Park

Universal reveals major new theme park opening next year just for kids with SpongeBob world and Minions land

An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Illustration of Universal's new theme park for kids, featuring a balloon ride, a large climbing structure, and a roller coaster, Image 2 shows Illustration of Universal's new theme park for kids, featuring a netted play area, a rollercoaster, and a "Jurassic World" themed building, Image 3 shows Illustration of a Minions-themed water ride with boats, characters, and a splash tower

UNIVERSAL has revealed further plans for yet another theme park which is due to open next year.

Set to open in Texas, America, Universal Kid’s Resort will be solely focused on children’s attractions.

Universal reveals plans for major new theme park opening next year just for kids – with SpongeBob world & a Minions landCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences
It will feature seven lands in total, including SpongeBob world and a Minions landCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences
Attractions include a water ride in the Minions land and a number of rollercoastersCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences

The park will feature seven lands in total, all based on popular children’s shows and stories.

The lands will include Shrek’s Swamp, Puss in Boots Del Mar, Minions vs Minions: Bello Bay Club, Jurassic World Adventure Camp, TrollsFest, SpongeBob SquarePants Bikini Bottom and Isle of Curiosity.

Visitors will enter through the Isle of Curiosity where they will be able to meet Gabby from Gabby’s Dollhouse and enjoy a dance party together.

Then in Shrek’s world, which Universal describes as a “waterlogged paradise”, guests will be able to meet Shrek and Fiona, as well as grab a photo at the onion carriage.

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The land will have two interactive play areas as well – Shrek’s Swamp Rompin’ Stomp and Shrek’s Swamp Splash & Smash.

For kids who prefer Puss in Boots, they can meet the character themselves as well as Mama Luna and Perrito from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

The land will also have a series of carnival-themed games and concept arts suggest there will be a swing carousel.

One of the main attractions in the Minions land, where Yellow Minions battle Purple ones, will be a water ride that snakes around the world.

Onlookers can participate in the fun too, by using water pistols to spray those on the ride.

Aspiring paleontologists will get the opportunity to see a newly hatched baby dinosaur in the Jurassic World Adventure Camp as well as climb up Lookout Towers in a play area.

Concept art also reveals a rollercoaster and drop tower ride.

In the Trolls land, visitors can once again meet characters such as Poppy and Branch and experience two play areas – Poppy’s Playland and Trolls Critter Crawl.

In addition, some of the concept art shows that the land may also have a rollercoaster, hot air balloon-themed ride and a netted climbing area.

Heading ‘undersea’ to SpongeBob’s land, kids can head to Mussel Beach and also see SpongeBob’s iconic pineapple house.

Across the park, there will be multiple sensory gardens with different touch, sound and colour attractions as well.

In the Jurassic World Camp Adventure, kids can climb lookout towers and meet a baby dinosaurCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences
There will also be several play areas across the park and sensory gardensCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences

For families looking to stay close-by, the theme park will have a colourfully-themed 300-room hotel.

Molly Murphy, president of Universal Creative said: “Universal Kids Resort embodies the spirit of igniting thrill that drives everything we create — designed to bring our youngest guests and families together through play, creativity, and beloved characters and stories.”

Brian Robinson, executive vice president and chief creative officer at Universal Creative said: “We envisioned this park through the unbridled creativity of kids where infinite imagination, curiosity and free-spirited play were core to our design philosophies.

“It produced a park that’s pure joy and an absolute celebration of what it is to be a kid.”

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What we know so far about Universal’s UK theme park

HERE’S what we know so far about Universal’s theme park set to open in Bedfordshire, UK.

  • The park is currently expected to open in 2031
  • The attraction will be divided into four main land areas: Core Zone, Lake Zone, East Gateway Zone, West Gateway Zone
  • The park will include indoor and outdoor rides, attractions, games, and pools
  • There are plans for entertainment venues such as theatres, cinemas, music/dance venues and cultural spaces
  • The maximum height for a structure like a rollercoaster is 115 metres, which would make it the tallest rollercoaster in Europe, surpassing the current 112m record holder
  • The site may also contain media and film production facilities
  • The attraction is due to be open each day between 9am and 9pm

In other family attraction news, a new theme park with world’s fastest and tallest rollercoaster to finally open this year.

Plus, the UK’s best value theme park has been named and tickets are buy one get one free this week.

For those wanting to stay close-by, the theme park will have a 300-room hotel as wellCredit: Universal Destinations & Experiences

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‘South Park’ returns with new episode marking its Season 28 premiere

“South Park” is bidding adieu to its short-lived but buzzy Season 27.

The sixth episode of the year, which airs Wednesday on Comedy Central, marks the first episode of Season 28, a spokesperson from the network confirmed to The Times. (The episode will stream on Paramount+ Thursday.)

The reason behind the decision to end Season 27, which was originally expected to have 10 episodes, is unclear. But fans of the long-running satire will still get four additional episodes this year, if “South Park” co-creator Matt Stone and Trey Parker stick to the schedule they outlined. Fans had been speculating about the start of a new season after seeing television listings that coded Wednesday’s episode as the first of Season 28.

The new episode, titled “Twisted Christian,” follows a possessed Cartman, who “may be the key to stopping the Antichrist,” according its brief description. A short teaser also shows the students of South Park Elementary engaging with the viral “67” slang, an essentially meaningless phrase that has taken over Generation Alpha.

The recent episodes have been drawing strong viewership and have, as always, poked fun at topical issues and political figures including President Trump, immigration raids, tariffs and the FCC. Even Paramount, which bought the global streaming rights to “South Park” this summer in a $1.5-billion deal, has been the butt of several jokes.

Season 27 had an unusual cadence of episodes, with the first two arriving on a weekly schedule, then biweekly before the arrival of the most recent episode (and the apparent finale of the season), which aired three weeks later on Sept. 25.

The second episode drew criticism for its parody of Charlie Kirk, the slain political influencer, despite the episode airing weeks before his death. Comedy Central, which is owned by Paramount, announced it will not air reruns of the second episode of the latest season after Kirk was fatally shot Sept. 10 in Utah. The episode can still be found on Paramount+.

The final episode of Season 27 was the first to air after Kirk’s death, but Parker and Stone told the Denver Post the delay was unrelated to its content: “No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we’d say so if true.” The pair issued a statement on Sept. 17 saying the episode wasn’t finished in time.

Future episodes of “South Park” will air every two weeks through Dec. 10.

Times TV editor Maira Garcia contributed to this report.

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New theme park with world’s fastest and tallest rollercoaster to FINALLY open this year

THE new and enormous theme park in Riyadh is set to open within the next two months despite it still being under construction.

Six Flags Qiddiya City said it’s will open later this year after reports it would be pushed back to spring 2026.

The new Six Flags theme park will be home to four record-breaking rides – like Falcon’s FlightCredit: Six Flags Qiddiya City
The Iron Rattler will be the tallest tilt ride in the worldCredit: sixflagsqiddiyacity

Attractions Magazine revealed last week that Six Flags shared an opening date timeframe of “the first half of 2026” for Six Flags Quiddiya City in a press release.

But then a Six Flags representative reached out the publication to clarify the new theme park is expected to open in late 2025. 

The theme park was first announced in 2019 to be part of Quiddiya City – an entertainment hub in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The new theme park will have the world’s fastest and tallest rollercoaster in the world called Falcon’s Flight – three others will also break records.

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Falcon’s Flight, the fastest and tallest roller coaster in the world with speeds of 155 mph and heights of 639 feet.

The Sirocco Tower, will become the tallest free-standing shot ride in the world with a maximum height of 475 feet tall.

Iron Rattler, the tallest tilt coaster in the world at 208 feet tall. And Gyrospin, the tallest pendulum ride in the world will be 173 feet tall.

The Six Flags Qiddiya City will have six different lands; Steam Town, City of Thrills, Twilight Gardens, Grand Exposition, Valley of Fortune and Discovery Springs.

Discovery Springs is where visitors will be transported to deep underwater.

It has a ride called ‘Into the Deep’ where riders will be transported into sea caves on the interactive dark ride.

Discovery Springs will have deep sea immersive and water drop ridesCredit: sixflagsqiddiyacity
Inside Six Flags Qiddiya City will be six different themed areasCredit: Six Flags Qiddiya City

A rollercoaster called Sea Stallion, which will become the tallest and fastest rider-controlled coaster in the world, that will travel over rivers and behind waterfalls.

It also has a water drop adventure ride, and playground for children called Aquatopia.

The Aquarabia water park will also be part of the complex – and will be the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.

There will be eight themed zones inspired by the wildlife found in Saudi Arabia, for example Camel Rock and Viper Canyon.

Inside the water park that’s also set to open in late 2025, will be 22 rides, a surf pool, water coaster and slides.

It’s not all rides and rollercoasters at Qiddiya City, the site will open its own racetrack that spans across two levels – the first of its kind in the world.

Called, Speed Park, the track is set to open in 2027, and the plan is that the track will eventually host the country’s Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The track has even been designed by racing drivers and will have the very first elevated track corner which is 70-metres high – which equates to a 20-storey building.

While the track will mostly be used by professionals, it will host open days for members of the public.

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Plus, read more from one writer who went to one of Europe’s biggest theme parks with more than 40 attractions and record-breaking rollercoasters.

And Head of Sun Travel (Digital), spent a day out at the UK’s best theme park – with no queues for any rides.

Six Flags Qiddiya City is still set to open by the end of 2025Credit: sixflagsqiddiyacity

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An affordable slice of L.A. paradise might never recover from the Palisades fire

As local and state leaders celebrate the fastest wildfire debris removal in modern American history, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates — a rent-controlled, 170-unit enclave off Pacific Coast Highway — remains largely untouched since it burned down in January.

Weeds grow through cracks in the broken pavement. A community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid. There’s row after row of mangled, rusting metal remains of former homes.

Yet just across a nearly 1,500-foot-long shared property line, the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park — like thousands of fire-destroyed properties cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the last nine months — is now a field of cleaned, empty lots.

The difference in treatment is based on standards used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which directed the corps’ cleanup efforts. FEMA, which focused on providing assistance to local residents — and not properties owned by real estate companies — argued in letters to state officials that since it could rely on the Tahitian’s owners to rebuild the heart of Pacific Palisades’ affordable housing, it would make an exception and include the property. However, it said it could not trust the owners of the Palisades Bowl to do the same.

The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates, right, and the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park, left.

The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates, right, and the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park, left, where fire debris has been removed.

(Eric Thayer/For The Times)

Both mobile home parks requested federal cleanup services, records obtained from the corps show. And both Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles lobbied the agency to include the properties in its mission.

In a May letter approving the corps’ cleanup of the Tahitian, FEMA noted that the property, riddled with asbestos and perched above the busy Pacific Coast Highway, was a public health hazard and that the owners, with limited insurance money, probably would struggle to pay for the cleanup. FEMA Regional Administrator Robert Fenton also wrote to the state Office of Emergency Services, saying that he was “confident” including Tahitian “will accelerate the reopening of the park for its displaced tenants and ensure the community retains this affordable residential enclave in an otherwise affluent area.”

When it came to the Bowl, FEMA took a different tone. The agency said in a July letter to the state agency that with flatter terrain, the Bowl did not pose the same health hazard as the Tahitian Terrace did, and with $1.2 million in insurance money already disbursed to the property owners, it had “no indication the owner lacks the financial means to remove the debris independently.”

FEMA’s letter also noted that unlike with the Tahitian property, “FEMA cannot conclude that Palisades Bowl represents a preserved or guaranteed source of long-term affordable housing,” based on the owners’ track record.

The Bowl’s former residents — artists, teachers, lifeguards, boat riggers, bookstore owners and chefs — are now scattered across Southern California and the globe. Speaking to The Times, many felt helpless, frustrated and unsure whether they’ll be able to return. Many, nine months after the fire, are running out of the insurance money and government aid they’ve relied on to pay rent for temporary housing.

“We’re the great underdogs of the greatest American disaster in history, apparently. This little community,” said Rashi Kaslow, a boat rigger who lived in the Bowl for more than 17 years. “The people of the only two trailer parks — the isolated, actual affordable housing communities … you would think that we would be the No. 1 priority.”

“You would think that we would be the number one priority.”

— Rashi Kaslow, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident

The Bowl began as a Methodist camp in the 1890s, and was developed into a mobile home park in the 1950s. For decades, the Bowl and the Tahitian remained among the only places along the California coast still under rent control, preserved by the Mello Act, and consequently, some of the only affordable housing in the Palisades.

“We’re all connected through this legacy of what we had,” said Travis Hayden, who moved into the Bowl in 2018, “and I think our greatest fear is that it goes away.”

Nine months after the fire, the Palisades Bowl's community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid.

Nine months after the fire, the Palisades Bowl’s community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid.

(Eric Thayer/For The Times)

Many longtime residents never planned to leave.

“I was going to have my bed put in the living room, with a large window wall, and lay and watch the sun set and the ocean. That was going to be the end of my life,” said Colleen Baker, an 82-year-old closet designer. “I don’t, of course, have it anymore. … It’s all gone.”

The Bowl was passed among a few families and local real estate moguls over the decades.

In 2005, Edward Biggs of Northern California bought the Bowl. When Biggs, who rarely appeared at the park, died in 2021, his real estate empire was fractured between his first wife, Charlotte, and his second wife, Loretta, further complicating the Bowl’s management.

Since the fire, residents have heard virtually nothing from ownership. Neither Colby Biggs — Charlotte and Edward Biggs’ grandson who began co-managing the park after Charlotte’s death — nor lawyers with Loretta Biggs’ real estate company, responded to a request for comment.

What Bowl residents have seen is the corps descend on other Palisades properties — clearing burned-out cars, piles of rubble and charred trees from single-family homes as well as the Tahitian — while leaving the Bowl untouched.

At the center of FEMA’s reasoning to refuse cleanup for the Bowl: “The prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.”

“The prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.”

— FEMA, regarding the owners of the Pacific Palisades Bowl

Over the two decades the Biggs family has owned the Bowl, residents have become painfully familiar with this “lack of commitment.”

In 2006, some residents sued Biggs and the previous owner, accusing them of failing to repair and stabilize the bluff behind the park that, the previous year, crumbled after heavy rain, leaving some units uninhabitable.

A year later, Biggs fell into a legal dispute with city of Los Angeles over a plan to split up the property that residents characterized as a move to circumvent rent control.

It prompted Biggs’ attorney to send residents a letter in 2009, stating that the inability to raise rent and the never-ending series of lawsuits made the park unprofitable and that he may file for bankruptcy. It also claimed that Biggs already had received a $40-million offer from an international hotel developer, the Palisadian-Post reported. No sale ever went through.

In 2013, Biggs decided to build an “upscale resort community” instead, by buying up resident’s homes, demolishing them, and building two-story, manufactured homes on the properties. To do so, he planned to target the homes of the residents suing him over a landslide on the property, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal found.

The residents ended up winning $8.9 million from Biggs. The case with the city eventually made it to the California Supreme Court, which sided with residents and the city.

While residents agonize over FEMA’s decision, the experiences have led many to ultimately agree with FEMA’s reasoning: They cannot trust that the owners intend to preserve their park as affordable housing.

Former Bowl residents met atop the Asilomar bluff overlooking their old community on Oct. 3 — the day after a city-imposed deadline for the owners to remove the debris — to call on local leaders to act.

Most skipped the formality of a handshake, going in for hugs. They reminisced. Many took a moment in silence to look down. Rows of empty dirt lots to the left — the Tahitian — and rows of rubble still sitting to the right — their homes.

Residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates meet on a hill above the park in Pacific Palisades.

Residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates meet on a hill above the park in Pacific Palisades.

(Eric Thayer/For The Times)

Nine months after the fire, many former Bowl residents are trying to figure out what to do when their temporary housing insurance money and aid runs dry. They still have little certainty when — or whether — they’ll ever be able to return.

Baker, the closet designer, found a 388-square-foot mobile home in Santa Monica to live in.

“I’m in the very sad stage, and I’m realizing my losses,” she said. “You go to look for something and you go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s gone.’ That’s an everyday occurrence.”

Tahitian’s residents are stuck in a different limbo: With cleared lots, they wait for the property owners to decide whether to rebuild — adding back the concrete slabs for homes and building back the common spaces — or whether to sell the park to its residents, Chase Holiday, a Tahitian resident, said.

“We’re pretty much ready,” Holiday said. Indeed, Tahitian’s homeowners’ association has been in talks with the owners. Barring the complicated paperwork, “we could buy the park tomorrow.”

Although the wait is excruciating, “I feel pretty confident that either we’ll buy it or they’ll rebuild,” she said. But with little clarity over when that would happen, “the bigger question is, will I want to?”

On Wednesday, a handful of Bowl residents — including Jon Brown, a real estate agent who has become one of the Bowl’s leaders in the fight to rebuild — packed a board of Building and Safety commissioners meeting, pushing for the board to finally declare the property a public nuisance, which would allow the city to do the cleanup work and send the owners the bill.

The L.A. County Department of Public Works estimated that, at the end of September, about 20 properties in each burn area, Palisades and Eaton, had failed to clear debris.

In a letter mailed and posted at the Bowl, dated Sept. 2, the department had given the owners 30 days to complete the work or risk being declared a public nuisance.

At the Wednesday meeting, Danielle Mayer, an attorney whose law firm represents Loretta Biggs’ company, asked the commission for more time.

“This community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years.”

— Jon Brown, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident

“This community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years,” Brown said to the board. “They never do anything unless they are absolutely forced to.”

The board ultimately declared the Bowl a public nuisance.

It’s a small but significant step, with a long road still ahead. The Department of Building and Safety has yet to provide any details for how and when it will remove the debris. And the Tahitian’s still-empty lots serve as a reminder that debris removal isn’t the end of the battle.

Yet, Bowl residents remain optimistic that, someday, they will be able to buy the park from the owners and finally serve as the caretakers of the eccentric and beloved affordable community.

To residents, the Bowl was something special. They cared for one another. They surfed together, let each other’s cats in and celebrated holidays on the small community lawn. They raised their kids in the Bowl and sometimes bickered over politics and annoyances, as any proper family does.

“If the people were permitted to go back,” saidresident John Evans, “that would just restart — probably with a vengeance.”

Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.

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The first new train station for 100 years is arriving four months EARLY at Beaulieu Park

The £175m Beaulieu Park train station in Chelmsford is finished well ahead of time, and will open for passengers next week – it’s the first station on the Eastern main line for 100 years

The first new train station on the Eastern main line for 100 years will be arriving … four months early. Rail chiefs are delighted with the £175m station which will open its doors next week.

Beaulieu Park is the first station on this part of the UK rail network network since the 1920s. And because it’s months ahead of schedule passengers will be able to use it from October 26th.

The station is part of a new super green initiative project near Chelmsford, Essex. Martin Beable, Greater Anglia’s Managing Director, said: “We are really looking forward to the opening of Beaulieu Park station, the first new station on the Great Eastern Main Line in over 100 years.

“Beaulieu Park station will benefit from a regular and reliable service of up to four trains per hour during peak times and two trains per hour during off peak periods, making rail travel simple and convenient for passengers.”

Councillor Louise McKinlay, Deputy Leader at Essex County Council, said: “Essex is pioneering the type of infrastructure-supported growth that’s on the national agenda, being bold and ambitious in our commitment to future-proofing the county and putting investment where it’s most needed.

“The new Beaulieu Park station is testament to this, and the role it will play in transforming travel in this part of Chelmsford and surrounding areas will have a positive impact for years to come.

“The progress being made to build the station is remarkable and I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work to get the project to this stage. I’m very much looking forward to the station opening.”

Council bosses hope the new station will transform travel north of Chelmsford as it will eases pressure on the existing busy Chelmsford train station and reduces car journeys into the city centre.

The station is a significant addition to the Beaulieu and Channels neighbourhoods in the north of the city, which form the first phases of the new Chelmsford Garden Community.

4,350 homes already have planning permission as part of the Garden Community. This includes 1,989 new homes which have already been built, along with the Beaulieu Square Neighbourhood Centre providing local shops, community and health services.

This is in addition to the Beaulieu Park School – the first all-through primary and secondary school in Essex.

Another 6,250 homes, a second all-through school campus, up to three primary schools with early years and childcare provision, up to four standalone early-years facilities, more than nine hectares of employment space and walking and cycling routes will also be delivered as part of the Garden Community in the coming years.

Beaulieu Park Station will provide easier and quicker access to jobs, helping the economic development of the area and encouraging further investment.

Beable added: “We expect the new station to be a very attractive and popular option for travellers from that part of Essex.”

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Northern Ireland v Germany: Conor Bradley will be big loss for Michael O’Neill’s side at Windsor Park

Now, the side face the prospect of taking on the group favourites without their best player.

Bradley, who has also been booked three times in five Premier League appearances this term, was shown his second yellow card of the qualifying campaign in the 76th minute for a tackle on Lukas Haraslin.

O’Neill described the decision as “extremely disappointing” and felt his player had tried to pull out of the challenge.

“There were worse tackles in the game and one just before that was particularly poor on Isaac Price that the referee let go,” he said. “To produce a yellow card for that was disappointing.”

Speaking on BBC Sport NI, former Northern Ireland and Leeds United defender Stuart Dallas said Bradley had given “the referee a decision to make” but agreed with his old international boss that the decision ultimately was harsh.

If not for the resulting suspension, it would have been a mere footnote in an otherwise excellent performance.

Bradley was one of four players in the starting XI who went into the game knowing a booking would rule them out of Monday’s game, but Hume said they do not wish to curb his aggressive edge.

“We spoke before the game about the boys who were on yellows trying not to get one, but it’s one of those things,” he explained.

“You can’t go into a game trying not to get booked. You’ve got to play to your strengths.

“He’s full throttle. He’s 100% all the time.”

Since making his full Premier League debut in January 2024, Bradley has started 15 of his country’s 17 games, missing only the friendlies against Sweden and Switzerland in March.

Quite how to compensate for his loss gives O’Neill yet another thing to consider as he plots how to pull off what would be the biggest result of his second spell in charge.

While there is no like-for-like replacement in the squad, Oxford United’s Brodie Spencer figures to fill the void at right wing-back against the four-time World Cup winners.

“You’ve seen Brodie play left wing-back, right wing-back, he’s even played in a back three. We know how strong and athletic he is,” added Hume.

“Obviously Conor is going to be a big miss, but we’re a big group, we’re a strong team and we’re all together.

“It’s something we have to deal with and we’ll be ready.”

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Northern Ireland v Slovakia: ‘Windsor Park World Cup qualifier a huge marker for NI’

When the qualifying draw was made in December, there was an understandable assumption that Germany would top the group and seal automatic qualification with Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Luxembourg fighting among themselves for the play-off spot afforded to the runner-up.

Slovakia’s victory over the four-time World Cup winners to kick things off last month has instead opened up myriad possibilities.

Friday night’s visitors to Windsor Park, who followed up their shock result against the Germans with late victory in Luxembourg, know that another three points in Belfast would be a huge step towards booking their place at next summer’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

While the side ranked 42nd in the world did not make the tournament in 2022, they reached the European Championships either side and were beaten by England at the last-16 stage in 2024 only after Jude Bellingham’s spectacular 96th-minute overhead kick.

Manager Francesco Calzona is the first foreign boss in the country’s history and came recommended by Slovakian legend Marek Hamsik from their time together at Napoli, where the Italian was an assistant coach.

Ties to the Serie A champions do not stop there with midfielder Stanislav Lobotka the side’s key player. The 30-year-old, however, has emerged as a major injury doubt for the game on Friday.

Another with recent Champions League experience, Atletico Madrid full back David Hancko, is another who could miss out.

While O’Neill said he would not believe their absences until the pair were missing when the anthems are played at Windsor Park, should Slovakia be without both then Middlesbrough striker David Strelec will be expected to carry a greater load.

The performances of 19-year-old Feyenoord winger Leo Sauer for the national side have sparked excitement too.

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Park Aerospace (PKE) Q2 2026 Earnings Transcript

Logo of jester cap with thought bubble.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer — Brian Shore

President & Chief Operating Officer — Mark Esquivel

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]

TAKEAWAYS

Sales — $16,003,810 in sales for fiscal Q2 2026, slightly above Park Aerospace (PKE 0.97%)‘s previous estimate of $15 million to $16 million.

Gross profit — $5,001,160 in gross profit for fiscal Q2 2026, with a gross margin of 31.2%, despite pressures from low-margin C2B fabric sales and ongoing new plant expenses.

Adjusted EBITDA — Adjusted EBITDA was $3,401,000, at the top end of Park Aerospace’s prior estimate of $3 million to $3.4 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.8%.

C2B fabric sales impact — $1.65 million in C2B fabric sold at a small markup weighed on gross margin; $415,000 in ablative materials manufactured with C2B fabric, which command much higher margins, partially offset this effect.

Production vs. sales — Sales closely matched production value during the quarter, resulting in no impact on the bottom line from inventory imbalances.

Customer requalification of C2B fabric — Requalification resumed normal production on 90% of specifications; the remaining 10% is under test, a process estimated to take another nine to twelve months.

Missed shipments — $510,000 attributed to customer certification, and testing delays.

Tariffs — Net tariff impact was minimal at $1,700, with costs passed through, and future exposure is expected to remain limited under current arrangements, as discussed on the fiscal Q2 2026 earnings call.

MRAS LTA price increase — 6.5% weighted average price hike became effective January 1 for the MRAS LTA as stipulated in the long-term agreement.

GE Aerospace sales forecast update — Park Aerospace now forecasts $27.5 million to $29 million in GE Aerospace program sales for fiscal 2026, down from a previous estimate of $28 million to $32 million, with current figures based on updated backlog and booking data.

Q3 outlook — Park Aerospace estimates sales of $16.5 million to $17.5 million for fiscal Q3 2026 and adjusted EBITDA of $3.7 million to $4.1 million.

Expansion capital budget increase — Estimated capital expenditure for new manufacturing facilities rose to $40 million to $45 million due to added line requirements.

Cash and balance sheet — $61.6 million in cash and marketable securities reported at quarter-end after a $4.9 million transition tax payment.

No share repurchases — No shares were bought back during the quarter or to date in fiscal Q3 under the current buyback authorization.

SUMMARY

Management disclosed that customer-driven stockpiling of C2B fabric continues to distort product mix, temporarily compressing margins but likely supporting future high-margin material sales as demand converts. Strategic clarity was provided around the critical role of Park Aerospace’s proprietary materials in missile defense and aerospace programs, including the company’s sole-source position on the Patriot missile system’s ablative materials. Park Aerospace signaled intent to further expand U.S. manufacturing capacity for C2B fabric, highlighting both existing and planned investments via partnerships and new plant expenditures. Unlike the previous year, management emphasized that industry OEMs are increasingly collaborating with suppliers and ramping up production to meet robust underlying demand. Long-term sales targets for fiscal 2026 were not formally issued, but management stated that total sales should exceed $70 million, driven by growth in both defense and commercial aerospace programs.

Mark Esquivel stated, “We have approval at about 90% of the specification,” regarding C2B customer requalification, with the remainder expected to take up to twelve more months to resolve.

CEO Shore asserted, “That represents very significant revenue with Park. We’re sole source qualified in that program,” citing sole-source qualification and sharply rising production requirements.

Management described the company’s operational approach as centered on flexibility, urgency, and responsiveness, emphasizing these as Park Aerospace’s core value drivers for customer relationships.

Park Aerospace’s expansion timetable was clarified, with objectives to have plans finalized and implementation underway by year-end to address surging defense and aerospace demand.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

C2B fabric: A specialized ablative composite material distributed exclusively by Park Aerospace in North America, primarily for missile defense applications such as the Patriot missile program.

MRAS LTA: Long-term agreement with Middle River Aerostructure Systems (MRAS), under which Park Aerospace is the sole-source provider of composite materials for a range of GE Aerospace jet engine programs.

AOG: Aircraft on Ground; an operational situation where an aircraft is grounded due to technical or maintenance issues, relevant for customer experience and supply chain urgency.

FAL: Final Assembly Line; a manufacturing line where the major components of an aircraft are brought together for assembly and delivery.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Brian Shore: Thank you very much, operator. This is Brian. Welcome everybody to the Park Aerospace Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Investor Conference Call. I have with me as usual Mark Esquivel, our President and COO. We announced our earnings right after the close. In the earnings release, there are instructions as to how you can access the presentation we’re about to go through. Either via link, and you also can link information in the news release and also on our website. You want to pick that up because we’re gonna go through it. It’ll be a lot more meaningful to listen to us if you have the presentation in front of you. So we have quite a few new investors.

Last quarter, they’ve come on board. And out of consideration for them, I think we should go through some of the legacy items more carefully. I think in the past, legacy items, we just kind of skim over on the assumption that most people already know, are familiar with them. Veteran investors, just please be patient with that. Another item I want to cover with you is that on Tuesday, I had some unplanned oral surgery, and I’m not really feeling that great. So hope you can bear with me. And if I need Mark to take over, I’m sure he’ll be very willing and able to do that.

Questions at the end after we’re done with the presentation, we’ll take questions. And please do ask them. We love questions. Actually, sometimes linked to questions are more meaningful in the presentation. We go through a presentation. We don’t know whether you’re liking it, not liking it, interested, or half asleep. You know, the questions are always more helpful because we then know what people are really interested in, what they’re thinking about. So why don’t we go ahead and get started with the presentation? Slide two is our forward-looking disclaimer language. We’re not gonna go through that. But if you have any questions about it, please let us know. Slide three, table of contents.

Starting on slide one is our Q2 investor presentation, we’re about to go through now. In appendix one, we have supplementary financial information. We’re not gonna go through that during the call, but if you have any questions about it, please let us know. It’s become our practice now or pattern, I guess, to feature James the James Webb Space Telescope in our table of contents. So what we’re talking about here, James Webb Space Telescope discovered cosmic dust which shouldn’t exist outside its galaxy. You know, but shouldn’t exist in quotes. Because I think we’re developing a common theme here. There’s so much that we believed about the universe and its origin, which just isn’t true. Sorry, folks.

Not true. James Webb saying, well, you could believe whatever you want, but these are what’s really going on. So here’s another one of those. Thank you, James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope was produced with 18 prior Park proprietary Sigma stretch. Let’s go on slide four. Kind of more nitty-gritty stuff here. So quarterly results, let’s look at the right-hand column of the second quarter that we just announced. Sales, $16,003,810. Gross profit, $5,001,160. Gross margin, 31.2%. So we’re happy about gross margins over 30 or maybe I should say we’re unhappy when they’re not over 30.

And it’s good that they’re over 30 because there are a couple of things we’ll talk about in a second that drag down our margins. Adjusted EBITDA, $3,401,000. And adjusted EBITDA margin, 20.8%. What do we say about Q2 during our Q1 call on July 15? Set our sales estimate was $15 to $16 million, so we came a little bit above that. EBITDA estimate, $3 million to $3.4 million. So we came in kind of the top of the range of the EBITDA. I just want to remind you, especially for some of our new investors that we don’t this is not guidance. We don’t do guidance.

We give an estimate we’re saying to you, this is what we think is gonna happen. Now we could be wrong, but this is what we think. There’s I don’t know. Let’s call it practice. We have different terms for it, but let’s call it practice where everybody does it almost where, you know, let’s say it’s gonna be a hundred, they think it’s gonna be a 100. They go out with 90, you know, that’s their guidance. So then when they come out when they come back with a 100, they come out with a 100, then they’re heroes. And I don’t know. We think that’s not worthy of our time.

When we give you an estimate, we’re saying this is what we think is gonna happen. We’re not giving you a number which we plan to beat. Okay? Let’s go on to slide five. Q2 considerations. We always talk, well, always in the last few quarters, Erinn Group is as impact on a lot of things, including the quarter. So we entered into this business partner agreement with Aaron Group. It’s a very large aerospace company in France. Great company and they’re a JV between Airbus and Safran, I believe. And in January 22, we were we’ve been actually working for twenty years. They appointed us exclusive distributor of their Raycarb c two b fabric.

That fabric is used to produce ablative composite materials for XHANCE missile systems programs. Now, sold $1.65 million of that fabric in Q2. As we previously explained, we saw that fabric to our defense industry customers for a small markup. What’s going on here is the defense industry customers are stockpiling the c two b. We’re the exclusive distributor though, so they buy it from us. We buy it from we’re distributor, not a rep. We buy from area. And then we sell it or sell it, I should say, to the OEM.

But it’s of a strange thing because we keep the c two b fabric in our plant because the OEM eventually will ask us to produce prefabric with it. So even though we sell to them and it’s their product, it’s kept on the plan. The markup is small, so we have a significant amount of c two b fabric sales that’s gonna push down our margins. And we sold $415,000 with blade materials manufactured with c two b fabric in Q2. Now the margins on the later materials that we produce those fabric, very, very good. Very good. So that’s the offset.

But it’s still the ratio of sales of fabric to ablative materials manufactured with the CTB fabric are still at a balance. Right? So more fabric than materials, prefrac, let’s call it, What’s the reason? I already said it because the OEMs are stockpiling this product. A more normal kind of ratio would be forty sixty. So 40% would be the materials, and 60% would be the fabric. That’s not always gonna be exactly it, but just to give you a sense, So you see that the ratio is much more than forty sixty here, and that’s gonna drive down our margins. So let’s talk about let’s go on to Slide six rather.

Oh, we’re still on the topic of c two b fabric requalification by one of Park’s key customers of c two b fabric. This was kind of a it’s been a big deal for the last few quarters. Adam, Mark, I like, always give Mark the hard stuff to talk about. Can you help us with what’s going on with that recall?

Mark Esquivel: Yeah. So we actually do have an update this time. I think the last couple calls we said we’re waiting for approval. So do we do have approval. We don’t have full approval. We have approval at about 90% of the specification. I have to get too technical. There’s you know, there’s a requirement within the spec that you have to lower and then upper range. They were somewhere in the middle. They moved down closer to the commercial specification as we call it. Which gets us back into production at, you know, 90 plus percent of everything we have.

So, what we’re doing now is they’re currently testing that last 10% which will probably take another nine to twelve months. So, you know, we’ll continue to talk about know, when we get that approval. But as far as the program’s concerned, we’re back in business. We’re back running. You know, and we’re back to, I would say, you know, normal typical rates that we were running you know, prior to, you know, this I won’t say, issue coming up, but this recall coming up. So and we actually expect to see, you know, some upside, you know, in coming quarters, you know, and Brian will talk about some of that piece as well.

But I guess the story here, the message here is we’re pretty much back in business with, you know, running at our normal level.

Brian Shore: Okay. Thanks, Mark. Good news. Let’s keep moving here. Production versus sales. You bring this up because this has been an issue. Issue in prior quarters in terms of the impact on the bottom line. But in our Q2, our sales value production, we call it SCP, that’s not inventory value. That’s the value production. It’s a sales price. It was well matched with our sales. And that’s a good thing. That means it’s not that’s really very no meaningful, not no impact on bottom line. When our sales exceed our production, that is by a significant amount. That is a negative impact on the bottom line. But no impact in Q2.

And then last thing we’ll talk about in terms of bottom line impacts, significant ongoing expenses. This is something we had in our presentation for several quarters now. It’s not going away anytime soon. We’re operating our new manufacturing facility in Q2, including all these other expenses. And this act this is significant. So that’s why I was saying that the gross margin being over 31%, I think, that’s actually not bad because there’s two factors that hold it down. One is this the expenses related to new plant, the other is the let’s call, excess c two b fabric compared to the c two b material sales.

Total miss shipments, a little bit of surprise here. $510,000, that number is way up. But, you know, last few quarters, we keep talking about international shipping issues. That’s not the issue this time. This time, it’s something different. It’s customer certification, testing delays, a little bit of a new story here. It happens sometimes. You know, it just happens. Not it’s nothing we can do about it. It’s not our fault. Or anything like that, but sometimes it just delays insurance and certification and engineering work and testing delays. So that had a meaningful impact upon our shipments in Q2. So let’s go on to Slide seven, impact of tariffs and tariff split costs. You know what?

I should say net impact. I’m saying that to Mark earlier. It should say net impact the tariff and tariff related cost because we have tariffs. It’s just that the net impact takes into account the pass through. So very minimal in Q2. Hardly anything, but that’s the net impact. That’s not the total tariff. That’s a net impact because of the fact that we passed the tariff cost on. And then the future impacts, I think we’ll get back to that later Mark will talk through that later on in the presentation. Why don’t we go on to slide eight? So this is a slide we do every quarter, as you know.

Some of you veterans are probably tired of the top five, and it’s kinda usual suspects also. Like, alright. GKN, Kratos, MRAS, Tech. And. Tech is not well, you know, has it’s kind of a little bit of a new name for us, but the rest are usually suspects. The 7,500 that refers to Nordium, the h three two one n with XLR, that’s an that’s an MRAS program. Kratos, obviously, is Kratos, and the seven eight seven Dreamliner, that’s GKN. That’s for the Gen X one b engine. So it’s a it’s a g engine, but it’s not part of the MRAS LTA, which we’ll go into that later. Let’s go on slide nine.

So here we have our estimated revenues by air aerospace market segments. We call them our pie charts. I know about you, but I like to use it. Think they tell a bit of a story. Fiscal twenty one, that was the pandemic year where commercial aircraft was remember, there were airplanes, pictures of, like, seven thirty sevens not falling at all. Like, two people on them and they were, you know, basically, they were being parked. And then after that, the pie charts, you know, seem to be fairly stable.

Interesting what will be interesting is to see what will happen in the future because the commercial is gonna be accelerating because the program’s are on as those programs ramp up, but military will be accelerating a lot. This is probably it could go down as a percentage. We’ll see about that. Let’s go on to slide 10. Park Plus, niche military state programs. So we have a little pie chart here Radomes, missile systems, unmanned aircraft, all niche markets for us, some markets. But even aircraft structures are niche markets for us. So we actually changed we used to call it what, rocket nozzles, I think.

We changed the missile systems because the missile systems, we supply it to more than just the rock and nozzle other aspects of missiles that we supply it to. I think we used call unmanned aircraft drones, but I think more politically correct term is unmanned aircraft, but there’s no change in there. You know what? And other than nice pictures and you could see what the programs are, we really are not gonna talk about these programs anymore. It’s just not really appropriate. For us to say very much about the programs except understand, please, any picture we show you, that means it’s a program we’re on, not a program we like or a cool picture or something. Okay.

You got it. Let’s go on to slide 11. GE Aerospace and Engine programs. Again, a slide every quarter. But for the benefit of some of our new investors, let me try to explain quickly. So we have a firm LTA requirements contract for nineteen to twenty nine with MRAS Middle River Aerostructure Systems, a sub of ST Engineering Aerospace, You see we’re sole source for, you know, for composite materials. For all these programs, which are all GE programs. So what’s going on here? If you look at all the checked items below, they’re all GE engine programs.

And then what’s going on here is that even we got on these programs with GE Aviation, even before 2019 when Ameres was owned by GE Aviation. Now GE Aerospace. We got on these programs even before that. They were predecessor LTAs before this nineteen to twenty nine LTA. And then I think about five years ago, GE sold MRAS to ST Engineering, which is a large Singapore aerospace company. So that’s the explanation there. I’ve done a factory, you know about that. You know, when I guess around 02/2019, g said to us, look. You know, Park we’re gonna put we’ll give you this ten year agreement for sole solar source and all this stuff.

All these great programs, wonderful programs, but, you know, we really are concerned about redundancy. So would you please build on the factory? And we said, yes. We checked that box. That’s been done. I’m not gonna go through the individual program, maybe except to get didn’t know to talk about the first five are really all eight through 20 neo family aircraft programs. Alright. Do you have any questions about the specific programs? Just let us know. Let’s go on to slide 12 just to keep moving along here. Item the first item on slide 12, we’re just continuing here.

It’s this is a little bit of a nuance here because this is this program is was mentioned in the prior slide, but this is a different component. This and this also is part of our GE Aerospace LTA not necessarily the not the MRAS LTA. So I’m probably gonna hang only the technical, not necessary. Fan case is something we should talk about for a second. This is with g nine x engine triple seven x airplane. This is produced with our AFP material and other composite materials or the major fire replacement. That’s what the AFP stands for. It’s a robotic way, method for producing composite structures.

And this is planned to be included in the LIFER program, MRC life of program agreement. Next item. We had a 6.5% weighted average price increase in our MRASLTA effective January 1. That was that was already built in the s LTA, you know, a long time ago. And next item, park the LTA was park MRSA LTA was meant to include three proprietary formulation products and those are now going undergoing qualification Then life of program agreement have requested by MRAS and STE So we’re still negotiating this, I guess, and I think there’s a meeting that’s being planned for next month. We’ll see what happens. As I said to you many times, we’re okay either way.

This is requested by SDE and MRAS. It’s something they want. They want the stability of long term supply. But either we’re okay either way. If we do it, that’s fine. If not, we’ll be fine. As well. And it’s still under negotiation. It I don’t wanna give you the wrong impression It’s all, like, actually negotiating. We it’s like we talk about it, then three months go by, and then, you know, so I think now we’re planning to have some get together in December to sorry, November to hopefully get through this. We’ll see. We’ll keep you posted.

Item page 13 rather, slide 13, So let’s talk an update on some of these GA change programs, age between a Neo family. That’s a wonderful, wonderful program that Park is on, sole source qualified. And let’s talk about that program. Everybody says a huge backlog of these airplanes, over 7,000 of them. That’s a lot of airplanes. A lot of airplanes. And let’s just talk about the well, whether the we can take a look at the aircraft, the A320neo family aircraft deliveries. We’re not gonna go through it here, but, you know, you can see what’s going on here.

With the amount of orders that Airbus has, we’ll get to in a second, they would be at a much higher rate. Than this. They’d be at 75 per month. What’s be what’s holding them back is issues with supply chain. So this year, year to date, we’re at 44, but don’t get fooled by that because they usually, kinda make their year in the last three months. And if you look at September, you could see what’s going on here. They’re already the Airbus is already ramping up 59. We’re delivered in ’59 is your 20 neo family aircraft delivered in September. Let’s keep going. Slide 14, just continuing here. The importantly, the engine supply bottleneck.

Remember I said that one of big issue is supply chain restrictions That’s what’s preventing Airbus from ramping up. To their target of 75, which gives it a minute 75 per month. CFM, they have another engine. Let’s just talk about CFM, the LEAP one a engine. Reportedly improving that it’s getting better. And I think that’s a deliberate focus by g and SCFM, which is a very good thing because that’s probably the most significant restriction to Airbus’s ability to ramp up to that 75. They it’d be up there now, they upon how many orders they have. So that’s that’s very good news actually.

As we already alluded to, Airbus is targeting a delivery rate of 75, eight H320neo family per month you could see that, you know, they’re still at, you know, 50 to 55, so they still have a way to go, quite a way to go. Two engines approved for the a three twenty neo aircraft. We’re on the CFM LEAP one a engine. We’re not on the we have nothing no content on the Pratt and Whitney GTF engine. And so I guess that covers the second bullet item. We supply into the h three twenty family aircraft using the LEAP-1A engine.

According to the second quarter, 2025 edition of Aero Engine News, which is kinda like a bible, for us anyway. The CFM LEAP one a’s market share with you know, compared to the Pratt market share, aforementioned orders, A320neo family, 20 neo family aircraft per month, that’s 64.7% market share translates into 1,165 LEAP engines per year. That’s a real lot of engines and, you know, lots of revenue per park at that point. Slide 15, As of June 30, 2025, few months ago, were a little over 8,000 firm LEAP one a engine orders. These are not These are LEAP one a engine orders where we’re sole source qualified. Over 8,000.

If you wanna look at slide 29, you get a feel for what our revenue per unit is due to, you know, get your pocket calculator out and do the math. You could see what that worth to us. Those are just the firm orders that are in the books now. So this is a big deal for Park. The Airbus h three twenty one XLR, and this is a variant. We’re still talking a three twenty family. Okay? We’re not off to a different aircraft. This is part of the a 20 family. This is recently introduced, supposedly changed the air map of the world. Why is that?

Because the payload and range capability of this aircraft are very unusual for a single aisle. So it allows a single aisle to compete against wide bodies, but obviously, at much lower cost. So that’s why it’s changing your map of the world. Qantas is you know, very involved in the program, American Airlines, Iberia Airlines. The reason I highlight this is a lot of lot of airlines are buying this airplane. Why am I highlighting this They call it a game changer. But what’s really, I think, very impressive to me is that they say they claim they’ve had almost no AOGs that’s aircraft on grounds after almost a year. That’s really a big deal.

Because normally, the first year or two, there’s all kind of bugs you have to get out of a new airplane, a new design, and the airplane sits on the ground a lot. And it’s kind of you just expect it. It’s not good because, you know, when the air airplane’s sitting on the ground, the airlines aren’t making any money. And you kind of expect that if you get a, you know, an airplane that’s been recently certified and delivered. But here you go, they’re they’re saying almost no way AOGs. I’ve never heard of anything like that. That’s quite impressive. Boeing has no response. To this aircraft. Let’s go on to slide 16.

Mark Esquivel: So still on a three twenty here, folks.

Brian Shore: Airbus plans to open a new a three twenty aircraft family final assembly lines, FALs, in The US and China this month. Know, this couple weeks. So these two new FALs in combination with the existing FALs, FALs in Germany and France will provide Airbus with the manufacturing capability to achieve a 75 h 20 neo aircraft per month delivery goal in ’27. So, you know, this is nice because Airbus is they’re putting your money more than mouth this year. These FALs are they’re they’re a big deal. So that’s good news. And then breaking news, October 7 oh, this is the day in my oral surgery, I think. Yeah. There are two big things happened on October 7.

That’s just two days ago. The a three twenty aircraft family became the world’s most liver commercial jet ever. Of course, that means it beat out the seven thirty seven Not just a max. This is the seven thirty seven family versus the a three twenty family. pretty big news, I guess. COMC nine one nine that’s a Chinese made aircraft. Comac is targeting oh, this airplane is designed to compete single aisle with They’re targeting a thirty nine one nine aircraft delivered in 25. But recent and confirmed reports saying they’re probably for sure for sure that this target. I can’t tell you I’m very surprised.

I probably would’ve you know, to be just totally candid about it, I would be more surprised if they met the target. I’m not gonna go into why, but it but I’m not I’m not surprised or really disappointed. Malaysian Airlines, AirAsia, has confirmed its advanced talks to purchase these airplanes. Why is that important? Why am I on that? Because there are a lot of air airlines that are buying this airplane. But the reason I’m focusing on is this is a non Chinese airline. This airplane is certified by the Chinese FAA, I think, called CAAC or something like that. So the thought was originally this Comac airplanes would be China only airplanes.

Well, that’s not what Comac wants. They’re still the airplane outside of China for operations outside of China. The plan to achieve reduction rate of 200 airplanes But what’s interesting here, they’re they delivered it to same kind of topic really. Laos Airlines, Air Cambodia, signed up. Again, what’s what’s the theme here? Non Chinese airlines. So, originally, you’re thinking the China the Comac airplanes are gonna be China only, but that’s obviously not what Comac wants. Triple seven x, Boeing triple seven x, we have slowed down a little bit talk, but this one, this is a, you know, important program for 1,500 out flights and nearly 4,100 out flight hours. That’s a lot. That’s good.

This picture was taken by a friend of mine a couple of few years ago when the triple seven x was doing cold weather testing in Fairbanks, Good place to go for cold weather testing. So let’s talk let’s go on slide 18. Sorry. Boner poorly 565 open orders for the airplane. Boeing had previously announced that the airplane program was on track for certification late twenty five and entry into service. 26. The Boeing CEO recently stated the certification program is falling behind schedule. The CEO further stated the aircraft and the engine did Gen X engines, the nine x range, g nine x engine are really performing quite well.

And that the potential delay in certification was being caused by increasingly deliberate FPA scrutiny. Get the sense there’s some tension there Boeing and the FAA. You I do anyway. A key gating item for is the receipt of the called the type inspection authorization from the FAA. Because as the CEO explains, you know, they can fly these airplanes. They need to have five airplanes to use for certification program, but those flights don’t really count, you know, towards certification. Till they get to the TIA. There’s a lot of boxes that have to be checked for airplane to be certified. So they can go fly the airplane, which is good.

They can learn a lot more about the airplane, but they can’t check those boxes until they get their TIA from the FAA. Boeing hasn’t announced any new targets for the certification and EIS, but speculations that they’d be pushed into next year at ’26. Let’s go on to slide 19. So let’s talk about big picture GE aerospace jet engine sales history forecast estimates. The top is the sales history. One go control history accepted the site and q $27,500,000.0. But a little higher than we forecast. GE Aerospace program sale forecast, sales forecast estimates, Again, not guidance estimates.

Two three, we’re estimating $7.5 to $8,000,000 And total for the year, got a slow down here a little bit, $27.5 to 29,000,000 Now in our prior presentation, we indicated that we’re looking at 28 to 32,000,000 for the year for fiscal twenty six. But as we explained to you, information called a bill plan from our customer. Wasn’t our forecast. It was their forecast. Now we have now the current forecast 27 and half to 29. That’s now part forecast based upon what? Based upon the backlog for Q3 and Q4. Q3 is already booked. Q4 is partially booked and what we expect, you know, based on lots of life experience to the additional bookings for Q4.

So now this is our number, 27 and a half 29,000,000. Let’s go on to Slide 20. Park’s financial performance history and forecast estimates. Estimate singular. So we just have the history up top. You already saw this just for perspective and context. Down below, our Q3 twenty six Q3 financial forecast estimates. Now plural Uh-oh. Sales of 16 and a half to 17 and a half million, Adjusted EBITDA, 3.7 to 4,100,000.0. That’s our estimate for Q3. You have any questions about that, just let us know. So let’s go on to slide 21. This is just history, and we’ve showed you the slide for the last several quarters.

We think it’s interesting just so you can see what’s going on here. Historically. You go from 17 to 20, like, every year. We increased by about 10,000,000, then we got stalled out. So we’re kind of at into fiscal twenty five, we’re pretty much where we were fiscal twenty. And, obviously, that’s because of the pandemic You know, the pandemic really had a very big impact on commercial aerospace. It wasn’t the pandemic so much, it’s how we responded to it, how the industry responded to it, especially with respect to supply chain issues that’s held back commercial aerospace. So just one other thing. We’re not giving you a forecast for fiscal twenty six this time.

But we believe that the number will be over 70,000,000 for fiscal twenty six. We’ll just give you that number. We’re not giving EBITDA, not giving details I think what’s going on here, though, is the industry is getting religion. And it’s not just an opinion. This is based on my life of input we received. Different kind of attitude on the part of the OEM in terms of ramp up to meet demand and also working with suppliers and supply chain in a much more productive and you know, a more, I know, more collaborative way. Sorry. Coming up trying to come up that word collaborative way. So it’s not just a little thing. It’s a big thing.

It’s it’s very palpable in the industry. Happens. But to us, it seems like there’s something really going on here. And we’re not we’re not alone in that opinion. We’re not alone in that opinion. So let’s see what happens. You know, just so you know, we’re probably looking about a little over 70,000,000 for fiscal twenty five. Let’s go on to slide 22. Okay. General park updates. Agreements with Arian. Okay. We gotta slow down with Arian again. We entered in that business partner agreement in January 22, wondering which Arian ported up. Pointed us as exclusive North American distributor. We already covered that. Okay?

But then on March 27, ’25, just early this year, Park and Aaron entered part they’re a great partner. They’re a wonderful partner. We love them. I entered into a new agreement under which Park will advance I don’t know. It’s probably about 5,000,000 for million, €587,000 against future purchases by Park of c two b fabric. These funds will be used by Erie to help finance the purchase of additional installation of new manufacturing equipment for Aireon’s production of the p c two fabric in France. And that was that should be paid to area in three installments the first of which is already paid about, you know, $1,000,303,176,000 euro. That’s about $1,500,000.

So that would affect our cash when we reported Q1. Let’s move to Slide 23 rather. The purpose newest of this new agreement is to provide additional c two b fabric manufacturing capacity to support the rapidly increasing demand for c two b in c two b fabric in Europe and North America. Just so you know, one of the big programs that uses c two b fabric is the Patriot Missile Program. Ariane Group recently asked to partner to partner again with them on a study related to the potential significant increase of c two b fabric manufacturing capacity presumably in The US. The study expected cost about €700,000.

We split it $50.50, so that’s probably about $410,000 Park, and we’ll record that when our Q3 is a special item. Just want to be aware of that. We’ll get back to this later on the presentation on the area study. Just continuing with general updates, our lightning strike protection material certified on the Passport 20 engine. Using the using the Bombardier Global 7,508,000 Bisinjet. Its revenue is about approximately 500,000 per year expected on our LSB material. We’re very happy about this. Our LSB is already qualified, approved, and used on the a three twenty and the nine one nine, but have not just getting it approved now.

On the s four twenty engine and also thought to get approved on what’s called the 10 a engine for the back nine zero nine. So and we expect that these revenues will start to kick in fairly soon, let’s say, in a couple of months. Slide 24, still updates. This is just something we covered already. We signed we entered into an LTA with Aerospace. And for calendar years twenty five to thirty. Parked and then another update. Parked discussion with two Asian industrial conglomerates relating to Asian manufacturing. Do inventors continue? We’ve been talking about this for a while. John Jamieson’s in Asia now working on this project along with one of our other guys.

So we’ll see what happens. Seems interesting, but we’ll see what happens. Okay, Mark. Your turn. Tariff, international trade issues, what’s the expected impact of tariffs going forward, you think?

Mark Esquivel: I don’t think much. I know this quarter alone, we had about $1,700, which, you know, we don’t like to take on any additional cost. But that was mostly, you know, nonmaterial. Items. So going forward, again, as I mentioned before, we got ahead of this pretty early. You know, we’re, we put controls in place to manage it. We’re, passing the cost along to our customers, whether it’s through you know, contracts or, you know, stuff like our POs or stuff like that or order confirmation. So I don’t expect you know, to see much. I mean, it’s obviously a dynamic situation. I don’t think all the tariffs are completely locked in.

It’s been a little quiet in the news lately. But where we’re at today and what we’ve seen so far, it’s it’s very impact to our business.

Brian Shore: K. Thanks, Mark. So let’s keep going here. Current MRAS supplier core scorecard or scores. What happened? We don’t have all hundreds. Here. We don’t have all hundreds. Does MRS still love us? Yeah. I think they do. I think I mentioned to you in prior quarters that told that most suppliers would be happy to get eighties. And Emirates finds it a little bit humorous that we ask, well, what happened? And what we doing what do we need to do to fix these tissues? It’s called technical issue in terms of what how we recorded something. So we take it seriously. We’re we’re a 100 company. We’re not a 99.7 country, company rather. So we take it seriously.

And, like I said, MRC I think, finds it a little amusing that we spent so much time talking about why we’re not on a what not why we didn’t get a 100 on when we reached scores. Let’s go on to slide 25. So making customers love us, this is still in our general updates, is central to what we call parks egg strategy. How do we make our customers love us? With our calling cards of flexibility, urgency, and responsiveness? By asking how high before our customers say jump. And we’re not kidding about this. We’ll go to customers and say, what else can we do? What else can we do? What else can we do?

Before they even ask us for anything. Making customers love us is a boiler room thing, not a boardroom thing. You know, the board’s on board. With a strategy. You know? We’ve certainly reviewed it with the board. But the strategy happens on the factory floor, not on the boardroom. That’s where the rubber hits the road. It’s up to all our people to make the strategy work. It’s a boiler room thing. So first, for this strategy to work, all of our people need to be bought into it and feel passionate about it. Making customers love us is the secret to our success.

You know, it’s a hidden plain sight secret You know, sometimes the most brilliant ideas are the most obvious ones. With a benefit of hindsight and the well, why didn’t I think of that? I don’t know. Why didn’t you think of So the secret is kind of hidden plain sight, but it’s a secret to our success. Slide 26, buyback authorization. We don’t have to spend a lot of time on this. Let’s just go down to the last two check items We did not purchase any shares, and in fiscal in our second quarter, and we don’t we’ve not purchased any shares so far in our third quarter date.

I don’t think we’ll be my feeling, my opinion is we probably won’t be purchasing too many shares in the near future, but we’ll see about that. Slide 27, again, this is just gonna review Park’s balance sheet cash and incredible cash dividend history. Long term debt, we don’t have any. We had reported $61,600,000.0 of cash and marketable securities. At the end of Q2. But we also made a final transition tax installment payment of $4,900,000.0 in Q2. And Q1, we recorded cash in into q 1 of $656,000,000. So if you take that $4,900,000.0 subtracted from $65.6 million, it gets you to that $61,600,000.0 number more or less. It explains the difference.

Forty sec consecutive years of interrupted uninterrupted regular cash dividends, and we’ve now paid over $606,000,000 or going in $9 and cents per share in cash dividends since the beginning of fiscal two thousand five. This is our Park Founders. The run reason we placed a picture of our Park Founders here is because we started out with basically nothing. We’re two guys that started the company, I think, in 1954 with about $40,000 that they had saved from war duty. And, you know, here we are paying over $600,000,000 of cash dividends in last twenty years or so. Let’s go on to slide 28. Okay.

We can kind of skim through this because these three slides are exactly how the same slides that we showed you last quarter. I think the quarter before that. Financial outlooks for GE Aerospace change and Juggernaut, call it Juggernaut. It’s a timing. We’re not sure where to talk about yeah, the nine one nine is, you know, a little slow ramping up. And the triple seven x is having a little more difficult difficulty getting certified. So we don’t know. We don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about that. But the thing is that we say it’s a juggernaut. It’s coming. It can’t be stopped, and the key thing for us is we better be ready.

You go on to slide 29. There’s no change. Anything here that all the numbers are exactly the same. Like I said, the pre you know, relate to a previous slide, we feel that GE and CFM have kind of gotten a religion that they’re they’re really focused on ramping up production and working closely and collaboratively with the supply chain. Slide 30 is just footnotes related to the prior slides. We won’t go through those. If you have any questions, any of this, let us know. Okay. Let’s go on to slide 31, Warren Peace, Park Gingernaut. Peace for the Question War. These slides came from originated in the last quarter, although there’s some updates to them.

The first thing I wanna cover again though is we’re not providing any inside information on any of these programs. All every all this information in these slides is based upon publicly reported news and reports. We don’t give away inside information. Especially with defense programs. Unprecedented demand for missile systems. Missile systems stockpiles have been seriously depleted by the wars in Europe and Mideast there’s an urgent need to replenish the depleted missile system stockpiles. According to Wall Street Journal reporting, the Pentagon is pushing defense OEMs to double or even quadruple missile system production on a breakneck schedule quotes, partly in preparation for potential conflict with China.

List of Pentagon targeted missile systems, including PAC three missile system, the LRASM, and the s m six. The Patriot missile system is a particular priority. I think you should know the park is on all those programs, participates in all those programs, all three of them. Review and update of the PAC three Patriot missile system. The reason we spend more time talking about this is a lot of public visibility and information about it. Some of the other programs we’re on, it could be quite significant, but we’re not able to even mention what they are.

The largest deployment of PACS prepaid missile systems in history occurred in response to Iran’s ballistic missile strikes on our air base in Qatar. Going on to slide 32, What happened here, in anticipation of this, I guess we knew what’s gonna happen, We moved Patriot missile system to Qatar from South Korea and Japan knowing what was coming And we called it a shell game, you know, moving the systems one place to another. That’s not sustainable. The Department of War wants to very significantly increase patriot missile stockpiles in Asia to protect bases and allies in the Pacific region. So this is not working out very well at all, is it?

We take missile systems out of South Korea and Japan because we have this issue with Iran. And now we deplete their systems when the Department of War wants to significantly increase the patriot missile stockpiles in Asia. See the problem? So just public stuff. Israelis supply a patriot missile systems seriously depleted. Ukraine supply of patron missile systems. Seriously depleted. Other countries have been waiting for Patriot missile systems for years.

September 3225, Lockheed’s Missile and Fire Control division received its biggest contract in history, a $9.8 billion award from the US Army 1,970 Patriot missiles Patriot missiles According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of War wants suppliers to ramp up to produce approximately 2,000 Patriot missiles per year which is almost four times the current production rate. Didn’t we say something about quadruple in the prior slide? We did. Four times production rate. So we’re talking about well, we’ll get to I’m gonna wait and wait. We’ll get to in a second because I thought you say park is all sorts qualified. We’ll get to that in a second. Let’s go on to slide 33.

Patriot missile systems are planned to be incorporated into the Golden Dome. As apparent from the reporting that The US plans to do much more than just replenish these depleted systems. So next hour item, parts ports, the patron missile system with specially ablated materials produced in areas of c two b fabric, And Parker sole source qualified for specially ablated materials on this program. So I was gonna say at the bottom of slide three two, there’s 2,000 missiles per year. That represents very significant revenue with Park. We’re sole source qualified in that program. Park, we’re back to slide 33. Sorry to bounce around on you here.

Parkers recently asked to increase our expected output of specially inflated materials for the program by significant orders of magnitude. We can’t really say how much but significant orders of magnitude, hopefully, that gives some kind of feel for what’s going on here. And we will fully support this request partly with the additional manufacturing capacity provided by our major facilities expansion, which we’ll discuss below. Remember that Park recently entered into this new agreement going back to area? With Arian for the purpose of increasing c two b fabric manufacturing capacity. Let’s go on to slide 34. But will that additional manufacturing capacity be enough? Considering what’s going on with the Patriot missile? No. I don’t think so.

As discussed above, park partnering with Aaron Group in a study related to potentially significantly increasing c two b fabric manufacturing capacity presumably in The US. This is a big deal. Let me just say this. Once we’re our we’re our partnership when a study is done, that’s not the end of the partnership. I don’t think anyway. That’s not what we’re talking about. I’m not gonna say anything more about it, but let me just say it’s a big deal. We covered the arrow three four missile systems last time, so we just kinda covered it again. Not too much here. Last item, updated parts involvement. Remember, we’re we were second source qualified in the r o three.

We weren’t really expecting orders. We got them. We already got them. Our four were sold source qualified on the hour four, which is expected to go into production, think relatively soon. Let’s go on to slide 35. This is really probably the most important slide this whole warrant piece section of the presentation. The above missile programs are just a small representation of critical missile programs parked is supporting or planning to support There are too many programs to iterate here, and many, probably most, are too confidential and sensitive to mention for national security or other reasons. But, you know, this is highlighted or bold whatever you an italics.

But please understand that certain of these programs represent very significant revenue for 36. Major expansions. So I’m just gonna give a quick update here. I know we’re running late, with time, but got a lot to cover here. And like I said, we got new investors, so we couldn’t just skim through things too much. A major new expansion, we talked about this in the of our manufacturing facility. We talked about this in the last February presentations, I believe. So we’re planning a major new expansion of our manufacturing facilities. It could be at Newton, or elsewhere. The plant expansion will include manufacture following lines elution treating, hot melt film, hot melt tape, hypersonic materials manufacturing.

A current estimated capital budget for new manufacturing plant equipment 40 to 45,000,000. That’s gone up. I mean, I forget what we said last quarter, maybe $30.35 to forty. Why’d it go up? Well, we know the line. That extra $5,000,000 is for another line because the requirements keep going up and up and up. It’s quite incredible, So new manufacturing slide three seven, just continuing new manufacturing, major new manufacturing major new expansion of parts manufacturing facilities. Why are we doing this? Are juggernauts required? We have a juggernaut for the aerospace. We have a juggernaut for defense and missile programs. Our long term business forecast requires it.

And the second bullet item under the that check item is that our forecast has increased since we talked to you on July 15. And also have manufacturing capacity needed for park to be parked. Or calling cards. Again, flexibility, responsiveness, urgency. We don’t run a business a mill, meaning that, okay, we campaign and you want something, well, we could figure when maybe a year from December. We don’t run our business that way. Urgency, responsiveness, flexibility. So it’d be really stupid for 38. We’re just continuing on the expansion We’re not sharing our long term business forecast this time. But opportunities for Park are significant. Timing is now.

We must take advantage of the opportunities We must not hesitate or we will squander the end quotes, once in a lifetime opportunities we have sacrificed so much over many years to develop. So this is kind of interesting. There was a board meeting last week and Mark was discussing with the board some of these missile programs and used the term once in a lifetime our opportunities. And the board was really got thought, well, let’s come from Mark. This must be really big. You know? Because Mark is not a guy who’s given to hyperbole. You know? He’s usually a skeptical guy, which is good. You know, you want your president to be skeptical of things.

That was his quote, went to lifetime and the board’s thought, wow. This must be a big thing then. Our objective is to have our expansion plan in place by the end of the calendar year and to be moving into implementation. The implementation phase by or a plan by then. Slide 39. How are doing at Park? Let’s change gears a little bit. I’m sorry. It’s gonna take you so long, but like I said, we’re trying to cover a lot of things here. So what are parks objectives? This is How do we measure success? I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about this. So let’s talk about it. We measure success.

Our objectives are getting qualified sole source qualified whenever possible on chosen special aerospace programs. These are programs you wanna be on. These are the special programs, the wonderful programs. That’s our success. Once we get qualified on our chosen special programs, our objectives have been achieved. We’re done. Once we’re qualified in those children programs, in italics, all we need to do is support those programs with what? Extreme urgency, flexibility, responsiveness. That’s it. Other than that, it’s up to the program OEMs to determine the side of quickly their programs will ramp. That is not something over which we have control, and it’s not even our concern. We’re in the program. We achieved our objective.

Our objectives has been achieved. Some guy wrote something about you know, we’re shifting blame or mitigation plans, and it’s just kind of a total misunderstanding of how a park and our objectives and how we operate. Once we got in these programs, sole source qualified, our objectives have been realized. And we let’s talk about it. How we done with our objectives? If you ask me, we have been incredibly successful. We’ve gotten on wonderful aerospace programs, a special program that you want to be on. Most of which we can’t mention. You know, you know some of them already, a three twenty,

Mark Esquivel: Wow. Patriot. Wow.

Brian Shore: A lot of them we can’t mention. Slide 40. And we were nobodies when we came into the aerospace industry. We came from nowhere. You know, we welcomed into the industry with open arms. With the entrenched competitors, I don’t think so. They didn’t want us. I mean, they were brought polite and respectful Well, they clearly didn’t want they did not welcome us. We achieved what we achieved against great odds, incredible success, by getting on these programs that are the envy of the industry. From nowhere, nothing. Went into an industry where there’s in aerospace, there’s a lot of entrenchment. People kinda programs, they get very complacent sometimes. That’s not us. We don’t do that. Are we lucky?

If you ask me, we earned everything we got. Are we an overnight success? I don’t think so. There’s been a long and difficult row much sacrifice along the way. It’s a road we chose. Let’s go on to slide 41. I think that’s our last slide. Almost there, folks. Very fortunately for all of us, Park has the courage and conviction. This should be involved because it’s important to stay the course with our principles that are simple but elegant. X strategy in the face of sometimes unrelenting doubts, negativity, and skepticism. Very fortunate of all of us meaning, you know, investors too. Very fortunate that we stood our ground and our knees didn’t buckle.

We did what we thought was right, under know, quite a bit of pressure. Because if we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be where we are now We wouldn’t be looking at these once in a life lifetime opportunities. Wouldn’t be. And we’d all be we’d all lose out. You know? We’ll lose out. So how are we doing at Park? We believe Park has done a remarkable job of positioning our company to capitalize our thank you, Mark, once in a lifetime opportunities we are now facing. These are unprecedented times. For Park. Okay, operator, so we’re done with our presentation, we have to take any questions at this time.

Operator: Thank you, Mr. Shore. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line has been You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset pressing the star keys. I see we have a question coming from Nick Ripostella from NR Management. Your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.

Nick Ripostella: Hey. Good afternoon. Once again, nice presentation, nice quarter. And, just a couple of, easy questions. I’ve been thinking about Park and all the exciting things going on. How do you feel about, the need for additional sales personnel or are you feel that everything you have there is adequate? You’ve got so much going on. I’m just wondering, are you covered in that area? Sufficiently? And the second thing is I know you say you’re not prepared at this time to share the long term forecast. So do you think like, sometime next calendar year, you can kind of give people a longer term view of where this company could be and three to five years.

You know, there’s so many things that are blossoming. You know? You truly are a growth company, but and then the third thing is and I know this is not your primary function, obviously, but you must be on the radars of, firms out here to pick up research coverage. You know? There’s so much research out there now by niche firms, and you have such a great story. I was just wondering if anything’s happening in that regard. Thank you so much.

Brian Shore: Thanks, Nick. Thanks for your questions. So let’s take them in order. Additional salespeople, you know, I think Mark, you can chime in. We’ve learned a lot over the last twenty years, and I think our view on salespeople is a little bit skeptical. I couldn’t refer to have additional technical people, engineering people, in terms of getting more business. We certainly have our hands full of what we have already, but we’re always interested in new opportunities, new opportunities. They’re coming pretty fast and furious. But they’re not coming because of salespeople.

They’re coming because you know, it’s a small industry, particularly in the fence side, and we have close ties with a lot of the OEMs and the military as well. So the work gets out pretty quickly. The important thing is we have engineering people to support those activities rather than salespeople that go get those the business. And I’m not sure that really works anyway. I don’t think that I don’t know. Mark chime in. The typical OEMs really are that interested in you know, the guy bringing donuts and a slick salesman. More interested in what you can do, how you can help us.

And that’s gonna be more of an engineering discussion, or it could be a supply chain discussion. Okay. No. How can you support us in terms of providing a product to us? But the you know, I don’t know. I’m a little skeptical about whether additional salespeople are we wanna talk about at this point. Why don’t we Mark, why don’t you chime in? I’ll take the other two, questions, but why don’t you chime in if you have anything wanna add to that, my answer on that question.

Mark Esquivel: Yeah, Brian. I think you’re correct. I mean, we work really close with the technical and engineering folks and kinda goes back to our strategy too. They have priorities, and they need to get projects And, you know, we work directly with them and help them develop, you know, new programs and products. And that really helps us get business more so than the traditional, like you said, Brian, going to the supply chain people bringing donuts. A little different, you know, in our industry. It’s more technical, more engineering driven. And if you’re satisfying you know, those groups, you know, that’s how the business usually comes our way.

Brian Shore: Yeah. Good. Thank you. Yeah. I think a lot of times it come it comes to us rather than we go into it. You know? But, you know, is a real kinda small, close in industry, and people know where to find us. Long term forecast, I understand. Understand why you’re asking that. I think what we’ll try to do in Q3 is provide some information a little bit like, a little reluctant because I think the number is gonna be shocking. To our investors.

Nick Ripostella: I want some nice shopping.

Brian Shore: Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s see we can let’s see what we can do to give you more perspective, quantitative perspective. When we announce Q3. Okay? Would that be alright? And we’ll work on that. I’m not saying we’ll give you a hard, like, three or four year forecast, but there’s something that, you know, you could sink your teeth into a little bit more. And the research, you know, we’re here. I mean, they were know where to find us, so we’d be happy to be covered. Like I said, Nick, not really our principal focus, but we’d be happy to be covered. And, you know, if anybody’s interested, I’m happy to talk to them.

I think we are seeing a lot more visibility in the last few months or so. So we’ll see what happens. I don’t believe there’s anything imminent where somebody’s about to pick us up right now. We’re very open to pick to being covered. So, hopefully, those that is when

Nick Ripostella: when the revenue doubles from here, then they’ll come around. You know? That’s that’s the way it happens a lot. But Maybe

Brian Shore: Yeah. Maybe you’re right. Any other questions you have, Nick, or does that cover it?

Nick Ripostella: No. Thank you so much. And you know, it’s it’s glad to see that all the hard work, you know, the stock has caught lightning in the bottle after the last quarter, and it’s good. It’s night it’s a nice thing to see hard work appreciated and reflected in the value. You know? It must make all the employees and everybody feel good and the investors, obviously. But so thank you. Sure.

Brian Shore: It’s a good thing. Thank you very much for input, Nick. Operator, do we have any other questions?

Operator: Currently, there are no further questions at this time. Oh, I actually see one just popping in by Chris Showers. Private investor. Chris, your line will be unmuted. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Showers: Hi. Thank you. Brian, just, I guess, two questions. You mentioned the c two b material being a sixty forty lower to higher margin mix. When the Patriot missile gets ramped up, will that be constant, or can you get a higher mix there with the higher revenue converted material.

Brian Shore: So I’ll I’ll answer that. So what’s going on here is they’re stockpiling. Stockpiling. And that’s why there’s the ratio was not really balanced. At the end of the day, though, there will be a certain amount of c two b fab that’s required to make the c two b material. But at the end of the day, it all has kinda even out. You know? Right now, the OEMs are stockpiling Why? Because they’re nervous. They want as much as they can get. Because they see where the, you know, where the future is going, and they’re not stopping. You know. They’re gonna keep stockpiling, I think.

But eventually, you know, their plan is not to just have that stuff sitting in their factory, of course. It for us to produce the material that’s used to make the rockinized materials for the rock nozzle structures for the Patriot missile system.

Chris Showers: Okay. And is there timing on that where you think that might pick up? This calendar year?

Brian Shore: Yeah. I think as Mark alluded to, you know, we had this issue with the recall, and that was slowing down our a lot, you know, our ability to produce the materials, the c two b materials. The recall is pretty much complete now. So we think that’s gonna open things up quite a bit. Even in the next quarter. I mean I mean, even this quarter, I think. So we’ll see. We’ll see. You know, with aerospace, probably most industries, though, Chris, the demand is there, but you that the supply chain can’t turn everything on a dime.

We can, but there’s a lot of other, you know, steps along the way in the supply chain in order to be able to ramp up. Like with a three twenty, you know, we could support 75 airplanes a month at this point if they needed it, but and Airbus would like to be a 75 airplanes for a month. I’m quite sure of that. What’s holding you back is the supply chain. The supply chain is not able to turn on a dime.

Chris Showers: Okay. Thank you.

Brian Shore: Was there another question, Chris?

Chris Showers: No.

Brian Shore: Oh, good. Okay. Operator, anything else right now?

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Shore for any closing comments.

Brian Shore: Okay. Well, Brian again here. Thank you very much for listening in. Sorry the call went so long. If you have any other questions, you wanna call us anytime. We’re happy to talk to you. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

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Congress Park Capital Loads Up On QQQM With 10,000 Shares Purchased

On October 7, 2025, Congress Park Capital LLC disclosed buying 10,764 shares of Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM), an estimated $2.54 million trade for the quarter.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 7, 2025, Congress Park Capital LLC increased its position in Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM) by 10,764 shares during Q3 2025. The estimated transaction value, based on the period’s average price, was $2.54 million. The fund reported holding 32,844 shares, worth $8.12 million.

What else to know

This was a buy; QQQM now represents 2.5% of Congress Park Capital LLC’s 13F reportable assets under management.

Top holdings after the filing:

  • NYSE:JFR: $22.57 million (7.0% of AUM)
  • NYSEMKT:IVV: $19.64 million (6.1% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:GOOGL: $16.03 million (5.0% of AUM)
  • NYSE:NEA: $13.07 million (4.1% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:AMZN: $13.05 million (4.1% of AUM)

As of October 7, 2025, shares were priced at $248.85, up 25.4% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 by 8.0 percentage points

Company overview

Metric Value
Fund AUM $64.34 billion
Price (as of October 7, 2025) $248.85
Distribution yield 0.5%
1-year total return 25.4%

Company snapshot

Investment strategy: Seeks to track the performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index by investing at least 90% of assets in the underlying securities, providing exposure to 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Underlying holdings: The portfolio consists of securities from 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market and has a non-diversified structure.

Expense ratio and structure: The fund operates as a passively managed ETF that tracks an index.

The Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM) offers investors targeted access to the Nasdaq-100 Index, representing some of the largest and most innovative nonfinancial companies traded on the Nasdaq exchange. The fund’s scale, with a market capitalization of $6.92 billion as of October 8, 2025, provides exposure to some of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. By mirroring the index methodology and maintaining a transparent, rules-based approach, QQQM offers exposure to 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Its disciplined strategy and non-diversified holdings reinforce its role as an index-tracking equity allocation.

Foolish take

Congress Park Capital increased its holdings in Invesco’s popular NASDAQ 100 ETF, which holds the 100 biggest nonfinancial companies in the NASDAQ, to nearly 33,000 shares worth over $8 million as of Q3 2025. This purchase of what amounts to an additional approximately 50% of the institution’s original holdings shows a great deal of conviction in the stock, and for good reason. It’s up 25% in the last year, and up over 107% over the last five years.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ has seen a lot of growth from companies across the spectrum, and much of its weight is currently coming from various AI plays. This includes chipmakers, software companies, and even AI startups that are looking for new ways to leverage the technology. In addition, public companies acting as Bitcoin holding companies are often members of the NASDAQ, and with the rapid increase in Bitcoin value, that’s certainly not hurt QQQM at all.

Investors seeking exposure to the NASDAQ who are looking to minimize downside risk may find what they’re looking for in QQQM, and Congress Park Capital has certainly indicated an interest in furthering its investment in the stock with this purchase.

Glossary

ETF: Exchange-Traded Fund; a fund that trades on stock exchanges and holds a basket of securities.

13F reportable AUM: Assets under management that must be disclosed in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings by institutional investment managers.

Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or firm.

Dividend yield: Annual dividends paid by an investment divided by its current price, expressed as a percentage.

Total return: The investment’s price change plus all dividends and distributions, assuming those payouts are reinvested.

Index-tracking: An investment strategy aiming to replicate the performance of a specific market index.

Non-diversified structure: A fund that invests in a limited number of securities, increasing exposure to individual holdings.

Expense ratio: The annual fee, as a percentage of assets, that a fund charges to cover operating expenses.

Passively managed: A fund management style that seeks to mirror an index rather than actively select securities.

Underlying securities: The individual stocks or assets that make up an ETF or fund’s portfolio.

Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a benchmark or comparable investment over a specified period.

Rules-based approach: An investment strategy that follows predetermined, systematic criteria for selecting and weighting securities.

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Beautiful city that visitors treat ‘like a theme park’ hikes up tourism tax by 900%

Tourist taxes are being massively hiked up in a new bid to combat the effects of overtourism as locals have had it with the crowds of visitors coming for photos

Visitors heading to a beautiful city renowned for its gorgeous views and rich culture are about to face a 900% increase in tourist taxes.

Kyoto in Japan has long been a firm favourite with tourists from all over the world, thanks to its beautiful cobbled streets, traditional tea houses and countryside views. However, the city’s popularity means that it’s been fighting against overtourism for years, in a bid to manage the crowds.

Now, the city is taking new steps in a bid to help mitigate the effects of overtourism; last year alone the iconic destination saw over 10 million tourists visiting, marking a 53% increase on the previous year.

Kyoto has already had a tourist tax in place costing approximately £5 a night per tourist, but it’s set to increase this up to nearly £50 (£48.92) per person, per night. This will apply to visitors staying at the city’s more luxurious hotels, and is expected to come into force from early 2026. It marks a jump of approximately 900% cost for tourists.

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It’s not the first steps that Kyoto has taken when facing the crowds of holidaymakers that flock to its picturesque districts.

Since 2019, the city has had a ban on tourists taking photos in its historic Gion district. Although some popular areas such as Hanamikoji Main Street are deemed acceptable, locals complained that tourists were heading to private streets and properties in the area, and taking photos without the owner’s permission. As a result, local authorities introduced a ban on photos, with fines for rule-breakers of 10,000 Japanese Yen (approximately £49).

The ban on entering private alleyways and taking photos was reinforced last year. Isokazu Ota, Gion Southside District councillor, said at the time that livelihoods were being “threatened”, not to mention the narrow alleys were becoming overcrowded and therefore posing a danger to both residents and tourists.

Signs have also been placed around private areas to warn off visitors, with requests for tourists not to sit down on people’s properties to eat and drink.

Visitors have also been warned not to take photos of the city’s geishas without requesting their permission first. Nicknamed the ‘maiko paparazzi’, tourists follow local maiko and geisha and wait outside teahouses where they work. Maiko and geisha live and work on these roads and apprentice geisha are often 16 to 17 years of age, with concerns for their safety amplifying after incidents which included them being hounded by strangers for a photo.

Sora News, a Japanese publication, stated last year: “One area struggling more than most is Gion, which, despite being a place of work and residence for many locals, has been treated like something of a theme park by tourists, who have been known to chase and photograph geisha and maiko (trainee geisha) in the area.”

A few years ago the city’s authorities also temporarily released an ‘etiquette guide’ for visitors to help them navigate the local customs and behave in a way that would be deemed appropriate.

Do you have a story to tell us? Email us at [email protected].

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Canadian marine park warns it may have to euthanize beluga whales

Oct. 7 (UPI) — A shuttered Canadian amusement park said that without an infusion of cash it will have to euthanize 30 beluga whales after a government official blocked it from sending the marine mammals to a Chinese theme park.

Marineland, the aquatic theme park located in Niagara Falls, Ontario, laid out the dire situation in a letter Friday to Canadian Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson, The New York Times reported.

Thompson announced days earlier that she denied Marineland’s request to export the belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park in China because it “would have meant a continued life in captivity and a return to public entertainment.”

She further said that she was following requirements of the Fisheries Act meant to prevent the exploitation of marine mammals.

“Like many of you, I am angered that these whales have lived a life of captivity and as a result their health has deteriorated,” Thompson said. “As Canadians, we know that whales belong in the ocean, not in tanks for our amusement.”

Thompson told CBC News that she had visited the closed Marineland facility and concluded the whales belong in the ocean after she “looked the belugas in the eyes.”

Marineland’s business model struggled after a federal law passed in 2019 that banned keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises for breeding or amusement, according to the CBC.

The theme park said there is no suitable ocean “sanctuary” or facility for the whales. Meanwhile, Marineland said its financial situation continues to crumble, leaving it unable to meet the whales’ costly care.

However, Thompson told Marineland in a letter sent Monday that there would be no bailout, The Canadian Press reported.

“The fact that Marineland has not planned for a viable alternative despite raising these whales in captivity for many years, does not place the onus on the Canadian government to cover your expenses,” Thompson wrote.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford told The Canadian Press that the federal government should rethink its position.

“It should be the federal government that allows them to move (the belugas) to China or other marine areas that will take them, but saying no to everything and not coming up with a solution is not a great suggestion,” Ford said.

A dozen groups including the Toronto Zoo, World Animal Protection and Animal Justice wrote to Ford urging the provincial government to seize the animals.

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Boy, 3, rushed to hospital with serious injuries after horror crash in car park – The Sun

A THREE-year-old boy has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after a horror van crash.

The tot was walking in a car park in Bournemouth, when a blue Vauxhall Vivaro hit him on Saturday.

Dorset Police were called to the scene, in Landsdowne Road, at 12.35pm.

Paramedics rushed the three-year-old to hospital with serious injuries.

His family is being supported by specialist officers.

No arrests have been made and the van driver is assisting officers with the investigation, said the force.

Sergeant Richard Stroud, of the Roads Policing Team, said: “Our thoughts are with the young boy involved in this incident and his family.

“Our enquiries into what happened remain ongoing and I would urge anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any information that might assist our investigation, to please contact us.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police online, via email at [email protected] or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55250147249.

Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online using its website or by calling Freephone 0800 555 111.

Street view of a road with a large fence on the left and trees on both sides.

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A three-year-old boy has been taken to hospital with serious injuriesCredit: Google Street View

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Supreme Court will decide if gun owners have a right to carry in parks, beaches, stores

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if licensed guns owners have a right to carry their weapons at public places, including parks, beaches and stores.

At issue are laws in California, Hawaii and three other states that generally prohibit carrying guns on private or public property.

Three years ago, Supreme Court ruled that law-abiding gun owners had a 2nd Amendment right to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon when they leave home.

But the justices left open the question of whether states and cities could prohibit the carrying of guns in “sensitive locations,” and if so, where.

In response, California enacted a strict law that forbids gun owners from carrying their firearm in most public or private places that are open to the public unless the owner posted a sign permitting such weapons.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down that provision last year as going too far, but it upheld most of a Hawaii law that restricted the carrying of guns at public places and most private businesses that are open to the public.

Gun-rights advocates appealed to the Supreme Court and urged the justices to rule that such restrictions on carrying concealed weapons violate the 2nd Amendment.

The court agreed to hear the case early next year.

Trump administration lawyers urged the justices to strike down the Hawaii law.

It “functions as a near-complete ban on public carry. A person carrying a handgun for self-defense commits a crime by entering a mall, a gas station, a convenience store, a supermarket, a restaurant, a coffee shop, or even a parking lot,” said Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

Gun-control advocates said Hawaii had enacted a “common sense law that prohibits carrying firearms on others’ private property open to the public.”

“The 9th Circuit was absolutely right to say it’s constitutional to prohibit guns on private property unless the owner says they want guns there,” said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment Litigation, at Everytown Law. “This law respects people’s right to be safe on their own property, and we urge the Supreme Court to uphold it.”

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Liv Tchine: England Roses netball star on Super League, Lionesses, Red Roses and St George’s Park

Liv Tchine’s first impression was “wow”.

Her second was “can I stay here forever?”.

Her third was “one day this will be all ours”.

Netball’s kingdom is modest, but prolific England goal shooter Tchine and her team-mates recently had a glimpse of a top-tier sporting promised land.

These are the Roses players targeting Commonwealth Games gold at Glasgow 2026 and World Cup glory in 2027.

They are at the vanguard of the sport’s professional era, the elite of the three million people who play netball in England at least once a year. Most players are women, but men play too.

Tchine and co draw inspiration from the Euros-winning Lionesses and World Cup-winning Red Roses, rather than lament encroachment on netball’s legacy territory.

Netball Super League is newly professional but funds are tight, similar to football’s Women’s Super League in the mid-2010s.

Players hear of rewards that could be theirs one day. Often those rewards feel a million miles away, yet not always.

For Tchine, a standout in the London Pulse side who swept to their first Super League title this year, the “wow” moment came at the Lionesses’ luxury hangout.

St George’s Park lies in Derbyshire countryside, tucked out of sight. An understated private drive off a hedge-lined B road is a portal to a world beyond the dreams of most sportspeople.

“Just imagine netball having this kind of facility. Do you know how sick that would be?”

That was Tchine on an Instagram video diary, reacting to visiting the Football Association’s state-of-the-art national team training centre for the first time. The gym, the recovery rooms, the green, green grass of England’s home.

England’s netballers spent a training block there, before autumn series against Jamaica and New Zealand.

“I was like, if we could just stay here forever, I would happily move,” Tchine tells BBC Sport.

“So, so good. We were there for 10 days. The facilities were, honestly, so amazing.

“The whole time we were there I was just like, one day netball could definitely have something like this.”

The second season since Super League’s relaunch is coming, with 2026 fixtures announced this week., external

Pulse are in “the best position we’ve ever been in”, Tchine says.

The league is growing. Average attendances climbed by 42% in 2025, having been about 1,500 previously. In comparison, the first Women’s Super League football season – following a 2014 reboot – had average crowds of 728 (from 562 in 2013).

Women’s football crowds in the tens of thousands are now almost commonplace, but that didn’t happen overnight.

Tchine, a 24-year-old south Londoner, admired portraits of England footballers – men and women – lining St George’s Park’s corridors.

“I definitely hope that if I’m still playing in 10 years we’ll be at the same level as the Lionesses and the Red Roses,” she says.

“They were both absolutely incredible this summer – going out there, doing their job and coming out with wins was amazing. It’s really good to see women’s sport hitting levels that it’s never been at in the past.

“I want to be able to go out with the Roses and use that momentum to try and get our gold medal.”

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Government shutdown begins as nation faces new period of uncertainty

Plunged into a government shutdown, the U.S. is confronting a fresh cycle of uncertainty after President Donald Trump and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep government programs and services running by Wednesday’s deadline.

Roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed, some potentially fired by Trump’s Republican administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution. His deportation agenda is expected to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout is expected to ripple nationwide.

“We don’t want it to shut down,” Trump said at the White House before the midnight deadline.

But the president, who met privately with congressional leadership this week, appeared unable to negotiate any deal between Democrats and Republicans to prevent that outcome.

This is the third time Trump has presided over a federal funding lapse, the first since his return to the White House this year, in a remarkable record that underscores the polarizing divide over budget priorities and a political climate that rewards hard-line positions rather than more traditional compromises.

Plenty of blame being thrown around

The Democrats picked this fight, which was unusual for the party that prefers to keep government running, but their voters are eager to challenge the president’s second-term agenda. Democrats are demanding funding for health care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, spiking the costs of insurance premiums nationwide.

Republicans have refused to negotiate for now and have encouraged Trump to steer clear of any talks. After the White House meeting, the president posted a cartoonish fake video mocking the Democratic leadership that was widely viewed as unserious and racist.

What neither side has devised is an easy offramp to prevent what could become a protracted closure. The ramifications are certain to spread beyond the political arena, upending the lives of Americans who rely on the government for benefit payments, work contracts and the various services being thrown into turmoil.

“What the government spends money on is a demonstration of our country’s priorities,” said Rachel Snyderman, a former White House budget official who is the managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington.

Shutdowns, she said, “only inflict economic cost, fear and confusion across the country.”

Economic fallout expected to ripple nationwide

An economic jolt could be felt in a matter of days. The government is expected Friday to produce its monthly jobs report, which may or may not be delivered.

While the financial markets have generally “shrugged” during past shutdowns, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis, this one could be different partly because there are no signs of broader negotiations.

“There are also few good analogies to this week’s potential shutdown,” the analysis said.

Across the government, preparations have been underway. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russ Vought, directed agencies to execute plans for not just furloughs, as are typical during a federal funding lapse, but mass firings of federal workers. It’s part of the Trump administration’s mission, including its Department of Government Efficiency, to shrink the federal government.

What’s staying open and shutting down

The Medicare and Medicaid health care programs are expected to continue, though staffing shortages could mean delays for some services. The Pentagon would still function. And most employees will stay on the job at the Department of Homeland Security.

But Trump has warned that the administration could focus on programs that are important to Democrats, “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”

As agencies sort out which workers are essential, or not, Smithsonian museums are expected to stay open at least until Monday. A group of former national park superintendents urged the Trump administration to close the parks to visitors, arguing that poorly staffed parks in a shutdown are a danger to the public and put park resources at risk.

No easy exit as health care costs soar

Ahead of Wednesday’s start of the fiscal year, House Republicans had approved a temporary funding bill, over opposition from Democrats, to keep government running into mid-November while broader negotiations continue.

But that bill has failed repeatedly in the Senate, including late Tuesday. It takes a 60-vote threshold for approval, which requires cooperation between the two parties. A Democratic bill also failed. With a 53-47 GOP majority, Democrats are leveraging their votes to demand negotiation.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans are happy to discuss the health care issue with Democrats — but not as part of talks to keep the government open. More votes are expected Wednesday.

The standoff is a political test for Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who has drawn scorn from a restive base of left-flank voters pushing the party to hold firm in its demands for health care funding.

“Americans are hurting with higher costs,” Schumer said after the failed vote Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home nearly two weeks ago after having passed the GOP bill, blaming Democrats for the shutdown.

“They want to fight Trump,” Johnson said Tuesday on CNBC. “A lot of good people are going to be hurt because of this.”

Trump, during his meeting with the congressional leaders, expressed surprise at the scope of the rising costs of health care, but Democrats left with no path toward talks.

During Trump’s first term, the nation endured its longest-ever shutdown, 35 days, over his demands for funds Congress refused to provide to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In 2013, the government shut down for 16 days during the Obama presidency over GOP demands to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Other closures date back decades.

Mascaro, Jalonick and Groves write for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Joey Cappelletti, Will Weissert, Fatima Hussein and other AP reporters nationwide contributed to this report.

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Love Island star’s desperate 999 call to get ‘paedophile’ arrested after catching him lurking in children’s park

A LOVE Island star has told of the moment she made a desperate 999 call to “catch a paedophile”.

Series ten star Mal Nicol, who entered as a bombshell in 2023, has claimed she got a predatory male arrested – after spotting him lurking by a children’s park.

A woman in a black jacket speaking to the camera with a caption bubble that reads, "Based on a true story."

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Mal Nicol has told fans about her efforts to catch a ‘paedophile’
Mal Nicol from Love Island SR10 wearing a silver bikini.

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Mal was on series ten of Love IslandCredit: ITV

She told fans on TikTok: “We got a paedophile arrested. I literally cannot believe what we witnessed. It was honestly like a movie or something.”

Mal, who was with a friend at the time, was approached by a group of young boys close to a London park who complained about a “creepy man”.

Concerned for their welfare, Mal walked towards the park area in Little Venice, London, to see what was going on for herself.

“Moments later we clearly see that this guy is not okay,” she continued.

“He’s standing by the park swaying, like putting his hand into the park over the fence and trying to high five this little boy who’s about five years old.

“We kind of wanted to distract him and see what he was doing or saying.

“We then saw a mum with her daughter, like a little 3, 4 year old girl who is on a scooter. This guy tries to grab her from behind and the dad jumps in between them both.

“He then goes into the park where there’s a lot of young mums with their like 3 year old girls who are obviously feeling vulnerable and scared.

“So I call 999 and I’m literally so impressed with the police and how fast they came.

“When the officers arrives I was running up to them shouting ‘he’s going to get away, he’s going to get away’.

Maya Jama confirms her future on Love Island amid rumours she is set to quit the villa

“I felt like I was in a movie. I’m like running.”

“The police arrested the suspect and Mal was interviewed alongside other witnesses.

“This is happening in London and I just think you have to do something. You can’t just watch. It was crazy.

“He better be put in for time. Like this is not okay.”

Proud Mal added: “Sorry for the long video, but we put a paedophile in jail.”

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What will happen if there’s a government shutdown at day’s end?

Washington is hours away from another federal government shutdown, with prospects looking bleak for a last-minute compromise in Congress to avoid closures beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Republicans have crafted a short-term measure to fund the government through Nov. 21, but Democrats have insisted the measure address their concerns on health care. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s mega-bill passed this summer and extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions of people who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Republicans call the Democratic proposal a nonstarter.

Neither side shows any signs of budging, with the House not even expected to have votes this week.

Here’s a look at how a shutdown would occur:

What happens in a shutdown?

When a lapse in funding occurs, the law requires agencies to cease activity and furlough “non-excepted” employees. Excepted employees include those who work to protect life and property. They stay on the job but don’t get paid until after the shutdown ends.

During the 35-day partial shutdown in Trump’s first term, 340,000 of the 800,000 federal workers at affected agencies were furloughed. The remainder were “excepted” and required to work.

What government work continues during a shutdown?

A great deal, actually.

FBI investigators, CIA officers, air traffic controllers and agents operating airport checkpoints keep working. So do members of the Armed Forces.

Those programs that rely on mandatory spending also generally continue during a shutdown. Social Security payments continue going out. Seniors relying on Medicare coverage can still see their doctors and health care providers and submit claims for payment and be reimbursed.

Veteran health care also continues during a shutdown. Veterans Affairs medical centers and outpatient clinics will be open, and VA benefits will continue to be processed and delivered. Burials will continue at VA national cemeteries.

Will furloughed federal workers get paid?

Yes. In 2019, Congress passed a bill enshrining into law the requirement that furloughed employees get retroactive pay once operations resume.

While they’ll eventually get paid, the furloughed workers and those who remain on the job may have to go without one or more of their regular paychecks, depending upon how long the shutdown lasts, creating financial stress for many families.

Service members would also receive back pay for any missed paychecks once federal funding resumes.

Will I still get mail?

Yes. The U.S. Postal Service is unaffected by a government shutdown. It’s an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars.

What closes during a shutdown?

All administrations get some leeway to choose which services to freeze and which to maintain in a shutdown.

The first Trump administration worked to blunt the impact of what became the country’s longest partial shutdown in 2018 and 2019. But in the selective reopening of offices, experts say they saw a willingness to cut corners, scrap prior plans and wade into legally dubious territory to mitigate the pain.

Each federal agency develops its own shutdown plan. The plans outline which agency workers would stay on the job during a shutdown and which would be furloughed.

In a provocative move, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened the mass firing of federal workers in a shutdown. An OMB memo said those programs that didn’t get funding through Trump’s mega-bill this summer would bear the brunt of a shutdown.

Agencies should consider issuing reduction-in-force notices for those programs whose funding expires Wednesday, that don’t have alternative funding sources and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” the memo said.

That’d be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when furloughed federal workers returned to their jobs once Congress approved government spending. A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions, which would trigger another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that’s already faced major rounds of cuts this year due to efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency and elsewhere in Trump’s Republican administration.

Shutdown practices in the past

Some agencies have recently updated plans on their websites. Others still have plans that were last updated months or years ago, providing an indication of past precedent that could guide the Trump administration.

Here are some excerpts from those plans:

Health and Human Services will furlough about 41% of its staff out of nearly 80,000 employees, according to a contingency plan posted on its website. The remaining employees will keep up activities needed to protect human life and property.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue monitoring for disease outbreaks. Direct medical services through the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center will remain available. However, the CDC communications to the public will be hampered and NIH will not admit new patients to the Clinical Center, except those for whom it’s medically necessary.

At the Food and Drug Administration, its “ability to protect and promote public health and safety would be significantly impacted, with many activities delayed or paused.” For example, the agency would not accept new drug applications or medical device submissions that require payment of a user fee.

The Education Department will furlough about 1,500 of 1,700 employees, excluding federal student aid workers. The department will continue to disburse student aid such as Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans. Student loan borrowers will still be required to make payments on their outstanding debt.

— National Park Service: As a general rule if a facility or area is inaccessible during nonbusiness hours, it’ll be locked for the duration of the lapse in funding, said a March 2024 plan. At parks where it’s impractical or impossible to restrict public access, staffing will vary by park: “Generally, where parks have accessible park areas, including park roads, lookouts, trails, campgrounds, and open-air memorials, these areas will remain physically accessible to the public.”

— Transportation Department: Air traffic controller hiring and field training would cease, as would routine personnel security background checks and air traffic performance analysis, a March 2025 update says.

— Smithsonian Institution: “The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, like all Smithsonian museums, receives federal funding. Thus, during a government shutdown, the Zoo — and the rest of the Smithsonian museums — must close to the public.”

Impact on the economy

Phillip Swagel, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said a short shutdown doesn’t have a huge impact on the economy, especially since federal workers, by law, are paid retroactively. But “if a shutdown continues, then that can give rise to uncertainties about what is the role of government in our society, and what’s the financial impact on all the programs that the government funds.”

“The impact is not immediate, but over time, there is a negative impact of a shutdown on the economy,” he added.

Markets haven’t reacted strongly to past shutdowns, according to Goldman Sachs Research. At the close of the three prolonged shutdowns since the early 1990s, equity markets finished flat or up even after dipping initially.

A governmentwide shutdown would directly reduce growth by around 0.15 percentage points for each week it lasted, or about 0.2 percentage points per week once private-sector effects were included, and growth would rise by the same cumulative amount in the quarter following reopening, writes Alec Phillips, chief U.S. political economist at Goldman Sachs.

Freking writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

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Deserted islands, seagrass meadows and endless ocean: kayaking in Sweden’s new marine national park | Sweden holidays

Paddling through the inky blue water in Stockholm’s outer archipelago, all I can see is scattered islands and birds. Some of the islands are mere skerries – rocky outcrops and reefs so small they can host but a single cormorant drying its outstretched wings – while others, such as our target Bullerön, can be a mile or more in length, with historic fishing huts, summer cottages and wooden jetties sitting among their smoothly weathered rocks and windswept forests.

I’m on a two-day sea kayaking tour of Nämdöskärgården, a newly established marine national park, which is a vast 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of protected, mostly blue space – it is 97% covered by water – beginning on the outer reaches of the archipelago and stretching well into the Baltic Sea.

Map of Stockholm archipelago

It is Sweden’s second marine national park, alongside Kosterhavet on the west coast, and its creation was approved by Swedish parliament in June this year, a summer in which the country also banned bottom trawling – the destructive fishing practice that Sir David Attenborough has likened to “bulldozing a rainforest” – from its marine national parks and nature reserves by July 2026. It’s the first European country to do so (the UK appears to have rejected whole-site bans in more marine protected areas, despite its earlier pledge to extend these – much to the dismay of conservationists).

One of the challenges in getting people to care about ocean conservation is that it’s hard to engage with what we can’t see or experience directly, and the idea behind Nämdöskärgården is not just to preserve the area’s unique ecological diversity, but also to make it accessible to visitors in a low-impact way. Sea kayaking – a popular pastime for Swedes throughout the archipelago – is the perfect way to do that.

Bullerö, in Nämdöskärgården. Photograph: Länsstyrelsen Stockholms län

My guide Johan Montelius, from Stockholm Adventures, and I get dropped off by taxi boat on Jungfruskär, which, like many isles in the outer archipelago, is uninhabited. We haul our narrow yellow sea kayaks up on to rocks splattered with grey, green and bright orange lichen, and after a quick safety briefing, Johan shows me our route to Idöborg, an island just outside the marine national park, where we’ll spend the night. It’s a journey of around 5 miles, but he assures me the wind will help push us along in parts and we’ll make plenty of stops along the way.

We set off, and after a tricky first 50 metres of paddling into the wind, find ourselves nicely sheltered between two long islands. We settle into an easy, slow rhythm – perfect for tuning into the surrounding natural wonder. There is plenty of birdlife, mostly cormorants, gulls, herons and geese, but we also spot at least five different white-tailed eagles over the two-day trip, as well as a pine marten and a seal. The thing that excites me most, though, is the seaweed, which comes in a host of shades, even the russet colour of autumn leaves. It’s a sign of healthy waters, with the seaweed providing a great nursery for young fish as well as a vital carbon sink – something that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.

Safe from the elements … in a forest cabin on Idöborg

We paddle over wonderful seagrass meadows, which glisten when the sun breaks through the clouds, and extensive belts of bladder wrack, or blåstång, a dark green seaweed with air pockets. Because the water is so clear, I can see it is also home to lots of periwinkles and other shellfish.

We see no other boats or kayaks, partly because it’s a slightly wet and windy day in September – sunny days in July and August are a lot busier, Johan says – but also because with kayaks we can navigate narrow passages between islands that sail boats and other watercraft can’t. At times, we paddle through fields of high reeds, our route no more than the width of a footpath.

We stop for lunch on another deserted island, feasting on a delicious fish stew made by Johan the night before. Mindful of leaving no trace in an archipelago where I’ve not seen a speck of single-use plastic all day, we check the spot for litter meticulously before we head off.

Enjoying the peace on Bullerön

The islands are beautiful, but they all look the same to me, so I’ve no idea how Johan is navigating so effectively – he only uses the GPS on his phone once, to check our final crossing to Idöborg as the wind picks up. We stash our kayaks in a sheltered sandy bay on the island and check into our cosy forest cabins, which have full A-frame views of the increasingly agitated ocean. Stockholm Adventures offers wild camping when the weather allows, but tonight I’m glad of a roof over my head.

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Idöborg is a private island with dense forest, a range of cabin options, and a restaurant that serves tasty, seasonal local food – the jerusalem artichoke soup with seagrass pesto is incredible. It also has a sauna facing the water, with a wooden jetty that invites dipping in the soft, brackish water in between the waves of heat.

When we enjoy it at dusk, the sea still has plenty of energy, but the next morning things are calmer. Our 2.5-mile paddle out to Bullerön, the main island of the Bullerö archipelago, and one of the last islands before the open sea, passes in an easy, meditative haze.

The sun comes out, and we visit the former cottage and studio of the influential Swedish nature painter Bruno Liljefors, which now serves as an information centre for Nämdöskärgården, and walk the island’s stunning circuitous footpath. From the highest point, looking out east to the expanse of the Baltic Sea, it feels good to know this stretch of glistening ocean and all that lies beneath it will be protected.

Over breakfast on Idöborg, I chat to Ylva Tenselius, a Stockholm resident and consultant here on a work team-building trip. When she was growing up, her grandfather used to go out and catch cod all the time. “We would groan and say, ‘No more cod,’ when it was served at the dinner table,” she says, adding that she used to catch perch easily herself with a line, but now both are far less common. She welcomes the new marine park and its conservation goals. “We’ve seen the changes and now it’s time to protect it.”

When I get home to the UK, I call Charles Clover, co-founder of Blue Marine Foundation, an ocean conservation charity, which is campaigning for bottom trawling to be banned from all UK marine protected areas, to ask what he thinks about Nämdöskärgården. “Anything that protects breeding grounds for fish is a positive step,” he says. “The sea is in such a bad state, particularly the Baltic Sea, so I think these protected areas will bring enormous benefits. They will help repair the sea and help nature help itself.”

And he believes low-impact tourism, such as sea kayaking and hiking, can help with that process. “It creates a different use of nature, which is to enjoy it rather than to exploit, and that can only be a good thing.” I couldn’t agree more.

This trip was provided by Visit Sweden. A two-day kayak tour of the Stockholm archipelago with Stockholm Adventures costs 10,490 kronor (£830) for a group of up to four; other itineraries available. Idöborg forest cabins sleep two, from 2,000 kronor (around £160) a night.

Sam Haddad writes the newsletter Climate & Board Sports

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The water-logged crater twice as salty as the Dead Sea hidden below a car park

Salty sights and Caesar salads in Cape Verde, the up-and-coming jetlag-free fly-and-flop destination. Travel editor Nigel Thompson went to check then out and for a bob in the water

We entered the 100-yard long rock tunnel at a windswept car park on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. We exited at the edge of a vast crater, mesmerised by an otherworldly view like a scene from a sci-fi film.

Before us lay a volcanic (dormant thankfully!) landscape of ochre, pinks and whites. You feel it could be life on Mars were it not for the fact there is water in a lake below. But this is no “ordinary” water at the Pedra de Lume salt flats at Sal island in Cape Verde.

The lake is more than 20 times saltier than the sea – double the levels in the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan – and, just like its Middle Eastern cousin, it’s popular with tourists for the novelty of bobbing around on the surface unable to sink.

Locals swear blind by a dip, saying the life of brine restores the skin’s health and people look 10 years younger after leaving the water. Benjamin Button I was not, but floating is fun and it gets your attention as any tiny scratch (e.g. a paper cut or shaving nick) stings noticeably!

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Entry is €6 and a freshwater shower afterwards (you will need it) is €1. There’s also a small cafe and souvenir shop with cash preferred.

Cape Verde, 350 miles off the western coast of Senegal, is taking off for Brits as a (mostly) fly-and-flop destination, with one of the main appeals – apart from pretty reliable tropical weather all-year round – being that it’s a jet lag-free destination and only six hours away heading due south all the way.

For context, that 2,700-mile journey is as far as going across the pond to Newfoundland in eastern Canada. Our base for the trip was the five-star beachfront Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort on the outskirts of Santa Maria, the main tourist town.

It’s an excellent, easily likeable upscale property with all you need – good service, spacious rooms, a lovely central pool area, a lush spa and watersports options in the breezy ocean.

It’s walkable to the centre of Santa Maria and its shops, bars and restaurants via a promenade alongside the vast beach, and is one of the packages on offer with easyJet holidays.

The hotel’s showstopper for me was the airy Bounty Beach Restaurant and Bar. It’s a smart but chilled venue with great sea views and served the chicken Caesar salad of my dreams (around £12.50), plus the local Strela lager (slightly sweet, but decent) and the surprisingly good Cape Verdean wines. Leave me here.

When I was eventually crowbarred out of my seat at the Bounty, another aquatic excursion beckoned. This time, an enjoyable and relaxing catamaran ride in the Atlantic with the friendly folk at Cape Verde Sailing – “marineros” Daisy and Daniel and skipper Delvi.

Much as we were enjoying just pootling around in the ocean – there is also an opportunity to snorkel at an underwater statue of Jesus – a few skipjack tunas leaped out of the water in front of us. Daisy explained that they were fleeing a dolphin hunting for breakfast (half day from €59 per person, cvsailing.com).

So, it was not without a little irony that one of my group of travelling companions ordered the skipjack tuna steak for lunch when we were back on dry land (and the land in barren Sal is very dry indeed).

Our tuna may have escaped a breakfasting marine mammal, but not all manage to elude a Cape Verde fisherman (apparently it was delicious).

That lunch en route back to the airport was at the elegant and traditional Hotel Morabeza, the oldest on the island with its origins dating back to the 1960s and also available with easyJet holidays.

Like the Hilton, it has a terrific beach club and, yes, another decent chicken Caesar salad for lunch (around £8.50). Again, leave me here (I tried hiding in the toilets but the bus driver found me and took me to the airport).

I was only there for a couple of days but it was oh so easy to develop a taste for Cape Verde. With an extra sprinkling of salt, of course.

Book the holiday

easyJet holidays offers seven nights on B&B at the Hilton Cabo Verde Sal Resort in Santa Maria, Cape Verde, from £882pp with flights from Gatwick on April 27, 2026, 23kg baggage and transfers. easyjet.com/en/holidays

More info at caboverde.com

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National Parks stewards warn of trash and damage as shutdown looms

Across the nation’s beloved national parks this summer, skeleton crews — whittled down by the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce — have struggled to keep trash from piling up, latrines from spilling over and injured hikers from perishing in the backcountry.

They’ve mostly succeeded, but it has been a struggle.

Now, as bickering politicians in Washington, D.C., threaten to shut the government down and furlough federal employees as soon as next week if a budget deal isn’t reached, 40 former stewards of the nation’s most remote and romantic landscapes have sent an “urgent appeal” to the White House.

If the government shuts down, close the national parks to prevent a free-for-all inside the gates.

Pointing to the strain the parks are already enduring since the new administration fired or bought out roughly 24% of the workforce, the retired superintendents — including those from Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon — warned of chaos.

If the parks stay open with no employees to manage them, “these nascent issues from the summer season are sure to erupt,” the former superintendents wrote to Doug Burgum, secretary of the Department of the Interior, on Thursday. “Leaving parks even partially open to the public during a shutdown with minimal — or no — park staffing is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk.”

Unlike many federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, whose once obscure and mundane day-to-day operations have become flash points in the nation’s toxic and polarizing culture war, the national parks remain a beloved refuge: a place where Americans of all stripes can unplug, exhale and escape.

In 2024 the parks set an attendance record with over 331 million visitors; that’s nearly two and a half times the number of people (136 million) who attended professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined.

It’s not hard to understand the appeal. Exhausted by the bickering on cable news and social media feeds? Go climb Half Dome in Yosemite, or stroll among the giant trees in Sequoia, or camp beneath the stars in Joshua Tree.

But if the parks stay open with nobody around to maintain them, that cleansing experience will turn nasty the moment a bathroom door opens, according to the retired superintendents.

In previous shutdowns stemming from budget disputes or the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities inside the parks deteriorated at an alarming rate.

Unauthorized visitors left human feces in rivers, painted graffiti on once pristine cliffs, harassed wild animals and left the toilets looking like “crime scenes,” according to a ranger who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

“It’s just scary how bad things can get when places are abandoned with nobody watching,” she said.

In an interview Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said a government shutdown was still “avoidable” despite sharp divisions ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to pass a funding bill.

“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” the South Dakota Republican said. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.”

Thune said Democrats are going to have to “dial back” their demands, which include immediately extending health insurance subsidies and reversing the healthcare policies in the massive tax bill that Republicans passed over the summer. Absent that, Thune said, “we’re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.”

After a shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, park rangers in Death Valley returned to find mounds of feces and what they jokingly called “toilet paper flowers” scattered across the desert floor.

At Joshua Tree, officials found about 24 miles of unauthorized new trails carved across the desert by off-road vehicles, along with some of the park’s namesake trees toppled.

In the absence of park staff, local climbers volunteered to keep the bathrooms clean and stocked with toilet paper, and gently tried to persuade rowdy visitors to put out illegal fires and pick up their trash.

Some complied right away, climber Rand Abbott told The Times in 2019, but “70% of the people I’m running into are extremely rude,” he said. “I had my life threatened two times. It’s crazy in there right now.”

People weren’t the only unruly guests moving in and making themselves at home.

At Point Reyes National Seashore, along the Marin County coast, officials had to close the road to popular Drakes Beach during the shutdown. The absence of humans created an ideal opportunity for about 100 elephant seals to set up a colony, taking over the beach, a parking lot and a visitor center.

The seals didn’t just poop everywhere, they threw a full-scale bacchanal. As far as the eye could see, enormous, blubbery beasts — males can reach 16 feet long and weigh up to 7,000 pounds — were rolling in the sand and mating in broad daylight.

Females, which can weigh up to a ton themselves, wound up giving birth to something like 40 new pups. When the park reopened, flustered officials had little recourse but to open a public viewing area at a safe distance and send employees — primly referred to as “docents” — to explain what was happening on the once serene seashore.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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