The two best high school girls’ volleyball teams in California, and possibly America, will meet for the Southern Section Division 1 volleyball title at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Cerritos College, where top-seeded Mater Dei takes on second-seeded Sierra Canyon.

The Trailblazers from Chatsworth and Monarchs from Santa Ana are meeting in the finals for a third consecutive season. Mater Dei swept the title match in 2024 and Sierra Canyon prevailed in four sets last November.

Both teams are loaded with talent. Mater Dei is led by UCLA-bound outside hitter Westley Matavao, middle blocker and Cal commit Emma Kingston, libero and San Francisco State commit Savanah Capinpin and outside hitters Saaliyah Brown (Long Beach State) and Katherine Nowak (Georgetown). Sierra Canyon counters with Missouri-bound setter Lucky Fasavalu (Matavao’s cousin), Nebraska-bound middle blocker Kendall Omoruyi, Tennessee-bound opposite hitter Eva Jeffries and outside hitters McKenna McIntosh (USC) and Hanna McGinest (Texas Tech).

Mater Dei (38-1) dealt the Trailblazers their only loss, 25-18, 25-17, in the gold division final at the Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas on Sept. 19. The Monarchs’ lone defeat came 11 days later at Trinity League rival Santa Margarita. Sierra Canyon (32-1) swept Santa Margarita in nonleague play Sept. 16.

In the preceding Division 2 final at 3:30, Redondo Union takes on Long Beach Poly in a rematch of the teams’ nonleague meeting just before the playoffs in which the visiting Jackrabbits (28-7) prevailed in five sets. Pacing the Sea Hawks (22-11) is libero Addison Choi, who is committed to play beach volleyball at Oregon. Poly is led by Irvine-bound outside hitter McKennah Iamaleava.

West Valley League rivals Taft and Cleveland will battle for the City Section Open Division championship at 6 p.m. Saturday at Birmingham High. Mayli Hernandez had 22 kills in the fourth-seeded Toreadors’ five-set semifinal upset of No. 1 Venice. Taft (33-7) is making its fourth finals appearance in five seasons and is chasing its sixth title. AnaJoleen Bell and fellow hitter Cate Friedman lead the third-seeded Cavaliers (31-11), who beat Taft twice in league play and are after their first section crown.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) operates an increasingly diverse fleet of helicopters spanning everything from basic pilot training and battlefield transport to airborne early warning, anti-submarine warfare, and dedicated attack missions.

The force reflects decades of development, often beginning with helicopters acquired from France and later produced under license, before transitioning to increasingly indigenous designs. The result is a mix of older aircraft that have undergone extensive modernization and newer platforms designed around the requirements of China’s expanding military, including its growing carrier and amphibious assault fleets.

The Z-8 family, originally derived from the Cold War-era French Super Frelon, is a particularly good example of this evolution. It has spawned a wide range of specialized variants, including search and rescue, transport, electronic warfare, and airborne command post helicopters. Meanwhile, the Z-20 — frequently alluded to as a Sikorsky S-70/H-60 clone — has emerged as a modern medium-lift platform with land-based, naval, and assault variants, while the Z-10 and newer Z-21 represent China’s growing emphasis on dedicated attack helicopters.

This guide examines the principal helicopter types operated by the PLA, their development, and the roles they are expected to perform.

At the same time, it should be noted that, as it now stands, the PLA remains heavily reliant on foreign-sourced helicopters for a wide variety of applications.

Russian-built helicopters give the PLA a mix of transport and specialized naval capabilities. The Mi-17/171 Hip family supports troop and cargo movement, search and rescue, special operations, and select high-altitude or mission-specific roles. At sea, the Ka-28 Helix provides anti-submarine warfare, while the Ka-31’s radar supports airborne fleet surveillance. These aircraft remain in service where their established capabilities continue to meet operational needs. However, they are increasingly supplemented by Chinese designs, including certain designs that have been tailored to provide direct replacements.

Utility, Training, and Light Helicopters

HC-120

The HC-120 is a light utility helicopter derived from the EC120, a design co-developed by China, France, and Singapore during the 1990s. The type entered service with PLA Army Aviation in 2005, providing a modern platform for primary helicopter training and replacing the aging SA316 Alouette III in that role.

The HC-120 is powered by a single Turbomeca Arrius 2F turboshaft engine. Its introduction represented an important step in modernizing the Army Aviation training fleet, giving pilots experience with a more contemporary helicopter before transitioning to larger operational types.

Z-11

The Z-11 is a light utility helicopter developed by Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation (CHAIC) and the 602 Research Institute. The design is based on the French AS350BA Écureuil, examples of which were acquired for Army Aviation.

Deliveries of the Z-11 to Army Aviation began in 1998. The helicopter is powered by a single WZ-8D turboshaft engine and is primarily used for training, liaison, and other light utility duties.

A scout and armed reconnaissance derivative, designated as the Z-11WB, was developed with a nose-mounted electro-optical (EO) turret and external weapon pylons capable of carrying rockets, missiles, and gun pods. Its operational status remains unclear, although it provided the basis for the unarmed Z-11A training helicopter used by the Army Aviation Academy.

The Z-8 Family: From French Origins To A Modern Helicopter Lineage

Z-8J

The Z-8 was developed from the French SA321Ja Super Frelon, 13 examples of which China purchased during the late 1970s. Changhe Aircraft Industries Corporation subsequently developed an indigenous version during the 1980s.

Powered by three WZ-6 turboshaft engines, the original Z-8 became the foundation for a broad family of helicopters serving the PLA Navy (PLAN), Army Aviation, and People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

The Z-8J is the naval transport variant, with a boat-like hull. For anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions, the helicopter can be equipped with a surface-search radar, a French HS-12 dipping sonar, and Whitehead A244S or ET52 torpedoes.

Several specialized derivatives were developed from the Z-8J:

• Z-8S: A naval search and rescue (SAR) version with upgraded avionics, a searchlight, a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) turret, and a rescue hoist. Most Z-8Js have reportedly been upgraded to this configuration.
• Z-8JH: A medical evacuation and SAR variant.

The Z-8J and Z-8JH have both been used aboard Chinese aircraft carriers, providing transport and support capabilities for embarked naval forces.

Z-8C

The Z-8C represents a substantially improved successor to the original naval Z-8J series. The helicopter was first reported in 2016 and incorporates a number of changes intended to improve its performance and operational versatility.

The most visible differences include a redesigned nose with a chin-mounted weather radar, a FLIR turret, and a pilot night-vision system (PNVS) mounted above the cockpit. A searchlight is also fitted, while the longer engine compartment accommodates the WZ-6C turboshaft engine.

The Z-8C is operated by the PLA Marine Corps, while the Z-8CJ serves as a training variant with the Naval Aviation University.

The helicopter has become a principal transport platform for the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, supporting the movement of troops and equipment between ships and shore.

Z-8K/KA

The PLAAF introduced the Z-8K in 2007 as a dedicated search-and-rescue helicopter. The related Z-8KA is configured for combat search and rescue (CSAR), including the recovery of personnel from hostile or contested environments.

Both versions feature a FLIR turret, searchlight, radar-warning receiver (RWR), chaff and flare dispensers, and a rescue hoist. Some aircraft are also equipped with small terrain-following radars beneath the nose to support low-level operations.

Selected helicopters have received satellite communications (SATCOM) antennas on top of the tail boom, improving their communications capabilities over longer distances.

A further derivative, the Z-8KH, was developed for the PLAAF garrison stationed in Hong Kong. This version is distinguished by chaff and flare dispensers integrated into its flotation equipment.

Z-8B

The Z-8B entered service with PLA Army Aviation in 2011 as an improved transport helicopter. It shares several characteristics with the Z-8KH but lacks the latter’s flotation equipment.

The Z-8B incorporates a glass cockpit and has become a major component of the Army Aviation transport fleet. Some aircraft have subsequently had flotation equipment reinstalled, reflecting the type’s continuing evolution.

An optional auxiliary fuel tank can be installed inside the cabin to extend its range. Other upgrades have included SATCOM antennas on the tail boom and, on some aircraft, WZ-6C engines, an EO turret, and a terrain-following radar beneath the nose.

A specialized operations variant has also been identified. These helicopters incorporate RWR, laser-warning receivers (LWR), and missile-approach warning system (MAWS) sensors, alongside flare dispensers and ceramic armor protection.

Z-8G

Lacking the boat-like hull of the Z-8B, the Z-8G is expected to replace that type in Army Aviation service. The helicopter was evaluated from 2014 and was specifically optimized for operations at high altitudes, including in Tibet.

Unlike earlier Z-8 variants, the initial Z-8G configuration uses imported Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6B-67A turboshaft engines. Its redesigned nose is longer and more aerodynamically efficient, while the glass cockpit and terrain-following radar support operations in demanding environments.

The helicopter also incorporates SATCOM and BeiDou/GPS antennas to improve communications and navigation during long-range missions.

Some Z-8Gs have been equipped for special operations, with combinations of MAWS, RWR, and LWR sensors mounted on the rear fuselage and sponsons, together with chaff and flare dispensers. Armor plates beneath the cockpit windows provide additional protection, and some aircraft carry a 12.7mm machine gun inside a cabin doorway.

Several specialized variants have also been identified:

• A battlefield electronic-warfare helicopter featuring large cylindrical antennas mounted on both sides of the mid-fuselage.
• Another electronic warfare configuration reportedly uses rectangular plate antenna arrays mounted on both sides of the rear fuselage.
• An airborne command-post variant featuring a retractable synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) surveillance system inside the rear fuselage, alongside additional electronic-support-measures (ESM) antennas.

Some Z-8Gs may also have adopted the indigenous WZ-6C engine.

Z-8L

The Z-8L is a wide-body development of the Z-8G that first flew in 2017. Its most prominent feature is a pair of large sponsons mounted along the sides of the fuselage, providing additional space for fuel tanks and other equipment.

The wider fuselage also increases internal volume, allowing the helicopter to carry more cargo and equipment. Relocating the internal fuel tanks beneath the cabin floor has further increased usable cabin space.

Some aircraft have been observed with RWR and MAWS sensors on both sides of the forward fuselage, a roof-mounted FLIR turret, and a terrain-following radar beneath the nose. Additional defensive equipment, including LWR and RWR sensors and chaff/flare dispensers, can be installed on the sponsons.

A SATCOM antenna is mounted on top of the tail boom. The original PT6B-67A engines are reportedly being replaced by the more powerful indigenous WZ-7 turboshaft.

The Z-8L provides the Army with a larger and more capable transport helicopter suited to demanding operating environments and specialized missions.

Z-8D

The Z-8D is a shipborne derivative of the Z-8L that first appeared in 2023. It combines the wide-body configuration with an extensive self-defense suite intended to improve survivability during operations over water.

The helicopter features RWR, LWR, and MAWS sensors, along with chaff and flare dispensers. Four inflatable flotation units provide emergency protection in the event of a forced landing at sea.

Power is supplied by either WZ-6C or the newer WZ-7 turboshaft engines. Engine air particle separators (EAPS) are installed ahead of the engine inlets to reduce the risk of damage from airborne debris.

The Z-8D is expected to operate from China’s Type 075 amphibious assault ships and the larger Type 076 amphibious assault ship.

The Z-18 Series: Naval Utility, Early Warning, and ASW Helicopters

Z-18Y

Named White Heron, the Z-18Y was developed by the 602 Research Institute and Changhe as a new medium-lift shipborne transport helicopter. It is derived from the AC313 but incorporates a redesigned fuselage and a number of changes intended to improve its naval suitability.

The helicopter uses imported PT6B-67A turboshaft engines and provides greater internal volume and payload capacity than the earlier Z-8. Improved performance in hot-and-high conditions is another important feature.

The Z-18Y incorporates a nose-mounted weather radar and an FLIR/TV turret, along with additional communication and navigation antennas beneath the fuselage. A SATCOM antenna is installed on top of the tail boom.

Folding main and tail rotor blades allow the helicopter to be stored more efficiently aboard ships. The Z-18Y is primarily used for carrier onboard delivery (COD) missions, transporting personnel and supplies between ships and shore.

It has also provided the basis for several specialized naval derivatives.

The helicopter has been used aboard Chinese aircraft carriers as an interim airborne early-warning platform and has also been observed operating from Type 075 amphibious assault ships.

A rescue hoist is installed on the starboard side of the forward fuselage, allowing the aircraft to perform secondary SAR duties.

An improved Z-18A features a redesigned engine and gearbox compartment and three indigenous WZ-6C engines. Some Z-18Js and Z-18As have also received SATCOM antennas to improve long-range communications.

Z-18F

Named Sea Eagle, the Z-18F is an ASW and anti-ship warfare helicopter developed from the Z-18Y. It first appeared in 2014 and represents a substantial improvement over the earlier Z-8-based naval ASW helicopters.

The helicopter incorporates a large surface-search radar beneath the nose, while its FLIR/TV turret has been relocated to the starboard side of the fuselage. A dipping sonar provides an additional means of detecting submarines, while MAWS and RWR antennas are installed on the forward and rear fuselage.

Additional communications and navigation antennas are mounted beneath the fuselage. Four external pylons can carry torpedoes or anti-ship missiles (AShMs), including the YJ-9. A dispenser near the rear loading ramp allows the helicopter to deploy sonobuoys.

The Z-18F operates aboard Chinese aircraft carriers and the Type 075 amphibious assault ship.

Several improved derivatives have since appeared:

• Z-18FA: Incorporates a redesigned engine and gearbox compartment and three domestic WZ-6C turboshaft engines.
• Z-18FG: Features a new chin-mounted search radar and small side pylons for lightweight ASW torpedoes or AShMs.
• Z-18FB: A further improved version reportedly powered by three WZ-7 turboshaft engines, replacing the Canadian PT6B-67A.

These developments point to a continuing effort to improve the Z-18’s performance and extend the operational life of the broader family.

The Z-9 Family

Z-9A/B

The Z-9 originated from the French AS365 Dauphin family, with China acquiring aircraft and subsequently producing them under license through Harbin Aircraft Industry Group (HAIG) during the 1990s.

The Z-9A became a principal utility helicopter for Army Aviation and was also used for pilot training. The improved Z-9B incorporated a greater proportion of indigenous components, helping establish the foundation for China’s broader Z-9 development program, which also took it in a maritime direction.

The helicopter has since become one of China’s most widely used light utility platforms and has also been widely exported in the Z-9E series.

Z-9C

The Z-9C is China’s indigenous naval derivative of the French AS565 Panther, examples of which were imported during the late 1980s.

The helicopter incorporates a domestically developed surface-search radar and dipping sonar, allowing it to conduct ASW missions. It can carry up to two Yu-7K torpedoes and is equipped with inflatable flotation bags for emergency landings on water.

Some Z-9Cs have been converted to SAR duties, receiving a searchlight, an EO turret, and a rescue hoist.

The type has also been used for anti-piracy patrols off the Somali coast. In this role, some aircraft have carried a 12.7mm gun pod and a 57mm rocket launcher.

A downgraded training version was developed for the Naval Aviation Academy.

Z-9D

The Z-9D is an improved derivative of the Z-9C, incorporating a greater emphasis on anti-surface warfare.

The helicopter features stub wings capable of carrying up to four AShMs for use against smaller surface targets. A new fire-control radar is housed in a larger nose cone, while the weapon-control officer is positioned in the rear cabin.

RWR antennas are installed on both sides of the nose and near the tail rotor. The Z-9D has been observed operating from Type 056 and Type 056A frigates.

Some aircraft have also received an EO turret beneath the fuselage, expanding their surveillance and targeting capabilities.

Z-9F

The Z-9F is an improved ASW helicopter based on the Z-9D. It was first observed in 2017 and is expected to replace the older Z-9C.

The helicopter incorporates a new dipping sonar, a glass cockpit, and an improved surface-search radar. A BeiDou antenna is mounted on top of the cabin.

The Z-9F retains the ability to carry up to two ASW torpedoes beneath its stub wings, providing a more modern platform for shipborne submarine-hunting missions.

Z-9S

The Z-9S is a naval search-and-rescue helicopter developed for operations aboard Chinese aircraft carriers.

It features a nose-mounted EO turret, a searchlight, and a rescue hoist installed on the starboard side. The helicopter is also used for training by the Naval Aviation University.

A small number of SAR-configured Z-9S helicopters are also operated by Army Aviation.

Z-9WA/WZ

The Z-9WA is a night-attack development of the Z-9W, incorporating more powerful engines and improved avionics for operations in low-light conditions.

The helicopter features stub wings capable of carrying up to eight KD-8 anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) or PL-90 air-to-air missiles (AAMs). A nose-mounted low-light TV/IR turret supports night operations, while RWR antennas are installed on both sides of the fuselage.

Additional features include cockpit armor, flare dispensers, a datalink, and a redesigned cockpit compatible with night-vision goggles (NVGs).

The improved Z-9WZ incorporates a laser designator, allowing it to employ the newer KD-9 ATGM, as well as FN-6 AAMs. It is also powered by WZ-8H engines.

Most Z-9WAs are believed to have been upgraded to the WZ standard.

The PLAAF operates some Z-9WA/WZ helicopters in the SAR role. A similar derivative, the Z-9ZH, is used by the PLAAF garrison stationed in Hong Kong.

Dedicated Attack and Scout Helicopters

Z-10

The Z-10 represents China’s first dedicated modern attack helicopter. Developed by the 602 Research Institute, CHAIC, and HAIG, the program also received early input from Russia’s Kamov design bureau.

The helicopter features a conventional tandem-seat gunship configuration, with the gunner seated in front and the pilot behind. A five-blade composite main rotor and distinctive scissor-type tail rotor distinguish the design.

The Z-10 is powered by WZ-9 turboshaft engines and entered service in 2010, following its first flight in 2003.

Its primary armament consists of up to eight KD-9 or KD-10 laser-guided ATGMs, supplemented by a chin-mounted 23mm chain gun. The helicopter can also carry up to eight PL-90 AAMs.

The nose-mounted PNVS and target acquisition and designation system (TADS)-equivalent housing incorporates FLIR, a TV camera, a laser rangefinder, and a laser designator. RWR antennas are installed on both sides of the forward and aft fuselage, while LWR sensors are mounted on the pylon tips.

The initial prototypes were powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6C-76C engine. Series-production aircraft instead adopted the less powerful WZ-9, resulting in reductions to armor protection, sensor size, and weapon load compared with the original configuration.

Several variants and upgrades have since emerged:

• Z-10H: Retains the original PNVS/TADS configuration while using WZ-9 engines.
• Z-10K: A dedicated version for PLAAF airborne units, featuring a new 23mm gun and 19-tube rocket launchers. Some aircraft have SATCOM antennas on top of the tail boom.
• Z-10A: The definitive production configuration, distinguished by upward-facing engine exhaust nozzles.
• Later upgrades: Some Z-10 and Z-10K aircraft have received additional ceramic armor, MAWS sensors on the nose, and SATCOM antennas for long-range communications.

The helicopter has also gained newer long-range, IIR/CCD-guided ATGMs. These weapons require an additional datalink antenna mounted in front of the PNVS.

Later developments include the introduction of millimeter-wave (MMW) radar-guided fire-and-forget missiles, potentially allowing the Z-10 to operate alongside the Z-19 in coordinated attack missions.

The export-oriented Z-10ME incorporates further improvements, including a mast-mounted MMW radar.

Z-19

The Z-19 is a scout and attack helicopter developed by HAIG using the H425 as its basis. It was intended to replace the Z-9WA while complementing the larger Z-10.

The helicopter features a narrow fuselage and tandem cockpit, with the pilot seated in front and the gunner behind. A nose-mounted EO turret incorporates FLIR, a TV camera, and a laser rangefinder, while RWR antennas provide warning of hostile radar emissions.

The Z-19 uses the same WZ-8C engines, transmission, and rotor systems as the H425, helping accelerate its development.

When fitted with a mast-mounted MMW radar, the Z-19 provides additional target-detection capabilities. The helicopter’s armament is broadly similar to that of the Z-9WA, including KD-9 and KD-10 ATGMs, PL-90 AAMs, rocket launchers, and gun pods.

Later upgrades include MAWS sensors on the nose and tail, along with LWR sensors on the stub wings.

The Z-19 has also been integrated with newer long-range IIR/CCD/laser-guided ATGMs, including the KF-9, KF-10, and KF-11. These weapons require an additional datalink antenna mounted on the nose.

Z-21

The Z-21 is a new heavy attack helicopter first identified in 2024. Developed by the 602 Research Institute, Changhe, and Hafei, it appears to be a substantially larger and more heavily protected gunship than the Z-10.

The helicopter is believed to use the WZ-10 turboshaft engines and rotor systems developed for the Z-20. It features a conventional tandem-seat configuration, with a gunner in the front and a pilot behind.

Large cheek fairings on either side of the fuselage incorporate MAWS, LWR, ESM, and electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment. The nose features a new PNVS above a TADS, while an MMW search radar is mounted above the main rotor mast.

Laser-powered directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) are installed on the wingtips. Additional defensive equipment includes chaff and flare dispensers on the cheek fairings and tail boom.

A BeiDou antenna is mounted on the tail boom, while at least one prototype has been observed with upward-facing engine exhausts.

The Z-21 is expected to feature a 30mm chain gun beneath the forward fuselage. Each stub wing incorporates three weapon stations capable of carrying the newer KF-series long-range ATGMs, PL-90 AAMs, and other emerging weapons.

Compared with the Z-20, the Z-21 is expected to offer improved high-altitude performance, greater armor protection, and a heavier payload, making it better suited to demanding attack missions.

The Z-20 Family: China’s New Medium Helicopter

Z-20

The Z-20 is China’s new medium-lift general-purpose helicopter, developed by the 602 Research Institute, Harbin, and Changhe since the late 1990s.

The design is heavily influenced by the Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk, examples of which China acquired for the PLA during the 1980s. However, the Z-20 incorporates a number of indigenous systems and is intended to replace the Mi-17 series in Army Aviation service.

The helicopter features a five-blade main rotor, a glass cockpit, and armor protection around the cockpit. A PNVS is mounted beneath the chin, while RWR antennas are installed on both sides of the forward and rear fuselage.

Additional equipment includes LWR sensors on both sides of the nose, SATCOM, ECM antennas on top of the fuselage, and a nose-mounted weather radar and terrain-following radar.

The Z-20 is powered by two WZ-10 turboshaft engines and can carry up to 13 fully equipped soldiers. An optional fuel tank can be installed in the cargo compartment to extend its range.

Stub wings can be fitted to carry rocket launchers, gun pods, and external fuel tanks.

The Z-20 first flew in 2013 and entered service with PLA Army Aviation by 2019.

Several aircraft have been observed with upward-facing engine exhausts. A SAR variant incorporates an EO turret and searchlight beneath the forward fuselage, together with a rescue hoist above the cabin door.

Z-20K/KS/KT

The Z-20 has also spawned a number of specialized variants for the PLAAF.

The Z-20K, identified in 2022, is a transport helicopter intended for airborne assault units.

The PLAAF operates the Z-20KS subvariant in the SAR role. This model features an EO turret and searchlight beneath the forward fuselage, while optional stub wings allow it to carry rocket launchers and gun pods.

An improved assault variant, the Z-20KT, incorporates a larger SATCOM antenna on top of the tail boom. Its folding tail section indicates that the helicopter is designed to facilitate aerial transport, allowing rapid deployment over long distances.

Z-20T

The Z-20T is a specialized assault helicopter broadly comparable in concept to the MH-60L Direct Action Penetrator used by the U.S. Army.

The helicopter features large stub wings capable of carrying KD-9 and KD-10 ATGMs, KF-9A ATGMs, PL-90 AAMs, ECM pods, and external fuel tanks.

LWR sensors have been relocated to the wingtips, while a TADS has replaced the weather radar in the nose. Additional armor plates provide increased protection for the crew and critical systems.

Later examples have also been observed with upward-facing engine exhausts.

Z-20F

The Z-20F is a shipborne ASW helicopter developed to provide the PLAN with a modern equivalent to the MH-60R Seahawk. It first flew in 2018.

The helicopter incorporates folding rotor blades and a folding tail boom to facilitate shipboard storage. An emergency flotation system is fitted, while the rear landing gear has been relocated forward to the rear end of the fuselage.

The redesigned nose features an EO/laser-ranging turret, with a surface-search radar antenna mounted beneath the chin. A SATCOM antenna is installed on top of the tail boom.

Additional ESM antennas are distributed around the nose and rear fuselage. A 25-round sonobuoy launcher is mounted on the port side, while a dipping sonar and rescue hoist provide additional ASW and SAR capabilities.

The Z-20F can carry up to four YJ-9 AShMs beneath its stub wings, alongside lightweight ASW torpedoes on rear fuselage pylons.

The helicopter is expected to replace the older Z-9C on Type 054 frigates and Type 052 and Type 055 destroyers. It has also been observed aboard the aircraft carrier Fujian and Type 075 amphibious assault ships.

Z-20J

The Z-20J is a shipborne transport and assault variant designed for the PLAN.

Its stub wings can carry up to eight KD-9 ATGMs or four YJ-9 AShMs, as well as rocket launchers, external fuel tanks, and gun pods.

MAWS sensors are installed on both sides of the chin and along the rear fuselage, providing additional protection during operations over water.

The Z-20J expands the range of missions that can be performed from Chinese surface combatants and amphibious assault ships, complementing the ASW-focused Z-20F.

Conclusion

Despite often being overshadowed by the PLA’s latest combat aircraft, missiles, and other high-profile weapons programs, helicopters remain an indispensable part of China’s military modernization. They provide critical capabilities, from moving troops and supplies across difficult terrain to supporting amphibious operations, special forces, search and rescue, and naval warfare.

More importantly, the steady development of indigenous helicopter designs reflects China’s determination to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers and build a more capable, self-sufficient rotary-wing force. These aircraft may attract less attention than the PLA’s newest fighters, but their growing sophistication and expanding roles make them an essential part of the force’s ability to operate across a wide range of contingencies.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

A CLIP of Katherine Ryan discussing outing an industry “predator” on a show has resurfaced after Russell Brand’s conviction.

Ryan shared the screen with disgraced Brand on the Comedy Central series Roast Battle in 2018, before he was axed.

After he was yesterday found guilty of rape and sex attacks on a string of women, a video of Ryan discussing an abuser thought to be Brand has blown up.

In a 2018 podcast with Louis Theroux, she claimed to have confronted the unnamed man “again and again” while they worked together and referred to him as a “predator”.

When Theroux asked her what she meant by that term, the 43-year-old said: “I mean perpetrator of sexual assault.”

Ryan added: “But it is very dangerous for us to have this conversation. I’m happy to have it, but it is a litigious minefield.

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“Lots of people have tried to nail this person down for their alleged crimes and this person has very good lawyers.”

Ryan added word of the notorious abuser was an “open secret” in the industry as she told the shameful star to his face he was a “predator”.

When she was pressed for more details, she said simply that it was “not her story to tell” but that she had heard the allegations from “very credible” sources.

It is widely speculated the Canadian comic was referring to Brand, but she has not confirmed said predator or named the show she was working on.

However, following Brand’s conviction she has publicly said she feels “grief and relief”.

The stand-up star added there are “a lot of women speaking privately and quietly” following the verdict, who feel “a very nuanced mix of emotions”.

On her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, Ryan said: “It really made me feel just quite dysregulated again, caught off-guard, emotional, in awe of the survivors who also had nothing to gain.

“They came forward despite Russell Brand having fame, power, money, and a legion of fans ready to attack them.”

She added: “I will never be someone who like, dances on graves. There has been some justice done today. There’s a level of relief, but there’s grief alongside relief.

“Everything’s nuanced, and it was proved in court that a terrible thing happened, and that means that a terrible thing happened.

“I just think again and again about people who have been hurt, and who have to carry that, who’ve carried that around long enough, and will continue to carry that in some way, regardless of what justice is done.

“This verdict came because women were hurt, and I worry as well about what happens next.

“Because he’s obviously spent a long time cultivating this idea that the establishment have invented these claims against him, and he’s martyred himself to a growing audience who really still think that it is the courageous survivors who are the villains in this story.

“I just… I don’t know if you can podcast from jail. I hope not.”

Ryan also slammed Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC who launched a foul-mouthed tirade at Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin as he was leaving the courtroom.

He said to her: “I hope you are pleased with yourself”, and she was heard replying: “I’m pleased justice has been done”.

 Mr Winter said during the clash: “Well, it wasn’t. You f***** it.” “Congratulations,” he added.

Ryan said: “That was so unprofessional, so inappropriate, so aggressive. Really sickening.”

The “ruthless, calculated and manipulative” predator Brand is facing years in jail after he preyed on women between 1999 and 2009.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Thursday blocked the Trump administration from breaking ground on a towering memorial arch for 14 days.

The temporary restraining order by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan halting the work represents a major setback for one of President Trump’s most prominent projects in his vision to remake Washington.

The decision followed a series of steps taken earlier Thursday by the government, including the final approval of the arch by the National Capital Planning Commission in an 8-4 vote after a 9 ½ hour hearing where scores of witnesses opposed the construction.

The administration said the work could begin as soon as the approval and the Interior Department issued a final decision authorizing construction and the proper notification was published by the National Park Service.

In approving the temporary stop, Chutkan said Virginia and the District of Columbia had shown that the immediacy of the construction would cause real harm to the plaintiffs.

“The harm is certain,” she wrote. “Defendants initially notified the court that construction could begin as early as November 5, 2026, if the NCPC approves the project at its meeting that day and the Department of the Interior authorizes construction.” In their filing, Virginia and D.C. warned of traffic pattern distortions as well as concerns about the impact on mutual aid emergency calls if the arch were to proceed.

“Second, the District and Virginia will incur significant unrecoverable costs. As soon as construction begins, DDOT will need to expend staff time and operating resources to affirmatively and proactively manage temporary detours, crashes or disabled vehicles,” Chutkan wrote.

The judge ordered the government to provide a status report next Monday to ensure they are complying with the order.

The judge’s decision came just over an hour after the National Capital Planning Commission hearing ended. The vote by the commission broke along federal and local lines. Those in favor work for the administration or are connected to the president, who was pushing for the immediate construction. Opponents represented the city of Washington.

The remote, call-in hearing — which crashed repeatedly in the first few hours and was accompanied by a nearly universally negative comment section — drew witnesses who gave impassioned comments opposing an arch they said will destroy the solemnity of the nearby Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of fallen service members and military veterans are buried.

The panel’s Trump-appointed chairman launched the meeting with a gushing appraisal of the towering monument and lauded Trump for wanting to build it.

“President Trump understands as president and a superb builder that it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments,” said Mark Paoletta, the commission’s chairman.

As Trump has often remarked, “the great cities around the world have arches: Paris, Rome, London,” said Paoletta, who also serves as general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Commissioner Paul Ingrassia, a lawyer for the General Services Administration, said the arch was “not about politics. It’s about remembrance. It’s about celebrating our history. It’s about commemorating veterans. And it’s really something that’s a noble tribute to our nation and something that we can all rally behind.”

But D.C. City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who also serves on the planning panel, said the project has not received required approval from Congress, nor has Congress appropriated any money for it. The plan submitted to the commission does not include a reference to military use cited by Trump and other administration officials, Mendelson said.

“We cannot approve final site and building plans until we have the final site and building plans,” he said.

The commission oversees construction on federal land in the city and began reviewing the arch plan in June.

The arch is one of several projects around Washington that the Republican president has undertaken as he alters the capital to his tastes — from renovating one of its storied public golf courses to threatening to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Those projects could soon face intense scrutiny after Democrats gained control of Congress in the midterm elections this week.

Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is set to chair the House Natural Resources Committee, called the project ill-advised and illegal.

“This arch would dishonor America,” Huffman told the commission. He called the proposed arch “a tribute to Donald Trump,” not veterans as Trump administration officials claim. The monument is similar to those built for emperors or kings, Huffman said, adding that Trump was using veterans as a pretext to build a memorial to himself.

Other critics, including the plaintiffs, argue that the Trump administration must seek congressional approval. The administration maintains that Congress cleared the way for a monument at Memorial Circle decades ago.

Several members of the Planning Commission used that logic in approving the project. Paoletta said it was a “national disgrace” that a memorial arch had not been placed there, despite a 1925 law that designated such a memorial, he said.

Chutkan rejected that argument in her ruling: “The sheer improbability that a 100-year-old statute would contain authority, unknown to every previous administration, to erect a 250-foot arch at a principal location in the Nation’s capital indicates how far defendants must stretch to justify this project.”

Daly and Fields write for the Associated Press. AP videographer Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.

Asked how confident he was in his ability to get the five endorsements, he said: “I have confidence. I already asked to some of the member association and [received] good replies so far.”

He laughed when asked if he realistically hopes to win the election in Morocco in March, before saying: “Of course, of course yes, I hope I will win. It is not easy.”

Tashima’s campaign will centre on his philosophy for the role of Fifa president, which he described as one based on the “values of sincerity, soundness, fair play, and integrity”.

Regarding the Balogun red-card incident, which involved US President Donald Trump calling Infantino to ask for the ban to be reviewed, Tashima said: “I have never seen the red card and the next game who can play.

“This is, I hope, never happens in the world football. He didn’t explain about this issue, how to come and how [it came] to happen.

He added: “Most of the things are not answered yet by Mr President Infantino.

“With my experience in Japan Football Association, Asian Football Confederation, and Fifa, for some more than 20 years, I would like to bring good change if I am elected.”

Last month, former Tottenham Hotspur defender Ramon Vega announced his intention to stand as a candidate in next year’s Fifa presidential election.

He told BBC Sport he had received “more than five” endorsements, but declined to give details of the identities of the member associations backing him.

All candidates must prove they have played an “active role” in football for two of the last five years. Vega has said he is confident he is eligible to stand for the presidency as a shareholder of a club.

Vega has attempted to run for the presidency three times before but each time has failed to garner the necessary support of five associations.

Tashima can therefore be considered the first serious challenger to Infantino.

A string of hoax alerts causing flight diversions across Europe this week have broadened to include newsrooms.

A new series of bomb threats caused more flight diversions across Europe on Friday, while also expanding to target a number of media organisations.

British broadcaster Sky said it was one of a number of newsrooms that received a bomb threat. “We have carried out a security assessment and reported the matter to the relevant authorities,” a spokesperson said.

Bulgaria’s Nova TV and the Irish public broadcaster RTE received emailed bomb threats from a purported “Mikhail Andropov”, headlined “Message to the West”, portraying the threats as a prelude to more disruptions across Europe.

RTE briefly evacuated staff, including radio and television presenters, in Dublin after an email was received on Friday morning. RTE Radio One presenter David McCullagh later told listeners that the threat warned that a bomb would explode within 45 minutes.

The Irish government said hoax bomb claims were also sent to Virgin Media, Newstalk radio and The Irish Independent newspaper and that it was unclear who was behind them.

“However, these threats come on the heels of the ongoing disruption to aviation around Europe caused by similar threats, and it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign of disruption,” it said in a statement.

The incidents come a day after hoax bomb threats disrupted more than two dozen flights across Europe on Thursday, and days after other aircraft and a cruise ship received bomb alerts.

‘Hoax threats’ increasing

On Friday, jets escorted airliners flying from Brussels to Sofia and from Prague to Bucharest and Cyprus through Hungarian airspace due to bomb threats, Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi said.

He also said NATO had ordered an air patrol near the Hungarian-Romanian border, the first report that the Western defence alliance had become involved.

Danish police said threats were directed at traffic at Copenhagen airport but that there appeared to be no danger to passengers. The airport said it was “operating normally”.

Czech police registered bomb threats to nine flights departing from or arriving in Prague. An airport spokesperson said no flights had been ⁠⁠cancelled as a result.

France said four new bomb threats were made to aircraft flying over French territory, and that all landed safely.

A Ryanair flight from Rome landed as scheduled in Lisbon, CNN Portugal reported.

About half a dozen ‌‌flights were disrupted on Tuesday and more than two dozen on Thursday, some of them making unplanned landings or being escorted to their destinations by fighter jets.

Al Jazeera’s Frances Read, reporting from London on Friday, said that while the threats have not been credible so far, disruptions appear to be widening.

“The number of hoax threats this week is making governments sit up and take notice about where this might be coming from and also think of solutions for how to deal with it,” she said.

RUSSELL Brand has been found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

The disgraced former comedian, 51, was remanded in custody after the verdicts on Thursday and is due to be sentenced on Monday.

Russell Brand was found not guilty of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault.

His wife Laura Gallacher supported him throughout the trial, while his father Ron Brand was also present at court.

Who is Russell Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher?

Laura, 39, is an author, illustrator and entrepreneur who founded The Joy Journal – a business focused on creativity and activities for families.

She is the daughter of former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher and younger sister of TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher.

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Laura and Brand first met at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006, where she attended one of his comedy shows.

They started dating but split in 2007 after she discovered he was seeing other women.

Brand went on to marry American singer Katy Perry in 2010, before the pair divorced in 2012.

He rekindled his relationship with Laura in 2015, and they married at a church near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire in August 2017.

Laura accompanied her husband to Southwark Crown Court during his trial and gave evidence for the defence in October.

She described him as an “amazingly attentive husband” and a “wonderful father”, telling jurors: “I love him very much.”

Laura was in the public gallery when the jury returned its guilty verdicts and appeared visibly distressed as the judge told Brand he faced a significant prison term.

Who are Russell Brand’s parents?

Brand is the only child of Barbara Elizabeth Nichols and Ronald Henry Brand, known as Ron.

His parents separated when he was just six months old, leaving his mother to raise him in Grays, Essex.

Barbara suffered three bouts of cancer during Brand’s childhood, and he sometimes stayed with relatives while she underwent treatment.

The last period of treatment coincided with Brand leaving home at the age of 16.

In 2006, he told the Observer: “I loved my mum madly, but I had a lot of prohibiting, inhibiting things around. My feeling about my childhood was that it was lonely and difficult.”

His father Ron worked as a photographer and was largely absent as Brand was growing up, although they maintained contact.

Ron attended Southwark Crown Court when his son was convicted on November 5.

Speaking to the BBC following the verdicts, he said he was “bemused and shocked”.

He added: “I just didn’t expect this – it’s wrong. It’s devastating.”

How many children does Russell Brand have?

Brand and Laura have three children together – two daughters and a son.

Their eldest daughter was born in November 2016, followed by another girl in July 2018.

The couple welcomed a son in 2023, and have largely kept their kids’ lives out of the public eye.

Laura confirmed during her evidence that they were raising three children together.

Following the emergence of allegations against Brand, the family relocated to Florida in 2024.

After the guilty verdicts, Brand’s barrister Ian Winter KC asked the judge to grant bail as an “act of humanity” so he could say goodbye to his little ones.

However, the request was rejected and he was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

Fox (FOXA) (FOX) announced it completed its $22 billion purchase of Roku Inc. (ROKU).

Roku founder Anthony Wood will join the FOX board. He will also serve as Co-Chair, FOX Digital Platforms, the newly formed division that includes Roku, Tubi, FOX One, Red Seat Ventures, and other

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jay Rockefeller, the last member of his family’s political dynasty — and the only Democrat — who served as West Virginia’s governor and later a longtime U.S. senator, has died. He was 89.

Rockefeller died Thursday night at his home in Washington, said Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA, the public broadcasting station where Rockefeller’s wife, Sharon, serves as president and CEO.

Rockefeller came from one of the nation’s richest families to spend a half century in public service in one of the poorest states. He arrived in 1964 as a worker in an anti-poverty program, was elected governor a dozen years later and served two terms, then spent 30 years as a U.S. senator.

“I could not imagine a more rewarding career,” Rockefeller said upon his retirement in 2015.

He was born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City. His great-grandfather, Standard Oil Co. founder John Rockefeller, died a month before Rockefeller’s birth. His father, John D. Rockefeller III, was a well-known philanthropist. Uncles Winthrop (Arkansas) and Nelson (New York) were Republican governors. Another uncle, David Rockefeller, ran Chase Manhattan Bank.

Jay Rockefeller went in a different direction.

A few years out of college at age 27, Rockefeller moved to the West Virginia mining community of Emmons to participate in the Volunteers in Service to America program, a time that Rockefeller said proved transformative.

“It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast. It was where my beliefs were bolted down, and where my passions met my principles,” he said in an emotional farewell speech from the Senate floor on Dec. 4, 2014.

While he intended for his stay in the state to be brief, Rockefeller broke from his family’s Republican tradition and was elected to the state House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966. By combining money with hard work in a traditionally Democratic state, Rockefeller overcame suspicions of political opportunism and rose from state legislator to secretary of state to governor.

A turning point came after Rockefeller’s only political defeat in the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., whose daughter, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, was elected in 2014 to Rockefeller’s Senate seat upon his retirement.

After the defeat, Rockefeller remained in West Virginia, a decision he called the most important of his career. He became the first without a theological degree to become president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973. His popularity there — and a change in his stance to embrace strip mining — translated to a landslide win over Republican Cecil Underwood in the 1976 governor’s race.

As governor, Rockefeller emphasized development of the state’s infrastructure, such as roads, sewers and bridges. Those issues, he said, are “not very sexy things, I grant you but very, very necessary in West Virginia.”

After Rockefeller defeated Arch Moore in a rematch in 1980, he won a U.S. Senate seat in 1984 after the retirement of longtime Democrat Jennings Randolph. It came despite a landslide victory that year for Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon, daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, fit easily into the capital’s social scene, purchasing a multimillion-dollar estate for their family. Never shy or apologetic about using his inherited $150 million fortune to win his races, he spent millions upon millions from his own pocket. He won by comfortable margins in each of his five terms.

Rockefeller’s vast wealth was always a source of conversation and an undercurrent in his political races. He spent at least $21 million of his own money in his political campaigns, including $9 million to win a close 1984 Senate race against Republican novice and fellow multimillionaire John Raese. In Rockefeller’s 1980 gubernatorial race against Republican Arch Moore Jr., bumper stickers appeared saying: “Make Him Spend It All, Arch.”

The state’s junior senator for 25 years, Rockefeller carved his own path of influence in Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s immense shadow. Byrd died in 2010 as the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, winning an enduring reputation for steering billions of dollars over many decades to boost his impoverished state.

Rockefeller’s influence was less showy. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, he championed consumers’ rights, upgrading broadband infrastructure and sponsoring a bill to block companies from tracking online activity of their customers. He authored legislation in 1997 that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which assists poor families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid.

He also was head of committees on Veterans Affairs and Intelligence, frequently sparring with President George W. Bush over foreign policy. Rockefeller said he regretted his 2002 vote to authorize the war against Iraq.

But Rockefeller also differed with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama over mining-related regulations. With his state the nation’s second-biggest coal producer, Rockefeller was among several West Virginia officials who opposed the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the mountaintop removal method of surface mining.

College studies in Tokyo laid the groundwork for Rockefeller’s efforts to bring business from Japan to West Virginia. He had known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s and was instrumental in helping the Japanese automaker pick a Buffalo, West Virginia, cornfield for an engine parts plant in 1996. The $2 billion plant now employs about 2,200 workers.

Raby writes for the Associated Press.

One mistake can turn your season around

From Kevin Baxter: The most significant game of Angelina Anderson’s season was also her worst.

It was Angel City’s fifth match of the season and Anderson, the team’s goalkeeper, made a crucial error in stoppage time that led to a winning goal. And while that was significant, what really made the game stand out is what happened next.

When she carried the weight of the loss home with her, her boyfriend, Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Thomas Booker, staged an intervention. Every time she make a mistake, Booker told Anderson, she would beat herself up. Yet when she played well, she simply considered that part of her job.

“We came to this conclusion that is not sustainable,” Anderson said. “I’m putting way too much pressure on myself so I had to figure out a way to care, not less, but care optimally. As athletes, we’re always like ‘what more can I do?’ when really I think it’s ‘what’s optimal for you?’

“That kind of gave me more freedom on the pitch.”

Playing with that freedom, Anderson gave up just one goal per game during the rest of the season, pitching a league-best nine shutouts since May 17 and leading Angel City (15-8-7) to its second playoff appearance. Anderson and Angel City will meet Kansas City (16-9-5) on Saturday morning at CPKC Stadium, where the Current is unbeaten in its past 32 games.

Continue reading here

Aaron Donald works on fumble recovery

From Gary Klein: Since coming out of retirement before this season, Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald adopted a humble approach, always allowing younger, less-accomplished players to go ahead of him during drills.

But on Thursday, the future Hall of Famer enthusiastically moved to the front of the line.

The Rams practiced scooping fumbled footballs off the turf.

“I needed that,” Donald said Thursday, chuckling. “Learn bending and getting down.”

Last Sunday against the Chargers, Donald missed the opportunity to score his first NFL touchdown when, with a clear shot to the end zone, he failed to come up with a fumble, albeit in hilarious fashion.

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Angel City signs Maddie DiMaria, 17

From Kevin Baxter: Angel City heads into this weekend’s NWSL playoffs with the youngest starting lineup in the league. And with a 10-game unbeaten streak, it has the hottest team in the league as well.

On Thursday, that team got a little younger and potentially a bit better when it announced the signing of 17-year-old Maddie DiMaria, the leading scorer in the U-17 women’s World Cup. Financial terms of the four-year deal were not released.

“This person is special,” sporting director Mark Parsons said of DiMaria, who signed with Angel City before scoring 12 goals in four games in the age-group World Cup. “But she also represents what Angel City football is about and what Angel City is trying to do over the so many years, which is win.

“And she’s a winner.”

A two-time Gatorade girls’ national soccer player of the year, DiMaria scored 24 times in 23 appearances with the U-17 team, with her 12 goals in Morocco breaking Michelle Akers’ 35-year-old American record for most goals in a World Cup. Before graduating from Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, she scored 67 goals and had 25 assists as a junior, leading her team to a 25-0 season and a state championship.

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Lakers send two to G League

From Dan Loumena: Third-year guard Bronny James and rookie guard Cameron Carr have been assigned to G League Coachella Valley, the Lakers announced Thursday.

James, who is the third year of a four-year contract worth $7.9 million ($4.4 million guaranteed), played only 12 minutes this season across five games, scoring four points on two-of-three shooting while missing his only three-pointer.

Carr, who was the 24th overall draft pick this summer, has played only four minutes in three games, missing the only shot he took.

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UCLA women defeat UC Irvine

Sienna Betts scored 17 points on eight-of-10 shooting and No. 11 UCLA used a big start and strong finish to roll to a 78-42 win over UC Irvine on Thursday night.

The Bruins never trailed after Betts hit a short basket 12 seconds into the game. It was 23-8 after one quarter. The Anteaters were only outscored by seven in the middle quarters and then UCLA had a 14-0 advantage in the fourth quarter when Irvine went 0 for 11 from the field and committed seven turnovers.

Elina Aarnisalo added 14 points for the Bruins (2-0), Timea Gardiner had 12 points and KK Bransford had 10 points.

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UCLA box score

Ducks edge the Oilers

Cutter Gauthier became the first Ducks player with nine goals over a four-game span, scoring and adding an assist in a 5-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

Gauthier — coming off consecutive hat tricks — has seven power-play goals in the four-game span. Dating to 1933-34, the only other NHL players to accomplish the feat are Dave Andreychuk (eight, Nov. 7-14, 1992) and Teemu Selanne (seven, Oct. 25-31, 2008).

Pavel Mintyukov and Beckett Sennecke each had two goals and an assist for the Ducks, and Laurent Brossoit made 23 saves. They have three in a row to improve to 8-7-1.

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Ducks summary

NHL standings

This day in sports history

1869 — First U.S. college football game played, Rutgers 6, Princeton 4.

1934 — Joe Carter scores four touchdowns and Swede Hanson rushes for 190 yards as the Philadelphia Eagles crush the Cincinnati Reds 64-0.

1966 — Philadelphia’s Timmy Brown returns kickoffs 93 yards and 90 yards for touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 24-23 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

1981 — Larry Holmes knocks out Renaldo Snipes in the 11th round to retain the world heavyweight title in Pittsburgh.

1983 — James Wilder of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushes for 219 yards and a touchdown in a 17-12 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

1988 — Britain’s Steve Jones win the New York City Marathon in 2:08:20, the fastest time in the world this year. His margin of victory, 3 minutes and 21 seconds over Salvatore Bettiol, is the largest in the history of the five-borough race. Grete Waitz wins an unprecedented ninth women’s title, finishing in 2:28:07 well ahead of Italy’s Laura Fogli (2:31:26).

1992 — Manon Rheaume of the Atlanta Knights becomes the first woman to suit up for a regular-season pro hockey game. The 20-year-old goalie doesn’t play in Atlanta’s 3-2 overtime loss to Cincinnati in the IHL game.

1993 — French-based Arcangues stages the biggest Breeders’ Cup upset, rallying to beat Bertrando by 2 lengths in the $3 million Classic at Santa Anita. Arcangues went off at 133-1 and returned $269.20 on a $2 bet.

1993 — Evander Holyfield regains the WBA and IBF heavyweight championships from Riddick Bowe in a fight disrupted by a parachutist. During the seventh round at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the chutist tumbles into the ringside seats and stops the fight for 21 minutes. Holyfield becomes the fourth man to become a heavyweight champion at least twice.

1995 — Art Modell officially announces Cleveland Browns are moving to Baltimore.

1999 — Charles Roberts rushes for 409 yards and five touchdowns to lead Sacramento State past Idaho State 41-20, setting a new NCAA record for a single-game rushing performance.

2005 — Annika Sorenstam becomes the first player in LPGA Tour history to win a tournament five straight times, shooting an 8-under 64 for a three-stroke victory in the Mizuno Classic.

2010 — Michigan wins the highest scoring game in its 131-year history by stopping a 2-point conversion attempt in the third overtime for a 67-65 victory over Illinois.

2010 — Zenyatta comes within a head of finishing a perfect career. Horse racing’s biggest star closes from dead last, but Blame holds off the 6-year-old mare and wins the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic under the lights Churchill Downs. Zenyatta entered the race hoping to improve to 20-0 on her career.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

On the sidelines of this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, an unprecedented three-way meeting between United States President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin could take place.

“China is in communication with relevant parties regarding a meeting between the three heads of state,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday.

“Work is under way to coordinate such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding: “We hope that it will be finalised in the coming days.”

Trump has said he is open to three-way talks focused on nuclear weapons. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it,” he told reporters last month.

The three leaders have met separately but have never held formal talks together.

So could the meeting, pencilled in for November 18-19, actually happen, and what would it mean for the rest of the world? Here’s what we know:

What would Russia get out of a three-way meeting with the US and China?

At the very least, a photo opportunity.

“It is a big event,” Alexander Bratersky, a Moscow-based journalist and political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

He pointed to Pyotr Tolstoy, chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, who he said has described the meeting as a path towards a new Yalta – the 1945 conference where the leaders of the Soviet Union, the US and the United Kingdom shaped the post-war order in Europe.

That allows Moscow to “talk big”, Bratersky said, while putting Ukraine on the sidelines.

Simply being at the table would make Putin “first among equals”, he added, giving him a photo opportunity to show the world that he will be among those deciding the future of Europe’s security architecture after the war in Ukraine.

If the meeting produced results, he said, it would reflect China’s influence on Russia.

“We should take into account that we are dealing with a much weaker US leader after elections,” Bratersky said.

Trump remains in charge of foreign policy, he explained, but will have less leverage if Democrats, who won control of both chambers of Congress in this week’s midterm elections, start sending money to Kyiv.

“A meeting by itself will be a success,” he said. “Putin will be able to sell it at home”.

Whether anything comes of it should become clear within a month or so, Bratersky said, and the meeting could lead to another during the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Miami in December.

If nothing is produced before Christmas, he added, “it will be just a photo op.”

What does Trump want?

Optics and leverage.

Trump wants “a personal, high-drama encounter” that lets him claim he is “dealing with” the other two great powers on his own terms, Inderjeet Parmar, a professor of international politics at City St George’s, University of London, told Al Jazeera.

A three-way meeting would allow Trump to present himself as “the indispensable deal-maker”, Parmar said, talking up potential deals on Ukraine, trade, energy or arms control.

“After the midterms the domestic political need for a foreign policy ‘win’ is real,” he said.

Any image of Trump sitting with Xi and Putin could be spun as evidence that American power still commands the table, he said, “even if the substance is limited or largely symbolic”.

“The domestic audience, and his eroding MAGA base, matters at least as much as the diplomatic one,” Parmar said.

What does China want?

Not a summit on Ukraine.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he raised the idea of discussing Ukraine with Xi when they met in Beijing on October 30, and could see the “surprise” on his face, Germany’s DPA news agency reported.

Steinmeier told public broadcaster ARD that Xi said the three presidents would probably meet in Shenzhen, but not to discuss Ukraine.

He said Xi explicitly pointed out that the Russia-Ukraine war is a European conflict in which the “Europeans must sit at the table”.

Beijing is also likely to swat away Trump’s push for nuclear talks.

Last month, China’s Foreign Ministry said it would be “neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage”.

What would a meeting mean for the rest of the world?

Allies could be sidelined.

Parmar said a three-way meeting would mark “a clear break from the post-1945 pattern”, in which Washington coordinated closely with its European and Asian allies before engaging with Moscow or Beijing.

“A free-standing trilateral [meeting] risks treating those allies as secondary players whose interests can be managed after the fact,” he said, adding that those interests could even be traded.

That would be a shift towards “personalised great-power diplomacy”, he said. But the Trump administration still has hopes to drive a wedge between Russia and China, Parmar added.

Fears of a “G3” are “understandable but overstated in institutional terms”, he said, because the three capitals’ interests diverge sharply on Ukraine, Taiwan, technology and the rules of the international economy.

“The real risk is not a formal G3 secretariat, but the normalisation of great-power deals struck with little consultation of those most affected,” he said.

“History offers many examples of such moments. They rarely produce stable order and often leave the excluded feeling the costs,” Parmar said.

As the United States midterm election results landed late on Tuesday night, United States President Donald Trump took a phone call from the news outlet Politico.

A wave for the Democratic Party had sunk Trump’s Republican Party. For the first time in his two stints as president, Trump’s Republican Party no longer controlled either chamber of Congress.

But in the phone interview, Trump put on a brave face — and offered an olive branch: He said that he would be willing to work with Democrats.

“They’ve already called, and they want to work with me. I have the right to veto everything, but I don’t want to be just sitting there for two years just vetoing everything,” he said.

While a handful of seats remain to be counted, the Democrats have won comfortable majorities in both the House of Representatives, where they have secured at least 253 seats out of 435, and in the Senate, where they have won at least 54 out of 100.

Trump has since posted a picture on his Truth Social account using the Make America Great Again red baseball hat to read “VETO”. Despite the Democrats’ success, as president, Trump holds broad executive authority, with Article 1, Section 7 of the US Constitution stipulating that the president has the power to reject legislation passed by Congress through a veto.

Congress can override the veto, but would need to have a two-thirds majority, something that the Democrats do not have in either chamber.

But Trump’s comments to Politico underscore an alternate possibility — the president may pick and choose when to veto, and when to work with Democrats.

Bipartisan negotiations

As it stands, Trump has three options: veto legislation, enforce executive orders or make deals.

Since Trump was inaugurated in January 2025, he has passed 292 executive orders: 67 this year and 225 last year, according to the Federal Register.

But now, according to Andrew Proctor, a lecturer in US politics at University College London, Trump has even less leverage than before with Congress.

“I think the biggest thing is we’re probably going to see a decent amount of gridlock. The Democrats are going to try to pass policies, but he’s got the power to veto them, and Democrats don’t have enough seats in either chamber to overcome any vetoes that he has,” Proctor said.

“So that raises questions about, will he try to work with the Democrats at all on passing legislation? I think recent history says that’s unlikely.”

Still, some Democrats have said that they would work with the president to advance programmes central to their campaign promises.

Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, has already said he could work with Trump  — even though the US president had used racist and Islamophobic rhetoric to target El-Sayed during the campaign.

El-Sayed told MSNOW on Thursday that if Trump was interested in “getting money out of politics, putting money in pockets and passing Medicare for All, that’s what I ran to do, and I’m looking forward to working with anyone who is willing to do that”.

“He is the president of the United States,” he said. “I’m going to be one United States senator, and if he’s interested in working on issues that I want to work on – getting more people healthcare, ending the Medicare cuts, ending the stupid war, stopping these stupid tariffs with Canada – then let’s talk about doing that and go and deliver for the public.”

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders has also said, in recent interviews, that he would not rule out Trump signing onto a Medicare for All bill if Democrats pass it in both chambers of Congress. He described Trump as a “politician” who was not “too ideological”.

Proctor argued that Trump could indeed make a deal with the Democrats based on how good it could make him look, but that getting Medicare for All passed in the next two years appeared unlikely.

“I do think that a place where common ground could emerge on healthcare is rolling back, specifically the sort of subsidies that were cut” under Trump’s earlier legislation, he said. “So that would make healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans.”

Proctor pointed out that some Republicans in 2025 had said they were willing to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare reforms.

“That didn’t end up happening, but I could imagine that might be a place for healthcare-specific policy where we could see something emerge,” he said. “I don’t think that a broader healthcare debate on passing Medicare for All, though, is really in the cards.”

Veto or filibuster

Though Trump has said he would be willing to use veto, he has historically not been among the most avid proponents of the practice.

He has so far used the veto twice in this term, and used it 10 times during his first term. Joe Biden used it 12 times in his single term, while Barack Obama used the veto a dozen times over two terms.

Overall, the presidential use of the veto has declined with time: Bill Clinton vetoed legislation 37 times between 1993 and 2001. His predecessor, George HW Bush, used it 44 times in his single term — almost once a month. Ronald Reagan used it 78 times over his two terms.

But Proctor said that Republicans also have a different tool to try and block legislation. That is the filibuster, a tactic that delays a vote on a specific piece of legislation by using an extended debate, which would impact the Democrats’ ability to get something passed.

“This is what they did to [former President Barack] Obama,” Proctor told Al Jazeera. “Senate Republicans will probably try to do the same thing, and it also means that we don’t even get to the point of Trump having the power to veto because the legislation never reaches him in the first place.”

Impeachment

Since the Democrats swept the midterms on Tuesday, calls for investigations against the administration have already emerged.

In his first term, Trump was impeached twice — first for the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and the second time for “inciting” the US Capitol riots.

On Tuesday night, US Representative Robert Garcia, who is set to become chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote on X: “LAWYER UP.” Senator Ron Wyden, who is expected to lead the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a post on X: “Subpoenas.”

However, the Trump administration has already denied any wrongdoing.

“If Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people,” said White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday.

Reports also suggest that impeachment proceedings against Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth might be imminent, over the Iran war that Trump and other Republicans have blamed for the party’s losses.

The three-part documentary series has already secured top spot in the top 10 charts

True crime fans are being urged to stop what they are doing and binge watch a brand new release that is guaranteed to have your jaw on the floor.

There are plenty of choices at our disposal when it comes to deciding what to watch, but streaming giant Netflix has recently dropped a brand new true crime documentary that everyone needs to get on their watch list.

In what has been dubbed an emotional rollercoaster of a series, the brand new release is from the same producers as Maternal Instinct as it plunges viewers into a 20 year fight for answers.

Titled Taken: Natalee Holloway, the three-part documentary was released on November 4 and has already secured the top spot in the top 10 Series in the UK Today.

An official synopsis teases: “On May 30, 2005, 18-year-old Natalee Holloway vanished on a high school graduation trip to Aruba — and never came home. What followed was years of unanswered questions, a missing teenager, and a mother’s relentless fight for the truth.

“Now, over 20 years later, Natalee’s mother, Beth, is ready to tell the complete story. With exclusive, unprecedented access to Beth and those who were with Natalee when she vanished, this three-part documentary series from Story Syndicate (Maternal Instinct, Titan: The Oceangate Disaster) and directors Dani Sloane and Matthew Galkin is the definitive account of a case that gripped a nation and never let go.

“It’s a story of a mother who refused to stop searching, an investigation that spanned continents, and a daughter whose memory endures. This is Natalee’s story, told at last in full.”

Spanning across three episodes, viewers are already hooked as one person admitted on TikTok: “I am disgusted by this documentary.” They later added: “This documentary takes you on a whirlwind of events, literally 20 years until they get answers.”

In a separate video, another true crime fan praised: “You need to stop whatever your doing, cancel all of your plans and forget about everything else on Netflix because this documentary is about to be number one trending.

“I’m telling you right now everybody is going to be talking about this documentary, my jaw was on the floor watching it.” Another replied: “I’ve just finished it can’t believe what I’ve watched.”

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Over on Facebook, one person penned: “I just watched Taken: The Natalee Holloway Story on Netflix, and I am absolutely disgusted and heartbroken.”

Another echoed: “No I have the full body chills right now. Cannot believe it took that long. And the WhatsApp literally had me screaming”, as a third added: “Natalee’s case has always haunted me.”

On IMDb, a reviewer echoed: “This is a shocking, disturbing and often sickening story, but an important one to tell… Ultimately, this is as much a story about a mother’s love and determination as it is about a horrific crime. A compelling documentary that stays with you long after the final episode.”

Taken: Natalee Holloway can be streamed on Netflix

WASHINGTON — Democratic upsets in this year’s midterms, which stretched from the suburbs of Atlanta to rural Kansas, could reshape the electoral map that governs presidential politics — and, with it, the calculus for each party in the fight for the nation’s top office in 2028.

Democrats were already cautioning against overconfidence, discussing how to translate their midterm success into more lasting power and to draw back Tuesday’s voters in 2028.

For Republicans, the defeat set off something close to an existential crisis, with would-be contenders for the party’s presidential nomination openly debating what had gone wrong and how the party should regroup after voters rebuked President Trump’s agenda.

And members of both parties were taking stock of the deep reach Democrats demonstrated Tuesday, with Senate, House and state legislative seats flipped in red strongholds that have not been up for grabs in a presidential race in years.

The midterm results have “enlarged the competitive map” for 2028, said Alex Keyssar, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, who has written books about voting rights and the electoral college. States such as Texas and Georgia may no longer be considered long-safe GOP territory, he said, leaving Republicans with fewer states they can count on and more ground they will have to spend money to defend.

“The number of states that the Republicans can feel secure that they have has diminished,” he said. “And the flip side of that is that there are more states that the Democrats can compete in. And that’s a shift.”

Presidential hopefuls typically begin putting together exploratory committees soon after the midterms, announce their candidacies after the new year and begin fundraising by midyear. Potential candidates began putting down markers swiftly this week.

On Thursday, allies of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) launched a fundraising committee for his potential candidacy. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considering a run, commuted the death sentences of all California’s death row prisoners. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker this week released a road map with recommendations for the new Congress.

And party leaders in Washington were nodding to 2028 as they outlined broad plans for their House and Senate majorities.

“As we look to 2028 and beyond, we need to start identifying now, in 2027, to solidify our position in the states we won and build our party infrastructure in those areas,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told an audience Wednesday at the think tank Center for American Progress, “and continue to expand the map into new states.”

Meanwhile, Republican leaders moved swiftly to assert authority within their party with analyses and prescriptions after Tuesday’s battering. Vice President JD Vance, long seen as a potential Trump heir, on Wednesday rushed to blame the sweeping losses on the president’s war in Iran.

Sen. Ted Cruz, whose state of Texas saw a historic blue wave, faulted his party for ignoring the economic pain many voters face. And Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, one of the few states where Republicans held the line, called the midterms an “extinction level event for Republicans” that will last beyond 2028.

“Once you have the [midterm] election results, that’s when like the real literal politicking begins, and you have to move quick,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist who worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the presidential campaigns of Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney.

For the GOP, Tuesday’s results will mean spending more money in places such as Texas that the party has traditionally counted on to get their candidates to 270 electoral votes, Keyssar said.

“When the map shifts, the strategies have to shift, and that includes the allocation of money,” he said.

For Democrats, the midterms demonstrated that the party should be “investing heavily in the coastal South,” said Keneshia Grant, a Howard University political scientist. The party needs to “recognize the moment and meet it,” she said, pointing to the unexpectedly close Senate races in Florida and Mississippi.

“If you’re the Democratic Party at the national level, you now have to ask yourself different questions about the calculus,” Grant said.

It is generally difficult to predict the next presidential election outcome based on the results of the preceding midterms, said Justin Grimmer, a political scientist at Stanford University.

“Right now there’s this incentive or dream of Democrats to think, like, ‘Well, what if this were 2028? Then it’s a landslide.’ And then Republicans are fearful that if this map were to carry forward, that they would get ransacked in ‘28,” Grimmer said.

But “it’s hard to know what the major issues are gonna be in 2028, who the candidates are, and what sort of world we’ll be in.”

‘No silver lining’

President Trump has so far declined to endorse a successor, saying it is “too early” to make the call, though he has praised both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said Wednesday. “You can have maybe a lot of people running, maybe nobody is going to run. … I don’t know who is going to run.”

Trump cast doubt on whether Vance would eventually run. But Vance appeared to be signaling 2028 aspiration with a post that pinned the GOP defeats on the Iran conflict launched by Trump this year.

The scale of the midterm losses may be the most useful thing for Republicans moving toward 2028, Gorman argued.

“The silver lining is that there’s no silver lining,” Gorman said.

That’s because there is nothing to cling to. “It’s a bottoming-out,” he said, which frees the party to begin “rebuilding conversations.”

The larger danger for whoever leads the party next is assuming that Trump’s voters come with the nomination, he argued, saying the 2028 nominee will have to create their own voter coalition. The same applies to Democrats, Gorman said, pointing to Latino voters who swung toward Trump in 2024 and back toward Democrats this year.

Such groups of swing voters, said California Republican consultant Mike Madrid, care about economic and quality-of-life-issues, not culture-war and partisan issues.

Madrid said that if he were advising a 2028 presidential contender, he would tell them, “Quit talking about these differences, or at least set these differences in the construct of a class-based, top down model — not a right left model.”

Time to ‘deliver’

With Democrats set for a wide-open presidential primary with a large array of candidates, the sweeping success on Tuesday of the party’s populist platform could influence how 2028 contenders run their campaigns.

Democratic leaders in Congress have said they intend to make affordability a centerpiece of their legislative agenda as soon as they take control of both chambers next year. But any measure will still need Trump’s signature, setting up an early test of whether Democrats can hand voters tangible results before 2028 — or end up with a stack of vetoes to campaign on instead.

“We have won immense amounts of political power, and now it’s the most important time in which to deliver,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told reporters Wednesday, “so we can keep that political power.”

Now that voters expect Democrats to clean up the nation’s problems in the next session, the party has to ensure that is “backed up by real results” — something anyone who is preparing a 2028 run will need to have in mind, strategist Rob Flaherty said at the Center for American Progress event Thursday.

“That is a huge thing that whoever we nominate has to be thinking about: quick delivery, quick change that people can substantively feel in their lives,” Flaherty said.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who has not ruled out a presidential run, told reporters Thursday that some states may now be more “swing-ish” and that the Democrats will need to “take in” and analyze Tuesday’s data.

But, he said, voters’ top issues will remain the same.

“The candidates … that can answer those things authentically and well for the voter,” he said, are “going to be the more successful” ones.

Lee Westwood is worried about the future of the Europe-based DP World Tour following the collapse of LIV Golf.

The 53-year-old Englishman was among the high-profile players lured to LIV when the controversial Saudi-backed breakaway tour began in 2022.

LIV this week confirmed its intention to wind down operations after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) withdrew its financial support and potential new investors pulled out of a deal to back LIV continuing in a new form.

LIV’s collapse is a boost for the USA’s PGA Tour and Westwood’s former Ryder Cup team-mate Rory McIlroy agrees with DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings’ assertion that LIV aimed to “destroy” their European rivals.

However, Westwood questions how strong a position the DP World Tour now finds itself in.

The former world number one expects the PGA Tour boss to “play hardball” with its European counterparts and suggested that Europe’s top players may be better off playing on the Korn Ferry Tour, the US feeder circuit to the PGA Tour.

“LIV going out of business, some people will be disappointed and it might not be people that you immediately think of,” Westwood told BBC Sport.

“The European tour, I’m not sure it’s such a big win for them.”

Although LIV players were banned from the PGA Tour, they could still play in some DP World Tour events, which Westwood felt gave them some “leverage” but “now LIV’s out [of] the way, they’ve lost that”.

However, in July the American and European tours extended their strategic alliance, which includes Annual Investment Payments (AIPs). Last year that figure was £59m.

The PGA Tour also gives tour cards to the top 10 finishers on the DP World Tour who are not already members, but Westwood believes “there are a lot of questions still to be answered” regarding the new terms of their alliance.

“If [the DP World Tour] want to continue having the PGA Tour bankrolling them, there are going to be some big asks from the PGA Tour,” Westwood added.

“If I was [chief executive] Brian Rolapp running the PGA Tour, I would be playing hardball and making a lot of demands of the European tour if they expected me to finance it going forward.”

Westwood did not commit to LIV 2.0, as it was known, and is currently “unemployed” as he considers his future but may have to serve a suspension before returning to either the PGA or DP World Tours.

The PGA Tour describes the Korn Ferry Tour as its “premier pathway”, with 20 cards on offer, and announced a new competitive structure in June with a Championship Series and a lower-tier Challenger Series.

The Championship Series will feature a “limited series” of events co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, which has so far announced the prize fund for just one event in 2027 – the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January.

“The PGA Tour put this ‘plan for the future’ in place and the DP World Tour is not mentioned a whole lot in that,” said Westwood.

“[Rolapp has] already said that the Korn Ferry Tour is going to be the main route into the PGA Tour, which makes me think ‘what’s going to happen to the DP World Tour?’

“I don’t think the DP World Tour has announced any prize funds for next year, which is slightly worrying, and what will prize funds look like from 2028 onwards? There are a lot of questions still to be answered in that strategic alliance partnership.”

An inviting volley blazed over the bar, a trademark free kick clattering into the wall, and a showman’s celebrations cut short by an offside goal.

In many ways, the frustrations Cristiano Ronaldo endured in his final match for Portugal reflected his long-altered reality – one of football’s most devastating players had become a liability.

For many, Ronaldo’s fall from grace could hardly be crueller.

The boy from Madeira captivated the world for years with his jaw-dropping talent, age-defying athleticism and larger-than-life personality. Yet the final chapter of his international career had anything but a fairytale ending – a forgettable climax to an otherwise illustrious journey.

Ronaldo has walked away from the national team with individual achievements most footballers can only dream of: the all-time record for international appearances (234) and goals (146).

“Portugal will always be a part of me,” the 41-year-old said in a five-minute video shared on Thursday, bidding goodbye to the team he first played for in 2003.

But his international retirement was hardly a surprise.

In the weeks leading up to his announcement, Ronaldo had been at the centre of a controversy, leaving fans and critics wondering if that was the end of the road for Portugal’s longstanding captain.

The forward’s waning influence on the field, a public rift with Portugal coach Jorge Jesus and a near 2,000-word statement after a dramatic mid-camp walkout were the perfect recipe for worldwide football gossip – and ultimately, retirement.

“He wanted the manager to go out and say ‘I’ve put a player on the bench at the calibre of Pele and [Diego] Maradona,’” ex-Liverpool player-turned-pundit Jamie Carragher said on The Overlap podcast.

“How do you say that about yourself? It’s mad, isn’t it?”

Ronaldo’s declining impact for Portugal

For more than two decades, Ronaldo made himself impossible to ignore in a Portugal shirt. He brought home the Selecao’s first major trophy, the Euro 2016 crown, before adding two Nations League titles in 2019 and 2025.

But the tide had begun to turn in 2022.

After being celebrated as a hero, Ronaldo slowly transitioned into the villain during the World Cup in Qatar. A lack of goals saw him dropped to the bench in two crucial knockout games, while his performances and attitude drew criticism as Portugal were sent packing in the quarterfinals.

The script repeated itself at Euro 2024 before the FIFA World Cup 2026 marked his final appearance on the sport’s biggest stage – the forward scoring three times, including his first and only World Cup knockout goal.

He bowed out of the biggest World Cup in North America as the first player to score in six editions, but those personal landmarks never translated into the trophy he sought. Portugal lost to eventual champions Spain in the last 16, and with that, Ronaldo’s dream of being crowned a world champion remained unfulfilled.

“I won Euro 2016 and, for me, that’s just as important as the World Cup. It will stay with me forever,” the five-time Ballon d’Or winner said this year, seemingly making peace with the bitter ending.

A household name

For much of his career, Ronaldo drew constant comparisons with Argentinian legend Lionel Messi; the duo igniting the debate for the “greatest of all time” (GOAT). It was, thus, rather poetic that Ronaldo followed Messi’s suit in hanging up his boots at the international level.

But there is a striking contrast in their farewells. Messi’s send-off was marked with celebrations after he guided Argentina to a second straight World Cup final. Ronaldo, on the other hand, is leaving the scene after a rather tense span in the Portugal camp, and probably without a proper goodbye on the field.

Nonetheless, Ronaldo’s announcement drew an outpouring of affection from fans and figures across the football fraternity.

Often described as a childhood idol by several teammates at club or country, Ronaldo is one of the most famous people on the planet.

Walk around your nearest park, and you’re likely to spot a kid dressed in a “Ronaldo 7” jersey, kicking a ball around.

A commercial powerhouse for his national team and clubs alike, Ronaldo’s popularity transcended sports.

“Few ‌players have ever touched the heart of football fans around the world quite like Cristiano,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said about him.

“A career defined by extraordinary talent, relentless determination and an unwavering desire to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

Ronaldo has always divided opinions

But with fame comes increased scrutiny.

While his tricks and skills earned him the honour of one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo’s on-field antics and perceived arrogance divided opinion in the football world.

In a recent interview with The Athletic, ex-Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag discussed his issues involving Ronaldo, alleging that the forward pulled out of training sessions during his second spell at the club and failed to raise his heart rate to the required level when he did train.

“I confronted him with this. Many times, I say, ‘Ronnie, everyone wants to work for you to bring you in the right position, but if you can’t bring yourself in the box, you can’t score’,” Ten Hag said.

“He was not capable to do this. It’s the wrong idea to put this to me that I expected him to do the pressing, that he’s exhausted. But he couldn’t. He ran neither in possession nor out of possession. The reason was because he didn’t prepare himself.

“Every top team has to embrace the top player, but the top player has to work for the team,” Ten Hag added.

While some saw Ronaldo as the icon who transformed Portuguese football, others questioned his individualism.

The debate over how best to define him will continue for years, but one thing is certain: Ronaldo’s complex legacy is perhaps summed up by his former club Man United’s famous slogan: “Hated, adored, never ignored”.

Iran has stepped up diplomatic efforts amid suggestions by United States President Donald Trump that the US could resume full-scale strikes on the Islamic republic.

The US news website Axios quoted a US official saying that US Central Command (CENTCOM) was preparing for the resumption of major military operations in Iran, and that it was just waiting on orders from Washington. On Thursday, Trump told reporters the US may have to “destroy” the rest of Iran, adding that people will “know soon enough” if he acts.

Tehran’s intensified diplomatic push comes after Iran downed two US reconnaissance drones near Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz, which the US struck earlier this week. Iran says it will retaliate if the US resumes larger strikes.

What diplomatic efforts is Iran engaging in?

On Thursday, Iran offered the US a new nuclear and peace proposal via Qatari mediators, to be discussed only after Washington meets Tehran’s seven demands, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. The US is examining the proposal, Reuters reported.

Iran has made meeting its seven demands a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restarting peace talks, including on its nuclear programme. The demands include the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the unfreezing of Iranian assets and the end to the US naval blockade of its ports in and around the Strait of Hormuz, among other things.

It has also stepped up ties with Russia, with its top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, travelling to Moscow for talks on Thursday. During that visit, Rezaei said: “On the issue of diplomacy, we have announced seven conditions ⁠to the Americans. As long as they do ⁠not execute our seven conditions, we will neither open the Strait of Hormuz nor have negotiations.”

Meanwhile, the US has insisted a deal on Iran’s nuclear capacity must be part of any ceasefire agreement before wider peace talks can restart.

How is Iran deepening ties with Russia?

On Thursday, Rezaei met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin to deliver a message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Iranian state media did not elaborate on ⁠the contents of the message.

Rezaei called it “an extremely important exchange” according to remarks reported by the Iranian embassy, but also did not give further details.

However, The Financial Times reported that Russia previously agreed to supply Iran with 90 helicopter-mounted launchers for precision-guided missiles, despite needing its own weapons for the Ukraine war. The newspaper cited a Russian defence manufacturer’s production schedule for 2024 and 2025, which it has examined, showing an order for helicopter-mounted launchers being assigned a code used to refer to Iran in Russian defence documents.

Relations between Russia and Iran have deepened since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and during the US-Israeli war on Iran that saw the two countries become the most heavily sanctioned in the world. Iran has provided Shahed drones, which Russia has modified and used heavily against Ukraine.

In return, Russia has also reportedly helped Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, sold it Verba shoulder-launched anti-air missiles and shared information with Tehran potentially relevant to nuclear weapons.

“It is indicative of Russia’s willingness to continue supplying Iran despite its own wartime demands and with far less concern about Western objections than in the past,” Nicole Grajewski, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the FT.

In early October, Putin said Russia was prepared to take part in mediation to bring an end to the war.

Images released by the Kremlin showed its foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov and chief of the Russian military intelligence, Igor Kostyukov, attending a meeting with Iran’s security chief alongside Putin.

The meeting also strengthened Iran’s economic ties with Russia.

“During the meeting with Mr Vladimir Putin, discussions were held regarding the construction of gas pipelines from Russia to Iran,” said Rezaei, Iranian state TV reported.

He said the gas pipelines would address Iran’s gas shortages and facilitate the sale of Russian energy to neighbouring countries.

Tehran said Iran’s natural gas refineries had been hit during the most intense phase of US-Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year, which lasted 40 days.

Separately, Russia’s Foreign Ministry advised citizens against travel to Iran “In light of the remaining risks of a new escalation around Iran”.

How is Iran negotiating with regional leaders?

During the most intense fighting of the war, Iran struck bases in Gulf countries hosting US military assets, as well as civil and energy facilities and infrastructure.

Senior Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that any state helping the US to target the Islamic republic will be a “legitimate target” should US attacks resume.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held phone calls with several Gulf leaders, including the foreign minister of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

They discussed regional developments as well as diplomatic efforts for stability in the region, according to Araghchi’s Telegram channel.

Araghchi spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud about efforts to improve security and stability in the region, according to the Saudi foreign ministry.

Araghchi also discussed de-escalation efforts with the foreign ministers of Kuwait and Turkiye.

In a separate call, Araghchi talked with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani about coordinating to reduce tensions, the Qatari foreign ministry said.

Sheikh Mohammed stressed support for efforts to secure freedom of maritime navigation.

In a statement, Oman’s foreign ministry said the safety of passage through the Strait of Hormuz was a main topic of discussions, in a call between Araghchi and Oman’s foreign minister.

Iran continues to tightly control shipping lanes through the strait, where several ships have been damaged in recent days. It has granted exemptions to shipping restrictions to Iraq and Qatar, in the Gulf region, as well as to India and China.

What is Trump saying?

Despite his Republican Party suffering a drubbing in this week’s US midterm elections – largely because of public anger over the war on Iran and the resulting rise in energy prices – US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out further strikes on Iran.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office that he may have to “destroy the rest” of Iran.

Former Iranian diplomat Hadi Afghahi told Al Jazeera that Tehran can ease the path to a settlement if the US also shows flexibility. He argued that Trump “really does not want to go to war, because war again will cost him more”. However, the US president’s next move is unpredictable, observers say.

Afghahi cautioned that Trump “is still surrounded by a group of hawks”, including the energy and treasury secretaries.

Trump has shown willingness to engage in diplomacy, however. Qatar’s ⁠Emir ⁠Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad ⁠Al Thani discussed diplomatic ⁠efforts to ease regional tensions in a ‌phone call with Trump on Friday, according to the Qatari Emiri Diwan.

The leaders reviewed international diplomatic efforts, including the Doha-led mediation efforts to support negotiations in recent weeks, in a bid to reach “a comprehensive agreement that puts an end to the crisis”, the Diwan said in a statement.

How has Iran responded to Trump’s rhetoric?

Tehran warned it will retaliate on a wider scale than it has done so far if the US resumes the war. It has also said talks will become unfeasible.

Iranian officials said Iran has the capacity to strike further than the Gulf using weapons manufactured in Iran.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Supreme Advisor to the Commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “In the event of a new aggression, any country or force that helps America attack Iran can be a legitimate target of the Islamic Republic.”

Iran’s state media outlet Tasnim News reported: “Our missile bases have a suitable range to target the Zionist regime and American bases,” adding “Iran’s response to the possible new aggression of the enemies will not be geographically limited.”

Iran has also previously warned that cables, data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities across the Gulf region could be attacked if war with the US erupts again.

What strikes have there been in recent days?

In the run-up to the midterm elections, the US said it had conducted “defensive strikes” on Iran’s Qeshm island and Bandar Lengeh in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps navy says at least seven tankers have caught fire after sailing into mines while attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz using “unauthorised routes” near Oman this week.

Two oil ‌tankers caught fire and were brought to a stop after hitting ⁠mines on Friday, the IRGC said. They had been trying to cross the waterway “with the support of the aggressor and terrorist American military”, the IRGC added.

Control over the Strait of Hormuz has been a main stumbling block in negotiations to end the Iran war since it began in February.

Tehran has sought to limit traffic through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil supplies.

The US has also imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and escorted tankers through the strait.

Maritime organisations have not confirmed the latest incidents.

If you’re a certain age — say, the generation most excited by the prospect of a “Rocky” origin story — you probably have spent a good few decades watching people imitate Sylvester Stallone. You might be able to pull it off yourself. Start with the gravely voice that rumbles and mumbles, make your eyes as heavy-lidded as possible, add a swaggering shoulder roll and then just brood, baby, brood.

Anthony Ippolito has the moves down pat in “I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly’s endearing crowd-pleaser, an underdog story about making the underdog movie that went on to win the Oscar for best picture in 1977. The title comes from Stallone’s repeated insistence that he portray the working-class fighter in the film that he wrote for himself. The studio wanted a star — Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds, among others — and offered Stallone $360,000 for the script if he would just walk away. Stallone refused, even though his bank account was down to $106.

“I told my wife that I’d rather bury it in the backyard and let the caterpillars play Rocky,” he said shortly before the movie opened. “I would have hated myself for selling out, the way we hate most people for selling out.”

And that’s why the new film, written by Peter Gamble, has Ippolito say the title so many times that, by the end, you feel like you’ve gone a full 15 rounds with Apollo Creed and been pummeled into submission.

But as you’re watching this breezy movie as it slipstreams its way down memory lane, it starts to feel like Ippolito really is playing Rocky and not Stallone. The difference might be negligible, since “Rocky” was, in many respects, Stallone’s story: a sensitive palooka struggling for the chance to prove himself and earn a measure of self-respect, all the while supported by a woman who believes in his dream.

But the charming, softie Stallone we see in “I Am Rocky” seems like a character from mythology, a Hercules lacking the prickly complexities that Stallone himself detailed in his recent memoir. His tumultuous relationship with his father, Frank (Matt Dillon), is given little attention. Watching this movie, you might be reminded of the quote from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” And while the facts of this oft-told story are, for the most part, accurate, “I Am Rocky” feels too neat, a movie that relies on our love for “Rocky,” the movie and the character.

The film’s first half wastes no time laying the groundwork. It’s 1974 and Stallone is living in squalor in a New York flophouse. When he can’t even afford that, he takes to the streets, sleeping in an alley and adopting a stray bullmastiff that he names Butkus, the same dog that would go on to appear with him in “Rocky.” Desperate for cash, he accepts a part in a softcore porn flick. He eventually takes a job at a movie theater, where he meets Sasha (a lovely AnnaSophia Robb), who, growing weary of his frustrations and their precarious finances, tells him he should write a screenplay with a meaty part for himself.

Stallone soon does just that, cranking out “Rocky” in three and a half days after watching longshot Chuck Wepner (a.k.a. “The Bayonne Bleeder”) go 15 rounds against Muhammad Ali in a heavyweight championship fight. Producers Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell) and Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) love the script and take it to brusque studio exec Sandy Maddox (Tracy Letts, gloriously cantankerous playing a composite character), who tells them to give Stallone $50,000 for the screenplay and send this complete unknown on his way. Stallone has a three-word rejoinder.

You don’t need a spoiler alert to know that he indeed does play Rocky, and the second half of the film re-creates the movie’s production, which, because of the shoestring budget, was arduous. The tight schedule forced Stallone to work even when he was sick and hurt. If he didn’t, he feared he’d be fired because the studio still wasn’t thrilled with him playing the lead.

There’s something for everyone in this section. Film nerds will glory in watching Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown (Michael Fuchs) sprinting up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, smoothly following Stallone, creating “Rocky’s” most famous scene with a fluidity that revolutionized moviemaking. Downtrodden directors will appreciate Jay Duplass’ knowing portrayal of John G. Avildsen, charged with making “Rocky” as quickly and frugally as possible. Avildsen brought the movie in on time and went on to win the Oscar for directing.

And longtime fans will appreciate that the film plays all the hits: the bare-knuckle beef pounding, the training sequences, the intimate ice rink scene with Talia Shire (Kiki Seto). Hollywood loves to celebrate its own scrappy mythmaking. (Ippolito’s biggest part prior to this was playing Al Pacino in “The Offer,” a limited series about the making of “The Godfather.”) Sure, it’s sentimental. And maybe you’d be better off just staying home and revisiting “Rocky.” What can I say? I put Bill Conti’s soaring “Gonna Fly Now” on repeat during the drive home. Nostalgia is a powerful drug.