Rams safety Quentin Lake says he texted Justin Herbert to apologize for comments he made about the Chargers quarterback on a podcast earlier this week.

So far, Lake said Friday afternoon, he hasn’t heard back.

“I don’t know if he read it,” Lake told The Times. “He probably says, ‘I don’t care about it anymore. I’m not trying to see this. It doesn’t matter. You said what you said.’ But at the same time I … felt like it was right for me to at least say,’ Hey, man, I didn’t mean it in any disrespectful way.’”

Lake and teammate Trent McDuffie each intercepted a pass thrown by Herbert during the Rams’ 24-9 victory over the Chargers on Sunday. During an appearance on the “St. Brown Podcast” this week, Lake mentioned that Herbert “was throwing deli meat” and “seeing ghosts” during the game.

The comments left Lake and the two hosts — Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and his brother, former NFL receiver Equanimeous St. Brown — in stitches.

After his quotes went viral, however, Lake was left with a bad taste in his mouth.

“You know, I was with my boys,” said Lake, who played high school football with Amon-Ra St. Brown at Mater Dei. “I was in a comfortable environment. I was trying to say stuff funny. But looking back on it, they have a big platform. And when you say stuff like that, people are going to take it in ways that you may not mean it. … In no way shape or form was it supposed to be disrespectful.”

The Chargers are 0-7 this season, and Herbert is seen as a key contributing factor. A two-time Pro Bowl selection who is just two seasons removed from throwing for 23 touchdowns and three interceptions over 17 games, Herbert has only five touchdowns and a league-high 10 interceptions this year. He ranks 31st in QB rating among passers with at least 100 attempts.

But Lake said he thinks Herbert is “still a great quarterback,” citing the seventh-year player’s arm strength, running skills and processing ability.

“Obviously there’s some things going on over there that they probably want to fix and probably want to polish up,” Lake said. “You look at their roster from top to bottom, [they’re] still very, very talented, him included.”

Pedro Alliana has been sworn in as the new president of Paraguay, after a banking scandal led to the impeachment of his predecessor, Santiago Pena.

On Friday, Alliana, 52, took the oath of office to become the South American country’s 53rd president.

Previously, Alliana had served as vice president under Pena since the start of the latter’s term in 2023.

But Pena’s tenure came to an abrupt end earlier in the day, after 44 of Paraguay’s senators voted to remove him from office. One senator in the 45-member chamber abstained.

“I take my leave with gratitude, while fully acknowledging the anguish of those who are currently awaiting answers,” Pena wrote on social media on Friday afternoon.

The impeachment marked a rapid fall from power for Pena, a member of the long-governing Colorado Party. His departure coincides this week with the sudden collapse of a prominent lending institution, Ueno Bank.

Questions have arisen about whether the bank was properly regulated by government institutions, and whether Pena himself had conflicts of interests involving the bank.

After Pena’s impeachment, prosecutors announced they would seek his arrest on suspicion of breaching the public trust and other crimes. The former president was reportedly detained at his home.

An arrest warrant was also issued for Carlos Carvallo, the former head of Paraguay’s central bank, which has been accused of failing in its oversight duties. Carvallo resigned earlier this week.

The scandal erupted early on Tuesday, when the central bank announced that Ueno had fallen below the legal standards for solvency, meaning it did not have enough collateral to cover its loans and other ventures.

It seized the lender, transferring its remaining assets to other banking institutions as a safeguard.

Millions of Ueno clients, however, abruptly lost access to their accounts and pension payments as a result of the crisis.

With roughly 3 million members, the bank counted nearly two thirds of Paraguay’s adults among its customers.

The company had rocketed to prominence in recent years, consolidating in 2023 under the brand Ueno — sometimes stylised with lowercase letters as “ueno”. It had grown to be Paraguay’s fifth largest bank by deposits, with $800m in public money fuelling its growth.

Prior to its collapse, Ueno claimed that more than a million Paraguayans had opened their first bank account with the firm.

In 2023, Pena was identified as a shareholder of Ueno’s parent company, though he claimed to have sold his shares in early 2025.

Following the collapse of the lender, Pena offered to step down, citing the “the need to preserve our democratic institutions”.

But on Thursday, Paraguay’s Congress rejected his resignation and instead proceeded with his impeachment.

Pena’s conservative political movement, the Colorado Party, was among the groups in favour of the manoeuvre. The party has largely dominated Paraguayan politics since 1948.

“We support the impeachment of the president of the republic, Santiago Pena, in order to restore the republic’s institutions,” Horacio Cartes, a former president and party leader, wrote in a statement.

Had Pena been allowed to resign, he would have retained the right of former presidents to become a member of the Senate, with legal protections from prosecution.

In Thursday’s hearing, the Chamber of Deputies voted 78 to zero to impeach Pena, allowing for the Senate to remove him from office the following day.

It declined, however, to open impeachment hearings against Alliana.

The newly inaugurated president began his political career as the governor of his home department, Neembucu, in Paraguay’s south, and he served nearly a decade in the Chamber of Deputies, including three years as its president.

Alliana assumes the leadership of Paraguay at a time when it is facing one of its most severe political and economic scandals in recent history.

Prosecutors have questioned whether Ueno was shielded from accountability due to its government connections. Some $355m in state pension funds were invested in the bank.

At least 27 people are facing criminal charges in relation to the scandal, including lead shareholder Miguel Vazquez.

Among the crimes being investigated are attempted fraud, breach of trust, misappropriation of funds and influence peddling.

Pena has signalled he plans to cooperate with the investigation, though he did not appear at the impeachment hearings personally on Friday, sending his lawyers in his stead.

“I do not wish for my presence to be a source of greater division or instability. It is my responsibility to place the country above my own personal fate,” he wrote in a statement.

Earlier in the day, however, he signalled displeasure with the fast pace of the Senate impeachment hearing, requesting an extension “to exercise [his] constitutional right to a defence, as the time currently allotted is clearly insufficient”.

We live in a complex, electrically powered world – but the more connected everything becomes the more catastrophic it is when that fails.

In the drive towards efficiency over the last five decades, we’ve lost backup systems, says Lord Harris.

An example of this is the new communication system being adopted by the emergency services, which will replace radio comms with mobile phone network technology, says Lord Harris, “so if the mobile phone goes down it will also impact on emergency services communications”.

However, the government insists “moving emergency services onto modern 4G and 5G technologies” is “resilient and reliable”.

Government enthusiasm for resilience is nothing new. Oliver Dowden, the then deputy prime minister, launched the last Conservative government’s disaster planning initiative in May 2024. The launch was somewhat overshadowed by Sunak announcing an election on the same day but, two years on, calls for at least three days of resilience have only grown stronger.

At the beginning of researching this article I spoke to an engineer about the UK’s TV and radio transmission masts, their lonely isolation from the rest of the digital landscape sounded like a failing. It now feels like an argument in their favour.

The current urgency for disaster planning is coming at an interesting moment for technology we used to rely on. The UK’s copper wire landline system – which would work even in a power cut – will be switched off on 31 January 2027. The future of FM radio is also under government review.

The response from the government was that while copper landlines had been a useful fallback during power cuts, they were now unreliable and difficult to repair.

As I ended my call with Kemp, I asked him if his report had helped improve our readiness for a Black Sky. He paused.

“If anything, we’ve gone backwards,” he said. “Switching off the public switch telephone network, I think shows that there has been really no thought at all about how you communicate when you’ve no longer got power.”

While writing this piece last Saturday I had to break off for an hour because my street was suddenly plunged into darkness. We had a power cut.

I found my emergency torch, but the batteries had leaked. My candles had been pushed to the back of a cupboard and I had no idea where I had put my wind-up radio with its emergency torch.

It felt like an omen.

JEFF Brazier’s ex-wife Kate has gone Instagram official with her hunky new boyfriend, almost a year after her marriage to the TV presenter ended.

The PR executive, 36, shared a string of holiday snaps from South Africa, giving followers their first glimpse of her new man.

In one picture, her dark-haired boyfriend looked relaxed in sunglasses as he enjoyed a ride on the famous Franschhoek Wine Tram.

Another showed him sitting indoors in a black T-shirt and light trousers, holding a bottle as he gazed off to the side.

Kate also shared a romantic picture of the couple standing arm in arm beside a picturesque stretch of water, and she appeared to be making the most of her sun-soaked getaway, posting a snap of herself relaxing beside a swimming pool.

The loved-up pictures come almost 12 months after The Sun exclusively revealed that Kate and Jeff, 46, had separated following seven years of marriage.

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The former couple tied the knot in 2018, having first got together in 2013, but their relationship endured a number of ups and downs.

They previously separated briefly in 2022 before deciding to give their marriage another chance.

However, last November, sources told The Sun that the couple had grown apart following a difficult year, with Kate reportedly moving out of their marital home.

At the time, Jeff hinted at a fresh start of his own, sharing pictures of his new countryside home and telling followers he was embracing a calmer chapter in his life.

The presenter, who raised sons Bobby and Freddy following the death of their mother Jade Goody in 2009, has continued his television career, including his work as a football presenter.

Jeff’s eldest son Bobby, 23, has also carved out a successful showbiz career, starring in EastEnders and reaching the final of Strictly Come Dancing in 2023.

Kate has not yet shared the name or more details about her new boyfriend.

Nov. 6, 2026 2:09 PM PT

WASHINGTON — The top federal prosecutor in Miami who had been tasked with overseeing an investigation into foes of President Trump has resigned, joining other high-profile Justice Department officials departing in the wake of the midterm elections, officials said Friday.

Jason Reding Quiñones’ resignation follows frustrations among Washington officials with his management of the office assigned to lead the so-called grand conspiracy investigation, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The Justice Department’s top national security official, John Eisenberg, also resigned Friday, Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said. On Thursday, Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, who led a radical overhaul of the department’s Civil Rights Division, also announced her departure.

Quiñones was confirmed by the Senate last year as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, where the Justice Department had centered its meandering probe into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.

His departure comes as the investigation has shown signs of faltering amid a spate of staff turnovers and delays. Investigators in recent weeks have put off scheduled grand jury testimony of several witnesses, according to multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Blanche said in a social media post that the department is grateful for Quiñones’ “leadership in combating violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and transnational crime, including the indictment of Raúl Castro.”

Castro, the former Cuban president, was indicted by Quiñones’ office in May on charges related to the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles.

Quiñones said Friday that he is leaving with “immense pride in what we accomplished together and profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve our great Nation.”

“I am grateful to President Trump for his trust and to the extraordinary men and women of the great Southern District of Florida for their dedication, friendship, and unwavering commitment to justice and the rule of law,” Quiñones wrote in a social media post.

The “grand conspiracy” investigation has proceeded in fits and starts for over a year with repeated setbacks and departures. Last April, a lead national security prosecutor in the investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan was replaced on the team after raising questions about the strength of the case.

Shortly afterward, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, took over the probe. DiGenova resigned from the Justice Department in September without bringing any criminal charges.

Eisenberg was sworn in as assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s National Security Division in June 2025 and oversaw cases involving espionage, terrorism, export control violations, cyber crimes and other matters.

Among the division’s most high-profile cases under his watch was the prosecution of former national security adviser John Bolton, who pleaded guilty this year to allegations of mishandling classified information and is awaiting sentencing.

“He has served with distinction, strengthening our nation’s ability to address threats, both foreign and domestic,” Blanche said in a statement.

Richer and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

League One side, and 2021 champions, Leicester City avoid an upset as they beat sixth-tier Oxford City 4-2 at the MGroup Stadium, to reach the second round of the FA Cup.

MATCH REPORT: FA Cup – Oxford City 2-4 Leicester City

Available to UK users only.

It was the most expensive election in American history: nearly $12bn spent, much of it on advertisements, with the majority of that money going to Republican candidates. But most voters weren’t buying it. The result: a Democratic sweep on a scale not seen in half a century.

In the aftermath of the vote, United States President Donald Trump – who has long revelled in his ability to turn controversy and crisis into spectacle – appeared to lose control of the narrative. The scale of the Republican defeat amounts to a repudiation of Trump’s politics and the US-Israel war on Iran. Meenakshi Ravi and Richard Gizbert examine the political and media fallout.

Contributors: 
Alex Shephard – Senior editor, The New Republic
Rob Arlett – former Trump state campaign chair & Republican strategist
Maya Berry – Executive director, Arab American Institute

On our radar

Serbia’s new political leadership has yet to form a government, but the country’s media institutions are already being purged of voices who gave former president, Aleksandar Vucic, years of favourable coverage. Tariq Nafi looks at the news outlets being held to account.

Equator: a magazine for a post-American world

Equator magazine is the brainchild of a group of writers and editors – some of them ex-mainstream media – who came together during a “moment of moral despair” as they witnessed Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza unfold. One year after its launch, Equator has produced some quality stories and essays on global politics, culture and art – all presented with an eye for design. We speak to cofounder and former Guardian editor, Jonathan Shainin, about the magazine’s vision and how it’s going.

Featuring:
Jonathan Shainin – Founding Editor, Equator magazine

Miller is best known for being the driving force behind the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies, which has included ramping up funding for enforcement operations across the US.

He made headlines when he called Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal immigration officials during a massive deportation operation in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin”. He would later walk back those words, saying federal agents “may not have been following” proper protocol.

He has also reportedly played a leading role in the US military operations in Venezuela and against suspected drug trafficking operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which critics have condemned as extra-judicial killings.

Miller joined Trump’s political operation early in his 2016 presidential bid as a strategist and incendiary warm-up speaker at his raucous campaign rallies.

He was one of the few senior White House staffers to persevere through the entirety of his first term. He stayed loyal to Trump during his political exile following attempts to overturn his ballot-box defeat in 2000 failed. He then returned in the influential role of deputy chief of staff for policy in Trump’s second term.

Wiles, who co-managed the president’s successful 2024 re-election campaign, developed a reputation as a cool professional who avoided the White House staffing upheavals, dramatic policy reversals and personality clashes that typified Trump’s first presidential term.

The president, however, began souring on Wiles in recent months, as his political standing in the US declined, culminating in Tuesday’s electoral rout. He also reportedly chaffed at news stories indicating that those in Wiles’ orbit were landing lucrative consulting jobs through their connections to the president.

OSCAR-winning filmmaker Sebastián Lelio, who directed the critically acclaimed A Fantastic Woman, has died aged 52.

The Chilean director passed away at his home in Santiago, Chile due to “health reasons”, said his partner, actress Amalia Kassai.

She reportedly called police after finding Lelio at his home in the city’s Las Condes district.

“We are going through a very painful time, and his memory will remain with us forever,” Amalia wrote in a touching tribute on Instagram.

“He was a wonderful person who contributed to Chilean culture during important moments in its history.”

The statement, signed by the Lelio Kassai and Campos Watt families, continued: “As a family, we ask for respect for our privacy and consideration during these difficult times.”

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Lelio’s 2017 film A Fantastic Woman starred Daniela Vega as a trans woman implicated in the accidental death of her older boyfriend.

The groundbreaking movie took home the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2018 and led to reforms for trans identification in Chile.

It also won the Independent Spirit Award for best international film.

Lelio also received critical acclaim for directing English language features such as The Wonder and Gloria Bell.

The latter was a remake of his earlier film Gloria, which took home numerous awards and was selected as Chile’s Oscar entry for best foreign feature.

It starred award-winning actress Paulina Garcia as a 58-year-old woman who starts dating a decade after getting divorced.

Lelio’s 2017 film Disobedience starred Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams and follows a woman who reunites with a childhood friend at an Orthodox community.

The late filmmaker was born in Argentina, before his family moved to Chile when he was two.

He launched his career in 2005 with La Sagrada Familia after directing several short films and music videos.

Lelio also directed two seasons of the documentary series Mi mundo privado (My private life), which earned two Emmy nominations.

His third film, The Year of the Tiger, was set in the aftermath of the catastrophic 2010 Chile earthquake and follows an escaped prisoner as he travels through the worst-affected regions of the country.

Lelio’s 2022 flick The Wonder was a critically acclaimed adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel The Wonder and starred Florence Pugh.

He told The Guardian: “I love working with actors, and need to know they trust me and can explore, get lost, be foolish or brave, and I’ll take care of them.

“I love working on set – it is where the sparkle is.”

His final film was 2025’s The Wave, a musical protest drama that premiered at Cannes.

“Making a film is like a gift you leave somewhere – you then hide and see what happens,” Lelio said.

PHOENIX — Democrats in Arizona won control of both legislative chambers and retained the governor’s office, giving the party its first trifecta in the state since 1966 as Democrats made major gains nationwide in this week’s elections and took control of both chambers of Congress.

In her first term, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs had vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature on policies including taxes, immigration and voting laws. Hobbs has said she’s looking to address water issues and affordability, and take on fraud and abuse in the state’s school voucher program.

The Associated Press called enough legislative races to confirm that both chambers flipped on Friday. The news organization calls races individually and it can take several days after voting, depending on when election officials tally the votes and how close the elections are. There have not been major disputes or disruptions this year.

In Arizona, Republicans have held the House for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.

Attendees during the Arizona Democratic Party election night event in Phoenix on Tuesday.

(Cassidy Araiza / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Overall, Democrats took full control — both statehouse chambers and governors’ offices — in at least six states where they previously shared power with Republicans. Besides Arizona, those wins were in the battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.

The flips weren’t just in states that are normally competitive. Democrats won control of the Texas House, which Republicans have held since 2003, and elected Gina Hinojosa as the state’s first Democratic governor since Ann Richards in the 1990s. Republicans held on to the state Senate.

Democrats also flipped the lower chambers of the legislatures in Maine and North Carolina and both chambers in New Hampshire, where Republican Kelly Ayotte was reelected. The count could grow as results are tallied in additional states.

The National Council of State Legislatures says it’s likely to end up as the election with the most legislative seats and chambers changing parties since the 2010 election, when Republicans took over governments across the country amid the Great Recession.

Democrats will also hold the governor’s office in at least 28 states. Results are still pending in Alaska and Kansas.

The margin for error is thin.

Despite sitting atop the Big Ten with an undefeated record, the College Football Playoff selection committee slotted UCLA at No. 8 in its first rankings of the year, sitting behind a pair of two-loss Southeastern Conference teams and setting the stage for the Bruins to slip outside the 12-team playoff with one or two losses.

The Bruins, ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, are on the road for the first time in almost a month to face Minnesota at Huntington Bank Stadium, their toughest test since UCLA defeated Wisconsin on Oct. 17. The Golden Gophers — who defeated then-No. 13 Iowa on Oct. 24 and took then-No. 4 Indiana to overtime in Bloomington last week — give the Bruins an opportunity to silence critics questioning their strength of schedule. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. local time and 9 a.m. PST, the Bruins’ earliest start this season.

Coach Bob Chesney said he wants his team remain focused on the matchup and not outside noise, arguing that
the two most meaningless statistics in football are the score at halftime and a team’s record going into November.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney directs his team during a win over Nevada at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 31.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

“This is as tough a team as we’ve faced and probably will face — playing at their place with an early start, all the things that come with it,” Chesney said. “… We have to make sure that we understand that practicing mental toughness, physical toughness, emotional toughness are all things that have to be worked on now and logged now. But again, it’s November. Things are heightened just a little bit more.”

If the Bruins want to leave Minnesota 9-0, they need strong play from senior quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, who has led an offense that strained to score wins the past two weeks.

UCLA’s offense has combined for 48 points against Michigan State and Nevada, but the Bruins suffered from slow starts during both homestands.

And while Dieffenbach has not turned the ball over across the past two weeks, Chesney said the quarterback failed to pull the trigger on throws that could have opened up the offense and allowed the running game to hit another gear.

“The biggest thing is starting fast, and staying with your true reads — being able to get back to the third read, fourth read — and then trust in the pocket too,” UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy said. “… At the end of the day, there’s going to be a little bit of pressure. The pocket’s going to break down. So sitting in there and then really trusting it to get back with your eyes.”

Kennedy said self-inflicted wounds have hampered the offense’s execution, forcing Dieffenbach into third-and-long situations rather than third and manageable.

With Minnesota’s defense ranked sixth nationally in third-down defense and UCLA going 11-for-29 on third down the past two games, the offense will have to make the most of early downs.

UCLA’s offensive arsenal also gave away two fumbles against Michigan State — from senior running back Jaivian Thomas and fifth-year Anthony Woods — both in Spartan territory. The Golden Gophers and the Bruins are tied for first in the Big Ten in forced fumbles with 10 and it could take just one loose ball to change the tide of Saturday’s game in the Twin Cities.

“You look at the amount of turnovers they create. … You see them punch a lot at the football too,” Kennedy said. “That’s all design, and that’s probably something they pride themselves on, of trying to turn the football over and give it back to their offense.

“That’s something that we’ve stressed nonstop — ball security.”

Creating turnovers on the other side of the ball will be equally imperative to dismantling Minnesota’s offense. The Bruins lead the nation in takeaways with 26, averaging 3.3 per game, but defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler noted that they also lead the country in dropped interceptions.

With Minnesota kicker Luke Drzewiecki hitting 51 and 60-yard field goals against Indiana, and maintaining a perfect 15-for-15 field-goal clip — including going eight for eight from 40-plus yards — the Golden Gophers have the ability to light up the scoreboard as soon as they hit midfield.

The key to keeping Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck’s offense in its own territory and punting will be winning the line of scrimmage battle. Edge rushers Aiden Gobaira and Sahir West dominated last week against Nevada, combining for 16 tackles, three sacks and five tackles-for-loss.

“We have to match that intensity that starts up front, and AG [Aiden Gobaira] always sets the tone from that standard and you love the kid to death,” Hitschler said. “He puts it all out there for his teammates and he’s taken Sahir under his wing over the years. … Sahir starts and he does the hard duty, but when they’re together and they’re dominating, that’s carried us for a long time.”

Setting the edge and winning the trench battle will also be vital for mitigating the influence of Minnesota running back tandem T.J. Thomas and Darius Taylor.

The former has operated as the backup this season, but has rushed for 379 yards in six yards per carry. And while Taylor has struggled so far this season, averaging 2.6 yards per attempt, he still displays flashes of the tailback who rushed for 986 yards and 10 scores two seasons ago.

“I saw Darius a few years ago, and he’s as good a back as there is in this league, and obviously their backups got a good chip on his shoulder and earned the opportunity to play at this level and have been extremely explosive,” Hitschler said. “They’ve done a good job of being tough and being physical and finding a way to win. And a lot of that goes to their mentality being similar to ours.”

A pair of operational F-15EX Eagle II fighters assigned to the Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing are now flying with conformal fuel tanks (CFT). While F-15EX test jets have been flying with surplus CFTs for years, the U.S. Air Force did not originally feel that combat-coded jets needed them to perform their primary air-to-air missions. For the Eagle II, CFTs offer boosts in range and capacity to carry stores, especially air-to-ground munitions, and are another sign of how the jet’s mission requirements are evolving.

Photographer Bill Shemley brought the CFT-equipped F-15EX Eagle IIs to our attention after spotting them operating recently at Portland International Airport. The airport is collocated with Portland Air National Guard Base, the home of the 142nd Wing. One of the jets in question is serial number 20-0012, part of the first batch of production Eagle IIs, which started being delivered to the 142nd in 2024. As of September, the Air Force had received 22 F-15EXs, including test jets, out of a planned fleet of 267 Eagle IIs. The service revealed earlier this year that the target fleet size had roughly doubled, up from the previously stated program of record of 129 aircraft.

“We are currently using conformals that we received from ACC [Air Combat Command] on two F-15EX Eagle IIs,” SMSgt. Steve Conklin, a public affairs officer with the Oregon Air National Guard, told TWZ when asked for more information. “We were given the opportunity from ACC and have flown the approved configuration for the last two weeks.”

We are still seeking additional details. The CFT that is visible in Shemley’s picture notably has the insignia of the 366th Fighter Wing, which flies F-15E Strike Eagles from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. In the past year or so, the 142nd has been sending Eagle IIs, pilots, and ground personnel to Mountain Home to conduct air-to-ground mission training.

The F-15EX is designed to use the same CFTs that are standard on the F-15E, as well as all other members of the extended Strike Eagle family. This includes the F-15QA for Qatar, on which the Eagle II was directly based. Each CFT can hold some 750 gallons of fuel and adds six additional pylons.

As mentioned, the Air Force did not originally plan to equip operational F-15EXs with CFTs. This decision was made despite the aircraft having the necessary provisions and initial testing having been done using jets fitted with them. Instead, the Eagle IIs were expected to fly with external drop tanks under their wings, just like the F-15C/D Eagles they were slated to replace.

“The F-15EX program as funded from FY20-FY23 is a direct replacement for the F-15C/D in the air-to-air and homeland defense role,” an Air Force spokesperson explained to TWZ back in 2023. “The F-15C/D does not typically operate with CFTs, and the first operational F-15EX aircraft do not have CFTs funded.”

A number of Air Force F-15C/Ds did fly with CFTs, also known as “FAST Packs,” during the twilight of the Cold War and its immediate aftermath. Those aircraft operated primarily from bases in Alaska and Iceland where long-range patrols and quick-reaction alert (QRA) missions were the norm.

“The DAF [Department of the Air Force] is exploring options to resource a number of advanced capabilities for the F-15EX fleet, including both new and refurbished CFTs, in current and future budget submissions,” the spokesperson added at that time.

Where things currently stand when it comes to equipping all operational F-15EXs with CFTs, including on Eagle IIs destined for forward-deployment in Japan, is still not entirely clear. The service’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal, released earlier this year, did include an explicit request for funding for CFTs to go with all 24 Eagle IIs in the eighth production batch, or Lot 8.

Back in 2023, TWZ did acknowledge the logic, at least up front, of eschewing CFTs on the F-15EX given the air-to-air mission focus for those jets. At the same time, we pointed out then that the omission of conformal tanks could still impact Eagle IIs operating in those roles. A 600-gallon underwing drop tank holds 150 gallons less fuel than a CFT and takes up a hardpoint that could be used to carry other stores. Drop tanks also impart far greater drag, reducing fuel economy and range in certain flight profiles.

CFTs do still have their own effects on speed and maneuverability. Unlike drop tanks, they cannot be jettisoned in flight, either. F-15C/D pilots that TWZ has spoken with in the past have talked about the benefits of being able to get an immediate boost in performance and instantly optimize their jets for air-to-air combat by dropping their underwing tanks.

A CFT-equipped F-15EX would still be able to carry underwing drop tanks, as well, if desired. Doing so would give the jets an impressive loadout of weapons and other stores while even further increasing their unrefueled reach.

Even just within the context of air-to-air missions, CFT-equipped F-15EXs would be particularly beneficial for supporting future operations in the Pacific. The inherent geography of the region means access to bases on the ground and tanker support could easily be limited. With CFTs, Eagle IIs would be able to operate further forward of tankers and be able to do so for longer periods of time, helping to extend patrol distances and total on-station time. Not having to carry drop tanks would also translate to more ordnance capacity on those sorties.

Since 2023, the operational landscape for the F-15EX has changed even further as the air-to-ground mission set has started creeping more and more into the jet’s repertoire. As noted earlier, the CFT seen on 20-0012 itself has a clear link to Mountain Home Air Force Base, where the 142nd has been honing its air-to-ground skills. In July, the Oregon Air National Guard announced that one of its F-15EXs had dropped training bombs for the first time ever while operating from Mountain Home. The first release of a live bomb from one of the 142nd’s Eagle IIs came during training out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in September.

This has all been entirely unsurprising given the F-15EX’s inherently large payload capacity and ability to carry it over very long distances, all of which is only increased by the use of CFTs. The Eagle II, like the other members of the extended Strike Eagle family, can also accommodate outsized stores that it is simply not feasible for many other tactical jets to lug around. Prime contractor Boeing and the Air Force have been touting these capabilities as core features of the F-15EX for years now. These are the same attributes that make the F-15E one of the Air Force’s most heavily in-demand platforms today.

CFTs are not the only way in which the F-15EX design continues to evolve, either. The Air Force is also now moving toward adding a missile approach warning system (MAWS) to the Eagle IIs. This is another feature the aircraft was designed to accommodate from the outset, but that was skimped on. Its absence, however, has been more and more glaring, especially in light of recent combat experiences over Iran.

Furthermore, the future of the Air Force’s Strike Eagle fleet is only becoming more and more inseparable from plans for the Eagle II. The service has said explicitly that the doubling of the planned F-15EX fleet size is intended to help “begin to recapitalize the aging F-15E fleet.”

In recent years, the Air Force has moved to retire all of the older F-100-PW-220-powered Strike Eagles, which represent roughly half of F-15Es currently in inventory. The service has argued this will also help free up resources for new and improved capabilities as part of larger modernization efforts.

For the Air Force’s F-15EX fleets, the two 142nd Wing jets flying now with CFTs underscore the continued evolution of these aircraft and their expected roles.

Special thanks again to Bill Shemley for sharing his picture of F-15EX 20-0012 equipped with CFTs.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

To make “North of North,” creators Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril had to do what no one had done before: build a full-scale scripted TV production in the Arctic, where infrastructure is scarce and costs are high.

Co-commissioned by CBC, Netflix and Indigenous network APTN, the acclaimed comedy stars Anna Lambe as Siaja, a young Inuk mother who leaves an unfulfilling marriage to reinvent her life in the close-knit fictional Arctic community of Ice Cove. For the creators, the series could only be filmed in Iqaluit — the capital of Nunavut, the northernmost territory of Canada.

“As soon as you visit the Arctic, you’re like, ‘Northern Manitoba’s not going to cut it. Northern Ontario’s not going to cut it,’” Arnaquq-Baril says. “And it’s not just the landscape — it’s also all the people, the houses. Everything is just a little different and unique and well worth all the logistical challenges of shooting up here.”

While CBC, Netflix and APTN all immediately saw the value in shooting in the Arctic, Aglok MacDonald says the executive producers still had to conduct their own “feasibility study” to prove it was possible. They had to demonstrate that local hotels could house the crew and that service providers and truck rentals were available. They also needed the city council’s permission to rent the Iqaluit Curling Club and convert it into a temporary studio for Season 1 — though it was big enough only for some of the sets, with no room for department or producer offices.

After “North of North” was officially ordered to series in March 2023, Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril hired a producer, a year before prep would normally begin, to plan the procurement and transport of specific items months in advance. Wherever possible, materials were sent by sea during the annual short thaw to avoid expensive airfreight. For example, building materials and boxed water — which, Arnaquq-Baril says, was chosen over plastic bottles to leave “less toxic garbage in the Arctic” — were shipped by sealift.

Anna Lambe as on the set of “North of North” Season 2.

(Jasper Savage / CBC / APTN / Netflix)

Most sets were built in Toronto, disassembled and palletized to fit the cargo plane’s fuselage. Generators arrived drained of fuel and had to be restarted by a local. The pipes in portable washrooms would have frozen, so the production hired extra drivers to shuttle crew to their hotel bathrooms. Costume designers even used social media to ask travelers to bring items from Ottawa or Toronto.

What couldn’t be shipped had to be improvised. “Our grip department were like MacGyver,” Arnaquq-Baril says. For instance, the crew built the “Nunavut arm,” a jib mounted on a pickup truck’s flatbed to capture wide outdoor shots. A camera operator built a custom housing that kept his hands warm at –40 degrees Celsius while he maintained enough dexterity to fly a drone. Even hair and makeup had to adapt, since traditional hair spray stops working properly in that cold.

A lack of hotel space, however, nearly derailed “North of North” entirely. Production paused in Season 1 when a mining symposium took over the town’s hotels. In Season 2, which premiered on Netflix Thursday, a hotel renovation forced the producers to ship sets to Toronto and shoot those scenes on a soundstage, and pushed the Arctic shoot later in the year, leaving less time for postproduction. When the Iqaluit shoot finally began this March, Lambe and the creators recall, the temperature was also 20 C colder than in Season 1 — a jarring drop even by Arctic standards.

Aglok MacDonald says that many cast and crew members actually lost weight during the shoot. “Often, we’re standing still, but our bodies are still really working so hard to keep warm, and we’re out there for 13 hours a day in –39 C,” she explains. “Thankfully, our craft services [team] is feeding us warm food. Every time we call ‘cut,’ people are starting to do jumping jacks and doing what they can to keep their bodies moving. Even Inuit from our community would be watching us outside through their windows and being like, ‘Oh my God, you guys are crazy. Are you guys OK?’”

“We have a taste of what hunters do every day now,” Arnaquq-Baril quips. “They go out in the cold every single day, all year round, year after year, and we’re just doing it for six weeks at a time. It was grueling. I don’t know how they do it.”

Maika Harper as Neevee, from left, Anna Lambe as Siaja, Braeden Clarke as Kuuk, Jay Ryan as Alistair are filmed for “North of North.”

(Jasper Savage / CBC / APTN / Netflix)

“North of North” has been a boon to the local and national economy. In Season 1, 500 Iqaluit locals (from a population of around 8,000), including the mayor, appeared as background actors, while the production employed more than 300 Canadian crew members and over 225 vendors, more than 60 of them from Nunavut. Netflix estimates the first season generated more than $23 million in economic activity.

Having seen non-Indigenous filmmakers come to the Arctic and offer little in return, the Inuit co-creators, who both live in Nunavut, were determined to give back to their community. Most notably, they created apprenticeship programs across various departments — including camera, sound, production design, catering — to teach Inuit and other local northern residents about the filmmaking process.

Lambe, raised in Iqaluit, grew up with many of the people who are now working on the show. “When you’re on the outside of [the industry], you have no idea that lighting tech or grip is a job, or that craft services are an integral part of a production,” she says. “If they don’t want to be in front of the camera or writing or directing, there’s so many other spaces that they can work in and dream about and pursue.”

After the extended Season 2 stint on a Toronto soundstage, Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril secured funding for a new studio from the Indigenous Screen Office, the Government of Nunavut, the Canadian government and local Inuk businessmen. Construction is now 75% complete, and the “North of North” team hopes to have it ready in time for a potential Season 3. “We’re so excited for it to be done, adding to the infrastructure of the community instead of just straining it so much,” Arnaquq-Baril says.

Unrivaled will tip off its third season with a coast-to-coast event on Jan. 8 at Intuit Dome, featuring a doubleheader.

Opening night in Los Angeles will begin at 7 p.m. with a matchup between the league’s first two MVPs, as Napheesa Collier and Lunar Owls BC go up against Chelsea Gray and Rose BC. The second game of the night will feature newly crowned WNBA champion Gabby Williams, the Sparks’ Cameron Brink and Hive BC going against Jackie Young and Laces BC.

“Opening our third season in Los Angeles at Intuit Dome is a significant milestone for Unrivaled and reflects how far the league has come in just two years,” said Unrivaled president and CEO Alex Bazzell. “With our expanded roster of talent and a coast-to-coast opening night, we’re excited to introduce even more fans across Los Angeles to the competition and player experience that make Unrivaled unique.”

Before the games at Intuit Dome, Unrivaled will start the season in Boston with a rematch of last season’s final, as the defending champion Mist take on Phantom. The opening game will be followed by Vinyl vs. Breeze.

The rest of the season will be played as part of an eight-city tour, including stops at the league’s home base, Sephora Arena in Miami, as well as Detroit and San Francisco on Jan. 11, Brooklyn on Jan. 22, Minneapolis on Jan. 24, Houston on Feb. 12 and Philadelphia on Feb. 15.

Unrivaled began touring the country during its second season, starting with a historic soldout game at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. The league also held its semifinal games before another sellout crowd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Three-on-three basketball made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, where the United States took home the gold medal. Germany won the top prize at the Paris Summer Olympics. Unrivaled has maintained the three-on-three approach, but it is played on a condensed full court rather than the Olympic halfcourt format.

The league features WNBA stars such as Kelsey Plum of the Phoenix Mercury, Paige Bueckers of the Dallas Wings and Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo.

Games will be televised on TNT, truTV and HBO Max.

Data centres face protests across Europe due to the massive amounts of computing power and water they use.

Protesters in the Netherlands have broken into a construction site for a new Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam, the latest action in a growing movement sweeping Europe.

Several hundred activists occupied the site in the Sloterdijk district on Friday, responding to a call for a two-day protest across Europe against data centres, which handle the large processing workloads associated with artificial intelligence (AI). Demonstrators clashed with police as some climbed a crane and set off flares.

Nathan Timmer, of the protest group Geef Tegengas – which translates as Push Back – told local broadcaster AT5 that demonstrators were occupying the site in an effort to stop construction.

“We don’t want it to be built. Nobody needs it,” Timmer said. “The only thing this will be used for is AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocide. We don’t want that.”

Pro-Palestinian activists also joined the demonstrations in the Dutch capital. By late afternoon police were escorting activists off the construction site, though some remained, local media reported.

Dutch police said they detained 150-200 people suspected of trespassing during the protest.

Microsoft said it was aware of the Amsterdam demonstration.

“We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully,” a spokesperson said. “However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk.”

Data centres face resistance around the world due to the massive amounts of computing power and water they use. Activists argue that the boom in facilities serving cloud computing and AI is moving faster than public consultation and environmental oversight.

Dozens of civil society and grassroots groups have said they will join the “Stop Dirty Data Centres” events on Friday and Saturday in 15 European countries, including Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, organisers said.

In Germany, a dozen protesters gathered in front of a data centre on the outskirts of Berlin on Friday.

“We want to put a stop to this blind construction of data centres around Germany, regardless of any environmental concerns,” said protest spokeswoman Caro Weber. “This is really, really dangerous for our future.”

About 100 people also protested against data centres in front of the Polish parliament, representing communities around Warsaw where new centres are planned.

In Italy, the fast-growing data centre industry is facing an equally rapid rise in grassroots opposition, particularly in the northern Lombardy region, the country’s main hub for digital infrastructure.

While real-world tech mogul Elon Musk suffered a major setback this week after pouring more than $200 million into Texas Republican campaigns that lost to protect his business empire, over on HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” robber baron George Russell is fighting tooth and nail against looming federal regulations to save his.

The period drama returned Sunday with its fourth season. After leaving George (Morgan Spector) at a major turning point in Season 3 — seemingly done with his marriage following Bertha‘s (Carrie Coon) forced engineering of their daughter‘s marriage, as well as his own survival of a near-fatal shooting — the couple is still at odds. As the new season picks up, George unravels under the looming threat of anti-monopoly laws targeting his industrial empire. And that’s just part of all the drama and fun that made the episode the show’s most-watched premiere yet, averaging nearly 4 million viewers across platforms, according to the cabler/streamer. Season 4 promises more tension as the Russells try to maintain their wealth and status while Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) tries to regain her position, all while the show’s various relationships face challenges, ultimatums or bittersweet developments. Ahead of this week’s second episode, I spoke with Sonja Warfield, who is co-showrunner of the series alongside creator Julian Fellowes, about how Season 4 kicks off — including that unexpected cameo from David Letterman and Matt Damon.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our writers recommend a new stand-up special from everyone’s favorite sitcom principal and a sports drama chronicling the life of Muhammad Ali. — Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Janelle James at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, where her Netflix comedy special was filmed.

(Elizabeth Sisson / Netflix )

“Janelle James: How Romantic” (Netflix)

Among the many gifts “Abbott Elementary” showered upon the culture was bringing Janelle James to national prominence. As work-averse principal Ava Coleman — a selfish, insulting character one is always delighted to see — she is as attractive as she is difficult. And as the show has gone on, the actor has found layers to play, including hints of a kind of existential melancholy. James began in stand-up — her biggest brush with fame was touring with Chris Rock in 2017 — and now she’s headlining her own, first hourlong special, which debuts Tuesday on the streamer and was filmed at Chicago’s Vic Theatre. Hang on through an opening salvo of political jokes that elapsed time and Tuesday’s election results have rendered stale (Rudy Giuliani, anybody? Joe Biden?) as James, laughing and dancing, unwinds into her real material — spending 24 hours in labor, the problems and perks of being suddenly famous, men and how they are, having money with a poor person’s mind. Of the power of comedy (and being on a hit sitcom) to unite a diverse audience, she says, “There’s one of everything in here. … We can all be in here and share a laugh, then everyone goes back to their respective neighborhoods, never to speak again. But for a small moment in time we were all friends. Because of me. So that’s nice.” — Robert Lloyd

Jaalen Best as Muhammad Ali in Prime Video’s “The Greatest.”

(Brooke Palmer / Prime)

“The Greatest” (Prime Video)

The multitude of projects about Muhammad Ali just received a new entry with Prime Video’s limited series “The Greatest,” starring newcomer Jaalen Best as the legendary boxer. The project traces Ali’s breakthrough as a gold medal boxer through his brutal battle with Sonny Liston. Viewers looking for a companion piece to the drama can check out Ken Burns’ 2021 epic documentary “Muhammad Ali.” Burns called the four-part miniseries an extensive look at a “man who may be the most iconic figure of the 20th century.” The filmmaker added that Ali was also a “very complex, dynamic man” who had an immeasurable impact stretched into politics, culture and religion.” — Greg Braxton

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A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon in Season 4 of “The Gilded Age.”

(Karolina Wojtasik / HBO)

Clocks have rolled back and “The Gilded Age” Sundays have returned — the perfect couch rotting combo for fall. Lingering crises and fresh new scandals collide in Season 4 as our favorite New York elite navigate a fracturing power marriage, perilous childbirth, a horse-carriage breakdown that ignites a night of forbidden passion, and a titan‘s struggle to maintain his empire. Even Jack’s new invention, the electric mixer, couldn’t whip up a more delicious start. Episode 2 airs Sunday on HBO and will stream on HBO Max. I spoke with Sonja Warfield, the co-showrunner of the drama, about the premiere, that David Letterman and Matt Damon cameo and what’s ahead this season. — Y.V.

You said you were looking at social media a bit after the premiere. What stood out to you about what fans were responding to?

Marian. Someone had a lot of thoughts about some of Marian’s costumes. But then I read something about Marian and Larry having sex, and they don’t want to hear about her complaining about him this season — something like, “She just needs to go over there to his house and get her ring back.”

It’s been interesting to see the conversation around Marian’s freak-out the morning after she had sex with Larry — and the ramifications of premarital sex at that time.

Louisa [Jacobson, who plays Marian] did an amazing job conveying the gravity of the transgression; it just was all over her face. And Harry’s reaction, because he’s kind of surprised. They just had this roll in the hay, but it transmits to him as well. So really, kudos to Louisa for selling that. Wonderful actors like Louisa Jacobson help the viewer along in their understanding that this is about the worst thing that you can do, and then we have the scene afterwards. That walk of shame back and the aunts even say, “Oh, it was better that you took a cab because the impropriety of that.”

We also see Gladys survive this traumatic, life-threatening breach birth, ultimately welcoming a baby boy. Some of us have PTSD from Lady Sybil’s death in “Downton Abbey” and were very nervous about where it was going.

One of the first things I said to Julian when we first started working together was, “I might never forgive you for what you did to Lady Sybil.” I remember every frame of what Lady Sybil went through. … We wanted to make sure that [“The Gilded Age”] was different, so we worked closely with a doctor who specializes in Victorian medicine to figure out how we can make it traumatic, her life is salvaged, but she’s forever changed. It’s women’s health. There’s still more questions than answers, and especially back then when they had not even surfaced. Maternal mortality rate has been lowered in recent years in America. It’s real jeopardy, and it happens all the time and every day.

Women’s health and decisions surrounding it are not the only timely modern parallel. Something that looms large is wealthy business titans trying to exert profound, direct influence over American politics and policies. How was it to dig into that history this season, given the current real-world backdrop?

As we got the research in, and we started having conversations with Dr. Dunbar [Erica Armstong Dunbar is a co-executive producer and lead historical consultant on the series], it became abundantly clear that the reason why there have been so many regulations in business is because of the Gilded Age. We’re just right back where we started. I love this argument that is being used today that was being used back then, which is “let us regulate our ourselves.” That’s ridiculous. They changed America, and brought in wealth and industry and the railroad and all of that; at the same time, it has to be regulated. They cannot regulate themselves. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins.

Audra McDonald, left, and Denée Benton in “The Gilded Age.”

(Karolina Wojtasik / HBO)

Were you nervous about having this plot about anti-monopoly legislation or how it would be received by studio brass, given the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger?

It was not in my mind because it is the real history. We are being historically accurate.

There is a moment eight minutes into the premiere episode that, if you blinked, you missed it: David Letterman and Matt Damon made cameos as background actors. Apparently, David has long wanted to be a background actor, and this stunt was filmed as a field segment for the new season of his Netflix interview show; Damon got his start as a background actor. Were you in disbelief when you heard about this request?

I am a huge David Letterman fan. When I heard that there was a possibility that I could meet David Letterman, I was ecstatic and really kind of selfish. We shoot tandem sets, so there are two sets going at a time. My mandate was, “I’m on the David Letterman set that day. Take me there.” All the way in Long Island. I had an event that night. I didn’t care. I waited for David.

Forget Matt Damon.

What was so funny was that my dad is a huge Matt Damon fan, and whilst I was awaiting David Letterman, I had an audience with Matt Damon, who is the most lovely, kind person ever. So empathetic and gracious and wonderful, and game whatever they had cooking on Letterman’s show. Then I met David Letterman. It was an absolute blast. I was like, “This is a the best day at work in a long time.” It all started because someone on our staff was friends with someone on David Letterman’s show.

We see them casually crossing the street. Was it hard to decide what scene to plop them into?

It was really about scheduling. And what would be the least conspicuous because David Letterman does have that long beard. We held on to it for so long. We shot that back in May.

I want all good things for Peggy, in life, love and career. Her wedding to William is on the horizon. What did you want out of that moment for her?

Well, once I knew we had a bigger budget, I wanted all of it too. I really do think we deliver. I want to be mindful here. The location of where she gets married is exquisitely beautiful. We enter the wedding and the marriage with trepidation because there is real conflict, inherent conflict with this family in the form of Elizabeth Kirkland, played by the incredible Felicia Rashad. I think all weddings are fraught because you’re bringing together these different factions, and people want different things and have ideas and dreams. I think Peggy’s wedding delivers on all fronts. I think it delivers in terms of dramatic tension. I think it delivers in terms of set decoration. It delivers in terms of costume and, of course, performances and direction. I can’t wait for the audience to watch it and then watch it again. Accompanying the wedding will be some beautiful photography done by the Tyler Twins. Their work is really just exquisite, and I’m excited for the world to see all this. We’ve been holding all of this in.

Peggy and William are at the dawn of their relationship, just as Bertha and George are navigating a major stress point in their union.

Marriage is a journey. I’ve been married and divorced, and I just remember my dad’s advice early on was that there are always going to be these trials, and if you can make your way through them and end up together, you will be stronger for it. For Bertha and George, who’ve been married for many years now — he didn’t make a lot of money when they were first together, and now they they’re in this place of extreme wealth, and their lives have changed. And now he is going through something that couldn’t have been predicted. And Bertha rides for her husband. There are times when couples can go their separate ways, and, like my dad said, if you can find your way back together through the storm, and you’ve weathered it together, you’re stronger. I want that for Peggy and William. They want a Bertha-George marriage — if Bertha and George make it through.

I really worry about Agnes’ stress levels this season. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that. Later in the season, she delivers one line — “That article was poppycock!” — in a way that will live in my head as a GIF forever.

I even said something to Christine during the season — “We’re really putting you through it this season.” I love it, and she loved it too. She had a ball, and especially in Episode 3, which I got to write with Julian. I loved writing some of that dialogue because she just has so many highs and lows throughout the season, and it was like a masterclass for me to watch Christine go from the highest high to the lowest low. She wants revenge; she is out for blood because someone is attempting to take away her opportunities. It was delicious, and I’m glad that you liked it, and I hope the greater audience enjoyed it.

Is there a moment coming up from Episode 2 that you’re excited for people to see?

I’m excited for people to see more of the Black elite in Newport.

What’s the film or TV show that you’re recommending to everyone right now?

Well, I’m behind, but I love “Nobody Wants This” [Netflix]. I have not been able to watch all of it; we had a premiere for “The Gilded Age” and lots of things going on. But I love that show. I got to meet the whole cast at the Emmys. I’m a free advertisement for that show.

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Public transit is expected to be a top priority for Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman, an advocate for expanding bus lanes and making the city friendlier for bicycles — and who campaigned on getting the Los Angeles International Airport people mover back on track after years of squabbles, delays and cost overruns.

As mayor, Raman will oversee the city’s transportation department and will have the power to appoint new members to the city’s Airport Commission. What’s more, she will have regional clout through L.A. Metro, the transportation agency that runs the county’s light-rail and subway lines.

Raman will take over as chair of Metro’s board of 13 voting members, a job now held by Mayor Karen Bass, whom Raman defeated for reelection this week. She will also get three appointees on the board, and can replace the current mayoral appointees — Councilmembers Katy Yaraslovsky and Imelda Padilla and community advocate Jaqueline Dupont-Walker — who all backed Bass in this week’s election.

Metro is currently in need of millions of dollars to fund a massive bus network for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Raman said that she would push Los Angeles’ congressional delegation to make this a key priority. In a statement to The Times ahead of the election, she said she will also prioritize Metro projects that “give the most benefits to the most riders and help make our network more useful” and plans to reinstate a project team in the mayor’s office to eliminate city delays on major capital projects.

Transportation analysts believe Raman, who has a graduate degree in urban planning from MIT, will be more aggressive in addressing transit issues than Bass, whose background was in healthcare and community organizing.

“I do think we’ll see a considerable amount of action on transit and multimodal transportation in the short run on a timeline that puts this work in the context of preparation for the summer of 2028,” said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies.

Los Angeles voters also approved a charter amendment that will allow the City Council to disband the Public Works Board, a move that Matute believes will allow the city to streamline infrastructure projects. The charter change, combined with Raman’s election, will lead to “a shift in the foundation of transportation decision-making,” Matute said.

Among the transportation plans Raman has cited as priorities are the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project, which was approved earlier this year to connect the Westside to the San Fernando Valley; the East San Fernando Transit Corridor project to extend service along the E Line from East Los Angeles to Whittier; expansions of the K Line, to connect multiple communities from South Bay, Inglewood, Mid-City and Hollywood, and the D Line beneath Wilshire Boulevard; a new light rail connection in southeast L.A. County; and the Vermont Transit Corridor project.

That last project to add dedicated bike lanes along Vermont Avenue between 120th Street and Sunset Boulevard recently broke ground. It is also the subject of a lawsuit under Measure HLA that claims it requires a designated bike lane. Raman said she supports compliance with the measure, while supporting shared bike and bus lanes along narrower portions of the route.

Ahead of the election, Raman told The Times via written statements that her transit priorities as mayor would focus on safety, affordability and reliability so that people did not have to be as reliant on cars. She advocated for protected bike lanes and expansion of bus lanes during her campaign.

Raman also criticized Bass and the Los Angeles World Airports board of commissioners for not staying on top of the $3.3-billion Skylink people mover at LAX, a 2.25-mile train that is supposed to whisk passengers between the terminal and ground transportation. The project is years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget.

The contractor, LAX Integrated Express Solutions, or LINXS, has blamed the repeated delays on unsigned agreements between the city’s Los Angeles World Airports and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as one cause, along with nagging technical issues.

At a news conference near the airport last week, Raman told reporters that if elected, her first-week priority in office would be to convene airport and DWP officials and the contractor to determine who is responsible for each unresolved issue in an effort to break the logjam.

“Taxpayers deserve an advocate at the negotiating table, not another bill for someone else’s failure,” Raman said.

Michael Schneider of Streets for All, an advocacy nonprofit, said he expects Raman to convene a task force to address issues around the people mover project during her first 100 days in office.

He also foresees her consolidating some departments, such as the Street Services repaving division under the city’s transportation department, and directing city departments to implement Measure HLA. It’s also likely, he said, that she will initiate a bond or a tax hike to raise money for sidewalks repairs, curb updates and other street improvements.

“I think it’s the first election where safe streets has become a campaign issue, and real money has gone behind it to try to change the status quo,” Schneider said.

Streets for All’s political action committee took out ads to elect Raman and defeat Bass, powered largely by contributions from hedge fund manager and bike lane advocate Aaron Sosnick.

Over the summer, Raman slammed Bass for pausing a bike lane and street safety improvement project near two cemeteries along Forest Lawn Drive that had come under fire by some in Raman’s district. The debate became so heated that the state Legislature ultimately intervened and set a law that would require a public hearing and approval from the City Council and the mayor’s office before moving forward.

Raman has told The Times that she supported multiple bike lane and multimodal projects including the 710 North Mobility Improvement Program along Valley Boulevard, Huntington Drive and Eastern Avenue, plans to set priority bike lanes during peak hours along Sunset Boulevard and add bike lanes and reconfigure the intersection of Virgil Avenue and Sunset and Hollywood boulevards.

It’s unclear how she will balance the push toward these types of endeavors when faced with community pushback.

Nadine Levyfield has advocated for more transparency and answers from Metro over a bus lane project through the center of Eagle Rock. The agency recently agreed to more community meetings to address ongoing concerns over how a reduction in lanes on a bottlenecked portion of Colorado Boulevard will affect traffic and parking through the area’s business district and surrounding neighborhoods. Levyfield believes the community’s asks align with Raman’s campaign.

“Running on a platform of accountability, transparency, improving efficiency, and making sure government agencies are accountable, we really hope she can help us ensure that Metro is prioritizing public safety,” Levyfield said.

Raman has said she is also committed to the city’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths and said she will treat an initiative that began under Mayor Eric Garcetti’s administration and faced significant scrutiny under Bass as a mandate.

“Angelenos look around and see faded crosswalks, busted pavement and darkened streetlights and wonder why the City can’t even take care of our basic transportation infrastructure,” Raman said in a statement to The Times before her election. “Traffic deaths are preventable and I’ll make sure we’re enforcing laws against dangerous driving, providing actual protection for people who walk and bike, and get our street lights back on and our streets fixed.”

“My priority is to make transit safe, affordable, fast, and reliable, so more Angelenos can avoid the high cost of car payments, insurance, and gas,” she said in the statement.

Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, claiming nearly $3.5 million in debts to just over $677,000 in assets.

According to a bankruptcy petition filed Wednesday in the Northern District of Texas, much of the money Rice owes stems from civil litigation tied to his role in a 2024 vehicle crash that left multiple people injured and assault allegations made earlier this year by his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children.

In July 2025, Rice pleaded guilty to third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was suspended for the first six weeks of the 2025 season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Rice owes more than $2 million following civil lawsuits by six people who were injured in the accident, according to the bankruptcy petition, with some of that amount coming from settlements and some still being disputed by Rice.

The largest amount he owes in debt is $979,837 to crash victim Kathryn Kuykendall, the remainder of a $1 million settlement from last year that has not yet been garnished from Rice’s wages.

Rice also owes $200,000 to ex-girlfriend Dacoda Jones tied to a civil lawsuit she filed in February, accusing him of physically assaulting her multiple times during their relationship between December 2023 and July 2025. That debt is also listed as disputed by Rice, who was not suspended by the NFL following Jones’ allegations.

The fourth-year player is in the final season of his rookie contract, which has a total value of $6.5 million and a base salary of $1.6 million this season. According to the bankruptcy filing, he receives a total monthly income of $59,512.44 but only nets $3,610.31 a month after payroll deductions and expenses. His total wages and commission since Jan. 1, 2024, adds up to more than $4.7 million, with no listed income source other than the Chiefs.

His assets are valued at $677,054 and include a 2023 Mercedes Benz ($53,800) and his Super Bowl LVIII ring ($160,000), the latter of which is being held as collateral by one of his attorneys, according to the document. Rice caught six passes for 39 yards in that game, a 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11, 2024. Overall, he has 176 receptions for 2,040 yards and 16 touchdowns.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.