in a good way.' Many close observers of World Cup preparations share Freedman's optimism. Whether that cautious optimism is justified may soon be known. Tickets for the tournament are expected to go on sale this summer and the draw to determine matchups and venues for the group-play stage of the tournament will be held this winter. Those two events could go a long way toward determining how the World Cup plays out, said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises. 'There's kind of this stopwatch that begins the moment the draw is complete to figure out [training] camps and logistics and visas and travel arrangements,' he said. 'I do think they'll make it happen. Is that to say there won't be any issues? Of course not. There was never going to be a scenario where there's not significant challenges to get all these people into the country. 'There are times when the rhetoric seems to run contrary to what's happening on the ground. But it does, at least for the moment, seem like they're implementing changes that are ultimately going to be helpful.' Baxter reported from Los Angeles, special correspondent Kirschbaum from Berlin and staff writer Max Kim from Seoul.
Daily Mail
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Justin Baldoni's attorney says Blake Lively on a 'false victory tour' after case against her dropped
Blake Lively 's ballyhooed outing Monday after Justin Baldoni's case against her was tossed was described as a 'false victory tour' by the lawyer representing Baldoni. Freedman spoke with TMZ Live on Tuesday, a day after a New York City judge scuttled a $400 million suit Baldoni filed accusing Lively and spouse Ryan Reynolds of defamation and extortion. Lively was later pictured at the 18th Annual Tribeca Artists Dinner in New York City on Monday evening, coming off her stellar day. The lawyer admitted that while he and the Baldoni camp 'weren't pleased that that the judge dismissed the defamation claim, ' it wasn't 'what the case is about.' The attorney then recapped the series of events that led to the massive litigation surrounding the surprise summer hit. Daily Mail has reached out to reps for Lively for further comment on the story. 'We got started because Blake Lively filed a CRD complaint and then walked over and filed a lawsuit,' he said, 'which accused some very good people of a smear campaign and accused a terrific young man of sexual harassment - both of the which were completely untrue.' 'And that's where the case got started' and 'where the case stands today.' 'What we wanted our win is to show there was no smear campaign, and there's no sexual harassment,' Freedman explained. 'And she hasn't proved a thing - as a matter of fact, it's just the opposite.' Freedman told TMZ Live that evidence presented in the early stages of litigation has been damning for Lively and Reynolds. 'Look at the facts, look at what's been shown, look at the receipts, look at the video,' said the lawyer. The actress on Monday released a powerful statement hours after a judge dismissed Baldoni's case. 'Last week, I stood proudly alongside 19 organizations united in defending women's rights to speak up for their safety,' Lively said on Instagram on Monday. Like so many others, I've felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us.' The Los Angeles-born star continued: 'While the suit against me was defeated, so many don't have the resources to fight back.' Lively, who shares four children with husband Ryan Reynolds, vowed that she was 'more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman's right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.' The Gossip Girl alum wrapped up in thanking those in the public who have supported her amid the turbulent past year. 'With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me, many of you I know,' Lively said. 'Many of you I don't. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.' The It Ends With Us actress, whose legal battle with Justin Baldoni has had a significant impact on her friendship with Taylor Swift, added a list of groups that had publicly supported her amid the highly-publicized Tinseltown tussle. Among them, in alphabetical order, were the California Employment Lawyers Association, California Women's Law Center, CHILD USA, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Equal Rights Advocates, Esperanza United, Her Justice, and Herunivercity Inc. In a move that might have been a harbinger of changing momentum in the case, Lively took aim at Baldoni Thursday, saying that women's groups had abandoned him in droves. A total of '19 leading survivors and organizations devoted to women's rights, children's rights and domestic violence have now signed onto four separate amicus briefs,' a spokesperson for the Another Simple Favor actress told Daily Mail in a statement. The statement continued: 'All are united in opposing Justin Baldoni's attempt to dismantle a law designed to protect women who speak up — simply to protect himself.' Lively's team said that Baldoni was going against his own playbook as the complicated legal case progresses, leaving himself open to increased scrutiny in the wake of his past public statements. Lively - seen at the at the 18th Annual Tribeca Artists Dinner - vowed that she was 'more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman's right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story' 'Rather than defend his case on the facts, Baldoni is now contradicting years of his own public persona - abandoning the message of his #MeToo YouTube 's, podcasts, TED Talks, and interviews, where he once upon a time urged men 'to listen to the women in your life … to hold their anguish and actually believe them, even if what they're saying is against you,' Lively's rep said. has reached out to reps for Baldoni for further comment on this story. The statement wrapped up: 'These women and organizations are sounding the alarm about his DARVO tactics, and the chilling effect they could have well beyond this case.' One party that can breathe a sigh of relief after Baldoni's lawsuit was thrown out is Marvel Entertainment, LLC. Baldoni had subpoenaed the studio to get it to preserve any documents related to the Deadpool & Wolverine character Nicepool, which his legal team claimed was designed 'to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate or bully' Baldoni. But after throwing out Baldoni's lawsuit, Liman agreed to Marvel's request to 'quash the subpoena issued to Marvel from [Baldoni's] Wayfarer Parties and for a protective order prohibiting the disclosure of Marvel's confidential documents.' Baldoni's team had send a letter requesting documents be retained to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Bob Iger, CEO of its parent company Walt Disney, on January 7. Lively has accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a lawsuit; while Baldoni accused Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane of defamation and extortion in a $400 million suit - the latter of which was dismissed Monday. Lively in December sued Baldoni amid claims of sexual harassment during production of the motion picture, which was a hit when it arrived in theaters in August Baldoni has denied the allegations brought about by Lively, while Lively, Reynolds and Sloane have denied the accusations made in litigation by Baldoni. Lively in December sued Baldoni amid claims of sexual harassment during production of the motion picture. In her lawsuit, the Gossip Girl alum accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her in multiple ways — including body shaming her — and orchestrating a smear campaign against her to damage her reputation. Baldoni and his reps have said in response to the lawsuit that Lively twisted the meaning of text messages and mislead the public about their interactions while making the motion picture. In her lawsuit, Lively named a number of Baldoni's collaborators, including his company Wayfarer Studios, the studio's CEO and financial backer, and PR personnel Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. Baldoni subsequently sued the newspaper for $250 million in a defamation claim over a December 21 story titled '"We Can Bury Anyone": Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine ;' the newspaper has denied the allegations. Baldoni on January 16 filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging defamation and extortion. Baldoni told the court the trio had concocted 'false accusations of sexual harassment' against him.
Los Angeles Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How important are Bob Dylan's Jewish roots? Entertaining bio doesn't really answer the question
The word 'probably' gets a major workout in 'Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil,' Harry Freedman's new book made of equal parts passion and conjecture. The book's central premise, or one of them, sounds juicy: The man born Robert Zimmerman, and raised by a middle-class Jewish family in small-town Minnesota, worked hard to turn his back on his Jewish roots, adopting an anglicized name and spinning a string of tall tales about his background and upbringing. And yet, as Freedman implies throughout, elements of Dylan's Jewishness remained central to his art and identity, from his commitment to social justice to his imaginative formation of a new persona. It's an intriguing idea, but one that Freedman, billed by his publisher as 'Britain's leading author of popular works of Jewish culture and history,' never really pins down. He does, however, have fun trying. Even as he wanders away from his thesis for pages and pages at a time, Freedman provides a lively gloss on Dylan's rise from unknown folk beacon to counterculture superstar and, to some, plugged-in traitor to the folk cause. This period, of course, is also the subject of the recent movie 'A Complete Unknown,' which was based on Elijah Wald's superb book 'Dylan Goes Electric.' There will never be a shortage of Dylan movies — or books. So what makes this one worth reading? For one thing, it's a little strange. Freedman, whose previous books include 'Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius,' writes in a sort of modified hipster patter that fits in well with the Beat poets Dylan once idolized, and whom the author cites as another big influence on the young singer-songwriter. The author has a curious relationship with commas; his sentences often run on to the point where you might find yourself looking for periods without finding them. Sentence structure sometimes ends up blowin' in the wind: 'Coming on at midnight to perform just two numbers, the crowd went wild.' Yes, I suppose the crowd would go wild if it went onstage at midnight, or any other time really. Devoting generous space to the civil rights movement, the Red Scare, rock 'n' roll and other sociopolitical foment of the '50 and '60s, Freedman can adopt the tone of an earnest YA author: 'The kids were looking for fun, at this stage in their lives they weren't looking to change the world. But change the world they would. There was no colour bar to their love of music.' But he can also surprise with sudden, mischievous wit. On the protesters confronted by police at the Washington Square Park 'Beatnik riot' of 1961: 'A few sat in the fountain and sang 'We Shall Not be Moved.' They were.' And here he is on the antipathy that Mary Rotolo, mother of the young Dylan's girlfriend Suze, had for Dylan: 'She didn't have the same maternal feelings towards him as the other older women who had mothered Bob when he first arrived in New York, but that was bound to be so; he wasn't shtupping their 17-year-old daughters.' 'Jewish Roots' has what a book with a shaky premise needs to still be readable: a voice that never really gets dry. But then there's the 'probably' problem, which represents a larger issue of floating ideas that don't have the backing of fact. 'Bob Dylan was probably in the park that April day in 1961.' And this about manager Albert Grossman: 'The fact that both Dylan and Grossman were each blessed with temperamental Jewish volatility would tear their relationship apart in due course. But at this stage their cultural background probably helped to create a chemistry, a shared ambition for success.' This example underscores a separate issue that defines the book. Eager to serve his premise regarding Dylan's Jewishness, Freedman sometimes turns it into a flimsy fallback device. 'Blessed with temperamental Jewish volatility'? Sure. Maybe. Probably? It's pretty thin stuff, and it's indicative of an argument that never really coheres. In other places, however, Freedman can be quite sharp about the matter. Here he is describing Dylan's reaction to discovering that his friend and fellow musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott was also Jewish: 'Dylan had discovered he wasn't alone, and the suspicions of his friends had been confirmed; Bob Dylan was Jewish. And, of course, it didn't matter a bit. That's the funny thing about being Jewish. The antisemites hate you, the philosemites want to be like you, and nobody else gives a damn. It's a lesson that every Jew with a crisis of identity learns eventually. To stop being so self-conscious and accept the reality of who you are.' Of course, if nobody else gives a damn, one might wonder about the purpose of this book. As it is, 'Jewish Roots, American Soil' makes for fun reading even when it doesn't quite seem to know what dots it wants to connect. This would hardly be the first box that the famously elusive, self-mythologizing Dylan doesn't quite fit. Vognar is a freelance culture writer.
San Francisco Chronicle
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Book Review: 'Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil' doesn't live up to book's promise
One of the most challenging things about any biography of Bob Dylan is piercing the reticence the legendary singer and songwriter has displayed in talking about his roots. In addition to that, biographers have had to to sift through the myths Dylan has built up about his life story. That's why it's somewhat forgivable that 'Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil' by Harry Freedman doesn't quite live up to its promise of tracing how the singer's early career was influenced by his Jewish roots. Freedman offers a serviceable introduction to Dylan's early discography and his biography, including his childhood on the Iron Range of Minnesota. But the books offers little new illuminating information into how Dylan's Jewish heritage may have influenced his career. What's frustrating are the times Freedman instead relies on speculation rather new insights. At one point, Freedman questions whether antisemitism played a role when a 1963 Newsweek profile that angered Dylan mentioned the singer's family name, Zimmerman. At the same time, Freedman is able to richly conceptualize the impact of Dylan's music and the context of his rise. Freedman describes how Dylan's early career came at a time for young people when 'music was the only thing that made sense.'
