WASHINGTON (AP) — In 1976’s “ Rocky,” heavyweight champion Apollo Creed arrives for the title fight dressed as George Washington, reenacting the crossing of the Delaware as models costumed as the Statue of Liberty lead the way.

After entering the ring, Apollo switches into an Uncle Sam costume. “I want YOU!” he roars as he points to Rocky Balboa, the far less flamboyant palooka he’s chosen for this bicentennial bout in Philadelphia.

Then the two boxers pound the daylights out of each other.

It’s as accurate a representation of the American bicentennial vibe as has ever been put on film — plenty of fireworks, but not much thought about how 200 years of independence led to this.

I was 13 years old in 1976. Kids my age — the tail end of the Baby Boom, or the vanguard of Generation X — grew up skeptical of the government. We had outlasted the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, with the occasional moment of joy — the moon landing, say — to break the gloom. The state of the union was intact, even if many Americans were still on edge.

My family lived in Newport News, Virginia, not far from the Historic Triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg. So there was plenty of buzz surrounding the bicentennial. President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty, took a carriage ride through Colonial Williamsburg, foreign leaders came to visit, and the living museum regularly staged reenactments of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Ford and plenty of other dignitaries went to New York for what the president called “the greatest Fourth of July any of us will ever see.” Operation Sail was a floating parade of 16 tall ships and more than 100 smaller vessels from around the world — including, even, the Soviet Union. It was a boon for the beleaguered Big Apple, proving that “New Yorkers could get along, even during difficult times,” according to the Gotham Center for New York History.

All aboard the Freedom Train

For history buffs who couldn’t make the trip east, there was the American Freedom Train, a 26-car behemoth that toured all 48 contiguous states. It displayed two centuries of artifacts like George Washington’s copy of the Constitution, the original Louisiana Purchase, Judy Garland’s dress from “The Wizard of Oz” and a moon rock. Merle Haggard even released a song about it.

I had a nifty 3D poster of the Freedom Train on my bedroom wall. A different poster captured everyone’s eye later in 1976 — one featuring “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

It’s patriotic in its own way. There’s Farrah, sporting big hair, a blinding white smile and a red swimsuit, posed in front of a red, white and blue blanket. The color scheme may not have been intentional, but it might as well be titled “All-American Girl” for its presentation of what much of society saw as one.

There were plenty of more deliberate anniversary collectibles out there. A quick search of eBay in 2026 digs up hundreds of collectible plates, glasses, beer mugs and bumper stickers. The government unleashed special quarters, stamps and license plates. And of course Madison Avenue jumped in, selling bicentennial cereal, candy, beer and soda. You could get a different 7-Up can for each of the 50 states.

Even the creator of the Pet Rock — the preposterous 1975 phenomenon that was, yes, a rock in a box — tried to get in on the act. That fad, alas, had run its course, and the Bicentennial Pet Rock flopped. You’d have been better off buying a Pez dispenser with the head of Paul Revere or Betsy Ross.

Broadcast television — remember, we only had three networks — was more subdued. For kids, ABC’s beloved “Schoolhouse Rock!” spun off “America Rock.” But while that cartoon did include some history, it’s best remembered for the mournful civics lesson “I’m Just a Bill.”

More prominent was CBS News’ “Bicentennial Minute.” Starting July 4, 1974, barely a month before President Richard Nixon resigned, it ran every night in prime time, presenting the news from 200 years earlier. It was so unavoidable that sitcoms like “All in the Family” referred to it; “Saturday Night Live,” which debuted in 1975, paid tribute with a “Bisexual Minute.”

Still, all three networks pulled out the stops on July 4, 1976. Walter Cronkite led the pack with 16 hours of coverage on CBS, while “Bob Hope’s Bicentennial Star-Spangled Spectacular” (“the show that took 200 years to produce”) on NBC celebrated with Sammy Davis Jr., Captain & Tennille and Donny and Marie Osmond.

The bad news bearers

Certainly, not everyone was in the mood to celebrate. Richard Pryor released an influential album whose title was “Bicentennial,” followed by an ethnic slur. The title track is a monologue from a 200-year-old slave; it ends with “I ain’t gonna never forget it.” In the same album’s ”Bicentennial Prayer,” Pryor proclaims, “We are celebrating 200 years of white folks kickin’ ass.”

Popular music wasn’t in a particularly patriotic mood either. Elton John’s 1975 hit “Philadelphia Freedom” became a de facto anthem of sorts, even though it’s barely about Philadelphia and is more about individual independence.

Indeed, the prevailing pop attitude was: Let’s forget about this mess we’ve left behind and go to the disco. So the Billboard singles charts were topped by the likes of Johnnie Taylor’s “Disco Lady,” The Sylvers’ “Boogie Fever,” The Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing” and KC and the Sunshine Band’s “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty.”

On the album charts, California’s hippie culture was shaking off its hangover with haunted LPs like the Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender.” Something else was breaking loose in New York, though, with aggressive debuts from the Ramones and Blondie. The Ramones’ logo included an eagle holding an olive branch and a baseball bat, and their repertoire included the future stadium anthem “Blitzkrieg Bop.” What could be more American?

Speaking of America’s pastime, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the year’s funniest movie, “The Bad News Bears.” It’s baseball the way it was meant to be played — by a bunch of foul-mouthed juvenile delinquents coached by a surly, alcoholic has-been embodied by Walter Matthau. Double 50-year-old spoiler alert: Like Rocky, the Bears don’t win in the end. But they do have fun.

The same can’t be said for the characters in most of 1976’s dramatic films. Hollywood did its best to get a patriotic movie — the World War II epic “Midway” — in theaters in June, but it quickly fizzled. The top box office draw on July 4th was “The Omen,” about an angelic-looking boy who turns out to be the Antichrist.

More prestigious films continued to wrestle with the paranoia of the Nixon era. “All the President’s Men” dramatized The Washington Post’s investigation of the Watergate scandal. In “Taxi Driver,” a Vietnam War veteran plots to assassinate a presidential contender. In “Network,” a TV anchorman urges his viewers to open their windows and scream, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

All three are undisputed classics. All three were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. All three lost to “Rocky.”

No trace remains of the building where injured soldiers were once taken to recover

Cambridgeshire is typically known for its rich history, particularly with many former RAF and military bases dotted across the county. One site holds the memory of a former military hospital used to treat casualties during the Second World War.

The site in Wimpole had a number of uses, ranging from a World War II casualty hospital known as “Wimpole Park Hospital” to a teacher training college.

In 1943, the British army requisitioned land from the owners of Wimpole Hall in order to build a large hospital. Located to the north east of the Arrington Gates in Wimpole, the hospital site was built to treat casualties from an expected future invasion of Europe, according to Imperial War Museums.

The site was initially planned to be used as a United States general hospital for the casualties expected from the Normandy Beach landings in 1944. It is thought that the hospital was also expected to act as a holding hospital for injured men waiting to be transferred to the United States.

Situated near Bassingbourn airfield and Melbourn railway station, the hospital was ideally located to receive injured soldiers from Europe and allow them to recover over time. This hospital continued to operate until 1946 before closing down.

After its use as a hospital, the buildings were then used for a training college, a school, and for emergency housing. It later returned to use as a hospital in 1952. This time, it was used as a United States Air Force Hospital before the land was finally restored to the Wimpole Estate in 1960.

The Wimpole Estate is managed by the National Trust. The National Trust states: “On the flat ground looking towards the Arrington gates, was the site of an American military hospital built during the Second World War. After the war, it was used for a short time as a teacher training college before it was demolished in the 1950s.”

There is no trace visible today of its former uses other than the flatness of the location compared with the rest of Wimpole park.

WASHINGTON (AP) — AI giant Anthropic said Friday it has taken its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with a directive from the Trump administration to prevent their use by foreign nationals.

The export controls mark the U.S. government’s most significant step to date to restrict access to the most advanced AI models. Anthropic released Fable widely this week. That model is a limited version of the even more advanced Mythos, to which the company has tightly limited access due to cybersecurity fears.

In a statement, Anthropic said it disagrees with the government’s handling of the matter, saying it received the directive from the U.S. government Friday afternoon and it did not specify the national security concerns. “We believe the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments, as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts,” the company said. “This action does not adhere to those principles.”

Anthropic called it a “misunderstanding” and said it hopes to restore access to the models “as soon as possible.”

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The action comes 10 days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release. Participation by AI developers would be voluntary, the order said.

The High Street restaurant has been closed since the family-run business made the shock announcement that it would be closing after 45 years in February 2025.

Since then, the blinds have remained pulled down with the Santoro’s sign still on display – with the unit being put up for sale months after last orders were called for the final time.

But now the space looks set to get a new lease of life as plans are submitted for ‘Balance’, a new venue featuring a café, restaurant, and treatment spaces.

Floor plans reveal that the venue would have a café and bar serving area, a grab-and-go fridge, restaurant seating, and an event space, plus a ‘hot desk snug’ at the back.

The first floor would be home to a ‘hot studio’ and three shower and changing areas, alongside two toilets and a baby chance space.

The second floor would boast a waiting area and three treatment rooms.

Details regarding exactly what ‘Balance’ will be offering from the site, if plans are approved, remain unknown at this stage.

(Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

Interior works would involve removing modern internal fixtures such as shelving units, commercial kitchen units, and the bar before a full refurb is carried out.

A new partition wall would be erected to create changing rooms, spa, and treatment areas with mechanical changes made to make way for a new layout and facilities.

Planning documents describe the works as minor and done in a way to cause the “least harm to the historic building fabric and will be fully reversible”.

Other plans include the addition of solar panels on the roofs and replacing the signage on the front of the unit with the ‘Balance’ branding.

Santoro’s was a staple on Yarm High Street for decades, having been founded by the late Vincenzo Serino, who sadly died in 2022.

Before that, it operated as a Chinese restaurant for 20 years.

His son Ricci and grandsons, Mikey and Joe, continued the good reputation of the restaurant following Vincenzo’s passing.

The reason behind the closure was never given, but a post at the time from the restaurant said: “After a wonderful 45 years of business, we have decided to permanently close our doors.

“We’d like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone that has supported us over the years.”

Yarm has seen a number of new restaurants open in recent years, including La Piazza in the former Barclays Bank and La Terraza in the upstairs section of Tomahawk.

In recent weeks, doughnuts firm Deep North confirmed it would be moving into the former Hobo Coffee House while patisserie Soigné is set to take over the former Fourteen Drops unit.

The incident in question involved Bosnia goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, who appeared to catch Canada forward Tanitoluwa Oluwasey

Wayne Rooney found himself at the centre of a fiery live TV debate during the BBC’s World Cup coverage as host Gabby Logan admitted there had already been some “heat” in the studio over a controversial refereeing decision.

Before the discussion got underway following Canada’s 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Logan teased viewers by revealing tensions were already simmering among the pundits.

“There was a little bit of heat here between certain members around this table about the collision,” she said.

The incident in question involved Bosnia goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, who appeared to catch Canada forward Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi in the head after rushing out to challenge for the ball.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney was adamant the challenge warranted both a penalty and a red card, arguing the goalkeeper’s follow-through endangered the striker despite making contact with the ball.

“It’s a red card,” Rooney insisted on air. “Even though he’s offside, we’ve seen it before where players have gone through as offside or the whistle has gone and it’s still a red card. It’s very dangerous play.

“He hits him in the temple – that’s the worst place you can get hit. You can get knocked out. He might come back in a week’s time and have a delayed concussion.”

However, former Premier League assistant referee and BBC officiating expert Darren Cann strongly disagreed, setting up a tense exchange in the studio.

Cann argued: “The goalkeeper clearly plays the ball first and there’s just inevitable contact after that, so it’s not serious foul play. For me, that’s clearly not a red card.”

Rooney immediately hit back, maintaining that winning the ball did not excuse the force of the challenge and comparing it to outfield players who have been sent off for dangerous follow-throughs.

But Cann stood firm, replying: “Not in my opinion at all, Wayne. It’s a goalkeeper winning the ball, and there’s just inevitable contact. There’s no brutality in that challenge.”

Former France striker Olivier Giroud also weighed in during the discussion, admitting he could see both sides of the argument while suggesting he would have been disappointed not to win a penalty had he been the striker involved.

The clash of opinions followed one of the major talking points from Canada’s opening World Cup match, with Rooney and Cann unable to agree on whether referee Facundo Raul had made the correct decision not to dismiss Vasilj.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gene Shalit, a movie critic and arts reporter for the “Today” show over four decades who was known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100.

Shalit’s family announced the death Friday to NBC News, saying in a statement that he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”

Shalit joined “Today” as a contributor in 1970 and became arts editor in 1973, later settling in for his segment, “Critic’s Corner.” When he left the show in 2010, he was one of the last high-profile film critics on a major network.

“What resonated above his unusual appearance was his incredible wit, his remarkable intelligence. But he didn’t pound you over the head with it. He amused you. He enlightened and amused whatever subject he was on,” Guy Ludwig, Shalit’s producer for more than 20 years, wrote in an essay at the time of Shalit’s retirement.

It was no coincidence that Chicago critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s local “thumbs-up, thumbs-down” movie-review program, “Sneak Previews,” went national on PBS in the late 1970s and that “Today” show’s ABC rival, “Good Morning America,” hired Joel Siegel to be its movie critic in 1981.

“Shalit was instrumental in changing the balance of critical power in America. When he began his ‘Today’ tenure, newspapers and magazines were the primary sources for movie reviews. That’s where cinematic opinion was sparked and shaped,” The Plain Dealer wrote in 2010, calling Shalit “Daniel Boone in a bow tie and Groucho glasses.”

Magazine work led to NBC offer

Shalit started as an entertainment columnist for McCall’s magazine, eventually becoming senior film critic for Look magazine in 1968 and writing for Ladies’ Home Journal. His popularity in magazines led to an offer from NBC.

“No one at NBC had seen him. They’d only read his stuff. So he walked into this executive’s office and the executive took one look at him and said, ‘Mr. Shalit, have you ever thought of radio?’” wrote Ludwig. “They didn’t know how the public would react to someone who looked so different from people who were typically on TV in 1967.”

On the air, Shalit was a middle-of-the-road critic. Of 1986’s classic “Stand By Me,” he said it was different from other movies about youth “because of instead of grossing you out, ‘Stand by You’ is engrossing.”

“Many critics will give so much of the plot of a movie away that they destroy the movie for the viewer. … I just don’t give away the story,” he told The Associated Press in 1993.

Highlights in words

He liked “Enemy at the Gates,” starring Jude Law, calling it “a vivid dramatization of one of history’s titanic turning points.” But he called “Brokeback Mountain “wildly overpraised, but not by me” and drew condemnation from GLAAD for calling Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, Jack, a “sexual predator.” Shalit apologized.

He called “Frozen” “very cool.” He said the oddball title of “The Men Who Stare at Goats” was “heard to bleat,” and his review of “The Lovely Bones” read in part: “There’s no bones about it.”

He began reviewing on air the year of “Patton” and “Love Story” and ended his run with a critique of “Shrek Forever After,” of which he noted that the “bellow fellow is now a mellow fellow.” One highlight of this tenure was his descent into a fit of giggles while interviewing Carol Channing.

He called a remake of “King Kong” so “gargantuan that I must create new words to describe it: fabularious … a brilliantological humongousness of marvelosity.” His take on Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: “It should be against the law not to see it.”

In a 1981 interview with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, Belushi said Shalit’s hair looked like “an ant farm on fire.” Nevertheless, he peppered his guest with so many questions about their daily life that it felt like therapy. He asked both comedians what their last meals would be. “What do you want to be doing 10 years from now, John Belushi?” Shalit asked. “Fiddler on the Roof” Belushi replied.

During his tenure, he traded quips with anchors ranging from Edwin Newman, Barbara Walters and Jane Pauley to Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, Al Roker and Meredith Vieira.

Gumbel was not always a fan, once saying Shalit’s reviews “are often late and his interviews aren’t very good.” The critique came in what was supposed to be a confidential memo to Marty Ryan, the show’s executive producer at the time.

In 1994, while in St. Pete Beach, Florida, to cover Major League Baseball spring training, a car hit Shalit as he was crossing a street and broke his leg. After that, “Today” began recording his movie reviews in his home studio.

Early life

He was born in New York and grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, starting his grammar school’s first newspaper before writing a humor column for the newspaper while a student at Morristown High School. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949.

Shalit played the bassoon, but he said he started out on the clarinet.

“I didn’t practice for a few weeks and the teacher got furious,” he recalled in 1988, before playing bassoon in a New York City fundraiser. “He took away my clarinet and as punishment he said, ‘From now on, you’re gonna play THIS.’”

In 1987, he edited a book called “Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor,” saying he wanted to introduce and reintroduce such old and new masters of American humor as Mark Twain, James Thurber and Russell Baker.

Shalit was regularly mocked on “Saturday Night Live” by cast member Horatio Sanz, who would appear on the “Weekend Update” desk dressed as Shalit and go on extended, barely coherent rants that punned the title of every movie he reviewed. Shalit also made cameos on “Sesame Street,” “Family Guy” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

Shalit was predeceased in 1978 by his wife, Nancy Lewis, and had six children.

___

This story has been corrected to show that a movie Shalit liked was “Enemy at the Gates,” not “Defiance.” It also removes a reference to Daniel Craig, who was in “Defiance” but not “Enemy at the Gates.”

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The big new Lindt chocolate shop is now open at the Trafford Centre, so we went to test out the pick ‘n’ mix… and got an unexpected reward.

There’s a new Lindt chocolate shop at the Trafford Centre – and it’s got a massive pick ‘n’ mix full of their famous chocolate balls. The shop opened at the giant mall a fortnight ago, becoming Lindt’s second Greater Manchester store after the Manchester Arndale, and 30th in the UK.

The colourful new window display boasts of “over 25 different flavours” of their Lindor balls that you can add to your own bag in their “Pick Your Mix” station. There’s also a host of quirky extras like yellow smiley faces and chocolate hearts to add to your bags.

It means there’s something like 34 different individual options you can add into your own selection at the pick n mix – and a lot of the flavours are only available in store. Being a bit of a chocoholic myself, I headed down to check out the new “Pick Your Mix” to see what flavours I could bag up and what sweety fans can expect.

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Heading into the shop you are immediately greeted with the vast trough of colourful Lindor balls, with flavours including the likes of pistachio, matcha, strawberries and cream, champagne and popcorn. There’s also two newies billed as “store exclusives” which are cherry blossom sakura and golden caramel hazlenut.

There’s lots of staff members on hand to help you, but it’s a fairly simple system. You pick whether you want a bag or a box for your selection, and then just head around and dip your hands in to select whichever flavours you want.

The signs tell you the pricing, which is £4.99 for 100g. That works out at slightly more expensive than buying a traditional box of Lindor balls, which costs £5.50 for 137g but obviously the pull of the pick ‘n’ mix is the exclusive flavours and being able to choose the exact amount of each choccy that you like.

The cheapest way to do it, if you’re a REAL chocolate fiend, is to stock up on a bigger bag of the pick ‘n’ mix – as if you buy over 400g worth of the chocolates, the price drops from £4.99 to £4.25 per 100g. Worth considering if you’re planning ahead for birthday treats or gifting.

However, I admit I had no real idea how much I was stuffing into my bag until I took it to the counter to be weighed. I had gone a little crazy, admittedly, especially when I saw some of the new flavours – like popcorn which I’d never seen before. And who could resist the smiley faces? Certainly not me as I piled a load of those in my bag.

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Also, I was excited to see those newish Lindt chocolate wafers in the mix too, so I shoved a few of them in for good measure as well. Now I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap, given the amount of chocs I’d shoved in, but I still did a little gulp when I was told I’d piled in 293g which racked up to £14.62 worth of confectionery.

I figured I was in for a penny, in for a pound at this stage so just went with it. However, when it came to the payment, an unexpected treat materialised. The very nice man at the till asked me if I had a Lindt loyalty card.

Now, I’ve long lost the physical card, as it’s a while since I signed up for the loyalty scheme – it was when the Arndale shop first opened. But the assistant said if I gave him my email he’d check the system to get my loyalty details on there.

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When he found my details, he said: “Oh you’ve still got your birthday treat to redeem”. Knowing that my birthday was actually in March, I said “oh no, I think I’ve missed that.” But he informed me that you have up to THREE MONTHS to redeem your birthday reward – something I didn’t even know was a thing!

He then presented me with a box of the classic red Lindor chocolate balls – which would normally set you back £5.50 – as my birthday reward. So let this be your reminder if you’ve ever signed up for a Lindt loyalty card, and had a birthday in the past three months and you’ve not been in to collect your reward, it’s waiting for you.

While it’s the Pick Your Mix that tends to steal the show here, the shop itself is also packed to the rafters with every possible Lindt & Sprungli chocolate box and bar that the famous Swiss chocolatier makes. So be warned if you have a sweet tooth, it’s a place near impossible to leave empty handed.

The Lindt shop is now open daily at the Trafford Centre, at Upper Regent Crescent