A courageous 16-year-old lifeguard, who garnered widespread attention for saving a 10-year-old from tumultuous waters, has broken his silence regarding the dramatic rescue, sharing his experience in a statement released Wednesday.

Ryder Williams, the teenage hero at the center of this gripping story, recounted the life-saving event that took place at Santa Cruz Beach last Saturday. His quick actions have since captivated audiences across the nation. His employer, California State Parks, released his detailed account of the incident.

“While positioned 15 yards downcoast from Tower 2 for a safety watch, I noticed a child struggling about 20 yards away. He lost his balance in shallow water,” the statement begins, setting the scene for the unfolding drama.

“Without hesitation, I radioed the situation, tossed my radio and sunglasses at my tower’s base, and sprinted toward the child. I secured my fins, grabbed my buoy, and plunged into the water. The situation was intense; I couldn’t secure the child with the tube initially due to the turbulent seas. He was unresponsive, and the waves crashed relentlessly. It wasn’t until two to three more waves passed that fellow lifeguard Aaron Bohnen joined me in the water. Onlookers attempted to assist, but I urged them firmly to return to shore for their safety,” Williams elaborated in his gripping narrative.

“Once Bohnen and I got the kid to shore I was instructed to get the med bag from Bohnen’s unit and we assessed the child. Shortly after, I got back into my tower where I returned to provide lifeguard services for the rest of my shift,” he continued.

“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely. This is my job and I love what I do. I’m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day,” Williams’ statement concluded.

Williams’ heroics earned him national attention, praise and even an invitation to the White House.

“We’re going to bring this heroic young man, and his family, into the White House with, perhaps, the boy he saved, to give him a High Civilian Honor. Very brave, he deserves it!” the White House wrote in an X post attributed to President Donald Trump.

Williams’ rescue was one of 34 rescues in the Santa Cruz district over the weekend, California State Parks said in a statement obtained by FOX 2 KTVU.

“All California State Park lifeguard towers were staffed, there were 6 units on, a two-person rescue water craft team, three permanent lifeguard units, and a lifeguard supervisor working in Pajaro Coast,” California State Parks also said of the weekend.

The 10-year-old boy Williams rescued was identified by KTVU as being named Nathaniel. His father, Sumit Rai, praised Williams’ efforts in an interview with KTVU.

“It was a remarkable effort to bring him back to shore. I mean Ryder fought the sea,” he told the outlet.

“It’s really hard to fight that, and my son was unconscious. He weighs about 100 pounds, and he was limp, so that’s basically dead weight that he had to carry and hold onto to pull back to shore,” he continued.

“It’s so easy to let go, and he knew that if he lets go then he’s gonna basically just float away, and he’s gone. That’s the end of it, and he would have died,” Rai concluded.

News Media contacted California State Parks for comment and additional information.

UEFA, the organization representing the 55 European soccer associations, is reportedly planning to boycott the World Cup and other competitions under FIFA’s organization. This move is in response to FIFA’s potential $20 billion commercial overhaul inspired by Wall Street, as informed sources disclosed to The Post.

Set to finalize the decision during emergency talks in Switzerland on Thursday, UEFA’s proposal involves European countries withdrawing from all FIFA-governed tournaments. These talks are scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

European soccer leaders are reportedly angry with FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s push toward commercializing world soccer. Confident of their position, they anticipate rallying support from over 50 nations against Infantino’s agenda, insiders have revealed.

One insider noted that the opposition might be unanimous, despite the initial backing of the privatization concept from the Czech soccer association’s leader.

Should UEFA proceed with the boycott on Thursday, it could trigger an unprecedented crisis for FIFA, marking a potential turning point in the organization’s 122-year history.

A boycott means the 2030 World Cup goes on without global powerhouses like England, France, Spain, and Germany — nations that have won every World Cup but one since 2006.

Without the continent’s biggest stars and deepest television markets, the World Cup is effectively crippled, meaning Infantino’s multibillion-dollar pitch to Wall Street could be dead on arrival.

The boycott would includes the men’s and women’s World Cups, youth championships, and the expanded Club World Cup, a global playoff between the top franchises from each continent.

However, European teams would continue playing in regional tournaments completely controlled by UEFA, such as the money-spinning Champions League and the European Championship.

Infantino’s controversial scheme aims to bundle the World Cup’s massive broadcasting, ticketing, and sponsorship rights into a new private subsidiary dubbed FIFA Forward Enterprise.

“He’s struggling to keep it together,” said one source close to UEFA of Infantino. “The one thing that’s unifying about him is that everyone hates him. But he’s so deluded is that he doesn’t think that’s true.”

The move marks a stunning escalation in the sport’s global civil war amid anger over a multibillion-dollar deal set to line the pockets of a private equity group close to President Trump’s in-laws, the Kushner family.

Infantino’s private equity plan, in which US banking giant JPMorgan is reportedly playing an advisory role, still needs approval from FIFA’s 211 member nations, including the United States.

If passed, Thrive Eternal — an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — is expected to lead the investor group and snap up a 20% stake for just over $4.2 billion.

The Post has sought comment from UEFA, FIFA, Thrive Capital and JPMorgan.

Infantino has struck up a close relationship with the current commander-in-chief, even awarding him the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize after he failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The boycott threat follows weeks of intense scrutiny over the relationship between the two men.

Earlier this month, Trump admitted he directly called Infantino to demand FIFA review a red card issued to American striker Folarin Balogun during the World Cup, a move that successfully overturned the player’s mandatory suspension.

To sweeten the deal, Infantino is dangling a massive payday. The former lawyer is promising to hike development payouts for smaller federations from $8 million to a whopping $20 million through 2030, branding the cash grab as the “democratization” of soccer.

But the backlash has spilled from the sports pages into the halls of government across Europe, with politicians furious over the blatant corporatization of a cultural institution.

“Let me say this very directly. Football does not belong to investors,” left-wing British Prime Minister Andy Burnham thundered on social media Wednesday. “The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell.”

EU Sports Commissioner Glen Micallef took a thinly veiled shot at American corporate sports culture, telling reporters: “This isn’t baseball. The FIFA World Cup remains the greatest sporting tournament on the planet. The relentless commercialization of football has become corrosive.”

Because FIFA operates as a massive business in Europe, it must obey the European Union’s strict anti-monopoly laws. Recent EU court rulings made it clear that sports organizations cannot use their power to act like illegal monopolies and break free-market rules.

Even the typically reserved English Football Association threw its weight behind the boycott, slamming FIFA’s “lack of process and governance.” Hans-Joachim Watzke, vice-president of Germany’s soccer association and the former CEO of German giants Borussia Dortmund, echoed the continent’s fury, calling the private equity play an “outright attack on football.”

Infantino has already caused consternation among some European supporters by defending “dynamic pricing” that left fans shut out of stadiums due to skyrocketing ticket costs.

And this is not the first time European nations have poured scorn on his bid to bring private money into the game.

In 2018, Infantino floated a massive $25 billion deal with a consortium including Japan’s SoftBank to launch a revamped Club World Cup and a new global Nations League, but the proposal was swiftly abandoned due to intense pushback from UEFA.

The next men’s FIFA World Cup, scheduled for 2030, will be primarily hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. To mark the centenary of the tournament, the opening three matches will be played in South America, hosted by Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. The most recent World Cup took place in 2026, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada

A New York City attorney finds himself at risk of losing millions after a romantic encounter in Central Park led to the withdrawal of a lucrative job offer. This incident involves a married lawyer caught sharing a kiss with a subordinate.

The attorney in question, 45-year-old Nathaniel D Cullerton, was one of six partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz preparing to transition to the competing firm Gibson Dunn.

However, Cullerton’s potential new employment was reportedly canceled after he was spotted getting affectionate with 29-year-old colleague Kelsey Borenzweig, leading to reported recordings of their park rendezvous.

According to legal insiders who spoke with the New York Post, Cullerton earns an approximate salary of $4 million as a junior partner at Wachtell.

In contrast, senior partners at the prestigious firm are compensated about $12 million annually.

While the exact details of the proposed compensation package from Gibson is confidential, the insiders allege Wachtell would have counter offered with ‘even more’ money to avoid him being poached. He’d likely have earned tens of millions of dollars over the next few decades in his career, had it not been derailed by scandal. 

Cullerton was suspended as Wachtell carries out an investigation into a now-viral video of him and Borenzweig, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

The loved up pair were caught together in the shadows of Billionaires’ Row by a TikTok comedian named Jay Guapo, who shared the clip with his 3.5 million followers last week. It is unclear when the video was filmed. 

It is unclear whether Borenzweig, an associate at the firm, is also under investigation over the video.

As of Wednesday morning, both Cullerton’s and Borenzweig’s attorney profiles were still active on Wachtell’s website.

The passionate kiss took place on the western edge of Central Park, about 30 blocks south of the co-op Cullerton is listed as living in with wife Moira Penza, 42, along an ultra-exclusive stretch of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. 

Guapo could be seen scolding the pair and hissing: ‘Get a room. There’s kids watching.’

Borenzweig and Cullerton tried to shoo him away and cover his camera on realizing that their tryst was being filmed. He walked towards Guapo and forcefully demanded: ‘Put the phone down,’ but to no avail.

The loved-up couple were quickly identified by commenters when Guapo uploaded the clip to his TikTok. It spread like wildfire across social media and set elite New York City law circles ablaze with gossip. 

It is unclear when Cullerton and Borenzweig’s romance started or whether it had been disclosed to human resources, but the pair worked closely together to win the Altman case against Elon Musk. 

Musk claimed Altman had broken a founding agreement to keep OpenAI a nonprofit. 

A photo taken during the trial in May 2026 showed Cullerton smiling as he walked into the federal court building in Oakland, California, with Borenzweig just a few steps behind him. 

Cullerton’s wife, Penza, is a partner at another top law firm, Wilkinson Stekloff. 

They married in February 2016. Before moving into private practice, Penza worked as a federal prosecutor and led the case against NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere. 

She appeared on an episode of the HBO series The Vow, which investigated the secretive cult.

Cullerton’s meteoric rise to success saw him obtain his JD from Georgetown University in 2013, before clerking at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

Borenzweig’s legal pedigree is just as impressive. 

She received her JD from New York University School of Law in 2022 and also spent time clerking before joining Wachtell. 

She grew up in Malibu, California, in a sizable $2.7 million midcentury home moments from the Pacific Ocean.

The Daily Mail has approached Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for comment. 

Billings, Montana — As David Cifaldi and his two friends ventured across Montana’s foreboding Froze-to-Death Plateau, nearing the state’s tallest summit, their journey abruptly spiraled into a dangerous ordeal. Unexpectedly, Cifaldi slipped, causing his trekking pole to pierce his body.

The 44-inch pole, with its steel tip, went through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm. Fortunately, it missed vital organs, only to protrude through his back. After a quick discussion with his companions and considering the prohibitive cost of a helicopter rescue, Cifaldi resolved to save himself.

Recalling the initial reaction of his friends, Cifaldi said, “I thought, ‘We’ve got to get off this mountain.’ But they were hesitant. I assured them, ‘It’s likely outside my chest wall. Just a mere flesh wound.'”

The 32-year-old nurse, specializing in wound care at a Billings hospital, conducted a self-examination. He remained alert and experienced minimal pain or bleeding. The pole was stable. Utilizing a Garmin inReach, a satellite communication device, the group reached out to local authorities to inform them of their self-rescue plan.

Meticulously, they began their descent from the plateau, charting a path across unmarked terrain. They navigated boulders and snowy fields, eventually bushwhacking their way toward a recognizable trail.

After more than six hours in which they traveled about 10 miles and descended roughly 5,000 feet, the group reached a trailhead where one of them, Cifaldi’s friend Jesse Ross, had parked a vehicle.

“The only reason it was possible at all was his confidence,” Ross recalled. “Who are we to say anything? He’s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point.”

Cifaldi had long wanted to climb Granite Peak. At 12,800 feet, Montana’s tallest mountain is prone to unpredictable weather including dangerous lightning storms and bitter cold. Hundreds of people annually try to reach the rocky summit; many come up short. In 2019, authorities said a 65-year-old Minnesota man who was an experienced climber fell about 150 feet to his death after reaching nearly the top of Granite Peak with his son.

As Cifaldi and his companions started hiking out, the pole awkwardly sticking out of his side, Stillwater County Search and Rescue team commander Ty Williams monitored the group’s progress via a dispatcher who took calls from the group.

The first call came in at 9:44 a.m. on July 20, right after Cifaldi impaled himself. At 1:30 p.m. the trio said they were getting closer to the trailhead and to let the nearest hospital know they were coming, Williams said.

“There was no danger to anybody else. He didn’t want our help and so we’re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him,” Williams said.

By about 3:30 p.m., the hikers were in Ross’ vehicle, headed to the nearest clinic, Cifaldi said.

When they arrived, they were told Cifaldi needed more advanced treatment, in Billings. So they got back in Ross’ truck and kept driving to the hospital where he works, St. Vincent Regional Hospital.

Doctors removed the pole, bandaged him up and Cifaldi was back at work this week.

“I think 99 times out of a hundred I would make the same decision,” Cifaldi said as he sat in Ross’ front yard in Billings. “Search and rescue coming to help you is free. The flight’s not. That was a factor in me deciding to self-rescue. But the fact that I had two experienced great friends with me and we had the ability to contact search and rescue if something went wrong made that a lot more of an easy decision.”