��������

HURGHADA, Egypt: With nothing but grit, muscle and an iron jaw, a hugely popular Egyptian wrestler geared up for an extraordinary challenge Saturday: pulling a 700-ton ship across the water with a rope held only by his teeth.
“Today, I have come to break the world record,” Ashraf Mahrous said in an interview in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Hurghada after the challenge.
It was no easy task but Ashraf Mahrous, also known by his nickname Kabonga, has dazzled before with his astonishing strength. Earlier this year, he pulled a train. He has also singlehandedly pulled a locomotive and four years ago, a truck.
With each achievement, his popularity has soared — children run after him in the streets, where he’s known simply as “strong man.”
With the ship pull, Mahrous, a 44-year-old native of the port city of Ismalia, hopes to get yet another recognition from the Guinness World Records.

A triumph by the Red Sea
The scene was set Saturday at the shore in Hurghada. Mahrous first pulled a 700-ton ship, and to affirm his challenge he pulled two ships weighing approximately 1,150 tons together.
“I pulled them both, thanks to God, to prove to my friends and the whole world that God blessed me by being the strongest man in the world,” Mahrous said.
He said the current Guinness World Record is a 614-ton ship set in 2018.
Mahrous said he will send videos and photos of his attempt to Guinness World Records to be evaluated.
In preparation for the feat, Mahrous followed a protein- and iron-rich diet, consuming at least a dozen eggs, two whole chickens, and 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of fish every day — all while training for two hours, three times a day.
It wasn’t his first ship pull. Six years ago, he tried for two hours before he managed to pull a 4,000-ton ship in the water, a rope strapped to his shoulders, for about 30 meters. The event was caught on video.
″I grunted and yelled as I pulled the ship, and I spoke to it, saying ‘It’s either me or you today,’” he told The Associated Press recently at his local gym in Cairo, where he trains daily.
Mahrous believes that speaking with the object he pulls beforehand helps him establish a connection and is key to his success. “It’s important for me to treat the object that I will pull as part of my body that moves along with my heart beat,” he said.
 

An extraordinary child
Mahrous, 190 centimeters (6 feet 3 inches) tall and weighing 155 kilograms (341 pounds), said his strength emerged early.
As a child, he would carry his friends for fun and haul heavy loads, several gas cylinders at once on a wheelbarrow. He was 9 when his father lost his job as a contractor in Iraq and after that, Mahrous began knocking on doors, offering to lift heavy items for some cash.
Once, he accidentally broke a friend’s arm when he tried to pull him as they played. He helped people move bricks, sandbags and other heavy materials — and he was fast. He loved sports and trained in kung fu, kickboxing and even established a wrestling team in Cairo.
It was only when his friends saw him easily flip giant tires 10 times in a row in a deserted courtyard at their gym and push a car using only a finger that they encouraged him to go for a world record.
“I was inspired by people who broke records and felt like they are no better than me,” he said. Now he’s less fearful of injuries and more concerned about failing to accomplish a pull.
 

Past recognitions
In March, he was formally recognized by Guinness World Records for the heaviest rail pull: He pulled a train weighing 279 tons with a rope held by his teeth for a distance of nearly 10 meters (33 feet). At the time, he received two other certificates, for the heaviest locomotive pull and for the fastest 100-meter road vehicle pull.
Mahrous, who is also president of the Egyptian Federation for Professional Wrestlers, was previously recognized by Guinness in June 2021, for pulling a 15,730-kilogram truck with his teeth. And in February 2024, the international franchise recognized him for cracking and eating 11 raw eggs in 30 seconds.
He wears a mouthguard during pulling events but says he has no concerns about his teeth. Instead of going to a dentist, he uses a miswak — a traditional teeth-cleaning twig rich in anti-bacterial compounds that help prevent decay.
He says he takes no supplements but eats, sleeps and works out at least twice every day.
His ambitions are far from over. Next, he plans to send a request to the Egyptian presidency for permission to pull a 263,000-ton submarine.
He also hopes someday to pull a plane using only his eyelid muscles.
 

LOS ANGELES: Nexstar Media Group joined Sinclair Broadcast Group in bringing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show back to its local TV stations on Friday night, ending a dayslong TV blackout for dozens of cities across the US
The companies suspended the program on Sept. 17 over remarks the comedian made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing. Disney-owned ABC suspended Kimmel the same day, following threats of potential repercussions from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission.
The move Friday means “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to local TV on Nexstar’s 28 ABC affiliates, from Topeka, Kansas, to New Orleans, along with Sinclair’s 38 local markets, from Seattle to Washington D.C.
Kimmel’s suspension lasted less than a week, while the affiliate blackout stood for just over a week.
When the boycott began, Sinclair, which is known for its conservative political content, called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family. Taking it a step further, the company asked him to “make a meaningful personal donation” to Turning Point USA, the nonprofit that Kirk founded.
On the day Kirk was killed, Kimmel shared a message of support for Kirk’s family and other victims of gun violence on social media, which he reiterated during his Tuesday return to ABC. He had also called the conservative activist’s assassination a “senseless murder” prior to being taken off air.
Kimmel’s original comments didn’t otherwise focus on Kirk. He instead lambasted President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to the killing. On his first show back Tuesday, the comedian did not apologize, but did say “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man” and acknowledged that to some, his comments “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”
He also used a blend of humor and pointed messages to emphasize the importance of free speech.
Maryland-based Sinclair and Texas-based Nexstar continued to preempt the show for three days even after ABC and Disney returned it to national airwaves.
New episodes of the show air Monday through Thursday. Friday night’s rerun will be of Tuesday’s show — so viewers of Sinclair stations can see Kimmel’s emotional return to the air. Viewers will have to wait until Monday to get the host’s take on the latest moves.
In its statement Friday, Sinclair pointed to its “responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”
The company added that it had received “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers and community leaders,” and noticed “troubling acts of violence,” referencing the shooting into the lobby of a Sacramento station.
Sinclair said its proposals to Disney to strengthen accountability, feedback and dialogue and appoint an ombudsman had not yet been adopted.
In a similar statement Friday, Nexstar said it appreciated Disney’s approach to its concerns and that it “remains committed to protecting the First Amendment” while airing content that is “in the best interest of the communities we serve.”
Both companies said their decisions were not affected by influence from government or anyone else.
Disney representatives declined comment.
As a result of Sinclair and Nexstar’s boycott, viewers in cities representing roughly a quarter of ABC’s local TV affiliates had been left without the late-night program on local TV. The blackouts escalated nationwide uproar around First Amendment protections — particularly as the Trump administration and other conservatives police speech after Kirk’s killing. They also cast a spotlight on political influence in the media landscape, with critics lambasting companies that they accuse of censoring content.
Ahead of his suspension, Kimmel took aim at the president and his “MAGA gang” of supporters for their response to Kirk’s killing, which Kimmel said included “finger-pointing” and attempts to characterize the alleged shooter as “anything other than one of them.”
These remarks angered many supporters of Kirk — as well as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who accused Kimmel of appearing to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about the man accused of the killing. Ahead of Kimmel’s suspension, Carr warned that Disney and ABC’s local affiliates could face repercussions if the comedian was not punished.
He later applauded Sinclair and Nexstar, for their decisions to preempt the show.
Sinclair Vice Chairman Jason Smith on the day the blackout began called Kimmel’s comments “inappropriate and deeply insensitive” and said that ABC’s suspension wasn’t enough. Smith added that Sinclair appreciated Carr’s comments — and called for “immediate regulatory action.”
While local TV affiliates broadcast their own programming, such as local news, they also contract with larger national broadcasters — and pay them to air their national content, splitting advertising revenue and fees from cable companies.
Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at research firm Morningstar, said he wasn’t surprised by Kimmel’s return to the local stations.
“The relationship with Disney is far too important for these firms to risk,” Dolgin said. And setting aside legal rights from either side, he added, “Disney would’ve been free to take its affiliate agreements elsewhere in 2026 if these relationships were too difficult. That scenario would be devastating to Nexstar and Sinclair.”