Last June, Minnesota United’s season began to crater.

The Loons suffered a combination of players away on international duty and a few injuries during a nine-match winless skid from June 8 through July 17.

MNUFC rebounded by the end of July to surge into the MLS Cup Playoffs, but that sour stretch still sticks with Eric Ramsay.

“We were entering the dark days about now last year,” the head coach said a week ago.

United is in a much better position this season. The team is healthier (Hassani Dotson’s season-ending knee injury is the only major absence), fewer players are gone with their respective national teams, and Ramsay believes the overall squad is deeper.

“I think the players and us as a group all will feel that sense of responsibility to make sure that when those guys get back, we are in a good place,” Ramsay said.

Minnesota will have four players gone to play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup: goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and striker Tani Oluwaseyi (Canada); wingback Joseph Rosales (Honduras) and center back/center midfielder Carlos Harvey (Panama). They could miss up to four matches into early July.

Last year’s skid started with 11 players out for the 1-1 home draw against FC Dallas on June 8. This year, the Loons were off when the international window hit the hardest with six absences.

Since then, Loons leaders Michael Boxall (New Zealand) and Robin Lod (Finland) finished their international duties on Tuesday and are expected to return to training in Blaine before Saturday’s home match against San Diego FC.

The biggest absences going forward will be St. Clair — who leads MLS with eight shutouts — and Oluwaseyi, tied for 10th in MLS with eight goals scored.

Goalkeeper

Backups Alec Smir and Wessel Speel, an un-drafted rookie from Duke, both appear in line to to play in MLS this summer. The 6-foot-7 Speel was a surprise selection over Smir in both of the Loons’ U.S. Open Cup wins to reach the quarterfinals.

“We wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that we saw Wessel in a really competitive context,” Ramsay said. “I’ve been really pleasantly surprised with (the 23-year-old Dutchman). I think everyone who is involved in the group has felt a real level of trust that is perhaps not common with someone with that depth of experience.”

Ramsay has raved about Speel’s size and strong leg for distribution on goal kicks covering most of the field. “He has some ingredients that are really hard to come by,” the coach said.

“Alec will be desperately fighting for that spot because he’s done really well for us and he’s a really well-liked guy … a real team player,” Ramsay said. “He does that well and he supports the group.”

Striker

Kelvin Yeboah is the most-obvious choice to step in for Oluwaseyi; the two strikers were playing together at the same time until Ramsay chanced the formation to one striker.

The most-glaring issue with Yeboah is the Italian/Ghanian hasn’t scored an MLS goal since March — albeit he did get on the scoresheet in the Open Cup win over St. Louis on May 21.

Besides Yeboah, Sang Bin Jeong and Bongi Hlongwane could get wishes for more playing in attacking positions. Then there is 17-year-old Darius Randell, who just signed a first-team, homegrown contract.

Ramsay sees the St. Michael, Minn., resident as a forward who can help change the game with his athleticism, pace and dribbling abilities. He scored the winning goal in the Open Cup win over Louisville on May 7.

“It won’t be token-gesture minutes, nor minutes from a perspective of publicity around young players,” Ramsay said. “He can definitely go and make a mark. He’s shown that in the Cup games.”

Wingback

Rosales is not just away with Honduras, he could be on his way out of Minnesota at some point this summer. GiveMeSport reported Wednesday MNUFC is expecting other clubs to bid on Rosales this summer after rejecting an offer from an Italian club in Serie A over the winter.

Anthony Markanich has developed into a capable replacement at left wingback, and with Rosales’ injuries and three-match suspension, the pair have nearly evenly split playing time this season.

Central spots

With the versatile Harvey gone with Panama, the Loons have developed cover with Jefferson Diaz and Morris Duggan at center back and Owen Gene in midfield. Hoyeon Jung, however, remains on the outside looking in at midfield.

Gene earned his first MLS start in the 3-2 win at Seattle on June 1. “I think he did an amazing job for a 21-year-old kid,” midfield partner Wil Trapp said afterward.

Gene didn’t want to join Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup in order to solidify a spot with MNUFC.

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

The defense in the second trial of Karen Read rested its case on Wednesday and said Read was framed for the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.

Read, 45, is accused of fatally striking O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside another officer’s home when she dropped him off at a party in January 2022 after the two had been drinking. She’s charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene in Canton, outside Boston.

Prosecutors have said Read intentionally struck O’Keefe with her sport utility vehicle and left him to die. Read’s defense has suggested she was the victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy that included planting evidence and using her as a convenient scapegoat for her boyfriend’s death.

Defense attorneys in the case have accused the prosecution of twisting Read’s words into a confession she never made. The state has pointed to a television interview in which Read said, “I mean, I didn’t think I ‘hit him’ hit him, but I could I have clipped him?”

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That’s not a confession but a person expressing genuine concern during a desperate situation, defense attorney Alan Jackson has said.

“That’s a person trying to make sense of an unexplainable circumstance, a natural concern of a bereaved significant other,” he said.

A crash expert who testified for the defense said, based on tests he performed, the damage to Read’s taillight and O’Keefe’s clothing was inconsistent with her SUV striking an arm or body at the speed described by the prosecution.

Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a former medical examiner called by the defense, said O’Keefe’s injuries were indeed consistent with blunt force trauma to the back of the head, but that his eye wounds were not consistent with being hit by the rear of Read’s SUV. She also testified she did not think O’Keefe was hit by the SUV at all.

The defense also unsuccessfully sought a mistrial earlier in the second trial. Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. The attempt for a second mistrial hinged on a defense theory that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home where the party took place, and that he was bitten by a family dog and then left outside as part of a conspiracy by the police that included planting evidence against Read.

The defense team tried for a second mistrial after the prosecution pointed out that no dog DNA was found on O’Keefe. The defense said there had been no mention in the trial about DNA and the dog bite, and argued that raising the subject while questioning Russell had prejudiced the jury.

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone said the trial could proceed.

The defense has also attempted to show that police were biased against Read from the start and wanted to pin O’Keefe’s death on her. Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of Michael Proctor, the lead investigator of Read’s case, was asked by the defense team to read text messages that Proctor sent to friends about the investigation.

Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues. His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys used his text messages to attempt to show that Proctor was biased and ignored the possibility of other suspects.

The next big step in the case is closing statements from both sides. The case will then go to the jury.

Most people think of a yo-yo as going up and down. But Dave Schulte, also known as “Dazzling Dave,” says yo-yoing looks different at the Midwest Regional Yo-Yo Championship.

Schulte has been organizing the contest since its creation in 1998 and is one of the 16 official masters in the National Yo-Yo League.

“This yo-yo is not like the yo-yo you’re thinking of,” Schulte said. “Most people walk away flabbergasted, thinking ‘I would have tied that in a whole bunch of knots,’ because it is, you know, way more advanced than it used to be.”

The contest will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Huntington Bank Rotunda in the Mall of America. All skill levels can compete in the contest, which will feature a Beginner’s Luck division where competitors can perform beginner yo-yo tricks like the windup, dribble and forward pass to earn raffle tickets for prizes.

The championship division will begin at noon. Winners in this division earn a seed in the National Yo-Yo Contest June 27 in Las Vegas.

Ben Gates is the coordinator of videography for the National Yo-Yo League. Gates said the format of a yo-yo tournament is comparable to a figure skating tournament. Spectators watch competitors perform a choreographed yo-yo routine to music in front of a judging panel.

“It’s a very niche hobby, but, you know, in some ways, it’s an art form, like a performance art,” Gates said. “And to others, it’s a competitive sport.”

Gates and Schulte said the yo-yo community is rebuilding its contest circuit after a three-year window without competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During those three years, a lot of the kids that were just getting into it didn’t have a support structure to keep them at it,” Schulte said. “It was really a tough restart as far as making sure to get enough people at the event and making sure it was going to work.”

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The National Yo-Yo League used to have nine regional contests across the country. After the pandemic, the league has cut back to three or four each year — the other 2025 regional competitions were held in Oregon and New Jersey. But Schulte said he expects to have nearly 50 competitors at the championship Saturday. He sees some of his closest friends a few times a year at these contests, which provide an in-person space for the yo-yo community to connect.

“People will be trading tricks, teaching tricks to one another and showing off, you know, new things they’ve been working on,” Gates said. “People trade yo-yos and all kinds of things. It’s a very lively community.”

For more information, visit the contest website at yoyocontest.com/mwr.

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A string of recent cyberattacks and data breaches involving the systems of major retailers have started affecting shoppers.

United Natural Foods, a wholesale distributor that supplies Whole Foods and other grocers, said this week that a breach of its systems was disrupting its ability to fulfill orders — leaving many stores without certain items.

In the U.K., consumers could not order from the website of Marks & Spencer for more than six weeks — and found fewer in-store options after hackers targeted the British clothing, home goods and food retailer. A cyberattack on Co-op, a U.K. grocery chain, also led to empty shelves in some stores.

FILE – A bus passes a branch of Marks and Spencer in London, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

Cyberattacks have been on the rise across industries. But infiltrations of corporate technology carry their own set of implications when the target is a consumer-facing business.

Beyond potentially halting sales of physical goods, breaches can expose customers’ personal data to future phishing or fraud attempts.

Here’s what you need to know.

Cyberattacks are on the rise overall

Despite ongoing efforts from organizations to boost their cybersecurity defenses, experts note that cyberattacks continue to increase across the board.

In the past year, there’s also been an “uptick in the retail victims” of such attacks, said Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a U.S. nonprofit.

“Cyber criminals are moving a little quicker than we are in terms of securing our systems,” he said.

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Ransomware attacks — in which hackers demand a hefty payment to restore hacked systems — account for a growing share of cyber crimes, experts note. And of course, retail isn’t the only affected sector. Tracking by NCC Group, a global cybersecurity and software escrow firm, showed that industrial businesses were most often targeted for ransomware attacks in April, followed by companies in the “consumer discretionary” sector.

Attackers know there’s a particular impact when going after well-known brands and products that shoppers buy or need every day, experts note.

“Creating that chaos and that panic with consumers puts pressure on the retailer,” Steinhauer said, especially if there’s a ransom demand involved.

Ade Clewlow, an associate director and senior adviser at the NCC Group, points specifically to food supply chain disruptions. Following the cyberattacks targeting M&S and Co-op, for example, supermarkets in remote areas of the U.K., where inventory already was strained, saw product shortages.

“People were literally going without the basics,” Clewlow said.

Personal data is also at risk

Along with impacting business operations, cyber breaches may compromise customer data. The information can range from names and email addresses, to more sensitive data like credit card numbers, depending on the scope of the breach. Consumers therefore need to stay alert, according to experts.

“If (consumers have) given their personal information to these retailers, then they just have to be on their guard. Not just immediately, but really going forward,” Clewlow said, noting that recipients of the data may try to commit fraud “downstream.”

Fraudsters might send look-alike emails asking a retailer’s account holders to change their passwords or promising fake promotions to get customers to click on a sketchy link. A good rule of thumb is to pause before opening anything and to visit the company’s recognized website or call an official customer service hotline to verify the email, experts say.

It’s also best not to reuse the same passwords across multiple websites — because if one platform is breached, that login information could be used to get into other accounts, through a tactic known as “credential stuffing.” Steinhauer adds that using multifactor authentication, when available, and freezing your credit are also useful for added lines of defense.

Which companies have reported recent cybersecurity incidents?

A range of consumer-facing companies have reported cybersecurity incidents recently — including breaches that have caused some businesses to halt operations.

United Natural Foods, a major distributor for Whole Foods and other grocers across North America, took some of its systems offline after discovering “unauthorized activity” on June 5.

In a securities filing, the company said the incident had impacted its “ability to fulfill and distribute customer orders.” United Natural Foods said in a Wednesday update that it was “working steadily” to gradually restore the services.

Still, that’s meant leaner supplies of certain items this week. A Whole Foods spokesperson told The Associated Press via email that it was working to restock shelves as soon as possible. The Amazon-owned grocer’s partnership with United Natural Foods currently runs through May 2032.

Meanwhile, a security breach detected by Victoria’s Secret last month led the popular lingerie seller to shut down its U.S. shopping site for nearly four days, as well as to halt some in-store services. Victoria’s Secret later disclosed that its corporate systems also were affected, too, causing the company to delay the release of its first quarter earnings.

Several British retailers — M&S, Harrods and Co-op — have all pointed to impacts of recent cyberattacks. The attack targeting M&S, which was first reported around Easter weekend, stopped it from processing online orders and also emptied some store shelves.

The company estimated last month that the it would incur costs of 300 million pounds ($400 million) from the attack. But progress towards recovery was shared Tuesday, when M&S announced that some of its online order operations were back — with more set to be added in the coming weeks.

Other breaches exposed customer data, with brands like Adidas, The North Face and reportedly Cartier all disclosing that some contact information was compromised recently.

In a statement, The North Face said it discovered a “small-scale credential stuffing attack” on its website in April. The company reported that no credit card data was compromised and said the incident, which impacted 1,500 consumers, was “quickly contained.”

Meanwhile, Adidas disclosed last month that an “unauthorized external party” obtained some data, which was mostly contact information, through a third-party customer service provider.

Whether or not the incidents are connected is unknown. Experts like Steinhauer note that hackers sometimes target a piece of software used by many different companies and organizations. But the range of tactics used could indicate the involvement of different groups.

Companies’ language around cyberattacks and security breaches also varies — and may depend on what they know when. But many don’t immediately or publicly specify whether ransomware was involved.

Still, Steinhauer says the likelihood of ransomware attacks is “pretty high” in today’s cybersecurity landscape — and key indicators can include businesses taking their systems offline or delaying financial reporting.

Overall, experts say it’s important to build up “cyber hygiene” defenses and preparations across organizations.

“Cyber is a business risk, and it needs to be treated that way,” Clewlow said.