The 2026 original song contenders come from deep inside the characters singing them: a simple man wistfully looking back on his ordinary life; a budding bluesman with talent to burn down the house; a 17-time Oscar nominee; a demon-hunting K-pop star channeling the real-life singer-songwriter behind her; and a joyous expression of life from inside a documentary’s main “character,” a retirement home for musicians.
‘Dear Me’ from ‘Diane Warren: Relentless’
Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
Diane Warren in “Diane Warren: Relentless.”
(Don Holtz)
When 17-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren agreed to be in a documentary about her life, she found herself back in her childhood home in Van Nuys — specifically the bathroom where she wrote songs as an angsty teen.
“The acoustics in that bathroom were always great,” she says. “It was cool to go back and look at the bedroom window I used to sneak out of. I’m always connected to that 14-year-old me, with a guitar my dad bought me.”
Inspired by the documentary’s examination of her troubled youth, Warren wrote an “It gets better” ballad sung by Kesha: “Dear me, it’s gonna be all right, all right / Trust me, all of the pain is gonna fade.”
“I get notes from all ages; the song makes them feel like they could hug the little kid inside them,” says Warren. “It’s a love song to your younger self.”
‘Golden’ from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
She related to the film’s protagonist, Rumi, a monster-fighting singer who is secretly part monster herself. “She has this side that she’s so ashamed of, that she was born with. I struggled with my own demons that I was ashamed of, growing up in the K-pop industry, [harshly critiqued for] my physical appearance, my voice, my personality.
“Even when writing ‘Golden,’ things were just not happening. It was a really bad time.”
Yet the hit is a catchy K-pop banger.
“It was very cathartic,” she says. “I remember crying while recording the demo. I was desperate.
“Now when I sing it, it’s a different feeling. I was able to reach a dream, and it makes me feel like this is who I was meant to be.”
‘I Lied to You’ from ‘Sinners’
Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson
Miles Caton, center, in “Sinners.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” features a central moment of musical ecstasy. Emerging bluesman Sammie plays a song he wrote as a confession to his pastor father, a paean to the music he loves. As the juke joint crowd responds, he loses himself in the timeless transcendence artists hope for.
Co-writer Ludwig Göransson says, “It doesn’t happen very often, but you have those experiences when you really are getting into the music and time and space disappears. Ryan’s not a musician, but it was written like he’s been in that position.”
In cosmic communion, practitioners of Black music from many eras appear to Sammie, the joint’s roof combusting in his mind. Göransson assisted in the Dolby Atmos mix, moving the music and sound around spatially as the camera travels.
Co-writer Raphael Saadiq says, “Sammie’s father felt secular music was devil music. Even today, you have people who go to church who don’t listen to the blues [for that reason], but deep down inside, they love it because it’s something we inherited from our ancestors.”
‘Sweet Dreams of Joy’ from ‘Viva Verdi!’
Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike
Milan’s Casa Verdi, a retirement home for musicians depicted in “Viva Verdi!”
(Viva Verdi! LLC)
Even those who know little about opera have heard of Giuseppe Verdi. What many don’t know is one of his most enduring accomplishments is Casa Verdi — a retirement home for musicians. Yvonne Russo’s documentary “Viva Verdi!” captures the vibrant life inside its walls, expressed in the aria “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” sung by soprano Ana María Martínez and composed by Nicholas Pike.
The filmmakers “sent me this 12-minute assembly, kind of like a teaser, and that’s all I saw,” says Pike. “The passion, the vitality of these residents, the mentoring of young, up-and-coming artists … I went over to the piano and wrote the song.”
He says the whole thing took about a day to craft, with its contemporary piano figures and classical vocals, imbued with the vivaciousness of Casa Verdi’s residents.
He wanted to capture the footage’s “energy and life and hope. We’ve all been to retirement homes; they can be pretty down places. This is 180 degrees from that.”
‘Train Dreams’ from ‘Train Dreams’
Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave
Joel Edgerton in “Train Dreams.”
(Netflix)
When “Train Dreams” star Joel Edgerton called Nick Cave to work with composer Bryce Dessner on a song for the film, the postpunk poet and art rocker was on holiday, avoiding the “attendant agony” of songwriting. But Denis Johnson’s book happened to be a favorite of Cave’s.
Edgerton sent him the film. Cave says, “I sat up in bed and watched it with Bryce’s gorgeous score and fell asleep and had a kind of fever dream with all the images of this extraordinary film, and woke up with the lyrics fully formed, which is extremely unusual for me.”
He went to the hotel’s breakfast room, where there was a piano. “It all just sort of poured out of me. The melody and the lyrics fit perfectly to Bryce’s score.”
The song expresses “the inarticulate wonder at the world that the lead character has. There’s this chordal thing after the refrain, that rises up — an expression of that wonder, rising out of the grief.
“‘This has been going on for years … I can’t begin to tell you how that feels.’”
Scotland and Ireland will face hosts England at the Women’s T20 World Cup after the draw for this summer’s tournament was finalised.
Scotland and Ireland booked their place at the World Cup in the qualifying tournament in Nepal earlier this month.
They join England in Group Two, alongside West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The game between England and Scotland at Headingley on 20 June will mark the first occasion the two countries have met in any kind of cricket World Cup fixture, men or women, in the UK.
Ireland meet England in Southampton on 16 June, while Ireland and Scotland start their campaigns against each other at Old Trafford on 13 June.
The tournament begins a day earlier when England take on Sri Lanka at Edgbaston.
Bangladesh and the Netherlands were the other two teams to come through the qualifier and join Australia, South Africa, India and Pakistan in Group One.
With the 12-team field confirmed – the largest in the 17-year history of the Women’s T20 World Cup – the full groups and fixtures have been published for the first time.
New Zealand will defend the title they won in the United Arab Emirates two years ago in the first Women’s T20 World Cup to be held in England since the inaugural tournament in 2009.
As well as Old Trafford, Headingley and Southampton, group matches will be played in Bristol. The semi-finals will be at The Oval on 30 June and 2 July, with the final at Lord’s on Sunday, 5 July.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), shown on a screen in the trading room at Hana Bank in Seoul, topped a record-high 5,000 on Tuesday. Photo by Yonhap
Seoul shares surged more than 2 percent Tuesday to close at a fresh record high above the 5,900-point mark, driven by strong gains in technology shares. The Korean won fell against the U.S. dollar.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 123.55 points, or 2.11 percent, to finish at an all-time high of 5,969.64.
The index has extended its upward momentum in recent weeks, surpassing the 5,000-point mark for the first time on Jan. 27 and crossing 5,500 on Feb. 12. It moved above 5,800 on Friday.
Trading volume was heavy at 1.58 billion shares worth 30.73 trillion won (US$21.3 billion), with decliners outnumbering gainers 465 to 407.
Institutions bought a net 2.37 trillion won worth of stocks, offsetting net sales of 199.16 billion won by foreign investors and 2.28 trillion won by retail investors.
The rally came despite overnight losses on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.66 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 1.13 percent.
In Seoul, investors scooped up major chip stocks ahead of an earnings report from U.S. chipmaker Nvidia later this week, while remaining cautious over U.S. President Donald Trump‘s push to impose new tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down his original sweeping duties, analysts said.
Trump signed an executive order Friday (U.S. time) authorizing new 10 percent global tariffs that took effect Tuesday. He has also threatened to raise the rate to 15 percent, though no formal order has been issued.
“Even if the global tariffs are raised to 15 percent, there will be no major impact on the local stock market because current U.S. tariffs on Korean imports already stand at 15 percent,” an analyst at IBK Securities Co. said.
Technology and automobile stocks led the gains.
Market bellwether Samsung Electronics jumped 3.63 percent to 200,000 won, while chip giant SK hynix surged 5.68 percent to a record high of 1,005,000 won.
Top automaker Hyundai Motor rose 0.19 percent to 524,000 won, and leading battery maker LG Energy Solution gained 4.17 percent to 412,500 won.
Among decliners, shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean fell 2.79 percent to 143,100 won, and Lotte Shopping declined 1.67 percent to 111,700 won.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,442.50 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 2.5 won from the previous session.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 0.4 basis point to 3.158 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds also climbed 0.5 basis point to 3.410 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Joint statement says Israeli land grab is ‘deliberate and direct attack’ on the viability of a Palestinian state.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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Foreign ministers of 19 countries, including Turkiye, Qatar, France and Brazil, have signed a joint statement condemning Israel’s moves to unlawfully extend and consolidate its control over Palestinian land.
The statement issued late Monday by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Israel’s plans to begin land registration in the occupied West Bank, which will sanction the seizure of land from Palestinians who cannot prove ownership, as “de facto annexation”.
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“Changes are wide-ranging, reclassifying Palestinian land as so-called Israeli ‘state land’, accelerating illegal settlement activity, and further entrenching Israeli administration,” said the joint statement, also signed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the heads of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel’s plans, signed on February 15, will see registration introduced across Area C, which makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank’s territory, according to the illegal settlement monitoring organisation, Peace Now.
The joint statement warned Israel’s moves could permanently alter the “legal and administrative status” of territory that is largely under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule, but which would constitute part of a future Palestinian state.
“Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian State and the implementation of the two-State Solution,” the statement said, rejecting measures altering “the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem”.
Signatories also called on Israel to end settler violence against Palestinians, pledging to take “concrete steps, in accordance with international law, to counter the expansion of illegal settlements in Palestinian territory and policies and threats of forcible displacement and annexation”.
The foreign ministers stressed that Israeli settlements constitute “a flagrant violation of international law”, including previous United Nations Security Council resolutions and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The landmark ICJ ruling stated that Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” rendered its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful”.
According to the ICJ, approximately 465,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, spread across some 300 settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Israel’s land registration plan could lead to the “dispossession of Palestinians of their property and risks expanding Israeli control over land in the area”.
Signatories of the statement urged Israel to immediately release withheld tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority in accordance with the 1994 Paris Protocol.
They also stressed the importance of preserving the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan.
When Jared Snow goes to the hospital, he’s usually in serious pain, which he hopes will be assuaged soon. But living with sickle cell disease as a Black man in America often tests this hope.
The Compton born stand-up comedian and actor has been living with sickle cell disease since he was a child. Hospital visits and pain have always been part of his life. But now he’s using his latest project, a documentary film called “You Look Fine,” to show the world how he copes as an entertainer with living with sickle cell disease in an industry steeped in image and perception.
Alongside actor-comedian Marlon Wayans, Snow wanted to make the film to raise awareness about the realities of sickle cell disease and how it impacts Black communities.
In the United States, sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 people, with more than 90% of cases being among Black people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sickle cell disease occurs in about one out of every 365 Black or African American births. People living with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that are crescent shaped due to a gene mutation. Because of this, the red blood cells can block blood flow to the rest of the body and can cause chronic pain, strokes, lung problems, infections and kidney disease.
The nearly 90-minute documentary has Snow filming himself inside small hospital rooms, nurses trying to find a vein in which to stick needles, and even him trying to work on material as he lies in hospital beds. The film also includes interviews with his friends.
Snow was adamant about showing the blood and needles in the film as well as footage of himself writhing in pain on hospital beds and the frustration of waiting hours for doctors to provide adequate dosages of pain medication that can help him. He cracks jokes during his hospital stays, but in between you get a front-row look at how tiring, tearful and emotionally devastating his illness can be. Interspersed within such footage are clips from his stand-up shows and him trying to live his best life by traveling, skydiving and even experiencing New York City snowfall.
The Times caught up with Snow and Wayans to talk about the film, vulnerability, Black men’s health, and finding levity through the pain.
J. Snow in the hospital in “You Look Fine”
(J. SnowPro)
I was struck by the handwritten notes with title ideas. Tell me where “You Look Fine” comes from?
J. Snow: It’s just something I hear a lot. It’s something I’ve heard a lot during my life. It’s cultural Black gaslighting is what it is. When you’re in pain, sometimes you look fine. When you are telling people, “I’m not fine,” they’re like, “Your hair is nice.” I can’t go to the hospital with gold. I had gold beads. Sometimes you go there looking too nice. Sometimes I got to dress down just to try to get the help. But if I dress too far down, I look homeless, and they really won’t be open to helping me. So you got to find the balance. But that’s kind of where it comes from. … I wanted to throw it back into people’s face. This is something that a lot of sickle cell warriors, and people with chronic illnesses in general hear, people with mental illness hear, and so I think it’s important to highlight how that literally is gaslighting.
What was your motivation to do this documentary now?
J.S.: I wanted to show that humor lives within this and that a lot of resilience and strength are also within this, and that was really the motivator. Also, just growing up with it, not having a lot of information, not seeing a lot of men talk about it. I wanted to be different, you know.
Marlon Wayans: For me it fits on brand for several reasons. One is because I love taking the dark things in life and finding some humor in it. And I think I try to do that with my comedy. I try to do it with my specials. I try to do it because I think we need to all find smiles no matter what your situation is; laughter is always healing and always necessary. Being African American, I grew up when sickle cell was like a prominent disease, and in our culture I know even when it came to dating, my mother would ask “Who you dating? You know, because if she got the trait, and you got the trait, you know, what could happen.” So I’ve always been aware of it, and I’ve lost now four friends to sickle cell. I just lost two in the last year. It’s a long fight, and so I’m here to support them and our culture and the awareness. And you know, Jay is a friend, and you know, I want him to see fame.
For Jared, in the film, you say, “I just want to see what my body can do.” I thought that was just so deeply profound. What is your relationship like with your body now, compared with the moment you were filming that?
J.S.: When somebody sees me eating a salad, and they’re like, “Oh, you eating salad?” I’m like, “This could save my life.” When I’m stretching and doing yoga, it’s not because I want to be a yogi. It’s because it literally gets oxygen into the joints that are suffering without oxygen. It stretches my hips and I want the longevity. I see what happens in sickle cell warriors and people without sickle cell who just age without moving frequently.
J. Snow walks through the halls of a hospital while dealing with issues from sickle cell.
(Courtesy of J. SnowPro)
Black people, especially for Black men, don’t have their pain taken seriously — be it their physical pain or their emotional pain. What has it been like for you to publicly show that pain?
J.S.: It’s been challenging. It took awhile for me to get to the point where I could even talk about this publicly, especially being in entertainment and trying to maintain a certain persona and image in entertainment where like your ego clashes against your vulnerability and you feeling like you’re weak. That’s the stigma that comes with people who admit that they have illnesses and stuff like that, especially in entertainment. It makes people not want to work with you. I’ve suffered through that. I’ve lost jobs while in the hospital because of this. And so it got to a place where it just was unavoidable. The pressure built so much and the frequency of the hospital visits became so crazy that it was like, you’re either going to be viewed as this very lazy, sometime-y person, or you’re going to come clean about what you’re actually dealing with and just face it.
M.W.: I live in the pain. I live in the vulnerability. I think that’s why I create my best work. You know, my parents died. I thought it was only appropriate to talk about that thing that hurts me so much. I think part of it takes courage, but at the same time, I know it’s necessary.
What was going through your mind when you first saw that footage of [Snow] in the hospital?
M.W.: “This [man] is crazy. Why you filming?” He made sure he had a GoPro on his foot and set cameras up — dude really wants to make it. Forget this disease. He may be faking it just to make it bigger. I was proud, right? That’s because I love the resilience, I love that you still have a passion, that you still have a thing that you want to do, and you have this art and this vessel and this expression, and I know that even though he’s hurting, that he’s healing at the same time, at least, you know, emotionally and spiritually. Because to put art out there at the time that it’s happening, that you’re in pain, that takes a lot of courage from the artist, and so I was proud. That’s why I stand behind it, because I think it’s something I’ve never seen, and I think it’s something that’s necessary for the culture.
How has this film changed your relationship to your understanding of masculinity and strength?
M.W.: For me, it’s just on theme. It hasn’t changed, it just enforced how I feel. You know, I’ve never been one to hide my feelings. I go to therapy. I have two therapists, I go on my walks. I talk to God. I’m reading my Bible. I understand that life is a long journey of suffering, and you need these outlets, and this movie and art are part of that. I have the stage. I always have this thing that I’m expressing because it helps me reconcile all that’s going on with me, especially when I take this pain and make other people laugh or are entertained by it, then I go, all right, I did something good with that thing that was bad. And so this enforces what I want people to feel. I want people to watch this. That’s why I stand behind this, because it’s on theme spiritually for me.
J.S.: I think when you stand outside of that vulnerability and you’re afraid to really go into it, I don’t know, I feel like that’s orbiting your true power. The most masculine thing you can do is face your highs and lows head on and own them. And that’s where you find out who you really are. This is where you find out what you can really bring to the table for yourself, for others, and where you become fearless. And that’s exactly what this showed me, was that I can do anything, I can conquer a lot of things. I walk around with a new energy because I’ve done this. I literally had a film on hard drives, and I sat for 11 months and edited it relentlessly, and now I have my first feature film because I was fearless enough to at least try to do it and not feel, what are people going to think, or what are people going to say? That didn’t matter to me. Also with this clock over my head, you don’t got time to think about stuff like that. It’s like, what do you want to do while you’re here? And what I wanted to do was make movies, make people laugh and inspire others to do things that they want to do too. And that took letting go of whatever this masculine image was that was blocking me.
J. Snow on stage at the Hollywood Laugh Factory
(Brianna Joseph)
The whole film is endearing, but I found those moments of levity so well- timed and so thoughtful and funny. How do Black people find those moments of levity, oftentimes, during these moments of pain?
M.W.: Because Black people have been through so much trauma before we get into family trauma, just as a people. We have suffered the most trauma from being separated from our family, slavery — we’ve been through it — and yet, and still, we find that funny. And that has been, I think, our saving grace is our sense of humor. It’s been a lifesaver. It’s been a raft in a really rough ocean for us. And I think it’s beautiful that we can. I will always promote laughing when you’re in your most pain to find the funny, because that takes a little pressure off. You’re laughing and crying at the same time. It’s like the best feeling.
J.S.: It’s like oxygen, like when the air is being sucked out of the room by your circumstances, your trauma, your pain or whatever. That little laugh is like a little breath of oxygen. It gives you something to keep going forward, to continue to think, “OK, like, where’s another solution from here? What else can I do here?” It gives you that breath that you need.
CK Hutchison says the Panamanian government has taken ‘administrative and operational control’ of its two ports on the canal.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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The government of Panama has seized control of two ports on either end of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong conglomerate following a recent ruling by the country’s Supreme Court.
Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison said on Tuesday that Panama’s government had “made direct physical entry into the terminals at Balboa and Cristobal” and assumed “administrative and operational control” over the two ports on the Panama Canal.
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The company said the “unlawful” takeover reflects the culmination of a campaign by the Panamanian state against its subsidiary, Panama Ports, following the Supreme Court ruling last month.
According to a government decree, the Panama Maritime Authority has been authorised to occupy the ports for “reasons of urgent social interest”, according to The Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The maritime authority also has the right to take over port property, including computer systems and cranes, according to the decree.
The state takeover marks the latest twist in a yearlong saga for CK Hutchison, which has been caught in a three-way fight between China, the United States, and Panama following US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year.
Starting in December 2024, Trump began to allege that the Panama Canal was being operated by China and promised to “take it back” – using military force if necessary – as part of a greater effort to reassert US dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
Last month, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that CK Hutchison’s concession to operate the two ports was “unconstitutional” despite the company renewing its concession in 2021 for another 25 years.
The Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) weighed in on the controversy, describing the ruling as “absurd” and “shameful”, while warning that the Latin American country would pay “heavy prices both politically and economically”.
Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino responded, saying he “strongly” rejected China’s threat against his country and that Panama was a country that upholds the rule of law “and respects the decisions of the judiciary, which is independent of the central government”.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. buildup of forces in the Middle East ahead of a possible attack on Iran relies very heavily on the performance of the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC). Hundreds of its cargo jets and aerial refueling tankers have moved materiel into theater and helped tactical jets, radar planes and other aircraft deploy across oceans to places like Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, among many other locations. At the same time, the current crisis in the Middle East pales in comparison to the massive spike in demand for airborne logistics that would occur during a Pacific fight against China. Regardless, ever greater demand is being placed on an increasingly aging AMC fleet.
Few people know the nuts and bolts of AMC and its mission better than Michael “Mini” Minihan, a retired Air Force general who led the command from October 2021 to November 2024. In a 45-minute interview, Minihan offered his insights on that and a whole host of other topics. They include the current crisis and its airlift demands, challenges from China, future airframes, arming airlifters and refuelers, the connectivity issues he championed, AI and the leaked memo that put a cap on his career.
Michael Minihan led U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC) from October 2021 until his retirement in November 2024. (USAF) AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan. USAF
Since retiring, Minihan serves as a strategic advisor and board member to defense and technology companies, non-profits, and think tanks while continuing to write and speak on leadership, national security, and the future of air mobility and global power projection.
Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
Q: The C-17 Globemaster III heavy lifters have been supporting one crisis after another it seems. Have the hours accumulated faster on those airframes? What do you think should replace them and when?
A: All the things I was concerned about while I was in uniform, I remain concerned about right now. The options on the table are service life extension programs [SLEP] that the C-17 is already a candidate for. There was talk late last year about the KC-135 Stratotanker receiving another [SLEP]. You know, those types of things are concerning to me. At the end of the day, I think this nation needs to pay for the Air Force it needs, and the Air Force that it needs has a modern, capable mobility fleet. It’s not just old stuff that keeps getting patched up to get older. That’s the reality. So I’m concerned.
C-17 Globemaster. (USAF)
Q: Right now, a massive buildup is underway in the Middle East. AMC is doing the heavy lifting there as always. But in a crisis in the Pacific, would we have enough airlift aircraft to support moving quick enough across that vast theater, especially to respond to an invasion of Taiwan?
A: What you’re talking about is always a concern, regardless of the scenario. The reality is that America relies on the mobility fleet to project its power… So there’s not any scenario, even in the day-to-day competition, where you’re happy with the supply-demand intersection. So I think that we’ve got to work on capacity, certainly out of the entire mobility fleet, when it comes to the airlift and the air refueling. And then if you overlay that in contested environments, the concern gets bigger.
This KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tanker remains at Moron Air Base in Spain after suffering a mishap earlier this momth. (Pepe Jimenez)
Q: Considering how long it has taken to build up forces in the Middle East, where tankers and cargo jets are flying over uncontested airspace, how concerned are you about being able to project enough power over long distances to protect Taiwan from an attack by China?
A: The alarm that I had when I was active duty exists today… So the reason I’m a civilian right now is because I was ringing the bell on the exact questions that you’re asking right now and that concern still remains. The reality is against a China or against a Russia, they’re going to challenge you in all domains, from great distances. They absolutely understand that the mobility fleet is America’s capability to project power quickly. So there’s going to be a focus on it. But once again, you’re describing concerns that I had and expressed when I was active duty, and I still have those same concerns.
Inside Taiwan’s Strategy to Counter a Chinese Invasion | WSJ
A: The leak created antibodies that would want me in another job. That memo was getting after all the things that you’re asking about right now. It was getting after capability and capacity. It was getting after readiness. It was getting after explode into theater. It was getting after the mobility fleet being able to do what it’s asked to do, despite being extremely vulnerable, despite it being extremely antiquated – all those things.
A portion of the memo AMC Commander Gen. Michael Minihan wrote that was leaked to the public. (USAF via X) USAF via Twitter
I believe that the Chief of Staff of the Air Force [Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach] now is focused on modernization and readiness. Those were 100% things that I was championing very early. And I think those things exist now, and I think we need to continue to put pressure on [those things] to get the resourcing, to get not just the Air Force, but America’s mobility fleet, to the capability and capacity that it needs to be at, so that we can not have concerns about China and not have concern about [deploying] to Europe when needed.
Q: Were you fired over the memo?
A: I was not fired. I thought for two weeks that I was going to be fired, but I was thankfully allowed to serve out the rest of my command tour. But I was asked to retire.
Gen. Mike Minihan, U.S. Air Force retired, delivers a speech at the Herk Nation Legacy Monument Award at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, May 5, 2025. The event honored Minihan as the second recipient of the Herk Nation Legacy Award, recognizing his outstanding contributions to Herk Nation and the Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Rachel Bates-Jones)
Q: What were the biggest lessons learned by Mobility Guardian and our readiness to meet the challenge China poses in the Pacific?
A: We’ve got to explode into theater very quickly. We’ve got to be able to explode into theater in numbers and volumes and challenges that we’ve not experienced in any of the modern…operations. We’ve got to put the entire joint force in place. We’ve got to do it quick enough that it gives an enormous deterrent value and also be able to provide that decisive victory, should it get to that.
We’ve got to transition from a deploy to an employ phase very quickly. So that’s establishing hubs and spokes. And then the last thing I’ll say – this is about maneuver. We have got to maneuver at a tempo required to win. So we got to put America’s unique and amazing capabilities in a position of advantage, and then once they’re in that position of advantage, we’ve got to be lethal, and that requires logistics, sustainment, supply maneuver, all the things that have to come together in the joint force to be lethal have to be there, and we need to work extremely hard to do that.
So Mobility Guardian was really a rehearsal, and we demonstrated that we couldn’t explode into theater. We demonstrated that we could go from deploy to employ. But we also learned some hard lessons, and to get it to the scale and the volume of the tempo that we needed to be, we’ve got work to do.
Mobility Guardian 2023
Q: What were some of these lessons?
A: The lessons are connectivity. You probably heard me say that a bunch both in uniform and out of uniform, but connectivity became my number one thing. I testified before the House Readiness Committee on that. I came up with a concept called 25% of the fleet by 2025, but the reality is that the car I rented right now driving from the airport to my hotel room has more connectivity in it than the overwhelming majority of the mobility fleet. So connectivity matters.
We’ve got to operate at a tempo required to win, which means we need to do extremely long missions. We need to have exquisite situational awareness. We need to understand the changing dynamic of the operational environment. When it comes to red forces, blue forces, threats, priority receivers, priority users. We’ve got diffuse information and logistic priorities across services, so there’s almost an unlimited amount of lessons learned. And then command relationships matter as well as command and control. All those things matter too. So plenty of lessons learned. I don’t think any of those are surprising. I think they’re accounted for in the Air Force’s readiness and modernization. But we also need to get resources so that we can be the Air Force this country needs.
An F-15 Eagle from the 159th Fighter Wing receives mid-flight refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 128th Air Refueling Wing of Milwaukee during Sentry Aloha off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii on January 15, 2026. (Master Sgt. Lauren Kmiec photo) Master Sgt. Lauren Kmiec
Q: How would you peg our overall readiness, realistically, to confront China in the Pacific militarily?
A: We’re ready. I like the way that [IndoPacific Command leader] Adm. [Sam] Paparo uses it. He says we’re ready, but he’ll never admit to being ready enough. This is kind of like the coaches that you love to play for – they are never satisfied. I would broaden it beyond readiness. I would say readiness, integration and agility of the joint force is what matters. And as ready, integrated and agile as we are, we need to be more. And those things have a deterrent value in themselves, and they’re also the essentials to decisive victory. So China enjoys positional advantage, but America enjoys extreme warfighting capabilities that can always get better, and it starts with readiness, integration and agility. We want to get to the point where we’re so ready that they don’t want to take us on.
Q; What were the three biggest problems you faced in your job and how did you go about solving them? Were you successful?
A: The three biggest problems I faced during my command tour at Air Mobility Command was resourcing, resourcing and resourcing – articulating the state of the mobility platforms and securing the resources necessary to get them on step to where they need to be. And so I said resourcing three times, and I mean it.
The Pentagon. (Department of War) (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
This is all about money. You can say everything you want. You can say all the things are important. You can say ‘you’re right, General Minihan, we agree with you,’ but if it’s not followed up with resourcing, then it’s meaningless, you know? So at the end of the day, this is all about resourcing. Can we decide to be the Air Force, the joint military that puts the resourcing behind what it means to decisively defeat a near peer adversary? Or do we wait until another December 7, or another September 11 event to finally get all the things pulled together that we need to pull together. So I get it. This is expensive.
We’ve got a chance of a century right now, I believe, with this administration. When you line up the executive orders, when you line up the acquisition reform, when you look up the possibility of a $1.5 trillion defense budget, you know those things come together means that we can move faster and move differently than we’ve ever done but we’ve got to be ready to do it.
We can’t apply all the opportunities over the same template of how we acquire, how we take risk, how we get our warfighters the things that they need and expect a different outcome at the end of the day. The overall statement for this, and this is big into problem statements. If I were to describe the problem statement we’re trying to solve is, can we get critical war-winning capabilities to our warfighters faster than China? At the end of the day, if we can answer yes to that question, then we’re going to be okay. If it’s a maybe or a no, then we’re going to have some significant concerns moving forward.
Trump Calls For Massive Increase To Defense Spending: $1.5 Trillion For 2027
Q: Were you successful in your efforts to solve those problems?
A: Was I successful? I would say I was successful at ringing the bell. I needed three more years to get it across the line. And I’m not comparing myself to a Gen. [Curtis E.] LeMay or a Gen. [Wilbur L.] Creech, but those two [Major Command] MAJCOM commanders – who are the fathers of the modern strategic bomber force and the father of the modern fighter force – were both MAJCOM commanders for over six years. So if I had to give myself a grade, I would say me and my teams were A-plus for effort and articulation and at the end of the day, getting the system to react quickly within three years proved extremely challenging.
Q: What was your grade for that?
A: It’s to be determined. You know, the money process takes a little time. I think there’s money for connectivity coming up in the current and the next few years, which is a great sign and a big change. If I were to grade it for what I wanted, I would have given myself a C, but I think it’s a higher grade than that, due to the circumstances, due to the realities of the budgeting and the resourcing process.
A: The problems are getting resourcing across the line. Can you deliver them? Money. You know, at the end of the day, MAJCOMs don’t have the money to get the things that they need and under the current process. So how do you affect the organizations and entities above you, so that you can align the resourcing to do the things that it needs to do, and the timelines that you need to do it when that’s always a challenge for everybody.
Air Mobility Command (AMC) Change of Command Ceremony – Scott AFB
But if you’re asking what [Lamontagne] needs to worry about…if you look at the first Iran operation, if you look at the Venezuela operation, whatever is going to happen over the next short-term future for the Middle East, you can walk away saying, ‘we’re just fine.’ You can walk away saying, ‘Hey, we can project power over long distances. We can impose America’s will. We can do the things that our president and our nation asked us to do.’ And that’s right, you can do it under those circumstances.
The courage of the joint team is phenomenal. The capability of the joint team is phenomenal, but it does not compare to what will happen in a near-peer fight in the Pacific or in Europe. We are going to be contested from long distances in all domains, and the fleet that we have now is not going to be successful in that environment unless we take quick action and fix things.
A B-2 bomber drops a GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb during a test. (USAF) USAF
Q: There is a lot of hype around Rapid Dragon and giving the airlift community a ‘shooter’ role. But in a major conflict, won’t the fleet be tasked to the max just with its core logistics mission? Do we need more airframes to really do the Rapid Dragon concept justice?
A: I hear this one a lot. So here’s the reality. I’ve got to carry the missile, the bomb anyway. Okay, I’m not trying to be Global Strike. I’m not trying to be a fighter. I’m not trying to compete with capabilities that are legit and high-end when it comes to delivering kinetic effects. But if I have to carry it anyway, and there’s an ability for C-130s, C-17s and other airlift platforms, why would you not want that capability?
So I’m not saying it can go into the high-threat areas or the medium-threat areas. I’m not saying that it needs to be a primary mission. But let’s really look at the thing – at the entire process here. I’ve got to carry that stuff anyways, so I am either gonna stop and drop it off for someone else to shoot, or I could have the ability to do it. If a combatant commander needs a demand signal, there’s a ton of C-130s. Our foreign partners and allies operate them. These aren’t complex systems. The munitions already exist. It’s essentially air-dropping it out of the airplane. And I think it has enormous viability in the Pacific. It can service medium- to low-[threat] targets all day long that need servicing and free up the other sets to get after the high-end threat environments where they need to be focused. So I think it’s something we need to consider.
Rapid Dragon
Q: That segues nicely to my next question. What are the biggest threats China poses to our tankers and airlifters during a time of war?
A: The ability to get out of town by dropping electrical grids and navigation signals. This is true for all the platforms. This is why I say we’ll be contested at great distances in all domains. Critical infrastructure matters and getting out of town – we already talked about what it means to explode into theater. So it’d be silly to think that they’re going to not take a very inexpensive way to disrupt our ability to do that. And then, the farther you get to the threat, regardless of which way you’re heading around the ocean, you know is going to increase their ability to reach out with long-range effects and stop mobility.
If you stop one tanker, you stop six fighters. That sounds like a good return on investment if you’re an adversary trying to prevent us from projecting power. I don’t think I’m saying anything I haven’t said before, and I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s inconsistent with others [are saying] about what the real environment is going to look like.
They’re students of us. They have unimpeded access to our critical infrastructure for a decade or more, and we’re going to expect them to call in on their investment and impose a cost on us a great distance.
Q: Is there any particular Chinese system or munition that worries you the most?
A: What worries me the most? I’m worried, just like I was in uniform, about the multi-domain aspect for which they’re going to go after us. I’m worrying about how those all come together. Certainly, without connectivity in the mobility fleet, it’s hard for mobility aircraft to understand where the threats are, especially the kinetic threats. So our ability to understand if you’re in a threat ring or a dynamic threat environment is extremely handicapped. And certainly the kinetic ones are of the biggest concern. Like they are in any war.
1/2 During the 3rd Sept 🇨🇳CCP Military parade in Beijing, some Air Defense Missile systems were shown in CCTV 4K: HQ-9C, HQ-11, HQ-19, HQ-22A & HQ-29… pic.twitter.com/cIxoX5Tc7Z
A: The single biggest contributor to survivability in a big airplane is connectivity. The biggest contributor is not having a 12-hour-old Intel brief that you’re relying on to get you through the mission. So real-world updates, real-time updates, just like our fighters and our bombers enjoy. Battle management that gets after maneuver and not just kill chain. Those things matter.
If you were to ask me what I would want most when it comes to survivability, it would be connectivity that gives me the situational awareness to let our young crews – our captains, our lieutenants, our NCO – go out there and make great decisions as they’re operating under delegated authorities. Connectivity matters most. No doubt. Connectivity is why I put the priority on it when I was in uniform, because it’s the single biggest contributor to survivability. I just don’t think because of the size of these airplanes, in the maturity of the threat, that we’re going to be able to rely on traditional means of survivability.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Jarod Suhr, left, 100th Operations Support Squadron pilot and wing tactics officer, clarifies points of the Real-time Information in the Cockpit system to Capt. Anthony Vecchio, 100th OSS pilot and wing tactics officer, on a KC-135 Stratotanker at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, Oct. 18, 2023. The newly installed communications system gives aircrew the ability to access vital information including threats, target data and locations of friendly forces, providing much more accurate and instant information. (U.S. Air Force photo by Karen Abeyasekere) Karen Abeyasekere
Q: What about mini interceptors, or pairing these aircraft with CCA-like companions? Would that work?
A: I mean, I love it. The whole concept we came up with, the next-generation air lift [NGAL] and next-generation air refueling systems [NGAS]. I definitely see a role for CCA beyond just loyal wingman to fighter. So we can do this with everything from a CCA version of a tanker. We can do it with a stealth version of a tanker. I don’t think we need huge numbers of those. We can do stealth-like characteristics, like blended wing.
We can certainly have aircraft that are multirole, both cargo and air refueling. And so then you can have a lot of tankers that look like the tankers that we have now, the ability for small CCA and drones and other things to do electronic warfare and spoof and jam and other things like that are all on the table in my book and things that we should be exploring.
A rendering of the blended wing body demonstrator aircraft now in development for the Air Force. (USAF) A rendering of the blended wing body demonstrator aircraft now in development for the Air Force. USAF
A: I think that we’ve got to have a family approach to air refueling, and that’s where the NGAS concept came up. It’s hard for me to believe, to think that you’re going to be able, in a highly contested environment, to get our highest capabilities into the high-threat environments without having some sort of stealth-like CCA air refueling capability. I don’t think we need big numbers of them. I understand completely that they’re expensive, but we’ve got to work through that process, and we’re doing it with NGAS. So everything I’m telling you, I’ve said for years, and I’ve got a lot on the record out there that’s getting after the questions you’re asking, and I’ve not changed since I got out of uniform.
A rendering of a notional stealth tanker refueling an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works) Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
The announcement by Northrop Grumman, the partnership with Embraer gets after this. If you go tackle that announcement, it gets after creating a family-of-systems approach to the problem, as opposed to we’re just going to field one piece of the problem at a time. We’re not going to work the integration in advance. We’re not going to work the readiness in advance. We’re not going to work the agility in advance, and I was happy to see in that announcement that they’re approaching the problem differently, because that’s the kind of approach I think we need to be successful.
Q: Have you looked at adapting the B-21 for this kind of stealth tanker role?
A: I don’t know what they’re looking at adapting, but I think there’s eloquence in the solutions that exist and that they’re working on, and then broadening their missions to beyond just the original intent for which they were designed. So I think that there’s great value in looking at those opportunities.
A B-21 Raider conducts flight testing, which includes ground testing, taxiing, and flying operations, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Courtesy photo) 412th Test Wing
Q: What about an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) tanker capable of supporting small numbers of fighters from forward airfields? The KC-390 is being pitched for such a role. Do we need smaller tankers capable of operating from shorter fields?
A: We need a family of tankers that can address all the warfighter needs in all the warfighter environments. So we need tankers that look a lot like the ones we have now, that can handle the low-threat environments. We need tankers that can push into the medium-threat environments and service the big volume offloads in the abundant amount of receivers that will be out there. We need tankers that can operate in a medium- to high-threat with blended wing and stealth characteristics. And then we need stealth like tankers that can go into a higher-threat environment, as well as unmanned and CCA.
Northrop Grumman and Embraer are working together to evolve the multi-mission KC-390 Millennium aircraft, to provide advanced tanking capabilities for the United States Air Force and allied nations. (Photo Credit: Northrop Grumman)
I believe there’s room in the Air Force for all in that capability. Let’s be clear, it’s what the kinetic force needs, you know. So the strike force and the bomber force are [fifth-generation] fifth-gen and [sixth-generation] sixth-gen, and yet we still operate a mobility force that’s on its best day, 2.5 Gen and in some cases, second generation. So we’ve got to catch up, not because of ego, but because of capability. At the end of the day, this is about equilibrium of the enabling force to actually do what it needs to do, so that the strike force can carry out its missions in all environments. That’s what needs to happen.
Q: Is there money to do that? Is there a will from higher headquarters and then the administration to make that happen?
A: Well, there needs to be. Like I said, I think the opportunity is here with this administration. Its executive orders, its acquisition reform, and the possibility of a significant increase in the budget. But this gets back to, are we going to pay for the Air Force that this country needs? It’s been under-invested in, especially in mobility, and we need to ensure that this president and every future president, when they call on the Air Force to support the joint force, to project America’s power to serve the national interests and impose our will when needed, that we need to develop these kind of things. We have to do this if we want to be the Air Force that this country needs.
The last KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jet was delivered to the Air Force in 1965. (USAF)
Q: Have you talked to anybody in the current administration or the current Department of War about this, and what’s your sense of the interest there?
A: I think the conversation is turning where it needs to go. I have not talked to the current administration about this specifically, but I think there’s an appreciation, when you line up the talking points that align the priorities of where the department is going, I think that there is 100% alignment with what my priorities were when I was in uniform, what my priorities are now that I’m out of uniform, with the priorities of where this administration is going.
I realize it’s still hard. I realize there are still challenges. I realize there are no easy answers to any of this, and I realize that there’s more to modernization and readiness than just the mobility fleet. And I also realize that these are the things that we need to do.
Q: Low-end drones are a big problem, especially for big airplanes sitting idle on the ground. What do you think should be done to defend our airlift assets against lower-end drones?
A: Just like everyone else, I watched the [Operation Spider Web] attack that Ukraine carried out on Russia’s strategic forces. And the only thing that surprised me about that is that people were surprised and that it took so long for them to do it. This is a real threat. It gets down to air base defense. It’s something that we championed in Air Mobility Command during my time there, because of the drone incursions that were happening over multiple Air Mobility Command bases and multiple Air Mobility Command missions. So this isn’t a surprise to me.
Over 4-minutes of drone footage from Operation Spiderweb has just been released by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), showing the targeting of roughly two dozen Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 Long-Range Strategic Bombers as well as two of the Russian Air Force’s extremely limited A-50… pic.twitter.com/ZpW85oPb7M
This is going to have to be a joint solution, and I know the Army is working very hard on this, but there’s also going to have to be a capability of the Air Force and wings that are deploying to be able to do this on their own as well. So no easy answers here.
I feel like we’re behind, but catching up. I think it nests nicely into the Golden Dome opportunity as well. But you know, you gotta be able to handle everything from the low-cost drones all the way up to the highest capability missiles that could attack the homeland. This all fits in a spectrum of threats that we need to be concerned about.
A graphic of how the Golden Dome missile defense system will be designed to work. (DIA)
Q: You brought up drone incursions. When and where did they happen and was the source ever found?
A: The incursions took place in late 2021 and early 2022 for Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and constantly at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey throughout my command. I’m not tracking that the source of those incursions was identified. It doesn’t mean that they weren’t. To my knowledge they weren’t. But, you know, at the end of the day, if you can’t control the airspace, including the airspace that drones are using, that’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re in garrison or deployed. We’ve got to have the ability to defend at a greater capability than we have.
Q: How are the C-5M Galaxy cargo jets doing? Are readiness rates improving? Will we need a direct replacement of something its size when their time finally comes to head to the boneyard? Was the M upgrade program successful?
A: I’m a year and a half out of the conversation. The last data point I got was from U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) commander Gen. [Randall] Reed‘s congressional testimony, where he said that the mission reliability rate, I believe, had fallen to 46%. So, if that’s true, then it’s still an enormous concern. I don’t know any part of your life where you tolerate a critical capability operating less than half the time when you need it. So C-5s are an enormous concern for me.
I think there are options out there when it comes to large-volume aircraft that exist, that are being worked now, that can help us get capability quickly. And then I think there are concepts out there, like the commercialization of the C-5 fleet, that need to be taken seriously as well and apply commercial standards, commercial supply chain to increase the readiness of it. And between a combination of those two, I think that you can sustain what America needs to project large volume lift, but also get much higher than a 46% mission reliability rate.
A C-5 Galaxy transport jet. (USAF)
Q: Do you see the need for a similar sized cargo aircraft to replace the C-5 when it’s finally time for them to retire?
A: I do. I think building large, colossal aircraft is one of the hardest things to do on the planet, when you think about it. I need someone to help fact check me on this, but I don’t think more than 250 large aircraft have ever been built. You know, when you include the Hughes aircraft, include the C-5, include the Russian Antonovs, the fleet has been small because it’s hard. At the same time, it does things that nothing else can do. You don’t have to condemn your cargo to sea lift only. You can move things very quickly – large volume things, critical capabilities. And so we need to have this capability.
But I don’t see the Air Force buying C-5 replacements. I see them transitioning C-5s to a different model, like commercialization. And I see the manufacturer of a large aircraft that can handle the volume being in the CRAF [Civil Reserve Air Fleet], and being a service concept that can get America the stuff we need when we need it. As opposed to developing another C-5 replacement, in addition to what’s going to have to eventually replace the C-5…
Q: Was the M upgrade on the C-5 successful?
A: I wasn’t there for when it was done, but … I would love to see what the original predictions were. When you spend all that money on that airplane and then still have a 46% mission reliability rate, it sounds like it is still challenged, like it used to be.
Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 1, NMCB 11, and Air Force Personnel from the 436th Maintenance Squadron (MXS), install a new tail rudder on a C5 Super Galaxy. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Sean P. Rinner) Petty Officer 1st Class Sean P Rinner
A: Aviation right now is at a point of affordability and simplicity that we have got to distribute capability down to more tactical levels and have less centralization. Drones, automated aircraft 3,000 pounds or less, need to be a part of that equation. They need to be a part of the equation.
I am a big fan of drones…The problem we’re trying to solve is getting winning capabilities to our warfighters faster than China. That’s what we need to be focused on. We have got to be infatuated with automation and connectivity. We have to be infatuated with drones and automated aircraft from small to medium to large capabilities.
China’s unmanned transport aircraft completes maiden test flight
The biggest question I hear about why people don’t want small- and medium-capability is because they’re concerned about who commands and controls it and in my mind, that’s the point. You don’t have to command and control it. This is like a distributed maneuver pool, like a Jeep used to be in the Army. It’s inexpensive, it’s easy to operate, and we give it to maneuvering commanders in the field. We get TRANSCOM and Air Mobility Command out of the command and control of it. We let commanders determine their own priorities and service them, and then all we have to do is integrate them into the critical capabilities that Air Mobility, Command and TRANSCOM provide. You know those and we actually free up more of their assets to do that strategic and operational lift, as opposed to always having to get down into the capabilities that can be served by something much smaller. Does that make sense?
A: Final thought on that is, we need to do more of it. I’m not saying we need to do more testing, but when it comes to automation, when it comes to concepts, when it comes to the tempo, the things we’re going to be required to do, we have to set ourselves up to be successful in an extremely deadly and demanding operational environment.
And to think that we’re going to apply the old dogma over this new operational environment, it’s just going to put us in a really challenging place to be successful in. So single tanker pilot ops made a comment on autonomy. It made a comment on what we need to do to win in the Pacific. It made a comment on risk taking, and it made a comment on, I think, a command team that understood how to apply real concepts over real problems and come out with an informed way forward. So there was a larger message than just single pilots in tankers.
A picture the Air Force released of the KC-46A that was used for the single-pilot sorties on October 25, 2022. (USAF) A picture the Air Force released of the KC-46A that was used for the single-pilot sorties on October 25, 2022. USAF
Q: Finally, how did you see the rise of AI influencing AMC and how do you see it being used by the command in the future?
A: I’m a big fan of AI as long as commanders maintain the risk and the priority settings. You know I tried hard to get AI incorporated in Air Mobility Command, but the entire ecosystem wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet. I think AI and data are its own domain.
Like other domains we’re going to need supremacy and superiority in it. We’re going to need to fight for it and fight from it. It’s going to benefit from the other domains, but I think disproportionately it’s going to benefit the other domains. More so our ability to sense and seize opportunity, our ability to simplify, our ability to reduce variables, our ability to gain decision advantage, our ability to make better decisions, quicker, at a higher tempo than the adversary. I think all those things are AI- and data-oriented, and I’m still not certain that we see it that way. We have got to get first mover advantage in the AI domain, and that’s going to take some work. I think that we’re starting to get there, but I think we have a long way to go on it.
Boeing KC-46A Tanker Refuels Military Aircraft Using 3D
Q: Why do you think that there’s been such resistance to AI?
A: I’m not certain most people actually use it. It’s new. Certainly there’s a newness to it. But at the end of the day, this is about data. Can you trust the data? It really flips the script, if you think about it as its own domain, because then you understand the magnitude of its importance, and you understand that this is about decision making and trust, and that you’re actually not off-shooting that to the machine to do. That you’re asking the machine and the AI to reduce variables and increase simplicity.
Then you really think about, how does a commander be able to set priorities, set risk tolerances, adjust those as required, and then, at the end of the day, this is about better decision making. I think that there’s a complexity to this that just needs to play out a bit, but I know one thing, I don’t think our adversaries are downplaying AI and data as a domain. I think that they’re 100% embracing it, and I think we need to do the same. And of course, it’s American ingenuity. We’ll get better at it and dominate.
Q: Any final thoughts you want to share? Any questions I didn’t ask?
A: No, I appreciate the opportunity here. I think that the Air Force has it right when it comes to modernization and readiness. I think that the Air Force has it right, and we need to have the resourcing to be their Air Force that this country needs. I think mobility has a longer way to go than most within the Air Force. So I continue to champion that. Those things I cared about in uniform, I care about out of uniform, and I didn’t wait to retire to have an opinion on these things. So I want to be the generation of Americans that gets this straight before we get slapped like we did on December 7th and September 11th. Let’s not wait till we get slapped to get the act together. Let’s go now hard, because our sons and daughters deserve it.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’ve got a jam-packed edition for you this week. USC beat reporters were given the chance to talk to assistants we don’t often get access to during the season. So this week, we’re going to empty the notebook, with 15 notes, quotes and other things you should know ahead of USC’s spring football session.
Fight on! Are you a true Trojans fan?
1. Jayden Maiava has taken “a huge leadership jump” from last season. That’s according to offensive coordinator Luke Huard, who said the quarterback has been meeting with young wideouts, setting up group chats, watching film and working with them at walk-throughs. There will be a lot on his shoulders with such a young receiving corps.
2. Freshman quarterback Jonas Williams is “pretty developed” from a physical standpoint. The athleticism also is obvious when you watch him on tape. The question is how quickly can he get up to speed mentally? Huard said Williams ran a “very multiple” offense that asked a lot of its quarterbacks. So that’s a good sign. But with Husan Longstreet gone, USC is starting from square one again at backup quarterback. Sam Huard is still an option, but this wasn’t necessarily what USC planned.
3. Huard addressed Longstreet’s exit and how plans at quarterback change on a whim nowadays. Huard’s tone, which can’t really be detected in the quote, suggested he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the situation. (Huard, after all, spent a lot of time and energy getting Longstreet to USC.) This is part of what he said: “We are going to recruit guys that are going to represent USC at an elite level and give us an opportunity to win and compete for national championships. So for us, it’s identifying those guys that USC is important to ‘em. They want to truly be here. They want to stay and develop.”
4. Don’t be shocked if a freshman running back makes an impression, even with a clear top two in the backfield. Deshonne Redeaux and Shahn Alston earned raves from running backs coach Anthony Jones — and are very different. Alston is the bigger power back, while Jones called Redeaux “a jack of all trades.” Jones said Redeaux is already a solid blocker and even can line up in the slot as a receiver if need be.
5. What’s the next step look like for King Miller? “Hopefully, King 2.0,” Jones said, with a laugh. Miller’s main goal in the offseason has been “transforming his body,” Jones added. And if Miller can maintain his breakaway speed while adding strength, the sophomore running back could be bound for an even bigger year than he had in 2025.
6. Sophomore receiver Tanook Hines is working on his route running. Hines’ athleticism was clearly off the charts in his debut season. But there’s still plenty to polish in his game. Receivers coach Dennis Simmons said that’s the next step for him as he takes the reins as the Trojans’ No. 1 wideout. This offseason is a crucial one for Hines.
7. Zach Williams will move to slot receiver. Could that mean more opportunity? Williams didn’t make much of a splash last season, largely because of injury, but when he left Utah, then-coach Kyle Whittingham said he would’ve been the Utes’ top receiver the next season. Williams has talent. And with the move inside, he finally could get the opportunity too.
8. The rest of USC’s receiving corps is very young. I expect that means we’ll see a lot of sets with Hines, Williams and N.C. State transfer Terrell Anderson at first. But freshmen Boobie Feaster and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt no doubt will get their chances to change that. Redshirt freshman Corey Simms turned heads in camp last fall and could be primed for a step forward too.
9. The competition at tight end is wide open. Lake McRee is off to the NFL. Walker Lyons transferred. “Who’s going to fill all those snaps?” tight ends coach Chad Savage asked. “Those are a lot of snaps that have gotta be replaced.” Savage mentioned that Wisconsin transfer Hunter Ashcraft would be a part of that equation. Redshirt freshman Taniela Tupou had begun to impress by the end of last season as well.
10. That said, freshman Mark Bowman might make a serious push to start. When I asked Savage about where Bowman was most developed, he said Bowman was “pretty complete” already. Remember, he still should be in high school at this point. Of course, it’ll take time for him to adjust to the physicality and blocking of college football. But I suspect that won’t take long. “In terms of being a natural pass-catcher, route runner, being explosive,” Savage said, “he can do all that.”
11. Savage had a chance to leave for another opportunity. He chose to stay and was promoted accordingly. The Trojans’ new pass game coordinator called working at USC “a dream come true.” He added, “There’s so much growth for me to happen here at USC. … I’m a West Coast guy.” That’s good news, considering he might be one of the best recruiters in college football.
12. Offensive line coach Zach Hanson said USC’s front was “nowhere near where we need to be” last season. The unit actually overachieved, considering its circumstances, but he feels there’s “a lot of room for growth.” I agree. This group will look a lot different in the fall than it did last season, with some linemen starting at new positions. Hanson believes the added competition will lead to a big leap for the line. I tend to agree.
13. Tobias Raymond will take reps at center in the spring. It has been the plan for a while that eventually Raymond would try his hand at center, as coaches see that as his best chance to stick in the NFL. It’s not out of the question that he could play there full time, assuming another linemen steps in.
14. Five-star freshman Keenyi Pepe will start off working at right tackle. Can he win the job in Year 1? He’ll have Justin Taunauu, last year’s starter, as well as young returners like Elijah Vaikona and Aaron Dunn to compete with, but Pepe is further developed than the usual freshman. “A lot is just God-given talent,” Hanson said. “The Lord blessed him with unbelievable gifts.”
15. New coordinator Gary Patterson famously split his 4-2-5 defense into two calls. One for the front seven, one for the defensive backs. But that could play out differently at USC, he said. Patterson’s plan is to use pieces of USC’s old scheme under D’Anton Lynn and “add another scheme to it.” Sometimes that’ll mean just one call for the whole defense, other times he’ll plan to deploy a double call. With slower offenses in the Big Ten, that approach could work quite well.
USC’s Laura Williams looks to pass after getting a rebound.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
—The USC men are in serious danger of missing March. It’s not just that the Trojans lost to No. 10 Illinois. They were blown out by the Illini, who then lost to UCLA three nights later. It’s not just that USC lost to Oregon, either. It’s how they lost to Oregon, a team that had lost 11 of 12, by letting the Ducks go on a stunning 7-0 run in the final minute. This version of USC doesn’t deserve to be in the tournament. But I do believe this team has the talent to be a tournament team and it’s not out of the question that it could win two of the next four, win a couple of games in the Big Ten tournament and sneak in. That climb is just a really steep one after Saturday.
—Laura Williams’ emergence as a reliable rebounder and rim protector is a big deal. All season long, Lindsay Gottlieb has been content to rely on a rotating group at the five. USC has been able to get by for most of the season, but come March, it’ll help to have someone who can do what Williams did against Wisconsin, when the redshirt freshman reeled in 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.
—What a start to the season for USC baseball. After leading a combined no-hitter the previous week, Grant Govel threw six scoreless innings, gave up just one hit and struck out 11 in a win over Rice. That was after No. 1 pitcher Mason Edwards pitched a shutout the night before. The Trojans are surging to start Andy Stankiewicz’s third season as coach, and if the pitching continues to be this good, USC could be on the brink of a breakthrough campaign.
Olympic sports spotlight
USC beach volleyball opened its season on a hot streak in Honolulu with four straight wins, including a victory over No. 2 Stanford, only to trip up twice on the final day of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic. That one of those losses came to No. 1 UCLA, which USC won’t face again until April 4, made it an especially tough way to end the weekend.
But the season is young, and there’s no reason to doubt that Dain Blanton will have USC in the mix to win a national title when the rivals meet again.
What I’m Watching This Week
Jason Segel in “Shrinking.”
(Apple TV+)
It’s shocking that it took until this show’s third season for it to get a mention in this space, but “Shrinking” is back, and there is no show on TV that I find more life-affirming.
Jason Segel stars as Jimmy, a therapist working through grief after the sudden death of his wife. That might sound heavy — and, sure, it is sometimes — but it’s also hilarious, optimistic and heartwarming. Few shows these days can make you both laugh out loud and tear up in the same episode. This is one of them.
The second season was a revelation. And so far, I’m hopeful that Season 3 will be a worthy follow-up.
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday appealed his life sentence over his insurrection conviction from his failed bid to impose martial law.
The appeal was filed by his lawyers five days after a court sentenced Yoon to life in prison for leading an insurrection when he briefly imposed martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.
“We think we have a responsibility to clearly point out the problems with this decision for not only court records but for future historical records,” the lawyers said in a notice to the press.
“We will not be silent about the special counsel’s overzealous indictment and the contradictory decision of the court of first instance premised on it, as well as its political background,” they added.
The Seoul Central District Court delivered the ruling last Thursday, saying Yoon aimed to cripple the National Assembly by sending troops to the compound after declaring martial law, meeting the definition of an insurrection as stipulated by the Constitution.
It also said the former president planned the crime personally and in a leading role, incurring an enormous social cost, but hardly expressed an apology.
Seven other defendants received their first verdicts alongside Yoon, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik.
The former defense minister was sentenced to 30 years in prison, while Cho was given 12 years and the former Seoul police chief 10 years for their roles in the martial law bid.
Yoon was earlier sentenced to five years in prison in a separate trial on charges that include his alleged obstruction of investigators’ attempt to detain him last year.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
The last in this series of underexplored, overlooked, bypassed towns revisits three places loosely linked to somewhere I’ve lived at different stages of my life. Relocating is grand-scale vacationing, as there are a few months when the new place feels like a holiday destination – fresh, strange, not filtered and tainted by habit or prejudice. Going back years later is part-pilgrimage, part-funeral.
Harrow
The lexicon of suburbia – commuting, dormitory, cul-de-sac, privet hedge – resonates with not seeing. In densely peopled north-west London, you have to dig – with eyes, books and boots – to find the occluded past.
In a 767 charter, Harrow is Gumeninga hergae, the “heathen temple of the Gumeningas [tribe]”. The small hill – pronounced on old sketches – was a natural spot for practising worship; harrows are found all over England. Later it was part of the archbishop of Canterbury’s estate and by Domesday had 70 ploughlands, 117 households and 102 villagers, two cottagers, three knights, two slaves and a priest – a sizeable place for 1086.
Headstone Manor Museum explores Harrow’s history. Photograph: Brian Anthony/Alamy
Trees outnumbered people. The medieval manor boasted a 100-hectare (250-acre) deer park in Pinner. The name of Harrow Weald derives from the Old English for woodland, a reference to the Forest of Middlesex that once stretched from Houndsditch in the City of London, through Highgate and Mill Hill, to these outer reaches. It provided pannage (autumn feeding) for 20,000 pigs.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Harrow attracted gentry, who could easily reach court and parliament by coach and four. The wealthy landowner John Lyon founded Harrow school by royal charter in 1572.
On an 1868 map, Harrow on the Hill is a mere scattering of houses surrounded by parks, groves and school fields. The only nearby railway line is the London and North Western, arrowing away to Birmingham and Crewe. In 1930, there was enough greenery and wildlife to inspire Harrovian Tom Harrisson (later involved in the Mass-Observation project) to publish Birds of the Harrow District.
Metro-land would, by the 1950s, submerge the hill and its environs in housing, lasso it to London, spawn North, West and South Harrows and other subdistricts, and provide suburban living for more than 200,000 people. A more populous, less planned version of this greeted me when I moved there in the summer of 1987, to travel, as Betjeman puts it, “Smoothly from Harrow” on the Metropolitan line “fasts” to a dreary office job in Blackfriars.
Knowing, now, a little about this lost town’s historical layers helps explain the still tangible sacrificial feel of the place, the amorphous sensation of inhabiting a populous nowhere. Things to see and do: walk section 9 of the Capital Ring; Headstone Manor Museum; Zoroastrian Centre (former Ace Cinema).
Clitheroe
Holmes Mill, a deli-cum-bar, cinema, brewery and hotel. Photograph: Mark Waugh/Alamy
I recommend a slow approach to Clitheroe, to take in the setting. A walk into town allows time to admire the hill, the steep-sided lump on which sit the ruins of the Norman castle, with the “second smallest surviving stone keep in England”. From the top of the hill, the views are uplifting: weather coming in from the west, the Bowland Fells, slivers of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks, Pendle Hill.
The A59 Lancs-Yorks trunk road became a bypass at the end of the 1960s. Before then, cars and vans chugged up Moor Lane and along Castle Street, which remain the traffic-cluttered sections of the high street. The narrowness and low-slung 17th– and 18th-century shopfronts remind me, in a way, of Totnes, which is largely Tudor. There was a continuity to towns into the modern era, warped by redbrick Victorian pomp and finally shattered by the 20th-century’s brutal raze-and-redevelop wave of shopping precincts (many of them since condemned).
In some respects, Clitheroe is archetypalLancashire. The struggling one-time textile boomtowns to the south of Pendle Hill show what industry did and offshoring took away. Clitheroe, relatively speaking, is intact. Old places seem to weather booms and busts better. New money helps, of course.
There were factories here, though. Two former spinning blocks, a weaving shed and offices have been given a creditable makeover to create Holmes Mill: a combined deli-cum-bar, “luxury” cinema, brewery and alehouse, hotel and wedding venue, ticking aspirational boxes for affluent Lancastrians. Lively local boozers are dotted all around town, and Camra groups are probably Clitheroe’s main excursionists. The New Inn is riotously cosy. Georgeonzola does cheese and wine. There are three cocktail bars, at least. No clogs or caps there.
The River Ribble at Edisford Bridge, close to Clitheroe. Photograph: Paul Melling/Alamy
I live a couple of miles outside Clitheroe. It’s sometimes strange to think it belongs to the same county as St Helens and Warrington, where I was born and raised. Locals say “Pennine Lancashire”. I’m from the Plains. The rain is worse here, and the wind can be evil, but this north-facing town is a likable knot of streets and stonework; plenty to discover, still. Things to see and do: Edisford Bridge (a swimming spot in summer); walk up Pendle Hill or on the Ribble Way (ideal for winter); Whalley Abbey (by bus or train); the No 11 bus to Bowland and for Pen-y-ghent.
Princetown
Princetown in Dartmoor national park. Photograph: Peter Titmuss/Alamy
Devon is the least bleak county I know. It has balmy summers, rolling pastures of red earth and green grass, cove-serrated coasts, hamlets, high hedgerows and long lanes, an ecclesiastical city, a maritime city, and mild winters. Princetown is its sole flirtation with grim. Tourists do come, and not as seldom as other spots in this series, but they often look shocked when they get out of their cars or dismount their bikes.
The granite-grey Dartmoor prison is the dominant feature of Princetown, as well as the township’s reason for being. Thomas Tyrwhitt MP secured land from the Duchy estate of the Prince of Wales to establish a “depot” for prisoners taken in the Napoleonic wars. It was remote enough to deter escape and sufficiently inhospitable.
The first prisoners arrived in 1809 and soon Princetown prison was overcrowded. When US prisoners from the war of 1812 began arriving, conditions deteriorated, and diseases such as pneumonia, typhoid and smallpox became “natural” death sentences. The Depot closed when the conflicts ended, reopening in 1850 as a penal establishment for “common criminals” – which included, over time, the future Irish premier Éamon de Valera, the conscientious objector and MP Frank Longden and Zen poet Reginald Horace Blyth.
HMP Dartmoor. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images
Tyrwhitt – now Sir Thomas – built a railway to shift quarry stone down to the port and bring up farm produce, coal, timber and lime for fertiliser. Prisoners and passengers used the line at various times until its closure in 1956. The prison was temporarily closed in 2024, due to “higher than normal” levels of radon, a cancer-causing gas formed by decaying uranium in rocks and soils.
The old railway is now a track down which runners and cyclists hurtle away from Dartmoor’s anti-twee, anti-wild camping, anti-tourism, possibly radioactive town, or “village”, by population if not for its looks. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed at the Duchy hotel, now the national park visitor centre. An escaped convict, Selden, has a pivotal role in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Between two farmhouses called High Tor and Foulmire and the great prison “extends the desolate, lifeless moor. This, then is the stage upon which tragedy has played, and upon which we may help to play it again.” For the modern, leisure-age gaze, the moor is a wild camping backdrop and, at least potentially, full of vitality, thanks to its airy solitudes; HMP Dartmoor in Princetown, emptied for now, is the tragic set. Things to see and do: Princetown to Burrator Reservoir mountain bike tracks; Dartmoor Prison Museum; Foggintor Quarry.
Chris Moss’s latest book, Lancashire: Exploring the Historic County That Made The Modern World, is published by Old Street Publishing at £25. His book based on this series, Where Tourists Seldom Tread will be published by Faber in 2026
Kyiv, Ukraine – Hennady Kolesnik never expected the full-scale Russian invasion to last this long.
“These are the worst and longest years of my life,” the 71-year-old retired welder told Al Jazeera four years after the aggression that began on February 24, 2022.
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In the first days of the war, he and many Ukrainians were afraid Kyiv would be lost, as well as the third of their France-sized nation that lies on the left, eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
Tens of thousands of Russian troops, including elite airborne units and motor rifle brigades, occupied north of the Kyiv region, while the Kremlin’s supporters triumphantly touted that the capital would be seized “within three days”.
Months later, “we were ecstatic about what we’d regained” after Russian forces withdrew from around Kyiv and were ousted from northern Ukraine, said Kolesnik, a grey-haired, pallid-faced and emaciated pensioner, clutching a cane.
He is recovering from a case of pneumonia that he feared he would not survive amid days-long power outages and disruptions of central heating caused by Russian drones and missiles during a cold spell, when temperatures plunged to as low as -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
“But we’re still standing, and that’s the most important thing in a fight,” Kolesnik, who used to dabble in boxing, said with a smile.
His wife, Marina, 70, agreed: “Nobody expected us to last that long, and we’re still here.”
Iryna, a beauty salon manager, participates in the recording of a video for the salon’s social media, as it continues operating despite frequent power outages after recent Russian attacks damaged critical infrastructure in Irpin, in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, on February 6, 2026 [Alina Smutko/Reuters]
However, Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive failed to cut Moscow’s “land bridge” from western Russia to annexed Crimea, and Russian troops keep inching forward.
But their advance is glacial amid staggering losses. Last year, they occupied less than 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 sq miles), or about 0.8 percent of Ukraine’s total area, according to Ukrainian officials and Western analysts.
Overall, Russia controls about 19 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
“The front line froze like during World War I,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University told Al Jazeera. “So far, Russia doesn’t have enough forces or new technologies for a decisive and successful advance, but it can still squander thousands of [its soldiers’] lives.”
This month, Russian forces encountered a dual communication problem that reversed their progress.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company shut down smuggled Starlink satellite internet terminals used by Russian soldiers, while Moscow’s efforts to block the Telegram messaging app further disrupted coordination.
Ukrainian forces counterattacked, regaining about 200 sq km (77 sq miles) in the eastern Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
But in other front-line areas, the pressure is mounting.
Russian drones with attached optic fibre immune to jamming began reaching a heavily-fortified town in the southeastern Donetsk region.
“It has gotten a lot noisier. There are more outages; some locals are panicking,” Sviatoslav, a serviceman stationed in Kramatorsk, told Al Jazeera. He withheld his last name in accordance with wartime protocol.
Moscow insists Kyiv surrender Kramatorsk and the rest of Donetsk – about 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles).
What could affect Ukraine’s stance is further Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.
“Ukraine keeps the front line well, but the functionality of its energy system is hanging by a thread, which may affect a lot,” Mitrokhin said.
Eighty-eight percent of Ukrainians think Russia’s strikes are designed to “force them to capitulate”, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Sociology Institute (KMIS) conducted in late January.
Nevertheless, two-thirds of those polled said Ukraine’s armed forces should fight for “as long as it takes”.
“People en masse are more ready to keep resisting [the invasion] than to capitulate,” Svetlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists, a Kyiv-based group, told Al Jazeera.
And even though there is a spike in depression, anxiety, and chronic stress among Ukrainians, there are no “abrupt jumps” in these conditions, she said.
“People adapt – including through depression – to the war’s horrible circumstances; people keep functioning,” she said.
Ukrainians still hope for a better future, she said.
Only one in five polled Ukrainians hopes the war will end this year, but two in three are sure that in 10 years, Ukraine will be a “thriving” member of the European Union.
“This is the literal realisation of the philosophic principle: ‘get ready for the worst, hope for the best,’” Chunikhina said.
However, brain fog and cynicism are on the rise, she said.
“For the Ukrainian public whose fight against the Russian aggression is largely fuelled by moral virtues – including high ones, such as altruism, patriotism, responsibility to future generations – cynicism could be really destructive,” she said.
News brings little relief.
United States President Donald Trump has so far failed to deliver on his pre-election pledge to end the war “in 24 hours”.
Meanwhile, Russian public figures who support the Kremlin still try to present the invasion as a step to “protect” Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
Moscow-based analyst Sergey Markov claims that the war began on February 23, 2014, when pro-Russian protesters began rallying in Crimea, urging the Kremlin to annex the Ukrainian peninsula.
“It was a peaceful uprising of the Russian people for freedom, peace and true democracy,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday.
POPULAR young rapper Luci4 has died, according to his grandparents.
The young musician – best known for his viral hit “BodyPartz” – was just 23 years old.
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Luci4 has tragically died at 23, according to his grandparentsCredit: SpotifyThe young rapper’s grandparents confirmed his death on MondayCredit: Spotify
His grandparents revealed to TMZ that he had died; however, his cause of death remains unknown.
Police have since launched a probe into his sudden death.
The rising star – whose real name was James Dear – passed away at a friend’s home in Los Angeles on February 22.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has since confirmed his death.
His grandparents told TMZ they felt suspicious about their grandson’s death.
They have alleged his wallet was completely emptied, saying they had recently warned him about the people he was surrounding himself with as his fame grew.
The circumstances around his death remain unclear.
The rapper’s grandparents said they are now waiting for the results of the police investigation.
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In a statement, the Los Angeles fire department said it had responded to a medical call at the house around 11.40am.
Sadly, he was already dead when help arrived, so the police were called.
It remains unclear if investigators suspect foul play.
Previously known by other stage names including Axxturel, 4jay, and Plasdu, Luci4 showed an interest in music and digital production at a young age.
His career began with music production, where he created beats and tracks that became popular online.
More recently, he had achieved viral fame through social media platforms including TikTok.
Pioneering the microgenre known online as sigilkore, he shot to fame with hit song “BodyPartz” in 2021.
The song was later recognised as a Gold hit by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
He rose to fame through viral success on TikTokCredit: SpotifyHis grandparents suspect foul play, alleging his wallet had been emptied at the time he diedCredit: Spotify
He also penned other popular tracks including All Eyez on Me and Kurxxed Emeraldz.
His success led to him signing with Atlantic Records.
His signing was considered a significant milestone for emerging internet-based artists.
It demonstrated the increasing influence of social media in discovering and promoting new talent.
Luci4 founded the collective Jewelxxet – a primary hub for sigilkore.
The genre is defined by dark, lo-fi atmospheres and bitcrushed vocals coupled with occult imagery.
He was popular largely among the underground music community; however, the new wave of experimental rappers including OsamaSon and Che have credited him as one of their influences.
The young rapper still frequently engaged with his fans and the online music community, staying connected with his roots as an online artist.
His death has sent shock waves through the music community, as fans share their grief online in an outpouring of tributes to social media.
“His 2020/21 run will never b forgotten he changed tiktok,” one person said.
Another posted, “That’s insane wtf.”
“Damn. I’ve been actively listening to him since 2021 casually. Was never a super fan but I have six solid songs that get played weekly. It’s always who u least expect. It makes me so sad listening to songs frm dead artists, never thought I would ever get that sentiment w his,” posted a third.
Another mourner said: “RIP TO A KING.”
“He was definitely one of my favorite artists to listen to during covid era,” said another.
Others have said he “really influenced a whole wave of music”, with some even listening to his songs as early as today.
“I was bumping his music so loud earlier today lil did I know he was gon die the same day,” a fan posted.
Fellow rapper ShowMyFangz posted a tribute to InstagramCredit: Spotify
Welcome to UCLA Unlocked, our weekly newsletter featuring all things Bruins athletics. To sign up to get this newsletter delivered every Monday to your inbox, click here.
The UCLA women’s basketball team is closing in on an undefeated Big Ten season, clinched the outright regular season league title for the first time in school history, is riding a 21-win streak and is ranked No. 2 nationally.
Perhaps most remarkable, the Bruins firmly believe they can be better and have yet to peak as they push to win a national title.
How did UCLA go from being a team that got pushed around by UConn, LSU and South Carolina in the NCAA tournament the last three seasons to a loaded squad no one wants to face in March?
Bruins coach Cori Close solved the riddle by recruiting six senior leaders who accepted they had to continuously sacrifice and push to improve to achieve their goals. They echo their coach’s values, putting each other first in order to succeed.
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A weekly newsletter offering big game takeaways, recruiting buzz and everything you need to know about UCLA sports.
“Me and Kiki [Rice] came here in our freshman year and it’s just been amazing to see the program grow since then,” UCLA senior Gabriela Jaquez said. “And I think that’s also a big credit to our coaches and to all the staff at UCLA to really get the fans out there and support us because we really couldn’t do it without them.”
UCLA honored Lauren Betts, Angela Dugalić, Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Rice during their final regular-season home game Sunday. The group will be back soon to host first- and second-round NCAA tournament games at Pauley Pavilion, but Close wanted them to take the time to celebrate all they had accomplished together.
Betts is in the national player of the year conversation, but the big award is likely to go to another player who carries a heavier workload for their team. Close said the seniors are all projected to be WNBA draft picks, but they have sacrificed better individual statistics and potentially some awards in exchange for a better shot at winning a national championship. She said the selfless approach is rare and should be cherished.
“One of them said the other day, like, ‘I might not ever play on a team like this again,’” Close said of her senior class. “I think the combination of the depth of the relationship, excellence on the court, their love of the work — they love to work and get better together — and their connection off the court.
”… I think these seniors actually do really understand that this is really special. They’ve set a bar for the culture of our program that we will be forever measuring it against.”
Baseball makes a statement
No. 1 UCLA baseball team turned heads with a weekend sweep of No. 7 TCU. The Bruins beat the Horned Frogs 10-2 on Friday, 5-1 on Saturday and 15-5 on Sunday. Roch Cholowsky and Will Gasparino have racked up six home runs apiece during UCLA’s first seven games this season.
Softball keeps rolling
The No. 9 UCLA softball team beat No. 11 Texas A&M 15-7 in five innings on Sunday to cap a 6-0 weekend at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. The Bruins also beat No. 20 Duke and No. 13 South Carolina. Senior Megan Grant delivered a .545 batting average during the weekend with two home runs and nine walks.
Gymnastics knocks out Illini
No. 5 UCLA gymnastics defeated Illinois 197.675-195.475 Sunday in Champaign, Ill.
Jordan Chiles won the all-around (39.650), vault (9.950) and floor exercise (9.975), while Ciena Alipio won balance beam (9.950).
The Bruins host three top 25 programs — Iowa, Ohio State and Maryland — during the Big Fours meet Friday at Pauley Pavilion.
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
This walk near Bridlington boasts a stunning 3km woodland trail leading to a secluded pebble beach with towering white cliffs, creating a tranquil bay perfect for peaceful coastal walks
It’s so secluded there’s often ‘not another person in sight’(Image: Thomas Tolkein/Flickr)
Stretching across 184 acres, this woodland trail guides you to a stunning beach whilst offering abundant wildlife sightings throughout your journey.
Danes Dyke nature reserve in Bridlington boasts the Headland’s most extensive woodland area, with a pathway leading directly to the coastline.
This distinctive sea and cliff habitat has earned protection as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, whilst the woodland itself gained official Nature Reserve designation in 2002.
Nature Reserve Walk
Visitors can start by using the spacious Pay and Display car park, which accommodates up to 80 vehicles. Located off Flamborough Road in Bridlington, simply follow the brown tourist signs pointing towards Danes Dyke.
Keen ramblers often favour the 3km circular route starting from the car park, though numerous alternative paths and distances are available to suit your preferences.
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After meandering through approximately 1km of woodland, you’ll emerge at the beach, where sweeping vistas of the bay unfold before you.
One visitor shared on TripAdvisor: “You must visit Danes Dyke if you are visiting the area. Even the drive to it is eerie but magical, and the huge dyke itself is spectacular and steeped in history.”
They added: “You can just imagine how the Vikings tried to etch out the area to make it a land of their own. The beach is great too.”
Nestled within the woodland reserve lies a remarkable prehistoric earthwork, comprising a substantial bank and ditch that cuts through the landscape.
While unconfirmed, it’s thought to date back to the Iron Age, serving as a defensive structure that severed the Flamborough Headland.
Beach
Yet the true highlight of this excursion is undoubtedly the final stop, Danes Dyke Beach. The sand is reached via a tarmacked path that’s rather steep and has suffered damage from water and debris, requiring extra care when navigating.
The undisputed showstopper here is the towering white cliffs that dominate the predominantly shingle beach. They enclose the shoreline, confining it to its own sheltered bay, which explains its popularity amongst adventurers seeking solitude and peace.
Its secluded bay is reminiscent of the type of area once used for smuggling contraband, ferried in by vessels from the ocean. The surrounding Flamborough Head area does indeed boast a smuggling heritage, with its famous ‘smuggler’s caves’ situated at neighbouring Thornwick Bay.
One rambler said: “The day that my wife and I visited Danes Dyke, there was not another person in sight, just the two of us, with the waves crashing in and the sea salt from the spray in the air – pure magic.”
Another commented: “Lovely clean beach with a picturesque cliff line and white pebbles. A short walk from the car park. Great place for the dog to run. Hardly anyone about.”
Place to rest
The closest village to Danes Dyke is picturesque Sewerby, which boasts several traditional and welcoming pubs. Following a peaceful and leisurely stroll, you can tuck into hearty pub fare or pause for refreshments at The Ship Inn or The Old Forge, or even treat yourself to highly-rated fish and chips from Blu Savannah along the seafront.
The Ship Inn features a spacious beer garden perfect for summer months, which stretches towards the cliff edges. It’s built quite a name for itself with its range of cask ales and is renowned locally for staging various live music performances and beer festivals, making it an ideal spot to visit following a weekend ramble.
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A breathtaking tropical paradise that is warm all year — it’s the perfect affordable winter retreat for UK residents boasting unspoilt beaches, sparkling turquoise waters and jaw-dropping scenery.
It’s an island of unmatched beauty(Image: Getty)
A stunning sun-soaked paradise has been dubbed “unfairly beautiful” by visitors who simply cannot contain their admiration for its remarkable and diverse splendour.
Brimming with vibrancy, vivid colours, and rich culture, this radiant island basks in warmth throughout the year, cementing its status as the ultimate tropical escape for holidaymakers.
Striking landscapes, unspoilt beaches, sparkling turquoise waters and jaw-dropping scenery are just a handful of the treasures this enchanting destination has to offer.
With temperatures reaching 20C during February and March, this charming Portuguese gem is the ultimate winter bolt-hole for people living in the UK, desperate to flee the biting cold and relentless drizzle of the darker months, reports the Express.
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Travellers keen to beat the bag charges without breaking the budget have made an Amazon travel bag a bestseller. Rated 4.7 stars out of 5 from almost 3,000 reviews, the Xkdoai bag comes in six colours with prices from £14.99, saving 29% on the usual price.
Drawing comparisons to other world-renowned beauty spots, one Reddit user has hailed it as “Europe’s Hawaii”, whilst another described the island as “both Bali and Thailand… a place of amazing beauty.”
An autonomous region of Portugal – one of just two alongside the Azores archipelago – Madeira is a spectacular destination packed with a wealth of activities and experiences for visitors to savour.
Getting there is a doddle – a direct one-way flight from London Luton Airport to Madeira Airport on both February 23 and March 2 costs just £33, with one cabin bag included. And the icing on the cake? The average price of a pint of beer in Madeira is a mere £2.10.
Located approximately 805 kilometres southwest of mainland Portugal, Madeira is regarded as Portugal’s southernmost territory and rests upon the African Tectonic Plate. The Madeira Archipelago comprises Madeira and Porto Santo (the only inhabited islands) alongside the uninhabited Desertas Islands and Savage Islands (Selvagens).
One Reddit user described Madeira as “an unfairly beautiful island, such a great place to explore”, whilst another declared, “Madeira is the most beautiful place in Europe.”
Another impressed visitor remarked about this tropical haven, “Madeira is spectacular and worth it,” with yet another sharing, “Visited in the fall and I think about this place every day.”
Things to do on this unique island getaway
Brimming with unspoilt beaches, Madeira represents paradise for seaside enthusiasts.
Calheta Beach, one of two man-made golden sand beaches in Madeira featuring sand transported from North Africa, ranks amongst the island’s most frequented destinations.
Positioned on the southwest coastline and boasting two sheltered bays – it’s perfectly suited for swimming and water activities including paddleboarding and kayaking.
The other celebrated artificial sand beach in Madeira is Machico Beach, an expansive sandy haven ideal for those seeking to unwind and relax.
The Natural Pools of Porto Moniz are yet another gem in this Portuguese island’s impressive collection of attractions, widely regarded as the standout highlights of the island’s northern coastline.
Forged from volcanic activity, these remarkable pools were shaped by cooling lava over thousands of years, their unique natural formation enabling a continuous flow of fresh seawater to replenish them. At just three euros (£2.62) per person entry, visitors have described it as “a truly unique experience”.
One Tripadvisor reviewer enthused about the natural pools: “Wow factor, The water is crystal clear and you can see the volcanic surface and there are colourful tropical fish everywhere, really beautiful pool.”
Another unmissable destination on the island is Seixal Beach – a breathtaking natural black sand beach celebrated for its striking verdant backdrop, sheer cliffs and the magnificent cascading waterfall, Miradouro do Veu da Noiva, which tumbles directly into the sea in a truly spectacular fashion.
Funchal, the bustling historic capital of Madeira, is equally deserving of exploration, with the Old Town (Zona Velha), Monte Cable Car & Toboggan Ride, the Monte Palace Tropical Garden, and the Mercado dos Lavradores market all ranking amongst the most celebrated attractions this captivating city has to offer.
Virtually untouched since its discovery over five centuries ago in 1419, the Laurissilva of Madeira is a 20-million year old forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its remarkable biodiversity, unique flora and fauna, and its ancient, mist-shrouded evergreen landscape that acts as a crucial ecological water source for the island.
Nestled within the Madeira Natural Park, a protected zone encompassing approximately two-thirds of the island’s land, a stroll through this forest offers visitors a genuinely extraordinary experience.
Pico do Areeiro – the island’s third-tallest peak and a prime spot for catching the sunrise – is another essential destination for anyone visiting this tropical haven, particularly hiking fans.
Indeed, the trek from Pico do Areeiro to Pico Ruivo provides an exhilarating mountain adventure in Madeira, linking the island’s three loftiest peaks whilst delivering breathtaking panoramic views.
No discussion of Madeira would be complete without mentioning its eponymous wine, with Funchal, the village of Câmara de Lobos, and the adjacent island of Porto Santo recognised as the premier locations for wine tastings and vineyard excursions.
Visitors can easily catch one of the daily ferries from Madeira to Porto Santo and spend a night or two on Madeira’s companion island, which is equally brimming with thrilling activities and spectacular scenery.
Madeira is a dazzling jewel hiding in plain sight, offering something special for every kind of traveller to discover.
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Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
It’s apparently naming season for autonomous air combat drones. Earlier today, we reported that General Atomics had given the name Dark Merlin to its YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) design. Now Northrop Grumman has stamped a new name on its YFQ-48A: Talon Blue.
Northrop Grumman first unveiled the drone this past December, at which time it was referred to simply as Project Talon, as you can read more about in our initial report here. Later that month, the U.S. Air Force gave it the formal designation YFQ-48A, and described it as “strong contender” to be part of its future CCA fleets. Currently, General Atomics’ YFQ-42A and Anduril’s YFQ-44A are the designs formally in development as part of the first phase, or Increment 1, of the Air Force’s CCA program. Northrop Grumman may now be under contract for the program’s Increment 2, but this remains unconfirmed.
Northrop Grumman’s Talon Blue. (Northrop Grumman)
The “YFQ-48A Talon Blue’s designation within the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program underscores the strategic alignment between Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing agility and the Air Force’s acquisition goals for low-cost, cutting-edge technology,” according to a press release the company put out today. “The aircraft’s design provides mission versatility through advanced modular manufacturing techniques that reduce part count and overall weight – shortening production timelines without sacrificing capability.”
The release does not offer a clear explanation of the significance of the new Talon Blue name. Northrop Grumman previously told TWZ and other outlets that the Project Talon moniker was a callback to the T-38 Talon jet trainer, as both had been designed with high performance, high maneuverability, and affordability in mind.
“And it’s got a cool sound to it, too,” Tom Jones, President of Northrop Grumman’s Aeronautics Systems sector, at the time of the drone’s official unveiling.
As for the new Blue addition to its name, this could be another callback, this time to Northrop’s hugely successful Tacit Blue demonstrator, aka the ‘Whale,’ which revolutionized America’s understanding of stealth technology at the dawn of the stealth age. Lockheed’s stealth demonstrator that led to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth combat jet was also called Have Blue. As TWZ has noted previously, the YFQ-48A is clearly optimized with low-observable (stealthy) characteristics. It also shares many similar features and a general layout with Tacit Blue. You can read more about what else is known about the Talon Blue design so far here.
The Tacit Blue stealth demonstrator. Northrop GrummanTalon Blue has a similar layout to Tacit Blue, including the shovel-like nose, chine-line, splayed v-tail exhaust, and dorsal inlet. (Northrop Grumman)
Regardless, the Talon Blue name is welcome. As we noted with the announcement of the Dark Merlin name for General Atomics’ YFQ-42A, the nomenclatures and terms associated with the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program can often be obtuse to the general public. Being able to use specific names for the different drones helps. Anduril’s YFQ-44A has carried the nickname Fury from the very start, which traces back to its origins as a ‘red air’ training drone.
Beyond the YFQ-48A, Northrop Grumman is now also describing Project Talon as an entire “portfolio of modular, cost-effective and rapidly deployable aircraft that meet the customers’ autonomy needs.” That portfolio includes Talon IQ, formerly called Beacon, a “next-generation autonomous testbed ecosystem” that has been leveraging the Prism autonomy suite and Scaled Composite’s Model 437 Vanguard jet. Scaled Composites is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that was also involved in the development of Talon Blue.
Digital Ecosystem Takes Flight
Northrop Grumman has also now released a picture of the YFQ-48A flanked by the Model 437 and one of Scaled Composites’ earlier Model 401 jets, also known as the ‘Son of Ares,’ but it is not immediately clear if the latter is also part of the Project Talon portfolio. The Model 437 evolved from the Model 401. Concepts for uncrewed versions of the Model 401 and Model 437 have been shown in the past.
From left to right, Scaled Composites’ Model 437, the YFQ-48A, and a Scaled Composites Model 401. Northrop Grumman
In December, Northrop Grumman said it was targeting a first flight for YFQ-48A about nine months down the road, or sometime in August of this year.
In terms of the Air Force’s CCA program, the service still has yet to make a decision about which Increment 1 CCA design, or both, it wants to buy in larger numbers. Nine companies are also now under contract to refine concepts under Increment 2. To date, the Air Force has not disclosed the names of any of the Increment 2 awardees, which, as noted, could include Northrop Grumman.
JOJO Siwa’s bank balance is set for a major boost as she relaunches a business venture that once raked in an estimated £336million.
The CelebrityBig Brother star, 22, struck a licensing deal with JennZ and Thomas Global Media to release more JoJo’s Bows, the popular hair accessory.
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JoJo Siwa is bringing back JoJo’s BowsCredit: monsee wShe previously sold 80million of the popular hair accessoriesCredit: Getty
And there’s a new twist for the latest version of the popular brand; the introduction of Joelle Bows, a host of new shapes and designs named after JoJo’s birth name.
“JoJo’s Bows were never just about what you wore, they were about how you felt,” said JoJo.
“Coming back as creative director means I get to personally shape every detail, making sure the heart, energy, and message behind the bows evolve with me and with the fans. This relaunch is for the fans who grew up with me, and for the next generation discovering their voice and confidence.”
JennZ founder and creative director Jennifer Saad added: “The JoJo Bow isn’t just an accessory it’s a symbol of confidence, creativity, and style.
“Reintroducing it for a new generation is about celebrating the magic that made it iconic and evolving it for who those fans have grown to be.”
Some 80 million JoJo Bows have been sold to date as fans flocked to replicate the dancer star’s iconic look.
The bows previously retailed between $5 to $16.
Since shooting to fame on Dance Moms as a young girl, through to a lucrative partnership with Nickelodeon as a teen, JoJo has released a huge assortment of merch.
Most of which has flown off the shelves from T-shirts and toys to shoes and accessories.
She previously told Forbes: “Early on, Nickelodeon wanted to have a meeting, where they discussed big business, and they wanted to do it without me. My Mom and I said, ‘That’s not how it works. We’ve been in this together since day one.’
“And in that meeting Pam, who is the head of consumer products, said, ‘Just so you know, if this t shirt doesn’t sell then it’s all over. That was why I didn’t want you here.’
“Now, every time I see her I laugh and say, ‘How’d that t-shirt sell?’”
Both JoJo’s business and personal life are thriving.
After meeting Chris Hughes, 33, on CBB last year, she already has one eye on marriage and kids.
But their transatlantic romance isn’t entirely smooth sailing.
She recently told fans online: “The hard part for me is like the hours that we do communicate we’re at very very different phases of our day.
“Just as I’m getting up excited to talk to him you know text him or call him he’s in the middle of his day and he’s working or he’s doing something and he’s occupied. So I find that part difficult.”
She continued: “And then the same thing like when he’s going to bed I’m in the middle of my day now occupied… so it’s a little more difficult.”
However, the pair will soon be back together to celebrate their first anniversary.
JoJo and Chris Hughes will soon celebrate their first anniversaryCredit: Instagram
Responsible for selling 35 million records worldwide, Snoop Dogg can now add record ticket sales to his resume.
The club have opened up sections of the away end because of the spike in interest, meaning not only have the ‘sold out’ signs gone up for the visit of Preston North End, the game is also set to see more Swansea fans in the ground than ever before.
It’s a short term hit of buzz for a club that lost its way after relegation from the Premier League in 2018.
Eyes, however, are now on a return – with the involvement of Snoop part of a longer-term plan that Swansea chief executive Tom Gorringe says has “no limits”.
Brought on board by the club’s US owners Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen in July, Snoop’s minority stake didn’t mean a large injection of cash.
But it did mean a huge boost to its ability to sell itself.
“The reality is that if we operated within our natural resources we couldn’t compete financially,” says Gorringe, speaking just after helping show Snoop around the club’s training base on Monday afternoon where he met players and staff.
“PSR (profit and sustainability rules) is our biggest constraint. We are up against sides with parachute payments and we have one of the lowest turnovers.
“We have to think of new ways to generate income. We are an underdog and part of the attraction for him is the difference he can make with the pull he naturally has.”
That pull includes more than 100 million social media followers – more than Wrexham’s ownership combined – that Swansea have already looked to make the most of.
Beyond growing the brand and the wider fan base, which Gorringe admits “takes time”, there have already been tangible benefits.
Income has been tie-ins including clothing collaborations with Snoop’s own publishing label, the iconic Death Row Records that was once the home of Dr Dre and Tupac Shakur.
“By December, our retail business surpassed last year’s revenue,” says Gorringe, who has previously suggested that sponsorship deals for next year are set to be bigger and better than any previous agreement.
Torrential downpours cause deadly mudslides in southern Peru, while more than 300 districts across the country declare states of emergency.
Published On 24 Feb 202624 Feb 2026
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Peruvian authorities say they have recovered the bodies of a father and son who died in a mudslide triggered by heavy rains, which have battered the country’s southern regions of Ica and Arequipa, affecting an estimated 5,500 homes and forcing many people to evacuate.
Authorities in Arequipa have called on the country’s interim president to declare a state of emergency in the region as the governor announced that multiple shelters were being opened to house those fleeing the floods.
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Peru’s Council of Ministers said on Monday that more than 700 districts nationwide have been declared in emergency status.
In Cayma, Arequipa, a vehicle was seen semi-buried under mud, and homes teetered on the verge of collapse after flash floods swept away the earth and destroyed roadways, the Reuters news agency reported.
According to the Associated Press news agency, the bodies of a father and son were recovered after being swept away by a landslide.
The recovery came a day after 15 people were killed when a military helicopter crashed while providing rescue services during the flooding.
Rescue teams found the wreckage of the helicopter in the Chala district, officials said. Seven children were among the 11 passengers and four crew members who died, according to the AFP news agency.
Torrential downpours have caused widespread damage across southern Peru, affecting about 5,500 homes and forcing many residents to evacuate.
Images shared by Peruvian media showed streets torn up in the affected areas and vehicles buried deep in the mud slides as rescue workers attempted to clear streets using mechanical earth movers.
The El Niño Costero (coastal) climate phenomenon has been the cause of the recent weeks of heavy rain in Peru, weather forecasters report, and is expected to strengthen slightly next month, threatening more heavy rain.
While El Niño is a natural cycle that has existed for millennia, scientists increasingly link its severity to climate change. Rising global temperatures provide a warmer “baseline” for the ocean, making it easier for these extreme heating events to reach record-breaking thresholds and increasing the atmosphere’s capacity to hold the moisture that fuels torrential rain and catastrophic flooding.
