The Princess of Wales playfully told residents on the Isle of Bute that she might take a dip in the sea next time, despite the water temperature hovering around a brisk 13C (55F).

Kate also caught the attention of royal admirers when she climbed smoothly out of a tractor and down onto the beach while taking part in a community litter-picking event.

Kate and Prince William were making their first official visit to the picturesque Scottish island, located off the western coast in the Firth of Clyde, to highlight local volunteering and the strong community spirit.

The visit came amid a public dispute between William’s father, King Charles, and his uncle, Earl Spencer, following the release of Spencer’s memoir about Princess Diana.

New video captured the royal couple—known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay during engagements in Scotland—as they toured the island and met residents during Thursday’s walkabout.

In one clip, Princess Kate joked with members of the crowd about returning for a swim, saying: “Next time I’m going to go for a swim, apparently there’s a sauna that appears, live music, apparently that’s really good.”

Her playful remark prompted laughter from onlookers, while locals pointed out that the chilly water would probably appeal only to experienced cold-water swimmers.

Sea temperatures around the Isle of Bute can fall to about 7C (45F) during the winter.

Speaking about Princess Anne’s affection for the area, Kate said: “The Princess Royal comes sailing around here, I can see why. She often shows us her photographs. It’s really beautiful.”

Another video showed Kate leaving the tractor cab with William at the wheel before the pair joined local volunteers on the beach to collect litter.

The Princess kept her look stylish and practical in a chocolate-brown trench coat worn over an olive-green ribbed turtleneck, finished with an olive Baker Boy hat.

Once the door opened, Kate effortlessly pivoted out of the cab and hopped down to the beach, closing it behind her without a stumble.

This was not the first occasion on which Kate has demonstrated her athletic ability while looking effortlessly elegant.

In October last year, royal fans were similarly impressed when the Princess of Wales made her way down a narrow staircase after looking inside a cockpit during a visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

She amazed observers at the time by flawlessly strutting up and down an aircraft’s boarding stairs in four-inch navy stilettos from Stuart Weitzman.

After she had finished peering into the plane, Kate then followed the pilot, perfectly climbing the narrow stairs backwards without stumbling.

Reacting to the latest video, fans applauded the royal for her natural grace.

One wrote: ‘Elegance, Catherine is thy name. Even getting out of a tractor.’

Another drew comparisons to her visit to RAF Coningsby, adding: ‘Truly. It’s like going up and down the airplane stairs.’

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A third said the royal must have ‘some serious arm strength’ because tractor doors ‘weigh an absolute tonne’. 

The couple were later seen on a royal walkabout happily chatting to dozens of residents on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and posing for selfies.

While on the island, the couple also visited Bute Shinty Club and watched an under-17s match from the side-lines alongside locals.

When it was the couple’s turn to try the sport – which like hockey is played with a curved stick and small, hard ball – they quickly learned hand-eye co-ordination is key as they practised taking penalties.

William fluffed his first shot, with the ball moving just a few inches, before making solid contact to cheers from the spectators.

Kate fared little better at the start, swinging and missing – but her next shot was cheered by the crowds as it flew at the goalie.

She then peppered the goal with more shots, almost hitting members of the press who were closest to the netting and saying ‘sorry’ in apology.

The couple chatted to the crowds after their shinty display and Kate told content creator Andy McAlindon, known as Andy the Highlander, who was stood beside the goal: ‘I was a bit worried I was going to take your teeth out.’

Former Bute shinty player Tom McMillan said: ‘I think they did very well, Kate hit the ball better than William and she really got into it and was lining the balls up.’

They ended their day at the community-owned Anchor Tavern Pub and Hub in Port Bannatyne and William praised their model, where a large number of volunteers help keep the project financially viable, and Kate described it as something ‘special’.

William and Kate arrived on Bute at their namesake town of Rothesay, arriving by ferry from the mainland.

They toured the islands of Iona and Mull in the Inner Hebrides last year.

Their trip came amid a public dispute between the King and Earl Spencer, who claims in a new book about his late sister Diana that Charles told him ‘rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough’ days after her death.

Further claims from the book – serialised in the Daily Mail – said the King sounded ‘giddily elated… like a lottery winner’ when he rang the earl following the princess’s death.

In other passages of the book the earl described how his sister drove ‘more than once’ to the cliffs at Beachy Head in East Sussex and was ‘contemplating ending it all’, adding that ‘her love for her sons stopped her from going further’.

The excerpt went on to claim Diana told her brother ‘my husband is in love with his valet’ after telling him she was going to get divorced.

The palace has yet to respond to the latest claims but a spokesman said on Wednesday that ‘fraternal grief can cloud reason’.

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A California Tesla driver allegedly turned a highway commute into nap time, appearing to sleep behind the wheel as the vehicle traveled at roughly 60 mph.

The motorist was reportedly slumped over behind dark sunglasses while driving through Solano County with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system activated, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A CHP motorcycle officer spotted the apparently sleeping driver and quickly pulled the Tesla over.

Authorities cited the driver for traveling at an unsafe speed and used the traffic stop to reinforce a crucial point: Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology does not allow motorists to disengage from the driving task.

“Power naps belong in a parking spot, not in the driver’s seat,” CHP wrote in a social media post about the unusual stop.

Despite its name, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system remains a driver-assistance feature, not a replacement for a human operator. Motorists must stay attentive and be prepared to take control at any moment.

CHP emphasized that activating a driver-assistance system does not give anyone legal permission to sleep while a vehicle is moving.

“Features like Tesla’s FSD are Level 2 driver assistance tools,” the agency said. “By law, they assist your driving — they do not replace you.”

The Solano County case is not the first time a Tesla driver has allegedly treated the vehicle’s front seat as a place to sleep.

In May, a Tesla Cybertruck driver was recorded apparently nodding off behind the wheel while the electric pickup traveled along Highway 101 in Marin County.

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Footage obtained by KRON4 appeared to show the driver asleep as the Cybertruck moved through the busy Bay Area highway around 4 p.m. on May 16.

At the time, CHP cautioned that advanced vehicle technology does not remove the driver’s responsibility for operating the car safely.

“Regardless of any special features a vehicle may possess, such as autopilot or fully autonomous capabilities, drivers are still responsible for the vehicle they are operating,” CHP said. “If a driver is asleep behind the wheel, they are in violation of California’s basic speed law.”

Another Tesla-related sleeping-driver incident in March raised even more serious concerns.

Vacaville police said officers discovered an allegedly intoxicated motorist unconscious behind the wheel of a black Tesla after the vehicle was seen moving through city streets, apparently with its driver-assistance system engaged.

Police began searching for the vehicle after a concerned caller reported it at about 11 a.m.

When officers located the Tesla, the driver was allegedly asleep in the front seat. Authorities said they also found a pizza box and a package of miniature wine bottles nearby.

The unidentified driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Following the latest case, CHP issued a straightforward message to anyone tempted to let technology handle the drive while they catch up on sleep: stay awake, remain alert and wait until the vehicle is parked before taking a nap.

WASHINGTON — MS NOW said its journalists were turned away from the White House grounds Saturday morning, one day after President Donald Trump announced plans to bar the network and other news organizations from the complex.

The move intensified Trump’s ongoing campaign to limit coverage from journalists whose reporting he opposes and raised fresh questions about First Amendment protections in the United States. Trump said Friday that MS NOW, CNN and Politico would be excluded from the White House, citing what he described as unfavorable coverage and “fake news.”

MS NOW said it continues to support its journalists and plans to defend their ability to report from the White House.

“The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars,” the network said in a statement Saturday. “MS NOW intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.”

It remained unclear Saturday morning whether CNN reporters had also been denied entry to the White House grounds. The network’s correspondents are generally present on weekends when the president is in Washington or at nearby Camp David. Trump is spending this weekend at the presidential retreat in Maryland.

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Politico reporters generally do not work from the White House on Saturdays.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

A reclaimed quarry in Franklin, Tennessee, may seem an unlikely venue for a major film premiere—especially for a movie led by Oscar winner Brad Pitt. There were no sweeping klieg lights over Hollywood Boulevard, nor a procession of A-list celebrities.

Instead, Pitt personally requested that the world premiere of Heart of the Beast be held Wednesday night at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, a city of about 91,000 people. Tickets were distributed free to local residents.

The film follows a retired Army Special Forces soldier who must survive in the Alaskan wilderness alongside Odin, his former service dog, after a small-plane crash. The story received an enthusiastic welcome from an audience largely dressed in jeans and baseball caps.

The relaxed Tennessee setting was a sharp contrast to Pitt’s more glamorous Hollywood premieres, including last year’s F1, Ocean’s Eleven and his Oscar-winning performance in 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

For Pitt, however, stepping away from Hollywood—and from what he has described as the “constant drama” surrounding his contentious divorce from Angelina Jolie and painful estrangement from their six children—was precisely the point. He wanted to mark the release of his latest film with “normal people.”

In recent turbulent years, the actor has relied on the support of close friends and people outside the celebrity world as he worked through the challenges in his personal life.

Pitt, 62, recently said that he once again enjoys the occasional glass of wine after giving up alcohol following his bitter 2016 split from Jolie. He may well have raised a chilled glass to the opening of his new film.

Some have questioned his decision to drink again after embracing sobriety. However, a source close to Pitt told the Daily Mail: “Pitt never had a drink problem, he had an Angelina problem.”

“He’s worked hard on himself and he’s now, finally, in a really good place.”

“The whole point about having the movie premiere in somewhere like Franklin was to be among real people. Brad lost his way for a period in his life and he struggled, but he did the work and came through. The divorce from Angelina was bad, but the alienation from his children was the worst thing that ever happened to him. Now he’s gone from pain and hurt to acceptance.”

Pitt has intentionally built a circle of people with little appetite for the unrelenting pressures of celebrity culture.

His close friends include sculptor Thomas Houseago and Neri Oxman, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and designer. Pitt has also been dating jewelry designer Ines de Ramon, 33, since late 2022.

De Ramon made her first red-carpet appearance with Pitt on Wednesday. The couple was recently photographed together at both the women’s and men’s singles finals of the US Open. Those close to them say, however, that de Ramon prefers to keep her life away from the spotlight.

“He’s surrounded himself with good people—family, friends, a girlfriend who doesn’t crave attention in the way his ex, Angelina, did, and a group of artists, artisans and others who share his interests but don’t want to be famous,” the source said.

“Franklin is never going to rival LA or New York as one of the world’s great film capitals, but Pitt wanted to get back to his roots.”

Pitt, who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri, played on his midwestern roots during his early Hollywood days after he catapulted to fame playing a handsome drifter who seduces Geena Davis’s character in Thelma & Louise.

A long-time associate said: ‘Brad’s fundamentally a midwestern boy at heart. He’s a good guy. He is very close to his family and is still friends with people he met right at the start of his career. But after he married Angie (in 2014) his life spiraled down a rabbit hole. They were happy for a while but when things went bad they went very, very bad.’

The marriage infamously fell apart in 2016 when the couple and their six children were flying back on a private jet from Paris after a holiday at their vineyard, Chateau Miraval.

Jolie claimed her husband drunkenly physically and verbally abused her and alleged he punched the ceiling of the plane and allegedly struck one of their children.

Pitt vehemently denied her claims and, after the FBI investigated the case, no charges were ever filed.

The long-time associate said: ‘Did Pitt go through a period where he drank too much? Yes. But did he do what he was accused of? No.

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‘He had some issues with alcohol and he addressed them. He worked through them. It would be interesting to know if Angelina has dealt with any of her issues.’

Pitt reportedly joined Alcoholics Anonymous and abstained completely from alcohol for seven years.

But in a candid interview with Esquire magazine this summer, the star admitted he is drinking again saying: ‘I can have a few but I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it. I got over-confident a couple times, went, yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.’

Maintaining moderation protects his favorite part of the day: ‘You can miss a lovely morning when you drink too much the night before.’

Pitt and Ines lead a mostly quiet life with homes in LA and Carmel, California, as well as the 1,200-acre Chateau Miraval in Correns, France. In LA they have been spotted enjoying early morning hikes in the canyons near their Hollywood Hills home.

The long-time associate said: ‘Ines is a good partner for him. She’s calm and has little interest in hanging out with famous people and going to parties. They have dinner parties with artists and designers. They both love art and architecture. Of course, they have friends in show business but they’re not going to red carpet events or Hollywood parties unless it’s to promote one of his films or support a friend.

‘They are really, really happy together. He’s making the movies he wants to make. The F1 film was the most successful of his career financially.’

Pitt has another movie, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by David Fincher and written by Quentin Tarantino, which opens on November 25 and will have a Hollywood premiere, because the movie is set in Tinseltown.

His friends say the estrangement from his children, five of the six have moved to drop his last name, with Pax as the holdout, will never go away but he will never give up hope of a reconciliation with them.

‘Brad has fought and fought for them and everything is out there if, one day, they want to look at the court documents and documents of record. Angelina engaged in a prolonged campaign of parental alienation using their children against him but his door will always be open to them.’

For her part, Jolie denies Pitt’s claims and says the children’s distance is their choice.

She insists that Maddox, 25, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20 and 18-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne have independently decided to cut their father out of their lives.

In a recent interview with L’Officiel USA magazine, she insisted her core parenting rule for her children is to ‘not get in their way’ and says she plans to lead a more nomadic lifestyle after putting her LA home up for sale.

Speaking to Variety earlier this year, she too hinted at having moved on from the mess and drama of the divorce telling the publication: ‘I think my fighting spirit is finally back. I lost it for a bit. I got kind of taken down a little bit and it’s coming back in large part thanks to my children, who are now older, and encouraging it.’

Coincidentally, Jolie also has a movie released this week, Without Blood, a war drama she wrote and directed, which screened in New York on September 14.

The star looked ethereal in a black suit and ivory bralette while holding the hand of Zahara at the premiere.

Pitt’s spokesperson declined to comment. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Jolie’s representatives for comment.

The source close to Pitt said: ‘It’s ironic that they both had premieres this week but very different ones – hers in New York and his in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee.

‘She’s talked about moving on so you have to hope that is the case. Pitt has found peace and is in a good place. If the kids ever come looking for him he will be there.’

The Giants’ 28-20 upset of the Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football” caught nearly everyone off guard—including the fans at MetLife Stadium, viewers watching at home and even Dallas owner Jerry Jones.

Speaking Friday on Dallas sports radio station 105.3 The Fan, Jones offered a candid assessment of his team’s narrow season-opening loss.

In an unusual display of humility, the outspoken owner acknowledged that New York was a stronger team than Dallas had anticipated—a notable departure from the usual division-rival perspective.

“And I will tell you, they were better than we thought they were. I’m anxious to see how New York continues to play, but I really — combination of things,” he told the radio station. “We didn’t play as well as we should play and can, but they played better than I thought they could.”

The victory marked the Giants’ first season-opening win since 2022. Big Blue overcame a formidable Cowboys offense led by quarterback Dak Prescott and receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.

New York’s offense got off to an impressive start behind Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo in their second year.

Dart completed 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those scoring throws went to offseason addition Isaiah Likely, a tight end and fellow John Harbaugh recruit.

Skattebo also made an impact in his return from an ankle injury that ended his rookie season prematurely. He ran for 81 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, then celebrated his score with a backflip.

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The Giants controlled the line of scrimmage, rushing for 165 yards and averaging 5.8 yards per play against a revamped Dallas defense that Jones had praised throughout the offseason.

For Jones, the Cowboys’ performance fell short of what he expected in the season opener.

When asked to explain the result, he pointed to the team’s adjustment to new coaches and unfamiliar schemes.

The Giants, meanwhile, managed to navigate a similar transition successfully with a new head coach and an offense designed by coordinator Matt Nagy.

New York will try to prove its victory was no fluke when it faces the Rams in a Monday night matchup.

Dallas will look to rebound against another NFC East opponent when it hosts the Commanders at AT&T Stadium, the house that Jerry built.