Chrysler is recalling more than 1.27 million pickup trucks in the U.S. over a possible seat belt issue that could increase the risk of injury in a crash.

The recall covers 1,271,294 model-year 2019 through 2026 Ram 1500 vehicles. Chrysler estimates that about 0.1% of the recalled vehicles actually have the defect, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

NHTSA said the second-row seat belt buckle anchors may have been improperly installed, leaving the vehicles out of compliance with federal safety requirements.

SOME OLDER FORD VEHICLES POSE ‘UNREASONABLE’ SAFETY RISKS, REGULATORS WARN

A 2019 Ram 1500 Rebel Black Edition pickup truck. Chrysler is recalling more than 1.27 million pickup trucks in the U.S. over a possible seat belt issue. (Stellantis)

“Reduced load management by the seat belt buckle may result in injury to vehicle occupants in certain types of driving conditions or crashes,” the report states.

The recalled trucks were produced between Feb. 17, 2018, and April 27, 2026. 

Production and service records were used to determine the potentially affected vehicles, according to NHTSA.

HONDA RECALLS MORE THAN 880,000 VEHICLES OVER REAR SUSPENSION FAILURE RISK

The grille of a 2019 Ram 1500 Limited pickup truck. The recall covers 1,271,294 model-year 2019 through 2026 Ram 1500 vehicles.  (Stellantis)

NHTSA said the recall stems from a vehicle assembly issue rather than a defective component.

Dealers will inspect the second-row seat belt buckle anchors and, if necessary, properly attach them to the vehicle’s body structure at no cost to owners.

“The remedy will be to ensure that the second-row seat belt buckle anchors are properly affixed to the body structure,” the report states.

JAGUAR LAND ROVER RECALLS MORE THAN 15,000 VEHICLES OVER VISIBILITY-LIMITING DEFECT

A 2019 Ram 1500 Limited pickup truck. The recalled trucks were produced between Feb. 17, 2018, and April 27, 2026.  (Stellantis)

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Dealers were notified on or about Aug. 6, with owner notifications set to begin Aug. 18.

Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.

Last Thursday evening I stood in a pub off Brewer Street with a pint in one hand and an elbow on the bar, talking with an old friend that I regularly find myself taking over the media world with.

By the second pint we had solved the skills crisis, where Spurs will finish next season and I’d advised him on his new electric car purchase. The doors were open, the crowd had spilled politely onto the pavement, and for ninety minutes the British economy was doing exactly what it says on the tin.

However, it turns out I was part of the problem. Buried in Westminster City Council’s new draft licensing policy, out for consultation until five o’clock this evening, is a desire for West End venues to swap “open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking” for seating, table service and the ordering of food. Vertical drinking, for those who have not kept up with the literature, is standing up with a drink. In a pub.

The council has since insisted there is no plan, and never has been, to ban standing up in a Westminster pub, which is what organisations always say once a consultation catches fire. But the draft statement of licensing policy says what it says, and licensing policies are not mood boards. They are the criteria against which every new licence and variation is judged. If the policy smiles upon seated table service, applicants will promise seated table service, and the West End will get it by increments, one genuflecting application at a time.

Even Downing Street felt moved to intervene, declaring that busy pubs full of people talking to each other are “not a public nuisance, it is British life, and it is thousands of jobs”, while Sadiq Khan complained that you cannot run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset. When No 10, the Mayor and every publican in Soho find themselves in furious agreement in the second week of August, something properly daft is afoot.

And we know this particular species of daft, because we lived through it. Cast your mind back to the winter of 2020, when the finest minds in Whitehall convened to determine whether a scotch egg constituted a substantial meal, and honest citizens ordered plates of chips they had no intention of eating in order to drink a pint lawfully. Nobody voted for the substantial meal rule. It seeped out of guidance, and within a fortnight it was the law of the land in everything but statute. Vertical drinking is the scotch egg’s second coming: a rule about furniture pretending to be a policy about safety.

What Westminster is really proposing is to become the aunt with the wedding seating plan. Everyone has met her. She has decided, with laminated certainty, that the day will go better if nobody is permitted to circulate. You will sit here, beside your assigned stranger, and you will have your allocated fun between the starter and the speeches.

And the reception dies on its feet, or rather in its chairs, because everything good at a party happens standing up: the introductions, the gossip, the flirtation, the job offer scribbled on a napkin. The pub is Britain’s reception venue, and Soho is the top table. Sit it down and you kill the mingle.

Business readers will recognise both halves of the disease. The first is capacity economics. A wet-led pub sells space by the square foot, and a drinker standing at the bar occupies perhaps a third of the footprint of one marooned at a table, while being served faster by fewer staff. Mandate seats and you cut Friday night’s capacity by a third and add a waiter’s wages to every round, in a trade where the BBPA already counts two pubs a day calling last orders for good and £1 in every £3 taken over the bar goes to the Treasury before a single bill is paid.

The second is regulatory creep: rules that arrive dressed as “encouragement” in guidance documents, which no minister ever has to defend because no minister ever proposed them.

A fortnight ago in this column I suggested that the nation’s dawdling diners should eat up and give the table back, because a restaurant sells seat hours. A pub is the mirror image. Its product is proximity: strangers, upright, two deep at the bar, in the only institution Britain has ever built for the purpose. With licensed venues already going dark at three a day, the West End’s problem is not that too many people are standing in its pubs. It is that soon there may be nothing left to stand in.

The consultation closes at five o’clock today, and I intend to mark the deadline in the traditional way: upright, elbow on the bar, talking nonsense to a stranger and in this instance I hope that I don’t end up as an extra in TOWIE.

Richard Alvin

Richard Alvin is a serial entrepreneur, a former advisor to the UK Government about small business and an Honorary Teaching Fellow on Business at Lancaster University.

A winner of the London Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the year and Freeman of the City of London for his services to business and charity. Richard is also Group MD of Capital Business Media and SME business research company Trends Research, regarded as one of the UK’s leading experts in the SME sector and an active angel investor and advisor to new start companies.

Richard is also the host of Save Our Business the U.S. based business advice television show.

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Wendy’s has lost its place as America’s runner-up to McDonald’s, ending a six-year run as the second-largest burger chain, being surpassed by a resurgent Burger King.

Burger King reclaimed the No. 2 position as its U.S. turnaround gains momentum, with domestic same-store sales jumping 8.5% in the second quarter. Wendy’s, meanwhile, reported a 7% decline in U.S. same-store sales, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of contraction.

Wendy’s new CEO Bob Wright acknowledged the chain’s problems Friday, saying its competitive edge has weakened as customers have pulled back.

“Today we are clearly not performing at our potential,” he wrote in a statement.

BURGER KING UNVEILS ‘WHOPPER GUARANTEE’ WITH FREE BURGER IF ORDER MISSES THE MARK

Wendy’s rose to prominence in with his famous “Where’s the Beef” ad campaign, but has lost its six-year hold on the No. 2 spot to McDonald’s in the U.S. burger battle. (Photo by ZAMEK/VIEWpress)

“Our traffic, our value proposition and franchisee economics are not meeting our expectations. We have already begun taking action across five areas that we’ve identified to drive the turnaround: rebuilding a quality menu at compelling value, marketing that drives demand, operational excellence, a digital experience that builds frequency, and restaurants as an engine for growth.”

McDonald’s remains the dominant U.S. burger chain by a wide margin, leaving Burger King and Wendy’s fighting for a distant second place.

Wendy’s had surpassed Burger King roughly six years ago, helped by the successful nationwide rollout of its breakfast menu. But its hold on the No. 2 spot has eroded as Burger King poured money into improving restaurants, advertising and its core menu.

Restaurant Brands International, Burger King’s parent company, launched a broad U.S. turnaround effort in late 2022 after sluggish sales. The strategy has included restaurant remodels, increased marketing spending and changes intended to improve food quality and the customer experience.

BURGER KING’S IMPOSSIBLE WHOPPER TO HIT MENUS ACROSS THE US

The new Burger King Whopper is served in a box instead of a paper wrapper. (Burger King / Fox News)

More recently, Burger King has focused on its signature Whopper.

The chain revamped the burger earlier this year, making changes to its bun, packaging, mayonnaise and other elements. Burger King U.S. and Canada President Tom Curtis told The Wall Street Journal that the improvements are helping bring customers back.

“A lot of people are saying they’re coming back for the first time in a long time,” Curtis said.

Burger King has also introduced a Whopper quality guarantee, pledging to remake an order if a customer is unhappy with it and provide another Whopper free on a future visit.

BURGER KING BRINGS BACK FAN FAVORITE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 15 YEARS

A McDonald’s Big Mac meal on June 8, 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand. (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“When we asked guests where we could do better, they gave us a lot of honest feedback, and now it’s our responsibility to act on it,” Curtis wrote in a statement in July. “We’re not going to get everything right every single time, but we’re committed to listening intently and improving every day.

“When guests choose us, they expect high-quality food, orders made the way they asked, and a team that’s there when they need us. That’s what these changes are about. We’re raising the standard in our restaurants, so every Guest feels like they made the right choice.”

Curtis said the chain believes it is taking market share from competitors, including potentially McDonald’s, and sees an opportunity to turn newly won customers into regulars.

“The next generation of burger lovers are being exposed to Burger King, and that means we’ve got runway ahead for years to come,” Curtis told the Journal.

MCDONALD’S SAYS US SALES SLOWED AFTER VALUE DEAL PUSH FELL SHORT

The gains underscore a sharp reversal in fortunes for two longtime rivals that have wrestled with many of the same pressures in recent years.

Both companies navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and rising food and labor costs before confronting increasingly price-conscious consumers frustrated by years of restaurant menu inflation.

Burger King responded with its multiyear turnaround campaign. Wendy’s, by contrast, has faced leadership turnover just as restaurant traffic weakened and beef costs added pressure to its business.

Longtime Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor retired in 2024 after eight years at the helm. Former PepsiCo executive Kirk Tanner succeeded him but left a little more than a year later to become CEO of Hershey.

WENDY’S, MCDONALD’S LAWSUIT CLAIMS BURGER ADS MISLEAD CONSUMERS ON PATTY SIZES

Wendy’s CFO Ken Cook then served as interim chief executive before the company named Wright, the former CEO of Potbelly, to the permanent job in May.

“I returned to Wendy’s because I believe we can fix our issues and I am excited to work with our team and our franchisees to drive a strong turnaround,” Wright wrote in Friday’s release of second quarter results.

He said Wendy’s recent problems have hurt customer traffic and put pressure on restaurant economics, an increasingly important issue for a largely franchised chain whose operators must absorb higher costs while competing aggressively for value-conscious diners.

Burger King’s improvement also comes as McDonald’s works through challenges in its own U.S. operation. McDonald’s has been revamping its burgers, testing new menu items and looking for ways to improve food quality, service and value.

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Still, Burger King’s move ahead of Wendy’s does not put it close to overtaking the Golden Arches.

McDonald’s accounted for about 48% of the U.S. burger market in 2024, according to Barclays data. Wendy’s held an estimated 11.4% share at the time, compared with about 10% for Burger King.

Britney Spears is opening up about a painful cosmetic procedure gone wrong, revealing in an Instagram video posted Friday that a botched Botox injection left her left eyelid drooping for weeks, while also sharing an emotional message about guilt she carries as a mother.

In the video, Spears, 44, pointed to the area around her left eye and described what happened during the procedure. “He put so much Botox in this left eye that it drooped down like that,” she said, pressing down on her eyelid to demonstrate the effect, according to Yahoo Style Canada. “It’s just now starting to raise up and be normal again.”

A four-week recovery and a warning to fans

Spears said the drooping lasted roughly a month before beginning to resolve. “My eye was down like this for four weeks and it’s now starting to be fine again,” she said, according to Occasional Digest, which reported on the video. She went on to caution her followers directly about the risks of cosmetic injections. “Girls, you have to be careful if you do Botox,” Spears said. “These people and these doctors, they can really f*** your eyes up.”

She extended the warning beyond just Botox specifically, urging fans to be cautious with any medical or cosmetic provider. “Be careful with these people, they try to change your face, they try to f*** things up,” she said. “Be careful with your bodies because it’s yours and you own it.” Spears captioned the post, “You can’t trust anyone!!!”

Not the first rocky Botox experience

This is not the first time Spears has spoken publicly about a difficult experience with the treatment. In August 2023, she described an earlier procedure that left her with visible bruising and swelling, telling fans at the time, “Too many times, these so-called ‘best doctors’ do amazing Botox. Never again in Los Angeles,” according to AOL’s earlier coverage of her remarks. She added that the swelling made her reluctant to appear in public for two weeks afterward, saying she looked like “somebody beat the s— out of me” following what she described as a “reverse effect” reaction.

An emotional message about motherhood

Alongside the physical toll of the procedure, Spears used the moment to share a more personal reflection on her relationship with her two sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden, 19. Posting old photos of the boys on X, she wrote that she felt she had let them down. “In that moment I believed I had failed as a mother,” she wrote, according to Yahoo Style Canada.

Spears described being especially affected by a moment when one of her sons told her he didn’t believe in God, and she apologized broadly for past mistakes. “I wanna tell my kids and people in general that I’m sorry for my mistakes in the past,” she wrote.

She also referenced a painful memory involving her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, saying she once learned they had taken her children to the beach and spent private time with them without her knowledge. She described the experience as leaving her feeling “morally ashamed,” saying she had knelt and cried over it for two months. Spears has spoken previously and at length about the emotional toll of the 13-year conservatorship her father oversaw, telling fans in past posts that she felt she “couldn’t be myself for a long time” during that period and was exploited under the arrangement.

Context: a turbulent stretch since leaving conservatorship

Spears was released from her father’s conservatorship in 2021 after 13 years under the court-ordered arrangement, which had controlled significant aspects of her personal and financial life. Since then, she has used social media extensively to document her life, including frequent dance videos and personal reflections shared directly with fans, often without the involvement of publicists or representatives.

The singer has also faced recent legal trouble. She was given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered into treatment following a reckless driving charge, according to details included in the OSEN report translated by ChosunBiz. Despite the setbacks, Spears indicated in her most recent post that she is focused on personal recovery going forward. “I want to get closer to God again and dream like I used to,” she wrote.

A pattern of unfiltered social media posts

Friday’s video adds to a long pattern of Spears using her Instagram and X accounts to communicate directly and often unguardedly with fans, ranging from personal struggles to dance videos. Just a week earlier, Spears had shared a separate series of videos showing herself dancing, continuing a habit of posting frequently and without publicist oversight that has become a defining feature of her public presence since regaining control of her personal affairs in 2021.

Representatives for Spears did not immediately respond to requests for further comment on either the Botox incident or her comments about her children.

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans police officer is facing 350 criminal charges after undercover surveillance cameras repeatedly showed him at home during hours his department records indicated he was on duty, in what investigators describe as a wide-ranging overtime fraud case.

Senior Police Officer Brandon Coleman, 39, was arrested Aug. 7 following a joint investigation by Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans Office of Inspector General, which examined discrepancies between the overtime hours Coleman reported and the hours investigators say he actually worked.

Payroll records raise red flags

The investigation began after FOX 8 started examining Coleman’s overtime pay when payroll records showed he was among the New Orleans Police Department’s highest-paid officers. Coleman earned approximately $229,000 from the department in 2025, more than three times his $68,000 base salary, according to FOX 8’s reporting.

Louisiana State Police said Coleman received more than $111,000 in fraudulent overtime payments between December 2024 and December 2025. At his first court appearance, however, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office presented a higher figure, telling Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Juana Lombard that Coleman had collected more than $172,000 he should not have received, according to FOX 8.

Video evidence at the center of the case

Investigators placed undercover cameras to monitor Coleman’s whereabouts and compare them against his submitted timesheets. On July 22, 2025, Coleman’s timesheet showed a shift beginning at 6:25 a.m., but video captured him entering his police vehicle at 10:08 a.m. — more than three hours after his shift was recorded as starting.

Coleman discovered one of the undercover cameras on July 28, 2025. The next day, his records again showed him clocking in at 6:25 a.m., while video showed him leaving his home at 7:41 a.m., according to investigators.

Louisiana State Police and the Office of Inspector General launched their joint investigation in April 2026, reviewing not only discrepancies in Coleman’s reported hours but also differences between the locations listed for some of his overtime assignments and where investigators determined he actually was.

Charges and court proceedings

Louisiana State Police obtained an arrest warrant and took Coleman into custody Aug. 7. He was booked on 325 counts of filing false public records and 23 counts of public payroll fraud, along with one count of theft and one count of malfeasance in office, bringing the total to 350 charges.

Judge Lombard found probable cause on all of the charges at Coleman’s first court appearance. He subsequently posted a $17,000 bond and was released. FOX 8 reported that Coleman is expected back in court Sept. 9.

Coleman’s attorney disputes the allegations

Coleman’s attorney, Bobby Hjortsberg, pushed back forcefully against the charges, calling them “absolutely baseless” and saying the defense has evidence showing Coleman was working during periods investigators question.

Hjortsberg argued that footage showing Coleman at or leaving his home does not, by itself, establish that he was not already performing police work at the time. He said Coleman’s responsibilities included Mardi Gras assignments and citywide duties that did not require him to remain at a police station throughout a shift. The attorney said the defense expects to present physical evidence supporting Coleman’s account of his working hours during the periods in question.

NOPD placed Coleman on unpaid administrative leave following his arrest. Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the department cooperated with the independent investigation and would continue to do so as the case moves forward.

Part of a broader pattern uncovered by investigators

Coleman is the second NOPD officer arrested as a result of FOX 8’s “Unchecked Overtime” investigative series. Former Sgt. Henry Burke was arrested earlier in 2026 in a separate overtime payroll case and was later fired from the department; FOX 8 reported that Burke’s case was subsequently referred to federal prosecutors. Internal investigations involving other NOPD officers connected to the broader overtime review have also continued.

Department overhauls timekeeping system

In response to the investigative reporting, NOPD expanded its use of biometric time clocks, which require officers to clock in at their specific assigned locations rather than relying solely on manually submitted timesheets. FOX 8 reported that the updated timekeeping system has been credited with reducing the department’s overtime spending by more than $8.3 million during the first six months of 2026 — a 45% decline, according to figures from the Office of Inspector General.

Preventing payroll fraud more broadly

Public agencies and private employers can reduce the risk of payroll fraud by cross-referencing time records against assignment logs, building access records, vehicle logs and other independently generated data rather than relying on submitted timesheets alone, according to guidance highlighted in the case’s coverage. Repeated shifts producing unusually high annual hours, frequent manual edits to time records, or employees consistently earning multiples of their base salary can all warrant additional scrutiny, and organizations are encouraged to ensure supervisors cannot approve unexplained timesheet edits without a clear audit trail.

New Orleans residents and city employees with information about suspected misuse of public funds can report concerns directly to the New Orleans Office of Inspector General, which accepts tips online, by email and by phone, including supporting documentation related to suspected public corruption or payroll misconduct.