Nov. 18 (UPI) — Facebook owner Meta can keep the WhatsApp mobile messaging app and the Instagram social media site in a federal trial first brought by the Federal Trade Commission in 2020.
Washington D.C.-based Judge James Boasberg ruled Tuesday that the FTC did not prove its claim that Meta has maintained a monopoly on social media platforms, CNBC reported.
“Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now,” Boasberg wrote.
“The court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so,” he added.
Meta officials said in a statement to NPR that Boasberg’s ruling affirms that social media remains competitive.
Boasberg in 2021 dismissed the case citing a lack of evidence that Facebook held “market power” over social media.
The FTC amended and refiled its complaint in August 2021, providing more detail on user data and comparisons to competitors, including Snapchat, the discontinued Google+ social network and Myspace.
The FTC also argued Meta engaged in a “buy or bury” strategy to monopolize social media when it paid more than market value to buy Instagram in 2012 and when it bought WhatsApp in 2014, according to NPR.
The only way to resolve the alleged monopoly was to require Meta to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp as independent companies, the FTC argued.
The social media marketplace has changed greatly over the past five years since the federal agency first accused Meta of monopolizing social media, Boasberg wrote.
“While it once might have made sense to partition apps into separate markets of social networking and social media, that wall has since broken down,” Boasberg wrote.
He cited the rise of TikTok and called it “Meta’s fiercest rival,” which he called evidence of a competitive social media marketplace.
During the trial that concluded in May, Meta’s legal team argued it faced plenty of competition and only bought WhatsApp and Instagram because they are quality products that were easier to buy instead of replicating.
During the trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that buying Instagram was easier than creating a new product that would compete with it.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Polish authorities have accused Russia of rail sabotage attacks over the weekend, while arresting two Ukrainian men said to be responsible for the incidents. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said these attacks constituted “perhaps the most serious — when it comes to the security of the Polish state — incidents since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine” in February 2022. If verified, this would be the latest example of Russian hybrid warfare, which, as you can read about here, is just below the threshold of armed conflict. In this context, it’s a means of creating disruption and sowing fear, but, so long as it uses proxies to achieve its aims, it remains very hard for such activities to be directly traced back to the Kremlin.
The main incident occurred on Sunday in the village of Mika, in the Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland, and involved the use of a military-grade C-4 plastic explosive that was supposed to blow up a train. The explosives were to be detonated via a 300-meter (328-yard) cable.
Police investigate at the scene of a damaged section of railway tracks on the Deblin-Warsaw route near the Mika railway station, next to the town of Zyczyn, east-central Poland, on November 17, 2025. Photo by Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto Aleksander Kalka
The explosive went off under a freight train, which suffered minor damage to its undercarriage, but more serious damage was inflicted on the tracks. The next train had already been warned about the problem and was able to stop in time.
Tusk said that “a certain line has been crossed,” since the incident could have been much worse if it weren’t for undisclosed errors made in the execution of the attack by the perpetrators.
A second incident occurred further down the same railway line on Sunday, where a busy train was forced to stop suddenly. This is considered likely another case of sabotage, though not involving an explosion.
Speaking in the Polish parliament, Tusk said today that the rail sabotage incidents were “unprecedented” and warned of “escalation” by Russian intelligence services. The Polish prime minister said these activities aimed to sow chaos across Europe and to foster opposition to governments’ support for Ukraine. They also aimed to hamper the delivery of arms and other aid to Ukraine by targeting train lines connecting the two countries.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk, during a session of the Polish Parliament, informing MPs about acts of terrorist sabotage directed against railway infrastructure, in Warsaw, Poland, on November 18, 2025. Photo by Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images NurPhoto
Tusk said that Polish authorities receive dozens of alerts each day, not all of which are genuine, increasing the burden on the services investigating them.
“These acts of sabotage and the actions of Russian services across the whole of Europe, not only in Poland, are unfortunately gaining momentum,” Tusk told lawmakers.
Tusk claimed that the Kremlin is interested “not only in the direct effect of this type of actions, but also the social and political consequences,” including spreading “disorganization, chaos, panic, speculation, uncertainty,” and “the stirring up of possibly radically anti-Ukrainian sentiments.”
“This is particularly dangerous in countries like Poland, where we have enough burdens that we bear due to over a million Ukrainian refugees in Poland,” Tusk added.
A map showing the approximate location of the village of Kima. Google Earth
Poland today identified two Ukrainian men who it says were the main suspects behind the sabotage incidents. Authorities in Warsaw said the perpetrators are thought to be working for the Russian intelligence services, who organized their crossing into Poland from Belarus this fall. After the attack, the two men are said to have fled to Belarus.
If the accused are the perpetrators, this would fit with the pattern of Moscow’s use of so-called ‘disposable agents’. These individuals are recruited, often online, to undertake specific acts of sabotage. Often paid in cryptocurrency, they may well be unaware that their masters are in Russian intelligence. In this way, sabotage campaigns can be orchestrated from Russia, with no need to put its own agents into the field. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and other nationalities have been recruited for such activities. In this case, Tusk said that the use of Ukrainians was deliberate, to help promote anti-Ukrainian feelings in Poland.
Polish border guards secure the fence at the Poland/Belarus border on August 25, 2025, in Krynki, eastern Poland. Photo by JANEK SKARZYNSKI / AFP JANEK SKARZYNSKI
Poland has said it will respond to the sabotage attacks by increasing the threat level to protect selected rail routes. Poland will raise the alert level to its third level out of four. However, the rail network elsewhere in the country will remain unchanged, at the second level.
European leaders outside Poland have also responded to the attacks.
In the neighboring Czech Republic, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that the Polish rail sabotage was “extremely alarming.”
In a post on X, Fiala wrote: “Russia is behaving in an openly hostile manner towards us and has long been undermining the security and stability of Europe. We must not be naive or underestimate the risks we are facing. It is our duty to strengthen our defense, invest in security, cooperate with our allies, and be prepared to confront similar attacks.”
Je velmi vážné, že za sabotáží na železniční trati Varšava–Lublin stály ruské tajné služby. Informaci dnes přinesly polské bezpečnostní složky.
Rusko se chová jako nepřítel. Je to jen další z celé řady incidentů, který ohrožuje naši bezpečnost. Kreml prostě zkouší, kam až může…
Meanwhile, the Kremlin accused Poland of “Russophobia” after its allegations.
“Russia is accused of all manifestations of the hybrid and direct war that is taking place,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state television reporter. “In Poland, let’s say, everyone is trying to run ahead of the European locomotive in this regard. And Russophobia, of course, is flourishing there,” he said.
Bordering Poland, Ukraine, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Poland has been very much on the frontline of the hybrid war being waged by Russia alongside its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to Tusk, Poland has faced multiple sabotage incidents in recent years, resulting in 55 people being detained. However, there is, by now, a broader pattern of attacks, with other acts of Russian sabotage in Europe, including in Moldova, Romania, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
As a result of the investigation, we now know it was the Russian Secret Services that commissioned the blast of the Polish railway and recruited two Ukrainians to do it. We also know the identities of the perpetrators who immediately fled Poland for Belarus.
Poland has experienced a series of major arson and sabotage attacks in recent years, including parcel bombings, which it sees as part of Moscow’s hybrid war on the West.
In September, Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace were deemed deliberate by Poland, which claimed they were a calculated test of NATO’s ability to react to aerial threats. Polish authorities said 19 Russian drones entered the country’s airspace, with some of them being shot down by Polish and Dutch combat aircraft. You can catch up to our reporting on the incident in our story here.
Poland also faces a threat from rogue Russian missiles targeting Ukraine.
In November 2022, two Polish citizens were killed by falling debris when Ukraine shot down a Russian missile near the Polish border using a surface-to-air missile.
There have been promises made to provide Poland with additional air defense resources, and NATO is reviewing how to improve its collective defenses.
The Netherlands already decided to deliver layered air defence to east Poland later this year.
With 2 Patriot systems, NASAMS, counter drone systems and 300 troops, we’ll deploy advanced capabilities.
Today has shown this is more important than ever for our joint security. 🇳🇱🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/NwR9N6Rw7T
Previously, European and NATO members took a more circumspect tone when discussing these incidents.
However, both Prime Minister Tusk and the Polish security services have put the blame for the rail sabotage squarely on Moscow.
The Polish security services minister’s spokesperson, Jacek Dobrzyński, confirmed that “everything indicates” that Russian intelligence services were behind the sabotage incidents in Poland. “The fact is that everything indicates that this … we can already confidently call it a terrorist attack, was initiated by special services from the East,” he later added.
At this stage, however, no details have been released that explain how responsibility has been traced back to Russia.
“I cannot say what stage the officers are [at] or [what they are] currently working on and what threads they are connecting or what threads they are analysing. The Russian services would very much want to have this information: where our officers are or in which direction they are heading,” Dobrzyński said.
Summing up the situation that Poland, a key ally of Ukraine and a NATO member of growing military stature, faces on the fringes of the war in Ukraine, the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Władysław Marcin Kosiniak-Kamysz, said that the country faced “a state between war and peace, where we have attacks, acts of sabotage, disinformation on a gigantic scale on the internet, the destruction, or attempts at destruction, of critical infrastructure across the whole of Europe.”
For a while, Europe has been more alert to the prospect of these kinds of infrastructure attacks, orchestrated by Moscow, becoming much more common across the continent. The incidents in Poland are further evidence of the level of threat.
James Bond star Pierce Brosnan looked dapperCredit: GettyLeigh-Anne’s bandmate: Jade Thirlwall also looked stunningCredit: GettyJade arrived with her boyfriend Jordan StephensCredit: PA
“It’s a clever way to invest her money as it’ll not only bring her a decent return but will see her bank balance grow over time.
“Maya did come up with the first company name, Blagging It Properties, but then changed it to something a little more sensible.
“She’s now the director of Penny Property Holdings and will start investing soon.”
Maya is also making her acting debut in the second series of Guy Ritchie‘s hit comedy- drama The Gentlemen.
The Sun revealed Maya had signed up back in May for a part in the Netflix series and filmed scenes in the summer.
Paramount Skydance is reportedly preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.
Variety, an entertainment industry trade magazine in the United States, first reported the looming proposal on Tuesday, quoting sources familiar with the talks.
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The publication said the company formed an investment consortium with the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to submit a $71bn bid for Warner Bros Discovery.
The report said Paramount Skydance would contribute about $50bn towards the proposed acquisition with the remainder coming from the wealth funds.
Paramount Skydance has described the involvement of the sovereign wealth funds as “categorically inaccurate”.
Paramount Skydance is now led by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle and a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Warner Bros Discovery previously rejected a bid from the Ellison family, which holds all board voting power at Paramount Skydance.
Neither Paramount nor Warner Bros Discovery responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Under the proposed structure, the wealth funds would take small minority stakes and each would receive “an IP, a movie premiere, a movie shoot”, the report said.
Warner Bros Discovery – home to the DC film universe and television studios, HBO, CNN, TNT and Warner Bros Games – is on the verge of breaking up, crippled by declines in its television business.
The company said in October that it has been considering a range of options, including a planned separation, a deal for the entire company or separate transactions for its Warner Bros or Discovery Global businesses.
Nonbinding, first-round bids are due on Thursday.
Paramount is the only company currently considering a full buyout according to the US news website Axios. Warner Bros Discovery also wants to have a deal by the end of the year, according to Axios’s reporting.
Political pressures
The looming deal is shaped in part by how the Trump administration views coverage by the news outlets owned by Warner Bros Discovery.
Netflix and Comcast are also reportedly exploring bids, but any Comcast-led effort would need regulatory approval.
Trump has also repeatedly attacked Comcast over its TV news coverage, saying the company “should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our country”.
Comcast owns NBC News and its subsidiary Versant Media, the parent company of MS-Now – formerly MSNBC – and CNBC.
CBS, owned by Paramount Skydance, has taken a more conciliatory posture towards the administration, including hiring a Trump nominee as an ombudsman to investigate bias allegations after settling a Trump lawsuit claiming its flagship programme 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump.
Paramount Skydance also recently tapped Bari Weiss, a right-leaning opinion journalist with no television background, to lead the CBS broadcast news division.
Any of the deals that are being discussed raise antitrust concerns. But if Paramount Skydance, which already owns CBS, now purchases CNN as part of Warner Bros Discovery, “that would create an added civic risk”, Rodney Benson, professor of media, culture and communication at New York University, told Al Jazeera.
“Such a deal would put two leading news outlets under the roof of the same large, multi-industry conglomerate with avowed close relations to the party in power – and that could lead to more conflicts of interest, less independent watchdog reporting and a narrowing of diverse voices and viewpoints in the public sphere,” Benson said.
Warner Bros Discovery remains the parent company of CNN.
On Wall Street, Paramount Skydance shares were up 1.7 percent in midday trading. Warner Bros Discovery was also up 2.8 percent from the market open. Comcast gained 0.5 percent, and Netflix climbed 3.5 percent.
Net immigration to Britain peaked at 944,000 in March 2023, higher than the previously estimated 906,000.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revised figures based on improved labour ministry data, showing British nationals returning to the UK was twice the earlier estimate, while emigration rose to three times higher than previously calculated.
Changes for non-British, non-EU nationals were minor, and it was noted that fewer EU nationals had departed than thought. Political discussions have focused on high non-EU immigration levels, prompting the Labour government to propose policies aimed at reducing arrivals.
Key revised data indicates that net immigration for the year ending December 2024 was adjusted downward to 345,000 from 431,000 due to increased British emigration. Cumulative net immigration from 2021 to 2024 is approximately 97,000 lower than earlier projections.
Additionally, cumulative emigration of British nationals was revised significantly upwards from 44,000 to 412,000, with total British emigration adjusted from 343,000 to 992,000, and immigration from 317,000 to 623,000 during the same period.
Diane Ladd’s cause of death has come to light, weeks after the three-time Oscar-nominated “Rambling Rose” and “Wild at Heart” star died at age 89.
The actor died of “acute on chronic hypoxic respiratory failure,” according to her death certificate obtained by People. The Cleveland Clinic says the condition is a result of insufficient oxygen in a person’s blood and is commonly caused by heart and lung conditions.
The death certificate reportedly notes that Ladd had the latter. Two years before her death, Ladd was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease wherein “lung tissue becomes damaged and scarred,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Esophageal dysmotility —disorders that affect the esophagus’ ability to move food and liquid to a person’s stomach — also contributed to Ladd’s death, People reported.
Ladd was cremated on Nov. 10, a week after her death, the death certificate reportedly said.
Laura Dern, Ladd’s daughter with prolific Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern, announced her mother’s death Nov. 3: “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai.”
“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” Dern, Oscar-winning star of “Marriage Story,” said in her statement. “We were blessed to have her.”
Bruce Dern, the first of Ladd’s three husbands, praised his ex-wife for her work on- and off-screen, including her longtime tenure as a Screen Actors Guild board member.
“She was a great teammate to her fellow actors. She was funny, clever, gracious,” he said. “But most importantly to me, she was a wonderful mother to our incredible wunderkind daughter. And for that I will be forever grateful to her.”
Mississippi native Ladd was an enduring talent whose screen career included more than 200 movie and TV credits from the 1960s to the 2020s, and multiple Emmy and Oscar nominations. Famously, she appeared in director Martin Scorsese and writer Robert Getchell’s 1974 feature “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” originating the role of snarky roadside-diner waitress Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry.
When Ladd was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2023, she was told she might have only six months to live. This inspired Laura Dern to take her mother out for strolls along Santa Monica, sparking intimate conversations that would become fodder for their joint book, “Honey, Baby, Mine,” released in April 2023.
“All the deep listening filled us with love,” Ladd told People amid the book’s release. “And it was very healing.”
Nov. 18 (UPI) — Two more defendants have been sentenced for their roles in a $16 million California hospice scam that billed Medicare for medical services that never were provided.
The U.S. District Court for Central California on Monday sentenced Juan Carlos Esparza, 33, of Valley Village, to 57 months in prison and ordered him to pay $1.83 million in restitution, according to the Justice Department.
The court on Monday also sentenced Susanna Harutyunyan, 39, of Winnetka, to 15 months in prison and to pay $2.82 million in restitution
Their sentences are in addition to that of Karpis Srapyan, 35, of Winnetka, who was sentenced to 57 months in prison and to pay $3.2 million in restitution in October.
Mihran Panosyan, 47, of Winnetka, in September also was sentenced to 57 months and was ordered to pay $4.7 million in restitution.
The court in May also sentenced Petro Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay $17.13 million in restitution.
Their scheme ran from July 2019 until January 2023 as the five defendants “operated four sham hospices” that billed Medicare for unnecessary medical procedures that never were provided, according to the DOJ.
Esparza owned the House of Angels Hospice and, with the help of Fichidzhyan and Srapyan, “concealed the scheme by using foreign nationals’ names and personally identifiable information to act as straw owners for the hospices and to open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare and to sign property leases,” the DOJ said Tuesday in a news release.
The defendants also obtained cell phones in the names of foreign nationals and controlled them to further the scheme that netted $16 in payments from Medicare.
The DOJ said they conspired with Harutyunyan, Panosyan and others to launder the proceeds by maintaining fraudulent identification documents, bank documents, checkbooks, credit cards, debit cards and other records associated with the sham hospices in the names of the “purported foreign workers.”
After defrauding Medicare, the defendants transferred the money among different accounts and assets, including bank accounts in the names of shell companies, to launder the proceeds and conceal the scheme, according to the DOJ.
Esparza in July pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and transactional money laundering.
That same month, Harutyunyan also pleaded guilty to transactional money laundering, and Srapyan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and transactional money laundering.
Panosyan in June pleaded guilty to concealment money laundering, and Fichidzhyan in February pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft and concealment money laundering.
The federal court in May also ordered forfeiture of two homes the defendants bought with the fraudulent proceeds, and the federal government seized $2.92 million from associated bank accounts.
The majority on a federal court in El Paso, Texas, found that the new map used race to redraw congressional districts.
A panel of federal judges has ruled that Texas’s newly redrawn congressional districts cannot be used in next year’s 2026 midterm elections, striking a blow to Republican efforts to tilt races in their favour.
On Tuesday, a two-to-one majority at the US District Court for western Texas blocked the map, on the basis that there was “substantial evidence” to show “that Texas racially gerrymandered” the districts.
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Partisan gerrymandering has generally been considered legal under court precedent, but dividing congressional maps along racial lines is considered a violation of the US Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics,” the court’s majority wrote in the opening of its 160-page opinion.
The ruling marked a major setback to efforts to redraw congressional districts ahead of the critically important midterms, which decide the composition of the US Congress.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for grabs in that election. With Republicans holding a narrow 219-seat majority, analysts speculate that control of the chamber could potentially switch parties.
In June, news reports emerged that the administration of President Donald Trump had reached out to state officials to redraw the red state’s map, in order to gain five additional House seats for Republicans.
That inspired other right-leaning states, notably North Carolina and Missouri, to similarly redraw their districts. North Carolina and Missouri each passed a map that would gain Republicans one additional House seat.
Texas’s actions also sparked a Democratic backlash. California Governor Gavin Newsom spearheaded a ballot campaign in his heavily blue state to pass a proposition in November that would suspend an independent districting commission and instead pass a partisan map, skewed in favour of Democrats.
Voters passed the ballot initiative overwhelmingly in November, teeing up Democrats to gain five extra seats in California next year.
The state redistricting battle has sparked myriad legal challenges, including the one decided in Texas on Tuesday.
In that case, civil rights groups accused the Texas government of attempting to dilute the power of Black and Hispanic voters.
Judges David Guaderrama, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, and Jeffrey V Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote the majority decision in favour of the plaintiffs.
A third judge — Jerry Smith, appointed under Ronald Reagan — dissented from their decision.
Writing for the majority, Brown said that Trump official Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, made the “legally incorrect assertion” that four congressional districts in the state were “unconstitutional” because they had non-white majorities.
The letter Dhillon sent containing that assertion helped prompt the Texas redistricting fight, Brown argued.
The judge also pointed to statements Texas Governor Greg Abbott made, seeming to reference the racial composition of the districts. If the new map’s aims were purely partisan and not racial, Brown indicated that it was curious no majority-white districts were targeted.
Tuesday’s ruling restores the 2021 map of Texas congressional districts. Currently, the state is represented by 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the US House.
Already, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pledged to appeal the ruling before the US Supreme Court.
“The radical left is once again trying to undermine the will of the people. The Big Beautiful Map was entirely legal and passed for partisan purposes to better represent the political affiliations of Texas,” Paxton wrote in a statement posted to social media.
He expressed optimism about his odds before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court. “I fully expect the Court to uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.”
California’s new congressional map likewise faces a legal challenge, with the Trump administration suing alongside state Republicans.
Vicky Pattison is bouncing back after being booted off the BBC dance show, with the star already lining up a new on-screen project that will take her in a very different direction
Vicky Pattison(Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Vicky Pattison is reportedly preparing for a brand-new TV role after her shock exit from Strictly Come Dancing. The former Geordie Shore favourite, who recently turned 38, was dropped from the BBC competition over the weekend despite impressing viewers with her routines alongside professional partner Kai Widdrington, 30.
The pair were sent home after the judges chose to save Balvinder Sopal, 49, and her partner Julian Caillon, 30. Now, Vicky is said to be heading straight back onto screens – this time alongside her husband Ercan Ramadan, whom she married in 2024 – in a new E4 series.
A TV insider told The Sun: “Vicky is already hugely popular with E4 audiences, thanks to her documentary about her dad’s alcoholism, her wedding specials and her show The Honesty Box, and this is the perfect post Strictly vehicle for her.”
According to the report, the show will explore a range of fertility topics, including IVF, egg freezing and the emotional realities behind the process. Vicky will also share her own journey while speaking to experts and women who have undergone similar experiences.
The star has been open about taking control of her fertility, choosing to freeze her eggs before tying the knot with Ercan last summer. She has frequently discussed the subject on social media and previously fronted the BBC documentary Egg Freezing And Me, which examined the rising demand for fertility treatments in the UK.
Growing up in Newcastle, Vicky felt the pressure many young women face surrounding marriage and motherhood. The 38-year-old has said that in her hometown, “it was ‘expected that you’d get married and have kids by 30, and if you didn’t you’d have failed.”
But despite once believing she had missed the mark, Vicky says her thirties turned out to be the most fulfilling years of her life so far. She told the Daily Mail: “I’d just come out of a relationship. I’d been conditioned to think everything was going to go downhill – looks, fertility, career. But my 30s have actually been the best years of my life. I met my husband, I bought a house, I adopted my dog, I found a career I’m proud of. I was a girl until I was 30 – now I’m a woman, and I like her. Society scares women into thinking life ends at 30. It’s rubbish.”
Vicky has also spoken openly about her diagnosis of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), after doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as nothing more than Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS).
Reflecting on her fertility treatment, she has been honest about the emotional and physical toll, saying: “It’s emotionally difficult, and you’re all over the shop, but I found it to be quite uncomfortable and painful as well. And I don’t think enough people talk about that… we’re not allowed to whinge about it and say it was a bit hard, and it was a bit uncomfortable.”
She added an important reminder that women can feel both grateful and overwhelmed at the same time: “But actually, you can be grateful, and you can be really excited for the end product, but you can also struggle to get there, and I found it painful.”
The Mirror has reached out to Vicky Pattison’s representatives for comment.
The US House of Representatives voted 427 to 1 to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which if enacted will require the Department of Justice to release documents related to sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. It still needs to pass the Senate and be signed by President Trump into law.
During a White House visit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised to invest almost a trillion dollars in new partnerships with the US, including in technology and AI.
Dick Van Dyke has ‘admitted he’s slowing down’ as he appraches 100 years oldCredit: TodayThe iconic actor and entertainer has enjoyed an incredible career – seen here in Mary PoppinsCredit: GettyDick recently issued an update on his healthCredit: Getty
To celebrate his HUGE milestone, Marry Poppins star Dick chatted to Today’s Al Roker, for an emotional interview about his life.
During their sit down, they discussed the actor’s new book, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life.
Al also revealed how the actor had admitted “to finally slowing down” in his incredible career.
Reading from Dick’s new book, Al said: “You’ve written here, ‘I care about the survival of what I have shared with the world.’”
“It’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially,” he penned in an essay for The Times at the weekend.
“I get invites to events or offers for gigs in New York or Chicago, but that kind of travel takes so much out of me that I have to say no.
“Almost all of my visiting with folks has to happen at my house.”
SECRETS TO A HAPPY LIFE
Despite his physical ailments, the iconic actor is still positive about life.
“Boiled down, the things that have kept my life joyful and fulfilling are pretty simple: romance, doing what I love and a whole lot of laughing,” Dick wrote.
Despite his physical ailments, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star is relentlessly positive about life, praising his wife for keeping him young as well as seeing the world and his experiences of it like a “giant playground”.
“Boiled down, the things that have kept my life joyful and fulfilling are pretty simple: romance, doing what I love and a whole lot of laughing,” he wrote.
Dick also revealed he goes to the gym three times a week, as well as continuing to dance and sing.
Dick says he always tries to stay playful, refuses to let negativity get him down, and that music and dance are key to longevityCredit: Getty
BECOMING A STAR
After starring in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie in the role of Albert J. Peterson, which he played on Broadway, Dick got his huge break and was cast by Disney in Mary Poppins in 1964.
His main role was as Bert, a jack-of-all-trades who is very good friends with Mary Poppins, but he was also cast as the doddery old bank chairman Mr Dawes Senior.
The film, which starred Julie Andrews in the lead role, was a huge success and Chim Chim Cher-ee, which Bert sings in the movie, went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
However, to this day, Dyke’s Cockney accent is lambasted as the accent in film history, and according to Dyke, no one on the set of the film told him how bad it was.
But to this day it is still his best-known role and on his 90th birthday, he was surprised by a flash-mob at The Grove shopping mall in Los Angeles.
Dyke also starred in Disney’s 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the lead role of Caractacus Pott, after he turned down the role of Fagin in the 1968 musical Oliver!
The actor will turn 100 on December 13Credit: Getty
The dip comes amid doubts about future US interest rate cuts and a risk-averse mood in broader markets.
Published On 18 Nov 202518 Nov 2025
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Bitcoin fell below $90,000 for the first time in seven months in the latest sign that investor appetite for risk is drying up across financial markets.
The cryptocurrency began to rebound as United States markets opened on Tuesday. However, Monday’s steep drop in the risk-sensitive asset had already wiped out all of its gains for the year.
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It is now nearly 30 percent below its peak of $126,000 in October.
It was down 0.5 percent at $91,338.47 during European trading hours, after slipping as low as $89,286.75.
About $1.2 trillion has been wiped off the total market value of all cryptocurrencies in the past six weeks, according to market tracker CoinGecko.
Market participants said that a combination of doubts around future interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and the risk-averse mood in broader markets, which have wobbled after a long rally, was dragging down crypto.
“The cascading selloff is amplified by listed companies and institutions exiting their positions after piling in during the rally, compounding contagion risks across the market,” said Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association.
“When support thins and macro uncertainty rises, confidence can erode with remarkable speed.”
Speculators who had put money into crypto in the hopes of supportive US regulation have started to pull back, causing steady outflows from exchange traded funds (ETFs) and similar instruments in recent weeks, said Joseph Edwards at Enigma Securities.
“The sell pressure here isn’t extraordinary, but it’s coming at a relative weak point on the buy side … a lot of retail buyers were stung during the flash crash last month,” he said, referring to an October crash in which there were $19bn in liquidations across leveraged positions.
Crypto stockpilers such as Strategy, miners such Riot Platforms and Mara Holdings, and exchange Coinbase have all slid with the souring mood.
‘Underwater’
There has been a boom in public crypto treasury companies this year, with small companies in unrelated sectors becoming crypto proxies by announcing plans to buy and hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets.
But Standard Chartered has estimated that a drop below $90,000 for Bitcoin could leave half of these companies’ Bitcoin holdings “underwater” – a term that typically refers to assets worth less than what was paid for them.
Listed companies collectively hold 4 percent of all the Bitcoin in circulation, and 3.1 percent of the ether, Standard Chartered said.
The cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) has also been under pressure for months, and has lost nearly 40 percent of its value from an August peak above $4,955.
“All in all, sentiment is pretty low in crypto and has been since the leverage wipeout of October,” said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at Astronaut Capital.
The announcement underscores AI industry’s insatiable appetite for computing power as companies race to build systems that can rival or surpass human intelligence.
Published On 18 Nov 202518 Nov 2025
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Microsoft and Nvidia plan to invest in Anthropic under a new tie-up that includes a $30bn commitment by the Claude maker to use Microsoft’s cloud services, the latest high-profile deal binding together major players in the AI industry.
Nvidia will commit up to $10bn to Anthropic and Microsoft up to $5bn, the companies said on Tuesday, without sharing more details.
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A person familiar with the matter said both the companies have committed to investing in Anthropic’s next funding round.
The announcement underscores the AI industry’s insatiable appetite for computing power as companies race to build systems that can rival or surpass human intelligence. It also ties major OpenAI-backer Microsoft, as well as key AI chip supplier Nvidia, closer to one of the ChatGPT maker’s biggest rivals.
“We’re increasingly going to be customers of each other. We will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure and we’ll go to market together,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a video. He added that OpenAI “remains a critical partner”.
The move comes weeks after OpenAI unveiled a sweeping restructuring that moved it further away from its non-profit roots, giving it greater operational and financial freedom.
The startup has since then announced a $38bn deal to buy cloud services from Amazon.com as it reduces reliance on Microsoft. Its CEO, Sam Altman, has said OpenAI is committed to spending $1.4 trillion to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources – enough to roughly power 25 million US homes.
Still, three years after ChatGPT’s debut, investors are increasingly uneasy that the AI boom has outrun fundamentals. Some business leaders have noted that circular deals – in which one partner props up another’s revenue – add to the bubble risk.
“The main feature of the partnership is to reduce the AI economy’s reliance on OpenAI,” D A Davidson analyst Gil Luria said of Tuesday’s announcement.
“Microsoft has decided not to rely on one frontier model company. Nvidia was also somewhat dependent on OpenAI’s success and is now helping generating broader demand.
AI industry consolidating
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI staff, Anthropic was recently valued at $183bn and has become a major rival to the ChatGPT maker, driven by the strong adoption of its services by enterprise customers.
The Reuters news agency reported last month that Anthropic was projecting to more than double and potentially nearly triple its annualised revenue run rate to around $26bn next year. It has more than 300,000 business and enterprise customers.
As part of Tuesday’s move, Anthropic will work with Nvidia on chips and models to improve performance and commit up to 1 gigawatt of compute using Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin hardware. Industry executives estimate that one gigawatt of AI computing can cost between $20bn and $25bn.
Microsoft will also give Azure AI Foundry customers access to the latest Claude models, making Claude the only frontier model offered across all three major cloud providers.
“These investments reflect how the AI industry is consolidating around a few key players,” eMarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said.
Despite the looming deal, Microsoft shares are down 3.2 percent in midday trading. Nvidia is also trading 1.9 percent lower than at the market open, and Amazon has fallen 4 percent. Tech stocks remain under pressure after a cloud services outage earlier on Tuesday. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is publicly traded.
“Thoughts & Prayers,” premiering Tuesday on HBO, is a documentary film about the $3-billion “active shooter preparedness industry,” that space where American failure meets American entrepreneurism. Though it approaches its subject with a certain formal neutrality, the title, a phrase now synonymous with political emptiness, does suggest a point of view. (Its subtitle is “How to Survive an Active Shooter in America.”)
That industry includes various forms of training involving teachers, students and first responders and products theoretically created to increase security — locks, alarms, robot dogs, bulletproof backpacks, bulletproof glass and bulletproof shelters that sit in the corner of a classroom. One company will put an image of your choice on a bulletproof wall hanging and sells a “skateboard [that] will outperform any other skateboard on the market, but it’s also a self defense shield.” “Every time there’s a tragedy, it economically benefits my family,” its founder admits. “We could be a $300-million company by the time this documentary airs.”
One company makes tourniquets “easy to apply in case of a mass casualty incident”; another specializes in latex bullet wounds for use in mass shooter drills: “the gunshot through and through to the neck … the multiple gunshot wound to the abdomen.” One senses in these endeavors a not insincere overreaction that substitutes for political action, shifting responsibility onto potential victims and accepting the problem as intractable. (Or as the Onion headline, published 38 times since 2014, has it, “No Way to Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”)
Directed by Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock, it’s a sad black comedy, an Errol Morris sort of subject, shot in an Errol Morris sort of way — formal, neutral. The cinematography, by Jarred Alterman, is quite handsome and composed, amplifying the seriousness and eeriness, but also the banality and absurdity of the matter. Subjects face the camera head on, sometimes to speak, sometimes to sit silently for a portrait that might find them covered in fake blood and wounds from a role-playing exercise. The film gets a lot of mileage just settling on faces, tracking reactions, or lack of reaction. The camera is static, steady; action moves in and through the frame, sometimes in slow motion, like movie violence. This observational approach is regularly undercut, unfortunately, by a heavy-handed soundtrack that makes the film feel less trustworthy. It’s an aesthetic and rhetorical failure, but not a fatal one.
The documentary states that 95% of American school children practice lockdown drills.
(HBO)
More than 20 million adults have had active shooter training, learning how to keep doors shut or disarm a shooter, participating in multiplayer video simulations. In Provo, Utah, teachers learn to shoot. (“Breathe in through our nose, out through your mouth — let all that tension come out of you.”) But “Thoughts & Prayers” is most powerful when looking at or listening to the kids: 95% of American schools, we’re told, practice lockdown drills, which can begin as early as Pre-K (with “dinosaurs” substituted for gunmen, to, I don’t know, reduce trauma).
The film’s last act follows a massive reenactment at a Medford, Ore., high school, where a “mass casualty drill” was scheduled after a janitor turned himself into police before acting on homicidal thoughts. (They discovered many weapons in his home, and a written plan of attack.) Kids, made up as victims, litter the halls and gym field. Masked “shooters” go room to room. The police chief gives, as a sign on the podium reads, a “fake press conference.”
“This is the reality, this is where we are in this country, where we are in this valley,” says the school superintendent afterward. “But I do not want to lose the fact that it is still a sad thing that we have to do this. Still, you may wonder what good it will actually do, and hope not to find out.”
What passes for a gun debate is relegated to some warring soundbites from the floor of Congress, and the opinion of one trainer (named Thrasher) that guns aren’t the problem, but “family structures” and “the lack of tribalism.” But here’s Quinn, a high school freshman from Long Island, N.Y., as close as anyone here gets to addressing the issue. It’s worth giving her the last word.
“I don’t think that a lot of adults care about our opinions. We go through this every single day. We go through, like, being afraid of going to school because we might get shot, or we might lose a friend, or we might lose a teacher. And a lot of people care about their … rights, I guess, more about, ‘Oh well, I want to have the ability to own a gun, and so I don’t care if you get shot in your class.’ It’s just kind of disheartening. ‘Cause it’s like, oh, you care more about yourself than all of the students in America.”
The issue is set to come to a head next week, as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) holds its 20th meeting.
Heightened restrictions on brazilwood are scheduled to be raised for a vote at the conference.
Since 1998, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the tree as endangered.
But a proposal authored by the Brazilian government would increase CITES protections for brazilwood, placing it in the highest tier for trade restrictions.
CITES regulates the international trade of endangered species, and it classifies animals and plants in three appendices.
The third is the least restrictive: If a species is endangered in a given country, then export permits are required from that country.
The Appendix II has tighter standards: Export permits are required from wherever the species is extracted. Most endangered species, including brazilwood, fall into this category.
But Brazil hopes to bump brazilwood up to appendix one, a category for species faced with extinction.
Trade of plants and animals in that appendix is largely banned, except for non-commercial use. But even in that case, both import and export licences are required.
In its proposal, Brazil argues the upgraded restrictions are necessary to fight the plant’s extinction.
Only about 10,000 adult brazilwood trees remain. The population has shrunk by 84 percent over the last three generations, and illegal logging has played a dominant role in that decline, according to the proposal.
“Selective extraction of Brazilwood is still active, both inside and outside protected areas,” the proposal explains.
“In all cases recently detected, the destination of these woods is the bow-making industry for musical instruments.”
It adds that “520 years of intense exploitation” have led to the “complete elimination of the species in several regions”.
One operation launched by Brazilian police in October 2018 resulted in 45 companies and bowmakers being fined.
Nearly 292,000 bows and blanks — the unfinished blocks of wood destined to become bows — were seized.
Another investigation, between 2021 and 2022, led police to conclude that an estimated $46m in profits had come from the illegal brazilwood trade.
“The majority of bows and bow blanks sold by Brazilian companies over the past 25 years probably originated from illegal sources,” Brazil wrote in its proposal.
In that first Test of 2010 we conceded a first-innings deficit of 211 runs. 35,000 Australians were stamping their feet in the vast concrete stadium baying for English blood in a procession toward another Australian win.
Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott famously pushed back against the noise to amass 517-1 in our second innings. The Test was drawn, but it felt like we had won.
You could feel the rhetoric towards us change. The people who had taken great joy in telling us we were going to be annihilated were slowly starting to say how they respected the way we had fought back and that they loved seeing the competition.
Planning is important, but so is living in the moment. Too many times England teams have gone to Australia with pre-conceived ideas about the conditions they are going to face.
Being able to read the conditions and adapt is crucial. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2010, David Saker, the England bowling coach, had absolute conviction bowling first was the way to win the Test.
We bowled Australia out for 98 and won by an innings. Being bold with decision-making will serve England well.
Finally, luck is also a huge part of being successful in Australia.
In 2010 Australia didn’t have a set spinner, there were question marks around the great Ricky Ponting coming towards the end of his career and uncertainty about the seam bowlers.
Australia picked a 17-man squad for the first Test, more players than we had for the entire three-month tour to the country. Catching Australia in a period of transition can be critical.
On this occasion, injuries to Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have given England an opportunity to face an Australia team with the cracks maybe just starting to show for the first time since 2010.
There are many challenges that come with playing in an away Ashes series, on and off the field.
The stars may just be aligning for England to have a real crack at winning in Australia for the first time in 15 years.
This year’s Christmas Day kids story is The Scarecrow’s Wedding but the story had to be changed for TV
Rob Brydon is the voice of Reginald Rake, whilst Jessie Buckley is fellow scarecrow Betty O’Barley in The Scarecrows’ Wedding(Image: Supplied)
Author Julia Donaldson has told how she had to rewrite one of her best selling books in order to get the green light for it to be turned into a BBC animation for Christmas Day.
This year millions will settle down to watch The Scarecrows’ Wedding, the latest adaptation of Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler’s stories which have become a festival staple.
The half-hour animated special features an all-star voice cast, with Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydon voicing Reginald Rake, Hamnet actress Jessie Buckley as Betty O’Barley, and The Paper star Domhnall Gleeson as Harry O’Hay.
The story, about two devoted scarecrows Betty and Harry planning a wedding to remember, will be narrated by Slow Horses actress Sophie Okonedo.
But Julia revealed for the first time in 13 adaptations that she needed to make big changes to the storyline because it originally featured sinister scarecrow Reginald Rake smoking a cigar and accidentally starting a fire in the field.
Julia said: “There had to be a fire in the story and the water was going to put out the fire, so I had to think of reasons for the fire.
“In the book, the fire is started by Reginald Rake through smoking. I thought that was really good because it shows him in a really bad light. He is a baddie and he is smoking and in the original book Betty says ‘smoking is bad for you’ and he gets a terrible cough and starts a fire so it shows how bad smoking is.
“But apparently in the world of children’s films you are not allowed to show anyone smoking. I personally think it would be better for children to come across smoking in a film or a book and then their parents can talk about it and say it is not a great thing, rather than see someone in a doorway.”
Julia was then asked by Magic Light Pictures who animate her stories if she “would consider” changing this one over lunch.
She added: “I said ‘absolutely not’ and then went home and went straight to the computer because by that stage we had the pictures and I knew Betty had a pink dress and Reginald had the white suit, so I thought he could start the fire by cooking something and then I thought of pink and white marshmallows. I wrote it and I think it works really well that way. I am sorry in a way to lose the smoking but I think marshmallows do work well.”
The Scarecrows’ Wedding was first published in 2014 and book versions still contain Reginald choking on a cigar.
Asked about the creation of the characters, Julia added: “I was looking for a female character because previously it was Zog and Highway Rat and lots of male characters. So Betty was the first character that came to mind.
“It took me ages to write because I had to send Harry off on a journey and it took a long time to work out that part of the storyline.
“In a way it is a Hollywood love story and it is very much like a light Italian opera where there is a humble peasant boy and girl and then a peddler comes along and almost seduces the heroine. I was thinking along those lines.”
The animation means Rob Brydon will be back on BBC1 on Christmas Day, having been one of the star’s of Gavin & Stacey last year. He has also been voicing Julia’s characters since they first started being made into animations.
On playing the cad in the story, Rob: “There is a hint of Leslie Phillips and that sort of thing, just natural and instinctive. As ever it is just a delight to be part of such a quality venture.
“This is one of my favourites because I have not played this sort of role in Julia’s world. I am normally nice.”
Last year’s animation, Tiddler, saw an audience of 7.3 million and the highest audience share on Christmas Day for a Magic Light Pictures film since The Gruffalo in 2009.
The Gruffalo will return in book form in 2026 but Julia was keeping tight-lipped about the details.
She said: “I am not allowed to say very much. I can say I finished writing it early last year and it is coming out in the Autumn next year, that is really all I can say.”
* The Scarecrow’s Wedding will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One this Christmas Day.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
An MQ-20 Avenger drone flew a mock mission at the direction of a pilot in an F-22 Raptor during a demonstration earlier this year, General Atomics has disclosed. The company says this is part of a larger effort to lay the groundwork for crewed-uncrewed teaming between F-22s and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones. General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing CCA designs for the U.S. Air Force, and that service expects the Raptor to be the first airborne controller for whichever types it decides to buy in the future.
General Atomics made its announcement about the MQ-20/F-22 teaming demonstration today, around the opening of the biennial Dubai Airshow, at which TWZ is in attendance. The actual event, which the company internally funded, took place back in October in the skies over the U.S. Air Force’s sprawling Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-22, and L3Harris also took part.
A stock picture of a General Atomic Avenger drone. General Atomics
“We recently teamed Avenger with a badass fighter jet for a true airborne, crewed-uncrewed internal demo, where the human pilot commanded the autonomous Avenger from the cockpit for a hypothetical mission,” C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, told TWZ. The “MQ-20 Avenger continues to serve as an autonomy accelerator, routinely flying in a CCA configuration, pushing the envelope.”
“The [crewed-uncrewed teaming demonstration] effort integrated L3Harris’ BANSHEE Advanced Tactical Datalinks with its Pantera software-defined radios (SDRs) via Lockheed Martin’s open radio architectures, all integrated and shared from an F-22 Raptor,” according to a General Atomics press release. “Two L3Harris Software‑Defined Radios (SDRs) supported the demonstration. The first SDR was installed into the General Atomics MQ‑20 Avenger, and the second was integrated in the Lockheed Martin F‑22 Raptor.”
A composite image highlighting the integration of the BANSHEE datalink, at far lower left, and a Pantera-series radio, onto the Avenger drone. L3Harris
“Through the Pilot Vehicle Interface (PVI) tablet and the F‑22’s GRACE module, the system provided end‑to‑end communications, enabling the F‑22 command and control of the MQ‑20 in flight,” the release adds. “The collaborative demonstration showcased non-proprietary, U.S. government-owned communications capabilities and the ability to fly, transition, and re-fly flight hardware that is core to the Open Mission Systems and skills based unmanned autonomy ecosystem.”
The “GRACE” mentioned here refers to the Government Reference Architecture Compute Environment. This is a previously announced open-architecture systems module for the F-22 that is designed to make it easier to integrate new software packages onto the aircraft, including ones to support the airborne drone controller role.
The explicit mention of a tablet-based in-cockpit control interface is also worth highlighting. General Atomics and Lockheed Martin have both been working for years now on control systems to allow crewed aircraft to direct drones in flight, with tablet-like devices being the typical user interface. However, both companies have themselves raised questions to varying degrees about the long-term viability of that arrangement, especially for pilots in single-seat fighters, who already have substantial workloads during real-world missions.
“We started with [the Air Force’s] Air Combat Command with tablets … There was this idea that they wanted to have this discreet control,” Michael Atwood, vice president of Advanced Programs for General Atomics, said during an appearance on The Merge podcast last year. “I got to fly in one of these jets with a tablet. And it was really hard to fly the airplane, let alone the weapon system of my primary airplane, and spatially and temporally think about this other thing.”
An image General Atomics released in the past of a tablet-like device being used to control drones in mid-air. General Atomics
“There’s a lot of opinions amongst the Air Force about the right way to go [about controlling drones from other aircraft],” John Clark, then-head of Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division, had also told TWZ and others at Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) main annual conference in September 2024. “The universal thought, though, is that this [a tablet or other touch-based interface] may be the fastest way to begin experimentation. It may not be the end state.”
A view from the backseat of an L-39 Albatros light jet being used as a drone controller in a past Skunk Works test. Note the touch-screen type user interface. Lockheed Martin
These are the kind of questions that demonstrations like the one General Atomics conducted in October over the NTTR could help answer. As TWZ regularly notes, there is still much to be worked out when it comes to how future CCA fleets are structured, as well as how they are deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, let alone employed tactically.
“General Atomics is in a pretty unique situation here, given that we already have operational uncrewed jets to use for experimentation,” Brinkley, the General Atomics spokesperson, told TWZ. “The MQ-20 Avenger, tricked out with mature mission autonomy software, is a perfect CCA surrogate and allows us to move fast and move first.”
It’s important to stress here that Avenger drones have been heavily utilized as testbeds for advanced autonomy and other developments related to CCA-type uncrewed aircraft for years now. The jet-powered drones have some low observable (stealthy) features, as well as an internal payload bay. Much of this work has been in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, as well as the U.S. Air Force. How much crewed-uncrewed teaming testing involving the F-22 and the MQ-20, or other surrogates, may have already been done in the classified realm is unknown.
Another stock picture of an Avenger drone. The example seen here has a Lockheed Martin Legion Pod with an infrared search and track (IRST) sensor installed under its right wing. General Atomics
“We’re leaning forward, because we already know where this is headed,” Brinkley added. “We don’t want to wait for the CCA fleet to be fielded to begin leaning in on F-22 teaming. We already know the F-22 will play a critical role in crewed-uncrewed teaming operations, and General Atomics is in a unique position to get started now.”
As mentioned, the F-22 is slated to be the U.S. Air Force’s first airborne CCA controller, something the service revealed this past summer in its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request. This was further confirmed in an unclassified Air Force report to Congress in October, which otherwise outlined a highly aspirational 10-year plan for the service’s fighter fleets that puts significant emphasis on CCAs.
“F-22 remains the threshold platform for CCA but integration with F-16, F-35A, F-15E, and F-15EX is an emerging consideration,” according to that report. “Ultimately, CCA will be paired with [the sixth-generation] F-47 to meet highly contested mission demands.”
A graphic the Air Force released earlier this year with details about its current and future fighter fleets, the two CCA designs now in development. USAF
“America’s adversaries are countering US air power with greater mass and a challenging air defense laydown that limits the United States’ ability to project combat power in traditional ways,” the report adds. “CCAs allow for risk-tolerant aircraft at a lower price point and serve as a force multiplier.”
A more detailed rundown of the benefits the Air Force expects to see from future CCA fleets from the fighter force structure report submitted to Congress in October. USAF
The fighter force structure report also says that details about exactly how many CCAs the Air Force currently plans to buy and across what timeline are currently classified. Air Force officials have said in the past that between 100 and 150 drones will be ordered under the CCA program’s first phase, or Increment 1, with hundreds more expected through future incremental development cycles. Whether the service plans to down-select to a single type or buy multiple designs for the first tranche remains unclear. As mentioned, General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing drones for Increment 1, which are now designated the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. General Atomics announced that the YFQ-42A had made its first flight in August. The YFQ-44A took to the skies for the first time last month. The goal is for operational Increment 1 CCAs to begin entering service around the end of the decade.
General Atomics’ YFQ-42A in flight. GA-ASIAnduril’s YFQ-44A seen during its first flight. Anduril Courtesy Photo via USAF
“There are companies all over the world making big promises while they figure all of this out for the first time. How to build an airplane, how to incorporate autonomy, how to team that with manned aircraft,” General Atomics spokesperson Brinkley told us. “We’ve been putting our own money into uncrewed jets for 17 years. This [the MQ-20/F-22 demonstration] is just one more milestone in a long history of leaning forward. We’re not out here saying ‘I think I can, I think I can.’ We know we can.”
With the F-22 set to be the Air Force’s first airborne CCA controller, work to continue proving out the Raptor’s crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities will be especially important.
Update, 1:45 PM EST:
Lockheed Martin has now provided its own remarks regarding the MQ-20/F-22 teaming demonstration.
“Lockheed Martin Skunk Works led and orchestrated this crewed-uncrewed teaming flight test with GA-ASI [General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.] and L3Harris. This demonstration involved an F-22 Raptor, an MQ-20, and Skunk Works’ flexible and hardware-agnostic pilot vehicle interface to showcase capabilities critical to the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft family of systems,” the company told TWZ. “Lockheed Martin’s phased approach to building, testing, and improving teaming capabilities is at the forefront of innovation, developing the future of air combat today.”
“This effort represents Skunk Works bringing its diverse and unique expertise to the table to lead the way, demonstrating the future of air combat, where single-seat aircraft command and control drones with simple and intuitive interfaces in the cockpit,” O.J. Sanchez, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Skunk Works, also said in a statement to TWZ.
IN her blue gingham dress, brown pigtails and trusty dog Toto by her side, Dorothy Gale is one of the most famous characters in Hollywood history.
But 86 years after original actress Judy Garland skipped down the yellow brick road, the school girl from Kansas is back on the big screen – being played by a Pilates instructor who lives in Surrey.
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Bethany Weaver plays Dorothy in Wicked: For GoodCredit: InstagramCynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are wildly popular in the leading rolesCredit: Alamy
Bethany Weaver, 30, has been unveiled as the woman portraying Dorothy in the big budget movie Wicked: For Good, which hits cinemas this Friday.
However, The Sun can reveal she only appears on screen for 69 seconds and says a total of six words — and Bethany’s friends may not even recognise her, as her face is never shown on screen.
It follows on from last year’s first film, simply titled Wicked, and completes the tale of the witches of Oz, Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, 38, and Ariana Grande, 32, as Glinda.
But while the first musical extravaganza was a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the second instalment’s plot runs parallel to that of the 1939 film, telling the tale from an entirely different perspective.
That means viewers will once again see Dorothy with the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion.
Explaining the decision not to show her face, director Jon M. Chu, 46, said: “I didn’t want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with.
“[The sequel] is still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey, and she is a pawn in the middle of all of it.”
Cynthia added: “I think that’s such a wonderful thing to do because then everyone gets to keep the Dorothy that they know.”
The film studio went to major lengths to keep her identity a secret, stopping her from attending the major premieres.
The cast and crew were banned from following or interacting with her on social media and on Instagram, she only had 1,041 followers before being formally announced.
She has had a string of theatrejobs in Oklahoma and Broken Wings after training at The Urdang Academy, and recently helped to choreograph a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
But away from the stage, she has a less showbiz career as a Pilates instructor in Surrey.
Her casting ends a year of speculation, as fans had been convinced that Irish actress Alisha Weir, 16, who played the lead in 2022’s Matilda the Musical, would take the role.
She attended the London premiere of the first Wicked film last year wearing silver shoes, which was thought to be a reference to the original colour of the character’s ruby red heels in the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
And even superstar Taylor Swift, 35, was at one point linked to the role.
Fans thought the video for her song Karma, which saw her skipping down a yellow brick road, was a clue, and an image of the singer dressed as Dorothy went viral before later being debunked as AI.
But with an all-star cast in Wicked: For Good, also featuring People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive Jonathan Bailey, 37, Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, 63, and Jurassic Park’s Jeff Goldblum, 73, there is plenty of star power to propel it to success.
Wicked, released last November, became the highest-grossing film of the year at the UK box office, raking in £61million in a matter of weeks.
Now the blockbuster sequel is being forecast to repeat its success, with expectations it will surpass the £56million made by A Minecraft Movie and the £46million raked in by Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy earlier this year.
Bosses at Universal Pictures are also hoping the movie will prove fruitful in awards season too, after the first flick landed ten Oscar nominations but only won in the Best Costume Design and Best Production Design categories.
Bethany runs pilates classes in SurreyCredit: Instagram/pilatesanddanceukThe actresses have struck up a very close friendship while working on the epic filmsCredit: Getty
The film is based on the second half of the Broadway musical, although two new songs were penned especially for the big-screen version, which will be available when the official soundtrack is released on Friday.
Ariana has a solo moment with The Girl in the Bubble while Cynthia gets a song on her own with No Place Like Home.
The tracks mean they could go head-to-head for the Best Original Song gong at the Oscars.
The movies were filmed back to back from December 2022 to January 2024 at studios in Elstree and Leavesden, Herts, although Ariana and Cynthia returned to the UK in May this year for last-minute reshoots.
An estimated $150m was spent on the film with millions more on marketing it – with the massive investment paying off for the first flick.
That one set a box office record for a stage-to-screen adaptation, making $756m globally.
And they are going all-out to market this film too.
Today, it was revealed that Brick Lane in East London has been transformed into Yellow Brick Lane, with the famous path from the Wizard of Oz now running down the road, along with several Wicked murals.
There have also been a raft of big brand tie-ins, with a slew of Wicked-themed products including a collection of Le Creuset cookware, Crocs, rugs, trainers, perfume, and even drinks and bakes at high street chain Greggs.
Wicked Barbie dolls are also expected to be one of the most in-demand toys this Christmas.
And its legacy is likely to be even more musicals making it to the big screen.
Following the success of the first film, Sabrina Carpenter, 26, has had a musical about Alice in Wonderland greenlit by the same movie studio.
Mamma Mia 3 is also expected to go ahead, with talk of Nicole Scherzinger, 47 – who had been linked to the role of Elphaba back in 2017 – starring in a film adaptation of Sunset Boulevard.
As for Cynthia and Ariana, they have spent the last two weeks on a promotional tour including premieres in Sao Paulo, Paris, London, Singapore and on Monday evening, New York.
The movies were filmed back to back from December 2022 to January 2024Credit: Alamy
However, it has taken its toll.
Cynthia, who wore a black gown featuring leather and feathers on the red carpet in the Big Apple, was unable to do interviews there after losing her voice entirely in the lead-up to the film’s release.
Meanwhile, talk during the promo run has turned to Ariana, who wore a pink tulle skirt and a black corseted bodice, and her relationship with her co-star Ethan Slater, 33.
Romance blossomed during filming, just after her marriage to estate agent Dalton Gomez crumbled, and following his split from his childhood sweetheart and the mother of his son, psychologist Lilly Jay.
But despite steering clear from each other on red carpets and declining to talk about each other, the couple are quietly still going strong after two and a half years as an item.
And while she isn’t saying goodbye to him, she is moving away from the role of Glinda, which she had dreamed about playing since she was ten years old.
She has dyed her peroxide blonde hair back to brown and has moved onto her next project, recently completing work on the latest film in the Meet the Parents franchise.
Reflecting on the release of the second – and final – film, Ariana was emotional.
She explained: “It’s been such an incredible ride and an incredible experience to create with people we love so much and respect so much creatively, but also who just have such great hearts.”
Speaking about the characters, who she and Cynthia auditioned for in 2021, she said: “It’s almost five years that we’ve spent with them. So, for them to finally be getting the full picture and to know the secrets we’ve known all along is very exciting.”
Ariana added: “This project will always be part of our lives.”
US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse sharply criticised President Donald Trump for previously attempting to block a House vote on the release of files related to Epstein. Trump on Sunday dropped his opposition and the measure now is expected to overwhelmingly pass.
