A few months ago, my younger daughter, Darby, and I were settling into our seats at the local AMC. As the previews rolled, she gasped. “I know that voice,” she said. “That’s Aidan. Mom, that’s Aidan.”
I looked up just in time to see a familiar shock of brown curls. It was indeed Aidan Delbis, former member of the Falcon Players at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta, a kid I had seen perform alongside my daughter in countless student plays.
Only now he was seated at a kitchen table with Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone as the words “Bugonia” and then “directed by Yorgos Lanthimos” flashed across the screen.
“Did you not know?” I asked my daughter. CV is a fine public school with a good theater program, but it isn’t exactly an incubator for nepo babies and aspiring stars. That one of their own had stepped off last year’s graduation stage and into a major film production should have been very big news long before a trailer hit theaters.
“No,” she said, furiously messaging various friends. “But now they will.”
Now they will indeed. When he joined the cast of “Bugonia,” Delbis didn’t just become a part of Lanthimos’ highly anticipated remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 black comedy “Save the Green Planet!” He also entered the mythology of which Hollywood dreams are made: A 17-year old sends in his first-ever open-call submission and lands a major role in a very big movie.
With a script by Will Tracy and obvious Oscar potential, “Bugonia” had its world premiere in August at this year’s Venice Film Festival before launching onto the festival circuit, including screenings in Toronto and New York, in preparation for its release this Friday. A slightly absurdist, darkly funny thriller with political undertones, it revolves around the kidnapping of a pharmaceutical company’s CEO, Michelle (Stone), by wild-eyed conspiracy theorist Teddy (Plemons) and his loyal cousin Don (Delbis).
From left, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis and Jesse Plemons in the movie “Bugonia.”
(Atsushi Nishijima / Focus Features)
Teddy believes Michelle is an alien sent to destroy Earth. Don believes in Teddy. Though he falls in with Teddy’s plans, he often questions them, serving as a continual reminder that even within Teddy’s paranoid view of the universe, there is such a thing as going too far. Don is, in many ways, the heart of the film.
He is also, like the actor who plays him, autistic.
Delbis — who chooses to self-describe as autistic rather than neurodivergent — is not someone who has long nursed dreams of stardom. He took drama classes all through high school, but it wasn’t until his junior year, Delbis says, “that I started to get more into the process. I found the general process of acting, of understanding and investing in different personalities, to be fun and sometimes scary.”
Still, he says, “I wasn’t really sure that I wanted it to be my main career. But it so happened that this happened while I was in high school, and here we are.”
Here is the Four Seasons on a very rainy October afternoon where Delbis, now 19, has just finished his first solo photo shoot and is sitting, fortified by Goldfish crackers (his go-to-snack), for his first long one-on-one interview. He went to some of the film festivals and just returned from “Bugonia’s” London premiere, where he signed autographs on the red carpet and enjoyed flying first class. His parents, Katy and David Delbis, are seated nearby, as is his access and creative coach, Elaine Hall.
Delbis is a tall, good-natured young man who speaks with a distinctive cadence and in an unwaveringly calm tone. Aside from a habit of repeating himself as he searches for what he wants to say next, he seems more comfortable discussing his experience with filmmaking than many of the dozens of more experienced actors I have interviewed in this very hotel over the years.
“We should try to be more empathetic to people with different worldviews because you never really know what those people are going through,” Delbis says. “The movie feels very relevant to that theme.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It all started,” he says, “when my mom was friends with this agent, April, and one day she sent Mom an audition that seemed pretty promising, so I submitted for that. And they really liked it and called me back.”
It actually started a bit further back than that. With Plemons and Stone already cast, Lanthimos had decided that he wanted a nonprofessional actor to play Don.
“We went really wide in trying to find someone really special,” the Greek-born director of “The Favourite” and “Poor Things” says in a phone interview. “With these two experienced actors, I wanted to bring in a different dynamic. As we looked at people, I felt that the character would be more interesting if he was neurodivergent.”
Casting director Jennifer Venditti put out an open call, which April Smallwood of Spotlight Development saw and sent to Delbis’ mother, Katy.
“A happy-go-lucky young man, neurodivergent — it practically described Aidan,” Katy says in a later interview. La Crescenta may not be an industry hub, but, like many in L.A., the Delbis family has a Hollywood connection. Aidan’s older brother, Tristan (who is also neurodivergent), works at a movie theater; father David is about to retire after years at the Writers Guild Health Fund; and Katy, a self-described “creative,” has done some acting herself. But no one saw film-acting as a potential career for Aidan, who was set to take a gap year after high school. And, Katy says, she had no idea what sort of movie it was for. “It said for a ‘big film,’ but they always say that.”
She thought of it a bit like the time Delbis, a member of the high school track team, decided he also wanted to try out for basketball. “As I drove him to the school,” Katy said, “I told him that he might not get on since there were a lot of kids who had been playing basketball for years, which he had not. He said, ‘Mom, I just want to see what it’s like.’”
Now Delbis wanted to see what it would be like to audition for a “big film.”
Aidan Delbis in the movie “Bugonia.”
(Atsushi Nishijima / Focus Features)
He had recently performed the Vincent Price monologue from “Thriller” for the school talent show, which Katy filmed on her phone, so Smallwood submitted that. Venditti called Smallwood the next day and met with Delbis over Zoom. Thus began a monthslong process of meetings, rehearsals and auditions.
“We focused on him right away,” Venditti says. “He seemed to have it all. And he was very committed.”
“I was really unaware of how big a project it was,” Delbis said. “I had never seen a film by Yorgos.”
In March, Lanthimos, Stone and Plemons were in L.A. for the Oscars, so they all met with Delbis and came away impressed.
Lanthimos thought of casting a neurodivergent actor in a part because it would bring a natural clarity and unfiltered unpredictability to the role. He didn’t consider it any more challenging than working with any other actor. And when he met Delbis, Lanthimos says, “I just thought: That’s him.”
“Just from watching that first tape, you could see there was something so magnetic about him,” said Stone during a recent phone interview. (She is also a producer on the film.) “Don is the audience’s window, the one who can see through the charade.”
Still, there were many more steps to take.
“It’s a big leap for any nonprofessional,” Stone says. “It’s a big part in what is essentially a three-hander.”
From left, director Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis and Jesse Plemons at the Venice Film Festival, where “Bugonia” had its world premiere in August.
(Alessandra Tarantino / Invision / AP)
For an autistic actor, it’s an even bigger leap. As talented as Delbis might be, he also had to be able to handle the pressures, boredom and chaos of a film set. Venditti reached out to Hall. The founder of the Miracle Project and mother to a now-adult neurodivergent son, Hall is an acting coach who has worked for more than 20 years to increase the presence and understanding of neurodivergent and disabled people. She is often asked to gauge the ability of actors to take on a certain role — their ease with the material, their physical stamina, their level of independence and their emotional accessibility.
Delbis, she says, ticked all the boxes. He loves horror films, he was on the track team and he was, at the time, about to travel without his parents on a school trip to Sweden.
He is, as he says himself, “a low-key guy,” so Hall gave him some exercises to help him portray more extreme emotions and prepare him for when other cast members might do the same. (One subsequent rehearsal involved a scene in which one of the actors screamed repeatedly.)
Often, Hall says, perfecting these exercises can take weeks; Delbis, working with his mother, did it in a weekend. She also helped him prepare for his meeting with and then chemistry read with Plemons.
Delbis says he was “a bit nervous, though I don’t know why.” He did not recognize Plemons’ name or his face. “I had watched ‘Breaking Bad,’ but I didn’t realize Jesse played Todd. Halfway through [the read], I told him he looked like Todd and he said, ‘That’s because I played him.’ I’ve seen him in other things since then,” Delbis adds. “He’s a very solid actor.”
More important, he says, “Jesse seemed to me to be a very cool guy.”
That feeling is mutual. “When we brought Aidan in, I was excited and a little nervous,” Plemons says during a phone call from London. They started with one of the more extreme scenes from the film. “I was finding my feet too. When it became apparent that he was going to be fine with the darker scenes, I said, ‘This is him; this is Don.’”
While all this was happening, Delbis was finishing his senior year, which included a starring role in a production of “Almost Maine.” “It was not overly hard,” he says, but sometimes it was a lot. “I did one read and then I had to go to rehearsal for the play.”
Venditti remembers that day very well. “Here we were being so careful, treating him like he was fragile and not wanting to overload him,” she says laughing, “and he’s just calmly multitasking.”
When Delbis got the role in May, he and his family signed a nondisclosure agreement, which is why none of his friends knew his news after graduation, and Delbis and his family flew to the U.K. to begin filming. It was a tough secret for his parents to keep. But “any time it looked like I might slip,” Katy says, “Aidan shut me down.” He celebrated his 18th birthday near the set outside of Windsor, where production ran for three months before moving for two weeks in Atlanta.
Hall was hired to be Delbis’ on-set access and creative coach, a job she believes she has invented, meant to make the experience for neurodivergent and disabled actors easier. She suggested that Lanthimos and Tracy simplify Delbis’ script pages, stripping down the description of action “so he wouldn’t get stuck thinking he had to do exactly what was on the page,” she says, which they were happy to do.
“We didn’t want to put any limits on him,” Lanthimos says.
Delbis chose most of his costumes (except a beekeeping suit, motivated by the plot, which he says “was very hot”), which mirrored his own wardrobe preferences down to the horror film t-shirts and mismatched socks. Even the food Teddy and Don eat during the film reflects Delbis’ taste: mac ’n’ cheese, taquitos, spaghetti.
Hall ensured Delbis had extra time before filming, during which she could help him prepare with rehearsal and centering exercises. She visited the set before he arrived so she could tell him exactly what to expect and worked with the production team to ensure that he had his own space between takes. “They built us a little house, with horror posters on the wall and stuffed animals that looked like his cats,” she says. As there were no Goldfish available in the U.K., the production had them flown in.
“Having Elaine there was amazing,” Venditti says. “The idea of having someone to act as eyes and ears of what people are actually experiencing on set, I think it’s groundbreaking. I don’t know why we haven’t done it before.”
Delbis spent a fair amount of time with Plemons, who Hall said occasionally stepped in to help if she had to be away from set.
“We did a decent amount of goofing around,” Delbis says. “The bond that developed between us occurred quite naturally. I consider Jesse a friend.”
For his part, Plemons enjoyed being around someone who spoke his mind.
“I so appreciated Aidan’s inability to tell a lie,” Plemons says. “On a set, you spend so much time waiting around, and he would say, ‘What are we doing? What is taking so long?’ Which was exactly what I was thinking. He’s a very smart, sensitive, self-assured guy, and if you’re unclear in what you’re saying, he will let you know.”
“Aidan is just so funny,” says his “Bugonia” co-star Emma Stone. “We spent a lot of time together in a basement and Aidan had so many jokes about that.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Stone says that while she and Delbis had a friendly rapport, she hung back a little when they weren’t shooting. “I didn’t want to form the same kind of bond Aidan had with Jesse because [in the film] it’s them against me and I didn’t want to do too much to mess with that.”
But, the two-time Oscar winner says, “Aidan is just so funny. He was on a jag during the kidnapping scene. We spent a lot of time together in a basement and Aidan had so many jokes about that.”
“I went through all of ‘Bugonia’ thinking I had never seen Emma in anything,” Delbis says. “Then I realized my parents had shown me a clip of a woman getting very involved in a birthday card — ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’ — and that was from ‘Easy A.’”
When he was filming, Delbis was all business. Several of the takes which he ad-libbed made it into the film and Delbis is proud of that.
“Despite being in more extreme situations than I’ve been in, there’s something of Don’s emotion and struggles that did feel very familiar to me,” he says. “Feelings of great distress and helplessness and conflictedness and confusion. I have felt that in classes in high school.”
“Aidan has great instincts,” Lanthimos says. “In a scene toward the end [of the film], he was so moving, it was the first time I have ever teared up on set.
There were difficult days — one moment with Plemons, Delbis says, took many takes. “It was hot AF and involved me getting more worked up that I am used to getting,” he remembers. But he appreciated Lanthimos’ willingness to let him try things. “In one scene, Jesse throws a chair and I thought that seemed pretty cool. So at the end of the day, they let me throw a chair. I hope that makes it into the outtakes reel.”
He was also very pleased when the crew threw him a s’mores party at the end of filming. “There was a fire pit on set that looked perfect for s’mores,” he says. “And I told them that, so it was my idea to have a s’mores party.”
Delbis is happy with how the film turned out, including his performance. “I think I looked pretty baller in that suit,” he says of one scene. Though he doesn’t have an opinion on the authenticity debate — whether autistic actors should always be the ones to play autistic characters — he thinks it’s “cool that writers and directors are starting to be more conscientious and give more realistic and respectful depictions of neurodivergent people and characters.”
He is more concerned that audiences understand what he thinks is the most important message of the movie.
“We should try to be more empathetic to people with different worldviews because you never really know what those people are going through,” he says. “The movie feels very relevant to that theme. God knows, people aren’t always willing to be tolerant.”
“Eureka Day,” a comedy by Jonathan Spector that wades into the debate on vaccine mandates, has only become more explosively topical since its 2018 premiere at Aurora Theatre Company, in Berkeley, Calif.
The play, which is having its Los Angeles premiere at Pasadena Playhouse, seems like it could have been commissioned to skewer this destructive, benighted and completely mortifying anti-science moment. But Spector wrote the work before the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed our political demons and made stupid great again.
“Eureka Day” takes its name from the fictional private elementary school in Berkeley that is the setting for what is both a satire of anti-vaccine culture and a comedy of woke manners. Held in a determinedly cheerful Bay Area classroom (brightly summoned with all the necessary social justice touches by set designer Wilson Chin), the play unfolds as a series of meetings of the school’s executive committee.
Don (Rick Holmes), the head of school, is ostensibly in charge, though his duck-and-cover strategy for dealing with conflict has a way of protracting problems. Four parents, one a newcomer still acclimating to the school’s strenuously progressive rules, are part of the executive brain trust.
The first discussion of the new school year is relatively innocuous though no less testing for being so. Eli (Nate Corddry), a stay-at-home dad who made a fortune at Facebook, has proposed adding “Transracial Adoptee” to a drop-down menu on an admissions form already burgeoning with identity subcategories.
Suzanne (Mia Barron), a mother who has sent so many children through Eureka Day that she has a proprietary attitude about the place, doesn’t think this additional category is necessary. She’s sensitive — self-consciously so — to Eli’s good intentions, but she persuades the group that no changes are necessary at this time.
“Persuades” might be a euphemism. Suzanne has an iron will that she thinly veils with a solicitous smile.
One of the quirks of the executive committee is that it operates by consensus rather than a majority vote. This can lead to some “very long meetings,” Suzanne informs Carina (Cherise Boothe), the new Black lesbian mom who recently moved from Maryland.
Suzanne claims to want everyone to feel “empowered,” though her controlling temperament pokes through her welcoming facade. Meiko (Camille Chen), who knits during meetings with a subtle air of annoyance, has to loudly ask Suzanne to please stop speaking on her behalf.
Cherise Boothe in “Eureka Day” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
These blind spots, a standard ingredient of comic characters, are particularly glaring in Suzanne’s case. When Carina tells her that she didn’t homeschool her son for kindergarten but sent him to public school, Suzanne is mildly horrified. She also makes the assumption that Carina is not a “full pay” family.
There’s even something passive-aggressive about Suzanne’s show of concern for all viewpoints, a trait that becomes all the more conspicuous after a crisis erupts at the school. A mumps outbreak forces Eureka Day to temporarily close its doors.
Don informs the executive committee that the health department has issued a letter stipulating what parents must do for their child to return to school. The subject isn’t open for debate, but Suzanne is uneasy about how this letter is being “framed.”
She’s an advocate of parental choice when it comes to vaccines, not trusting the experts who have determined that only children who are vaccinated can return to school when there’s a risk of infection. She believes vaccines stand in the way of natural herd immunity.
Mia Barron, left, Rick Holmes, Cherise Boothe, and Camille Chen in “Eureka Day” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Meiko is less vociferous in her anti-vaccine stance than Suzanne, but she has her own skepticism about modern medicine and doesn’t want to be told what to do. When her daughter develops mumps, it becomes an emergency for Eli, who’s been having an affair with Meiko. The two arrange their assignations around playdates, and their kids were recently in contact.
Eli, who’s married but in a complicated open relationship situation with his increasingly resentful wife, would rather not have to choose sides in the vaccine mandate debate. But when his son gets sick after spending time with Meiko’s unvaccinated daughter, he finds he can no longer stay on the fence.
The well-programmed comedy hilariously runs its course in the leadership vacuum created by the school’s over-accommodating culture. Don is so worried about seeming to favor one parental faction over another that he allows Suzanne to become the dominant voice in the room.
The production, directed by Teddy Bergman, has a field day with the woke-run-amok ethos of Eureka Day, where kids at the school cheer the other team’s goals at soccer games. But Bergman’s approach is more schematic than Anna D. Shapiro’s Tony-winning Broadway revival.
Perhaps the urgency of the moment calls for a clearer moral stand, but the comedy has lost some nuance. On Broadway, Jessica Hecht made Suzanne seem totally oblivious to her own rage. She really believed that she was seeking consensus, tolerant of all perspectives as long as they didn’t impinge on her beliefs, the origins of which are poignantly related later in the play.
The fury of Barron’s Suzanne is much more on the surface. The humor is more direct — Barron can be very funny — but the debate is less trenchant. Bergman’s production, marred by blasts of jarring folk music between scene transitions, is a little too on the nose.
Boothe’s Carina, by far the strongest performance in the cast, is our rational surrogate in the play — a parent trying to fit in without betraying her intelligence or child’s welfare. I appreciated the way Holmes lets us come to our own conclusions about Don’s go-along-to-get-along style of running the ship.
Meiko is woefully underwritten, and Chen’s performance, while amusing when Meiko erupts, sometimes seems disconnected. Corddry refuses to play a tech industry cliché, but Eli, a bland creep, comes off as unnecessarily vague.
Bergman has trouble locating that sweet spot between jokey exaggeration and multidimensional authenticity. Comedy trades in types, but the cast could have benefited from more fine-tuning.
Perhaps that’s why the funniest scene in the play involves the live chat portion of a virtual meeting that’s organized for Eureka Day parents alarmed about the quarantine situation. Avatars square off against one another in a vaccine debate free-for-all that puts the lie to the school’s “community of respect” motto with uncensored savagery punctuated by missile-like emoticons.
“Eureka Day” will make you laugh, but how much this production will make you think is an open question.
‘Eureka Day’
Where: Pasadena Playhouse, S. 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. (Check for exceptions)
“The ego has landed” headlines the Daily Mirror as US President Donald Trump arrives in the UK for his second state visit. Also on its front page, “golden boy and reluctant hero” actor Robert Redford is pictured in a collage as his death is announced. A snap of The Duke of York next to King Charles is also featured on the Mirror’s front, captioned “Andrew… back in the fold?”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will “press Trump on Israel – as UN warns of Gaza genocide” reports the i Paper. It says the PM is on a “collision course” with the US president over the conflict. The paper also features Robert Redford, who it dubs “a true Hollywood legend”.
“Don in… none out” headlines the Metro heralding the US president’s arrival as the UK’s “migrant plan stalls”. The paper says there is “no one on swap deal flights as problems pile up for Starmer” after a court temporarily blocked an Eritrean man’s removal to France.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s comments that “Trump fans the flames of division” lead the Guardian. The paper also calls the Eritrean man’s blocked removal to France a “blow to ‘one in one out'”, and highlights Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City on its front page.
The Daily Mail headlines on “Starmer’s new migrant fiasco”, declaring “human rights fanatic PM” has been “sunk… by human rights!” A teary-eyed Catherine, Princess of Wales also features on its front page as she “leads the grieving royals at Duchess of Kent’s funeral”.
The Sun runs with “Air Farce One” as Trump “jets in” while “migrant plane off to France with none on board”. Robert Redford is bid farewell by the paper with “so long, Sundance”.
The “migrant flight grounded by court” also leads The Daily Telegraph as it says Sir Keir’s “flagship” deal has been “dealt a major blow”. The front page says Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper “appeared to blame Number 10 and the Cabinet Office” for Peter Mandelson’s appointment. It also features Microsoft announcing a £22m investment in the UK.
The Microsoft deal “worth billions is boost for UK” reads the top story of The Times “but Trump stands firm on steel tariffs at start of visit”, it adds. In other front page news, the blocked removal to France has left the “migrant returns policy in chaos” and the productivity forecast “adds to Reeves’s budget woes”.
The Financial Times leads with the warning to Chancellor Rachel Reeves by the financial watchdog about the UK’s productivity, saying “tax fears mount” with the “blow”. Trump’s UK visit “spurs AI infrastructure bonanza” as US tech giants including Nvidia, Goodle and OpenAI have “pledged billions” to the UK.
“4m to pay tax on state pension in 2 years” reports the Daily Express as it says campaigners warn pensioners will be hit by “stealth raid”. Also on its front page, “Hollywood pays tribute to Sundance Kid Robert Redford”, writing “one of the lions has passed”.
A headshot of Robert Redford dominates the front page of the Daily Star that it captions “the lion of Hollywood”. In parallel is a headshot of Trump, that echoes the Mirror’s “the ego has landed”.
The Daily Telegraph describes the blocking of the deportation flight of an Eritrean man to France as a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship “one-in one-out” returns scheme.
The Daily Mail also leads with the story, saying Labour’s new policy designed to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has been “plunged into chaos”. The Sun says the returns deal between the UK and France has descended into a “fresh farce”.
President Trump’s state visit to the UK features on the front of the The Times which focuses on the deal with American tech giants pledging to invest billions in Britain.
The Guardian reports that Trump arrived to a “barrage of criticism” from the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who accused him of encouraging the far right across the globe.
Another girl was even snapped all smiles in a toothpaste tube outfit.
The lads were also dressed up for the Bank Holiday bonanza as James Bond and The Joker with others wrapped in St George flags wielding swords as English knights.
Others were kitted out in lederhosen with one even spotted with a traffic cone on his head – but that might just be the booze talking.
Pirates, princesses and policewomen alike were also spotted in the excited crowds as they enjoyed the three-day weekend.
Participants begin at Woodies before swilling snifters at 15 other watering holes during the challenge, which takes place several times a year.
Drinkers sip a final brew at the aptly named Dry Dock – a narrow boat-turned-pub.
The list of boozers you’re supposed to stop at has changed over the last few years but still stands at 17 strong.
Punters are tasked with a drink at every stop in their best fancy dress with themes ranging from the simple to the outlandish.
It’s particularly popular among students and locals in Leeds and is often a vibrant and chaotic journey through some of the city’s most beloved watering holes.
Revellers often opt for superheroes, animals, or film characters but, honestly, anything goes.
It can often make for hilarious encounters as multiple themes and characters all mingle in one pub.
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Cowboy hats were all the rage this yearCredit: NB PRESS LTD
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Hundreds of rowdy drinkers take to the streets this weekendCredit: NB PRESS LTD
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The booze trail is seen as a rite of passage for manyCredit: NB PRESS LTD
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Some outfits had some interesting additionsCredit: NB PRESS LTD
June 30 (UPI) — Two U.S. House members — Democrat Dwight Evans and Republican Don Bacon — announced Monday they will not seek a third term in 2026 after both have served since their 2016 elections.
Evans, 71, has represented Philadelphia and Bacon, 61, in Nebraska, including Omaha.
Evans, who suffered a stroke last year and has missed several months of votes, had intended to run again in Pennsylvania’s heavy Democratic Third Congressional District.
Bacon is moderate in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, which was won by Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to become president last year and President Joe Biden in 2020. That gave each of them an electronic vote in the state, which is not winner-take-all.
The U.S. House currently has a breakdown of 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats with three vacancies after the deaths of three Democrats.
Longtime Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old Democrat from Illinois, said earlier this year she wouldn’t run again.
Republican Mark Green, 60, of Tennessee, said he will retire after the budget policy bill goes through Congress.
Dwight Evans
“Serving the people of Philadelphia has been the honor of my life,” Evans said in a statement. “And I remain in good health and fully capable of continuing to serve. After some discussions this weekend and thoughtful reflection, I have decided that the time is right to announce that I will not be seeking re-election in 2026. I will serve out the full term that ends Jan. 3, 2027.”
He succeeded Chaka Fattah, who resigned after being indicted on federal corruption charges.
“I am deeply proud of what I have been able to accomplish over my 45 years in elected office — from revitalizing neighborhoods block by block to fighting for justice, economic opportunity, investments in infrastructure and education,” he said. “I cannot express the gratitude that I have for the trust that voters put in me as their voice in both state and federal office. It has been a privilege of a lifetime to serve as their advocate in government.”
Evans was elected as the Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in 1990, serving 20 years.
Evans said he has remained “rooted in his neighborhood” throughout his career, and lived just blocks from where he grew up in the city.
He was a public school teacher and community organizer with the Urban League until he began working in government at 26 in 1980. He was elected to the state’s House of Representatives.
Politico reported there could be a fierce battle between establishment Democrats and progressives, including socialists.
State Sen. Sharif Street on Monday posted on X his intention to run for Evans’ seat, writing “I’m in.” Street, who has worked with Republicans on some issues, is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Two state representatives, Chris Raab and Morgan Cephas, told WCAU-TV they are considering seeking the seat. They are both progressives.
Don Bacon
“After three decades in the Air Force and now going on one decade in Congress, I look forward to coming home in the evenings and being with my wife and seeing more of our adult children and eight grandchildren, who all live near my home,” Bacon said in a statement.
“I’ve been married for 41 years, and I’d like to dedicate more time to my family, my church, and the Omaha community,” he added. “I also want to continue advocating for a strong national security strategy and a strong alliance system with countries that share our love of democracy, free markets and the rule of law,” he added.
At times, he has not gone with what other Republicans, including President Donald Trump, want.
He told The New York Times in an interview removing deportation protection for Afghans in the U.S. was wrong and has criticized Trump’s position on Russa’s war with Ukraine. He was the only Republican to vote against changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
“It’s one thing when you have the opposing party fighting you, but when you have divisions in your own party, you know — it makes it harder,” he said in May at an Omaha roundtable with business leaders to discuss Congress’ tax bill.
Bacon approved the spending bill, which went to the House by a 215-214 margin. If the Senate approves the bill and with changes, it goes back to the House.
“I think the Senate has done some new provisions in there that are concerning … But there’s a lot of amendments being voted out today. So I’m going to keep my powder dry, see how it turns out,” Bacon told reporters.
Bacon, who was born in Chicago, served 29 years in the U.S. Air Force.
He served as an aide to U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry in Nebraska’s First District, and a professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska before running for office.
Bacond is a member of House Armed Services Committee, and chairman of the conservative-centrist Republican Main Street Caucus in the House.
No one has announced plans to run in either primary.
Monty Don was on hand to give viewers at home tips on how to harvest elephant garlic, but some BBC Gardeners’ World fans were left ‘in shock’ at the results
15:12, 27 Jun 2025Updated 15:12, 27 Jun 2025
Gardeners’ World aired a day earlier due to Glastonbury Festival(Image: BBC)
Gardeners’ World fans were in for a treat as the show aired on Thursday, a day ahead of its usual schedule, to make way for the Glastonbury Festival coverage. In the latest episode, Monty Don demonstrated how to harvest elephant garlic, explaining to viewers that despite its name, it’s actually a type of leek and boasts a milder flavour than traditional garlic.
The green-fingered guru, aged 69, approached a bed of the oversized plant, declaring it was ripe for picking. He advised BBC viewers to always use a fork when lifting the garlic to preserve the roots, essential for storage, reports the Express.
Monty shared further advice, noting, “It stores very well, it’s easier to use, and it doesn’t dominate in the way that garlic can do.”
However, the episode took a turn when he discovered some of the regular garlic bulbs had succumbed to rot. He remarked, “That’s no good. Interesting.”
Upon unearthing another spoiled clove, Monty described it as “completely horrible” and added “Look how that’s rotted. The cloves are in there, but I don’t think they would keep.”
Monty Don revealed to viewers that his garlic had rotted(Image: BBC)
Puzzled by the unexpected decay, Monty wondered: “No, no, no. What I am asking myself is why this garlic from a very reputable supplier, for the first time ever since I’ve grown garlic, is no good. It’s rotting. It’s difficult to see if there’s a virus or a fungal problem.
“But the elephant garlic in the same bedding and in the same growing conditions is untouchable.”
Monty revealed his decision to avoid planting in that particular garden bed for the next three years after showing his garlic crops succumbing to rot.
The response from viewers watching at home was swift, with several taking to X to express their reactions to Monty’s gardening mishap.
Monty’s fans were left disappointed for him(Image: BBC)
One viewer sympathised on Twitter, “Oh a garlic fail for @TheMontyDon Disaster! #GardenersWorld.”
Another joined in with a sigh, “Disappointing garlic.”
A third shared their concern, tweeting “That was worrying about @TheMontyDon’s garlic #GardenersWorld.”
A fourth found humour in the situation, jokingly tweeting “Maybe a vampire is buried under that bed. #gardenersworld.”
Gardeners’ World is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
Commentary: Friends of this L.A. teen will soon find out his big secret: He’s co-starring in ‘Bugonia’
A few months ago, my younger daughter, Darby, and I were settling into our seats at the local AMC. As the previews rolled, she gasped. “I know that voice,” she said. “That’s Aidan. Mom, that’s Aidan.”
I looked up just in time to see a familiar shock of brown curls. It was indeed Aidan Delbis, former member of the Falcon Players at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta, a kid I had seen perform alongside my daughter in countless student plays.
Only now he was seated at a kitchen table with Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone as the words “Bugonia” and then “directed by Yorgos Lanthimos” flashed across the screen.
“Did you not know?” I asked my daughter. CV is a fine public school with a good theater program, but it isn’t exactly an incubator for nepo babies and aspiring stars. That one of their own had stepped off last year’s graduation stage and into a major film production should have been very big news long before a trailer hit theaters.
“No,” she said, furiously messaging various friends. “But now they will.”
Now they will indeed. When he joined the cast of “Bugonia,” Delbis didn’t just become a part of Lanthimos’ highly anticipated remake of Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 black comedy “Save the Green Planet!” He also entered the mythology of which Hollywood dreams are made: A 17-year old sends in his first-ever open-call submission and lands a major role in a very big movie.
With a script by Will Tracy and obvious Oscar potential, “Bugonia” had its world premiere in August at this year’s Venice Film Festival before launching onto the festival circuit, including screenings in Toronto and New York, in preparation for its release this Friday. A slightly absurdist, darkly funny thriller with political undertones, it revolves around the kidnapping of a pharmaceutical company’s CEO, Michelle (Stone), by wild-eyed conspiracy theorist Teddy (Plemons) and his loyal cousin Don (Delbis).
From left, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis and Jesse Plemons in the movie “Bugonia.”
(Atsushi Nishijima / Focus Features)
Teddy believes Michelle is an alien sent to destroy Earth. Don believes in Teddy. Though he falls in with Teddy’s plans, he often questions them, serving as a continual reminder that even within Teddy’s paranoid view of the universe, there is such a thing as going too far. Don is, in many ways, the heart of the film.
He is also, like the actor who plays him, autistic.
Delbis — who chooses to self-describe as autistic rather than neurodivergent — is not someone who has long nursed dreams of stardom. He took drama classes all through high school, but it wasn’t until his junior year, Delbis says, “that I started to get more into the process. I found the general process of acting, of understanding and investing in different personalities, to be fun and sometimes scary.”
Still, he says, “I wasn’t really sure that I wanted it to be my main career. But it so happened that this happened while I was in high school, and here we are.”
Here is the Four Seasons on a very rainy October afternoon where Delbis, now 19, has just finished his first solo photo shoot and is sitting, fortified by Goldfish crackers (his go-to-snack), for his first long one-on-one interview. He went to some of the film festivals and just returned from “Bugonia’s” London premiere, where he signed autographs on the red carpet and enjoyed flying first class. His parents, Katy and David Delbis, are seated nearby, as is his access and creative coach, Elaine Hall.
Delbis is a tall, good-natured young man who speaks with a distinctive cadence and in an unwaveringly calm tone. Aside from a habit of repeating himself as he searches for what he wants to say next, he seems more comfortable discussing his experience with filmmaking than many of the dozens of more experienced actors I have interviewed in this very hotel over the years.
“We should try to be more empathetic to people with different worldviews because you never really know what those people are going through,” Delbis says. “The movie feels very relevant to that theme.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It all started,” he says, “when my mom was friends with this agent, April, and one day she sent Mom an audition that seemed pretty promising, so I submitted for that. And they really liked it and called me back.”
It actually started a bit further back than that. With Plemons and Stone already cast, Lanthimos had decided that he wanted a nonprofessional actor to play Don.
“We went really wide in trying to find someone really special,” the Greek-born director of “The Favourite” and “Poor Things” says in a phone interview. “With these two experienced actors, I wanted to bring in a different dynamic. As we looked at people, I felt that the character would be more interesting if he was neurodivergent.”
Casting director Jennifer Venditti put out an open call, which April Smallwood of Spotlight Development saw and sent to Delbis’ mother, Katy.
“A happy-go-lucky young man, neurodivergent — it practically described Aidan,” Katy says in a later interview. La Crescenta may not be an industry hub, but, like many in L.A., the Delbis family has a Hollywood connection. Aidan’s older brother, Tristan (who is also neurodivergent), works at a movie theater; father David is about to retire after years at the Writers Guild Health Fund; and Katy, a self-described “creative,” has done some acting herself. But no one saw film-acting as a potential career for Aidan, who was set to take a gap year after high school. And, Katy says, she had no idea what sort of movie it was for. “It said for a ‘big film,’ but they always say that.”
She thought of it a bit like the time Delbis, a member of the high school track team, decided he also wanted to try out for basketball. “As I drove him to the school,” Katy said, “I told him that he might not get on since there were a lot of kids who had been playing basketball for years, which he had not. He said, ‘Mom, I just want to see what it’s like.’”
Now Delbis wanted to see what it would be like to audition for a “big film.”
Aidan Delbis in the movie “Bugonia.”
(Atsushi Nishijima / Focus Features)
He had recently performed the Vincent Price monologue from “Thriller” for the school talent show, which Katy filmed on her phone, so Smallwood submitted that. Venditti called Smallwood the next day and met with Delbis over Zoom. Thus began a monthslong process of meetings, rehearsals and auditions.
“We focused on him right away,” Venditti says. “He seemed to have it all. And he was very committed.”
“I was really unaware of how big a project it was,” Delbis said. “I had never seen a film by Yorgos.”
In March, Lanthimos, Stone and Plemons were in L.A. for the Oscars, so they all met with Delbis and came away impressed.
Lanthimos thought of casting a neurodivergent actor in a part because it would bring a natural clarity and unfiltered unpredictability to the role. He didn’t consider it any more challenging than working with any other actor. And when he met Delbis, Lanthimos says, “I just thought: That’s him.”
“Just from watching that first tape, you could see there was something so magnetic about him,” said Stone during a recent phone interview. (She is also a producer on the film.) “Don is the audience’s window, the one who can see through the charade.”
Still, there were many more steps to take.
“It’s a big leap for any nonprofessional,” Stone says. “It’s a big part in what is essentially a three-hander.”
From left, director Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis and Jesse Plemons at the Venice Film Festival, where “Bugonia” had its world premiere in August.
(Alessandra Tarantino / Invision / AP)
For an autistic actor, it’s an even bigger leap. As talented as Delbis might be, he also had to be able to handle the pressures, boredom and chaos of a film set. Venditti reached out to Hall. The founder of the Miracle Project and mother to a now-adult neurodivergent son, Hall is an acting coach who has worked for more than 20 years to increase the presence and understanding of neurodivergent and disabled people. She is often asked to gauge the ability of actors to take on a certain role — their ease with the material, their physical stamina, their level of independence and their emotional accessibility.
Delbis, she says, ticked all the boxes. He loves horror films, he was on the track team and he was, at the time, about to travel without his parents on a school trip to Sweden.
He is, as he says himself, “a low-key guy,” so Hall gave him some exercises to help him portray more extreme emotions and prepare him for when other cast members might do the same. (One subsequent rehearsal involved a scene in which one of the actors screamed repeatedly.)
Often, Hall says, perfecting these exercises can take weeks; Delbis, working with his mother, did it in a weekend. She also helped him prepare for his meeting with and then chemistry read with Plemons.
Delbis says he was “a bit nervous, though I don’t know why.” He did not recognize Plemons’ name or his face. “I had watched ‘Breaking Bad,’ but I didn’t realize Jesse played Todd. Halfway through [the read], I told him he looked like Todd and he said, ‘That’s because I played him.’ I’ve seen him in other things since then,” Delbis adds. “He’s a very solid actor.”
More important, he says, “Jesse seemed to me to be a very cool guy.”
That feeling is mutual. “When we brought Aidan in, I was excited and a little nervous,” Plemons says during a phone call from London. They started with one of the more extreme scenes from the film. “I was finding my feet too. When it became apparent that he was going to be fine with the darker scenes, I said, ‘This is him; this is Don.’”
While all this was happening, Delbis was finishing his senior year, which included a starring role in a production of “Almost Maine.” “It was not overly hard,” he says, but sometimes it was a lot. “I did one read and then I had to go to rehearsal for the play.”
Venditti remembers that day very well. “Here we were being so careful, treating him like he was fragile and not wanting to overload him,” she says laughing, “and he’s just calmly multitasking.”
When Delbis got the role in May, he and his family signed a nondisclosure agreement, which is why none of his friends knew his news after graduation, and Delbis and his family flew to the U.K. to begin filming. It was a tough secret for his parents to keep. But “any time it looked like I might slip,” Katy says, “Aidan shut me down.” He celebrated his 18th birthday near the set outside of Windsor, where production ran for three months before moving for two weeks in Atlanta.
Hall was hired to be Delbis’ on-set access and creative coach, a job she believes she has invented, meant to make the experience for neurodivergent and disabled actors easier. She suggested that Lanthimos and Tracy simplify Delbis’ script pages, stripping down the description of action “so he wouldn’t get stuck thinking he had to do exactly what was on the page,” she says, which they were happy to do.
“We didn’t want to put any limits on him,” Lanthimos says.
Delbis chose most of his costumes (except a beekeeping suit, motivated by the plot, which he says “was very hot”), which mirrored his own wardrobe preferences down to the horror film t-shirts and mismatched socks. Even the food Teddy and Don eat during the film reflects Delbis’ taste: mac ’n’ cheese, taquitos, spaghetti.
Hall ensured Delbis had extra time before filming, during which she could help him prepare with rehearsal and centering exercises. She visited the set before he arrived so she could tell him exactly what to expect and worked with the production team to ensure that he had his own space between takes. “They built us a little house, with horror posters on the wall and stuffed animals that looked like his cats,” she says. As there were no Goldfish available in the U.K., the production had them flown in.
“Having Elaine there was amazing,” Venditti says. “The idea of having someone to act as eyes and ears of what people are actually experiencing on set, I think it’s groundbreaking. I don’t know why we haven’t done it before.”
Delbis spent a fair amount of time with Plemons, who Hall said occasionally stepped in to help if she had to be away from set.
“We did a decent amount of goofing around,” Delbis says. “The bond that developed between us occurred quite naturally. I consider Jesse a friend.”
For his part, Plemons enjoyed being around someone who spoke his mind.
“I so appreciated Aidan’s inability to tell a lie,” Plemons says. “On a set, you spend so much time waiting around, and he would say, ‘What are we doing? What is taking so long?’ Which was exactly what I was thinking. He’s a very smart, sensitive, self-assured guy, and if you’re unclear in what you’re saying, he will let you know.”
“Aidan is just so funny,” says his “Bugonia” co-star Emma Stone. “We spent a lot of time together in a basement and Aidan had so many jokes about that.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Stone says that while she and Delbis had a friendly rapport, she hung back a little when they weren’t shooting. “I didn’t want to form the same kind of bond Aidan had with Jesse because [in the film] it’s them against me and I didn’t want to do too much to mess with that.”
But, the two-time Oscar winner says, “Aidan is just so funny. He was on a jag during the kidnapping scene. We spent a lot of time together in a basement and Aidan had so many jokes about that.”
“I went through all of ‘Bugonia’ thinking I had never seen Emma in anything,” Delbis says. “Then I realized my parents had shown me a clip of a woman getting very involved in a birthday card — ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’ — and that was from ‘Easy A.’”
When he was filming, Delbis was all business. Several of the takes which he ad-libbed made it into the film and Delbis is proud of that.
“Despite being in more extreme situations than I’ve been in, there’s something of Don’s emotion and struggles that did feel very familiar to me,” he says. “Feelings of great distress and helplessness and conflictedness and confusion. I have felt that in classes in high school.”
“Aidan has great instincts,” Lanthimos says. “In a scene toward the end [of the film], he was so moving, it was the first time I have ever teared up on set.
There were difficult days — one moment with Plemons, Delbis says, took many takes. “It was hot AF and involved me getting more worked up that I am used to getting,” he remembers. But he appreciated Lanthimos’ willingness to let him try things. “In one scene, Jesse throws a chair and I thought that seemed pretty cool. So at the end of the day, they let me throw a chair. I hope that makes it into the outtakes reel.”
He was also very pleased when the crew threw him a s’mores party at the end of filming. “There was a fire pit on set that looked perfect for s’mores,” he says. “And I told them that, so it was my idea to have a s’mores party.”
Delbis is happy with how the film turned out, including his performance. “I think I looked pretty baller in that suit,” he says of one scene. Though he doesn’t have an opinion on the authenticity debate — whether autistic actors should always be the ones to play autistic characters — he thinks it’s “cool that writers and directors are starting to be more conscientious and give more realistic and respectful depictions of neurodivergent people and characters.”
He is more concerned that audiences understand what he thinks is the most important message of the movie.
“We should try to be more empathetic to people with different worldviews because you never really know what those people are going through,” he says. “The movie feels very relevant to that theme. God knows, people aren’t always willing to be tolerant.”
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‘Eureka Day’ review: Vaccine debate erupts at woke school
“Eureka Day,” a comedy by Jonathan Spector that wades into the debate on vaccine mandates, has only become more explosively topical since its 2018 premiere at Aurora Theatre Company, in Berkeley, Calif.
The play, which is having its Los Angeles premiere at Pasadena Playhouse, seems like it could have been commissioned to skewer this destructive, benighted and completely mortifying anti-science moment. But Spector wrote the work before the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed our political demons and made stupid great again.
“Eureka Day” takes its name from the fictional private elementary school in Berkeley that is the setting for what is both a satire of anti-vaccine culture and a comedy of woke manners. Held in a determinedly cheerful Bay Area classroom (brightly summoned with all the necessary social justice touches by set designer Wilson Chin), the play unfolds as a series of meetings of the school’s executive committee.
Don (Rick Holmes), the head of school, is ostensibly in charge, though his duck-and-cover strategy for dealing with conflict has a way of protracting problems. Four parents, one a newcomer still acclimating to the school’s strenuously progressive rules, are part of the executive brain trust.
The first discussion of the new school year is relatively innocuous though no less testing for being so. Eli (Nate Corddry), a stay-at-home dad who made a fortune at Facebook, has proposed adding “Transracial Adoptee” to a drop-down menu on an admissions form already burgeoning with identity subcategories.
Suzanne (Mia Barron), a mother who has sent so many children through Eureka Day that she has a proprietary attitude about the place, doesn’t think this additional category is necessary. She’s sensitive — self-consciously so — to Eli’s good intentions, but she persuades the group that no changes are necessary at this time.
“Persuades” might be a euphemism. Suzanne has an iron will that she thinly veils with a solicitous smile.
One of the quirks of the executive committee is that it operates by consensus rather than a majority vote. This can lead to some “very long meetings,” Suzanne informs Carina (Cherise Boothe), the new Black lesbian mom who recently moved from Maryland.
Suzanne claims to want everyone to feel “empowered,” though her controlling temperament pokes through her welcoming facade. Meiko (Camille Chen), who knits during meetings with a subtle air of annoyance, has to loudly ask Suzanne to please stop speaking on her behalf.
Cherise Boothe in “Eureka Day” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
These blind spots, a standard ingredient of comic characters, are particularly glaring in Suzanne’s case. When Carina tells her that she didn’t homeschool her son for kindergarten but sent him to public school, Suzanne is mildly horrified. She also makes the assumption that Carina is not a “full pay” family.
There’s even something passive-aggressive about Suzanne’s show of concern for all viewpoints, a trait that becomes all the more conspicuous after a crisis erupts at the school. A mumps outbreak forces Eureka Day to temporarily close its doors.
Don informs the executive committee that the health department has issued a letter stipulating what parents must do for their child to return to school. The subject isn’t open for debate, but Suzanne is uneasy about how this letter is being “framed.”
She’s an advocate of parental choice when it comes to vaccines, not trusting the experts who have determined that only children who are vaccinated can return to school when there’s a risk of infection. She believes vaccines stand in the way of natural herd immunity.
Mia Barron, left, Rick Holmes, Cherise Boothe, and Camille Chen in “Eureka Day” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Meiko is less vociferous in her anti-vaccine stance than Suzanne, but she has her own skepticism about modern medicine and doesn’t want to be told what to do. When her daughter develops mumps, it becomes an emergency for Eli, who’s been having an affair with Meiko. The two arrange their assignations around playdates, and their kids were recently in contact.
Eli, who’s married but in a complicated open relationship situation with his increasingly resentful wife, would rather not have to choose sides in the vaccine mandate debate. But when his son gets sick after spending time with Meiko’s unvaccinated daughter, he finds he can no longer stay on the fence.
The well-programmed comedy hilariously runs its course in the leadership vacuum created by the school’s over-accommodating culture. Don is so worried about seeming to favor one parental faction over another that he allows Suzanne to become the dominant voice in the room.
The production, directed by Teddy Bergman, has a field day with the woke-run-amok ethos of Eureka Day, where kids at the school cheer the other team’s goals at soccer games. But Bergman’s approach is more schematic than Anna D. Shapiro’s Tony-winning Broadway revival.
Perhaps the urgency of the moment calls for a clearer moral stand, but the comedy has lost some nuance. On Broadway, Jessica Hecht made Suzanne seem totally oblivious to her own rage. She really believed that she was seeking consensus, tolerant of all perspectives as long as they didn’t impinge on her beliefs, the origins of which are poignantly related later in the play.
The fury of Barron’s Suzanne is much more on the surface. The humor is more direct — Barron can be very funny — but the debate is less trenchant. Bergman’s production, marred by blasts of jarring folk music between scene transitions, is a little too on the nose.
Boothe’s Carina, by far the strongest performance in the cast, is our rational surrogate in the play — a parent trying to fit in without betraying her intelligence or child’s welfare. I appreciated the way Holmes lets us come to our own conclusions about Don’s go-along-to-get-along style of running the ship.
Meiko is woefully underwritten, and Chen’s performance, while amusing when Meiko erupts, sometimes seems disconnected. Corddry refuses to play a tech industry cliché, but Eli, a bland creep, comes off as unnecessarily vague.
Bergman has trouble locating that sweet spot between jokey exaggeration and multidimensional authenticity. Comedy trades in types, but the cast could have benefited from more fine-tuning.
Perhaps that’s why the funniest scene in the play involves the live chat portion of a virtual meeting that’s organized for Eureka Day parents alarmed about the quarantine situation. Avatars square off against one another in a vaccine debate free-for-all that puts the lie to the school’s “community of respect” motto with uncensored savagery punctuated by missile-like emoticons.
“Eureka Day” will make you laugh, but how much this production will make you think is an open question.
‘Eureka Day’
Where: Pasadena Playhouse, S. 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. (Check for exceptions)
Tickets: Start at $40
Contact: (626) 356-7529 or pasadenaplayhouse.org
Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes (no intermission)
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‘The ego has landed’ and ‘Don in… none out’
The Daily Telegraph describes the blocking of the deportation flight of an Eritrean man to France as a major blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship “one-in one-out” returns scheme.
The Daily Mail also leads with the story, saying Labour’s new policy designed to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats has been “plunged into chaos”. The Sun says the returns deal between the UK and France has descended into a “fresh farce”.
President Trump’s state visit to the UK features on the front of the The Times which focuses on the deal with American tech giants pledging to invest billions in Britain.
The Guardian reports that Trump arrived to a “barrage of criticism” from the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who accused him of encouraging the far right across the globe.
The i Paper suggests the prime minister is on a collision course with the US President because of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
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Bank Holiday revellers are all smiles as they don fancy dress & kick off three-day weekend with booze-fuelled Otley Run
BANK Holiday revellers donned fancy dress at the booze-fuelled Otley Run as they kicked off celebrations for the three-day weekend.
Hundreds of rowdy drinkers took to the streets in their best and brightest for the famous pub crawl with pals.
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The booze trail is seen as a rite of passage for many and happens multiple times a year attracting thousands.
James Bond, Ginger Spice and the Fantastic Four were all out in force as they trekked all 17 venues on the trail.
The iconic Otley Run starts at Woodies pub in Far Headingly and finishes at The Dry Dock at the edge of Leeds city centre.
The aim of the game is to have a drink in each of the 17 pubs along the way.
One group of girls were all spotted wearing bridal gowns and wedding dresses
While another group donned cowboy hats and colourful dresses for the West Yorkshire drinkathon.
Another girl was even snapped all smiles in a toothpaste tube outfit.
The lads were also dressed up for the Bank Holiday bonanza as James Bond and The Joker with others wrapped in St George flags wielding swords as English knights.
Others were kitted out in lederhosen with one even spotted with a traffic cone on his head – but that might just be the booze talking.
Pirates, princesses and policewomen alike were also spotted in the excited crowds as they enjoyed the three-day weekend.
Participants begin at Woodies before swilling snifters at 15 other watering holes during the challenge, which takes place several times a year.
Drinkers sip a final brew at the aptly named Dry Dock – a narrow boat-turned-pub.
The list of boozers you’re supposed to stop at has changed over the last few years but still stands at 17 strong.
Punters are tasked with a drink at every stop in their best fancy dress with themes ranging from the simple to the outlandish.
It’s particularly popular among students and locals in Leeds and is often a vibrant and chaotic journey through some of the city’s most beloved watering holes.
Revellers often opt for superheroes, animals, or film characters but, honestly, anything goes.
It can often make for hilarious encounters as multiple themes and characters all mingle in one pub.
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Democrat Dwight Evans, GOP Don Bacon won’t seek House re-election
June 30 (UPI) — Two U.S. House members — Democrat Dwight Evans and Republican Don Bacon — announced Monday they will not seek a third term in 2026 after both have served since their 2016 elections.
Evans, 71, has represented Philadelphia and Bacon, 61, in Nebraska, including Omaha.
Evans, who suffered a stroke last year and has missed several months of votes, had intended to run again in Pennsylvania’s heavy Democratic Third Congressional District.
Bacon is moderate in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, which was won by Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to become president last year and President Joe Biden in 2020. That gave each of them an electronic vote in the state, which is not winner-take-all.
The U.S. House currently has a breakdown of 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats with three vacancies after the deaths of three Democrats.
Longtime Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an 81-year-old Democrat from Illinois, said earlier this year she wouldn’t run again.
Republican Mark Green, 60, of Tennessee, said he will retire after the budget policy bill goes through Congress.
Dwight Evans
“Serving the people of Philadelphia has been the honor of my life,” Evans said in a statement. “And I remain in good health and fully capable of continuing to serve. After some discussions this weekend and thoughtful reflection, I have decided that the time is right to announce that I will not be seeking re-election in 2026. I will serve out the full term that ends Jan. 3, 2027.”
He succeeded Chaka Fattah, who resigned after being indicted on federal corruption charges.
“I am deeply proud of what I have been able to accomplish over my 45 years in elected office — from revitalizing neighborhoods block by block to fighting for justice, economic opportunity, investments in infrastructure and education,” he said. “I cannot express the gratitude that I have for the trust that voters put in me as their voice in both state and federal office. It has been a privilege of a lifetime to serve as their advocate in government.”
Evans was elected as the Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in 1990, serving 20 years.
Evans said he has remained “rooted in his neighborhood” throughout his career, and lived just blocks from where he grew up in the city.
He was a public school teacher and community organizer with the Urban League until he began working in government at 26 in 1980. He was elected to the state’s House of Representatives.
Politico reported there could be a fierce battle between establishment Democrats and progressives, including socialists.
State Sen. Sharif Street on Monday posted on X his intention to run for Evans’ seat, writing “I’m in.” Street, who has worked with Republicans on some issues, is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
Two state representatives, Chris Raab and Morgan Cephas, told WCAU-TV they are considering seeking the seat. They are both progressives.
Don Bacon
“After three decades in the Air Force and now going on one decade in Congress, I look forward to coming home in the evenings and being with my wife and seeing more of our adult children and eight grandchildren, who all live near my home,” Bacon said in a statement.
“I’ve been married for 41 years, and I’d like to dedicate more time to my family, my church, and the Omaha community,” he added. “I also want to continue advocating for a strong national security strategy and a strong alliance system with countries that share our love of democracy, free markets and the rule of law,” he added.
At times, he has not gone with what other Republicans, including President Donald Trump, want.
He told The New York Times in an interview removing deportation protection for Afghans in the U.S. was wrong and has criticized Trump’s position on Russa’s war with Ukraine. He was the only Republican to vote against changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
“It’s one thing when you have the opposing party fighting you, but when you have divisions in your own party, you know — it makes it harder,” he said in May at an Omaha roundtable with business leaders to discuss Congress’ tax bill.
Bacon approved the spending bill, which went to the House by a 215-214 margin. If the Senate approves the bill and with changes, it goes back to the House.
“I think the Senate has done some new provisions in there that are concerning … But there’s a lot of amendments being voted out today. So I’m going to keep my powder dry, see how it turns out,” Bacon told reporters.
Bacon, who was born in Chicago, served 29 years in the U.S. Air Force.
He served as an aide to U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry in Nebraska’s First District, and a professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska before running for office.
Bacond is a member of House Armed Services Committee, and chairman of the conservative-centrist Republican Main Street Caucus in the House.
No one has announced plans to run in either primary.
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BBC Gardeners’ World sees schedule shake-up as Monty Don left disappointed
Monty Don was on hand to give viewers at home tips on how to harvest elephant garlic, but some BBC Gardeners’ World fans were left ‘in shock’ at the results
15:12, 27 Jun 2025Updated 15:12, 27 Jun 2025
Gardeners’ World fans were in for a treat as the show aired on Thursday, a day ahead of its usual schedule, to make way for the Glastonbury Festival coverage. In the latest episode, Monty Don demonstrated how to harvest elephant garlic, explaining to viewers that despite its name, it’s actually a type of leek and boasts a milder flavour than traditional garlic.
The green-fingered guru, aged 69, approached a bed of the oversized plant, declaring it was ripe for picking. He advised BBC viewers to always use a fork when lifting the garlic to preserve the roots, essential for storage, reports the Express.
Monty shared further advice, noting, “It stores very well, it’s easier to use, and it doesn’t dominate in the way that garlic can do.”
However, the episode took a turn when he discovered some of the regular garlic bulbs had succumbed to rot. He remarked, “That’s no good. Interesting.”
Upon unearthing another spoiled clove, Monty described it as “completely horrible” and added “Look how that’s rotted. The cloves are in there, but I don’t think they would keep.”
Puzzled by the unexpected decay, Monty wondered: “No, no, no. What I am asking myself is why this garlic from a very reputable supplier, for the first time ever since I’ve grown garlic, is no good. It’s rotting. It’s difficult to see if there’s a virus or a fungal problem.
“But the elephant garlic in the same bedding and in the same growing conditions is untouchable.”
Monty revealed his decision to avoid planting in that particular garden bed for the next three years after showing his garlic crops succumbing to rot.
The response from viewers watching at home was swift, with several taking to X to express their reactions to Monty’s gardening mishap.
One viewer sympathised on Twitter, “Oh a garlic fail for @TheMontyDon Disaster! #GardenersWorld.”
Another joined in with a sigh, “Disappointing garlic.”
A third shared their concern, tweeting “That was worrying about @TheMontyDon’s garlic #GardenersWorld.”
A fourth found humour in the situation, jokingly tweeting “Maybe a vampire is buried under that bed. #gardenersworld.”
Gardeners’ World is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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