changed

The five-star KOIA All-Suite Wellbeing Resort on Kos, Greece, is a world away from the party scene – and rooms start from £220 a night

Like countless Brits, my initial encounter with the Greek island came via an 18-30 holiday. I recall cheap cocktails, sticky dancefloors and a hotel where staff flat-out refused to hand out more than one deflated pillow per guest. It was enjoyable in that uniquely carefree way only your early twenties can deliver, but I’d mentally categorised Kos with the other party islands I’d ticked off and left behind.

So when the invitation arrived to return this summer, I’ll confess my expectations were modest. I certainly wasn’t anticipating discovering one of the most peaceful hotels I’ve ever stayed in.

Situated high above the Aegean Sea, KOIA All-Suite Wellbeing Resort feels like it exists on an entirely separate island. There’s no thumping music poolside, no inflatable flamingoes floating about and definitely no wristbands.

Instead, it offered supreme luxury through serene infinity pools, premium dining and wellness experiences – all at a sensible price point, reports OK!.

Stay in style

Launched in 2023, the five-star adults-only sanctuary boasts just 51 suites, meaning it never feels overcrowded, even at full capacity. Built into the hillside overlooking Agios Fokas, roughly a 12-minute drive from Kos Town, the resort draws inspiration from the ancient wisdom of Hippocrates, who was born on the island, with wellbeing woven into every aspect.

Suites span from pared-back Cave Suites to more generous Sea View Suites featuring private infinity pools or outdoor whirlpools, all styled in soothing neutral shades, natural stone and timber. The appeal of the hotel lies in the fact that every suite provides full or partial vistas across the Aegean, meaning there’s genuinely no disappointing room.

Thoughtful details such as a pillow menu, rainfall showers, smart-controlled blinds and room-service dining choices really reinforce the sense of ‘private luxury’. In terms of facilities, there are two pools – one indoors within the spa and a main pool – plus a gym.

The food

Despite there being just one restaurant, Thyme, I never found myself craving additional dining choices, which speaks volumes about how exceptional the food was. For breakfast, a generous buffet featuring local fruit, pastries and made-to-order dishes can be savoured with uninterrupted sea vistas.

Come evening, Thyme becomes an elegant à la carte restaurant showcasing Mediterranean cuisine with seasonal ingredients, fresh seafood and regional wines. I’m not exaggerating when I say I requested the shrimp linguine four times.

Lunch is also available there, but with a completely different menu from evenings, offering plenty of variety through fancy sandwiches and grilled options. Throughout the day, my book and I set up camp at the pool bar for iced coffees between dips, before relocating to the sophisticated Elixir Bar at sunset, where cocktails are served with a backdrop of one of the finest views on the island.

What’s on

If you need more than a pool and a good book to keep you occupied, the carefully curated range of activities on offer are well worth booking in advance. From open-air morning yoga overlooking the glittering sea to a traditional baking class with Thyme’s head chef, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

I headed to the hotel’s Ydor Spa (on the one overcast day we had) and relished the chance to privately hire the Himalayan salt room and sauna cabin before treating myself to a full body massage. I’d also highly recommend the floating breakfast experience. I’ve never consumed so much food in a single morning, and there truly is nothing more delightful than chasing your strawberries as they drift across your private pool.

Further afield

Reception can point you towards hiking trails leading to the medieval ruins of Palio Pyli or the summit of Mount Díkaios, where breathtaking sunset views from the island’s highest peak make the climb thoroughly worthwhile. Kos Town offers an entirely different tempo, boasting Roman landmarks such as the beautifully preserved Odeon of Kos and Casa Romana, alongside some superb tavernas to dine at. If you have a hire car, venture out to the island’s thermal springs, located at the northern tip of the island at Therma Beach, where the seawater bubbles.

Why I’ll be returning

It’s uncommon to experience a genuine sense of magic from a hotel, yet that’s precisely what I encountered here. A tranquil retreat, ideal for those seeking respite from the hustle and bustle.

Perhaps the greatest revelation was discovering it on an island I’d previously dismissed as a party destination. Its intimate size lends itself to a wonderfully personal level of service, and within just a few days, the staff already knew my preferred morning coffee and favourite sunbed spot. Worth noting too – from August 2026, guests can also look forward to a brand-new Greek restaurant, a second pool and newly added suites.

Book it

A Junior Suite with Sea View and Hot Tub starts from £220 per night, and a Sea View Suite with Private Pool starts from £256 with breakfast included. Book via koiaresort.com to make the most of offers like complimentary airport transfers. Half board and full board dining also available. Flights to Kos from major UK airports operate daily May-October with return pricing from around £60.

Eighty years ago, though the Arsenal of Democracy had vanquished the Axis and weathered a withering Depression, the recovering American people found themselves rich in bills but short on laughs. Enter Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, who debuted together on July 25, 1946.

Unlike Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, or Hope and Crosby, who relied on tightly scripted setups, this disparate yet kindred duo captured America’s heart by being viscerally, uproariously and unpredictably wild.

Martin and Lewis were the founding fathers of an anarchic, side-splitting brand of comedy that combined pratfalls, ad-libbed wordplay and a sustained demolition of the fourth floor. Orson Welles observed that the duo’s combustible zaniness was so hilarious that it made you wet your pants.

The boys cavorted about the stage, kibitzing with bandleaders and the audience alike. In between trading impromptu quips, Martin and Lewis overturned tables, cut ties, sheared suits and spritzed seltzer on one and all.

The suave, dashingly handsome Italian crooner clowning around with his gawky, rubbery Jewish buddy brought the house down every time. It was nonstop, jocular pandemonium: Commedia dell’arte 2.0.

“Saturday Night Live,” Second City, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler all owe a debt to the artists who started life as Dino Crocetti and Joseph Levitch.

Martin and Lewis created a novus ordo seclorum, in its way innovating like America’s founders, spawning a new comedic order of the ages.

Their alchemy was as ineffable as it was infectious. Variety’s first review of the act noted, “All they do cannot be detailed, but virtually every bit of it is good for solid laughs.” Carl Reiner similarly declared: “I saw what I thought was the funniest ad-libbed thing I had ever seen. It was a riot, and we never stopped laughing.”

In their own madcap way, Dino and Jer epitomized Cicero’s notion that comedy is the imitation of life, the mirror of custom and the image of truth.

Martin and Lewis became the monarchs of all media, conquering radio, nightclubs, television and the silver screen. In 1948, they appeared on Ed Sullivan’s first television show, “Toast of the Town.” From 1950 to 1955, the Martin-and-Lewis-hosted “Colgate Comedy Hour” frequently bested Sullivan in the ratings.

When Hollywood beckoned, the boys answered the call, cavorting, cutting up and reconfiguring reality on the silver screen. They starred in 16 films, bringing their boisterous bromance to capacity-crowd movie theaters.

Though their big-screen adventures could not capture the comedic chaos of their stage act, Martin and Lewis transformed even the most pedestrian screenplay into box-office gold. As film critic Ciara Maloney explained, “Their brilliance shines through the weakest material: the ineffable, bewitching something between them — an intimacy, an immediacy, an ingenuity — frozen in amber for those of us who would never see it in the Copacabana.”

The essence of this duo was the outré interplay between the Prince and the Putz, the Leading Man and the Monkey. Though he was the comedian by trade, Lewis fully credited Martin as the “genius” of the pairing: “He kept the center. He was the spine of the act. And the monkey was constantly attached to that spine, on the spine, next to it.”

From “Sailor Beware” to “The Stooge,” “Living It Up” and “Artists and Models,” theirs was a comedy partnership that came to symbolize America. It is little wonder that presidential historian Tevi Troy called the 1950s “The Martin and Lewis Decade.”

However, many Americans didn’t see these two celebrities as distant icons. Film critic Jenna Ipcar has described how “a perfect comedy duo will make their audience feel like a lucky participant instead of just a passive observer, a welcome guest in a secret world.” Martin and Lewis embodied that ideal.

The boys’ bittersweet final performance took place at New York’s Copacabana on July 25, 1956. Exactly 10 years after their debut in Atlantic City, N.J., Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had pioneered a new brand of comedy, soothed postwar America’s psyche and made a nation laugh again.

Rosario A. Iaconis, chairman of the Italic Institute of America, writes about Italy and its cultural influence. He is at work on a novel about Harry S. Truman.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — After breakfast on a recent Saturday, Robert Fraass crossed the river from Omaha to this southwest corner of Iowa to catch Bernie Sanders at the opening of his newest campaign office.

He sat in the fourth row, cheering and clapping with about 200 others as Vermont’s senator delivered his familiar tirade against the oligarchs and plutocrats and greedy corporations that he said are choking the life from America’s middle and working classes.

Fraass voted for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary when the candidate ran as the left-leaning, fist-shaking alternative to establishment favorite Hillary Clinton. He’s still a fan. But this time, with more than two dozen presidential candidates to choose from, Fraass is shopping around.

He worries that Sanders, 77, is too old and too far left to win a general election. “Realpolitik,” said Fraass, 53, a project manager who works in the credit card industry. “I want someone who can beat Trump, and I wonder if Sanders can do it or if someone else would be better suited.”

Robert Fraass backed Bernie Sanders in 2016 but right now he’s shopping among Democratic candidates.

(Mark Z. Barabak)

By several measures — polling, fund raising, die-hard support — Sanders remains one of the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination. He has more cash on hand — nearly $27.5 million — than any other Democrat and commands strong on-the-ground organizations in the two most politically crucial primary states: Iowa, which he barely lost four years ago, and New Hampshire, which he won handily.

But he’s fallen behind former Vice President Joe Biden in most state and national polls, lagged several rivals in the latest fundraising quarter and is no longer the political and cultural phenom he was four years ago.

Rather, Sanders has become something considerably less buzz-worthy, just another candidate scrabbling to break from the pack of presidential hopefuls, many staking positions similar — if not identical — to his own. Most have the added benefit of seeming newer and fresher.

“He’s been consistent. I think he’s as honest as the day is long,” said Tom Stewart, 72, a semiretired educator who swung by to hear Sanders at a Sunday morning coffee-and-doughnuts stop at the United Auto Workers hall in Ottumwa. Stewart might even vote for him again. But first, he said, “I want to see other candidates.”

To some degree, Sanders has been a victim of his own success.

“Last time when I was campaigning here in Iowa, I had ideas that many people in the political establishment and the media establishment thought were really radical. Far out,” he said, with a bit of ’60s hippie intonation as a crowd of 100 or so sweltered inside his storefront campaign office in downtown Ottumwa. “Well, a lot has changed over the last four years.”

Much of what Sanders proposed then — a government-financed universal healthcare system, a $15 federal minimum wage, higher taxes on the rich, tuition-free college, nationwide decriminalization of marijuana — has, in fact, become standard orthodoxy for many of the Democrats running.

For all that has changed, however, a great deal remains the same; a person waking from a 2016 coma might not even realize time has passed.

Sanders burns with the same white-hot flame, spits out the same dramatic statistics on income inequality, gives unshirted hell to the pharmaceutical and fossil-fuel and military- and prison-industrial complexes, just as he did last time.

With a fluttery wave of his hands, like a conductor before an orchestra, he excoriates the corruption in Washington, the rotten influence of political cash, the overweening power of special interests, all heightened, he says, “by the worst president in the history of this country.”

He appears mindful, if unabashed, that he incessantly repeats himself.

“I don’t want to beat a dead horse here,” Sanders told a gathering of several dozen seniors in Council Bluffs, as he launched into his standard attack on the evils of the American healthcare system. The flogging then continued through another 20 minutes of questions and answers.

Not that his audience seemed to mind. They spent an hour recounting horror stories about insurance coverage heedlessly denied, families destroyed and lives shattered by various health crises.

To supporters, his repetition is reassuring, a sign of Sanders’ passion and dedication.

John Blasingame, who took part in a panel discussion on the candidate’s “Medicare for all” proposal, has looked over others in the Democratic field and was impressed by Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (The two are cosponsors of Sanders’ universal healthcare legislation.) Blasingame would like to see more women elected to political office.

“But I support Bernie because he has come out continuously, year after year after year, in support of people like me,” said the 80-year-old retired construction worker. “He’s introduced bills again and again in both the House and Senate which go toward helping the mass of people, not the rich privileged few, and he’s done this forever.”

John Blasingame likes Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren but supports Sanders because of his longstanding consistency.

(Mark Z. Barabak)

Others remain to be convinced.

Sandra Cerveny, 69, a retired college administrator, likes Sanders and very much supports Medicare for all. But she also has good things to say about Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden, who has criticized Sanders’ healthcare plan and suggested expanding the Affordable Care Act instead. “Frankly, I’m for whoever can beat Donald Trump,” Cerveny said, suggesting any of several Democrats would do just fine.

Faiz Shakir, who manages Sanders’ campaign, concedes that the candidate may have lost his novelty.

“For sure, the fact is other candidates are fresher,” Shakir said. But he noted that there will be plenty of opportunities over the next several months for them to rise and, he believes, fall again. “There are going to be a lot of boomlets,” he said.

But in the end, Shakir continued, those moments “will evaporate” and the Democratic contest will come down to who can deliver fundamental change and which candidate is best poised to defeat President Trump. Sanders, with his appeal to working-class voters in key states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and unwavering call for political revolution, is the candidate best suited to achieve both, Shakir asserted.

There have been some small adjustments.

Sanders, who struggled last time for support among African Americans, has spoken more about his early involvement in the civil rights movement, seeking to broaden his appeal to black voters. He’s increased his outreach to older Americans — his recent Iowa swing was almost entirely devoted to senior issues — another group that largely spurned his insurgent 2016 effort.

After filling stadiums to deliver his angry oratorio — he packed Santa Monica High School’s amphitheater at a Friday night rally — Sanders has begun staging smaller, more intimate events intended to offer the up-close experience that voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, especially, have come to expect. In two days zigzagging the breadth of Iowa, from the Missouri to Mississippi rivers, he never spoke to a crowd larger than 250 or so and sometimes spent more time answering questions than giving his standard stump speech.

He has even begun posing for selfies — by now a staple of the presidential campaign trail — a task Sanders conducts with the joyless precision of a worker manning an assembly line. Smile. Click. Next.

What Sanders can’t change is the fact he’s no longer quite so compelling. For some Democrats that’s a reason — for now, anyway — to look elsewhere.

Back in Council Bluffs, Fraass left Sanders’ campaign office happy with the scorching rhetoric he’d heard. “I really liked his energy,” Fraass said, toting a blue-and-white “Bernie 2020” poster as he stepped into the 96-degree heat.

But Fraass wasn’t through shopping. Sixty miles east, in Shenandoah, Iowa, he planned to catch an afternoon appearance by this year’s political phenom, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

For the ninth consecutive night, the United States mounted attacks on Iran’s defence facilities and maritime capabilities into the early hours of Monday, with Tehran hitting back in tit-for-tat strikes as warning sirens blared in neighbouring Gulf countries and Jordan, home to US military bases.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) they had signed in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 17. US President Donald Trump has said he views the truce as over, while Iran has said it no longer intends to adhere to the MoU.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas passed during peacetime — is shut again, sending crude prices shooting up yet again. On Sunday, the US military said another American service member had been killed late last week, bringing the total number of deaths to 17.

So, what has changed in the last two months for the US, Iran and the Gulf countries as the MoU has unravelled in terms of economic impact, widening of military targets, and how they view the war?

Economy

The Strait of Hormuz — the kill switch of the global economy — has been closed down by Iranian authorities, warning that not even a drop of oil shall pass through the waterway amid US attacks and a naval blockade against Iran’s ports.

The MoU had paved a path for the reopening of the strait. And that had briefly pulled oil prices to par with pre-war levels.

The GCC

The strait is of critical importance, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which saw their economic security and energy strategy severely affected by export curbs. The war on Iran has brought about the largest disruption to global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies in modern history.

The costs go beyond just energy revenue losses, noted Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, an economist at Germany’s Marburg University.

“The conflict also threatens the GCC countries’ diversification strategies. Tourism, aviation, logistics, construction, real estate and foreign investment all depend on perceptions of regional stability,” he told Al Jazeera. “Continued war increases insurance and transport costs and encourages investors and tourists to reconsider their exposure to the region.”

Iran

For Iran, the MoU lifted the naval blockade against Iranian ports and offered oil and banking sanctions waivers, and Tehran rushed to export tens of millions of barrels of crude oil.

The earlier US blockade had curbed Iranian exports, with Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, telling Iranian state TV in an interview last month that “we did not export even one barrel” during the blockade.

However, as fighting resumed, the US disabled a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, reported to be carrying Iranian crude. Tehran has also hit commercial vessels in the waterway, and the US has been bombing Iran’s coastal areas since then.

“[The renewed US naval blockade] is more damaging than conventional sanctions because the restrictions are now enforced physically,” said Farzanegan. “Iran therefore has much less room to use intermediaries, alternative flags and informal shipping arrangements to maintain oil exports.”

“The immediate consequences are lower foreign-exchange revenues, further depreciation of the rial and stronger inflationary pressure,” the economist told Al Jazeera.

Iran’s economy has been suffering from one of the world’s highest inflation rates. The rial touched nearly 1.9 million against the US dollar this week, a new all-time low. The Tehran Stock Exchange’s main index lost another 120,000 points or 2.4 percent on Saturday to stand at 4.77 million.

The US

Trump’s war has been widely unpopular in the US. The president recorded a 60 percent disapproval rating on the economy, as per the latest CNBC polling, with a net approval rating of -22, reported to be the lowest of his political career.

As per the poll, 61 percent of respondents said they are pessimistic about the state of the economy, the highest percentage since December 2023.

“The effects are most visible in energy prices and consumer purchasing power. This increases household costs and complicates the political position of President Trump and Republican candidates ahead of the November 2026 congressional elections,” said Farzanegan.

Military

The US

The US military has had 17 personnel killed in the war with Iran so far. Three of them have been killed since the resumption of the war about 10 days ago.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” Trump said on Sunday, adding, “We did that in honour of the – probably three – it’s probably three great patriots.”

Two US personnel were killed in an Iranian attack on an airbase in Jordan on Friday, and a third is missing. Another soldier was killed last week in Iraq while defusing unexploded ordnance from an Iranian drone.

Tehran has claimed to have hit several US military facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, including an aircraft at Aqaba airport.

Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the extent of damage to any facilities.

The Gulf

The renewed attacks from Iran on most Gulf countries, as well as Jordan, have forced them to deploy their interceptors. GCC countries had already used hundreds of expensive interceptors during the first phase of the US-Israel war on Iran in March and April.

But the Iranian military’s attacks have also hit civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries. The bombing of power and desalination plants in Kuwait has drawn widespread regional condemnation.

“What is happening is a severe shock to the GCC countries,” Nader Habibi, an Iranian-American economist, told Al Jazeera. “Now, after the disruptions of the past seven months, even as they have tried to avoid getting involved, the civilian population is indirectly impacted.”

Iran

The US insists that it has focused its attacks on Iran’s military infrastructure, especially on the country’s southern islands — some of which act as forward military or surveillance posts, and others that are believed to host missile bunkers.

But Tehran has accused the US of targeting civilian infrastructure as well in recent days, including bridges and tunnels, ports and dock facilities, power stations and water plants. Iranian officials have said more than 50 people have been killed and about 500 wounded in US attacks in the past three weeks.

Narrative

More than the war itself, a significant part of the messaging from the US and Iran has been over the control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US

Washington says its renewed attacks are aimed at degrading Iranian capabilities to disrupt maritime traffic in the waterway, with Trump saying last week that “the US controls the Strait”.

Iran

Tehran has pushed back on Trump’s claim.

Farzanegan said Iran’s “ability to influence shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains a unique source of bargaining power”. “Tehran is therefore prepared to bear considerable costs to preserve this leverage.”

He added that Iran may also calculate that extending part of the economic costs to neighbouring oil-exporting countries will encourage these governments to use their political influence in Washington and push the US towards negotiations.

“This appears to be one reason why Iran is prepared to maintain pressure in the Strait despite the considerable costs to its own economy,” the analyst added.

Aniseh Tabrizi, an associate fellow on the Middle East and North Africa Programme at think tank Chatham House in London, said the significant change since the MoU unravelled “is that there is less optimism than before about diplomacy being feasible”.

“For all the sides,
it is difficult to foresee a scenario in which another deal is not only reached, but also implemented successfully,” she told Al Jazeera. “And that makes it particularly concerning for all the parties involved.”

Tabrizi noted that there appears to be “no imminent drive” from the Iranian side to sign a deal. “They are still maintaining escalatory attacks, but also reciprocating the kind of attacks that are conducted against the country,” she said.

The Gulf

GCC countries have continued to condemn Iran’s attacks on the regional countries, while calling for diplomacy to dial down the escalation. They have made it clear that Iran’s unilateral control over the Strait of Hormuz would not be acceptable to them.

Tabrizi added that, like the weeks before the Islamabad MoU, regional countries, especially Qatar, are still batting for talks.

If anything, Farzanegan said, the economic losses can bring all the sides to the table again for talks.

“Higher economic losses increase the incentives for negotiations,” he said. “A return to negotiations becomes more likely when both sides conclude that continued escalation cannot improve their bargaining position.”

Economist Habibi agreed that if an agreement is reached again, “it would be primarily because of the stability of the economic pressures on both sides”. However, he added that the probability of escalation in the next couple of weeks is higher than the probability of negotiation.

What jumps out is that although both managers have started from opposite tactical viewpoints, there are clear similarities in both their tournament runs – much to Tuchel’s frustration.

After England’s victory against Norway, Tuchel said: “The result is fantastic but I’m not happy with the performance,” before adding, “[we were] sloppy, tactical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough.”

These all speak to fact that the principles he wanted to see in his side were not on show.

Both goals against Norway came from moments of individual brilliance against disorganised defences.

A goal-kick that fell short and landed at Elliot Anderson’s feet gave England possession against a Norway side not in their rigid 4-5-1 shape and through direct running and quick passing, Bellingham was then able to score.

The winner came from the second phase of a corner, before Rogers had a long shot parried into Bellingham’s path.

Those goals feel more Southgate than Tuchel – player-led, intuitive and slightly chaotic rather than repetitive, drilled and choreographed.

EXCLUSIVE: Rae Knopik, 31, was always determined to find out more about her Italian roots, and now she’s able to dive into her history further than she ever imagined after winning a €1 (86p) home in Troina with the love of her life

A couple managed to snap up a €1 (86p) home in Italy after finding love in the romantic country. Rae Knopik, 31, had always been determined to explore her Italian heritage, and now she’s able to delve into her roots further than she ever dreamed possible. The social media personality, who has amassed over 35,000 followers on Instagram eager to follow her adventures, opened up about how she managed to secure her dream home alongside her fiancé Declan Norrie, 31.

Rae, who is American, explained that her family originally hails from Sicily. Her ancestors ended up settling in the US when her great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather emigrated, despite her great-great-grandmother being reluctant to do so at the time.

Rae explained: “She never learnt English and never smiled in her family photographs. I found her so fascinating and I wanted to return to my Sicilian heritage.”

Eventually, Rae relocated to Florence, where she lived for a period of time. It was there that she met Declan, the man she is now set to wed.

“I met the love of my life when I was in Florence. Four weeks after meeting him, I was on a plane to Australia, and I’ve been here ever since,” she added.

However, when Covid struck, the pair began browsing the internet for travel videos while they were unable to venture far from home, and it was during this time that they stumbled across the €1 (86p) property in Troina. While it’s not something many people would seriously contemplate without a lot of thought, they simply thought “why not?” and threw their names into the hat.

After taking part in a series of interviews, they heard nothing for quite some time — but then everything changed in an instant.

Rae added: “They waited for about 12 months. We didn’t tell anyone about it in case the house didn’t pan out but, in May 2022, they said ‘you have won the house, would you like to come see it?'”

The couple flew over in June and snapped it up almost immediately. They later found out that roughly 60,000 people had entered for the property, meaning they had truly struck gold.

When asked about the condition of the property, Rae said: “We knew it was going to be a complete renovation. We didn’t know how long it’d been since someone had lived in the house.

“They clean it up, but you know it’s going to be a complete renovation. We didn’t even think we’d have running water so we were pretty pleased with the house.

“It was over 60 years since someone had lived in it. It is a complete renovation journey.”

The couple must now carry out a full overhaul of the property, entirely at their own expense. There are also certain conditions they are required to adhere to.

Renovation regulations, however, can vary considerably depending on the area when it comes to €1 properties. It’s therefore essential to thoroughly research the rules before putting in an application for any property.

She also pointed out that people can have the wrong idea about purchasing them. They are far from simple bargains, as Rae explained that a considerable amount of effort and money is required to make them habitable.

Nevertheless, Rae has ambitious plans for the property, and the couple are also planning to tie the knot in Italy, with some of the locals even intending to come along. For this young pair, they may well end up returning to the very place that sparked their whirlwind romance.

When asked to describe Troina, Rae said that as you drive towards it, it looks like “a castle in the sky”, adding that “it’s quite romantic”. She now hopes the home will be transformed into a stunning retreat for them to share with loved ones once the renovation is complete.

“I want my family to use it,” she added. “Me and Declan want to settle there at some point for months or even years, but I hope it will be used by my family.”

You can keep up with Rae’s journey on Instagram.

TO the untrained eye, he was just a bloke in a shiny police helmet singing about staying at the YMCA.

But behind the tight trousers and macho character in disco group ­Village People, Victor Willis was a musical hitmaker who co-wrote songs that will provide the soundtrack to every wedding, birthday and office party for years to come.

Yesterday, in a Facebook post, his wife Karen Huff-Willis announced Victor’s death, aged 74.

“It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband,” she said.

“Victor passed away on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, as a result of a short but aggressive illness.”

Long before he was commanding crowds to put their hands in the air to anthems that defined an era, including YMCA, Go West and In The Navy, Victor was singing gospel music in his Baptist minister father’s church.

Read more on Victor Willis

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He grew up in San Francisco and his high school band, The Ballads, supported The Temptations.

He sat in on sessions with American jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, before becoming an actor and singer.

A role in the Las Vegas production of musical Hair earned him a place in Broadway productions of Two Gentlemen Of Verona and The Wiz.

In the late Seventies, he caught the attention of flamboyant French producer Jacques Morali, who was creating a musical group based on the macho stereotypes and gay pin-ups of New York’s Greenwich Village.

Their four-track demo, called The Village People, earned the group a record deal, and Jacques asked ­Victor to become the frontman.

While the rest of the line-up were recruited from dance studios and clubs for the roles of the cowboy, the Native American, the biker, the construction worker and the soldier, Victor was thought to be the only straight member.

After albums Macho Man in 1978, and Cruisin’ in ’79 which gave us YMCA, they put out Go West and its title track became a gay anthem, later covered by The Pet Shop Boys.

It also featured In The Navy, which the US Navy co-opted for a recruitment campaign, before realising they were using the ultimate camp parody.

It was around then that Victor met and married his first wife, future Cosby Show star Phylicia Rashad.

They split in 1982.

After battling growing frustrations within the group, Victor walked out in 1979.

But his departure triggered a downward spiral.

He struggled to escape the group’s flamboyant reputation and establish credibility on his own.

His 1979 solo project, Solo Man, remained unreleased for more than 30 years until 2015.

The Eighties and Nineties became a blur of substance abuse, addiction, and brushes with the law.

In 2015, he said: “I got very depressed over the years.

“I got kind of drugged out, because I was disappointed with the way things were and got frustrated, and gave up for a bit.”

He began to turn things around in 2006 after he received court-ordered substance abuse treatment and completed three years of probation.

After getting clean, he turned his energy towards a battleground between him and ruthless record executives who had pocketed the lion’s share of the royalties from the Village People’s catalogue.

This led Victor to meet his second wife Karen, an attorney who helped him fight his copyright case against the companies who controlled Village People’s hits.

They ­married in 2007.

Victor, armed with a gritty determination, launched a historic, multi-year lawsuit under a loophole in the 1976 US Copyright Act, which allows artists to reclaim their work after 35 years.

In a legal victory that sent shockwaves through the music industry, the US courts ruled in his favour in 2013.

Victor clawed back up to 50 per cent of the lucrative copyright percentages for YMCA and his other hits, becoming a hero to older musicians everywhere.

The resolution paved the way for his return to the group in 2017.

Older, wiser, but with that same thunderous voice, he toured the world to packed arenas, watching three generations of families throw their arms in the air to spell out those four famous letters.

By then, YMCA was being regularly played at Donald Trump’s political rallies, a use Victor was unhappy with.

“I don’t endorse Trump, I’ve never endorsed Trump, nor have the Village People,” he told the BBC in 2020.

However, he surprised fans last year by agreeing to take part in the politician’s second inauguration saying: “Our song YMCA is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost.”

In his tribute yesterday, Trump claimed: “He was a great and happy guy who loved that I used YMCA at my rallies.”

Regardless, YMCA remains Victors’ biggest hit, reaching No1 in 17 countries.

The star may have hung up his police helmet for the final time, but his legacy is firmly etched into global nightlife.

As long as there is a wedding with a dancefloor, people will be ready to fling their arms up in the air in the shape of a “Y”.

The app said it will be rolling out usernames gradually, in a move meant to improve privacy.

Change is coming for some three billion users of the world’s favourite messaging platform, WhatsApp.

The social media app owned by Meta will allow users to be identified by usernames instead of phone numbers, it said on Monday. WhatsApp is used in more than 180 countries and 60 languages, the platform says.

Users will soon be able to reserve unique handles, with a wider rollout planned for later this year.

The move is designed to improve privacy on the platform amid longstanding scrutiny over its data protection practices.

So what is changing, and how can you grab a handle no one else has?

What change has WhatsApp announced?

Users will soon be able to swap the phone numbers displayed on WhatsApp with usernames, the company said. Under the new system, which will commence later this year, users will be able to choose to be “findable” and contacted by their handles only.

The app said it has already begun allowing some users to reserve unique usernames before a bigger rollout later this year.

Why is WhatsApp making this change?

The messaging platform said the change is designed to improve privacy features, for which it and its parent company Meta have come under scrutiny in the past.

“We have designed this as a core privacy feature,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s vice president of product, told reporters.

According to the company, there will be no public directory of usernames and no autocomplete suggestions, meaning users will need to know someone’s exact username to reach them for the first time.

“When someone new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbour, someone you meet at an event – sharing a phone number can feel like a big step,” a WhatsApp company blog post stated.

“That’s because a phone number is personal and it’s tied to so many parts of your life. Sometimes you just want to chat without handing over your digits.”

The company told one user on X that it has added multiple new features to help users defend themselves from scammers.

Optional username keys – or short numbered codes – can be added, which would mean people can only contact a user if they have both their username and its key, for example.

WhatsApp also said it will limit the number of new people any one account can contact as a guard against spam accounts, and that its systems can now detect and block “abuse patterns”.

How will the new usernames work?

Companies, organisations and creators with existing accounts on Meta’s other social media platforms – Instagram and Facebook – will have the opportunity to claim their usernames as handles on WhatsApp as well.

Usernames will have to be three to 35 characters. To prevent impersonation, WhatsApp will hold back usernames for high-profile people or groups, such as celebrities, public figures and government entities.

To reserve a specific username, WhatsApp said a user must download the latest version of WhatsApp, go to the Settings tab, the Account tab, and then the Username tab.

The reservation must be done with a smartphone – it cannot be done on WhatsApp Web or Desktop.

When will this change come into effect?

WhatsApp said it will roll out usernames gradually over the coming months and will notify users on WhatsApp when the new feature is available in their country. It has not given specific timelines.

To be prepared, the company told users to “make sure you have the latest version of WhatsApp downloaded and keep an eye on your app”.

What are WhatsApp’s current privacy features?

WhatsApp’s current privacy settings are limited to blocking individual users and silencing unknown callers.

Nowhere on earth parties like they do at Universal Studios. Writer Ali Graves went to discover the biggest fiesta in Florida, and fell in love with theme park celebrations

If you’re anything like me, theme parks typically conjure up images of drizzle, uninspiring grub and middling attractions that leave you feeling a bit green around the gills… until now.

Enter Universal Studios Florida, which blew away all my preconceptions with their Mardi Gras celebration. Wave goodbye to lacklustre hot dogs and say hello to succulent grilled steaks (yes, actual steaks!), delicious Chinese dishes and sophisticated cocktails… and that’s only scratching the surface.

Universal Studios Florida excels at delivering brilliantly themed seasonal celebrations — from festive cheer at Christmas to their spectacular Halloween Horror Nights — there’s consistently something to get excited about. I experienced their Mardi Gras event first-hand, which takes place each year between February and April (exact dates vary annually, but there’s ample opportunity to organise your visit for next the next one), reports OK!.

This is when the entire venue transforms into a dazzling display of gold, purple and green, with 13 food and beverage stations scattered throughout to help you embrace the carnival spirit in proper style. Additionally, there are numerous other entertainment offerings to suit all tastes, regardless of age. Better still, the majority of these bonus attractions are covered by your standard park admission ticket. And just wait until you discover what else…

Mardi Gras at Universal Studios is Florida’s ‘biggest party’ The dazzling, lively and captivating Mardi Gras parade takes place every evening (weather permitting), showcasing the most stunning New Orleans-style floats, enthusiastic dancers and performers, and the finest bead tosses – thrown by you, the park visitors.

The floats boast remarkable authenticity, having been designed, styled and decorated by Kern Studios, the very same firm responsible for crafting many of the grandest and most iconic floats seen in the New Orleans Mardi Gras parades.

For those wanting to elevate their parade experience, why not ride aboard a float through the park? That’s right – you can actually hop on and throw beads for fellow guests to catch below. It’s a guaranteed way to feel like a celebrity while soaking up the electric atmosphere from high above.

How to get the best views at the Mardi Gras parade

I found myself aboard the Bayou float with Mardi Gras jazz music pumping and swamp-like fog billowing from the sides as I hurled purple and green beads to eager fans below – it’s an absolute must-do if you get the chance.

There are two ways to secure your spot – once you’re inside the park, it demands quick thinking and a bit of luck via the Studios app. Check around 2pm and 5pm, searching for Mardi Gras parade. Virtual queue slots appear randomly and disappear within the hour. If you’ve not managed to bag a place by 5pm, head over to the Animal Actors on Location theatre – occasionally they release unclaimed slots.

The guaranteed route, however, is through the park’s new-for-2026 Float Ride and Dine Experience. It’s a paid option costing $94.99, but it secures your place and includes a three-course meal at a participating Universal restaurant – Lombard’s Seafood Grille, Café La Bamba or selected Citywalk venues.

Bear in mind that experiencing the parade from street level can be equally thrilling. Be amongst those catching armfuls of beads as you groove to the music and soak up the spectacular sights and sounds from the ground. For prime viewing, position yourself outside The Mummy or The Bourne Stuntacular to witness the floats in all their magnificence. Alternatively, if you’ve got youngsters under 10 in tow, settle in front of the Brown Derby Hat Shop – a clear viewing area specifically designated for children which opens an hour before the parade kicks off.

The best food to find when you’re at Universal Studios

Long gone are the days when theme park fare was boring and uninspiring. This event showcases authentic Southern and Cajun flavours, with dining choices to suit every member of the family.

Scattered throughout the park you’ll discover food stalls themed around various countries. The shrimp fried rice and milk boba tea at China, alongside jerk chicken and Rasta Pasta at Jamaica were personal highlights, though you’ll also encounter premium steak cuts in Brazil and wild salmon in Chile. Each food item comes with a price tag, so grab yourself a special dining card for $65, which gives you $75 worth of food and drinks. The added perk is that any leftover credit can be rolled over and spent elsewhere around the park.

Free gigs are included in the tickets

Your entry includes access to live concerts right inside the park. The 2026 line-up was absolutely brilliant, featuring the likes of Kaskade, Joey Fatone and AJ McLean (of noughties groups N Sync and Backstreet Boys) and The All-American Rejects. I spent one evening watching Bebe Rexha and another catching world-acclaimed DJ, Zedd. The atmosphere was absolutely buzzing at both performances, and they play for roughly an hour, so make sure you get yourself a drink beforehand and head over to the Music Plaza Stage.

How to book your trip to Universal Studios Florida

All Parks ticket prices start from £430pp based on June arrivals, for 14 days unlimited park-to-park admission (Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, Epic Universe and Volcano Bay). Book at floridatix.com or call 0330 100 3130. Fly with Norse Atlantic Airways, from £196 one-way. For Premium Business class flights from £925 return.

The Pentagon says it is working to amend its proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget to request new funding for E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to replace the U.S. Air Force’s aging E-3 Sentry jets. The original version did not ask for any money for E-7, which had raised the prospect of a new fight with Congress over the future of the program. Legislators intervened earlier this year to reverse a previous attempt to axe the Wedgetail. Secretary Pete Hegseth, previously a chief advocate for the cancellation, says his Department’s “mindset” has now fundamentally changed.

Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, asked Hegseth for an update on the E-7 during a hearing before members of the House Appropriations Committee earlier today. In his question, Cole, who is Chairman of the committee, also highlighted the loss of one of the Air Force’s existing E-3s, also known as Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, in an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in March. That has put new emphasis on the Wedgetail program. The latest conflict with Iran has also just added to the already significant strains on the dwindling fleet of aging E-3s, as TWZ has previously explored in detail.

“Let me ask you a specific question, and you may want to get back to me on this, I don’t know, but we’ve had some discussion over – you know, we lost one E-3. On the ground, thank goodness. Looks like no crew loss,” Rep. Cole said, leading into his question. “This committee has been interested in investing in the E-7. The Pentagon signed the contract for five additional planes. [It is] not in the Air Force budget [for Fiscal Year 2027]. Is there going to be a fix to that? Where are we at on thinking about the E-7?”

As of April, the Air Force had awarded contracts to Boeing for a total of seven developmental E-7s. Versions of the Wedgetail are already in service in Australia, South Korea, and Turkey. The United Kingdom is also set to field a fleet of these aircraft. However, a U.S.-specific configuration is now in the works.

“I am well aware of that dynamic. I know our department had taken the position that it was … other satellite ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities] that was probably going to be capable of a lot of that in the future,” Hegseth said in response to Rep. Cole’s question. “But I think that mindset was indicative of a mindset that we’ve shed, which is the divest-to-invest mindset, which was an austerity mindset, that we’re going to get continuing resolution after continuing resolution. So, we [sic] got to get rid of these platforms in order to invest in these platforms. And there are gaps that need to still be filled. And there are systems that still need to be funded that are used on the battlefield right now, say, MQ-9s, A-10s, you name it.”

“And the E-7 is one of those,” Hegseth continued. “So, we’ve actually sent a budget amendment to OMB [Office of Management and Budget at the White House] to add that. I think it has a future. It has a place on the battlefield. And we’ll get more information for you on that, as well.”

The continuing resolutions referenced here are short-term federal government spending packages that Congress routinely approves when it cannot pass a full annual budget.

Secretary Hegseth also touched on the Air Force’s long-term plan, which remains unchanged publicly, to eventually push most, if not all, air moving-target indicator (AMTI) tasks into orbit. His comments today implicitly acknowledge that cancelling the E-7 program would have risked a serious capability gap in the near term, with the hopes of a better solution coming in the future. This is something TWZ had been sounding the alarm on since last year. Despite major investments and prototyping activities already underway, those space-based capabilities are still years away, at best, from becoming a reality. The Air Force’s original plan to replace a portion of its E-3 fleet with E-7s underscored the expectation that airborne early warning aircraft would also continue to play a vital role for years to come.

As a replacement for the E-3, the E-7 is a much more modern and capable aircraft. The Wedgetail is arguably the best airborne look-down sensor platform anywhere in the world at present, which is especially valuable for spotting long-range kamikaze drones, as well as cruise missiles. The Boeing 737-based design is also adaptable to other mission needs, including battle management and serving as a networking node using its own expansive communications and data-sharing suite. TWZ highlighted all of this in March, when Australia announced it was sending one of its E-7s to the Middle East to help Gulf Arab States defend against Iranian attacks.

Northrop Grumman MESA Radar – Boeing E-7 AEWC

Hegseth’s comments today on the change in mindset at the Pentagon do not touch on the argument that he and others made last year, that the E-7 was too vulnerable to be viable in future conflicts. This was despite an accompanying plan for the acquisition of more of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes that the U.S. Navy currently flies to fill airborne early warning capability gaps in the absence of an Air Force Wedgetail fleet. TWZ and others had quickly pointed out that the same survivability questions applied equally to the E-2D, which is also not as capable an aircraft as the E-7, which you can read more about here.

When previously arguing for its cancellation, Hegseth and others had also cited cost overruns and delays that had befallen the Air Force’s Wedgetail program since it first kicked off back in 2022.

As noted, Congress had interceded to save the E-7 from purgatory, at least in Fiscal Year 2026, appropriating more than $1 billion in new funding for the program. Of the seven Wedgetails the Air Force has on order now, five were put on contract just this past March. The service had previously ordered two other jets to support rapid prototyping efforts. Even so, the Air Force had continued to sound somewhat noncommittal about the future of the E-7 program.

“We, of course, as we always do, follow congressional direction, and we will do the [E-7] rapid prototypes. We will fund those rapid prototypes,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told TWZ and other outlets at a roundtable on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) annual Warfare Symposium in February. “They told us to deliver a plan for additional aircraft. Now we will do that.”

“By the way, ‘deliver a plan’ does not mean we’re going to put it in the budget,” Meink also said at that time. “We will deliver a plan of what it takes to do it, and then we’ll have a discussion with them [Congress].”

This is what turned out to be the case, at least initially, with the E-7 again being absent from the Air Force’s proposed 2027 Fiscal Year budget when it was rolled out in full last month.

“The Department [of the Air Force] is committing to work with you to figure out how to adjust the [20]27 budget submission to fund the E-7, and then work the [20]28 [budget] going forward,” Meink said at a separate hearing more recently, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Despite the Pentagon saying its position on the E-7 has now completely changed, when the Air Force might begin flying the jets operationally remains to be seen. The service’s original goal was to have Wedgetails flying real-world missions in 2027, but the schedule had already slipped to 2032 by the beginning of last year. Though it is back underway now, the program was effectively frozen for much of 2025, which could easily have set the timeline back even further. Steps could also now be taken to try to accelerate the acquisition and fielding of the aircraft.

In the meantime, the E-3 fleet, which has already shrunk dramatically in recent years, continues to struggle to meet operational requirements. Demand for AWACSs has now surged further due to the latest conflict with Iran. As noted, the Iranians also destroyed one of these prized aircraft in March. The Air Force has said that it is looking into replacing various aircraft lost in the fighting with Iran so far, but it is unclear if this will include regenerating a previously retired Sentry from storage. That would be a long and costly process, but there is no other realistic source available for a replacement E-3, the very last of which were delivered in the early 1990s.

As it stands now, the Pentagon and the Air Force look to have fully dropped their opposition to moving ahead with fielding the already sorely needed fleet of new E-7s.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com