Questions surround counterterror probe into US air base after suspects were freed on bail

• September 29, 2026

By ALASTAIR GRANT and SYLVIA HUI

FAIRFORD, England (AP) — A surprise decision by the U.K.’s counterterror police to release five suspects on bail during an investigation into a suspected bomb plot targeting a U.S.-operated air force base in England has raised questions and concern from many, including U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Five young British men were arrested early Sunday on explosives and terrorism charges near the RAF Fairford base, which has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran.

Counterterror detectives said they were investigating “multiple lines of inquiry,” including whether the suspects had a link to Iran. Iran has denied involvement.

The men — all British nationals in their 20s, according to police — were released on bail Monday. The head of U.K. Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, stressed that the suspects face stringent conditions and “absolutely remain under investigation.”

Trump told reporters on Monday he was surprised that the men were allowed to be freed.

“I’m surprised that they released them. I wouldn’t have done that,” he said.

Rubio echoed the sentiment, saying: “I know a lot of people are disturbed by the news that some of these people have been released on bail, as some of the people are being investigated.”

He added in an interview with Fox News that the case “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor,” but did not name a specific country or give more details.

It appears police did not find explosives in suspicious vehicles

A police cordon remained in place around three vans found near the Fairford base on Tuesday, as armed police and counterterrorism officers continued to examine the scene.

Earlier, army bomb-disposal experts used a robot to examine the vans. It wasn’t clear what was found inside the vehicles, but the decision to bail the suspects — and the fact that residents who were evacuated have started to return home — suggested that no viable explosives were found.

A local farmer said she called police after seeing the vans blocking a road as she drove home late Saturday night, and that nearby she came across a group of men, some with their faces covered. She said they ran away when they saw her vehicle.

She declined to be identified because she was describing what she saw as potential security lapses.

Officials hint at possible Iran role

Taylor, the counterterror police chief, said lines of inquiry include whether the suspected offenses were committed by “proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.”

Investigators haven’t concluded whether the incident was state-backed or what the motive was, but authorities have strongly hinted that Iran is possibly involved. They are also investigating a possible link to Russia or non-state militant groups. RAF Fairford has also been the focus of protests by anti-war campaigners.

Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said the U.K. “shouldn’t be cowed by saber rattling from Iran,” adding that “the Iranian regime is one that wishes harm to our country, our allies, and the freedom and democracy that we enjoy.”

Iran and allied militant groups have been accused of plotting or carrying out attacks on U.S., British and Jewish targets in the past, allegedly acting through local proxies while denying responsibility.

British intelligence services say Russia and Iran have both used proxies to commit crimes on U.K. soil. In March, officials said the number of national security cases involving activity by hostile states, including Iran, increased by 50% in the six months to December 2025.

Questions about possible security or intelligence failures

It was unclear whether the arrested men had been on security services’ radar. Local residents described seeing heightened security around RAF Fairford in recent days, with heavy vehicles parked across entrance gates.

Trump said the suspects were detained following cooperation between the U.S. and Britain, and had been “under view” for some time. Police, however, said the arrests were triggered by a late-night call about the suspicious vehicles near the base.

The farmer who called the police alleged that it took several hours between her call and when police “suddenly decided to evacuate people” in the area.

“But meanwhile, those vans were right in the middle of the village next to everyone’s houses and no one did anything,” she said.

Streeting, the defense secretary, said Monday that the farmer only had a “partial picture” of the operation.

Hui reported from London.

​ Orange County Register 

Officials are looking into a possible new ransom note related to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance

• September 29, 2026

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are looking into the possibility of a new ransom note related to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, nearly eight months after she went missing from her Arizona home, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.

The sheriff’s department and the FBI Guthrie Task Force were recently made aware of the possible ransom note as well as social media comments related to it, the statement from the sheriff’s department said Monday. Investigators are working to determine its credibility.

Officials did not immediately release details on how they found the note or what was in it.

In July, authorities released two ransom notes initially sent to a Tucson television station days after the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie went missing on Feb. 1 from her home outside Tucson.

The first note, sent Feb. 2, said Nancy Guthrie was safe but scared and would be released unharmed once her captors received $4 million in cryptocurrency. The second note, sent Feb. 6, said Guthrie died shortly after she was kidnapped. Authorities have not said whether Guthrie is still alive.

No suspects have been arrested in her disappearance. The investigation is dogged by unanswered questions, such as how many people are believed to have taken part in her abduction and whether she was taken by someone who knew her.

The FBI had also released surveillance videos of a masked person who authorities said appeared to tamper with a camera on Nancy Guthrie’s front porch and block it with a plant.

Nancy Guthrie’s family has shared their pleas for information in videos posted to social media.

​ Orange County Register 

States urge schools to use AI, but leave teachers on their own to stop cheating

• September 29, 2026

By Lily Altavena for Chalkbeat

Paige Wyatt heard plenty from administrators about using AI to generate lesson plans at the school where she taught high school English.

Her students used AI to cheat so frequently she resorted to spending her own money on detection tools. Yet she never got help with what she really wanted: how to effectively catch and stop the cheaters, some of whom were very clearly just copying and pasting from Google’s AI summaries.

Teachers like Wyatt consistently identify cheating as a major concern in the AI era, and 70% of teens report using AI for schoolwork, a Common Sense Media survey published last month found. But that concern is getting little recognition from states. While at least 13 states have passed laws about AI in education, the laws most often direct state agencies and districts to create their own AI guidance, meaning lawmakers have frequently absolved themselves from making tough decisions.

Meanwhile, roughly three out of four states have published information to help guide AI use in education. But a Chalkbeat review found these documents tend to skirt the issue of cheating, offering little in the way of concrete steps to halt or deter students from offloading work to AI. Instead, they dedicate more real estate to AI literacy and ways teachers can use AI for efficiency.

All of that beating around the bush has left educators and districts to their own devices to come up with ways to deter and catch AI-enabled cheaters. It’s become an exhausting endeavor that hasn’t turned up any definitive solutions, educators and researchers said.

There’s no surefire way to detect AI-generated content. Nor is there an agreed-upon definition for cheating: Can students use AI to outline an essay but not write it? Can they use it to copy edit? Some states have crafted acceptable use policies which make some, but not all, of these distinctions.

Wyatt quit her teaching job last year. She didn’t leave solely due to AI, but its impact on her work was a factor.

“We really need real consequences,” she said. “We need workshops for teachers to detect cheating. We need workshops for kids.”

Most of the nation’s 10 largest school districts are developing or have developed more specific policies to try to prevent using generative AI to cheat. But it hasn’t always been easy: New York City delayed the rollout of its AI guidance for months amid fierce backlash, before announcing a new policy this month. Half of those districts explicitly discourage using AI detection tools.

Many of the official responses might underscore the urgency of the problem without helping to address it, which could only increase teachers’ anxiety.

“I think the situation teachers are in feels bad, and feels like they ought to have a solution now that they don’t have,” said Justin Reich, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the host of a podcast about how AI is shaping K-12 education.

Letting AI ‘run amok’ could ruin student learning

Historically, state policymakers haven’t rushed to create laws governing new technology and education.

States didn’t really start to adopt computer science requirements until the 2010s. And while the iPhone launched a smartphone revolution in 2007, the first state restrictions on cell phone use in schools didn’t come until 16 years later, in 2023.

States may be moving faster when it comes to mainstream generative AI, which took off with the advent of ChatGPT in late 2022.

“Folks can’t just hope this will pass. This is a major change, and students are already using it,” said John King, former U.S. education secretary and current chancellor of the State University of New York system. “This isn’t tomorrow’s problem. This is today’s problem.”

The District of Columbia and at least 37 states have issued recommendations for public schools about AI. Their documents range from short webpages to Illinois’ 400-page behemoth. Many define different types of AI, stress that any AI use should still be led by humans, and link to outside resources — some of which have been developed with the support of big AI companies.

But they often devote just a page or a few paragraphs to academic integrity. The documents also seem light on actual guidance and don’t include many citations, Reich said. That’s because there’s little evidence to show how effective AI tools are in the classroom, or what policies would effectively stop cheating.

“If you just let this run amok in secondary schools, all kinds of learning activities will stop,” he said. “We do not know what to do. There’s no evidence-based policy. There’s no basis for development and professional development. Like we’re just making stuff up.”

More than a third of states urge schools not to rely solely on tools that promise to detect the use of AI, citing studies showing they are not effective and incorrectly flag genuine student writing as AI.

But many states then offer little else other than acceptable use policies. In California’s case, the state offers a list of questions for districts to mull when making policies around integrity in addition to an acceptable use policy.

In the absence of hard and fast rules, teachers have reported requiring students to complete more graded work in class, using pencil and paper.

Christopher Harris, the director of the school library system for the Genesee Valley BOCES, a regional district in western New York, wants educators to go further than that and reconsider how they measure learning. Writing may be less of a valid tool to assess if students are learning, now that AI “can suddenly write anything.”

He said students could submit an oral assignment, or teachers could focus on the learning process more than the product by asking students to explain how they respond to feedback when developing a project or presentation.

New York is one of the 13 states that hasn’t published AI resources for educators. Harris’ library system has been developing resources about AI for the state’s educators using grant money.

“I really wanted to help teachers understand they can’t control what kids do with AI,” he said. “The only control they have is their agency in developing assignments.”

Adopting AI policies not straightforward for school districts

Sara Brescia thought she had a no-brainer policy proposal for her fellow Manassas City Public Schools board members: adding AI misuse to the district’s code of student conduct.

The policy she proposed for the district in northern Virginia — a hotbed for the data centers AI relies on — would prohibit students from trying to pass off AI-generated content as their own. It specified that AI could only be used with a teacher’s permission, and required students to cite AI use. Students would be punished, up to and including with expulsion, for violating any of those provisions.

But other board members voted her idea down in late July. Lisa Stevens, another school board member who is also a teacher according to her LinkedIn page, worried the policy would add a burden onto teachers without giving them any tools to identify AI-generated work.

Brescia is skeptical about the value of those tools.

“We do not have a comprehensive approach,’’ she said. “We have the student code of conduct that says nothing.”

Wyatt said when she left the classroom, students were only becoming more fluent in methods to cheat. They were finding tools like QuillBot to disguise AI-generated writing and make it sound more like student writing.

She’s open to going back to the classroom, if she gets more administrative support to help detect the kind of AI misconduct that felt out of control when she left.

“As a community, we need a support network,” she said.

This story was produced by Chalkbeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

​ Orange County Register 

Ex-Trump prosecutor Smith will tell senators he won’t ‘be silenced’ by threats of prosecution

• September 29, 2026

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, will tell lawmakers on Tuesday that he “will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.

Smith will also tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases that he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics.

“I made these decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal conduct. If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”

The hearing is expected to focus on subpoenas for phone records

Even as Smith defends his investigations, he is expected to be pressed anew by Republican senators about his team’s access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers as prosecutors investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

In previous testimony, Smith has stood behind subpoenas that prosecutors issued for the phone records of Republican members of Congress who were in touch with Trump when violent supporters of the president rioted inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He has said that such subpoenas are a “common practice” in investigations and were necessary in this instance to understand the “scope of the conspiracy” between Trump and his Republican allies.

Nonetheless, the revelation that Smith’s team secretly obtained the phone records during his investigation has animated some Republican lawmakers, who point to it as proof of overreach by the Biden administration Justice Department and a hard-charging prosecutor.

In July, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, referred Smith to the Justice Department for potential prosecution on allegations that he lied at a previous hearing about his collection of the records — something Smith’s attorneys have vigorously disputed.

“I stand by my testimony before the House of Representatives,” Smith will say. “I will not be silenced by the continued threats of prosecution from the president or others.”

Smith’s testimony Tuesday will be before the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, first disclosed that Smith’s prosecutors had obtained what’s known as “toll records” — data that reveals the date, length and time of phone calls between two parties but not the content of the communications.

Smith has repeatedly justified the move as necessary to document any contact that Trump or surrogates may have had with lawmakers on Jan. 6, 2021, as the president beseeched his supporters to halt the certification of the election results.

“My office didn’t spy on anyone,” Smith said during a hearing in January.

Smith is the subject of a criminal referral from Republicans

Smith was appointed in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to take over investigations into Trump’s efforts to reverse his election loss and Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Both investigations resulted in felony indictments, but Smith abandoned the cases after Trump won back the White House in 2024, citing longstanding Justice Department opinions that say sitting presidents cannot be federally indicted.

Smith has remained a top target of retribution for Trump and his administration, which last year announced that it would revoke the security clearances of the lawyers representing the former special counsel. The Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency responsible for enforcing a law against partisan political activity by federal employees, also announced last year an investigation into Smith.

Jordan’s referral to the Justice Department centers on a December 2025 exchange in which Smith was asked about subpoenas that prosecutors had issued for the toll records.

Smith said the records he requested did not include the content of the communications. But Jordan maintains that answer was misleading in light of records released by Grassley showing that Smith had obtained the contents of 44 lawmakers’ text messages in a separate subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration that sought the communications of various Trump advisers and aides.

In response, Smith’s lawyers called his answers “unimpeachably truthful” and noted that he was responding to questions explicitly about toll records, which did not include the contents of any text messages.

​ Orange County Register 

Reel-blocking app explodes in popularity, with more than 1 million downloads

• September 29, 2026

An app created by two Fairview High School graduates that blocks reels and short videos on social media has exploded since its launch, with more than 1 million downloads since March.

SocialLite is an app that removes reels and short videos from feeds on social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Users can still post, see videos and photos from followed accounts, and view and respond to direct messages.

“We’ve found that a lot of people who are downloading it are just kind of done with all of the brain rot and the scrolling,” co-founder Mason Israel said. “We’ve definitely found it’s most effective to just fully cut it out and really just focus on seeing posts from your friends.”

Israel and co-founder Malek Shaw are childhood best friends who grew up in Boulder and graduated from Fairview High School in 2025. They went to different colleges for a year before deciding to work on SocialLite full-time. Their office is based in Boulder.

In the past three months, SocialLite has averaged in the top 50 in the productivity category on Apple’s App Store, consistently outranking Opal and Brick, two popular apps that block users from going on social media entirely. SocialLite is being used in 170 countries and is growing rapidly, Shaw said, sometimes getting tens of thousands of downloads in a day.

“Every other app on the market is either all or nothing,” Israel said. “You’re either fully on social media with all of the distractions, or you’re fully blocked out, and you don’t have the positive parts that you want to have access to. Whereas SocialLite is the middle ground all the time.”

Israel and Shaw started their business partnership in high school when they ran a mobile car detailing business together. The idea for SocialLite came after Israel was frustrated with how much time he was wasting scrolling on social media. In high school, his dad challenged him and his friends to stop scrolling short-form content for a month to see how they felt. It was so addicting and so easy to subconsciously scroll, he said, that they all had to delete social media entirely to complete the challenge.

He and his friends felt a lot better after a month, Israel said, but they also felt disconnected. And, they needed social media for various purposes and eventually had to reinstall it.

After that, Israel had the idea to develop an app like SocialLite and posted on social media to see if there was any interest in the idea. His first post went viral, getting 500,000 views and 10,000 followers. It took them about a month to build the app, and their early group of followers helped them test it. The iOS version launched on March 1, and the Android version launched about a month later. The two have been collecting feedback from users ever since and are continuously working on improving the app.

For the younger generation especially, Shaw said, so much of their social life is on social media, so it’s isolating to be off it completely. SocialLite is about helping people use social media intentionally while breaking the addicting and time-consuming habit of scrolling endlessly for hours.

“Our main idea is about being able to stay connected without being distracted,” Shaw said.

The average age demographic is 18 to 24, but the app is being used by all ages, ranging from 7-year-olds to 60-year-olds. SocialLite also has a special version for parents that blocks the reels, shorts and for-you pages for their kids. It also blocks ads and suggested content and provides parents with a dashboard that tells parents which apps their child used and for how long.

Annie Margaret, a University of Colorado Boulder professor and social media researcher, said SocialLite appears to be a promising intervention. Short-form media, including reels and shorts, are extremely harmful, she said. It shortens a person’s attention span and hijacks their dopamine, constantly using and depleting it. The consequence of that is when people have something they actually want to do, such as wake up in the morning and go on a hike with a friend, they find that difficult if not impossible, because they don’t have the dopamine neurotransmitter available.

Short-form content also takes topics out of context, she said, and the algorithm intentionally amplifies the worst and most extreme views. This decreases compassion and motivation while increasing emotional numbness.

To combat this, she said, people need to spend time reflecting on their values. They should spend time on people, hobbies and experiences that bring their life meaning, purpose and joy, and spend time reorienting their attention toward those things so the phone becomes less interesting.

“I really commend these young people for making this app. I believe anything people are doing to try to address this issue is a positive,” Margaret said. “And for folks that are considering using this app as a remedy, I recommend a period of time away from media focused on their own values, their own joy, their own meaning. When they come out of that time away from media with their attention reoriented and then add this app on top of that, I imagine it will be wildly successful.”

In August, Facebook parent company Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement with 47 states for mental health harm reportedly caused by its products. Colorado’s share will come close to $615 million over the next nine years. The lawsuit argued that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to ensnare young users by making it harder to log off, including through endless scrolling, then lied to the public about it.

“I think a lot of families now have lots of arguments over social media because there’s not really a good choice for parents,” Shaw said. “You’re either kind of the mean parent and don’t give your kids social media, or you give them unbridled access to one of the most dangerous things a young child can have.

“With what we offer, we believe we can give parents the opportunity to work with their children to find a solution that actually works for them and allows the parents to keep their kids safe but still be connected with their peer group.”

SocialLite is available for download on the App Store and Google Play. For more information, visit sociallite.app.

​ Orange County Register 

Wind advisory active for 5 Freeway north of LA until Tuesday morning

• September 29, 2026

5 Freeway north of LA is under a wind advisory which was released by the National Weather Service on Tuesday at 1:53 a.m. The advisory is in effect until 6 a.m.

The NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA informs, “North winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 30 to 45 mph expected.”

“Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” according to the NWS. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution. Secure outdoor objects.”

The full list of affected locations includes:

• 5 Freeway corridor near Santa Clarita
• Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast
• Santa Barbara County Southeastern Coast
• Santa Ynez Mountains Western Range
• Santa Ynez Mountains Eastern Range
• Santa Barbara County Interior Mountains
• Southern Ventura County Mountains
• Northern Ventura County Mountains

High wind alerts: Your guide to safety

When it comes to high wind alerts, understanding the levels of risk is crucial. The NWS classifies them into three distinct categories:

High wind warning: Take action.

Sustained, strong winds with even stronger gusts are happening. Seek shelter. If you are driving, keep both hands on the wheel and slow down.

Wind advisory: Take action.

Strong winds are occurring but are not so strong as to warrant a High wind warning. Objects that are outdoors should be secured and caution should be taken if driving.

High wind watch: Be prepared.

Sustained, strong winds are possible. Secure loose outdoor items and adjust plans as necessary so you’re not caught outside.

How to prepare before strong winds approach

• Trim tree branches away from your house and power lines.
• Secure loose gutters and shutters.
• Identify an interior room of your house, such as a basement or interior bathroom, that you can take shelter in during high wind warnings.
• If you live in a mobile home, identify a sturdy building you can go to if the NWS issues a high wind or severe thunderstorm warning.
• Charge batteries of all essential items such as cell phones and booster packs, weather radios and power tools such as a reciprocating saw, which you might need to clear debris.
• Update your emergency kit and be sure to include enough food and water to last for 3 days for each person in your home.
• Make a list of items outside your home you will need to tie down or put away so that they don’t blow away or fly through a window. When the NWS issues a high wind watch, immediately secure these items to avoid damage or injury once the wind starts picking up.

How to act during strong winds

Take shelter:

• Immediately go inside a sturdy building during a high wind warning or severe thunderstorm warning and move to an interior room or basement.
• If you are in a mobile home, move to a sturdy building before the winds pick up or the storm system reaches your location.

If caught outside or driving:

• Take shelter in your car if you are not near a sturdy building. If possible, drive to a nearby sturdy building. Otherwise, move your car to a location where it is less likely to be hit by falling trees or power lines.
• If no shelter is available avoid trees, power lines, and the side of the road. Keep in mind that power lines that are laying on the ground may be live. Do not go near them! Try to find a place that will block blowing or falling debris.
• If you are driving and aren’t near a sturdy building, hold the steering wheel with both hands and slow down.
• Keep a distance from high profile vehicles such as trucks, buses and vehicles towing trailers. One strong gust of wind can be enough to flip one of these trailers onto its side.

What to do after strong winds subside

• Do not go near downed power lines. Report downed power lines to the police.
• Be careful when handling debris that may have blown into your yard.

For more local weather alerts, visit our Weather Advisory page

​ Orange County Register 

Padres ready to ride raucous Petco Park energy against Cubs in NL Wild Card Series

• September 29, 2026

By BERNIE WILSON The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — Back in 1984, Tony Gwynn, Steve Garvey and the San Diego Padres used the energy from their home crowd at Jack Murphy Stadium to rally from a 2-0 deficit in the National League Championship Series and stun Ryan Sandberg, Gary Matthews and the Chicago Cubs to reach their first World Series.

The players, stadium and playoff round are different now. But Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and the Padres hope to tap that home energy once again when they open a Wild Card Series against likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman and the Cubs starting Tuesday night at a packed, raucous Petco Park.

From the Padres’ standpoint, it’s way better than last year, when they lost 2-1 to the Cubs in the wild-card round at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The fourth-seeded Padres will host every game in the best-of-three series against the fifth-seeded Cubs. The winner will face the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers in a best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Saturday in Wisconsin.

The Padres had 66 sellouts and their total attendance of 3,347,081 this season was second in the majors behind the rival Dodgers at 4,034,219.

“It’s great. It’s nice to feel 45,000 people behind you, waving the yellow towels,” rookie manager Craig Stammen said Monday. “It’s just a good feeling when you go out there and get the lineups announced that we’re at home. There are no boo-birds and the whole fan base is for us and not against us.”

Chicago left-hander Matthew Boyd (10-5, 3.91 ERA) and Padres right-hander Michael King (12-10, 3.21 ERA) are scheduled to start Tuesday night.

SOME BIG STARS

Crow-Armstrong, who grew up in L.A. and starred at Harvard-Westlake, made his case for NL MVP by becoming the first Cubs player to join the 40/40 club, with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases.

Machado hit 30 homers for the eighth time in his big league career and fourth time in his eight seasons in San Diego.

Tatis had an unfathomable home run drought to start the season, taking until his 56th game, in Washington on May 30, to connect for the first time. He’s now recorded his fourth 25-homer season and has 38 stolen bases. He continues to make jaw-dropping home run robberies in right field, like the one that denied Francisco Lindor a grand slam against the Mets on Aug. 18 in New York. Tatis hit two homers in that game.

THE MATCHUP

The Cubs dominated San Diego 5-1 in the season series, including handing the Padres their worst loss ever, 23-3, at Wrigley Field on July 1, when they hit eight home runs.

But the Padres turned it around after the All-Star break, going 43-23, the second-best mark in the majors, to clinch their club-record third straight postseason berth and, at 91-71, their third consecutive 90-win season.

“I think we’re firing on all cylinders,” King said. “I think the last two months, 2½ months, the offense has possibly been the best in baseball. We’ve really come together as a starting rotation, and the bullpen is obviously a strong piece. I think that, when you look at us, we don’t really have many weaknesses.

“We’re very confident in what we’ve been doing the last few weeks, and we’re very happy that this is the time that we got hot, and we’ve just got to continue it throughout all this postseason.”

ALEX BREGMAN UPDATE

Bregman went 4 for 4 with two home runs and four RBIs as the designated hitter on Sunday in his second game back from a frightening injury.

Bregman took grounders at third base during Monday’s workout, but Manager Craig Counsell said he isn’t sure when he’ll return to third base.

“I haven’t made a decision there yet,” Counsell said. “I think today was a much better day than kind of how he looked in Tampa. I think it’s just a sign on like how he’s feeling just overall. The fractures are not healed. You know, it’s just how he’s feeling, kind of just pain-wise and things like that. Moving around, swelling, like, just much less. He still has fractures in his face and I think that’s kind of what we have to weigh.”

​ Orange County Register 

Chris Sale anchors Braves’ depleted rotation in NL Wild Card Series against Phillies

• September 29, 2026

By CHARLES ODUM AP Sports Writer

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves battled through a long list of pitching injuries that left their rotation depleted for their National League Wild Card Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

That’s why Manager Walt Weiss and Braves players are glad to have ace left-hander Chris Sale on the mound for Tuesday’s opening game in the best-of-three series.

“For sure, it’s a different feeling when a guy like that is taking the mound on a big day,” Weiss said Monday.

Added first baseman Matt Olson: “It’s a great feeling. He’s been nothing short of amazing for us … just the teammate and the pitcher and the bulldog he is on the mound. I wouldn’t want anyone else starting for us.”

The NL East champion Braves (94-68) went 9-4 against the second-place Phillies (88-74) and finished six games ahead of them in the regular season. Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA) was 4-0 against Philadelphia with a 2.08 ERA.

“He’s got to be one of the top two lefties in the league, top few pitchers in the league, so yeah, he presents a whole set of problems. But we’ve seen him a little bit,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “You know, we haven’t been great against him, but we’ll see. Tomorrow’s a new day.”

Phillies All-Star left-hander Jesús Luzardo (14-5, 2.86 ERA) will start as an opener after being used for a scoreless eighth inning in Sunday’s 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays that finally clinched the third NL wild-card spot.

Luzardo returned from a stint on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation. The wild-card opener will be his first start since throwing his first career shutout in a 1-0 home win against Atlanta on Sept. 7.

Right-hander Tyler Mahle likely will be Atlanta’s Game 2 starter. Left-hander Martín Pérez could have been the third starter before landing on the 15-day injured list on Thursday with lower back inflammation. The Braves also have lost starting pitchers Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider, Reynaldo López and Hurston Waldrep this season.

OPENER OR STARTER

Luzardo might remain in the game longer than a normal opener if he comes close to the form he showed in recording 12 strikeouts in the shutout victory over the Braves.

Mattingly said Monday he was glad Luzardo logged the inning on Sunday so he could “see the bounce-back today.”

When asked if it was necessary to use Luzardo in the relief role if starting the Wild Card Series opener was an option, Mattingly said he wasn’t taking any chances in Sunday’s must-win situation.

“I don’t think it was a 100% had to,” Mattingly said. “But, you know, in that game, you’re not gonna let anything get away, right? You’re not going to let this thing creep back into a game, that type of thing.”

Luzardo was the NL Pitcher of the Month in August. He was efficient in the shutout win against the Braves, allowing only two hits and one walk in a game that lasted just 1 hour, 51 minutes.

INJURY UPDATE

Mattingly said second baseman Luis Arraez will not be on the Wild Card Series roster after spraining his left ankle on Thursday. Right-hander Jonathan Bowlan (groin) will be available.

Braves right-hander Bryce Elder, expected to miss three to four weeks after surgery on his right knee on Sept. 8, threw batting practice Monday but will not be on the roster for the series. Right-hander Joe Jiménez, who hasn’t pitched since 2024 due to three operations on his left knee, also threw batting practice. Weiss indicated Elder might have a chance to return if the Braves advance to a best-of-five NL Division Series against the Dodgers.

QUICK TURNAROUND, QUICK RESET

Following a celebration in the clubhouse after Sunday’s win, the Phillies had a quick flight to Atlanta for Monday’s workout. Mattingly and his players were still reflecting on the stressful final week of the regular season that included four straight losses before the clinching win.

“It kind of feels like it sums up our whole season a little bit,” shortstop Trea Turner said. “Playing well at times, playing bad at times, getting unlucky sometimes. Just felt a little frustrating as a group. I think we knew that. We wanted to play well. We wanted to get in as soon as possible. You don’t want to wait until the last day.”

​ Orange County Register