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This story contains spoilers for Episode 8 of HBO Max’s “Lanterns.”

From the very first time Tom King and DC Studios’ James Gunn ever talked about a Green Lantern show, they envisioned John Stewart as the kind of hero who could generate excitement and change the tide of any battle upon his arrival.

“The idea was to build a character as compelling and impactful as, say, Thor in the Marvel universe,” says King, the “Lanterns” co-creator, during a recent video call. “Someone who arrives in a movie with a thunderclap, and … the audience [just] screams when they arrive because you’re in love with that character … not just [for] the power set they have, but the integrity of that character.”

That hero officially takes flight in Sunday’s “Lanterns” finale.

Episode 8 of the HBO Max superhero crime drama, titled “Dirt and Stars,” sees John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) take up the mantle as Earth’s newest Green Lantern. After solving the mystery of his predecessor Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) death, Stewart claims Jordan’s power ring as his own, recites his oath and jets off toward his next adventure. (A second season of “Lanterns” has not been announced, but the character will appear in Gunn’s upcoming “Superman” sequel, “Man of Tomorrow.”)

Co-created by King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, “Lanterns” introduces Jordan as a grizzled, veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps, intergalactic space cops who are armed with a special ring that allows them to manifest objects and manipulate energy.

In the finale, John Stewart, left, claims Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) ring as his own.

(John Johnson / HBO Max)

Stewart is a new Green Lantern recruit, but when an investigation into the whereabouts of a killer alien robot on the run goes awry, they go their separate ways.

“One of the cool things about the canonical Green Lanterns is that, technically speaking, there’s only one ring delegated to this particular sector in which Earth fell,” says Lindelof of one of the show’s central conflicts.

The creative team knew from the jump that Stewart would be the one to bear that ring at the end of the season, but the idea that Stewart would be a child prodigy whose parents preordained his path to become the next Green Lantern developed over time.

“We [decided] the first part of John’s life is going to be [about] coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t really want the ring — or he doesn’t want the ring on those terms,” Lindelof says. “Then there would have to be some period of time where he was living his dream. … Then and only then would he be able to wipe the slate clean, as it were, and gravitate back toward a healthy way to want the ring.”

In the comics, Green Lanterns are known for their oaths, which they recite when recharging their rings or to reaffirm their commitment to the group. In “Lanterns,” Stewart creates his own version that acknowledges his journey and perspective on becoming a Green Lantern.

“We talked a lot about it in the room, but the feeling was that he was changing the relationship with the Guardians in that moment,” Mundy says, referring to the immortal aliens that created the Green Lantern Corps.

In the end, Hal, left, is able to impart lessons that nobody else would have been able to teach John.

(John Johnson / HBO Max)

The Guardians had once considered Stewart an ideal replacement for Jordan because he was willing to blindly follow orders, but by the time he claimed Jordan’s ring, it’s clear Stewart has no plans to be affiliated with the Guardians or the Green Lantern Corps in that way, and the writers wanted his oath to reflect that.

“We wanted John to take [the role] on his terms,” Mundy says. “Even though Hal didn’t train him as well as he should have trained him, he taught him lessons that nobody else would have taught him. … [Including] how you need to be your own person even as you’re working for this organization.”

Besides his unconventional path to becoming a Green Lantern, Stewart is in possession of a unique lantern for recharging his ring that was forged by Sinestro, Jordan’s disgraced mentor.

The “Lanterns” showrunner remained coy when asked whether this lantern’s more ominous origins could lead to any unintended consequences for Stewart.

“It’s rife with possibility, is what I will say,” Mundy says.

In separate interviews, Mundy, Lindelof and King discussed the “Lanterns” finale, Stewart and Jordan’s bittersweet reconciliation and the show’s fiercely protective mothers. Their comments have been edited for clarity and length.

Because the “real” Hal is killed in 2026, his relationship with John is left unresolved. John shares a moment with the Halogram, the backup version of 2006 Hal’s consciousness, after working with him and the mystery is solved, but can you address that lack of proper closure for them?

Mundy: We talked about this thing as a love story between these guys in a certain way, but one of them has to die in order for them to truly come together. Even over the course of the Halogram being in the show, he never called John “Junior” ever. He always called him “trainee.” Until the last moment when he says … “I love you, too, Junior.” There’s something very bittersweet about the fact that the two people we spent all that time with don’t fully have their moment together.

King: What I think is hinted at between the Halogram and the final Hal we get is this Sinestro subplot. This is right from the comics, but Hal’s best friend, his mentor, the person who trained him, betrayed everything he trusted and Hal had to put him away. I think the trauma of that moment closed Hal up. It damaged him … so he was unable to see John for what he is and unable to listen to John the way he should. [With the Halogram] John finally encounters a Hal who hasn’t gone through that and they can have conversations they couldn’t have before. John can start to feel the empathy that Hal denied him, and he can see Hal for who Hal really is.

Lindelof: I love the idea that that version of Hal and John are unresolved. There is no apology. There is no forgiveness. The only closure that John can get is from this earlier version of Hal who has a lot of sympathy and empathy, not just for John, but for himself. Obviously, this is a crazy sci-fi superhero show, but that feels more authentic to life. Sort of like when someone that you love is gone, and you find a note that they wrote or an old birthday card and you extrapolate new meaning from it even though it’s from an earlier version of them.

Viewers get some backstory on the romance between Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) and Hal.

(John Johnson / HBO Max)

Why was it important to show more of 2026 Hal Jordan’s life before his death in the finale?

Lindelof: The only flavoring that we get of him directly [before this] is in the diner scene, when John comes for his apology and doesn’t get one. Only toward the very end of that scene after John has hit Hal, and Hal says, “Don’t let anybody know that you were here,” is there a flash that something has changed in this guy. It’s one thing for Kerry to tell us that they were in love, or to hear Hal’s “buttercup” voicemail, but I think that the audience needed to see it and experience it. Hal is not a changed man in 2026, but he’s an evolved man. And there’s real tragedy inherent in all of the decisions that he’s making because we know that all of those decisions basically lead him to be a corpse in the stands at a football game. The subtle differences by which Kyle plays older Hal versus Halogram Hal is really on sharp display in the finale.

With Noah being a Manhunter, it turned out that he and John were dealing with similar questions around lineage and legacy and nature versus nurture. How did the exploration into these themes evolve during the show’s development? Much of it is unpacked in their truck ride together.

King: The basic idea [was] that John had been one of these kids who had been told, “You’re going to be this when you grow up.” Like a Tiger Woods or Michael Jackson-esque child. We started talking about what that’s like — to be a prodigy, to be forced into [something]. The idea that you’re kind of programmed by your parents. And then we were talking about Manhunters. The problem with Manhunters is they’ve been programmed to do this one thing, and they can’t defy their programming [to eradicate mankind]. That’s why they had to eventually be erased. Then we started talking about the parallel of programming and overcoming programming, and what makes you human, what doesn’t, that parallel came first. Those were the very nascent ideas, and we took that to our brilliant writers room, and [Breannah Gibson], Justin [Britt-Gibson] and Vanessa [Baden Kelly] added their own personal experience to that and made it a much richer … and personal story.

Mundy: John still doesn’t know if he’s about to die in this car. Noah is trying to learn about himself and figure out if he wants to kill John or die himself. The important thing was to hold that tension and then kind of step that conversation through chapters. There’s anger about what happened to Zoe. After he understands that a little bit better, he says “these are the different ways my life could go.” And then John can actually bring a piece of himself. We talked all the time about the way John was raised and the programming of the Manhunters and what’s “programming” and what’s “being raised.” Then there’s a confession that ends up being false, but also this request to be killed. There were three distinct sections of that conversation, and we wanted them all to be meaningful and personal.

In the final scenes of the episode, John and Kerry have a conversation about what parents are willing to do for their children.

(John Johnson / HBO Max)

With both Hal and John, so much of their intergenerational trauma is tied to their fathers. But with Noah and John, you also see just how big of a role their mothers have played in shaping them. How did that aspect come about?

Mundy: Once we knew that Noah was a Manhunter, it felt too cheap and too easy for that to be the answer [to the mystery of Hal’s death]. But it felt key to the answer of it, and we were talking so much about parenthood and what you would do for your child and what it means. What’s protecting people and what’s not? It just became a given pretty early on that Kerry would be the answer at the end. It just fit into the same story Bernadette was going through. And [John’s] conversation with Kerry explains so much of that.

Lindelof: I think this all came from Vanessa Baden Kelly. We had written the pilot, where John’s father is shooting the apple off of his head, and then when Vanessa came on shortly thereafter, she’s like, “Where’s mom?” It is one of those moments where you realize it, particularly because we were three men, but also inside of the canon of these superheroes, it’s always a dad. So the idea was having Bernadette really be the mastermind of John’s upbringing as a way to provide a simultaneous salve for her husband’s shame about being afraid about losing out on the opportunity.

I think that Kerry is an equally fierce mother. Obviously, she loves Hal. But when you watch it a second time after you’ve seen the finale, you realize that there’s guilt there as well because of what she did to him, all in the name of her son.

John starts to reframe what Bernadette did as something for him, as opposed to something for her — in a lot of ways, it was a selfless act. She’s doing it knowing that her child will hate her, but that he’ll be the Earth’s Green Lantern, and there’s going to be an aspirational quality to that for generations to follow.

The Celebrity Traitors got under way in dramatic fashion this week and traitor Richard E Grant admitted he ‘just went mad’ with one of his decisions.

Celebrity Traitors star Amol Rajan has said Richard E Grant told him that he “just went mad” when he decided to remove him from the game.

Writing in his newsletter Amol said he asked Richard why he chose to eliminate him and the actor replied: “To protect myself. And that’s a compliment!”

Amol replied: “But if you really wanted protection, you should have recruited me. That would have been a compliment!” He says Richard told him: “Ah yes, that makes sense. But I think I just went mad.”

Traitor Richard gave away the game almost immediately in the show’s second series when the actor admitted he was a traitor, despite the aim of the game being to hide the fact.

To see more of the Traitors stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.

Richard was picked by Claudia Winkleman to be one of two contestants picked to be a traitor – a player who attempts to “murder” others on the show while pretending to be an ordinary participant.

But rather than go under the radar, Richard announced his role as a traitor. And he has now admitted to Amol Rajan that he doesn’t know what came over him.

Richard and fellow traitor, Love Island host Maya Jama, chose to murder the former BBC presenter in episode two.

Amol explained: “He said: “I was so thrilled to be chosen as a traitor that, in my unguarded excitement, I said, ‘Of course I’m a traitor.’ I clearly need to diffuse all the heat that’s coming in my direction.”

Richard added: ““Well, the game had actually started, I was so relieved that it started because I had been so blatant about saying I came into this thing and it’s called Traitors, because I wanted to be a traitor.

“So when I walked into the bar, somebody said, ‘so you’re a faithful or a traitor?’, and I said, ‘I’m a traitor’, of course.”

While Amol admitted he would have liked to have been recruited to be a traitor, that accolade fell to comedian James Acaster.

The decision left Amol being murdered from the game and speaking on The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on Friday, he said: “It’s hard not to watch it and think I, obviously, with 20/20 hindsight, I played the wrong game. That was a crazy, crazy once-in-a-lifetime [opportunity].”

He went on: “I think I would have been quite a good traitor because I’d actually known what it was like to be a faithful.”

And in advice to Richard he said maybe the star should have tried to stay off the radar a bit more rather than confess so blatantly. Amol said: “I think the one tactic that you should try to abide by is to keep a little bit, you know, fly under the radar a little bit for the first few days. Just shut up for the first few shows.”

After the second episode left fans wondering what was to come in a tense cliffhanger, viewers have to wait until Thursday to find out. Celebrity Traitors isn’t on again until Thursday (October 8, at 8pm), with the show once again doing a Thursday-Friday double.

The Celebrity Traitors airs on Thursdays and Fridays on BBC1 at 8pm.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

History was made this week on Capitol Hill when a female senator womansplained sports to a male senator, and surprisingly, the gender-shaming reversal did not cause the universe to collapse on itself.

During a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, MAGA’s manhood cloak was breached when Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) revealed that Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) had mixed up the names of basketball teams in an unsuccessful attempt to perjure former Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Smith was testifying before the committee because he had led the investigations into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and retain classified documents. Several Republican lawmakers have said that Smith overstepped his duties and launched a “witch hunt” against Trump and his allies.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) speaks during a 2020 event in Las Vegas.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Schmitt was trying to suggest Tuesday that Smith improperly colluded with Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis on their separate criminal cases against Trump by placing the former special counsel on Willis’ home turf of Atlanta in 2024.

But a watershed Watergate moment this was not. If Schmitt’s effort to ensnare Smith was set to a musical score, it would have been far more “Curb Your Enthusiasm” than “Mission Impossible.”

His gotcha moment became a schooling by Klobuchar on basketball, turning the tables on the age-old art of mansplaining. For those who need a quick definition, it’s when a man explains something to a woman in a patronizing way, with sports usually at the top of that talk-down-to-her list. He assumes she knows less than he does, even if she’s versed on the subject.

Klobuchar is an avowed sports fan and the daughter of respected Minneapolis sportswriter Jim Klobuchar and a former prosecutor known for her sharp questioning. The combination proved unfortunate for Schmitt during the hearing when he tried to catch Smith in a lie.

The Republican senator asked Smith, “Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 3, 2024?”

Smith, whose normally commanding presence has launched countless memes, appeared genuinely perplexed. “What city would that be in?” he asked.

“Atlanta,” replied Schmitt.

Smith denied he was there.

“So your testimony today is that you did not go to a Hawks game on Feb. 3, 2024. Is that correct?” Schmitt said.

“I have no recollection of that,” a bewildered Smith said.

As evidence, Schmitt introduced text messages from Smith’s security detail about seating arrangements for a game, displayed on a poster board that was taken down so quickly that Smith and various senators said they didn’t have time to read it.

“I think you’ve already perjured yourself,” said Schmitt, a former Missouri attorney general who then used the rest of his time to condemn Smith for subpoenaing the communications of Republican lawmakers while investigating Trump.

“You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies to an extent that has never happened in the history of this country,” Schmitt proclaimed. “You will go down as a total dirtbag.”

Klobuchar, who was up next to question Smith, asked if the poster board could be produced again.

“I’m a former prosecutor too, and I have never seen anyone just say, ‘What do you think of this?’ and put it down,” she said.

Schmitt’s evidentiary board was produced again, and this time for more than a few seconds. There was no mention of Atlanta in the text messages.

One could almost hear the sound of Schmitt’s perjury trap crumbling under Klobuchar’s heel.

“Could it then be that it was the University of Iowa, [which] is the ‘Hawkeyes,’ could that be it?” she asked Smith. “That might be the confusion over the names of the team.”

Then she addressed Schmitt: “Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully. I think people should have their facts straight before they accuse people of being a ‘dirtbag,’ and not get the teams wrong.”

Leave it to a man to confuse the Atlanta Hawks, an NBA team, with the Iowa Hawkeyes of women’s college basketball. Perhaps his emotions got in the way.

Smith said he attended the game in Maryland to see the Hawkeyes’ supremely talented star, Caitlin Clark. Regardless of his whereabouts, Republicans contend that Smith was on a political witch hunt after then-Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland appointed him to oversee the twin investigations into Trump. Smith’s team scrutinized the retention of national defense information and classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, as well as the president and his allies’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and impede the peaceful transfer of power.

When Trump won the presidency a second time, Smith moved to dismiss both cases because Department of Justice policy prohibits the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.

Now, it’s game time for Judiciary Committee members who’d like to put Smith on the ropes. There’s just one new rule: Don’t talk sports around the ladies. They deliver a knockout punch.

Oct. 3, 2026 3:03 AM PT

Menopause has been having a moment lately, and Washington is taking notice. On Sept. 16, the Senate held its first hearing on the dismal state of federally funded menopause research and vast gaps in treatment and care. Within 24 hours, the Department of Health and Human Services also convened pharmaceutical manufacturers and physicians to troubleshoot the alarming lack of availability of estradiol patches, an essential menopause hormone treatment, and the Food and Drug Administration held a full day of expert panels on female-dosed testosterone, which is currently only FDA-approved for men.

One week later, Health and Human Services joined the American Urological Assn. for a discussion about a silent killer of postmenopausal women: urosepsis from recurrent urinary tract infections. There is a simple solution — localized vaginal estrogen — and yet because of outdated guidelines and lack of clinician training, the medication is too often ignored or denied. Nor is the prescription routinely covered by Medicare, despite its well-established health and longevity benefits for women over age 65.

These are among the attempts to now, finally, address decades of policy failures — a refreshing change, quite frankly, given neither political party has ever prioritized menopause. That 2026 marks the year when menopause has entered the policy arena comes as little surprise to me. I’ve been beating this drum for years. Every aspect of daily life that menopause touches — the soaring cost of medical care, inadequate access to health insurance, extreme underinvestment in scientific research focused on women’s health, even the myriad ways midlife women are stretched to the limit caring for kids and aging parents — is smack in the middle of the political zeitgeist. These are the kitchen table issues on the minds of voters this election.

Menopause moment, meet the midterms.

Another issue rightly revealed by menopause is the chasm of public trust in government. As one of the four expert witnesses who testified at the Senate, I was heartened that it was a true bipartisan endeavor. But that’s a rarity these days in Congress, an institution rife with dysfunction. Our federal health agencies have become so shamelessly politicized they are on a collision course with science — from HHS’ overt moves to undermine childhood vaccines, to the decimation of leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is struggling to respond to the crisis of measles outbreaks across the country.

My goal as a policy advocate is to help turn the tide on this country’s long record of neglect when it comes to menopause. Like many other women’s and reproductive health advocates, after the 2024 election l turned my attention to state legislatures — not just as a consolation prize but as a way to test what range of reforms were feasible and to get as many good laws as possible passed. It was the right move. Over the last two years, more than 60 bills have been introduced in 28 states — to do things like require private insurance and Medicaid to cover menopause care and treatment, improve clinician training and public education, and bolster antidiscrimination protection in the workplace. Ten of those states now have 21 laws on the books.

California is one and can claim real leadership. Among the bills passed by the Legislature, Assembly Bill 2270 from 2023-24 incentivizes continuing medical education on menopause for clinicians, the majority of whom receive little to zero training while in medical school and residency. The California Department of Corrections is now collaborating with medical experts to help bring menopause resources to incarcerated women in state prisons.

Newsom also just vetoed AB 1940, which would have codified menopause as a protected category in the state’s workplace antidiscrimination laws.

The Legislature has been especially deft at easing access to FDA-approved hormonal treatments, including testosterone, often used off-label by menopausal women: AB 82 ends the requirement to report prescriptions to the state’s tracking database; AB 1778 proactively declassifies testosterone as a controlled substance under state law, should there be action in Washington to do the same under federal law.

Although Newsom twice vetoed bills to mandate insurance coverage for menopause treatment — and deserved all the flak he received — the 2026-27 state budget includes a minor course correct: a $3.4-million “trailer bill” to invest in public education and make menopause treatments more affordable; Medi-Cal patients are not fully covered by the addendum, though, making it a toothless reform for those who need support the most.

Why should California’s menopause agenda, or that of the other 27 states that have introduced reforms, matter to the rest of the country? They offer useful models of what to do — or in the case of Medicaid exclusion, what not to do — in crafting meaningful policies. Perhaps more important, they offer a rationale that can help persuade the public; those who might balk at a congressional bill or federal policy, in part because of skepticism of the federal government or the current administration, can listen to and learn from other stakeholders, including governors and state lawmakers and activists.

Take for example the FDA decision in November 2025 to remove the long-critiqued “black box” warning on estrogen products for menopause. This was the culmination of a decade-long campaign by physicians, researchers and scientists — who had been waging the fight for accurate labeling well before the acronym MAHA ever existed and regardless of which party held power. Yet the very image of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. using his moment at the podium to credit the Trump administration’s deep commitment to women’s health posed a serious credibility challenge. Aligned and contemporaneous state reforms offered much-needed reassurance and clarity to many.

Trust in government is understandably at a low point, but this happens to be when menopause finally has caught the attention of policymakers at all levels of power. Some are taking long-overdue steps for women’s health, however implausibly. Let’s take the wins.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is the author of “When in Menopause: A User’s Manual & Citizen’s Guide.” She is executive director of NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center.

If there’s one positive to come out of the controversial play and video from Saturday’s USC vs. Oregon football game during which Oregon quarterback Dante Moore suffered a concussion after a late hit by USC’s Desman Stephens, it’s that high school football coaches are using it as a teachable moment on how not to react after a player is injured.

Stephens received a one-game suspension from USC after he was seen celebrating when hitting Moore in the head as he gave himself up on a slide to end a running play.

Whittier coach Lorenzo Hernandez said he reminded his players, “You’re always in someone’s lens.”

“You have to be compassionate about someone being injured,” he said.

St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro said there were plenty of lessons to point out to his players.

Negro said in a text, “As mentors, educators, and coaches we are constantly using moments like this to educate our players on how not to be. Football is a small fraternity and regardless of rivalries or spirited competitions we have to respect the health and safety of our opponents. Celebrating in a moment like that is disheartening and would never be tolerated here at Bosco.

“It wasn’t just the Dante Moore situation. It was also the situation from the Texas vs Tennessee game, too, with the unnecessary antics that draw penalties.

“We have to do better in making our kids realize there is a proper way to conduct yourself in an athletic contest. Personal character is revealed in these moments so choose wisely when you plan your actions after you make a good play.”

A former contestant from The Great British Bake Off admitted ‘I did feel a bit sick’.

A contestant on The Great British Bake Off has revealed a moment that left him feeling “sick”.

The fan-favourite baking competition has returned to Channel 4, with 12 amateur bakers hoping to impress Paul Hollywood and new judge Nigella Lawson, who has replaced Dame Prue Leith.

In the first episode of this series, the bakers were tasked with making Nigella’s stout cake and a self-portrait showstopper, and despite two creations collapsing onto the floor, no one was sent home after contestant Shannon had to quit the challenge halfway through on medical advice.

Ahead of biscuit week tonight, Tuesday 29 September, one contestant has recalled his own experience on the show. Howard Middleton took part in the fourth series back in 2013, but was devastatingly sent home during week six.

He’s now revealed that before filming even began, there was a moment that left him feeling sick. Speaking on behalf of Smooth Spins, Howard shared his first impression of the famous white tent.

He said: “It’s interesting because you get two shots of it. So, we were ferried from the hotel to the tent in a little minibus, and you just see the tent emerging from the minibus, and it’s at that point you sort of think, ‘Oh God, I feel a bit sick!’ That’s when it starts to feel real.

“When you actually go into the tent the first time, you get a tour, where someone explains how the ovens work and the hobs and everything around the kitchen. I just remember thinking that I hadn’t understood a word that you’d just said because I was so in awe of actually being in the tent.

“Even after the explanation, I still kept having to ask how to work the oven and the hob afterwards. It’s very overwhelming, and I did feel a bit sick.”

He went on to talk about meeting his fellow bakers, revealing they only met the night before. Howard continued: “Obviously we’ve all gone through the audition process, and you’ve met certain people along the way, but it’s not until the night before you actually start filming that you know who’s got into the tent. It may be that you’ve met one or two of them, or you remember seeing them during the auditions, but most of the time they’re strangers, really.

“On the first night when you meet everyone, you can make up your mind about them. Sometimes people can be very loud if you are out for dinner or something, and you start to understand what they will be like in the tent.”

After their first impressions of each other, Howard shared that the bakers did spend time together when the cameras stopped rolling, though he admitted that his time on the show was likely different to now. Back then, the contestants stayed in a hotel further from the tent, whereas he claimed that now, due to security reasons, they stay much closer.

He went on: “And the security is much tighter than it was. We were free to go out for meals together in the evening, although, to be perfectly honest, you’re so tired by the time you’ve finished a day of filming that you really don’t want to socialise that much.

“We also realised that those of us who would be catching up at the hotel bar late at night – none of us made it through to the finals! So if there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s don’t go out the night before!”

The Great British Bake Off continues tonight at 8pm on Channel 4

When Dodgers rookie Josue De Paula debuted a little over two weeks ago, he was the youngest player in the lineup by four years. And when veteran infielder Miguel Rojas pinch-hit for Alex Freeland in the eighth inning, the 21-year-old De Paula and 29-year-old Kyle Tucker were the only Dodgers under 30 remaining in the batting order.

“You’ve got to have both,” veteran shortstop Mookie Betts, who turns 34 next month, said in a recent conversation with the Times. “You need experience, but you also do need youth. I don’t know what the balance is, to be honest.”

The age of the Dodgers’ stars is the most persistent knock on a group that just finished a 100-win regular season and has the second-best odds to win the World Series (16.7%), according to Baseball Prospectus.

It’s the threat looming beyond every new accomplishment. Yes, the Dodgers are in the midst of a historic run. Only one other organization has strung together so many consecutive postseason berths, and that Braves team of the 1990s and early 2000s won only one World Series.

The Dodgers are aiming to become the first National League team to claim three straight championships.

But how long can this last?

The Dodgers’ lineup is the oldest in the majors, according to Baseball Reference, with an average age of 30.9 years old when weighted by at-bats and games played. Their star corner infielders, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, are the oldest of the everyday starters, at 37 and 36, respectively. Even two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani turned 32 in July.

“That’s a fact, we’re an older team,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With age, there’s experience. I know we’re not going to fall off a cliff, our team.”

Plenty of young players in the Dodgers’ system have been blocked by older stars over the years. But in addition to a sky-high payroll, the Dodgers are known for their player development.

Even after the trade deadline — when the Dodgers sent two MLB Top-100 prospects, outfielder Zyhir Hope (No. 25) and right-hander River Ryan (No. 68), to the Tigers as part of the trade package for left-hander Tarik Skubal — the organization’s farm system ranked No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s rankings.

Serving as a reminder of that strength, when the Dodgers called up De Paula straight from double A, he immediately showed his bat belonged in the big-leagues.

At the same time, injuries stoked the flames of the age discussion. De Paula got his shot because Ohtani finally went on the injured list, after managing problems with his left knee and right biceps for much of the season.

Freeman pushed through knee tendinitis in September. Teoscar Hernández (left hamstring strain) and Betts (right oblique strain) both had monthlong IL stints earlier in the season but have helped carry the offense lately.

“As I’ve gotten older, I’m definitely taking a lot more care of my body,” Betts said. “I know I had an oblique [injury] earlier, but as far as just showing up every day and whatnot, I feel like we do a good job in taking care of our bodies and staying healthy for the most part.

“But I mean, people are talking like we’re the only ones in the league that’s getting hurt. You look everywhere around the league, somebody’s hurt.”

That’s true. And it also isn’t just the guys in their mid-to-late 30’s sustaining soft-tissue injuries. Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing, 25, served back-to-back IL stints for a flexor strain in his forearm down the stretch.

The Dodgers’ roster has proven deep enough to withstand injuries, as the team posted the second-best regular-season record in the majors this year.

“We’re not going to win games the same way that Milwaukee or Tampa Bay or these younger teams are winning games,” said Rojas, 37. “We’re going to win games a different way. We’re going to win games with a lot of talent, with experience, and winning moments.”

Over the years, the Dodgers have brought in players with postseason experience. But roster continuity also has meant that 17 players on this year’s projected postseason roster also contributed to both of the Dodgers’ last two World Series-winning seasons.

So, after playing more games than any other team the past couple years, the Dodgers may be a little hobbled going into their first-round bye. Regardless, they just completed their first 100-win season since 2023.

“The experience, how smart these guys are on the field, I think those things help win moments and win battles on the edges in October,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when the Dodgers clinched the NL West title earlier this month. “It’s not as easy to navigate through a 162-game season with an older roster. But I do think that experience in those moments will definitely help and we’ll see it shine through at different points in October.”

JAKE Humphrey candidly revealed how fellow kids TV presenter Holly Willoughby robbed him of his “big moment” in a new interview with Davina McCall — only for the clip to mysteriously disappear.

During an emotional chat with Davina’s Begin Again podcast, Jake, 47, opened up about his childhood bullying trauma, his relationship with his grandfather and a brutal rejection from BBC Sport earlier in his career.

He also spoke about his friendship and working partnership on CBBC with Holly. The pair were popular with young viewers in the early 2000s and presented CBBC’s coverage of talent show Fame Academy.

Jake revealed the pair’s chemistry was so good that channel bosses proposed they have their own show which they would have complete creative control over.

A delighted Jake saw it as his “big moment” and couldn’t wait to get planning, but his dreams disappeared the following day when Holly tentatively called him and said she wanted to pursue a presenting career with ITV.

Jake said the blow taught him a valuable lesson about the industry and not relying on others to share your vision.

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The clip was published on the Begin Again TikTok and Instagram accounts before seemingly being pulled and edited out of the podcast.

The Sun has contacted a representative for Begin Again for comment.

BT Sport presenter Jake recently shared a series of Fame Academy throwback images referencing the pair’s time on-screen.

He previously revealed the pair were so close they even shared a bed together.

In an unearthed interview from 2012, Jake told The Mirror that while he and Holly were working on Celebrity Fame Academy, she would stay at his flat in London as she was based in Brighton.

Jake recalled: “Eventually, it got to the point where we couldn’t be bothered to get the blow-up bed out so for about six months we slept in the same bed.”

Jake stressed that “nothing ever happened” romantically between him and Holly, but joked that may have been a different story if he hadn’t been dating.

Jake teased: “I wouldn’t want to say I met my wife too early but I would just say Holly’s worst habit is she sleeps naked – joking, of course.

“Holly’s a good mate but I look back on my time with her and wonder what might have been but I was going out with Harriet at the time and she lived in Leeds.”

Holly’s career in the spotlight began when she was scouted by a model agency at the Clothes Show Live aged just 14.

She then broke into television presenting, hosting shows on CBBC, before landing a job with its telly rival CITV.

That springboarded her career towards This Morning, which she signed for in 2009, and she worked on the ITV daytime show up until last year.

Holly has now swapped terrestrial TV for her own YouTube show, Together, which is produced by husband Dan’s Hungry Bear Media and currently has over 26,000 subscribers.

The pass looked doomed the moment it left Jayden Maiava’s hands.

It was third-and-long, midway through the second quarter last November in Eugene, Ore. USC was down just a score, and Maiava, the Trojans’ big-armed quarterback, was trying to make something happen. But the receiver he’d locked in on was unavailable and an Oregon edge rusher was charging at him unchecked. So Maiava let one fly down the middle of the field, and the pass sailed into a crowd of Duck defensive backs.

That regrettable interception, one of two for Maiava that day, ended up being one of the turning points in that game — and in a 2025 season that fell one win short of the College Football Playoff. The loss to Oregon last season served as a rude awakening for USC and Maiava, a reminder of how far both still had to go before reaching their potential.

A year later, as the two Big Ten powers meet again on Saturday, Maiava and the No. 12 Trojans (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) find themselves at another critical mile marker. A win over No. 20 Oregon (2-1, 0-0) would put USC firmly in the conversation for the College Football Playoff. A loss would have folks taking serious stock of where the Trojans stand in their fifth season under coach Lincoln Riley. And at the center of it all is a quarterback who so far seems entirely unfazed by that outside pressure.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava looks down field to pass against San José State on Aug. 29 at the Coliseum.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s playing with great confidence,” running back Waymond Jordan said of Maiava. “We’re going to keep seeing him getting better and better and better.”

Ask anyone at USC about Maiava at the moment, and they will invariably say something similar.

“It’s the most confident Jayden I’ve seen in the three years I’ve been around him,” left tackle Elijah Paige said.

Through four games, the numbers certainly suggest he’s on the cusp of a big season. Maiava leads all of college football with 12 touchdown passes and ranks seventh in completion percentage (75.7%). His name is already being floated in early Heisman Trophy conversations.

But Maiava also hasn’t been tested much through four games this season. His protection has been near-perfect, with just a single sack allowed. According to Pro Football Focus, Maiava has been under pressure on a mere 16 dropbacks — or 13% of the time — and, more often than not, that’s because he held the ball too long. Maiava’s average time to throw while under pressure so far this season is nearly four seconds, which, by Big Ten standards, is an eternity.

All of that’s likely to change this week against Oregon. The Ducks are loaded with talent along the defensive line and in the defensive backfield. While they’ve tallied just five sacks through three games, they’ve forced five interceptions, most of any team in the Big Ten. That’s after finishing second in the conference in that category a year ago.

Maiava hasn’t been quite as sharp the last two games after a dynamite start in which he had as many touchdowns (6) as incomplete passes through two weeks. But he knows Oregon will make him pay for any mistakes he makes Saturday, just as it did last season.

“Definitely a lot to learn from that game coming into the next one,” Maiava said. “Definitely turning the ball over, clean that up. Being stingy with the ball, being able to get the ball in playmakers’ hands and just continue to stay on the same page and move as one.”

He’ll almost certainly be without two of his top playmakers against Oregon, with freshman Trent Mosley unlikely to play and sophomore big-play threat Corey Simms already ruled out. Though, so far this season, Maiava has had no problem overcoming the absence of his two top receivers from a year ago, Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane.

USC still has standout freshmen Kayden Dixon-Wyatt and tight end Mark Bowman to pace the passing attack. The offense has also barely made use of two receivers who were expected to be at the top of the depth chart, Tanook Hines and Terrell Anderson, both of whom should play more of a part Saturday.

USC coach Lincoln Riley talks with quarterback Jayden Maiava on the sideline during a game against San José State on Aug. 29 at the Coliseum.

(Kevin Terrell / Getty Images)

“He’s done a really nice job with all the new faces around him, which is hard to do at this position,” Riley said of Maiava.

That’s a testament to his development since 2024, when Maiava arrived at USC with a howitzer arm but little polish to his game as a passer. He’d never gotten any individual training as a quarterback. His mechanics and footwork were especially raw.

After taking over at the end of that 2024 season, though, Maiava has continued to get progressively better. Now Riley views him as “one of the best quarterbacks in the country.”

“Of all the guys I’ve been fortunate enough to coach, I don’t know that I’ve had any that have improved from Day One to this point as much as Jayden has,” said Riley, who has coached three Heisman-winning quarterbacks. “It’s been fun to see him grow as a player and leader, starting to embrace what it means to be the starting quarterback at USC. I think a guy that’s just going to get better and better in his prime to play his best football.”

USC will need him at his best Saturday if it hopes to knock off Oregon, which has its own star quarterback in need of a big moment. Dante Moore could have been one of the top picks in the NFL draft a year ago, but returned to the Ducks, only for them to suffer a stunning loss to Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma State’s coach later acknowledged that Moore was tipping whether Oregon was running or passing on a given play by his pre-snap stance.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava looks to throw a pass against Rutgers on Sept. 19 in Piscataway, N.J.

(Adam Hunger/Associated Press)

“That was a game and that was a moment that helped mold us,” Moore has said since. “I learned from that, and I’m glad it happened.”

Moore will have the benefit Saturday of facing a struggling USC secondary. The Trojans have yielded 10 yards per pass attempt this season and now could be without starter Alex Graham, who’s listed as questionable. It has been especially difficult for USC to get off the field on third and fourth down, which Riley said has been a central focus this week.

“As a secondary, we’ve got to be a little bit tighter in those situations,” Riley said. “We’ve got to make those competitive plays. We have a good defensive line. We have a group that can rush the passer. We’ve got to make guys hold onto that ball, make our pass rush work, and make those plays when we get to the point of attack.”

Not to mention the Trojans have got a great quarterback, one that Riley expects to lean on his experience as USC faces its biggest test of the season.

“He’s just mentally in a really, really good place to go do that,” Riley said of Maiava. “He’s the guy I want taking us into this game, for sure.”

Something’s in the air this fall — and it’s not just the autumnal chill. For some reason, survival thrillers are all the rage; there are even two featuring a man and his dog. First, we had Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars” with Jacob Elordi and a Belgian Malinois traversing a postapocalyptic landscape.

The latest is “Heart of the Beast,” an Alaskan-set story about two combat veterans — one human, one canine — who set out for a post-retirement camping trip and find themselves in a perilous situation after the human, retired Special Forces officer James (Brad Pitt), suffers a heart attack while piloting his seaplane. James and his combat dog Odin survive the crash, just barely, but they’re stranded deep in the wilderness, miles from civilization.

The film is directed by David Ayer, a purveyor of wild action flicks and ballads of masculinity; the screenplay is the debut effort of Cameron Alexander. Their intent is to deliver something muscle-bound and emotional — if a man can’t cry about an Army dog, what can he cry about? But until the last two minutes of the film, “Heart of the Beast” is essentially “Homeward Bound” for adults. You know, the 1993 kids adventure film featuring a golden retriever, a bulldog and a cat named Sassy who have to make their way home through the wild. Marry the structure of that film with a Jack London-inspired milieu, add some blood, gore and rather cheesy Iraq war flashbacks, and you have “Heart of the Beast.”

We watch James as he’s rained on, chewed on, pulls trunks out of an icy lake, falls off a log, breaks his arm, faces down a bear, fights off wolves, sustains many head injuries and inexplicably keeps going, in hopes of saving if not himself his dog, the most important creature in his life.

And oh, is Odin worth it. Played by four different dogs named Uber, Seeka, Ryker and Hondo, the performance that these dogs collectively deliver is worthy company to an Oscar winner — the dogs may even eclipse Pitt for sheer screen presence. With every whimper, sigh, howl, bark and head tilt, these dogs create an empathetic portrayal of a highly intelligent creature that has been through battle and has the scars (and nightmares) to prove it. Odin is a bionic dog, with titanium teeth and a prosthetic foot from injuries sustained during wartime, but nothing slows him down, not even a plane crash. However, the film does have its limitations when it comes to the other wildlife, all digitally created and the CGI isn’t convincing in the slightest.

“Heart of the Beast” is an onslaught of danger and misery, alleviated only by the pleasure of watching James’ survival skills and ingenuity. This man makes a lot of mistakes on this journey (he’s constantly calling himself “stupid” and “dumb”), but he’s also kind of a MacGyver. He starts a fire with cotton balls and Neosporin. He carries an alarming number of knives. He splints his own arm. If anything, it’s an excellent lesson on carrying the right gear and always taking medical supplies on a camping trip — if you ever go camping again after this.

Pitt typically excels when there’s a little (or a lot) of levity for him to exercise his loose-limbed charms and there’s precisely none of that in “Heart of the Beast.” Ayer pushes the emotional and physical extremes and it feels like a dirge: a forced march through the muddy Alaskan wilderness with plenty of body horror on top. The one moment of camaraderie comes in the beginning, when James shares a beer with a mysterious stranger (J.K. Simmons) who happens upon his camp and might even be an apparition of an old miner. James does share moments of affection and victory with Odin but there’s nothing to relieve the constant danger, even though structurally, the film has already sapped its potential suspense.

“Heart of the Beast” has its highs and lows but cinematically, it’s a mixed bag — entirely predictable and just not great. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that the star of the movie is indeed Odin and he’s a very, very good boy.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

After the aircraft touched down in Birmingham, airport police boarded the plane and escorted the four adults off

A group of adults were escorted off an easyJet flight by police after allegedly vaping throughout the five-hour journey. Passenger Annalise Galstaun captured the moment four adults were removed from the plane by airport police after it landed at Birmingham Airport.

Annalise was travelling from Larnaka International Airport in Cyprus to Birmingham on the evening of September 16 when the incident unfolded. Sitting just two rows behind the group, she said she saw EasyJet cabin crew warn them multiple times to stop vaping during the flight.

But despite the repeated warnings, Annalise claimed the passengers continued to vape discreetly, hiding the devices behind their legs while sitting in their seats.

After the aircraft touched down in Birmingham, airport police boarded the plane and escorted the four adults off, causing a 25-minute delay on the tarmac.

Annalise said: “They were warned a few times by EasyJet staff but continued to vape on the sly throughout the journey, hiding the vapes behind their legs on the seat.

“I felt quite annoyed as we were delayed around 20/25 mins grounded on the floor waiting for them to be escorted.

“There were children on board crying as it was about 11pm and we were just stuck on the tarmac.”

EasyJet said in a statement: “Flight EZY6610 from Larnaca to Birmingham on 16 September was met by police on arrival due to a group of passengers behaving disruptively onboard.

“Our cabin crew are trained to assess all situations and to act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other customers is not compromised at any time.

“We take these incidents seriously and do not tolerate disruptive behaviour onboard.

“The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet’s highest priority.”

New York Mets first baseman Jared Young was carted off the field Thursday night after he took a knee to the head during a collision with pitcher Nolan McLean while both players were trying to make a play on a ground ball hit by Philadelphia’s Justin Crawford.

Young, who landed face-first in the dirt, reportedly was briefly knocked unconscious during the sixth-inning incident at Citi Field.

“It was scary to sit there and just know that he wasn’t with us in that moment,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said after the game. “He was just somewhere else.”

Young was able to give a thumbs-up to the crowd, however, as he was driven off. Mets interim manager Andy Green told reporters after the game that it “feels at this point in time like we’ve avoided the scariest outcomes.”

A CT scan at a hospital was negative, said Green, who added that Young had concussion symptoms but also had full use of his extremities.

Still, Green said after his team’s 3-0 loss, “it was a terrifying moment on a baseball field. Took him a while to come to. It was a really scary collision.”

McLean remained in the game and struck out Philadelphia’s Garrett Stubbs to end the inning. He was replaced by reliever Tobias Myers in the seventh.

Young, 31, has been a bright spot for the Mets (69-84) during his first full season, hitting .266 with nine homers and 39 RBIs in 103 games. A left knee injury caused him to miss six weeks early in the season.

“He’s somebody we all respect and appreciate and have love for,” Lindor said. “He’s been a big part of our team this whole year.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

THERE was an on-stage mystery last night as Nicole Scherzinger ‘went missing’ from a Pussycat Dolls song on their tour.

Her bandmates even failed to cover her lyrics when Nicole was nowhere to be seen on the stage in Poland on September 16.

The Pussycat Dolls’ reunion tour was thrown into chaos after lead singer Nicole didn’t appear on stage for their hit Buttons.

The reunion gig fast became rather awkward when the group’s leading lady failed to appear for the first half of the pop hit.

Bandmates Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt were left dancing alone, and failed to provide gig goers with the full song or lyrics in Nicole’s absence.

Instead they offered only backing vocals and ad-libs, as well as elite dance moves with their back up dancers.

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Nicole, who carries pretty much the entire vocal on the 2006 hit, was missing for nearly two minutes before joining the second half of the song.

Fans were quick to react to the rather awkward moment during the concert.

One person said on TikTok: “Could the other girls not just fill in a sing her part.”

“This feel proper awks,” penned a second.

“Why didn’t they just sing her part?” asked a third.

“That was so awkward,” added a fourth.

While a fifth said: “I would ask for a refund haha.”

And a sixth added: “She was missing for half of the song and was visibly p***ed as hell after she came out.”

The PCD Forever Tour marks 20 years since the group’s debut album was released.

The string of gigs feature just three of the group’s original members after most US dates were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

British fans will see the group take to the stage in Birmingham later this month.

There are also further UK dates including London’s O2 weeks later in October.

MARK Wright was caught red-handed by wife Michelle Keegan after telling porkies about his whereabouts while she was at work.

The TV star told his actress wife he would be at home looking after their daughter Palma, 1, – confident he wouldn’t be rumbled.

But Mark, 39, was actually out playing golf and was spectacularly exposed when Michelle FaceTimed him live on air.

The hilarious incident unfolded on Heart Breakfast when Michelle appeared as a guest to promote her new drama The Blame.

“Shock, he’s at golf,” Michelle, 39, remarked as the star popped up on the video call before demanding: “I’ve got a question – where’s the baby?”

A flustered Mark responded: “She’s with my mum. She’s seeing her nanny today.”

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Michelle then clapped back: “You told me you weren’t golfing today. You’re in trouble!”

Mark told the other presenters: “This is what I mean, guys. You’ve got me in the doghouse!”

The couple welcomed their first child, Palma, in March 2025 after nearly ten years of marriage.

Michelle is now gearing up for the release of six-part ITV crime drama The Blame, adapted from Charlotte Langley’s debut novel of the same name.

She plays DI Emma Crane, who investigates the murder of a young figure skater while confronting corruption and misogyny within the police force.

The series marks Michelle’s first acting role since giving birth to Palma.

She said earlier this year: “Coming back to work after having a baby is quite daunting.

“But the production were so supportive and I was so looked after. It was like working with family.”

However, the actress recently pulled out of another major ITV drama amid concerns its demanding filming schedule would keep her away from Palma for too long.

Michelle had been due to play a working-class barrister but withdrew several months before filming began, with former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, 44, stepping into the role.

Although Michelle had committed to the project and filming dates had been agreed, she reportedly walked away before signing a contract.

The Blame begins on ITV and ITVX on September 20.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards saw a number of firsts: A first-time host, a first-time Emmy winner and the first to win two lead acting Emmys in a night. These notable achievements were coupled with moments of remembrance for legendary actors and creators, like Dolly Parton, Rob Reiner and Catherine O’Hara, among many others.

With Mariska Hargitay at the helm, the show ran at a quick pace without feeling rushed, giving room to winners to say their thanks in acceptance speeches while still having moments of fun in between. Here, our writers discuss some of the best moments of the ceremony. — Maira Garcia

Best moment of overdue recognition: Rhea Seehorn

Rhea Seehorn finally won an acting Emmy, an accolade that was long overdue.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

If you appreciate Rhea Seehorn’s complex, subtle acting, her dynamic range and her deadpan humor, then you’ve probably found the Emmys to be maddening over the years. She famously wasn’t nominated for playing poker-faced attorney Kim Wexler on “Better Call Saul” until the show’s two-part final season. And she never won, not even for the raw, heartbreaking work she did in those last episodes. So seeing her win, finally, for her lead turn on “Pluribus” was thrilling, long overdue recognition that, given her history, made you wonder if it would ever come. Awards voters typically don’t appreciate nuanced acting, too often equating “best” with “most.” But Seehorn’s work on “Pluribus” was undeniable. Playing Carol Sturka, a sad woman forced to save the world from happiness and hive mind, Seehorn had the role of a lifetime and ran with it. This Emmy was a long time coming, and you could feel that when she choked up on stage accepting it. Her palpable joy thanking “Pluribus” creator Vince Gilligan, wiping away tears, is one reason why we keep watching the ceremony. — Glenn Whipp

Best double Emmy haul: Matthew Rhys

Matthew Rhys with his double Emmy haul for “The Beast in Me” and “Widow’s Bay.”

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

It was the sort of epic night that might make life vest-wearing mayor Tom Loftis jolt from his boat seat in shock or compel the villainous real estate heir Nile Jarvis to scarf down a whole rotisserie chicken with a glint in his eye — Matthew Rhys, the actor who brought both characters to life on screen, won two Emmys during Monday’s ceremony.

In doing so, he achieved a feat no actor has accomplished in 78 editions of the Emmy Awards: he won two lead acting Emmys in the same night. He was recognized for lead actor in a limited series for his turn in Netflix’s psychological thriller “The Beast in Me,” where he played Nile equal parts charming and terrifying. Later, he took the stage to accept the lead comedy actor prize for his optimistic but skeptical take on a mayor of a small, haunted island town in Apple TV’s horror comedy “Widow’s Bay.”

Rhys didn’t react like his characters might have — instead, he thanked his homeland: “To the great and good people of Wales… we are a small but mighty nation!”) And he took in the moment being feted by his partner, Keri Russell, who hung on him with pride as he made his way back to the main seating area after his first win.

The double wins add to Rhys’s collection of gold across the acting categories. In 2018, he took home the prize for lead drama actor for “The Americans.” — Yvonne Villarreal

Best reaction to someone else winning: Martin Short

Martin Short, left, with his “Only Murders in the Building” co-star Steve Martin on the red carpet at the Emmys.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Rhys may have taken home lead actor Emmys for limited series and comedy series, but the award for best reaction belongs to Martin Short.

During Rhys’ acceptance speech for lead actor in a comedy, the camera briefly panned to Short, who was nominated for “Only Murders in the Building,” just in time to catch him ripping paper into pieces — presumably his speech — and throwing it on the floor in anger and disbelief.

It lasted only a few seconds, but Short took advantage of the moment.

The timing. The commitment. The expressive performance. Short’s full comedic arsenal was on display before the camera moved on. It was the kind of quick visual gag that was easy to miss, and plenty of people probably did. But for those who caught it, I hope it was worth the spit-take. I am certainly glad I had a napkin at hand.

Short may have lost the Emmy, but his comedic timing remains undefeated. Stay funny, Short. — Anthony Solorzano

Best emotional moment that emptied our tissue box: Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his work and advocacy on Parkinson’s disease.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

In an Emmys telecast full of genuine emotion — Reba McEntire’s musical celebration of Dolly Parton, a heartbreaking In Memoriam segment that ended with Jamie Lee Curtis’ personal tribute to Rob Reiner — the most moving moments were claimed by Michael J. Fox, receiving the Bob Hope Humanitarian award.

Fox’s decades-long battle with Parkinson‘s disease, and for those who suffer from it, is well known, as is his refusal to let it define him or his career — he received his 19th Emmy nomination this year, for guest actor in “Shrinking.” But when he first came out on stage, in a wheelchair and classic black, he spoke first about his admiration for Bob Hope, a man whose tireless support of soldiers “and military families like mine” illuminated, for Fox, the necessity of showing up for others. “When it starts to get tough, you show up, you help, and if you add a little joy while you’re doing it, that’s so you know it’s even better.”

The utter silence of that room as he spoke, the admiration on all those famous faces said it all. Fox remains as he has long been — funny, sincere, wildly talented and one of the most courageous people many of us will ever know. — Mary McNamara

Best self-depricating host: Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay didn’t take herself too seriously as host, cracking a number of silly jokes throughout the night.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Host Mariska Hargitay was refreshingly lewd and charmingly self-deprecating as the first female host of the Emmys in 15 years.

By not taking herself too seriously, she set a laid-back tone for a high pressure show that for many nominees feels like a life or death moment.

Winning is not everything, Hargitay regularly reminded the crowd, with bits that grounded actors’ experience, like a clip from a 1984 B-horror film she starred in called, “Ghoulies,” which, as she explained to everyone, is a film, “where a monster pops out of a toilet.”

“Jamie Lee Curtis isn’t the only scream queen around here,” Hargitay quipped.

That joke came after an ongoing series of goofy, blue wisecracks, including one about “Law & Order” producer Dick Wolf, saying his real name was “Richard Penis;” that her “SVU” character, Olivia Benson, was “America’s sweetheart sex cop;” that aging fans who once loved and watched “Hannah Montana” would soon need “Hannah Mammogramas;” and an aside about her packed work schedule, noting that “Margo may have money troubles, but Mariska’s doing just fine.”

She ended the night with a mic drop by introducing Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as “my two favorite flavors of vape.” — Jessica Gelt

Best changes to a host’s hair: Hargitay and her hairstylist

A sampling of Mariska Hargitay’s hairstyles at the Emmy Awards.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Beach waves, bombshell, Targaryen-inspired twists, luscious locks and a tousled bob. Mariska Hargitay changed her hairstyle so many times throughout the Emmy Awards it was hard to keep track. One can only imagine the quick work happening backstage to get her hair coiffed amid costume changes. And one can only hope there was a wig wall somewhere inspired by Catherine O’Hara’s Moira Rose. The bombshell blowout was reportedly a tribute to her late mother, ‘50s starlet Jayne Mansfield — Hargitay took home two Emmys earlier this month for a documentary she directed about her. Her quick-turn tresses were yet another example of the first-time host’s infectious enthusiasm. — Brittany Levine Beckman

Best presenter who should host the next awards show: John Mulaney

John Mulaney introduced the award for lead actor in a drama series, but not before sending up men.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

I’ll say it: I’m not sure how I feel about John Mulaney. I’ve waffled over the years. I used to love his work, then I found it tired, then I fell off the bandwagon altogether. So believe me when I tell you: I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about him presenting lead actor in a drama series. I wasn’t primed to like his speech. And yet.

He won me — I’m not necessarily a certified Mulaney hater, but certainly not a full-blooded Mulaney lover — over with a truly funny arpeggio of riffs about the mediocrity we accept from men and male actors. I was trepidatious, as was the live audience. (“This award is for the guys. Just men being men,” is a scary start.)

But then Mulaney rounded the curve with a tongue-in-cheek reference to the “Bluey” dad controversy and I sat up straighter. If the line, “some of the men in this category do method acting, and some do regular, less annoying acting” didn’t get me, then “they can play anything, these nominees, not just doctors — they can play a cop or an FBI agent or a secret agent, and then that’s it, no other examples,” certainly did. Don’t get me started on the DJ Khaled quote (I loved it).

Let this man host an awards show, as he is clearly trying to do. I recognize the game, and I respect it.

Also: a very honorable mention to Meg Stalter dressed as a literal Emmy statue. Meg, you are the only method actor I respect. — Laura Zornosa

Best Targaryen family reunion: Emma D’Arcy and Emilia Clarke

Emma D’Arcy and Emilia Clarke nodded to “Game of Thrones” before presenting the award for lead actress in a limited series or television movie .

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

One of the last things I ever expected to see on an awards show in 2026 is the Mother of Dragons speaking in High Valyrian on stage. So “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke hitting the stage with “House of the Dragon’s” Emma D’Arcy to present the award for lead actress in a limited series or television movie was a pleasant surprise.

“In the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe, Emilia is my great-great-great-great-really-great granddaughter,” D’Arcy said. “And in honor of our shared Targaryen lineage, Emilia is going to address you in High Valyrian — our mother tongue — and I will translate.”

Clarke earned four Emmy nominations during “Game of Thrones’” run for portraying Daenerys Targaryen, one of the last surviving members of the family that long reigned over Westeros. D’Arcy, meanwhile, plays Rhaenyra Targaryen in “House of the Dragons,” which is set at a time when there are so many Targaryens that a war of succession became inevitable.

The Targaryen team-up was my favorite but it wasn’t the only name-based collaboration of the night. An earlier segment saw Olivia Benson, the fan-favorite “Law & Order: SVU” character played by Hargitay, share the screen with another Olivia Benson — Taylor Swift’s cat that is named after her. The cat made a surprise cameo along with the mega pop star in a pre-recorded segment about the likelihood of Swift appearing at the Emmys. — Tracy Brown

Best invitation to dinner at their house: Marcello Hernández

Marcello Hernández presented an award, but not before presenting some dinner invitations to a few people in the crowd.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

When I saw “SNL’s” Marcello Hernández would be presenting at the Emmys, I knew it would be a special moment, and he didn’t let me down. The actor, who presented the award for directing for a comedy series, promptly made himself at home, shouting out, “Donde ‘tan los Latinos?” He then took the opportunity to say hello to a few fellow actors in the room.

“Very quickly, I would like to say hello to Harrison Ford,” he said, looking at the actor sitting in the audience, who gave an exasperated look and waved. “You are a legend and a real inspiration to me and I would like to invite you to have dinner at my house.”

The room erupted in laughter, but he wasn’t finished. He then extended an invitation to Zendaya and her partner, Tom Holland: “I want to say hi to Zendaya, you’re a beast and you’re amazing. And I saw you and I wanted to play it cool, and I decided I can’t do that. So I would like to invite you and Spider-Man to have dinner at my house.”

Then he proceeded to invite Oscar Isaac, the Guatemalan actor who utilizes his given name professionally, suggesting they might be related. “You are so good in ‘Beef’ and you are also Hernández, like I am. So we could be cousins, you never know. And I will see you at Christmas, I will cook you whatever you want.”

Lastly, he said a hello to Matthew McConaughey, and quoted his Cuban tía, who told him if he works very hard, he can hang out with “Matthew McCon-i-purse.” It was a light-hearted speech that spoke to anyone who suddenly finds themselves in a room wondering how they got there. — M.G.

The grapes are turning purple on tall green vines, which stretch down towards the distant flint-and-limestone tower of Chilham church. These rows of Pinot Meunier, destined for English sparkling wine, are 51% owned by French champagne house Taittinger. “England is now the most exciting wine region,” says host and sales executive Hilary Sharp as she leads me around Domaine Evremond vineyard, which opened its visitor centre last year to coincide with the launch of its first wine.

In his 2023 book Vines in a Cold Climate, drinks writer Henry Jeffreys charts the rise of English wine “from a joke to world-class in 30 years”. The book opens with an alcohol-fuelled scene of vine-planting at Domaine Evremond in May 2017: unseasonably cold, rainy, muddy, with rambling anecdotes from anglophile Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger about “English women encountered in his misspent youth”. The vineyard is named for the exiled French aristocrat Charles de Saint-Évremond, a symbol of hedonistic Anglo-French cooperation. The bon vivant introduced champagne to England and party-loving Charles II made him governor of Duck Island in St James’s Park.

We stroll past a Land Rover, parked up by a windbreak of crab apple trees. Harriet opens the back to reveal a tray of glasses with a chilled bottle of Domaine Evremond’s Edition I, and we’re soon sipping creamy, citrussy fizz with a view of vines. It tastes great to me, but I’m no expert.

Wine critic Jancis Robinson gave it a “distinguished” 16/20 and Jeffreys, in his Substack, Drinking Culture, describes “bright green apple fruit with a reassuring bass note of croissant and Marmite”. King Charles III toasted French president Emmanuel Macron with this wine at a state banquet last summer.

Taittinger’s vineyard director, Christelle Rinville, supervises the vines at Domaine Evremond, regularly taking Le Shuttle from Champagne and enthusing about flinty Kentish subsoils. One of the companies that dug through chalk to make the Channel tunnel excavated Evremond’s 25-metre-deep cellars, where 1.5 million bottles can stay cool around the UK’s first subterranean winery.

An elegant umbrella-shaded terrace outside the chalk-cliff walls of the winery has long rustic tables with vases of wildflowers. Visitors can sample the wine (£12.50 a glass, £55 a bottle) from Wednesday to Sunday and there are year-round tours and tastings. Sitting here under blue skies, among banks of yarrow, knapweed, vetch and wild carrot scorched by the relentless sun, it doesn’t feel very English.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. The unirrigated vines (unlike many other crops) seem to be thriving, and the harvest will be up to three weeks early. Jeffreys writes: “Currently the climate in south-east England is similar to that of Champagne in the 1970s.” Optimal latitudes for wine are supposed to be 30 to 50 degrees, with Champagne at the northerly end of the range. Chilham sits at 51 degrees north.

The vineyard is a half-hour walk through fields from the village, with its cafes, pubs and railway station, where only the front four carriages fit next to the short platform. Bearded butter-yellow cobs of sweetcorn are bursting out of pale green husks beside the path. I loop back to Chilham through Perry Wood. Just beyond the vines, I can see an old oasthouse through branches laden with rosy gala apples. The land was bought in 2015 from the fruit-growing Gaskain family, whose managing director, Mark Gaskain, oversees day-to-day operations in the vineyards as well as producing about 70 million apples a year.

Further on, an orchard of plums is drooping under the weight of purple fruit and crates are stacked up ready for harvest. In the hedges, sprawling hops and honey-scented wild clematis tangle with reddening rosehips and sweet, wine-dark blackberries. Sparrows snack on early-ripened hawthorn under arching beech and sweet chestnut trees, ancient ivy-wreathed hedge maples and squirrel-haunted hazels. Huge clumps of mistletoe hang from towering poplars.

Cottage gardens are heady with late summer roses, scented lavender, aromatic catnip. I wander past wisteria-clad walls and a row of mud-built house martin nests with late fledglings still cheeping under half-timbered eaves while gathering swallows twitter on the wires.

Deputy church warden Lynda Twaite shows me round the flint-walled St Mary’s, pointing out memorials and a battered old school table, graffitied by 18th-century kids. The pilgrim route to Canterbury runs through the lime- and yew-shadowed churchyard. Across the square, I peer through the gates at creeper-covered Jacobean Chilham Castle. Its gardens, landscaped by Capability Brown, now include a new vineyard.

Before heading to the Woolpack Inn for the night, I take an evening stroll by the River Stour, with a view of weatherboarded Chilham Mill framed by willowherb and ripe elderberries. The river sparkles in the sun and turquoise damselflies hover among loosestrife and waterlilies.

The Woolpack’s garden has a Mediterranean feel, with pink hydrangeas, agapanthus and a 600-year-old olive tree. The brick-walled bar has a curving window seat, weathered oak beams and is stuffed with prints and plants and quirky lighting. After a multimillion-pound renovation a couple of years ago, suites and bedrooms upstairs are named after Kentish vineyards, while the big rooms in Rose Cottage, across the lane, come with their own private gardens.

I sit in the leafy shade with a “Woolly cheeseboard” on a slice of tree trunk. As much cheese-based installation as meal, its applewood-smoked and creamy goat are artfully arranged among crackers, olives, nuts, dried fruit, chutneys and tangy homemade pickles. To go with it, there are pints of Shepherd Neame’s toffee-appley Master Brew from down the road in Faversham, or glasses of the local cuvée at cellar door prices.

Domaine Evremond helped found the Wine Garden of England, a collaboration of Kent vineyards. August 2026 also saw the launch of a new tourism initiative, the Kentish Wine Way, encouraging people to visit “England’s largest and most awarded wine region”. The county has 120 commercially active vineyards and more than 25% of Britain’s vines by area, with last year’s harvest producing more than five million bottles. From the train window next day, after hours of walking through wooded hills and burdened orchards, several vineyards roll past, glowing in the evening sunlight.

Accommodation was provided by the Woolpack Inn (doubles from £140 B&B) and some transport by Southeastern (advance tickets from London St Pancras from £16 each way)

Five more Kent vineyards to visit

Balfour Winery

NEW YORK — Americans commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al Qaeda attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.

The milestone anniversary brought memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll. On Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Elsie Caldwell carried a photograph of her son Kenny Caldwell to the trade center to hear his name and all the others read aloud Friday morning. She last spoke to him that morning a quarter-century ago.

“Mom, I just want to let you know that I love you,” Caldwell said he told her in a final phone call. His remains, like those of many other victims, have never been recovered.

Trump attends Pentagon observance

The attacks brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane was headed for Washington, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

“Sept. 11 reminded us of the terrible power of hate,” President Trump said Friday at the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony Friday.

“The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail, and to win,” added the Republican, who was in his native New York on 9/11.

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, and ex-Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden and current Vice President JD Vance convened for the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York. Other administration officials went to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

At ground zero, a new tribute to those who fell ill

For Angilic Casalduc, attending the New York commemoration “helps to show you’re not alone.” She lost her mother, Vivian Casalduc.

“There’s no timeline for grief, and unfortunately, no one can say how can you can grieve, but coming here once a year makes it feel just a little bit better,” she said.

Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the ground zero commemoration, where victims’ relatives read aloud the long list of names and added personal messages. They thanked first responders and the military, invoked religious faith, appealed for national unity and touched on the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. The kingdom was the homeland of most of the hijackers but denied any involvement in the attacks.

Mostly, relatives spoke of, and to, loved ones — who some were too young to remember.

“You dreamed my whole life for me, and you only got eight months of it,” said Trisha Pakka, who lost her mother, Deepa Pakkala.

The ceremony has long been punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline and this year organizers added another moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.

The impact of 9/11 endures

It’s a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.

The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington’s longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.

The attacks changed U.S. air travel, led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom.

Sept. 11 engendered a culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something,” while a wave of patriotism propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies.

Casey Kloepfer became a New York police officer this June. He was 4 when his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, was killed at the trade center.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” the 29-year-old, who wears his father’s badge number, said by phone this week.

New York’s mayor comes under scrutiny

Amid the post-9/11 calls to service and appeals for national unity, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.

In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor. Yet he faced some criticism for attending the anniversary ceremony at ground zero.

Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives cited, among other things, past remarks that some of Mamdani’s political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending the remembrance, though the two shook hands there Friday.

Mamdani, a Democrat, said this week he loves the city and country and that he wanted the anniversary to focus on victims’ families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.

Times Square billboards pause advertisements

Remembrances extended far from the attack sites, including beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium and a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial.

Sept. 11 isn’t a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.

Instead, they simply displayed the time.

Peltz and Shaffrey write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Michael R. Sisak, Anthony Izaguirre, and Julie Walker contributed to this report.

A MAJOR UK airport has now become the first to introduce robotic valet parking – which uses no human interaction at all.

But one catch could see certain travellers excluded from the service.

London Gatwick Airport has officially brought in a new Robotic Parking system, said to be designed with customer comfort in mind.

Officially announced two months ago, passengers have already begun to use the parking service from August, which sees drivers leave their vehicle at a private drop-off garage before heading to the terminal.

The “state-of-the-art” robot then takes over, gently hoisting the car from underneath its wheels and moving it to an access-restricted parking area.

One key difference from traditional airport parking is that customers are able to keep hold of their car keys throughout their trip.

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When a passenger returns from holiday, the system receives an alert that they have landed.

This means that when they arrive at the South Terminal car park, their vehicle should already be ready for collection.

However, there are some limitations, with 5 per cent of vehicle models not compatible with the new technology.

This includes popular models such as a Range Rover Sport Hybrid, Renault Trafic Van, as well as SUVs with roof boxes.

It also costs around £109 for a five-day stay (travellers are unable to use the service for shorter stays) and passengers are currently only able to drop off their vehicles on weekdays between 9am and 5pm.

Located at the South Terminal, passengers can reach the parking lot following the marked signs for Robotic Parking, once within the Long Stay car park entrance barriers.

Gatwick airport also said the area includes 24-hour security patrols, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) at the entrance and exit, perimeter fencing, floodlighting and no public access.

THIS is the scary moment a Ryanair plane’s wingtip hit the ground as it came into land at Dublin Airport.

A passenger filmed the moment the plane lurched to the right and suffered a “minor wingtip impact” during a rough landing yesterday morning.

The Boeing 737 Max, which took off from Bologna just after 8am came in to land at Dublin at 10.45am.

As it touched down on the runway, the plane tumbled onto its right-hand side.

Shocked passengers watched as the wing tips of the plane brushed against the runway.

Recognising the danger of the dodgy landing, the Ryanair pilots immediately brought the engines up to full power to perform a go-around.

This is where a plane aborts its landing attempt and flies in a loop around the airport to try again.

The two pilots were able to guide the plane safely onto the ground about 15 minutes later.

In a statement, Ryanair described the incident as a “minor wingtip impact”.

A spokesperson told us yesterday: “On landing in Dublin this evening (10 Sept) Ryanair flight FR9457 from Bologna suffered a minor wing tip impact.

“The aircraft landed safely and all passengers offloaded normally.

“Our engineers are now repairing this wing tip and the aircraft is expected back into service tomorrow morning (11 Sept).”

It comes as Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary came under fire for “shameful” comments he made describing other airlines as “high-fare rapists”.

The Ryanair chief landed himself in hot water ahead of his budget airline’s annual general meeting in Dublin yesterday.

The billionaire businessman, 65, claimed rising air travel prices at other airlines would see passengers switch to Ryanair, before doubling down on his claims.

In response, Labour’s Laura Harmon urged the notorious motormouth to engage with organisations like the Rape Crisis Centre, and to apologise for his “shocking” language.

The senator fumed: “Michael O’Leary must apologise for the comments he made in advance of Ryanair’s annual general meeting in Dublin.

“The casual use of the word ‘rapist’ to describe the prices of his competitors is deeply shocking and could be traumatising for any survivor of sexual abuse.

“We should have a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence. In recent years, due to the tireless work of activists and the bravery of survivors of sexual violence who have shared their stories, Ireland has taken a strong stance in support of survivors.

“It is shameful to see O’Leary diminish the real experience of these survivors in such a way.”

Harmon continued: “Every week brings shocking new statistics and stories about the levels of domestic and sexual violence against women in our country.

“Reports conducted by organisations like the National Women’s Council of Ireland often detail the systemic challenges victims of domestic violence are faced with when they look for help – through the courts and the legal system, and through first responders like the Gardai.

“Having O’Leary make such ignorant comments only adds to this. I would urge him to come out and apologise today, and commit to informing himself about the real trauma of sexual violence.”

Fianna Fail’s Lorraine Clifford-Lee also condemned O’Leary’s comments as “a new low” for the Ryanair CEO.

It’s an exciting time for Southern California coaster fans. Universal Studios Hollywood is on the verge of officially opening Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, and Knott’s Berry Farm this summer unveiled the refurbished Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress. Now Six Flags’ Magic Mountain is getting in on the coaster action.

Coming in 2027 to the Valencia park will be Thrill Glider, a first of its kind thrill ride designed by coaster manufacturer Vekoma exclusively for Magic Mountain.

Magic Mountain in a release describes Thrill Glider as introducing a new coaster category, one that combines a motorbike-like seating arrangement with suspended coaster technologies. Riders will board what the park is referring to “hoverbikes,” essentially bike vehicles designed to simulate a flying sensation by being suspended from the track. Riders will be seated in a prone, face-forward position that will hang from the track above.

Concept art for Thrill Glider, which will boast bike-like vehicles and a sci-fi backstory.

(Six Flags Magic Mountain)

The ride will feature 20 different coaster elements and is slated to last 80 seconds. Speeds will reach 50 mph, and the coaster will boast five inversions that will take guests upside down. The various inversions will include a barrel roll, a zero-g roll and an overbanked stall turn, hinting at a heavily twisted track that will create drifts and swinging. There will be at least 12 moments, Six Flags promises, in which riders will experience airtime lifts.

“It is the latest milestone in Six Flags Magic Mountain’s renaissance and a reflection of the park’s enduring role as an industry innovator,” said Brian Oerding, park president of Six Flags Magic Mountain in a release.

The ride will come with a heavy sci-fi-inspired narrative. The story: The ride is a new technology from a fictional inventor, Rebecca Silva, who will introduce guests in the waiting area to what is described as a “Futurist Pavilion.” Throughout the queue, riders will encounter “holographic presentations and scientific exhibits,” culminating in the discovery of a new energy source, detailed by illuminated blue energy lines, that will power the ride.

The goal, says Six Flags, is to provide an optimistic view of the future, albeit with many sudden dives and weightless moments. The ride will feature multiple launches, reach a height of 107 feet and traverse 3,380 feet of track, which is more than a half mile.

Concept art of Magic Mountain’s new Thrill Glider, which will reach a top height of 104 feet.

(Six Flags Magic Mountain)

A specific opening window has not been detailed, but the ride is currently under construction. It will be located on the former site of the Golden Bear Theatre and will overlook the recently refurbished kiddie area, Looney Tunes Land.

Thrill Glider is arriving at a moment when Six Flags has been garnering national attention. Magic Mountain’s X2 remains shut down while state safety officials continue an investigation involving the attraction.

The ride, first opened in 2002 as X, has been the subject of controversy and at least one high-profile lawsuit stemming from a 22-year-old man’s death. Six Flags bills the ride as “a right of passage for the ultimate daredevil” that goes up to 76 mph. A CNN report recently took a look at other, more recent injuries allegedly stemming from the attraction.

On Sept. 11, 2001, there were no smartphones and no social media. What the country watched that morning — a jet airliner colliding with the south tower of the World Trade Center, the ash rolling through the streets, the paper still falling in the afternoon — was through a television set and the journalists who had to deliver the unfathomable details.

The jarring images shattered the peacefulness of a sunshine-filled late summer morning in New York.

“Everything seemed so perfect,” said MS NOW’s Chris Jansing, reflecting on the moments before anchoring her network’s continuous coverage. “It was another day of doing a job I loved, living in a city I loved.”

By nightfall, nearly 3,000 people were dead in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and in a field outside Shanksville, Pa. The experience of covering the terrorist attacks and their grim aftermath transformed Jansing and other journalists who were there. Twenty-five years later, it’s never far from their minds.

“It’s with me in ways large and small,” said NJ Burkett, a correspondent who covered the tragedy for New York station WABC. “When I look at my phone and it says 9:11, it takes me back.”

The Times asked five of the on-air personalities who are still working today to look back on the day they were called to cover the tragedy and its lasting impact.

Bret Baier: “I just said yes to everything.”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 25, 2026.

(Jared Soares/For The Times)

On every anniversary of Sept. 11, Fox News anchor Bret Baier uses the hashtag #NeverForget. He can recall every moment of that day.

Baier, 56, was driving to the Fox News bureau in Atlanta when he first heard on his car radio that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He was a 31-year-old correspondent for the network, covering stories throughout the southeast U.S. and Latin America. When he arrived at the office, a call came from New York headquarters telling him to book a flight to the city so he could file reports from the World Trade Center site for Fox TV affiliates around the United States.

After a second plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center 17 minutes later, all flights in the U.S. were halted. Baier and his producer were told to get a car and start driving.

“I just remember going really fast when I was driving,” Baier said. “I remember thinking what is happening with the world, and how big this story is. How big this moment is.”

By the time the duo reached northern Georgia, their plans changed again. A jetliner struck the Pentagon while a San Francisco-bound United Airlines flight crashed in Shanksville, Pa. Fox News executives told Baier and his producer to reroute to Arlington, Va.

After the 10-hour drive, Baier started the first of 10 straight days of reporting on the recovery efforts at the site. While the World Trade Center provided the most dramatic and enduring pictures of the stunning attack, the loss of life at the Pentagon was staggering as well, as 125 people died along with the 64 passengers and crew members on American Airlines Flight 77.

Baier was eventually pulled into the larger military story that followed 9/11. Fox News, just 5 years old, did not have a full-time Pentagon correspondent. Baier was offered the job while traveling overseas with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was making the case for war against Afghanistan.

“I called a buddy on a satellite phone to get me an apartment in Washington,” he said. “Fox packed up my stuff in Atlanta.”

But the unplanned move changed Baier’s life. In six years on the Pentagon beat, he traveled to 74 countries. He was embedded with the military in war zones. “I just said yes to everything,” said Baier, who has anchored Fox News’ Washington newscast “Special Report” since 2009.

Baier recalled it was in the weeks after Sept. 11 that he first wore an American flag pin on his lapel. He never felt conflicted about it, even though such displays were prohibited at other network news divisions. “I thought I could report on America, ask tough questions and still be an American, pulling for us to win,” he said. “I wanted to be tough but fair, but also show that as a country we were standing together against this horrible attack.”

Byron Pitts covering the terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan for CBS News on Sept. 11, 2001.

(CBS)

Byron Pitts: “It’s the only story I think about every day.”

A newcomer to New York 25 years ago, Byron Pitts, then a CBS News correspondent, admitted it took him a few moments to understand the massive scope of what happened the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He arrived early at the network’s headquarters on the West Side of Manhattan to screen an interview he did with entertainer and civil rights icon Harry Belafonte. Shortly after he started, a producer knocked on his door and told him there was a plane crash at the World Trade Center.

Pitts, 65, acknowledged the producer but kept working. “I thought it was a novice pilot bumping into a building,” he recalled. “I thought it would be three hours out of my day and it won’t make television.”

The producer came back shortly and said, “You need to go down there.”

An irritated Pitts hailed a cab and headed down the West Side Highway. While in the car, he learned a second plane had hit the south tower. Traffic was stopped and he had to head downtown by foot.

As Pitts got closer to the site, he tried to use his past experiences covering fires and other disasters during his career to judge the severity of the situation.

But the horrible scenes that unfolded before him were incomparable. One was a lifeless body near the lobby of the north tower. He thought it was a homeless man until he saw a uniform. He later learned it was Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the New York Fire Department killed by fallen debris. Judge’s body was later carried away by a group of first responders. Pitts saw a woman and a man standing at a window of one of the towers holding hands, and then jumping.

“Gravity takes over and their hands split, and he moves a little faster than she does,” Pitts said. “And we see them on the ground. That was the moment I realized something significant was going on.”

Pitts crossed paths with Mika Brzezinski, then a CBS News correspondent, now the cohost of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.” As debris came down and smoke filled the air, they headed into an elementary school that Pitts believes was a command post for the fire and police departments. They took turns calling into CBS News on a hard-line phone, one delivering accounts of the unfolding catastrophe while the other looked outside to gather details amid the blinding smoke and dust.

Pitts said from that day forward, he never went to a story assignment without a handkerchief.

Pitts was awed not just by the enormity of the event, but also by how despite the rigid hierarchy of CBS News, he was “the new kid on the block” who had to present the story on Dan Rather’s evening newscast that night.

“My approach became almost childlike, so I would not become overwhelmed,” he said. “I tried to make it as simple as possible. I said, ‘Dan, I’ve never heard New York City this quiet.’ I was thinking — what simple thing can I say that you would understand if you’ve never been in New York.”

A few weeks later, Pitts headed off to Afghanistan to cover the U.S. military action. His evening news report on Sept. 11 won an Emmy Award and his star rose at CBS News, leading to “60 Minutes” and then ABC News in 2014, where he is currently a co-anchor of “Nightline.”

Pitts knows the good fortune he’s had in TV journalism is linked to the tragedy that started with a producer’s knock on his door 25 years ago. “I feel some measure of guilt but mostly gratitude,” he said. “It’s the only story I think about every day.”

Pitts said he uses his 9/11 experience to provide perspective. “When we’re discussing politics, a mass shooting, or the latest awful day in Iran, I know for a fact there is one guy in the room who has seen worse and who can say, ‘we’ll be OK,’ ” he said.

Chris Jansing: “You had to balance the news response with the human response.”

Chris Jansing paid her dues as a local reporter in upstate New York before she joined MSNBC (now called MS NOW) as a daytime anchor in 1998. She loved living in Manhattan, and took friends from out of town to the World Trade Center observation decks and Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th floor of the north tower.

“It was so iconically New York,” she said. “And I was proud to live in the city.”

Jansing, 69, had little time to process her emotions when she was told to “get in the chair” before 9 a.m. that morning at MSNBC’s Secaucus, N.J., studios after the first plane hit.

“You had to balance the news response with the human response,” she recalled.

For several hours, Jansing co-anchored the network’s coverage alongside Gregg Jarrett. The look of 24-hour cable news evolved that day, as the tsunami of information led to Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all adding running tickers at the bottom of the screen.

Jansing went to the roof of the network’s building after Brian Williams took over the anchor chair. Trauma centers in the area had been alerted, and she was told to watch for ambulances. “There was still a hope and a prayer that there would be injured folks who would overwhelm the hospitals in New York and would need to be brought to New Jersey,” Jansing recalled. She saw none.

Jansing has never watched the coverage of that day, which is now on YouTube. She had real-life reminders every day in her Manhattan neighborhood when she walked by the Rescue Company 1 firehouse that lost half its battalion at the crash site. She adopted a dog left behind by a 9/11 victim, a Dachshund named Baron. She remains friends with every producer she worked with on the story. The experience also reinforced her purpose in a career approaching its 50th year.

“I will always think that those moments are what keep you going,” said Jansing, currently chief political reporter for MS NOW. “They were an affirmation that’s kept me in the job,”

NJ Burkett, a correspondent for WABC, on the 13th floor of the Walt Disney Co. offices in Manhattan on Aug. 31, 2026.

(Roshni Khatri/For The Times)

NJ Burkett: “I put myself in increasingly dangerous situations.”

Burkett, 64, recalls how pedestrians were gathered around WABC’s windowed street level studio on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when he arrived for work on 9/11. He presumed the crowd was there for a big name guest on “Live with Regis and Kelly.” They were actually watching monitors showing news reports of the first plane that hit the north tower.

As Burkett and his cameraman Marty Glembotzky headed downtown in a truck, he already knew it was a terror attack. He recalled covering the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center and regretted not getting footage of the firefighters’ rescue efforts. This time around he wanted to go inside the buildings and document their heroism.

A police officer stopped Burkett and Glembotzky before they could get in, likely saving their lives. A short time later, they would escape death again.

Burkett was doing a second take for a taped report that would set the scene for viewers when he heard the rumbling that “sounded like Niagara Falls.” It was the south tower of the World Trade Center coming down behind him. “A huge explosion now raining debris on us — we better get out of the way,” he said in what may be the most terrifying video clip from that morning.

Burkett and Glembotzky took cover in an adjacent building. “We open up the door and in a weird way it’s sort of providential, right?” he said. “The door is a metaphor. It’s like the door into the rest of your life. If we had to run for half a block, we’d be dead.”

Glembotzky was so shaken by the experience, he stepped away from his career as a cameraman and became a wine seller before eventually returning. But Burkett took on more dangerous assignments in the Middle East, heading to Israel to cover the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. He later headed to Iraq to cover the run-up to the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Burkett won a George Foster Peabody Award for his work on 9/11. In retrospect, he believes he took on assignments in war zones to avoid dealing with the trauma of the day.

“I would put myself into increasingly dangerous situations,” he said. “Looking back, I was running from 9/11. That was my way of coping. Sometimes I wonder did I allow myself feel it enough. Or did I just run too far and too hard and it will all come down and crash on me one day?”

Occasionally he worries about 9/11-related illnesses. “If I start to cough — the slightest little cough — I’ll think ‘is this it?’” he said.

But as a New York TV fixture since 1989, Burkett still feels the appreciation from viewers for his efforts. “To this day, almost 25 years later, people will come up to me on the street and ask to hug me and say ‘NJ Burkett I’m glad you’re alive,’ ” he said.

Carson Daly at NBC’s “Today” show studio at Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan on Sept. 3, 2026.

(Roshni Khatri/For The Times)

Carson Daly: “I remember how motionless the room was.”

As continuous news coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks saturated television for days, the makers of entertainment shows had to decide when it would be appropriate to go back to work. Carson Daly and the MTV executives mulled over the situation as their wildly popular program “Total Request Live” remained off the air for three days since the attacks.

“We had such a massive audience that the question was raised, ‘do we have a responsibility to simply show up?’ ” Daly, 53, recalled in a recent interview.

Daly, now a feature anchor on NBC’s “Today,” was not a journalist by trade. But he understood the trust that young viewers had in him and “TRL,” a live show that counted down the most popular music videos of the moment. The show had dealt with tragedy a few years before after the high school shooting in Columbine, Colo.

But 9/11 happened on the home turf of “TRL,” which aired from New York City’s Times Square. With the bridges and tunnels closed, getting a crew to the studio was a challenge.

“Everybody wore multiple hats,” said Daly, who also served as an executive producer.

By Sept. 14 of that week, the MTV studio on Broadway was filled with young “TRL” fans, but lacked the energy viewers were used to seeing on the screen. “They were frozen,” Daly recalled. “That was in such stark contrast to what the show was every day. I remember how motionless the room was and feeling like, ‘What am I doing on television?’ ”

Carson Daly shows a tattoo he got after the 9/11 attacks in New York.

(Roshni Khatri/For The Times)

Daly leaned on the MTV News team to update the audience on the 9/11 story developments. Music stars including Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Kid Rock called into the program to share their thoughts with Daly. Instead of music videos, the screen showed email messages from viewers expressing their feelings about the tragedy.

MTV News personality Sway delivered a music news report that noted how two new CD releases — “Party Music” by the American hip-hop group The Coup and Dream Theater’s “Live Scenes from New York” — were delayed because both used cover artwork that depicted the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Daly has a permanent remembrance of the week. When he arrived at the MTV offices the day before “TRL” returned, the building was evacuated after it received a bomb threat.

“I remember walking around Hell’s Kitchen,” he said. “I ended up getting a tattoo. A red, white and blue NYC on my right wrist.”