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Morale is at an all-time low at the network after massive layoffs and veteran anchor Jim Acosta's departure.

TEMPLEGATE takes on Wednesday’s action at Kempton looking for winners.

Back a horse by clicking their odds below.

THE OUTLAW (6.30 Kempton, nap)

There was plenty to like about the way he scooted in at Chelmsford 20 days ago. That was just his second handicap and he was always in control before pulling away from his rivals in the closing stages. A 6lb rise in the weights looks more than fair and it will be disappointing if Ralph Beckett’s colt doesn’t end up plying his trade in much stronger company than this.

OPERA BALLO (5.30 Kempton, nb)

Comes from Charlie Appleby who won both divisions of this maiden last season with smart types. This son of Ghaiyyath will be primed for this debut and Billy Loughnane will be keen to make the most of this opportunity for the boys in blue.

SULLIVAN BAY (8.30 Kempton, treble)

Has been in good form over hurdles and on the all-weather. He has not finished out of the frame this season and showed his best when scoring over this trip at Chelmsford in October. He’s a fair 6lb higher than that now and should be right there again.

TROPICAL RETREAT (2.17 Dundalk, Lucky 15)

He caught the eye with a debut fourth in a big field here on debut last month. He went off much too quickly and did well to keep going. Dropping back from six furlongs looks a wise move and he should have learned plenty from that run.

Templegate’s tips

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KING Charles ordered the Navy to rename HMS Agincourt, in a move dubbed “pathetic”.

The monarch made the intervention to avoid upsetting the French, sources told The Sun.

Crown Copyright 2009

The nuclear-powered sub, still being built, was renamed HMS Achilles this week[/caption]

The nuclear-powered sub, still being built, was renamed HMS Achilles this week.

The proposal was rejected as “woke nonsense” by the last government.

But Charles raised it again after Labour came in.

It was the sixth Navy vessel to be named after the outnumbered English’s 1415 victory over the French.

Ex-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the switch showed a “pathetic grasp of foreign policy”.

Ex-Nato commander Rear Admiral Chris Parry called it “craven political correctness and ideology gone mad”.

Gavin Williamson, former Conservative Defence Secretary, slammed the move as “pathetic and woke”.

A Royal Navy spokesperson: “We are proud of our nation’s rich military history and the many famous battles fought.

“The seventh boat in the Astute class is to be called “Achilles” – a name which is particularly appropriate this year as we mark the VE and VJ Day 80th anniversaries.

“Achilles received battle honours during the Second World War.

“The name was proposed by the Royal Navy Ships Names and Badging committee and approved by His Majesty the King.”

Buckingham Palace refused to comment.

OUR much-loved astrologer Meg sadly died in 2023 but her column will be kept alive by her friend and protégée Maggie Innes.

Read on to see what’s written in the stars for you today. 

ARIES

March 21 to April 20

Welcoming the new moon of new beginnings into your community chart awakens an urge to try a different way of networking.

You have the skills to draw the right people towards you, and it’s up to you to use it.

If a new love interest is your aim, this too can work well when you consider a fresh strategy linked to talking.

 TAURUS

April 21 to May 21

You’re ready to review what success means to you and what you discover can be a surprise.

Your star focus is more on people and experiences than money or status, and the more you reach out, the more you can be rewarded.

In love? The best gift is your time and attention. Single? A self-sufficient Aquarius returns.

Get all the latest Taurus horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

GEMINI

May 22 to June 21

Mercury and Pluto make a match in your chart – in a way that could stop a travel plan but then shows you a new route for getting to where you want to go.

Control is good when it works for you, but not when you work for it – that’s the secret of success.

Passion can be whatever you most desire, so wish wisely!

Get all the latest Gemini horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

CANCER

June 22 to July 22

The new moon plus the sun bring your transformation zone to life and you’re half-way towards a new image before you realise it.

At work, playing the part of a boss, even for the shortest time, shows what you are capable of – and the next step can be right there.

At home, keeping words kind, but firm, finds a “C” solution.

LEO

July 23 to August 23

Your natural ability to lead is enhanced by the new moon and you have the power to start and sustain all kinds of teams.

But it’s very important to find the right way forward for everyone. Beware of leaping in before you are ready.

Pluto introduces a big “D” personality and your heart skips a beat.

Get all the latest Leo horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

VIRGO

August 24 to September 22

Scrapping a half-done, or half-hearted career plan and starting again can power your dreams forward so don’t be scared to revise, rethink, reform.

From passion to promotion, you are ready to reveal your true talents.

You can create your own luck when you do the right financial research.

Get all the latest Virgo horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

Getty

The new moon makes letting go, in life and love, easier[/caption]

LIBRA

September 23 to October 23

The star focus falls on parent-child relationships – you have the insight and intelligence to see the way forward but it’s important to act on this.

Any bond can be improved when you give it your whole heart.

Jupiter’s love of personal journeys draws you towards a travel contest linked to a specific location.

Get all the latest Libra horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

SCORPIO

October 24 to November 22

Setting aside any idea that a family shape should be fixed, can free you to find your own ideal home.

You know you have strong ideas about the future, and sharing these can be simpler than you expect.

The new moon makes letting go, in life and love, easier.

The luck factor circles a June date.

Get all the latest Scorpio horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

SAGITTARIUS

November 23 to December 21

You may feel shipwrecked on a stormy sea of words but the new moon is rising to guide you.

Insist on some silence, even for a short time, to allow your mind to clear and your memory to dim.

So the next thing you say can have life-changing potential.

Passion-wise, know who you are and what you deserve.

Get all the latest Sagittarius horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

CAPRICORN

December 22 to January 20

If you’ve felt the need to compromise in loyalty terms, this can change – expecting the best of others is not unreasonable when you are offering so much of yourself.

You have planet protection to issue a final warning and to deal with the response.

At work, the person who most loves a joke, can be a serious ally

Get all the latest Capricorn horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

Supplied

Uranus’ input in a property-search leads you towards an unlikely address[/caption]

AQUARIUS

January 21 to February 18

With so much zodiac activity centred on your own sign, you may feel swamped with opportunities yet one project or person simply shines out.

As soon as you recognise this, you can rearrange your day to make the most of it.

Uranus’ input in a property-search leads you towards an unlikely address.

Get all the latest Aquarius horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

PISCES

February 19 to March 20

Breaking a habit of using secrets as weapons helps turn them into tools instead.

Understanding others and yourself is easier when you accept everything, judge nothing establish your own system of trust.

The joy-bringer planet Jupiter hovers in your family chart, and people who share a name can also share a prize.

Get all the latest Pisces horoscope news including your weekly and monthly predictions

CIVIL servants and bureaucrats will thwart plans to fix the NHS because they want reforms done slowly, a report by MPs warns.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said officials in NHS England and the Department of Health are “out of ideas and remarkably complacent”.

Getty

An NHS review by Lord Ara Darzi found ranks in Whitehall back offices have swollen while waiting lists have ballooned and patient satisfaction declined[/caption]

A review by Lord Ara Darzi found ranks in Whitehall back offices have swollen while waiting lists have ballooned and patient satisfaction declined.

The PAC accused health officials of being too cautious and blighted by “short-termism”.

Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “The Government has transformative ambitions to address the issues plaguing the NHS.

“We were aghast to find some of the worst complacency amongst senior officials in charge of delivering these ambitions.

“Truly fresh ideas and radical energy must be generated to meet the scale of what is required.

“Given the position of the NHS, stale platitudes of incremental change are simply not going to cut it.”

An NHS spokesperson said: “This report contains basic factual inaccuracies and a flawed understanding of how the NHS and the government’s financial processes work.

“While NHS productivity is now improving at double pre-pandemic levels – far from being complacent, NHS England has repeatedly been open about the problem and the actions being taken to address it.

“Reform is part of the NHS’ DNA and has ensured performance improvements for patients in the past year despite capital starvation, unprecedented strikes and a fragile social care sector.”

The Department of Health said: “We have been consistently clear that fixing the broken NHS and ensuring it is fit for the future requires urgent and radical reform.”

HE’S best known as the Hollywood A-list actor behind gritty homicide detective Luther – who spent five series hunting down fictional sadistic killers in bloody scenes on BBC One.

Now, Idris Elba is hoping to tackle real-life crime, by turning his hand to battling the rising rate of knife related deaths in the UK.

BBC

Alamy

The Luther actor said he found solace in acting at an age he could’ve been swayed[/caption]

No less because the actor, who was born and raised in Hackney, London, admits he could’ve ended up on the wrong side of the law, or carrying a knife, without his career.

Idris, 52, said: “It was my drama teacher who said to me, ‘You’re going to be a good actor’.

“I was like, ‘Acting? No. I just like coming to class, I can’t be an actor’, but she was like, ‘Why not?’

“So at 14 years old, I was swayed – and that instead could’ve been someone saying to me, ‘Bro, you can make a lot of money if you just push this bag for me…’ It could’ve swayed me in the same way.”

While Idris found his salvation in acting, he knows that others in his life weren’t as fortunate.

He continued: “Someone very close to me, he’s alive, but he went through it.

“Now, we’re both 52-year-old men, and he’s like, ‘You’re doing the right thing’, but he isn’t as hopeful or as optimistic as I am that this is a crisis we can tackle.”

The crisis in question is one of Britain’s most devastating issues, with new documentary Our Knife Crime Crisis delving into the roots of the growing knife crime epidemic that kills four people a week.

The 60-minute special, which airs tonight on BBC One, also explores the possible solutions to the issue, which Idris says demands more of our attention now than ever.

He added: “We called the film Our Crisis because it is a crisis.

“I already said it was at boiling point a year ago, and now four people are dying a week, that’s four people we might be able to save next week with a few little bits of intervention.

“Ultimately, it’s important that we talk about this – and I’m not one for celebrity politicking, while some people find it quite inspirational when someone they love is on telly talking about it, I find it distracting.

“That said, I do think that we need to talk about this wherever we can, because we are in a crisis, and we need to make some noise, to amplify the issue, whether you’re a celebrity or not.

“It’s always being quietly debated, but we need to be screaming it now, because it shows the kids, the young that are most involved in this, that someone is paying attention. We have to face the reality.”

‘Luther wasn’t about glamourising violence’

For Idris, the documentary marks a change in the way he addresses violence and crimes on screen, having previously used TV series Luther as a means to add to the conversation.

He explained: “Luther saw me heavily criticised for emphasising about violence against women, and often the first victim in the storylines was a woman.

“It was our choice as filmmakers to acknowledge our contribution in how that might be glamorising or normalising what was a crisis in our country – though we weren’t the driver of that violence.

“It was entertainment, but we felt if we could do something, we could tell stories.

“There are so many issues in the world that need fighting, but this is the one for me, because it hit home.

“It broke my heart that nobody was piping up, nobody was saying anything.

“I’m not on some righteous path here to be like, ‘I have to do it’ – but these are the neighbourhoods I’m from, and it was just bonkers to me that nobody was speaking up for what they believe in.

“I’m annoying to some people, they’re like, ‘Just go make a movie or something’, but this is important.”

‘Knife crime killers aren’t scary’

The actor gets up close and personal with reality himself by visiting Feltham Prison and Young Offenders Institution as part of the documentary, to sit down with young perpetrators.

“They’re not so big and scary as the way they’re portrayed,” Idris recalled. “These were just young people grasping onto their development, and it was sad.

“I was looking at these kids, and it just felt up they had been banged up and then, nobody cares – that we’d just turned our back on them, and then they are expected to come out of here ready for society.”

Instead of adopting an attitude of fixing the problem with punishment, he hopes the film will make people consider the benefits of intervention, diversion and mentorship – at the very least, because of the costs.

He explained: “When you look at how much it costs to keep a young person in Feltham versus an intervention programme, it’s shocking – imprisonment costs £150,000 a year.

“When kids are young enough, they’re vulnerable enough to be encouraged to do something else – and while some might argue it might not work, we don’t know until we try it.”

‘We need to change the narrative’

Idris is also keen to dispel the myth that knife crime is a problem that is confined to certain communities.

In the documentary, he meets Jordan, a white British teenager diagnosed with ADHD and autism, who turned to carrying and using a knife for safety in his local Coventry suburb.

He explained: “The fact that this narrative is only pushed around black and brown communities is part of the reason this has been an ongoing conversation because it’s been pushed to certain communities.

“It’s really misleading when people think it’s just a black and brown problem.

“Proportionally, you’re seeing black and brown kids in knife-related incidences because the areas where black and brown people live are usually the same areas where there’s poverty.

“But it isn’t largely just a black and brown problem. In fact, it’s the opposite. It can affect everybody, and we need to start thinking about it that way.”

Idris is clear that solving knife crime requires a united effort, and not something we should be leaving to the government or the police to sort, nor should it be down to young people, or parents, alone.

‘I am hopeful we can end this’

He encouraged: “It can’t just be the police, it can’t just be the youth, we can’t blame the parents.

“I grew up in a generation where your neighbourhood raised you, people would see you out and say, ‘What time are you out, get back to your house!’ Those days are gone.

“But this is where education and community have to come in – to get everyone involved.

“And we need young people to be like, ‘Yo, we don’t want to do this any more, we don’t want to carry knives’ – and we need their voices, we need them to be at the table.

“We’re never going to eradicate gangs, knives, and violence – it’s part of human nature, but as a society, we can safeguard our citizens and that’s to me what success looks like.”

Now, working alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the documentary, and sitting down with King Charles, Idris admitted he’s hopeful that this could spell for change.

“I do feel optimistic, I’m not hopeful, but I’m optimistic,” he concluded. “Our current leaders are listening.  Though, listening is one thing, and action is another.

“I just want to spark a big old debate – people calling into their local radio stations to say, ‘Did you see that rubbish last night?’ Whatever it is, I want people talking.”

Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis airs tonight at 9pm on BBC One

BBC

Getty

The Luther star says he wants to get people talking[/caption]

The 47-year-old actor was busted in Yreka, Calif., just after midnight on Monday, according to police records.

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