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Love Island’s Ellie Chadwick has spoken out after quitting the show shortly after a series of explosive scenes played out on the dating series following her doomed romance with Finley Maddock

Love Island’s Ellie Chadwick has spoken out after dramatically quitting the show. The real estate videographer, 24, had been taking part in the hit ITV2 reality dating series and was enjoying a blossoming romance with Finley Maddock, but it all started to go wrong when he fell for a bombshell who entered the villa.

In explosive scenes that aired on Thursday night, Ellie stormed out of the villa for good, having decided to leave when Finley was voted out by the other Islanders, and has now insisted that everything stated to kick off after bombshell Elicia set her sights on Finley during a recoupling.

She said: “When Elicia chose Fin at the recoupling, all hell broke loose. I was angry. As all the girls were saying, I just lost my cool. There had already been a little bit of back and forth. I more or less knew what was coming, but it had been back and forth and I just lost it. I had too much emotion in me to let out. I’d laid my cards out.

“I couldn’t do any more. I was just hurt. It wasn’t like she had done anything wrong. She had a job to do,she was a Bombshell. I was just feeling a type of way about it, and that was okay. Everyone in that situation was feeling a type of way, mine just came out in a louder way than everyone else’s.”

The reality star then admitted that she had hoped to remain in a couple with Finley and then accused of him of dealing with the situation in such a “poor” way to begin with, but ultimately thinks she has grown from her experience on the dating programme.

She said: “Obviously, seeing Finley up there was hard because it was a recent event and he hadn’t been in the bottom before. Then, when we got told about the second dumping and that we had to choose, I already kind of knew in my gut that it wasn’t going to go the way I was hoping, which was for me and Finley to stay there and continue to grow. There were no ifs, buts or maybes, or what ifs, or how could this play out.

“Finley knows fine well that I feel like he navigated it very poorly. I made that very vocal and I will stand on that. I always will. I think the communication was poor.

“A lot of the things that happened were not relayed to me in a proper way, which I would have appreciated. I’m big enough to take the truth on the chest.

“I’m happy with that. I’m a very direct, upfront person. I just think the communication was poor and the way he handled it wasn’t great. I understand he was confused. I was understanding the whole time, but there was only so much understanding I could do.

“There are definitely ways it could have been better, but we live and we learn. That’s what Love Island is. It’s about living and learning. I’ve learned a lot about myself there and I’ve got to give him grace on that.

“It doesn’t mean the grafting boots are off because we’re out now, those boots are still on. I believed in the connection we had so much. I just knew in my heart that it was going to work, regardless of what was going on.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX

Following the passing of Qatar’s Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on Sunday, his solidarity with the Palestinian people remains one of the defining legacies of his leadership. He is being remembered not only as a regional statesman, but also as a steadfast ally of the Palestinian people and the only Arab leader to physically break the crippling siege on the Gaza Strip.

In October 2012, Sheikh Hamad visited the embattled Gaza Strip, six years after Israel imposed its crippling international blockade on the territory, following the 2006 Palestinian elections.

Accompanied by his wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and a high-level delegation, the emir bypassed the political isolation imposed on the enclave by Western powers and regional actors, leading to a massive official and popular reception.

The head of Hamas’s diaspora office, Khaled Meshaal, told Al Jazeera that the visit to the Strip means that “Jerusalem, Gaza and Palestine mourn him.”

“He was the first Arab and Muslim leader to visit Gaza, standing by its side with chivalry and magnanimity, as if officially announcing the breaking of the siege in its darkest circumstances,” Meshaal told Al Jazeera. “He was intelligent, brave and a man of principles.”

Ahmed al-Sheikh, a senior journalist, Arab affairs commentator and former news director at Al Jazeera Arabic Channel, said the Father Emir had ”a special kind of love for Palestine”.

“Has any other leader in the Arab world done that [visit to Gaza], except Hamad bin Khalifa?” al-Sheikh reflected in a recent interview.

”Why did he go to Gaza? It’s because he saw that everyone around Gaza is neglecting it”, he added.

During that landmark visit, Sheikh Hamad announced an increase in Qatar’s reconstruction grant to the enclave from $254m to $400m, laying the foundation for vital housing, infrastructure and healthcare projects that benefited thousands of Palestinians.

Addressing crowds at the Islamic University of Gaza – which awarded him and Sheikha Moza honorary doctorates for their humanitarian efforts – he praised the resilience of the Palestinian people, while criticising the international community’s double standards.

Personal pain and the ‘spearhead’ of liberation

His commitment to the Palestinian cause predated the blockade on Gaza. In 1999, Sheikh Hamad became the first Gulf leader to visit the Palestinian territories since 1967, meeting with the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat during a critical political impasse.

According to al-Sheikh, the emir viewed the Palestinian struggle through a deeply personal lens. When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon besieged Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, the emir was profoundly pained. He told his aides that when Sharon attacked the Muqata’a, it felt as though he was attacking Qatar itself.

His connection to Palestine was coupled with a regret that he had never visited Jerusalem before its occupation in 1967, According to al-Sheikh, that prompted him to commission an extensive three-hour documentary on the holy city to capture its history and identity.

Rather than relying solely on international intervention, he believed in the agency of the Palestinian people and that they were the essential spearhead of their movement. “You will do the primary action and without this action there can be no liberation,” the emir once told al-Sheikh.

Defying regional consensus

This stance put him frequently at odds with the regional consensus. During Israel’s devastating 2008–2009 war on Gaza, deep divisions emerged among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members over how to respond to the crisis.

Sheikh Hamad called for an emergency Arab summit in Doha, proposing a $250m reconstruction fund and a maritime corridor to bypass the blockade. He famously expressed his disappointment on live television about the lack of an Arab quorum for the emergency meeting. “God is sufficient for us and he is the best disposer of affairs.”

Some of Gaza’s most vital infrastructure projects before the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023 were the result of financial pledges made by Sheikh Hamad.

Qatar funded the rehabilitation of vital highways and the flagship Sheikh Hamad City in Khan Younis—a $58m public housing project with 53 modern apartment buildings for thousands of low-income families.

Additionally, the Sheikh Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, which officially opened in April 2019, became the territory’s premier facility for amputees and children with hearing impairments.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has systematically erased much of the infrastructure Qatar helped finance during Sheikh Hamad’s leadership. Satellite imagery from May this year confirms that Hamad City and other areas in southern Gaza have been wiped from the map.

The Sheikh Hamad Hospital managed to resume its vital services last December, despite suffering direct attacks, severe shortages and the broader collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. Operating the only CT scanner in northern Gaza, the hospital has even opened a new branch in the south to cope with a 225 percent increase in amputation cases.

Sheikh Hamad Hospital’s continued operations during the ongoing genocide in Gaza remain a tangible remnant of the late emir’s unprecedented efforts in the besieged enclave. His support for Gaza will remain for generations to come.

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have reportedly ended their relationship after almost three years together.

According to multiple outlets, the former couple — who met on the set of the 2024 musical blockbuster “Wicked” — quietly called it quits several months ago.

“It’s amicable, they gave lots of time and careful consideration and decided to go their separate ways,” a source told People. “They are still friends and very supportive of one another. They have been quietly broken up for several months.”

The “Thank U, Next” singer, 32, and “SpongeBob SquarePants” actor, 34, had been linked since 2023. They made their relationship Instagram-official in 2024 in the lead-up to the release of “Wicked,” in which Grande starred as G(a)linda the Good while Slater portrayed Munchkin and future-Tin Man Boq.

Their dating rumors were scrutinized at the time because Grande and Slater both had highly publicized splits from former spouses around the same time. Grande was previously married to real estate agent Dalton Gomez, while Slater had been married to psychologist Lilly Jay, his high-school sweetheart with whom he shares a child.

In March, Slater wrapped the off-Broadway run of “Marcel on the Run.” In addition to co-writing the play with Marshall Pailet, Slater portrayed mime artist Marcel Marceau.

Grande, meanwhile, embarked on her Eternal Sunshine tour in Oakland on Saturday. This marks the “Hate That I Made You Love Me” singer’s first tour since 2019. Grande is slated for five shows in Los Angeles beginning June 13.

This might be the last time fans can catch Grande at a live concert — at least for a while. In November, she mentioned these shows might be her “last hurrah” as a touring pop star.

“I’m very excited to do this small tour, but I think it might not happen again for a long, long, long, long time,” she said on the “Good Hang With Amy Poehler” podcast. “So I’m going to give it my all, and it’s going to be beautiful, and I think that’s why I’m doing it, because it’s like, one last hurrah.”

Grande’s next album, “Petal,” will be released July 31.

Ever since leading pro-Israel lobby financier Sheldon Adelson intervened in the 2016 election heavily in favour of Donald Trump, the now-president’s Middle East policies (if you can even call them that) have become more and more openly in favour of the Zionist state.

To call casino tycoon Adelson an “Israel first” financier is misleading, as it implies that he has second, third and fourth priorities. With a net worth of almost $34 billion at his disposal, though, his one and only cause is Israel, so “Israel only” financier would be a more accurate description.

Adelson has ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into funding anti-Palestinian groups. He has, for example, donated a reported $410 million to Birthright Israel, a pro-Israel propaganda organisation which takes young Jews on brainwashing tours to occupied Palestine, inculcating in them the idea that the country forms part of their “birthright”.

Although nobody should delude themselves that such a huge amount of money does not have the intended effect on many impressionable young people, money isn’t everything and, thankfully, largely left-wing and liberal Jews are increasingly rejecting Israel. Last year, media outlets reported a number of walk-outs from Birthright tours, with participants reacting against the heavy-handed propaganda that always forms the basis of such trips.

READ: US comedian Roseanne, shunned since racist tweet, visits Israel

Left-wing and anti-Zionist Jews have for many years now been organising against Birthright, even putting on a “Birthwrong” tour celebrating diasporic Jewish life in ancestral Jewish homelands, such as Spain, France, Brazil, Germany, the USA and Britain.

Such efforts are now paying off. Birthright walk-outs are part of a broader trend in which Israel is haemorrhaging support from the base of the Democratic Party in the US. Once upon a time, Sheldon Adelson funded the Democrats. However, in a 2012 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (the in-house organ of America’s billionaire business class), Adelson explained: “I didn’t leave the Democrats. They left me.” In that article it emerged that the main, if not the only, reason he switched his substantial financial support from the Democrats to the Republicans was that the Democrats’ base is now largely hostile to Israeli war crimes and apartheid.

Since then, Adelson has apparently made it his mission in life to fund the worst of the worst right-wing Republicans. As the late, lamented website Gawker reported, “In 2012 he spent $20 million supporting Newt Gingrich, nearly derailing [Mitt] Romney’s primary run.”

President Donald Trump answers questions during a meeting with military leaders in the Cabinet Room on 23 October, 2018 in Washington [Win McNamee/Getty Images]

During the course of the race for the 2016 White House, every Republican candidate did their best to net Adelson’s support and, of course, his money. Marco Rubio was reportedly calling Adelson every other week at one stage, and “when Jeb Bush hired a foreign policy advisor who was critical of Israel’s diplomatic actions, Adelson forced Bush to issue an apology.”

With President Donald Trump now leading the most anti-Palestinian White House of all time, it’s easy to forget that at one stage, his non-interventionist instincts in matters of foreign policy seemed, for a brief moment, to extend even to Palestine. That’s when Adelson started to plough cash onto the Trump bandwagon and ended up being Trump’s number-one backer. The White House is now more pro-Israel than ever, with each new advisor seemingly more fanatically Zionist than the last.

READ: Media hypocrisy puts pressure on Arabs but not Israeli activists

The Trump-appointed US Ambassador to Israel not only tolerates illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, for example, but also actively funds them out of his own money. Trump has also followed through on a promise to Adelson to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the face of international law, which still considers the latter to be an occupied city, the annexation of which by Israel is illegal.

While the pro-Israel lobby seems to have the White House sewn up for now, its propagandists look at the new crop of progressive and left-wing Democrats in Congress with some trepidation, for Israel no longer has the universal, bipartisan support in the House and Senate that it once had. This week, news emerged that its lobby has even had to establish a new group, aiming to shore up its floundering support among Democrats.

“Democratic Majority for Israel” is supposedly set to make the “progressive case for Israel”. The fact that such a move has had to be made now is a serious indication of how much US support for Israel has slipped. Indeed, in the secretly filmed words of Eric Gallagher, a leading “liberal” pro-Israel lobbyist when he referred to the lobby’s flagship organisation, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: “The foundation that AIPAC sat on is rotting… There used to be actual widespread public support for Israel in the United States. So I don’t think that AIPAC is going to remain as influential as it is.”

READ: How AIPAC-Israel agenda became US priority

One establishment policy wonk conceded this week that the passage of a bill through the Senate targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, while seemingly a victory for Israel, was “actually a pretty significant loss. Because only one serious presidential candidate voted for it.”

Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, two corporate Democrats who have thrown their hats into the presidential ring for 2020, both failed to show up for the vote, despite speaking at previous AIPAC policy conferences. Even they don’t want to enrage their support base, much of which is likely to opt for Bernie Sanders should he decide to run again.

With the situation in Congress changing rapidly, the pro-Israel lobby is going for broke to take advantage of its position in the White House while it lasts.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

A plane passenger has shared their shock after getting a mouthful for reclining their seat during a long-haul flight – sparking a heated debate over airline etiquette

A plane passenger sparked a debate after reclining their seat without a second thought on a long-haul flight – leaving them questioning whether they had done anything wrong. The traveller took to social media to share the awkward encounter, which unfolded during a nine-hour economy flight aboard a Boeing 747-400.

Like many passengers on long journeys, they decided to get comfortable after the meal service had finished and prepared to recline their seat before trying to get some sleep. However, what happened next was the last thing they expected. As they pushed their seat backwards, they suddenly heard somebody shouting: “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

At first, they assumed the noise was coming from the TV show they were watching on their tablet and carried on as normal.

But moments later, a passenger sitting behind them tapped on their seat and delivered a stern warning.

The traveller explained the man claimed they had almost hit his young daughter in the head when reclining their seat.

According to the passenger, the dad then told them they needed to notify him every time they wanted to recline so he could make sure the child was out of the way.

The unexpected confrontation left the traveller completely stunned.

They admitted they hadn’t even realised a child was sitting behind them until the man pointed it out.

When they later caught sight of her, they estimated she was somewhere between three and five years old.

Reflecting on the incident, they questioned how the child had managed to be in the path of a reclining seat in the first place.

The passenger wrote: “I am still absolutely baffled by this.”

Not wanting to risk an argument in the middle of the flight, they immediately returned their seat to the upright position and decided not to recline it again for the remainder of the journey.

While they felt guilty after being accused of almost hurting a child, they couldn’t shake the feeling the situation wasn’t entirely their fault.

Their partner believed the parents should have simply treated the incident as an accident and encouraged their daughter to sit properly in her own seat.

Meanwhile, their mother-in-law took an even firmer stance, arguing that if the family wanted extra room for the child to move around, they should have paid for seats with more space.

The incident has since sparked a wider discussion online about airline etiquette, with many travellers divided over who is responsible when it comes to reclining seats.

One user said: “A bit like reversing in a car, always good to take a quick look and make sure the coast is clear.”

Another user added: “He didn’t say you couldn’t recline your seat, he asked you to warn them. Three to five-year-olds aren’t known for being super cooperative.

“Maybe her head was down and her tray was out or something. Would you prefer he physically restrain her in her seat and she screamed the whole time?”

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Friday that President Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Kennedy Center board’s March 16 vote to close the facility was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations.

“The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one,” he wrote.

Cooper also concluded that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by unilaterally adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said.

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said Friday the institution is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.” She said the decision would be reviewed “carefully.”

“Though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”

Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the project. One was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation organizations. The other was brought Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected the other challenge.

Justice Department attorneys said renovation plans for the building are limited in scope and well within the board’s authority to make without needing outside approvals.

The plaintiffs worry the president and his board allies will flout preservation rules designed to maintain the building’s historic fabric. In earlier statements in court hearings, attorneys for Beatty and the preservation groups raised doubts about the limited scope of the project, pointing to Trump’s statements that he would “fully expose” the building’s steel skeleton. Beatty has said she was “very fearful that we’ll see what happened with the East Wing and what happened with the Rose Garden” if the center is closed and the renovations allowed unsupervised, referring to major changes the president has made at the White House.

Trump, a Republican, has taken a keen interest in the Kennedy Center’s operations since he returned to White House last year. He installed a handpicked board that named him chairman. His name was added to the facade of a building that is considered a living monument to President John F. Kennedy.

The Kennedy Center has kept up performances ahead of the closure, though at a much slower pace than in previous years. Trump attended the premiere of the musical “Chicago” in March and other shows, including “Moulin Rouge” are slated for June.

Bill Maher, the comedian who has had an up and down relationship with Trump, is expected to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28, an event that was anticipated to be one of the final big moments at the Kennedy Center before the closure.

Cooper was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Obama.

Kunzelman and Sloan write for the Associated Press.

Waterloo Road star Adam Thomas has admitted that he wishes he had “stood his ground” when David Haye bullied him on the set of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity…South Africa

Adam Thomas wishes he had “stood his ground” when David Haye ‘bullied’ him on I’m A Celebrity…South Africa. The Emmerdale star, 37, is currently on-screen in the all-stars edition of Ant and Dec’s reality survival show, having initially competed on the regular edition of the ITV series a decade ago.

The programme was all filmed towards the end of last year but as it was being broadcast to the nation, viewers got to see boxer David Haye trying to force Adam into doing a Bushtucker Trial, even though he was unwell.

Adam has arthritis, which he has been open about. Explaining how it affects him, he said previously: “It is an autoimmune disease. Basically means my immune system is attacking my own body. It causes a s**t-load of pain,” and on Sunday evening, the former Strictly Come Dancing star took to social media where he admitted that it has all been a struggle to watch his time on I’m A Celebrity play out on TV.

READ MORE: Gemma Collins says she was forced to ‘protect’ Adam Thomas from David Haye on I’m A CelebREAD MORE: Adam Thomas supported by brothers and I’m A Celeb campmates after heartbreaking post

As part of his lengthy statement, Adam explained that he just wished he had stood up for himself during the tense moment but has decided to choose “peace” since it all happened.

He wrote: “I won’t sit here and say I handled everything perfectly, because I didn’t. I wish I spoke up for myself sooner. I wish I stood my ground instead of trying to keep the peace, but I’ve learned that being kind doesn’t mean being weak, and sometimes it takes going through tough moments to find your voice.

“Since coming out, I’ve taken time to process everything, and I’m in a much better place now. I let go of the anger, had the conversations I needed to have, and chose peace.”

Adam’s twin brother Scott, who found fame himself when he appeared on Love Island in 2016, was amongst the first to show his support publicly as he wrote: “It’s tough watching my twin bro go through that in there…makes my blood boil!

“To see someone’s pure heart be tested like that is hard to watch, especially my brothers. But I understand he had to go through his own journey in there and the man he’s become during/since this experience has made me so proud! I love you @adamthomas21 and will always have your back.”

Meanwhile, Ryan Thomas, who is best known for having played Jason Grimshaw on Coronation Street, also showed brotherly support as he wrote: “I would like to say I would stick up for you in there but hes not the guy to pick a fight with! We need to give [fellow boxer] Tony Bellew a call bro!”

Gogglebox legend Scarlett Moffatt, who won I’m A Celebrity in 2016 and is also back for the all-stars series, wrote: “Aww Adam I bloody love you. You’re one of the kindest men i know, if my little boy ends up being as caring as you then I know I’ll have done a good job as a mam. LOts of love [heart emoji].”

Loose Women panellist Denise Welch, who starred alongside Adam in Waterloo Road, wrote: “Love you Adam [heart emoji], whilst Liam Scholes, who also appeared in the BBC school drama, wrote: “An incredible individual my man, so much love xx”

Michelle Hardwick, who plays Vanessa Woodfield in Emmerdale, said: “You handled yourself incredibly Adam and the rest of your campmates were right behind you,” whilst Isabel Hodgkins, currently on maternity leave away from her role as Victoria Sugden, said: “Never been prouder.”

Danny Miller, who took time away from Emmerdale in 2021 to compete in, and eventually win, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! himself, said: “You’re a beautiful man and those who really know you know what you bring to their lives. Love and laughter, you’ve handled yourself incredible. Love you, brother x”

It all came to blows as Adam tried to sleep and admitted it would be hard for him to undertake a Bushtucker Trial because he was feeling dehydrated. David raged: “Dehydrated?! We’ve all got the same amount of water! Adam is doing it and that’s it!”

“When is your top form gonna come? Why aren’t we forcing this dude to go and do it? Coincidentally, every time there’s something to do, he’s not feeling well.” It was at that point that Gogglebox legend Scarlett Moffatt, who won I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2016, weighed in as she begged David to “stop it.”

* I’m A Celebrity…South Africa airs weekdays at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.

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