In a captivating scene at Santa Cruz beach, a child was caught in treacherous, tsunami-like waves, triggering an urgent rescue by a courageous teenage lifeguard.

Fillings hearts with both awe and gratitude, the brave effort belonged to a mere 16-year-old high schooler, hailed by those present as a true hero. According to NBC Bay Area, witnesses identified the guardian angel as Ryder. A woman, asserting to be his mother, confirmed his name in a heartfelt social media post.

Reports also indicate that the child Ryder saved from the clutches of the ocean is estimated to be around 10 years old.

Stunning footage shows the electrifying moments as beachgoers, along with another lifeguard, scrambled to reach the child. However, the relentless waves proved overpowering, submerging their attempts beneath their force.

“It caught a lot of people off-guard,” Vander Dussen, who filmed the video, said. “Unfortunately, this young man was overwhelmed and swept out in just a moment’s time.”

In the video, the 16-year-old lifeguard was seen diving into the water and battling powerful swells to bring the child back to shore.

Wave after wave, Ryder appeared to strategically gulp air before ducking beneath each crashing breaker.

He would then emerge each time still gripping tightly to the child.

As the pair kept getting swallowed by the waves, multiple beachgoers attempted to help, often without success.

The lifeguard ultimately pulled the boy onto shore. According to NBC Bay Area, the child was reunited with his family and was evaluated by paramedics.

Witnesses commenting on the video said the struggle against the waves lasted much longer than the footage shows, adding that Ryder never let go of the child despite the relentless surf.

Ryder’s mother, thanking supporters for the outpouring of praise, responded to requests for a GoFundMe page by saying her son was simply doing what he loves.

“I am blown away by the love, kindness, gratitude and respect you’re sending his way!” she said.

“A few people have asked about a GoFundMe – but honestly he was just doing the job that he absolutely loves.”

Instead, she encouraged those wishing to support Ryder to donate to the Santa Cruz County Parks Department’s Junior Guards program, where she said Ryder and many of his fellow lifeguards trained before becoming old enough to serve.

She also argued that lifeguards should be recognized as first responders because of the dangerous surf conditions they face along the Santa Cruz coastline.

Eric Trump also reposted the rescue video with praise.

“Give this 16-year-old lifeguard the highest civilian honor. This is truly the best of America! Well done!,” he said.

Vita Vea’s recent request for a trade has opened up a tantalizing possibility for the San Francisco 49ers to engage in talks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

According to the NFL Network, Vea’s decision stems from stalled negotiations over a contract extension. As he approaches the last year of his contract, carrying a hefty $17 million base salary, the two-time Pro Bowler presents San Francisco with a golden opportunity to bolster one of their more precarious positions with a player renowned for his impact.

It seems that the 49ers could align with Vea’s preferences. Football analyst Ted Nguyen shared via X, referencing a source, that Vea has expressed a desire to join a team in California or potentially the Raiders. Returning to the Bay Area would likely be an attractive prospect for Vea, who previously attended Milpitas High School before being drafted 12th overall in 2018.

The most compelling reason for San Francisco to consider adding Vea is straightforward yet powerful: Last season, he nearly equaled the pressure production of the entire 49ers interior defensive line.

In 2025, San Francisco’s defensive tackles collectively amassed just 45 pressures, ranking them 25th in the league. Their pressure rate of 7.76% placed them at 31st, allowing quarterbacks an easy escape whenever their edge rushers like Nick Bosa managed to break through from the outer flanks.

Vea generated 44 pressures on 479 pass-rushing snaps, including 4.5 sacks, 13 quarterback hits and 31 hurries. His 9.19% pressure rate and 9.39% pass-rush win rate placed him among the league’s most disruptive interior defenders.

That production was not an outlier.

Vea recorded 49 pressures, seven sacks, 13 quarterback hits and 10 tackles for loss in 2024. His 10.96% pressure rate ranked among the top 10% of interior defensive linemen.

At 6-foot-4 and 347 pounds, Vea is far more than a traditional run-stuffing nose tackle. He can overwhelm single blockers, absorb double teams and collapse the pocket on passing downs. He has also produced at least 15 third-down pressures in each of the past two seasons while showing the versatility to execute stunts and loops across the defensive front.

He would strengthen the run defense as well. The 49ers allowed 4.06 yards per carry on runs through the A and B gaps, but Vea would give them a true multi-gap anchor.

San Francisco’s current interior options have upside, but none combines Vea’s production, power and availability.

Alfred Collins generated 10 pressures on 281 pass-rushing snaps last season, producing a 3.56% pressure rate before dealing with a shoulder injury. Mykel Williams is recovering from a Week 9 ACL tear and will likely miss the first month of the season, while Bosa is attempting to return from his own season-ending knee injury.

Vea’s durability therefore carries added value. The 31-year-old has missed only three games over the past three seasons and played all 17 in 2025, logging 827 defensive snaps. More than half of his 21 career absences came during the 2020 season because of a major ankle injury.

San Francisco’s depth could also help preserve him. The 49ers could rotate Vea with Osa Odighizuwa, Collins and their younger tackles before featuring him on third downs and in the red zone.

The need becomes even more urgent when considering the NFC West.

The Rams strengthened their secondary and added Myles Garrett, while speculation continues about a potential Aaron Donald return. Seattle won the Super Bowl behind Mike Macdonald’s defense, and both rivals should field dangerous offenses in 2026.

The likely trade cost should not end the conversation. Veteran defensive tackles seeking new contracts typically command Day 2 compensation. Seattle, for example, sent a second-round pick and a fifth-rounder to acquire Leonard Williams.

Few trades could elevate the 49ers’ defense as quickly.

And nothing would elevate the 49ers Super Bowl chances more than adding pass rush juice.

Earlier this month, the ever-charismatic Ryan Reynolds took center stage at Fanatics Fest in New York City. Amid the electric atmosphere of enthusiastic Marvel enthusiasts, he delivered news that thrilled the crowd: the much-anticipated return of his beloved, sarcastic alter ego, Deadpool.

And what an exciting return it promises to be. The upcoming film marks the fourth chapter in the phenomenally popular Deadpool series, which already includes the breakout 2016 film, its 2018 sequel, and 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine—a franchise that has collectively raked in nearly $3 billion across the globe.

Yet this exciting announcement also served as a strategic diversion from the ongoing drama surrounding Reynolds’ wife, actress Blake Lively. She is currently embroiled in a legal battle with her former It Ends With Us colleague, Justin Baldoni, which has become a public spectacle.

While Lively has been navigating one challenge after another as the controversy unfolds, Reynolds, despite his own entanglement due to being named in Baldoni’s now-dismissed defamation case, seems to be forging ahead with unyielding momentum.

“He’s amassed a formidable reputation over the years and exerts significant influence in Hollywood circles – a fact well known to those around him,” a Hollywood insider revealed to the Daily Mail.

‘Ryan makes people so much money, which is why his businesses don’t seem to be affected by the lawsuit.’ 

Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and his Wayfarer Studios production company in December 2024 for alleged sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us and defamation.

Baldoni responded the following month with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and the New York Times, which had first published her claims. All parties denied the allegations against them.

Then, in October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case. In May of this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle the matter and later requested that Baldoni pay her more than $8 million in legal fees, which he has called ‘excessive.’

Still, Reynolds, 49, did not emerge from his wife’s contentious legal battle completely unscathed. 

As the Baldoni drama hit fever pitch in late 2025, Paramount – despite its first-look deal with Reynolds’ production company Maximum Effort – dropped three Reynolds-linked projects amid Paramount’s August 2025 merger with Skydance, which prompted a shake-up of the studio’s film slate.

Those included Area 51, a sci-fi film produced by Reynolds and directed by Colin Trevorrow; a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off spin-off; and Eloise, a children’s book adaptation that has since moved to Netflix. 

‘There are some studios who are still stepping back from Ryan,’ one studio executive told the Daily Mail. ‘They think he’s a really nice guy and a great actor. He’s actually really pleasant to work with. But his fee is high and they don’t want to deal with the baggage in the press that he comes with right now because of the lawsuit.’

They added: ‘That’s not to say that there aren’t some people that don’t mind, but there are definitely still companies distancing themselves from him at the moment because of his wife.’

A separate insider, who has worked with Reynolds on a handful of productions, echoed the sentiment, saying: ‘There’s no question the situation has dented his image to an extent, but Ryan is confident he’ll recover more quickly the more he focuses on his own projects and lets his work speak for itself.’

And while Reynolds has quietly distanced himself from his Aviation American Gin, trimming the company’s name from his Instagram bio, the brand itself also seems to have hit a rough patch, with the Oregon distillery and visitor center shutting down this month after only three years. 

Even so, Reynolds has hardly been left outside the velvet rope. Warner Bros, Amazon, Netflix and Disney are still backing Maximum Effort-produced projects like Animal Friends, Aunt Roxie, Rachel Nevada, Boy Band and Reality Vice.

As one source close to Maximum Effort put it: ‘His production company still operates as status quo. It doesn’t seem like people are unwilling to work with him from a film perspective.’

Indeed, Maximum Effort still has its first-look deal with Paramount through the end of 2026, with more titles yet to be announced. 

Meanwhile, Reynolds, for his part, is still hoping the blowback from Lively’s legal dispute doesn’t haunt him. 

‘Ryan believes that over time he’ll be able to separate his films, business ventures, and public image from Blake’s legal issues,’ said our source who worked on productions with Reynolds. ‘In his eyes, much of the public fatigue is centered on the dispute itself and the people directly involved, while he still maintains a great deal of goodwill and respect within Hollywood.

‘While the ongoing legal battle has had some impact on him simply through association, the bigger career fallout has been on her side.’

Lively has had a far rougher ride, with the rancorous battle apparently taking a toll on her career and leaving her detached from projects she was once very much connected to.

Her turn as Lily Bloom in It Ends with Us was meant to be the big comeback after stepping away from acting to raise the couple’s children: daughters James, 11, Inez, nine, Betty, six, and three-year-old son Olin.

Before that, she had been building her own empire behind the scenes, co-founding production company B for Effort with Kate Vorhoff in March 2020 under her married name, Blake Reynolds.

Lively, who held the roles of CEO, CFO and secretary, then announced a slew of TV and film projects – Dark Days at the Magna Carta, The Making Of, Lady Killer and We Used to Live Here – but most of them never made it off the treatment page, with IMDb updates stuck at January 2025.

The stall wasn’t limited to those in-house projects. She was once attached to sci-fi thriller Proxy, but she is no longer listed on the project. Then came Seconds, the graphic novel adaptation she was announced to direct in 2022, with a completed script yet no update since January 2025.

Even The Husband’s Secret has turned into a bit of a mystery of its own. Lively was announced for the lead years ago, but in August 2024, author Liane Moriarty appeared to pour cold water on that casting, telling The Kyle and Jackie O Show: ‘Blake Lively was attached to it, but I don’t know if she’s now detached.’

The only project that actually seems to be moving is The Survival List, the rom-com she will star in and produce.

Meanwhile, her consumer brands also seem to have taken a hit, with Betty Booze and Blake Brown reportedly suffering major setbacks after facing public backlash the last two years.

Lively herself said in her original lawsuit that Blake Brown suffered ‘depressed retail sales by 56–78 percent’ after what she described as a ‘social manipulation campaign.’ Betty Booze also vanished from the Whole Foods coolers that once stocked it, while her non-alcoholic mixer brand Betty Buzz was quietly shuttered.

Even her personal life suffered a blow after popstar Taylor Swift – once one of Lively’s best pals and the godmother to her children – was dragged into the drama. 

Baldoni claimed Lively tried to intimidate him when Swift, 36 – who allowed her 2020 track My Tears Ricochet to be used in the movie – turned up at a private meeting about edits Lively had made to a scene.

Unsealed text messages filed in the case then made things even uglier, showing Lively asking Swift to endorse a revised version of the script, with Swift allegedly replying: ‘I’ll do anything for you!!’

Other messages allegedly showed the women scheming to help Lively usurp Baldoni, with Swift referring to him as a ‘b***h’ who got out his ‘tiny violin.’

And more explosive texts from Baldoni’s complaint revealed Lively had called Swift her ‘dragon’ in a bid to intimidate him over the doomed film.

By the time the legal matter was settled, the damage was already done. Swift has been trying to keep her distance from the scandal – and Lively – ever since. 

That has included icing the Gossip Girl star out of her inner circle, with her husband Travis Kelce unfollowing Reynolds on Instagram. And neither Lively nor Reynolds were in attendance at Swift’s Madison Square Garden wedding on July 3.

Though, despite it all, Reynolds is still keeping his chin up.

‘He doesn’t view this as a situation where his own actions have put his career in jeopardy. Rather, he sees himself as a husband who has supported his wife through a difficult chapter,’ said the insider who has worked with Reynolds.

Of course, he has no intention of talking about it publicly, per the insider, but he will do what he needs to do to get audiences back onside – especially the ones who may have soured on Lively.

And that could mean leaning hard on his crown jewel: Deadpool.

‘From his perspective and Hollywood execs, all it would take is another Deadpool film or a well-received comedy or action project for audiences to fully embrace him again,’ the insider continued.

But Reynolds also knows he can’t exactly make a clean break. After all, he is still firmly hitched to Lively.

‘He knows it’s a delicate balancing act, but he believes it’s entirely possible to move forward professionally while remaining loyal to Blake,’ they said.

‘And despite everything that’s happened, he’s optimistic that, given enough time, both of their careers will eventually find solid footing again.’

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Lively and Reynolds for comment. 

A family from California alleges they became victims of a racially charged assault while staying at a luxury resort in Maui. According to reports, the family members, spanning from teenagers to elderly individuals, were attacked with chairs and beaten during a tumultuous poolside confrontation.

Maui law enforcement officials confirmed to News Media that they responded to a chaotic scene at the Kaanapali Alii resort in Lahaina on the night of July 17. Around 10 p.m., officers discovered a disorderly gathering of about 30 people, with 10 to 15 individuals remaining near the pool when they arrived, several of whom had visible injuries.

Initial investigations by the police revealed that seven victims from California, aged between 17 and 62, were attacked. The victims reported that a large group of juveniles assaulted various members of their group before making their escape.

According to statements provided to Maui police, one of the victims recounted that while he and his family were relaxing by the pool, a stranger ran towards them, crying out for assistance. This was quickly followed by a group of young males who pursued the individual, ultimately focusing their aggression on nearby bystanders.

“The group allegedly began throwing chairs and physically assaulting numerous people in the area, indiscriminately attacking individuals of all ages, including elderly family members who were struck during the incident,” Maui police told News Media.

Family members told Hawaii News Now the alleged attackers repeatedly threatened to “beat up the haole boys” before the violence erupted. 

Merriam-Webster defines “haole” as a Hawaiian term used to describe a foreigner or person of non-Hawaiian descent.

The family told the outlet it wants the assault investigated as a hate crime. Maui police have not classified the incident as a hate crime.

One of the most seriously injured victims was a relative who was struck in the head with a chair while trying to protect family members, suffering a severe head wound that required 13 staples, according to the family.

Police told News Media that the investigation led to the arrest of a 20-year-old Makawao man on suspicion of second-degree assault. He was later released as the investigation continues. The case is currently classified as an assault/riot, and detectives have interviewed those involved while continuing to gather evidence.

In a statement to News Media, Kaanapali Alii said the safety and well-being of its guests, residents and team members “remains our highest priority” and that resort security responded immediately after the violence broke out.

“Upon learning of the altercation, our security team responded promptly, contacted the Maui Police Department and emergency medical services, and remained on scene to assist until first responders arrived,” the resort said. “We have provided surveillance footage and are cooperating fully with law enforcement as their investigation continues.”

The resort said it is also conducting its own internal review of the incident.

Addressing the family’s allegation that they were targeted because of their race, the resort said it takes claims of racial bias seriously but cautioned against drawing conclusions before detectives complete their investigation.

“We take allegations of this nature seriously,” the statement said. “At this time, allegations regarding motive or the circumstances surrounding the incident have not been substantiated, and it would be inappropriate to speculate or draw conclusions while the investigation remains ongoing.”

The resort also acknowledged that staff received reports of threats, harassment and disruptive behavior involving individuals connected to the incident before the violence erupted, but declined to discuss those complaints further because of the active criminal investigation.

“Because this remains an active criminal investigation, we cannot comment on specific security actions, witness accounts or other details that could compromise the investigative process,” the resort said.

The property said it remains committed to supporting investigators and those affected by the violence.

“Our focus remains on the well-being of our guests, residents and team members, and on assisting law enforcement in every way possible,” the statement said.

Anyone with information or video related to the incident is asked to contact the Maui Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division at (808) 244-6425.