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We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
A heartwarming gesture by Maya Glover, daughter of astronaut Victor Glover, has captured widespread attention as she paid tribute to her father, who is currently on the Artemis II mission in space.
In a delightful moment shared by Fox News, Maya unzipped her hoodie to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with her father’s image. Her radiant smile and spontaneous dance added an extra layer of joy to the tribute.
She captioned the video, “When your dad successfully pilots Artemis II halfway to the moon… & you forget the dance,” capturing the pride and excitement of the moment.
@mayalorinnn
By Friday morning, the video had garnered over two million reactions, attracted more than 15,000 comments, and had been shared upwards of 47,000 times.
Prominent accounts like Instagram, Walmart, and Starbucks chimed in with their reactions, with Starbucks playfully dubbing her the “First daughter of the moon.”
As of Friday morning, the clip had over two million reactions, more than 15,000 comments, and over 47,000 shares.
Accounts including Instagram, Walmart, and Starbucks reacted, with Starbucks saying, “First daughter of the moon.”
Earlier this week, Glover shared the teachings of Jesus Christ before losing signal with Earth, Breitbart News reported:
Glover shared that as he, and the three other astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, got closer “to the nearest point to the Moon, and farthest point from Earth,” he wanted to remind people of one of the “most important mysteries” on Earth, love.
Glover shared how Jesus Christ said that the “greatest command” was to “love God with all that you are,” and added that the second greatest commandment is for people “to love your neighbor as yourself.”
The astronaut also spoke about the beauty of God’s creation and how Earth was created to “give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos.” Glover then pointed to how amazing it is Earth is an oasis in the middle of the vast universe:
In a social media post on Friday, NASA shared video footage of the crew, saying they were bringing us “endless Moon joy.”
The video showed the astronauts smiling and having fun on their mission. “We caught a view of Earth in window one, and now we’re completely distracted for a little bit,” one of them said:
The astronauts were making final preparations for their return to Earth on Friday, according to Breitbart News.
“NPR reports the crew’s Orion space capsule is scheduled to enter the atmosphere at 7:53 p.m. ET, just southeast of Hawaii. Some 13 minutes later, it should splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. To make it there, the spacecraft will first have to punch through the Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 miles per hour,” the outlet said.
(FOX 5/KUSI) — Following the much-publicized bathroom challenges faced by the Orion spacecraft, a popular toilet paper brand has extended a humorous offer to the astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission.
On Thursday, Charmin playfully announced on Instagram that the Artemis II crew will be greeted with a year’s worth of their toilet paper upon their return. The company humorously acknowledged the “unexpected turbulence” encountered in the spacecraft’s restroom facilities, showing their support in a light-hearted manner.
The post comes after multiple reports of malfunctions involving the Orion spacecraft’s onboard toilet system shortly after launch. NASA previously confirmed the crew experienced issues with the urine collection component, which required troubleshooting in orbit.
Debbie Korth, NASA’s Orion program deputy manager, told the Associated Press that the astronauts also had reported a smell coming from the bathroom, though officials said it did not pose a major safety concern.
Despite the technical hiccups, Artemis II remains a milestone mission — marking the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years.
The four astronauts are expected to return to Earth with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast on Friday, April 10, with arrival slated for 5:07 p.m. PST.
Charmin’s offer adds a bit of humor to the high-stakes mission, highlighting that even in deep space, astronauts still have to deal with everyday challenges.
In a captivating twist, the latest episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters introduces a mind-bending concept that has been subtly teased since the appearance of Axis Mundi. This enigmatic location operates on a different time scale, where time crawls compared to the world above. It’s this time anomaly that allows characters like Keiko to surface after what feels like mere months, only to find herself decades ahead in time. This same phenomenon enables Major Leland Lafayette Shaw III to engage in a surreal conversation with his younger self.
With the help of Dr. Suzuki’s cutting-edge technology, the elder Lee Shaw manages to establish radio contact with someone in Axis Mundi, while his main aim is to track down Titan X. To his astonishment, the person on the other end is none other than his younger self, marooned in Axis Mundi following the collapse of Monarch’s Project Hourglass. Seizing the opportunity, the older Lee assumes the role of Mission Control, issuing strategic orders to guide his younger self in their quest to locate the Titan.
During this mission, Young Lee stumbles upon a significant discovery: Keiko. Upon encountering a camp of humans, he immediately grasps the situation, compelling Old Lee to reveal his true identity. This shocking revelation leaves Young Lee reeling.
Despite his reservations, Old Lee persuades Young Lee that Keiko’s survival is assured, provided he refrains from interfering. He explains that any premature intervention could unpredictably alter the future for her and her descendants. Old Lee is confident he will eventually rescue her, but warns that prematurely extracting her from this timeline could have unforeseen consequences.
Old Lee imparts a deeply personal message to his younger self, emphasizing that this moment is an opportunity to relinquish their shared dreams of a future with Keiko. As the melancholic score by Leopold Ross envelops the scene, the camera lingers on actor Wyatt Russell’s poignant expression. Ultimately, Young Lee turns away, leaving Keiko behind in the forest, marking a poignant farewell to their imagined future together.
Young Lee then does what he’s told with a soldier’s grit and grumbling, attaching a tracking device to the skin of the cocooned Titan X and surviving the falling debris when it breaks out. With their connection fading, Old Lee gives Young Lee the instructions he needs to get out of Axis Mundi, though he leaves the bit about getting imprisoned in a mental hospital by Monarch for several decades out. I guess he really is that concerned about the lives of the people he cares about getting irrevocably altered by a change to the timeline.
The Lee-on-Lee action is echoed by Cate and Keiko’s storyline, which also involves a concerned person trying to stay in contact with someone important through a deep chasm. Cross-referencing their findings from Cate’s underwater connection to Titan X with Bill Randa’s old files, the Randas discover a Japanese legend about women who were possessed by a yokai that communicated with them through low vibrations.
They travel to the village, where they find ample historical evidence of the local women’s connection to Titan X. But Cate falls down the well where these women used to go to commune with the creature, while Keiko can only scream in terror. She follows a tunnel to the shore and emerges, wet and smiling. She no longer believes Titan X is lost or dangerous; “I think it just needs our help,” she tells her grandmother.
This is a show that plays with parallels all the time, of course, using dueling time frames, multiple generations of the same family, and similar relationship configurations to explore the familiar patterns of human behavior. With the Lee(s) storyline, the mirror effect is crystal clear. Even here, Keiko herself comments on how Cate’s determination to go down that well reminds her of her own foolhardy decision to descend into a rift in Kazakhstan decades earlier, costing her everything.
Even the tender and careful way the two deal with each other as Keiko ties the rope around Cate’s waist — “If I were to do this with someone,” Cate tells her grandmother, “I’m glad it’s you” — is reminiscent of the closeness between Keiko, Bill, and Lee all those years ago. Sorry if that sounds weird! The point is their emotional intimacy, not romantic interest. These two people really care about each other. This is a much smarter way to raise the stakes of a monster-hunting mission than jump scares: You’re worried about them not because you’re just kinda supposed to be, but because the show has taken the time to make them worth worrying about.
In a pair of side plots, Tim convinces May to help him make use of the mind-control device they found attached to a severed chunk of Titan X’s tentacle. His hope is that she can figure out what her code did to the creature to throw it off its migratory route in a rampage.
May’s ex-boyfriend Kentaro, meanwhile, travels to Thailand after a brusque goodbye. There he is wooed by Isabel Simmons, the Apex heiress who found him in that bar last episode. She swears she hates her father and his company as much as Kentaro hates Monarch, and that her goal is different than both entities. It’s nothing short of making it so G-Day never even happened, and she hints that Axis Mundi is the key. I can see it now: use the time dilation to stop Godzilla from ever reaching the surface world and thus erase Earth’s Titan-plagued present in favor of an entirely new timeline. (It’s like a parody of the reckless moonshot projects bored billionaires love, in lieu of the unglamorous work that can actually make an impact.)
Not everything is a parallel, though; not everything rhymes. In conversation with himself, Old Lee tells Young Lee he knows he loves Keiko. When Young Lee reflexively denies it, practically through gritted teeth, Old Lee says yes, he gets it — he hid that feeling even from himself. But it’s there, and both Lees know it.
Keiko, however, seems to think of it differently. On the way to the yokai well, Cate asks Keiko point blank if she loved Lee Shaw. “No,” she says, “it wasn’t like that with us.” That’s news to Lee, apparently.
Is she simply in denial, though? Think of how Lee apparently hid his love of Keiko away from himself. Think of how the very next thing we see after Kei’s denial is a DO NOT ENTER sign, as though the feelings, the memories are warning her to proceed no further. But maybe she’s telling the truth, and Bill Randa was her one true love, and Lee Shaw was a dear friend to whom she was attracted and with whom she shared one memorable mistake.
I’ve spent paragraph after paragraph unpacking the complexities of these relationships, and haven’t so much as mentioned the part where a gigantic insect with about 40,000 teeth the size of Louisville Sluggers pops out of the ground to eat Lee, before it gets eaten in turn by the Ion Dragon that flew around causing so much trouble in Season 1. This is really terrific Titan violence, featuring the excellent creature designs that have distinguished this show from the start. I enjoyed it a lot!
I’d just rather watch Lee Shaw’s face for thirty uninterrupted seconds of silence, while inside he says goodbye to the woman he loves, or see Keiko and Cate hold hands because it’s good to hold hands with the people you love. That’s the Monarch that lingers with me.
Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com on Bluesky and theseantcollins on Patreon) has written about television for The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pain Don’t Hurt: Meditations on Road House. He lives with his family on Long Island.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amid enthusiastic chants of “run again!” former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed to a gathering of African American activists on Friday that she’s seriously contemplating another run for the presidency.
When directly asked by Rev. Al Sharpton about her intentions for a 2028 presidential run, Harris responded, “I might. I am thinking about it.”
Harris made these remarks at the National Action Network’s annual convention, an event that attracted more than half a dozen potential candidates this week. Many attendees aimed to strengthen their connections with Black voters, a crucial demographic for the Democratic Party.
While the Democratic primary season for the next presidential election is still a distant prospect, set to gain traction only after November’s midterm elections, this week’s convention offered a glimpse of the Democrats eager to position themselves in what is expected to be a competitive race.
Although no clear frontrunner has emerged for now, Harris certainly seemed to capture the spotlight at Sharpton’s event.
Harris, the nation’s first Black female vice president and the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2024, earned the only standing ovation and the largest crowd of any other 2028 prospect this week.
Sharpton noted that Harris earned more votes in her losing 2024 campaign than even former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
“Whatever she decides to do, she made a point in history,” Sharpton said.
Harris has raised the possibility of another presidential bid before in the 15 months since she left office. She also recently launched a political action committee and began to travel across the United States to support Democrats, especially across the South.
Still, some in the party have shifted their focus to a new generation of Democratic leaders given Harris’ struggle in the last presidential contest.
The convention lineup this week featured Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.
Buttigieg, speaking shortly after Harris left the stage, received soft applause from a room that was about half-empty. Some cheered when he mentioned supporting federal workers and minority businesses, but many attendees had streamed out of the packed auditorium after Harris’ speech in an effort to grab a selfie with the former vice president.
Buttigieg, like many other 2028 prospects this week, laughed off a question about whether he would seek the presidency again.
Harris was more explicit.
Three times she repeated, “I’m thinking about it,” when Sharpton asked her about a 2028 White House run.
“I served for four years being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office and the situation room. I know what the job is, and I know what it requires,” Harris said.
She continued: “I am thinking about it in the context of who and where and how can the best job be done for the American people. That’s how I’m thinking about it. I’ll keep you posted.”
The phrase “Space Cowboy” takes on a whole new dimension.
During a flight from Fort Worth, Texas, to Nashville, Tennessee, Kacey Musgraves encountered what she described as the “craziest f–king orb UFO experience.” The sighting involved three mysterious lights that caught her attention in the night sky.
In an Instagram Story shared on Friday, the Grammy-winning artist recounted the moment she was about to nap when these lights, which seemed far from ordinary, diverted her gaze.
Musgraves explained that she first noticed the phenomenon when flying over Little Rock, Arkansas. She observed the lights for approximately 45 minutes, estimating them to be hovering at an altitude of about 50,000 feet.
Describing the encounter, she noted, “These orbs didn’t move like any aircraft we’re capable of controlling. They appeared and disappeared sporadically, forming triangular patterns. At times, they intensified, changing in color and size.”
“They were changing direction with us,” she added. “They were following the plane.”
After landing, the “Golden Hour” singer said both pilots told her they also saw the orbs and that they had seen them “every single night.” They also told her other pilots around the country have been seeing them and “nobody knows what they are.”
Musgraves, 37, said she has seen “many crazy things” in her life — like “fire burning in the sky” — and this is the latest on the list of numerous “strange and unexplainable” experiences, but that she isn’t too concerned.
“S–t is weird, but I’m here for it,” she reasoned, despite seeing another orb while filming these videos at her home.
Musgraves shared footage of the orbs she saw during her flight, posting several videos in subsequent Instagram Stories.
“It looks like I filmed them on a f–king toaster, but that’s the quality we’re working with,” she said of the videos taken on her iPhone 17. “It was hard to focus because they were far off and it’s nighttime.”
“The thing is, you could have the best, most high-quality footage of something and no one would believe it anyway,” she added. “Keep it weird, y’all.”
When she isn’t dabbling in phenomena that even Fox Mulder would appreciate, Musgraves is readying her seventh studio album for release.
“Middle of Nowhere,” which includes the lead single “Dry Spell” and features a Miranda Lambert collaboration after years of the country divas feuding, drops May 1.
HOUSTON — As the momentous finale for the Artemis II mission draws near, the astronauts prepare for a splashdown in the Pacific, marking humanity’s first lunar journey in over 50 years.
Tension escalated at Mission Control as the spacecraft, with its four astronauts, steadily approached Earth.
MORE: When is the Artemis II crew expected to splash down?
All attention was focused on the capsule’s heat shield, designed to endure the intense heat of reentry. During the spacecraft’s previous test flight in 2022—sans crew—the shield returned with a surface as battered as the lunar landscape.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were set to reenter the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound—a speed not witnessed since NASA’s Apollo missions in the ’60s and ’70s.
They didn’t plan on taking manual control except in an emergency. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, is completely self-flying.
MORE: Artemis II crew will lose communication with mission control during reentry. Here’s why
Like so many others, lead flight director Jeff Radigan anticipated feeling some of that “irrational fear that is human nature,” especially during the six minutes of communication blackout preceding the opening of the parachutes. The recovery ship USS John P. Murtha awaited the crew’s arrival, along with a squadron of military planes and helicopters.
The last time NASA and the Defense Department teamed up for a lunar crew’s reentry was Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II was projected to come screaming back at 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second – or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) – not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast before slowing to a 19 mph (30 kph) splashdown.
Artemis II’s record flyby and lunar views
Launched from Florida on April 1, the astronauts racked up one win after another as they deftly navigated NASA’s long-awaited lunar comeback, the first major step in establishing a sustainable moon base.
Artemis II didn’t land on the moon or even orbit it. But it broke Apollo 13’s distance record, making Wiseman and his crew the farthest that humans have ever journeyed from Earth when they reached 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers). Then in the mission’s most heart-tugging scene, the teary astronauts asked permission to name a pair of craters after their moonship and Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.
During the record-breaking flyby, they documented scenes of the lunar far side never seen before by the naked eye and savored a total solar eclipse courtesy of the cosmos thanks to their launch date. The eclipse, in particular, “just blew all of us away,” Glover said.
First photo from the far side of the moon captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon, April 6, 2026.NASA
Their sense of wonder and love awed everyone, as did their breathtaking pictures of the moon and Earth. The Artemis II crew channeled Apollo 8’s first lunar explorers with Earthset, showing our blue marble setting behind the gray moon. It was reminiscent of Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise shot from 1968.
“It just makes you want to continue to go back,” Radigan said on the eve of splashdown. “It’s the first of many trips and we just need to continue on because there’s so much” more to learn about the moon.
Their moonshot drew global attention as well as star power, earning props from President Donald Trump; Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney; Britain’s King Charles III; Ryan Gosling, star of the latest space flick “Project Hail Mary”; Scarlett Johansson of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and even Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner of TV’s original “Star Trek.”
Artemis II was a test flight for future moon missions
Despite its rich scientific yield, the nearly 10-day flight was not without technical issues. Both the capsule’s drinking water and propellant systems were hit with valve problems. In perhaps the most high-profile predicament, toilet trouble prevented the crew from using it for No. 1 most of the trip, forcing them to resort to old-time bags and funnels.
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed the Moons curved limb during their journey around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026.NASA via AP
The astronauts shrugged it all off.
“We can’t explore deeper unless we are doing a few things that are inconvenient,” Koch said, “unless we’re making a few sacrifices, unless we’re taking a few risks, and those things are all worth it.”
Added Hansen: “You do a lot of testing on the ground, but your final test is when you get this hardware to space and it’s a doozy.”
Under the revamped Artemis program, next year’s Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV will attempt to land a crew of two near the moon’s south pole in 2028.
The Artemis II crew’s allegiance was to those next Artemis crews, Wiseman said.
“But we really hoped in our soul is that we could for just for a moment have the world pause and remember that this is a beautiful planet and a very special place in our universe, and we should all cherish what we have been gifted,” he said.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The arrest of a woman linked to the unresolved 2011 murder of an Iowa real estate agent has been brought to light, with court documents revealing that a witness observed her behaving erratically immediately following the sound of gunshots.
Kirstin Ramsey, aged 53, faces charges of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Ashley Okland on April 8, 2011. Her recent arrest signifies a significant breakthrough in this cold case, which has remained unsolved for over a decade.
Okland suffered two gunshot wounds at close range, being struck in the chest and face, during an open house event she was hosting at a model townhome owned by Rottlund Homes, where Ramsey was employed at the time of the incident.
Authorities found Ashley Okland inside the model townhome while she was conducting an open house in West Des Moines, Iowa, on April 8, 2011. (Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa)
In a recently filed court document, a neighboring resident recalled hearing two loud noises followed by the sight of Ramsey near the townhome’s entrance, as reported by KCCI.
The witness also reportedly told authorities she saw Ramsey pacing outside her vehicle and using her phone upon looking out her second-story window.
The court filing indicates Ramsey called a colleague at Rottlund Homes immediately following the alleged shooting, but did not call 911, the outlet reported.
53-year-old Kristin Elizabeth Ramsey was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in West Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.(Dallas County Jail)
Shortly after, the witness reported seeing Ramsey “back up at a high rate of speed in an erratic manner and leave the area,” court documents show, according to KCCI.
Authorities also indicated the witness – not Ramsey – called 911 to report the shooting.
Ashley Okland’s siblings Josh Okland and Brittany Bruce speak after the arrest of Kristin Ramsey in the 2011 shooting death of their sister at the West Des Moines Police Department on March 18, 2026.(Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register)
Prosecutors have since revealed that Ramsey has given conflicting versions of her whereabouts on the day of the alleged murder in multiple interviews since the investigation began, according to KCCI.
Court records also show that authorities discovered several firearms, illegal substances and violent posters inside Ramsey’s home upon executing a search warrant on May 3, 2011, the outlet reported.
The same items were reportedly found after a second search warrant was executed at Ramsey’s home shortly before her arrest this spring.
A motion has reportedly been filed by the state opposing Ramsey’s request to lower her bond from $2 million to $100,000.
Authorities have not released a potential motive, and Ramsey has not yet entered a plea in the case. She is expected to appear in court Friday for a bail hearing.
Ramsey’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Julia Bonavita is a U.S. Writer for Fox News Digital and a Fox Flight Team drone pilot. You can follow her at @juliabonavita13 on all platforms and send story tips to julia.bonavita@fox.com.
Left to right: Kimberlyn Videa-Dubon and Luis Reyes-Pagan (Lancaster City Bureau of Police).
In a disturbing incident in Pennsylvania, a 46-year-old man is facing charges after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend’s infant daughter, leaving the child with life-threatening injuries. The accused, Luis Reyes-Pagan, reportedly struck the 3-month-old in the head amid a heated argument over a cellphone, resulting in a fractured skull and intracranial bleeding.
Reyes-Pagan has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, and child endangerment, according to court documents. The child’s mother, 30-year-old Kimberlyn Videa-Dubon, also faces similar charges, along with an additional count of harassment, for her involvement in the incident that occurred on February 15.
Law enforcement from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police responded to a domestic violence call at a residence on Union Street around 3:34 a.m., reported Lancaster Online. The officers discovered that the infant had sustained severe head injuries during the altercation involving both Reyes-Pagan and Videa-Dubon.
Emergency responders rushed the infant to Lancaster General Hospital for urgent medical care. Due to the critical nature of her injuries, the child was subsequently transferred to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for further treatment.
The Daily Voice reported that court filings confirm the infant suffered a skull fracture and intracranial bleeding as a result of the assault.
Investigators say the violence erupted during an argument over Reyes-Pagan’s cellphone, local NBC affiliate WGAL reported.
According to charging documents, Reyes-Pagan told police that Videa-Dubon struck him multiple times while she was holding the infant. He claimed he responded by swinging his fist toward her, but accidentally hit the baby in the head. He admitted his conduct caused the child’s injuries, describing his actions as “reckless but provoked,” WGAL reported.
Authorities allege the infant was injured multiple times during the incident.
The Daily Voice reported that Videa-Dubon threw the baby onto a bed during the altercation, possibly causing the skull fracture. She is also accused of striking another person multiple times and hitting a third person in the face when they attempted to intervene.
Court records reportedly indicate that another child was inside the home at the time of the incident, though authorities have not said who that child is or where they are now.
The defendants were arraigned and released on $50,000 unsecured bail. They are both currently scheduled to appear in court again for their preliminary hearings on April 27.
Rory McIlroy had Amanda Balionis in fits of laughter during a Friday afternoon interview at Augusta National. The reigning Masters champion, known for his quick wit, found himself in conversation once again with the seasoned golf reporter, sparking humor amid the seriousness of the tournament.
Despite past rumors of an affair between McIlroy and Balionis, which were never substantiated, the pair maintained a professional rapport. Balionis had the opportunity to interview McIlroy on both days of this year’s Masters, showcasing their continued professional interaction.
During their Friday exchange, Balionis brought up a memorable moment between McIlroy and the legendary Jack Nicklaus that occurred before McIlroy’s opening round the previous day. Curious about the interaction, she asked McIlroy what words of wisdom Nicklaus had offered him.
In his typical straightforward manner, McIlroy recounted the advice with a laugh, saying, “No f***ing double bogeys.” This candid response not only highlighted his candid nature but also provided a light-hearted moment amidst the intense competition.
To which McIlroy replied: ‘No f***ing double bogeys.’
At that point Balionis burst out laughing as McIlroy stood alongside her at the practice facilities at Augusta National. Nicklaus was in the studio at the time and confirmed that was his message to McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy left Amanda Balionis in hysterics in their latest interview at the Masters on Friday
McIlroy and wife Erica Stoll (pictured Tuesday) nearly divorced in May 2024 amid the rumours
The Northern Irishman clearly took Nicklaus’ advice on board as he posted a superb five-under-par round on day one to give him a share of the lead alongside American Sam Burns.
It was, of course, another interview with Balionis in 2024 that fuelled speculation about relations between the golfer and the attractive interviewer, known for her flirtatious on-air style and skill at drawing out often taciturn sportsmen.
When McIlroy failed to mention his wife Erica Stoll – the mother of their daughter, Poppy – during the chat at the Wells Fargo tournament which coincided with US Mother’s Day, onlookers were bemused.
A day later, when he filed for divorce from his wife of seven years, declaring the union ‘irretrievably broken,’ bemusement turned to shock.
Looking for a reason for the unprompted announcement, observers noted the apparent closeness between Balionis and McIlroy during their interview.
Days later the Daily Mail broke the news of an alleged affair between the pair after McIlroy was seen picking up a takeaway in Balionis’s name in San Diego, California, where the presenter has a home.
Neither Balionis nor McIlroy has ever addressed their rumoured romance, which was never confirmed.
However, McIlroy and Stoll reconciled not long after and appear to be every bit the happy couple.
They enjoyed Wednesday’s annual par-three tournament with daughter Poppy and then posed for pictures ahead of the Masters champion’s special dinner on Tuesday.
Balionis also interviewed McIlroy on Thursday before his impressive round of five-under
Early on Thursday, Balionis asked McIlroy about the difference in the pressure on his shoulders ahead of this tournament now that he finally has a green jacket in his closet.
‘It has felt very different,’ McIlroy said. ‘It’s the morning of the tournament, and those same feelings I’ve always experienced here, they come back.
‘You’re a little nervous, a little anxious. You want to get off to a good start. At the end of the day, it’s a new golf tournament; last year’s over. You want to try and do it again.
‘As much as I have reveled in the last few days, it’s business again and I want to make sure I get off to a good start.
‘One of my key thoughts last year was staying patient on the front nine. It can play difficult. You want to think you can be under par through three, but if you’re not, it’s OK. There’s plenty of time to make birdies or whatever.
‘I stayed really patient on the front nine last year and was rewarded with that really fast start on the Saturday. I know I’m not going to start like that every day, so it’s just about staying patient and playing myself into the round.’
A lawsuit has been filed alleging that Alani beverages contain caffeine levels equivalent to two to two-and-a-half cups of coffee, exceeding the FDA’s recommended limits for teenagers.
In Weslaco, Texas, a family is pursuing legal action against an energy drink distributor, asserting that their product was a factor in their daughter’s untimely death.
Seventeen-year-old Larissa Rodriguez, a cheerleader attending Weslaco High School, passed away on October 20, 2025. Attorneys for her family informed Texas ABC affiliate KRGV that her death was attributed to an enlarged heart, caused by stress and excessive caffeine intake.
The Rodriguez family has filed a lawsuit against Glazer’s Beer and Beverage, accusing the distributor of playing a role in their daughter’s death by distributing these energy drinks.
Reported by KRGV, the lawsuit focuses on Alani energy drinks, alleging that the distributor sells products that are “dangerously formulated and inadequately labeled,” contributing to the fatal outcome.
The lawsuit claims Alani beverages contain as much caffeine as two to two-and-a-half cups of coffee, more than what the FDA recommends for teenagers.
It also says the drinks contain undisclosed amounts of stimulants which can cause cardiac issues and death, KRGV reported.
While Alani cans contain a warning on the side saying the energy drink isn’t recommended for children, people sensitive to caffeine and those who are pregnant, the family’s legal team said the drink is marketed to young consumers without clear warnings of the risks.
The lawsuit is seeking damages of more than $1 million, according to KRGV.
“Never would I think that I would be in this situation,” Alicia Rodriguez, the teen’s mom, told KRGV. “This is the hardest thing that I’ve ever gone through in my life.”
Alani Nu was founded in Louisville before being acquired by beverage company Celsius in February 2025.
