dead

Scott Bryce, the actor best known for originating the role of Craig Montgomery on the soap opera “As the World Turns,” has died. He was 68.

Bryce died Sunday evening “surrounded by his loving wife Jodi Stevens-Bryce and loving son Jackson Bryce,” his agent Ken Melamed told The Times by email on Tuesday. “He was beloved by all!”

The actor revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 esophageal and stomach cancer in 2024.

“This evening my father lost his long-fought battle with cancer. What began as stage three esophageal cancer eventually spread and became brain tumors that took his life away from him,” Bryce’s son, Jackson, wrote in a tribute posted Sunday to Instagram. He said his father approached his treatments with “pride and courage, and an unshakable belief that somehow, everything would work out.”

“May his strength and relentless belief forever live within me,” he added. “He fought the hardest and most honorable fight I have ever witnessed.”

Born Jan. 6, 1958, in New York, Bryce followed in the footsteps of his actor parents. His father, Ed, portrayed Bill Bauer on the daytime drama “Guiding Light” for years, while his mother, Dorothy, was known for her role on the hospital soap “The Doctors.”

Bryce made his television debut as Craig Montgomery on CBS’ long-running soap “As the World Turns” in 1982. He received two Daytime Emmy nominations for his portrayal of the charming but ruthless businessman, whom he portrayed off and on from 1982 to 2008. The character was known for his ambition and mysterious business dealings but also had a reputation for being unlucky in love. One early romantic interest was Betsy Stewart, who was portrayed by Meg Ryan from 1982 to 1984.

Finn Carter, who played Montgomery’s wife, Sierra Esteban, on the show, shared a tribute to Bryce on Instagram Monday.

“My sadness knows no bounds. My gratitude for Scott knows even fewer,” Carter wrote. “Scott was the best husband a woman could ask for. As an actor he was fearless, kind, generous and forever looking for ways to grow. And what a sense of humor!”

Over the course of his decades-long career, Bryce appeared on shows such as “The Facts of Life,” “The Golden Girls,” “Murphy Brown,” “L.A. Law,” “The Good Fight,” “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

He also portrayed Mike McQueen, the father of a cheerleader (Leslie Bibb) on the millennial teen drama “Popular.” McQueen marries the mother of his daughter’s high school rival (Carly Pope) in the series, which ended on a cliffhanger in 2001 after its cancellation.

“When asked what he wanted people to remember about him, he said, ‘I was a one-take actor. Two takes, max,’” Jackson Bryce wrote in his tribute. “In working with Dick Wolf on NBC, directors would schedule him at the end of the day because they knew it wouldn’t take long.”

In addition to his onscreen work, Scott Bryce was a theater actor as well as a director and a producer, with credits including the 2010 television movie “Frederick Douglass, From Slavery to Freedom” and the satirical web series “Steamboat.”

“My dad also made sure I knew his greatest accomplishment that came at 50 years old, becoming a Dad,” son Jackson said in his tribute. “He is a part of everything I’ve done and everything I will do.”

July 14 (UPI) — Authorities were searching waters near Alcatraz on Tuesday evening for two missing people after a pontoon boat carrying 19 people capsized off San Francisco, leaving one person dead and 16 others rescued.

The three-level vessel with 19 people aboard was reported on fire about 600 yards off the coast of Alcatraz at 3:35 p.m. PDT, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispen said in a press conference. Though reported as a boat fire, no evidence of one was found.

Responders were deployed, with the police department’s marine unit arriving on the scene to find one person “severely injured,” he said. CPR was administered to the victim, who was transported to Gashouse Cove Marina on the shore, where they were pronounced dead.

Officers arrived to find people had fallen into the water while others were inside the top compartment of the vessel, he said.

Of the 16 people rescued, three were transported to California Pacific Hospital, he said, adding that they had sustained impact injuries when they fell from the boat.

Crispen said he spoke with several of the survivors who remained on shore.

“They’re incredibly upset,” he said. “They’re aware that there’s some serious injuries here. They’re concerned about their mates and they went out on the bay with and, obviously, we’re going to take good care of them here.”

A search involving 11 vessels was underway for the two missing people, he said, adding, “We are going to be continuing for hours to make sure we find these two people if possible.”

He said authorities believe the boat launched from a local yacht club, but that was being investigated. It was also unclear whether those aboard were wearing life vests.

All those aboard the boat appeared to be adults, though a dog that had accompanied them died in the incident, he said.

Alcatraz is a former island prison and a current tourist attraction that sees about 1.2 million visits a year, according to the National Park Service.

Josh Grisetti, the Broadway actor who charmed audiences with roles in “Something Rotten!” and TV’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” has died, a family member confirmed to The Times on Monday. He was 44.

Grisetti died by suicide Friday, his “Something Rotten!” co-star Rob McClure first announced Sunday on Instagram, adding he is heartbroken and “not ready to even attempt to understand.” McClure also expressed his condolences to Grisetti’s wife and family. The Instagram post included photos of Grisetti and McClure over the years, including at Grisetti’s wedding. The actor married Mackenzie Perpich in 2020.

“Communities around the world will never be the same without him. We love you Josh,” McClure wrote in his caption. “Just a cataclysmic loss.”

On Broadway, Grisetti was best known for starring as Bottom brother Nigel alongside McClure’s Nick. The play follows the pair of brothers as they strive for success in the theatrical world amid William Shakespeare’s unstoppable rise. Grisetti portrayed Nigel Bottom from 2017 to 2018 for the show’s national tour. Grisetti also starred in musical comedies “It Shoulda Been You” and “Broadway Bound.” He appeared in award-winning off-Broadway productions including “Rent,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “Enter Laughing,” among others.

Grisetti’s regional credits also include “Spamalot” in Las Vegas, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” at the Reprise Theatre, “Beauty & the Beast” and “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” in La Mirada.

“Thank you, Josh, for sharing your beautiful energy and immense talent with us,” the La Mirada Theatre said on Instagram.

The actor, in what would be his final Instagram post, announced he departed a production of “Legally Blonde” at the Trentino Music Festival for “personal reasons” before the show’s opening.

The festival also mourned Grisetti in an Instagram post Monday: “Josh was a loving and caring person who was deeply dedicated to his friends, his students, and his colleagues. He was beloved by all who knew him, and he will be deeply missed by our students, faculty, and staff.”

Grisetti, born in December 1981 in Roanoke, Va., acted throughout childhood and performed in a variety of productions, including a kindergarten production of “Peter Rabbit” and high school productions of “Anything Goes” and “Flowers for Algernon.” He officially earned his Actors’ Equity card in 2004 for a production of “Where’s Charley?” at the Goodspeed Opera House, he told Playbill in 2009.

He also pursued a career in TV and film, most notably appearing in the Emmy-winning series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” He appeared as comedy writer Ralph Emerson in the series’ fifth season. He also had roles in shows “The Knights of Prosperity,” “Nurse Jackie” and “The Good Fight.”

He appeared in the film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake,” “The Immigrant,” “The Revolutionary Road” and “Men in Black 3,” among other movies, according to IMDb.

Grisetti, who also directed various musical productions, notably brought his talent and experience to Cal State Fullerton and Loyola Marymount University, teaching acting, musical theater and business. He also authored “God in My Head” in 2016, an “irreverent spiritual memoir” that details his accidental meeting with God through a “hallucinogenic journey.”

During his time on “Price of Broadway” in 2015, Grisetti reflected on luck and breaking into the industry. “Luck is required to kind of spark some things in this business a lot of the time, but then talent is what keeps you there,” he told Playbill.

“You start making your own luck, you start forging your own connections and making it happen.”

Theo Burrell, an “Antiques Roadshow” star and cancer research advocate, has died. She was 39.

A family member announced Burrell’s death on Instagram on Saturday, writing, “It is with great sadness that I share the news that Theo passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Wednesday afternoon. Neither she nor her medical team foresaw this happening quite so quickly.

“She was an incredible person who fought hard for her family, friends and raising awareness of this cruel disease,” the post continued. “She saw life events like her son’s first day at school and her wedding that a little over 4 years ago we thought she’d never see.”

Burrell, born Theodora Helen Burrell on Sept. 1, 1986, was a ceramics and decorative arts specialist on the BBC’s “Antiques Roadshow,” a reality series that features antiques experts appraising family heirlooms, garage sale gems and more. Off screen, she worked as a specialist and auctioneer at Lyon & Turnbull, the oldest auction house in Scotland.

“One of the things I love about antiques is that they have survived so many years, witnessing life changing events such as coronations & world wars,” Burrell wrote in the caption of an 1840s-era white marble bust.

In June 2022, Burrell was diagnosed with an incurable, aggressive Grade 4 brain tumor, and was told she had a year to a year and a half to live. She subsequently underwent brain surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in an effort to keep the cancer at bay. In June 2023, she organized a star-studded auction to raise money for the British cancer research nonprofit the Brain Tumour Charity and raised the equivalent of about $93,500. She also became a patron of the charity Brain Tumour Research.

“We are heartbroken that we have lost the phenomenal, determined and truly inspiring Theo to this devastating disease,” Dan Knowles, chief executive of Brain Tumour Research, said on Instagram. “She constantly inspired us with how big her heart was and we will continue on our mission, driven by everything she taught us. Our thoughts are with her family, her friends and with all those who had the privilege of knowing her.”

During a January 2024 BBC “Morning Live” appearance, Burrell said that six months before she was diagnosed, she started to get unusual symptoms including headaches, nausea, feelings of pressure in her head and issues with her vision. After multiple trips to various physicians and a CT scan, doctors found an about 2-inch-diameter brain tumor in the right side of her brain.

She spoke candidly about her battle in the media and across social platforms, telling BBC, “I really felt that with a small public profile which I had from the ‘Roadshow’ that if I could do something good with that, then I should. And I have watched other people, such as Tom Parker, who sadly lost his life to a glioblastoma, really work so incredibly hard when he was so ill to try and make a difference for people like me.”

Burrell’s family said in the statement announcing the antiques enthusiast’s death that the cancer community provided “so much comfort and strength to her in her darkest moments.”

“But most of all it provided hope and I think what she would want most of all is for other people to find hope in her story. Hope that the statistics aren’t gospel and that one day they’ll be very different.”

North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the deaths had caused great shock in the community.

“Though details remain scant, clearly there are family and friends who have suffered huge loss,” the Traditional Unionist Voice leader said.

Sinn Féin assembly member Philip McGuigan said speculation about what had happened was not helpful.

He said anybody who could help police should come forward.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows said the entire town was devastated and police should be given “patience and time” to complete their investigation.

“The more information the police can get out the better, because there is a community in shock,” he said.

Alliance Party assembly member Sian Mulholland also urged anyone with information to contact the police and said her thoughts were with everyone affected.

At least 27 people were killed and 63 injured, many critically, after a fire ripped through a popular pub in Bangkok. Authorities are investigating whether the pub, located near the iconic Chatuchak Weekend Market, had adequate escape routes.

July 11 (UPI) — One person was found dead and hundreds evacuated in Missouri after an intense day of flash flooding across the state, authorities said Saturday.

More than 350 people were rescued in Iron, Reynolds and Crawford counties on Friday as floodwaters rapidly took over the area.

Officials said 250 of those were staff and children at Camp Taum Sauk, all of whom were safely evacuated. Another 100 were water rescues.

“It was very harrowing,” Jennifer Box, mother of of two you boys at the camp, told The New York Times. “We knew they were safe, but we didn’t know how to get to them, and that’s kind of your worst nightmare.”

One Crawford County woman, Faith Gregory, was found dead a mile downstream from her home in Huzzah Creek, officials said.

Authorities said Gregory was swept away after part of her home collapsed in the floodwaters.

“It’s definitely not the outcome we were hoping for, but it’s a tragic reminder of how strong Mother Nature can be and how forceful it can be,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Eddie Young told FOX Weather.

The region was battered by more than 12 inches of rain, leaving many area residents remained strained throughout Saturday.

“But they’re OK,” spokeswoman Kate Moore, of Missouri Region C, told ABC News. “They’re just stranded because the roads are washed away. We have a lot of damage — the trees, buildings, a lot of things have gone and ripped the roads away.”

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

One of the big discoveries for me at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was the erotic thriller “Night Nurse,” which opens in theaters this week. A remarkably confident feature debut from writer-director Georgia Bernstein, the film is hypnotic and entrancing, with a powerfully sustained sense of mood and menace. Brought to life by two assured lead performances, the story is about a young woman (Cemre Paksoy) who takes a job as an attendant at a senior living community and is assigned to help a man (Bruce McKenzie) who quickly ensnares her into an ongoing phone scam in which he swindles other residents.

Taking cues from the likes of Catherine Breillat and David Cronenberg, there are moments where you start to feel turned on and then feel weird about feeling turned on. It’s delightful stuff, full of the unexpected and unnerving, with shifting power dynamics that destabilize everything. See it with someone you maybe aren’t so sure about.

‘Hudson Hawk’ will have its day

Andie MacDowell and Bruce Willis in the 1991 movie “Hudson Hawk.”

(Columbia TriStar / Getty Images)

Its name has become synonymous with box office bomb, with tales of an out-of-control production leading to terrible reviews and rejection by audiences. Yet 1991’s “Hudson Hawk” is one of those movies that over the years has seen its reputation slowly turn around and is now en route to becoming a cult classic in the vein of “Ishtar” or “Showgirls.”

On Monday at Brain Dead Studios there will be a 35th anniversary screening of the film in 35mm with director Michael Lehmann and co-writer Daniel Waters in-person. Presented by Hollywood Entertainment, the evening could be ground zero for the next stage of the misbegotten movie’s revival.

The movie is a playful buddy-comedy / caper-heist hybrid, starring Bruce Willis as the title character, a master thief newly released from prison who reteams with his old partner (Danny Aiello) as they are drawn into a convoluted conspiracy involving the CIA, a villainous ultra-rich couple (played with maniacal, scene-stealing glee by Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard) and ancient designs by Leonardo da Vinci. Upending action movie conventions, “Hudson Hawk” is simply a fun hang.

On a recent video call together, there is a certain gallows humor shared by Lehmann and Waters over the film, which at the time threatened to derail both of their careers. Waters was already working on the script for Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” by the time the movie came out, while Lehmann admits he spent some time in director jail — “I was in director federal penitentiary and death row for a while,” he says — before going on to direct films such as “Airheads” and “The Truth About Cats and Dogs.”

“You can’t escape a big failure in Hollywood,” he adds. “You have to be good-natured about the fact that you’ve made something that so many people hated when it came out, but that you feel still has some value — quite a bit of value, I think. And that eventually people would start noticing that.”

The project began as an idea between Willis and his friend Robert Kraft that snowballed into having action super-producer Joel Silver attached and a screenplay draft by “Die Hard” writer Steven E. De Souza. Eventually Lehmann became involved to direct and he helped bring on Waters, the two having worked together on the hit black comedy “Heathers.” (Waters had also worked with Silver on “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.”) The reunited writer-director team set about subverting what began as a more conventional action movie.

“My intention was to turn that kind of movie on its head,” says Lehmann. “I thought people have seen these things so many times, they must be ready to see the truly odd version of it.”

“In the Olympics you can’t just go up and make any dive,” says Waters. “You tell the judges what dive you’re going to do and then they grade you. And ‘Hudson Hawk,’ we never told the judges what dive we were doing. I think people got angry: Wait a minute, you didn’t give us a Bruce Willis action movie.”

Leading up to the film’s release, there were reports of a shoot hijacked by a star whose ego was getting the better of him as he rode the wave of the success of the first two “Die Hard” movies. Lehmann admits the clash of personalities made for a complicated shoot.

“Of course, when you’re hired by Bruce Willis and Joel Silver to do what is essentially a vanity project of Bruce’s, you’re not going to have the kind of control that you have when you make a piece of personal filmmaking,” says Lehmann. “But it was really difficult to deal with somebody who, in theory, was one of my bosses as producer on the film and a big star, which is always a thousand-pound gorilla.”

Author David Hughes recently published “The Unmaking of Hudson Hawk,” a book on the film’s production, reception and afterlife. Calling from England, Hughes thinks the critical reappraisal and resuscitation of the movie has gained a bit of momentum — and is in danger of slipping.

“I feel like any day there’s going to be a headline that says, ‘Nope, despite what you’ve heard, “Hudson Hawk” is still s—.’ The pendulum is about to swing back the other way and people are going to start saying that it’s bad again. And when that happens, I think that will be the most perfect life cycle of the film.”

But for now two of the key people behind making the film in the first place want to enjoy a moment they have rarely been allowed.

“People are finally laughing with the movie, not at the movie,” says Waters.

Celebrating a fallen friend

Harry Dean Stanton, photographed in Los Angeles in 2013.

(Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)

To celebrate the centennial of the birth of the beloved character actor Harry Dean Stanton, Vidiots will screen the 2013 documentary “Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction” on Tuesday. Director Sophie Huber will be joined in conversation by actor Logan Sparks for an evening hosted by Cherry Jones.

The film is a tender portrait of Stanton, who found relative fame later in life with roles in films such as “Alien,” “Paris, Texas,” “Repo Man” and “Pretty in Pink.”

“He makes it look really easy,” said Stanton’s friend and frequent collaborator David Lynch around the time of Stanton’s death in 2017. “But it’s not that easy to be looking like it’s easy.”

A flaky love story

Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel in the 1971 movie “Minnie and Moskowitz.”

(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

One of my most memorable moviegoing experiences of the last few years was seeing John Cassavetes’ 1971 “Minnie and Moskowitz” for the first time. The movie has a joyful, unpredictable energy thanks to the openhearted, dynamic performances of its two leads, Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, as two mismatched strangers who find temporary solace in each other. Romantic, funny and with lots of great L.A. locations and moments — I often think of a perilous U-turn across La Brea by Cassel — this is a singular gem.

It was just announced that a new restoration of the film will premiere later this year at the Venice Film Festival, but there is no reason to wait. The movie is showing tonight at the Philosophical Research Society as part of its “YesterdayLA” series celebrating the city. On Saturday there will also be a rare theatrical screening of 1972’s “Columbo: Étude In Black,” starring Cassavetes as an L.A. symphony conductor who may have committed the perfect crime until he catches the attention of Peter Falk’s rumpled detective.

On the road again

Maribel Verdú, left, Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal in the movie “Y Tu Mamá También.”

(Criterion Collection)

Playing as part of the American Cinematheque’s “Summer Breakdown” series, which, true to its name, features movies about car trouble, Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 “Y Tu Mamá También” is showing tonight and tomorrow at the Los Feliz Theater in 35mm.

It stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna as two teenage best friends who set off on a road trip with an alluring older woman (Maribel Verdú) they don’t know particularly well. Emotions fly fast and furious among all three of them, as the film seems at times like a horndog teen comedy and at others like a subtle exploration of class and sexual dynamics. Of course, it is all of those things, made with a fresh sense of style.

As Kenneth Turan put it in his 2002 review, “Nominally a simple road movie about two Mexican teenagers taking off to look for a mythical beach in the company of a suddenly available woman of 28, ‘Y Tu Mamá’ manages to be comic, dramatic, erotic, sociological and even political, all without breaking a sweat.”

New this week

• Amy Nicholson calls the new movie “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” a “screwball joy … a sex comedy that’s as innocent as a Labrador puppy.”
• Less positively, Amy reviewed the live-action adaptation of “Moana,” noting “Every one of Disney’s remakes and spinoffs of its animated hits has been a naked cash grab.”
• The new “Evil Dead Burn” is brutal and not much else, per our reviewer Joshua Rothkopf: “The gore comes like a tide, shockingly for a mainstream studio wide release.”

A Palestinian family in the northern Gaza town of Jabalia has been reunited with their son after believing for a year that he had been killed by Israeli army fire, only to discover he had been held in an Israeli prison throughout that time.

Inside the family’s home, which was damaged by Israeli bombardment, relatives broke down in tears of joy as 23-year-old Hamada Al-Banna returned unexpectedly after they had lost hope of ever seeing him again.

His family had believed that Hamada and his brother, Adham, were shot dead by Israeli forces while on their way to collect food aid during the peak of the famine that hit the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2025.

On Monday, Israeli authorities released Hamada along with 16 other Palestinian detainees. The International Committee of the Red Cross transferred them to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza before he returned to his family in the north of the territory.

His mother, Widad, fainted after hearing her son’s voice for the first time in a phone call following his release. Hours later, she collapsed again as she embraced him when he arrived home.

An Anadolu correspondent witnessed the family’s emotional reunion, in a story reflecting the suffering of hundreds of Palestinian families who remain unaware of the fate of their relatives since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza on 8 October 2023.

Heard about that fresh new wave of horror dominating the box office and charming even the snootiest of critics?

“Evil Dead Burn” — less an inferno than a partly scorched reheating — isn’t that. Director Sam Raimi’s original 1981 “The Evil Dead,” filmed in the Tennessee woods by a bunch of hyperactive dreamers, has since morphed into a monolithic franchise that mainly serves to keep the lights on. Some foundational elements remain: wobbly camera sprints through the forest, demons with a smiling love of bodily destruction. But the house feels dormant.

Sébastien Vaniček, a French filmmaker of vigor if not vibrancy, is the fourth director to pick up the series, now on its sixth installment. It’s hard to know from his palette what thrills him, or if he sees colors at all, given the film’s muddy, deadening grayscape. (A softly falling snow, almost mocking of the action to come, is a nice touch.) Vaniček knows where his movie needs to end up — a sloppy showdown in a home with a lot of power tools lying around — but sometimes he lingers, adding transient curiosity to a serviceable story.

A tense family coalesces around the memorial of its eldest son, cut down in the prime of what seems like an argument-leaden life. Mainly, we focus on Alice (Souheila Yacoub), his bruised foreign-born widow, a black sheep among them who doesn’t have any words to offer at the service. Already, they all hate each other, but what they don’t know is that younger failson Joseph (Hunter Doohan), a wannabe writer, has been busy going through his grandfather’s notes concerning the Book of the Dead, unwittingly summoning vicious spirits to a fractious dynamic.

These people shouldn’t be around each other, but whereas a mightier movie like “Hereditary” would simmer that grief into a boiling pot of bad behavior, “Evil Dead Burn” has something more obvious and darkly funny in mind. The spirits (we call them Deadites in this universe) slip into a human host, we see a telltale contraction of the irises, and it’s off to the races.

The gore comes like a tide, shockingly for a mainstream studio wide release. Vaniček is clearly inspired by the extremity that has marked so much horror from France over the last two decades, in notorious exports such as “High Tension” and “Martyrs.” But it’s also show-offy and ill-considered: When a family dog receives a furious fork-stabbing, it’s hard to know who the film is for. Elsewhere, heads are exploded by guns, cleaved and gashed, though not so irretrievably that a possessed couple can’t enjoy a long lip-lock (“You haven’t kissed me like that in years,” a partner says, her mouth bloodied).

As it goes on, “Evil Dead Burn” itself feels possessed by a kind of narrative impatience: Can’t we just get to the good stuff? Raimi was capable of shapelier storytelling than this. These reboots in his name — on which, it should be said, he is a producer — somewhat demean his legacy by reducing “Evil Dead” to a viscera delivery device. I can’t say the audience I saw it with was particularly juiced.

But a loopy grandma (Maude Davey), stricken with dementia, gets her licks in via a brutally deployed fountain pen that is notably not used for writing. There’s a hint in that. This movie is not for those who want anything beyond a steak served blue.

BRIT musician Calvin Hayes who co-founded 80s hit band Johnny Hates Jazz was tragically found dead at his home, aged 63 yesterday.

The talented keyboardist, drummer and heartthrob collapsed at his US property.

The hit group achieved major international success with 1988 album Turn Back the Clock, which topped the UK charts.

They enjoyed a popular reunion in 2010.

The star’s dad was Mickie Most, a prominent British record producer who worked with major artists in the 60s and 70s including cult group Hot Chocolate.

Hayes also found fame working alongside pin-up Kim Wilde, who he dated.

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He appeared as part of her promotional band and featured on the sleeve artwork of her self-titled debut album, released in 1981.

Kim recalled in a 1988 interview that she had known Hayes since recording Kids in America, noting they first got involved at a family party.

Pin-up Kim said: “We have fallen for each other totally. I can tell everybody that it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.

“He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

“I have never really liked talking about my love life but there have been so many rumours about me recently that I decided it was best to get it all out in the open.

“We always got on well, ever since he played drums in my first band seven years ago.

“And that’s why our love affair is stronger than most couples.

“We know that we have got a lot in common. I think that’s why we both know it will last.”

Hayes co-founded Johnny Hates Jazz in 1986 with singer Clark Datchler and bassist Mike Nocito.

The band self-produced their work and gained international recognition with their 1987 single Shattered Dreams, which reached the Top 10 in multiple countries including the US.

Turn Back the Clock achieved multi-platinum status and produced four consecutive UK Top 20 singles: I Don’t Want to Be a Hero, Turn Back the Clock and Heart of Gold alongside Shattered Dreams.

At the peak of their success after the first album, Datchler left the band.

Hayes and Nocito continued, recruiting Phil Thornalley as vocalist for the second album Tall Stories, though its release was delayed by a near-fatal car crash that kept Hayes in a body cast for nearly a year.

Johnny Hates Jazz appeared on Top of the Pops eight times between May 1987 and March 1988.

Hayes maintained a low profile in music for much of the 1990s and early 2000s.

They regrouped for a nostalgia arena tour.

The band performed multiple live shows across Europe and Southeast Asia during their comeback.

Hayes departed the group shortly after these performances for personal reasons.

Hayes and Wilde remained good friends since their initial collaboration in the early 1980s.

He tragically died in Spokane, Washington.

His death was confirmed by his grieving wife Kathy.

A pal said: “He was the sound of the 80s and a super talented man. He will be greatly missed.”

Louise Lasser, the star of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera, has died. She was 87.

Lasser’s friend Susan Charlotte confirmed to the New York Times the actor’s death on Monday in Manhattan.

Lasser was born in New York City on April 11, 1939, to parents Sol Jay Lasser, a tax specialist, and Paula Lasser, a designer. She attended Brandeis University, where she majored in political science and performed in musicals and cabaret. She dropped out her senior year to pursue acting.

“My career started almost too easy,” she told the Times in 1975. “In New York the first agent I met sent me on my first audition, and I was signed for a show-stopping part [a replacement for Barbra Streisand in ‘I Can Get It for You Wholesale’]. After that there was a flood of offers.”

She told the Times that she found it frightening to hit it big with such little training.

“I had to feel prepared,” she said. So, she studied under actor and acting teacher Sanford Meisner and worked hard.

“I feel so strongly that what is worth doing is worth doing the very best you can. But it’s so important to know what you want to do. How you can develop your potentials to the highest, live your life to the richest and fullest.”

Lasser joked in a 1976 article in the Times that her role as Mary Hartman might merit identification beyond being Woody Allen’s ex-wife. The two met in 1962 on a double date — with other people — but their chemistry was potent, and they began working together on various projects, including in her first project for television, “The Laughmakers,” an unaired pilot penned by Allen.

“When we met, I was seeing a friend of his. It was one of those things, well if you think you’re complicated, you should meet so-and-so. And it was Woody,” Lasser told the Toast in a 2013 interview. They “were meant to be in the same playpen,” she said. “Immediately we just connected. He was with somebody … oh, he was married, that’s right. … So, I met him, and it was so clear the whole night the four of us were there, and neither of us are talking to anyone else, do you know what I mean? … We really understood what the other was saying.”

The two were married from 1966 to 1970. Lasser acted in Allen’s “Take the Money and Run” (1969), “Bananas” (1971) and the 1972 film “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask).”

Through the early ’70s, she appeared in various TV movies and television shows including “The Bob Newhart Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Somewhere along the way, the biggest producer in television caught wind of Lasser’s chops and wanted her for his pet project, a parody of sudsy daytime dramas called “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

During an interview featured in an oral history of American TV by the Television Academy Foundation, Lear said he’d brought the script for the series to a colleague, and they read it and said, “You can’t do this without Louise Lasser.”

“She came in my office, started to read the lines, and forget it,” Lear said. “There’s only one Louise Lasser.”

Lasser, put off by the soap opera nature of the show, turned down the role five times.

“I kept saying, no, it’s just not right,” she said during a 2000 reunion for the show. “I had no job, no money. … I just was that way, so after the fifth meeting, I said to my manager, ‘You mean he’s not going to call again?’

“Then my friend said, ‘You know, I think you really don’t want to say no.’ So I thought to myself my rationalization was, well, maybe it’d be really good for me to work for 52 weeks out of a year.”

Lasser starred as Hartman in 315 of the show’s 325 episodes over the course of an 18-month run.

SINGER Lauren Bennett, who featured on the global smash hit Party Rock Anthem, has died aged 37.

The beloved Brit, formerly a member of American girl group G.R.L, was remembered as a “beautiful spirit” who “touched so many lives” by her old bandmates.

In a joint statement, they wrote: “It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved Lauren.

“Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us.

“We will forever cherish the love, laughter, and countless memories she gave us.

“Her beautiful spirit touched so many lives, and she will be deeply missed and forever loved.”

“Rest peacefully, sweet Lauren. You will always be in our hearts. Your GRLS, Em, Tash, and P.”

Lauren shot to stardom as a member of The Paradiso Girls in 2007.

The group, a European spin-off of the Pussycat Dolls, disbanded in 2010 after their singles flopped in the charts.

But Lauren would go on to force a successful solo career, featuring on a remix of will.i.am’s I Got It from My Mama and later collaborating with CeeLo Green on Love Gun.

The highlight of her career came in 2011, when she featured on LMFAO’s worldwide No1 hit Party Rock Anthem, cementing herself as the next up-and-coming star.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online

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July 4 (UPI) — Three children were killed Friday when a severe storm capsized a boat in Wisconsin, police said.

The privately owned, recreational motorboat had six adults and four children aboard on Geneva Lake, and all children were wearing life jackets.

When a storm hit, the boaters tried to find their way to safety but were overwhelmed by high winds and waves. The boat capsized and later sank.

Rescuers were able to quickly help the adults and one child out of the water, but three were still missing. After an intensive search, they found all three. Rescuers took lifesaving measures on the scene and on the way to a hospital, but all three children were pronounced dead.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those, not only of those people, but the people who were injured as a result of the storm. We know that there were many injuries, people transported to local hospitals and diversion from the hospitals because of the number of injuries,” Walworth County, Wisc., Undersheriff Tom Hausner said.

The storm hit at about 12:10 p.m., and 911 calls began coming in around the same time, Hausner said.

A source told CBS News Chicago that the three victims are believed to be younger than 13.

The deaths are under investigation by the Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

A squall line of storms moved into northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin Friday morning and early afternoon, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph, The New York Times reported. Nearly 514,000 homes and businesses in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin were without power Friday night.

The bass legend and superproducer Don Was didn’t expect to be covering Curtis Mayfield’s Civil Rights-era anthem “This Is My Country” on the road in 2026. But lately, the chaos in the United States made the song seem regrettably apropos.

“It wasn’t supposed to still feel potent. It was supposed to be something that served a moment,” said Was, who included the defiant single on his 2025 album “Groove In the Face of Adversity.”

“It’s shocking to be here in 2026 and, whatever distance we traveled from 1966 until now, to see it all get reset,” Was said. “That song’s a more powerful statement now than it was then. It was inconceivable that it would still be relevant — this is supposed to be the utopian age of Aquarius. This is not the way it was supposed to turn out.”

Was remembers the tumult, violence and hope that came out of that era in his hometown of Detroit. The city’s music, famed for rough-hewn virtuosity from blues to soul to techno, is the spring that waters “Adversity.” It is, remarkably, the 73-year-old’s first solo album after a career spanning the pioneering electro-pop band Was (Not Was) and deep producer relationships with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt.

He also spent years in Bob Weir & Wolf Bros with the late Grateful Dead founder, and will play from the Dead’s landmark “Blues for Allah” on his tour that stops at Lodge Room on July 7.

With a backing band of studio killers dubbed the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, “Adversity” has an expansive modern atmosphere, yet a lived-in, filament-bulb quality in the playing that carries through funk, jazz, rock and R&B. It’s largely a covers record, but you wouldn’t know it from the depth of the revisions — veering from the Yusef Lateef standard “Nubian Lady” to Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,” closing with funk group Cameo’s “Insane.”

“I’ve been carrying it around in my head for 30 years,” Was said. “This first album to me is really a handshake, a ‘nice to meet you,’ this jambalaya of Detroit sounds.” While much of the source material comes from elsewhere, the cumulative mood is extremely personal to an artist who has spent his life helping the greats find true expression.

“I’ve come to admire artists who are willing to go in deep inside their most personal thoughts for the sake of helping the listener understand their own lives,” he said. “To help them deal with the trauma of being human — especially in these times, man.”

Tops on that list is the late Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir — who died in January at 78 — as a model for a band staying fearless and uncompromising. Was, still heartbroken about the loss of his friend and bandmate, recalled their first time on tour.

“When Bobby called asking me to play bass with the Wolf Bros, I thought at the very least, this is going to be a master class in losing self-consciousness and forgetting about fear,” Was said. “If the band stumbled, the audience wouldn’t walk out. They appreciated the fact that you were trying to do something new for them. Then there’d be a couple moments every night with an incredible exchange between the musicians and you can feel the audience becoming a member of the band.”

Playing the Dead’s “Blues for Allah” on this tour — an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy — put him in communion with his old friend.

“I used to think that songs like ‘King Solomon’s Marbles’ were just jams and conversations on the spot. But when we really got into it, there’s a form underneath and you can take tremendous liberty with that form,” Was said.

Was’ production career was built on a similar principle.

His early band Was (Not Was) remains a visionary electro-pop act with subtle, salient politics. “Out Come the Freaks” is a favorite on Pride month dance floors — “If you just wanted to do poppers and dance all night, it worked, and if you wanted to think about the government careening out of control, it worked too,” Was said of the band’s club material.

The late Ozzy Osbourne sang on the band’s international hit “Shake Your Head,” alongside a winking, very game Kim Basinger. The actor was a replacement after Madonna backed out, leaving the proto-rave tune one of the era’s most unlikely collaborations.

He recalled Ozzy fondly. “In 1975, this folk group I was in booked us to open for Black Sabbath at the Toledo Sports Arena, playing for a bunch of 14-year-old white boys on amphetamines,” Was said. “They weren’t having it. I’ve heard the tape of that show, and the drummer was bleeding from being hit by so many bottles that we had to stop playing. That was my first exposure to Ozzy, so I was a little afraid to do the session, but he was up for an adventure.”

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble

(Gemma Corfield)

A Stones confidant and producer from 1994’s “Voodoo Lounge” up until 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds” (where Andrew Watt took the helm), Was had nothing but praise for the band, and still admits to a twinge of fandom in their presence.

“There’s never been a day in the studio with the Rolling Stones where I didn’t look around the room and go, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I’ve known Mick for over 30 years, but the last time they played L.A. at SoFi Stadium, Mick came walking down that stage and I was like, ‘Wow, there he is, it’s 1965 again.’”

With Dylan, he recalled the mercurial genius’ impish side. “I was producing Dylan, and George Harrison came in to play guitar. Bob was messing with him, Bob pushed the engineer aside and he ran the tape machine. George had never heard the song before, didn’t know what key it was in, and Bob just starts the tape. George played a respectable solo, but clearly it was rough. Bob, just to be funny, stopped the machine and said ‘That’s it, perfect.’ George turns to me and said, ‘What do you think, Don?’ And Bob goes, “Yeah, what do you think, Don?’ I’m looking at these two guys and time slowed down. I remembered trying to sell my car to get a ticket to go to New York to see the Concert for Bangladesh. Now they’re asking me what I think. I was paralyzed.”

“A voice appeared in my head,” he said, “Telling me, ‘He’s not paying you to be a fan.‘ So I said to George, ‘It was good, man. Let’s see if we can beat it.’ You can’t allow the iconography to dictate the outcome in the studio. You have to put that aside.”

As president of Blue Note Records, the estimable jazz label he’s led for more than a decade, Was relentlessly looks forward. He’s released restless modern records by Domi & JD Beck, Fathers, Makaya McCraven and Julian Lage (the hotshot jazz guitarist now playing with Dylan). He’s refreshingly optimistic about challenging music in streaming’s ruthless economy.

“Don’t make music for the delivery system,” Was said. “I don’t think about streaming, I think about touching people. If you do that, nothing has changed fundamentally in the music business. If your purpose is to get under people’s skin and make them feel something, that’s the same job it was for Mozart. How people listen can keep changing, but I don’t think the palette of human emotion changes, and that’s who you’re addressing.”

Was came from a working-class industrial city, making music reflective of Detroit’s technological upheaval and economic neglect. “Adversity” is a beacon to keep playing in spite of everything.

“I think that the salvation of musicians is that no matter what happens, what technological advancements come along, there’s still nothing like the experience of being in the same room as people who are playing together,” Was said. “It’s always been tough, man. It’s harder these days to buy a Ferrari as a musician, but I don’t know that that’s necessary. I have total confidence that the opportunity is there for anybody who is willing to give the audience a meaningful experience.”

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

July is another month absolutely packed with essential repertory screenings at venues all over Los Angeles. It’s genuinely impossible to attend everything that feels like a must-see. Joshua Rothkopf and I compiled a list of the 10 movies you need to see in L.A. this month to help in making some tough decisions.

On Monday at the Academy Museum will be a 30th anniversary screening of Wes Anderson’s debut feature, “Bottle Rocket,” which introduced the world to his still-evolving mix of whimsy and melancholy with an unmistakably specific sense of style. Anderson will make a rare Los Angeles appearance at the event, along with actor Luke Wilson and producer James L. Brooks.

The New Beverly will have a double bill on July 9 and 10 of Paul Brickman’s “Risky Business” and Steve De Jarnatt’s “Miracle Mile,” two neon-drenched artifacts of the 1980s that both feature scores by the German electronic group Tangerine Dream. (Be sure to also note the screening of “Sorcerer,” featuring another of their pulsing scores, below.)

John Travolta in Brian De Palma’s 1981 thriller “Blow Out.”

(Criterion Collection)

On July 10 there will be a 35mm screening at the Academy Museum of Brian De Palma’s paranoid 1981 thriller “Blow Out,” starring John Travolta as a sound recordist who accidentally captures a political assassination. Anyone who still hasn’t gotten enough from the Fourth of July will want to see this for the thrilling fireworks display as part of its finale.

On July 12 at the American Cinematheque’s Los Feliz Theatre will be a screening of Alexander Mackendrick’s show-biz noir “Sweet Smell of Success” in 35mm with an introduction from filmmaker Shane Black, who presumably learned a thing or two about snappy, acid-drenched dialogue from the film. Black will also be appearing at the Culver Theater on July 22 for a 10th anniversary screening of his crime comedy “The Nice Guys.”

As part of the American Cinematheque’s ongoing 70mm festival, on the 22nd there will be a screening of Damien Chazelle’s 2022 “Babylon,” a bold and ambitious look at the early days of Hollywood starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. It was a box office disaster when it came out but has already seen a passionate fan base grow around it.

Have a killer holiday

Richard Dreyfuss, left, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw in the 1975 movie “Jaws.”

(Universal Pictures)

There is something rather wholesome about the fact that Steven Spielberg’s 1975 seaside horror-thriller “Jaws” has become the official unofficial movie of the Fourth of July. Set amid a beach community suddenly beset by a great white shark as the town prepares for the holiday, the movie is a mix of ’70s-style ramshackle, good-natured ease and precison-tooled action that prefigures the blockbuster era of the ’80s. Even now at more than 50 years old, there is something undeniable about the movie’s ability to entertain, delight and terrify an audience.

This weekend “Jaws” is playing at venues all over the city, including the Frida Cinema and the Academy Museum, as well as Vidiots, the Gardena Cinema and other theaters.

An underground masterpiece

An image from Ken Jacobs’ 2004 movie “Star Spangled to Death.”

(Los Angeles Filmforum)

When acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs died last year at age 92, the world lost one of its most singular voices. In tribute to Jacobs and as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of America, on Sunday at 2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles Filmforum will show his “Star Spangled to Death,” a six-and-a-half-hour masterpiece that took decades to complete.

Beginning work on the project in the 1950s, Jacobs would eventually premiere the film in 2004. It is an epic compilation of his own imagery, some of it of his longtime friend and colleague Jack Smith, along with found footage that coalesces into a grand statement on nothing less than the state of the nation. Jacobs himself described the film as a portrait of “a stolen and dangerously sold-out America, allowing examples of popular culture to self-indict.”

A tribute to Marjane Satrapi

An image from the 2007 movie “Persepolis,” directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud.

(Sony Pictures Classics)

In tribute to Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, who died at age 56 last month, the Los Feliz 3 will have a 35mm screening of her 2007 animated film “Persepolis” on Thursday. Director Ana Lily Amirpour will introduce the movie, which was nominated for an Oscar for animated feature.

Based on Satrapi’s own autobiographical graphic novel, “Persepolis” is about a young girl coming of age during Iran’s Islamic Revolution told with bold line drawings and a belief in the freedom of the imagination.

Love, crime and sweat

Katy O’Brian, left, and Kristen Stewart in the 2024 movie “Love Lies Bleeding.”

(Anna Kooris / A24)

Some movies arrive seeming ready made as cult revival objects. Ross Glass’ 2024 “Love Lies Bleeding” was overlooked when it was first released but seems ripe for rediscovery. In a story that knowingly plays with the motifs of classic film noir and crime dramas, Kristen Stewart plays a hapless, easily manipulated loner in a small dead-end town who falls in with a mysterious and charismatic drifter played by Katy O’Brian. Their chemistry is electric and gives the film a real charge.

The film will show on Thursday at the Frida Cinema as part of its ongoing Nu-Classics series, along with a conversation between actors and online personalities Maggie Mae Fish and Abigail Thorn.

In an interview at the time of release, Glass talked about the film’s appeal, saying, “It’s people meeting each other and falling in love for the first time and those whirlwind sort of first few weeks. Going into it, I don’t think I was specifically thinking of it as horny, but I definitely knew going into it that I wanted it to feel sweaty and intense.”

Road to nowhere

An image from William Friedkin’s 1977 adventure movie “Sorcerer.”

(Criterion Collection)

Though it is a movie we have talked about here before, it is always worth mentioning when there is a screening of William Friedkin’s 1977 “Sorcerer.” It will be playing tonight in the main room at the Academy Museum in a recent 4K restoration, which should be big and loud. The score by Tangerine Dream should be even more brain-rattling than usual in that venue.

The film notoriously first opened a week after “Star Wars” in 1977 and was left in the dust, though it has more recently become revered as one of Friedkin’s best — a movie of relentless, ratcheting tension. An adaptation of the novel that also inspired 1953’s “Wages of Fear,” Friedkin’s film is about a group of desperate men, each on the run from something, who must transport a truckload of nitroglycerine through a dangerous South American jungle.

New this week

• Amy Nicholson found “Minions & Monsters” to be a “delightful dingbat homage to Tinseltown set during the transition from silents to sound.”
• Carlos Aguilar spoke to Minions creator Pierre Coffin about all the old-school movie homages in the new film and its cameo from no less a film figure than George Lucas.
• Katie Walsh reviews Jon Erwin’s “Young Washington,” calling it “propaganda in the form of a history lesson wrapped in a summer blockbuster.”
• Tim Grierson reviews “Romería,” an autobiographical tale from Spanish writer-director Carla Simón starring newcomer Llúcia Garcia, noting “Simón and her star bracingly recall the electricity of youth.”

At least 6 people were killed and 22 injured after an explosive device detonated in a café in Damascus’ Al-Hijaz area. Emergency crews, civil defence teams and security forces rushed to the site, imposed a security cordon and began investigating the deadly blast.

July 1 (UPI) — Three people died of asphyxiation in Mexico City as about a million people flooded the streets to celebrate Mexico’s 2-0 World Cup win over Ecuador in the first knockout round.

A 19-year-old woman, a 48-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man were found unresponsive in the crowd Tuesday night. They were each given emergency resuscitation and taken to a hospital where they died.

The celebrations mostly happened around the Angel of Independence monument in downtown Mexico City. The game ended in the first knockout round win for Mexico since 1986.

Mexico City’s health department confirmed that emergency responders treated the three people at different locations around Paseo de la Reforma before taking them to the hospital.

“After performing first aid and CPR techniques on the patients, they were transferred to a hospital for specialized medical care,” the city’s health authority said.

The hospital confirmed they all had died of suffocation.

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada offered her “most sincere condolences” to the victims’ families.

In a post on X, Brugada said: “With my heart in my hand, I send a hug and my most sincere condolences to their loved ones. We reiterate the call to always celebrate with responsibility, care, and empathy.”

Mexico City’s metropolitan area is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. More than 20 million people live there.

Health officials say three people died during massive celebrations in Mexico City after Mexico’s 2-0 World Cup win over Ecuador. The victims — a 19-year-old woman, a 48-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man — died of asphyxiation. Thousands had crowded into the streets to celebrate Mexico’s first World Cup knockout-round win since 1986.

Students at Government Day Secondary School in Lassa, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, were preparing to sit for their National Examinations Council (NECO) Biology paper on the morning of Monday, June 29, when terrorists stormed the school, killing at least one teacher, abducting staff and students, and forcing another disruption to education in a community still reeling from a school abduction barely a month ago.

The attackers struck shortly before 9 a.m., according to school officials and residents, arriving on more than 40 motorcycles, many dressed in military camouflage and armed with AK-47 rifles. Witnesses said the assault lasted about 20 minutes before security personnel pursued the attackers into nearby bushland.

The exact number of abducted students remains unclear as authorities and school officials continue compiling names.

Imperiju Mamza, the school’s examinations officer, told HumAngle that the senior students had assembled for their Biology paper, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., when the attackers arrived. “They invaded the school some minutes to 9 a.m.,” he said.

“Only one student who is sitting for the exams was abducted. She came very early and was, unfortunately, abducted alongside the other students who were from other classes. The others are safe and are currently writing their paper,” he said.

The ongoing NECO examinations began on June 23. According to Mamza, 243 candidates registered for the examination. “Apart from the one abducted, 242 are currently writing their exams,” he said. “I am trying to compile names of those abducted and cannot yet confirm how many were taken.”

Following the attack, candidates were relocated under armed protection to Government Girls Secondary School, Lassa, where the Biology examination continued.

Teachers killed, others abducted

Residents who witnessed the aftermath said the attackers appeared to target the school directly rather than the wider community.

Timothy Apagu, whose shop is located near the school, said the community had received reports as early as 7 a.m. that armed men had been sighted around Muthalavu village on the outskirts of Lassa. Community vigilantes were deployed towards the Dille axis after residents raised the alarm, believing the gunmen were approaching from that direction.

“Unfortunately, another team of terrorists followed a different route and attacked the community,” he said.

Apagu said the attackers went straight into the school. “They did not enter the community. I suspect it was a targeted attack.”

He said more than 40 motorcycles participated in the raid. “Most were wearing military camouflage. Others were wearing black trousers. Some wore boots while others wore bathroom slippers. From afar, you would know they were terrorists.”

According to Apagu, one teacher died at the scene while another, who sustained gunshot injuries, later died at the Lassa General Hospital.

He said two teachers, a male Vice Principal identified as Mr Paul and a female teacher popularly known as Madam Angelina, were initially abducted alongside students. The Vice Principal was later rescued after security personnel pursued the attackers, while the female teacher remained in captivity at the time of reporting.

Another resident, Andrew Adamu, gave a similar account, saying security personnel rescued one teacher and five students during the pursuit and recovered six motorcycles abandoned by the fleeing gunmen.

He added that one female student escaped with gunshot injuries. HumAngle could not independently verify these rescue figures.

Security response

The military and local vigilantes immediately pursued the attackers into nearby bushland, residents said. Adamu said one soldier and one vigilante were killed during the pursuit.

“There is a military base here, but the soldiers are few. They are not more than 50,” he said. “The school and the military base are less than a kilometre apart.”

The Borno State Police Command confirmed the attack but said the number of abducted students remained unverified. Nahum Kenneth Daso, the Police Public Relations Officer, said the Area Commander for Askira-Uba had deployed to the scene alongside other officers.

Asked what security measures had been introduced after last month’s abduction of more than 40 schoolchildren in nearby Mussa, Daso said police deployments around schools in the area had been increased.

“The challenge we had in Lassa is that the school does not have a fence,” he said. “When the invasion happened, they took advantage of that.” 

Mamza said school authorities had repeatedly raised concerns about the absence of perimeter fencing following the Mussa attack. “The Government Day Secondary School has no fence, and we have complained to the government following the Mussa incident,” he said. He explained that the school is located about a kilometre from the town centre and shares a boundary with the Lassa Vocational Training Centre.

When contacted, Mada Saidu, the Chairperson of Askira-Uba LGA, declined to discuss the attack, saying he was channelling his time and efforts into coordinating the emergency response, which he felt was more important than speaking to journalists.

The latest attack comes barely a month after dozens of schoolchildren were abducted in neighbouring Mussa, also in Askira-Uba LGA, renewing fears over the security of schools across southern Borno despite assurances that protective measures had been strengthened.

Authorities say pilot and all 10 ⁠passengers – ​five students ⁠and five instructors – died in the accident in Tomblaine.

At least 11 people have died after a plane carrying people on a skydiving trip crashed in the town of Tomblaine, in northeastern France, local authorities say.

The aircraft went down at 11am local time on Sunday, Yves Seguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, told reporters near the scene of the crash.

The pilot and all 10 ⁠passengers – five students ⁠and five instructors – died in the accident.

Seguy said emergency services responded immediately, adding that authorities were collecting statements from witnesses.

Police urged people to “strictly avoid” the area around the airport in Tomblaine to allow emergency responders and law enforcement unrestricted access to the crash site.

The Ministry ‌of the Interior said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez was on his way to the scene.

June 27 (UPI) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared an emergency in the state on Saturday because of widespread floods that have claimed at least four lives.

The declaration came after two waves of severe storms on Friday that caused flash floods, high winds and a tornado — and ahead of another round of heavy rain expected overnight on Saturday.

Beshear started sounding the alarm ahead of a few days of heavy rain early Friday, warning residents that areas around the Ohio River were likely to flood over the weekend.

In announcing the declaration of emergency, Beshear said heavy rain was expected to continue in the state through at least 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, with the expectation for dangerous road conditions, limited visibility and up to seven inches of rain in some areas.

Local states of emergency were also declared in five Kentucky counties — Bullitt, Madison, Meade, Mercer and Spencer — the governor’s office said.

“This is a serious flooding event, where teams have already had to conduct multiple water rescues from vehicles and homes across the commonwealth,” Beshear said in a press release.

“As more heavy rain continues through late night, we need folks to remain alert and to avoid driving,” Beshear said. “We’ve sadly already received reports of fatalities that we are working to confirm, and we need everyone to stay alert and do what’s needed to keep each other safe.”

Madison County Coroner Jimmy Cornelison confirmed that three people between the ages of 40 and 59 had died in the county in incidents linked to the storms, with one killed in a car accident and a couple that were killed in their flooded basement, NBC News reported.

Jackson County Executive Paul Hays confirmed to LEX-18 that a person there had also died, in their case because of a car accident linked to the storms.

“We had multiple rescues of people that were in cars on the roadways that had to be rescued, and we’ve had eight or nine rescues from homes that were surrounded by water and flooded,” Hays said.

Hays said the county had received about six inches of rain, as well as seen property damage and debris strewn across roads, which in some cases had displaced residents from their homes.

The National Weather Service in Kentucky forecast multiple rounds of thunderstorms and heavy rain overnight on Saturday, which are likely to result in more flash flooding, and has left a flood watch in effect for entire state until Sunday morning.

Although forecasters predicted total rainfall of about 1 to 3 inches, they said that 3 to 5 inches, or more, is possible in some areas.