The BBC has released new images from upcoming Jane Austen period drama The Other Bennet Sister.

Next month, BBC is set to release a new ten-part series titled The Other Bennet Sister, which shines the spotlight on the often overlooked Mary Bennet from Jane Austen’s renowned novel Pride and Prejudice.

The period drama, adapted from Janice Hadlow’s novel bearing the same title, delves into the life of the ‘unremarkable and overlooked’ sibling.

This week, the BBC unveiled a fresh batch of images from the forthcoming drama, featuring Call the Midwife star Ella Bruccoleri as Mary Bennet, along with a host of other pivotal characters and potential love interests.

Joining Ella in the anticipated series are Ryan Sampson as Mr Collins, Dónal Finn as Mr Hayward, Laurie Davidson as Mr Ryder and Aaron Gill as John Sparrow.

Night Manager actress Indira Varma also joins the ensemble as Mrs Gardiner, alongside her on-screen spouse, portrayed by Richard Coyle, reports Wales Online.

An official synopsis for The Other Bennet Sister hints: “The series takes as its premise that – when it comes to the Bennet sisters – while we dream of being Lizzy, in reality most of us are more like Mary..

“The series follows Mary as she steps out of her sisters’ shadows in search of her own identity and purpose – finding herself in the middle of an epic love story along the way.

“Her journey will see her leave her family home in Meryton for the soirees of Regency London and the peaks and vales of the Lake District, all in search of independence, self-love and reinvention.”

The newly released images from the upcoming drama have sparked a flurry of excitement among fans.

One eager viewer expressed: “Very much looking forward to seeing this!” Another added: “I’m really looking forward to this. The book is brilliant! I’ve read it twice.”

Others praised the casting, with one person commenting: “Brilliant casting” whilst another fan exclaimed: “CANNOT WAIT!!!!” Further comments included: “Looking forward to this” and “Can’t wait for this. Loved the book and the cast is [fire].”

Actress Ella Bruccoleri shared her excitement about joining the cast in an interview with the BBC, saying: “As someone who has always related more to Mary than Lizzy – something that was confirmed even more by reading Janice Hadlow’s brilliant novel.”

She continued: “I feel incredibly lucky to be spending these next few months exploring her world in depth, as envisioned by these incredible women.”

Bruccoleri also praised the script, stating: “Sarah Quintrell’s scripts are packed full of beautiful idiosyncratic detail, empathy, humour and such warmth… revealing that beneath Mary’s awkwardness and formality, lies a woman longing for purpose and connection.”

The Other Bennet Sister is set to air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in March.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new Everything Gossip website‘.

It’s one thing most everyone agrees on: federal funding cuts have left the Los Angeles County health system teetering toward financial collapse.

But the supervisors’ chosen antidote — a half-cent sales tax to replenish county coffers — is being condemned by a slew of cities as its own form of financial catastrophe.

“I heard from every city in my district,” said Kathryn Barger, the only supervisor who voted against putting the sales tax on the June ballot.

The resounding reaction? “Absolutely not,” she says.

“People are fatigued,” Barger said. “I’m not convinced that it’s going to pass.”

Observers wouldn’t have sensed that fatigue from the rowdy crowd of supporters that filled the board meeting Tuesday, along with seldom-used overflow rooms. The supervisors voted 4-1 at the meeting to put the tax on the ballot.

“There really are no other viable and timely options,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who introduced the measure along with Supervisor Hilda Solis. “Trust me, I looked high and low.”

The goal, supervisors say, is to generate $1 billion per year to backfill the dwindling budgets of local hospitals and clinics battered by federal funding cuts.

The county’s already bracing for impact. The Department of Public Health announced Friday it would shutter seven clinics. Officials say it’s just the beginning, with the county poised to lose more than $2 billion in funding for health services over the next three years. Hospitals could be down the road, they warn.

But many cities, some of which could have local sales tax hit more than 11%, are revolting on the plan.

“I have been getting calls and texts and letters like honestly I have not gotten in a long time,” Supervisor Janice Hahn told the audience as a message from Jeff Wood — the vice mayor of Lakewood — pinged on her phone. “They are really diving in on this one.”

In a series of opposition letters, the cities unleashed a torrent of criticism. Norwalk called the tax “rushed.” Palmdale said it had “significant flaws.” Glendale found it “deeply troubling and fundamentally unfair.”

Some bristled at the cost to consumers. Palmdale and Lancaster — some of the poorest cities in the county — could wind up with some of the highest sales tax rates in the state if the measure passes.

Some cities say the bigger issue is they don’t trust the county. They point to its checkered history of pushing ballot measures that don’t live up to their promises.

Measure B, a special parcel tax, was passed in 2002 to fund the county’s trauma center network. An audit more than a decade later found the county couldn’t prove it used the money for emergency medical services.

Measure H, the homelessness services tax measure, was passed in 2017 as a temporary tax. Voters agreed in 2024 to make the tax permanent and to double the rate — though some cities insist they’ve never gotten their fair share of the funds.

“It’s a historical issue,” said Glendora mayor David Fredendall, whose city opposes the sales tax. “We don’t trust it.”

The county decided to put the sales tax on the ballot as a general tax, meaning the money goes into the general fund. Legally, supervisors could use the money for whatever services they desire.

“They say ‘No, this is our plan’, but we’re going to expand from five to nine supervisors over the next few years before this tax expires,” said Marcel Rodarte, the head of the California Contract Cities Assn., a coalition of cities inside the county. “They may say we need to use these funds for something else.”

A general tax also is easier to pass, since it needs only a majority vote. Special taxes — levies earmarked for a specific purpose — need two-thirds of the vote.

The measure also asks voters to approve the creation of an oversight group that would monitor where the money goes. The supervisors also voted on a spending plan for the tax money, which would dedicate the largest portion of funds for uninsured residents over the next five years.

Some opponents predict the tax will stick around longer than advertised.

“A temporary tax is like Bigfoot,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a group that advocates for lower taxes. “It exists in fantasy.”

State of play

— FRIENDLY FIRE: Three hours before the filing deadline, L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman jumped into the race for mayor, challenging her former ally Karen Bass. Her candidacy will be Bass’ most serious threat.

— DEFUND DETOUR: Shortly after, Raman staked out her position on cops, saying she doesn’t want the LAPD to lose more police. Raman called for department downsizing when she first ran for city council in 2020.

— LOYAL LABOR: The head of the AFL-CIO, the county’s powerful labor federation, blasted Raman as an “opportunist.” Federation president Yvonne Wheeler said her organization will “use every tool” at its disposal to get Bass reelected.

— PETITION PUSH: Scores of candidates for L.A. city offices picked up their petitions Feb. 7, launching their effort to collect the signatures they need to qualify for the ballot. The first to turn in a petition was Councilmember Traci Park, who is facing two challengers while running for reelection in a coastal district.

— EYES ON ICE: Los Angeles police officers must turn on their body cameras if they’re at the scene of federal immigration enforcement operations, according to a new executive directive issued by Bass. LAPD officers also must document the name and badge number of the agents’ on-scene supervisor.

— CONTESTING CLEANUPS: A federal judge ruled this week that the city of L.A. violated the constitutional rights of homeless people by seizing and destroying their personal property during encampment cleanups. Lawyers for the plaintiffs want U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer to issue an injunction requiring the city to give homeless people the opportunity to contest the seizure of their property.

— HOTEL HIKE: Voters in the June 2 election will be asked to hike the city’s tax on nightly hotel stays — increasing it to 16% from 14% — for the next three years. The tax would then drop to 15% in 2029.

— PAYDAY POLITICS: The county is considering a proposal that would remove supervisors’ final decision-making power in contract disputes involving sheriff’s deputies and firefighters. Supporters say it’ll take politics out of labor negotiations while opponents warn of bloated labor costs.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to Los Angeles City Council District 13, bringing 50 unhoused Angelenos indoors from an encampment.
• On the docket next week: The county’s back to its marathon budget briefings. Tune in Tuesday for presentations from the sheriff, district attorney and probation department.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Welcome to your daily review and preview of this year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics. My name is John Cherwa and I’m your tour director for the Games as we learn how thin the line is between greatness and failure.

In the most shocking moment of the Games so far, U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin had the gold at his doorstep but instead had a dreadful performance, falling twice and giving the gold to Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan. The feeling in the arena was that there with no way Malinin could lose with his big lead after the short program. Then his main competitor, Yuma Yagiyama of Japan, had a subpar skate just before Malinin took the ice as the last skater of the night.

But Malinin missed his first combo and could never regain his composure in what was likely his worst performance in a major competition in quite some time. He finished eighth but at age 21, we could see him in a future Olympics. It was Malinin’s first loss since Nov. 2023.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we thought we should look at some of the athlete couples at the Games. We compiled the list from People, so we take no responsibility for last-minute fights or splits (other than time splits, of course).

• Madison Chock and Evan Bates: U.S. ice dancers. Won the silver with a gold-medal performance.
• Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight: U.S. speedskater Bowe finished fourth in the women’s 1,000 meters and has the 1,500 and team pursuit to go. Knight plays for the U.S. women’s hockey team, which is in the semifinals.
• Nicole Silveira and Kim Meylemans: Both are in the women’s skeleton with Silveira competing for Brazil and Meylemans for Belgium. After two of four heats, Meylemans is eighth and Silveira is 12th.
• Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey: Both are members of the Canadian women’s hockey team, who, despite losing to the U.S. in pool play, is expected to contend for a medal.
• Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien: This pair’s love is on the rocks … or stones if your prefer. They are curlers for Norway. They finished sixth in the mixed competition.
• Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant: It’s another curling pair swept to each other’s brooms. The Canadians finished fifth in the mixed competition.
• Ronja Savolainen and Anna Kjellbin: These hockey players play for two different countries, Savolainen for Finland and Kjellbin for Sweden. Both countries made the quarterfinals with Sweden already advancing to the semifinals.
• Hunter Powell and Kaysha Love: This U.S. bobsledding couple will see competition soon, Powell in the four-man and Love in both singles and doubles.
• Emily and Dominik Fischnaller. This luge couple will bring back some hardware. Dominik, who sleds for Italy, took bronze in singles and team relay. Emily, who competes for the U.S., was 12th in singles.

There are certainly others, and some in the making as we speak, but this is a sampling.

Elsewhere on Friday

• Italy is on fire at these Games but were not hot enough to beat the U.S. in women’s hockey. The U.S. won 6-0 and will move to the semifinals.
• France, followed by two from Norway, won the biathlon men’s 10-kilometer sprint. The best U.S. finisher was Campbell Wright in 12th.
• Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, the GOAT of cross-country skiing, won his eighth lifetime gold for Norway by winning the men’s 10-kilometer interval start free. He is tied for most lifetime gold medals in the Winter Games and has three more events. John Steel Hagenbuch of the U.S. was 14th.
• The U.S. and Canada played each other in both men’s and women’s curling. The women won, 9-8, (now 2-1) and the men lost, 6-3, (1-2).
• The U.S. was shut out on snowboard with Australia winning gold in women’s snowboard cross and Japan getting gold and bronze in men’s halfpipe.
• Matt Weston, the world champion from Britain, won men’s skeleton. Germans won silver and bronze. Austin Florian of the U.S. was 12th.
• A 19-year-old from Czechia won the men’s 10,000 meters in speedskating. The U.S. did not compete.

Best Thing to Watch on TV today

Today is the day to take a breath from figure skating. It also seems to be a good time for your tour guide to admit something: I have absolutely no idea if the skaters are doing three, three and a half, four or four and a half rotations when they are in air in real time. OK, I said it. Are you nodding your head in affirmation right now? Thought so. OK, let’s go to something different for today.

The best bet will be the men’s 500 meters in speed skating. Jordan Stolz, the winner of the 1,000 for the U.S., will be in the 12th pair in the event which starts at 8 a.m PST. This isn’t his best event but he should have confidence and momentum going his way. If you need your hockey fix, the U.S. men play Denmark around 12:10 p.m.

Favorite photo of the day

France’s Adam Siao Him Fa performs a backflip while competing in the figure skating men’s free skate Friday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Times photographer Robert Gauthier is at the Winter Olympics. Each day Times newsletter editor Houston Mitchell will select a favorite photo from the many he has taken.

Saturday’s Olympic TV and streaming schedule

Saturday’s live TV and streaming broadcasts for the Milan-Cortina Olympics unless noted (subject to change). All events stream live on Peacock or NBCOlympics.com with a streaming or cable login. All times Pacific. 🏅 — medal event for live broadcasts.

MULTIPLE SPORTS

8 p.m. — “Primetime in Milan” (delay): Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, speedskating and more. | NBC

ALPINE SKIING
1 a.m. — Men’s giant slalom, Run 1 | USA
4:30 a.m. 🏅Men’s giant slalom, Run 2 | NBC

BIATHLON
5:45 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint | NBC

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
3 a.m. — 🏅Women’s 4×7.5-kilometer relay | USA
4 a.m. — Women’s 4×7.5-kilometer relay (delay) | NBC

CURLING
Women (round robin)
12:05 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada | Peacock
12:05 a.m. — Italy vs. China | Peacock
12:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Japan | Peacock
4:30 a.m. — Britain vs. Canada (delay) | USA
Men (round robin)
5:05 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. | Peacock
5:05 a.m. — Czechia vs. Britain | Peacock
5:05 a.m. — Sweden vs. China | Peacock
5:05 a.m. — Switzerland vs. Canada | Peacock
Women (round robin)
5:30 a.m. — Italy vs. China (delay) | CNBC
Men (round robin)
10 a.m. — Germany vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC
Women (round robin)
10:05 a.m. — Japan vs. U.S. | Peacock
10:05 a.m. — Canada vs. Switzerland | Peacock
10:05 a.m. — Italy vs. Sweden | Peacock
10:05 a.m. — South Korea vs. Denmark | Peacock
2:30 p.m. — Japan vs. U.S. (delay) | CNBC

FREESTYLE SKIING
1:30 a.m. — 🏅Women’s dual moguls, finals | Peacock
1:40 a.m. — 🏅Women’s dual moguls, finals (in progress) | USA
7 a.m. — Women’s dual moguls, finals (delay) | NBC
10:30 a.m. — Women’s big air, qualifying | Peacock

HOCKEY
Men (group play)
3 a.m. — Germany vs. Latvia | CNBC
3:10 a.m. — Sweden vs. Slovakia | Peacock
7:40 a.m. — Finland vs. Italy | USA
Women (quarterfinals)
7:40 a.m. — Canada vs. Germany | CNBC
12:10 p.m. — Finland vs. Switzerland | CNBC
Men (group play)
12:10 p.m. — U.S. vs. Denmark | USA

SKELETON
9 a.m. — Women, Run 3 | NBC
10:35 a.m. — Women, final run | Peacock
2:30 p.m. — Women, runs 3-4 (delay) | USA

SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING
11:15 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | Peacock
3:15 p.m. — 🏅Men’s 1,500 meters final and more | USA

SKI JUMPING
8:30 a.m. — Men’s large hill, trial round| Peacock
10 a.m. — 🏅Men’s large hill, final round | USA

SPEEDSKATING
7 a.m. — Women’s team pursuit, qualifying | USA
8 a.m. — 🏅Men’s 500 meters | NBC

In case you missed it …

Check out the following Milan-Cortina Olympics dispatches from the L.A. Times team on the ground in Italy:

2026 Olympics Day 8 live updates: South America earns first Winter Games medal ever

Inside the terrifying and efficient world of Olympic ski airlifts

Ilia Malinin describes crippling anxiety that cost the favorite a Winter Olympics medal

Power couple Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight eager to cap their Olympic careers with gold

Puerto Rico’s lone Winter Olympian hopes to inspire others to represent the island

Mikaela Shiffrin hopes to end her Olympic slump, but winning gold won’t be easy

Caribbean sprinters are hoping to transform Winter Olympic bobsledding

Winter Olympics TV schedule: Sunday’s listings

Visualizing success: Why Olympic skiers mentally rehearse before every run

Caribbean sprinters are hoping to transform Winter Olympic bobsledding

2026 Winter Olympics Day 7 recap: Results, medal count, schedule

Until next time…

That concludes today’s Sports Report Olympic Edition newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email newsletter editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here and select the Sports Report.

Feb. 13 (UPI) — A grand jury on Friday indicted Terrell Storey for murder and on 58 other charges after allegedly causing the deaths of two troopers when their police helicopter crashed in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Storey, 50, faces two counts of first-degree felony murder and 58 other felony charges in the Coconino County Superior Court arising from the deaths of Department of Public Safety trooper and paramedic Hunter Bennett and DPS helicopter pilot Robert Skankey.

“Our hearts remain with the families of Hunter Bennett and Robert Skankey, and with all the families impacted by this incident,” Coconino County attorney Ammon Barker said in a prepared statement.

“We are committed to pursuing this case with the diligence and care it requires,” Barker added.

Storey is accused of using a rifle to shoot at the helicopter while he jumped from rooftop to rooftop and exchanged gunfire with local police.

Skankey and Bennett died when their police helicopter crashed while assisting Flagstaff police in responding to an active shooter on the night of Feb. 4.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the cause of the crash and a fire that broke out after the helicopter struck the ground.

Storey also faces charges related to several other alleged victims, including 25 police officers and the residents of several homes in a neighborhood that is located north of Route 66 and between Thompson Road and Mark Lane.

The incident started at about 8:30 p.m. MST and continued for 2 hours before Storey was shot and arrested.

WHEN people ask me about city breaks, the question they ask has changed over the years.

It used to be about nightlife, food scenes or ticking off landmarks.

Now, more often than not, it’s parents asking a much more practical version of the same thing. Where is a good place to go with kids?

I’m Rob. I work in travel, I look at holiday pricing and trends every day, and I’ve stayed in more hotels than I can count.

I’m also 32, with a two-year-old and an eight-month-old. That combination has completely reshaped how I think about city breaks.

For me, the right family city break is about timing as much as place.

Sensible weather. Walkable centres. Enough going on without it feeling overwhelming. Somewhere forgiving if the day doesn’t go to plan.

This is my month-by-month guide to where I’d go on a city break with kids, based on value, weather, popularity and what’s actually on.

They’re all places I’d genuinely feel comfortable taking my own family.

January – Budapest, Hungary

January is a month where calm matters. After Christmas, families tend to want somewhere affordable, predictable and easy to manage, and Budapest fits that bill perfectly.

It is cold, usually around 3 to 5C, but that brings real advantages.

The city is quiet, hotel prices drop significantly, and the city moves at a slower pace. That makes it far less stressful with buggies and tired legs.

Budapest is compact, flat and well-connected by trams, which makes getting around simple.

Indoor attractions like cafés and historic bathhouses give you plenty of warm places to dip into throughout the day.

I’ve found January breaks from around £114pp for a family of four, which is exceptional value for a European capital.

February – Venice, Italy

February works for families because it offers spectacle without the chaos you get later in the year.

Venice Carnival brings colour, parades and street performers, particularly during the daytime when it feels surprisingly family-friendly.

Children get the magic of masks and costumes, while parents avoid the summer (and summer prices).

Temperatures hover around 7 to 9C, which keeps days comfortable for walking.

Vaporetto boats also turn everyday transport into part of the experience, which is always a win with younger travellers.

I’ve found February stays from around £130pp for a family of four, especially when staying just outside the historic centre.

March – Amsterdam, Netherlands

March is one of the most reliable months for a family city break, and Amsterdam is one of the easiest cities to do with children.

The weather sits around 10 to 12C, the city starts to feel brighter, and peak tourism is still a few weeks away.

It is flat, organised and designed for everyday life, which makes navigating it with kids feel intuitive rather than stressful.

March is also when parks, canal walks and museums like NEMO Science Museum really come into their own, giving you options that work whether the day is high energy or low key.

I’ve found March breaks from around £140pp for a family of four, before spring demand pushes prices up.

April – Athens, Greece

April is a sweet spot for Athens, especially for families who want warmth without exhaustion.

Temperatures typically range between 18 and 22C, which makes sightseeing genuinely enjoyable.

You can explore historic sites without battling summer heat or shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, and there is more space to take things at a slower pace.

Easter often falls in April, bringing local celebrations, food and atmosphere that make the city feel lived in rather than purely touristic.

It is a good month for mixing big sights with relaxed neighbourhood wandering.

I’ve found April city breaks from around £140pp for a family of four, which is strong value for such a bucket list destination.

May – Istanbul, Turkey

May works brilliantly for families because Istanbul becomes warm and lively without tipping into intense heat.

Temperatures sit around 22C to 25C, which is comfortable for walking, ferry rides and outdoor meals.

The city naturally breaks days into short, varied experiences, which is ideal with children. A boat ride, a park stop, some street food, then a rest.

Public transport is efficient, parks like Gülhane provide breathing space, and the sheer variety of sights keeps everyone engaged without needing a rigid plan.

I’ve found May breaks from around £130pp for a family of four, making it one of the best-value big cities in Europe at that time of year.

June – Stockholm, Sweden

June is when Stockholm really makes sense for families.

Long daylight hours, mild temperatures around 18 to 22C, and a strong outdoor culture mean days feel relaxed rather than rushed.

Parks, islands and waterfront walks are everywhere, and ferries turn getting around into part of the fun.

The city feels calm, clean and safe, with lots of space to pause when needed. Museums are interactive, and many attractions are designed with families in mind.

I’ve found June breaks from around £147pp for a family of four, which is good value considering how expensive Stockholm can be later in the summer.

July – Krakow, Poland

July is peak summer, but Krakow works for families because it combines warmth with value and a very manageable city layout.

Temperatures can reach 25 to 30°C, but the city centre is compact and full of shaded squares where you can slow things down when needed.

Summer festivals and outdoor cafés give the city energy without it feeling overwhelming, and everything is close enough that you are never committing to long days out.

Food prices are low, accommodation is good value, and it is an easy city to dip in and out of at your own pace.

I’ve found July breaks from around £144pp for a family of four, which is strong value for a European city in the heart of the school holidays.

August – Edinburgh, UK

August is Edinburgh at full tilt, but it is one of the rare cities where busyness actually works for families.

The Fringe Festival fills the city with daytime street performers, pop-up shows and family-friendly entertainment that you can stumble across without planning ahead.

That makes it ideal if you want flexibility rather than rigid itineraries.

Temperatures usually sit between 18 and 21C, which is perfect for walking without fatigue, and green spaces are never far away if you need a break.

I’ve found August flight and hotel breaks from around £217pp for a family of four. You could do it cheaper with hotel-only and driving or getting the train, but flights are often so reasonably priced that it still makes sense to fly.

September – Munich, Germany

September is a great time to visit Munich with kids.

Early autumn brings warm but comfortable days around 18 to 22C, and the city feels open and easy to navigate.

Oktoberfest adds colour and atmosphere during the day, with fairground rides and music that children enjoy, while the rest of the city remains calm and spacious.

It is easy to sample the buzz without being consumed by it, which is exactly what families need.

I’ve found September breaks from around £180pp for a family of four, particularly when travelling outside the busiest Oktoberfest weekends.

October – Seville

October is the month Seville really starts to shine for families.

The extreme summer heat has gone, leaving warm, comfortable days that suit walking and exploring.

Crowds thin out significantly, which makes the city feel calmer and easier to enjoy with children.

Public squares, parks and shaded streets give you natural places to pause, and the pace of life slows after peak season.

I’ve found October breaks from around £204pp for a family of four, which is good value for southern Spain at its most comfortable.

November – Naples, Italy

November is ideal for families who want a more relaxed, authentic city break.

Temperatures stay mild, usually between 15 and 18C, and tourist numbers drop sharply. That brings better prices and a much more local feel, with everyday life taking centre stage.

Naples is lively and unapologetically real, which many children find fascinating.

Simple pleasures like waterfront walks and excellent, inexpensive food carry the experience.

I’ve found November breaks from around £140pp for a family of four, making it one of the best-value Italian city breaks of the year.

December – Cologne, Germany

December works for families because everything is concentrated and atmospheric.

Christmas markets cluster around the cathedral and surrounding squares, making the city easy to explore on foot.

Lights, music, hot chocolate and gentle fairground rides deliver festive payoff without long days or complicated planning.

Short days actually suit the experience, as you do not need to do much to feel like you have seen plenty.

I’ve found December breaks from around £180pp for a family of four, outside the busiest Christmas market weekends.

City breaks with kids are not about doing more – they’re about choosing the right place at the right time.

Get the month right, and suddenly the weather cooperates, prices feel fair, crowds ease off, and cities become enjoyable rather than exhausting.

These are the places I would confidently take my own family. Thought-through, well-timed choices that work in real life.

The decision to send the Ford Carrier Strike Group (CSG) from the Caribbean to the Middle East was made after the Navy’s top officer said he would give “push back” against such an order over concerns about the welfare of the crew and the condition of the ship after being deployed for so long. The carrier departed Norfolk last June for the Mediterranean. It was later dispatched to the Caribbean last October by President Donald Trump to take part in a mission that ultimately resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Trump’s new deployment order for the Ford came as he is considering whether to attack Iran amid ongoing negotiations and after sending the Abraham Lincoln CSG to U.S. Central Command area of operations.

“I think the Ford, from its capability perspective, would be an invaluable option for any military thing the president wants to do,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), told a small group of reporters, including from The War Zone, last month at the Surface Navy Association’s (SNA) annual symposium. “But if it requires an extension, it’s going to get some push back from the CNO. And I will see if there is something else I can do.”

Caudle didn’t provide any specifics about what actions he would take to forestall an extension.

Regardless, the order to send the Ford CSG to the Middle East will extend its time away from its homeport even further. The ship won’t even get to the region until near the end of this month and it’s unclear how long it will be needed there, although Trump has mentioned something of a loose timeline.

“I guess over the next month, something like that,” Trump said Thursday in response to a question about his timeline for striking a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. “It should happen quickly. They should agree very quickly.”

There is also a chance that the Ford could be ordered to turn around should a deal be reached with Iran.

Trump also said it would be “very traumatic” for Iran should no deal be reached.

On Friday, Trump gave reporters his rationale for ordering the Ford to the Middle East.

“We’ll need it if we don’t make a deal,” the U.S. president told reporters.

“The strike group’s current deployment has already been extended once, and its sailors were expecting to come home in early March,” The New York Times, which was first to report that the Ford was ordered to the Middle East, noted. “The new delay will further jeopardize the Ford’s scheduled dry dock period in Virginia, where major upgrades and repairs have been planned.”

It is publicly unknown what discussions the CNO had with senior administration and Pentagon officials and whether he raised any objections or sought alternatives to keeping the Ford at sea longer than anticipated. We have reached out to his office and will update this story with any details provided. We also reached out to the White House and Joint Chiefs of Staff, which referred us to the CNO’s office.

At the SNA conference, Caudle emphasized that there is a price to be paid for the strike group after being away from homeport for more than 200 days under often intense conditions. That was almost exactly a month ago.

“I am a big non-fan of extensions, and because they do have significant impact,” Caudle explained. “Number one, I’m a sailors-first CNO. People want to have some type of certainty that they’re going to do a seven-month deployment.”

Beyond affecting people, extensions also have a detrimental impact on the ship in addition to its previously noted dry dock schedule.

“So now, when the ship comes back, we expected the ship to be in this level of state in which it was used during that seven-month deployment, when it goes eight, nine-plus months, those critical components that we weren’t expecting to repair are now on the table,” Caudle pointed out. “The work package grows, so that’s disruptive.”

In addition to the maintenance issues Caudle brought up at the SNA conference, the Ford also is also plagued by sewage issues.

You can read more about how detrimental deferred maintenance is to carriers — or any U.S. Navy warship for that matter — that get their deployments extended in our deep dive here.

It is not unusual for there to be two carriers deployed to the Middle East region. For instance, a year ago, the U.S. Navy had both the USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time, engaged in combat operations against Yemen-based Houthi rebels. However, the Navy has 10 active carriers after the Nimitz, the service’s oldest, returned to port in December ahead of a scheduled decommissioning. There are scheduling and logistical support limits to how many can be out at sea at the same time without massive disruptions down the line.

The USS Eisenhower, the last carrier to make an extended deployment, has seen its planned maintenance extended for a half year and counting as a result of the additional strain of being away from its home port for so long. The Navy’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget shows that work on the ship was supposed to have been completed last July, but it is still unfinished. The lack of availability reverberates across the rest of the fleet. That in turn limits the options commanders have when planning or preparing for contingencies and puts the overall carrier availability plan out of whack.

As for the rest of the fleet, three other carriers are in various maintenance periods taking them out of action for extended periods. In addition, the USS George Washington is forward deployed to Japan, two carriers are preparing for deployment and two are in post-deployment mode.

The move to send the Ford to the Middle East comes amid a growing buildup of forces ahead of a potential conflict with Iran. In addition to the Ford, the Pentagon is also dispatching a peculiarly small number of Air Force tactical aircraft to the Middle East, joining a limited number of aircraft already there on land and sea.

In addition to the Lincoln, there are also at least nine other warships in the region, including five Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers. Submarines are also there, but their presence is not disclosed, and there are more than 30,000 troops on bases around the Middle East.

During the first week of February, three U.S. Navy ships transited the Malacca Strait northbound with little fanfare, entering the Indian Ocean.

The trap was set. Expeditionary Sea Base USS Miguel Keith (ESB 5), embarked with U.S. special forces, and destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG… pic.twitter.com/HTVXqTCV4f

— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) February 11, 2026

Another CSG, with its embarked tactical aircraft and Aegis-equipped escorts, would certainly bolster America’s firepower in the Middle East. As we have frequently pointed out, even with the jets that are there and those arriving, there is not enough tactical airpower there now for a major sustained operation. A second CSG would provide significant help.

It remains unknown what orders Trump will give or when, but a second carrier strike group in the region gives him more options.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

“Real Housewives of Potomac” personality Karen Huger says she has turned over a new leaf nearly two years after crashing her Maserati in a drunk-driving accident.

The reality TV star, 62, on Thursday opened up about her 2024 DUI arrest and the six-month county jail sentence that followed in a conversation with Sherri Shepherd. Huger, dubbed the Grand Dame by fans, told the “Sherri” host that she is “so happy and so at peace right now to be on the other side.”

In March 2024, Maryland police arrested Huger for driving under the influence after she crashed her car into a street divider and a tree in Potomac. In addition to the DUI, Huger was also found guilty on negligent driving charges and sentenced in February 2025 to one year in jail. After serving six months in Maryland’s Montgomery County Detention Center, she was released in September.

For her sit-down with Shepherd, Huger was styled in a formfitting burnt orange dress, metallic cuffs and a chic bob. While the daytime host complimented her look, Huger said her exterior is “not a reflection of what God has done for me.”

“I healed myself, so thank you,” she continued, “but the inside is what matters.”

Huger spoke candidly about how the 2024 accident pushed her to confront her struggles with alcohol addiction. At the time of the crash, Huger attributed her drinking to the grief of losing her mother and urged drivers to “understand your emotional state” before driving a car. She said Thursday that the drunk-driving incident was her running away from the reality of grief and addiction and her choice to not listen to God.

Huger told Shepherd that, prior to the accident, she was a “functional addict” who would drink off-screen during her time on “RHOP” — a habit she said she’s now ashamed of.

“I was dead wrong,” she said Thursday of her accident. “I’m so grateful no one was killed, no other person was hurt. I’m so grateful to be alive. I could’ve died.”

The reality TV star said six months in county jail — without cameras and her creature comforts — proved to be a period of self-improvement and empowerment. Huger said she began treatment to address her alcohol addiction and carried that on in prison. She said she led Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while behind bars.

“I have a responsibility to tell my truth and share it with the world if they’re willing to listen,” she told Shepherd.

Huger previously spoke about the scandal with Andy Cohen, telling the Bravo host earlier this month that she had been in denial about her grief and addiction. She also told Cohen that she was taking her sobriety one day at a time, a sentiment she echoed on “Sherri.” Her two adult children are also major motivators to stay sober, she said.

The “RHOP” star, eager to put her DUI behind her, recalled seeing her two adult children “through a glass window” in jail and recognizing “the pain that put them through.”

“I didn’t think about how they would feel,” she said, underscoring she intends for that to be a onetime experience.

Huger said Thursday that it remains to be seen whether she will return to “RHOP” for future seasons. Huger was absent from the season amid her sentence but appeared in the Season 10 finale. The “RHOP” cast, including Huger, reunited for the series’ three-part reunion, which begins airing on Sunday.

In the fallout of the scandal, Huger told Shepherd she feels like the same “Karen Huger, just clean.” She also isn’t resisting fans’ “Grand Dame” nickname, despite her scandal.

“If they want me to be their Grand Dame, no one else could do it anyway.”

WHEELING, W. Va — In his bid to appeal to voters as a candidate of the future, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton is playing heavily on the imagery of the past–specifically, on the mythologized image of his party’s 1960 candidate, John F. Kennedy.

For the past two days, the Arkansas governor and his running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, have walked in footsteps left by the late President Kennedy 32 years ago.

As the sun set Saturday night in the old steel town of McKeesport, Pa., they stood under a jaunty statue of the late President, built in Kennedy Park on a site he visited during his presidential campaign.

Sunday morning, they hit West Virginia, where Kennedy turned around his presidential campaign with a victory in the state’s 1960 primary. At the Weirton Community Center, where John Kennedy had spoken to townspeople and where his brother Robert came in November, 1965, to dedicate a bust of the assassinated President, Clinton summoned the memories.

“In 1960 that man, John Kennedy, came here to this place and said it’s time to change and that’s what I say to you,” Clinton said, pointing at the Kennedy memorial.

“We have not met the challenge of this new age. We have won the Cold War . . . but we’re losing the peace because we have refused to change, to do what it takes to compete and win in a tough world economy, and we’re going to do that. . . .”

Halfway through their six-day, 1,004-mile bus tour from New York to St. Louis, Clinton and Gore have been doing their best to look like a ‘90s version of John and Robert Kennedy, tossing around a football for the television cameras and jogging after church Sunday morning.

Sunday in West Virginia, where Democrats have long held sway politically, they toured a steel mill, posing in the hot orange glow of molten ore. After a stop in Wheeling, where Clinton taped a cable television show, the candidates headed to Ohio, where they spent the evening at a Utica farm, owned by the state’s Democratic party chairman.

At the carefully staged farm appearance, Clinton told about 60 people that he would work to save the family farm. “Al Gore and I represent a better future,” he said, standing in a muddy patch of soil. “We’ve already gotten you rain since I was nominated.”

While the locations were ever-changing as Clinton and Gore moved west by bus, the image was consistent–they were meant to be seen as vigorous and exciting. Indeed, they were met at virtually every stop by voters squealing as if they were witnessing the arrival of a rock band.

While the exuberant response buoyed the candidates and their wives, Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore, Clinton used the occasion to deliver a warning.

“In the weeks and months ahead, America will be put to the test,” he said. “Al Gore and I will ask you to vote for the future and vote for change. Our opponents will tell you that everything’s going to be all right and keep it the way it is.

“They’ll try to frighten you about us. . . . They’ll tell you that we’re too liberal and we’re too young and we’re too this and we’re too that and we’re too the other thing.

“I’ll tell you what–we’re too much (on the side of) the American people for their tastes.”

While Clinton is clearly hoping for a positive comparison with Kennedy, he runs the risk that voters will find him wanting compared to Kennedy. Vice President Dan Quayle found out in a 1988 debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen that casting one’s self in the image of an assassinated leader can be troublesome.

“Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy,” said Bentsen, in a line that outlived the campaign.

Clinton, however, has had his path smoothed by Kennedy’s own allies. At McKeesport, for example, Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford, a founding member of Kennedy’s Peace Corps, asserted that crowds as large as those greeting Clinton and Gore had not been seen since the Kennedy visit.

“We don’t know everything that John Kennedy would have done had he got a chance,” Wofford told more than 1,000 people who lined the park to see Clinton. “But he was cut down, and now we pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders. One thing I do know–if John Fitzgerald Kennedy was here today, he would say: ‘I ask you to make Bill Clinton and Al Gore the next President and vice president of the United States.’ ”

The image-making was so pronounced that one member of the audience stood to ask Clinton what he thought about the Warren Commission’s determination that President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

Clinton passed the question to Gore, who reminded the townspeople that recently a House committee had concluded that Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy of unknown origin.

“I believe that,” Gore said. “I think most Americans believe that.”

Clinton agreed with Gore’s contention that federal files held secret since the Kennedy assassination should be opened to the public. But he backed away from Gore’s pronouncement of support for the conspiracy theory.

“My opinion is slightly less formed,” Clinton said. “I don’t know whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or not, but I know there are a lot of questions that the American people don’t have answers for.”

The Kennedyesque image that Clinton is attempting to cultivate has paid him benefits in the areas where the late President is still revered. In Weirton, W. Va., for example, Peggy Petrella stood outside the community center and tried to catch a glimpse of Clinton, much as she had stood outside in 1965 when Robert Kennedy came to town.

“We were at a standstill in 1960 and we are certainly at a standstill now,” she said, noting comparisons between the two men.

Clinton and Gore’s efforts have drawn fire from Republicans, who have asserted that the two are not moderates in the John Kennedy mold but unabashed liberals.

Coming back from jogging on Sunday morning, Clinton and Gore brushed aside the criticism.

“It shows how impoverished they are,” Clinton said. “They have nothing to say to America. Nothing to be for, no record to run on, no vision of the future.”

He added later: “It’s a knee-jerk thing. You know, it’s almost like they have to have some sort of inoculation or a shot to get over that.”

The number of visitors is “overwhelming” the picture-perfect village

The “Venice of the Cotswolds” is now pushing for coaches to be barred from the village centre as fears mount over “Disneyfication” and excessive tourism. Roughly 100 residents of Bourton-on-the-Water raised their worries about overtourism during a November gathering before Shire Hall and District officials.

This week, the Parish Council backed a motion requesting an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) to limit coach entry into Station Road from the Fosseway, Rissington Road and the Steeps. The move represents a major development in Bourton’s continuing battle to tackle longstanding local anxieties regarding the effect of substantial coach traffic volumes on principal routes cutting through the village.

District Councillor Jon Wareing (LD, Bourton Village), who has championed the cause in recent years, urged parish councillors to back the proposal asking Gloucestershire County Council for the ETRO, reports Gloucestershire Live.

“This is not a new position,” he stated. “The Parish Council previously supported similar measures in 2024, reflecting sustained public concern about congestion, safety and quality of life impacts linked to unrestricted coach access through the village centre.”

He noted that circumstances have shifted, with greater clarity that enforcement is now feasible, including via Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology.

This development is viewed as eliminating one of the traditional obstacles to implementing traffic restrictions. Cllr Wareing stated that all parties must begin collaborating to identify a sustainable long-term solution akin to those implemented in destinations including Clovelly, St Ives, York, Bath, Oxford and Cambridge.

He emphasised that the decision ought to be viewed as an initial step towards addressing the broader systemic problem of the substantial volume of visitors descending on Bourton in vehicles annually.

“It’s not just coaches – it’s cars as well,” he said. “People often refer to Bourton as the Venice of the Cotswolds.

“Venice is widely seen as unsustainable because visitor numbers overwhelm a small, fragile historic city – pushing out residents, damaging heritage and infrastructure, and putting pressure on the environment, retail and public services.

“The same risks exist here. We could become Venice in the Cotswolds in terms of the impact on our heritage village.

“We need to reverse the ‘Disneyfication’ of Bourton and develop a regenerative approach, where tourism is managed deliberately to support local life rather than displace it.”

County Councillor Paul Hodgkinson (LD, Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach) revealed he understands residents’ exasperation with certain coaches failing to utilise the designated drop-off and collection point on Meadow Way.

He confirmed that Shire Hall is currently assessing the effectiveness of the interim measure, which was devised to divert coach traffic away from the village centre.

“We are reviewing the effectiveness of that this week and will do so again in May. It’s really important that all coaches use the point legally,” he said.

“I am committed to making sure residents are safe and that coaches cause the minimum disruption, whilst helping local businesses to be successful.

“At the County Council we will definitely take this request seriously and I’ll be talking to council officers about how it could work.”

Feb. 13 (Asia Today) — Poverty is increasingly being passed down across generations in South Korea’s non-metropolitan regions, with education reform cited as a key starting point for reversing the trend.

A recent report by the Bank of Korea titled “Interregional Population Mobility and Intergenerational Economic Inheritance” found that social mobility has sharply declined outside the capital region.

According to the report, eight out of 10 children ages 36 to 40 who were born to parents in the bottom 50% income bracket outside the capital region and remained in their hometowns still fall within the bottom half of income earners. The rate has risen significantly from 58.9% in earlier years to 80.9% in recent data.

The findings support the long-held perception that children from economically disadvantaged families who relocate to the capital region have greater chances of upward mobility, while those who remain in provincial areas are more likely to experience continued economic hardship. The pattern has become more pronounced among younger generations.

Regional income disparities have also widened. The per capita income gap between the capital region and non-capital areas grew from 3.2 million won ($2,370) in 2005 to 5.5 million won ($4,070) in 2023, based on prevailing exchange rates. During roughly the same period, real apartment prices in Seoul rose 19.6%, while prices in non-metropolitan regions fell 3%.

The report suggests that birthplace increasingly shapes economic opportunity in South Korea. While manufacturing once provided quality jobs in regional areas, high-paying positions in knowledge-based industries are now concentrated in the capital region. Young people continue to migrate to Seoul and surrounding areas in search of work, reinforcing the cycle of concentration.

Experts say a comprehensive government response is needed. They argue that reforming the education system should be the first step, particularly by expanding opportunities for students in disadvantaged regions.

As one proposed measure, the central bank recommended a regional proportional admissions system. Under the proposal, top universities in the capital region would consider the regional distribution of the school-age population when selecting students. The framework would also include additional consideration for low-income students in non-capital regions, who face greater barriers to admission compared to higher-income peers.

In the longer term, analysts say substantial investment is required to strengthen the competitiveness of schools and major universities outside the capital region. They argue that students in provincial areas should be able to develop their potential without relocating to Seoul.

More broadly, the report calls for an effective national balanced development strategy. Among the options discussed is a development model centered on regional hub cities capable of achieving economies of scale.

The authors conclude that poverty should not be determined by birthplace and urge the government to demonstrate resolve in implementing balanced regional policies.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260212010004700

A deadly exchange of drone strikes has killed one person in Ukraine and one in Russia and cast doubts on the prospects of a ceasefire before another round of negotiations to end the war next week.

News of the deaths comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signalled hurdles to reaching an agreement in Geneva as the conflict is about to enter its fifth year.

Zelenskyy told world leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday while he hopes “substantive” progress will be reached during the trilateral meeting next week, it often feels like the two sides “are talking about different things” in negotiations. 

“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions, and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” Zelenskyy said.

Rubio said it’s unclear if Moscow truly wants to make a peace deal.

“We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war,” he said before the same Munich event. “We’re going to continue to test it.”

Among the most contentious issues in the negotiations is Russia’s demand for a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk that it still controls.

Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pullback and wants Western security guarantees to deter Russia from relaunching its invasion if a ceasefire is reached.

Rubio did not attend a Ukraine-focused meeting with European and NATO leaders held on the sidelines of the first day of the Munich conference on Friday, citing scheduling issues.

In Munich on Saturday, Zelenskyy insisted Russia should not get away with its attack on Ukraine. He said he hoped the United States would stay involved in the peace negotiations and European countries would deepen their involvement.

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel told Al Jazeera while US President Donald Trump should be credited with moving talks forward, he should put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin instead of Zelenskyy.

“Putin has shown no goodwill to come to the table and make a serious deal. The Ukrainians are ready,” van Weel said.

Last week, Zelenskyy said the US had given the warring parties a June deadline to reach a deal, although Trump’s previous ultimatums have not resulted in a breakthrough.

Two previous rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, led by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, reportedly focused on military issues such as a possible buffer zone and ceasefire monitoring.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to many estimates, making the war Europe’s deadliest since World War II.

Russia ⁠is ⁠suffering “crazy losses” in Ukraine with about 65,000 soldiers killed on the battlefield ⁠over the last two months, NATO ⁠Secretary-General Mark Rutte told the conference.

Separately, ‌Rutte told a media roundtable the NATO alliance is strong enough that Russia would not ⁠currently try to attack it. “We ⁠will win every fight with Russia if they ⁠attack us now, and we ⁠have to ⁠make sure in two, four, six years that same ‌is still the case.”

Among the latest casualties was an elderly woman killed on Saturday when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

On Wednesday, Russian strikes also killed three children, including two-year-old twins and their father in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

In January alone, Russia launched more than 6,000 drone attacks against Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy. But he added Ukraine will soon produce enough interceptors to make Russia’s Iran-made Shahed drones “meaningless”.

He also told the Munich conference that every power plant in Ukraine has been damaged in Russian attacks.

In Russia, a civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in the border region of Bryansk, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

The attacks came a day after a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine killed two people and wounded five, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Gladkov earlier said the attack also caused serious damage to energy facilities and electricity, heating and water supplies were cut off. Three apartment buildings in the city sustained damage, he said.

Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko, meanwhile, accused Moscow of launching “energy terror” with attacks on electricity facilities in the heart of winter.

“I can’t call it any other way because when it is minus 20 Celsius in Kyiv and you don’t have heating, you don’t have electricity in your apartment, you’re just freezing and that is awful,” Goncharenko told Al Jazeera in Munich.

“I think it’s time for the United States to put real pressure on Russia. Yes, they are at the table, but it’s time to put real pressure to make them have real negotiations, because what we have today is not real negotiations.”

To age is to find one’s appreciation for life’s daily joys sharpen, especially as more inconvenient realities assert themselves. Lifelong Tangier resident Maria Angeles (Carmen Maura), part of the bustling Moroccan city’s entrenched Spanish community, is one such grateful senior. We see her at the beginning of “Calle Málaga” in a state of smiling contentment, walking her neighborhood streets and being greeted by vendors.

What she surely isn’t expecting, however, as she buys food and makes croquetas in preparation for an eagerly awaited visit from her daughter from Madrid, is that this trip will threaten all she holds dear. That’s because Clara (Marta Etura), a divorced mom struggling to pay the bills, arrives with the news that she’s selling the grand old apartment her widowed mother has lived in for 40 years. Won’t it be nicer for Maria to live with her in Spain and be closer to her grandchildren? Or at the very least be taken care of locally in Spanish-specialized assisted living?

The look on Maura’s face — this celebrated actor’s most well-honed tool — suggests a range of emotions regarding forced elderhood or grannydom that are far less accommodating.

How Maria handles her imminent uprooting is at the core of Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s third feature, her follow-up to the similarly sensitive family drama “The Blue Caftan.” “Calle Málaga,” written with Touzani’s husband Nabil Ayouch, is not a passive narrative, though, merely content with the internalized ache of acceptance. It is to some extent an emotional heist film and protest tale in delicate harmony, in that after initially agreeing to be placed in that Tangier senior center while her possessions are boxed up or sold, Maria schemes to steal her life back from under her absent daughter’s nose.

If you don’t look too closely at the details of Touzani’s charming scenario — which requires that a lot of things to fall into place, if enjoyably so — the movie becomes a sweet and spicy counternarrative to stories about aging that patronize their protagonists. (Another noteworthy example was last year’s rapturous American indie “Familiar Touch.”) Maria essentially becomes a crafty squatter in her own up-for-sale apartment, reclaiming some items from a hard-nosed but increasingly understanding antiques dealer (a well-cast Ahmed Boulane) and engineering a clever way to earn money with the help of friendly neighborhood kids who adore her. Her gambit even opens the door for unexpected romance, giving her frequent chats with Josefa (María Alfonsa Rosso), a childhood friend, an increasingly eye-opening frankness.

It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Maura, her almond-shaped eyes as powerfully suggestive as ever, conveying Maria’s rejuvenated spirit and sensuality with as much magnetism. Touzani, an unfussy, patient director with a fondness for the simplicity of human interaction, implicitly trusts her star to carry the film’s effervescence and complexity, although you may wish the filmmaking was a little less straightforward.

There is, after all, a reckoning for Maria’s situation we can’t help but keep in the back of our mind. Because our first brief glimpse of Clara is a sympathetic one — as opposed to conveniently antagonistic — we know “Calle Málaga” won’t settle for a tidy resolution. And it doesn’t, save leaving us with a view of Maria’s bid for freedom that, like the rose petal that is one of Touzani’s go-to visuals, beautifies the air whether still connected to the roots or separated and strewn like so much that’s fragile in life.

At a House Judiciary hearing on Wednesday, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi was holding a document labeled “Jayapal Pramila Search History” that included a list of files from the unredacted Epstein archive accessible to lawmakers such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).

That means over the course of a year Bondi’s Department of Justice has made time to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell — the New York socialite who helped Jeffrey Epstein run his billion-dollar child-sex-trafficking operation — and it made time to surveil a Democratic lawmaker who conducts oversight as a member of the Judiciary Committee. But it has yet to meet with the victims of Epstein’s crimes who want to talk.

When she took office, Bondi promised us transparency. She didn’t promise we would like what we would see from her.

The general public’s awareness of Epstein’s heinous crimes came with political baggage. However at this point, the question we all should wonder is: How does redacting the names of the men who helped fund Epstein’s operation benefit either political party? It may be good for the rich and powerful men trying to avoid accountability, but it’s not exactly a campaign platform.

Yet here we are as a country, chained to the same vocabulary used during an election, so a conversation that should be about right and wrong is accompanied by poll numbers and analysis about the midterm elections. As if the Justice Department’s refusal to interview rape survivors is an inside-the-Beltway topic and not reflective of a larger moral crisis. We have seen Congress kept out of session to avoid voting on the release of the Epstein files; we have heard equivocation about whether Epstein was a pedophile. We know Epstein’s island was a place where evil resided.

The investigation, or lack of investigation, into Epstein’s fellow abusers should not be seen by anyone as a political quandary in which the object of the game is to keep your party in power. The fact that there is a Republican-vs.-Democrat divide on accountability for sex abuse reveals a national moral crisis. When the abuse of children is viewed through a partisan lens, how else can one describe this period in America?

Fifty years ago, when President Carter was tasked with healing the nation after the Watergate scandal, he told Americans in his inaugural address that he was leaning on his faith, and one prophet in particular.

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?,” Carter said, quoting Micah 6:8. “This inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning, a new dedication within our government, and a new spirit among us all. A president may sense and proclaim that new spirit, but only a people can provide it.”

The Hebrew prophet Micah was from a rural area, not born into the wealth of the royal court. He was not being compensated by those who were. Instead, Micah reflected the voice of the people who were forced to live in poor conditions because of corruption. He described the actions of the morally bankrupt judges, political leaders and other elites in graphic, violent terms, condemning those “who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones.”

This, he said, is what it is like being ruled by those who are not guided by what is good and what is evil, but rather what is most beneficial for themselves in the moment. When Micah spoke, it wasn’t about the latest poll numbers. His warnings about government corruption are not unique to any particular faith, nor are they married to any political party. They embody centuries of human history, a history that tells what happens to a society when power goes unchecked.

And be not mistaken, it was unchecked power — not any party affiliation — that provided Epstein and Maxwell with patronage. It was moral failure, not conservatives or liberals, that provided cover for their child-sex-trafficking ring.

So if for partisan reasons the abusers of children are not held accountable for their crimes, the language of politics fails us. The word for that is simply: evil.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Axel Brown, the pilot of Trinidad and Tobago’s bobsled team, came to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games with a simple goal.

“Just don’t come last,” he said. “We know that there is a 0% chance of us contending for medals. It doesn’t matter if we have the absolute best day we’ve ever had.

“That’s just the reality of it. It’s not defeatist, it’s not negative. It’s just being realistic.”

But it’s also realistic to believe that Trinidad, just by being in the competition, is furthering something of a revolution in the Winter Olympics in general, and in bobsledding in particular.

When Jamaica debuted in the event in 1988, it was so novel it inspired the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings.” Now, it’s no longer unusual to see a team from a tropical climate competing in the Winter Games; there are 11 Caribbean and South American countries, plus Puerto Rico, competing in the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

When the bobsled competition in Cortina begins Sunday, Trinidad will have teams in the two- and four-man events for the first time, while Jamaica will compete in both those events as well as the monobob. Brazil will also be there.

And Brown says it’s only a matter of time — and money — before others join and start contending for medals.

“There’s a very deep talent pool in Caribbean bobsled, one that could make a world-class bobsled program without a doubt,” he said.

That’s because bobsled races are often won or lost at the start, where speed, explosive power and acceleration are vital in getting the 400-pound sled moving. Sprinters have all those traits.

“Even more specific, it’s usually big sprinters,” said Curtis Tomasevicz, a former football player at Nebraska who won Olympic gold and silver medals in the bobsled before becoming a coach with the U.S. team. “They’ve got just an athleticism that is very applicable to pushing sleds.”

Jamaica takes part in a training run at the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games on Friday.

(Al Bello / Getty Images)

And the best sprinters in the world come from the Caribbean — so many, in fact, that trying to make a national team for the Summer Olympics can seem like trying to win the lottery. The Winter Games offer another path.

“In Trinidad and Tobago, there’s a wealth of sprinting talent. So an athlete that in another nation may be the best in the country doesn’t necessarily get a look in Trinidad,” Brown said. “What we’ve been able to do is kind of give those athletes that were maybe on the fringe an option at achieving all of their sporting goals, just doing it in a different way.

“They’ve been training for bobsled their entire lives. They just didn’t know it.”

The transition can be difficult just the same. The first time Trinidad’s Micah Moore, a former sprinter, rode a sled, he said he thought he was going to die.

“I was scared out of my mind,” he said. “I was legitimately feeling, ‘I just want this to be over.’

“After that feeling came off, I was like, ‘Let’s go again.’ It’s an adrenaline rush. There’s no amount of words I could put to say how it felt in that moment.”

If Caribbean bobsledders are deep in talent, what they lack are world-class facilities and funding. In the former they’re hardly alone, said Tomasevicz.

“There are a lot of other nations that obviously don’t have a home track to practice on,” he said. “Even Great Britain, they don’t have a track in their country. So they have to spend time in other nations actually training for the sport.”

Trying to find the money is an even bigger problem — especially for Trinidad, which Brown said was the only team in Cortina that didn’t receive government funding.

“Bobsled is an expensive sport,” Trinidad’s Xaverri Williams said. “We’ve been trying to negotiate with our [national Olympic committee], our Ministry of Sport, reaching out to individuals who are willing to help us.”

Trinidad doesn’t even have a decent sled; it will be racing Sunday with an old secondhand one the team owes money on. Getting a new one that would be competitive with the best in the world could easily cost $250,000 or more.

“You need the funds to further develop the broader program, the recruitment, the [research and development] of the equipment. Everything that there is involved in bobsled,” said Brown, was born in England to a Trinidadian mother, which allows him to compete for the island in the Olympics. “And you need to be able to sustain that.”

You also need the belief that it’s possible to succeed in an icy winter sport even though you’re from a sun-washed country where the average annual temperature is 80 degrees. Jamaica provided that.

“We do in fact look up to them,” Williams said. “When those guys initially slided, it was an eye-opener for the rest of the world, that a Caribbean nation could actually compete. They inspired us.”

“I’m very proud of that,” said Chris Stokes, a four-time Olympian and member of the “Cool Runnings” team who is now president of the country’s bobsled federation.

The next step is to outgrow the novelty and become medal contenders, something Stokes says Jamaica can do by the 2034 Games in Salt Lake City. A top-12 finish in Cortina would keep them on pace to do that, he said.

As for Trinidad and Tobago, Brown said they faced so many challenges just getting to Italy that they considered it a victory when they checked into the Olympic village.

“Our gold medal,” he said “was qualifying.”

England beat Scotland by five wickets in India to recover position in group at 2026 T20 World Cup.

Tom Banton’s unbeaten 63 led England to a five-wicket T20 World Cup victory over Scotland in Kolkata on Saturday that kept Harry Brook’s side on course for the Super Eights.

Victory in their final Group C match against Italy on Monday at the same Eden Gardens stadium will see England safely into the next round.

After bowling Scotland out for 152, England racked up 155-5 in 18.2 overs, with Jacob Bethell scoring 32, Sam Curran 28 and Will Jacks (16 off 10 balls) hitting a six and a four to finish the job.

England wobbled at the start of their chase as the new white ball swung under the floodlights with the sun going down.

Phil Salt fell third ball to Brandon McMullen for just two and when Jos Buttler picked out McMullen off Brad Currie, they were 13-2.

Scotland bowled tightly until Bethell broke the shackles by hitting McMullen for a six and two fours in the fifth over.

Spinner Mark Watt also came in for some punishment, conceding 22 off his first over as Banton took him for three huge sixes.

A 66-run partnership ended when the left-handed Bethell, on 32, helped a leg-side delivery from Oliver Davidson into the grateful hands of Brad Wheal at short fine leg.

Captain Brook did not last long, scooping Michael Leask over his shoulder to Wheal to make it 86-4, but England were always in control and got home with 10 balls to spare.

Earlier, England’s bowlers found their mojo and vindicated Brook’s decision to field on winning the toss.

After being smacked to all parts of Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in conceding 196 to the West Indies on Wednesday, England’s attack exerted much more control at Eden Gardens.

Captain Richie Berrington top-scored for Scotland with 49 off 32 balls with five fours and two sixes.

He and Tom Bruce put on 71 for the fourth wicket, but it was their only notable partnership.

Spinner Liam Dawson ended it in the 13th over when Bruce was caught for 24, Curran providing the safe hands at deep square leg.

When Adil Rashid trapped Berrington lbw in the next over, Scotland collapsed, losing their last seven wickets for 39 runs from 113-3.

Jofra Archer had been expensive in the two previous outings but made the early breakthroughs before finishing with a brilliant 2-24 off his four overs.

In his second over, he hurried George Munsey into top-edging to Banton and two balls later had McMullen caught by Salt in the deep.

Michael Jones (33) holed out to Bethell off Curran, and Scotland were 42-3 at the end of the six-over power play and never threatened a competitive total.

Rashid was the best of the England bowlers with 3-36 from his four overs, while Dawson took 2-34.

HAVING travelled to 41 countries, as well as presented travel shows including A Place in the Sun, its safe to say I’ve learned a few money saving tricks along the way.

And as a mum trying to pinch the pennies on a family holiday, I realised two huge mistakes people make when it came to booking hotels – and it saved me hundreds.

A big way to save money is hotel hopping – and this isn’t just for the luxury travellers and celebrities.

The money hack means you can save if instead of one hotel for a week, you try two.

This works by booking the more expensive place midweek, as this is when rates are lower.

You then move to the cheaper hotel when prices go up, which is usually at the weekend.

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I realised this when travelling as a family of four, in Göcek, Turkey.

The small marina town is full of expensive boutique hotels, so prices can easily spiral when trying to find space for both parents and kids.

Instead, we split our Turkey trip between Dalaman and Göcek, as midweek, we spotted a suite in a five-star area for £105 a night, hundreds cheaper than a weekend stay.

But don’t just stop there as it isn’t the only way to get a bargain.

We saved even more by calling the hotel, rather than just clicking the book button.

When I call a hotel, I don’t haggle — I just ask one simple question: “What’s the best price you can do if we book direct?”

After chatting to them, not only did they drop the price from £105 to £80 a night, but they also threw in free breakfast for all four of us, which would cost £15 each per night.

Over five nights, that alone would have added up fast.

In the end we paid just £400 for five nights midweek, while the exact same suite at the weekend would have cost £200 a night alone.

Had we stayed on for the full week, the total would have jumped sharply — for the same room.

So instead, we packed up and moved on, and got a mini-adventure out of it.

Once you realise hotel prices change by the night, you stop booking holidays by the week and start booking them properly.

We used the same approach in Spain, where we booked a five-star hotel on the Costa del Sol midweek, then a smaller hotel in Cádiz at the weekend for £95 a night.

ONE EXTRA HACK: “five-star location” without five-star prices

We also save money by staying in an apartment or Airbnb in a five-star area, instead of an all-inclusive resort.

For a family of four, we found an apartment to fit us all for £110 a night, compared to a nearby resort suite which was £280 a night.

We travel as a family of four for 12 weeks of the year and It’s the one habit that’s saved our family the most money — and given us our best memories.

IT was when my eight-year-old son Reggie returned to our table – holding a plate of 20 Turkish delights and grinning from ear to ear – that I caved in.

“OK, we are on holiday,” I said as he merrily dished them out to his twin brother Teddie and 12-year-old sister Frankie-Beau.

In fairness, my wife Kayleigh and I had hardly set an example, because the 5-star Liberty Lykia family resort in Oludeniz, on the south-west coast of Turkey, is an all- inclusive foodies’ fantasyland.

Its huge main restaurant offers more than 100 options at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and snacks throughout the day.

On several evenings of our seven-day stay we opted to dine at one of the six sensational paid-for a la carte restaurants, starting from just €5 per child, while watching the sun set across the Mediterranean Sea.

The star of the show was an interactive, flame-fuelled, theatrical dinner of lobster and steak at the open-grill Teppanyaki.

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At the outdoor Pinara Turkish restaurant, you even get a side order of belly dancing.

And all that is just, well, for starters.

A selection of snack shacks, including a well-stocked patisserie, will tempt you throughout the day.

And there’s self-serve draft beer and wine beside the pools and the private beach.

The biggest of the many bars, Apollon, at the heart of the resort, serves more than 30 indulgent cocktails, 24/7.

Thankfully you can easily burn off the over-indulgence.

Within the 400-acre resort, which is set in a tranquil cove among pine forests and overlooked by the majestic Babadag Mountain, are tennis, padel and sandy volleyball courts, an archery area, mini-golf course, ping-pong tables, a climbing wall and two AstroTurf football pitches.

There’s also a gym and exercise classes, as well as all manner of watersports.

Look up in the sky at any time of day and you will be mesmerised by paragliders drifting down to the hotel’s landing strip.

But don’t worry, there’s no need to strap the kids in for the ride, as their every whim can be taken care of at the brilliantly welcoming and free Mini Club, which has endless activities for all age groups.

There’s even a free babysitting service.

With the young’uns entertained, we enjoyed a few hours at the more peaceful adults-only pool and bar.

There you’ll find the luxurious Ocean Spa, where you can pamper yourself with a massage while you gaze out at the Turquoise Coast, so-called because of the striking clear-blue sea. W

hen we were then finally ready to reunite with the family, we headed to the beautiful beach area designed for youngsters, complete with a wave breaker made from rocks and stones.

But the jewel in Liberty Lykia’s crown is its very own waterpark — aptly called Children’s Paradise, with its numerous slides for kids and adults.

It’s a truly vast resort, set into the hilly mountainside.

Steps are steep but there are plenty of slopes and more than enough lifts.

And if little legs are tired after a long day of thrills, on-site shuttle buses taxi you around.

You can even call reception for a golf buggy to take you to and from your room day or night.

Bands and DJs

Our room was a modern sea-view Deluxe Family Suite with walk-in shower, air-conditioning, a superking-sized bed, two single beds and a sofa bed.

The free mini bar is restocked daily so you can enjoy a drink on the balcony.

We were just a two-minute walk from the resort’s main square — a beautiful Mediterranean plaza with a wine bar, shops selling clothes, trainers, sunglasses and souvenirs, an arcade, a craft coffee shop and a boutique for handbags and shoes.

After the sun sets, the main swimming pool hosts illuminated remote-controlled boats, and the stunning outdoor amphitheatre delivers an impressive variety of West End-like productions.

The main square is the lively entertainment venue for bands and DJs taking to the stage until midnight.

It’s not quiet, so do request a room a little farther away if you have very young children.

For anyone who wants to keep the party going, there’s an underground nightclub open until 2am.

And you can stagger out into the nearby snack bar that’s open until 7.30am if, somehow, you are still hungry.

After a week of family fun and feasting in the sun, none of our clothes fit — and the dentist will have some choice words for our kids.

But we left with the wonderful aftertaste of a holiday that was, in the words of my daughter, one big Turkish delight.

The U.S. Air Force is exploring new ways to protect aerial refueling tankers and other high-value support aircraft by physically defeating incoming threats rather than trying to jam them or otherwise throw them off course. The service says a “kinetic” self-defense option could provide a valuable last line of defense against anti-air interceptors that might be resistant or even immune to certain kinds of electronic warfare attacks or decoys.

Kevin Stamey, the Air Force’s Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Mobility and the Director of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Mobility Directorate, talked about kinetic self-protection capability in an official interview published earlier this week. The service’s current “mobility” portfolio includes the KC-46 and KC-135 tankers and the C-130, C-17, and C-5 cargo aircraft. Aviation Week was first to report on Stamey’s remarks.

“Some technology that we are really looking at is kinetic self-protection for our high-value airborne assets,” Stamey said. “Because the threat is evolving, we are trying to develop a capability to protect the tanker that is independent of that threat.”

“We consider kinetic self-defense to be sort of a last line of protection. If all else fails and a threat somehow breaks the kill chain, we’ll still have a means to protect the tanker,” he added. “Whether it’s an IR seeker or a radar seeker, if we have a means of taking it out kinetically, we don’t have to electronically attack it or use decoys that are effective against some things, but not others.”

Stamey did not elaborate in the interview on what a “kinetic self-protection” system might entail, but a design capable of launching some type of miniature missile is one especially likely option. The Air Force has already been working on exactly this kind of capability, at least on the experimental level, for years now.

In 2015, an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) project dubbed the Miniature Self-Defense Munition (MSDM) emerged publicly. At that time, AFRL said it was looking for an “extremely agile, highly-responsive” miniature missile with a “very-low-cost passive seeker” and overall length of around 3.3 feet (one meter). For comparison, this is roughly one-third of the length of an AIM-9X Sidewinder, and even shorter proportionally than an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).

AFRL initially hired both Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to work on the MSDM program. In 2020, Raytheon received an additional contract for what was described then as a “miniature self-defense missile.” The stated scope of work for the new deal included “research and development of a flight-test ready missile.” This all seemed very much to be a continuation of the previously announced MSDM effort, despite the slight name change. To date, Raytheon does not appear to have shown even a concept for an MSDM interceptor publicly.

It’s also worth noting that Northrop Grumman received a patent in 2017 for a kinetic aircraft protection system based around a miniature interceptor. Accompanying drawings, some of which are seen below, depicted the system installed on a conceptual “futuristic” combat aircraft. TWZ had explored the potential benefits and limitations of such a system in detail at the time.

In 2018, the U.S. Navy also put out a largely open-ended call for information about potential options for a Hard Kill Self Protection Countermeasure System (HKSPCS) for transport, tanker, and other combat support aircraft. It also suggested the system could be used on future drones. The HKSPCS notice raised the possibility of a system designed to launch a salvo of miniature, highly maneuverable interceptor missiles, and that could offer an “alternative and/or adjunct to more conventional electronic self-protection solutions.”

Other concepts for kinetic self-protection for aircraft have been put forward in the past that do not involve firing a miniature missile at another missile. In 2012, Israeli firm Rafael demonstrated what was essentially an armored vehicle hard-kill active protection system designed to be integrated onto a helicopter. For a time, at least in the 2010s, the U.S. Navy also had a program called Helicopter Active RPG Protection, which seemed centered on a similar, if not identical, concept.

Lastly, in recent years, the Air Force has been testing the ability of its KC-135 tankers to launch small drones for self-protection and a variety of other purposes. Compared to a miniature missile, an unmanned aerial system could offer valuable loitering capability, giving it different options for engaging or re-engaging incoming threats, especially if they are fired in salvos. This, in turn, could help prevent interceptors from being wasted if the target they are fired at initially is destroyed by something else first.

Magazine depth remains one of the bigger challenges facing kinetic self-protection systems for aircraft, as well as platforms down below. An installation on a larger aircraft would open up different possibilities for reloading in flight from within the fuselage. The aforementioned drone launchers that the Air Force has been testing on the KC-135 notably offer that capability through the use of standardized Common Launch Tubes (CLT), which can be loaded with a wide array of payloads.

Directed energy capabilities could also be part of the future ecosystem of self-protection capabilities, which could also help address magazine depth concerns. Laser-based directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) systems are already found on tankers and airlifters across the U.S. military, but are designed to blind and confuse heat-seeking missiles, rather than destroy them. They have no impact on radar-guided interceptors. Efforts to develop aerial directed energy weapons capable of destroying targets, including incoming missiles, have faced significant challenges and have yet to produce an operational capability.

DIRCM Live Fire

The Air Force has also been developing self-protection systems for tankers and other high-value aircraft contained within modified Multipoint Refueling System (MPRS) pods normally used to send gas to receivers via the probe-and-drogue method. Repurposed MPRS pods configured to provide additional airborne communications and data-sharing capabilites are also in service now.

Any kinetic self-protection would also have to be tied to sensors, including infrared search and track systems (IRST) and/or radars, to spot incoming threats, which could be moving very fast, and cue interceptors to engage them. Ever-improving networking capabilities, which are another top Air Force priority for its mobility fleets, could enable the use of a distributed sensor network spread across multiple platforms. The use of loyal wingman-type drones is another area the Air Force has already been exploring to help protect tankers, in particular.

Regardless, the Air Force has clearly identified an ongoing desire for a kinetic self-protection capability for tankers and other valuable support aircraft. Though Mobility PEO Stamey did not explicitly say it in his interview, his remarks certainly hint at concerns that work on new and improved electronic warfare capabilities and decoys are having trouble keeping up with adversaries developing and fielding ever-more capable anti-air missiles.

Weapons that use imaging infrared seekers are notably immune to radiofrequency electronic warfare jamming, as well as radar cross-section-reducing design features. They are also passive in nature, meaning that they don’t pump out signals that can alert aircraft crews to the fact that they are under attack. Increased use of infrared sensor capabilities on aircraft and as part of surface-to-air missile systems only creates further challenges when it comes to detecting threats, let alone responding to them.

Air defense systems that rely on traditional radars have their own ways of creating challenges, including just by modulating the signals they emit in unexpected ways. TWZ regularly highlights the complexities surrounding the need to constantly tune and retune electronic warfare suites as threats change and evolve. The Air Force, among others, has also been pursuing so-called cognitive electronic warfare capabilities to help speed up those processes. The absolute ‘holy grail’ of the concept would be a system capable of adapting autonomously in real-time, even right in the middle of a mission.

Questions about the right mix of active and passive defenses are also likely to be central in the Air Force’s ongoing refinement of plans for future tankers and airlifters.

“We are working on the Next Generation Air Refueling System, NGAS, as it’s effectively known. Put the finishing touches on that last year. And that was a really wide look at how we would do air refueling in the future,” Air Force Gen. John Lamontagne, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), told TWZ and other outlets at the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual conference last September. “When I say a wide look, looking at conventional tankers [as] we know it today, you know something like a [KC-]135 or KC-46 as is; something with a bunch of mission systems added to it, with a defense systems [sic], connectivity, intelligence and more; a business jet; a blended wing body; or a signature-managed [stealthy] tanker.”

Central to those discussions is also the expectation that future opponents, especially in high-end fights, will have much greater anti-air reach, including with missiles able to hit targets up to 1,000 miles away. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been making especially significant investments in longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.

This, in turn, only raises the prospect that critical supporting assets like tankers will find themselves at risk, even if they are flying far from where the main fighting is occurring.

“The [kinetic self-protection] technology is necessary if we’re going to be successful in pushing tankers into what we call the weapons engagement zone,” Mobility PEO Stamey said in the interview published this week. “Our adversaries are building long-range threats specifically to push assets like our tankers further back. They believe it’s easier to target and shoot a tanker than an F-35 or F-47.”

Stamey’s comments make clear that the Air Force is still very interested in making it harder for adversaries to do that by adding kinetic self-defense systems to the mix.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

THE desperate search for Nancy Guthrie is nearing a gut-wrenching two weeks after investigators said she was taken from her home against her will in the dark of night during the early hours of February 1.

The baffling case of the apparent kidnapping of the mother of popular Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie has captivated the country, making her rural Catalina Foothills community ground zero for news outlets and true crime influencers.

Investigators believe Nancy Guthrie disappeared sometime after 2:28am on February 1 after her pacemaker disconnected from her phone, which was left behind.

In the days since her family reported her missing, Pima County and FBI investigators have conducted repeated searches at both Nancy’s and her daughter Annie’s homes, which are located about 4 miles from each other.

The mounting pressure to locate Nancy has reportedly led to clashes between Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and the FBI.

Nanos has reportedly blocked federal agents from obtaining key evidence, including gloves and other DNA found inside Nancy’s home, according to Fox News.

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Federal investigators have reportedly asked Nanos for the items to be processed at the FBI’s national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

However, Nanos sent the evidence for testing at a private lab in Florida, according to the outlet.

Nanos disputed the claims, telling NBC affiliate KVOA that the reports were “not even close to the truth.”

But it has been Nancy’s unlit, secluded desert neighborhood that has made the investigation challenging for law enforcement.

Secluded area

The U.S. Sun was on the ground in Tucson and experienced first-hand the rugged stretch of desert terrain that surrounds Nancy’s home and those of her neighbors.

Nancy’s property is located on a roughly mile-long road with no street lights or cameras, dense vegetation, and away from hotels and commercial businesses.

The community is roughly 44.6 miles of desert, according to the Arizona Republic.

The affluent area is popular for hikers due to its mountainous terrain and hilly roads.

Unlit roads

At night and without a flashlight, it is impossible to see where you’re walking or what is in front of you.

Locals, who for decades have called the Catalina Foothills home, relayed to The U.S. Sun that the lack of lights in the community is to protect astronomical research at various observatories in Tucson.

A neighbor told The U.S. Sun that homeowners in the area are encouraged not to have landscape lights on their properties.

“If you have lights, landscape lights on your house, don’t point them up. You want them to point at the wall or down on the ground, not the sky,” said the woman, who asked not to be named.

The sound of chirping crickets and coyotes howling in the night is the only sign of life when you’re standing on the dark remote roads.

The same neighbor told The U.S. Sun that at night she often hears barking and whooping from coyotes around the neighborhood.

“Sometimes we have bobcats. But overall, we don’t have a lot of noise,” she added.

Off-road homes

Unlike traditional neighborhoods where homes are situated closely to one another, the layout of the Catalina Foothills is starkly different.

There are no sidewalks, and neighboring most homes is a desert environment with skin-tearing cacti and thick shrubs.

Most of the residential homes are spaced out off main roads, only have a ground level, and are tucked in behind long driveways.

Due to the dense shrubs, the darkness of unlit roads, and where many of the homes sit; even if doorbell camera footage is available from neighbors, they would not capture activity on local streets.

The lack of surveillance cameras on main roads has forced local and federal investigators to go door-to-door to nearby residences for any home security camera footage they may have.

Desperate search

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has laid out a timeline of what they believe were Nancy’s final hours before she was allegedly kidnapped.

On the afternoon of January 31, Nancy took an Uber to her daughter Annie and her son-in-law Tommaso Cionni’s house for dinner.

At 9:48pm that evening, Sheriff Nanos said Cionni dropped off his mother-in-law at her home.

In the early hours of February 1, Nancy’s doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47am.

At 2:12am, software from one of Nancy’s cameras on her property detected a person.

Then, at 2:28am, Nancy’s pacemaker disconnected from her phone.

By 11:56am, Nancy’s family arrived at her home after being alerted by a friend that their mother missed Sunday mass.

After not being able to locate Nancy, the family calls Pima County deputies to report her missing.

Roughly 10 minutes later, deputies arrive at the scene and uncover “concerning” evidence, including a trail of blood on the porch outside the home and Nancy’s missing doorbell camera.

The FBI has since obtained the doorbell camera footage from the night of Nancy’s disappearance, which showed a man wearing a ski mask using a plant from the lawn to obscure the camera’s lens.

Federal investigators described the man as average build, between 5’9′ and 5’10’, wearing a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.

The FBI is offering $100,000 for any information leading to the man’s arrest.

Timeline of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home on February 1, 2026.

Timeline:

• January 31: Nancy is last seen by her family
  • 5:32pm: Nancy travels to her daughter’s home for dinner, about 11 minutes from her own house.
  • 9:48pm: Family members drop off Nancy Guthrie at her home in Tucson. Her garage door closes two minutes later.
• February 1: Nancy is reported missing and a search begins
  • 1:47am: Nancy’s doorbell camera disconnects
  • 2:12am: Camera software detects a person moving in range of the camera. There is no video, and Nancy does not have a storage description.
  • 2:28am: Nancy’s pacemaker app disconnects from her phone, which is later found still at her house.
  • Around 11am: A parishioner at Nancy’s church calls the mom’s children and says she failed to show up for service.
  • 11:56am: Family members arrive at Nancy’s house to check on her.
  • 12:03pm: The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.
  • 8:55pm: The Pima County Sheriff’s Office gives its first press conference and reveals some clues found at Nancy’s home caused “grave concern.” Sheriff Chris Nanos says helicopters, drones, and infrared cameras are all being utilized in the search.
• February 2: Search crews pull back. Nancy’s home is considered a crime scene. Savannah releases a statement thanking supporters for their prayers, which her co-hosts read on Today.
• February 3: A trail of blood is pictured outside Nancy’s home, where there were reportedly signs of forced entry. Nanos admits they have no suspects, no leads, and no videos that could lead to Nancy’s recovery. He and the FBI beg for more tips and accounts.
• February 4, 8pm: Savannah and her siblings release a heartbreaking video directed at their mother’s abductors asking for proof she is alive and saying they’re willing to work with them to get her back.
• February 5: FBI offers $50,000 reward for information on the case.
  • 5pm: First ransom demand deadline for millions in Bitcoin passes. Guthrie family releases demand to speak “directly” to the kidnappers, saying, “We want to talk to you and we are waiting for contact.”
• February 9, 5pm: Second ransom demand deadline, reportedly with “much more serious” conditions.

Faced with numerous complaints about broken streetlights that have plunged neighborhoods into darkness, two Los Angeles City Council members unveiled a plan Friday to spend $65 million on installing solar-powered lights.

With 1 in 10 streetlights out of service because of disrepair or copper wire theft, Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Eunisses Hernandez launched an effort to convert at least 12% of the city’s lights to solar power — or about 500 in each council district.

Broken streetlights emerged as an hot-button issue in this year’s election, with council members scrambling to find ways to restore them. Councilmember Nithya Raman, now running against Mayor Karen Bass, cited the broken lights as an example of how city agencies “can’t seem to manage the basics.”

By switching to solar, the streetlights will be less vulnerable to theft, said Yaroslavsky, who represents part of the Westside.

“We can’t keep rebuilding the same vulnerable systems while copper theft continues to knock out lights across Los Angeles,” she said.

Three other council members — Traci Park, Monica Rodriguez and Hugo Soto-Martínez — signed on to the proposal. All five are running for reelection.

Miguel Sangalang, director of the Bureau of Street Lighting, said there are 33,000 open service requests to fix streetlights across L.A., although some may be duplicates. The average time to fix a streetlight is 12 months, he said.

Repair times have increased because of a rise in vandalism, the department’s stagnant budget and a staff of only 185 people to service the city’s 225,000 streetlights, he said.

About 60,000 street lights are eligible to be converted to solar, according to Yaroslavsky.

Council members also are looking to increase the amount the city charges property owners for streetlight maintenance. Yaroslavsky said the assessment has been unchanged since 1996, forcing city leaders to rely on other sources of money to cover the cost.

Last month, Soto-Martínez announced he put $1 million into a streetlight repair team in his district, which stretches from Echo Park to Hollywood and north to Atwater Village. Those workers will focus on repairing broken lights, hardening lights to prevent copper wire theft and clearing the backlog of deferred cases.

On Monday, city crews also began converting 91 streetlights to solar power in Lincoln Heights and Cypress Park. Hernandez tapped $500,000 from her office budget to pay for the work. The shift to solar power should save money, she said, by breaking the cycle of constantly fixing and replacing lights.

“This is going to bring more public safety and more lights to neighborhoods that so desperately need it and that are waiting a long time,” she said.

In recent years, neighborhoods ranging from Hancock Park and Lincoln Heights to Mar Vista and Pico Union have been plagued by copper wire theft that darkens the streets. On the 6th Street Bridge, thieves stole seven miles’ worth of wire.

Yaroslavsky and Park spoke about the problem Friday at a press conference in the driveway of a Mar Vista home. Andrew Marton, the homeowner, pointed to streetlights around the block that have been targeted by thieves.

Many surrounding streets have been dark since shortly after Christmas, Marton said. He has changed his daily routines, trying not to walk his dog late at night and worrying for the safety of his family.

He said he reported the problem to the city and was told it would take 270 days to fix. He then reached out to Park, who contacted the police department, he said.

A couple of neighboring streets had their lights restored, he said, but his street remains dark at night.

Park said she and Yaroslavsky identified $500,000 in discretionary funds to pay for a dedicated repair team to fix streetlights, either by adding solar or by reinforcing the existing copper wire, in their respective Westside districts.

It’s time to pay tribute to Birmingham High senior Henry Aslikyan, who makes his bid for a fourth consecutive City Section wrestling championship on Saturday night at Roybal. No Birmingham athlete has won four individual titles.

He has continued to get stronger, bigger and better from the time he arrived as a freshman. He’s been dominating the City lower weight classes while becoming a two-time state champion.

He’ll be competing in perhaps the toughest weight class in the state — 120 pounds. He’s a Michigan commit. There’s likely to be three state champions in that weight class in two weeks in Bakersfield.

Birmingham has already won City titles in boys’ and girls’ duals competition. This time he is qualifying for the state championships in Bakersfield and individual titles.

Adelaida Fernandez of Birmingham is trying for her third straight City title in girls’ wrestling. Greg Torosian and Arno Vardanyan are also seeking third titles for the Patriots in boys.

In the heavyweight division, Monroe’s Abraham Datte is a two-time City champion.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.