Strictly Come Dancing fans are all making the same comment new It Takes Two presenter about Ellie Taylor. The comedian has replaced Fleur East and Janette Namrara on the BBC Two show
Ellie Taylor has earned praise from It Takes Two viewers(Image: BBC/Strictly It Takes Two)
Following the announcement that Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe would be replacing Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on the main programme, the BBC revealed in August that there were plans to revamp the midweek show as well. This decision saw Ellie given the It Takes Two presenting duties – four years after her stint on Strictly as a contestant.
Following the Beeb’s confirmation of Ellie’s role back in August, she said in a statement: “What a total joy to return to Strictly in this new role. I feel incredibly honoured to follow in the footsteps of the phenomenal line-up of hosts who’ve made Strictly – It Takes Two so loved over the years.
“I can’t wait to immerse myself in all the gossip and sequins flying out of the ballroom in order to bring my fellow Strictly fans everything they need to know. I’m so excited, I could cha cha! (But I won’t – don’t worry… no one needs to see that again.)”.
Now, after the series’ first two showers, fans have issued praise towards Ellie, 42.
“Just catching up on It Takes Two,” one person said on X.” I’m not enjoying everything, but my God Ellie is smashing it soo far. Absolutely brilliant.”
A second person agreed: “Don’t like the changes, but Ellie is fab. Should have got the main gig with Emma.”
A third shared: “Ellie Taylor hosts it well, but the new version of It Takes Two has nothing worth watching anymore.”
While a fourth viewer added: “Ellie Taylor is good, the new It Takes Two set is awful with the wooden unvarnished floor all that glitz and glamour gone, no pro interviews. I know they wanted to revamp both the Strictly main show and It Takes Two but the changes aren’t good.”
And a fifth asked: “I adore Ellie Taylor but I’m not sure I like this new It Takes Two at all. Why are they making so many changes – why change the ITT set this year when it literally got changed last year?”
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Essex-born Ellie old rose to prominence as a comedian before transitioning into presenting roles on programmes including Snog Marry Avoid? and The Great Pottery Throw Down. On It Takes Two, she faces the challenge of following in the footsteps of previous hosts Zoe Ball, Rylan Clark and Claudia.
It Takes Two producer Rhe-An Archibald said of the changes: “This is Strictly – It Takes Two, reinvented for the 2026 season. With a wealth of new features and deep dives, we want to reflect the conversations happening in living rooms up and down the country – full of opinions, laughs, surprises and those moments everyone wants to talk about.
“With the fun and funny Ellie at the helm, it will be an utterly unmissable companion to Strictly Come Dancing.”
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two airs Monday to Friday at 6:30pm on BBC Two and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
According to documents obtained by The Times via the California Public Records Act, Inglewood High School confirmed to the Southern Section that its football coach, Mil’Von James, played three ineligible players during a game in Austin, Texas, last month.
The reason, according to the letter sent to the Southern Section office, was, “The coach stated that he was not aware CIF eligibility rules applied to a game in Texas.”
That raises the question how many more times Inglewood has used ineligible players for out-of-state football games under James, the head coach since 2019. Last season on Sept. 25, 2025, the team played in Midland, Texas, three days before sit-out transfer players became eligible. Inglewood won 43-42. One of the players on the team who had not been cleared to play was Masyn Harvey, a quarterback transfer and holder on PATs.
Harvey, now playing for a prep school team, declined to return a request for comment if he had played.
If Harvey did play, Inglewood should have forfeited its win last season to Midland. Because Inglewood lost to Westlake of Austin on Aug. 28, a forfeit was moot for this season. Inglewood informed the Southern Section that it imposed a two-game suspension as punishment to James, who returned to coach last week in a win over Downey. The school said it would extend the sit-out period by another week to those players who participated while not cleared.
As for corrective action, the school stated, “Going forward, all ineligible players, across all sports, will be in street clothes on the sideline and must check in with the game administrator prior to the start of each game. We will send all coaches, across all sports, a weekly email listing ineligible players and the reasons for their ineligibility.
“At the start of each season, we will re-train all coaches on eligibility criteria and the clearance process and require them to sign an acknowledgment confirming they understand.”
James has a history of using ineligible players. He was dismissed at Hawkins High in 2016. The Los Angeles Unified School District did not share why James was fired, calling it a confidential personnel matter. LAUSD dismissed James soon after the discovery of ineligible players, resulting in Hawkins forfeiting all of its games to finish 0-13. Since then, the City Section established a rule that teams must exchange rosters before games to verify that players are eligible.
The Southern Section declined comment, but according to a letter response from an assistant commissioner, “Based on your self-report, preventative measures and the corrective actions taken, we will consider this matter closed.”
BEIJING — It’s unclear if President Trump’s elaborate reception of his Chinese counterpart in Washington dazzled President Xi Jinping, but for the Chinese public, it made quite an impression.
Trump’s rare welcome of Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the airport, as well as the bilateral and cultural events the leaders attended were closely covered — and praised — by Chinese state media. Those who watched at home saw a China elevated in status.
“I read the news that the U.S. reception standards for President Xi are very high,” Xiang Ziyu, a postgraduate student in Beijing, told The Associated Press. “I’m quite impressed because it shows that our country has become really powerful.”
That takeaway was shared by several people interviewed by the AP as well as in comments on Chinese social media, which praised China’s cooperation with the United States.
The official People’s Daily newspaper allocated the entire front page to the trip, featuring six photos of the Xi-Trump meetings.
Meanwhile, on the Chinese search engine Baidu, the three most popular search topics on Friday were the talks between Trump and Xi; the state dinner attended by Xi and Peng; and greetings extended by Xi to Chinese people on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival being celebrated on Friday.
Shen Zuohang, a Beijing resident, felt reassured by the coverage and by Trump and Xi’s seeming agreeability on topics like trade, artificial intelligence and security.
“We have no trade war and no military conflict. Even on the issue of Taiwan we are moving in a good direction instead of having heated confrontation,” Shen said.
“The two sides are handling issues in a more acquiescent way.”
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi called on Trump to oppose the independence of Taiwan, an island democracy China claims as its own territory, and to handle the issue with caution. Trump did not immediately make comments on Taiwan, but had previously described U.S. arms sales to the island as open to negotiations with China.
Xiang, the student, said the summit overall sent a positive signal and will help improve the Chinese public’s opinion of the relations between the two countries.
“It is better than not communicating,” he said.
Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing and writer Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island struck down a Trump administration directive that would have barred some immigrants from accessing certain federal programs, including Head Start preschools, community health clinics and adult education initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Trump in 2019, temporarily barred his administration from moving forward with the rule last year, so it never was implemented. On Monday, she made the injunction permanent.
Officials from the Republican administration had said the directive would stop “illegal aliens” from accessing federal benefits by reclassifying broad swaths of social services programs under a Clinton-era law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
But the rule also would have swept up many immigrants in the U.S. legally, including work and student visa holders. It also would have barred services from Temporary Protected Status holders, who are granted work permits if the U.S. government determines conditions in their home country are too dangerous to return, along with recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who were brought to the country illegally as children and receive temporary protection from deportation and work authorization.
Those groups, which are considered “nonqualified aliens” under the law, already are unable to access full Medicaid benefits and federally funded food aid and cash assistance.
The Trump administration issued its directive in July 2025. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia sued.
They said the change upended three decades of policy allowing people to access community health clinics, domestic violence shelters and Head Start centers without proving their immigration status. They warned the harms could spread, deterring any immigrant from seeking services and throwing up barriers even for U.S. citizens unable to document their legal status. The new rules also would have put administrative burdens on underfunded social service agencies, including Head Start operators, which might have been forced to close if they were unable to comply with the directive’s new requirements, the lawsuit said.
In her ruling, McElroy declared the directive “unlawful” and said the Trump administration did not follow the proper avenues to rewrite the rules. She called the administration’s actions “procedurally invalid.” She added that the administration still could pursue rule changes through the federal notice-and-comment process, which officials bypassed when they issued the directive last year.
Requests for comment were sent to the departments named as defendants in the wide-ranging lawsuit. The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Head Start, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The Labor Department referred inquiries to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who was among those who sued, hailed the judge’s ruling.
“From cancer screenings to food banks to early childhood education, the federal government’s attempts to decimate the social safety net would have been catastrophic for working families,” James said.
Cassius accepted the hero award from the city of Miami Police Department at a ceremony recognizing his bravery on Wednesday.
“It’s surreal to be able to be this proud of my child,” Gina told reporters at the event. “I’ve always been proud of him, but this is such an incredible thing that he did.”
In May, Cassius heard the nearby screams of Miami woman Caitlin Dydzuhn, who was walking her dog near her downtown condominium when she was brutally attacked by a man wielding a homemade shank. Cassius, 25, ran toward the screams and jumped in to stop the assault by kicking and shoving the alleged assailant Raydean Johnson, 49, who was arrested at the scene of the incident shortly after the attack.
Dydzuhn was punched and stabbed, and suffered severe cuts and damage to one of her eyes, according to NBC Miami. Doctors told her she would likely never regain her vision in the wounded eye, but she has since recovered.
Cassius told the outlet that he was raised not to panic in intense situations and to help those in need. He also said his lifelong training in martial arts helped equip him to step in.
“Fight or flight,” he said, per 7 News. “I’m glad that fight kicked in.”
“He saved my life,” Dydzuhn told reporters at the ceremony. “My last memory was screaming for my life, kind of blocking punches, blocking stab wounds, and feeling that no one was coming to save me.”
Dydzuhn continued that Cassius guided her to safety and spoke calmly, telling her, “There’s a man here with a weapon. I need to get you out of here.”
Gina Prince-Bythewood, also known for “The Woman King” and “Love & Basketball,” posted coverage of the ceremony on social media, writing, “Firstborn@CassiusMandela living the incredible example set by his pops,” adding a thank-you to her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood, for “all that you instilled in our sons.”
Reggie added his own accolades for his son in the comments, writing, “My son. So grateful you’re safe. Grateful Caitlin is recovering well. I’m grateful that Mom was able to be with you. I admire how you were calm and empathetic under extreme pressure. Now you know why I call you CHAMP.”
That much was clear Saturday at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s opening-night soiree, where the guest list was as celebrity-heavy as any Academy Awards after-party. As the festivities kicked off around sunset in the courtyard under the museum’s towering elliptical oculus, Oprah Winfrey hugged Robert De Niro, and Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart skipped the red carpet after chatting with Spike Lee. Laura Dern and Greta Gerwig laughed together by the entrance while Samuel L. Jackson plopped down on a curved bench, joking, “Hey, look what I did!”
For the record:
1:22 p.m. Sept. 20, 2026A previous version of this article said James Cameron was photographed along with a large group of directors at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. He was not.
He didn’t sit for long because Cynthia Erivo and Andy Garcia showed up and there were more hugs and handshakes and hellos. Owen Wilson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Justin Trudeau, Mark Hamill and Magic Johnson were there too, and that was just the beginning.
Gov. Gavin Newsom attended the opening-night party for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art alongside a host of other notable guests and celebrities.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
After a rousing performance by a white-robe-clad vocal collective called Voices of Fire, co-founded by Pharrell Williams, Lucas’ wife Mellody Hobson noted that, “George kept saying, ‘Will this person come? Do you think this person will come?’”
“I said, ‘They will all come,’” Hobson said as the crowd laughed during opening remarks on a raised platform in the museum’s grand lobby.
And so they did. There was even a banner moment inside the posh fifth-floor Skywalker Grill where a group of directors gathered to be photographed in what could very well become a seminal photo of Hollywood influence in the 21st century. The shot included Lucas, Jon M. Chu, Chris Columbus, Francis Ford Coppola, Lee Daniels, Guillermo del Toro, Jon Favreau, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, Chris Meledandri, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Steven Spielberg, Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Nathan Fielder and David Benioff.
Organizers were scrambling to find Gerwig, but she had dashed off somewhere else.
“Star Wars” legendMark Hamill and his wife, Marilou York, were guests at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening party.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
There were artists in attendance too, of course, but not as many. Jeff Koons, Refik Anadol, Judy Baca and Takashi Murakami strolled through the crowd, as did museum directors including the Broad’s Joanne Heyler and Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Michael Govan, who was relieved to be attending someone else’s party after hosting so many of his own in April and May when the new Geffen Galleries opened.
Lucas and Hobson went to great lengths to explain why the Lucas Museum matters and why it is different from other museums. Their comments, in many ways, sought to address the criticism that has been lobbed at the museum since it held its press preview a few weeks back.
Though it has received a number of rave reviews, critics have called narrative art a false conceit and argued that the juxtaposition of masterworks with pop culture ephemera does not work. Much of the criticism has been focused on a perceived lack of context since there is almost no wall text clarifying why certain curatorial choices were made.
George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson hosted an extravagant opening party at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
“When I started it, everybody said, ‘You’re crazy. You shouldn’t do it. It’s not going to work. People are going to come after you,’” Lucas said of his plans for the museum. “I said, ‘People have come after me all my life, especially in the movies.’”
Lucas also addressed why he curated the museum’s 100,000 square feet of gallery space on his own, noting that at a certain point plans were “getting off the rails.”
“I’m going to have to take this over because people don’t understand what I’m doing,” Lucas recalled thinking. “The idea that illustration is an art form and illustrators are artists was just too much for somebody who had been taught otherwise by the art schools that they went to and the universities that they went to.”
People with PhDs often can’t see the big picture, Lucas said, “You can’t say ‘This is art. This is not art.’ Art is in the eye of the beholder. If it is emotional to you, then it’s art. And, of course, I’ve been criticized up and down and sideways for that. But I believe it wholeheartedly — that you get to decide what art is.”
Members of the Virginia Beach vocal collective Voices of Fire, co-founded by Bishop Ezekiel Williams and Pharrell Williams perform at the Lucas Museum.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Lucas noted that throughout his career he has worked with many illustrators, “and I will tell you, they are as talented as any artist I’ve ever met. This is the way of giving back to them something that they’ve all wanted … inevitably, all of the illustrators say the same thing — everybody from R. Crumb to Rockwell — they all say, ‘I wish I could be in a museum,’ but they can’t. There isn’t a major museum in the world that’ll have this kind of art in it. I’m hoping this will change that.”
Lucas’ comments came after his friend and co-host Queen Latifah noted to the cheering crowd that, “Paris has the Louvre, New York has the Met and now L.A. has the artistic equal.”
Guests mingle at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening party.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)
It took more than a decade for the Lucas Museum to land in L.A. after a search that included Chicago and San Francisco as well as lots of civic pushback and lawsuits over the use of public parkland.
“We did not realize how hard it would be to give a city a museum,” Hobson said during her remarks, later joking: “If your husband or spouse comes home and says they want to build a museum, I suggest your response is a hard no.”
Laura Dern, left, and Greta Gerwig spent the early part of the night chatting and laughing.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Hobson went on to extol Lucas’ vision and his ability to never waver from his dream for the museum.
“He was driven to create a space that would showcase the brilliant illustrators that he thought were too often overlooked and ignored,” Hobson said. “And if critics say that a museum of narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, well, we love popcorn movies in our family.”
Like a popcorn movie, the evening ended happily with a drone show in the night sky narrated by Winfrey and Jackson, and featuring images from the museum’s collection including the Cave of Altamira, N.C. Wyeth’s “The Storybook,” Julie Bell’s “The Huntress,” Banksy’s “Girl With Balloon,” the “Star Wars” Millennium Falcon and Maxfield Parrish’s “Ecstasy.”
Afterward the party moved inside from the rooftop terrace for a performance by the Black Eyed Peas.
PHILADELPHIA — Ed Sheeran opened a solo concert in Philadelphia on Saturday with comments about Gaza, saying what’s happening is “catastrophic and unjustifiable.”
“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives,” Sheeran said at his nighttime performance at Lincoln Financial Field.
Sheeran also said he wants his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics.
He then addressed the controversy that unfolded since his supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore, who was dropped from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.
Sheeran has performed much of his Loop Tour concerts solo, but he had been joined for several songs at each stop by the Irish folk band Beoga. Macklemore, Sheeran’s original U.S. opener, had been replaced by Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe before they backed out.
Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year before he too dropped out earlier this week.
As of Saturday afternoon, tickets were still available for the show, and Sheeran’s website did not list any replacement acts.
Earlier a group of about 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators congregated outside the stadium before the show. Hillary Steinberg, 34, of Philadelphia, said she got tickets a year ago but wound up getting a refund and attending the demonstration instead, disappointed that Sheeran had not taken a stand.
“I was, until this week, a big Ed Sheeran fan,” Steinberg said. “I think all art is political, and all music is political, and so this choice — even though he was saying that he wasn’t complicit — is a political choice.”
The show comes after a tumultuous week that opened with Macklemore being dropped in response to exclaiming “Free Palestine!” during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey. Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision, which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. His company owns a stadium where Sheeran’s tour was scheduled to play Friday.
Within hours of Sheeran’s statement Tuesday, his supporting acts withdrew.
Diane Savitz, a 53-year-old concertgoer from Stroudsburg, Pa., got her tickets to the show months ago and is a big Sheeran fan. She said she does not think that he did anything wrong or that a concert is the place for politics.
“A concert should be for people enjoying the music. Music should bring people together,” Savitz said. “Everyone has their right to freedom of speech, but not every platform is the place for it.”
Macklemore said Wednesday he is donating $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the gift; a spokesperson for Kraft has said the billionaire and Sheeran have each agreed to donate $2 million but have not specified where the money will be directed. Sheeran’s representatives have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Sheeran’s Loop Tour was the highest-grossing in the world, with an average box office gross of over $7 million per city, Pollstar said in May. Through the end of 2025, Sheeran was the No. 3 top-earning concert act since 2021.
Sheeran has said the tour promoter was ultimately responsible for the decision to drop Macklemore.
The Grammy winner was adamant in his Tuesday statement that he wouldn’t be drawn into discussion of the war in Gaza, arguing that his fans don’t come to his shows to hear about these issues.
He also said he “spoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge” before Macklemore was dropped. He insisted he would never willingly let down his fans or abandon the touring crew and others who rely on him to make a living.
While promoters and venues wield great power over concert tours, experts say an artist of Sheeran’s magnitude generally has the final say about what happens concerning the shows.
Sheeran told the crowd in Philadelphia that everyone is welcome at his concerts, and they can have opposing points of view while still singing his songs, which are about “love, hope, and unity.”
Vejpongsa writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
In a matter of days, Ed Sheeran has gone from the most agreeable, defiantly middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter on the pop charts to music’s newest villain. The Times’ August Brown and Mikael Wood gathered to break down what happened — and to figure out what it all means.
August Brown: To recap, Sheeran dropped his tour opener, the rapper Macklemore, after the MC described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and said “Free Palestine” onstage this month at two New Jersey dates of Sheeran’s ongoing stadium tour. Macklemore, in a statement, cited his long friendship with Sheeran while criticizing the singer for allegedly acquiescing to a demand from Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots, that the rapper not be allowed to perform at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium outside Boston due to his comments.
Kraft, a Trump-supporting billionaire with his own colorful history, released a statement about the tour, saying he was “ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.”
But Sheeran, who performed at Kraft’s wedding in 2022, arguably made things much worse with his own comments on the decision to drop Macklemore from the tour, which ranged from shifting accountability (“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine”) to promising that he held compassionate beliefs on this volatile issue but wouldn’t articulate them publicly (“I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”)
This prompted Sheeran’s remaining openers — including the musician and producer Finneas, the Danish rock combo Lukas Graham and singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe — to drop off the tour, each giving their plainspoken support for both Macklemore’s advocacy and the Palestinian people as their reasons for leaving. The traditional Irish group Beoga, which backs Sheeran for a portion of his nightly show, also quit the tour, saying it was responding to “the silencing of Macklemore by Zionist lobbies.”
It’s too soon to know how this will affect a CVS-core pop star like Sheeran, but it’s clear that for the first time in his career, he’s chosen the path of maximum conflict and controversy for little gain. What do you think he should he have done instead?
Macklemore
(Morgan Hancock / Getty Images)
Mikael Wood: Not let Macklemore be booted from his tour?
Look, I understand Sheeran’s position here: that he views himself as an artist whose audience comes to his show precisely because they’d like to avoid the messy realities of the world for two or three hours. We can choose a different day to discuss how tenable (or not) that position is here in the era of a reality-TV president who long ago blurred the line between politics and entertainment.
But setting aside one’s views on Israel and Palestine, it’s impossible for me to see how Sheeran ever thought his actions would be seen as anything other than allowing a fellow artist to be silenced — a clear loser in the eyes of both the left and the right.
It would be one thing if Macklemore’s comments in New Jersey truly resembled the hate speech that Kraft accused him of dispensing. (Many online have posted images of a costume the rapper wore onstage in 2014 that resembled an ugly Jewish caricature; Macklemore apologized at the time, saying he understood the criticism.)
And of course I get that the very idea of hate speech is slippery — one reason, perhaps, that the folks at AT&T Stadium near Dallas (where Sheeran is scheduled to perform next month) appear to have no problem hosting a concert in November by Ye, who not so long ago released a song called, uh, “Heil Hitler.”
But given how measured Macklemore’s comments were, Sheeran’s decision to go along with the demands for his removal feels less like a fulfillment of his desire to create a conflict-free zone and more like a capitulation to a rich and powerful friend.
August, what do you make of the various statements from the musicians who’ve opted to leave the tour in the wake of all this?
August Brown: The other openers had the most to lose here by bowing out of a huge tour. Yet they took unambiguous stances in favor of Macklemore’s Palestinian advocacy. (On Wednesday, the rapper said on Instagram that he planned to donate “the entire $1 million of my net earnings” from Sheeran’s tour to six organizations “working directly to support the Palestinian people.” He also invited Kraft to match his donation.)
“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas wrote. “I stand with Palestine and its people.”
Lukas Graham went even harder: “We should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up,” the group wrote. “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation.”
Sheeran could have done what many fans regard as the right thing: Defy Kraft’s demands, cancel the Gillette Stadium dates with Macklemore and reroute the tour to somewhere that would support an opening act’s fairly anodyne support of a popular human rights cause. Sheeran is extremely wealthy, and he’d have been on the right side of history, if for no other reason than to say that billionaires shouldn’t have a veto over an artist’s human rights advocacy onstage.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that crews’ livelihoods and fans’ investment in the shows are meaningful things to toss out. But an artist as big as Sheeran can make up the difference. Even a hypothetical statement like “I stand for Macklemore’s freedom of speech and the rights of the Palestinian people. My team’s livelihoods depends on the shows happening, so I will play the Gillette dates as planned,” with a promise for a donation or a benefit show with Macklemore down the line — even that would have smoothed this over.
But his actions here — deflecting accountability, being vague yet defensive about his own politics — and his history with Kraft suggest his sympathies might not lie with the causes his opening acts stand for.
It’s interesting that Beoga and Aaron Rowe, both Irish acts, acknowledged their own country’s history of colonial occupation as reason to stand up for Palestinians (and free speech around it). “Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life, I could never thank him enough for this,” Rowe wrote in his statement. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine, and violent occupation.”
Even Lukas Graham cited the band’s roots in Christiania, a Danish enclave with a history as an anarchist commune, as an example they’re following by bailing on this tour. Sheeran likes to say that, through his father, he is culturally Irish though he was born and raised in England. In a country that rallied for Kneecap, the Irish rap group and advocates for Palestinians, his reputation is likely taking a real hit. Whether that extends to his ultra-mainstream U.S. fan base remains to be seen.
Not every artist is obliged to comment on contentious issues — though the success of Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival, which raised money for an array of abortion-rights advocacy groups, showed that A-listers can speak out when they want to. But whatever he actually believes, Sheeran’s long-cultivated neutrality is in tatters. Taking a stand would have been the path of least resistance. Instead, he committed the most basic onstage error: a failure to read the room.
In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen paying a visit to a familiar farm.
The new Grand Tour hosts met their predecessors at the premiere event (Image: PRIME VIDEO)
The new Grand Tour hosts witnessed Jeremy Clarkson in action behind the meat counter at Diddly Squat Farm.
The Grand Tour is back on Prime Video with three new hosts taking the wheel – train enthusiast and social media star Francis Bourgeois, and YouTube hosts James Engelsman and Thomas Holland. The streamer announced the new series would feature cameos from the original trio, but the extent of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s involvement was kept under wraps.
Now, it has been revealed that the new hosts visited Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, featured on the hit Clarkson’s Farm, to get Clarkson’s seal of approval. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, host Holland said it was a “weird experience”. He shared: “About two years earlier, I went to the farm as a tourist, just for fun, I just happened to be here.
“I went into the tent and had a beer and did whatever you do when you are there, and the next time I was back there it was to talk to Jeremy Clarkson, so that was a bit weird.” Engelsman enlightened viewers by revealing “Jeremy does 9-5 shifts behind that [meat] counter”. While many fans already know Clarkson had warned the new trio “don’t f*** it up”, it was actually another part of his testimony that resonated most with the new hosts.
Engelsman explained: “It was strange, we have seen the footage now and after we left, he delivered that message to camera. That slightly longer, more sincere message, I think, for me at least, it resonated a lot harder than just the brief piece of advice.” What Clarkson had told viewers once the trio had walked away was: “I have got to be honest with you, I have actually been watching what they have been up to for the last year and a half, and they are very, very good, I think you are going to love it.”
Holland expressed to The Mirror: “We didn’t see that in the moment, we didn’t know that happened until much later on, so seeing that played back was like ‘Oh, that’s nice’.” Bourgeois agreed, adding: “It means a huge amount to us and also gives us quite the superpower, to have his blessing is just a phenomenal start for us.”
In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen driving through the English countryside when they pulled into Diddly Squat Farm. They paid a visit to The Farmer’s Dog, which featured the original Grant Tour sign hanging from the tent ceiling.
Nervously, they approached Clarkson, who was behind the butcher’s counter. “Hey, how’s things?” he said with a smile. “So, how can I help?” Francis joked: “We have come to ask, please may we use the tent for our studio?”
Clarkson looked at the three blankly before saying: “Not really. I mean, you could, but it’s got a butcher’s in it now, and a bar, and a shop, and an off-licence. It’s usually quite busy as well, so it wouldn’t be an audience so much as customers. I want to help, but look, it’s been repurposed.”
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The joke referred to a Clarkson’s Farm moment when Jeremy called on the help of his old Grand Tour boss to supply a tent to house various projects like the farm shop and butcher’s counter. Following the skit, Clarkson got serious, saying: “Listen guys, seriously, have fun with this. I mean it, good luck, and don’t f*** it up.”
Speaking directly to viewers, it was then that Clarkson gave his heartfelt speech that resonated with the new hosts, who had been totally unaware of his kind words.
Strictly It Takes Two fans make same comment about Ellie Taylor amid show backlash
Strictly Come Dancing fans are all making the same comment new It Takes Two presenter about Ellie Taylor. The comedian has replaced Fleur East and Janette Namrara on the BBC Two show
Ellie Taylor has earned praise from It Takes Two viewers(Image: BBC/Strictly It Takes Two)
Strictly Come Dancing fans have showered the spin-off programme It Takes Two‘s new host with compliments after she succeeded Fleur East and Janette Namrara in the role. Some aspects of the weekday have come under fire following recent changes, but it appears the inclusion of Ellie Taylor is its one saving grace.
Following the announcement that Emma Willis and Josh Widdicombe would be replacing Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on the main programme, the BBC revealed in August that there were plans to revamp the midweek show as well. This decision saw Ellie given the It Takes Two presenting duties – four years after her stint on Strictly as a contestant.
Following the Beeb’s confirmation of Ellie’s role back in August, she said in a statement: “What a total joy to return to Strictly in this new role. I feel incredibly honoured to follow in the footsteps of the phenomenal line-up of hosts who’ve made Strictly – It Takes Two so loved over the years.
“I can’t wait to immerse myself in all the gossip and sequins flying out of the ballroom in order to bring my fellow Strictly fans everything they need to know. I’m so excited, I could cha cha! (But I won’t – don’t worry… no one needs to see that again.)”.
Now, after the series’ first two showers, fans have issued praise towards Ellie, 42.
“Just catching up on It Takes Two,” one person said on X.” I’m not enjoying everything, but my God Ellie is smashing it soo far. Absolutely brilliant.”
A second person agreed: “Don’t like the changes, but Ellie is fab. Should have got the main gig with Emma.”
A third shared: “Ellie Taylor hosts it well, but the new version of It Takes Two has nothing worth watching anymore.”
While a fourth viewer added: “Ellie Taylor is good, the new It Takes Two set is awful with the wooden unvarnished floor all that glitz and glamour gone, no pro interviews. I know they wanted to revamp both the Strictly main show and It Takes Two but the changes aren’t good.”
And a fifth asked: “I adore Ellie Taylor but I’m not sure I like this new It Takes Two at all. Why are they making so many changes – why change the ITT set this year when it literally got changed last year?”
Essex-born Ellie old rose to prominence as a comedian before transitioning into presenting roles on programmes including Snog Marry Avoid? and The Great Pottery Throw Down. On It Takes Two, she faces the challenge of following in the footsteps of previous hosts Zoe Ball, Rylan Clark and Claudia.
It Takes Two producer Rhe-An Archibald said of the changes: “This is Strictly – It Takes Two, reinvented for the 2026 season. With a wealth of new features and deep dives, we want to reflect the conversations happening in living rooms up and down the country – full of opinions, laughs, surprises and those moments everyone wants to talk about.
“With the fun and funny Ellie at the helm, it will be an utterly unmissable companion to Strictly Come Dancing.”
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two airs Monday to Friday at 6:30pm on BBC Two and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
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Inglewood football coach says he played ineligible players because he thought they could play in Texas
According to documents obtained by The Times via the California Public Records Act, Inglewood High School confirmed to the Southern Section that its football coach, Mil’Von James, played three ineligible players during a game in Austin, Texas, last month.
The reason, according to the letter sent to the Southern Section office, was, “The coach stated that he was not aware CIF eligibility rules applied to a game in Texas.”
That raises the question how many more times Inglewood has used ineligible players for out-of-state football games under James, the head coach since 2019. Last season on Sept. 25, 2025, the team played in Midland, Texas, three days before sit-out transfer players became eligible. Inglewood won 43-42. One of the players on the team who had not been cleared to play was Masyn Harvey, a quarterback transfer and holder on PATs.
Harvey, now playing for a prep school team, declined to return a request for comment if he had played.
If Harvey did play, Inglewood should have forfeited its win last season to Midland. Because Inglewood lost to Westlake of Austin on Aug. 28, a forfeit was moot for this season. Inglewood informed the Southern Section that it imposed a two-game suspension as punishment to James, who returned to coach last week in a win over Downey. The school said it would extend the sit-out period by another week to those players who participated while not cleared.
As for corrective action, the school stated, “Going forward, all ineligible players, across all sports, will be in street clothes on the sideline and must check in with the game administrator prior to the start of each game. We will send all coaches, across all sports, a weekly email listing ineligible players and the reasons for their ineligibility.
“At the start of each season, we will re-train all coaches on eligibility criteria and the clearance process and require them to sign an acknowledgment confirming they understand.”
James has a history of using ineligible players. He was dismissed at Hawkins High in 2016. The Los Angeles Unified School District did not share why James was fired, calling it a confidential personnel matter. LAUSD dismissed James soon after the discovery of ineligible players, resulting in Hawkins forfeiting all of its games to finish 0-13. Since then, the City Section established a rule that teams must exchange rosters before games to verify that players are eligible.
The Southern Section declined comment, but according to a letter response from an assistant commissioner, “Based on your self-report, preventative measures and the corrective actions taken, we will consider this matter closed.”
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In China, the Xi-Trump summit is seen as projecting image of the country’s rise
BEIJING — It’s unclear if President Trump’s elaborate reception of his Chinese counterpart in Washington dazzled President Xi Jinping, but for the Chinese public, it made quite an impression.
Trump’s rare welcome of Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the airport, as well as the bilateral and cultural events the leaders attended were closely covered — and praised — by Chinese state media. Those who watched at home saw a China elevated in status.
“I read the news that the U.S. reception standards for President Xi are very high,” Xiang Ziyu, a postgraduate student in Beijing, told The Associated Press. “I’m quite impressed because it shows that our country has become really powerful.”
That takeaway was shared by several people interviewed by the AP as well as in comments on Chinese social media, which praised China’s cooperation with the United States.
The official People’s Daily newspaper allocated the entire front page to the trip, featuring six photos of the Xi-Trump meetings.
Meanwhile, on the Chinese search engine Baidu, the three most popular search topics on Friday were the talks between Trump and Xi; the state dinner attended by Xi and Peng; and greetings extended by Xi to Chinese people on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival being celebrated on Friday.
Shen Zuohang, a Beijing resident, felt reassured by the coverage and by Trump and Xi’s seeming agreeability on topics like trade, artificial intelligence and security.
“We have no trade war and no military conflict. Even on the issue of Taiwan we are moving in a good direction instead of having heated confrontation,” Shen said.
“The two sides are handling issues in a more acquiescent way.”
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi called on Trump to oppose the independence of Taiwan, an island democracy China claims as its own territory, and to handle the issue with caution. Trump did not immediately make comments on Taiwan, but had previously described U.S. arms sales to the island as open to negotiations with China.
Xiang, the student, said the summit overall sent a positive signal and will help improve the Chinese public’s opinion of the relations between the two countries.
“It is better than not communicating,” he said.
Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing and writer Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.
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Judge reverses Trump ban on some immigrants at Head Start preschools
By Moriah BalingitAP Education Writer
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island struck down a Trump administration directive that would have barred some immigrants from accessing certain federal programs, including Head Start preschools, community health clinics and adult education initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Trump in 2019, temporarily barred his administration from moving forward with the rule last year, so it never was implemented. On Monday, she made the injunction permanent.
Officials from the Republican administration had said the directive would stop “illegal aliens” from accessing federal benefits by reclassifying broad swaths of social services programs under a Clinton-era law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
But the rule also would have swept up many immigrants in the U.S. legally, including work and student visa holders. It also would have barred services from Temporary Protected Status holders, who are granted work permits if the U.S. government determines conditions in their home country are too dangerous to return, along with recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who were brought to the country illegally as children and receive temporary protection from deportation and work authorization.
Those groups, which are considered “nonqualified aliens” under the law, already are unable to access full Medicaid benefits and federally funded food aid and cash assistance.
The Trump administration issued its directive in July 2025. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia sued.
They said the change upended three decades of policy allowing people to access community health clinics, domestic violence shelters and Head Start centers without proving their immigration status. They warned the harms could spread, deterring any immigrant from seeking services and throwing up barriers even for U.S. citizens unable to document their legal status. The new rules also would have put administrative burdens on underfunded social service agencies, including Head Start operators, which might have been forced to close if they were unable to comply with the directive’s new requirements, the lawsuit said.
In her ruling, McElroy declared the directive “unlawful” and said the Trump administration did not follow the proper avenues to rewrite the rules. She called the administration’s actions “procedurally invalid.” She added that the administration still could pursue rule changes through the federal notice-and-comment process, which officials bypassed when they issued the directive last year.
Requests for comment were sent to the departments named as defendants in the wide-ranging lawsuit. The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Head Start, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The Labor Department referred inquiries to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who was among those who sued, hailed the judge’s ruling.
“From cancer screenings to food banks to early childhood education, the federal government’s attempts to decimate the social safety net would have been catastrophic for working families,” James said.
Balingit writes for the Associated Press.
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Gina Prince-Bythewood’s son honored for saving a woman from stabbing
“Children of Blood and Bone” director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s son Cassius Bythewood was honored by Miami Police department last week for saving a woman from a near-fatal attack.
Cassius accepted the hero award from the city of Miami Police Department at a ceremony recognizing his bravery on Wednesday.
“It’s surreal to be able to be this proud of my child,” Gina told reporters at the event. “I’ve always been proud of him, but this is such an incredible thing that he did.”
In May, Cassius heard the nearby screams of Miami woman Caitlin Dydzuhn, who was walking her dog near her downtown condominium when she was brutally attacked by a man wielding a homemade shank. Cassius, 25, ran toward the screams and jumped in to stop the assault by kicking and shoving the alleged assailant Raydean Johnson, 49, who was arrested at the scene of the incident shortly after the attack.
Dydzuhn was punched and stabbed, and suffered severe cuts and damage to one of her eyes, according to NBC Miami. Doctors told her she would likely never regain her vision in the wounded eye, but she has since recovered.
Cassius told the outlet that he was raised not to panic in intense situations and to help those in need. He also said his lifelong training in martial arts helped equip him to step in.
“Fight or flight,” he said, per 7 News. “I’m glad that fight kicked in.”
“He saved my life,” Dydzuhn told reporters at the ceremony. “My last memory was screaming for my life, kind of blocking punches, blocking stab wounds, and feeling that no one was coming to save me.”
Dydzuhn continued that Cassius guided her to safety and spoke calmly, telling her, “There’s a man here with a weapon. I need to get you out of here.”
Gina Prince-Bythewood, also known for “The Woman King” and “Love & Basketball,” posted coverage of the ceremony on social media, writing, “Firstborn@CassiusMandela living the incredible example set by his pops,” adding a thank-you to her husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood, for “all that you instilled in our sons.”
Reggie added his own accolades for his son in the comments, writing, “My son. So grateful you’re safe. Grateful Caitlin is recovering well. I’m grateful that Mom was able to be with you. I admire how you were calm and empathetic under extreme pressure. Now you know why I call you CHAMP.”
Shonda Rhimes, Viola Davis and Gabrielle Union all applauded Cassius in the comments, calling him an incredible young man.
Dydzuhn also weighed in, writing that she’s only alive because of the values of courage and integrity instilled in Cassius, calling him her hero.
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Inside Lucas Museum’s starry opening party with Oprah, Mark Hamill
If George Lucas invites you to a party, you go.
That much was clear Saturday at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s opening-night soiree, where the guest list was as celebrity-heavy as any Academy Awards after-party. As the festivities kicked off around sunset in the courtyard under the museum’s towering elliptical oculus, Oprah Winfrey hugged Robert De Niro, and Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart skipped the red carpet after chatting with Spike Lee. Laura Dern and Greta Gerwig laughed together by the entrance while Samuel L. Jackson plopped down on a curved bench, joking, “Hey, look what I did!”
For the record:
1:22 p.m. Sept. 20, 2026A previous version of this article said James Cameron was photographed along with a large group of directors at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. He was not.
He didn’t sit for long because Cynthia Erivo and Andy Garcia showed up and there were more hugs and handshakes and hellos. Owen Wilson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Meg Ryan, Jack Quaid, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Justin Trudeau, Mark Hamill and Magic Johnson were there too, and that was just the beginning.
Gov. Gavin Newsom attended the opening-night party for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art alongside a host of other notable guests and celebrities.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
After a rousing performance by a white-robe-clad vocal collective called Voices of Fire, co-founded by Pharrell Williams, Lucas’ wife Mellody Hobson noted that, “George kept saying, ‘Will this person come? Do you think this person will come?’”
“I said, ‘They will all come,’” Hobson said as the crowd laughed during opening remarks on a raised platform in the museum’s grand lobby.
And so they did. There was even a banner moment inside the posh fifth-floor Skywalker Grill where a group of directors gathered to be photographed in what could very well become a seminal photo of Hollywood influence in the 21st century. The shot included Lucas, Jon M. Chu, Chris Columbus, Francis Ford Coppola, Lee Daniels, Guillermo del Toro, Jon Favreau, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard, Peter Jackson, Chris Meledandri, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Steven Spielberg, Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Nathan Fielder and David Benioff.
Organizers were scrambling to find Gerwig, but she had dashed off somewhere else.
“Star Wars” legend Mark Hamill and his wife, Marilou York, were guests at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening party.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
There were artists in attendance too, of course, but not as many. Jeff Koons, Refik Anadol, Judy Baca and Takashi Murakami strolled through the crowd, as did museum directors including the Broad’s Joanne Heyler and Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Michael Govan, who was relieved to be attending someone else’s party after hosting so many of his own in April and May when the new Geffen Galleries opened.
Lucas and Hobson went to great lengths to explain why the Lucas Museum matters and why it is different from other museums. Their comments, in many ways, sought to address the criticism that has been lobbed at the museum since it held its press preview a few weeks back.
Though it has received a number of rave reviews, critics have called narrative art a false conceit and argued that the juxtaposition of masterworks with pop culture ephemera does not work. Much of the criticism has been focused on a perceived lack of context since there is almost no wall text clarifying why certain curatorial choices were made.
George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson hosted an extravagant opening party at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
“When I started it, everybody said, ‘You’re crazy. You shouldn’t do it. It’s not going to work. People are going to come after you,’” Lucas said of his plans for the museum. “I said, ‘People have come after me all my life, especially in the movies.’”
Lucas also addressed why he curated the museum’s 100,000 square feet of gallery space on his own, noting that at a certain point plans were “getting off the rails.”
“I’m going to have to take this over because people don’t understand what I’m doing,” Lucas recalled thinking. “The idea that illustration is an art form and illustrators are artists was just too much for somebody who had been taught otherwise by the art schools that they went to and the universities that they went to.”
People with PhDs often can’t see the big picture, Lucas said, “You can’t say ‘This is art. This is not art.’ Art is in the eye of the beholder. If it is emotional to you, then it’s art. And, of course, I’ve been criticized up and down and sideways for that. But I believe it wholeheartedly — that you get to decide what art is.”
Members of the Virginia Beach vocal collective Voices of Fire, co-founded by Bishop Ezekiel Williams and Pharrell Williams perform at the Lucas Museum.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Lucas noted that throughout his career he has worked with many illustrators, “and I will tell you, they are as talented as any artist I’ve ever met. This is the way of giving back to them something that they’ve all wanted … inevitably, all of the illustrators say the same thing — everybody from R. Crumb to Rockwell — they all say, ‘I wish I could be in a museum,’ but they can’t. There isn’t a major museum in the world that’ll have this kind of art in it. I’m hoping this will change that.”
Lucas’ comments came after his friend and co-host Queen Latifah noted to the cheering crowd that, “Paris has the Louvre, New York has the Met and now L.A. has the artistic equal.”
Guests mingle at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening party.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)
It took more than a decade for the Lucas Museum to land in L.A. after a search that included Chicago and San Francisco as well as lots of civic pushback and lawsuits over the use of public parkland.
“We did not realize how hard it would be to give a city a museum,” Hobson said during her remarks, later joking: “If your husband or spouse comes home and says they want to build a museum, I suggest your response is a hard no.”
Laura Dern, left, and Greta Gerwig spent the early part of the night chatting and laughing.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Hobson went on to extol Lucas’ vision and his ability to never waver from his dream for the museum.
“He was driven to create a space that would showcase the brilliant illustrators that he thought were too often overlooked and ignored,” Hobson said. “And if critics say that a museum of narrative art is too much like a popcorn movie and not enough like an art film, well, we love popcorn movies in our family.”
Like a popcorn movie, the evening ended happily with a drone show in the night sky narrated by Winfrey and Jackson, and featuring images from the museum’s collection including the Cave of Altamira, N.C. Wyeth’s “The Storybook,” Julie Bell’s “The Huntress,” Banksy’s “Girl With Balloon,” the “Star Wars” Millennium Falcon and Maxfield Parrish’s “Ecstasy.”
Afterward the party moved inside from the rooftop terrace for a performance by the Black Eyed Peas.
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Ed Sheeran, at concert, says situation in Gaza is ‘catastrophic and unjustifiable’
PHILADELPHIA — Ed Sheeran opened a solo concert in Philadelphia on Saturday with comments about Gaza, saying what’s happening is “catastrophic and unjustifiable.”
“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives,” Sheeran said at his nighttime performance at Lincoln Financial Field.
Sheeran also said he wants his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics.
He then addressed the controversy that unfolded since his supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore, who was dropped from the tour after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.
Sheeran has performed much of his Loop Tour concerts solo, but he had been joined for several songs at each stop by the Irish folk band Beoga. Macklemore, Sheeran’s original U.S. opener, had been replaced by Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe before they backed out.
Finneas, Billie Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year before he too dropped out earlier this week.
As of Saturday afternoon, tickets were still available for the show, and Sheeran’s website did not list any replacement acts.
Earlier a group of about 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators congregated outside the stadium before the show. Hillary Steinberg, 34, of Philadelphia, said she got tickets a year ago but wound up getting a refund and attending the demonstration instead, disappointed that Sheeran had not taken a stand.
“I was, until this week, a big Ed Sheeran fan,” Steinberg said. “I think all art is political, and all music is political, and so this choice — even though he was saying that he wasn’t complicit — is a political choice.”
The show comes after a tumultuous week that opened with Macklemore being dropped in response to exclaiming “Free Palestine!” during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey. Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision, which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. His company owns a stadium where Sheeran’s tour was scheduled to play Friday.
Within hours of Sheeran’s statement Tuesday, his supporting acts withdrew.
Diane Savitz, a 53-year-old concertgoer from Stroudsburg, Pa., got her tickets to the show months ago and is a big Sheeran fan. She said she does not think that he did anything wrong or that a concert is the place for politics.
“A concert should be for people enjoying the music. Music should bring people together,” Savitz said. “Everyone has their right to freedom of speech, but not every platform is the place for it.”
Macklemore said Wednesday he is donating $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the gift; a spokesperson for Kraft has said the billionaire and Sheeran have each agreed to donate $2 million but have not specified where the money will be directed. Sheeran’s representatives have not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Sheeran’s Loop Tour was the highest-grossing in the world, with an average box office gross of over $7 million per city, Pollstar said in May. Through the end of 2025, Sheeran was the No. 3 top-earning concert act since 2021.
Sheeran has said the tour promoter was ultimately responsible for the decision to drop Macklemore.
The Grammy winner was adamant in his Tuesday statement that he wouldn’t be drawn into discussion of the war in Gaza, arguing that his fans don’t come to his shows to hear about these issues.
He also said he “spoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge” before Macklemore was dropped. He insisted he would never willingly let down his fans or abandon the touring crew and others who rely on him to make a living.
While promoters and venues wield great power over concert tours, experts say an artist of Sheeran’s magnitude generally has the final say about what happens concerning the shows.
Sheeran told the crowd in Philadelphia that everyone is welcome at his concerts, and they can have opposing points of view while still singing his songs, which are about “love, hope, and unity.”
Vejpongsa writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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Breaking down Ed Sheeran’s tour debacle over Macklemore’s ‘Free Palestine’ comments
In a matter of days, Ed Sheeran has gone from the most agreeable, defiantly middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter on the pop charts to music’s newest villain. The Times’ August Brown and Mikael Wood gathered to break down what happened — and to figure out what it all means.
August Brown: To recap, Sheeran dropped his tour opener, the rapper Macklemore, after the MC described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and said “Free Palestine” onstage this month at two New Jersey dates of Sheeran’s ongoing stadium tour. Macklemore, in a statement, cited his long friendship with Sheeran while criticizing the singer for allegedly acquiescing to a demand from Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots, that the rapper not be allowed to perform at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium outside Boston due to his comments.
Kraft, a Trump-supporting billionaire with his own colorful history, released a statement about the tour, saying he was “ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.”
But Sheeran, who performed at Kraft’s wedding in 2022, arguably made things much worse with his own comments on the decision to drop Macklemore from the tour, which ranged from shifting accountability (“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine”) to promising that he held compassionate beliefs on this volatile issue but wouldn’t articulate them publicly (“I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”)
This prompted Sheeran’s remaining openers — including the musician and producer Finneas, the Danish rock combo Lukas Graham and singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe — to drop off the tour, each giving their plainspoken support for both Macklemore’s advocacy and the Palestinian people as their reasons for leaving. The traditional Irish group Beoga, which backs Sheeran for a portion of his nightly show, also quit the tour, saying it was responding to “the silencing of Macklemore by Zionist lobbies.”
It’s too soon to know how this will affect a CVS-core pop star like Sheeran, but it’s clear that for the first time in his career, he’s chosen the path of maximum conflict and controversy for little gain. What do you think he should he have done instead?
Macklemore
(Morgan Hancock / Getty Images)
Mikael Wood: Not let Macklemore be booted from his tour?
Look, I understand Sheeran’s position here: that he views himself as an artist whose audience comes to his show precisely because they’d like to avoid the messy realities of the world for two or three hours. We can choose a different day to discuss how tenable (or not) that position is here in the era of a reality-TV president who long ago blurred the line between politics and entertainment.
But setting aside one’s views on Israel and Palestine, it’s impossible for me to see how Sheeran ever thought his actions would be seen as anything other than allowing a fellow artist to be silenced — a clear loser in the eyes of both the left and the right.
It would be one thing if Macklemore’s comments in New Jersey truly resembled the hate speech that Kraft accused him of dispensing. (Many online have posted images of a costume the rapper wore onstage in 2014 that resembled an ugly Jewish caricature; Macklemore apologized at the time, saying he understood the criticism.)
And of course I get that the very idea of hate speech is slippery — one reason, perhaps, that the folks at AT&T Stadium near Dallas (where Sheeran is scheduled to perform next month) appear to have no problem hosting a concert in November by Ye, who not so long ago released a song called, uh, “Heil Hitler.”
But given how measured Macklemore’s comments were, Sheeran’s decision to go along with the demands for his removal feels less like a fulfillment of his desire to create a conflict-free zone and more like a capitulation to a rich and powerful friend.
August, what do you make of the various statements from the musicians who’ve opted to leave the tour in the wake of all this?
August Brown: The other openers had the most to lose here by bowing out of a huge tour. Yet they took unambiguous stances in favor of Macklemore’s Palestinian advocacy. (On Wednesday, the rapper said on Instagram that he planned to donate “the entire $1 million of my net earnings” from Sheeran’s tour to six organizations “working directly to support the Palestinian people.” He also invited Kraft to match his donation.)
“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas wrote. “I stand with Palestine and its people.”
Lukas Graham went even harder: “We should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up,” the group wrote. “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation.”
Sheeran could have done what many fans regard as the right thing: Defy Kraft’s demands, cancel the Gillette Stadium dates with Macklemore and reroute the tour to somewhere that would support an opening act’s fairly anodyne support of a popular human rights cause. Sheeran is extremely wealthy, and he’d have been on the right side of history, if for no other reason than to say that billionaires shouldn’t have a veto over an artist’s human rights advocacy onstage.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that crews’ livelihoods and fans’ investment in the shows are meaningful things to toss out. But an artist as big as Sheeran can make up the difference. Even a hypothetical statement like “I stand for Macklemore’s freedom of speech and the rights of the Palestinian people. My team’s livelihoods depends on the shows happening, so I will play the Gillette dates as planned,” with a promise for a donation or a benefit show with Macklemore down the line — even that would have smoothed this over.
But his actions here — deflecting accountability, being vague yet defensive about his own politics — and his history with Kraft suggest his sympathies might not lie with the causes his opening acts stand for.
It’s interesting that Beoga and Aaron Rowe, both Irish acts, acknowledged their own country’s history of colonial occupation as reason to stand up for Palestinians (and free speech around it). “Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life, I could never thank him enough for this,” Rowe wrote in his statement. “But as Irish people we know all too well about genocide, forced famine, and violent occupation.”
Even Lukas Graham cited the band’s roots in Christiania, a Danish enclave with a history as an anarchist commune, as an example they’re following by bailing on this tour. Sheeran likes to say that, through his father, he is culturally Irish though he was born and raised in England. In a country that rallied for Kneecap, the Irish rap group and advocates for Palestinians, his reputation is likely taking a real hit. Whether that extends to his ultra-mainstream U.S. fan base remains to be seen.
Not every artist is obliged to comment on contentious issues — though the success of Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival, which raised money for an array of abortion-rights advocacy groups, showed that A-listers can speak out when they want to. But whatever he actually believes, Sheeran’s long-cultivated neutrality is in tatters. Taking a stand would have been the path of least resistance. Instead, he committed the most basic onstage error: a failure to read the room.
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Grand Tour hosts respond to ‘sincere’ Jeremy Clarkson comment they had no idea about
In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen paying a visit to a familiar farm.
The new Grand Tour hosts met their predecessors at the premiere event (Image: PRIME VIDEO)
The new Grand Tour hosts witnessed Jeremy Clarkson in action behind the meat counter at Diddly Squat Farm.
The Grand Tour is back on Prime Video with three new hosts taking the wheel – train enthusiast and social media star Francis Bourgeois, and YouTube hosts James Engelsman and Thomas Holland. The streamer announced the new series would feature cameos from the original trio, but the extent of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s involvement was kept under wraps.
Now, it has been revealed that the new hosts visited Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm, featured on the hit Clarkson’s Farm, to get Clarkson’s seal of approval. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, host Holland said it was a “weird experience”. He shared: “About two years earlier, I went to the farm as a tourist, just for fun, I just happened to be here.
“I went into the tent and had a beer and did whatever you do when you are there, and the next time I was back there it was to talk to Jeremy Clarkson, so that was a bit weird.” Engelsman enlightened viewers by revealing “Jeremy does 9-5 shifts behind that [meat] counter”. While many fans already know Clarkson had warned the new trio “don’t f*** it up”, it was actually another part of his testimony that resonated most with the new hosts.
Engelsman explained: “It was strange, we have seen the footage now and after we left, he delivered that message to camera. That slightly longer, more sincere message, I think, for me at least, it resonated a lot harder than just the brief piece of advice.” What Clarkson had told viewers once the trio had walked away was: “I have got to be honest with you, I have actually been watching what they have been up to for the last year and a half, and they are very, very good, I think you are going to love it.”
Holland expressed to The Mirror: “We didn’t see that in the moment, we didn’t know that happened until much later on, so seeing that played back was like ‘Oh, that’s nice’.” Bourgeois agreed, adding: “It means a huge amount to us and also gives us quite the superpower, to have his blessing is just a phenomenal start for us.”
In the opening moments of the first episode, the trio were seen driving through the English countryside when they pulled into Diddly Squat Farm. They paid a visit to The Farmer’s Dog, which featured the original Grant Tour sign hanging from the tent ceiling.
Nervously, they approached Clarkson, who was behind the butcher’s counter. “Hey, how’s things?” he said with a smile. “So, how can I help?” Francis joked: “We have come to ask, please may we use the tent for our studio?”
Clarkson looked at the three blankly before saying: “Not really. I mean, you could, but it’s got a butcher’s in it now, and a bar, and a shop, and an off-licence. It’s usually quite busy as well, so it wouldn’t be an audience so much as customers. I want to help, but look, it’s been repurposed.”
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The joke referred to a Clarkson’s Farm moment when Jeremy called on the help of his old Grand Tour boss to supply a tent to house various projects like the farm shop and butcher’s counter. Following the skit, Clarkson got serious, saying: “Listen guys, seriously, have fun with this. I mean it, good luck, and don’t f*** it up.”
Speaking directly to viewers, it was then that Clarkson gave his heartfelt speech that resonated with the new hosts, who had been totally unaware of his kind words.
The Grand Tour is streaming on Prime Video
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