dead

Authorities have not yet released information about the attacker’s identity or motive behind the attack on a family gathering.

At least four people have been killed and 10 wounded after a shooting during a family gathering in northern California’s Stockton, local authorities said.

The shooting took place at a child’s birthday party, Stockton’s Vice Mayor Jason Lee said in a Facebook post late on Saturday.

“I am in contact with staff and public safety officials to understand exactly what happened, and I will be pushing for answers,” he said.

Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, said the victims included both children and adults.

The shooting occurred inside the banquet hall, which shares a car park with other businesses.

“We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased,” San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X.

“This is a very active and ongoing investigation, and information remains limited. Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities.”

Police said they received reports shortly before 6pm (02:00 GMT) of a shooting that occurred near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton.

The authorities have not yet released information about the identity or the motive of the attacker. They did not immediately provide information on the severity of the injuries of the surviving victims.

The office of Governor Gavin Newsom said he has been briefed on the “horrific shooting” in Stockton and will be following up on the evolving situation.

LONDON — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a giant of modern theater and Oscar-winning screenwriter known for erudition and wit, has died. He was 88.

In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” it said. ”It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”

The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors, including a shelf full of theater gongs. Dizzyingly prolific, he also wrote radio plays, a novel, television series and many celebrated screenplays, including 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” which won an Academy Award.

His brain-teasing plays ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1968, “Travesties” in 1976, “The Real Thing” in 1984, “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007 and “Leopoldstadt” in 2023.

Stoppard biographer Hermione Lee said the secret of his plays was their “mixture of language, knowledge and feeling. … It’s those three things in gear together which make him so remarkable.”

The writer was born Tomás Sträussler in 1937 to a Jewish family in Zlín in what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. His father was a doctor for the Bata shoe company, and when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939 the family fled to Singapore, where Bata had a factory.

In late 1941, as Japanese forces closed in on the city, Tomás, his brother and their mother fled again, this time to India. His father stayed behind and later died when his ship was attacked as he tried to leave Singapore.

In 1946 his mother married an English officer, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family moved to threadbare postwar Britain. The 8-year-old Tom “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said, growing up to be a quintessential Englishman who loved cricket and Shakespeare.

He did not go to a university but began his career, aged 17, as a journalist at newspapers in Bristol, southwest England, and then as a theater critic for Scene magazine in London.

He wrote plays for radio and television including “A Walk on the Water,” broadcast in 1963, and made his stage breakthrough with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” which reimagined Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain’s National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway.

A stream of exuberant, innovative plays followed, including meta-whodunnit “The Real Inspector Hound” (first staged in 1968); “Jumpers” (1972), a blend of physical and philosophical gymnastics; and “Travesties” (1974), which set intellectuals including James Joyce and Vladimir Lenin colliding in Zurich during World War I.

The musical drama “Every Good Boy Deserves Favor” (1977) was a collaboration with composer Andre Previn about a Soviet dissident confined to a mental institution — part of Stoppard’s long involvement with groups advocating for human rights groups in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

He often played with time and structure. “The Real Thing” (1982) was a poignant romantic comedy about love and deception that featured plays within a play. “Arcadia” (1993) moved between the modern era and the early 19th century, in which characters at an English country house debated poetry, gardening and chaos theory as fate had its way with them.

“The Invention of Love” (1997) explored classical literature and the mysteries of the human heart through the life of the English poet A.E. Housman.

Stoppard began the 21st century with “The Coast of Utopia” (2002), an epic trilogy about pre-revolutionary Russian intellectuals, and drew on his own background for “Rock ’n’ Roll” (2006), which contrasted the fates of the 1960s counterculture in Britain and in communist Czechoslovakia.

“The Hard Problem” (2015) explored the mysteries of consciousness through the lenses of science and religion.

Stoppard was a devoted champion of free speech who worked with organizations including PEN and Index on Censorship. He claimed not to have strong political views otherwise, writing in 1968: “I burn with no causes. I cannot say that I write with any social objective. One writes because one loves writing, really.”

Some critics found his plays more clever than emotionally engaging. But biographer Lee said many of his plays contained a “sense of underlying grief.”

“People in his plays … history comes at them,” Lee said at a British Library event in 2021. “They turn up, they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know whether they can get home again. They’re often in exile, they can barely remember their own name. They may have been wrongfully incarcerated. They may have some terrible moral dilemma they don’t know how to solve. They may have lost someone. And over and over again I think you get that sense of loss and longing in these very funny, witty plays.”

That was especially true of his late play “Leopoldstadt,” which drew on his own family’s story for the tale of a Jewish Viennese family over the first half of the 20th century. Stoppard said he began thinking of his personal link to the Holocaust quite late in life, only discovering after his mother’s death in 1996 that many members of his family, including all four grandparents, had died in concentration camps.

“I wouldn’t have written about my heritage — that’s the word for it nowadays — while my mother was alive, because she’d always avoided getting into it herself,” Stoppard told the New Yorker in 2022.

“It would be misleading to see me as somebody who blithely and innocently, at the age of 40-something, thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, I had no idea I was a member of a Jewish family,’” he said. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know who they were. And I didn’t feel I had to find out in order to live my own life. But that wasn’t really true.”

“Leopoldstadt” premiered in London at the start of 2020 to rave reviews; weeks later all theaters were shut by the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually opened in Broadway in late 2022, going on to win four Tonys.

Stoppard’s catalog of screenplays included the Terry Gilliam dystopian comedy “Brazil” (1985), the Steven Spielberg-directed war drama “Empire of the Sun” (1987), Elizabethan rom com “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) — for which he and Marc Norman shared a best adapted screenplay Oscar — code-breaking thriller “Enigma” (2001) and Russian epic “Anna Karenina” (2012).

He also wrote and directed a 1990 film adaptation of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” wrote the 2013 TV series “Parade’s End” and translated numerous works into English, including plays by dissident Czech writer Václav Havel, who became his country’s first post-communist president.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature.

He was married three times: to Jose Ingle, Miriam Stern — better known as the health journalist Dr. Miriam Stoppard — and TV producer Sabrina Guinness. The first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by four children, including the actor Ed Stoppard, and several grandchildren.

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This week I spoke to James L. Brooks, whose legendary career includes “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Broadcast News” and “The Simpsons,” about his new film “Ella McCay,” which opens in theaters Dec. 12.

The film stars Emma Mackey as a classic Brooksian heroine: a lieutenant governor of a small, unnamed state with a genuine desire to make other people’s lives better who unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the job of governor.

Albert Brooks and Emma Mackey in the movie “Ella McCay.”

(Claire Folger / 20th Century Studios)

Warm and affectionate toward its characters while also clear-eyed about their all-too-human imperfections, the film is the kind of made-for-adults dramedy that is currently out-of-favor with Hollywood.

“I don’t believe people don’t want comedy,” Brooks said. “Obviously, I hope that you have meat on the bone and that doesn’t mean you can’t do a real scene about real difficulty, especially with this picture.”

Matt Brennan spoke to Renate Reinsve, star of Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” while the two of them toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House. Carlos Aguilar spent time with Amy Madigan, the veteran actor enjoying renewed career energy thanks to her role as Aunt Gladys in “Weapons.”

Among the movies’ new releases, Amy Nicholson reviewed Rian Johnson’s latest Benoit Blanc story, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” calling it the “darkest, funniest and best installment yet.”

Mila Kunis, Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor in the movie “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”

(Netflix)

Amy also reviewed Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) as they grapple with the death of their young son Hamnet, a grief that results in the play “Hamlet.”

If you are really looking to get away from family this week, consider Julia Loktev’s five-and-a-half-hour documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow,” which chronicles the fall of one of the last independent news channels in Russia, largely run by women, during the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Loktev and one of the film’s subjects, Ksenia Mironova, will be at the Laemmle Royal for Q&As after certain shows on the 28th and 29th.

As Tim Grierson put it in his review, “During a year in which the worst-case scenarios of a second Trump presidency have come to fruition, ‘My Undesirable Friends’ contains plenty of echoes with our national news. The canceling of comedy shows, the baseless imprisonment of innocent people, the rampant transphobia: The Putin playbook is now this country’s day-to-day. Some may wish to avoid Loktev’s film because of those despairing parallels. But that’s only more reason to embrace ‘My Undesirable Friends.’ Loktev didn’t set out to be a witness to history, but what she’s emerged with is an indispensable record and a rallying cry.”

Also opening this week is another of the year’s most boldly unconventional films, Kahlil Joseph’s “BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions,” a dense, collage-like exploration of Black identity and history, playing at the Lumiere Music Hall. Anyone who saw the recent blockbuster exhibition of artworks by Joseph’s brother, the late Noah Davis, at the Hammer Museum will also find “BLKNWS” a worthwhile experience.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins on the future of the Coen brothers

Cinematographer Roger Deakins photographed at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Roger Deakins is among the most celebrated and best-known cinematographers of his era. A two-time Oscar winner, he has worked with filmmakers such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Sam Mandes, Denis Villeneuve and many more, on films including “No Country for Old Men,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Skyfall,” “Sicario,” “Blade Runner 2049” and “1917.”

Deakins, 76, who often works in collaboration with his wife James Ellis Deakins, has for the past few years been hosting a podcast, “Team Deakins,” interviewing filmmakers. He has recently published “Reflections: On Cinematography,” which is part memoir and part how-to, drawing from his personal archives to explore his work on so many contemporary classics.

On Sunday, the American Cinematheque will screen director Andrew Dominik’s 2007 “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” at the Aero Theatre with both Roger and James present for a Q&A and book signing.

They recently got on a video call from their home in Santa Monica to talk about the book, their relationship and whether to expect another movie from the Coen brothers.

Javier Bardem in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2007 movie “No Country for Old Men.”

(Miramax Films)

One of the things that’s so striking about the book is that it is very much a memoir, the story of your life, but it is told through these movies and an exploration of your artistic practice.

Roger Deakins: Well, that was the balance. We didn’t want it to be a technical manual and we didn’t want it to be a sort of tell-all or just recounting old stories.

James Deakins: When you work in the film business, it’s so intense. Your work is your life.

Roger Deakins: Especially when I started out, shooting in documentaries for a few years, that was the life experience that opened the world to me. I didn’t see the world other than my experiences shooting films, whether it was documentaries or later fiction films, like going together to Morocco to shoot “Kundun.” The life experience actually has always been as important to me as the actual work.

Can you tell me a little bit more about just the relationship between the two of you, traveling together, working on all these different movies? What has that meant to you?

Roger Deakins: It’s all very weird. That is so not me.

James Deakins: The reason why we work so well together is Roger’s very intent on what he is doing and doesn’t particularly want to talk to other people during that time period. And I do — I love to talk to people. I love to solve problems. I love to do all that. So together we kind of make this whole. But we also have a lot of people come up to us and ask us for relationship advice.

Roger Deakins: When we met, I think I was 41 or something. We were both fairly kind of, not lonely, but we were loners, both of us. And we connected on a film. We met on a film together. James was script supervisor on a film that I was shooting. And after that film, it just seemed obvious to me that we should be together. And it’s been wonderful. We’ve just shared these life experiences together. I couldn’t really understand other relationships, which seemed to work well, where one person goes away and works on a movie for like six months and then comes back home and tries to step back into a relationship like nothing had happened. I don’t see that. So we’ve always shared things together. Doing the podcast was very much James’ idea, but I’ve kind of warmed to it.

James Ellis Deakins, left, and Roger Deakins at the 95th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in 2023.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

When people ask for relationship advice, what do they want to know?

James Deakins: They’re saying, “I’ve got to travel so much. How do I keep it together?” Or: How do we work together? Just, will this work? Is it possible? It’s very strange, because we’ve just done a very technical Q&A and my head’s there, and then someone comes up to me — and I can always kind of tell because they’re bearing down on me — and they go, “I just want to ask you…”

Roger, in the book you talk about how, when you were starting out and in film school, you thought of yourself as a director. As you started shooting more for other people, did that create a sense of a path not taken?

Roger Deakins: I would be lying if I was saying there wasn’t a little bit way down deep inside of me that was saying: What if I had tried to become a director instead? But on the other hand, I’ve been part of so many movies with so many really nice, intelligent people. And I really do have a confidence problem. We did try and get together a couple of projects a number of years ago and I just don’t have the confidence. I’m terrible going into a studio and pitching a project.

I’m just not that political person. I love nothing more than being on a set with a whole group of people. I love just working with the camera crew and electricians and the grips and the painters and everybody else. I love that collaboration. And often a director is in a much more lonely place.

Do you feel like you have a signature? What is it that you bring to a project?

Roger Deakins: I hope I don’t have a signature. I hope I just have a way of relating to a story and something in front of me. Maybe there’s some sort of personal perspective.

James Deakins: Well, I think you bring a commitment to the project. And you also are so committed to creating the director’s vision as opposed to you coming in and saying, “Well, let’s make it the way that I always do it.” And so I think you allow what the director has in his head to come out.

Roger Deakins: It’s also really important that you’re not just there to create pretty pictures. Oh, that’s a great sunset, but what the hell does it have to do with this story? Or: Let’s put up five cameras and get a lot of material and we’ll cut something out of it later. That’s the extreme version of something that’s anathema to me.

You say that people confuse pretty cinematography with good cinematography. How do you define good cinematography?

Roger Deakins: Cinematography that’s not noticed. Not noticed because people are too absorbed in the story. When you go to a premiere or any screening and you come out and somebody comes out and says, “Oh, I love that shot where such and such” — that was a mistake because not one shot should stand out. Somebody said, “Oh, wasn’t that a lovely sunset?” Then you’ve taken the audience out of the film. You’ve just drawn attention to the image.

Ryan Gosling in the movie “Blade Runner 2049.”

(Stephen Vaughan / Warner Bros. Pictures)

So even for all the astonishing images you’ve created, you still think that they shouldn’t be noticed?

Roger Deakins: In a way. I mean, obviously on some films you’ve got more license than others. Obviously I could have more fun on “Skyfall” in certain instances, or “Blade Runner,” more than I could on “No Country for Old Men.” “Blade Runner,” I could do these kind of lighting things in the Wallace building because that was part of the character, that was part of his creation, not mine. So it kind of felt integral to the character. But in another situation, I’m never going to do that kind of lighting.

You haven’t shot anything for a few years now. Are you hoping to find something?

Roger Deakins: Kind of. It depends which day you ask me, really.

James Deakins: Really depends on the project. And we haven’t seen anything, really.

A lot of people are very eager for Joel and Ethan Coen to work together again. Have you had any conversations with them?

Roger Deakins: Well, Joel’s just been directing a film in Scotland, his own film. I’ve talked to Joel on and off lately and, well, actually Ethan not that long ago, but I’m not sure what their plans are now. So that’s all talk. That’s like talking about my football team, Manchester United. What’s the next player they’re going to buy? Who knows?

Points of interest

‘Coming Home’

Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in the movie “Coming Home.”

(Herbert Dorfman / Corbis via Getty Images)

On Monday, the Frida Cinema will show Hal Ashby’s 1978 “Coming Home,” starring Jane Fonda, Jon Voight and Bruce Dern. Fonda and Voight both won Academy Awards for their performances and the film was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

“Coming Home” is an exploration of the costs of war at home and also about learning to live with disability. Voight plays a Vietnam veteran who returns a paraplegic, struggling to adjust to his new life. Fonda is a woman whose husband (Dern) is deployed to Vietnam. When she begins to volunteer at the local VA hospital, she reconnects with Voight’s Luke, a friend from high school. As the two begin an affair, all three of their lives are upended.

Critic Kristen Lopez will be there to introduce the screening, as well as sign copies of her new book, “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies.”

Via email, Lopez explained her selection of “Coming Home,” saying “it’s one of the few movies that, I think, even though it’s not cast authentically, does illustrate the disabled experience in an authentic way. Director Hal Ashby, producer Jane Fonda and star Jon Voight did deep research into disabled veterans, specifically wheelchair users, and it’s the first movie I remember seeing that got the little bits of disabled business correct. It’s also a movie that, even today, is remarkably progressive in how it portrays disability. Luke Martin has a home and a car, he’s self-sufficient, and too often we don’t see how disabled people live.”

‘Putney Swope’

An image from “Putney Swope,” directed by Robert Downey Sr.

(Cinema 5 / Photofest)

Opening the series “Present Past 2025: A Celebration of Film Preservation” at the Academy Museum will be the world premiere of a new 35mm print of Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 “Putney Swope.” A biting satire of how corporate culture handles race, the film stars Arnold Johnson as the title character, who is unexpectedly made president of a major advertising firm and proceeds to upend all of its messaging. Paul Thomas Anderson has often spoken of Downey as an influence — an influence that can be clearly seen in the anti-authoritarian “One Battle After Another.”

In his original January 1970 review, Charles Champlin wrote, “‘Putney Swope’ is not so much a movie as a cartoon with real people. … ‘Putney Swope’ is not for anyone who demands good taste in movies, or restraint, or a presumption of dignity in the human character. But in its youthful, irreverent and uninhibited but medicinal way, ‘Putney Swope’ is shocking good fun.”

Also playing as part of the Academy’s preservation series, which runs through Dec. 22, will be world premiere restorations of William Wyler’s 1934 “Glamour,” John M. Stahl’s 1933 “Only Yesterday,” Lloyd Corrigan’s 1931 “Daughter of the Dragon” and George Marshall’s 1945 “Incendiary Blonde.” Other titles in the series include North American restoration premieres of Konrad Wolf’s 1980 “Solo Sunny” and Mikio Naruse’s 1955 “Floating Clouds,” plus the U.S. restoration premieres of Howard Hughes’ 1930 “Hell’s Angels” and Pedro Almodóvar’s 1986 “Matador.”

‘While You Were Sleeping’

Peter Gallagher and Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy “While You Were Sleeping.”

(Michael P. Weinstein / Hollywood Pictures)

On Dec. 5, the New Beverly will screen a matinee of John Turteltaub’s 1995 “While You Were Sleeping.” (Take that extra long lunch or just knock off work early. It’s the holidays.) This winsome, utterly charming romantic comedy really helped cement Sandra Bullock’s screen persona and stardom, and deservedly so. A lonely woman (Bullock) who works in a ticket booth for the Chicago Transit Authority quietly pines for a handsome man (Peter Gallagher) she sees every day. After she helps save him from an accident, a misunderstanding at the hospital leads his family to believe she is his fiancée while he is in a coma. Then she meets his brother (Bill Pullman) and the complications really ensue.

In his original review of the film, Peter Rainer wrote, “Bullock is a genuinely engaging performer, which at least gives the treacle some minty freshness. Her scenes with Pullman are amiable approach-avoidance duets that really convince you something is going on between them. Like Marisa Tomei, Bullock has a sky-high likability factor with audiences. She can draw us into her spunky loneliness — you want to see her smile.”

Acclaimed architect Robert A.M. Stern, a prominent figure in American architecture who designed notable museums, libraries and residences, died Thursday, according to a statement from the firm he founded. He was 86.

The statement did not specify a cause of death, but said Stern “died comfortably at his home.”

“At RAMSA, we grieve the loss of our founder, mentor, and friend, and remain committed to carrying forth his ideals,” the statement from the firm’s partners said.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1939, Stern founded the Robert A. M. Stern Architects firm, now known as RAMSA, in 1969. He gained acclaim for his decades of work and style, which blended postmodernism with contextual design, drawing inspiration from historic and traditional styles.

He was widely known for 15 Central Park West, a luxury condominium featuring a recognizable limestone exterior in Manhattan bordering Central Park. The building opened in 2008 and has attracted prominent, wealthy and famous tenants.

Stern’s works also include the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts in Florida. Stern also designed Cal State Northridge’s Manzanita Hall in 2003.

He served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016. He was previously the director of Columbia University’s Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture.

At least 13 people have been killed in a fire that has engulfed several high-rise apartment buildings in Hong Kong, authorities say, with some residents reported trapped inside.

Flames took hold in several apartment blocks of the Wang Fuk Court estate in Tai Po, a district in the northern part of the city, on Wednesday afternoon before engulfing other parts of the buildings.

Firefighters battled the blaze into the night as thick, black smoke billowed from the 31-storey towers and orange flames lit up the sky.

Nine people were declared dead at the scene and four sent to hospital were later confirmed dead, said the Fire Services Department, which upgraded the blaze to a level five alarm – the highest level – after nightfall.

At least 15 people were injured, and local media reported that some residents were believed to be trapped inside the buildings.

Chan Derek Armstrong, deputy director of Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department, told reporters that the fire spread rapidly and authorities received numerous calls for help from residents.

“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings are falling down, so [that poses] additional danger to our frontline personnel,” he said, adding that the temperature inside the buildings remained very high.

“It’s quite difficult for us to enter the buildings and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations,” he said.

‘People trapped inside’

“There’s nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely,” a Tai Po resident surnamed So, 57, told the AFP news agency near the scene of the fire.

“It’s heartbreaking. We’re worried there are people trapped inside.”

Reporting from the scene of the blaze, journalist Laura Westbrook told Al Jazeera that when the fire started, it spread through the bamboo scaffolding to other blocks in the housing estate.

“As I’ve been standing here, I can smell the smoke and occasionally we hear these pops, as some of the debris falls to the ground,” Westbrook said.

Wang Fuk Court is one of many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, a city that is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived at Block Two in one of the complexes for more than 40 years, said he heard “a very loud noise” at around 2:45pm local time (06:45 GMT) and saw a fire erupt in a nearby block.

“I immediately went back to pack up my things,” he told the Reuters news agency. “I don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m just thinking about where I’m going to sleep tonight because I probably won’t be able to go back home.”

Bamboo scaffolding

People gathered on a nearby overhead walkway, watching in dismay and taking pictures as smoke billowed from the buildings.

Some of the structures were clad in bamboo scaffolding, with social media posts from residents saying the units had been under renovation for around a year.

Frames of scaffolding were seen tumbling to the ground as firefighters battled the blaze, while scores of fire engines and ambulances lined the road below the development, witnesses told Reuters.

Firefighters deployed 128 fire trucks and 57 ambulances to the scene.

Authorities set up a casualty hotline and opened two temporary shelters in nearby community centres for evacuated residents. Sections of a nearby highway also were closed by the firefighting operation.

“Residents nearby are advised to stay indoors, close their doors and windows, and stay calm,” the Fire Services Department said. “Members of the public are also advised to avoid going to the area affected by the fire.”

Tai Po, located near the border with mainland China, is an established suburban district with a population of about 300,000 people. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.

German actor Udo Kier, a film veteran whose diverse body of work spanned from Lars von Trier tragedies to “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Blade,” has died. He was 81.

A ubiquitous avant-garde film star, Kier died Sunday morning, his partner, Delbert McBride, confirmed to Variety. McBride did not provide a cause of death.

By the time of his death, Kier had racked up more than 200 film and television credits, most notably his collaborations with Von Trier. They worked together intermittently over several decades, starting with 1987’s “Epidemic” and last collaborating on Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” in 2013. Kier, also in films “Dancer in the Dark” (starring Björk), “Melancholia” and “Breaking the Waves” among others, aided Von Trier in his explorations into the bleakest of human emotions.

In addition to Von Trier, Kier starred in films from a number of other famed European filmmakers including Werner Herzog, Dario Argento and childhood friend Rainer Werner Fassbinder over the course of his career.

Kier, known for his his imposing presence and piercing blue eyes, often played offbeat and menacing characters in art-house films, including a desperate, virgin-seeking Count Dracula in 1974’s “Blood for Dracula” (“Andy Warhol’s Dracula”) directed by Paul Morrissey. A year prior, the artists collaborated on 1973’s “Flesh for Frankenstein.” Kier was often cast as supernatural, appearing in “Blade” and “Shadow of the Vampire” alongside Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, among other horror movies.

Nearly 30 years after his breakout role in the 1966 short film “Road to Saint Tropez,” the Cologne-born Kier notably starred in Gus Van Sant’s 1991 feature “My Own Private Idaho,” sharing the screen with a young Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix. The film has become a cult classic, earning praise for its depiction of sex and queerness. The feature was one of 25 films selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2024.

Though best known for his arthouse roles, Kier also appeared in numerous mainstream works including “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Downsizing” and “Armageddon.” His most recent film credits include “Swan Song,” “Bacurau” and “The Secret Agent,” Brazil’s international feature film entry for the 2026 Academy Awards.

Kier also starred in scores of TV projects including Von Trier’s television film “Medea,” horror miniseries “The Kingdom,” and shows “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated,” “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” and “Hunters.”

Outside television and film, Kier appeared in music videos for Madonna (“Deeper and Deeper,” “Erotica”), the Goo Goo Dolls, Supertramp and Korn, among other artists. He also lent his voice to a handful of video games including “Call of Duty: WWII” and was set to collaborate with Hideo Kojima on his upcoming “OD.”

Kier was born Oct. 14, 1944, in a hospital that was being bombed by Allied forces during World War II, according to Variety. Kier’s father left before his birth and the actor was raised by his mother. In his teenage years, Kier sparked a friendship with Fassbinder.

In the mid-’60s, Kier moved to London to study English but was instead discovered and cast in “Road to Saint Tropez.” He later met Morrissey, who was closely associated with Warhol at the time, laying the foundation for his decades-long film career.

Kier lived in Palm Springs, where he was a regular at the annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Claire Rothman, a trailblazing sports and entertainment industry executive indelibly tied to the Los Angeles Lakers during their 1980s heyday, has died.

Family members confirmed her death, on Saturday, was due to complications from a fall. She was 97.

As the president and general manager of the “Fabulous Forum,” Rothman was pivotal in bringing big-name musicians to the Inglewood venue and had deep ties to the Lakers when it was the team’s home during the “Showtime” era, when the Lakers won five championships in a decade.

Jeanie Buss, the daughter of former Lakers owner Jerry Buss — who after the recent sale of the team acts as its governor in NBA meetings — lamented the loss of Rothman, a woman she said shaped her career.

“Claire paved the way for women working in live entertainment. She was tenacious, creative and indomitable. My father always described her as the MVP who championed the Fabulous Forum as the West Coast concert rival to the legendary Madison Square Garden,” Buss said Sunday evening.

“For me personally, she was a mentor and a guide, helping me learn and navigate an industry that had never been very open to women in leadership,” Buss said. “I learned an incredible amount from her as an executive and consider her one of the major influences in my life.”

Rothman, hired in 1975 by Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke, became the vivacious president and general manager of the Forum during a pivotal moment in the Lakers’ history. She was frequently seen around town wearing the many championship rings that the team won during her tenure. Rothman was a prominent character in the HBO series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” played by actor Gaby Hoffmann.

“Claire Rothman is a f— legend,” Rebecca Bertuch, a writer for the show, told The Times in 2022. “I mean, she broke barriers that people didn’t think would ever be broken and she kicked ass and was notorious and well-known in her line of work for being that girl.”

Rothman has been recognized for her role in professional sports at a time when women were not commonplace or were treated poorly.

“I’m not exactly quiet,” Rothman is quoted as saying during a speech in a 1985 profile in The Times. “I am the only woman in the United States who runs a major sports arena. I have a variety of duties. I book the building. I schedule the sports. The box office answers to me, all the staffing answers to me, and at night I get to play hostess.”

She brought big-name acts such as Prince to the Forum and developed relationships with entertainers including Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond and Lionel Richie.

“Many building managers will not meet artists in their entire lives,” Larry Vallon, then-vice president of the Universal Amphitheatre, told The Times in 1985. “In Claire’s case, artists go out of their way to meet her. She has an incredible reputation in the industry.”

It was a remarkable position for a woman whose family had humble beginnings in this country.

Rothman’s family fled Romanian pogroms against Jewish people at the turn of the 20th century, immigrating to Philadelphia, according to Magda Peck, a cousin of Rothman’s mother.

“What I remember about Claire was how important family was to her and how close she was with my mother and the other cousins,” Peck said. “There was something about modeling how women support each other, how cousins are there for each other across generations.”

Peck, a public health expert, last saw Rothman a couple of weeks ago.

“She said, ‘Promise me that you’ll stay close to the cousins,’” Peck said. “Before she’s famous, before she’s the mother of the Lakers family, [she prioritized] the value of extended family.”

Rothman died in Las Vegas, where she had moved after leaving Southern California. She is survived by a son and a daughter, and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Nov. 22 (UPI) — A 14-year-old boy died and eight other teenagers were wounded in separate shootings in downtown Chicago hours after people were celebrating the start of the holiday season nearby.

The shooting occurred around 9:50 p.m. Friday, about four hours after the city’s official tree lighting at Daley Plaza and a few blocks away, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The mass shooting was outside the Chicago Theater on State Street and the other an hour later near Federal Plaza.

“The holiday season is a time when we come together as a city. It’s when we spend time with our family and our loved ones,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “This is the opposite type of behavior that anybody wants to see. We have too many guns and too many young people who don’t value their own lives or the lives of others.”

According to reports, a so-called teen takeover occurred after the tree lighting, and was described as 300 teens rioting in the streets.

Johnson said the chaos “set us back as a city, and it evokes fear.”

Several ambulances and police presence were seen with police tape wrapped across State Street near the Chicago Theater and Joffrey Ballet, according to WMAQ-TV, and WLS-TV reported gunfire outside its studios.

Officers on patrol “observed a large group on the sidewalk” and heard gunshots that sent people scattering, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Three boys aged 14 to 17 had graze wounds, while two others, aged 14 and 16, suffered leg wounds, while a 14-year-old girl was shot in the hip.

The seventh victim, a 13-year-old girl, was shot in the leg and taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital in fair condition.

Alderman Brian Hopkins initially posted on X that “300 juveniles rioting in the Loop now, at least 5 victims shot, one critical with life threatening gunshot wound to torso. Multiple police officers attacked and injured with mace and stun guns, at least one PO hospitalized.”

Less than an hour later at 10:40 p.m., a few blocks away, one person died with multiple gunshot wounds at Northwestern Memorial and an 18-year-old was found in serious condition with a leg wound.

Five weapons were recovered and 18 arrests were made throughout, but those in custody weren’t considered suspects in the shootings, Johnson said.

“No parent wants to get that terrible, life-altering call,” Johnson said Saturday morning at an unrelated event on the West Side. “It is senseless violence like these shootings that makes us all feel unsafe, and it has left too many families in Chicago reeling.”

The city had deployed 700 additional police officers for the tree lighting along with community violence intervention workers.

“Clearly what we put in place did not do enough to prevent what we were concerned about from actually manifesting,” Johnson said.

The mayor said additional police personnel were being deployed for Saturday night’s Mag Mile Lights Festival.

“We will continue to make the necessary adjustments as we move along to ensure that these large, peaceful, citywide events can take place without the terror and the harm of gun violence,” the mayor added.

The City Council has vetoed a “snap curfew” of gatherings of young people anywhere in the city with 30 minutes’ notice.

“I’m the first person to recognize that we have more work to do in this city to provide safe spaces for our young people. But these types of violent gatherings can never be an alternative, nor can they be normalized,” Johnson said.

“We need to deter them from attending large, unsanctioned after-gatherings, where weapons are likely to be present. There’s always more we as adults can do to make sure that we know where our kids are and what they are doing.”

President Donald Trump has decried the violence in the city, though violent crime has decreased for the past several years.

Trump has taken credit for recent declines there, giving credit to the Operation Midway Blitz immigration raids his administration launched in September.

“I am proud to announce that Chicago, Illinois, despite all of the radical opposition and obstruction we have from the Mayor and Governor, has seen Car Theft, Shootings, Robberies, Violent Crime, and everything else drop dramatically,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Nov. 12.

Through Nov. 14, there have been 373 people killed in the city this year, which is 242 less than the same period in 2024, according to tracking by the Chicago Tribune.

In 2024, a total of 573 people were killed in Chicago.

Forecasters warn more flooding, landslides expected as tens of thousands of people are evacuated from their homes.

Authorities in Vietnam say at least 41 people have been killed in a barrage of torrential rain, flooding and landslides, as rescue crews worked to save stranded people from the rooftops of submerged homes.

Rainfall exceeded 150cm (60 inches) over the past three days in several parts of central Vietnam, a region home to a key coffee production belt and the country’s most popular beaches.

At least 41 people have been killed across six provinces since Sunday, while the search was continuing for nine others, the environment ministry said on Thursday.

More than 52,000 houses were flooded, and nearly 62,000 people were evacuated from their homes, while several major roads remained blocked due to landslides, and one million customers were left without electricity.

A suspension bridge on the Da Nhim River in Lam Dong province was swept away on Thursday morning, the VietnamNet newspaper reported.

Photos taken by the AFP news agency also showed hundreds of cars underwater as flooding inundated entire city blocks in Nha Trang, a popular tourist spot on the coast.

Local business owner Bui Quoc Vinh said his ground-floor restaurants and shops were under about a metre (3.2 feet) of water in the city.

“I am worried about our furniture in my restaurants and shops, but of course I cannot do anything now,” he told AFP.

“I don’t think the water is going to recede soon, as the rain has not stopped.”

The national weather forecast agency has warned of more flooding and landslides on Friday, with heavy rain set to continue in the region.

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung told the leaders of three flood-affected provinces – Khanh Hoa, Dak Lak and Gia Lai – to mobilise the army, police and other security forces to “promptly relocate and evacuate people” to safe areas, according to a government statement.

Meanwhile, state media reported that rescuers using boats in Gia Lai and Dak Lak pried open windows and broke through roofs to assist residents stranded by high water on Wednesday.

Photographs shared in state media reports showed residents, including children, sitting on the roofs of flooded houses and calling for help via social media platforms.

“Any group out there please help! We’ve been sitting on the roof since 10pm last night, including kids and adults,” a resident of Khanh Hoa province posted on a local Facebook page.

Natural disasters have left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2bn in damage between January and October, according to the national statistics office.

The Southeast Asian nation is prone to heavy rain between June and September, but experts say the climate crisis has made extreme weather events more frequent and destructive.

They performed together with Frank Sinatra. With Harry Belafonte. With Fred Astaire. And on Monday, Germany’s Kessler twins — Alice and Ellen — ended their lives together at age 89.

Police confirmed the death to the Associated Press, stating in an email that it was a “joint suicide.” The women shared a house in the suburb of Grünwald, just south of Munich,

The sisters, who were born in the town of Nechau on Aug. 20, 1936, “no longer wanted to live” and “had chosen to end their lives together,” the German outlet Bild reported Monday, according to an automated translation. Medically assisted dying is allowed in Germany under certain conditions, the outlet said, for people who are legally capable and acting of their own free will.

The women were inseparable in life as well as death, learning to dance when they were children and applying their skills with the Leipzig Opera children’s ballet, the AP said. In 1952, after World War II ended and the family found itself living in the newly created German Democratic Republic, East Germany, they all fled to West Germany.

The tall twosome — reportedly 5-foot-10 — was discovered three years later while dancing in Düsseldorf in 1955, by the director of Paris’ Lido cabaret, according to German news agency DPA International. That launched an international career for the Kesslers, who moved to Rome, toured the world and performed with luminaries, DPA said.

They refused an offer to appear in “Viva Las Vegas” with Elvis Presley, the AP said, not wanting to get pigeon-holed in American musical films. But according to IMDb, they had a decent career in film and TV, which included mostly Italian and German projects. They sang on “The Ed Sullivan Show” three times in the early 1960s and on “The Red Skelton Show” in 1963.

The Kesslers worked well into their 80s, telling DPA at one point, “Being on the road as a duo only has advantages. You’re stronger together.”

The women told Bild in 2024 that they had “stipulated in [their] wills” that they wanted to be buried in the same urn, alongside their mother and a beloved dog. They never married.

On Monday, Radio Monte Carlo posted a tribute to Ellen and Alice Kessler on social media.

“Alice and Ellen Kessler left together, just as they lived: inseparable,” the radio station, which broadcasts out of Monaco and Milan, said in Italian on Instagram. “Born in 1936, they were an absolute symbol of European spectacle, including music, dance and television. In Italy, they became celebrities as the ‘legs of the nation,’ icon[s] of elegance and stage presence since the Fifties.

“A unique artistic couple, capable of leaving an indelible imprint on the collective imagination.”

Theater veteran Elizabeth Franz, who won a Tony Award for her bold reinvention as the wife of the everyman title character in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” has died. She was 84.

The actor died Nov. 4 at her home in Woodbury, Conn., after a battle with cancer, her husband, screenwriter Christopher Pelham, told the New York Times. Pelham also said Franz’s cause of death was cancer and a severe reaction to the medication being used to treat her.

The Ohio-born actor’s take on Linda Loman, the wife of Brian Dennehy’s Willy Loman, in the 50th anniversary production of “Death of a Salesman,” was a departure from the character’s usual defeated energy that took even playwright Miller by surprise: “She has discovered in the role the basic underlying powerful protectiveness, which comes out as fury, and that in the past, in every performance I know of, was simply washed out,” Miller said in a 1999 interview with the New York Times. The production, which originated at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre before Broadway, eventually made its way to L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre.

Alongside Dennehy, Franz later reprised the role of Linda in Showtime’s TV adaptation of the play in 2000, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination.

She previously received a Tony nom in 1983 for her turn as Matthew Broderick’s onstage mother in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” And later earned another nod in 2002 for “Morning’s at Seven,” in which she played the youngest of four Midwest sisters. Her other stage credits include “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Cemetery Club” and — in her final role on Broadway in 2010 — “The Miracle Worker.”

Franz’s TV credits included “Judging Amy,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Roseanne” and “Homeland.” A generation, though, came to know her as Mia Bass, the owner of the Independence Inn in Stars Hallow, in a Season 2 episode of “Gilmore Girls.” The minor, but essential-to-the-lore character was later recast in Season 7. She also appeared in the films “Sabrina,” “School Ties,” “A Fish in the Bathtub” and “Christmas With the Kranks.”

In addition to Pelham, Franz is survived by a brother, Joe.

THE wife of food influencer Michael Duarte has broken her silence following his death.

Duarte, known as Food With Bear Hands, was shot dead by cops after allegedly waving a knife erratically.

Duarte’s wife, Jess, has spoken out for the first time and told TMZ she’s “struggled” what to do.

She paid a glowing tribute to him on social media.

“I plan to keep his legacy going not only for him, but his family,” she wrote on Instagram.

“He gave everyone every bit of him so it’s my turn to give it back.

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Food influencer was shot dead by cops after ‘waving knife erratically’

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“I’m not quite sure what that looks like yet but hopefully he will lead me on that path.”

Jess claimed she could feel her late husband “moving mountains” as she acknowledged his legion of fans.

“A big thank you to my tribe & Mike’s BBQ community for making me feel like I have an army behind me,” she wrote.

“I’m still struggling with the fact that he is no longer with us but l’m starting to see his purpose was SO much bigger.

“I’m starting to see God work in mysterious ways that l’ve never experienced before and hoping that will bring our family some peace.”

She revealed she’s proud to be Duarte’s wife.

“I will carry that title with honor for the rest of my life. See you on the other side, Daddy,” Jess said as she rounded off the post.

Duarte died just days after the couple celebrated their nine year wedding anniversary.

Texas cops encountered him waving a knife before ordering him to drop it.

Medina County sheriffs claimed the influencer was making threats.

“Duarte charged toward the Deputy while yelling, ‘I’m going to kill you,” they claimed.

Duarte. a dad of one, was treated at the scene then rushed to San Antonio hospital where he tragically died.

A GoFundMe was created following his death and more than $80,000 has been raised.

PEATY FEUD TWIST

Adam Peaty’s brother arrested over stag do threats sent to Olympian

CHOC HORROR

‘Disgusting’ price of 750g Quality Street tins are slammed by Tesco shoppers

More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.

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The midday sun blazed over Bare village, but the heat that lingered in the air was nothing compared to the heaviness in people’s hearts. Two days had passed since three young farmers were killed in a violent attack by armed men, yet the air still pulsed with grief and fear.

Men sat in groups, deep in deliberation, while children lingered quietly around their mothers in front of their homes. The quiet was not peace—it was mourning.

A few nights earlier, the rice fields on the outskirts of Bare, a rural community in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, had turned into a killing ground.

The night the harvest turned deadly

A few days earlier, Peter James, 24, secured a job harvesting rice on a commercial farm. He invited his friend, Cyprian, 20, and ten others to join him. It is the height of the harvest season in Bare, when labourers often camp overnight in the fields, working by moonlight. It’s a source of livelihood for many young people in the community.

But that Tuesday night, Nov. 4, the serenity of the farmland was shattered around 9 p.m.

“We were gathering the rice into bags when we heard gunshots,” Peter recalled, his voice unsteady as he spoke from a mat in his father’s compound. “The people appeared out of nowhere. When they came closer, we realised that they were herders. They didn’t say anything or take anything. They just opened fire on us.” 

Peter said he recognised them as herders because some have grazed their cattle within the community for years.

In the chaos that followed, Cyprian was hit in the neck and collapsed beside him. Peter felt a burning pain in his cheek and arm—gunshot wounds. Somehow, he fled into the darkness and staggered home, bloodied and half-conscious, arriving close to midnight.

“I heard a scream outside, and when I went out, I saw my son staggering. His face and his shirt were covered in blood,” 49-year-old Gloria James, Peter’s mother, told HumAngle. 

The farm lay an hour’s walk from the village, but Peter’s injuries slowed him to a crawl, taking him two hours. Gloria raised an alarm after she saw her son, and villagers mobilised a rescue team. By the time they arrived at the farm, the gunmen had vanished. Cyprian was dead. Two others were critically wounded. 

They carried the injured back to the village and buried Cyprian the next morning. Both wounded men died later that day.

There are currently no security operatives stationed in the community. After the incident, members of Bare reached out to the police station in Numan town; officers came, assessed the situation, and left, promising to follow up.

When contacted, Suleiman Yahaya Nguroje, the Spokesperson for the Adamawa State Police Command, told HumAngle that he had not yet been briefed on the incident. “I will let you know if I have any information,” he said. 

No arrests in connection with the attack have been made yet, according to residents and local leaders who spoke to HumAngle. 

A pattern of violence

The attack is the first reported in Bare this year and is part of a long, bitter struggle between farmers and herders in the area—a conflict that residents say has festered for nearly a decade. Bare and neighbouring communities like Mararaban Bare have seen repeated cycles of bloodshed, often triggered by disputes over land and water. 

When HumAngle visited Bare, the District Head was away in Yola, the state capital, attending a meeting convened by the Adamawa State government over the recent violence, so we spoke with his representative, Anthony Duwaro.

Anthony said that the locals lived peacefully with the herders who settled in their communities for generations. One herder we met during a trip to the area in October is 40 years old and has lived there all his life.

The herders have their settlement about half an hour away from Bare. Anthony said they traded and used resources together. But things changed in 2017, during the harvest. 

“We went to the farm and realised that they led their cattle into it. We confronted them, and that’s when the problem began,” he recalled. 

Since then, clashes have become almost predictable. “It happens every harvest season,” Anthony said, lifting his shirt to reveal scars from a previous attack. “We report to the authorities, but the cycle continues. Now, people are afraid to return to their farms.”

Despite several reconciliation meetings between both sides, he said the latest attack on the young men proved that the conflict was far from over. “One time, the clash was so brutal that people lost their lives, farms and properties were also destroyed. Most of us were rushed to the General Hospital in Numan,” he recounted. 

With no police station nearby, only one in Numan town, several kilometres away, villagers rely on local vigilantes for protection. The community’s police outpost was burnt down during a similar incident in 2018 and has not been restored. 

Anthony described the conflict as a “battle of survival”. “We depend on farming to feed our families. They depend on grazing for their cattle. But when the cattle destroy our crops, we can’t just fold our arms. If we confront them peacefully, they retaliate with attacks.”

Several peace talks have been held between the host community and the herders, yet tensions remain unresolved. Just a week before the latest attack, locals accused herders of grazing on their farms, further heightening the conflict.

While the herders have not claimed responsibility for the killings, they say worsening environmental pressures are making it harder for their cattle to find feed. “We do not wish to provoke anyone; we are only after the welfare of the cattle,” Alhaji Ngala, the chairperson of the local herders’ community, told HumAngle in an interview before the recent attack.

He blamed the clashes on the loss of “traditional grazing routes”. “If we can have access to routes and enough water supply, then our minds will be at peace,” he said. 

Another herder, Muza Alhaji Shenya, who has lived in the Bare area for two decades, said industrialisation and farmland expansion have pushed them onto the highways as they go in search of water and greener pastures.

HumAngle recently reported how nearby Mararaban Bare has faced its own crisis due to the contamination of the only local water source by cattle waste. An uneasy arrangement now exists: locals use the river in the morning, and herders use the water in the afternoon. Still, residents say they need to treat the water before drinking or cooking with it. 

“There has never been a time when we confronted the herders except when they led their cattle to our farms,” Anthony said. “We don’t have a problem with them.”

A national crisis 

The struggle in Bare mirrors a broader crisis playing out across Nigeria’s rural and urban communities. In July, a HumAngle analysis showed how pastoral life is collapsing due to climate change, farmland expansion, and urbanisation in Nigeria. This situation is forcing some herders to cross to neighbouring countries in search of food and water for their cattle. 

Authorities have attempted various interventions, but with little success. In recent years, several state governments have enacted anti-open grazing laws, requiring herders to rent land for ranching, which has been protested by some associations of cattle breeders.

Although the Adamawa State has not passed such legislation, officials announced in December 2024 plans to establish grazing reserves “as a measure to bring an end to farmers and herders clashes in the state”.  

The idea is not new. In 2019, the Nigerian government introduced the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) scheme to establish designated settlements for herders nationwide. But the initiative was derailed by mistrust and controversy, and later suspended by the former President Muhammad Buhari’s administration.

A few months later, another intervention, the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) was inaugurated to “create a peaceful environment for the transformation of the livestock sector that will lead to peaceful coexistence, economic development, and food security…” The Plan, whose first phase execution was budgeted at ₦120 billion, has not been actualised. 

“If implemented properly, [the NLTP] could resolve many of these issues,” said Malik Samuel, a Senior Researcher at Good Governance Africa, who researches armed violence in the country. “Ranching is the most effective alternative. Moving cattle around will always spark conflict.” 

Grief remains

Back in Bare, the national debate feels distant.

Chrisantus Bong sits under a tree surrounded by relatives murmuring words of comfort. A few metres away, beside a silo, lies the grave of his son, Cyprian.

The sixty-one-year-old told HumAngle he is still struggling to accept the loss. He said if he could turn back the hands of time, he would have prevented him from going to the farm that night.

While he struggles with his grief, he fears that more tragedy lies ahead. “They have taken others before. They took my son this time. They might take someone else tomorrow,” Chrisantus said.

Residents say the killings have left the community paralysed by fear and anger.

“We have reported this issue countless times to the authorities,” Chrisantus added. “The perpetrators are not strangers. They live around us and should be interrogated.”

Peter is healing from his gunshot wounds, but the emotional scars remain. Cyprian was his closest friend, and he watched him die. “I saw the bullet pierce his neck,” he whispered. Peter’s mother said he has hardly left his room since the attack.

Authorities say rescue operations are under way to locate survivors on a boat that sunk, with two others missing.

One body has been found and dozens of others are missing after a boat carrying about 90 undocumented migrants sank near the Thailand-Malaysia border, officials said.

The Malaysian maritime authority on Sunday said at least 10 survivors were found, while the status of two other boats carrying a similar number of people remains unknown.

The incident is believed to have happened near Tarutao Island, just north of the popular Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

“A boat carrying 90 people is believed to have capsized” three days ago, local police chief Adzli Abu Shah told reporters, adding that rescue operations were under way to locate the survivors.

Among the survivors found in the waters were three Myanmar nationals, two Rohingya refugees, and a Bangladeshi man, while the body was that of a Rohingya woman, state media agency Bernama reported, quoting Abu Shah.

The Malaysia-bound people initially boarded a large vessel, but, as they neared the border, they were instructed to transfer onto three smaller boats, each carrying about 100 people, to avoid detection by the authorities, the police chief was quoted as saying.

Dangerous crossings

Malaysia is home to millions of migrants and refugees from other parts of Asia – many of them undocumented, working in industries including construction and agriculture.

Members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority periodically flee predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they are seen as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship, and subjected to abuse. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in cramped camps across southern Bangladesh.

Many of these refugees attempt maritime crossings to relatively affluent regional countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, facilitated by human trafficking syndicates. But the trips often turn hazardous, leading to frequent capsizing.

In one of the worst incidents in December 2021, more than 20 people drowned in several capsizing incidents off the Malaysian coastline.

British actor Pauline Collins, who earned an Oscar nomination for her turn as the stuck-in-a-rut housewife of “Shirley Valentine,” has died. She was 85.

Collins’ family said in a statement Thursday that the actor died peacefully this week at her care home in north London after living with Parkinson’s disease for several years. In the statement, her family said Collins “was so many things to so many people, playing a variety of roles in her life.”

“A bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen,” the family described the versatile actor, whose career began in the 1960s.

Collins was well into her 40s when she starred in “Shirley Valentine,” a witty but disgruntled homemaker who accepts a girlfriend’s offer to travel to Greece to bring much-needed spice back to her life. “Sex for breakfast, sex for dinner, sex for tea and sex for supper,” Shirley proudly declares in the 1989 film, directed by Lewis Gilbert.

For Collins, “Shirley Valentine” was more than just an ode to womanhood, self-love and self-discovery. It was also a chance to challenge the conventions of aging in entertainment, including by shooting a nude scene for the film.

“My only sorrow was that I wasn’t younger and thinner,” a 49-year-old Collins told The Times in 1989. “But if I were Jamie Lee Curtis, I wouldn’t have been right for the part.”

“Shirley Valentine,” which also starred Tom Conti as her on-screen Greek lover and Alison Steadman as her friend, led Collins to receive her sole Academy Award nomination, a nod in the leading actress category. The film also received an original song Oscar nomination for Patti Austin’s “The Girl Who Used to Be Me,” written by Marvin Hamlisch and husband-wife lyricist duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Two years before the film’s premiere, Collins originated the role of Shirley Valentine in London for Willy Russell’s one-woman play of the same name. That led to her Broadway debut in 1989 and a Tony Award for best actress in a play the same year. She also won accolades for the play at the Laurence Olivier Awards and a BAFTA for her work in the film adaptation.

Beyond “Shirley Valentine,” Collins was also known for appearing in dozens of TV series including “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Forever Green,” “The Ambassador,” “Mount Pleasant” and “Dickensian.” She also appeared in films including “City of Joy,” “Paradise Road” and “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” counting Patrick Swayze, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins among her co-stars.

Throughout her decades-long screen career, Collins also continued her work in theater, including productions of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Woman in Mind” and “Cinderella.”

Collins, born in 1940, was raised near Liverpool by a schoolteacher mother and a headmaster father. She told The Times in 1989 that her dad “was one of the early feminists.”

“He had three daughters and always offered us everything that a boy would have — education and stuff,” she said. “[My parents] had a completely shared domestic situation, they both worked, cooked, did the washing. He even washed nappies [diapers] by hand.”

Her marriage to “Upstairs, Downstairs” co-star John Alderton — they married in 1969 — was not too different. “He just spent five months holding down the fort at home while I was on Broadway,” she recalled.

Alderton, 84, said Thursday that Collins’ “greatest performance was as my wife and mother to our beautiful children.”

While Collins was known for her scenic and romantic on-screen vacation to the Greek coast, she preferred a different kind of destination off-screen: St. Petersburg, Fla.

“It’s amazing, people think when you’re on your own you’re going off to have wonderful sexual adventures. Here I am, on my own, going off to Disney World,” she told The Times. “What does that say about me?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former USC and NFL linebacker Keith Browner died Tuesday morning in San Leandro, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau confirmed Wednesday. He was 63.

Keith Browner Jr. told TMZ that he talked to his father Monday night when the elder Browning was having stomach problems, vomiting and feeling tired. Browner Jr. said his father told him he would go to the hospital the next morning.

Browner was getting ready to go to the hospital Tuesday morning, according to TMZ, “when he curled over the side of a chair and collapsed to the floor next to his girlfriend.” TMZ also reported that “it appears” Browner suffered a heart attack and that his death was “unexpected and sudden.”

Alameda County authorities provided no cause of death Wednesday.

Born in Warren, Ohio, Browner was the fifth of six brothers, all of whom played college football and four of whom went on to play in the NFL. A second-round pick (30th overall) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1984, Browner also played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Raiders and San Diego Chargers during a five-year NFL career.

Oldest brother Ross Browner spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers. Jimmie Browner Jr. played two years with the Bengals. Joey Browner was a six-time Pro Bowl player who spent nine seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and one with the Buccaneers.

Browner Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a college and pro football player. A standout defensive end at Dorsey High, Browner Jr. played three seasons at California and one season with the Houston Texans.

A nephew, Ross Browner’s son Max Starks, played nine years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one for the St. Louis Rams.

Browner — who was 14 when his father, Jimmie, died of cancer at age 49 — said his mother Julia was the driving force behind her sons’ passion for the sport.

“She’s the one who always urged us to play,” he told the Dayton Daily News in 2023, “and sometimes she’d be right out there with us in the yard when we were having pick-up games.”

A three-sport standout at Warren Harding High, Browner spent four seasons at USC (1980-83), overlapping with brother Joey for the first three. He was named a captain for his final season and finished his college career with six interceptions in 34 games played.

Browner made the NFL’s all-rookie team in 1984. After three years with the Buccaneers, he split the 1987 season between the 49ers and Raiders before spending his final NFL season with the Chargers.

He finished his NFL career with 10.5 sacks, four interceptions (including one returned 55 yards for the Chargers against the Seattle Seahawks in 1988) and five fumble recoveries, then played two seasons in the Canadian Football League and six in the Arena Football League.

Browner is survived by his son and four daughters.

Emmerdale’s April Windsor is set for worrying scenes on the ITV soap, as a villain of sorts, Callum, ‘returned from the dead’ in a twist on Wednesday, and April has no idea

There was a dark twist on Emmerdale on Wednesday, as a murdered character was confirmed to be very much alive.

It’s bad news for April Windsor to some degree, as she’s been allowed to believe the person is still dead. This will continue too, with her kept in the dark about the character’s true fate.

Last week we saw April left in danger, as drug dealer Ray Walters sent her on a job with a client. When he tried to force her into sleeping with the client to pay off her debt, she was horrified.

When April told Callum, the client, she couldn’t go through with it, he turned on her. Grabbing her and trying to force himself on her, he said there was no escape and he’d “do it anyway” even after her stating she did not want to have sex with him.

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Fighting for survival, April ended up slamming him over the head with a vodka bottle in self-defence. Shaken, she escaped and told Ray and Celia Daniels that Callum was dead.

Ray headed to his home to check on Callum and when he returned to the village, he confirmed to a distressed April that he was in fact dead and she’d killed him. Both Celia and Ray taunted April about her being a murderer and said she’d go to prison.

When she declared she needed to report her crime and threatened to expose them, the criminals made it clear that if April spoke out, she and her family would be in danger. So April is now struggling to come to terms with being a killer.

Of course she has no idea, and fans didn’t either until Wednesday, that Callum isn’t dead. He’s injured but he’s absolutely fine, and survived the attack.

So Ray’s claims that he disposed of Callum’s body and that April killed him are a lie, and he and Celia know it. They’re now using it against April to keep her doing as they say, meaning more bad news ahead for April when she has to stay in line, but also if Callum reveals his fate, he could get her in serious trouble.

In a twist at the end of the episode, Callum was with Ray in his car and he talked about his head hurting. Ray told him to stay silent and take some pain relief, making it clear he couldn’t do anything about April.

Viewers were stunned by the twist but many said they “knew it”, having figured out Ray would lie to April to target her. Taking to social media, one fan said: “I knew it, I f***ing knew it.”

Another fan said: “I didn’t think he would be.” A further fan posted: “I KNEW he wasn’t dead!!!!!”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

Nov. 4 (UPI) — At least three died and 11 were injured when a UPS aircraft crashed while taking off from the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport early Tuesday night.

The numbers of dead and injured are expected to grow, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.

The UPS aircraft crashed while taking off from the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport early Tuesday evening, causing the airport to close temporarily.

UPS Flight 2976 took off shortly after 5 p.m. EST and was bound for Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The National Transportation Safety Board will be leading the official investigation into the crash and UPS will release additional facts as they become available, the company said in a prepared statement.

The aircraft crashed while attempting to climb and exploded upon impact with the ground, which created a fire that spread about a mile and produced thick plumes of black and gray smoke, WLKY reported.

The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said the crash has caused injuries, but how many are hurt and the extent of their injuries are not known yet.

The aircraft involved in the crash is a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, which is powered by three Pratt & Whitney PW4460 engines, each of which produces up to 60,000 pounds of thrust, according to the Delta Flight Museum.

The commercial jet has a range of up to 8,460 miles, a wingspan of more than 169 feet and is more than 200 feet long.

The aircraft was fully fueled for its long flight to Honolulu, which contributed to the large fire that spread to a nearby recycling center and other facilities, according to WLKY.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has been notified of the crash and is en route to the airport.

“We are aware of a reported plane crash near Louisville International Airport,” Beshear posted on social media, as reported by ABC News.

“First responders are on-site, and we will share more information as available,” Beshear added. “Please pray for the pilots, crew and everyone affected.”

While the airport is closed, Transportation Security Administration screenings are halted.

Passengers who are scheduled to depart from or arrive at the airport on Tuesday or Wednesday are advised to check on their respective flight statuses.

Update includes the number of dead and injured reported as of 8 p.m. EST.

Diane Ladd, the Oscar-nominated actor who received acclaim for her work in films including “Rambling Rose,” “Wild at Heart” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” has died. She was 89.

Oscar winner Laura Dern, Ladd’s daughter with Oscar-nominated actor Bruce Dern, announced her mother’s death in a statement shared Monday. “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai,” Dern wrote. A cause of death was not revealed.

“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” “Marriage Story” star Dern said in her statement. “We were blessed to have her.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

LAURA Dern has revealed her mother, Diane Ladd, has died in an emotional statement.

The actress shared the sad news on Monday.

Laura’s statement read, “My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, Ca. 

“She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. 

“We were blessed to have her.

“She is flying with her angels now,” Laura concluded.

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The Oscar nominated actress was 89 years old.

Diane appeared to have no plans of slowing down anytime soon, as her last social media post shared her latest project.

In September, the actress posted a picture on Instagram of a promotional photo for her new film, The Last Full Measure, which was recently released on numerous streaming platforms.

Diane also shared a screengrab of one of her scenes in the movie, opposite Christopher Plummer.

She gushed about the production, which was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and her co-stars, including Peter Fonda, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sebastian Stan.

Diane also teased a potential career pivot into podcasting, sparking a slew of comments from fans excited for what’s to come for the movie star.

“Looking forward to the movie and podcast! Much love to you!” one person wrote.

“Miss Diane, I cannot wait to hear what your podcast will contain,” said another.

“I’d love to hear your podcast Mrs. Ladd. You’re also one of the greats. Will never forget you in Wild at Heart. ICONIC. love,” boasted a third.

Diane’s death comes two months after her husband, Robert Charles Hunter, tragically passed.

Robert, who was the former PepsiCo CEO, was 77 when he died in August while visiting his family in Fort Worth, Texas.

He was the third husband of Diane’s, following her marriage to Laura’s father Bruce Dern from 1960 to 1969 and businessman William Shea Jr. from 1973 to 1976.

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Diane and Robert’s love story began when they met in Sedona, Arizona, and tied the knot in 1999.

They launched a production company together, though Diane is most known for her showstopping performances in front of the camera.