CONCORD, N.C. — Tyler Reddick raced Sunday with his championship hopes on the line at the same time his infant son has been diagnosed with a tumor in his chest that is affecting his heart.

Rookie Reddick, the second of Tyler and Alexa Reddick’s two boys, was born in May, and Alexa said last week that he has been dealing with serious health complications. The couple provided an update ahead of Sunday’s race at The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Reddick was starting from the pole, needing a victory to remain in contention for the Cup Series title.

Alexa Reddick posted a social media update on Rookie’s condition after Reddick’s pole-winning run, saying he has a “tumor that’s ‘choking’ the renal vein & renal artery. Telling the heart ‘Hey I’m not getting enough blood … pump harder.'”

She said it has caused an enlarged heart, and the four-month-old will need a kidney removed because doctors determined it is no longer functioning.

“He will undergo open surgery to remove his right kidney. We’re just not sure when,” she wrote. “Waiting is ok right now to give his heart a break while he’s on BP medication. They expect his heart to fully recover because it was just an innocent bystander. We have answers but a journey ahead to bring our little Cookie home.”

She added that her son was happy spending time blowing bubbles, playing and “interacting with every nurse & doctor that comes in his room.”

Reddick had kept his son’s health situation private until his wife went public before last week’s race at Kansas Speedway when she announced that Rookie was at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte showing signs of heart failure.

Reddick finally addressed Rookie’s health at Charlotte.

“Healthier is probably not the right word, but I’ve never seen him happier. His color looks good. He’s gained weight. A lot of things are going well,” Reddick said. “All that being said, some of the the tougher moments are definitely ahead. We’re definitely not in the clear. There are some things we need to get through first.

“So, on one hand, I’m really happy and it makes me feel great that he’s doing much better right now, but certainly we have some hurdles we have to get through first before we’re even thinking about leaving the hospital or thinking about what comes next.”

Reddick, who made it to the championship-deciding finale, enters Sunday’s race below the cutline of drivers who will be trimmed from 12 to eight after the race. The bottom four — Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric — all likely need a victory Sunday to avoid elimination.

“For me, this weekend where we’re at in points, it just is what it is,” Reddick said. “I’m going to go out there and give it my best effort while I’m here certainly. For me, this week, the elimination, everything that is happening in the racing world is taking a back seat as it should.”

Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Reddick’s car, said 23XI Racing has been supportive and involved in getting Rookie the best care.

“We’ve tried to do everything we could as a company to tap into all the resources that we possibly can, to get him second, third opinions, all the things, get him in contact with specialists,” Hamlin said. “We feel not a relief, but it is a little relief that they kind of understand now what the path is forward, versus, kind of not knowing.

“I could not imagine being in their places. He’s got enough to think about. I’m sure he’s probably breathing a little sigh relief that he still goes there to do his job at a high level, given everything that’s going on off the track.”

Reddick will start alongside Shane van Gisbergen, who has won four races this year on road and street courses. The New Zealander is the heavy favorite, and any driver hoping to avoid playoff elimination will have to beat van Gisbergen.

Reddick, meanwhile, was grateful for the support he and his family have received and reflected on the emotional impact this has had on his family.

“Just countless individuals have helped out,” Reddick said. “Countless individuals have reached out, provided support whatever it might be. It’s been really eye-opening. I agree with my wife this is the hardest thing that I’ve had to go through. … Certainly being away (last week) wasn’t ideal.

“That was a decision me and her came to a conclusion on when I was in Kansas. He was going in the right direction. Yes, like I said, big things ahead that we have to fix, but for that past weekend he was stable and going in the right direction. It was difficult to stay and race [at Kansas], but we were on the same page about it. I just wanted to get off that plane so bad on Sunday night and get back to the hospital.”

Talks aimed at starting the process of releasing Israeli hostages look set to begin on Monday.

Egypt has agreed to host delegations from Israel and Hamas tomorrow. An Israeli delegation led by Strategic
Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will attend the indirect negotiations in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

US envoy Steve Witkoff is also expected to join.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he hopes to announce the release of hostages being held in Gaza “in the coming days” and Hamas announced on Friday it would return all remaining hostages in Gaza, dead and alive.

The group also said in a statement that it wants to engage in negotiations to discuss further points in the US president’s peace plan.

Speaking to our US partner network NBC, Donald Trump‘s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Hamas had also agreed “in principle” to what happens after the war in Gaza is over, but he warned the second phase of the deal, which concerns Hamas’s disarmament and demobilisation, was “not going to be easy”.

“We’ll know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics,” Mr Rubio added.

On his way to a US Navy event on Sunday, Mr Trump told journalists he was looking forward to “peace in the Middle East for the first time in about 3,000 years”.

He said the peace plan was “a great deal for Israel” and that “people are very happy about it”.

Progress in the discussions in Cairo will largely depend on whether the militant group agrees to Washington’s withdrawal map, a Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters.

Mr Trump released a map showing the areas of Gaza the Israeli Defence Forces would need to withdraw its troops from, which he said had been agreed to already by Israel.

Currently, the Israeli military has covered around 80% of the enclave in what it calls a “dangerous combat zone”.

If the peace plan follows the boundaries shown on the map, Israel’s initial withdrawal would leave Gaza about 55% occupied, while the second withdrawal would leave it about 40% occupied.

After the final withdrawal phase, which would create a “security buffer zone”, about 15% of Gaza would be occupied by the Israeli military.

It is this part – as well as the peace plan proposal for an international group to manage Gaza – “that is going to be a little tougher to work through,” Mr Rubio added.

Calls for ceasefire

Meanwhile, international support for an immediate ceasefire is growing.

On Friday, Mr Trump told Israel to “stop bombing Gaza”, and on Sunday Pope Leo renewed calls for a permanent ceasefire in the nearly two-year conflict.

This was followed by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim-majority countries issuing a joint statement urging steps toward a possible end to fighting.

In backing Hamas’ willingness to hand over the running of Gaza to a transitional committee, the ministers called for an “immediate launch of negotiations to agree on mechanisms to implement the proposal”.

They also underlined their commitment to the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, unifying Gaza and the West Bank, and reaching an agreement on security leading to a “full Israeli withdrawal” from Gaza.

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Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told journalists: “While certain bombings have actually stopped inside of the Gaza Strip, there’s no ceasefire in place at this point in time.”

She said Mr Netanyahu is in “regular contact” with Mr Trump and that the prime minister has stressed talks in Egypt “will be confined to a few days maximum, with no tolerance for manoeuvres that will delay talks by Hamas”.

Residents and local hospitals said strikes continued across the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

At least eight people were killed on Sunday in multiple strikes in the city, according to the Shifa hospital, which received the casualties.

Half of them were killed in a strike that hit a group of people in Gaza City, the hospital said.

Four people also were killed in a shooting near an aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, according to Nasser hospital.

The Israeli military said it was not involved in the shooting and did not immediately comment on the strikes.

“We’re on the brink, and we don’t know whether one will die of a strike or starvation,” said Mahmoud Hashem, a Palestinian father of five, who is forced to shelter in a tent in the center of Gaza City.

When will hostages be freed?

A lawyer representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza has told Sky News now feels “as good a chance as any” to finally get the remaining captives out.

Adam Wagner said hostage families were facing “a huge mix of emotions” as they awaited the latest developments in Mr Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

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“We’ve seen hopes raised and the talks fail a number of times, but this seems as good a chance as any to get those 48 remaining hostages out,” he said.

Wagner also agreed the “big question” for the talks was whether Hamas would agree to full disarmament and complete removal from the administration of Gaza.

Israel estimates 48 hostages remain in Gaza, 20 of whom are alive.

Watch Yalda Hakim’s The World at 9pm on Sky News.

The streets of Britain have turned into “theatres of intimidation”, Kemi Badenoch has warned in a speech to mark the opening of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Speaking just days after a terror attack at a synagogue in the city left two people dead, the Tory leader claimed extremism “has gone unchecked” in the UK.

Politics live: Government grants police new powers in crackdown on repeat protests

She said this had manifested in Pro-Palestine protests which are “in fact carnivals of hatred directed at the Jewish homeland”.

She cited the use of “asinine slogans” such as ‘Globalise the Intifada’, saying this “means nothing at all, if it doesn’t mean targeting Jewish people for violence”.

Ms Badenoch added: “So the message from this conference, from this party, from every decent and right-thinking person in this country must be that we will not stand for it any more. We cannot import and tolerate values hostile to our own.

“We must now draw a line and say that in Britain you can think what you like, and within the bounds of the law you can say what you like, but you have no right to turn our streets into the theatres of intimidation and we will not let you do so any more.“

Ms Badenoch has said she supports the government’s efforts to impose restrictions on repeat protests in light of the Manchester terror attack.

Nearly 500 people were arrested over protests supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action in central London on Saturday.

Demonstrators defied calls from political leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, to reconsider the event out of respect for the grief of the British Jewish community.

The chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, also called for the event to be postponed, saying he was worried resources would be stretched and the ability of the force to protect communities would be compromised.

ECHR plan ‘not vague mush’

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Badenoch spoke about her policy to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and carry out “ICE-style” deportations if she wins the next election.

She said that shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Alex Burghart will lead a review into a union-wide implementation of leaving the ECHR, so voters have “a clear, thorough and robust plan, not the vague mush that we see day in, day out from Labour, nor the vacuous posturing that we see day in, day out from Reform”.

The plan has been condemned by Former Conservative justice secretary and Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland, who lost his seat at the 2024 election.

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“I have seen first-hand how deeply this issue touches our constitution, our Union, and our international standing. It would be a profound mistake to go down this path,” he wrote in an article for Conservative Home.

The comments reflect how the issue has long divided the party, with “one nation” moderates like Mr Buckland opposed to the idea of leaving the ECHR, and others seeing it as necessary to get a grip on illegal migration and tackle Reform UK.

In a sign she won’t shy away from that fight, Ms Badenoch told GB News earlier that every Conservative candidate must sign up to her plan to leave the ECHR, or they would be barred from standing at the next election.

‘Mountain to climb’

The Tories are languishing in the polls behind Reform and Labour after suffering their worst-ever defeat at the election last year.

Ms Badenoch, who was elected to lead the party last November, ended her speech acknowledging there was a “mountain to climb” but insisting she was up for the fight.

“Britain needs deep change. But I reject the politics that everything must go, that everything must be torn down, that everything is broken,” she said.

“If we leave it to Labour or Reform, Britain will be divided. Only the Conservatives can bring this country back together.

“So, I say to you all as we start our conference, yes, we have a mountain to climb, but we have a song in our hearts, and we are up for the fight.”