DUBLIN — Limerick, first settled by Vikings nearly 1,100 years ago, is a verdant sprawl of lush forests, rolling hills and liminal bogs.

But this region in midwest Ireland, steeped in folklore, where the River Shannon meets the estuary’s tidal waters before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean, is also the unlikely site of bustling production activity.

In a technology park, not far from 13th century castles, medieval ruins and picturesque villages, stands Troy Studios. Opened nine years ago in a former Dell Computer factory that shut down when it shifted manufacturing to Poland, Troy is Ireland’s biggest and newest soundstage complex.

It is here that Apple TV’s science fiction series “Foundation,” based on the Isaac Asimov masterpiece, was filmed, as was the SyFy horror series “Nightflyers,” adapted from the works of George R. R. Martin. It’s also where four prime-time American game shows are produced.

“It’s cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot at Fox,” actor Rob Lowe cracked on his podcast last year. Lowe is also the host of the trivia face-off show “The Floor,“ which relocated to Troy for its sixth and upcoming seventh seasons, after previously shooting at a studio south of Dublin.

Film activity in Los Angeles has plummeted to historic lows, with devastating consequences for crews and vendors. This series examines how L.A. lost its dominant perch as a film and TV destination and what can be done to bring Hollywood back home.

While some in Ireland’s fiercely proud film industry bristled at Lowe’s comments, they were, in fact, a razor-sharp distillation of the pent-up frustration runaway production has engendered across the industry in Los Angeles.

Last year, 45% of all U.S. films and scripted television shows were shot internationally, up from about 33% in 2022.

As Hollywood productions have turned away from L.A., spanning the globe chasing tax credits and rebates, Ireland increasingly has become a destination for American movies, television series and the once-quintessentially L.A. creation: the game show.

Ireland’s mix of dramatic landscapes, diverse architecture and modern and historic scenery has long been a draw for international filmmakers. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi” turned the UNESCO World Heritage site Skellig Michael, a rocky island once occupied by a 6th century monastery, into the fictional planet Ahch-To. It was Ballinesker Beach’s soft sand dunes in County Wexford that stood in for Omaha Beach in “Saving Private Ryan’s” epic opening scene.

Now, the country is increasingly a magnet for a diverse slate of American productions. In the last year alone, the USA Network’s series “The Rainmaker” wrapped its second season in Dublin; the Netflix hit series “Wednesday” shot its third season around Dublin and Wicklow; and the A24 film “The Riders” starring Brad Pitt filmed across the country over the summer. L.A.-based Blumhouse Productions has shot a slew of movies and TV shows here, including the newly released American suburban nightmare flick “Other Mommy” and the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios horror movie “Seasons,” which is set in Idaho and filming in County Wicklow.

The hit Netflix series “Wednesday” starring Jenna Ortega shot its third season around Dublin and Wicklow in Ireland.

(Netflix)

While filming in the L.A. region remains at historic lows, production spending in Ireland has soared, hitting a record $632.7 million last year, up 26% from the previous year, according to Screen Ireland, the national agency for film and television. In a survey conducted by ProdPro this year, Ireland was ranked in the top five preferred filming spots globally behind New York, the United Kingdom, California and Georgia.

With outsize interest in this small country, its sound stages are frequently full, and filmmakers say there is often a run on everything from lenses to edit bays to left-driving cars.

“Definitely post-COVID, it’s gone absolutely crazy in terms of the number of productions happening here,” said Ruth Treacy, producer and co-founder of Dublin-based production company Tailored Films, which served as co-producer on the 2024 biographical drama “The Apprentice.” Treacy and others in the industry call it a “green wave.”

“Obviously these projects are not necessarily shooting as if they’re supposed to be in Ireland,” Treacy told The Times. “It’s shooting the U.S. in Ireland, and that’s working quite well.”

The green wave grows

The seeds of the green wave were sown decades ago.

Ireland is a nation of storytellers. Over generations, it has maintained its ancient oral traditions, preserving its history, language and mythology, memorializing them on the page and eventually the screen.

Towering literary figure James Joyce helped to open the country’s first cinema, the Volta Electric Theatre, in a former metals shop in Dublin in 1909. Today, the country is said to have the highest per capita rate of moviegoers in Europe.

Ireland’s current course was set in 1980, when the government established the Irish Film Board to champion and fund domestic movies. Tax credits were introduced in 1987 to spur economic growth, but the prime minister suspended the program that same year.

Still, a small but influential group of Irish filmmakers came of age. Acclaimed movies such as “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father,” directed by Jim Sheridan, and Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” found outside funding and became international hits. Their success and lobbying efforts prompted Michael D. Higgins, the country’s culture minister at the time, to relaunch the film board in 1993, now called Screen Ireland.

Since then, Screen Ireland has embarked on a dual strategy: to create a destination for international filmmaking and foster Irish culture on screen.

The effort has spurred a creative renaissance. In recent years, the country’s global profile has grown with a surge in homegrown talent featuring a range of actors, from Cillian Murphy to Jessie Buckley, along with projects such as “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Normal People.” In 2023, the Irish-language film “The Quiet Girl” earned the country’s first international feature Oscar nomination. Co-production partnerships with the U.S., U.K. and other countries have flourished.

A surge of Irish films, like “The Banshees of Inisherin,” in 2022, starring Colin Farrell, has raised the profile of Irish talent internationally.

(Jonathan Hession/Searchlight Pictures)

“Across Ireland, you see a real value put on arts and culture,” said Désirée Finnegan, chief executive of Screen Ireland. “For us, the investment in talent is a strategic priority. We are filmmaker-driven, artist-led.”

In the last five years, Screen Ireland has invested nearly $170 million across film, television, animation, documentaries and game design, as well as training and early talent development, Finnegan said.

In 2021, the agency established an office in the same building as Ireland’s Los Angeles consulate to further build relationships with the U.S. entertainment industry.

Ireland’s tax incentives program has evolved into one of Europe’s most stable. It provides a 32% refundable tax credit on eligible expenditures, including salaries of cast and crew (Irish feature films qualify for more), and the per project cap has increased from $81 million to $145 million.

This year, Ireland sweetened the pot, adding VFX and post-production uplifts to the incentive program. It also became the first European country to support dedicated unscripted content, for which it offers a refundable credit of 20% on eligible Irish production expenditures, capped at $16.8 million per project.

Jake Walshe, president and CEO of Screen Scene Post Production Group and chair of the trade association VFX Ireland, helped spearhead efforts for the new post-production enhancement.

Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The fictional planet of Ahch-to was shot on Skellig Michael, an UNESCO World Heritage site off the Irish coast.

(Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm Ltd.)

“You’re going to see more growth in this area with this tax credit,” he said.

Another catalyst was the global success of HBO’s series “Game of Thrones,” which filmed its first season in Northern Ireland in 2010.

“We didn’t know how big ‘Game of Thrones’ was going to be,” laughed Walshe, whose Dublin company did post-production work on the project.

Since then, the visual effects studio has worked on “Shōgun,” “The Penguin,” “The Irishman” and Marvel’s “Black Widow.”

“A lot of high-level Irish crews today got their start on big productions like ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘Penny Dreadful,’” said Michael Byrne, a former location manager here, now a Screen Ireland executive.

The green wave triggered a homegrown cottage film industry.

Model and prop maker Mark Maher returned to Ireland in 2012 after working in New Zealand.

“I did notice there was a gap there with the prop and prosthetics and no company to feed into the film studios here,” said Maher, who worked on the Showtime series “Penny Dreadful.”

AppleTV’s science fiction series “Foundation” was filmed at Troy Studios in Limerick.

(Apple TV)

In 2017, he opened Odyssey Studios in Limerick and has supplied miniatures and props to such projects as “Foundation” and “Wednesday” and also operates a training academy.

“There is a surge here in Ireland,” he said. “We were very lucky.”

An animation boom

The expanded credits have been a boon to Ireland’s once-fledgling animation industry, which now has nearly 50 studios employing about 2,500 staffers. Many partner with Disney, Netflix and Nickelodeon.

Cartoon Saloon, one of the country’s first animation studios, founded in 1999, got its start in Kilkenny, a medieval city in southeast Ireland. Its founders, Tomm Moore, Paul Young and Nora Twomey, met while studying animation at Ballyfermot College, a vocational school in a working-class Dublin suburb.

Instead of making computer animated movies like Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story,” Cartoon Saloon decided to focus on hand-drawn Irish folklore. Its first feature, “The Secret of Kells,” released in 2009, was about manuscript-making monks. It was nominated for an Oscar, as were three other of the studio’s films, including “The Breadwinner,” executive produced by Angelina Jolie, and “Wolfwalkers,” which ran on AppleTV.

“We found that through our own authentic voices, [that] not necessarily every story has to be set in Ireland, it’s just every story that we tell has to have something that really resonates with us as a company of animators,” Twomey said.

The rise of co-productions

Many of Ireland’s best-known productions got their start at Ardmore Studios, just south of Dublin in the seaside town of Bray. It’s the country’s oldest studio, opening in 1958.

From the outside, the 18-acre campus of soundstages and back lots, nestled among the forests and mountains of County Wicklow, looks like a historic village. It was here that movies such as “The Spy that Came in from the Cold” and “The Commitments” and TV series like “Penny Dreadful” and “The Tudors” were filmed.

“Angela’s Ashes,” the 1999 adaptation of Frank McCourt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, also was made at the studio. More recently, Ardmore has been one of the main locations for the hit Netflix series “Wednesday,” the dark supernatural comedy starring Jenna Ortega.

David McLoughlin, the co-CEO and producer at Metropolitan Pictures, which is “Wednesday’s” Irish co-producer, has witnessed dramatic changes firsthand.

“Compared to 25 years ago, it’s obviously just a huge difference,” said McLoughlin, whose company is based at Ardmore Studios. “But that’s not just in terms of international production. There’s been an awful lot of Irish producers developing projects, and then they’re bringing in outside production partners.”

On Dublin’s north side, where the city center is divided by the River Liffey, Element Pictures operates its award-winning production company above a busy commercial street. Its conference room is filled with BAFTA awards, Golden Globes and posters from its acclaimed films such as “The Favourite” and “Room,” which each won best actress Oscars, and “Bugonia,” which was nominated for best picture.

Founded in 2001, Element is one of Ireland’s leading production companies and owned by London-based TV producer and distributor Fremantle. Founders Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe began as the local producer for BBC series shot here and cultivated relationships with European and American filmmakers and distributors to develop their own projects.

It’s a successful model others have adopted.

“We’ve seen that change from something that was a kind of weird, little curiosity making strange, small films to something that actually has a kind of profile on the international stage,” Guiney said.

Not far from Dublin’s Trinity College are the offices of Wild Atlantic Pictures, named after the 1,500-mile stretch of western Ireland’s rugged coastline. The company began by co-producing with various American and British studios, emerging as a force in the industry here and abroad.

Timothy Dalton and Eva Green in “Penny Dreadful,” the Gothic psychological drama set in Victorian London but filmed in Ireland.

(Jonathan Hession/SHOWTIME)

In recent years, Wild Atlantic served as a co-producer or the Irish production company on such films as Richard Linklater’s Oscar-nominated “Blue Moon,” “Cocaine Bear” with Universal and “The Green Knight” with A24, as well as Apple TV’s “Foundation” and the Netflix dark comedy series “Bodkin.”

“Every film I’ve made is a co-production of some description,” said Macdara Kelleher, the company’s co-CEO and founder. “It’s not an unusual thing for Irish people, for a small country. There’s just a limit to the amount that you can raise in Ireland, and U.S. films dominate our box office.”

Kelleher points to Wild Atlantic’s relationship with Santa Monica-based Blumhouse Productions.

“They’re a great partner and they give us access,” he said. The companies have a number of projects in various stages of development, including the horror film “Seasons” and the TV adaptation of John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker.”

Doubling for America

As Ireland has emerged as a major film hub, it increasingly has become a double for America.

About 15 miles south of Dublin in County Wicklow lies the Powerscourt Estate, with its 47 acres of gardens and the iconic waterfall featured in the 1981 Arthurian legend film “Excalibur.” The area also was transformed into the fictional seat of power for the “Vikings” series commissioned by the History Channel.

The iconic waterfall in Powerscourt Estate has served as the backdrop for a number of films including 1981’s “Excalibur.”

(Stacy Perman/Los Angeles Times)

More recently, the same expanse of forest and lakes masqueraded as Appalachia in the film “Cocaine Bear,” Elizabeth Banks’ dark comedy and true story about a black bear that ate a massive amount of cocaine dropped by a drug smuggler in Georgia.

Beginning in 2024, veteran Irish production director Susie Cullen worked back-to-back on four movies all set in America but filmed in Ireland, including “Abigail,” the Boston-based vampire horror-comedy, and “Blue Moon,” a movie set in 1943 Manhattan about troubled lyricist Lorenz Hart, played by Ethan Hawke.

“Part of being a production designer is to create something, to create a fantasy or period, and that part of the challenge is kind of great,” Cullen said.

Cullen re-created the historic Broadway haunt Sardi’s on a soundstage at Ardmore Studios. A local artist mimicked the restaurant’s famed caricatures of celebrities, using the faces of the crew.

For the scene showing the Broadway opening of “Oklahoma!” set at St. James Theatre, Cullen said they filmed at the Gaiety, a 155-year-old opera house on Dublin’s South King Street near St. Stephen’s Green. At the time, “Riverdance,” the traditional Irish step dance troupe, was performing at the theater.

“We just had a little mini-version of ‘Oklahoma!’ in the theater, on ‘Riverdance’s’ day off,” Cullen said. “We got there in the morning and put our set in front of theirs and they shot that evening and we took ours down and ‘Riverdance’ was back the next day.”

The soundstages of Ardmore Studios hosted another production, the TV adaptation of the John Grisham’s 1995 bestselling novel “The Rainmaker” for USA Network.

While the book takes place in Memphis, Tenn., the producers wanted to update the legal thriller, setting the story in present-day Charleston, S.C.

“I was thrilled,” recalled Dan Rogers, a senior project manager with the South Carolina Film Commission, and he said that “we’d love to bring it here” after a production executive told him the series was expressly written for Charleston.

But months later, Rogers was informed the studio decided to film elsewhere. Much to his surprise, the location wasn’t L.A. or even another Southern U.S. city — but Ireland.

Showrunner Michael Seitzman said it was a matter of money.

“You’re trying to maximize that budget, make the biggest show you can, make a show that looks like the one that you wrote on the page,” he said, adding, “every producer is having the same conversation right now.”

Seitzman estimates he saved about $10 million for a 10-episode season because of the tax credits and lower costs for labor and other production expenses. Another bonus: He could cast supporting local actors adept at shifting to an American accent.

The series has shot at locations around Dublin, including a former 18th century military school, St. Mary’s Hospital, that became the fictional North City Hospital. Ireland’s oldest school of law was transformed into various institutions in Charleston.

The King’s Inns, Ireland’s oldest school of law, has doubled for various institutions in Charleston, S.C., in the TV series “The Rainmaker” and the Explorer’s Club in “Penny Dreadful.”

(Stacy Perman/Los Angeles Times)

For Season 2, which wrapped in August, Seitzman had become so familiar and enthralled with Dublin that he created a storyline in Ireland over a few episodes.

“We could really shoot Ireland for Ireland, which was fantastic,” he said. “Suddenly we could stop hiding all the beautiful things we were seeing.”

Despite taking place in the Appalachian Mountains of north Georgia, “Cocaine Bear” was filmed in County Wicklow.

(Universal Pictures)

Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon” stands outside the iconic Manhattan restaurant Sardi’s recreated on an Irish soundstage.

(Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)

Game show mecca

Perhaps the biggest wave to crash on Irish shores is the American game show.

In January, BiggerStage — the television production company that has co-partnered with Fox Entertainment and produces six shows in Ireland for American prime time — invested a reported $11.2 million in a deal to create a global, unscripted production hub at Troy Studios in Limerick.

“We did it because we see a real opportunity to increase the amount of work here, and that’s both work we create as much as it is work that we partner with other producers around the world,” said Sean O’Riordan, BiggerStage’s chief creative officer.

Pat Kiely, a former managing director of Virgin Media Television, launched the Dublin-based company five years ago to develop original content — particularly in the unscripted segment for the global market — and position Ireland as an international television center (hence the company name).

Meanwhile, Fox Entertainment had launched something called the international fund. The idea was to pilot an idea for a show and see how it could be produced for less money, partnering with international networks or production companies.

Rob Lowe hosts the Fox trivia game show “The Floor” from a soundstage in Ireland.

(Dan Smith/FOX)

The first was a singing talent show called “The Big Deal” that BiggerStage produced for an Irish audience.

Impressed by the quality and cost-effectiveness of the show, Fox quickly began discussing collaborating on other productions with BiggerStage.

“They were incredible partners creatively. And so from there we were able to know we had a trusted production partner in Ireland,” said Allison Wallach, head of unscripted programming at Fox Entertainment Studio.

In 2022, Fox relocated “Name That Tune” from Australia to Dublin. That same year, “Beat Shazam,” the game show hosted by Jamie Foxx, relocated from Television City in Los Angeles to Ireland, where Fox also launched a series of shows including “The Floor” hosted by Lowe and “Next Level Chief.” In all, BiggerStage produces about 100 hours of American prime-time shows in Ireland.

BiggerStage leveraged its success with Fox to lobby the Irish government for the unscripted tax credit to attract even more growth.

“Hubs are going to be more crucial than ever to make things work at a price point,” Wallach said. “And I think that BiggerStage and actually Ireland is really well suited to be that hub for Europe and for the U.S.”

Oct. 31, 2026 10:07 PM PT

SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

First Round

OPEN DIVISION

Beckman 20, Newport Harbor 17

Oaks Christian 11, Loyola 8

Harvard-Westlake 16, Corona del Mar 11

JSerra 12, Santa Margarita 3

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 5 p.m. unless noted)

Second Round

DIVISION 2

Palos Verdes at Murrieta Valley

Royal at Redondo Union

Damien at Dana Hills

La Habra at Northwood

St. John Bosco at Pasadena Poly, 3:30 p.m.

Capistrano Valley at El Segundo

Bonita at Alta Loma

Crescenta Valley at Santa Monica

DIVISION 3

Camarillo at Norco

La Serna vs. Millikan at Lakewood

Walnut at Ayala

Troy at Brentwood

Flintridge Prep at La Canada

Redlands at Elsinore

Trabuco Hills at Los Osos

Cathedral at Los Altos, 3:45 p.m.

DIVISION 4

Liberty vs. San Dimas at Charter Oak

Aquinas at Carpinteria

Sunny Hills at Temescal Canyon

Buena Park at West Covina

Yorba Linda at El Toro

Western at Warren

Foothill Tech vs. Pasadena at Arcadia

Arlington vs. Laguna Hills at Trabuco Hills

DIVISION 5

Keppel at Montebello

San Bernardino vs. Torrance at Redondo Union, 3 p.m.

Norte Vista at Riverside North

Anaheim at San Gorgonio

Whittier at Oxnard

Lakewood at Montclair

Heritage at Hacienda Heights Wilson

California vs. Palm Springs at Palm Springs Swim Center, 4 p.m.

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 5 p.m. unless noted)

Quarterfinals

DIVISION 1

Mira Costa at Westlake

Mater Dei vs. Buena, site TBA

Huntington Beach at Laguna Beach

Yucaipa vs. Dos Pueblos, site TBA

Note: Quarterfinals (Divisions 2-5) Friday, Nov. 6 at home sites; Semifinals (Open Division) Saturday, Nov, 7 at home sites; Semifinals (Divisions 2-5) Tuesday, Nov. 10 at home sites; Semifinals (Division 1) Wednesday, Nov. 11 at home sites; Finals (all divisions) Saturday, Nov. 14 at Mt. San Antonio College.

Dozens of officers, some accompanied by police dogs, moved into Rossio Square in Lisbon early on Sunday.

Police have used shields and batons to disperse housing protesters who stormed a tent camp in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, a week after similar operations drew criticism from protesters and rights groups.

Dozens of officers, some accompanied by police dogs, moved into Rossio Square at about 4:30am (04:30 GMT) on Sunday, a day after thousands marched demanding the government withdraw a rental bill they say would deepen the country’s housing crisis.

Protesters had erected more than 50 tents following Saturday’s march through Lisbon. Police commander Iuri Rodrigues issued three warnings to remove the tents, saying they had been erected illegally and that anyone resisting their removal could face disobedience charges.

Hundreds of demonstrators shielding the camp were dispersed, while police also dismantled a smaller encampment in Porto’s Dom Joao I square.

Earlier, lawmaker Pedro Delgado Alves said Rossio Square was peaceful and that nothing justified “a police intervention involving force, physical violence or baton charges, the kind of scenes we witnessed last week”.

The intervention followed operations in the same squares the previous Sunday, when police arrested 25 people in Lisbon and six in Porto. Housing campaign group Casa para Viver said 60 people were injured across those operations, which police described as “proportionate”.

Rising housing costs

The protests reflect growing anger over housing costs across Europe, including demonstrations in Spain and opposition to government economic policies in France, Germany and Albania.

Portugal faces one of Europe’s severest housing affordability crises, with young people among the hardest hit. House prices have more than doubled since 2017, while rents on new leases have almost doubled.

The Bank of Portugal estimates a nationwide shortage of 300,000 homes, equivalent to Lisbon’s entire housing stock.

Demonstrators want the minority centre-right government to scrap legislation that would make evictions easier and remove rent caps on new leases, saying it would worsen affordability and leave tenants more exposed.

UNRWA’s West Bank director, Roland Friedrich, said the scenes in Hebron carry “alarming echoes” of the mass displacement in the northern occupied West Bank in early 2025, when Israeli military operations emptied the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps.

More than 34,000 Palestinian refugees from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps remain displaced, according to UNRWA, more than a year after Israel’s “Iron Wall” operation began in January 2025. The operation destroyed more than half of the camps’ residential buildings.

OCHA’s demolition records capture only a fraction of that destruction. Between 2009 and October 2026, the agency recorded 1,399 buildings demolished in the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates, displacing 4,139 people. Those records mainly track demolitions carried out for lack of permits or as punishment, not buildings destroyed during military raids.

An investigation by the research group Forensic Architecture found evidence of deliberate, systematic destruction. Researchers verified more than 200 incidents involving the destruction of buildings and streets across four refugee camps, using armoured bulldozers, controlled demolitions and air attacks. They found that roads were widened through homes and gardens to create routes for military vehicles. The group concluded that Israel was applying tactics in the occupied West Bank similar to those it had used in Gaza.

In February 2025, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tulkarem and Jenin would come to resemble Jabalia and Shujayea, two of Gaza’s most devastated areas.

The raids have not stopped. Last week, Israeli forces detained four Palestinians in Tulkarem, and in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, troops converted several homes into military barracks, as they have in Hebron.

Near Jenin, the army has ordered the residents of an entire village to leave permanently. “I have sheep and cows. Our entire lives are tied to this land,” said farmer Jabri Yahya. “Last year they uprooted our olive trees, and this year they want to force us to leave. We don’t know where to go.”

Missouri officials have determined the official cause of death for “Days of Our Lives” actor Robert Kelker-Kelly, who died this month at age 62.

Kelker-Kelly died of arteriosclerotic heart disease, the St. Charles county regional medical examiner of Missouri confirmed to The Times. The actor’s death was deemed natural. Arteriosclerosis occurs when blood vessels carrying oxygen and nutrients from the heart to the body become thick and stiff, according to the Mayo Clinic. The coroner’s report confirms details previously disclosed by law enforcement and emergency personnel.

The actor, who worked as a pilot later in life, died Oct. 3 after he complained of chest pain and became unresponsive, police confirmed earlier this month. Officers reported with paramedics to the actor’s home for a report of an unconscious man who was not breathing.

“Life-saving measures were administered but were unsuccessful,” police said.

Kelker-Kelly’s wife, Allison Kelly, informed authorities the actor complained of pain in his left arm and chest while on the drive home from Spirit Airport, People reported. The actor asked his wife to pull the car over to vomit and said he did not need to go to the hospital. He reportedly continued experiencing pain at home. Kelly found her husband unresponsive, alerted authorities and administered CPR.

Kelker-Kelly was best known for his work in long-running daytime dramas “Another World” and “Days of Our Lives,” where he portrayed the rebellious heartthrob Beauregard “Bo” Brady from 1992 to 1995. He began his turn as Bo, which lasted for more than 586 episodes, following the departure of original actor Peter Reckell, who would return to the show off and on in the following decades.

He debuted in “Another World” in 1987 and appeared in more than 400 episodes in a handful of roles until 1998, according to the actor’s IMDb page. He was also known for his work as Stavros Cassadine in “General Hospital” and its spinoff series “Port Charles.” Kelker-Kelly’s “General Hospital” tenure lasted from 2001 to 2014 and was his final TV role. His television credits also include “Jack’s Place,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Rescue 77.”

Since Joe Root returned as Test skipper, England have not picked a frontline spinner and have instead favoured a four-man pace attack of Jofra Archer, Ollie Robinson, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.

South Africa’s victory in the third Test suggests they will need an alternative before long.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer, who once considered playing for England before opting for the country of his birth, took 10-120 to bowl the Proteas to victory in Cape Town – the venue of the third Test against England.

Newlands is not typically a spinner’s surface but it turned big from the third day. The overall average amount of turn throughout the Test (4.35 degrees) was the fourth-highest in Cape Town on record. The Test a place ahead on the list was last year, against Pakistan.

Harmer was helped by having left-arm pace bowlers Starc and Marco Jansen creating footholes outside the right-handers’ off stump throughout. Starc will not be a factor against England but Jansen will.

England’s spin issues are longstanding, meaning there is no easy answer.

And whether they pick Shoaib Bashir, return to Jack Leach or Mason Crane or hand a debut to Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White – the recent recipient of an England development contract – they will have stiff competition.

Since Harmer returned to Test cricket in 2022, no spinner has a better average anywhere in the world.

Trump says defeated presidential candidate, who faces investigation in Brazil, can stay in the US ‘as long as he wants’.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says President Donald Trump’s administration did not help Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro flee the country for the United States after losing a run-off to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro arrived in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, a day after the US Department of State said Bolsonaro and his family would be granted US visas after his October 25 election loss, which bucked a trend of conservative electoral wins in Latin America.

Bolsonaro is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and before leaving, he had been ordered to surrender his passport because police deemed him a flight risk.

“We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio told reporters on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia, where diplomats from the Group of 20 largest world economies were gathered.

“We had word that he had arrived in the United States. He had previously held a visa, and the president made a decision to allow him to enter the country,” Rubio said.

He added that the US government was not “involved directly in any of the moves that were made”.

Rubio also said he had seen Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday and he expected to see Brazilian officials again in November in France during a foreign ministers meeting.

Separately, Trump, who had previously called Brazil’s election “rigged”, voiced sympathy for Bolsonaro and said he could stay in the US indefinitely.

“I think he got treated very shabbily, very shabbily, so he can stay here as long as he wants,” the president told reporters at his Florida residence on Saturday.

The Reuters news agency reported that Bolsonaro was admitted to the US under humanitarian parole, a status that typically lasts for one year.

Trump’s comments suggested relations between the Western Hemisphere’s two largest democracies may remain strained for some time.

After Bolsonaro’s run-off loss, he fled Brazil to the US via Argentina and Ecuador on a journey that some US media outlets reported was partly arranged with the help of Jason Miller, a White House official.

Bolsonaro has refused to concede the Brazilian election and called the results fraudulent without providing evidence.

Since arriving in the US, he has claimed to be the true “leader” of Brazil and said he left the country because he was a victim of “persecution”.

General Atomics says it is working on a new hybrid-electric-powered flying-wing-type strike/reconnaissance drone called NextGen that could be able to stay aloft for more than 60 hours. Work on NextGen will also feed into one of the designs within the company’s Gambit family of drones, which are also based around a common modular core ‘chassis’ concept. Separate progress is being made on the newest member of that family, the air-to-surface optimized Gambit 6, with plans now for a live-fire air-to-ground ordnance demonstration early next year.

C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, shared these and other details with TWZ as part of an update on the status of the entire Gambit effort.

“When we announced the Gambit Series in 2022, we knew that it was an ambitious, multi-stage concept that would require many years before its full power would be realized across all variants,” Brinkley said. “It’s not complicated to understand, but it is revolutionary, and revolutions take time.”

Gambit Series: The Future of Air Dominance

When the Gambit family was first rolled out four years ago, General Atomics presented four distinct design concepts. These were the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) focused Gambit 1, the air-to-air combat-optimized Gambit 2, an uncrewed ‘red air’ aggressor called Gambit 3, and the stealthy flying wing Gambit 4. Since then, the company has also added the Gambit 5, intended for carrier-based operations, and the aforementioned Gambit 6.

All of the Gambit concepts are designed to leverage a common ‘chassis’ that includes landing gear, baseline avionics, and other core hardware. General Atomics touts this as helping to reduce costs and accelerate the development of very different drone designs.

General Atomics’ Brinkley provided brief updates on all six existing Gambit design concepts, as well as the common core.

• “Gambit Core: First, I think you saw the recent update on our partnership with Spirit Defense. They have been partnered with us for a long time, and they’re bought in on the Gambit concept. As a teaming arrangement, it really buys down manufacturing risk and also allows General Atomics to pursue many other projects simultaneously, whether that’s MQ-9B or Wildfire or other things.”

• “Gambit 1 is out there flying today. The first example is the XQ-67 Off-Board Sensing Station [OBSS], built in collaboration with Air Force Research Laboratory [AFRL]. They’re a great partner and really have a vision for this as a new warfighting concept for the future.”

Developed under the secretive OBSS program, the XQ-67A was unveiled to the public in 2024, as TWZ was the first to report. Experimentation using this one-off drone fed into General Atomics’ development of what is now called the FQ-42A Vengeance, which we will come back to in a moment, as well as the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Last year, AFRL announced that the XQ-67A would receive modifications and upgrades to support further advanced autonomy and related developments under a new program called Demonstration of Autonomous Collaborative Platform Performance and Effectiveness (abbreviated as Demon Ape).

XQ-67A: First Flight

On Tuesday, AFRL announced in a press release that it “demonstrated integration of several advanced mission systems including state-of-the-art sensors, mission computers and power and thermal management hardware, all designed to work collaboratively in demanding combat environments,” on the XQ-67A during a recent test flight over the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) as part of Demon Ape.

“Additionally, the integration of Beyond Line-of-Sight datalinks and live, virtual and constructive simulations during the flight demonstrated management of uncrewed platforms across distributed theaters, bolstering deterrence through resilient, layered command and control,” AFRL’s release added.

Demon APE

• “Gambit 2 is also flying today. Our first example is the FQ-42A Vengeance with the U.S. Air Force. Upcoming milestones include our first missile live-fire later this year, and participation in [Exercise] Emerald Flag. We’ll be at [the] International Fighter Conference next week with the full-scale model.”

The FQ-42A is one of two designs the Air Force has now ordered into production under the first phase, or Increment 1, of its CCA program. The other is Anduril’s FQ-44A Fury. In September, the Air Force announced a goal of having at least 500 Increment 1 CCAs in inventory by 2032.

• “Gambit 3 is a red-air trainer concept. We all know this is coming. It’s a critical must-have for the future. But right now, we live in a world filled with critical needs, so where does this fit in? Because of the way we have designed the Gambit Series, everything feeds everything else. You can pursue a tactical variant first, then walk back to this later. Eventually, manned aircraft will need to fight against these autonomous jets and train like they fight, but you don’t need them actually loaded with weapons. You’ll be simulating all of that anyway. So with Gambit 3, you can alter the design without starting from scratch and probably remove some fighter components from the trainers to add overall value. Considering that we have Gambits 1 and 2 flying now, we probably don’t need a pure trainer prototype unless the buyer wanted different engines and other changes.”

Gambit 3 is by far the concept within this larger family that has been discussed the least to date, so it is particularly interesting to get an update on General Atomics’ current thinking here. There continues to be a degree of interest in this kind of capability within the U.S. military, especially to help provide greater volumes of platforms capable of representing more advanced aerial threats during large-scale exercises. However, despite several past efforts, there has been no significant acquisition of next-generation unmanned aggressors that we are aware of. As an aside, Anduril’s Fury was originally developed by a company called Blue Force Technologies for the ‘red air’ role.

• “Gambit 4 is a flying wing. This is where things get interesting. General Atomics is currently working on a much larger flying wing we call NextGen. It’s not a CCA. We’re talking novel hybrid-electric propulsion on a fully armed, fully outfitted, ISR/Strike wing. Our engine team has promised 60+ hours unrefueled. That work is happening in parallel with everything else we’re working on. I don’t think people realize how deep GA-ASI’s bandwidth is, or how much we dedicate to R&D. We have things I’m talking about here, and things I’m not talking about here, and five million square feet of manufacturing plus multiple flight test facilities. We’ve built and delivered more than 1,600 aircraft in 34 years. We’ve invented a lot of things, and we’re inventing other things. NextGen is coming, and the work we’re doing on that flying wing program will funnel into Gambit 4 so that when customers are ready for this, we’re not starting from scratch here either.”

From the beginning, Gambit 4 has been something of an outlier that is completely different from the other concepts in the family. This is only reinforced by the new details Brinkley has shared here about the NextGen design. The mention of “novel hybrid-electric propulsion” is particularly eye-catching. In general, this kind of propulsion arrangement offers improved fuel economy, and the potential for other benefits, like reduced infrared and acoustic signatures, through the combination of fuel-powered engines and electric motors.

General Atomics has talked in the past about hybrid electric propulsion technology helping to achieve a 60-hour-endurance target in the context of an earlier stealthy flying wing drone concept called MQ-Next. Last year, AFRL also awarded the company a contract for what it described as a “hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial system,” or GHOST.

“We’ve been promising something impressive related to hybrid-electric propulsion, and now I can’t talk about it anymore,” Brinkley told TWZ at the time when asked for more information about GHOST. It remains unclear how that program may be intertwined with the previous MQ-Next concept, as well as work now on NextGen and future plans for Gambit 4.

• “Gambit 5 is basically a Gambit 2 or Gambit 6, or a hybrid of those, optimized for shipboard use with global navies. So again we’re showing how the novelty of the Gambit design pairs with our other projects and programs to buy down risk to success. You need to address landing gear, catapults, arresting cables, salt air that eats everything, all kinds of things. But Gambit 5 is an easy reach. General Atomics has a lot of carrier expertise, and we have been experimenting with shipboard operations for more than a decade.”

The Gambit 5 concept made its public debut in 2024 at the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom with a rendering depicting the drones embarked on a Queen Elizabeth class carrier refitted with an electromagnetic catapult. General Atomics has since shown additional renderings of Gambit 5s on the decks of the U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford and a Japanese Izumo class ‘multifunctional destroyer.’ General Atomics also makes electromagnetic catapults for carriers, including the ones on the Ford class, and has put ideas for installing them on a variety of other naval vessels, as well as deploying them on land.

Last year, the Navy announced that it had awarded contracts to General Atomics, as well as Anduril, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman, to develop conceptual designs for carrier-based drones under its CCA program. General Atomics used a rendering of Gambit 5 to illustrate a subsequent press release regarding this selection.

• “Gambit 6 takes the Gambit 2 fighter and optimizes it for ground attack. We started talking about Gambit 6 last year, and the conversations around the world have really taken off. People really understand the Gambit concept and are beginning to see how different it is from the mostly concept jets being discussed. The next step is to demonstrate the capability, so we are planning a company live-fire event for early 2027 using a ground-attack munition from a company-owned Gambit 6. I’ve said this a few times, but every Gambit variant feeds expertise into the other variants by default. So the work ongoing now for live-fire on FQ-42 Vengeance, coupled with years of internal air-to-ground launches from MQ-20 Avenger, allows us to rapidly reconfigure for Gambit 6. The air-to-ground mission is pivotal for many global militaries evaluating CCAs as a concept, and we’re already seeing others hanging bombs from their wings and talking about future concepts with internal bays. We’ll probably see other companies doing air-to-ground demos like ours. But the next question is survivability. Internal carry and release is such a different beast than firing from the wings, but what comes out for the Gambit Series is a 5^th-generation combat jet optimized for survivability, scalability and flexibility.”

As mentioned, Gambit 6 is the newest entry to the family and was rolled out around last year’s International Fighter Conference. At that time, General Atomics said it was already courting international customers for this particular design, especially in Europe, underscoring a surge in interest globally in CCA-type drones in recent years. The company also subsequently announced plans to develop a derivative of the FQ-42A for the European market through an affiliate in Germany.

Brinkley’s remarks here regarding internal bays versus external carriage of stores notably follow Anduril’s release of pictures showing fit checks of air-to-ground ordnance on the wings of a Fury drone last month. The FQ-42A, as well as General Atomics’ earlier Avenger drone design, both have internal weapons bays. An internal bay is expected to be a key feature on the Gambit 6 design, too.

“General Atomics knew that low-observable with internal weapons was the only way to go for the future. It’s not specifically the fastest way, or the easiest way, but it does yield the very best jet on the back end,” Brinkley also told TWZ today. “You can get a small jet in the air, connect it to the satellite controls we pioneered here, hang weapons from the wings like we pioneered here, use the AI concepts we pioneered here, and call that a CCA. But if it isn’t low-observable, with a functioning internal carry, built for affordable high-rate production from the beginning, then it’s just a little jet.”

“When we rolled out our first four Gambit concepts, we knew that we were onto something novel, but I don’t think any of us recognized how fast it would all move. Now we’re up to six concepts, with two flying and two on track to become flying prototypes,” he added. “That leaves Gambit 3 and Gambit 4, and it would be easy to think those are the least important or least impressive, but I don’t think that’s the case at all.”

It does remain to be seen how many members of the Gambit family beyond the FQ-42A will ultimately be produced in significant numbers. For now, a Gambit 4 design, in particular, is still an ambitious future concept that will rely heavily on success with NextGen and related work.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

AS the air gets chillier and the days get darker, there’s nothing better than cosying up in a warm cinema to watch a brand new movie.

And it’s even better when you get your cinema tickets for free…

Join Sun Club now — don’t miss out.

We’ve teamed up with Cineworld to give away 20,000 FREE tickets, so you can go and catch the latest films on us.

Click here to sign up to Sun Club for £1.99 a month to redeem this exclusive offer and many more.

Let’s be honest – is there any better feeling than sinking into a plush cinema chair, armed with a bucket of popcorn and a fresh fizzy drink, ready to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster?

If you’re looking for something to do to break up the boring, drizzly November nights, a trip to the pictures can make this time of year all the more exciting.

HIGH FIVE

Bag darts tickets for only a FIVER with Sun Club – and save yourself up to £60

Wash happy

Join Sun Club for £1.99 a month and get a £5 car wash with IMO

Sun Club members can redeem two free Cineworld tickets each, so you can enjoy a night at the movies with a friend or partner for zero cost.

With 87 cinemas across the UK to choose from, it’s as simple as redeeming your tickets, finding a Cineworld near you, and booking in whichever film you’d like to see.

Joining Sun Club will give you instant access to the Offers Hub, where you can claim your free Cineworld tickets.

But be quick, as they’re sure to go fast.

The best part is that these tickets can be used on any film showing from November 2 to November 17.

Here’s all the films you can go and see at Cineworld with your two free Sun Club tickets:

How To Rob A Bank

Nicholas Hoult and Zoë Kravitz lead an all-star cast in this action-packed thriller about a gang of bank robbers whose viral heists soon attract the attention of the FBI.

Clayface

Tom Rhys Harries stars in DC Studios’ dark and chilling horror-thriller about a rising Hollywood star whose search for fame takes a terrifying turn as he begins to lose both his identity and humanity.

Primetime

Robert Pattinson plays NBC journalist Chris Hansen in this high-stakes psychological thriller about the 2000’s reality television series, To Catch A Predator.

Wild Horse Nine

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play CIA partners whose mission to a remote island becomes increasingly complicated by secrets, politics and unexpected encounters.

Godzilla Minus Zero

As Japan rebuilds after the Second World War, a new threat emerges when the legendary Godzilla appears. Packed with action, drama and spectacular visual effects, this is one movie you will not want to miss.

Ebenezer

A fresh take on Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas story, starring Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge as he discovers the true meaning of Christmas. Full of festive cheer, heartwarming moments and family fun, it’s the perfect film to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.

Prima Facie

Starring Jodie Comer and Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Prima Facie is a powerful and thought-provoking drama that explores justice, truth and the challenges faced by women within the legal system.

Wildwood

Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay and Mahershala Ali star in this enchanting animated adventure about a brave young girl who enters a mysterious forest to rescue her baby brother.

Join Sun Club now — don’t miss out.

Plus Cineworld is the place to do so, as their cinemas boast the latest film technology with IMAX, 4DX, SCREENX and Superscreen options.

You can also book onto accessible screenings, including viewings with subtitles and audio descriptions, ensuring everyone can enjoy a trip to the movies.

How to get this offer

1. Sign up to Sun Club for £1.99 per month here.
2. From Saturday, October 31 click the ‘Book’ button on the Cineworld page of the Sun Club Offers Hub.
3. You will receive an email containing a unique code and steps on how to book your two free tickets.

   You must claim and book your tickets by Sunday, November 15 when the booking code will expire.

Tickets are valid for screenings between Monday, November 2 and Tuesday, November 17,

18+ UK only (exc. NI & IoM & CI). Sun Savers multiple code collect 31/10/26–04/11/26 or digital subscription required. Online access required. Booking opens from 01/11/26. 10,000 pairs of tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis. Valid for cinema bookings 02/11/26 – 17/11/26. Redeem by 15/11/26. Non-transferable & non refundable. T&Cs apply, see sunsavers.co.uk or club.thesun.co.uk/sun-club. New customer offer: £1.99 per month or £12 for your first year, then £19.99 a year thereafter. Full T&Cs apply, visit thesun.co.uk/terms-and-conditions.

See full Terms and Conditions for the Cineworld offer here.

Prices correct at the time of publication.

Arctic thrills and survival skills in Finnish Lapland

At Ruka, the first skiers of the year slalomed down the slopes on 2 October. Just inside the Arctic Circle, Ruka’s long snow-sure season and cosy village atmosphere make it a popular ski resort with Finnish families. The long polar nights mean there are only a few hours of dim twilight each day, but the slopes here are floodlit, so that never stops play.

The Narnia-like setting offers just as much action off the runs as on them, and in December the resort launches Ruka Guides, guided adventures from a dedicated activity centre. Spend the morning e-fatbiking through snowy forests (from €90) or cutting a hole in a frozen lake to catch fish (from €89), before learning Arctic survival skills (from €85) or snowshoeing in the evening darkness on the hunt for the northern lights (from €89).

Other, more offbeat diversions include floating in a thermal suit down the freezing Kiveskoski river in meditative silence (from €135), whizzing down an alpine coaster at up to 25mph (from €11.88) and practising your sun salutation in the forest surrounded by grazing reindeer (from €45).

Dasher and Dancer are a clue to the other reason Ruka is such a hit with children: the main merry man himself. Father Christmas, Mrs Claus and the elves live at Santa’s Cottage, about 30 minutes’ drive from Ruka, where they test how good little helpers are at gingerbread baking and Christmas card making, before those wannabe elves sing Santa’s favourite carol to him in Finnish, post cards at the post office and sledge down the hillside outside (from €105).

All activities at ruka.fi. Rukariutta Superior apartments sleep up to six from €362 a night (rukapalvelu.fi). Lumo Lakeside Lodges sleep up to two adults and two children from €215 (rukasafaris.fi)

Stargazing in the Cairngorms

In the depths of winter, the sun sets just a shade after 3.30pm in the Cairngorms national park and doesn’t rise again until about 8.50 the following morning. Those long hours of darkness combined with low levels of light pollution (the area around Tomintoul and Glenlivet is an International Dark Sky Park) makes it the perfect place for stargazing.

While it’s easy to be dazzled by the Milky Way without even reaching for a telescope, the Discovery Centre in the village of Tomintoul lends out stargazing kits (pre-booking required) to help visitors delve deeper into the cosmos at one of their recommended viewing sites, such as the nearby Tomintoul Field of Hope, with its purpose-built Skyhide pavilion.

The centre is also the meeting point for astronomy events (there is a close-up look at the moon on 18 November and an evening of meteor spotting when the Geminids shower is at its peak around mid-December (suggested donation £7, cairngormsdarkskypark.org).

A short drive away, just north of Aviemore, storyteller Sarah Hobbs leads monthly Stargazing Storywalks. The 1½-mile after-dark amble weaves in Gaelic and Pictish tales of the night sky from thousands of years ago, from warrior queens to one-eyed giants, and ends with a cup of foraged wild tea (£20pp, Oct-March). For something a little more strenuous, Hillgoers organises regular three-mile night walks with certified star rangers, spotting glowing planets and nocturnal wildlife (£40pp, maximum of eight in a group).

The Lazy Duck continues the dark-sky theme with a clutch of off-grid huts among the pines of the Abernethy Forest with stargazing windows above the beds (from £187 a night in December).

There are plenty of winter activities in daylight hours too, from driving the SnowRoads route, which winds along the highest public roads in Britain, to meeting the country’s only free-roaming reindeer herd (guided hill trips run Feb-Dec from £29.40pp, cairngormreindeer.co.uk).

Toboggans and glaciers in Chamonix

At the foot of Mont Blanc, Chamonix is famous among skiers for its gnarly off-piste terrain and intense black runs. But that dramatic landscape makes it prime territory for action off the slopes too. One of Responsible Travel’s new trips this season is a four-night self-guided snowshoeing holiday in the Chamonix valley.

Using the traditional mountain spa town of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains as its base, the itinerary ventures deep into the snow-covered Vallorcine valley, hiking through larch meadows and pine forests, heading up the Flégère gondola to walk along a balcony trail facing Mont Blanc, and taking in the views from the summit of Mont d’Arbois at 1,833 metres.

The Mont Blanc massif is one of the most densely glaciated areas in the Alps, and while the ice is receding due to the climate crisis, taking the dinky red Montenvers cog train up to the Mer de Glace is still an impressive experience. This huge river of ice winds some 5 miles between the mountains, and at the top a cable car followed by around 200 steps descends into the Grotte de Glace, a blue tunnel carved into the glacier (€49.70 for the train, gondola and ice cave visit).

A more intrepid ice-spotting option is Les Contamines-Montjoie circular snowshoeing route, which climbs through pine forests to the Plateau du Truc, with its views of the d’Armancette, Miage and Covagnet glaciers.

Back in Chamonix, the Mont-Blanc Museum opened in July, tracing the valley’s history and Alpine exploits from the ice age to today, showcasing objects that include memorabilia from the first Winter Olympic Games (held in Chamonix in 1924) and the walking stick of Jacques Balmat, half of the two-man team that made the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786. That climb is only for serious mountaineers, but the cable car from Chamonix town centre is a shortcut to Aiguille du Midi’s almost-as-impressive 3,842-metre peak (€43 round trip) – leaving plenty of energy to hit the nearby La Luge toboggan run (€23 for the pedestrian lift pass and one descent; ski-saintgervais.com).

A four-night self-guided snowshoeing trip in Chamonix from £790pp with Responsible Travel, including B&B accommodation, route maps, smartphone navigation app, GPS trackers and 24/7 phone support

Snowshoeing and bear spotting in Transylvania

Hiking along narrow trails in the Piatra raiului national park, you’re more likely to come across bear or wolf tracks than other walkers’ footprints. The Carpathian mountains are one of Europe’s last bastions for large predators – there are thought to be more than 10,000 brown bears and around 2,500 grey wolves in Romania alone.

A week-long guided trip with Exodus makes tracks into Transylvania’s dramatic karst landscape, and is an atmospheric introduction to snowshoes and crampons. Base camp is the family-run Villa Hermani guesthouse, over 1,000 metres above sea level in the village of Magura, where there’s always a warming glass of homemade pălincă (fruit brandy) waiting.

Hikes climb up to the high ridge of Dealul Măgurice or to the plateau between the Piatra Craiului and Bucegi mountains, where the only thing that might break the silence is the howling of a wolf. One of the most spectacular walks heads along the Zărnești Gorge, its vertical limestone walls rising 200 metres above the icy canyon floor.

When not snowshoeing through Christmas-card scenes, take in medieval churches, the cobbled old town of Brașov and the Libearty bear sanctuary, which has rescued over 120 brown bears from the cruelty of captivity. And while Bram Stoker never set foot in Romania, let alone Bran Castle (often said to be the inspiration for Dracula’s lair), you can. With its frosty turrets and towers set against the Carpathians, it looks more gothic than ever, and even better without the bloodthirsty summer crowds.

Exodus’s seven-night Transylvania winter walk and snowshoe trip from £1,459pp, including all accommodation, meals, transport and activities, tour guide, snowshoes and poles

Igloos and Christmas markets in Innsbruck

Innsbruck is ringed by the Austrian Alps, meaning wherever you wander in the city – among the medieval alleys of the Altstadt or past the colourful houses along the River Inn – snow-covered mountains are the constant backdrop. Those jagged peaks are home to 12 ski areas within 15 to 75 minutes of the city by public transport, and some are worth the trip for the snow-plough-averse too.

Zaha Hadid’s swooping, modernist Bergisel ski jump is a dominant sight above the town and the vertiginous view is even better from its observation deck. The architect also designed four of the Nordpark Cable Railway stations that feature fluid glass canopies mimicking natural ice formations and glaciers. They take skiers and non-skiers up to the Nordkette mountains for a bird’s eye view of the Tirolean capital.

There’s plenty more to get pulses racing without clipping on a pair of skis, from bobsleighing down the 1,399-metre Olympic track at Igls at speeds of up to 115km/h (from €45 for bobrafting, €119 for piloted race bobsleighing) to night sledding at Rangger Köpfl (€25). For more icy fun, there are igloos to spend the night in at Iglu-Dorf in Kühtai, Austria’s highest ski resort (from €537 for up to three people, including cheese fondue, community sauna and breakfast).

Back down in Innsbruck, Christmas market season kicks off in November, and there are seven dotted around the streets and squares, from the historic old town market to the lofty Hungerburg – be sure to try kiachl, a doughnut-like pastry served either savoury with hot sauerkraut, or sweet topped with wild cranberry jam.

New skating experience Ice Magic also launches this winter, with illuminated ice paths connecting different parts of the city, alongside light installations and projections, ice disco nights and DJs (from €8).

Nordic ice-skating in Sweden

While Scandinavians started using animal bones to make primitive ice skates thousands of years ago, wild, or Nordic, skating as we know it (long-distance skating outdoors on natural ice for sport rather than utility) evolved in Sweden in the 1900s. Stockholm’s Skridskoseglarklubb (“Skate Sailing Club”) was formed in 1901 and today has more than 10,000 members, who share the latest ice information online to find the ideal skating locations.

Nordic skates have long blades attached only at the front of the boot, used to make long, rhythmic glides; other specialist safety kit includes long, pointy poles to assess ice thickness and a backpack that doubles as a flotation device.

Wild is the operative word here, and it is prudent as a beginner to skate with a pro. Stockholm-based Ice Guide runs a number of trips, from one-day introductions to multi-day tours, which head out on to Lake Mälaren or the Baltic Sea in the Stockholm archipelago (from £143 including all gear, transport and lunch). Hellasgården, less than half an hour outside Stockholm, is another popular skate spot with ploughed tracks on Lake Källtorpssjön, and there are holes cut in the ice for the bravest swimmers (and a sauna for after).

While in the city centre, get your frozen kicks at the ice rink at Kungsträdgården (skate rental about £7.50 an hour) or by joining the boisterous crowd at a Djurgården IF ice hockey match at the Hovet stadium.

Ruby Frida opened this summer and has doubles from £70 room-only

A foodie walk in the Dolomites, northern Italy

Hearty Tirolean food is made for winter: Knödel dumplings smothered in melted butter and parmesan, the ricotta- and spinach-filled pasta pockets of Schlutzkrapfen, the cast-iron skillet hash of Bauerngröstl. Hiking through the slopes and valleys of the Dolomites’ Drei Zinnen (Three Peaks) nature park on a week-long trip with self-guided walking holiday specialists Inntravel is a good way to work up an appetite.

From the charmingly traditional Hotel Drei Zinnen in the village of Sesto near the Austrian border, a network of 100km of well-groomed, partially cleared paths (meaning no snowshoes required) branches out through the Fischleintal valley and beyond into the nature park.

Mountain huts (rifugios) are dotted along routes for a warming lunch: Talschlusshütte serves mountain pine and porcini mushroom risotto and classic comforting Gerstensuppe (barley soup) along the Fischleintal valley walk; while the 100-year-old Dreischusterhütte among the fir trees in the nearby Innerfeldtel valley is much loved for its Kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancake) and homemade Apfelkiachl (fried apple rings).

Other routes start with a cable car ride and cut across the snowglobe landscapes of the Kreuzbergpass (stopping for a drink on the terrace at the Klammbach hut, of course) or loop around the banks of the frozen Lake Toblach.

Hotel Drei Zinnen has welcomed a fair few winter explorers through its doors since it opened in 1930. One regular guest – the mountaineer and author of Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer – inspired the hotel’s original owner Hans Watschinger to transform the establishment and the village of Sesto (Sexten in German) into a winter destination. It’s still run by the Watschinger family, and today there’s daily afternoon cake and a Finnish sauna to ease walk-weary muscles, and four-course nightly feasts of Italian favourites and local South Tirolean specialities to fuel up for another day in the mountains.

A seven-night Italian Dolomites Winter Walking trip from £1,076, including half-board accommodation, local bus pass and transfers (inntravel.co.uk)

Husky sledding, reindeer and the northern lights in Norway

For as long as the lights of the aurora borealis have danced across the sky, the people living beneath them have told stories explaining the mysterious, spectral glow – are they omens or gods, communication from spirits or threat of war? For some Sámi communities in northern Scandinavia, they were the souls of the dead, souls that were not to be disturbed by looking, talking, waving or pointing at them, in case the ghostly veil snatched you into the sky or cut off your head.

At 217 miles (350km) above the Arctic Circle, Tromsø is the ideal destination for northern lights chasers and learning about the indigenous Sámi people – many of whom still herd reindeer across the vast wilderness.

The Oskal family have lived a way of life shaped by reindeer for generations, and their herd spends winter around the camp near Tromsø and summer roaming free in the mountains. The family now share that traditional way of life through Tromsø Arctic Reindeer, opening up their camp to visitors to sled ride, feed the herd and join the family around the fire in the lavvu (tent), for joik (traditional Sámi song) and perhaps glimpses of the aurora overhead (experiences start at 990 kroner/£75 for reindeer feeding).

At the gateway to Norway’s frozen far north, Tromsø is the launchpad for numerous activities – ice fishing and fjord cruising, husky sledding and snowmobile safaris – and the lively university town is interesting in itself. It was once the departure point for expeditions to the north pole – a history captured at the Polar Museum on the harbour front – and today also draws cultural travellers for concerts in the angular Arctic Cathedral and the international film festival in January.

Three-night trip to Tromsø from £767pp, including B&B and an aurora-chasing trip, with Discover the World

Numerous cities and neighborhoods offer places to remember, in festive ways, loved ones who have passed. Here are some of the places to participate in the rich Mexican Day of the Dead tradition.

Olvera Street

Olvera Street’s Day of the Dead events have taken place for nearly 40 years. Daytime events, including entertainment, face painting and altars begin at 11 a.m., with a colorful novenario procession at 7 p.m.

Downtown

At the Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., beginning at 1:30 p.m. and until 4:30 p.m., sugar skull decorating, Aztec dance performances, puppet decorating, stories storytelling, arts and crafts, photo opportunities with La Catrina Andante, ofrenda making, and more. Open to all ages.

Gloria Molina Grand Park, from 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., a closing celebration of Dia de los Muertos features a lineup with The Negrete Family, the viral family band blending banda roots with pop flair; DJ Butchona, bringing corridos and banda to a family house party where you can come as you are; Lxs Cochinxs, serving up Cumbia Cochina with chicha, merengue, punk, and rave beats.

Families can take part in Indigenous Mexican ribbon braiding with Ponte Your Monos, sugar skull decorating with Kalaveritas Y Mas, face painting with Doodling Faces, and paper weaving with Ana Reyes. As night falls, candlelight and offerings will illuminate the park.

Los Angeles Zoo

At the Los Angeles Zoo, patrons can bring a picture of their late companion animals to display on a community altar.
For the sixth straight year, the L.A. Zoo is partnering with Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts & Education to bring the Beloved Pets Ofrenda back to the Zoo. It’s designed to honor the memory of cherished animal companions that have passed away, and all Zoo guests may participate. Staff from the Zoo’s Learning & Engagement team will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to help create altar.

Highland Park

The Northeast Los Angeles Día de los Muertos Festival takes place from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Heritage Square Museum, 3510 Pasadena Ave. Supported by the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, this free community event features traditional altars (ofrendas), Aztec dancers, live mariachi music, face painting, and local food vendors.

Glendale

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, 1712 S. Glendale Ave. will celebrate from noon until 3 p.m. with marigolds, Catrina and spirit guide artworks, community altars, marionettes, folklorico and mariachi performances, arts and crafts, face painting.

Pasadena

At Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave, there are two performances, one at 4:00 p.m. and one at 6:00 p.m. of Mariachi Tierra Mia on Sunday.

Canoga Park

Canoga Park’s 26th Annual Día de los Muertos Festival, healing through memory, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sherman Way between Topanga Canyon Blvd. and Canoga Ave. It will have dance performances, live music, a classic car show, family arts and crafts, and community altars.

Mid City

On West Adams Blvd. between Fairfax Ave. and Hauser Blvd., Mid-City has its community festival. Family friendly with live music, food trucks, art gallery, workshops, community altar & more. Live Music & Performances: Acoustic sets, the Recuerdos stage, and a Super Sonidero stage.

Santa Monica

On the Santa Monica Pier from 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Merry Go-Round building and West End. This year’s celebration will honor Pedro Infante and offer a classic car cruise, face painting, Aztec blessing and procession, Ballet Folklorico, mariachi music, and a communal ofrenda.

Long Beach

Long Beach’s Day of the Dead festivities return to their original location at Rainbow Lagoon, 400 E. Shoreline Dr. They begin at 1 p.m. with the duo Las Chicas Tristes and include Millikan’s Ballet Folklorico Program, Mariachi Divas, Tiancho and the Selena tribute band Como La Flor Band until 7:00 p.m.

Gardena

At the Gardena City Hall Complex, 1700 W. 162nd St. from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. celebrate life, honor loved ones, and experience the beauty of this meaningful tradition with an evening full of culture, community, and remembrance. Live entertainment, food, crafts, games, and a beautiful display of altars with a Catrina & Catrín contest. Bring a photo of a loved one for the community altar.

Downey

At Brookshire and Firestone Blvds from 11:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. there will be arts and crafts, a chalk walk, face painting, art displays, car altars, and so much more. Decorate your own sugar skull, grab a bite to eat at the food trucks, purchase something from the mercado, pay a visit to the community altar, or go see some live entertainment.

Ontario

At the Ontario Museum of History & Art, 225 S. Euclid Avenue, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. there will be live entertainment, with Adeliade Pilar, and a Catrina competition, celebrating Día de los Muertos through elegant costume design, traditional makeup and cultural storytelling. All ages are welcome to participate.

From 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., the celebration will continue at the R. Jack Mercer Community Bandstand at Euclid Avenue and C Street, where community members can gather for a Día de los Muertos procession. Attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite Día de los Muertos attire.

Santa Ana

At the Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., celebrates a free festival from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with live music, dance performances, face painting, and family art projects.

At the Heritage Museum of Orange County, 3101 W. Harvard St, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., live entertainment, community altars, artisan crafts, and historic tours.

Fullerton

The Muckenthaler Cultural Center Día de los Muertos Festival goes from noon until 4 p.m. with live music, family fun, kids arts and crafts, local artisans and more. 1201 W. Malvern Ave.

Hawkins, 24, and Scarlets partner Eddie James have developed as Wales’ first-choice centre pairing during the past 12 months.

Wales head coach Steve Tandy has selected five different starting centre partnerships in 13 games since taking charge in September 2025.

Hawkins and James are the most prolific pair, having been together for seven games which include victory in an uncapped match against Barbarians.

Tandy did go back to Ben Thomas and Max Llewellyn for the 43-0 defeat by South Africa in July, but the Scarlets pair have been the preferred option.

“Eddie and I have a good relationship on and off the field,” said Hawkins.

“That is starting to grow on the pitch with the more opportunities we get together.”

The make-up of the Wales midfield has caused debate with Tandy and attack coach Matt Sherratt wanting a creative ball-playing inside centre like Hawkins or Thomas.

This leaves James as the physical presence at outside centre with Tandy stating he sees his long-term future as a Test 13.

Many observers believe James should be considered as a 12 but Wales are determined to keep their creative options open.

With Thomas missing because of a calf injury, Hawkins appears to be competing for the Wales’ 12 jersey with uncapped Dragons centre Aneurin Owen, although Llewellyn has also featured at inside centre for Gloucester this season.

“The ball-playing stuff is stuff I enjoy doing but you still need to go forward as well and I feel like I can also produce that side of it,” said Hawkins.

“Matt [Sherratt] likes you always in and around that first receiver position so you are always in those decision-making roles.

“You’ve got to be comfortable on the ball and making decisions at high speed.

“But there’s not always going to be opportunities to ball play, so you’ve got to try and have a bit of a rounded game.”

Hawkins has also been employed as an outside-half by Scarlets but he sees his future at 12.

“It gives me a lot more respect for the 10s, having been in there, with all the work they do,” he added.

“It probably helps me when I play centre from being a 10, I know what they need from me a little bit more, so the information and communication I’m feeding helps the whole team.”

Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves has argued the UK’s future should be inside the EU, and that Brexit has made the country “poorer, weaker and less secure”.

In her first major intervention since leaving the Treasury, Reeves said she welcomed debate around the UK’s relationship with Europe.

At the last election, Labour’s manifesto said a Labour government would stay outside the EU and make Brexit work.

But Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there needs to be an honest discussion about what the future relationship looks like.

The Conservatives have said there is no desire to rerun the Brexit debate and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has said there is no mandate to pursue closer EU ties.

Labour’s 2024 election manifesto ruled out a return of free movement, single market membership or a customs union.

Burnham has said that any changes would require a mandate at a general election, which is next due by 2029.

In the Sunday Times, external, Reeves wrote: “No-one in the Treasury ever doubted where my instincts were. I do believe Britain’s future lies in the European Union.”

She said supporters of rejoining the EU had to “make the argument, demonstrate tangible benefits and to get the next steps right”.

Reeves added that at the forthcoming UK-EU summit, she hoped for confirmation of the youth mobility scheme she has been pushing for since she was in office.

She also said she was hoping for “progress towards entry” into the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme.

Announced last March, SAFE is part of an EU-wide effort to rearm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A defence pact agreed with the EU last May paved the way for UK-based defence companies to be part of projects funded by SAFE.

In her piece for the Sunday Times, Reeves also sought to defend her record in office.

She wrote about the need for governments to be “braver” in building big infrastructure projects and “clear eyed” about the risks and benefits AI would drive in advanced economies.

Unless you’re writing for a major national magazine or shooting video for Architectural Digest, it’s rare for a reporter to be invited into a celebrity subject’s home. More likely, it’ll be some neutral space like a publicist’s office, or coffee shop, or hotel room; even more likely, over the phone or Zoom. But Patrick Stewart, when I interviewed him in 2023 at the end of “Star Trek: Picard,” the “The Next Generation” sequel series in which he starred, asked to meet at his house.

Stewart, who died Wednesday at 86, was 82 then, friendly and dapper and emanating a youthful sense of wonder and readiness. He spoke of wanting to learn to play the piano and speak French — ironic for an actor perhaps best known as Jean-Luc Picard. He had written a memoir, “Make It So,” titled for a Picard catchphrase. And he was excited about the house, located on a leafy, McMansion-free, comparatively modest street in what real estate agents would call Hancock Park, where he’d been living with his wife, Sunny Ozell, since just before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

“We were safe,” Stewart said of the COVID days. “We felt protected here. It was just a walk that way or a walk that way to some shops. I walk to a little post office and my pharmacy is on 3rd Street, and I always take the backstreets. It’s a fabulous neighborhood, it really is. No two houses are the same. I mean, I never thought I’d live in a house that had just got archways everywhere — no doors! Sitting here, you see one, two, three, four, five, six archways.”

From sheer weight of screen time and franchise muscle, “Star Trek: TNG” — which ran for seven seasons (on first-run syndication, a dynamic format that no longer exists), plus four films — and the “X-Men” movies have dominated coverage of Stewart’s death. (Confession: I have possibly seen one “X-Men” movie, though long before there were “X-Men” movies, I read the comics — so I am familiar with Professor Charles Xavier, a part for which Stewart did not need to shave his head, as well as his nemesis Magneto, played by Stewart’s good pal Ian McKellen.) But there’s more to the story.

Patrick Stewart’s Picard comes face-to-face with Alice Krige’s Borg Queen in the 1996 film “Star Trek: First Contact.”

(Elliott Marks / Paramount Pictures)

Stewart’s 70-year career does neatly divide into BST and AST — before and after “Star Trek,” which arrived in 1987 at its chronological midpoint. The first half is dominated by theater. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1968, after a decade on regional stages, and was a core member until 1982. “So that was my daily experience,” he told me. “Shakespeare and his contemporaries and other great 19th century, 20th century playwrights. It was home to me.” In 1982, he took part alongside fellow RSC members, including David Suchet, Ben Kingsley, Judi Dench and McKellen, in director John Barton’s illuminating series “Playing Shakespeare,” demonstrating the relation of text and performance. You can find it all on YouTube from the Shakespeare Network and really should.

American audiences might have gotten a look at him in David Lynch’s “Dune” or PBS-imported British TV productions like “I, Claudius” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” or as Claudius opposite Derek Jacobi in BBC’s “Hamlet” — but for many Stewart appeared new and fully formed in September 1987 on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. (This paper, reporting on his casting, apparently called him “an unknown British Shakespearean actor,” a fact you will see printed many times over in the wake of his death, and which Stewart liked to repeat.) With a handsome, sculpted head unencumbered by hair and a rich musical baritone, he exuded compassionate authority. You felt you could trust him, not just because it was in the script. With his classical training, he could make the most mundane line sing as if it were written in iambic pentameter, and do it without sounding hammy. He was a fit 47 when the show premiered. And he rocked his body-hugging Starfleet uniform.

After “Star Trek” made him Hollywood-famous, making way for his “X-Men” role — which he reprised for his final film, “Avengers: Doomsday,” coming in December — other projects followed. As an established personality there were opportunities for self-mockery and oddball choices. In Ricky Gervais’ “Extras,” playing himself, he describes a screenplay he’s writing in which his character has the power to make women’s clothes fall off (“and I’ve seen everything”). In Riz Ahmed’s “Bait,” which premiered earlier this year, he was the hallucinated voice of “Pigtrick,” a decapitated pig’s head that is somehow also Patrick Stewart. He donned a bad wig to portray John Oliver on “The Daily Show” and was a regular voice on “American Dad!” More traditionally, he played Captain Ahab, Ebenezer Scrooge and Captain Nemo.

Patrick Stewart as Macbeth and Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth in “Macbeth,” the film version of Rupert Goold’s production.

(Manuel Harlan / Illuminations TV)

Did success on the screen boost his stage career? Or was it just a different route to the same place? With McKellen he starred in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” in repertory. He adapted Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” into a one-man show and played George in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” But it always came back to Shakespeare. Returning to the RSC, he played the Ghost and Claudius to David Tennant’s “Hamlet” and the lead in “Macbeth” (both were filmed and broadcast) as well as Prospero in “The Tempest.” He stayed busy as he aged, if not always as busy as he would have liked — the actor’s lot — and when the pandemic killed regular work, he went onto social media and spoke directly to the people in the language he loved so well, reading and commenting on all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets — “A Sonnet a Day” — from March to October 2020 (they’re available on CD).

“We play this game often,” he told me. “I played it when I was a kid: If you could go back in time, where would you go? And I’ve worked on my answer to that question — I want to be in the audience at the very first performance of ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,’ that’s all, because I know Shakespeare would be there.”

The Trump administration’s online accounts are circulating images of a pumpkin carved with a sombrero design and a fake Halloween-themed background around a Black man apparently accused of food assistance fraud, in social media posts slammed by critics as racially inflammatory rhetoric.

Only days before the midterm elections, the posts coincide with the government’s sweeping campaign to show its aggressive immigration enforcement, and highlight efforts it says are needed to crack down on fraud to save taxpayers money — as rising healthcare costs and other economic stressors have made affordability a top voter concern.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted Saturday on X a photo of the Black man standing in front of stacks of what appear to be U.S. currency with the headline SNAP FRAUDSTER, an apparent reference to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. He is holding aloft what appears to be a bill set aflame.

“Some costumes come with a price tag. This one comes with a prison sentence,” it says against the backdrop of fake Spirit Halloween costume packaging.

Another photo posted by the White House on X on Thursday showed a pumpkin with the shape of a sombrero carved across it and the words “Spooky szn is here.”

The post by Rollins appears to be taken from an Instagram post from September 2025 by an account under the name Shawty Dred.

Earlier this month, Mercedes Reshard New, identified by the Justice Department as a social media personality also known as “Shawty Dred,” was arrested on federal charges for fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in Georgia.

It’s not the first time the White House has been accused of posting inflammatory images on official government social media accounts.

Just over a year ago during the government shutdown, the White House revived a deepfake video posted by Trump of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in a fake mustache and sombrero to accuse the Democrats of acting on behalf of illegal immigrants instead of U.S. citizens. Jeffries described the meme as bigoted. Administration officials played it on repeat in the White House briefing room, and Vice President JD Vance promised that the “sombrero memes will stop” when Democrats agreed to end the shutdown.

The NAACP did not respond to an email seeking comment, nor did the White House or Rollins.

The Trump administration in recent weeks has ratcheted up its anti-immigrant rhetoric and accusations of fraud, including against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose Washington, D.C., home was searched by federal agents earlier this month. Federal authorities are investigating potential fraud in her family’s immigration paperwork. Omar, who was born in Somalia, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

It also has taken a series of punitive steps linked to allegations of fraud in mostly Democratic-led states, including California and Minnesota, whose governors accused the federal government of targeting their states for political reasons.

Federal prosecutors said in a news release Oct. 21 that the influencer New controlled more than 350 fraudulent SNAP accounts under stolen identities between January 2020 and July 2026. He allegedly applied for his company, Shawty Dred LLC, to become an authorized SNAP retailer and used EBT debit cards to extract about $4 million from the accounts.

New’s Instagram account, which has more than 2 million followers, has flaunted his extravagant lifestyle, federal prosecutors said. Posts depict him flying on private jets, posing with Rolls-Royce vehicles in front of his “super mansion” and handling massive stacks of cash.

“Instead of this money feeding families in need, New, the social media personality known as ‘Shawty Dred,’ allegedly used the cash to bankroll a life of luxury,” Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta Marlo Graham said in the release.

New was indicted by a federal grand jury Oct. 7 on dozens of counts of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, and one count each of SNAP fraud and illegal transactions with access devices. He was arrested Oct. 13 and remains in federal custody.

According to Fulton County, Ga., jail records, New has been arrested multiple times on suspicion of crimes including identity theft, insurance fraud, financial transaction card fraud, forgery and simple assault.

A federal defender listed in court records as representing New, Joseph Austin, did not return a phone message.

Esteban Ocon has denied reports that his being dropped by Haas at the Mexico City Grand Prix was a consequence of a row with team principal Ayao Komatsu descending into a physical confrontation.

The Frenchman, 30, admitted in a statement on social media that “a difference in viewpoints led to a discussion with the parties involved”.

But he said he “categorically rejected any reports or allegations suggesting that any form of physical violence was used to resolve any differences of any nature”.

His statement followed a report in France’s L’Equipe, external which said that a meeting between Komatsu and Ocon “ended abruptly, perhaps even physically”.

The decision to stand Ocon down from the rest of the Mexico weekend came after he had had a dispute with race engineer Laura Mueller about tyre choice during second practice on Friday.

Mueller had informed him that plans to run the soft-compound tyre had been changed and he would now use the medium.

He replied: “No, no. I want to do soft… don’t do that to me, come on.”

The team have not issued any further information what happened after the session.

So far, Haas have only said that Ocon has been dropped for this weekend’s race.

The team announced last month that he would be leaving Haas at the end of the season. He is being replaced by the Brazilian Rafael Camara, leader of the Formula 2 championship and a member of the Ferrari driver development programme.

Neither Haas not sources within Ocon’s management have commented on whether Ocon will drive for Haas again at any of this year’s remaining races.

Ocon’s statement on Saturday continued: “I strongly condemn violence in all its forms and firmly believe that disagreements should always be handled with professionalism, respect, and mutual understanding.

“I kindly ask that speculation be avoided while the matter is being addressed. Further updates will be communicated in due course.”

Starved and exhausted residents of Oleshky arrive in Ukraine after months of isolation, but some stay behind.

Starved and exhausted residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky have crossed into Ukraine in a major evacuation operation of civilians, under the first humanitarian truce of its kind in more than four years of Moscow’s war.

The six-day ceasefire covering the town was reached with mediation efforts by US First Lady Melania Trump and help from Pope Leo XIV. It is the longest local pause in fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

“Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky have crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. All of them will receive the assistance they need,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, thanking the United States and the first lady for mediating.

“Further steps toward de-escalation and real progress toward peace are also needed,” he added.

Evacuees wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags stepped off buses at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and reunited with family members.

Ukrainian officials met the evacuees with posters reading “You’re not alone” and “We embrace with our hearts”, while residents from nearby villages lined the highway waving flags and flashlights to greet them.

Forced to eat grass

Supply routes to Oleshky had been disrupted by fighting and drones. According to some residents, food deliveries were stopped in May, pushing hundreds of people into starvation.

One evacuee, an elderly man in a wheelchair, told the Reuters news agency that he had lost 20kg (44lbs) over the past year, becoming so weak he required hospital treatment.

Another evacuee, Svitlana Yermakova, told Reuters they had to eat grass to survive.

“We chopped grass and squash… just to hold on,” she said, adding that she risked riding by bicycle through minefields to a nearby village to get food for herself and her dog.

To reach Ukrainian-held territory, Oleshky residents had to take a complicated route to leave the devastated town just a few kilometres from the front line.

They first crossed Crimea by bus to the Russian town of Anapa before flying to Belarus, from where they crossed into Ukraine.

Ambulances lined the street, and several large military tents were erected, where hot meals, tea and medical aid were provided.

Russian and Ukrainian officials say the ceasefire in Oleshky has held since Tuesday, allowing them to de-mine the roads and bring food, medicines and other supplies into the town again.

The truce is due to end on Sunday evening.

Some stay behind

Some residents have decided to remain in Oleshky, despite the ongoing lack of gas, electricity and running water.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova said living conditions in the occupied Oleshky remained difficult, pledging she would continue to work with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, to help those who stayed.

“The mission has come to an end,” she said on Telegram. “We have agreed to carry out regular humanitarian missions, which is a very important step.”

Oleshky had a pre-war population of about 24,000, which plunged to an estimated 1,700 before the evacuation.

Ukrainian officials have not said exactly how many residents were evacuated or how many remained.

Despite the ceasefire in Oleshky, fighting rages on in other parts of the front, with Russia and Ukraine keeping up drone attacks against each other.

In a sign of the times, for the first time in many years, U.S. Air Force fighters have returned to an air defense alert posture at Eareckson Air Station in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands. This represents a notable development in efforts to strengthen NORAD’s ability to defend North America’s northern and Pacific approaches from a key strategic stronghold on Russia’s back doorstep. The deployment culminated in a multinational air defense mission involving U.S. and Canadian fighters operating across thousands of miles, reflecting a growing focus on the increasingly strategic Arctic and North Pacific regions.

Fighter operations at Eareckson date back to the Cold War, when F-4s and F-15s deployed to the island to support air defense missions against Soviet aircraft. The base’s routine fighter mission ended in the early 1990s, making the October 2026 deployment a notable return to an alert posture at one of America’s westernmost military outposts. In the interim, we have seen fighters, including F-16s, return to Eareckson, but not in the context of air defense alert missions.

Packing live air-to-air missiles, the F-16s were deployed to Eareckson, on Shemya Island, from October 18 through 26, maintaining an alert posture before launching on October 25 as part of a homeland defense mission.

The latest mission began under Operation Noble Defender before transitioning into Operation Noble Eagle in support of northern sovereignty operations. It brought together F-16s operating from Eareckson, F-35As and additional F-16s from Eielson Air Force Base, and Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets deployed from Cold Lake, Alberta.

The F-16s operating from Eielson were assigned to the 18th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), a particularly unusual unit with roots as the 18th Aggressor Squadron. The unit was redesignated in 2024, shifting its primary combat focus from adversary training toward aerospace control and homeland defense in Alaska. Its Block 30 F-16s bring a combination of air defense capabilities and experience in replicating adversary tactics, making them a very specialized outfit, as you can read about here.

From their distributed locations, the Eareckson-based F-16s provided coverage in the southern portion of the theater, while fighters from Eielson operated in the northwest. Canadian CF-18s covered the northern approaches.

An E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson provided airborne command and control, supported by multiple U.S. KC-135 tankers and a Canadian CC-150 Polaris. An HC-130 Combat King II also participated, providing contingency search and rescue and personnel recovery coverage.

The distances involved illustrate the scale of the operation. Eareckson is approximately 1,600 miles from Eielson and 2,600 miles from Cold Lake, requiring substantial coordination and aerial refueling support to bring the different elements together.

Strategic Significance

Located at the western end of the Aleutian chain, Shemya occupies a strategically important position in the North Pacific, facing the approaches from Russia’s Far East and the wider Pacific region and acting as a gateway to the Arctic. While fighters operating from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, with additional support from Eielson when needed, normally provide coverage across this vast area, Eareckson puts combat aircraft dramatically farther west. Its reactivation as a fighter operating location gives NORAD another forward option, extending the reach of its air defense network well beyond Alaska’s principal airbases.

The island’s military significance was especially pronounced during the Cold War, when it supported detachments of RC-135 surveillance aircraft, including hosting Cobra Ball missile-tracking aircraft, as you can read about here.

Shemya’s potential role in a future conflict has attracted increasing attention from U.S. military planners in recent years. The island hosts the AN/FPS-108 Cobra Dane radar, a massive phased-array installation that provides critical ballistic missile warning and tracking capabilities. Its position in the western Aleutians, roughly 500 miles from Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and approximately 1,000 miles from mainland Alaska, gives it considerable strategic importance but also leaves it isolated and potentially vulnerable.

The growing threat posed by one-way attack drones and cruise missiles also makes protecting Cobra Dane a significant force-protection challenge. Forward-deployed fighters provide a highly adaptable, wide-area defensive layer, intercepting aerial threats before they reach the island, much like the fighter deployments to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The vulnerability of Shemya and Cobra Dane has been the focus of several military exercises. In 2021, Green Berets assigned to Special Operations Command North participated in a NORAD exercise that involved deploying to Shemya and preparing to defend the Cobra Dane installation against potential attack. The troops arrived by sea and brought Stinger man-portable air defense systems, highlighting concerns about protecting the island against both conventional and unconventional threats.

In August 2023, elements of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, better known as the Night Stalkers, returned to the island as part of Operation Polar Dagger, as TWZ reported at the time. At least two MH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and associated personnel and equipment deployed to Eareckson, with a C-17 transporting personnel and materiel. The exercise explored the ability to rapidly project special operations capabilities into the remote region, protect critical infrastructure, and improve operational awareness in the Arctic and sub-Arctic.

Taken together, these developments point to growing interest in Shemya as a potential forward operating location in a wider North Pacific defense network. Its radar, long runway, and remote position offer considerable advantages, but its isolation also presents significant logistical and force-protection challenges.

The return of F-16s to an air defense alert posture at Eareckson adds another dimension to the installation. With its ability to host forward-deployed fighters, the base can maintain an alert posture and generate homeland defense sorties. Its location would be particularly useful for responding to activity approaching Alaska from the western Pacific and the Bering Sea. At the same time, having fighters at Eareckson provides an organic means of defending Shemya’s critical surveillance assets.

There are other potential benefits in dispersing fighter operations away from Alaska’s principal airbases. In a major conflict, those installations could be subject to missile strikes and other attacks, making alternative operating locations valuable. Eareckson’s long runway, ramp space, and arresting equipment provide a foundation for such operations, although sustaining fighters there over an extended period would require significant fuel, munitions, maintenance, and force-protection support.

Outside of Eareckson, Alaska has a network of remote airfields that can support dispersed fighter operations during contingencies. These include King Salmon Airport on the Alaska Peninsula, which hosted four 18th FIS F-16s during an Agile Combat Employment deployment in September last year.

All this comes as concerns grow about the level of protection afforded to Air Force airbases. There are growing calls for the U.S. military to invest in new hardened shelters, and the lack of physical hardening of bases has been hammered home by the experiences from the war with Iran, which have underscored the huge risks posed to aircraft sat out in the open on flightlines.

The October deployment does not mean Eareckson is being transformed into a permanently staffed fighter base. It does, however, demonstrate that NORAD can use this isolated installation as another node in its air defense network, extending the geographic reach and flexibility of its operations across the North Pacific.

For NORAD, having additional locations from which it can generate air defense sorties is a major plus. The combination of forward-based fighters, airborne command and control, aerial refueling, and Canadian participation demonstrates another way of distributing combat power across a broad geographic area rather than depending exclusively on a handful of major bases.

More broadly, the Aleutians are assuming renewed strategic importance as the westernmost part of U.S. territory, positioned at the intersection of the North Pacific and Arctic theaters. As military competition with both Russia and China intensifies, the island chain offers a valuable forward position for surveillance, air defense, and power projection, as well as a means of gaining time and distance against potential threats approaching North America or operating across the Pacific. The return of F-16 alert operations to Eareckson adds another piece to that defensive architecture, underscoring the continued military relevance of this remote island chain.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Halloween in Los Angeles is not just Gay Christmas — it’s become a pretty exceptional weekend for music, with top touring acts planning blowout stands around the occasion. While the weekend might be a little soggy weather-wise, here are a few of the better shows and club nights to plan your costumes around.

Phoebe Bridgers
You don’t wear a custom Thom Browne crystal skeleton suit to the Grammys unless you have a deep bench of spooky gear. Bridgers’ three shows at the Intuit Dome this weekend, supporting her expansive LP “Lost Weekend,” secure her status as a stadium-caliber star with a subculture all her own. Intuit Dome, Friday through Sunday.

My Chemical Romance
It’s never not Halloween for My Chem lifers, but there’s no band better equipped for the occasion fresh off a full revisit of their 2006 LP “The Black Parade.” They also have a new short film with Bridgers and Billie Eilish and reportedly a comeback album in the works. Hollywood Bowl, Friday and Saturday.

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
Pop’s finest satirist had his Hollywood star turn with 1989’s “UHF,” where he played an amateur TV station manager going off the rails. Yankovic revisits the cult classic with a screening set to a live-soundtrack performance. Greek Theatre, Saturday.

Origin
The new Arts District electronic music venue, an ambitious bet on DTLA’s eventual revival, formally debuts to the city with this block party featuring French duo the Blaze, Dirtybird don Claude VonStroke and a tribute to the late “Nightcall” producer Kavinsky. (There’s also an Arcade Fire DJ set, pending your interest in their comeback.) Origin, Saturday.

Freakquencies
A chain-smoking electroclash-y DJ in a slim-cut suit playing the Roosevelt Hotel? Close enough — welcome back Teddy’s circa 2006. The Dare’s Freakquencies party has a pretty savvy lineup, with freshly-minted pop star Tinashe, buzzy duo Frost Children, Dorian Electra and Kenny Beats on decks. Roosevelt Hotel, Saturday.

Rave to the Grave
Lights Down Low wrangles a bill right at home on a Berlin bender — Avalon Emerson (who has a great pop project too), Sextile, Ellen Allien, Effy and Johnny from the industrial-noise combo Health. TBA, Saturday.

Escape
The Great Pumpkin of SoCal mega EDM events this season, this Insomniac institution has all the usual heavy hitters (Zedd, Nina Kraviz, Disco Lines, Cloonee). NOS Events Center, Saturday.

Expression
Yamashiro is an old Hollywood dame that should be more of a nightlife destination. Scene vets Dave Aju, Heidi Lawden and Masha Mar are the ones to do it. Yamashiro, Saturday.

Mayan Warrior
One of Burning Man’s A-list art cars and roving dance music institutions rolls it up to Grand Park, with dancing room for the whole postapocalyptic polycule. Grand Park, Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gabby Williams scored her team’s final 11 points of the third quarter and dazzled through the fourth on the way to 30 points, and the Golden State Valkyries captured a championship in just their second season by beating the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in a sensational first WNBA Finals Game 7 on Saturday night.

Jordin Canada scored 18 points, Allisha Gray 16 and Angel Reese had eight points and 12 rebounds for the Dream, denied another championship in the franchise’s fourth try.

Gray made two free throws with 11 seconds left then Atlanta forced a jump ball — Gray against Williams — and Veronica Burton corralled it and converted two free throws with 5.1 seconds to go.

“I’m just so blessed, this is insane!” said Burton, cut by Dallas two years ago.

Rhyne Howard’s layup tied it at 57 with 2:41 left only for Williams to answer once more with a clutch three-pointer. She converted two free throws with 1:40 remaining, then Kiah Stokes scored a late basket. Stokes pulled down 13 rebounds and blocked two more shots to cap her spectacular postseason.

Williams left Seattle with a great feeling about joining Golden State and its close-knit culture, returning to the Bay Area where she played youth basketball to build something special with the Valkyries — and she’s now done that. Fans chanted “Gabby! Gabby!” throughout the fourth quarter.

“All it took was good people,” she said. “All we heard last year was we don’t have no stars. We don’t have no talent. Yeah right! We got good people. We got good people. We got winners. We got people who are ready to put their bodies on the floor to win a game.”

When the final buzzer sounded, the violet-clad sellout crowd at Chase Center went into a frenzy as players sprinted onto the floor to hug and celebrate as confetti fell from the rafters.

“Ballhalla” had become “Boohalla” for this far-but-haunted Halloween night in the raucous arena. Now, with a women’s championship to its name right alongside the one earned by the Golden State Warriors in 2022.

“We gotta build a bigger trophy case,” co-owner Peter Guber said.

The team that led at halftime in the first six matchups had won every game so far, and the Dream were ahead 30-24 at the break. Atlanta also had been 16-0 this season when Reese made at least one 3. The Dream’s DeWanna Bonner became the first player in WNBA history to reach 600 career postseason defensive rebounds.

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase changed her starting lineup in a move that paid huge dividends after Golden State fell behind 2-1, inserting Kaila Charles and Tiffany Hayes and bringing Kayla Thornton and Cecilia Zandalasini off the bench.

The 37-year-old Hayes, who came out of retirement two years ago and spent 10 seasons with the Dream, scored 11 points in the winner-take-all Game 7 and brought energy all series that made Nakase want to win for the veteran guard as much as anybody.

Valkyries owner Joe Lacob guaranteed a championship within the first five years for this franchise three years ago when the Bay Area was granted an expansion team, and in improbable, joyful fashion, his team accomplished it in Year 2. That after becoming the first expansion organization to reach the playoffs in its inaugural year in 2025.

During the victory ceremony, Lacob shouted out the team and its leaders, while Nakase, general manager Ohemma Nyanin and president Jess Smith hugged. And Lacob thanked the fans who have sold out Chase Center for every game since Day 1.

“Ballhalla!” Lacob hollered.

Crypto firm Binance says it has covered 90 percent of losses from the multibillion-dollar hack.

The FBI has linked North Korea to the theft of a record $6.3bn in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Malicious actors from North Korea were observed laundering the ⁠stolen assets ⁠by converting them primarily into the cryptocurrency Ethereum, ⁠the FBI said in a statement on Saturday.

The US agency blamed the operation specifically on a group called TraderTraitor, the same group blamed for a $1.5bn theft from the Bybit platform in February last year.

According to the statement, the assets are expected to be “further laundered” in stages.

The FBI called on virtual asset service providers to block transactions being used in the latest laundering operation, providing the suspected digital addresses to watch for.

In a separate statement on Saturday, Binance said it has replaced 90 percent of the amount stolen by using company money to buy new tokens.

The remaining 10 percent consists of less liquid tokens, meaning they ⁠may take longer to buy, it added.

“We will continue to buy the remaining relevant token assets… until the covered amount reaches 100 [percent] for all tokens. Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the company said on X.

The money spent re-buying tokens came from a $1bn Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), a Bitcoin reserve fund Binance ⁠holds to protect customers in the event of security ⁠breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund and the company’s corporate treasury.

Crypto prices fell on Friday, as Binance, which runs the world’s largest crypto exchange, sought to reassure customers their funds were safe.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said on Friday that the breach was a “complex attack” involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to ⁠delete evidence of its activity, making it hard to trace and investigate.

After ⁠the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds.

Binance said later on Saturday that it was on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday.

Binance also announced the publication of a new proof-of-reserves snapshot, allowing users to independently verify that their assets were backed at a minimum 1:1 ratio.