SAN DIEGO — Six Democrats running for governor next year focused on housing affordability, the cost of living and healthcare cuts as the most daunting issues facing Californians at a labor forum on Saturday in San Diego.
Largely in lockstep about these matters, the candidates highlighted their political resumes and life stories to try to create contrasts and curry favor with attendees.
Former state Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon, in his first gubernatorial forum since entering the race in late September, leaned into his experience as the first millennial elected to the state legislature.
“I feel like my experience and my passion uniquely positioned me in this race to ride a lane that nobody else can ride, being a millennial and being young and having a different perspective,” said Calderon, 39.
Concerns about his four children’s future as well as the state’s reliance on Washington, D.C., drove his decision to run for governor after choosing not to seek reelection to the legislature in 2020.
“I want [my children] to have opportunity. I want them to have a future. I want life to be better. I want it to be easier,” Calderon, whose family has deep roots in politics. State leaders must focus “on D.C.-proofing California. We cannot continue to depend on D.C. and expect that they’re going to give a s—t about us and what our needs are, because they don’t.”
Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who also served as the state’s attorney general after a 24-year stint in Congress, argued that it is critical to elect a governor who has experience.
“Would you let someone who’s never flown a plane tell you, ‘I can fly that plane back to land’ if they’ve never done it before?” Becerra asked. “Do you give the keys to the governor’s office to someone who hasn’t done this before?”
He contrasted himself with other candidates in the race by invoking a barking chihuahua behind a chain-link fence.
“Where’s the bite?” he said, after citing his history, such as suing President Trump 122 times, and leading the sprawling federal health bureaucracy during the pandemic. “You don’t just grow teeth overnight.”
Calderon and Becerra were among six Democratic candidates who spoke at length to about 150 California leaders of multiple chapters of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The union has more than 200,000 members in California and is being battered by the federal government shutdown, the state’s budget deficit and impending healthcare strikes. AFSCME is a powerful force in California politics, providing troops to knock on voters’ doors and man phone banks.
The forum came as the gubernatorial field to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom is in flux.
Rumors continue to swirl about whether billionaire businessman Rick Caruso or Sen. Alex Padilla will join the field.
“I am weighing it. But my focus is first and foremost on encouraging people to vote for Proposition 50,” the congressional redistricting matter on the November ballot, Padilla told the New York Times in an interview published Saturday. “The other decision? That race is not until next year. So that decision will come.”
Wealthy Democratic businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck and Republican Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco declined an invitation to participate in the forum, citing prior commitments.
The union will consider an endorsement at a future conference, said Matthew Maldonado, executive director for District Council 36, which represents 25,000 workers in Southern California.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaned into his longtime roots in labor before he ran for office. But he also alluded to tensions with unions after being elected mayor in 2006.
Labeled a “scab” when he crossed picket lines the following year during a major city workers’ strike, Villaraigosa also clashed with unions over furloughs and layoffs during the recession. His relationship with labor hit a low in 2010 when Villaraigosa called the city’s teachers union, where he once worked, “the largest obstacle to creating quality schools.”
“I want you to know something about me. I’m not going to say yes to every darn thing that everybody comes up to me with, including sometimes the unions,” Villaraigosa said. “When I was mayor, they’ll tell you sometimes I had to say no. Why? I wasn’t going to go bankrupt, and I knew I had to protect pensions and the rest of it.”
He pledged to work with labor if elected governor.
Labor leaders asked most of the questions at the forum, with all of the candidates being asked about the same topics, such as if they supported and would campaign for a proposed state constitutional amendment to help UC workers with down-payment loans for houses.
“Hell yes,” said former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine, who teaches at UC Irvine’s law school and benefited from a program created by state university leaders to allow faculty to buy houses priced below the market rate in costly Orange County because the high cost of housing in the region was an obstacle in recruiting professors.
“I get to benefit from UC Irvine’s investment in their professionals and professors and professional staff housing, but they are not doing it for everyone,” she said, noting workers such as clerks, janitors, and patient-care staff don’t have access to similar benefits.
State Supt. of Instruction Tony Thurmond, who entered the gathering dancing to Dr. Dre and Tupac’s “California Love,” agreed to support the housing loans as well as to walk picket lines with tens of thousands of Kaiser health employees expected to go on strike later this month.
“I will be there,” Thurmond responded, adding that he had just spoken on the phone with Kaiser’s CEO, and urged him to meet labor demands about staffing, pay, retirement and benefits, especially in the aftermath of their work during the pandemic. “Just get it done, damn it, and give them what they’re asking for.”
Former state Controller Betty Yee agreed to both requests as well, arguing that the healthcare employers are focused on profit at the expense of patient care.
“Yes, absolutely,” she said when asked about joining the Kaiser picket line. “Shame on them. You cannot be expected to take care of others if you cannot take care of yourselves.”
AFSCME local leaders listening to former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra speak at a gubernatorial forum Saturday in San Diego.
Future Ruins, the hotly-anticipated Nov. 8 film-music festival from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, has been canceled.
“Unfortunately Future Ruins will not move forward this year,” organizers said in a statement. “The reality is, due to a number of logistical challenges and complications, we feel we cannot provide the experience that’s defined what this event was always intended to be. Rather than compromise, we’re choosing to re-think and re-evaluate. Meanwhile, we are sorry for any inconvenience and appreciate all the interest and support.”
The Live Nation-produced event at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center was booked as a compendium of cutting-edge composers to showcase their film work in an unorthodox live setting. Headlined by the Nine Inch Nails bandmates, who have won Oscars for their film scores including “The Social Network” and “Soul,” the event was slated to host John Carpenter, Questlove, Danny Elfman, Mark Mothersbaugh and Hildur Guðnadóttir among many others.
The fest’s cancellation comes on the heels of Nine Inch Nails’ sold-out “Peel It Back” tour, which hit the Form last month and is scheduled to return to Southern California in March next year. The band will also play a club-heavy version of its live set as Nine Inch Noize (with collaborator Boys Noize) at Coachella next year.
England’s world champion full-back Ellie Kildunne said she is “open to anything” when questioned whether she would be involved in the proposed new R360 league.
“It doesn’t mean that I’d take it, but I’d like to understand the league a little bit more to see if that’s an opportunity that I’d like to take,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The 26-year-old was speaking at Bracknell Rugby Club to help launch the Rugby Football Union’s Rugby Fest weekend.
The initiative is aimed at ensuring the legacy of England’s Women’s Rugby World Cup win.
Kildunne is currently contracted to Premiership Women’s Rugby side Harlequins, who open the league season on Friday, 24 October against Loughborough Lightening at the Twickenham Stoop.
“I’m just focused on the Harlequins season that I’ve got, and you know this week has been absolutely crazy, so I can’t look too far ahead – I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner tonight,” added Kildunne.
“There’s going to be lots of investment into the game now, lots of changes that people will see and I think that’s the direction that rugby needs to go.
“We’ve made something happen and that’s going to come with talking points and debates.
“This league (R360) is still something we don’t know too much about.”
Defenseman Jackson LaCombe signed an eight-year, $72-million contract extension with the Ducks on Thursday, keeping the rising young star with the club through the 2033-34 season.
LaCombe’s deal is the richest ever given out by the team, although other contracts had larger average annual values.
“We are excited to sign Jackson to a long-term contract and lock up a core player for our future,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said in a statement. “Getting this deal done early was a priority for us. Jackson has all of the tools to be an anchor on our back end for many years to come.”
After just two full NHL seasons, the 24-year-old LaCombe has emerged as an elite two-way defenseman who is under consideration for the U.S. Olympic team roster.
LaCombe went straight to the NHL from the University of Minnesota in 2023, and he has recorded 16 goals and 44 assists over 148 games. He quickly emerged as the Ducks’ most dependable defenseman, leading the roster in ice time last season and filling a major role on their power play.
He even stepped into a leadership role after longtime Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler was traded to St. Louis last December. LaCombe’s 14 goals last season were the most by a Ducks blueliner since Lubomir Visnovsky had 18 in the 2010-11 season.
“I am grateful to the organization for their belief in me,” LaCombe said. “It was an easy decision for me to commit my future to the Ducks and Orange County. We are building something special here, and I am excited to do everything I can to help this team win.”
LaCombe also stood out at the world championships in Stockholm last May, recording two goals and three assists for the gold medal-winning U.S. team.
The Ducks chose the Minnesota native with the 39th overall pick in the 2019 draft. He became a star for the Golden Gophers after being drafted, growing into a top prospect who then adjusted quickly to the NHL game.
LaCombe is the first player to re-sign in the Ducks’ large class of restricted free agents coming up next summer. LaCombe was slated to be an RFA alongside center Leo Carlsson, left wing Cutter Gauthier and defensemen Owen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov.
Verbeek locked up LaCombe five days after re-signing holdout center Mason McTavish to a six-year, $42 million deal.
When LeBron James was asked about how a former defensive player of the year and a former No. 1 overall pick could elevate the Lakers roster, the superstar instead offered a different offseason addition’s name first.
Jake LaRavia’s signing came with less fanfare than the moves that brought Smart and Ayton to the Lakers, but the 6-foot-7 wing hopes he can be equally as influential in a quiet connector role behind some of the league’s biggest stars.
“We got a lot of dudes on this team that can score, a lot of dudes on this team that can put the ball in the bucket,” LaRavia said Wednesday at Lakers training camp. “So I’m here to complement those players, but to also just bring energy every day on both sides of the ball.”
The 19th overall pick in 2022, LaRavia is a career 42.9% three-point shooter, averaging 6.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. After beginning his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, he was traded to the Sacramento Kings last season, playing in 19 games. His team option wasn’t picked up, putting the 23-year-old on the free agency market.
The Lakers, in need of three-and-D players to pair with Luka Doncic, were quick to call.
“To get a young player — a young player in free agency for a team that is trying to win a championship — it’s an incredible opportunity for myself and our player development department to have him continue to grow,” coach JJ Redick said last week. “Jake, I’m very high on him. His level of commitment to what we’ve asked of the guys this offseason has been very high.”
Two days into training camp, LaRavia said he’s been asked to guard four different positions. He’s played often with Doncic’s group and marveled at the five-time All-Star’s impressive array of shots. One of his main objectives during training camp will be to understand how to best to space the court when the ball is in Doncic’s hands.
“It’s gonna make my life so much easier playing with someone like that,” LaRavia said.
LaRavia, who was born in Pasadena but moved to Indianapolis as a child, grew up rooting for the Lakers. Following his father’s fandom, LaRavia said he idolized Magic Johnson.
Now sporting the purple and gold himself, LaRavia is realizing that the team is bigger than just basketball, he said. Compared to his experiences in Memphis and Sacramento, it is obvious the Lakers brand stretches globally.
While suddenly in the spotlight, LaRavia has tried to keep a low profile. He was married a few days before training camp started. He relishes the chance to go unnoticed at local restaurants.
He wants to be recognized only for his wins on the court.
“I understand what this organization wants every year, which is championships,” LaRavia said at media day. “It’s a winning organization, and my one goal being here is just to continue to provide rings.”
Gabe Vincent fully participates in practice
James was held out of practice for the second straight day Wednesday, but still participated in individual drills, Redick said. Guard Gabe Vincent, who missed the first day of training camp, returned to practice and appears to still be on track to play in the Lakers’ first preseason game in Palm Desert on Friday against the Phoenix Suns.
Smart (achilles tendinopathy) and rookie Adou Thiero (knee) remained out, although Smart stayed on the court after practice for extra shots. Redick said Tuesday he expected the 31-year-old guard to be fine by the end of the week.
Forward Maxi Kleber sat out as a precaution after tweaking his quad during conditioning Tuesday and will get an MRI exam, Redick said. Kleber, who missed almost all of last season with a foot injury after being traded to the Lakers in February, said at media day he was entering the season fully healthy.
Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva says he knows “exactly” what he is going to do when his contract ends, but “now is not the right time to talk about it”.
The 31-year-old midfielder, whose deal expires at the end of the season, said it is a “big honour and responsibility” to wear the armband.
The Portugal midfielder, in his ninth season with City, has been linked with a move, with reported interest from Juventus and Benfica this month.
Silva has won every major trophy with City, including the Champions League and seven Premier League titles.
He was linked with a move away earlier this year, but opted to stay.
“I know exactly what I’m going to do but it’s not the time to focus on it,” he said.
“It’s to do my best, to put the club back to where it belongs. We’ve had a lot of captains who’ve left but it’s for the guys who have the most experience to pass it on to the young guys.”
Silva was speaking in a pre-match news conference before he faces his former club Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday (20:00 BST).
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, asked about what Silva brings to the team, said “he cannot do better as a captain”.
Silva succeeded Kevin de Bruyne in wearing the armband after the Belgian left in the summer before joining Napoli on a free transfer.
“He is one of the best in training. He is an extraordinary player – so intelligent and smart. He can play in so many positions. We’re really happy to have him,” Guardiola said of Silva.
Everton boss David Moyes admits his side can improve in areas after conceding their first goal at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium in a 1-1 draw with West Ham.
LeBron James chuckled at the question he knew was coming as a a smile crossed his face when he was asked about the word “retirement.”
James stammered as he tried to answer the question during his session at the Lakers’ media day on Monday.
He never provided a definitive answer about his future. He’s about to enter his 23rd season in the NBA, which will mean James will have played more seasons in the league than anyone in history. He turns 41 on Dec. 30, but if last season was any indication, James hasn’t slowed down.
When James was asked about his approach to this season, knowing that retirement is near, he seemed unsure how to answer.
“I mean, I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I’m excited about today, I’m excited about an opportunity to be able to play a game that I love for another season. And whatever the journey, however the journey lays out this year, I’m just super invested, because like you just said, I don’t know when the end is, but I know it’s a lot sooner than later.
“So just being super appreciative of the fact that I could come up here, do another media day and talk to you guys and do all this stuff around here, so just excited about the journey and whatever this year has in store for me.”
James exercised his player option for $52.6 milllion this summer to play with the Laker, the final year of his deal. He did not sign an extension with the Lakers, meaning that James will be a free agent after the 2025-26 season if he does not retire.
James already is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer during the regular season with 42,184 points. He has played the second-most regular-season games in history at 1,562, just 50 behind the leader, Robert Parish.
James averaged 24.4 points,7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists last season
It was clear that he still was on top of his game.
“The things that still pushes me is the fact that the love of the game is still high,” James said. “The love of the process is even higher. So that’s what continues to push me to play this game. I mean, it’s really that simple. Me training and working on my body and trying to get my body as close to 100% as possible every year, it’s something that’s like —- it’s a beautiful thing for me. Just continue to challenge to see how well I can push myself to play the game at a high level, recover at a high level, be able to sleep better, mentally prepare, try to stay sharp throughout the course of a long season. And just the roller coaster of an NBA season, that’s all like, gratifying to me, no matter the good, the bad, the ugly. I love that process. So it’s a bigger. … So much that goes into it, more than just picking up a basketball and shooting at the rim.”
James is teaming up with another superstar in Luka Doncic, who signed a three-year extension for $165-million.
Doncic, 26, is considered one of the top players in the league, giving James a top-notch running partner.
James was asked how much having a player like Doncic beside him will weigh in his decision to retire.
“Nah, nah. As far as how long I go in my career? Nah. Zero,” James said. “The motivation to be able to play alongside him every night, that’s super motivating. That’s what I’m going to train my body for. Every night I go out there and try to be the best player I can for him, and we’re going to bounce that off one another. But as far as me weighing in on him and some other teammates of how far I go in my career, nah. It would be, literally my decision, along with my wife and — two of my boys [Bronny and Bryce] already gone. … So it’ll be a decision between me, my wife [Savannah] and my daughter [Zhuri]. It won’t be, ‘Hey, having a meeting with my teammates.’ It won’t be that.”
James and Austin Reaves have been teammates for four years now, and Reaves has seen no decline in his famous teammate.
Reaves, who declined a four-year, $89.2-million contract offer from the Lakers over the summer, hasn’t talked to James about retirement but doesn’t see it happening any time soon.
“Every time you see him, he’s got a big smile on his face, he’s the biggest kid in the room, has a great time and you got to appreciate that for somebody who has been going at it for so long, 23 years,” Reaves said. “At some point you feel like the joy might not be there. But every time you see him, it reinsures that he’s here for one thing and one thing only and that’s to win. But I don’t know about retirement. He might play for another 10 years.”
James returns to a Lakers team that was 50-32 last season and finished third in the Western Conference. The Lakers then lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Minnnesota Timberwolves.
But the Lakers have retooled, adding center Deandre Ayton, guard Marcus Smart and wing Jake LaRavia.
James has won four NBA championships, and yearns for another.
“I don’t know, just to know how many miles I got as far as this game in my 22 years, now starting 23 years, and to still be able to play at a high level, to still to be able to go out there and can make plays and be respectful on the floor,” James said.
“It’s just super humbling and gratifying for me, personally. I love to play the game, and I love to play at a high level. And for me, age is kind of just a number, but it is reality too, though. I mean, you look at the history of the game, it’s not been many guys at my age, or especially going into Year 23 that’s been able to play at a level like that. And I’ve just tried to not take it for granted and just try to give the game as much as I can, inspire whoever I can: the younger generation, my generation, the generation after me, the generation to come. I think you are of the age what you, I guess, tell your mind you are.”
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What We Can Know By Ian McEwan Knopf: 320 pages, $30
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In our fiercely tribal and divisive culture, when consensus is illusory and we can’t seem to agree on even the most fundamental facts, the notion of shared history as a societal precept has left the building. But if we are indeed living in a post-truth era, Ian McEwan is here to tell us that things will only get worse.
In his bracing new time bender of a novel, the great British novelist posits that the past is irretrievably past, particularly in matters of the human heart, and any attempt by historians or biographers to wrench it into the present is folly — or in the case of this novel’s protagonist Thomas Metcalfe, intellectual vanity.
Metcalfe is an associate humanities professor and a researcher living in England in the 22nd century (2119, to be exact) who has taken it upon himself to unlock the mystery of a poem called “A Corona for Vivien,” written in 2014 by a deceased literary eminence named Francis Blundy, a poet whose genius, we learn, once rivaled that of Seamus Heaney. The poem was composed for his wife Vivien’s birthday dinner in October 2014, an evening that has taken on mythic proportions in certain academic circles in the intervening years. It even has a name: The Second Immortal Dinner, in which Blundy for the first time read his corona, a poem composed as a sequence of sonnets, that had been lost long ago.
In Metcalfe’s hothouse literary universe, Blundy’s poem is important because it is a revenant. In the intervening years, interpretive speculation about it has run rampant. Some have called it a warning about climate change. Others say Blundy was paid a six-figure sum by an energy company to suppress the poem. Only fragments of it exist, certain fugitive lines that appear in correspondence between Vivien, Blundy and Blundy’s editor, Harold T. Kitchener. Metcalfe has taken it upon himself to find the long-lost document, allegedly written by Blundy on a vellum scroll and buried by Vivien somewhere on Blundy’s property.
Metcalfe’s task is greatly complicated by the fact that he lives in a future world where much of the planet has been either immolated or else submerged underwater by a nuclear cataclysm that McEwan calls “The Inundation.” There has also been a mass migration — “The Derangement” — in which millions, deprived of resources and land, have been driven from England into Africa. Entire cities have been lost, “the land beneath them compressed and lowered, so they did not drain, but persisted like glacial lakes.” Whatever repositories of learning that weren’t destroyed now exist on higher ground in the mountains, where the “knowledge base and collective memory were largely preserved.”
The built environment has eroded, but fortunately for Metcalfe, the digital world of the past is intact. Biographers from 2000 onward, McEwan writes, are “heirs to more than a century of what the Blundy era airily called ‘the cloud’ ever expanding like a giant summer cumulus, though, of course, it simply consisted of data-storage machines.” Here in the cloud are the many hundreds of emails and texts from Blundy, his wife and their circle, allowing Metcalfe the satisfaction of knowing he can piece together the events of the epochal dinner party down to granular details: cutlery used, foods prepared, toasts proffered.
Ian McEwan’s elegantly structured and provocative novel is a strong argument for how little raw data, or even the most sublime art, can tell us about humans and their contrary natures.
(Annalena McAfee)
What Metcalfe knows of the Blundys’ life together can be gleaned from the 12 extant volumes of Vivien’s journals. From the journals Metcalfe has surmised that Vivien, herself a brilliant literary scholar and teacher, had willfully lived out her marriage under Blundy’s shadow, the dutiful handmaiden to a literary eminence. “She enjoyed producing a well-turned meal,” Metcalfe posits. “She was once a don, a candidate for a professorship. Abandoning it was a liberation. She always felt herself to be in control. But it had surprised her how … she had emptied herself of ambition, salary, status and achievement.”
Despite the pile-up of particulars, Metcalfe knows he must find the lost poem, that it is the keystone without which the story crumbles into insignificance. If he fails in this task Metcalfe, already feeling like an “intruder on the intentions and achievements” of Blundy, loses his mojo: his mission aborted, his career stalled.
But just when it seems as if Metcalfe, after a long and arduous journey across land and water, has discovered something significant, McEwan drops the curtain on that story, and rewinds the narrative 107 years, back to Vivien Blundy and her story. At first, the basic contours conform to Metcalfe’s version of events: Vivien did forsake her academic ambitions for Blundy, who did write a poem for her that he read aloud on her birthday, and so on.
But Metcalfe, as it turns out, has the details right and the motives all wrong, never more so than when McEwan reveals the fact of a murder, conceived in such a way that no snooping academic could ever unearth it. Emails are composed yet remain unsent. Digital correspondence is deleted into the ether, sneaky evasions that are beyond the biographer’s grasp. Metcalfe’s thesis is driven by a romanticized notion of Blundy’s life, but as McEwan slowly and carefully reveals, his poem, ostensibly a “repository of dreams,” more closely resembles a passive-aggressive act. As for Vivien, the narrative she has proffered in her journals is far from the whole story. She is resentful of Blundy, thwarted in her career, simmering with resentment. Despite his scholarly assiduity, Metcalfe is moving down an errant path that will never square the facts with lived experience.
Of course, facts are important, but they don’t necessarily reveal anything; it is the biographer’s folly to ascribe deeper meaning to them, to extrapolate truth from a disparate series of events. Metcalfe’s pursuit of revelation in a single lost poem is magical thinking, a relentless grasping for a chimera. McEwan’s elegantly structured and provocative novel is a strong argument for how little raw data, or even the most sublime art, can tell us about humans and their contrary natures.
Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”
NEW YORK — The decision about whether to keep Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night ABC show depends on far more than his jokes. The choice is complicated by a web of business and regulatory considerations involving ABC’s parent company, other media companies and the Trump administration.
It’s the inevitable result of industry consolidation that over years has built giant corporations with wide-ranging interests.
ABC owner Walt Disney Co., a massive organization with far-flung operations, frequently seeks federal regulatory approval to expand, buy or sell businesses or acquire licenses. And the Trump administration has not spared the company from investigations, opening multiple inquiries in just the last few months to investigate alleged antitrust, programming and hiring violations.
Kimmel was suspended from his show last week following comments suggesting that fans of Charlie Kirk were trying to “score political points” over the conservative activist’s shooting death. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr called the remarks “truly sick” and suggested his agency would look into them.
Carr answers to President Trump, a frequent Kimmel target whose dislike of the comedian is well known.
Two companies that operate roughly a quarter of ABC affiliates nationwide, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting, also said they would not air Kimmel’s show.
Disney took a step in December to avoid a confrontation with Trump by paying $15 million to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, in a case many civil rights attorneys considered weak. It also made moves to dismantle some of its diversity, equity and inclusion practices, including removing references in its annual report to its Reimagine Tomorrow program aimed at “amplifying underrepresented voices.”
Apparently that wasn’t enough.
In April, the FCC sent a a blistering letter to Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger saying it suspected the company was so thoroughly “infected” with “invidious” practices favoring minorities that it had no choice but to open an investigation.
Among other questions, the inquiry sought to determine whether Disney had really ended policies designed to ensure characters in its shows and its hiring practices favored “underrepresented groups.”
Meanwhile, a Disney deal struck in January to buy a stake in the streaming service FuboTV fell under scrutiny too, with several reports that the Justice Department was investigating possible antitrust violations.
The Federal Trade Commission also launched an inquiry into whether Disney broke rules by gathering personal data from children watching its videos without permission from parents. Disney settled the case this month by paying $10 million and agreeing to change its practices.
Disney also needs approval from the Trump administration for ESPN to complete its acquisition of the NFL Network.
It hasn’t helped that Disney was a target for many conservatives well before the current controversy. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis battled with the company over its criticism of a DeSantis-backed law that restricted discussion of sexual orientation in schools.
Kirk wasn’t a fan, either, criticizing Disney when it closed Splash Mountain rides at theme parks three years ago to remove references to the 1946 film “Song of the South,” which has long been decried as racist for its romanticized depictions of slavery.
The move, Kirk’s website posted, was “destructive to our cultural and societal fabric.”
The companies with ABC stations that put out statements disavowing Kimmel have their own business before the government. Nexstar needs the Trump administration’s approval to complete its $6.2-billion purchase of broadcast rival Tegna.
Sinclair has its own regulatory challenges. In June, it entered into an agreement with the FCC to fix problems with paperwork filed to the agency and to observe rules about advertising on children’s shows and closed-captioning requirements. It has also petitioned the regulator to relax rules limiting broadcaster ownership of stations.
The companies are being asked by advocates and others to put aside financial concerns to stand up for free speech.
“Where has all the leadership gone?” ex-Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner wrote Friday on social media. “If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners and corporate chief executives standing up to bullies, then who will step up for the First Amendment?”
The administration’s attacks on Kimmel have also been criticized in some unexpected places, such as the Wall Street Journal and Bari Weiss’ website, the Free Press — both known for their conservative editorial voices — and by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a staunch conservative and Trump ally.
The comedian’s comments don’t justify the right wing’s move toward regulatory censorship, the Journal wrote in an editorial. “As victims of cancel culture for so long, conservatives more than anyone should oppose it,” the Journal wrote. “They will surely be the targets again when the left returns to power.”
“When a network drops a high-profile talent hours after the FCC chairman makes a barely veiled threat, then it’s no longer just a business decision,” the Free Press wrote in an editorial. “It’s government coercion. Is it now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters for comedy that doesn’t conform to its politics?”
President Trump said Friday that he has reached a deal with China to keep the popular social video app TikTok running in the U.S.
Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he had a “very productive call” Friday morning with China’s President Xi Jinping. TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, a fact that prompted national security concerns over data protection from U.S. politicians.
He suggested that Xi had approved the planned takeover of TikTok in the U.S., but did not provide details on what the leader’s sign-off entailed.
“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on Friday.
He added: “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”
Trump had signaled earlier this week that an agreement was coming. For months, TikTok’s future had been uncertain in the U.S., due to national security worries about the app’s ties to China. Trump in his social media post did not reveal much detail about the deal, but said earlier this week that TikTok’s operations would be owned by American investors.
“TikTok has tremendous value,” Trump said at a news conference on Thursday, adding the U.S. will be getting a “fee-plus” for making the deal. “I’d rather reap the benefits. The kind of money we are talking about is very substantial. It will be owned by all American investors.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that under terms of the deal, TikTok’s U.S. users would migrate to a new version of the app with technology licensed from ByteDance. U.S. user data would be managed in Texas by cloud computing company Oracle, the Journal reported, adding that details of the deal could change as it was still being discussed.
About 80% of a new company running TikTok’s U.S. operations would be owned by American investors, with the remaining amount owned by Chinese shareholders, according to the Journal.
Oracle’s Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison is a Trump ally and the world’s second richest person with an estimated net worth of more than $360 billion, according to Forbes. Ellison is also preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the media company that owns HBO, TNT and CNN, after already completing a takeover of Paramount, one of Hollywood’s original studios.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on the terms of the agreement.
Reports cited a Chinese news agency, which quoted Xi as saying the Chinese government “respects the wishes of companies and welcomes them to conduct commercial negotiations based on market rules and reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and regulations and balance interests.”
The deal paves a path for TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. after President Joe Biden signed a law that would require ByteDance to divest ownership in the U.S. operations of the app or have TikTok banned in the nation due to security concerns. TikTok denies sharing user data with the Chinese government and says it has not been asked by Beijing to provide such sensitive information.
ByteDance on Friday thanked Xi and Trump “for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States.”
“ByteDance will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok U.S.,” the company said.
The law had initially gave ByteDance a deadline of Jan. 19, but Trump has extended that deadline several times, most recently to Dec. 16.
TikTok has more than 170 million users in the U.S. and is a home for video content creators and businesses. Fans of the app enjoy scrolling through feeds of entertaining short videos.
Some industry observers were skeptical over whether the deal will adequately address Congress’ security concerns.
“There’s just too many loose ends and too many things that could go awry,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
The TikTok agreement comes as the U.S. and China have been dealing with trade talks amid a tariff war.
On Thursday, Trump credited TikTok with helping him win the 2024 presidential election. He had campaigned to try to keep TikTok operational in an appeal to younger voters. He reversed his stance from his first term, in which the Trump administration made moves that could ban the app.
Daniel Keum, an associate professor of management at Columbia Business School, said he doesn’t think much will change after a deal is made. Many creators have already posted their content in other places such as Instagram and YouTube in light of TikTok’s uncertain future, Keum said.
“Even before, as there was so much uncertainty around the fate of TikTok, a lot of other platforms like YouTube and Facebook were co-opting the short reel format, so creators were distributing their content across other platforms,” he said.
Katie Piper has admitted she is unsure on her Loose Women future as ITV get ready to have a huge daytime television shake up
Katie Piper doesn’t know what her future holds(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Katie Piper has candidly admitted she doesn’t know what the future holds for her Loose Women role. The presenter is among a number of stars who could see their time on the show cut short due to the impending huge changes on the ITV panel show.
She has admitted she is currently in the dark about her future as the new look Daytime line-up gets ready to launch in January. The changes will see Loose Women switch to just being a seasonal show.
Elsewhere, Good Morning Britain will be extended, chopping Lorraine episodes to just 30 minutes. For the Loose Women panel, they will only be on air seasonally, running for just 30 weeks.
Speaking of the switch-up, Katie admitted she doesn’t know what is coming her way. When asked by The Sun about the situation at the National Television Awards, she admitted: “You’d have to ask the producers that. I don’t know.”
The decision to drop the show’s 100-strong audience will also see bosses remove the need for extra security and a warm-up act. But the move is said to have angered a number of the regular panellists who feed off the audience interaction.
The cost-cutting measure also sees This Morning and GMB move away from its current home at BBC Studioworks Television Centre.
The show is going to have some big changes(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
And in July, the big changes at Loose Women were explained in full. The iconic lunchtime chat show, which is best known for its bold debates and A-list guests, is reportedly getting ready to cut celebrity interviews completely from January as part of the channel’s sweeping budget cuts.
Instead, it’s said the high-profile bookings will now be prioritised for Lorraine and This Morning. This will leave Loose Women to rely solely on its panel discussions of the day’s news and lifestyle topics.
“Not having guests is a big blow for both the presenters and viewers at home,” an insider revealed at the time. “The celebrity interviews are often one of the highlights of the show and bring a unique energy you don’t get on other programmes. It feels like a strange decision to cut them altogether.”
It will also only air for 30 weeks of the year rather than its usual 52, meaning production time will be slashed by nearly in half.
And speaking of cutting the audience, Nadia Sawalha admitted she was “devastated” by the news. It also meant that f her close friend and warm-up artist Lee Peart has lost his job as a result.
“The audience is so important for the show,” Nadia said. “What a lot of people don’t realise is that we’re self-employed. Every contract is a new contract – I could be let go tomorrow or in five years. It’s brutal.”
JON Richardson’s future on Waterloo Road has been confirmed after Jason Manford quit the show after just one series.
The comedy star announced he was joining the show after an April Fools prank claiming he was retiring from comedy to become a teacher.
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Jon Richardson’s future on Waterloo Road has been revealedCredit: BBC
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The comedian split from wife Lucy Beaumont last yearCredit: Getty
He soon announced that was he was actually joining the cast of the school-set drama.
And now The Sun can exclusively reveal that he won’t be a one-series wonder like Jason who bowed out after his first year.
A source said: “There were worries by some that after Jason’s one series stint that Jon would follow suit but that’s not the case.
“He’ll be sticking around for the foreseeable and is really enjoying acting now.”
Read more on Waterloo Road
The star will play the school’s new media studies teacher, Darius Donovan.
The BBC blurb teases: “With tons of charm, this new teacher knows how to put on a good show, and viewers can expect his arrival to stir things up at Waterloo Road.”
Last year Jon and ex-wife Lucy Beaumont announced their split.
Jon and Lucy tied the knot in 2015 after two years of dating.
Moment Lucy Beaumount joked about divorce from Jon Richardson a year before couple revealed split
A statement shared by PA news agency said: “After 9 years of marriage, we would like to announce that we have separated.
“We have jointly and amicably made the difficult decision to divorce and go our separate ways.
“As our only priority is managing this difficult transition for our daughter, we would ask that our privacy is respected at this sensitive time to protect her well-being.
As cyberattacks and privacy breaches mount, Nordic nations are leading the move to recalculate how digital-dominant economies operate.
The global shift toward cashless payments—a shift driven by speed, convenience, and digital innovation—has gained significant momentum in recent decades. The Covid-19 pandemic and the preference of younger generations for digital transactions have led many to consider a cashless society inevitable.
However, recent wars, natural disasters, and other crises have revealed vulnerabilities in fully digital systems. This has prompted a global reassessment of the significance of physical cash. Increasingly, governments, central banks, and technologists are endorsing a hybrid payments model that combines the benefits of digital transactions with the resilience, privacy, and inclusivity offered by physical money.
No region has embraced the cashless future quite like the Nordic nations. Sweden, in particular, has developed a largely digitalized economy. Sweden and Norway have the world’s lowest amount of cash in circulation as a share of GDP, according to Sweden’s Riksbank. Currently, about one-tenth of in-store purchases in Sweden are made with cash, compared to about one-half in the euro area.
Magnus Lageson, chief product officer at Sweden’s Crunchfish Digital Cash, has not used cash for over 10 years, he tells Global Finance. “The younger generations, like my kids who are 17 and 19, have never used cash in Sweden—and it’s the same for everyone in their generation,” he says.
Recently, however, the Nordic countries have begun to reassess their nearly cashless societies. One immediate concern is the Ukraine-Russia war and the threat of Russian hybrid warfare that might include cyberattacks and assaults on power grids and telecom infrastructure. In situations where electricity is lost, digital payment systems may fail.
Last November, Sweden’s government distributed a brochure entitled “In Case of Crisis or War” to all households. This brochure advised Swedes to keep on hand “enough cash for at least one week, preferably in different denominations.”
Norway has similarly advised its citizens to maintain a supply of physical cash, because digital payment systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks from abroad. Last year, legislation was passed to make it easier for Norwegians to use cash. Finland has also encouraged its citizens to prepare an “emergency home kit” that should include a small amount of cash in case of disruptions to payment systems.
There are several reasons why Sweden, Norway, Finland, and other nations may want to retain a cash option. Cash transactions are private, whereas digital payments, especially within a central bank digital currency (CBDC) framework, may allow for government monitoring, such as tracking purchasing habits and locations.
Additionally, marginalized groups, including low-income individuals, still rely on cash for their daily transactions. Not everyone owns a smartphone or has a bank card.
New Zealand Flips The Switch
In February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle knocked out power and telecom systems across vast areas of New Zealand. Many bank ATMs and other electronic payment infrastructure went dark, leaving people unable to pay for essential items like water and food for days in some regions.
The impact of Cyclone Gabrielle highlighted the importance of cash as a reliable payment option during community-level or national emergencies, as Karen Silk, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), tells Global Finance. The country is proceeding with a pilot program aimed at developing digital cash for citizens and businesses. This would function similarly to traditional physical cash.
India, concerned about its unbanked population, has developed an offline digital payment system called UPI 123PAY, which allows users to perform transactions without an active internet connection. However, the system still requires at least a feature phone.
A study published by the European Central Bank (ECB) in December revealed that most euro-area consumers still consider having cash as a vital payment option. This sentiment has increased over the past few years, rising from 60% in 2022 to 62% in 2024. Remarkably, even among young people aged 18-24, 55% consider the option to pay with cash at least “fairly important.”
“The march toward a cashless society is not inevitable,” says Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and author of The Power of Cash: Why Using Paper Money Is Good for You and Society, in an interview with Global Finance. “I think that once people understand that paper money has many benefits—from ensuring privacy to reducing the price people pay to protecting them from natural disasters—cash will enjoy a rebound.”
Ignazio Angeloni, a former ECB official and current fellow at Milan’s Bocconi University, expresses his satisfaction with the renewed respect for cash. “I was always convinced that physical cash should be part of a diversified and robust payment ecosystem,” he says. “I am glad to see that an increasing number of people and institutions share this view.”
‘Only Elderly People Still Use Cash’
Tory Jackson, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Galileo Financial Technologies
Not all economists, policymakers, and central bankers share Zagorsky’s optimism about cash use. Paul De Grauwe, a professor at the London School of Economics and a former member of Belgium’s Federal Parliament, notes, “The use of coins and paper money is declining inexorably. Only elderly people still use cash. I think this trend is not going to stop.”
The convenience of digital payments cannot be overlooked. For instance, 29 out of 30 professional football stadiums in the US have gone cashless. The growing length of concession lines largely drove this decision. Handling cash—making change and counting bills—was slowing down service, leading many fans to forgo food and drinks rather than wait. By banning cash, stadiums created a win-win for fans and vendors alike.
In Latin America, digital payments are increasingly the preferred option for many consumers, both online and offline, according to Tory Jackson, head of business development and strategy for Latin America at Galileo Financial Technologies. Cash accounted for 57% of consumer-payment volume in the region in 2022, including the informal economy, reports Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI). That figure has since dropped to 37%.
There is a prevailing sense of inevitability regarding the shift toward digital payments. As Crunchfish’s Lageson puts it, “The future is cashless; there is no turning back.”
But maybe it’s not so inevitable.
Are Digital Systems Too Fragile?
The Nordic countries were pioneers in digital payments, but they may be reaching the limits of a cashless society.
Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, recently commented, “[The] Nordics are walking back the cashless society initiative because their centralized implementation of the concept is too fragile. Cash turns out to be necessary as a backup.”
Currently, digital payments rely on three legs: electricity, communications, and computers. All three must work all the time for digital transactions to occur, Zagorsky points out. In a cashless system, adversaries can disrupt the economy by targeting any one of these legs—whether by attacking the power grid, cutting telephone cables, or hacking payment-system servers.
Arina Wischnewsky, Economist, Research and Teaching Associate, Trier University
A more practical solution that many central banks are advocating is a hybrid system: using digital transactions as the default option while maintaining cash as a parallel system to ensure privacy, accessibility, and contingency planning, says Arina Wischnewsky, an economist and a research and teaching associate at Trier University in Germany.
“A completely cashless society has always been more of a theoretical ideal than a realistic short- to medium-term goal,” Wischnewsky says. “The idea of completely abandoning physical cash is increasingly viewed as both risky and exclusionary, particularly in light of financial-inclusion and crisis-resilience concerns.”
Are Offline Digital Payments Viable?
In April, the Bank of England (BoE) released a report evaluating the feasibility of implementing offline payment functionality for a yet-to-be-created digital pound sterling. This option “might provide additional resilience in the event of network disruption or outage of telephony services, and support financial inclusion and certain payment use cases, such as transportation,” the central bank proposed. Several technology companies, including Thales, Secretarium, Idemia Secure Transactions, Quali-Sign, and Consult Hyperion, submitted prototypes to the BoE.
In a similar vein, the ECB issued a substantial tender in 2024 for fintech companies to develop a digital euro with offline capabilities.
Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB executive board, emphasizes the importance of maintaining payment options. “The inability to use physical cash in online transactions or for digital payments at the point of sale deprives us of a key payment option, reducing resilience, competition, sovereignty, and ultimately, consumers’ freedom to choose how to pay,” he stated in a recent speech to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.
New Zealand’s projected digital cash solution would be Bluetooth-powered, enabling store purchases even when the power grid or wireless towers fail. Today, New Zealanders can’t make instant payments electronically to each other “unless they are both with the same bank,” says Silk.
None of these solutions has been implemented at scale, however. The BoE project demonstrated that while an offline digital pound might be technically feasible, there are questions about “security, performance, and user experience challenges which need to be explored further,” and particularly “security challenges related to double spending and counterfeiting.”
Keir Finlow-Bates, CEO and founder of blockchain research and development firm Chainfrog, says that the technical challenges of offline electronic cash aren’t dissimilar to those faced years earlier by cryptocurrency developers. In a 2024 blog post, he references the “double-spend” problem. “How does one make a digital construct behave like a physical object so that only one person can own it at a time? That is the core problem when designing and implementing offline digital cash.”
Wischnewsky acknowledges that offline private digital transfers are technically possible and that many projects, including offline CBDCs, show promise. Still, “These solutions are not yet mature, widely scalable, or secure enough for full deployment in a [national] payment system.”
The benefits could be tantalizing, though. “Choosing to pay with an ‘offline digital euro’ would allow you to maintain a level of privacy that is close to cash,” writes Maarten G.A. Daman, data protection officer at the ECB, in a post on The ECB Blog. “You could pay a friend for your share of a dinner, and only you and your friend would know the payment information. How? You would simply both have the digital euro app on your smartphones and hold them next to each other to transfer the money.”
Not only could the offline option allay privacy concerns, it could also ensure that the poor, elderly, or geographically isolated members of society aren’t further disadvantaged. This last group is of particular concern for China’s government, whose digital yuan is nearing full rollout.
“Cash remains an integral component of consumer payments, especially among China’s rural and semiurban population,” Kartik Challa, senior banking and payments analyst at GlobalData, tells Global Finance. “Offline payments could be a key bridge for inclusivity in a cashless society.”
Olivia Attwood is back with a new series of ITV2’s Bad Boyfriends, however she made headlines after presenting This Morning for the very first time this summer
Olivia Attwood on This Morning(Image: ITV)
Olivia Attwood has opened up about her future on ITV’s This Morning after making her presenting debut this summer. The ex Love Island star is returning to our screens with a new series of Bad Boyfriends on ITV2 this weekend.
However, Olivia became a daytime name earlier this year when she joined the presenting line-up of This Morning over the summer break. Speaking ahead of Bad Boyfriends’s return, Olivia revealed that This Morning bosses were impressed with her performance – and want her back.
“I loved it and luckily they loved me, which was all I was worried about,” she said. “They were happy and I did the slots I had over summer.
Olivia Attwood co-hosts ITV’s This Morning with Dermot O’Leary(Image: ITV)
“From their side and our side, we’d like it to be a repeat thing, but now it’s going back into regular scheduling with Cat and Ben so it’s more just where and when I could pop back in and obviously around the other things I’m doing.”
She added that it was a dream working with Dermot O’Leary, who she hosted alongside in the summer break. “I loved it and Dermot was just the dream to work alongside,” she said.
“Honestly, I have so much respect for him as a broadcaster and it was like surreal, but it was, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a few more.”
It comes after Olivia revealed that she was “told off” by her husband Bradley Dack following her wild Ibiza holiday with friends – including Pete Wicks. “I am wild and I do go to Ibiza every year,” she said.
“I let my hair down and I do get told off by my husband and I’m honest about that. I’m not alone in that. The difference is that other people in our industry just wouldn’t be honest to say that. That is just what happens. I’m just not perfect, Brad’s not perfect, but we make it work.”
The ex Love Islander was pictured looking cosy with friend and KISS co-presenter Pete Wicks while partying on a boat with friends in Ibiza. Speaking about the rumours around their platonic relationship, she said: “I think it’s going to be expected when you have two straight people working together.
“It happened when I first joined TOWIE and Pete and I became very close. We spent a lot of time together. There was a rumour mill spinning back then and I expect it.
“I honestly do know that the way I am with the press and how I survive in my career is that I just don’t deep it that much. Unless it was something really bad that someone was saying about me, I don’t get too invested.
Olivia Attwood’s Bad Boyfriends airs Sunday at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX.
Tuchel insisted after the match that Rashford is putting in the effort to succeed.
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Rashford has been recalled for the England teamCredit: Getty
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Thomas Tuchel insisted that the forward is training wellCredit: Alamy
He said: “For me, he’s clearly a left winger.
“That’s where we played him today. He had the freedom to go a bit more inside to play not only against the fifth defender in the back five, but to play maybe more inside against the third.
“I think the right side was a bit more active and found the positions a bit better. So I think he suffered from that today.
“He had an excellent training week, and it was obvious that we want him to start because he trained so well on the left side.
“I can see that he tries. This is, for me, the most important, that he stays positive and he trains at the moment with the right attitude with a smile.
“He struggles a bit with numbers and with ‘wow’ performance in an England shirt.”
Beat the Chasers is back and in an exclusive first look clip host Bradley Walsh has a question for the Chasers
Bradley Walsh asks the chasers about a ‘Beat the Chasers movie’
Beat the Chasers is back for a brand new episode on Sunday night where Bradley Walsh has a question for the Chasers.
The hit ITV gameshow series sees contestants take on the Chasers in a bid to win big money and it’s currently airing its seventh season.
In an exclusive clip of this Sunday’s show (Sunday 7 September) it sees host Bradley Walsh ask The Chasers — Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, Darragh Ennis — a very “important” question…
Bradley, 65, says: “Let me ask you this, when they make Beat the Chasers the movie, who will play you, Governess [Anne’s Chaser name]…”
To which Anne, 67, responds: “I’m holding out for Margot Robbie” with Bradley quipping: “Aren’t we all!” as the audience bursts out laughing.
Beat the Chasers is back for a brand new episode on Sunday night where Bradley Walsh has a question for the Chasers(Image: ITV)
Anne continues: “She’s going to have to scrub up a bit but I think she’s got the basics!”
Bradley then says: “Yes, thank you, Vixen?” as he moves onto fellow Chaser Jenny Ryan who replies: “I think the key thing for a Beat the Chasers movie would be [who would play you]?” Viewers will have to tune in on Sunday night to see the rest of the stars’ answers.
It comes as Beat the Chasers star Mark quipped “I’ll get my coat” and made his exit after a contestant snatched a staggering £100,000 from under his nose in an episode on Sunday August 31.
Meanwhile host Bradley recently cautioned that he would be “fired” from The Chase if he implemented any major alterations on the hit ITV series.
Bradley Walsh ask The Chasers — Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, Darragh Ennis — a very “important” question(Image: ITV)
Whilst appearing on The One Show back on Friday 15 August, Bradley faced questions about his hectic timetable.
“You’ve got The Chase coming up, you’ve got Beat The Chasers as well, anything different we can expect from these series?” presenter Clara Amfo enquired.
To which Bradley promptly responded: “No they’re the same, they’re what you see on the tin. I’m not allowed to do anything different, I think I’d get fired if I did anything different. You’ve got to stick to the rules, and stick to the format.”
He continued: “You can have a laugh in between.”
Beat the Chasers airs Sundays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITV X.
