1 of 4 | Farmers for Free Trade sets up on the National Mall lawn to conclude its two-month tour, hosting farmers and organization leaders in Washington on Tuesday. Photo by Bridget Erin Craig/UPI
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) — Farmers for Free Trade, a nonprofit group that advocates for lower tariffs and expanded global market access, wrapped up its “Motorcade for Trade” tour Tuesday in Washington to urge policymakers to ease trade tensions and support struggling producers.
Dozens of farmers joined at different points along the route to participate in town halls and farm stops, contributing to discussions on trade priorities, export markets and challenges.
The organization has prioritized five issues, including tariff reductions, exemptions for agricultural necessities, such as fertilizer and equipment, and a timely review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The caravan began Sept. 5 in Dorchester, Neb., with a cooperative event between farmers and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb. The next three stops included sessions with Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Jim Baird, R-Ind.
Although the Farmers for Free Trade team did not live in its RV, the group named it Ruth after driving more than 2,800 miles with it, spending many hours inside planning and being interviewed with their furry companion, a dog named Huckleberry.
“It’s really about getting information from farmers throughout the Midwest to understand what impact the administration’s trade and tariff policies have had on individuals,” said Brent Bible, an Indiana grain farmer. “It’s had an individual impact, not just on producers, but on communities throughout rural America,”
The caravan made 10 stops — in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.
“We hosted events throughout the Midwest — everything from meetings with members of Congress to farmer roundtables and tariff town halls,” said Brian Kuehl, the Farmers for Free Trade executive director.
Between the fourth and fifth stop, Kuehl said, it became increasingly difficult to set a schedule.
“Our No. 1 one priority was to meet with members of Congress, and a lot of times you wouldn’t know their schedule until a few days in advance. Then, in the middle of the tour, we had the government shutdown. A bunch of members we had events with canceled because they had to be in D.C.,” Kuehl said.
His team then pivoted to hosting listening sessions and trade talks with farmers, along with visiting the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin and various farms.
Despite some adjustments, Kuehl shared his team’s optimism for the tour.
“One of the things that’s so cool about agriculture is how diverse it is throughout the United States,” he said. “In the Midwest, you’re looking at soybean and corn farms. As we moved east, we saw more dairies and hog farms. We even visited a winery in Pennsylvania. Pretty much the trade disruptions are impacting them all negatively.”
In Indiana, Bible said, “Our input costs have gone up dramatically because of tariffs on imports — fertilizer, equipment, steel, aluminum. If we need a replacement part or a new tractor, all of those things are impacted. We’re getting squeezed at both ends, and when that happens, there’s nothing left in the middle.”
In Ohio, corn, soy and cattle farmer Chris Gibbs said, he’s felt that squeeze firsthand. After more than 40 years in agriculture, he described 2025 as “a cash flow and working capital crisis,” noting that he’s paying well above production costs for major crops.
“We’re about $200 per acre under the cost of production for corn and about $100 under for soybeans,” Gibbs said.
Because of the shutdown — now the longest in history — the U.S. Department of Agriculture “is essentially not functioning,” Gibbs said. “They normally release reporting information that the market relies on, but that hasn’t been occurring. Farmers are having to make major business decisions without the data we depend on.”
Gibbs added: “I’ve been farming almost 50 years, and I’m struggling, If I’m having to move money around just to stay afloat, what happens to the young farmers who don’t have savings yet? They’re hanging on by a thread.”
Farmers strategically planned the finale of their motorcade to be in Washington this week in alignment with the Supreme Court of the United States’ schedule. The high court plans to hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act authorizes President Donald Trump to impose tariffs to the extent he has.
“We’re in a commodity business,” Bible said. “If we have a truly free, functioning market, we can be competitive. But that hasn’t been the case. Prices have been artificially manipulated by policy decisions and retaliation from other countries.”
“At the same time, I’ve used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction.”
The tour –Lily AllenPerforms West End Girl – will see the singer perform the album in its entirety in the order the songs feature on her record.
When is Lily Allen’s 2026 tour?
Lily Allen’s 2026 West End Girl tour is scheduled to take place throughout March 2026.
The British singer is set to perform her acclaimed fifth studio album at venues, theatres and concert halls across the UK.
This tour marks her first headline shows since her No Shame Tour in 2018-19.
The tour dates and venues for Lily Allen Performs West End Girl UK in March 2026 are:
March 2: Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
March 3: Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
March 5: Birmingham, Symphony Hall
March 7: Sheffield, City Hall
March 8: Newcastle, City Hall
March 10: Manchester, Aviva Studios (The Hall)
March 11: Manchester, Aviva Studios (The Hall)
March 14: Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
March 15: Cambridge, Corn Exchange
March 17: Bristol, Beacon
March 18: Cardiff, New Theatre
March 20: London, Palladium
March 21: London, Palladium
How can I get tickets for Lily Allen’s 2026 tour?
Tickets go on general sale from 10am GMT Friday, November 7, 2025, via Ticketmaster and LiveNation.
For fans who want to secure tickets before the general release, thankfully there is a presale, taking place from 10am on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.
But to access this presale, you will need to register with co:brand before midnight on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
Selected venues have already confirmed ticket prices for Lily Allen’s UK tour.
The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall said they start at roughly £40 and go up to around £85.
BON JOVI are going to hit the road next year for what is set to be a tour for the ages.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a fan for years or heard ‘Living on a Prayer’ at a disco as a child, the chances are you’re aware of them and their impact on the music industry.
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Jon Bon Jovi at Wembley StadiumCredit: Getty
Their catalogue promises anthems galore to get ready to scream out at the top of your lungs throughout their show.
Last Friday, Jon Bon Jovi answered fans’ prayers when he confirmed that the band would perform in the UK for the first time since 2019.
The tour is a celebration of the band’s new music, including their 2024 album Forever, and will feature an extensive setlist of their greatest hits.
Jon Bon Jovi speaks with host Claire Sturgess during the 2026 Bon Jovi Forever Tour press conference, at Wembley Stadium on OctoberCredit: Getty
When is Bon Jovi’s tour?
The announced UK and Ireland tour dates are:
Friday, August 28, 2026: Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
Sunday, August 30, 2026:Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland
Friday, September 4, 2026: Wembley Stadium, London
The UK and Ireland ‘ Forever’ tour is set to follow a 6 show run that they are set to do at Madison Square Garden next July.
How can I get Bon Jovi tickets?
The crucial opportunity for all fans to secure their seats for the Bon Jovi ‘Forever Tour’ is the official General Sale, which is set to begin on Friday, October 31, 2025, at 9:00 am local time.
Tickets for both the Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium and London Wembley Stadium shows will be made available through major official ticketing outlets.
Jon Bon Jovi at Wembley Stadium ahead of the 2026 Bon Jovi Forever Tour press conference,Credit: Getty
Prior to the general sale, several exclusive presales have been running, though these opportunities are now drawing to a close.
The Live Nation, O2 Priority, and Artist presales for Bon Jovi’s ‘Forever Tour’ are all currently active today.
Bon Jovi tickets are available at the following places:
Tuesday evening former Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to her second sold-out crowd in Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theater as part of a book tour promoting her memoir, “107 Days.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to decide if she’ll run for president in 2028. She’s also not going to dish on her former boss, Joe Biden. And her advice for a Brown-skinned person just getting into politics? There will be many situations when you walk into a meeting room and no one looks like you. Keep your chin up, your shoulders back and remember — all of us have your back.
“All of us” referred to the cheering, sold-out crowd at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening who’d come to see the former Democratic presidential candidate speak about her new book, the election-campaign memoir “107 Days.” The chanted “Kamala!” “Kamala!” as she walked on stage. The outbursts of adoration continued for the next hour in eruptions of applause and supportive shout-outs (“We love you!”) as she spoke about everything from the need to pass Proposition 50 to how she coped with the devastating loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
Moderated by actor Kerry Washington, “A Conversation With Kamala Harris” was one of nearly 20 stops on a tour that’s already seen Harris speak in New York, London and at the Wiltern last month. Zealous attendees paid anywhere from $55 to $190 on tickets to see Harris again following “one of the wildest and most consequential campaigns in American history” (the latter is an official descriptor for her book). The memoir details her historically short run for president, the whirlwind 107 days between the time Biden withdrew from the race and Harris become the Democratic nominee to her devastating loss on Nov. 5.
Harris fans flock to the Wiltern to see Kamala speak about her book, “107 Days.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Were there any great revelations or gotcha moments on stage Tuesday evening? Not really, but that’s not what this tour is about — at least for those who chose Harris over watching Game 4 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. The former attorney general of California shared her thoughts about the current Department of Justice — a “thin-skinned president” is using it as his own personal tool of “vengeance.” She explained how her loyalties to Biden may have cost her votes, and called out the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, whose “billionaire owners pre-capitulated” to Trump when they pulled their respective editorial boards’ endorsements for Harris. She drew a big laugh when discussing the importance of parsing fact from fiction in today’s mediaverse, and made up her own example of misinformation: “Circumcisions are causing autism!” And on a more serious note, she detailed the emotional fallout she experienced after losing the election: “For months [she and her husband, Doug Emhoff] never even mentioned it.”
Criticisms of Harris’ book have centered around a frankly tired refrain that she should accept more personal accountability for the election loss as opposed to blaming the influence of outside forces. On Tuesday she appeared willing to explore those themes when she said she constantly interrogated herself on the campaign trail: Are you doing everything you can to win this election? But before she could go much deeper, Washington told her that she needed to know that we, the audience, understood she did everything she could. The crowd erupted in affirming shouts and applause.
Clearly, a book tour attended by The Converted is not going to produce headline-worthy grist, especially with an interviewer who is an admitted Harris friend and supporter. That’s what debates and media interviews are for, and this was a fan event.
And her base was thirsty. Since Harris has largely stayed out of the spotlight since last November, the audience appeared ready to relive some of the joy they felt in the brief time she was running for office, and perhaps find a glimmer of hope in dark times for those who see the current administration’s actions as anti-democratic, at best.
Before “The Conversation With Kamala Harris” kicked off at 7 p.m., attendees who spotted Harris’ husband, Emhoff, in the first few rows of the venue lined up to shake his hand and take selfies with the former second gentleman of the United States. The close access to SGOTUS was surprising, given the heightened security around political figures after violent events such as the home-invasion assassinations of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband in June, and the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a speaking event last month. Yet the atmosphere was casual and relaxed.
Despite heightened threats of politically-motivated violence, President Trump pulled Harris’ Secret Service detail, as he has done to many of those he sees as his enemies. But as a former state office holder, Harris’ security detail Tuesday was provided by the California Highway Patrol.
The conversation lasted a little over an hour, with a few prescreened questions at the end from audience members, such as the query from an attendee who identified himself as Ramon Chavoya, a proud Latino. He asked for Harris’ advice on getting into local politics. She was the first Black and first South Asian female candidate to be chosen by either party to run for the Oval Office. Her very presence was a reminder that the face of the nation is changing, despite a rise in xenophobic movements and legislation. She advised the aspiring young politician that he would likely stand out, but that he wasn’t alone. “We’re all in the room with you,” she said, a sentiment Harris’ supporters surely understood.
Kai Trump, President Trump’s eldest granddaughter, a high school senior and University of Miami commit, has secured a sponsor invitation to play in an LPGA Tour event Nov. 13-16.
The 18-year-old will compete in the Annika at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla. She currently attends the Benjamin School in Palm Beach and is ranked No. 461 on the American Junior Golf Assn. rankings. She also competes on the Srixon Medalist Tour on the South Florida PGA. Her top finish was a tie for third in July.
“My dream has been to compete with the best in the world on the LPGA Tour,” Trump said in a statement. “This event will be an incredible experience. I look forward meeting and competing against so many of my heroes and mentors in golf as I make my LPGA Tour debut.”
Sponsor invitations have long been used to attract attention to a tournament through a golfer who is from a well-known family or, in recent years, has a strong social media presence. Kai Trump qualifies on both counts.
She is the oldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife, Vanessa, and has nearly 8 million followers combined on Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube and X. In addition to posting her own exploits on and off the course, she creates videos playing golf with her grandpa and chronicled their visit to the Ryder Cup.
She also recently launched her own sports apparel and lifestyle brand, KT.
“Kai’s broad following and reach are helping introduce golf to new audiences, especially among younger fans,” said Ricki Lasky, LPGA chief tour business and operations officer, in a statement.
The oldest of the president’s 11 grandchildren, Kai became known nationally when she made a speech in support of her grandfather’s campaign at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Her parents divorced in 2018, and her mother has been dating Tiger Woods for about a year.
Sometimes, the best place you can go is a dead end. Especially when that dead end is surrounded by crashing surf on empty beaches, dramatic cliffs and lonely trails through forests thick with redwoods.
That’s the situation along Big Sur’s South Coast right now.
A chunk of the cliff-clinging highway has been closed for a series of landslide repairs since January 2023, making the classic, coast-hugging, 98-mile San Simeon-Big Sur-Carmel drive impossible. Caltrans has said it aims to reopen the route by the end of March 2026, if weather permits.
That means the 44-mile stretch from San Simeon to Lucia will likely be lonely for at least six more months. Travelers from the near north (Carmel, for instance) will need to detour inland on U.S. 101. Meanwhile, many Canadian travelers (usually eager explorers of California) are boycotting the U.S. altogether over President Trump’s tariff policies and quips about taking over their country.
And so, for those of us in Southern California, the coming months are a chance to drive, hike or cycle in near solitude among tall trees, steep slopes and sea stacks. The weather is cooler and wetter. But over the three October days I spent up there, the highway was quieter than I’ve seen in 40-plus years of driving the coast.
Moreover, those who make the trip will be supporting embattled local businesses, which remain open, some with reduced prices. Fall rates at the Ragged Point Inn, 15 miles north of Hearst Castle, for example, start at about $149 nightly — $100 less than when the road was open.
“It’s kind of perfect,” said Claudia Tyler of Santa Barbara, on her way from Salmon Creek Falls to two nights of camping at Plaskett Creek in Los Padres National Forest.
“I am sorry for the businesses…,” Tyler said, “but it’s good for the traveler.”
Further north, David Sirgany, 64, of Morro Bay, was getting ready to surf at Sand Dollar Beach, thinking about coastal erosion, climate change and this moment in history.
“To me,” he said, “it feels like the end of a time that will never be again.”
The Ragged Point Inn stands at the southern end of Big Sur.
The closed area, known as Regent’s Slide, begins about 26 miles north of Ragged Point, toward the south end of Big Sur, and covers 6.8 miles. Thus, you’d need to detour inland via U.S. 101 to reach most of Big Sur’s best-known attractions, including the Bixby Creek Bridge, Pfeiffer Beach, Nepenthe restaurant, Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn, McWay Falls and Esalen Institute.
But there’s plenty to explore on the stretch from San Simeon north to the roadblock at Lucia (milepost 25.3). Just be careful of the $8.79-per-gallon gas at the Gorda Springs Resort. (At $6.99, the Ragged Point gas station isn’t quite so high.)
San Simeon Bay Pier at William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach.
Here, from south to north, are several spots to explore from San Simeon to Lucia. Be sure to double-check the weather and highway status before you head out.
See Hearst’s castle. Or just one of his zebras.
I’ve been hoping to see some of the Hearst zebras in the hills of San Simeon for years, and this time I finally did — a single zebra, surrounded by cows in a pasture beneath distant Hearst Castle.
That was enough to make my brief stop at the castle visitor center (which has a restaurant, historical displays and shop) well worth it. Other travelers, however, might want to actually take a tour ($35 per adult and up) of the 165-room Hearst compound (which is officially known as Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument).
The state park system’s visitor tallies from June through August show that 2025 was slightly slower than 2024, which was slightly slower than 2023.
Perhaps with that in mind, the castle last fall added “Art Under the Moonlight” tours, which continue this autumn on select Friday and Saturday nights through Nov. 16. The castle also decorates for the holidays.
If you’re spending the night, the Cavalier Oceanfront Resort has 90 rooms (for as little as $169) and firepits overlooking the sea.
A zebra, part of the Hearst Castle animal collection, is seen from the visitor center off Highway 1 in San Simeon.
San Simeon Bay Pier or hike San Simeon Point Trail
My southernmost hike was at the San Simeon Bay Pier. From the parking lot there, walk north on the beach and follow a path up into a eucalyptus grove. That puts you on the 2.5-mile round-trip San Simeon Point Trail (owned by Hearst Corp. but open to the public.)
At first, the route is uneventful and surrounded by imported eucalyptus (now being thinned) and pines. But there’s a payoff waiting at the point, where tides lap on a little sand beach, waves crash on dramatic black rocks and pelicans perch on sea stacks. Look back and you see the beach, the pier and the hills of the central coast sprawling beyond them.
Then, if you’re as hungry as I was, you rapidly retrace steps and head to the Seaside Foods deli counter in Sebastian’s General Store, a block from the pier. (I recommend the Coastal Cowboy tri-tip sandwich, $21. But you could also take your meal across the street to the Hearst Ranch Winery tasting room.)
Find the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewing area, then go beyond it
California’s coast is a catalog of uncertainties, from rising tides and crumbling cliffs to private landowners discouraging public access. But we can count on the elephant seals of Piedras Blancas.
Elephant seals gather at Piedras Blancas, north of San Simeon.
Once you pull off Highway 1 into the observation area parking lot, no matter the time of year, you’re likely to see at least a few hulking sea creatures flopped on the sand and skirmishing for position.
Because it’s a great spectacle and it’s free, there are usually dozens of spectators along the shore. But most of those spectactors don’t bother to follow the boardwalk north and continue on the Boucher Trail, a 1.9-mile path along the bluff tops and across a meadow, leading to striking views of sea stacks and Piedras Blancas Light Station.
Along Boucher Trail, just north of the elephant seal viewing area at Piedras Blancas.
(BTW: Visitors need an advance reservation to tour the Piedras Blancas Light Station. At press time, all tours were canceled because of the federal government shutdown.)
At Ragged Point, that Big Sur vibe kicks in
About 10 miles beyond the elephant seals, the raw, horizontal coastal landscape morphs into a more vertical scene and the highway begins to climb and twist.
Right about here, just after San Carpoforo Creek, is where you find the Ragged Point Inn, a handy place to stop for an hour or an evening. It has 39 rooms, flat space for kids to run around, cliff-top views, a restaurant, gift shop, gas station and a snack bar that’s been closed since the highway has been blocked.
Right now, this stretch of the highway “is a great place to cycle,” said Diane Ramey, whose family owns the inn. “I wouldn’t do it at a normal time. But now the roads are uncrowded enough.”
To recover from the “frightening” drop in business when the road first closed, the inn has put more emphasis on Sunday brunch, the gift shop and live music on summer weekends, Ramey said.
At Salmon Creek Falls, roaring water meets tumbled rocks
At the Salmon Falls trailhead, 3.6 miles north of Ragged Point, there’s room for about 10 cars in the parking area on the shoulder of the highway.
When the highway is open, those spots are often all full. Not now. And it’s only about 0.3 of a mile to the base of the 120-foot falls, where there’s plenty of shade for the weary and boulder-scrambling for those who are bold. In the hour I spent scrambling and resting, I encountered just two couples and one family, all enjoying the uncrowded scene.
If you want a longer, more challenging hike, the falls trailhead also leads to the Salmon Creek Trail, a 6.6-mile out-and-back journey through pines, oaks and laurels that includes — gulp — 1,896 feet of elevation gain.
The yurts and quirks of Treebones Resort
Treebones, about 14 miles north of Ragged Point and 2 miles north of the rustic, sleepy Gorda Springs Resort, is an exercise in style and sustainability, producing its own power and drawing water from its own aquifer.
Treebones Resort, just off Highway 1 in the South Coast area of Big Sur.
Born as a family business in 2004, Treebones has 19 off-the-grid units, mostly yurts, whose rounded interiors are surprisingly spacious. Its Lodge restaurant offers chef’s-choice four-course dinners ($95 each) and a sushi bar.
If you book a yurt (they begin at $385), you’ll find your headboard is a felted wood rug from Kyrgyzstan (where yurts go back at least 2,500 years). The resort also has five campsites ($135 nightly, advance reservation required) that come with breakfast, hot showers and pool access.
A deck at Treebones Resort.
“For the last 20 years, we were basically 100% occupied from April through October,” assistant general manager Megan Handy said, leading me on a tour. Since the closure, “we’ve stayed booked on the weekends, but we’ve seen at least a 40% decline midweek.”
Once you’re north of Treebones, beach and trail possibilities seem to multiply.
Stand by the edge (but not too close) on the Pacific Valley Bluff Trail
Several people told me I shouldn’t miss the Pacific Valley Bluff Trail, a flat route that begins just north of Sand Dollar Beach. It runs about 1.6 miles between the roadside and the bluffs over the Pacific. Here you’ll see sea stacks in every shape, along with a dramatic, solitary tree to the north. In about 45 minutes of walking amid a land’s end panorama, I never saw another soul. Plenty of cow patties, though, and a few patches of poison oak, which turns up often near Big Sur trails.
A little farther north, I did run into four people walking the beach at Mill Creek Picnic Area. I found even more at Kirk Creek Campground, which was booked solid because it has some of the best ocean-view campsites in the area and it’s on the ocean side of the highway.
Waves crash near Sand Dollar Beach.
Big trees and a meandering creek at Limekiln State Park
Limekiln State Park is one California’s youngest state parks, having been set aside in the 1990s. But its occupants, especially the redwoods, have been around much longer.
And now, after park closures over storm damage and infrastructure issues and a reopening early this year, we have a chance to enjoy the place again. Or at least part of it. The park’s campground, Hare Creek Trail and Falls Trail remain closed.
But there’s still plenty of opportunity to check out the rare overlap of species from northern and southern California. As the Save the Redwoods League notes, “You can’t find both yucca and coast redwoods in very many parks.”
The park is about 4.4 miles south of the Highway 1 closure. Entrance is $10 per vehicle. I savored the 1.5-mile out-and-back Limekiln Trail, which is one of the best ways to see redwoods in the area. And once again, no fellow hikers.
Highway still too busy for you? How about an isolated lodge or a silent monastery?
Just south of the highway closure, the rustic, isolated Lucia Lodge and the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery, remain open for overnight guests.
But not everyone knows this. Unless somebody at Google HQ has just made a fix, Google Maps will tell you incorrectly that the hermitage and lodge are beyond the road closure. Nope. They’re both on the south side of the road closure, accessible to northbound traffic. And they’re both really quiet.
“People come here for silent, self-guided retreats,” said Katee Armstrong, guest ministry specialist at New Camaldoli Hermitage. Its accommodations, high on the slopes above the highway, include nine single-occupancy rooms and five cottages with kitchenettes ($145 nightly and up).
Meanwhile, on the ocean side of the highway, the Lucia Lodge’s 10 very basic units are visible from the road. Four of them are cabins that go back to the 1930s, when Highway 1 was new.
Some nights, there are only one or two guests, and those guests typically see no hotel employees, because there’s no lobby and the staff is down to a skeleton crew. (The lodge’s restaurant and lobby burned down in 2021.) The nearest restaurant is at Treebones, about 10 miles south.
“We have to have a conversation with every guest who books with us,” said Jessie McKnight, the lodge reservationist. Many “end up canceling once they understand the situation,” she said. “You’re kind of on your own.”
Ad yet, she added, “it’s so rare to experience Big Sur like this. Once the road opens, I think it’s going to be right back to being a zoo.”
Brian Setzer was on tour with the Stray Cats last year when he noticed the earliest signs of what was eventually diagnosed as an autoimmune disorder.
Now, it seems that disorder may be keeping Setzer off the road.
The Stray Cats said Tuesday they would be canceling their fall U.S. tour as Setzer, 66, battled a “serious illness.” The announcement comes months after Setzer’s diagnosis, although it’s not yet clear if this is a separate health issue.
“I know this affects so many people and I am devastated to have to deliver this news,” Setzer wrote Tuesday on X. “I’ve been trying everything I can to go on and do these shows, but it is just not possible.
“I’ve been looking forward so much to being on stage with my band mates again,” he said, “and playing for all of our amazing fans, and I’m gutted.”
The Stray Cats initially canceled the first two stops on their fall run, in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and Rockford, Ill., before scrapping the whole tour Tuesday. The band said refunds would be available at the point of purchase and did not announce any future tour dates.
Setzer first shared details about his unspecified autoimmune disease in February, writing on social media that, although the illness was not painful, it rendered him unable to play guitar.
“It feels like I am wearing a pair of gloves when I try to play,” he wrote, adding that the disease had for a time hindered his ability to accomplish everyday tasks like tying his shoes.
The artist said that he had been improving as he received care at “the best hospital in the world down the block from me,” the Mayo Clinic.
“I know I will beat this, it will just take some time,” he said. “I love you all.”
The Stray Cats, formed by Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom in 1979, have dissolved and re-formed several times over the decades. In 2019, the founding trio reunited to release a 40th anniversary album, aptly dubbed “40,” their first album in a quarter of a century.
On Friday, the band rolled out its first release since then. The pair of singles, consisting of original song “Stampede” and a cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Teenage Heaven,” were described on the band’s website as “loud, upbeat, and unmistakably The Stray Cats.”
“Jim and I cut both songs in Minneapolis at Terrarium Studios,” Setzer said in a statement posted to the site. “‘Stampede’ was an instrumental that I wrote lyrics for. I basically copied the guitar part, which was pretty ahead of its time to begin with, and ‘Teenage Heaven’ is one of the few Eddie Cochran songs that has not been covered to death.”
Rocker said “‘Stampede’ has the drive and intensity that brings me back to our first album,” and “‘Teenage Heaven’ is a classic Eddie Cochran song that we put our [Stray] Cats magic on.”
“The Cats are back and better than ever,” the bassist said.
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
METALLICA are bringing the M72 World Tour back to the UK in summer 2026, and demand is sky high.
If you missed out on the first wave, do not panic—here are the confirmed dates, who is supporting, and the most innovative ways to still grab seats for Glasgow, Cardiff, and London.
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With Metallica promising fresh setlists and huge production for M72, the extra effort will be worth itCredit: Tim Saccenti
What are Metallica’s UK tour dates 2026?
Metallica have set four massive UK shows for June and July 2026 as part of the M72 World Tour, with different setlists and support lineups across the weekend.
Glasgow, Scotland Venue: Hampden Park Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026 Supporting acts: Gojira and Knocked Loose
Cardiff, Wales Venue: Principality Stadium Date: Sunday, June 28, 2026 Supporting acts: Gojira and Knocked Loose
London, England Venue: London Stadium Date 1: Friday, July 3, 2026, with support from Pantera and Avatar Date 2: Sunday, July 5, 2026, with support from Gojira and Knocked Loose
The M72 World Tour is built around the No Repeat Weekend format, which means two different shows and two different setlists in the same city, plus a rotating cast of special guests.
It is designed so fans can go twice and get a completely fresh night each time.
Two‑day tickets for the 2026 European leg went on general sale on May 30, 2025, with fan club presales earlier that week.
For London specifically, single‑day tickets were released later and went on sale on Friday, July 25, 2025.
How can I still get tickets for Metallica’s UK tour?
If your chosen date is now sold out, you still have a few solid routes to get in. Some are official and face value, others are resale and often carry a markup.
Here is what to try, in order.
1. Check primary sites for drops and verified listings
Start with the official primary agents. Inventory does move.
Extra production holds and restricted views can be released closer to the show, and Ticketmaster remains the key place to check for any new London Stadium allocations and verified listings when they appear.
Keep refreshing on on-sale anniversaries and ahead of staging deadlines.
The show is designed so fans can go twice and get a completely fresh night each timeCredit: Getty
2. Try official hospitality for guaranteed seats
Hospitality and VIP packages are often still available even when standard tickets are sold out.
Seat Unique is the official hospitality partner for Metallica’s UK dates, with packages for London and Cardiff that bundle premium seats, lounge access and extras.
These are pricier but secure, and availability tends to last longer than standard tickets.
VIP options typically include fast‑track entry, lounge access, premium seating and early access, which can be a game-changer if you want a smoother day out.
3. Look at Enhanced Experiences and fan club options
Metallica also run official Enhanced Experience packages via their own channels for the M72 tour.
Perks vary by city, but expect premium views, early entry or special access, plus exclusive merch.
The band have also offered an I Disappear ticket for this tour, granting general admission floor access with early entry across multiple shows, subject to availability and terms.
If you are flexible and planning more than one date, that pass can be highly valuable.
4. Use trusted secondary marketplaces carefully
If the primary route is tapped out, secondary marketplaces can help.
Sites like Viagogo and StubHub may have tickets listed by other fans.
Prices can be above face value, and fees add up, so read the listings closely and check seller guarantees before you buy.
Ticombo is another option some fans use for peer‑to‑peer resales.
Only purchase from platforms that offer clear protection in case of event changes or invalid barcodes.
5. Set alerts and keep checking back
Speed matters. Set up alerts so you are first in line when something drops.
Services like Twickets let you create notifications for specific dates and price points, and receive them from other fans at face value.
It is also worth checking the venue sites in the final run‑in, as Hampden Park, Principality Stadium and London Stadium sometimes free up last‑minute seats after production is locked.
WASHINGTON — Twenty-two days into the government shutdown, California Rep. Kevin Kiley spent an hour of his morning in Washington guiding a group of middle school students from Grass Valley through the empty corridors of the U.S. Capitol.
Normally, one of his staff members would have led the tour. But the Capitol is closed to all tours during the shutdown, unless the elected member is present. So the schoolchildren from Lyman Gilmore Middle School ended up with Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, as their personal tour guide.
“I would have visited with these kids anyway,” Kiley said in his office after the event. “But I actually got to go on the whole tour of the Capitol with them as well.”
Kiley’s impromptu tour is an example of how members of California’s congressional delegation are improvising their routines as the shutdown drags on and most of Washington remains at a standstill.
Some are in Washington in case negotiations resume, others are back at home in their districts meeting with federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay, giving interviews or visiting community health centers that rely on tax credits central to the budget negotiations. One member attended the groundbreaking of a flood control project in their district. Others are traveling back and forth.
“I’ve had to fly back to Washington for caucus meetings, while the opposition, the Republicans, don’t even convene and meet,” Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime Los Angeles Democrat, said in an interview. “We will meet anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with [House Speaker Mike] Johnson, with the president, with the Senate, to do everything that we can to open up the government. We are absolutely unified on that.”
The shutdown is being felt across California, which has the most federal workers outside the District of Columbia. Food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could soon be delayed. And millions of Californians could see their healthcare premiums rise sharply if Affordable Care Act subsidies are allowed to expire.
For the California delegation, the fallout at home has become impossible to ignore. Yet the shutdown is in its fourth week with no end in sight.
In the House, Johnson has refused to call members back into session and prevented them from doing legislative work. Many California lawmakers — including Kiley, one of the few GOP lawmakers to openly criticize him — have been dismayed by the deadlock.
“I have certainly emphasized the point that the House needs to be in session, and that canceling a month’s worth of session is not a good thing for the House or the country,” Kiley said, noting that he had privately met with Johnson.
Kiley, who represented parts of the Sacramento suburbs and Lake Tahoe, is facing political uncertainty as California voters weigh whether to approve Proposition 50 on Nov. 4. The measure would redraw the state’s congressional districts to better favor Democrats, leaving Kiley at risk, even though the Republican says he believes he could still win if his right-leaning district is redrawn.
The Senate has been more active, holding a series of votes on the floor and congressional hearings with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The chamber, however, has been unable to reach a deal to reopen the government. On Thursday, the 23rd day of the shutdown, the Senate failed to advance competing measures that would have paid federal employees who have been working without compensation.
The Republicans’ plan would have paid active-duty members of the military and some federal workers during the shutdown. Democrats backed a bill that would have paid all federal workers and barred the Trump administration from laying off any more federal employees.
“California has one of the largest federal workforces in the country, and no federal worker or service member should miss their paychecks because Donald Trump and Republicans refused to come to the table to protect Americans’ health care,” Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement.
Working conditions get harder
The strain on federal employees — including those who work for California’s 54 delegation members — are starting to become more apparent.
Dozens of them have been working full time without pay. Their jobs include answering phone calls and requests from constituents, setting the schedules for elected officials, writing policy memos and handling messaging for their offices.
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks about the shutdown at a news conference Thursday with other Republican House members.
(Eric Lee / Getty Images)
At the end of October, House staffers — who are paid on a monthly basis — are expected to miss their first paycheck.
Some have been quietly told to consider borrowing money from the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union, which is offering a “government shutdown relief loan program” that includes a no-interest loan of up to $5,000 to be repaid in full after 90 days.
The mundane has also been disrupted. Some of the cafeterias and coffee carts that are usually open to staffers are closed. The lines to enter office buildings are long because fewer entrances are open.
The hallways leading to the offices of California’s elected officials are quiet, except for the faint sound of occasional elevator dings. Many of their doors are adorned with signs that show who they blame for the government shutdown.
“Trump and Republicans shut down the government,” reads a sign posted on the door that leads into Rep. Norma Torres’ (D-Pomona) office. “Our office is OPEN — WORKING for the American people.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, posted a similar sign outside his office.
A sign is posted outside of the office of Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, in Washington on Wednesday.
(Ana Ceballos / Los Angeles Times)
Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican who represents the Central Valley, has been traveling between Washington and his district. Two weeks into the shutdown, he met with veterans from the Central Valley Honor Flight and Kern County Honor Flight to make sure that their planned tour of the Capitol was not disrupted by the shutdown. Like Kiley’s tour with the schoolchildren, an elected member needed to be present for the tour to go on.
“His presence ensured the tour could continue as planned,” Fong’s office said.
During the tour, veterans were able to see Johnson as well, his office said.
Shutdown highlights deep divisions
California’s congressional delegation mirrors the broader stalemate in Washington, where entrenched positions have kept both parties at a negotiation impasse.
Democrats are steadfast in their position that they will not agree to a deal unless Republicans extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring at the end of the year, while Republicans are accusing Democrats of failing to reopen the government for political gain.
Kiley is one of the few Republicans who has called on Johnson to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare. Kiley said he thinks there is a “a lot of room to negotiate” because there is concern on both sides of the aisle if the tax credits expire.
“If people see a massive increase in their premiums … that’s not a good thing,” he said. “Especially in California, where the cost of living is already so high, and you’re suddenly having to pay a lot more for healthcare.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a press event Wednesday with five other California Democrats talked about the need to fight for the healthcare credits.
Garcia, of Long Beach, said he recently visited a healthcare center in San Bernardino County that serves seniors with disabilities. He said the cuts would be “devastating” and would prompt the center to close.
“That’s why we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a deal that reopens the federal government and saves healthcare,” he said.
As the shutdown continues, many Democrats are digging their heels on the issue.
At an Oct. 3 event outside of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, for instance, Rep. Laura Friedman held a news conference with nurses and hospital staff and said she would not vote for a bill to reopen the government unless there is a deal on healthcare.
Last week, the Glendale Democrat said her position hasn’t changed.
“I will not support a shutdown deal that strips healthcare from tens of thousands of my constituents,” she said.
Donald Trump has departed for Malaysia, where he’s set to attend the ASEAN summit and hold trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Speaking before he left, the US President criticised Canada over its ‘crooked ad’ about tariffs, and said he’d be open to meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
The people queueing for the Eurostar at London St Pancras station, rushing in from the rain in hoodies, look noticeably less enthusiastic than the usual holiday crowds. But then, we aren’t heading to the usual hot, heady holiday destinations of Spain or the south of France, but boarding a train to north-east Europe. For me, it will be a journey of more than 1,000 miles – via Amsterdam, Berlin and Warsaw to Vilnius – visiting some of the coolest capitals in the north. At least in terms of temperature.
As England sweltered this summer, and Spain reached a hellish 46C, it made sense to head away from the heat on what is now fashionably being called a “coolcation”. I left in August, with a suitcase full of jumpers.
There is something irresistibly romantic about long train trips, watching the geography unfold outside the window. I leave London for Amsterdam on the Eurostar, eating a pain au chocolat as we speed through rural French flatlands and glide past red-roofed Belgian farmhouses, and then the distinctive, tall art nouveau buildings of the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, I switch trains to the Deutsche Bahn, grabbing a packet of Stroopwafel and jumping on board alongside cool Dutch kids with asymmetric hair. I know we have entered Germany when I spot a VW factory, and the graffiti becomes better – and more profuse.
As for my coolcation, it feels burning hot when I arrive in Berlin, emerging from the glass and steel Hauptbahnhof into a summer evening where hipsters on deckchairs are drinking cocktails at Capital Beach on the Spree River.
Capital Beach in Berlin. Photograph: Travelstock44/Alamy
The next morning, I stroll through the lush Tiergarten past men in black leathers chugging in the Biergarten; through the shadowy blocks of the Holocaust memorial; under the intimidating Brandenburg Gate. I’m heading to Alexanderplatz – where teenagers congregate under the TV tower – and I’m ruminating on how eastern European cities have a harsher aesthetic than those in the soft south. The remnants of the Soviet era echo in the hardness of the culture, in the brutalist architecture I’m passing, and then suddenly as pounding techno surrounds me. Marching down Unter Den Linden, I find myself caught in a procession of floats surrounded by people wearing all black, looking like they’re heading to Berghain nightclub.
My next train, from Berlin to Warsaw, is the IC Intercity link. It’s a Polish train, on which the carriages are split into comfortable six-person compartments. In one of these I sit opposite a boy with a mohawk eating paprika crisps, and I watch the city turn to pine forests of pale thin trees.
Train journeys mimic cruises – you hop on and off in different cities (ideal for my ADHD) and, in between, lounge around eating too much. It’s a five-hour journey from Berlin to Warsaw,and when gazing at farmland becomes monotonous, the restaurant carriage offers distraction. I order Kotlet schabowy (€10.50), and a delicious plate of breaded pork chop, cucumber salad and floury boiled potatoes appears, which I eat surrounded by men with blond buzzcuts drinking Żywiec beers.
It’s startling to emerge from the bunker of Warsaw Central station to a horizon of glass skyscrapers reflecting the deep red sky.
The next day, I discover Warsaw – a captivating juxtaposition of history and modernity. In the Old Town, I eat pierogi beside Marie Curie’s house, then explore cobbled streets with bright rows of coloured medieval buildings, which were bombed during the second world war but have been so faithfully reconstructed they have earned Unesco status. Their Disneyland-esque quality is only lessened by the artillery pockmarks.
Marie Curie’s house in Warsaw. Photograph: Konrad Zelazowski/Alamy
Elsewhere, austere Soviet buildings have morphed into hipster cafes with oak counters and earthenware cups. BarStudio, below the Stalin-era Palace of Culture and Science – now reclaimed as a tourist attraction with an observation deck – runs silent-disco nights and serves matcha crepes from a menu decorated ironically with communist-era cartoons.
Taking a train is far easier than flying – there’s no negotiating airport security or check-in – and soon I become dangerously casual, running and hopping onboard with a picnic of local foods.
We roll out of Warsaw and I sit munching Kopernik iced gingerbread biscuits as we pass endless farmland, the occasional dilapidated dacha, factories and small towns of Identikit modern houses in grids. Today’s journey to Vilnius will take nine hours, so it’s a relief when at Mockava, on the Lithuanian border, we are ejected on to a remote platform in a sunny forest. I stand sweltering in 26C heat, wondering why I packed so many jumpers.
Bohemian rhapsody … Užupis district in Vilnius. Photograph: Gediminas Medziausis/Getty Images
The black, double-height Lithuanian train is open-plan, modern, slick and packed full of heaving bike racks, but the dining options are disappointingly limited. I eat a sad toasted-cheese sandwich as we glide through more farmland and forests.
Vilnius, although the most eastern city I’m travelling to, feels the most western in style. Its baroque buildings – including cathedrals that survived the Soviets and have earned it Unesco status – blend into art nouveau architecture. Even former communist blocks here are painted in soft pastels, and wide boulevards (a USSR endeavour) open up a lush city. Elsewhere, meandering cobbled streets offer up cafes and pretty boutiques.
The further east you go, the cheaper things get: coffees that cost €5 in Berlin and €3 in Warsaw are €2 here. But the enthusiasm for capitalism is evident in the number of luxury Lithuanian boutiques and western brands such as H&M and Mango, and a growing tech industry: Vinted is based here. Užupis, the bohemian quarter – where art exhibitions and Banksy-style graffiti adorn the streets – has its own logo: a blue hand with a hole in the middle. My guide says it shows that money falls through in an enticement to spend, spend, spend, but Užupis’s own tourism minister, Kestas Lukoskinas, has said: “The main thing is we have nothing to hide in our hands.”
Still, the heart and backbone of Vilnius is creative, a scene both historic and constantly reinvented. On Literatų gatvė (Literature Street) in Vilnius Old Town, individual wall plaques celebrate writers associated with the city, including Adam Mickiewicz, who lived on the street, Joseph Brodsky and Romain Gary.
Socialising in Vilnius’s historic centre. Photograph: Sergio Delle Vedove/Alamy
The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, where tickets start at a very reasonable £15, is matched as a cultural attraction by Lukiškės Prison 2.0 – a Soviet jail shut in 2019 and now reinvented as a creative space, with cells turned into studios and stages hosting trendy bands such as Aurora and Fontaines DC. At Mo Museum, a modern Lithuanian art gallery established by scientists and philanthropists Danguolė and Viktoras Butkus – and one of the first large-scale private collections of its kind since independence – the current exhibition, GamePlay, explores the creative impact of video games.
Although I try classic Lithuanian cuisine – cepelinai (stodgy potato dumplings filled with ground meat), and pink soup (borscht with kefir) – I’m excited to find a burgeoning Michelin restaurant scene. At Ertlio Namas, a nine-course tasting menu is an affordable €70, with traditional dishes reinterpreted with modern spin: salted ide fish with jelly, bread soup with beer-braised beef, and buckwheat babka come as delicious exquisite morsels.
Vilnius repeats Soviet motifs now familiar on my journey: brutalist architecture; cool young people in all black and boots; and the compulsory revamped TV tower, where you can climb to the 67th floor and take a horrifyingly scary walk on a handrail-free ledge, attached only by a rope.
The journey home feels faster; the west softer, even though the train is delayed by five hours (so much for German efficiency). I wander Amsterdam hazily, the harsh and uniform brutalism replaced by the uniquely elegant canal houses and oily Van Goghs – yet I’m surprised, among the clatter and chaos, to miss the calm, clean order of the eastern European cities. I arrive back from my hot coolcation, in England – where it is raining.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Our Jamie Hunter went to Wichita to fly aboard Beechcraft’s M-346 jet trainer, which could replace the Navy’s T-45 Goshawk. Steven Helmer, a flight test and demonstration pilot for Textron Aviation and Defense, gave us a walk-around tour of the M-346 prior to taking to the skies.
The demonstrator Beechcraft is using is an M-346FA (fighter-attack) model of Leonardo’s M-346 Master family of jets. Leonardo and Textron, the latter of which owns Beechcraft, have joined forces for the Navy’s next generation trainer opportunity. The Navy’s M-346 variant will be configured slightly different, with the company giving the concept the designation M-346N. You can read all about this proposed variant here.
A render of the M-346N. (Textron)
The next generation Navy jet trainer is unlikely to be required to land or launch from a carrier, a controversial move to say the least, but this decision has opened up the field to types that won’t require as extreme of a modification.
With all that being said, check out our walk-around tour below and stay tuned for a much deeper dive in the M-346 for the Navy in an upcoming video of Jamie’s flight.
You can also check out Textron’s pitch for the M-346N in our previous video below from Sea, Air, Space symposium earlier this year:
Airbnb Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said he didn’t integrate his company’s online travel app with OpenAI’s ChatGPT because the startup’s connective tools aren’t “quite ready” yet.
Airbnb will monitor the development of ChatGPT’s app integrations and may consider a tie-up in the future similar to those of its peers Booking Holdings Inc. and Expedia Group Inc., Chesky said in an interview.
“I didn’t think it was quite ready,” he said of ChatGPT’s integration abilities.
Because Airbnb is a community with verified members, OpenAI will have to build a platform so robust that Airbnb’s app can work within the ChatGPT chatbot in an “almost self-contained” manner, Chesky said.
Chesky, who is close friends with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said he advised the AI company on its new capability for third-party developers to make their apps available within the ChatGPT chatbot. The AI company announced those features earlier this month. Airbnb wasn’t among the first apps that are available on the popular chatbot.
An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on Chesky’s remarks, but referred to the company’s blog post earlier this month that described the app integration technology as a developer preview, with more features coming soon.
While Airbnb has set aside a possible integration with ChatGPT, the company Tuesday announced that it had updated its in-app artificial intelligence tools to let customers take more actions without the need of a live representative.
The company’s AI customer service agent, which it rolled out to all US users in English in May, now displays action buttons and links that can help people complete, say, a reservation change or cancellation.
That has led to a 15% reduction in users needing a live representative, cutting average resolution time to six seconds from nearly three hours, Airbnb said. The company plans to add Spanish and French language support this fall, and 56 more languages next year.
The agent is built upon 13 different AI models, including those from OpenAI, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and open source providers, Chesky said.
“We’re relying a lot on Alibaba’s Qwen model. It’s very good. It’s also fast and cheap,” he said. “We use OpenAI’s latest models, but we typically don’t use them that much in production because there are faster and cheaper models.”
Airbnb, which expanded its business beyond accommodations into tours and individual services earlier this year, also is adding new social features to encourage user connections and eventually make better travel recommendations within the app.
The company unveiled an option for guests to share their Airbnb profile with other travelers after they book an experience. Users who have gone on the same tours can also now directly message one another — privacy safeguards are implemented where the conversation can only continue if the recipient accepts a message request, Airbnb said.
More social features are coming next year, and Chesky said that longer term these features could lend themselves to user-generated content on the app, where people can seek travel inspiration without leaving the Airbnb site.
“I think the social features, the community, that’s probably the most differentiated part of Airbnb,” he said. “People are the reason why I think Airbnb is such a sticky service.”
OASIS have confirmed the replacement for guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs after he left the band’s tour to have cancer treatment.
The Manchester rockers have brought in Mike Moore from frontman Liam Gallagher‘s solo band for gigs in Asia and Australia.
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Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs will be back on stage with Oasis next month for South America datesCredit: PAMike Moore is filling in for Bonehead while he has cancer treatment
A source told the Mirror: “Mike Moore has been playing for Liam since 2017 and so he knows plenty of the Oasis tunes from the solo gigs.
“It’s not a full time slot in the band and everyone wants Bonehead well and back but it’s a huge privilege for Mike and he’s excited to get on the stage.”
Moore has a long list of credits to his name including contributions to records by Baxter Dury, Duffy, Trampolene, James Arthur and Peter Doherty.
The musician, 60, said he was moving onto the second phase of his treatment and as a result needed to miss a leg of the reunion tour.
His statement read: “Early this year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“The good news is I’m responding really well to treatment, which meant I could be part of this incredible tour.
“Now, I am having to take a planned break for the next phase of my care, so I’ll be missing the gigs in Seoul, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney.
“I’m really sad to be missing these shows but I’m feeling good and will be back ready to go in time for South America.
“Have an amazing time if you’re going this month and I’ll see you back onstage with the band in November.”
He is due to return to the stage on November 15 in Buenos Aires for the first of the final five concerts of the tour.
Oasis shared the statement on X and added: “Wishing you all the best with your treatment Bonehead – we’ll see you back on stage in South America.”
Noel Gallagher’s daughter also Anais wished him well, commenting on Instagram: “We love you so much bonehead!” while Liam’s daughter Molly Moorish wrote: “Sending love!”
Bonehead was in the band from 1991 to 1999 and played on some of their biggest hits.
The musician then rejoined when they reunited for their hugely lucrative Oasis Live ‘25 Tour.
Bonehead, who has two children with his wife Kate, previously told in 2022 how he had been diagnosed with tonsil cancer, although he was later given the all-clear.
Arthurs is an original member of the bandCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
She has informed the WDF she will not be playing in the women’s championship, which starts on 28 November
A WDF statement said: “Although Beau will no longer be competing on the Lakeside stage, we wish her all the best in the next stage of her darting career.
“She has been a fantastic ambassador for our system since we returned from the pandemic in 2021, winning every major WDF title on the way.
“It’s been fantastic to see how her game has gone from strength to strength playing in WDF events and we know that she’ll continue to make even more history on the PDC circuit.”
A minimum of four women will compete at the PDC World Championship after a new qualifying structure was announced.
This year’s event will have an expanded field of 128 players, up from 96 in 2024-25, with the winner taking home £1m of a £5m prize pot.
Fallon Sherrock, the only woman to have won matches in the tournament – in 2019 – is the only other female player to have qualified so far.
With seeded players entering the tournament in the first round, rather than the second, Greaves and Sherrock could meet one of the top men.
We got an up-close look at General Atomics’ Mojave, which is working as a lead-in for Gray Eagle STOL at the Association of the U.S. Army’s major symposium outside of Washington, D.C. this week. Gray Eagle STOL will bring a vast array of capabilities and future adaptability into a package that can takeoff from short, rough fields and even amphibious assault ships. You can read all about Gray Eagle STOL in our recent feature here.
From the show floor, Chris MacFarland, vice president of Army Strategic Development from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), gives us the full walk-around tour of the aircraft and what it will bring to the table.
‘We can talk about culture, churches, monasteries, whatever, but the main thing here is eating and drinking.” My guide, Loreto Esteban Guijarro, is keen to ensure I have my priorities straight. I’m with Loreto to discover the food and wine culture of Spain’s Burgos province, a high-altitude area ringed by distant mountains. In summer the days are hot, and at night temperatures plummet. To thrive in these extremes, the food, the wine, and even perhaps the people, are robust and straight-talking.
I’m staying deep in wine country at the rural Posada de Pradoray, built as a hunting lodge for the Duke of Lerma in 1601. The thick stone walls, dark polished wood and heavy doors leading to simple rooms with vineyard views suggest little has changed in this landscape for centuries. Burgos is part of the Ribera del Duero wine region which stretches for 71 miles following the Duero River through the provinces of Burgos, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid.
Since the appellation was recognised in 1982 the region has seen huge changes, with the number of wineries increasing from nine to more than 300. Now, there’s a wine route to help explore villages, wineries, restaurants and visitor experiences across the region, with plenty of sampling. My hotel is just outside Aranda de Duero, the main town in the region (population 33,000), 62 miles east of Valladolid and 102 miles north of Madrid. From here I’m following the river on day trips to get a taste of what’s on offer.
Ailsa Sheldon at Bodegas Portia
Bodegas Portia is built on the edge of the tiny town of Gumiel de Izán, eight miles (13km) north of Aranda. Designed by Norman Foster, it’s one of the new wave of wineries in the region, with a futuristic trefoil shape, like a spaceship that’s landed in these sun-scorched fields. It’s built partly underground to meld into the landscape but also in recognition of the area’s unique winemaking traditions.
Later, I meet the mayor of Gumiel de Izán, Jesús Briones, at his home – a tour with Loreto opens many doors, she knows everyone. “You’ve seen the wine cathedral [as local people refer to Portia], now see the caves,” he says. Jesús invites us into his garage from which, between tins of paint and boxes of faded Christmas decorations, stone steps twist underground. A single bulb illuminates a rough hewn cave full of barrels, dating back hundreds of years. Traditionally, wine in this region was made and stored in deep, hand-dug caves where the temperatures are stable.
Jesús’s basement isn’t unusual: underneath these streets is a warren of caves, some used, some forgotten. Down here glasses are eschewed in favour of a porrón, a glass jug with a long, narrow spout designed for sharing wine. To drink from it is a leap of faith, pouring wine above your mouth, avoiding speckling your face and clothes with crimson Tempranillo and without the porrón touching your lips. I manage it (mostly).
Wine cellars at Moradillo de Roa. Photograph: Maria Galan/Alamy
Gumiel de Izán has seen a recent uptick in visitors thanks to a National Geographic article that noted visual similarities between the baroque facade of the town’s Iglesia de Santa Maria, and “the treasury” rock-cut tomb in Petra, Jordan. Gazing up at the intricate sandstone carvings from the village square, I’d say here’s definitely a resemblance, and it’s helped to put the town on the map. “Anything that brings visitors,” says Jesús. “We need reasons for young people to stay.”
At Nabal winery a few miles along the road I meet one young person who’s done just that: Luz Briones studied translation but became fascinated by wine in her early 20s. She leads us through vineyards ranging from 30 years old to more than a century. “We believe in the power of time,” Luz says. “Time in vineyards, time in barrels, time in bottles.” Grapes have to work hard here, developing thick skins to cope with temperature fluctuations and creating rich, tannic wines. In the storeroom, Benedictine chanting is played to the maturing barrels, an acknowledgment of centuries of wine-making by monks. Luz says security guards report lights and music turning on when the building is empty and shows us a large stain that has appeared on the wall resembling, if you squint, a monk drinking wine. The angels’ share perhaps?
We travel downstream, the Duero snaking just out of sight, its presence marked by rippling valleys covered in vines, all benefiting from the river’s proximity. Early in the year the land looks barren, with spiky bare vines and cracked red earth, but in summer fields of lavender and sunflowers create a colourful patchwork with the green of the grapes. In the village of Moradillo de Roa, south of Aranda, we meet Paola González Ortiz carrying a porrón. She’s part of a young team offering tours of a tiny winery museum, demonstrating the heavy labour and huge weights once needed to crush grapes. The village is famed for its grassy hillocks full of wine cellar entrances, often compared to Tolkien’s The Shire. Ducking low, I follow Paola down winding steps into the hillside (being Hobbit height would help). As we share wine from the porrón, a little light filtering through the air vents, Paola says she hopes increased tourism, whether for food and wine or scenic lookalikes, will help create more year-round jobs here. Moradillo de Roa has 157 wine cellars, and a population of 162. To attract young people, the village has started hosting porrón singles nights in the town square.
Iglesia de Santa Maria in the village of Gumiel de Izán. Photograph: Blanca Saenz de Castillo/Alamy
I end my tour back in Aranda, with a final wine cellar, this one beneath Don Carlos wine shop. Through a dynamic tasting, Cristina López Nuñez tells stories of wine and winemakers, and why the region needs both traditions and youthful innovation. “It’s like wine. Younger grapes have more energy but fewer stories like children,” she says. “The older grapes have less energy but much better stories, like older people. The old vines with deep roots give complexity, the younger vines with shallow roots are juicy. We need both.”
When I emerge back above ground, the sleepy town has transformed. Before I saw only old men sipping coffee and smoking at wine-barrel tables, and a gaggle of children chasing a football past the imposing gothic churches. At dusk, everything changes as the bars switch from coffee to wine. “We never entertain at home,” says Loreto. “Why would we?”
At El Lagar de Isilla, the bar fills with people of all ages in office attire, hi-vis jackets, or dressed for a night out. We feast on bechamel-topped salt cod, gildas with fat olives and anchovies, and octopus cooked with potatoes and sweet paprika. The wine is cheap and delicious, straight from the restaurant’s own vineyard, and the atmosphere is lively. Loreto is satisfied: “I told you, it’s about eating and drinking – and who you share it with.” I can drink to that.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
On Monday, we reported on Sikorsky’s new U-Hawk cargo helicopter, which is a UH-60 Black Hawk that has been converted into an uncrewed hauler by removing the cockpit and adding clamshell doors in its place, fly-by-wire flight control systems, and additional modifications. You can read all about this aircraft, its genesis, and its capabilities in our report linked here.
Now we have gotten a tour of the actual helicopter on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual conference just outside of Washington, D.C. Erskine “Ramsey” Bentley, Strategy and Business Development, Advanced Programs at Sikorsky, gave us the walk around, explaining all the U-Hawk’s features.
‘The people’s champion” is how Benjamin Zephaniah is fondly remembered in his home town of Handsworth, Birmingham. The words, spray-painted in fiery-red ballooned letters, leap out of a colourful mural that wraps around one side of a local Sons of Rest building, a place where retired war veterans once met and socialised. To the side looms an image of the late poet and writer, his face full of expression and thought. For a moment, it feels as if he’s there with you.
A couple of years earlier, and he may well have been. “Seriously, you could come into Handsworth Park and he’d just be walking through, just leisurely. Benjamin, he’d sit with you, he had time for you,” says Marcia Dunkley, one of the founders of the organisation Black Heritage Walks Network, which commissioned the mural.
It’s a chalky blue-skied August day in Birmingham, and while many of the city’s residents have flocked to the centre for the annual Caribbean music and food festival, I’m on a walking tour in Handsworth, the neighbourhood where much of the creative legacy of Birmingham’s Caribbean population was first felt.
The tour, launched in 2018 by the Black Heritage Walks Network, explores the history and legacy of the influx of Caribbean migrants who settled in Handsworth after the second world war.
A railway bridge in Handsworth with a mural commemorating south Asian immigrants who fought for equal working conditions. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
The walk largely takes place along Handsworth’s Soho Road, a bustling high street north-west of the city centre where elaborate saris and glistening wedding jewellery spill out of shops and on to pavements. Fifty years ago, the high street, now dominated by south Asian traders, wore a different face.
“Black-owned, Black-owned, Black-owned,” says Dunkley, pointing at an array of mismatched buildings that were once the nightclubs, restaurants, law firms and banks that made up the Black economy in Birmingham, after thousands migrated to the neighbourhood from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 60s.
On any given day, they are buildings that might not warrant a second glance. Take Garvey House – a neglected and disused Victorian house, with a faded white painted front and boarded-up windows. Named after Jamaica’s national hero Marcus Garvey, the space once brimmed with life, offering temporary accommodation to waves of migrants arriving for the first time in the city. The only remnant of its past life is a faint sign above the door.
Black Heritage Walking Network was born out of the ambition of three history buffs, frustrated by Birmingham’s lack of recognition as a city steeped in Black history and heritage. Since creating the Madiba tour in Handsworth, named after Nelson Mandela’s famous visit to the area (Madiba was his Xhosa clan name) the company has developed a plethora of walks, exhibitions, and educational workshops that highlight the history and legacy of the African-Caribbean community in Birmingham.
“People who want to know about Bob Marley and Malcolm X and so on, if you don’t tell them, then they’ll just go to London to find it … People are used to the culture in London and having access to all of that at their fingertips, which means they don’t want to come to Birmingham,” says Dawn Carr, who co-founded the network.
A mural in Handsworth Park depicts African-Caribbean musicians from Handsworth including Steel Pulse and Musical Youth. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
Along Soho Road, unkempt and derelict buildings are contrasted with an array of colourful murals, commissioned over the years, to highlight the neighbourhood’s diverse and evolving identity. On Soho Bridge, a hand-painted mural shows Strikers in Saris to commemorate a group of south Asian women who famously protested poor working conditions at the Grunwick film processing factory in the late 1970s.
Close to the mural of Benjamin Zephaniah in Handsworth Park, is a brightly painted tribute of 13 Birmingham-born reggae artists that Dunkley brings to life by playing Steel Pulse’s Handsworth Revolution and UB40’s Food for Thought out of a portable speaker.
Where the rich cultural history of Handsworth escapes its outward appearance, Dunkley’s evocative storytelling brings it to life. Her passion for uncovering the lost history of Birmingham streets pours out in theatrical re-enactments and poised reflections on the ways we are taught the past.
While narrating the rich cultural and economic life of old Handsworth, Dunkley is careful not to gloss over the more painful realities of the racism and brutality that marked many residents’ lives.
Remembering that the Black and Irish communities ran 24-hour blues parties hosted in the interlinked cellars of houses along Soho Road known as shebeens, she’s quick to remind us that this was often the only nightlife available to residents, who risked returning “blue and beaten” if they ventured into the city centre.
A south Asian bridle shop on Soho Road. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
In the same vein, we are frequently reminded of the strength and resilience of the community. “What you had were elders of the community … who would literally stand vigilante along here,” says Marcia at the edge of a road leading to the city centre.
“They stopped the youths from going down there. But they also stopped the neo-Nazis, the skinheads, coming up here, because that’s what was happening. Big clashes there. It was murderous. It was brutal.”
Some of the most painful accounts of the difficult reality for Handsworth residents are discussed outside the austere redbrick building with tall, narrow windows and stone lintels that was once the local police station. Then called Thornhill Road police station, Dunkley recalls a passage from Benjamin Zephaniah’s autobiography, where he describes a room with dreadlocks pinned to the wall, kept by police as trophies after alleged brutality.
Walking tours can at times feel like lectures, only with heavier legs and a burgeoning craving to sit down. On this tour, Marcia keeps us alert by making us work. At every twist and turn in the narrative, she interrogates the group for answers, sparking debate and conversation.
The tour ends at Handsworth leisure centre, the unexpected site of a visit from Nelson Mandela in October 1993. When news spread of his visit, residents of Handsworth flocked in droves to the sports hall– some even camping out the night before – to hear him speak. According to Dunkley, it was a visit city leaders fervently tried to block, fearing it might spark unrest in the part of Birmingham they referred to as the “ghetto”.
“But where’s the statue? Where’s the narration board?” says Dunkley, voicing her frustration at the lack of any physical commemoration to mark the event, a theme she reflects on throughout the tour. “Where’s the celebration?”
Black Heritage Walks Network offers guided tours all year round, weather permitting. Tickets can be bought through its website and start from £17 for adults and £5 for children under 12
The surviving members of progressive rock titans Rush will reunite for a 50th anniversary tour in 2026.
Rush co-founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will play 12 dates in honor of the band’s late drummer Neil Peart, whose monumental percussion talents made Rush a defining act in prog rock. The tour will begin June 7 at the Kia Forum — the site of the band’s last show with Peart in 2015.
“After all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we f— miss it,” Lee said in a statement announcing the tour. “And that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of Rush music.”
The question of a Rush reunion without Peart, who died of brain cancer in 2020, was a fraught one. Even up to last year, Lifeson had told Rolling Stone that “there’s no chance that we’re going to get a drummer and go back on the road as the rebirth of Rush or something like that.”
For this tour, the band will be joined by Anika Nilles, a German drummer acclaimed for her work with Jeff Beck.
“As we all know, Neil was irreplaceable,” Lee said in the band’s statement. “Yet life is full of surprises, and we’ve been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated Rush fan base, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near-impossible role.”
In their own statement, Peart’s wife Carrie Nuttall-Peart and daughter Olivia gave their blessing for the tour: “We are thrilled to support the Fifty Something Tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honor Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist.”
