A federal grand jury subpoena has been served on the Los Angeles Fire Department for firefighters’ text messages and other communications about smoke or hot spots in the area of the Jan. 1 Lachman brushfire, which reignited six days later into the massive Palisades fire, according to an internal department memo.
The Times reported last week that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to pack up their hoses and leave the burn area the day after the Lachman fire, even though they complained that the ground was still smoldering and rocks were hot to the touch. In the memo, the department notified its employees of the subpoena, which it said was issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
“The subpoena seeks any and all communications, including text messages, related to reports of fire, smoke, or hotspots received between” 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and 10 a.m. on Jan. 7, said the memo, which was dated Tuesday.
A spokesperson with the U.S. attorney’s office declined to confirm that a subpoena was issued and otherwise did not comment. The memo did not include a copy of the subpoena.
The memo said the subpoena was issued in connection with an “ongoing criminal investigation” conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
It is unclear from the memo whether the subpoena is directly related to the case against Rinderknecht, who has pleaded not guilty.
During the Rinderknecht investigation, ATF agents concluded that the fire smoldered and burned for days underground “within the root structure of dense vegetation,” until heavy winds caused it to spark the Palisades inferno, according to an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint against Rinderknecht.
The Palisades fire, the most destructive in the city’s history, killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes, businesses and other structures.
Last week, The Times cited text messages among firefighters in reporting that crews mopping up the Lachman fire had warned the battalion chief that remnants of the blaze were still smoldering.
The battalion chief listed as being on duty the day firefighters were ordered to leave the Lachman fire, Mario Garcia, has not responded to requests for comment.
In one text message, a firefighter who was at the scene on Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief had been told it was a “bad idea” to leave because of the visible signs of smoking terrain, which crews feared could start a new fire if left unprotected.
“And the rest is history,” the firefighter wrote in recent weeks.
A second firefighter was told that tree stumps were still hot at the location when the crew packed up and left, according to the texts. And a third firefighter said this month that crew members were upset when told to pack up and leave but that they could not ignore orders, according to the texts. The third firefighter also wrote that he and his colleagues knew immediately that the Palisades fire was a rekindle of the Jan. 1 blaze.
The Fire Department has not answered questions about the firefighter accounts in the text messages but has previously said that officials did everything they could to ensure that the Lachman fire was fully extinguished. The department has not provided dispatch records of all firefighting and mop-up activity before Jan. 7.
After The Times published the story, Mayor Karen Bass directed interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva to launch an investigation into the matter, while critics of her administration have asked for an independent inquiry.
You may not know Eliot Mack’s name, but if a small robot has ever crept around your kitchen, you know his work.
Before he turned his MIT-trained mind to filmmaking, Mack helped lead a small team of engineers trying to solve a deeply relatable problem: how to avoid vacuuming. Whether it was figuring out how to get around furniture legs or unclog the brushes after a run-in with long hair, Mack designed everything onscreen first with software, troubleshooting virtually and getting 80% of the way there before a single part was ever manufactured.
When Mack pivoted to filmmaking in the early 2000s, he was struck by how chaotic Hollywood’s process felt. “You pitch the script, get the green light and you’re flying into production,” he says, sounding both amused and baffled. “There’s no CAD template, no centralized database. I was like, how do movies even get made?”
That question sent Mack down a new path, trading dust bunnies for the creative bottlenecks that slow Hollywood down.
In 2004 he founded Lightcraft Technology, a startup developing what would later be known as virtual production tools, born out of his belief that if you could design a robot in software, you should be able to design a shot the same way. The company’s early system, Previzion, sold for $180,000 and was used on sci-fi and fantasy shows like “V” and “Once Upon a Time.” But Jetset, its latest AI-assisted tool set, runs on an iPhone and offers a free tier, with pro features topping out at just $80 a month. It lets filmmakers scan a location, drop it into virtual space and block out scenes with camera moves, lighting and characters. They can preview shots, overlay elements and organize footage for editing — all from a phone. No soundstage, no big crew, no gatekeepers. Lightcraft’s pitch: “a movie studio in your pocket.”
A series on how the AI revolution is reshaping the creative foundations of Hollywood — from storytelling and performance to production, labor and power.
The goal, Mack says, is to put more power in the hands of the people making the work. “One of the big problems is how siloed Hollywood is,” he says. “We talked to an Oscar-winning editor who said, ‘I’m never going to get to make my movie’ — he was pigeonholed as just an editor. Same with an animator we know who has two Oscars.”
Eliot Mack, CEO of Lightcraft, an AI-powered virtual-production startup, wants to give creators the power and freedom to bring their ideas to life.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
To Mack, the revolution of Jetset recalls the scrappy, guerrilla spirit of Roger Corman’s low-budget productions, which launched the early careers of directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. For generations of creatives stuck waiting on permission or funding, he sees this moment as a reset button.
“The things you got good at — writing, directing, acting, creating, storytelling — they’re still crazy useful,” he says. “What’s changing is the amount of schlepping you have to do before you get to do the fun stuff. Your 20s are a gift. You want to be creating at the absolute speed of sound. We’re trying to get to a place where you don’t have to ask anyone. You can just make the thing.”
AI is reshaping nearly every part of the filmmaking pipeline. Storyboards can now be generated from a script draft. Lighting and camera angles can be tested before anyone touches a piece of gear. Rough cuts, placeholder VFX, even digital costume mock-ups can all be created before the first shot is filmed. What once took a full crew, a soundstage and a six-figure budget can now happen in minutes, sometimes at the hands of a single person with a laptop.
This wave of automation is arriving just as Hollywood is gripped by existential anxiety. The 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes brought the industry to a standstill and put AI at the center of a fight over its future. Since then, production has slowed, crew sizes have shrunk and the streaming boom has given way to consolidation and cost-cutting.
According to FilmLA, on-location filming in Greater Los Angeles dropped 22.4% in early 2025 compared with the year before. For many of the crew members and craftspeople still competing for those jobs, AI doesn’t feel like an innovation. It feels like a new way to justify doing more with less, only to end up with work that’s less original or creative.
“AI scrapes everything we artists have made off the internet and creates a completely static, banal world that can never imagine anything that hasn’t happened before,” documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis warned during a directors panel at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, held in the midst of the strikes. “That’s the real weakness of the AI dream — it’s stuck with the ghosts. And I think we’ll get fed up with that.”
How you feel about these changes often depends on where you sit and how far along you are in your career. For people just starting out, AI can offer a way to experiment, move faster and bypass the usual barriers to entry. For veterans behind the scenes, it often feels like a threat to the expertise they’ve spent decades honing.
Past technological shifts — the arrival of sound, the rise of digital cameras, the advancement of CGI — changed how movies were made, but not necessarily who made them. Each wave brought new roles: boom operators and dialogue coaches, color consultants and digital compositors. Innovation usually meant more jobs, not fewer.
But AI doesn’t just change the tools. It threatens to erase the people who once used the old ones.
Diego Mariscal has seen first hand as AI has cut potential jobs for grips.
(Jennifer Rose Clasen)
Diego Mariscal, 43, a veteran dolly grip who has worked on “The Mandalorian” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” saw the writing on the wall during a recent shoot. A visual effects supervisor opened his laptop to show off a reel of high-end commercials and something was missing. “There were no blue screens — none,” Mariscal recalls. “That’s what we do. We put up blues as grips. You’d normally hire an extra 10 people and have an extra three days of pre-rigging, setting up all these blue screens. He was like, ‘We don’t need it anymore. I just use AI to clip it out.’”
Mariscal runs Crew Stories, a private Facebook group with nearly 100,000 members, where working crew members share job leads, trade tips and voice their growing fears. He tries to keep up with the steady drip of AI news. “I read about AI all day, every day,” he says. “At least 20 posts a day.”
His fear isn’t just about fewer jobs — it’s about what comes next. “I’ve been doing this since I was 19,” Mariscal says of his specialized dolly work, which involves setting up heavy equipment and guiding the camera smoothly through complex shots. “I can push a cart in a parking lot. I can push a lawnmower. What else can I do?”
Who wins, who loses and what does James Cameron think?
Before AI and digital doubles, Mike Marino learned the craft of transformation the human way: through hands-on work and a fascination that bordered on obsession.
Marino was 5 years old when he first saw “The Elephant Man” on HBO. Horrified yet transfixed, he became fixated on prosthetics and the emotional power they could carry. As a teenager in New York, he pored over issues of Fangoria, studied monsters and makeup effects and experimented with sculpting his own latex masks on his bedroom floor.
Prosthetics artist Mike Marino asks a big question related to generative AI: What role do the human creatives play?
(Sean Dougherty / For The Times)
Decades later, Marino, 48, has become one of Hollywood’s leading makeup artists, earning Oscar nominations for “Coming 2 America,” “The Batman” and last year’s dark comedy “A Different Man,” in which he helped transform Sebastian Stan into a disfigured actor.
His is the kind of tactile, handcrafted work that once seemed irreplaceable. But today AI tools are increasingly capable of achieving similar effects digitally: de-aging actors, altering faces, even generating entire performances. What used to take weeks of experimentation and hours in a makeup trailer can now be approximated with a few prompts and a trained model. To Marino, AI is more than a new set of tools. It’s a fundamental change in what it means to create.
“If AI is so good it can replace a human, then why have any human beings?” he says. “This is about taste. It’s about choice. I’m a human being. I’m an artist. I have my own ideas — mine. Just because you can make 10,000 spaceships in a movie, should you?”
“If AI is so good it can replace a human, then why have any human beings?”
— Mike Marino, makeup artist on “A Different Man”
Marino is no technophobe. His team regularly uses 3D scanning and printing. But he draws the line at outsourcing creative judgment to a machine. “I’m hoping there are artists who want to work with humans and not machines,” he says. “If we let AI just run amok with no taste, no choice, no morality behind it, then we’re gone.”
Not everyone sees AI’s rise in film production as a zero-sum game. Some technologists imagine a middle path. Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and one of the world’s leading AI researchers, believes the future of filmmaking lies in a “human-machine partnership.”
AI, Rus argues, can take on time-consuming tasks like animating background extras, color correction or previsualizing effects, freeing up people to focus on what requires intuition and taste. “AI can help with the routine work,” she says. “But the human touch and emotional authenticity are essential.”
Few directors have spent more time grappling with the dangers and potential of artificial intelligence than James Cameron. Nearly 40 years before generative tools entered Hollywood’s workflow, he imagined a rogue AI triggering global apocalypse in 1984’s “The Terminator,” giving the world Skynet — now a cultural shorthand for the dark side of machine intelligence. Today, he continues to straddle that line, using AI behind the scenes on the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash” to optimize visual effects and performance-capture, while keeping creative decisions in human hands. The latest sequel, due Dec. 19, promises to push the franchise’s spectacle and scale even further; a newly released trailer reveals volcanic eruptions, aerial battles and a new clan of Na’vi.
A scene from “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Director James Cameron differentiates between using machine-learning to reduce monotonous movie-making work and generative AI.
(Courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
“You can automate a lot of processes that right now tie up a lot of artists doing mundane tasks,” Cameron told The Times in 2023 at a Beyond Fest screening of his 1989 film “The Abyss.” “So if we could accelerate the postproduction pipeline, then we can make more movies. Then those artists will get to do more exciting things.”
For Cameron, the promise of AI lies in efficiency, not elimination. “I think in our particular industry, it’s not going to replace people; it’s going to free them to do other things,” he believes. “It’s going to accelerate the process and bring the price down, which would be good because, you know, some movies are a little more expensive than others. And a lot of that has to do with human energy.”
Cameron himself directed five films between 1984 and 1994 and only three in the three decades since, though each one has grown increasingly complex and ambitious.
That said, Cameron has never been one to chase shortcuts for their own sake. “I think you can make pre-viz and design easier, but I don’t know if it makes it better,” he says. “I mean, if easy is your thing. Easy has never been my thing.”
He draws a line between the machine-learning techniques his team has used since the first “Avatar” to help automate tedious tasks and the newer wave of generative AI models making headlines today.
“The big explosion has been around image-based generative models that use everything from every image that’s ever been created,” he says. “We’d never use any of them. The images we make are computer-created, but they’re not AI-created.”
In his view, nothing synthetic can replace the instincts of a flesh-and-blood artist. “We have human artists that do all the designs,” he says. “We don’t need AI. We’ve got meat-I. And I’m one of the meat-artists that come up with all that stuff. We don’t need a computer. Maybe other people need it. We don’t.”
Reshaping creativity — and creative labor
Rick Carter didn’t go looking for AI as a tool. He discovered it as a lifeline.
The two-time Oscar-winning production designer, who worked with Cameron on “Avatar” and whose credits include “Jurassic Park” and “Forrest Gump,” began experimenting with generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway during the pandemic, looking for a way to keep his creative instincts sharp while the industry was on pause. A longtime painter, he was drawn to the freedom the programs offered.
“I saw that there was an opportunity to create images where I didn’t have to go to anybody else for approval, which is the way I would paint,” Carter says by phone from Paris. “None of the gatekeeping would matter. I have a whole lot of stories on my own that I’ve tried to get into the world in various ways and suddenly there was a way to visualize them.”
Midjourney and Runway can create richly detailed images — and in Runway’s case, short video clips — from a text prompt or a combination of text and visuals. Trained on billions of images and audiovisual materials scraped from the internet, these systems learn to mimic style, lighting, composition and form, often with eerie precision. In a production pipeline, these tools can help concept artists visualize characters or sets, let directors generate shot ideas or give costume designers and makeup artists a fast way to test looks, long before physical production begins.
But as these tools gain traction in Hollywood, a deeper legal and creative dilemma is coming into focus: Who owns the work they produce? And what about the copyrighted material used to train them?
In June, Disney and Universal filed a federal copyright lawsuit against Midjourney, accusing the company of generating unauthorized replicas of characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader and Shrek using AI models trained on copyrighted material: what the suit calls a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” It’s the most high-profile of several legal challenges now putting copyright law to the test in the age of generative AI.
“Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis, left, with production designer Rick Carter at an art installation of the movie’s famed bench. (Carter family)
(Carter family)
Working with generative models, Carter began crafting what he calls “riffs of consciousness,” embracing AI as a kind of collaborative partner, one he could play off of intuitively. The process reminded him of the loose, improvisational early stages of filmmaking, a space he knows well from decades of working with directors like Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg.
“I’ll just start with a visual or a word prompt and see how it iterates from there and what it triggers in my mind,” Carter says. “Then I incorporate that so it builds on its own in an almost free-associative way. But it’s still based upon my own intuitive, emotional, artistic, even spiritual needs at that moment.”
He describes the experience as a dialogue between two minds, one digital and one human: “One AI is artificial intelligence. The other AI is authentic intelligence — that’s us. We’ve earned it over this whole span of time on the planet.”
Sometimes, Carter says, the most evocative results come from mistakes. While sketching out a story about a hippie detective searching for a missing woman in the Himalayas, he accidentally typed “womb” into ChatGPT instead of “woman.” The AI ran with it, returning three pages of wild plot ideas involving gurus, seekers and a bizarre mystery set in motion by the disappearance.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I would never have taken it that far. The AI is so precocious. It is trying so much to please that it will literally make something out of the mistake you make.”
Carter hasn’t used generative AI on a film yet; most of his creations are shared only with friends. But he says the technology is already slipping into creative workflows in covert ways. “There are issues with copyrights with most of the studios so for now, it’s going to be mostly underground,” he says. “People will use it but they won’t acknowledge that they’re using it — they’ll have an illustrator do something over it, or take a photo so there’s no digital trail.”
Carter has lived through a major technological shift before. “I remember when we went from analog to digital, from ‘Jurassic Park’ on,” he says. “There were a lot of wonderful artists who could draw and paint in ways that were just fantastic but they couldn’t adapt. They didn’t want to — even the idea of it felt like the wrong way to make art. And, of course, most of them suffered because they didn’t make it from the Rolodex to the database in terms of people calling them up.”
He worries that some artists may approach the technology with a rigid sense of authorship. “Early on, I found that the less I used my own ego as a barometer for whether something was artistic, the more I leaned into the process of collaboratively making something bigger than the sum of its parts — and the bigger and better the movies became.”
Others, like storyboard artist Sam Tung, are bracing against the same wave with a quiet but unshakable defiance.
Tung, whose credits include “Twisters” and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of “The Odyssey,” has spent the last two years tracking the rise of generative tools, not just their capabilities but their implications. As co-chair of the Animation Guild’s AI Committee, he has been on the front lines of conversations about how these technologies could reshape creative labor.
To artists like Tung, the rise of generative tools feels deeply personal. “If you are an illustrator or a writer or whatever, you had to give up other things to take time to develop those skills,” he says. “Nobody comes out of the womb being able to draw or write or act. Anybody who does that professionally spent years honing those skills.”
“Anything I’ve made with AI, I’ve quickly forgotten about. There’s basically nothing I get from putting it on social media, other than the ire of my peers.”
— Sam Tung, storyboard artist on “The Odyssey”
Tung has no interest in handing that over to a machine. “It’s not that I’m scared of it — I just don’t need it,” he says. “If I want to draw something or paint something, I’ll do it myself. That way it’s exactly what I want and I actually enjoy the process. When people tell me they responded to a drawing I did or a short film I made with friends, it feels great. But anything I’ve made with AI, I’ve quickly forgotten about. There’s basically nothing I get from putting it on social media, other than the ire of my peers.”
What unsettles him isn’t just the slickness of AI’s output but how that polish is being used to justify smaller crews and faster turnarounds. “If this is left unchecked, it’s very easy to imagine a worst-case scenario where team sizes and contract durations shrink,” Tung says. “A producer who barely understands how it works might say, ‘Don’t you have AI to do 70% of this? Why do you need a whole week to turn around a sequence? Just press the button that says: MAKE MOVIE.’ ”
At 73, Carter isn’t chasing jobs. His legacy is secure. “If they don’t hire me again, that’s OK,” he says. “I’m not in that game anymore.” He grew up in Hollywood — his father was Jack Lemmon’s longtime publicist and producing partner — and has spent his life watching the industry evolve. Now, he’s witnessing a reckoning unlike any he, or anyone else, has ever imagined.
“I do have concerns about who is developing AI and what their values are,” he says. “What they use all this for is not necessarily something I would approve of — politically, socially, emotionally. But I don’t think I’m in a position to approve or not.”
Earlier this year, the Palisades fire destroyed Carter’s home, taking with it years of paintings and personal artwork. AI, he says, has given him a way to keep creating through the upheaval. “It saved me through the pandemic, and now it’s saving me through the fire,” he says, as if daring the universe to test him again. “It’s like, go ahead, throw something else at me.”
‘Prompt and pray?’ Not so fast
Many in the industry may still be dipping a toe into the waters of AI. Verena Puhm dove in.
The Austrian-born filmmaker studied acting and directing in Munich and Salzburg before moving to Los Angeles, where she built a globe-spanning career producing, writing and developing content for international networks and streamers. Her credits range from CNN’s docuseries “History of the Sitcom” to the German reboot of the cult anthology “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction” and a naval documentary available on Tubi. More recently, she has channeled that same creative range into a deepening exploration of generative tools.
Puhm first began dabbling with AI while using Midjourney to design a pitch deck, but it wasn’t until she entered a timed generative AI filmmaking challenge at the 2024 AI on the Lot conference — informally dubbed a “gen battle” — that the creative potential of the medium hit her.
“In two hours, I made a little mock commercial,” she remembers, proudly. “It was actually pretty well received and fun. And I was like, Oh, wow, I did this in two hours. What could I do in two days or two weeks?”
What started as experimentation soon became a second act. This summer, Puhm was named head of studio for Dream Lab LA, a new creative arm of Luma AI, which develops generative video tools for filmmakers and creators. There, she’s helping shape new storytelling formats and supporting emerging creators working at the intersection of cinema and technology. She may not be a household name, but in the world of experimental storytelling, she’s fast becoming a key figure.
Verena Puhm, a director, writer and producer, has used generative AI in a number of her projects, says it’s breaking down barriers to entry.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Some critics dismiss AI filmmaking as little more than “prompt and pray”: typing in a few words and hoping something usable comes out. Puhm bristles at the phrase.
“Anybody that says that tells me they’ve never tried it at all, because it is not that easy and simple,” she says. “You can buy a paintbrush at Home Depot for, what, $2? That doesn’t make you a painter. When smartphones first came out, there was a lot of content being made but that didn’t mean everyone was a filmmaker.”
What excites her most is how AI is breaking down the barriers that once kept ambitious ideas out of reach. Luma’s new Modify Video tool lets filmmakers tweak footage after it’s shot, changing wardrobe, aging a character, shifting the time of day, all without reshoots or traditional VFX. It can turn a garage into a spaceship, swap a cloudy sky for the aurora borealis or morph an actor into a six-eyed alien, no green screen required.
“I remember shopping projects around and being told by producers, ‘This scene has to go, that has to go,’ just to keep the budget low. Now everything is open.”
— Verena Puhm, Head of Studio at Dream Lab LA
“It’s such a relief as an artist,” Puhm says. “If there’s a project I’ve been sitting on for six years because I didn’t have a $5 million budget — suddenly there’s no limit. I remember shopping projects around and being told by producers, ‘This scene has to go, that has to go,’ just to keep the budget low. Now everything is open.”
That sense of access resonates far beyond Los Angeles. At a panel during AI on the Lot, “Blue Beetle” director Ángel Manuel Soto reflected on how transformative AI might have been when he was first starting out. “I wish tools like this existed when I wanted to make movies in Puerto Rico, because nobody would lend me a camera,” he said. “Access to equipment is a privilege we sometimes take for granted. I see this helping kids like me from the projects tell stories without going bankrupt — or stealing, which I don’t condone.”
Puhm welcomes criticism of AI but only when it’s informed. “If you hate AI and you’ve actually tested the tools and educated yourself, I’ll be your biggest supporter,” she says. “But if you’re just speaking out of fear, with no understanding, then what are you even basing your opinion on?”
She understands why some filmmakers feel rattled, especially those who, like her, grew up dreaming of seeing their work on the big screen. “I still want to make features and TV series — that’s what I set out to do,” she says. “I hope movie theaters don’t go away. But if the same story I want to tell reaches millions of people on a phone and they’re excited about it, will I really care that it wasn’t in a theater?”
“I just feel like we have to adapt to the reality of things,” she continues. “That might sometimes be uncomfortable, but there is so much opportunity if you lean in. Right now any filmmaker can suddenly tell a story at a high production value that they could have never done before, and that is beautiful and empowering.”
For many, embracing AI boils down to a simple choice: adapt or get cut from the frame.
Hal Watmough, a BAFTA-winning British editor with two decades of experience, first began experimenting with AI out of a mix of curiosity and dread. “I was scared,” he admits. “This thing was coming into the industry and threatening our jobs and was going to make us obsolete.” But once he started playing with tools like Midjourney and Runway, he quickly saw how they could not only speed up the process but allow him to rethink what his career could be.
For an editor used to working only with what he was given, the ability to generate footage on the fly, cut with it immediately and experiment endlessly without waiting on a crew or a shoot was a revelation. “It was still pretty janky at that stage, but I could see the potential,” he says. “It was kind of intoxicating. I started to think, I’d like to start making things that I haven’t seen before.”
After honing his skills with various AI tools, Watmough created a wistful, vibrant five-minute animated short called “LATE,” about an aging artist passing his wisdom to a young office worker. Over two weeks, he generated 2,181 images using AI, then curated and refined them frame by frame to shape the story.
Earlier this year, he submitted “LATE” to what was billed as the world’s first AI animation contest, hosted by Curious Refuge, an online education hub for creative technologists — and, to his delight, he won. The prize included $10,000, a pitch meeting with production company Promise Studios and, as an absurd bonus, his face printed on a potato. But for Watmough, the real reward was the sense that he had found a new creative identity.
“There’s something to the fact that the winner of the first AI animation competition was an editor,” Watmough says. “With the advent of AI, yes, you could call yourself a filmmaker but essentially I’d say most people are editors. You’re curating, selecting, picking what you like — relying on your taste.”
Thanks to AI, he says he’s made more personal passion projects in the past year and a half than during his entire previous career. “I’ll be walking or running and ideas just come. Now I can go home that night and try them,” he says. “None of that would exist without AI. So either something exists within AI or it never exists at all. And all the happiness and fulfillment that comes with it for the creator doesn’t exist either.”
Watmough hasn’t entirely lost his fear of what AI might do to the creative workforce, even as he is energized by what it makes possible. “A lot of people I speak to in film and TV are worried about losing their jobs and I’m not saying the infrastructure roles won’t radically change,” he says. “But I don’t think AI is going to replace that many — if any — creative people.”
What it will do, he says, is raise the bar. “If anyone can create anything, then average work will basically become extinct or pointless. AI can churn out remakes until the cows come home. You’ll have to pioneer to exist.”
He likens the current moment to the birth of cinema more than a century ago — specifically the Lumière brothers’ “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat,” the 1896 short that famously startled early audiences. In the silent one-minute film, a steam train rumbles toward the camera, growing larger. Some viewers reportedly leaped from their seats, convinced it was about to crash into them.
“People ran out of the theater screaming,” Watmough says. “Now we don’t even think about it. With AI, we’re at that stage again. We’re watching the steam train come into the station and people are either really excited or they’re running out of the theater in fear. That’s where we are, right at the start. And the potential is limitless.”
Then again, he adds with a dry laugh, “I’m an eternal optimist, so take what I say with a grain of salt.”
EASYJET is turning thousands of old crew outfits into school uniforms to support families struggling with rising costs.
The airline partnered with Luton-based charity Level Trust, which works across 75 local schools, providing uniforms to support the estimated 45 per cent of children living in poverty in the town.
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Children from a school in Luton with the donated uniformsOld airline uniforms will be upcycled into school uniforms
Their initiative is aiming for pilots and cabin crew to donate 100 per cent of their retired outfits – which will be recycled into shirts, skirts, blazers, jackets and trousers.
The garments will then be available for older year students through the charity’s Uniform Exchange.
It comes as 58 per cent of 2,000 parents polled said they feel the pressure of the rising costs of school uniforms.
An average of £256 a year is forked out on school uniform items for just one child, totalling over £3,072 across 12 years in education.
With over a third of parents (34 per cent) sacrificing household essentials to keep up with the costs of school uniforms.
Nearly one in five (19 per cent) have used overdrafts and credit cards to afford school uniforms, as 53 per cent reported having to purchase new items before even the end of the first term alone.
Michael Brown, director of cabin services for easyJet, which is launching a crew uniform refresh on 10th November, said: “We’re proud to launch the uniform recycling programme – our aim for this first phase is both to support parents who are facing financial hardships as well as reduce our textile waste.
“Our crew uniforms have always represented care, professionalism and unity, and we’re honoured they’ll carry those same values into classrooms to empower the next generation.”
It emerged 76 per cent would like to see more government-backed community initiatives, like the uniform exchange, to help families.
Two-thirds of parents (66 per cent) say they would consider second-hand or upcycled uniforms in order to save money.
And a further 93 per cent of parents would also favour increased flexibility when it comes to school uniforms.
With 80 per cent of parents agreeing they would like to see more businesses repurposing retired materials such as uniforms into items to support local communities.
And 85 per cent would be likely to use cheaper or free school uniforms made from upcycled materials.
The research also found that 76 per cent of British parents would like to see more government backed community initiatives like the Level Trust’s uniform exchange rolled out on a national scale.
Jennie White from the charity the Level Trust, added: “We have seen a significant rise in requests for school uniforms, highlighting the challenges many families are facing.
“easyJet’s donation of surplus uniforms is a crucial step in addressing these needs as this initiative not only helps alleviate the financial strain on parents but also ensures that children have the necessary attire to feel confident and focused at school.”
The campaign launches in Luton, home to easyJet’s headquartersAround 58 per cent of parents say they feel the pressure of the rising costs of school uniforms
A seasoned cabin crew member believes there’s one secret trick that could be a gamechanger — and it’s designed to make the dreaded take-off and landing much easier for the little ones.
Andrea Owen has been TUI Cabin Crew since 2003
Air travel with children is often a stressful feat as they tend to experience discomfort while flying and react to it in different ways. As we approach the October half term, when many families will be jetting off for a well-deserved break, a seasoned cabin crew member has revealed her top tips for travelling with kids.
Andrea Owen, a TUI Cabin Crew member since 2003, has clocked up at least 3,000 flights in her 22-year career. From short hops to long-haul journeys, she’s witnessed hundreds of families take to the skies each week, heading to popular holiday spots like Majorca, the Canaries, Mexico and Jamaica.
With such a wealth of experience, there’s little Andrea hasn’t encountered. She’s seen families cool, calm and collected during their flight, some bubbling over with excitement, while others appear utterly frazzled and overwhelmed.
Andrea reveals: “After all these years of flying, I have looked after thousands of families. I can tell you that the secret to stress-free family travel is preparation. I always tell parents to expect the unexpected, pack more snacks than you think you’ll need, and don’t be afraid to ask crew for help. A lot of us are parents too, and we genuinely want every family to have a great start to their holiday.”
In fact, Andrea believes there’s one secret trick that could be a game-changer — and it’s designed to make the dreaded take-off and landing much easier for the little ones.
Read on for some of Andrea’s tried-and-tested tricks and tips for families travelling with kids in flights this October half term.
Relieve ear pressure
Andrea has shared some top-tier advice for take-offs and landings with young kids. She shares: “This is one of the most common concerns parents ask me about, and it’s really easy to solve. For babies and toddlers, feeding during take-off and landing is brilliant, whether that’s breastfeeding, a bottle, or even just a dummy – the sucking motion helps equalise ear pressure.
“For older children, give them chewy sweets or lollipops about 30 minutes before landing as that’s when the pressure really starts to build. I’ve seen many tears avoided with this simple trick.”
Always carry a range of activities
Andrea recommends throwing together a bag with a mix of toys, activities, and snacks to keep things interesting — and your child engaged. She reveals: “What works brilliantly is either letting them pack their own bag so they’re excited or pack some surprise toys they haven’t seen before. Keep everything small and compact with plenty of pencils, crayons, and paper.
“A surprise sticker book with a little bag of sweets is absolute gold. The games I see working best are Snap, Dobble, and colouring. And here’s a lovely tip – encourage your children to draw pictures for the cabin crew. We absolutely love receiving them and always have a stash of stickers at the ready for every flight.”
Figure out the exact time to board the flight
The in-flight expert notes: “This one really depends on your child’s personality, and you know them best. Some families find that boarding as soon as possible gives them that extra breathing space to get settled, stow the bags, and get the kids comfortable in their seats without feeling rushed. But I’ve also seen plenty of parents who swear by boarding last, especially if their little ones can’t sit still for long.”
Dress kids in multiple layers
The temperature on board can fluctuate throughout the flight. That’s why Andrea always suggests dressing children in layers so they can add or remove clothing to keep themselves comfortable.
She notes: “It’s always handy to pack a spare pair of clothes in your hand luggage just in case of a spill or accident. I’ve seen many parents caught out without a change of clothes, and it makes the rest of the flight uncomfortable for the both of you.”
Pack the home comforts
Andrea advises packing home comforts like a small pillow, blanket or cuddly toys to help children of all ages feel more relaxed.
She shares: “If you’re travelling at times when your child would normally be having a nap or going to bed, I really encourage parents to try and stick to that routine as much as possible. Let them sleep if they want to, you’ll arrive at your destination feeling so much fresher and ready to enjoy your holiday.
“It’s also worth thinking about time zones if you’re flying long haul. Maybe start adjusting their sleep schedule a day or two before you travel. A well-rested child makes for a much happier holiday start.”
Prepare them in advance
The cabin crew expert has some pre-flight advice for parents travelling with kids. “Preparation is everything when it comes to keeping children calm. Before you leave for the airport, talk through exactly what’s going to happen. Checking in, going through security, boarding the plane, and what take-off and landing will feel like.”
Andrea advises: “Let them know about the noises they might hear and explain that their ears might feel different. This is particularly useful if your child is neurodiverse. The key is to make it sound like an exciting adventure rather than something to worry about.”
Snack trays come in handy
Andrea reveals: “Those little snack trays with multiple compartments come in handy. Kids absolutely love them and there’s something about having lots of different treats in separate sections that keeps them entertained for ages. You can fill each compartment with different snacks: fruit, crackers, cheese cubes, raisins, a couple of sweets.”
She adds: “It turns snack time into something fun and interactive, and it means you’re not constantly rummaging through bags. We also have healthy snack boxes for kids available onboard which they love, so there will always be something they can eat.”
Don’t hesitate to ask cabin crew for assistance
Andrea emphasises that cabin crew recognise how daunting it can be for parents travelling with children. She says: “Don’t ever feel worried about asking us for help, that’s what we’re here for. Over my 22 years of flying, I’ve seen everything. We’ve warmed countless bottles, fetched extra sick bags, provided colouring sheets, and even entertained little ones while parents take a breather.
“Many of us are parents ourselves, so we completely understand how overwhelming it can feel. Whether you need extra wipes, help with the overhead locker, or just some reassurance, we’re here to make your journey smoother.”
Andrea advises: “We know flying can feel overwhelming for families, whether it’s your first flight with kids or you have an anxious flyer in the family, there are lots of simple and easy tips you can put into place to make it seem that little bit less daunting.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jo Adell homered and drove in every run for the Angels in their 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
Adell hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning for the second consecutive game. His three-run shot to center field on the first pitch he saw from reliever John Schreiber gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in this one.
Yoán Moncada, aboard on a single when Adell went deep, doubled off Lucas Erceg (6-4) in the eighth before scoring on Adell’s two-out single for a 4-3 advantage. Adell’s 33 homers and 90 RBIs are career highs.
Reid Detmers struck out two in the ninth for his third save.
Angels star Mike Trout sat out again after getting scratched from the lineup Tuesday night because of a skin infection on his left arm.
Salvador Perez had a one-out double in the seventh for the Royals off winning pitcher Robert Stephenson (1-0). It was his 33rd double this season and the 625th extra-base hit of his career, tying Frank White for third on the franchise list. Adam Frazier doubled to tie it at 3.
Mike Yastrzemski had a sacrifice fly in the first inning to help the Royals take a 2-0 lead against Caden Dana, making his first start this season and the fourth of his career. Dana allowed two hits and one earned run over five innings.
Royals rookie Ryan Bergert gave up one hit and left with a 2-0 lead after issuing a leadoff walk to Zach Neto in the sixth. Bergert struck out six and walked three.
Kansas City (70-69) has lost three in a row and seven of 11.
Key moment
Kyle Isbel was on second base in the eighth when Angels reliever Andrew Chafin struck out Bobby Witt Jr. for the second out. Chafin then fanned Vinnie Pasquantino in a 12-pitch duel to keep it 4-3.
Key stat
The Angels have won the first two games of the series, improving to 162-144 at Kaufmann Stadium.
An experienced cabin crew assistant and author revealed that on one particular airline there was a special space reserved for the most gruesome eventuality during a flight
There used to be a cupboard on certain flights for something disturbing (Image: Getty Images)
There are many unseen happenings that take place on an aircraft while you manoeuvre your way down the narrow aisle trying to locate your seat, store your cabin luggage overhead and settle back for what you hope is a relaxing and smooth flight to your chosen destination.
One experienced assistant has revealed what she’s learnt and witnessed behind the scenes during her years working for a US airline and there’s one quite morbid detail many travellers would never have known about.
Everyone hopes for a relaxing flight but occasionally emergencies happen(Image: Getty Images)
Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for over 15 years and is the author of Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet. She has spoken about the rather morbid topic of death on board an airplane.
Although she says it’s very rare for a passenger to die in the air, it obviously does and can happen – although no one officially passes away in flight unless there is a doctor on board to pronounce it.
Speaking to mentalfloss.com, she said that in such challenging circumstances most stewards would rather move the deceased to an empty row of seats where they can be covered over away from other passengers, although this isn’t always possible.
“On these very rare occasions, the crew will do everything possible to manage the situation with sensitivity and respect,” she said. “Unfortunately, most flights are full, so it’s not always possible to move an “incapacitated” passenger to an empty row of seats.”
Singapore Airlines airbus A340-500 launched in 2004(Image: AFP)
Heather revealed that one company, Singapore Airlines, decided to get around the problem with a “corpse cupboard”. This she explained was “a compartment for storing a dead body if the situation arises”.
The company installed the locker on its Airbus A340-500 in 2004 next to one of the aircraft’s exit doors. It was big enough to hold an average-sized human body and had special straps to secure the corpse and stop it being moved by turbulence or on landing.
It only chose this particular type of aircraft for the cupboard because it operated on extra long haul flights from Singapore to New York and Los Angeles. The routes had some of the longest distances in the world, with flight times of 18-19 hours. The fleet was retired in 2013-14 and the lockers aren’t used on any other airlines currently.
While Heather said she thankfully hasn’t had to deal with a death on board, her room mate has – and in some rather strange circumstances. She revealed that her friend realised a passenger was trying to sneak a dead body on the flight.
“She knew the man was dead the moment she saw him looking grey and slumped over in a wheelchair, even though his wife and daughter assured her he was just battling the flu,” she said. “Midway through the flight, the plane had to make an unscheduled landing when it became apparent that no amount of Nyquil was going to revive him.”
Pirating, as evidenced by centuries of stories and one of the greatest theme park rides, has long fascinated. Seafaring and sword fighting imply adventure. Dice games? Bluffing and strategy. And if you’re really lucky, maybe you’ll find a mermaid.
Audience members seen during a production of “Pirates Wanted,” an interactive production from Last Call Theatre.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones/The Los Angeles Times)
Last Call Theatre, a local interactive-focused performance group, has found a way to give us a taste of buccaneering — without the pesky consequences of being captured by the Royal Navy or succumbing to a rum-induced liver disease.
For one more weekend in Long Beach, theatergoers can live out a mini marauding fantasy on an actual ship at “Pirates Wanted,” a limited-run revival of the troupe’s 2024 show. It’s theater, but it’s also a choose-your-own-adventure-style game, one with branching narratives, multiple endings and even life lessons.
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The show is set on board the American Pride tall ship docked at Long Beach’s Pine Avenue Pier, a 130-foot schooner that today is primarily used as an education-focused vessel. Stand still and feel the lean and long boat gently rock on the waves. But you’ll rarely be stationary on the wood-heavy craft. With a cast of 14 and an audience capacity of 55, “Pirates Wanted” explores the full top deck of the ship, which is accessible via a small portable stairway.
The setup: As audience members, we are to be trained as pirates in 17th century England, with much of the cast performing in exaggerated accents. The drama: Our captain’s previous ship was marooned under suspicious circumstances. To complicate matters, a long-lost sibling, also a pirate with his own troubling history, is here to judge the crew’s seaworthiness. The show begins with a speech from Capt. Souvanna (Bonnie-Lynn Montaño), who sternly demands a vocal “aye” from the audience as the ground rules are laid out. Follow them, Souvanna warns, or risk being thrown into the harbor.
Captain Souvanna (Bonnie-Lynn Montaño) and Captain Draken (Shelby Ryan Lee) share a moment during immersive theater production “Pirates Wanted.”
In moments, we are free to wander and link up with various crew members for our pirating lessons. The so-called “treasures of the seas” aren’t going to be pillaged without our help, and I soon find myself improvising sea shanties and engaging in a game of liar’s dice. I stumble over relearning how to construct a knot — important, I am told, in case I’m tossed overboard and need to quickly lasso myself to a raft — but have better luck mimicking a figure 8 with my sword. We have tasks to complete — or games to play, rather — which are ultimately an excuse for conversation.
Ask a roaming bard about the previous ship’s fate and a host of stories start to unravel and reveal themselves — love affairs, hidden secrets, lost maps and the requisite discontentment among the ship’s keep. What would a pirate narrative be without talk, for instance, of mutiny?
Oats Weetle (Mads Durbin) climbs a mast during a dramatic scene in “Pirates Wanted.”
“Pirates Wanted” is heavily active, and one won’t discover all of the show’s narrative paths. Wander, for instance, to a compartment at the ship’s bow, and you may hear conspiratorial whispers. Hang in the aft, and there might be talk of a siren on board. I saw others with treasure maps, and only caught murmurs of the romantic soap operas unfolding among the crew. Love letters were lost and recovered, and at one point I was pulled aside, a pirate whispering to me to ask if there was an illicit affair on board between a member of the crew and the British Navy.
Audience members take in “Pirates Wanted.”
Like all of Last Call’s shows, there are multiple ways to watch — or play. One can opt to be a relatively passive observer trying to overhear conversations and uncover the various storylines. But it’s advised to lean in, to hop from character to character armed with questions and the willingness to go on assigned quests. Here, the latter rely heavily on gossip. Early on I was tasked, for instance, with asking the various pirates about their feelings over losing their last ship, only I was told not to use the word “feel” in my line of questioning (after all, one must trick a pirate into vulnerability).
Throughout, “Pirates Wanted” explores how to navigate complicated family drama and romantic relationships when value systems — you know, looting and pillaging versus not — don’t align. There are metaphors if you go looking for them, specifically on having to live much of one’s life in the closet, but “Pirates Wanted” places a heavy emphasis on silliness too.
Last Call over the last three years has established itself as one of the more prolific companies on the city’s immersive theater scene, regularly hosting two or three shows per year. The troupe has already announced a winter time traveling production, “The Butterfly Effect,” set to debut Nov. 8 at Stella Coffee near Beverly Hills. “Pirates Wanted” last year became one of Last Call’s best reviewed productions.
Throughout “Pirates Wanted” audience members will be tasked with quests, sometimes seeking hidden items.
“It definitely was our most critically and financially successful show we put on,” says Ashley Busenlener, Last Call’s executive director. “Who doesn’t like pirates on an actual ship?”
“Pirates Wanted” leans campy, a vision of the lifestyle more informed by Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean than any historical fiction. It also tackles subject matter not often seen in pirate tales, such as feelings of being misunderstood and the struggle to be one’s true self.
“One of the things that I often notice about pirate media is a lot of the time you see pirates and the majority of time they are white men,” Busenlener says. “That’s not who I think I pirates are. We were very intentional … in creating a cast that we felt represented what piracy should be.”
In turn, many of the actors are female, queer and hail from diverse backgrounds. The goal, says Busenlener, was to show that anyone can be a pirate.
“Pirates are the people who were outside of society,” Busenlener says. “They were breaking rules and laws and taking power into their own hands. That’s something we wanted to reflect.”
There are multiple story tracks in one “Pirates Wanted.” In one, captain Souvanna (Bonnie-Lynn Montaño) may face a mutiny.
And it’s represented in one of the show’s most affecting narrative branches, one in which a half-mermaid spent their life presenting only as human out of fear. It’s intimate drama laced with mysticism, an adult theme ultimately handled with a hint of levity for this family-friendly show.
It also gets to the heart of Last Call’s ambitious with “Pirates Wanted.” Come for the swashbuckling — and the chance to learn some sword-fighting moves — but stay for the emotional adventure. Just don’t be surprised if you leave the pier suddenly talking in a fake British accent.
Tall ship the American Pride in Long Beach, home for one more weekend to immersive theater show “Pirates Wanted.”
Attendants union says there is still time to reach an agreement, as airline warns 100,000 passengers affected by Friday.
Air Canada says it is at an impasse with its negotiations with the union representing its flight attendants and has announced that it will be pausing all its flights on Saturday morning.
Air Canada said on Thursday it expects to cancel several dozen flights by day’s end and approximately 500 flights by the end of Friday, affecting 100,0000 passengers, in advance of a planned Saturday strike by its unionised flight attendants.
The Air Canada executives were speaking at a news conference that ended abruptly due to protests by union members donning placards.
Mark Nasr, chief operations officer at Air Canada, said the complexity of the carrier’s network, which operates more than 250 aircraft on flights to more than 65 countries, requires it to start winding down service now.
A strike would hit the country’s tourism sector during the height of summer travel and poses a new test for the governing Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, which has been asked by the carrier to intervene and impose arbitration.
Air Canada and low-cost carrier Air Canada Rouge carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the foreign carrier with the largest number of flights to the US.
US carrier United Airlines, a code-share partner of Air Canada, said it has issued a travel waiver to help customers manage their travel plans.
Half of hourly rate for hours worked
The dispute hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most airlines have traditionally paid attendants only when planes are in motion.
But in their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in North America have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks like boarding passengers and waiting around the airport before and between flights.
The union said Air Canada had offered to begin compensating flight attendants for some unpaid work, but only at 50 percent of their hourly rate.
The airline said it had offered a 38 percent increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25 percent raise in the first year.
Restarting Air Canada’s operations would take a week to complete, Nasr told reporters in Toronto.
“It’s simply not the kind of system that we can start or stop at the push of a button,” he said. “So in order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin down.”
FlightAware data shows Air Canada has, thus far, cancelled only four flights as of Thursday morning.
Earlier in the day, Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged the country’s largest carrier and union to return to the bargaining table to reach a deal that could avert disruptions.
“I understand this dispute is causing a great deal of frustration and anxiety to Canadians who are travelling or worrying about how they will get home,” she said in a statement posted on X. “I urge both parties to put their differences aside, come back to the bargaining table and get this done now for the many travelers who are counting on you.”
An Air Canada plane taxis at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada [File: Carlos Osorio/Reuters]
A spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the carrier’s 10,000 flight attendants, said Air Canada negotiators are not bargaining and have not responded to a proposal they made earlier this week.
“We believe the company wants the federal government to intervene and bail them out.”
CUPE has previously said it opposes binding arbitration.
Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, chief human resources officer at Air Canada, said the carrier never left the table.
“We are still available to bargain at any time on the condition that the negotiation has substance,” she said.
Gavin and Stacey star Mathew Horne shared recently that a crew member from the BBC show had died and his former colleague has since been named as musician Rob Picton
It’s been announced that a crew member who worked on Gavin and Stacey has died(Image: Tom Jackson/PA Wire)
Mathew, 46, who played Gavin Shipman, became emotional whilst on stage at an event held on Thursday. The actor announced that one of the drivers who worked on the sitcom’s finale, which aired back in December, had died recently. He referred to his late colleague simply as Rob.
The crew member is understood to be Rob Picton, who’s been named elsewhere. Although having worked as a driver on the BBC show, he’s known as a DJ, producer and club promoter in Wales, and has been the subject of tributes.
It’s been announced that Rob Picton (left), pictured with Larry Lamb (right), has died(Image: INSTAGRAM)
It’s yet to be announced how Rob, also known as Joe Blow, died. Last month, he posted about his health on social media, telling fans that he had been experiencing esophagitis, which involves the inflammation of the esophagus, and had been sent home from work previously due to chest pains.
He wrote on July 17: “To everyone who has been trying to get hold of me, I will be back in touch, I’m not ignoring you. Got sent home from work a few days ago with chest pains and been wiped out ever since with Esophagitis.”
Rob shared that he would have to miss some events as a result. He also said: “Its sucks not being able to swallow food or drink without being in excruciating pain, as anyone who knows me knows its my favourite thing to do.”
Over a week later though, Rob appeared to be back at work. He posted about at a rave event in Cardiff that he is understood to have organised and thanked fans for their support.
Mathew Horne shared earlier this week that a driver who had worked on Gavin and Stacey: the Finale had died(Image: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Images for evian)
Gavin and Stacey star Mathew paid tribute to his late former colleague at a talk in Taunton earlier this week. The actor took part in an In Conversation event at Taunton Brewhouse in Somerset on Thursday.
As reported by the Sun, he apologised to the audience at one point, saying that he had been “distracted” after hearing about his colleague’s death. He said: “Earlier on … we had a driver on the finale called Rob and he was in his early 40s… and I found out via the WhatsApp group earlier that he has passed away and I got slightly distracted there.”
Mathew described the news as “really sad” and reiterated that he had got distracted over the loss. He added: “He was a really lovely guy and he’s left a four-year-old behind and that is really, really, really sad.”
There have been tributes to Rob this week, including on BBC Introducing with Adam Walton. Adam Walton said that he had the “privilege” of playing Rob’s music, including as a member of groups, on the BBC Radio show for more than 25 years.
He further paid tribute and expressed his condolences to those who knew Rob. Adam said at one point: “Rob was a great and prolific emcee, and his loss is seismic for his friends and collaborators and obviously for his family and community.”
A message in a bottle found off the west coast of Ireland has revived hopes for answers about the fate of a Taiwanese fishing crew that disappeared four years ago.
Internet sleuths have linked the note, a purported SOS message written in a mixture of Chinese, Indonesian and English, to the Yong Yu Sing No 18, a Taiwanese fishing vessel that was found adrift with its crew missing in 2021.
Matthew Long said that he and a friend were walking on a beach on Inisheer, a small island located about 8km (5 miles) off County Clare, last week when they came across a wax-sealed bottle containing the handwritten note.
“We used Google Translate and the first half of the message translated to an SOS message in Indonesian,” Long told Al Jazeera.
Long said he handed the note over to the local police before posting about his discovery on the social media site Reddit, where internet sleuths quickly got to work trying to track down its origin.
“We posted it in a few places online, but when we posted it in r/beachcombing, it blew up and clever Redditors were able to trace it back to a real missing ship crew,” Long said.
According to the Reddit posting, the text reads: “Please send help! We are lost since 12/20. There are 3 of us here. We don’t know the name of this island. We are injured. HELP. HELLO. SOS.”
The note ends with the Chinese character for “Li” and the name “Yong Yu Sing No 18.”
An Garda Síochána, the Irish police service, said it does not comment on third-party content online but confirmed it had received a “report of an item found” on Inisheer last Saturday.
It declined to provide further information.
The message purporting to be from the missing crew of the Yong Yu Sing No 18 [Photo courtesy of Matthew Long]
The Yong Yu Sing No 18 was reported missing on January 1, 2021, after its owner lost contact with the ship’s captain, a man surnamed Li, two days earlier, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
The fishing vessel was later found approximately 600km (373 miles) from Midway Atoll, an unincorporated United States territory in the North Pacific Ocean, with its crew and lifeboat missing.
The incident was later ruled an accident by Taiwanese prosecutors, but the fate of Li and his nine Indonesian crew members remains unknown to this day.
The Taiwan Yilan District Prosecutors Office, which investigated the case in 2021, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Long’s Reddit post has received nearly 10,000 upvotes, or “likes”, and 1,200 comments from users, many of them offering theories about the crew’s fate and debating whether it is more likely that the note is genuine or a hoax.
In Taiwan, the note has been taken seriously by advocates for the families of the missing crew, including the Su’Ao Fisherman’s Association.
“This association relays the hope that the government will verify the situation through appropriate channels, and if confirmed to be true, is willing for the government to cooperate with international organisations to coordinate rescue efforts,” the association said in a statement to local media.
The Su’Ao Fisherman’s Association did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Internet users on Taiwan’s PTT message board have also debated the authenticity of the note.
Some have compared it with an incident in 1992 in which a container of 28,000 plastic ducks and bath toys fell off a cargo ship during a storm.
In the decades since the incident, the ducks have washed up around the world, including as far away as Scotland.
Long said he is uncertain about whether the note is genuine, but believes it is possible.
“I don’t know about the note’s authenticity or if it was really sent by the crew of that ship,” he said.
“I was very sceptical at first and believed it to be a hoax when I first opened and read the message, but since then, it is starting to look more plausible to me.”
The RNLI said it saved the lives of 58 migrants last year
Lifeboat crew members who are called out to migrants crossing the Channel in small boats have told the BBC they make no apologies for saving lives at sea.
The RNLI has faced accusations that it is acting as a “taxi service” for people trying to enter the UK illegally.
But its members said they will react to any incident they are asked to by the Coastguard and will go to the aid of anyone in trouble on or in the water.
Last year, lifeboat crews responded 114 times to small boats – representing just over 1% of their total call-outs across the UK and Ireland. The charity said it has saved the lives of 58 migrants, including children.
Paula Lain, who works as a management consultant when she’s not volunteering for the RNLI, said: “When our pager goes, we’re not thinking anything political.
“We’re all thinking about people. We’re actively compassionate. That’s what drives us beyond any moral or civic responsibility.
“When we’re tasked, we don’t know what we’re going to be tasked to. We’re there to help people in their most distressing times.”
Simon Jones/BBC
RNLI volunteer Paula Lain says the RNLI doesn’t think politically when the pager goes
The RNLI has released harrowing images of an incident in which 19 people had to be pulled from the sea after the dinghy they were in capsized. It said it wants to provide an insight into the reality facing its volunteer crews.
The images show the crew throwing what are called horse shoes – effectively mini life jackets – into the sea.
But on seeing the lifeboat, many of those in the water decide to swim directly to it, and they are hauled on board.
Some collapse with exhaustion, others need immediate medical attention. The lifeboat already had 68 people on board from an earlier incident.
Simon Jones/BBC
RNLI volunteer Dan Sinclair says what they see in the English Channel has a profound impact
Everyone rescued by the RNLI in this incident in August 2023 survived – but six people pulled from the water by other vessels who responded to the emergency lost their lives.
RNLI crew members said they have faced accusations that they are facilitating illegal immigration.
But volunteer Dan Sinclair says what they see in the Channel has a profound impact on them.
He recalls one recent rescue, telling the BBC: “There was a little girl on that boat.
“When we took that little girl – who was probably four years old – off that boat, she looked at me straight in the eye and she said ‘Thank you. I love you.'”
You can see more about the rescue on the new series of ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ on BBC Two on Thursday at 20:00 BST and on iPlayer.
Several crew members of two Victory Cruise Lines vessels have been removed by US Customs and Border Protection officers.
Thirteen staff members from two ships were rounded up and removed last week in Detroit during planned calls.
Five were taken from Victory II and another eight from Victory I two days later.
The cruise line says the crew gained the necessary approvals to work onboard the ships at the start of their contracts.
Like most cruise lines, the company uses a third party staffing agency which takes care of staff vetting and work visas.
It hasn’t been disclosed exactly why they were removed.
Victory Cruise Lines says it is working with federal authorities.
“A limited number of Victory Cruise Lines crew were recently removed from Victory I and Victory II by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Victory chairman John Waggoner confirmed.
“We are actively cooperating with federal authorities to clarify the circumstances, and my priority is always our crew and the experience for our guests.”
AVP, the biggest and longest-running professional volleyball league, hosted beach volleyball matches for the first time in an NBA arena this past weekend.
Hosted at the Intuit Dome, crews were tasked with bringing 300 tons of sand from a quarry in Palm Springs, which is roughly 16 truck loads. AVP is looking for creative ways to attract a new audiences to the sport, often hosting their marquee volleyball events in unconventional locations.
Timelapse of Intuit Dome transforming into an indoor beach vollyball court. (Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
A wooden sandbox was constructed to contain the prewashed sand and form a single court.
It took the crew, which consists of about 150 people for a change over a typical event at Intuit Dome, five hours after the conclusion of the event to ready the arena for Clippers season ticket-holders the following day.
While passengers typically sleep in their seats on long-haul flights, few know where the cabin crew rest – but a TUI flight attendant has offered a rare behind-the-scenes look
A TUI flight attendant has given passengers a glimpse at where the cabin crew sleep during long haul journeys (stock photo)(Image: Rathke via Getty Images)
A TUI air hostess has lifted the curtain on a little-known aspect of aviation by showing where cabin crew staff sleep on long haul flights. Experienced travellers will be well-versed in the hierarchy of airline seating from economy to first class, with the latter two offering flat-bed luxury.
However, for some passengers it’s a mystery as to where the flight attendants rest during these lengthy journeys. Charlie Silver, an air hostess with TUI, took to TikTok to give a glimpse into the resting place for staff onboard planes. In her video, she walks through a hidden door near the galley and climbs a ladder to a snug sleeping area above the main cabin.
She reveals: “This is our crew bunks and we have six of these little beds located on our 787 Dreamliners.” She goes onto describe how each crew member receives a ‘bunk kit’ for their break, complete with a pillowcase, mattress topper, and blanket.
Charlie admits that making up these compact beds isn’t straightforward due to the cramped conditions.
The flight attendant shared: “Some crew can’t sleep up here but even if you’re not going to sleep sometimes it’s just a nice little escape from everyone.
“I, personally, can sleep and I think it’s just the sound of the plane that just soothes me.”
Ensuring her safety, she always fastens her seatbelt over the blanket in case of any unexpected turbulence. The bunks also usually come with reading lights for convenience.
Charlie further revealed that these snug spaces are where crew members can “have a little nap at 40,000 feet somewhere across the Atlantic”.
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After take-off, rest periods are scheduled and rotated among the crew to ensure everyone gets a chance to recharge.
As per Cabin Crew Wings, on flights ranging from 8 to 12 hours, staff might be allocated an hour or two for their rest break.
On ultra-long-haul flights (those exceeding 12 hours), they are often given up to four hours to rejuvenate and be ready to help passengers.
Cabin Crew 24 reveals that passengers “rarely know about these spaces as they are often hidden from view”.
Despite being compact, these compartments provide enough comfort for crew members during their breaks.
They come equipped with essentials like privacy curtains and ventilation systems.
The website also emphasises that rest for cabin crew is a “critical part of ensuring the safety and efficiency of the flight”.
This is because the onboard staff have numerous responsibilities, including handling emergencies and providing customer service.
Charlie’s TikTok video, offering a peek into where TUI cabin crew members catch some shut-eye, has garnered more than 30,000 likes and nearly 200 comments.
One person remarked: “I’d pay good money to have one of these instead of a normal seat.” Another chimed in: “Gosh I’d feel very claustrophobic.”
A third expressed their astonishment, saying: “Why have I travelled long haul millions of times with TUI and never knew about these.”
Meanwhile, a fourth commented: “Been on a TUI 787 many times, where on Earth is this located on the plane?!?!” To which Charlie responded: “At the back most people think it’s a toilet!”
