The 2017 season was a special one for the Miami football team. The Hurricanes ended a seven-year losing streak to Florida State, finished 7-1 in the ACC, 10-1 in the regular season, played in their first ACC Championship Game, won 10 games for the first time since 2003 and earned their first major bowl berth since ’04.
Florida State was coming off of a 10-3, 2016 season and Orange Bowl berth. The Seminoles played in major bowl games in four of the previous five seasons. Florida State needed a blocked extra point after Miami scored a touchdown with 1:38 to go to defeat the Hurricanes 20-19 in 2016.
Jimbo Fisher had Florida State among the best programs in college football during his first seven seasons in Tallahassee. The Seminoles were 78-17 in Fisher’s first seven seasons. In those same seven seasons, Miami went 52-37 in the final year under Randy Shannon, 4.5 seasons of Al Golden and the first year for Mark Richt.
Interim head coaches Jeff Statland went 0-1 succeeding Shannon and Larry Scott 4-2 in 2015 following the firing of Golden who was included in the 52-37 record. Following reported disagreements with the Florida State administration, Fisher was reportedly checked out. Mike Farrell of Rivals.Com commented:
“Farrell’stake: Only seven players remain from that 21-player top 10 class after the recent departure of Chaz Neal. And that was the transition class from Jimbo Fisher to Willie Taggart, if you remember.
And Taggart, who was hired in December of 2017, had to scramble to put that class together with the majority of those commitments coming after he was hired. Why? Jimbo stopped recruiting because he knew he was on his way out.
The recruiting efforts for the 2018 class under Fisher were bad, to say the least, and the mad scramble at the end helped lead to a disastrous class. Taggart was over his head at FSU in many ways, but this is a class that has killed the Noles on the field, and this one is on Fisher.”
The Miami football program was able to take advantage of the 2018 Florida State signing class being ranked 14th. After a 10-3 season, Miami signed the nation’s 10th ranked class. Miami’s 24-20 exhilarating victory in Tallahassee ended the Seminoles’ seven-year winning streak and flipped the rival more than on the field.
Miami rallied from a 27-7 deficit in the 2018 game at Hard Rock Stadium to defeat Florida State 28-27. In the last two seasons, Miami has dominated Florida State. The Hurricanes won 27-10 in 2019 in Tallahassee and dominated the Seminoles 52-10 in the most lopsided victory in the 63 game rivalry.
Both recruiting classes plummeted in 2019. Miami signed the 30th ranked class, Florida State 26th. The first full class under Manny Diaz in 2020 ranked 18th while Florida State was 25th. Miami signed the 12th ranked class in 2021 while Florida State fell to 29th in the first full class for Mike Norvell.
Norvell has a lot of rebuilding to do after Fisher checked out and the 21 game Willie Taggart experiment failed. Diaz has shown the willingness to make changes on the Miami football roster and in his coaching staff when upgrades were needed for the Hurricanes during his first two seasons.
Miami should continue to build their winning streak over Florida State for at least the next year or two. Florida State is off to a better start in 2022 with nine commitments who have the Seminoles ranked ninth. Miami is 65th with two commits. June will be a critical month for the 2022 class throughout college football.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden paid tribute to the men and women who gave their lives in service to their country during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, speaking in deeply personal terms about overcoming loss and the importance of upholding democratic values at home and abroad.
In addressing the sacrifice made by military families who have lost a loved one, Biden spoke at length about his personal experience of losing his son Beau Biden, a veteran of the Iraq war, who died of brain cancer six years ago Sunday.
“To those who mourn a loved one today, Jill and I have some idea how you are feeling," Biden said in remarks Monday after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, "Our losses are not the same, but that black hole you feel in your chest, like it is going to suck you in, it we get."
It was Biden’s first time as commander-in-chief participating in a ceremony that has been carried out every year since the Civil War. In his remarks, Biden called on Americans to show more empathy toward one another and unite around the shared ideals America is built on. He also touched on several issues the country is currently grappling with, including voting rights and racial equality.
May 30, 202102:17
“Democracy thrives, and the infrastructure of democracy is strong, when people have the right to vote freely and fairly and conveniently, on a free and independent press to pursue the truth, followed on facts, not propaganda, on the rule of law applied equally and fairly to every citizen, regardless of where they come from, what they look like,” Biden said.
Biden also gave a warning to those around the world and at home who pose a threat to democracy.
“Our troops have fought this battle on fields around the world but also a battle of our time, and the mission for each of us, each and every day," Biden said. "Democracy itself is imperiled here at home and around the world."
At one point, Biden took out a card from his pocket that he said he carries with him each day with the number of soldiers who have lost their lives in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which stood at 7,036 on this Memorial Day.
Biden has reflected a number of times during his remarks over the Memorial Day weekend about his son Beau's service and how he was affected by his death at the age of 46. Biden and other family members marked the anniversary of Beau’s death with a memorial on Sunday at their church in Delaware and afterward walked to his grave and left flowers.
“Yesterday marked the anniversary of his death, and it's a hard time, a hard time here for me and my family, just like it is for so many of you,” Biden said. “It can hurt to remember, but the hurt is how we feel and how we heal. I alway feel Beau close to me on Memorial Day, I always know where I need to be, right here honoring our fallen heroes.”
As Biden’s motorcade was rolling out of Arlington Cemetery he made an unscheduled stop among the headstones to meet with several families paying their respects.
Shannon Pettypiece
Shannon Pettypiece is the senior White House reporter for NBCNews.com.
“I think my days are getting a little bit numbered of doing nudity,” she said. “I’m just not that comfortable doing it anymore. It’s not even really an age thing, actually. There comes a point where people are going to go, ‘Oh, here she goes again.’” She jokes that it’s not fair to camera operators to have to work to get the best angles as her body changes.
Ms. Winslet has a daughter, Mia, 20, with her first husband, Jim Threapleton, a director whom she met on the set of “Hideous Kinky.” She has a son, Joe, 17, with Sam Mendes, her second husband. And she also has a son, Bear, 7, with her current husband, who has gone back to his original name, Edward Abel Smith, from his playful pseudonym, Ned Rocknroll.
“He added ‘Winslet’ as one of his middle names, just simply because the children have Winslet,” the actress said. “When we’re all traveling together, to all have that name on the passport makes life easier.” (Bear’s middle name is Blaze, after the fire that Kate and Ned escaped that burned down the British Virgin Islands home of Richard Branson, her husband’s uncle.)
“He’s the superhot, superhuman, stay-at-home dad,” she said of her husband, as she smiled happily. “He looks after us, especially me. I said to him earlier, like, ‘Neddy, could you do something for me?’ He just went, ‘Anything.’” She swoons, noting that his long hair now gives him the look of “an ocean warrior.”
She breaks into song, crooning that they go together like “shama lama ding dong.” “He is an absolutely extraordinary life partner,” she said. “I’m so, so, so lucky. For a man who is severely dyslexic, as he is, he’s great at testing me on lines. It’s so hard for him to read out loud, but he still does it.”
She added that “He didn’t particularly plan on meeting and marrying a woman who is in the public eye and therefore having been so judged.” She finds it amusing that, instead of being rock ’n’ roll, he’s very Zen. “He’s vegan, does yoga, breath work and cold water swims.”
CHICAGO -- The Cubs placed right-hander Trevor Williams on the 10-day injured list Monday, adding another name to their long list of injured players.
Williams was scheduled to start Monday against San Diego, but he had an appendectomy Sunday. Kohl Stewart was recalled from Triple-A Iowa to take Williams' turn against the Padres.
"You want to cry uncle sometimes," manager David Ross said with a chuckle. "But it is what we're dealing with and guys have done a nice job of coming up and helping us win ballgames."
There is no timetable for Williams' return. Ross said the pitcher has a follow-up appointment on Thursday.
While Williams went on the IL, a move that was made retroactive to Friday, it looked as if a couple of key players for Chicago were moving closer to playing again.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo was out of the starting lineup for the sixth consecutive game because of back tightness. But Rizzo took some swings and fielded grounders before the matchup with the Padres.
Heyward (left hamstring strain) and Marisnick (right hamstring strain) also worked out on the field.
"We're on the verge of getting some guys healthy, which is the good news on the back end of some bad news," Ross said.
For a few glorious weeks, Zou Xiaoqi, a single mother in Shanghai, felt accepted by her government.
After giving birth in 2017, Ms. Zou, a financial worker, went to court to challenge Shanghai’s policy of giving maternity benefits to married women only. She had little success, losing a lawsuit and two appeals. Then, earlier this year, the city suddenly dropped its marriage requirement. In March, a jubilant Ms. Zou received a benefits check in her bank account.
She had barely begun celebrating when the government reinstated the policy just weeks later. Unmarried women were once again ineligible to receive government payments for medical care and paid leave.
“I always knew there was this possibility,” Ms. Zou, 45, said. “If they make me give the money back, I guess I’ll give it back.”
The flip-flop by the Shanghai authorities reflects a broader reckoning in China about longstanding attitudes toward family and gender.
Chinese law does not explicitly prohibit single women from giving birth. But official family planning policies mention only married couples, and local officials have long provided benefits based on those provisions. Only Guangdong Province, which borders Hong Kong, allows unmarried women to apply for maternity insurance. In many places, women still face fines or other penalties for giving birth outside of marriage.
But as China’s birthrate has plummeted in recent years and a new generation of women embraces feminist ideals, those traditional values have come under increasing pressure. Now, a small but determined group of women is calling for guaranteed maternity benefits, regardless of marital status — and, more broadly, for recognition of their right to make their own reproductive decisions.
Still, the about-face in Shanghai makes clear the challenges for feminists in China, where women face deep-rooted discrimination and a government suspicious of activism.
It also demonstrates the authorities’ reluctance to relinquish decades of control over family planning, even in the face of demographic pressures. The ruling Communist Party announced on Monday that it would end its two-child policy, allowing couples to have three children, in hopes of lifting a sagging birthrate. But single mothers remain unrecognized.
“There has never been a policy change,” a worker at Shanghai’s maternity insurance hotline said when reached by phone. “Single mothers have never met the requirements.”
Ms. Zou, who found out she was pregnant after breaking up with her boyfriend, said she would continue fighting for recognition even though she did not need the money.
“This is about the right to choose,” she said. Currently, when an unmarried woman gets pregnant, “you can either get married or have an abortion. Why not give people the right of a third choice?”
As education levels have risen in recent years, more Chinese women have rejected marriage, childbirth or both. Only 8.1 million couples got married in 2020, according to government statistics, the lowest number since 2003.
With the rejection of marriage has come heightened acknowledgment of single mothers. There are no official statistics on single mothers, but a 2018 report by the state-backed All-China Women’s Federation estimated there would be at least 19.4 million single mothers in 2020. The figure included widowed and divorced women.
When Zhang A Lan, a 30-year-old filmmaker in central Hebei Province, was growing up, unmarried mothers were seen as sullied and sinful, she said. But by the time she decided two years ago to give birth without getting married, it was common to see people on social media challenging those old stereotypes.
“Marriage is obviously not a prerequisite for childbirth,” said Ms. Zhang, who gave birth to a boy last year.
Still, many women described a persistent gap between attitudes online and in reality.
Many Chinese still worry about the financial burden and social stigma single mothers face, said Dong Xiaoying, a lawyer in Guangzhou who works to promote the rights of single mothers and gay couples. Lesbians are also often denied maternity rights, as China does not recognize same-sex unions.
Ms. Dong, who herself wants to have a child outside of wedlock, said her parents find that decision incomprehensible.
“It’s a little like coming out of the closet,” said Ms. Dong, 32. “There’s still a lot of pressure.”
The greatest obstacles, though, are official.
By some measures, the authorities have begun to acknowledge the reproductive rights of single women. A representative to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, has for years submitted proposals on improving rights for unmarried women. While the authorities have closed down other feminist groups, those supporting unmarried mothers have largely evaded scrutiny.
The authorities’ lighter touch may be, at least in part, because the women’s goals dovetail with national priorities.
China’s birthrate has plummeted in recent years, after the decades-long one-child policy sharply reduced the number of women of childbearing age. Recognizing the threat to economic growth, the government has begun urging women to have more children; on Monday, it announced it would allow couples to have three children. The government’s latest Five Year Plan, released last year, promised more “inclusive” birth policies, sparking hopes for recognition of unwed mothers.
One state-owned outlet was explicit in a recent headline about the original loosening of the policy in Shanghai: “More Chinese cities offer maternity insurance to unmarried mothers amid demographic crisis.”
But the apparent support only goes so far, Ms. Dong said. Far from promoting women’s empowerment, the authorities recently have sought to push women out of the work force and back into traditional gender roles — the opposite of what would make single motherhood possible. “From a governance perspective, they don’t actually want to entirely open up,” she said.
The National Health Commission this year emphasized that family planning is the responsibility of “husbands and wives together.” In January, the commission rejected a proposal to open egg freezing to single women, citing ethical and health concerns.
Overt rejection of gender norms can still elicit reprisals. Last month, Douban, a social media site, shut down several popular forums where women discussed their desire not to marry or have children. Site moderators accused the groups of “extremism,” according to group administrators.
Shanghai’s about-face was the clearest example of the authorities’ mixed messaging on the reproductive rights of unmarried women.
When the city appeared to expand maternity benefits earlier this year, officials never explicitly mentioned unmarried women. Their announcement said only that a “family planning review,” which required a marriage certificate, would no longer be carried out.
But in April, women once again found themselves being asked for their marriage certificates when applying online.
“The local administrators don’t want to take responsibility,” Ms. Dong said. “No higher national authority has said these family planning rules can be relaxed, so they don’t dare to be the ones to open this window.”
Many women hope that pressure from an increasingly vocal public will make such regulations untenable.
Teresa Xu, 32, saw that shift firsthand in 2019, when she filed a lawsuit challenging China’s ban on egg freezing for single women. At first, the judge treated her like a “naïve little girl,” she said. But as her case gained support on social media, officials became more respectful.
Even so, her case is still pending, and officials have not given her an update in over a year. Ms. Xu said she was confident in the long run.
“There’s no way to predict what they’ll do in the next two or three years,” she said. “But I believe there are some things that there’s no way to deny, when it comes to society’s development and desires. There’s no way to reverse this trend.”
PARIS -- Defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek picked up right where she left off last year in winning the title: running yet another opponent this way and that on the red clay of Roland Garros in a straight-sets victory Monday.
Her best friend on the tennis circuit, Kaja Juvan, was the victim on Court Philippe Chatrier this time as Swiatek emphatically kicked off her campaign to become the first woman since Justine Henin in 2007 to defend the French Open title.
Playing on her 20th birthday, Swiatek treated herself to a 6-0, 7-5 victory -- her eighth straight-sets win in a row at Roland Garros, having also not dropped a set in winning the trophy last year as an unseeded 19-year-old.
Another former Grand Slam winner didn't fare as well as Swiatek on Monday.
Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, is out in the first round after losing a 9-7 third set.
The sixth-seeded Andreescu's second appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros ended with a 6-7 (1), 7-6 (2), 9-7 defeat against 85th-ranked Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia. Zidansek had previously been 0-2 at the French Open.
Andreescu withdrew before her quarterfinal last week in Strasbourg with an abdominal injury.
Swiatek had no such concerns coming into the tournament.
In pre-tournament practice on the clay, Swiatek has tested her high-kicking forehand and double-handed backhand against the master of those arts at Roland Garros: Rafael Nadal.
Like the 13-time men's champion, Swiatek used those tools to devastating effect against Juvan, particularly during a dominant first set in which Swiatek gave up just three points on serve -- one of them a double fault.
Poland's first Grand Slam singles champion faced more resistance in the second set as the 101st-ranked Slovenian settled and Swiatek cooled off.
"She didn't give me any birthday gifts," Swiatek said.
But Swiatek wasn't in the gift-giving mood, either. She secured the win with a snapped cross-court backhand at the net on her fourth match point that Juvan hit wide.
They hugged each other warmly at the net. Swiatek then gamely played ball, waving her hands like an orchestra conductor as on-court interviewer Marion Bartoli led the crowd, thinned by coronavirus restrictions, in a somewhat squawky rendition of "Happy Birthday."
Swiatek's next opponent is 60th-ranked Swedish player Rebecca Peterson, whose best showings in Paris were second-round exits in 2018 and 2019.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Minder soon found more work. Sometimes it was a prominent company facing a multimillion-dollar ransom demand, and the negotiation took weeks. Sometimes it was a small business or a nonprofit that he took on pro bono and tried to wrap up over the weekend. But GroupSense rarely made money from the negotiations. Some ransomware negotiators charge a percentage of the amount that the ransom gets discounted. “But those really profitable approaches are ripe for fraud, or for accusations of fraud,” Minder said. Instead, he charged an hourly rate and hoped that some of the organizations that he helped would sign up for GroupSense’s core product, security-monitoring software.
Last March, after GroupSense’s office shut down, Minder paced in circles in his four-hundred-and-seventy-five-square-foot apartment. “I was, like, I need to go hike,” he said. He towed two motorcycles to a rental house in Grand Junction, Colorado. As the world fell apart, the ransomware cases kept coming. Minder handled the negotiations himself; he didn’t want to distract his employees, and he found that the work required a certain emotional finesse. “Most of our employees are really technical, and this isn’t a technical skill—it’s a soft skill,” he told me. “It’s hard to train people for it.”
The initial exchange of messages was crucial. People advocating on their own behalf had a tendency to berate the hackers, but that just riled them up. Minder aimed to convey a kind of warm condescension—“Like, we’re friends, but you don’t really know what you’re doing,” he explained. His girlfriend, who speaks Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, and some Lithuanian, helped him find colloquialisms that would set the right tone. He liked to call the hackers kuznechik, Russian for “grasshopper.”
Occasionally, Minder was called in to try to rescue negotiations that had gone off the rails. If hackers felt that a negotiation was moving too slowly, or they sensed that they were being lied to, they might cut off communication. Following the advice of Chris Voss, a former F.B.I. hostage negotiator who is now a negotiation consultant, Minder tried to establish “tactical empathy” by mirroring the hacker’s language patterns.
“You literally could not pay me enough to relive my twenties.”Cartoon by Suerynn Lee
Most of the time, Minder found himself dealing with a representative from one of the syndicates. “The first person you talk to is, like, level-one support,” he told me. “They’ll say something like ‘I want to work with you, but I have to get my manager’s approval to give that kind of discount.’ ”
GroupSense partnered with CipherTrace, a blockchain-analysis firm, which allowed Minder to see that a particular cryptowallet had been created and to trace its transactions. Determining the average payments flowing into a wallet gave him a sense of the going rate, so he could avoid overpaying. He came to understand that syndicates were working from a script. “Oftentimes, we can go to the client and say how it’s going to go before it starts,” he told me.
The clients themselves could be more challenging. Minder ran all communications by them, through a secure portal. Some wanted to edit every message to the hackers. “It’s like a spy game to them,” Minder said. Others erupted in anger or frustration. “Sometimes you’re negotiating in two directions at once—with the hacker and with the victim,” he said. “You have to have a personality type where you can be empathetic but also give directions in a way that isn’t confrontational.”
Minder has already seen pressure tactics and ransom demands escalate. In 2018, the average payment was about seven thousand dollars, according to the ransomware-recovery specialist Coveware. In 2019, it grew to forty-one thousand dollars. That year, a large ransomware syndicate announced that it was dissolving, after raking in two billion dollars in ransom payments in less than two years. “We are a living proof that you can do evil and get off scot-free,” the syndicate wrote in a farewell message. By 2020, the average ransom payment was more than two hundred thousand dollars, and some cyber-insurance companies began to exit the market. “I don’t think the insurers really understood the risk they were taking on,” Reiner told me. “The numbers in 2020 were really bad, but, at the end of 2020, everyone looked around and said, 2021 is going to be even worse.”
In 1971, a British manager at an Argentine meatpacking plant was seized by a guerrilla group. Several weeks later, after his employer paid a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar ransom, he was freed. The following year, an electronics company paid twice as much to retrieve a kidnapped executive. In 1973, businessmen in Central America kept getting abducted, and their ransoms rose at an alarming rate: Coca-Cola paid a million dollars; Kodak paid $1.5 million; British American Tobacco paid $1.7 million; Firestone paid three million. One C.E.O. fetched $2.3 million; by the time he was kidnapped again, two years later, the price had risen to ten million. Then Juan and Jorge Born, heirs to a multinational food-processing conglomerate, were captured in a scheme involving fake street signs and operatives dressed as telephone workers and police officers. They were eventually ransomed for sixty million dollars, plus a million dollars’ worth of clothing and food to be distributed to the poor. Taking on the risk of kidnapping was “part of what it means to be an executive,” Gustavo Curtis, an American manager working in Colombia, was told by his employer shortly before his abduction, in 1976.
For much of human history, kidnapping had been largely a local affair, governed by a certain amount of ritual and reciprocity. Globalization, political destabilization, and rising inequality upended those norms. In Italy, criminal gangs abducted wealthy foreigners and farmers’ children; one year, eighty people were held for ransom. John Paul Getty refused to pay more in ransom for his kidnapped grandson than he could deduct on his taxes—reportedly three million dollars.
Kidnap-and-ransom insurance, a field that arose after the Lindbergh baby’s abduction and murder, in 1932, surged. In 1970, the size of the market was around a hundred and fifty thousand dollars; by 1976, it was seventy million dollars. The majority of policies were underwritten by Lloyd’s of London, the world’s main market for specialist insurance. Soon, there were risk analysts, who advised policyholders on how to prevent kidnappings; private security firms that offered on-the-ground protection; and specialist negotiators, who took over if things went south.
Control Risks was founded in 1975, by former members of the British Special Forces, to help the insurance industry deal with its kidnapping problem. Its executives performed their work with a patrician discretion. When, in 1977, two of its founding members were arrested in Colombia—no one was quite sure whether the nascent negotiation industry was legal—they spent their ten-week detention writing a code of conduct for their company. (The members were later exonerated.)
Around three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies eventually invested in kidnap-and-ransom insurance, but there was some discomfort with an industry that turned a profit by funnelling money to the Mafia, terrorist groups, and criminal gangs. “There is a feeling you shouldn’t make too much money,” a Control Risks co-founder told the Times, in 1979. Italy, Colombia, and the United Kingdom have all banned kidnap-and-ransom insurance.
But Anja Shortland, a professor of political economy at King’s College London, told me that privatized kidnap intermediaries were key in instituting what she calls “ransom discipline.” Control Risks didn’t merely negotiate ransoms; it also provided security audits, advising companies on how to keep staff from being abducted in the first place. Insurers offered reduced premiums to companies that beefed up their security, reducing over-all rates of kidnapping. When abductions did happen, skilled negotiators kept ransom demands from spiralling out of control. These days, some ninety per cent of kidnappings are resolved, typically through the payment of a ransom; when specialists are involved, the success rate rises to ninety-seven per cent. Countries that banned kidnap insurance drove negotiations underground.
Shortland specializes in the economics of crime. “A lot of economics is: let’s assume away all the complexities so we can come up with a tractable problem,” she told me. “And I’m just embracing the complexities.” To better understand the kidnap-for-ransom industry, she closely studied the piracy-and-kidnapping market in Somalia, where she saw how private insurers, consultants, and negotiators fostered a certain predictability in a trade that’s typically portrayed as unruly. “There is a pace, a rhythm to these things,” as one negotiator told her.
The orderliness, which relies on a mutual assumption of good faith, benefits all sides, Shortland told me. Kidnappers receive an expected rate of return; the kidnapped can reasonably expect that they’ll be released intact; companies in dangerous areas can assume that their staff won’t be abducted, but, if they are, they almost certainly won’t be killed. And the insurance companies and consultants can collect their fees.
Ransomware has less “kinetic impact” than kidnapping, Bill Siegel, the co-founder of Coveware, told me—that is, no one is sending severed ears in the mail. But, to an economist, the differences are small. “They are creating very similar kinds of institutions to the ones that the kidnap-and-ransom community has created,” Shortland said. “But they’re about eighty years behind.”
When it became clear that ransomware cases weren’t slowing down, Minder trained two of his employees to handle negotiations; one of them was Mike Fowler, a former narcotics detective from North Carolina. Working undercover had taught Fowler how to slip into character, which, he told me, “is part and parcel of being an effective negotiator.”
Last November, Fowler was the designated negotiator for the construction-engineering firm. When he logged on to the dark-Web site, he noticed that the timer showed that three days had already elapsed in the negotiations. In the chat box, a conversation was in progress. “It was shocking for me,” Fowler said. “This is a whole negotiation—poorly done, but a whole negotiation—that I’m looking at.”
(This May 30 story corrects in para 2 to make clear meeting is July 1, not June 1)
Pope Francis, who has promised to visit Lebanon if fractious politicians agree on a new government, said on Sunday he would meet its Christian leaders to discuss the country’s worst crisis since its civil war that ended in 1990.
He told pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square for his weekly blessing that the meeting in the Vatican on July 1 would be a "day of reflection on the worrying situation in the country".
Lebanon is still reeling from a huge chemical explosion at the Beirut port last year that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage, further weakening an economy already facing meltdown.
Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri has been at loggerheads for months with President Michel Aoun over cabinet positions.
Lebanon's three main Christian denominations are Maronite Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Melchite Catholics. There are a number of other smaller Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic denominations.
The Vatican did not say which would be represented at the Vatican meeting.
Hariri, a three-time prime minister, resigned in 2019 after nationwide protests against a political elite blamed by demonstrators for pushing the country into crisis.
He was nominated as prime minister again in October but has been unable to form a new government.
Hariri said after meeting the pope at the Vatican in April that the pontiff told him he would visit the country but only after a government is formed.
Traditionally, invitations for the pope to visit a country are made by both civil and religious leaders.
Francis has urged the international community to help Lebanon get back on its feet.
He said on Sunday that the meeting with Lebanon's Christian leaders would be an opportunity to "pray together for the gift of peace and stability".
Lebanon's economic meltdown has pushed much of the population into poverty and poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Baseball is known as America’s national pastime. The sport has long been a cultural touchstone in the United States, serving as a marker of seasons and influencing the national vocabulary. The largest professional baseball organization in the world, Major League Baseball, is based here. Many of the best players in the world hail from the United States.
Despite that, the United States has won only one gold medal at the Olympics, in 2000. The national team won bronze twice, in 1996 and 2008; failed to earn a medal in 1992; and didn’t even qualify for the Olympics in 2004.
After the sport was voted out of the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee in 2005, with criticisms that it wasn’t global enough and that its best players didn’t participate in the Summer Games, baseball is returning to the Games — temporarily — thanks to the host country Japan’s fervent love of the game.
Two other baseball hotbeds, South Korea and Mexico, have already qualified to compete against Japan in the Olympics. So has Israel, where the sport is slowly growing. And the United States? The team has yet to earn a berth, and has just two opportunities left, beginning with the Americas Qualifier, an eight-team tournament in Florida that starts on Monday.
“It is important for the United States to be in the Olympics,” said Tony Reagins, M.L.B.’s chief development officer, who has a hand in helping U.S.A. Baseball build the Olympic roster. “We believe we have the best players in the world, so we’ve got to go out and compete.”
How the United States arrived at this point, less than two months from the start of the Olympics without a guaranteed spot despite being ranked No. 2 in the world, underscores the many competing interests involved.
First and foremost, M.L.B.’s season has always conflicted with the Summer Games. The opening round of baseball at the Tokyo Olympics is slated for July 28, during the heart of the M.L.B. season. And unlike other notable professional baseball leagues (such as those in Japan or South Korea) or those in other sports (the N.B.A., the W.N.B.A. and the N.H.L.), M.L.B. doesn’t halt or adjust its season for the Olympics.
In addition, active M.L.B. players cannot compete in the Olympics, which international sports officials raised concerns about as they discussed eliminating baseball in 2005.
At least one major league star has said he would like to see that policy changed.
“It is such a travesty to me — I’m not saying this as disrespect to minor-leaguers — the 2020 Olympics are in Tokyo, and you’re not sending big-league guys?” Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper said on a podcast last year. “Are you kidding me? You want to grow the game as much as possible, and you’re not going to let us play in the Olympics because you don’t want to cut out on money for a two-week period?”
There was some progress in March 2020, when the global governing body for the sport, the World Baseball Softball Confederation, announced that it had reached an agreement with M.L.B. and the M.L.B. players’ union that would allow players on 40-man rosters, but not those on the active 26-man roster, to participate in the Olympics and the qualifiers.
But the coronavirus pandemic suspended the 2020 season, and the agreement allowing players on 40-man rosters to participate lapsed because M.L.B. clubs need more reserve players in the event of virus outbreaks.
“I respect and I can understand the needs of the professional” leagues, Riccardo Fraccari, the president of the W.B.S.C., said in a video interview. “But in my opinion, there is space for everybody. And if we’re able to cooperate both in a good way, we can have the professionals developing good baseball, and we can for sure achieve the goal to be a really big sport.”
The rules certainly hamper the United States roster because it cannot feature American stars like Mike Trout, Jacob deGrom or Mookie Betts. But neither can Japan with Shohei Ohtani or Yu Darvish, nor the Dominican Republic with Fernando Tatis Jr. or Juan Soto, because they are all also M.L.B. players. The difference is, though, that professional leagues in Japan and South Korea, for example, take time off to allow the top players there to play in the Olympics.
“There’s clearly a disadvantage to the U.S. and other countries that are using major league organizational players,” said Sandy Alderson, the president of the Mets, who in his previous role with M.L.B.’s central office had lobbied to keep baseball in the Olympics.
Fraccari said he had never asked M.L.B. to pause its season but simply to allow the use some of its best players, perhaps for one week — not unlike the annual All-Star Week in July — but only once every four years.
M.L.B. and its players, though, are already invested in another international event every four years: the World Baseball Classic, which started in 2006, on the heels of the sport’s being booted from the Olympics. The W.B.C. schedule is easier to accommodate — it is held during M.L.B. spring training — and more major league players participate.
(The United States has also won that event just once, in 2017, with Japan, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, having won the first two, in 2006 and 2009. The 2021 W.B.C. was tentatively postponed to 2023 because of the pandemic.)
“I can’t imagine a situation where we would take the kind of break that would be necessary to have our best players in the Olympics,” Rob Manfred, M.L.B.’s commissioner, said in 2017. “As a result of that, we feel the W.B.C. is crucial as a substitute, a premier international tournament that allows our players to play for their countries.”
But for many, nothing can match the global appeal of the Games, the funding that comes with being an official Olympic sport and the allure of winning a gold medal.
For the 2000 Olympics, Alderson helped construct a U.S. roster that had a mix of veterans near the pinnacles of their careers, like catcher Pat Borders and outfielder Ernie Young, and up-and-coming prospects, such as first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and pitchers Roy Oswalt and Ben Sheets. The Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda led the squad.
In the final, known as the Miracle on Grass, the United States upset powerhouse Cuba, winner of the two previous gold medals, an achievement Alderson has said ranked as high as winning a World Series in 1989 as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics.
“It was an incredible experience, from the qualifier to winning the gold medal in Sydney,” Alderson said last year, adding later, “For a lot of the players who participated in that Olympics, it was the highlight of their career, because not many of them went on to be great major league players.”
Alderson has pondered several ideas for getting more participation from major leaguers. He has suggested playing the qualifying tournaments in M.L.B.’s off-season and condensing the Olympic Games to a week. Another idea: If major league players weren’t used, then the season could at least be paused for one day as a good-will gesture during the gold medal game so that the baseball world’s attention could focus on the Olympics.
“If we’re not going to send the best players, then let it be their day,” he said.
In building the U.S. player pool for the Americas Qualifier, Reagins said, challenges included players’ availability being affected by the pandemic, along with the volatility of not knowing if a player would be called up to the majors. Clubs also put various limitations, such as pitch counts, on their prospects.
Although others said there was some reluctance to loan prospects in the past, Reagins said M.L.B. clubs had been “very supportive,” as had the commissioner’s office. (Manfred said M.L.B. was excited when baseball and softball were announced as sports for the Tokyo Games.)
“Obviously the timing is not ideal for major league players, but we feel we put together really strong clubs that could compete for gold,” said Reagins, a former Los Angeles Angels general manager, who recommended that Mike Scioscia, the former Angels manager, be hired to lead Team U.S.A.
On Monday night, Scioscia will lead the United States against Nicaragua in Port St. Lucie. Over the following two days, the United States will also play two baseball strongholds: the Dominican Republic, whose roster includes the former All-Stars Jose Bautista and Melky Cabrera and the top outfield prospect Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners, and Puerto Rico.
Team U.S.A.’s roster has the most major-league experience in the tournament, with past All-Stars such as third baseman Todd Frazier, pitcher David Robertson and outfielder Matt Kemp — all in their mid-30s and unemployed. Among the prospects on the squad: pitchers Simeon Woods Richardson, 20, and Matthew Liberatore, 21.
The top national club to emerge from the tournament will earn an Olympic berth. The second- and third-place teams will advance to the final qualifier, originally scheduled for mid-June in Taiwan but recently shifted to Mexico because of rising virus cases and travel restrictions.
Baseball will be absent again at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris before its expected return in 2028 in Los Angeles. Perhaps M.L.B. and its players will want to play then, which could send a message that they want baseball as a permanent Olympic sport. But not having the United States in Tokyo this summer, when its national pastime is back for the first time since 2008, might undermine that mission.
“I can’t even fathom that our game is not represented in the Olympics,” the former star Yankees second baseman Willie Randolph, who has been a coach for the national team, said last year. “That, to me, would be — I’m sorry — embarrassing.”
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Roughly 2,800 inmates are behind bars at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, all of them men struggling with mental illness.
In fact, it's the nation's largest mental health facility.
"This has become the way to handle those that don't have the care they need out on the street," said Sgt. Francine Rizzio with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
But, some good things are happening at Twin Towers. Specifically on the fourth floor, where the inmates who need the most medical attention are seeing real progress.
Some four years ago, inmate Craigen Armstrong was among the general population at Men's Central Jail. After completing a series of education classes, he's now a Merit Master at Twin Towers - essentially a mental health assistant and group leader for a pod of inmates.
"You have guys who are battling schizophrenia. It's very challenging and it's a very severe illness," Armstrong said.
"Everyday for them is a struggle, so it's like watching them struggle but being there to assist them whenever they need me and they know they can depend on me," said Adrian Barumen. "So I really enjoy just being there with them everyday."
Armstrong, 40, and 25-year-old Barumen, a fellow Merit Master, are part of a Twin Towers team that includes sheriff's deputies, clinicians and psychiatric technician Sarah Tong.
"They pretty much do everything and they're amazing," said Tong.
She oversees three of the pods and the Merit Masters program. It's been in place for six years but with Armstrong and Barumen, she says the inmates are really responding.
"I know it's working because the violence has gone down. We don't have very many incidents at all. The re-hospitalization has gone down and people are just happier here," Tong added.
So what's different about the program?
"I think it's more just treating them like people," she said.
Tong says Armstrong and Barumen are like big brothers, making sure the inmates take their medication, contribute with chores and engage in group sessions.
Incentives are offered, but Armstrong and Barumen say they focus on creating daily habits and earning their trust.
"(There are) a lot of things that they'll tell us that they won't tell no one else, and so we use that information to help them," Armstrong said.
The program is going so well, the facility is adding a fourth pod. Armstrong and Barumen were allowed to interview and select the next Merit Masters and they've written a book to share what they've learned.
"When you're seeing something that works and you're in here, the natural human nature is you want to give it to other people so it could help them," said Armstrong. "We know there's other facilities, other counties, other places in the nation that can benefit."
Armstrong and Barumen admit they, too, are benefiting by seeing the deputies in a new light and finding a new purpose for themselves.
"I'm really learning how to feel, I'll tell you that much," Barumen said.
Cloud kitchens are already meant to reduce the burden of infrastructure on food and beverage brands by providing them with centralized facilities to prepare meals for delivery. This means the responsibility falls on cloud kitchen operators to make sure they have enough locations to meet demand from F&B clients, while ensuring fast deliveries to end customers.
Indonesian network DishServe has figured out a way to make running cloud kitchen networks even more asset-light. Launched by budget hotel startup RedDoorz’s former chief operating officer, DishServe partners with home kitchens instead of renting or buying its own facilities. It currently works with almost 100 home kitchens in Jakarta, and focuses on small- to medium-sized F&B brands, serving as their last-mile delivery network. Launched in fall 2020, DishServe has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from Insignia Ventures Partners.
DishServe was founded in September 2020 by Rishabh Singhi. After leaving RedDoorz at the end of 2019, Singhi moved to New York, with plans to launch a new hospitality startup that could quickly convert any commercial space into members’ clubs like Soho House. The nascent company had already created sample pre-fabricated rooms and was about to start leasing property when the COVID-19 lockdown hit New York City in March 2020. Singhi said he went on a “soul searching spree” for a couple of months, deciding what to do and if he should return to Southeast Asia.
He realized that since many restaurants had to switch to online orders and delivery to survive the pandemic, this could potentially be an equalizer for small F&B brands that compete with larger players, like McDonald’s. But lockdowns meant that a lot of people had to pick from a limited range of restaurants close to where they lived. At the same time, Singhi saw that there were a lot of people who wanted to make more money, but couldn’t work outside of their homes, like stay-at-home moms.
DishServe was created to connect all three sides: F&B brands that want to expand without spending a lot of money, home entrepreneurs and diners hungry for more food options. Its other founders include Stefanie Irma, an early RedDoorz employee who served as its country head for the Philippines; serial entrepreneur Vinav Bhanawat; and Fathhi Mohamed, who also co-founded Sri Lankan on-demand taxi service PickMe.
The company works with F&B brands that typically have between just one to 15 retail locations, and want to increase their deliveries without opening new outlets. DishServe’s clients also include cloud kitchen companies who use its home kitchen network for last-mile distribution to expand their delivery coverage and catering services.
“The brands don’t to have to incur any upfront costs, and it’s a cheaper way to distribute as well because they don’t have to pay for electricity, plumbing and other things like that,” said Singhi. “And for agents, it gives them a chance to earn money from their homes.”
How it works
Before adding a home kitchen to its network, DishServe screens applicants by asking them to send in a series of photos, then doing an in-person check. If a kitchen is accepted, DishServe upgrades it so it has the same equipment and functionality as the other home kitchens in its network. The company covers the cost of the conversion process, which usually takes about three hours and costs $500 USD, and maintains ownership of the equipment, taking it back if a kitchen decided to stop working with DishServe. Singhi said DishServe is usually able to recover the cost of a conversion four months after a kitchen begins operating.
Home kitchens start out by serving DishServe’s own white-label brand as a trial run before it opens to other brands. Each can serve up to three additional brands at a time.
One important thing to note is that DishServe’s home kitchens, which are usually run by one person, don’t actually cook any food. Ingredients are provided by F&B brands, and home kitchen operators follow a standard set of procedures to heat, assemble and package meals for pick-up and delivery.
Screenshots of DishServe’s apps for home kitchen operators and customers
DishServe makes sure standard operating procedures and hygiene standards are being maintained through frequent online audits. Agents, or kitchen operators, regularly submit photos and videos of kitchens based on a checklist (i.e. food preparation area, floors, walls, hand-washing area and the inside of their freezers). Singhi said about 90% of its agents are women between the ages of 30 to 55, with an average household income of $1,000. By working with DishServe, they typically make an additional $600 a month once their kitchen is operating at full capacity with four brands. DishServe monetizes through a revenue-sharing model, charging F&B brands and splitting that with its agents.
After joining DishServe, F&B brands pick what home kitchens they want to work with, and then distribute ingredients to kitchens, using DishServe’s real-time dashboard to monitor stock. Some ingredients have a shelf life of up to six months, while perishables, like produce, dairy and eggs, are delivered daily. DishServe’s “starter pack” for onboarding new brands lets them pick pick five kitchens, but Singhi said most brands usually begin with between 10 to 20 kitchens so they can deliver to more spots in Jakarta and save money by preparing meals in bulk.
DishServe plans to focus on growing its network in Jakarta until at least the end of this year, before expanding into other cities. “One thing we are trying to change about the F&B industry is that instead of highly-concentrated, centralized food business, like what exists today, we are decentralizing it by enabling micro-entrepreneurs to act as a distribution network,” Singhi said.
Social media personalities Dixie D'Amelio and Noah Beck at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort on May 2, 2021 in Anaheim, California.
Handout | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
The Covid pandemic made the past 14 months a literal roller coaster of a ride for both theme parks and their fans.
Parks shut down or didn't open at all last spring, and although some did reopen by summer, it was with strict capacity limits and stringent health and safety measures that put off some customers and definitely dented the fun factor for others.
Here's a look at how things are shaping up in 2021 for this part of the travel and tourism sector, and how prospective visitors can make the most out a theme park vacation as the pandemic winds down.
Pre-pandemic, things had been going well for the sector. The top 20 North American theme parks drew 159,108,000 visitors in 2019, 1% more than the year before, according to the 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index.
To draw even more visitors, park operators were rolling profits back into much-hyped, big-budget new attractions like the Jurassic World Velocicoaster at Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure in Florida and the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim.
People haven't forgotten those debuts were in the pipeline.
"A lot of families are opting into going to theme parks this year," said Trish Smith, a Kansas City, Missouri-based travel advisor affiliated with the InteleTravel network of home-based agents. "I've actually had more bookings at this point this year than I did in 2019.
"There are so many new attractions coming that a lot of people are like, 'Yeah, I don't want to miss out on that, and I want to be the first,'" she added.
Demand is especially pent-up in California, where parks didn't reopen until this April.
In fact, Michael Erstad, senior analyst, consumer for research firm M Science, said theme parks could see a return to former attendance levels as soon as next year. "I certainly think it's a possibility," he said. "It will all depend how things go with the virus for the rest of the year.
"I wouldn't count [a rebound] out."
Consumer data insights firm Cardify has found, unsurprisingly, that theme parks saw a big drop in consumer spending last year but "were able to recover a bit" by last summer by reopening with capacity restrictions. Now that cities and states are relaxing pandemic restrictions, parks are seeing what Cardify terms the "silver lining" for park operators — a new "sharp increase" in spending.
Cardify also found in a survey of 1,044 consumers that 72% are excited to return to amusement parks after the pandemic, more so than movie theaters (68%) or bars and clubs (67%). Only in-person concerts (79%) and sporting events (74%) are more eagerly awaited.
Theme parks "are in a much better spot" relative to cinemas, cruises, air travel, hotels and other entertainment options, said Erstad at M Science.
As at ski resorts, at theme parks "a lot of the experience is outdoors," he said, and therefore less risky in terms of exposure. "You do queue up for rides, but over the last year they've made enhancements to improve the purchasing decisions for food and beverage so you do a lot of things electronically."
So, where are thrill-seekers headed?
There are essentially two theme park markets in the U.S., although there is some crossover between them. Large destination parks — such as Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando, clustered together in central Florida — draw both domestic and international visitors for longer vacations, while regional parks, sometimes smaller and less heavily themed, attract more of a drive-in, day tripper demographic from nearby areas.
Examples of the latter type of park would include the 27 theme and water park properties operated in North America by Grand Prairie, Texas-based Six Flags Entertainment Corp. Some smaller yet highly themed parks, such as Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, straddle the line between the two categories.
(Interestingly, Disneyland boasts a global destination park profile but effectively operates as a regional park, drawing most visitors from its local southern California market. That said, the park — currently restricted to Californians — reopens to all visitors in full on June 15.)
Don't have any plans set in concrete; you've got to be a little flexible right now.
Trish Smith
InteleTravel-affiliated travel advisor
Consumer spending at Orlando parks has been recovering from last year's crash for months, with out-of-state visitors opening their wallets more than Florida residents, Erstad explained.
"I think it is a healthy sign for Disney and the destination-focused operators, as well as overall consumer appeal for theme parks in general this summer, [and] indicative of consumers seeking out this type of [mostly outdoor] entertainment," he said.
Florida's been among the least restrictive states when it comes to pandemic-related regulation, and Orlando area Disney, Universal and SeaWorld parks have all been open since last July. Temporary interstate travel restrictions and quarantine requirements tamped down on long-distance demand for a few months but were eventually eased by year-end.
While interest in Disney's Orlando parks is strong, "road trips close to home will be very popular this summer for regional theme parks like [Cedar Fair's] Kings Dominion [and] Cedar Point, Six Flags, Sesame Place, Busch Gardens and Dollywood," said Carolyn Moody, an InteleTravel advisor in Durham, North Carolina.
The jury's actually still out on how regional parks will fare, with a lack of real data for climate-related and corporate reasons at some venues, Erstad said.
Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., for example, took four of its 11 theme parks in the U.S. and Canada completely offline for most of 2020, even in jurisdictions that allowed limited opening with restricted capacity, and cut the operating season short in the rest. It had just 487 total operating days in 2020, compared to 2,224 in 2019.
"Cedar Fair has taken more of a conservative approach to things; they were the first to announce they'd honor 2020 pass holders into 20201 and took a cognizant decision to take a more cautious approach," Erstad said. "It's a little too early to look at some of your colder weather parks, although we've been seeing pretty healthy demand at the parks that are open."
This year, Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair plans on opening all its U.S. parks — such as Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Point, California, and Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina — by Memorial Day, although Canada's Wonderland, outside Toronto, Ontario, will remain closed. The company plans to debut attractions originally planned for 2020 and to spend an additional $100 million on new upgrades this year, said president and CEO Richard A. Zimmerman, in a May 5 statement, in anticipation of "strong pent-up consumer demand for closer-to-home, outdoor entertainment, particularly in the year's second half."
"We are pleased with the early leading indicators we have seen thus far, and our 2021 operating strategy is focused on maximizing performance during our seasonally weighted second half of the year," he added. "With our park openings right around the corner, we are once again seeing a lift in season pass sales."
Erstad, meanwhile, pointed to Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari in Jackson, New Jersey, as a regional park that opened early in the pandemic and did "extremely well last summer."
"That was just attributable to the fact they have the safari attraction, where you can be in your car with your family and socially distant from others," he noted.
The park, near New York City and Philadelphia, reopened its safari last May 30 to drivers with reservations, and then reopened its theme park portion at 25% capacity on July 3. The good response points to a lot of "pent-up demand," Erstad said.
Parks like those of Cedar Fair's that weren't open at all last year may see an initial spurt of visits but "I don't know that they're going to see a surge in demand the way Disney and some of the other larger parks have experienced," said Summer Hull, director of travel content at website The Points Guy.
"But I think that for some of the people who typically enjoy going to those spots, this may be the summer they do get back to them," she added.
Theme park tips and pivots
So, if you've decided to visit a theme park, what tips do travel advisors have?
Moody, a Disney specialist, said families considering theme parks this year should consult a travel advisor, "who can update clients on the latest CDC regulations, answer any questions, find the best deals, book everything from start to finish. and be a single point of contact throughout your trip."
She also recommends booking travel as early as possible, visiting parks early or late in the day to avoid crowds, buying tickets and remembering to make any required entry reservations, too.
Smith also stressed that last point. While Universal Orlando never required reservations and Six Flags scrapped them at its parks nationwide this month, visitors to Walt Disney World parks still need them — as does anyone visiting any of the newly reopened theme parks in California.
"Even if you buy the ticket, you're not guaranteed to get into the park that you want to go to, because that park may be booked up with reservations," she said.
Once in the park, follow any rules on masking and social distancing still in place — the situation is fluid and can change rapidly — but don't worry too much. There have not been any reports of Orlando-area parks becoming Covid hotspots since reopening.
"The theme parks have done a great job of keeping people safe," said Smith. "Even with more people being vaccinated, they're still taking safety into account …so I don't think there's going to be a big uptick in cases or anything."
The Points Guy's Hull has been to Walt Disney World three times since it reopened and said "it's been a blast."
"It's largely outdoors and they've done a great job of making it feel fun and at the same time safe in your own little 'Disney bubble,'" she said.
Also be open to change. "That's the biggest thing," Smith said. "Don't have any plans set in concrete; you've got to be a little flexible right now."
Hull agreed and said theme park guests who do their homework will have a great time this summer. "But those who assume it's just business as usual are going to have a few surprises awaiting them," she said, noting that many parts of larger destination parks — from hotels to restaurants to rides — are still not online or operating at normal capacities.
"You've got to line some stuff up in a way you might not have before and still go in with tempered expectations for things around dining, housekeeping and other elements that are still sort of pandemic-era and haven't gotten back to normal yet."
(Disclosure: CNBC and Universal Parks & Resorts are both subsidiaries of NBCUniversal, owned by parent Comcast.)
Written off as too old to race full-time, too old for a fourth Indianapolis 500 win, Helio Castroneves at long last joined that exclusive club in a popular victory for the old guys.
Then Spider-Man scaled the Indianapolis Motor Speedway fence for his trademark victory celebration at the largest sporting event since the start of the pandemic.
Castroneves wasn't done yet. At 46 and one of the oldest drivers in the field, he ran along the frontstretch of the speedway waving to the 135,000 fans in attendance. He pumped his arms in the air and waved to the ecstatic crowd, his explosion of emotional energy stopped every few feet by a flood of rivals who rushed onto the track to congratulate him.
Almost every member of Team Penske rushed out to meet Castroneves, including former teammate Will Power, who saw the final scoring pylon and had no idea his longtime friend won.
"I was looking up and down, 'Who is the 06?'" Power told Castroneves in a victory hug. "You're a legend."
Castroneves became the fourth-oldest winner in Indianapolis 500 history, behind Al Unser (47, 1987), Bobby Unser (47, 1981) and Emerson Fittipaldi (46, 1993).
"It means a lot," Castroneves said of the reception. "I've been in the sport for a long time, and I hope I have more friends than actual enemies. And even those who don't like me, I hope they understand that this is a very difficult place to achieve. And that meant we did something very special."
After more than two decades driving for Team Penske, winning three Indy 500 with them, Castroneves was eventually phased over to the sports car program, where he won the IMSA championship last season before Roger Penske shuttered the team and made the business decision to cut Castroneves loose.
Spider-Man insisted he was not done racing, and Michael Shank agreed. He hired Castroneves for the Indy 500 to complement the one-car Meyer Shank Racing team. Maybe Castroneves would have a shot to win, but he would also boost a team that needed some veteran leadership at one of the most challenging tracks in the world.
His last Indy 500 win was in 2009, and Castroneves has been trying since to join A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears, his former mentor at Team Penske, as the only four-time winners of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." Mears was the last driver to join the club in 1991.
"I love Indianapolis! You guys don't understand it! The fans, you give me energy," Castroneves said.
Castroneves, who also won the 500 in 2001 and 2002, was part of the winning Rolex 24 Daytona sports car team in January, taking the prestigious sports car event for the first time. This was the only IndyCar race on Castroneves' schedule this season.
"I've run two races this year and won two races, I'd say that's pretty good," said Castroneves, who noted this might be the year for aging veterans. "I don't know if this is a good comparison, but Tom Brady won the Super Bowl and Phil Mickelson won the golf [PGA Championship], so here you go. The older guys are still kicking the younger guys' butts."
It was a stark contrast to the recent theme of young drivers taking over IndyCar, which now has six different winners through six races this season. Three of them have been first-time winners, and four are drivers age 24 or younger.
Castroneves found himself in a closing duel with one of the young stars, 24-year-old Spaniard Alex Palou, but he passed Palou for good with two laps remaining and beat him by 0.4928 seconds for the victory.
"It hurts. It hurts a lot. I didn't expect a second place to hurt that much," said Palou, who took the series points lead.
Castroneves, who has three runner-up finishes at Indy, said Palou "had a great car and did everything he possibly could. Last year, he didn't finish. This year he finished second, so that's a big improvement."
When he finally made it to victory lane -- after a kiss from Mario Andretti, a hug from Johnny Rutherford and well wishes from just about every Indy 500 great -- Castroneves sipped from his bottle of 2% milk and then dumped the rest over his head.
As he climbed into the back of a convertible for his true victory lap around the 2.5-mile speedway, most of the fans were still in the stands cheering Castroneves.
Former Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud, the 2019 Indy winner, was third, followed by Pato O'Ward, the 21-year-old budding IndyCar star.
"I felt like we had a very competitive car, a car that for sure could have won the race," O'Ward said. "I didn't have enough for them. I didn't have enough speed."
The race was the fastest Indianapolis 500 in history, with an average speed of 190.690 mph. That broke the record of 187.433 set in 2013.
A year ago, no fans were allowed for the race that was delayed from May to August. This year, celebrities were back and fans were everywhere, and they were treated to a win by one of the most popular drivers in Indy 500 history.
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