It’s never good when NFL coaches on struggling teams have to publicly reaffirm their faith in members of their staff before the calendar turns to October — and that’s what Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh did on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in the wake of a 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Harbaugh was asked if he would consider taking some control away from offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel if the offense doesn’t improve.
“No, we trust Mike. We believe in Mike,” Harbaugh said.
It would be odd for Harbaugh to publicly admit to anything else at this point, especially because he’s not in a good position to do much else to salvage the season. Harbaugh has never called plays at the NFL level and must hope McDaniel and Justin Herbert can fix the NFL’s No. 21-ranked offense (309 yards per game) if the Chargers have any chance of becoming the eighth team in NFL history to reach the postseason after an 0-3 start.
“We’re searching for every possible way to give ourselves an advantage,” Harbaugh said. “Every possible way to not beat ourselves.”
Although Harbaugh doesn’t see himself intervening on McDaniel’s turf, he does want to see improvement from Herbert. The quarterback struggled against the Bills, failing to capitalize on five takeaways from the Chargers’ defense. He passed for 226 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but four trips to the red zone — two of which were assisted by favorable field position off takeaways — resulted in only three field goals and a touchdown.
“To be better,” said Harbaugh, regarding Herbert’s decision-making. “That drives Justin, that drives me, that drives his position coach, that drives Mike [McDaniel]. … I mean, drives us all.”
Herbert isn’t the only underperformer. Dropped passes from wide receiver Quentin Johnston and tight end Oronde Gadsden II were factors in the Bills becoming the first team since the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2022 season wild-card playoffs to win despite five turnovers and a minus-four turnover differential.
The team the Jaguars beat that January? The Chargers.
The Labour Party chair has said Sir Jim Ratcliffe loses “the moral high ground” by making statements about the UK while living in tax exile.
Speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Bridget Phillipson said she would take the billionaire businessman’s comments that the UK was “on the slide” with a “pinch of salt”.
Sir Jim, the founder of petrochemical giant Ineos and Manchester United’s co-owner, told the BBC he has lost confidence in the UK due to a combination of high taxes and high immigration.
He has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020 and said “things would have to get better” in the UK for him to return.
When questioned over the remarks, Phillipson said Sir Jim loses “the moral high ground” by “making these kinds of pronouncements while choosing to make decisions, that he is within his rights to make, to become a tax exile”.
Pushed on whether it bothers her that people who create jobs and pay a lot of tax were leaving the UK, the minister said she was “optimistic about our country’s prospects”.
Other high profile billionaires have left the UK, including including steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and most recently the UK’s third biggest taxpayer, hedge-fund boss Chris Rokos.
But, Philipson argued the country was in a good position ahead of the Budget next month, and Andy Burnham has shown a “sense of hope and optimism whilst recognising that many families are still struggling and there is more to do.”
“Of course, there are challenges, including big international headwinds, but I fundamentally believe that we are in a strong position going into this budget because of the decisions taken over the last two years, and I believe our country’s best days lie ahead of us,” she said.
Philipson declined to speculate over whether there would be tax rises in the Budget on 28 October, and said the government remained committed to being disciplined about its spending rules.
The Manchester United Muslim Supporters group says club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe “must go” after he spoke out against immigration levels and said the country was “on the slide”.
Billionaire Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people and founder of petrochemical giant Ineos, made the comments in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.
Ratcliffe said the UK was in decline because of a combination of high taxes and high immigration.
He has previously apologised for “offending some people” with his language after saying the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”.
At the time, in February, United responded by saying the club “prides itself” on being “inclusive”, while BBC Sport cited a source familiar with the Glazer family as understanding the club’s majority shareholders were “horrified” by his initial remarks and saw them as showing “disregard for their ownership”.
“We condemned those comments then,” said a statement of no confidence from Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club (MUMSC) in the club’s ownership, issued on Saturday.
“He [Ratcliffe] subsequently apologised for his choice of language. We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.
“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either.
“We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
Ratcliffe campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 European Union referendum and has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020.
He acquired a 27.7% stake in Man Utd in 2024, and has since restructured the organisation, overseeing 450 redundancies, overhauling senior management and sacking two managers.
MUMSC highlighted that United’s “players, staff, stewards, security teams and supporters come from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds”.
The group added: “Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them. That diversity isn’t a weakness of Manchester United. It is part of Manchester United.”
In the statement, the MUMSC also called on the Glazer family to go.
MUMSC said its members were among the club’s fans who hoped Ratcliffe’s arrival “would finally signal meaningful change” after the Glazer family had “presided over Manchester United’s decline”.
However, the group pointed to “higher ticket prices” and “a stadium allowed to deteriorate”, along with “a football team that continues to fall further behind where Manchester United should be”, among their concerns which “now extend beyond the pitch”.
Manchester United entered the weekend sitting 13th in the Premier League after gaining four points from their first four Premier League games, and they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with a 3-2 home defeat by Brighton.
“After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club,” MUMSC concluded.
“Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”
COMEDIAN Jim Davidson has called off his sixth wedding to his fiancée Natasha after secretly separating – and exclusively revealed to The Sun the reasons behind the split.
The Celebrity Big Brotherstar, 72, was set to wed at Hampton Court Palace last year – and ending it all has come at quite a cost.
Jim Davidson has separated from his fiancée NatashaCredit: NewsquestThe pair, who have a 23-year age-gap, had planned to at wed Hampton Court Palace
The palatial venue, where all six of King Henry VIII’s wives lived during their marriages, was an amusing nod to Jim’s string of failed marriages – but Davidson and Natasha, 49, have now lost their £10k deposit.
Despite plans to marry six times like the former King of England, funnyman Jim confirmed the engagement is off.
He told The Sun: “There’s no bad blood. Natasha is the most caring and dutiful person.
“It’s not like we’re splitting up because we don’t love each other anymore.
“It’s a sort of a grown-up separation. The timing’s not right because she has so much time for everybody and how can you knock that?”
Jim and Natasha pictured with Reform MP Lee Anderson MPCredit: LeeAndersonMP_/xJim, who won Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, is newly singleCredit: Alamy
The smitten comic later introduced her to pals at Reform leader Nigel Farage’s birthday party saying he was going to make her his sixth wife – despite previously admitting his divorces had cost him around £60million.
He even renamed his £350,000 yacht – previously called Princess Mitchie after his ex-wife Michelle Cotton – Lady Natasha in honour of his new love.
However, the former Big Break and Generation Game host says the couple are no longer in a relationship ahead of their third anniversary.
He told us: “We still speak every other day, but whether we’ll ever find room to see one another again, I don’t know.
“She is very dutiful. She puts family first. And of course she has three children and now a grandson as well.
“She is just so busy and so I’m very busy as well. I’ve just finished a tour and my a*** is shaped like my car seat after travelling around the country. I get out of the car and I walk like I’m still in it.
“Our busy lives mean we’ve not been seeing one another. I previously fitted into her life because I’m hardly ever around myself.
“But there’s no bad feelings. I do love her. She’s fantastic.
“She’s the best friend you could ever have. She’s the best mother you could ever have.
“She’s the best daughter you could ever have. And I’m so proud that she was my girlfriend up until now.”
Jim – who was awarded an OBE in the 2001 New Year Honours – launched the Ustreme streaming channel after a successful stint recording short videos during Covid when he was unable to perform live and had no idea how audiences would respond.
The content includes exclusive stand-up shows and in-depth interviews with the aim of “making people laugh like they used to”.
Natasha’s new series is set to air on Jim’s website, where she jokingly refers to herself as the ‘future ex Mrs Davidson’.
Jim continued: “We planned to get married last year and even booked Hampton Court Palace, which we thought was great because Natasha would be the sixth wife and she thought that was hysterical.
The comedian is going on tour in DecemberCredit: PR HandoutJim pictured in 1976 on New FacesCredit: Rex
“But these days we just don’t have the time to see each other and split up every month.
“So going forward, we might end up seeing each other again, or we might draw a line under it because it’s not practical for the pair of us.
“I said to her, ‘Are you going to give me my jewellery back? and she told me, ‘If you want it back, I’ll just get it from someone else’,” Jim laughed.
“She’s a beautiful girl. How she found time for me, I’ve no idea. She does everything for everybody and asks nothing for herself.”
Ruling out there being another potential wife-to-be on the cards, Jim joked: “The only thing that’s in my life now is a Hyundai Santa Fe and a dressing room.”
Natasha’s new eight-part series launches in October, interviewing an array of celebrity guests.
Meanwhile Jim Davidson – The Christmas Cracker Tour – launches on December 2.
Jim’s five wives and a fiancee
JIM married his childhood sweetheart Sue Walpole in 1971 at the age of 17 after she became pregnant with their daughter Sarah.
The marriage only lasted a year, and they divorced in 1972.
Jim wed second wife Julie Gullick in 1981 and had his second child, Cameron, but split five years later.
Jim wed TV presenter Alison Holloway in 1987, but the marriage was hit with rumours of infidelity and was over by 1989.
One of Jim’s most successful relationships was a 10-year marriage to former Page Three girl Tracy Hilton – the mum of his three youngest children – Charlie, Fred, and Elsie.
Jim married his fifth wife Michelle Cotton in 2009 with hopes that she was ‘the one’.
During an interview on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, the host asked him about his wife, and Jim replied: “She is a very nice person. She’s impatient, she’s fiery like me.
“I hope I’m with Michelle for the rest of my life, there’s no one better I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. Liz Hurley, perhaps?”
However in 2023, the comedian revealed they had split up, with their divorce finalised in 2024.
He said in an interview posted on ustreme.com: “There you go, the divorce came through today, so it’s done. I’m divorced again, my fifth divorce.
“The house has been sold and that will be going through in March, fingers crossed.
“Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton’s longtime tenure on the popular game show is officially over.
A spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television, which produces “Wheel of Fortune,” confirmed in a statement shared with The Times on Friday that Thornton’s “employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately,” following an investigation. Sony suspended Thornton on Tuesday amid an ongoing probe into then-unspecified allegations.
A legal representative for Thornton, 61, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.
A day before TMZ first reported on the announcer‘s firing, the outlet published numerous photos that show Thornton on his laptop aboard a flight visiting a website that describes itself as a support chat for “people who are attracted to children.” In photos taken by a neighboring passenger, Thornton’s computer screen appears to show messages of one user saying they “saw a couple of cute boys and a hot little girl” at a restaurant they referred to as an “All-you-can-eat Boyfett” and a second user referring to “CP,” commonly shorthand for child pornography. The photos published by TMZ also show Thornton, who is wearing a black jacket embroidered with the “Wheel of Fortune” logo on his sleeve, appearing to type into the chat room.
Thornton’s attorney Allison Hart told TMZ that he became a suicide-prevention advocate after a loved one took their life two years ago and he has since spent time visiting crisis chat rooms to offer “support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation.” According to TMZ, Thornton claimed an acquaintance from a suicide prevention group sent him a link to an unrelated, non-crisis chat room — the one seen in the photos. Thornton also reportedly said he quickly left the disturbing chat room “once he found out what it was.” Time stamps seen in the photos show Thornton remained in the chat room for nearly an hour.
The passenger complained about Thornton to a flight attendant and shared the photos with the crew, according to TMZ. American Airlines informed the outlet that a passenger was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on May 14, although the airline did not identify the individual.
Thornton’s attorney also told TMZ earlier this week that he “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”
“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” his attorney said.
Thornton’s “Wheel of Fortune” tenure traces back to 2011 following the death of his predecessor, Charlie O’Donnell. His game show credits include “The Price Is Right,” “The Soup,” “Jeopardy!” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” He has performed voice work for the movie “Monsters, Inc.,” and video games including “Wall-E” and “Mafia II.”
Times staff writer Andrea Flores contributed to this report.
Jim Thornton, the longtime announcer for the popular game show “Wheel of Fortune,” has been suspended following unspecified allegations.
“We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton,” a spokesperson for Sony Pictures Television Studios told The Times. “He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
Sony Pictures did not specify the reason for the suspension.
The allegations could possibly stem from an incident that occurred in May aboard a commercial American Airlines flight to Los Angeles, TMZ reported, when a passenger complained about Thornton to a flight attendant.
American Airlines told TMZ that a passenger was met by law enforcement upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on May 14, although the airline did not identify the individual.
Thornton’s attorney told the outlet that the 61-year-old “did not engage in any illegal conduct, was not arrested and has not been charged with any crime.”
“When questioned about the complaint made by a fellow passenger on the flight, law enforcement spoke to him for five minutes or less, immediately determined that no wrongdoing had occurred and told my client he was free to go,” his attorney continued.
Thornton joined “Wheel of Fortune” in 2011 following the death of announcer Charlie O’Donnell.
Thornton’s credits include “The Price Is Right,” “The Soup,” “Jeopardy!” and “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” Thornton’s voice was also been featured in the 2001 animated hit “Monsters, Inc.,” and video games including “Wall-E” and “Mafia II.”
