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Sept. 25 (UPI) — The White House has warned federal workers there will be more mass firings if Congress is unable to agree on a stopgap funding measure by the end of the month.

The warning came in the form of a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sent to federal agencies and viewed and first reported on by Politico.

CNN and The New York Times also viewed the memo sent Wednesday night.

The OMB asked the federal agencies to identify programs that would lose funding and have no other sources of funding if the stopgap measure measure fails to pass by Sept. 30. Programs that don’t align with President Donald Trump‘s priorities would then face a permanent elimination of jobs.

“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” the memo said.

“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary.”

The House passed a short-term funding measure Friday, but the bill failed in the Senate. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said his party wouldn’t support the legislation unless it included provisions extending Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the New Year.

Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries were expected to meet with Trump Tuesday, but the president canceled the meeting, saying he didn’t like their list of “demands.”

Schumer said Wednesday’s OMB memo was “an attempt at intimidation.”

“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare,” he said. “This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.”

Caleb Sanchez, a Cali boy, packed his memories of sunshine, beaches and In-N-Out burgers to get an Ivy League education and football experience at Columbia University in New York.

He became one of the most talked about freshman quarterbacks at the end of last season, passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns in a 21-12 win over Brown and passing for 201 yards in a 19-11 win over Cornell that helped Columbia win the Ivy League title.

Then came the real challenge — snow, a blizzard and freezing temperatures.

“I was very shocked,” he said. “I was warned every day the winter would be hard. I didn’t expect it to be as cold as it was.”

It wasn’t cold enough to discourage Sanchez from continuing his quest to balance athletics and academics. He began his sophomore season on Saturday as the backup quarterback in Columbia’s 38-14 loss to Lafayette. It’s another experience that he got used to at St. John Bosco, waiting until his senior year to become the starting quarterback and prove his ability,

Quarterback Caleb Sanchez of St. John Bosco.

(Craig Weston)

He’s one of 39 graduates of Southern Section schools to be playing Ivy League football this season. Harvard-Westlake and Loyola have the most with five players each.

There’s going to be standouts, such as Princeton defensive back Tahj Owens (Loyola), heading into his fourth season, and Yale receiver Nico Brown (Edison), who had five catches for 119 yards and one touchdown in his season debut against Holy Cross on Saturday.

Sanchez was able to redshirt last season as a freshman, having played only in the final three games, and the goal is to be a standout the next three seasons, earn his valuable Columbia degree and spend a fifth year at perhaps a big-time college program.

He has no regrets of seeking out an Ivy League experience after helping St. John Bosco reach the Division 1 championship game in 2023.

“I’ll leave here with one of the top degrees in the world,” he said.

That’s the attraction in a league where the eight schools don’t participate in NIL revenue sharing with students but will finally let football teams participate in the FCS playoffs this season.

The students have to be all in for academics and athletics.

“We’re 100% in school, 100% in football,” Sanchez said. “There’s no help for football players. Professors don’t care. They treat you as normal students.”

Sanchez, 20, rarely has free time. It’s classes, meetings, homework, practices, watching film, then sleep. His transition last year was challenging in that the Columbia offense was much different than that of St. John Bosco. He had to learn plays needing 20 to 30 words to call from a listening device in his helmet where just four words were used to call plays at St. John Bosco.

He’s 6 feet 3½ and 217 pounds, and could be preparing to have a season that will draw lots of attention. Certainly looking on and rooting from home will be his younger brother, Ryu, a seventh-grader with a future in football and academics.

Look for lots of good news from the Sanchez brothers in the coming years.

As for the coming weather change, Sanchez said he’s ready.

“I’m prepared now. Winter is not going to shock me.”

Can anyone deliver In-N-Out to New York?

Brown: DB Elias Archie, St. John Bosco; OL Kai Faucher, Harvard-Westlake; DL Mitch Mooney, San Marino; DL Caden Harman, Sierra Canyon.

Columbia: WR Caden Butler, Chaparral; DB Ethan Fullerton, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame; QB Caleb Sanchez, St. John Bosco; LB Patrick Sodl, Loyola; DL Will Matthew, Orange Vista; TE Santiago Hernandez, Harvard-Westlake; WR Elliot Cooper, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame; DL Shawn Lin, Loyola; DL Austin Coronado, Glendora.

Cornell: DB Rayjohn White, Bishop Amat; DB Brayon Crawford, Village Christian; WR AJ Holmes, Harvard-Westlake; QB Cameron Shannon, Riverside North; LB Darryl Davis, Culver City; LB Connor Klein, Loyola; TE Brandon Gilbert, Murrieta Valley.

Dartmouth: RB Desmin Jackson, Orange Lutheran; OL Ryan Turk, Loyola.

Harvard: K Dylan Fingersh, Capistrano Valley.

Pennsylvania: RB Julien Stokes, Grace Brethren; DB Alec Wills, Los Alamitos; LB Trevor Pajak, Mater Dei; WR Dylan Karz, Brentwood; K Josh Barnavon, Harvard-Westlake.

Princeton: DB Tahj Owens, Loyola; RB Kai Honda, Gardena Serra; DB D’Shawn Jones, Sierra Canyon; LB Jalen Jones, Santa Margarita; DB Justice Croffie, Los Alamitos.

Yale: WR Nico Brown, Edison; QB Marshall Howe, Harvard-Westlake; DL Ezekiel Larry, Sierra Canyon; DB Dillon Rickenbacker, St. John Bosco; TE Scott Truninger, Corona del Mar; WR Davis Wong, Brentwood.

Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division has lifted the lid on a new, higher-end stealthy Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drone named Vectis. The uncrewed aircraft is designed to be highly adaptable to an operator’s requirements, whether they be in the United States or elsewhere around the world, and is expected to fly within two years. Vectis notably follows Skunk Works’ failed ‘gold-plated’ high-stealth bid for the first phase of the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program, but still puts above-average emphasis on survivability compared to the other designs that service is now testing.

Skunk Works has yet to share exactly when development of Vectis began, but has described it as a product of a broader development philosophy it has adopted called the Agile Drone Framework. The framework prioritizes modularity and open mission systems, as well as interoperability in areas like command and control architectures, over any specific hardware. The name Vectis means lever or pole in Latin, and is meant to reflect the ‘leverage’ the platform offers.

“Meet Vectis, a Group 5, survivable, lethal, and reusable, Collaborative Combat Aircraft that embodies not only our pedigree in [crewed] fighter aircraft, autonomy, and uncrewed systems, but [that] is also enabled by that Agile Drone Framework,” O.J. Sanchez, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Skunk Works, told TWZ and other outlets this past week. “Vectis will provide U.S. and allied warfighters with range, endurance, and multi-mission flexibility, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, and ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance].”

In the U.S. military’s parlance, Group 5 uncrewed aerial systems are the largest and most capable, covering anything pilotless with a maximum takeoff weight of 1,320 pounds or more, and that can fly at altitudes of 18,000 feet or higher. When asked, Sanchez declined to offer any hard dimensions or other specifications for Vectis. He did say it was smaller than a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, but larger than one of the company’s Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT, pronounced ‘comet’) missile-like drones, which is a very broad size range.

Renderings of Vectis from Skunk Works show a tailless drone with a lambda wing planform and a top-mounted air intake. There is a pronounced chine line around the forward end of the fuselage and a shovel-like shape to the nose, as well as various conformal antennas and/or sensor apertures, all of which are indicative of low-observable (stealthy) design considerations. A short promotional video, seen below, also includes a cutaway view showing an S-shaped duct behind the air intake and exhaust shrouding, features that offer further radar cross-section and infrared signature reducing benefits.

Skunk Works’ Sanchez also said Vectis is runway dependent in its “current instantiation,” something we will come back to later on. Its landing gear configuration has not yet been shown.

Vectis’ core planform is interestingly reminiscent, in some broad strokes, of a rendering of a stealthy aerial refueling tanker concept Skunk Works first showed publicly last year. That aircraft had a much larger design, in line with its intended mission, with large clipped wings that had some lambda-wing attributes, as well as small outwardly-canted twin vertical tails. The look of the new survivable CCA also hearkens back to older concepts for advanced crewed combat jets from Lockheed and other companies, including from studies that fed into the Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program that led to the F-22.

There has been something of an uptick in recent years in new crewed and uncrewed tactical aircraft designs with lambda or at least lambda-like planforms. This includes one of the several air combat drone designs that emerged around a massive military parade in China earlier this month, as well as one of the two Chinese next-generation crewed combat jets that broke cover in December 2024. The stealthy Wingman drone design that European aerospace conglomerate Airbus unveiled earlier this year is another one of the many examples.

Skunk Works has also declined to share details about Vectis’ intended performance or what engine it might use.

“I would say that in the CCA space, our operational analysis doesn’t point towards supersonic [speed as a central requirement],” Skunk Works head Sanchez shared. “We’ll continue to refine that, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say supersonic is what we see as needed in this space.”

Vectis also has “endurance ranges compatible with Indo-Pacific, European, and CENTCOM [U.S. Central Command] theaters,” according to a Lockheed Martin press release, which does not elaborate further on this aspect of the drone’s capabilities.

What munitions and other payloads Vectis might be able to carry is unclear. Skunk Works’ Sanchez mentioned “reusable or flexible payloads,” but did not elaborate. The promotional video included earlier in this story shows a vignette in which the drones, operating together with an F-22, use unspecified sensors to spot and track aerial threats before being ordered to fire air-to-air missiles, presumably from internal bays, at those targets. Compact radars and/or infrared search and track (IRST) systems would be logical sensor options for supporting the air-to-air role.

As noted, Vectis is also intended to be configurable for air-to-ground and general ISR missions. Another promotional video Lockheed Martin has now released, which covers Skunk Works’ Agile Drone Framework more generally, seen below, shows Vectis drones firing air-to-surface missiles at an enemy air defense site.

Electronic warfare suites and signal relay packages might also be among the payload options for Vectis drones.

The design is “rapidly upgradable and customizable to align to shifting threat environment priorities,” according to Sanchez. “Vectis’ signature and comms are compatible with fifth and next-gen aircraft. We’ve conducted classified crewed-uncrewed teaming operations analysis, pairing F-22s and F-35s with Vectis, and the results are impressive.”

Sanchez clarified later that this operations analysis had been conducted in simulated environments as Vectis is not yet flying. Lockheed Martin is already well known for its extensive work in the unclassified realm on crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities, including in digital environments and through real-world flight testing, as well as instances that blend the two together. The F-22 is now in line to be the first airborne controller for Air Force CCAs. The company also now has a contract with the U.S. Navy to provide a common command and control architecture for that service’s future CCAs, which will leverage work on its Multi Domain Combat System (MDCX), a software-based package already being integrated into new drone control centers on American aircraft carriers.

“One of the most impressive attributes of the Skunk Works is its long commitment to open mission systems, to architectures that enable a large tent of folks to be able to plug in. That’s why we believe that interoperability is foundational to solving warfighter problems in the decades in front of us,” Sanchez said in response to a question about Vectis’ own level of autonomy. “So when we think about the autonomy and the underpinning software, everything about this will be aligned with the [U.S.] government reference architecture. Our experience delivering that level of capability through the MDCX system to the U.S. Navy, for example, is underpinned with the same approach.”

“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with others,” he added. “While I won’t disclose exactly how we’ll partner or who we will align with on the software space, the fundamental architecture is open mission systems aligned with government reference architecture. And as that tent expands, we’ll be willing and able to adapt with others and potentially bring kit in alignment with other efforts that are being worked [on] by other companies.”

Sanchez highlighted a recently announced partnership between Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems’ FalconWorks in the United Kingdom as an example of how the company is already collaborating with others, but said that initiative is not tied to Vectis. He also touted demonstrations in the past two years of new capabilities to securely share classified data with foreign F-35 operators as additional examples, more generally, of the current internal focus on interoperability.

“We can connect the Vectis system with any other platform, or anybody or anything in the battlespace,” he said.

In his comments this past week, Sanchez did not speak directly to the matter of physical control interfaces, which has been a matter of contention in recent years, especially when it comes to ordering uncrewed aircraft around from the cockpit of a fighter. Skunk Works has said in the past that its immediate focus is on tablet-like and other touch-screen-enabled devices, but other options may emerge in the future. Questions have been raised about whether tablets, in particular, will create problematic additional burdens for pilots when directing drones during missions.

The Skunk Works’ Agile Drone Framework video shows pilots in F-22s and F-35s using wide-area touch-screen displays to control Vectis drones, as well as CMMTs and a higher-end flying-wing design. The latter drone has a design that looks evolved from Lockheed Martin’s secretive RQ-170 Sentinel, as well as the Sea Ghost concept the company put forward years ago for the U.S. Navy’s abortive Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. Lockheed Martin has also included an advanced flying wing design, together with various others, in past promotional materials highlighting work on crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities.

Overall, “as the future of air power takes shape, Skunk Works is charting a critical path with this Vectis program to unlock new integrated capabilities at an ultra-competitive speed and price point. Vectis provides best-in-class survivability at the CCA price point,” he said during the press call this past week.

Sanchez did not provide any hard cost metrics for Vectis. The Air Force has said in the past that it is aiming for a unit cost roughly in the $20 million range for drones being developed under the first phase, or Increment 1, of its CCA program. The service has also said that it could pursue lower-cost (and less exquisite) designs for the planned follow-on Increment 2.

“Our Increment 1 offering had higher levels of stealth than were necessary in the requirements because of the operational analysis conviction of building something that actually had value to the Air Force over the long haul,” John Clark, then head of Skunk Works, had told TWZ and others at the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual conference last year. “I think, hindsight 20/20, we could certainly armchair quarterback and say, well the Air Force isn’t valuing survivability right now, so we gold-plated something they didn’t need gold-plated.”

Clark added at the time that Skunk Works had shifted focus, at least to a degree, to exploring optionally expendable designs to meet the Air Force’s Increment 2 CCA requirements, which were still being finalized at that point and have yet to be detailed publicly.

“I think that there will … be a reckoning to come at some point when [the Air Force is] looking at [a scenario where] … I’m going to spend $15 million or $20 million an airplane, and the OA [operational analysis] is telling me that 80 percent or more of them don’t make it home,” Clark also said last year. “How many airplanes am I willing to spend that sort of money on before that’s a losing proposition financially as a nation.”

In April 2024, General Atomics and Anduril received contracts from the Air Force to continue developing their CCA designs, now designated the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. Both of those designs put less emphasis on survivability versus cost compared to how Vectis is currently being presented. In addition to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman had also been in the running for Increment 1.

“When you talked to him at the time, there was certain analysis going for a specific competition that was [what] he was talking to,” Skunk Works’ Sanchez said this past week when asked about how Vectis fits in with Clark’s past comments. “There are design trades that we’ve made in this and mission applications where we clearly see the opportunity for a reusable, highly survivable, and flexible platform like Vectis to create mission effects that are far beyond what you would have without them.”

“So how it applies in each individual mission set starts to get classified … but we absolutely see at Skunk Works that the integration of teams, manned and unmanned teaming, is going to provide battlespace effects that solve hard problems,” he continued. “So that is becoming true, and so Vectis creates a unique space where a survivable platform can deliver effects, in both air-to-ground and air-to-air, by the way – at the time, I believe John was talking to a specific mission set – as well as provide critical information through like an ISR and targeting role, and again, opened up to more than one mission set as we look at both international force design and domestic force design.”

Sanchez also stressed that Vectis is not being developed at present with any particular potential opportunity with the U.S. military or foreign armed forces in mind.

“I would see the Vectis flexibility that’s being built in, along with its survivability, being very attractive to multiple mission problem sets, and then the agility and the way we’re doing the flexible payload design can be tailored towards specific countries or programs as they need,” he said. “So that tailoring will be work that we’ll continue to do with each, but not in direct response to any one [opportunity] – [we’re] more aligned with listening to all those customers, and our knowledge of the battle space has informed our design.”

“We have a lot of overlap with the U.S. Air Force and are supporting their approach to find the right requirements for their specific mission sets. So should the U.S. Air Force find that they need a highly survivable platform with the flexibility that Vectis enables for Increment 2, I think it’ll be a great candidate,” he continued. “We respect their process as they go through and see what’s needed. As you know, every force has specific requirements based on the rest of their force. So this fits squarely in the category of a survivable, reusable, and flexible CCA, and I absolutely think if that’s what the Air Force thinks they need, this would be a great candidate to meet those requirements.”

“The flexibility we show in that Agile Drone Framework through, say, MDCX, also says that you can command these in multiple locations. You can use smart autonomy integrated with a fifth-gen [fighter] cockpit, like the F-35, or perhaps you could do it off the deck of a ship if you needed to, like we’re doing with MDCX, or any manner in between,” he added. “And so we’re building in that kind of autonomy, that flexible autonomy, if you will, so that we can work with more countries, more partners to really listen to what their needs are. So that flexibility has been demonstrated through multiple demonstrations. Now we’ll go out and build it, and we’ll work to prove it in the open air.”

In discussing how Vectis could be adaptable to multiple U.S. and foreign operator requirements, Sanchez also spoke in more detail about the drone’s current dependence on traditional runways, as well as its ability to operate from more austere locations. In the United States, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps, in particular, are currently basing tactical crewed and uncrewed aviation force design decisions around the expectation of operating from distributed forward locations, many of which could be remote and with limited supporting infrastructure. This is all intended to create targeting challenges for enemies and reduce vulnerability, as well as bring aircraft close enough to their targets to be effective at higher sortie rates, especially in the context of a potential high-end fight in the Pacific against China. Other countries are coming to similar viewpoints, especially based on observations from the ongoing war in Ukraine. With all this in mind, reducing or eliminating runway dependence, as well as ease of operating and maintainability, have emerged as key areas of interest when it comes to CCA-type drones.

“Our analysis aligns with the U.S. Air Force, that runway accessibility is incredibly important in every theater, particularly in INDOPACOM [the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility]. So we’re very intentional about the flexibility that this system would enable in the theaters of interest,” Sanchez explained. “And so the amount of runways that will be available, the amount of flexibility to implement, whether it be an Agile Combat Employment approach, or a hub and spoke for other countries, depending on how it is, Vectis will be very capable in those spaces.”

Agile Combat Employment (ACE) is the U.S. Air Force’s current umbrella term for its concepts for distributed and disaggregated operations, as you can read more about here. The service has said in the past that the Increment 1 CCAs are the first aircraft being designed from the ground up with ACE in mind.

“We certainly understand the flexibility the U.S. Air Force might need,” Sanchez added. “And if there are other solutions that are runway independent, we would be working with them on those, but this one would be a runway-dependent solution.”

“The importance of sustainability, of reliability, and the ability to easily maintain a survivable airplane is paramount. So we have absolutely baked that into this approach, and I would tell you that we have, for a while, into our advanced systems,” he continued. “We’re leveraging both on the material side as well as just the simplicity of design, where important systems that you might be able to access are, how you get to them, and durable, reliable materials that enable much simpler maintainability. So we will be targeting a very high reliability rate and have it first and foremost, both the operations as well as our maintainers in mind to provide that operational flexibility.”

The head of Skunk Works was also asked about how Vectis might fit into concepts of operations wherein much of a CCA fleet might be kept in storage rather than being flown on a more day-to-day basis, including in routine training. As TWZ has noted many times in the past, the U.S. military, broadly, still has many questions to answer about how CCA-type drones will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated, as well as employed tactically.

“If you ask me, I think the ability … for folks to be able to train and integrate is going to be important in the CCA space. So we will have built into it [Vectis] the ability for it to be a daily flyer, reliably work alongside its crewed teammates to be able to integrate into operations for training, as well as for deployment,” Sanchez said. “At the same time, if the requirement is ease of storage and ease of assembly, it’s absolutely built into the design. So we would see that as an operations-defined design trade, as opposed necessarily to one that would be limited by what we’re presenting here. So that’s where we’ll work closely to listen with any individual customers that go from there on their operations choice, but the flexibility is built in.”

Vectis’ emergence comes amid a growing field of CCA-type drones in the United States and elsewhere globally that already reflect a number of different underlying force design concepts. Though the U.S. military continues to eschew more exquisite uncrewed combat air vehicles (UCAV), at least publicly, interest in designs in that category is also growing worldwide among American allies and partners. As TWZ has reported multiple times just in the past week, China has increasingly positioned itself as the dominant actor in the stealthy flying wing UCAV space, as well as a leader in advanced drone developments more broadly. Russia, India, Turkey, and France are also pursuing flying wing UCAVs.

Lockheed Martin has itself talked for years now about visions for future advanced drones and crewed-uncrewed teaming that include many different tiers of capability. Vectis is certainly not the only drone design the company is working on. Sanchez highlighted this past week that roughly 97 percent of what Skunk Works does is classified. On the other hand, the public disclosure of Vectis makes clear that the company sees this as an important play in the expanding CCA market space.

“We’re in progress now on the Vectis prototype. Parts are ordered, the team is in [sic] work, and we intend to fly in the next two years,” Sanchez said. “Our operational analysis shows a wide swath of capability that Vectis provides in multiple mission areas that are going to be relevant and solve hard problems that we couldn’t solve without this kind of collaboration. So we’ll continue to evolve that.”

“As things change, we’ll make changes. We’re not afraid to do that, and this shows that evolution of thought and adaptation to the mission needs,” he added.

It will be interesting to see how the development of Vectis now proceeds, especially within the larger and still evolving CCA space globally.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Stephen Graham has revealed that a follow-up to Adolescence is in the works following the Emmy Award-winning success of the Netflix hit but cannot say much right now

Stephen Graham has revealed that a follow-up to Adolescence is in the works. The actor, 52, starred in the acclaimed Netflix drama earlier this year, where he played the father of a boy who is arrested for the murder of his classmate, and the series recently scooped up multiple wins at this year’s Emmy Awards in the US.

Stephen picked up Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie at the ceremony, whilst Owen Cooper, 15, who played teenager Jamie, received the gong for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

Filming for each episode of the drama series was carried out in one continuous take, and Stephen, who is also known for his roles in This Is England and Peaky Blinders, has revealed that another project that would follow the same sort of production method is potentially on the way, but has to be ‘tight-lipped’ about it at the moment.

READ MORE: Real reason Adolescence star Owen Cooper won’t take his Emmy award to schoolREAD MORE: Adolescence’s Stephen Graham leaves fans ‘in tears’ with heartfelt Emmy Awards speech

Stephen said: “Right now we are having talks and discussions about finding another story. I think we have to be tight-lipped at the moment.” He went on to tell the Daily Mail: “And we’re all talking at the moment. The same concept with the idea of doing something in one take.”

The programme examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has led to misogyny online and bullying using social media.

Adolescence has prompted a national conversation around online safety, with Graham and co-creator Jack Thorne accepting an invitation to a parliamentary meeting on the subject by Labour MP Josh MacAlister.

Speaking to Parliament’s Women And Equalities Committee (WEC) during an evidence session, Thorne spoke about being subjected to “personal criticism or even abuse” since it began streaming.

He said: “You know that I’m a bald, skinny, weird-looking man, and some people have made something of the fact that I’m a bald, skinny, weird-looking man, and saying these things and that somehow my masculinity is the reason why I’ve questioned other people’s masculinity.

“Well, if you look at how Stephen Graham looks, he looks more male than anyone else on the planet, I think, and so we’re a combination of things and we work together on it all.

“So, yes, my looks have been put under the microscope a little bit by it all, but I’m absolutely comfortable with those questions being answered, and that’s the thing, when I talk about boys feeling that they need to look a certain way.”

He said the comments about his appearance were a symptom of the issues the show is highlighting. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also praised the show, urging Parliament and schools to watch it, and saying he had watched the show with his own children.

During an edition of Prime Minister’s Questions in March, Sir Keir said: “This violence carried out by young men, influenced by what they see online, is a real problem, it’s abhorrent, and we have to tackle it.”

The show also received plaudits for the way it was filmed in a one-shot format, which sees each of the four episodes filmed in a single shot. Speaking about the show ahead of its release, Cooper, who beat Scott Jacoby’s long-held record for the youngest male Emmy winner, said he got the role after sending in a tape.

Talking about the impact the show had on him in February, Cooper said: “One week before filming, it was my last day in school before I was off for six weeks and at the final assembly my head of year told the whole school something like, ‘Owen is going on a journey and making this show for Netflix…’, and I was like, ‘oh my God’.

“So it went from two or three people knowing to suddenly the whole year knowing about it, and everyone coming up to me and asking about it. It was a bit weird but everyone is fine with it.”

At the Emmys, co-star Erin Doherty, who plays psychologist Briony Ariston, won best supporting actress in a limited series, dedicating the award to her older sister while Graham picked up the award for lead actor in a limited series.

Doherty, 33, also worked with Graham in Disney+’s A Thousand Blows, where she played Mary Carr, the leader of a crime syndicate called the Forty Elephants and she has also played the Princess Royal in The Crown.

Adolescence recently scooped two gongs at this year’s National Television Awards (NTAs), including the new drama award and best drama performance for Cooper.

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Car owners are heading to Amazon in droves to pick up a smart device for vehicles that’s dropped in price.

This handy gadget, similar to Apple Carplay, is now just £36.99, a 20% discount from its original price of £45.99.

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Aonerex Car Stereo, £36.99 (was £45.99)

This deal has been so popular that the device is the fourth best-selling car stereo on the Amazon website at the time of writing.

While we in the Sun Shopping team haven’t tested this car device ourselves, it comes with a wide range of features that are pretty impressive-looking for that low price.

It’s also gathered some rave reviews from happy drivers on Amazon.

Think of the Aonerex Wireless Auto Screen as a portable, all-in-one smart device for your car.

It’s a 7-inch HD touchscreen that’s super easy to install: you just plug it into your car’s power outlet (it works with any 12-24V socket) and use either the suction cup or the base stand it comes with.

The screen itself is really sharp and clear.

It has a built-in speaker, but for a better sound experience, you can connect it to your car’s stereo using Bluetooth, an AUX cable, or by matching the FM radio frequency.

It works seamlessly with both iPhone and Android phones, so everyone can use it.

Basically, this gadget allows you to:

• Connect wirelessly: Use wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto by connecting your phone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• Get real-time navigation: Send smart GPS navigation software, like Google Maps, from your phone directly on the screen.
• Control with your voice: Use Siri or Android voice assistants to make calls, send messages, and control your music hands-free.
• Mirror your phone: Cast your iPhone or Android screen to the large 7-inch display to watch videos or stream sports games.
• Enjoy powerful audio: Play music through the device’s built-in speaker or connect to your car’s speakers for a richer sound.

With an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 on the Amazon website, shoppers are loving this device.

One happy customer wrote: “Good, affordable and works perfectly.

“I bought this because it was affordable and I was curious to see how it would work in my car with navigation… I have to say, it performs much better than I expected.

“The screen size is just right, and installation was simple.

“I’d definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a budget-friendly CarPlay option.”

Another buyer said: “Great CarPlay screen. Easy to fix to the dashboard and set up either wired or Bluetooth with phone.

Works really well with iPhone. Really good clear display and plays music well. Touchscreen is good and great for maps.”

And a third customer noted: “Fantastic price, great for using Maps to navigate.

“Android screen mirroring works perfectly, brilliant for Netflix or Spotify.”

Amazon has this marked as the ‘lowest price in 30 days’, so we’re not sure if it’s a temporary deal or if the price is going to stay like this for a while.

And one final note: while you might be able to cast video to the device’s screen, please drive carefully, folks. Keep those eyes on the road.

Aonerex Car Stereo, £36.99 (was £45.99)

Head to The Sun’s shopping motoring hub for more news and deals for car owners.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday during a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and said he will arrange a bilateral meeting between the two, within the next two weeks.

The call came during Monday’s negotiations between Zelensky, Trump and European leaders, who had gathered to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump said the future meeting would be followed by a trilateral meeting, involving the United States. On Monday night, the White House posted an Oval Office photo of Trump on the phone with Putin, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance looked on.

Trump said Vance, Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would be involved in coordinating the meeting between Putin and Zelensky.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he “had a very good meeting with distinguished guests,” which included Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as much of the European delegation and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“I called President Putin and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” Trump said. “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years.”

Trump met with Zelensky earlier Monday afternoon to signal that the United States would provide Ukraine with “very good protection.”

“The security guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States of America,” Trump said. “Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.”

Macron called the U.S. commitment for Ukrainian security guarantees the “first and most important” outcome of Monday’s talks.

“Today, it was agreed that we will work with the United States of America on the content of these security guarantees and the cooperation that each party is prepared to provide,” Macron said, adding that any meeting would have to take place under a cease-fire.

“Call it a truce or a cease-fire, but we cannot hold discussions under bombs,” Macron added.

Trump told Zelensky at the start of the meeting: “I have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out. Ultimately, this is a decision that can only be made by President Zelensky and by the people of Ukraine working also together in agreement with President Putin. And I just think that very good things are going to come of it.”

By the end of the day, Zelensky told reporters he is ready for “any format” of a meeting with Putin and said he would also participate in a trilateral meeting if there is progress in the first one.

“I believe unconditionally we should meet and think about the further development of this path of the war,” he said.

Zelensky told reporters that the security guarantees included plans for Ukraine to purchase $90 billion in American weapons through European funding.

Zelensky also said he and Trump had a long discussion about a map in the Oval Office, showing Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. Rutte said Ukrainian territory was not discussed during the broader Monday meetings.

Zelensky arrived around 1 p.m. EDT on Monday along with several EU leaders. Trump and Zelensky sat in the Oval Office, mirroring their meeting earlier this year.

This time, they avoided the dramatic shouting match from six months ago in the same space.

During the February exchange, Trump and Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward the United States and the Trump administration.

Zelensky was much more complimentary during Monday’s meeting, immediately thanking Trump for his efforts to stop Russia’s war.

Vance, who was in the Oval Office, said nothing this time.

The meeting came after Trump’s summit with Putin on Friday in Alaska.

European Council leaders are scheduled to meet via videoconference Tuesday to discuss the meeting. The council’s president, Antonio Costa, called the conference, he announced on X Monday.

“I have convened a video conference of the members of the European Council for tomorrow at 1 p.m. CEST, for a debriefing of today’s meetings in Washington, D.C., about Ukraine,” Costa wrote. “Together with the U.S., the EU will continue working towards a lasting peace that safeguards Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.”

European leaders, including Rutte, Starmer, Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied Zelensky to Washington for the talks.

When 6-foot-5, 315-pound all-league offensive tackle Jorge Gonzalez of Santa Paula High had to take a mandatory two-week break this summer under the Southern Section dead period rules, he didn’t just sit at home. He went to the wheat fields of Santa Barbara and earned money using a weed whacker eight hours a day so he could buy a car.

“My uniform turned green,” he said of his daily work in the fields.

The Santa Paula community is heavily involved in the agriculture business, and football coach Myke Morales said many of his players have worked in the fields.

Gonzalez is a three-year starter with a 3.8 grade-point average and made the trip to Ventura on Thursday for a Tri County League media day that also featured players from Agoura, Hueneme, Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Fillmore.

Morales and Fillmore’s Charles Weis discussed their 100-year-old rivalry game played at the end of each season. It’s unlike any other as far as uniting both communities.

“It’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Weis said. “It’s a community event. It’s what’s right is for high school football.”

Agoura is ready to welcome back quarterback Gavin Gray, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the fourth game last season. He’ll have baseball standout Tyler Starling at receiver, plus the Chargers have running back George Hastings, who will become No. 7 on the roster.

Dos Pueblos returns all-league receiver Micah Barnhart.

Hueneme has high hopes for running back Jeremiah Alvarado.

San Marcos might have one of the best multi-sport athletes in the state in elite golfer Austin Downing, who’s also a kicker and plays baseball.

Fillmore will rely on four players who will be three-year starters — linebacker Carlos Cabral, receiver Mauricio Ocegueda, lineman Marcus Lechuga and lineman Genaro Villela.

All the coaches are preparing for possible disruptions because of wildfires and have had experiences in the past.

“Every year, we’re problem-solving,” Dos Pueblos coach AJ Pateras said. “We just navigate.”

FREEVIEW viewers in more than 160 areas across the UK are being warned that “pixelation or flickering” could affect TV sets this week.

The digital television platform will be carrying out planned engineering works over the next few days, to ensure the service continues to run smoothly for its millions of UK customers.

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“Sometimes engineering work is required on transmitters so that they can keep reliably broadcasting your favourite free-to-air programmes”, Freeview bosses said.

Customers affected by the engineering works have been urged not to try and retune their televisions.

“Reception will be restored as soon as the engineering work is completed”, Freeview said.

160 Areas To Be Affected

A total of 160 areas will be affected by the engineering works, which will be carried out on the areas’ transmitters.

To check what transmitter you are predicted to get your signal from, you can put your postcode into Freeview’s Detailed Transmitter Information tool to check.

Freeview has warned that areas affected by the engineering works may possible see “pixelation or flickering on some or all channels”.

Earlier this month, over 100 areas were affected by Freeview engineering works, with some viewers left with black screens.

How To Watch Freeview Online

If you don’t want to miss out on your favourite TV shows, whilst the engineering works are taking place, you can also watch Freeview on a connected TV via Freeview Play, on mobile phones and tablets through the mobile app and on the Freeview website.

The easiest way to way to access on-demand players such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX on your Freeview Play TV is simply to push Channel 100.

You can download the Freeview app on the App Store or Google Play Store.

This will give you access on your phone or tablet to an abundance of channels, such as BBC One and Channel 4.

To watch TV via the website, simply head to the TV Guide and click on a channel.

Recent Freeview Updates

This comes after Freeview viewers were urged to re-scan their TV boxes, following a huge channel change.

Channel 4 has boosted Freeview coverage for one of its channels in June, meaning if you haven’t already, you’ll need to retune to continue watching.

As part of Freeview’s monthly channel update, 4seven transitioned to a new frequency as of Wednesday 18 June, 2025.

This is because of an important technical change to the way the Channel 4 offshoot channel is broadcast on Freeview.

It will give more Freeview users access to the channel at a time when 4seven is increasingly used as an overspill for live events.

A popular Freeview box also received a key upgrade last month which fixed a bug affecting a slew of features.

Manhattan released the software update for its T4-R and T4 Freeview boxes.

The latest version – 2.06 – will finally fix a long-standing standby mode issue that has affected a number of users.

Emmerdale’s Robert Sugden will tell his sister Victoria that their mystery brother John Sugden is ‘dangerous’, questioning what they even know about the character

John Sugden’s days on Emmerdale could be numbered, as Robert Sugden has him figured out it seems.

According to a new preview for Wednesday’s episode that has been shared with The Mirror, Robert is onto the secret killer and is very aware he’s harbouring something dark. Not only that, but he believes he’s not the man everyone thinks he is, and is determined to prove who he actually is, and what he’s done.

Questioning John’s identity and his past, Robert will do what it takes to make sure he’s exposed. No one in the village has yet to rumble that John killed Nate Robinson, and that he has been behind a number of incidents where villagers have faced harm.

His obsession with husband Aaron Dingle, Robert’s ex, has also sparked concern with viewers but no one in the village has realised. Robert took a matter of seconds to have John sussed though, while it seems people think he’s just bitter about Aaron choosing him.

On Tuesday night we saw John and Robert in a tense stand-off, leading to Robert exposing his recent kiss with Aaron. John had thought he had the upper hand, but the mention of the kiss left him spiralling in front of his brother.

READ MORE: Emmerdale Robert Sugden’s tragic death ‘foreshadowed’ after sinister John scene

John turned to Robert with a sinister look on his face, and told him to “be careful” making it obvious he planned to hurt him. Telling him he wanted to “smash his face in” and he needed “protection” outside of prison, he warned: “You have no idea what I am capable of.”

Robert initially laughed and made it abundantly clear he wasn’t scared. But it was clear Robert saw in John what only viewers and few others have seen.

So much so that after he told John he was going to expose him, Wednesday’s episode sees him bringing the incident up with their sister Victoria Sugden. He tells his sister about the threat and that there was a look in his eye that scared him, and now he’s worried for his loved ones.

Now the character is keen to find out exactly who John is, keen to know his identity and his past, urging Victoria to remember the fact she knows very little about him. The clip finished before Victoria says anything but it is clear she is a little alarmed so will she believe Robert?

Robert says: “Something’s not right about him. I’m only looking out for you and Aaron.” as Victoria backs John, Robert says: “Are you really that gullible? I bet Johnny boy didn’t tell you he warned me off.

“He threatened me. You should have heard him. Being in here I’ve met a lot of people with that look in their eye. Half the crazies in this building have got it.”

As Victoria downplays it and says he “isn’t crazy”, Robert says back: “He’s dangerous Vic. He said to me you have no idea what I’m capable of and I think I do, and it scared me.

“You say he’s great for Aaron but do you even know him? Do you know anything about him?” Robert seems panicked when he asks this this, with him sure something is off about John.

He might not be the only one though as Victoria seems to really think about what Robert is saying to her. So might she finally ask questions and expose the real John?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

SLUGS are the bane of every gardener’s life.

But Britain’s favourite gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh has one method that he swears by for combating the slimy slitherers.

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Writing in County Life, the 76-year-old spoke about his lifelong battle with the garden pests – and his resistance to the idea that ‘slugs are our friend’.

The Gardening Club star says he favours copper rings that sit around the base of the plant.

The copper rings are more expensive as they can be reused multiple times – they typically retail for between £25 and £30.

However, those who are greenfingered on a budget can instead invest in copper tape – which works in the same fashion and is available for only £4.99 on Amazon for a 25-metre roll.

Titchmarsh said: “The only things that have worked for me are those rings of copper that resemble a vicar’s clerical collar and which can be pushed into the ground around individual plants to discourage the molluscs from coming any closer.

“They are reputed (if kept clean) to impart a kind of electric shock to any slug or snail attempting to scale their dizzying height of 1in.”

How does copper tape work?

The copper tape works by imparting an electrical charge that gives the slug a small static shock.

The tape can be trimmed to size and wound around the lips of lower pots and planners – creating an uncrossable barrier.

Other slug deterrent methods

The veteran presenter has tried a number of other methods for tackling the slug menace over the years – with limited results.

Titchmarsh says he long ago stopped using slug pellets, which cause the slugs to convulse but also pose a poisoning threat to hedgehods and birds.

The CBE has also tried various products that create a sharp or uncomfortable texture for the slugs to crawl over.

However, crushed eggshells, holly leaves, sharp grit, gravel and even sheep’s wool were all ‘at best, unreliable and more often than not totally ineffective’, according to Titchmarsh.

Coffee grounds are another foodstuff often touted as a slug repellent, but Titchmarsh says he doesn’t drink enough of it – plus he prefers that his garden doesn’t smell of Starbucks.

That leaves hand-picking them off plants by hand in the evening, a time-intensive procedure that also requires gloves if you want to avoid slimy hands.

Titchmarsh says he has had some sucess with pot feet, which only allow the more acrobatic slugs to gain access to your prized blooms.

Gardeners could be forgiven for feeling confused about how best to combat slugs given the array of techniques floated for dealing with this in recent years.

One gardening fan claimed that garlic helped to repel slugs and snails – even posting a recipe for a garlic spray.

Another intriguing possibility suggested as a natural pest deterrent is foxgloves, whose purple flowers contain toxic compounds such as digitalis glycosides, which can be very harmful for slugs. 

Good morning. I’m Gustavo Arellano, columnista, writing from Orange County and watching my tomato seedlings grow. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

Montebello’s ex-mayor turns to Orange County

Frank Gomez was born to be an L.A. County politician.

His grandfather attended Roosevelt High with pioneering Eastside congressmember Ed Roybal and helped to fight off a proposed veteran’s hospital in Hazard Park. His mother went to Belvedere Middle School with longtime L.A. councilmember Richard Alatorre. His father taught Chicano political titans Gil Cedillo and Vickie Castro in high school. When Gomez won a seat on the Montebello Unified School District board of trustees in 1997, Richard Polanco — the Johnny Appleseed-meets-Scrooge McDuck of Latino politics in California — helped out his campaign.

That’s why people were surprised in 2013 when Gomez — by then a Montebello council member who had served a year as mayor — announced he was leaving L.A. County altogether to marry his current wife.

“I had the choice between politics and love,” said the 61-year-old during a recent breakfast in Santa Ana. “It was an easy choice.”

Gomez couldn’t stay away from politics for long

Today, Gomez leads STEM initiatives for the Cal State system and is also the chair of the Central Orange County Democratic Club, which covers Orange, Tustin, parts of unincorporated Orange County “and a few voters in Villa Park,” Gomez told me with a chuckle.

He’s headed the Central O.C. Dems since last year, and has grown them from about 60 members to over 300. Soft-spoken but forceful, Gomez likes to apply his background as a chemistry professor — “We need to be strategic and analytical” — in helping to build a Democratic bench of elected officials in a region that was a long a GOP stronghold before becoming as purple as Barney the Dinosaur.

I knew Gomez’s name but didn’t realize his L.A. political background until we met last month. That makes him a rare one: someone who has dabbled in both L.A. and Orange county politics, two worlds that rarely collide because each considers the other a wasteland.

As someone who has covered O.C. politics for a quarter century but has only paid attention to L.A. politics in earnest since I started with The Times in 2019, I have my thoughts about each scene’s differences and similarities. But what about Gomez?

From one cutthroat political scene to another

“In L.A., it’s Democrats against Democrats,” he replied. “It’s not like I didn’t know” what to expect when moving to O.C., he said. “But it’s the difference between Fashion Island and the Citadel.”

He thought his days in politics were over until 2022, when his stepson — who had interned with longtime Irvine politico Larry Agran — urged him to run for a seat on the Tustin City Council.

Commence Gomez’s true “Welcome to the O.C., bitch” moment.

Opponents sent out mailers with photos of garbage cans and graffiti and the message, “Do not bring L.A. to Tustin,” a political insult introduced to Orange County politics that year by Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer.

“Those gated communities still try to keep their unsaid redlining,” Gomez said. “It wasn’t like that in L.A. politics because there was no place for it.”

Racist L.A. City Hall audio leak notwithstanding, of course.

Trying to topple O.C.’s last remaining GOP congressmember

Gomez unsuccessfully ran last year for a seat on the Municipal Water District of Orange County. He now plans to focus his political energies on growing the Central O.C. Dems and figuring out how to topple Rep. Young Kim, O.C.’s last remaining GOP congressmember. In the meanwhile, he will continue his political salons at the Central O.C. Dems’ monthly meetings at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tustin — I was on the hot seat in April, and upcoming guests include coastal O.C. Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, O.C. supervisorial candidate Connor Traut and former congressmember and current California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter.

“It’s like being in the classroom,” Gomez said as he packed up his leftovers. “All I do is ask the questions and keep it flowing.”

He smiled. “Johnny Carson on intellectual steroids.”

Today’s top stories

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security oversight hearing on Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

The Trump administration will investigate L.A. County

• The administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants.
• The state program provides monthly cash benefits to elderly, blind and disabled noncitizens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits because of their immigration status.

Newsom urges cities to ban homeless camps

• The governor’s plan asks localities to prohibit persistent camping and encampments that block sidewalks.
• This is an escalation from last year, when Newsom ordered California agencies to clear homeless camps from state lands.

How to understand the recent trade deals

Inside the investigation into faulty evacuation alerts during the wildfires in January

• Software glitches, cellphone provider mixups and poor wording on the alert itself compounded to stoke confusion.
• On Jan. 9, residents across the region received a wireless emergency alert urging them to prepare to evacuate.
• Meanwhile, western Altadena, where 17 people died, got its evacuation order many hours after the Eaton fire exploded.

What else is going on

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

This morning’s must reads

Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, left, and Louis Farrakhan, chief minister of the Nation of Islam’s Boston mosque, right, attend a rally at Lennox Avenue and 115th Street in the Harlem section of New York in 1963.

(Robert Haggins / Associated Press)

Ibram X. Kendi is ready to introduce kids to Malcolm X: ‘Racism is worse in times of tragedy’ Ibram X. Kendi discusses introducing Malcolm X to today’s young readers and the timing of his new book in light of President Trump’s anti-DEI actions.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

The Pasadena Playhouse

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What’s your favorite karaoke song?

Peg says: “David Bowie’s Life on Mars!”
Paul says “My Way.” (We’re assuming he means by Frank Sinatra)

Keep the suggestions coming. Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … your photo of the day

Wet Magazine Issue 3 from October/November 1976

(Photography and design by Leonard Koren)

Today’s great photo is from the archives: Leonard Koren began documenting L.A. bathing culture back in 1976 with Wet magazine, which featured contributions from David Lynch, Debbie Harry and Ed Ruscha.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Gustavo Arellano, California columnist
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.