Al-Bureij, Gaza Strip – A Sack of Flour, an 11-minute documentary by the emerging filmmaker Mona Abu Qass, draws on her personal experience to examine Israel’s use of starvation against Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave.
The film is one of five documentaries by Palestinian women screened Monday at the opening of the second Gaza International Women’s Film Festival, which also marked the official launch of the Gaza Cinema Academy.
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The event took place at the site of the al-Nakheel Hall in al-Bureij, central Gaza, under the slogan “Women Creating Life from Death”. The hall is destroyed, like the majority of buildings in Gaza, after three years of Israel’s war, which has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.
The film captures Palestinians’ struggle to find food in Gaza, the dangers at aid distribution points and the lives lost while trying to obtain flour.
Through Abu Qass’s own experiences, A Sack of Flour explores how the trauma of hunger continues to affect families even after food becomes available again.
Those experiences have renewed relevance as Israeli restrictions on goods entering Gaza and cuts to food assistance have caused shortages and fears of a return to famine.
“The idea for the film stems from a personal experience and a true story,” Abu Qass told Al Jazeera. “It documents daily life in Gaza, weighed down by bombardment, destruction, siege, hunger, and loss.”
“I want to capture details that reveal suffering and people’s determination to hold on to their life,” she added. “I seek to show reality as people experience it and help viewers understand what the war has done to their relationships, dreams, and hopes.”
Beyond Silence, which marks Raghda al-Buhaisi’s directorial debut, portrays the suffering of people with disabilities during the genocidal war on Gaza [Eyad al-Qatrawi/Al Jazeera]
Highlighting struggles of the disabled
Another film, Beyond Silence, by emerging filmmaker and journalist Raghda al-Buhaisi, explores wartime struggles in Gaza for people with disabilities through the story of a deaf artist who never learned to read, write or communicate through sign language. His art studio in southern Gaza’s Rafah was destroyed by Israel, and his parents and several family members were killed.
After being displaced to Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, another family took him in and set up a modest studio by the roadside. His paintings reflect loss and displacement, expressing what words cannot through colour and line.
“I want to highlight the additional challenges people with disabilities face during war, including displacement, family loss, and the destruction of livelihoods,” al-Buhaisi told Al Jazeera. “Art can cross barriers of language and silence, turning an individual experience of pain into a visual message that conveys Gaza’s suffering to the world.”
Alongside those films were three others by emerging Palestinian women filmmakers – Soso: The Lifeline, Remnants of Light, and Dandana. The films document life in Gaza and the suffering brought by war.
Soso: The Lifeline follows an orphaned child and his donkey, who help people survive in Gaza. Remnants of Light follows a filmmaker struggling with the loss of her family and home, while Dandana tells the story of a mother whose eight children were killed, and who turns to Palestinian songs with her surviving family to cope with her grief.
The five documentaries were produced through a filmmaking diploma programme that began in March and brought together 25 young Palestinian women.
The film festival was held under the slogan “Women Creating Life from Death” [Eyad al-Qatrawi/Al Jazeera]
Preserving Gaza’s stories
Festival director Ezzedine Shallah said the films draw on experiences women and girls lived through during the war, offering visual testimony to daily life and giving women space to tell their stories in their own voices.
“Though their subjects differ, the films turn individual pain into broader human stories, revealing war’s psychological and social scars,” he told Al Jazeera. “They preserve stories that might otherwise never reach the screen, transforming suffering into cinematic testimony and bringing Gaza’s stories to audiences beyond its borders.”
The festival, which runs until October 31, features 73 films from 24 countries and offers a broader platform for filmmakers from Gaza and beyond.
But even with events like the festival, filmmaking in Gaza comes with formidable challenges. The destruction of cultural institutions, scarce equipment, limited funding, power and internet outages, and the pressures of war and displacement have severely restricted opportunities for film production. Women filmmakers also struggle to access training, production opportunities and international festivals.
Filmmaker Rima Mahmoud, a co-founder of the festival, said that war and the Israeli siege on Gaza – which predates 2023 – have hindered young women’s filmmaking, pushing some to use simple methods, self-fund projects and document Gaza’s reality even with the difficulties.
“Despite limited resources, these films deserve international exposure,” Mahmoud said. “Their makers need technical and financial support, translation, and partnerships with festivals and platforms.”
The Gaza International Women’s Film Festival took place in a destroyed hall in al-Bureij [Eyad al-Qatrawi/Al Jazeera]
Resisting attempts at erasure
Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri, based in Lebanon and another co-founder of the festival, said the films help young women tell their own stories, resist erasure and preserve collective memory, while building skills and accessing work in Gaza or through digital platforms.
The academy has also developed a filmmaking diploma in cooperation with al-Quds Open University and accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
Masri said that the academy is also now trying to help directors reach international festivals.
“We are seeking agreements with distributors to screen these films in educational and cultural institutions outside Palestine, and through international platforms and festivals focused on women’s and human rights,” she said.
“This would bring the voices of Palestinian women to a global audience, shed light on their human experiences and artistic creativity, strengthen the presence of Palestinian cinema internationally, and open new horizons for young female directors to reach global screening platforms and film festivals,” Masri added.
Coronation Street star Catherine Tyldesley is reportedly set to leave The Good Ship Murder in the Christmas special after taking time out of her soap role to film her exit scenes
22:47, 27 Oct 2026Updated 22:48, 27 Oct 2026
Catherine Tyldesley is reportedly set to leave The Good Ship Murder in the upcoming Christmas special(Image: Getty Images)
The actress, 43, is best known for playing Rovers Return landlady Eva Price on Coronation Street but, since 2023, she has also played the part of First Officer Kate Woods on the hit Channel 5 drama series.
She stars alongside X Factor winner Shayne Ward, who previously played her partner Aidan Connor on Coronation Street and now plays cruise ship singer Jack Grayling on The Good Ship Murder.
A source said: “When Cath decided to leave it was a huge blow to The Good Ship Murder. Bosses had brought Cath and Shayne back together following their time together on Corrie.”
Within the story of The Good Ship Murder, Kate has had an on-off romance with Jack over the course of its three series so far and whilst writers are thought to have considered killing her off, it has now been claimed that she will in fact exit the series alive in case of a potential return.
Speaking to The Sun, the source added: “Initially they thought about killing her off but decided that it would be better to leave the door open for a possible return in the future.
“She filmed the Christmas special back in May and it will see her say a tearful goodbye to Jack ahead of the new series starting next year.”
Channel 5 commissioning editor Greg Barnett previously said: “Audiences have truly embraced the show’s unique combination of mystery, music and escapism, and we are excited to continue Jack’s journey with even more surprises and new faces in store
Executive producer Andy Morgan added: “It’s a bittersweet moment as we bid a fond farewell to a beloved character and friend, but we’re very excited about the next voyage for The Good Ship Murder.”
Shortly before joining Coronation Street as Eva in 2011, Catherine had appeared in Emmerdale and prior to that starred as Iris Moss in the BBC drama Lilies.
She left Coronation Street in 2018 and went on appear on Strictly Come Dancing and in the short-lived BBC sitcom
“We delivered another quarter of meaningful year-over-year improvement in our financial performance with higher sales across all end markets and stronger profitability and cash flow generation.” (CEO, President & Director Ali El-Haj)
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“Having a target on your back means that you’re worried about what someone else is going to do,” she added. “That’s an outcome-based [way of] thinking, and we have to be obsessed with our process, obsessed with our standards.”
As the Bruins prepare to open the season at Pauley Pavilion against Lehigh on Monday, they are focused on getting better every day and following the championship-level process the program established. It’s not their job to worry about what others think about them, forward Sienna Betts said.
“I don’t really care what the media has to say or whatever,” Betts said. “It really is just a matter of what is in these four walls and what we know we’re putting into practice every day.”
UCLA forward Sienna Betts shoots under pressure from Texas’ Breya Cunningham at H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas, on Sunday.
(Scott Wachter / Getty Images)
While the Bruins are maintaining the same championship standards as last year, the group tasked with meeting them looks considerably different than last season.
UCLA will begin the 2026-27 season with five players returning from the championship team, Betts being one of them. None of the returning players were starters, with the top six performers getting selected in the 2026 WNBA draft. The rest of this season’s Bruins consists of seven newcomers, including two freshmen and five transfers.
“We’re not trying to repeat an outcome, we’re repeating a process,” Betts said. “We’re our own group and I don’t think it’s fair to put the weight of last year on this group.”
Close’s roster includes the No. 5 transfer portal class in the nation, according to ESPN. The group includes Donovyn Hunter, who transferred from TCU and described the process of transferring as uncomfortable. She also said adjusting to a new system is difficult.
“We’re going to mess up, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re not going to get it on the first try, but knowing that there’s a coach that’s behind you, that knows you’re going to get to that level has been the most important thing for all of those transfers and the freshmen,” Hunter said.
Three of the five transfers are international players learning English, including Elina Aarnisalo, who returned to Westwood after spending a season at North Carolina.
UCLA guard Donovyn Hunter drives to the basket in front of Texas’ Breya Cunningham in Cedar Park, Texas, on Sunday.
(Scott Wachter / Getty Images)
“We spent a lot of time together … so that’s helped us on court and obviously practicing every day,” Aarnisalo said. “… Even though there might be a language barrier, sometimes we’re just spending time together and learning [from] each other so that relationship part comes pretty naturally for all of us.”
Regardless of the language barriers, Betts said building the team’s chemistry is a good start and a work in progress as they enter the start of the season.
“I think our connection on the court, it’s really showing and we’re still just learning how to play with each other. … It takes time,” she said. “The team last year, they were playing with each other for four years and over.”
Even with the added pressure that comes with last year’s championship run, Aarnisalo isn’t worried about the expectations. She’s enjoying the kind of media attention the Bruins are getting.
She’s happy the returning players were able to lift the trophy last year and says the exposure that goes with it is an opportunity to show off the newly reloaded UCLA team.
“We’re making our own process out of this,” she said. “Obviously, the standards are the same, like it’s championship standards, but it’s completely new people, new personalities. [We’re] just trying to create our own storyline for this year.”
Quinn brings new perspective to UCLA
Breeze coach Noelle Quinn directs players during an Unrivaled game against the Laces on Feb. 27 in Medley, Fla.
(Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Images)
After spending 12 years as a professional player and six years coaching in the WNBA, Noelle Quinn has returned to Westwood. She is a two-time WNBA champion, winning a title as a player and a coach.
“I have not been able to find anyone else that has won a conference championship in college, a WNBA championship as a player and as a coach,” Close said. “You don’t think when she talks, they listen?”
The fourth overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft has had an influence among the UCLA coaches, with Close noting associate head coach Tony Newnan told Quinn during a staff meeting that she was making him a better coach.
On the court, Quinn’s defensive expertise is creating an environment that has helped Bonnie Deas get excited about playing defense.
“I love defense and she brings so much energy to our defensive side of the game,” Deas said. “She’s so switched on with our scout and film, she makes defense really, really exciting.”
Betts describes her defensive presence as calming.
“I love the way she just talks and the way she talks about defense and just the game,” she said. “She brings such warmth to this gym.”
The media reports come a day after Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro hand over passport as part of money laundering probe.
Published On 27 Oct 202627 Oct 2026
A senior US State Department official has said that the Trump administration will issue visas to Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and his family, allowing them to enter the US after news outlets reported that Bolsonaro had fled Brazil following his loss in the country’s presidential election.
The news came on Tuesday, one day after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to turn over his passports as part of a probe into alleged money laundering. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and said on Monday that he would stay in the country and lead the opposition.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has previously accused members of the Bolsonaro family of courting US interference in Brazilian affairs for their political benefit, called the right-wing senator’s actions shameful.
“This is what the Bolsonaro family is like,” Lula said. “Brazil is their second nation, the US is their first.”
Bolsonaro, the son of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, initially refused to acknowledge the election results and said he would seek their annulment. His party released a statement on Monday saying it accepted the results of the election, which the conservative candidate lost by more than 4.4 million votes.
US President Donald Trump reacted by casting doubt on the election result, telling reporters it “looked like another rigged election”.
No evidence has emerged that the vote was marred by malfeasance. While critics seized on a last-minute decision to extend polling hours, Lula’s eventual victory was commanding, and the extension was unlikely to change the outcome.
Serbia has released the first footage of its TSMB M-25 heavy self-propelled mortar in action, revealing an unusual artillery system that puts a massive 203mm weapon on a comparatively light, six-wheeled truck. The system is designed to hurl projectiles weighing around 220 pounds at targets up to approximately seven-and-a-half miles away, bringing super-heavy firepower to a platform that looks surprisingly modest for the job.
The Serbian Ministry of Defense published the brief footage in a larger video montage, seen immediately below, but has not disclosed when or where the firing tests took place or what they demonstrated. Regardless, the M-25’s configuration alone makes it stand out.
Tehnološki razvoj odbrambene industrije Srbije i doprinos povećanju borbene moći Vojske Srbije
A TSMB M-25 heavy self-propelled mortar in a firing position. Serbian Ministry of Defense/screencap
The Teški Samohodni Minobacač (TSMB, translated as heavy self-propelled mortar) M-25 was developed by Serbia’s state-owned Military Technical Institute and first appeared publicly at the Partner 2025 defense exhibition in Belgrade. Its design lineage stretches back to the Yugoslav M-65 155mm howitzer, itself a licensed copy of the widely used American M114, first introduced in World War II.
Artillerymen of the 24th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, fire 155mm howitzers in the Korean War. Public Domain
The M-25 takes that heritage in a different direction, with a 203mm barrel measuring 24 calibers in length and an automated loading mechanism for mortar projectiles. The mortar barrel has an elevation range from 0° to 75°, and the barrel must return to 0° in elevation for the next round to be loaded from the muzzle end.
The standard 203mm mortar bomb weighs around 220 pounds, including approximately 60 pounds of explosive material. This results in a claimed destruction radius of around 250 feet, using impact fuzing.
The system is intended to fire both high-explosive and concrete-piercing ammunition, making it particularly suited to attacking hardened positions and fortifications. Developers have also provided for rocket-assisted projectiles to extend its range and precision guidance kits to improve the accuracy of compatible rounds.
The weapon is mounted on a FAP 2026 three-axle truck in a 6×6 configuration, a general-purpose off-road type made by Serbian vehicle manufacturer Fabrika automobila Priboj. This platform provides a range of 500 miles and a top speed of 50 miles per hour on the road. The vehicle has an armored cab for a crew of four, while its fire-control suite includes an inertial navigation system, a ballistic computer, communications equipment, and a dedicated gunner’s computer. The same truck has also been adapted to mount a 152mm gun/howitzer, under the name NORA B-39.
The NORA B-39 mounts a 152mm gun/howitzer on the same FAP 2026 three-axle truck chassis. Serbian Ministry of Defense
The wheeled chassis is the defining feature of the M-25. While a weapon of this size would normally be either towed or mounted on a large tracked vehicle, Serbia has opted for a lighter truck-based arrangement. This offers advantages in road mobility and makes the system easier to move between firing positions, using “shoot and scoot” tactics. A general-purpose truck is cheaper to acquire and operate, and easier to maintain. It can also be more easily transported by air, although out-of-area operations are not generally on the Serbian Armed Forces’ agenda. However, its cross-country performance and overall survivability will be reduced compared to a tracked chassis.
TSMB M-25 heavy self-propelled mortar firing a round. Serbian Ministry of Defense/screencap
The M-25 is intended to deliver heavy fire against targets such as bunkers and other fortified positions, then relocate before an opponent can respond. Its relatively short stated range compared with many modern 155mm howitzers makes it a specialized system rather than a direct replacement for conventional long-range artillery. Its appeal lies instead in combining a very large projectile with a comparatively compact and mobile platform.
Mortars have a long and grim history in the Balkans, particularly during the wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The steep trajectories of mortar rounds made them useful in the region’s mountainous terrain and in fighting around fortified positions and during sieges, while their ability to deliver indirect fire meant crews could engage targets without a direct line of sight.
A visitor looks at infantry mortars at an exhibition of Serbia’s armed forces in Nis, southern Serbia, on February 14, 2024. Photo by SASA DJORDJEVIC / AFP SASA DJORDJEVIC
As far as we know, the M-25 is the only 203mm mortar in current development and/or production. There are a few larger mortars on mobile platforms, notably Russia’s 2S4 Tyulpan, a 240mm self-propelled mortar, but this is on a significantly bigger tracked chassis.
At approximately 19 metric tons, the M-25 is substantially lighter than the 2S4 Tyulpan, which weighs around 27.5 metric tons. Its tracked platform reflects a very different approach to moving super-heavy mortar firepower around the battlefield. The Tyulpan can deliver a 300-pound standard mortar round to a range of around six miles, or up to 11 miles away when using rocket-assisted rounds.
A Belarusian-operated 2S4 Tyulpan (nearest camera) during joint maneuvers with the Russian military. Russian Ministry of DefenseRussian artillerymen fire a 2S4 Tyulpan during a live-fire exercise. Russian Ministry of Defense
Serbia claims the M-25 has a rate of fire of up to three rounds per minute, thanks to the automated loading mechanism. In contrast, the Tyulpan can hurl a maximum of one round every 62 seconds. Indeed, its sluggish rate of fire is one of the reasons that saw it fall from more widespread Russian use.
There are still important unknowns. The newly released footage does not establish whether the advertised firing rate was achieved, how the weapon performs under sustained fire, or whether the system has entered operational service. Serbia has shown the M-25 at an exhibition and now in live-fire footage, but detailed test results have not been made public.
Still, the concept is striking: a high-mobility wheeled truck carrying a 203mm mortar is a distinctly different take on super-heavy firepower, but one that might just find a niche in the Balkan environment.
GEORGE Ezra has given fans a glimpse into life away from the spotlight — revealing the recording studio he has built in his hometown.
The Shotgun singer has been quietly working behind the scenes on Hotel Québec in his hometown of Hertford, opening its doors to other musicians.
George Ezra has given fans a glimpse of his life away from the spotlightCredit: Getty Images – GettyThe Shotgun singer built Hotel Québec recording studio in HertfordCredit: Getty
While his own social media accounts have been silent since July 2024, George has been pouring his energy into creating a space where artists can write, record and rehearse.
Originally created for his own musical projects, the studio has since become a business welcoming other performers and producers.
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In a message on its website, George described his venture as a “truly special place” and shared his excitement about welcoming fellow musicians.
He said: “I look forward to hearing what you create here at Hotel Québec.”
George has opened the doors of his studio to fellow musiciansCredit: AFPGeorge scored three consecutive UK No1 albumsCredit: Shutterstock
Set inside a restored 18th-century listed building near the River Lea, the studio features a huge live room, control room and lounge.
There is even a roof terrace where musicians can relax between sessions.
And visiting artists can get their hands on George’s personal guitar collection, alongside an array of keyboards and recording equipment.
The studio marks a new chapter for the singer, who became a household name with breakthrough hit Budapest.
The track reached No3 in the UK, while his debut album Wanted On Voyage topped the charts in 2014 and went on to sell more than a million copies here.
He followed it with Staying At Tamara’s in 2018, scoring another No1 album and spawning hits including Paradise and Shotgun.
The latter became his first UK No1 single, cementing his status as one of Britain’s biggest pop stars.
His success was recognised at the 2019 Brit Awards, where he was crowned British Male Solo Artist.
The dad of one completed a hat trick of chart-topping albums with Gold Rush Kid in 2022, which featured the hit singles Anyone For You and Green Green Grass.
Earnings Call Insights: Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) Q3 2026
Management View
“We had a solid third quarter leasing over 1.2 million square feet” and “we expect that to contribute importantly to fourth quarter projected leasing of about 1.25 million square feet” (Founder & Executive
Seeking Alpha’s Disclaimer:This article was automatically generated by an AI tool based on content available on the Seeking Alpha website, and has not been curated or reviewed by humans. Due to inherent limitations in using AI-based tools, the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of such articles cannot be guaranteed. This article is intended for informational purposes only. Seeking Alpha does not take account of your objectives or your financial situation and does not offer any personalized investment advice. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank.
US president seeks to underscore Latin American military operation, as Iran war causes midterm affordability threat.
United States President Donald Trump has featured a ship he said is carrying Venezuelan oil during a visit to Texas, where he will hold two rallies one after the other in the hopes of boosting Republican chances in a make-or-break Senate race.
Speaking at Corpus Christi on Tuesday on his fourth trip to the state this campaign season, Trump pointed to a ship in the distance.
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“It’s got 1 million barrels of oil on it from Venezuela,” he said, adding the cargo was “thanks to our big victory in our recent war with Venezuela”.
The emphasis on the oil comes as US consumers have wrestled with high fossil fuel prices amid the US-Israel war with Iran, a key issue in the upcoming midterm elections.
“We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” Trump said.
It was not immediately clear under what pretext the oil had been shipped or whether the details Trump gave were correct. The US had received crude oil shipments from Venezuela before the US abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, but those transfers have increased this year.
In August, the Trump administration announced a deal giving the Pentagon a 35 percent stake in North America Blue Energy Partners, a new company overseeing 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The White House said in September that the first shipment from the deal would likely hit US reserves in November, although experts have cast doubt on whether the deal will have any short-term impact.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Trump referred to the shipment as a “gift” from Venezuela. The country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, has not commented on the specific shipment.
At the rally, Trump also floated making Venezuela the “51st state”.
Key race
Trump’s frequent visits to Texas underscore the state’s significance for Republicans.
Trump endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Republican primary over incumbent Senator John Cornyn. The scandal-ridden Paxton now faces a punishing contest against Democrat James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian.
Polls have regularly shown Talarico leading Paxton, although that lead has largely remained within the margin of error. A RealClearPolitics average of polls had Talarico leading Paxton by 1.7 points.
Talarico’s victory would mark a sea change in a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994.
It would also represent a major rebuke to Trump, whose Republican Party is fighting to maintain its narrow control of the Senate. Democrats are widely projected to take control of the US House of Representatives in the November 3 vote.
Talarico has used the final stretch of the race to focus on years of corruption allegations against Paxton, while drawing a contrast to voters’ affordability concerns.
“Ken Paxton represents everything that’s wrong with this broken, corrupt system,” he said during an event in Houston last week.
Paxton has sought to portray Talarico as too “radical” for Texas, saying his policies would hurt a state known for its pro-business policies.
Trump and other administration officials, notably Vice President JD Vance, have regularly focused on cultural issues, distorting Talarico’s past comments on transgender rights and border security.
Speaking in Corpus Christi, Trump repeated those attacks and urged his supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot.
“If you go out, and if you all vote, we win in a landslide,” Trump said.
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. Why does the US keep going to war, and can voters stop it?
The United States is once again at war in the Middle East, and most Americans say it isn’t worth the cost.
Al Jazeera’s Josh Rushing asks why the US keeps fighting: oil, a $2.4 trillion defence industry, lobbyists or a political system that rarely holds anyone to account?
Retired General Mark Kimmitt and journalist Spencer Ackerman debate why, and whether voters can end the forever wars.
Contributors:
Mark Kimmitt – Retired US Army brigadier general and former assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs
Spencer Ackerman – Journalist, author and writer of the Forever Wars newsletter
THE dreary Coronation Street cobbles were left behind on Tuesday as soap star Ryan Prescott prepared for a new role in a Hollywood film.
The actor, best known for playing Ryan Connor in the long-running ITV show, has won a part in director Rocky Rodriguez Jr.’s forthcoming comedy drama, Waif.
Coronation Street star Ryan Prescott celebrated his first week on the set of new film Waif this week, by sharing a photo with writer-director Rocky Rodriguez, Jr (left) and co-star Jason Flemyng (right)Credit: InstagramThe actor was also joined by British star Dexter Fletcher, who also features in the new filmCredit: Instagram
Currently filming on location in London, Ryan, 37, shared a selfie with established co-stars Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher during a break between scenes.
Sharing the photos with Instagram followers, he wrote: “We are rollllliiiing, first week in to the WAIF shoot and loving it, thank you all for the amazing energy on set!” [sic]
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The actor is best known for playing troubled Ryan Connor in ITV soap Coronation StreetCredit: ITVHe joined Rodriguez, Jr for a playful Instagram selfie during a break between scenes on TuesdayCredit: Instagram
The Mancunian actor will play ‘a drifting art collector living life on his own terms amid the skateparks, guitar shops and art openings of east London.’
Actress Helen Foster has been cast as Prescott’s romantic interest in the new film, writer-director Rodriguez Jr.’s third feature.
In 2023, Ryan’s character was badly burned while protecting a friend from a vicious acid attackCredit: ITVThe actor joined Coronation Street co-star Lucy Fallon on the red carpet at the 2026 National Television AwardsCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Commenting on the post, one enthusiastic follower wrote: “Love this!!!!!!”
A second added: “Love it .. smash it Ryan. Can’t wait to see it.”
While a third shared: “Top drawer actor my favourite on the cobbles at the moment.”
Ryan broke into acting with a short-lived role as Flynn Buchanan on ITV soap Emmerdale before winning a prominent role on Coronation Street in 2018.
Drafted in to play the returning Ryan Connor, a role previously played by Ben Thompson, and later, Sol Heras, the actor has tackled a series of turbulent storylines on the hit soap – among them a bitter feud with gangster Ronald Truman.
Connor was left with horrific burns to his face and neck after protecting intended target Daisy Midgely from the attack, orchestrated by crazed stalker Justin Rutherford.
Discussing the storyline on This Morning shortly after the episode aired, Ryan said Coronation Street would be focusing on his character’s slow recovery long into the future.
“That’s one thing we wanted to include was to have some longevity within the parameters of soap, which obviously moves very quickly,” he confirmed.
“We wanted to have some kind of longevity in the aftermath.
“Acid attack survivors go through hundreds of operations, multiple skin grafts and quite often a lifetime of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We want to show the different stages of his recovery.”
The official results are due to be published on November 4, more than a week after the vote.
Published On 27 Oct 202627 Oct 2026
Exit polls following what many pundits and voters have billed as the most pivotal election in Israel’s history indicate no clear winner in the hard-fought contest.
According to exit polls, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is projected to secure 50 seats, while the bloc led by opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot is expected to win 52 or 53 seats. Sixty-one seats are needed to form a majority government. Arab parties are projected to collectively win 18 seats.
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Polling stations closed at 10pm (20:00 GMT) local time. Preliminary results are expected on Wednesday, followed by a final tally on Friday. The official results are due to be published on November 4, eight days after the vote.
Exit polls are based on interviews with voters immediately after they have cast their ballots. The interviews help project the election’s outcome and have in previous elections tended to anticipate the results closely.
Voter turnout in the Israeli election reached 74.3 percent as of 8pm (18:00 GMT), according to data released by the Central Elections Committee. By comparison, turnout in the 2022 election was 70.63 percent.
Polls predicted a tight race between incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leading opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party and a former army chief.
Israel’s Central Elections Committee rejected a request by Netanyahu’s Likud Party to extend voting hours.
The election is the first since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza three years ago, following Hamas-led attacks on the country, and is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s handling of the events on October 7, 2023 and the conflicts that followed.
Arsenal’s match with Fleetwood Town in the last-16 of the Carabao Cup was delayed for more than eight minutes after a drone was flown above the stadium during the match.
Referee Michael Salisbury stopped play with one minute and 40 seconds on the clock after spotting the drone flying above the pitch while Arsenal waited to take a free-kick at Highbury Stadium.
The game was halted while the referee spoke to the management and staff on both benches with police also investigating.
The match got back underway with 10 minutes on the clock; the commentator on Sky saying police had located the drone operator.
KELLY Osbourne was reduced to tears while spending quality time with her infant son on Tuesday – after brother Jack reunited with their estranged sister.
The TV personality choked up after son Sidney, four, her only child with ex-fiancé Sid Wilson, presented her with a thoughtful gift for her 42nd birthday.
Kelly Osbourne struggled to hold back tears after opening a thoughtful gift from son Sidney on her 42nd birthdayCredit: kellyosbourne/ InstagramMeanwhile, younger brother Jack was reuniting with their estranged sister Aimee in Los AngelesCredit: BackGrid
Reading the trinket’s accompanying message for social media followers, she said. “When life turns you upside down, look ahead and don’t look round.
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“Even in stillness you can see, your strength awakened, alive and free.”
Sharing a video of the moment with Instagram followers, she wrote: “If today was not emotional enough already, but then my favorite little man in the world went and did this!
Kelly broke down after Sidney gifted her a bat shaped keyring – a reference to her late father, Ozzy OsbourneCredit: kellyosbourne/ InstagramOver in Los Angeles, Jack and Aimee were accompanied by their mother SharonCredit: BackGrid
“I’m so lucky that I get to be his mummy! He truly is the best thing that has ever happened to me!”
Kelly was celebrating her second birthday without Ozzy, who died of heart failure in 2025Credit: kellyosbourne/ InstagramShe shared her special moment with Sidney, her only child with ex Sid Wilson, on social mediaCredit: kellyosbourne/ Instagram
Recent photos show the TV personality hugging his eldest sister, 43, as their mum Sharon watches on.
Jack – who took part in last year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! – is also shown warmly embracing his mother.
The pair have been feuding for years, with Kelly admitting she felt Aimee was “embarrassed” of the family.
Aimee, 43, who famously opted out of appearing on the family’s iconic reality show, The Osbournes, is accused of “never truly acknowledging” her siblings.
In an emotional interview on Paul C Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, Kelly, 42, expressed deep resentment over never having a supportive older sister, and explains why she has cut her out of her life permanently.
Asked of there was hope for a reconciliation, she said: “No… I respect her, I accept her, but we’re different, and that’s okay…
“If you’re not going to accept me for who I am, and constantly be trying to change me and say horrible things about me, and truly seem to thrive when I’m not doing well, I don’t want you in my life.”
The Osbournes aired on MTV from 2002 to 2005 and ran for four series.
Romania has great tech and is the region’s top energy producer, yet it’s mired in an economic slump.
This article appears in the November issue of Global Finance Magazine.
For investors, southeastern Europe’s largest and most diversified country remains a mystery.
Renowned for its potential, Romania boasts a thriving information, communications, and technology sector; unicorn start-ups such as automation software company UiPath; and regional stars like OMV Petrom, the region’s largest energy producer; renewables producer Hidroelectrica; and Automobile Dacia. But development has gone badly off track, making Romania an outlier to the region’s upbeat picture.
Romania recorded negative growth of 0.8% in the first half of 2026, down from just 0.7% for all of last year, according to the latest Regional Economics Survey from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The fiscal deficit, the current account deficit, and inflation remain either the highest or among the highest in the EU.
A dramatic drop in foreign direct investment inflows, from €3.4 billion ($3.82 billion) in the first half of 2025 to just €527 million in the first half of this year, suggests difficulty in covering a predicted 2026 current deficit of €14.2 billion, leaving Romania heavily dependent on EU fund inflows, which have increased 32.5% year-over-year to €5.16 billion.
What Went Wrong?
Romanians are being hit by steep hikes in energy and food prices and persistently high inflation. But much of the blame for the country’s failure to address these problems lies with its fractured, ineffectual political class, which has blocked attempts by successive coalition governments to control spending and carry out structural reforms.
Romania has been without a government since May 5, when one of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats, sided with the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians to block a package of spending cuts intended to address a rising budget deficit. Since then, Bolojan has been unable to pass a budget or form a new government, causing the Romanian leu to depreciate and dramatically boosting inflation and borrowing costs.
“Romania’s political class is doing what Italy’s did in the late 20th century, ramping up spending and debt to unsustainable levels,” said Charles Robertson, head of Macro Strategy at consultancy FIM Partners. “Bond markets now price Romania as a junk bond country, although the rating agencies have it just inside investment grade, all with a negative outlook.”
In its last review, on July 31, Fitch Ratings affirmed Romania at BBB- Negative, citing “deteriorating public finances due to large, albeit declining, fiscal deficits and rising government debt/GDP.”
Malgorzata Krzywicka, director on Fitch Ratings’ Emerging Europe Sovereign team, expects Romania’s economy to contract by 0.6% this year, bringing average real GDP growth to just 0.3% in 2024-26, compared with 4.7% in 2015-19. Potential growth has fallen from about 3.5% before the pandemic to closer to 2%.
“The key challenge,” she said, “is whether private investment and recent structural reforms can offset these trends as EU funding gradually normalizes from recent peaks and public investment becomes a less powerful growth driver.”
Can Confidence Be Restored?
Yes, but Romania’s political class must get its act together, said Radu Cracan, regional, policy & strategy economist at the EBRD.
“We strongly advocate for better and more reliable governance, more targeted and private sector-facing economic policymaking, more innovation, and better skills and human capital,” he said. “Ensuring a predictable regulatory and fiscal environment will be critical for foreign investor confidence.”
That’s a tall order for a country that has long puzzled investors by failing to make progress on these fronts.
Nic Wirtz is a contributing writer based in Guatemala.
ByEric Tucker, Michael Kunzelman and Alanna Durkin Richer
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday scolded the Justice Department for its unorthodox handling of a criminal case against two former FBI officials accused of making false statements to Congress about their knowledge of a laptop the Justice Department says belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden.
U.S. Magistrate Zia Faruqui struck from the record an amended criminal complaint filed in the middle of the night by the Justice Department that added a new obstruction charge against the two former officials, Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Such charging documents require sign-off from a judge that probable cause exists that a crime was committed by a defendant, and this complaint lacked that.
“It is not our court’s practice — and I think it is appropriately not our practice — that unsigned complaints are filed on the docket,” Faruqui said.
He later added: “I want to know why the United States is reticent or averse to putting before a probable cause determination that you must believe is righteous. Why today on this one case have you changed the entire history of how you charge cases?”
The dismissal of the superseding complaint was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that has undertaken a series of splashy and politically charged investigative actions in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections. But the original false statements case against the former officials, announced Friday, remained intact as Faruqui proceeded Tuesday with a preliminary hearing.
The case says officials falsely minimized what they knew
The case accuses the former officials of falsely playing down their knowledge about a laptop the Justice Department says Hunter Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in 2019.
But beyond that, it represents a Trump administration broadside against a since-disbanded FBI task force that was set up to monitor foreign influence. Congressional Republicans have long criticized the task force, saying it tried to discredit their own investigations into the Biden family.
Defense lawyers were set to challenge the case at the preliminary hearing Tuesday in Washington’s federal court, including by highlighting the unusual fact that the ex-FBI officials were charged via a criminal complaint signed by a magistrate judge rather than an indictment voted on by a grand jury. The Justice Department repeatedly has struggled in high-profile cases to persuade grand juries in the nation’s capital to return indictments.
Hours before the hearing, the Justice Department added a new obstruction charge that said the former officials’ alleged false statements allowed them to avoid questioning about their knowledge of Hunter Biden and impeded an investigation by House lawmakers into the Bidens.
“What is going on at the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office?” lawyers for Floris asked in a statement early Tuesday. “In the middle of the night, the government filed an unsigned and unsworn complaint attempting to fix the issues with their original charge against Ms. Floris and adding a new charge just as meritless as the first one.”
“In our combined decades of DOJ service,” the lawyers said, “we have never seen or even heard of something like this being filed.”
It is a very intricate saga
The prosecution, a rare Justice Department criminal case against a former employee, revisits a tangled saga that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race after the New York Post revealed the existence of a laptop it said had been dropped off by the younger Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop about a year earlier.
The Post said it obtained a hard drive of the laptop from Rudy Giuliani, a close ally of President Trump, and reported on some of the contents of the computer, including emails that appeared to show some of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
The curious circumstances of the laptop’s discovery raised concerns among Democrats and former intelligence officials about the possibility of Russian involvement, particularly when the Trump administration’s own intelligence community had assessed that Moscow was attempting to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who went on to defeat Trump in 2020, and as Giuliani had traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens.
But Trump’s then-national intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, quickly sought to quell speculation about the laptop’s provenance by saying there were no signs it had anything to do with Russian actors. The FBI said it had nothing to add to Ratcliffe’s statement and investigated the younger Biden on gun and tax charges that later resulted in felony convictions. President Biden pardoned his son in late 2024.
The accused led the Foreign Influence Task Force
The FBI officials under scrutiny, Floris and Benavides, were leaders of the Foreign Influence Task Force, which was established in the first Trump administration to police influence campaigns staged by Russia and other nations aimed at sowing discord, undermining democracy and spreading disinformation.
In that capacity, the FBI officials briefed Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson in August 2020 as the lawmakers were doing their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. News of the briefing leaked, and the senators lashed out at the FBI, saying their efforts to scrutinize the Biden family had been discredited and falsely linked to Russian disinformation.
The criminal complaint accuses them of lying to lawmakers in 2023 by denying contemporaneous knowledge of the Biden laptop or participating in internal FBI conversations about it. Their lawyers have denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
The task force was disbanded in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Tucker, Kunzelman and Richer write for the Associated Press.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the London Palladium to try to get a glimpse of the biggest stars in football on the red carpet. A security perimeter of metal fencing and barricades had been erected to try to keep those without a ticket out.
But the BBC Sport team witnessed those barriers being scaled, broken and ripped down and several people being evicted by security after making their way through.
The atmosphere at times was tense, with footage on social media appearing to show fans clashing with security and police.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told BBC Sport that officers were requested to help “after concerns were raised about crowd behaviour and the potential for a breach of the peace”.
“A Section 35 dispersal order was authorised at 19:49 GMT and was in place until 04:00 on Tuesday, 27 October,” a statement read.
“Officers cleared the crowd, who began throwing scaffolding clips and bricks towards police. No officers were injured.
“Later in the evening, officers dealt with a relatively small number of individuals who had climbed a neighbouring building.”
It added that two arrests were made – one for breaching the dispersal order and another for affray and violent disorder.
United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has sparked uproar with comments he has made denying Arab contributions to mathematics, science and literature.
In a high-voltage rant on Monday, the US health secretary said, “There’s five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science. They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They don’t win the Fields Prize. They don’t win the Wolf Prize. They don’t produce literature.”
RFK Jr, who has been involved in anti-vaccine campaigns and has promoted a debunked theory linking vaccines to autism, made the comments during a US election campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan while supporting Republican nominee Mike Rogers, who is up against Arab-American Democrat nominee Abdul El-Sayed, in a tightly contested battle for Michigan’s Senate seat in next week’s midterm elections.
Critics said the comments were racist, Islamophobic and factually inaccurate, pointing to modern and historic Arab innovation in multiple fields.
Here’s how Arabs have made vital contributions to the human understanding of maths, science and literature through the centuries.
Arab contributions to maths, science and humanities
The period known as the Islamic Golden Age, from around 750 AD to 1258 AD, produced many key Arab contributions to medicine at a time when Europe was said to be in its Dark Ages. During this time, Arabic was the language of science and scholarship.
1st-4th centuries: The numerals 0-9, which originated in ancient India, were adopted by Arab mathematicians who spread them across the world. They displaced Roman numerals as a more advanced number system in mathematics.
8th century: Arab and Persian mathematicians were studying the ancient Indian concept of zero in mathematics in Baghdad, long before the Europeans. The number zero was crucial to the development of mathematics – but was absent from widely used Roman numerals in Europe.
813-833: The Arab mathematician Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi – one of those studying the number 0 – is often referred to as the “father of algebra” as he was the first to treat the method as a separate mathematical discipline in his work, Al-Jabr. This method provided the first linear and quadratic equations, still used as a core part of mathematical study today.
965-1040: Ibn al-Haytham, known as the “father of modern optics”, explained the role that light entering the eye plays in human vision. He was born in Basra in Iraq, but spent most of his working life in Cairo attending to noble families.
936-1013: Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, called “the father of modern surgery”, was considered the greatest surgeon in the Middle Ages. He wrote a 30-volume encyclopaedia detailing medical practices and designed and illustrated many surgical instruments. Born in Azahara, in Andalusia, he was known as Abulcasis in Europe.
9th century: Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco. It is often cited as the oldest continually operating university.
1213-1288: Ibn al-Nafis described pulmonary circulation – the process by which blood passes through the lungs – several centuries before Europeans understood it. He wrote more than 110 volumes of work on surgery, ophthalmology and philosophy while working as a chief physician in Egypt.
915-965: Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, regarded as the greatest poet in the Arabic language, was Yemeni and grew up immersed in Bedouin Arabic culture. He wrote in classical Arabic and many of his verses became sayings used in everyday Arabic.
1100-1165: Muhammad al-Idrisi was a geographer known for making the Tabula Rogeriana, one of the most accurate and detailed medieval world maps, and a high point of Islamic geography. He was born in Ceuta in Morocco.
A view of a sign reading ‘The Norwegian Nobel Committee’ inside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, October 6, 2023 [File: Tom Little/Reuters]
Prize-winning Arabs
In more modern times, RFK Jr’s assertion that Arabs do not win Nobel prizes for science and literature is very far from the truth. Here are some of the highlights:
1960: Nobel Prize for Medicine
Peter Medawar won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for work on for work on acquired immune tolerance, which underpins organ transplantation. He was born in Brazil to a Lebanese father.
1966: The Fields Medal
Michael Atiyah won the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award for mathematics, in 1966. He was born in London to a Lebanese father and Scottish mother. Educated in Egypt, he spent much of his childhood in Cairo and Khartoum.
1988: Nobel Prize for Literature
Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his body of work, including the Cairo Trilogy, which the Swedish Academy said formed “an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind”. He is still the only winner of the prize who wrote in Arabic.
1990: Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Elias James Corey won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing retrosynthetic analysis. He is an American of Lebanese descent.
1993: Wolf Prize for Chemistry
Egyptian Ahmed Zewail won the Wolf Prize for Chemistry. The Wolf Prize is an international award which has been presented to living scientists and artists every year in Israel by the Wolf Foundation since 1978.
1999: Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Zewail also won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for pioneering femtochemistry, which is the study of chemical reactions on extremely short timescales. He also won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1993.
2005: Nobel Peace Prize
Egyptian scientist Mohamed ElBaradei shared his Nobel Prize with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which he led.
2018: Wolf Prize for Chemistry
Omar M Yaghi, born in Jordan to a Palestinian refugee family, won the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for work on metal-organic frameworks. He shared the prize with Japan’s Makoto Fujita. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) condemned his acceptance of the award because the prize is awarded by an Israeli foundation.
2023: Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Moungi Bawendi won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. He was born in France to a Tunisian father, but based in the US.
2025: Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Yaghi also won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing metal-organic frameworks. These are crystalline materials with large internal cavities that can capture and store gases, harvest water from air, and trap pollutants. He shared the prize with Susumu Kitagawa from Japan and Richard Robson from Australia.
In a post on X, vaccine scientist Peter Hotez of the Texas Medical Center weighed in on historical Arab scholarship, saying, “It was the Arab scientists of the Middle Ages who kept Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen alive to hand it down in the Renaissance.”
Broadcaster Mehdi Hasan described RFK Jr’s comments as “racist” and, in a post on X, wrote: “One of the men who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year was a Palestinian-American, Omar Yaghi.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for the US health secretary to be removed. It said: “To stand on a public stage as a sitting US cabinet official and dehumanise half a billion people – and millions of Muslim and Christian Arab Americans – with fabricated, white supremacist talking points is utterly disqualifying for public office. His sweeping erasure of Arab contributions to humanity is not only maliciously false, but it also fans the flames of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate at a time when communities are already vulnerable to bigoted attacks from other public officials nationwide.”
An experienced keeper at a Dutch zoo has died days after being mauled in a leopard enclosure, the safari park has confirmed.
The woman, who had worked at Beekse Bergen park for 40 years, was caring for two Persian leopards in an indoor facility when she was attacked on Saturday.
She sustained injuries to her head and neck but despite undergoing surgery, the park confirmed her death on Tuesday.
An independent investigation will be launched into the incident, it added in a statement.
Announcing her death, Beekse Bergen – in the south of the Netherlands – said the keeper began her career there when she was 17 and had worked there on-and-off for four decades.
“Her passing has deeply affected us all, and our hearts go out to her family, friends, and loved ones. At this moment, our primary focus is on supporting her family and her colleagues,” the statement added.
The two leopards, which are usually kept away from staff, had been brought inside due to bad weather conditions.
It is not clear exactly what happened in the enclosure because there are no CCTV cameras inside.
Local news website NL Times reported that despite her injures she managed to alert colleagues via her walkie-talkie. She was then taken to hospital in a helicopter in a critical condition before she died days later.
A park spokesperson told Omroep Brabant, a local media outlet, that the leopards were behaving naturally and they would not be euthanised.
“They are, and remain, predators.”
Beekse Bergen said it would create a memorial location for guests and staff members to share their condolences.
Susan Saint James, the TV star who shared the screen with Rock Hudson as his on-screen wife in “McMillan & Wife” and co-led the heartfelt, blended family comedy “Kate & Allie” with Jane Curtin, has died.
The Los Angeles native died Monday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to People, which first reported the actor’s death. She was 80.
Saint James’ family remembered the actor for her warm personality and kindness, writing in a statement shared with the magazine, “Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment, from a fellow board member to the clerk at the shoe store, who usually walked away knowing her entire life story.”
Her acting career spanned almost six decades — she broke out as Peggy Maxwell in NBC series “The Name of the Game” — from the mid-1960s to the 2020s across TV and film, but audiences know the actor best for starring as Hudson’s detective wife in “McMillan & Wife.” The NBC series, which aired from 1971 to 1977, centered on San Francisco police commissioner Stuart “Mac” McMillan and wife Sally McMillan as they solve a variety of crimes. Saint James earned four Emmy nominations for her work.
She pivoted to film and TV movies after the series ended, garnering roles in “Love at First Bite,” “The Kid from Nowhere,” and “Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder.”
After nearly a decade away from the TV series scene, Saint James returned in CBS’ unconventional sitcom, “Kate & Allie.” She starred as Kate McArdle, one of the series’ titular divorcées who decide to raise their children under the same roof. Saint James’ Kate was the modern and no-nonsense counterpart to Curtin’s old-fashioned, sweet Allie. The series aired from 1984 to 1989 and earned Saint James two additional Emmy nominations.
When the stars and creative team of “Kate & Allie” reunited amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Saint James reflected on how the show was representative of a same-sex household and how mothers raising their own children related to the show’s material. She and her co-stars also said they knew at the time that the series was something special.
“It wasn’t like we went back and said, ‘You don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone.’ It was just fun,” she said.
Saint James mostly stayed away from Hollywood in the decades following “Kate & Allie,” save for brief appearances in series including “Law & Order: SVU,” “Suits” and “Upload.” She notably found herself in the spotlight again in the early 2000s, but for family tragedy.
Her son Edward “Teddy” Ebersol died at age 14 in a 2004 Colorado plane crash that also claimed the lives of two other people. Teddy Ebersol, whom Saint James shared with husband and former NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, was aboard a chartered Canadair CL-601 Challenger jet with his father and older brother, Charles, on Nov. 28, 2004, when it crashed during takeoff in light snow and freezing temperatures from the airport near Montrose, Colo. The pilot and a flight attendant were also killed in the crash. Dick and Charlie sustained injuries in the crash, and a copilot was critically injured.
“Here’s the bad part … I’ve never touched his clothes, I’ve never been able to move his things,” Saint James told Oprah in a 2006 interview. She continued to speak publicly about her grief in the following years.
“The thing that could move me on was that I could embrace Teddy finally in a way that was, ‘he’s my kid,’” she said during a 2009 panel on grief. “They can take his body, but I own that boy and I love that boy.”
Beyond her screen work and family tragedy, Saint James was also known for her longtime advocacy in the sports world. Saint James supported the mission of the Special Olympics since an early iteration of the games in California in 1972. The first Special Olympics was held in Chicago in 1968.
In a statement published Tuesday, Special Olympics said Saint James “believed deeply in the power of inclusion” and she served as a board member and a campaign co-chair for Special Olympics Connecticut. Her advocacy included founding the annual Susan Saint James poker tournament fundraiser. The organization’s Susan Saint James Leadership Award honors individuals who “embody her remarkable spirit of leadership, generosity, and dedication to our mission,” the post said.
“Thank you, Susan, for being an extraordinary champion of our athletes,” Special Olympics added in its statement. “Your legacy will live on through the lives you touched and the inclusive future you helped build.”
The actor, born Aug. 14, 1946 and raised in Rockford, Ill., received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008 and partially attributed her success in the industry to her connection with Special Olympics. Former California first lady Maria Shriver, daughter of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, attended the ceremony.
During that ceremony, Saint James said she managed to achieve her dream of becoming a Hollywood movie star “through the good works of a lot of wonderful people that created a loving and home-like environment for me all those years.”
“But the thing that really contributed to my success and happiness with my career was coupling it up with the work that I did with the Special Olympics,” she said, adding, “you can guess that being associated with them turned out to be getting to know some pretty amazing people since I’m now really cozy with the first lady of the state of California.”
Saint James was married three times, first to scriptwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968, according to People. She remarried in 1971 to makeup artist-turned manager Thomas Lucas. They share two children — daughter Sunshine and son Harmony — and divorced in 1977.
Saint James remarried to then-NBC executive Dick Ebersol after they met in 1981 when she hosted “Saturday Night Live.” They welcomed children Charles, William and Edward (Teddy.)