Investigators working on the disappearance of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother are consulting with Walmart management to develop leads because a backpack the suspect was wearing is sold exclusively at the stores, the Pima County, Arizona, sheriff said Monday.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Arizona home on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities say her blood was found on the front porch. Purported ransom notes were sent to news outlets, but two deadlines for paying have passed.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door in Tucson the night she vanished. A porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, a jacket and gloves.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a text message to The Associated Press on Monday that the 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack was the only clothing item that has been “definitively identified.”

“This backpack is exclusive to Walmart and we are working with Walmart management to develop further leads,” Nanos said.

The suspect’s clothing “may have been purchased from Walmart but is not exclusively available at Walmart,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Monday. “This remains a possibility only.”

Investigators on Sunday announced that a glove discovered near the Guthrie home has been sent for DNA testing. The FBI said that it received preliminary results Saturday and was awaiting official confirmation. The development comes as law enforcement gathers more potential evidence and as the search for Guthrie’s mother heads into its third week. Authorities previously said they had not identified a suspect.

The FBI said the suspect in the surveillance footage is a man about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build.

Nanos said on Monday that members of Guthrie’s family, including siblings and spouses, are not suspects.

“The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” Nanos said in a statement.

Authorities have expressed concern about Nancy Guthrie’s health because she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and have dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

The Enhanced Games, slated to commence in May 2026, has sparked outrage across the sporting world. This new competition is the first in history to openly permit performance-enhancing drugs, and sporting bodies aren’t happy about it.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe called the concept “bollocks”, while World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Bańka has dismissed it as “dangerous” and “ridiculous”.

Such criticisms might be justified, but they overlook the fact that the Enhanced Games is making obvious what society has always quietly accepted – that most people are willing to watch athletes risk harm when the entertainment is good enough. And that’s something that all sporting bodies should spend more time considering.

This bargain between spectacle and safety isn’t new to sport. Ancient Romans packed the Colosseum to watch gladiators fight to the death. It’s certainly been toned down over the last 2,000 years. But the gladiatorial spirit remains alive in modern arenas. How it’s packaged has merely become more sophisticated.

Consider boxing. Society has allowed professional boxing for more than 100 years despite the dangers to fighters. In one group of amateur and professional boxers, 62% were found to have dementia or amnesia.

Yet arenas still sell out. Fans celebrate knockout victories even though they know they may shorten a boxer’s life. Sporting bodies and fans have decided this trade-off is acceptable. Every time a ticket is bought, a statement is made about acceptable risk.

The multi-sport Enhanced Games simply extends this logic. Held in Las Vegas, athletes will be able to use performance-enhancing substances (approved by the drugs regulator for medical uses) “off-label” under medical supervision. These include testosterone, growth hormone and anabolic steroids.

Long-term use of substances like these can damage the heart and blood vessels, harm the liver, disrupt the body’s natural hormone production (potentially causing infertility) and affect a person’s mood and mental health.

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The organisers aim to usher in a “new era of elite competition” and with it “the future of human performance”. Founder Aron D’Souza, an Australian businessman, thinks athletes should be free to do whatever they want to their own bodies. The International Federation of Sports Medicine has challenged the Enhanced Games for putting athletes at risk.

But isn’t the Enhanced Games simply a more dangerous version of traditional athletics? If brain trauma is the potential price of boxing entertainment, why the outrage about pharmaceutical enhancement risks? The moral panic about chemical enhancement seems inconsistent with society’s silence about the proven harms in so many of the sports people already love.

The Olympics already celebrates athletes who push their bodies to extremes through punishing training regimens, strict diets and recovery methods that test the limits of human physiology. Research has documented serious physical and psychological harms in many sports, including some like gymnastics and figure skating where even child athletes have faced high risks of injury and mental illness, including eating disorders, anxiety and depression.

The Enhanced Games just moves the risk threshold further along a spectrum society has already accepted.

Every time a new enhanced athlete is announced, their national sporting bodies issue condemnations. Sport Ireland stated that they were “deeply disappointed” about swimmer Shane Ryan’s decision to join the Enhanced Games. When fellow swimmer Ben Proud announced his intention to participate, governing body UK Sport said it “condemns everything the Enhanced Games stands for” and that they were “incredibly disappointed” with his decision.

But these same bodies preside over sports where athletes routinely suffer serious injuries. When will they acknowledge the risks they’re already asking athletes to accept?

The question isn’t whether the Enhanced Games introduces something morally unprecedented. It doesn’t. What it does is forces sports fans to confront the bargain they’ve always accepted but rarely discuss. Fans want extraordinary athletic performances, and they’re willing to let athletes pay extraordinary prices to deliver them.

Being honest about risk

If sporting bodies are serious about athlete welfare rather than just moral posturing, they need to be honest about risk across all of sport. In research ethics, institutional review boards conduct formal risk-benefit analyses before approving human studies. They document potential harms and assess whether benefits justify risks.

Sporting bodies should do the same. This includes the Enhanced Games. So far, they’re failing just as badly as traditional sports, hiding behind claims of medical supervision rather than stating the trade-offs.

Informed consent is central to medical ethics and some ethicists argue it isn’t talked about enough in sport. Athletes should understand the specific risks of their sport based on robust data, not vague warnings.

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For example, all boxers should be aware of the dangers they face each time they take a punch to the head. Similarly, all enhanced athletes should understand what prolonged testosterone and growth hormone do to the body. Informed consent requires real information, not liability waivers.

As a philosopher of science, I suggest we need to be consistent about our judgments across different sports. The sporting establishment denouncing the Enhanced Games should look in the mirror. Boxing, rugby and motorsports organisations as well as bodies representing a host of other sports preside over activities with documented long-term harms.

The selective outrage is telling. It suggests this is more about maintaining comfortable fictions than protecting athletes. We prefer our sports wrapped in the language of safety and personal freedom. The Enhanced Games threatens to make that fiction harder to maintain.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game Monday, authorities said.

Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims are hospitalized in critical condition.

“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said. Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, though she said it appeared that both victims were adults.

Authorities were continuing to try to piece together what happened and speak with witnesses, she said.

The shooting happened at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence.

Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform could be seen hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area. Roads surrounding the arena were shut down as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.

Pawtucket is nestled just north of Providence and right under the Massachusetts state border. A town of just under 80,000, Pawtucket had up until recently been known as the home to Hasbro’s headquarters.

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This story has been corrected to show that the shooting occurred on Monday, not Tuesday.

Dad Mark Hughes has asked “how do people afford life at the moment?” after detailing the cost of what he called a “simple night out” with his 17-year-old daughter in Manchester at the weekend

An Oldham dad has sparked an online debate after expressing his shock over the cost of taking his teenage daughter for a night out in Manchester at the weekend. Mark Hughes, from Saddleworth, shared his experience on his Facebook page after taking 17-year-old daughter Lily into Manchester city centre on Saturday night for a treat.

Breaking down the cost of their night out, including an Italian meal and drinks in a couple of bars, he said: “How do people afford life at the moment?” His post on his Facebook page TheMarkHughes has swiftly gone viral after he wrote about the full costs of the night.

As well as the £119 spent at an Italian restaurant, he also racked up £49 on taxis into and out of Manchester back to home in Oldham. In total the night out came to £210 which has left digital creator Mark saying: “My mind is blown”.

Click here to prioritise Manchester news in Google from the MEN

In the full post, Mark wrote: “How do people afford life at the moment, took my daughter to town for a meal and bottle of wine in a basic Italian restaurant, nothing special, £119 and ill break that down, starters £9 each, main courses £27 and £25 (pasta dishes) bottle of rosé £39 and £10 tip”.

He continued with the breakdown of costs stating: “taxi to town £22 taxi home £27, 4 drinks in random bars £6 each £24, sweet treat and bubble tea £19… that’s £210 for a simple night nothing extraordinary with my daughter…

“Like my mind is blown, I don’t even know what the average wage is everyone earns cos I’m self employed I just make enough money to survive each day .. yet people are still out there spending money”.

The post has racked up hundreds of comments, with many pointing out ways he could have had a cheaper night out, like using the bus or train to get into town instead of taxis.

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Russell Stirzaker said: “£40 odd on taxis Find somewhere more local or on a bus route. Plus I won’t spead £27 on a steak never mind pasta (it costs pence).”

Trevor Ward said: “A simple night out”? What would it have been if you’d taken the bus/train instead of spending £50 on taxis?”, to which Mark quipped back: “it would of been cold and wet, that’s what it would of been.”

Others agreed with Mark though that prices are becoming more and more unaffordable for the average family. Graham White wrote: “Ask myself this every other day. How are people affording stuff? Imagine you have more than one child to take . Everywhere I go I see cars that cost £600-700 a month how are they doing it I don’t get it.”

Becky Jones sagely wrote: “I think nights like this used to be the norm. Perhaps even once a week for a lot of people. Now they are a treat. A birthday etc. Really we are just going back to the 1950s.”

Maggie Howle added: “Took my daughter to local burger king, sat lunchtime, £27 for burger and chips, 2 drinks ….never again.”

Jackie McMillan said: “This is why wetherspoons are so busy.”

Digital creator Mark, who also runs the BeingHughes Facebook page, defended using taxis into town, saying to catch the train would have cost £13 each so it wouldn’t have been that much cheaper.

He added that he used to run restaurants himself, so knows only too well the pressures on businesses to make their costs add up, and eats out regularly, sharing what he’s been doing on his Facebook pages. He said he had chosen not to name the Italian restaurant for that reason and said he had no complaints about the meal he and his daughter had.

Mark told the MEN: “It was a nice restaurant, it wasn’t one of the posher ones, but it was Chinese New Year so it was very busy around town. We decided to go somewhere we hadn’t been before.

“It was a really nice meal, and I think that’s just the average price now, that’s what people are paying for going out.

“Because I’m single, I tend to go out a lot on my own, so I don’t think you notice so much the price when you’re paying for one person – like if it’s £60. But when two go out, well it whacks the price right up doesn’t it?”

“When I look at other families out there, if I had two or three kids right now I couldn’t afford to go out. I’m lucky that I do have an income, but even with that I can’t see regular people being about to afford to go out a lot.”

Mark said he’s been stunned by the volume of comments on his post, but welcomes the debate around the issues of pricing and the cost of living.

He said: “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and everybody’s situation is different.”

The Abraham Lincoln, which leads a strike group with three guided missile destroyers, carries 90 aircraft including F35 fighters, and 5,680 crew, was reportedly deployed to the Gulf region in late January but has not been seen in satellite imagery until now. It has been located off the coast of Oman, around 700km from Iran.

Cambridge City Council has said it will grant a licence for Gusto Cafe and Organic Food to sell alcohol

The owner of an Italian cafe and shop in Cambridge has set out hopes that being able to sell alcohol will help support his business admitting things are “not perfect” at the moment.

Haci Kul asked Cambridge City Council for permission to sell alcohol at the Gusto Cafe and Organic Food in East Road, between 9am and 11pm.

He told councillors at a hearing this week (February 16) that he has been running businesses in the city for over 30 years and currently runs two other cafes in addition to the premises in East Road.

Mr Kul said: “The reason I applied for the licence is we do not make enough business in that area. I have been doing business for over 30 years in Cambridge and I have two businesses already in the city centre, so I am well established.

“Me and my brother have been doing this for a long time in the restaurant and cafe business, we know how to do it. I want to be able to serve customers Italian beer and wines. The business is not perfect at the moment after Christmas.”

He added that if he was granted a licence to sell alcohol he wanted to be able to open the cafe in the evenings to offer people meals, and set out ambitions to open more ‘Gusto’ branches in the city. Mr Kul said he was “very experienced” and highlighted his plans to high security staff to be on the doors during the evening.

Concerns about the plans were raised by a member of the public who argued that allowing the cafe and shop to sell alcohol between 9am and 11pm, seven days a week, would be “excessive”.

They said: “East Road has for many years needed to tackle serious problems with public drunkenness and associated antisocial behaviour, and has been in a cumulative impact zone.

“The current level of public drunkenness, as well as both drug and alcohol abuse is an ongoing serious problem that must not be exacerbated by the approval of this very extensive on and off site licence at Gustos on East Road.”

However, no objections to the plans were raised by police or environmental health officers. At the hearing Mr Kul agreed to reduce the amount of time he had applied for to sell alcohol, to between 10.30am and 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and between 10.30am and 9.30pm on a Sunday.

Some of the proposed licence conditions were also highlighted, including that alcohol being sold to cafe diners would only be sold to people buying food, and would be served to them at a table.

Another condition proposed limiting the shop sales of alcohol only to people buying other grocery items, meaning people would not be able to solely buy alcohol from the shop.

After considering the application in private, councillors confirmed they would be granting the licence. The hearing heard they had made this decision based on “all the safety licensing requirements” being met, additional conditions being agreed to, and the amended licensing hours.

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