About 70 runners and volunteers spent 12 hours stranded in the Utah desert after extreme weather linked to Tropical Storm Rachel forced the cancellation of a 240-mile endurance race.

The competitors set out on the 241.8-mile Moab 240 course on October 9, beginning a four-day journey across remote desert terrain, deep canyons, slick-rock formations and two mountain ranges.

By Saturday evening, however, conditions had deteriorated sharply. Flash floods cut off the route near the Bridger Jack Aid Station at approximately mile 96, leaving runners unable to safely continue.

Video from the scene showed the danger posed by the rising water, with some runners attempting to navigate fast-moving floodwaters before turning back.

The group returned to the aid station, where they were provided with shelter, warmth, food and drinking water as they waited out the night.

The weather remained hazardous into Sunday morning, and flooding and other dangerous conditions had spread to additional sections of the course. Organizers Destination Trail ultimately called off the race.

Participant Brian Hamilton posted a photograph of himself and several other runners huddled inside a shelter, wrapped in foil blankets as the storm intensified.

Hamilton, an Oregon resident, has taken part in the Moab 240 six times but completed the entire course on four occasions, he told Fox 13 Now. He had hoped to record a fifth finish last weekend, but the storm brought that attempt to an early end.

“I’ve never been hit in the head so hard by rain before,” Hamilton told the outlet. “I had a very high-end rain jacket on and my hat on. I put the hood up, and it was hurting me.”

In a Facebook post featuring additional images from the ordeal, he said the runners endured a night of driving rain and powerful winds while hoping their tents would remain in place. Many huddled inside emergency foil bivy bags, which Hamilton said he was grateful to have packed.

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“We were in a marginally forested area,” fellow runner Troy Eid told Fox 13 Now. “It was mostly open, and it was high, so it was cold. We were being buffeted by the rain.”

On Sunday, Destination Trail worked with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office to arrange an evacuation from the remote aid station.

Even after making it through the dangerous night, the runners still had to hike between four and five miles before reaching a point where sheriff’s deputies could use all-terrain vehicles to collect them. They were then transported by school bus to Moab.

By 9:30 p.m. Sunday, officials had confirmed that every runner was accounted for.

“This is not how anyone wanted the Moab 240 to end,” Destination Trail said in a statement. “Runners put months of training into getting here, and crews, pacers and volunteers invested an enormous amount of time and effort into supporting them. Destination Trail is deeply disappointed for everyone involved.”

The total number of participants who began the race has not been disclosed.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Destination Trail for comment. 

Tropical Storm Rachel caused the Baker Dam and Santa Clara River in Utah to overflow as the state saw flash flooding. 

In California, the storm battered waterfront properties as pricey homes collapsed into the monstrous waves. 

The National Weather Service issued a coastal flood warning on Friday afternoon for Los Angeles County beaches until 3pm on Sunday, as forecasters expected waves reaching four to seven feet.

Duane Davis, the former Crips leader found guilty in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison.

Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder involving the use of a deadly weapon. Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny handed down the sentence in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“The world never forgot about him and his death,” Kierny said of the influential rapper.

During the hearing, Tupac’s siblings, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur and Maurice Shakur, delivered emotional impact statements. Sekyiwa described the night her brother was killed as “a night of hunting and murdering.”

“He was my shining star — my prince,” Sekyiwa said.

Maurice said Tupac never had the opportunity to receive a trial, describing his brother’s death as devastating for both the family and the rapper’s millions of fans.

Sekyiwa urged the judge to impose the harshest possible punishment, saying Davis should be held accountable for the pain inflicted on her family and the world.

Through tears, she remembered Tupac as her protector and said she had been forced to spend the past three decades without the safety and support he provided.

Sekyiwa said her brother’s death had “crippled [her] family emotionally.” She also revealed that she had been hospitalized several times for depression, suicidal ideation, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Davis watched the testimony from court in shackles and prison clothing. He remained expressionless as Tupac’s sister became overcome with emotion while discussing the killing.

“Both of my children were raised in my grief, so they have trust issues, abandonment issues, relationship issues,” Sekyiwa said.

She pointed out that Tupac was murdered shortly after turning 25 and asked the judge to consider how the world might have changed had he lived.

Sekyiwa also honored her brother’s creative work, saying he had developed manifestos and held ambitions to become an advocate.

She likened Tupac to figures including Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, asking the court to imagine what might have been lost if either had been killed before reaching the age of 26.

“I miss my brother. I miss the scars on his head. I miss the way he ate. I miss his recipe for barbecue chicken. I miss his laugh. He was sloppy with his laugh. So full, so big,” she said through tears.

“I was the little sister that just wanted to be with her brother.”

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Before Davis was handed his sentence, Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said he would be ‘guaranteed to die’ behind bars. 

DiGiacomo argued that Shakur’s death meant more than just the killing of a family member, adding that Davis was trying to profit off the killing.  

Prosecutors argued Davis planned the strike after Shakur’s entourage attacked his nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, a few hours earlier at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas following a Mike Tyson fight.

Davis then allegedly supplied the weapon and set in motion the shooting that killed the hip-hop icon, but did not pull the trigger.

The prosecution pointed to a 2008 agreement Davis reached with federal investigators who were looking into the death of Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls.

Davis was approached about the murder of Wallace, but instead talked about the Shakur shooting.

He had allegedly believed the deal, called a proffer, offered him immunity, but was not shielded from any future prosecution on state murder charges.

The final piece of the puzzle came when Davis published his memoir, Compton Street Legend, in 2019.

He described in the book how he played a role in Shakur’s murder, which led to a renewed investigation into the 1996 killing.

Davis recalled in his memoir how Shakur and his entourage beat his nephew up hours before the drive-by shooting. 

He claimed that the alleged assault motivated the shooting, writing that he was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed the gun to the backseat before shots were fired. 

Davis is the only person ever charged in the killing. The three other passengers of the Cadillac have died. 

Davis’s attorneys argued during the trial that there was a lack of physical evidence that connected him to the killing. 

After nine days of testimony, the jury deliberated for three hours and returned a guilty verdict. The defense now plans to appeal. 

A man acquitted of murder in Philadelphia in 2023 after prosecutors failed to introduce potentially critical evidence is now accused of killing a police officer.

Eric Lewis, 35, allegedly killed Shane Seiber, a 10-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, on Saturday morning, shooting him three times. Seiber’s partner was shot 12 times but survived and remains in stable condition, officials said.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office intends to file dozens of charges against Lewis.

Krasner’s pledge to pursue the case aggressively comes three years after his office failed to present potentially important evidence in the murder trial of 32-year-old Christopher Williams.

Lewis, who has an extensive criminal record, was charged in August 2019 with killing Williams and faced the possibility of spending decades behind bars.

On August 31, 2019, Williams was driving a Jeep out of his mother’s driveway when a double-parked Nissan blocked his path, his mother, Darlene Brown, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Brown said her son honked before words were exchanged with the people inside the Nissan. Prosecutors alleged that Lewis then pulled out a gun and fired into the Jeep, killing Williams.

A source told the Inquirer that a Philadelphia police officer from the 15th District identified Lewis as the shooter but did not testify for reasons that remain unclear. A friend of Williams who was inside the Jeep also identified Lewis and did testify.

Brown said Krasner’s prosecutors also introduced video showing the shooter’s Nissan in the area before the killing.

However, prosecutors did not present records showing the location of Lewis’s cellphone at the time. A source told the Inquirer that it was unclear whether investigators had reviewed or even obtained those records.

Judge J. Scott O’Keefe ruled that prosecutors had not proven Lewis’s guilt and found him not guilty.

After the trial, O’Keefe criticized the investigation and contacted the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit, sources told the outlet.

Williams’ mother told the Inquirer that the case had been moved between at least two prosecutors. She also described the assistant district attorney as passive during the trial.

Brown said the assistant district attorney apologized but never explained how Lewis was able to walk free.

She said the verdict devastated her and that seeing Lewis’s face on the news after the latest shooting brought the pain back.

‘They had him in 2023,’ she said. ‘They freed that murderer, and it took him three years to come back and do it again.’

The latest alleged killing began shortly after midnight Saturday, when officers were sent to the 100 block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia. Police had received reports of a man with a gun standing on a porch.

About 30 minutes after the initial call, Seiber and his 33-year-old partner arrived at the home. Within moments, both officers were repeatedly shot.

As additional officers rushed to the scene, Lewis allegedly fled down a nearby alleyway, firing at police before temporarily disappearing from view.

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His escape sparked a massive manhunt, with SWAT teams deployed and the surrounding neighborhood placed on lockdown.

He was eventually found hiding in a tree at around 3.30am, having apparently climbed up in an attempt to evade capture.

Police took Lewis into custody and recovered a shotgun and two handguns, including a weapon belonging to one of the officers he had shot.

Seiber and his partner were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in critical condition and rushed into emergency surgery, but Seiber tragically succumbed to his injuries.

‘Today, police officer Shane Seiber paid the ultimate price while sacrificing his own life to protect and serve our city,’ Mayor Cherelle Parker said during Saturday’s news conference.

‘Because of his noble, and courageous and valiant choice to serve, a 40-year-old servant leader of our Philadelphia village is gone too soon. A wife is now without her husband. Two babies are without their father,’ she added.

‘Their families right now are feeling unspeakable pain but watching this department and those families sticking close together as a village has definitely showed me what the indomitable power of the human spirit is and can mean during times like this.’

Lewis was charged with homicide of a law enforcement officer and murder in Seiber’s death, along with 10 counts of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, attempted murder and other related offenses.

Court records reveal Lewis has a criminal history stretching back to 2012. In 2015, he admitted guilt to weapons offenses stemming from an incident two years earlier, including carrying a firearm in public.

He received five years of probation and was ordered to undergo drug and alcohol assessments and a mental health evaluation.

Lewis was arraigned on October 11 and ordered held without bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 26.

Krasner was among a wave of progressive prosecutors whose campaigns received financial backing from billionaire George Soros.

His campaign received $1.3 million through Soros-backed political action committees, with the funding accounting for more than 90 percent of his fundraising total in 2017.

He has served as Philadelphia’s district attorney since 2018, overseeing a city that recorded a staggering 562 homicides in 2021.

However, killings have since fallen dramatically, dropping to 222 in 2025, with another 136 recorded so far this year as of October 12, according to Philadelphia Police Department data.

Critics have pointed to his emphasis on declining to prosecute certain types of offenses.

Lewis was charged with homicide of a law enforcement officer and murder in Seiber’s death, along with 10 counts of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, attempted murder and other related offenses.

Krasner said he will be held without bail, with a preliminary arraignment and bail hearing expected to take place ‘in the near future.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Philadelphia Police Department for comment.

Shane Gillis’s stand-up has always struck me as simmering with anger. Once you notice it, it is difficult not to hear something darker beneath the jokes—something approaching genuine resentment.

That may sound like an absurd way to interpret a comedian’s act, but after working with numerous stand-ups as a radio and television producer, I learned that jokes are rarely only jokes. Punchlines often conceal a deeper truth.

Think of the overweight schoolboy who learned to protect himself by making the joke first, or the outsider who turned his perceived strangeness into an entire comic persona. The origins of the material are usually there, embedded in the routine.

If I were to speculate about Gillis’s motivation, I might wonder whether an average white man rejected by women chose to turn that pain and anger into comedy aimed at belittling the opposite sex.

During his Saturday Night Live monologue last week, Gillis made the mistake angry men often make: he allowed the mask to slip.

On Saturday, viewers heard the comedian deliver what was, in my view, a spectacularly poor performance.

“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like w***es now. Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. You’ve seen the shorts? They’re those neon, like, artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the b******e. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”

You might have assumed someone had unearthed an old SNL clip from 2006. Instead, Gillis delivered those remarks in 2026, while public attention remains fixed on the allegations surrounding the Cornell sexual assault case.

But go on, Shane—where is the punchline? Apparently, there wasn’t one, unless you count a weak aside about appearing in “the background of like 10 TikToks.”

He even asked the audience whether they had seen the shorts, seemingly inviting knowing laughter from the men in the room. The response, however, suggested they were not willing to be led along.

I have seen this kind of comedy before. I once produced a radio programme with a comedian whose style was remarkably similar to Gillis’s. Misogynistic jokes were among his favourite material.

On one occasion, he targeted a woman who had been publicly caught breaching Covid lockdown rules. His supposedly funny one-liner was a vicious call to action: “Go hang yourself.” Predictably, the remark prompted an HR meeting and was followed by an on-air apology.

The irony was that only days later, this profoundly average comedian appeared on the front page of a newspaper after being caught breaking lockdown restrictions himself.

I also remember him telling a female co-host during an advert break, “If you interrupt me one more time while I’m talking, I will drag you out of this studio by the hair.” That supposedly hilarious “banter” ended with his dismissal. In my view, he brought it on himself.

Because humor and hatred do not belong together.

Gillis’s Saturday routine was damaging. Even his sisters were not spared: he referred to them as “two big fat b***h sisters” and described one as having “trucker forearms.” It was another example of the comedian’s disparaging style—one that drew renewed attention given that he was fired from SNL in 2019 after podcast clips containing anti-Asian slurs and other derogatory remarks emerged.

Gillis also recalled one sister calling him “b***h hips” when he was a child lying on the floor watching television. By his own telling, the insult stayed with him and left a lasting mark.

I am no Freud, but it is fair to wonder whether the women he saw at the gym were being made to pay for wounds he says his sisters inflicted decades ago.

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Could some of that childhood humiliation still be doing the talking? He’d just explained how deeply an insult from a woman could lodge, while handing out fresh ones to women who’d done nothing but get dressed for a workout.

Shane, buddy, are we discussing gym shorts, or are we still fighting over the TV remote?

It’s, frankly, embarrassing. Not material for the stage but for his therapist’s couch in my opinion.

Oh well, that’s ok – probably only around five million people watched him make a fool of himself on live TV.

Wait, no, sorry, I just checked my notes. We should probably include the tens of millions of views Dan Levy’s Instagram reel has garnered since he explicitly called out Shane’s disgusting ‘joke’: ‘Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them w***es. It makes the men calling them w***es misogynists.’

Hannah Einbinder, Viola Davis and Elizabeth Banks are among the celebrities who praised Dan’s take-down. 

Former ‘SNL’ Star Ego Nwodim took to Instagram on Monday to post an image of herself at the gym with the caption, ‘W***e reporting for duty’ – a better punchline than Gillis has ever delivered.

Smart, intelligent, funny women all absolutely miffed by Shane’s mean-spirited, tone-deaf attempt at humor.

I mean, who can argue with Dan’s clapback: ‘I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off.’

A thoroughly reasonable observation, and one I’m happy to endorse.

I’ve seen men in gym tanks cut so generously down the sides that the shirt is essentially a necklace. Others eschew the top layer entirely.

Good for them. Enjoy the results, boys. Some of us women enjoy them too.

And yet, somehow, we manage to finish our workouts without deciding that the man on the chest press is asking for it because his shirt is skin-tight.

But a woman wears shorts that flatter her bottom and suddenly Shane labels her a w***e?

And describing those shorts as ‘bait’ invites another question: what, exactly, does he think the woman wearing them owes the man who looks? Or, worse, what does he think it gives him license to do?

Comedian Phoebe Robinson has urged Shane to write better material. I would offer a better solution: retire.

Oh, and get some therapy. Your hatred is not our problem and calling us w***es won’t make it funny.