News Desk

TO some, Tiffany Pollard is the ultimate reality queen, gracing Celebrity Big Brother and many other shows with her own explosive brand of drama.

But it is less well-known that she is now a recording artist as well, thanks to a cheeky sample on Zara Larsson‘s track Hot & Sexy.

Tiff — who dubs herself the Head Bitch In Charge, or HBIC — speaks the refrain “beautiful, fly, hot and sexy” on the pop princess’s empowering song.

Speaking for the first time about the collab, Tiffany said: “Zara is multi- talented, and for her to come for the HBIC to honour a track blows my mind.

“I was in that studio. It was like I was Beethoven because I wanted to get it right and iconic just for her.

“I was dedicated to the piece and a lot of people dance to it, so we’re happy.”

Read more on Tiffany Pollard

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The track from Zara’s multi-platinum album Midnight Sun was even played during last week’s Victoria’s Secret catwalk.

But we’re not going to see Tiff on tour with Zara any time soon.

She revealed: “I don’t want to crush dreams or anything like that, but our girl is going to handle it. I’m not gonna be on tour — I got bad knees, honey.”

Tiffany’s back on the reality beat as she begins a stint on ITV’s Celebrity Big Brother — a decade on from her career-defining appearance.

Fans will remember her spats with Gemma Collins and the “David’s dead” misunderstanding when housemate Angie Bowie was told her ex-husband had died, but Tiffany thought it was David Gest who had passed away — until others found him asleep in bed.

Today Tiffany heads into a divided house, with the self-proclaimed “hierarchy” of Rochelle Rackham and Philip Regan facing accusations of bullying — but she is ready to take them on.

The outspoken American said: “It’s Halloween week and I’m gonna put the whore in horror.

“I’m gonna listen to people, I’m gonna have an authentic experience but I don’t want to be on my best behaviour.

“It’s called the hierarchy? The king and the queen of the house? Oh, please. It’s time for me to knock down the bricks.

“I only go around this life one good time and I want to make sure I’m living it authentically.

“I don’t want to quiet a voice of something that should have been said.

“I have a lot of people who are betting on me to be real and to just say what it is.”

Tiffany will also make time while staying in the UK for some of her favourite British pastimes — including watching Towie, Hollyoaks and tucking into our good old fish and chips.

Just hours before heading on to Big Brother, she said: “Bring all that vinegar. People are so nice here.”

We’ll see if she feels the same following her stint in the spy-on-the-wall house.

• Big Brother continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi surprised observers when he recently announced his intention to leave office after his third presidential term ends in April 2030.

El-Sisi had been widely suspected of moving to amend the Egyptian constitution to allow him to serve another term, or possibly indefinitely.

But speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Egyptian Military Academy, el-Sisi insisted that his departure was a settled matter and that “no one would tamper with” the constitution.

So what is behind the decision? There has been much speculation that el-Sisi may use this declaration to rally popular support for a fourth term or preempt a move by the military against him. But there is also the possibility that he is setting up the next phase of military rule in Egypt.

It is important to point out first that voluntarily leaving power is a risky proposition for any authoritarian leader.

In el-Sisi’s case, his 2030 departure would leave open the possibility that a future Egyptian government could seek to use him as a scapegoat for the country’s problems, possibly even holding him to account for alleged crimes committed during his presidency.

El-Sisi led a coup in 2013 against Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, which was accompanied by massacres and the jailing of tens of thousands of politicians, activists, and journalists.

El-Sisi’s economic record has also been the subject of criticism, with detractors accusing him and his government of corruption, poor fiscal policy and lavish spending on vanity projects. Egypt’s debt stands at 81 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with interest payments alone exceeding combined spending on healthcare, education, wages and subsidies. Meanwhile, the Egyptian pound has lost more than 80 percent of its value against the US dollar since 2014, while cumulative inflation exceeds 460 percent.

In this context, el-Sisi’s announcement that he plans to step down in 2030 was rather unexpected. Some have speculated that he has no intention of actually leaving office and could go back on his statement, as he has done before.

In 2013, following Morsi’s overthrow, el-Sisi denied that he would run for president.

After telling the media in 2017 that he was committed to “preserving [the constitution’s] two four-year terms and not changing it”, he helped lead the drive to amend the constitution in 2019.

A judicial source told Mada Masr last week that el-Sisi’s announcement left open the door for a “popular call” for the president to remain in office.

A second possibility is that with this move, el-Sisi may be attempting to preempt a possible military intervention, which could become more likely if the economy continues to falter.

In 2011, the military responded to popular protests against former President Hosni Mubarak by forcing him to step down.

The army could attempt to defuse public anger by presenting el-Sisi as a scapegoat, forcibly removing him from power, and replacing him with someone who can preserve a measure of stability as well as secure its vast economic interests.

In that context, a member of parliament said recently that he has heard el-Sisi say in private meetings that he would rather step down than wait for the military to force him out.

But a third and much more likely possibility deserves particular attention: el-Sisi may be preparing to leave the presidency while ensuring that Egypt’s military-dominated political system survives his departure.

It is perhaps not coincidental that during the announcement, he cited Article 200 of the constitution, which gives the armed forces an extraordinary role in Egyptian politics.

The article, amended in 2019, makes the military responsible for maintaining the country’s “democracy” and the “gains, rights and freedoms” of the Egyptian people.

According to el-Sisi, the aim of the article is “to protect the Egyptian state from any attempt to infiltrate it or allow people to take it over who cannot handle the responsibility of this country or who do not even understand the meaning of ‘state’”.

Article 200, combined with Article 234 — which requires that a president secure approval from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces before appointing a defence minister — gives the military significant control over Egyptian political life.

El-Sisi’s vision for the selection of Egypt’s next president gives the military an outsized role. His proposal includes setting up a committee of experts to draft legislation for selecting hundreds of highly educated Egyptians to undergo specialised training at the Egyptian Military Academy.

Applicants, el-Sisi proposes, should hold doctoral degrees, be between 40 and 50 years of age, and be prepared to spend 30 months at the academy learning about the Egyptian state.

The programme would also train future ministers, governors and members of parliament.

Combined with Articles 200 and 234, this proposed mechanism seems intended to preserve the military’s dominance long after el-Sisi leaves office. It could be favourable to him as well.

A genuinely independent, civilian president could seek to investigate massacres overseen by el-Sisi, allegations of corruption, or other alleged crimes. A transition process closely managed by the military is highly unlikely to yield such a result.

The open question now is how an increasingly frustrated and critical Egyptian public will respond to a political process managed by the military that effectively wipes out the need for a popular mandate.

For now, el-Sisi and the military appear determined to shape Egypt’s political future. But the people may have the last word.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Ukraine’s 475th Separate Assault Regiment, known as CODE 9.2, says it has used the StarGate uncrewed aerial platform to evacuate two seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield in the span of a week. Reportedly, this is the first time the specialized drone has been used for an operation of this kind. It is not, however, the first instance of Ukraine using an aerial rescue drone on the battlefield, with the more extemporized heavy hexacopter also having been used recently, as you can read about here.

Taken together, the missions underscore Ukraine’s efforts to develop alternative casualty evacuation capabilities as Russian drone threats, electronic warfare, and harsh terrain increasingly complicate conventional recovery operations, including those using uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs).

МИ ЕВАКУЮВАЛИ ДВОХ ПОРАНЕНИХ ДРОНОМ STARGATE

According to CODE 9.2, on its Facebook page, the regiment’s personnel carried out two complex evacuation missions using StarGate, a platform developed and manufactured by Ukrainian company SkyFall. The two wounded servicemen were 25-year-old Yevhen, callsign “Izyum,” and 24-year-old Artem, callsign “Kolobok.” Both belonged to adjacent units and had suffered severe limb injuries while occupying positions in a so-called gray zone approximately three miles from the Russian border.

Difficult terrain, including water obstacles, and the threat posed by Russian first-person-view (FPV) drones prevented ground vehicles from reaching the casualties, the regiment said. Air evacuation was the only available option.

The missions were planned and executed by CODE 9.2 personnel with support from SkyFall. They required coordination among multiple units, additional forces and equipment, and dedicated fire support — much like a more traditional casualty evacuation effort involving crewed helicopters. Vampire heavy strike drones were employed to suppress enemy positions during the operations.

“The injury tore off half of my foot, so a lot of blood was lost already,” Izyum said in a video interview from his hospital room. “I think if that incredible little bird hadn’t flown in, well, getting out from there would have been unrealistic.”

During one of the missions, StarGate reportedly flew nearly 20 miles to reach the casualty before covering approximately the same distance on the return leg with the wounded serviceman aboard. CODE 9.2 said Russian electronic warfare systems were actively attempting to suppress satellite navigation signals in the area.

Despite the reported interference, the platform completed the mission using its onboard artificial intelligence-based navigation system, according to the regiment. The statement did not specify the navigation technologies involved.

StarGate was designed specifically for casualty evacuation, or CASEVAC, when conventional ground transportation cannot reach wounded personnel or would expose them to unacceptable risks. Its stated specifications include a payload capacity of up to 330 pounds and a maximum speed of approximately 65 miles per hour. The evacuation module is based on a covered, medical-grade stretcher.

Oleksandr Nastenko, commander of CODE 9.2, callsign “Flint,” said the regiment intends to use the experience gained from the two missions to train crews and make aerial evacuation a more established capability. The regiment also plans to set up a dedicated aerial medical evacuation unit within its medical company.

The StarGate missions follow a separate reported operation involving the 92nd Assault Brigade, which says its personnel helped evacuate a wounded soldier using a heavy-lift hexacopter drone, produced by Gurzuf Defense, with the casualty suspended beneath it, as seen in the video below:

ТАКОГО ЩЕ НІХТО НЕ РОБИВ! В УКРАЇНІ ПРОВЕЛИ ПЕРШУ В СВІТІ ПОВІТРЯНУ ЕВАКУАЦІЮ ЛЮДИНИ З ЛІНІЇ ФРОНТУ

This drone was reportedly an Audag-6 model, which is said to be capable of carrying a 200-pound payload over a distance of up to 15 miles.

In that incident, the soldier had been wounded while holding his position. Once again, aerial extraction was judged the only suitable option; in this case, due to the presence of mines and intense Russian drone activity.

This was a more improvised approach, which the brigade described as the world’s first frontline aerial drone evacuation of a wounded soldier. Compared to Stargate, the Gurzuf drone brings some drawbacks with it, including casualty stability, exposure to the elements, the risk of swinging during flight, and the difficulty of safely lifting and lowering a severely injured person. It subsequently emerged that the soldier involved, Kostiantyn Vlasenko, had been forced to amputate his own foot as part of a 491-day ordeal on a frontline position.

This was not the first time that Ukrainian forces have adapted existing drone technology to effect battlefield evacuations.

TWZ also previously reported on a Ukrainian soldier who managed to escape from the Russians that surrounded him after an electric bike was dropped to him by a large aerial drone.

Врятований завдяки дрону. Як ми витягли пораненого побратима з оточення

As a purpose-built platform, StarGate offers a more standardized way to secure and transport casualties, and to transport them protected from the elements, in a secure, prone position. However, StarGate still faces the challenges of flying in contested airspace and navigating under electronic warfare conditions. Once again, depending on the degree of injuries, the casualty may need assistance being put on the stretcher and, regardless of the degree of medical care that can be provided, StarGate is only an option if already available in proximity to the victim.

The fact that the StarGate missions also needed strike drones for fire support underscores that casualty recovery, whatever the platform being used, typically requires coordination across multiple combat elements.

Despite the limitations, CODE 9.2’s plan to create a dedicated medical aviation element indicates it wants to move beyond one-off missions toward a repeatable capability.

As with other emerging technologies from the war in Ukraine, this is likely to be studied by other armed forces, too. The U.S. military, for example, has long looked at the potential of uncrewed aerial systems to effect casualty evacuation missions, as you can read about here.

Meanwhile, the challenges of that conflict mean that Ukrainian troops continue to explore different ways to recover wounded troops from positions that more conventional evacuation methods can no longer safely reach.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

HOLLYWOOD superstar George Clooney revealed last week his plans to open a new restaurant in the tiny Provencal town of Cotignac.

The French fishing village, which is home to just 2,000 people, has seen an extraordinary influx of Hollywood celebrities in recent years.

Yet this latest development is the first likely to draw hordes of selfie-stick-wielding tourists to the quaint medieval town.

And residents are split over the move, with many fearing the commune is being transformed into a new A-list enclave to rival St Tropez.

While some welcome the creation of jobs in the area, others feel the town risks being overwhelmed by celebrity residents such as George, 65, and his wife Amal, 48.

Writing on a local Cotignac Facebook page, local resident Veronique Luisetti wrote that the town is being “taken over.”

The Canadian entrepreneur backing George’s restaurant, Graham Porter, also owns the Lou Calen hotel, which includes the Michelin-starred Le Jardin Secret restaurant, and the La Falaise art centre.

Another, Viviane Palumbo, added: “We don’t have any money left!”

Meanwhile a comedy mock-up cartoon showing the Ocean’s Eleven actor serving a platter at his new venue is being shared among neighbours.

Titled Cotignac: Hollywood Passe en Cuisine – or Hollywood hits the kitchen – it sees a caricature of George serving up a platter of pasta in an apron.

Jeany Cronk, who runs vineyard Maison Mirabeau, welcomes the jobs the venue will create for locals and said it will bring in much-needed cash.

But she said the residents hope they won’t be overrun by visitors desperate to ogle the actor, saying: “We are not St Tropez.”

Jeany, 53, told The Sun: “You can’t really escape the fact that people will want to come here to see George when his restaurant opens.

“It will impact people wanting to come and eat there.

“And he’s been a celebrity for a very long time, he understands that, you know.

“We’re expecting it to be over the top at first, but we’re hoping it settles down.

“Some people are negative about it, because not everyone likes change, but others are positive about the jobs it will create.

“We are just hoping that everyone will be respectful, and keep the spirit of our community alive.

“We are a former fishing village, we are not St Tropez.

“We don’t have a big Chanel villa or crowds of visitors.”

Jeany, author of the book At Home in Provence, has had plenty of chances to meet the celebrities who have moved into the area – from George and his wife Amal to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who bought the Chateau Miraval vineyard just minutes away from Cotignac in 2008.

The vineyard was later at the centre of a toxic legal battle between the couple, after actress Angelina sold her share in 2021.

Also within a 30 minute radius is John Lucas’s Skywalker Vineyard, while John Malkovich owns a private wine-making estate named Les Quelles de La Coste.

And Ridley Scott produces wine at his Mas des Infermieres vineyard in the heart of the Luberon National Park in Provence.

Jeany continued: “Cotignac has always been quite a famous place.

“I mean, it’s one of the most beautiful villages in France.

“And it is, you know, it has a long history with, you know, celebrities.

“Eric Idle’s lived there for many years.

“And hugely famous people, like David Bowie and Pink Floyd recorded albums in the Studio Miraval.

“George and Amal have obviously built a strong connection to our village.

“I think what’s very nice for him – and I really hope that this remains, now that the restaurant is so public – is that he’s been very free to move around and be amongst people who live in the village.

“He feels happy and safe here.

“I think the celebrities always love that people just go about their business while they’re there and don’t make a big fuss.”

But what of the rivalry among neighbouring vineyards?

She continued: “It’s generally very friendly.

“We all share a common goal – to bring our beautiful rose wines to the world.

“And these big names do lend a hand in raising our profile.

“We are doing very well at the moment, especially in the UK, and we have a great global partnership with Soho House.

“So it isn’t nasty in any way.

“However,” she added, “Of course, business is business.”

George’s latest venture comes as he recently became a French citizen after buying an estate in nearby Brignoles.

And he reportedly wants his restaurant ready to open next year, according to the local mayor.

Jean-Pierre Véran told the newspaper Nice-Matin: “He wants to create a well-designed restaurant, with a terrace and the option to reserve the dining room for private events when he hosts celebrities.”

He continued: “We discussed their restaurant, and I told them I wasn’t opposed to this project, which can benefit everyone.”

However, both the actor and his wife are likely to stay far away from the kitchen – after joking that they are not the world’s greatest cooks.

“I’ll tell you what,” Clooney said three years ago.

“My wife, who is a brilliant lawyer, she’s one of the advocates of the world.

“She takes on Isis.

“But I better be doing the cooking or we will all die.”

Foreign ministers form security committee to share intelligence and follow up on impact of Jordan’s strikes on Syria.

Syria is reopening its border crossing with Jordan, and the two countries will investigate Jordanian strikes on suspected ISIL (ISIS) sites that killed seven in southern Syria.

Nassib, Jordan’s only border crossing with Syria, will reopen on Wednesday morning, with regular passenger and commercial traffic resuming, the state news agency SANA reported.

The crossing was briefly closed following the Jordanian airstrikes, which targeted ISIL “hideouts” in southern Syria on Monday in response to a Greek Orthodox church shooting by gunmen in Jordan’s Karak on Friday, the Jordanian military said in a statement. ISIL took responsibility for the attack.

Jordan’s strikes on Syria killed at least seven people in Deraa and Suwayda, including five members of the same family, three of whom were children. Syria’s Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management said its teams had responded to attacks at four sites.

The two countries also agreed to form a security committee to examine the aftermath of the strikes, foreign ministers said in a statement following a phone call between the two countries’ top diplomats.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Monday’s air attacks were based on field intelligence and aimed at “neutralising confirmed threats and imminent terrorist operations targeting Jordan’s security”.

Safadi expressed “deep regret” over civilian deaths in his call with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and stressed Jordan’s respect for Syria’s sovereignty and stability.

Jordan had claimed that the strikes were coordinated with the Syrian government, which Damascus denied.

In addition to investigating the attacks, the security committee will develop “field and intelligence coordination in dealing with terrorist threats” to ensure the protection of innocent civilians.

The church shooting claimed the lives of at least nine people and wounded 34 others. Jordanian security forces arrested two brothers and their brother-in-law on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed that an image that has been circulating online for years does indeed show an experimental Chinese reusable spaceplane in orbit. A newly released higher-resolution copy of the image underscores that the design is nearly a dead ringer for the X-37B miniature space shuttles now operated by the U.S. Space Force.

DIA included the higher-resolution image of the Chinese spaceplane in a new unclassified report on global security challenges outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, which was released yesterday. A satellite belonging to Maxar Technologies (now Vantor) captured the image, but when exactly remains unclear. It does have a 2024 copyright date.

The image shows a miniature space shuttle-like design with small wings and twin vertical tails. It also has upward-opening doors above a central payload bay. There is also an extension at the tail end with solar panels seen deployed on either side. There are what look to be side-by-side ventral bays, which are likely for the main gear in a tricycle landing gear configuration. Overall, the core design is extremely similar to that of the U.S. X-37B, which also features tricycle landing gear and can also be fitted with an extended payload module at the tail. One major difference is that the wings on the Chinese design have a much longer chord compared to the X-37B.

“A key capability for reusable space activities are spaceplanes like this PRC [People’s Republic of China] Spaceplane captured by Maxar. Spaceplanes can launch into orbit to place objects in space or even test them and return to earth [sic],” reads the caption to the picture in DIA’s report.

As noted, the basic fact of the existence of this image is not new. U.S. Space Force Col. John Patrick, then head of U.S. Space Forces-Korea (SPACEFOR-KOR), included a much lower-resolution version in a presentation at the Open Space Forum in South Korea in 2024. It was also not immediately clear at that time whether or not the picture simply showed an X-37B. TWZ had reached out at the time to the U.S. Space Force and Maxar for more information, and both had declined to comment. Two X-37Bs were built, and they have been sent on eight orbital missions, in total, since 2010. The Orbital Test Vehicle 8 (OTV-8) mission was launched on August 22, 2025.

China is understood to have conducted four separate orbital spaceplane missions using the same experimental vehicle since 2020. Three of those missions had concluded before Col. Patrick gave his presentation. The most recent launch occurred on February 7 of this year, and the vehicle has not yet returned, at least as far as we are aware.

On the third mission, which lasted from December 14, 2023, to September 6, 2024, the Chinese spaceplane was observed releasing multiple smaller objects into orbit. What those payloads may have been remains unknown, but they could have been released from the main payload bay, which is seen open in the on-orbit image. The bay could have opened without any subsequent release of objects on either of the two prior missions, as well.

As an aside, the spaceplane appears to have released at least one more object earlier this year in the course of its latest mission.

A secretive airbase in the northwest end of China, sporting one of the longest runways in the world at 16,400 feet, looks to be where the spaceplane has landed after missions. The facility, which has been expanded massively in recent years, is now loosely akin to America’s top-secret proving ground at Area 51, and has been the site of other advanced aviation test efforts.

DIA’s report also says that “China has two primary spaceplane models: the Shenlong and Tengyun,” but does not specify which one is seen in the image. The name Shenlong has been commonly used to refer to the spaceplane China has been experimenting with to date. Images said to show a prototype or test article of this design slung underneath an H-6 bomber for testing purposes had emerged in 2007.

The state-run China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) unveiled the Tengyun design in 2016 as part of a so-called two-stage-to-orbit system that uses a mothership aircraft flying within the atmosphere as part of the launch method rather than a traditional space launch rocket. As of 2020, CASIC was aiming for a live test of Tengyun in 2025, but it is not immediately clear whether or not that occurred.

There have been other spaceplane developments in China in recent years. This includes designs from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) subsidiary Chengdu. The design from Chengdu is called Haolong and has been in development officially as an option for resupplying the country’s Tiangong space station.

In general, “spaceplanes are … reusable and feature enhanced maneuverability, making them more suitable for certain missions than traditional satellites,” DIA’s report notes.

TWZ has highlighted in the past how reusable space shuttle-like vehicles offer ideal platforms for rapidly deploying small satellites and any other payloads into orbit. In this way, they can be critical assets for space-based experimentation, as well as operational activities. This could include intelligence gathering, and even on-orbit attacks, areas of clear interest to the Chinese government.

As we often mention in the context of the X-37B, spaceplanes also have distinct advantages when it comes to rendezvousing with and maneuvering very close to other objects in space. They can execute course changes and other maneuvers in ways that traditional satellites cannot. All of this only underscores their potential as weapon systems, as well as for gathering intelligence. The fact that a Maxar (now Vantor) satellite took an on-orbit picture – a service the company is known to offer – of a Chinese spaceplane further highlights the kind of cat-and-mouse games that are increasingly emerging in space. The general risks posed by these kinds of activities were recently thrust into the public eye by the unprecedentedly close shadowing of a commercial radar imaging satellite tied to Ukraine by another satellite belonging to Russia.

China has been making massive investments, in general, in new space-based intelligence and other capabilities in recent years. Chinese space developments have now also extended into reusable space launch rocket boosters. Space launch company LandSpace became the first in China to achieve a successful recovery of a reusable space launch rocket booster on land in August. That followed CASC’s successful recovery of a reusable space launch rocket booster at sea using a specially configured ship the month before.

ZhuQue-3 first landing

In general, “access to space traditionally requires expendable spacecraft: single-use launch vehicles, satellites, and one-time use capsules designed to maximize performance. Reliance on expendable vehicles has made access to space expensive and exclusive,” DIA’s report explains. “Reusable technologies, while even more difficult and expensive to develop and build, stand to greatly reduce the cost of spaceflight by recovering, refurbishing, and reusing rocket stages, fairings, and capsules.”

Chinese spaceplanes, one of which we have not definitively gotten a view of in orbit, look set to become an increasingly important part of this growing ecosystem.

Update: 6:32 PM ET –

Vantor has now provided an additional copy of the image of the Chinese spaceplane, elements of which look to be redacted, and some additional details. The company has confirmed it was taken on May 28, 2024, by the WorldView-3 satellite at a range of just under 56 miles (90 kilometers).

“There is a separate satellite docked to the aft section of the vehicle whose structure and solar arrays are visible,” Vantor also told us. “The spacecraft’s payload bay doors are visibly open.”

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

KIM Kardashian has baffled fans with a mysterious indentation on her back in new photos from her trip to Rome.

The Skims mogul, who just turned 46 this month, debuted what followers called a “backgina” in a polka-dot strapless dress worn at her All’s Fair photoshoot in Italy on October 26.

In her Instagram carousel on Monday, Kim showed off her daring cut-out gown by designer Galia Lahav and styled by Zendaya’s BFF Law Roach.

In one shot where Kim faced away from the camera, fans spotted a strange, deep dent in her back.

One follower cheekily called the mark a “backgina,” seemingly in response to her infamous “pitgina” in 2025.

“What am I looking at?!” one Reddit follower marveled.

“I’m so confused,” another chimed in.

But Kim’s friends, family and Instagram followers largely loved her unusual look.

“The queen diva has arrived!” Kim’s sister Khloe marveled.

“Really love this,” gushed friend Lala Anthony.

Last summer, Kim shocked fans with what they called a “pitgina” in a very tiny bandeau top.

As she waved to onlookers in Venice, a deep indentation in her armpit could be seen.

“Why does it look like a belly button?” one follower asked on a Reddit thread.

“What is that? I’m terrified!” said a second.

New York-based plastic surgeon Dr. Norman M. Rowe, M.D. told The U.S. Sun that the dent could be an “axillary hollowing.”

“An axillary hollowing is essentially a divot or indentation in the armpit area that can result from certain cosmetic procedures,” Dr. Rowe said.

“The most common causes include liposuction to the upper arm or armpit, an arm lift or brachioplasty, or breast augmentation when the implant is placed through the transaxillary route—that is, through an incision in the armpit.

“In these procedures, tissue is removed or repositioned in a way that can leave behind visible contour changes, especially in someone lean like Kim Kardashian.”

Kim has not commented on the “pitgina” or “backgina” talk, or accusations she underwent liposuction procedures.

Khalil returned to Columbia University to discuss memoir detailing his arrest and detention by ICE agents.

Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil says campus advocacy has shifted public perception and encouraged a generation of leaders to question their views on Israel, speaking as he returned to Columbia University for the first time since his arrest.

The 31-year-old Columbia graduate, who became a figurehead of the campus movement that swept the United States in 2024, returned to campus on Tuesday to discuss his new memoir, No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention, marking his first visit since his arrest on March 8, 2025.

“The American public is finally changing, is finally looking at the Palestinian as an equal human,” he told the AFP news agency in an interview.

While Khalil described the event, attended by about 100 people, as a “victory”, he accused university leadership of seeking “to erase me, to erase any Palestinian voices on campus”.

Some Jewish groups on social media opposed his return to campus. In response, a Columbia spokesperson said the university is “committed to rigorous debate, inquiry, and respectful dialogue across differing perspectives”.

“Columbia supports the right of faculty members to organize academic events,” the statement carried by US media read. “An invitation to speak does not signify university endorsement of a speaker’s views.”

Khalil helped lead student demonstrations at Columbia in 2024, which became the epicentre of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. He was later arrested by immigration authorities at the height of a federal crackdown on foreign student activists and held for three months without criminal charge, despite holding permanent US residency.

He has repeatedly slammed the university for its handling of the demonstrations, which included authorising the New York Police Department to clear protesters from the Manhattan campus.

“They chose brutality. They chose repression,” Khalil told AFP.

Columbia maintained at the time that the demonstrations presented a safety threat. Khalil also accused the university of failing to protect him from harassment prior to his detention.

Despite the personal toll, Khalil credited Palestinian student advocacy with driving broader political shifts in the United States, pointing to gains by progressive candidates.

“Also, we can see on the ground that we have more progressive candidates being elected into US Congress and positions of power,” he said, citing candidates like Dr Abdul El-Sayed, running for the US Senate in Michigan, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Khalil was released from immigration custody on June 20, 2025, though the Trump administration continues to seek his deportation.

“A big part of my fight is like fighting for normalcy,” he said. “To go back to being the young father who would go to the park with his son and wife, and no one would bother them.”

Despite the ongoing legal battle, he expressed resolve over his public role.

“My fight is not only about whether I get to stay in this country,” Khalil said. “It is about whether, you know, people in this country can speak their minds.”

FOR eight years, Sara Cox was forever the bridesmaid, never the bride.

At long last, then, on a bright, sunny Monday morning in July, the broadcaster got her big day, becoming the long-overdue host of Radio 2’s Breakfast Show.

The first two tracks played?

Lizzo’s About Damn Time and CeCe Peniston’s Finally.

Which tells you all you need to know about this brilliantly witty DJ: She says it as she sees it, and has fun along the way.

“Was it deliberate?”, she says, smiling. “Of course — I was being cheeky.

“On the day itself though, I actually felt fine, not that nervous. It was a job I’ve wanted for so long that it just felt like . . . finally.

“And when I thought about About Damn Time, it did make me smile.

“I thought, ‘Start as you mean to go on’. I just wanted to be me, which essentially is a little bit cheeky.

“Luckily, the reaction’s been great. We have the best listeners in the world and I have the best job in the world. I’ve got an incredible team, a brilliant bunch of people like me who are massive radio geeks, and I love it.”

While some may have crumpled under the pressure of hosting the ­biggest gig on the airwaves, the unflappable former model has taken it all in her leggy stride.

An instant hit with listeners — she was also a long-time favourite with devotees of her former gig, the Drivetime show — Sara has introduced new games and inter­active formats to keep things fresh.

Lucky listeners can win a pair of branded “Sara Sox” socks (clean) should they triumph in games such as Let’s Hear It For The Noise, a fiendishly difficult memory challenge.

(Behind the scenes, she is incredibly hands-on, WhatsApping her team with ideas around the clock, I’m told.)

Having been relentlessly badgering Sara’s team for an interview, today, then, is my Big Day. Finally.

Invited to spend a morning in the life of the Bolton-born 51-year-old, things kick off, rather unpleasantly, with a 4.50am alarm call.

Entering the BBC’s flagship London building in the dark, I am tired and grumpy. Sara is not.

In the studio, she dances to tracks, chats to her listeners before and after they call (apparently, many DJs don’t bother with such niceties), and cheerfully munches on an avocado wrap she brought in from home.

The super-fit mum of three — who last year smashed a gruelling 135- mile run across five consecutive days, raising £11.7million for Children In Need — also stands up for the entirety of her three-hour show.

I am exhausted just watching her.

I used to sit down doing the radio but not any more,” she says.

“I like to move around. But it’s also for the leg region. the late (TV health expert) Michael Mosley did a podcast on inflammation — if you sit down for too long, your cells start making the inflammation. So, sadly, it’s not for a rock ’n’ roll reason.”

On the subject of rock ’n’ roll, to a legion of geriatric millennials like me, and Gen Xers, Sara came to the fore as a “ladette”.

Former Breakfast show host Zoe Ball, Sara — back then on Radio 1 — Denise van Outen, Meg Mathews, Sadie Frost, et al, were entrenched in pop culture of the Nineties.

With a motto of “work hard, play hard”, Sara and her pals were endlessly papped hanging out at celebrity hotspots such as London’s Met Bar.

Yet those days are long gone — so much so, the charismatic star is now teetotal. Plus, constant cameras — filmed clips of the show are put out on the station’s official Instagram page — mean it would be nigh-on impossible to hide a hangover.

She says with a laugh: “I mean, you saw the Radio 1 pap shots of me leaving the building — I literally look like I’d slept in a skip. It was great.

“But yeah, it’s all visualised now, and I get it, we are evolving. I can get away with putting my make-up on during a record. A bit of mazzie (mascara) and I’m good to go.

“Today, though, I don’t drink. I’ve not drank since February after my last pina colada in half-term.

“I do feel better for it. To be fair, I was drinking so little, maybe one unit a week, that when I did drink, it was making me feel dizzy and weird.

“Plus, my husband Ben hasn’t drunk for four or five years so that makes it easier/wears you down.

“I mean, you feel a complete lush having half a glass of malbec of an evening otherwise.”

She has been married to marketing executive Ben Cyzer, who she met at Glastonbury Festival, since 2013. They are blissfully happy. Presumably, though, Ben was less thrilled with his wife’s career reawakening and the unsociable hours?

Sharing her new routine, she says: “I am in bed by 9pm. When I started the job, I was setting my alarm at five, but then I was really rushing about and I thought, ‘No, Sara, make it a tiny bit earlier’. So, at 4.50am off goes the first one.

“Then Alexa is on stand-by at 4.55, and if things have gone really wrong, 5.05am and 5.06am are also set on my phone.

“And my husband, bless him, checks the doorbell sometimes to make sure I’ve actually gone.

“I am a light sleeper, so a lot of the time I take myself off to the spare room, because I’m getting up so early and need to sleep well.

“And also because he doesn’t want to go to bed at 9.15pm, because he’s an adult male. He’s a normal person.

“Then Friday and Saturday, it feels like quite a treat and it’s quite nice to be back together.”

After feeding the couple’s three cats, Watson, Peggy and Miso, she takes a home-made breakfast to eat in the studio and glugs a coffee in the car on the way in. (“I eat very quickly, like a seabird”).

Her first-day guest was Hollywood’s Tom Hanks — and on the day I visit, Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan joins her.

So who would her dream guests be? “Daniel Craig — we’ve just had M, Dame Judi Dench, so we should have Bond too. Tom Cruise would be wild — we’ve had The Hanks, and I’d love to work towards completing the Hollywood set.”

“Also on the list is Beyonce — “I interviewed her when I was pregnant with my son and he’s 18 now, so we’re well overdue a catch-up.” And Madonna — “I interviewed her at Radio 1 and offered her my spare room ’cos she was house-hunt­ing in the UK . . . The offer’s still on.”

Sara got the Breakfast Show gig at a challenging time for the BBC.

Previous host Scott Mills was fired over a historical allegation of a sexual offence.

It has since emerged the axed DJ has enlisted lawyers and is planning to sue the corporation.

Not surprisingly, questions about him are off the table. And 72 hours after my visit, a story comes out in the Press, with insiders claiming to have felt “uncomfortable” due to her habit of calling mistakes out on air.

Well, having chatted to four of her team, including her producer, and seen Sara mucking about with colleagues, I can testify it appears to be a very happy ship indeed.

A perfectionist she may be, but a tyrant she ain’t.

And listener figures for the show in the last few years have stayed solid at around 6.37million weekly.

Elsewhere, though, it is a challenging time generally for legacy media, as audiences consume their content largely online, on streaming services and platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

So does Sara, who has written four Sunday Times best- selling novels, think radio will still be around in a decade? Yes.

“I think it’ll always be there be­cause people will always want that connection and that friendship that they have with their DJ,” she says.

“There’s a lot of people who listen who won’t speak to anybody else for the rest of the day, so it’s important.

“But at the same time, we’ve just got to keep being innovative. And for younger audiences as well, we film everything. We’ve got a brilliant young socials team who are constantly coming up with great ideas for TikTok and Instagram.

“I really enjoy it, I love being silly and having fun. You can’t take yourself too seriously, can you?

“I do feel lucky. I really do have ‘pinch me’ moments in this job. I love it, and I really hope it shows.”

It does, Sara, it does.

Global stock markets have climbed as investors continue to bet on bright prospects for the tech giants driving the AI boom.

In the United States, all three major stock indexes rose on Tuesday, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which gained 1.18 percent.

The benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent, while the narrower Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.03 percent.

Five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks rose, led by Tesla, up 4.04 percent.

Amazon gained 1.61 percent, while Apple and Alphabet gained 0.93 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, rose almost 1 percent after announcing a $3bn investment in Meta’s equity offering.

Meta fell 1.64 percent, while Microsoft fell 0.24 percent.

Other big movers in tech included Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Intel, which gained 5.45 percent, 4 percent and 3.61 percent, respectively.

Asia Pacific markets rally

Gains continued in the Asia Pacific on Wednesday, with stock markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia climbing.

The KOSPI in Seoul led the gains, with the benchmark index up 5.84 percent as of 03:00 GMT.

The surge came as South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the world’s top three memory chip makers, announced blockbuster third-quarter results on Wednesday, with operating profit soaring about 630 percent year-on-year to 83.33 trillion won ($62.8bn).

SK Hynix shares listed in South Korea surged more than 8 percent following the results.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 1.26 percent, while the TAIEX in Taipei was up 1.32 percent.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was up 0.11 percent.

Investors are keenly anticipating upcoming earnings reports from major tech players as they try to gauge whether their massive investments in AI will pay dividends.

Microsoft and Alphabet report their latest results on Wednesday, followed by Amazon on Thursday and Apple on Monday.

On Monday, AI giant Anthropic filed paperwork for its hotly anticipated IPO, reporting a net loss of $80.7bn in the first half of 2026 on $16.3bn in revenue.

Tech firms have poured hundreds of billions of dollars each into AI infrastructure, fuelling debate over whether a speculative market bubble could be forming similar to the one that preceded the 2000 dot-com crash.

Global AI investment is forecast to hit $2.7 trillion in 2026 and $3.6 trillion in 2027, according to Gartner, a technology insights company.

Oil prices, which have been elevated since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, rose about 1 percent as Asian markets opened on Wednesday amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, including hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

Futures for Brent crude, the global benchmark, stood at about $115 a barrel, up 59 percent from before the war began.

The tune of “Famous Last Words” reverberates throughout the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, a high-ceiling Gothic structure in Koreatown, on a rainy October morning.

The anthemic, life-affirming final track from My Chemical Romance’s 2006 album “The Black Parade” has taken on a new sound here. It’s being played on the church’s organ. Mallory Haney, the musician at the keys, also plays “Disenchanted “ and “Mama,” other songs from the same album celebrating its 20th anniversary, throughout the morning.

What connects this place of worship to a band known for its macabre aesthetic, however, is its music video for the song “Helena” from the album “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.”

Filmed here in 2005, the video sees frontman Gerard Way belt the sorrowful lyrics at the front of church with his bandmates and a group of dancers around him. Behind them is a black casket with the body of the eponymous Helena.

My Chemical Romance fans including Charlotte Calvert of Pensacola, Fla., top, attend Ghouls’ Day Out.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

She eventually rises from the dead and dances her way through the congregation.

Now in 2026, several men wearing all black with red ties, like Way does in the music video directed by Marc Webb, trickle in as soon as the doors open. Later, a young woman in a black dress, mimicking what Helena wears on screen, makes an entrance and heads straight to the front to take photos with the casket and flower arrangements that re-create the scene.

“Helena: An Immersive Tribute,” as this experience is dubbed, also features multiple photo ops around the church’s premises that reference the band’s emblematic art (including a statue of Pepe, the marching skeleton on the cover of “The Black Parade” album).

Behind this fan-focused event are Sam Gomez and Kimmy Perez, a Mexican American married couple who make a living putting on pop culture-inspired events, and, in the case of Perez, selling her art under the brand SpooksieBoo at conventions around the country.

My Chemical Romance fans including Benji Godinez, left, and Jennifer Campos, both of Los Angeles, attend Ghouls’ Day Out at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The festivities at the church will conclude Saturday with a larger event called Ghouls’ Day Out, featuring the same displays inside the space, plus food vendors, an artist market and a My Chemical Romance cover band, Sweet Revenge, out back for attendees to enjoy.

“We’re doing everything we can to give fans the best My Chem experience short of seeing the actual band,” Gomez says during a recent video call.

“I’ve heard some call it MCR Con, which that’s literally what it is!” Perez adds laughing:

Gomez and Perez held the first Ghouls’ Day Out in May 2021, making it an annual staple for My Chemical Romance fans. On top of the May event, this year they decided to bring it back in October to coincide with the band’s series of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

Their relationship with Immanuel Presbyterian Church started when its operations manager, Niambi Rendon, attended one of the pop-up events they organize throughout Southern California.

My Chemical Romance fan Cecilia Calvert of Alamogordo, N.M., is overcome with emotion while attending Ghouls’ Day Out.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Struggling financially, the church sought new partnerships to raise funds. In fact, part of the proceeds from the “Helena” tribute and Ghouls’ Day Out goes to help the church’s food pantry.

But though it wants to take advantage of the My Chemical Romance connection, the church has one key rule: Nothing on display can cross the threshold from “spooky” to “satanic.”

A little blood is fine, Gomez says, but nothing too gruesome. “The most important thing is nothing that’s going to either make fun of or cast a shadow on the clergy. We’ve had many cosplayers that want to come as an evil priest or evil nun. We can’t have that,” Gomez says.

Now in its seventh edition (since 2026 had twice the festivities), the event’s popularity has grown, bringing fans from across the country and even international visitors.

MCR fans including Jenelle Smith, left, and Joanna Glezakos, both of Toronto, attend Ghouls’ Day Out.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Megan Rose, 33, traveled from rural Virginia to Los Angeles with her partner to attend one of the shows. Looking for other My Chemical Romance-related activities to do while in the city, she learned about the “Helena” tribute on social media.

“The architecture is beautiful and I’ve been having as much fun looking at the church as I have the fandom set up and I think they’ve done a very good job with all the props,” she says.

Mayela González, 41, came all the way from Monterrey, Mexico. A fan of the band since her teenage years, she was in disbelief stepping into a location she’d seen countless times on screen. “I hope the band keeps going, and they don’t stop after this tour,” says González. “I hope they release a new album and keep on performing live.”

“The event has just grown over the years as we allow fans to tell us what they want it to be,” Gomez says. “And over the years, the feedback has been, ‘More MCR theming.’” Gomez and Perez take that commitment to fan satisfaction seriously.

Tracy Phillips who portrays the titular “Helena” poses with a young MCR fan at Ghouls’ Day Out.

(Jonathan Garcia)

“We found the company, which is still in L.A., that made the ‘Helena’ casket that’s in a music video and they said, ‘We can make you an exact replica,’” adds Gomez.

More importan, they also have the real Helena on site. Tracy Phillips, the actor and dancer who played the title role in the music video, takes photos with fans. She made her first Ghouls’ Day appearance in 2025.

“Outside of the church I’m no one, and then I walk into the church in this makeup and dress and people are crying,” says Phillips with a smile. “It’s kind of a bizarre juxtaposition of people knowing me and people not knowing me at all.”

The church is the site where My Chemical Romance filmed its music video for its 2005 hit song, “Helena.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Post-Helena, Phillips worked with the band once more as an assistant choreographer on the “Teenagers” music video. That was nearly 20 years ago. Earlier this month it hired her again after all this time so she could choreograph 20 dancers in three numbers for the Long Live the Black Parade shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

“I was fortunate to get to work with them again,” Phillips says. “They’re all such kind people. Gerard is so kind and brilliant and it was really fun to get to circle back around. It felt like this full-circle moment in a different capacity.”

In the past, the band had posted about Ghouls’ Day Out on its official Instagram account, which led Gomez and Perez to believe at least someone in its team was aware of their event.

My Chemical Romance fans including Savannah Monrreal of Inglewood attend Ghouls Day Out.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

This time around, the band sent them an official “The Black Parade” flag, following its first night at the Bowl, that they now have on display at the church as one of the photo-ops.

Ghouls’ Day Out has generated new opportunities for the church, which hopefully means Gomez and Perez will be welcomed back for years to come.

“Now that the church is known in the My Chemical Romance community, they’ve had people go to them saying, ‘I want to have my wedding there,’” adds Gomez with a joyful grin.

Imprisoned “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson on Tuesday suffered a legal blow that ensures he will remain behind bars for at least another decade.

Three California appeals court judges rejected Masterson’s efforts to overturn his 2023 rape convictions and allegations that he did not receive a fair trial, deciding in an opinion filed in the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeals that “judgment is affirmed.”

The decision “ignores the extraordinary new evidence that has been before them for more than a year,” Masterson attorney Cliff Gardner said, referencing statements from “both complaining witnesses that their sexual experiences” with the actor were “both consensual and positive.”

“Danny is serving a life sentence for crimes he did not commit,” Gardner added in his statement. “No one in California — not defendants and not victims who have actually been the victim of a sex crime — is safer by virtue of today’s unfortunate decision.”

Masterson’s legal team is seeking further review in California Supreme Court and exploring additional legal action regarding evidence presented to the jury.

Attorneys for Masterson first filed their notice to appeal the actor’s conviction in November 2023, then filed a 242-page opening brief in December 2024. Key witness testimonies changed over time, the court excluded significant exculpatory evidence and judicial rulings skewed the jury’s view of the evidence against Masterson, his lawyers alleged at the time. The attorneys also argued that “jurors had significant reservations.”

A mix of errors by another defense attorney and a law enforcement investigation heavily biased against Masterson’s faith led to a wrongful conviction, the actor’s attorney Eric Multhaup alleged in another motion filed November 2025. Multhaup said Tuesday in a statement that the appeals court judges’ recent decision “are fundamentally wrong.”

“The Court of Appeal did not address any of the exculpatory evidence that was contained in the habeas corpus petition, and instead justified the denial with a one-paragraph summary of the one-sided evidence presented by the prosecution,” Multhaup alleged. “This cursory treatment reflects poorly on the administration of justice in the Court of Appeal, and will be rectified by a petition to the California Supreme Court.”

Los Angeles prosecutors charged Masterson in 2020 for three counts of rape involving three different women in the early 2000s. He denied all wrongdoing and maintained all sexual encounters were consensual. He also framed the accusations as an attack of the Church of Scientology. The women said they took years to report the rapes to police out of fear of retaliation from the church.

Masterson first went to trial in 2022, but jurors failed to reach a verdict on any of the three counts, leading the case to end in a mistrial. He was tried a second time in 2023 and found guilty of raping two women, both former members of the Church of Scientology. The jury was deadlocked on a third woman’s accusations. His attorneys argued in December 2024 that there was “no physical evidence supporting the state’s theory [of rape]” and the case was a “a pure credibility contest.”

The actor is currently carrying out his sentence at the California Men’s Colony prison in San Luis Obispo. According to a state database, he will be eligible for parole in June 2042, but is scheduled for a consultation in May 2038.

Times staff writers Clara Harter and James Queally contributed to this report.

Despite narrower exit poll figures, opposition leaders insisted the result was a defeat for Netanyahu’s government.

Israeli political leaders have traded sharp reactions to exit poll projections showing no clear winner between the country’s main political blocs.

Updated figures broadcast by Israel’s Channel 13 showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition tied at 51 seats with the opposition bloc led by challenger Gadi Eisenkot in the 120-seat Knesset.

Despite narrower exit poll figures, opposition leaders insisted the result was a defeat for the government.

Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party and a former military chief of staff, told supporters after voting closed that the initial projections showed a “complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government”, according to the AFP news agency.

“Don’t let anyone confuse you: the Netanyahu bloc has suffered a crushing defeat,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a statement. “This is a total collapse and the public has told them to go home.”

Under the updated figures, unaligned Arab parties were expected to hold 18 seats, leaving both major camps 10 seats short of the 61 required for an absolute majority.

Supporters at Eisenkot’s watch party in Tel Aviv cheered projections as voter turnout reached 77.7 percent, according to the Central Elections Committee.

However, senior figures in Netanyahu’s camp pushed back against opposition declarations, saying the final results could shift the balance.

Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister and a key Netanyahu ally, dismissed opposition statements as “premature”, writing on social media that Likud remained the largest single party in parliament.

Meanwhile, leaders of Arab political factions highlighted their potential role in upcoming coalition negotiations.

“We will transform the mandate we received into a new reality in the country,” Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra’am), told reporters.

At the Joint List alliance headquarters in Nazareth, candidate Faten Gattas told supporters that high participation among Palestinian citizens of Israel aimed to block the return of Netanyahu’s nationalist coalition.

“We refuse the occupation and racism, and we will remain here,” Gattas said, according to the Reuters news agency.

With neither camp reaching a governing majority, political analysts suggested smaller parties would be key deciders as formal coalition talks begin in the coming days.

The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) tied up in Yokosuka, Japan, on Monday, a week after the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group departed from the same base to participate in exercise Keen Sword 27. Both are reportedly destined for the Middle East, two U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News, which would place three CSGs and two ARGs in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) sometime in November, unless a group leaves before their arrival. More than 10 guided-missile destroyers are also operating independently in the region, as the U.S. beefs up force posture ahead of the possibility of renewed hostilities against the Iranian regime.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the USS Ronald Reagan remotely controlled an MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone thousands of miles away for the first time, and the Navy announced that USS Abraham Lincoln, which just returned from a historic deployment, will conduct a homeport shift to Bremerton, Washington.

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed CSGs and ARGs, using publicly available open-source information. Check out our last report here.

Where Is The USS Theodore Roosevelt?

Surrounded by allied warships, the USS Theodore Roosevelt steamed through the Philippine Sea last week as large-scale combined exercise Keen Sword 27 got underway. Roosevelt and guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin departed Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, on October 19 following a three-day port call. Roosevelt deployed on September 27 and was the first non-resident American carrier to pull into the vital naval port in over four years.

Three American warships are participating in the exercise, a Navy official confirmed to TWZ. The third participant, Pearl Harbor-based guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur, another element of the five-ship strike group, also called port in Yokosuka and transited out of Tokyo Bay on October 26.

Australian, Canadian, and French warships joined the exercise alongside the U.S. and Japan in a large show of force. Keen Sword 27 runs through October 29, but it’s unclear if Roosevelt and her escorts will remain until the conclusion before heading toward the Middle East via the Strait of Malacca. More than 45,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel and 11,000 U.S. service members are participating.

F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35Cs launched from Roosevelt and other airbases in Japan to complete a simulated strike against a target in the East Sea/Sea of Japan, which also included land-based launchers, an exercise spokesperson told Stars and Stripes. Japanese destroyers JS Kongo and JS Maya assumed the red team role. The precise location and munitions employed were not disclosed.

The Theodore Roosevelt CSG, which a different Navy official confirmed also includes USS Paul Hamilton and USS Carl M. Levin, will arrive in the Middle East, Fox News reported last week. Both destroyers are disaggregated from the rest of the group. Hamilton, the last ship to deploy, left San Diego on October 10 and most recently pulled out of Pearl Harbor last week. Levin, the first ship to deploy, is already operating in the CENTCOM AOR, based on public images posted on the military’s content platform, DVIDS.

If the CSG and ARG, which also includes amphibious transport docks USS Anchorage and USS John P. Murtha, arrive in the Middle East before the other two carriers on station, USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, and big-deck amphibious assault ship, USS Boxer, depart, that would add roughly 10,000 sailors and Marines to CENTCOM’s arsenal, the most significant force posture in the region since the war began. However, the overlap can only be maintained for a limited time given normal rotation schedules.

Acting Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), Hung Cao, said during a panel at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention that “the Teddy Roosevelt carrier strike group just deployed on October 8 with a medium sized unmanned surface vessel (MUSV). This is the first carrier strike group to ever deploy with a large size unmanned surface vessel.” However, despite multiple requests to comment, the Navy has not confirmed to TWZ that MUSV Seahawk (2) is assigned to the strike group. Seahawk was 10 nautical miles north of Guam, publicly available Automatic Identification System (AIS) data on MarineTraffic showed, as of publication.

The USS Ronald Reagan Controlled A Tanker Drone Thousands Of Miles Away

Providing a glimpse of the future, the USS Ronald Reagan used her brand-new Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) to operate a MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone at a Boeing facility in Illinois. “In a historic U.S. naval aviation event, an aircraft carrier connected to, and controlled, an unmanned aerial refueler MQ-25A Stingray more than 2,100 miles away,” the Navy said in a press release.

The UAWC, installed during Reagan’s recently completed 15-month maintenance available, used its MD-5C ground control station to link beyond line-of-sight with the drone while the flattop was underway in the eastern Pacific Ocean. “The MQ-25A Stingray’s carrier-based refueling capabilities enable F/A-18 Super Hornets to fly farther and longer,” the Acting SECNAV said. “The integration of this unmanned aerial refueler demonstrates the transformational change our manned and unmanned asset integration provides the Fleet.”

The test took place during a preliminary sea trial, part of a “series of build-up exercises designed to validate procedures, networks and interfaces,” reads the release. Capt. Daniel Fucito, program manager of the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Office’s (PMA-268), said, “We have redefined naval power projection. This first-ever underway connection between a carrier-based UAWC and an MQ-25A aircraft proves that the Carrier Air Wing of tomorrow is a reality today.”

Reagan is the second Nimitz class carrier equipped with the UAWC. The MQ-25A will eventually take the role held by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets that are tasked with fueling carrier-based aircraft, freeing up aircraft to take on higher-end combat roles.

Reagan moored at Kilo Pier at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on October 27 after finishing Fleet Replacement Squadron and Carrier Qualifications.

What’s Next For The USS Abraham Lincoln?

The USS Abraham Lincoln recently returned from a record-setting deployment. The carrier arrived back home on October 8 after being at sea for 321 days, less than a week short of the longest carrier deployment in the post-Vietnam era.

The Navy has confirmed what TWZ was the first to report: the Lincoln will complete a homeport shift to Bremerton, Washington, to undergo an overhaul following a grueling deployment that left the carrier looking worse for wear. The release did not disclose the length of the availability, but Reagan was out of commission for more than a year, and was not previously involved in combat operations.

“The carrier repeatedly demonstrated unmatched multi-theater combat lethality and safeguarded critical sea lanes across the Indo-Pacific and Middle Eastern theaters. Home port shifts are part of the Navy’s continued commitment to the strategic dispersal of ships,” a statement released from Commander, Naval Air Forces reads.

The move is a permanent change of station for the crew and their families.

Where Is The Rest Of The Fleet?

• The two carriers enforcing the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and coastal cities, USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, have both been dark on AIS since arriving in the Middle East. The former is 210 days into her deployment and recently arrived back in CENTCOM after a five-day port call in Phuket, Thailand. The latter, forward-deployed out of Yokosuka, Japan, was spotted on DVIDS conducting flight operations on October 24.
• USS Nimitz, homeported in Norfolk, welcomed the public with tours during Naval Station Norfolk’s Fleet Fest over the weekend, and got underway again for training on October 27. The 51-year old carrier is scheduled to be deactivated in Spring 2027. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, also based at NS Norfolk, left port for work ups on October 24.
• Also on the east coast, USS John C. Stennis has been undergoing maintenance since 2021. The RCOH was expected to be completed and the carrier redelivered in October 2026, according to budget documents, but it’s unclear if that timeline will hold. However, USS Harry S. Truman recently moved to begin an RCOH, suggesting Stennis is nearing completion.
• On the other side of the country, USS Carl Vinson is in port in San Diego. Vinson returned on September 4 after a 25-day underway for a Final Evaluation Period and Tailored Ship’s Training Availability.
• The future USS John F. Kennedy was operating in the Atlantic Ocean launching a T-45C Goshawk training aircraft and EA-18G Growler, both attached to the “Salty Dogs” of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, on October 25.

The Big Deck Fleet At A Glance

Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed, three are working up in various states of readiness, three are in maintenance availabilities, one is post-deployment, one is being used primarily for training before deactivation, and another will be delivered in 2027. Two amphibious ready groups are deployed, one is forward-deployed, three are working up or in port, and three are in maintenance.

Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.

Contact the author: ian@twz.com or @ianellisjones

The L.A. City Council took modest steps Tuesday to help the homegrown film industry as it struggles to keep production in California.

The City Council passed two film-friendly measures, one that creates free permits for so-called micro-shoot productions and another that limits parking fees on city-owned lots, yards and civic properties and staging areas to $1 a day, regardless of the size of the project.

The city currently charges $450 a day for base camp parking at city-owned parks and $100 to $300 a day for crew parking, according to FilmLA.

“Both efforts advanced today aim to support independent shoots and attract aspiring storytellers to our city,” Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who introduced the initiatives, said in a statement. “As we work to protect established productions, we must also uphold Los Angeles’ reputation as a hub for the next generation of filmmakers. People need to believe that this is still the town to turn their filmmaking dreams into reality.”

Micro-shoot permits refer to sets with up to 10 filmmakers on site that have a minimal community impact. Under this new ordinance, student filmmakers, documentary crews and ultra-low-budget projects will be able to obtain free permits. City departments soon will report back to the Council on how they plan to implement this.

The idea behind the $1 permits is to turn more areas of L.A. into homes for all kinds of productions.

Nazarian is chairman of the Council’s recently formed Ad Hoc Committee on Film, Entertainment and the Creative Industry, aimed at making filming in L.A. more accessible.

The steps come as film and TV production in the area continues on a downward trend. FilmLA, the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the region, recently reported that shoot days between July and September were down 4.8% from the same period last year and nearly 29% below the five-year average.

“The stark reality is that California is on the brink of losing its position as the nation’s premier destination for production spending,” Nazarian said during a City Council meeting this month. “While we retain the Hollywood name, the data makes it urgently clear, crisis-level clear, that Los Angeles is fast losing its footing as the center of film and television production.”

Record-breaking voter turnout in Palestinian-Israeli communities around 80 percent, early indications show.

Israel’s Arab parties are projected to win 18 seats in the Israeli parliament, exit polls indicate, after voting among Palestinian citizens of Israel surged to their highest levels in decades.

Exit polling data from Tuesday’s vote suggested that the leading Arab-led parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, are set to hold a record number of seats in the 120-member Knesset. Updated exit polling indicated that the opposition bloc led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party and the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party were tied at 51 seats each.

Early indications put voter turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel at around 80 percent, historic numbers that break 1999 records, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

The leader of Ra’am, or the United Arab List, Mansour Abbas, said he hopes the final election results will allow the anti-Netanyahu bloc, including his party, to win the 61 seats required to form a government.

“With the numbers we have now, there is no government,” Abbas told Israel’s Channel 12.

Abbas, whose Ra’am party currently holds five seats in the Knesset and joined the coalition that governed Israel from 2021 to 2022, added that both main blocs reached out to his party before and after the election.

‘Arabs can’t be kept outside’

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, said creating a government might prove difficult for parties such as Eisenkot’s – which earlier exit polls had put narrowly ahead – because they promised not to form coalitions with Arab parties during the campaign.

“There’s a price to pay,” Pinkas said, because the “Arabs can’t be kept outside and only being considered and co-opted when you need their votes”.

He added that the Arab-led lists will make demands that a Jewish-led coalition government may not support.

Netanyahu and his far-right coalition made last-ditch efforts on Tuesday to get their supporters to the polls, warning of surging voter turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel, a tactic Arab politicians denounced as racist and inflammatory.

Cars flying Netanyahu’s Likud party flags drove through Jerusalem blaring the Islamic call to prayer and urging supporters to cast their ballots because “Arabs are voting”, witnesses said.

In social media posts, the embattled prime minister highlighted long queues at polling stations in Arab communities and published an image that he said showed Arab voters, including women wearing the niqab, a veil that covers the lower half of the face, waiting to vote.

“If we don’t wake up now, we’ll find ourselves with a government of Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi,” he said, referring to two leading Palestinian members of the Knesset.

Overall voter turnout was also historic, reaching its highest level since 1999 with 77.7 percent casting ballots in Tuesday’s election, the Central Elections Committee reported. Palestinian citizens of Israel make up about 21 percent of the country’s population of 10 million and have traditionally voted at lower rates than Jewish Israelis.

‘Existential moment’

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, called the election “an existential moment for Palestinian-Israelis”.

She noted the record turnout among what has emerged as a key voting bloc, which drew “even [voters] who would usually boycott elections, who didn’t believe it would amount to any kind of influence, that it would change their reality, that it would alter the systemic discrimination that they face”.

The Knesset has passed more than 100 laws discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who also face discrimination in receiving state funds, Odeh said.

Given their league positions, form and pedigree there could only have been one winner predicted.

Fleetwood played Arsenal on Tuesday with 83 places separating the teams and most home fans arriving in hope rather than any expectation. But remarkably, it was the hosts who booked their place in the Carabao Cup quarter-final thanks to their penalty shootout win over the Gunners.

For the Cod Army, who won six promotions in 12 years in their impressive journey from non-league, this result will surely be remembered longest of all. Against the reigning Premier League champions, the club from a small seaside town in Lancashire created history in claiming one of the biggest cup upsets ever.

Aaron Loupalo-Bi gave the hosts the lead after 21 minutes but, after the break, Viktor Gyokeres pulled the visitors level.

And from there, they might have been expected to take charge but Fleetwood remained resolute, prospering from a wasteful performance from Arsenal that included Max Dowman being sent off for kicking out after a robust challenge from Harrison Neal.

Fleetwood, who sit 18th in League Two having won just once in their past eight league games, dared to dream and took the game to penalties, with fans spilling on to the pitch in the after Conor Haughey’s decisive spot kick.

“The biggest night in the club’s history in terms of opposition coming to town and we’ve managed to beat the champions,” boss Matt Lawlor told Sky Sports in the aftermath of his side’s stunning victory.

“I’m a big football fan and I watch National League all the way through to the Premier League, Championship. So for me it was a tough game to prepare for, but I’m just so glad that the lads have the feeling the way they are and took that performance in to make that town, the club, everyone proud.”

TWO major stars have been ruled out as the mystery fourth actor currently vying to be the next James Bond.

The coveted role has been up for grabs following the release of 007 blockbuster No Time To Die in 2021, Craig’s fifth and final outing as the Martini-swilling secret agent.

Final screen tests were held with four remaining hopefuls at London’s Bray Studios over the weekend, but an official announcement is yet to be made by new franchise owners Amazon MGM Studios.

It’s understood that three of those actors – understood to be Jack Lowden, Callum Turner and Josh O’Connor – were joined by a fourth, currently unnamed star, as decisive auditions got underway.

But two British actors, both previously linked with the role, have been ruled out as the final candidate – widely thought to be Jack Barton.

“We’ve heard, reliably so, that Harris Dickinson and Nicholas Hoult are not the 4th person. Testing is said to be occurring today and going into the weekend,” read an article shared by The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.

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Dickinson, 30, is currently in the midst of back-to-back shooting schedules for director Sam Mendes’ ambitious four-film Beatles project, in which he will play John Lennon.

Meanwhile, Hoult, 36, has four major films in post-production – among them the eagerly anticipated DC adventure Man Of Tomorrow, which sees him reprise his role as Superman nemesis Lex Luthor.

Australian star Jacob Elordi is also out the running, while the much-fancied Idris Elba, Theo James and James Norton are believed to be out of contention.

Instead, Amazon MGM Studios are said to be keen on the lesser known Barton, 31, whose past screen credits include the popular Netflix drama Heartstopper.

Other than a handful of other minor TV roles, little else is known about the young actor, but he reportedly impressed producers enough to earn critical screen tests alongside his three Bond rivals.

Despite Barton’s emergence, fans remain convinced they have already worked out who the final star in the James Bond race is – and Taylor Swift fans will be very familiar with him.

The latest Bond theory suggests that the singer’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, 35, who she dated for six years until 2023, is the secret actor.

Fans believe the link to the actor and the 007 role is Bond casting director Nina Gold, 59.

Taking to Reddit to discuss, a fan wrote: “Nina Gold was one of the casting directors for Thor, too, and cast Joe in his first movie role. She knows him as far back as drama school”

Agreeing this person penned: “Nina Gold is doing the casting and knows Joe and cast him in the brutalist and Hamnet so he’s known by the department and may be on the radar of the casting team”

A third added: “Yeah, and he is supposed to be filming in NYC for a Rom com. but was in London this week for a friend’s wedding and potentially this audition.”

A fourth agreed: “Never thought about him as a contender before, but it makes sense.”

Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as James Bond was five years ago, and since then a whole host of high-profile actors have been linked to the famous franchise.

But Amazon MGM Studios, who paid $20million for full creative control of the franchise, is said to be picking a more “alternative” actor, rather than a mainstream Hollywood star.