Afghan journalist take photos and film inside a mosque after a bomb explosion in Shakar Dara district of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, May 14, 2021. A bomb ripped through a mosque in northern Kabul during Friday prayers killing 12 worshippers, Afghan police said. | AP
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a surge in violence as U.S. and NATO troops have begun their final withdrawal from the country, after 20 years of war.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A bomb ripped through a mosque in northern Kabul during Friday prayers, killing 12 worshippers, and wounding 15, Afghan police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a surge in violence as U.S. and NATO troops have begun their final withdrawal from the country, after 20 years of war.
According to Afghan police spokesman, Ferdaws Faramarz, the bomb exploded as prayers had begun. The mosque’s imam, Mofti Noman, was among the dead, the spokesman said and added that the initial police investigation suggests the imam may have been the target.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied any insurgent connection to the mosque attack, condemning it and accusing Afghanistan’s intelligence agency of being behind the explosion.
Both the Taliban and government routinely blame each other for attacks. The attackers are rarely identified, and the public is seldom informed of the results of investigations into the many attacks in the capital.
One worshipper, Muhibullah Sahebzada, said he had just stepped into the building when the explosion went off. Stunned, he heard the sound of screams, including those of children, as smoke filled the mosque.
Sahebzada said he saw several bodies on the floor, and at least one child was among the wounded. It appeared the explosive device had been hidden inside the pulpit at the front of the mosque, he added.
“I was afraid of a second explosion so I came immediately to my home” he said.
An image circulating on social media shows three bodies lying on the floor of the mosque.
The explosion comes on the second day of a three-day cease-fire announced by the Taliban for the Muslim holiday this week of Eid al-Fitr, which follows the fasting month of Ramadan. The Afghan government has also said it would abide by a truce during the holiday.
So far, many of the attacks in Kabul have been claimed by the Islamic State group’s local affiliate, though the Taliban and government routinely trade blame.
Last week, a powerful car bombing attack in Kabul killed over 90 people, many of them students leaving a girls’ school. The Taliban denied involvement and condemned the attack.
Earlier this week, U.S. troops left southern Kandahar Air Base, where some NATO forces still remain. At the war’s peak, more than 30,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Kandahar, the Taliban heartland. The base in Kandahar was the second largest U.S. base in Afghanistan, after Bagram north of Kabul.
Henrik Borgstrom will compete for an NHL spot with the Blackhawks. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Borgstrom, a 23-year-old Finnish forward, and Soderblom, a 21-year-old Swedish goaltender, both signed two-year contracts with the Hawks this week.
Henrik Borgstrom’s connections to the Blackhawks, despite being Panthers property his whole career until last month, are strangely plentiful.
He attended the same Finnish high school as Kevin Lankinen. He played at the University of Denver alongside Ian Mitchell. Their Denver team won the 2017 Frozen Four at the United Center.
And now fittingly as a Hawk at last, Borgstrom is motivated to make the 2021-22 season the year his NHL career gets back on track.
“Of course that gives me energy,” he said Thursday. “Just having the thought that the team wanted me is really, really nice. [I’ll] try to work towards the beginning of the season. It’s going to be fun.”
Hawks general manager Stan Bowman wasted little time after the season ended Monday, signing two new players — Borgstrom and Swedish goalie Arvid Soderblom — to two-year contracts.
The Hawks have compiled a massive hoard of NHL-caliber players to compete for roster spots next season, even if very few of them are sure-fire stars. Borgstrom, 23, and Soderblom, 21, add to that mixture while bolstering the Hawks’ prospect pipeline.
Borgstrom is coming off a decent season with the Finnish club HIFK Helsinki, ranking eighth on the team with 21 points in 30 games, but playing overseas was not where he expected to be at this point in his career. He regrets how his Florida stints in 2018 and 2019 panned out.
“There were games there that I could have been better,” he said. “Of course, it’s always coaches and management’s decision… I was hoping to get a little more time, but I don’t like to think about it now. There’s going to be a new opportunity for me next season and I’m going to be focused on that.”
He has also been hampered by injuries, including an ankle issue last offseason.
“[At the] beginning of this season…I didn’t feel like I was really in shape,” he said. “With the whole pandemic situation going on, I thought it would be better for me to stay in Finland and play in a familiar place. Just trying to get back in the rhythm and find my game again.”
Known as an immensely talented offensive creator who has yet to overcome inconsistency and defensive flaws, the Hawks are betting Borgstrom will finally put it all together over the next two years.
“It’s going to be important for him to be a solid two-way player so we can tap into the skill he has,” Bowman said. “We’re looking for him to come in and have a strong training camp and jumpstart his career.”
Soderblom, conversely, has never before been on the NHL radar but earned his shot through impressive play.
In 2019-20, Soderblom ranked second in the Allsvenskan — Sweden’s second-tier league — with a .924 save percentage in 32 games with Tingsryds. This season, he again ranked second — this time in Sweden’s top league — with a .922 save percentage in 24 games with Skelleftea. The Hawks were in talks with him the past several months, a source said.
Soderblom will likely be Rockford-bound next season and work his way up from there. For now, he’s the only goalie the Hawks have under contract next year outside of the NHL trio of Lankinen, Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia.
Borgstrom is more likely to immediately stick in the NHL, but he’ll have far more competition to beat out first. The Hawks could have upwards of 20 forwards in camp with realistic chances to make the roster.
Alex Nylander, who fits a similar profile to Borgstrom — a former top pick with great offensive ability yet questionable defensive commitment who fizzled out with his original organization — is expected to be one of them. Bowman said Nylander is “really progressing nicely on his rehab” from knee surgery and should be “ready to go” by September.
In this Monday, April 12, 2021 file photo, a woman takes a photo on her phone of her drink in Soho, London, as some of England’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased by the government. Thanks to an efficient vaccine roll out program and high uptake rates, Britain is finally saying goodbye to months of tough lockdown restrictions. From Monday May 17, 2021, all restaurants and bars can fully reopen, as can hotels, cinemas, theaters and museums, and for the first time since March 2020, Britons can hug friends and family and meet up inside other people’s houses. | AP
“The end is in sight,” one newspaper front page claimed recently. “Free at last!” read another.
LONDON — When London’s Science Museum reopens next week, it will have some new artifacts: empty vaccine vials, testing kits and other items collected during the pandemic, to be featured in a new COVID-19 display.
Britain isn’t quite ready to consign the coronavirus to a museum — the outbreak is far from over here. But there is a definite feeling that the U.K. has turned a corner, and the mood in the country is jubilant. “The end is in sight,” one newspaper front page claimed recently. “Free at last!” read another.
Thanks to an efficient vaccine rollout program, Britain is finally saying goodbye to months of tough lockdown restrictions.
Starting Monday, all restaurants and bars in England can reopen with some precautions in place, as can hotels, theaters and museums. And Britons will be able to hug friends and family again, with the easing of social distancing rules that have been in place since the pandemic began.
It’s the biggest step yet to reopen the country following an easing of the crisis blamed for nearly 128,000 deaths, the highest reported COVID-19 toll in Europe.
Deaths in Britain have come down to single digits in recent days. It’s a far cry from January, when deaths topped 1,800 in a single day amid a brutal second wave driven by a more infectious variant first found in Kent, in southeastern England.
New cases have plummeted to an average of around 2,000 a day, compared with nearly 70,000 a day during the winter.
There are still worries. British authorities have expressed anxiety about a rise in cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in India. Government officials are poised to order further action, including door-to-door testing in the worst-affected areas. One response being considered is moving up the date for a second dose of vaccine for eligible groups to increase protection.
British health officials have raced to get ahead of the virus by vaccinating hundreds of thousands of people a day at hospitals, soccer pitches, churches and a racecourse. As of this week, almost 38 million people — approximately 68% of the adult population — have received their first dose. Almost 19 million have had both doses.
It’s an impressive feat, and many credit Britain’s universal public health system for much of the success.
Experts say the National Health Service, one of the country’s most revered institutions, is able to target the whole population and easily identify those most at risk because almost everyone is registered with a local general practitioner.
That infrastructure, combined with the government’s early start in securing vaccine doses, was key. British authorities began ordering millions of doses from multiple manufacturers late last spring, striking deals months ahead of the European Union and securing more than enough vaccine to inoculate the entire population.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that the two countries in the world with probably the strongest primary care systems, which are us and Israel, are doing the best with vaccine rollout,” said Beccy Baird, a policy researcher at the King’s Fund, a charity for improving health care.
“We have the medical records. We can understand where our patients are. We’re not trying to negotiate with loads of different insurance companies. … It’s the same standard right through the country,” she added. “Whereas in the States, it’s going to be harder to really think about how do you reach underserved communities, how do you get out there and provide the same access to everybody to this vaccine?”
David Salisbury, a former director of the government’s immunization program and a fellow at London’s Chatham House think tank, added that Britain also has the edge because of its track record in successfully rolling out other vaccines, such as the seasonal flu shot.
Many around the world were skeptical about Britain’s decision to delay the second dose by up to 12 weeks to free up vaccine for more people, but that strategy also paid huge dividends. The two shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were intended to be given three and four weeks apart.
Anthony Harnden, an Oxford academic and a top government vaccination adviser, said “there were lots of questions asked” and “we were up against many countries” who disagreed with spacing out the two doses, but officials stuck to the plan.
“You have to remember, looking back at that time, there were a thousand or more people dying every day in the U.K. So there was a huge imperative to get our vulnerable people vaccinated,” he said. “It was an innovative strategy, a bold strategy, but it was based on our experience of previous vaccines.”
The vaccine program’s success has been a much-needed boost for Britain.
Many of those who accuse the government of poorly managing the outbreak last year say the U.K. is finally doing something right.
“We didn’t hand (the vaccine rollout) over to an outsourcing company. That would have been a major failure. And we also didn’t delay the way we did in the first wave. We moved quickly,” said Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “So it was almost like the mirror image of the mistakes we made in the first wave.”
Still, McKee said he is worried that too many people may throw caution to the wind too soon.
Young people, who run a much lower risk of serious illness but can still spread the virus, are not included in the vaccination program. Official figures also show significant gaps in vaccine uptake among minorities and poor people.
McKee and many others are also concerned about the variants that are turning up. That risk is especially worrying as the U.K. slowly reopens to foreign tourists this summer.
“We’ve seen very discouraging evidence from Chile and from the Seychelles, both of which have high proportions of people who have been vaccinated and where many restrictions were lifted, and they’ve had upsurges,” McKee said.
Harnden is more optimistic. If the U.K. can roll out a booster vaccine program later this year and if people remain cautious, he said, “we can get ourselves out of this” and get close to normal by the summer of 2022.
“We’re not completely out of this yet,” he said, “but we’re in a much, much better place than in the last few months.”
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Associated Press writer Mike Fuller contributed to this report.
Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, performs on day one of Riot Fest in Douglas Park, Sept. 15, 2017. The band returns to headline the festival this year. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
In an unprecedented move, festival organizers also announced a ticket on-sale for the 2022 edition of the festival.
Headliners for the 2021 edition of Riot Fest were announced Friday.
Among the bands scheduled for the three-day, live music fest Sept. 17-19 at Douglass Park, are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and Oscar winners Nine Inch Nails, the Smashing Pumpkins, Devo, Faith No More, Run the Jewels, Vic Mensa and Pixies. Three-day passes are now on sale at riotfest.org. Single-day passes will go on sale next week.
In an unprecedented move, festival organizers also announced a ticket on-sale for the 2022 edition of the festival (slated for Sept. 16-18, 2022) revealing My Chemical Romance is already scheduled to perform. The band had been booked for the 2020 festival, which was canceled due to the COVID pandemic. Tickets for the 2022 festival are also on sale at riotfest.org. Additional 2022 bands will be revealed next week.
Marisol Nichols of “Riverdale” plays a police captain in “Spiral: From the Book of Saw.” | Lionsgate
The Chicago-born actor’s first scary movie is the ninth installment of the series. And she spends some ‘terrifying’ time in one of the franchise’s trademark death traps.
Marisol Nichols’ manager sent her the description of a role of a police captain in the latest “Saw” film and told her, “I think I’m gonna get you this role.”
The role of Capt. Angie Garza was written for a man but eventually went to Nichols, a native of Rogers Park.
Best known for her roles on Fox’s “24” as Nadia Yassir and The CW’s “Riverdale” as Hermione Lodge, the longtime fan of scary movies now is part of an enduring and notorious horror franchise.
In “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” — which is finally in theaters after being delayed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic — Jigsaw’s bloody legacy is revived by a copycat killer seeking revenge on the dirtiest cops in the South Metro Police Department.
Living in the shadows of his father, the veteran police chief (Samuel L. Jackson), Detective Zeke Banks (Chris Rock) finds himself in the middle of a gruesome series of killings that reminds the duo of what it was like taking down John Kramer, a.k.a. Jigsaw. Garza puts the Bankses on the case as cops are beginning to turn up dead at the hands of the mysterious killer.
Thanks to Rock, who pitched the idea for the film to the Lionsgate studio, the movie is sprinkled with one-liners and plenty of Jackson cussing out his castmates. The comedian has called the movie “the bloodiest ‘Law and Order’ you’ve ever seen.”
The copycat killer known as Spiral uses plenty of death traps in scenes that might remind “Saw” fans of the ways Jigsaw’s past victims have died. Nichols’ character eventually finds herself in one of the traps.
“It’s terrifying,” Nichols said of filming that scene. “It’s a really scary thing.
“I wanted to stay true to the character and how she would react to being in this trap, and I knew she’d be pretty pissed off. She wouldn’t be scared. She would be pissed off. That combination of pain and anger that this is happening, and this a—— has caught her. I wanted that. I wanted to do it from a point of strength, not just another female victim. Haven’t we seen enough of that?”
Nichols graduated from Hinsdale Central High School and went on to study at the College of DuPage before moving to Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue acting. Her first acting gig was in a play at the College of DuPage. She tried out on a whim and wound up receiving one of the lead roles and falling in love with acting.
The CWSince 2017, Marisol Nichols (left) has played the mother of Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) on “Riverdale.”
She said her roles on “24” and “Law and Order: SVU” helped prepare her to play the police captain in “Spiral,” but nothing prepared her more than her real-life undercover work exposing real-life sexual predators. After learning about child sex trafficking in 2012, Nichols began working with law enforcement agencies to impersonate people on the Internet and stop predators from buying sex with children.
“Whether I’m playing a mom selling her kids on the Internet or if I’m playing a little kid … it’s something that I a.) believe in passionately and b.) I’ve considered quitting acting just to do that full time because that’s what I care about,” she said.
Nichols said she’s talking with Sony about a TV series that would focus on her undercover work.
She’s also set to star in a remake of the 2006 French comedy “The Valet” with Eugenio Derbez.
Lionsgate decided not to release “Spiral” online, as many other movies have been during the pandemic, instead holding off until people returned to theaters.
Nichols said she planned to sneak into a theater this weekend to watch the movie with an audience.
“There’s certain films that should be seen in a theater and not on a computer or a small screen,” she said. “And this is one of them.”
A Palestinian relative mourns over the bodies of four young brothers from the Tanani family who were found under the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 14, 2021. | AP
The Gaza Health Ministry says the toll from the fighting has risen to 119 killed, including 31 children and 19 women, with 830 wounded.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians grabbed their children and belongings and fled neighborhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City on Friday as Israel unleashed a heavy barrage of tank fire and airstrikes. Israel said it was clearing a network of militant tunnels.
Separately, in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire in several locations.
Israel has massed troops along the border and called up 9,000 reservists as fighting intensifies with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Palestinian militants have fired some 1,800 rockets, and the Israeli military has launched more than 600 airstrikes, toppling at least three high-rise apartment buildings, and has shelled some areas with tanks stationed near the frontier.
As Israel and Hamas plunged closer to all-out war despite international efforts at a cease-fire, communal violence in Israel erupted for a fourth night. Jewish and Arab mobs clashed in the flashpoint town of Lod, even after Israel dispatched additional security forces.
The Gaza Health Ministry says the toll from the fighting has risen to 119 killed, including 31 children and 19 women, with 830 wounded. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, though Israel says that number is much higher. Seven people have been killed in Israel, including a 6-year-old boy and a soldier.
Of the seven Palestinians killed in the West Bank, most were killed in stone-throwing clashes in several locations, although one was killed while trying to stab an Israeli soldier, the health officials said. About 100 were injured, most by live fire, they said.
The protests took place in several locations across the West Bank, signaling a new wave of unrest there as part of the escalation of fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Before dawn Friday, Israeli tanks and warplanes carried out an intense barrage on the northern end of the Gaza Strip.
In the darkness, Houda Ouda and her extended family ran frantically inside their home in the town of Beit Hanoun, trying to find shelter as the earth shook for two and half hours, Ouda recalled.
“We even did not dare to look from the window to know what is being hit,” she said. When daylight came, she saw the swath of destruction outside: streets cratered, buildings crushed, their facades torn off, an olive tree burned bare, dust and powered concrete covering everything.
Among the dead was a family of six. Rafat Tanani, his pregnant wife and four children, aged 7 and under, were killed after an Israeli warplane reduced their four-story apartment building to rubble in the neighboring town of Beit Lahia, residents said.
Four strikes hit the building at 11 p.m., just before the family was going to sleep, Rafat’s brother Fadi said. The building’s owner and his wife were also killed.
“It was a massacre,” said Sadallah Tanani, another relative. “My feelings are indescribable.”
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the operation involved tank fire and airstrikes, aimed at destroying a network of tunnels beneath Gaza City that the military refers to as “the Metro,” used by militants to evade surveillance and airstrikes.
“As always, the aim is to strike military targets and to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties,” he said. “Unlike our very elaborate efforts to clear civilian areas before we strike high-rise or large buildings inside Gaza, that wasn’t feasible this time.”
When the sun rose, residents streamed out of the area in pickup trucks, on donkeys and on foot, taking pillows, blankets, pots and pans and bread. “We were terrified for our children, who were screaming and shaking,” said Hedaia Maarouf, who fled with her extended family of 19 people, including 13 children.
Thousands crowded into 16 U.N.-run schools for shelter, said Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians.
Mohammed Ghabayen, who took shelter in one school with his family, said his children had eaten nothing since the day before, and they had no mattresses to sleep on. “And this is in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis,” he said. “We don’t know whether to take precautions for the coronavirus or the rockets or what to do exactly.
The strikes came after Egyptian mediators rushed to Israel for cease-fire talks that showed no signs of progress. Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations were leading the truce efforts.
An Egyptian intelligence official with knowledge of the talks said Israel rejected an Egyptian proposal for a yearlong truce with Hamas and other Gaza militants, which would have started at midnight Thursday had Israel agreed. He said Hamas had accepted the proposal.
The official said Israel wants to delay a cease-fire to give time to destroy more of Hamas’ and Islamic Jihad’s military capabilities. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
The fighting broke out late Monday when Hamas fired a long-range rocket at Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests there against the policing of a flashpoint holy site and efforts by Jewish settlers to evict dozens of Palestinian families from their homes.
Since then, Israel has attacked hundreds of targets in Gaza, causing earth-shaking explosions in densely populated areas. Of the 1,800 rockets Gaza militants have fired, more than 400 fell short or misfired, and most of the rest have been intercepted by missile defense systems, according to the military.
Still the rockets have brought life in parts of southern Israel to a standstill, and several barrages have targeted the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue the operation, saying in a video statement that Israel would “extract a very heavy price from Hamas.”
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said he spoke with Netanyahu about calming the fighting but also backed the Israeli leader by saying “there has not been a significant overreaction.”
He said the goal now is to “get to a point where there is a significant reduction in attacks, particularly rocket attacks.” He called the effort “a work in progress.”
The fighting has, for the moment, disrupted efforts by Netanyahu’s political opponents to form a new government coalition, prolonging his effort to stay in office after inconclusive parliamentary elections. His rivals have three weeks to agree on a coalition but need the support of an Arab party, whose leader has said he cannot negotiate while Israel is fighting in Gaza.
Israel has come under heavy international criticism for civilian casualties during three previous wars in Gaza, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. It says Hamas is responsible for endangering civilians by placing military infrastructure in civilian areas and launching rockets from them.
Hamas showed no signs of backing down. It fired its most powerful rocket, the Ayyash, nearly 120 miles into southern Israel on Thursday. The rocket landed in the open desert but briefly disrupted flight traffic at the southern Ramon airport. Hamas has also launched two drones that Israel said it quickly shot down.
A spokesman for Hamas’ military wing said the group was not afraid of a ground invasion, which would be a chance “to increase our catch” of Israeli soldiers.
The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem. A focal point of clashes was Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, on a hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which includes sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, to be the capital of their future state.
The violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem and other mixed cities across Israel has added a new layer of volatility to the conflict not seen in more than two decades.
The violence continued overnight into Friday. A Jewish man was shot and seriously wounded in Lod, the epicenter of the troubles, and Israeli media said a second Jewish man was shot. In the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Jaffa, an Israeli soldier was attacked by a group of Arabs and hospitalized in serious condition.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said some 750 suspects have been arrested since the communal violence began earlier this week.
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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed.
Lionel Messi and La Liga broadcasts are moving to ESPN in the United States. | Alberto Saiz/AP
ESPN will take over English- and Spanish-language rights. La Liga, which features Barcelona and Lionel Messi, has been televised by BeIN Sport since the 2012-13 season.
Spain’s La Liga is hoping that their deal with ESPN finally puts them on the same footing in the United States as their English and German soccer counterparts.
ESPN will take over English- and Spanish-language rights to La Liga when the next season begins in August as part of an eight-year agreement announced on Thursday. La Liga, which features Barcelona and Lionel Messi, has been televised by BeIN Sport since the 2012-13 season.
La Liga established a North American office in 2018 in a joint venture with Relevent Sports and has been trying to gain more of a foothold in America. But being on a network with a limited reach has been a hindrance.
“The U.S. is the most important market for the league outside of Spain. It has been a priority for La Liga to get our product closer to our fans here,” La Liga North America CEO Boris Gartner said. “It was clear to get to that next step we needed to find another partner. And honestly, when we started thinking about this, we always knew that we wanted to be in this project with ESPN.”
BeIN was in the first season of a four-year deal before La Liga bought back the final three seasons. ESPN executive vice president of programming Burke Magnus said he wasn’t expecting rights to be available until he was approached by La Liga.
“It helps us both achieve our objectives,” he said. “For us, it’s exclusive, comprehensive and long term.”
BeIN Sports has limited distribution in the U.S. with fewer than 15 million subscribers, narrowing the visibility of Messi, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. ESPN announced on Thursday that there are 13.8 million subscribers to the ESPN+ streaming service, which just had its third anniversary.
ESPN+ has experienced steady growth through the acquisition of soccer rights, including Germany’s Bundesliga, England’s FA Cup, League Cup and second-tier League Championship, and Spain’s Copa del Rey.
ESPN+ will stream all 380 La Liga matches next season, and some will be televised on ESPN’s networks. The twice-a-season El Clásicos between Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most-viewed domestic league games worldwide and are likely to be on ABC.
Gartner said the league would work with ESPN to find an optimal match time if El Clásico were to end up on broadcast television. For most if the year, Spain is six hours ahead of New York, meaning a 9 p.m. start in Spain would be 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific.
“For us the passionate fans that go to a stadium every week in Spain are as important as those that wake up early in the morning in America to watch their team play. We want to make it as accessible to all of them as possible,” he said.
With two matches remaining this season, Atlético Madrid, which is seeking its first title since 2004, is two points ahead of Real Madrid.
Gartner said La Liga is still exploring the possibility of playing a regular-season match in the United States the next couple seasons. Barcelona and Real Madrid met in Miami in 2017 during the preseason International Champions Cup tournament.
Some LaLiga programming will start appearing on ESPN+ on Saturday. The deal runs through the 2028-29 season and also includes select second-division games as well as the promotion playoffs.
ESPN does have a previous history with La Liga. Some select matches aired on ESPN 2 as well as ESPN Deportes from 2009-12.
One aspect of La Liga that might not be making the move to ESPN is Ray Hudson. The BeIN Sport commentator, who is known for his liberal use of outlandish metaphors, has been a key part of the league’s growing popularity.
La Liga’s move also benefits soccer fans, who have many options for viewing their favorite league. Next season four networks will carry Europe’s top five leagues and competitions.
NBC and Peacock have England’s Premier League, the highest-rated domestic league on U.S. television. NBC’s six-year contract expires after the 2021-22 season, and the rights are expected to come up for bid this summer.
CBS and Paramount+ started its rights to the Europe’s Champions League and Europa leagues last year and takes over Italy’s Serie A from ESPN next season. BeIN will still air games from France’s Ligue 1.
Fox has rights to the 2022 and 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Fox and ESPN also share the rights to Major League Soccer with that contract set to expire after the 2022 season.
A man has been charged with attempted murder in connection to a shooting last month in Austin on the West Side.
Clifford Jones, 27, was arrested Thursday in the 5600 block of West West End Avenue after investigators identified him as the shooter in the April 29 attack, Chicago police said.
He allegedly opened fire on the 31-year-old victim shortly before 7 p.m. as the man got out of a vehicle in the 200 block of South Lotus Avenue, police said.
The man was shot in his neck and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, police said.
Jones also faces a count of aggravated battery with a firearm. He was expected to appear for a bail hearing later Friday.
According to Sun-Times records, the last shooting in the 200 block of South Lotus was on April 21, 2018, when two women were shot, one of them fatally, during a robbery.
Chicago police’s 15th District, which covers much of Austin, has reported 43 shootings this year through May 21, according to police statistics. That’s a 9% decrease in shootings compared with the same time last year, when the district had 47 shootings.
The district, however, has seen an increase in murders. Thirteen people have been murdered in the district so far this year, a 63% increase compared with the eight murders during the same period in 2020.
The inner-ring suburban tradition of the downstairs bar seems to be fading. Newer high-end homes might have wet bars for entertaining; new renovations might include a man-cave; but the tiny bar—I mean an actual bar, which one could stand behind to mix drinks for one’s friends—seems to be increasingly uncommon.
This might be a good thing. Bars are a nice place to meet people and they’re an important part of the fabric of the community, which is being knit back together after most people have been stuck inside for a year. And actually getting behind a tiny little bar to mix drinks for your friends, well, it’s a bit gimmicky. And yet… they create some cool spaces, typically from a particular era and frozen in time. Here are five.
This late-Midcentury Modern ranch, built in 1971, has the Prairie-style stone to match (and of-its-era orange). It’s also, clearly, quite a beer time capsule as well. The rest of the house — four beds, four baths, 2,750 square feet—is exactly what you’d hope from the basement bar, preserving some wonderful period details: spectacularly mod wooden light fixtures in the bedrooms, an adorable little hot tub on the three-season porch, and lots and lots and lots of wood paneling.
Built in 1971—sensing a theme?—this ranch hides its five beds, four baths, and 3,880 square feet under a thick mansard roof. But inside it’s nice and bright, with very ’70s stained glass and lots of cream wallpaper and carpet. The sunny raised study, with its own fireplace, is a nice place to chill. Outside features a lush green garden for quiet, but if you really want to get away, it’s got a good-sized tiki-ish basement bar.
Dating to 1978, this classic far Northwest side late bungalow has a more modest basement bar that befits the house’s lower price and smaller size — although it does get three beds and three bathrooms into its 1,300 square feet. It lacks the fine finishes of the ones above, but the semicircle is hard to beat. The rest of the home has been mostly updated with contemporary details, save for some good choices like the patterned bathroom tiles and sliding closet doors, but the basement tells some tales.
A modest mansion in the small village of Summit just outside the city, its 3,130 square feet encompasses four beds, six bathrooms and two bars—but the really impressive space is the not-quite-bar on the top floor under a high mid-century modern ceiling. The rest of the house… doesn’t quite reflect the same style, or its 1914 date of construction. There’s some late ’80s, some early ’90s, some questionable decisions. But it’s a lot of grand space for not a lot of money.
Here’s another big (five beds, three baths, 3,605 square feet), old (1888) house that’s been updated with a very 1970s top-floor bar, this one in the architecturally dignified suburb of Riverside. The entrance is contextually appropriate: an elegant porch, a beautifully preserved main stair, lots of old woodwork with tasteful updates. There’s a generous sunroom, and on the second floor, vintage floors and a handsome fireplace. Upstairs? That’s right: knotty wood paneling, skylights, teal leather, and a parquet floor.
5. “If you’re wired or not wired that’s your business. … The only thing, if I go to jail, you’d have to go under witness protection.” — James L. Laski, 2003
4. “Of all the African Americans that I can think that are sort of like qualified … the one that’s least offensive and maybe gets you the most … is Jesse White.” — J.B. Pritzker, 2008
3. “If two fucking schemers like you and I can’t figure this out, then we got a problem.” — Edward Vrdolyak, 2008
2. “You know as well as I do, Jews are Jews and they’ll deal with Jews to the exclusion of everybody else unless there’s a reason for them to use a Christian.” — Ed Burke, 2016
1. “I fucking bust my ass to give your fucking grandma a free ride on the bus. Your fucking baby has health care. What do I get for that? Only 13 percent think I’m doing a good job. So fuck all of you!” — Rod Blagojevich, 2008
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