bitter

ATOMIC Kitten are being eyed up to star in a Boyzone-style documentary which will chart their rise to fame and the drama among members over the years, The Sun can exclusively reveal. 

The girl group shot to fame in the early noughties, made up of Natasha Hamilton, Liz McClarnon and Kerry Katona. 

Kerry, 45, left a year after the release of their debut album and was replaced by Jenny Frost, with the line-up changing several times throughout the last 26 years. 

But The Sun understands that telly bosses have started to reach out to the girls to feature in a tell-all documentary – inspired by the success of Boyzone’s three-part Sky film last year – and are keen for all four members to take part. 

An insider said: “Atomic Kitten were one of the most successful girl groups of the noughties and it feels like the right time for their story to be told. 

“A production company has started reaching out to all four members to appear in a documentary to celebrate their success and of course chart the lows, including the highly publicised fall-outs among the girls. 

BUST BAN

Kerry Katona’s boobs were BANNED in the early days of Atomic Kitten

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“Like a lot of their all-female counterparts, line-up changes and public spats are a huge part of their history and this would be their chance to set the record straight once and for all.

“None of the girls have signed on officially yet but Kerry is top of the wish list as she’s known for not holding back.”

The Sun has reached out to representatives for Atomic Kitten and Kerry Katona for comment.

Atomic Kitten last performed as a trio in 2021 but a year later Natasha, 44, and Liz, 45, were gigging as a two-piece. 

Then in 2024 Natasha confirmed on social media that she would be stepping down as a member of the group to focus on her solo music career. 

Kerry last worked with Atomic Kitten in 2014 and earlier this year Natasha ruled out ever reuniting with her former band mate professionally.

She told the Mirror: “I wish Kerry all the best. That girl has been out there. She’s a hustler. She looks after those kids so well. Fair play to the girl.

“There’s no big thing, but when it comes to work, that isn’t going to happen.”

Meanwhile Kerry recently shared her sadness over not being in contact with the girls and urged them to get in touch.

Appearing on Unfiltered with Lucy Kennedy, she said: “No [we’re not in touch]. I’m gutted because I love the girls to bits. Tash, Liz, if you’re watching, give us a call.”

AFTER referring to her new record I Know Too Much as a “divorce” album earlier this year, Ellie Goulding’s fans were convinced it was about the her marriage split.

But after having a sneak preview of her upcoming record, some might think she’s crooning about another break up, which became public earlier this week.

The Burn singer is taking legal action against her old team TaP Management.

And it’s little wonder Ellie is saying she’s so miffed.

To keep it brief, Ellie signed with Ben Mawson and Ed Millett — whose previous clients have included Dua Lipa and Cruz Beckham — in 2018.

She claims they failed to disclose that TaP’s parent company, HNOE, was partially, then fully, owned by Live Nation.

BATH BOMB

Ellie Goulding strips totally naked for bath snap – 5 months after giving birth

HIT YOU FOR SIX

Ellie Goulding gives update on upcoming sixth album & teases unheard hits

During her seven years with TaP, Ellie signed agreements with Live Nation for tours and merchandise, plus a documentary film which she argues financially benefited Mawson and Millett.

Ellie pumped in almost £4million as part of those deals, unaware her managers had a vested interest.

When I first listened to I Know Too Much — which I think is Ellie’s most powerful body of work lyrically — I immediately connected the dots to her ex-hubby Caspar Jopling.

The couple, who have a five-year-old son, split in 2024.

But now I know about her row with TaP and looking back over my notes, it seems some of it could have been influenced by Ellie’s experiences in the music industry.

This is Ellie’s first album since Higher Than Heaven hit No1 three years ago.

And she’s already hinted that she opens some old wounds on the record, saying of her new album’s title track: “It’s probably the most honest song I’ve written. It is what it is. I know too much.

“It’s tongue in cheek but it’s also some kind of comment on my life so far and music. I couldn’t think of a more apt title for everything I was singing about.

“I do know too much. Way too much.”

I’m sworn to secrecy on the album, which comes out on September 4, and would be strung up if I gave too much away.

But if you take a quick glance at the lyrics to Black Prada Dress, the single Ellie released earlier this year, you’ll see what I mean.

“I heard what you said, just as I was tasting freedom,” Ellie sings at the top of the track.

“Don’t want the pills, but you kinda make me think I need ’em.

“I’m tryna be a Hollywood baby, cause you made me think that London hates me.”

Intriguing. The gloves are off.

PHOEBE BRIDGERS received the worst 32nd birthday gift on Monday – appendicitis.

he US singer, who is set to top the album charts tomorrow with Lost Weekend, has had to postpone intimate shows in Kingston, Brighton and Bristol.

She told fans: “I got appendicitis for my birthday. But I’ll make it up to you!”

Phoebe got a boost from Taylor Swift who bigged up her record to her 273million Instagram followers.

Tay wrote: “Haven’t been able to stop listening. This album is an absolute triumph in every way.”

ROBBIE WILLIAMS has teamed up with Ukrainian DJ and producer Miss Monique for single Beauty In Us, which they performed for in Ibiza at the weekend.

He said the track, out on September 18, is “inspired by our different but equally defining experiences of electronic music and clubbing in Stoke-on-Trent and Kyiv . . . from the Nineties to the 2010s.”

YOU could be in Guy Ritchie’s next movie.

A walk-on role in one of the upcoming films Guy is directing is up for grabs as Children With Cancer UK puts on its most showbizzy auction yet.

You could bid for afternoon tea with EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy, or a Picasso painting and VIP festival tickets. While Mel C, Katherine Jenkins and Jack Whitehall are offering meet and greets.

It is all to raise funds for groundbreaking research into the prevention and treatment of childhood cancer, as well as support for affected families. The auction runs from today at 8am until Friday.

• See thereallybigauction.com.

Maura’s totes gorgeous

MAURA HIGGINS looks absolutely fabulous in her latest major fashion campaign – seven years after Love Island changed her life.

She is the new face of Guess as it launches its Allegra bag – which she modelled in this photoshoot as she opened up about her upcoming stint on America’s answer to Strictly, Dancing With The Stars.

Maura, who will start on the show on September 15, told Grazia: “Confidence isn’t something you magically wake up with every day.

“I still get nervous. But I trust the people around me to help me feel my best once I’m on set or in front of a camera.

“Dancing With The Stars is definitely a different kind of pressure because you’re learning something completely new every week and have to perform live to an audience of millions watching, but that’s also what makes it exciting.

“Growth only happens when you push yourself a bit.”

Matt’s date tops the bill

THE MOLOTOVS’ MATT CARTLIDGE looks to have found a Hollywood love interest after growing close to actress Kathryn Newton.

The notoriously private rocker was reluctant to be drawn on their relationship, but his bandmate sister Issey let slip the pair met on The Jonathan Ross Show.

Londoner Matt took the Big Little Lies star to LA’s Beverly Hills Hotel, and one thing he wasn’t quiet about was the cost.

Chatting to him at King’s Cross Summer Sounds, in partnership with Lightroom, home of David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, I asked how much it came to, and he said: “For an omelette at the Beverly Hills Hotel?

“Omelette –  ham and cheese, two coffees and pancakes, but she got all the add-ons, you know, like strawberries. It was $80 – way more than I wanted to spend, mind you.”

The band go on tour next month and there are still tickets for their show at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum on September 26. That should help pay for the second date.

Joan makes Billy Ray’s day

NOW here’s a holiday snap I didn’t think I’d see.

Elizabeth Hurley and her director son Damian, posing in the sunshine with her boyfriend Billy Ray Cyrus. . . and Dame Joan Collins.

Liz shared snaps on Instagram of their surprising trip, revealing they joined Joan and her husband Percy on an “enchanting holiday” at their home in St Tropez.

Superstar Joan still manged to look super cool in the pool with Liz, who also posed in a chic summer dress.

The most-liked comment on Liz’s post said: “Billy Ray hit the jackpot.” I couldn’t agree more.

Weeknd’s fireworks fall flat

By Jack Hardwick

WITH 129million record sales and a seriously big budget behind him, expectations were high as The Weeknd took to the stage at Wembley Stadium.

From the get-go, it was clear that money was no object, thanks to a giant cross-shaped stage with a 40ft silver “sexy robot” in the middle.

But after a cult-like opening with 30 cloaked dancers, I have to admit things all felt a bit samey.

He’s spent four years touring the world and The Weeknd’s vocals were flawless throughout the two-hour spectacle.

The mammoth 38-track set was punctuated with hits including Can’t Feel My Face, Star Boy and Save Your Tears, before building to a finale including Blinding Lights and his Swedish House Mafia collaboration Moth To A Flame.

But once you get over the giant robot and the stage shooting out pyrotechnics, things all start to blend into one.

Maybe we’ve been spoiled by the high standards of pop shows in recent years but I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed as I left.

And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way, either.

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down near the Las Vegas Strip in a killing that rocked the rap world, the trial of the man prosecutors allege did everything but pull the trigger got underway Monday with new revelations.

Nevada prosecutors allege Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a one-time Compton gang member, orchestrated Shakur’s killing as revenge for an attack on his nephew hours earlier and are using Davis’ own words in interviews and a book he co-authored as evidence.

In opening statements, prosecutors said an ugly gang rivalry on the streets of Compton led to the slaying of Shakur, a famed rapper and actor, who died six days after he was shot.

The Sept. 7, 1996, shooting, they said, was rooted in a war between Southside Crips-Burris Street, led by Davis, and Mob Piru, a gang long associated with Death Row Records. Shakur was closely affiliated with Death Row, and the record company’s boss, Marion “Suge” Knight, was inside his car the night he was attacked.

In court testimony Monday, it was revealed that Shakur was conscious after the shooting en route to the hospital but did not cooperate with authorities.

The first witness, Garry Dale, a Las Vegas Metro police officer, testified that he saw Shakur pulled out of the car with gunshot wounds and rode in the ambulance with him.

When he asked Shakur who shot him, the rapper replied, “‘No, we’ll take care of it,’” Dale said. “I couldn’t get him to talk any further.”

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is accused of murder in the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur.

(Steve Marcus / Associated Press)

The incident, according to Clark County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Binu Palal, followed a violent confrontation at a Mike Tyson fight earlier that night in Las Vegas. Palal showed video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson. Travon Lane, a Mob Piru member, had spotted Anderson in the MGM Grand hotel lobby. Months earlier, Anderson stole Lane’s Death Row Records chain in the Lakewood mall during an attack.

The rivalry between the groups grew after the Southside Crips became the West Coast security for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ record label, prosecutors said.

“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Palal said. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

Palal noted that Shakur’s shooting was followed by numerous slayings in Compton, including that of an 11-year-old girl.

“In this world, silence means survival,” Palal said. “The one person who has had a hard time being silent is Duane Davis.”

The prosecutor played parts of an interview with a Los Angeles Police Department federal task force in 2008 in which Davis acknowledged his role in the rapper’s fatal shooting. They also cited other interviews as well as his own memoir.

The prosecutor said Davis got the gun from Eric Zip Martin, an East Coast drug dealer associated with Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment.

“He admits putting the gun he obtained that night in the back seat of the vehicle so the shooters could shoot,” the prosecutor said. “You will learn that Duane Davis got the gun. … You will learn that he got into a white Cadillac. You will learn when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooter was armed and ready to execute their revenge.”

Palal said Davis and his crew set out in search of Knight and Shakur. In multiple accounts, including in his book “Compton Street Legend,” Davis wrote that they spotted the Death Row caravan stopped at a red light, with Shakur waving to female fans while hanging out of the BMW window.

“Tupac, he gave himself away,” Davis said in the recording played in court. “Otherwise, they would’ve got away.”

Davis was arrested in 2023 and indicted for masterminding the killing and providing the gun.

Rapper Tupac Shakur is show at Club Amazon in New York on July 23, 1993.

(Al Pereira / Getty Images)

Michael Sanft, Davis’ defense attorney, told jurors there will be no evidence linking his client to the shooting.

“There are no facts to point to Keffe — not one,” he said. “You’re going to hear about this over and over again.”

Sanft recounted decades of probes and noted that prior investigations did not take his client’s statements seriously because they were not credible. “He treats that book like it’s fact,” Sanft said of a lead detective in the case. The defense attorney, in an unusual move, repeatedly undermined his own client’s credibility.

Sanft portrayed Las Vegas police as incompetent, with lost records, and the LAPD and then Compton police as corrupt.

“What facts do they have to put Keffe D in a car in 1996? When you look at the video in 1996, do you see Keffe D?” he added, referencing the lobby beating.

Sanft said Death Row’s security chief was Reggie Wright Jr., a felon and former Compton police officer whose father led the Compton police gang unit. He said the former officer was not with Knight and ordered his security team not to carry firearms. The defense lawyer cast Davis’ memoir as fiction and said there was no evidence his client was in Las Vegas.

The prosecutor, however, told jurors that Davis, from 1998 to 2023, made several incriminating statements and, in 1998, admitted to the FBI to being in Las Vegas at the time of Shakur’s slaying.

Davis, according to prosecutors, told investigators during a secret meeting he “was mad about Orlando Anderson’s beating” and he was the boss who got the firearm and was in the white Cadillac. When Greg Kading, an LAPD detective who led the task force, left policing and later published a book revealing Davis’ role, it made Davis want to go public, according to the prosecution.

“Greg Kading is profiting off Duane Davis’ life story,” Palal said. By the time the book was released, the others who were allegedly in the car the night of the shooting were dead. Anderson was killed and Smith passed away. In 2019, after a series of interviews, Davis published his own book, which, full of bravado, gave a similar account of Shakur’s killing as that of the federal task force. The prosecutor then played an interview from the time of the book’s release, in which Davis justified his actions.

Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight appears in court in 2018 in an unrelated case.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Ingrid Stokes, one of four women in a car that had been following Shakur the night of the attack testified that she freaked out and screamed, then fled the scene, telling police she “didn’t see anything” because “snitches get stitches.”

A third witness who testified Monday, former Las Vegas Metro Det. Brent Becker, said he interviewed Knight about the beating in the MGM Grand lobby, and Knight said he basically “didn’t know anything.” By 1997, detectives suspected that Davis was in the Cadillac that opened fire on Shakur, he testified.

Davis, now 63, has pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. In recent weeks, he’s denied being in the Cadillac or Las Vegas that night and, in interviews with Las Vegas TV stations, blamed a former head of Death Row Records security.

“I had nothing to do with nobody’s murder,” he told interviewers.

Prosecutors are expected to call witnesses to support Davis’ claims from over the years. Davis’ lawyers will seek to portray him as a fabricator — his bragging is all fiction. Davis has done the same with Las Vegas reporters.

“I did not write the book; a ghostwriter wrote that book,” Davis said in a recent jailhouse interview. “I was trying to make my family some money.”

POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE — For nearly 60 years, warring camps have battled one another for the soul of a wind-swept peninsula with breathtaking hills, rugged cliffs, granite outcroppings, oak forests and wide expanses of pasture land and beach.

Jutting off the coastline like an upside-down ice skate, the Point Reyes National Seashore is separated from the mainland by the San Andreas fault, which runs like a skate’s blade edge separating the Pacific and North American plates. The peninsula covers about 110 square miles — roughly five times the size of Manhattan.

Elephant seals and sea lions bark and breed on its sandy coves. Whales and sharks breach and hunt in the waters beyond the thick kelp forests that tickle its edges. And in its forests and on its grasslands, tule elk and mule deer graze, while bobcats and coyotes hunt for rabbits and mountain beavers.

But the peninsula 20 miles north of San Francisco also has been home to agriculture since the 1800s and is the site of one of the state’s fiercest land disputes — one that, contrary to the usual red-versus-blue scenario, pits Northern California liberals against other Northern California liberals.

On one side: beef ranchers and dairy operators who advocate sustainable and organic food and land practices; they note the seashore was established, in part, to preserve their way of life.

On the other: environmentalists who say the taxpayer-funded park is no place for commercial farming, and that the seashore should protect its rare and diverse wildlife and welcome the visitors who bicycle, hike and camp on its beaches, oak forests and grasslands.

For seven weeks last year, it seemed the interminable battle over the seashore had finally come to an end.

The family dog guards poultry at Niman family farm at the Point Reyes National Seashore.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

In January 2025, a settlement was announced with the National Park Service laying out how the park would function going forward. Natural landscapes and wildlife would take priority over agriculture. Eleven of 13 historic ranching families would leave and be made whole for their losses.

While no one involved really loved the deal or got everything they wanted, many were satisfied, said Jeff Miller, senior conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups involved in the settlement. “The ranchers walked away with a few million dollars and the tule elk get to stay.”

Then this year, the two remaining ranch and dairy families sued. The goal: to upend the deal announced in the waning days of the Biden administration.

The Trump administration, with its pro-meat, pro-cattle agenda, is taking notice.

Since 1962, when the seashore was established, there have been grumblings. The ranchers said the park service saddled them with excessive rules and regulations. The environmentalists said the ranchers brought in invasive plants with their feed, and that cattle fouled the soil and waterways.

But nearly everyone agrees that it was in 2012 when things really began to boil over. That year, the park service moved to shut down a local oyster farm, whose lease was expiring. In his decision to shut it down, Ken Salazar, then secretary of the Interior, promised the ranchers they could remain.

“These working ranches are a vibrant and compatible part of Point Reyes National Seashore,” he wrote in a memorandum, “and both now and in the future represent an important contribution to the Point Reyes’ superlative natural and cultural resources.”

But four years later, environmentalists sued the park service. They argued the cows had degraded the seashore with manure pollution and soil erosion, harming the native wildlife. The iconic tule elk, some of which were fenced in on the northern part of the peninsula to keep them from competing for grassland with cows, were dying off.

The environmentalists demanded the park service establish a new management plan.

They won. But the new plan, issued in 2021, favored the ranchers, extending them 20-year leases, and allowed for the killing of elk if they interfered with cattle.

A tule elk calf is seen with its herd along the Tomales Point Trail, part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

Once again, the environmentalists — the Resource Renewal Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Western Watersheds Project — sued.

That’s what led to the settlement and the departure of the 11 ranch families and their workers. Each family is believed to have received between $2.5 million and $3 million, but exact amounts have not been divulged because of a nondisclosure agreement.

The 17,000 acres they vacated would be dedicated to conservation and ecological restoration — with a few cattle remaining to feast on invasive species.

But the two litigious families that did not join the settlement — the Evanses and the Nimans — have a different vision.

David Evans, who declined to be formally interviewed, told The Times while moving cattle in the seashore on his ATV that he hadn’t known anything about the settlement. The Evans clan has been running cattle on the peninsula for 150 years.

The other family, headed by Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman, came to their land comparatively recently.

Born in Minnesota, Bill Niman found himself in Bolinas in 1969, where he befriended lefty intellectuals who were critical of factory farming. In 1978, he and Orville Schell — who later became the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism — bought land and co-founded the Niman-Schell Ranch. They dedicated their business to raising pigs, and then cattle, in a humane and environmentally sound way.

Niman said he and Schell also wanted to preserve the land from developers and “wealthy people from the Central Valley,” who were moving to the area to build second homes, golf courses and four-lane highways.

In 1984, Niman and Schell sold their 206 acres to the National Park Service for $1.3 million and the promise that they could stay on the property until Niman, Schell or Niman’s older sister all died. They’re now at ages 81, 86 and 90.

Schell did not respond to a request for comment.

“Orville and I concluded that mortals should not own land like this,” Niman said. “It belongs in the hands of the people, because it’s too valuable to cut up and develop.”

The business, which Schell left in 1997, flourished: Alice Waters, at Chez Panisse, bought pork exclusively from Niman, as did Zuni Cafe in San Francisco. In 2009, he merged his company into Natural Food Holdings, which was later bought by Perdue Farms.

Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman sued the federal government to upend a settlement that paid other ranchers and dairy owners to leave Point Reyes National Seashore.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

In 2007, Niman and Hahn Niman started BN Ranch, specializing in organic, grass-fed beef and heritage turkeys. The company, which was bought by Blue Apron in 2017, has operations across the world. Niman later founded Bill Niman Farm LP, which raises grass-fed cows and chickens.

On a recent afternoon, sitting on the back porch of the Bolinas ranch house that Niman built, with a view of the Pacific in the distance, Niman and Hahn Niman — who is 22 years his junior — spoke about their decision to file the lawsuit, which argues the park service was negligent in its rule making.

The Nimans say the seashore’s founders explicitly included agriculture in their vision of the park. They noted that, according to the original charter, Congress could not take the land without the consent of landowners “so long as it remains in its natural state, or is used exclusively for ranching and dairying purposes.”

Hahn Niman also noted, at least five times over two interviews, that Point Reyes is a “seashore” and not a “park,” and therefore doesn’t have as many rules governing preservation. For instance, you can drive an off-road vehicle at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but off-roading in Yosemite could land you in jail.

The Nimans hope that, should they win or settle, farmers and ranchers would again be allowed in the seashore. Their vision: a test kitchen of sorts that models how farming can, and should, be done.

“We’re really talking about a kind of agrarian model and a use of land that basically keeps this land in its natural state, where agriculture is practiced in harmony with wildlife and nature’s cycles,” said Hahn Niman, who wrote three books, including “Righteous Porkchop” about her work in the early 2000s as an environmental attorney for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Waterkeeper Alliance.

The view from Chimney Rock at Point Reyes National Seashore, which covers about 110 square miles and includes a variety of habitats.

(Christie Hemm Klok / For The Times)

Elephant seals gather below Chimney Rock in Point Reyes.

(Christie Hemm Klok / For The Times)

Hahn Niman said she has spoken with Kennedy about the park, and he supports agriculture in the seashore. She added that Albert Straus, a private equity-backed organic dairy processor in Petaluma, also reached out to Kennedy.

“Straus made efforts to involve [Kennedy], because he was really trying to get help anywhere … and he knew Bobby and I had this connection,” Hahn Niman said. It was Straus who believed legal action might keep agriculture on the peninsula and suggested the Nimans consult an attorney.

According to media reports, Kennedy directly reached out to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy heads, did not respond to requests for comment on Kennedy’s involvement.

The more important contacts, Bill Niman said, have been political appointees in the Interior Department, including Karen Budd-Falen, the agency’s No. 3, who built her legal career advocating for western ranchers, and Brenda Younkin, a senior advisor to the Bureau of Land Management who worked closely with western ranchers on federal livestock grazing issues.

“We were able to have deep and meaningful conversations because the two people that are on the point of this effort, Karen and Brenda, they understand ranching, pastoral relationships, and how to manage government lands in the best of ways,” he said.

Early this spring, a town hall was held at an elementary school at Point Reyes Station. Hundreds of people crammed into the school gym that April evening, and the debate over Point Reyes agitated into a low boil.

There was no agenda or presentation. Instead, the park service, Nature Conservancy, the Nimans’ and Evanses’ lawyers, a representative from the Coast Miwok tribe — the people who lived on the land before the ranchers — and about a dozen other interest groups handed out pamphlets, answered questions and displayed maps at folding tables ringing the hall.

It was hard to hear above the din. Apple Watches around the room warned of “dangerous” noise conditions.

Foodies and farmers railed against the settlement, saying the park’s new plan would destroy the food scene in west Marin County and kneecap the already struggling agrarian community.

“These aren’t factory farms. This is real amazing quality local food,” said Bronte Edwards, a Sonoma County-based sheep farmer. And she made this observation, Edwards said, “as a liberal-facing queer person that believes in climate science.”

Settlement critics noted that the pact meant that ranch employees, many of them Latinos with moderate incomes, lost their homes along with the ranch owners.

They also complained that the settlement was negotiated in secret among the park service, environmental groups and ranch families.

A male tule elk is seen along the Tomales Point Trail, part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

“It was all hush-hush,” said Stephanie Moreda-Arend, an ag-aligned podcaster.

Others at the town hall, however, expressed fury that the two remaining ranching families were now trying to upend the deal.

“I understand people have been here a long time. People fear change. I understand that feeling,” said Center for Biological Diversity’s Miller. But the settlement, he added, is done. The seashore is “not their property.”

As residents, activists, farmers and journalists squeezed and jostled through the crowd, holding court in one corner was Budd-Falen, the high-ranking official with the Interior Department.

Budd-Falen, a rancher from Wyoming, has stated publicly that grazing regulations are her passion and that she aims to increase the number of grazing allotments handed out to western ranchers on BLM land, and to no longer declare areas as critical habitat for endangered species.

Though she described the settlement as a done deal, she obliquely suggested changes might still be afoot. “How is it managed from this point forward?” she said of the pact. “You can’t create a good management idea unless you talk to the citizens and see what people want.”

She did not answer questions about the Nimans’ and Evanses’ suit, but when asked why she came to the gathering, she said, “I started hearing about the controversy. Then I started making calls to lands [the Bureau of Land Management] and then to the park service and saying, ‘You know, there’s lots of grumbling, what is going on?’

“And they told me, and I was like, ‘Oh, this sounds like an interesting project, something that we ought to be involved in, and really listen to these locals. And how can I help?’”

Backing the remaining ranchers in Point Reyes and their organic beef, cheese and butter is consistent with an administration that places the commercial cattle industry at the center of its public lands agenda and meat at the center of nutrition policy.

But local politicians and parties to the settlement say scrapping the Biden-era pact would require years of federal review and public engagement. Even if the ranchers have some political pull right now, incarnating their vision within the seashore “would be really difficult,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael).

“They would have to change the law” that established the park and the park system, Huffman said, or “find many millions in funding to subsidize” a new process or management plan that would take on the Nimans’ and Evanses’ vision of model farm.

Given the administration’s zeal to push legal boundaries, especially when confronting perceived enemies — such as California environmentalists — he said, “You don’t want to put anything past them.”

Theresa Harlan, a Coast Miwok descendant who runs the Alliance for Felix Cove — an area in the park where her family had a home until ranchers kicked them out in the 1950s — said the effort to upend the settlement “is just opening up the wound” that had finally started to heal.

Rancher Bill Niman walks along his property at his ranch in Bolinas, Calif.

(Josh Edelson / For The Times)

Now that the cattle are gone, she’s seeing all kinds of native plants, such as coastal strawberries, Yerba Buena Blue-eyed grass and the Douglas iris with their stunning lavender petals. Some of them she hadn’t seen since she was a child.

Ken Boulay, the CEO of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said it’s time to move forward and imagine what the park could be like without cattle and private ranches.

He noted the peninsula had once been home to animals such as pronghorn, sea otter, North American porcupine, Humboldt marten, gray wolf, American black bear, grizzlies, northern fur seal and Steller sea lion.

And it could be again — well maybe not the grizzlies or wolves. His organization is already restoring native plants and rebuilding natural waterways in parts of the peninsula.

“It’s time to stop thinking about cheese and yogurt,” he said.

Niman, driving his Rivian across the golden, wind-swept fields, said he has some concerns with the way Trump is dealing with foreign policy, immigrants and some broader environmental issues. But the administration “gets it” when it comes to Point Reyes and public lands.

And he’s heard they’re going to do something about it soon.

Newsreaders in bitter row as ITV star Charlene White accuses BBC’s Jan Leeming of ‘disrespect’

Charlene White has hit back after veteran newsreader Jan Leeming described her presenting style as ‘condescending’, sparking a bizarre social media row.

The 46-year-old is regularly seen on both Loose Women and ITV News, however, former BBC News host Jan, 84, suggested that she didn’t “hack it” on the latter, and wasn’t as good as co-star Mary Nightingale.

Taking to Twitter earlier today, she penned: “Wish ITV’s Charlene would stop addressing us as if we were children. She has such a condescending style.

“Don’t know whether or not she is a an excellent journalist but don’t think she hacks it as a newsreader. It may look an easy job but not all are as good as @nightingaleitv [sic].”

Hitting back, Charlene quoted Jan’s tweet and added: “Very surprising to see a presenter I admired as a kid deciding to slate me on social media.

“In an industry where women, especially black women, have had to work incredibly hard to get ahead, this type of disrespect from a fellow female journo feels like s’thing from a bygone era.”

In response, the broadcaster added: “I said I didn’t know how good you are as a journalist but I find your delivery condescending. It has nothing to do with colour.

“Actually I believe it is far easier these days for BAME people to get ahead in all walks of life. It was only an opinion and my apologies to you.”

While the ITV panellist has yet to reply, many were quick to lash out at Jan’s post, branding her most recent comments ‘brain dead’.

“Double down Jan – this is a brain dead response. Assume you don’t have PR these days,” one said, as another agreed: “Jan you haven’t been a newsreader for 30yrs or more and styles have changed making this randomly b****y comment just makes you look bitter, very nasty.”

A commenter said: “OMG, Jan. No. Should have started with that “apology” and left it there rather than bury it under some truly questionable takes. Just a guess that @CharleneWhite is much more of an expert in the experiences of Black women in the industry than you. This is really disappointing.”

As an unimpressed fan added: “Actually I believe it is far easier these days for BAME people to get ahead in all walks of life.” Looooooooooooooool? [sic].”

Charlene has been a staple of our screens for decades, and began her broadcast career at BBC, with stints at BBC News, Look East and 5Live. In 2008, she made the move to ITN and worked at ITV News and GMTV.

In April 2014, she became the first Black woman to present ITV News At Ten, and went on to become a regular on Loose Women, following Andrea McLean’s exit.

She previously spoke to the Mirror about how important it is to champion diversity in society, and particularly at work.

“I talk a lot about diversity because I believe, working in broadcasting and the media, what happens in front of the camera and behind the camera should reflect society,” she told us.

“All views matter, all opinions matter. That’s the only way the industry can survive.”

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