finally

LONDON — Claire Liu packed her bags and checked out of her London hotel room on Wednesday morning before heading to the All England Club.

It was more pragmatism than pessimism — a reality of a qualifier navigating her Wimbledon journey one day at a time.

But as her boyfriend reminded her while organizing her luggage: “Just because you’re packing doesn’t mean you’re leaving,” Liu recalled with a laugh.

He was right.

The Thousand Oaks native went on to win her second-round match against 51st-ranked Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey 7-5, 6-3, advancing to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her professional career. She had tried 29 previous times at majors, including qualifying rounds, since 2015.

“I was just super relieved to get through that,” said Liu, noting she had blown a set and a break lead in the French Open’s second round last month.

For Liu, who turned 26 in May, returning to the manicured lawns of SW19 brings her tennis journey full circle. Nine years ago, she captured the 2017 Wimbledon girls’ singles title — the first American to do so since Chanda Rubin in 1992 — and was the No. 1 junior in the world. She still holds fond memories of that heady achievement, including chatting with her idol, Roger Federer, at the Wimbledon Champions Ball.

Yet, the transition from teenage phenom to professional mainstay has been anything but a linear ascent. When asked if she expected to be in the third round of a major this late in her career given her junior success, Liu was candid.

“Younger me would have believed it more than now,” she said.

That shift in perspective comes after weathering some brutal setbacks.

Liu climbed as high as No. 52 in early 2023 but then endured a wrist injury and took a months-long mental health hiatus in 2024 that eventually saw her ranking plummet outside the top 400 last year.

Currently sitting at No. 146, she’s been rebuilding her standing by playing a mix of WTA 125 events and ITF tournaments before returning to the main WTA Tour, with 2026 stops in far-flung places from Bahrain to Boca Raton and plenty of places in between.

“My goals haven’t changed, but I think the stress of how I got there really took a toll on me,” said Liu.

To navigate the darkness, Liu leaned heavily into both sports psychology and traditional therapy, including EMDR, a technique that helps people process traumatic experiences. She also started a Substack newsletter called “Finding Claire-ity,” where she openly chronicles her life and struggles on the tour.

The Southern California native, who has trained at the USTA facility in Carson since she was 9 years old and resides in Redondo Beach, also split with her longtime coach last season, a difficult decision, and hired Clemens Wagner.

The switch following the U.S. Open last year is clicking.

“I saw in her someone who fought a lot of battles inside herself,” says Austrian-born Wagner, who has a background in tennis analytics.

Together, they have focused on keeping an “aggressive undertone” on the grass, emphasizing coming to the net and squeezing the most out of her game.

Wagner notes that the 5-foot-7 player’s game isn’t the flashiest, but describes her as a “silent killer” who excels at “redirecting pace, standing close to the baseline, constantly putting pressure on her opponents.”

The reboot is starting to pay significant dividends.

Liu put together her best stretch in years this spring, winning a lower-tier title in Trnava, Slovakia, her first professional title since 2024, and then qualifying for the French Open.

Having again successfully navigated three rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw here, Liu has now won five consecutive matches at Wimbledon. Not surprisingly, she currently has no sponsors, just equipment support from Head Sport and Asics Corp., making her Wimbledon run particularly lucrative. By reaching the third round, Liu achieved her highest career payday: around $250,000. A victory Friday would boost that to nearly $400,000.

First, she faces her biggest test yet: a third-round contest against two-time major champion Coco Gauff on No. 1 Court, which perhaps fittingly is the same show court where Liu won the girls’ title almost a decade ago.

Gauff, 22, noted that she and Liu haven’t crossed paths much since Liu is older, but expects a serious battle. Gauff won both of their previous meetings on hard courts.

“I feel like anytime you’re playing a qualifier, it’s always tough because they have three matches already,” the seventh-seeded American said.

Liu, who didn’t even know she was playing Gauff until a reporter told her after her match, is purposefully keeping her focus narrow.

“I will just take today to be happy for winning, and then tomorrow I’ll think about it,” Liu said. “Obviously she’s one of the best players in the world right now, so that’ll be a good experience.”

Veteran Jessica Pegula, 32, the top-ranked American who also toiled away on the sport’s lower tier before becoming a top-10 mainstay, appreciates Liu’s resolve.

“It’s always nice to see girls that are figuring it out slowly but surely,” the No. 4 seed said. “I think I can relate to that.”

Liu’s accommodations? Fortunately, her mother was able to rebook the same hotel after the match, which eased some of the logistical issues for her unexpectedly extended stay in London.

“It definitely makes me stay in the moment, like, day by day,” Liu smiled of her lodging limbo.

On Wednesday morning, Liu packed her bags expecting she might leave Wimbledon. Instead, she emptied them one more time, with the biggest match of her career still waiting.

At the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 17, Kenyan President William Ruto revealed that his country was nearing a critical minerals agreement with the United States. Far more significant was Kenya’s insistence that its rare earths, lithium, graphite, copper, nickel and niobium be refined and processed domestically rather than exported as raw materials. This was not simply another minerals deal; it was a signal that African governments are trying to rewrite the extractive bargain.

That demand, long voiced but rarely enforced, is beginning to reshape African resource governance. Namibia has prohibited exports of unprocessed lithium, cobalt, manganese, graphite and rare earths. Mali is constructing a 200-tonne-a-year gold refinery while requiring more local refining. Ghana will begin buying 30 percent of large-scale gold output from July 2026 to strengthen local refining and reserves. Across the continent, governments are increasingly requiring natural resources to create industries at home before generating profits abroad. The turn is not confined to critical minerals; it reflects a wider push to keep more value from natural resources at home.

Kenya’s move comes as the global race for critical minerals intensifies and Africa assumes greater strategic importance. Lithium consumption rose by almost 30 percent in 2024 as countries accelerated investment in electric vehicles, battery storage, renewable energy systems and advanced manufacturing. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects lithium use will increase fivefold by 2040, with graphite and nickel requirements roughly doubling.

This commodity boom differs in one crucial respect: The supply of critical minerals cannot expand rapidly. New mines often take well more than a decade to move from discovery through permits and development to first production, even as global demand continues to accelerate. The IEA estimates that, under its Stated Policies Scenario, announced mining projects will leave lithium supply 40 percent short of projected demand by 2035. Countries seeking secure supplies therefore have greater incentives to invest where the minerals already exist, giving African governments more room to negotiate local value addition, technology transfer and industrial investment.

For generations, the continent’s economic role has been brutally simple: Dig, ship and buy back the finished product. The transition minerals boom offers a rare opportunity to reverse that relationship. But this will require reliable power, transport, finance and skills, not export bans alone.

Mining is only the first step. The greatest wealth is created further along the production chain, when minerals are refined, processed and assembled into products that command far higher prices than the ore that left the ground. United Nations data illustrates how rapidly export value rises along the lithium-ion supply chain. In 2022, global exports of lithium ore and brine were worth about $20bn. Battery materials generated $51bn, cell components and battery packs $106bn, and electric vehicles $135bn.

Africa’s challenge is to move further along that chain. Every additional stage completed on the continent captures more income, creates more skilled jobs and embeds more technology before a single battery reaches the market.

Refining minerals is not an end in itself. It is the first step towards building the productive capabilities that distinguish manufacturing economies from extractive ones. Around every refinery cluster, engineering companies, chemical producers, equipment manufacturers, laboratories and specialist suppliers can emerge. Taiwan’s experience offers a broader lesson: With sustained policy, skills and supplier networks, industrial capabilities built in one generation can create higher-value industries in the next.

Africa’s growing confidence reflects a profound shift in supply chain politics. In a market this concentrated, countries that combine mineral deposits with downstream ambition can negotiate stronger terms. What has changed is not simply demand, but dependency: China is the dominant refiner for 19 of the 20 strategic minerals tracked by the IEA. For copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earths, the top three refining countries control 86 percent of processed output. The continent should demand beneficiation, meaning the processing of raw materials into higher-value products before export, alongside technology transfer and industrial investment before those resources enter global supply chains.

History offers a cautionary lesson.

Gold, diamonds, copper and oil generated billions of dollars in exports across the continent, yet most resource-rich economies remained dependent on exporting raw commodities rather than manufacturing higher-value products.

The colonial economy was built around those outward flows. In what is now Zambia, copper from Nkana, Mufulira and Nchanga moved through Ndola and across the rail network to Beira, the Mozambican port that linked the Copperbelt to overseas smelters and factories. Across the Gold Coast, in present-day Ghana, cocoa from Kumasi travelled by rail to Sekondi and later Takoradi before entering Britain’s chocolate industry.

Today’s export restrictions, refining mandates and beneficiation policies seek to disrupt that flow. The prize is to capture the industries built around those minerals before they take root elsewhere.

The real wealth in Africa’s transition minerals boom will not be measured by what leaves its ports, but by what never has to. Every tonne of lithium refined, every battery precursor produced and every stage of manufacturing completed before export shifts more income, technology, investment and skilled employment onto the continent.

Research by Publish What You Pay suggests that expanding higher-value mineral processing across Africa could generate an additional $32bn in annual exports, add up to $24bn to the continent’s gross domestic product and create about 2.3 million jobs. More importantly, it would leave behind industries, technologies and expertise that outlast the minerals themselves.

Nigeria’s Dangote refinery provides Africa’s clearest demonstration of what beneficiation can achieve. Located in the Lekki Free Zone outside Lagos and built at a cost of about $20bn, the 650,000-barrel-a-day facility is Africa’s largest single-train refinery.

Since beginning production in early 2024, the refinery has helped transform Nigeria’s energy sector. For decades, the country imported much of its refined fuel, spending billions of dollars in foreign exchange. The refinery now supplies much of the domestic market while exporting petrol, diesel and jet fuel to Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Between February and March 2026, Nigeria’s clean petroleum exports more than doubled from about 100,000 barrels a day to 214,000 barrels, while helping anchor a new industrial ecosystem of marine infrastructure, storage terminals, petrochemical plants and fertiliser production.

Indonesia exemplifies the same principle.

After banning exports of unprocessed nickel ore on January 1, 2020, Indonesia became a leading producer and exporter of processed nickel products. The country targeted $21.3bn in foreign investment in mining and processing projects, while the value of its nickel product exports rose from less than $1bn in 2015 to nearly $20bn in 2022. New smelters, refineries, battery-material plants and electric vehicle manufacturing have expanded rapidly, though the boom has also brought environmental and labour concerns.

Africa’s transition minerals require the same strategic intent. If Zambia refines copper, Zimbabwe processes lithium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces battery precursors, and South Africa manufactures battery components, engineering firms will expand, chemical industries will grow, and skilled workers will find opportunities at home instead of abroad. Railways will carry higher-value products instead of raw ore, tax revenues will become more stable, and manufacturing will increasingly replace extraction as the main driver of long-term economic growth.

No African country needs to manufacture every component of an electric vehicle or every battery cell. Copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite and manganese are spread across different economies, making regional integration an economic necessity rather than a political aspiration. Shared power systems, transport corridors, research institutions, standards and integrated markets will determine whether Africa exports minerals or manufactures products.

That makes the African Continental Free Trade Area indispensable. Properly implemented, it can turn isolated mineral deposits into regional manufacturing systems by lowering trade barriers and allowing countries to specialise. Together, African economies can develop an integrated industrial base that none could achieve alone.

Africa has lived through too many extractive booms that enriched others first. Copper built industries across Europe and North America while Zambia remained dependent on raw exports. Cocoa supplied Britain’s chocolate manufacturers while Ghana captured only a fraction of the value added.

The global energy transition gives Africa its best opportunity in generations to rewrite that history.

Africa can finally mine, beneficiate and industrialise on its own terms.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

A NEW UK train station has finally opened following a £183million building project.

The transport hub has been in the works since 2023 and opened to the public on June 28.

Cambridge South is the city’s third train station and will expand transport links for passengers.

The station will be run and managed by Greater Anglia.

Thameslink, Great Northern, CrossCountry and more services will also run from the station.

This is set to connect passengers to the likes of London, Brighton and Birmingham.

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A direct route from Cambridge South to London Stansted Airport is also set to run.

The station is located next to the famous Cambridge Biomedical Campus and boasts four platforms that will see up to nine trains per hour pass through.

The site also offers over 1,000 bicycle parking spots, ticket vending machines and lifts that provide step-free platform access.

The arrival of the new station will “deliver better transport options and connectivity for 1.8 million passengers”.

It’s also hoped the transport boost will “grow and level up the economy” by increasing employment opportunities.

Paul Bristow, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: “With up to nine trains per hour and all passing services stopping, Cambridge South will make a real difference from day one. 

“Cambridge South will bring London, Stansted Airport and international markets closer, supporting the investment and skilled people we need, and creating opportunities locally too.”

Los Angeles officials have reached a tentative agreement with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games laying out the process for reimbursing the city for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in public services.

The agreement, which still needs approval from Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council, would require the privately run Olympic organizing committee LA28 to provide the city with funding in advance to cover services that are ineligible for reimbursement from the federal government, such as traffic control and trash pickup.

The two parties would take a somewhat different approach for police protection at high-security venues. Under the proposed arrangement, the city would seek reimbursement from the federal government for security costs at those locations, said City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, the city’s top negotiator.

If the federal government does not provide full reimbursement for those security costs, the city would seek to tap LA28’s contingency funds to cover the difference, Szabo said.

“This deal ensures the 2028 Games will have the City services needed to be safe and successful, while protecting the taxpayers from footing the bill,” he said in a statement.

Paul Krekorian, executive director for Bass’ Office of Major Events, praised the agreement.

“Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come,” he said. “This agreement helps deliver that commitment.”

Negotiations between the city and LA28 have played out behind closed doors over the last year, even as critics have grown increasingly vocal about the potential for taxpayers to be saddled with huge payouts if the Games fail to generate a profit. If organizers experience significant losses, the city would be on the hook for the first $270 million and possibly more after that.

Szabo acknowledged that under that scenario, the city would be far less likely to recoup all of its security costs if the federal government failed to provide full reimbursement.

Under an agreement finalized in 2021, the organizing committee must reimburse the city for any services that go beyond what would be provided on a normal day at a variety of locations, including parts of downtown L.A., Exposition Park, Venice and elsewhere.

President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” included $1 billion for security, planning and other costs associated with the Olympics. Nevertheless, some elected officials have voiced fears that money might not materialize once the Games are over, or that the city’s security expenses could exceed that amount.

The tentative deal, known as an Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement, goes before the council’s ad hoc committee on the Olympic Games on Tuesday, then to the full council.

Even with the agreement, many of the details surrounding taxpayer services during the Olympics and Paralympics will remain unresolved for at least a year.

The two sides still have to finalize agreements spelling out the services that will be provided at each venue by July 2027. They also must agree on the cost of those services by Oct. 31 of the same year.

According to a summary of the agreement released by the city Friday, Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power would need to enter into their own service agreements with LA28.

LA28 and the city were supposed to have a tentative agreement in place last fall. The negotiations dragged out for an additional nine months, in large part because of the “inherent complexity of the 2028 Games,” Szabo said in a memo he co-wrote with Sharon Tso, the city’s chief legislative analyst.

Under the terms of the 2021 agreement, LA28 must create a $270-million contingency fund that can be distributed as a surplus if the Games make money, or be used to cover any losses in the event of a shortfall.

The proposal unveiled Friday calls for the five-year-old agreement to be amended to ensure that those contingency funds can be used to cover the city’s costs in the event that other revenue is not enough to pay for certain city services provided during the Games.

The money from that contingency fund would be distributed to the city only after LA28 covers its own costs, according to the city’s summary.

If LA28 does make money, it would not be allowed to distribute its surplus funds to any other organization until after it has covered its financial obligations to the city, according to the tentative agreement.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, LA28’s vice president of communications and public affairs, said in a statement that her organization is pleased to forward the agreement to the council for consideration.

“We proudly stand behind this agreement which delivers on our commitment to execute a safe, secure, and fiscally responsible Games that benefits Los Angeles for decades to come,” she said.

I rose from my living room couch before Mexico’s World Cup match against Czechia when the Telemundo announcer stated it was time for the Mexican national anthem.

The public address system at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City played a short string intro. My back straightened. I pressed my right hand against my chest horizontally in the traditional gesture that accompanies the tune. And then I recited the opening lyrics to a song I’ve heard all my life but that I only began committing to memory this month:

Mexicanos al grito de guerra/El acero aprestad y bridón/Y retiemble en sus centros la tierra/Al sonoro rugir del cañon

Those florid 19th century words — “Mexicans, at the cry of war/Ready the steel and the bridle/and may the Earth tremble to its core/at the cannon’s resounding roar” — make “The Star-Spangled Banner” seem as anti-war as “Give Peace a Chance.” My kumbaya heart nevertheless jumped as the anthem continued.

Goosebumps blossomed on my skin as Mexico’s head coach Javier Aguirre, he of a stern face and gray haircut worthy of a drill sergeant, beamed while singing. My eyes watered as the camera panned over his arm-in-arm players as they shouted the line, “Think, o beloved homeland! That heaven/gave you a soldier in each son.”

Millions of Mexican Americans like myself have stumbled through the himno nacional during this World Cup, whereas in previous years, we might have just hummed some bars or stayed silent. It’s a boisterous way to connect with one half of our hyphenated lives and get in the right mindset to root for El Tri, but otherwise something we don’t really have to know all the way through given we’re in the U.S.

Yet seeing stadiums and bars packed with Latinos wearing the jerseys of their ancestral homes and warbling their national anthems during this World Cup has been a jolt of inspiration I wasn’t expecting. Those few minutes before each match have become a reminder of what we’re up against at this moment in the Western Hemisphere, as President Trump thirsts to smash Latin America into submission while persecuting too many of us stateside.

In downtown Santa Ana earlier this week, Alicia Rojas quietly recited Colombia’s national anthem word for word before a game against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though she was just one of a handful of Colombian fans at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro.

“It reconnects me to my roots, my family and the memories of home,” said Rojas, who was born in Bogotá and moved to the U.S. at age 12. The artist has helped to organize against federal immigration raids in Orange County and volunteers for local political races. “Those few minutes remind me that beyond our differences, we share a history, a culture and a love for the land that made us who we are.”

Latinos are a famously divided bunch, to the point that we don’t even like a catch-all label for “us.” A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of Latinos prefer to refer to themselves by their family’s country of origin, while only 30% identify as Hispanic or Latino and just 17% use plain ol’ American.

One thing that can unite us all — and all lovers of liberty, for that matter — is those Latin American national anthems. Many were written in the aftermath of wars for independence. Most are bright, rousing listens, even if you don’t understand Spanish, because their chords reflect the Romantic classical music popular at the time of their composition in the 19th century. All call for their countrymen to fight against tyranny.

Fans cheer after Lionel Messi scores a goal against Algeria during a World Cup watch party at Mercado Buenos Aires on Tuesday, June 16 in Van Nuys.

(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)

Cue up this soundtrack for your summer:

Paraguay’s national anthem starts by stating that the people of the Americas were “oppressed for three centuries” until they rebelled. Ecuador’s recalls how its founding fathers “cried out a holy voice to the heavens/that noble voice of a unbreakable pledge/to defeat that [Spanish] monster of blood.” Colombia’s similarly doesn’t shy away from how violent its fight for independence was, but takes solace that “in furrows of pain/good now germinates.”

On and on, these songs stir the soul. Argentina: “Hear the sound of broken chains/See noble equality enthroned.” Uruguay: “Tyrants: Tremble!/We shall cry out ‘Liberty’ in battle!” — a boast backed by flutes and violins that make it sound like a Rossini overture. I especially like how Panama’s national anthem concludes by urging “shovel and pick/to work without delay” — a reminder that the job of creating a better society is never done.

Conservatives have, unsurprisingly, long railed at the very idea of singing the national anthems of other countries on American soil. But that just reinforces Samuel Johnson’s adage that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the clarion calls of other countries. “O Canada” is as soaring as “God Save the King,” while revolutionaries across the world have chanted “La Marseillaise” for centuries. And yes: I sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with all my heart as well — and I definitely know the words to it.

But the message of the U.S. national anthem isn’t enough for Latinos right now. Hailing survival against an invading force is important, but it’s a mindset too many of us have resigned ourselves to under Trump.

The theme of Latin America’s national anthems is the demand that we stand against despotism and push for a better world through sacrifice and valor. They should be a wake-up call, especially for Latinos, to lead the electoral charge against Trump this November. We helped put him in the Oval Office in 2024, and we have the power to take Congress away from his GOP vassals.

Alas, all those paeans to freedom have played out better in song than in real life. Latin America is swinging rightward again, electing presidents who promise to channel the strongmen of yore and rule the region through might, not right.

On the same night that Rojas was cheering on Colombia, she was bemoaning that her homeland had elected Abelardo de la Espriella, a millionaire criminal defense lawyer and political novice who earned Trump’s endorsement for his “tremendous accomplishments in life” — which include claiming that female voters would pick him because of the supposed size of his genitals.

We must channel the hopes and dreams of Simón Bolívar, Emiliano, Zapata, José Martí and other heroes of the Americas who fought for freedom for their countrymen, sought to cast off the long reach of colonialism and imperialism and urged pan-American alliances over forever wars.

Nothing like the World Cup’s unofficial pre-game soundtrack to reinforce this eternal, universal message.

Mexico dominated Czechia 3-0 and finished first in its group. When El Tri plays again on Tuesday in the first round of the knockout stage, I will stand at a packed Chapter One with other fans and so many more across the U.S. and sing again Mexico’s national anthem.

I will hope to have it all memorized by then instead of reading off my smartphone — the thing is hard! The Spanish is archaic, the intonations are complicated, and the words tumble over themselves like a hard charge toward the goal posts.

But I will do it — a little victory in the long battle for freedom that never ends.

Aurora Flight Sciences is now putting the wings on the X-65 experimental drone. This is an important step forward for the X-65, which is designed to maneuver with bursts of air rather than traditional control surfaces. This is technology that could have significant implications for future military and civilian aircraft developments, especially when it comes to stealthy designs.

The X-65 is being developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program, which kicked off back in 2020. DARPA subsequently chose Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, to proceed alone with the development of its design. Aurora moved into the latest phase of the program in 2024 and is now targeting a first flight next year. CRANE has suffered several delays and cost growth over the years, which we will come back to later on.

“The wings have arrived — the next big milestone for X‑65!” Aurora Flight Sciences wrote in a post on its official account on X today. “Built at our WV [West Virginia] facility, the triangular wings enable active flow control testing across multiple sweeps. Integration is underway in VA as we push toward first flight for the @DARPA CRANE program.”

In November 2025, Aurora had also announced progress in construction of the central fuselage. The company has also done wind tunnel testing of subscale models, as well as digital modeling in past phases of CRANE.

The X-65 has a so-called Co-Planar Joined Wing (CJW) planform that includes two sets of wings attached that merge together at the tips, creating the triangular shape on either side. They also have small extensions that extend from those tips, giving the drone a 30-foot wingspan. The design also has a twin vertical tail arrangement.

There is a chin air intake under the forward fuselage, as well as a single exhaust. Renderings have shown that the design will have on t op of the forward end of the fuselage. At the time of writing, neither Aurora nor DAPRA appear to have disclosed details about the drone’s main propulsion arrangement. The X-65 is said to have a gross weight of approximately 7,000 pounds.

As noted, the most intrigueing aspect of the X-65 is the banks of active flow control (AFC) “effectors” that use bursts of highly pressurized air to roll, pitch, and yaw. Traditionally, fixed-wing aircraft use a mixture of flaps, rudders, and other surfaces that physically move to maneuver in flight.

“The AFC system supplies pressurized air to fourteen AFC effectors embedded across all flying surfaces,” according to a press release Aurora put out last year. “The triangular wing design enables testing across multiple wing sweeps and is modular with replaceable outboard wings and swappable AFC effectors to allow for future testing of additional AFC designs.”

“The X-65 will be built with two sets of control actuators – traditional flaps and rudders as well as AFC effectors embedded across all the lifting surfaces,” a 2024 press release from DARPA also notes. “This will both minimize risk and maximize the program’s insight into control effectiveness. The plane’s performance with traditional control surfaces will serve as a baseline; successive tests will selectively lock down moving surfaces, using AFC effectors instead.”

“The X-65 conventional surfaces are like training wheels to help us understand how AFC can be used in place of traditional flaps and rudders,” Dr. Richard Wlezien, then the CRANE program manager at DARPA, also said at that time. “We’ll have sensors in place to monitor how the AFC effectors’ performance compares with traditional control mechanisms, and these data will help us better understand how AFC could revolutionize both military and commercial craft in the future.”

“We’re building the X-65 as a modular platform – wing sections and the AFC effectors can easily be swapped out – to allow it to live on as a test asset for DARPA and other agencies long after CRANE concludes,” Wlezien also noted.

Being able to eliminate traditional moving control surfaces presents a host of potential benefits, as TWZ has detailed in past reporting on the CRANE program:

“Getting rid of traditional control surfaces inherently allows for a design to be more aerodynamic, and therefore fly in a more efficient manner, especially at higher altitudes. An aircraft with an AFC system doesn’t need the various actuators and other components to move things like ailerons and rudders, offering new ways to reduce weight and bulk.”

“A lighter and more streamlined aircraft design using an AFC system might be capable of greater maneuverability. This could be particularly true for uncrewed types that also do not have to worry about the physical limitations of a pilot.”

“The elimination of so many moving parts also means fewer things that can break, improving safety and reliability. This would do away with various maintenance and logistics requirements, too. It might make a military design more resilient to battle damage and easier to fix, as well.”

All of this could be especially valuable for stealthy aircraft designs, as we previously wrote:

“While all of this could be beneficial for many aircraft type, AFC technology could be especially significant when applied to stealth designs. Designers of stealthy aircraft have to be mindful of any joints or other gaps between exposed surfaces, and try to generally keep them to a minimum, to ensure the radar cross-section remains as low as possible.“

“As such, traditional control surfaces, which by definition cannot always be flush with the rest of the aircraft’s external shape, are a major and currently inescapable issue. Fly-by-wire designs also keep these surfaces fluttering at all times to keep the stealthy aircraft stable in forward flight. AFC technology holds the promise of being able to change this reality and make it easier to optimize the radar-evading qualities of a stealthy design. Other technologies, like the ability to dynamically warp wing structures to provide flight control, could also help in future stealthy aircraft radar signature control.”

A design like the X-65 that has the option of using either traditional control surfaces or AFCs could offer further flexibility.

Deeper exploration of the potential of an AFC design is exactly the point of DARPA’s CRANE program, which is now aiming to kick off actual flight testing next year. As mentioned, there have been multiple delays in work on the X-65 over the years. The original goal was for the drone to fly for the first time in 2025.

“The costs to produce the prototype aircraft for test flights ended up being higher than expected” and “DARPA chose to ‘strategically pause’ the X-65’s development and reevaluate the program,” Defense News reported in November 2025. Aurora also “confirmed technical and supply chain challenges were a factor in the program delays, as well as the inherent riskiness involved in working on a DARPA project.”

It should be noted here that this is not the first time AFC technology has been experimented with. U.K.-headquartered BAE Systems, which also submitted a design for CRANE, tested a flying subscale AFC-equipped design called MAGMA in the 2010s, which you can learn more about here.

MAGMA first flight, September 2017

Pentagon budget documents show that DARPA has received nearly $63 million in funding for CRANE since Fiscal Year 2024, when the program entered its third phase. DARPA is not asking for any additional money for this effort in Fiscal Year 2027, which it says reflects the expectation that it will conclude by the end of next year. As DARPA has said in the past, future programs could further continued use of the X-65 drone, as well as the technology it demonstrates.

“We’re excited to continue our longstanding partnership with DARPA to complete the build of the X-65 aircraft and demonstrate the capabilities of active flow control in flight,” Larry Wirsing, Aurora’s Vice President VP of aircraft development, said in a statement last year. “The X-65 platform will be an enduring flight test asset, and we’re confident that future aircraft designs and research missions will be able to leverage the underlying technologies and flight test data.”

With its wings finally delivered, the X-65 continues to take shape as Aurora and DARPA push toward finally getting the drone and its novel control arrangement into the air.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

More than three decades after decommissioning the USS Long Beach, the Navy is finally preparing to dispose of what’s left of the world’s first nuclear-powered surface combatant. The cruiser – which already had its distinctive boxy superstructure as well as its bow and stern sections removed – has been moored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility since being decommissioned in 1995.

After a long process to determine what to do with Long Beach, the Navy on Wednesday put out a call for companies willing and able to perform the extremely complex and lengthy operation to transport, dismantle, de-militarize, and dispose of what was once a 721-foot-long ship that displaced 15,540 tons, including its two defueled reactor plants. Long Beach was launched in 1959 and commissioned two years later.

You can read more about the ship, its unique character, armaments and exploits in our two-part interview with a master chief who served on Long Beach here and here.

This marks just the second time the Navy has opted to select a commercial yard to dismantle a nuclear-powered warship. The first was the ex-USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from the same era as Long Beach. It is vastly more complex and expensive to dispose of nuclear-powered vessels than conventionally powered ones because of all the radiological concerns, even long after the reactors have been defueled.

We’ll get into more details about how difficult, time-consuming and costly a process this could be later in this story when we examine the pitfalls of the Enterprise situation, admittedly a much more complex undertaking for various reasons we will explain. However, first we need to understand how Long Beach got to this point.

The decision to go forward with the Long Beach dismantling process came after a Naval Vessel Historical Evaluation (NVHE) in April determined that the ship was ineligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) despite its history as the first surface combatant ever to have nuclear propulsion and combat service that ranged from the Vietnam War to Operation Desert Storm.

USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

“The ship was deactivated in 1994 and towed to Newport News Shipbuilding where the entire superstructure was removed and the reactors were defueled,” according to the NVHE. “After this work was completed in the winter of 1995, the hull was towed through the Panama Canal to Puget Sound where it has been waiting to be recycled.”

In 2012, the ship was sold for scrap.

“Long Beach had 10,000 tons of steel, 300 miles of electrical cable and 450 tons of aluminum, earning it the voice radio call sign ‘Alcoa’ after the aluminum maker of the same name,” Reuters reported at the time.

“More than a dozen scrap dealers have expressed interest in taking part in sealed online bidding for the hull, with more than 7.35 million pounds (3.33 million kg) of steel, aluminum and copper wiring, galley equipment, tables, chairs, lockers and bunks,” Government Liquidation president Tom Burton told the news outlet.

“It’s a two-year process but it could take 18 to 26 months,” Burton said. “What’s left is an inert hull.”

USS Long Beach CGN-9

It remains unclear what happened to that scrap sale. We reached out to the Navy for answers.

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard subsequently completed a limited-scope hull preservation availability in 2015 that resulted in the removal of the bow and stern, according to the NVHE records. It was ultimately decided not to save the ship by placing it on the NRHP because “major alterations have been made in design that do not maintain the historic design of the vessel (loss of the superstructure and major hull elements),” the review found. “Character defining features of USN warship have been lost, such as main armament, superstructure, bow, and stern. Does not evoke the aesthetic of a 20th Century USN warship.”

Moreover, a 60-day period for stakeholders to comment expired earlier this month with no responses.

With all the hurdles to ultimate destruction now out of the way, the Navy will host an Industry Day meeting on June 24 and 25 in Washington, D.C. for companies interested in learning more about what is involved in the final dismantling of the USS Long Beach.

Whoever gets the job will first have to transport it from Puget Sound to the shipbreaking yard by “dry transport via semi-submersible barge, deck barge, or semi-submersible heavy lift vessel” because the ship’s “current structural condition precludes an open ocean tow,” according to the RFI.

“Dismantling and disposing of ex-Long Beach is necessary in order to comply with Navy policy for inactive nuclear-powered ships stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, and Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPP) statutory responsibilities,” the RFI explains. “The requirement for disposal includes dismantling, demilitarizing, and recycling the remnant hull sections at an authorized commercial facility in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, and removing and packaging the reactor plant components for transportation and disposal as low‑level radioactive waste (LLRW) at an authorized radioactive waste facility or facilities.”

There are no timelines or cost estimates associated with the RFI, nor is there any guarantee that a request for proposal will be issued. We’ve reached out to the Navy for more details.

Our past reporting offers some insights into the tremendous time and money it takes to dismantle a nuclear-powered warship, as evidenced by the saga of the aforementioned Enterprise. However, it should be noted that there are some big differences between that vessel and Long Beach. The carrier is far larger and more complex, had eight reactors compared to two, and had less prep work done in advance.

In 2019, the Government Accountability Office found that it could cost the Navy more than $1.5 billion to fully dispose of Enterprise.

The GAO report also stated that a complete process could take more than 15 years to finish.

From our previous story about the dismantling of the ship known as the Big E: 

“The Navy officially decommissioned Enterprise, also known by its hull number CVN-65, in February 2017, after more than five decades of service. The ship had already effectively been in mothballs since 2012 and Newport News Shipbuilding completed a lengthy ‘inactivation’ process, which included removing nuclear fuel, mission systems, and other items from the ship, in April 2018.

‘At approximately 76,000 tons, CVN-65 will require an unprecedented level of work to dismantle and dispose of as compared to previous ships,’ GAO’s review, which the congressional office published on Aug. 2, 2018, said. ‘Regardless of the approach the Navy chooses, CVN-65 will set precedents for the processes, costs, and oversight that may be used to dismantle and dispose of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the future, such as the Nimitz-class carriers which the Navy will begin to retire in the mid-2020s.’”

The first of those, the USS Nimitz, the Navy’s oldest operational carrier, is scheduled to be inactivated in 2027, the Navy told us.

On March 13, the Navy signed a $95.7 million contract with Huntington Ingalls Inc. “for advance planning and long-lead-time material procurement to prepare and make ready for the accomplishment of the inactivation and defueling of USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Work will be performed in Newport News, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by March 2027.”

Meanwhile, the Navy originally projected that it would cost somewhere between $500 and $750 million to scrap the Enterprise, but by 2013, this figure had grown to over $1 billion. The difficulties involved forced the service to push back the start of the process more than once.

The regulatory and logistical picture was equally tangled. The Navy and the NRC disagreed on what standards should apply if a private company did the work, and NRC only has direct authority in 13 states, potentially limiting where the job could even be done. Conducting the work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — the Navy’s proven approach — risked worsening an already serious maintenance backlog for active ships. The commercial route could be faster and cheaper, but no private yard had ever handled military nuclear reactors at this scale, and the highly classified nature of U.S. naval reactor design added another layer of complexity. 

You can read more about the challenges involved with breaking up a nuclear behemoth in our deep dive into the problems with the Enterprise effort here.

The Decommissioning Of The USS Enterprise

The challenges of disposing of Enterprise, however, continued even after a final decision was made about what to do with the vessel.

On May 30, 2025, the Navy awarded a $536.7 million contract to dismantle the ship to NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services, LLC, of Vernon, Vermont, according to Pentagon records. The work was initially expected to be completed in November 2029.

“It was the first time a U.S. nuclear-powered warship will be dismantled through a commercial effort, representing a significant milestone in responsibly and safely closing out the legacy of one of the most iconic nuclear-powered warships,” the Navy noted at the time, according to USNI.

However, the effort unraveled over a legal battle over how the Navy handled final bid submissions, ultimately resulting in the service being “ordered to pause the project and reassess bids, while the appeal now puts the future of the contract back in question,” according to NBC15 News. “The Navy is expected to re-award the contract by June 2026.”

We have reached out to the Navy to find out the status of that contract as well.

USS Enterprise to be dismantled in Alabama

Even as the Navy is working to dispose of its first nuclear-powered surface combatant, it is planning for the newest one. The Navy says its proposed Trump class battleships will be nuclear-powered as well.

It remains to be seen how the complications the Navy has faced trying to dismantle Enterprise will affect the disposal of Long Beach and what lessons will be applied, if any. The answers to some of those questions should come into sharper focus next week when interested parties get to ask the Navy for themselves at the Industry Day.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

MUSIC icon Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that he’s “fully recovered” four years after having vocal surgery to fix a damaged cord.

The Livin’ on a Prayer hitmaker, 64, previously said he would quit music if his singing continued to struggle after a vocal injury.

But now the singer has shared that after four years of vocal coaching and exercising his voice, he has “fully recovered”.

Bon Jovi said: “It was longer than I’d ever expected, but it had to be right. We never lost faith.”

He told People: “I’d often joked and said the only thing that’s ever been up my nose was my finger. I never did anything to hurt the cords; I didn’t have any excesses. I’m a trained vocalist. I’ve practiced the craft.

“So when a doctor had to explain to me that one of the cords was literally atrophying, it was confusing.”

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He praised keyboardist David Bryan, percussionist Everett Bradley, bassist Hugh McDonald, guitarist John Shanks, drummer Tico Torres and guitarist Phil X for standing by his side during his recovery.

“They never doubted [me] and never looked for work or decided to retire,” Bon Jovi said.

“The sacrifices that each one of them have made to be there for me is on a whole another level.”

The musician previously said that he would retire from music if his voice never recovered.

In 2024, he shared: “If the singing is not great, if I can’t be the guy I was, I’m done.

“And I’m good with that.”

Bon Jovi added: “There is a big difference between being in a studio and going out on the road.

“We have just recorded a new album. I sing in vocal therapy every day.

“But I want to perform for 2½ hours a night, four nights a week — and put it this way, I don’t ever need to be the fat Elvis.”

TOM Holland has finally confirmed he and Zendaya are married after months of speculation.

A number of AI-generated wedding pics took the Internet by storm earlier this year sparking an ‘are they/aren’t they?’ frenzy.

In a new interview with Esquire UK, the Spider-Man star, 30, was asked if he needed to address the viral images with his family in case they awkwardly felt they’d been left out.

He said: “No, because they were all there…That’s all you’ll get on that.”

While he wouldn’t go into any more detail on the A-list couple’s wedding, he was happy to speak about the relationship more generally and how he is the “happiest I’ve ever been”.

He said: “Our business can present very stressful situations and it’s really nice to have a bedrock of a relationship that will stand the test of time.

stamp of approval

Zendaya flashes side-boob and shows off new tattoo tribute to Tom Holland

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Zendaya shares moment she knew Tom Holland was The One but won’t confirm wedding

“We can support each other in ways that only we can, because only we understand really what it’s like to live this life, and I think that is such a luxury, because I just don’t understand how I would be able to have anything like that with anyone else.

“So, for me, I found my person. She’s my best friend, and I’m the happiest I have ever been when I’m with her, but I have also never felt so supported and safe, ever. Period.”

The nuptials have been a not so well kept secret for some time.

Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach said in March that the pair were husband and wife at the Actor Awards.

He told Access Hollywood: “The wedding has already happened. You missed it.”

When asked to spill more details by the reporter, the stylist laughed and said: “It’s very true.”

The same month she was seen wearing a wedding band at the 19th annual Essence Black Women in Hollywood.

The A-list pair reportedly got engaged between Christmas 2024 and New Year, in one of Zendaya’s family homes in the US.

Tom popped the question in a romantic and intimate setting, sources told TMZ at the time.

The English actor reportedly asked Zendaya’s dad, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, for his blessing months before the proposal but waited until the time was right to get down on one knee.

Although they didn’t announce their engagement, during a panel event a reporter called Zendaya Tom’s “girlfriend”, to which the actor corrected them and said: “Fiancée.”

In January 2025, Zendaya was pictured wearing a huge £500,000 diamond ring by Jessica McCormack.

Tom and Zendaya first met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016.

After years of speculation about their relationship, the pair finally confirmed their romance in 2021 after they were photographed kissing in Los Angeles.

While the couple has kept their relationship mostly under wraps, Tom previously opened up about Zendaya’s support during his sobriety journey.

Speaking in October 2024, the actor said throughout his journey his girlfriend showed an “overwhelming sense of support.”

“I realised who my real friends were,” Tom told TV host Michael Strahan.

“And getting an overwhelming sense of support from them and enjoying a nightlife experience with them without the pressure of having a drink was a beautiful experience.”

This year they will appear on the big screen twice together, firstly in Christopher Nolan’s historical epic The Odyssey and later in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

MOLLY-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury have finally revealed the unusual name they have picked for their newborn son.

The couple announced the arrival of their second child on Wednesday evening, sharing a black-and-white family photo alongside the caption: “…and then there were four.”

Influencer Molly, 27, had previously hinted that fans would “hate” the baby’s name.

Tommy finally revealed their son’s name – Midas – during his boxing match with Eddie Hall on Saturday night, sporting it on his jacket in gold writing while walking out to the song Midas Touch.

Tommy also had the name Midas on his black shorts as another tribute to his newborn son.

Molly-Mae was in the audience to support Tommy, despite the fact the match was delayed and didn’t get underway until close to midnight.

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MINI MOL

Molly-Mae Hague gives birth as star welcomes second child with boxer Tommy Fury

The choice follows the naming of their daughter Bambi, which sparked criticism online due to its unconventional nature.

In April, Molly revealed the shortlisted baby names she’d ruled out and said their newborn was going to have a distinctive moniker.

She said in a vlog post: “In my opinion, you get one opportunity to name your child something that is going to make them be remembered by,” she said.

“There was so much controversy around Bambi’s name but, thank God, because I wanted to give Bambi a name people are going to remember and that no one else in her classroom was going to have.

“What I’m so triggered by, in my class, there were three Mollys and we were all best friends…

“I really think it’s an opportunity for you to set your kid apart. I think there’ll appreciate it, it’s a conversation starter.”

Giving an indication of the sorts of names she’d been considering, Molly said: “I have loads of girls names I love. I think boys names are a lot harder. I really really love, we won’t be using this, but I do love the name Bunny.

“I actually loved the girl name Goldie, but I feel Goldie now is too used. Goldie was always a top contender for me, even with Bambi.”

Continuing the metallic theme, Silver and Sylvie also made the list.

She continued: “I also love the name Junie for a boy. Junior, TJ — Tommy Junior. It’s not gonna be a Tommy Junior.”

Molly and Tommy shared the birth news yesterday.

Boxer Tommy, Molly and Bambi all gathered around the babe as they lay sleeping on a hospital bed.

Stunning Molly was still in her hospital gown in the picture but she looked utterly overjoyed, beaming down at the baby.

She captioned the post: “…. and then there were 4.”

Molly and Tommy revealed they were set to become parents for a second time in February, when the star was already six months along.

Announcing the news with a sweet video, the star shared a clip of her daughter Bambi with a “big sister” jumper on.

In the black and white montage of clips, Molly-Mae’s bump was seen for the first time as she giggled in the mirror while Tommy placed a supportive hand on her stomach.

She captioned the post: “Soon to be four”.

The pregnancy news came after Tommy and Molly-Mae rekindled their relationship following a shock split in summer 2024.

Still, 80,000 seats is a lot to shift and in today’s environment, only the top heavyweights, plus a handful of other stars including Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Naoya Inoue can hit such heights.

For Taylor, 39, and her team to have ambitions to command such an audience is evidence of the reverence in which she is held.

After Friday’s news conference, the Bray native and team set off on a four-day promotional tour around the island of Ireland, beginning in her home town.

It may be a farewell, but a test and not a testimonial is how Taylor wants to sign off.

The opportunity to regain the WBC portion of the light-welterweight title [which was made vacant after last year’s Serrano win] and retire undisputed is the dream.

But she has no designs on getting swept up in the emotion with undefeated Frenchwoman Flora Pili standing in her way.

The Croke Park door appeared shut when an agreement could not be reached between Hearn and stadium authorities three years ago, so what has changed?

With costs to hire the stadium “twice as much as Wembley” according to the Matchroom chairman, it was difficult to see how the impasse would be broken.

For the company there is “not a whole lot financially” to be gained, but just as the rematch between Carl Froch and George Groves at Wembley Stadium in 2014 proved a big night for Matchroom, 80,000 at Croke Park can do likewise according to Hearn.

“That a female is fighting in front of 80,000 people, I think it’s the greatest moment of our [Matchroom’s] boxing history,” he said.

“We’re not going to be making much money on the night, but this is about more than that. My dad [Barry, Matchroom founder and president] might kill me, but what does it really matter what we make on a night like this?

“What we leave with is something we’ll never forget and also it’s important for the brand of our business.”

A MUCH-loved English lido is set to finally reopen – after being forced to close last year.

The 90-year-old Stroud Lido has just received funding from the local council for urgent repairs.

The Stratford-based pool initially closed 10 months ago as it needed to undergo structural and mechanical repairs.

In early 2026, it was announced that lido would not be reopening and would be closed indefinitely.

Since its closure, locals have been campaigning to save the lido with over 100 written requests from residents to see what the future of the pool would be.

In a huge U-turn, Stroud District Council has now approved the funding needed to repair the pool.

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Work is set to start immediately, so the lido could open as soon as July 29 – failing that, it’s scheduled to reopen on August 14.

Initial funding to upgrade the lido was estimated at £5.1million, but has been brought down to £476,000.

The pool may need to undergo more repairs at a later date.

On its Facebook page, Save Stroud Lido said: “We are absolutely delighted by last night’s decision and can’t wait to see families, swimmers and young people enjoying the Lido again this summer. 

“And now the focus turns to getting the works completed and the gates reopened as quickly as possible. Because this is more than a pool.

“It’s part of Stroud’s identity. A place for fun, friendships, exercise, memories and safe outdoor swimming for generations to come.’

The Stratford-based lido first opened to swimmers in 1937 at a cost of just £20,000.

It’s a 50-metre long cold water pool with six swimming lanes and has a 10-metre high diving board.

Usually the pool is only open for the summer season and is open for around 100 days starting in May.

UNIVERSAL has confirmed the name of its new theme park opening in the UK, with a newly-release image of the park’s logo.

Set to be built in Bedford, the new theme park will be called ‘Universal United Kingdom Resort’.

The park was given the green light in 2025, and works started on the site earlier this year.

It will be the first Universal theme park in Europe, and it is scheduled to open in 2031.

Comcast NBCUniversal will be investing £5billion into the project, as well as an additional £1billion in capital investment over the first 10 years of operation and £1.3billion from the UK government to support local infrastructure.

It expects to boost the UK economy by as much as £50billion by 2055, and create 28,000 jobs.

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Once open, the theme park is set to become the country’s most popular tourist attraction.

Mark Woodbury, Chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, said: “Today marks a significant milestone on our journey to bring Universal United Kingdom Resort, featuring immersive storytelling, thrilling attractions and unparalleled creativity and innovation to the UK.

“This new theme park and resort will create so many new opportunities for the people of Bedford and beyond and allow us to share our distinct experiences with guests from around the world.”

This was echoed by Brian Roberts, Chairman of Comcast Corporation, who said: “This historic partnership is a special moment for our company as we bring our first Universal theme park and resort to Europe.”

As for what kind of themed lands and rides would open at the UK Universal, very little is known.

But there are rumours suggesting that some could be based on James Bond, Paddington, Lord of the Rings, Minions, Jurassic World, and Back to the Future.

It is unlikely to include Harry Potter due to licensing rules and that nearby is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.

What is known is that across 662 acres, there will be four ‘zones’ – the Core Zone, Lake Zone, West Gateway Zone and the East Gateway Zone.

More accommodation and business hotels will be at the Lake Zone, as well as an entertainment complex and a convention centre.

West Gateway Zone and the East Gateway Zone will be where guests arrive by train and car, with restaurants and hotels.

This is also likely to be where the Entry Plaza area will be, as well as parking and a 500-room hotel.

The Entry Plaza is expected to be the free-to-visit area where tickets aren’t required, similar to Universal’s CityWalk in Orlando.

The park could even stay open all year round and have longer opening hours than other UK theme parks.

Previous suggestions included opening hours from 7am to 11pm.

Included in the theme park plans is a new train station which is being incorporated to cope with demand.

In the mean time, The Sun’s Assistant Travel Editor Sophie Swietochowski visited Universal’s huge new £7bn theme park.

In Deborah Levy’s new novel “My Year in Paris With Gertrude Stein,” the celebrated British author turns her keen observational and critical eye toward Stein, a writer that Levy feels has been criminally redacted from the canon of modernist masters that emerged at the turn of the 20th century. “My Year in Paris With Gertrude Stein,” however, is anything but a dry-as-dust revisionist treatise.

Levy couches her thoughts on Stein’s life and work within the story of three women in contemporary Paris, including Levy’s fictive avatar as the narrator, grappling with her own notions of identity as she writes about Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas. I spoke with Levy about Stein, Toklas and Picasso.

✍️ Author Chat

Have you always had an abiding interest in Gertrude Stein?

She has always been lurking there for a number of reasons. When I was studying modernist literature, I was pointed to all the usual suspects — T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Beckett, Joyce. But no one ever pointed to Gertrude Stein. She was absent in Britain, anyway. I’m not sure it’s the same in America.

I feel like in America she certainly is not frequently cited among that pantheon of modernist writers that you just mentioned.

I thought her most commercial work, “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,” was quite enchanting. But when you start to dig into her other writing, you find this mixture of very obtuse, very violent work, and some brilliant work.

You write in the book that you sometimes don’t understand Stein, but this doesn’t diminish your enjoyment of her work.

The thing about avant-garde writers is that they either crash or they triumph. For readers, it’s either someone popping a vein at the new and strange, or someone over-praising the work. And I thought, well I’m allowed to have mixed emotions about Stein’s writing. Sometimes she is totally brilliant, and sometimes less so.

Author Deborah Levy

(Sheila Burnett)

You also celebrate Stein and Toklas’ fierce individuality, which runs counter to the usual narratives about female authors during this time.

Well, female writers are supposed to suffer or commit suicide. And the glorious thing about Stein and Alice is that the art of living was very important to them. Travel, conversation, or driving around. This really appeals to me. You know, Stein would have a roast chicken leg in one hand and one hand on the steering wheel, with the dogs in the back.

I feel like Stein’s legacy as a writer has been occluded by her renown as a collector of the greatest modern art of the century, most notably Picasso before he became Picasso. She is remembered more for collecting others’ art than for her own art.

If you’re going to collect this bold, daring art of your own time, and you’re buying it cheap, because it’s being mocked, you have to know how to defend it. Stein wasn’t an art historian. She studied psychology with William James and then studied medicine at Johns Hopkins. Through her conversations with Picasso and others, she really began to acquire the apparatus to defend the work, and that fascinated me.

You write that Stein wanted to kill the 19th century with her work by dismantling and then reassembling language.

She was going to write through continuous present tense. She got rid of commas so she could hurtle through time and make her thoughts move forward. No question marks, because it was self-evident to her when someone was asking a question in her writing. She really was a pioneer.

Her prose reads like Beckett’s, decades before his novels were published.

The critic Roland Barthes wrote that all writing has some kind of behavior. A lot of avant-garde writing behaves like Stein, but she wasn’t imitating any other thing. She made something new for her century.

(This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

📰 The Week(s) in Books

Book jacket for “Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe” by Gail Crowther

(Los Angeles Times illustration; book jacket from Galley Books)

Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader who traveled with her treasured library of books wherever she lived. Yet, the stubborn image of Monroe as a literary dilettante remains. Now Gail Crowther has written “Marilyn and Her Books” which sets out to debunk that misconception of the screen legend. Crowther’s sharp account is both the story of Monroe’s library and “what we’ve projected upon Monroe when we’re asked to consider that she had one,” writes Mark Athitakis.

As Cuba struggles with a faltering economy and President Trump’s saber-rattling overtures, Ada Ferrer’s timely new memoir “Keeper of My Kin” “argues that the grand narratives of exile and revolution are, at their core, made up of private reckonings with irretrievable consequences,” writes Mariella Rudi.

When Eagle Rock’s Read Books was threatened with a massive rent hike from its landlord, co-owners Jeremy and Debbie Kaplan rallied the community around the fight for tenant’s rights and started an activist organization called Save North East Los Angeles Shops. “Commercial landlords [have] unbelievably unrealistic expectations of rent, and a small business can only sell a T-shirt or a hamburger or a service for what the market will bear,” neighborhood preservationist Aaron Peskin told Emily St. Martin.

Finally, Swan Huntley found a novel way to put off writing her next book: She hiked to every Erewhon store in Los Angeles.

📖 Bookstore Faves

A Good Used Book’s beautiful interior

(A Good Used Book)

Jenny Yang and Chris Capizzi started A Good Used Book in 2017 by selling secondhand titles at local flea markets and the Grand Central Market downtown. Seven years later, after a brief COVID blowback, the pair opened their own storefront in Historic Filipinotown. Now, A Good Used Book has blossomed into a vital community space featuring a vast selection of previously loved books across all genres. The store also hosts pop-up markets on the weekends, with more events scheduled in the coming year. I spoke with Capizzi about his store.

Who are your customers?

Our customer base is pretty broad. We’re selective about the books we carry, but we want anyone to be able to find themselves somewhere in the shop, whether you’re just getting back into reading or you’re the kind of person who already has strong opinions about translations. And we try not to take ourselves too seriously, so even though we may have critical theory, we also have “Choose Your Own Adventure.”

How do you pick inventory? Is there any emphasis on any particular genres that might be popular?

We definitely do the work to find books, but honestly a lot of the time the books seem to find us. In terms of what we carry, we focus mostly on classic, modern and contemporary fiction, but we love genre fiction too, like sci-fi, crime and horror. And a big part of what makes the store feel like us are our nonfiction and culture sections — humanities, sciences, film, music, fashion and design. Anything for that curious person who just wants to go a little deeper.

I know the store is about much more than books. Can you tell me about some of the other community events you guys organize?

During the week we’re all about the books. Every Sunday we host the Every Sunday Funday Market that features two food pop-ups out front, one savory and one sweet, and four or five local vendors and artists inside. We rotate vendors selling and making ceramics, jewelry, Japanese retro radios, soaps and candles, zines and prints, and even Persian perfumes. And we always have drinks going out of our vintage Coleman cooler, too. It’s a lot of things happening at once, but it adds up to a pretty easy, fun Sunday afternoon.

A Good Used Book is located at 307 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

Tensions between China and the EU have intensified in recent months, prompting the European Commission to convene most of its commissioners for a strategic rethink during an “orientation debate” on Friday.

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“China is a critical partner, and engagement and dialogue will continue,” the commission said in a readout following the debate. “At the same time the current state of the trade and investment relationship is not sustainable.”

Calling the relationship “not sustainable” may understate the depth of the rupture.

Relations have steadily deteriorated since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen branded Beijing a “systemic rival” in a landmark 2023 speech. But tensions surged to a new level once EU policymakers finally settled their differences over the EU-US trade deal that had consumed Brussels for months, freeing the bloc to sharpen its focus on China.

Last year, according to the commission, the bloc registered a record-high €359.9 billion trade deficit with Beijing, fuelling growing calls in Brussels to better protect the EU market from cheap Chinese imports that threaten entire sectors — metals, chemicals and the car industry among them.

“We are seeing a panic attack in the last few weeks on China,” an EU official told Euronews, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak candidly. The official added that the China issue had been “overlooked for too long.”

A total of 200,000 European jobs were lost in EU industry — particularly in the energy-intensive and automotive sectors — since 2024, with a further 600,000 job losses projected this decade in carmaking alone.

On Friday, the commission readout specified that its “overarching approach remains de-risking, not decoupling,” signalling that the bloc is still pursuing targeted efforts to reduce its dependence on China rather than sever economic ties altogether. Yet the risk of a full-scale trade war has never felt so real.

Here are five key points on how the situation has escalated to this point — and where it may be headed next :

1. Fines and regulatory pressure

During the previous legislative term, the EU passed legislation that drew Beijing’s anger — notably measures to screen foreign direct investment. And it has stepped up its fight against so-called dumping, whereby public subsidies are used to undercut competitors through exports sold below market prices in China.

The European Commission has grown increasingly assertive in countering China’s subsidy-driven approach, including by imposing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles. Several product-specific investigations are also ongoing.

Earlier this week, the Commission fined Chinese e-commerce giant Temu €200 million for selling unsafe products and opened a full-scale investigation into JD.com’s acquisition of e-commerce retailer MediaMarkt.

EU lawmakers and governments are also discussing the Industrial Accelerator Act, a legislative proposal that would impose strict conditions on investments in batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels and critical raw materials from countries controlling 40% of the global market share in a given sector.

A separate proposal — a revamped Cybersecurity Act — could push out Chinese equipment suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE from critical infrastructure.

2. A more systemic approach

To counter Chinese overcapacities, the EU agreed in April to double tariffs on steel imports that exceed EU quotas. The measure is a so-called “safeguard” — a tool backed by some of the EU’s largest economies, including France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania, which called for it to be extended to sectors beyond metals.

In a non-paper, those countries argued that safeguards were more “agile” than other EU instruments targeting cheap export products. The paper also calls for economic security to be factored into assessments of the EU’s interests when deciding on trade defence measures.

The European industry is also ramping up pressure to crack down on Chinese cheap imports calling on the Commission to use trade defence measures “more flexibly, faster, and preventively.”

A major wake-up call for EU policymakers has been the recent case of Nexperia, a Dutch-based chipmaker acquired by Chinese giant Wingtech, which was caught in the crossfire of US-China trade tensions, causing significant disruption in the automotive sector.

The Commission is now set to require sectors such as the car industry to diversify chip suppliers in certain cases, taking supply-chain risks into account in procurement decisions.

Despite these various initiatives, EU policymakers have grown wary that the current rules are too slow-moving for a fast-moving adversary. After duties were imposed on electric vehicle batteries, China’s focus simply shifted to hybrid vehicles.

Brussels is now moving towards a more systemic approach, treating trade defence as a toolbox to rebalance relations with China. One potential addition is a so-called overcapacity instrument to cap imports in specific sectors.

3. China’s threats of retaliation

In recent weeks, China has repeatedly threatened retaliation if the EU presses ahead with closing its market to Chinese goods.

Both the “Made in Europe” legislation and the Cybersecurity Act have drawn Beijing’s ire, prompting intensified lobbying of Brussels and EU member states, with warnings that implementation will trigger a response.

The Europeans are walking a tightrope, acutely aware that their decisions could spark a trade war. After the EU imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024, Beijing imposed tariffs on EU pork, brandy and dairy products.

“International trade is a two-way street. There’s no forced trade. The China-EU trade relations are win-win in nature. China does not aim for trade surplus,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing on Thursday.

“The EU needs to put trade ties with China in perspective and honour its commitment to free trade. China will closely follow the EU’s moves and take all measures necessary to safeguard legitimate rights and interests,” Ning added.

Some argue it is already too late for the Europeans, who depend on China for key components of their supply chains — components Beijing can weaponize at will.

In 2025, China blocked exports of rare earths, which are vital for EU green technology and defence, as well as chips essential to the European car industry. Beijing can also leverage operating licences for EU companies and restrict access to its market at any time.

4. European divisions

Europe is far from united on China.

Germany, despite a troubling trade deficit with Beijing, has been slow to shift away from its cooperative approach, which prioritises securing market access for German companies in China.

Berlin did not endorse last weekend’s non-paper backed by other major EU economies. Instead, German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche repeated this week that Germany’s overriding priority is to avoid jeopardising exports to China.

Yet the economic cost of dependence on Beijing might be forcing Berlin to reconsider its stance. The German government is reportedly weighing a tougher line that would mark a significant shift in its China policy.

For years, the German industry had a relationship with the Chinese market that critics described as toxic — one that blocked any meaningful attempt to rebalance the trade deficit out of fear of losing commercial access to the vast Asian market.

Spain has emerged as the other major EU country reluctant to act against China. With relatively cheap energy costs, Spain has become attractive to foreign investors, of which Beijing accounts for a growing share.

Its position caused embarrassment for Madrid this week, after it initially appeared to support the France-led non-paper before retreating and claiming it had merely participated in discussions.

“There has been no specific political support for any ‘non-paper’,” Spanish trade minister Carlos Cuerpo said, adding that the EU should “engage” with Chinese authorities through “dialogue.”

5. What happens now?

Brussels’ reassessment of its China stance has been long in the making, rooted in decades of deepening economic dependence. But the latest acceleration was also prompted by a shift in US posture, most visibly the recent visit to Beijing by President Donald Trump.

The Commission’s orientation debate on Friday was just a first step in what could become a broader repositioning. Where that leads — given internal divisions and the threat of retaliation — remains deeply uncertain.

The conclusions of that exercise are expected to feed into a discussion on economic security at the next European Council meeting on 18-19 June. China has appeared on EU leaders’ agenda several times in recent years, only to be pushed aside by more pressing crises.

While Brussels considers adding new instruments to its policy toolbox, political will remains the key determining factor. Nowhere is that gap more stark than in the EU’s handling of the anti-coercion instrument, also known as the “trade bazooka,” which was designed to push back against economic pressure and unfair trade restrictions.

“The anti-coercive instrument was never used, even though we have been coerced quite a lot,” the EU official said. “We need tools that we are actually willing to use.”

AN airport in Spain is finally set to reopen – after cancelling all flights for the last month.

Santiago de Compostela Airport, in northern Spain, closed in April due to much-needed repair works, costing millions.

Follow The Sun’s award-winning travel team on Instagram and Tiktok for top holiday tips and inspiration @thesuntravel.

Having closed on April 23, it will finally be back up and running from May 27.

On its closure, an announcement was made on the Spanish airport operator’s website, Aena at the time, saying: “Santiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport will be closed from 23 April to 27 May 2026 for runway resurfacing works.

“During this period, the airport will be closed to all traffic, and no takeoffs or landings will take place.

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“If you have any questions about your flight status, schedule changes, or possible rebooking, we recommend contacting your airline.”

For Brits, the airport is the gateway to the city of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region.

There are direct UK flights from Ryanair, Vueling, British Airways and Iberia – all of which have had to be cancelled during the airport’s closure.

Normally, there are 30 flights a week from the UK to the Spanish airport from London Stansted, London Gatwick and London Heathrow which take just over two hours.

It wasn’t just Brits affected by the closure – around 3.6million people travel through the Spanish airport each year.

As a whole, it serves 23 destinations by 9 airlines.

Last year, Ryanair closed its base at Santiago de Compostela Airport meaning it has fewer flights to the destination than before.

But it still has flights every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday from £15.99.

The decision to close the base was part of Ryanair’s cull 1.2million seats across Spain due to increasing airport fees.

Other destinations that completely lost Ryanair routes were to Jerez, Vigo and Valladolid.

The U.S. military has finally released video footage showing an Air National Guard F-16 shooting down an object over Lake Huron back in 2023, which appears to be a balloon. American fighters downed three still-technically unidentified objects over the United States and Canada that month. Only one other image had been released from any of these incidents before now, and questions remain unanswered, including why it has taken so long to share key details with the public.

The video in question, seen below, was included in a new tranche of declassified records that the Pentagon posted online today as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) initiative. UAP here stands for unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), which are also still commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects (UFO). This is the second batch of videos, pictures, and documents to be released through PURSUE, with the first having come back on May 8. Overall, what has been disclosed so far has been underwhelming, to say the least.

Lake Huron UAP engagement by F-16

What has already been well established is that a pair of F-16CM Vipers from the Minnesota Air National Guard scrambled in response to the detection of an unidentified object on February 12, 2023. Authorities deemed the object, which was soaring at approximately 20,000 feet, to be concerning and a potential hazard to civil aviation. One of the F-16s shot it down over Lake Huron, which lies right along the U.S. Canadian border, with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. Canadian authorities subsequently recovered debris, which we will come back to later on.

U.S. Air Force fighters had also downed two other still unidentified objects, one in the skies off the coast of Alaska and another over Canada’s Yukon Territory, on February 10 and 11 of that year, respectively. This all followed the shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, which came after it had already spent days passing over parts of the United States and Canada.

The official description of what is seen in the newly video, which is titled “USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023,” reads:

“At the 11 second mark, the sensor focuses on an area of contrast in the center of its field-of-view. At the 20 second mark, the footage appears to depict a kinetic interaction between two distinct areas of contrast, with the initial subject of the footage fragmenting in a radial displacement pattern that suggests a high-energy event.”

“This video description is provided for informational purposes only. Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance.”

The footage was shot through an infrared camera. The F-16s involved in the shootdown were seen at the time carrying Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP), which have both electro-optical and infrared video cameras, among other features. From what can be seen, the object is distinctly balloon-like with a roughly spherical shape. It has a single wire or some other kind of line dangling below, but there is nothing readily visible attached to it.

How the object is seen ‘bursting’ apart at the 20-second mark in the video is also very consistent with a balloon.

At the time of the shootdown over Lake Huron in 2023, which was widely publicized, the object was described as “octagonal” and as having multiple “strings” hanging below, but no visible payload.

The description above is in line with unclassified audio recordings of the in-cockpit communications from the two F-16 fighter jets that TWZ published the day after the shootdown.

“I wouldn’t really call it a balloon … I don’t know what … I can see it outside with my eyes,” one of the pilots can be heard saying in that audio. “Looks like something … there’s some kind of object that’s distended… it’s hard to tell, it’s pretty small.”

“I’m gonna call it a balloon,” one of the pilots adds later on.

“In the targeting pod, I can’t tell if it’s metallic or what, but I can see like lines coming down below it, but I can’t see anything below it,” one of the pilots also says at one point.

“The size of it, that would be challenging, it’s so slow and so small, I just can’t see it,” one of the pilots notes, as well.

You can listen to the full 2023 Lake Huron shootdown audio below.

Radio Audio From F-16 Shoot Down Of Object Over Lake Huron

In 2024, Canada’s CTV News also published records that were obtained via a request under Canada’s Access to Information Act, one of which said that a “module” was among the debris recovered after the shootdown and that it was “from a company who sells weather monitoring equipment.” The document in question was an email from Mark Flynn, at the time the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) deputy commissioner for Federal Policing, to Canadian Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Eric Laforest, then-strategic joint staff director of general operations.

“It will be analyzed to determine if there is anything unusual with it but I suspect not given the size,” Flynn’s email added. “Whether or not it is from the shoot down is uncertain.”

“Debris has been recovered from the shores of Lake Huron but after careful analysis, it was determined not to be of national security concern,” the RCMP also told CTV News directly.

The records the Canadian outlet obtained also included a redacted Royal Canadian Air Force report that further suggested the object might have been a weather balloon launched from a U.S. National Weather Service radar station in Michigan. That same report also highlighted the possibility that the object shot down over the Yukon Territory had been a so-called “pico” balloon, which amateur radio enthusiasts regularly launch across North America, a theory that was widely reported at the time.

The newly released video all but closes the case on what was shot down over Lake Huron being an innocuous balloon. This, in turn, adds to the existing and serious transparency questions surrounding all three of the still largely unexplained shootdowns in February 2023.

The only image to be released before now was a single still picture of the object downed over the Yukon Territory, which is seen below. You can find our previous analysis of what that picture shows here.

In an interview with TWZ‘s Howard Altman earlier this year, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Maj. Gen. Chris McKenna also described the object shot down off the coast of Whitehorse in Alaska as a “white balloon” belonging to “either research or a state actor.” McKenna is the commander of 1 Canadian Air Division, operational commander for the Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Region (CANR), and the Canadian Joint Forces Air Component Commander.

TWZ and others have noted for years now that it has been, at best, curious that the U.S. military had not released imagery and/or video of any of these unprecedented shootdowns that followed the Chinese spy balloon affair. This disconnect is even pronounced given how quickly higher resolution video footage and pictures of geopolitically charged events, often captured through exactly the same kinds of sensors, are routinely released.

“Data release and footage is prioritized based on the geopolitical environment at the time,” Sean Kirkpatrick, then head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) said in response to a question from TWZ about why video or pictures from the February shootdowns had not been released at a press briefing in October 2023. “So engagements with Chinese fighters, Russian fighters have a much larger priority in getting it through the review process or declassification than UAPs or other similar engagements.”

“We are however, working through those processes, which all exist and we’ve got several of them actually already declassified and ready to update on our website [which] we’ll be doing on the next update to the website,” Kirkpatrick, who left AARO in December 2023, added at that time. “And we’re putting them out as quickly as we can get them through their proper steps.”

The Pentagon established AARO in 2022 to serve as a central manager within the U.S. military for policies and procedures for tracking, reporting, and analyzing UAP incidents, as well as to act as a repository for intelligence assessments and other relevant data. Since then, the office has been a focal point for that criticism, especially from members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle, who have complained about stonewalling on UAP-related matters.

With all of this in mind, it’s interesting to note that the Pentagon’s PURSUE website says the newly released video of the Lake Huron shootdown did come via AARO, but in what appears to have been something of a circuitous route.

“On March 6, 2026, eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives requested access to 51 potentially UAP-related records allegedly held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community,” according to the entry in the PURSUE archive. “The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) identified a collection of responsive materials held on a classified network. Many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody.”

“AARO assesses that this video, whose uploader-defined title is, ‘USAF ANG F-16C (callsign [CALLSIGN]) Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023,’ is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Northern Command area of responsibility in 2023. A user uploaded this video to a classified network in February 2023.”

This is a very odd description, suggesting that AARO was somehow not aware of the origin of the footage and/or could not confirm it. The PURSUE archive simply lists “Department of War” as the source of the video. TWZ reached out to the Pentagon and NORTHCOM for more information. The Pentagon confirmed to us that the video is indeed of the well-publicized shootdown.

As TWZ has noted in the past, there is evidence that U.S. and Canadian authorities withheld the release of certain materials related to the trio of shootdowns in February 2023, ostensibly to avoid confusion and speculation. We have also pointed out that this looks to have had exactly the opposite effect, and the optics of choosing this course of action remain puzzling.

The Chinese spy balloon incident earlier in February 2023 had already become a cause célèbre, highlighting worrisome gaps in air defense sensor coverage over and around North America. At the time, U.S. authorities very publicly scrambled to assure the public it was addressing those concerns. Major changes were subsequently made to various policies, as well as tactics, techniques, and procedures.

There does continue to be questions in this regard, especially when it comes to responding to the ever-growing threats posed by drones. The Pentagon and other elements of the U.S. government have been working to address those issues in recent years, as well. TWZ has long pointed out that many UAP sightings are very likely to be drones, as well as balloons, operated by malign actors, including China and Russia, for intelligence collection or other purposes.

It remains to be seen whether the release today of the Lake Huron shootdown video leads to more disclosures around that incident, as well as what happened in the skies off the coast of Alaska and the Yukon Territory.

Update: 6:58 PM EST –

It has been brought to our attention that former AARO head Sean Kirkpatrick described the objects shot down between February 10 and 12, 2023, as all being balloons during a talk in April. Kirkpatrick, now an adjunct assistant professor of physics at the University of Georgia, was addressing a gathering of an independent organization called the National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS) at the time. He is a controversial figure to many in the UFO community for his stark refusal that the government has no proof of truly non human intelligence visiting earth.

“We scrambled jets and shot down a bunch of things. Do you know what we shot down? Balloons,” Kirkpatrick said. “You can imagine the response on the Hill when I briefed that.”

IT’S the news that all Mis-Teeq fans have been waiting for – the band have announced they are reuniting.

The noughties girlband, made up of Alesha Dixon, 47, Sabrina Washington, 47, and Su-Elise Nash, 45, shared their exciting news this morning.

Announcing the news in Vogue, the trio revealed they would be doing a one-off show at Wembley Arena in September.

Revealing why they got back together, Alesha said: “We’ve been offered reunion stuff over the years, but it’s never felt right.

““This time, everything just lined up.”

The BGT star added: “It feels like it is just slotting back into place, guys.

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“It’s just like it used to be – me saying too much and them two looking at me like, ‘Oh, here she goes!’”

The band’s reunion is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Lickin’ On Both Sides.

The record, which came out in October 2001, peaked at No3 in the Official Album Charts and bagged them five Top Ten singles including All I Want, One Night Stand and B With Me.

The Sun revealed in January that the band would be getting back together.

A source said at the time: “Alesha has been excitedly talking about this for a while and would love a Mis-Teeq reunion with Sabrina and Su-Elise to happen.

“Fans shouldn’t expect a Girls Aloud-style comeback tour, though.

“At the minute, lots of things are being discussed and one thing that has come up is the idea of a one-off show. It could be an intimate gig for their die-hard fans or a performance on a big TV programme such as Britain’s Got Talent — which Alesha is a judge on.

“Nothing has formally been offered but nothing is off the table.

“Lickin’ On Both Sides launched Alesha, Sabrina and Su-Elise’s music careers and that record holds a really special place in their hearts.

“They want to celebrate that album with their fans.”

More on this story to follow…

Centre James Hume says Ulster’s players are “embracing” the chance to make history in the Challenge Cup final on Friday.

Richie Murphy’s side face Montpellier in Bilbao as they look to end a 20-year trophy drought and also secure their place in next season’s Champions Cup, having missed out through the United Rugby Championship [URC] with a ninth-place finish.

With no URC play-offs to look forward to, Friday represents the final act of Ulster’s season and the opportunity to bring a first trophy back since the 2006 Celtic League success.

There have been some near misses since, with Hume part of the squad that lost out in the 2019-20 Pro 14 final, so the 27-year-old is keen to make up for that disappointment.

“I’m definitely embracing it,” Hume said.

“Richie [Murphy, head coach] said just this morning, ‘you have a chance to write your name in history’.

“I think it’s my eighth season and there’s times where you get really, really close, like the semi-final in 2022 [a last-gasp loss to the Bulls in South Africa]. The Pro 14 final during Covid – stuff just didn’t go as we had planned.

“This is a massive opportunity for us to bring some silverware back home to Belfast, where there hasn’t been since 2006, so we’re buzzing for it.”

After Friday’s disappointment when a late Glasgow try saw the Scottish club claim a dramatic 26-22 win in Belfast, Ulster’s eggs are firmly in Friday’s Challenge Cup final basket if they want to play in next season’s Champions Cup.

With a cup final to look forward to, Hume insists “you can’t let that affect you too much” as they prepare to face the side sitting second in the Top 14.

The three-times capped Ireland international admits away defeats in the league against Scarlets and Ospreys “cost us” but the challenge of European rugby is one in which Ulster have produced some of their best moments this season.

“It seems that when we play in Europe against teams that aren’t in our league [URC], we seem to play better rugby or it’s like more enjoyable to attack against.

“French defences are a bit more erratic and not as organised as what the northern hemisphere rugby usually is within our league, so sometimes that presents different opportunities and maybe suits us a bit more, but we’ll see in the weekend.”

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s map here.

The Ford is finally home. The supercarrier, with nearly 4,500 Sailors aboard, pulled into Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday, greeted by hundreds of families and friends after completing a grueling 326-day combat deployment. The well-deserved homecoming capped the longest deployment in more than five decades, which was extended multiple times to support operations across two continents and combatant commands.

The first picture of the U.S. military’s new AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) has emerged. Flight testing of the JATM is known to have started years ago, but it has never been seen publicly before now. The missile is expected to augment and ultimately replace the venerable AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) in U.S. service.

Photographer Jonathan Tweedy took pictures of several U.S. Navy test jets departing Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on May 13. This included an F/A-18F Super Hornet from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31 (VX-31) carrying the AIM-260 on the fuselage station outboard of its right engine intake. The jet also has a modified FPU-13/A drop tank with an infrared search and track (ISRT) sensor on its centerline station, as well as flight data pods on its wingtips. The Aviationist was the first to publish Tweedy’s pictures of the VX-31 jet with the JATM.

Eglin is routinely used as a staging point for U.S. military aerial weapons testing, as well as other aviation research and development and test and evaluation work. The base is situated right next to extensive over-water ranges over the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of the Florida panhandle.

When it comes to the AIM-260, Tweedy’s picture confirms the design is very minimalist, at least externally, with only four fins at the tail. Unlike the AIM-120, it has no mid-body control surfaces, or even strakes running along the sides. The JATM’s overall configuration reflects optimization for maximum speed and range.

The JATM in this case looks to have a live high-explosive warhead, as indicated by a yellow band at the front end of the body. There are also two black bands toward the rear, which could point to the location of the missile’s rocket motor.

The nose cone has a distinct light gray color compared to the rest of the predominantly white body. There are square markings at various points at the rear of the body, which are often seen on aerial munitions and aircraft during testing to help with visual tracking, as well.

Overall, the AIM-260 seen in Tweedy’s pictures looks entirely in line with what had previously been depicted in official renderings of the JATM, both in terms of its design and markings.

The Navy is developing the AIM-260 in cooperation with the Air Force. In the past, officials have explicitly cited the growing reach of Chinese air-to-air missiles, and the PL-15 in particular, as key drivers behind the JATM program. China continues to develop and field more capable air-to-air missiles, as you can learn more about this past TWZ feature. A boost in maximum range is therefore known to be a central requirement for the AIM-260, which is reportedly designed to hit targets out to at least 120 miles, if not further.

Another known requirement for the AIM-260 is to have a form factor that is roughly the same as the AIM-120, making it easier to integrate on existing aircraft. Details about the JATM otherwise remain limited. As TWZ has previously written:

“An advanced rocket motor with highly loaded propellant has long been seen as a likely route to give the AIM-260A significantly greater range, as well as speed, over the AIM-120 without making the new missile larger. A core known requirement for the JATM is that it has to have the same general form factor as the AMRAAM, in large part to ensure that it can fit inside the internal bays on stealth fighters like the F-22 and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. In addition to crewed aircraft, AIM-260As are expected to arm future stealthy drones like the ones under development under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.”

…

“The AIM-260A’s rocket motor is also likely to be a dual-pulse design that retains energy across the flight envelope to further extend range and help dramatically with endgame maneuverability. Thrust vectoring capability would also be a requisite to give the missile sufficient agility in the absence of additional control surfaces.”

…

“An active electronically scanned array radar (AESA) seeker is likely. Multi-mode seeker capability, potentially with imaging infrared and passive radiofrequency (RF) guidance capabilities, could be extremely valuable in the face of an ever-expanding countermeasure ecosystem, although we have no idea if this is a feature now or not. It’s also possible it could be introduced in later variants. Advanced networking capabilities would be a key feature, allowing the missile to get additional targeting information from an array of third party sources. This is especially imported for engaging targets beyond the reach of the launch platform’s own sensors and it can allow the aircraft firing the missile, especially a stealthy one, to avoid having to switch on its radar and increase its vulnerability to detection as a result. Multiple networked JATMs might even be able to prosecute engagements cooperatively.”

Overall, the JATM program, which traces back to at least 2019, remains largely classified. As noted, flight testing of AIM-260 has been underway for some time and has already included multiple live-fire shots. There has also been movement in recent years to get the missile into production and fielded operationally.

Navy Super Hornets, along with U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors, are expected to be the first types to fly operationally armed with AIM-260s. The missiles will surely be integrated onto a host of other aircraft, including the Air Force’s future F-47 and whatever design the Navy might choose to become its sixth-generation F/A-XX fighter.

What the projected timeline might be for the AIM-260 entering operational service now is unclear. When the program first emerged publicly in 2019, the goal was for the missiles to be fielded in 2022. There were reports late last year that JATM had suffered a new three-month delay due to funding issues, based on a fact sheet distributed by some members of the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services. However, the committee subsequently said that the information was incorrect.

As an aside, the Navy announced back in 2024 that it had begun limited fielding of another, different very-long-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-174B, which is derived from the surface-launched Standard Missile-6. The AIM-260 is expected to be complementary to the AIM-174B, as you can read more about here and check out our video below.

How The Navy’s New Very Long-Range AIM-174 Will Pierce China’s Anti-Access Bubble

The first public sighting of an AIM-260 this week certainly points to new progress toward finally fielding this new air-to-air missile.

Special thanks again to Jonathan Tweedy for sharing the pictures of the AIM-260 on the VX-31 Super Hornet with us.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Rivals Season 2 has landed with fans just discovering Dermot O’Leary’s personal connection to the saucy comedy-drama.

Dermot O’Leary may not be in Rivals Season 2 but he does have a close link to the Disney Plus hit.

Two years after Rivals exploded onto our screens, the raunchy Disney Plus drama is back for more with the first three episodes of Rivals dropping today, Friday, May 15.

As fans eagerly await for the rest of the series to become available, many are only just discovering This Morning star Dermot O’Leary has a close tie with the 1980s phenomenon.

He is married to Norwegian-British television and film producer and director Dee Koppang O’Leary who has worked behind the scenes on both seasons of Rivals.

She is also well known for her work on other major shows such as The Split, Bridgerton and The Crown, just to name a few.

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Disney+ is offering a discounted subscription at £3.99 per month for three months when signing up by May 6. This provides cheaper access to hit series like Rivals, Only Murders in the Building and The Bear, plus countless titles from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and more.

Dermot and Dee have been married since September 2012, having met at a TV production company where they were both working. They dated for nine years before getting engaged in New York in 2011 and married the following year.

The pair now share one son together, Kasper, who was born in June 2020. While the famous couple tend to keep their marriage out of the spotlight, Dermot did show his support on Rivals season two by hosting an “in conversation” event with its cast and producers earlier this month.

Following the success of the first series, Dermot also posted that he was “proud as punch” of his wife after winning two Broadcast Awards.

Dermot previously spoke to Fabulous magazine about the secret to having a happy marriage.

“We don’t have the recipe, but it’s going well.

“It’s a work in progress, isn’t it? The key for me is giving each other space, not giving each other a hard time and actually having fun together. And we do.”

He added: “It’s about the neighbourhood you live in.

“If you embrace the greengrocers, the local store, the dry cleaners, you just become a face and part of a community. And that’s how you have a normal life.”

Rivals Season 2 will continue to air weekly every Friday on Disney Plus.