GEMMA Atkinson has shown off her washboard abs in a thong bikini after her fiancé Gorka Marquez made a cheeky joke about her job.

The soap actress left fans’ jaws on the floor as she soaked up the sun on holiday.

She cut an incredibly toned figure as she posed up in a mismatched bikini.

In one snap posted to Instagram, Gemma smiled at the camera, flashing her bum in tiny, red, tie-side bottoms.

She went make-up-free in the pictures, looking happier than ever to be spending time with her family.

Gemma wore a plunging black bikini top and matching sunglasses as she threw up a peace sign.

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The former Hollyoaks star and model sizzled in the slew of photos, which showed off her light-hearted side.

She looked fresh out the water with her damp locks clinging to her back.

The mum-of-two captioned the post: “Vitamin D, time on a beach & family = Bliss!”

Fans could not get over Gemma’s sexy snaps and they took to the comments to share their thoughts.

“Looking incredible! Absolute body goals,” wrote one fan.

Another fan said: “Wow Gem looking absolutely gorgeous.”

Strictly pro Diane Buswell penned: “Stun,” followed by a red heart and fire emoji.

Meanwhile, another fan wrote: “Your figure is incredible! You look amazing and so happy.”

Gorka also commented the heart eyes emoji under Gemma’s post after he made a daring joke on their podcast Lost In Translation.

Gemma, 41, was asked by a fan: “What is Gemma Atkinson famous for?”

Ex-Strictly Come Dancing professional Gorka, 35, couldn’t resist jumping in with: “Flashing her t*ts. Actually no, sorry, actress…”

Laughing, Gemma replied: “I’ve done every soap you can imagine, my darling.

“I run a business and I was FHM’s Sexiest Woman back in the day. Your dad will know.”

Welcome to our Who am I? game.

The rules are simple. Each day there’s a new footballer and the challenge is to guess who they are in as few attempts as possible.

After each wrong guess you unlock a new clue. Guess the answer after as few clues as possible to score more points.

Three is a good score, four or five points is exceptional.

So take part and return for more tomorrow.

Today’s player and clues set by BBC Sport’s Adam Millington.

After more quizzes? Go to our dedicated Football Quizzes and Sports Quizzes pages and sign up for notifications to get the latest quizzes sent straight to your device.

July 27 (UPI) — Two locations of a Jewish-owned Toronto bakery chain were damaged overnight, authorities said Sunday, as the incidents are being investigated by Toronto Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit.

The Toronto Police Service said both locations suffered broken windows, but only one appeared to be the result of gunfire.

“At this time, investigators are examining whether the incidents are connected and working to identify those responsible,” the Toronto Police Service said in a statement.

“There have been no reported injuries.”

Founded in 1979, Kiva’s Bagel has three locations in the city.

Duty Insp. Scott Bradbury told reporters that the incidents occurred overnight, sometime between the stores’ closing Saturday and opening Sunday, when police received calls from employees reporting the damage.

Toronto police said they received a report at 8:12 a.m. EDT of a broken window apparently struck by gunfire at the Kiva’s location at Young Street and St. Clair Avenue West. Evidence of a shooting was located, police said, adding there were no reported injuries.

About 20 minutes later, police said they received a report of a broken window at the Kiva’s location at Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue West.

“We understand that this is concerning for those that work and live in this area, especially members of the Jewish community, and we have all the resources available to thoroughly investigate this matter,” Bradbury said.

“Members of our Hate Crime, members of our guns and gangs integrated task force and our divisional units are here canvassing the area. So members of the public can be aware that there’s going to be an increased presence of police in that area conducting our investigation.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow described the incidents as “vile and unacceptable.”

“We all have a responsibility to stand against hate,” she said in an online statement.

“I will always stand with Toronto’s Jewish community against anti-Semitism.”

The incident come after Toronto recorded a sharp decline in reported hate crimes last year.

Toronto police recorded 231 hate-motivated occurrences last year, down nearly 48% from 443 in 2024.

Anti-Jewish occurrences, however, remained the most frequently reported category of hate crime, with 81 incidents, accounting for 35% of all hate crimes and 82% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.

However, police in May said there had been a “concerning” 40% increase in reported hate crimes so far in 2026, compared with the same period last year.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement Sunday that he was following the incidents involving the Kiva’s locations “with concern.”

“While thankfully none were injured, this is the latest attack in a long and horrifying line of violence and intimidation against the Canadian Jewish community,” he said online.

“The Canadian government must confront this anti-Semitic violent wave!”

Ifugao, Philippines – At first light, the village of Batad begins to stir to life beneath the towering cliffs surrounding its amphitheatre-like rice terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Apu Penneng, an Ifugao elder who owns one of the village’s largest tracts of ricefields, struts with youthful confidence along a narrow and steep path in this highland community 1,100 metres (3,608ft) above sea level.

Dressed in a traditional loincloth, shawl and headgear, he is heading for the Tanig, an elaborate morning ritual before the harvest begins. At a courtyard next to rows of huts, dozens of village women also gather for the Bullogan chi Munbotoh, the procession to the harvest site.

Against the glow of the rising sun, the centuries-old terraces finally come in full view as if cascading from the sky. The fields of Tinawon rice grains, moist from the drizzle the night before, glimmer like morsels of gold ready for picking.

But the otherwise majestic landscape is punctuated by the sight of collapsed earth and boulders, right in the middle of the terraces.

In November last year, Super Typhoon Fung-wong triggered a landslide that killed two locals and demolished one of the centuries-old canals irrigating the rice paddies. About 2.2 hectares (5.4 acres) of rice fields were damaged, affecting 150 farmers.

“It was the worst we’ve seen here,” Apu Penneng calmly said, as he pointed to a deforested patch of land above the terraces. From afar, it looked like it had been slashed with a giant blade.

The wreckage has been an unwelcome reminder for villagers of the destructive nature of extreme weather conditions, which have been increasing in frequency in recent years.

Batad was also struck with landslides in 2011, 2023 and 2025. With the emerging threat of this year’s Super El Nino, a climate phenomenon that increases global temperatures and drives more extreme weather and rainfall patterns, the Ifugao people worry about more damage to come.

Across the world, 80 percent of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites are facing climate-induced stress, according to an August 2025 study published in the scientific journal Nature.

The study found that UNESCO sites in low and middle-income countries receive the least conservation support, making them even more vulnerable to harsh climatic conditions. It added that in tropical monsoon areas, those conditions include record-breaking heatwaves, extended droughts and sudden drenching rainfall – much like what struck Batad in November 2025.

“Climate change is really aggravating the situation on the ground,” said lawyer Marlon Martin, head of the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMO).

For the rice terraces to stay intact and stable, the soil needs to maintain a certain level of moisture year-round. But because of recent bouts of dry spells, deep cracks have developed, making the terraces prone to erosion, said Martin.

“When sudden bursts of rain occur, the water would seep into the cracks too abruptly, resulting in erosion” and even soil collapse, he added, warning that the Super El Nino could only mean more trouble ahead.

According to Steve Baccay, head of Ifugao’s Provincial Agriculture and Environment Office, an equivalent of $500,000 is needed for the restoration work in Batad following last November’s landslide.

Since the disaster, Batad residents themselves have come together a few times to do voluntary communal work called bachang to fix the demolished irrigation canal.

The social welfare and labour departments have also extended emergency food and cash assistance to affected farmers. However, additional national government aid is unlikely until the next fiscal year.

Climate change is nothing new, and for centuries people in Ifugao have adapted to the changes using Indigenous engineering techniques to protect the terraces, said Martin. But for Batad to withstand more frequent and more extreme weather, national intervention is needed, he added.

For Batad village chief Romeo Heppog and his family, the rice terraces are not just a source of their livelihood, but part of their identity and their way of life.

Organising the annual rice harvest festival is his way of honouring their ancestors and renewing their “sacred oath” to preserve the terraces for the generations to come, he said.

At the Tanig pre-harvest sacred ritual, Heppog watches closely alongside Apu Penneng as Apu Buy-a Nadyug, Batad’s chief Indigenous priest known as Mumbaki, leads the harvest rituals, including the pouring and drinking of fresh rice wine.

Hunched on the ground next to a pair of wooden Bulul, which embody invisible spiritual beings of the Ifugaos, the octogenarian Apu Buy-a Nadyug recites verses seeking blessings and protection for the harvest.

With the help of another village elder, Apu Penneng then leads the slaughter of chickens as a symbolic offering to Ifugao ancestors and the spiritual beings.

In one of the final acts of the hour-long sacred ritual, Mumbaki Apu Buy-a Nadyug then scrutinises the guts of the chicken, and pronounces another year of “bountiful harvest”.

Apu Penneng and Heppog then lead the banging of gongs signifying merriment and the start of the joyful harvest.

For a moment, the worries of the villagers of Batad are drowned out by the loud rhythmic sound that has been passed from generation to generation.

Apu Penneng then proceeds to his ricefield for the harvest.  Amid the uncertainties for his community, his face beams with pride as he gazes at the panoramic view of Batad.

From a distance, the 2,702 metres (8,865ft) Mount Amuyao, the country’s 10th highest peak, towers over Batad, as if guarding it from the threats of nature.

“We will get through this,” said Apu Penneng.

JENNIFER Lopez’s marriage to Ben Affleck was a “publicity stunt” engineered to revive her star power, her first husband has claimed.

The Latina pop diva, 57, wed actor Ben in 2022 — exactly 20 years after the superstar couple infamously called off their first wedding.

But in an exclusive interview, Cuban-born personal trainer Ojani Noa, 52, said: “That marriage was a publicity stunt. She needed people to talk about her again.”

Jennifer married Ojani in February 1997, following a whirlwind romance.

Ojani, who lives in Florida, has said the seeds of her diva behaviour were sown long before she became a household name.

He said: “She was emotional when I did romantic things and insecure about her acting.”

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Ojani scoffs at the carefully manufactured working-class narrative, alleging that the Jennifer he met had lived a remarkably comfortable, middle-class life.

And he says the Jennifer he knew was a “sweet naive young woman”.

He said: “She was working on a TV show at 18. She had money and her mum was a teacher. She is a fake.”

The Sun on Sunday revealed yesterday how Jennifer’s marriage to Ojani ended after he accused her of cheating on him with her ex, disgraced rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Diddy was convicted last year of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

It was a glimpse of an old couple sharing a tender moment in the bustling horchatería that drew me into one of Valencia’s most storied culinary traditions. As he sipped his milky horchata de chufa and a white crescent moon appeared on his coiffed moustache, they shared a soft laugh and she dabbed it away from his upper lip.

“There’s no fixed time to drink horchata,” the lady said. “As long we have at least one every day.”

In Valencia, this refreshing, creamy, non-alcoholic drink is so beloved it is nicknamed “white gold”, and grand parlours dedicated to making it are still going strong in the city’s most sought-after locations. These often historic, traditional places are called horchaterías (or orxaterias in Valencian) and there are dozens dotted around the region.

Production is authorised in 16 towns in the Valencia region, with the quaint town of Alboraya (Alboraia in Valencian), about 45 minutes’ walk from Valencia old town, acknowledged as its birthplace and global capital. Here, buried in the low-lying, fertile fields around the town, you’ll find the drink’s principal ingredient: the chufa.

Chufas, known as tiger nuts in English, have been cultivated in Valencia for more than 1,000 years. They look like wooden raisins but taste nutty and slightly sweet when eaten raw. Tiger nuts are not actually nuts, but tubers of a grass-like plant from the sedge family. Valencia’s agricultural zone north of the city produces 5.3m to 8m kilograms of dried tiger nuts a year. Most of the harvesting takes place in spring to ensure ample supply for the balmy summer months.

To turn the wrinkly tubers into horchata, chufas are cleaned, soaked and crushed, then mixed with water. Nowadays, cinnamon, lemon or orange zest and sugar are added to boost the flavour.

Alboraya is also the birthplace of horchata’s companion: the farton, a long, cigar-shaped pastry glazed with sugar, created in the 1960s by the Polo family to dip in and mop up every last drop of horchata from the bottom of the glass. Some stay loyal to its humble predecessor, rosquilletas (breadsticks), which are less absorbent but an intriguingly salty, anise-flavoured counterpart to horchata’s sweetness nonetheless.

Leaving Alboraya with a bellyful of the indulgent combination, I weighed the task of finding the perfect horchatería. It felt wrong to split up horchata from its farton, so I would consider both. Horchaterías tend to offer three versions of horchata: líquida (liquid), granizada (semi-frozen slush) or mixta (a blend of liquid and slush). It would be the traditional classic líquida for me.

In Valencia, there are hundreds of places serving horchata and fartons, but I wanted tradition and old-world charm – places that exist only to make horchata, not as an afterthought to spiced lattes or ice-cream. After sifting out the cafes, coffeehouses and ice-cream parlours, a handwritten list on a single sheet of A4 remained.

Horchatería Fabián

It was Anthony Hughes MBE, the driving force behind so many of Wales’ most successful Para-athletes as performance director at Disability Sport Wales, who first spotted her potential

He introduced Bowen to wheelchair racing, in which she immediately won medals, before she found a passion for throwing.

“I had just started shot put, discus and javelin when Covid happened. I went back after and was thrown into a competition and I won best performer,” she said.

“So I was like, ‘oh, I’m okay at it’ and then I just kept going and fell in love with it.”

It is hard to imagine there will be many spectators at Glasgow’s Scotstoun Stadium more proud than Bowen’s parents who still regard themselves “lucky” to have her.

“We nearly lost her at 13 months old, but she’s here and doing amazing,” said her mother Anne.

“Growing up, she wanted to be like her siblings and would say, ‘they can ride a bike, why can’t I ride a bike?’ So she did.”

Bowen’s determination is only matched by the efforts of her parents to make sure their daughter can achieve her potential in the sport.

Her father Martin built a specially adapted bicycle so she could ride with her family, then moved onto bigger things when he built a campervan to ensure his daughter could to travel to athletics competitions.

“She has just come on so well. Nothing has ever been an obstacle for her,” said Martin.

“Whatever you put ahead of her, she’ll try and do it and if she can’t do it, she’ll get around it.”

Now Bowen hopes she can make her parents proud when they cheer her on in Glasgow.

“It’s the biggest competition I’ve ever done and I’m just happy to be there,” she said.

“It would mean the world to me to win a medal but just being there, I’m so thankful.”

Protesters shut roads and ministries in Tripoli as a civil disobedience campaign over power cuts spreads to more areas.

Protesters in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, have shut down roads and public buildings across the city as a civil disobedience campaign, launched over prolonged power cuts and high electricity rates, spread to more districts.

Crowds blocked the coastal road in Janzour, west of Tripoli, late on Sunday, and gathered outside the West Tripoli power station, closing the local municipal council building in protest at the prolonged outages.

Videos posted online, verified by Al Jazeera shows, protesters burning tyres and closing down major roads elsewhere in the capital.

The footage also shows protesters unloading a truck loaded with dirt in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the district of Sater Turba in Tripoli to close it.

The mostly young protesters also shut the offices of state telecoms operator Libyana in the district of Souq Al-Jumaa, according to the DPA news agency, carrying banners criticising Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dabaiba.

The campaign was launched by the Souq Al-Jumaa Movement, which has opposed the Government of National Unity since May 2025. It said its aim was to “completely paralyse the government” rather than disrupt ordinary life.

It called for accountability over alleged corruption and for the dissolution of Libya’s existing political institutions, including the government, the House of Representatives, the State Council and the Presidential Council.

The unrest also spread to the district of Tajoura, where the Tajoura Families and Youth Movement said it would begin a full boycott of state institutions from Monday, rejecting both the unity government and the House of Representatives.

It said in a statement that the call was in protest against the deterioration of services, citing the decline in electricity, water, education and health services, alongside continuing fuel and liquidity crises and medicine shortages, while “officials are preoccupied with political conflicts”.

There was no immediate comment from the Government of National Unity.

Blackouts in Tripoli and other areas have reached up to ten hours a day, prompting the state-run General Electricity Company to reinstate load-shedding measures after two years of relative network stability.

The outages have compounded existing public frustration over inflation, currency instability, fuel and liquidity shortages, and Libya’s protracted political deadlock.

Separately, Massad Boulos, the White House adviser for African affairs, said he had held a “productive call” with Dabaiba on Sunday to discuss steps toward Libyan unification, including security cooperation between the country’s eastern and western factions.

“We also reviewed opportunities to further coordination and interoperability between Libyan forces and Africom,” Boulos said on X, adding that Washington remained committed to supporting Libya’s unification “in order to achieve durable peace, stability and prosperity”.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Laura Kuenssberg his dog Axel will be staying in Greater Manchester and will not be moving to No 10 Downing Street.

Burnham revealed he does not think his poodle-mix would get along with Larry the cat, who has lived at the residence for 15 years.

Watch Panorama Andy Burnham: The Laura Kuenssberg Interview on iPlayer from 06:00BST, and on BBC One at 20:00BST on Mon 27 Jul 2026.

Coronation Street fans will see Cassie Plummer take extreme action to expose Ross Wilkes on Monday, while there’s good news for the Platts and Sam confides in Idris

After Sunday night’s drama-filled episode of Coronation Street, three spoilers for the next episode tease what happens next.

While the episode drops on ITVX on Monday morning, it’s not airing until 8:30pm on ITV1 that sam evening. But if you want a glimpse of what’s happening int he latest visit to Weatherfield, look no further.

Three key things happen tonight in the fallout to Sunday’s episode, where Cassie Plummer grew tired of people worshiping newcomer Ross Wilkes. We also saw Shona Platt fume at her sister Jodie Ramsay over her lies, kicking her out.

Then there was Sam settling in after returning home from hospital. The drama continues on Monday evening, with some good news for Shona and her husband David Platt.

Shona and David finally bring their baby daughter Harper home, after months in hospital. Before Harper was born, doctors warned Shona and David that there was a mass on the baby’s neck.

Amid discussions over whether to have surgery, Shona went into labour after a car crash during the Corriedale crossover. Harper was very poorly for a while, and has been gradually getting better in hospital over the past few months.

Monday will see Harper brought home, with her family ready to welcome her. But Sam is left upset when he’s not given the chance to hold his baby cousin, with David reluctant.

Jodie also makes a return, with a bombshell for Shona – but will all be forgiven? Speaking of Sam, he’s still getting back on track after he was recently hospitalised, after suffering with his mental health.

He had a breakdown, and after experiencing psychosis he’s been having treatment. On Monday, we see him opening up to Leanne Battersby’s new man Idris Nazir.

Idris shares his own experience with anxiety and how he overcame it as a teen. Sam appreciates the chat with Idris, feeling much better after sharing his worries with him.

The third big spoiler for Monday is Cassie’s plot against Ross. Cassie will drop a bombshell later in the week about Ross, the father of her son Tyrone.

Before that, we know she’s tried to set him up by exposing his past. Monday could be the moment this happens, after the mystery message she got on her phone on Sunday.

Monday’s spoilers reveal that Cassie takes a call from one of Ross’s exes, a woman named Alison. Ross overhears and recognises her name.

Cassie summons Steve, Tyrone, Tracy and Ross to the Rovers and introduces them to Alison Shave, Ross’s ex-girlfriend and reveals how Ross stole money from her and threatened her. How will Ross react, and is he finally exposed?

Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

England’s Adam Ramsay-Peaty will have the chance to defend his men’s 50m breaststroke title at the Commonwealth Games after qualifying third fastest for the final.

The 31-year-old, who broke down in tears after taking bronze in the 100m on Saturday night, finished second in his semi-final with a time of 26.82 seconds.

World record holder Ramsay-Peaty will have to close the gap to South Africa’s Michael Houlie – who set the pace with 26.61 – when he races in the final on Monday at 20:07 BST.

Australia’s 100m breaststroke gold medallist Sam Williamson and Jersey’s silver medallist Filip Nowacki will also line up in the final.

“I think I’ve still got a little bit more to grow. I think there was a massive lesson in yesterday,” three-time Olympic gold medallist Ramsay-Peaty told BBC Sport.

“I can’t change anything obviously, so we have to get over it. I also know the trajectory I have to be on now and it’s a little bit different to what I thought it was.

“I’ve also got to remind myself that I haven’t swam a championships in two years. I put a lot of expectation on myself coming into this games.

“But as you know, the best athletes in the world, you don’t do it in training, you have to actually compete well and that is a skill on its own and we have to get used to that.

“I’m enjoying it and we’ll have to see what that result is tomorrow.”

Ramsay-Peaty’s team-mate Max Morgan finished sixth in the same semi-final race and was eliminated.

Bamako, Mali – An unprecedented battlefield partnership between a separatist movement and an al-Qaeda affiliate has transformed the conflict in northern Mali, shifting the military balance and deepening divisions over how, if at all, the war can end.

When the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) launched a joint offensive on April 25, 2026, the conflict entered a phase unlike any before.

A war that had long pitted the Malian state against multiple armed groups gave way to a coordinated campaign stretching from Kidal and Anefis to Tilemsi, Gao and Sevare, posing the most serious challenge to the Malian army in years and to Russia’s Africa Corps, the Kremlin-backed force that replaced the Wagner Group in Mali.

Since then, the fighting has been marked by simultaneous assaults, ambushes, drone strikes and attacks on military convoys, with all sides claiming significant battlefield gains.

Bamako says it is working to restore state authority and dismantle what it calls a “terrorist alliance” between the FLA and JNIM.

The FLA says it remains committed to independence for Azawad, the name separatists use for northern Mali, while JNIM portrays the war as part of a campaign to “liberate” Mali and overthrow the government, which it accuses of relying on Russian forces.

More significant than the offensive itself, however, is the unprecedented military cooperation between a nationalist separatist movement and an al-Qaeda affiliate.

Their political ambitions remain fundamentally different, yet their cooperation has already reshaped the conflict and could have far-reaching implications for security across the Sahel.

The partnership emerged after the collapse of the 2015 Algiers Peace Agreement, which sought to end years of fighting between Bamako and northern armed groups through greater decentralisation and political representation, but whose implementation repeatedly faltered.

Successive military coups after 2020 reshaped Mali’s political leadership and security strategy. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Mali and imposed sanctions, while Russia deepened its military role by deploying the Wagner Group in late 2021.

After Russia folded the Wagner Group’s operations into the state-controlled Africa Corps, renewed fighting left neither the government nor northern armed groups able to impose a lasting settlement.

How the alliance took shape

On paper, cooperation between the FLA and JNIM appears unlikely. The FLA traces its roots to northern separatist movements that declared the independence of Azawad during the 2012 rebellion, a claim never recognised by the Malian state or the international community.

It presents itself as a secular nationalist movement seeking independence for Azawad, while JNIM seeks to overthrow governments it considers illegitimate and establish governance based on its interpretation of Islamic law.

Yet senior officials from both groups told Al Jazeera those ideological differences have been set aside to confront a common enemy.

Colonel Mohamed Issa, a senior FLA officer, said the movement remained committed to an independent Azawad, arguing that previous peace agreements repeatedly collapsed because successive governments in Bamako failed to honour them.

Negotiations, he said, would only be acceptable if they recognised Azawad’s right to separate.

Issa rejected suggestions of an ideological alliance, describing the relationship as a battlefield arrangement against a common enemy.

He said the JNIM-affiliated fighters operating alongside the FLA were exclusively Azawadis rather than members of the group’s wider regional network, arguing they were motivated primarily by defending their communities against the Malian army and what he described as Russian “mercenaries”.

Suleiman, a senior JNIM field commander who requested that only his first name be used for security reasons, described the relationship in broader terms.

He said the group approved operational coordination with the FLA after internal consultations because fighters on both sides largely came from “one people” caught up in the same conflict and because their liberation goals had become “relatively unified”.

He also claimed the FLA had accepted Islamic legal arbitration by local religious scholars, one of JNIM’s core objectives, a point the FLA itself did not raise. Bamako, meanwhile, has described the relationship as a “JNIM/FLA terrorist alliance” that threatens Mali’s sovereignty.

The differing accounts illustrate both the strength and the fragility of the arrangement. For now, shared battlefield interests appear to outweigh ideological differences. Whether that remains true as the conflict evolves is far less certain.

A shifting balance of power

The partnership has altered not only the battlefield but the way the war is fought.

FLA officials say working alongside JNIM has enabled both groups to divide responsibilities and pool expertise in attacks on military bases and supply convoys.

Bamako disputes casualty figures released by the armed groups and insists its forces retain the initiative. Even so, the conflict has become markedly more sophisticated, with simultaneous attacks across distant locations, engagements lasting several days and ambushes targeting reinforcements before they reach the front lines.

Drones have assumed an increasingly prominent role, serving not only as reconnaissance platforms but increasingly as strike weapons against vehicles and military positions. Malian forces, backed by Russia’s Africa Corps, continue to rely heavily on air power, yet months of sustained fighting suggest neither side has secured a decisive advantage.

The war economy

Long-established financing and trafficking networks continue to sustain both sides.

JNIM sources describe a funding model built on regional commercial networks, organised zakat collections and resources accumulated over years, including proceeds linked to earlier al-Qaeda kidnapping-for-ransom operations.

The FLA says it relies primarily on donations organised by tribal leaders, traders and community associations.

Officials from both groups also acknowledged that individuals linked to the movements participate in illicit economies, including trafficking across the Sahara, although the extent to which those activities finance the war remains difficult to verify.

Weapons have proved as important as funding. Arms have flowed across the Sahel since the collapse of Libya in 2011, providing armed groups with a steady source of equipment.

The latest fighting has opened another supply channel: weapons and military vehicles captured from Malian forces now form an increasingly important part of both groups’ arsenals.

Can either side win?

There is little to suggest the conflict is nearing an end.

The Malian army retains a clear advantage in air power, backed by Russia’s Africa Corps. Yet the FLA and JNIM continue to mount coordinated operations across much of northern Mali.

The military standoff reflects a wider political deadlock. Bamako remains committed to preserving Mali’s territorial integrity, the FLA insists on independence for Azawad and JNIM continues to seek the overthrow of the government.

None has shifted position since the latest fighting began, and nothing on the battlefield has yet forced any of them to do so.

Those competing objectives also cast doubt on how long the two groups can continue fighting together. Their partnership rests on a common enemy rather than a shared political vision, making its future uncertain.

A war without an endgame

Three months into the latest offensive, northern Mali remains locked in a conflict with no obvious end in sight. The partnership between the FLA and JNIM has reshaped the military landscape, while Bamako continues to reject any outcome that could weaken Mali’s territorial integrity.

What began as a confrontation between the state and separate armed movements has evolved into a conflict shaped by competing visions of sovereignty, separatism, rule by al-Qaeda-linked armed groups and the involvement of external powers.

Unless those competing ambitions – territorial unity, independence and regime change – are addressed alongside the fighting, a negotiated settlement is likely to remain elusive.

Whatever happens next, the partnership forged in April 2026 has already changed the course of the war in northern Mali. Whether it endures or fractures under the weight of its competing ambitions, it has created a new military and political reality whose consequences are likely to extend well beyond Mali’s borders.

Kyiv says Russian strikes killed six, including a child at a supermarket, as Moscow says Ukrainian strikes killed four.

Russian forces have killed at least six people in Ukraine, according to officials, after launching ballistic missile attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and strikes on other regions, including a supermarket in the northern city of Chernihiv.

The attacks on Sunday came as Russian officials said that Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine had also come under fire, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the occupied city of Horlivka.

Ukraine’s air ⁠force said Russia had launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight. Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv cities were all hit.

In northern Chernihiv, officials said a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people, including a nine-year-old girl, and wounding 25 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a “deeply cynical drone strike on an ordinary supermarket”.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, the local mayor said.

“This is deliberate Russian terror with absolutely no military justification,” Zelenskyy said.

Separately, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said a glide bomb attack killed one person and wounded six in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, which has been under heavy bombardment in recent months.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one blaze had broken out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multistorey apartment block in a central district after the overnight missile attack. Three people were wounded in the capital, and images released by the state emergency services showed vehicles in flames.

In Sloviansk, one of several targets of Russia’s slow advance through eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the national oil and gas company Naftogaz said two of its employees died in a Russian attack while trying to help residents affected by an earlier strike.

In Horlivka, a city in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region, Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said four civilians had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike. Prikhodko later said a Ukrainian drone hit an emergency vehicle, injuring three medics and another resident.

At least 12 people, including two children, were also hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border, Russian authorities reported.

The attacks came a day after Moscow said a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-occupied town on the Azov Sea killed 12 people.

Both Moscow and Kyiv ‌deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. But civilian casualty rates have climbed sharply in 2026 in both Russia and Ukraine, according to the United Nations.

Analysts say this is because of the growing use of short-range drones, glide bombs, and intensified strikes on infrastructure in both Russia and Ukraine.

UN officials say 1,396 civilians have been killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026. In Russia, 250 civilians have been killed and 1,596 injured.

United States-led talks on ending fighting have stalled. The Kremlin occupies swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine and has repeatedly said it intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force.

Emmerdale viewers were quick to react when Gabby Thomas collapsed on Sunday night’s episode, signalling the start of yet another issue-based plot on the ITV soap

Gabby Thomas collapsed on Sunday night’s episode of Emmerdale, prompting the start of another issue-based storyline on the ITV soap.

The waitress, who has been played by Rosie Bentham since 2016, has become obsessed with the quality of food and been seen to be anti-medicine in recent weeks.

On the latest episode of the Yorkshire-based serial, Gabby was listening to social media videos claiming that certain healthy foods were the opposite, a horrified Dawn found her collapsed on the floor. A visit to the doctor ruled out a pregnancy, and she also explained to Manpreet just how little she was eating.

Later on, she told Dawn had stopped taking the pill, claiming that most medicines were ” packed full of chemicals” that she believes are harmful to the human body, so Dawn raised the alarm with her partner Billy. When Gabby found this out, she raged at Dawn: “How dare you! Billy’s told me you were practically wetting yourself to tell him that I’m not on the pill any more.

“You just can’t handle the fact that you’re not the centre of his world any more,” but Dawn ignored the insult and told Gabby that she was just very worried about her. Still furious, Gabby took it upon herself to visit Dawn’s fiance Joe and claim that his partner “still has a thing” for Billy.

She told him: “She’s having secret meetings with Billy behind my back.Trying to stir the pot, get in between us. And I have to say to myself, why on earth would she want to do that? So I really think you should probably ask yourself the same question.”

All of this is part of a brand new issue-based storyline exploring the topic of orthorexia, an eating disorder which embeds itself when an individual which becomes fixated on the quality of the food they consume rather than the quantity.

Reacting to the new episode, fans flooded social media and appeared to be divided on the latest storyline. One fan wrote on Reddit: “Orthorexia is a serious illness and while I do support them raising awareness about it, they’re again not doing an issue-based plot justice.

“They’re again making the central character in the storyline (in this case Gabby) come off as too unlikable and unsympathetic just like Cain in the prostate cancer storyline. I can guarantee you viewers came out of today’s episode siding with Dawn and not feeling bad for Gabby. I certainly did.”

Another said: “Gabby has ‘Orthorexia’….nope Id never heard of it either,” and a third said: “I’m loving this feud again build up between gabby and dawn.”

A fourth wrote: “I take issue with issue based stories that make characters deeply unlikeable. I ended up being Team Dawn today.

“I think Thomas will be the one who ends up seriously sick either not taking medicine for a sickness or the food will give him deficiencies. I can’t stand Gabby in this, she is being written to be deeply unlikeable when the story should be more effective.”

If you’re worried about your health or the health of somebody else, you can contact SEED eating disorder support service on 01482 718130 or on their website, here.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Mike Trout had his first four-hit game in more than five years, Jorge Soler and Jo Adell homered and the Angels beat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 on Sunday to snap a three-game skid and avoid a series sweep.

Angels starter José Soriano (9-6) allowed an unearned run in five innings. The 27-year-old right-hander gave up three hits, walked three and had five strikeouts. Mitch Farris got the final two outs for his first career save.

San Francisco, which had its four-game home win streak snapped, is the only team in MLB without a series sweep of three-plus games this season.

Trout’s first four-hit game since April 26, 2021, moved him past Tim Salmon on the Angels’ career doubles and singles lists. He went four for four with a double and three singles.

Trout’s double was his 340th, moving past Salmon for second on the franchise list behind Garret Anderson’s 489. Trout also is now fourth on the Angels’ all-time list with 1,014 singles, trailing Anderson (1,572), Darin Erstad (1,082) and Brian Downing (1,062).

Trout’s four-hit game was the 21st of his career and raised his average to .247.

Soler hit a leadoff homer, Nolan Schanuel walked and Adell’s 446-foot home run gave the Angels a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Luis Arraez had an RBI groundout in the fifth and added a two-run double in the ninth for the Giants. Drew Cavanaugh went two for two and walked twice.

Carson Whisenhunt (2-1), who was recalled from triple-A Sacramento, gave up four runs and had seven strikeouts in five innings.

Up next for the Angels: RHP Walbert Ureña (6-7, 2.78 ERA) starts Tuesday in the opener of a three-game home series against Houston. The Astros have not named a starter.

Wildfires in southwestern France are continuing to burn near the city of Bordeaux. Tens of thousands have been evacuated from surrounding regions, and across the southwest of France a total of around 220,000 have been evacuated.

Shein says it swung to a quarterly loss as its sales slowed after US President Donald Trump removed an import duty exemption on small packages.

It also comes as uncertainty remains over the tit-for-tat US-China tariffs wars, which is currently paused.

The fast-fashion giant, which has its headquarters in Singapore but was founded in China, said it lost $99m (£74.1m) in the first three months of the year, compared with a net income of $395m a year earlier.

The announcement is part of the firm’s preparations ahead of its stock market debut in Hong Kong, although the filing did not give any details on the size, timetable or pricing of the planned initial public offering (IPO).

“In response to the increased duties and taxes, we are pursuing a wide range of options, including increasing our prices in the US market to offset a portion of the increased costs,” Shein said in the filing.

The company also said the Iran war had hit demand, increased costs and caused delays of deliveries in some markets.

The first-quarter figures also partly reflected a paper loss of $328m due to an accounting change for special investor shares. The shares can be turned into ordinary stock later, and their value can change before a listing.

The filing showed that in the year to the end of March 2026 Shein had 281 million active customers – a rise of more than 16% on a year earlier – who placed a total of more than one billion orders.

On 10 July, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave Shein approval for a Hong Kong share sale after failed attempts to list in New York and London.

The Hong Kong share listing is expected to take place in the coming months.

The figures show the impact of a Trump-signed executive order to end a global tariff exemption that had been used by US shoppers of low-cost goods.

That order, which came into effect on 29 August 2025, broadened an earlier presidential action which specifically targeted cheap products from China and Hong Kong to cover the rest of the world.

The so-called de minimis exemption had allowed goods valued at $800 or less to enter the US without paying any tariffs. US consumers relied on the exemption to buy cheap goods from online commerce sites like Shein and Temu.

The White House said the global exemption was being used to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids” to the US.

“The removal of the US de minimis exemption has had an adverse impact on our sales in the US and the overall growth of our net revenues,” Shein said in the filing.

Earlier in July, the European Union imposed a €3 (£2.56; $3.42) levy on low-value e-commerce imports.

The measure is aimed to curb what the trading bloc has said is unfair competition from China.

Samantha Morton didn’t mean to start humming during that scene in “The Odyssey,” the scene everyone is talking about, when, as the sorceress Circe, she turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, literally molding them into their true savage selves.

It wasn’t in the script. It just happened. And when Morton was done, she looked over to director Christopher Nolan, waiting for him to say something like, “Maybe try it without the humming, Samantha.”

But Nolan didn’t say anything, so Morton did it again and the music that was swirling inside her head, which she remembers now as a symphony of glass harmoniums and theremin, kept coming out as Circe went about her witchy business, altering her gluttonous guests, who are busy slurping and gulping down her stew.

“These are sounds that can make you go mad, apparently,” Morton, 49, tells me, reclining on her bed at the Hotel Chelsea in New York. “So to transform the men, the magic came not just from my hands but from my sounds.”

Samantha Morton as Circe in “The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan.

(Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures)

Morton unabashedly believes in magic. How else, she asks, can you explain how a girl who was shuttled between children’s homes and a dozen foster families, only to be living on the streets of Nottingham, England, at the age of 14 with a criminal record, be here talking with me now, sipping green tea at the Chelsea?

“That’s got to be guardian angels and love — and not that I suddenly became good at acting and got a job,” says Morton, a veteran who’s been at it for 35 years, dazzling audiences and stealing scenes for the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jim Sheridan and, now, Nolan. “I’ve always believed that anything is possible and there’s no doubt in here,” and she pats her heart, “because I’ve always felt this immense love for me from another entity.”

When Morton heard that Nolan wanted to meet her for “The Odyssey,” she says she wept. If that sounds dramatic, she makes no apologies. She likens it to being an athlete who qualifies to represent their country at the Olympics. She’d spent decades honing her craft for that phone call. When it came, she flew to Los Angeles in January 2025 during the wildfires, embarking on what would become the best job interview of her life.

I ask her what she remembers about that meeting.

“I think it went really well,” Morton answers, laughing.

Morton told Nolan she hadn’t read “The Odyssey,” which, when you quit school at the age of 12, makes sense. Flying back home to England — she and her husband live in East Sussex with their children, 18-year-old daughter Edie and 12-year-old son Teddy — she recalled that, yes, she knew a bit of “The Odyssey” from having seen it parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.” (“We’re ‘Simpsons’ mad in our house,” she says. “Like, mad.”)

But Morton doesn’t believe in bogging herself down in research, not since starring in a British TV production of “Jane Eyre” when she was 19 and carried around a heavily highlighted copy of the Charlotte Brontë book, despairing whenever the adaptation deviated from the novel. From that point on, she stuck to the script and her own imagination.

“That’s got to be guardian angels and love — and not that I suddenly became good at acting and got a job,” says Morton of her career. “I’ve always believed that anything is possible.”

(Ebru Yildiz / For The Times)

Thinking about Circe, Morton recalled going to the library with her dad (“We had nothing and were beyond poor, but he always had a library card,” she says) and finding the Howard Pyle fairy-tale book “King Stork.” She remembers being mesmerized by the story’s wicked witch. She recalls other witches from folk tales like Baba Yaga, frightening characters but also, she says, “women possessing an innocence that had been eroded over the years by the harshness of life.”

Morton does a playful verbal evasion when discussing the nuts-and-bolts aspects of shooting the scene where Circe transforms Odysseus’ men, saying that back in the day when behind-the-scenes features were prevalent on DVDs, she routinely declined to participate.

“I didn’t mean to be tricky, but it was like: This is my private moment. This is for me,” she says. “I do like the idea of a little mystery.”

But then a beat later, she laughs it off and dives in, remembering that her husband showed her an Instagram post from Nolan’s set revealing how the movie’s Cyclops was, in fact, a puppet.

“Oh my gosh — I love puppets!” Morton raves, and off she goes, telling me how much she adores Jim Henson and how “The Dark Crystal” is one of her all-time favorite films.

What she will say about her “Odyssey” scene is that there were no digital effects. Everything was real and “in camera” and that she was so in the zone that she barely remembers any of it, only flashes.

“That’s not CGI,” Morton says. “That’s human brilliance and a connectivity of me as a performer, almost dancing and feeling one. And not to say that it was sexual, but I wanted it to be very sensual when she’s with the men and the animals, just like, you know, that she’s almost one with them.”

“What was lovely about that,” Morton begins and then stops, wondering if she should draw back the curtain on the creative process. She goes ahead. “There was a day on set when Chris was like, ‘OK,’ and he put his hand in because I was a little scared. It’s like that scene in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where he puts his hand in the thing, and you’re like, ‘Oh no!’ I was a little nervous, but Chris did it first. I think he actually cut his finger.” She giggles. “You know, he’s going to go in first, like getting into the cold water in the sea. I felt protected and supported in that whole process.”

When Odysseus’ men arrive at Circe’s home, hungry, asking to be fed, Circe seems frightened — understandably so. She’s alone, and these soldiers have a history of pillaging and taking what they want. And yet, she’s a powerful sorceress. Is Circe really scared or tricking them to lure them in?

“I played that like she was genuinely frightened because she was caught off-guard,” Morton says. “I also wanted to play somebody that was all ages, so I played her like a 16-year-old girl in that scene. And then in other scenes, I’m playing her as a 90-year-old woman or a 49-year-old woman or a sister or a mother, a grandmother. I just wanted her to be ageless.”

Morton, looking out for Circe, stresses that transforming Odysseus’ men was not purely vengeful.

“It’s not just hate,” she says. “It’s not just harm. It’s not just anger. It’s almost like a Zen master within the goddess role of the teaching as well. ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ gluttony, greed, all of these things.”

There’s a righteous feminist rage underneath the scene as well, a modernization that brings “The Odyssey” fiercely and disturbingly up to date. It’s another reason why people leave are leaving the theater talking about Morton.

“In some weird way, the film lived or died over that character,” says director Nolan of Morton’s Circe, a creation of pure acting and no digital sorcery. “She was the fulcrum.”

(Ebru Yildiz / For The Times)

Nolan thinks “The Odyssey,” in some weird way, “lived or died over that character — she was the fulcrum.” He told The Times that “after one of her takes, the crew gave her a great round of applause.” Emma Thomas, Nolan’s producing partner and wife, later recalled that the last time that had happened was with Heath Ledger on “The Dark Knight.”

Morton makes a point of telling me how much Ledger meant to her, having been cast opposite him (and Odysseus himself, Matt Damon) more than 20 years ago in Terry Gilliam‘s 2005 fantasy adventure “The Brothers Grimm.” Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein overruled Gilliam, dropping Morton from the film because, in his eyes, she wasn’t attractive enough.

“And Heath fought for me with such kindness and compassion,” Morton says. “He’s up there with Philip Seymour Hoffman for me. There’s something otherworldly personal about what they gave, such sincerity and vulnerability and an absolute dedication to craft. They leave a mark on your heart.”

It’s not the first time Morton has invoked the heart in our conversation. She brought her son, Teddy, to New York for the premiere of “The Odyssey” because she wanted to show him the place where her creative spirit was born. Morton first came to New York as a teen to do press for “Emma,” returned a year later to promote “Jane Eyre” and then couldn’t bring herself to leave, “sofa-surfing” at friends’ apartments so she could immerse herself in the city.

“New York stole my heart,” Morton says. It’s where she first got into literature, devouring Charles Bukowski, roaming the aisles at the St. Mark’s Bookshop, checking out movies from Kim’s Video and gobbling hash browns and eggs over easy at the Waverly Diner.

Not long after, Morton scored the role that would land her the first of two Oscar nominations (for now, at least), playing the mute laundress in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown.” The production put her up in a Greenwich Village apartment and when it ended, she moved to the East Village.

Only the diner remains but Morton still plans on touring the Village with Teddy, showing off all of mom’s old haunts and, yes, having a cup of soup at the Waverly.

“Life is good right now,” Morton says, smiling. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll indulge in some hash browns.”

The provided text details the historical origins and independence of the Republic of Liberia, highlighting its unique connection to the United States. It describes how the American Colonization Society established the settlement for free Black individuals in the early 19th century, eventually leading to the formation of Africa’s first modern republic in 1847. The source emphasizes that many national symbols, including the capital city of Monrovia and the Liberian flag, were directly inspired by American leaders and political design. Despite facing early challenges such as disease and territorial disputes, the nation successfully  …