Air

Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the airwaves after Disney lifted its indefinite suspension of the US late-night show, but two of the largest affiliate owners – Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Media Group – will not air the long-running programme.

Disney owns the broadcaster ABC, home of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On Monday evening, Disney announced that the show would return following discussions with Kimmel’s team and network representatives. However, two of the major affiliate operators have not reversed course.

Keeping the show off those affiliate TV stations significantly cuts into Kimmel’s reach. Nexstar and Sinclair together own and operate 70 of the 250 ABC stations across the United States, putting them at odds with the network.

Nexstar’s vested interest

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the comedian made remarks about the killing of conservative figure Charlie Kirk. The suspension came just hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr warned that stations carrying the show could face fines, or even lose their broadcast licences, urging them to “step up”.

Carr’s comments drew pushback across the political spectrum, including from US President Donald Trump’s allies. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Carr’s remarks “dangerous as hell”, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cruz “got it right”.

Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and is currently pursuing a $6.2bn merger with competitor Tegna, a deal requiring FCC approval. If completed, the combined company would reach 80 percent of US households, far above the current 39 percent cap, and would require a policy change. Carr has long supported removing that cap.

“Nexstar’s capitulation in hopes of gaining approval for its merger with Tegna is actually Exhibit A in why it should not be allowed to merge with Tegna. Large conglomerates have enormous leverage to facilitate the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech, both by censoring themselves and by bullying the networks,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

Carr praised Nexstar last week for dropping Kimmel from its affiliates in markets such as Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans.

Margot Susca, professor of journalism, accountability,and democracy at the American University in Washington, DC, said the FCC’s pressure on Kimmel sets a troubling precedent.

“I think what is concerning is that it’s Jimmy Kimmel now, but it could be Meet The Press [which airs on NBC] next year if another corporate media owner needs to make a deal and the Trump administration or Brendan Carr… say they don’t like a segment that comes on a news programme. These are dark days for the content that appears on broadcast television,” Susca said.

Other media experts argue the issue is rooted in the leverage affiliate owners hold.

In the US, affiliate operators license programming from networks and pay carriage fees to do so. Affiliation typically brings more viewers, and thus, more advertising revenue, which is shared between networks and affiliates. Affiliates can preempt network programming, often for local news during severe weather events or political debates, for instance.

“They [TV station operators] can simply not run those programmes because they don’t really need the networks as much as they did at one time,” Tom Letizia, media consultant and head of political communications firm the Letizia Agency, told Al Jazeera, referring to the global trend of viewers finding their content on social media or streaming platforms.

“This is more about making a profit, and that’s really what this business is about. Let’s not forget that. I mean, ratings are the lifeblood of a TV station. If you don’t have ratings, you can’t charge your advertisers a premium cost for that spot.”

A lot of the advertising spend in smaller markets comes from local political parties, and if the politics do not align, those advertising dollars could be cut.

Nexstar said it stands by its decision to preempt Kimmel indefinitely and will “monitor the show as it returns to ABC”. The company denied political involvement or pressure from the Trump administration.

“The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman told Al Jazeera.

Sinclair’s stance

Sinclair Broadcasting said on Monday that it does not plan to resume airing Kimmel’s show on its 38 ABC affiliates, opting instead for news programming.

The company, the second-largest US station operator after Nexstar, pushed Kimmel to apologise and “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA”, Kirk’s conservative activist organisation.

Sinclair has long faced criticism for its conservative leanings. David Smith, the company’s executive chairman, donated $250,000 in 2024 to Kirk’s Turning Point USA through the David D Smith Family Foundation, whose listed address matches Sinclair’s headquarters.

In 2018, Sinclair required local anchors to read a script criticising “one-sided media coverage”, which Trump, then in his first term in office, praised. This came as the company pursued a $3.9bn merger with Tribune Media at the time, a deal that ultimately collapsed after Tribune pulled out.

“As the owners of the stations, they can make the choices over what their content is. Sinclair is a pretty right-wing organisation,” Susca said.

“When they buy a station in a local market, it tacks coverage to the right. They focus more on national politics.”

A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that Sinclair stations leaned more conservative than their competitors in the same markets.

“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair said in a statement. The company did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for further comment.

Disney’s decision

Disney’s move to reinstate Kimmel comes amid widespread public pressure. Celebrities and elected officials called for boycotts of Disney-owned platforms, including Disney+, ESPN and Hulu, in the wake of his suspension.

Google Trends data showed that searches to cancel those platforms spiked to their highest-ever levels following the suspension.

ABC directly owns only eight stations, including in New York and Houston. WABC in New York faced political backlash when leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pulled out of a debate it was set to host, citing ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.

“Broadcast media is a business. Make no mistake that Kimmel being taken off the air was a business decision. Kimmel being put back on the air is a business decision,” Susca said.

Disney’s stock has fallen 2.78 percent over the past five days.

Laura Crompton, a media analyst and head of global communications agency Hopscotch’s Los Angeles office, said that Tuesday’s show could provide a ratings boost.

“For now, it seems they’ve chosen to put things right and show that they won’t cower to overreach or threats. But something tells me this isn’t over yet. If we want to find a silver lining, I suspect Kimmel’s comeback show tonight will smash audience numbers, even without the 25 percent of audiences disenfranchised by the ongoing standoff regionally. And realistically, I’m sure we’re all relieved we don’t have to take the moral high road and give up our Disney+ favorite shows now,” Crompton told Al Jazeera.

Disney did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Sept. 23 (UPI) — Nexstar Media Group will not air “Jimmy Kimmel, Live!” and joined the Sinclair Broadcast Group in pre-empting the ABC talk show when it is scheduled to resume on Tuesday.

Nexstar officials announced their decision a day after Sinclair said it also would pre-empt Kimmel’s show due to his falsely claiming the alleged shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was a MAGA supporter.

“We made a decision last week to pre-empt ‘Jimmy Kimmel, Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s’ ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse,” Nexstar officials said in a news release, as reported by NBC News.

“We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”

Nexstar and Sinclair own a combined total of nearly 70 local stations that account for nearly a fourth of ABC stations, according to The New York Times.

Nexstar and Sinclair intend to air news programming instead of Kimmel’s talk show.

Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., wrote a letter to Nexstar Media Group executives that “demands answers” regarding why they are pre-empting “Jimmy Kimmel, Live!” on affiliate stations.

“The public owns the airwaves — not the FCC chairman, not [President] Donald Trump and not Nexstar,” McGovern said Monday in a press release.

“Local TV stations have a responsibility to serve the public interest — not advance political vendettas against those who express opinions the government doesn’t like,” he continued.

“Using the threat of license revocation to strong-arm a network into silencing a comedian is not only corrupt — it’s almost certainly unconstitutional.”

During his opening monologue on Sept. 15, Kimmel said, “The MAGA gang desperately [is] trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

ABC and its owner, the Walt Disney Corp., suspended his show indefinitely the next day but announced it would resume Tuesday night.

There’s a particular niche of sophisticated, loungy music that thrived from the late ’90s into the mid-2000s. It grew out of ELO’s regal rock and Serge Gainsbourg’s loucheness, taking on bits of U.K. trip-hop, midcentury exotica, the Largo scene’s orchestral flourishes and Daft Punk’s talkboxes. I don’t quite have a word for it — conversation-pit-core? — but a primary text of it is Air’s “Moon Safari.”

The French duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel released “Moon Safari,” Air’s debut LP, to wide acclaim in 1998. The band’s meticulously hazy synth pads paired beautifully with ultra-minimal funk bass and loping tempos. “Moon Safari” set a new benchmark for upmarket French pop, with singles like “Sexy Boy” and “Kelly Watch the Stars” proving they had chops for hooks as well. The band immediately followed it with the score for Sofia Coppola’s debut feature, “The Virgin Suicides,” and those two albums locked in Air as the ultimate turn-of-the-century band for tasteful European melancholy.

At the Bowl on Sunday, the band revisited the whole of “Moon Safari” with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, capping off KCRW’s festival season there. Since that album’s release, Coppola’s daughter Romy grew old enough to become an influencer herself, yet “The Virgin Suicides” remains a mood-board favorite for Gen Z. Fellow travelers like Bonobo, who opened the night with a DJ set, have become arena stars in their own right.

“Moon Safari” has held up wonderfully on its own merits. But as algorithms funnel audiences deeper into formless background listening, Sunday’s show was a reminder that chill can be compelling. Air’s intense focus gave these wispy songs a strong backbone too.

From the opener of “La Femme d’Argent,” lifted by Godin’s nimble basslines, the vibes were, as they say, immaculate. Dressed in all-white formalwear, the band took care to show how much compositional rigor went into this album’s laid-back feeling. The arrangements highlighted the nuanced tones of each of Dunckel’s many synths, and how the band’s Beatles-y chord changes could keep your ears locked into the most stark passages.

Extra credit goes to Air’s creative direction and lighting designer, who locked the band inside a rectangular elevated platform that gave the look of performing inside a James Turrell sculpture. It’s a neat conceptual challenge to visually enliven a famously blissed-out album like this onstage, and Air did it with exquisite panache on Sunday.

The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra usually kicks back on shows like this, adding some sizzle and arrangement richness but functioning more as another band member. The orchestra’s horns perked up during “Ce Matin-là” and raised the dramatic temperature on closer “Le Voyage de Pénélope,” but the whole set was an exercise in restraint as a means of making sure every good idea gets its shine. “Moon Safari” didn’t need much else, but what it got was illuminating.

The back half of the set went into the band’s score work for Coppola — “Highschool Lover” and “Alone in Kyoto,” from “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost In Translation” respectively, stirred the wistful elder millennials among the crowd, this writer included. They adopted a Daft Punk-ish distance on “Electronic Performers,” touting how “MIDI clocks ring in my mind … We need envelope filters to say how we feel,” but they didn’t really need that wink and nudge. When they broke the spell of ethereal cuts like “Cherry Blossom Girl” for heavier, krautrock-driven numbers like “Don’t Be Light,” they proved that being roused from tasteful stoned pondering is as fun as falling into it.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — The Taliban government has rejected President Donald Trump‘s attempt to regain control of Bagram Air Base, which the United States abandoned to the Afghan government during its military withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country four years ago.

The United States left the country in a hasty exit that was initiated under the first Trump administration and completed under the Biden administration, which saw Afghanistan fall back under Taliban control.

Last week, Trump publicly demanded the facility be returned to U.S. control in a bid to check China.

The Taliban on Sunday said that it is seeking “constructive relations” with all states and that it has consistently communicated to the United States that Afghanistan’s “independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance.”

“It should be recalled that, under the Doha agreement, the United States pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs.’ Therefore, it is necessary that they remain faithful to their commitments,” the Taliban said in a statement shared by its deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Firat, on X.

The Doha agreement, officially as the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan, was signed between the Taliban and the first Trump administration in February 2020, initiating the United States’ withdrawal from the country to end the two-decade war.

During a press conference in London on Thursday, Trump told reporters he was seeking to regain control of Bagram Air Base.

“We want that base back,” he said. “But one of the reasons we want the base is, you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

He has since followed up with threats against the Taliban.

“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” he said in a statement Saturday on his Truth Social platform.

MARK Wright was left red faced when pal Olly Murs pulled his shorts down while he was broadcasting live on the radio.

In the hilarious clip, which was caught on cameras and shared on Heart FM’s social media page, Olly decided to cause mischief during the pair’s Saturday morning breakfast show.

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Mark was stood up presenting a link, when Olly decided to run around the desk and yank his mate’s shorts, leaving him standing there in his black briefs.

Trying not to break his composure, Mark continued with the segment, telling viewers how they could get tickets to watch Lewis Capaldi as Olly laughed in the background.

As soon as he could, he then hastily pulled his shorts back up and turned off his mic so viewers couldn’t hear him scolding his friend.

“What you doing?” Mark fumed. “What are you doing? I’m live on the radio, you dope!”

Olly still couldn’t contain his laughter, but held his arms up in the air and said: “I’m sorry!”

Olly then shared the video of the funny moment to his instagram page, with the caption: pulled “Wrighty’s pants down live on air. Sorry mate… couldn’t resist…”

Mark also shared the footage to his account too, proving he eventually saw the funny side.

And a host of the pair’s fans loved it too, sharing their enthusiasm in the comments.

“Now this is just too funny and no one’s saying they haven’t watched this more than once,” one wrote.

“Honestly, you two he needs to get you back. I love how unfazed he is,” another said.

“How he aint murdered you yet I don’t know,” laughed a third, while another commented that it was “lucky Mark wasn’t going commando.”

Even Billie Faiers, who starred with Mark on Towie, commented with a string of crying laughing emojis.

Mark and Olly have been firm friends for years and launched their own show together on Heart back in March.

They have enjoyed ribbing each other throughout their friendship.

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Just last month, in an interview with The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine, Olly joked that Mark was jealous of his six pack.

Olly said: “[Mark] was getting really jealous. He said: ‘Oh my God, Olly, you gotta stop looking good because I ain’t in the gym as much as I used to be!”

Earlier this month Olly became a dad for the second time when wife Amelia Tank welcomed a son named Albert.

The pair are already parents to daughter Madison, who was born in April last year.

Mark and his wife Michelle Keegan became parents themselves earlier this year with daughter Palma coming into the world on March 6.

Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division has lifted the lid on a new, higher-end stealthy Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drone named Vectis. The uncrewed aircraft is designed to be highly adaptable to an operator’s requirements, whether they be in the United States or elsewhere around the world, and is expected to fly within two years. Vectis notably follows Skunk Works’ failed ‘gold-plated’ high-stealth bid for the first phase of the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program, but still puts above-average emphasis on survivability compared to the other designs that service is now testing.

Skunk Works has yet to share exactly when development of Vectis began, but has described it as a product of a broader development philosophy it has adopted called the Agile Drone Framework. The framework prioritizes modularity and open mission systems, as well as interoperability in areas like command and control architectures, over any specific hardware. The name Vectis means lever or pole in Latin, and is meant to reflect the ‘leverage’ the platform offers.

“Meet Vectis, a Group 5, survivable, lethal, and reusable, Collaborative Combat Aircraft that embodies not only our pedigree in [crewed] fighter aircraft, autonomy, and uncrewed systems, but [that] is also enabled by that Agile Drone Framework,” O.J. Sanchez, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Skunk Works, told TWZ and other outlets this past week. “Vectis will provide U.S. and allied warfighters with range, endurance, and multi-mission flexibility, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, and ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance].”

In the U.S. military’s parlance, Group 5 uncrewed aerial systems are the largest and most capable, covering anything pilotless with a maximum takeoff weight of 1,320 pounds or more, and that can fly at altitudes of 18,000 feet or higher. When asked, Sanchez declined to offer any hard dimensions or other specifications for Vectis. He did say it was smaller than a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, but larger than one of the company’s Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT, pronounced ‘comet’) missile-like drones, which is a very broad size range.

Renderings of Vectis from Skunk Works show a tailless drone with a lambda wing planform and a top-mounted air intake. There is a pronounced chine line around the forward end of the fuselage and a shovel-like shape to the nose, as well as various conformal antennas and/or sensor apertures, all of which are indicative of low-observable (stealthy) design considerations. A short promotional video, seen below, also includes a cutaway view showing an S-shaped duct behind the air intake and exhaust shrouding, features that offer further radar cross-section and infrared signature reducing benefits.

Skunk Works’ Sanchez also said Vectis is runway dependent in its “current instantiation,” something we will come back to later on. Its landing gear configuration has not yet been shown.

Vectis’ core planform is interestingly reminiscent, in some broad strokes, of a rendering of a stealthy aerial refueling tanker concept Skunk Works first showed publicly last year. That aircraft had a much larger design, in line with its intended mission, with large clipped wings that had some lambda-wing attributes, as well as small outwardly-canted twin vertical tails. The look of the new survivable CCA also hearkens back to older concepts for advanced crewed combat jets from Lockheed and other companies, including from studies that fed into the Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program that led to the F-22.

There has been something of an uptick in recent years in new crewed and uncrewed tactical aircraft designs with lambda or at least lambda-like planforms. This includes one of the several air combat drone designs that emerged around a massive military parade in China earlier this month, as well as one of the two Chinese next-generation crewed combat jets that broke cover in December 2024. The stealthy Wingman drone design that European aerospace conglomerate Airbus unveiled earlier this year is another one of the many examples.

Skunk Works has also declined to share details about Vectis’ intended performance or what engine it might use.

“I would say that in the CCA space, our operational analysis doesn’t point towards supersonic [speed as a central requirement],” Skunk Works head Sanchez shared. “We’ll continue to refine that, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say supersonic is what we see as needed in this space.”

Vectis also has “endurance ranges compatible with Indo-Pacific, European, and CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command] theaters,” according to a Lockheed Martin press release, which does not elaborate further on this aspect of the drone’s capabilities.

What munitions and other payloads Vectis might be able to carry is unclear. Skunk Works’ Sanchez mentioned “reusable or flexible payloads,” but did not elaborate. The promotional video included earlier in this story shows a vignette in which the drones, operating together with an F-22, use unspecified sensors to spot and track aerial threats before being ordered to fire air-to-air missiles, presumably from internal bays, at those targets. Compact radars and/or infrared search and track (IRST) systems would be logical sensor options for supporting the air-to-air role.

As noted, Vectis is also intended to be configurable for air-to-ground and general ISR missions. Another promotional video Lockheed Martin has now released, which covers Skunk Works’ Agile Drone Framework more generally, seen below, shows Vectis drones firing air-to-surface missiles at an enemy air defense site.

Electronic warfare suites and signal relay packages might also be among the payload options for Vectis drones.

The design is “rapidly upgradable and customizable to align to shifting threat environment priorities,” according to Sanchez. “Vectis’ signature and comms are compatible with fifth and next-gen aircraft. We’ve conducted classified crewed-uncrewed teaming operations analysis, pairing F-22s and F-35s with Vectis, and the results are impressive.”

Sanchez clarified later that this operations analysis had been conducted in simulated environments as Vectis is not yet flying. Lockheed Martin is already well known for its extensive work in the unclassified realm on crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities, including in digital environments and through real-world flight testing, as well as instances that blend the two together. The F-22 is now in line to be the first airborne controller for Air Force CCAs. The company also now has a contract with the U.S. Navy to provide a common command and control architecture for that service’s future CCAs, which will leverage work on its Multi Domain Combat System (MDCX), a software-based package already being integrated into new drone control centers on American aircraft carriers.

“One of the most impressive attributes of the Skunk Works is its long commitment to open mission systems, to architectures that enable a large tent of folks to be able to plug in. That’s why we believe that interoperability is foundational to solving warfighter problems in the decades in front of us,” Sanchez said in response to a question about Vectis’ own level of autonomy. “So when we think about the autonomy and the underpinning software, everything about this will be aligned with the [U.S.] government reference architecture. Our experience delivering that level of capability through the MDCX system to the U.S. Navy, for example, is underpinned with the same approach.”

“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with others,” he added. “While I won’t disclose exactly how we’ll partner or who we will align with on the software space, the fundamental architecture is open mission systems aligned with government reference architecture. And as that tent expands, we’ll be willing and able to adapt with others and potentially bring kit in alignment with other efforts that are being worked [on] by other companies.”

Sanchez highlighted a recently announced partnership between Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems’ FalconWorks in the United Kingdom as an example of how the company is already collaborating with others, but said that initiative is not tied to Vectis. He also touted demonstrations in the past two years of new capabilities to securely share classified data with foreign F-35 operators as additional examples, more generally, of the current internal focus on interoperability.

“We can connect the Vectis system with any other platform, or anybody or anything in the battlespace,” he said.

In his comments this past week, Sanchez did not speak directly to the matter of physical control interfaces, which has been a matter of contention in recent years, especially when it comes to ordering uncrewed aircraft around from the cockpit of a fighter. Skunk Works has said in the past that its immediate focus is on tablet-like and other touch-screen-enabled devices, but other options may emerge in the future. Questions have been raised about whether tablets, in particular, will create problematic additional burdens for pilots when directing drones during missions.

The Skunk Works’ Agile Drone Framework video shows pilots in F-22s and F-35s using wide-area touch-screen displays to control Vectis drones, as well as CMMTs and a higher-end flying-wing design. The latter drone has a design that looks evolved from Lockheed Martin’s secretive RQ-170 Sentinel, as well as the Sea Ghost concept the company put forward years ago for the U.S. Navy’s abortive Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. Lockheed Martin has also included an advanced flying wing design, together with various others, in past promotional materials highlighting work on crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities.

Overall, “as the future of air power takes shape, Skunk Works is charting a critical path with this Vectis program to unlock new integrated capabilities at an ultra-competitive speed and price point. Vectis provides best-in-class survivability at the CCA price point,” he said during the press call this past week.

Sanchez did not provide any hard cost metrics for Vectis. The Air Force has said in the past that it is aiming for a unit cost roughly in the $20 million range for drones being developed under the first phase, or Increment 1, of its CCA program. The service has also said that it could pursue lower-cost (and less exquisite) designs for the planned follow-on Increment 2.

“Our Increment 1 offering had higher levels of stealth than were necessary in the requirements because of the operational analysis conviction of building something that actually had value to the Air Force over the long haul,” John Clark, then head of Skunk Works, had told TWZ and others at the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual conference last year. “I think, hindsight 20/20, we could certainly armchair quarterback and say, well the Air Force isn’t valuing survivability right now, so we gold-plated something they didn’t need gold-plated.”

Clark added at the time that Skunk Works had shifted focus, at least to a degree, to exploring optionally expendable designs to meet the Air Force’s Increment 2 CCA requirements, which were still being finalized at that point and have yet to be detailed publicly.

“I think that there will … be a reckoning to come at some point when [the Air Force is] looking at [a scenario where] … I’m going to spend $15 million or $20 million an airplane, and the OA [operational analysis] is telling me that 80 percent or more of them don’t make it home,” Clark also said last year. “How many airplanes am I willing to spend that sort of money on before that’s a losing proposition financially as a nation.”

In April 2024, General Atomics and Anduril received contracts from the Air Force to continue developing their CCA designs, now designated the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. Both of those designs put less emphasis on survivability versus cost compared to how Vectis is currently being presented. In addition to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman had also been in the running for Increment 1.

“When you talked to him at the time, there was certain analysis going for a specific competition that was [what] he was talking to,” Skunk Works’ Sanchez said this past week when asked about how Vectis fits in with Clark’s past comments. “There are design trades that we’ve made in this and mission applications where we clearly see the opportunity for a reusable, highly survivable, and flexible platform like Vectis to create mission effects that are far beyond what you would have without them.”

“So how it applies in each individual mission set starts to get classified … but we absolutely see at Skunk Works that the integration of teams, manned and unmanned teaming, is going to provide battlespace effects that solve hard problems,” he continued. “So that is becoming true, and so Vectis creates a unique space where a survivable platform can deliver effects, in both air-to-ground and air-to-air, by the way – at the time, I believe John was talking to a specific mission set – as well as provide critical information through like an ISR and targeting role, and again, opened up to more than one mission set as we look at both international force design and domestic force design.”

Sanchez also stressed that Vectis is not being developed at present with any particular potential opportunity with the U.S. military or foreign armed forces in mind.

“I would see the Vectis flexibility that’s being built in, along with its survivability, being very attractive to multiple mission problem sets, and then the agility and the way we’re doing the flexible payload design can be tailored towards specific countries or programs as they need,” he said. “So that tailoring will be work that we’ll continue to do with each, but not in direct response to any one [opportunity] – [we’re] more aligned with listening to all those customers, and our knowledge of the battle space has informed our design.”

“We have a lot of overlap with the U.S. Air Force and are supporting their approach to find the right requirements for their specific mission sets. So should the U.S. Air Force find that they need a highly survivable platform with the flexibility that Vectis enables for Increment 2, I think it’ll be a great candidate,” he continued. “We respect their process as they go through and see what’s needed. As you know, every force has specific requirements based on the rest of their force. So this fits squarely in the category of a survivable, reusable, and flexible CCA, and I absolutely think if that’s what the Air Force thinks they need, this would be a great candidate to meet those requirements.”

“The flexibility we show in that Agile Drone Framework through, say, MDCX, also says that you can command these in multiple locations. You can use smart autonomy integrated with a fifth-gen [fighter] cockpit, like the F-35, or perhaps you could do it off the deck of a ship if you needed to, like we’re doing with MDCX, or any manner in between,” he added. “And so we’re building in that kind of autonomy, that flexible autonomy, if you will, so that we can work with more countries, more partners to really listen to what their needs are. So that flexibility has been demonstrated through multiple demonstrations. Now we’ll go out and build it, and we’ll work to prove it in the open air.”

In discussing how Vectis could be adaptable to multiple U.S. and foreign operator requirements, Sanchez also spoke in more detail about the drone’s current dependence on traditional runways, as well as its ability to operate from more austere locations. In the United States, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps, in particular, are currently basing tactical crewed and uncrewed aviation force design decisions around the expectation of operating from distributed forward locations, many of which could be remote and with limited supporting infrastructure. This is all intended to create targeting challenges for enemies and reduce vulnerability, as well as bring aircraft close enough to their targets to be effective at higher sortie rates, especially in the context of a potential high-end fight in the Pacific against China. Other countries are coming to similar viewpoints, especially based on observations from the ongoing war in Ukraine. With all this in mind, reducing or eliminating runway dependence, as well as ease of operating and maintainability, have emerged as key areas of interest when it comes to CCA-type drones.

“Our analysis aligns with the U.S. Air Force, that runway accessibility is incredibly important in every theater, particularly in INDOPACOM [the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility]. So we’re very intentional about the flexibility that this system would enable in the theaters of interest,” Sanchez explained. “And so the amount of runways that will be available, the amount of flexibility to implement, whether it be an Agile Combat Employment approach, or a hub and spoke for other countries, depending on how it is, Vectis will be very capable in those spaces.”

Agile Combat Employment (ACE) is the U.S. Air Force’s current umbrella term for its concepts for distributed and disaggregated operations, as you can read more about here. The service has said in the past that the Increment 1 CCAs are the first aircraft being designed from the ground up with ACE in mind.

“We certainly understand the flexibility the U.S. Air Force might need,” Sanchez added. “And if there are other solutions that are runway independent, we would be working with them on those, but this one would be a runway-dependent solution.”

“The importance of sustainability, of reliability, and the ability to easily maintain a survivable airplane is paramount. So we have absolutely baked that into this approach, and I would tell you that we have, for a while, into our advanced systems,” he continued. “We’re leveraging both on the material side as well as just the simplicity of design, where important systems that you might be able to access are, how you get to them, and durable, reliable materials that enable much simpler maintainability. So we will be targeting a very high reliability rate and have it first and foremost, both the operations as well as our maintainers in mind to provide that operational flexibility.”

The head of Skunk Works was also asked about how Vectis might fit into concepts of operations wherein much of a CCA fleet might be kept in storage rather than being flown on a more day-to-day basis, including in routine training. As TWZ has noted many times in the past, the U.S. military, broadly, still has many questions to answer about how CCA-type drones will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, as well as employed tactically.

“If you ask me, I think the ability … for folks to be able to train and integrate is going to be important in the CCA space. So we will have built into it [Vectis] the ability for it to be a daily flyer, reliably work alongside its crewed teammates to be able to integrate into operations for training, as well as for deployment,” Sanchez said. “At the same time, if the requirement is ease of storage and ease of assembly, it’s absolutely built into the design. So we would see that as an operations-defined design trade, as opposed necessarily to one that would be limited by what we’re presenting here. So that’s where we’ll work closely to listen with any individual customers that go from there on their operations choice, but the flexibility is built in.”

Vectis’ emergence comes amid a growing field of CCA-type drones in the United States and elsewhere globally that already reflect a number of different underlying force design concepts. Though the U.S. military continues to eschew more exquisite uncrewed combat air vehicles (UCAV), at least publicly, interest in designs in that category is also growing worldwide among American allies and partners. As TWZ has reported multiple times just in the past week, China has increasingly positioned itself as the dominant actor in the stealthy flying wing UCAV space, as well as a leader in advanced drone developments more broadly. Russia, India, Turkey, and France are also pursuing flying wing UCAVs.

Lockheed Martin has itself talked for years now about visions for future advanced drones and crewed-uncrewed teaming that include many different tiers of capability. Vectis is certainly not the only drone design the company is working on. Sanchez highlighted this past week that roughly 97 percent of what Skunk Works does is classified. On the other hand, the public disclosure of Vectis makes clear that the company sees this as an important play in the expanding CCA market space.

“We’re in progress now on the Vectis prototype. Parts are ordered, the team is in [sic] work, and we intend to fly in the next two years,” Sanchez said. “Our operational analysis shows a wide swath of capability that Vectis provides in multiple mission areas that are going to be relevant and solve hard problems that we couldn’t solve without this kind of collaboration. So we’ll continue to evolve that.”

“As things change, we’ll make changes. We’re not afraid to do that, and this shows that evolution of thought and adaptation to the mission needs,” he added.

It will be interesting to see how the development of Vectis now proceeds, especially within the larger and still evolving CCA space globally.

Contact the author: [email protected]

At least four children were killed in the latest Israeli air strike on a school which was being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili shows us the aftermath of the strike.

Sept. 19 (UPI) — Russian fighter jets on Friday flew into Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, a move the country called a “brazen intrusion.”

Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna confirmed the “violation of Estonia’s airspace,” in a statement on X.

“Three Russian MiG-31s entered our airspace over the Gulf of Finland for 12 minutes. This is an unprecedented and brazen intrusion – clear proof of Russia’s growing aggression,” Tsahkna said in the post.

“Such actions cannot be tolerated and must be met with swift political and economic pressure.”

Tsahkna said Estonia would be summoning Russia’s top diplomat to demand an explanation.

The incursion by the Russian supersonic interceptor aircraft marks the fourth such violation of Estonian airspace so far this year.

“Russia has already violated Estonia’s airspace four times this year, which in itself is unacceptable. But today’s incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace is unprecedentedly brazen,” Tsahkna said in a statement.

“Russia’s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure.”

The Russian military had not commented publicly on the report as of noon Friday.

International lawmakers quickly pledged support for Estonia.

“Russia is showing the full extent of its contempt for diplomacy and international law,”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X.

“Europe stands with Estonia in the face of Russia’s latest violation of our airspace. We will respond to every provocation with determination while investing in a stronger Eastern flank. As threats escalate, so too will our pressure. I call on EU leaders to swiftly approve our 19th sanctions package.”

The news comes as Russia overnight launched some 90 drones in a major attack on Ukraine.

ABC has removed Jimmy Kimmel Live! from its line-up indefinitely after the late-night host’s remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.

Its parent company, Nexstar, announced on Wednesday that the show would be pulled, beginning with that night’s episode.

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They explained that the move was due to Jimmy‘s recent comments about Charlie’s killing, which they found “concerning.”

Instead, the network will air “other programming in its ABC-affiliated markets,” the statement read.

The remarks in question were made during Jimmy’s monologue on Monday night’s show, where the TV star said the “MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” off Charlie’s murder.

He followed by mocking President Donald Trump’s reaction to the fatal incident in an interview.

Charlie was shot and killed on September 10 while on stage at a debate at Utah Valley University.

The 22-year-old shooter, Tyler Robinson, was arrested three days later.

Tyler was charged with murder and is facing the death penalty for the heinous act.

Although Jimmy’s commentary elicited some laughs from the live studio audience, viewers at home were stunned that he had gone that far.

“Jimmy is just as out of touch and delusional,” one critic commented on a video of the monologue that was shared on the show’s YouTube channel.

“My respect for Kimmel just degraded,” said another.

In addition to the show’s suspension, the company demanded that Jimmy apologize to Charlie’s family and send a “meaningful personal donation” to them and Turning Point USA, an organization the father of two founded that advocates for conservative politics in high schools and colleges.

The talk show will reportedly be replaced on Friday with a Charlie Kirk tribute special on Sinclair’s ABC affiliate stations.

Just hours before Jimmy’s eyebrow-raising comments, fans applauded the TV personality for campaigning for Stephen Colbert to win the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Series.

Colbert did secure the win at Sunday’s 77th Primetime Emmy Awards for his hosting duties on The Late Show.

Current Late-Night Shows

Late-night shows have become a staple on American television, filled with humorous takes on news, interviews with guests, and music performances.

• Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC
• Late Night with Seth Meyers, NBC
• The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, NBC
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS
• After Midnight, CBS
• Watch What Happens Live, Bravo
• The Daily Show, Comedy Central
• Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO

He thanked his fellow nominees, Jimmy and Jon Stewart, for pushing for fans to vote for The Colbert Report alum following ABC’s abrupt cancellation of the long-running night-time talk show.

This isn’t the first time that Jimmy has gotten himself into hot water with his controversial comments on air.

However, this is a rare event that the former Academy Awards’ host’s show has been cancelled over his stunts.

The New York native only recently returned to his desk after taking his annual summer break, and in turn, had a revolving door of celebrities fill in for him.

Jimmy is one of the longest-running hosts of late-night TV, with Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s debut in 2003.

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Last Wednesday, Delta Air Lines (DAL -0.83%) delivered a strong June-quarter update and reiterated its 2025 outlook, helping steady sentiment after a choppy year for airlines. The Atlanta-based carrier, one of the largest global network airlines, highlighted resilient premium demand, steady co-brand card economics, and progress on costs — all while acknowledging ongoing softness in economy seats.

The mix between main cabin and premium cabins has become a key storyline for Delta. Premium revenue and loyalty economics are doing more heavy lifting, while management trims weaker main cabin flying and leans into higher-margin products. With this backdrop, are shares a buy? More specifically, with guidance intact and premium resilience evident, do shares offer an attractive risk-reward today?

Image source: Getty Images.

Recent results underline resilience

If there’s a meaningful slowdown in travel, Delta isn’t seeing it. The company’s second quarter produced record revenue and double-digit margins, giving management enough confidence to reiterate its full-year guidance. In the quarter, operating revenue was roughly $16.6 billion, operating margin was 13%, and earnings per share landed at $2.10 on the company’s non-GAAP basis. Management guided the September quarter to flat to up low-single-digit revenue growth year over year and a 9% to 11% operating margin, and reaffirmed full-year targets for earnings per share of $5.25 to $6.25 and free cash flow of $3 billion to $4 billion.

Beyond the headline numbers, the mix story stood out. Management said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call that “main cabin margins remain soft,” while reiterating that diversified revenue streams — credit card remuneration, loyalty, and premium cabins — now represent a large slice of the business. That matches comments on the call that softness is “largely contained to main cabin,” with premium products and the Delta-American Express partnership offsetting the pressure.

Asked whether the premium outperformance would persist, Delta president Glen Hauenstein said, “there’s nothing in any of the forward bookings that would have us indicate that there is a diminishing demand for premium cabins or services,” adding that Delta continues to evaluate aircraft layouts to “put more and more premium” seats on board. In addressing main cabin weakness, Hauenstein explained that the company is removing the “weakest trips,” often off-peak departures midweek or very early or late, to consolidate demand and improve unit revenues.

What it means for the stock

After this update, Delta provided an upbeat near-term revenue outlook and reaffirmed profit guidance, pointing to steady demand and industry capacity adjustments. Management now expects third-quarter revenue to be up about 2% to 4% year over year, and it provided earnings guidance of $1.25 to $1.75 per share.

Overall, this guidance signals that premium demand and loyalty revenue are cushioning the main cabin softness. And that industry supply is tightening where it’s least painful — the lower end of the market.

Valuation helps the case for the stock. With shares recently around $60 to $61, and a 2025 earnings target of $5.25 to $6.25 per share, Delta trades at roughly 10 to 11 times this year’s expected earnings — reasonable for a carrier producing double-digit margins and multibillion-dollar free cash flow. The company also raised its quarterly dividend by 25% earlier this year; at recent prices, the annualized dividend yield at about 1.2%, a modest payout that still signals confidence in cash generation.

There are risks. Main cabin softness could linger longer than expected, especially if consumer budgets tighten or international shoulder-season strength fades. Jet fuel and labor remain key cost variables, and any mistimed capacity reductions could pressure unit economics. But management is already trimming off-peak flying, expanding premium seating, and leaning on high-quality loyalty economics — strategies that can protect margins while demand normalizes.

Stepping back reveals that the picture is balanced but constructive, and ultimately good enough to make the stock a buy. Solid June-quarter profitability, guidance reaffirmation, resilient premium demand, and capacity discipline all support the view that Delta’s earnings power is intact. At a valuation that is not stretched, the shares look like a reasonable way to participate if premium strength and industry supply rationalization continue to play out. For investors comfortable with the usual airline cyclicality, Delta’s mix of premium momentum, loyalty cash flows, and cost focus makes the stock a credible buy candidate today.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Two California-based tech firms on Friday joined a Federal Aviation Administration pilot program meant to speed up the delivery of advanced air mobility vehicles, commonly known as air taxis, the agency said.

The Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program will include at least five separate projects, the FAA said in a statement.

Both Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation are joining the public-private pilot program. The companies are primarily focused on electric vertical takeoff and landing technology.

The goal of the pilot program is to “form public-private partnerships with state and local government entities and private sector companies to develop new frameworks and regulations for enabling safe operations,” the FAA said in the statement.

Individual projects under the pilot program will focus separately on short-range air taxis, cargo aircraft, logistics and supply serving emergency management and medical transport, longer-range, fixed wing flights and increased automation safety, according to the FAA.

“This pilot program gives us another opportunity to advance the administration’s plan to accelerate safe eVTOL and advanced air mobility operations across the United States,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in the agency’s statement.

“We will take the lessons learned from these projects to enable safe, scalable AAM operations nationwide.”

The pilot program will run for a minimum of three years.

“The next great technological revolution in aviation is here. The United States will lead the way, and doing so will cement America’s status as a global leader in transportation innovation,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in the FAA’s statement.

Both private companies saw their stock prices climb following the announcement.

Shares of San Jose-based Archer Aviation were up $0.13 or 1.53% to $8.62 as of 12:56 p.m. EDT Friday.

The company’s CEO Adam Goldstein called the announcement a “landmark moment” for the country and industry.

“We have an administration that is prioritizing the integration of eVTOL operations in U.S. cities ahead of full certification in a pragmatic way. We’ll demonstrate that air taxis can operate safely and quietly,” Goldstein said in a statement on the company’s website.

“These early flights will help cement American leadership in advanced aviation and set the stage for scaled commercial operations in the U.S. and beyond.”

Joby Aviation shares were up $0.37 or 2.71% to $14.03 at the same time.

“President Trump has long recognized the significance of America’s leadership in the next era of aviation and this initiative ensures our nation’s leadership will continue,” Joby Aviation Chief Policy Officer Greg Bowles said in a statement on the company’s website.

“We’ve spent more than 15 years building the aircraft technology and operational capabilities that are defining advanced aerial mobility, and we’re ready to bring our services to communities. We look forward to demonstrating our aircraft’s maturity and delivering early operations in cities and states nationwide.”

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Apple is postponing the release of the latest version of its iPhone in China over regulatory issues related to the company’s eSIM, a digital version of a traditional SIM card used in wireless phones.

China’s three large telecom companies have yet to obtain the necessary approval from the country’s government to sell devices using the eSIM technology.

Apple China’s website has a message that says “release information will be updated later,” for the new iPhone Air.

The California-based tech giant announced this week it would start selling the ultra-thin iPhone Air, as well as the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models, on Sept. 19.

Global pre-orders for the devices began Friday.

The iPhone 17 uses the traditional, physical SIM card that can be removed from the device.

The iPhone Air does not contain the chip, with the eSIM built into the phone.

“It’s eSIM only, and so we were able to take the battery and extend the battery to areas that previously had the physical cell,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said Friday during an interview with CNBC.

The iPhone Air is the company’s thinnest so far, coming in at 0.22 inches.

The base model of the phones is expected to retail for $799.

I WAS one of the first people in the world to have a go with the new iPhone Air.

Details about the ‘thinnest ever’ Apple mobile had leaked before this week’s launch event and I was expecting to think it was a bit pointless. But actually, it’s quite brilliant.

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I had a chance to go hands-on with the ultra-svelte smartphone at Apple Park in California this week.

Apple showed off four new mobiles including the iPhone 17, plus three upgraded Apple Watch models and a fresh pair of AirPods.

But the iPhone Air – with its shockingly skinny 5.6mm side profile – stole the show.

It’s what everyone is talking about. Just trying to get a hold of it at the Apple event felt like entering a warzone.

Once I managed to squeeze past an army of influencers and the world’s tech press, I got a good 10 minutes with the new model.

Here’s what I was worried about.

Firstly, I’m quite used to giant phones. I usually use the Pro Max models, and they fit in my pocket just fine.

Secondly, when you make a phone very thin, you usually have to make some compromises.

It often means sticking a rubbish camera on the back, or slashing battery life, or both.

Apple has managed to produce what is an extremely pocketable mobile with seemingly very few compromises.

The screen is a fairly giant 6.6 inches, making it bigger than the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.

It’s also very lightweight at 165 grams.

By comparison, my iPhone 16 Pro Max is 227 grams. The difference is night and day.

The iPhone Air felt feathery in my hand, even though it’s built from weighty (and tough) titanium.

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It’s also nice to hold because of the slim frame.

Apple has crammed most of the core components into the camera bump, leaving the rest of the phone’s body free for battery.

It’s impressive engineering and looks great.

On top of that, my early fears about camera and battery life might come to nothing at all.

Apple says you’ll get a very healthy 27 hours of video playback per charge from the iPhone Air.

I think as long as it gets you through a day comfortably, it’s perfectly fine.

Of course I won’t know for sure until I test it out, but Apple has made a promising…promise.

The camera also looks quite clever.

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I had a quick (and successful) demo in the Steve Jobs Theater, but it’s a beautiful and brightly lit room, so that doesn’t tell me much.

But on paper, the camera sounds decent enough.

You’ve got a 48-megapixel Fusion camera system that allows for multiple focal lengths, plus a telephoto-style system that delivers 2x zoom to what Apple calls “optical quality”.

And it can even capture video in 4K Dolby Vision at 60 frames per second.

The phone packs in Apple’s brand new and very powerful A19 Pro.

And at £999/$999, it’s cheaper than both of Apple’s top-end models – the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max – by £100/$100 and £200/$200 respectively.

It’s one of the most striking iPhone models we’ve seen in years, and I’m excited to test it.

Air we go…

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As Europe’s leading low-cost airline Ryanair plans to do away with printed boarding passes in the next few months, we’ve rounded up the boarding pass rules for other budget airlines

Ryanair plans to scrap paper boarding passes by November 2025, but what does this mean for other budget airlines?

While digital boarding passes are a popular option for passengers already, Ryanair – Europe’s largest budget airline – has become the first to completely do away with paper boarding passes as part of a move towards sustainability and a simpler boarding process.

However, with the upcoming change raising questions for many passengers around what kind of boarding passes they can travel with, The Mirror has put together a list of rules for some of the UK’s most popular low-cost carriers.

READ MORE: Mind-boggling new ‘shipwreck skyscraper’ to be built in major European capitalREAD MORE: ‘I’m a flight attendant – you should avoid one thing if you want a first class upgrade’

Ryanair

At present, Ryanair accepts both printed boarding passes and those on a mobile phone. Passengers can download digital passes on its website or app, or print off paper passes at home on a single page of A4.

You can also get your boarding card printed at the desk for a fee of £55. However, this will change on November 3, after the airline announced that printed passes will no longer be accepted. Instead, passengers will have to download a digital boarding pass on the Ryanair app.

Ryanair has stated that the change is expected to save 300 tonnes of paper each year, while the airline’s CMO Dara Brady said the move would allow for a streamlined boarding experience.

In case of a customer’s phone battery dying or if a customer loses their phone, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said that staff will still be able to allow them onto a flight. However, in this event they should make sure to check in online no later than two hours before getting to the airport.

It is also important to note that there are some exceptions to the digital-only rule. Passengers flying out of airports in Morocco or Turkey (with the exception of Dalaman) will continue to require a printed pass.

Meanwhile, Tirana airport in Albania will also require paper boarding cards after November 3 – but this is set to change in March 2026.

easyJet

EasyJet accepts both digital and physical boarding passes and has not announced any plans to ban printed passengers. Passengers can arrive at the airport with their boarding cards already printed or have these printed at the check-in desk at no extra cost.

If opting for a digital boarding pass, note that these should be downloaded from the mobile app. You cannot use a PDF scan of your boarding pass on your mobile device as these won’t scan properly.

While the majority of easyJet airports accept mobile boarding passes, there are a number of exceptions which require printed boarding passes.

Jet2

Jet2 is another budget carrier that allows both mobile and printed boarding passes. Passengers are able to check in on the Jet2 app to download their boarding pass up to six hours before departure time.

If you miss this window, you will have to check in at the desk, a service Jet2 offers free of charge. It’s important to note that Jet2 also flies out of locations in Turkey and Morocco which require physical boarding passes.

Wizz Air

The low cost airline will generally accept printed and mobile boarding passes. However, it also flies from some airports that require printed documents. If you’re unsure, their website has a tool to help check which airports will require a physical boarding card.

If you are unable to print your boarding pass yourself, Wizz Air can do it for you at the check-in desk for a fee of €40 (around £35). Otherwise, you can pre-book the printing service online for €13 (around £11).

However, the two exceptions are if you are travelling Agadir in Morocco or Zaragoza in Spain. Online check-in is not available for these airports, so they offer full desk check-in which includes printing boarding passes for free.

A flight attendant immediately took action when she heard the rude passenger, and confronted the woman before kicking her off the flight, which was travelling to Dallas

A passenger has learnt the hard way what happens when you tell a flight attendant to “shut up”.

A traveller on American Airlines got into an argument with a flight attendant during a safety demonstration. In a video shared to social media, a woman could be heard telling the flight attendant “she should shut up” during the flight from Costa Rica to Dallas, Texas.

The flight attendant can be approaching the passenger and bluntly asking: “Do you want to get off the plane?” while directing her peers to turn off the address system. She continued: “Because I don’t feel comfortable with you if you’re not going to follow instructions.”

In response, the passenger tries to claim, “I can’t hear” – but the flight attendant shut her down by saying: “You’re not on my list as someone who can’t hear. So I’m going to ask the pilot to remove you because you’re not complying. You know what you did, right?”

READ MORE: ‘I’m a flight attendant – you should avoid one thing if you want a first class upgrade’READ MORE: ‘I’ve never paid for a flight upgrade and neither has my partner – here’s how we do it’

The footage, uploaded to Instagram with the caption “ever wonder what happens if you tell a flight attendant to shut up?”, also showed the passenger being called out for not switching her phone off. The clip then cuts out when the passenger agrees to comply with orders, but resumes to show the woman claiming she is being harassed by the airline employee.

The woman was escorted from the plane, according to the footage and her seatmate, who filmed and posted the video with the caption: “empty middle seat is a win for me”.

Jay Crenshaw, who had been sitting next to the woman and saw the ordeal unfold, told The New York Post: “She was having a bad morning and was obviously disturbed or irritated about something she was on the phone talking about.

READ MORE: ‘Drunk’ Brit woman forces Jet2 flight to Cyprus to land early after ‘attacking crew’

“The flight attendant might have caught a stray. I think the passenger knows she was wrong. She mentioned that she also lost her phone and had to borrow one.

He continued: “I’m definitely not excusing her behavior [but] we’ve all had bad days and have said bad things because of it, but we weren’t filmed. I hope people can remember this and give her a bit of grace.”

The Mirror has contacted American Airlines for comment.

It comes after a man revealed how a family attempted to lie to a flight attendant so that they could take his plane seat from him – until he scuppered their plans.

In a post on Reddit , the man explained he decided to book business class on a recent flight because he could bag himself a window seat while guaranteeing that the middle seat remained vacant, meaning he’d have a bit more room.

READ MORE: Pilot explains what uncomfortable ‘sinking’ feeling really means during take-off

After boarding his flight, he took his seat across from an older man sitting in the aisle seat on the other side of him. Moments later, however, the other man’s wife and son came in and asked if he would switch seats with them to allow the family to sit together.

But there was one problem – the wife and child were in economy class, so swapping seats would have meant a downgrade.

The man refused this unfavourable offer, and the family made a counteroffer in which the son would sit in the free middle seat with his dad while the mum went back to economy. It turned out they lied to flight attendants on board the plane to make this deal happen.

In his Reddit post, he wrote: “His wife and son came in, asking me to switch (business for economy) so they could all sit there. Then, [they] told me that if I didn’t switch with the wife, the son would sit in the middle at least. [The dad] reasoned that I didn’t need an empty seat next to me and claimed the stewardess allowed it.

“Turned out, [the flight attendant] said it was possible if the other passenger agreed, to which they replied that I was family, so I would 100% agree.”

The man refused to move and told the flight attendants the truth, and the family were eventually made to go back to the seats they had been assigned.

He added: “I didn’t budge. The son and wife had to stay in the economy, and his father spent almost four hours muttering passive-aggressive comments. Whenever I took off my headphones, he was still going…”

China officially unveiled a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) called the JL-1 at its sprawling military parade in Beijing yesterday. With the JL-1 displayed alongside submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missiles (SLBM/ICBM), the event also marked the first time that elements of all three legs of the current Chinese strategic nuclear triad had been shown together publicly.

The JL-1 was one of many notable reveals at yesterday’s parade, as TWZ had already been reporting on as preparations had gotten underway earlier in the summer. It is important to note up front that the JL-1 (Jinglei-1) ALBM should not be confused in any way with the now-retired JL-1 (Julang-1) SLBM. Jinglei translates into English variously as sudden thunder, thunderbolt, or thunderclap, while Julang is typically translated as huge wave.

The JL-1 ALBM is very likely to be the same missile that has been referred to in the past in the West as the CH-AS-X-13, and which is understood to have been in development since at least the mid-2010s. Grainy images of an extremely similar, if not identical missile have been seen loaded underneath the fuselages of specialized H-6N missile carrier aircraft on several occasions in the past, but Chinese authorities have not previously acknowledged its existence. The H-6N, which is also capable of being refueled in flight to extend its range, was officially shown to the public for the first time at another major parade in Beijing back in 2019.

The CH-AS-X-13 has also been referred to as the KF-21 in the past, based on past reports that it is derived, at least in part, from the DF-21 series of two-stage ground-launched ballistic missiles. Though this connection has yet to be officially confirmed, the JL-1s, or mockups thereof, shown at the parade yesterday are broadly in line with the design of the DF-21D, which consists of a main stage and a maneuverable re-entry vehicle (MARV) on top that detaches in the latter stage of flight. The JL-1 also has a three-fin tail configuration indicative of an air-launched missile. The DF-21D is conventionally armed and optimized for anti-ship strikes. China’s longer-range DF-26 also has a two-stage configuration with a MARV, but is notably larger than the DF-21. Depending on their exact design, MARVs can allow for additional terminal phase course corrections for improved accuracy, as well as maneuvering to make any attempt at an intercept more difficult.

Imagery had also emerged in the past, as seen below, which has contributed to discussions about the possibility of a second variation on the CH-AS-X-13, or another different missile for the H-6N, with what may be a wedge-shaped unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle (HBGV) on top. Conical HBGV designs that can look similar externally to a MARV also exist.

However they are designed, HBGVs are fundamentally different from MARVs, the latter of which still follow a roughly ballistic path to their impact point. In contrast, after release, HBGVs are designed to proceed along relatively shallow, atmospheric flight paths to their targets while also being able to maneuver erratically along the way. Coupled with hypersonic speed, defined as anything about Mach 5, presents additional challenges for defenders. It is worth noting here that larger ballistic missiles also reach hypersonic speeds in the terminal phase of flight.

The Pentagon has also posited in the past that the CH-AS-X-13 may be capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads, as is the case with the DF-21 series and the DF-26. The connection to the DF-21, and the DF-21D most specifically, has also prompted previous discussions about the H-6N having an anti-ship role, particularly against U.S. carrier strike groups. Few hard details were offered during the parade about the JL-1, but it was explicitly described as a nuclear weapon, though this would not preclude the existence of a conventionally-armed version for use against targets at sea or on land.

During the event, state media narrators also reportedly said the JL-1 has a range of approximately 4,970 miles (8,000 kilometers). If true, this is substantially longer than the assessed maximum range of current-generation DF-21 variants, as well as the DF-26. The Pentagon’s most recent unclassified annual report to Congress on Chinese military developments, released in 2024, said the DF-21D “has a range exceeding 1,500 km [932 miles].” That same report pegged the DF-26’s range at approximately 2,485 miles (4,000 kilometers).

As a general rule, missiles fired from aircraft benefit from the speed and altitude of the launch platform, particularly when it comes to range. As such, an air-launched ballistic missile can reasonably be expected to have greater reach than a comparable design launched from the ground or a vessel at sea. As an example, Russia’s air-launched Kinzhal is understood to have an appreciably longer range than the ground-launched Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile it is based on.

Whatever its exact capabilities might be, the JL-1’s appearance at the parade yesterday had the additional and perhaps greater significance of being the first official display of the aerial component of China’s present nuclear triad to the public. Of the currently accepted nine nuclear powers globally (which includes Israel and its unacknowledged stockpile), only the United States, Russia, China, and India field triads in any form. The core arguments for having a nuclear triad are the operational flexibility it offers, as well as its resilience to attack. Even if one or two legs were to be neutralized, capacity would remain to launch retaliatory strikes.

The Pentagon had publicly assessed back in 2019 that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) was moving to resume a strategic nuclear deterrence role with the appearance of the H-6N. Before then, the exact status of China’s stockpile of air-dropped nuclear bombs had become unclear. With the operational fielding of the H-6N in 2020, the Pentagon further assessed that the PLA had established a “nascent nuclear triad.”

“The PLAAF has operationally fielded the H-6N bomber, providing a platform for the air component of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] nuclear triad. The H-6N, compared to other H-6 bombers, adds an air-to-air refueling probe as well as its recessed fuselage modifications that enable external carriage of a nuclear-capable ALBM,” the Pentagon wrote in its unclassified 2024 report to Congress on Chinese military developments. “The ALBM carried by the H-6N appears to be armed with a maneuvering reentry vehicle, indicating the ALBM – along with the DF-26 IRBM [intermediate-range ballistic missile] – likely can conduct nuclear precision strikes against targets in the Indo-Pacific theater.”

China’s triad, which we now know officially includes the JL-1, is part of a larger nuclear build-up underway in the country that also includes expanding the land and sea-based legs. The construction of vast new fields of silos for ICBMs in recent years has been a particularly visible component of this broader effort. Those silos may not all be intended to hold missiles as part of a ‘shell game’ to create targeting complications for opponents.

“Over the next decade, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] probably will continue to modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces rapidly. The PLA seeks a larger and more diverse nuclear force, comprised of systems ranging from low-yield precision strike missiles to ICBMs with multi-megaton yields to provide it multiple options on the escalation ladder,” according to the Pentagon’s 2024 report on China to Congress. “In 2023, Beijing continued its rapid nuclear expansion. DoD estimates the PRC has surpassed 600 operational nuclear warheads in its stockpile as of mid-2024 and will have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels. The PRC will continue growing its force through at least 2035.”

“The PRC has not publicly or formally acknowledged or explained its nuclear expansion and modernization. The buildup almost certainly is due to the PRC’s broader and longer-term perceptions of progressively increased U.S.-PRC strategic competition. The PLA’s nuclear expansion and modernization very likely are tied to its overall military strategy – seeking to close capability gaps and become a competitive global power,” the report added. “As a result, the PRC probably perceives that a stronger nuclear force is needed to deter U.S. intervention, check potential nuclear escalation or first strike, and will allow for increased control of the scope and scale of escalation during a conflict in a way its previously smaller and less diverse nuclear force could not.”

All of this is in line with the establishment of a nuclear triad, as well as the Pentagon’s past assessment that China has been moving to adopt a launch-on-warning (LOW) deterrent posture. LOW entails a plan to execute a massive counterstrike upon detecting incoming nuclear threats, primarily to help ensure a retaliatory strike can be successfully initiated before the hostile weapons reach their targets.

There have also been separate discussions about how the growing size of China’s nuclear stockpile points to plans for so-called countervalue targeting, in which weapons would also be aimed at an enemy’s population centers. Strikes directed at military targets are referred to as counterforce.

Altogether, the public debut of China’s JL-1 ALBM is a very important development with ramifications well beyond the missile itself.

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Emmerdale pulled off another big moment on Friday night which saw the killer John Sugden plot take another sharp turn, proving there’s still twists and turns ahead

While Emmerdale‘s dark John Sugden storyline looks set to be heading for the finish line, Friday night’s episode proved there’s still plenty of life, no pun intended, in the killer plot.

While some fans have had enough and are ready for villain John to face his comeuppance, perhaps the latest twist that aired on Friday could see it take its biggest turn yet. The latest episode of the ITV soap saw the moment it was revealed that John’s latest victim Mackenzie Boyd was still alive.

He’s been missing ever since John appeared to kill him a couple of weeks ago, in brutal scenes that sparked a number of Ofcom complaints. Mack was shot with a bow and arrow before John appeared to silence him for good, slamming a rock over his head.

But in the shocking closing moments of Friday night, we saw Mack alive while seemingly in a bad way. Then, nothing. The episode ended before we got any context and any news on his condition post-attack.

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Of course there will be questions and likely some reactions calling out the big move. How could Mack possibly have survived such brutal injuries? How did he get Mack away without anyone realising?

All to be revealed of course, but arguably this is one of the biggest twists yet, and one of the best in the entire storyline. “Robert Sugden’s big return, the will-they-won’t-they Robron chaos it triggered and Robert finding himself in the middle of John’s secret antics, and the resulting feud, was very much an epic move by the show, and it revitalised the storyline,” our soap insider shared.

“But this latest twist does so much for the storyline, and means so much. To have Mack alive completely reaffirms that John is not an intentional killer, he’s just someone who’s done very, very bad things.

“He’s a manipulator, he has to be in control and he goes to desperate lengths to ensure things go the way he wants. But he’s not a planned killer, and he feels guilt… most of the time. He could have killed Mack, silenced him, but he didn’t, because he no doubt couldn’t go through with it.”

This isn’t about painting John in a “he’s just made bad choices” light though. The twist is “genius” according to our soap expert, as it could completely derail John’s life and be the pivotal moment that sees it all come crashing down.

With Aaron already suspicious over John’s behaviour and his lies, about the cottage and about his whereabouts, surely it is only a matter of time before the truth about Mack, and everything, finally comes to light. We know John is leaving the show, so a comeuppance is inevitable.

Not only does Mack’s survival seal John’s end, but it could spark a ton of new mysteries across the coming days and weeks which can give this rather dark plot some new life. Again, no pun intended, RIP Nate. “The fact that John has ‘saved’ Mack, the very person that now knows everything, there is every chance the already guilty villain will cave and expose his own deep, dark secrets – not to mention keeping Mack alive surely has to spell the end of his villainous ways.

“John is already on the edge, and we don’t know yet, thanks to the cliffhanger, what his plans are for Mack and whether he plans to let him go. We know very little asides Mack’s true fate. John could crack at any moment with Aaron or even with Mack, given his desperate calls and messages to the helplines recently.

“But the bigger question is the stuff we haven’t seen. Mack’s survival was kept top secret, so we are guaranteed to be shown or told some unaired moments, and stuff that has not been given away in spoilers. That cannot simply be it with Mack, it has to be revisited.

“What did happen to him after that showdown? What has happened since his capture, and what’s gone on in those weeks he was believed to be dead? Surely, onscreen or not, we will be told some previously untold and unaired moments.”

That’s not all though, as it could spark some new mysteries. “This isn’t just going to leave big questions in terms of what we haven’t seen, but also a new mystery surrounding whether Mack will live or die, and if he can get away. Then there’s the ongoing mystery surrounding the body of Anthony Fox who was killed at the start of the year by Ruby Miligan.

“John still hasn’t disclosed where he buried him, and he sparked new theories with fans when mentioning him in a recent episode. This latest twist with Mack will no doubt leave fans wondering what really happened there too, and where Anthony is. Some may call it unrealistic, but I’d say Mack’s reappearance is somewhat a genius move, given all the things it could now lead to. It’s really, really exciting.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Passengers on a recent easyJet flight were guided by cabin crew through an impromptu stretching session, but beyond entertainment there is a vital reason this is becoming a common practice

Passengers on a recent easyJet flight were subject to an impromptu ‘air-robics’ class. A viral TikTok video shows a plane-full of passengers stretching their arms and touching their knees at the direction of a cabin crew member.

The TikTok video has been viewed over 2 million times and was shared with the caption: “What in the air-robics is going on, easyJet”. While the synchronised stretching may look quite odd, one expert has shared that the practice is critical while flying.

While doing yoga stretches on an airplane may sound like a hassle, it’s become quite the trend. Videos are circulating online of flight attendants leading passengers through seated yoga routines mid-flight.

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Weighing in on the movement, yoga instructor Holly Hogan says the practice supports circulation onboard and reduces nerves.

Partnering with Well Pharmacy Online Doctor, Holly Hogan, also shares expert-backed advice on in-seat yoga stretches, discreet breathing techniques, and strategies for beating jet lag to improve passenger comfort and wellbeing at 30,000 feet.

Holly says even minimal movement during long-haul travel can make a big difference. “Just five minutes of gentle stretching every couple of hours can help reduce tension in the neck, back and legs and lower the risk of circulation issues like deep vein thrombosis (DVT).”

While it’s important to stretch your legs by walking up and down the aisle, Holly says there are some beginner-friendly ways to stretch in your seat too.

“Even with limited space, there are simple yoga stretches you can do to stay comfortable and grounded. Try a seated cat-cow by gently arching your spine as you inhale and rounding your spine as you exhale. Add in some neck rolls, shoulder shrugs, and ankle circles to release tension and improve circulation.”

Holly recommends a “seated spinal twist” as well, which is not only great to ease stiffness in your back but aids with digestion. A great stretch to try after you’ve gotten through your inflight meal. Knee hugs are also great to loosen the lower back.

When you do stand up to stretch your legs or use the bathroom, there are a few other discreet poses you can attempt. “Mountain pose is a great one: just stand tall, ground your feet, and lengthen your spine,” Holly says. “A gentle forward fold can release your lower back, and calf raises are perfect for circulation. Even a standing quad stretch or lunge, if you have space, can prevent stiffness.”

For those who feel anxious while flying, Holly recommends focusing on breathing to calm down. “If you’re feeling anxious, one of my favourite techniques is box breathing: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, and hold again for four. If you can, extending your exhale – for example, inhale for four and exhale for six or eight, will help to calm your nervous system.”

Everyone should be moving or stretching every one to two hours during a long flight, according to Holly. This includes walking the aisle, doing standing poses or just stretching while seated.

“It doesn’t have to be a full routine – just enough to keep your body from stiffening up,” she says. She also says it’s vital to combine gentle stretching with good hydration.

“Drinking water supports good circulation and prevents dehydration, while conscious breathing keeps your mind calm,” she concludes. “Add in a few stretches and a guided meditation, and you’ll land feeling much more refreshed.”