News Desk

A fundraiser created by Dudley Council to help residents “rebuild their lives” has surpassed £25,000.

Another by the Heart of England Community Foundation to help families impacted by fires across the West Midlands has hit £50,000.

Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles urged anyone who needed additional support to reach out for help.

“I’m on hand to support however I can, the Town Hall remains open for food, clothes, pet supplies, phone chargers, general inquiries,” she said.

“Counselling is available and being offered by several local professionals free of charge for adults and children.”

The Stourbridge and District branch of the RSPCA has also shared posters, external about several cats who have gone missing from the area since the fire.

In Stoke-on-Trent, four homes were completely destroyed by a fire that started in a park in Sandyford and 13 other homes suffered structural, roof and window damage.

Marie Leese told how her treasured garden went up in flames after fire ripped through properties in Maureen Avenue.

When she was allowed to return home, she discovered she had also lost the summer house her husband built before he died three years ago.

Police have arrested a man and woman on suspicion of arson in connection with the Stoke-on-Trent fire.

Investigators are still working on what caused the blaze in Stourbridge.

ARIANA GRANDE revealed she felt “overwhelmed” with emotion on stage as she thanked her fans for their support.

At the opening night of the UK leg of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, the American singer said: “London, I love you so much.

“I feel overwhelmed right now. I’m so grateful to be doing this with you all.

“As you know, London is my final stop on this tour. And I just wanted to say I’m going to savour every last second of these last ten shows with you guys. As this is one of my favourite places in the world.”

There was no hint of any underlying upset as Ariana took to the stage at The O2 London despite her shock decision to take an extended break from the public when her ten-night stint in the capital ends.

She seemed excited to be back, having spent so long living and working here during filming for the Wicked movies.

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Ariana said: “I lived here for a while so it will always have a special place in my heart.

“I want to say thank you to my fans for being the most incredible, loving beings and a presence in my life. I’ll always cherish you.”

Perhaps Ariana had something else to smile about.

Her boyfriend, Ricky Alvarez — who she first dated a decade ago before recently rekindling their romance — was watching at the side of the stage.

Ariana’s powerhouse vocals were pitch-perfect throughout her 26-song set, and the choreography was flawless.

But this show, her first since 2019’s Sweetener World Tour, felt like a deep exploration of her inner psyche.

It was littered with references to her childhood, ballet and old Hollywood-style glamour.

Enjoy your stint here, Ari, we’re grateful to have you.

Messi’s record from the penalty spot is poor by his sky-high standards, including missing twice during the 2026 World Cup.

Forward Lionel Messi missed yet another penalty and was booked as Inter Miami suffered a 4-1 defeat at Nashville in a top-of-the-table Major League Soccer clash on Saturday.

England’s Sam Surridge and Germany’s Hany Mukhtar scored second-half goals for the hosts, Nashville, in a showdown between the MLS overall leaders.

Argentina and Miami captain Messi was denied from the penalty spot in the first half and was issued a yellow card in the 59th minute but also assisted Miami’s lone goal, scored by Telasco Segovia.

Messi, the 2022 World Cup winner, struck both posts in second-half stoppage time.

Nashville lead MLS with 43 points and a record of 13-2 with four drawn, while Inter Miami are second on 38 points.

Nashville had already knocked Miami out of this year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup in the round of 16.

Defending MLS champions Miami, who had been a league-best 8-1-1 on the road, saw a seven-match undefeated MLS run snapped as Nashville remained unbeaten at home in the MLS campaign.

Honduran defender Andy Najar scored with a header in the 17th minute to give Nashville a 1-0 lead.

Miami had a chance to equalise with a Messi penalty kick in the 23rd minute, but Nashville goalkeeper Brian Schwake saved his weak effort.

Messi’s recent record from the penalty spot is poor by his sky-high standards, including missing twice at the FIFA World Cup 2026.

The visitors netted the equaliser three minutes into first-half stoppage time when Venezuelan Segovia blasted in a right-footed shot off an assist by Messi.

Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS Most Valuable Player, put Nashville back in front in the 49th minute.

Surridge gave Nashville a 3-1 lead, and Mukhtar added his second in the 63rd for extra insurance as the hosts pulled away.

The U.S. Army is on the hunt for a new lower-cost strike missile capable of hitting targets more than 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) away. The Affordable High Speed Strike (AHSS) missile could be more of a traditional ballistic missile-like weapon or feature an air-breathing propulsion system. AHSSs could be fired from new uncrewed launcher vehicles that the Army is pursuing separately, as well as certain existing crewed types like the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The service sees these future weapons as offering a particularly important new way to strike enemy air bases, air defense nodes, missile launchers, and other high-value targets within a particular theater of operations.

AHSS was among the many programs the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Aviation & Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC) highlighted at its booth at the annual Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. TWZ was in attendance at this conference, which wrapped up yesterday. Aviation Week was first to report on AHSS from this event.

“AHSS is an entirely new missile,” a DEVCOM spokesperson said, according to Aviation Week. At the same time, the Army is also clearly in the very early stages of defining what it wants from this new weapon beyond general affordability and reach.

A graphic on display at DEVCOM’s booth at the SMD symposium showed renderings of two distinctly different notional missiles under the AHSS heading, as seen at the top of this story and below. One has a traditional ballistic missile-type design with a cruciform fin arrangement at the tail end. The other notional missile has a more novel design with an air-breathing propulsion system feeding from an intake in the nose. In broad terms, the intake has a style commonly associated with high-speed jet engines such as ramjets and scramjets. It also has a completely different tail configuration, as well as what appears to be a long, slender stabilizing strake visible along the right side of the body.

Aviation Week‘s story also highlights the Army’s current separate development of an entire new family of Common Autonomous Multi-Domain Launcher (CAML) vehicles. However, the current AHSS concept also includes “an option to be launched from a crewed HIMARS,” the DEVCOM spokesperson said, according to that outlet.

HIMARS, which uses a 6×6 tactical truck as its base, fires munitions via standardized ammunition ‘pods.’ As such, it seems likely that any other launcher that makes use of these same pods, such as the tracked M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), would also be able to fire the future AHSS missile.

“This project directly supports Precision Fires capabilities by developing, maturing, and demonstrating affordable high speed strike missile technologies for responsive, mobile, deployable, survivable, and sustainable Army conventional theater strike weapons,” the Army said about AHSS in its 2027 Fiscal year budget proposal, which was released earlier this year. The program will “provide hardware and software technologies demonstrated, including affordable advanced propulsion, complementary warhead, guidance, navigation and control technologies, and integration onto Army mobile launch platforms.”

“The Army needs affordable, responsive high speed strike capability to attack theater level targets, provide offensive counter-air capability, and be launched from Army mobile, deployable, and survivable platforms,” the Army budget documents add.

The specific mention of the offensive counter-air (OCA) mission set is interesting as it is far more commonly associated with air assets. However, it is simply defined as “offensive operations to destroy or neutralize enemy aircraft, missiles, launch platforms, and their supporting structures and systems both before and after launch, and as close to their source as possible,” according to the January 2020 edition of the U.S. military’s official Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. Long-range surface-to-surface missiles are very applicable for pursuing these objectives, something we will come back to later on.

It is also worth noting that DEVCOM’s graphic at the SMD Symposium used the exact same air-breathing missile render to represent the planned Increment 4 version of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). The baseline version of PrSM, or Increment 1, is a traditional short-range ballistic missile with ability to hit targets at least around 310 miles (500 kilometers) away, if not further. The Army’s current stated plan for Increment 4 is to acquire a new variant or derivative of PrSM with a range of at least 621 miles/1,000 kilometers. For further context, the Increment 2 PrSM, which is in active development now, is an anti-ship-focused variant with a new seeker system, allowing it to engage moving targets. The Increment 3 plan is centered on new unspecified “enhanced” payloads, which could include swarms of loitering munitions.

The Army has also talked in the past about an Increment 5 variation of PrSM with even greater range. This would put it in the same general category, at least in terms of reach, as AHSS. As noted, DEVCOM has stressed that AHSS is distinct from other existing efforts.

Furthermore, AHSS and PrSM are just two parts of a larger array of new longer-range strike capabilities the Army is working to acquire. The service has already fielded a small number of Typhon systems, which are currently capable of firing Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) multi-purpose missiles. Tomahawks can hit targets roughly 1,000 miles away. The Army is now pushing to field the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), also known as Dark Eagle, as well. Last year, new details emerged that put the maximum range of this weapon at around 2,175 miles.

On top of this, defense startup Castelion is developing a ground-launched version of its Blackbeard missile for the Army. Blackbeard is a lower-cost design said to be capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds. The exact maximum range of this missile is unclear, but the Army has said in the past that it is targeting “80% of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) Increment 4 capability.”

A key underlying factor in all of this was the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Under the INF, the United States and Russia were both prohibited from developing and fielding nuclear or conventionally-armed ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with maximum ranges between 310 and 3,420 miles (500 and 5,500 kilometers). The AHSS section in the Army’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget request specifically mentions that such developments are now “unconstrained by previous treaties.”

Depending on what kind of capability is ultimately pursued under AHSS, as well as PrSM Increment 5, the Army could be on track to field its first new medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) since the INF went into force in 1988. MRBMs are categorized as ballistic missiles with maximum ranges between 620 and 1,860 miles (1,000 and 3,000 kilometers). Members of Congress have notably been openly supportive of the Army acquiring exactly this kind of long-range capability in the past.

Pairing this capability with new and improved crewed and uncrewed launchers could offer more flexibility for employing these weapons, while also helping to reduce vulnerability to enemy attacks. TWZ has highlighted now on several occasions how uncrewed mobile launch systems would offer even greater advantages for future expeditionary and distributed operations. Uncrewed platforms could be pushed further forward without necessarily exposing human operators to greater risks. This would also allow a smaller force of human personnel to operate a larger number of total launchers, in general.

The broader value of Army ground-based long-range strike capabilities has been demonstrated this year in the course of operations against Iran. PrSM, as well as older Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles, have been so heavily employed against Iranian targets that there are now serious concerns about the adequacy of the remaining stockpiles of those weapons. There are reports that stocks of PrSMs, which the Army only received in quantity in 2023 and that made their combat debut in strikes on Iran, have run especially low.

BBC Breakfast viewers were stunned by the quick change

BBC Breakfast viewers have been hit with an unexpected scheduling change this morning.

The hit breakfast show airs every morning from 6am on BBC One with a regular panel of presenters and experts on hand to deliver all the latest news stories, sports and expert insight into what’s going on across the UK.

According to the BBC, a synopsis reads: “The latest news, sport, business and weather from the BBC’s Breakfast team.”

This morning (Sunday, August 16) hosts Roger Johnson and Luxmy Gopal returned to the BBC Breakfast couch on BBC One. However, it wasn’t long before their broadcast was interrupted and they moved channels.

Just over an hour into the show, BBC Breakfast moved from BBC One to BBC Two. This is because of the European Athletics Championships which is reporting live from Birmingham, covering the “opening session on day seven.”

Before the change over, Roger said: “It’s almost time for us to say goodbye on BBC One but Breakfast continues on BBC Two and BBC News channel until 9 o’clock this morning, lots to come from the programme.”

After the quick channel change, Roger told viewers: “If you’ve followed us over from BBC One, thank you for hitting the button, we’re here on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel until 9 o’clock this morning, it’s good to have your company.”

Reacting to the channel change, one person wrote on X: “We haven’t turned over to bbc2 for ages. B***** football probably.”

Another penned: “What you mean I have to lift the remote control and press a button?? When is Newswatch back on??”

Tomorrow’s instalment is expected to continue as usual on BBC One, from 6am to 9.30am.

The programme continued seamlessly as they jumped into their next segment of the importance of pet food banks, with donations dropping off as they struggle to meet the demand of pet owners.

Appearing on the programme, one pet owner Vicky told of her story when she struggled to pay for food for her beloved pets. She said: “Husband was promised work, payments stopped for the work. We were literally living off of peanuts.

“I just remember crying, it was coming up to Christmas. But it was thanks to the pet foodbank that I was able to keep my dogs.”

BBC Breakfast airs every morning from 6am on BBC One

Gaza City — Rabab Deifallah sits inside her tent, clutching a small, battered lighter. She presses it once, then again, trying to produce a spark strong enough to ignite a pile of wood inside a stove.

The mother of five has carefully looked after the lighter. Her son has repaired it several times since it became difficult to buy a new one after Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Firewood has become essential for 46-year-old Rabab. She uses it to bake bread, heat water for her children, prepare food and make tea amid shortages of cooking gas and soaring fuel prices.

“Our whole daily life depends on fire,” Rabab told Al Jazeera. “But getting a fire started begins with a lighter and this small object has become one of the hardest things to find in Gaza.”

Before the war, lighters were so cheap and readily available that she remembers buying three for one shekel ($0.33). Today, a new lighter can cost between $27-33 and Rabab last spent $12 to repair her old lighter.

“Should I spend that amount on a lighter, or should I buy a bag of flour?” she asked.

Palestinians in Gaza would rather spend their limited money on food, so a single lighter is often passed around families in several tents.

Some days, Rabab cannot find a lighter at all, so her family has been forced to spend days eating cold food or waiting until a neighbour has a fire burning to borrow a spark.

She often sends a piece of cardboard to a neighbour to get a light off their fire and bring it home. Other times, if a neighbour is baking bread, she may ask to use their oven to prepare food for her family.

The lighter is now something she guards carefully, as it is, for her, the starting point for fire, food, bread and hot water.

A second struggle

Nearby, Hasnaa Mansour, 43, faces the same problem but from a different angle.

Displaced from Jabalia refugee camp, Hasnaa sits beside a clay oven she had treasured since her family’s financial situation deteriorated during the war.

Her husband previously worked as a tailor and the family lived relatively comfortably, but due to a lack of business, Hasnaa now bakes and sells food to help support their six children.

Hasnaa has repeatedly repaired her lighter because buying a new one is beyond her means.

But a shortage of cooking gas has made the problem even worse.

“With gas, all you need is a small spark to light it. But with the oven, I need a real fire,” she said.

“I’ve been sitting here since the morning and by 10 o’clock I still couldn’t light the oven. I sent my young daughter with a piece of cardboard to look for someone who had a fire burning, but she couldn’t find anyone.”

Restrictions and shortages

The lighter shortage comes amid Israel’s continued siege on Gaza.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says restrictions on the movement of goods and closures of crossings have contributed to shortages and rising prices of essential supplies. OCHA also says items classified by Israeli authorities as “dual-use” face additional difficulties in obtaining approval to enter Gaza.

The Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in June that restrictions on crossings and the mechanisms for bringing commercial shipments into Gaza continued to limit the flow of goods.

It said that more than 30,000 trucks entered Gaza during the first five months of 2026, an average of no more than 191 trucks a day – still far below the territory’s daily pre-war needs.

In an earlier publication, the chamber of commerce documented the emergence of lighter-repair work during the war, saying lighters were among items prevented from entering Gaza.

That is why lighters are now so valuable and families spend relatively large amounts to fix them rather than buy a new one.

Sharing a single lighter

For Shadi Abu Shamlah, a displaced father living with his family at Al-Karmel School west of Gaza City, the shortage means sharing a lighter among tents.

“The whole school here… you wouldn’t find more than four lighters,” he said.

The few available lighters move from one tent to another as families try to cook, heat water or prepare hot drinks.

“The lighter today is the backbone of life. If you have a lighter in your tent, you’re okay. If you don’t have one, you’re stuck,” he said.

“The simplest things need fire. You want a cup of tea, you want to cook, you want to make milk for a child… you need fire.”

Abu Shamlah says his family sometimes goes to bed without dinner because they cannot light a fire.

Repairing lighters has also become difficult. He says a lighter flint can cost 25 to 30 shekels ($8–$10), while people have resorted to using gas from larger cylinders to refill lighters, sometimes causing burns.

Tamer Al-Shawish, who worked as a driver before the war, turned to fixing lighters to help provide for his family.

On a small stall near Al Karmel school camp, the 24-year-old father of two says his new profession was previously unheard of.

“The war has forced us into jobs and work we never knew before. I started repairing lighters so I could provide for my family’s needs,” he told Al Jazeera.

A new profession

“Before the war, no one needed to repair a lighter. They were cheap and available. When the gas ran out, we would throw it away and buy another one.”

“People come to repair the lighter because it is cheaper than buying a new one, especially with the high prices and shortages of basic goods,” Tamer said.

He salvages parts from damaged lighters to repair others.

“Even an old lighter has value now. We take parts from damaged lighters and use them to repair other lighters, so they last longer.”

Bangladesh dominated Australia throughout, and the margin of victory will send shockwaves through the cricketing world.

Bangladesh chased down ‌57 runs to complete a landmark nine-wicket victory over Australia in the series opener in Darwin on Sunday in ⁠one of Test cricket’s ⁠greatest upsets.

Mominul Haque cut Beau Webster to the fence for the winning runs to secure Bangladesh’s first Test win in Australia within four days in stifling heat at Marrara Oval, foiling a ⁠valiant century from home all-rounder Cameron Green.

The winning boundary triggered jubilation among Bangladesh’s players, who jumped and shouted on the sidelines.

‘Everything was perfect’

Flooring a full-strength Australia, the world’s top-ranked Test nation, in their own back yard, will be regarded by many as ⁠the South Asian nation’s finest victory in 26 years of playing the game’s longest format.

It took 23 years for Australia to host Bangladesh in a second Test series since sweeping them 2-0 in 2003, so Najmul Hossain Shanto’s side were determined to prove their worth.

They did far more than that, as they dominated the World Test Championship leaders with bat, ball ‌and in the field in virtually every session.

Bangladesh had heroes throughout the match, but on day four it was spin-bowling all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz who stood up to strike the decisive blows as Australia were bowled out for 284.

Having scored 65 with the bat in Bangladesh’s first innings and caught and bowled Australia’s traditional saviour Steve Smith for 44 on day three, Miraz took another four wickets on the fourth day after Australia resumed on 161 for four, still 67 runs in arrears.

“It was excellent. A great moment for us,” Miraz said.

“The way we are ⁠playing shows our character. Everything was perfect.”

Green’s ton in vain

Miraz, the grinning 28-year-old, had wicketkeeper Alex Carey caught behind ⁠for 30 and bowled all-rounder Webster for five with a pair of sumptuous deliveries to bring Australia’s tail into play.

Australia captain Pat Cummins was caught in close for eight, with Miraz inducing a bat-pad catch for Shadman Islam.

Mitchell Starc dug in with Green for a defiant ⁠eighth-wicket partnership of 43, but he was caught behind for 18 off the bowling of fellow seamer Taskin Ahmed.

Green held on to raise his third Test century and ⁠first on home soil after lunch with two runs off Taskin.

The defiant ⁠knock was a timely response to critics of Green’s place in the side, but he was bowled out soon after for 104, becoming Hasan Mahmud’s ninth wicket of the match by playing onto his stumps.

With only a 50-run lead and tailenders Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood clinging to the last ‌wicket, Green’s departure was effectively game over for Australia.

Miraz wrapped up Australia’s innings by trapping fellow spinner Lyon lbw for 15.

With clumps of delirious Bangladesh fans chanting between every ball, Shadman and Haque mowed down the runs efficiently.

Opener ‌Tanzid ‌Hasan was bowled by Josh Hazlewood for a duck but may hardly care, having scored a majestic 101 in the first innings to help Bangladesh put 426 on the board in reply to Australia’s paltry 198.

When the doors to the emergency room in “The Pitt” swing open and a new patient arrives, we, like the doctors, are on high alert, wondering what the acclaimed medical drama is about to throw at us.

We know two things: The actors will be superb. And it’s best not to become too attached to the characters they’re playing.

Five of those actors earned Emmy nominations for Season 2 guest turns on “The Pitt” last month, a long-overdue return to the time when the guest categories regularly rewarded working actors doing exemplary work.

Even better: Two of the five “Pitt” nominees self-submitted their performances after HBO Max, looking to streamline its submissions in the guest categories, did not put them forward.

If you watched the second season of the show, you could probably name the actors who made the Emmys’ guest list: Tina Ivlev, heartbreaking as the sexual assault survivor; Brittany Allen, poignant as the dying mom; Tal Anderson, combative and funny as Dr. King’s neurodivergent sister, who craves independence from her protective sibling; Ernest Harden Jr., devastating as the doomed Louie; and Jeff Kober, who, playing Dr. Robby’s motorcycle mechanic, has some of the most affecting scenes in the season.

HBO Max entered Ivlev, Harden and Anderson, leaving Allen and Kober to pony up the $225 to submit themselves, joining the ranks of 84 entrants for guest actor and 51 for guest actress. (To be eligible to compete in guest, actors must appear in less than 50% of a show’s eligible episodes.) Eight other actors appearing on “The Pitt” also self-submitted.

“The three actors that HBO put forward delivered beautiful, human work that resonated deeply with audiences, and they were in a tough position having so many actors who had all delivered great performances,” Allen told me over a call from her Pasadena home.

“Though at first there was a moment of disappointment, I quickly moved on from that,” Allen continues. “I didn’t take it personally because as an actor, you get good at not taking things personally.”

Kober, calling from the Valley, signs off on that sentiment. He won a daytime Emmy in 2022 for “General Hospital” after he submitted himself.

“I guess that’s how the Emmys work for me,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know any other way.”

There is precedent for self-submission success at the Emmys. Three “Game of Thrones” cast members — Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen and Carice van Houten — entered themselves in 2019 and were nominated. Kelly Jenrette did the same in 2018 for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and earned a nod.

For Allen, it came down to believing in herself and the work she did on “The Pitt.” As her seven-episode arc aired, strangers often stopped her at her local Trader Joe’s and at the park with her 3-year-old son to tell her how moved they were by her performance and her character Roxie’s decision to accept that her life was coming to an end and say goodbye.

But, good as it was and seen as it was, that work didn’t translate into landing an agent. Having recently turned 40, Allen figured she had nothing to lose, having reached an age where she wasn’t “as worried about being perceived as the quiet little girl who doesn’t ruffle any feathers.”

In a challenging industry, that approach has resonated deeply with her peers.

“I’ve had similar moments in the past where I’ve had a memorable role on a high-profile show and I’ve thought, ‘Maybe this will make it a little easier moving forward’ and it hasn’t,” Allen says. “So if ever there was a time to go, ‘I’m going to try to put my name out there in a way that might make me a little more bankable,’ this is it.”

Kober, 72, has had ups and downs over the course of his 40-year acting career and like Duke, the grounded mentor he played on “The Pitt,” he possesses a calm acuity when talking about the profession.

“Acting is the most profoundly spiritual career a person could have because you don’t get into it unless you need approval, and then when you get that approval, you find it doesn’t do a thing for you,” Kober says. “Then you’ve got to find a way to do something with this thing you love that isn’t about getting approval. It’s only when you’re not working for that when you know the work matters.”

With his shoulder-length hair, goatee and go-with-the-flow manner, Kober gives off distinct vibes of another Jeff — Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski.

“I have heard that comparison made,” Kober says, smiling.

Both Kober and Allen express deep appreciation for “The Pitt” as a workplace where actors can come in and do the kind of work that they aspire to do, work that resonates with audiences and reminds them why they entered the profession in the first place.

“I love being on set,” Allen says, “so going to Warner Bros. every morning as the sun rose and watching that miniature city come to life and having the privilege of working in an environment that is so ripe for accessing truth and play and shared humanity was a gift. When Roxie came along, I saw it as the epitome of what I want to offer as an actor and as a person in this life.”

Because of her character’s fate, Allen will not be returning to “The Pitt.” The fate of Duke, diagnosed with a life-threatening ascending aortic aneurysm, is ambiguous. Dr. Robby encourages him to follow up with further tests, which Duke agrees to do if Robby promises to return from his sabbatical and let him take his Triumph Bonneville for a ride.

So … Duke’s coming back, right?

“One would think,” Kober says, hopeful. But then, he jokes that maybe there will be a line next season where someone in the ER says, “Did you hear about Duke? What a shame.”

“Or he could come back in Season 4, who knows,” Kober adds, noting he has heard nothing from the show’s producers. “One thing I’ve learned over the years as an actor is the importance of letting go. That’s the life of an actor.”

Australia introduced measures to reduce gun ownership following a deadly attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach last year.

Australia’s prime minister has said that New South Wales will begin a gun buyback scheme in November as part of a nationwide response to last year’s deadly Sydney beach attack.

The gun buyback scheme will be accompanied by tighter checks for gun licences and ⁠a crackdown on hate, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday.

The measures targeting firearm ownership are a reaction to the December 14, 2025, gun attack at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, New South Wales, that killed 15 people.

The alleged gunmen used powerful firearms that were legally obtained.

Australians owned a record ‌4.1 million firearms last year, the government has said, with more than 1.1 million of those in New South Wales, the country’s most populous state.

New South Wales’ gun buyback scheme is scheduled to start on November 2, and will see the state offer owners up to 1,000 Australian dollars ($700) per handgun or rifle handed in.

“Australians are quite rightly proud of our ⁠gun laws, but the fact is there are more guns in Australia today than there were at ⁠the time of dealing with the Port ⁠Arthur gun buyback,” Albanese said in televised remarks.

In the 1996 Port Arthur attack, a lone gunman killed 35 people and led to sweeping restrictions on ownership of automatic and semi-automatic firearms in Australia.

Since the Bondi Beach attack, New South Wales state has introduced its own laws limiting gun ownership to four guns per person.

Police say the attack was carried out by a father and son duo and was inspired by ISIL (ISIS). The surviving suspect, ‌Naveed ‌Akram, 24, is yet to enter pleas to several charges, including 15 counts of murder.

A powerful earthquake that struck eastern Indonesia has killed at least 51 people and forced about 5,000 people to evacuate, as rescue teams work to clear roads blocked by landslides and reach survivors still trapped under rubble.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck at 5:58am local time on Saturday (21:58 GMT, Friday), with its epicentre about 68km (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende, on Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, according to the US Geological Survey, which put the depth at 10km (6.2 miles).

The earthquake, followed by some 341 aftershocks, is one of Indonesia’s deadliest in years.

A total of 36 people were seriously injured and 77 more suffered minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus told a televised meeting on Sunday.

More than 3,300 people in Sikka regency, one of the hard-hit areas, either fled their homes or were left stranded, taking shelter in a sports arena, according to Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, BNPB.

“The quake was massive, the shock was so strong, we were resting at home with family,” Nona, a 51-year-old resident of Talibura village, told the Reuters news agency. “There were 13 of us inside the house, and we all ran to save ourselves.”

In the port town of Maumere, some residents camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents, while others received treatment in a makeshift tent outside a local hospital.

“Almost all of Sikka’s residents didn’t dare stay indoors, so they slept on a porch or a tent outside,” Simon Sabandi, the region’s deputy chief, told news channel KompasTV.

Lieutenant General Suharyanto, the BNPB head, said the earthquake destroyed at least 157 houses and damaged nearly 200 more, forcing about 2,000 villagers in Nagekeo regency, the area closest to the epicentre, into temporary shelters.

He said three helicopters and a rescue vessel had been deployed to support the emergency response in a region where the scattered geography of small islands makes access difficult.

East Nusa Tenggara police chief Rudi Darmoko said the disaster had caused severe damage and building collapses across the province.

Rescue teams have yet to fully reach Nagekeo, where landslides have blocked roads and disrupted communications, said Fathur Rahman, head of the local search and rescue agency in Maumere, adding that a team was attempting to reach the area by ferry.

More than 3,500 military and police personnel have been deployed overall, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said. More than 1,300 homes have been damaged, and 20 petrol stations remain shut due to power outages, according to state energy firm Pertamina.

Officials are considering declaring a state of emergency for East Nusa Tenggara, which would unlock further resources and funding.

A tsunami warning issued immediately after the earthquake has since been lifted.

Reporting from Jakarta, Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington said aftershocks could continue for “several days”, with authorities in the island’s northern areas ordering further evacuations as the true scale of the damage is still “emerging”.

She said several affected areas remain inaccessible to first responders and that local authorities have urged residents to stay away from shorelines and damaged buildings.

The same stretch of coastline was struck by a similarly powerful earthquake in December 1992, when the quake and the tsunami it triggered killed more than 2,500 people on Flores, Indonesia’s geophysics agency said.

Indonesia, a nation of some 290 million people spread across roughly 17,000 islands, sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, making it one of the world’s most seismically active countries.

STACEY Solomon has given an insight into her family holiday in ‘paradise’ with Joe Swash and her sister Jemma.

The TV presenter, 36, is currently enjoying a holiday in Turkey and has shared snaps and videos of their amazing experience.

The TV star looked incredible in a baby pink bikini while enjoying time with daughter Belle in a leafy swimming pool.

She also shared rare snaps of the family all together – but said she looked like a mole in them.

Stacey also enjoyed having fun in the stunning swimming pool with her sister as a bemused stranger looked on at their antics.

The TV presenter also shared a sweet snap of her cuddling her daughters on the golden sand in front of rows of luxurious sun loungers.

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Stacey also shared a super sweet clip of her family trying out a viral trend and captioned it: “Thought I’d share this for anyone who sees the cutest family video trends but this is what you’re dealing with.

“Take my hat off to those families who can get everyone to comply.”

Fans flocked to comment and one wrote: “You are all so cute”!

Another added: “We love this sister love.”

A third said: “I have loved this holiday I felt like I was there with you all.”

While a fourth wrote: “Beautiful family and beautiful holiday.”

Jemma and her husband Lee marked their 21 year anniversary while on holiday – after their recent business woes.

It came after Jemma’s home organising company was taken over by Lord Alan Sugar after she tearfully closed down the firm earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Stacey gave birth to Belle, her third child with former EastEnders star Joe, back in February 2023.

The couple had previously welcomed son Rex and daughter Rose, in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

Stacey already had older sons Zachary and Leighton from prior relationships, while Joe had son Harry.

Romania’s Defence Ministry didn’t specify the origin of the drone but has previously blamed Russia for similar incidents.

Russian strikes on Ukraine have killed at least one person and wounded seven more while a Spanish jet has shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace.

A woman was killed and six others wounded in a missile and drone attack on Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the region’s governor said early on Sunday.

Authorities in the Ukrainian capital also said Kyiv was “under ballistic missile attack” late on Saturday, with one person wounded and fires sparked at non-residential sites in the Obolonsky and Holosiivskyi districts.

Separately, Romania’s Defence Ministry reported on Sunday that a Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot on a NATO air policing mission to Romania had shot down a drone illegally breaching its national airspace.

It is the fourth drone shot down in Romania this year.

Romania’s Defence Ministry did not specify the origin of ‌the ‌drone.

In July, a Romanian jet shot down a suspected Russian drone, and in May a stray drone injured two people in the Romanian city of Galati when it collided with a building.

Romania shares a 634km (394-mile) border with Ukraine and has repeatedly seen Russian drones breaching its airspace as Moscow escalates its bombing campaign against Ukrainian civilian and military infrastructure.

Escalating long-range strikes

Russia has maintained near-daily missile and drone strikes across Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in early 2022, with areas far from the front lines frequently coming under attack.

The war’s impact has also spread to key regional shipping lanes, with reports of mines and unmanned sea drones found floating in the Black Sea.

Civilian casualties in Ukraine hit their highest level since 2022 this July, with at least 437 killed and 2,610 injured, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission.

Meanwhile, in Russia on Sunday, authorities reported a large-scale drone incursion from the Ukrainians.

Moscow officials said they had downed more than 100 drones heading towards the capital overnight.

Emergency services were deployed to sites where debris fell, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, adding that three people were wounded.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted military, industrial and logistical facilities deep inside Russia, arguing its strikes are a response to Moscow’s ongoing bombardment of Ukrainian towns and infrastructure.

The new release is rising through the ranks already, but viewers are warned they will need a “sick bucket”

One of the “sickest” documentaries viewers have ever seen is rising up the ranks as a strong fan warning has been issued.

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon was released on Prime Video earlier this week (August 13) and already it is making waves amongst viewers.

The two-part series delves into the real life disturbing story of NHS vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, from Cornwall, who lost his own legs to amputation.

After claiming a mystery illness resulted in sepsis and injuries to his legs, Neil was seen as a ‘hero’ and a symbol of hope when he documented his journey and recovery, even going back to work.

But years later, police uncovered a dark reality and horrific secrets that Neil kept hidden from everyone. In 2019, he deliberately caused irreversible damage to his legs that resulted in an amputation of both limbs before he claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in fraudulent insurance payouts.

When a whistle-blower set out to expose an underground network devoted to extreme body modifications, police discovered Neil’s truth.

Rising up the ranks already, an official synopsis reads: “Vascular surgeon Neil Hopper becomes a symbol of hope after losing both legs, until an investigation uncovers a hidden obsession and secret life.”

Some true crime fans have already binged the two part series, and have issued a strong warning. One person took to TikTok to recommend the “crazy” watch as they said in a video: “Honestly, the things what some people get off on never ceases to amaze me.”

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They added: “It’s absolutely crazy”, as one person replied: “Just watched this it’s so messed up.” Another dubbed it as “shocking” as a third penned: “The f*** This was insane.”

In another video, one person said: “Yous need to watch this immediately but get a sick bucket before you do because oh my god, it’s horrifying.”

They went on to say: “The biggest trigger warning that I have ever, ever put on a video needs to be put on this documentary. Let’s just say your jaw will be on the floor.”

Another commented: “Only managed the first episode. Felt way too sick to continue.” One person admitted: “I think it’s the sickest documentary I’ve ever seen.”

An Amputation Obsession: The Monster and the Surgeon can be streamed on Prime Video

Japan’s protest over Putin’s visit to the Kuril Islands is loud because its response is capped: Tokyo cannot meaningfully sanction the one Russian energy relationship — Sakhalin-2 LNG — it now depends on more than ever, after the Strait of Hormuz closure gutted its Gulf oil access and made that supply a load-bearing pillar of its energy security through at least December 2026.

On August 13th, Vladimir Putin toured a fish-processing plant on Iturup Island, the largest of the four southern Kuril Islands Japan calls its Northern Territories, with Sakhalin’s regional governor at his side. It was his first visit there in twenty-six years in power. He called the islands’ status “enshrined” as a permanent outcome of the Second World War and pointedly invoked the late Shinzo Abe, who spent years personally courting him toward a peace treaty that never materialised. Tokyo’s response was immediate: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit “absolutely unacceptable,” and her Foreign Ministry says an “additional sanctions package” is under consideration. What went unmentioned is that this same government told Washington, in writing, ten months earlier that a full ban on Russian LNG would be “difficult.” That contradiction, not the visit itself, is the story.

The dispute is old: the Soviet Union seized the four islands in the war’s final days, and the missing peace treaty has been Tokyo and Moscow’s unfinished business for eighty years. What is new is the energy math surrounding it. Sakhalin-2, the LNG project sitting directly across the strait from where Putin stood, supplied Japan roughly 3.6–3.9 million tonnes last year — about 9% of its total LNG imports, and enough to make Japan the project’s largest single buyer. The US Treasury sanctions waiver permitting those imports, along with the Gazprombank clearing that finances them, was just extended to December 18th, 2026, pushed back from an original June deadline. Washington’s stated reason was blunt: global supply is “constrained amid the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”

BEHIND THE VISIT

That closure is the piece most coverage of the Kuril visit leaves out. Since February 28th, when the US and Israel launched their air campaign against Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut, with roughly 20,000 mariners and 2,000 ships stranded and Brent crude spiking to $126 a barrel at its peak. Around 90% of Japan’s crude oil and 11% of its LNG normally transit Hormuz. Tokyo has spent 2026 losing its largest energy artery to a war in the Gulf, which means Sakhalin-2 has quietly gone from “one Russian supplier among several” to one of the few pillars still standing under Japan’s winter power grid. Putin picked this year, not an arbitrary one, to make his sovereignty claim visible on the ground.

The waiver renewal is the tell. Washington and Tokyo did not merely tolerate the Sakhalin-2 exemption through the Ukraine-sanctions years — they actively rebuilt it in 2026, in the middle of the Hormuz crisis, explicitly carving out maritime transport, financial clearing, and joint-operations funding through the end of the year. Putin then chose that same window, with that same regional government’s leadership standing next to him, to plant a public flag on the neighbouring islands. He is not testing whether Japan objects. He knows it will. He is testing whether the general logic of sanctioning Russia survives contact with the specific, recently-renewed exemption that keeps Japanese lights on. Compare that to 2010, when Dmitry Medvedev made the first-ever Russian presidential visit to the same islands: Tokyo protested loudly, recalled its ambassador briefly, and moved on within weeks, because no comparable energy dependency was on the table at the time. The script is recognisable. The stakes underneath it are not.

Takaichi’s own words undercut her “absolutely unacceptable” framing before she said it. In October 2025, briefing President Trump on the LNG relationship, she told him directly that a total ban on Russian gas “would be difficult” — an unusually candid admission from a leader now weighing a fresh sanctions package over the same relationship’s home islands. A prime minister who has already told Washington, on the record, that cutting the energy tie is impractical cannot now credibly threaten it without the threat being understood, in Moscow as much as in Tokyo, as theatre. What remains available is a narrow band of symbolic measures — travel restrictions, asset freezes on individuals connected to the visit or the regional administration — that let Tokyo be seen to act without touching a single LNG cargo.

The standard objection is that Japan has options: JERA, its largest buyer, points to a 30–35 million tonne portfolio and spot-market access, and Tokyo Electric-linked utilities cite early-stage interest in the $44 billion Alaska LNG project as a long-term alternative. That is capability, not near-term relief. Japanese firms remain openly cautious about Alaska LNG’s cost and logistics, with no binding offtake timeline in sight, and the global spot market Japan would lean on is the same market already absorbing cargoes redirected from Hormuz-blocked routes — tighter, not looser, than in a normal year. Sanctioning the actual molecules, rather than a list of names, risks the electricity-price and blackout warnings Japanese officials themselves used to justify keeping the Sakhalin-2 waiver alive in the first place.

THE SCENARIOS

Base case (~55%): Japan announces a narrow, largely symbolic sanctions package — individual travel bans and targeted asset freezes tied to the Far East regional government — while explicitly leaving Sakhalin-2 supply and Gazprombank clearing untouched, repeating the 2010 script almost exactly. The December 18th waiver renewal proceeds quietly, folded into the broader Hormuz-driven energy calculus, and Moscow reads the episode as confirmation that its Pacific energy leverage over Japan is durable regardless of who occupies the Kremlin’s chair on any given August.

Downside case: domestic backlash — the same “hardened public sentiment” Takaichi herself warned the visit would produce — pushes her government into a genuine review of the Sakhalin-2 exemption as its December deadline approaches, right as Hormuz remains tight heading into winter and Asian spot LNG prices stay elevated from redirected Gulf cargoes. The result is Japan’s first real taste of sanctions-driven energy pain from the Ukraine-era regime, a burden that has so far landed almost entirely on European households rather than Japanese ones, arriving in the worst possible month of the heating season and forcing utilities into the kind of emergency rationing talk Tokyo has avoided since 2022.

Upside case: Tokyo treats the compounding shock — Hormuz plus the Kuril visit landing in the same year — as the forcing function it has lacked for three years, converting Minister Yoji Muto’s long-stated goal of “steadily reducing dependence” on Russian LNG into actual contracted volume rather than a talking point: accelerated Alaska LNG offtake commitments, expanded US Gulf Coast term deals, and a public timeline for winding down Sakhalin-2 purchases that uses the December waiver deadline as a hard exit ramp instead of an automatic renewal. Even here, the earliest realistic substitution volumes arrive on a multi-year timeline, not by next winter.

THE AFTERMATH

Putin’s flag on Iturup was never really a test of Japan’s territorial resolve — Tokyo’s position on the Northern Territories has not moved in eighty years and was never going to move now. It was a test of whether that resolve has any economic weight behind it at the one moment Japan’s alternatives are thinnest.

Watch for: what actually happens to the Sakhalin-2 waiver around December 18th, not the sanctions package announced this week. A quiet renewal, carved out exactly as before, will tell you Japan’s outrage and Japan’s energy security are now permanently on separate tracks — and that Moscow understands the gap between them better than Tokyo would like to admit.

In the beginning of 2025, Taylor Olin had decided she’d seen enough of Echo Park and decided to relocate to a cozy ranch up in Altadena. There, she’d begun to plant her roots in an artistic community, spending most of the last year and some change nestled in with her new flock of bohemian neighbors.

It would be the perfect sanctuary for the Something Specials frontwoman, that doubled as a creative space.

By the first week of January, she moved her belongings into a rented stationary camper situated on a ranch owner’s sprawling land, that they’d lived on for more than 25 years. In the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, her L.A. chronicle would continue, as dreamed.

But within a week of settling down, she’d receive a knock on her door, step out of her home, and see flames burning a nearby hillside. When she saw the fire she knew to leave, packing as much as she could before making a run for it.

“Every successive update we would get from her was just unbelievably surreal,” said Josh Augustin, who plays drums and keys and does production for the band.

She didn’t know it yet, but all that was left of her camper was its frame; it’s burned, twisted metal was another casualty of the L.A. wildfires. For the next couple of weeks, she’d couch surf until ultimately sleeping in her van, waking up early to wait tables at an oyster bar on Sunset Boulevard.

The remains of Olin’s rented camper.

(Taylor Olin)

“From there, I went back to Florida, and I put on a benefit show for some specific people in Altadena that I wanted to give some funds to,” Olin said.

She’d then relocate to Europe and start fresh with aid from a GoFundMe created by a friend. Roughly a year and a half later, she’s still there and has had time to reflect on the experience.

“As much as I was directly affected, I really have held the space in my heart for those who have been there for their entire lives,” she said.

“My commitment to the community had only been a year … whereas they had invested so much and lost so much.”

But something fascinating was happening behind the scenes, coinciding with the disaster that had sent Olin overseas and left her bandmates, Augustin and Nathan Slone — located in New York City — shocked.

One year earlier, the band had released “Love,” a pleasantly sweet, folky, country-adjacent tune that melts easily into eardrums. Though it hadn’t received much attention at the time, it began to gain some traction on social media right after Olin settled down in Europe, frequently appearing in short-form videos across Instagram.

“We had no idea where we were getting it from,” she said of the new listeners. “It was picked algorithmically and put at the top of recommended songs on stories and reels, and so we started seeing thousands of reels being used with its intro.”

The band unwittingly stumbled into virality.

“We would get maybe a few hundred listeners in a day across our entire discography,” Slone, guitarist and bassist, said. “It’s … come to life, die, come back to life, and died. Now our whole discography seems to be in a ‘high tide lifts all ships’ moment.”

At that time, “Love” was floating around 1 million listeners on Spotify. Today, it sits at nearly 20 million, with the band’s average monthly listeners at 1.2 million. Small highlights include being featured in a Reese Witherspoon carousel and Ashley Tisdale French gardening video on Instagram, the latter containing their other hit, “Aces.”

Now, the trio is gearing up to release its debut album, “Somewhere Up There,” on Friday. At just shy of an hour, the project is split almost evenly between new music and previously released tunes.

Album art for “Somewhere Up There.”

(Taylor Olin / The Something Specials)

Impressively, the band has met in person only three times, one of which was when they first agreed to work together. Better yet, when Olin and Slone first met, it was shaking hands on stage at the Echoplex before the band’s first show.

They’re all skilled musicians, having done their due diligence in different music groups, but nothing has clicked like the parasocial success that is the Something Specials.

“We need each other all the way through — we each bring a different thing to the project,” Slone said.

“I’ll go and write the bass of the song, and a riff if there’s a riff. Josh helps with keyboards and drums. We refine it a little bit together. We send it to Taylor. Taylor records over it. We get it back. We might add a part or two. We mix it. All say yes. Send it for mastering and upload it.”

In a modern world, it’s not unusual to hear of music production being done in such a way, but it’s the group’s limited personal relationship that makes it shine.

The plan is to keep being nonchalant about the whole thing, and hopefully their fan base will continue to grow. On Oct. 28, they’ll play the Sultan Room in New York City, their third time together as a band.

“It’s bizarrely easy,” Slone adds.

“With very few exceptions, if things are flowing well, we can wrap something up in a week or two,” Augustin adds about the outfit’s remote recording process.

They’re still winging it at this point, unsigned and with no representation, but “winging it has served us well,” Olin said.

“We’ve been approached many times [by labels],” Slone continues. “But we do pretty darn well on our own, and record labels don’t really have much to offer us, frankly.”

Olin says that in a time where the use of artificial intelligence is so prevalent, and particularly in creative spaces, doing things “DIY” is the best approach. They’re starting with an initial run of around 500 vinyl records, with plans to release the album on CD and cassette later down the line.

“With this kind of band — with our sound, with our aesthetic— I think that as old-school as possible feels best,” she said.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 14 (UPI) — Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem lashed out at the Lebanese officials Friday for accepting the June 26 U.S.-brokered framework agreement with Israel and failing to secure any gains after seven rounds of negotiations.

He called for an end to “the humiliation” and urging the officials to reverse “the sinful mistake.”

Qassem said in a speech broadcast by Hezbollah-run Al Manar TV that the initial agreement, a conditional and phased process aimed at ending the state of war, amounted to “Israeli dictates” that gave Israel “everything it wants,” while the Lebanese authorities relinquished their sovereignty.

He called for “reversing the sinful, disgraceful and humiliating mistake,” which raises question marks about “what these officials are doing.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun decided to engage in direct talks with Israel in what he believed was the only viable path to ending the war, despite Hezbollah’s staunch opposition. Aoun was betting that U.S. President Donald Trump alone could pressure Israel to withdraw its troops and help Lebanon restore its sovereignty.

The war broke out when Hezbollah opened a support front for Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, and resumed fighting in solidarity with Iran on March 2 this year, triggering a massive Israeli retaliation that significantly degraded the Iran-backed group and caused widespread destruction in southern Lebanon and other parts of the country.

Israel, which reduced some 70 border villages in southern Lebanon to rubble and rendered them uninhabitable while occupying a 6-mile “buffer zone,” insists that it will not withdraw its troops unless Hezbollah is completely disarmed.

The framework agreement, reached by Lebanese and Israeli negotiating teams under pressure from Washington, provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from occupied parts of southern Lebanon to allow the Lebanese Army to “restore effective sovereign authority,” beginning with its deployment in two initial pilot zones.

The initial accord also addressed plans to disarm Hezbollah, Iran’s main proxy and once its most powerful regional non-state armed actor.

Despite the Lebanese Army’s deployment in the village of Zawtar al-Gharbieh — the first pilot zone in southern Lebanon — Israel continued to carry out strikes, destroy homes and demolish Hezbollah tunnels and military infrastructure.

Qassem pointed out that Israel would not have carried out “all this aggression and genocide without the Americans.”

Addressing Lebanese officials, he asked them to “name a single achievement from the seven rounds of negotiations. Israel got everything it wanted and everything it sought.”

He accused the officials of failing to withdraw from the negotiations with Israel, saying that what is happening “amounts to surrender, which we do not accept.”

Qassem credited Iran for progress, saying that the Iran-U.S. negotiations in Islamabad brought about the return of displaced people to southern Lebanon and a cease-fire that reduced the escalation, rather than the direct negotiations.

He said the war was “an existential war of aggression,” and that his group would “stand firm and defeat the Israeli project” and that those betting on surrender were “betting on a mirage.”

It feels inconsiderate of Ariana Grande to bring her Eternal Sunshine tour to the UK at the tail end of the year’s fifth heatwave. Haven’t we suffered enough already?

But the fans packed into London’s O2 arena on Saturday night didn’t seem to care about the heat and the sweat.

They came ready to dance. Thousands of them, dressed in cat ears, bridal gowns and elaborate floral headpieces.

They scream when she references rumours she’s back together with her ex, Ricky Alvarez. And they bounce in unison when she plays colourful club anthems like Into You and Break Free.

It’s the first time Grande has played in the UK since 2019, partly because of Covid, but also because of her Oscar-nominated role in the movie musical Wicked.

She rewards fans with a few of Glinda’s signature hair tosses, external and, more importantly, a two-hour show that highlights the incredible agility of the star’s voice.

Sure, the production has all the paraphernalia a major pop tour – big sets, plumes of smoke, inspired choreography – but there are long stretches where it’s just Grande on stage with her band. Her stunning, four octave vocals come first. Everything else is a distant second. And rightly so.

If you dig around on Grande’s YouTube channel, there’s a famous video of her recording the song Positions, external, directing her sound engineers as she layers vocal harmonies and ad libs, finding new note combinations on the fly.

It’s a bravura performance that showcases her facility with melody and arrangement – and she essentially recreates it live on stage at the O2.

After the opening run of songs, she hushes the audience and spends two minutes looping her voice. First the lyric, “I don’t care what people say, it’s true”, in high and low registers. Then she adds short phrases: “Won’t break. Can’t Shake. Deep breaths…. Tight chest. Life. Death. Rewind.”

They become the backbone of the next song, Eternal Sunshine.

They’re also the backstory of the whole show.

On Friday night at the SoFi Stadium, there was nothing random about the songs that played just before Karol G took the stage for the first of three evenings at the venue. We can safely assume that the Colombian superstar selected the cuts herself — the perfect tropicoqueta mix to set up the mood.

First, a shadowy “Bésame Mucho”; Elvis Crespo’s merengue smash “Suavemente”; the Afro-Cuban nugget “El Manisero”; and two life-affirming hits by the Queen of Salsa herself, Celia Cruz: “La Vida Es Un Carnaval” and “La Negra Tiene Tumbao.”

These carefully curated gems share a common element: They managed to transcend the stylistic contours of their respective genres and become something bigger — the kind of irresistible, it-takes-a-village anthems that will lure everyone to the dance floor, even if they don’t understand the lyrics.

And that is exactly what Karol G — la bichota, the South American Cleopatra, the woman with the billion-dollar smile — has been doing for global pop since the release of “Tusa,” her imperial duet with Nicki Minaj, back in 2019.

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Karol is currently the 42nd-most-streamed artist on Spotify, and her albums “Mañana Será Bonito” (2023) and “Tropicoqueta” (2025) helped reinvent the sound of contemporary Latin. She emerged from the reggaeton thunderstorm that hijacked the planet, but then guided it smoothly into a different aesthetic territory, far away from the movement’s misogynistic toxicity. Her ongoing collaboration with producer Ovy On The Drums — they’re the same age, 35, both from Medellín — was transformative, combining clanging, tribal beats with liquid textures and a refined, champagne-like lightness.

Part of the massive “Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour,” Friday’s performance confirmed the singer’s stature as one of the most vital and charismatic Latin artists of the 21st century. More than a conventional concert, it felt like a stark, delirious fantasia, a relentless cinematic mosaic of decadent dance numbers and hyper-popped fragmentation presented in five acts, unified by a tropical visual motif: lush vegetation; a blue lagoon where cleansing erotic rituals take place; plumes of purifying fire to expiate the aftertaste of all those failed romances.

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Beginning with the wicked reggaeton beat of “Latina Foreva” — an existential jam about curves and pleasure, the freedom of the flesh — Karol ignited a deafening roar of adoration from the full-capacity crowd. For a moment, I got a taste of what Beatlemania must have sounded like in the 1960s.

As the cameras followed her closely, projecting every playful grimace and flirtatious wink onto the giant video screens, the complexity of her artistic persona became increasingly transparent: an indomitable woman who is deeply connected with primal joy and sensuality, but also vulnerable enough to get her heart broken on the way to the red carpet (and still embrace the experience). In the world of Karol G, what doesn’t kill you makes for an international hit.

Admittedly, it was the aggressive, in-your-face numbers that worked best. Karol sounds even better when surrounded by half-naked dancers — “Gatúbela” and “Ojos Ferrari” were highlights in that respect — and the choreography evoked the sweaty rapture of a full-blown Roman orgy.

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

But she’s also smart enough to alternate the futurism of neo-reggaeton (the cutting-edge territory where her work with producers like Ovy On The Drums and Tainy has given us some astonishing records) with an affectionate nod to the past glories of Afro-Caribbean lore: the 20th century cultural bubble where Colombian families listened to the “14 Cañonazos Bailables” compilations during the Christmas season.

On the title track of “Tropicoqueta,” she draws an imaginary line that connects her current sexual emancipation to the frisky downbeats of 1950s mambo and the early 2000s movement that jazzed up the Afro-Caribbean classics with a digital bounce. On Friday, she salsified “Provenza” and added the riff of Willie Colón’s “La Murga” as an intro to “Tusa.” Her visual recreation of the “Tropicoqueta” album cover onstage was one of the show’s wittiest moments.

At one point after the success of “Mañana Será Bonito,” Karol must have realized that her newly acquired diva status gave her the chance to voice some valuable thoughts on the merits of Latin American culture.

In between songs, Karol spoke with compassion about the recent earthquakes affecting Colombia and Venezuela — the latter of which is where her poised opening act, Elena Rose, also hails from — but her pan-Latino ideology seeped into the music as well. Her face was covered in tears after she performed “Ese Hombre Es Malo” backed by female mariachi players. At the end of the show, a stunning reading of “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” revealed the instinctive ease with which she can navigate the sweet, syncopated phrasing of Dominican merengue.

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Elena Rose opens for Karol G at SoFi.  (Jill Connelly/For De Los)

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Inglewood, CA., Aug. 14, 2026. – Opener Elena Rose performs during the first of Karol G’s three nights headlining the SoFi Stadium for her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour. (Jill Connelly / For De Los)  (Jill Connelly/For De Los)

A few tracks from her recently released sixth studio album,”No Me Arrepiento De Sentir Tanto,” displayed a more introspective side. On the dreamy ballad “Después de Ti,” she was joined on guitar by Greg Gonzalez of Cigarettes After Sex, reenacting their performance together from April, when Karol headlined Coachella.

The deafening volume at SoFi was the only aspect of the show that got in the way. The sound stage felt bludgeoned into submission throughout, as the intense distortion of bass, percussion and guitars made the instrument separation within the mix almost inaudible.

That said, the overall experience transcended the sonic elements, as Karol is clearly using the Tropitour as a good reason to celebrate her extraordinary achievements with the fans (she even hugged a security guard).

Somewhere in the venue, a young Latina girl must have been dazzled by this extravagant spectacle and perhaps dreamed of one day following in the footsteps of Carolina Giraldo Navarro: a gifted singer and composer, a woman intelligent enough to cherish the emotional value of dancing the night away.

And that is one solid role model to have.

Indiana’s state governor says that US government has promised assistance after a week of heavy rainfall.

Authorities in the Midwestern United States have reported at least five deaths in Indiana after the state was struck with fierce storms and flooding.

Rescue workers continue to seek out those stranded by the storms, which drenched Indiana over the past week.

Governor Mike Braun had called for a presidential emergency declaration on Friday, in order to access greater resources for the state.

On Saturday, he issued a public statement announcing that the federal government had pledged assistance.

“I spoke with President [Donald] Trump today about the severe storms and historic flooding impacting Indiana, and he informed me that he intends to approve our request for a Presidential Emergency Declaration,” Braun, a Republican, wrote in a social media post.

“I’m grateful to President Trump for his commitment to getting Hoosiers the federal assistance we need as we continue responding and recovering.”

Emergency workers have used boats to rescue people from homes inundated by rising waters.

The White River in Indianapolis, Indiana, was among the waterways that overflowed its banks over the last week, causing dangerous flooding.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said that the area is experiencing its worst flooding in more than 30 years. The National Weather Service has reported that more than 280mm (11 inches) of rain fell over two days in some areas.

Sheriff deputies in Delaware County said on Friday that they had found the body of a deceased 58-year-old woman, whom they believe died trying to drive her vehicle through floodwaters.

Authorities caution against attempting to cross flooded areas in a car, warning that vehicles can become stranded.

A four-year-old child also died after a tree fell on a home in Jennings County this week, and law enforcement found the body of a teen who was reported missing on Wednesday after jumping into a river.

“My heart is with the families and loved ones of the five Hoosiers we have lost and every family whose life has been changed by these storms,” Braun said on Saturday. “Please continue to take flooding seriously and stay away from floodwaters.”

Gombe, Nigeria – On a weekday morning in Pantami District, Gombe, the streets fill with the familiar rush of motorcycles carrying students, workers and traders across the city. But increasingly, some pass almost silently – a subtle sign of a transport shift driven not by climate policy, but by Nigeria’s soaring fuel prices.

One pedestrian did not realise a motorcycle was behind him until the rider sounded its horn. Unlike the petrol-powered bikes that dominate Nigerian roads, the electric motorcycle moved almost noiselessly and produced no exhaust fumes.

Electric motorcycles are gradually appearing across Gombe as riders seek relief from rising fuel costs following President Bola Tinubu’s removal of Nigeria’s fuel subsidy in May 2023, forcing many to rethink how they travel and earn a living.

The bikes, which typically cost about 1 million naira (about $735), remain out of reach for many households. But those who have made the switch say the savings on fuel and maintenance are significant.

Subsidy shock

Tinubu announced the end of Nigeria’s longstanding petrol subsidy during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, triggering a sharp increase in fuel prices across the country.

In Gombe, petrol now sells for about 1,365 naira ($1) per litre (0.26 gallons), compared with roughly 200 naira (15 cents) before the subsidy was removed. The increase has driven up transport costs and squeezed household budgets across Nigeria.

The economic pressure has coincided with growing concern about the environmental impact of the country’s ageing fleet of petrol-powered motorcycles and vehicles. According to the World Bank, road transport is a major contributor to air pollution in Nigerian cities, with vehicle emissions adding significantly to levels of harmful particulate matter.

A cheaper ride

For Ayuba Abubakar, a farmer and resident of Gombe, the switch to an electric motorcycle was prompted by a friend’s visit earlier this year.

After buying the bike, he rode from Gombe to Kumo and back and was surprised by how little battery power the journey consumed.

“I usually spend the day moving around Gombe without charging,” Ayuba told Al Jazeera. “When I travel to remote areas, I charge it.”

Ayuba said he has been using the bike for about three months and has so far avoided the mechanical problems that often come with petrol-powered motorcycles.

“My charger once burned out because I didn’t use a stabiliser,” he said. “Apart from that, I’ve had no major maintenance costs.”

He estimates that the bike has saved him about 5,000 naira ($3.7) a week in fuel expenses.

“Even with those savings, the price needs to come down for most Nigerians to afford it,” he added.

Ahmed Aminu, another rider in Gombe, told Al Jazeera that he no longer spends money on engine oil, while Yakubu Sule, who also owns an electric motorcycle, told Al Jazeera that he chose it largely because of its quiet operation.

Power constraints

Despite the enthusiasm of early adopters, unreliable electricity remains one of the biggest obstacles to wider use of electric motorcycles.

Nigeria’s electricity supply is notoriously inconsistent, and many households receive only a few hours of power each day. The challenge has become more pronounced under Nigeria’s service-based tariff system, which classifies customers into bands according to the amount of electricity they receive.

For Muhammad Abubakar, chief executive officer of Sustenaa, a clean-energy company, the problem is fundamental.

“If we end up charging these bikes with generators, then what’s the point?” Abubakar told Al Jazeera. “We will just be moving the emissions from the exhaust pipe to the generator pipe, and we are back to square one.”

He argues that solar-powered battery-swap stations are a more realistic solution than relying on riders to charge their motorcycles at home.

Abubakar also warned that Nigeria must plan for battery recycling as electric mobility expands. He called on the government to reduce import duties on electric-bike components, support battery-swap operators, establish recycling standards and integrate electric mobility into existing solar mini-grid projects.

For now, electric motorcycles remain a niche option in Gombe. But as fuel prices remain high and battery-swap infrastructure slowly expands, the quiet motorcycles appearing on the city’s streets may offer a glimpse of how economic pressure is beginning to reshape transport across Nigeria.

“When you look at how many bikes are pumping out smoke daily across Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt, air pollution levels are alarming,” he said. “Even if we start with a fraction of the commercial bike fleets, the improvement in air quality could become visible relatively quickly.”