Flight attendant Betty Ong spent the final moments of her life helping authorities identify the men who had hijacked the flight she was on — American Airlines Flight 11 — on September 11, 2001.
Ong, a San Francisco native who worked out of Boston&#8217;s Logan International Airport, had been on the job for 14 years and worked the rear cabin as the No. 3 flight attendant. She was aboard the Los Angeles-bound flight with 81 passengers and 10 other crew members when everything went wrong.
The last official contact from Flight 11 to air traffic control was recorded at 8:13 a.m., with the pilots acknowledging an instruction to turn 20 degrees to the right. Sixteen seconds later, Boston Center controllers told the pilots to climb to 35,000 feet, but received no response. After seven minutes of dead air, the plane had veered so far off course that controllers began to speculate that a medical emergency or hijacking had taken place.
At 8:20 a.m., Ong calmly picked up an Airfone to contact American Airlines, and confirmed officials&#8217; worst fears.
&#8220;The cockpit is not answering. Somebody&#8217;s stabbed in business class, and, um, I think there&#8217;s Mace and we can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; Ong said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, I think we are getting hijacked.&#8221;
Ong remained on the line for more than 20 minutes, describing the violence unfolding inside the plane. Shortly after she hung up, someone turned off the plane&#8217;s IFF (&#8220;identify friend or foe&#8221;) beacon.
<blockquote>Male voice: Can you describe the person that you said—someone is what in business class?
Betty Ong: I&#8217;m sitting in the back. Somebody&#8217;s coming back from business. If you can hold on for one second, they&#8217;re coming back&#8230;
Okay. Our number 1 got stabbed. Our purser is stabbed. Nobody knows who stabbed who, and we can&#8217;t even get up to business class right now &#8217;cause nobody can breathe. Our number 1 is stabbed right now. And who else is?
Male voice: Okay, and do we—
Betty Ong: And our number 5 — our first class passengers are — galley flight attendant and our purser has been stabbed. And we can&#8217;t get into the cockpit, the door won&#8217;t open. Hello?</blockquote>
Ong proceeded to give details about the hijackers — including their seat numbers — that helped investigators identify them based on the flight manifest. Men from first-class seats 2A and 2B had charged the cockpit and forced their way in, she said, and the person in seat 9B had also been involved.
Fellow flight attendant Madeline &#8220;Amy&#8221; Sweeney also made a call from Flight 11 that day. Filling in for a sick colleague, Sweeney had not been scheduled to be on that flight — but when it was hijacked, she too picked up an Airfone and called American Airlines Flight Service at Logan Airport, reaching her friend and service manager Michael Woodward.
&#8220;Listen, and listen to me very carefully. I&#8217;m on Flight 11. The airplane has been hijacked,&#8221; she said.
Sweeney proceeded to relay a lot of the same information Ong was giving to another colleague — that the cockpit had been breached and that two flight attendants and a passenger had been stabbed: &#8220;A hijacker also cut the throat of a business class passenger, and he appears to be dead.&#8221;
She went on to describe the hijackers as Middle Eastern, noting that at least one of them spoke English very well.
She also relayed three additional seat numbers that may have been connected to the terrorists: 9D, 9G, and 10B.
While the two flight attendants stayed on their calls, Flight 11 descended rapidly toward New York City. Before contact with Ong was lost, she made a final request: &#8220;Pray for us.&#8221;
Around the same time, Woodward asked Sweeney several times if she knew where they were, since by then the hijackers had disabled the plane&#8217;s transponder.
&#8220;I see water. I see buildings. I see buildings! We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying way too low. Oh my God we are flying way too low. Oh my God!&#8221; Sweeney could be heard saying just before the line went dead.
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center&#8217;s North Tower at 8:46 a.m., killing everyone on board. Much of what investigators learned about the first hijacking of September 11 came from the final calls made by Ong and Sweeney.

Septmber 11, 2001

9/11: The Flight Attendants Who Spent Their Final Moments Helping Identify The Hijackers

9/11: The Flight Attendant Who Used Her Last Moments To Help Identify The Hijackers

american airlines flight 11

aviation

september 11 attacks

terrorism

world trade center

&#8220;All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard.&#8221;
The voice of U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Michael Day cut through the static and the chaos as New Yorkers fled to the water&#8217;s edge, trying to escape the billowing smoke and ash from the collapse of the World Trade Center — and following that voice, boats came by the dozens.
Day was supposed to attend a meeting at Tower One of the World Trade Center that morning, but before he arrived, the call came out that a plane had struck one building — and then another plane struck the other. Running to the water to escape the dust and debris, some people jumped into the Hudson River without waiting for boats. Others lined the waterways and just waited, hoping that they&#8217;d be picked up eventually.
&#8220;We were unable to get any reports from lower Manhattan since all the communications systems failed. It was chaotic. People from multiple agencies were responding to the scene without any unity of purpose. There wasn’t a pre-planned response; there was no CONOP for how to respond to two planes crashing into the Towers,&#8221; <a href="https://maritime-executive.com/editorials/remembering-9-11-lt-michael-day-and-the-lower-manhattan-boatlift">Day recalled</a>.
Grabbing the closest emergency response plan he could think of, Day set to work: &#8220;I knew it had a lot of ambulance staging areas. We had a lot of evacuation points identified. Although it wasn’t necessarily a full-scale evacuation plan, it had information.&#8221;
&#8220;I remember listening to the radio because by this time we were underway on the boat and it was just … chaos. Every channel you clicked to, people were screaming, ‘Help, people are here … I’ve got someone hurt here.'&#8221;
With cellular phone service and radio communications unreliable at best, Day shifted to handheld radios and sent Coast Guardsmen to the piers to help coordinate the crowds of people trying to leave Manhattan.
And then <a href="https://www.atlanticarea.uscg.mil/Portals/7/First%20District/Bios/Day.pdf?ver=2017-06-23-103351-453">Lt. Day</a> picked up a radio of his own: &#8220;All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island.&#8221;
The boats were already on their way: ferries; fishing boats; tour lines; private yachts; dinner cruise vessels; and even a few dinghies that could only carry two people at a time.
Captain Richard Thornton, who normally ferried commuters from Manhattan to New Jersey aboard the Henry Hudson, <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/ferry-captain-all-available">answered that call</a>: &#8220;We immediately just took off. We stole the boat &#8230; we didn’t tell anybody.&#8221;
Joining in the relief efforts, emergency responders on the New Jersey side met the boats with supplies: food and water that could be taken back to those still waiting for a ride off the island.
&#8220;We set up three different staging areas because the supplies were coming in so fast and furious that we were running out of room, and we couldn’t distribute them fast enough,&#8221; Day said, later reflecting, &#8220;I broke more rules that day than probably I’ve enforced in my whole Coast Guard career.&#8221;
By the numbers, the September 11 evacuation of Lower Manhattan was bigger than Dunkirk, where between May 26 and June 4, 1940, civilian and military vessels evacuated 338,226 Allied soldiers who were stranded on the beach.
On September 11, approximately 800 mariners evacuated nearly 500,000 civilians from Lower Manhattan in about nine hours. Captain Thornton&#8217;s company alone — which would normally transport about 34,000 people in a day — moved 158,000 stranded New Yorkers to Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Smoke continues to rise from the destroyed World T

9/11: The Coast Guard Lieutenant Who Launched The Largest Boatlift In History

coast guard

new york city

The Democratic Party&#8217;s great white hope in Texas, Senate candidate James Talarico, visited a mosque in the days after the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks — a move that he now defends as being in the interest of &#8220;solidarity.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/james-talarico-next-great-hope-texas-democrats/">Talarico&#8217;s mother</a> was behind the trip — he was 12 years old at the time — and she took his sister Madeleine and two of his friends as well, to counter some of the distrust of American Muslims in the days after the attacks.
The Texas Democrat is an ordained pastor as well as a politician, and he often appears to blur the lines between the two. Brought up in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Talarico&#8217;s religion is rooted in activism, which in turn fuels his politics.
In 2021, Talarico sponsored a bill that would allow Imams to perform weddings in Texas. Talarico&#8217;s church has also continued to blur the lines, hosting an annual <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1364348429064065&amp;type=3">Iftar dinner</a> for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1364348429064065&amp;type=3">Muslim holiday</a> of Ramadan and inviting a local Imam to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB0qAj670VY&amp;t=29s">deliver a sermon</a> in 2022. Rigby himself has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jim.rigby.12/posts/pfbid0BkYNNezcsFEFk13otKbktiVwEjamGDB1hoQZ7Fa1HTco72SsJR3j1KpPLYdMLkc1l">touted partnerships</a> with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Pastor Jim Rigby of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church led a politically active congregation and preached social justice from the pulpit — and was even arrested in 2017 for criminal trespass after taking over the governor&#8217;s office to protest a bill that would allow police officers making traffic stops to check immigration status as well. Talarico said that Rigby inspired him to see politics as a way to practically implement the biblical call to love one&#8217;s neighbor.
As he became more active in politics, Talarico attended seminary.
&#8220;The whole reason I went to seminary is because I had a pretty big crisis of faith in our political system and in democracy,&#8221; he said, adding that he also wanted to make sure that when he discussed religious matters he was getting things right. &#8220;I wanted to have professional training, just because you can mess up people’s lives with both faith and politics, especially when they’re mixed.&#8221;
In 2021, Talarico&#8217;s particular blend of politicized religiosity led to a strange invocation in the Texas House — &#8220;Holy mystery, you have so many names,” he said, listing off names for God in a litany of religions before declaring simply that God is love. In his prayer before the body, he asked God to help the other members of the chamber to practice not just &#8220;personal love&#8221; but &#8220;political love&#8221; by embracing policies that would &#8220;welcome the stranger.&#8221;
The invocation ruffled enough feathers that the Texas House&#8217;s practice of rotating chaplains was abruptly discontinued.

Democratic Senate Candidate Talarico Participates In Juneteenth March

Talarico Visited Mosque Weekend After 9/11, Defends It As ‘Solidarity’ Moment

Talarico Visited Mosque Weekend After 9/11, Defends It As 'Solidarity' Moment

2026 midterm election

islam

james talarico

politics

texas senate race

Lindsay Clancy&#8217;s murder trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial — and while the prosecution must now weigh the potential costs and benefits of bringing the charges again, Clancy&#8217;s attorney and several members of the jury have already begun a second shadow trial designed to poison any future jury pool.
Within minutes of Judge William Sullivan&#8217;s ruling, attorney Kevin Reddington launched his second trial from the courthouse steps. When he criticized the lone holdout from the jury — the one man who&#8217;d pushed back against an emotional argument that was supposed to make him forget the underlying crime — he sent a clear warning to anyone who might serve on a future Clancy jury.
First, when he revealed that the holdout was a man, Reddington <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jonathan-turley-torches-utterly-reprehensible-move-from-lindsay-clancy-lawyer">all but identified him</a> by name. Because there were only three men on the jury, he had to be aware that internet sleuths would likely uncover the juror&#8217;s identity before too long — and that anyone who could serve on a future jury would know that the same fate awaited them.
&#8220;He effectively put a target on the back of a juror who committed the unpardonable sin of not being convinced by his arguments,&#8221; George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote regarding Reddington&#8217;s comments.
Second, Reddington&#8217;s willingness to use his position and his platform to attack a man doing his civic duty — a man whose only &#8220;error&#8221; was in not being convinced that empathy should supersede evidence — also sends an unequivocal message to future jurors.
But in addition to telegraphing the likely consequences to any juror who might dare to fixate on the evidence, Reddington has taken every available opportunity to hammer away at the narrative he presented in court: Lindsay Clancy was a good mother who was victimized and rendered helpless by a combination of mental health struggles and inadequate health care.
During an NBC News interview on Wednesday, Reddington claimed that Clancy talks about her children &#8220;all the time,&#8221; quoting her as saying, &#8220;I want my babies. I want my babies.&#8221;
Clancy &#8220;has bad days and she has worse days,&#8221; he added, claiming that she is a different person than she was at the time of the killings and that she should not have the rest of her life defined by those crimes because &#8220;that was not the Lindsay that is now living amongst us.&#8221;
Several members of the jury have also gone public with their thoughts on the case, complaining to legacy media outlets about the lone holdout juror who wasted seven weeks of their lives and refused to allow a desire for compassion for Clancy to eclipse the need for justice for the three young children she murdered.
Simultaneously depicting themselves as victims of the lone holdout and heroes who stood up for Lindsay Clancy, the jurors who have spoken out thus far have made themselves the protagonists of the still-unfolding drama.
The prosecution, they said, was &#8220;harsh&#8221; and lacked compassion for Clancy because they did not spare her feelings when they described the murders — which she has never denied committing — in detail.
&#8220;I honestly think the prosecutor did themselves more damage than good by just not thinking about Lindsay, I mean, the whole picture,&#8221; one juror said.
She also asserted that it was obvious Clancy was out of her mind because no evidence had been presented to prove that Clancy was a bad mother: &#8220;There wasn’t one person on either side that could say anything bad about her. Even the prosecution really couldn’t point to anything.&#8221;
Another juror echoed that sentiment, saying, &#8220;I just found it to be harsh — very, very harsh. The fact that they had no character witnesses in regard to Lindsay being a bad mother. I mean … you’re presenting all these medical professionals, but nobody’s presenting, for the prosecution, a woman and a mother of three children.&#8221;
What they didn&#8217;t mention was that the defense called Clancy&#8217;s mother, her sister, a former colleague, and her former mother-in-law, all of whom testified to her devotion as a mother — and that prosecutors could not have opened with contrary character evidence under the rules of evidence regardless.
As the jurors continue to speak out — and Reddington jumps behind every microphone he sees — it&#8217;s not likely that the shadow trial will end unless and until another official trial begins.

US-CRIME-TRIAL-CLANCY

Make No Mistake: Lindsay Clancy’s Second Trial Has Already Started

filicide

jury system

kevin reddington

lindsay clancy

mistrial

Attorney Kevin Reddington has attempted another Hail Mary in his efforts to get his client, Lindsay Clancy, a &#8220;not responsible&#8221; verdict in the killings of her three small children.
Reddington filed a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/10/us-news/lindsay-clancys-lawyer-files-hail-mary-bid-for-not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity-ruling/">renewed motion</a> on Thursday, asking for a judge to rule on the case and declare his client not guilty by reason of insanity.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Renewed motion for a required finding of NG for Lindsay Clancy, filed by Kevin Reddington in response to juror interviews. (1/2) <a href="https://t.co/ll4LTOxw29">pic.twitter.com/ll4LTOxw29</a>
— Kristina Rex (@KristinaRex) <a href="https://x.com/KristinaRex/status/2098081017936466182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Clancy admitted to strangling her children, Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months, inside the family&#8217;s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. Her six-week trial ended in a mistrial Friday after jurors deadlocked 11-1, with the majority favoring acquittal by reason of insanity.
The defense attorney claimed in the new filing that the prosecution had failed to prove Clancy had known at the time of the killings that what she was doing was wrong — and that she had possessed the ability to follow the law.
&#8220;No rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that she had no mental disease or defect when the Commonwealth’s own proof established that she did,&#8221; the motion states, suggesting that the first trial had ended in a hung jury due to an irrational actor and arguing that a bench ruling would eliminate the need for a retrial.
Referencing a number of statements made since the trial by the jurors, Reddington suggested that they could be considered an &#8220;unannounced verdict&#8221; — which would make a second trial on the same charges a violation of double jeopardy laws.
Reddington filed similar motions twice during the high-profile trial, and both times Judge William Sullivan denied his request.
The move is just the latest in Reddington&#8217;s efforts to avoid another jury trial. In recent interviews, he has told several outlets that he plans to push for a reduction of charges and argue for psychiatric treatment rather than prison for his client.
The attorney told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/lindsay-clancys-lawyer-reveals-post-mistrial-strategy-retrial-looms">Fox News</a> he first plans to argue that because the defense objected to the mistrial, a retrial would constitute double jeopardy. If that fails, he will push to have Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz consider a reduction in the charges to second-degree murder — in which case Clancy could request a trial before a judge rather than a jury trial.
&#8220;I would like to see Tim reduce it to a second degree &#8230; and fashion something where Lindsay gets the mental, physical help that she needs rather than criminal prosecution, because I would not ever, ever in a million years have that woman go to Framingham State Prison,&#8221; Reddington said.
Reddington continued to attack the lone holdout on the jury, arguing that his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jonathan-turley-torches-utterly-reprehensible-move-from-lindsay-clancy-lawyer">failure to agree</a> with the other jurors amounted to a failure to &#8220;follow the law.&#8221;
&#8220;I was angry because of his refusal to follow the law. That&#8217;s what I was angry about. That&#8217;s why I felt that the other jurors, after their seven-week sacrifice, were robbed. That&#8217;s why I felt for Lindsay, because she deserved to have the verdict that she was entitled to,&#8221; Reddington insisted.

Nurse practitioner who treated Lindsay Clancy testifies about Duxbury mother’s desperation to improve amid postpartum struggles

Lindsay Clancy Lawyer Has One More Hail Mary Up His Sleeve

double jeopardy

insanity defense

massachusetts

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a pointed warning against blurring the distinction between 9/11 terrorists and first responders Wednesday, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood beside her, comments some observers interpreted as a veiled rebuke of the mayor.
Tisch delivered the remarks during the unveiling of a new 9/11 Memorial Wall at One Police Plaza honoring more than 469 NYPD members who have died from illnesses connected to their service following the terrorist attacks.
&#8220;Preserving that history also means preserving its moral clarity,&#8221; Tisch said. &#8220;The men who attacked this city were terrorists. The men and women who ran into the towers to save innocent lives were heroes. Twenty-five years cannot be allowed to blur that distinction and shame on those who do.&#8221;
Many who watched her speak on Wednesday immediately assumed that she was speaking to the mayor, even if indirectly.
&#8220;Jessica Tisch said this with Zohran Mamdani sitting beside her. Public officials must show &#8216;moral clarity&#8217; about 9/11 and never blur the distinction between heroes and terrorists. &#8216;Shame on those who do.&#8217; She didn’t say his name. She didn’t have to,&#8221; former financial exec Sam Antar <a href="https://x.com/SamAntar/status/2097739368622342489">posted</a>.
While the police commissioner did not mention anyone by name, Tisch&#8217;s remarks come just a few days after Mamdani signed official orders designating September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and addressing security concerns ahead of the 25th anniversary events.
After signing the orders, Mamdani gifted the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-marks-9-11-with-slap-in-the-face-move-tied-to-al-qaeda-terrorist">ceremonial pen</a> to his chief counsel, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-names-al-qaeda-defense-attorney-as-new-york-citys-chief-counsel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ramzi Kassem</a> — who has been directly linked to al-Qaeda terrorists — but because Tisch was standing between them at the time, he first gave the pen to her and asked her to &#8220;pass it&#8221; to Kassem. Witnesses noted that Tisch made an abrupt exit from the room after that.
Critics were quick to suggest that Mamdani had not done that by accident — that he knew the optics of such a move and did not care.
&#8220;This childish, calculated display of passive aggression was missed by no one, and will not be forgotten by Tisch or by NYC’s millions of 9/11 survivors,&#8221; Fox Business anchor <a href="https://x.com/DavidAsmanfox/status/2096445982997102742">David Asman</a> said.
Matthew Hennessey wrote in a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/mamdanis-pen-is-a-message-of-contempt-a0a3e9b0?st=TBKE8V">Wall Street Journal</a> op-ed, &#8220;Everyone deserves a lawyer. But by deliberately handing his ceremonial pen to this man, Mr. Mamdani mocked the loss his city suffered on 9/11. And he forced Ms. Tisch to participate in that mockery. He might as well have turned to the cameras and winked.&#8221;
&nbsp;

Mayor Mamdani Joins NYPD Commissioner Tisch At Unveiling Of New 9/11 Memorial Wall At One Police Plaza

NYC Police Commish Appears To Shade Mamdani In Pointed 9/11 Comments

NYC Police Commish Shades Mamdani In 9/11 Comments

jessica tisch

nypd

ramzi kassem

zohran mamdani

Before he became the center of a college campus drug investigation, accused Penn State cocaine kingpin Agostino Abbatiello attended a pricey New York Catholic school.
The Long Island native, according to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/09/08/us-news/penn-state-cocaine-scandal-agostino-abbatiello-was-loudmouth-at-private-catholic-school-sources/">report</a> from The New York Post, grew up in the wealthy suburb of Westbury and attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York — a private Catholic school that runs $19,000 per year and touts a record of &#8220;forming young men of character and purpose.&#8221;
&#8220;I could always see him getting in some kind of trouble because he was always on the edge,&#8221; one former classmate told the outlet. &#8220;Auggie was not this innocent boy. He had this group of, like, 10 boys who would hang out in parks after school and go to house parties &#8230; There were rumors some of that crowd were drinking underage, some people had fake IDs, that kind of thing.&#8221;
Another former classmate described Abbatiello as a &#8220;loudmouth&#8221; and &#8220;a jokester, always looking for attention.&#8221;
&#8220;He’d go around making noises, calling people names and doing his best to make people laugh when the teacher turned their backs,&#8221; the classmate said.
The 24-year-old was one of several <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/frat-bros-busted-after-pledges-forced-to-cut-cocaine-in-university-drug-cartel">Penn State University</a> fraternity brothers charged in connection with an alleged drug trafficking ring — one that prosecutors say roped young fraternity pledges into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/frat-bros-ran-a-cocaine-empire-until-one-boneheaded-move-blew-it-up">cutting and packaging</a> cocaine as part of their initiation.
Abbatiello, known at the university as &#8220;The Godfather,&#8221; appeared in court last Wednesday — where Lars Zeepvat, who was also charged in connection with the trafficking ring, testified that Abbatiello had bought drugs from a former classmate named &#8220;RJ&#8221; and had been instrumental in bringing the drugs onto the western Pennsylvania campus.
&#8220;First time he purchased from RJ it was the most we’ve ever seen and it was 100 grams,” Zeepvat testified. &#8220;People were enamored with how much it was. Abbatiello brought back the coke the first time he went to New York and put it on the social room [at the] frat house.&#8221;
None of the people who spoke to The Post were able to shed any light on who &#8220;RJ&#8221; might have been.

Ohio State v Penn State

Penn State’s Accused Cocaine Kingpin Attended Ritzy Private High School

Penn State Cocaine Kingpin Came From Ritzy Private School Background

cocaine trafficking

college drug investigation

fraternity

penn state university

President Donald Trump cleared up some confusion on Wednesday after an emergency slide deployed on his new presidential aircraft as it sat on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.
Trump — who was headed to Dallas for the first-ever Republican National Committee Midterm Convention — was still aboard Marine One at the time. While the slide remained deployed, the president&#8217;s old plane also rolled up and parked a short distance away, prompting confusion about which plane Trump would take and why.
Trump quickly shrugged off concerns about the slide when he disembarked and spoke with reporters, saying it was just being checked out before his flight and assuring them nothing was wrong with his new plane.
&#8220;So they&#8217;re checking the slide over here, and I think it&#8217;s going to take 15 minutes. They were doing a check on the slide, you know, the emergency. So I think it takes about 15 minutes,&#8221; he told reporters. &#8220;They want to make sure everything works perfectly.&#8221;
When asked whether he was confident the plane was safe, Trump replied, &#8220;Yeah, I am, or I wouldn&#8217;t be on it.&#8221;
Crews removed the slide, and Trump departed aboard the new aircraft without further incident.
Questions regarding <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-pulled-off-secret-plane-swap-using-catering-truck-after-iran-threat-report">Trump&#8217;s safety</a> in the air have taken a different tone since July, when the president was quietly transferred to another plane as he left a NATO meeting in Turkey. According to a report from The Washington Post, Trump was taken away from the older Air Force One in a catering truck — apparently due to an assassination threat from Iran — while staffers and reporters remained on board.
Despite the threat and the apparent last-minute switch, the White House has said on several occasions that the Qatari-gifted plane has the &#8220;high-level security protocols&#8221; needed to protect the president.
&#8220;The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement at the time. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats.”

GettyImages-2293827831

Trump Clears Up Mystery Behind Air Force One Emergency Slide

air force one

donald trump

joint base andrews

white house

&#8220;Lioness&#8221; actress Jill Wagner said series creator Taylor Sheridan gave her just 10 minutes to relearn a tactical sequence using her non-dominant hand, the kind of challenge that she says &#8220;forces you to run into the fire.&#8221;
Wagner, 47, told People that Sheridan issued the last-minute direction while she and co-star Laysla De Oliveira were preparing to film a scene for the third season of the Paramount+ series.
&#8220;I won’t say that anything was so physically draining for me this season because I do think this season is a bit more cerebral,” Wagner told the outlet. &#8220;But I will say there was one day that Laysla [de Oliveira] and I were trying to get this entrance into the house. Cruz and Bobby have to come in and clear the room, and we were having difficulties with some of the angles.&#8221;
Wagner said she and De Oliveira had already learned the sequence when Sheridan stepped in shortly before filming.
&#8220;Ten minutes before we roll, he comes in and says, ‘No, I think you should switch arms. Transition your weapon to your left arm,'&#8221; Wagner added. &#8220;And I was just like, &#8216;Hmm … okay. Help me&#8217; &#8230; Ultimately, we worked it out, and it’s probably going to be one of my favorite moments.&#8221;
De Oliveira agreed that Sheridan&#8217;s on-set asks could be daunting, but said that they also instilled confidence in his actors.
&#8220;Once you go through that experience, you really leave the set thinking, &#8216;Wow, I can do anything!&#8217; If you can pick that up, then you go onto another set and think, &#8216;Well, this one time I did everything with my left hand even though I’m right-handed.&#8217; So it’s a great opportunity for us.&#8221;
&#8220;He forces you to run into the fire. He really does,&#8221; Wagner said.
Wagner&#8217;s description echoed recent comments from co-star Zoe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/actress-says-taylor-sheridan-offers-stars-two-choices">Saldana</a>, who said Sheridan gives his actors two choices when he raises the bar.
&#8220;Working with him is a challenge in the sense that he does raise the bar,&#8221; Saldana said ahead of the third season. &#8220;And you have one of two choices. You either accept the challenge and make sure that you don’t f*ck up … or you quit. And I like being challenged. I really do.&#8221;
Wagner, who stars as Quick Reaction Force leader Bobby and serves as an executive producer on &#8220;Lioness,&#8221; helped originate the idea for the series after <a href="https://decider.com/2024/12/08/lioness-jill-wagner-interview-bobby-taylor-sheridan/">learning</a> about the military&#8217;s real-life Lioness program from her husband, U.S. Army Major David Lemanowicz.
The program deployed female U.S. Marines alongside combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan, allowing them to search and question women while respecting local cultural restrictions. The teams also worked to prevent insurgents from using women and children to smuggle weapons.
Wagner, who previously appeared in a number of films for Hallmark Channel and then Great American Family, cut her hair and underwent intense physical and tactical training for the role.
&#8220;I think because we’re telling important stories about women who are still currently over there doing these jobs, I think it’s really important that we remind people — not just women, but men as well — that they’re over there fighting for a lot of different things for us and sacrificing. I just think it’s important to remind people and to honor that,&#8221; Wagner said of the show.

Paramount+’s “Lioness” Season 3 New York Premiere

‘He Forces You To Run Into The Fire’: ‘Lioness’ Actress Reveals Life On Taylor Sheridan’s Set

'Lioness' Actress Doubles Down On Taylor Sheridan's On-Set Demands

arts

jill wagner

lioness

paramount

taylor sheridan

zoe saldana

A massive sinkhole swallowed part of actor Nicolas Cage&#8217;s driveway — and threatened to swallow his $10.5 million Malibu home — after heavy rains and high surf from Tropical Storm Marie battered his $10.5 million Malibu property.
The hole, estimated at 30 feet by 30 feet, opened Tuesday morning outside the beachfront home, sending asphalt, concrete, part of a privacy fence, and a construction-site porta potty tumbling into it,  <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/09/08/celebrity-news/nicolas-cages-malibu-mansion-surrounded-by-massive-sinkhole/?_gl=1*118vjnl*_gcl_au*MzA4MjQzMjc1LjE3ODg4ODcxMTA.*_ga*MTUxNTA1OTQyMi4xNzg4ODg3MTE4*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*czE3ODg4OTU4MjgkbzMkZzEkdDE3ODg4OTU4NjQkajI0JGwwJGgw">according</a> to Page Six.
<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/nicolas-cage-malibu-home-threatened-173920993.html">First responders</a> were initially called to the scene early Tuesday morning for a suspected gas line break, and Los Angeles County Fire Department units were sent to the 31600 block of Sea Level Drive at about 5:45 a.m. Upon arrival, crews discovered that the collapse had damaged a gas line, which workers shut off before beginning repairs.
No injuries were reported, and no one appeared to be inside Cage&#8217;s home at the time.
&#8220;Substantial damage was done to this home, or at least the driveway to this home here in Malibu. It doesn&#8217;t appear that anybody was home. As a matter of fact, the house looks like it is under some sort of renovation,&#8221; KTLA&#8217;s Rich Prickett reported.
A fire department spokesman attributed the sinkhole to coastal erosion. The collapse occurred as high tides and surf associated with Tropical Storm Marie battered the Malibu coastline.
The &#8220;National Treasure&#8221; actor, 62, had bought the property in 2024 — and it appeared to be undergoing renovations at the time.
A representative for Cage did not immediately respond to Page Six&#8217;s request for comment.
Cage&#8217;s home, according to Page Six, was built by Jose Liberman of Liberman Broadcasting in the 1990s — and remained in his family until the Oscar-winning actor purchased it.
After the sale, Lenard Liberman told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/realestate/nicolas-cage-malibu-house.html">The New York Times</a>, &#8220;Yes, Nicolas Cage bought our home in Malibu. My parents would go on weekends, and it was my father&#8217;s &#8216;happy place.&#8217; My father passed away, and my mom just couldn&#8217;t go to the house anymore. Too many memories.&#8221;

Universal Pictures’ “Renfield” New York Premiere

The Earth Just Tried To Swallow Nicolas Cage’s House

The Earth Just Tried To Swallow Nicolas Cage's House

lifestyle

malibu

nicolas cage

sinkhole

tropical storm marie

Patrick Clancy, through attorney Howard Cooper, threatened legal action against the &#8220;minor celebrities,&#8221; &#8220;influencers,&#8221; and &#8220;conspiracy theorists&#8221; who have claimed that he was involved in the deaths of his three young children.
Cooper released a <a href="https://x.com/hannahecotter/status/2097288132110458953">statement</a> on Tuesday warning anyone who continued promoting those claims: &#8220;Law enforcement has been notified.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the past months, Patrick Clancy and his family have been subjected to a relentless, escalating, and destructive defamation campaign. This campaign of misinformation has been launched and promoted by minor celebrities, so-called influencers and outright conspiracy theorists who appear intent on boosting their own social media profiles and potential profit by publishing what they know to be outright falsehoods that Patrick was somehow involved in the death of his young children and other vile claims,&#8221; the statement read in part.
Cooper said growing media coverage has amplified the accusations and that the campaign has produced threats extending beyond social media.
&#8220;This campaign, now fueled by insatiable media coverage, remains at a fever pitch and has resulted in real-life threats to his reputation, livelihood, and life,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;Patrick has no choice but to address this situation — with the clear goal of stopping injurious behavior, creating accountability for lies that are self-serving to the perpetrators, and being able to return his attention to what matters: preserving the memory of Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy and supporting other women facing perinatal mental health challenges.&#8221;
Lindsay Clancy was charged with murdering the couple&#8217;s three children. Her defense did not dispute that she killed them but argued that severe mental illness rendered her not criminally responsible. A judge declared a mistrial Friday after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will retry the case.
A number of social media users have nevertheless <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/22/us/patrick-clancy-conspiracy-theories">blamed</a> <a href="https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/patrick-clancy-didnt-do-it-why-does-the-internet-think-hes-guilty-1236838968/">Patrick Clancy</a> for the deaths of his children — with some of them claiming that he&#8217;d manipulated Lindsay into believing that she had killed them.
Former &#8220;Real Housewives of Beverly Hills&#8221; star Lisa Rinna was among those claiming that Patrick Clancy was guilty, saying in a TikTok video on August 17, &#8220;All right, he did it. Patrick did it. Patrick’s the one who did it. Not Lindsay. Patrick did it. Because, you know, I also heard that women typically don’t strangle.&#8221;
Cooper concluded his statement with a stark warning to anyone who continued to spread those claims.
&#8220;Enough is enough — this spread of blatant and baseless falsehoods must stop,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Those responsible should understand that there will be consequences, and every appropriate measure will be pursued to hold them accountable, including legally.&#8221;

Patrick Clancy describes ex-wife’s mental health struggles leading up to children’s deaths in her murder trial

Patrick Clancy Puts ‘Minor Celebrities’ And ‘Influencers’ On Notice

Patrick Clancy Threatens Drastic Measures Against 'Influencers' Tying Him To Murders

defamation

lisa rinna

patrick clancy

social media

Paris officials are investigating after Eiffel Tower employees went on strike to protest instructions that female workers avoid contact with a visiting Hindu delegation, shutting down the landmark for the day.
The visiting group was Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), which <a title="https://www.baps.org/" href="https://www.baps.org/" target="_self" rel="">describes itself</a> as a “volunteer-driven fellowship” within the Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism. The request, according to multiple <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/09/08/paris-uproar-after-eiffel-tower-restricts-female-staff-hindu-groups-visit/">reports</a>, was for staff on-site to limit interactions between members of the group and female employees.
Female staffers said they were effectively told to &#8220;make themselves invisible&#8221; by either remaining out of sight or leaving their posts entirely during the group&#8217;s Saturday visit. The delegation was in the Paris area for events marking the inauguration of a new Hindu temple on Sunday.
<p class="paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmts6nx6t00053b6r4n1wav47@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-article-gutter="true">Diane Davoine, a union representative for Eiffel Tower employees, said management responded to the request by replacing female workers with men.
<p class="paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmts6nx6t00053b6r4n1wav47@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-article-gutter="true">&#8220;Women were asked to leave their places of work in order to place men there,&#8221; Davoine said. &#8220;So that absolutely does not go down well with the employees, with women obviously, who are all humiliated by what happened, by the way some were treated.&#8221;
Employees went on strike Monday, closing the landmark for the day. It reopened Tuesday. Ariel Weil, the president of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE), sided with employees and called the incident &#8220;totally shocking and unacceptable.&#8221;
BAPS released a <a href="https://x.com/BAPSParis/status/2097042887146156073/photo/2">statement</a> after the backlash, apologizing for any &#8220;pain or inconvenience.&#8221;
&#8220;We understand the concerns expressed and take them very seriously. Given the size of our delegation, the visit was organized in coordination with the Eiffel Tower teams, at the start of normal opening hours, in order to limit as much as possible any disruption for other visitors. To our knowledge, at no time was access to the Eiffel Tower denied to anyone,&#8221; the statement read.
&#8220;Nevertheless, we wish to offer our sincere apologies to anyone who may have been hurt or inconvenienced by this situation,&#8221; the group continued. &#8220;We are deeply committed to the universal values of mutual respect and service to others.&#8221;
In a later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/eiffel-tower-paris-hindu-women-strike-baps-ba972660ee086097a8bf1684d6a5bed1">statement</a> to the Associated Press, BAPS said its coordination with Eiffel Tower management was &#8220;never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender&#8221; and that any suggestion otherwise did not reflect the group&#8217;s values.
&#8220;It is not acceptable that such conditions can be tolerated,&#8221; Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said, adding that there would be a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/08/travel/eiffel-tower-strike-female-staff-baps-hindu-group-intl-hnk">full investigation</a> into the situation. &#8220;These are neither my values, nor those that the Eiffel Tower should uphold, where everyone should be able to move about and act freely, without distinction between women and men.&#8221;

FRANCE-PARIS-EIFFEL-TOWER

Eiffel Tower Makes Female Workers ‘Invisible’ To Accommodate Religious Group

Menu

Virginia Kruta