SHE’S long been known as one of Towie’s most fiery personalities, but Ella Rae Wise has now broken her silence on a fresh fallout with a co-star – and revealed exactly what’s going on behind the scenes with an ex she once couldn’t be in the same room as.
Speaking to The Sun, the 26-year-old lifted the lid on the real story behind her rocky relationship with former best friend Dani Imbert, addressed another friendship that has quietly crumbled away from the cameras, and explained what it’s actually like filming alongside ex Dan Edgar these days.
When it comes to Dani, Ella insists there was never one big bust-up, but rather a realisation that the loyalty she was giving out wasn’t being returned.
She said: “I would just say we decided not to be friends anymore. I don’t really know why on her behalf, but for me people always scream loyalty, but when the shoe is on the other foot, loyalty probably isn’t that strong towards me.
“But I’m the one that needs to be seen to have loyalty everywhere and cut my nose off to spite my face. With this specific friendship, she was okay doing what she wanted to do behind my back with people who didn’t like me.
“So, it wasn’t a mirrored friendship. It was one-sided is how I feel. With time going on, I think I prepared myself for this… I could see it coming.”
Ella and Dani first became close after Dani joined the show in 2021, quickly forming an inseparable trio alongside Junaid Ahmed that dominated cast trips, nights out and red carpet appearances for the best part of two years.
Cracks first appeared in early 2023 when Dani admitted on camera to lying to Ella about a secret kiss with co-star Roman Hackett, but the real turning point came later that year during a cast trip to Cyprus, when Ella fell ill and says she was left feeling completely “frozen out“ by both Dani and Junaid.
Matters were made worse when Dani and Junaid began socialising with Chloe Brockett – Ella’s long-running nemesis on the show – something Ella viewed as the ultimate betrayal, accusing Dani during fiery on-screen rows of being spineless and easily led by Junaid.
The pair did appear to patch things up by March 2024, but Ella admits the relationship never really recovered, and their apparent truce hasn’t lasted.
In a teaser shared on Towie’s socials with Ella and her co-star Jodie Wells, Ella reflected on a moment where she found herself defending Dani in her absence, saying: “I defended her in a room she wasn’t in with Jonnie… why was I being so nice?”
Jodie pointed out that Ella had been “really defending Dani… which is really nice considering she wasn’t being that much of a friend to you at that time,” before asking where things stand between them now.
Ella replied: “I’d say the friendship is probably quite non-existent. I didn’t ever think I’d be in this position with Dani. We’ve fell out before and we always made a pact that we wouldn’t fall out again.”
But it seems the girls have gone back on their word, with Ella adding: “I don’t see where the friendship can go,” while Jodie suggested: “Maybe you’ve outgrown each other.”
Asked by The Sun whether she and Dani have fallen out again, Ella made her feelings clear, admitting there’s little chance of a reunion this time round.
The pair have now settled into two firmly separate camps within the cast, with Dani remaining closely aligned with Freddie Bentley, while Ella sticks by her pal Harry Derbidge.
The two groups manage to film together during big cast scenes and parties, but rarely mix on a personal level.
Dani isn’t the only co-star Ella has fallen silent with, though.
She also confirmed she and former best friend Freddie are no longer on speaking terms, telling us bluntly: “No. I’m alright with it, though. I don’t feel any type of way about it.”
Ella and Freddie were close pals long before Freddie officially joined the show and, when he did make his debut, he wasted no time stepping up as one of Ella’s fiercest defenders on screen, backing her throughout her dramatic falling out with Dani and Junaid.
The two became practically inseparable, filming together constantly and championing one another in the media, but their bond hit a wall during a Towie Christmas special when an explosive row – fuelled by shifting group loyalties and Ella’s closeness with Harry Derbidge, who already had history with Freddie, triggered a complete breakdown in their friendship.
Freddie later confirmed on GK Barry’s podcast Saving Grace last year that the pair were “not friends” anymore, and while the two briefly appeared to patch things up during a cast trip to Vietnam earlier this year, secondary drama involving Saffron Lempriere and Elma Pazar reignited old tensions, with a frustrated Freddie quitting the trip early and flying home.
Freddie has since buried the hatchet with Harry but, as Ella’s own words confirm, his friendship with her shows no sign of being repaired heading into the new series.
Dani and Freddie are far from the only names on Ella’s list, either – the star has built up something of a reputation over the years for falling out with those closest to her.
Her rivalry with Chloe Brockett remains one of her longest-running and most explosive, with the pair’s friendship collapsing not long after they joined the show together in 2019 when Ella began dating Chloe’s ex, Harry Lee – a feud that has seen the two repeatedly clash on camera ever since, each branding the other insincere.
Her fallout with Junaid also stemmed from that same Cyprus trip, with Ella accusing him of being controlling and toxic and of deliberately turning mutual friends against her.
Meanwhile her relationship with Amber Turner has been fraught since 2022, when Ella claimed Amber’s then-boyfriend (and her now-ex) Dan Edgar behaved inappropriately towards her on a night out. The feud reignited in 2024 once Amber and Dan split and Ella and Dan struck up a holiday fling of their own while filming in Bali.
Which brings us to the one relationship that, remarkably, appears to be going in a positive direction.
Despite that turbulent history, Ella insists she and Dan have found a way to move past their issues, telling us: “We’re literally amicable, polite to each other, keep it moving. And it’s easy because we’re in the same group.
“The boys banter it and break up the awkwardness. It’s been fine. This series has really been a good series for me. I’m feeling comfortable around everyone.”
It’s a far cry from the tension that once defined their dynamic, after Ella and Dan’s relationship first hit headlines in Bali following his split from Amber.
Things later boiled over during the cast trip to Vietnam for season 36 when Courtney Green accused Dan of “flirting” with Ella and being disrespectful to his then girlfriend Chloe Lewis.
But with their wider friendship group having shifted considerably since then, the pair have settled into a far calmer footing – something Dan himself has previously credited to their mutual closeness with Jodie Wells and James “Diags” Bennewith.
As for her own life away from the group dramas, Ella tells us this series has marked a real turning point in how she feels in herself.
She said: “It’s been fun. It’s been nice to do different things and have happy moments. This series is so different. So much better.
“The change is probably how I feel in myself. I think I needed to focus on how I feel in myself to be able to get over things. So, I did that, and yeah, I’m over it!”
She added that rebuilding her confidence has come from learning to love herself again and leaning on easier, less intense friendships, saying: “I think it’s more finding love for yourself again. That comes in time, doesn’t it… And the friends you have around you. That’s changed.
“I have a lot more easy-going friendships. They’re not hard work. We don’t have to be attached to each other 24/7. We’ve all got our own lives. It’s been good.”
Ella’s newfound sense of stability comes as she’s also settled into a new romance away from the cast, having gone public with new boyfriend Ricky, 34, in early August while on holiday with mutual pals Lorri Haines and Ferne McCann.
The pair were pictured kissing at Marbella’s luxury Don Carlos Hotel and even sparked marriage rumours after Ella was spotted wearing a gold band.
TOWIE continues on Sunday and Monday every week on ITV2 & ITVX.
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Banking People on the Move: EIF, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Julius Baer
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) has appointed Jean-Christophe Laloux as its next CEO, effective Jan 1. He will succeed Marjut Falkstedt, who plans to retire.
Laloux currently leads the European Investment Bank’s lending and advisory operations in the EU and has spent more than two decades at the EIB. He has helped develop financing tools for high-growth technology companies, infrastructure, climate projects, and private-sector investment, including venture debt, risk-sharing mechanisms, and project finance.
EIF Chair Nadia Calviño praised Laloux’s track record in developing innovative financing tools to support Europe’s technological competitiveness. Before joining the EIB in 1999, Laloux worked at Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers. —Anthony Noto
Mike Jool and Adeel Khan will take the reins of Barclays’ investment bank business in February as co-CEOs, subject to regulatory approval. Jool will join the bank early next year from Bank of America, where he most recently co-headed global investment banking. Khan currently leads Barclays’ global markets.
Each will have a seat on the bank’s group executive committee. “Since 2023, our investment bank has delivered a strong performance, growing revenues and returns and driving a more integrated service for clients,” said C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Group chief executive.
“As we enter the next stage of our strategy, and reflecting the ambition we have for our investment bank, Adeel and Mike will form a strong partnership to deliver an even stronger, more integrated service to our clients.”—Rob Daly
Standard Chartered PLC confirmed the appointment of Manus Costello as Group CFO and executive director. Costello’s appointment, initially announced in May, formalizes his role atop the emerging markets-focused banking group.
The 25-year industry veteran spent 14 years at AllianceBernstein, rising to global head of research, and earlier served as senior director of equity research at Merrill Lynch.
Since joining Standard Chartered in 2024 as global head of Investor Relations, Costello has made “a significant contribution to the group’s strategic positioning and engagement of stakeholders, while also bringing strong rigor and an entrepreneurial mindset to the role,” CEO Bill Winters said in a press release. —Luca Ventura
Swiss private bank Julius Baer appointed Peter Burrill as CFO and member of the Executive Board, effective August 17, subject to regulatory approval. He joins from Standard Chartered, where he was interim group CFO for nine years. Before that, Burrill spent nearly four years at Deutsche Bank as group controller and co-head of group finance, He succeeds Evie Kostakis after a top management shake-up.
“We are delighted to welcome Pete to Julius Baer,” Bollinger said in a press release. “He brings profound depth and breadth of financial expertise, having led the full range of finance and regulatory functions. With extensive international experience across our core markets and working at a bank strongly focused on wealth management, he will be an outstanding addition to our team.” —LV
Ukrainian Kate Koval says she left Louisiana State University’s basketball program because of the team’s decision to sign a Russian player.
Following the arrival of Anna Minaeva, it was announced that 20-year-old Koval had departed for “personal reasons” after one season.
Koval said Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine was why she stepped away.
“My father serves in the Ukrainian military and takes tremendous pride in defending his country against Russian aggression,” she wrote on Instagram.
“For me, this war is not distant or abstract. People close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks, and places where I grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes.
“The timing of this situation and the deep personal effect it has had on me, my family and those we care about who continue to live through and fight this war ultimately made me question whether LSU remained the right place for me.
“This decision has not been easy. While I understand and respect that roster decisions are a part of college basketball, I have to remain true to myself, my values and my country.”
Koval, who was expected to be LSU’s starting centre this year, has two years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
Given the transfer portal has closed, she said she hopes the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) “recognises the circumstances surrounding my situation and understands the seriousness and deep nature of this matter” and allows her to sign with a different school for the upcoming season.
Koval said: “I felt I had found a home at LSU, and I am incredibly grateful for my team-mates who became family, as well as my coaches, staff, professors and the entire LSU community.
“I will always cherish the relationships, experiences, and memories I made there.”
Sept. 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has named Adam Telle, current assistant secretary for the Army for Civil Works, acting secretary of the Army amid an ongoing shakeup of the U.S. military.
In a brief statement posted on his Truth Social media platform, Trump announced that Telle would be assuming the position immediately, while describing him only as “a Great Patriot, who is respected by all.”
Trump named Telle days after his predecessor, Dan Driscoll, reportedly submitted his resignation following months of reported tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an exit that has raised concern among some as there has been a steady stream of resignations, early retirements and firings among Pentagon leadership during the second Trump administration.
On Tuesday evening, Driscoll made his resignation public, saying in an online statement Wednesday would be his last day.
“As a third-generation Army veteran, it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the secretary of the Army under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth,” he said.
“Our soldiers, civilians and their families are our nation’s very best, and they have inspired me every day. I am sincerely thankful for their service and sacrifice.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, called on Trump to fire Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major who took office with less senior government and military leadership experience than any other secretary of Defense, saying he has “never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country.”
Hegseth has overseen a sweeping overhaul of the department, including a purge of two dozen generals, admirals and senior civilian defense officials who have either resigned, announced early retirement or been fired. Several left following reported clashes with the secretary, who has plunged into culture-war issues, eliminating policies he has characterized as “woke.”
“Huge congrats to Adam,” Hegseth said online.
“He is indeed a great Patriot — and will be an immediate asset to the @USArmy.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., was among Republicans quick to congratulate Telle for being chosen to lead the Army and Trump for picking him.
“This is a critical position for our nation’s defense, and I can’t imagine a better leader for the world’s greatest warriors,” Hagerty said in a social media statement.
“He knows how to inspire, lead and equip the Army for success. Given the challenges we face today, Adam is the ‘man for the moment.'”
Unlike North Sea oil, most of which is exported and then reimported in various refined forms, almost all North Sea gas is used domestically in the UK.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas imports with over 60% imported from Norway and the United States.
Wholesale natural gas prices have surged this year as a result of the Iran war and are currently at a three-year high, prompting concerns over energy security.
Gas storage levels in Europe are significantly lower than usual for this time of year after countries delayed stockpiling in the summer in the hope that the conflict would end before winter and prices would in turn fall.
They face the prospect of rushing to buy gas now or paying potentially higher prices when the winter comes.
Prices are set internationally and a green light to Jackdaw would not lower the cost of gas for domestic consumers.
But extracting gas domestically creates lower greenhouse gas emissions than liquefying, shipping and regasifying liquid natural gas (LNG) imported from other countries.
Chris O’Shea, the boss of British Gas owner Centrica, said any additional domestic gas supply would reduce Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels, “so it’s got to be good”.
He told the BBC’s Today programme: “It wouldn’t lower the cost materially, but basic economics would tell you that if you’ve got a fixed demand for a product and you increase the supply, the price should move.”
He also pointed to the high tax rates on profits from North Sea oil and gas, adding that the new extraction would give the government more money to spend.
At the top of Gloria Steinem’s “Famous Last Words” interview on Netflix, Brad Falchuk describes the writer and activist as “the face of the feminist movement” for the last 50-plus years — and Steinem says she hopes that isn’t true.
“I hope I wasn’t the face of the feminist movement,” Steinem says during the intimate conversation released Thursday on the streamer after her death at age 92. “Because it’s not right. … It’s a diverse movement, and, actually, on the issues, in public opinion polls, women of color are more likely to support the issues than white women.”
According to a Netflix news release, Steinem sat down with Falchuk in February 2025 for the interview she knew would not be released until after her death. In “Famous Last Words: Gloria Steinem,” the celebrated feminist reflects on her life and legacy in terms of her political activism, as well as her family and upbringing, relationships with other feminist figures and her hopes for the future.
Steinem maintained her hopes, even in a post-Roe vs. Wade world. When the landmark decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, it meant states could again outlaw abortion.
“I get angry or disappointed and so on [thinking about it], but I don’t lose all hope in the future,” Steinem said, before sharing observations about previously living near an abortion clinic.
Women are “still struggling,” she said. “There’s still religious restrictions that many people feel. There’s, I’m sorry to say, race and class restrictions.
“We have, right as we speak, Trump in the White House. So we have no shortage of things we need to do in order to be compassionate toward each other.”
One of the most recognizable feminist figures of our times, Steinem was known for her role in launching Ms. magazine as well as organizations such as the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Action Alliance. When asked by Falchuk to reflect on her “feminist awakening,” she mentions that her time in India studying Gandhi was when she “realized that patriarchy was made up. Racism was made up.”
But the interview has its lighter moments. For instance, Steinem reveals she finds joy in reality TV, including “Dance Moms.”
“It’s shows in which you see real people being who they are and disclosing their own stories,” Steinem said. “Those are more fun.”
And although she seems hesitant about contemplating her own “nonexistence,” she does share how she wants to be remembered: As “this person who tried to make the world a little more equal, compassionate, joyful, funny than it was when I showed up.”
“I just hope that I have, however accidentally, left behind some words or actions or stories or something that is useful to the people — and pleasurable, hopefully — to the people who are going to continue long after you and me,” she said.
Falchuk, also an executive producer of the “Famous Last Words” series, described Steinem in a news release as “the steady heartbeat of a revolution, but in this room, she was a woman reflecting on the simple, profound beauty of human connection.”
“She spoke about the intersection of race, gender, and peace with a wisdom that only comes from a lifetime on the front lines. Even in her final moments, she was organizing us, challenging us to keep moving forward. It is an extraordinary privilege to share her final thoughts with the world.”
After her conversation with Falchuk, Steinem was given the opportunity to share her final words alone, directly addressing the audience through the camera. Read her full message below.
“Hello, all you unique individuals out there. I’m so glad to be meeting you through the magic of the media. I wish I could meet each one of you in person. But in a way, this is what allows us now to see each other’s lives, to influence each other’s lives, to respect each other, and to, therefore, perpetuate what we hope is a global democracy.
“Please feel free to respond in any way you can. And please tell your own story. This is the most important thing we can do for each other — to know each other through stories. And I hope so much that whoever you are, listening right now, you are able to do what you love [and] to be … the unique person you are.”
BlackJack3D
Solana (SOL-USD) has launched Payment Channels, allowing AI agents to authorize a spending limit once and make multiple payments without requiring approval for every transaction.
The feature lets AI agents pay for things like data, computing power, and AI-generated answers
Having a medical condition does not mean you cannot get travel insurance(Image: Natalia Lebedinskaia via Getty Images)
Expert advice has been issued for many Brits planning to go abroad. People with disabilities and long-term medical conditions are being warned to shop around for travel insurance as their health history can send premiums soaring.
Having a medical condition does not mean you cannot get travel insurance – but it can make finding affordable cover considerably harder. Research by Which? highlighted in a new post on X on Wednesday, September 2 found that seven in 10 of its members who had bought travel insurance in the previous two years had declared a medical condition. While most said this had only a minor effect on their ability to find an insurer willing to cover them, many reported that their condition pushed up the price.
One in four said their medical conditions had a major impact on what they paid. The problem can become particularly acute for older travellers.
Data from Compare the Market cited by Which? suggests customers aged over 65 pay roughly double once their medical conditions are taken into account. And simply buying a standard travel policy without declaring a condition could leave holidaymakers dangerously exposed.
Insurers usually require travellers to disclose their medical history, with specialist medical screening companies assessing the risks involved. The resulting risk assessment can affect whether an insurer will provide cover and how much it charges.
But different insurers can make different decisions – meaning it pays to shop around rather than accepting the first quote.
Which? assessed policies from specialist providers and identified several as Best Buys. Saga came out on top, with its Plus annual multi-trip policy scoring 82%.
It provides up to £20 million of medical expenses cover, £20,000 cancellation cover and £10,000 for baggage and valuables. Saga’s Plus single-trip policy scored 81%, while its Standard annual multi-trip policy scored 77%.
Staysure Signature scored 74%, with unlimited medical expenses cover, £15,000 cancellation cover and £5,000 for baggage. AllClear Platinum scored 70%, also offering unlimited medical expenses cover.
Which? also highlighted InsuranceWith’s Platinum policy, which scored 68% and includes £5,000 of gadget cover.
Travellers should be completely open about their health when buying cover. A medical condition may result in a higher premium or an exclusion being added to a policy. An exclusion could mean claims linked to that condition are not covered – potentially leaving someone facing a huge bill if they become ill abroad.
Which? insurance expert Dean Sobers said there is a reason it publishes information about the medical screening companies used by insurers. The organisation found that 80% of the policies it assessed used Verisk for medical screening, while 12% used Protectif.
This can matter because insurers may reach different decisions about whether to cover someone – and what to charge – even when the same screening process is involved. He said: “When searching for quotes, you may have found yourself answering what feels like identical health-related questions over and over even when trying different insurers. You’re not imagining it: medical screening is outsourced by most travel insurers, with the vast majority using just two firms – Verisk and Protectif.
“While the insurer makes the ultimate decision about how much to charge you, the different approaches of the screening companies can lead to a different picture of your risk. Verisk, for example, asks you to state the name of your medical condition, while Protectif begins by asking you which medications you’re taking and works backwards from that.
“No particular screening company is necessarily going to deliver a cheaper quote, but if you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall with one, trying another could be worth it.”
Specialist insurers are specifically designed to deal with travellers who may be rejected, heavily loaded or offered limited cover by mainstream providers. And with the cost of holidays already high, shopping around could make the difference between being properly protected and taking a potentially disastrous gamble by travelling without adequate insurance.
Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna won me over precisely because it feels like Italy with the volume turned down. I stayed in a small family-run hotel near Via delle Volte, where mornings began with quiet cobbled streets and the smell of fresh pastries. The Palazzo dei Diamanti was almost empty when I visited, giving me space to enjoy its Renaissance art without crowds. Evenings meant cycling past terracotta walls to tiny trattorias serving pumpkin cappellacci, a traditional pasta dish. It’s a city that lets you slow down, breathe and enjoy its beauty.
John
Next to flashy Munich or cool Berlin, Hanover in northern Germany has a reputation of being boring. It is totally undeserved: there are world-class museums, such as the modern art gallery Sprengel, one of the best-preserved baroque gardens in Europe – the Great Garden at Herrenhausen – impressive Victorian era architecture, 640 hectares (1,680 acres) of city forest (the Eilenriede, nearly double the size of New York’s Central Park) and a large artificial lake just south of the centre that you can travel on with a bus ticket (or hire a boat). Explore the city and its surroundings on more than 600 miles of cycle paths, find independent shops in the well-heeled art nouveau district of List or the multicultural Linden, and relax in a deck chair on Ballhofplatz with tea and cake at the Teestübchen.
Ulrike
Guardian Travel readers’ tips
Every week we ask our readers for recommendations from their travels. A selection of tips will be featured online and may appear in print. To enter the latest competition visit the readers’ tips homepage
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Bursting with Portuguese charm, Loulé is 10 miles inland from Faro, capital of the Algarve. The small city has a rich history of preserving traditional crafts, supported by Loulé Criativo, a network of community-driven artisans that keeps alive and celebrates the identity of Loulé and the Algarve. It includes the House of Weaving (Casa da Empreita) and the Watchmakers (Oficina do Relojoeiro) and Stringed Instrument Workshop (Oficina de Cordofones). In these vibrant spaces – where visitors can interact with artisans – the city’s heritage is preserved and passed down through generations.
Sue
Arras, 35 minutes on the train from Lille, has two Unesco world heritage sites: the belfry of the Hotel de Ville and the Vauban Citadel. Exploring the Boves, a 10th-century network of tunnels which played roles in the first and second world wars, is an amazing experience. Above are two magnificent large squares in the Flemish style with a wide variety of alfresco cafes, restaurants and indie shops. Arras also holds one of the biggest Christmas markets north of Paris, noted for its amazing range of international gourmet foods.
Bryan Boese
Malmö is easily accessible (being connected by bridge to Copenhagen) and very walkable. We enjoyed the free Malmö Konsthall arts centre with contemporary exhibitions and also the skateboard artistry in the square outside. The Western Harbour contains architectural gems, such as the twisted skyscraper Turning Turso, restaurants and swimming piers in a former industrial area. The cafe Hollandia offered classic Swedish cakes and a lovely atmosphere. The Disgusting Food Museum next door was an interesting cultural experience showing food considered to be delicacies in some countries, not so much in others. A sign shows the number of people who have thrown up (visit Hollandia first)!
Elisabeth
If you can tear yourself away from Poetto – surely one of the prettiest city beaches in Europe – you’ll find a lot more to love in Cagliari, capital of Sardinia. The huge indoor produce market is a riot of glistening seafood, local pecorino and sweet, nutty Sardinian treats. The town centre strides uphill from the port, with the elegant bulwark of Bastione St Remy delineating the ancient Castello district and serving up epic rooftop and coastal views. We missed the renowned archaeological museum, but that just gives us the perfect excuse to go back. Cagliari’s affordable seafood was a definite highlight, and Trattoria Lillicu’s chargrilled bream and calamari is another tempting reason to hurry back.
Martha
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In León, colours grab your attention and take away words. León cathedral completely wrongfooted me. This city seems to be under the British tourist radar. I thought I’d already seen stained glass that was worthy of heaven – this was another level. Coupled with this was how visitors were reacting. Everyone was using the free audio guide. No one was just marching round and ticking off the sights. People were learning and savouring the experience. The humble ninth-century San Isidoro church, one of the most important romanesque buildings in Spain, is a refreshing contrast.
Deborah
Ålesund is one of Norway’s most beautiful stops on an already spectacular western coast, despite having been devastated by fire in 1904. We reached the small, rebuilt art nouveau city via the breathtaking winding roads of the Trollstigen (the “Troll’s Path”) and had our first sighting from the top of the panoramic Aksla mountain viewpoint. Exactly 418 steps lead down to the historic centre where museums, cafes, restaurants and shops cluster around the Brosundet Canal in renovated warehouses and ornate buildings. Kayaking, a rib boat ride or a trip to the stunning Geirangerfjord? We couldn’t choose so did them all!
Teresa Stansby
I spent five days in Saint-Malo this August. It has everything: a beautiful walled city with lots of history, a variety of beaches offering shifts in light and character throughout the day, a modernist tidal pool with a high diving platform. The city has so much pride, and the art inspired by its famous landmarks make for great souvenirs. My favourite thing, though? The wonderful cider at La Passage (on Instagram) with my sister. And despite the heat everywhere else, the temperature never got above 25C.
Sophie Amos
Leiden starts badly. The walk from the station is grim. Scruffy bars and vape shops. And then, suddenly, this watery Dutch gem reveals itself. Canals shoot off from a boat-filled basin, each one lined with grand brick mansions tapering to elegant finials under the sort of blue lowland skies that typify every good (and bad) Flemish painting. Dig deeper into its narrow traffic-free courtyards and squares with cafes spilling out light and chatter, much as they did when Rembrandt trudged to the school that still stands here, just round the corner from his first tutor’s studio. He’d find it mostly unchanged if he walked back. At Christmas, an ice rink spreads across the main canal, and the smell of warm wine, cloves and crepes hovers over the market stalls.
Bill Jones
Teenager Stan Moody knocked four-time champion John Higgins out of the British Open with a 4-2 victory in the last 16.
Moody, 19, progressed to the quarter-finals for the second successive year thanks to a strong finish at Cheltenham Racecourse.
Scot Higgins, 51, twice came from behind to level at 2-2, but a break of 46 nudged Moody 3-2 ahead before a 69 clearance – after four-time world champion Higgins led 61-0 – sealed victory.
Moody will face fellow Englishman Liam Highfield in the last eight on Friday.
Judd Trump breezed into the quarter-finals by beating fellow Englishman David Gilbert 4-0 thanks to breaks of 118 and 105 in the final two frames.
Trump, 37, will face China’s Zhao Xintong after the world number one overcame England’s Mark Joyce 4-2.
Englishman Jack Lisowski triumphed 4-1 over China’s Lyu Haotian to set up a meeting with England’s four-time world champion Mark Selby, who beat Ukraine’s Iulian Boiko 4-2.
Wales’ Jak Jones defeated Latvian Artemus Zizins 4-2, while Northern Ireland’s Aaron Hill beat China’s Fan Zhengyi 4-0 and Highfield saw off China’s Long Zehuang 4-1.
Sept. 3 (UPI) — The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to permit enforcement of its mail-in voting restrictions, arguing it will suffer irreparable harm because two states will begin sending ballots to voters before the block is to expire next week.
Filed Thursday by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the request for an immediate administrative stay of the district court’s temporary restraining order comes in protracted litigation over a Trump administration rule giving the U.S. Postal Service authority to screen outbound mail-in ballots for compliance with envelope standards and verify recipients have been entered on their state’s USPS Mail-In and Absentee Participation list.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts sided with the League of Women Voters in Massachusetts, which has been fighting the rule it says is unlawful and violates federalism principles of the Constitution, issuing a 14-day block against enforcing its key provisions while she considers the request to impose a longer, more restrictive preliminary injunction.
In his filing Thursday, Sauer argued that the federal government will be irreparably harmed if the restraining order is not lifted before North Carolina and Alabama send out their mail-in ballots next week, saying a court decision would come too late for those ballots.
“With respect to the November 2026 election, the order thus partially nullifies the Postal Service’s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud,” he said.
Sauer continued that despite Talwani’s order allowing the Postal Service and states to take steps to ensure their envelopes meet the rule’s requirements, her block “risks sowing confusion and chaos because it makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory.
“Thus, if the order is eventually stayed and the rule takes effect for this year’s elections — as should occur — there is a grave risk that states may not have taken the necessary steps to comply due to the false sense of latitude created by the court’s improper order, potentially depriving those states’ citizens of the ability to vote by mail,” he said.
Despite using the mail to vote himself, Trump has long been a critic of mail-in ballots, claiming them to be a source of voting fraud, though studies have found no evidence that mail voting produces higher overall rates of voter fraud.
The USPS rule is one of several actions Trump and his administration have taken ahead of November’s midterm elections, which the president has become increasingly focused on as he has warned Republicans that losing the House to Democrats could lead to his impeachment as well as investigations. While the moves generally have widespread Republican support, Democrats and critics say they are efforts to rig the midterms.
The new USPS rule being litigated comes in response to an executive order Trump signed in March to expand federal control over mail-in ballots, including authorizing the USPS not to send them to voters unless certain conditions are met.
Two weeks ago, the high court lifted an injunction blocking Trump’s mail-voting executive order, stating the challenge to the USPS provisions was premature as the agency had yet to issue a final rule. After the final rule was published Aug. 26, two dozen Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia sued, resulting in the two-week block the Trump administration is now contesting.
The first F-15EX Eagle II destined for permanent assignment at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa departed Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri, facility on August 28, 2026. The aircraft left St. Louis for the 142nd Wing at Portland Air National Guard Base, Oregon, where it will undergo final staging and integration preparations before its eventual deployment to the sprawling Okinawa installation it will call home. The Oregon unit is acting as a coordination and preperation unit for the 18th Wing, a function you can read more about in our interview with the wing’s commander.
This departure represents a critical, long-awaited milestone for the 18th Wing, which has been working toward the permanent stationing of the service’s most advanced Eagle variant to replace its now-withdrawn F-15C/D fleet. The arrival of the F-15EX in Japan, expected to begin in fiscal year 2027, which begins on October 1, 2026, will be a central pillar in the Air Force’s modernization of tactical airpower in the Indo-Pacific region.
“This is an important next step toward bringing the F-15EX home to Kadena,” said Brig. Gen. John Gallemore, 18th Wing commander, in an Air Force release. “Our team is ready to welcome the F-15EX, and this is another milestone that brings us closer to putting this capability in the hands of the airmen who will fly, maintain and employ it from Japan.”
The first F-15EX for Kadena’s 18th Wing, serial 22-0022, was noted flying test sorties from St. Louis in early August, initially in primer paint. By the middle of the month its was flying with its full livery, including the famous “ZZ” tail code.
The F-15EX is a significant jump in capability over the legacy Eagles. With modernized avionics, flight controls, an expanded electronic warfare suite, and increased weapons carriage — as well as potentially new and longer-reaching weapons — the jet is well-suited to operating in the vast Western Pacific. As Kadena prepares for the permanent arrival, the 18th Wing plans to integrate the EX with regional allies, including the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, building upon existing bilateral training exercises.
Two active-duty squadrons of F-15EXs are set to be established at Kadena, taking the place of units previously based there that had flown F-15Cs. The Air Force has been deploying F-15Es, F-22s and other fighters to the base on a rotational basis to fill the gap in the meantime.
The F-15EX will give U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific a high-capacity platform that complements the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35. With its ability to carry large air-to-air and air-to-surface payloads, the Eagle II can serve as a long-range “missile truck,” extending the reach and firepower of stealth aircraft operating closer to contested airspace. Its open-architecture systems also allow it to incorporate new sensors, weapons, and electronic warfare capabilities more readily than the aging F-15C/D fleet.
The aircraft’s value is also tied to its role in networked operations. Exercises such as Valiant Shield have demonstrated how the F-15EX can work with uncrewed aircraft like the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, pointing toward mixed formations in which crewed fighters provide weapons, sensing, and command-and-control capacity for autonomous wingmen. Operating from strategic locations such as Kadena, the Eagle II could help the Air Force generate more combat power across the vast Pacific while reducing the burden on its limited number of stealth fighters.
Kadena will become the second Air Force location with combat-coded F-15EX aircraft, following the Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing.
The Air Force has previously announced plans to stand up National Guard F-15EX squadrons in California, Louisiana, and Michigan. Most recently, the Air Force announced plans to put F-15EX fighters at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, to replace older F-15E Strike Eagle jets that will move to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
While the movement of this first Kadena-bound F-15EX is a positive step, the wider Eagle II program is currently navigating some issues. According to a new Pentagon selected acquisition report released in August, the Air Force’s decision to aggressively expand its F-15EX fleet from 129 to 267 jets — intended to recapitalize the older F-15E force — has introduced substantial cost and schedule uncertainties that officials are now scrambling to manage.
The report warns that the extended acquisition strategy, which shifted from eight production lots to 12, will require Boeing to execute a “major technical refresh” to combat diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages. As systems like the radar, mission computer, and engines face potential obsolescence over the now-lengthened production timeline, the service faces what the report characterizes as a “significant redesign effort.” Program managers are planning to mitigate these risks by integrating upgrades through operational flight program releases scheduled between 2031 and 2035, a strategy they describe as a “structured, risk-reduced pathway” to avoid production line gaps.
Compounding these technical challenges are tangible production delays, largely stemming from a labor strike at the St. Louis plant from August to November 2025. The report notes that these are “unrecoverable delays,” forcing a cascading schedule slip. While Boeing was contracted to deliver all 12 jets from Lot 3 by early 2026, the company will only be able to field half of those by the end of the year. This has directly impacted the timeline for the Kadena deployment, which was originally envisioned for earlier in 2026, and has left the Air Force relying on “bridging strategies” and rotations to cover operational requirements until the Eagle IIs can fully stand up in Okinawa.
The Pentagon is now moving toward an aggressive production ramp-up, tasking Boeing to hit a rate of two jets per month. Keeping the F-15EX schedule on track will be a challenge, however, requiring successfully navigating ongoing parts shortages for critical systems, all while balancing the needs of foreign military sales customers who are also integrated into the supply chain.
For the 18th Wing, the arrival of the first F-15EX will bring a major advance in capabilities in a part of the world that needs them badly. At the same time, the program’s overall trajectory suggests that the wider transition to the new Eagle will come with some complex logistical and industrial challenges.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer and writer whose work advocated fiercely for working landscapes and working people, died “suddenly and peacefully” on Monday at his home in Port Royal, Ky., according to his family. He was 92.
His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his death. On Thursday, she told The Times that her father, until about six months ago, was still writing regularly in his cabin on the banks of the Kentucky River, a place he called “camp,” where many of his more than 50 volumes of poetry, short stories, essays and novels were written.
Berry championed sustainable farming and rural community preservation and railed against industrial agriculture and corporate agribusiness.
“He was fierce and he was fearless, and he remained fearless,” she said, explaining that her family taught her the erosion of rural places wasn’t inevitable but “destruction by design,” engineered by corporate interests and political policies.
Berry, whose writings were often fueled by an anger toward the forces that have driven the destruction of the rural land and communities that he dedicated his life to defending, softened in his final years, according to his daughter. “He was always a tender man, and that part of him got stronger. He was rereading a lot of books that he had loved in his life, and he told me he was looking for the tenderness in the books, and that’s a lovely thing.”
Berry’s most influential work began with a list of the problems he’d observed in modern agriculture, scribbled onto a legal pad as he traveled the long stretch of road between Kentucky’s Henry County and Spokane, Wash., where Berry would deliver a speech at the “Agriculture for a Small Planet” symposium in 1974.
“I was asked to talk about labor-intensive microsystems agriculture. That’s not my language, and it’s not the sort of language that I wish to use because it’s the way people speak when they don’t want to be understood by most people,” he began.
Berry spoke of the six generations of farmers who worked his land before him, and the concerns for farming communities and their agricultural economy that he inherited from his father. He decried “the experts and politicians who have prescribed, encouraged, and applauded the disintegration of such farming communities all over this country into our allegedly miraculous modern American agriculture.”
The speech would later become Berry’s 1977 manifesto “The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture,” which launched a sustainable-farming movement and cemented Berry’s authority on agrarian issues on the national stage.
Beyond his cultural critiques, Berry wrote notable novels including “The Memory of Old Jack,” “Jayber Crow” and “Hannah Coulter.” He was a prolific poet as well. His verse included his debut collection, “The Broken Ground,” and his celebrated Sabbath Poems series, which explored living in harmony with the land.
Over the course of his career, he was honored with the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry and the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among other accolades. In 2010, Berry was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Obama for his achievements as a poet, novelist, farmer and conservationist. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.
Wendell Erdman Berry was born on Aug. 5, 1934, in Louisville, Ky., to John Marshall Berry Sr., a lawyer and tobacco farmer, and Virginia Perry Berry. Wendell was the eldest of four children, two boys and two girls. In high school, his parents shipped him off to Millersburg Military Institute, a former military boarding school in Kentucky, where rather than conform to the teachings, he later wrote that his takeaway was, “Take a simpleton and give him power and confront him with intelligence — and you have a tyrant.”
He went on to study English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky. There he met and wooed Tanya Amyx, who would become his wife and the mother of his two children, Mary and Pryor. He landed a Wallace Stegner writing fellowship at Stanford in 1958, and in 1961 he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to pack up the family and live in Tuscany and southern France.
After Berry’s scholarly pursuits took him to the West Coast, then Europe, then the East Coast, where he taught at New York University, he accepted a job at the University of Kentucky, allowing him to return home and back to his roots, on a farm near the river.
Then-President Obama presents the 2010 National Humanities Medal to Wendell Berry during a ceremony March 2, 2011, in the East Room of the White House.
(Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
“Within a few years, Mom and Dad were raising 85% of the food we were eating,” Mary told The Times. “We had a milk cow, raised hogs for our own use, and by the time I was a teenager, I resented the whole thing pretty seriously, and I remember saying to them more than once, ‘I did not choose to live this way, and I don’t know why we have to do everything the hardest way possible.’ We had no television. … But I was in a heck of a position with my parents because I never really thought they were wrong about anything, and I still don’t.”
When Mary would gripe, she said, her dad would laugh or “just keep working.” But “he talked about what we were doing and why we were doing it,” she said. “He told my brother and me from the time I can remember to look and see that this is good and don’t forget, and I have not forgotten.”
In 2011, when Berry was nearly 80 years old, he joined a high-profile sit-in at the office of Kentucky’s then-Gov. Steve Beshear to protest the destructive mountaintop strip-mining of coal. In an interview with Bill Moyers shared by the Berry Center in 2025, Berry said that he and his compatriots had had enough of the state government ceding control of resources to the coal companies. “In our society,” he said, “people with money are bigger and more powerful and more noticeable and count more as citizens than people without much money. … So we did confront the governor and tell him we weren’t going to leave.”
His attempt at civil disobedience was turned on its head when the governor invited Berry and the Kentucky Rising activists to stay.
“We did stay,” he said. “The whole weekend.”
“We were beautifully treated by the security staff and people who sent us food and bedding and good wishes and even came in and gave us massages. And it was altogether one of the loveliest weekends I’ve ever spent in my life.”
Berry continued writing into his old age.
Next month, Counterpoint Press will posthumously release “Dispatches From Rural America,” a collection of 15 essays. In one, “The Problem Is Industrialism,” Berry wrote about a 2021 conversation he had with a friend of more than 40 years, author Wes Jackson.
“To the extent that we were talking in earnest, our subject was the set of calamities that the media and the commentators frequently take up, typically dealing with each one in isolation from the others and representing each as an emergency more or less apocalyptic, and in tones recalling a number of vernacular alarms, from ‘Last chance for beer’ to ‘Prepare to meet God.’”
He continued later that the two discussed how industrialism “grows only by consuming, once and for all, the living world.”
Mary said she wanted people to know that, yes, her father was worried and wouldn’t have written so much if he weren’t terribly concerned about the future of rural America, but she wants people to understand that he was a man of great hope.
“Hope he felt was a duty, and I learned that from him,” she said. “As he said in one of his many poems, hope is what we owe people younger than ourselves.”
Mary said she was continuing her father’s work through the Berry Center, a nonprofit that aims to put Berry’s writings to work and advocates for farmers, land-conserving communities and healthy regional economies.
Berry is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Tanya, his daughter Mary, son Pryor, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent a text message to Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night informing him that he wasn’t going to be in the lineup Thursday in the series finale against the Cardinals.
Ohtani responded with a salute emoji, Roberts said.
“At the end of the day, he wants to be in there,” Roberts said. “But I’m not going to just put him in there because of the name on the back of his jersey.”
That could be a push-and-pull situation for the rest of the season, as Ohtani continues to manage lingering pain in his right biceps and left knee.
The uncertainty surrounding Ohtani’s health — even though Roberts called an injured list stint “unlikely” — raises questions about the team’s plans.
It’s difficult to fully map out the Dodgers’ rotation plans without knowing whether Ohtani will pitch again this season. And the offense won’t be at its best until he has shaken his slump — Ohtani has just two hits in his last six games after hitting just .241 in August.
“I think great players always feel that their X percentage is better than the next person and they want to be available,” Roberts said. “There is a kind of trusting the player versus taking it out of their hands.
“I’ve had a lot of practice with Clayton [Kershaw]. And Shohei, I think it’s just more of trying to weigh the downside and what potential harm that could do for him and the ballclub versus it’s something that is what it is. That’s just trying to get as much information as we can from the training staff and hear what Shohei has to say.”
Ohtani, who was not made available to speak to reporters before the game Thursday, has not given an interview in over two weeks. He declined requests for comment through a Dodgers spokesperson twice last weekend.
Though Ohtani’s left knee has been the biggest impediment in his return to pitching — his last pitching start was July 3, and his throwing program has stalled twice since receiving an injection to address swelling and soreness — his right biceps is now a problem.
Ohtani reported that the area from his biceps to his neck was bothering him Wednesday night, Roberts said. That was why he kept shaking out his arm.
“It feels like an ebb-and-flow type thing,” general manager Brandon Gomes said of Ohtani’s biceps issue, which has flared at least two other times this season. “It’s hard to recover in August and September, so it’s like just being mindful of if he needs a day here and there, and having those conversations. He’s just one of one, and you can’t say, ‘Well, this guy feels this, therefore Sho’s going to be the same.’ So we have to treat it as a unique case.”
Shohei Ohtani strikes out against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 10th inning Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Both the biceps and knee injuries have lingered for months. But Ohtani hasn’t missed two games in a row all season, let alone landed on the IL.
“I think it’s just really hard to say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna knock something out in X amount of days,’” Gomes said. “But l think not having Shohei in the lineup for 10 days, or whatever it would be, is something that we would prefer not to do, and it really hasn’t even been something that we’ve discussed.”
Gomes also pushed back on the assumption that Ohtani’s struggles at the plate are connected to his physical ailments, even though the two have coincided.
“I just think there’s also just ebbs and flows of the season, and what to attribute things to and what not to is just too hard to say,” Gomes said. “We haven’t had any indication that he’s not feeling good enough physically to go out and play.
“I also think he’s a victim of his own greatness, of … if Shohei struggles for a bit and then it’s up in arms. Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything overly concerning at this point. We’ll continue to monitor and have conversations and see how he feels.”
If the Dodgers don’t put Ohtani on the IL, giving him consecutive days off could make sense. Roberts said he’ll make that decision Friday, after discussions with Ohtani and the training staff.
The Dodgers also have put off a decision regarding whether Ohtani should pitch again this season. But Roberts said this latest development would be “part of the math.”
Said Gomes: “Once again, we’ve got to see how he continues to feel. At some point, if it’s a, ‘Hey, the upside outweighs the downside,’ then we shut it down. Doc has said this, we’ll continue to say it: We’re not going to … compromise [his offensive performance]. But right now, not feeling that that’s necessarily a thing. We just don’t have enough information to feel strongly on that.”
Though it’s not a huge sample size, Ohtani restarted his throwing progression with catch play on Aug. 8. In 23 games since then, he’s posted a .704 OPS during his worst offensive month of his season.
The addition of left-hander Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline also took some of the pressure off Ohtani to return to pitching.
“It was an opportunity that our guys saw, and grateful that a deal was worked out,” Roberts said. “You look at where Shohei’s at, and Roki [Sasaki is] throwing a bullpen tomorrow but on the IL with the blister, so having a [frontline] starter [in Skubal] is huge. And then also getting to know the player, and how he has already impacted our guys, we’re very fortunate.”
ChatGPT creator’s latest release comes amid heightened fears following AI-led hacking of the startup Hugging Face.
Published On 4 Sep 20264 Sep 2026
OpenAI has announced the release of what it says is its most advanced AI model, amid heightened scrutiny of the risks of the frontier technology escaping human control.
The $852bn start-up said in its announcement on Thursday that GPT‑6 Astra, the “world’s most intelligent and aligned” AI model, earned perfect or near-perfect scores in key benchmarks of AI reasoning, beating both its prior release GPT 5.6 Sol and rival Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5.
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The ChatGPT creator said GPT‑6 would become available to the general public in the coming days, following its initial launch with a “limited set of organisations”.
OpenAI’s latest release comes as the AI industry is at the centre of a lively public debate about the dangers of the cutting-edge technology following the AI-led hacking of the startup Hugging Face in July.
An independent probe into the cyberattack found that hundreds of OpenAI’s AI agents had begun communicating among themselves before breaking out of their controlled environment and compromising Hugging Face’s servers.
On Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent, and US House Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat, unveiled legislation that would pause the development of advanced AI until the establishment of federal safety rules and an outright ban on the creation of “superintelligent” AI.
“Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said in a statement announcing the legislation, which is unlikely to advance due to the Republicans’ control of all three branches of the US government.
“The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control. It is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced.”
In its announcement, OpenAI devoted significant space to AI safety, highlighting both GPT‑6’s potential to do harm and its safety features.
Toby Walsh, a professor and AI expert at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said that while OpenAI is clearly “neck and neck” in the race to lead AI, the technology remains inconsistent and in need of greater scrutiny.
“The intelligence in artificial intelligence is still today very jagged,” Walsh said. “There are simple things that even the best AI models do poorly.
“And it’s hard to see how the AI companies, including OpenAI, are slowing down to address justified concerns around cyber risk, when new models are being released at an ever greater and greater rate.”
Roman Yampolskiy, a computer scientist at the University of Louisville, said GPT‑6 marks a “meaningful” advance that raises the stakes for AI safety.
“The key question is whether capabilities are improving faster than our ability to reliably understand, predict and control these systems,” Yampolskiy said.
“I see little evidence that this gap is closing.”
Critics argue that the administration’s arcade games prioritise entertainment over pressing issues like rising costs and foreign conflicts.
Published On 4 Sep 20264 Sep 2026
The White House’s unveiling of five arcade-style games on its website, each believed to be promoting a different policy of United States President Donald Trump’s agenda, has ignited backlash, with critics accusing the administration of prioritising entertainment over addressing rising living costs and the ongoing war on Iran.
Announced on Thursday, the games include “Build the Wall” where players run to capture little green figures before they reach a border wall; “Rio Run”, a Snake-style game in which players gather border crossers along a fence; “Supply Line”, in which players reject food items that fail to meet “Make America Healthy Again” standards; “Flappy Bill,” a Flappy Bird-style game in which a bald eagle carries legislation over the National Mall; and “Trump Savings Tycoon”, in which players catch flying cash and gold bars to “fill your kids’ Trump Accounts,” in reference to the administration’s child savings programme.
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“Heating oil is near an all-time high but hey you can play Border Czar Tom Homan in a video game,” Senator Matt Lesser wrote on X.
Rights groups have also criticised the administration for the gaming website.
“Makes me sick. They’ve been playing games with people’s lives for years, now they’ve made a video game of what they’re doing,” Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation in Eagle Pass, Texas, told AFP news agency.
The game designers “have lost touch with what it means to be human and care for others”.
Adriana Jasso, programme coordinator for AMIGOS San Diego Community, who works at the border, said the arcade-style games showed a fundamental “lack of seriousness” from the administration.
“The cruelty, the extremity of the administration … is no longer surprising,” she said.
In recent months, Trump has faced mounting criticism over the economic toll of the war on Iran and his broader domestic agenda.
The conflict has kept the Strait of Hormuz closed for nearly six months, disrupting global supplies of oil and natural gas and fertiliser, and pushing US inflation above the Federal Reserve’s 2-percent target, according to reporting by Texas Public Radio.
Trump has also faced criticism over tariff policies that the Supreme Court partly struck down earlier this year, along with cuts to food assistance programmes and the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits, all of which economists say have compounded the squeeze on household budgets.
The White House, meanwhile, appeared unfazed, posting “CAN’T STOP WINNING” on X alongside a link to the games.
RuPaul’s Drag Race has returned for a brand new season (Image: BBC)
RuPaul’s Drag Race descended into chaos with an apparent feud exposed just minutes in.
The latest season of the hit show has returned to BBC screens tonight (September 3) with an impressive roster of celebrity guests.
As always, 12 new hopefuls will be battling it out for the coveted title of the next Drag Race Superstar. Resident judges Alan Carr, Graham Norton, and Michelle Visage have returned to the BBC panel alongside an A-list rotation of guest judges including Hollywood actress Thandiwe Newton.
The brand new season kicked off this evening, with episodes available on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three.
But it wasn’t long before the show was plunged into chaos when an apparent feud became known. Paris Baby was the third contestant to be introduced as she admitted she liked to “start some drama”.
However, introducing herself to her cast members, she confessed to “saying some things” about former drag queens that have previously been seen on the show.
Stating she had been blocked after messages were “leaked”, she was then asked what she would do if one of the girls walked in the room today, to which she replied: “Ask them why they blocked me.”
And it wasn’t long before tensions started to rise, when Flesh walked in the doors, drag related family to previous contestants Bones and Krystal Versace.
Appearing to be one of those who had “blocked” Paris Baby, the two soon met face to face. When asked about their history, Flesh replied: “I don’t think we’ve ever met before”, as Paris Baby explained.
Speaking to cameras, Flesh admitted: “I didn’t immediately recognise Paris until I sat down and she said we had beef. We’ve never met but I saw her perform once and I left before the number had finished. I thought it was rude to laugh.”
Explaining to the group, she continued: “We are a super tight family so anyone speaks about your family you’re obviously going to say well you’re not going to be in our space.” Flesh then branded Paris a “troll” before a tense head to head that had had the group in fits of laughter.
But some fans watching at home were left unimpressed as one person said on X: “Flesh VS Paris Baby – The two have their first encounter of the season and well …” Another wrote: “Is Paris Baby becoming already one of the least liked queens from the franchise already?” However, one viewer said: “I love Paris baby so so much already I just know she’s only gonna last like 2 episodes though”
A synopsis for the episode reads: “A brand spanking new series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK returns! Over the next ten weeks, a cast of fabulous new drag queens will compete for RuPaul’s seal of approval and the much-coveted title of UK’s Next Drag Race Superstar.
“International drag legend RuPaul welcomes the queens into the werkroom for the very first time. Entering one by one, they meet their fellow competitors, and of course, they meet RuPaul, who sets them a surprise first challenge.
“The queens are tasked with staging a talent show at the Werkin’ Queens’ Club – RuPaul’s very own twist on a traditional working men’s club.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race can be streamed on BBC iPlayer
Shohei Ohtani was out of the lineup Thursday and his availability is a “day-to-day situation,” manager Dave Roberts announced before the Dodgers’ series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The area around Ohtani’s right biceps and neck was bothering him during the Dodgers’ loss Wednesday, Roberts said.
“It just wasn’t firing the way he wanted it to,” Roberts said. “That’s why I think you saw some grimacing and some kind of shaking of the arm just trying to get it to fire and he couldn’t do that.”
Ohtani was not made available to talk before the game, and he declined requests for comment twice during the Dodgers’ road series in Detroit this past weekend. He last spoke to reporters on Aug. 17.
Ohtani’s health has been scrutinized for much of the season and even more over the last week. He hasn’t pitched since July 3 because of soreness and threw a bullpen session last Friday in hopes of pitching one inning Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. But, not feeling “100%,” as Roberts put it, Ohtani didn’t return to the mound, and his throwing progression stalled.
Though Roberts described Ohtani’s ailment as an overall issue, including his left knee and right biceps, he remained in the lineup. Roberts said then that he’d been given no indication that swinging the bat was affecting Ohtani, but if that changed, the manager would have no problem with sitting the superstar.
Wednesday, as Ohtani went 0 for 4 in the midst of a two-for-23 skid, his body language sounded alarm bells.
“I saw the same thing that everyone saw,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 8-6 loss to the Cardinals. “I saw the shaking of the arm, I saw the wincing, and clearly the swings aren’t who he is. And so, obviously, there’s some compensation. So I’m going to talk to him, and then I’ll make a decision about his availability.”
Roberts said a stint on the injured list was unlikely “but not impossible.”
“Ideally, he takes it as a mental and physical day,” Roberts said. “And then it’s just getting together with him later [Thursday] and seeing how the day is and how [he responds to] the day of rest. … At that point in time, we can make a decision as far as [Friday].”
Managing Ohtani’s health will continue to be a priority for the Dodgers. He’s been dealing with lingering knee soreness and inflammation since at least mid-June, and his biceps issue has flared several times this season.
Ohtani’s buildup back to pitching has been halted twice since he received an Orthovisc injection to lubricate the knee joint over the All-Star break.
As valuable as Ohtani is to the Dodgers as a pitcher, his offensive impact is needed far more, especially with left-hander Tarik Skubal added to the rotation. If continuing to try to pitch jeopardizes Ohtani’s production with his bat, it may be in the team’s best interest to take pitching off the table for him.
Tommy Edman was penciled into the leadoff spot and will play center field, while Alex Call will be the designated hitter and bat eighth.
The Missouri Supreme Court has unanimously blocked a congressional map backed by United States President Donald Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections, restoring the state’s previous districts.
Thursday’s ruling delivered a rare judicial rebuke to Trump in the national battle over redistricting. But it is unlikely to be the final word in the case, with Republican officials already pledging to appeal the ruling.
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At the heart of the case is a congressional map signed into law in September 2025, designed to help Republicans win an extra seat in the US House of Representatives this year.
But the partisan redistricting effort prompted a popular backlash, with nearly 300,000 Missouri residents signing a petition to instead put the new map to a vote.
Missouri’s Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition as legally insufficient. That set up the legal fight, which the Missouri Supreme Court decided on Thursday.
“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” the court wrote in its ruling.
It added that the Missouri Constitution has made such petitions legal, and “no exception applies”. The court is staffed by seven judges, five of whom are Republican-appointed.
The decision, however, places Missouri in a complicated position. Two months remain until the midterm elections, and ballots will soon be printed.
There are also outstanding legal questions over whether a state’s general election can use different congressional districts than its primaries did.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, said she would immediately appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court. She called Thursday’s decision a “full-fledged constitutional crisis”.
“Never before in American history has a court overturned a congressional map after a primary and before a general election,” she said in a statement.
Trump also denounced the ruling in a social media post, calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional”.
“The Missouri Supreme Court just ridiculously ruled in favor of changing the maps back to what they were a long time ago. It’s called, Ancient History,” he wrote.
Last year, Trump triggered the nationwide redistricting fight when he approached Texas state lawmakers to redraw their maps in a way that would give Republicans an advantage.
Normally, congressional maps are redrawn once every 10 years to reflect census results.
But Trump encouraged Republican-led states to issue new maps mid-decade, as a strategy to help the right-wing party maintain control over the House.
Some 10 states ultimately decided to redistrict, including Missouri. Most tilted in favour of Republicans. California, meanwhile, redrew its map to skew Democratic.
Prior to Thursday’s ruling, Missouri’s Supreme Court affirmed that the special legislative action to change the state’s congressional map was lawful. In the US, no federal law bars partisan redistricting, known as gerrymandering.
But Thursday’s decision upheld the legality of the petition campaign to put the map up for a vote.
The Missouri Supreme Court barred the 2025 map from being used in November’s midterm election or any future election until Missouri voters approve it first.
The group People Not Politicians spearheaded the referendum petition. In a statement on Thursday, it applauded the state court’s decision, which overturned a lower court ruling.
“Supreme Court of Missouri has ruled: Missourians will vote on politicians’ rigged map,” the group wrote on social media.
It also blamed Missouri’s secretary of state for any hurdles to restoring the old map.
“Hoskins had the power to prevent all this confusion months ago — and he chose not to,” the group said.
A day before the court’s ruling, hundreds of people rallied outside the state Supreme Court, chanting: “Let us vote!”
Grant Christensen, a resident of Jefferson City and referendum supporter, said he had signed the petition.
“Gerrymandering is the same as voter suppression,” Christensen said. “Cutting up districts in order to steer them to vote one way or the other is not fair.”
Missouri’s 2025 congressional map had already shaped the state’s primary elections. Critics, however, point out that Hoskins did not reject the referendum until August 4, the day of the party primaries.
The outcome of the legal battle is likely to be most pivotal for Missouri’s 5th congressional district, currently held by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. His district, which encompasses parts of Kansas City, was reshaped to favour Republicans.
Wright visited Caracas for a second time since the January 3 US strikes and Maduro kidnapping. (AFP)
Caracas, September 3, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and US Energy Secretary Chris Wright celebrated an oil agreement between the two countries and North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) and a flurry of additional energy deals signed on Wednesday.
“This is a historic day in the transformation of Venezuela,” Wright said in a joint press conference at Miraflores Palace. “President [Donald] Trump has a clear mission in Venezuela: to bring peace, freedom, and prosperity to everyone.”
The US official went on to praise the “enormous deal” announced last Friday that will see NABEP, a company owned by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, receive long-term concessions for 17 prime oilfields in the Caribbean nation that hold 65 billion barrels of reserves.
According to the White House, the US Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) will acquire a 35 percent stake in NABEP through penny warrants. The US State Department will be able to purchase 20 percent of NABEP’s production at cost and hold a right of first refusal for the remaining 80 percent.
Washington will likewise control the company’s board of directors. Wright stated that the NABEP deal is “ambitious” and predicted that Venezuelan oil production would surpass 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the decade, nearly doubling the current output of 1.1 million bpd.
For her part, Rodríguez urged Wright to convey her gratitude to Trump, the US State Department, and the Department of Energy for helping secure “a mutually beneficial, win-win agreement.”
“I trust that the binational agreement will also prove beneficial for the people of the United States,” the acting president told reporters. “Venezuela is ready to welcome these investments that will boost the country’s development.”
Rodríguez had previously stated that Venezuela is estimating US $19 of revenue per barrel extracted in the project, significantly below the government take under the 2001 Hydrocarbon Law enacted by former President Hugo Chávez. The law was overhauled with US support in January to expand benefits for foreign corporations.
Both Rodríguez and Wright faced questions about Betancourt, who has faced embezzlement and money laundering investigations in Spain and Switzerland stemming from alleged corruption in dealings with state oil company PDVSA.
NABEP has operated in the country since 2024 and was awarded the project without a prior bidding process. It is currently Venezuela’s second-largest crude producer after Chevron. Wright said the US government had negotiated the agreement carefully and would exercise strict control over the flow of funds associated with the NABEP deal.
Rodríguez, for her part, said that Betancourt is not facing any judicial proceedings in Venezuela, with a 2022 arrest warrant for corruption having been dropped one year later. Similarly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued in an interview that the Venezuelan mogul is not the subject of any investigation in the US.
Before the afternoon press conference, Wright attended a ceremony at the presidential palace that saw the Venezuelan government sign a number of agreements with foreign corporations.
Chevron, the largest foreign corporation operating in Venezuela, saw its joint venture with PDVSA awarded two additional extra-heavy crude fields, Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2 South, in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
The Texas-based company announced plans to invest $7 billion in its Venezuela projects over the next five years with the goal of more than doubling the current 250,000 bpd output. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth affirmed in an interview that the “strong legal protections” and “improved terms” under the reformed Hydrocarbon Law granted the company “attractive low-cost oil growth” prospects.
Italian company Eni also signed a contract to develop the Junín-5 block, one of the largest in the Orinoco Oil Belt. The project will migrate from a joint venture with PDVSA majority to a concession-type deal, called a Productive Participation Contract, which offers increased benefits for the private operator.
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi was likewise present in Miraflores Palace and thanked US and Venezuelan authorities for backing foreign investments in the South American country.
Wednesday’s ceremony also saw Primavera secure a concession to exploit the medium- and heavy-crude Budare-Elotes block in eastern Venezuela. Primavera is an energy-investment vehicle created by billionaire Fred Ehrsam, a Trump supporter and co-founder of Coinbase, to enter the Venezuelan oil industry.
Additionally, Colorado-based wildcatter Aspect Energy received rights to study potential new oilfields in eastern Venezuela.
Finally, PDVSA and state electricity company CORPOELEC signed “strategic alliance” agreements with GE Vernova, an offshoot of General Electric, to upgrade and repair electrical infrastructure supporting Venezuela’s oil industry.
Following the pro-business overhaul of its energy sector, Caracas has signed new or updated agreements with multiple Western multinational corporations, including BP, Shell, and Repsol.
Since the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has wielded significant control over the Venezuelan oil and gas industry. The Caribbean nation’s export revenues are currently deposited in a US Treasury account before the White House decides the disbursement timings and amounts.
Washington has also kept wide-reaching sanctions in place while issuing licenses for select corporations and banning dealings with companies from Russia, China, and Iran. With NABEP set to take over five oilfields previously operated by joint ventures with Chinese firms, Beijing demanded that its “rights and interests” in Venezuela be respected.
Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.
James Engelsman, Francis Bourgeois and Thomas Holland are the new hosts of The Grand Tour (Image: Danny Martindale/Shutterstock)
‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ the old adage goes, and that’s certainly what they’ve gone for with The Grand Tour.
Perhaps you can’t blame them. Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond proved enormously popular after they de-camped from the BBC’s Top Gear and so having three white blokes is a tried and tested formula that no one can argue with.
Testosterone-fuelled petrolheads is what we are used to, and what we are getting.
Andy Wilman says it’s ‘comfort food’ for the audience. But progressive? It certainly isn’t. And the notion that sticking a female car expert into the mix would somehow turn the show into a box-ticking exercise does rankle. What is this, the 1990s?
On the question of whether a male presenter could have infiltrated the fashion world formerly occupied by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine (20 years ago!) I’m going to say, yes, he could. Let’s ask Gok Wan what he thinks.
This whole gender-based stereotyping is just incredibly tedious and without anyone ever pushing back, will never change.
But when it comes to the trio they have chosen, Wilman is not wrong when he says they are likeable. They really are.
Between them, James, Francis and Canadian Thomas have about a trillion followers across every platform imaginable. They eat, breathe, and sleep the one same thing: cars.
Watching the first episode as they race around in motors worth more than some people’s houses, you can feel the passion oozing out of them. Their interaction with guest driver Jenson Button is also very funny.
None of them can hide their glee at being let loose on some of the fastest vehicles on the planet. But they show just as much enthusiasm when it comes to winning races in clapped out old bangers worth £100.
The secret to their imminent TV success is their authentic joy for what they are doing, which is contagious for the viewers. After a few minutes of watching, everyone at home will have adrenaline levels that are sky high, to match theirs. Also, they look so damn happy, you can’t watch without getting a bit of that feel-good glow.
Of course, a woman would be capable of all this too.
When it comes to moving forwards, this show is stuck in a rut. But will it be a car-crash? Absolutely not.
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