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World Cup: Alessia Russo and England See Big Things Ahead

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The secret of the goal that announced Alessia Russo to the world, the out-of-nowhere backheel that stunned Sweden during England’s run to the European Championship last summer, was that Russo wasn’t sure it would happen. That the ball went in the net was, in her words, “maybe luck, maybe instinct.”

Last week, the goal she scored to open her account at her first World Cup was something else altogether: a silky first touch, an effortless shift of her weight, a confident finish into the lower left corner. That goal was a striker’s finish, the first of what Russo, and England, hopes will be many more.

“I play my best football when I’m feeling good and happy and confident,” the 24-year-old Russo said.

That on-pitch confidence, though, has not always been evident in Russo’s performances in the gap between that goal and her latest one.

In fact, her goal in England’s 6-1 hammering of China ended a six-month international goal drought for Russo. In the interim, she had found herself battling for a place as the team’s starting striker with Rachel Daly. In an interview in England before the World Cup, Russo admitted that it had been a lesson in patience but also a learning experience in what it takes to keep a place on one of the world’s best teams.

“All I can do is focus on myself, my game, what I can do to get better and how ready I can be going into the summer,” she said. “And that’s all I can control.”

Could the knockout stages, then, be liftoff for Russo? Despite the injuries to several key players that marred preparations for England and continued in Australia, the European champions have been building momentum ahead of their meeting with Nigeria on Monday in the round of 16. Lauren James has emerged as a star in midfield, and Russo is poised to benefit.

“She just really has a feeling for scoring goals,” England’s coach, Sarina Wiegman, said. “She is a good header. She has a good shot. She just is a real No. 9.”

The statistics speak for themselves. Russo has scored 12 goals in 25 England appearances, among them an 11-minute hat trick — the fastest ever scored by an England women’s player.

Such is her status that, earlier this year, she was the subject of two world-record transfer bids. Her club at the time, Manchester United, rejected both, but she has since joined Arsenal, the suitor that made both offers, on a free transfer after her United contract expired.

Her rise, off the back of her performances in England’s triumph at the European Championship last year, has come at a historic time for the women’s game. Record viewing figures. Sold-out stadiums. And, as Russo knows all too well, competitive transfer windows.

“It’s what we’ve wanted for the women’s game, for years and years,” she said. She wants the clamor to continue: “I hope to still see it climbing the way it is now. The stages it deserves. The crowds it deserves, which we’re all getting now.”

Russo is still one of the younger players on her squad. But she is different in that she is used to being fully professional, something that not all of her teammates have experienced. England’s right back Lucy Bronze, for example, once worked at Domino’s Pizza as she made her way as a pro and an international.

“There’s some really, really humbling stories that you hear of older players that have had to work crazy hours and then go to training and then travel to games,” Russo said. “And it’s just like, ‘How was that a thing?’”

For Russo, soccer was always an easy choice. She grew up playing with her two older brothers in the yard and, at times, in the house, “until Mom would tell us off for kicking the ball inside.”

She began her youth career at Charlton Athletic and later joined Chelsea before moving to the United States to play for the University of North Carolina. She only returned to England in 2020, after signing for Manchester United, the club she grew up supporting.

Despite her path through professional teams and elite programs, though, Russo admitted to grappling with her newfound fame after the Euros. Before her team became European champions, she had a “pretty normal life,” she said. And now? “That’s changed.”

“Your life,” she said, “completely changes after one tournament.” And stardom, she found — part of the same growth that has raised the value of players and the profile of the game — has proved difficult at times.

“The attention that comes with women’s football now is hard to manage as a player,” she said.

So after a quiet start to the World Cup, Russo has made her entrance. Next up: a tough encounter during England’s round-of-16 match against Nigeria, which beat the home team, Australia, and helped eliminate the Olympic champion, Canada, in the group stage.

This spring, Russo said she was confident that the goals, and the wins, would eventually come. Now both are here, and England is thinking bigger.

“You go into every single tournament wanting and expecting to win,” she said. The European Championship, she said, lit a “fire to want to go and win more.” Lifting the World Cup would be the ultimate next step.

“I just want to win,” she said, “as much as I can.”

Trudeau Searches For a New Image After Separation From His Wife

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In 2005, Justin Trudeau, the son of a legendary Canadian prime minister, and Sophie Grégoire, a well-known television journalist, married inside a stone church in Montreal’s wealthy, French-speaking enclave of Outremont.

“I’m the luckiest woman in the world,” the bride said to a crowd of onlookers as she entered the church. Under a sunny sky, the couple drove away in a Mercedes roadster that had belonged to Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, producing an iconic wedding photo.

“The wedding was talked about a lot, maybe not as much as Céline Dion’s, but it was talked about,” Geneviève Tellier, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa, said, referring to the singer who is from Quebec. “It was a media event.”

Over the next decade, Mr. Trudeau, with his wife and their three children, shrewdly crafted an image that became integral to his rapid ascent — that of a modern husband, father and political figure, who would go on to win votes with a mix of idealism and glamour.

Nearly eight years ago, Mr. Trudeau was swept into Canada’s highest office on a wave of “Trudeaumania,” a fresh-faced leader who championed the idea that a more progressive, diverse and open Canada would make the country stronger and elevate its global standing.

Mr. Trudeau also succeeded in casting himself as an energetic, youthful prime minister and father beyond the country’s borders, and with his family often by his side at world events he became an international star.

But Mr. Trudeau, 51, is entering one of the most turbulent chapters of his career after separating from his wife of 18 years, forced to publicly weather the family’s situation, while facing an increasingly skeptical electorate.

Mr. Trudeau, who has clung to power in a minority government following his re-election in 2021, has vowed to run for a fourth term, though many experts say voter fatigue will likely force him to step aside for someone new.

In announcing their separation last week, the Trudeaus said they would raise their children in a “collaborative environment,” including vacationing together, even as they themselves will maintain different homes.

Mr. Trudeau was scheduled to take a family vacation this week, together with Ms. Grégoire Trudeau and their children, just as he has done countless times in his nearly eight years in office.

But this time, when the family returns to Ottawa, the capital, things will be much different. Mr. Trudeau and the children will be going back to their official residence, but Ms. Grégoire Trudeau will be going to her own home.

“Canadians,” the couple said last week, “can expect to often see the family together,” just as they have throughout Mr. Trudeau’s political career.

With his communication and social media skills, Mr. Trudeau revolutionized Canada’s political culture where, traditionally, a sitting prime minister’s spouse could stroll through downtown Montreal or Toronto and go mostly unrecognized.

But the fracturing of a marriage that had been central to the prime minister’s image will test even Mr. Trudeau’s political dexterity, experts say.

“The question now is how will they change the message, the packaging, now that it won’t be about Justin Trudeau in a relationship with his partner and their family,” Ms. Tellier said.

The couple have three children: Xavier, 15, Ella-Grace, 14, and Hadrien, 9.

Ms. Tellier and other experts say that the separation is unlikely to damage Mr. Trudeau politically and could actually elicit some sympathy among voters as the prime minister goes through an experience shared by many Canadians.

But striking the right chord will not be easy, experts say. How would Mr. Trudeau acknowledge any pain from his separation while holding onto the image of a family that still vacations and spends time together, as the couple announced?

“The problem with Justin Trudeau is that whether things are good or bad, there’s always the impression that things are good,” said Jean-Marc Léger, a leading pollster in Canada. “He keeps smiling, life is good. To many people, he lacks authenticity.”

In recent months, Mr. Trudeau’s government has been buffeted by revelations about China’s interference in Canadian politics, and the prime minister has been criticized for not doing enough to combat the problem. Polls show that Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party has fallen behind the main opposition Conservative Party.

The right-wing populist leader of the Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, has tried to smooth his rough edges by showcasing his wife, Anaida, who immigrated from Venezuela as a child and lived in a working-class neighborhood in Montreal while her father worked gathering fruits and vegetables at a farm.

A week before announcing his separation, Mr. Trudeau, battling voter fatigue and possibly getting ready for a fourth election, carried out a major reshuffling of his cabinet to bring what he called “fresh energy” to Parliament Hill. As newly appointed ministers brought their spouses for a group photo of the new cabinet, Mr. Trudeau stood conspicuously alone, Ms. Tellier noted.

While Ms. Grégoire Trudeau had been part of cabinet reshuffle announcements in the past, her public appearances had noticeably declined in the past couple of years.

“She wasn’t very present in the election campaign of 2021, while she had been very present in the previous elections, of 2015 and 2019, when she was very often at his side,” Mr. Léger said. “That’s when the rumors about their marriage started spreading.’’

The rumors circulated on and off but were mostly confined to Canada’s political and media circles.

On their wedding anniversary last year, though, Ms. Grégoire Trudeau wrote on Instagram that “long-term relationships are challenging in so many ways” and that the couple had experienced “sunny days, heavy storms, and everything in between and it ain’t over.”

In joint statements last week, released on their Instagram accounts, the couple said they had decided to separate “after many meaningful and difficult conversations” and pleaded for privacy.

Their plea has, for the most part, been heeded.

“Canadians are normally less interested in intruding on the private lives of public figures than the Americans or certainly the Brits are, where the tabloid culture in Britain has made it open season on public figures,” said Jeffrey Dvorkin, former director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto.

“Canadian culture defers a lot more than American culture does to the elites in society,” added Mr. Dvorkin, who also served as vice president of news and ombudsman for National Public Radio in Washington.

The largely muted reaction to the couple’s separation — opposition politicians have not even mentioned it — stands in sharp contrast to the attention that the marriage received and that the Trudeaus clearly invited.

When Mr. Trudeau was elected prime minister in 2015, Ms. Grégoire Trudeau helped burnish his image with a photo shoot in Vogue that a Canadian magazine labeled “steamy” and public appearances that encouraged comparisons to another famous political dynasty, the Kennedys.

Mr. Trudeau’s captivating wife, young children and his own youthful good looks helped fuel a new generation of “Trudeaumania” — the term used to describe the popular excitement generated in 1968 when his father, Pierre, was first elected prime minister.

In 1971, Pierre Trudeau married Margaret Sinclair, who was nearly three decades younger. Their first son, Justin, was born that year on Christmas Day. The birth of two other boys gave Pierre Trudeau a youthful profile even though he was already in his 50s when he became a father.

Pierre and Margaret Trudeau separated in 1977, while Mr. Trudeau was still in office. The breakup did not set off much of a political fallout for Mr. Trudeau, who went on to serve as prime minister until 1984, even staging a comeback after nearly year out of office.

When his marriage unraveled, Pierre Trudeau’s image changed from husband and father to a single father who dated widely.

“After his separation, Pierre Trudeau became the most eligible bachelor in the country,” Mr. Léger said. “Now Justin Trudeau might just become the most eligible bachelor in the country.”

Alice K. Ladas, Author of Landmark Book on Female Sexuality, Dies at 102

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Alice Kahn Ladas, a psychologist and psychotherapist whose best-selling 1982 book, “The G Spot: And Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality,” created a tipping point for female sensual autonomy by introducing ways for women to experience greater sexual pleasure, died on July 29 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 102.

Her daughter Robin Janis confirmed the death, adding that Dr. Ladas was still seeing patients at her home office the day before she died.

Dr. Ladas’s book, written with the researchers Beverly Whipple and John Perry, examined the existence of the G-spot, a patch of erectile tissue that can be felt through the front wall of the vagina, behind the pubic bone. (The tissue is named for Ernst Gräfenberg, a German physician who was the first person to write about it in modern medical literature.) The book compared the G-spot to the male prostate: Each, when stimulated, can produce a sexual response similar to an orgasm.

For their research, Dr. Whipple and Dr. Perry interviewed and tested some 400 women in Florida, all of whom all were able to locate their G-spots.

“My role was to see the connection,” Dr. Ladas told The Santa Fe Reporter in 2010. “There was a vaginal orgasm, there was a clitoral orgasm, but they’re not exclusive.”

The book, which has been translated into multiple languages and has sold more than one million copies, was revolutionary in helping women understand their sexual function, especially regarding female ejaculation.

Still, it proved controversial within the medical community, as women flocked to doctors wondering if they were experiencing ejaculation or urinary incontinence during intercourse. Some doctors questioned the depth of the authors’ research and whether the book was meant to be a medical tool or simply a how-to handbook for women.

“‘The G Spot’ reads like a scientific study, when it isn’t,” Dr. Martin Weisberg, then an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, told The New York Times after the book was published.

But Dr. Robert Francoeur, then a professor of human sexuality at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, argued differently: “The professional jealousy is incredible in terms of sex educators, therapists and doctors. The nasty comments from professionals sound like they’re upset that they didn’t write the book.”

In 2021, the National Institutes of Health published a review of 31 studies on the G spot and found that they “did systematically agree” on its existence.

However, the review said, “Among the studies in which it was considered to exist, there was no agreement on its location, size or nature.” It concluded, “The existence of this structure remains unproved.”

The book “The G Spot,” published in 1982, has sold over a million copies.Credit…Holt/Metropolitan Books

Alice Kahn was born in Manhattan on May 30, 1921, to Rosalie Heil Kahn, an early supporter of the Ethical Culture movement, an effort to develop humanist codes of behavior, and Myron Daniel Kahn, a cotton merchant. Her parents divorced when she was 2, and she spent winters with her mother in Manhattan and extended summer vacations with her father in Montgomery, Ala.

She attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Manhattan from kindergarten through high school and enrolled at Smith College in Massachusetts, graduating cum laude in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and as a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa. She received a master’s in social work from Smith in 1946.

While at Smith, Dr. Ladas met Eleanor Roosevelt while participating in a student leadership program at Campobello, the presidential summer retreat in New Brunswick. Inspired by the first lady’s feminism and activism, Dr. Ladas marched for civil rights in the South and in Washington.

Dr. Ladas became a follower of the controversial Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich, developer of psychosexual theories centered on the orgasm, and joined his staff in New York in the early 1950s. In 1956, she helped Reich’s student Alexander Lowen found the Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis, which focuses on the bodily underpinnings of mental health.

Intrigued by infants and breastfeeding, Dr. Ladas soon went to France to study the Lamaze method of childbirth, whereby women are encouraged to move around and use controlled breathing and relaxation as tools to begin labor. Returning to the United States, she became, in 1959, one of the first to teach Lamaze classes there.

She received her doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1970. Her dissertation on breastfeeding had initially been refused by faculty members until she persuaded the anthropologist Margaret Mead to sit on her dissertation committee. Dr. Ladas’s research was ultimately published in peer-reviewed journals in medicine and sociology.

“That’s what I’m most proud of,” she told a Smith alumni magazine for a profile of her this year. “I believe it influenced — in the United States, at least — more women to breastfeed.”

She married Harold Ladas, a psychology professor at Hunter College in New York, in 1963; he died in 1989. In addition to her daughter Robin, she is survived by another daughter, Pamela Ladas, and three grandchildren.

In the 1970s, Dr. Ladas served on the boards of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, in Allentown, Pa., and the International Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis, based in Barcelona, Spain. A study she conducted with her husband about the effects of body psychotherapy on women’s sexuality led to her collaboration with Dr. Whipple and Dr. Perry.

Dr. Ladas was a protégé of Adelle Davis, a nutritionist who taught her about organic foods and the importance of exercise. Dr. Ladas snorkeled and played tennis into her 90s and played piano even after she turned 100, her daughter said.

Two nights before she died, she and a friend went to see the movie “Oppenheimer,” about the developer of the atomic bomb. It was “not history to her,” her daughter said, because “that was what she lived.”

Read Your Way Through Appalachia

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If you only have room for slim books in your suitcase, bring the poets, who connect our past and present through the sound of spoken language. When I read Maurice Manning’s pointed modern debates with God (whom he calls “Boss”) in “Bucolics,” I can hear James Wright’s high school football players, four generations back, aching with empty prospects as they “gallop terribly against each other’s bodies” in “The Branch Will Not Break.” To simultaneously pray, curse and laugh at our bleak history is sublimely Appalachian, and nobody ever nailed it quite like Jim Wayne Miller; start with “The Brier Poems.”

Frank X Walker’s “Affrilachia,” published in 2000, first gave a name to the Black Appalachian experience, a poetic tradition further enriched by Nikki Giovanni, bell hooks and Crystal Wilkinson, among many others. On my shelves of Appalachian poetry, women slightly outnumber the men. To name one, George Ella Lyon has written at least three poems I’ve put on a list to be read at my funeral. So has Wendell Berry. (Somebody else will have to pare down that list.) Berry’s northern Kentucky farm is not quite in Appalachia, but no writer speaks better for our agrarian spirit and character. Under the quiet surface of such novels as “Hannah Coulter” and “Jayber Crow” lies a reckoning as subversive as his “Mad Farmer” manifestoes. But since we’re still discussing poetry, read “This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems.”

Really, though, you should make room for fiction. It would be hard to find a better distillation of Appalachia than Silas House’s first three novels: “Clay’s Quilt,” “A Parchment of Leaves” and “The Coal Tattoo.” The prolific House is also a poet, a playwright and Kentucky’s current — and first openly gay — poet laureate.

My own search for a writerly voice first found purchase in the territory between Lee Smith’s mountain women in “Fair and Tender Ladies” and the twelve heart-stopping stories Breece D’J Pancake left us from his short life. And like every artist I know around here, I’ve been shaped by the polemics of a place where big capital runs up hard against mortal human labor. Denise Giardina’s “Storming Heaven” and Ann Pancake’s “Strange as This Weather Has Been” cover a century of that story in West Virginia’s coal camps. The Cherokee writer Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, in “Even as We Breathe,” takes a different look back at the historical collision of Indigenous communities and moneyed privilege in North Carolina. Adding to these accounts of caste and class, Rahul Mehta’s short story collection “Quarantine” layers in the complexities of growing up queer and South Asian in West Virginia. Running through all these books is a current of attachment — to family, place and impossible duty — that makes them Appalachian.

Hindman Settlement School, in Hindman, Ky., was founded in 1902 as an educational experiment in a hollow that could only be reached by mule. Its work carries on to this day through readings, concerts and creative support of local arts traditions. In nearby Whitesburg, Appalshop’s media arts center holds valuable archives and produces theater, music and spoken-word recordings, telling local stories that too often go untold by commercial media. Both Appalshop and Hindman School suffered catastrophic damage in last summer’s floods, and, with characteristic resilience, both have given and received enormous community support as they work to recover.

Tory Lanez Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Shooting Megan Thee Stallion

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Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, nearly eight months after he was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion (real name Megan Pete) in her feet following an argument in July 2020.

Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was originally going to be sentenced in January of this year, but the sentencing was delayed several times after Peterson hired new legal counsel and attempted to get a new trial. The sentencing hearing took two days.

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The trial was highly publicized, with significant misinformation circulating online against Pete. The prosecution had asked for a 13-year sentence.

Lanez addressed the court on Tuesday before the judge handed down his sentence, asking for leniency and for a sentence that would allow him to “prove” himself.

“I’m standing in front of you as a father to a six-year-old who needs me every step of the way,” Peterson told Judge David Herriford.

“There’s been this misconception about me being this monster, not having remorse, that’s just not true,” he said, noting that he couldn’t go into specifics about the evening at the advice of his legal counsel. “That night, everyone was drunk, I said things I shouldn’t have said. The victim was my friend, I still care about her. We both lost mothers, we’d sit there and drink until we felt numb. Everything I did wrong that night I take responsibility for.”

“I’m not a person who doesn’t believe in self-help. I do have a habitual disorder, I truly am just trying to be a better person. If you allow me that chance I’ll prove that choice makes sense.”

While Pete did not attend the sentencing hearings, she submitted a pre-written statement that prosecutors read in court on Monday afternoon. “I struggle with being present. After everything that occurred I cannot bring myself back to being in the same room with Tory,” Megan wrote. “He paid bloggers to disseminate false information; he treated my trauma like a joke when I could’ve been dead. He blamed the system, he blamed the press, and as of late he is using his childhood trauma to justify his actions.”

Peterson and his legal team had made repeated attempts both to appeal for a second trial and lessen the punishment from the first. In May, Peterson was denied his request for a new trial. As recently as last week, Peterson’s attorneys submitted a memo requesting that he be sentenced to probation and to attend rehab rather than prison, citing an alcohol addiction and childhood trauma.

“Assuming the allegations are true, Mr. Peterson’s psychological, physical, and childhood trauma was a factor in the commission of the offense,” Peterson’s attorneys wrote. “Likewise, the current offense is connected to Mr. Peterson’s childhood trauma and mental illness, alcohol-use disorder,” which “compromised his ability to manage and regulate his emotions and behaviors and that his alcohol use disorder played a significant role in the alleged offenses.”

Peterson has been behind bars since his guilty conviction last December. He was officially found guilty of first-degree assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and having a concealed firearm in a vehicle.

Prior to sentencing, on Monday, Peterson’s team looked to establish his character, and secure a more lenient decision. Judge Herriford reviewed 76 letters that Peterson’s legal team had submitted from associates of the defendant, writing about the impact Peterson had on them and those around him.

Among those who submitted letters were family members, professional associates from the music industry, including tour managers and his personal manager, and religious and non-profit executives. Also submitting a letter was Iggy Azalea, who requested Peterson get “a sentence that is transformational and not life-destroying.” Azalea clarified the intent of her letter Monday night on social media, writing that she didn’t include any information in her letter on the details of the case and didn’t support anyone, but that she is “not in support of throwing away ANY ones [sic] life if we can give reasonable punishments that are rehabilitative instead.”

On Monday, Peterson’s legal team called forward a jail chaplain, a music marketer who worked with Peterson and his father, Sonstar Peterson, to speak about Peterson’s character. The chaplain spoke about how Peterson has led prayer calls in jail, while the marketer said community service was as important to Peterson as his music. Sonstar spoke about the impact Peterson’s mother’s sudden death had on him as a child and apologized to Herriford for his own outburst from when his son was convicted last year.

“Daystar is the youngest of our family, and [he and his mother] had a very tight bond. He was 11, he couldn’t deal with it. I don’t think anybody ever gets over that,” Sonstar Peterson said.

Raina Chassagne, the mother of Peterson’s six-year-old child, also spoke prior to the sentencing, asking the court to be “as lenient as possible for the rock of our family, for our son,” further stating that the shooting was “completely out [of character].”

Also speaking as a witness was a psychologist who spoke with Peterson over the phone after his sentencing, who said his mental state lines up with post-traumatic stress disorder and general anxiety.

By Tuesday morning, the prosecution and defense were both still deliberating on how much potential substance abuse or mental health issues should impact the sentencing ruling. Chassagne and the psychologist spoke in court again to further clarify their statements. Chassagne said Lanez suffered from alcoholism and could drink a bottle of tequila daily. She said he had to get his stomach pumped several years ago and suffered withdrawal while touring in Europe.

At one point, Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott questioned how much the early death of Peterson’s mother and the subsequent trauma could be considered a contributing factor to Peterson’s behavior, noting that the death is tragic but “something everyone will face one day.”

“The defendant shot the witness because Megan bruised his ego; it was an act of misogyny,” Bott said. (Peterson’s attorney Jose Baez called Bott’s assertion “absurd.”)

While Peterson’s team looked to establish that Peterson had an alcohol abuse problem as well as PTSD and anxiety that would be better treated in rehab and probation than prison, the prosecution questioned the authenticity of those claims. “The fact that he told a doctor for the purpose of a sentencing hearing, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got alcohol abuse problems’ is consistent with [Peterson’s] behavior,” Bott said, referring to Peterson’s actions prior to the trial. “Time and time again, the theme has been a willingness to do anything and everything to avoid accountability.”

Pete was similarly skeptical in her written statement and further noted that both the incident and aftermath have left lasting trauma. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing. But I’ll never bee the same,” she said. “His crime warrants the full weight of the law.”

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Colombia (Narrowly) and France (Easily) Join the Quarterfinals

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On the far side of the field, Catalina Usme tore away, sprinting toward the fans. Her Colombia teammates followed in her wake, eating up the ground in the rush to close the distance, to catch her to celebrate the goal that would soon take the country past Jamaica and into the first Women’s World Cup quarterfinal in Colombia’s history.

Linda Caicedo was not among their number. When Usme had coolly converted Ana María Gúzman’s cross to give Colombia the lead, she had turned the other way, toward the coaching area and the substitutes’ bench. She had tensed her arms, hanging low by her sides, clenched her fists, and roared: an expression not of joy or delirium but sheer, unbridled relief, the sound of something being released.

Caicedo’s emergence at this World Cup has not exactly been a surprise. She might only be 18, but her talent has been so obvious, and so prodigious, for so long that she is anything but an overnight sensation. She has long been earmarked as the next big thing: for Colombia, for South America, and increasingly for women’s soccer as a whole.

Her ascent has had a breakneck quality: She played her first senior game for her first club side, América de Cali, at age 14. She made her debut for her country just a few months later. She won one Colombian title by the time she turned 15; she had a second before her 17th birthday.

She has passed milestones at such speed, with such frequency, that it is hard to believe she has been able to take them all in. She made the team of the tournament in the Copa Libertadores at the first attempt. She helped Colombia to the final of the Copa América, finishing as the tournament’s leading scorer.

She played in the under-17 World Cup — Colombia finished second — and the under-20 World Cup, reaching the quarterfinals, almost contiguously. This tournament is, in effect, her third World Cup in a year. To reiterate: Linda Caicedo turned 18 in February.

Hers is the sort of promise that shines so brightly that it attracts almost universal attention. Caicedo has, for years, been courted by a variety of Europe’s major teams: Bayern Munich and Barcelona and Chelsea and all the rest. Earlier this year, she and her mother spent several weeks in Europe, watching games and assessing her potential suitors.

In the end, Caicedo gave her blessing to Real Madrid. Madrid, the world’s biggest men’s club, pitched her on the idea that she would be the cornerstone of its attempts to establish a similar prominence for its women’s team. When the club had first made its interest known, Caicedo was not old enough to drive in Spain.

It is not, then, so much that Caicedo is the breakout star of this tournament; she had, in all the ways that matter, broken out long ago. Instead, it is probably better cast as something closer to an inauguration: her goal against Germany, in particular, acted as confirmation that she is the standard-bearer for the coming generation of women’s soccer.

Caicedo celebrating with fans after the match.Credit…Hamish Blair/Associated Press

This has been a tournament defined by an overturning of calcified orders. Most immediately, that has been in terms of geography and primacy, whatever the sporting equivalent of geopolitics might be. The United States has been dethroned. Canada was knocked out by Nigeria. Germany was eliminated in favor of Morocco. The tectonic shifts have had the effect of flattening, broadening the game’s landscape.

But there has been a generational shift playing out in Australia and New Zealand, too. As the sun has set on the likes of Megan Rapinoe and Christine Sinclair, Alex Morgan and Marta, so their apparent successors have bloomed and flourished: a group of players in their late teens and early 20s, bookmarked at one end by the 16-year-old Italian Giulia Dragoni and the other by Hinata Miyazawa, the 23-year-old Golden Boot apparent.

The bright spots for the United States all fell into that pool: Sophia Smith, Naomi Girma and Trinity Rodman. Melchie Dumornay, the teenage Haitian, stood out even when cast against England’s highly polished midfield, one that included the explosive — for good and for ill — Lauren James, 21. Mary Fowler has shouldered much of Australia’s burden in the absence of Sam Kerr. Yet Caicedo stands front and center of that group, one of the sport’s faces of tomorrow.

There is a pressure attendant in that, of course. “When Linda shines, we shine,” as her teammate Jorelyn Carabalí put it. Caicedo is adamant that she does not feel inhibited, that she tries still to play as she did “in the neighborhood, when I was a kid.” But she is human; she knows her country’s “dream” is reliant to some extent on her.

She might already have accomplished enough to last a lifetime, but that does not mean her youth is irrelevant. A couple of days after Colombia’s opening game, a 2-0 win against South Korea, she collapsed on the field during a training session, clutching her chest.

The leaders of the country’s soccer federation downplayed the incident, attributing it to the fact that she was simply “very tired.” “What happened was just a symptom of all the stress and physical demands,” a representative for Colombia said, as if that was not worrying in the slightest. “She is well and all is back to normal.”

There is a benefit and a burden to the sort of talent Caicedo boasts. The speed of her rise has had the effect of increasing the weight of expectation. She has achieved so much already, she has passed so many milestones, that there is a demand — internal and external — that the trajectory should continue, that she should speed up, if anything, rather than slow down.

She will not want to stop now, far from it. Colombia is in the quarterfinals. Why not beat England in Sydney and get to the semifinal, since you’re here?

Caicedo has always been able to meet whatever challenge she has encountered. That comes at a cost. Her roar after Colombia’s goal, the one that made it another milestone passed, was a necessary release valve, the expulsion of all of the pressure that comes with being the next big thing.

— Rory Smith Reporting from Melbourne, Australia

Wegovy Cuts Risk of Heart Problems, Novo Nordisk Trial Says

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A new obesity drug, Wegovy, slashed the risk of serious heart problems by 20 percent in a large trial, the drug’s maker said on Tuesday, a finding that could challenge the perception of weight loss drugs as nothing more than cosmetic medicines and put pressure on insurers to cover them.

The trial was the first to demonstrate that the new class of obesity drugs could bring lasting benefits to heart health for people who were overweight but did not have diabetes.

With obesity affecting 100 million adults in the United States and accounting for nearly $150 billion in annual health care spending, the new treatments could help address some of the most significant and costly afflictions in American medicine.

The results “demonstrate the urgent need for patients living with obesity to be offered this effective and safe drug to prevent future disease,” said Simon Cork, an obesity expert at Anglia Ruskin University in England who has no ties to the drug.

Many details were missing from the announcement on Tuesday by Wegovy’s maker, Novo Nordisk. The company said that the drug reduced the overall risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths by 20 percent. But it did not break out the effects of the drug on each of those outcomes individually.

The company also did not describe how much weight patients lost or provide details on side effects of the drug and how many patients decided to stop taking it. The data has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal; the company said it would present more detailed results at a scientific conference later this year.

Still, the trial included nearly 18,000 adults with previous cardiovascular disease and tracked them for up to five years. It bolstered the idea that obesity drugs can deliver long-term health benefits in addition to helping patients lose weight, experts said, undermining the argument that they are merely vanity drugs with little bearing on patients’ underlying health.

That could prompt more insurers to pay for the drug, at least for patients who, like the trial participants, already had evidence of heart disease.

“It’s going to make it much harder to deny coverage and not pay for these products for a non-diabetic population,” said Craig Garthwaite, a health economist at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “It’s going to make it very difficult to make the argument that this isn’t part of an essential health benefit when there are cardiovascular benefits.”

Medicare does not cover weight loss medications and some employer insurance plans have refused to pay for them, owing to the view that the drugs are not essential medical remedies. The drug’s high list price of $1,349 a month puts it out of reach for most whose insurance will not cover it.

Reducing the risk of heart attacks or strokes could not only spare many Americans years of suffering and medical complications but also bring other economic benefits, restoring productivity losses from heart disease and reducing spending on less effective obesity treatments, Dr. Garthwaite said.

Even so, he said, the benefits for patients’ heart health are far enough down the road that insurers themselves may not see direct cost savings. If other drugs from the new class of obesity treatment also prove able to reduce cardiovascular disease, he said, that could create competition between products that eventually drives down their prices.

Wegovy is currently approved for chronic weight management in the United States. Novo Nordisk said it would ask regulators in the United States and Europe to clear the drug for additional medical indications as well, but did not say which ones.

Another version of the same drug made by Novo Nordisk, Ozempic, is approved for lowering blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes. A smaller trial found that Ozempic also reduced the risk of heart complications in diabetes patients.

Martin Holst Lange, the company’s executive vice president for development, said that the latest trial demonstrated the drug “has the potential to change how obesity is regarded and treated.”

Scientists said that it was not clear precisely how the drug cut people’s risk of heart complications.

The new class of obesity drugs has been shown to have some direct effects on blood vessels and the heart, including in studies finding that animals given the drugs are better able to survive heart attacks, said Dr. Daniel Drucker, a senior scientist at the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto who helped identify the hormone that gave rise to the new drugs and been paid consulting or speaking fees by Novo Nordisk.

But they may also indirectly lower the risk of heart disease by reducing body weight, blood pressure or inflammation.

The new class of obesity drugs “has two shots on goal to improve cardiovascular health,” he said.

Further details from the new trial will allow researchers to study the relationship between how much weight patients lost and their cardiovascular benefits, potentially making clearer how Wegovy was improving people’s heart health.

“It’s really the beginning of a new chapter in improving the health of people with obesity,” Dr. Drucker said.

Even so, he said that the trial would also help researchers understand the incidence of side effects, especially given the size and duration of the study. Patients have reported nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation and stomach pain, and some have stopped taking the medication because of these effects.

Experts said the trial could also change an approach to obesity that has long emphasized the responsibility of patients for fighting their own weight gains.

“Obesity’s not a personal choice — it’s not behavioral, it’s not something that people choose,” said Dr. Ania Jastreboff, an endocrinologist and obesity-medicine specialist at Yale University who was an investigator on the Wegovy trial and consults for makers of obesity drugs. “Medications like this, we believe, are potentially treating that underlying biology.”

The latest results, she said, “underscore the need to treat obesity as we treat any other disease.”

Caviar Gets Even More Refined

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These days, it seems that some restaurants will add a dollop of caviar to anything, from fried chicken to hamburgers, practically reducing the once-luxurious treat to a condiment. So it’s perhaps no surprise that chefs are turning their attention to something more rarefied than your everyday osetra: albino caviar, which ranges in color from alabaster to golden, and is the result of uncommon mutations. The most sought after is that of the beluga sturgeon but, says Hermes Gehnen, the founder of N25 Caviar, an international purveyor, “restaurants generally can’t afford it. It’s more for superyachts.” At Les Trois Chevaux in New York, the eggs of the Acipenser ruthenus, a small sturgeon known as the sterlet, are shaped into a quenelle tableside and plated with white asparagus, aerated béchamel and beurre de baratte-basted brioche. The monochromatic presentation allows diners to be “more cognizant of what [they’re] actually tasting,” says the restaurant’s owner, Angie Mar, 41, who describes albino caviar as “supple and velvety.” Rasmus Munk, 32, the chef and co-owner of Alchemist in Copenhagen, is drawn to albino caviar’s “beautiful aroma of butter and creamy texture.” He serves it atop a square of crisp, sourdough-flavored freeze-dried milk born of his collaboration with an M.I.T. researcher on food for space travel. And at the omakase restaurant the Araki in London, the chef Marty Lau slices white cuttlefish and squid into fine ribbons and tops them with a spoonful of golden roe. Although white caviar stock is limited, they aren’t the only pale orbs worth chasing. Snail eggs, which have a mushroomlike flavor, have the same visual appeal despite their earthy taste. Just don’t assume they’ll be a bargain. “Sometimes,” says Munk, “you’ll pay even more money for snail eggs than you do for caviar.” — Lauren Joseph

When Modernism arrived in Scandinavia in the 1930s, Finnish designers quickly became known for their handblown colored glass, which was more substantial and elemental than that of their Italian counterparts in Murano. Alvar Aalto, Kaj Franck and Tapio Wirkkala were unconcerned with delicacy, employing richly hued cased glass in geometric dimensions shorn of ornament and taking inspiration from abstract stone sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Today, one of their spiritual heirs, the 53-year-old Helsinki-based Harri Koskinen, has electrified that uniquely moody Finnish aesthetic in a series of glass table lamps for Hermès. These 10-inch-high domed fixtures, in smoky tones of cassis, fern and amber, don’t merely illuminate but smolder with a volcanic light. Souffle d’Hermès lamps, price on request, hermes.com. — Nancy Hass

Photo assistant: Juliette Paulet. Set designer’s assistant: Justine Roussel

Opening next month, the Fifth Avenue Hotel occupies a 1907 McKim, Mead & White-designed building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 28th Street in New York’s ever-evolving NoMad neighborhood. The transformation of what was once a bank into a 153-room luxury hotel took a decade and included the addition of a modern 24-story tower alongside the original neo-Classical style structure. Inside, the interior designer Martin Brudnizki — known for his over-the-top, ultracolorful interiors — lined elevator landings with ruched pink silk and outfitted the rooms with glittery chandeliers and an eclectic mix of custom-made furniture (in one room, a spindle-leg writing desk sits next to a red lacquer wardrobe). The two bars — decorated with tasseled chairs and pagoda lamps — as well as the main restaurant, which will serve French- and Italian-influenced food, are led by the chef Andrew Carmellini. And beneath the grand dining room — which has 42-foot-high ceilings — a very secure wine cellar occupies the site of the old vaults. Rooms from $895, thefifthavenuehotel.com. — Christian L. Wright

Four years after the 1892 death of Louis Vuitton, who had built his humble trunk-making business into a Victorian-era colossus, his son, Georges, created a repeating quatrefoil motif to distinguish the brand’s canvas-and-leather goods from widespread copies. Combining medieval simplicity, neo-Gothic refinement and the tasteful Japonisme of the time, the four-pointed mark continues to adorn the maison’s designs today, including collaborations with the architect Frank Gehry and the artists Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami. Now, Francesca Amfitheatrof, the artistic director of watches and jewelry at Louis Vuitton, has found a new way to express the symbol’s enduring power: an elaborate proprietary diamond cut, as seen in this dazzling white-gold-and-platinum bejeweled collar. Set directly above the brilliant center emerald, among 51 other custom-cut diamonds, the many-faceted, two-carat flower is a subtle yet dynamic sign that the historic house refuses to remain stuck in place. Louis Vuitton Spirit High Jewelry Liberty necklace, price on request, louisvuitton.com. — Nancy Hass

Photo assistant: Benjamin Achour. Set designer’s assistant: Camille Pogu

Liz Leonard Releases The First Installment of The “Frizzy Lizzy” Children’s Book Series

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“Frizzy Lizzy” is a delightful children’s book series following the whimsical adventures
of “Frizzy Lizzy”, who uses her problem-solving skills, trusty pocketbook, and a dash of magic to overcome any obstacle she encounters.

Hillsdale, New Jersey, August 7, 2023, Parents are always trying to instill moral values and logic into the minds of their kids. Easier said than done. First, it is necessary to get their attention and keep their attention. Frizzy Lizzy is the perfect vehicle to meet that goal. It is brilliantly organized from start to finish.

The beautiful color illustrations immediately captivate their young friends, and they can follow along as Frizzy Lizzy finds solutions for all the roadblocks she encounters. Join Frizzy Lizzy on a series of heartwarming adventures filled with family, friends, and a sprinkle of magic.

In the first book of the series, Lizzy and her sisters find themselves lost during a family hike. Faced with the daunting task of finding their way home, Lizzy steps up, using her sharp wit and trusty pocketbook to navigate the challenging situation.

Targeted at young children, “Frizzy Lizzy” teaches valuable life lessons about preparation, trusting one’s instincts, and learning from challenges. Paired with the captivating illustrations of Katherine Hillier, the stories inspire children to be proactive, creative problem-solvers, and most importantly, to become their own heroes.

The “Frizzy Lizzy” series is a testament to the power of resourcefulness and the magic of everyday adventures. It’s sure to captivate young readers, encouraging them to engage their imaginations and teaching them that they can overcome anything with a little creativity and courage.

About The Author:

Liz Leonard is a passionate storyteller based in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and dog. After earning her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University, she dove into the world of animation, film, and television often drawing inspiration from her own childhood experiences.

Aside from her creative pursuits, Liz serves as an executive at a global hotel brand, allowing her to feed her love for travel. She also spent time volunteering with a non-profit organization that allowed her to travel to West Africa many times.

Her diverse background, complex childhood, passion for the arts, and journey into parenthood inspire Liz to write enchanting stories filled with life lessons. The “Frizzy Lizzy” series draws from both her early memories and her more recent adventures, creating a rich tapestry of tales that engage and educate young readers.

For complete information, visit: https://frizzylizzy.com/

Media Contact:

Liz Leonard
Attn: Media Relations
Hillsdale, NJ
info@frizzylizzy.com

Paramount Agrees to Sell Simon & Schuster to KKR, a Private Equity Firm

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Paramount said on Monday it had reached a deal to sell Simon & Schuster, one of the biggest and most prestigious publishing houses in the United States, to the private-equity firm KKR, in a major changing of the guard in the books business.

The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of the cultural touchstone behind authors like Stephen King and Bob Woodward in the hands of a financial buyer with an expanding presence in the publishing industry.

While private equity investors have had a significant footprint in the book business — different firms have owned literary agencies, publishing houses and the retailer Barnes & Noble — the acquisition of one of the largest publishers in the country vastly increases the hold of financial interests in the business.

Richard Sarnoff, who leads KKR’s media, entertainment and technology group, is a familiar name to many in the publishing industry and his involvement is encouraging, said several publishing executives on Monday. Mr. Sarnoff has held multiple positions at Bertelsmann, the company that owns Penguin Random House, and served as chairman of the Association of American Publishers, a trade group.

Also involved is Ted Oberwager, who is on the board of RBMedia, an audiobook company, and Skydance Media, which teamed up with Paramount Pictures on “Top Gun: Maverick,” a Tom Cruise action drama that generated more than $1 billion.

“This is a positive,” Peter Osnos, a longtime publishing executive, said of the deal. “A great publishing company will be owned by people who will want to respect it.”

Since Simon & Schuster was first put up for sale in 2020, many in the publishing industry have fretted over where the company might land.

A sale to another publisher would mean the new management would understand the book business. But it would also mean further consolidation in the industry, with potentially fewer players available to bid on big books, and the chance of layoffs as redundant jobs were eliminated. It could also raise regulatory scrutiny: Paramount’s first attempt to sell Simon & Schuster, to Penguin Random House was derailed by government antitrust concerns.

Private equity, on the other hand, could present different risks. Some deals have come under increased scrutiny in recent years for prioritizing short term gains over the long term health of purchased businesses. Private equity firms tend not to maintain ownership of their acquisitions for long, portending another sale of Simon & Schuster, or else a bid to take it public.

As part of the deal, Simon & Schuster employees will receive an ownership stake in the company, part of a program KKR has developed to improve engagement among those who work in companies it buys. The private equity firm used this model with RBMedia, which KKR acquired in 2018, and recently agreed to sell to another investment firm. When RBMedia was sold, its long term employees earned a cash payout from the sale worth up to two times their salary, KKR said.

KKR is not new to the books business. In addition to RBMedia, KKR has also invested in Overdrive, a digital reading platform used in libraries and schools. Some of those bets have already paid off: KKR agreed to sell RBMedia last month at a substantial premium to its acquisition price. KKR said that under its ownership RBmedia doubled the size of its audiobook catalog, from over 31,000 to over 66,000 audiobooks.

The road to Monday’s announcement has been long and bumpy. After Paramount (then called ViacomCBS) reached an agreement to sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House, the country’s largest book publisher, for $2.18 billion, the Biden administration challenged the sale in court. A judge sided with the government last year. Rather than appeal, Paramount decided to put Simon & Schuster back on the market, obligating Penguin Random House to pay a $200 million termination fee for its trouble, on top of millions in legal costs.

Though KKR’s offer for the publisher is less than what Penguin Random House had agreed to pay, the difference in the price is partially offset by the termination fee paid to Paramount and earnings from the publisher in the intervening years. But KKR is an attractive buyer, in part, because it’s unlikely to raise red flags with regulators.

“Paramount doesn’t want to traipse through another deal that goes bust,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. “It wants to sell the business without more surprises.”

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