The Rangers have opened the door for Alberts Smits to claim a spot on the third defensive pairing, and the 18-year-old is making a strong early case to walk through it.

Smits was a bright spot in the Rangers’ otherwise disappointing 4-3 preseason loss to the Islanders on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. The Latvian defenseman delivered the primary assist on New York’s third goal and held his ground against an Islanders lineup featuring a heavy dose of NHL regulars.

“I felt pretty much comfortable at this speed,” Smits said after the Rangers surrendered a 3-0 lead when the Islanders scored three consecutive power-play goals.

Smits has worked on the left side of the third pair with Braden Schneider since training camp began.

New York is giving its 2026 fifth overall pick every opportunity to prove he can make the jump to the NHL. Looking comfortable in training camp is one thing; appearing composed and dependable in his first unofficial NHL game is another. Smits managed to do both.

Taylor Raddysh redirected a perfectly placed pass from Smits in the high slot, putting the Rangers ahead 3-0 just under 7 ¹/₂ minutes into the second period.

Smits stood up well in a physical, scrappy game. He battled effectively along the boards, showed no hesitation with the puck and finished with 15:29 of ice time, including 3:33 on the penalty kill.

“I thought he played well,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. Sullivan pointed to the physical demands of the NHL and said Smits had already answered one of the biggest questions facing a young defenseman. At 18, Smits has the size and strength to compete, win battles for loose pucks and withstand the league’s physical play. Sullivan also praised the awareness behind Smits’ assist on Raddysh’s goal, noting that the defenseman lifted his head and found the forward’s stick in the high slot.

Sullivan added that Smits defended with strong gaps, using his mobility, reach and long stick to make life difficult for opponents. The coach called it a strong performance and said the Rangers remain encouraged by what they have seen from the young defenseman.

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The Rangers have expanded the group of players who could strengthen the second power-play unit, but Sullivan does not anticipate an even split in ice time between the two units.

Sullivan said the second unit now presents a greater threat, but he expects the established top group to receive an extended opportunity. The core of that unit helped make the power play a major bright spot last season, and the coach believes continuing to lean on it gives the Rangers their best chance to win.

Sean Durzi, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eeli Tolvanen, Gabe Perreault and Liam Greentree formed the second power-play unit in Tuesday’s defeat.

Sullivan had no new information on forward Adam Sykora or defenseman Vincent Iorio, both of whom exited Monday’s game against the Devils with lower-body injuries.

Neither player practiced Tuesday, and both remained under evaluation.

Seven of the 20 Rangers in Tuesday’s lineup were offseason acquisitions, and six of those newcomers recorded at least one point in the loss.

The sister of missing Washington, D.C., mother Antoinette Forbes said the family had no idea she had been trapped in an abusive relationship until allegations from a 2021 attack came to light after the arrest of her 10-year-old son’s father.

Russell Ashford, 65, was taken into custody in Pennsylvania last week. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said he allegedly kept the couple’s son overnight without authorization on the night Antoinette was last seen. Prosecutors also accused him of violating probation tied to the 2021 assault case. Authorities have not identified Ashford as a suspect in Antoinette’s disappearance.

“Antoinette never told us anything about the 2021 assault. We’re still trying to understand it, and it feels impossible to grasp,” her sister, Aileen, told News Media.

“I didn’t learn about it until I saw portions of the report after my sister disappeared.”

Maryland court records show that Ashford pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 2021.

Court documents say the violence began during a dispute about their child’s education. Ashford allegedly hurled Antoinette into a staircase, punched her repeatedly as she lay on the kitchen floor and slammed her head against the ground at least 12 times, causing her to lose consciousness.

The attack reportedly continued until a neighbor heard Antoinette screaming and came inside to help.

Medical examinations found that Antoinette had suffered numerous cuts to her face, several fractured facial bones, an eye injury, a concussion, a broken finger and extensive bruising, according to court records. Prosecutors said the assault caused lasting damage to her eye and hand.

Ashford received a 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty, but authorities said he served nine months before being released on five years of probation.

Aileen said the revelations have stunned the family, which is still struggling to come to terms with what allegedly happened.

“The report is horrifying. Honestly, I haven’t even had a chance to fully process it. Knowing my sister may have experienced something so brutal is incredibly painful for me and everyone in our family. We don’t want to imagine it, and we can barely do so,” Aileen said.

Aileen believes Antoinette may have concealed the abuse because she was trying to shield the people closest to her.

“She wanted to protect us from what was happening. Antoinette didn’t want us to have any connection or involvement with Russell,” Aileen said.

More than two weeks have passed since Antoinette was last seen on Friday, Sept. 4. Her sister said Antoinette had been planning to take her son to California to visit family the following week.

She was reported missing on Sept. 6 after friends discovered that her dog, vehicle, cellphone and wallet were still inside her home, while Antoinette was nowhere to be found.

Ashford was arrested soon after Antoinette disappeared on allegations that he violated probation conditions barring hostile contact with her or their child, court records state. His arrest came as investigators examined the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.

According to reports, Ashford showed up without notice at his son’s summer camp on July 16, 2026. Staff told him he was not authorized to pick up the child and requested identification. He allegedly responded aggressively toward a counselor, leading the camp to submit a formal written account of the incident.

Pennsylvania State Police told News Media that Ashford was arrested after a traffic stop revealed he had an active warrant tied to the July incident.

Authorities told News Media last week that the search for Antoinette is ongoing and that officials do not have any updates to share with the public.

Aileen further urged anyone living in the Nebraska Avenue Northwest neighborhood where Antoinette lived to check their security cameras and think back to anything that may have seemed peculiar.

“Just check it, try to jog your memory,” Aileen pleaded. “Was there something that seemed peculiar that might be something that you can come forward with and offer a detail to the authorities? It might make a difference.”

“To everyone who has been following this devastating story and who has been a part of the search for Antoinette, who showed up at the vigil, who’s contributed to our GoFundMe account… I just want to say a deep thank you because it’s so meaningful to me and our family.”

Dolly Parton’s manager has gone to court seeking a temporary restraining order against her nephew and former longtime security chief, Bryan Seaver, alleging that Seaver made threatening remarks directed at him.

According to a case summary reviewed by The Daily Mail, manager Danny Nozell filed the request through Parton’s company, She’s Alive, LLC, asking the court to impose restrictions on Seaver.

In documents reviewed by TMZ, Nozell alleged that Seaver demanded money while referring to his claimed background as a military contractor, his access to weapons and what he described as his ability to use violence.

Nozell reportedly told the court that he dismissed Seaver from his role on September 15 following the alleged exchange.

The filing also claims Seaver’s conduct became increasingly concerning in the weeks before Parton’s death at age 80 on August 25, according to the outlet.

The Daily Mail has contacted Bryan Seaver, Danny Nozell and Nozell’s attorney, Timothy L. Warnock, for comment.

TMZ reported that court documents quote Seaver as telling Nozell, “Her money better be bigger than I can make elsewhere or I’m going to f*** everyone. I am about to become the hand of retribution for my entire family.”

A second message cited in the filing allegedly stated: “All I do is warfare … everyone needs to be worried about what I might do.”

The filing further alleges that Seaver planned to launch a podcast aimed at damaging Dolly Parton’s brand partnerships and detailing alleged wrongdoing by business associates, TMZ reported.

Nozell is asking the court to keep Seaver at least 1,000 feet away from Parton’s office and to bar him from contacting the singer’s companies and affiliated businesses.

Responding to the restraining-order request on Tuesday, Seaver told TMZ, “I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments. I am a security professional and I am a killer.

“However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by.”

Seaver maintained that the messages included in the court filing were taken out of context and presented in a way that falsely suggested he was attempting to intimidate Nozell.

“I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster,” Bryan told the outlet. “A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”

He also said a message in which he used the phrase “rat f***” referred to an organization whose name was redacted and was aimed at people he believed had harmed Parton professionally.

“Those comments were about specific, horrible business partners that have done wrong to her and I stand by that,” Seaver added.

Seaver reportedly received a notice last week informing him that he and his security companies would be replaced. Those organizations had provided protection at Parton’s Nashville residence, museum and warehouse, according to documents reviewed by TMZ.

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Insiders told the outlet that they believed Parton’s manager Nozell and Pinnacle Bank were responsible for the decision to terminate him and his employees.

A new security team was deployed to the locations previously overseen by Seaver’s companies on Wednesday after the termination notice was issued, according to the report.

Sources close to Seaver said he and his associates had been ‘dismayed by the unexpected and, so far, unexplained actions’ carried out in the wake of Parton’s passing.

‘We remain unshakably resolved to fulfill her final directive to protect her family, and we refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith,’ Seaver’s camp told TMZ.

His camp told the outlet they believed the actions had been taken ‘with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much.’

According to the outlet, the notice issued to Seaver indicated that the DP Dean Trust had been overseeing Parton’s business and properties in the wake of her passing.

Seaver retains a personal interest in her trust moving forward, according to the report.

Seaver, whose mother Cassie is Parton’s sister, had been appointed by the late Jolene singer to reveal her death in a public statement.

Following Dolly’s August 25 passing following a battle with cancer, Seaver had been seen in a clip in which he revealed the sad news.

‘Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by [late husband] Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,’ Seaver said in the emotional clip.

In the clip, Seaver noted that his father Larry had held the security position before him.

He said that he had been her security head for the past ‘two decades,’ and had been working for her over the past four decades. 

‘I first went on the road with Dolly as a kid, getting a taste of the road life in the early 1980s,’ Seaver said. ‘Dolly opened doors not just for me, but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible.

‘Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent. By her example, we believed that anything was possible.’

He added, ‘She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history. My family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly, but so have you.’

Parton has been well-remembered in the near month since her passing, which included an expansive tribute at the Primetime Emmy Awards last week which featured Reba McEntire and Sally Field.

Nashville International Airport will be renamed in Parton’s memory following a vote from the Metro Nashville Airport Authority Board of Commissioners weeks back.

Cornerstone University, a Christian institution in Michigan, is hosting an event focused on the dangers of communism, featuring academics and people who survived authoritarian regimes.

Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Cornerstone’s president, said the university selected the topic months ago after becoming concerned about shifting public attitudes toward communism and socialism. Scheduled for Oct. 1, the program is titled “Why Not Communism? A Wisdom Conversation on Freedom, Faith and the Future of America.”

“Frankly, we became alarmed and concerned because the history of communism, socialism is a dark one,” Moreno-Riaño told Fox News Digital.

He said Cornerstone felt an obligation to use its role as a university to educate its students and the broader public about what he described as the “moral bankruptcy” of communism and socialism.

The university is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in Kent County, where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed received more than 61% of the vote in the primary, according to state records. El-Sayed also campaigned with controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has called communism the “honorable end goal” of socialism—adding political context to Cornerstone’s event.

The speaker lineup includes Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Soviet communism scholar Dr. Gary Saul Morson, Cultural Revolution survivor Xi Van Fleet and North Korean defector Yeonmi Park.

Moreno-Riaño said the firsthand accounts of Park and Van Fleet are central to the discussion because their experiences reveal parallels between communist revolutions and conditions in North Korea and China under Mao Zedong.

Park told Fox News Digital that support for communism is growing among some students who study the ideology in comfortable classrooms, far removed from the realities of life under authoritarian rule.

“I had to live through [a] real socialist government every day until I escaped from North Korea,” Park said. “And I know it is not nice when it is actually enforced [in] real life. Many people think it’s [an] amazing thing as a theory, and they have no idea if we do bring this policy in our government, what that’s going to [do to] our local population.”

Park grew up in North Korea during the devastating famines of the 1990s, enduring hunger, extreme poverty and political persecution. At 13, she and her mother fled across a frozen border river into China, where they were forced into human trafficking. After Park’s mother endured sexual assault to shield her daughter from smugglers, both were sold to trafficking networks.

They spent two years in hiding and under exploitation before Christian activists helped them travel from China to Mongolia. From there, they obtained political asylum and eventually reached freedom in South Korea.

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Park said some American students, unaware of her past, have told her she does not “understand oppression” because she is Asian. She said they have also described her as a “White-passing person.”

“They have no idea that I was, at 13 years old, being sold as a sex slave in China for two years of my life. I do understand oppression,” she said.

She argued that many students in the United States take their civil liberties for granted and lack a broader understanding of political conditions around the world.

“Most people are not free right now in the world. More than 70% of humanity right now live under authoritarian governments,” Park told Fox News Digital, apparently referring to research from the Varieties of Democracy Institute. The organization’s latest report estimates that autocratic governments rule 74% of the world’s population.

Park said freedom is “a very special thing” and warned that she does not “want us to lose this amazing country, because if America falls, we do not have a place to escape to.”

“For me, I was fortunate that I had a country to escape to from North Korea to America, but if we lose this country, we are all going to die, actually,” she said.

Moreno-Riaño said Cornerstone’s emphasis on defending freedom is inseparable from its Christian mission. In his view, liberty is “at the bedrock” of the Christian faith.

“I mean, we believe that the gospel sets us free. So, liberty and freedom are at the core of our Christian faith through the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

He also pointed to the Christian teaching of Imago Dei—the belief that people are created in God’s image—as a foundation for human dignity. For people to thrive, he said, freedom and liberty are indispensable.

Ultimately, Moreno-Riaño hopes to encourage students to take action and to resist the urge to “sit on the sidelines watching.”

“As people of faith, Christians here at Cornerstone University, we want our students to be involved to be great citizens, modeling their faith and modeling what it means to be a great citizen of our great country. That to me is the ultimate outcome for not just the students, but even for the community at large who will come to the event,” he said.