CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State fired coach Trent Bray on Sunday after the team fell to 0-7, its worst start to a season since 1991.
Robb Akey will be the interim head coach for the rest of the seson pending a national search for Bray’s successor, athletic director Scott Barnes said.
“I want to thank Coach Bray for the energy and determination he brought to the role. A former student-athlete, proud graduate, and dedicated mentor, Trent’s connection to Oregon State runs deep — he will always be a Beaver,” Barnes said. “This was a difficult decision, but the results on the field were not acceptable and after evaluating every aspect of the football program, I believe it is in the best interests of OSU football student-athletes, our fans and our university.”
The move came a day after backup quarterback Deshawn Purdie threw for 270 yards and four touchdowns in his first start for Wake Forest and the visiting Demon Deacons beat Oregon State 39-14 in front of a listless home crowd. The Beavers haven’t started this poorly since 1991, when they started 0-10.
After the game, Bray said he planned to keep showing up “until they tell me I can’t.”
“I’m frustrated. I’m disappointed. I look at myself, and I’ve got to fix it,” Bray said after the game. “It’s unacceptable to me where we’re at. That’s just how I look at it. What can I do? I’ve got to look at it. What can I do different to get these guys going?”
A week ago, Oregon State fired special teams coach Jamie Christian and Barnes said he and Bray were evaluating the program with an eye toward making immediate changes.
The buyout of Bray’s contract will be paid “exclusively using donor-generated funds,” the school said.
Akey is a veteran coach with experience in college and as an NFL assistant.
A 10-second bit by ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel plunged Walt Disney Co. into a full-blown crisis that rippled across America.
President Trump, the Federal Communications Commission chief and others were angered this month over Kimmel’s remarks about the Charlie Kirk shooting, which they said had suggested the suspect was a “Make America Great Again” Republican. Kimmel asserted Trump supporters were “trying to score political points” from the tragedy.
TV station groups pulled the program and Disney benched the comedian, sparking a bigger backlash. Protesters lit into the Mouse House for seemingly kowtowing to the Trump administration, consumers canceled Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions and more than 400 celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lin-Manuel Miranda, signed a letter calling for a defense of free speech. Some investors bailed, briefly erasing nearly $4 billion in corporate market value.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and his team turned the tide last week when they returned Kimmel to his late-night perch.
“This [situation] isn’t going away anytime soon,” Nien-hê Hsieh, a Harvard Business School professor, said in an interview. “How it is managed certainly matters a lot.”
The Kimmel controversy exposed cracks at the Burbank company that has long meticulously managed its image. It also highlighted the fraught environment facing Disney’s next leader during a period of significant challenges for the entertainment juggernaut.
“Succession is difficult for any company — the stakes are high,” Hsieh said. “But Disney also is kind of a lightning rod that attracts criticism because of its brand and its prevalence and prominence.”
Iger, 74, is retiring for a second time in late 2026, when his contract expires. Within a few months, Disney’s board is expected to name a replacement — a pivotal decision for a company that has long struggled with succession.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger is expected to retire at the end of 2026 after nearly 20 years leading the Burbank entertainment giant.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Four internal candidates are vying for the job, including Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, who oversees television and streaming and managed the Kimmel crisis with Iger.
Also in the CEO mix are ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro; and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, who oversees movies, including the Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises, and, in concert with Walden, entertainment streaming services.
“The next leader needs to be very attuned to how the company is perceived and valued by its customers and clients,” Hsieh said. “This is a moment for people to be very clear about their values.”
Disney’s values were questioned by many after the decision to yank Kimmel from the air.
As protesters buzzed around Disney’s Burbank headquarters and Kimmel’s darkened theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the voice of the company’s former chief rang out.
“Where has all the leadership gone?” Michael Eisner asked in a stinging Sept. 19 social media post. “If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment?”
Disney hadn’t formally addressed the situation. The only public message was a terse ABC statement on Sept. 17 — minutes after Iger and Walden moved to suspend the show: “ ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will be pre-empted indefinitely.”
Kimmel was furious. It was about an hour to showtime and his studio audience was queued up outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre. He had intended to clarify his words that night.
But Walden and Iger were worried the comedian was dug in, and his planned remarks would only inflame the situation.
Disney’s move to bench Jimmy Kimmel prompted protests, including days of demonstrations outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is taped.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
What was initially viewed by Disney executives as a social media storm — vitriol from Trump supporters — had morphed into an existential threat for ABC when Carr, the FCC chairman, threatened to go after station licenses.
Nexstar pulled Kimmel’s program, followed by the politically conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. The two companies own stations that provide 22% of ABC’s coverage.
Protesters called for a Disney boycott this month outside the darkened stage of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ The comedian returned Sept. 23.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
ABC’s ambiguous seven-word statement suggested to many that Kimmel wasn’t returning.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that night. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
Disney executives privately said they were simply hitting pause. ABC executives and talent were getting death threats, according to one insider who was not authorized to discuss the situation. Later, in Sacramento, a gunman fired three shots into the lobby of an ABC-affiliated station. No one was injured.
But Disney’s initial response was roundly criticized for being weak, an abdication of the 1st Amendment. “To surrender our right to speak freely is to accept that those in power, not the people, will set the boundaries of debate that define a free society,” Anna M. Gomez, the sole Democrat FCC commissioner,said in a statement.
Executives defended the ABC statement, noting that anything Disney had said at that moment could have exacerbated its troubles with the FCC and station groups. One insider added that company also needed time to weigh whether it was worth bringing back the show.
Iger and Walden held a Sunday sit-down with Kimmel on Sept. 21 to clear the air. The following day, Disney announced his show would return.
“It wasn’t a reaction to any regulatory threats or political threats — it was an editorial decision because we felt the comments were ill-timed and, thus, insensitive given the topic,” Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal and compliance officer, said in an interview Monday. “We felt our responsibility was to avoid further inflaming the situation during a very delicate and emotional time for the nation and that couldn’t be achieved in the heat of the moment.”
Gutierrez said narratives about Disney’s motives were inaccurate.
“The guidance we were given by Bob as we were thinking this through was to do the right thing, and that’s what we did in both preempting the show and in putting it back on the air,” he said. “Other people can comment about what they would have done or said … but the reality is the action of the company speaks louder than any words.”
Brian Frons, a former senior ABC executive and a UCLA Anderson School professor, said the way the crisis was handled reflected Iger’s measured leadership style.
“This situation could have turned into a firefight with the [Trump] administration — a direct confrontation,” Frons said. “It could have been Florida-Chapek all over again.”
Disney’s last major public relations debacle was in early 2022, when former Disney CEO Bob Chapek tumbled into a political quagmire with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Disney belatedly opposed a Florida law banning school conversations about sexual orientation, the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill, prompting DeSantis to retaliate with a takeover of a Central Florida land-use board overseeing development around Walt Disney World.
Chapek’s shaky handling of the Florida dispute, which led conservatives to declare the company had become “woke,” was among the reasons Disney board’s fired him in November 2022, returning Iger to the top job.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger (left) and Bob Chapek (right) who served 2 1/2 years as chief executive. Chapek was removed in November 2022 to make way for Iger’s return.
(Business Wire)
Chapek had been Iger’s hand-picked successor but lasted in the job just 2½ years as pandemic dealt a crushing blow to theme parks, movie theaters and sporting events.
“In our instant-response culture, we want managers to have an immediate response and confrontation,” Frons said. “Sometimes, the instant solution might not be the best one.”
The Kimmel crisis and Chapek’s stormy tenure hover over succession.
Disney’s Achilles’ heel has long been its leadership handoffs. Over the years, Iger postponed several planned retirements, prompting at least one prospective successor, Tom Staggs, to exit the company in frustration.
The switch to Iger from Eisner 20 years ago was even more tumultuous, a move made to tamp down a shareholder revolt.
Before Iger was in the wings, Eisner recruited Creative Arts Agency co-founder Michael Ovitz — a debacle that ended in a court battle and a $140-million Disney payout.
Walt Disney Co. Chairman James P. Gorman is the former chief executive of Morgan Stanley.
(China News Service / China News Service via Getty Images)
Last year, Disney turned to James P. Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s former executive chairman, to oversee the succession process amid past criticism that some board members were too deferential to Iger. (A source close to the company disputed that characterization.)
Gorman became chairman of Disney’s board in January. He’s credited with orchestrating a smooth transition at the bank where he served as CEO for 14 years.
Disney’s board has said it would consider internal and outside candidates when determining who’s best equipped to lead the $206-billion company.
Walden was viewed as the early favorite, but some believe that Trump’s election last November might have changed that. The 60-year-old television executive has long been supportive of Democrat causes and is a friend of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Walden joined Disney in 2019 after Disney swallowed Rupert Murdoch’s Fox entertainment properties, including the Fox television and movie studios and a controlling stake in Hulu. She oversees ABC, ABC News, Disney Channel, National Geographic and, with Bergman, the streaming services.
It’s not clear whether the Kimmel controversy helped or hurt her chances. By the end of last week, both Nexstar and Sinclair had abandoned their boycotts, returning the show to their ABC-affiliated stations.
“If this situation holds, Dana may have proved herself as a very effective crisis manager,” Frons said.
Clockwise from top left: Alan Bergman, Josh D’Amaro, Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro.
(Evan Agostini, Chris Pizzello and Richard Shotwell / Invision via AP)
D’Amaro, the parks and experiences chief, is thought to have an edge. Neither Disney nor the board have signaled that there is a front-runner.
The 54-year-old executive runs Disney’s biggest and most prosperous unit — theme parks, resorts, cruise lines and experiences, including video games. D’Amaro is an architect of Disney’s $60-billion campaign to expand and revitalize its parks and resorts and double the number of cruise ships.
The charismatic D’Amaro brims with enthusiasm for Disney where he’s spent most of his adult life — more than 27 years.
Bergman, 59, is a savvy executive who runs Disney’s film studios, its major creative franchises, as well as theatrical and streaming releases and marketing. He oversees Disney Music Group and its Broadway show unit.
And Pitaro, the Connecticut-based ESPN chief, has helped lead Disney’s push to streaming as the once lucrative cable business has contracted. The 56-year-old executive, a former consumer products and Yahoo executive, has managed Disney’s dealings with the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.
Some worry that none of the candidates will match Iger’s skills.
“This idea that you’re going to replace the CEO — a person who is at the height of their power — with somebody in a similar place is pretty hard,” Frons said. “Instead, you have to ask: Who is the person who can best position Disney for the future in all the businesses that are important today and might be important in the future?”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. Navy, together with 11 of America’s allies, is working to develop a follow-on to the Block 2 version of the RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM). The ESSM is an air defense staple on a wide array of American and foreign naval vessels, but concerns about an increasingly complex aerial threat ecosystem are now driving interest in a missile with improved capabilities.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) posted a notice online yesterday inviting prospective contractors to a meeting in October to discuss what is currently described as a “Next Significant Variant (NSV) missile system” to succeed the ESSM Block 2. NavalX, a technology incubator within ONR charged with fostering innovation for the Navy and Marine Corps, is currently partnered with the NATO SEASPARROW Project Office (NSPO) on this effort. The NSPO consortium, which dates back to 1968, currently includes the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey. Despite the name, Australia is not a member of NATO, but is one of America’s top allies. The U.S. arm of NSPO falls under Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS).
A RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Block 2 missile. Canadian Department of National Defense
The ESSM is a short-to-medium range surface-to-air missile primarily designed to offer an additional layer of defense against anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM), but that is also capable of engaging other aerial threats. The baseline semi-active radar-guided Block 1 ESSM, which evolved from the earlier RIM-7 Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile, itself based on the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile, was developed in the 1990s and entered service in the early 2000s. The Block 2 version, which began entering service in the early 2020s, features a much-improved seeker with semi-active and active modes, the latter of which does not require a radar on the launching ship to ‘illuminate’ the target. It also has a data link so the missile can receive targeting updates after launch, an especially useful capability for longer-range engagements.
“The NSPO is exploring technology to be incorporated into a Next Significant Variant (NSV) missile system,” yesterday’s notice says. “This successor to the ESSM Block 2 must be able to engage current and future threats while maintaining existing quad-pack sizing with a 10” missile diameter.”
The ESSM’s ability to be quad-packed into Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells, giving ships valuable added magazine depth, is another one of the missile’s key features. Ships equipped with Mk 48, Mk 56, or Mk 57 VLS arrays, as well as deck-mounted Mk 29 box launchers, can also use them to fire ESSMs.
“To develop the NSV missile system, the NSPO will lean heavily on digital engineering and model-based systems engineering to communicate missile designs and requirements efficiently among consortium nations and industry partners in a shared development environment. These tools will be used to evaluate weapon systems and missile technologies through a design alternative evaluation process,” the ONR notice explains. “White papers are expected to include all aspects of the NSV missile including seeker technologies, autopilot, computing stack, internal communications, rocket motor alternatives, warhead design, missile to missile communications, data links, combat system integration, etc.”
No specific requirements are laid out in the notice. A multi-mode seeker that incorporates an imaging infrared (IIR) capability is one feature commonly discussed in the context of future anti-air missiles. An IIR mode would be immune to electronic warfare jamming and would not be impacted by a target’s radar-absorbing or deflecting stealth features. As a passive seeker mode, it would also not pump out signals that a threat could detect to alert them that they are being targeted. A new highly loaded grain rocket motor could also offer extended range without changing the missile’s form factor. These are just some of the possible features that could be included in a successor to the ESSM Block 2.
“The Next-Generation Highly Loaded Grain project team has matured the technology and seeded the development of future mission-modular propulsion systems that can increase weapon ranges by up to 1.5x while maintaining inner boundaries for short-range and time-critical… pic.twitter.com/gA7mlcSSi7
The notice about the NSV missile system does say that “potential industry partners,” as well as “existing” ones, are welcome at the upcoming meeting on the NSV missile system, which would seem to at least leave open the possibility of a follow-on to the ESSM Block 2 that has a substantially different design.
“Drivers for development include stressing simultaneous engagement scenarios, the need to develop fully releasable technologies using open architecture standards for all consortium partners to openly share, and the need to maintain capability with current consortium systems to the greatest extent possible while limiting ship support,” the notice also says, without further elaborating.
It is worth noting here that the Block 2 variant of the ESSM was itself developed in response to what the Navy described as a need for improved “capability against the most stressing ASCM threats in challenging environments.”
An old Navy briefing slide discussing the differences between the Block 1 and Block 2 ESSMs, as well as driving factors behind the Block 2’s development. USN
Navy warships, as well as those belonging to other members of the NSPO consortium, now face an aerial threat matrix that includes even more advanced supersonic, as well as hypersonic ASCMs. There is also the increasing likelihood that they could be layered in with anti-ship ballistic missiles and multiple tiers of drones, creating additional complexity for defenders. While an ESSM successor would not be tasked with ballistic missile defense, improved capability against other threats would give the crew of a ship greater flexibility to respond to an incoming complex attack. The Navy has been trying to accelerate work on high-power microwave directed energy weapons for the same general reasons.
The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Carney fires a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) against a Houthi threat while sailing in the Red Sea in October 2023. USN The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Carney fires an SM-2 missile at Houthi aerial threats on October 19, 2023. USN
U.S. lessons learned from naval operations against the Houthis, as well as in the defense of Israel from Iran on multiple occasions since April 2024, have underscored the importance of magazine depth, even in the face of attacks involving relatively modest volumes of threats. Those experiences have also highlighted the vital need for at-sea reloading capabilities. Navy ships would be subjected to a wider array of threats in substantially larger volumes, and would burn through interceptors at a higher rate, in any future high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific.
Overall, much remains to be learned about the plans for a follow-on to the Block 2 ESSM, but there are clear threat drivers that would prompt a desire for a successor.
FREEVIEW’S successor will appear on even more screens after landing a deal with one of the world’s biggest TV brands.
Freely, made from the same company as Freeview, is encouraging viewers away from the humble TV aerial to using Wi-Fi instead.
2
Now Roku TVs will come with Freely on themCredit: Freely
This means you don’t need to worry about pesky signal issues – nor having to place your telly near the aerial port in the wall.
For the moment, the service is hybrid so it can take Freeview channels the traditional way as well as via broadband.
Just recently, more than a dozen channels you can’t get with an aerial were added.
This includes a channel for game show favourite The Chase, all Channel 4’s best property shows on 4Homes, plus 5 Cops for all ofmi 5‘s real crime hits.
Freely – which is run by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5’s Everyone TV – has been adding a number of device partners since bursting onto the scene over a year ago.
Fire TV was a big newcomer but now Roku is getting on board too.
Freely will be available on the next generation of smart TVs powered by the Roku operating system.
Roku can be found on a number of major TV models, such as Sharp, Polaroid, and METZ.
“Offering Freely on the Roku operating system is a major milestone for us, as we continue to expand reach for the free streaming platform,” said Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Everyone TV.
Just last month, Freely announced some new features to rival premium services like Sky’s own streamed TV alternative Sky Glass.
A new backward TV guide was introduced, allowing people to scroll back on the screen and instantly see what’s been on recently, with a quick link directly to a catch up stream if one is available.
You can scroll back a full seven days.
A Never Miss feature was also added, which highlight programmes coming up, on now, and those you just missed, alongside the biggest and best shows available on demand.
And My List will let you save up to 50 of your favourite shows from the UK’s biggest free-to-air broadcasters all in one place so you can keep track of them.
RECENT CHANNEL ADDITIONS ON FREELY
The Chase
Saturday Night Every Night
4Reality
4Homes
4Life
5 GPs Behind Closed Doors
5 Bargain
5 The Yorkshire Vet
5 History
5 Crime
Milkshake!
5 Police Interceptors
5 Cops
5 Trucking Hell
5 A&E
5 Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly
Image credit: Everyone TV
FREELY ON A STICK?
So far, Freely has only been made available on new smart TVs for sale.
“We have been working hard to build digital platforms and content to meet changing audience needs, enriching our offer and welcoming the possibilities of a post broadcast world,” he said during a speech at Salford’s Lowry Theatre.
“We want to double down on Freely as a universal free service to deliver live TV over broadband.
“And we are considering a streaming media device with Freely capabilities built in, with a radically simplified user interface specifically designed to help those yet to benefit from IP services.”
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE WE REPLACE FREEVIEW
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
DTT – digital terrestrial television – is the system used for Freeview broadcasts today.
About 18million homes still use it as their main way of watching TV.
Before we even begin to think about switching it off, we have to make sure no one is left behind.
So any internet-based alternative – Freely or otherwise – needs to be just as easy to install and use.
