AP PHOTOS: David Beckham to be awarded a knighthood by King Charles
London, ENGLAND (AP) — David Beckham, the former England soccer captain who has been an ambassador for the U.N. children's fund for two decades, is to receive a knighthood in next week's honors list from King Charles III, according to U.K. media reports Friday.
Without citing sources, the BBC said Beckham is set to receive further recognition both for his soccer career, and his contributions to British society.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
A cracking good read
Oology: the study — and the cherishing — of bird eggs. The Impossible Thing is largely stock mystery thriller, yet unconventionally centred on a bunch of rabid oologists, spanning decades and decades. British mystery-writer Belinda Bauer here switches gears rather dramatically from her usual trilogy fare featuring small towns beset by far too many clever, terrifying murderers inevitably entrapped by humble heroes, and opts instead to test the limits of wrapping a 'thriller' around characters — historical and contemporary — who behave in quite crazed ways because they over-value birds' eggs, in the extreme. Jay Brooks photo Belinda Bauer was named to the Booker Prize long list for her 2018 novel, Snap. The breathless opening scene of this precious egg caper plops us into the point-of-view of an apparently good-guy sniper, utterly in the middle of chasing an obviously dastardly black hat named Matthew Barr. This hook has the scant details and the onus-on-the-reader feel of a desperately clever Cold War spy caper. It chucks in murky waves of movement, absolutely nothing of dialogue nor explanations, and a big dose of our guy's driven, nigh-maniacal inner thoughts. We quickly get our man, Matthew, and pin him down so that we might pontificate at him and his gross ideology. And here we first encounter our oological MacGuffin. Why have we been chasing Matthew as if the safety of the free world depended on our valorous efforts? Because Matthew had stolen some eggs. Cut immediately to the historical set-piece as we are flung back to the 1920s. Here, we meet and follow lovely teenage Celie Sheppard and her charmingly, painfully oafish, (Of Mice and Men's) Lennie-style friend, Robert. These two are the opposite of dastardly — they are mismatched, quaint and endearing, with a touch of pathetic. The reader can't help but adore them as they do the most unusual thing: hulking Robert ties one end of a heavy rope around himself and the other to a frighteningly makeshift sitting contraption for wee Celie, and he delicately, lovingly (you can see it coming from oh-so-afar) lowers her down through 'The Crack,' a devilishly beckoning fissure in a blood-curdling overhang that teeters atop the cliffs that survey the chilling, blustering North Sea. Why is sweet Robert dangling his beloved Celie's fragile life? Because beneath that overhang nest hundreds of guillemots. At least once a year, these otherwise ordinary seabirds settle under that dramatically protective ledge to lay their eggs, one per guillemot couple. They're beautifully coloured eggs, extraordinary in their peculiar variations of hue — no two eggs are precisely the same colour, nor sport the same intricate patterns. These snowflake eggs therefore are ridiculously valuable and insanely coveted — by keen, studious oologists, to be sure, but also by far-too-wealthy, early 20th-century British male snobs. Dainty Celie and lumbering Robert eke their way through their harsh existence by, just once a year, poaching one of those prized eggs. Jump back to the present and we meet two differently charming, very young men (although, again, the charm is purchased mostly by grand awkwardness): Patrick and Nick. Nick has a tag, one that just about captures this whole book: he's known as Weird Nick. We never really learn why, but nonetheless must agree wholeheartedly — this fellow was bestowed with an apt epithet. In any case, stashed up in the attic of Nick's mother's house is one of these vital eggs that a century ago Celie and Robert had so frightfully and fatefully retrieved. Immediately and inevitably it is stolen before poor Nick realizes the nature of the thing he was just about roosting on — and the prolonged chase scene is on. Two teenage buds who bonded over Call of Duty fling themselves into a real-life sortie, bumbling their way over harrowing hill and through daunting dale to get that darned egg back. The Impossible Thing You end up with spectacularly colourful, spectacularly invaluable 1920s eggs and the conflicting quests not only for ownership of them but also for some kind of philosophical comprehension of their essential meaning driving a — let's be honest, weirdly — gripping scramble across divergent time and rural place. It's a lot. Yet somehow, it works. In some spades. In 2018, Bauer was unexpectedly longlisted for the Booker Prize for her eighth novel, Snap. Bauer's books are hardly rarefied literature. Still, they are sporadically sprinkled with exquisite moments of diction and syntax, moments that catch one's breath, even as they are so fleeting. One can only imagine that the sum of such moments in Snap achieved some sort of critical mass that garnered Bauer the celebratory nod. Good. The Impossible Thing (Bauer's 10th book) will not likely repeat the feat. (Again: it's about frantically, irrationally chasing bird eggs.) But it oozes the charm of its quirky props and their dogged pursuers — eggs, and the oologists who adore them so. Laurence Broadhurst teaches English and religion at St. Paul's High School in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Stanley Cup Final for old men: Brad Marchand and Corey Perry shine on hockey's biggest stage
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Brad Marchand and Corey Perry are by far the oldest players in the Stanley Cup Final. Marchand just turned 37 last month, and Perry is 40. Naturally, they combined for a third of the goals in Game 2 on Friday night, showing this is indeed a Cup final for old men, not for the earth but certainly in hockey. Marchand scored his second of the game to win it in double overtime for the Florida Panthers after Perry got the latest tying goal in the history of the final in the waning moments of regulation to give the Edmonton Oilers hope. 'You saying he's old, or what?' teammate Seth Jones said of Marchand. 'I'm going to tell him you said that. He's a dog. He's a gamer. He's a competitor. He brings so much energy to our team on and off the ice.' Where does that energy come from to play 22 important minutes? Anton Lundell hopes it comes from him and fellow linemate Eetu Luostarinen, the pups keeping an older dog like Marchand feeling young. 'He likes to spend time and be around us,' said Lundell, who set up each of Marchand's breakaway goals. 'He's in great shape, and it seems like nothing is stopping him.' Marchand is not slowing down in his 16th NHL season and 13th playoff run, the first away from the Boston Bruins. He is in the final for a fourth time, this one 14 years removed from his first when he and Boston also faced a Canadian team, the Vancouver Canucks, and won the Cup to keep the country's title drought going. His two-goal game came on the anniversary of scoring short-handed on Roberto Luongo in the 2011 final. Luongo now works for the Panthers in their front office and posted on social media after the game, 'Favorite player of all time.' 'Lu is awesome,' said Marchand, whose 10 goals in the final are the most among active players, one more than Perry. 'Happy to be on his team.' Perry even longer ago helped beat a Canadian team in the final when he and Anaheim defeated Ottawa in 2007. He's playing for the Cup for a sixth time in his career and for the fourth time over the past five years and is still producing at important moments. His tying goal with 17.8 seconds on the clock in the third period was just the latest example. 'Determination, finding a way to find the puck and then obviously putting it in the net. He's got a skill for that,' Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. 'Knowing in the playoffs it's hard to score and you need guys around the net and finding ways, he's as good as anybody finding ways to score.' Plenty of folks might be surprised to see Marchand and Perry doing this at their advanced ages. Paul Maurice, who has coached more games than anyone in NHL history except for Scotty Bowman, is not one of them. Maurice credits rule changes coming out of the 2004-05 lockout and sports science around the league for paving the way for players to contributed later into their 30s and even 40s. 'I think we're coming into an age of that,' Maurice said. 'A tremendous amount of care for the players, whether that's the meals that they eat, how we travel — there's a lot of money that goes into allowing these players to play. The old guys and the young guys benefit from the rule change, and they're better fit, conditioned athletes over their entire lives.' Marchand has his own routine, one that goes beyond the Dairy Queen Blizzard jokes that keep swirling around him this playoffs. He rode a stationary bike before overtime, something he likes to do after most periods. 'You're trying to keep your legs going in overtime,' Marchand said. 'Keep them feeling good.' The Panthers are feeling good after acquiring Marchand at the deadline from Boston and unleashing him for goals in Game 2 that tied the series. Winger Matthew Tkachuk thinks Marchand scored two of their biggest goals during this run, aging like a fine wine. 'Hopefully he can keep it going,' Tkachuk said. Unreal player, unreal competitor. … 'He could play till he's 47 the way he's going.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
David Attenborough's ‘Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wakeup call from the sea
NICE, France (AP) — An ominous chain unspools through the water. Then comes chaos. A churning cloud of mud erupts as a net plows the seafloor, wrenching rays, fish and a squid from their home in a violent swirl of destruction. This is industrial bottom trawling. It's not CGI. It's real. And it's legal. 'Ocean With David Attenborough' is a brutal reminder of how little we see and how much is at stake. The film is both a sweeping celebration of marine life and a stark exposé of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse. The British naturalist and broadcaster, now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: 'After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.' The film traces Attenborough's lifetime — an era of unprecedented ocean discovery — through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests and deep-sea wanderers, captured in breathtaking, revelatory ways. But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. 'Ocean' is more urgent, more unflinching. Never-before-seen footage of mass coral bleaching, dwindling fish stocks and industrial-scale exploitation reveals just how vulnerable the sea has become. The film's power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed. 'I think we've got to the point where we've changed so much of the natural world that it's almost remiss if you don't show it,' co-director Colin Butfield said. 'Nobody's ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before. And yet it's happening practically everywhere.' The practice is not only legal, he adds, but often subsidized. 'For too long, everything in the ocean has been invisible,' Butfield said. 'Most people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They're not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed.' In one harrowing scene, mounds of unwanted catch are dumped back into the sea already dead. About 10 million tons (9 million metrics tonnes) of marine life are caught and discarded each year as bycatch. In some bottom trawl fisheries, discards make up more than half the haul. Still, 'Ocean' is no eulogy. Its final act offers a stirring glimpse of what recovery can look like: kelp forests rebounding under protection, vast marine reserves teeming with life and the world's largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii's Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. These aren't fantasies; they're evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance. Timed to World Oceans Day and the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, the film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 — a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. But today, just 2.7% of the ocean is effectively protected from harmful industrial activity. The film's message is clear: The laws of today are failing the seas. So-called 'protected' areas often aren't. And banning destructive practices like bottom trawling is not just feasible — it's imperative. As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. 'This could be the moment of change,' he says. 'Ocean' gives us the reason to believe — and the evidence to demand — that it must be. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'Ocean' premieres Saturday on National Geographic in the U.S. and streams globally on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Sunday. ___ Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit
