Emmerdale spoilers for next week have revealed a devastating twist for a number of villagers, while fans will also see a hospital dash, a murder confession and characters facing drama
00:01, 27 May 2025Updated 00:03, 27 May 2025
Emmerdale spoilers for next week have revealed a devastating twist for a number of villagers(Image: ITV)
There’s huge scenes ahead on Emmerdale next week, with possibly two deaths being exposed.
As a body is found in the lake, there’s fears it’s Anthony Fox whose murder is about to come to light. But in a dramatic turn of events, Nate Robinson’s family finally learn he’s dead.
News of a body being found leads to those who covered up Anthony’s demise panicking, and soon his killer Ruby Miligan, his daughter who he sexually abused as a teenager, heads to the police station. She begins to make her killer confession, first telling them about the abuse she was subjected to.
As her loved ones desperately try to stop what it already in motion, the character prepares to reveal what she did and keep everyone else out of it. The interview is halted by the arrival of a solicitor just as Ruby is explaining her dad’s vanishing act, and we learn said solicitor has a plan.
So will Ruby get to confess all and will she be locked up? What exactly does her husband Caleb Miligan have up his sleeve? OF course what they are soon to find out is that the body is not Anthony’s, and is in fact Caleb’s nephew Nate.
Ruby Miligan heads to the police station(Image: ITV)
As it emerges he’s been in the lake for some time and that it’s murder, suspects begin to emerge. Cain Dingle is blindsided about news of his missing son’s death, with Nate’s wife Tracy Robinson also heartbroken.
Cain is left in the frame and faces tough questions from the police as Nate’s final moments are recounted. His own family members begin to question whether he might be guilty, with Tracy also airing her own suspicions – unaware John Sugden is the real killer.
Later, Cain is left reeling when DC Cole arrives and reveals there’s been a shock development in Nate’s case. But what has been revealed and who else might be blamed?
Elsewhere next week, there’s horror for Eric Pollard who suffers a fall as his health deteriorates amid his Parkinson’s disease battle. With no one coming to his aid initially he’s eventually rushed to hospital where he reveals he doesn’t remember anything.
He’s urged to get some help at home but this only leaves Pollard feeling patronised, with him refusing to make changes. But when Eric suffers yet another fall, Kerry Wyatt makes a call to a home-help company, and soon a resolution is met.
There’s huge scenes ahead on Emmerdale next week(Image: ITV)
There’s also a big decision made by teen April Windsor, who struggles with her exams. Soon she’s given a trial shift for a summer job at Take A Vow, but at a Christening she’s left panicked when she recognises the baby’s father.
Getting flashbacks to her time on the streets, she recalls that the man was someone that threatened to urinate on her – but will she confront him? Also in the village Dawn Taylor pitches herself to Belle as a new business partner, but she’s torn when Belle makes her swear Take A Vow will never take money from Joe Tate.
Soon Joe offers her some money, having already suggested they take over Home Farm weddings and not include Take A Vow. Will Dawn use Joe’s money though? Finally next week, Sarah Sugden worries how she will fund her planned IVF as she continues her plans to have a baby despite her cancer diagnosis.
After reading about these California beaches, can you blame me for thinking about the south of France right about now? And, you know, the movies at Cannes this year were pretty good too. In fact, we might have another best picture Oscar winner from the festival.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, which is back in your inbox after a springtime sabbatical. Today, I’m looking at the news out of the Cannes Film Festival, wondering if Neon’s publicity team will be getting any rest this coming awards season.
The Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline is flowing
Last year’s Cannes Film Festival gave us a Demi Moore comeback (“The Substance”), an overstuffed, ambitious movie musical that everyone loved until they didn’t (“Emilia Pérez”) and a freewheeling Cinderella story that became the actual Cinderella story of the 2024-25 awards season (“Anora”).
Sean Baker’s “Anora” became just the fourth film to take the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and then go on to win the Oscar for best picture. But it had been only five years since Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” pulled off that feat, so this would seem to be the direction that the academy is going. As the major Hollywood studios have doubled down on IP, indies like A24 and Neon have stepped up, delivering original, daring films that win the hearts of critics, awards voters and, sometimes, moviegoers.
Neon brought “Anora” to Cannes last year, confident that it would make an ideal launching pad. This year, the studio bought films at the festival — among them the taut, tart revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” from dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, and the anarchic political thriller “The Secret Agent” from Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi holds the Palme d’Or after winning the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize for “It Was Just an Accident.”
(Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP/Getty Images)
“It Was Just an Accident” won the Palme, making it the sixth consecutive time Neon has won the award. Despite being one of the world’s most celebrated and influential filmmakers for movies like “No Bears” and “The White Balloon,” Panahi has never received any recognition at the Oscars. That will change this coming year.
Another movie that might deliver the goods is a title Neon announced at Cannes last year, “Sentimental Value,” an intense family drama that earned a 15-minute standing ovation.
Or was it 17? Or 19? The audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière might still be standing and applauding; who knows with these Cannes festivalgoers. I’d be long gone, heading to the nearest wine bar. The point is: People love this movie. It won the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor.
“Sentimental Value” is a dysfunctional family dramedy focusing on the relationship between a flawed father (the great Stellan Skarsgård) and his actor daughter (Renate Reinsve, extraordinary), two people who are better at their jobs than they are at grappling with their emotions. They’re both sad and lonely, and the film circles a reconciliation, one that’s only possible through their artistic endeavors.
Norwegian director Joachim Trier directed and co-wrote “Sentimental Value,” and it’s his third collaboration with Reinsve, following her debut in the 2011 historical drama “Oslo, August 31st” and the brilliant “The Worst Person in the World,” for which she won Cannes’ best actress prize in 2021. Reinsve somehow failed to make the cut at the Oscars that year, an oversight that will likely be corrected several months from now.
Jennifer Lawrence in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love.”
(Festival de Cannes)
But it’s not just about the prix
Reinsve could well be joined in the category by a past Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence, who elicited rave reviews for her turn as a new mother coping with a raft of feelings after giving birth in Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes competition title “Die, My Love.” Critics have mostly been kind to the film, which Mubi bought at the festival for $24 million.
Just don’t label it a postpartum-depression drama, for which Ramsay pointedly chastised reviewers.
“This whole postpartum thing is just bull—,” she told film critic Elvis Mitchell. “It’s not about that. It’s about a relationship breaking down, it’s about love breaking down, and sex breaking down after having a baby. And it’s also about a creative block.”
However you want to read it, “Die, My Love” looks like a comeback for Lawrence, last seen onscreen two years ago, showing her comic chops in the sweetly raunchy “No Hard Feelings.” Lawrence won the lead actress Oscar for the 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook” and has been nominated three other times — for “Winter’s Bone,” “American Hustle” and “Joy.”
With Ramsay’s movie, which co-stars Robert Pattinson as her husband, Lawrence may well have printed her return ticket to the ceremony, which would be welcome. The Oscars are always more fun when she’s in the room.
A BRITISH tourist has been arrested and extradited to Portugal after a teenager was brutally stabbed to death with a broken bottle in Lisbon.
The 27-year-old fugitive was bundled on a flight back to the Portuguese capital and remanded in custody after losing a battle against his forced return.
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A Brit tourist was arrested in connection with the death of teen Daniel Galhanas (pictured)
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Video shows the moment 19-year-old was attacked in Lisbon
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The attackers were later seen fleeing the area as the teen was left to die
Daniel was reportedly attacked while trying to defend a friend during a violent bust-up between rival groups – one of which included British holidaymakers.
Initial reports claimed the teen’s pal had tried to rob the tourist and his friends as part of a gang of thieves targeting foreigners in the area.
But Daniel’s family strongly deny he had any involvement in criminal activity – insisting he was simply trying to help a friend in trouble when he was fatally attacked.
Footage of the incident shows a man hurling a bottle at Daniel’s friend before picking up the broken glass and stabbing Daniel, who stumbles before collapsing in a pool of blood.
He went into cardiac arrest at the scene and was rushed to São José Hospital by volunteer firefighters – but died shortly after from his injuries.
Video from the night shows chaos erupting on the street near Largo do Calhariz, with a dozen people brawling as cars drive past the carnage.
Confirming the dramatic arrest and extradition, Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria said they had worked with UK police and judicial authorities to track down the 27-year-old suspect.
He is believed to have committed first-degree murder in 2023 in Largo do Calhariz, in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto district.
They said the crime took place between 4am and 5am on October 14, following a violent altercation between two rival groups.
Brit woman, 21, rotting in Dubai hellhole jail without a shower for a month after being arrested on drugs charges
“The victim ended up being hit in the neck with a broken glass bottle, which caused serious injuries and led to his death on the spot,” a spokesman said.
Officers said the suspect and his group fled the scene immediately after the attack.
They explained that a probe led by the PJ’s Lisbon and Tagus Valley Directorate resulted in the suspect being identified and an international arrest warrant being issued.
“The suspect, a foreign national, was eventually located and arrested in the United Kingdom, where he travelled to the day after the murder,” they added.
He has since appeared before judicial authorities in Portugal and been remanded in pre-trial custody.
At the time of the horror attack, local reports named Daniel as the young man seen in a disturbing viral video being stabbed with a glass shard before collapsing.
Police told his devastated family they were hunting an “English tourist” in connection with the killing.
A relative said: “An Englishman throws a glass bottle at his friend, who breaks it. The same individual picks up the pieces of glass and hits Daniel, who stood in front of his friend to defend him.
“The group of Englishmen flee and are chased by Daniel’s friends. He was left behind to faint with a friend, as the video shows.”
The family have repeatedly rejected claims Daniel was linked to a gang, saying he was a local boy from Odivelas who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A volunteer fire team who found Daniel bleeding on the street tried to save him – but later had their own vehicle attacked in a separate incident.
Commander Débora Alves said: “I don’t connect one thing to the other, but, shortly after the murder, a man was arrested for having stoned the window of one of our cars.
Five years ago on May 25, 2020, a white police officer in the United States killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest.
A bystander’s video showed officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. The footage sparked weeks of global protests against police brutality and racism. It contributed to a jury’s murder conviction against Chauvin and a federal investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
Although ample evidence showed that Chauvin and police misconduct were to blame for Floyd’s death, another narrative quickly emerged – that Floyd died because of a drug overdose.
Five years later, that falsehood is central to calls for President Donald Trump to pardon Chauvin.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of Trump’s Republican Party from Georgia, for example, recently revived her longstanding and long-debunked take that Chauvin did not cause Floyd’s death.
“I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison,” Greene wrote in a May 14 X post. “George Floyd died of a drug overdose.”
In 2021, a Minnesota jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Chauvin also pleaded guilty to twice violating a federal criminal civil rights statute – once against Floyd and once against a 14-year-old in 2017. The state and federal sentences that Chauvin is serving concurrently each exceeded 20 years.
In 2023 after a two-year investigation sparked by Floyd’s death, the US Department of Justice found that the city of Minneapolis and its police department engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations, including use of excessive force and unlawful discrimination against Black and Native American people.
The narrative that Floyd died of an overdose persisted through the involved police officers’ criminal trials and beyond their convictions, in part because powerful political critics of the racial justice movement sought to rewrite history with false claims. It was one of many false statements about Floyd’s actions, his criminal history and the protests that followed his murder.
Experts said systemic racism contributes also to the proliferation of the inaccurate narratives and their staying power.
“The core through-line that emerges is the kind of longstanding, deep racist narratives around Black criminality and also the ways people try to justify who is or isn’t an ‘innocent victim’,” Rachel Kuo, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies race, social movements and technology, said of the falsehoods.
The summer 2020 protests built on 2014 and 2016 protests against police brutality, but with Floyd’s case as a catalyst, racial justice advocates achieved global visibility and corporate attention, Kuo said.
That visibility came with a price.
When people of colour achieve visibility for their social movements or political demands, an effort to delegitimise those demands quickly follows, Kuo said. Misinformation plays a part by trying to “chip away” at the belief that what happened to Floyd was unjust or to undermine the protest movement overall, she said.
How conservative influencers distort an autopsy report to push overdose claim
Chauvin killed Floyd after police were called to a corner grocery store where Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. News reports about Floyd’s criminal record – which included three drug charges, two theft cases, aggravated robbery and trespassing – fuelled false claims about his background.
Two autopsy reports – one performed by Hennepin County’s medical examiner and one commissioned by Floyd’s family – concluded Floyd’s death was a homicide. Although they pointed to different causes of death, neither report said he died because of an overdose.
The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office reported “fentanyl intoxication” and “recent methamphetamine use” among “other significant conditions” related to his death, but it did not say drugs killed him. It said Floyd “experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement officer”. The private autopsy concluded Floyd died of suffocation.
Nevertheless, the Hennepin County autopsy report’s fentanyl detail provided kindling for the drug overdose narrative to catch fire. PolitiFact first fact-checked this narrative when it was published on a conservative blog in August 2020.
As Chauvin’s trial approached in early 2021, then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson wrongly told his millions of viewers that Floyd’s autopsy showed he “almost certainly died of a drug overdose. Fentanyl.”
Conservative influencer Candace Owens amplified the false narrative in March 2021. Lawyers defending Chauvin argued drug use was a more primary cause of death than the police restraint, but jurors were unconvinced.
Chauvin’s 2021 conviction didn’t spell the end of misinformation about Floyd’s death. The drug overdose narrative emerged again in late 2022 as the trial neared for two other police officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
Misinformation experts said it’s not surprising that Floyd and the 2020 protests remain a target of false portrayals years later because of the widespread attention Floyd’s death drew at a time when online platforms incentivise inflammatory commentary.
“Marginalised groups have been prime targets of misinformation going back hundreds, even thousands of years” because falsehoods can be weaponised to demonise, harm and further oppress and discriminate, said Deen Freelon, a University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication professor who studies digital politics with a focus on race, gender, ideology and other identity dimensions in social media.
He said Floyd’s murder was a magnet for mis- and disinformation because it “fits the mould of a prominent event that ties into controversial, long-running political issues,” similar to events such as the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conservative activists and politicians with large followings have continued to target Floyd and the 2020 protests.
The drug overdose narrative proliferated in conjunction with the October 2022 release of Owens’s film about Floyd and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, titled The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM. Rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, parroted the false narrative in an October 2022 podcast interview, citing Owens’s film.
In October 2023, Carlson repeated the false drug overdose narrative. That X video has since received more than 23.5 million views. In December 2023, Greene reshared a different Carlson video with the caption, “George Floyd died from a drug overdose.”
Ramesh Srinivasan, an information studies professor at the University of California-Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said social media algorithms don’t allow for nuanced conversations that require detail and context, which are important for productive discussion about what happened in the summer of 2020.
A person’s online visibility and virality, which can directly correlate to their revenues in some cases, improves when a person takes extreme, antagonistic, partisan or hardened positions, he said.
“Those conditions have propped up certain people who specialise in the peddling of troll-type content, of caricatured content, of deliberately false content,” Srinivasan said.
Freelon said the internet has “added fuel to the fire” and broadened misinformation’s reach.
“So it’s important to remain vigilant against misinformation,” he said, “not only because lies are inherently bad but also because the people who bear the harm have often historically suffered disproportionately from prejudice and mistreatment.”
PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Roger Nichols, the songwriter who penned “We’ve Only Just Begun” and other hits for folk-rock duo the Carpenters, has died. He was 84.
Nichols’ death on May 17 was confirmed in a social media post from Nichols’ longtime songwriting partner, Paul Williams. He did not list a cause of death.
“The first song Roger Nichols and I wrote was called ‘It’s hard to say goodbye …’ Sadly, we hit the nail on the head. Roger Nichols passed away peacefully four days ago, at home with his beautiful family,” Williams wrote. “His wife Terry and the daughters he was so proud of, Claire and Caitlin at his side.
“He was as disciplined as he was talented,” Williams continued. “The words were born of the beauty in his completed melodies. I wrote what I heard, note for note …word for word. The lyrics waiting in the emotion already in his music. He made it easy.”
Nichols, a Montana native, released his first solo LP, “Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends,” on A&M Records in 1968. It’s now regarded as a cult classic in the California pop-rock canon, with guest credits from Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Lenny Waronker. However, he earned his big break as a songwriter after he penned an unexpectedly poignant jingle for a Crocker-Citizens National Bank commercial.
Richard Carpenter, who formed the popular duo with his sister Karen, heard the tune on television and asked if Nichols and Williams had a full version of the song. They quickly extended it into a tune that became the duo’s 1970 smash “We’ve Only Just Begun.” The single was nominated for song of the year at the following Grammys.
With Williams (and other lyricists), Nichols co-wrote many of the Carpenters’ most beloved songs, including “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “I Won’t Last a Day Without You,” “Let Me Be the One” and “I Kept on Loving You.” Beyond his hits for the Carpenters, Nichols co-wrote songs that were recorded by the Monkees, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Petula Clark and Art Garfunkel, among many others.
In a comment on Williams’ post, Nichols’ daughter Claire wrote, “My mom, Terri, and my sisters, Caroline and Caitlin, are all so proud of the man he was, and are in awe of the legacy he leaves.”
Actions, we know, have consequences. And an apparent Marxist’s cold-blooded murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington on Wednesday night was the natural and inevitable consequence of a conscientious, years-long campaign to dehumanize Jews and otherize all supporters of the world’s only Jewish state.
Seriously, what did you think was going to happen?
Some of President Trump’s more colorful all-caps and exclamation-mark-filled social media posts evince an impending jackboot, we’re sometimes told. (Hold aside, for now, columnist Salena Zito’s apt 2016 quip about taking Trump seriously but not literally.) Words either have meaning or they don’t. And many left-wing Americans have, for a long time now, argued that they have tremendous meaning. How often, as the concept of the “microaggression” and its campus “safe space” corollary took off last decade, were we told that “words are violence”? (I’ll answer: A lot!)
So are we really not supposed to take seriously the clear calls for Jewish genocide that have erupted on American campuses and throughout American streets since the Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7, 2023? Are we really supposed to believe that chants such as “globalize the intifada,” “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution” are vague and open to competing interpretations?
That doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
When pro-Israel Jewish American Paul Kessler died after being hit on the head during a clash of protesters in Thousand Oaks on Nov. 5, 2023, that is what “intifada revolution” looks like in practice. When Israeli woman Tzeela Gez was murderedby a jihadist while en route to the hospital to deliver her baby earlier this month, that was what “from the river to the sea” looks like in practice. And when two young Israeli Embassy staffers were executed while leaving an event this week at Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum, that is what “globalize the intifada” looks like in practice.
Really, what did you think was going to happen?
Indeed, it is the easily foreseeable nature of Wednesday night’s slayings that is perhaps the most tragic part of it all. The suspect in the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim left behind a handy manifesto laying out a clear political motivation. This was not a random drive-by shooting. Hardly. This was a deliberate act — what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism. And the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, has a long history of involvement in far-left activist causes. If the killer intended to target Jews, then the fact that both victims were apparently Christian only underscores the “globalize” part of “globalize the intifada.”
Zito had it right back in 2016: Trump’s social media posts should be taken seriously, not literally. But when it comes to the murderous, genocidal clamoring for Jewish and Israeli blood that has become increasingly ubiquitous ever since the Jews themselves suffered their single bloodiest day since the Third Reich, such anti-Israel and antisemitic words must be taken both seriously and literally.
A previous generation of lawmakers once urged Americans to fight the terrorists “over there” so that they can’t harm us “here.” How quaint! The discomfiting reality in the year 2025 is this: The radicals, both homegrown and foreign-born alike, are already here. There are monsters in our midst.
And those monsters are not limited to jihadists. Domestic terrorists these days come from all backgrounds. The deaths of two Israeli diplomats are yet another reminder (not that we needed it): Politically motivated violence in the contemporary United States is not an equivalent problem on both the left and the right.
In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins attempted to shoot up the socially conservative Family Research Council because he heard it was “anti-gay.” In 2017, James Hodgkinson shot up the Republican congressional baseball team a few weeks after posting on Facebook that Trump is a “traitor” and threat to “our democracy.” In 2022, Nicholas Roske flew cross-country to try to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and thus prevent Roe vs. Wade from being overturned. Earlier this year, anti-Elon Musk activists burned and looted Teslas — and assaulted Tesla drivers — because of Musk’s Trump administration work with his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. And who can forget Luigi Mangione, who is charged in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson?
Both “sides” are not culpable here. They just aren’t. Israel supporters in America aren’t out there gunning down people waving the PLO flag. Nor are capitalists out there gunning down socialists.
There is a real darkness out there in certain — increasingly widespread — pockets of the American activist left. Sure, parts of the right are also lost at the moment — but this is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
Regardless, the violence must end. And we must stop treating open calls for murder or genocide as morally acceptable “speech.” Let’s pull ourselves back from the brink before more blood is shed.
Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer
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Ideas expressed in the piece
The article argues that the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers were a “natural and inevitable consequence” of widespread anti-Semitic rhetoric and the dehumanization of Jews since the October 7 Hamas attacks, citing officials who labeled the shooting an “act of terror”[1][3].
It links the attack to pro-Palestinian chants like “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea,” asserting these phrases are explicit calls for violence rather than protected political speech[1][3].
The author claims political violence in the U.S. is disproportionately perpetrated by the far left, citing historical examples such as the 2012 Family Research Council shooting and the 2022 attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh[3].
Hammer emphasizes that the suspect’s far-left activism and manifesto reveal a deliberate, ideologically motivated act of domestic terrorism, underscoring a broader trend of anti-Israel radicalization[1][3].
Different views on the topic
Critics caution against broadly attributing isolated violent acts to entire political movements, noting that most activists condemn violence while advocating for Palestinian rights through nonviolent means[1][2].
Some argue that condemnations of Israeli government policies should not be conflated with anti-Semitism, emphasizing the distinction between criticizing a state and targeting a religious group[1][3].
Legal experts highlight that while the attack was labeled antisemitic, the victims’ identities as non-Jewish Israeli staffers complicate narratives framing the shooting solely as religiously motivated hatred[1][2].
Advocates for free speech warn against equitating protest chants with incitement, stressing the importance of contextualizing rhetoric to avoid suppressing legitimate political dissent[1][3].
Luke and Beth Martin had been on a dream holiday to Turkey when tragedy struck on April 27Credit: GoFundMe
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Mum Beth from Portsmouth reportedly fell ill on her way to TurkeyCredit: GoFundMe
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Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul where Ms Martin died
She was rushed to a two-star-rated public hospital, where she is said to have taken her last breath and had her heart allegedly removed without any permission.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) warns that coroners in Turkey can take small tissue samples and organs for testing “without the family’s permission” under Turkish laws.
The advisory says that these orphans are usually returned before the person’s body is released.
However, Turkish authorities “might keep he body parts without permission in exceptional circumstances”, the foreign office warned.
The travel warning was placed before Ms Martin’s death and has nothing to do with her tragic case.
That’s because hospitals in Turkey have faced accusations of stealing organs and facilitating illegal transplants.
Meanwhile, the British government in its travel advisory warned tourists to be aware of medical treatments in the country.
The Foreign Office suggested that people visiting the country for medical tourism should exercise caution and discuss plans with a UK doctor beforehand.
The travel advisory reads: “We are aware of six British nationals having died in Turkey in 2024 following medical procedures.
“Some British nationals have also experienced complications and needed further treatment or surgery following their procedure.”
Brit mum, 28, mysteriously dies on Turkey holiday before horrified family find ‘her HEART had been removed by doctors’
Ms Martin was wheeled to Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital – a low-rated public hospital built on the outskirts of the Turkish capital.
After scrambling for an ambulance, she was finally admitted to the hospital, which offers Istanbul‘s International Patient Service serving foreign patients.
The doctors are understood to have checked her heart by performing an angiogram – a form of X-ray that shows blood vessels.
After doing the checks, the doctors told husband Luke they did not find anything suspicious.
Her family claims they were left completely in the dark by Turkish authorities throughout the whole ordeal.
And sickeningly, once they finally got back to the UK with her body, a UK autopsy revealed her heart had been removed – without any prior consent or authorisation.
Marmara Pendik Hospital is now facing a negligence investigation over Ms Martin’s sudden death, according to Ms Martin’s family.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) is also making its own enquiries with local authorities, the Daily Mail reports.
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The public hospital has a low rating on Google, averaging just two stars.
A website operated by the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Health states that the hospital’s principles are “transparency and accountability [with] people at the focal point of the fairness of the health service that is excellent”.
The Sun has reached out to the hospital for comment.
Meanwhile, Luke told how he was then shocked when Turkish police initially accused him of poisoning and killing his wife after her shocking death.
She was being treated in intensive care, he said, before adding he was banned from seeing her.
Beth and Luke’s parents flew out the following day and were again kept in the dark.
They were then shocked to discover Beth had been transferred to another hospital overnight, due to “concerns with her heart”, with none of the family members informed.
Close friend Ellie, who travelled to Turkey to try and help, detailed her experience of what happened after Beth’s death.
She revealed that Beth was supposed to be transferred to a private clinic.
But the public hospital was slow to act and “stopped her” from doing so.
She told how the doctors were acting strangely.
Ellie explained: “All they went on about is ‘are you going to sue the hospital? Sign this bit of paper’.
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The hospital has low ratings on Google
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Beth pictured with her husband LukeCredit: gofundme
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Luke was initially accused of poisoning BethCredit: GoFundMe
“I said: ‘Is there something we should be suing for? Do you know something we don’t? Because that’s really suspicious.'”
The family, who have not been told her cause of death, claim they were also forced to carry Beth in a body bag through the hospital.
She blasted the hospitals, saying: “The insurance company wanted to move her to a private hospital but the public hospital in Istanbul were not cooperating, they were being slow and delaying reports and not sending information over.
“They stopped her.”
She noted how suspicious it was that Beth’s hair was in “perfect” shape despite the mum undergoing “45 minutes of CPR”.
She speculated: “They said they did 45 minutes of CPR but anyone who has ever had CPR or has seen CPR knows how brutal it is.
“When I saw Beth in the morgue after she had her hair in two French plaits and they were perfect.
“There is no way they did CPR for 45 minutes, I know that,” she defiantly stated.”
She added that medical reports rule out food poisoning as a cause of death, but they still do not confirm how exactly the mum died.
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The family’s nightmare started hours after arriving on holiday in TurkeyCredit: Getty
Staff at ITV are said to be growing angrier as the row over cuts on key shows such as Loose Women and Lorraine continues, with insiders fearing a drop in standards
23:28, 22 May 2025Updated 23:50, 22 May 2025
ITV staff fury grows over 220 job cuts and ‘death of daytime’ as CEO pockets £4million salary(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
ITV staff fury is growing as the row over sweeping cuts to Loose Women and Lorraine continues to rage. Recriminations are becoming increasingly bitter over the channel’s axing of 220 jobs, with insiders insisting viewers will notice a drop in standards.
Many are blaming chief executive Carolyn McCall for the “death of daytime” and have criticised her for pocketing a massive £4million salary, including bonus, last year. There is also widespread anger that the cost-savings, which will radically change ITV ’s daytime schedule from January, were not delivered by Ms McCall to staff gathered in London’s Television Centre, on Tuesday.
A Good Morning Britain source said: “She could have walked the 400 yards to the studio to explain to folk in person.” But a channel spokeswoman said ITV Studios MD Julian Bellamy personally wanted to deliver the news: “It was really important to him that he shared this news directly in the way he felt appropriate. This is also very much in line with best practice HR given the sensitivity of the situation.”
Loose Women will feel the effect of the changes(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
They said ITV boss Kevin Lygo made the decision to shake-up the schedules. It comes as the channel was rocked by a series of other developments including:
Claims that standards across Lorraine and Loose Women in particular will go into a “death spiral” leaving viewers short-changed.
Outrage over stars on shows such as This Morning keeping their well-paid jobs while hundreds are sacked.
Fears of strikes among heavily unionised GMB studio crew and technicians.
On screen, viewers will see huge changes to the daytime schedule. Lorraine is the worst hit. It will run for 30 weeks, not 50 weeks a year, and will be slashed from an hour to 30 minutes each day.
Loose Women will stay at the same running time but will also be cut to 30 weeks. This Morning will remain the same length and frequency. Meanwhile Good Morning Britain will be extended by 30 minutes, to run from 6am to 9.30am. For the 22 weeks of the year Lorraine is not airing, it will go on until 10am.
A source said: “It’s not a case of viewers seeing less of their shows… it’s impossible to see how the high standards will remain the same. Some staff believe Loose Women and Lorraine in particular will enter a death spiral… it’s just so sad. Just a handful of people will be working on each of those two programmes which has huge ramifications for how they are going forward.”
All the shows are now going to be made under one roof. An insider asked: “If that’s the case, will Loose Women really still have a live audience…will there be the capacity for that? Everyone doubts it, not least because of the manpower needed to oversee it. Also, there is a huge amount of background work which goes into securing guests… in the new climate how does that continue with barely any staff?”
ITV sources insist that they want “minimal change” for viewers. The source said: “It’s early days and we are currently consulting but we don’t want to alienate our viewers and it’s hoped there will be minimal change on screen. Daytime is hugely important to our viewers.”
The Loose Women panel, including Coleen Nolan, GK Barry and Frankie Bridge, are also expected to see shifts dwindle, especially those who live outside London and charge for travel and hotels. Glam squads are also expected to be axed with stars expected to use in-house make-up.
An insider said: “To be honest there is very little sympathy for stars having their glam squads cut among the rank and file staff, in fact there is a lot of anger that on the whole the channel’s biggest stars are all keeping their jobs – and their exorbitant salaries – while others suffer.”
They added: “It’s no secret that stars on This Morning such as Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley are on huge salaries. Many believe they should offer to take cuts, or at least when their contracts are next negotiated.”
On the whole, This Morning is unaffected by the sweeping cuts. It will remain in its 10am-12.30pm slot on weekdays although questions remain over whether standards will be maintained.
The current Good Morning Britain team was particularly hard hit – of the 133 staff who currently make the early-bird magazine show, hosted by Susanna Reid, Richard Madeley and Ed Balls, just 38 will make the move to ITN which will now produce the show.
One source on the show said: “Lots of the studio crew and technicians will be the hardest hit with ITN taking over their roles. A lot of them are unionised and there is a fear among ITV that industrial action could be an option.”
GMB will be re-homed within ITN’s Gray’s Inn Road headquarters in Central London. Staff working on all shows are expected to “carry on as normal” until the plans are formalised.
A source said: “It’s a mutinous atmosphere to say the least and far removed from the happy, cheery image that ITV Daytime usually evokes.” The Mirror revealed this week staff on Lorraine were particularly worried their main host could quit.
Contrary to reports she was happy to see her hours cut “to spend more time with her family”, insiders say she is devastated for the team on the show being decimated. “They are a tight bunch on Lorraine and the agony is palpable,” said one.
Coronation Street actor Colson Smith bowed out as Craig Tinker after 14 years in a very brutal death scene, however the TV star made sure to leave a mark on the set before he left
Colson Smith shared a final behind-the-scenes look at his time as Craig Tinker(Image: @colsonjsmith/Instagram)
After 14 years on the cobbles, Craig bowed out in devastating scenes. He was murdered by villain Mick Michaelis in a cold-blooded and violent attack.
Shockingly, Craig was left for dead before being rushed to hospital where the police officer succumbed to his brutal injuries. Colson had worked on Corrie since he was just 11-years-old, but accepted his time had finally come to an end when he was called for a meeting with boss Kate Brooks.
Colson cheekily climbed up Rovers Return(Image: @colsonjsmith/Instagram)
The actor was axed from the soap, yet Colson managed to keep his spirits high as he bid farewell to Craig. Taking to Instagram after his final episode aired, Colson shared a series of cheeky photos from his time on the show.
He said: “My dump from my final block as Craig Tinker on Coronation Street. Thank you for having me.” Colson gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at his final outing as Craig, where he showed off his naughty side.
In one snap, Colson could be seen on top of the Rovers Return as he perched out of the top window. He also tried to keep smiling while filming his death scene as he laid out on a crash mat.
Colson gave fans a sneaky look into the dressing room as he showed how he was covered in cuts and scars thanks to the makeup department.
He took a selfie from his hospital bed(Image: @colsonjsmith/Instagram)
Despite the harrowing scenes, the TV star managed to take selfies while covered in blood in-between shots, with one backstage and another on his hospital stretcher.
Colson even topped up his tan in his full police uniform while waiting for camera to get rolling on his murder scene.
Speaking to The Mirror and other press, actor Colson shared his true thoughts on his axing and his exit plot. He also shared the shocked reaction of others when they found out his news.
Colson told us: “I think Craig dying, and Craig dying in the line of duty as a copper, that kind of hero’s death was by far the most perfect story for the exit. The last few weeks were mint, they were perfect and it was a really nice way to go out.
Colson managed to smile despite filming the shocking scenes(Image: @colsonjsmith/Instagram)
“I worked with great people, and I feel very lucky, and I felt very confident in everything that we did. I feel like the story worked.” Colson revealed the moment he figured out he had been dropped from the show, before soap boss Kate had even spoken to him.
He explained: “I knew that Craig had backed himself into a corner that was going to be really hard to get out of, so I fully expected the chat to go that way.”
Colson admitted he wanted Craig to be killed off and wouldn’t accept any other way of leaving. “I would want to die, I would want the door to be shut, so then I can kind of know in my head that Corrie has been this, Corrie has done that, and it is now done, and Craig’s journey is over,” he said. “So in a really weird way, it was the right thing for me to be killed.”
Jelena Dokic says her grief is “difficult and complicated” after announcing the death of her estranged father and former coach, Damir.
Former world number four Dokic, who retired in 2014, revealed in 2017 she had suffered years of mental and physical abuse from her father.
Damir was banned from all WTA Tour events for six months in 2000 after he became abusive in the players’ lounge during the US Open.
He was also jailed in 2009 for threatening the Australian ambassador in Serbia with a hand grenade
Dokic, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals as a 17-year-old in 2000, had been estranged from her father for 10 years.
Underneath an Instagram post of her father and herself as a small child, Australia’s Dokic wrote: “As you know my relationship with my father has been difficult and painful with a lot of history.
“Despite everything and no matter how hard, difficult and in the last 10 years even non-existent our relationship and communication was, it is never easy losing a parent and a father, even one you are estranged from.
“The loss of an estranged parent comes with a difficult and complicated grief.”
Reporting from Sacramento — Past efforts to repeal the death penalty in California have centered on moral or ethical objections. This year, proponents of Proposition 62, which would replace the punishment with life in prison without parole, are focusing on economics.
Prominent supporters of the measure have repeatedly pointed out that the state’s taxpayers have spent $5 billion on the executions of only 13 people in almost 40 years. Online ads have urged voters to end a costly system that “wastes” $150 million a year.
“Sometimes, something is so broken it just can’t be fixed,” a voiceover says in one commercial, as a blue-and-white china vase shatters to the ground.
“Let’s spend that money on programs that are proven to make us safer,” a crime victim pleads in another.
But as voters weigh two dueling death penalty measures on the Nov. 8 ballot — one to eliminate executions, another to speed them up — researchers are at odds over the actual costs and potential savings of each. Independent legislative analysts, meanwhile, believe Proposition 62 could save taxpayers millions, while concluding that the fiscal impact of Proposition 66’s attempt to expedite death sentences is unknown.
Death penalty cases are often the most expensive in the criminal justice system because the costs associated with capital punishment trials and the incarceration of death row offenders are vastly higher.
The expenses begin to accrue at the county level. Capital cases require two trials, one to decide the verdict and another the punishment. They require more attorneys, more investigators, more time and experts and a larger jury pool.
The costs grow as the state must pay to incarcerate inmates during a lengthy appeals process: The average cost of imprisoning an offender was about $47,000 per year in 2008-09, according to the nonpartisan state legislative analyst’s office. But housing a death row inmate can lead to an additional $50,000 to $90,000 per year, studies have found.
Paula Mitchell, a professor at Loyola Law School who is against the death penalty and has advised the Yes on Prop. 62 campaign, puts the cost of the entire death penalty system since 1978 at about $5 billion.
That figure, updated from data compiled in a 2011 report, includes 13 executions since the death penalty was reinstated through a 1978 ballot measure; it was suspended in 2006 because of legal challenges over injection protocols. The figure also includes the cost of trials, lengthy appeals and the housing of nearly 750 inmates on California’s death row.
The initial study estimated taxpayers spent $70 million per year on incarceration costs, $775 million on federal legal challenges to convictions, known as habeas corpus petitions, and $925 million on automatic appeals and initial legal challenges to death row cases.
Mitchell and other researchers said Proposition 62, which would retroactively apply life sentences to all death row defendants, would save the state most of that money.
“It is sort of a fantasy that this system is ever going to be cost efficient,” said Mitchell, who has been named the university’s executive director of the Project for the Innocent.
But proponents of Proposition 66 argue the system can be reformed. The ballot measure would designate trial courts to take on initial challenges to convictions and limit successive appeals to within five years of a death sentence. It also would require lawyers who don’t take capital cases to represent death row inmates in an attempt to expand the pool of available lawyers.
In an analysis for its proponents, Michael Genest, a former budget director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, contends such changes would save taxpayers $30 million annually in the long run. Proposition 62, in comparison, would cost taxpayers more than $100 million due to this “lost opportunity” over a 10-year period.
But independent researchers with the legislative analyst’s office found plenty of factors could increase or reduce the chances of either ballot measure saving taxpayers money.
Overall, they found Proposition 62 was likely to reduce net state and county costs by roughly $150 million within a few years.
The actual number could be partially offset if, without the death penalty, offenders are less inclined to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence in some murder cases. That could lead to more cases going to trial and higher court costs, according to the legislative analyst’s office.
Yet over time, the state could see lower prison expenses, even with a larger and older prison population, since the costs of housing and supervising death row inmates is much higher than paying for their medical bills, analysts said.
“If Prop. 62 goes into effect, they can be housed like life-without-parole inmates, some in single and some double cells,” legislative analyst Anita Lee said. “It would fall to [the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] to do an evaluation of risks.”
Calculating the fiscal impact of Proposition 66 is much more complicated, the office found, as the measure leaves more open questions on implementation, such as how the state would staff up with additional private attorneys.
Legislative analysts said the costs in the short term were likely to be higher, as the state would have to process hundreds of pending legal challenges within the new time limits. Just how much is unknown, but the actual number could be in the tens of millions of dollars annually for many years.
Also unknown, analysts said, is the proposition’s effect on the cost of each legal challenge. The limits on appeals and new deadlines could cut the expenses if they result in fewer, shorter legal filings that take less time and state resources to process.
But they could increase costs if additional layers of review are required for habeas corpus petitions, the initial legal challenges in criminal cases, and if more lawyers are needed.
Meanwhile, potential prison savings could reach tens of millions of dollars annually, depending on how the state changes the way it houses condemned inmates. Transferring male inmates to other prisons rather than housing them in single cells at San Quentin could lead to lower costs. But how much depends on how many the state can move.
Mitchell said it was “pretty much delusional” to expect Proposition 66 to ever save the state money. For that to happen, she said, California would have to execute “one person every week, 52 people a year for the next 15 years, assuming they are all guilty.”
But Kent Scheidegger, author of the proposition and legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, argued the legislative office’s numbers were skewed, while security costs for dangerous inmates would likely have to remain just as high.
“They don’t become any less dangerous if you change their sentence from death row to life without parole,” he said.
Recaldo Thomas who died in the Bayesian yacht tragedy last yearCredit: PA
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Recaldo was a chef aboard the yacht when it sunkCredit: Facebook
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The Bayesian superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily during a storm last yearCredit: EPA
Recaldo’s family are now seeking compensation for his tragic death – and they could be in line for a $40 million payout.
The chef’s sister-in-law Joycelyn Palmer told MailOnline: “We just want justice and yes, we will be looking at compensation, someone must pay for what happened.”
Last week a report detailing the “vulnerability” of the yacht revealed how the tragedy unfolded.
A thorough investigation has shown that the ship was likely knocked over by “extreme wind” and was not able to recover.
But Palmer believes the yacht’s 236ft mast may have also played a part in the tragic sinking.
Recaldo’s sister-in-law said: “I looked up the yacht and when I saw the mast I just thought that must have something to do with what happened.
“You can even see it in one of the last pictures he sent us.”
She also claimed the crew were at fault as they had taken the weather for granted and didn’t alert the captain until it was “too late”.
Palmer recalled the emotional turmoil the family experienced in the aftermath of the tragedy.
She said it took six long weeks to get Recaldo’s body, meaning they were unable to have an open-casket funeral and say their goodbyes properly.
Influencers left stranded after $4m Lamborghini yacht sinks off Miami Beach
Palmer described her brother-in-law as a lovely man who had a heart of gold and an infectious smile.
The family’s lawyer said they were looking at a US lawsuit against “various entities”.
They added that a $40million pay-out would not be out of the question for the “emotional loss”.
Mike Lynch and his daughter were among the seven people who died in the deadly sinkingCredit: EPA
Anchored off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, a downburst of stormy winds hit the boat causing it to topple.
It sunk to the sea floor in minutes and prompted a huge five-day search operation with specialist divers, underwater drones and helicopters.
Recaldo was found dead near the wreck site on August 19, but it took several more days to recover six missing guests including the Brit billionaire and his daughter.
New York lawyer Chris Morvillo and wife Neda also died, as did Morgan Stanley international chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy.
Just two months before the disaster, Lynch had been cleared of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.
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Recaldo’s family has raised concerns about the reason the yacht sunk
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The yacht sunk on August 19Credit: EPA
An interim report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch revealed last week that the yacht had a “vulnerability” to lighter winds which the owner and crew may not have known about.
Andrew Moll, chief inspector of marine accidents, said: “The findings indicate that the extreme wind experienced by Bayesian was sufficient to knock the yacht over.
“Further, once the yacht had heeled beyond an angle of 70° the situation was irrecoverable.
“The results will be refined as the investigation proceeds, and more information becomes available.”
Floating cranes, remote-controlled robots, and specialist divers amongst other marine experts are all helping to recovery the vessel.
But the operation had to be put on pause just days after it started when a diver died.
The diver, who is thought to be a Dutch national, reportedly died when working 160ft below the ocean alongside other recovery workers to cut the boom of the yacht.
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The mission to life the yacht from the seabed is underwayCredit: Reuters
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Emergency services after the tragedyCredit: PA
After an unsuccessful attempt trying to cut the section, the divers are believed to have used a blow torch.
Local media speculated that the man was hit by part of the cut boom as it came off whilst he was underwater.
But police said they have launched a probe to understand what exactly caused the man’s death.
According to other local media reports, an underwater explosion was heard by at least one person before the man was found dead.
Chad Smith remembers the night in 2003 when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played for an audience of 80,000 or so amid the rolling hills of the Irish countryside.
After a somewhat fallow period in the mid-’90s, the veteran Los Angeles alt-rock band resurged with 1999’s eight-times-platinum “Californication” and its 2002 follow-up, “By the Way,” which spawned the chart-topping single “Can’t Stop.” To mark the moment, the Chili Peppers brought a crew to document their performance at Slane Castle, where they headlined a full day of music that also included sets by Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, for an eventual concert movie.
“Everything’s filmed now, but back then it was a big shoot,” Smith, the band’s drummer, recently recalled. “You can get a little self-conscious. At the beginning, I f— something up — nothing nobody would know, but we would know — and Flea kind of looked at me,” he said of the Chili Peppers’ bassist. “We gave each other this ‘Oh s—’ look. We laughed it off, and I don’t think I thought about it after that because the crowd was so engaged. The energy was incredible.”
Twenty-two years later, the Chili Peppers are bringing that 2003 gig to screens again — only this time they’re string puppets.
“Can’t Stop” is director David Fincher’s re-creation of the band’s rendition of that tune at Slane Castle. Part of the just-released fourth season of the Emmy-winning Netflix anthology series “Love, Death + Robots,” the animated short film depicts the Chili Peppers — Smith, Flea, singer Anthony Kiedis and guitarist John Frusciante — as dangling marionettes onstage before a veritable sea of the same. As the band rides the song’s slinky punk-funk groove, we see Flea bust out some of his signature moves and Kiedis swipe a fan’s cellphone for a selfie; at one point, a group of women in the crowd even flash their breasts at the frontman.
The puppets aren’t real — the entire six-minute episode was computer-generated. But the way they move looks astoundingly lifelike, not least when one fan’s lighter accidentally sets another fan’s wires on fire.
So why did Fincher, the A-list filmmaker behind “Fight Club” and “The Social Network,” put his considerable resources to work to make “Can’t Stop”?
“A perfectly reasonable inquiry,” the director, who executive produces “Love, Death + Robots,” said with a laugh. “First and foremost, I’ll say I’ve always wanted a Flea bobblehead — it started with that. But really, you know, sometimes there’s just stuff you want to see.”
Why did David Fincher turn the Chili Peppers into puppets? “First and foremost, I’ll say I’ve always wanted a Flea bobblehead — it started with that. But really, you know, sometimes there’s just stuff you want to see.”
(Netflix)
Fincher, 62, grew up loving Gerry Anderson’s “Thunderbirds” series featuring his so-called Supermarionation style of puppetry enhanced by electronics. But the Chili Peppers project also represents a return to Fincher’s roots in music video: Before he made his feature debut with 1992’s “Alien 3,” he directed era-defining clips including Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up,” Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and “Vogue” and George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90.” (Fincher’s last big music video gig was Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” in 2013.) In addition to “Thunderbirds,” he wanted “Can’t Stop” to evoke the ’80s work of early MTV auteurs like Wayne Isham and Russell Mulcahy — “that throw 24 cameras at Duran Duran aesthetic,” as he put it.
Fincher said he knew his puppet concept would require “a band you can identify just from their movement,” which seems like a fair way to describe the Chili Peppers. He recalled first encountering the band around 1983 — “I think it was with Martha Davis at the Palladium?” he said — and was struck by a sense of mischief that reminded him of the “elfin villains” from the old Rankin/Bass TV specials.
“I feel like Finch got the spirit of me,” said Flea, 62, who’s known the director socially for years. The bassist remembered discussing “Can’t Stop” with Fincher at a mutual friend’s house before they shot it: “I was talking about how I still jump around onstage and my body still works really good. But I used to dive and do a somersault while I was playing bass — like dive onto my head. And now I’m scared to do it.” He laughed. “Some old man thing had happened where I’m scared to dive onto my face now. Finch went, ‘Well, Puppet Flea can do it.’”
Sketches of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and bassist Flea as puppets in Vol. 4 of Netflix’s “Love, Death + Robots.”(Netflix)
After doing a day of motion capture with the band at a studio in the Valley, Fincher and a crew of animators from Culver City’s Blur Studio spent about 13 months working on “Can’t Stop.” Fincher said the hard part was giving the marionettes a feeling of suspension.
“With the mo cap, you’re capturing the action of a character who has self-determination,” he said, referring to a human Chili Pepper, “then you’re applying that to an object that has no self-determination,” meaning a puppet controlled by an unseen handler. “It’s so much trickier than it looks. But that was kind of the fun, you know? I mean, not for me,” he added with a laugh.
Asked if the production involved any use of AI, Fincher said it didn’t. “It’s Blur — it’s a point of pride for them,” he said. But he also shrugged off the idea that that question has become a kind of purity test for filmmakers.
A digital rendering of the Chili Peppers as puppets.
(Netflix)
“For the next couple of months, maybe it’ll be an interesting sort of gotcha,” he said. “But I can’t imagine 10 years from now that people will have the same [view]. Nonlinear editing changed the world for about six weeks, and then we all took it for granted.
“I don’t look at it as necessarily cheating at this point,” he continued. “I think there are a lot of things that AI can do — matte edges and roto work and that kind of stuff. I don’t think that’s going to fundamentally ruin what is intimate and personal about filmmaking, which is that we’re playing dress-up and hoping not to be caught out.”
As he reportedly works on an English-language version of “Squid Game” and a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” did making “Can’t Stop” lead Fincher to ponder the state of the music video now that MTV is no longer in the business of showcasing the form?
“Well, the audience that MTV aggregated — in retrospect, that was time and a place,” he said. “Remember, the Beatles were making music videos — they just called it ‘Help!’ There was no invention at all on MTV’s part.
“What I do miss about that — and I don’t think we’ll ever see it again — was that I was 22 years old and I would sketch on a napkin: This is kind of the idea of what we want to do. And four days later, $125,000 would be sent to the company that you were working with and you’d go off and make a video. You’d shoot the thing in a week, and then it would be on the air three weeks after that.
“You make a television commercial now and there’s quite literally 19 people in folding chairs, all with their own 100-inch monitor in the back. The world has changed.” He laughed.
“I started my professional career asking for forgiveness rather than permission, and it’s been very difficult to go the other direction.”
A reality TV legend has been left heartbroken by a second death, just days after losing her best friendCredit: aisleyne1/Instagram
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Aisleyne Horgan Wallace has suffered a second loss days after losing her best friendCredit: instagram
The reality star, 46, said she was unable to “breathe” after her finding out that her good pal Chanel died in concerning circumstances in Bournemouth on Friday.
Aisleyne, 46, shared throwback photos of her and her friend during holidays together.
The former Big Brother star emotionally penned: “I can’t even breath, not you… not my precious gentle kind baby girl.
“F*** it let me come where you are, the world was beautiful with you in it, I can’t even, I love you.”
Now, she’s revealed that she’s had another heartbreaking loss, just days after losing her close friend.
The star took to social media to share a photo cradling her pet dog.
In a tragic update, Aisleyne wrote: “Now my baby is dead too, f*** this world my heart can’t take no more.
“Rip Charlie boy mummy loves you sooooooo much.”
The heartbroken star shared another photo of the dog’s paw resting in her hand.
The Cost of Beauty A Tanning Love Affair
It comes after reports that a woman in her 30s had died ‘suddenly’ at an address in Bournemouth town centre.
A spokesperson for DorsetPolice said: “Officers attended and carried out enquiries at the scene.
“The woman’s death is not being treated as suspicious and her family has been informed.
“Our thoughts are with the woman’s loved ones at this difficult time.”
Two ambulances, a critical care car and around three police vehicles attended the scene.
In June 2024, Aisleyne was left heartbroken following the death of her best friend, Femi.
Alongside a photo of the pair, she wrote: “Femi, Hyper, but my big brother for 30 years… I am so broken.”
While earlier this year Aisleyne also suffered her own health scare.
She issued a stark warning after she “nearly died” when she took fake Ozempic to lose two stone.
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The star revealed the death of her dogCredit: Instagram/aisleyne1
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She shared a photo of the dog’s paw resting in her handCredit: Instagram/aisleyne1
The rock band Foo Fighters has let go of drummer Josh Freese, according to a note from the veteran percussionist.
“The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they’ve decided ‘to go in a different direction with their drummer,’” Freese wrote on Instagram. “No reason was given. … Regardless, I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band. In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I’ve never been let go from a band, so while I’m not angry — just a bit shocked and disappointed. But as most of you know I’ve always worked freelance and bounced between bands so, I’m fine.”
“Stay tuned for my ‘Top 10 possible reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters’ list,” he joked.
A representative for the band confirmed the departure but declined to comment.
Freese is a session veteran who first came to prominence in the SoCal punk band the Vandals, and later went on to play in Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle and Devo before joining Foo Fighters in 2023. He won the high-profile job after the death of beloved Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The band previously celebrated Hawkins in a moving tribute concert in 2022, which included Hawkins’ then-16-year-old son Shane drumming in his dad’s place on “My Hero.” More recently, singer Dave Grohl appeared with his former Nirvana bandmate, bassist Krist Novoselic, to perform at the FireAid benefit concert in Inglewood this year.
The group has not announced a new drummer. Its next scheduled performance is in Singapore on Oct. 4.
Adam Sandler has no crocodile tears for “Happy Gilmore” co-star Morris the alligator — he has fond jokes instead.
The “Punch-Drunk Love” actor and comedian on Wednesday shared a playful tribute honoring his reptilian co-star who died Sunday of old age at a gator farm in southern Colorado. In the tribute, shared to Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), Sandler remembered the alligator’s time on the set of his quirky 1996 golf comedy.
“We are all gonna miss you. You could be hard on directors, make-up artists, costumers — really anyone with arms or legs,” Sandler captioned a movie still featuring himself and Morris, “but I know you did it for the ultimate good of the film.”
Jay Young, the owner and operator of Colorado Gator Farm, announced Morris’s death in an emotional video shared to Facebook. “He started acting strange about a week ago. He wasn’t lunging at us and wasn’t taking food,” Young said, stroking the reptile’s head.
“I know it’s strange to people that we get so attached to an alligator, to all of our animals,” Young added. “He had a happy time here, and he died of old age.”
In “Happy Gilmore,” Sandler’s unlikely golf star confronts the feisty gator played by Morris after a golf ball lands in his toothy jaws. After an unsuccessful attempt, Happy dives into the golf course pond where he pummels the reptile and retrieves the ball.
Morris was best known for “Happy Gilmore,” but also appeared in numerous screen projects including “Interview with the Vampire,” “Dr. Dolittle 2” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” before he retired in 2006. He was found as an illegal pet in the backyard of a Los Angeles home and sent to the Colorado Gator Farm.
In his tribute, Sandler said he learned a “powerful lesson” from Morris on the set of their film after he refused to “come out of your trailer” without the bait of 40 heads of lettuce: “Never compromise your art.” The “Wedding Singer” and “50 First Dates” star also reminisced on totally real encounters with the gator including sharing a candy bar.
“You let me have the bigger half,” he joked. “But that’s who you were.”
According to Sandler, Morris was a Hollywood veteran with classy habits. The “Uncut Gems” star joked that the alligator, despite his character’s death in the first film, sent the “Happy Gilmore” team a “fruit basket and [a] hilarious note” ahead of the long-anticipated sequel, which premieres in July.
“I will miss the sound of your tail sliding through the tall grass, your cold, bumpy skin, but, most of all, I will miss your infectious laugh,” Sandler concluded his eulogy. “Thanks to Mr. Young for taking care of you all these years, and vaya con dios, old friend.”
Colorado Gator Farm announced on Monday that it decided to preserve Morris’ body via taxidermy “so that he can continue to scare children for years to come.”
“It’s what he would have wanted,” the farm said on Facebook.
DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village. She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread. One fall afternoon in 2023, after Miller had failed for several days to make her customary appearance at the town market, a store clerk asked authorities to check on her.
A short time later, a sheriff’s deputy found Miller’s lifeless body in her kitchen. Her right leg and left arm had been partially gnawed off. On the floor around her were the large paw prints of a bear.
Months after her death, officials would make a stunning disclosure, revealing that an autopsy had determined that Miller had likely been killed by the animal after it broke into her home. It marked the first known instance in California history of a fatal bear attack on a human.
But amid the contentious politics around black bears and other apex predators in California, not everyone accepts the official version of how she died.
“We don’t believe the bear did it,” said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League in the Tahoe Basin. “And I will go on record as saying that. … We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”
The story of Miller’s grisly end — and the increasingly heated battles around predators in California — have come roaring into the state Capitol this spring. Lawmakers representing conservative rural districts in the state’s rugged northern reaches argue that their communities are under attack, and point to Miller as one example of the worst that can happen. One solution they have pushed is changing the law to allow people to set packs of hunting dogs after bears to haze them. A similar measure has been floated — for now unsuccessfully — to ward off mountain lions considered a threat.
Wildlife conservation advocates are aghast. They say turning dogs on bears is barbaric and won’t make anyone safer. They contend the proposed laws don’t reflect a scientifically backed approach to managing wild populations but instead are pro-hunting bills dressed up in the guise of public safety. The real solution, they say, is for humans living near bears to learn to safely co-exist by not leaving out food or otherwise attracting them.
“These people are using [Miller’s death] to try to start hounding bears again,” said Bryant, who maintains that Miller, who was in poor health, must have died before the bear came into her home and devoured her. “She would roll in her grave if she knew that in her death people would create a situation where people were going to mistreat bears, because she loved bears.”
In a recent report, the Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates there are now 60,000 black bears roaming California and notes a marked increase in reports of human-bear conflicts.
(John Axtell / Nevada Department of Wildlife)
Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns, and also one of its quaintest. Colorfully painted wooden buildings sit at the junction of two rivers, beneath majestic pines and mountain peaks.
Along with tourists, who flood in in the summer for rafting and mountain biking, the town also receives frequent visits from bears and mountain lions. More recently, wolves have arrived with deadly force, snatching domesticated cattle off the open pastures that stretch across the plains on the other side of the mountains east of town.
Miller wound up here about a decade ago, at the end of a rich, complicated life. She had worked in an oil refinery, and also as a contractor. She was a master gardener, expert at transplanting Japanese maples, according to her neighbor, Patty Hall. She was a voracious reader and a skilled pianist. But she also struggled with a variety of serious ailments and substance abuse, according to neighbors and officials.
Longtime residents in the area were used to the challenges of living among wild animals. But in the summer of 2023, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said he started getting an overwhelming number of calls about problem bears.
“We had three or four habituated bears that were constantly here in town,” said Fisher. “They had zero fear. I would say, almost daily, we were having to go out and chase these bears away, haze them.”
But bears have a sharp sense of smell, a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or the last bits of an ice cream cone, or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again, even if they are relocated miles away.
That summer, Fisher said, no matter what he did, the bears kept lumbering back into town. It was unlike anything he had experienced, he said, and he had grown up in Downieville. “A police car with an air horn or the siren, we would push the bear up out of the community. Fifteen minutes later, they were right back downtown,” he said.
Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns and also one of its quaintest.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
And then there were the bears harassing Miller and her neighbors.
“There were three bears,” recalled Hall, who lives just up the hill from the home Miller rented. “Twice a night they would walk up and down our [porch] stairs. The Ring cameras were constantly going off.”
Fisher said some of Miller’s neighbors complained that she was part of the lure, because she was not disposing of her garbage properly. Some also alleged she was tossing food on her porch for her cats — and that the bears were coming for it. Miller’s daughter later told sheriff’s officials that bears were “constantly trying” to get into her house, and that “her mother had physically hit one” to keep it out. One particular bear, which Miller had nicknamed “Big Bastard,” was a frequent pest.
Fifty miles from Downieville, in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Bear League was getting calls about Miller, too. The organization, which Bryant founded more than two decades ago, seeks to protect bears by helping residents coexist with them. This includes educating people about locking down their trash and helping to haze bears away from homes.
“We got calls [from her neighbors] that told us she had been feeding the bears, tossing food out to them, and let them come into her house,” Bryant said. She added that some thought, erroneously, that the Bear League was a government organization, and “maybe we had the ability to enforce the law” against feeding bears.
Hall, Miller’s friend, told The Times that Miller was not feeding bears. Still, the problems continued.
Eventually, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called and told Miller she could sign a “depredation permit,” after which authorities could kill bears trying to get into her house. But Miller declined to do so, Fisher said.
In early November, Miller stopped showing up around town, prompting calls for a welfare check.
A little before 3 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2023, Deputy Malcolm Fadden approached Miller’s home, which was a short walk from the sheriff’s office. The security bars on the kitchen window had been ripped off. The window itself had been busted from the outside.
“I knocked on the door,” Fadden wrote in his report, but got no answer.
Patrice Miller was found dead in her rental cottage in November 2023. Bear advocates take issue with an autopsy report that said she probably was killed in a bear attack.
(Jessica Garrison / Los Angeles Times)
Through the window, he saw blood streaked across the living room floor. He took out his gun and burst into the house, where he was greeted by a giant pile of bear scat. He found Miller in the kitchen, her half-eaten body surrounded by food and garbage, which, Fadden wrote, had been “apparently scattered by bears.”
Fisher was horrified. Already frustrated at what he saw as the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lackluster response to the escalating bear incursions that summer, now he wanted the bear that had fed on Miller to be trapped and killed.
He said the department told him that for the bear to be killed, “the person who lives at the house has to sign the [depredation] permit.” Fisher said he responded: “How many times do I have to tell you the person who lives at that house was eaten by the bear?”
This was the start of a long-running conflict between the sheriff and agency officials that would complicate the release of the autopsy findings about Miller’s death, and also convince Fisher that more aggressive steps were needed to protect his community.
Eventually, Fisher managed to get a depredation permit for the bear that had fed on Miller; his deputies tracked down her landlord, who as the homeowner could sign it. Wildlife officials set up a trap near Miller’s house, and in short order, a bear was caught.
But, according to Fisher, officials initially said it wasn’t the same bear. They said DNA tests showed that the bear who had eaten her was male, and the bear they had caught appeared to be female. They intended to release the bear, he said.
Fisher padlocked the cage, and threatened to call the media. In response, he said, wildlife officials sent a biologist, who determined the bear in the trap was male. It was shot that night.
At that point, few people, including Fisher, believed that the bear had actually killed Miller, as opposed to feeding on her after she died of natural causes. Though there are recorded instances of fatal black bear maulings in other U.S. states, they are rare, and there had been no reports of one in California. Fisher issued a news release saying that the death was under investigation, but that “it is believed that Patrice Miller passed away before a bear, possibly drawn by the scent or other factors, accessed the residence.”
After performing an autopsy, however, the pathologist on contract with Sierra County came to a different conclusion. She issued a report that found that Miller had “deep hemorrhage of the face and neck“ as well as “puncture injuries (consistent with claw ‘swipe’ or ‘slap’).” These injuries, she noted, were “characteristics more suggestive of a vital reaction by a living person.” In short: The pathologist found that Miller was probably killed by the bear.
Because of Fisher’s feud with Fish and Wildlife, that autopsy report, dated Jan. 4, 2024, wouldn’t become public for months.
Fisher said the state agency was refusing to provide him with copies of the DNA analysis of the bear that had been trapped in Miller’s yard. He wanted to see for himself that it matched the DNA evidence collected at her home, saying he hated the thought that a bear that had feasted on a person might still be roaming his town.
“I requested DNA from Fish and Wildlife, and they refused to provide it to me,” he said. “So I withheld the coroner’s report. We stopped talking.”
He said he verbally told department officials that the pathologist believed Miller had been killed by the bear — a seemingly noteworthy development. He said that officials responded: “I guess we’ll see when we get the report.”
In an email to The Times, state wildlife officials confirmed that Fisher had verbally shared the results of the autopsy report, but said they felt they needed to see the report to do their “due diligence before making an announcement about the first fatal bear attack in California.” The agency had sent an investigator to the scene after Miller’s death, who like Fisher and his deputies, thought the evidence suggested she had died of natural causes, said agency spokesperson Peter Tira.
By the time Fisher got the autopsy report, it was deep winter in the mountains, and bear activity decreased. Then came spring, and along with the blossoms, the bears came back to Downieville.
Bears were knocking over trash cans and breaking into cars. In May, residents on Main Street reported that a bear had broken into multiple houses, including one incursion that involved a bear standing over 82-year-old Dale Hunter as he napped on his couch.
A few days later, a bear tried to break into the cafeteria at Downieville High School while students were at school.
Fisher declared the bear a threat to public safety. Fish and Wildlife eventually issued a depredation permit, and the bear was shot.
That led to a story in the Mountain Messenger, the local paper. In it, the sheriff dropped a bombshell: “Miller was mauled to death after a black bear entered her home,” the paper reported. The story went on to say that the sheriff had made “numerous attempts” to inform Fish and Wildlife “about Miller’s death and more recent dangerous situations.”
After the story ran, state Sen. Megan Dahle, a Lassen County Republican who at the time served in the Assembly, set up a conciliatory meeting between Fish and Wildlife and Fisher. They have been meeting regularly ever since, Fisher said.
Fisher got his DNA results confirming that the bear trapped in Miller’s yard was the same bear that had eaten her. And Fish and Wildlife officials finally got a copy of the pathology report, which said Miller was probably alive when she encountered the bear.
The revelation made headlines around the state. “We’re in new territory,” Capt. Patrick Foy of Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bryant and other bear advocates found the release of such a significant finding so long after the fact confounding.
“I absolutely do not believe it,” Bryant said. If the bear had killed her, Bryant added, “the evidence should have been so clear, like immediately.”
“We don’t believe the bear did it,” Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League, says of Patrice Miller’s death. “We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”
(Max Whittaker / For The Times)
The Downieville saga unfolded as bears seemed to be making news all over California.
To many, it seemed there were just many more bears encroaching on human settlements. A Fish and Wildlife report released last month estimated there are now 60,000 black bears roaming the Golden State, roughly triple the figure from 1998, the last time the department issued a bear management plan. That’s the highest population estimate for anywhere in the contiguous U.S., although the report also suggests that California’s bear population has been stable for the last decade.
In the Lake Tahoe area, where 50,000 people live year-round and tens of thousands more crowd in on busy tourist weekends, bears were breaking into houses and raiding refrigerators; they were bursting into ice cream shops and strolling along packed beaches.
State and local officials went into overdrive, trying to teach residents and tourists how to avoid attracting bears. The state set money aside for distribution of bear-proof trash cans and “unwelcome mats” that deliver a jolt of electricity if bears try to break into homes.
The Bear League will loan Tahoe Basin residents “unwelcome mats” that deliver a little jolt of electricity to bears if they try to break into homes.
(Max Whittaker / For The Times)
The Bear League stepped up its efforts. From a small office on Bryant’s property, the organization’s 24-hour hotline was ringing, and volunteers were rushing out with paintball guns to haze bears and to advise people on how to bear-proof their houses.
The tensions continued to escalate, nonetheless, between people who wanted to protect bears at all costs and those who wanted some problem bears trapped and relocated — or killed. In 2024, after a homeowner in the Tahoe area fatally shot a bear he said had broken into his home, many people were outraged that the Department of Fish and Wildlife declined to file charges.
Advocates also complained that the state has fallen behind in its efforts to help people and bears coexist. In recent years, the state had hired dedicated staff to help people in bear country, but the money ran out and some of those people were laid off, said Jennifer Fearing, a wildlife advocate and lobbyist.
“We have the tools to minimize human-wildlife conflict in California,” Fearing said. “We need the state to invest in using them.”
In Sierra County, the sheriff had come to a different conclusion. “We’ve swung the pendulum too far on the environmental side on these apex predators,” Fisher said.
Earlier this year, Fisher found common cause with newly elected GOP Assemblymember Heather Hadwick. “Mountain lions, bears and wolves are my biggest issue. I get calls every day about some kind of predator, which is crazy,” said Hadwick, who represents 11 northern counties.
In February, she introduced a bill, AB 1038, that would allow hunters to sic trained dogs on bears to chase them through the woods, but not kill them. While California has a legal hunting season for bears, it is strictly regulated; the use of hounds to aid the chase has been banned since 2013.
Hadwick argued that hounding bears would increase their fear of humans, which she said some are starting to lose: “We’re keeping them in the forest, where they belong.”
Bears have a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again.
(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Wildlife advocates showed up in force last month to oppose Hadwick’s bill in an Assembly committee hearing. Sending hounds after bears is cruel, they said. Plus, hounding bears in the woods would have no impact on the bears knocking over neighborhood trash cans and sneaking into ice cream stores.
Fisher testified in favor of the bill, and spoke of Miller’s death.
Lawmakers listened, some with stricken looks on their faces. But in a Legislature controlled by Democrats, Hadwick did not garner enough votes to send her bill on to the full Assembly; it became a two-year bill, meaning it could come back next year.
Fisher returned to Sierra County, where he has continued to advocate for locals to have more power to go after predators. The current situation, he said, is “out of control.”
Dennis received a 17-month suspended sentence over a car incident in Australia which killed his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins.
Former Olympic cyclist and world champion Rohan Dennis received a suspended sentence over what was termed a “tragic accident” that led to the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins.
The 34-year-old appeared in South Australia District Court on Wednesday after an earlier charge of committing an aggravated act likely to cause harm.
Dennis was arrested after Hoskins, 32, was struck by his vehicle in front of their home at Medindie in Adelaide’s north on December 30, 2023. Hoskins suffered serious injuries in the crash and died at Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The court was told that the couple had argued over kitchen renovations before Dennis left their home and drove away. The court also heard that Hoskins had jumped onto the hood of the car during the incident.
Dennis on Wednesday was sentenced to one year, four months and 28 days in jail, to be suspended for two years. The sentence was reduced from two years and two months because of his guilty plea and he’s been placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.
His driver’s licence was also suspended for five years.
“I accept you have a sense of responsibility for all that occurred, I accept you have anguished over what could have been different if you had acted in some other way,” Judge Ian Press said Wednesday.
Dennis showed little emotion when Press sentenced him.
“Given your plea of guilty, your remorse, that you are the sole carer for your young children, and given all your other personal circumstances and the circumstances of the offending, I am satisfied that good reason exists to suspend that sentence,” the judge said.
Jumbo-Visma’s Australian rider Rohan Dennis competes during the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia 2023 cycling race on May 14, 2023 [Luca Bettini/ AFP]
The offence carried a maximum sentence of seven years in jail but lawyer Jane Abbey asked that her client receive a suspended sentence, which was not opposed by the prosecution.
During sentencing submissions in April, Amanda Hoskins said her daughter had loved Dennis “and I know that you would never intentionally hurt her”.
“I believe this is a tragic accident. Your temper is your downfall and needs to be addressed,” she said.
Hoskins’ funeral was held in her home city of Perth, Western Australia, and a public memorial service was held in Adelaide in February 2024. Dennis attended the service with their two children.
Hoskins competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics on the track in the team pursuit and was in the squad that won the 2015 world title. Dennis won two world titles in the road time trial, as well as silver in the team pursuit at the 2012 Olympics and bronze in the road time trial at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Selena y Los Dinos,” the latest documentary film about the life of Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla, has been acquired by Netflix. The film is currently scheduled to begin streaming in winter 2025.
The movie, directed by Isabel Castro, features original VHS footage taken by Selena’s older sister, Suzette, and is interspersed with present-day interviews with family and friends.
Netflix announced its acquisition in a Tuesday press release.
“Through personal archive and intimate interviews with her family, the film reveals new dimensions of her journey that have never been seen before,” Castro shared in the release. “I am deeply grateful to her family for their trust and support throughout this journey, and I can’t wait for a global audience to experience the magic, heart and community that Selena gave to all of us.”
Suzette also shared her enthusiasm about the scope of the partnership with Netflix in the Tuesday announcement, stating, “Grateful to have a platform that helps bring Selena’s story to fans around the world.”
This is not the first time that the Quintanilla family has collaborated with the streaming giant. They worked with Netflix to help create “Selena: The Series” — a scripted retelling of Selena’s childhood, rise to fame and death starring Christian Serratos as the Texas singer.
It was after working as an executive producer on the Netflix series that Suzette consulted her lawyer about making her own documentary.
“There’s some things that you just want to hold on to and not share with everyone,” Suzette said at the documentary’s 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere. “I was always taking the pictures, always with the camera. And look how crazy it is, that I’m sharing it with all of you so many years later.”
The documentary surfaces footage from performances in which Selena subverts the idea of the well-manicured image that the Quintanilla family has constantly put out of the singer in the 30 years since her death. It also captures, in real time, the evolution of a bold new identity growing among Latino youth in the 1980s, encapsulated in Los Dinos’ cultural hybridity.
The film was awarded with a special jury prize for archival storytelling at the renowned movie gathering at Sundance. The jury made note of how the feature “transported us to a specific time and place, evoking themes of family, heritage, love and adolescence.”
So badly were people clamoring to view the movie that the organizers of Sundance pulled it from its online platform. The film had fallen victim to a number of copyright infringements as eager fans were uploading clips from it to social media platforms. This was the first time that Sundance had removed a feature during the festival.
De Los assistant editor Suzy Exposito and Times staff writer Mark Olsen contributed to this report.
A MAN accused of beating a florist to death has been cleared in the UK’s longest-ever miscarriage of justice.
Peter Sullivan was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years in 1987 for the murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall in Bebington, Merseyside.
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Peter Sullivan’s conviction has been quashed
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He was jailed for murdering Diane
The loner, who was 29 at the time, has spent the past 38 years maintaining his innocent and is now appealing his conviction for a third time.
It comes after new tests ordered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission revealed his DNA was not present on samples preserved at the time.
His lawyers said that if his conviction is quashed, he would be the longest-serving victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK.
The Crown Prosecution Service today told the Court of Appeal the new evidence is enough to cast “sufficient” doubt on the conviction.
It also agreed the fresh clue was “reliable” and that the CPS “does not seek to argue that this evidence is not capable of undermining the safety of Mr Sullivan’s conviction”.
Duncan Atkinson KC, for the CPS, said: “The respondent considers that there is no credible basis on which the appeal can be opposed, solely by reference to the DNA evidence.
“On the contrary, the DNA evidence provides a clear and uncontroverted basis to suggest that another person was responsible for both the sexual assault and the murder.
“As such, it positively undermines the circumstantial case against Mr Sullivan as identified at the time both of his trial and his 2021 appeal.”
Diane had just left her shift as a part-time barmaid at a pub in Bebington when her small blue van ran out of petrol.
She was making her way to a garage when she was beaten to death and sexually assaulted in a “frenzied” attack.
Her body was discovered partially clothed close to a grass verge.
Sullivan, who is watching the appeal from HMP Wakefield, was said to have spent the day of the murder drinking heavily.
Following his arrest in September 1986, he was quizzed 22 times and denied legal advice in the first seven interviews – despite requesting it.
Sullivan later “confessed to the murder” in an unrecorded interview a day after his arrest.
He then made a formal confession but the court was told this was “inconsistent with the facts established by the investigation“.
It also went against his earlier interviews, with Sullivan retracting the admission later that day.
Since his conviction, questions have been raised about whether he had proper legal representation during his interviews.
Evidence related to bite marks on Diane’s body has also been called into question.
At the time of the case, DNA technology was not available and subsequent requests for new tests were refused.
Sullivan first went to the CCRC for help in 2008 but they did not refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
He then launched his own appeal bid in 2019, which judges dismissed after ruling the bite mark evidence was not central to the prosecution at trial.
In 2021, Sullivan went back to the CCRC and raised concerns over police interviews, the bite mark evidence and the murder weapon.
The independent body revealed Sullivan’s DNA was not present on samples preserved at the time.
This led Merseyside Police to confirm they were “carrying out an extensive investigation in a bid to identify who the new DNA profile belongs to”.
The force revealed they had no matches on the police database but were contacting people previously identified in the original probe to request new samples.
Sullivan’s barrister Jason Pitter KC today told the court that Diane’s murder was “a grotesque offence”.
But he argued that the evidence could not now pass “the threshold with which a prosecution could take place”.
While he accepted that improvements in science and the “passage of time” had “significantly assisted” Sullivan’s position, the new DNA evidence showed the killer “was not the defendant”.
He also explained the bite mark evidence, which the prosecution claimed matched Sullivan, was no longer viewed as reliable evidence of identification in criminal cases.
Mr Pitter told the court “significant admissions” and “incriminating statements” made by Sullivan at the time of the killing were “inherently unreliable” due to his “vulnerability”.
He added: “The appellant was extremely vulnerable in an interrogative situation, because of his limited intellectual functioning, combined with his problems with self-expression, his disposition to acquiesce, to yield, to be influenced, manipulated and controlled and his internal pressure to speak without reflection and his tendency to engage in make-believe to an extreme extent.
“What he was saying was nonsense, in plain terms.”