WASHINGTON  — In its latest chapter on religion in schools, the Supreme Court debated Tuesday whether Colorado may fund private preschools for 4-year-olds but exclude Catholic schools that refuse to serve same-sex parents and their children.

The court’s six conservatives, all of whom were raised Catholic, leaned in favor of ruling the state was discriminating based on religion.

The state offered funding to all preschools but said they must abide by an “equal opportunity” rule that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said state officials “chose to impose a condition” they knew those Catholic schools “will be unable to agree to.”

In contrast, the court’s three liberals said the Catholic schools were not seeking equal treatment but a new right to discriminate.

“You are asking for a special rule for religious schools,” said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the state opened the funding program to all schools, including church-related schools. “The Catholic schools are not being excluded. They’re choosing not to participate because they won’t get an exemption,” she said.

In the last decade, the court’s conservative majority has strengthened the 1st Amendment’s protection for the “free exercise of religion.”

States and local governments need not offer public funds to private groups and entities, the justices said. But if they do so, they may not single out religious schools or people and deny them public funding that is open to all.

They struck down laws in Minnesota and Maine that denied scholarships or school funds to students who enrolled in a religious school. And they ruled the city of Philadelphia could not bar Catholic social services from providing foster care because they did not work with same-sex couples.

Despite that history, Colorado adopted a strong “equal opportunity” law in 2022 to go with its new state funding for preschools.

The state voters had approved a ballot measure in 2020 to provide public funding for a year of preschool prior to kindergarten. Both public and private schools were encouraged to participate.

The state pays for 15 hours per week and provides parents about $6,000 in tuition.

Lawmakers said eligible schools must provide children “an equal opportunity to enroll regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level or disability.”

The Archdiocese of Denver oversees 34 Catholic preschools. Parents were told they must support and affirm the teachings of the church, including on matters of gender and marriage.

In light of the new funding law, the church asked for an accommodation that would allow “faith based providers to participate in the program without compromising their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The state refused. It said “no provider may discriminate against children or families in violation of the state statute.”

St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton, Colo., and two of its parents sued, alleging a violation of the 1st Amendment.

Their attorneys — the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — argued that no LGBTQ+ family has been harmed or claimed discrimination under the preschool funding law, while “thousands of Catholic families have zero Catholic preschools available to them.”

They lost before a federal judge and the 10th Circuit Court. Those judges said the state did not target the Catholic schools or treat them differently from others because of their religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court agreed in April to hear the case of St. Mary Catholic Parish vs. Roy.

During Tuesday’s argument, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh voiced dismay over how this case arose.

“This seems like a would-be solution in search of a problem. Why are we here?” he asked a state attorney.

He and Barrett said same-sex couples did not seek to have their children enrolled in Catholic preschools. Meanwhile, other parents were denied state funds because of the marriage and family policies of the Catholic parishes.

The court is likely to hand down a decision in several months.

Austin Reaves described it as “fun.” Luka Doncic called the Lakers’ effortless-looking offense as “flowing.” And this is still the early stages of development for a team that brought in nine new players.

Through eight games, the Lakers have the most dynamic offense in the NBA. Led by Doncic, the Lakers are second in scoring with 122.5 points per game and first in offensive rating with 121.9 points per 100 possessions. The starting lineup of Doncic, Reaves, Walker Kessler, Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle has a league-best 135.5 offensive rating among five-man groups that have played at least 40 minutes together entering Wednesday’s game at Sacramento.

“Everything’s as expected,” guard Quentin Grimes said Monday after the Lakers hung 138 points in a 21-point win over the Miami Heat. “Winning, everybody’s getting involved, everybody’s making the right play, getting a lot of assists.”

The Lakers (6-2) had 39 assists against the Heat, the most during JJ Redick’s head-coaching tenure. Doncic is on a historic scoring binge; he is the first Laker since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to have five consecutive games of 35 or more points. While putting up a seemingly ho-hum 42 points against Miami, he also had a season-high 13 assists.

“It’s a really good offense that we’re playing right now,” Redick said. “And a lot of that, of course, is Doncic and what he’s able to do and bend the defense.”

Doncic, the NBA’s leading scorer at 38.3 points per game, does his damage early. He typically plays all 12 minutes of the opening quarter and leads the league with 15 points a game in the first quarter. Once he gets his shot going, teams send double teams to force the ball out of his hands. That’s when Doncic can be particularly dangerous.

Doncic has always been lauded for his superior court vision. But the Lakers are still learning to see the same picture. The Lakers had 14 turnovers, including 11 from Doncic and Reaves, during a preseason game against the Denver Nuggets, who were aggressively trapping the Lakers’ ballhandlers. The Lakers threw away a 25-point second-quarter lead on Oct. 30 when the Golden State Warriors ratcheted up the ball pressure.

Doncic’s five turnovers a game are the second most in the league, and Reaves is third with 4.6 turnovers per game.

Some players are new to being on a team with guards who get blitzed nearly every play, Reaves said. It requires players to not only be comfortable making decisions to pass, drive or shoot, but they have to choose quickly. A moment’s hesitation gives away the four-on-three advantage created by the double-team.

Redick praised Grimes’ ability to keep advantages by driving decisively. Forward Sandro Mamukelashvili is also great at it, Redick said, as is guard Collin Sexton, who knows no speed other than full. The Lakers have also finished their advantages with Thybulle and Williams making27 of 58 (46.6%) three-point attempts combined.

“That’s the beauty of our team,” Williams said. “You could put different guys at different spots and everyone’s able to make a play. All our guys are just dynamic and versatile. And everyone just wants to make the right play. No one wants to only shoot, there’s no egos. And that’s the fun part about it, you know? We all love to see each other succeed.”

Williams missed three games because of a sore left foot but returned Monday with nine points, two rebounds and two assists off the bench. When Jake LaRavia jumped into the starting lineup, the Lakers were just as effective offensively as their first-choice lineup. When Doncic, Reaves, Kessler, Thybulle and LaRavia are together, the Lakers’ 144.3 points per 100 possessions ranks first among lineups that have played at least 30 minutes.

Heat forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reaches through the hoop to block a reverse dunk by Lakers center Walker Kessler on Monday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

But numbers don’t normalize until about 250 minutes, Redick believes.

“I think there’s always room for improvement,” he said Monday.

The Lakers have the most room for improvement on the defensive side. Their defensive rating of 114 points allowed per 100 possessions is tied with the Clippers for 20th in the NBA. They still rank 28th in rebounding, despite three consecutive double-doubles from Kessler, who responded after Redick challenged the center to be a larger rebounding presence.

“This team can become a great team,” Redick said before Monday’s win over the Heat. “That requires patience, that requires a lot of coaching and teaching and buy-in, and so that whole process takes time.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says a new X-plane will be announced at the Max Power exhibition at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this coming weekend. He insisted, however, that this is unrelated to an SR-71 Blackbird that mysteriously disappeared from public display earlier this year. Isaacman also deflected a direct question about that SR-71 and the possibility that it could fly again, quipping that “we’re just cleaning it, man.”

Isaacman made his new remarks about the SR-71 that had been on display, commonly referred to by the tail number 844, and NASA’s broader X-plane plans on a new edition of NASASpaceflight’s The Flame Trench podcast, which was posted online last Friday. 844 had been on display at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, which is co-located at Edwards Air Force Base in California, following its retirement in 1999. This particular SR-71 had been the last flying Blackbird.

“I gotta ask, has 844 been powered on yet?” Eric Johnson, a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educator and streamer, who was also on the podcast, asked Isaacman.

“So, we’re just cleaning it, man,” Isaacman said in response, with a smile and a small laugh. “It was so dusty out there in the desert, and it just felt like it needed a cleaning.”

The possibility that NASA has at least been exploring returning an SR-71 to flight in some configuration has been a hot topic of discussion since September. At a conference that month, Isaacman appeared to tease that possibility, or that his agency was eyeing a follow-on of some kind, with cryptic remarks and an image of a distinctly Blackbird-like silhouette. The matter of the ‘missing’ SR-71, as well as reports that NASA has been courting former SR-71 program members for a return-to-flight effort, subsequently emerged.

“Since I didn’t answer your question that you asked before, I will give you some insight that we will announce a new X-plane at it [Max Power], and it is not the one you’re thinking about,” the NASA director said in an ensuing discussion on the podcast about that event, which is set to kick off on Saturday. “I am gonna deliver on the promise there will be more X-planes.”

Isaacman has openly pledged to revitalize NASA’s X-plane portfolio on several occasions, including during a town hall with NASA staff on just his second day on the job in December 2025.

MAX POWER at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center | Nov. 7-8, 2026

While on The Flame Trench podcast, Isaacman also noted that he had just been out to Armstrong recently, primarily to mark the naming of Troy Asher as the facility’s new director.

“They know to speed up when we go past the outdoor museum. They definitely don’t want me out –” the head of NASA said of that recent trip, before Johnson interjected with a tongue-in-cheek remark that they didn’t want him “cleaning more planes, right?”

“I was like, is there anything else?” Isaacman added immediately afterward. “You know the F-16 VISTA, pretty cool plane. Got some cool jets.”

The “F-16 VISTA” mentioned here is the Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft, a heavily modified two-seat F-16D Viper fighter that is now designated as an X-plane, the X-62A. The X-62A is in active U.S. Air Force service as a testbed based at Edwards. NASA’s museum at Armstrong does have several other retired jet-powered X-planes on display, including a delta-winged F-16XL and an X-29 with its distinctive reverse-swept wings.

As noted, Isaacman is an outspoken advocate for new X-planes, including types that could be capable of supersonic or even hypersonic flight. This has been reflected in NASA budget proposals and the prior announcement of a new Aeronautics Flight Accelerator (AFA) initiative.

At the aforementioned conference in September, Isaacman had also pushed back on the idea that the silhouette he had shown in his presentation was of an SR-71, despite it having a host of features in line with the Blackbird’s iconic shape. He declined to elaborate further at that time, but did say that “NASA is getting back in the business of flying high and fast again.”

“NASA has a long history of building and flying experimental aircraft that push the boundaries of what is possible,” NASA told TWZ at that time when asked for more information. “As Administrator Isaacman has said, we want to see more X-planes flying in the years ahead, developing the technologies that will allow us to fly higher, farther, and faster than we have in decades. We look forward to sharing more as those efforts progress.”

“NASA has a long history of pushing the boundaries of experimental aviation, and we continue to explore opportunities to build on that legacy,” the agency told us again following the initial story on the disappearance of 844 from Aviation Week. “As Administrator Isaacman has said, we want to see NASA flying higher, farther, and faster than we have in decades. We recognize the interest in the SR-71 and its remarkable history at NASA but have no additional information to share regarding the aircraft at this time.”

TWZ has reached back out to NASA today in light of Isaacman’s latest comments.

There do continue to be significant questions about the viability and practicality of returning even one SR-71 to flight, as we have detailed in our previous reporting. At the same time, getting a Blackbird flying again could be seen as being worth the cost and complexity given the unique high-flying, high-speed testbed the aircraft would offer. This entire discussion comes at a time when very high-speed flight is back in vogue, particularly within the U.S. military, but also in America’s commercial aviation sector.

“One of the reasons why there’s interest in this speed regime, it was neglected for a number of years. The focus was on hypersonics. If you proposed anything going back, say, 15 years in the Mach 3.5 speed regime, it was ignored,” Tim Conners, an engineer who worked on the SR-71 program at NASA, told us in an exclusive interview published last month. “The glitz and glamour was on hypersonics. Hypersonics is great tactically for certain scenarios, but the weaknesses of hypersonics are now becoming apparent.”

“And as far as countermeasures, hypersonics still has a place. Don’t get me wrong, but every system cannot be hypersonic from an affordability standpoint. So, now you’ve seen it over the last, say, five years. A lot of systems are coming back on the scene that operate in the Mach 2 to Mach 4 regime, and there’s a reason they’re all fitting in there, right?” Conners, who is now technical director for advanced weapons systems at Tiberius Aerospace, continued. “You stay below the speed limit that requires more exotic metallics. You stay in the titanium regime. You can fly, of course, up to [Mach] 3.5 with brief excursions up to about [Mach] 4, so that is tactically relevant against a lot of military targets and defensive systems. So here it is. You know we now have a potential flying test bed that can carry engines in the J58 size class.”

SR-71 LASRE in Flight over California’s Mojave Desert

“They probably are not going to do this for — or trying to do this — for aerodynamic reasons. You can do CFD [computational fluid dynamics]-based modeling in this speed regime all day long and very accurately in this day and age. It does not take a lot of time or money to do that,” he also added. “What you cannot do is an accurate representation of a new type of engine integrated into a high-speed airframe. You can do the conceptual modeling of it. Of course, it’s difficult to get the final installed answer, especially if it involves an engine that operates at long duration. That is where I think they’re going with this. I believe that they’re developing basically a high-speed engine test bed. That would make the most sense to me.”

TWZ has also laid out in detail how the process itself of making an SR-71 flyable could be immensely valuable, including for informing follow-on developments. As we have noted in the past, it is possible that what NASA is doing with 844 now could be intended as a stepping stone to a new X-plane. There is also a potential for the aircraft to re-emerge in a substantially reworked form, potentially configured for pilot-optional or even completely uncrewed operation. However, any such conversion effort would be a different kind of major undertaking.

How any of this may or may not relate to the plans for the new X-plane that Isaacman mentioned remains to be seen. Even within the context of high-speed flight, NASA is publicly pursuing advanced technology developments in various different directions.

The main face of the agency’s X-plane work currently is the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) jet, which has now flown 41 test flights since taking to the skies for the first time in October 2025. The X-59, which will also be present at Max Power, has been able to reach a top speed of Mach 1.53 and get up to an altitude of 56,000 feet in the course of that testing. The central goal of the QueSST program is to prove out technologies that could eventually enable commercial supersonic flight over land with a substantially reduced sonic boom. With this in mind, the X-59 has been in no way designed for the kind of extreme speeds the SR-71 is capable of reaching.

Bake Off fans were ‘gutted’ as one star had to leave the tent for good

It was an agonising moment for one Great British Bake Off star.

The line-up for the quarter finals was confirmed during the latest episode on Tuesday, November 3 following a decision by the judges. Paul Hollywood and Nigella Lawson were once again on hand to provide comments and criticism as they chose who should make it as part of the final five contestants.

The competition entered its seventh week as the pressure mounted on the remaining contenders. Hosted by Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond, the bakers were first challenged in the signature to serve up gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan delicacies in what was dubbed ‘party week’.

This task aimed to prove that different foods can still be full of flavour, despite any special dietary requirements. The first challenge saw them make “delicious gluten free laminated pastries, perfect for a children’s party”.

One effort, Mo’s toastie parcels, even received a handshake from Paul Hollywood. Nigella added: “I salute Paul saluting you.” While for the technical challenge was set by Nigella.

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They were made to use some ingredients they may not have expected as Alison explained the judges wanted them to create an “adorable animal cake”. Essentially a plant-based chocolate cake, Noel added it had to include ganache and butter cream, while they had to go for a lucky dip to decide which design they would have to create.

Tom, who was star baker last week, came out on top again. Nigella commented: “Oh, it’s getting quite boring.” All that was left was the showstopper, which saw the bakers make a “spectacular children’s birthday cake”.

It had to be either dairy free, gluten free, or plant based and also have an interactive element. Although they could choose their type of sponge and flavours.

While Gabe was named star baker for his bug party cake, Paul and Nigella ultimately chose to send home Gary. The 67-year-old from Nottinghamshire said an emotional goodbye before leaving the tent as they responded: “No worries.”

The retired garment technologist added: “I’m very proud. It was my time to go. This was probably one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life.” That means, the quarter-final line-up includes: Connie Lewis, Gabe Capes, Mo Mahirr, Moyin Odeniran and Tom Whittaker.

Channel 4 viewers watching along at home wasted no time before sharing their own view on the results and latest elimination. One posted on social media: “Gutted for Gary going to miss him but i’m glad Connie got through.”

Another added: “Much as I love Connie, Gary’s showstopper was much better. Totally unfair.” While someone else replied:”So happy for Gabe!! I did think it was Gary’s time but he was a lovely guy.”

Meanwhile, some dedicated fans had similar complaints as previous weeks as they were unconvinced with the nature of some challenges. One person said: “Hate to say it but some of the themes for bake off this series have been questionable.” Someone agreed: “Nahhh two cakes in a non cake week is boring.”

The Great British Bake Off continues next Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4 and streaming online.

Today’s the day, and the race is a dead heat: The final poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (cosponsored by The Times) found that 40% of likely L.A. voters said they supported incumbent Karen Bass, while another 40% supported progressive challenger Nithya Raman for L.A. mayor.

That leaves 19% undecided — and it might be those voters that celebrities are trying to reach with their recent endorsements. Jane Fonda, Yvette Nicole Brown, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer, Samuel L. Jackson, Kym Whitley, D.L. Hughley, Dustin Lance Black, George Lopez and Stevie Wonder have all voiced public support for Bass. Meanwhile Bob Odenkirk, Mindy Kaling, Adam Scott, Joel Kim Booster, Caleb Hearon, Poppy Liu, P. J. Byrne, Adam Conover, Brennan Lee Mulligan and Jaboukie Young-White have done the same for Raman.

“Battling the nationwide homeless epidemic is the hardest job in American government,” Jackson said. “Karen Bass walked toward it in one day. Her opponent chaired the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and canceled meetings on it. It’s easy to run a pilot in one district and call it a model. Try doing it in 15 districts with Washington cutting your funding while the whole country watches. That’s the job, and Karen Bass has done it.”

In the other camp, Kaling said: “There’s one issue that I can speak to from experience: Keeping Hollywood jobs in Los Angeles. Yes, it’s actors and directors, but I’m also talking about the crew, electricians, grips, hair and makeup artists, drivers, set builders, editors — and then there’s the restaurants, the dry cleaners and the small businesses that depend on productions being here. And Nithya’s plan is to fight for that work to stay in town. She wants stronger, dependable state tax incentives, and a film office that actively works to keep production in town.”

There have also been a few gray areas: Bass posted a video of drag queen Trixie Mattel‘s voting PSA to her account, but Mattel didn’t explicitly endorse her as a candidate. “I watch, like, 18 hours of news a day, so it was kind of crazy sitting next to Karen; she’s like my third roommate in my house,” Mattel said. “So shout out to Karen.”

Luxury real estate broker Jason Oppenheim, best known for his role on the reality series “Selling Sunset,” had a discussion with Raman, cross-posted to both of their accounts, and also interviewed her on Graham Stephan’s podcast, “The Iced Coffee Hour.” And Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly held an off-the-record meeting with Raman and figures from Hollywood and other industries at his L.A. office.

Bass’ supporters rolled out a series of coordinated, collaborative videos from her social media accounts somewhat regularly over the past two weeks, several with matching formatting (including Fonda, Anderson, Cedric, Hughley and Lopez). Some of the videos also featured Bass.

In the most-liked celebrity endorsement included here, posted Monday, Lopez said: “Karen Bass is like that tía that shows up with a huge pot of pozole before anybody’s even hungry. She’s gonna keep fighting for us, but también we have to fight for her.”

Raman’s campaign, on the other hand, had a more organic approach, incorporating celebrities into specific events, like National Coming Out Day with Booster (and the drag queen Pickle), “Dungeons & Dragons for the City” fundraiser with gamemaster Brennan Lee Mulligan and an Election Eve Party with Young-White (and comedians Kiran Deol, Jared Goldstein and Brittani Nichols).

Hearon shouted her out while hosting Chappell Roan’s Super Graphic Spectacular fundraiser for the singer’s Midwest Princess Project supporting trans youth and LGBTQ+ communities, and Byrne posted an Instagram story with his son after casting his ballot for Raman.

Raman’s most-liked celebrity endorsement included here was not cross-posted to her account, but rather came from Mulligan’s own get-out-the-vote video. “I am supporting Nithya Raman for mayor in Los Angeles, Marissa Roy for city attorney,” he said with an “I Voted” sticker on his forehead. “And I would say this as well: There’s great candidates all over the country.”

Other celebrities simply encouraged fans to fulfill their civic duty and vote without backing any candidates, while others focused on the California gubernatorial election and key Senate races.

Manchester City defender Rayan Ait-Nouri is a surprise target for Manchester United, Crystal Palace could turn to England assistant boss Anthony Barry if they sack Pierre Sage, Barcelona are keen on Arsenal centre-back Piero Hincapie.

Manchester United are considering a shock move for Manchester City left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri, 25, with personal terms not a barrier to any potential deal for the Algeria international. (Florian Plettenberg), external

England assistant manager Anthony Barry has emerged as a candidate to replace Pierre Sage if the Frenchman is sacked by Crystal Palace. (Mirror), external

Arsenal‘s Ecuadorian defender Piero Hincapie, 24, is on Barcelona sport director Deco’s list of centre-back targets. (Sport – in Spanish), external

Bayern Munich are continuing to monitor Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard while uncertainty surrounds the 27-year-old Norway midfielder’s next contract with the Gunners. (Caughtoffside), external

Spain midfielder Martin Zubimendi, 27, is prepared to consider leaving Arsenal during the winter transfer window. (Team Talk), external

Manchester United and Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes, 32, will not be offered an escape route out of Old Trafford by Saudi Pro-League club Al-Hilal even though they were close to signing him at the start of the season. (Talksport), external

Tottenham will not sanction the sale of Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall amid interest from Barcelona and Napoli in the 20-year-old. (Football Insider), external

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is on Manchester United‘s five-man shortlist to replace Michael Carrick but the current sporting structure at the club is said to not suit the Spaniard. (Daily Mail – subscription required), external

Minnesota United’s 26-year-old forward Kelvin Yeboah, nephew of Leeds and Ghana hero Tony, is on the radar of a number of Premier League clubs with Everton, Crystal Palace and Sunderland all in the market for a striker. (Talksport), external

Newcastle‘s players believe gambles made by the club in the transfer market during the summer is the main reason behind their struggles this season. (Telegraph – subscription required), external

Michigan voters are casting their ballots in a charged, closely watched race that could make Democrat Abdul El-Sayed the first Muslim in the United States Senate and help decide control of the chamber.

Mike Rogers, his Republican opponent, cast his ballot at a polling station in White Lake, Michigan hours after polls opened. El-Sayed had already had his vote submitted and counted through an absentee ballot before Election Day.

The two candidates seek to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters. A final New York Times/Siena poll placed El-Sayed 11 points ahead of Rogers going into the election.

Polls opened at 7am local time (12:00 GMT) and close at 8pm (01:00 GMT on Wednesday). If the race is close, it may not be called until later on Wednesday. The US Department of Justice has announced that election monitors will be present at the polls in Michigan and all 50 other states, a first in US history.

El-Sayed, a Muslim born to Egyptian parents, is the former head of Detroit’s health department and has campaigned on progressive policies such as Medicare for All.

Rogers, a former congressman and close ally of US President Donald Trump, is seeking to come back after a narrow loss to a Democrat in a 2024 Senate race.

Democrats need to gain four seats in Tuesday’s midterm elections to wrest back the Senate from Republicans and rein in Trump. The race is also seen as a test of whether a progressive who openly criticises Israel can win in a swing state.

Both candidates made a final push on social media as voting got under way.

“It’s time. It’s up to us to show the country what’s possible. The world is watching,” El-Sayed wrote, sharing an upbeat campaign video that features former US President Barack Obama.

Rogers posted a video that featured interviews with supporters, one of whom called El-Sayed an “extremist”.

“We have a state to save”, the post read.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a firm endorsement of El-Sayed after casting his own ballot in New York’s race.

“There are millions of Michiganders whose number one issue is getting their costs down,” said Schumer.

“Abdul El-Sayed is … talking to the people about those issues and doing things about them … He is going to win tonight because he’s talking about what Michiganders care about.”

‘One vote’

The El-Sayed campaign’s final days were overshadowed by a rift with Congresswoman Haley Stevens, a fellow Democrat whom El-Sayed narrowly defeated in a primary election in August.

On Sunday, Stevens endorsed Rogers, saying she was “choosing country over hate” and capping off a weeks-long row about El-Sayed’s opposition to US support for Israel.

Stevens is a staunch supporter of Israel, and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $30m backing her against El-Sayed. A majority of her large donors lined up to support Rogers after her loss, channeling $9m into a Republican group that supports him, according to The New York Times.

El-Sayed, by contrast, has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and argued that US aid to Israel would be better spent at home.

Asked by NewsNation on her way in to vote for Rogers whether her change in support was worth it, Stevens replied: “Absolutely. Voting is always worth it, right?”

Senate leader Schumer, who had initially backed Stevens, was asked whether her defection could hand the election to Republicans. “Haley Stevens is one vote,” he replied.

Islamophobic attacks

El-Sayed, the Michigan-born son of Egyptian immigrants, has faced persistent attacks on his faith. Republican Party ads have sought to link him to “terrorism” and radicalism, with Trump joining in the inflammatory rhetoric.

The US president has repeatedly called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and a “nasty guy”, mocking his name and repeating an unfounded, widely circulated Republican claim that he belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hours before polls opened, Trump once again took aim at El-Sayed, this time in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“Abdul El-Sayed Hates Jews and Hates Blacks. Don’t feel bad, he also Hates Whites. Only fools would vote for him in the Michigan race for the U.S. Senate! He will, 100%, do you in! VOTE FOR MIKE ROGERS,” Trump wrote.

The US president also mentioned El-Sayed in a Fox News interview early on Election Day, when he said annual US financial aid to Israel should stop at the end of 2026.

“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they [Israel] don’t need it?” he said.

Shield AI has shared the first look at a full-scale prototype of its X-BAT jet-powered stealth ‘fighter’ drone, which is designed to both take off and land vertically from a tail-sitting position. This is the company’s latest step toward proving out what remains an extremely ambitious aircraft concept. The tailless X-BAT has already received a significant vote of confidence from the U.S. Navy, which is hoping to see the drone develop into a real operational capability on a very aggressive timeline.

A video showing X-BAT 001, the first of two full-scale prototypes Shield AI plans to build, was released earlier today and is seen below. The drone is in the process of being moved from the company’s main hub in Frisco, Texas, to its flight test facility in Newton, Kansas. These sites are also known as X-Forge 1 and X-Forge 2, respectively. X-BAT was revealed to the public last year, as TWZ was first to report on in depth.

X-BAT 001.

X-BAT has already evolved significantly since its unveiling. In April, a half-scale model was displayed at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2026 exposition, showing major changes to the core design. The entire planform was reworked from a ‘cranked kite’ type arrangement to one with an arrowhead-shaped profile featuring a straight leading edge with a more dramatic sweep.

The configuration of the X-BAT 001 prototype is broadly reflective of the model seen at Sea-Air-Space this year, as well as more recent computer renderings. However, there are some notable differences.

For one, the prototype’s thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzle extends significantly to the rear of the drone beyond the trailing edges of the wings. Previously shown models and renders had the nozzle in a position more inset in the rear fuselage.

There are also two pronounced bulges toward the rear of the central body, one on either side of X-BAT 001’s dorsal ‘spine.’ These do not appear to be present on any models or renderings shown in the past. Each one of the bulges also has a small opening at the front. There are two circular openings on top of the spine with mesh screens covering them, as well. Small fans may be visible inside them.

The purpose of these features on top is unknown, and Shield AI declined to comment when asked for more information. They could be tied to the drone’s propulsion arrangement. The drone’s thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzle only provides pitch and yaw control. Shield AI has said in the past that bleed air routed through thrusters in the wings will be used for roll control.

Various panel lines with circular edges are also visible across the top of the drone. This is distinctly different from the saw-tooth-edged paneling depicted on previously shown models and renders.

As an aside, the prototype also features an insignia on the top of its left wing with a skull and other motifs, which the company says is meant to pay homage to all four branches of the U.S. military.

“X-BAT 001 is a development aircraft, so the design will evolve as we test and refine it,” a Shield AI spokesperson also told TWZ today.

Shield AI had previously said that the prototype nozzle arrangement would lack low-observable (LO) attributes, but also that this would change after initial testing. From what we can see now, the experimental nozzle is well blended considering the current stage of development. Beyond that, it has what appears to be remarkably good low-observable (stealthy) optimization, especially true for a prototype. Initial examples of new designs are often cluttered with elements that are eliminated later on, like antennas and air data probes. Some of these features could be added to X-BAT 001 prior to flight testing.

In an interview with TWZ last month, Shield AI’s Armor Harris, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the company’s aircraft division, had also compared the expected differences between the full-scale prototypes and production version “as like X-35 versus F-35.” This is a reference to Lockheed Martin’s X-35 demonstrators, which were broadly similar, but also distinctly different from the production variants of the Joint Strike Fighter.

“That’s a full-scale vehicle,” Harris also stressed when talking about the configuration of the full-scale prototypes. “It’s got the outer mold line, it’s got the F110 engine, the full propulsion path, everything in it.”

The “propulsion path” mentioned here, which includes the aforementioned exhaust nozzle and thrusters, is absolutely critical to the X-BAT concept. The design leverages past work on an Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN), first developed in the 1990s for an experimental thrust-vectoring F-16 fighter. Shield AI has been using the original test nozzle, which had been in storage for decades, as part of the development process.

X-BAT’s ability to take off and land vertically comes down to this propulsion arrangement combined with guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems. The GNC elements will leverage Shield AI’s experience with the much smaller, internal combustion-engine-powered, tail-sitting V-BAT. This, in turn, creates benefits from the design perspective, especially obviating the need for any kind of landing gear, and opens the door to a host of new operational possibilities. X-BAT is designed to be launched and recovered via a trailer-based system that can be deployed on land and on ships with sufficient deck space, all with a minimal footprint.

“The launch and recovery vehicle is actually critical to the operation of the X-BAT weapon system because it enables survivability on the ground. So when you’re operating in a land-based environment, it enables basically shoot-and-scoot tactics,” Shield AI’s Harris told us last month. “Enemy transporter-erector-launchers [for missiles] are like pretty hard to find because they’re constantly moving around. Just like X-BAT, when it’s mated onto the launch and recovery vehicle, [it] is always moving around, makes it hard to track, hard to find, hard to destroy.”

Land-based deployment concepts could be particularly attractive for expeditionary and distribution operations scenarios, especially in the Pacific. This is something TWZ has explored in more detail in the past.

On the maritime side, Shield AI envisions X-BATs on their launch and recovery trailers – potentially dozens at a time – being embarked on a variety of ships, including amphibious warfare and expeditionary sea base-type vessels. The company notably touts the concept as offering additional air combat capacity without having to sacrifice space for crewed planes on aircraft carriers.

“So when you think about the number of carrier air wings that the Navy has to deploy, deploying X-BAT across all these other ships basically significantly increases the number of carrier air wings,” Harris said in his interview with us in October.

Once in the air, X-BAT is designed to operate as a multi-mission tactical platform capable of carrying munitions internally and on hardpoints under the wings. The drones will also be able to carry various sensors, electronic warfare packages, and other mission systems. Shield AI plans to leverage its Hivemind software to give X-BATs a high degree of autonomy when carrying out any assigned task.

“Those multirole abilities put X-BAT in a very different category from Air Force Increment 1 CCAs. Those are much smaller aircraft, focused exclusively on air-to-air,” Shield AI’s Harris wrote in an extended statement today. “X-BAT is twice the size, has the capacity for air-to-ground strike missions, and carries many more sensors on board. The F110 engine with thrust vectoring also gives X-BAT a much more fighter-like flight envelope than those smaller aircraft with Williams-type engines.”

X-BAT is on the way.

Before any of these operational capabilities can be demonstrated, the core X-BAT concept still very much needs to be proven out. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to operationalize broadly similar designs in the past, which Shield AI itself has acknowledged.

In the past year, Shield AI has conducted “wind tunnel testing, engine testing, thermal testing, all kinds of stuff to basically take the major risks in the program, [and] burn them down, so we can move confidently into the production design,” Harris told TWZ last month. The plan for the prototypes now is to “start with the vehicle horizontal, sitting on that launch and recovery vehicle, running the engine. Then we bring it up vertical, run the engine vertically, run the vehicle vertically.”

“Then we have one of the biggest cranes in the world that’s getting set up at our test site in Kansas right now, and we hang the vehicle suspended from that crane and do a bunch of testing while it’s hanging from the crane in free flight,” he added. “Then we take the crane away, and then we do the actual untethered flights.”

As mentioned, the U.S. Navy is already actively supporting development of X-BAT with a clear eye toward fielding the drones operationally in the future. Just this year, Shield AI has received $200 million in funding from the Navy in support of a program called Runway Independent Maritime Expeditionary Strike (RIMES). Some of this money has come via the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment. The company has also committed an equal amount of internal funding to the project.

“The Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office (DONRCO), in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), is aggressively accelerating development and testing of RIMES in order to deliver a runway-independent, long-range maritime strike capability to the fleet at the speed of relevance,” a Navy spokesperson told TWZ last week. “Specific timelines for achieving operational capability will be determined by operational evaluations, flight-test performance, and subsequent fleet requirements.”

RIMES is distinct from the Navy’s program pursuing carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drones.

Shield AI has said previously that the goal is to fly a fully missionized X-BAT in 2028 and start series production the following year. The company has also raised the prospect of achieving at least a limited degree of operational capability in 2029. As we have noted in the past, X-BAT reaching any real level of operational maturity within three years is, to say the least, an extraordinarily ambitious timeline.

How fast Shield AI progresses with testing of its initial prototypes, the first of which we have now seen, will speak to its ability to keep to this schedule.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

IT’S Monday lunchtime on London’s Old Bond Street and I’ve been invited to Dolce & Gabbana to hang out with the legend that is Sir Rod Stewart.

As the doors swing open, he walks in with two pairs of trousers under his arm and chirps in his trademark ­Cockney twang, “They’re too long in the leg”, before adding: “And a bottle of perfume for the lady, please.”

With me looking like a ropey Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Rod escorts me upstairs and a beautifully gift-wrapped, £280 ­perfume bottle is handed to me en-route.

Turning his attention to a £3,800 silver sequinned jacket, Rod laments: “It’s lovely, but it’s far too heavy for the stage.”

Then, he ushers me to a posh sofa to discuss his last hoorah.

The Final Encore will mark Rod’s retirement from touring after six decades on the road.

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Two extra dates have been added to the almost sold-out UK run thanks to the phenomenal demand for tickets.

Set lists are still being finalised, but fans can expect a spectacular trip down memory lane, with hits from Rod’s incredible back catalogue of 11 No1 albums — which include 25 Top Ten hits.

“At 81, it’s quite remarkable,” he says of the ticket sales for his farewell tour.

“I can’t jump around like I used to when I was 32. But I think the audience knows that, vocally, I’m better now than I’ve ever been.

“A few of the big voices have gone. Paul McCartney’s has gone a bit. I treat my voice like the crown jewels. Pavarotti said, ‘I’m a prisoner of my voice’, and you are. You wake up, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got an itch. I’m f***ed. I’ve got to cancel’. I’m totally paranoid about runny noses now. “Now, when I go out, I wear white gloves like Michael Jackson. He did it to stop him catching colds and flu.”

Rod puts his remarkable good health down to a strict exercise regime which sees him training like an athlete — and getting lots of sleep.

“When you’re in your 20s and 30s, you don’t even warm up,” Rod laughs.

“You drink whatever you want, do the drugs, get on the stage.

“In the old days, we used to get p***d as farts with [band] FACES. Now, when I go on, I’m absolutely sober, then I’ll have a rum and Coke after the third song or so.

“Plus, I have an hour’s workout before I go on — stretching, cycling, stationary bike, massaging, warming up the voice, just getting yourself in the zone.

“It is like being an athlete.”

Of his regime at home, Rod adds: “Three times a week, I cycle for a mile, lots of uphill stuff, and I do a load of swimming.

“Frank Sinatra told me about that. He said, ‘If you just do underwater swimming as much as you can, holding your breath till you want to burst, because then your lungs will get bigger. And they’ll get used to you holding your breath and singing’.”

Rod’s pipes, I can attest, are back on top form after a scary ­incident this summer in Utah.

At an amphitheatre 4,300ft above sea level, Rod needed oxygen after almost fainting on stage.

Keen to reassure his fans he’s now fine, the Maggie May singer explains: “I had a bout of illness, which was bad luck. I’d just had bronchitis at the same time as I was playing above altitude. I was in a right state.

“The geezer who worked for me didn’t tell me. I said, ‘Are we above sea level?’. He said, ‘Nah, of course we’re not’.

“So, I ran out and did three fast songs. All of a sudden, I was like, I couldn’t breathe. I got through the show, but it was painful.

“If I’m performing above altitude, you go out and do a mid-tempo one and a slow one, then do a fast one. Not three off the bounce, jumping about.”

Rod, with his electric blonde hair and bronzed skin, could pass for a man 20 years younger.

A decade after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he is still all-clear from the disease.

Grinning, he says of his health tests: “My PSA levels are at 0.02. You’ve got to keep an eye on it.”

But cackling, he adds of the old-style check for prostate problems: “Finger up the bum, no harm done. That’s what most men don’t like. The old finger up the bum. But just get on with it.”

Like any good musician, Rod has his vices and cannot resist a drink . . . even if his wife Penny Lancaster warns him off it.

“I wish I could curb my drinking, but I love wine with an evening meal,”

Rod explains. “I’ve got a great chef and I can’t drink water with a good meal.

“Penny says, ‘You must cut back, darling’. I only have a couple of glasses. But then, sometimes, I’ll get on the apple martinis and I can really knock those back.

“I have these conversations with my kids. I stress to them that I can have a drink, you know, because it’s show business, I drink whenever I want. Not that I drink a lot. But, you know, one of my sons goes out and gets all pd on a Sunday night and he’s got to go to school the next morning.”

Laughing, he adds: “I’ve let the cat out of the bag there, haven’t I? There’s only one going to school.”

The Final Encore will kick off its UK leg in Glasgow on April 29 at the OVO Hydro, after Rod turned down a farewell gig at his beloved Celtic Park in the city.

“It would have been just, like, 90 minutes and I’d say goodbye,” he explains. “I thought, ‘If I can have it for three nights, I can really get into it and indulge myself in it’.”

By next summer, Rod’s touring days will be over — but he says that, inspired by artists such as Adele, he is planning smaller, residency-style shows in future.

“I made the album [Swing Fever in 2024] with Jools Holland, which got to No1 and, when I do my last show, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve talked to Jools.

“I don’t know if he wants to do it with me, because I think he’s afraid of losing his identity. If he doesn’t, I’ll form my own big band. I’d like to do the London Palladium for a few nights, then maybe the Albert Hall.”

Rod’s fans also have a top-secret documentary to look forward to next year, after the star confessed he’s just done a tell-all interview with his old foe, Sir Elton John.

The pair, who are now good pals, traded comedy barbs over the years, with Rod admitting to me he was miles better at football than Elton when they trained together at Watford FC.

“I nearly signed for Brentford,” Rod says proudly. “I only finished playing when I was 68.

“But Elton, I was miles better than him when we trained together. The documentary we’ve done should be out at the ­beginning of the year. At the end . . . he kissed me on the lips. And we caught it on film.”

Rod added of Elton’s kids Zachary, 15, and Elijah, 13: “His boys are wonderful. I don’t know whether they were putting it on for me, but they came in from school and went, ‘Daddy, Daddy, oh, Mr Stewart, we are so glad to meet you, Mr ­Stewart’. They are so well spoken.”

Looking back at his six-decade career, Rod knows it won’t be easy to retire from touring.

He says: “Carly Simon found it stressful going on stage. I don’t. I am absolutely raring to go out there. I absolutely love it.”

Stepping back will, however, give Rod more time to focus on Penny and his one other true love — his model train set.

Covering 156 square metres and featuring a 275-metre track that runs through a city landscape, it has kept Rod busy for decades.

“I want to open it to the public and give the money to charity,” he explains.

“I think I’ll be able to get permission. I would like to share it with the world.”

Politics is another keen passion of Rod’s, although he admits he’s more likely to keep his views to himself these days for fear of being misunderstood.

One subject we speak passionately about, however, is the plight of the people of Ukraine — who Rod has publicly supported since Russia invaded in 2022.

“I just hope it’s not too late for Ukraine,” he says.

“They’re going into winter now, and this could be the turning point. It’s scary.

“They’re bombing the fuel and water supplies. Putin is a b*****d.”

Another topic of contention is US president Donald Trump, who Rod has no time for.

“I stand by what I told Kind Charles,” he says.

“I said, ‘Trump’s a pig’. I could tell the King wanted to laugh.”

Rod will, undoubtedly, use his Final Encore shows to urge fans to champion all that’s good in the world — despite still coming to terms with his own global impact.

“I haven’t twisted anybody’s arm or threatened to kill them if they don’t give me money,” he tells me.

“I’ve earned it off my own back.

“I want to thank my public for this. They’ve given me the most glorious, unimaginable lifestyle.

“When I was at school, I never dreamed that when I started singing, it would end up like this.

“Me, performing on stage at 81.

“It’s been the best life and I am so grateful.”

WASHINGTON — Control of Congress hangs in the balance as Americans head to the polls Tuesday to vote in a historic set of midterm elections that will determine how power is divided for the rest of President Trump’s time in office.

A robust turnout appeared possible, after months of polls suggesting voters’ frustration with cost-of-living issues may drive them to the polls. More than 59 million Americans had already cast ballots in early voting, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

The campaign has largely been marked by Democrats’ unexpected traction in red states, resulting in Senate races that have been far more competitive than anticipated. Whether that translates into losses for Republicans could become a nail-biter Tuesday night.

Polling shows Democrats poised to make significant gains in the U.S. House and well-positioned for swing Senate races, but analysts say the Senate majority could go either way. Several gubernatorial seats are also open, and some contests have become unexpectedly close, including in Georgia, Kansas, Texas and Florida.

Eyes will be on a handful of bellwether House races as the polls begin closing, with a Kentucky district expected to be the first to offer clues as to how good a night it may be for Democrats.

For weeks, the midterms have appeared poised to deliver a referendum on Trump’s second term and the state of the economy. Americans’ approval of the president has sunk to historic lows as they have cited concerns about affordability, corruption and immigration as driving factors for their votes.

On Monday and over the weekend, candidates made their final pushes to persuade voters.

Democrats, hoping to clench voter support for a “blue wave,” hammered home their arguments about affordability, corruption and the perceived toll of Trump’s governance, aiming to sway non-Democratic voters.

“This election is a battle between the powers that be and the powers that ought to be,” Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico of Texas said at a Sunday night rally. “We are standing with the powers that ought to be — the teachers and the nurses, the farmers and the ranchers, the grandmother who is facing eviction.”

Republicans, anticipating losses in the House, focused on delivering dire warnings to voters about Democratic candidates, whom they have portrayed throughout the campaign as extreme, dangerous and in some cases a threat to the American way of life.

“This race is about defending our state and our country, but it’s also about safeguarding our way of life,” Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican nominee for Senate, said Sunday. “Texas has never been this close to slipping away. We’ve never been this close to losing everything that we hold dear — our jobs, our livelihoods, our way of life.”

As voters cast ballots Tuesday, the Justice Department’s election monitors fanned out at polling sites across the country. Thousands of volunteers nationwide were also mobilized to be poll monitors, a backlash to the idea of potential federal election interference.

Trump sent out a flurry of last-minute social media endorsements for Republican congressional candidates and called in to the “Fox and Friends” show to make a final case. Democratic candidates dropped last-minute ads urging voters to head to the polls.

This article will be updated.

Rachel Apa, a former Division I field hockey player and first-time marathon runner, died Sunday after she collapsed while participating in the New York City Marathon. She was 24.

Apa experienced a “medical incident” during the race, according to marathon organizers New York Road Runners, and a bystander administered CPR until medical staff arrived. Staff continued with CPR and also used a defibrillator in their efforts to revive her. EMS transported Apa to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where doctors tried to save her life for more than six hours, her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times.

“We are deeply saddened by Rachel’s passing following running in Sunday’s race,” the Road Runners said in a statement. “Our thoughts and sincere sympathies are with her family, friends, and the entire running community.”

According to multiple media outlets, the family was told by doctors that Apa had died of rhabdomyolysis — “a rare condition in which muscle cells break down and release a substance into the blood that can lead to kidney failure,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Marathon runners are listed as people that could be affected by the condition.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this article.

Apa spent four years with the Bucknell University field hockey team before graduating in 2024 with a degree in business administration. She made 42 starts in 63 overall games, compiling 40 points on 17 goals and six assists.

A product manager at TE Connectivity who was pursuing an MBA at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, Apa decided earlier this year to run the New York City Marathon as part of the Parkinson’s Champions team.

“My grandfather was my role model growing up,” she wrote on the team’s fundraising page. “He taught me to stay active, push my limits, and embrace challenges, shaping my love for sports and movement. Later in life, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and I watched as the disease slowly took away the freedom to move that he once loved so much. He passed away in 2022, but the lessons he taught me continue to drive me forward.”

The fundraiser garnered more than $21,000 in donations, far surpassing Apa’s stated goal of $4,000.

Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times she had been training for the marathon for months.

“It’s unfathomable,” he said of his daughter’s death. “Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old.”

He told multiple media outlets that his daughter was accompanied to the race by her mother and some friends, while he stayed home in Lewisberry, Pa., and tracked her progress on an app, texting with her along the way.

Several miles into the race, Steve Apa told NBC News, his daughter texted “I feel amazing” and “I’ve never felt this good.”

Soon after, at around the 14-mile mark, Apa’s mother shot a video of her daughter smiling and waving as she ran by.

A few miles later, Steve Apa told the outlets, he started receiving texts from his daughter that said things like “ugh” and “ow.” He stopped hearing from her around mile 20 or 21 but could see on the app that she was still running, until her progress stopped at mile 24.

According to the New York Police Department, police officers assigned to the marathon “observed a 24-year-old female experiencing a medical episode near mile marker 24” at around 1:40 p.m. “EMS responded and transported the female to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition,” NYPD said in an email.

Apa’s mother rushed to the location and was told by an EMS worker that her daughter had been taken away in an ambulance, Steve Apa told NBC News. Michelle Apa received a ride to the hospital in another ambulance.

Apa was declared dead at around 9:40 p.m., Steve Apa told the New York Times.

According to the Road Runners, the last time a New York City Marathon participant suffered a medical incident during the race and later died at a hospital was 2024.

France’s Naval Group has unveiled the SCX26, a future warship concept exploring how large surface combatants could evolve to meet the demands of naval warfare in the coming decades. Heavily influenced by lessons from recent conflicts and emerging technologies, Naval Group describes it as a platform for testing ideas about future naval combat, rather than a design intended for immediate construction. However, it provides an interesting case study into what the next generation of destroyers could look like.

In terms of the destroyer as a floating base for multiple types of drones, the potential of even smaller and cheaper drones to vastly increase the combat flexibility and overall capabilities of an advanced warship — especially when the drones can be employed in swarms — is something that TWZ has addressed in detail in the past.

Key features of the new design include a stealth-focused hull, distributed sensors, a substantial missile arsenal, and a large internal mission bay for uncrewed systems. Its most distinctive features are two widely separated superstructures that also act as sensor towers and extensive facilities for operating, maintaining, and potentially even manufacturing drones.

The SCX26 measures approximately 558 feet long and 79 feet wide, with a reported full-load displacement of around 8,000 metric tons. That makes it considerably larger than Naval Group’s FDI frigates. These innovative vessels, which you can read more about here, have a displacement of around 4,460 metric tons. These warships are 400 feet long and are 59 feet wide.

Unveiled today at the Euronaval 2026 exhibition, taking place this week in Paris, the new ship is designed for a maximum speed of 30 knots and a range of up to 8,000 nautical miles. Its proposed propulsion system is CODLAG, or combined diesel-electric and gas turbine propulsion. In contrast, the French Navy’s FDIs are capable of speeds of 27 knots, driven by a combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion arrangement. 

The concept artwork shows a long, low hull with smooth sides and minimal external clutter. Its angular superstructures reflect an emphasis on reducing radar signatures, while its wave-piercing, knife-like bow recalls that of the FDI design.

Naval Group also says the design considers detection from above, including by radar satellites, with particular attention to the upper surfaces of its superstructures.

The SCX26’s most distinctive external feature is its split-superstructure arrangement.

Twin-island superstructures remain a highly unusual arrangement in which a ship’s functions are divided between two separate deckhouses rather than concentrated in one. On aviation-focused vessels such as the U.K. Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth class carriers, this allows navigation and flight operations to be managed separately. The same configuration was also studied for France’s future carrier, before it settled on a more conventional design.

On the SCX26, the arrangement also distributes sensors and bridges between two structures.

The forward tower is broad, with large square radar panels integrated into its faceted sides. Mer et Marine reports that the largest panels are intended for a new-generation UHF radar, complemented by a multifunction active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar derived from the Sea Fire family used on the FDI frigate.

The aft tower is taller and narrower, topped by a pole mast.

Separating the sensor installations could provide wider coverage, reduce blind arcs, and improve resilience by distributing critical equipment across two structures. The arrangement also supports Naval Group’s emphasis on redundancy and survivability.

The choice of a UHF radar system reflects the requirement to improve long-range detection of demanding targets, including ballistic and hypersonic threats. Anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) and hypersonic weapons present some of the most demanding challenges for naval air defenses, and these types of threats are only set to proliferate. Their extreme speeds, combined in some cases with the ability to maneuver unpredictably during flight, compress the time available to detect, track, and intercept them.

A large open deck area separates the two towers. Naval Group describes this as a flexible central zone for additional mission equipment, including modular weapons and remotely operated systems. In a video also released today, the company presented mass-launcher boxes for drones. While these are shown in the video installed on an FDI frigate, they could equally occupy this central zone on the destroyer design.

The proposed weapons fit includes 12 Sylver vertical-launch installations: eight forward and four aft. Depending on launcher configuration, these could accommodate up to 96 missiles, including Aster 30 surface-to-air missiles and MdCN land-attack cruise missiles.

Launch of an Aster 30 surface-to-air missile from an Italian warship:

Lancio Aster 30

Naval Group also identifies options for increasing the missile capacity beyond 100, including quad-packed CAMM missiles and future Sylver NG launchers.

Modern destroyers increasingly rely on large vertical launch system (VLS) arrays to carry a mixture of long- and short-range air-defense missiles, as well as other weapons. This capacity is particularly important in an era of massed missile and drone attacks, since ships have limited opportunities to replenish their missile stocks at sea and can quickly expend expensive interceptors defending against successive waves of threats.

In addition to the missiles loaded in the VLS cells, the ship would also carry two multifunctional Rampart launchers for short-range missiles, guided rockets, and decoys. On the model of the SCX26 shown at Euronaval, Rampart launchers are seen on either side of the rear of the ship, just forward of the flight deck.

Tirs réussis du Rampart à Canjuers / Successful live-fire trials at camp Canjuers for Rampart

The SCX26 concept includes several weapons that remain developmental or conceptual.

Its primary gun is described as a large-caliber electromagnetic weapon capable of firing rapid salvos. A conventional 57mm gun is also included. Both these guns are housed in shrouded cupolas, helping preserve the low-observable characteristics of the warship.

Electromagnetic railguns use powerful electrical currents and magnetic fields to accelerate projectiles to extremely high velocities, rather than relying on conventional gunpowder propellants. They promise long ranges, high rates of fire, and relatively inexpensive ammunition, potentially giving warships another way to engage air, surface, and land targets without consuming valuable missile stocks. So far, however, these systems have been dogged by significant technical challenges, especially when it comes to power generation and sustained operation, including barrel wear.

Another novel weapon system for the SCX26 is a proposed 100-kilowatt laser that would be mounted high on the forward superstructure, providing an elevated field of engagement against drones, missiles, and other threats.

High-energy lasers offer warships a potentially economical way to engage drones, small boats, and other relatively inexpensive threats without expending costly conventional missiles. They can engage targets at the speed of light and, provided sufficient electrical power and cooling are available, offer a virtually inexhaustible magazine compared with conventional weapons. On the other hand, their effectiveness is constrained by atmospheric conditions, range, and the need to maintain a sustained beam on the target. As a result, the SCX26 design considers the laser weapon as a supplement, rather than a replacement for traditional missiles.

With an output in the 100-kilowatt class, the laser would be comparable to the U.S. Navy Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD) Mk 2 Mod 0 that was installed in the San Antonio class amphibious warfare ship USS Portland in 2019, as seen in the video below:

USS Portland (LPD 27) tests LWSD laser system

The SCX26’s aviation facilities occupy a substantial portion of the stern. A large internal mission bay beneath the flight deck would accommodate helicopters and other uncrewed aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles.

A large elevator connects the mission bay to the flight deck, allowing systems to be moved between the two. As seen in the model displayed at Euronaval, the flight deck has spots for a single medium (NH90-sized) helicopter and two smaller spots for vertical takeoff and landing drones.

Naval Group describes the mission bay as a small onboard drone factory, with potential additive manufacturing capabilities alongside maintenance and repair facilities and spare-parts storage.

The arrangement would allow the SCX26 to carry and support a varied drone complement for intelligence gathering, surveillance, electronic warfare, strike, and other missions.

The drone-centric design of the SCX26 reflects the fact that warships are increasingly being conceived as motherships for uncrewed aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles, and not just simply platforms that can be adapted to support a handful of remotely operated systems. Drones can extend a vessel’s surveillance and targeting reach, conduct electronic warfare, support anti-submarine operations, and deliver weapons, while keeping crewed ships farther from danger. The kind of asymmetric advantage that drones can provide in a maritime context is something that Ukraine has employed with notable success against the Russian Navy in the Black Sea.

Ukraine sea drone attack on Russian ship | Raw video

Naval Group ultimately envisions the SCX26 operating as a command and connectivity hub within a wider naval force, coordinating crewed vessels, aircraft, and autonomous platforms.

Its proposed combat system would use a data-centric architecture, advanced processing, and artificial intelligence to manage information and coordinate unmanned systems.

The ship would have a crew of approximately 150, with accommodation for another 100 personnel. The additional capacity could support an embarked command staff, drone operators, and special mission personnel.

Naval Group sees automation as a way to augment the crew while enabling the ship to manage a much larger network of systems.

At this point, the company considers the SCX26 as a research project rather than a production design. Already, however, its architecture has undergone substantial design work and reportedly includes model testing in a towing tank.

The concept provides an indication of the company’s thinking about future surface combatants: large, stealthy platforms with distributed sensors, layered defenses, flexible mission spaces, and extensive uncrewed systems. All of these factors will be addressed as France looks toward fielding a replacement for its current Horizon class air-defense destroyers.

Whether these ideas eventually inform a future French or export warship remains to be seen. However, the SCX26 underscores the pace of change that naval warfare is undergoing, with future destroyers expected to not just be heavily armed, but to have the facilities to operate and support a large family of uncrewed systems, too.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Nicolas Cage says he’s “a little bit homeless” because of the massive sinkhole that swallowed up the driveway of his Malibu home

While sharing his Halloween plans during an appearance on the main stage Saturday at Los Angeles Comic Con, the “Spider-Noir” star lamented that greeting any trick-or-treaters at home wasn’t a part of his itinerary.

“I’m currently a little bit homeless,” Cage said in a fan video from the event. “Something happened to my house in Malibu, so I’m just sort of living in hotels. So I don’t have the normal trick-or-treaters that I would like to enjoy tonight.”

Instead he said his plans for his favorite holiday included taking his daughter trick-or-treating “somewhere in Santa Monica” and then watching Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic, “The Shining.”

“That is one of my favorite movies ever made,” he said.

A massive, expanding sinkhole opened up just outside Cage’s home on Sea Level Drive on Sept. 8, prompting Malibu to declare a local emergency and issue evacuation orders for 31 homes in the beachside community. Seven of those homes were red-tagged because of hazardous conditions.

The 25-foot-deep and 30-by-60-feet wide crater blocks the only road in and out of the neighborhood. The homeowner’s association that controls the private roadway is responsible for overseeing the repair efforts. The work includes excavation to retrieve a soil sample and debris removal, as well as installing sandbags to mitigate further damage from strong waves and coastal erosion.

In October, Cage secured four permits to repair the damage caused by the sinkhole.

L.A. Comic Con marks the “National Treasure” actor’s latest outing to directly interact with his fans. He also appeared at Fan Expo Dallas and New York Comic Con earlier this fall, where he addressed topics including his thoughts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and AI.

Nov. 3, 2026 11:26 AM PT

OKLAHOMA CITY — Federal authorities charged an Oklahoma City man with sending hundreds of letters containing nonhazardous white powder to public officials ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.

The powders turned out to be yeast or flour, though not all letters have been fully tested, the FBI said in a court filing made public Tuesday.

Robin Martin is charged with conveying a hoax and mailing threatening communications. Martin was arrested Monday and was expected to make an appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City.

Online records do not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf, and several relatives didn’t immediately respond to social media messages seeking comment.

Federal authorities announced last month that they were investigating letters with “suspicious substances” that had been mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide and urged recipients to treat the mailings as “potentially hazardous.”

The packages led to the evacuation in October of election offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Numerous states, from Idaho to Florida, said their election offices either received letters or had them intercepted by the Postal Service.

Investigators believe more than 700 mailings appeared to be associated with the same sender. They were addressed to election officials, members of Congress, pollsters, news media and federal law enforcement, FBI agent David Cole said in an affidavit.

The investigation stretched back to 2024 when multiple election officials in every state reported mail with a white substance and a three-page letter declaring war, the FBI said. Some bore ominous messages that could only be read under ultraviolet light.

The sender wrote a return address as “U.S.T.E.A., United States Traitor Elimination Army, Takoma Park, MD.”

A common message in the 2024 and 2026 mailings was a warning to recipients about upcoming arrests for treason “or worse!!”

The FBI said it has video evidence of Martin’s car stopping in October at mailboxes at Postal Service sites in Oklahoma City, Dallas and San Antonio. Investigators also gleaned his fingerprints from a letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel, whose first name was written as “Kashyap.”

The Democratic Socialists of America apparently assisted the FBI in the investigation. The FBI said it believes Martin, posing as someone using the name George Livingston, posted a message to a DSA email list in October, warning that members were traitors and eligible for arrest for treason if they vote in the Nov. 3 election.

White and Hollingsworth write for the Associated Press. AP journalist Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed reporting.

If the City Section was seeking publicity, it’s going to get it for including two winless football teams in its playoff pairings released on Saturday.

Gardena (0-10) is the No. 16 seed in Division II. Westchester (0-10) is No. 6 seed in Division III.

“That’s pretty bad,” Hamilton coach Elijah Asante said of two winless teams making the playoffs.

In fact, the City Section was only following rules adopted by its football coaches directing that teams be placed in brackets by strictly following where they are rated in computer rankings. Because Gardena came from the powerful Marine League and Westchester was in the Western League, an 0-10 record didn’t prevent them from being included based on strength of schedule.

Rick Prizant, the athletic director at Birmingham and a member of the section’s executive committee, said, “We shouldn’t penalize teams that happen to be in tough leagues and play a difficult nonleague schedule. If they are rated high enough by the computer to qualify for the playoffs they shouldn’t be punished.”

Eagle Rock coach Andy Moran, who’s chairman of the football advisory committee, said there was no scenario for winless teams “to come out of here.”

Look for the coaches to add a new proposal to prevent such a scenario in the future.

“We got some ideas,” Moran said.

Caracas, November 2, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan armed forces reportedly attacked a camp belonging to Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) in the Pedro Camejo municipality, Apure State, on Friday.

The military operation relied on US intelligence support, according to Stratfor-owned geopolitical and intelligence platform RANE Worldview.

Local NGO Fundaredes stated the operation involved drones and combat helicopters and left 19 people killed, 10 of whom were identified by the forensic police in the state capital, San Fernando.

Fundaredes’ Apure director Javier García alleged that the ELN uses the area as a drug storage and logistics point. Right-wing news portal Infobae claimed that the attack also targeted camouflaged drug-transporting aircraft belonging to the ELN.

On Sunday, Fundaredes reported “armed clashes” which included drones in the Cedeño municipality of Bolívar State, close to the operations of state-owned bauxite mining and processing company BAUXILUM. According to Fundaredes, local miners were forced to leave the area and operations were temporarily suspended. However, the NGO did not identify who conducted the attacks.

The Venezuelan government and armed forces have not issued statements on the reported altercations in Apure and Bolívar. The Communications Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said at a press conference on Monday that the country’s army and security forces had been deployed along the 2,200-kilometer border with Colombia to “prevent” any fallout from increased “conflict” in Colombia.

“We do not want any conflicts that are not ours,” Cabello said. He did not address the reports of an operation against the ELN.

The interior minister additionally rejected any foreign interference in Venezuelan affairs. However, open-access flight radar confirmed the presence of US military assets in Venezuelan territory in recent days, including reconnaissance planes spotted flying over border areas.

Since the January 3 US attack and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, senior US military brass have visited the Caribbean country, including Southern Command Commander General Francis Donovan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

In June, US forces conducted an airstrike in Bolívar State that they claimed to have extrajudicially executed Héctor “Niño” Guerrero, an alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua gang. Washington thanked Caracas for “cooperation,” while the Venezuelan government issued a statement informing of a “joint operation.”

The Trump administration has not commented on the reported strikes against the Colombian armed group. During a September visit to Colombia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the presence of the ELN and dissident factions of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as an issue that “needs to be addressed” by Venezuelan authorities.

Since taking office in August, far-right Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has launched a “total offensive” against the ELN, with multiple airstrikes, security raids, and the militarization of Cúcuta, a major town on the border with Venezuela. It has also joined the Washington-led and funded “Shield of the Americas,” a regional alliance with an express goal of cracking down on transnational crime and migration. 

For its part, the rebel group has vowed to resist and condemned US intervention in the region.

The ELN is the longest active guerrilla group in Colombia, having sustained a decades-long insurgency against the Colombian state. The organization maintained an arms-length relationship with the Bolivarian government under Chávez and Maduro, operating across the vast southwestern border uncontrolled by both nations and at times cooperating with Venezuelan authorities against Colombian paramilitaries and dissident FARC elements. 

The Nicolás Maduro government supported former Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with the ELN, with multiple negotiating rounds held in Caracas. However, hostilities from both sides persisted and the talks broke down.

Venezuelan authorities have repeatedly denied the sustained presence of Colombian armed groups on their side of the border. In 2021, the Venezuelan army launched an operation against dissident FARC elements in Apure State, with weeks of clashes causing dozens of casualties and thousands of displaced civilians. The ELN was widely rumored to have assisted in the operation.

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Philadelphia, USA.

It’s the first week of November, and that means it’s officially the holiday season, which is my favorite time to visit our local theme parks. Disneyland is first out of the gate, unveiling its full slate of holiday programming on Nov. 13. Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott’s Berry Farm will follow the weekend of Nov. 20.

For many, it’s also a season of gift giving, which can be one of the most daunting parts of this time of year. Thankfully, our theme parks are here to help — enter any of them and it’s difficult to walk more than a few feet without passing a souvenir shop, stand or stall.

To celebrate the start of the holiday season — and to coincide with the launch of The Times’ extensive gift guide — I’ve decided to dedicate this newsletter to some of my favorite items currently available at our theme parks. A word of warning, however. I’m a bit of a dork for monorails, and I like silly things, so this list does possess a slight personal bias. But like our paper’s guides to stocking stuffers or unique, made-in-L.A. items, consider it primarily a source of inspiration.

Or a reminder, perhaps, to schedule a visit to one of our theme parks this holiday season and bring home a little gift for yourself.

Disneyland

My favorite new item available at Disneyland is essentially a flip book, albeit one styled as a vintage ‘50s-style TV with brown casing that can house multiple oversize flip books. Turn it on, and it springs into action, playing scenes from either “Steamboat Willie,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” or “Flowers and Trees,” all classic pieces of Disney animation. The images unfold, of course, where the screen would be, and the set also plays music from the animated works. This Disney Animation Television (pictured above) is $99, and you can find it at Disney California Adventure’s Off the Page. It is a park exclusive.

I warned I was a monorail fiend, and new this year at the Disneyland Hotel is a collection from midcentury artist Scott “Scooter” Burroughs. I know many a Disneyland fan is a mug collector, so I’m highlighting this Burroughs-designed Disneyland Hotel item, which has the hotel’s vintage logo on one side, and Mickey and Minnie carrying luggage in front of one of the hotel’s towers and monorail on the other. The teal Disneyland Hotel coffee mug (pictured above), complete with an ornate Disney “D” handle, is $24.99 and available in the hotel’s gift shop.

I’m also showcasing the $24.99 monorail salt & pepper shakers (pictured above), which despite having been available for multiple years, remains my favorite gift at the resort. Yes, they’re in the style of Walt Disney World’s current monorails. but I love the mini track holder and smile every time I use them. Available throughout the resort, including Disney Home in Downtown Disney.

A new Fantasyland sweatshirt has arrived at Disneyland.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

The Disneyland Resort has in recent years upped its fashion game. Too often I’d spy a shirt or sweatshirt I liked, and turn it around only to find the understated design on the front was paired with a garish creation on the back. Thankfully, the park seems to be moving away from that style, and this year debuted a gorgeous, restrained yet artful Fantasyland sweatshirt featuring a flying pirate galleon from “Peter Pan.” It’s $69.99 and available at multiple shops, including the Disneyland Hotel or the Emporium on Main Street, U.S.A. I love its minimal use of colors, pairing a creamy white with a royal blue.

For the last Disney item, I’m going to pivot slightly to include a selection from Walt Disney World. As I write this newsletter I’m listening to the newly released “Epcot” vinyl (pictured above), a two-LP set that spans the history of the Florida park. As someone who visited the park yearly as a child, it’s a nostalgic joy, featuring music from “Journey into Imagination,” “Universe of Energy,” “The Land” and more, but the primary keepers for me are some of the Future World instrumentals. This is available online from the Disney Music Emporium for $32.99.

Universal Studios

I can’t resist when Universal Studios Hollywood releases items that center the park’s tram tour. So I immediately wanted this King Kong plush (pictured above) that features the giant gorilla cradling a mini tram vehicle. This, in my mind, is a nod to the attraction when it featured a large animatronic of Kong that would create the illusion of rocking the ride vehicles, so in addition to being cuddly, it has a sort of vintage coolness. This park exclusive item is $30, and can be found in the Universal Studio Store near the entrance.

I don’t think the kitchen cupboard of any Universal Studios Hollywood fan is complete without a few pieces of the park’s retro glassware (pictured above). I have the one styled after the late great E.T. Adventure ride, which opened here in 1991 but sadly left the park in 2003. The ‘80s-style graphic cups have mini ride summaries. Each one is $10, and the park also has glassware styled after the “Back to the Future” ride (RIP) and the Kong section of the tram tour. The items can be found in the Universal Studio Store.

There’s a whole lot of Yoshi’s in this colorful shirt at Universal Studios Hollywood.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Universal Studios Hollywood is also the go-to shop for fans of the “Harry Potter” franchise and Nintendo. I’m a bigger fan of the latter, so I’m going to focus on a couple of my favorite Nintendo items. I’ve long been eyeing this Yoshi camp shirt, but I’m not yet persuaded I can pull it off; one of these days I’m sure I’ll be break down and buy the $75 item. I love its mix of green and pinks, and dig the soft, playful vibe. Plus, everyone adores Yoshi.

Universal Studios Hollywood’s mini-”Jaws” puzzle is an ideal stocking stuffer.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

The park also has a fair amount of Nintendo toys, including Mario, Bowser and Yoshi, but I’m a big fan of the dancing Piranha Plant, which spins and rotates when exposed to noise. It’s $37 and a little goofy, but I can’t have plants in my apartment because my cat instantly destroys them, so I’m always on the prowl for toys that double as greenery.

The Universal Studio Store has small sections dedicated to a number of the films featured in the park, and I was smitten with this mini “Jaws” puzzle, which would make an excellent stocking stuffer for fans of the Steven Spielberg classic. It’s $15, comes in an easy-to-store capsule, and features bright, cartoonish poster art.

Knott’s Berry Farm

I love all things boysenberry and at any time throughout the year you can find numerous boysenberry items around my apartment. Lately, I’ve been using the park’s boysenberry cream hand soap, which sells for $16.99. Look for it at numerous shops at the theme park, including the main store just outside the park or the hotel gift shop. It does have a powerful berry fragrance, but I don’t mind as it allows me to pretend I’m spending the night at the park. If you can’t make it to the park, Knott’s sells a $12.99 boysenberry bath bomb online.

The boysenberry, a Knott’s creation, is a delight, a sort of midpoint between a blackberry and a raspberry, although sweeter than both. That’s why I never don’t have a jar of boysenberry jam (pictured above) on hand. They’re $12.99 and available pretty much everywhere at the park but also online. The boysenberry jam is a hearty jelly, its taste reminding me of fall, as it’s not a thin, easily-spreadable jam.

Knott’s stages its annual boysenberry fest each spring, and it’s always a good time to sample dozens of boysenberry-infused foods. Typically, I prefer a more subtle touch, which is why I’ve become a big fan of the park’s boysenberry pancake mix, which sells for $7.99 and is available throughout the park and online. Each bundle is good for a number of meals, although I tend to use more than the recommended dose for thicker, larger pancakes. It’s not a heavy boysenberry flavor, so if you want to go overboard you can pair them with boysenberry syrup, which sells for $12.99 per bottle.

While I focused on boysenberry items in this list, it would be derelict of me not to mention that Knott’s Berry Farm is a prime source for all things “Peanuts.” The boysenberry, however, is such a SoCal original that I’ve been known to visit the park for the sole purpose of snaring a boysenberry pie, which I should mention is a perfect Thanksgiving dessert.

This week in SoCal theme parks

Layoffs last week hit Disney’s experiences division, which oversees its theme parks.

(AaronP / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images)

• Layoffs hit Walt Disney Imagineering. Last week The Times revealed that just under 200 people would be cut from Disney’s experiences division, which includes Disney’s theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii. Many of those involved, sources say, were with Walt Disney Imagineering. None of the currently announced projects for the Disneyland Resort are believed to be affected.
• Another coaster is coming to Magic Mountain. Six Flags’ Valencia park is soon going to be home to ArieForce One, which previously resided at the now-shuttered Fun Spot America near Atlanta. Six Flags purchased the coaster earlier this year, but at the time did not announce where it would be relocated. Magic Mountain hopes to open ArieForce One in 2028, according to a park spokesperson. The news was first reported by Brady MacDonald of the OC Register.
• Express access comes to Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. Getting on Universal’s fancy new coaster will now be a little easier, at least for those who are willing to pay to skip the line. Universal Studios Hollywood is now selling a paid line-skipping pass for $19.95 per person. This will give you an entry time to return to the attraction.
• Happy holidays! The Disneyland Resort is giving us a beer stand. Set to open in the coming days at Disney California Adventure is Bountiful Valley Brews, a new beer stall that will also sell a pepperoni pizza egg roll. In addition to local ales, Bountiful Valley will also sell a margarita and a Southern whiskey peach tea. The kiosk will be located near the entrance to Avengers Campus.
• A new immersive experience is coming to Anaheim. TeamLab, the Japan-born, tech-heavy immersive art collective, is plotting its first permanent U.S. exhibition in Anaheim. The group, stylized as teamLab, is moving into a 110,000-square-foot space at OCVibe, the 100-acre mixed-use entertainment district currently in development near the Honda Center. The teamLab spot is not estimated to open until 2030, but a press release specifies this will be a new exhibition and not a re-creation of one of the collective’s popular international exhibits.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

—

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PRINCESS Andre is following in her famous parents’ footsteps as she carves out a career in showbiz – and now she has landed a major fashion deal.

The 19-year-old daughter of Peter Andre and Katie Price has teamed up with loungewear brand KAIIA for her first edit.

Called Princess, Redefined, the collection features tracksuits and accessories styled into 18 outfits, with Princess helping to choose the pieces.

Announcing the news on Instagram, Princess said she was “so excited” to unveil her first loungewear edit, describing it as “a collection that feels so me”.

Qasim Akhlaq, CEO of KAIIA, said: “Princess is really excited about her first edit. She’s had a big say in choosing the pieces and can’t wait for everyone to see what she’s been working on.”

Fans who sign up to the KAIIA newsletter and download its app will get exclusive early access on November 9. The collection will then launch to the public at 10am on November 10.

TOTAL PRINCESS

Awkward moment Princess Andre admits she doesn’t know how a bus works

keeping her crown

Princess Andre’s career soars as she lands FOURTH series of reality show

The fashion deal comes just days after The Sun revealed her hit reality show The Princess Diaries is returning for a fourth series.

Filming is already underway, with new episodes expected to land early next year.

A source told us: “Everyone’s thrilled Princess is doing another series, it’s been so successful for ITV.”

The ITV2 show follows the teenager as she navigates family life and builds her career in the spotlight.

And Princess’s ambitions don’t stop at fashion and telly.

The Sun recently revealed she is hoping to take her cosmetics brand By Princess Stateside, with a trip planned for next summer to meet beauty retailers.

Sources also claimed the range is set to launch in Boots, marking another major step for her growing business.

Insiders told The Sun the aim is to make Princess “Britain’s answer to Kylie Jenner” as she prepares to take her beauty brand to the US.

Meanwhile, Princess is currently putting herself to the test alongside brother Junior, 21, on Celebrity Race Across The World.

The siblings took on a gruelling 7,500km journey from Borneo to Melbourne, surviving on a budget of just £26 each a day.

Speaking to Radio Times, Princess said: “We wanted to challenge ourselves, prove people wrong and show the real us.”