CONEY ISLAND, Brooklyn — Celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday with a splash of competitive spirit, the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest returns on Saturday. This iconic event comes in the wake of a pivotal year for the beloved frankfurter face-off and its notable participants.

Earlier this year, Nathan’s Famous was acquired by Smithfield Foods, a major player in the packaged meat industry. Adding to the drama, Joey Chestnut, the reigning men’s champion known for breaking records, faced legal troubles following an altercation at a bar in Indiana. He pled guilty to a charge of misdemeanor battery in April.

Despite these developments, the hot dog contest presses on. Both Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo are back to defend their titles in the men’s and women’s categories, aiming to extend their impressive winning streaks from last year.

In this intense competition, participants have a mere 10 minutes to devour as many hot dogs and buns as possible. Many competitors opt to soak their hot dogs in water beforehand, facilitating easier and quicker consumption.

Miki Sudo, renowned for her dominating performance, boasts an impressive record of 11 victories. She holds the women’s record for consuming an astounding 51 hot dogs.

Chestnut has taken the so-called Mustard Belt 17 times and notched the men’s record: 76 franks. He’s still on probation in the battery case but is allowed to travel outside Indiana. His lawyer has said that what happened in the bar was a misunderstanding and that Chestnut accepted responsibility for his actions.

Hot dog contest organizer Major League Eating, which oversees the Nathan’s Famous contest, said the criminal case didn’t affect Chestnut’s eligibility for the competition.

The event, which dates to 1972, is held in front of the original Nathan’s Famous’ restaurant in New York’s Coney Island.

HOW TO WATCH

If you can’t make it to Coney Island, ESPN will be airing and streaming the competition. Coverage of the women’s competition begins at 10:45 a.m. ET on ESPN+/ESPN App where the contest will be re-aired during the men’s competition.

The men’s competition airs at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and will re-air on the same channel at 4 p.m. ET. ABC will simulcast coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET for 30 minutes.

The Good Morning America team has unveiled exclusive details about the secretive wedding reception of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, highlighting a performance by Stevie Nicks and stunning decorative arrangements that left guests in awe.

George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, and Michael Strahan eagerly shared insights into the high-profile event, considered this year’s most spectacular wedding. Despite the heavy secrecy, details about Swift’s wedding gown remain under wraps.

Anticipation and intrigue surrounded the celebration as fans noticed mysterious labeled boxes entering Madison Square Garden ahead of the big day. The GMA hosts have now confirmed that a garden theme brought the venue to life.

“It was really this garden inside The Garden,” Stephanopoulos shared on Saturday’s Good Morning America. “It was just so beautiful.”

His co-host Robin Roberts added, “We can confirm that Stevie Nicks performed.”

Roberts and Stephanopoulos both agreed that despite the large guest list, the ceremony was ‘intimate.’ 

‘It’s hard to imagine that a place that big, and a wedding with such stars, could feel so personal and so intimate,’ Stephanopoulos said. 

‘It was their dream wedding,’ Michael Strahan agreed. ‘It really was amazing… Thank you for inviting us.’ 

Roberts particularly liked the newlyweds’ vows, saying they were great. 

‘They both wrote their own vows,’ she said, adding that it was ‘like any wedding you would attend.’

AMC CEO Adam Aron agreed that the vows were ‘long, entertaining, personal, charming, emotional, irreverent, and endearing,’ in a now-deleted X post. 

‘What was clear above all else was simply this: their profound love. This is no small love. Each at the absolute pinnacle of their worlds. Each so obviously head over heels about having found their soulmate.’  

He also agreed with Stephanopoulos that the sports arena ‘did not look like Madison Square Garden.’ 

‘Immediately upon entry, everything… floors, walls, ceilings… was draped in peach and white. Large blown-up pictures of Taylor and Travis at each age, year by year from one-year-old to late teenager-hood were on display.’ 

He said the space was ‘devoid of any notion that a basketball or hockey game [had] ever shared the space.’ 

‘Somehow, magically, someone created an outdoor garden at a lush countryside retreat,’ he wrote. 

‘Everything draped off this time in green and white. Real flowers and I think artificial trees welcomed fifteen rows of maybe 75 or so chairs. They say there were around one thousand attendees, but surprisingly, it all felt intimate and small.

‘It was such a privilege to be THERE,’ he wrote. 

Swift released her Eras Tour movie in AMC theaters in 2023 in the middle of her record-breaking tour. 

The newlyweds kept fans guessing until the very end, refusing to confirm when exactly they would say ‘I Do’, or indeed, if they already had.

But at exactly 7.30pm, the couple shared the news in blockbuster style, lighting up the iconic music venue’s screens with ‘JUST&T MARRIED!’, in a romantic nod to their shared initials.

Both the bride and groom were dressed in Christian Dior, Swift’s publicist later announced.

Adam Sandler was the officiant, and delighted the crowd with a ‘funny’ and ‘touching’ service.

‘It was very funny, quite a long speech. I think everyone had a good time,’ he said.

There were no bridesmaids, instead, Taylor’s brother Austin acted as her ‘man of honor’, and Travis’s brother Jason was the best man.

Jason’s daughters were the flower girls, tossing petals at Taylor’s feet as she made her way down the aisle with a string quartet playing one of her own songs as she made her entrance.

The theme inside Madison Square Garden was an old-fashioned fairground, with guests given a turn on mechanical slot and pinball machines.

Each of the 1,000 – including A-list actress Julia Roberts – was given a ticket during the celebrations, one of which was selected to win a major prize.

After the ceremony came an elegant dinner – before an Alice in Wonderland meets Wizard of Oz themed party on the lower level of the venue.

During the reception, Sir Paul McCartney was the surprise highlight, as the former Beatle stunned the crowd when he came onto the stage and sang I Want to Hold Your Hand.

A guest at the wedding said that the festivities were spectacular and at an unprecedented scale.

As well as a dinner there were food stations around the venue so that guests could top up on food, with one saying that there was some ‘chaos’ around them.

The guest list was a dazzling array of the world’s biggest stars.

Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Lena Dunham and Dakota Johnson were among the bride’s closest friends there.

Steven Spielberg was also in attendance, and Beyonce and Jay Z are also understood to have attended.

There was also Brad Pitt, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Hugh Grant, Graham Norton, Jessica Alba, Tom Brady, Chris Rock and almost every NFL player imaginable.

The guest list also included Ethan Hawke, Nelly, Andrew Scott, Ice Spice, Kareem Hunt and Laura Dern.

DENVER — The last time Bryce Eldridge’s emotions got the better of him on the baseball field, the bases, then only 60 feet apart, were part of a childhood memory. He was just 9 or 10 years old, pitching in the regional finals for his Little League All-Star squad, when things didn’t go as planned.

“I completely fell apart because my pitching was off and we ended up losing,” Eldridge candidly shared during an interview with The California Post. “To put it bluntly, I acted like a brat on the field. That memory of embarrassment is vivid. My dad was stern with me. Such experiences in youth shape who you become later, don’t they?”

However, that doesn’t mean he’s immune to frustration.

Recently, his struggles at bat have been testing his patience, though he doesn’t let it show.

“He maintains his composure; you won’t catch him throwing a bat or expressing anger,” noted outfielder Heliot Ramos, who faced similar trials as he entered the major leagues just as Eldridge is now. “It really is a mental duel. … I’m sure he feels [frustrated] since we’re only human at the end of the day. But he manages his emotions exceptionally well.”

It’s in every opposing scouting report nowadays: Eldridge can hit the fastball. He’s laying off early breaking balls. Pitchers are getting ahead of him with soft stuff in the strike zone, putting him in a hole — and one of the more prolonged slumps of his young career.

Going into Saturday’s game against the Rockies at Coors Field, it had been five games since Eldridge last drew a walk, remarkably his longest stretch to date. Dating back to his last homer, 12 games ago, he is batting .163 (7-for-43) with a .475 OPS.

He’s struck out 16 times in that span, the same number he had over his previous 23 games.

Soon enough, though, Eldridge will make an adjustment and regain the upper hand.

“It’s a fun little cat and mouse game,” hitting coach Hunter Mense told The Post. “The more stuff they start to get on you, then the more you have to start understanding how they’re going to do things. … He’s smart enough and intelligent enough that he’ll figure it out.”

Still more than three months from his 22nd birthday, Eldridge is so mature, mentally and physically, that Mense has to remind himself of his relative inexperience — probably closer to that embarrassing moment in Little League than the twilight of his playing career.

“I catch myself sometimes, like I probably should have that conversation because he might not know,” Mense said. “Sometimes we as coaches feel stupid for having conversations because, like, they probably know that.”

One of things that has been new for Eldridge this year is dissecting the pitchers’ plans of attack against him. Before every at-bat, now, he consults with Mense in the dugout.

“I go up to Hunter like, ‘Whattya got?’ He’ll just tell how he pitched me previously and what he’ll try and do off that,” Eldridge said. “Every time I go up there, he’s sitting up there. I like having that reminder so I can have it fresh in my mind in the box of what my plan is.”

Lately, breaking and offspeed pitches have come up a lot.

In May, Eldridge’s first month in the big leagues, he saw fastballs on 51.6% of his pitches. In June, that dropped to 47.1% — with an almost equal amount of curveballs and sliders (41.6%).

More recently, the majority of the few fastballs he’s been seeing have been down in the zone. And he has fallen into pitchers’ traps of adjusting his eye level, swinging at the subsequent breaking balls that start in the same place and dart below the strike zone.

“A lot of offspeed, not many challenge heaters,” the 6-foot-7 first baseman lamented. “I think it’s just been a mix of the slow stuff trying to get me to go down, which unfortunately I’ve been doing a lot more recently — going down with it. I think that’s why I’ve slowed down with my results.”

These past three games against the Diamondbacks, things hit a breaking point. He hasn’t sought out advice from many other hitters on the team but decided to consult the Giants’ other left-handed hitting first baseman who also broke into the big leagues at a young age.

“There were a lot of at-bats where I was really frustrated, so I was like, ‘Whatcha got for me, Rafi?” Eldridge said, referring to Rafael Devers, who was 20 when debuted for the Red Sox. “He told me, ‘You’ve just got to move in the box. Dance with the pitchers. Stay in rhythm. And just keep fighting. You’ve got a lot of at-bats. A lot of games to play.’”

In these recent games that took a toll on Eldridge, most of the 25 heaters he saw either were out of the strike zone or painted the corners. The other 29 pitches were slow and bendy.

Going 1-for-5 in the series finale, he pounced on a first-pitch knuckle curve from Zac Gallen but pounded it into the ground. Gallen gave him two fastballs his next time up but both were borderline and he went down looking. His next time up, Gallen got him to look at another borderline fastball for strike two, which set him up to swing at a knuckle curve in the dirt.

He fouled it off but then was fooled into looking at a low changeup for strike three.

Then, he went down on three pitches in his final at-bat for the third hat trick of his career.

Despite the Giants earning their first win in nine tries against Arizona, Eldridge was upset.

“I was just getting worked up about how I felt, which was selfish of me,” Eldridge said. 

But he didn’t let himself show it like he did on that Little League field in the suburbs of northern Virginia, a little more than a decade earlier. He got to work.

“Still to this day, I remember that,” Eldridge said. “I’ll never show that type of emotion on the field ever again.”

Celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, President Donald Trump delivered a 28-minute speech at Mount Rushmore, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display that was nearly as dazzling as his rhetoric.

“The American dream endures, and the American flag waves more proudly than ever over a resilient people,” Trump declared, wrapping up a speech that, while long, was notably briefer than his usual addresses. “Ours is a nation invincible to any foe, a country that will not succumb despite adversities, and we shall prevail.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Iranians were laying Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to rest during ceremonies filled with vows of retribution against the United States.

One of the speech’s standout moments underscored the theme of American exceptionalism, capturing the essence of Trump’s message.

“Americans revere excellence; we admire audacity; we reward ambition,” Trump stated. “We are a nation forged by dreamers and believers, warriors and explorers, achievers and combatants, and in every aspect, Americans perceive a never-ending challenge.”

“What is strong can be made stronger. What is fast can be made faster. What is great can be made greater than ever before. And that’s what’s happening with America.

“Show us a mountain, and we’ll just climb it. Show us an ocean and we’ll just cross it. Show us a problem and we will just solve it. Show us a task the world calls impossible and Americans will get it done.”

Trump finished with a salute to his oft-repeated “golden age of America” mantra for the 250th birthday celebration.

“Tomorrow we reach a milestone like no other and celebrate with joyful hearts and soaring spirits, because after two and a half centuries, we know that this is not an ending,” Trump’s speech concluded. “This is only the beginning of the Golden Age of America. And together we will make America bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.

“I promise you that it’s an honor to be your president. Thank you very much and Happy Independence Day to all. God bless you all.”

The YMCA song and Trump dance followed in the Black Hills of South Dakota before a 23-minute light and fireworks display over the 60-foot carved heads of four U.S. presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

The Mount Rushmore fireworks were accompanied by the words of past presidents.

Here is a blow-by-blow of the fireworks display music and quotes, starting with Washington’s first inaugural address:

• “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
• “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”
• A quote of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”:
• “That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom. And that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
• “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”
• Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 speech The Right of the People to Rule”: “A great fundamental issue now before our people can be put. It is are the American people that govern themselves to rule themselves, to control them, that I believe they are.”
• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933:”Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

• President Ronald Reagan‘s speech to America after the January 28, 1986, Challenger disaster: “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted. It belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future and we’ll continue to follow them.”
• Coffey Anderson’s “Mr. Red White and Blue.”
• “USA” by Filmore featuring Pitbull.
• President Bill Clinton’s second inaugural: “At the dawn of the 21st century a free people must now choose to shape the forces of the information age and the global society, to unleash the limitless potential of all our people, and yes, to form a more perfect union.”
• President George W. Bush‘s Sept. 14, 2001 bullhorn response to search and rescue workers: “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
• President Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural: “The God given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

• Trump’s first inaugural address in 2017: “When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice… When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.”
• The voice of President Joe Biden using the words of Gene Scheer’s “American Anthem”: “The work and prayers of the century have brought us to this day. What shall be our legacy? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through: America, America, I gave my best to you.”
• Trump’s 2026 State of the Union: “The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.”
• Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway.”
• John Mellencamp’s “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”
• Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful.”

And the grand finale exploded for over two minutes to the tune of Bob Sharples’ “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Trump’s relatively short speech, by his own standards, sets the stage for Saturday night’s Washington, D.C., address, which he promises will be “very long,” and accompanied by flyovers and what has had hailed as “the largest fireworks display in world history, 10 times larger than any that we’ve ever done in Washington or in the United States.”

In a move that adds a new layer of complexity to recent discussions, the Duchess of Sussex and her children will remain in the United States, foregoing travel to London with Prince Harry. This decision follows a rejected request for enhanced security measures.

This development is the latest in a series of emotionally charged negotiations that have reportedly left Prince Harry deeply distressed, even bringing him to tears over the unresolved issues.

Prince Harry, therefore, plans to make the journey to London alone on Monday. Uncertainty lingers as to whether he will take his father, King Charles’s, invitation to reside at a Royal residence during his stay. Several sources have suggested that accommodations may be available at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.

Nonetheless, people close to the Sussexes have not dismissed the possibility of Meghan and the children making the trip to the UK later in the week. Archie and Lilibet have not had the chance to see King Charles since 2022.

Meghan is set to reunite with Prince Harry in Birmingham on Friday. The occasion is an event aimed at promoting the Invictus Games, a charitable organization for wounded servicemen founded by Harry in 2014, which they are gearing up for next year.

It is understood Meghan and Harry could bring Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, with them when they travel to other parts of the UK.

Sources previously claimed there have been ‘real and credible threats’, including threats of terrorism, against Harry and his family in the capital.

The five-day Sussex trip to the UK has been fraught with upset and drama.

Harry remains enraged that he does not receive around-the-clock police protection during his trips to the UK.

Instead he has to give three weeks’ notice of his visits which are assessed on a ‘case by case’ basis.

Harry’s team originally briefed the Press that he was coming with his wife and children – Meghan has not visited the UK since the Queen’s funeral in September 2022 – but, less than 24 hours later, said he feared for their safety if they came without full-time taxpayer-funded armed police protection and his spokesman said the family would no longer accompany him.

But now Harry’s team are saying that while the family will not travel to London with him there is a chance they may join him during other parts of his UK visit.

It is thought he wants to take his children to his mother Princess Diana’s family home, Althorp, where she is buried on a private island in the middle of a lake.

A source said: ‘Harry longs to bring his children to the UK, to show them where he comes from and to introduce them to their heritage. And he wants to take them to Althorp which is where Diana was raised and where she rests. 

‘It’s important to him that the English side of their heritage is part of their life. But their security is everything. There are real and credible threats and he will not put his family in danger.’

Harry and Meghan had planned to attend other charity events in the UK including a visit to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.

It is thought Harry will now attend the London events solo.

The Sussex drama has been going on all week.

The family is currently in Europe, possibly at their holiday villa in Portugal, and had been scheduled to travel together on Monday.

The Mail understands there are tentative plans to see members of the Royal Family, including the King, but in a private capacity with courtiers telling the Sussexes they cannot release any photographs of any reunion.

Prince William and Princess Kate are unlikely to see the Sussexes during their visit.

Meghan and Harry flew to Canada and then the US during Megxit in March 2020 when they stepped down as working members of the royal family.

They live in a £14million mansion in Montecito and friends say both Lilibet and Archie have strong American accents.

Harry has previously said it is his ‘ardent wish’ for his children to know about their British heritage.

Meghan’s jam-making business in the US has not been the roaring success she hoped it would be and their $100million Netflix deal was cancelled last year.

A Netflix source said: ‘They need a strong connection to the UK to be relevant in the US. People only care about the fact that Harry is Diana’s son. Their only currency is their proximity to the Royal Family, certainly as far as America is concerned. They need to maintain their links to the King.’

Critics have accused Harry of using ’emotional blackmail’ by flip-flopping on his decision about whether to bring his children to the UK.

The King, who is very close to his other grandchildren, has made it clear he would love to see Archie and Lilibet, particularly as he has been fighting cancer.

Harry is due to attend events for WellChild and Scotty’s Little Soldiers during his visit.

The ruling in his case against Associated Newspapers is due on Tuesday, as Harry makes his first speech in the UK. 

He and others accused the Daily Mail of using unlawful means to produce stories, a charge the Daily Mail vehemently denies. 

If he loses the case he could potentially face millions of pounds in legal fees.