News Desk

DANNY Cipriani’s ex-wife Victoria has made a wild claim about his Hollywood star girlfriend AnnaLynne McCord. 

Rugby ace Danny, 38, split from Victoria, 43, in November 2023 and went public with 90210 actress AnnaLynne, 38, in April last year. 

Before their split, Danny and Victoria revealed they lost a baby boy – who they named River – at 24 weeks. 

Now Victoria has claimed AnnaLynne, who has also trained as a Reiki practitioner, messaged her to say she had been in touch with their late son. 

In a sensational social media post hitting back at accusations she’s faced since splitting from Danny, she wrote: “As for Danny’s new partner, I wish her luck.

“I am sure when she contacted me to say my dead son had contacted her, she meant well.” 

DANNY BOY

Danny Cipriani’s playboy life…Kelly Brook ‘punch’ to ‘threesomes with porn stars’

DAN AND DUSTED

Danny Cipriani made my life hell & saddled me with debt, says star’s ex-wife

The Sun has reached out to reps for Danny and AnnaLynne.

Last week Victoria spoke out about her split from Danny, insisting that he left her with no explanation and in debt.

Speaking to The Sun, she said: “I do not know to this day why Danny left. There was no row, no red flags.

“I’ve still got his toothbrush, his clothes, underwear — he only took a few jogging bottoms.

“We were sat on the sofa watching telly and he stood up and said, ‘If I go now can I come back?’.

“Danny took a lot of drugs and had mental health issues, so I tried to just go along with him.

“I just said ‘OK’ and he left.”

But the hours turned into days, and the mum of two was shocked when Danny announced their split on Instagram.

She said: “That was the first I’d heard of it. It was so hurtful.”

Danny later alleged Victoria had stolen money from his ill mother and was guilty of financial misconduct towards him

She said: “He took the allegations to the police and I was subject to a criminal investigation for seven months.

“I didn’t steal anything from Danny or his mum and have been cleared by a court of wrongdoing. It was a lie.”

Dec. 2 (UPI) — U.S. prison officials released former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández after U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him, Hernández’s wife revealed Tuesday.

Trump announced his plans to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández in a Truth Social post Friday. A U.S. court convicted Hernández in 2024 of trafficking drugs to the United States and sentenced him to 45 years in prison and an $8 million fine.

Trump said Juan Orlando Hernández had been “treated very harshly and unfairly.”

Citing prison records, the BBC reported Hernández was released from the high-security USP Hazelton prison in West Virginia.

Ana García de Hernández, the former president’s wife, announced his release on social media Tuesday, thanking Trump for his freedom. Renato Stabile, Juan Orlando Hernández’s attorney, also offered his thanks.

“On behalf of President Hernández and his family, I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice,” Stabile said, according to CNN.

“President Hernández is glad this ordeal is over and is looking forward to regaining his life after almost four years in prison.”

Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress denounced Trump’s plan to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández given his crackdown on drug trafficking linked to immigration.

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt blamed Juan Orlando Hernández’s on the Biden administration.

“This was a clear Biden over-prosecution. He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party,” she said. “He was opposed to the values of the previous ad.”

Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year sentence for drug conspiracy, received ‘full and unconditional pardon’, lawyer says.

Authorities in the United States have released former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for drug trafficking, after US President Donald Trump pardoned him.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Renato Stabile, confirmed that the former Honduran president was freed on Tuesday, a day after being pardoned.

“President Trump has issued a full and unconditional pardon, signed, Dec 1, 2025. President Hernandez was released from prison early this morning,” Stabile told Al Jazeera in an email.

A federal prison database showed that Hernandez was released from a detention centre in West Virginia after spending more than three years in US jail.

Last year, Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years for involvement in a scheme to export cocaine in the US, which prosecutors described as “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world”.

Trump announced plans to pardon the former Honduran president last week as he called for the people in the Central American country to back right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a member of Hernandez’s party.

“I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

“This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura wins the Election, when Honduras will be on its way to Great Political and Financial Success.”

Hernandez was convicted of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from violent drug-trafficking organisations over 18 years, which he used to fuel his rise in politics.

“During his political career, Hernandez abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the US,” the US Justice Department said after he was sentenced last year.

“Hernandez’s co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads as they transited across Honduras on their way to the United States, protect the money they made from the eventual sale of this cocaine, and guard their drug-trafficking territory from rivals.”

During his trial, Hernandez denied taking bribes from drug dealers, arguing that he cracked down on the narcotics trade and citing his administration’s cooperation with the US military.

Trump’s pardon of Hernandez comes at a time when his administration is carrying out deadly air strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean that it says are carrying drugs – a campaign that critics say violates domestic and international law.

Trump has also been issuing threats against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after accusing him without evidence of leading a drug cartel that the US labelled as a “terrorist” group.

Washington has also been ramping up its military presence in the Caribbean in what it calls an anti-drug trafficking operation, which raised speculations about a possible war to topple Maduro.

Pardoning Hernandez has intensified criticism of the Trump administration’s approach to Latin America.

“As President, Juan Orlando Hernandez personally helped the Sinaloa Cartel and El Chapo traffic deadly drugs into the United States. Drugs that killed Americans,” Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said in a social media post on Monday.

“But instead of standing with law enforcement who brought Hernandez to justice, Trump is letting this criminal go free.”

In Honduras, an election took place on Sunday, but the race is still too close to call, with sports journalist Salvador Nasralla leading against Asfura by only hundreds of votes.

Trump – who continues to falsely claim that his 2020 election loss to former US President Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud – is already casting doubt over the outcome of the vote in Honduras.

“Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “If they do, there will be hell to pay!”

The fandom behind hit sci-fi series “Stranger Things” is a force to be reckoned with. Netflix said Tuesday that the show’s roughly two-hour finale will be available for viewing in 150 more theaters than previously announced.

The last episode to the sci-fi show’s final season will be released on Netflix Dec. 31 and in more than 500 theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. Previously, the streamer said it would be in more than 350 theaters.

While Netflix has brought show episodes to theaters in the past, it generally releases many of them on its streaming service. Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said in an interview last month that the decision to bring the “Stranger Things” finale to theaters came after a conversation with the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, and “we thought it was a really fun way to eventize it.”

“You can watch it at home, you can go out to the theater and watch that last episode … it has amazing cinematic scale,” Bajaria said.

The Duffer brothers told Netflix’s Tudum that bringing the finale to theaters is “something we’ve dreamed about for years.”

“Getting to see it on the big screen, with incredible sound, picture, and a room full of fans, feels like the perfect — dare we say bitchin’ — way to celebrate the end of this adventure,” they said.

Already, enthusiasm for the show has been tremendous. Analytics firm Samba TV estimated that 39% of U.S. households that had watched at least one episode of “Stranger Things” season 5, had binged all four available episodes within the first 48 hours. Netflix declined to comment on Samba’s data.

After the first four episodes of season 5 were released last Wednesday at 5 p.m., Netflix on TV devices were down for a few minutes.

The next three episodes will be released on Christmas Day, followed by the finale on Dec. 31.

The show’s fourth season ranks as the third most-viewed English language series on the service in its first three months, generating 140.7 million views, according to Netflix.

The show’s throwback to the 1980’s and its themes of friendship and adventure struck a chord with global audiences. It has become one of the most popular franchises within Netflix and helped propel the streamer’s business in live events and branding opportunities.

On Tuesday, Netflix announced many brand partnerships and consumer products with various retailers, including a KFC Stranger Things Burger and Stranger Wings in the U.K., a 2,593-piece Lego set and a Care Bears collaboration where Grumpy Bear is dressed as a Demogorgon. Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement that it was “the largest collection of products and experiences in ‘Stranger Things’ history and one of our biggest campaigns yet.” Netflix has at least 100 consumer product collaborations worldwide related to “Stranger Things’” final season, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named.

“For nearly a decade, the Stranger Things franchise has made an undeniable cultural impact and leaves a lasting legacy,” Lee said.

In addition to “Stranger Things” merchandise, Netflix has hosted fan events around the show, including a bike ride in collaboration with non-profit CicLAvia on Melrose Avenue on Nov. 23, where more than 50,000 fans participated and were encouraged to dress up in 80’s attire or as “Stranger Things” characters.

The Trump administration is now determining what the future holds for Ukraine, and by extension for Europe, in matters of territorial integrity, sovereignty and security. Washington aims to make a deal to end the full-scale war Russia launched in February 2022 that Russian President Vladimir Putin has waged against Ukraine, even if it means abandoning longstanding international principles that prohibit the recognition of territory acquired through military occupation.

For Europe more broadly, and the European Union in particular, however, there is far more at stake than those principles, which Washington has rarely prioritised in its own foreign policy.

Deterring Putin from further aggression, and ensuring that Ukraine is stable both politically and economically, lies at the core of the bloc’s security and political concerns. A settlement to the conflict that fails to achieve either would risk the bloc’s own long-term security.

Of course, all of this must be managed while ensuring that the Trump administration does not itself further endanger European security by once again casting doubt on its commitment to NATO’s security infrastructure. But Europe has already, if belatedly, begun to wake up to these concerns. By last year, 23 NATO members were spending the target 2 percent of GDP on defence, and the alliance agreed a new goal of raising core defence spending to at least 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035, with up to another 1.5 percent of GDP to be spent on critical infrastructure and on expanding their defence industrial bases.

More immediately, Europe has also surpassed the US for the first time since June 2022 in total military aid for Ukraine, with 72 billion euros ($83.6bn) allocated compared with Washington’s 65 billion euros ($75.5bn) by the end of April, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker.

Yet, regardless of the outcome of the Trump administration’s efforts to push Ukraine towards a negotiating position that Putin might be willing to accept, the increased European support is not enough to offset the standstill in US funding. Military aid is also only one part of the picture: Kyiv is dependent on the West’s fiscal aid as well, to ensure the continued functioning of its government. And the bill for reconstruction only continues to grow as Russia’s assaults and aerial attacks continue. In February, the World Bank estimated it at $524bn (506 billion euros) —about 280 percent of Kyiv’s 2024 GDP.

Without dramatic action, Europe risks being left to Trump’s whims as to its future security, despite having bowed to his demands not only on NATO spending and military support for Ukraine, but also on trade through agreements that have seen the US’s average tariff rate on imports from the EU and UK rise sharply.

But there is a clear policy choice that Europe can make to ensure that financial support for Kyiv remains sufficient over the coming years and to shape the outcome of any settlement to the conflict, while simultaneously further deterring Putin.

The European Union and the United Kingdom can move to confiscate the sovereign Russian funds frozen in their jurisdictions since 2022. Most importantly, they can seize the 185 billion euros ($214.8bn) frozen at the Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear – the majority of which is now in cash and can thus rapidly be deployed or reinvested – as well as the Russian government funds frozen at Euroclear’s Luxembourg-based rival, Clearstream, which are estimated to amount to around 20 billion euros  ($23.2bn).

Europe is not unaware of this possibility, and in fact, it has been debating doing so for months. The Euroclear assets have already been used to underpin an earlier $50bn (43 billion euros) loan to Ukraine finalised in January 2025, which is secured over earnings from those assets.

Europe had been expected to advance a plan to create a new loan – one amounting to as much as 140 billion euros ($162.6bn) – secured over the assets at the European Council meeting on December 18-19, after delaying a final decision at the previous council meeting on October 23. The delay was largely due to obstinacy from the Belgian government, which has demanded indemnification from the rest of Europe while endorsing Kremlin talking points that such a move would be unprecedented.

Yet there is ample precedent. German and Japanese government assets were seized by the United States in the course of the second world war. In the latter case, Japan’s assets were even frozen before the attack on Pearl Harbour, the majority of which were later retained under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951.

The Kremlin’s threats to tie up Belgium in decades-long litigation are also overblown. They rely on a pre-Soviet-collapse bilateral investment treaty that Putin and his proxies have already failed to invoke successfully to unfreeze their assets or challenge previous sanctions. Additionally, there are dozens of unresolved claims worth tens of billions of dollars against Russia in European courts — including the roughly 13-billion-euro ($15bn) arbitration award won by energy firm Uniper against Gazprom for disruption to gas supplies in 2022. The largest and most significant case remains the 2014 award to former shareholders of Yukos, over the Kremlin’s expropriation of their company. That award survived all appeals: in October 2025, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands rejected Russia’s final challenge, confirming that the award — now valued at more than $65bn, including interest — is final and enforceable against Russian state assets worldwide. Enforcement, however, will still depend on locating suitable Russian assets that courts are willing and able to seize.

The Kremlin will certainly engage in lawfare and litigation over these disputes, as it has repeatedly throughout Putin’s tenure. But it will lose, and when its national interests are at stake, it will pay. Russia has repeatedly complied with adverse rulings when vital access to Western markets or assets was at stake. The only clear-cut cases of either the West or Russia returning funds owed as a result of litigation arising from Russia’s war have been the settlements paid by Russian state insurer NSK and aviation firm Aeroflot over Putin’s 2022 seizure of aircraft leased from Western companies.

There is no excuse for Europe’s delays in acting thus far. Every month of inaction increases both the financial burden on Europe and the likelihood that Washington will strike a deal that sidelines European interests. The question is now a critical one: how to ensure Ukraine’s continued financing and its ability to sustain its defence. It is also all the more important that Europe act before the Trump Administration tries to secure a deal with the Kremlin over its head.

The 28-point “peace plan” formulated by Kremlin insiders and signed off by Trump’s special envoy and long-time associate Steve Witkoff last month not only includes carving up these same frozen funds and even demands that Europe itself provide a further $100 billion, but would also divert frozen Russian assets away from Ukraine’s reconstruction while imposing an additional financial burden directly on Europe. Such a deal would leave Europe footing an even larger bill if the Kremlin fails to adhere to its commitments — as it did with the ceasefire agreements struck in 2014 and 2015 following its initial invasion of Ukraine.

Europe has the leverage to advance its political, economic and military security in the negotiations over Ukraine’s future, and it must not be afraid to use it.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Red Bull Racing will pair another new driver with Max Verstappen after Isack Hadjar replaced Yuki Tsunoda for next year.

Isack Hadjar will replace Yuki Tsunoda as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate next season, with Arvid Lindblad joining Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls, the Formula One (F1) teams announced on Tuesday.

Frenchman Hadjar, 21, has made a big impression in his debut season with sister team Racing Bulls, including taking his first podium with third place in the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

British-born Lindblad, who also has Swedish nationality and Indian heritage through his mother, moves up from Formula Two to partner with Lawson and will be the sole rookie on the 2026 grid.

Tsunoda’s departure leaves Formula One without a Japanese driver on the starting grid. Red Bull said he will remain in the team as a reserve.

Hadjar is the third driver to fill the second Red Bull Racing seat in the past 12 months.

Lawson was named as the replacement for Sergio Perez in December. The New Zealander was then replaced by Tsunoda in March after the opening two Grand Prix of 2025.

Verstappen will compete for the fifth straight World Drivers’ title at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

Brooklyn Beckham and his wife, Nicola Peltz. have been involved in a bitter feud with David and Victoria ever since swerving the England star’s 50th birthday in May

Brooklyn Beckham appears to have been offered a chance to make amends with his famous family following their ongoing feud, which erupted this year.

In May, the self-confessed ‘nutter in the kitchen’, 26, and his wife, Nicola Peltz, 30, reportedly left the newly appointed Sir David Beckham ‘heartbroken’ when they swerved his 50th birthday, which was attended by all of Brooklyn’s siblings.

The family has been estranged ever since, with some sources blaming Nicola for the fallout while others claimed David and Victoria needed to do more to patch things up with their firstborn – who is very close to his wife’s family.

READ MORE: Holly Willoughby pleads guilty to knocking man off bike while drivingREAD MORE: Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay wedding feud in full and comments ‘that got mum banned’

Neither Brooklyn or his parents have commented directly on the drama. However, David’s mum, Sandra, seems to have offered her grandson an olive branch – just in time for Christmas.

After Brooklyn posted a video of himself wrapping up a bottle of his hot sauce for the festive season, Sandra hinted that she wanted to see the wannabe chef, replying: “Is that for me?”, followed by a string of sweet emojis.

It comes after Victoria also had Brooklyn in her thoughts for Christmas as she shared a video from her mum Jackie’s house with all the grandkids’ stockings hanging up.

Addressing her followers as she zoomed in the decorations, which including a stocking with Brooklyn’s name on it, she said: “So I’m here at my mum and dad’s house and look how cute.

“They’ve got all of the grandchildren’s stockings up ready for Christmas.

Last week, Brooklyn’s brother Cruz also hinted that he wanted to make amends as he posted a cryptic message on Instagram.

Sharing a close-up shot of himself, looking sombre, he wrote: “Life is too short to be silence, at least talk it out,” with a crying face emoji.

David and Victoria are reportedly spending Christmas with various extended family members, including Victoria’s mother, Jackie – while Brooklyn will be in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Nicola.

Claiming the Beckhams are ‘getting used’ to not seeing Brooklyn, a source told us: “David and Victoria are coming to terms with not having Brooklyn around as much, they’re saddened but they’re accepting it.

“But it’s the grandmothers who are really feeling it. They adore Brooklyn; they had such a close bond with him. He loved them dearly, but now they don’t see him.”

Sources claim that both Jackie and Sandra were also ‘very surprised’ to learn that Brooklyn and Nicola had renewed their wedding vows earlier this year without informing them.

The couple were then notably absent when Victoria celebrated the launch of her Netflix docuseries with family members in October. The fashion designer was surrounded by her closest kin at the London premiere, while Brooklyn and billionaire heiress, Nicola, were thousands of miles away in Beverly Hills.

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

Dec. 2 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to hold talks on Ukraine on Tuesday with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, amid a renewed push by the White House to end the war.

Witkoff brought with him a revised version of a 28-point peace plan first floated by Trump in the middle of November, seen as being strongly weighted in Moscow’s favor. The new plan was drawn up by U.S. officials in consultation with Ukraine and European diplomats.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Tuesday’s summit, due to get underway at around 5 p.m. local time, would be for “as long as necessary,” but with mounting progress on the frontline of the war in recent days, Moscow has been openly signaling it believes it will succeed with or without a deal.

The Kremlin visit, Witkoff’s sixth in 10 months, came after U.S.-Ukrainian negotiations over the weekend in Miami ended inconclusively, with the parties saying they had gone well but that more work was needed to resolve outstanding issues.

Encouraged by Russian forces’ progress on the battlefield, including claims Monday to have taken the key Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk in Donetsk and Vovchansk in Kharkiv after year-long sieges, Putin has made it clear he is not prepared to soften his demands and Trump and his team will need to apply more pressure on Ukraine.

Putin has also capitalized on a corruption scandal embroiling Ukrainian officials, some very close to President Volodymyr Zelensky, including his lead negotiator, Andriy Yermak, who was forced to resign Friday.

Russia’s maximalist demands require Ukraine to hand over territory in the Donbas that it still holds, the removal of any path to NATO membership and shrinking the size of its military, as well as succumbing permanently to Russia’s sphere of influence in disputed areas by adopting its language, culture and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Experts set low expectations for the Witkoff-Kushner mission.

“The main expectations likely boil down to maintaining a high-level communication channel during this crisis period. This in itself considered important for avoiding dangerous escalation,” said political analyst Ilya Grashchenkov.

As recently as last week, Putin responded to the latest initiative by telling reporters that the war would end when Ukrainian troops pulled out of the territories they occupied, threatening that if they did not do so, Russia would remove them by force.

On a heavily publicized visit to the frontline on Sunday, Putin again showed little sign he was about to embark on peace talks, attacking the “criminal policies” of Zelensky’s administration, which he said was a “thieving junta” that had seized power illegitimately.

However, while Grashchenkov said that Russia’s mounting economic woes might force Putin’s hand further down the line, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center senior analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Putin was banking on Ukraine losing Western support for continuing the war, the more territory it lost.

Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati of Al Shifa Hospital says that despite Israeli attacks on Gaza’s health system, Al Shifa Hospital is demonstrating resilience and has managed to reopen.

BRAVE Gladiators star Fury will dance on for Strictly Christmas to honour her dad, who tragically died this weekend.

Jodie Ounsley has been training hard for the BBC festive special ahead of filming next Tuesday.

Fitness fanatic Phil Ounsley, 56, suffered a suspected heart attack on one of Yorkshire’s three peaks on Sunday.

Paramedics battled to save him while rescuing him from the 2,277ft peak Pen-y-Ghent – but it is believed to have been too late.

Jodie, 24, shared the devastating news online yesterday and confessed she was “heartbroken”.

The Gladiators favourite is one of six stars appearing on the Strictly Come Dancing show on Christmas Day, but the tragic news had thrown her involvement in doubt.

READ MORE ON JODIE OUNSLEY

RUGBY STAR

From rugby hero to Gladiators star – all about Jodie Ounsley AKA Fury

JINGLE BELLS

Gladiators star signs up for Strictly Christmas special as she joins line-up

Now it has been revealed she will continue with training.

A source said: “Jodie is devastated but wants to dance on in her dad’s honour. He always taught her to dream big and was so excited about all the exciting changes in her life after becoming a Gladiator, so she knows he’d want her to continue.”

Jodie posted on Instagram on Monday: “Heartbroken. Yesterday, my dad suddenly passed away while doing one of his favourite things—walking Pen-y-Ghent.

“He had hiked that peak countless times throughout his life, but none of us knew he wouldn’t walk back down that day.

“I don’t have the words. All I can say is that he was, and always will be, my absolute hero.

“He encouraged me to dream big and loved me wholeheartedly, and for that I will be forever grateful.

“Until we meet again, Dad.”

A source said: “Phil was perfectly fit and healthy. His death has come as such a shock to all who knew him.

“He was such a genuinely great guy and did a lot for charity. And he was always exercising and pushing himself to help others.

“Phil is the last person you would expect something like this to happen to due to the lifestyle he lived.

“It is such a surprise for his wife Jo, daughter Jodie and son Jack and his whole family are all obviously devastated.”

Fitness fanatic Phil, of Dewsbury, West Yorks, is thought to have been training for his social media series Big Phil Gets Fit.

He was a former West Yorkshire Police cop who also competed in the World Coal Carrying Championships and ran a cat hotel.

Jodie played for England‘s rugby sevens team as well as Sale Sharks and the Exeter Chiefs.

She was forced into an early retirement aged just 23 because of a shoulder injury, but has put her rugby skills to good use in her new role.

Jodie was born deaf and wears a cochlear implant, and in appearing on the show she has followed in her father’s footsteps – her dad Phil was a contender on the 2008 reboot.

She is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu British champion and a five-time World Coal Carrying champion.

Dec. 2 (UPI) — Voters in central Tennessee are heading to the polls Tuesday for a special election that could be a bellwether for how party control of the U.S. House of Representatives will shake out in next year’s midterm elections.

Those who live in the 7th Congressional District just west of Nashville will decide between former state Department of General Services Commissioner Matt Van Epps, a Republican, and state Rep. Aftyn Behn, a Democrat, in the election.

The special election was called in response to the resignation of Republican Rep. Mark Green, who was first elected in 2018.

In 2024, 60% of voters in the district voted for the re-election of President Donald Trump.

While the district has historically leaned Republican, redistricting in 2020 made the 7th District slightly less rural and could give Democrats the chance to whittle away at the Republican control of the U.S. House.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate, said he’s noticed a political shift in the district. He spoke Monday at a virtual rally for Behn.

“Having had the privilege of representing Tennessee in years past, I want to tell you that I have never seen the political tides shift as far and as fast as we’re seeing them move in this election,” he said, according to CNN.

Behn, 36, was elected to the Tennessee legislature’s 51st District in Davidson County in 2023 as part of a special election to replace the late Rep. Bill Beck. She won re-election in 2024.

Before that, she was an activist who pushed for affordable cost of living, Medicaid expansion and fought against hospital closures in rural areas, USA Today reported.

Endorsed by Trump, Van Epps, 42, was relatively unknown in the world of politics before receiving the backing of a billionaire-funded super PAC. He’s a combat veteran who served 10 years in the U.S. Army with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

NPR reported the election has received more than $6.5 million in funding, including some $1.6 million coming from a pro-Trump super PAC.

BBC

Hillsborough inquests

‘Cruel’

Picture 14-year-old Tim Blake Nelson sitting at dinner in Oklahoma, delivering a 25-word book report on Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” The assignment came from his father; literary discussion was expected to ensue. “I grew up at a dinner table at which frivolous conversation rarely occurred,” Nelson said. “Books were really revered in our home.”

We spoke over Zoom about Nelson’s particularly literary childhood while he was at a film festival in Poland. His second novel, “Superhero,” hits shelves this winter. It’s a gentle Hollywood satire — and any resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, you know, coincidental.

As an actor, Nelson broke through in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” co-starring with George Clooney and John Turturro. With his hangdog face and authentic Oklahoma twang, he might have spent the last 25 years playing dim-witted yokels. But he’s carved out an expansive and varied career as an actor, moving between blockbusters, indie film sets and the MCU.

Tim Blake Nelson has more than 100 screen acting credits, including the Coen Brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” for which he learned the guitar from his son.

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

“Superhero” riffs on those experiences, with the details obscured by what Nelson called “a lot of smudging.” This kaleidoscope of a novel follows several characters trying to make a franchise film for a comics-based studio — the star, his producer wife, the director, the cinematographer and more. Each has a rich past wanting to create art, a yearning that eventually comes into conflict with the project of making a $160-million movie.

Take, as an example, the director of photography, a character named Javier Benavidez. As an adolescent, he learns about the process of light and shadow transforming into photographic images, described in vivid detail. “That chapter used to be twice as long,” Nelson said. “Photography has been a lifelong passion of mine, and it was absolutely unbridled pleasure being able to write about the process of putting images on film.” Benavidez’s artistic skills are what the studio wants for the film — within limits.

There is an obvious pleasure in portraying Hollywood throughout the novel. Nelson invents a studio, Sparta Comics, and the franchise character, Major Machina, giving each a full backstory. The attention to detail extends into how the character was developed post-World War II and how they’re updating it to the present day.

“It was certainly my intention, to use a world I know really, really well, to examine bigger issues in American culture,” Nelson said. “So you’ve got on the surface level, the big question of why did these movies come out of America? Why did comic books come out of America? And why did they capture the imagination of not only America, but the entire world for well over a decade?” Or, he suggested, even longer. “And is that a good thing?” Characters in the novel grapple with all these questions.

At its center is the star, Peter Compton, a larger-than-life genuine movie star, a Sexiest Man Alive-type who has had a public reckoning with his addiction and recovery. Aided by his wife, he’s reached a very good place: “The more time he spent with her, the better his life got, as if the trust of such a cohesively decent soul engendered success in anyone closely associated, particularly as pertained to business opportunities,” Nelson writes. The novel is full of these understated, wry contradictions — a decent soul with a gift for making good deals.

Compton is impossibly charming, effortfully erudite, and enjoys the status that comes with his stardom. He can make big demands, like bringing along his private chef and upending the production schedule at the last minute.

Something like that really did happen. “There is nothing in the novel that I haven’t either experienced personally or heard from a very reliable source,” Nelson said. Which we can take to include the anxious director who brings along what he insists is not an emotional support dog, a star saging the set each day and an assistant producer who appears with a luxury sports car way above his pay grade.

“There is nothing in the novel that I haven’t either experienced personally or heard from a very reliable source,” Tim Blake Nelson says.

(Dutch Doscher / For The Times)

Nelson is actually quite a polymath. First came photography, then came acting. The first film he wrote and directed, “Eye of God” starring Martha Plimpton, was released in 1997 and adapted from his own stage play. He’s written and directed indie films, including “The Gray Zone” and the forthcoming “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd.” He’s written and performed in plays, most often found in New York. He’s also done plenty of TV, perhaps most notably in 2019’s “Watchmen.”

Nelson has more than 100 screen acting credits, including two Steven Spielberg films (“Minority Report,” “Lincoln”) and two Coen Brothers pictures, including their last collaboration, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” for which he learned the guitar from his son.

Given that history, it might be surprising to hear that Nelson, so well known as an actor, thinks novels can reveal things film can’t. “Pictures cannot take you into what a character is thinking and feeling. You can infer, but you can’t know in the way that you can in a novel,” he said. “The writer can tell you as close to the truth about what a person is thinking and feeling and seeing as you’re going to get.”

Since he was a child, Nelson has been a reader, particularly devoted to fiction. “I’ve been reading one novel or another nonstop since I was about 9 or 10 years old,” he said. He easily reels off a list of the last dozen books or so he’s read, including “Sons and Daughters” by Chaim Grade, “The Oppermanns” by Lion Feuchtwanger and Lawrence Wright’s novel “The Human Scale.” But it took him until his 50s to turn that avocation into a vocation (of a modest sort).

He’s published both his novels with Unnamed Press, an L.A.-based independent, beginning with “City of Blows,” which came out in 2023. “My agent sent it to Chris Heiser at Unnamed. I really love that house because they’re very small and he’s a really good editor,” Nelson said. It was Heiser who suggested cutting some of the text about photography.

“The photography chapter was really fun for me twice as long, but it was going to be a barrier to entry, because that’s early in the novel. I had to be more selective than I wanted to be, just by virtue of trying to make the thing work better,” Nelson admitted. Then he added, “I’ve spent a lot of time looking at Ezra Pound’s edit of ‘The Waste Land,’ and he cut three quarters of it.” It’s the facsimile edition of T.S. Eliot’s original draft with Pound’s handwritten edits. “You can see where Pound went through, you know, one antisemite to another, and made one of the most extraordinary poems of the 20th century.” It’s a literary reference that would make his parents proud.

Pope Leo XIV has prayed at the site of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion and offered words of consolation to the Lebanese people on the final day of his first overseas trip.

Relatives of some of the 218 people killed in the blast five years ago held up photographs of loved ones as Pope Leo arrived on Tuesday at the scorched site. They then stood side by side as he spoke to each one and looked at the images.

The emotional encounter took place beside the shell of the last grain silo standing at the site destroyed by the August 4 blast, and amid piles of burned cars left charred in its wake.

The explosion caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage when hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse.

Five years on, families are still seeking justice. No official has been convicted in the judicial investigation, angering Lebanese citizens who see the blast as further evidence of impunity after decades of corruption and financial crimes.

When he arrived in Lebanon on Sunday, Pope Leo had urged the country’s political leaders to pursue the truth as a means of achieving peace and reconciliation.

The United States-born pontiff opened his final day in Lebanon with an emotional visit to the De La Croix Hospital, which specialises in caring for people with psychological conditions.

The Mother Superior of the congregation that runs the hospital, Mother Marie Makhlouf, was overcome as she welcomed the pope, telling him that her hospital cares for the “forgotten souls, burdened by their loneliness”.

Pope Leo said the facility stands as a reminder to all of humanity.

“We cannot forget those who are most fragile,” he said. “We cannot conceive of a society that races ahead at full speed, clinging to the false myths of wellbeing, while at the same time ignoring so many situations of poverty and vulnerability.”

He was scheduled to end his visit with a Mass at another location along the Beirut waterfront, where he moved through the crowd in his covered popemobile.

Pope Leo has sought to bring a message of peace to Lebanon as it grapples with economic crises, the aftermath of Hezbollah’s devastating war with Israel, and the lasting effect of the port explosion.

Pokrovsk is a city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, formerly known as Krasnoarmeysk, with a pre-war population of around 60,000. Strategically located as a road and rail junction, it served as a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces supplying other frontline outposts. The city’s mine producing coking coal and its technical university have both been disrupted by the ongoing conflict. Most civilians have fled, leaving behind heavily damaged infrastructure.

The battle for Pokrovsk has intensified since mid-2024. Russia’s forces have employed gradual encirclement tactics rather than full-frontal assaults, seeking to minimize their own casualties while targeting Ukrainian supply lines.

Why Pokrovsk is Important

Capturing Pokrovsk allows Russia to consolidate control in Donetsk, part of its larger aim to take the entire Donbas region. The city provides a strategic platform to move north toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two remaining major Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk.

For Moscow, taking Pokrovsk is also a political signal aimed at the West: it emphasizes the inevitability of Russia controlling the rest of Donetsk, potentially pressuring Kyiv to negotiate on Russian terms. For Ukraine, holding or retaking Pokrovsk is key to demonstrating resilience and justifying continued military and financial support from Western allies.

Russia – seeking territorial gains and leverage in negotiations, while portraying a military victory to domestic and international audiences.

Ukraine – defending the Donbas region and trying to maintain morale and credibility with Western partners.

Western countries – providing military and financial aid to Ukraine, concerned that Russian gains could embolden further aggression.

Civilians – most have been evacuated, but the humanitarian impact remains high, with destroyed homes and infrastructure.

Current Situation

Russia’s state media released footage showing troops raising the Russian flag in Pokrovsk, while claiming clean-up operations in nearby Myrnohrad, where Russian commanders say thousands of Ukrainian troops are encircled. Ukraine reports having repelled multiple attacks in the area, with significant losses on both sides. Independent verification of control remains difficult due to reporting restrictions.

The timing of the announcement appears linked to upcoming U.S.-Russia talks in Moscow, signaling Russia’s desire to strengthen its bargaining position.

Implications

If Pokrovsk is fully under Russian control, it would be Russia’s most significant territorial gain in Donetsk since early 2024, giving Moscow a potential springboard for further operations northward. It could also influence Western calculations on support for Ukraine and affect ongoing peace or negotiation efforts. However, Russian forces remain short of controlling all of Donetsk, and Ukraine may continue to inflict heavy casualties, slowing Moscow’s progress.

Analysis

While Russia’s claimed capture of Pokrovsk carries symbolic and operational value, it may not be a decisive shift in the war. The slow encirclement tactic suggests Moscow is cautious, likely aware that advancing too quickly could overextend its forces. For Ukraine, retaining defensive positions in northern Donetsk will be critical to prevent a domino effect that could threaten neighboring regions like Dnipropetrovsk.

Strategically, Pokrovsk demonstrates how the war has become a war of attrition: territorial gains matter, but so does the cost in manpower and resources. Politically, the announcement appears timed to bolster Russia’s negotiating position in talks with the U.S., showing that battlefield messaging is closely tied to diplomacy. Ultimately, while the capture may shape near-term operations, it is unlikely to determine the overall outcome of the conflict.

With information from Reuters.

Former Queen of the Jungle Vicky Pattison has raged about how “furious” she would be if someone had stolen sweets when she was in the jungle, and taken aim at Kelly Brook over her recent behaviour on the ITV show

Vicky Pattison has spoken about how “furious” she would be had someone stolen sweets when she was in the I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! jungle. The Geordie Shore legend, 38, won the ITV reality show almost a decade ago but has hit out at Kelly Brook, who is currently in the jungle, after her recent behaviour.

Kelly carried out a challenge carried with Ginge and Aitch, in which the trio had won 20 milk bottle sweets but decided to keep half for themselves and eat before heading back to the camp, and Vicky appeared on This Morning where she warned hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley that the truth will out eventually.

She said: “It’s definitely going to come out, I just don’t think there’s any chance Ant and Dec are gonna let them get away with it. If I found out about that, I would be absolutely furious. I cannot tell you how seriously everybody takes food. Do you know what really shocked me? How keen Kelly was!”

READ MORE: Angry Ginge finally shows ‘true colours’ as he rages on I’m A CelebrityREAD MORE: Kelly Brook branded a ‘desperate snake’ as I’m A Celebrity co-star learns truth

It was then that Cat chimed in with: “Yes she went straight for it! She didn’t even contemplate it or try and talk them out of it,” and Vicky continued: “They hadn’t even finished having the conversation and she popped one in her mouth.”

The former Strictly Come Dancing star then justified the behaviour of the boys, but wasn’t having it at all when it came to Kelly. She added: “I was thinking Aitch and Ginge are cheeky boys, they are mischievous scamps, I thought Kelly would be the responsible one. No, she had her laughing gear round it before they’d even finished the conversation!”

Her comments come just hours after Vogue Williams was voted out of the jungle and Ant and Dec played a tape revealing the truth to her about the whole drama in an exit interview. Upon viewing the footage, Vogue, whose husband Spencer Matthews was in the jungle with Vicky, was was visibly shocked as she watched the footage roll, and Ant pointed out: “I mean, your face says it all,” before she replied with a gasp: “Snakes in the camp!”

Asked if she was surprised by any of them, she said: “I’m kind of surprised at Kelly. Oh my God. That’s desperate! I’d never do that!”

Vogue then joked that perhaps she should have found a way to get some contraband into camp.

She added: “I’m too much of a real follower though, I should have snuck thing in, I should’ve taken a whole thing of salt. I need to knock that out of me, I need to start breaking rules!”

When asked how her co-stars would feel, Vogue, who predicted that actress Ruby Wax would become the Queen of the Jungle, guessed that they wouldn’t be impressed by what Kelly and the boys had done.

She said: “I think they would be pretty annoyed because we feel like we’re such a good group and you wouldn’t think anyone would go and do that – even though I wanted to do it with the cupcakes, you can’t!”

Join The Mirror’s WhatsApp Community or follow us on Google News , Flipboard , Apple News, TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads – or visit The Mirror homepage

President Lee Jae Myung proposed restoring communication channels with North Korea on Tuesday, saying it will serve as a starting point for “peaceful coexistence” between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Lee made the remarks during an event to mark the launch of the 22nd Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, stressing that unification is a path that must be taken regardless of whether it takes decades or even a millennium.

“The historic task given to us is to end hostility and confrontation between the two Koreas, and to build a new inter-Korean relationship based on peaceful existence,” Lee said, suggesting the Koreas begin by restoring their dialogue channels that have been suspended for seven years.

He stressed the need for “shared growth” that benefits both Seoul and Pyongyang, and called for gradual efforts to start cooperation in areas of global interest, such as climate and environmental issues, disaster, safety, and public health.

“We will continue our efforts to end the state of war on the Korean Peninsula, pursue a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and establish lasting peace,” Lee said, vowing to act as a “pacemaker” to help facilitate dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

He added that the administration will take active measures to reduce military tensions along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and prevent accidental clashes in border areas.

“South Korea is a military power ranked among the world’s top five and a country with strong deterrence based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” Lee said, noting the country should not remain “trapped in the past” in regard to inter-Korean issues.

He also emphasized that South Korea has no intention of pursuing unification by absorption.

Since taking office in June, the Lee administration has vowed to resume dialogue and reconciliation with North Korea, suspending loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and urging civic groups to halt anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns as part of efforts to mend frayed ties.

Still, prospects for resuming dialogue with North Korea are uncertain as North Korea remains unresponsive South Korea’s peace overture. Last month, South Korea proposed military talks with North Korea to discuss the MDL, but there has been no response from Pyongyang so far.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

The reported attack on the Midvolga-2 comes days after Ukraine hit two other Russian-flagged ships in the Black Sea.

A Russian-flagged tanker in the Black Sea has reported being attacked off the Turkish coast, the third such vessel to have been targeted within a week.

The Turkish Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said on Tuesday that the Midvolga-2 had reported coming under attack about 130km (80 miles) from land.

The tanker was reportedly carrying sunflower oil to Georgia. The attack follows strikes by Ukrainian naval drones on two Russian-flagged vessels that Kyiv said were part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” shipping crude exports in violation of international sanctions.

Friday’s strikes saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warn that attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea signalled a “worrying escalation” of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The 13 members of the Midvolga-2 crew were unharmed, the directorate said on X, adding that the vessel had not requested assistance and it was proceeding towards Turkiye’s Sinop port.

It did not provide further details, but Turkish TV channel NTV reported that a kamikaze drone was used.

A Turkish official told the Reuters news agency that in response to the incident, “the necessary messages were conveyed to the relevant parties, including Ukrainian authorities”.

Turkish balancing act

The Kairos and the Virat were targeted on Friday by Ukraine as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, a Kyiv official told Reuters.

A total of 113 such vessels sailed under a false flag in the first nine months of this year, transporting some 11 million tonnes of Russian crude, valued at 4.7 billion euros ($5.4bn), according to a recent report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank.

NATO member Turkiye has maintained cordial relations with both Kyiv and Moscow throughout the war, which was triggered when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.

It has sought to assume a role as a mediator, hosting three rounds of peace talks.

As part of NATO, Ankara has provided military support to Ukraine. However, it has refused to join Western sanctions against the Kremlin and insisted that navigational security be maintained in the Black Sea.

“We cannot condone these attacks, which threaten navigational safety, life, and the environment, especially in our own exclusive zone,” Erdogan said in a televised address on Monday, adding that Turkiye had issued a warning to “all related sides”.

Crude target

Kyiv, which for years has sustained heavy attacks targeting its energy infrastructure, has focused in recent months on disrupting Russia’s oil industry in a bid to starve Moscow of funds to sustain its war.

It has concentrated fire on Russian refineries and crude terminals.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian attacks on oil tankers and infrastructure in the Black Sea were “acts of terrorism” that threatened freedom of navigation in the region.

A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil facility in the southern Russian region of Oryol, authorities said on Tuesday.

A CHILD star actor was tragically killed after being hit by car while stepping off his school bus.

Nikodem Marecki, 11, was run over moments after exiting the vehicle near Krakow, Poland.

Emergency services rushed to the scene and an Air Ambulance helicopter transferred him to hospital on November 26.

A fire department spokesperson said: “At 2.03pm, we were dispatched to a report of a pedestrian hit in Szczepanowice.

“The report indicated it involved a young person who remained conscious.

“Due to the nature of the incident, the Polish Air Rescue Service (LPR) was dispatched to the scene, and its officers secured the landing area, which facilitated the efficient transfer of the teenager to hospital.”

This is breaking news. More to follow… please refresh for more updates and follow the-sun.com for the biggest stories of the day…

The Australian all-rounder ends a 13-year association with the world’s most popular and richest T20 cricket league.

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has opted out of next month’s Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions in Abu Dhabi, ending a 13-season stint in the lucrative Twenty20 cricket competition.

The explosive hitter was bought by Punjab Kings for 42 million rupees ($467,000) for last season but only returned with 48 runs and four wickets in seven games, and was released by the franchise in November.

Maxwell, who has played in the IPL since 2012, said the league helped shape him as a cricketer.

“It’s a big call, and one I make with a lot of gratitude for everything this league has given me,” the 37-year-old wrote in a statement on Instagram.

“The IPL has helped shape me as a cricketer and as a person. I’ve been lucky to play with world-class teammates, represent incredible franchises, and perform in front of fans whose passion is unmatched.

“The memories, the challenges, and the energy of India will stay with me forever.”

Faf du Plessis and Andre Russell also ruled themselves out of IPL 2026 last week, with the former South African captain instead choosing to play in the Pakistan Super League and the former West Indies all-rounder joining the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders’ coaching department.

The 2026 IPL auctions will take place on December 16.

The fall of the city, a gateway to western Sudan’s Darfur region, over which the RSF recently seized control, could have huge effect on the war.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has refuted a claim by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that it has seized control of the West Kordofan town of Babnusa.

Sudan’s military government said in a statement issued on Tuesday that it had repelled an attack by the RSF. The paramilitary outfit had claimed the previous day to have taken full control of Babnusa, a key city in the vast central Sudanese region of West Kordofan.

Babnusa serves as a gateway to the Darfur region, over which the paramilitary force took full control last month, and the whole of western Sudan.

Videos released by the RSF on Monday showed its fighters taking an army base in Babnusa after a weeks-long siege. However, the SAF maintained it was still fighting in the city.

The RSF “launched a new attack on the city, which our forces decisively repelled”, the official spokesperson for the Armed Forces said in a statement.

“The army says that the battles are ongoing, that they have their fighters still inside the city,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reported from Khartoum. “But what we can definitely confirm is that when it comes to the army headquarters itself, the RSF has taken control of that.”

If the RSF consolidates control of Babnusa, it will have “solidified its control over the West Kordofan region” and along with it “any major access ways to the western part of the country”, she said.

“For the Sudanese army to get to parts of Darfur or to other parts of Kordofan, it has to go through Babnusa,” said Morgan, so losing the city would make regaining territory in Darfur even more challenging.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported fierce clashes were also taking place throughout other parts of Kordofan, including in the southern area of Abbasiya Tagali.

Broken ‘ceasefire’

The RSF’s assault on Babnusa builds on the group’s momentum after it captured the city of el-Fasher, the army’s final holdout in Darfur.

Witnesses and international aid agencies working on the ground have recounted widespread atrocities committed by the RSF. Evidence shows RSF militias engaged in mass killings, rape, and kidnapping.

The latest clashes also appear to break the unilateral ceasefire that was announced by the RSF following mediation efforts from the “Quad” – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States.

The SAF, which rejected the ceasefire terms presented by the Quad as too favourable to its adversary, has accused the RSF of continuing attacks despite its declared truce.

The government statement called the announced ceasefire “nothing but a political and media ploy intended to cover up [the RSF’s] field movements and the continuous flow of Emirati support that fuels the war and kills Sudanese people”.

The UAE has been widely accused of supporting the RSF with money and weapons, but it has staunchly rejected any involvement.

Analysts say that if Babnusa falls completely, the RSF is likely to move towards North Kordofan’s el-Obeid.

Should the city fall, the political shockwave will be enormous, Kholood Khair, the founding director of UK-based risk management provider Confluence Advisory, said.

“It’s a huge mercantile centre, a regional capital, and a major economic win. It also brings the RSF several steps closer to Khartoum.”

The RSF were forced out of the Sudanese capital in March, with the SAF appearing to be in the ascendancy in the more-than-two-year war.

But now the tables appear to be turning once more. Having lost Darfur completely with the fall of el-Fasher, the SAF now risks losing Kordofan also.

“The RSF has momentum, which they will carry on through with,” said Dallia Abdelmoniem, a Sudanese political analyst, who pointed out that an RSF ally, the SPLM-N, already controls the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan.

San Francisco — San Francisco Opera’s hit new opera, Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King,” which had its final performance Sunday at War Memorial Opera House, quickly became the hottest show in town, all its performances sold out. It was the talk of the town, an opera with a little something for everyone, an opera that that stands for something culturally, spiritually and ethically. It operates at the intersections of pop art and high-ish art, of the sacred and profane, of radicalism and die-hardism. It is fittingly multicultural for a multicultural city. It invites you to leave the theater feeling better about the world.

Yet what makes this potentially the most important new opera of the year is not Huang’s agreeably efficient — and once in a while inspired — score, which incorporates Western and traditional music. Nor is it David Henry Hwang’s user-friendly libretto based on the late Ming Dynasty Chinese classic, “Journey to the West.” The potential this opera signals is for a major cultural change for San Francisco.

In the green room of the opera house at the Nov. 20 performance, founder and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and his wife, Lori Huang, announced a $5-million gift to San Francisco Opera to help fund the production of the “Monkey King,” which the company commissioned, and a commitment to continue an annual $5 million contribution to the company. That may seem like pocket change for Nvidia, having three weeks earlier became the first company in the world valued at $5 trillion (which is 1 million times $5 million). But one small step for a chip maker is a big leap for opera and Silicon Valley, where arts philanthropy has not been a meaningful priority.

Dragon Palace of the Eastern Sea in the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” at War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

San Francisco Opera well set the stage for this by going all out in connecting “Monkey King” with the city’s large Chinese community through various outreach programs while also tapping into the way Chinese culture has long been a pervasive influence, and especially through music, in San Francisco life.

Early in the century the composers Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison regularly visited productions of Peking Opera, which is — like “Journey to West” — an innovation of 17th century China and still regularly revived. It was thanks in significant part to Cowell that we came to have the genre we call world music. Harrison then made California a principal originator of the hybridization of Eastern and Western music.

San Francisco Opera was late to the game (it has yet to stage a Harrison opera) but the company was a pioneer in the fusing of jazz and opera with Gunther Schuller’s “The Visitation” in 1967. In 2016, the company gave the premiere of Bright Sheng’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” which is, like “Monkey,” based on a classic Chinese novel and has a libretto by Hwang.

“Red Chamber” proved successful enough for a rare revival in 2022, but it never became the kind of sensation that “Monkey” boasts. “Monkey” forgoes the more integral hybridization, finding sensation in piling on as much on as possible.

Kang Wang as Monkey King with Basil Twist’s puppet horses in the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” at War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

The plot basically sticks to the first seven chapters of the 100-chapter novel, which concerns an engagingly impulsive monkey who obtains superpowers and, to protect his monkey community, enjoys one wily adventure after another. But by getting away with anything, Monkey’s ego grows. He often doesn’t think of others and does what he wants, often without caring about consequences. After going through endless battles and conflicts in his journeys with a Buddhist monk (fodder for animated series, comics, films, television serials, Chinese operas and a celebrated rock opera by Damon Albarn), Monkey ultimately finds enlightenment.

In Diane Paulus’ production for San Francisco, Monkey is portrayed by an opera singer, an acrobatic dancer and a puppet. The stars of the show become more than the performers, who are all capable of spectacle, but also Basil Twist, he of the puppetry and fantastical sets, and choreographer Ann Yee. Huang’s previous chamber opera, “Book of Mountain and Seas,” which L.A. Opera, in collaboration with Beth Morrison Productions, staged last year, was also made magical by Twist.

Each of the new opera’s five scenes in Act 1 and three in Act 2 are wondrous worlds of their own. Monkey is born from a stone. Seeking eternal life, he learns the secret of 72 Transformations from a venerated Buddhist teacher and then becomes an irreverent show-off. After tricking a Dragon King, Monkey heads to Heaven, where he wreaks havoc with the Jade Emperor, gobbles down precious 9,000-year-old magical peaches and gives himself the title, as vainglorious leader of the Monkey kingdom, of “The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven.”

Buddha steps in, imprisoning Monkey under a mountain and forcing him to study sutras for 500 years. In the novel, the journey then begins. In the opera, Monkey goes straight to the Land of the Bliss in a scene of operatic magnificence.

Huiwang Zhang as the dancer Monkey King in the San Francisco Opera premiere of Huang Ruo’s “The Monkey King” at War Memorial Opera House.

(Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)

That magnificence overpowers everything that went before it, which includes fabulous dance, arresting puppetry and outstanding singing actors, including Kang Wang, as Monkey, an impressive juggler in his own right.

Huang’s score is all over the map. The libretto is mostly in vernacular English, except for choral interjections of the Buddhist “Diamond Sutra,” sung in Chinese. Those chants are beauteous, as is the music for the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin (soprano Mei Gui Zhang) and, making his appearance at opera’s end, Buddha (bass-baritone Jusung Gabriel Park).

Most of Huang’s vocal writing, to suit the text, is conversational; half the time he has prepared you to predict what note comes next. The orchestra, adroitly conducted by Carolyn Kuan, includes Chinese instruments as well Western, but it is the Chinese ones that bring life to the score. Monkey’s capture comes about by his being believably beguiled by the sound of the lute-like pipa.

The scene of Bliss that comes out of nowhere, with Buddha and Guanyin in Heaven above a sutra-chastened Monkey, is where Huang’s music becomes inspired. Power alone is not enough, Monkey has learned. Only having given up ego and all attachments has he obtained the heart of compassion. Joy emanates in sight, sound and movement.

On a transformational opera stage, Huang and Hwang send a message to another Huang, and one of the most powerful people in the world: “Power is not enough.”