Month: June 2026

11 people were killed when a plane belonging to a parachuting school crashed in Tomblaine, France. The victims included the pilot, five student parachutists, and five instructors. Some victims’ families were present near the airport and witnessed the crash.

HARRY Styles is looking at New Orleans for his wedding to Zoe Kravitz, it can be revealed.

Pals close to the loved-up pair say they think the Southern US town could be a special spot to tie the knot and have researched venues.

Zoe’s famous musician dad Lenny Kravitz has long-standing roots in the town after buying his first home in the Louisiana town, which has deep ties to the blues music scene.

Back at home, the One Direction star, 32, and US actress, 37, this weekend enjoyed London’s heatwave and were snapped cuddling on a picnic blanket on Hampstead Heath.

They confirmed their engagement to close family and friends in April.

A source said: “Harry and Zoe might have a string of celebrity friends and a Hollywood lifestyle but their wedding won’t be like that.

Read More on Harry Styles

BABY ON BOARD

Harry Styles’ Victoria’s Secret model ex Nadine Leopold reveals pregnancy

wrong direction

Moment Harry Styles chokes on water on Wembley stage before falling

“They’re a cool couple and want something unique.

“Zoe’s family ties to New Orleans, plus the town’s musical history, is making it a front runner and they’ve told pals that they’re looking at options for holding their big day there.”

Rock icon Lenny bought his first home in New Orleans in 1994 – a Creole cottage on Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, a block away from the town’s famous Bourbon Street.

Whilst Zoe grew up in Los Angeles with her mother Lisa Bonet, in her teenage years she spent more time with Lenny at his Miami estate and New Orleans cottage.

The Sun revealed snaps of Zoe with a huge diamond ring on her wedding finger in April.

Ex-One Direction singer Harry and Zoe, who played Catwoman in The Batman, have dated since August last year.

They went public with their relationship in Rome but have since kept matters private and not commented on their status.

Harry is said to have popped the question with a ring worth up to £500,000 and first sparked engagement rumours when he and Zoe flew to the Bahamas just after Christmas to stay in her dad’s home there.

A source said at the time: “If it wasn’t an engagement, then it was something that shows they are very much committed to each other.”

Although increasingly limited, China’s dependencies on the EU in strategic technologies have not disappeared.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

In today’s increasingly tense geopolitical environment, closing this gap has become an urgent priority for Beijing. The country’s 15th Five-Year Plan, unveiled last March, places technological self-reliance at the heart of its industrial strategy through 2030.

In semiconductors, aerospace technologies, pharmaceuticals, automotive chips, robotics and quantum computing, European companies still supply products that remain essential to China.

As trade tensions with Beijing intensify, could these dependencies give Europe leverage? Most experts are sceptical. China’s monopoly over rare earths — essential for Europe’s green technologies and defence industry — is a far more powerful weapon that could be used in retaliation against the EU.

“China really has a choke point when it comes to minerals, but we don’t have an equivalent choke point, which is very powerful,” Tobias Gehrke, an expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Euronews.

In some sectors, China may achieve self-reliance within just a few years, according to expert Sam Goodman in a report published in May for the Brussels-based Martens Centre.

Euronews examined those sectors. Here are the technologies in which China still remains dependent on the EU.

Semiconductors

In the semiconductor supply chain, the EU has a jewel : ASML, the Dutch company with the highest market valuation ever recorded by a European company, boasting a market capitalization of more than €630 billion in 2026.

The company holds a near-monopoly on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which are essential for manufacturing advanced semiconductor chips used in artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.

China’s dependence on ASML has already been exploited by the United States and the Netherlands, which have restricted sales of the strategic technology to Beijing. But China can still buy less advanced deep ultraviolet lithography machines, a segment in which ASML holds almost 90% of the global market, according to Gehrke. In 2024, for some of those products, up to 70% of shipments went to China.

However, China is moving quickly to catch up. It now requires that 50% of equipment used in new chip production capacity be sourced domestically, Gehrke wrote in a report published in March.

“The Chinese have set a target that they want to start producing their own chips, not using ASML machines by 2028,” Goodman told Euronews. “But they’re still going to be dependent on ASML to learn.”

Maintenance and repair of installed equipment in China also account for a significant share of EU suppliers’ revenues.

In the event of EU restrictions on semiconductor exports, Gehrke forecasts “potentially large” economic damage to China, particularly if servicing were restricted, “but great spill-over risks,” as a significant share of ASML’s revenue is exposed.

Aerospace

The Comac C919 narrow-body airliner is China’s answer to the widely used passenger jets produced by U.S. manufacturer Boeing and European rival Airbus. But its supply chain remains heavily dependent on European companies.

Goodman lists several of them, including France’s Safran, which produces its engine, Germany’s Liebherr Aerospace, which supplies its cabin pressure system, and Italy’s Avio Aero, which manufactures the engine casing.

“Without the participation of these companies, China wouldn’t have a civil aviation programme,” Goodman said. “Civil aviation is very complicated to begin with, with safety standards very high; it takes a long time to get the know-how needed to do it.”

However, despite China’s dependence on European suppliers, any attempt to weaponise the supply chain could also come at a cost for Europe.

“It will hurt the bottom line of European aerospace suppliers which do very well out of China,” Goodman told Euronews. But he argues that the alternative is to “accept basically that China learn all our technology, create rivals and then destroy our market share”.

Competition between Chinese and European manufacturers is already intense.

A quiet battle is emerging over certification, with China seeking approval from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to allow the C919 to operate in Europe.

“This is a leverage for Europe which could politicise the process and refuse China’s aircraft certification”, Gehrke said. But Beijing is already playing the same game, slowing down the certification of new Airbus aircraft in China.

As of now, Airbus has more than 2,200 aircraft in service in mainland China, holding roughly a 55% market share.

Pharma and biotechnology

Europe still leads China in pharmaceutical patents. “In 2024, companies in Italy, Germany and France alone had double the number of pharmaceutical patents granted compared to China,” Goodman said.

The expert added that EU companies continue to dominate the vaccine market, with Germany’s Merck, France’s Sanofi and Britain’s GSK “accounting for 51 percent of global vaccine market share in 2024″.

However, according to figures from LEEM, the French pharmaceutical industry association, China’s R&D investment grew by 16.2% annually between 2020 and 2024—twice the pace of Europe—allowing it to account for more than one-third of new molecules produced by global pharmaceutical research in 2024.

Some EU companies have also established joint ventures and R&D partnerships to benefit from China’s research spending and lower manufacturing costs, including Germany’s Bayer and France’s Sanofi.

Which side benefits the most from joint ventures? “Always China,” Goodman said. “I’ve found no example of a joint venture between a Chinese company and a non-Chinese company where the non-Chinese company has benefited from technology transfer.”

When it comes to medical equipment, EU companies such as Siemens Healthineers and Philips remain global leaders in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), although both have significantly expanded their manufacturing footprint in China.

“Local competitors are catching up rapidly,” Gehrke said, but he added that “there is still a gap in key upstream MRI components – such as superconducting magnets and image-processing software.”

Automotive chips

Chinese flagship automakers such as BYD and Chery also depend on European technologies, including chips from Germany’s Infineon, the Netherlands’ NXP and Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics.

China’s strategy is to become self-reliant in the sector, but Goodman said that the “domestic demand for EVs and the chips within them has meant that automotive companies in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] face an import substitution challenge”.

But the EU’s leadership in these niche technologies remains precarious.

“Europe is strong in mature automotive chips because they do produce power electronics sensors, but there are still very high vulnerabilities in certain parts of the supply chains, mainly in the back-end manufacturing part,” Giulia Albini from CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, told Euronews.

The EU depends on other regions—including China—for packaging, assembly and testing, as last year’s dispute over Dutch-based Nexperia, owned by China’s Wingtech, revealed. Following the Netherlands’ takeover of the company, China restricted chip exports to the EU.

Goodman added that the significant share of Chinese customers, as well as EU carmakers operating in China, makes it “unlikely that this leverage could be utilised”.

Robotics and quantum

Robots are China’s latest showcase of technological progress. Few will forget Chinese humanoid robots taking centre stage during televised Lunar New Year celebrations.

But Goodman said that a sizeable portion of the downstream supply chain, including the components that make the robots move, is produced by European companies, including Sweden’s Ewellix and Germany’s Rexroth.

“The leading Chinese humanoid robotic companies do not publish their supply chain for this very reason,” Goodman said.

However, he added that, in any case, the narrative of a self-sufficient Chinese humanoid robot sector “ready to take the world by storm” should be examined carefully.

When it comes to quantum computing, designed to carry out complex calculations faster than classical computers, Goodman said that China wants to keep working with Europeans to meet its industrial and commercialisation targets.

However, EU member states remain divided over the merits of partnering with China in what is regarded as the next major technological frontier after the AI boom.

“The French, the Dutch, the Germans have very rigorous export controls on materials that could be used for quantum computing by China, while the Spanish and the Italian have active projects with Chinese companies developing quantum in Europe,” Goodman said.

“Unless we have a unified approach, inevitably China is going to gain the system.”

Halfway across the first glacial depression, I leave the footpath to stand on a snow patch, disturbing a spider that runs off across the frozen crystals. A few yards farther along, the mountainside is awash with colour: tiny Alpine flowers alive with bees and crickets in a world surrounded by jagged peaks. A pair of chamois watch from a crag, then clatter off up an almost vertical face. Having stopped walking, I’m cooling down fast and put on a jacket. I am in Spain, I tell myself, during a European heatwave.

When I tear myself away from the wildlife, my hiking group are distant dots on a path that is snaking up a wall of rock. This is the Picos de Europa mountain range in northern Spain, a cluster of peaks rising to more than 2,500m and famed for the steepness of its slopes. I set off in pursuit, catching up with the group as they scramble over a ridge to find an unexpected view: a gun turret from a second world war aircraft carrier that is now a mountain refuge hut. (Cabin Verónica was cut from the USS Pulau in 1961 at a Bilbao breakers’ yard and dragged up here by mule.)

The custodian, Jorge, took it on as a project eight years ago and has since made it his summer home, adding solar power and water tanks to the gleaming aluminium dome. “I love it,” he says, grinning while he makes coffee in the tiny kitchen. “Why would I need cities and crowds when I have this?” The panoramas are spectacular. Far below, down the valley, a bearded vulture is soaring, one of a small number successfully reintroduced in 2005. The hut sleeps a maximum of six, too small for our group, but it’s popular with climbers and solo walkers.

This trip seems determined to throw up contradictions and improbabilities. For a start, on the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry, I was alone on deck at 5am, surrounded by a cold fog so dense that I couldn’t see the waves below the rail. We were motionless, it seemed, in the outer reaches of the cosmos. As I stared down, the intergalactic mist lifted a fraction and three dolphins burst from the swell, reminding me that I was on planet Earth and not a spaceship. This ferry route, and its sister route to Santander, crosses an oceanic canyon 4,000m deep and cetacean sightings are common. The on-board expert, André, tells me he has seen orcas and several whale species, including the rare Cuvier’s beaked whale.

The Picos mountains that stand to the west of Bilbao have always had a reputation for the unexpected. In Spanish history, they were a centre for resistance to Roman rule and later the Moors. They have flowers and butterflies not found elsewhere; the chamois is a unique subspecies, and there are bears and wolves too. Beneath the soaring peaks lies another surprise: an underworld network of rivers and giant caverns almost a mile deep.

Our hike across the range started to the north, walking first up to the mountain hut Vegarredonda at 1,410m. There’s a sprinkling of these huts across the Picos, most off-grid and supplied by mule. Expect good conversation, generous food portions and a plastic-covered mattress in what some might call “a snoremitory”. I am saved by the generosity of Arten, one of our group, who hands me silica gel earplugs. They work well, and in the morning I wake to find everybody already gone to breakfast.

Food is a major element of the Picos experience. That morning we hike to a few stone cabins by a lake, Ercina, and come across a handwritten sign advertising homemade cheese. Bruno and Cristina, our guides, get very excited. In a little stone-walled workshop, an old lady is sitting on a rustic milking stool, dressed in a nylon housecoat, waiting for customers.

“My grandfather built this cabin in 1944 when I was three years old,” says Maria. “Everyone would come up here for summer, bringing their animals with them. Now there’s only me.”

Hung on the walls are her ancestors’ drinking horns and wooden platters; on the shelves are wheels of cheese. The Picos technique is to blend milk from sheep, cows and goats. The results are delicious. “I feared this tradition might die,” Maria says. “But my son is interested, so there is hope it will continue.”

Leaving Maria, and still eating the cheese, we turn up a side valley and ascend steadily, passing boulders that harbour tiny gardens of saxifrage and stonecrop in their hollows. A wallcreeper flits away, one of the rarer birds that live here. Chamois pose on distant ridges, never far from the snow patches. Their world is shrinking, however, as Spain’s heatwaves encroach higher and higher. (I was glad to have travelled by ferry; as a foot passenger I produced less than 10% as much CO₂ as flying, according to the Direct Ferries carbon calculator.)

The night is spent in the Refugio Vega de Ario, a hut with the best cooking, and also hosting the Oxford University caving team. After more than 60 years of exploration and several generations of speleologists mapping some of the most extensive cave systems in the world, they tell me they are on the brink of connecting two huge cave networks. I promise to come back and see it – when the stairs are installed.

The next day, we cross one of the few places where you will see a car in the Picos, the village of Poncebos, which is on a fine gorge walk alongside the Rio Cares. From there, we ascend again through flower-strewn meadows and abandoned farmhouses into the clouds. Then, with perfect dramatic timing, the mists part to reveal the climactic wonder of these mountains: the Picu Urriellu, a soaring 2,529m pinnacle of rock under which is one of Europe’s most spectacular mountain huts, the Vega de Urriellu.

This is one of the most popular huts and sleeps 96, with many more camped nearby, but the place remains friendly and sociable. We stand outside with Bruno and Cristina as they point out their favourite climbing routes. Around us are small huddles of climbing groups discussing their plans. The south face is popular with guided groups; the west is a 750m monster.

The glacial depressions, with their spiders and flowers, lie ahead, but this is where I would choose to linger. You would not catch me down a cave, but I’m tempted by what Bruno describes as excellent climbing routes. As the sun goes down, the rock turns orange, giving Urriellu its Spanish name, Naranjo de Bulnes – the Bulnes orange.

Dusk falls, and I stroll up a mountain track for more panoramas, but find the world below the hut all smothered in cloud. I perch on a boulder and, after some time, become aware that I am being watched. A chamois is standing poised on a ledge above, its delicate curving horns silhouetted against the twilight like twin question marks. I watch the last orange glow fade on Urriellu’s summit, then glance back to that ledge, but the chamois has gone.

The trip was provided by KE Adventure Travel; the eight-day traverse of the Picos starts at £1,295, including all meals, accommodation and guides. Brittany Ferries sails up to twice weekly from Portsmouth to Bilbao and Santander, and from Plymouth to Santander, from £128 for foot passengers in August

Thousands of Kurds in Turkiye rallied to demand the release of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners. Ocalan has been imprisoned since 1999 for leading a decades-long armed insurgency against the Turkish state. The PKK and Ocalan renounced any armed struggle against Turkiye last year.

Satellite imagery reveals Russian progress in building protective shelters for its military aircraft, which now extends to long-range bombers, an unprecedented development for the Russian Aerospace Forces. The imagery reveals extensive work underway at Russia’s Engels Air Base, one of the country’s most important long-range aviation hubs, marking a significant shift after decades of leaving these high-value aircraft exposed on the flight line. The base has long been a key target for Ukraine, due to its central role in the cruise missile campaign waged by Russia against that country.

A satellite image taken on June 20, 2026, obtained by TWZ from Planet Labs, shows the extent of construction work on shelters at Engels Air Base in the Saratov region in the southeast of the country. Unlike previous protective shelters, which are sized for tactical aircraft, those at Engels are much larger, in keeping with the dimensions of the Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers that are stationed there.

Based on the available imagery, no fewer than 17 separate protective shelters appear to be under construction at the base, which is located around 300 miles from the nearest Ukrainian border.

Engels, also known as Engels-2, is one of the most important airfields of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation Branch. It is home to the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, which is responsible for Russia’s only squadron of Tu-160s, plus another squadron of Tu-95MS bombers.

Both those types have been widely employed in the conflict in Ukraine and especially in the standoff strikes that have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, among other objectives, civilian and military, across the country.

Between 2012 and 2017, Engels Air Base was reconstructed. In parallel to the main runway, which is around 11,500 feet long and 230 feet wide, a new runway of the same length and a width of 200 feet was built. Later, the parking area for aircraft was entirely reconstructed.

Reportedly, work on bomber-sized protected shelters began in April 2025, some months ahead of Operation Spiderweb, the large-scale Ukrainian drone strike against mainly bomber bases across Russia last summer, and which you can read about in our coverage here.

Soon after, a model of a Blackjack-sized aircraft shelter was shown to Russian Minister of Defense Andrei Belousov, as seen below.

Engels was not among the airbases targeted in Operation Spiderweb, but the potential vulnerability of the aircraft there was already clear.

As we wrote about at the time, Engels came under attack by long-range Ukrainian drones in March 2025, with a weapons storage area at the base apparently the primary target.

In January of 2025, we reported on a huge fire close to Engels Air Base, caused by what Russian officials described as a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack. The strike was on the strategically important fuel storage tank farm for Engels, and the fire raged for several days after.

Russia’s Rosreserv fuel depot in Engels continued to burn today after a Ukrainian drone attack last night, with multiple additional storage tanks igniting throughout the day.

Within the last hour, the regional governor of Saratov declared a state of emergency. pic.twitter.com/EzhoQTgqK0

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) January 8, 2025

Earlier in the conflict, Engels was also attacked three times in the month of December 2022 alone. On at least one of those occasions, Russia stated that the airbase was attacked by Soviet-made jet-powered uncrewed aerial vehicles modified by Ukraine to carry explosives.

Attacks such as these have repeatedly underscored the ability of relatively slow and low-flying Ukrainian drones to fly deep into Russian territory and strike strategic military targets. Meanwhile, Operation Spiderweb presented a new dilemma — short-range drones launched covertly, in mass, from locations much closer to airbases.

Amid continued questions about the efficiency of local air defense capabilities, Russia has embarked on various initiatives to try to protect its aircraft on the ground at their bases.

From the start of the conflict, Russian airbases have dispersed their aircraft for protection, although this is not so straightforward for bombers, with their more intensive demands on space, crews, maintenance facilities, weapons, and others. One of the runways at Engels has been used as a dispersed parking area for years now.

Russia has also taken further precautions at its airbases. To begin with, they installed blast walls between active aircraft. This was an attempt to contain any damage to one aircraft in an attack, designed to prevent both fire and shrapnel from spreading.

More recently, construction work at multiple bases has been adding many dozens of new hardened aircraft shelters to better shield aircraft from drone attacks and other indirect fire. At the start of this effort, however, the shelters were sized to accommodate smaller tactical jets, and the bombers were not provided with the same kinds of protection. This may also have been a reflection of the specific vulnerability of airfields closer to Ukraine and to the U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles, which began to be used against Russian airbases in late 2024.

Instead, bomber bases were provided with discarded aircraft to serve as decoys. More unusual measures included placing vehicle tires on the upper surfaces of aircraft and painting aircraft silhouettes on concrete airfield surfaces. The tires, specifically, were intended to confuse image-matching seekers on Ukrainian-operated standoff weapons. TWZ was first to spot the strange coverings atop a couple of bombers at Engels in August 2023.

Now, imagery from Engels confirms that the shelters are being extended to Russia’s bombers, too. This marks a significant change in Russian bomber operations, with these aircraft previously having been left essentially unprotected on their airfields, including undergoing maintenance in the open.

At this stage, it’s not clear what level of protection the bomber shelters might offer. The most robust tactical aircraft shelters are understood to utilize steel frames with prefabricated concrete elements on top, which may not survive a direct hit by a large cruise missile, but could defend against many types of drone and cluster munitions strikes.

Another shelter type, this time using curved sections of sheet metal, has also appeared at some Russian tactical airbases, but likely serves as little more than a drone screen against near-field attacks by smaller FPV and ‘bomber’ drones.

Even if the bomber shelters are on the more fragile side, they could provide some degree of protection, especially against smaller drones, as well as shielding operations — and even the presence of bombers — from observers, complicating targeting.

As well as bearing the brunt of long-range cruise missile strikes against Ukraine, Russia’s bombers are a far more precious asset than tactical jets, the most important of which remain in series production.

In contrast, the Tu-95MS (and the Tu-22M3 Backfire-C) have been out of production for decades, while efforts to restart Tu-160 production have moved only very slowly so far.

At the same time, these aircraft are a key element of the country’s strategic military posture, forming one arm of Russia’s nuclear-delivery forces.

The need to provide adequate protection to aircraft — especially for the U.S. military — is something that TWZ has addressed before. Aircraft shelters with varying degrees of hardening are now very much back on the agenda globally, in response to evolving drone and missile threats. There is a growing debate within America’s armed forces and Congress about the value of building new defensive infrastructure for its aircraft, as well as investments in new active air and missile defense and tactics, techniques, and procedures. Except for a few forward deployment locations, the United States does not invest in robust shelters for its combat aircraft, including its bombers. The risks of this situation, including at home in the continental U.S., were highlighted across the media when Barksdale AFB was swarmed recently by drones, with the base’s prized B-52 bombers left largely defenseless on the apron.

Consistent Ukrainian drone (and also cruise missile) attacks have made it clear that Russia’s bomber bases are among the most prized targets for Kyiv. Ukraine’s ability to strike facilities of this kind by various means has now driven the expansion of the program to build protective shelters to Engels Air Base, something that is unprecedented for Russia, even going back to the Cold War. The construction marks a new doctrine of force protection for the Russian bomber fleet, which has suffered losses that are very hard to replace. With Moscow now coming under mass air attack in broad daylight, it appears the threat from long-range strikes is now growing at what is clearly an alarming rate for Russia.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Big Brother star Lily Benson drunkenly booked herself into The Savoy days after she spoke of how she was about to be made “homeless” and was to be evicted from her flat

Big Brother star Lily Benson has treated herself to a night in The Savoy – just days after she claimed she was being made homeless. The The reality star, 21, has carved out a career as an influencer since she shot to fame as a housemate on the 2024 series of the ITV2 reality show, and has kept fans up to date with her day-to-day life since.

Earlier this week, Lily told her followers that she was about to be evicted from her flat and Sunday was her moving out day, but left her packing to the the last minute after getting tickets to a Harry Styles gig.

In her first update on the hectic day, Lily posted a video on Instagram where she looked panicked as she wheeled her belongings out of the flat and wrote: “Note to self. Don’t leave moving to the last day.”

In the next update, Lily wrote: “My temporary housing accommodation,” and could be heard thanking a doorman who helped her with her luggage as she revealed she was staying in the luxury hotel. She added: “I booked this drunk last night.”

In the next slide, Lily had donned the complimentary robe and slippers with the hotel’s branding on them and Kerry Riches, who found fame on the first series of the ITV version of Big Brother and has since appeared on Good Morning Britain as a disability campaigner, commented: “I’m hpwling but you’re gonna absolutely love it. It’s my favourite hotel ever! Xx”

It comes after Warrington-born Lily, who famously spoke about working in a Chinese takeaway whilst in the house and, since moving to London for her showbiz career, has documented long-running sagas such as getting her broken Louboutins fixed, took took to TikTok on Tuesday with a far more bleak update for her followers.

After speaking about a rat problem in her flat, she said: “I’m also homeless, on Sunday I get evicted from my place. I currently have nowhere to go. I had two months to look for a place but I’ve just been busy with my hot girl summer and it’s not been in my vocabulary to look for a place.

But Lily didn’t seem too bothered about her living arrangement, and was more concerned about getting a tan in the coming days as she expressed her confusion over the “retirement” of the Prime Minister.

She said: “So I’m probably just gonna have to get an Airbnb or summat. Or I could go back to Warrington but the UV here is so high. Why would I go back to Warrington when I can’t get a tan there? My Stranded in London content is coming soon.”

“But my main priority right now is I have the Maybelline summer party, and the UV is eight degrees, I’m gonna get a killer tan and listen to heartbreak music. That’s my life update. It’s very solemn. I found out today that Keir Starmer has retired – what the f*** is going on?”

Lily has amassed almost half a million followers across both Instagram and TikTok since rising to fame but admitted that at the time she applied for the reality show, which has launched the careers of This Morning stars Alison Hammond and Josie Gibson as well as fellow presenters like Brian Dowling and Kate Lawler, she only did it as an act of revenge against an ex-boyfriend.

At the time, she told ITV: “I originally applied because it was my ex’s favourite TV show because we broke up. I thought ‘I’m going to go on his favourite TV show.’ I’d never heard of it.

“When I dated him, he was obsessed with it and I was like ‘What is it?’ because he was older. When we broke up, I saw the advert and I thought I’m going to apply for his favourite TV show and get on it – I didn’t think I would!”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

The Williams sisters, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are back at Wimbledon. What year is it again?

The mention of those names may make it feel like we’re stuck in a timewarp – but, no, it is 2026 and some of the sport’s greatest are returning to SW19, in one way or another.

American icon Serena Williams, 44, is making a blockbuster singles comeback after four years away from the sport and also resumes her iconic doubles pairing with sister Venus, 46.

British legend Murray is back at the scene of his greatest triumphs as part of Jack Draper’s coaching team.

Djokovic, meanwhile, is only a week younger than 39-year-old Murray yet is still chasing that elusive record 25th Grand Slam title.

“It’s very special to be here – we have quite a history here. It’s nice to be back in 2026,” said Venus Williams, who has won five singles and six doubles titles at the All England Club.

As one of the highlights of the British sporting summer, Wimbledon never goes under the radar, but the presence of the old guard will help elevate the grass-court Grand Slam in a summer stacked with sporting events.

Eyeballs are inevitably trained on the men’s football World Cup, particularly with England still in the competition, while the women’s T20 cricket World Cup and British Grand Prix are also jostling for the limelight.

The appearance of the legends – along with younger superstars like Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, plus the high-profile return of Briton Jack Draper – will ensure Wimbledon will remain at the centre of attention.

“We’re always unbelievably excited to be part of an exciting summer of sport,” Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker told BBC World Service.

“Every summer there are always other big events on and I think that does add to the buzz around sport in general. We do love being part of that.”

Brent crude edges up as tit-for-tat strikes imperial return to normality in key waterway.

Oil prices have climbed following the latest flare-up in hostilities between the United States and Iran.

Brent crude, the primary international benchmark, rose about 0.9 percent on Monday after tit-for-tat US and Iranian strikes over the weekend renewed doubts about a return to normal shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent futures for August delivery stood at $73.21 a barrel as of 03:30 GMT, 127 cents higher than the day before the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28.

“Brent’s partial rebound this morning reflects a market that had perhaps run too quickly on ceasefire optimism,” Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG in Sydney, Australia, told Al Jazeera.

“Oil had nearly unwound its entire war premium, despite an MoU with no enforcement details and ongoing strikes. Thursday’s attack on a commercial vessel was a reality check, and this weekend’s tit-for-tat exchanges have compounded that,” Yip said.

Asian stock markets were mixed on Monday morning, with losses in Tokyo and Seoul and gains in Hong Kong and Taipei.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was 0.7 percent lower, while South Korea’s Kospi was down 1.9 percent.

Japanese and Korean stocks tied to the AI boom saw some of the biggest losses amid heated debate about whether tech firms’ massive investments in the emerging technology will pay off.

Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group fell about 5 percent, while Advantest Corporation, a key maker of semiconductor testing equipment, slumped 3.7 percent.

South Korean memory chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped about 5 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index and Taiwan’s Taiex both rose, gaining 2.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

“Quarter-end profit-taking is adding to the selling pressure, with investors locking in gains from what has been a remarkable run. The Kospi is up roughly 95 percent this year, and the Nikkei up 37 percent,” IG’s Yip said.

“The underlying concern, however, is whether the AI boom can continue to translate into sustained earnings growth, or whether margin pressure is arriving sooner than the market anticipated.”

US Central Command announced strikes against Iran on Friday and Saturday, citing Iranian attacks on two commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime serves as a conduit for about one-fifth of the global trade in oil and liquified natural gas.

Iran responded to the strikes by launching a series of missiles and drones targeting US military assets in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Washington and Tehran agreed to cease their attacks and renew their negotiations on ending the war, multiple media outlets reported late on Sunday, citing unnamed US officials.

Axios, citing an unnamed senior US official, reported that the sides would hold talks in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.

Iran has yet to comment on the reported agreement to cease hostilities or the planned talks.

US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war on June 17, but the agreement has repeatedly come under strain due to flare-ups in hostilities and disagreements about the meaning of the text.

Four days after twin quakes left 1,450 dead and nearly 69,000 missing in Venezuela, residents and volunteers say they feel abandoned by the government as they race to save lives from the rubble.

REALITY TV star Maura Higgins has everyone asking “Who’s that curl?” as she shows off her latest hairdo.

The Love Island star switched her usual sleek locks for something with a little more volume.

Maura, 35, teamed her new look with a black dress slashed to the waist, black heels and big shades.

She was in the South of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The event is the world’s largest for the advertising and marketing industry.

Maura posted the pics on Instagram.

Read more on Maura Higgins

flirty frock

Maura Higgins’ thigh split dress struggles to cover her up as she parties

stateside dream

Sam Thompson makes major move as he eyes up cracking US like Maura Higgins

She made light of her love for reinventing her image, wrote: “I’ve been about 47 different people this year.”

Since leaving the Love Island villa in 2019, Irish Maura has appeared on some of the biggest shows in the world.

She was on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2024.

Maura later hosted Love Island USA: Aftersun.

Earlier this year she was on The Traitors US — where she was a Faithful and finished runner-up.

In September she will be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars — America’s version of Strictly.

Morgan missed eight Tests after suffering the shoulder injury at Principality Stadium in Steve Tandy’s first game in charge.

The Gloucester-bound flanker returned to play in the 33-31 victory against Barbarians at the Allianz Stadium at Twickenham.

It was an uncapped warm-up game for the Nations Championship tournament which starts with the opening game against Fiji at the Cardiff City Stadium next Saturday before away trips against Argentina and South Africa.

Morgan took over the captaincy at half-time when Lake was taken off.

“I love being back,” said Morgan. “It’s always an honour to be able to put the jersey on and I was chuffed to be back in the field with the boys.

“It was a tough game against a good Barbarians side and it was great to be able to get that win.”

Morgan says he has seen improvements under Tandy since his return.

“It’s been great to be able to watch because you can see how Steve and the coaches want to implement the game,” said Morgan.

“You can see during the Six Nations we’re getting better every game. You could see the identity we were trying to bring through.

“You always want to be out in the field, but it was great to be able to watch the boys play and I thought they did a brilliant job.”

Australian national Simon Peter Carman has been charged with murder after the body of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was found inside a suitcase. CCTV footage appears to show the pair entering a hotel together and Carman leaving hours later with only a suitcase.

Canada beat South Africa 1-0 thanks to a stoppage-time strike by Stephen Eustaquio from distance to reach the World Cup last ​16 for the first time in their history.

We made it. With just days left in Phase I voting, this week marks the last issue of The Envelope, and the last edition of this letter from the editor, until we return with a crop of newly minted Emmy nominees in August.

Until then, may you have a summer as magical as a German soccer fan’s road trip through the American South — and enjoy reading the below highlights from our coverage.

Cover story: ‘Industry’

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

How do “Industry” stars Myha’la and Marisa Abela want the series to end? Let’s just say they are as unsentimental about their characters as series creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay.

“I want there to be a huge statue of Harper Stern in front of J.P. Morgan,” Myha’la says of her hard-charging trader. “And a bird s— on her arm.”

“In her mouth,” interjects Abela, who plays Harper’s No. 1 frenemy Yasmin Kara-Hanani.

After the laughter ringing through the room subsides, though, Abela does allow for a moment of reverence — for the HBO drama if not for the disreputable people who populate it. “I don’t know if I need Yasmin to be happy at the end of it,” the actor says, reflecting on her character’s emergence as a Ghislaine Maxwell type in the Season 4 finale. “I know I want it to feel worthy of everything that has come before… What I love about the show is that [the writers] don’t often backtrack. You commit to something and then you have to live with the f— fallout. Which is savage.”

Read more of our conversation in this week’s cover story.

Writers Roundtable

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Though he joined The Envelope’s 2026 Emmy Writers Roundtable to discuss the return of another beloved comedy, “The Comeback,” we couldn’t resist asking Michael Patrick King about the intense fan reactions to his “Sex and the City” revival “And Just Like That…”

“What happened was, it was really well made, but it wasn’t their Carrie,” he said. “Even though you stand behind it, you go, ‘Wow, that’s a surprise. I thought that they would be interested in 57-year-old women who still hadn’t figured everything out. And instead they wanted them to be 35 and still allowed to be lost.’”

For more juicy tidbits from the minds of of TV’s top writers, be sure to check out the full conversation, which also included Megan Gallagher (“All Her Fault”), Jonathan Glatzer (“The Audacity”), Andrew Guest (“Wonder Man”), Bruce Miller (“The Testaments”) and Sonja Warfield (“The Gilded Age”).

How Connor Hines won over Ryan Murphy

Writer Connor Hines, who translated the real-life relationship between JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette into FX’s major hit “Love Story.”

(Evan Mulling / For The Times)

While our On Writing series of screenwriter essays are always revealing — about the inspiration behind a series, the process of adaptation or the making of a major plot turn, to name just a few — I don’t remember one as candid about the art of the pitch as Connor Hines’. In this week’s issue, the writer behind “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” explains how he prepared to present his vision for the new anthology’s first season to one of TV’s most powerful producers, Ryan Murphy. As it turns out, landing the meeting is not the (only) hard part.

“I spent roughly three months in the trenches with [producers] Brad [Simpson] and Nina [Jacobson], deepening and refining my presentation [to Murphy] — one that I’d recite in the shower, on runs, at Trader Joe’s, while I drove,” Hines writes. “It was a crash course in storytelling, producing, and understanding the alchemy that propelled so many of Ryan’s shows into the zeitgeist.”

More stories from our June 16 issue

Khadijah Farrakhan, longtime wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, died Saturday, the Nation of Islam has announced. She was 90.

“Mother Khadijah” worked alongside her provocative and charismatic husband for decades, helping lead their religious and sociopolitical movement, which espouses Black self-reliance. Its home base was Mosque Maryam on the South Side of Chicago, where the couple lived.

“The Honorable Minister @LouisFarrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you that his beloved wife of 72 years, the first lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased),” a statement by the Shura Executive Council said.

Her death came seven months after devotees had marked Khadijah’s 90th birthday. The statement said funeral services are to be announced.

Mosque Maryam remembered her as “a devoted follower” with “a precious soul, a sweet heart.”

In a post on Facebook, R&B artist ZaRio Son Rise recalled her as “a true queen, a righteous woman, and one of the greatest examples of dignity, faith, loyalty, and grace our generation has ever witnessed.”

Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah Farrakhan married her husband, then named Louis Walcott, in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. The two had nine children. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., died in 2018, and another son, Joshua Farrakhan, died in 2023.

Khadijah Farrakhan converted to Islam in 1955, the same year that her husband joined the Chicago-based movement after being heavily influenced by Malcolm X, his friend from Boston. The pair changed their names around that time.

Louis Farrakhan, who is now 93, stepped into the organization’s leadership vacuum shortly after Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Among his most significant accomplishments was the Million Man March on Washington in 1995.

Two years later, Khadijah Farrakhan spoke before a gathering of America’s Black women in Philadelphia dubbed the Million Woman March.

“A nation can rise no higher than its women,” she told the crowd. “We focus on women, but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family — men, women and children.”

Smyth writes for the Associated Press.

Minutes after the final whistle was blown on Canada’s historic World Cup victory against South Africa on Sunday, coach Jesse Marsch gathered his players and staff in a huge huddle and delivered some words of inspiration to them.

“Canadian heroes,” he called his team after they won a knockout game at the tournament for the first time to reach the last 16.

“The future of the sport in this country is huge because of you.”

Marsch is known for grandiose comments – exaggerated and emotional statements delivered to provide maximum impact.

But his words here ring true – the sport in the country is changing.

“It is starting to become known as football now, not soccer,” one fan told BBC Sport before the match.

“Canada is becoming a football nation.”

That was the objective Marsch set out to achieve when he became Canada boss two years ago, a goal that at the time seemed highly unlikely for a country whose first love is widely regarded as ice hockey.

Mexico hosted this World Cup’s opener while the USA stages the final. Attention has been far greater on the two in the build-up, leaving Canada as something like the forgotten co-host.

But Canada quietly went about its business, building interest and passion for the tournament and their national team from within.

The country’s captain, Alphonso Davies, is used to large, football-mad crowds playing for Bayern Munich and in the Champions League.

However, he has noticed the change in Canada since the World Cup got under way, and said he cried at seeing so many fans clad in red and white in Toronto for their opening game against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“It was surreal because I’ve never seen so many Canadians at a football match before,” he said before the win against South Africa.

“It brought tears to my eyes.”

June 28 (UPI) — Ukrainian long-range weapons struck two major Russian oil refineries on Sunday as President Vladimir Putin promised to ramp up security against Kyiv’s attacks in an address to United Russia party members.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a social media post that the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region and another facility in the Yaroslavl region were hit, accompanying those claims were video showing buildings ablaze with thick smoke pouring into the sky.

The Slavyansk refinery is about 186 miles from the front lines of the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine, while the Yaroslavl facility significantly farther away, at approximately at 434 miles.

Zelensky said Ukrainian forces celebrated the nation’s Constitution Day with the attacks, which continued Kyiv’s recent ramping up of its strikes on Russian infrastructure located far behind the front lines through the use of sophisticated long-range weaponry.

“We continue our operations that weaken Russia’s ability to wage this war,” Zelensky said. “Each of our long-range sanctions means fewer resources serving Russia’s war machine, and another step toward peace.”

Sunday’s strikes appeared to be a continuation of Zelensky’s newly announced 40-day “influence campaign” of using intermediate- and long-range weapons against Russia’s oil infrastructure in a bid to bring Putin to the negotiating table.

The Russian-installed occupation authorities in the Crimean Peninsula announced a regional state of emergency on Friday amid gas shortages shortly after the initiation of campaign.

In Moscow, meanwhile, Putin on Sunday obliquely admitted Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign was affecting Russians’ lives, but then quickly dismissed those concerns.

In a speech to the 23rd congress of his United Russia Party, Putin vowed to improve security and defenses against Ukrainian attacks.

“The congress of United Russia, our leading political party, is taking place at a difficult time — it would be safe to say that it is a pivotal moment for our country and a period of radical and systemic transformation of the entire world,” the president said, while pointing the finger at “Western elites.”

“Once again, Russia is confidently repelling any attempts to deter our progress. We have sufficient resources, means, and political will, and nobody should doubt that,” he declared.

Putin did not mention the wide-scale gasoline shortages being felt around the country but vowed to ensure the security of Russia.

The airport confirmed that it was notified of a bomb threat on a plane and it has been evacuated as emergency services are carrying out investigations

An Australian airport has been evacuated due to a ‘bomb threat’ on board an arriving plane.

Dubbo Airport, in New South Wales, 400km from Sydney, was evacuated on Monday morning (June 29) due to the threat.

All passengers on board the plane have safely disembarked.

Emergency services are carrying out investigations into the threat.

A council statement said: “Dubbo Regional Council was notified of a bomb threat on a plane destined for Dubbo this morning.

“The plane has landed safely and all 74 passengers and crew have disembarked. Further investigations are underway by relevant emergency services.

“The Dubbo Regional Airport terminal has been evacuated and is currently closed.