continues

Love Island star suspected of sexual assault re-arrested as investigation continues

A former Love Island star who is suspected of sexual assault and stalking has been re-arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police on suspicion of perverting the course of justice

A Love Island star has been re-arrested. The man was arrested by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. The man, in his 20s, was previously arrested in November last year at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of multiple offences, including sexual assault.

He is also suspected of criminal damage, assault by beating, coercive and controlling behaviour, and threats to share photographs or films of a person in an intimate state. But he has since been re-arrested by officers from the force who attended his home. It is claimed that he attempted to contact an alleged victim.

A spokesperson for The Metropolitan Police said: “A man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. The arrest relates to an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual assault, stalking, criminal damage and assault. He was arrested at an address on Monday, April 27 and bailed pending further enquiries.”

The man is not linked to the current series of the ITV2 dating programme. Speaking to The Sun, a source said: “This second arrest is a real shock – and potentially very bad news for the ex-contestant.

“There was an investigation going on into very serious offences that he was arrested over last year.” Last year, the man was bailed pending further enquiries after his arrest upon arrival at Gatwick in the United Kingdom on November 27.

The force had launched an investigation into the claims just 12 days before the arrest and at the time, a spokesperson told the Mirror: “A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of multiple offences, including sexual assault, stalking, criminal damage and assault as part of an ongoing investigation by Met Police officers.

“Met Police launched an investigation on Saturday, 15 November and arrested a man at Gatwick Airport on Thursday, 27 November. He has since been bailed pending further enquiries. A woman has been offered specialist support by officers.”

The show, which launched earlier this week again, has faced several problems in recent years. Earlier this year, former winner Jack Fincham revealed he lost millions of pounds and was unable to afford rehab after a drug addiction.

In 2018, Sophie Gradon, who featured as a contestant in 2016, took her own life at the age of 32. The following year, Mike Thalassitis also took his own life at the age of 26, having been a contestant in 2017.

And in February 2020, former show host Caroline Flack died by suicide at the age of 40 after hosting the series from 2015 until 2019. The deaths of former contestants and Flack have sparked concerns about the well-being support offered by ITV after propelling contestants into the spotlight.

Following the incidents, ITV introduced duty of care measures to support those taking part on the show before, during and after their time in the villa and on screens. The improvement in support was welcomed by former contestants, who applauded ITV for doing more to help those who experienced life in the villa.

If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.



Source link

Lebanon continues its gamble in U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel

A damaged mosque is shown Wednesday, a day after an Israeli airstrike hit the village of Maashouk in southern Lebanon. According to the Disaster Management Unit of the Lebanese government, Israeli attacks across Lebanon have killed more than 3,045 people and injured more than 9,310 others since the start of renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 21 (UPI) — Lebanon took a gamble by engaging in direct negotiations with Israel that opened the door to security and political talks. Yet, that failed to stop the fighting despite a 45-day extension of a cease-fire.

The U.S.-brokered talks emerged as Lebanon’s last resort to end the raging war between Israel and Hezbollah that broke out when the Iran-backed militant group opened a support front for Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023.

A first cease-fire was achieved Nov. 27, 2024, but it failed to restrain Israel, prompting Hezbollah to resume fighting March 2 after 15 months of inactivity as it regrouped from heavy losses.

A second cease-fire, reached April 16, was extended for 45 days Friday during the third round of Lebanon-Israel negotiations in Washington.

The new truce did not take effect on the ground, as Israel and Hezbollah continued to clash, while talks in Washington were set to proceed under fire.

Israel continued to focus largely on southern Lebanon, carrying out airstrikes and expanding its ground operations, while Hezbollah maintained its fighting with new tactics that involved fiber-optic drones and small first-person-view systems.

Riad Kahwaji, a Middle East security analyst, said the extended cease-fire does not cover areas in which Hezbollah is active, especially southern Lebanon, but applies to Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

“It is obvious that this is being done under the pretext of allowing Israel to retain its right to act against threats from Hezbollah,” Kahwaji said.

The latest casualty count released by the Lebanese Health Ministry on Wednesday showed that 3,073 people have been killed and 9,362 wounded since March 2.

Despite Hezbollah’s rejection of direct negotiations and its insistence on maintaining its anti-Israel resistance, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun remained committed to continuing the Washington talks.

“We are proceeding with this process because there is no other option. We are betting on the U.S. to help more,” a Lebanese official source told UPI.

The source said that the U.S. officials have been showing “understanding” of Lebanon’s position, but it is yet to be seen if “they would force Israel to abide by the cease-fire and withdraw” from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon — while not ready to conclude a peace agreement or normalize ties with Israel — engaged in the negotiations with five demands: consolidate the cease-fire, secure Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territories, obtain release of Lebanese prisoners captured during the war, enable return of displaced people to their homes and villages, and initiate reconstruction.

Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are to meet on May 29 at the Pentagon in Washington in a “security track” aimed at, as the U.S. State Department put it, “meaningfully improving communication and coordination” between the two countries under U.S. facilitation.

While Lebanon prepares its military delegation, that meeting is expected to focus on enforcing and maintaining the cease-fire through structured military coordination.

According to Lebanese retired Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Chehaitli, the 45-day extension of the truce was a “window of time” for Israel to end or stop its military operations and for Lebanon to build confidence in its capacity to carry out its mission in southern Lebanon.

Supporting and equipping the Lebanese Army will be part of the discussions, aimed at enabling its forces to deploy and take control of southern Lebanon following any eventual Israeli withdrawal.

“All military operations should then stop completely for the Lebanese Army to begin deploying,” Chehaitli told UPI.

In addition to creating conditions for an Israeli withdrawal, the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament would be on the table.

Kahwaji noted that Israel and Lebanon are heading into the Pentagon meeting with their own expectations and objectives.

“Lebanon wants the army to be strengthened, but there is so far no intention to forcibly disarm Hezbollah,” he said, adding that the United States and Israel expect the Lebanese Army to handle disarmament and security in southern Lebanon once properly equipped.

If an agreement is reached, the disarmament process would not succeed without Hezbollah’s consent and cooperation.

“Hezbollah would have to inform the army of all the locations where its weapons and missiles are hidden. That would require a decision by Hezbollah’s leadership, as these are secret locations not known to many.” Chehaitli said. “If this happens, we could then say that the war in Lebanon is over.”

However, the final word remains with Iran, which has heavily financed and armed Hezbollah since its establishment in the early 1980s.

“The key is in Iran’s hands. Ending the war and Iran’s military investment in Lebanon is the necessary entry point for the negotiations,” Chehaitli said.

While Lebanon seeks to break free from Iran and has opted for U.S.-brokered direct negotiations with Israel, it is working to revive the 1949 Armistice Treaty as a basis for ending hostilities in the upcoming political track expected in early June.

According to the official source, the plan is an “Armistice Treaty Plus” with some modifications — a feasible objective that would end the state of war between the two countries and resolve their border disputes.

“The Armistice Treaty is fully valid but requires some geographical and military amendments, which are easily addressed,” said Chehaitli, who is the author of The Lebanese Land and Maritime Borders: A Historical, Geographical and Political Study.

“It is either the solution or the gateway to a solution and could be sufficient to prevent any future war.”

He said military observers from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization — placed under the operational command of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, or UNIFIL, after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war — would resume their primary role of observing ceasefires and supervising armistice agreements.

UNIFIL’s mandate is set to expire in January.

Such an agreement to end the war would “keep the door open for a future peace deal that could involve political and economic relations,” Kahwaji argued.

That would largely depend on Israel’s acceptance and on the U.S. acting as guarantor.

“But the U.S. has not always been an honest broker, and will always side with Israel,” Kahwaji said.

Source link

With Sen. Cassidy’s primary defeat, Trump’s revenge campaign continues

President Trump succeeded in his effort to defeat Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana’s Republican primary, a signal of the enduring strength of the president’s hold on his party despite an unpopular war and soaring gas prices.

Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators in 2021 who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6 that year. He placed last in a three-way race Saturday against U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, and state Treasurer John Fleming.

“His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Trump said of Cassidy on social media late Saturday.

With 92.3% of ballots tallied, Letlow had 44.8% of the vote and Fleming had 28.3%. Cassidy trailed with 24.7%.

Letlow and Fleming will advance to a runoff next month. Whoever wins that contest is virtually assured victory in November in deep-red Louisiana. In his last reelection in 2020, just months before his vote to convict Trump, Cassidy won 59% of the vote.

In a primary season where Trump is crusading to vanquish members of his party with whom he’s been at odds, the Louisiana race comes just days before the president tries to oust another Republican foe, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. But Trump has opted so far to stay out of a hard-fought Texas GOP runoff later this month between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, a traditional conservative, and state Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, who is more politically aligned with the president’s MAGA movement.

Massie, who faces a primary that has become the most expensive of its kind, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that’s he’s confident he will prevail Tuesday despite a string of social media insults from the president and fundraising by Trump allies such as billionaires Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer.

“I think it’s going to help my fundraising,” Massie said. “People don’t like this.”

With state polls showing Massie with a slight lead, the congressman said, “that’s why the president is losing sleep and tweeting about me.”

Trump’s success in defeating Cassidy left the Louisiana senator defiant: “Let me just set the record straight. Our country is not about one individual, it is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution.”

“If someone doesn’t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they’re about serving themselves, they’re not about serving us,” he added.

Trump has attacked Cassidy for his 2021 vote and his opposition to some aspects of his agenda, particularly vaccine and other health policies pushed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearings last year, Cassidy, who is a doctor, expressed deep skepticism about the nominee’s anti-vaccine views, but ultimately voted to confirm him.

Trump recently blamed Cassidy for thwarting the nomination of wellness influencer Casey Means as surgeon general. Means is a longtime ally of Kennedy’s, and Cassidy had also questioned her stance on vaccinations.

On Saturday morning, Trump continued his attacks, calling Cassidy a “a disloyal disaster” on social media. He later congratulated Letlow on her first-place finish.

In his concession speech, Cassidy said: “I find that people of character and integrity don’t spend their time attacking people on the internet.”

Despite the president’s opposition to his candidacy, Cassidy had run ads featuring images of Trump, praising top White House issues that the senator had supported including the president’s massive tax package enacted last year, while casting Letlow as insufficiently conservative.

The outcome also notches a high-profile win for Kennedy’s political operation, which supported Letlow and opposed Cassidy in the race. The two men have repeatedly clashed over nominations and the department’s changes to vaccine policy. With certainty of his departure when his term ends in January, Cassidy could make the health secretary’s job even more difficult as he finishes out his term with an eye to his legacy and priorities.

Cassidy’s departure will also leave a leadership vacuum for the GOP atop the Senate Health Committee next year. The panel oversees health agencies and confirmations for key leadership positions at the agencies, and Cassidy brought his medical expertise to the role. He has built a reputation as a healthcare policy wonk willing to work across the aisle.

Only two other Republican senators who broke with Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, remain in the Senate. Collins, who represents a state Trump lost in 2024, has largely avoided the president’s wrath while she fights for her political life in one of the most competitive races of the midterms. Murkowski won reelection in 2022.

“You can disagree with President Trump, but if you try to destroy him you’re going to lose because this is the party of Donald Trump,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“There’s no room in this party to destroy his agenda or to destroy him or his family as a Republican,” Graham said. “It’s just a reality.”

Cohrs Zhang writes for Bloomberg. Bloomberg writers Tony Czuczka and Se Young Lee contributed to this report.

Source link

Mohamed Salah & Arne Slot: Liverpool unrest continues as Xabi Alonso chooses Chelsea

Mohamed Salah’s latest unprompted public outburst will ratchet up the pressure on struggling Liverpool head coach Arne Slot by several notches.

Salah first laid bare his frustrations with Slot and Liverpool after the 3-3 draw at Leeds United in December, claiming he had been “thrown under the bus” after being dropped following the Premier League champions’ poor start to the season.

This time the Egyptian, who is scheduled to play his final game for Liverpool against Brentford at Anfield on the closing weekend of the season, took to social media after Friday’s 4-2 loss at Aston Villa to launch a thinly-veiled attack on their style under Slot and the failures this season.

Slot has been losing credit fast since winning the Premier League in his first season after succeeding Jurgen Klopp.

The contrast was sharp between Unai Emery’s vibrant Aston Villa – who confirmed Champions League football next season with victory at Villa Park and who are in the Europa League Final – and porous, weak Liverpool.

And then came the latest twist in this troubled, turbulent Liverpool season.

This sort of pronouncement could justifiably be seen as Salah repaying his head coach by throwing Slot under the bus, the breakdown of their relationship providing a fractious backdrop to a season in which Liverpool‘s title defence has disintegrated.

If Salah’s attack clearly does not help Slot, who has lost the faith of many Liverpool fans as the Anfield atmosphere becomes increasingly toxic, then his analysis of “us crumbling to yet another defeat this season” hardly reflects well on his own team-mates either.

The sub-plot to Salah’s post is that a large number of those same Liverpool supporters see Xabi Alonso as Slot’s natural successor.

But the former Real Madrid manager now looks destined for Chelsea, who hope to announce the Spaniard as their new permanent head coach in the coming days.

Alonso has long been touted as a future Liverpool manager, having won the Champions League as a player and then impressed hugely during his time as Bayer Leverkusen boss.

Some hoped he would replace Klopp two years ago, but he instead opted to remain with Leverkusen and Slot came in instead.

It would seem again the timing just will not quite marry up for those dreaming of a fairytale return to Anfield.

Source link

U.S. soldier’s remains found in Morocco; search continues for another

May 11 (UPI) — The remains of one of two U.S. soldiers who disappeared during exercises in Morocco earlier this month have been recovered, the U.S. military said, as the search continues for the other soldier.

A Moroccan military search team found the remains of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr. at 8:55 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced Sunday.

USAREUR-AF said Key’s remains were found along the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean within 1 mile of where the two soldiers are believed to have disappeared.

His remains have been transported by the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces via helicopter to the morgue of Moulay El Hassan Military Hospital in Guelmim, located about 265 miles southwest of Marrakesh.

Next of kin have been notified and plans are underway to repatriate his remains, officials said.

“Our hearts are with his family, friends, teammates and all who knew and served alongside him,” Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement.

“The 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command family is grieving, and we will continue to support one another and 1st Lt. Key’s family as we honor his life and service.”

Key, 27, and a second U.S. soldier went missing May 2 near Cap Draa Training Area, a coastal military training site near Tan-Tan, during African Lion 26, this year’s version of the U.S. military’s largest Africa-based exercise.

Their disappearance is unrelated to the exercises, with military officials believing the pair may have slipped off a cliff during a hike near the training range.

The pair were reported missing at 9 p.m. May 2 during a base-wide head count, and a search was launched.

U.S. military officials said they worked with Moroccan forces, concentrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in the search, which involved more than 1,000 U.S. and Moroccan military and civilian personnel.

The search effort continues for the remaining missing soldier, they said.

Key was from Richmond, Va., and was a platoon leader assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

USAREUR-AF said he was known at Charlie Battery, which he joined last year, for “the care he showed for his soldiers, his commitment to others and the relationships he built across the formation.”

“Kendrick embodied the highest standards of service as a selfless, inspirational leader whose unwavering dedication to his soldiers and their development leaves an enduring legacy within our ranks,” Lt. Col. Chris Couch, commander of 5-4 ADAR, said in a statement.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger issued an online statement of condolence.

“Adam and I join Virginians across our Commonwealth in extending our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones,” she said.

Source link